CH 28

It had been five months since ‘Long River and Falling Moon’ started its shoot. With the hard work of the actors and the staff, it was coming to an end. 

Today was Liu Chuandeng’s last scene, it was a fight scene of life and death. 

Liu Chuandeng was defeated by Murong Jing, he was penetrated by a sharp sword through his chest at the end, collapsing onto the floor. 

Liu Chuandeng laid on the filthy mud, the sky started to rain as pitter-patters were heard, washing away the blood stains on his face. Blood gushed out more and more from the wound that was penetrated by the sword, dyeing half of his body the color of crimson red. 

Before a person dies, it’s as if one will recall his/her memory of his life. One scene before another scene flowed out in front of his eyes as if he was skimming through them. 

The piercing pain as he was lying on the cold wood during the court’s punishment, the days that he was tied onto the bed and was whipped by Zhao Dequan and his people, the satisfaction of tearing apart his enemies who had humiliated him before, Liu Tong’s voice  telling Governor to run away quickly as he was blocking a stab for him… and that determinant back of Liu Tong when placing him in the cave and leaving him to be a bait alone. 

In his life, the only two people that he was close with were Liu He and Liu Tong. Both of them died because of him. As their master, he still couldn’t protect them in the end. 

As one scene followed another, the last one was a scene where his mother held his hand and told him to be obedient right before she sent him into the palace. 

The woman once touched his head and said with affection, “My Deng’er is a good boy.” 

In the end, she still cruelly sent him to that hell-like palace. After receiving the court’s  punishment, he laid on the cold bed for two days and two nights. He was on the verge of death. He called out “Mother” countless times, but nobody was there to give him a hug. He could only spend his days and nights with death and fear. 

“Mother…” 

Liu Chuandeng reached out his hand into the air with much difficulty. He raised up his hand a few times and then put it down weakly. He coughed out a mouthful of filthy blood as his sight slowly became blurred. 

“Mother, I’m in pain…” 

As the camera slowly zoomed out, the figure of the person lying on the mud gradually became a black dot, and finally disappeared in the rain that was getting heavier. There wasn’t even anyone there to help take care of his corpse. 

…

“Cut!” 

Zhou Jin shouted out, “Pass!” 

When Jiang Li heard his voice, he who was lying on the mud opened his eyes and crawled up from the floor. 

It was already the end of January. Although there wasn’t any snow, the temperature had also dropped into the negatives. As Zhou Jin’s voice was heard, Xiao Zhou – the assistant – immediately took his down jacket from beside him and walked towards Jiang Li, covering him. He then gave him a warm wet towel. 

The clothes Jiang Li was wearing were already wet, his body was shrouded by the chilly air. He trembled as he held onto the towel, simply wiping the blood and mud that was on his face. He walked towards Zhou Jin. Jin Yu, who was acting with him earlier, also walked towards him. 

After confirming with Zhou Jin that they didn’t need a re-shoot, Jiang Li’s shoot had finished. Today’s entire shoot had also ended. 

The staff handed him a large bouquet of flowers. He accepted them and thanked everyone. After that, he took a picture with everyone at the shooting site while wearing Liu Chuandeng’s costume and uploaded it to Weibo. 

Jiang Li V: Officially ended. Liu Chuandeng, goodbye. [Picture] 

It had been half a year since he came to this world. Other than acting, Jiang Li had also joined a variety show, shot for advertisements and went for interview shows. Currently, his Weibo has almost ten million followers. After the weibo was posted, the comment section was filled with fans commenting on it. Most of them were asking for it to be quickly aired. 

As Jiang Li finished removing his make-up and changing his clothes, he received a call from Jiang Zhan. He said that he saw him completing the shooting of the drama today so he wanted to take him to dinner. 

He had been hanging on a wire for half a day, so although it was winter he was filled with sweat. He had even gotten covered with mud. Jiang Li could only simply wipe his body while on the drama set, so he planned to return to take a bath first. He also wanted to  take the presents given by his fans back home. So, he told Jiang Zhan to meet him at the restaurant. 

His fans gave him a lot of presents; two big boxes needed to be used to carry them all. Jiang Li couldn’t carry them all alone, and Jiang Zhan wasn’t at home at that time, so he asked Feng Dong to help him carry one box while he carried the other one. They took the elevator up from the basement’s parking lot. 

Even though Feng Dong had been working as Jiang Li’s agent for half a year, it was his first time going up to his house. They carried the two big boxes as they chatted about future work. 

Different from the other agents who needed to find and snatch the resources themselves for their artists; Jiang Li’s jobs were arranged directly by the company. Moreover, they were top-notch resources. Feng Dong swore he had the most relaxing job being Jiang Li’s artist in his 20 years as an agent.  

“There’s a week of break time for you after this. You’ll need to join a reality show as a guest after your holiday, which will take about 3 days. The schedule is already planned. I’ll send it to your WeChat later.” Feng Dong said. 

“Okay.” Jiang Li didn’t have any objections, he figured that he could go back to his hometown once in this one-week holiday. There was a leap month that year, so even though it was already the beginning of January, there were still two months before Chinese New Year. 

“You did a great job in this period of time, take a good rest. Tell me if you have any place you wanna go as a holiday. I’ll help you book the flight ticket and hotel.” Feng Dong asked. 

“I wanna go back to my hometown.” Jiang Li shook his head. He was in a rush when he went back the last time, so he could only stay for a day and couldn’t spend his time with Mother Jiang well. 

Once the lift reached the floor where Jiang Li was living, they carried out the boxes. Feng Dong said as he walked out, “That’s fine too. Tell me when you plan to go back and I’ll book the plane ticket.” 

Coincidentally, the next elevator had also stopped at that floor. As the door of the elevator opened and the person inside walked out, Feng Dong took a glance subconsciously and stopped abruptly as soon as he saw who that person was. 

“President~President Jiang?” 

The person who came out of the lift was precisely Jiang Zhan. Feng Dong didn’t expect to meet him here. He quickly greeted in shock and pulled Jiang Li to the side in two steps, making way for Jiang Zhan. At the same time, he grasped onto Jiang Li’s sleeves, initiating him to not just stand there and quickly greet him. 

Jiang Li also didn’t expect that Jiang Zhan would suddenly come back. They had even promised to meet at the restaurant earlier on the phone. He looked at him with a weird expression, “Why did you come back?” 

Jiang Zhan didn’t answer him. Feng Dong was shocked by Jiang Li’s rudeness, but before he could clearly figure out what his words meant, he pulled Jiang Li’s shirt with force as he said to Jiang Zhan, “So sorry, President Jiang. Jiang Li was too shocked to see you here suddenly, don’t take it to heart…”

“I came back to fetch you.” 

Jiang Zhan didn’t care about the apology and only answered Jiang Li. He took the box from Jiang Li naturally and discovered the things were quite heavy. He then asked, “What are these?” 

“The presents my fans gave me.” Jiang Li said, “It’s a bit heavy, so be careful.” 

Jiang Li had said this as he took out the key and opened the door. Jiang Zhan then carried the box inside. Jiang Li turned his head and saw Feng Dong standing far away from them, still carrying the box with both of his hands with an indescribable expression on his face. 

“Brother Feng?” Jiang Li waved his hand towards him, “Come in.” 

Feng Dong, “…” I just wanna leave here quickly. 

After placing the things in the house, Jiang Li asked Feng Dong if he wanted to have dinner with them. Feng Dong could suddenly feel a fierce, piercing, stare at his back. He knew it was the murderous intent of his company’s boss without even looking. He was sure that if he really agreed to Jiang Li, he would be fired tomorrow. 

Being Jiang Li’s agent for so long, he always knew that there was someone behind Jiang Li, but he didn’t go out of his way to check who that person was, since it was better to keep things unknown if they shouldn’t be known. Moreover, Jiang Li protected his secret well. If he hadn’t come up to his house today, he would never have known Jiang Li’s backer was Jiang Zhan. 

However, after getting over his initial shock, he also felt that this was a little expected. Thinking about it, other than Jiang Zhan, who would be able to give a newbie that was just signed under contract A-level resources? The resources Jiang Li had right now were the same as the popular male star in the company. 

Moreover, judging from the natural and experienced actions of Jiang Zhan helping Jiang Li with the box, their relationship was quite good. Jiang Li once said that his cat was given by someone really important to him, then that person should also be Jiang Zhan. 

Under Jiang Zhan’s sight, Feng Dong walked out of their house stiffly. He finally took a deep breath and sighed after entering the lift. He exclaimed in a low tone, “Oh my god.” 

After Jiang Li finished bathing, he then went out to have dinner with Jiang Zhan. He also told him about going back to his hometown. 

“For how many days? When are you going back?” Jiang Zhan asked. 

“One week, I guess. I wanna go tomorrow.” Jiang Li smiled, although his hometown was a bit far, it had an upper hand in having beautiful scenery. It was also a good place for relaxing. 

“I can’t bring Jiang Nuomi on the plane, you’ll need to take care of him.” 

Jiang Zhan nodded, “I’ll ask Ji Shu to book the plane ticket.” 

“No need to trouble him, Brother Feng said he can help…” 

Jiang Zhan raised his head and glanced at him, Jiang Li changed his words tactfully, “Okay, okay, okay. You arrange it. You decide everything.” 

Once they returned home after eating, Jiang Li sent a message to Feng Dong, telling him that he would leave the next day and the plane ticket was already booked, and that he would contact him when he came back. 

There were a few messages from Yan Xi and Feng Yating in WeChat, congratulating him on finishing the drama. Jiang Li replied to them one by one. He stood up from the sofa and wanted to pack his clothes in his room, but he then coincidentally heard Jiang Zhan calling Ji Shu, asking him to book the next day’s plane ticket; two of them. 

Two plane tickets?

Jiang Li stood behind him and only asked after he finished calling, “Why did you ask to book two plane tickets? Are you going with me?” 

Jiang Zhan turned his head and looked at him, “You’re not happy?” 

“Of course it’s not that.” Jiang Li smiled, a sense of joy could be seen in his eyes, “I’m very happy about that, but what about Jiang Nuomi?”

“Let Ji Shu bring him home, his girlfriend also owns a cat, she knows how to take care of him.” Jiang Zhan had already arranged the schedule, Ji Shu would come and drive them to the airport tomorrow. He would also bring Jiang Nuomi back to his home at the same time. 

Since he had already planned everything so well, Jiang Li naturally didn’t have any objections. 

The next day, they both boarded the plane to City L. After arriving in City L and staying for a night, they took the shuttle bus and arrived at Ji Yang Town. 

It took almost 6 hours for them to travel from the city to the town. Nearly half of the route had muddy roads, and the passengers could get on and off the bus anywhere they wanted. As they reached the town and got off the bus, Jiang Zhan’s expression was indescribable. When he heard Jiang Li say that he would need to take the pedicab from the town to the village, he pressed in between his eyebrows with a headache. He thought that he must have been possessed to agree to come here. 

It was the first time that Jiang Zhan had taken the electronic pedicab in his life. It was even a convertible pedicab. The road to the village wasn’t smooth either; he felt like he was riding a bumper car as it was always shaking so much that his buttocks were getting flat.

Fortunately the village was not too far from the city. It only took a little more than 10 minutes on the pedicab. 

Although the road was bumpy along the journey, the intoxication of a beautiful spring day coupled with the fresh air that was not polluted made Jiang Zhan’s mood better. He carried the presents prepared for Mother Jiang and followed Jiang Li home. 

The houses in the village were built by the villagers themselves. Most of them were small two story houses. Jiang Li’s house was just near the entrance of the village, it was a one and a half story house. The outer side of the wall wasn’t painted, so the red bricks that were showing outside were dull and old. It proved that the house had been there for a long time. He heard from Jiang Li that they were already building her a new house. 

The gate to the front yard wasn’t closed. From outside, they could hear boisterous laughter and conversations echoing from the living room of the first floor. As they were walking towards the voices, they heard a woman with a bright middle-pitch voice saying, “If he finds someone suitable for him, he can start dating first, don’t rush to have a wedding. Let them meet each other to see if they feel connected. Let me tell you, this girl has a master’s degree! What a high academic achievement, your Jiang Li won’t suffer a loss with her!” 

Jiang Zhan, “…??” 

I finally came here after experiencing so many difficulties, and I’m sending Jiang Li here for a blind date?