CH 56

Xie Luyu had already cleaned up everything else he had prepared. In fact, some of it was sitting in the garbage bag by the door.

Fortunately, the cake was still in good condition. Xie Luyu counted out the candles and stuck them in the cake. Then, he pushed the cake in front of Gu Qingchi, the candlelight reflecting off his cheeks. 

There was also a birthday hat which he’d received while buying the candles. Xie Luyu placed it to the side.

The hat was made of paper. It was very crude and gaudy. Honestly, it looked rather ridiculous, so Xie Luyu didn’t bring it out.

However, Gu Qingchi noticed it. He wouldn’t stop staring at it, and Xie Luyu couldn’t resist.

The hat needed to be folded in order to prop itself up. As soon as Xie Luyu finished folding the hat, Gu Qingchi leaned his head forward. 

Xie Luyu put the hat on Gu Qingchi’s head. Then, Gu Qingchi solemnly straightened back up.

As he wore this somewhat ridiculous hat, Gu Qingchi closed his eyes and made a wish. Then, he took a deep breath and blew out all the candles.

Xie Luyu suddenly felt a twinge of pain in his heart. Even a birthday as humble as this one could get him this excited.

Just how much bitterness did he endure for him to become like this?

Xie Luyu was sitting in Pan Xiaocheng’s office. He wasn’t doing anything. He just sat there, leaning forward, with his hands on his knees. He rubbed his chin, looking very serious.

It wasn’t often that Xie Luyu looked so serious. Thus, Pan Xiaocheng shot him a few extra glances when he walked in.

“How come you’re not downstairs? Did you finally grow up?”

Xie Luyu didn’t move. 

“I already went. I just got back.”

Pan Xiaocheng opened up his laptop.

Pan Xiaocheng started to get to work.

Pan Xiaocheng didn’t get harassed by Xie Luyu. 

After working for a while, Pan Xiaocheng found himself completely unused to it. He kept glancing at Xie Luyu every couple of minutes.

In the end, Pan Xiaocheng couldn’t bear it any longer. He pushed his laptop aside.

“What’s wrong with you today?”

“Your next role doesn’t start filming until next year. If you’re really that idle, I’ll arrange some activities for you.” 

Xie Luyu hadn’t always been this idle.

He’d been very busy before, especially while he was on the rise. It was always one project after another. He practically never rested. There was a long period of time in which he was always stretched taut.

However, that was because Xie Luyu had no other choice.

He’d originally entered the entertainment industry for fun. Perhaps there was a bit of rebellious intentions hidden in there as well. 

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This state of mind was truly a scary thing.

Everyone said that he was amazingly talented, that he was blessed by god. Pan Xiaocheng was the only one who knew. Xie Luyu had no choice but to be excellent. 

Now that Xie Luyu was able to relax, Pan Xiaocheng finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Xie Luyu was a little extreme at times. Sometimes, he’d be so busy that Pan Xiaocheng was afraid he’d suddenly drop dead. At other times, he’d be so idle that Pan Xiaocheng wanted nothing more than to grab him by the neck and hurl him on set.

This didn’t just start happening after he was crowned Movie Emperor. In fact, Xie Luyu hadn’t really taken on a lot of roles over the past couple years.

However, Pan Xiaocheng wasn’t in any rush. After all, Xie Luyu’s main income wasn’t acting anymore. Even if it was, Pan Xiaocheng still wasn’t in any rush. 

The career of an actor was different than most. A single role could keep an actor afloat for half a year. It might even be more than half a year for someone of Xie Luyu’s pay grade.

Pan Xiaocheng’s main concern was that Xie Luyu would become stupid from all this free time.

Xie Luyu was still sitting there without moving. He wasn’t moved at all by Pan Xiaocheng’s suggestion.

“No, I’m not going to work this year. I’ll wait until next year. Besides, how am I being idle?” 

Xie Luyu shot him a look. He even had the audacity to feel a sense of superiority. He was busy making nutritious meals for Xiao Gu, buying clothes for Xiao Gu, and making sure that Xiao Gu was getting enough rest. He also needed to make cat food. Every day was very fulfilling.

Pan Xiaocheng played along.

“Yes, yes, yes. You’re not idle. You’re super busy falling in love. When are you going to put a name on this relationship? There’s nothing to gain here if you don’t put a label on it. It’s not like you don’t know why he’s with you. This industry might be a lot more regulated than before, but it’s still kind of seedy.”

Xie Luyu froze. Then, he straightened up and threw himself back into the sofa. 

“What are you talking about? Could you stop being so vulgar? Also, why do you have to talk as if he’s got some ulterior motive. You make it sound like I’m his sugar daddy or something. Everyone’s equal. No one’s trying to ‘get with’ anyone. We’re all the same. Besides, Xiao Gu’s not like that. He doesn’t care about material things.”

Xie Luyu yammered on and on about principles, full of self-righteousness.

Pan Xiaocheng slapped his mouth. However, he seemed perfectly happy to do so.

“It’s my fault. I used the wrong word. The two of you have a plan going forward, right?” 

Xie Luyu glanced at him.

“Of course I have a plan. I’m planning on winning him over.”

Pan Xiaocheng spit out his water.

Xie Luyu was slightly mysophobic. He moved to the side in disgust. 

Pan Xiaocheng didn’t even bother complaining about his behavior. He just stared at him.

“The two of you still aren’t together? You haven’t confessed?”

Xie Luyu didn’t think anything of it. This kind of thing wasn’t something that should be taken lightly. It needed to be taken seriously, and he had no problem saying as such.

“I’m not such a casual person. I need to build up some favorability with him first. Then, I’ll take the next step.” 

Pan Xiaocheng sat next to Xie Luyu.

“Do you want to know why I said what I said just now? On my way to the office, I saw that kid with a bouquet of roses in his arms. At first, I thought he didn’t know any better. However, it seems that the issue doesn’t lie with him. I’m not trying to discourage you, but beautiful people will always have admirers. You can’t keep dragging your feet like this.”

Xie Luyu raised his spirits.

“Was it from a guy called Cheng Xian? I knew that kid was trying to scope him out. Or was it the guy who invited him to dinner?” 

“Who cares? Are your competitors the most important thing right now? No, it’s the person you like. I can’t believe you. Come here, I’ll share some of my experience with you. This is how I managed to marry my wife.”

As a married man, Pan Xiaocheng confidently rambled on and on about a ton of dating tips. It wasn’t clear whether any of it would work or not, but, either way, it sounded convincing enough.

Xie Luyu had his doubts.

“Will this really work? Aren’t you and your wife childhood sweethearts? She was already stuck with you from the very beginning. Where’d you get this experience? Is this experience even useful?” 

Pan Xiaocheng couldn’t take this insult to his pride and patted his thigh.

“Just you wait. I’ll find out what his type is and help you create an opportunity.”

Then, he called up Ye Li.

Ye Li was incredibly busy. He was writing something down on the documents in his hands. When his phone rang, he couldn’t even be bothered to hold it. He simply stuck it between his chin and shoulder. 

“Hello, this is Ye Li.”

“It’s me, Pan Xiaocheng. I wanted to ask about the artist you’re managing.”

“Ohh, go ahead.”

“I was just wondering whether the previous scandal was true. Does he like that type? The tabloids are all saying different things.” 

Agents were pretty gossipy as well. Pan Xiaocheng didn’t actually know of any scandals at all. He was just trying to pull one over Ye Li. His focus was the latter part.

Ye Li’s head started spinning. He skipped right over Gu Qingchi and thought of his previous artist instead. The main reason for this was because of the path that Ye Li had selected for Gu Qingchi. Although Gu Qingchi was a rising artist, he was almost as idle as Xie Luyu. He had very few activities, so his scandals were essentially nonexistent.

Ye Li’s last artist had left a very deep impression. After all, he had the audacity to date around one after another, cutting off his own future. Ye Li had suppressed all of his scandals, but he did get into a relationship with another celebrity for publicity before.

“Oh, it’s about this. How come you’re asking about this after all this time? You can probably already tell. I’ll just tell it to you straight. The scandal’s fake. He’s got an established type. He likes someone who’s gentle with long hair. His ex was that type. He actually seemed pretty sad when they broke up.” 

Ye Li’s previous artist was pretty special. He was truly a scumbag, changing girlfriends like they were clothes, but, strangely enough, he had genuine feelings as well. Every time he broke up with one of them, he’d be upset for quite a bit.

Pan Xiaocheng seemed to have knocked over something. It took a while for him to speak, and he stumbled a bit over his words when he did.

“So it’s like that. He likes girls. I think I heard that he also likes men?”

“Oh, he’s your typical straight guy. He only likes girls. His looks are pretty good, so he’s been confessed to before. However, the guy ended up bothering him for quite a while. The experience probably shook him quite a bit because he wants nothing to do with that kind of stuff anymore. Even now, he’d probably glare at you if he heard you say that.” 

The topic was pretty interesting. Ye Li had actually wanted to say more, but he didn’t have any time on his hands. Thus, he didn’t talk much. Pan Xiaocheng asked, and Ye Li answered. He’d been very busy these past couple of days.

Gu Qingchi might be pretty idle, but that was because Ye Li had filtered everything out for him.

Ye Li still had to keep an eye on Gu Qingchi’s development. He needed to personally go through all the numbers so that they could be adjusted at any time.

He needed to whet the audience’s appetite, but he also needed to maintain a certain degree of attention. He couldn’t allow Gu Qingchi to be forgotten by the audience. 

As he was on the phone, Xiao Ke brought in another stack of materials.

“I’m hanging up now. Let’s talk some other day.”

On the other side, Pan Xiaocheng gulped and spoke tentatively.

“People change.” 

Xie Luyu looked up. He assumed that Pan Xiaocheng might say something about how no one was one hundred percent gay or straight. He might encourage him to keep trying. Then, Pan Xiaocheng spoke

“Maybe you’ll get over your crush after a couple of days—”

Before Pan Xiaocheng had even finished speaking, Xie Luyu had already started throwing pillows at him.

“Hey, I’m thinking in your best interest too. What am I supposed to do if he likes gentle girls? You’re making things too hard for me. Is this something I can decide?” 

Xie Luyu threw all of the pillows he had before settling down.

Pan Xiaocheng held his cup in his hands and stayed far away, refusing to get closer.

Xie Luyu lay slumped on the sofa. Finally, he grabbed a pillow next to him and buried his face in it.

If he was truly honest with himself, he didn’t actually know a lot about Gu Qingchi. Everything else was based upon his first impression and his conjectures. 

All Xie Luyu knew was that he had a cat and had been divorced once.

He was always quiet, away from the crowd, but he was very sensitive.

He was prone to loneliness, and he liked to drink when he was in a bad mood.

He liked girls. 

How tragic. Xie Luyu, a man, fell in love with a guy who liked girls.

Xie Luyu remembered everything Ye Li said very clearly.

Gu Qingchi wanted nothing to do with men who were interested in him.

What a cruel reality. 

However, when he heard this, his first reaction was actually relief. He was relieved that he didn’t say anything. He was relieved he could still stay by his side.

God had truly played a huge joke on him.