CH 63

November 11, 2021kaychandra

Chapter 63: Continue

“Xiao Qiao.” When Ji Yuming entered the dressing room and saw Gongxi Qiao having his makeup done, he handed him the iced drink in his hand, then sat at the table next to him and said, “Why are you here so early today?”

“My scenes are being shot first. If I don’t come early, the whole crew will be delayed.” Gongxi Qiao yawned. He unscrewed the cap and took a sip of the iced drink to refresh himself.

Seeing him like this, Ji Yuming smiled and said, “Didn’t sleep well after attending the charity gala last night?”

Originally, it was because of Gongxi Qiao’s identity that Ji Yuming gave him more guidance and care after joining the crew. However, after spending some time together, he found that he appreciated Gongxi Qiao the most among the junior actors he had contact with. Therefore, after returning from filming on location, his friendship with Gongxi Qiao had long since changed from superficial politeness to genuine friendship.

“After I got home last night and took a shower, it was already midnight.” Gongxi Qiao couldn’t help but yawn again. “At night, I dreamed that I had been doing wire work. When I woke up in the morning, my head was still a little shaky.”

Gongxi Qiao was also very grateful to Ji Yuming. With Ji Yuming’s position in the circle, there was no need to deliberately ingratiate himself with Gongxi Qiao, but he still explained a lot about acting skills to him after he entered the group. Although Gongxi Qiao’s expressions and emotions of characters were spot on, in terms of how to perform better in front of the camera and how to position himself in order to highlight his strengths without stealing the scene from others, he wasn’t as experienced as Ji Yuming, a seasoned Film Emperor.

Ji Yuming taught him sincerely, and Gongxi Qiao asked him for advice sincerely. Although he called him “Brother Ming”, in his eyes, Ji Yuming was equivalent to being half a teacher to him.

“Lack of sleep hurts your body. Catch up on your sleep when you have time.” Ji Yuming sighed and didn’t say anything like telling Gongxi Qiao to be early to bed and early to rise. In this industry, reversing day and night was the norm. Those with powerful backgrounds like Gongxi Qiao didn’t have it too bad. The grassroots born actors had it much harder.

Gongxi Qiao smiled in response. Just after the makeup was done, a staff member came to call him. He got up and smiled at Ji Yuming, then hurried out.

Looking at his departing back, Ji Yuming smiled and shook his head. He lowered his head to let the makeup artist put on his wig while browsing the news on his phone. He couldn’t help but smile when he saw gossip news about President Xi personally frying eggs in the morning and tagging Gongxi Qiao on Weibo.

Even the most staid young people sometimes played around. Looking at the not very good looking fried eggs on the screen, Ji Yuming raised his eyebrows. If this level of cooking could be shown off to Xiao Qiao, exactly how bad were Xiao Qiao’s cooking skills?

In the studio, when Gongxi Qiao was lowered from the wires by the staff, his head was a bit dizzy. Jiang Long saw that he didn’t look too good and asked with some concern, “Qiao Shao, what’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing. Maybe it’s because I didn’t sleep too well last night.” Gongxi Qiao smiled and sat down on the chair next to him. Not long after, he received a call from Aunt Luo. It turned out that her family member was sick and she had to go to the hospital for two days to take care of him.

Gongxi Qiao was concerned and asked a few questions. After learning that it wasn’t a serious illness, he was relieved and not only gave Aunt Luo a leave of absence, but also asked He Peng to help him transfer a sum of money to Aunt Luo’s account.

Soon, it was time for his scene again. Gongxi Qiao was halfway through the scene when he forgot his lines because of dizziness. He apologized and smiled, “Sorry, let’s do it again.”

Ma Qian, who was playing opposite him, saw that he didn’t look right. She asked worriedly, “I don’t think you look well. Are you sick?”

“It’s nothing.” Gongxi Qiao forced a smile. “Let’s finish these scenes first.”

Ma Qian wanted to continue to persuade him, but thinking of the many scenes scheduled for today, she had to calm down and continue to shoot with Gongxi Qiao.

After a few scenes, even Director Jiao noticed that Gongxi Qiao didn’t look too good, so he said, “Xiao Qiao, you’ve almost finished shooting today’s scenes. Shoot the rest tomorrow. Go back and rest first.”

“Thank you, Director Jiao.” Gongxi Qiao rubbed his forehead and smiled reluctantly at the other crew members present. “Pardon me, I’ll leave first.”

Gongxi Qiao’s usual dedication to his work had already been deeply rooted in people’s hearts, so when they saw him look so bad, they all told him to go back to rest early. Jiang Long even helped him go to the makeup room to remove his makeup.

In the president’s office in the Xi Group’s headquarters building, Special Assistant Gou noticed two small brown spots on Xi Qing’s arm that looked like oil splatter injuries. However, in the face of his boss’s serious work attitude, he didn’t voice his questions.

“Boss, the Bai Group’s cosmetics line was found to have toxic and harmful ingredients by the Quality Supervision Bureau. The Bai Group’s senior management tried to suppress the news, but the National Station’s attitude was very tough and seemed ready to expose it immediately.” Special Assistant Gou put the information he got in front of Xi Qing. “Also, the president of the foreign company that cooperated with the Bai Group was prosecuted in Midi Country for commercial fraud.”

Xi Qing didn’t move his eyes from his computer desktop. “With the behavior of the Bai Group these days, their current downfall is only natural. This is just the beginning.”

Just the beginning?

Special Assistant Gou gave Xi Qing a somewhat puzzled look. He didn’t know if it was his illusion, but he felt that the boss didn’t seem to be surprised by this matter at all.

“Knock knock.”

Hearing a knock on the door, Special Assistant Gou turned around and saw that it was Xi Qing’s chief secretary Tang Lin. He nodded at her.

Tang Lin was a tall, thin and beautiful woman. Despite wearing a pair of glasses, it didn’t affect her beauty in any way.

“Boss, the president of the Bai Group wants to see you.” Tang Lin said in a calm tone, “He’s already downstairs now.”

“President Bai?” Special Assistant Gou’s eyes widened in surprise. Bai Zhong was also an important person with status. How could he do something like coming directly to the door without making an appointment?

“Let him come up.” Xi Qing closed the laptop in front of him and stood up. “President Bai is here. How can we in the Xi Group not welcome him?”

Seeing this situation, Special Assistant Gou was even more puzzled. The behavior of these heads of the prestigious families was too profound. He really didn’t understand it.

Xi Qing’s office building floor had a special hospitality room for receiving clients. His secretarial team’s office was also on this floor. So, when Bai Zhong walked this way with his assistant secretary in an angry manner, the Xi Group secretarial team was a little surprised. Was the president of the Bai Group bringing people over for a gang fight?

“President Bai, this way please.” Tang Lin pushed open the door of the VIP room and made an inviting gesture, but was pushed away by Bai Zhong. She looked at Bai Zhong’s back, pushed the glasses up the bridge of her nose, and gracefully walked off in her high heels.

“Xi Qing, you’re cruel!” Bai Zhong walked to the sofa and sat down boldly, sneering, “It seems I underestimated you. You can scare your elders into frightened quails, so how can you not be vicious and merciless?”

“President Bai, instead of coming here to me and getting angry, why don’t you think about how to solve the problem?” Xi Qing poured a cup of tea from the blue and white porcelain teapot and pushed it in front of Bai Zhong. “Didn’t I tell you last night to cherish the life you have now?”

“F**k you!” Bai Zhong smashed the teacup on the ground, but unfortunately, the ground was covered with thick carpet. The teacup rolled around several times on the ground without making much noise.

Xi Qing glanced at the teacup on the ground. He poured himself a cup of tea and slowly drank a sip. “President Bai may not know me too well. I have always been a person who prefers actions to words.”

Bai Zhong stood up and pointed at Xi Qing, and gasped out, “Are you the one who’s making all this trouble?!”

“President Bai is joking. If something goes wrong in your house, can you blame it on me?” Xi Qing raised his eyebrows and looked at Bai Zhong with both eyes as if he was looking at a joke. “I am in charge of the Xi Group, not your Bai Group.”

“Okay, very good, just you wait!” Bai Zhong heavily kicked the coffee table in front of him. Unfortunately, the coffee table was carved out of solid wood. Other than making him stumble embarrassingly, it didn’t move at all.

This made his intention to kick over the coffee table and rush out come to naught.

Somebody laughed, and the atmosphere became even more embarrassing.

Special Assistant Gou looked at the calm boss and had a somewhat absurd suspicion in his heart.

The boss was deliberately angering Bai Zhong!

But how could the boss do such a senseless thing? This was obviously not in line with the boss’s character. It was too strange.

Bai Zhong was ridiculed, and his face became even more hateful and angry. “Xi Qing, you want to take advantage of this to break our Bai family. It’s not that easy.” After saying that, he turned around and left.

When he walked out of the VIP room, his feet slipped. If it wasn’t for his assistant, he might have fallen to the ground.

After Bai Zhong and his group left, Special Assistant Gou looked at the puddle of water in the hallway. He turned his head to see Tang Lin standing in front of the president’s secretariat office holding a cup. When she saw him looking at her, she even smiled at him, with several other secretaries standing behind her.

He dug in his suit pocket and two tissues fell on the floor, just covering the place with the most water. After stepping on the tissues with his foot, he bent down to pick them up and threw them into the trash can, then smiled and said, “What a coincidence.”

Several secretaries showed a united expression of, ‘it was so unfortunate, so regretful’.

In the VIP room, Xi Qing picked up a “button” that Bai Zhong had accidentally left behind from the couch and threw it into an empty teacup.

“Clink.” The button fell to the bottom of the cup, making a crisp sound.

Xi Qing picked up the teapot, poured the water into the cup, and looked at the button submerged in water with a rare smile on his face.

Walking out of the VIP room, he used his cell phone to text the word “continue” to a number, and then dialed a number that he knew well.

“Mr. Xi.” The person who answered the phone was Jiang Long. He looked at Gongxi Qiao who was asleep in the back seat of the car. He lowered his voice and said, “Qiao Shao has a cold and has fallen asleep after taking medicine. We’re taking him home now.”

Hearing Jiang Long’s voice, Gongxi Qiao opened his eyes in a daze, “Who’s calling?”

Jiang Long handed him the phone, “It’s Mr. Xi.”

Gongxi Qiao put the phone to his ear, just in time to hear Xi Qing asking about his condition.

“I’m fine, but Aunt Luo has taken leave and there’s no one at home.”

“Hmm?” Gongxi Qiao raised an eyebrow. “Okay, ah.” He put down his phone and said to He Peng, who was driving, “He Peng, change your route to Xi Qing’s house.”

He Peng was taken aback for a moment and nodded. “Okay.”

Pulling up the blanket he was covered with, Gongxi Qiao shrank his entire body into the blanket and then continued to dizzily close his eyes and rest.

Finally, the problem of having no one to cook at home was solved. The Xi family chef’s cooking skills should be pretty good.