Janette said as if it were a matter of course, "I didn't want to get a Chinese name for myself; I just suddenly felt that Xiren was a very suitable name for Jenny".
The two women had originally been standing opposite each other on either side of a long table piled with various items. As Janette spoke, she moved with a beaming smile to the side of the still-puzzled Jennifer and began whispering into the Female Assistant's ear.
Simon vaguely heard Janette instructing Jennifer to keep a close eye on him after returning to the United States, telling her not to let him get entangled with women or work too hard, and so on. She spoke with the tone of a primary wife instructing a senior maidservant, looking very much into the role. Jennifer still didn't know what was happening; she just listened to Janette's instructions, her face slightly flushed, feeling that something was not quite right.
The telephone on the coffee table rang.
Simon reached out to answer it. Anthony Johnston was calling; lunch was ready over at the mansion.
Since they were leaving Melbourne in the afternoon, everyone naturally had to have a meal together.
Both women heard the content of Simon's call with Anthony. Janette took the opportunity to take Jennifer's arm and said, "I haven't invited you to my home as a guest yet. It's the perfect time to go together".
Jennifer glanced at Simon and shook her head with a smile. "You two go ahead. After I finish organizing these things, I still have to wait for someone from the airport to pick up the luggage".
If she were just a simple assistant, going to the Johnston Family home for lunch might not be a big deal, but given her current relationship with Simon, if she really went like that, everyone would be uncomfortable.
Jennifer didn't want to make things difficult for Simon. Just like during Easter last month, she preferred to have Simon maintain a small sense of guilt toward her.
The Johnston Family mansion was even livelier today than when Simon first came to Australia.
After that first lunch, Veronica had stopped deliberately avoiding Simon and appeared today as well. Janette's younger brother, David Johnston, had just happened to return from the UK with his girlfriend this morning. Along with the families of Anthony Johnston and Norman Johnston, everyone filled the long table in the mansion's dining room to capacity.
The only person Simon still hadn't met was Raymond Johnston's youngest son, Patrick.
David Johnston was 26 years old, tall and thin like Raymond, wearing a pair of rimless glasses and looking very refined. He was currently pursuing a PhD in fluid mechanics at Cambridge University.
David's girlfriend was named Leslie Wickett, a junior of his at Cambridge. She was a brown-haired girl with a very good appearance and temperament. She introduced herself as still being an undergraduate in architectural design with a minor in art history, so she was likely no more than 22 years old.
Just as Janette had said before, David Johnston indeed had a bit of a nerdy air about him.
When Simon asked about his research direction at the table, David began to explain in a dead serious manner how to use the principles of fluid mechanics to calculate the movement trajectories of oil layers buried thousands of meters underground. Raymond Johnston frowned as he listened to the string of technical jargon.
Because it was David's first time bringing his girlfriend back, everyone else politely pretended to listen. The Old Man, however, had no such reservations and soon interrupted, "What's the use of learning all that? The family doesn't have any oil fields for you to research".
David Johnston was clearly very afraid of his father and immediately fell silent upon hearing this.
The atmosphere in the dining room became somewhat awkward.
Janette leaned her body closer, her eyes darting toward David's side.
Simon understood; the Old Man was dissatisfied with the girlfriend David had brought back, which was why he reacted this way.
Although Raymond Johnston's attitude toward Simon had always been very good since their first meeting, Simon had always known from the conversations of Anthony, Janette, and the other children, and their behaviour in front of Raymond, that the Old Man did not have a good temper.
Noticing the unnatural expression on Leslie Wickett's face beside David, Simon realized that she was also a girl who was very good at reading the room.
Thinking that he had triggered this awkwardness, Simon took the initiative to ease the tension, saying, "Actually, the uses of fluid mechanics are quite extensive. It can even be used in movie special effects. Through fluid simulation, we only need to use CG animation to achieve realistic effects like flowing water and fire, which can avoid many expensive practical shoots".
Raymond turned his head to look over, his tone softening as he said, "After you return to Los Angeles, keep in touch with Tony more often. Don't let Janette mess around by herself".
Simon naturally understood what Raymond was referring to and nodded with a smile. "I will. Besides, Janette is actually more suitable than I am for operating that capital".
Raymond glanced at Janette and said, "I know her temperament better than you guys do. If no one is watching her, she'll definitely cause trouble".
Janette, who was seriously cutting a small lamb chop, wrinkled her nose in dissatisfaction but didn't talk back to her Old Man at this time.
With a few words of distraction, the awkwardness from just now was dissipated, and the atmosphere in the dining room became lively again.
Simon readily agreed to the request of Norman Johnston's 8-year-old son, Victor, to give him a bat-pod, only instructing him not to actually drive it onto the road as it was too dangerous.
After being questioned by his puzzled father, the little fellow accidentally let it slip that it was actually Anthony's eldest son, Brandon, who wanted it but was too embarrassed to ask Simon himself.
Anthony had married very young. According to Janette, her eldest brother had to have a shotgun wedding halfway through college. Over the years, he had one son and two daughters. 16-year-old Sylvia and 9-year-old Chloe were both present, but the eldest son, Brandon, who was the same age as Simon, had appeared a few times recently but hadn't come for lunch today.
Everyone now understood why.
Hearing that his eldest grandson was so 'distracted by trifles,' Raymond couldn't help but scold his eldest son for a few more sentences, but it was clearly not as serious as when he had interrupted David just now.
After lunch, Simon stayed at the mansion until four o'clock in the afternoon before taking his leave.
Anthony and Janette together saw Simon off to Melbourne Airport in the western suburbs, where a Boeing 767 was already waiting on the runway.
Besides Simon and Jennifer, the last batch of the batman crew remaining in Melbourne would also return this time. The film's work in Australia was basically finished.
Staff from the Australian branch would settle the tax rebate matters with the Victoria state government. Simon didn't intend to pull this capital of around $5 million back to North America, but instead planned to invest it directly into film production in Australia, such as Jackson's 'Meet the Feebles'.
By the airport runway, just before they were to part, Janette held Simon tightly and kept rambling, "I'll help you manage Cersei Capital well, I promise not to lose money. Whenever I miss you, I'll go to Los Angeles, and you have to think of me often too. If you could suddenly run over to see me, that would be even better. Girls all love surprises..."
Simon held Janette and listened patiently, nodding from time to time.
A few minutes later, Janette stopped and leaned in to press her face against Simon's. Simon thought she was going to let go of him, but then he heard Janette suddenly whisper into his ear, "Does my aunt smell very good?"
She was literally biting his ear.
Hearing Janette's words, Simon felt her two rows of teeth rubbing against his earlobe. His spine felt a bit chilled, worried the woman might bite off a piece of his ear. He feigned composure and nodded with a smile, "Yeah, don't you like it too?"
Seeing that Simon didn't try to argue, Janette released her grip with her little white teeth but continued to whisper in his ear, "Little Bastard, you think I can't tell? Auntie is very uncomfortable in front of you. Women are always very sensitive to certain things. She doesn't like you, but she can't quite lash out".
"About that", Simon gently tickled the woman's small waist a few times, attempting to distract her, and said, "I'm sorry".
"Hmph, hmph, hmph", Janette twisted her waist a few times, unmoved, and said, "I warned you a long, long time ago, Little Bastard. So, smelling is fine, but you absolutely, absolutely cannot have any other ideas".
Simon felt a cold sweat coming on and shook his head, "I swear to God, I absolutely don't".
Janette still gave Simon's waist a pinch, unwilling to let it go, before finally releasing him and taking a step back. She looked beaming again, as if the conversation just now had never happened. She raised her hand and waved at him, saying, "Get on the plane, everyone is waiting".
Watching Janette retreat, Simon took two steps forward to catch the woman again and kissed her. Janette naturally began to respond.
The two lingered for a few more minutes before parting again. Janette's face had turned rosy. Knowing she couldn't delay any longer, she pushed Simon toward the air stairs and then turned back to Anthony's side. The siblings stood by the runway and watched Simon board the Boeing 767 as the plane glided and soared into the clouds.
Inside the lounge in the forward cabin of the fuselage.
The flight was smooth. Jennifer, in a window seat, unbuckled her seatbelt and stood up to come to Simon's side. Noticing the fine beads of sweat on his forehead, she asked with concern, "Are you okay?"
Simon was still thinking about what had just happened.
He had always thought that he and Veronica had hidden it well, but he didn't expect Janette to have seen the abnormality long ago. Fortunately, Janette had just misunderstood.
It was just that this kind of misunderstanding seemed even more awkward than the truth.
Hearing Jennifer's concerned tone, Simon pulled back his thoughts, unbuckled his seatbelt, smiled, and patted his lap, saying to the Female Assistant, "Come here".
Jennifer gave him a slight glare, but seeing Simon reach out to pull her, she sat down. Her face couldn't help but turn slightly red, and her body was stiff, worried that someone would suddenly come by.
Her little head turned and turned, and she finally found a topic to distract herself, saying, "So, what does 'Xiren' actually mean?"
"It comes from a classical Eastern novel. Xiren is the male protagonist's personal maid", Simon said as he lowered the tray table in front of the seat, took a pencil from nearby, and wrote two lines of poetry in running script on a blank space of a document. "It's a name with a lot of artistic conception".
After Simon finished writing, Jennifer looked at it carefully. She didn't recognize the two lines of poetry, but she could appreciate the aesthetic beauty of the Chinese characters. "These characters are so beautiful. How do you read them?"
Simon recited them slowly, even circling the two characters for Xiren, and explained, "This is a line of poetry describing a scene. A small village in the countryside has just experienced a cold rain in early spring. The poet gets up in the morning; the sky is dim, and the sun hasn't risen yet. Walking through the countryside, the rich fragrance of flowers blowing in one's face means the weather is about to turn warm. The chirping of magpies coming from between the treetops seems to be joyfully telling the poet that today will be a clear day".
Jennifer leaned against Simon, her fingers stroking the line of pencil writing, and said, "Can just these fourteen characters express so much meaning as you said?"
Simon nodded. "Yes, that's the characteristic of that country's classical culture".
"It seems I should also find some time to learn some Chinese, otherwise I won't understand anything in front of you and Janette".
"I'll teach you".
"Do you have the time?"
"Time is always squeezed out. Here, let's start right now".
"Hehe".
The two chatted in low voices. Jennifer had finally adjusted to the situation of sitting on Simon's lap when the lounge door was knocked. The Female Assistant immediately stood up and rushed away like a little rabbit.
It turned out to be a flight attendant coming over to greet Simon and eagerly ask if he needed anything.
Feeling the flight attendant's blatant gaze, Simon just had her bring a pot of coffee and sent her away.
The romantic atmosphere from just now couldn't continue. Jennifer returned to her seat with a smile on her lips, but she no longer responded to Simon's eye contact, lowering her head to pretend to be seriously organizing documents.
Simon also had to pick up the document he had just written the poem on.
This was Ira Deutchman's distribution report regarding 'Heathers'. Deutchman was still directly responsible to Simon personally. Whether it was the distribution of films under Highgate Film or the previous award season PR, Deutchman would regularly summarize work reports for Simon.
Today was already Saturday April 29th, 1989.
Highgate Films third film released this year, 'Heathers', was released on April 22nd.
Compared to 'Metropolitan' and 'Some Girls', the release scale of 'Heathers' was very small. Deutchman only promoted it in New York, where the audience for art films is relatively broad, and arranged for an opening on 35 screens.
Although the film's selling points were explored as much as possible and 'Heathers' received unanimous praise from the media, in its first week of release, this art-leaning drama focusing on the theme of school bullying only recovered $260,000 at the box office, with a per-theatre average of only $7,500.
Compared to the per-theatre box office of some other hit films, which often reached sixty or seventy thousand dollars during their limited release stage, the small-scale release of 'Heathers' on 35 screens didn't even reach a per-theatre average of ten thousand. There was no need to increase the release scale for this film.
According to the current release pace, the total North American box office for the film would only be roughly over one million dollars. Compared to the production cost of $3 million, the film would definitely fall into a loss.
This would also become the second loss-making film released by Daenerys Entertainment this year.
Ira Deutchman analysed in the report that the main reason for the failure of 'Heathers' was that the theme and the audience were too far apart.
The protagonists of this film are high school students, and the target audience is also teenagers, but most teenagers obviously don't like art films. The movie-going group over 18, which is relatively more likely to accept art films, found it hard to be interested in the theme and genre of 'Heathers'.
It was because of these factors that the film headed toward failure.
'Heathers' was a project left over from New World Entertainment. Deutchman had already done his best; the box office failure was not the responsibility of the distribution team. At the same time, Ira Deutchman also concluded in the report that Daenerys Entertainment should try to avoid producing films with similar themes in the future.