Don’t think about it, he can’t think about it anymore. He didn’t have time to think about it now. He still had a lot of things to do. He had to pay off his debt, settle his parent’s situation as soon as possible and give everyone a warning in advance. If the end result was really losing his life once again, he must make sure that before he leaves, everyone’s life is back on track.

Thinking about other stuff was useless.

After taking a bath, Qi Cong went to the living room to grab his suitcase, took out the laptop from it and began writing. At 11:00, Qi Cong closed the document and began to write a suicide note.

After he finished writing it was already eleven thirty. Qi Cong carefully confirmed that the suicide note would prevent the taskmaster to endanger his parents, Shen Jia and others. He clicked save and applied for a new mailbox. Then, creating five copies, he respectively entered the addresses of Qi Yin, Lin Hui, Shen Jia, Zhao Zhenxun… and Gu Xun. Then he uploaded the content, and selected scheduled delivery. Setting the time to send the emails at eight o’clock the next morning, he then erased all login information in this new mailbox.

If he was no longer himself when he woke up the next day, the suicide notes will be sent out on time to tell everyone that he was sick and dangerous again and they should lock him up and not agree to any of his demands.

Today’s release of “A New Life” would also be his last song. As long as Zhao Zhenxun creates good marketing, the income from this song should be enough to pay off the debt he owed Shen Jia and give a little income to his parents.

After repeatedly making sure that everything was in place, Qi Cong set the alarm clock and lay down on the bed.

The room was so dark that Qi Cong suddenly thought of Gu Xun and looked uncontrollably to the right side of the bed.

There was no window there and no big cat mascot in the opposite window. There was also no one in that room behind the mascot. There was only a landscape painting on the wall.

“Good night.”

Qi Cong withdrew his sight and closed his eyes.

At seven in the morning, Qi Cong was woken up by the alarm clock from sleep. From the moment he opened his eyes, he sat up and moved his arms and legs.

He was still himself, and his body belonged to him.

His tense nerves slowly relaxed. Qi Cong pressed his swollen forehead and smiled. “It seems that your efforts yesterday also failed.”

He put his hand down and lifted the covers, got out of bed and walked to the window to pull open the curtains. Letting the morning light shine on him, he said, “Then you’ll continue to watch me limit the space you can move in the future.”

At nine o’clock in the morning, Zhao Zhenxun drove to pick up Qi Cong to go to the recording studio. They had been contacted by the cast of “Legend of Youths” to record the OST “Delusion”.

On the way to the studio, Zhao Zhenxun gave Qi Cong a list of names.

“You have to have a personal assistant to help you deal with chores. These are the people I think are more reliable, you pick one. The company will also arrange for you a stylist, a make-up artist and a PR person as soon as possible. We want to assemble a team for you before you join the crew next time.”

Qi Cong scanned the people on the list and chose a male assistant who looked the most solid, then said towards Zhao Zhenxun, “Brother Zhao, if possible, I hope you can try to arrange more work for me. Also, the income from all my artist activities doesn’t have to go into my hands, just pay it directly to my parents’ card.”

Zhao Zhenxun looked at Qi Cong through the rearview mirror and without asking more questions, nodded and said, “Okay, I’ll make the arrangements.”

“Delusion” was a song with the theme of unfulfilled love so the whole song was filled with sad and desperate emotions, making it difficult to sing. There were also certain requirements for the singer’s ability to express these emotions.

Everyone didn’t expect that this song, which was expected to take at least three days to record, would actually be recorded in less than a day by Qi Cong.

Not even mentioning his singing skills, Qi Cong expressed the emotions in the song like he was possessed by the God of Singing. He sang each sentence of the song full of emotion, as if he was also experiencing unfulfilled love just like in ‘Delusion’.

When the recording of the song was completed, everyone was applauding Qi Cong’s excellent performance as everyone was happy that the work could be completed so efficiently. Only Zhao Zhenxun was frowning.

He looked at Qi Cong as he took off his headphones in the recording room and couldn’t see his expression. He found an excuse to distract the recording engineer and music producer who wanted to talk to Qi Cong and found some space so Qi Cong could be alone.

At the end of the day’s work, Zhao Zhenxun said to Qi Cong, “The work is finished ahead of schedule so you will be free for the 8th and 9th. I will see if I can find another job for you. Also, I got you another appointment for a checkup, tomorrow afternoon. Yesterday you were discharged out of the hospital in a hurry, so we have to make sure that you are indeed physically okay.”

Qi Cong came back to his senses after being distracted and just looked at Zhao Zhenxun as he nodded. “Alright.”

“Gu Xun unfollowed your Weibo account after yesterday’s “A New Life” MV hit the top trending list.”

Qi Cong’s heart skipped a beat, but he didn’t answer.

“You didn’t look at Weibo, did you?”

Indeed, he didn’t look at it. No time to look, also… he didn’t want to look.

Qi Cong still didn’t answer and acquiesced.

“You should check it out. Gu Xun sent out a Weibo post after he unfollowed you and changed his Weibo avatar and Weibo background to help minimize the negative impact that it might have on you.”

Qi Cong froze and raised his eyes to look at Zhao Zhenxun.

Zhao Zhenxun said, “Qi Cong , I don’t know what you’re worried about, but running away won’t solve the problem.”

When he got home, Qi Cong sat on the sofa in the living room for a long time, so long that his body began to stiffen. Then he picked up his phone from the coffee table and clicked on Weibo.

He searched for Gu Xun’s Weibo page, and his eyes were met with a familiar blue sky and white clouds – the same blue sky and white clouds that the bird soared in the “A New Life” MV.

The familiar corner of the bird’s nest lay there quietly, empty inside, as if waiting for someone to stop at it.

Behind the avatar, “Looking back on the flowers” ID, a Weibo post from last night was at the top position, only with seven words: Waiting for you to spread your wings.

Qi Cong put away his cell phone. He had a sudden impulse to go see Gu Xun to tell him everything and apologize for all the hurtful words he said that day. Then he would hold Gu Xun tightly and never let go.

Then he grasped the wound on the palm of his hand, hard and viciously.

Don’t think, don’t think, don’t think, Gu Xun shouldn’t be involved in all this, don’t think….

He picked up his phone again, making sure it was logged into his Murmuring Water author account, and quickly typed a tweet to tell Gu Xun not to wait. Halfway he suddenly stopped and as if afraid of something, threw the phone away.

He couldn’t… he couldn’t give any kind of response to Gu Xun.

He suddenly got up again, went back to the room and opened his laptop. Then went back to the bathroom to wash his face with cold water, moved to sit behind the computer and began to write.

It was okay, time will wash everything away. He still has a lot of things to do, he didn’t have time to think about it.

His fingers began to dance quickly on the keyboard and just ten minutes later, his fingers suddenly stopped. Qi Cong got up, picked up his phone and opened Weibo, deleting his unsent post word by word. He looked at Gi Xun’s home page for a moment before choosing to cancel his Weibo author account for Murmuring Water.

The next afternoon, Qi Cong’s new assistant drove him to the hospital for an examination. The new assistant was called Yang Shun and was 24 years old. He was just two months younger than Qi Cong. He wasn’t talkative, but very honest.

Although there wasn’t much of a possibility, Qi Cong still tested Yang Shun on the way to the hospital through some small talk.

Yang Shun didn’t notice anything wrong and just thought that Qi Cong wanted to know more about him, so he answered and even accidentally spilled that he didn’t stop wetting his bed until he was a pretty big child.

Qi Cong gradually relaxed. Yang Shun’s recollection of past events and memories was very natural and real, so his body shouldn’t be taken over by the Taskmaster.

A few minutes later they arrived at the hospital and Qi Cong unexpectedly and unsurprisingly discovered that the hospital Zhao Zhenxun had arranged for him to be examined in was actually the same private hospital he had gone to last time when he had a psychological evaluation.

Yang Shun explained, “Brother Zhao said it’s better to go to someone familiar, so he arranged this for you.”

So that’s how it was.

Qi Cong put on his hat and got out of the car. Then he said to Yang Shun who got out of the car one step later, “No need to use honorifics, you can just call me by my name.”

In the end, Yang Shun compromised between honorifics and his name, and chose to call Qi Cong Brother Cong, just like Xiao Han and others and Qi Cong agreed tacitly.

The examination was done in the afternoon, and Qi Cong found that this time in addition to a routine physical examination, there were also some psychiatric examinations. The examining doctor was one from before, but an old foreign doctor with white hair.

Qi Cong guessed that his previous state in the hospital made Zhao Zhenxun worry, so he didn’t ask any more questions and just completed all the checkups cooperatively.

After the examination was done, the old doctor stayed alone for a while to chat with Qi Cong. The old doctor’s Chinese was good and he had a good sense of humor so he had a good chat with Qi Cong.

Before leaving, the old doctor suddenly said, “Mr. Qi, don’t close yourself off too much. If you encounter difficulties, you can try to seek help from people around you, it won’t hurt them.”

Qi Cong froze and realized that he must have unknowingly revealed a lot of his inner emotions to this old doctor. He quickly collected himself and smiled at the old doctor before he left.

The detailed test results wouldn’t be available until tomorrow, so after Qi Cong finished talking with the doctor he left the hospital directly with Yang Shun.

When the car drove away from the street where the hospital was located, Yang Shun suddenly said, “I heard that Director Nanting lives in this neighborhood, and some paparazzi have photographed Gu Xun looking for him here. I also heard that Director Nanting has a new film that he will start soon, but I don’t know what theme it would be this time.”

Suddenly hearing Gu Xun’s name, Qi Cong was stunned. He instinctively looked at the building outside, then slowly withdrew his attention, not replying even a few seconds later.

In the hospital, after Qi Cong left, the old doctor dialed a phone number.

“What do you think?” Gu Xun’s voice immediately came from the other end of the phone.

The old doctor sighed and replied: “This little one you’re worried about isn’t in a good condition.”

 

……

Considering that Qi Cong had just been discharged from the hospital, Zhao Zhenxun finally decided to not add any extra work for him on the 9th and let Qi Cong rest.

Although Zhao Zhenxun didn’t say it explicitly, Qi Cong could still understand that Zhao Zhenxun wanted him to use the free time on this day to think and sort his emotions so he could see Gu Xun on the 10th.

Qi Cong didn’t take Zhao Zhenxun’s hint, and on the 9th, after waking up, he immediately blocked out all reality and threw himself into the world of “Chivalrous Bones”.

The sun rose and set, and just as it was getting dark, Qi Cong was awakened from the world of “Chivalrous Bones” by the alarm clock and got up to carefully prepare a nutritious and balanced dinner to feed his stomach.

While washing the dishes, Qi Cong heard his cell phone ringing in the dining room outside. He dried his hands and turned to pick up the phone on the table. Seeing that it was a call from a strange number, he paused, connected it, and put it to his ear.

“Cong.”

Gu Xun’s voice came from the receiver. It was clear that they hadn’t been in touch for only a few days, but it seemed like he hadn’t heard that voice for a century.

Reason told Qi Cong that he should hang up the phone immediately, but his feelings made it impossible for him to put away his cell phone. His Adam’s apple rolled as he squeezed the cell phone tightly in his hand, trying to suppress his breathing for fear of accidentally leaking a sound to break the greedy silence.

Gu Xun didn’t speak again after calling out as if he was waiting for a response from his side. A few seconds later, Gu Xun’s voice came again. “’A New Life’ has become No. 1 on the Popular New Song list. Your Weibo followers have also risen to 2 million. Congratulations. “

Qi Cong moved the phone from his ear and with trembling fingers moved to hang up the phone.

“Cong, tomorrow come to Nanyang–”

Beep.

His finger finally hit the hang-up button.

Qi Cong looked straight at the end of the call page. His brain wanted to pull this number on the blacklist, but as his finger moved it quickly stopped.

What to do.

What to do.

He squatted down, leaned his head against the leg of the table and gently hit his forehead. What to do.

The mobile phone rang again and Qi Cong covered his ears. A few seconds later, he couldn’t help raising his hand and hit his head hard.

It would be nice to get that thing out of him and to completely destroy that strange ball.

Why it was him?

Why him?

He didn’t know how long the phone rang as Qi Cong gradually quieted down. He leaned against the leg of the table, tilted his head slightly and looked out at the boundless night outside through the dining room window.

When it was close to midnight, Qi Cong suddenly sat up straight as if he had woken up from a dream. Holding the dining table he searched for his now quiet phone and reached to pick it up before tapping it open.

There were three missed calls, all from unfamiliar numbers.

Qi Cong looked at them and then found something wrong.

How were the three missed calls from two separate numbers? Only the first missed call was from Gu Xun with an unknown number from Beishi. The remaining two unfamiliar numbers belonged to Haicheng.

Haicheng.

Qi Cong frowned, and then his eyes turned a little cold.

He’d almost forgotten the one who brought him to this point. In addition to a Taskmaster, there was also that “seed”.

He looked coldly at the two missed calls from Haicheng and whispered, “How can the seeds… be considered well raised?” Then they can also be considered completely ruined.

He locked his phone and walked back to his room.

Turning the calendar to the new page, Qi Cong got up early, then routinely set the alarm clock and saved documents on his computer.

The time flew away little by little as the words on the document were typed and deleted. Then typed and deleted again. At 11:30, the alarm clock went off, and Qi Cong’s hand that just deleted one wrong word turned off the alarm clock, and got up to go to the kitchen to make lunch.

At 12:30, Qi Cong returned to sit in front of the computer.

The phone rang at 2:30 p.m. without warning. Qi Cong’s hands froze, his eyes moved towards the phone and quickly retracted. He forced himself to return his attention to the computer.

The ringing stopped after ten seconds or so, and then rang again.

Five minutes later, Qi Cong finally couldn’t restrain himself and looked at the phone. Then the soft expression on his face quickly froze.

The unfamiliar number flashing on the screen was from Haicheng.

Qi Cong looked at today’s progress on the document of zero stocked chapters and closed the document. Then he picked up the phone and connected the call.

“Hello.”

“Qi Cong, we have to meet. I know you are in Beishi and I am also here.” Jiang Zhaoyan’s voice came, speaking quickly, like he was afraid that Qi Cong would hang up the phone. “You can’t refuse to meet me. If you don’t show up, then the news that Gu Xun kidnapped you and me will be posted on Weibo tomorrow.”

Qi Cong clenched his teeth. Restraining himself, he loosened them again to respond. “Okay, I’ll see you. Where are you?”

Jiang Zhaoyan gave an address and Qi Cong wrote it down, then he hung up the phone. Putting his things in his backpack, he turned around and went out.

A minute later he returned and took down a crafted decorative dagger hanging on the wall above his bed and put it into his backpack as well.

 

Edited by: Antiope1

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