WAM CH33

Shao Si was suddenly thankful that his university acting teacher used to ride him so hard all day long, especially when it came to psychology courses.

“If you want to act well, you must figure out everyone’s psychology thoroughly… Many people don’t take psychology courses seriously. They focus more on acting classes, racking their brains to be pretentious and working hard to create a certain illusion, and often it’s so fake that even they themselves believe it.”

“Shao Si, you have a bit of that intent in you, it’s just that you’re too lazy and refuse to put in the effort to delve deeper. Take this book Totem and Taboo by Freud back, finish reading it, and then write me a 5,000-word reflection.”

To this day, Shao Si hadn’t been able to forget these words from his acting teacher.

…That was his university nightmare.

For Shao Si to reach where he was today based on his acting skills, aside from natural talent, a large part of the credit went to this teacher.

Besides making him read many books, the classroom training arranged was also particularly terrifying.

Once, from the beginning of class to the end, this teacher didn’t say a single word throughout the entire session. Everyone sat below, bewildered. Finally, right when class was about to end, he called roll and asked questions one by one. The first one was Shao Si.

“Don’t be nervous, I only have one question for you in total. Halfway through the class, the classmate next to you went out to answer a phone call. Based on his performance in the second half of the class, who do you think that call was from, and what was the content?”

“…”

As a result, the entire class was marked absent by him for that session.

Right now, Shao Si stared at Zhou Weiping’s face, observing the small subconscious movements he made—his eyes, expressions, tone of voice, and even the intervals between his pauses when speaking.

Faced with Ye Xuan’s question, Zhou Weiping froze for a moment, seeming not quite to understand why she would bring this up. “Zhou… Jianguo? Have you got the wrong person? I’ve never heard this name.”

—He was lying.

Shao Si was fifty percent sure of this conclusion.

“Pupils dilated for a second, hands subconsciously curled inwards, tone of voice unnatural,” Gu Yanzhou said. Because the corner space was cramped, all his warm breath sprayed directly onto Shao Si’s earlobe.

Resisting the urge to care about the temperature on his earlobe, Shao Si picked up the conversation: “Most importantly, when he heard those three words, he didn’t dare look her in the eye.”

They could see it, but Ye Xuan, who was standing right in front of Zhou Weiping, hadn’t noticed a thing.

She stared at Zhou Weiping for a long while, her gaze shifting from his increasingly sagging face to the smoke-gray knit sweater he wore.

“…Sorry, I must have remembered incorrectly.” Ye Xuan bowed slightly.

Zhou Weiping: “It’s fine. But young lady, who is this Zhou Jianguo you’re looking for? Tell me about it, maybe I can actually help you out with something.”

“It’s nothing,” Ye Xuan said, taking two steps back. “It’s just that… because I, I saw a manuscript in a magazine before that I really liked, and felt it was very similar to your writing… so I wanted to ask. Sorry to have disturbed you.”

After saying this, Ye Xuan turned her head and ran off.

It was just a guess; earlier, Shao Si was only fifty percent sure. The remaining fifty percent depended on what kind of expression he would reveal after Ye Xuan left.

Because usually, it was at times like this that a person would show their true self.

The dinner ended very quickly, as everyone had work the next day, even though Director Ou hugged a wine bottle and yelled with a slurred tongue: “Don’t go, anyone—keep drinking! Come, come, come, Old Zhou, sit down, let’s have a few more rounds.”

Zhou Weiping pried his hands away, picked up his coat, and laughed helplessly: “How old are you, yet still so flighty. You guys support him a bit later; I’ll be taking my leave first.”

“Married people are just… so amazing,” Director Ou stood up, swaying as he spoke. “Not like me, an old bachelor… an old bachelor!”

People left one after another, scattering about. Before long, more than half had cleared out.

Li Guangzong brought Shao Si over to say goodbye to Director Ou. Just as Shao Si was turning to leave, the hem of his clothes was unexpectedly yanked by Director Ou.

While trying to pull his clothes back, Shao Si said, “Director Ou, you’re drunk…”

“I’m not drunk! I’m an old bachelor!” As Director Ou spoke, he actually started crying. “I want to have a home too… There was once a beautiful girl standing in front of me, and I didn’t cherish her. That year I was fourteen and she was thirteen, an age like a blooming flower…”

Shao Si: “…”

Whether it was like a blooming flower or not, Shao Si didn’t know. He only knew that a drunkard’s ability to pester people relentlessly was not to be underestimated.

Shao Si: “You really are drunk. How about this, where is your car parked? I’ll walk you over.”

Director Ou: “Did you know? Every exam, I would lend her my paper to copy. I thought she liked me too. I placed the best times of my life and my purest feelings onto her… hic.”

No matter how hard Li Guangzong and Shao Si pulled, they couldn’t pry him off. Director Ou had completely transformed into a dog-skin plaster; if they didn’t listen to him recount those one hundred little stories of his youth, he would cry, make a scene, and try to climb on the table.

Chen Yang had originally left, but turned back to fetch something, only to witness this utterly dreadful scene in the private room.

He instantly froze in place: “What is going on here?”

Shao Si had no time to care who had walked in. He was wholeheartedly dealing with Director Ou. In order to get Director Ou to stop clinging to Li Guangzong’s thigh, he provoked: “What’s the point of just yelling her name when you’re drunk? Just drive over directly and tell her to her face.”

Even though drunk, Director Ou retained a shred of rationality. Amidst the confusion in his eyes, a sudden flash of determination appeared: “But she’s already married!”

“…”

Whatever, I don’t care anymore.

Shao Si signaled Li Guangzong to join him and directly hauled Director Ou to the garage.

Li Guangzong: “This… isn’t very good, is it?”

Shao Si pulled some tissues from the side to wipe his hands: “For problems that can be solved with violence, why waste breath? Lift him up, you grab that end, I’ll take this end.”

In the end, Director Ou was hauled out by their combined efforts, looking like a dead pig, all under Chen Yang’s dumbfounded gaze.

As Shao Si passed by Chen Yang, he went “Shh”: “Director Ou probably won’t remember this tomorrow, but even if he does, don’t let it slip… Let’s unify our story: he fell asleep after getting drunk, okay?”

Later, Chen Yang retrieved his things, returned to the nanny van, and chatted with Gu Yanzhou about this “unified story.”

Gu Yanzhou rested his hand on the car window frame, lowered his head, and chuckled: “Fell asleep after getting drunk? They sure dare to make things up.”

“I didn’t expect Shao Si to be quite lively. I always thought he was cold and aloof.” After saying this, Chen Yang added, “I heard he’s going to livestream himself sleeping tonight? It’s been making a fuss on Weibo all day.”

Gu Yanzhou kept his head down, fiddling with his phone without speaking.

On his phone screen was a completely empty WeChat contact list, saving only a single person.

He tapped on Shao Si’s profile picture. It was a selfie of the man himself, looking as if he were lying in bed having just woken up, hugging a pillow and refusing to let go.

Shao Si finally managed to haul Director Ou into the car just as the two assistants originally accompanying the director rushed out from the elevator. They jogged all the way over, shouting as they ran: “Director Ou—”

“Sorry, we didn’t expect that just stepping away for a moment… Director Ou would get this drunk. We’ve really troubled you.”

“It’s fine,” Shao Si clapped his hands and straightened his back. “Since you’re here, we’ll leave Director Ou to you.”

The few of them exchanged greetings before each heading their separate ways home.

Only when Shao Si got into the car did he have the time to calm down and carefully reflect on everything that happened today.

Zhou Jianguo.

This dime-a-dozen name yielded nothing even after searching Baidu.

Staring at his phone, Shao Si felt a surge of irritation.

He was faced with a screen full of: Surgeon Zhou Jianguo, Fashion Designer Zhou Jianguo, Deputy Director of the Education Bureau Zhou Jianguo.

…

A dazzling array of them.

Shao Si closed the browser and dug out the contact info for the private detective he had dispatched to follow Yang Yinyin last time.

Although there was that blunder with Yang Yinyin, Shao Si still trusted him relatively well. He had made careful considerations when picking someone back then, and besides, when the police intervened in the investigation earlier, they hadn’t revealed his identity to the private detective.

Moreover, this time he wasn’t asking him to follow anyone; he just wanted to check the relationship between the names Zhou Weiping and Zhou Jianguo.

Who would have thought the private detective would refuse outright: Big bro, spare me, will you? With such a massive incident happening last time, my standing in the detective world has been insulted… I don’t want to go drink tea at the police station again.

Shao Si directly raised the price, doubling the commission.

The private detective immediately changed his tune: Okayokie, no problem! At the latest, I’ll send the files you want to your email by the 13th, which is the day after tomorrow. Please check your inbox then, dear!

[People nowadays are truly snobbish,] the system remarked. […Other than this, did you find out anything else?]

Shao Si: [No, Ye Xuan seems to live in her own world, refusing to let anyone get close.] From a certain perspective, this fit the character setting of Mask’s female lead quite well.

[However, back at the restroom entrance, he was definitely lying. After Ye Xuan left, his eyes were visibly panicked. He stood frozen for a long time and almost walked into the wrong restroom.]

[Oh.]

[As for the rest, we’ll know in a few days. Zhou Weiping changed his name; the reason he changed it back then might have some connection to the hidden scandal.]

By the time Shao Si got home and finished showering, it was nearly eleven o’clock. Keeping an eye on the time, he wiped his hair while opening the livestream.

Since there had been an advance notice for this stream, the number of people waiting was several times larger than at noon. Almost the exact second Shao Si started the stream, the viewer count shot up by the tens of thousands continuously.

Shao Si roughly dried his hair a few times, and laid down on the bed to sleep while it was still half-damp.

When he said he would livestream sleeping, he literally livestreamed sleeping, without a single word of nonsense. The camera was pointed right at his face, showing a small section of the blanket as well.

—Holy shit, it really is a fucking sleep stream! I thought we’d at least get to hear a ‘good night’!

—Dry your hair before you sleep, Daddy Shao!!!

—+1 to the above, your hair isn’t dry yet, you’ll get a headache!

Two hours later.

—About an hour ago, watching Daddy Shao’s hair finally dry, my heart was reluctant to leave yet feeling a bit anxious. But I never fucking expected that he would actually fall asleep and forget to turn off the stream, hahahahahaha I’m in a trance.