In the bathroom cubicle.

Qi Cong sat on the toilet with the lid down. His eyes were slightly red and swollen, but he was calm. He held his mobile phone expressionless and slowly typed ‘Gu Xun’ in the browser search box, curled up his fingers, and clicked search.

The signal in the bathroom was not very good and the page loaded for a long time.

Qi Cong looked at the loading icon that kept rotating for a long time as if it was just a blink of an eye. The page opened successfully and a lot of text jumped out.

The first search result was the encyclopedia. All of Gu Xun’s information unexpectedly filled his eyes.

‘Gu Xun, male, born in North China on January 25, 1994, grew up in West China. A graduate from the Horton Business School in the United States. In 2018, he was nominated for the Best Actor Award at the Hong Kong Film Festival for the movie ‘West’. In 2019, he won the Best Actor Award at the St. Dylan Film Festival for ‘Chapter of Edward’ (i.e. Golden Goose Award), and in 2020 he won the Banner Star Golden Cup Award for ‘Heaven ask’, becoming the youngest international double Golden Award Film Emperor in mainland China.’ 

The information only showed this paragraph. To see the more details, you must click on the encyclopedia home page. 

Qi Cong looked at the information and his fingers froze for a long time, then he clicked for more details.

More information popped up.

In the column of Gu Xun’s personal experience, there was a clear line that said: ‘Gu Xun lived in Heicheng for half a year with his brother at the end of 2016, and met Ren Qizhen the director of the ‘West’ by chance.’

At the end of 2016, he lived in Haicheng for more than a half a year.

At the end of 2016, Qi Cong, who was about to start winter vacation, went to Huaibei Road in the Wenhua District to buy materials. Because of a sudden rainstorm, he took shelter in a nearby 24-hour convenience store. There he met by chance the part-time working poor child named Gu Xun.

His memory flashed a stiff figure wearing only a thin cotton padded jacket during the winter. Qi Cong’s eyelashes trembled before his eyes snapped shut. A tear fell on a picture on the right side of the personal experience column. 

The mark made it fuzzy, obscuring the figure in suit on the photo.

So…it was all fake?

His throat seemed to be blocked up by something, and his body was shaking uncontrollably with emotion. Qi Cong held the mobile phone tightly, turning his knuckles white due to excessive force.

He was still looking at the encyclopedia page, but there was no focus in his eyes.

Gu Xun, born with a golden spoon, who grew up in a foreign country, has a proud academic background, and achieved brilliant achievements…. Gu Xun, who was born in poverty, grew up in the mountains, worked hard to be admitted to an adult university. Gu Xun, who was clumsy but never gave up…. Gu Xun who spoke softly and smiled shyly…. Gu Xun with cold eyes and tone…. Gu Xun.

When he learned that he had slept for three years, Qi Cong didn’t cry.

When he learned that his family had gone bankrupt, Qi Cong didn’t cry.

When he saw his aged and haggard parents, Qi Cong stopped himself from crying.

Although the situation was bad, he was not desperate, because there was still hope. If everyone was still there, life was not bitter.

Tears fell drop by drop, blurring the cold words on his phone screen. Qi Cong lowered his head and slowly wrapped his arms around himself and buried his head.

He had secretly rejoiced that his life had left him something precious that was not destroyed. He felt that sooner or later he would find the lost precious piece and put it together. However, the treasure he was thinking about turned out to be fake from the very beginning.

“Am I wrong? Why did Gu Xun come to this exchange meeting?”

He didn’t know how much time had passed, as the sound of footsteps and voices appeared. Qi Cong held his arm tightly and raised his head.

“He came here as a producer. I heard he came looking for scripts to invest in.”

“He’s going to switch to behind the scenes?”

“How can that be? He’s still too young. I think he’s not willing to just be an actor and wants to develop a sideline.”

His mobile phone suddenly vibrated twice. Qi Cong looked down and saw a new WeChat message lying on the prompt bar through the mottled water stains on the screen.

Mom: Cong Cong, I forgot to tell you that some of your old things I have collected are in my hometown in the country. Is there anything you want? If you want anything, tell me, and mother will send it to you. 

Qi Cong suddenly calmed down. 

The mobile phone vibrated again, and another message came in. 

Mom: Today is your first day of work, isn’t it? Is the work suitable for you? Everything is good at home. Your father got a student thank you letter today. He was so happy that he ate an extra half a bowl of his meal.

Qi Cong slowly sat up straight, raised his hand and wiped his face. His wet eyelashes were glued together, which made him feel uncomfortable, so he blinked a few times.

The voices outside gradually drifted away, and when they were about to disappear, a vague sentence floated over.

“Then why did Shen Jia come?”

Qi Cong tilted his head and then looked down at another message from Qi Yin.

Mom: Go to work and have a good meal. If you aren’t used to the environment in Beishi, come back. You parents will wait.

His out-of-control breathing slowly stabilized, and after making sure that there would be no more messages coming in, Cong covered the mobile phone and wiped his mobile screen on his pants. By the time he turned it back over, all liquid on the screen had been wiped away, just like his emotions that were of no benefit to his life. 

He clicked on the message and replied to Qi Yin: The work is going smoothly. I’ll have to go to a meeting right now, so we will talk on the phone later tonight. 

Then he got up to fix his clothes, pushed open the door of the toilet stall, went to the sink and turned on the tap. He bent down and splashed cold water on his face.

Finally, he straightened up and looked at his expressionless self in the mirror. Wiping the water off his face, he walked out without looking back. 

His parents were waiting for him and he didn’t have time to weep over his insignificant feelings. 

 

…

 

At the venue, an old director from the industry was giving a speech on the stage. Qi Cong entered the venue stealthily, and looked quickly at the position of the participants in the meeting. He ignored the red figure sitting in the middle of the front row as much as possible. He found Shen Jia sitting on the right side of the third row, and walked around.

Shen Jia saw Qi Cong and was so anxious he wanted to stand up. Qi Cong hurriedly made a reassuring gesture to Shen Jia, asking him to sit down and not disturb the people around him. He quickly moved to Shen Jia’s side.

Behind Shen Jia was a corridor separating the second half of the room, so Qi Cong squatted behind Shen Jia’s chair and whispered to him. “First, listen to the speeches. I’ll explain the rest later. Turn your head, there is media filming in the back. Don’t lose your temper. I think there’s still some seats in the back row, I’ll wait for you there. “

Shen Jia turned forward obediently, but he was still worried. He could see Qi Cong’s red and swollen eyes.

“Brother Cong, you -“

“I’m going to the back row. I’ll talk to you later when there is free time.”

Qi Cong patted the back of Shen Jia’s chair. Then he sneaked to the last row, and sat down in the corner. After sitting, he couldn’t control his gaze. Qi Cong looked towards the middle of the first row, but because the seats were parallel, he only saw rows of the back of heads.

He pressed his lips together and cast his eyes to the stage. 

The old director had finished his speech and stepped down. The host came on the stage, and after saying some words, he loudly announced: “Now, let’s welcome Mr. Wu Heng, a new screenwriter who has shown great brilliance in the martial arts genre in the past two years and is a divine writer of JiangWang.com. He will give a speech on the future of martial arts movies, so everyone please applaud and welcome him.”

Applause broke out and several invited media people in the back row raised their cameras in a hurry, while Qi Cong froze.

Wu Heng? An…author and great god of JiangWang.com?  Screenwriter?

During the warm applause, a slightly fat young man with glasses got up from the second row and went on stage with a manuscript. 

Qi Cong looked at this person and frowned slightly.

After the young man came on stage, he interacted with the host. When the host stepped down, the young man took the microphone and introduced himself. “Hello everyone, I am the author of the novel series “Chivalrous”, and the writer of the TV Drama ‘Chivalrous Spirit: the Legend of Liu Fengyue’, Wu Heng.”

Qi Cong stood up, clenching his hands, but when several media people around him gave him puzzled looks, he sat back down. 

Chivalrous Bones, Liu Fengyue. That’s right. This was the name of the first script and the protagonist he conceived in his sophomore year. At the time, he was analyzing the script of an old martial arts movie, and inspiration came to him. He grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down the beginning of “Chivalrous Bones”.

Back then, he was full of enthusiasm and wanted to show it to others to ask for their opinions. He was a little shy, however, and didn’t want to show unfinished and immature work to his classmates and teachers. So he went to Jiangwan, a novel website that mainly promoted martial arts novels, and registered an author’s account on it. He then published the beginning of the simplified version of “Chivalrous Bones”. Then he went to the internal author forum of the Jiangwan website and submitted a post, asking experienced authors for advice.

Back then, he didn’t understand the rules of the forum and didn’t know that posts asking for advice should follow a certain format, so the post was deleted by the forum administrator within ten minutes after it was submitted. Fortunately, before the post was deleted, an author who had written two martial arts novels left contact information on his own initiative, saying that he was very interested in his story. He was the author, Water Without a Trace, real name Wu Heng.

For various reasons, “Chivalrous” remained on the internet with only a simplified beginning, but in private, he and Wu Heng became friends because of their similar interests. The whole story structure of “Chivalrous Bones” was taken out and discussed with Wu Heng

Now his carefully conceived “Chivalrous Bones” has become Wu Heng’s work?

He stared at Wu Heng, who was giving a speech on the stage, in disbelief. He suddenly returned to his senses, took his phone out of his pocket, and opened a browser to search Jiangwan. After he found the right search result, he clicked on it. Then he put in three words, “Wu Heng” into the search box of the website, and clicked search.

A row of works jumped out, from top to bottom, respectively:

‘Chivalrous Bones’

‘The End of Chivalry’

‘Chivalrous Bones Stained With Blood’ 

‘The Trip Of Chivalry”

‘The Battle Of The Desolate City’

‘Blue Blood Stained with Qingfeng’ 

Qi Cong’s brain was buzzing and his fingers instinctively opened the top work.

A novel profile page popped up. 

After reading the introduction quickly, Qi Cang clicked into the catalog to read all the free chapters. Once his fingers loosened, he looked up at Wu Heng on the stage again, and his breath became a little short.

This was obviously…his “Chivalrous Bones”.

After Wu Heng finished his speech, the host came to the stage again. After a few words with Wu Heng, he announced that they will enter the Q & A section. He informed the audience that people under the stage could raise their hands to ask Wu Heng questions, limiting them to three questions.

Qi Cong’s expression tightened and he immediately raised his hand. 

“Huh? There’s a very unexpected man who raised his hand. ” The host smiled and looked down at the middle of the first row from the stage. With a kind tone he said, “Please pass the microphone to Mr. Gu Xun. Excuse me, Mr. Gu Xun, are you also a reader of Mr. Wu Heng?”

Qi Cong froze, slowly put his hand down and looked at the slender figure standing up slowly in the first row.

Because he could see only his back, he couldn’t see Gu Xun’s expression, but he still could hear Gu Xun’s very indifferent tone of voice.

“I’m not a reader of Wu Heng.” Gu Xun spoke slowly with one hand in his pocket and the other holding a microphone. “I just want to help one of my friends who read the novels ask, Wu Heng, is the rumor true that the “Chivalrous Bones” you wrote, was based on the story of a new author?”

As soon as his words were spoken, everyone was shocked. 

Sitting not far away from Qi Cong, a reporter directly choked on the imported water he just drank and said in a rude voice, “What?! “Chivalrous Bones” wasn’t written by Wu Heng? Where’s this rumor coming from? “

Edited by : Antiope1

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