CH 66

October 25, 2022kaychandra

Chapter 66: Confession

Wang Ruhong was an ordinary senior high school student, whose daily life was a single line between school and home. In order to get into a good university, she never cared about what dresses were in fashion recently or which artist was hot nowadays. For her, it was better to spend time on doing a few more exercise books than on chasing after stars.

But in order to take the exams without losing points for current affairs and politics questions, she had recently been waiting on time every day for the 7 P.M. News broadcast.

Today was certainly no exception, except that the time wasn’t seven o’clock yet, so she had to watch the boring commercials on the TV in a daze, until a public service announcement aired.

She watched a young man in a white shirt walking through a long alley, helping a child take down a kite from a tree, and helping an old man carry fruit. However, in the face of people’s thanks, he just squinted his eyes and smiled beautifully, not saying a word from beginning to end.

Until an uncontrolled bicycle hit him from behind. The owner of the bicycle fell to the ground together with him. The owner was furious and said, “I’ve been shouting at you to get out of the way for a long time, are you deaf?”

The youth got up from the ground, picked up the bicycle that had fallen to the ground, and then bent down and extended his hand toward the cursing owner, with a clean sunny smile on his face.

Seeing him like this, the owner of the bicycle couldn’t swear anymore. He took the youth’s hand and stood up. Noticing that the youth’s ankle was bleeding, his face became more uncomfortable.

The youth didn’t seem to notice that he was injured and silently mouthed the three words “I am sorry,” and his hands were gesturing something.

The sun shone from behind the youth, making his smile look even cleaner and more transparent.

“The silent world also has color. Be caring and respectful to the deaf and mute. Be caring to everyone around you.”

After the ad was played, Wang Xiaohong[1] was a little frozen. When she remembered that the youth was scolded for being deaf and still smiling so nicely, she felt a bit uncomfortable in her heart, and it didn’t ease until the news was on.

In the past, public service announcements often highlighted how pitiful the people in need were and how much they needed the mercy of others. However, today’s PSA was different because, although he was different from ordinary people, he was still positive and optimistic, and what he needed wasn’t pity, but respect.

Once the PSA aired, the most excited people were naturally Qiao fans. It should be noted that this PSA was aired just ten minutes before the start of the newscast, which showed the attitude of the National Station.

Entertainers who could shoot this kind of advertisement were all positive entertainers. The fact that Gongxi Qiao’s PSA was broadcast on more than ten channels of the National Station was enough to show the position of the National Station towards Gongxi Qiao.

Half an hour later, the uncut version of the PSA shot by Gongxi Qiao was put online by National Station Channel One’s online platform. Because of the length of the commercial, the total length of the commercial broadcast on TV was only one minute and forty seconds, but the version posted online was about six minutes and fifty seconds.

Wang Xiaohong, who seldom went online, found the commercial online. Seeing the youth helping others, being helped by others, and also being despised and ridiculed by others, she got red eyes.

She had always looked down on the behavior of her classmates chasing after stars. In her eyes, stars were pretentious hypocrites. However, when she found out about Gongxi Qiao’s life, she realized that this male artist she looked down on, who was often spoken about in the mouths of her classmates, was really impressive.

He played the role of Admiral Zheng in ‘National Industry’, was an outstanding graduate of Imperial Capital University, a rich second generation, the most famous young calligrapher and painter, and also represented the country in an international art exchange. He even won glory for the country, and the value of his works was up to seven figures.

“Gongxi Qiao……” She whispered this name, took out her phone and logged into her Weibo account, which she hardly ever used, and seriously followed Gongxi Qiao’s account.

With such a person as her idol, she felt more motivated for the future.

Gongxi Qiao didn’t know that the public service announcement he had shot had made himself quite a lot of fans again. Now, he drank a bit too much afternoon tea and had to run to the toilet several times. Afterwards, he felt that he had a particularly good appetite facing the sumptuous dinner Xi Qing had specially prepared for him.

After the meal, Gongxi Qiao whole body lazed on the sofa, looking out of the window at the darkening sky. He was about to say something about going home when suddenly a lightning bolt flashed outside the window and the wind blew so hard he could even hear the whistling sound of the wind.

Soon, a loud clap of thunder struck down, so loud that it sounded like it was exploding above their heads.

“It looks like it’s going to rain soon.” Xi Qing sat a little closer to Gongxi Qiao, “You shouldn’t go back tonight.”

Gongxi Qiao looked at him and raised his eyebrows. Before he could say anything, he saw the lights in the house flicker a few times, and then the house was plunged into darkness.

A warm palm grabbed his hand. He moved his index finger slightly and didn’t break away from the hand.

“It’s okay, it’s probably a power outage,” Xi Qing’s voice sounded in his ear, “The villa has power generators, don’t worry.”

“Hmm.” Another lightning bolt flashed. By the light of the bolt, Gongxi Qiao noticed Xi Qing’s head was very close to his own and his eyes were dark and a little glowing.

“Boss, are you and Qiao Shao okay?” A bodyguard carrying a flashlight walked in, as if he didn’t see the two holding hands together, and said in a serious tone, “In two minutes, the electricity will be ready for normal use.”

Xi Qing glanced at the bodyguard captain and didn’t speak.

The bodyguard captain frowned slightly, then added, “I just remembered, the power supply equipment seemed to have a little problem last time. I’ll go over and take a look right away, it may delay the power generation time.”

Xi Qing nodded and said, “Thank you for your hard work.”

The bodyguard captain and several other bodyguards put down their flashlights and withdrew silently, hiding in the shadows.

The rain soon fell, drenching the outside with a loud splattering. Unfortunately, there may have been a problem with the power supply, and several minutes had passed, but the lights in the house still hadn’t come on.

Gongxi Qiao leaned against the sofa cushions, pulled out his hand that Xi Qing had been holding for a few minutes, and said with a smile, “It seems that the power generation equipment in your villa should be replaced. If there’s an emergency, it will be more troublesome.”

Xi Qing withdrew his empty hand. When he heard Gongxi Qiao’s words, his expression didn’t change, but Gongxi Qiao couldn’t see his face in the darkness. “Well, I’ll have someone come tomorrow to reinstall the backup electrical equipment.”

With a soft chuckle, Gongxi Qiao suddenly stretched out his hand and placed it on Xi Qing’s shoulder. “In fact, in this kind of thunderstorm weather, staying in a dark room is actually very interesting.”

In his last life, he relied on the help of this kind of weather to fool his lord’s opponents into suspecting their own men, which finally let his lord win a big battle. He also relied on that event to become the wise and resourceful Palace Minister in the history books. In fact, only he himself knew that he wasn’t as resourceful and scheming as recorded in the history books, harboring thoughts about the kingdom.

He was originally surnamed Qian. Then, the Lord declared himself emperor and bestowed to him the royal surname Gong[2]. Most of those who accompanied the Lord to fight for the kingdom didn’t end up well, but he became the prime minister. However, this also became evidence in the history books that he was scheming. It was evident that things like history books were mostly unreliable.

He was able to win all of that because he knew how to read the will of the emperor and knew what to do to make the emperor more comfortable and more assured. Unfortunately, in his previous life, he suffered too much as a young man, and in order to gain the trust of his lord, he was severely injured, resulting in serious physical wear and tear, which caused him to not live very long.

He was born in poverty, spent his lifetime earning fame and fortune, and finally died well-off, and was able to leave his name in history. He was successful in his previous life.

The hand on Xi Qing’s shoulder was warm and soft, and even warmed his heart. His ears were slightly red, and he didn’t even hear what Gongxi Qiao said, but just responded vaguely.

In the control room, the bodyguard responsible for the water and electricity looked at the bodyguard captain with tangled eyes. “Captain, ten minutes have passed. Is it appropriate not to supply power to the residence?” According to the usual rules, if there was an unexpected power failure, backup power must be provided within two minutes. What was going on today?

“No need to rush, wait a little longer.” The bodyguard captain put his hands behind his back, “You guys just pay attention to the security of the villa.” Anyway, the monitoring equipment circuit was different from the residential electricity.

The rain was getting heavier and heavier. Xi Qing’s hand on his knee hesitated for a moment. He reached back and covered the hand on his shoulder with his hand, “Xiao Qiao.”

Lightning struck. Gongxi Qiao saw Xi Qing’s face with a different serious and grave look.

“If……”

Thunder rang out, deafening.

“…… Like you.”

Suddenly the room was lit up and the electricity came on. Xi Qing looked at Gongxi Qiao’s calm expression. He guessed that he might not have heard what he said and let go of his hand, feeling both relieved and a little lost.

The Master Xi, whom countless people scorned and envied and hated outside, was only a nervous young man in his twenties in front of his beloved.

“Go upstairs to take a shower and rest early,” Xi Qing stood up, “I’ve already had the guest room packed.”

In fact, this was good. At least he could still find a chance to get close to him, instead of becoming an awkward stranger.

Gongxi Qiao smiled at him and followed him to the guest room. Seeing two sets of clothes on the bed, one set of pajamas and one set of regular clothes, he turned his head to Xi Qing and said, “Thank you for the special arrangement.”

Xi Qing shook his head and withdrew from the room saying, “You rest, I won’t bother you.”

“Wait a minute,” Gongxi Qiao walked to the door and looked at Xi Qing, “What did you say downstairs just now? The thunder was so loud that I didn’t hear it.”

Xi Qing froze and wanted to speak when his cell phone suddenly rang. It was his personal cell phone. He looked at the caller ID, answered the phone and hung up with a sullen face after saying only a few words.

“What’s wrong?” Gongxi Qiao asked when he noticed that he didn’t look right.

“Someone found suspicious characters appearing around your villa.” Xi Qing frowned, “I suspect that…… It’s Bai Zhong’s people.”

“Why is he looking for trouble with me?” Gongxi Qiao raised his eyebrows, somewhat puzzled.

“Because……” Xi Qing looked up at him and said in a low tone, “I like you.”

T/N:

1. Xiaohong: I’m not sure if the author forgot her name was “Ruhong” or if it’s supposed to be a nickname. Anyway the character is a passerby so it doesn’t really matter.

2. Surname Gong: The character is “宫” Gōng (meaning Palace), not the same as the “公” Gōng in Gongxi. However, both of them are pronounced the same