Chapter 52 - I’ve got this Celebrity’s back (12)
Chapter 52 I’ve got this Celebrity’s back (12)
Gu Xi lowered his head and looked at Lu Qingzhou in his arms.
The little paparazzo has never spoken so loudly before.
He didn’t know how long that “I want to!” had been hidden in Lu Qingzhou’s heart. He only felt his heart hurting so much he was feeling depressed. He couldn’t help but tighten his arms, embracing the other firmly against his chest. He lowered his head and kissed him.
Lu Qingzhou looked up and met his kiss.
The little light coming from the overhead light fell into those black eyes, lighting a spark in that seemingly persistent calm.
A happy warmth appeared in Gu Xi’s eyes and he hugged and covered him. Realizing that Lu Qingzhou’s gaze was still on the contract, he couldn’t help turning speechless from surprise. He simply took the contract over and put it directly beside the two of them, so that Lu Qingzhou could touch it with a simply lifting of his hand.
Because of the soothing careful kiss, the body in his arms gradually relaxed. The haziness in his eyes was washed clean and its clear light was revealed once again. Leaning in his arms, Lu Qingzhou said softly, “Why so thick…”
“I’ve got a lot of shortcomings and lots of rules too. Those are all tyrannical clauses.”
Gu Xi smiled and said. He fit their bodies together and brought him to lie down. He rubbed his forehead against his. Conscience clear, he said to intimidate the little paparazzo who’d just been forced to sell himself, “You’ve already signed the contract so you have to listen to what I say.”
“This……”
He had no resistance against the offensive of his deliberately lowered voice. Lu Qingzhou honestly allowed himself to be kissed by Gu Xi. His heart was thumping against his chest. He looked up at him. “Is this also in the contract?”
The little paparazzo has been corrupted by bad examples. He even dared to make this kind of joke with him.
Gu Xi raised his eyebrows in surprise. He simply turned over to cover the person under him. One hand was placed on his shoulder and the other squeezed his chin. “Yes, are you afraid?”
His smooth brows instantly curved into a soft arc and he threw himself forward, hanging sturdily on him with a force seldom seen. “I’m not afraid.”
Waist.
Film Emperor Gu could practically hear his back crack. He steadfastly stood his ground and calmly took the person into his arms and with him in his arms, leaned against the driver’s seat to the side.
The little paparazzo, in an uncharacteristic display, clung to him and didn’t let go, nuzzling gently against his neck. Gu Xi could feel warm liquid seeping through his collar but he didn’t ask much. He merely hugged the other carefully and gently patted his back, “It’s good that you aren’t afraid. You won’t have to be afraid anymore…”
He was going to have to go to the gym tomorrow.
The physical management team had also been recalled by the company. These days, he’d been having too much fun. In a blink of an eye, his physical fitness slackened together with his general condition. This absolutely won’t do.
Film Emperor Gu dwelled on his painful back as he placed the other in his embrace and slowly coaxed him, waiting for the body in his arms to calm down.
Under the snuggling and gentle coaxing, the last bit of chill in his heart also dissipated. Lu Qingzhou completely relaxed and he lay in his arms for a while, only to then realize that Gu Xi’s posture was really awkward. He couldn’t help pursing his lips and reaching out, wanting to move him to a more comfortable position.
He had just touched Gu Xi’s sleeves, but his movements suddenly stopped.
As though he had eyes all over, Gu Xi accurately grabbed his hand, and held it firmly in his palm. He hoisted him up from under his armpit to sit up and took a bite on his earlobe.
Lu Deng’s heart suddenly jumped.
Was this… Was he punishing him?
He wasn’t even sure whether this was something the other had managed to remember but Lu Deng’s heart inexplicably began to beat faster. Lu Deng pursed his lips and looked at him, breathing slightly rapid, his chest was silently tensing.
Gu Xi squeezed his hand and looked into the black eyes that were staring straight at him. He couldn’t hold on to the stern expression he had worked hard to put up and it turned gentle. He gathered the short hairs beside his ear and fixed them. “I am fair in meting out rewards and punishments. Do you now understand what you did wrong?”
He has already signed to all the tyrannical clauses…
Lu Deng’s face turned slightly hot and he lowered his head without saying a word. His warmed hand moved in his hold and his body was gently covered.
The warm breath touched the side of Gu Xi’s neck. A soft touch, it was a cautious kiss.
Kissing was also not allowed.
Film Emperor Gu insisted on setting the rules. He pressed down tightly on his elation at being kissed and set down a few simple rules for his newly-recruited assistant. “Next time, you must call me immediately. I’ve already found them offensive for a very long time. When I find the chance, I’m going to settle scores with them once and for all.”
He had said them in all seriousness. Lu Qingzhou blinked, couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows, and nod obediently. “Okay.”
“They bullied you so that means you’re allowed to fight back. If they get hurt, I will pay for the medical expenses.”
Gu Xi reached for a yard after getting an inch and took another bite on his earlobe. “If you get scammed like today, then you smash every one of his garbage teacups. You will be punished if you miss even a single one.”
Thinking about Lu Qingzhou standing alone in the crowd today, his heart ached terribly.
Publicly slandered and accused of stealing and then being blackmailed after the other party was shamed into anger from having the entire truth exposed, being suppressed by the other’s use of their identity; Gu Xi found it unbearable even if it had happened to someone who hadn’t been so kind to him.
He had been targeted just because Lu Qingzhou had helped him and taken care of him for a short time. Gu Xi will bring him back as his assistant tomorrow. If he doesn’t take strict measures early on, it was possible that Lu Qingzhou might be hurt again.
The more Film Emperor Gu thought about it, the angrier he felt. He was so angry, he wanted to go smash Zhou Tong’s car right now.
But, he was still a public figure. If it really makes such a fuss on the set, he’ll probably wind up in the headlines tomorrow. As far as today’s affairs were concerned, he had no idea what was being said on the internet about it.
Lu Qingzhou understood but was still somewhat worried. Despite that, he still met Gu Xi’s gaze and nodded gently. “Okay.”
Gu Xi smiled, rubbed his hair, leaned forward and pecked his lips. “Anyway, I won’t be filming anymore today. I’ll take you to explore Liang Yuan’s set.”
He was going to have to tell the entire world that he had an assistant. With how much of a ruckus today’s matter had become, he had long thrown caution to the wind. At worst, he was going to be surrounded and hounded by paparazzi. This also wasn’t the first time he’d been completely blackened online.
Once this comes out, Lu Qingzhou would undoubtedly find himself where the wind and waves were fiercest. He has to hurry and expose it to everyone before that happens. It would be best to let everyone know that Lu Qingzhou was his person and who they would be messing with should they ever lay a hand on him.
He had never felt this angry even when he’s been blacked for so many days,. Film Emperor slowly gathered the soft short hairs against his shoulder and a rare furious malice leapt out from his eyes.
He has spent a lot of time performing in front of a camera and he has tempered his aura to be distinct and decisive. Even if he promptly put it away, it still made the overly sensitive little paparazzo move slightly, his black revealing silent worry.
“It’s okay. If they bully you, then I’ll bully them.”
Gu Xi smiled at him and gently combed through the ends of his hair. Seeing that he was still worried, he pondered for a moment, “Qingzhou, you have backend channels at your disposal, don’t you? Can you still use then?”
The hot search last time had risen strangely. He guessed that it was the Lu Qingzhou’s covert powers at work.
He was originally planning to have it sent out using his own channels but the little paparazzo’s had a heavy load on his mind and perhaps he needed something to worry about himself. It would be better to tackle this together and the effect would probably better than he expected.
Unsurprisingly, the light in his dark eyes brightened. He met his eyes and nodded “What would you like to have sent out?”
Gu Xi’s lips curved into a smile. He placed one hand at the back of Lu Qingzhou’s head and leaned against his forehead. “Blacken me.”
This is also a commonly used method of whitewashing in the entertainment industry. Since he will be blackened sooner or later, it was better to do it first and take the initiative to expose the black material shrouded in half-lies and half-truth; blacken him by pulling out an entirely outrageous reason and blowing it totally out of proportion.
If the blackening was too excessive, it will naturally arouse a contrary reaction. If someone were to say anything more at this time, the effect would be greatly reduced. If solid evidence to prove the rumors to be false was presented, its effect would be much better than any explanation they could give now.
Lu Qingzhou was stunned for a moment. Before he could react, the excited mechanical voice of the system already rang out in his mind. “I can do this, host! I can do this!!!”
The system was extremely excited but Lu Qingzhou was still uneasy. After some thought, he had already understood Gu Xi’s intentions. He cautiously emphasized to the system. “It has to be ridiculously black, excessively black, the brainless kind…”
“No problem!!!”
The mechanical sound hummed and echoed. The codes in its data field danced wildly. The system was so excited it was losing its ability to speak smoothly. “Brainless! Excessive! Blacken him! No problem!”
Lu Deng still felt it wasn’t too reliable. Lu Qingzhou dropped his gaze and pondered, but Gu Xi had already wrapped his shoulders and with a smile, whispered a few words into his ear.
Lu Qingzhou’s heart gave a jump and he raised his head quickly to meet the smile in Film Emperor Gu’s eyes, before nodding gently. “…OK.”
“Alright, then set it up that way.”
Gu Xi raised the corners of his lips. He gathered the other close to him and took off his thick work clothes. He then took a blanket to cover him. “Sleep for a while. Didn’t you wake up early today? Don’t they say you can keep growing til you’re twenty-three, maybe you can still keep growing. So, you have to sleep well…”
He deliberately made his voice sound ambiguous and gentle. His magnetism poured out, causing the little paparazzo’s earlobes to go red. He clutched the blanket and covered half his face with it.
Gu Xi covered his eyes shut and got up to return to the driver’s seat. After thinking about it, he picked a soothing and soft tune for Lu Qingzhou and started the car.
The place where Liang Yuan was filming was actually not that far away, only that you had to take a winding route through the comparatively remote outskirts of the city. You could reach it by car in a couple of hours.
Gu Xi deliberately drove through roads that weren’t too bumpy. While in his heart, he was sticking pins and needles through Director Liang who had chosen such a shooting site, he hurriedly sent a text message to Liang Yuan and then turned his mobile phone to silent.
He had already driven most of the way when he vaguely heard the sound of rustling from the back seat.
Worried that Lu Qingzhou wasn’t sleeping well, Gu Xi slowed down a bit and glanced in the rearview mirror.
The little paparazzo had the blanket draped over him. He was lying in the back seat looking over the contract word by word, taking pictures of each page.
The contract was something he had revised bit by bit in his spare time during the past two days. He included a lot of things that would make people blush. Afraid that it would be found by people who had no business looking at it, he had deliberately hidden it under the car seat, to be taken out in times of emergencies.
Looks like it’s been put to good use.
Gu Xi drove the car, the corners of his lips ticking up.
Lu Qingzhou flipped the page gently and every time he turned a page, the curve of his brows and eyes relaxed a little, the corners of his lips curled up into a smiling arc. Bright light gradually appeared in his eyes.
So lovely.
His burning of the midnight oil these past two days have not been in vain.
Looking at Lu Qingzhou with a careful and happy smile, as if he had picked up some pleasantly surprising gift, Gu Xi also felt a tugging in his heart. A small smile appeared on his lips as he took his gaze back.
Reading so seriously through it, he’s probably already memorized everything.
Later, he’ll have to append a few more rules.
The first one being the he wasn’t allowed to kiss him to the point that he couldn’t breathe.
*
Although the incident this time had caused a great ruckus, very few people could have imagined that instead of going home or heading back to the hotel, Film Emperor Gu would make a beeline for this desolate field after exiting the set. It was peaceful the entire way, with neither chasing cars nor any encirclement of paparazzi. He managed to smoothly arrive outside the cordon of the shooting site.
Liang Yuan received his message earlier. All of the ruckus surrounding Gu Xi this past few days have made him very suspicious. He didn’t dare to believe it while at the same time, he didn’t dare not believe it. Nevertheless, he still left a message with his assistant to let them in.
He was shooting a military-themed drama and it’s now at a critical juncture. Although he wasn’t using an actual military camp, he had borrowed use of a countryside training station. Security around his set was a lot better than at Gu Xi’s. There was such a big crew poking around here but there wasn’t even a single paparazzo staking it out.
Liang Yuan’s recent assignment was pretty heavy. He was stuck here almost every day, shooting in this remote shooting site. Even the signal here was unreliable. He has to wait at least until the evening to make an appearance. The assistant led them all the way in and placed them in Director Liang’s lounge. He apologized repeatedly for the shabby welcome and hurried back to the set.
In the first place, he had just wanted to find a peaceful place to stay at for a while so Gu Xi didn’t mind and in a rare instance of recognizing where thanks was due, asked the assistant to pass on his thanks. After closing the door, he took out the juice from the refrigerator, unscrewed it and handed it to Lu Qingzhou. He also opened a can of cold beer and drank it in one go.
Still thinking about the contract that he had just finished reading, Lu Qingzhou’s eyes were still bright. He was about to speak when Gu Xi had already encircled him within his arms in the amply air-conditioned room.
Looking at the happy little paparazzo, Gu Xi tightened his arms and kissed his forehead with a smile. “Did you get tired from the car ride?”
Lu Qingzhou curved his eyes into a smile and shook his head. He drew near to Gu Xi’s neck and shoulders and kissed him. He pressed Gu Xu to sit down on the sofa and ran to get his backpack.
Gu Xi was pushed down on the sofa and after thinking about it for a while, he realized that he seemed to have set up a rule of “as long as we get to a place where no one is around, you must allow yourself to kiss and hug.”
After having his heart turned to mush by his obedient little assistant with the good memory, Film Emperor Gu’s eyes lighted up. His thoughts instantly flew away and he quickly thought up of what next to append onto the contract.
Lu Qingzhou rummaged through his backpack and walked back quickly, holding a number of chubby lunch boxes in his hands.
Gu Xi was slightly surprised and when he opened it and had a look, his ecstatic thoughts were gently stirred and suddenly turned soft and calm.
The onigiri rice balls were carefully stuffed one by one into the lunch boxes. The fragrance of the rice instantly wafted out. Each rice ball was stuffed with fillings. It was decorated with dried plum and seaweed and he had especially made a little smiley face on it for him.
That smiley face made Gu Xi’s heart ache.
Lu Qingzhou had wanted to quietly send him this food.
He had made such good rice balls and he very nearly never got them.
As if had completely forgotten the grievances at the set, Lu Qingzhou’s eyes were full of clear and unsullied warm contentment. He placed the chopsticks into Gu Xi’s hands. “This is the first time I’ve made this. I shaped them myself and I was worried they would crumble… …”
“Amazing. They look delicious.”
Meeting the expectant light in his black eyes, Gu Xi also smiled. He ruffled his hair, took the chopsticks, and fed the smiley rice ball into the little paparazzo’s mouth.
*
“…he asked you to pass his thanks to me?!”
Direction Liang was instantly brought back to his senses by the assistant’s report. Liang Yuan questioned closely in a stunned manner and confirmed once again, “To me? He told you to say thank you to me? Not to anyone else? How’s his condition?”
“Teacher Gu was fine and he was very polite.”
The assistant was taken aback for a moment. He tried his best to recall the short couldn’t be more normal interaction and racked his brains to sum up, “He said that he knew you were busy. He came to hide and have some peace and quiet. He said you didn’t have to mind him…”
Liang Yuan’s heart trembled upon hearing that. He picked up his phone and walked back and forth a few times. He found a signal, raised his hand to block the sun and looked through Weibo.
Absolutely overwhelming.
Gu Xi has been blackened several times but never has he been so blackened all across the internet that it seemed there was no freeing himself. The conflict between him and Zhou Tong accounted for three of the hot searches. The broken Yixing tea set was intentionally given close-ups. The drama set was in chaos. Zhou Tong squatted on the side, showing a rare expression of dazed dejectedness.
Liang Yuan was devoted to filming and he was not very familiar with news in the entertainment circle but even he knew about Zhou Tong’s famous antique teapot. Looking at the broken pottery and skimming through the text, he couldn’t help taking in a sharp intake of breath.
That’s eight hundred thousand.
Below the hot search regarding the smashing of the tea set, there are also two related hot searches for #Gu Xi goes on strike and leaves the set and #Film Emperor Gu flies into a rage for a pretty face.
Liang Yuan anxiously scrolled through Weibo. He couldn’t help but remember the call that day.
Sounds of activity like that weren’t something a pretty face could cause.
In the circle, you could swing both ways. As long you weren’t promiscuous and didn’t play excessively, no one really minded or paid much attention to it. But this old classmate of his already has such a powerful character at home and yet he still pranced around outside smashing tea sets for some pretty face. No wonder he didn’t even dare go back home and hid here instead.
To withdraw the hot search and make a statement would still cost him 200,000 at least.
To settle the mess at home, who knows how much more he’d have to give.
Although deep in his heart, he didn’t at all support his old classmate’s ‘seemingly peaceful on the outside but secretly’ messy private life, now that it had come to this, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and help him out.
Liang Yuan sighed in anger, hating iron for not becoming steel. After calculating how much of his saving he could take out, he stuffed the loudspeaker into his the assistant’s hand during the break. “I’ll go back for a bit. Don’t let anyone know. I’ll be back soon. .”
He will need to scold him this time so that this guy, who’d already been blackened so terribly and still didn’t know how to retaliate, would sober up.
The more Director Liang thought about it, the angrier he got. He stomped his way back to the lounge, sparks of lightning falling all around him. He pulled open the door. “Gu Xi, you untrustworthy bastard! Have you gone all muddled? What happened to your temper? You’re already being blackened straight at your door and you’re still sitting here doing nothing? Do you know what insults they’re throwing at you online right now! And you’re even going off into a rage over some pretty face. I guess that one at your house the other night hadn’t given you enough of a beating to satisfy your craving…”
It was normal for an actor to bring an assistant with him but Liang Yuan’s assistant hadn’t specifically told him about it. He was already halfway into his tirade before Director Liang realized that Gu Xi wasn’t alone in the room.
The rest of the words were stuck in his throat. Looking at the delicate and pretty youth who was guarded by Gu Xi in his arms, Liang Yuan trembled for a spell and then finally, turned around and made to leave.