CH 26

March 26, 2021kaychandra

Chapter 26: Visiting the patient

Translated & Edited by KChandra

Gongxi Qiao walked into the ward and saw Liang Yumeng looking very messy. His nose was bruised and swollen, almost unrecognizable, his left foot was in a cast, his left arm was wrapped in thick bandages hanging from his neck, and his usual sophisticated hairstyle had turned into an uneven slab of hair. No wonder he blocked the media from interviewing and filming. If this look was seen by his fans, he didn’t know how many fans he would lose.

“Brother Liang, how did you fall like this?” Gongxi Qiao put down the flowers and fruits in his hand and walked to the hospital bed with a worried face. “What did the doctor say, when will you recover?”

Liang Yumeng saw Gongxi Qiao was very concerned about him. He thought Gongxi Qiao didn’t know about his schemes, so he was slightly relieved and said with a bitter smile, “I was in too much of a hurry to go out this afternoon, so I rolled down the stairs. Except for a few stitches in my head, the other places were not particularly badly injured.” Only he knew that his leg and hand were broken by someone, and it would take a lot of time to recover.

“Hurting your head isn’t a small thing.” Gongxi Qiao took out a red apple from the fruit tray at the bedside and slowly peeled it with a folding fruit knife. The thin peel seemed to become a work of art in his hands, hanging down a little but not breaking off. “If people hurt their brains, they tend to make mistakes.”

He cut the peeled fruit, passing half to Liang Yumeng’s hand and putting half back into the fruit plate. “Everyone has the right to make mistakes, but some mistakes have to be paid for. Brother Liang, do you think this is the truth?” Lifting the long peel and watching it swirl beautifully in the air, Gongxi Qiao showed a satisfied smile.

Liang Yumeng squeezed the apple in his hand tightly. He wanted to squeeze out a smile but gave up because of the wound on his face: “Xiao Qiao has a point about this. But in this world, there are often no alternatives left ……”

“As long as Brother Liang thinks it’s justified,” Gongxi Qiao smilingly interrupted Liang Yumeng’s words. His eyes fell on Liang Yumeng’s left leg in a cast, and said with some regret, “Brother Liang hurt his leg like this. I’m afraid that you can’t act in the movie that will start shooting in half a month. It’s a big investment movie tailored for you.”

“It can’t be helped.” Liang Yumeng secretly cried out in his heart. He also felt a bit annoyed and uneasy. What did Gongxi Qiao mean by these words, was he implying something?

“Brother Liang was injured so badly, remember to take a good rest. I’ll leave you alone.” Gongxi Qiao stood up and threw the peel into the trash can next to him. When he walked to the door, he suddenly turned around and dropped his gaze on Liang Yumeng’s face, “Brother Liang has taken care of me these days, I’ll keep it in mind.”

Brother Liang’s agent’s face changed slightly. He looked at Gongxi Qiao in surprise, but only saw a departing back. The more he thought about it, the more panicked he became. He walked over to the hospital bed and worriedly said, “Brother Liang, what does Gongxi Qiao mean by this?”

“He knows about my previous moves,” Liang Yumeng threw aside the apple he had taken a bite of and said in a deep voice, “I was the one who underestimated him before.”

“Then what do we do now?” The agent said worriedly, “There is also the ‘Dream Come True’ crew’s side. You’re injured and can’t participate in the production. In terms of breach of contract, I will fight for the smallest amount. During this time, you rest well and don’t think too much.”

He took out the wrinkled check from under the pillow and turned to his agent, “Here’s five million. It’s more than enough to pay for the breach of contract.”

The agent looked at the wrinkled check and said hesitantly, “Brother Liang, this check can’t be used, right?”

“Why?” Liang Yumeng’s face turned pale.

“It …… Has too many wrinkles. The bank won’t redeem it.”

“Xiao Qiao, isn’t it a bad idea for you to fall out with Brother Liang now?” Chen Ke was a little worried. “He’s still a film emperor. He also has some status in the circle, and also has some means. This kind of person isn’t good to deal with.”

“So what if he’s a film emperor? This circle has always been realistic.” Gongxi Qiao sneered. “With his leg and hand injured like that, he won’t be able to shoot many scenes in the future. When everyone in the circle knows that the backer behind him is gone, it’ll be hilarious.”

“Xiao Qiao means ……”

Gongxi Qiao smiled and turned over the script in his hand recently brought by Chen Ke: “We don’t need to do anything.” This circle was full of people who wanted to step on others to get to the top themselves. There were many male artists who took the same route as Liang Yumeng. There were only so many big productions that were successfully released in cinemas every year. Everyone wanted to be famous, everyone wanted to be the number one, so the only way they could have more chances was to step on the competition.

Liang Yumeng fell on his face this time. When ‘National Industry’ wasn’t yet released in theaters, people may still take it into account and dare not make a move. However, when ‘National Industry’ was released in theaters and went public, what greeted Liang Yumeng was likely to be overwhelmingly negative news.

At that time, he would be fishing in muddy waters, and it would be easier for him to trap Liang Yumeng.

Xiao Yao dazedly listened to the conversation between Gongxi Qiao and Chen Ke. She couldn’t believe her ears. The male god was so …… Vindictive?

However, just now the male god’s sneering look was so cool.

Suddenly, a sound of a sword being drawn rang out in the car.

Gongxi Qiao took out his phone to have a look. There was a text message on it, and the content of the text message was very simple, only three words plus a period.

Do not worry.

Gongxi Qiao looked at these three words. First he froze, then he smiled openly. His finger clicked on the keyboard sensor area, but finally just put the phone back.

“Boss?” The assistant saw that the boss seemed to be lost in thought, so he had to say, “These endorsement options provided by the publicity department aren’t bad, what do you think?”

Xi Qing took his eyes back from the phone screen that hadn’t been lit up. He took a few photos handed to him by the assistant and then flipped through them before pulling one of them out, “Who is this person?”

The publicity manager looked at the photo and laughed dryly, “This artist is called Liang Yumeng. He won the Golden Rabbit Award and has a strong sense of the lens ……”

“Too old,” Xi Qing tossed the photo aside, “he’s not suitable.”

The publicity manager nodded at his words. “That’s true. I also heard that he was injured this afternoon, so he may not be able to cooperate with our publicity work either.”

“Hmm,” Xi Qing nodded in satisfaction. He flipped through the rest of the photos in his hand, which included both men and women he didn’t recognize.

“This time our new product launch is very important. It’s aimed at young people with spending power. The spokesperson must have a noble temperament in addition to the requirements of appearance and age.

The PR manager smiled bitterly in his heart. The people he selected were already famous and elegant artists in the circle. An artist’s grace was slowly accumulated. What noble and elegant atmosphere? That came from having piles of money. Where could a young and handsome newcomer get this kind of noble and domineering feeling?

But the boss was right. The ideal spokesperson should indeed have these conditions, but in truth there was a gap between the ideal and the reality.

When the meeting was over, the publicity manager found the boss’s chief assistant privately, “Special assistant Gou, it’s not easy to find young artists with a good image and grace in the circle right now. Do you have a suitable candidate to recommend?”

Special assistant Gou looked at the publicity manager with a smile, then sighed regretfully, ”I follow the boss all day long and fly around to inspect the business. How could I have time to understand the entertainment circle? But maybe if you learn more about recently popular artists with good origins, maybe you can find one that meets the boss’s requirements.”

“Alas, I’ll have to do that,” the PR manager took a few steps out and suddenly his eyes lit up.

The most recent big hit artist with a good temperament and good background?

He looked back at Special Assistant Gou, whose expression was as usual. As if a lightbulb went off in his head, he smiled and said, “Please don’t worry, Special Assistant Gou. I will definitely find a suitable spokesperson.”

“Ya De, the Xi Group’s premium menswear brand, wants to hire Xiao Qiao as its spokesperson?” When Xiang Hong heard Chen Ke’s report, he was both happy and a bit incredulous, “Doesn’t Ya De always like to use big names?”

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“They said that their new product is aimed at the young and high consumption group, and Xiao Qiao’s temperament and image are very suitable for their products.” Chen Ke thought about it and didn’t bring up Xi Qing’s possible relationship with Gongxi Qiao again, but just said, “The other party also offered an endorsement fee. The endorsement fee offered by the other party is also very reasonable. There’s no intention to lower the price because Xiao Qiao is a newcomer, it seems very sincere.”

“This is a good opportunity. You should mention this to Xiao Qiao and see if he’s willing to take this endorsement,” Xiang Hong said. Although he could hardly wait for Gongxi Qiao to agree to take this endorsement, he wouldn’t go against the conditions he had promised.

Chen Ke knew what his boss was worried about and nodded his head in agreement.

When Gongxi Qiao received the call from Chen Ke, he was having dinner with the creators of ‘Lord Brother-in-Law’. The film had made a huge profit and the whole team had benefited from it, so everyone was smiling. Especially the lead actor and actress, who were just artists with a little fame but lacking in commercial value. Now that the box office had gone up, their value had also gone up, so they could only be happy about this great thing.

The actor who played the male lead, Xu Chao, debuted four or five years ago. His acting skills were good, but his mind was a bit lacking, causing his manager a lot of headaches. He often lamented in his heart that he was obviously from the same company, but why was Xu Chao so lacking in his mind, while Qiao Shao was perfect all round?

“Junior brother, you’re my lucky treasure, ah,” Xu Chao said drunkenly on Gongxi Qiao’s shoulder. “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be here today.” When Gongxi Qiao picked the role of the second male in the script, he recommended him to the director to play the first male role. The director was originally a little reluctant, but after looking at the money invested by Gongxi Qiao, he put up with it.

He came to make a movie for the sake of raising his profile in the TV drama industry, so that he could get a higher pay for his TV work in the future. As for anything else, he didn’t even dare to think about it.

Who would have expectations for a small budget movie that didn’t even have enough funding?

But sometimes, miracles happened. He was on fire now, and his film contracts kept coming. He knew very well that it was all brought about by Gongxi Qiao.

“This box office hit has increased my salary by a hundred thousand yuan per episode, enough to buy top-of-the-line game equipment,” Xu Chao smiled with a satisfied face, “From now on, I’ll work with you.”

When his manager saw his stupid look, he covered his face as if seeing a spectacle to horrible to endure. How could he look after such a simple-minded and burdensome artist?

Gongxi Qiao looked at Xu Chao’s childish appearance and laughed helplessly. In fact, at first, he was only thinking about the idea of not letting money flow outside the company, so he asked Chen Ke to recommend a suitable candidate to him. It so happened that the director of the ‘Brother-in-Law’ crew was quite appreciative of him, so after recommending Xu Chao, he made an additional investment.

He also did not expect this drama to make Xu Chao popular, so this time it could only be regarded as unintentional serendipity. Xu Chao was so grateful to him, he really didn’t know what to say.