CH 69

October 26, 2022kaychandra

Chapter 69: Gossip is a Fearful Thing?

With the big shot Xi Qing in attendance, Director Jiao was prepared to raise the standard of dining several notches, but unfortunately it was already late and many restaurants were already closed. So, they had to settle for a hot pot restaurant that was open twenty-four hours a day.

Hot pot was appropriate for big crowds, but Director Jiao still felt that the restaurant wasn’t high-end enough and worried that Master Xi would think he was stingy and cheap. As a big player in the directing field, he couldn’t let this BOSS of a prestigious family have such an impression of him.

Just when Director Jiao was in a dilemma, Gongxi Qiao spoke up, “It smells so good. Today, it’s Director Jiao’s treat. We few must only order the expensive ones, not the right ones.[1]”

“That’s a must,” Dai Ni was a smart woman who knew when to speak up and took over at once, “Come, come, come, everyone sit down quickly so that Director Jiao won’t regret later and refuse to pay.”

“Do you guys usually let me pay less when I treat you?” Director Jiao smiled and said, “Sit down. If you say anything else, I’ll really renege.” After that, he smiled at Xi Qing and said, “President Xi, it’s late at night and many restaurants are already closed. The crew usually likes to make trouble, please don’t mind them.”

“There’s no need to be so polite, Director Jiao.” Xi Qing gave Director Jiao a slight nod. ” It’s lively to have hot pot with so many people.”

After Xi Qing was seated, everyone sat down around the table. Xi Qing sat at the front, Gongxi Qiao and Director Jiao to his left and right, and the others seated in order, while the rest of the staff sat down at a separate table.

After ordering the food, since everyone had work tomorrow, they didn’t ask for alcohol when they ordered drinks.

Director Jiao got up and raised his glass and said, “It’s an honor for all of us to have dinner with President Xi today, so here, with soft drinks instead of wine, on behalf of the entire crew, I’d like to thank you for your support of the crew’s work.”

When the others saw this, they also followed suit and raised their glasses. After joining the crew, they had already eaten with Master Xi more than once. It must be said, it was really a face-gaining thing.

Xi Qing looked at Gongxi Qiao who had stood up next to him. He then stood up and said, “Director Jiao is too polite. Everyone has put in a lot of effort into filming the movie, so I should be the one to thank everyone here.” After saying that, he picked up the glass and drank the drink in one go.

When everyone saw President Xi’s gentle attitude, they all felt some emotions in their hearts. Who said Master Xi was indifferent and ruthless? In fact, he was just a little less talkative and less expressive, but he was still a good person. Rumors really kill people.

Soon the soup pot came out, the dishes began to be served, various ingredients were dumped into the pot, and it quickly gave off a tempting aroma.

Before now, they’d been really busy and everyone was hungry. If it weren’t for Xi Qing’s presence, the group would have been grabbing their favorite dishes with their chopsticks flying.

Gongxi Qiao picked up tripe with his chopsticks and swished it in the oil bowl. It was so hot that he sucked in a few breaths, swallowed it and whispered to Xi Qing, “It tastes good, but your stomach isn’t so good. Eat less of the red oil pot.”

Since Xi Qing last caught a cold and had a stomach ache, he was stamped with having a bad stomach by Gongxi Qiao. No matter how Xi Qing refuted it, it was invalid, so he simply acquiesced. After listening to Gongxi Qiao, his chopsticks, which were ready to reach into the red oil pot, turned around and picked up a shrimp dumpling in the white soup pot and put it in the bowl.

“The last time you came to visit, the hot pot your bodyguard cooked seemed a little more delicious than this.” Gongxi Qiao saw Xi Qing being obedient. He picked up two mushrooms from the red oil pot and put them into Xi Qing’s bowl, saying in a rewarding tone, “It’s okay if you eat a little, though.”

Xi Qing slightly hooked his lips, “That was because you hadn’t eaten it for too long, that’s why you thought it was especially delicious.”

“Maybe so,” Gongxi Qiao nodded, “but who told you to visit the set at the perfect time to let me eat such an amazing hot pot meal. As a result, other hot pots taste average no matter how good they are.”

A person’s fate was so strange. No matter how good or bad, it couldn’t compete with the four words “it was just right”.

Xi Qing’s eyes lit up, and the smile at the corner of his mouth slightly curved up. “It’s good that you liked it.”

The two people were eating hot pot while whispering with their heads down. The other people at the table were in awe of Xi Qing’s status, plus they themselves were considered big players in the circle. They were too embarrassed to come up to curry favor, so they had to pretend to eat with their heads down, but their attention couldn’t help but be on Xi Qing.

Huh? President Xi gave Gongxi Qiao a fish ball.

Oh, Gongxi Qiao forgot to switch his chopsticks when he was serving President Xi’s food.

Oops, that shrimp was so big, but it’s a pity that Master Xi got it. Oh, he gave that shrimp to Gongxi Qiao after peeling the shell?

Okay, okay, we know you two are good buddies. Why do you have to work together so tacitly and always be so fast and accurate with the delicious dishes?

Seeing the way Gongxi Qiao and Xi Qing were getting along, Dai Ni inexplicably had a feeling of being outclassed. This wasn’t right, ah. Obviously Gongxi Qiao was a single dog. Why did she inexplicably have the illusion of a show of affection being shoved in her face?

“What are you looking at?” Chen Yi chucked a piece of fresh mushroom in her bowl.

Dai Ni shook her head and said mysteriously, “Nothing.” She felt like she knew something that she shouldn’t know.

As she was thinking this, Xi Qing, who was talking to Gongxi Qiao, suddenly looked up at her. It was a very calm and almost emotionless look, but Dai Ni’s heart inexplicably shuddered, so she looked away, not daring to look again.

After the hot pot meal ended, it was already after midnight. Gongxi Qiao, in full view of everyone, got into Xi Qing’s car and left.

Once again, this caused the envy of countless people.

This was Master Xi, the Master Xi that countless people were in awe of. What an honor it was to be best friends with such a person. It was something that many young masters of prestigious families couldn’t manage to do.

“All right, let’s go back. Don’t be late tomorrow morning.” Director Jiao waved his hand in a good mood and let everyone go back to their own homes.

Thinking of filming tomorrow, everyone was a little discouraged, and Zhao Yikun gritted his teeth about it even more. No wonder Gongxi Qiao proposed having a midnight snack. This cunning guy didn’t have any scenes tomorrow morning.

Since being cleaned up by Gongxi Qiao several times, in Zhao Yikun’s mind, Gongxi Qiao was the representative of a white face and a black heart, and everything he did had an ulterior motive.

If his agent knew what he was thinking now, he would probably say again: Boy, brain supplementation[2] is a disease, don’t do it.

In the last two days, Gongxi Qiao, who had no one at home to cook for him, had been staying at Xi Qing’s house, in the name of taking this opportunity to deepen the understanding between the two.

Gongxi Qiao also didn’t refuse, so after eating the hot pot, the two of them went all the way back to the Xi family villa.

After returning to his room and taking off his clothes that smelled like hot pot, Gongxi Qiao took a shower and realized that he had a bruise where he had been hanging from the wires, and it hurt a little when he pressed it gently.

He sat on the bed, towel drying his hair, when he suddenly felt his shoulders were a little cold. He turned his head and realized that the balcony door was left open and the night breeze was coming in through the window.

Putting on his robe, he got up and walked through the door. He stood on the balcony, looking at the view of the Xi family estate at night, and couldn’t help but think, what kind of fun could Xi Qing have living alone in such a large estate?

No wonder the whole villa felt a bit cold and lacked personality.

The estate looked beautiful, quiet and peaceful. But Gongxi Qiao sensed that this place was under close surveillance from the inside to the outside, and even those bodyguards weren’t ordinary people. The family inheritance had been passed down for many years. Naturally, they collected precious heirlooms, and the owner’s family was worth a lot of money, so it was no wonder they were so careful.

Families like the Gongxi family at best would be living in a single villa in a high-grade neighborhood with excellent security conditions. It could make many people envious and jealous when they spoke about it. However, compared with the real prestigious families, it would really be left eighteen blocks behind, not on the same level at all.

He was thinking about the glory and the hardships of the prestigious families when he suddenly heard a movement beside him. He turned his head to find Xi Qing on the balcony of the next room. The two of them looked at each other in silence for a few moments. Gongxi Qiao was the first to laugh out loud.

“You’re still awake?” Gongxi Qiao was lying against the balcony, his lazy appearance was without any semblance of dignity. He yawned and said, “was this manor passed down from your ancestors?”

Xi Qing nodded, looking at the estate with a calm expression. “It has been passed down for several generations. Only the inside of the house has been renovated.”

Seeing that his tone didn’t have much affection for this estate, Gongxi Qiao didn’t ask about the Xi family’s past. Although times had changed and many prestigious families had fallen into decline due to wars, their heritage was incomparable to that of ordinary families.

It was said that the government even went to various prestigious families to borrow information passed down from their ancestors in order to study ancient history. It showed how deep the heritage of these families was.

In his previous life, he was from a grassroots background and had never seen rare items. But because of later gaining power, he got a lot of precious ancient books and antique paintings and calligraphy from the hands of some descendants of fallen noble families. It was a pity that even the most precious things couldn’t be brought along at birth or taken away at death. In his last life, he never married and had no children, and didn’t know whether these things were returned to the court or buried with him after his death.

Because of this regret, he understood a truth in this life: don’t be pretentious and don’t waste time when you have a good life, live happily and live comfortably. Life is short, who knows which day you will close your eyes.

“It’s really good.” Gongxi Qiao smiled at Xi Qing. “The Xi family deserves to be a prestigious family.”

“In this day and age, who cares about prestigious families versus ordinary people.” Xi Qing lowered his head and looked at the empty estate. “There’s no need for such things as prestigious families anymore.”

Xi Qing actually had a point. Compared with the ancient feudal dynasties, the current prestigious families were in a society governed by the rule of law and just had a little more heritage than others. But in terms of social influence, it was far inferior than during the feudal dynasties.

Many of those so-called prestigious families in Imperial Capital today were merely trying to keep up appearances, and many of them weren’t even as prosperous as nouveau riche like the Gongxi family. Not to mention that many of their unscrupulous sons and grandsons sold their family collections of calligraphy and paintings just to live unproductive and comfortable lives.

How many of these families managed to maintain their dignity and status like the Xi family?

“That said, at least future generations will have a clear understanding of the rise and decline of the families,” Gongxi Qiao laughed, “There are certain things that prestigious families have that ordinary families don’t necessarily have.”

Xi Qing sighed indifferently and noticed that Gongxi Qiao was only wearing a robe, so he spoke up and advised, “It’s cold at night, you should be careful not to catch a cold.”

Gongxi Qiao pulled at his bathrobe, “Then I’ll go in and sleep. Good night.”

“Good night.” Xi Qing’s eyes swept over the corners of Gongxi Qiao’s lips, and the tips of his ears reddened slightly.

Gongxi Qiao smiled silently and turned back indoors. Xi Qing looked at the empty balcony, a little lost.

The next morning, Gongxi Qiao was woken up by a phone call from Chen Ke. He put the phone to his ear and rolled in bed with the blanket on his back.

“Hello, Brother Chen,” he yawned, trying to clear his head. Given Chen Ke’s personality, he wouldn’t call to disturb his rest if there was nothing wrong.

Chen Ke on the other end of the phone heard that Gongxi Qiao sounded a little dazed and knew he had probably still been sleeping, so he said directly, “Xiao Qiao, are you not home right now?”

Hearing Chen Ke’s tone wasn’t quite right, Gongxi Qiao sat up. “What’s wrong?”

“Someone broke the news that you’re the lead actor in the movie ‘Cultivation’, and that you got the role by virtue of your relationship with Xi Qing.” Chen Ke’s tone wasn’t too good. This originally wasn’t a big deal, but there were people who provoked Ji Yuming’s fans. They implied that Gongxi Qiao was oppressing people with his power, making Ji Yuming, a veteran film emperor, give him, a newcomer, the leading role. They said this role was originally for Ji Yuming, but Gongxi Qiao had Xi Qing as his backstage support, so Ji Yuming had to give up the lead role and play the supporting actor.

Who was Ji Yuming? He was a famous film emperor who was known for his acting skills and temperament, with a fixed fan base and a very good image. Even ordinary fans had a very good perception of him. Now it was revealed that Gongxi Qiao had grabbed the role by pressuring people, and also made Ji Yuming, a film emperor with a very good image, play a supporting role. How could Ji Yuming’s fans sit still?

After listening to the causes and consequences, Gongxi Qiao frowned. These news stories seemed to be saying that he was bullying people. However, more than that, they meant that without Xi Qing, the big BOSS, Gongxi Qiao wouldn’t be able to make it in the entertainment industry, and his position today was entirely dependent on Xi Qing’s support.

This was slightly drunk logic, but some netizens who believed it was raining when they heard the wind[3] were convinced, so they were busy sympathizing with Ji Yuming while spitting on Gongxi Qiao.

According to the current situation, if he didn’t break off his friendship with Xi Qing to show his convictions, then he was a thigh hugger, doing the unspoken rules, and had no real talent.

After the news exposure, Chen Ke was also a little baffled. There were obviously people behind this matter pushing, but who had the guts to be so bold as to dare talk about Xi Qing? Now Gongxi Qiao’s entire public relations team had been launched to temporarily control public opinion to a balanced position, but the other side obviously didn’t want to let Gongxi Qiao go. They kept using Xi Qing’s friendship with him as a topic of conversation, completely trampling Gongxi Qiao’s past achievements in the entertainment industry to the ground.

There was also a group of water armies that came out of nowhere and said that Gongxi Qiao’s acting skills were just so-so and that he could only fool the brain-dead fans, and that there was no telling how many of his fans were paid for.

“Don’t worry.” Gongxi Qiao had already guessed that this time it wasn’t aimed at him, but at Xi Qing. But there weren’t many people in the whole Imperial Capital who could guess that Xi Qing had his heart set on him, and also be unafraid of Xi Qing’s machinations. “Don’t waste our PR team’s time working in vain right now.” If it was really someone who dared to go against Xi Qing, his work team was simply not enough.

Chen Ke gathered from Gongxi Qiao’s words that this matter wasn’t simple. Once he thought about Xi Qing’s identity, he just had to hold his breath. “Xiao Qiao, if this matter isn’t dealt with as soon as possible, I’m afraid it won’t reflect well on you.”

“I know,” Gongxi Qiao said in a relaxed tone, “Since these people already know that Xi Qing is my thigh, how can that thigh not protect me? My acting skills are obvious to anyone who has the eyes to see. Which superstar hasn’t been defamed before? Even Brother Ming was defamed back then, wasn’t he?”

“You’re very broad minded,” said Chen Ke, helplessly. Since they couldn’t control this matter, they had no choice but to ignore it. The tone of Xiao Qiao’s voice was too certain that President Xi, the big shot, would really be in the mood to deal with this kind of entertainment gossip right away.

Soon, Xi Qing let Chen Ke see the BOSS’s hands-on ability. Xi Qing not only took care of this matter, but also took care of it at the fastest speed.

The person who was behind the trolls was raked over the coals in less than half an hour. The alleged unspoken rules claims were refuted, and the one who came out to speak out was the screenwriter of ‘Cultivation’, Lin Yu, who openly said that Gongxi Qiao was the most perfect Venerable Immortal in her mind and she even slapped the table and bench in front of many people before they settled on Gongxi Qiao.

Lin Yu was a famous screenwriter. When her scripts were made into movies, they were always praised and applauded, and the word of mouth was very good. Since she said that she was satisfied with Gongxi Qiao, there was a great probability she was really satisfied with him. Because this film was really too personal, when a certain investor wanted to stuff someone into the cast, she publicly scolded them, so she probably wouldn’t compromise the role she wrote in order to please an investor.

Just as Lin Yu came out to speak out, another party, Ji Yuming, also came out in a stern tone to refute the unscrupulous reporter. “All the casting of ‘Cultivation’ was strictly according to the criteria of the roles. It’s nonsense to say that Xiao Qiao stole the lead role from me. That role isn’t suitable for me at all, and if I were to play that role, it would ruin the production.”

“And for those who say that Xiao Qiao isn’t a good actor, when you say that, you must have no conscience, or you haven’t seen his work. As long as you’ve seen ‘National Industry’, you would be embarrassed to say that. Anyway, I admire Xiao Qiao’s acting skills and personality. As for those who say that Xiao Qiao is oppressing people with power, they act like they saw it with their own eyes. I would like to ask, who among you knows exactly what I said to Xiao Qiao? Since you know so much, how come you don’t know that many people in the crew like to joke that I treat Xiao Qiao like my own son?”

Everyone knew that Film Emperor Ji rarely came out to say anything, and never cared about the gossip news of other artists. Today, when he came out and said so much, it was obvious that he was furious.

Ji Yuming’s fans saw how positive their own idol actually was about Gongxi Qiao. Not only did he intimately address the other person as Xiao Qiao, but also said that he would nurture him like his own son?

If Gongxi Qiao was really as bad as the tipster said, would Film Emperor Ji defend him so much?

Once they thought about it, the Ji fans reflected, damn, this was someone using them like a knife. Weren’t they trying to make them do things painful to their loved ones and pleasant to their enemies, ah?[4]

“Manager, the online public opinion has reversed. Should we think of a way to……”

“No need. Don’t worry about what’s going on online, as long as this matter can create a knot in Gongxi Qiao’s heart.”

People who love calligraphy and painting were always extraordinarily high-minded. He didn’t believe that Gongxi Qiao could stand the world looking down on him because of Xi Qing’s eminence.

Gossip was a fearful thing, and bred many suspicions in this world.

T/N:

1. Expensive ones, not right ones: An idiom, meaning to just buy expensive things because they’re expensive. The sort of people who only buy overpriced designer goods regardless of whether they’re better than regular goods.

2. Brain supplementation: slang, it basically means excessively making up things in your head. I don’t think there’s a good english equivalent.

3. Believe it was raining when they heard the wind: Idiom, meaning someone is very gullible

4. Painful to their loved ones, pleasant to their enemies: An idiom, meaning you’re doing something that hurts your own side and helps your enemies, kind of like shooting yourself in the foot.