Referring to - 14

Chapter 14

Although it was rare for Lin Zixi to be able to take a day off, how dare he slept until noon like he usually did on his day off the first time he stayed overnight in his gold master daddy’s home?

Even though he had stayed up all night to play games until two o'clock in the morning, he still got up early in the morning and had breakfast together with Dad Gu and Grandma Song, whose work and rest routine was regular.

The old lady was originally a believer in the classic health maintenance concept of ‘must eat breakfast well’. Now that her ‘little son’ had finally returned, she treated one meal as three meals, letting Sister Wang prepare a half table of food for him alone.

Although young actor Lin did not deliberately go on a diet like some stars, at any rate, he was also a person who relied on his appearance to make a living and still had certain requirements for maintaining his figure. So how dare he really finished off all these things. In the end, he had to make a special show of ‘friendly elder brother and respectful younger brother’, desperately picking up side dishes and adding porridge to Gu Zecheng while saying, "Once Big Brother gets busy at work, you don’t know when you can eat lunch, right? Oh… it’s also hard work. So you must eat more in the morning."

Big Boss Gu initially thought that Lin Zixi was suddenly so courteous to him because he wanted something from him. Since looking like he was estranged from his own ‘younger brother’ in front of his mother was not good, he had to accept everything Lin Zixi foisted on him without question. But when he was already full, and the person beside him was still adding food to his plate endlessly, he figured out right away that in fact, this idiot was purely using certain means to let others suffer losses instead of himself.

Gu Zecheng put down his chopsticks, wiped the corners of his mouth with a napkin, got up, and left the seat. "You two continue to eat. I have a meeting at nine o'clock, so I’ll leave first."

He walked toward the front door as he spoke but turned around halfway through and, seemingly concerned, said, "Is Xiao Yi too tired from filming recently? I feel like you’re a lot thinner than before…. Your health is the most important thing. It's okay to accept less dramas."

After Dad Gu stabbed the knife, he went to work happily. Poor young actor Lin, however, was about to throw up because of this sentence since the old lady resolutely pressed him to eat. Having grown up in a single-parent family, he finally had the same opportunity as most netizens, which was to experience something known as "there is a kind of hunger called 'your grandma thinks you are hungry'".

After Lin Zixi finished eating this meal with great difficulty, Grandma Song began to discuss two things with Sister Wang seriously. One was "what to eat for lunch today", and the other was "which drama played by Zeyi should I watch first?".... It scared him so much that he quickly found an excuse, saying that his agent had arranged a job at the last moment. Then he fled out of the Gu’s house as fast as possible. 

Young actor Lin took Gu Zecheng’s car when he came over from the movies and television base the day before. Now that he wanted to go back, it was quite a problem—he did not have his own car to drive, and he did not have the cheek to call Assistant Xiao Zhang, whom finally had a day off after his hard work accompanying him on the crew every day, to come over and drive him back.

Fortunately, the current mobile phone software was very convenient. Within a few minutes, Lin Zixi downloaded an app and called a taxi.

He put on the hood of his hoodie and pulled his peaked cap really low. Then he walked out of Gu Zecheng's house entrance to the gate of the community and got into the car under the suspicious eyes of the security guard.

Young actor Lin sat in the passenger seat and did not dare to relax. He said, "Go to Huating Hotel at Hengguo Film and Television Base", and started swiping his mobile phone to conceal his face tightly, for fear of being recognized by passers-by on both sides of the traffic lane.

Mr. Driver was a nearly fifty-year-old uncle with the characteristics of a typical middle-aged male taxi driver—chatty, gossipy, and love to be a nosy parker.

Like Lin Zixi, who came out of this city’s most high-end community suspiciously, named the suburb as his destination, and was obviously afraid to let people see his face to boot…. In the eyes of Mr. Driver, Lin Zixi was basically equivalent to a criminal who broke the law and violated discipline, and he himself was equivalent to being an accessory/accomplice to the criminal.

Mr. Driver was also warm-hearted and enthusiastic. After driving not far, he began to fish for Lin Zixi’s information like he was just chatting casually. From "where are you from" to "how could you need to take a taxi living in Guanlan Bay" to "you don't live in Guanlan Bay, why did you come out from there so early", he asked all of them.

This meticulous questioning like when checking household registration was so straightforward it hurt young actor Lin’s head and made him a little regretful for not calling his assistant to pick him up. He just perfunctorily glossed over each question with "yeah, yeah, ah, ah”. After enduring for a long time, the man sitting next to him finally stopped, no longer questioning him.

But before Lin Zixi could breathe a sigh of relief, the central control lock on the car door beside him suddenly locked with a snap, and the driver also turned on the turn signal to exit the elevated highway ahead of time.

"What’re you going to do?!" Lin Zixi was on guard all at once and turned his head to look at the man beside him while surveying the surrounding road conditions. He considered if he should just wrest control of the steering wheel directly in case the other party was a kidnapper.

But Mr. Driver was more upright than him, "I’m going to send you to the police station! The way of Heaven is fair, but the guilty will not escape! The eyes of the masses are sharp!"

...What the hell was this shit?!

"What the hell are you doing?!... What kind of tricky program is this?" Young actor Lin was a bit stupid and began to scan the decoration inside the car back and forth, trying to find the hidden camera.

While locating the nearest police station, the driver said, "Humph, sneaking out of Guanlan Bay early in the morning and still hiding your face…. But it's no use. I tell you, don't say me, the security guard of the community must have been checking the surveillance video now. You can't run away!"

"Don't, don't, don't, don't, don’t! I'm not a bad guy!" Only then did Lin Zixi understand what was going on. He promptly took off all his hats and showed his face.

The currently popular young actor took a taxi and went into the police station…. He felt like he would suffocate just thinking about the headlines that the media and marketing accounts might use at that time. So he quickly put on a sunny and friendly smile, "Misunderstanding, it’s all misunderstanding. I’m actually afraid of being recognized."

Facing such a young and handsome face, could passers-by recognize young actor Lin? I did not know. Mr. Driver did not recognize him anyway—a young male idol in his twenties like young actor Lin was common in China after all; for middle-aged and elderly men, there was basically no such person in their dictionaries.

Mr. Driver watched him carefully for a long time and vaguely thought that he might have seen this man on a billboard or the outer packaging of a product, but he really couldn't remember who this man was and what his name was.

However, in view of Lin Zixi's young and handsome face, he also realized that he might have taken a star’s order. The atmosphere suddenly became a little embarrassing.

Mr. Driver had been driving a taxi for almost 20 years though and had experienced many strong winds and big waves. Not long after he drove the car back to the elevated highway, he became active again and began to gossip about various entertainment circle rumors with Lin Zixi.

As a result, young actor Lin felt his head hurt even more. He was also depressed because he had revealed his identity (whether the other party recognized him or not, it was another matter), and he could not just answer the other party perfunctorily as he had done at the beginning. He also took a lot of trouble thinking about how to fudge the issue without being impolite—otherwise, in case someone with aspirations dug up and broke the news one day, whether it was ‘playing a big name and looking down on the working people at the bottom’ or ‘having a big mouth and spreading other people's private affairs indiscriminately", any of them could be used to stir up public opinion until it became a scandal, harming his interests and making him lose a large number of fans.

Two hours later, the car finally drove to the hotel. Lin Zixi paid the fare and took a photo with the other party. Then he hurriedly got out of the car and fled faster than when he came out of Gu's house.

TL's note: 

Because I'm busy, there won't be an update next Monday. So, chapter 15 will be out on Thursday, June 2nd. 

Previous | Next

Referring to - 13

Chapter 13

At ten o'clock in the evening, Grandma Song went to bed contentedly after watching two episodes of the TV series starring her ‘little son’, leaving the two gentlemen, Lin Zixi and Gu Zecheng, sitting on the sofa in mutual silence.

After a while, Dad Gu pressed his temple and finally took the lead to speak, "Did you really come from a drama school?"

"Didn't you know that I’m...'the disgrace of CFA'?" Young actor Lin, who had given up and stopped bothering, replied.

Gu Zecheng was silent for a moment and said very seriously, "You change your profession to a singer, okay? I can pull strings with the best record company in China."

Lin Zixi felt a little gloating. Two episodes of his own TV series and less than an hour of his scenes could actually force the gold master daddy to take the initiative and plan to utilize his personal connections for him. He reckoned this was also his own skill.

However, it was impossible for him to change his profession and so on just because of a sentence from Big Boss Gu—after all, he had not really recognized this ‘daddy’, and this ‘gold master’ was not a true gold master in the traditional sense either.

Lin Zixi shook his head and refused, "Now isn’t like ten years ago. The whole music circle has been dying in the past few years. If I become a singer, at most I’ll be an idol who depends on fans to make a living. I think I’ll still continue to be on the stage.… A few more years of acting, and maybe my acting skills will improve."

That was what young actor Lin said, but he himself did not have any confidence in the latter half of the sentence. As he spoke, his voice was getting smaller and smaller near the end.

Fortunately, Gu Zecheng actually didn't dislike him this time. He just sneered at him and said, "It’s up to you." Then he got up and left.

Lin Zixi breathed a sigh of relief, scrolled the WeChat Moments, and got up from the sofa, wanting to go to the kitchen to have a glass of water.

As a result, he unexpectedly saw his dad again in the kitchen. Moreover, the other party was actually making coffee late at night.

"It's already past ten o'clock. Are you still drinking coffee?" Lin Zixi could not help but ask in surprise.

Gu Zecheng poured the coffee into a cup, stirred the brewed brown liquid lightly with a spoon, and said with a cold expression, "There’re some documents that I haven't read yet."

After he finished speaking, he raised the cup and took a sip of coffee without adding milk or sugar into it.

Looking at Gu Zecheng's slightly tired face, Lin Zixi suddenly felt a little sorry.

His dad's business had become so big; naturally, his days would be very busy too. But now, aside from having to act in front of the old lady as well because of him, he even had to squeeze out almost two hours a day to watch his rough and slipshod TV series—not to mention the others, just between the currently airing Po Tian Ji and the being filmed The Legend of Concubine Ling, there were more than one hundred episodes in total.

It was no wonder that Gu Zecheng wanted to persuade him to retreat from the circle…. If their identities were exchanged, he might have the heart to use his connection to block the other party.

Young actor Lin thought about the other TV series he had filmed previously and the upcoming ones that he had already signed contracts for, and for a moment, he had a notion that he was simply doing evil. He suddenly felt a little guilty and ashamed when facing Dad Gu.

Gu Zecheng had already put the coffee pot in the sink at this time, waiting for the already asleep Sister Wang to wash it after she got up tomorrow morning, and was going to go to the study with a cup of coffee in his hand.

Lin Zixi hesitated behind him but still spoke haltingly in the end, "I also don't want to keep being criticized for my poor acting skills, but I often don't really understand how to work those roles out…. I haven't experienced their love, regret, passion, or hatred, so I don't know how to express it…. But since the director already said ‘cut’, then it's over."

Gu Zecheng did not expect that Lin Zixi would suddenly say such a heart-to-heart remark to himself. His steps halted, and he turned back to look at Lin Zixi.

"Shouldn’t analyzing the roles be the basic skills of actors? Your teacher didn’t teach it when you went to class?" Although Dad Gu's words were still rude, the expression on his face had become a lot softer without having noticed it himself.

And young actor Lin was like a student who failed the exam and was discovered by his parents. He lowered his head and looked down at the floor with some shame, saying in a low voice, "I didn’t get good grades when I was a child. I passed the CFA’s exam purely because the acting department’s requirement for the college entrance exam score wasn’t high. When I had just started, thinking that I could just be a walk-on or a small supporting role and earn some money, I didn't take any acting classes seriously…. Later, I was inexplicably popular, and there was no chance to make up for them even if I wanted to."

Gu Zecheng never imagined that the young actor in front of him who was currently popular in China actually chose to go on the stage because of his poor grades. Hating iron for not becoming steel, he said, "How come you look like Gu Zeyi and also didn’t study well just like him?"

People say that your sister’s son was like his (maternal) uncle, so maybe your brother’s son was also like his (fraternal) uncle…. Lin Zixi thought silently in his heart and heard his dad continue to speak, "Then you have no life plan at all. Are you really thinking of using your current acting skills to revolve around bad dramas for a lifetime?"

"My plan for a lifetime is like this." Young actor Lin raised his head and watched his gold master daddy trying to explain for him, "Like I’ve said before, I’ll withdraw from the entertainment circle when my current contract is over."

Gu Zecheng sighed, "You did say it last time. Then how long will it be before your contract expires?"

Lin Zixi lowered his head again, "Eight, eight years."

　　

"You……"

Earlier, Dad Gu carried on watching and was shocked by young actor Lin’s ‘otherworldly’ acting skills. At this time, he finally realized that as long as the old lady's body was healthy enough, he was likely to be poisoned by the dramas of this ‘younger brother’, whom he hired himself, for eight years or even longer. His anger suddenly rose, and he was itching to give Lin Zixi a lesson.

But he did not know why, when he looked at the other person’s pitiful appearance of obediently waiting to be lectured with head hanging down, he suddenly couldn’t say the words that were already on the tip of his tongue. In the end, he could only turn them into a long sigh and a sentence, "I should’ve made you go abroad directly back then."

After Gu Zecheng finished speaking, he left with his already cold coffee.

And Lin Zixi stood there, feeling a little guilty and aggrieved. With head hanging down and dragging his steps, he then walked back to the bedroom.

He threw himself on the bed, held the mobile phone in his hand, and thought for a long time, but he could not think of a suitable person to talk to. In the end, he simply tapped the mobile game icon, leaving all his worries behind and happily rushing to the game world.

But someone in the study room separated by a wall from him certainly didn't have such an ability of being simple-minded.

Big Boss Gu, who should have continued to deal with the work he had not finished during the day, was frowning and looking through his long mobile phone address book. After seeing a certain name, he stopped sliding the screen and switched to his daily schedule to add an item for ten o'clock tomorrow—call the boss of Fengcheng Group, Feng Yuan.

You had to know, something like sitting and waiting for death had never been Gu Zecheng's style.

Previous | Next

Referring to - 12

Chapter 12

Gu Zecheng, staring at the mobile phone presented in front of him, was just about to speak when his own mobile phone made a notification sound. He lowered his head, glanced at the screen, and replied to the message expressionlessly before looking back at Lin Zixi.

"What if I get it?" He reached out to take Lin Zixi's phone and asked while pressing the card drawing interface.

"I’ll follow your surname!" Young actor Lin replied with an expression like it had cost him so much, as if the man beside him was not his own dad.

Although Dad Gu was still kept in the dark, he obviously felt that this stake was nothing good, so he sneered and said, "You’ve become Gu Zeyi, and you still want to be Gu Zixi?"

It was indeed Gu Zixi, aka young actor Lin who spread his hands, "What do you want then?"

Gu Zecheng actually didn’t really want anything. The only thing he needed Lin Zixi to do was already written in the contract and signed by the two of them, but surprisingly, he was still a bit unwilling to let Lin Zixi forget about it. In the end, he pressed Ten Draws and said, "Write it down first, and we’ll talk about it later."

"Then you have to get it first before…. Oh my fucking god! " Lin Zixi barely spoke half of his provocative words, and he could not help but cry out after seeing the result of Gu Zecheng's card drawing this time. If it was not for the seat belt, he would probably jump up from the car seat.

Yes, that’s right, Gu Zecheng really couldn’t draw another purple this time. However, he drew an orange card.

The orange card with very powerful fighting strength and very cheating drop rate.

Lin Zixi reached out to get his mobile phone back and take a good look at this treasure card drawn by his dad’s golden hand. Gu Zecheng, however, avoided his reach and did not return the mobile phone to him. Instead, he did "Ten Draws" four times in a row.

Thus, in just a few minutes, young actor Lin had leaped from a poverty-stricken household with just a few purple cards to a big nouveau riche who had collected the entire seven orange cards in the mobile game.

Dad Gu stuffed the phone back to the dumbstruck Lin Zixi and asked with a smile, "Who is unlucky?"

"You...you..." Seeing that his own dad, who had passed on the Mercury retrograde to himself, actually turned his luck around, young actor Lin was stunned for quite a while, but suddenly his inspiration flashed, "You cheated! It’s definitely because the operator has increased my account’s drop rate!"

Gu Zecheng made a ‘please’ gesture, "Then you try it."

Of course Lin Zixi wanted to enjoy the feeling of going through the back door himself. He wiggled his fingers, took a deep breath, and pressed the Ten Draws button accurately.

Then, seven green cards and three blue cards were drawn out.

The contrast was too cruel, and young actor Lin was dazed all at once. He drew three more times mechanically, and, not to mention an orange card, he could not even catch a glimpse of a purple card.

Gu Zecheng used the file in his hand to tap Lin Zixi’s head lightly and asked again with something like a smile yet not a smile, "Who is unlucky?"

Lin Zixi racked his brains and refused to understand how his dad could really leave him alone to steal across the border from Africa to Europe and change his Mercury retrograde fate without saying a word, while he could only grit his teeth and admit, "It’s me...."

Young actor Lin was able to earn his living in the entertainment circle just by relying on how good-looking he was, which meant that his appearance was naturally top-notch and better than his peers. Now that he was showing an unreconciled as well as a bit aggrieved appearance, under the dim car lights, he really looked lovable and seductive.

Gu Zecheng could not help but rubbed Lin Zixi's head, but in the end, he still didn't tell him the content of the text message he had received before out of spite.

"You already have all the orange cards, so you can play well now. Anyway, your acting skills are so bad it’ll harm the audience watching your dramas. It’s enough to use it just to deal with the old lady." He turned his attention back to work again after speaking.

However, Big Boss Gu never expected that after two hours, Lin-the disgrace of CFA and the currently popular young actor-Zixi's terrible acting skills would also harm him.

The so-called harm did not mean that Lin Zixi made a mistake in playing the role of his little uncle—Gu Zecheng actually would prefer that. Instead, after dinner, Grandma Song, holding the remote control, turned on the TV and selected D Satellite TV under young actor Lin’s slightly alarmed eyes.

The current time was 7:58 pm, and only 2 minutes were left before the start of the Golden Theater of D Satellite TV. And what was scheduled by D Satellite TV to replace the urban drama that had just finished airing yesterday was the popular fantasy big IP drama Po Tian Ji, produced by Stars Entertainment, starring Lin Zixi, and completed at the end of last year.

Unlike The Legend of Concubine Ling, which completely lacked sincerity except for the Photoshop master who was in charge of the film stills, Po Tian Ji, as a key project of Stars Entertainment that had been promoted for a whole year, was still very diligent in regard to costumes and stage props, lighting and sound effects, martial arts design, post-production special effects, etc. Even the supporting roles and extras of this TV series had used many veteran actors.

However, this also brought out how much young actor Lin, the starring male lead of this drama adaptation of a stallion novel, had lowered the average acting value of the drama.

Gu Zecheng could not remember how many years he had not watched a TV series, but he still obediently let the old lady pull him to sit on the sofa. Because he lowered his head to reply to the text messages, he missed the important information on the opening titles. So when he watched the first twenty minutes of the first episode, he simply thought that his mom just wanted to enjoy the long-lost family pleasure of ‘watching TV together with the whole family’.

However, in the twenty-first minute, the male lead who was lucky enough to escape the disaster—the extermination of his entire family—appeared on the scene.

"Father! Mother..." Along with this heart-piercing cry was young actor Lin's very handsome but also very wooden face, and Dad Gu finally realized that the old lady was actually trying to drag the whole family to enjoy the drama performed by her ‘little son’.

Although Gu Zecheng already knew that Lin Zixi's acting skills were not good, it was also information obtained from the investigation result. Now that he was directly facing this scene, which made him instantly transported out of the play, on the 65-inch 4K HD TV screen, he just wanted to ask how the hell did some people graduate from the Central Film Academy?

Dad Gu twisted his eyebrows and looked towards Lin Zixi, who was sitting between him and his mother. Although the person being watched tried hard to keep his face calm, the blush on his face had long betrayed him.

When the male lead in the drama cried bitterly while holding the corpse of his baby sister and vowed to find the real murderer and take revenge, young actor Lin's ears already turned deep red.

Although Lin Zixi had no ambition, he still had some self-knowledge, so he seldom watched his own dramas except for watching the director's replay on the set.

And now he was not only watching how he was hanged and beaten by the previous generation of actors, but he was also watching it with his own dad and grandma. This feeling was no better than jail time.

Lin Zixi sat straight as if sitting on pins and needles for ten minutes until the scene finally changed, and the male lead exited. Only then did he dare to sneak a look at his left and right side to see whether the two people beside him were as extremely embarrassed by his acting skills as he was.

Then he saw his grandma's ‘my son was really great’ proud smile and his dad's ‘how could you be popular’ doubtful expression.

At this moment, Grandma Song wiped the corners of her eyes with her handkerchief and said, "Ze Yi acted so well, ah. I cried watching it."

"...Yeah, Xiao Yi's acting skills are really... impressive." After three seconds of awkward silence, Gu Zecheng, burying his conscience, still chose to say that word in the end.

"Then Zecheng, you’ll watch Po Tian Ji with me in the future." The old lady spoke while grabbing Lin Zixi's hand and saying to him, "And those TV series you’ve played, your brother and I must definitely catch up on them."

Young actor Lin, who had never caught up on those TV series himself and did not want his dad to catch up on them, turned his head stiffly to look at the expression on Gu Zecheng’s face and finally came to a conclusion—his gold master daddy must have been blaming himself very much for finding a ‘younger brother’ like him.

Previous | Next 

Referring to - 11

Chapter 11

Lin Zixi felt a bit ill at ease all day long because he had to go to Gu’s house again to play the role of Gu Zeyi. Fortunately, the director did not pin his hopes on the acting skills of these leading actors. Lin Zixi only got NG twice and then ended the whole day of filming.

The B group of The Legend of Concubine Ling still had to do nighttime filming, but there was no young actor Lin's scene in it. So he said goodbye to the cast and crew after removing his makeup and took his assistant back to the hotel.

Once he and his assistant, Xiao Zhang, went back to their respective rooms, he quickly packed up his stuff and put them in his backpack. Then he put on a hoodie paired with slacks and went to the hotel’s underground garage. The driver sent by Gu Zecheng was already waiting there.

Lin Zixi said hello to Wang Yong, the one who had helped him drive his car home before, and went to open the door of the right back seat. As a result, he found that Party A Daddy was already sitting in this unspoken ‘leader’ seat. 

Gu Zecheng turned his gaze from the file in his hand to him for a second. Then he looked at the watch on his wrist, "You’re ten minutes late."

"I was filming the scene of injuries on the battlefield today, so removing the makeup was a little troublesome." Lin Zixi dutifully closed the door on Dad Gu's side after he finished speaking, went back to open the door on the other side, and took a seat in the car.

Gu Zecheng no longer struggled with the issue of Lin Zixi being late and began looking through the file in his hand again after ordering Wang Yong to drive.

Young actor Lin originally thought that his dad was just sending a driver to pick him up. Unexpectedly, the other person actually came. The two of them would have to sit side by side for more than two hours in the car, and he could not help but feel a little reserved at first.

He spent almost half an hour in the car expressionless, watching the other two people in the car driving and handling official business respectively. He eventually couldn’t stand staying idle and took out his mobile phone.

Lin Zixi's mobile phone was not on silent mode, so when he opened the mobile game, the background sound effects of the game were particularly obvious in the silent car.

Dad Gu turned his head and gave him a glance as the corner of his eyes swept across the brightly colored game interface on the phone screen. He looked back at his file without saying anything, but his brows clearly wrinkled.

Young actor Lin hurriedly turned the mobile phone to silent mode. After a few furtive glances at the man beside him and finding that the other party seemed to not look at him anymore, he relaxed and played his game.

Lin Zixi did a few daily tasks, played a copy, and went to the main storyline task after he rose to A level. He did not know if it was because he had accidentally disintegrated a purple card when talking to Chen Yunyun the day before, but he played the storyline task three times and failed them all.

Young actor Lin struggled for a while and eventually bowed his head to the operator. He charged 10,000 gems to his account and went to draw cards.

Facts proved that today was also the day of inherited Mercury retrograde. Lin Zixi lost more than half of the newly recharged gems and did not get a single useful card.

He sighed angrily and rotated his sore neck only to find that Gu Zecheng, who was sitting next to him, had already stopped working. It was unknown how long he had been watching since turning his head to watch him draw cards. After being aware of Lin Zixi's gaze, he looked away as if nothing had happened.

A business tycoon whose face in the game was so dark he could go to Africa to be a tribal chief watched another African tribal chief draw cards with relish. Then he was caught and showed his true nature. This scene was a bit embarrassing.

However, young actor Lin now already had a little understanding of his dad's unreasonable character of ‘switching over to boss mode in one second, embarrassment coming and going without a trace".

Sure enough, Gu Zecheng did not say any excuses or cover-ups and started lecturing directly, "Do you only play games that have no technical content and rely solely on luck, wasting time and money?"

Party A Daddy’s angle when lecturing people was rather peculiar, and Lin Zixi could not help but ask, “Is there any game that doesn’t rely on luck and doesn’t waste time and money?”

Dad Gu, who did not even know what ‘Mercury retrograde’ was a few days ago, could actually name two or three games now. Moreover, they were all first class e-sport games with high-end vibes that had recently been supported by the country vigorously.

After nominating these competitive games, Gu Zecheng continued to say, "When other people play a game, even if they can't participate in international competitions to win glory for the country, they can at least do live streaming business. When you play a game, you just keep spending money to draw cards…."

Speaking of this, Dad Gu paused for a while before adding another shot, "And still fail to draw any good cards."

Lin Zixi inexplicably felt that his dad’s words were a bit familiar, but he did not think much about it and just made a few corrections, “Those players who can participate in competitions and place in the ranking or earn money from live streaming are only a small minority. They must have talent and good luck as well as be willing to spend time training. Among millions of domestic players, there’re not many who can be famous. Most people are just wasting time and money, ah."

He continued before Gu Zecheng started talking, "Moreover, every player is a drag if their luck isn’t good. If I play a mobile game, at most it’s only me who’s unhappy. If I’m to be a drag on my teammates in a competitive game, it’s my whole family who’s going to be scolded."

Gu Zecheng disagreed and said, "So what if your skills aren’t good? You’re not going to count playing games as your main business. Aren’t there those who’re surnamed Qin and Wang in your circle who regained their popularity through game live streaming? You have to spend money to be able to play this game, but can it help your career somewhat?"

Hearing this, Lin Zixi could not help but try to defend himself, "There’re a lot of stars who play games, but not all of them are playing e-sports. Those who do live streaming are also not many nowadays…. Qiu Lianyi is recognized as the number one young actor in the circle, yet he plays the children's dress-up game, The Little Flower Monster!"

Dad Gu closed the file in his hand and turned his head to look at him, "Why do you have no motivation at all and only compare everything with the worse instead of the better?!"

Young actor Lin had no ambitions for his career at all. If he did 100 consecutive draws in a live streaming and failed to come up with a purple, maybe he could still market himself as ‘The Number One African Tribal Chief’ and gather a big wave of fans.

But now, he suddenly didn't want to argue with Gu Zecheng anymore because he realized why he felt that his conversation with his dad just now was a bit familiar.

Damn, wasn’t this just like the game version of when you were a child, your parents asked why you could only score 80 while pointing to the child who had scored 100 in the class, and you explained that your desk-mate barely passed the exam to defend yourself, so your parents, feeling resentful towards you for failing to meet their expectations and impatient to see your improvement, scolded you for being unpromising and then gave you a good beating?!

When Lin Zixi was a child, his mom had always pursued ‘all-round education’ and rarely criticized him for his academic achievement. Things like ‘children of other people's families’ had always been very far from him. Who knew that when he grew up and became a quite popular star, his Party A Daddy, who came back to ‘recognize a relative’ through a freak combination of factors, actually pursued this kind of education method of expecting his child to succeed in life.

While sighing ruefully in his heart that he would probably have run away from home a hundred times if he had really grown up with his dad, he looked all over the place, wanting to divert Gu Zecheng's attention and end this topic.

Then he saw the words on the file that Dad Gu had just closed—XX Live Streaming Platform Project Cooperation Plan—and he at once guessed that Gu Zecheng had learned that nonsense from this.

Lin Zixi asked in a little surprise, "I thought your group’s doing heavy industry and electrical appliances. I didn't expect that you’d also be interested in this kind of industry that’s supported by hot money like e-sports and live streaming?"

Gu Zecheng also looked at the file in his hand, "I entrusted a friend to greet the operator of your mobile game, and he gave me this today."

Lin Zixi realized in a flash that his dad’s friend probably thought that since Big Boss Gu had to entrust someone to handle things, it was definitely not as simple as just a few orange cards. After a few days of pondering, he might have figured out that the ‘answer’ was ‘President Gu was interested in game related industries’. So he was especially accommodating, thinking of leaning against a big tree to make a fortune.

Who knew that Gu Zecheng really only wanted to help Lin Zixi with a few orange cards through the back door.

Thinking that the orange card was already on the way, young actor Lin could not stop himself from grinning from ear to ear. He quickly turned to his dad radiantly and promised, "If you really open a live streaming platform, I can do live streams and advertise for you for free. I won’t live stream e-sports, but drawing cards is okay."

Dad Gu glanced at him and then at his mobile phone and at him again, and finally said unhesitatingly, "No, I'm afraid of becoming unlucky."

….

…………

"...If you’re not unlucky, you can draw another purple then!" Lin Zixi gritted his teeth and spoke while handing his phone to Gu Zecheng.

Previous | Next

Referring to - 10

Chapter 10

It was said that the beginning of everything was difficult, so except for the first kissing scene with a bit more NGs, the next few scenes were relatively smooth. Starlet Wei's average number of NGs per scene was controlled at 5 or less, and when the last (fake) kissing scene was shot, it was done in just one take.

The filming of the drama actually went without a hitch, but things behind the drama were a little annoying.

Of course, this did not mean that anyone dared to bother him on the set. The Legend of Concubine Ling was a drama invested by Stars Entertainment. The company’s first brother was naturally the primary target of their care, but it was certainly different when he was out of the crew and on the Internet—regarding the male lead Lin Zixi and the female lead Wei Chenchen, who was the top billing in this drama after all? Was Sun Yuwen the second male or the other half of the double male leads along with Lin Zixi? This TV series had not finished filming, and the fanwar between the three fanclubs had become a world war.

When Lin Zixi, who had finished a day of filming, heard Chen Yunyun mention this matter after dinner, he was playing a mobile game, and he got distracted. With a slip of the hand, he disintegrated the purple card drawn in the presence of Gu Zecheng a few days ago.     

There were only a few purple cards originally, and now one of them was accidentally lost. He raised his head and asked bitterly and hatefully, "Isn't the position of the male lead, supporting male, etc. written in the contract?"

Chen Yunyun, seeing his startled expression, thought that he was worried about his status as the male lead, so she immediately comforted him, "In recent years, people's hearts have become fickle and impatient. Don’t mention teams who’ve exploited fans to boost interest, there’re even actors who’ve used their illnesses as an excuse to stop acting to elevate their position. But you don't need to worry. You’re pushed to pick up Director Wu's The Legend of Concubine Ling in order to support those incompetent actors. If the company dares to be unclear and compromise on this matter, I'll take you to cancel your contract and change the company to Wanhua."

Young actor Lin was actually not too obsessed with the order of billing and so on. You fought about top billing or second billing, male lead or double male leads resoundingly, but in the eyes of the majority of the audience who were not in the circle, weren’t the actors still divided into the male lead, female lead, first male, and second male—people nowadays skipped the opening titles and end credits when watching TV series; who the heck still paid attention to which name appeared first on the cast list?!

But now that his own agent seemed so determined, he naturally couldn't pour cold water on her and say that he did not mind at all. So he had to change the subject, "You’re coming here today not just for the order of billing, aren’t you?"

"Of course not." Chen Yunyun suddenly curbed her smile, sat upright, and, staring at him, said, "I'm here for Gu Zecheng."

"I thought you’d kill to come over and ask me the next day." Lin Zixi replied. He was caught by Cheng Fei and Assistant Zhang on the day he started his job. He had expected that Chen Yunyun would pay attention to this matter, but he did not expect that the other party could actually stay calm and wait for five or six days before coming over.

"I actually wanted to." Chen Yunyun put on a fake smile, "But Big Boss Gu asked his legal team to send a lawyer's letter to the company, and I was forced by President Xu and the others to send an apology letter in the past few days. These people’s courage and vision are just that small. A mere bullshit, and they’d be scared to death."

Agent Chen had been in the business for ten years, and it was only after Stars Entertainment had spent a lot of money and even paid some shares did they manage to poach her. In the past year or two, the financing of the company had added in new shareholders, and the business concept became more and more inconsistent. Occasionally, she would also complain a few words in front of Lin Zixi.

Young actor Lin, who became his own dad's younger brother because of the ‘look alike’ hot search ‘bullshit’, gave her a look, "So you came to ask me today...?"

"Did you hook up with Gu Zecheng?" Chen Yunyun got straight to the point.

Lin Zixi almost choked on his own saliva, "I thought you’d guess that I'm his relative."

Chen Yunyun chuckled "hehe" and said, "I knew your family very well back then. Even if you’re a distant cousin, it’s not to the Gu family. Besides, if the two of you’re really blood related, could Gu Zecheng be so ashamed that he’d send a lawyer's letter just because of a hot search?!"

Young actor Lin, who had a direct blood relationship with Dad Gu, bottled up his conscience and gave her a thumbs up. "The name of Detective Chen Yunyun isn’t in vain."

“Save it!" Chen Yunyun looked at Lin Zixi angrily, "I’ve told you from the moment I signed you that you can become popular sooner or later with your aptitude. Hyping CPs for marketing as usual is already enough. It’s absolutely unnecessary for you to use any more crooked methods. Do you dislike that your current pay for TV series is too low, your fame isn’t big enough, your popularity isn’t good enough for your acting skills, or what? Why do you have to learn from Qiu Lianyi who relies on a gold master to reach the top?!"

After hearing this, young actor Lin was shocked, "Fuck! Qiu Lianyi actually has a gold master?!"

"You don't know that Feng Yuan’s Fengcheng Movies and Television was opened to support him?!" Chen Yunyun was astonished by the degree of Lin Zixi’s ignorance.

Lin Zixi thought about the sturdiness of his business CP partner and felt that the credibility of this rumor was basically zero. "But as soon as Fengcheng Movies and Television was established, many star studios joined. Are you sure?"

"Believe it or not…. Don't change the subject!" Chen Yunyun aimed the subject at young actor Lin again, "What the hell is going on with you and Gu Zecheng? What conditions did he offer that could make you take the plunge?"

"I did hook up with Gu Zecheng, but it’s not really like what you think." Lin Zixi pointed his finger to the sky and made a solemn vow, "I swear to God, even if the two of us become father and son, it’s impossible for us to become lovers!"

As soon as his voice fell, lightning flashed extremely close to the French window of the hotel suite. Then with the rolls of thunder, rain poured down from the sky.    

Chen Yunyun, seeing the downpour outside the window, gave Lin Zixi, who was quivering in horror, another look and sneered, "It's not a lover. So President Gu came to the hotel very late at night to find you because he wanted you to be his brother?"

The contract between him and Dad Gu had a non-disclosure agreement, which meant that no leak was allowed. He rarely made an oath, yet God still didn’t give him some face. Young actor Lin was also very powerless, ah.     

He glanced at his agent who had inadvertently found out the truth and said helplessly, "If I really had an affair with Gu Zecheng, then my resources would stop soaring…. You'll know after a long time."

Chen Yunyun dropped her previous sharp expression, sighed, and said in a low mood, "There’re many big names in this circle who rely on selling their bodies, and there’s no lack of male and male or female and female. I can't control your private life, but I don't want you to be one of them."

Lin Zixi also knew that she cared about himself, so he wanted to explain a few more words to make her feel relieved. His agent, however, had switched to a professional mode in a second and began to explain his work for the next month.

Young actor Lin looked at his daily schedule. In addition to continuing to shoot The Legend of Concubine Ling, there were also magazine interviews and cover shoots, participation in entertainment program recordings, and two activities for endorsement of sponsor platforms. He only had the day after tomorrow to rest this month.

Being an actor looked bright and beautiful on the surface, but it was common to be very busy and work around the clock. He could still rest for a day anyway, so he had nothing to complain about.

As a result, after seeing Chen Yunyun off and receiving a message from Gu Zecheng, young actor Lin immediately regretted it.

"My mother misses you. Tomorrow I'll ask the driver to pick you up after work. You’re going to spend the night this time, so remember to bring a change of clothes."

….

……..

Playing the role of the little uncle was too tiring, could he apply for more than one rest day?!

Previous | Next

Referring to - 9

Chapter 9

Lin Zixi held the mobile phone tightly, watching Gu Zecheng choke.

The exchange rate of gems and real currency in this mobile game he played was 5 to 1, which was equivalent to his dad spending 2,000 to draw a (disintegrated) purple card.

Young actor Lin was more or less one of the first-line stars in the new generation of stars. Naturally, he would not care about this bit of money. What he felt distressed about was that after going through this forced labor, his Mercury retrograde was estimated to be impossible to change for the better.

And Gu Zecheng, who received his disappointed gaze, was also very depressed.

Dad Gu had always been envied and hated all his life as a winner with a smooth life. With his lucky aura, he never lost when he was fighting. Otherwise, he would not have been provoked by his own temper to do a hundred consecutive draws until the mobile phone was snatched, which finally made him regain his sanity.

Looking at the dejected expression, which was completely different from the previous practically-glowing-with-ardent-hope-and-expectation one, on the face of the person beside him, Gu Zecheng felt a momentary sense of inexplicable confusion in his heart.

"Cough." He coughed dryly and tried his best to make up for it, saying, "How much money I spent just now, I’ll double it for you."

"It's not about the money..." Lin Zixi, who was still a little stupid from the blow, shook his head and said listlessly, "Xuan can’t save an African, and krypton can’t change his life, ah!"

Of course Dad Gu could not understand this kind of slang in the game circle, "What?"

Lin Zixi sighed, "Even if you give me 100,000 gems, what comes out is probably waste cards, which are still waste cards."

All the cards that came out of the 10,000 gems spent just now were all waste cards. Gu Zecheng could not help but cough dryly again, trying to get back some face for himself. "At least… I didn’t get the white ones.”

    

"In any case, recharging to draw cards is also spending money. No matter how shady the game party is, they must arrange a green card at a minimum, ah." Young actor Lin simply hit the nail on the head.

Although Big Boss Gu had not set foot in the game industry, there would inevitably be a connecting point between their business concept. Hearing Lin Zixi say this, he had some doubts, "Since the game can control the result of the card draw, how can they design the appearing probability of the purple card to be so low? Aren’t they worried that consumers won’t be willing to stick to their game? Are you gamers more loyal, or are the purple and orange cards considered limited editions and have additional conditions to obtain them?”

"Neither..." Lin Zixi gave his unrecognized dad a careful glance and said very firmly, "My problem’s simply a bad bloodline."

Lin Zixi's words had a double meaning. Gu Zecheng obviously didn't understand the connotation at all, but he could see the slight resentment in young actor Lin's peach blossom eyes.

Although Gu Zecheng had an extremely bad impression of Lin Zixi because of the ‘look alike’ touching porcelain and a pile of nuisances afterwards, when he was stared at by the beautiful eyes that made countless fans and passers-by lick the screen, he actually had some indescribable feelings of guilt and distress.

Dad Gu thought about it and said, "Which company is operating your game? I'll find someone to contact them, so they can give you a few orange cards behind closed doors? But..."

"Dad!" Lin Zixi had spent tens of thousands for dozens of Ten Draws in this lousy mobile game, and there were not even a few purple cards. Now, seeing that there were actually still ‘some’ orange cards within sight, he could not stop himself from shouting the word from the bottom of his heart even before Gu Zecheng finished speaking.

Gu Zecheng originally wanted to continue to ask Lin Zixi if anyone knew that this game ID belonged to him. As a result, he was stunned by this affectionate call of dad.

Lin Zixi realized his mistake as soon as he blurted the word, but fortunately, people like Dad Gu probably didn’t hang around the Internet very much, so he could explain it away, "It's quite popular to call Dad now…. The game operator is the official father, and the shopping website is the website father. Even I have a group of daughter fans. This is respect and love…. You don't have a Weibo; if you do, I bet the ones who comment there are all sons and daughters."

"Children nowadays…. Why are they so casual?!" Dad Gu frowned and, suffering from his old disease, was about to start lecturing people again, "I don't care about others, but you can't shoot your mouth off like them. Especially in front of my mother. If you dare to inconsiderately call like that, let's see how I'll deal with you."

Young actor Lin took a deep breath, holding back the smile he almost showed, and replied very sincerely, "How can I do it, ah. I promise I’ll behave myself and call you 'brother'!"

It was said that the four unshakable things in life were "crossing the window together, carrying guns together, visiting prostitutes together, and dividing the spoils". Of course, Lin Zixi could not rush Gu Zecheng into doing these things together, but it seemed that after they had drawn cards together, the tense atmosphere between the two of them somehow eased a little.

Lin Zixi pondered whether this was the revolutionary friendship between the African tribal chiefs while swiftly sending the name of this mobile game he played, the operator company, and his account ID to Gu Zecheng's WeChat.

On average, he drew a purple card himself every 100 times and still got a duplicate card frequently. If he wanted orange cards with a lower drop rate, he had to rely on his Party A-Gold Master-Dad.

Even if he dismissed other unmentioned factors, just for this bit of reliance, he had to hug Gu Zecheng's thick and solid golden thighs tightly during the period when he pretended to be Gu Zeyi according to the contract.

When hugging thighs, it was important to start from caring about trivial things. You needed to make people feel the warmth that came from good nurture and education.

"It’ll take more than an hour from here to your company. Do you want to find someone to drive you tomorrow morning?" Lin Zixi asked.

"I've already made arrangements." Gu Zecheng nodded. He did not elaborate and instead urged, "If the old lady wants to see you again, I’ll inform you to go to my house. But next time you definitely must’ve memorized the information about my younger brother. Don't make mistakes again."

Thinking of Gu Zeyi's life on dozens of pages in the contract, Lin Zixi felt a headache. But in order to make a good impression in front of his dad, he had to grit his teeth and nod while showing a confident expression on his face, "Don't worry, I’ll do my best to know it by heart." 

Dad Gu smiled and soon went back to his own suite without saying anything more.

Young actor Lin looked at the time; it was past zero now. He considered whether to take a look at his little uncle's information first but eventually decided to give up the treatment and just lie down and sleep.

But at this moment, his mobile phone rang, and there was a new WeChat message.

It was Master Qiu's reply that was two days late, "There’re two trained people in the venue looking at you with abnormal expressions, but I think you should be able to deal with them."

Soon Qiu Lianyi sent another message: "Text me back if you haven’t died yet."

Lin Zixi directly sent a "hehe" emoji.

"It’s good if you’re still alive." Qiu Lianyi started to pretend to be dead after replying with this. No matter what Lin Zixi said again, he did not respond.

Young actor Lin even sent seven or eight emojis in succession without getting a response. In the end, he felt bored himself, so he simply took a shower and went to sleep.

The next day, the crew of The Legend of Concubine Ling was going to focus on shooting the kissing scene. Afraid of making the actors and actresses embarrassed, the director had cleared the set early. Besides the necessary cast and crew members, there was only the agent of Wei Chenchen, the one who played the lead female.

Wei Chenchen had been taking the fresh and pure starlet route. Speaking of which, this scene was still her first kiss on the screen.

In order to take care of her feelings, Lin Zixi even asked his assistant, Xiao Zhang, to wait outside the venue. Including the director, assistant director, producer, plus camera, lighting, etc.—the recording team was omitted because it was all dubbing in the later stage—there were only ten people in total on set.

However, Wei Chenchen was so nervous that she had a dozen or more NGs and failed to shoot the first kissing scene. In the end, the director, who was at his wit’s end, temporarily decided to shoot a fake kissing scene by changing the camera angle. Only then did the scene finally pass.

Starlet Wei's attitude was surprisingly very good. After the shooting was done, she apologized to Lin Zixi, the director, and the producer again and again.

Lin Zixi hurriedly comforted her, "I was also nervous about shooting the kissing scene. Luckily, it's you who’re the first to NG, or else I must’ve made a mistake…. If it spread out, it’d be me deliberately taking advantage of you. Then people would form a group to come to my Weibo to scold me."

Wei Chenchen's eyes suddenly widened, and she blurted out, "Haven’t you already...cough... shot a lot of kissing scenes?" 

No matter how many kissing scenes young actor Lin had shot, his real first kiss had not been given out yet.

And Lin Zixi understood the words in the middle that Wei Chenchen had swallowed back.

Probably because of his good looks and peach blossom eyes, the biggest misunderstanding of him in the entire entertainment circle was that ‘this handsome brother is definitely a player’. Although Stars Entertainment had spared no effort in building young actor Lin's ‘pure, innocent, and loyal’ persona, it was obvious that no one outside the fan circle ate this set.

Losing fans was generally the reason why other agents dissuaded their artists from being in a relationship or making said relationship public. Chen Yunyun, however, said this directly, "If you date someone in the circle and break up, there’s no need for the other party to use ruthless marketing. Just put out one or two rumors, and you’ll have to carry the title of 'scumbag' for the rest of your life."

In fact, there was no need for Chen Yunyun's warning. Lin Zixi was not interested in the female stars in the circle, or, to be precise, in any woman.

Well, a certain popular young actor already realized that he was actually gay since high school. If this incident broke out, it was estimated that it would make headlines for three days without having to pay for it out of his own pocket.

However, from childhood until adulthood, young actor Lin had rarely been attracted to any man, and he had nothing to do with the gay circle. When watching movies, he usually paid special attention to downloading them from websites that did not require registration and delete them afterwards, so he was not worried that this thing would be dug up by the paparazzi.

However, uncommon sexual orientation would be avoided as taboo by mainstream society after all. Although there were many homosexuals and bisexuals in the entertainment circle, there would always be a lot of cheating and few coming out.

So Lin Zixi actually looked very favorably on his ‘absolutely fickle’ quasi-scumbag design.

Now that Wei Chenchen was asking such a question, he immediately smiled and said, "Isn't it because my actress partner is too pretty? So I'm still nervous even though I've shot many kissing scenes in the past, ah."

Starlet Wei blushed this time, and her eyes brightened. It was a sharp contrast to the suddenly gloomy face of the agent behind her.

Thus, young actor Lin, who was afraid that he would really provoke people and did not want to be a thorn in their side, immediately fled to the director's side to watch the replay of the scene shot just now.

TL’s note: 

Xuan can’t save an African, and krypton can’t change his life (玄不救非，氪不改命) means that metaphysics can’t save unlucky players, and charging money to the game can’t change their fates. It’s explained more clearly here.

Africans refer to unlucky players, while Europeans refer to lucky players. 

Previous | Next

Referring to - 8

Chapter 8

Whether it was being caught meeting an actress at night by his own dad or being seen getting a very late night visit by a wealthy businessman daddy whom had not yet been acknowledged, the current situation was quite embarrassing. It was the kind of situation where every extended minute produced ten-thousand-word gossip and headlines that entertainment news fought for. 

Seeing that the situation could no longer be held, Lin Zixi quickly thought of the most plausible explanation at the rate of one per second and chose one.

However, before he even started talking, Gu Zecheng spoke to the two people, Cheng and Zhang, in a polite but final tone, "I have something to ask Lin Zixi. Please leave first."

No explanation at all, just directly clear the place; Party A Daddy was so ruthless and cool. However, thinking that the follow-up explanation job would fall on him according to the contract, Party B Son wanted to buy a plane ticket now.

Big Boss Gu opened his mouth, and Starlet Cheng tactfully made an appointment with Lin Zixi to go to the filming set half an hour early the next day and then left after saying goodbye. Assistant Zhang also left the things in his hand on the coffee table and immediately walked after her.

However, Gu Zecheng opened his mouth again when they were about to reach the door, "I personally value privacy, don't like my private life to be paid too much attention to, and abhor the so-called 'expose' even more. I hope that the two of you will keep my itinerary tonight confidential, so as to avoid trouble for everyone in the future."

    

Hearing what he said, Cheng Fei and Xiao Zhang naturally promised repeatedly that they would keep it confidential and not spread it out. Their attitudes were as cooperative as required.

But once the two of them walked out of the room and the door was closed, Lin Zixi sneered and said to his dad, "Gossip in the entertainment circle isn’t a commercial secret. Who will speak to you about professional ethics and keeping secrets, ah. I bet you that the first thing the two of them will do next is definitely to call her own agent as well as my agent."

    

"I know..." Gu Zecheng replied without any surprise. But he had only said half the words before being interrupted by the WeChat ringtone.

Without a doubt, a person who could make a video call to President Gu at this point had to be Grandma Song, who was waiting to check the ‘brothers’ of the Gu family.

"Zecheng, Zeyi, you two haven’t quarreled, have you?" The old woman made a video call with the assistance of Sister Wang. After confirming that they had arrived at the hotel, the next sentence was to ask this.

During the previous phone call, Lin Zixi was a little surprised at why his grandma cared about whether or not his two ‘sons’ had quarreled, but now he fully understood—with his dad's stinky character of loving to lecture others, and harshly at that, if his uncle was really an incompetent playboy, the two brothers probably fought a lot back then.

And as the real grandson pretending to be his uncle, it was naturally impossible for him to be as cocky as the real brother and quarrel with his daddy.

Therefore, the relationship between him and Gu Zecheng was naturally…. "No, everything my brother said is right. How can I quarrel with him, ah." Young actor Lin replied.

Grandma Song did not hear the outlandish tone in his words. Instead, she was especially moved that her little son had finally grown up and matured, and her eyes were wet with emotion for a long time. She told Lin Zixi repeatedly to take care of his body no matter how busy he was filming until Gu Zecheng urged her that it was very late and she should quickly go to rest. Only then did she reluctantly hang up the video.

The time Lin Zixi spent with his dad was short. He could not say anything about other things, but he already knew one thing—one of the strong points of Dad Gu as a person who did big things was that his thinking was particularly clear. This focus was reflected in the way Gu Zecheng could still remember what he was scolding himself before even if he had been interrupted by Grandma’s phone call and video for half an hour.

So after the video with the old lady ended, Party A Daddy switched back to the previous lecturing mode in a second.

"I’ll let the public relations and legal team keep an eye on this matter." Unlike when talking with Cheng and Zhang, in which Gu Zecheng was still amiable and approachable although with the imposing manner of a superior, he showed his displeasure in full light when facing young actor Lin. "Have you carefully read the contract I asked you to sign? One thing after another happened in less than two days. Do you really think I can't teach you a lesson?!"

Dad Gu was irritated, and his son was still depressed by the truth that came out just now.

"I've sent you a text message telling you not to come. It’s you yourself who didn't read it. Yet you blame me now?!" After being disliked all night, even a clay figurine had to be angry somewhat. Lin Zixi also couldn't bear it and complained back.

Gu Zecheng looked at his mobile phone subconsciously, and sure enough, there was a clear and direct reminder from young actor Lin in the unread text message.

He had seldom been beaten in the face and put on the spot like this in the past few years, but Party A Daddy was Party A Daddy. After being embarrassed for a while, he could immediately attribute the problem to Party B. "Who made you have a tryst with an actress in the middle of the night? It's not that you didn't know that I'd come over right away."

"How did Cheng Fei come to have a tryst with me, ah?" Hearing him say that, Lin Zixi laughed, "She probably saw the two of us by accident in the parking lot and had the intention to be my little...cough...sister-in-law. So she specially came to wait for you. She’s obviously more enthusiastic to you than to me."

"What a hideous mess." Dad Gu, who never had anything to do with the entertainment circle except for the one-sided hype of romance before, had frowned more today than he did in the previous year. He massaged his forehead to relieve the headache, "If she really has this intention, she probably won't spread the news about me coming to look for you indiscriminately…. And I'll find someone to knock some sense into your agent."

    

Lin Zixi had lost his temper just now, but he was actually delighted.

However, thinking about how Gu Zecheng, who was not yet an adult at that time, had been kept in the dark by his mom about having an illegitimate child and was now forced to have a ‘resurrected’ younger brother to comfort his grandma just because of a ‘look alike’ hot search…. Lin Zixi could not help feeling a little guilty and ashamed again.

The other party was his victim daddy as well as his Party A gold master. If it were not for Dad Gu always disliking him and now making him remake Filial Son and Filial Piety for him, he would not be at a loss.

Eh, only remembering the title of the movie almost forgot the content—this movie was about a filial son who was forced to give his superstitious mother a funeral while she was still alive, and he did a good job of it—it was picked since he could not think of anything else.

If a person felt ashamed, his aura would be weakened all of a sudden.

In addition, Gu Zecheng did not deride him anymore, so Lin Zixi could not help but take a step back and look for a way out of the embarrassing situation.

"It's me that has been Mercury/water retrograde for the past six months." He said a little embarrassedly, "It’s not limited to me always going wrong with you. When I was about to sign a contract with an advertisement and a TV series before, I could be cut off by someone giving a price that’s practically free. Even when playing a mobile game..."

"Water retrograde…. You’re thirsty and want to drink water, but you vomit when the water enters?" Dad Gu obviously did not know the new meaning of this traditional Chinese medicine term.

"No, no, no, it's Internet slang, saying people are unlucky." Lin Zixi explained. He took out his mobile phone, skillfully unlocked it, tapped to log in to a popular mobile game, switched to the card drawing interface, and tapped the single draw button. "For example, the cards in this game are divided into five levels from high to low: orange, purple, blue, green, and white. And I basically can only get…. Fuck!"

Looking at the phone screen where a purple card had just been drawn, young actor Lin rubbed his eyes and then turned his head to look expectantly at Party A Daddy beside him—a man who was able to fight in the competitive and risky business world and successfully become a domestic big boss, his luck would naturally not be bad.

Dad Gu originally disliked the young man’s shortcoming as well as fit of anger and wanted to teach his ‘younger brother’ not to speak profanity. As a result, he was shocked by the eyes full of admiration and longing and did not even shake off Lin Zixi’s grip on his hand.

"Excuse me, please do me a favor. Just tap the screen a few times, thank you, thank you." Lin Zixi said and took his dad's hand to press Ten Draws on the card drawing interface.

After a few gorgeous animated interludes, the game unsurprisingly gave nine green cards and one blue card.

…. Lin Zixi, who was convinced that he had just been blessed by the God of Wealth Daddy with the ability to get a purple in one hit, was a little stunned, but he still reluctantly used Gu Zecheng's finger to press Ten Draws again.

It was not bad this time. There were two blue cards, and the luck value was almost doubled, from 1 directly to 2 (the maximum value was 100).

The results of the two Ten Draws were not much better than when he drew it himself. Lin Zixi let go of his dad's hand while secretly sighing that being opportunistic was indeed unacceptable.

However, Gu Zecheng took his mobile phone away, held it in his hand, and, somewhat unconvinced, began to draw cards voluntarily.

Seven greens, three blues, nine greens, one blue, eight greens, two blues, nine greens….

Looking at over ten thousands of gems that he recharged with his own money and was now being squandered a thousand at a time by his own dad, young actor Lin felt that he had a stomach ache.

At this moment, the animated interlude representing the ten draws flashed once again, revealing the result of Gu Zecheng's current ten consecutive draws—

Six greens, three blues… one purple!

What kind of purple card was that?

It was a sparkling bright purple card, one in a hundred draws, and contained the mutual expectation of the Gu family’s father and son. It was exactly the same purple card that Lin Zixi had just gotten from the single draw!

This duplicate card was then automatically broken down into scattered fragments.

After his father stiffened for a moment, at the moment he was going to tap Ten Draws again, young actor Lin grabbed the phone back in one go and pressed the lock screen button.

….

……..

Lin Zixi was considered to have understood. In fact, he was not called Mercury retrograde, he was called inherited Mercury retrograde!

Translator’s note:

水逆 = Mercury retrograde = bad luck or unlucky (internet slang)

水逆 = water retrograde = a disease name (TCM term)

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Referring to - 7

Chapter 7

After hehe-ing at his father, Lin Zixi walked toward the elevator in the underground parking lot but then turned back.

"I almost forgot, the elevator in this hotel has access control. If you don't have the key card, you can't go to my floor, ah." He thought for a moment and then said a little embarrassedly, "Why don't I ask my assistant to come over and give his card to you?"

Gu Zecheng glanced at him like he was seeing an idiot, "Of course I’ll go to the front desk to open another room on the 18th floor. Do you think we’ll really sleep together at night?"

Lin Zixi turned around and left without saying anything further.

It was unknown whether his dad’s character was indeed like this or his dad just found him not pleasing to the eye because of the previous ‘look like’ matter that compared them to each other…. With such a method of disliking people, Gu Zecheng could become a business magnate instead of being betrayed and deserted; was it really not because all his subordinates were a group of masochists?!

Lin Zixi, having complained all the way back to the suite provided by the crew, took out a bottle of sparkling water from the refrigerator and drank a small half of the bottle in one breath to calm down. When he put the water back in the refrigerator, he heard someone ringing the doorbell.

It took only ten minutes for him to return to his room, and Gu Zecheng already came. Lin Zixi could not help but lament that the working efficiency of the service staff of this hotel was very high even in the middle of the night. Then he went straight to open the door.

As a result, standing outside the door was not the tall and straight figure of a man he had expected, but a beautiful sexy woman with a curvy body.

"Cheng Fei?" Young actor Lin frowned unobtrusively and asked politely, "Do you have anything to do with me?"

Both Cheng Fei and Lin Zixi belonged to Stars Entertainment, although she signed a contract two years earlier than him. However, unlike him who had always been smooth sailing for several years and became a currently popular young actor, she could barely be considered as a second-tier star so far. This time, she was arranged by the company to play the second female in The Legend of Concubine Ling. Buying a lot of press releases, hot searches, and so on was considered to be the company's intention to push her up again.

Lin Zixi and her had some friendship since they were with the same company, but they were far from being close enough to be able to have a chat in the middle of the night.

Therefore, Lin Zixi smiled courteously but did not mean to invite the other party into the room at all.

Cheng Fei raised the script in her hand, "We’ll have our first rivalry scene tomorrow. I’ve never played with you before, and I'm a little worried, so I want to read through the script with you in advance."

Hearing her say this, Lin Zixi inwardly wanted to "hehe" again.

Reading through the script, my ass!

In the entertainment circle, ‘reading through the script very late at night’ = ‘two people having an affair’. Even elementary school fans all knew this equation. Both of them had been in the circle for several years, yet she still used this ruse on him.

Lin Zixi was generally not interested in gossip or anything in the entertainment circle. He had heard some rumors about Cheng Fei, but he did not take note of them. One, he was not a director or producer, and two, he was not a big name who was able to pull strings to give people resources. He also didn’t know why the other party suddenly paid attention to himself.

Lin Zixi was a little annoyed in his heart, but he became all the more polite and good-natured on the surface. "It's almost 11 o'clock now, so it's a little too late to read through the script. Otherwise, let's go to the set earlier tomorrow morning to prepare. We can also be in a better state for the play with makeup on. Do you think it’s okay, Sister Cheng?"

Six years had passed since Cheng Fei debuted at twenty. The officially 22-year-old's face stiffened, but she quickly regained her composure and said with a mocking smile, “Why’re you so nervous? A rabbit doesn't eat the grass by its own burrow. Even if I want to hype CP with you, I’ve learnt a lesson from the mistakes of Liu Xia, not to mention that a young man like you clearly won’t consider an older sister like me. I really want to play the scene with you in advance. In this TV series, the female lead and the second male are both outsiders. You’re not afraid of being ridiculed as an artist of Stars Entertainment who can’t act at all, but I’m still afraid. I’m certainly not as big-hearted as you!”

    

Lin Zixi was a little embarrassed being exposed and even stabbed at his weak spot (acting skills) by Cheng Fei. Seeing that the other party’s attitude seemed to be open and generous, he was suddenly unsure whether she really just wanted to read through the script with him.

If he refused her again at this time, it would mean that he did not give some face to her, offending an artist of the same company. But if he agreed, his dad, Gu Zecheng, would come over later, and his grandma, Song Wen, would also check up on them.

Lin Zixi was in a bit of a dilemma all of a sudden. After thinking about it, he still moved sideways and invited Cheng Fei, who had been standing at the door, to enter the room. He followed her back to the living room of the suite but did not close the door, leaving it ajar.

He quickly sent a message to Gu Zecheng, asking him to tell him his room number after checking in, and then Lin Zixi would find an excuse to get away.

After that, he called his assistant, Xiao Zhang, in front of Cheng Fei, saying that the two of them were going to read through the script and asking Xiao Zhang to buy some midnight snack and deliver it.

After doing all this, Lin Zixi poured a glass of water for Cheng Fei, who was already sitting on the sofa, and asked, "Then we’ll start now?"

Cheng Fei nodded and looked at the script a few times. When she looked up again, her eyes were already full of tears, and her voice had a hidden bitterness, "Your Majesty believes her but doesn’t believe me?"

In order to let the actors and actresses be familiar and cooperate with each other quickly, many crews would shoot the kissing scenes and bed scenes first, and The Legend of Concubine Ling was no exception.

As a major female lead drama, in order to meet the audience's preferences, it had many kissing scenes between the female lead and the emperor played by Lin Zixi and between the female lead and the general of the enemy country played by Sun Yuwen, but it only one comforting-style light kissing scene between the empress played by Cheng Fei and the emperor.

Of course the two of them would not even do the kissing part of the scene today, but the lines and body movements in said scene still had to be performed.

Lin Zixi walked up to Cheng Fei, raised her chin with one hand, and pretended to wipe her tears with the other hand while reciting his lines, "Why would Zitong think like this? You’re my..."

    

Young actor Lin had not finished saying his lines and abruptly stopped.

This was actually not because he forgot his words, but because the door he had left ajar on purpose in order to avoid arousing suspicion was pushed open, and Gu Zecheng walked in while talking on the phone.

Q: When you and an actress were performing an intimate scene, your undisclosed father came upon you. What do you feel?

A: Lin Zixi, his whole person wants to WTF!

When Gu Zecheng, who had been making business calls without giving thought to read the text message, walked to the living room, he realized that there was not only Lin Zixi alone in room 1808. He terminated the call and looked blankly at Lin Zixi, waiting for his explanation.

Cheng Fei, on the other hand, let go of Lin Zixi's hand and pushed it away. She stood up and walked towards Gu Zecheng, and said in a pleasantly surprised but not shocked voice, "President Gu, why’re you here?!"

Thus, young actor Lin suddenly had a ridiculous guess.

Fuck, Starlet Cheng would not happen to have stumbled across him and Gu Zecheng in the parking lot just now, would she? So she did not plan to seduce him but wanted to use him as a springboard to be his little mom?!!

Seeing his dad's expression, which clearly showed that he did not enjoy this unexpected encounter with a beauty, Lin Zixi made a helpless shrug behind Cheng Fei—the confidentiality agreement in the contract was written well; as a result, he was caught on the first day of his job, which he did not want to either, ah!

In the end, before Gu Zecheng could speak, the locked door behind him was opened again, and Xiao Zhang, who had the second key card of this suite, walked in carrying a large bag of food, "I bought several items nearby. I don't know... Gu Zecheng?!" 

The assistant was assigned by the agent Chen Yunyun, and Chen Yunyun was Stars Entertainment's number one hype expert. Lin Zixi could already predict what kind of press releases would appear later. He turned his gaze towards Gu Zecheng a little dumbfounded while thinking about a problem back and forth in his mind—

Did he now still have time to refund the down payment from Party A Daddy and urgently buy a plane ticket to go abroad?

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