CH 13

Chapter 13

At ten o'clock in the evening, Grandma Song went to bed contentedly after watching two episodes of the TV series starring her ‘little son’, leaving the two gentlemen, Lin Zixi and Gu Zecheng, sitting on the sofa in mutual silence.

After a while, Dad Gu pressed his temple and finally took the lead to speak, "Did you really come from a drama school?"

"Didn't you know that I’m...'the disgrace of CFA'?" Young actor Lin, who had given up and stopped bothering, replied.

Gu Zecheng was silent for a moment and said very seriously, "You change your profession to a singer, okay? I can pull strings with the best record company in China."

Lin Zixi felt a little gloating. Two episodes of his own TV series and less than an hour of his scenes could actually force the gold master daddy to take the initiative and plan to utilize his personal connections for him. He reckoned this was also his own skill.

However, it was impossible for him to change his profession and so on just because of a sentence from Big Boss Gu—after all, he had not really recognized this ‘daddy’, and this ‘gold master’ was not a true gold master in the traditional sense either.

Lin Zixi shook his head and refused, "Now isn’t like ten years ago. The whole music circle has been dying in the past few years. If I become a singer, at most I’ll be an idol who depends on fans to make a living. I think I’ll still continue to be on the stage.… A few more years of acting, and maybe my acting skills will improve."

That was what young actor Lin said, but he himself did not have any confidence in the latter half of the sentence. As he spoke, his voice was getting smaller and smaller near the end.

Fortunately, Gu Zecheng actually didn't dislike him this time. He just sneered at him and said, "It’s up to you." Then he got up and left.

Lin Zixi breathed a sigh of relief, scrolled the WeChat Moments, and got up from the sofa, wanting to go to the kitchen to have a glass of water.

As a result, he unexpectedly saw his dad again in the kitchen. Moreover, the other party was actually making coffee late at night.

"It's already past ten o'clock. Are you still drinking coffee?" Lin Zixi could not help but ask in surprise.

Gu Zecheng poured the coffee into a cup, stirred the brewed brown liquid lightly with a spoon, and said with a cold expression, "There’re some documents that I haven't read yet."

After he finished speaking, he raised the cup and took a sip of coffee without adding milk or sugar into it.

Looking at Gu Zecheng's slightly tired face, Lin Zixi suddenly felt a little sorry.

His dad's business had become so big; naturally, his days would be very busy too. But now, aside from having to act in front of the old lady as well because of him, he even had to squeeze out almost two hours a day to watch his rough and slipshod TV series—not to mention the others, just between the currently airing Po Tian Ji and the being filmed The Legend of Concubine Ling, there were more than one hundred episodes in total.

It was no wonder that Gu Zecheng wanted to persuade him to retreat from the circle…. If their identities were exchanged, he might have the heart to use his connection to block the other party.

Young actor Lin thought about the other TV series he had filmed previously and the upcoming ones that he had already signed contracts for, and for a moment, he had a notion that he was simply doing evil. He suddenly felt a little guilty and ashamed when facing Dad Gu.

Gu Zecheng had already put the coffee pot in the sink at this time, waiting for the already asleep Sister Wang to wash it after she got up tomorrow morning, and was going to go to the study with a cup of coffee in his hand.

Lin Zixi hesitated behind him but still spoke haltingly in the end, "I also don't want to keep being criticized for my poor acting skills, but I often don't really understand how to work those roles out…. I haven't experienced their love, regret, passion, or hatred, so I don't know how to express it…. But since the director already said ‘cut’, then it's over."

Gu Zecheng did not expect that Lin Zixi would suddenly say such a heart-to-heart remark to himself. His steps halted, and he turned back to look at Lin Zixi.

"Shouldn’t analyzing the roles be the basic skills of actors? Your teacher didn’t teach it when you went to class?" Although Dad Gu's words were still rude, the expression on his face had become a lot softer without having noticed it himself.

And young actor Lin was like a student who failed the exam and was discovered by his parents. He lowered his head and looked down at the floor with some shame, saying in a low voice, "I didn’t get good grades when I was a child. I passed the CFA’s exam purely because the acting department’s requirement for the college entrance exam score wasn’t high. When I had just started, thinking that I could just be a walk-on or a small supporting role and earn some money, I didn't take any acting classes seriously…. Later, I was inexplicably popular, and there was no chance to make up for them even if I wanted to."

Gu Zecheng never imagined that the young actor in front of him who was currently popular in China actually chose to go on the stage because of his poor grades. Hating iron for not becoming steel, he said, "How come you look like Gu Zeyi and also didn’t study well just like him?"

People say that your sister’s son was like his (maternal) uncle, so maybe your brother’s son was also like his (fraternal) uncle…. Lin Zixi thought silently in his heart and heard his dad continue to speak, "Then you have no life plan at all. Are you really thinking of using your current acting skills to revolve around bad dramas for a lifetime?"

"My plan for a lifetime is like this." Young actor Lin raised his head and watched his gold master daddy trying to explain for him, "Like I’ve said before, I’ll withdraw from the entertainment circle when my current contract is over."

Gu Zecheng sighed, "You did say it last time. Then how long will it be before your contract expires?"

Lin Zixi lowered his head again, "Eight, eight years."

"You……"

Earlier, Dad Gu carried on watching and was shocked by young actor Lin’s ‘otherworldly’ acting skills. At this time, he finally realized that as long as the old lady's body was healthy enough, he was likely to be poisoned by the dramas of this ‘younger brother’, whom he hired himself, for eight years or even longer. His anger suddenly rose, and he was itching to give Lin Zixi a lesson.

But he did not know why, when he looked at the other person’s pitiful appearance of obediently waiting to be lectured with head hanging down, he suddenly couldn’t say the words that were already on the tip of his tongue. In the end, he could only turn them into a long sigh and a sentence, "I should’ve made you go abroad directly back then."

After Gu Zecheng finished speaking, he left with his already cold coffee.

And Lin Zixi stood there, feeling a little guilty and aggrieved. With head hanging down and dragging his steps, he then walked back to the bedroom.

He threw himself on the bed, held the mobile phone in his hand, and thought for a long time, but he could not think of a suitable person to talk to. In the end, he simply tapped the mobile game icon, leaving all his worries behind and happily rushing to the game world.

But someone in the study room separated by a wall from him certainly didn't have such an ability of being simple-minded.

Big Boss Gu, who should have continued to deal with the work he had not finished during the day, was frowning and looking through his long mobile phone address book. After seeing a certain name, he stopped sliding the screen and switched to his daily schedule to add an item for ten o'clock tomorrow—call the boss of Fengcheng Group, Feng Yuan.

You had to know, something like sitting and waiting for death had never been Gu Zecheng's style.