Chapter 1 The Partner

Chen Yingxiong didn't see his partner right away.

Because Taylor Swift arrived two days later than scheduled.

During those two days, Chen Yingxiong was bored. Because the female lead hadn't arrived, even the opening ceremony couldn't be held, so everyone had to wait.

Chen Yingxiong was getting impatient. The good feelings he had for Taylor Swift had been worn away by this impatience.

He had the right to make the final decision when the female lead was being cast, but with a star like Taylor Swift, he probably couldn't have stopped it anyway. Actually, when he heard that Taylor Swift would be playing the female lead, Chen Yingxiong immediately nodded in agreement.

He was really looking forward to working with this beautiful young woman, but now those expectations were gone.

Because... Taylor Swift actually dared to stand him up!

Everyone agreed on a time to meet, so that's when they should meet. He was such a busy person, rushing over as soon as the season ended, so why did Taylor Swift get special treatment?

In Liverpool and England, Chen Yingxiong was always the core of the team. Everyone always revolved around him like stars surrounding the moon, with him as the center. It was always others accommodating him, never the other way around.

But Taylor Swift was throwing her weight around in front of him, which gave Chen Yingxiong a very bad impression of the beauty.

Director Karim Medjani also noticed this. When Chen Yingxiong hadn't arrived yet and they were talking, six out of ten sentences were about Taylor Swift. After he arrived in Frankfurt, nine out of ten sentences were about Taylor Swift.

He would ask Medjani what Taylor Swift liked, what kind of person she was. He even went out and found a few of Taylor Swift's songs to listen to.

It was obvious that he was really interested in Taylor Swift.

But as time went on, Medjani noticed that Chen Yingxiong still used Taylor Swift's name in nine out of ten sentences, but his tone had changed, and the content was completely different from before.

He complained more and more, and his words showed more and more dissatisfaction with Taylor Swift.

Karim Medjani didn't know if he should be worried or happy. Because according to the script, a large part of the film involved a tense relationship between Chen Yingxiong and Taylor, which gradually developed into affection and mutual goodwill as they got to know each other on the road.

So Chen Yingxiong's dissatisfaction with Taylor should help with the filming. For two leads who were both non-professional actors, this naturally expressed emotion would help them get into character as soon as possible.

But if the relationship between the two of them was always so tense... then how would they change their views of each other later?

He didn't know how Taylor felt about Chen Yingxiong, but Chen Yingxiong's attitude towards Taylor was now very clear.

But he couldn't say it directly, so he could only euphemistically advise Chen Yingxiong not to take it to heart.

In fact, he, as a director, had seen many celebrities act like big shots. He often encountered such situations when filming commercials. So he had long since gone from initial anger to present calmness, and was used to it. Some stars were really late because of something, while others were deliberately throwing their weight around, because if they didn't, they couldn't show off their fame—usually, these were those half-red, half-black stars whose fame was actually not that great, and they needed to use this kind of thing to hype themselves up.

Taylor Swift's fame no longer needed her to use news of throwing her weight around to hype herself up. She really had something come up at the last minute, and she had already called Medjani to ask for leave. So Medjani's attitude was very calm.

But Chen Yingxiong felt that no matter what happened, their business had been scheduled long ago, and everything had a first come, first served basis. They were first, so she should prioritize their business. Something came up at the last minute? Push it back!

Chen Yingxiong didn't think that way because he had an opinion on Taylor Swift, he would do the same himself. He would also act like a big shot, but that was aimed at the media. To his friends, his attitude was unquestionable, he really treated them like brothers, was loyal, and even spared no expense.

Just like his transfer to Liverpool.

Because of the different angles and ideas, Chen Yingxiong couldn't accept Taylor Swift's actions. Even if Swift had asked for leave, he still felt that she was throwing her weight around.

With this deeply rooted impression, Chen Yingxiong was prejudiced and naturally didn't think well of Taylor Swift.

Even if she was beautiful, Chen Yingxiong didn't care. It wasn't as if Chen Yingxiong had never seen a beautiful woman before, he wasn't so weak-kneed that he couldn't walk when he saw a beautiful woman.

In Chen Yingxiong's mind, Taylor Swift had been imagined as a woman with "a beautiful exterior and a heart like a viper."

If it weren't for the fact that the two of them had to be in a movie together, Chen Yingxiong wouldn't have made contact with this kind of woman.

Karim Medjani watched Chen Yingxiong's attitude towards his partner change from welcome to disgust, and he was powerless. He could only pray that the two of them were professional enough not to mix their personal emotions into their work.

※※※

After making Chen Yingxiong wait indignantly for two days, Taylor Swift finally arrived late. Another thing that made Chen Yingxiong unhappy followed—both of them were big stars in their respective fields, but it was clear that more people knew Taylor Swift than knew him, Chen Yingxiong. The number of media reporters who came with Taylor Swift was more than his, and the fans who welcomed Taylor at the airport were more than the fans who welcomed Chen Yingxiong…

The latter was actually easy to understand—this was Germany, not England. The fans here didn't care about Chen Yingxiong. They liked Frankfurt players or German national team players. Chen Yingxiong, who was arrogant, was not likeable to begin with, so it would be strange if he had so many neutral fans.

Taylor Swift, on the other hand, was sweet-looking, had a fresh image, sang well, and was also a singer-songwriter, truly beautiful and talented, so she was naturally more popular. Countless men regarded Taylor Swift as their dream girl.

Football has national boundaries, but music doesn't. In Germany, Taylor Swift had many fans. Hearing that Taylor was coming to Frankfurt to film, they flocked from all over Germany and even Europe to support their idol.

This surrounded-by-fans stance made Chen Yingxiong feel sour—he had always thought that his fame was big enough. In China, wherever he went, there would be traffic jams. He was smug about it, but he didn't expect to be completely defeated by Taylor Swift…

This made him a little unacceptable.

He already had a bad impression before, and now he was even more upset, it was truly "new hatred and old grievances."

It would be difficult to get Chen Yingxiong to change his opinion of Taylor Swift...

※※※

Everyone thought that the first meeting between Chen Yingxiong and Taylor Swift should be in the hotel, because Chen Yingxiong used to be eager to meet Taylor Swift.

Who would have thought that when Taylor Swift arrived at the hotel with a large group of people, Chen Yingxiong was sleeping soundly in his room!

He had no intention of coming out to welcome Taylor Swift.

This was somewhat of a display of power for Taylor Swift.

Who was Taylor Swift? After six or seven years of crawling and rolling in the entertainment industry, how could she not know the meaning of this detail?

She arrived at the residence at eight o'clock in the evening, so what was the point of sleeping so early? Obviously, her partner in the film wasn't interested in her.

However, Taylor Swift, who was so smart, couldn't possibly know why Chen Yingxiong wasn't interested in her. Of course—how many people could have thought that a dignified seven-foot man would be so petty…

Although she, Taylor Swift, was indeed two days late, she had asked for leave, and it was for a very legitimate reason. There was a small problem with the recording of the album, and she needed to re-record two songs, which naturally delayed the time. She didn't think there was a problem at all, so she didn't expect that this was what made Chen Yingxiong unhappy.

Of course, she didn't know that Chen Yingxiong was dissatisfied with her, she just thought that perhaps this Chen Yingxiong wasn't interested in her.

Karim Medjani, who was next to her, was very embarrassed when explaining why he didn't see the male lead. He himself didn't believe the reason of sleeping. But that was indeed what Chen Yingxiong had told him. When he had dinner, he told Medjani that he was too tired today and needed to rest early. He hoped that no matter who the staff in the crew were, unless there was a fire, earthquake, tsunami, or the end of the world, they should not disturb him.

He could only truthfully tell Taylor Swift, of course, he still had to add some of his own stuff—he didn't want the relationship between the two leads to be too stiff, so he, as the director, naturally had to be a lubricant.

"He asked me to convey his welcome to you. He has always been your fan. But he played outside all day today and is really too tired. You know, he likes you very much. As soon as the season ended, he immediately came to the crew, just wanting to meet you as soon as possible… Uh, he is actually a very straightforward person. After you get in touch with him a few times, you will find that he is very interesting…"

He could only desperately say good things about Chen Yingxiong, while expressing Chen Yingxiong's affection for Taylor. As for what would happen after the two of them actually met, he couldn't control it… He was a director, not a superman, he couldn't possibly handle everything, right?

If it weren't for the fact that he had no fame in the film industry and couldn't suppress these two stars, he would have had the assistant director do this kind of thing, why would he have to lower himself to serve two big stars?

Taylor Swift nodded and said to Medjani with a smile: "It's okay, won't we see each other tomorrow? Actually, I'm also very curious about him."