CH 4

“No, we can’t afford it.”

Fang Yuan held his wallet tightly and took a step back with a wary look.

Gu Yanshu: “……”

Never mind.

He could afford it actually, but it was a big difference of seven time the money depending on whether to breach the contract. Not only a loss of tens of millions, but also a bad influence on the reputation.

Gu Yanshu felt it was not worthy for the sake of Shen Jue.

And with so many outsiders present, there was a need for decency.

He turned around and said with valuing his words as gold: “Teacher Shen, what a coincidence.”

Mbl oyu bl oyp qsanle vs alrzu xyel Fbld Kwl qllz qwddu yde yddsule.

G twu okvb ds blyav.

R jkdezu nyxl vs pwrrsav bkx, cwv bl eked’v lhld yrralnkyvl kv.

Rv zkvlayzzu yvvakcwvle vs bkp clkdt xkplazu.

Xvblaokpl, R oswze byhl tsdl vs B.L. vseyu qsa dsvbkdt, yde sol Zl pwnb y ckt qyhsa.

Gzps, bl nyzzle xl casvbla ps pollvzu clqsal, dso kv bye clnsxl Mlynbla Fbld.

Ksbd pyhsale vblpl osaep yde pxkzle yrrasrakyvlzu: “R’hl xshle wr vbl aydjp iwkvl iwknjzu, lhld y Mlynbla dso.”

Qw Zydpbw dseele: “Mlynbla Fbld kp pwralxl xsayzzu yde yavkpvknyzzu, y aldsodle yavkpv. Fs R pbswze nyzz usw y Mlynbla.”

The tone of voice sounded very plain and serious. If an outsider heard this, he/she would think Shen Jue was seventy-two years old, rather than twenty seven.

Shen Jue felt Gu Yanshu was going to piss him off.

Before he could die of anger, General Director Cao Dan rush to the scene and stood in front of Shen Jue with a helpless look: “We have informed that our guest lists and recording are all confidential this time, so why you still post the Weibo?”

“I posted the Weibo just saying I was looking forward to it, and nothing else, so who can tell?” Shen Jue put his hands in the pocket and responded with a lazy tone, looking righteous.

Cao Dan got speechless.

The reasoning was surely like this.

But he was not ignorant of what kind of temperature this big shot had, so he had to nicely warned: “Anyway, please don’t make any trouble, and give me this old guy a chance to live, right?”

Shen Jue: “All right.”

Such an arrogant man. Cao Dan heard the charity-like tone and refrained from rolling his eyes. He kept his temper, gave a few more explanations, and waved to Wang Yang: “Wang, you now come over to take charge of Shen Jue’s part.”

Finishing the words, he rushed away in a breeze.

Fang Yuan took the opportunity to pull Gu Yanshu to the back of the car, helped him cover the mike, and asked in a low voice, “Why is he here?”

Gu Yanshu hung his eyelids: “How could I know.”

Why did Shen appear in U.N, replace Chen Ran, and lash out the rumor makers and anti-fans on Weibo? Gu Yanshu knew nothing.

Anyway, this man had been always like this: he would do whatever he wanted. To put it nicely, he was cynical; to put it bluntly, he was a bastard who didn’t care anything.

Fang Yuan knew more or less about Shen Yue’s behavioral style, and also knew he had someone behind back him. So he didn’t care much about any consequences no matter what he did.

But Shen Jue could be fractious, Gu Yanshu could not.

So he made a rare effort to be serious in front of Gu Yanshu:” I’ll go back and look into this, so you just stay cautious.”

“Hmm.”

Fang Yuan sighed: “Anyway my gut feeling tells me Shen Jue has some bad intentions this time. You know, be mindful of guarding against harm from others. You have to protect yourself and stay as far away from him as you can, do you hear me?”

Gu Yanshu’s tone was flat: “You help me pay the six times breach of contract, then I could stay eight kilometers away from him.”

“Then I think Shen Jue is actually not that bad.”

Saying that, Fang Yuan had picked up his handbags and suitcases: “Let’s go, I’ll send you in.”

Gu Yanshu felt that this world was literally realistic.

And Wang Yang finished just finished working on Shen Jue’s part, hearing what Fang Yuan’s words, hurried to say: “Brother Fang, agents can’t go in. We’re going to start to record at the entrance of the community.”

“I’ll stay away from the camera, just help move the belongings, not okay?”

“No.”

Fang Yuan frowned and got worried.

He was worried before because Gu Yanshu was going to stay for more than a month this time, so he brought a lot of essentials for Gu Yinshu, including one handbag and two suitcases.

One person would not be able to carry it.

Gu Yanshu was indifferent: “I can just take more steps.”

He took handbag with one hand and put the other on the lever of the suitcase.

As he was about to leave, on the left suitcase appeared another hand silently.

Wide, slender, well-defined bones. Green veins beneath the white skin were straining, showing a reassuringly strong control.

Lifted the eyes.

Shen Jue raised his eyebrows: “What? Don’t allow me to help you?”

Gu Yanshu answered politely: “I dare not to trouble Teacher Shen.”

Shen Jue tsked: “The trouble you caused to me was not enough?”

Gu Yanshu turned angry.

Having watched the corner of Gu Yanshu’s mouth were getting pouted, Shen Jue felt better, and said slowly: “Come on, which time did you go out without throwing your belongs to me? You can do it again this time.”

He didn’t bother to listen to what Gu Yanshu would say to piss him off and just pushed the suitcase away, with any intension to ask for Gu Yanshu’s permission.

Fang Yuan pondered over Shen’s words, then tilted his head to Gu Yanshu in a meaningful way: “Shu, so you used to engage in bullying in YOUNG group?”

Gu Yanshu: “Shut up.”

–

–

The location of this recording was an upscale community between the 3rd and 4th ring roads in Beijing.

The community was quiet with excellent security, and was dominated by high-rise buildings. In the center of the community, near the artificial lake, there were six single-family houses, separated by waterways, which did not interfere with each other, providing privacy and shade from trees and grass.

The building rented by the program was one of the most secluded, facing the lake, with gray-white courtyard walls and tall iron gates visible from afar.

When you pushed open the door, you would see a wide lawn with a stone path. At the end of the road was a three-story building in a post-modernist design style, with floor-to-ceiling windows, white walls. The third floor was half house, half terrace.

The surrounding area was full of elevated cameras and staff hidden behind the greenery.

Gu Yinshu and Shen Jue walked across the stone path one after the other.

On the way up the stairs, Shen Jue lifted the suitcase, damn heavy. He asked: “Filled with Gold?”

Gu Yanshu glimpsed the suitcase in his hand: “No.”

It was only filled with the fruits of Northeast people’s labour.

(TL: Northeast is famous for producing the rice.)

Then they rang the bell.

Soon there came the rustling sound of footsteps.

The door was pushed open a crack, and a young and cute head peeked out, and when it saw Gu Yinshu, its eyes widened instantly and pushed the door open: “Ahhhhh! Yan – cough cough cough -“

Before she could finish her sentence, her voice split and she coughed violently.

Xia Qingqiao, a newcomer to the company, debuted in the previous year’s audition with a quite good voice. So how did it suddenly become like this now.

Gu Yanshu took out a packet of tablets from his pocket and handed them over: “What’s wrong?”

“On your concert —- Cough —- screamed my head off and got hoarse”

?

You held a concert or I did?

“I couldn’t help it. It was so hot, so we must support!” Xia Qingqiao’s hoarse voice was very excited, “Brother you were amazing yesterday! A Supreme!”

He didn’t hide his fascination at all.

Shen Jue watched from the back of Gu and wondered why this kid was talking so much. He made it sound as if Gu Yanshu had blown up the stage yesterday, just to show off.

He spoke in a cold voice: “Just stand here at the door?”

The tone of his voice sounded impatient.

Only then did Xia Qingqiao suddenly found there was another person aside. He was busy preparing to apologize and say hello, but the moment he saw the person’s face, he froze there.

He stood there with her mouth open, confused, and threw a questioning look at Gu Yanshu.

Gu Yanshu showed a blank expression to convey that he knew nothing.

Xia Qingqiao shifted back to his gaze and dumbly said, “Hello, Teacher Shen, I am Xia Qingqiao.”

Shen Jue: “Hmm.”

Xia Qingqiao: “?”

Shen Jue: “?”

Xia Qingqiao: “……”

Never mind, maybe all the movie emperors were aloof.

No wonder he and brother Yanshu had been at odds for years, after all, they both spoke coldly, and certainly had nothing to say when they were together.

Xia Qingqiao understandingly walked between the two and entered the house together.

After the entrance, there was a spacious living room, decorated with light-colored wood and fabric.

At the other end of the living room were large floor-to-ceiling windows, outside of which lay a calm lake under the dusky light of the nightfall. Inside the windows was the soft bright incandescent lamp, under which covered the soft carpet. Three persons were sitting around on the carpet, talking something.

Hearing the sound, they all turned their heads.

When the older man saw Gu Yinshu, he smiled kindly and gently: “Shu is here? Why lost weight again?”

Gu Yanshu nodded: “Hello, Teacher Sheng.”

Sheng Ping was the veteran among the entertainers’ circles. He was over forty years old, ever won the movie emperor, worked as director and producer, got abilities, connections, resources, and was humorous, witty and knowledgeable. He had met Gu Yanshu several times in the variety show before, and was very kind to him.

They were acquainted.

After greeting Gu Yanshu, Sheng Ping looked at Shen Jue next to him.

It seems that he was not surprised by Shen’s appearance, but he gave a pretentious “wow”: “What kind of wind has blown Shen the movie emperor to us? We’re so honored.”

Shen Jue had a good relationship with Sheng Ping, and he could tell the derision in Sheng’s words. He put down the suitcase, pursing up his lips: “Well, just won the movie emperor, and come to boost my commercial value.”

Saying that, he raised the corner of his eyes to glance at Gu Yanshu.

Gu Yanshu didn’t want to talk to him, and coldly looked away.

What did he mean by repeating the words that fans used to curse him?

Showing a pitifulness or a provocation?

Sheng Ping, sitting on the side, caught the eye-to-eye exchange between the two, tsked twice without a word, pretending he was a tool man and keeping his mouth shut.

Instead, two girls greeted them.

One was Xu Fanfang, who was the same age as Gu Yanshu, a child star from a small flower girl with a sweet and lovely appearance. She had always been known as the national sister who was quite popular.

The other one was Xie Shuang, just over 30, an independent music producer with both fame and ability, who had won many international awards and owned a unique voice, attracting lots of loyal fans over the past few years.

The two girls were both not well acquainted with Gu Yanshu and Shen Yue, so they got nothing else to say after saying hello.

As the general director, Cao Dan naturally took over the conversation and picked up the trumpet: “Well, everyone is here now, so let’s see how we arrange the rooms for you.”

The villa had three floors. The first floor included a living room, dining room, kitchen, and a video game entertainment area.

The second floor had two double rooms, where the south-facing one contained a large built-in checkroom and the north-facing one was equipped with a massage chair. There was also a single room, which was reserved for the flying guest.

(TL: The flying guest is an entertainer who is invited to attend this show for only one or two episodes.)

The third floor was half terrace and half sunroom converted into a double room. The side facing the terrace had a set of floor-to-ceiling windows, and the roof had a large skylight that could be opened and closed for good light.

All rooms had en-suite facilities with bathtubs.

Without objection, the bedroom with checkrooms was given to the two girls.

As for how to arrange the rooms for the left four persons, the director team was a bit hesitated.

The original script was to arranged Sheng Ping And Xia Qingqiao to live in the room on the second floor, and Gu Yanshu and Chen Ran to live in the room on the third floor, which was convenient for creating the CP topic.

However the investor suddenly revealed Chen Ran got a scheduling conflict, and Shen Jue’s team just had a plan to boost Shen’s popularity, so they prefer to replace Chen Ran with Shen Jue and asked the program team if they agreed.

At the time, the program team just thought if they replaced Chen Ran with Shen Jue, they would hit pay dirt, so they made a quick decision and a deal, then remembered there was still a Gu Yanshu on the program.

The affairs between Shen Jue and Gu Yanshu was something that everyone in the fandom had heard about. Although the rumors were somewhat exaggerated and fabricated, but it was true the two hadn’t been in the same frame for years. So they guess the relationship between the two was literally bad, and the homophobia of Shen Jue was also true.

In other words, the script designed for Gu Yanshu and Chen ran couldn’t be used any more. Otherwise, these two who were together with some grudges would fight each other, and Shen Jue would certainly not want to……

“I’ll live with Gu Yanshu.”

“Ok.”

“Good.”

“What???”

Before the director team could figure out a plan, they heard a lazy self-satisfied voice, so they looked up abruptly to find where the voice came from.

Then they saw Shen Jue was sitting on Gu Yanshu’s suitcase, propped up on his long legs, crossing his arms before the chest, perceiving the astonished looks from everyone, and raising his eyebrows diffusely.

“So? No?”