Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Film City only had a single car park, and it was situated nearly 1 kilometer away from Jiang Zhi’s filming set.
Jiang Wei’er walked the entire way to the car park. On her way there, she paid extra care to her surroundings, making sure that no one was following her. She only entered the car after making sure that the coast was clear. It wasn’t even a second after she had plopped down on her seat that an arm pulled her over.
Xiao Linshu was not wearing a mask, so she could see him smiling at her.
Jiang Wei’er, paranoid of paparazzi, backed off a little. “Didn’t you have an announcement scheduled?”
However, he wasn’t gonna let her slip out of his arms so easily. Once again, he wrapped his strong arms around her and pulled Jiang Wei’er into his embrace.
“I miss you.”
Xiao Linshu’s voice sounded hoarser than usual. He must’ve been dead tired from work. Jiang Wei’er was about to ask him about his sudden appearance here but was cut short by him pulling her into his arms. In fact, she was stunned by how much of a smooth operator this man was.
“What’s up?”
Xiao Linshu rested his jaw on her shoulder. “Wei’er.”
“Yeah?”
He didn’t say much as all of his focus went into smooching her.
Jiang Wei’er was still “outside”, and so, with a little more force, she pushed him away. “We’ll end up on the headlines!”
“So be it.” He leaned in for the kill. Gently, he started kissing the corner of her lips.
Jiang Wei’er almost melted from this move. Finally, she submitted to Xiao Linshu’s will. Lowering her head meekly, she noticed a small patch of skin peeking out from underneath his shirt cuff.
“What happened to your hand?”
He lowered his hand. “It’s nothing. Got hurt while filming.”
Feeling that something was wrong, she pulled up his cuff.
“Don’t look.” Xiao Linshu pressed firmly on her hands.
“Let me see it.” Jiang Wei’er undid his cuff buttons and rolled it up to his arm. In an instant, her brows furrowed. “You lied to me. This isn’t something you got while filming. These are cigarette burns, for crying out loud!”
There were 2 round cigarette burn scars on his forearm.
Xiao Linshu’s smile faded away. “Guess I got caught.” No matter the situation, this man would never forget to smile. The tail of his eyes would curve upward every time he smiled, somehow making him seem more sincere as a person. “I tried smoking.”
This man had little to no temper, and his default mood was gentle and subdued.
Perhaps this was why Jiang Wei’er couldn’t bear to be angry at him. Looking at his forearm, she felt a stinging pain in her heart. “After all that effort to stop you from smoking?”
He was still smiling when he kissed her cheeks. “I won’t do it again. I swear.”
Xiao Linshu was once a chain-smoker, but he had been able to stop his addiction thanks to Jiang Wei’er’s help.
50 meters away, Fang Lixiang was crouched down behind a light pole in the car park. Her torso was bent over 90 degrees, parallel to the ground, as she gathered all her focus into honing in on their conversation. Suddenly, she heard the flickering sound of a camera shutter behind her.
“Lixiang.”
Bewildered, she turned around with a finger pressed against her lips.
“Shhhh!”
Seeing the mysterious expression her friend wore, Zhou Xufang whispered back, “What are you doing?”
Fang Lixiang seemed a bit riled up, but there was also a slightly dejected look on her face. With a softened voice, she replied, “My assistant! She’s having an affair with my idol! An! Affair!” Immediately after saying that, she cupped her ears and moved forward, her face as tense as it could be. “Arghhh! I can’t hear a thing!”
What a shame.
Zhou Xufang’s hearing was incredibly good, better than a regular human’s. As long as she focused, she could listen to voices hundreds of meters away as if they were merely a few feet away from her, and so, she repeated word for word what was said between the secret lovers.
“Babe, kiss me one more time,” she said with a blank look on her face.
“If you wanna kiss me, then do it. You don’t need to ask.” Again, her face was still devoid of any emotion.
“Alright, I won’t be speaking then,” she continued emotionlessly.
“You naughty one.”
They were all lines of love and Zhou Xufang narrated them out without any hesitation, almost as if she was casually reading off of a textbook.
Fang Lixiang was caught off-guard by her friend’s odd speech. “What are ya’ doing?”
Zhou Xufang still had that stone-cold expression on her face as she replied, “Didn’t you say you wanted to listen to what they’re saying? I can hear what they’re saying, so I’ll lend you my ears. From now on, I’ll be repeating what they’re saying.”
“…”
This was golden.
Fang Lixiang had always thought that despite her cold composure, Zhou Xufang was a cute and lovable girl. It was fine for herself to listen to such words going back and forth between a man and a woman, but she wasn’t ready to expose Zhou Xufang, the blank slate, to such erotic words. Thus, both of them left the car park.
“Xufang. Are you in need of cash recently?”
Zhou Xufang maintained a distance between them as if she disliked people standing near her, her face hidden underneath the hood of her army greatcoat. “I have something I want to buy that is really expensive.”
Knowing that Xufang had problems with socializing, Fang Lixiang trailed behind her with a significant gap between them. “Then I should introduce you to this job.”
“I don’t want jobs that require me to be nude.”
“No, I’m not talking about that. Actually, my cousin runs a hair salon and he’s looking for models to try out different hairstyles.”
Fang Lixiang would always sense a mysterious aura coming off of Zhou Xufang, making her cool as heck. Although, once she started knitting her brows, she would start looking as though she despised the entire world’s existence. That was kind of cool in Lixiang’s book either way. Speaking of her face, realization that she had never once seen Xufang’s smile dawned upon her, and she wondered what the latter would look like if she smiled.
“What would I need to do?”
Fang Lixiang replied with a heroic look on her face. “Nothing! You just have to let him style your hair, and as for the price for being a model, bombs away, girl!”
“Okay.”
Because her stand-in job today had ended up in failure, Zhou Xufang headed straight home. After that, she went off earlier than usual to Bayi bridge where she set up her little stall, selling screen-protectors.
The atmosphere at the set for the rest of the afternoon felt wrong. There would always be new problems popping up from somewhere. One of the actresses even had a meltdown after being yelled at by Jiang Zhi, who called her acting “a pile of dog sh*t”.
7 pm.
As instructed, Ah Wan made a reservation for Jiang Zhi. Waiting for him at a table in the Hulun Tea House was a psychologist, renowned all over the imperial capital for his treatments.
“Doctor Qiu is waiting for you inside.”
It was raining that evening, which, during wintertime, made it unbearably cold.
Jiang Zhi wore a surgical mask to hide his identity. “No need to follow me.”
Leaving Ah Wan in the car, he stepped out with a black umbrella in hand. As he slowly disappeared from Ah Wan’s sight as he moved into the thick evening fog, Ah Wan was still able to make out his low-sounding coughs.
‘Ahh, not only was the young master physically ill, he was mentally ill too.’
The seats in this tea house were all separated for the sake of privacy. Pushing the door open, Jiang Zhi could see that there was already someone inside waiting for him.
A middle-aged man sporting a suit and tie stood up immediately upon seeing Jiang Zhi walk through the front door. Controlling the volume of his voice, he called out, “Master Jiang.”
Jiang Zhi took off his mask as well as his overcoat. There was a great change in the temperature when he stepped into the building. In just a few moments, his pale white cheeks were now flushed due to the warmth. “It’s fine, sit down.”
His voice sounded powerless.
It was just as he had heard. Jiang Zhi was indeed a sickly person.
Doctor Qiu raised his head to take a look at his patient. As soon as their gazes met, he averted his eyes.
‘His face… so the rumors were true after all. A face like a white pear blossom, his beauty truly is perplexing.’
Jiang Zhi took a seat. Pulling out a handkerchief, he wiped off the rainwater that had splashed onto his fingertips. “I need to consult you on a few things. I don’t wish for others to hear about this, especially the Jiang family.”
Doctor Qiu’s heart was pumping faster than usual.
“Understood,” he replied in trepidation.
And just like that, Jiang Zhi changed into a more casual tone. Pouring himself a cup of tea, he moistened his cherry pink lips. “No need to be so nervous. I bear no ill-will. I just have a few questions that need answering.”
“Please, go ahead.”
After staying silent for a while, it was as if he couldn’t force his mouth open. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he opened up. “I have a friend.” He paused for 3 seconds. “This has something to do with a friend of mine,” he emphasized.
Doctor Qiu was so astonished that the unease he had initially felt faded away.
“…”
For them to call him the little dictator of the Jiang family, what the hell was he thinking, using such a cliched approach?
Maybe because he wanted to make sure that the doctor believed his words, Jiang Zhi gave further explanation. “You should know Xue Baoyi, right? The second heir of the Xue family. Yeah, this is a problem he’s currently facing”.
Acting as though he had taken the bait, Doctor Qiu put on a straight face. “Yep, I got that. It’s something to do with the second young master of the Xue family, Xue Baoyi.”
Whatever Master Jiang said would have to be taken as true.
Jiang Zhi took a sip of his tea gracefully. “You see, he’s gay, but something has happened to him and he’s starting to doubt his sexual orientation.” He paused to take another sip of tea. “I’d like to know if it’s possible for gay men like him to turn back straight.”
So, Master Jiang was straight now?
This was breaking news!
Doctor Qiu could barely contain his excitement at the unexpected discovery. “There is indeed such a possibility. Not many people know this, but sexual orientation has actually got a lot to do with one’s environment.”
He had just finished his brief explanation when Jiang Zhi started frowning.
“He is just doubting though. How can you be so sure?” Placing his teacup down, Jiang Zhi gulped nervously and sat up straight, awaiting the psychologist’s answer.
From what he saw, Jiang Zhi must be feeling very conflicted about this matter.
Doctor Qiu also felt a little conflicted. “C-could you tell me…were there a-any visible ch-changes to your friend, Xue Baoyi?”
Jiang Zhi’s eyes were like newly blooming flowers during March as he searched through his mind in silence.
“Well, he would always be thinking about that girl. Also, he would constantly feel a sense of unease when that girl is around him.” His brows furrowed as he reached out for his teacup. This time, he took a big gulp of tea. Maybe he was getting a little parched? “However, this sense of unease would only grow larger when this girl isn’t around him.”