DP Chapter 10

Chapter 10

In the end, he no longer hesitated and entered four numbers: 0131. This was a very special date for Xu Chuo. On January 31st of his 23rd year, Xu Chuo held his first solo art exhibition. Since then, he had celebrated this day every year, saying it was his spiritual birthday.

The lock opened. The theme of this art competition was “Gravity.” Xiang Yiye quickly found several related psd files, connected the converter, and plugged in his own USB drive, which contained a program that could completely damage the files and make them unrecoverable.

But facing the pop-up window, Xiang Yiye hesitated to press the “Run” key. Just looking at how many versions there were of those illustrations, and how many layers were stacked on top of each other, he knew how much effort Xu Chuo had put into this competition.

Was he really doing what was best for him by doing this? Xiang Yiye looked up and saw Xu Chuo walking back with a few paper bags.

“Are you okay?” Xu Chuo opened the car door and got in. Xiang Yiye was still in the same position he was in when he left, leaning against the back of the seat, looking a little weak.

Xu Chuo poured out a painkiller into his palm, then took a cup of coffee from one of the paper bags, took a sip himself, and when he thought the temperature was right, he handed it to Xiang Yiye, “It’s warm, here, take the medicine first.” He never glanced at the back seat.

Seeing that Xiang Yiye didn’t move, Xu Chuo added, “It’s plain water, I have common sense, I wouldn’t let you take medicine with coffee. Can you take it yourself, or should I feed you?”

There was no one more thoughtful than him, Xiang Yiye thought, not taking the pill, but instead grabbing Xu Chuo’s wrist. As if bewitched, he lowered his head and approached the other man’s palm, his lips touching his palm, and took the pill into his mouth. Even though there was no pain anywhere in his body, and taking the painkiller might even have side effects, he was willing to do so with relish.

Xu Chuo froze, feeling the warmth and softness of Xiang Yiye’s lips against his skin, feather-light and ticklish as they brushed across his palm. Xiang Yiye had given him a kiss, a palm kiss that was both pure and tinged with imaginative possibilities, something he had never experienced before.

Xiang Yiye turned his head, took the coffee cup, and gulped down the water inside, his expression trying to hide his true feelings. He deliberately didn’t look at Xu Chuo’s reaction, but every part of him was paying attention to the signals coming from Xu Chuo’s side.

Xu Chuo chuckled softly, and in Xiang Yiye’s peripheral vision, he saw him raise his hand to his lips and rub them.

Indirect kiss. Realizing this, Xiang Yiye blushed all the way to the roots of his neck. He had crossed the line again, and this time it was his own doing.

“It’s cold outside, stay in the car for a while longer, until the medicine takes effect before going out.” Xu Chuo took out a box the size of a palm and said, “I saw them selling it at the coffee shop, so I got one. There are no candles, though, and I don’t know if you can eat it with a headache.”

Judging from the size and shape of the box, Xiang Yiye guessed it was a slice of cake. He took it and said, “I feel much better, I’ll eat it, thank you.”

Before getting out of the car, Xiang Yiye opened the car door, turned his back to Xu Chuo, and said, “That request you made at the noodle shop, I agree to it.”

From Xu Chuo’s perspective, he could see the tips of Xiang Yiye’s ears were red. He couldn’t help himself and reached out towards the passenger seat.

Xiang Yiye had already stepped one leg out of the car, but he was suddenly pulled back into the car. His body stiffened as he felt Xu Chuo’s arms wrap around him from the front.

“W-what’s wrong?” Xiang Yiye instantly became timid, remembering the laptop in the back seat. Had Xu Chuo noticed he had tampered with it?

But Xu Chuo only pinched his already hot earlobe and said casually, “Just rubbing it for you, so you don’t get frostbite when you go out.”

The low murmur of his voice brushed past his ear, and Xiang Yiye fled in a panic, his heart pounding wildly.

Back in the dorm, after calling his parents, Xiang Yiye glanced at the cake Xu Chuo had bought on the table. Remembering that he had some leftover birthday candles in the drawer, he found one and stuck it into the cake.

Staring at the flame for a while, Xiang Yiye took a photo and posted it on his Moments, visible only to himself, to commemorate the day.

Just then, he received a message from Xu Chuo asking if he had arrived at the dorm.

Xiang Yiye selected the photo he had just taken, hesitated for a moment, unchecked it, and only replied, “Arrived. Get some rest after you’re done with the competition.”

Xu Chuo replied with an “OK.”

In the end, Xiang Yiye did not delete Xu Chuo’s designs. He couldn’t make decisions for him under the guise of doing what was best for Xu Chuo. That wasn’t respect.

He turned on his computer and began to familiarize himself with the Xinghui New Year’s Eve gala host’s script with a bitter expression. He not only had to be intimately familiar with the gala’s proceedings but also with all the attendees, especially the upper management within and outside of Xinghui.

Being a host wasn’t easy. Once you made a mistake, it was easy to offend people. He had heard of an incident when he was doing student work at D University. A classmate in his department had accidentally left out a guest speaker during the introduction of guests at an event. The guest speaker was a very individualistic professor, and while he didn’t say anything at the time, he made things difficult for that student afterward.

Xiang Yiye didn’t want something like that to happen to him, but when he opened the New Year’s Eve gala proceedings file and saw the words “Xie’s Group Executive Director Xie Zhimin” in the guest column, his brain suddenly shut down.

Xie Zhimin, the benefactor in his past life who helped him enter the entertainment industry and lavished resources on him, and also the person who threw him back into the mud when his life was decaying and then stepped on him.

Xiang Yiye flipped through the booklet from beginning to end, and also searched the Internet for information, coming to the conclusion that Xie’s Group, which started with technological products, had intentions of expanding into the film and television industry in the future, and Xinghui was probably one aspect of that.

The stifling feeling and embarrassment of being subservient to someone in his past life were still vivid in his mind. Xiang Yiye instinctively didn’t want to have anything to do with Xie Zhimin. He picked up his phone and sent a message: “Sister Xiao, do you think President Du would blame me if I couldn’t host the New Year’s Eve gala?”

A few minutes later, Lin Xiao replied: “Is your health still not good?”

Xiang Yiye was vague: “Uh, it will take time to fully recover.”

Lin Xiao: “It’s okay, tell him in person, be sincere, and health reasons are understandable, right? President Du isn’t someone who forces people to do things, he will definitely be considerate~”

Xiang Yiye opened the memo and wrote a long statement of explanation, found Du Luocheng’s secretary in the company group, and requested to add him as a friend.

Near midnight, the friend request hadn’t been accepted, but instead, there was a friend request from Du Luocheng himself.

Xiang Yiye greeted him and sent the long text all at once, thinking that so many words should be enough to show his sincerity, right?

Du Luocheng seemed to read it quite carefully, and the first thing he said was: “Good writing.”

Xiang Yiye: “…” Was he grading essays?

Du Luocheng: “Understood. Take care of your health, do you need to claim the medical expenses from your hospitalization a few days ago?”

As soon as he talked about money, Xiang Yiye wasn’t sleepy anymore. He replied in a second: “Can I claim them?” His situation shouldn’t be considered a work injury, right? The cost of a single room in that private hospital was indeed expensive, and Xu Chuo had shouldered most of the medical expenses. Xu Chuo wasn’t short of money, but Xiang Yiye had no reason to owe him without paying him back.

Du Luocheng: “The company has a subsidy, you can try to follow the procedure first, if it doesn’t work, come to me for a solution.”

This was such good news that Xiang Yiye was just thinking about whether to reply with a serious and proper “Received” or a lively emoji of a wage slave, when Du Luocheng added: “What are your thoughts on the several works that the company is preparing to film next year?”

Xiang Yiye was surprised. Not to mention that he was a newbie, even if he had Lin Xiao’s qualifications, the most he could do was pick scripts, it was impossible for him to have any decisive opinions on the entire filming process.

Relying on his experiences in the industry in his previous life, Xiang Yiye keenly sensed that Du Luocheng had other intentions. He carefully considered his words for a long time, and replied: “President Du, I don’t know much about these things, I’ll ask Xiao Hu and the others another day.” Xiao Hu was the assistant that Xinghui had arranged for him.

Du Luocheng: “When you’ve recovered, we’ll talk in person.” He ended with a soybean version of a smiling emoji.

“Okay, President Du, sorry to bother you.”

Exiting the chat interface with Du Luocheng, Xiang Yiye asked Lin Xiao: “Sister Xiao, does the company have subsidies for newcomers?”

Lin Xiao: “Huh? Never heard of it. LOL, they signed you to make money for the company, not to recruit graduate students, what are you thinking? Yiye, did you run into any difficulties?”

Xiang Yiye was vague: “No, I was just asking.”

Lin Xiao: “Really? You must tell me if something happens. Your Sister Xiao may not be good at other things, but I have some money.”

Xiang Yiye: “Don’t worry, nothing’s really wrong.” Lin Xiao’s words made him feel a little warmer.

That night, Xiang Yiye still went to the party and was sitting and clapping as a spectator.

The Star Cluster’s New Year party didn’t have performances or play games, the tone was various leader speeches, reviewing the past year’s success and failures, commending outstanding workers, and presenting the next year’s work plans, and then gathering together for dinner.

What surprised Xiang Yiye was that his name was on the commendation list, and he was the only one with a newcomer award.

Afterwards he was informed that this award was added by Du Luocheng on a whim, and the standard was vague, and the award also came with money. Because he was the only person new that year, so he essentially earned the award with ease.

It wasn’t an illusion, Du Luocheng was really different from him. Xiang Yiye felt that things had become a little complicated, especially after Du Luocheng sent him a room number a few minutes later and asked him to come upstairs and talk.

Xiang Yiye walked to the door of the room, hesitant to knock. By entering this door, his career might be smooth sailing afterwards, but he hoped that he could exchange for results with strength.

But only strength was far from enough, and the eight years of ups and downs in the entertainment industry in his previous life made Xiang Yiye extremely clear about this, and he finally knocked on the door.

Du Luocheng probably just took a bath, wearing a bathrobe and his hair was wet. He combed it backwards, less straight than usual. He welcomed Xiang Yiye into the room and poured him a glass of red wine.

Xiang Yiye didn’t drink it. Du Luocheng was experienced and noticed that Xiang Yiye was a little cramped, so he sat a little further away and casually picked up a topic to chat about.

To Xiang Yiye’s surprise, although Du Luocheng was engaged in the entertainment industry, he also had a rough understanding of science and engineering knowledge, and also knew some famous scholars from D University.

When talking about the great masters in the industry, Xiang Yiye mentioned Gu Wenyu. Gu Wenyu was in his sixties, from the cultural troupe, and had been deeply involved in the acting industry for many years. He was almost at the level of an artist and also a senior that Xiang Yiye had always admired.

“There is a lecture in City S recently, and I heard that Gu Wenyu will participate.” Du Luocheng said.

Xiang Yiye nodded to show that he had heard about it, and said regretfully, “It’s a pity that the threshold is a bit high. I signed up, but I was screened out.”

Du Luocheng said, “The organizer seems to be the S City Art Forum, and there are a few of my old classmates inside, I can help you ask.”

Hearing this, Xiang Yiye’s eyes lit up. Being able to appreciate Gu Wenyu’s demeanor up close really made his heart beat.

Du Luocheng looked at his reaction and said, “Then leave it to me.”

The close common topics and the interaction between you and me made the atmosphere a lot easier as we talked.

Du Luocheng glanced at the wine glass on the table, “This was just opened today, don’t you want to try it?”

Was something added to it? Xiang Yiye thought.

“This is very pure wine, so you can drink it with confidence,” Du Luocheng said modestly and vaguely.

Now that the other party had said so, Xiang Yiye had no reason to refuse. He took a sip and commented, “It is indeed pure.”

Du Luocheng shared the wines he had tasted when he was living in Europe. Xiang Yiye didn’t know much and occasionally asked some questions that weren’t questions, which made the other party laugh, revealing wrinkles at the corners of his eyes.

Until Du Luocheng walked behind him with a wine glass and touched Xiang Yiye’s cheek with his free hand, and said, “It’s a little hot, your face turns red when you drink, do you have a bad liver?”

Xiang Yiye then realized how close they were.