“Thanks.”
He Mingchen clinked his wine glass against the rim of Pei Yun’s and drank the wine in his cup in one go.
This night wasn’t particularly long, yet plenty of people didn’t sleep well.
When Ji Xing got up in the morning, the skin around his eyes was slightly bruised. Xiao Lin was startled upon seeing him, assuming he hadn’t slept at all through the night.
“Ji-ge, are you really okay?” Xiao Lin asked him.
“I’m fine, I just stayed up late last night looking up some data.”
Ji Xing hadn’t been able to sleep last night and had searched online about post-pregnancy symptoms. His initial intention was to use the elimination method to comfort himself, but he never expected that most of the symptoms he looked up matched his own condition.
Good appetite, feeling sleepy easily, major mood swings.
If he had known they would fit this seamlessly, he would rather not have looked them up at all.
“What kind of data were you looking up?” Xiao Lin asked.
“I…” Ji Xing struggled internally. He desperately wanted to confirm this matter as soon as possible so he could either find relief or completely give up hope. But at the same time, he didn’t quite dare face reality, always thinking he should drag it out for as long as possible.
“Can you help me buy something?” Ji Xing said.
“Sure, what should I buy?” Xiao Lin asked.
Ji Xing thought about it for a moment, then said, “Never mind.”
Xiao Lin sensed that he had something on his mind, but seeing that he was unwilling to speak, he didn’t push or question him relentlessly. Anyway, his Ji-ge couldn’t keep secrets; he would definitely burst from holding it in within two days.
“Eat more, otherwise you’ll be hungry again once we get to the set.” Seeing that there was very little food on Ji Xing’s plate, Xiao Lin placed some food from his own plate onto Ji Xing’s, intending to go back and get more for himself.
However, Ji Xing stopped him: “No need, I’ve had enough.”
“How is that possible? Your appetite has grown so much since coming to the crew, eating just this little isn’t enough.”
“Is my appetite very big?” Ji Xing asked.
“Uh… It’s all right, just bigger than before.”
Thinking of the answers he had looked up, Ji Xing lost all appetite whatsoever; he wished he could start fasting right from today.
That morning, he stubbornly ate only until he was half-full before setting off.
Even though it was self-deception, it could still offer him a tiny shred of comfort.
When going to the site, they once again took the minibus arranged by the production team.
There were quite a few people on the bus in the morning, and as Ji Xing boarded, he heard them discussing Xiao Huang’s situation.
“When he asked for leave before, I already felt something was off; it didn’t look like symptoms of appendicitis at all,” one trainee said.
“Thinking about it now, when he first asked for leave due to heat stroke, it must have been severe morning sickness. Later on, his hospitalization was probably due to fetal agitation, right? I heard people say that you have to take good care of the pregnancy during the first three months, otherwise it’s very easy to run into danger,” another person said.
“Yesterday I saw so much blood flowing, I wonder how he’s doing now.”
“The baby definitely couldn’t be saved, but the adult should be fine, otherwise it would have hit the trending searches long ago.”
The trainees discussed it in a flurry of voices, but most of them expressed pity, and no one spoke any excessively harsh words.
“Teacher Pei is also quite unlucky to run into such a mess. It’ll be fine if the matter doesn’t blow up later on, but once it blows up, who knows what they’ll say about him,” a trainee worried aloud for Pei Yun.
“This matter shouldn’t have anything to do with Teacher Pei, right?”
“It just depends on how the marketing accounts spin it. The nicer ones will say he was irresponsible and failed to protect his trainee; the uglier ones will probably even suspect the child is his.” Another person chimed in.
“You guys say Xiao Huang is something else too, so young with a bright future ahead of him, yet he insists on having a child for someone, what a waste of potential. Now the child is gone, and his future is gone too.”
Ji Xing really didn’t want to participate in this topic, so he simply sat in the back row, put on his headphones, and feigned deafness.
Just when he thought the matter would be suppressed by the production team, who should know that it hit the trending searches by that very morning?
Some marketing account somehow obtained the news and directly exposed Xiao Huang’s miscarriage, claiming that he suffered heavy bleeding, nearly lost his life, and was only saved after a prolonged resuscitation effort.
Ji Xing had originally assumed that most netizens would sympathize with Xiao Huang, but to his surprise, the exact opposite was true: only a very small minority held a sympathetic attitude toward Xiao Huang, another section chose to remain neutral, while the vast majority were criticizing Xiao Huang.
One strain of voices was criticizing him for a lack of professional ethics:
Since you signed a crew contract, you should record the show properly.
Bringing a bun in the oven onto a show, isn’t this intentionally screwing over the production team?
Not knowing early on is one thing, but why didn’t you withdraw once you found out?
We haven’t even seen him a few times since the show started.
I just want to know whether the salary he collected is going to be refunded or not!
Others claimed his child came from an improper background:
How did he suddenly get pregnant?
Could he have been kept by a sugar daddy?
He couldn’t bear to abort the sugar daddy’s spawn?
If it were a normal relationship, he could have completely made it public, there was no need to sneak around.
He probably wanted the child and didn’t want to give up the resources either.
There were many angles of criticism, with everyone holding their own opinions.
What surprised Ji Xing the most was the topic concerning Pei Yun on the trending searches. The trainees on the minibus that morning had guessed correctly: there were indeed many people in the topic criticizing Pei Yun. Some said he was irresponsible as a mentor, while others demanded he step forward to clarify whether the child was his.
After the trending topic fermented for half a day, only the production team released a statement, while everyone else failed to step out with a response.
By the time Ji Xing checked Weibo again in the afternoon, the discussion’s wind direction had shifted toward Xiao Huang’s personal life. The topic was flooded with all sorts of slanders and insults. Some guessed Xiao Huang’s child belonged to a high-ranking executive of the production team, while others suspected his private life was so chaotic that he didn’t even know who the father of the child was, which was why he had to shoulder it all by himself.
The more Ji Xing read, the more uncomfortable he felt. He didn’t agree with Xiao Huang hiding his pregnancy to continue recording either, but the man didn’t deserve to die. Looking at these attacking remarks in the topic, it was as if Xiao Huang had committed an unforgivable crime.
He couldn’t help thinking that if the person who met with misfortune wasn’t Xiao Huang, but himself, then the targets of those insults and slanders on the internet right now would be him. And Pei Yun’s current plight would be He Mingchen’s plight.
Affected by this incident, Ji Xing’s state on set today was abysmal, and a dialogue scene had to be re-filmed many times before passing. Coupled with the fact that he hadn’t eaten his fill for breakfast or lunch, he felt physically and mentally exhausted.
During the break, Tiger ordered afternoon tea for everyone once again.
However, looking at the cake in front of him, Ji Xing couldn’t bring himself to eat it. Seeing this, Tiger proactively sat down next to him.
“You used to look like your eyes lit up when you saw cake. Why are you so quiet today? Got something on your mind?”
“No, it’s just that my poor performance affected the progress, and I feel a bit guilty.”
Tiger smiled. “Actors are human too, possessing seven emotions and six desires. Occasional mistakes are completely normal. Your Teacher He often ran into this kind of situation when filming in the past, too. I remember there was one project where his state was bad, and a single scene was filmed for nearly a week. It wasn’t until I accompanied him to drink a big round of liquor that he managed to find his groove back.”
“Teacher He actually had times when he got stuck on scenes?” Ji Xing was somewhat surprised.
“Of course. He’s no deity. Don’t look at how cold and aloof he is on the outside; he has plenty of worries in private, too.”
Tiger handed the cake to Ji Xing. Ji Xing took a bite, his palate flooded with the familiar sweet taste, and his mood brightened up quite a bit as a result.
“What are you worrying about?” Tiger asked him.
“I, saw the trending searches today and got a bit worried.” Of course, Ji Xing wouldn’t dare say he was grieving for others because he feared meeting the same fate. He could only use Pei Yun as a shield: “Teacher Hu, do you think this incident will affect Teacher Pei?”
“I asked Pei Yun; the child isn’t his, so the problem isn’t big. Netizens will gossip for a few days and then forget about it. It won’t have any major impact,” Tiger said.
“If it were his, would that count as his career collapsing?”
“For sure. Premarital pregnancy isn’t taboo in the industry, but for a mentor to get a young, newly-entered trainee pregnant, that sort of thing is definitely quite disgraceful. Plus, the child wasn’t saved, which adds insult to injury.” Tiger thought for a moment. “Still, a collapsed career is a collapsed career. If he can pull out a good production after a year or two, he can still make a comeback; it just depends on his luck.”
Ji Xing lowered his head, eating the cake in his hands while looking deep in thought.
“That’s not right. Why are you asking me this question?” Tiger gazed at Ji Xing with a scrutinizing look. “You wouldn’t…”
“Definitely not, Teacher Hu, I didn’t.” Regarding the fact that Tiger had long since known about their relationship, Ji Xing remained entirely in the dark to this day. Therefore, when Tiger asked him, he had no idea the other person was referring to the issues between him and He Mingchen.
“Haha, I was just teasing you.” Tiger gave it a second thought and dispelled his doubts. He understood He Mingchen; that fellow did things steadily and responsibly. If he were going to get intimate with someone, it was impossible for him not to take safety precautions.
How could he possibly know that He Mingchen had also thought he was dreaming that night, and hadn’t crossed paths with the idea of taking any precautions at all?
“Xiao Ji, big brother genuinely likes you, so let me offer you a few words of caution today.” Tiger felt that putting an extra layer of insurance on this matter was still the safer bet, so he earnestly cautioned Ji Xing. “Leaving aside how other people are doing, you’re still young and your career has just begun. You must never follow in Xiao Huang’s footsteps at a time like this.”
Ji Xing’s heart tightened, and he nodded with a guilty conscience.
“Affairs of the heart ultimately cannot become the entirety of your life. If you want to have independent choices in a relationship, you must preserve your own independent living space. Getting your career on track gives you a firm foundation so you can advance and retreat gracefully. Don’t act on a momentary impulse and ruin your future.” What Tiger said to Ji Xing was truly from the bottom of his heart.
He no longer intended to meddle further in the two men’s affairs, but from a manager’s perspective, a stable relationship between the two of them was good for everyone. He certainly didn’t want the two of them to get carried away in a moment of hot-headedness and stir up something impossible to clean up, which was why he offered these kind words of caution.
“I’ll remember it, Teacher Hu.”
On the surface, Ji Xing was obedient and compliant, but inside, his mind was a complete mess.
According to Tiger’s words, if he were to conceive at a time like this, the outcome would be unthinkable, it would practically be a dead end.
Right now, since nothing had happened yet, Tiger would treat him amicably. Once it was confirmed that he was carrying He Mingchen’s child, the other man might flip his face instantly. After all, given how reckless He Mingchen had been in the original text, Tiger hadn’t stepped forward to stop it back then.
When that time came, his own agency would also treat him as an abandoned pawn.
Ji Xing’s only hope now was that because of his sudden transmigration into the book, it had created variables that prevented the pregnancy from happening. Yet things had reached this point, and this hope in his heart seemed increasingly slim.
“Xiao Lin, can you help me buy something?”
Upon returning that night, Ji Xing said to Xiao Lin.
“Buy what?” Xiao Lin asked.
“Buy, pregnancy test strips.”
Xiao Lin: ……
Help. The sky has fallen.