On the night when the recording of the song was completed and after some discussion, Qi Cong and Zhao Zhenxun decided to catch the last flight back to Haicheng, leaving more time for etiquette study and filming.

On the plane, Zhao Zhenxun told Qi Cong some things.

The crew of “Legend of Youth” felt that the security of the Dingli hotel was too poor to guarantee the privacy of the actors, so they changed hotels for the crew.

“The new hotel is Huaxia, it’s also closer to the Film and Television City so all actors have moved there. The rest of the staff will finish moving there before noon tomorrow. You haven’t returned to the Dingli hotel yet, so after the plane lands we will first go to Dingli to pack our bags before going to Huaxia to settle down. “

Changing the hotel?

Qi Cong looked sideways at Zhao Zhenxun. His first reaction was to move out of that hotel, but what about Gu Xun?

As if sensing Qi Cong thoughts, Zhao Zhenxun added, “Gu Xun immediately contacted the hotel asking for accountability after the security footage was shown from the Dingli hotel corridor. Then his agent rushed to Dingli to check it out for him. It’s most likely that he has already moved to the hotel where the rest of the cast of “Heaven Asked?” is staying. That hotel also happened to be Huaxia.”

Qi Cong was surprised. “They also stay at the Huaxia?”

“Mm-hmm.” Zhao Zhenxun looked up at Qi Cong. “What a coincidence, isn’t it?”

“……” Qi Cong wisely chose not to continue this topic.

Zhao Zhenxun also didn’t dwell on this issue, he just closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair as he asked, “Qi Cong do you have enemies?”

Qi Cong looked at Zhao Zhenxun’s weary side face, guessing that he asked to find out who had repeatedly harmed him behind his back, and replied, “Yes.”

“Who are they?”

“Jiang Zhaoyan, Jiang’s family, and a distant cousin of mine, Qi Hun.”

Zhao Zhenxun opened his eyes, “Is that the person who took advantage of the chaotic interview with the reporter to scold you last time?”

“That’s him.”

Zhao Zhenxun thought for a moment, and then leaned back into his chair and closed his eyes, saying, “I understand. Rest for a while. I am guessing it will be late before we will be able to rest today.”

 

…….

 

The plane landed in Haicheng close to midnight.  Qi Cong and Zhao Zhenxun walked out of the airport and got in the car that came to pick them up. After some hustling, Qi Cong finally walked into the lobby of the new hotel with the luggage he packed from Dingli.

Zhao Zhenxun was obviously tired as he raised his hand and pressed against the center of his eyebrow. Then he took the room card from the bodyguard who picked them up and handed it to Qi Cong, telling him, “Go back to your room and rest early. You don’t have to get up early tomorrow. I’ll call you if I have anything for you to do.”

Qi Cong nodded.

The two men took the elevator upstairs. Zhao Zhenxun first went to his room and Qi Cong watched him go in before dragging his luggage to his own room and raising his hand to swipe the card.

A very faint cry of a kitten suddenly came from the direction of the corridor.

In the early hours of the morning, in the empty corridor there shouldn’t be any kittens.

A very standard horror movie opening. 

However, Qi Cong directly put down his luggage after a pause, turned around and walked towards the hallway without any hesitation.

The stairway door wasn’t closed so Qi Cong just stretched out his hand and pushed it open, and a familiar tall figure appeared at the corner of the stairs behind the door. He was leaning against the wall, one hand holding a cellphone while the other was in the pocket of his pants.  The not-so-bright light of the corridor fell on him, drawing his shadow long and thin.

Qi Cong withdrew his hand and called out, “Gu Xun.”

Gu Xun looked sideways, put the phone into his pants pocket, smiled and spread his arms towards Qi Cong. “Cong, welcome back.”

This was an act of waiting for a hug. Qi Cong looked at Gu Xun’s gentle smile, paused for a moment and then  came forward, stopping one and a half steps away from Gu Xun. He took out the headphones from his pocket and plugged them into his mobile phone, then leaned over to help Gu Xun put on the headphones before starting a music file on his phone.

Gu Xun realized something and glanced at Qi Cong’s mobile phone and then slowly lowered his arms, raising his gaze to look at Qi Cong.

Qi Cong’s face was emotionless, but his palms were sweaty because of nervousness. He looked at Gu Xun, moved his finger on the file and clicked play.

The icon on the phone screen began to slowly turn around.

A pair of headphones separated two completely different worlds.

On one hand he was nervous and quiet.

On the other hand he was restless.

One second, two seconds, three seconds… The sound-controlled lights in the hallway went out, and in the darkness, only the screen of his phone showed that the music was still playing.

Qi Cong and Gu Xun stared at each other in the dim light.

Gu Xun’s expression slowly changed. The gentle relaxation on his face faded away and the gentle smile on his face disappeared. His eyes darkened as they only had Qi Cong’s figure in them.

Qi Cong carefully looked at Gu Xun’s appearance at this time without blinking.

A long and, well short, four and a half minutes later.

The record stopped spinning and Qi Cong reached out to help Gu Xun take off his headphones and asked, “How is it?”

Gu Xun closed his eyes and reached out his arms to hug Qi Cong as he helped him take off the headphones.

Qi Cong froze and stretched out his hand to push him.

“Just for a moment.” Gu Xun buried his head on Qi Cong’s shoulder and said in a low voice, “Cong, just for a moment.”

Qi Cong stopped and raised his head. He could feel the temperature coming from Gu Xun and his breath touching his collarbone, as well as the smelling of fir coming from Gu Xun. His body slowly relaxed… He lowered his eyes and said, ”You are the first to hear it.”

Gu Xun tightened his arms.

“I told Brother Zhao that after my official debut, I’m willing to take whatever job I can get and try it out.” Qi Cong gently put his chin on Gu Xun’s shoulder. “I talked to my mother on the phone this afternoon. She has the idea of rebuilding Sanmu so I want to try my best to earn her the starting capital.”

The breath touching his collarbone became a little heavy.

Qi Cong let go of the headphones, tentatively raised his hand and gently touched the back of Gu Xun’s head. “I will also continue to write the novel “Chivalrous Bones”. I will finish it by next month. I have also thought of writing another novel. If the next novel does okay in terms of performance, I will try to write a script. As long as I can do it…”

Gu Xun’s body obviously stiffened and even his breathing stopped. He didn’t move a muscle, as if he was afraid to scare the hand on his head away.

Qi Cong, noticing this change, smiled. The hand that was originally on Gu Xun’s head gently started rubbing. “Gu Xun… these three years and your ‘looking up’ for many years of hard work… thank you for appearing in my life again.”

All the sadness and pain accumulated in the past within Gu Xun were turned into ashes by this sentence.

He fiercely tightened his arms and nestled Qi Cong within them. He circled his hands around Qi Cong’s waist and back so hard that it seemed to strangle him. He bumped his forehead against Qi Cong’s shoulder, his voice deep and little mute, like he was suppressing something, “Qi Cong, don’t lie to me, don’t play with me…don’t get sick again.”

Qi Cong blinked hard and solemnly answered, “Alright.”

 

…..

 

Qi Cong didn’t wake up until after ten o’clock the next day. There  were several WeChat messages from Gu Xun on his mobile phone so he sat up and read them one by one.

Gu Xun: Good morning.

Gu Xun: I am on my way to the airport since the crew of “Heaven Asked?”asked me to go back to Beishi ahead of time to prepare for the premiere in two days.

Gu Xun: I forgot to tell you yesterday that my room is just across from yours. There is a doll on the windowsill.

Seeing this Qi Cong froze, getting out of the bed he lifted the quilt and walked to the window, pulling open the curtains towards the opposite side.

Huaxia Hotel was much larger than Dingli with two buildings, one in front and one in the back. Qi Cong’s room was on the right side of Building 2, so he was able to see the left half of Building 1. He looked across and at a glance saw the huge cat doll that almost filled up the entire window placed on the windowsill of a room at the end of the same floor opposite his.

That cat doll was exaggeratedly large, and after a closer look, its appearance and shape was clearly customized according to the cat on Gu Xun’s WeChat avatar.

Qi Cong became dumbfounded, then smiled. He looked down and continued to read WeChat.

Gu Xun: When I’m not here I will let it accompany you.

Gu Xun: The new song is very good.

 

……

 

A few messages reporting on his schedule later.

Gu Xun: Cong, next time there is a premiere, I hope I can go with you.

Go together.

Qi Cong leaned onto the windowsill, touched the message, and smiled very briefly.

There will be that day. As long as he keeps trying.

 

……

 

The crew of “Legend of Youths” did much more than just change the hotel.

On the way to the set with Zhao Zhenxun after lunch, Qi Cong learned that after the recent news, the senior management of the crew held an emergency meeting, and then on the night of the meeting the crew started a staff screening, tracing the various messages in the story back to where they came from. After tracing them one by one, they called the staff in to talk one by one.

Not only that, the producer also called a meeting with all the main actors after the scene that day. As a result of the meeting, all actors must be re-signed with the crew. Everyone who hadn’t signed a confidentiality contract with the crew were no longer allowed to enter or leave the set again.

It was said that the drama director also implicitly sent a message after the meeting, saying that if there was an leak of internal information from the crew again, the set would be directly closed and not opened until the drama was finished.

Qi Cong, after listening to this, asked, “Have they got any results from the screening of the crew?”

“No.” Zhao Zhenxun’s tired face disappeared after a good night’s rest, but his stern expression was ruthless. “It won’t work. There are too many people on the set and even small news spreads very quickly.  There’s probably someone in the crew who is selling news to the paparazzi for the benefits. But we can’t exclude the possibility that there are other actors deliberately passing news outside to take advantage of the opportunity to stir up the water, so determining the source of the news is really impossible. The drama will continue to be shot and since there are many interests involved, this matter will only come to end. The purpose of the crew having such a vigorous screening of personnel isn’t really to find anyone but to make a gesture to Manju and Gu Xun as well as to warn the cast so that those who want to take advantage of the opportunity to stir up muddy water will stop as soon as possible.”

Qi Cong frowned.

“The crew is in place to shoot the drama, so we can only do it ourselves if we really want to find out.”  Zhao Zhenxun glanced at the script in Qi Cong’s hand. “What you need to do now is to learn well and  act the role of You Changqing well. I will arrange the rest for you. You don’t have to worry about it. Also when we go to the set later, some actors may find an opportunity to get close to you. Just respond politely, no need to make friends with any of them.”

Qi Cong was puzzled. “Get close to me?”

“Well, you are the meat and potatoes now.”

Qi Cong was a little confused how he went from being a troublesome person who was disliked by millions of people, to becoming the meat and potatoes. He wanted to ask, but they already arrived at the set so he had to dismiss his thoughts and go in with Zhao Zhenxun.

 

Edited by: Antiope1

 

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