CH 2

The next day, Qi Xingchen only woke at 10 plus.

He stared at the gift boxes that had no place to be stored in a daze for a bit, then leapt over them, washed up and changed into a simple T-shirt. Opening the door, he rested his gaze on the 1st floor dining room.

The Qi family’s villa follows typical Chinese architecture, with most of the furniture hand-built by carpenters. This included the dining table, which only used one entire piece of phoenix-tail patterned Phoebe zhennan1 wood, that was big enough to accommodate 7 to 10 people eating.

On the table laid a spread of bone china dish plates that were covered with cloches, thus he was unable to see the dishes. On one side of the table, the original owner’s older sister Qi Yuji was on the phone. The rest of the people must have finished their meal and left separately.

Qi Xingchen stepped on the edges of the stairs as he walked down to prevent leaving behind footprints, saving the housekeeper from wiping it again.

Just as he entered the dining room, he could hear Qi Yuji’s coquettish voice:

“I received the invitation card from the brand itself already, but I don’t want to go.”

“Why? Because this year’s haute couture week doesn’t have anything I’m interested in ya.”

“Besides, didi2 just got discharged from the hospital yesterday, I want to accompany him.”

“I just know you would grumble, nevermind, forget it, I’ll accompany you to Milan…… You’re awake!”

Seeing Qi Xingchen come down, Qi Yuji hurriedly beckoned him to come over and eat, and then threw a string of words towards the receiver3: “I’ll let the hotel management choose a room number that you like. When you’ve reached, just go there directly. I can’t talk now, will call you later tonight!”

After speaking, Qi Yuji speedily hung up the phone, then called for the chef to throw out the breakfast and remake it.

“Don’t bother, I can make do with this.” Qi Xingchen stopped her.

“No way, your digestive system isn’t good in the first place, you can’t eat cold foods. Anyways I haven’t eaten either.”

When she saw Qi Xingchen seemed to be curious as to why she had not eaten, Qi Yuji smiled as she explained: “I was worried that you would be bored eating by yourself, so I waited for you for a bit.”

Qi Xingchen did not have the habit of sleeping in, he only woke up this late today because he was not used to this.

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He grew up at the orphanage till he was 4 years old, got adopted by a couple for only a year then was tossed to an acrobatic troupe. No matter where, whenever food came, everyone would rush up in a swarm to snatch it, afraid of going hungry.

There was never someone, or anyone, who would wait just to keep him company.

He had no idea what to answer, so after the chef sent up the fresh pastries, he asked as he lowered his head to eat: “Was it Zhou Yu who just called?”

Zhou Yu was also an artiste from Noah Entertainment and was barely considered a Y-lister4 — his face was shown on a modelling audition programme, and was at best marginally better than a no-name Z-lister5.

At the same time, he was also Qi Yuji’s lover. The two had met at a dinner party, and Qi Yuji was charmed by his tenderness and fell madly in love with him.

Unfortunately, Qi Yuji trusted the wrong person6. Zhou Yu only treated her as an ATM machine and often insulted her behind her back to his friends that she was big-breasted with no brains.

The original owner overheard this. Seeing red, he had a scuffle with Zhou Yu, causing him to accidentally hit the back of his head and die.

What was more difficult to bear was that half a month later, Zhou Yu would come to like the female protagonist during a variety show. Qi Yuji who caught wind of rumours went to confront Zhou Yu and was defeated by just one line “You can’t even compare to one strand of her hair”.

Henceforth the furious jiejie7 would endlessly cause trouble for the female protagonist and do everything an extremely vicious cannon fodder would do. The Qi family then officially entered the male protagonist’s line of sight and their death countdown officially started.

Seeing that her didi guessed it already, Qi Yuji didn’t bother hiding it: “It was him, he asked me to go with him to Milan to look at a show. I will bring back for you the latest models then. By the way, Xingxing, how did you hit your head?”

Qi Xingchen tested the waters: “Zhou Yu pushed me.”

“……Don’t tease me,” it was as if Qi Yuji heard a funny joke, and smiled extremely happily, “Impossible, Yu-ge8 is a super good person!”

Qi Xingchen: “……”

As expected,《Peach in the Night》had set Qi Yuji as a moronic female cannon fodder — with the kind of stupidity where even if Zhou Yu had declared that the one he loves is the female protagonist, Qi Yuji would still attempt with whatever it takes9 to get him back.

In order to make her see the slag man’s true face clearly, he will need to use his own attributes. In addition, merely relying on telling her would be useless, he would have to come up with substantive evidence like videos.

Qi Xingchen then casually pulled out a few sentences to change the topic and thought of how to get the evidence while eating.

Qi Yuji had a small appetite and pushed aside her bowl and chopsticks not long after, then handed over to Qi Xingchen an exquisite box: “This is jiejie’s welcome home gift for you, definitely more to your liking than Dad’s. Be more careful in the future, don’t let your jiejie worry, alright?”

Qi Xingchen took and opened it. In the box was a men’s wristwatch, with the words RICHARD MILLE10 engraved on the dial plate. He didn’t recognise the brand, but just by looking at the design style, he knew the price was unquestionably exorbitant.

The original owner’s family really did love the original owner.

.

Since this body has changed its soul, all the more Qi Xingchen cannot let the incidents that occur half a month later happen.

After breakfast, he went to Noah Entertainment.

In《Peach in the Night》, Noah Entertainment was one of the Big Three in the media industry, training and developing many outstanding artistes, with a Wall of Honour so full of pictures that there was difficulty adding more.

Qi Xingchen stood in front of the Wall of Honour and stared at the photo of Bo Ye at the top, feeling slightly surreal.

“Xingxing, you’re back?”

Just then, someone at the end of the corridor called him and Qi Xingchen turned his head. A boy around his age smiled as he waved at him.

This boy was called Han Qing and was the original owner’s only friend in Noah. The reason behind their familiarity with each other was simple — the same “poverty”.

The original owner’s family spoiled him way too much, which led to him feeling that his family was restricting and imprisoning him, and became more and more rebellious.

His college entrance exam results were not good. He rejected his family’s suggestion of going abroad and attended a local Art college. Soon after enrolling, he was scouted by his agent and willfully signed onto Noah.

In order to prove to his family that he could survive without the support of the Qi family, he fabricated an identity who was born from a working-class family. Until now, everyone in Noah still thought he was just an ordinary kid.

This just made things convenient for Qi Xingchen, if it was possible to not reveal his Qi family status, it was best not to, lest it would be too easy to incur the wrath of the protagonists.

“I was unwell and applied for 2 days of leave,” Qi Xingchen replied vaguely, “Isn’t there dance practice in the afternoon? How come you’re out here?”

“They said there was something important, so all the agents were called for a meeting.”

“The company has a new plan again?”

“I don’t think so, it seems to be related to Bo Ye.”

Han Qing paused for a bit, “Xingxing, did you return home these 2 days?”

Return home?

Qi Xingchen let his gaze drop, “I don’t have a home.”

It was the original owner’s home, and not his.

“Sorry, sorry!” Han Qing thought he had touched a raw nerve and quickly apologised.

Both of them talked as they walked towards the training room. Upon hearing the two words “Bo Ye” from someone else’s mouth, the surreal feeling that Qi Xingchen felt just now became even stronger. He gradually became aware of one thing: the original owner and Bo Ye were in the same company, and he might have a chance of seeing Bo Ye from a distance.

It was a pity that before he got to meet the fake idol, he met another person first.