“Mother,” Fu Minglou said, coughing a few times right after. Fu Minglou hurriedly patted her spine, as if trying to comfort his mother while simultaneously stopping her from making any more extreme gestures. “Do not get angry yet. I will explain it to you slowly.”
“What else is there to say? Your father… your father saw it with his own eyes at Capital of the Night.” Fu Minglou’s mother still could not stop her spell, and when a servant brought medicine, Fu Minglou’s mother swept it onto the floor in a fit of rage. Fu Minglou had someone prepare a fresh dose and tried to comfort her by her bedside again. “Mother, take your medicine first and we will talk. There is probably some misunderstanding regarding Father.”
“Misunderstanding?” Fu Minglou’s father tapped his knuckles against the table. “Minglou, can you actually say that out there?”
“Can you stop adding fuel to the fire?” Fu Minglou cast a chilling, sideways glare at Fu Minglou’s father, as if ready to strike him open the next second.
“Minglou!” Fu Minglou’s mother grabbed Fu Minglou’s wrist with force, but her physical discomfort was too severe for her to spit out the rest of her sentence, and she fainted shortly after. Fu Minglou, along with the servants, immediately carried Fu Minglou’s mother back to her room, while Fu Minglou’s father remained sitting in his original spot, completely at ease.
Fu Minglou fed Fu Minglou’s mother her medicine and kept watch by the bedside from early morning until noon, only then seeing Fu Minglou’s mother open her eyes. “Mother, how do you feel? Is your body more comfortable?”
“You child,” Fu Minglou’s mother was helped up by Fu Minglou, leaning weakly against the head of the bed. “You always give your mother no peace of mind. A while ago your father said you were with a dancer, and now… cough.”
“Mother, take it easy. What did Father say to you?”
“I knew your father went to Capital of the Night. It was one thing for him to see you hanging around a dancer, but today he suddenly told me that the dancer is actually a man in disguise. Minglou, is what your father said true or not?”
Fu Minglou remained silent for a long moment. Saying it was a misunderstanding earlier was just to avoid stimulating Fu Minglou’s mother, but now that his mother had calmed down, he could not bring himself to lie. “Is Mother worried that this will not sound good if it gets out?”
“Minglou, if this kind of thing were proper, why would anyone worry about it getting out?” Fu Minglou’s mother sighed imperceptibly. “There is no such thing in this world as… ugh.”
She paused before continuing. “It is inappropriate no matter what. Which family does not have a son marry and carry on the lineage?”
“Mother,” Fu Minglou stopped himself several times before squeezing out this much. “You are tired.”
“You are at the age to settle down anyway. I will ask around for you in a while. Miss Xu from the west side of the city has always been favorable toward you. In a bit I will have someone arrange for her to meet you. You can have a proper chat with her. If it is a good match, you two can talk further; if not, we will look at other young ladies.”
“It is useless, Mother, I…” Fu Minglou wanted to say something, but Fu Minglou’s mother coughed a few times, leaving him unable to speak.
“It is settled then. Let me know when you have free time, and I will arrange it.”
“Understood.” Seeing that Fu Minglou’s mother would not allow him to argue, Fu Minglou had no choice but to step out of the doorway so as not to disturb her rest. Fu Minglou’s father was still sitting in the main hall, leisurely holding a teacup and taking two sips.
“What did you say to her? Knowing full well her health is poor, why would you provoke her?” Fu Minglou stood before Fu Minglou’s father and snatched the teacup from his hand. Anticipating this move, Fu Minglou’s father chuckled instead of getting angry. “Who told my good son to disobey me? Did you think that because you came to Capital of the Night to keep an eye on me, I would not have people follow you? As for what I actually said, I imagine you have a pretty good idea in your heart.”
“How do you know about Shuyu?”
“Is that strange?” Fu Minglou’s father spoke as if he had heard something utterly ridiculous. “Shuyu has accompanied me for so long. How could I not know whether he is a man or a woman?”
Fu Minglou nearly crushed his fists into dust. If not for the ties of blood, and if he did not want to disturb Fu Minglou’s mother who was unwell inside the room, he would have already raised hell.
At this exact moment, he was entirely out of options, so he simply stormed out through the door, refusing to face any more of these messy household matters. Just as he stepped across the threshold, Fu Minglou’s father spoke up nonchalantly from behind him. “Oh right, your mother has already had people take back the commercial storefront you had a while ago. Do not think about doing business for now; wait until your mother’s health improves.”
Fu Minglou turned his head back, cloaked in lingering anger as he pierced Fu Minglou’s father with a look, then slammed the door shut behind him.
This scene came to an end right here. Xian Sui had finished shooting his parts quite early, so he pulled a chair over to the side and sat down to watch Gu Fanzhou act out the second half, his hands still flipping through the script.
After finishing his shoot, Gu Fanzhou did not rush back to the dressing room, instead taking the empty seat right beside Xian Sui. “Is there a problem?”
“No, it is great. The emotions are completely in place.” The phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated. Xian Sui temporarily closed his script to check his WeChat messages, finding no red dots. Pulling down the notification bar, he realized it was a Weibo push notification and instinctively clicked on it to have a look.
Xie Tangqing had updated her Weibo: her team had reserved a venue to celebrate her twenty-sixth birthday with her fans. The venue was decorated with great care, and in the photo stood a huge five-tier cream cake. Xie Tangqing stood right beside the cake, wearing a birthday hat and cutting a slice with a smile all over her face.
“Is it Sister Tangqing’s birthday today? I had no idea…” Xian Sui silently liked Xie Tangqing’s Weibo post and even left a comment wishing her a happy birthday.
“She should be finishing up her fan meeting right about now,” Gu Fanzhou glanced at the time on his phone. “She is also hosting a birthday banquet at her villa tonight, inviting familiar people from the industry to attend.”
“Will Brother Gu be going?”
“This is a favor I cannot afford to skip.” Just as Gu Fanzhou finished speaking, someone called him away from a distance. There was no point for Xian Sui to sit around by himself, so he naturally headed in the direction of the dressing room.
The person who had come was Gu Fanzhou’s assistant, who whispered that the acquisition plan was proceeding roughly according to Gu Fanzhou’s expectations, telling him not to worry. “I just found out that Xie Zhuangqiu will be attending Xie Tangqing’s birthday banquet.”
“Xie Zhuangqiu cares deeply for this younger sister of his. It is truly rare that he is carving out time for this despite how overwhelmed he is with business matters.” Gu Fanzhou opened his chat window with Xie Tangqing on WeChat, where she had personally invited him to the banquet. Only now did he type out a reply in the input box indicating that he accepted the invitation.
Naturally, it wasn’t because of any personal favor. Given his current status and standing, others should be the ones seeking to curry favor with him; going was merely to see whether Xie Zhuangqiu had been having a miserable time lately.
Xian Sui stepped out of his car and returned to his own place, only to discover that Xie Tangqing had left him a message on WeChat inviting him to her birthday banquet, complete with the location of the villa pinned, and even offering to send someone to pick him up if he could not find the place. Naturally feeling bad about troubling her, Xian Sui planned to just take a taxi there when the time came.
Xie Tangqing’s villa was located closer to the city center and was not particularly hard to find. Although Xian Sui had deliberately changed into a relatively respectable suit, stepping into the venue still made him feel inexplicably out of place.
Xian Sui first greeted the birthday girl, who was busy welcoming guests all over the venue. He could not afford any excessively expensive gifts, so he had simply brought a bouquet of flowers and handed them directly to Xie Tangqing.
“Brother Gu is in the side parlor,” Xie Tangqing specifically let slip as she accepted the flowers. “If you do not go over soon, he is going to be swarmed by a bunch of people.”
Xian Sui followed the hallway to the side parlor, finally spotting Gu Fanzhou’s figure amidst the crowd. The latter was sitting at a table tasting red wine, accompanied by a young boy Xian Sui did not recognize, who looked like an actor who had just recently entered the industry.
The young actor was eagerly pouring wine for Gu Fanzhou and chattering on about something, yet Gu Fanzhou did not even spare him a glance the entire time, treating him as if he were completely transparent.
Xian Sui hesitated whether to approach uninvited, but before he could, Gu Fanzhou spotted him first and mouthed the words, “Come here.”
He hurried over to Gu Fanzhou’s side in a few steps, and the latter handed the half-drunk glass of wine he had been holding straight into Xian Sui’s hand. “Take a sip. The wine here is very mellow.”
Xian Sui obediently took a small sip, noting that it indeed tasted different from ordinary wine. At that point, the young actor finally gave up on trying to suck up to him, walking away with a rather dissatisfied expression.
“Newcomers these days are getting thicker-skinned by the day.” Gu Fanzhou took the wine glass back from Xian Sui’s hand. “Come here, stay closer to me.”
Any closer and their shoulders would be touching. Hesitating for a moment, Xian Sui complied under the silent urge of Gu Fanzhou’s gaze.
Xian Sui did not pay much attention to this gesture, and thus had no idea that behind him, the young actor who had just been talking to Gu Fanzhou was currently eyeing him with hidden hostility.
“He is just being treated like a little toy. Even if he makes the trending searches once or twice, he will not make much of a splash. At the end of the day, he is still just a minor nobody.” The young actor rolled his eyes, then coldly looked away.
“Having a hard time watching, are you?” Another person beside him spoke up, slipping a small packet of powder into the young actor’s hand. “Go drug him, take a few of those kinds of photos of him, and send them to Gu Fanzhou or post them online. That will be enough to ruin him completely.”
“That is right. Rich people care about face the most. Won’t he be pissed to death when he finds out his little toy was slept with by someone else?” The young actor tucked the powder into his pocket and deliberately took a few steps closer to Xian Sui, waiting until the latter ordered a cup of orange juice from a waiter.
Xian Sui had originally intended to drink alcohol, but Gu Fanzhou had stubbornly stopped him, refusing to even let him touch the remaining half-cup of red wine left on the table. “Forgot? You got drunk last time in the bar just from drinking sweet wine.”
“You got drunk too, and I was the one who drove you back to your villa,” Xian Sui muttered under his breath as if refusing to admit defeat.
“I can hear you.” Gu Fanzhou raised a hand to summon a waiter and ordered a cup of orange juice for Xian Sui instead.
Not wanting to waste it, Xian Sui drank the orange juice Gu Fanzhou had self-righteously ordered down to the last drop. Before he could shift his gaze back to Gu Fanzhou, his head suddenly grew heavy and dizzy, and the surrounding world instantly began to spin.
“Brother Gu?” Xian Sui tried his best to open his eyes, but could no longer make out the scene in front of him clearly.
Just as Gu Fanzhou was asking about his condition, a waiter came over to inform him that Xie Tangqing had some urgent business to discuss with him in the back garden. He initially wanted to refuse, but the person kept emphasizing that it was a pressing matter and that Gu Fanzhou had to go with them.
“Xian Sui, stay right here and do not move. Wait for me to come back.”
Xian Sui felt as though all the strength had been drained from his body, leaving him unable to even respond to Gu Fanzhou. By the time the other man’s figure completely vanished from his field of vision, someone suddenly approached him from the side, helped Xian Sui up from his seat, and led him away in a certain direction.
“Who are you?” Xian Sui had no strength left, and any struggle was completely futile. “Let me go.”