WAM CH20

Li Guangzong looked up, his face full of bewilderment. “What hooligan?”

“…” Shao Si coughed, remained silent for a moment, and said, “Nothing.”

“But, the thing you said Chen Yang left with you yesterday wouldn’t happen to be my male god, Gu, would it?” In a flash of insight, Li Guangzong looked at the man on the sofa—who remained incredibly handsome even covered in the stench of alcohol—then looked at Shao Si, connecting the two things together.

Shao Si remained noncommittal. “Are we leaving or not? We’re going to be late. Is this how you act as a manager? Move out of my way.”

Li Guangzong kept turning his head back as they left. Shao Si simply pulled the blanket on Gu Yanzhou up, covering that face, and said, “Gone, stop looking.”

“Did you make him hangover soup?” Even after they had stepped out the door, Li Guangzong was still worried. “He drank too much, sleeping too long isn’t good either, it really hurts the stomach. You should have woken him up and given him a bowl of hangover soup…”

The wind outside was still very strong. The weather forecast said a typhoon might hit in the next few days.

Shao Si walked out the door toward the nanny van, pulling on his hood after taking two steps.

Then, as he bent down to climb into the back seat, he lowered his hood. “What soup? You’ve known me for so many years, have you ever seen me enter the kitchen? …Am I his fucking mother to boil soup for him?”

Li Guangzong was heartbroken hearing this, accusing, “Cold, you cold-hearted daddy.”

Shao Si: “…Idiot son.”

On the way, Shao Si was almost asleep when he remembered something else. “Stupid son, since you’re his fan, do you know who Lucy is?”

Li Guangzong: “Ah, what Lucy?”

Shao Si said calmly, “Forget it.”

“What do you mean forget it?!” Li Guangzong almost smashed his laptop, protesting, “You do this every time! You seduce people and then run away, can you ever finish a sentence properly! What Lucy! What is Lucy! What does she have to do with my male god!”

“I don’t know what it has to do with him either,” Shao Si lay back down and said, “Anyway, it has nothing to do with you.”

When Gu Yanzhou woke up, it was already noon. Shao Si didn’t know what his reaction was waking up alone on an unfamiliar sofa.

However, Gu Yanzhou actually took the initiative to send him a WeChat message to thank him for the first time.

[Gu Yanzhou]: Thanks for last night.

When Shao Si saw the message, he had just finished shooting a scene and was sitting on the sidelines resting, casually chatting with the director.

“I don’t think this shooting technique works. Look, after pulling out for a wide shot here, whether you use a triangle composition or an S-composition afterwards, it feels like something is missing. This shot lacks tension…” The director spoke passionately, “Do you understand tension? It’s a pity for this plot point, it didn’t get the most perfect presentation.”

Shao Si gave a few “mhm’s” and “ah’s”, absentmindedly echoing him.

He had initially only gone over to ask the director why Lu Jiahui hadn’t come today, leaving Liu Qi accompanied only by a little assistant. As a result, the director had dragged him into a conversation about professional technicalities, getting more and more fired up the more he spoke.

“The cutting angle has some issues too, this web drama is really…”

Shao Si stealthily replied to the WeChat message, letting the director’s words go in one ear and out the other.

[Your Son Shao]: You’re welcome. Captain Wang said to contact him after you wake up.[Gu Yanzhou]: Okay, got it.

It was still the same ordinary conversation as before.

Shao Si inevitably connected the usual Gu Yanzhou with his drunken state from last night. Especially considering that while clearly lying beneath him, he acted like a complete hooligan—where was the ‘gentle and jade-like’ persona everyone usually praised?

Shao Si’s fingertip hovered over the screen and paused. After hesitating twice, he still typed out a line:

[Your Son Shao]: What the hell is Lucy?

Just as he sent it, the director yelled through his small megaphone right next to him: “Liu Qi! What are you doing!”

“How many times have I told you to pay attention to your blocking, don’t keep turning your back to the camera! I just praised you a couple days ago, how did your acting regress again today?”

Shao Si’s eardrums buzzed, his hand shook, and he subconsciously shoved his phone back into his pocket.

Liu Qi’s condition wasn’t good today. It was unknown whether it was because Lu Jiahui wasn’t there, but her acting was a bit impatient.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Liu Qi stopped, flustered. “Let’s do it again, this time I definitely…”

“Alright, alright,” the director waved his hand. “Everyone take a break first, it’s about time for lunch anyway. We’ll start again in twenty minutes.”

Shao Si got up, intending to return to the nanny van to find Li Guangzong for lunch.

But he was stopped by Liu Qi.

“Brother Shao,” wearing her school uniform, Liu Qi stood at the corner, looking hesitant to speak. “I… I have something I want to tell you.”

Shao Si genuinely lacked the patience to constantly accompany girls on strolls in the garden, but Liu Qi was technically a mission-related target.

The two walked in silence for a couple of laps. Liu Qi’s mood improved, and she finally smiled, jogging two steps to get ahead of Shao Si, then walking backward to face him. Her uniform skirt flared and swayed, and her ponytail bounced as well. “Do you have someone you like?”

“No,” Shao Si didn’t even need to think about this question. “Never have.”

“Is that so.”

Liu Qi slowed her steps, then tilted her head and added, “Then what kind of person do you like?”

Shao Si kept his patience and swallowed the ‘none of your business’ that reached his lips.

So he thought for a moment and said concisely, “Haven’t met one, so I don’t know.”

After he finished speaking, Liu Qi suddenly ran off into the distance.

She stopped when she was about fifty meters away, cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone, and shouted, “—I have a sentence I want to tell you.”

However, she spoke the second half of the sentence very softly. When the wind blew over, it easily scattered the words.

Shao Si had been confessed to by many girls growing up.

This setup was as familiar as could be.

That sentence scattered by the wind was nothing more than three words.

I like you.

After speaking, Liu Qi smiled slightly, ran further away, and finally waved at him from the distance.

Watching her, Shao Si vaguely felt this confession was more like a farewell. It was as if, by saying it out loud, she was ready to throw it away.

“…I really don’t understand what these young kids are thinking all day.” As soon as Shao Si got in the car, Li Guangzong heard his artist muttering to himself.

“What young kids?” Li Guangzong turned his head and asked. “Did something happen?”

Shao Si slid into the back seat and discussed with his manager: “Those confessions in youth dramas, what do you think of them?”

“They’re quite romantic. I’ve been watching The Campus Prince from a Shooting Star lately, and when the female lead shouts ‘I like you, I like you’, that kind of green, hazy, pure, and crazy feeling…”

“Stop,” Shao Si lay back. “…Can’t understand it, don’t want to hear it anymore. There might be a generation gap between us.”

“By the way, why didn’t Lu Jiahui come today?” Li Guangzong put down his phone. “I was on edge all day, it feels so relaxing that he didn’t show up.”

“Said there was something at home, took a week off from the company.”

This meant Captain Wang and his team would be busy. Lu Jiahui had likely been tricked by their layered traps and was currently walking right into them.

Li Guangzong thought for a moment, then asked a question that had been bothering him for a long time: “But I still don’t quite understand, why did the police approach you guys and have you act out a scene like that?”

Shao Si curled his finger at him. “Come, let Daddy deduce it for you.”

The police’s strategy actually wasn’t hard to deduce: use the ‘evidence’ Yang Yinyin supposedly left behind as leverage to force Lu Jiahui to expose himself, and then force him to seek refuge with the ‘Boss’.

Through this cycle, all the core members of the drug trafficking syndicate would be exposed to the public eye.

Last time, Captain Wang had revealed that the reason Lu Jiahui was able to reach his current position in the syndicate was because he held leverage over the ‘Boss’, so no one dared touch him.

To put it plainly, it was to instigate an internal power struggle.

Once conflicts of interest arose, dogs biting dogs, that was when it got truly vicious.

…

Li Guangzong listened, completely dumbfounded.

“It’s okay to be stupid, just read more books and newspapers.” Shao Si patted his shoulder. “…I’m just guessing too, don’t take it too seriously. What are we having for lunch?”

“…Eat out? There’s a Sichuan restaurant nearby. Tell me what you want, and I’ll go pack it for you.”

It was only after Shao Si finished eating that he noticed the message Gu Yanzhou had sent back.

[Gu Yanzhou]: Lucy?[Gu Yanzhou]: I don’t know what you’re referring to, but I used to have a dog named Lucy.[Your Son Shao]: Fuck.

Shao Si couldn’t hold it back, but regretted it a bit after sending it, debating whether to recall it.

But his debating was useless; Gu Yanzhou had already seen it.

[Gu Yanzhou]: Hm?

…

Shao Si wiped his mouth and replied without changing his expression: Sorry, sent to the wrong person.

For the next few days, everything proceeded according to the original shooting schedule.

Shao Si began preparing for the Masks audition. He read a bit every night before bed, finishing the entire set of books in a few days, and then started analyzing the character.

After that confession, Liu Qi didn’t exhibit any abnormal behavior toward him, nor did she cause him any trouble. Shao Si was also too lazy to pry into what she had meant.

“The Demon Prince’s Runaway Sweetheart wraps up in half a month. Once you pass the audition, you can take a quick break and head straight into the Masks crew,” Li Guangzong calculated for him. “My only worry is that the company will think the pay isn’t high enough… and jump out to interfere.”

“…” That was genuinely hard to say.

Shao Si had signed a ten-year contract with the company, spending the first five years slowly rising to fame.

It was impossible for him to renew his contract with the company; he had long planned to leave and open his own independent studio. Therefore, in the remaining time, the company would definitely spare no effort to squeeze him dry while he was still popular. Regardless of whether a script was good or bad, they would only look at the paycheck.

“They still have to give Director Ou face,” Shao Si said. “If all else fails, I’ll just take on some commercials.”

“That’s the only way… Seriously, why did you pick this company back then?”

Shao Si touched his nose and said nothing.

Because the broken system had told him this company had a lot of dark secrets.

The days passed seemingly peacefully.

On the day The Demon Prince’s Runaway Sweetheart successfully wrapped up, the entire crew went to a hotel for a farewell dinner.

After several rounds of drinks, the director, his face flushed, slammed the table hard. Supporting himself on the tabletop, he shakily stood up, swaying his head as he said, “I know, everyone outside says we’re filming a trashy drama, a terrible drama… a brain-dead drama. The media criticizes us as worthless!”

The hand Li Guangzong was using to pick up meat paused. He patted Shao Si with the back of his hand. “…What is going on here?”

Shao Si had his head down, his phone resting on his lap as he chatted with Chi Zijun. Hearing this, he didn’t even look up: “Drunk and acting crazy, probably.”

The assistant director and screenwriter hurriedly pulled him, urging him to sit down and talk properly.

“Director, please sit, don’t stand.” “Yeah, whatever you want to say, we can say it slowly sitting down. Just sit down, ah.”

The director waved his large hand, barely managing to steady himself from pitching headfirst onto the dining table, and refused: “I will not! I’ve held these words in my heart for a long time today!”

“I am also a director! I also have dignity! I…”

As he spoke, he stopped, looking somewhat nauseous—probably having drunk too much and wanting to vomit.

Shao Si discreetly moved his chair back two inches.

Fortunately, the lighting technician carried the director out just in time. As the director passed the doorway, he was still continuously flapping his arms: “I am a capable director! I also have dreams!”

…

Once the director was gone, Li Guangzong leaned in to Shao Si’s ear and reminded him: “Your little expression of disgust just now was too obvious.”

“I was afraid he’d throw up on me.” Shao Si looked up. “How much longer are you going to eat? Can we leave now?”

“Let’s go, let’s go, it’s about time anyway.”

After speaking, Li Guangzong wiped his mouth with a napkin, then stood up and exchanged pleasantries with the actors and staff at their table: “Come, come, come. On behalf of Xiao Si, I raise this glass to everyone. Take your time eating, we have some matters to attend to so we’ll be leaving first. Wishing everyone a happy life and smooth work in the days ahead… Xiao Si owes you all a lot of thanks for your care during this time, thank you so much…”

Shao Si put away his phone, stood up, and bowed to everyone along with Li Guangzong.

While walking out, Li Guangzong suddenly stopped mid-step and slapped his forehead: “Ah, I left my coat there. Wait for me, I’ll go back and get it.”

Although Shao Si muttered ‘always leaving things behind all day long’, he still leaned against the corridor wall, waiting for him to fetch his coat so they could leave together.

[Chi Zijun]: Bro, Bro, are you still there?[Chi Zijun]: Oh right, I saw Best Actor Gu at the neighboring set yesterday. Super handsome! Ah! Can’t breathe!

Gu Yanzhou.

Staring at these three words, Shao Si narrowed his eyes.

Regarding that incident at Longyue last time, he had pestered Captain Wang about it for a long time afterward.

Unable to withstand his relentless pestering, and seeing how he frequently ran to the police station to bring them breakfast, Captain Wang finally revealed that it was a trap set by Lu Jiahui.

This person, Lu Jiahui, was incredibly cautious.

It wasn’t enough that Shao Si’s acting had fooled him that day; he needed to confirm it once more through Gu Yanzhou.

Therefore, Gu Yanzhou had no choice but to attend the banquet and act out another scene.

“Seems he was fooled. Then where is Lu Jiahui now?”

When Shao Si asked this, Captain Wang was silent for a moment. He walked over to his desk, flipped a page on his calendar, stared at the date, and sighed, “He ran.”

Contrary to his honest appearance, Lu Jiahui was as slippery as a loach.

The moment he realized he had walked into a trap, he fled overnight, and the police were currently searching for him with all their might.

“Fortunately, through him, we’ve already pretty much grasped the core members, and the evidence is being continuously collected by the several undercover officers we sent in,” Captain Wang said. “It’s only a matter of time before Lu Jiahui is brought to justice.”

After chatting for a few minutes, Shao Si brought up the old topic again: “In that phone call, what exactly did Yinyin say?”

“…Why do you care so much about that phone call? You’ve asked no less than ten times, haven’t you?” “I was secretly in love with her, of course I care a lot.”

As Shao Si reminisced up to this point, Li Guangzong had already returned to the doorway carrying his coat. “I’ll drop you off home first. I still have to go to the company for a meeting. Stay at home and don’t run around. There are a lot of rumors out there lately. Don’t know if it’s because it’s the end of the year, but the paparazzi are starting to scramble for their KPIs.”

Shao Si: “Oh.”

“Did you see the number one trending search yesterday? It’s even more baffling than your scandal with Gu Yanzhou,” Li Guangzong tsked twice. “‘Shocking! A certain Heavenly King’s wife has an affair!’ …Turns out it was just the Heavenly King himself putting on some weight, and on a dark, windy night, the paparazzi didn’t recognize him.”

“Didn’t see it,” Shao Si answered the first half of the question before commenting, “Are they mentally ill?”

It was already dark outside. The moon, quite round, hung in mid-air.

The car was parked in the underground garage, and the driver, having just received the call, was driving towards the entrance.

Winter had arrived.

Shao Si felt a chill. He bent slightly and rubbed his knees. Following this movement, the collar of his oversized hoodie slipped down a large margin.

Looking from the front, one could see he was still wearing a black undershirt inside.

“Told you to wear long johns, but you wouldn’t listen,” Li Guangzong shot him a sideways glance. “Now you know it’s cold.”

Shao Si straightened up and said, “If I really listened to you and wore long johns under ripped jeans, I’d definitely be crazy.”

Li Guangzong: “What’s the big deal? Maybe you’d magically transform into the new generation’s fashion guru. Honestly, every time I go abroad with you to attend those fashion masters’ spring/summer or autumn/winter collection runway shows, I feel like I’ve gone blind. What kind of things are those clothes? Can you even wear them outside? Are they even clothes… There’s one in particular I remember deeply: a person completely covered from head to toe in a ‘large cylinder’ with a diameter of one meter, shuffling around the runway for a lap.”

While they were talking, the car had already pulled up in front of them.

Shao Si got in first, then rolled down the window, rested on the window frame, and curled his finger at his manager. “Little country bumpkin, hurry up and get in.”

Li Guangzong: “…”

Halfway there, Shao Si remembered something. He scrolled through his chat history with Chi Zijun and asked, “Do you know about the show Searching for Him in the Crowd?”

“Searching for Him in the Crowd?” Li Guangzong was looking at the latest notices published by the company. Hearing this, he put down his laptop, took off his glasses, and said, “That unprecedentedly groundbreaking show? Why are you suddenly asking about this?”

Searching for Him in the Crowd was adapted from a Thai same-sex dating show, originally titled Gay as Gay Can Be. Not long ago, Jiashi Entertainment spent a heavy sum to buy its copyright, causing a massive uproar.

This show obviously couldn’t be broadcast on television and could only take the web-broadcast route.

Most peers in the circle were not optimistic about this show.

Putting aside the public’s current acceptance of homosexuality, how many people would be willing to go on this show and, facing a global audience, honestly tell everyone, ‘I am GAY’?

“Zijun received an invitation from the director’s team, asking him to participate.” Shao Si massaged his brow. “This idiotic child is actually quite happy about it.”

“As a guest?”

“No… as a romance mentor. The kind who sits on the sidelines pointing and commenting when a coupling succeeds or fails.”

Li Guangzong didn’t know how to evaluate this: “Life and death are determined by fate, wealth and honor by Heaven. Tell him to take care of himself.”