Referring to - 28

Chapter 28

Gu Zecheng had already looked at the bright red ‘in operation’ indicator light above the door in front of him countless times. Inside the two closed doors was Lin Zixi, whom was sent in for rescue an hour ago.

Although Gu Zecheng had lost two of his closest relatives one after another, he was still in the army when Old Man Gu had sudden cardiac death. Later, Gu Zeyi died on the spot after a drunk driving accident, and when he got the news, he only had time to step in to deal with the funeral.

Speaking of which, tonight was the first time in Gu Zecheng's life that he experienced what it was like to wait outside the operating room—anxious yet powerless—and he had rarely experienced such a difficult moment in all his life.

Gu Zecheng took out a cigarette subconsciously and remembered that he was in the hospital a second before he was about to light it. After sighing, he put the cigarette back and turned to look at the woman beside him, whom left home after casually putting on a coat over her pajamas.

It was Chen Yunyun who came in a hurry after receiving the notice. From the moment she left her house, her mobile phone had not stopped ringing.

In this era when the whole world was bound together by the Internet, Lin Zixi was taken by ambulance one second ago, and the next second, the news about him getting stabbed at Boshen Charity Night started to flood social medias and news websites—if it were not for the professional ethics of the medical staff in this hospital, maybe this place would already be extremely crowded with reporters from all walks of life.

Clearly unlike when Lin Zixi was passively listed on the hot search because of a flight accident two months ago, almost everyone was speculating about the reason for the assassination of this popular young actor this time.

So much so that there were already marketing accounts in the entertainment circle whom, in order to gain popularity, rashly published "Keywords: sleeping with fans, induced abortion, murder as a crime of passion", which did not contain any word about Lin Zixi but was aimed at explicit rumor-mongering Weibo and public accounts’ push notifications.

If it was a normal situation, according to Chen Yunyun's work efficiency, a statement refuting the rumors should have been issued by now. But since Lin Zixi's wounding also involved Feng Yuan's kidnapping case, the situation was different.

Big Boss Feng was not an entertainment star, but he was a public figure with a lot of topics all the same. If the media learned that he had been kidnapped by an unknown person, it would definitely be the rhythm of all kinds of crazy spamming/forum flooding, which might affect Feng Yuan’s personal safety—from the police’s current understanding of the situation, the other party was a dangerous person with professional skills and premeditation to commit a crime.

Therefore, although S City police had set up a special investigation team to fully investigate the whereabouts of the criminal, they had been blocking the news from the outside world and planned to issue relevant announcements only after Feng Yuan was successfully rescued.

So no matter how dissatisfied Chen Yunyun was, she could only pacify the fan groups through Lin Zixi's big fans in private.

"Once everything’s fine, this group of people rubbing heat and anti-fans are just waiting to receive the lawyer's letter. None of them can get away." Chen Yunyun made a call and said through gritted teeth, "As for those with a few more comments, let’s meet in court!"

After Chen Yunyun finished talking on the phone with the boss of the company, she turned her head and found that Gu Zecheng was looking at her.

Chen Yunyun could not figure out the specific relationship between Lin Zixi and this big business man, so she had to pretend to be completely ignorant of the unclear involvement between the two of them. "I really have to thank President Gu tonight. If the delay was a bit longer, Zixi's situation would be even more dangerous."

Gu Zecheng shook his head and looked towards the white doors that were still closed, "I should’ve gone and looked for him earlier..."

Halfway through Gu Zecheng's words, the operating room's indicator light suddenly went out. The double doors were pushed open from inside, and the doctor who performed Lin Zixi's surgery came out.

He took off his mask and asked, "Who is the patient's family member?"

"I haven't contacted his mother yet, but..." Just as Chen Yunyun was about to explain that she was the patient's agent, she was interrupted by the man beside her.

"I am." Dad Gu, who was indeed the patient’s family, spoke, "Is the operation successful? How is the patient now?" 

The doctor saw Gu Zecheng's face and consciously assumed that the patient's mother did not show up, but his elder brother came. "The patient's neck vein was ruptured, and the excessive blood loss caused a coma. We’ve sutured the wound, but he’s still not out of danger for the time being. We’ll transfer the patient to the ICU for observation..."

Gu Zecheng heard what the doctor said afterwards but did not listen to a word of it.

His brain was blank until he saw Lin Zixi through the glass of the ICU ward. Only then did he regain his senses like having his soul coming back. His heart, however, suddenly calmed down.

Life or death had its own fate, and a marriage predestined by fate was freewill.

If a person died, he should return to the splendid Yangguang Road; if he survived, why should he be afraid of the bottomless abyss and gates of hell.

TL’s notes:

蹭热度 = cèng rè dù = rubbing heat, refers to posting some popular content to increase the number of views and likes

阳关道 = yáng guān dào = Yangguang Road, often used to refer to a distant place; also refers to the ancient song "Three Dies of Yangguan" sung when parting

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Referring to - 27

Chapter 27

When the host announced the end of Boshen Charity Night, Gu Zecheng's eyes swept across a certain empty spot on the stars table in the front row, and he could not help frowning.

He admitted that he was unusually indecisive and passive in dealing with Lin Zixi.

This little star, who was originally two worlds apart from him, broke into his life in a manner that could be said to be a typhoon landing, setting off ripples in the spring water pool and forcibly pushing Big Boss Gu, a man whom appeared to not know much about the world, into a dilemma without any way out.

For Gu Zecheng, Lin Zixi was like a flower that was about to bloom in the abyss, very good but unsuited. He stared down from the edge of the cliff for a long time and finally made up his mind to turn around and walk back to his original avenue across the sky.

Gu Zecheng had already made a decision to terminate the contract between him and Lin Zixi, which was absurd to begin with, and he had even prepared a step-by-step contingency plan for how to deal with the aftermath.

Gu Zecheng planned to cut the Gordian knot at his appointment with Lin Zixi tonight after the charity night ended, but he did not expect that the other party suddenly left and did not return, putting him aside.

Gu Zecheng waited until almost all the stars, guests, and media had left but still didn’t see the young man come back. He called Lin Zixi three times but no one answered.

Did he maybe get entangled by someone or something? While thinking about it, Gu Zecheng got up from his seat and started to walk out of the venue.

Gu Zecheng had a faint and indescribable anxiety and restlessness in his heart. Such feelings made him feel that he was ridiculous.

Lin Zixi was already an adult, and it was fine if he left without saying goodbye. Maybe he ran into someone else tonight and forgot about him…. Thinking of this possibility, Big Boss Gu instantly felt that he seemed to be even more jittery.

At this moment, Jiang Youliang, the president of Fengcheng Entertainment, was trotting in Gu Zecheng’s direction and halted his steps after seeing him, "President Gu, have you seen our President Feng?"

Gu Zecheng had met Jiang Youliang once at the wine table when he was looking for an acting teacher for Lin Zixi, so he naturally knew that Jiang Youliang was asking about Feng Yuan, "Your President Feng? I haven’t seen him. Why? Has he disappeared too?"

"Yes!" Jiang Youliang was anxious and did not notice the word ‘too’ in Gu Zecheng's words. He said in one breath like a machine gun, "President Feng said he’s going out to take a breath an hour before the event ended, but he hasn't come back until now. I just went to the parking lot and saw that his car was still there. I don't know where he went. I called him several times, but he didn't answer..."

Gu Zecheng's expression changed when he heard the time Feng Yuan left the venue. In the end, his face was solemn, "Do you know where the monitoring room of the stadium is?"

"What? I don't know..." Jiang Youliang was a little confused when asked, "President Feng should still be in the stadium. I'll just look for him again. Do you still need to check the monitoring?"

While Gu Zecheng walked quickly to the hall where the map of the stadium was placed, he took out his mobile phone and dialed a phone number, "Officer Wang? I'm really sorry to disturb you by calling so late. A friend of mine may have something wrong at the city stadium... That’s right, it's at the venue of Boshen Charity Night... Please do me a favor by telling the brothers on duty here to help me check the surveillance video at the stadium... Okay, I'm on my way to the monitoring room, thank you..."

When Gu Zecheng arrived at the monitoring room on the second floor, in addition to the stadium’s security guards, there were already two people in police uniforms waiting inside.

After a very brief exchange of greetings, Gu Zecheng asked the security guard to call up the surveillance footage at 10 o'clock and play it at eight times the speed. It did not take long for Lin Zixi's figure to appear on the surveillance screen at the D side door of the main stadium.

On a different screen, Gu Zecheng watched him go to the toilet before leaving together with Feng Yuan, whom had also disappeared without a trace, and going to the VIP lounge that was on the same floor but had no surveillance cameras. He pursed his lips unconsciously and did not relax until he saw Lin Zixi leave the VIP room alone.

Gu Zecheng's attention was always on Lin Zixi, but some of the police officers and security guards present already discovered that a third man had entered the VIP room. That man then held Feng Yuan, who was clearly already unconscious, and carried him out towards the stairwell, which was another camera blind spot.

"Captain Zhang, Captain Zhang, we’ve found a suspected kidnapping case, please come to the monitoring room." The taller police officer stared at the surveillance footage of the stairhead on the first and second floor while using the walkie-talkie to call his superior. When he saw Lin Zixi enter the stairwell on the first floor, he added a sentence, "There may be a case of vicious wounding too."

Gu Zecheng's right hand suddenly clenched into a fist.

Be all right, be all right; Lin Zixi, you must be all right…. He kept praying in his heart.

But in reality, he could only watch this man, whom shone in the bottomless abyss, appear behind the half-opened stairwell door for less than a second before being dragged back.

On the silent monitoring screen, the stairhead where no trace of people could be seen looked calm and peaceful, but Gu Zecheng's heart was beating violently, feeling like the earth was splitting and the sky was collapsing.

Before the other people present could react, he had already started running towards the stairwell with all his strength. But he had to stop because the door that had witnessed Lin Zixi's failure to escape the tragedy was locked from the inside.

"Do you have the key to this door?" The quickest-to-react police officer who followed turned his head and asked the stadium security guard a few meters away.

"In, in the control room. I'll go back..." 

The security guard replied while turning around to run back, but before he could finish his words, Gu Zecheng already kicked the door open.

Behind the opened door, there were a faint smell of blood and Lin Zixi, who was lying on the ground covering his neck with a hand that was already dyed red with blood.

Gu Zecheng's pupils instantly shrank. He staggered and knelt down beside Lin Zixi. He pressed both his hands on Lin Zixi's hand, which had already lost its strength, and kept repeating to this man whose consciousness was already fading, "It's alright, Lin Zixi. Hold on, the ambulance will be here soon, and you'll be fine…. Lin Zixi, don't sleep, hold on…. Hold on, I beg you…. As long as you're alive, everything can be said..."

Lin Zixi, who was on the verge of giving up in the very long wait, struggled to open his eyes during the repeated calls of his name. Seeing his dad's face with a rare terrified expression but still looking handsome, a saying floated into his mind like an angel flying from heaven—my father was a peerless hero, and one day he would come to save me stepping on the seven-colored clouds.

It was great. Lin Zixi thought in his mind.

It was great that my peerless hero had come to save me.

Previous | Next

 

Referring to - 26

Chapter 26

Although Lin Zixi had no intention of recognizing his ancestors and returning to his clan, and Gu Zecheng's net worth had nothing to do with him either, when he thought about his high-priced, custom-made, only-worn-once stud earring being auctioned off to his own dad for five times the price…. Young actor Lin just had the feeling of suffering ‘a huge loss’.

He comforted himself by chanting in his mind, "It's all for charity, it's all for charity" while watching his prodigal dad invited to the stage by the host to give a charity testimonial.

After Gu Zecheng said a few official and positive energy words briefly, Lin Zixi picked up the Boshen Charity Night’s donation certificate presented by Miss Etiquette and handed the fancy-wrapped certificate to him with both hands.

Dad Gu took the certificate with one hand as young actor Lin seized the opportunity to lean towards him and whisper, "Let’s talk when the charity night is over, okay?"

The man he asked pondered for a moment before replying, "Okay."

Gu Zecheng only said one word, but it soothed Lin Zixi's heart, which had been inexplicably distressed and irritated lately. He winked and said in a non-threatening and cheerful tone, "Well then, don't stand me up later."

Dad Gu nodded. Then he and young actor Lin looked towards the camera at the host's suggestion, posing for a photo of the man who donated an item—that could be regarded as produced and sold by himself—to the charity night auction and the man who won the auctioned item.

The two of them then stepped down and returned to their respective seats.

All the things to do on the charity night had been completed, so Lin Zixi was now waiting in vain for the event to end. He watched the performances on the stage, ate what was on the dinner table, chatted with other stars around him, took photos with other people (especially a certain daughter of a big boss and a certain upper-class woman), and took a selfie for himself…. When he looked at the mobile phone again, there was actually still almost an hour before the end.

Young actor Lin sighed deeply, swearing in his heart that even if Boshen paid him money next year, he would not come again—others wanted money, while this charity night apparently not only wanted money but also his time on earth.

He glanced backward at the business celebrities table and saw that Gu Zecheng was having a good conversation with other big bosses. During this period, there were male and female, popular and not popular stars moving close to that table. He could not help but rejoice that luckily, a wealthy, handsome, and considerably young elite like his dad was a little old-fashioned, ah, no, it was upright, otherwise he might have had a few little mothers in the circle.

Lin Zixi was sighing with emotion and was caught by the object of his flight of fancy, whom suddenly turned his gaze around casually. He immediately made a gesture to remind the other party not to forget to wait for their appointment after the event ended. Gu Zecheng nodded, took his gaze back, and continued talking to the business figures at his table.

Young actor Lin finished the cocktail in front of him, got up, and walked out of the venue where the charity night was held—he needed to take a breath of fresh air and relieve himself after being shut indoors for almost three hours. As a result, he met another person he wanted to talk to at the doorway of the toilet. 

"President Feng, may I have a minute of your time?" Noticing that there was no one else around, Lin Zixi stopped Feng Yuan, the boss of Fengcheng Group, and asked.

The legendary gold master of Qiu Lianyi agreed after some consideration, and Lin Zixi went with him to the room that had been used as the VIP lounge previously.

Unlike Gu Zecheng, whom started out in heavy industry and was reserved and low-key, Feng Yuan, a young tycoon who was born as a rich second-generation and rose abruptly from the IT industry, had always been commented as ‘arrogant’. However, it might be because Dad Gu had once called him for the sake of young actor Lin, he actually didn't seem impatient, only detached, and he replied quite politely, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

Lin Zixi himself had nothing to be helped with, mainly "It’s about Qiu Lianyi..."

After he uttered the words ‘Qiu Lianyi’, Feng Yuan's expression visibly changed, and he quickly tried to cover it up, interrupting young actor Lin's words with a tone of voice that sounded calm, "He’s experiencing life for the sake of a movie. Are you looking for him for something?"

That’s enough, okay!

It had been almost two months since he learned the news about Qiu Lianyi's disappearance from Chen Yunyun. Although the fan circle still kept their cool, all kinds of speculations had long been flying around within the industry—a popular star suddenly disappeared from the public eye for almost four months; for all one knew, he either went crazy suddenly and quit the entertainment industry, or he did something and was sent to prison—preparing for a movie or something was clearly just an excuse for fans.

Anyway, Lin Zixi did not feel good, so he exposed Big Boss Feng in his face and followed along with his words, saying, "Actually, it's not a big deal. It's just that he has replied to my WeChat several times since we attended the S TV celebration together, but there's no more news now, so I'm a little worried about him."

In fact, Lin Zixi was not sure whether the man in front of him and young actor Qiu, who was a fierce and vicious dragon in his opinion, were really in a relationship like people said, and he also didn't know whether his information would be of any help with regards to finding Qiu Lianyi. But since Feng Yuan was the first high-level person of Fengcheng he had come into contact with in this period of time, he still said those words regardless of his uncertainties.

As for whether the other party cared about the information in his words or not, it was not something he had to worry about.

And the fact proved that Feng Yuan still cared about it.

He grabbed Lin Zixi's wrist and stopped covering it up, questioning closely in a high-pitched and stern voice, "Tell me, when was the last time he replied to your message?!"

"It was very late at night a day after the celebration, about half past twelve" Lin Zixi’s hand hurt a little being subconsciously gripped by the other party, but seeing his anxious and frantic appearance, he put up with it and did not get free. Instead, he took out his mobile phone, "But we didn't chat much. He ignored me afterwards."

Feng Yuan let go of Lin Zixi's hand but took his mobile phone and quickly called up the conversation between him and Qiu Lianyi. It took Feng Yuan less than 30 seconds to read the pitifully short conversation between ‘LianXi Fufu’, but he stared at the phone screen for several minutes, as if he could see some hidden information in it.

Young actor Lin stood by and waited for a long time, starting to be in a daze. It was not until the man beside him suddenly began to make a call that he was awakened and regained his spirit.

"Jack, it's me. Aqiu left his mobile phone at home, but he used another mobile phone to log in to WeChat…. Well, I saw his message to others in the wee hours of the 4th…." Feng Yuan said to the person on the other end of the phone.

After hearing how Big Boss Feng called a certain artist from his subsidiary company, Lin Zixi felt that it might not be suitable for him to continue listening to the other party's call.

 

Although Feng Yuan had no time to deal with him for the time being, young actor Lin was always a man of tact. After waving his hand, he turned around and went out of the room—before he left, he closed the door for the other party very thoughtfully.

As a result, when he finished relieving himself in the toilet and wanted to take out his mobile phone to check the time, he finally remembered that he had actually forgotten to get his mobile phone back from Feng Yuan.

He sighed and turned back to the VIP lounge.

Because the lounge was on the upper floor, and the stairwell was next to the toilet, Lin Zixi did not bother to take the elevator and went straight up the stairs.

When he came upstairs and was going to open the stairwell door, someone opened the door from the other side.

It was a staff member dressed in a suit with a name tag lanyard supporting a man in a casual suit, and the latter was obviously already half-conscious and could barely walk just because he was being held up.

The average-looking man who was estimated to be 27 or 28 years old noticed Lin Zixi's curious gaze, smiled friendly, and said in a somewhat helpless tone, "Fortunately, I went upstairs to deal with something, otherwise I don’t know how long this man would lie down in the corridor…. Being able to get drunk when attending our charity night, how high is his alcohol tolerance, ah."

Lin Zixi did not know if the alcohol tolerance of ‘this man’ was high or low, but a certain man totally had had no sign of getting drunk before. He was certain of this.

Young actor Lin casually glanced at Feng Yuan, who was unconscious for some reason, and then said in a perfunctory and uncaring tone, "You staff are also working hard."

After Lin Zixi said this sentence, he pushed the door to get out of the stairwell.

He naturally didn't believe the words of this person who seemed to be a Boshen staff member. On the contrary, he was sure that he happened to witness a kidnapping case.

And the kidnapped person was Feng Yuan, who was still talking with someone on the phone about the long-missing Qiu Lianyi just a moment ago.

But young actor Lin, who had followed a certain ‘boss’ for a period of time and fought with people off campus during his high school years, did not dare to expose the other party rashly—to be precise, it was because of such ‘black history’ that he could sense an indelible danger and bloody aura from the seemingly urbane and smiling man in front of him.

This feeling was extremely similar to the uncomfortable feeling he had when he first saw Qiu Lianyi, but it was even stronger.

Although the other party was covering it up intentionally, Lin Zixi could still sensitively perceive that kind of bone-deep viciousness and instantly made an accurate judgment that "he definitely couldn't beat him".

Therefore, he would cooperate with the other party's performance—also, speaking from his conscience, the kidnapper's acting skills were perfect, his lines skills were profound, and he was obviously better than a bunch of young actors/actresses—because he wanted to find a helping hand to stop the other party immediately after going out from here.

However, from the fact that the four hundred thousand yuan stud earring was bought by Dad Gu for two million, we could clearly see that young actor Lin's Mercury retrograde not only did not change for the better but also seemed to be strengthened by the ancestral buff….

So, just when he was stepping out of the door with one foot and thinking he had escaped a disaster, the man behind him grabbed his wrist and dragged him into the stairwell with a force far stronger than that of ordinary people.

The hairs on Lin Zixi's whole body stood on end in an instant. He lifted his foot and kicked it sideways and backwards, but his ankle was easily captured by the other party, and he was thrown on to the ground with a flip. When he was about to get up, the man stepped on his chest.

"You're Qiu's other lover, aren't you?" The kidnapper who pretended to be Boshen’s staff member patted Lin Zixi's face, still with a smile across his whole face, "Unfortunately, there’re too many surveillance cameras here, so it's not convenient for me to bring two people with me. Otherwise, I'll take you too and see which one Qiu Er will choose to save."

Qiu? Qiu Lianyi?

"Cough...you know there’re surveillance cameras, but you still dare...to mess around...cough..." Lin Zixi felt that his sternum was about to break. Coughing, he said with difficulty, "The way of Heaven is fair, but the guilty will not escape...cough…. Stop it, okay...cough…. Just treat me like I didn't see anything..."

But the other party laughed heartily with no trace of politeness as if he had heard a big joke and only stopped after quite a while. Then he leaned over Lin Zixi and whispered in his ear, "I don't mind if you tell the SWAT, as long as..."

"You live to tell them." The man said while putting away all his smiles. Then, without any warning, he cut a bloody opening that was neither deep or shallow on the neck of the prey under his feet with a butterfly knife. 

Lin Zixi's eyes widened in horror for a moment, but the other party did not use his knife again. Instead, in a seemingly kind way, he pulled Lin Zixi's hand to his neck to cover the wound.

"You have to work hard to stay alive." The man waved his hand as if to encourage Lin Zixi and then left while supporting the unconscious Feng Yuan with an arm.

Lin Zixi felt his blood and life slowly flowing out between his fingers, which were pressed down hard on his neck. He tried with all his might to stand up but was unable to move because of the pain in his chest. He wanted to shout loudly but was afraid that it would work to no avail and only speed up his death instead. He wanted to use his mobile phone to cry for help but, in despair, he remembered again that his mobile phone was still in that place where Feng Yuan was kidnapped.

God indeed wanted to cut my life short….

Lin Zixi wondered desperately and a little self-mockingly if the topic #Lin Zixi was murdered and died# would stay on the hot search for a few days.

If he had known earlier that he would die so young and in such a ridiculous way, he should have done more meaningful things before.

For example, participating in a play that could make his name immortalized.

For example, finding someone to madly fall in love with regardless of society’s gaze and judgment.

For example, being able to justifiably call his biological father, Gu Zecheng, "Dad" when facing him.

However, there were no ifs in life, and he could only wait quietly with these regrets for the things that he failed to achieve in an unoccupied corner on the other side of the noisy dinner party.

Waiting for salvation, or waiting for death.

Previous | Next

Referring to - 25

Chapter 25

The Boshen Stars Charity Night that Lin Zixi planned to attend at the last moment was a charity event organized by the domestic leading fashion magazine ‘Boshen Fashion’, and this year was already the eleventh year.

Like other charity nights in China, Boshen Charity Night also made use of the appeal and exposure of stars to invite celebrities from all walks of life to attend and hold a charity auction and then donate all the proceeds to public welfare projects. However, because this event was the first of its kind to be held and backed by the fashion industry big shot, Boshen Group, their ability to invite big stars and business figures was far superior to that of other charity events.

After ten consecutive years of operation, Boshen Stars Charity Night could be said to have become an annual grand occasion and party in the entertainment and fashion circles. Not only would stars attend, but TV stations would also broadcast it live. In order to boost interest this year, Boshen Fashion had begun to do various publicity warm-ups as early as a month ago.

Lin Zixi admired the great efforts of Ms. Cai, the chairman of Boshen Fashion, for so many years—if she could announce the specific whereabouts of the donations and the detailed expenditure clearly in addition to the donation list every year, he would admire her even more. 

Anyway, probably because Gu Zecheng had a friendship with the senior management of Boshen Group, he had been attending the event in the last several years. Therefore, although young actor Lin had received an invitation to the event last year, he tactfully declined due to the conflict of work schedule. In the end, the money came, but the person did not. 

This year, when he remembered that he could keep an eye out for Dad Gu, whom had been avoiding him recently, at this dinner party, Boshen Fashion was about to announce the red carpet list.

But fortunately, Boshen Charity Night had always been a battlefield for female stars, who were greater in number than male stars. So when Lin Zixi—a male star who could be considered as a popular young actor in China and had just been chosen as an ambassador for Esther, a light luxury brand—wished to attend the event himself, Boshen Fashion and Ms. Cai, who perfectly embodied the snobbish way of the fashion circle, naturally welcomed him.

 

Just a day before Boshen Fashion released the complete list, Lin Zixi was urgently added to the promotional pictures, press release, and event schedule. It was really thanks to the staff who greeted the ancestor, aka young actor Lin, while working overtime.

This year's Boshen Stars Charity Night was held in S City’s stadium. Young actor Lin got his hair and look done by a stylist and a makeup artist for an afternoon. As soon as he entered the rest area before the red carpet for stars to walk on, he realized that the ''more beautiful than others'' from Chen Yunyun’s mouth was just a joke.

To compete for beauty with this group of female stars, who were still wearing gorgeous clothes that were either transparent, short, or off-the-shoulder in the great winter, and steal the media's attention and power…. As a male artist, maybe the only way to go was to strip off and run naked on this road.

It was naturally impossible for young actor Lin to go streaking, but today his hair was combed in a swept-back style, and he was wearing a black double-breasted suit with matching white vest and shirt. He looked really stunning in this olden gentleman style, so when he stood on the red carpet, the media took his pictures for a long time while shouting wildly, "Look to the left" and "Look to the right", before letting him pass.

And Gu Zecheng was quite low-key today, dressed in a classic dark gray suit. However, his appearance and aura were still eye-catching even on a ‘bright starry’ occasion like tonight.

After Lin Zixi entered the venue, he saw Dad Gu who was sitting at the business tycoons table at a glance, and the other party clearly saw him too. After giving him a nod, he continued to chat with the man beside him.

Boshen Fashion had arranged a total of 40 tables tonight. Young actor Lin, as a star who would participate in the event, was seated in the first row of the artists’ seats, which was actually not very far from Dad Gu in the second row. However, there were many people with eyes here, and they were all elites in the entertainment circle. It was not good for him to rashly go over to talk to his dad, so he could only wait patiently for the opportunity.

The basic process of this year's Boshen Charity Night was to take a group photo of the stars first and then start auctioning articles donated by sponsors and stars, interspersed with stars’ performances to add fun to the auction.

Thus, after young actor Lin experienced the most chaotic and awkward group photo (in which the undercurrent among the female stars about their standing position surged up violently) he had ever encountered in his life, he ate, drank, and endured making small talk for more than an hour. Finally, it was his turn to sing along with the other three male stars.

In fact, young actor Lin, who had experienced some storms, was not afraid of singing on the stage in public, but performing live in front of his dad was different. As soon as he started singing, he realized that he was singing a little off-key because he was nervous. 

Fortunately, the three stars who collaborated with him all came from acting backgrounds, and their singing could be said to be a scene of various car accidents. Thanks to the help of these colleagues, Lin Zixi was forcibly set off by them to the level of a professional singer and finally didn't completely lose face in front of Dad Gu.

After this song was sung, the other three stars all stepped off the stage, while young actor Lin was left on stage by the host. It was his turn to auction the lot he donated—Lin Zixi not only planned to donate money this year, but he also donated his stud earring, which was specially custom-made at a high price, only worn once, and then put away so as to avoid arousing suspicion, for auction.

He could not wear it anyway, so he might as well take it out and do a good deed.

"Zixi, I heard that you specially asked a designer in Milan to design and handcraft this stud earring. Did you feel a little reluctant to put it out for auction today?" Of course the host did not really ask if Lin Zixi was unwilling to give it up; it was purely to make the auctioned lot look more valuable, so that it could be sold at a higher price.

And Lin Zixi had already discussed the excuse with his agent, "I’m naturally a little reluctant because, as far as I’m concerned, this stud earring is very special to me. However, I’m very thankful to Boshen Fashion for giving me an opportunity to put it to use for such a special matter as charity. For me, this is a much more valuable life experience than just owning and wearing the stud earring."

After young actor Lin said this paragraph, his pure fans and LianXi fans who were sitting in front of the TV and computer watching the live stream were all excited.

This was what his pure fans thought: Wasn't there a fashion blogger who estimated that Zixi's stud earring cost at least 300,000 yuan? When my brother spent money, he did it in such a grand style! He was indeed a beautiful and kind-hearted man! Moreover, Zixi put out this stud earring for auction; he was clearly killing the CP, ah! Well done! Give my idol a round of applause!

And what LianXi fans thought was: Zixi actually admitted that his couple earring with Lianyi was very special to him, and he was a little reluctant to donate it. This was sending candy for sure, aaaah! It was a pity that Lianyi was still doing closed training now, otherwise today, he would definitely follow his husband to donate his own earring and have a common life experience. My great LanXi could still fight for another ten years!

Therefore, the furthest distance between people was not "I stand in front of you, but you don't know that I love you"; rather, “I’m a pure fan, but you’re keen on CP”.

Young actor Lin and Chen Yunyun had long expected the reaction of his pure fans and LianXi fans after saying such a paragraph on stage, but he never expected that in Boshen Charity Night tonight, there were actually his pure fan and a LianXi fan sitting separately on the sponsor table and on the table that was sold at a high price to the outside world.

As a result, for the first time in eleven years in Boshen Charity Night, an auction with the purpose of public welfare, there was a bidding war full of the smell of gunpowder.

When the daughter of a big boss sitting at the sponsor table raised the placard and bid one million, young actor Lin had already tried his best to give the host several meaningful glances, suggesting him to announce the success of the bid. As a result, before the host, with his extremely fast speed, asked if there was anyone who wanted to bid a higher price and quickly announced the success of the auction, the upper-class woman at the table sold to the outside world gritted her teeth and raised her placard for 1.1 million.

Seeing that the little girl in the third row disregarded her father's persuasion and was going to raise her placard again, Lin Zixi was extremely full of regrets—he put this stud earring up for auction to give the big bosses an excuse to take out some money for charity; it was certainly not to dig out the pockets of his pure fans or CP fans or to cause a scolding war between them.

Young actor Lin could not help praying secretly in his heart that there would be a big boss with the virtue of ‘helping good people doing good things’ stepping in to bid for this stud earring and end this absurd fan war.

It was unknown whether young actor Lin had been Mercury retrograde for too long because he unexpectedly succeeded in changing his fortune for the better and realized his wish tonight.

"Two million!" At the table of the business tycoons, someone actually stepped forward bravely with almost double the price. The two ladies who had previously competed to win the bid were suppressed all at once.

Lin Zixi looked gratefully towards the hero whom had bid for his stud earring and then saw a very familiar face—Gu-his dad-his elder brother-his gold master-Zecheng.

……

…………

"I only spent 400,000 when I bought this stud earring, you prodigal dad!"

Young actor Lin must have shouted like this if it were not for the fact that he was still standing on the stage.

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Referring to - 24

Chapter 24

"Zeyi, are you quarreling with your brother again?" Grandma Song suddenly asked Lin Zixi after they finished eating dinner.

Young actor Lin thought about his gold master daddy, whom he had not seen for a month since coming back from B City, and replied uncertainly, "I really don't think so, but what my brother thinks... I don't know."

The old lady glanced at her ‘little son’ angrily, "You must’ve said something awful and made your brother very angry."

Lin Zixi was aggrieved, "Mom, the last time I saw my brother was when we went to B City…. Didn't you already know everything about that day? What do you think I’ve said to irritate him?" 

It was unknown whether Grandma Song doted on him, her little son, too much or whether she still remembered the dead Gu Zeyi subconsciously. A month ago, after learning that her son had almost had an aviation accident, the shocked old lady called Lin Zixi to go home and kept him there for three days. He was only let go after it was completely confirmed that he was fine and nothing would happen.

If The Legend of Concubine Ling that Lin Zixi was filming now had not been a drama produced by his Stars Entertainment and he himself, the first brother of Stars, had not been considered well behaved, he would have been scolded to death behind his back by the staff and his fellow actors for disappearing without a word like that—in any case, fans of the second male, Sun Yuwen, had begun to ridicule him openly and covertly for not being dedicated enough to his work.

During those three days, Lin Zixi made no less than ten phone calls to Gu Zecheng to ask for help, but the other party’s phone line was busy or no one answered the phone every time. Gu Zecheng never called him back either, let alone showed his face at home.

Young actor Lin knew then that his gold master daddy seemed to be avoiding him again for some unknown reasons.

If Lin Zixi was just a little depressed when Dad Gu suddenly avoided seeing him the first time, he could be said to be very depressed as well as puzzled now.

After the two of them had experienced such an accident together, they clearly could be regarded as best friends for life and death. Furthermore, the presence of Gu Zecheng, the father he could not acknowledge, had caused him to feel a deep attachment and a yearning for closeness which had been missing for the past 20 years.

As a result, the object of his deep attachment and closeness seemed to have lost his favorability towards him….

"This is simply unreasonable, ah!" After Lin Zixi returned to the hotel from Gu's house, he threw himself on the bed and roared in a depressed voice—even without Grandma Song asking, he himself had carefully and repeatedly recollected the day he went to B City with Dad Gu, but he still couldn't figure out where he had irritated his dad.

Young actor Lin buried his face in the pillow and lay corpse-like for a long time. Finally, he got up with a rising handspring and picked up his mobile phone to call his agent, Chen Yunyun.

"Sister Yunyun, is this year's Boshen Star Charity Night coming soon? I want to participate this time." As soon as the call was connected, Lin Zixi immediately got straight to the point.

Chen Yunyun on the other end of the phone was a little surprised, "It’s next Friday. But when Boshen invited you last year, you only donated money and didn't show up. Why do you suddenly want to participate this year?"

Because last year, he wanted to avoid Gu Zecheng, who was an attendee, while this year, he was in a hurry to find an opportunity to see if he could run into the other party…. Lin Zixi had this thought, talking at the same time, "Aren’t I Esther’s ambassador now? My way of thinking has changed a bit. I realize that it’s not bad to have more connections and resources in the fashion industry."

"It's great if you’ve figured it out yourself. Our company isn’t as rich and imposing as Fengcheng, able to invest in various big projects by themselves. It’d always be beneficial for you to stay at home less and go out to socialize more." Chen Yunyun said with some pleasure, "Leave this matter to me. It just so happens that you’ll be done with your role in The Legend of Concubine Ling next Thursday. So on Friday, I’ll find a stylist to give you a good look, which I guarantee will make you more beautiful than others then."

"I'm not a female star; what’s more beautiful, ah?" Young actor Lin was amused by his agent. After hanging up the phone, he felt a lot better and was also in the mood to post a selfie on Weibo to make his own fans happy too.

But when he logged in to Weibo, he unexpectedly found that his fans, whom always pretended to be well-behaved in front of him but actually had excellent fighting strength, were right in the middle of fighting with another star’s fans. Even among the few big fans who had mutual relations with him on Weibo, they no longer cooked chicken soup to pacify the fan circle; rather, they also took part in throwing shade at the other party.

Although young actor Lin knew that his fans could fight, he was a little dumbfounded for a while since he rarely had direct contact with their berserk state.

When his Esther endorsement was announced officially, it was quite calm. Why did it become a bloodbath after two weeks?

But as he ate melon and watched the battlefield with a three-point concern and seven-point gossipy attitude, he unexpectedly discovered that not only his fans were not fighting with Qiu Lianyi's fans, but there were even Qiu Lianyi's fans and many fans of other young actors and actresses who were helping his fans fighting the other party. They tore into the other party on the hot search and outside the circle, and they tore into some insiders in the industry whom posted on Weibo to add insult to injury.

All of this was only because the other side on the battlefield was Mu Zhongran’s fans.

Lin Zixi seldom disliked anyone in the entire entertainment circle, but he particularly despised Mu Zhongran.

Mu Zhongran made his debut much earlier than Lin Zixi, but he had always been unknown. It was only after he changed his agency in the past two years that he became popular by relying on fake persona and navy marketing. Moreover, this persona was a copycat of young actor Lin himself, and that marketing was also done by touching porcelain and stepping on various popular young actors.

What's even more important was—if your endorsements and TV dramas were preempted by the same person for less than one-tenth of your price in half a year, you would definitely despise the other party too.

Although Chen Yunyun, who had worked together with Mu Zhongran's agent on one occasion, already said, "This person is a little clever in trivial matters, but he’s short-sighted, and his character isn’t very good. Don't look at him and Mu Zhongran being so full of themselves after their success now. One day, they’ll eventually come to ruin." Lin Zixi never expected this one day to actually come so quickly.

And it's a little inexplicable.

He said it was inexplicable because the factor leading to this unprecedented fan war was actually the fans of LianXi Fufu discovering some time ago that the masterpiece in their fandom, a fanvid titled ‘Persuading the Lord to Take Pity on the Man Before Your Eyes’, was deleted from the website without any warning.

Not waiting for the LianXi fan circle to boil and explode, soon, all fanvids of this CP with driving-a-car plot were basically deleted or taken off the shelves for review from every video website. Within a few days, even RPS fanfics of the two of them that contained meat had also been shot down one after another. Except for the ones published on small private websites, almost the rest that were on Tieba, Weibo, and Lofter had been deleted without any crumbs left.

Although those clear water fanvids and fanfics had survived this catastrophe, who could be satisfied just by drinking water? Meat was the spiritual pillar that the greatest majority of the masses most thirsted for.

Thus, after discovering that this ‘clean internet’ operation was only aimed at LianXi Fufu CP and other stars’ fandoms were all fine, LianXi fans completely exploded. Not only did they believe that their fandom had been reported by a certain opponent, they also vowed to find the ‘murderer’ and took revenge for those spiritual pillars that disappeared.

Coincidentally, because a TV series starring Qiu Lianyi and Mu Zhongran as the third male was about to be aired at this time, Mu Zhongran's team began to warm up in advance and hyped up the ‘YiRan Fufu (Qiu Lianyi/Mu Zhongran)’ CP. They even paid some people to make fanvids and write fanfics, intending to create a kind of "there are candies and masters in this fandom, why don’t newbie fans quickly climb the wall to eat candy" atmosphere.

However, it was not sure whether these people did not get paid enough, or whether they just took offense at young actor Lin. Among the fanvids and fanfics that YiRan CP spent a large amount of real money on, there were surprisingly many of them that turned out to be plagiarized works. Moreover, the area that had been particularly hard hit by ​​plagiarism was LianXi CP fanworks, and some of them were those deleted driving-a-car fanvids and fanfics from LianXi fandom—even including that genuine masterpiece of the fandom, ‘Persuading the Lord to Take Pity on the Man Before Your Eyes’, which died in battle earliest.

Under such circumstances, could LianXi fans not regard YiRan CP (or Mu Zhongran's team) as the mastermind behind the scenes?!

The animosity from the CP’s partner being robbed coupled with the hatred from getting reported made LianXi fans, whom could be called an evil cult in the entertainment circle based on their fighting strength, dispatch all their troops to fight the ‘mastermind behind the scenes’ to death.

At first, Mu Zhongran's team was still able to suppress this wave of onslaughts by relying on their powerful naval force. But coincidentally, some of his BL fans who were ignorant of current affairs actually cursed Lin Zixi himself because of this matter….

As a result, young actor Lin’s fans, who had been eating melons and watching passively from the sidelines, joined the battlefield conveniently—if Chen Yunyun had not told the big fans to stop them, they would have already waged war with the other party for hundreds of rounds for the previous copycat, stepping on, and preempting incidents. 

After Lin Zixi's pure fans took part in the fanwar, Qiu Lianyi's pure fans soon joined the battlefield—Lin Zixi pondered and guessed that Qiu Lianyi's fans might be afraid that the other party would really market the YiRan Fufu when the TV series aired, so they had to snuff out the first signs of this dog skin plaster in advance.

And then, fans of other actors/actresses, who were disgruntled and vengeful having been offended by Mu Zhongran's team, all ended up participating in the war—long Weibo posts were written, black material went around, and complaints in the comments under various entertainment news were made. It really made Mu Zhongran, whom took the wrong road to reach the top, feel the meaning of ‘one party is in trouble, and the others like it’.

By the time Lin Zixi finished eating melon of this fan war, it was almost two in the morning.

He thought about it for a while and eventually sent a WeChat message to Chen Yunyun: "My fans are fighting with Mu Zhongran's fans. Do you need me to cook chicken soup on Weibo to cool them down?"

It was already so late, yet his agent actually hadn’t slept either and replied to him in seconds: "Don't interfere with this matter. I didn't tell you about this because you’ve been busy with filming recently. It's stopped being as simple as grudges between fan circles this time. With this lesson, as long as their brains haven’t completely broken, I think they won’t dare to step on you again rashly in the future.”

This was actually a good thing, and young actor Lin was relieved, but he still has a question: "Do you think... it’s really his side who asked someone to delete LianXi CP’s fanvids and fanfics?"

"It shouldn't be, because doing such a thing doesn't benefit his side. Also, I’ve contacted several websites, and they all said that the Network Supervision Department has listed the keywords and pointed out clearly that they should delete videos and articles with titles containing the words 'LianXi' together with 'meat', 'driving a car' and 'R18'. So, although some of the works have these contents, because they don’t have those words in the title, nothing happens to them…. Anyway, the matter this time is quite strange. I’ve already asked someone to knock some sense into LianXi fans, making them keep a low profile, drive less cars, and so on these days." Chen Yunyun sent quite a long reply. Then, after she and Lin Zixi bid each other good night, she ended her work and went to bed.

And Lin Zixi secretly rejoiced while washing his face and rinsing his mouth, rejoicing that LianXi CP got caught in the ‘eradicate pornography and illegal publications’ operation.

He let the cat out of the bag in front of Gu Zecheng last time. Just in case one day his dad was curious and wanted to find out about LianXi Fufu, and then the search results were full of pornographic and violent contents…. Young actor Lin thought of this situation and felt a headache.

Fortunately, fortunately.

TL’s note:

鸡汤 (jī tāng) = lit. chicken stock/soup; fig. words that sound reasonable and tell people about the beauty of the world and the infinite hope for the future, but they are actually useless, just to provide people with some psychological comfort

拉踩 (lā cǎi) = lit. to step on; fig. fans comparing their idols with another star and elevating their idols in a way that demeans other stars

肉 (ròu) = lit. meat, flesh; fig. pornographic content

清水 (qīng shuǐ) = lit. fresh water, drinking water, clear water; fig. without pornographic content

Due to RL, I'm taking a short break. Next chapter will be posted on Monday, July 18, 2022.

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Referring to - 23

Chapter 23

Qiao Weidong said a sentence half-jokingly but pointed out the truth, scaring Lin Zixi, whom had a secret in his heart, to death. Not only did he have to peek at the expression of his gold master daddy, but he also had to try his best to keep a straight face so as not to make himself look too strange. It was really a test of his acting skills, which could only be regarded as good if seen through the fans filter.

Fortunately, his dad clearly didn't take his old friend’s sentence to heart. He turned his head to glance at Lin Zixi and said with a funny look, "What illegitimate son? Where did I find such a big son?!"

"I just made a casual remark..." Qiao Weidong followed Gu Zecheng to look in Lin Zixi's direction and suddenly changed his mind for some reason, "I don't think he's your illegitimate son. I think he's your old dad's love debt from his previous mistress…."

"The more you talk, the more unreasonable you are!" Gu Zecheng punched Qiao Weidong on the shoulder, interrupting his nonsense. "You might as well guess it's my debt since those two old people were very affectionate back then." 

"Just kidding, just kidding…." Qiao Weidong smiled and turned the topic to their mutual friends.

Lin Zixi finally breathed a sigh of relief and could not help but smile bitterly in his heart. When it came to debt, Dad Gu was his and his mom's debt—the kind that they could not repay.

Lin Zixi followed Gu Zecheng silently all the way out of the VIP passage of the airport and saw Assistant Zhang and the person sent by Esther to receive them from a distance.

"The person who picks me up is over there. I'll leave first then. I wish you a smooth journey in B City." He put his peaked cap back on, lowered the brim, said goodbye to his dad, and walked quickly towards Assistant Zhang. 

Gu Zecheng took his gaze away but unexpectedly found that Qiao Weidong was staring in Lin Zixi's direction.

Gu Zecheng turned his sight back at Lin Zixi's distant figure but still didn't notice anything unusual, "What's the matter? Is there something wrong with him?" 

The serious expression on Qiao Weidong's face immediately faded, and the good-natured and amiable smiling expression reappeared. "He…. Never mind, it’s just my occupational disease recurring."

Qiao Weidong had been working in the Ministry of Public Security for nearly 20 years, and he just couldn’t help but look at everyone like looking at a criminal suspect. Gu Zecheng was actually used to his old friend, but somehow, when Qiao Weidong looked at Lin Zixi with a scrutiny, it made him feel slightly uncomfortable like his territory was being invaded.

He replied as if to explain and also vouch for Lin Zixi, "I asked him to pretend to be Zeyi, so of course I had ordered someone to check his background first."

Qiao Weidong nodded and no longer got too entangled with the little star whom he had only met once. He turned to chat with Gu Zecheng about the welcoming dinner in the evening.

Although Gu Zecheng now lived in S City with Grandma Song, he grew up in B City after all, so he had a lot of close friends who grew up with him here.

Almost every time he came to B City, someone would definitely take this opportunity to organize a big gathering.

Behind this gathering was childhood friendship as well as adult sophistication—after all, among their generation, Gu Zecheng was the wealthiest now, and Qiao Weidong was the most powerful, so the relationship with them naturally had to be maintained—and Gu Zecheng was well aware of this matter. But it was also because of this childhood friendship and adult sophistication that he would usually participate as long as his itinerary was not too tight.

After the welcoming dinner was over, it was almost eleven o'clock in the evening when Gu Zecheng returned to the hotel.

Big Boss Gu's drinking capacity was pretty good—at least he could easily outdrink Lin Zixi—but he would occasionally suffer from insomnia after drinking.

Tonight, for example, Gu Zecheng had carefully gone over his to-do list for this trip to B City three times in his mind, but he still had no sleepiness at all. So he simply stopped tossing and turning restlessly in the bed. He put on his clothes, got up, and sat in front of the opened laptop on the writing desk.

Gu Zecheng originally wanted to open his mailbox to deal with the emails, but he saw a news feed window in the lower right corner of the computer screen with the subject of a certain star in the entertainment circle whose early life turned out to be pitiful.

Dad Gu was not interested in this star at all, but because of this press release, he remembered a certain pair of business CP whom came out of someone’s mouth during the day.

Whether it was because of drinking too much alcohol or suffering from insomnia in the middle of the night to the point of losing his head, Gu Zecheng opened the search website under the influence of demons and gods at work, typed in the search box [LianXi Fufu], and then pressed Enter.

However, facing hundreds of thousands of search results, Dad Gu felt for the first time that the generation gap between him and today's young people was really huge.

What was "AU"?

And what was "ABO"?

What did "kichiku and tsundere" mean?

Did "meaty" mean that Lin Zixi and the one surnamed Qiu were fat?

With all kinds of questions, Gu Zecheng finally saw a title at the bottom of the first page of the search results that he (thought he) could fully understand—[LianXi Fufu] Persuading the Lord to Take Pity on the Man Before Your Eyes: Tear-Jerking and Driving a Car.

As a result, Dad Gu, who thought that he would see a collection of various real driving scenes, saw a story of a sadomasochistic romance between a policeman and an underworld hitman without the slightest warning.    

The creator of this video was clearly a real master at the top level of the fan circle. Whether it was the plot, the soundtrack, the use of tones, the selection of camera shots, or the basic skills of PS and rendering, they were all top-notch…. Even the scenes in it were collected and pieced together from different video sources. And the bedroom scene, which was cut half-covered and half-concealed by the creator, was even more tantalizing.

Gu Zecheng absolutely didn’t know that the video he watched had been used as a god-level marketing tool by so many CP fans, and he also didn't know that the creator was crowned ‘the number one car god in this circle’ because of this MV. However, he could see with his own eyes Lin Zixi with his shirt half-lifted showing a snow white and flat stomach, his Adam's apple trembling from swallowing saliva, his lips bitten out of restraint, and his long eyelashes quivering slightly as his eyes closed….

"Bang!" The video on the web page still hadn’t finished playing, and the laptop on the desk was suddenly slammed close by Gu Zecheng, whom suddenly stood up.

There was incredulous astonishment on his face, but it was not because he thought the young star he knew had really shot such a movie, he just, he just….

Discovered that not only was his mind awake now, but even a certain place below his abdomen had also woken up in high spirits from its deep sleep.

"What are some children thinking nowadays?!" Big Boss Gu, confronted with the attack of the driving video, spoke almost through gritted teeth.

TL’s note:

风流债 (fēng liú zhài) = lit. love debt; fig. moral obligation in consequence of a love affair; karmic consequences of a love affair

鬼畜 (guǐ chù) = kichiku (Japanese) = lit. ghost animal; fig. cruel, inhumane character

傲娇 (ào jiāo) = tsundere (Japanese) = cold on the outside, hot on the inside; also refers to a character who normally speaks with a prickly attitude but is shy and sticky around a certain person under certain conditions 

开车 (kāi chē) = lit. to drive a car; fig. telling/sharing/containing sexual content

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