Referring to - 31

Chapter 31

After eating dinner, young actor Lin continued to lean against the bed to watch his period drama. Big Boss Gu seemed to have finished his work, so he sat on the side of the bed and watched the drama with him.

The screenwriter of this drama, Chu Yun, was worthy of being a well-known old hand in the industry. There were hardly any romantic scenes, but the business battle ones were full of ups and downs and continuous climax. As a result, even Gu Zecheng watched it with great interest and discussed the plot with Lin Zixi.

The two of them were originally sitting very close to each other, so Lin Zixi could feel the hot breath brushing against his cheek and neck when the man beside him turned his head to talk.

He did not know why, but his mind could not help but recall the other party's sturdy body wrapped in a white shirt—as a fairly dedicated actor, young actor Lin had always been doing body shape management and exercising from time to time, but compared to his dad, he was definitely not the one releasing hormones from head to foot.

Gu Zecheng found that Lin Zixi was a little absent-minded and thought he was tired, so he paused the video.

"Let’s stop here today. You can continue watching it tomorrow." Dad Gu put the laptop on the table next to him and warned again, "Don't play with your mobile phone until late at night."

Lin Zixi looked up at his dad’s face and suddenly raised his right hand in a salute while giving his word very seriously, "Okay, Daddy! No problem, Daddy!"

Gu Zecheng was pleased as well as amused and poked Lin Zixi’s forehead lightly, "My luck’s so bad that I got a son like you."

Lin Zixi laughed "hehe" and replied, "Isn’t mine… a hereditary Mercury retrograde!"

As a (fake) European emperor who had drawn a whole set of orange cards (by cheating), how could Big Boss Gu acknowledge these words? So he just poked Lin Zixi's forehead again, "You’re a young man, what’re you doing with feudal superstition."

"This is metaphysics, metaphysics..." Lin Zixi watched Gu Zecheng leave while trying hard to defend this ‘feudal superstition’ spread among the vast majority of Internet-addicted teenagers. When it was confirmed that the man had gone, his original relaxed and laughing expression turned into a confused one.

You said... had his gold master daddy already known that he was indeed his gold master and daddy?

After all, the four-dimensional parallel world was too scientific to the extent that it was not scientific. Lin Zixi thought about the reason Gu Zecheng was suddenly so kind to him for more than half a month, but except for ‘his true identity was exposed’, he really couldn't think of another reason.

But if his dad already knew that he indeed got this son with ‘hereditary Mercury retrograde’, Lin Zixi truly couldn't understand why the other party did not lay all his cards on the table and let him really recognize his ancestors and return to his clan.

So he suddenly spoke to sound out Gu Zecheng's attitude just now.

Needless to say, the result was nothing.

As a young traffic actor criticized as having ‘zero acting skills’, he wanted to study the micro-expression of an old veteran who had been rising and falling in the business world for many years…. Young actor Lin thought about it after the event and felt that he was humiliating himself.

Lin Zixi tossed and turned restlessly on the hospital bed in the middle of the night and eventually decided to let his half-dead brain cells live—regardless of what his dad thought, since the other party was so kind to him now, the relationship between his gold master daddy and him would be that of a benevolent father and a filial son... um, or a friendly elder brother and a respectful younger brother, that's all.

Anyway, in view of Gu Zecheng coming to take care of him every day while he was in the hospital, even if the other party was not his daddy, Lin Zixi was set on making friends with this good brother.

After Lin Zixi stayed in the hospital for more than a week, he could be discharged.

Although he was repeatedly told by the doctor that he still needed to recuperate for another month or two and could not be too tired, it was better than lying in the hospital bed all day long and waiting for the gold master daddy to come and feed the patient.

This time, young actor Lin was implicated in disaster for no reason and walked in front of the gates of hell. Among the misfortunes, he fortunately had more than three months of empty slot within his schedule after completing The Legend of Concubine Ling and before having to enter the next production team, which was just enough for his recuperation without any contract disputes.

Agent Chen Yunyun originally wanted him to receive more variety shows, magazines, advertisements, etc., but now it had turned into wanting him to be a salted fish self-cultivating at home. In fact, Lin Zixi was still very happy—after all, he had already earned more than enough money; although these business activities brought in a lot of money quickly, they were just icing on the cake for him, not so necessary.

What's more, forgive him for talking bluntly... with the current ecology of the entertainment circle, young traffic actors like him or those idols becoming magazine covers and brand ambassadors was essentially digging out fans' wallets and gilding idols with ‘super capable of selling goods’.

Lin Zixi signed the contract with Stars Entertainment too early, which led to him basically having no right to speak in front of the company—if he had not become popular now, he simply wouldn’t have had any right to speak according to the contract—otherwise, he would probably not participate in this kind of activity of milking fans of their money.

Staying at home playing games plus having internet, snacks, and takeaways was a blessing in life!

Since young actor Lin officially debuted, he had never rested or had a vacation for more than a week. This time, he used his life to exchange for a super-long vacation. After thinking carefully, he actually felt that it was still worth it.

So much so that when Gu Zecheng was driving Lin Zixi home—oh, yes, even though it was Monday, Big Boss Gu still didn’t go to the company for a meeting in the morning but came to the hospital to pick him up after he was discharged—he felt that the young man beside him was smiling very cheekily and sweetly.

He held the steering wheel with one hand and stretched out his right hand to stroke Lin Zixi's hair, which had grown a lot after more than a month. Realizing that it felt really good, he did it again, "So happy to be discharged from hospital and return home? "

But after asking, he figured it out himself, "You’re happy that you can take a long vacation in the name of recuperating, aren’t you?" 

In front of his dad, his gold master, and his Big Boss Gu, how could young actor Lin admit it. He immediately shook his head and said insincerely, "No, no, no, I love to work, and working makes me happy!"

"Then you come to be my special assistant for the next two months, okay? It can also make the old lady feel at ease." Gu Zecheng, seeing Lin Zixi’s stunned face, held back a smile and pretended to continue seriously, saying, "Don't worry. Since you have no previous working experience in the workplace, I’ll let the secretary’s office make special arrangements for you to do induction training, and I won’t give you too many responsibilities at the beginning." 

Dad Gu's expression showed that he was very serious about the matter, and Lin Zixi was entirely unsure for quite a while whether his dad was joking or really had this plan. So he could only automatically make a very down-to-earth reaction, "Then… how is the salary calculated?"

Big Boss Gu thought for a moment, "Just like those fresh graduates recruited by the secretary's office this year, it seems that the annual salary is 100,000 to 150,000."

Lin-currently popular young traffic actor-Zixi, who generated nearly 100 million income for Stars Entertainment last year, was immediately convinced of his gold master daddy's skill to tell bad jokes in deadly earnest. "You’ve spent so much money to win my stud earring in the charity night, and you only give me a salary of 150,000 a year?"

"Speaking of the stud earring..." Gu Zecheng stepped on the brakes at the red light at the intersection, took out a small red box from the inner pocket of his coat, and handed it to Lin Zixi.

Lin Zixi looked at this rather conspicuous and familiar box, and an ominous premonition emerged in his heart, "This is..."

"Your salary for the next 13 years." Dad Gu said.

Unexpectedly, it was really that ‘LianXi Fufu couple’s’ stud earring that he bought for 400,000 and his prodigal old dad spent 2 million to win!

And looking at Gu Zecheng's meaning, it seemed that he still wanted to gift it to him….

How others would react when they received jewels that their gold master had spent 2 million to win, Lin Zixi did not know. In any case, holding this unlucky thing, which was returned to its rightful owner, his whole person was not well.

He forced a smile and handed the box containing the stud earring back to the man beside him, "This… no merit and no reward. How can I accept such a valuable thing..."

"It's just a congratulatory gift for your smooth discharge from the hospital." Big Boss Gu glanced at Lin Zixi as he spoke, only to discover that his expression was wrong, "Why, didn't you say that this stud earring was very special to you?"

The case was solved. As it turned out, Gu Zecheng actually crushed his pure fan and CP fan to win this stud earring just because he believed a sentence from his performance at that time.

Lin Zixi felt heartbroken and flattered at the same time. In the end, in order not to attack his dad's good intentions, he could only admit it through gritted teeth, "Yes...it's very special, thank you."

But how could Big Boss Gu be fooled just like that? He frowned, and his expression became serious, "Tell me the truth, what's the matter with this stud earring? Even if you don't tell me, I can ask someone to check it."

How embarrassing it would be to ask someone else to check it….

Lin Zixi thought about it but still explained to his dad honestly, "Do you still remember when we took a plane and had an accident? At that time, I told you about fan circle culture and so on, and I also mentioned that I had a stud earring that was misunderstood by LianXi Fufu CP fans as a couple’s earring."

Lin Zixi paused and sighed, "That's it."

After he said this, the air suddenly became quiet.

Gu Zecheng, who had experienced countless storms and waves, was also silent.

When they stopped at the red light again, Big Boss Gu stretched out his hand and took away the red box that seemed to be scalding hot in Lin Zixi's hand.

Lin Zixi did not react for a while and looked at his dad with a question mark on his face.

"I suddenly remembered that our group’s requirement this year is to graduate from 985 universities, and Your Central Film Academy isn’t even included in 211. So we can't recruit you." Gu Zecheng said and took the ‘salary for the next 13 years’ back into his coat pocket.

…

……

Once again, Lin Zixi was really convinced of his dad's skill to tell bad jokes in deadly earnest.

TL’s notes:

985 universities or Project 985 are 39 universities classified as doctoral universities with very high research activities among all Chinese universities, regarded as the tier 1 universities out of 3,012 higher education institutions as of 2021, and viewed as some of the most prestigious universities of all Chinese universities and consistently ranked among the best in the world.

Project 211 included 116 universities that are regarded as the tier 1 universities in China out of 3,012 higher education institutions as of 2021 and viewed as some of the most prestigious universities of all Chinese universities.

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