CH 11

February 27, 2021kaychandra

Chapter 11: Unexpected accident

Translated & Edited by KChandra

The plot of ‘Princess of the Closed Moon’ was dog blooded, but perhaps the audience liked this kind of dog blood TV Drama. So halfway through the series, the drama had already become a hit, and no film or TV program aired during the same period had ratings comparable to it.

And although there was no concrete evidence on the internet about the matter of Zhou Huaisheng’s studio smearing the newcomer behind the scenes, after everyone saw Gongxi Qiao’s superb acting skills in the drama, more and more people believed that the previous gossip about Gongxi Qiao being kept by someone was deliberately spread by Zhou Huaisheng.

Some experts guessed the location of the photo and how far the person who took the photo was from Zhou Huaisheng, and then came to a conclusion that the photo was most likely taken under the building of Red Light TV.

Fans who paid attention to Gongxi Qiao knew that Gongxi Qiao only visited Red Light TV twice, once to participate in a variety show with the crew to promote ‘Princess of the Closed Moon’ and once to participate in the filming of the ‘Daily Face to Face’ program.

Given that there was an odd-even number driving restriction policy[1] in the imperial capital and the car in the photo posted by Qiao Shao’s father had a flashy 868 special tycoon license plate number[2], and Gongxi Qiao recorded ‘Daily Face to Face’ on a day when there was an even number driving restriction, this photo could not have been taken that day.

At the same time, a reputable source revealed that Gongxi Qiao came out of the TV station building before Zhou Huaisheng on the day of the ‘Princess of the Closed Moon’ promotion, but the interval was definitely not more than two minutes.

Although Zhou Huaisheng’s fans said that their male god wouldn’t be jealous of a small artist, let alone do this kind of unseemly little trick, many people still believed the expert’s speculation and started to turn into anti-fans of Zhou Huaisheng.

Netizen F: One thing I always wanted to say, I suspect that Qiao Shao is my school senior, because the statue in the background of his graduation photo is exactly the same as the one outside our school library, even the building behind it is very similar.

The netizens knew that Gongxi Qiao wasn’t a film and television student, which Gongxi Qiao mentioned in ‘Daily Face to Face’, but they didn’t know which university he graduated from in the imperial capital. So netizens asked which university the netizen who was likely to be a junior of Gongxi Qiao was a student of.

Netizen F: I’m a freshman at Imperial University, but unfortunately I was born a year late, otherwise I would still have the opportunity to become an alumnus with the male god.

The Imperial University?

The one that was ranked number one in all of Flower Country, Imperial University? The rumors said that this university wasn’t short of geniuses and academics. Most of the students who graduated from this university were the top performers or leaders in a certain field.

Was the male god actually an academic superstar?

Unfortunately, this speculation wasn’t confirmed. Netizens asked under Gongxi Qiao’s microblog and didn’t get an answer, and some even went to the official blog of Imperial University to seek the truth, but given that Imperial University had always been lofty, no one expected an actual answer to a minor question about whether the young entertainer was a student of their school.

However, to everyone’s shock, the official microblog of Imperial University acknowledged the matter.

Official Weibo of Imperial University V: Thank you all for your attention to our school. Gongxi Qiao is indeed our university’s former outstanding graduate, who represented our school in many competitions and won gold medals. We also thank you all for your concern for Gongxi Qiao, and wish him great ambitions in the future, to win glory for the society and the country.

After seeing this microblog, whether they liked Gongxi Qiao or not, they all had a blank face. The official blog of the Imperial University was usually very cold, but today they actually came out and issued a statement for Gongxi Qiao.

He represented the school many times in competitions and won many gold medals?

They felt like they needed to kneel to read this microblog.

Good-looking, rich, loving parents, good acting skills, graduated from a famous school and also excellent grades, if such a man wasn’t a male god, who was?

Soon someone pulled out the competitions that Gongxi Qiao participated in since childhood and the ranking of the competitions, and also edited a long post for all netizens to look up to.

The calligraphy competition, chess competition, guqin competition, archery competition, equestrian competition, and all kinds of Chinese painting competitions, math competitions and so on. Just listing down these competitions should scare a few people to death, okay? And then looking at the results, it was either gold or silver, without even a third place to be found.

If you see this message this content has been stolen. Please read at KChandraTL [dot] wordpress [dot] com.

Male god, are you really okay?

No wonder Xu Ruiheng’s horse riding posture in ‘Princess of the Closed Moon’ was so handsome, his zither playing posture was so elegant, and his calligraphy was so beautiful. It turned out that this wasn’t a body double, it was the male god himself acting, ah!

Not only the netizens were shocked, even the staff of the same crew with Gongxi Qiao was also shocked. According to the words of Director Zhang, such an outstanding young man, how incomprehensible was it to play the third male lead of a TV drama, ah?

Gongxi Qiao had countless netizens kneeling to him by relying on the accumulation of his previous life and this life’s experience. He didn’t have any feelings about this because it was just a consequence of the difference in times.

These things he was good at were indeed remarkable in the eyes of people nowadays, but in his previous life, those things were just the knowledge that was mandatory for students of the academy.

Back then he wasn’t good at playing chess, but in order not to let his other peers find this out, he desperately studied the game of chess.

In those days, the big shots loved to use chess to explore people’s strategies, use words to observe people’s character, and use the sound of music to check people’s hearts.

In his previous life, he had learned everything desperately, but in this life, he only used it to compete and give himself as well as his parents glory. He didn’t know whether he should feel regret or relief.

“Qiao Shao, there are several agencies that want to sign with you. They have already contacted me. This is the content of the contracts they provided,” He Peng found Gongxi Qiao who was sleeping at home, and then handed him several contracts.

After receiving the contracts and sitting cross-legged on the sofa, Gongxi Qiao first threw aside the one that wanted to sign a ten-year contract with him, thinking that he was a newcomer who lacked money to spend and had no access. They wanted to sign for ten years in one breath, there was no sincerity at all.

In the end, he was only interested in two contracts: a four-year contract offered by Ringstar Entertainment and a three-year contract offered by Senhe Entertainment. In terms of the strength of the two companies, Ringstar had more resources and stronger agents, but in terms of the content of the contract, Senhe’s was more sincere, and they even said that as long as Gongxi Qiao was willing to sign with them, they would give him the company’s gold agent.

“Ringstar has a lot of popular artists, and several of the biggest actors and actresses who have won movie awards are also titular artists of the company, and their company’s star-making ability is very strong,” He Peng saw Gongxi Qiao reading the contracts of these two companies, so he made a short introduction. “Senhe is a new entertainment company opened a few years ago. Although the development of these years was good it lacks real big stars. Some time ago their first star jumped ship and went to Ringstar, and now the company is lacking artists who can hold up.”

“As an artist who is temporarily popular from a single role, do you think Ringstar will focus on cultivating me?” Gongxi Qiao put down the contract from Ringstar and smiled. “Help me contact the people related to Senhe Entertainment. If they’re willing, we can talk about it.”

This was the first time Chen Ke had been in this upscale cafe. Because it was two or three o’clock in the afternoon, there were not many customers inside, and the atmosphere seemed extraordinarily quiet with a piano song playing in the store that he wasn’t familiar with.

He glanced around and found the person he wanted to see in the corner. When he got closer, he realized that this young man, who had recently become popular throughout the Internet, looked a little better than he did on TV.

“Tea or coffee?” The young man smiled politely at him and waved at the waiter.

Chen Ke looked at the cup of milk tea in front of the young man and returned the smile, “Coffee, please.”

While Chen Ke was sizing up Gongxi Qiao, Gongxi Qiao was also observing him, and only after the other man’s coffee was brought up did he speak, “Mr. Chen is a bit younger than I thought.”

“Qiao Shao is also more handsome than I thought,” Chen Ke said half jokingly, half seriously, “We really want to work with Qiao Shao, I wonder what Qiao Shao has to say about the contract we offer?”

“I appreciate your company’s regard for me, and I can feel your sincerity,” Gongxi Qiao sipped his milk tea, noticed the expectation in the other party’s eyes, and smiled, “As long as your company promises not to force me to take jobs I don’t like, I think our cooperation will be very pleasant.”

Chen Ke heard the meaning of Gongxi Qiao’s words and the smile on his face became significantly larger: “Don’t worry, Qiao Shao, we will definitely respect your choice. We’ll only make suggestions to you in terms of work, we will definitely not force you.”

Chen Ke did not expect things to go so smoothly that he concluded the negotiation before he had a sip of coffee. So he relaxed a lot in the following conversation, and after a cup of coffee, the two had made an appointment to sign the contract tomorrow morning at the company building.

After Chen Ke took a phone call and left in a hurry, Gongxi Qiao slowly finished his cup of milk tea, got up and put on his hat to leave the cafe and walked to his car parked outside.

He had just opened the car door when he saw a car speeding towards him. Then there was a harsh braking sound, the other car’s front end hit the street light not too gently, and the rear of the car clipped the front of his car when it whipped around.

Quickly, two young men stepped out of the car across the street, one of them hurrying toward the back seat and one toward Gongxi Qiao.

“Sir, just now our car suddenly lost control and accidentally hit your car, we’re very sorry,” the young man who walked to Gongxi Qiao looked at the scratched front of the car and apologized again, “We’re willing to pay for your damage, I hope you can accept.”

Gongxi Qiao pulled the brim of his hat down: “As long as the people are fine, the car is just a small matter.” He looked behind the youth. A cold and distinguished-looking man was getting out of the car, and his face didn’t look even remotely alarmed by the accident.

The quality of the other party’s car was really good. The street lamp was knocked a little crooked, yet the front end of the car was only dented a little, and the person inside wasn’t affected at all.

“This…” The youth did not expect Gongxi Qiao to be so nice and froze for a moment before saying, “Although you do not care, please accept our apologies.” After saying this, he offered a check with both hands.

Gongxi Qiao took a look. The face value of the check was 50,000 yuan. Considering the price of his car, the money was just the right amount.

Gongxi Qiao didn’t care about the money, but since the other party had said this, he didn’t insist anymore and put the check into his wallet.

“Boss, are you okay?” The bodyguard looked at Xi Qing with a nervous expression, and even his voice was tinged with a bit of urgency.

“Yes.” Xi Qing turned his right wrist, which had just accidentally hit the back of the chair, and looked up to see the young man who was less than five meters away from him.

T/N:

[1] Odd-even driving restriction: a method of reducing traffic congestion by restricting cars from driving on certain days based on whether the last number on the license plate is even or odd. Since Gonxi Xiong’s license plate number ends in 8, it can only be driven on days when even-number license plates are allowed to drive.

[2] 868 license plate: Not sure about this, my best guess after some research is that Gonxi Xiong must have paid a lot of money to get a custom 868 license number because it’s a lucky number.