Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 534 Little Cook

Meng Bai originally bought a large flat with a river view near Lujiazui, but later "lent" it to Yang Chaoyue so that she could place her younger sister in school.

With the girl's family there, it was naturally inconvenient for Mr. Meng to go again, so he bought another manor villa here in Sheshan, mainly to have a place to rest so that he wouldn't have to stay in a hotel every time he came.

Sheshan Manor is one of the top luxury residential areas in Shanghai. The environment and supporting facilities are very good. The only problem is that it is a bit far from the city. But it doesn't matter. Few people who live here need to drive themselves.

Meng Bai went upstairs to take a shower, then went to the cloakroom to find a pair of grey casual pants and a white T-shirt to change into. He wiped his hair casually without blowing it dry, and went straight back to the first floor.

"Mr. Meng."

The middle-aged woman in uniform greeted him when she saw him coming down. "The ingredients you ordered have been prepared and cleaned, and are all placed in two freezers. The specific partitions are noted on the refrigerator screen, and you can choose directly from the corresponding ones."

"Okay, thank you for your help." Meng Bai nodded at her, "If everything is arranged, you can leave first. Someone will contact you when you need to pack up."

"Okay, Mr. Meng, we won't bother you anymore. Have a nice day!"

After the middle-aged woman finished speaking, she gave a typical smile and then directed the other housekeeping staff to leave the villa together.

Meng Bai came to the kitchen, opened the freezer and took a look. As expected, it was full of neatly arranged meat, eggs and vegetables, and most of them had been processed.

Perhaps because he did not specify the quantity when he gave the order, they prepared it directly according to the maximum capacity and filled the two freezers.

After some estimation, if it were just Bai Lu and I, it would take at least a month for us to eat.

He laughed in his heart. Ever since the flu, it seemed that everyone had developed a habit of stockpiling supplies at all times. The white goods market should have good business in the next two years.

Meng Bai picked up two bottles of water and walked to the backyard. From a distance, he could see Bai Lu sitting on a beach chair on the shore taking a selfie, and then sending a voice message to her phone, as if she was chatting with someone.

"Here, have a drink of water."

"what!"

Bai Lu, who was awakened by the sound, turned around suddenly like a frightened little rabbit, and found Meng Bai standing behind her. She grinned out of habit.

But she reacted quickly, pursed her lips immediately, took the water bottle from the other party, and tried to smile more gently: "Thank you, thank you boss!"

Meng Bai didn't pay much attention to the change in her expression. He walked to another beach chair nearby and sat down, then asked casually, "What are you doing?"

"Oh, I think this pool and yard are pretty nice. I was thinking of sending it to my friends."

As she spoke, Bai Lu clicked on the photo she had just taken and handed over the phone.

Meng Bai took a look and found that they were basically all selfies of the girl, with only a little bit of the surrounding environment revealed in the corners.

"Um, boss, is it okay for me to take a picture here?" Bai Lu asked cautiously.

"It's okay, just do whatever you want." Meng Bai didn't care. "Is it sent to your best friend's assistant? I remember, her name seems to be Hehe."

"Yes, Boss, you still remember her!"

"Honestly, it's hard to remember her nickname."

Bai Lu suddenly puffed out her chest and showed a proud expression - she was the one who gave this nickname and it has been used ever since.

After the fun ended, she suddenly felt that the yard seemed much quieter than before. She couldn't help but look back at the house, only to find that the housekeeping staff who were busy just now were now gone.

"Boss, where are they?"

"gone."

"Ah?" She blinked her doe eyes and said stupidly, "I thought you hired them to work here."

"I may not live in this villa for even a month a year. I can just find someone to tidy it up before I come. Why would I hire so many people if I don't have anything to do during normal times?"

"Oh, that's right."

Bai Lu nodded, but then asked, "Then how are we going to eat? How about I call someone to bring it over? After all, it was agreed that I was going to treat you, the boss, to a meal."

"I remember, and I don't intend to forget." Meng Bai said, "But there's no need to ask someone to deliver it. The refrigerator is fully stocked with ingredients, including oil, salt, sauce and vinegar. You can cook this meal."

"what?!"

Bai Lu's eyes suddenly widened: "Boss, you must be kidding me, I don't know how to cook!"

"Really? I remembered seeing your vlog before. Haven't you been learning cooking? And you've made quite a few."

"Then boss, you must not have read it carefully. I prepared for a long time and even made notes in advance, but I barely managed to do it."

"It's okay. I eat breakfast late, so I have plenty of time. You can take your time to prepare."

Meng Bai folded his hands behind his head and leaned back in the beach chair to bask in the sun. "I'll take a break. I hope to see the finished product when I wake up. It doesn't have to be too complicated. Just four simple dishes and a soup will do."

“Four dishes and one soup is not too much trouble!!”

Bai Lu complained in her heart, and looking at Meng Bai who closed his eyes and looked comfortable, she couldn't help but bare her teeth at him "fiercely".

But even though she was complaining, she still had to get up and go to the kitchen. Looking at the dazzling array of ingredients and the fully prepared pots, pans, and bowls, she couldn't help but sigh.

I thought I was here for a nice date, but I actually ended up being here to be a cook.

She took out an apron from the cabinet next to her and put it on herself, then picked up a spatula and went to the table in a daze.

What should be the first step?

After thinking about it for a while and having no idea, she decided to wash her hands first.

After washing and drying, her cell phone rang. She took a look and saw it was a WeChat message from her best friend.

He Handan: [The photo is well taken. It would be better if the people above were smaller. How is the battle situation now? ]

Bai Lu: [Don’t mention it. (sigh.jpg)]

At that moment, she told her current situation. Bai Lu: [Four dishes and one soup, is this a request that a human can make? I can't wait to go out and see if there is a dog in some yard, so that I can ask it to cook four dishes for me.]

He Handan: [Stupid, why bother with so much trouble. Just go to B station and search for the videos of those food bloggers, and then follow them step by step.]

Bai Lu: [Is it okay to learn now? You overestimate my culinary talent. ]

He Handan: [You should look for something that looks good and is easy to make. Something like Caesar salad, red wine steak, etc. I'm not asking you to make Wensi tofu or boiled cabbage.]

Bai Lu: [Hey, what you said seems to make sense. ]

He Handan: [And I think that when Mr. Meng asked you to cook, he should have prepared the food to be average, just for fun. Don’t mention it, Mr. Meng is quite romantic. I thought you were already a stripped lamb.]

Bai Lu: [Pah! You are the one who got stripped naked! I went to find a teaching video.]

On the other side, He Handan looked at the message sent by her bestie and snorted.

There is nothing to deny, it's just a matter of time.

……

Meng Bai didn't really fall asleep, he just rested in the sun for a while and then sat up.

As a young man with a regular schedule and daily fitness, he still has plenty of energy.

When I walked into the house and took a look at the kitchen, I saw Bai Lu was trying to do two things at once. She was watching the instructional video on her phone, while also preparing the ingredients in front of her. She looked very flustered.

Just as He Handan said, Meng Bai did not have high expectations for this girl's cooking skills, he just thought it was fun to tease her.

I can't blame myself. It was the girl who said she wanted to treat me to a meal. Now this has saved her some money.

After watching for a while and making sure that she would not burn down the kitchen, Meng Bai returned to the study upstairs to start working.

Although today is the weekend, for business managers at his level, there is no distinction between working days and rest days.

When the boss is like this, employees only need to go to get off work and leave on time, but the boss has a lot of things to consider.

Several major projects of Arc Light this year are currently progressing normally. His main concern recently is the newly launched "Pumpkin Short Play".

Since the short drama platform was officially launched at the beginning of the year, it has developed rapidly with the help of the short video platform. In just two months, the number of monthly active users has exceeded 2000 million and is still growing rapidly.

Unlike long video platforms, short drama platforms don’t worry about content production issues at all.

Affected by the cold winter of the film and television industry and the flu, the film and television market has shrunk significantly in the past two years, and as a result, it has become difficult for film crews and film and television practitioners in Hengdian to find jobs.

It just so happens that short dramas are on the rise now, and anyone can raise a million or so in funding to form a mature crew. After working overtime for half a month, a short drama is completed.

This is easier than when Meng Bai filmed the web drama back then. Of course, the quality of this kind of drama that is rushed out to follow the trend can be imagined.

For the platform, it is obviously not enough to rely solely on such low-quality works. At the very least, there must be a batch of high-quality short dramas to keep the place going.

If it were someone else, there might not be any good solution, but it is different for "Pumpkin Short Plays", because behind the platform stands ArcLight and the well-known "ArcLight Screenwriter Team".

It just so happens that many people have accumulated some ideas over the years, but they may not be suitable for being made into a drama. Now that there is a new platform for short dramas, it is a good opportunity for them to try it out.

Who knows, we might be able to dig out some good ideas from it, which can then be upgraded into formal film and television dramas.

Meng Bai himself was also thinking about joining in the fun. In addition to the formal stories, he also had a lot of unsystematic inspiration fragments in his mind. It was a bit small to make a long drama, but it was just right for a short drama.

A book he is writing recently is similar to this one. The theme is about cultural relics lost overseas, and the subject matter is fantasy.

It would be troublesome to review this kind of story when making a long-running drama, but at present, short dramas are not subject to any review and jurisdiction, just like when we made "Soul Ferry", so we can give full play to our creativity.

While thinking about the role setting of the script, Meng Bai's phone suddenly rang. He picked it up and took a look. It was a WeChat message from Yang Chaoyue, saying that she saw the location he posted on his Moments was in Shanghai, and it just so happened that she was here these two days.

Yang Chaoyue: [Brother, brother~ I’m going to find you, brother~~]

Looking at the girl's WeChat, Meng Bai couldn't help but rub his eyebrows.

I don’t know who she learned this from, but ever since I asked her to call me “brother” before, this girl has been chatting in this style recently.

Meng Bai: [I have some important things to do these two days, please wait for two days. ]

Calculating the time, two days is almost enough. After all, Xiaobai is no longer the unknown person in the third or fourth tier cities, and his schedule is still quite full.

Yang Chaoyue: [Okay, I’ll come find you in a couple of days, brother~~]

When she comes, I must ask her to change her chatting style and let her call me dad!
Putting away his phone, Meng Bai began to concentrate on polishing the script. When he came to his senses, it was almost one o'clock.

Could it be that the girl downstairs hasn’t finished cooking yet?

Meng Bai muttered to himself, then got up and went downstairs.

"I say, Xiaobai..."

Meng Bai looked at the progress which was almost the same as before he went upstairs, and couldn't help but frowned and said, "It's definitely too late for lunch. Are you sure we can have dinner?"

"It's all right, boss!"

Bai Lu showed her two rows of small white teeth and smiled, "The soup is almost done and will be ready soon. The dish I have in hand is also almost done. I have also prepared the salad and steak in advance, so they will be ready very quickly."

"Salad, steak, and this stew is... is it tomato brisket soup? And the one in your hand should be cola chicken wings."

Meng Bai stroked his chin and asked, "Are all your cooking styles mixed like this?"

"Hehe, delicious food knows no borders..."

There's no way, what she does does not depend on herself, but on which teaching video is simpler.

In fact, she originally wanted to fool people with salads and cold dishes, but considering that they were all under her roof, she finally gave up the plan.

(End of this chapter)