CH 79

Dr. Jiang gave Xie Luyu a bunch of precautions.

Xie Luyu was also looking up information on his own time. He carefully noted everything down in a thick stack of notebooks. However, some things you could know, but doing was an entirely different matter. Xie Luyu was never able to harden his heart. 

Gu Qingchi typically didn’t have much of anything to do, so he always slept in. However, even after sleeping in for so long, he would still be slow and sluggish during the day. He would liven up later at night and just sit in the living room doing nothing.

Xie Luyu made an agreement with Gu Qingchi to wake up early. He even drew up a schedule, and he always made sure to wake the other up on time. However, it was actually rather difficult to do. The difficulty didn’t wasn’t with Gu Qingchi. He was always very groggy in the mornings and he liked to stay in bed for a bit before getting up, but he would get up.

The difficulty was with Xie Luyu. Gu Qingchi always had a hard time waking up, and he would often sit there with his head down. Xie Luyu’s heart twinged just by watching him. He often felt that he might as well just let him sleep for a while.

However, Gu Qingchi himself was not enough. His self-control was so low that it might as well be nonexistent. He was a pleasure seeker. He did whatever he liked. He would do whatever it took to make himself happy, but happiness was often a miserly pursuit to him. 

Xie Luyu had no choice but to harden his heart. Every time, he would think nope, can’t do it, let’s indulge him just this once. Still, Xie Luyu managed to carry out his schedule every single time.

Xie Luyu used to look at the other’s miserable appearance, and he would want nothing more than for the doctor to immediately prescribe him some medicine. He thought that he’d be fine after taking medicine, they’d take their time, he was sure to get better.

However, now, he was starting to hesitate. Given Gu Qingchi’s character, Xie Luyu was almost positive that he would do anything to seize even the slightest bit of happiness.

Thus, Xie Luyu had no choice but to become stronger himself. He did his homework, and he made a plan. Once he had a plan, he firmly stuck by it. He was determined to pull Gu Qingchi out of the quagmire.

He woke him up each day. He wrote down everything they would do that day, as well as a few surprises that he had planned for Gu Qingchi, on the calendar. Each day was different, and the schedule was always chock-full.

Xie Luyu found that Gu Qingchi would cheer up, at least for a moment, if he heard something funny, so Xie Luyu scoured the web each day for jokes. After filtering through them, he would present them to Gu Qingchi for a smile.

Gu Qingchi didn’t like overly corny jokes. He liked the kind of jokes that come up inadvertently. Sometimes, if he was in a good mood, he would laugh and laugh until he’d fallen over on the sofa.

A lot of the jokes were too far-fetched and exaggerated, so Xie Luyu had to make some of his own adjustments. He racked his brains to come up with the perfect lines, perfect delivery, perfect everything. Xie Luyu already had a pretty good sense of humor, so, once he put some effort into it, his comedic abilities improved by leaps and bounds. Whenever he was with Gu Qingchi, he always kept it positive, kept it light. He hid away all his negative emotions. Like a little sun, he shone brightly before Gu Qingchi. 

After spending a bit of time like this, Gu Qingchi’s mental state improved a lot.

He was in pretty good condition today. He laid on the sofa and played with the cat, tossing a ball back and forth. Xie Luyu walked down the stairs and watched them for a while. Then, he laughed and whistled in their direction.

“There’s a high-definition re-release for My Neighbor Totoro. The screening’s at 8:00 PM. Do you want to go?”

Wlf Oese tjv ageis qea lc j iba bo foobga. 

Ktlr kjr bcf bo atf ofk wbnlfr atja Xe Hlcumtl ilxfv. Lf fnfc tjv j ilaaif mtjgw bo Kbabgb atja tf xfqa klat tlw. Lf’v tjv la rlcmf atf nfgs olgra wbnf.

Djmx ktfc tf kjr lc mbiifuf, Xe Hlcumtl tjv ibnfv Ljsjb Zlsjhjxl’r oliwr. Lf kjamtfv atfw rfnfgji alwfr klat tlr mijrrwjafr, jcv tf kjamtfv atfw jujlc bcmf tf kjr bc tlr bkc. Pa vlvc’a wjxf tlw jr tjqqs jr tf atbeuta la kbeiv, yea la kjr ralii j gfjiis ubbv wbnlf.

Now, Xie Luyu was cheerfully inviting him to go watch it again. Gu Qingchi almost felt like he was back in college.

He thought about it for a bit. Then, he blurted out. 

“Okay. You’ll buy the tickets, and I’ll buy the popcorn.”

After he said that, he laughed and curled up on the sofa.

“Back in school, I used to split tasks up with my classmates like this.”

Xie Luyu sat on the sofa by his feet. Gu Qingchi retracted his feet very naturally to make room for him. 

“In that case, let’s divide the work like that. You buy the popcorn. I’ll buy the tickets.”

Xie Luyu was booking the tickets on his phone as he was chatting with Gu Qingchi.

Gu Qingchi shifted. Xie Luyu turned to look at him.

“Are we co-tenants right now?” 

Xie Luyu responded instantly.

“Yeah. You’re the subletter, and I’m the subtenant. Honestly, we’re saving the company so much money by living together.”

Xie Luyu was quite happy to see that Gu Qingchi was able to ask that kind of question. When Gu Qingchi had been struggling, it was as if nothing around him mattered. It was only after he made it through that stage that he was able to start thinking about other things.

Gu Qingchi was slowly getting better and better. Even if their relationship still hadn’t changed, it didn’t matter. 

Both of them left the house fully armed with hats, scarves, and masks, which they removed in the theater. After the movie, they reminded each other to put on the masks and hats back on before the light came back on. Then, they hung around until the end of the credits and finally left with the last bits of the crowd.

Gu Qingchi was still in high spirits even after the movie ended. It wasn’t too late into the night, so the two of them were walking around the mall. Both of them were fully decked out in hats and masks in a well-heated mall. Still, they weren’t too worried about how much attention they would attract. Instead, they were focused on discussing the plot of the movie.

The two of them walked over to the railing and stood there for a while.

“My movie’s about to be released soon. It’ll be released at the end of this year, just in time for the holidays.” 

Gu Qingchi felt a vague sense of pride. He was talking about the movie he worked on with Slater—Nirvana.

He spoke a bit more than usual. He talked about some of the interesting things he encountered on set and some of the difficulties he ran into while acting.

Xie Luyu was happy to listen to him. He could tell that Gu Qingchi liked acting.

“Ye Li told me that there’s going to be a new role for me at the end of this month. Apparently, this script is set during the Republican Era. I’ll have to wear a changpao.” 

Gu Qingchi gestured a bit with his hands. He found this a little fun.

Xie Luyu had also filmed a movie set in this era, but he hadn’t worn a robe. He’d been playing a warlord, so his costume had been a military uniform.

“I’ll visit you on set when the time comes. I’ll finally be able to see a changpao looks like.”

Gu Qingchi quickly nodded. He was a little excited about being able to satisfy his friend’s request. 

Everyone had to work. Xie Luyu felt that it was about time for Gu Qingchi to get back to filming. He’d have to find some time to discuss it with Ye Li.

⁂

Gu Qingchi got to spend a rare morning in bed. He’d been in pretty good condition for the past couple of days, so Xie Luyu wasn’t worried. He didn’t wake him up, and he didn’t rush. He simply let Gu Qingchi know that he was heading out to buy groceries.

Gu Qingchi buried himself in his pillow and offered a muffled hum in response. 

Xie Luyu placed the cat, who was also curled up, on a cushion at the foot of the bed. He quietly instructed it.

“Make sure to keep an eye on your dad. I’ll make something good for you when I get back.”

After doing all of this, Xie Luyu went downstairs and tidied up real quick. He was about to head out, so he moved rather quickly. He didn’t want Gu Qingchi to wake up later and find himself all alone in the house.

However, Gu Qingchi had been doing really well lately. He’d even started looking for things to do on his own time. 

As he was leaving, Xie Luyu just so happened to run into a woman at the door.

The woman was somewhere in her thirties or forties. However, she had maintained herself well, so she could have been much older. Frankly, she was rather beautiful. The woman wore a mink coat. It was actually rather early in the year to be wearing a mink coat. She was also covered in jewelry. There was a jade bracelet upon her wrist and a silver chain around her neck. All of these accessories piled on top of one another, however, seemed rather vulgar.

Xie Luyu was wearing a mask and a hat. He took a step back and stared at her, very much on his guard. It’d be a disaster if she was a sasaeng. This didn’t really seem to be the case, but there were all kinds of people these days. It wouldn’t hurt to be vigilant.

“Are you looking for someone?” 

The woman had also been startled to see Xie Luyu.

She looked at him suspiciously and spoke arrogantly.

“Does Gu Qingchi live here?”

She silently cursed in her heart. She had called Starlight Entertainment for Gu Qingchi’s address, but that damned agent had refused to give it to her. 

Even when she brought out her identity as Mrs. Gu, it had been no use. Thus, she had no choice but to have someone investigate. She even had to get some help from that man. Originally, she’d thought that it couldn’t be wrong, but it seemed that it wasn’t so after all.