After settling down in his room, Qi Cong took out the chocolate given by Gu Xun and looked at it.

It had a dark coffee colored package with two dancing bears on it, and was sweet milk flavor – the kind he used to eat.

Unexpectedly, Gu Xun still remembers this kind of thing.

He sat on the bed, tore open the packaging and broke off a small piece of chocolate before putting it into his mouth.

Will Gu Xun contact him after he ate it?

Such a bar of chocolate can be broken into six pieces. One piece was the amount of one bite, one bite of chocolate could be chewed twenty-four times. Twenty-four times. Under….

He turned on his phone timer.

It took only 15 seconds to swallow.

With the rich, silky sweet taste of chocolate left in his mouth, he broke off another piece and counted silently.

Fifteen seconds times six, equals ninety seconds, minus the time spent breaking the chocolate in the middle that needed to be added. If you weren’t too greedy, the chocolate can be eaten in two minutes.

The reason why he often ate this brand of chocolate was because it was sweet and not too greasy.

His mobile phone suddenly vibrated, and a WeChat message came in.

Qi Cong regained his senses and opened the WeChat app.

Mom: Have you reached Hengcheng yet? I’ve checked, it’s going to be cool there for a few days. Don’t forget to dress up.

Not Gu Xun.

Qi Cong put down the chocolate and typed back a message to Qi Yin. After returning the message, he looked at the chocolate, of which he had only eaten two pieces, and put it away carefully.

Let’s eat it slowly.

As soon as he thought so, his phone vibrated again. Qi Cong thought it was Qi Yin who replied to his text so he picked up his cell phone again.

Gu Xun: I’m back in my room. It’s 1109. Where are you?

The chocolate in his mouth was still slowly melting. Qi Cong was probably fooled by sweetness so without thinking about it he typed back: I haven’t finished the chocolate yet.

Gu Xun replied with a voice message.

When Qi Cong realized what he had done, he almost choked on the chocolate. After coughing a few times, he stretched out his fingers to open the voice message.

Gu Xun’s slightly helpless voice came out: “Cong Cong, this chocolate is not big, just take pity on me, can you eat a little faster?”

It really wasn’t big.

This was obviously just an ordinary sentence, but an impulse suddenly appeared in Qi Cong’s heart. He wanted to call Gu Xun and meet him directly. He wanted to cover Gu Xun’s eyes and ears so that he couldn’t hear or see. He wanted to completely separate Gu Xun from Jiang Zhaoyan.

He didn’t want Gu Xun to know his own absurdity for the past three years. He didn’t want him to know how much low self-esteem and stupidity he displayed in front of Jiang Zhaoyan these past three years. He didn’t want to disappoint Gu Xun and didn’t want to become a stranger in Gu Xun’s eyes. He didn’t want to be hated.

He also didn’t want Gu Xun to show the same depressed and sad look as he did last time.

Qi Cong raised his hand and pressed his face, taking a deep breath before quickly typing his room number to Gu Xun, and then adding: I’m going to help Jia Jia unpack his luggage. I’ll get in touch with you later.

After sending it, he no longer waited for Gu Xun to reply. He put down his hand and adjusted his expression before putting away his mobile phone and going to the next room.

When Qi Cong entered Shen Jia’s room, he found that there were only Shen Jia and Zhao Zhenxun in the room. Shen Jia’s suitcase was piled up near the entrance but there was no Xiao Han and others to organize them.

Zhao Zhenxun was holding his cell phone and seemed to have just finished a call. Seeing Qi Cong come in, he turned his head and motioned to the couch in the room. “Come here and talk.”

Qi Cong stepped over the suitcases and sat down on the couch.

Shen Jia immediately moved to Qi Cong and looked at Zhao Zhenxun. “Brother Zhao, what’s up? What was this talk about?”

“The investor said that Yanhuang was indeed talking to the crew about sponsorship, and it was a preliminary negotiation.” Zhao Zhenxun sat on the single seat on the slanted side of the long couch and looked at Qi Cong. “You and Jiang Zhaoyan… what are your thoughts, tell me.”

Qi Cong bowed his head and apologized solemnly. “Brother Zhao, I’m sorry that I’ve upset everyone so much because of my personal relationship. I’ll try my best to keep my personal matters from affecting Jia Jia’s work.”

Hearing this, Shen Jia felt uncomfortable and retorted, “Brother Cong, you didn’t affect me. All the blame is on Jiang Zhaoyan! What did he think of, coming here to sponsor my TV series?! “

“Jia Jia’s work isn’t something that can be influenced by Jiang Zhaoyan. Jiang Zhaoyan is only a sponsor, not an investor. The biggest investor for “Legend of Youth” is Manju Entertainment, so Jiang Zhaoyan won’t have any influence on Jia Jia.” 

Zhao Zhenxun emphasized, “Now, it’s Jiang Zhaoyin asking for more exposure and not the “Legend of Youth” crew begging for Jiang Zhaoyin’s cooperation. Do you understand?”

Qi Cong was stunned and looked up at Zhao Zhenxun.

Zhao Zhenxun looked at Qi Cong with no anger in his eyes and continued. “I asked you what you thought because I wanted to know if you wanted to avoid possible contact with Jiang Zhaoyan. If you want, I can transfer you back to Beishi instead of continuing your work with Jia Jia. You can also take advantage of this time to take an acting class. Regarding your career plan, President Shen and I have worked out a prototype. The singing and dancing idol path is not suitable for you. The company is prepared to let you focus on singing and acting, and take the low-key approach of relying on the strength of your work to speak for you. We won’t over-package you, we won’t give you a new image and we won’t give you extensive marketing and hype. We will only give you the opportunity to try and produce works and let you grow in popularity little by little. This way may be slower to make money, or you may not even be able to become famous in the end, but your development will be solid. Also, no one will pay too much attention to you or criticize your private life. Do you understand what I mean? “

He understood, how could he not understand?

Zhao Zhenxun and Shen Man were trying to stand in his shoes, preparing a path for him that matched his pace as much as possible. They were even considering his complicated personal relationship and were trying to protect him.

“Understood.” Qi Cong nodded and couldn’t help repeating, “I understand. Thank you, Brother Zhao. Thank Ms. Shen, too “

“What’s your attitude towards Jiang Zhaoyan’s sponsorship of this project?”  

Qi Cong looked at Shen Jia next to him and replied, “Business is business. I will do my job well. If Jiang Zhaoyan is really here because of me, then I will deal with him and will not let him further affect Jia Jia.”

Evasion couldn’t solve any problems. Since Jiang Zhaoyan dared to come, he will dare to face him. He will not allow himself to run away and leave the mess for Zhao Zhenxun and Shen Jia to deal with.

Zhao Zhenxun looked intensely at Qi Cong and nodded. “Very good. Starting from tomorrow, every day after Jia Jia’s work ends, come to Jia Jia’s room to have an online class with him and learn acting skills. All right, pack up.”

Qi Cong responded affirmatively, got up and walked towards Shen Jia’s suitcases.

Xiao Han and others soon came to help Shen Jia put things in order and after finishing the sorting, Qi Cong avoided the crowd and called to Shen Jia, saying, “Jia Jia, can you tell me in detail what happened between Jiang Zhaoyan and me in the past three years?”

As soon as Shen Jia heard this he froze, his eyes were obviously dodging. “I’ve told you all these things before, but it was just work for Jiang Zhaoyan or something. There is nothing worth talking about in detail.”

“Jia Jia.” Qi Cong caught Shen Jia’s evasive gaze. “What I want to know is the details, all the details you know.”

Shen Jia looked at Qi Cong and said in a tone of resistance, “Brother, let’s move forward, can’t we?”

“I’m asking this because I want to move on properly.”

They stared at each other. Finally Shen Jia compromised first with a wrinkled expression. “Then wait until tonight, I’ll tell you.”

 

……

 

After lunch, Shen Jia and Zhao Zhenxun went to a meeting with the producers, directors, and writers of “Legend of the Youth” while Qi Cong stayed in the hotel room and took advantage of this idle time to take out his cell phone and click on “WeChat.”

There were six unread messages on WeChat, two from Qi Yin and four from Gu Xun. Among them, two of the messages from Gu Xun were reporting his itinerary, while the other two were asking if Qi Cong had already eaten lunch. The last message was sent at 1:43pm.

Qi Cong looked at the time on his cell phone. It was almost three o’clock.

Gu Xun should have already left the hotel and gone to the Film and Television City to meet up with the crew and prepare to shoot the night scenes.

He typed back.

Qi Cong: How long will you be busy tonight?

Gu Xun replied in seconds: If the shooting goes well, around eleven o’clock [pitifully]. Have you finished your work?

Qi Cong looked at the pitiful expression, lowered his eyes and replied: Well. Are you free tomorrow? I want to take you out to dinner.

Gu Xun directly replied with a voice message. Qi Cong clicked on it.

“Okay. What do you want to eat? I’m familiar with this place. Do you want me to recommend it to you? Crabs are good this season. Do you want to eat crabs? Or porridge? There is a porridge shop here that makes particularly good and fragrant porridges. Or would you like some soup?”

Gu Xun’s voice was full of joy, his tone upbeat and full of the heart- warming expectations. His suggestions were also considerate, knowing that Qi Cong wasn’t good with spicy food, he only recommended food that was light.

Qi Cong was silent for a moment, and also sent a voice message. “All right. I have to schedule an update, I’ll contact you tomorrow?”

Gu Xun quickly replied to the voice message with a sigh: I will contact you tomorrow then…

Can I send you a goodnight text tonight?

Qi Cong listened to the voice repeatedly and remembered the promise he made with Shen Jia this evening, clicked on the voice message. He replied: “Yes”

 

……

 

That afternoon, Qi Cong’s writing efficiency was extremely poor. He usually only took two hours to write a chapter, but he couldn’t finish the chapter until Xiao Han knocked on the door and told him to go to dinner.

He closed the computer, looked at the paper bag with two words on the cabinet and got up, picked up his mobile phone and left the room.

The dinner was eaten by the whole crew of “Legend of Youth” in two rooms of the hotel restaurant, making it very lively. Qi Cong, as an assistant, was arranged to go to the second hall with Xiao Han and other assistants and not with the director and crew.

During the meal, the female assistant of an unknown actor who sat on the same table suddenly exclaimed, with her cell phone in her hand. Then she approached her companion and said in a low voice, “Oh my God, I heard that Gu Xun didn’t stay in the hotel arranged by the “Above the Dynasty” staff and is staying here alone in Dingli on the eleventh floor! That’s just downstairs!”

Her companion was so shocked that she almost choked, her eyes wide. “Really?”

“Really, someone saw him, and all the photos were passed to the group. Wow, Gu Xun downstairs, Shen Jia and Lian Pengxing upstairs. I am In heaven!”

“Keep your voice down!”

Qi Cong glanced over at them and squeezed his chopsticks.

Did Gu Xun leave the cast to stay here alone? Before he thought that the crew of “Above the Dynasty” also happened to choose Dingli….

While the second room side finished eating, the first room where the director and cast were was having a lively drinking session. Xiao Han asked Zhao Zhenxun and got permission for all the assistants to go back to their rooms in advance to have a rest, so a group of assistants retreated ahead of time and followed the other group of people who left after dinner and went to the elevator hall to wait for the elevator to go upstairs.

Soon, the elevator on the right stopped at their floor, the doors opened, and the figure of Jiang Zhaoyan and a man with a slightly cold and proud temperament appeared.

Qi Cong’s expression, which was relaxed, instantly sank. As he looked at Jiang Zhaoyan, his deeply buried hatred stirred.

Obviously, he had been warned and had already gone this far, so why did he appear again? He finally had a direction in his life, and he and Gu Xun…. 

It was no easy feat for them to start all over again.

Jiang Zhaoyan also saw Qi Cong outside the elevator. He was obviously stunned for a moment, and then his eyes immediately locked on Qi Cong, as he scanned him from top to bottom like a barcode scanner. Then his brow slowly wrinkled as he began scolding, “What the hell are you doing? Who told you to dress like that?”

The man standing next to Jiang Zhaoyan, hearing his words, tilted his head and followed Jiang Zhaoyan’s line of sight. Then, raising his eyebrows, he smiled at Qi Cong. “I didn’t expect to see the young master of the Sanmu family here. I’m An Xiahe. I don’t know if you remember me, but in junior high school, we were classmates in adjacent classes for a while.”

Everyone in the elevator waiting area looked toward Qi Cong. Xiao Han and the others also sensed that something was wrong. Yuan Yuan pulled at Qi Cong’s clothes and asked in a low voice, “Brother Cong, is that someone you know?”

“Yes.” Qi Cong replied, glancing over Jiang Zhaoyan and An Xiahe with the intent of hardening the ice and bringing a knife, “A former boss who unscrupulously exploited his employees and small punk with an impressive history of school violence.”

As soon as these words came out, the elevator waiting room became silent again, as the expressions of Jiang Zhaoyan and An Xiahe changed.

 

Edited by: Antiope1

 

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