CH 62

It was the call from his ‘Brother Qiao’, Qiao Weidong, that saved Lin Zixi's butt.

"Old Gu, are you and Lin Zixi really together?! Haven’t I told you that he's Lin Zhenzhen's son?! Don't you understand what I mean..."

As soon as Gu Zecheng answered the call, the other party’s shouting voice blasted out, and it was so loud that Lin Zixi could hear it without the speaker on.

"I understand." Gu Zecheng sighed and interrupted his old friend’s words, "But what can I do if I'm in love?"

"You’re, you’re... Fuck! Fuck!!" Qiao Weidong's steadiness and calmness that he had trained in the public security system vanished in a flash. After saying a lot of "fuck”, he finally accepted that ‘his best friend since childhood was in a relationship with his own son’, a magical reality where both the sexual orientation and the choice of person were not right.

Qiao Weidong fumbled for the lighter in his pocket, lit a cigarette, and took a deep puff to suppress his shock before tentatively asking with some struggle, "Didn't you have a good relationship with Lin Zhenzhen before? Why do you like a man now? Even if you like men, why on earth must you choose... him?! Old Gu, even if you like me... no, no, even if you like Yingqiu, it's still better than liking your own son!"

Gu Zecheng smiled and let go of Lin Zixi. He walked to the super large balcony connected to the bedroom, lit a cigarette, and spoke slowly while smoking, "If I could choose the person I like, I’d definitely not harm him. Old Qiao, don't waste your time thinking about it…. I’m destined to have this calamity and ill-fated relationship and just had to fall for him. Anyway, I originally didn't think of having an heir. Now that I’m in an incestuous relationship with my own child, so be it.”

"You, you... sigh..." Qiao Weidong took another deep puff of his cigarette and sighed. Then he heard Gu Zecheng ask him, "I didn't tell you because I was afraid that you’d be worried. I thought I’d find an opportunity later to slowly tell you about it. How did you know? You're not someone who cares about gossip and tidbits."

"I didn't want to care about it, humph..." Qiao Weidong snorted coldly, "But I couldn't stand several people calling me, trying to find out from me what exactly the relationship between Lin Zixi and you is. Especially that troublemaker from the Ning family. He told me the gossip of the two of you in great detail and even wanted me to be the mediator to set up a meeting, so that he could find a chance to apologize to you…. When I heard Third Old Ning’s words, if I still couldn't guess that the two of you got it on as soon as I left that day, then all my years of doing criminal investigation have truly been in vain!"

"Yo, our Deputy Director Qiao is really scrupulous and has discerning eyes!" Gu Zecheng took a puff of his cigarette and said with a smile.

However, Qiao Weidong was like a cat whose tail was stepped on and became excited again, "Bah! Listening to your words, why do I think you’re mocking me! If I really had discerning eyes, I wouldn't have helped you detain him at the immigration office even at gunpoint! I should’ve let Lin Zixi escape to faraway places, so you two would get separated and save me from getting upset!"

"Don't be upset, don't be upset…. Now that he and I are together, just think of it as me having a companion. It's better than me being single forever, right?" Gu Zecheng advised his old friend, "Your Xiaoxiao is already in the second year of junior high school, while I don't even have a wife. Don't you think I'm lonely?"

"Humph, the law in our country doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage. Even if you two are together, you’re still a bachelor legally." Qiao Weidong complained bitterly after he took his last puff of his cigarette and twisted the cigarette butt hard into the ashtray.

"Times are always changing. Who can say what will happen in the future." After Gu Zecheng finished speaking and before his old friend could retort that "homosexuals can marry but not to their next of kin", he immediately asked him, "When those people were looking for you to ask about my relationship with Zixi, what did you say to them?"

"Me? What could I say?! Haha..." Qiao Weidong laughed insincerely, "I said: 'Old Gu didn't tell me clearly, so I’m not too sure either. But in my opinion, it's not impossible that his family’s second child, Gu Zeyi, who was so reckless and wild back then, had left one for the Gu family before he sent himself to death.'"

….

……..

The biological son who had been employed to act as his own younger brother suddenly became a ‘nephew’. Qiao Weidong's answer was so fantastic that even Gu Zecheng did not know how to react for a while.

And the man on the other end of the phone was quite proud of himself, "As far as our relationship is concerned, you don't need to thank me, just let our eldest nephew sign his name for Xiaoxiao. Xiaoxiao told me that she likes your Zixi very much. What do I want him to sign for her... Oh, it’s 'LianXi is real'.... Children nowadays are interesting. What the heck is this vague sentence?"

"...Okay, no problem. I'll ask your sister-in-law to write a few more words for your Xiaoxiao and sign 'LianXi are best friends'." The captain of GuXi CP thus said.

On the fourth day of the new year, Lin Zixi and Gu Zecheng parted early in the morning. One went down south to H City, and the other went back east to S City.

How many New Year's functions were waiting for Big Boss Gu in S City was not to be discussed for now. Anyway, young actor Lin was surrounded by reporters as soon as he arrived on the set, and he almost couldn't enter the shooting location.

In this internet age, the biggest secret for all kinds of media to survive was to run faster than their peers.

Many of them had been stationed in H City since yesterday just to get a first-hand answer the earliest, "Lin Zixi, you must’ve known about the turmoil on the Internet a few days ago. Everyone is very curious about what the relationship between you and Gu Zecheng is. Is he that kind of elder brother as rumored on the Internet..."

"No." Lin Zixi interrupted a web portal reporter who was blocking his way to question him loudly, smiling and winking mischievously, "Didn't someone break the news on the Internet before that our relationship is that of 'a star and his gold master'?"

After speaking, big star Lin ignored the reactions of these people, turned around, and told Assistant Zhang behind him to send red envelopes to the media present today. After that, he waved his hand apologetically to them, "Today’s the 20th filming day of our Coast Rescue Team drama. The crew and I welcome and thank you all for visiting the set. My assistant will take you to find the public relations staff of the crew. Sorry, I can’t accompany you all. I have a very important scene later, and I have to go to the makeup now."

Lin Zixi left after saying that, leaving large and small media correspondents looking at each other in dismay before scrambling to send out rough drafts in less than an hour.

‘Lin Zixi denies the rumors about having a gold master’, ‘Lin Zixi ridicules the rumors and claims to be a star and his gold master’, ‘Starting from Lin Zixi, the list of stars in the entertainment circle with outstanding family background’.... These reports had all kinds of headlines, but there was only one core—although we are not sure what exactly is going on with these two, it can not be a relationship of providing sex for power anyway.

Young actor Lin read these articles between the gap of his filming. Besides feeling deeply moved that some media could actually speak human words, he could only send a message to his dad, praising Big Brother Gu for being awesome.

However, netizens' reactions to these bombarding push notifications were certainly not so flat. The gossip forums and social networking sites were almost slaughtered by various LinGu-related posts.

For example, this kind of fan recommendation posted by a ‘passer-by’, "Having such a good family background yet always being so low-profile. I’m going to become Lin Zixi’s fan!".

Or this kind of gossip investigation posted by a true passerby, "Is GuLin a relationship between foster parent-foster child, brothers, father-son, uncle-nephew, or some other secret ones?".

Another example was this kind of wailing asking for stickers posted by a face dog, "I absolutely don't care about their relationship. I just want to ask for high-definition pictures of these two godlike faces in the same frame".

Of course, these were all discussions for the general public. In the corner of the Internet where some special fans gathered, there were comments of another kind spreading.

TL’s note:

The original words for foster parent and foster child are 战友托孤 (zhàn yǒu tuō gū). 战友 (zhàn yǒu) means comrade-in-arms or battle companion, and 托孤 (tuō gū) means entrusting others to take care of the children left behind before death. Gu Zecheng is an ex-soldier, so a netizen asks whether Lin Zixi is the child entrusted to him by his dead comrade, aka Gu Zecheng's foster child.

颜狗 (yán gǒu) = lit. face dog, means a type of person who has no resistance to all things with good looks