CH 98

November 9, 2022kaychandra

Chapter 98: Truth (End of Main Text)

For the people of Flower Country, the first day of the new year was always a day of special significance.

However, to Gongxi Xiong and Qiao Lanfen, this day was really extraordinary. Anyone who suddenly had a youngster calling them Mom and Dad would be shocked.

Luckily, both of them were “worldly” people, so they weren’t too shocked. After being stunned, the two of them wrapped two thick red envelopes for Xi Qing on the spot. The red envelopes were so thick that they were almost splitting open.

“In our country, although two people of the same sex can’t get a marriage certificate, you have to support each other since you have chosen this path,” Gongxi Xiong said in a serious tone. “If you have conflicts and quarrels in the future, think about today’s determination and feelings. Don’t fail to live up to your intentions.”

He had been with his wife for decades. Although there had been verbal arguments, he would never let his wife be heartbroken or upset. So, when he saw that his son had made up his mind to stay with one person, although he had difficulties as a father, he wished all the more that his son would be happy for the rest of his life and wouldn’t have to suffer from his relationship.

“Dad, please don’t worry.” Xi Qing held Gongxi Qiao’s hand and said firmly, “I will never leave Xiao Qiao. I will be with him for the rest of my life.”

Gongxi Qiao turned his hand over and clasped Xi Qing’s hand. He looked up at his parents in front of him and slowly smiled.

After the Spring Festival, Gongxi Qiao received a script for a literary film called “Hoping and Sighing” from Director Li, in which the main character was an orphan who went from a small village to the big city to work and find his biological parents. He suffered a lot, and endured many hardships, but he died without knowing that his parents were his boss and his boss’s wife.

It was a tragic movie, depicting the helplessness and sadness of a lowly man, and the hope that he was unwilling to give up until his death. In the story, there was a rich second generation who was pampered by his parents and had to attempt suicide every time he encountered a problem. Although the lowly man desperately wanted to live, he ended up dying helplessly.

As the leader of the “National Industry” directing team, Director Li was an extremely talented director. The films he directed were often very touching. The comedies could make you laugh until you cried, and the tragedies could make you so sad that you couldn’t breathe.

Gongxi Qiao didn’t expect that Director Li would have the audacity to want him to play the tragic protagonist, knowing that ever since he started his career, he had played the role of either an immortal with unparalleled abilities or an elegant nobleman. Even Admiral Zheng in the highly acclaimed “National Industry” was a very capable and powerful great man.

The start of “Golden Manor 3” was originally scheduled for May, but due to various problems, the shooting date was delayed until the end of June, so Gongxi Qiao wasn’t worried about the clash of schedules.

Director Li was basically the greatest director in the country, so Gongxi Qiao quickly agreed to star in his film.

Senhe Company was also very happy to know that Gongxi Qiao had taken on this film. It was well known that Director Li’s literary films always won awards, and he was nominated for a Little Golden Man award for a literary film a few years ago. As Gongxi Qiao’s agency, they couldn’t wait for Gongxi Qiao to come back with more prestigious trophies, so that the status of Senhe could become higher and higher in the industry.

Senhe entertainment was happy, but the screenwriter of “Hoping and Sighing” had some doubts in his heart. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe in Gongxi Qiao’s acting skills, but in his opinion, Gongxi Qiao was a rich second generation who had never suffered since childhood. Could he really perform the helplessness, sadness and hope for the future of the main character Jin Sheng, a lowly person?

The kind of ambition and resilience that refused to relent even in a desperate situation wasn’t something that could be performed with good acting skills alone.

“Old Tian, we’ve worked together several times. Trust me this time, Gongxi Qiao can definitely bring this role to life.” How could Director Li fail to see his old friend’s hesitation and doubt? “If you really don’t think he can do it, I’ll replace him at the risk of offending the Xi Group, okay?”

“All right, you’ve said so much, if I still have a problem with it, it would be a bit unkind,” said scriptwriter Tian. “Let’s take a look at him first, then.” As for offending the Xi Group, he didn’t even dare to think about it.

“Hoping and Sighing” was based on a novel. Although the original author of the novel had passed away, he was a very famous writer. Therefore, after learning that the novel would be made into a movie by Director Li, it attracted a lot of attention.

Of course, when they knew that Gongxi Qiao was the main character of the movie, all the media were in a weird mood. They wanted to say that Gongxi Qiao might not be suitable for the role, but remembering Gongxi Qiao’s face slapping experiences in the past two years, they didn’t dare to open their mouths. They had to vaguely say something like they were looking forward to it in the press release, and didn’t dare to say anything about him not being suitable.

Didn’t everyone realize that the media who used to say that Gongxi Qiao wasn’t suitable for a certain role were slapped in the face? Although the outside world said that journalists were thick-skinned, it didn’t mean they liked being slapped in the face.

The media’s weirdly friendly attitude was somewhat unexpected for Director Li, but since he was very optimistic about Gongxi Qiao’s acting skills, he couldn’t care less about the outside world’s opinion and threw himself into the intense shooting.

When filming this movie, he was ambitious. He wanted to take this movie to the Little Golden Man Awards. Even if he couldn’t get an award, he could still get a nomination. This was another reason why he chose Gongxi Qiao, because Gongxi Qiao not only matched the age and appearance of the original character, but was also internationally famous, which was enough to surpass most artists of his generation.

However, to the delight of Director Li, Gongxi Qiao didn’t just act well when he joined the cast, he simply brought the role of Jin Sheng to life. Jin Sheng’s stoicism when he was bullied by his fellow villagers and his numbness when he was ridiculed were played to perfection by Gongxi Qiao. If not for the fact that Gongxi Qiao was a rich second generation, he really would have to suspect that Gongxi Qiao had gone through all of that himself.

“Xiao Qiao, you have to be careful in this scene, but the dog chasing you is trained and it won’t be dangerous, so don’t worry.” Director Li made a hand gesture, indicating that Gongxi Qiao could start once he had brewed the right emotions.

Gongxi Qiao was wearing a somewhat shabby shirt and stood in the grass. Although the shirt was shabby, it was washed very clean. It was like the owner of the shirt, even though he had lived a hard life, he still wanted to stand up straight and let people see his proud side.

After a sideways glance at the pastoral dog being held by a staff member, Gongxi Qiao looked up at the sunset in the sky, took a deep breath, and made an OK gesture towards Director Li.

Run ……

Run hard ……

The young man ran huffing and puffing, the dead grass was crunching under his feet, and his panting was as loud as an ancient god. He kept urging himself not to stop, because if he stopped he would be pounced on by the large, vicious dog.

Behind him were the jeering voices and insults from his fellow villagers, but he just looked ahead at the road and ran forward without looking back. Not far ahead, there was a highway to the city, which was also his bright path to hope.

Closer, closer, he had a smile on his face, and suddenly the big dog behind him lunged up and tackled him to the ground.

After this scene, Director Li didn’t say anything. He just asked the staff to take the dog away quickly and then let the prop dog replace it. In order to avoid affecting Gongxi Qiao’s mood, no one went up to disturb him. Only the script supervisor whispered to prompt the shooting to continue.

The dog on Jin Sheng’s back barked and tried to bite him. The smile on Jin Sheng’s face slowly disappeared and his hand flailed around on the ground before touching a stone.

Clutching the stone with his hand, his eyes suddenly became crazed. The dog’s barking behind him seemed inaudible. He turned his head around woodenly and looked at the bloody mouth that was trying to bite into his shoulder. Bang, a fist hit the top of the dog’s head, and the dog fell to the ground and let out a whimper of pain.

He nervously lunged over, raised the stone and viciously smashed the dog’s forelimbs twice. When he thought about smashing the dog’s head next, his eyes met the dog’s black eyes, and his hand, raised in mid-air, stopped.

Frozen for a moment, he staggered to his feet and looked down at the dog’s bleeding ankle. The corners of his mouth twitched, wanting to smile, but he could only tug at the corners of his mouth.

Throwing away the stone in his hand, he limped in the direction of the highway, but his white shirt was stained, and his face, which had been deliberately washed clean, was also stained with dust.

What kind of gaze was this? Numbness, madness, relief, and expectation. All these things accumulated together to form a paradox and foreshadowed the tragic end of Jin Sheng’s future.

Director Li looked at the close-up shot of Gongxi Qiao’s eyes in the monitor, and his throat felt like it had been stuffed with a sour wad of cotton, choking him unbearably.

Screenwriter Tian sat next to Director Li and was also impressed by Gongxi Qiao’s acting skills. These few shots were a reflection of Jin Sheng’s future, so it was especially important for Gongxi Qiao to be able to bring his acting skills to this point. He felt like even the most critical people wouldn’t be able to pick out any mistakes.

“Okay, cut.” Director Li tried to suppress the depression in his heart and smiled at Gongxi Qiao. He had a feeling that choosing Gongxi Qiao to be the lead actor of this film might be the best decision he had ever made.

As soon as Director Li said the shooting was over, several of Gongxi Qiao’s assistants surrounded him, clothed him, poured tea and water for him, and stuffed him with heat packs. They were eager to give Gongxi Qiao a full set of equipment.

It wasn’t surprising that they were so careful. It was a cold month in the Imperial Capital. It was only three or four degrees outside, and Gongxi Qiao only wore this one shirt for the scene. They felt cold just looking at him, not to mention how frozen the person himself would be.

“Thank you,” said Gongxi Qiao. He wrapped his whole body into a thick coat and held the hot cup in his frozen and red hands, but he couldn’t feel how hot it was.

In fact, except for some unexpected bad weather, the film crew was progressing very well, so when Director Li saw Gongxi Qiao freezing like this, he graciously said that the shooting was over for the day and would continue tomorrow.

Gongxi Qiao smiled gratefully at Director Li, but when he turned his head, he found Xi Qing standing quietly in the cold wind. He didn’t know how long he had been standing there.

Seeing that Gongxi Qiao noticed him, Xi Qing gestured for him to go ahead and remove his makeup, and that he would go wait for him in the car.

After Gongxi Qiao left, Xi Qing couldn’t help but walk to the place where Gongxi Qiao had just been filming. Except for a mess of grass, everything else had been put away by the staff, and even the pastoral dog prop model had been put away by the staff.

Xi Qing squatted down and touched the stone that Gongxi Qiao had been holding, and the cold touch spread from his fingertips to his heart.

It was faster to remove makeup than to put it on. Xi Qing hadn’t been sitting in the car long when he saw Gongxi Qiao hurrying his way, his face mostly covered by a scarf.

“It’s cold.” Gongxi Qiao sat in the car, his face turning red from the warm air in the car. He shoved his cold hands into Xi Qing’s armpits. “Come on, let’s go home.”

Xi Qing turned a little sideways to make Gongxi Qiao’s warming action more comfortable.

The two looked at each other and smiled, turning into an unspeakable warmth.

“I watched when you were filming just now.”

“How was my acting?”

“A bit…… heartbreaking.” Xi Qing was silent for a moment. “Even though I knew it was fake, seeing you like that, I couldn’t help but feel bad, and my heart throbbed with heartache.”

“Heh.” Gongxi Qiao stretched out his hand and gently pressed on his chest. “Since you know it’s fake, don’t feel bad. How could I be that miserable?”

Seeing that Xi Qing still looked a bit gloomy, Gongxi Qiao smiled and pointed out the window. “Look, it’s snowing again.”

Xi Qing followed his fingertip and looked out to see snowflakes falling, silvery white and lovely.

Carefully withdrawing his gaze, Xi Qing looked at the gentle smile on Gongxi Qiao’s face. He couldn’t help but think that, fortunately, all of that was fake. If Xiao Qiao really suffered those pains, he would probably be so distressed that he couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep at night, couldn’t wait to suffer those pains instead of Gongxi Qiao, and take revenge on those who had oppressed him.

Luckily, it was all fake.

Sensing the warm palm wrapped around his cold hand, Gongxi Qiao withdrew his gaze and smiled as he planted a kiss on Xi Qing’s cheek.

The past was just an illusion. Only the present was true.

(End of main text)