DP Chapter 43
by VolareXu Chuo glanced at Xiao Zhou, who returned him a “may you find blessings” expression, said, “Goodbye, Xiao Yiye, goodbye President Xu, get a good rest,” and sped off in a taxi back to her own home.
Entering the parking lot, Xiang Yiye said: “Give me the car keys, I’ll drive.”
Xu Chuo opened the car door for him: “Just got off the plane, aren’t you tired?”
“It’s not appropriate to always have President Xu act as my driver,” Xiang Yiye went around to the other side and sat in the driver’s seat.
Xu Chuo sat in the passenger seat: “There’s a smell of gunpowder, who made our Xiao Yiye unhappy? I’ll teach him a lesson for you.”
Xiang Yiye: “Do you have anything to say to me?”
“Let me think… yes, I took a few extra glances at some handsome guys at the airport just now. My mistake,” Xu Chuo said.
“Not that.”
“Then which aspect? Give me a hint.”
Xiang Yiye was silent.
A few hours ago, Tao Muya had said to him: “Brother Yiye, my brother isn’t very good at taking care of himself, you should be able to see that, he can endure hardship to earn money. That’s why I haven’t left City Z since I started school, he’s too far away from home, it makes people very uneasy. So please withdraw the job you gave him, I’ll talk to my brother about it too…”
Tao Muya thought the long-distance freight job was introduced by Xiang Yiye. Xiang Yiye recalled how He Jingming had always been decisive, but had hesitated and delayed on the matter of the assistant, and everything was explained.
In the end, Xiang Yiye did not deny it, told Tao Muya that he would handle it, and told her to rest assured. He and Xu Chuo were one, even if Xu Chuo was hiding things from him, he couldn’t expose him in front of outsiders.
Xiang Yiye didn’t want to play charades anymore, and said bluntly: “Tao Mujia.”
Xu Chuo immediately apologized: “I was planning to tell you in a few days.”
“You wouldn’t say anything if I didn’t ask,” Xiang Yiye said, “What did Tao Mujia do that made you have such a strong opinion of him?”
“It’s nothing,” Xu Chuo touched his nose, “I just don’t want someone who sounds so much like me to be by your side.”
“I’m not using him for that reason,” Xiang Yiye said, “Do you think I’m such a person who doesn’t distinguish between public and private matters?”
“You’re not. I’m being petty. I’m sorry,” Xu Chuo said.
“And if you mind this, just tell me directly, why send someone so far away without saying a word, are you an emperor, banishing people at every turn?” Xiang Yiye said.
“If he doesn’t want to go, I’ll arrange another job for him,” Xu Chuo said.
“You’re only saying that now to make me feel better, it doesn’t solve the problem,” Xiang Yiye said.
“For me, the most important thing right now is to make you feel better,” Xu Chuo’s tone was as relaxed as possible, “Then what should I do… what do you want me to do? I’ll agree to anything, okay.”
“I don’t know,” Xiang Yiye took a deep breath, “I just have to imagine how you found Tao Mujia, told him to stay away from me in the future, and even made him leave home thousands of miles away, and I…” he couldn’t stand it.
“I didn’t force him,” Xu Chuo said, “The place, the job, he chose them himself.”
Perhaps Xu Chuo would not act condescendingly or uncomfortably, but would instead be very polite. But what’s the difference between smiling or scolding, isn’t the essence the same, using money and power to suppress people?
“You wouldn’t force him, your background would,” Xiang Yiye said, “When you stand in a high place and look down, you can only see the back of the heads of the people below, you can’t see what expressions are on their faces, what clothes they’re wearing.”
Xu Chuo opened and closed the lighter lid, and after a moment, said: “Xiao Yiye, people can’t choose their background. Before birth, no one asked you or me if we were willing.”
“But people can always choose how they should act,” Xiang Yiye said, “You don’t like Tao Mujia, I won’t use him. But because of this, to separate him from his sister, it’s a bit too much.”
Xu Chuo called to reassign Tao Mujia, and then said: “It’s my fault, if there’s anything similar in the future, I’ll ask you first… smile, Xiao Yiye, if you’re still angry, scold me a few times, I won’t fight back, I won’t retort.”
“What fight, it’s not domestic violence,” Xiang Yiye leaned over to buckle Xu Chuo’s seatbelt, and took the keys from his hand again, starting the car, “Alright, don’t do this again next time.”
Xu Chuo kept apologizing, kept compromising, giving Xiang Yiye the feeling of hitting cotton, and at the same time, an emotion in his heart couldn’t find an outlet, like a faint fish bone, stuck in his chest making him uncomfortable.
Because of this discomfort, Xiang Yiye went out at night, found a 24-hour gym to lift weights, and ran on the treadmill for forty minutes.
His emotions were diluted by sweat, and it was already midnight when he went back. He opened the door as quietly as possible, and just as one leg stepped in, he stopped abruptly, almost kicking someone.
Xu Chuo was sitting cross-legged in the entryway, leaning against his leg: “I thought you weren’t coming back… Brother, your legs are so long.”
Xiang Yiye turned on the light in the entryway: “Didn’t you say you’d be back in two hours at most?”
“It went over by thirteen minutes,” Xu Chuo said.
“It took a little time to find a parking spot on the way there,” Xiang Yiye squatted down to touch Xu Chuo’s face and hands, “Why are you sitting here, the ground is cold.”
Xu Chuo saw that Xiang Yiye’s temples were sweaty, and said: “Take a bath? I’ll draw the water for you.”
“I’m not taking a bath, it’s a bit late,” Xiang Yiye picked Xu Chuo up, saw that he looked a little disappointed, and said: “Blow-dry my hair after the shower, okay? Wait for me in the room.”
After blow-drying his hair, Xu Chuo pulled out a deck of cards from somewhere, and asked: “Play cards?”
Xu Chuo often had whims, arriving with enthusiasm and leaving with satisfaction, waking people up at five or six in the morning to watch the sunrise was also common.
Xiang Yiye glanced at the clock on the bedside table, the hour hand pointing to two in the morning. He wanted to say let’s sleep, don’t play, but sensed that Xu Chuo had been cautious all night, and said: “Just one game, how do we play?”
Xu Chuo took out the jokers from the deck, and randomly drew ten cards of unknown value, as a pile of interfering cards, and finally divided the remaining uneven cards into two piles, one for him and one for Xiang Yiye.
“You go first,” Xu Chuo said.
Xiang Yiye took out two cards, face down: “Seventeen.”
“Follow,” Xu Chuo also threw out two cards.
The gameplay is similar to Pinocchio, the first person plays cards, the sum of the points equals 17, the second person follows, preferably ensuring that the sum of the points they play also equals 17, then draw a card from the interfering pile and reveal it, and so on.
Until someone suspects that the other person’s cards don’t add up to 17, they can request to see the cards. Finally, from the cards that have been played, see who has lied the least number of times, and that person is the winner. The loser must accept punishment based on the number of times they lied.
Later, Xiang Yiye called to see the cards at the right time. When he opened the cards, he saw that Xu Chuo had been muddling through for several rounds.
“Lost, bad luck today,” Xu Chuo said. He usually goes to bars often, and is quite good at playing dice and cards.
“Because you just play whatever you want,” Xiang Yiye flipped through the deck, “Look, when the deck is revealed later, you can guess what cards I have in my hand based on the cards in your hand, for example, when it comes to this 3…”
Xiang Yiye seriously reviewed the game, Xu Chuo kept staring at his face, and said: “How are you so good?”
He didn’t listen, it was a waste of words.
“Now it’s the punishment part, right? How do you want to punish me?” Xu Chuo said.
“Punish you to go to sleep immediately,” Xiang Yiye said, “Aren’t you going to the studio tomorrow? I have to go to the company tomorrow too…”
“What kind of punishment is that?”
“Then how do you want to be punished?”
Xu Chuo: “Lose a few times and drink a few glasses of wine, or take off a few pieces of clothing, that’s the rule.”
Xiang Yiye threw the cards away, pressed Xu Chuo against the headboard, and scanned him up and down, looking at the thin pajamas he was wearing, and said: “Then you should wear more.”
“Wearing more is useless, you’re so good at counting cards, I’m going to be skinned alive by you,” Xu Chuo laughed.
In the second half of the night, Xu Chuo leaned against the headboard, smoking.
Xiang Yiye folded a small box with playing cards, placed it beside him to hold the ashes, and said: “Brother Chuo, the things I said in the car during the day were too much for you.”
Xu Chuo exhaled the smoke in his mouth, and said: “I know, you hope to be more equal and fair to others.”
“I’m not that noble, I’m just… preparing for a rainy day?” Xiang Yiye said, “You can make other people leave their homes with just one thought, you can do that to me one day too, right.”
“I won’t, you’re different from others,” Xu Chuo took away the cigarette, lowered his head and kissed him, “I’m sorry, Xiao Yiye, I made you uneasy.”
“Aren’t you good at talking? When we argue, you only say sorry, I even feel like I’m being unreasonable,” Xiang Yiye said.
“No, it’s my fault.”
“Alright, what’s past is past.”
Xu Chuo glanced at the light of day coming through the cracks in the curtains, and said: “I’ll call Sister He in a moment to let you take a day off.”
“No need, it’s said that there’s a summary meeting at nine o’clock, it shouldn’t take long,” Xiang Yiye said.
“There are still a few hours,” Xu Chuo said, “Sleep for a while, I’ll wake you up when the time comes.”
That’s what he said, but Xu Chuo didn’t wake him up. When Xiang Yiye woke up and looked at the time, the sky had fallen, the meeting was long over.
“Sister He should have gone, she’ll tell you if there’s anything important,” Xu Chuo said, “The content of those meetings is pretty much the same, it doesn’t matter if you don’t go.”
Xiang Yiye: “…” He felt that Xu Chuo was lying when he said the day before that he would ask for his opinion if anything came up in the future.
In the afternoon, He Jingming told Xiang Yiye that Xinghui had originally planned to talk to him about renewing his contract that morning.
Xiang Yiye was puzzled: “Isn’t my contract still for another year, why so early?”
He Jingming was used to it: “Isn’t it because they see you’re gaining momentum now, and they want to tie you down first.”
Lin Xiao’s departure has become a foregone conclusion, the artist they worked so hard to cultivate has been lost to their rival in one fell swoop. In order to prevent similar things from happening again, Xinghui will definitely take some action.
Xiang Yiye began to think about how to politely refuse, and not affect his development in the next year.
Xu Chuo: “Why not terminate the contract early?”
Xiang Yiye: “…” He shouldn’t have asked, terminating the contract early requires paying a penalty.
Xu Chuo: “I’ll pay the penalty for you.”