Prompted by Xu Yaozhou, Fu Juncheng immediately reacted and explained, “I’ve packed everything, but I just haven’t been able to find a chance to return it to you. There’s also a bank card inside that you must have forgotten.”
Xu Yaozhou did not answer right away.
Fu Juncheng added another sentence, “If I knew I’d run into you here today, I would have brought it along.”
“It’s no problem.”
Pausing slightly, Xu Yaozhou’s eyes were clean and clear, the smile between his brows and eyes widening and stretching all the way to the corners of his mouth, “I don’t know if you mind, but can I have your contact information?”
Fu Juncheng didn’t think much of it and felt that this would indeed be more convenient.
Zhang Chenze, however, picked up on some subtle clues. Just a moment ago, the two of them were as close as could be, yet the next second he discovered that they didn’t even have each other’s phone numbers.
Saying it was love at first sight required someone to actually believe it.
Besides, this kind of thing should never happen to Xu Yaozhou in the first place.
Most people might not realize it, but Zhang Chenze watched closely. Although Xu Yaozhou was gentle in his dealings with people, he usually exuded a sense of indifferent detachment. Very few people managed to get close to him, let alone go to the trouble of actively asking someone for their contact information.
Zhang Chenze’s perspective on Fu Juncheng had already changed because of the audition, and seeing Xu Yaozhou’s attitude now only made him more curious.
The moment Fu Juncheng left, Zhang Chenze couldn’t help pressing, “What did you leave behind with him anyway?”
Xu Yaozhou glanced a bit longer at the newly edited contact label on his phone screen before pressing the screen dark and replying unhurriedly, “Clothes and a bank card.”
Zhang Chenze went silent.
He had actually harbored some guesses.
And now all those guesses had been confirmed by the person involved.
Those two items were fine when viewed separately.
Put them together, however, and it was quite thought-provoking.
Zhang Chenze’s mood was extraordinarily complicated. After remaining silent for a long time, he finally spoke with hesitation, “Actually, given your conditions, you really don’t need to do this.”
Xu Yaozhou slowly looked over.
Zhang Chenze weighed his choice of words, “That kid Fu Juncheng, I heard his relationship with Wu Jin is unusual. Even though he looks quite good, you shouldn’t rob someone else of their partner, should you?”
Zhang Chenze had spent these years pouring all his focus into his work and rarely paid attention to other matters. Knowing this, Xu Yaozhou’s eyebrows twitched slightly upward as he asked calmly, “Is his relationship with Wu Jin that good?”
Zhang Chenze went silent.
Zhang Chenze heaved a heavy sigh inwardly, looking at Xu Yaozhou as if looking at an innocent little sheep completely bewitched by a fox, and spoke with earnest intent to advise him, “If the relationship wasn’t good, would Wu Jin have gone through all that trouble to cram people into my crew? I could already tell during yesterday’s audition. Out of everyone in the room, Fu Juncheng went straight up to pair up with Wu Jin for his scene. You tell me if their relationship is good or not?”
Zhang Chenze felt his hint was already exceptionally clear.
He was practically on the verge of grabbing Xu Yaozhou’s shoulders and shaking him wildly:
Wake up!
There are plenty of fish in the sea! Fu Juncheng is already taken, you know!
And I mean taken in the literal sense of the word!
Xu Yaozhou curved his lips by the tiniest fraction, his tone cool and moderate, “Director Zhang, you’ve misunderstood. My relationship with Fu Juncheng isn’t what you think it is.”
Zhang Chenze froze slightly.
Xu Yaozhou said indifferently, “It’s just that Wu Jin is not a good person.”
Zhang Chenze went silent.
Xu Yaozhou continued, “He deserves better.”
Hearing this, Zhang Chenze’s brain naturally connected the dots:
Do you hope that person is you?
At that moment, Zhang Chenze felt like a village resident standing in an endless watermelon field, completely at a loss.
At last, Xu Yaozhou raised his eyes slightly, and the gaze he cast over seemed to Zhang Chenze like a melancholic youth experiencing first love, cautious yet filled with endless bitterness and helplessness, “As for what was said just now, Director Zhang, I must ask you to…”
Zhang Chenze patted his chest to guarantee, “Rest assured, I’ll help you keep it a secret.”
If Xu Yaozhou’s fan club ever found out that their male god experienced unrequited love, and the other person was none other than Fu Juncheng, what kind of absolute chaos would that be!
Tsk.
Young people these days.
Fu Juncheng had no idea that his conversation with Xu Yaozhou had already inspired Zhang Chenze to imagine an entire drama.
Back in the car, the moment he stepped inside, he caught a whiff of cigarette smoke.
Though the scent was very faint, it was still enough to make him feel uncomfortable. Fu Juncheng endured it for a long time before he finally couldn’t take it anymore: “I’d like to get out and walk.”
Wu Jin didn’t give any orders, so the driver didn’t pull over either.
Only then did Fu Juncheng shift his gaze to Wu Jin, his eyes falling on Wu Jin’s expressionless profile illuminated by the flickering, intermittent lights outside the car window.
After a long silence, Wu Jin furrowed his brow and spat out two flat words, “As you like.”
Stopping by the roadside, Fu Juncheng opened the car door without a second thought.
Wu Jin suddenly spoke up, “Your father is sick. I suggest you go back and check on him.”
Fu Juncheng paused in his tracks instantly, turning back to glance at Wu Jin.
Wu Jin turned his gaze sideways, offering a faint, seemingly meaningful smile: “Don’t go too late, or you’ll regret it.”
Fu Juncheng wasn’t entirely sure what Wu Jin meant by those words, but he couldn’t ask further either. Still, upon careful reflection, he could guess a thing or two: no matter how much the original body had complained about this father, he probably still couldn’t truly harden his heart and completely ignore his own flesh and blood.
Saying more would only lead to mistakes, so Fu Juncheng simply kept quiet and turned to leave.
Yet after taking a few steps, he still felt uneasy.
Wu Jin’s words clearly held a hidden meaning. If that old father of the original body really had contracted some terminal illness, and the original body happened to return one day only to witness that scene, Fu Juncheng felt an inexplicable sense of guilt.
Hesitating for a long time, he finally tapped open his phone app to look up the original body’s former address.
The location was an old residential building where even the walls were a faded gray brick color. Due to urban planning changes in recent years, it was swallowed up by a multitude of towering high-rises, making it look completely out of place.
Cars couldn’t fit into the narrow alleyways, so Fu Juncheng had to tell the taxi driver to drop him off by the curb.
He knew life at the original body’s home was hard.
He just hadn’t expected it to be this hard.
Most of the people in the alleyway had already moved away, making the naturally dim alley even pitch black.
Combined with the sudden drizzle that had started on his way here, the ground was somewhat slippery with standing water, and Fu Juncheng had to rely on his phone’s flashlight to finally locate the building mentioned in the address.
He cautiously stepped inside, and the motion sensor light flickered a few times before snapping off completely.
Fu Juncheng thought to himself: “…”
Now would probably be a good time to turn back.
Though he considered his grasp of materialism to be decent, being afraid of ghosts was entirely a primal instinct that had zero connection to one’s knowledge reserves.
Not to mention the fact that he had transmigrated into a book!
Since he had even crossed into a novel, what else was impossible?
Fu Juncheng suddenly felt his legs grow a bit weak.
Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from upstairs, rattling the lights across multiple floors back on.
A male voice rasped through a smoke-roughened throat, cursing, “Bastard! If you don’t hand over the money obediently, I am not going to let this go!”
Hearing this, Fu Juncheng looked up, tracing the stairwell upward just in time to see an empty soda can clattering down the steps. It rolled across several flights before crashing right against his foot.
He frowned and stepped right on top of it.
Really, nothing good ever happens.
Out of the four major vices of drinking, gambling, prostitution, and debauchery, the original body’s father managed to indulge in three. This scene clearly indicated that he had found yet another way to take out high-interest loans, and now people had come straight to his doorstep to collect.
As it turned out, Fu Juncheng’s guess was spot on.
The moment he pushed the door open, before he even had time to take in the indoor layout, a middle-aged man rushed forward and grabbed him in a tight embrace, crying out joyfully, “Good son, you’ve come at just the right time. Did you bring money?”
Fu Juncheng smoothly slipped out of the grip without a trace, casting his gaze around at the tall, alcohol-soaked men surrounding the room. One of them had a scar stretching a full finger’s length across the corner of his eye and back of his hand, looking like a centipede as it squirmed viciously against his dark, rough skin.
Fu Juncheng thought to himself: “…”
Could it be that he had been played by Wu Jin?