CH 23

Qiao Weidong said a sentence half-jokingly but pointed out the truth, scaring Lin Zixi, whom had a secret in his heart, to death. Not only did he have to peek at the expression of his gold master daddy, but he also had to try his best to keep a straight face so as not to make himself look too strange. It was really a test of his acting skills, which could only be regarded as good if seen through the fans filter.

Fortunately, his dad clearly didn't take his old friend’s sentence to heart. He turned his head to glance at Lin Zixi and said with a funny look, "What illegitimate son? Where did I find such a big son?!"

"I just made a casual remark..." Qiao Weidong followed Gu Zecheng to look in Lin Zixi's direction and suddenly changed his mind for some reason, "I don't think he's your illegitimate son. I think he's your old dad's love debt from his previous mistress…."

"The more you talk, the more unreasonable you are!" Gu Zecheng punched Qiao Weidong on the shoulder, interrupting his nonsense. "You might as well guess it's my debt since those two old people were very affectionate back then." 

"Just kidding, just kidding…." Qiao Weidong smiled and turned the topic to their mutual friends.

Lin Zixi finally breathed a sigh of relief and could not help but smile bitterly in his heart. When it came to debt, Dad Gu was his and his mom's debt—the kind that they could not repay.

Lin Zixi followed Gu Zecheng silently all the way out of the VIP passage of the airport and saw Assistant Zhang and the person sent by Esther to receive them from a distance.

"The person who picks me up is over there. I'll leave first then. I wish you a smooth journey in B City." He put his peaked cap back on, lowered the brim, said goodbye to his dad, and walked quickly towards Assistant Zhang. 

Gu Zecheng took his gaze away but unexpectedly found that Qiao Weidong was staring in Lin Zixi's direction.

Gu Zecheng turned his sight back at Lin Zixi's distant figure but still didn't notice anything unusual, "What's the matter? Is there something wrong with him?" 

The serious expression on Qiao Weidong's face immediately faded, and the good-natured and amiable smiling expression reappeared. "He…. Never mind, it’s just my occupational disease recurring."

Qiao Weidong had been working in the Ministry of Public Security for nearly 20 years, and he just couldn’t help but look at everyone like looking at a criminal suspect. Gu Zecheng was actually used to his old friend, but somehow, when Qiao Weidong looked at Lin Zixi with a scrutiny, it made him feel slightly uncomfortable like his territory was being invaded.

He replied as if to explain and also vouch for Lin Zixi, "I asked him to pretend to be Zeyi, so of course I had ordered someone to check his background first."

Qiao Weidong nodded and no longer got too entangled with the little star whom he had only met once. He turned to chat with Gu Zecheng about the welcoming dinner in the evening.

Although Gu Zecheng now lived in S City with Grandma Song, he grew up in B City after all, so he had a lot of close friends who grew up with him here.

Almost every time he came to B City, someone would definitely take this opportunity to organize a big gathering.

Behind this gathering was childhood friendship as well as adult sophistication—after all, among their generation, Gu Zecheng was the wealthiest now, and Qiao Weidong was the most powerful, so the relationship with them naturally had to be maintained—and Gu Zecheng was well aware of this matter. But it was also because of this childhood friendship and adult sophistication that he would usually participate as long as his itinerary was not too tight.

After the welcoming dinner was over, it was almost eleven o'clock in the evening when Gu Zecheng returned to the hotel.

Big Boss Gu's drinking capacity was pretty good—at least he could easily outdrink Lin Zixi—but he would occasionally suffer from insomnia after drinking.

Tonight, for example, Gu Zecheng had carefully gone over his to-do list for this trip to B City three times in his mind, but he still had no sleepiness at all. So he simply stopped tossing and turning restlessly in the bed. He put on his clothes, got up, and sat in front of the opened laptop on the writing desk.

Gu Zecheng originally wanted to open his mailbox to deal with the emails, but he saw a news feed window in the lower right corner of the computer screen with the subject of a certain star in the entertainment circle whose early life turned out to be pitiful.

Dad Gu was not interested in this star at all, but because of this press release, he remembered a certain pair of business CP whom came out of someone’s mouth during the day.

Whether it was because of drinking too much alcohol or suffering from insomnia in the middle of the night to the point of losing his head, Gu Zecheng opened the search website under the influence of demons and gods at work, typed in the search box [LianXi Fufu], and then pressed Enter.

However, facing hundreds of thousands of search results, Dad Gu felt for the first time that the generation gap between him and today's young people was really huge.

What was "AU"?

And what was "ABO"?

What did "kichiku and tsundere" mean?

Did "meaty" mean that Lin Zixi and the one surnamed Qiu were fat?

With all kinds of questions, Gu Zecheng finally saw a title at the bottom of the first page of the search results that he (thought he) could fully understand—[LianXi Fufu] Persuading the Lord to Take Pity on the Man Before Your Eyes: Tear-Jerking and Driving a Car.

As a result, Dad Gu, who thought that he would see a collection of various real driving scenes, saw a story of a sadomasochistic romance between a policeman and an underworld hitman without the slightest warning.    

The creator of this video was clearly a real master at the top level of the fan circle. Whether it was the plot, the soundtrack, the use of tones, the selection of camera shots, or the basic skills of PS and rendering, they were all top-notch…. Even the scenes in it were collected and pieced together from different video sources. And the bedroom scene, which was cut half-covered and half-concealed by the creator, was even more tantalizing.

Gu Zecheng absolutely didn’t know that the video he watched had been used as a god-level marketing tool by so many CP fans, and he also didn't know that the creator was crowned ‘the number one car god in this circle’ because of this MV. However, he could see with his own eyes Lin Zixi with his shirt half-lifted showing a snow white and flat stomach, his Adam's apple trembling from swallowing saliva, his lips bitten out of restraint, and his long eyelashes quivering slightly as his eyes closed….

"Bang!" The video on the web page still hadn’t finished playing, and the laptop on the desk was suddenly slammed close by Gu Zecheng, whom suddenly stood up.

There was incredulous astonishment on his face, but it was not because he thought the young star he knew had really shot such a movie, he just, he just….

Discovered that not only was his mind awake now, but even a certain place below his abdomen had also woken up in high spirits from its deep sleep.

"What are some children thinking nowadays?!" Big Boss Gu, confronted with the attack of the driving video, spoke almost through gritted teeth.

TL’s note:

风流债 (fēng liú zhài) = lit. love debt; fig. moral obligation in consequence of a love affair; karmic consequences of a love affair

鬼畜 (guǐ chù) = kichiku (Japanese) = lit. ghost animal; fig. cruel, inhumane character

傲娇 (ào jiāo) = tsundere (Japanese) = cold on the outside, hot on the inside; also refers to a character who normally speaks with a prickly attitude but is shy and sticky around a certain person under certain conditions 

开车 (kāi chē) = lit. to drive a car; fig. telling/sharing/containing sexual content