TRMP Chapter 22

Chapter 21

Xie Jingshen had never been addicted to anything.

From childhood, he didn’t indulge in any particular hobby, smoothly navigated adolescence, occasionally made a few friends in his circles, but didn’t indulge in alcohol and women like them.

— Not to mention those games that normal people know are fake and purely designed by the creators to extract money.

Xie Jingshen had several classmates who were addicted to games. He had seen excellent students ruin their promising futures for the sake of playing games, and wealthy second-generation heirs who, even after going bankrupt, were still enthusiastic about gacha games, ultimately losing everything.

Xie Jingshen had always thought those people were stupid.

Until he started playing games himself.

— Although he knew his “wife” was fake, Xie Jingshen still couldn’t help but completely immerse himself in it.

He had always clearly distinguished the boundaries between virtuality and reality, but at this moment, Xie Jingshen couldn’t simply regard this as just a game.

He couldn’t say what the subtle, secret anticipation in his heart was for—taking a game seriously and sincerely hoping that things would go as he wished.

Jiang Yifeng was extremely unhappy.

He lay on the bed for a long time before finally relaxing.

Then, Jiang Yifeng realized that he might have to rethink his ways of making money.

“Since you don’t like Xie Jingshen, why don’t you squeeze some money out of him?” The system was very puzzled.

As a system, it had already used all the delay codes to restrain the appearance of the recharge button according to Jiang Yifeng’s choices, but it still couldn’t understand.

Clearly, during deep learning, its judgment of human behavior had reached perfection.

But it couldn’t predict Jiang Yifeng’s actions.

“If I really don’t like him, I don’t want him to spend money on me either.”

When he didn’t know him, it was one thing. Jiang Yifeng was short of money, and he didn’t mind creating a romantic atmosphere to earn money.

But he didn’t want to now.

Xie Jingshen was a very, very good person, and Jiang Yifeng didn’t want to simply treat Xie Jingshen as a sugar daddy to deceive.

“Money, I can earn it myself.”

Jiang Yifeng acted on his word, opened his phone, accepted two translation jobs in a group chat, rushed to finish them before going to bed, and fell asleep contentedly.

The next day, he only had one scene, but the two action scenes before it were delayed, so Jiang Yifeng could only squat by the side of the set and wait.

He was bored, so he opened a webpage and searched for his own name, and all that came up were black PR articles.

However, almost all of them were from many days ago.

The filming crisis of “Mu Yu Ge” had ended, the production team and Su Xiaoyu had clarified the stunt double rumors, and Donghai Entertainment and Strawberry Entertainment no longer bothered to waste their energy on Jiang Yifeng.

The massive crusade only lasted for a few days, and even the entertainment industry marketing accounts were too lazy to use Jiang Yifeng to make a fuss.

“Do I really not even have the value to be smeared?” Jiang Yifeng touched his face: “I’m so good-looking.”

“What’s so good-looking?” Qiao Ran lowered his head and leaned over.

His gaze fell on Jiang Yifeng’s phone screen, and then he frowned and blocked Jiang Yifeng’s view with the script: “Don’t search anymore.”

After saying that, he repeated: “What’s so good-looking?”

“I said,” Jiang Yifeng pointed to his face expressionlessly: “I look so good-looking.”

Qiao Ran’s mouth opened slightly. He showed a surprised expression, and then couldn’t help but laugh: “Why are you suddenly saying this?”

Looking at Qiao Ran’s smile, Jiang Yifeng suddenly thought of Xie Jingshen’s words.

If Xie Jingshen heard him say this, he would probably lower his eyes and smile, and then praise him, “Indeed, very good-looking.”

Instead of treating his words as a simple joke.

Jiang Yifeng put away the sincere praise for himself in his heart, patted his knee and stood up, “I remembered when I saw them praising me, the PR articles that smeared me didn’t forget to praise me for being good-looking…”

“That’s a good thing.” Qiao Ran stood close to Jiang Yifeng: “I only have three days of scenes left. The next time I film, I’ll have to wait more than a month. What about you? Do you have any work arrangements?”

Qiao Ran and Jiang Yifeng’s scenes were all concentrated in the first and second halves of the filming, and the rest were the battles between the main characters and Jiang Yifeng’s foster father.

Generally, actors choose to leave the group during the gap and come back when it’s time to film the main scenes.

“I plan to stay with the group the whole time and learn a bit.” Jiang Yifeng shook his head: “Anyway, I don’t have any work. It’s a good opportunity to learn acting from the veteran actors.”

“You still need to learn acting?” Qiao Ran was shocked: “You act very well!”

“It’s the character that has tension, not my acting.” Jiang Yifeng looked at the veteran actors under the lights with full conviction, and was filled with emotion for a moment: “Acting like what they’re acting is what it means to be an actor.”

Qiao Ran was silent.

After a moment, he said seriously: “Then I won’t leave either. I’ll talk to my agent.”

Jiang Yifeng didn’t expect Qiao Ran to change his mind because of a word from him.

He suddenly began to seriously consider the possibility that Qiao Ran really liked him.

Xie Jingshen didn’t know if he had really listened to Jiang Yifeng’s words, or if he was angry, but he didn’t look for him for several days in a row.

Without the goodnight message every night, Jiang Yifeng was a little unaccustomed to it.

However, he quickly reminded himself to face the facts, abandon negative emotions, and devote his limited time to unlimited work.

From then on, Jiang Yifeng squatted by the side of the set and no longer went back. When filming was over or during breaks, he used his phone to take on some translation work and occasionally helped elementary school students with remote homework guidance.

The busy work finally calmed Jiang Yifeng’s mind.

The system also stopped urging him, as if it knew that Jiang Yifeng had been upset recently.

Qiao Ran saw Jiang Yifeng squatting on the set every day, and joked with him, “What’s wrong, aren’t you chatting with your friend anymore?”

“He’s been busy lately.” Jiang Yifeng replied with a light smile, and no longer had the smile in his eyes when he first mentioned Xie Jingshen.

Qiao Ran knew exactly what was going on.

He had more tasks than Jiang Yifeng. He finally persuaded his agent, so he had to run between the crew and the filming building.

And Xu Chen also tacitly allowed Qiao Ran to slightly reveal the filming content in order to achieve publicity.

So, while Jiang Yifeng was squatting by the side of the set, racking his brains to do elementary school logic calculations, a phone call came to his mobile phone.

Jiang Yifeng looked at the familiar but unfamiliar name and answered the phone in surprise: “Brother Luo, you…”

“Are you very familiar with Qiao Ran?” Luo Qi’s tone was calm, and even revealed a strange joy.

“We know each other. We’re in the same crew. Zhao Panyang’s role has been replaced, replaced by Qiao Ran.”

“No wonder.” Luo Qi said excitedly: “Qiao Ran mentioned your name in his interview this time, and Su Xiaoyu’s fans helped boost the popularity… but I think the reaction of ordinary netizens is generally good.”

“We can continue to work hard.”

Jiang Yifeng looked at Qiao Ran not far away in surprise.

“What do you mean by continue to work hard?” Jiang Yifeng asked in confusion: “I can’t just randomly associate myself with him, Qiao Ran’s reputation has always been very good.”

“It’s just using Qiao Ran’s fame to whitewash yourself.” Luo Qi said very naturally: “It’s not a particularly big black mark to hype things up in the entertainment industry. As long as Qiao Ran is willing to endorse you, and then you respond to Qiao Ran in the future, once you become popular, the previous things will soon pass.”

Jiang Yifeng was not very willing.

He thought of Qiao Ran’s possible thoughts, and looked in Qiao Ran’s direction again, but found that he was standing not far away, smiling at him.

“I didn’t mean to hear your phone call.”

“But I’m willing.”

Jiang Yifeng immediately thought of Xie Jingshen’s words.

“He has intentions for you.”

Jiang Yifeng looked at Qiao Ran blankly, his lips pulled into a straight line, and he looked not very happy.

“I’m not willing.”

“It doesn’t matter, it’s just taking the opportunity to say a few words for you.”

“No.” Jiang Yifeng shook his head: “Whether I become popular or not is my own business, and I don’t need to use anyone.”

He just didn’t want to owe Qiao Ran.

If Qiao Ran was just a friend, there would be no owing between friends. If you helped me, I would help you next time.

But Qiao Ran’s intentions were impure.

His intentions were impure, and Jiang Yifeng couldn’t mess around with his intentions. He could owe favors, but he couldn’t owe other things.

Qiao Ran seemed to realize something too.

His face was slightly pale, and he couldn’t speak for a moment.

Jiang Yifeng said in a deep voice to the other side of the phone: “Brother Luo, anyway, the company doesn’t care about me, so why bother so many departments and make it superfluous?”

“I think you still have room to become popular, and are you really planning to… slowly earn that money? How long will that take? Once you become popular, you can pay it all off in two months… and you can hype it up.”

“I’ve already paid off more than half of it now.” Jiang Yifeng’s eyelashes trembled: “It’s okay.”

Luo Qi stopped persuading him.

Qiao Ran was unwilling, but he didn’t dare to say it clearly, so he changed the subject: “What money? Do you owe money?”

“I owe a little debt, and I’m about to pay it off.” Jiang Yifeng put his hand on his knee and smiled: “Brother Qiao, don’t think too much about it. It’s just that my reputation is really bad now. I don’t want to drag you down…”

“Okay.” One title let Qiao Ran know that he had no chance.

He watched Jiang Yifeng smile.

This person was always smiling, and he was really good to people when he was on good terms with them.

But as soon as he noticed something, he immediately distanced himself from people.

He looked like he had a good temper, but his heart was harder to warm than anyone else’s.

— What kind of person can easily get close to him and make him feel at ease?

Qiao Ran was thinking randomly in his heart.

— Doesn’t that person still not exist in this world?

He was a little lost, and then said softly: “I have a variety show in two days, so I may not be able to stay on set anymore.”

“Bon voyage.” Jiang Yifeng said seriously: “I’m still waiting for you to study Teacher Zhao’s scene yesterday with me. I just communicated with Teacher Zhao, and he said he can take the time to explain it to both of us.”

Qiao Ran looked at Jiang Yifeng.

Yesterday, an acting powerhouse, Teacher Zhao Heping, contributed a high-light performance with unusually full emotions.

He and Jiang Yifeng had tried several times but couldn’t imitate it at all.

At that time, Qiao Ran complained that it would be great if Teacher Zhao could personally guide them.

But he didn’t expect that Jiang Yifeng would remember a casual remark.

Qiao Ran’s pupils moved slightly, and then he smiled: “Okay, I’ll wait for me to come back.”

The author has something to say:

Jiang Xiaofeng: I don’t want anyone but Xie Jingshen!