CH 34

Lin Zixi's days had become more comfortable since he made a preliminary agreement with Dad Gu—he cooked and played games at home every day and went out for a late night snack with Gu Zecheng every once in a while—so much so that when Chen Yunyun was on a video call with him, she started to scream the moment she took a glance at young actor Lin, "Ahhh! How many catties of fat have you gained in the past two months?!"

“Three…. Four…. Five catties…. Five kilos TAT” Under his agent’s accusing gaze, Lin Zixi handed over his ‘concrete evidence of a crime’ like squeezing out toothpaste.

Chen Yunyun could not help but utter a string of swear words. After spending half an hour with Lin Zixi to finalize the works for a period of time, she spent another half an hour severely criticizing and re-educating this idol star.

As a result, when Gu Zecheng came home after getting off work that day, he was greeted by an entirely different dinner on the dining table—two plates and a bowl near his seat contained juicy and fragrant spicy stir-fried clams, vibrantly-colored chili chicken, and authentic spicy and sour noodles respectively; while on the other side, two steamed carrots, half of a steamed corn, a small piece each of steamed sweet potato and boiled chicken breast, and a few thin slices of boiled beef were neatly arranged in the delicate and beautiful peach blossom porcelain tableware.

"Are you... suffering from excessive internal heat?" Dad Gu approached Lin Zixi with some worry, held his chin with one hand, and lifted it gently, "Extend your tongue, and let me see."

Lin Zixi threw himself headlong into his dad’s arms and whined aggrievedly, "No... it’s Chen Yunyun. She ordered me to lose weight."

"To lose weight?" Gu Zecheng touched the waist of the person in his arms very naturally, "Where are you fat? What fat to reduce? It’s good to add some fat!"

Young actor Lin inwardly approved of his dad's words very much while still explaining in a weak voice to Gu Zecheng what ‘appearing fat on the camera’ was and that stars who put on weight would increase the workload of photo editors and station sisters. 

"But you can't go on a diet to lose weight. It's not good for your body." Dad Gu touched the little potbelly that Lin Zixi had accumulated during the past two months and patted it hard while saying, "From tomorrow onward, you’ll stop snacking and then go exercise with me every day."

"You actually exercise every day; why didn't I know?!" After living with his dad for so long, Lin Zixi had never seen him go exercising.

Gu Zecheng, seeing Lin Zixi’s eyes widening in shock, smiled, "I usually get up at five o'clock in the morning. Then I do boxing or swimming for an hour. When you get up early to make breakfast, I usually have been working for more than an hour."

Lin Zixi was even more shocked, "What the heck…. The statement that you business tycoons get up at four or five o'clock in the morning is actually not just chicken soup for the soul?!"

"Do you think it’s so easy to make money like you stars? It’s indeed... a little emperor who doesn't know the suffering of the people." Big Boss Gu said and gave the ‘little emperor’ a light pinch on the face, "It's settled then. Your Majesty should eat normally..."

Dad Gu glanced at the red and bright pieces on his half of the table while speaking, "Even if you prepared the food for me alone, why did you make it spicy? You can't even eat it."

The true ‘little emperor’ of the Gu family gave an embarrassed smile, "Isn’t it... to make me resist the temptation and eat the diet meal properly!"

"Your Majesty... is really promising." Gu Zecheng sighed and took out the coat that he had just hung in the cloakroom, " You go change your clothes. We'll go out to eat."

Seeing Lin Zixi's hesitation, he added, "I once heard the girl from the chairman’s office say something like... If you don't eat enough, how can you have strength to lose weight!"

Thus, little incapable ruler Lin, who was originally struggling to be polite, was immediately persuaded by his regent and changed his clothes happily.

After that, Lin Zixi, based on the idea of ​​’one last big meal before losing weight’, stopped talking about gaining a few taels of meat per meal for the time being.

It was not until he was about to sleep that he figured out that something was wrong—his dad really got up at five to exercise.

……

…………

Help! Did he still have time to leave home now?!

There was obviously not enough time to do it.

Thus, at half past six the next morning, Lin Zixi was dug out of the quilt by his dad.

Gu Zecheng leaned against the door frame of the bathroom watching the drowsy-eyed young man brushing his teeth and washing his face and felt a little helpless, "I’ve specially adjusted the time to work first and exercise afterwards. How come you still haven’t got up?"

"It's impossible to get up early. It's impossible to get up early in this lifetime." Lin Zixi yawned as he spoke. Then he followed Dad Gu in a daze all the way to the swimming pool on the top floor of the building.

However, when he saw Gu Zecheng coming out of the changing room by the pool, he was immediately clear-headed.

Lin Zixi had once caught a glimpse of the other party's figure through a white shirt, but that and seeing the bare wide shoulders, narrow waist, and long legs with his own eyes were two completely different things.

As a born gay, Lin Zixi's gaze could not help lingering on Big Boss Gu's abdominal muscles and mermaid line. When the ‘walking hormone’ approached, he even had an urge to have a nosebleed.

"OMG, I'm about to be reduced to being my dad's flesh fan!" Lin Zixi wailed in his heart and jumped into the pool when Dad Gu was still one meter away from him.

He needed to calm down!

But before he could calm down, someone actually jumped into the pool and arrived behind him in a few strokes.

That sturdy and powerful body seemed to stick to Lin Zixi's back, and a deep and low voice bringing warmth sounded behind his ears, "Why don't you warm up your lower body first?"

And Lin Zixi froze on the spot—a certain place he concealed under the water actually woke up unceremoniously in the wake of the other party's approach and words.

Even if it was the blessing of a normal physiological phenomenon like morning erection, getting turned on by his biological father early in the morning was…. Young actor Lin already had a death wish in his heart.

He threw out a sentence stiffly, "My stomach is a little uncomfortable!", and rushed out at a faster speed than when he jumped into the pool just now. After changing his clothes sloppily, he immediately scampered home—and took a cold shower.

TL’s notes:

斤 (jīn) = catty; weight equal to 0.5 kg; (Tw) weight equal to 0.6 kg

挤牙膏 (jǐ yá gāo) = lit. to squeeze out toothpaste; fig. to extract a confession under pressure

站姐 (zhàn jiě) = lit. station sister, refers to fans who use high-end cameras to shoot idols

小皇帝 (xiǎo huáng dì) = child emperor; (fig.) spoiled child; spoiled boy; pampered only child

两 (liǎng) = two; both; some; a few; tael, unit of weight equal to 50 grams (modern) or 1⁄16 of a catty (old)

肉体饭 (ròu tǐ fàn) = flesh fan, a kind of fan who’s obsessed with the idol's body