Chapter 069 – This miserable rich second generation – “I want to see my dad’s face” (10/10)
While Xie Chenyang and Gu Liu were enjoying a sweet breakfast on their way to the set, Xie Lou was being stared at by the crew on the set next door.
When he posted on Weibo last night, he never imagined that Xie Chenyang would slap him in the face like that.
Didn’t he still love him?
Didn’t he say he didn’t want to make him angry?
The worst part was that he couldn’t get through to him on the phone. His agent’s phone was blocked, and he couldn’t even reach his assistant.
You Huang: No thanks needed, I blocked him.
The assistant looked at Xie Lou cautiously. “Brother Lou, the director wants you to come over.”
Xie Lou took a deep breath and followed the assistant to the director’s lounge.
After listening to the director, Xie Lou couldn’t control his expression. “I’m the male lead. We’re already halfway through filming, and you want to replace me? This violates our contract.”
Director: “The contract states that if an actor engages in harmful behavior during filming and creates negative publicity that affects the production team, we have the right to replace the actor without liability. If the actor causes significant losses, the production team may even demand compensation from the actor.”
Xie Lou’s expression tightened.
“Recently, you made a negative impact when news broke out about you exploiting others, and then you made false accusations. Now everyone thinks you have poor conduct, and they’ve expressed doubts and resistance towards our production team,” the director solemnly delivered. “You’ve already filmed a quarter of your scenes, and by replacing you, our team will also suffer significant losses. We’re already being very generous by not demanding compensation from you.”
Xie Lou remained silent for a moment. “My agent is working on damage control.”
The director shook his head. “Xie Lou, you must realise that you’re implicating Jiang Xincheng. The Jiang family will not let you slander him.”
Xie Lou: “I’ve never–”
The director looked at him meaningfully. “Whether you did or not, Xie Lou, know your place.”
Xie Lou could only bow his head and say, “Okay.”
Yes, because Xie Lou directly named Xie Chenyang, Uncle Jiang was angry and immediately issued a statement to ban Xie Lou.
In fact, this problem wasn’t that big for Xie Lou. There were plenty of celebrities with worse news than him.
But the Jiang family’s reputation was at stake, and most people in the industry were more than willing to give the Jiang family face.
Xie Lou was dismissed and returned to his apartment in disgrace.
His agent arrived at his door, furious. “Is this what you meant when you said he still loved you and would cooperate with you?”
Xie Lou had nothing to say. His heart was filled with regret and hatred.
He regretted rejecting Jiang Xincheng because he was too young and wanted to wait until he was more established. He hated Jiang Xincheng for finding a replacement and no longer regarding him as an equal.
Wasn’t it only because he’d been rejected for years and was unhappy, so he wanted to deliberately suppress him so that he could later control him?
Xie Lou thought to himself that he would never give in.
But when the company stopped giving him resources, the connections he’d made since entering the industry were no longer useful.
It was as if all his previous successes had been an illusion.
Because he had cultivated his image as a perfect gentleman so well, this exposure caused him to lose many fans who had loved him for a lifetime, and some who remained were only there because of his good looks and their willingness to believe in him.
But there were very few of them.
Xie Lou couldn’t take it anymore. He was prepared to surrender to Xie Chenyang.
However, even after the filming of “The Killer Doctor” was completed, he was still unable to contact Xie Chenyang.
This was different from the original plot.
In the original plot, although Xie Lou was blacklisted, there was no incident where his lifelong love for Xie Lou caused a mass exodus of fans, nor were there any incidents where he recklessly implicated others and lost the public’s trust. He still maintained his “male god” image, so his company still saw some value in him.
But now, Xie Lou didn’t know the company president, and naturally, none of the later events happened.
Xie Lou was on the brink of obscurity.
You Huang directly cut off all of Xie Lou’s possible channels of contact with Xie Chenyang, preventing him from affecting the intense love between Xie Chenyang and Gu Liu both on and off screen.
Back at the villa, Xie Chenyang suddenly remembered: [Dad, is Xie Lou finished?]
You Huang: “More or less.”
[Xie Lou is a man with ambitions as high as the sky. He will never be willing to end it like this. He toyed with the original body so much, we can’t just let him have it easy.]
You Huang: “Okay, what do you want to do?”
[He destroyed Jiang Xincheng’s spirit, so I’ll destroy his.]
[Dad, is there anything we can exchange for that dream-making thing?]
You Huang: “You want to…”
[Hehehe.]
From that day on, every time Xie Lou fell asleep, he would dream.
In his dreams, he was at the peak of his career.
Jiang Xincheng was not with Gu Liu, but continued to support him silently and without regret.
He rose to stardom effortlessly, becoming the top actor in the entertainment industry. He eventually went public with his relationship with Jiang Xincheng and inherited Jiang’s uncle’s company.
It was all too real.
When he woke up to find his fans gradually unfollowing him, his Weibo account silent, his company ignoring him, and his agent not even bothering to check in, the contrast was too stark.
This continued until the broadcast of “The Killer Doctor.” He watched the ‘Jiang Xincheng’ of his dream, who’d been deeply in love with him and had no regrets, and Gu Liu, whose eyes were filled with affection, and found it difficult to accept.
Every day, he stared at Xie Chenyang and Gu Liu’s Weibo posts showing their love for each other, looking at the sweet photos and words they posted, and increasingly felt that this world was fake and that the one in his dreams was real.
But his anxiety made it difficult for him to sleep. He started taking sleeping pills.
Xie Chenyang took Gu Liu home to meet his parents and uncles. He also took him to visit his hometown and meet his family. Even his aunt, who was far away abroad, called them on video to give them her blessings and sent them a gift.
Xie Chenyang and Gu Liu soon got married.
Gu Liu filmed one or two dramas every year. Sometimes Xie Chenyang filmed with him, and sometimes he filmed alone.
When “The Killer Doctor” was first aired, they became an overnight sensation.
Xie Chenyang and Gu Liu’s interactions in the show attracted a group of fans who called them a “sweet couple.” They even went public with their relationship, and their fans were openly shipping them.
Gu Liu secretly joined their fan club using a secondary account and quietly wrote some fan fiction. When Xie Chenyang found out, he acted out all of his fantasies in his writing, making Gu Liu weak in the knees.
Until one day, photos of the quiet Xie Lou were posted online.
The once-perfect heartthrob now looked emaciated and haggard.
His face was pale and sickly, with dark circles under his eyes, and his hair was dry and lifeless. He stood in a pharmacy wearing loose-fitting clothes. He was buying sleeping pills and photographed by someone who recognized him.
Everyone was shocked. Even some of his former fans began to feel sorry for him again.
{Actually, he didn’t do any serious wrongdoing.}
{Even if he knew that ‘Love Floor One for Life’ loved him and accepted his resources without refusing him, it wasn’t entirely his fault. People are selfish. ‘Love Floor One for Life’ was willing to give him resources, so was it wrong for him to accept them? It wasn’t like he forced him to give them to him.}
{We were indeed pretty harsh back then.}
{When he revealed that ‘Love Floor One for Life’ was Jiang Xincheng, it was probably because he was desperate and had no other choice.}
{After that, he never appeared on camera again.}
{Seeing him like this now and thinking back to how aloof and cold he used to be, it’s kind of heartbreaking.}
{Compared to those celebrities who commit domestic violence and cheat on their wives, he just didn’t refuse the gifts from people who pursued him.}
{If I’m not mistaken, those are sleeping pills, right? He must be going through a difficult time right now.}
{I’m sorry, Xie Lou.}
When Xie Chenyang accidentally came across this, he and Gu Liu were on vacation on an island.
[Dad, how is Xie Lou doing now?]
You Huang: “He’s close to death.”
[Oh.]
“Chen-ge, what are you looking at?”
Xie Chenyang raised his head and saw Gu Liu wearing only beach shorts with a surfboard tucked under his arm. His eyes were gentle and full of affection.
He immediately put down his phone, ran over, picked him up, and kissed him. “I’m searching for how to surf.”
Gu Liu raised his eyebrows. “I’ll teach you.”
“Chen-ge, let go, I still want to surf.”
“No rush, let’s catch some other waves first.”
“Um, this–”
“This is a private island, no one will see us.”
Xie Lou was completely addicted to the world of his dreams, treating reality as a nightmare and dreams as reality, forcing himself to sleep the majority of every day.
He was mentally weak, ate very little, and only wanted to sleep…
Before long, Xie Lou died alone in a rented room.
When Xie Chenyang heard the news, he was not surprised.
[He was arrogant and proud, and once he fell, he definitely couldn’t accept reality. At this point, whenever he fell asleep, he would dream of a beautiful life that was so real and logical… Hehe, I’m not surprised he became addicted to it.]
If he hadn’t met the young CEO in the original plot, no one would have helped him. At that point, he would’ve definitely gone back to Jiang Xincheng.
After that, Xie Chenyang and Gu Liu spent their days either filming or traveling, living a very comfortable life.
It wasn’t until later in life that Xie Chenyang completely retired from the spotlight, with Gu Liu only occasionally making guest appearances when he saw a role that interested him.
Gu Liu passed away before Xie Chenyang.
Before he left, Xie Chenyang held his hand and repeatedly pressed him to promise to be together in the next life.
Gu Liu was still a handsome old man, and he smiled until his eyes closed into crescents. “What if I drink Meng Po’s soup and don’t remember you?”
Xie Chenyang replied truthfully, “You won’t remember me, but I’ll remember you.”
Gu Liu teased him, “What if I don’t remember you and don’t like you anymore?”
“That’s impossible.” Xie Chenyang held his hand. “You’ll definitely like me. Even if you don’t remember me, your soul and your body will remember me, and we’ll love each other until our souls are destroyed and there is no more reincarnation.”
Gu Liu smiled and left with that promise.
Xie Chenyang closed his eyes and said: [Dad, let’s go, too.]
Xie Chenyang returned to the seaside and poked the flute hanging in the air. “We are father and son now, why are you hiding? Come out and let me see you.”
You Huang transformed into human form in front of him.
His hair was waist-length, and he was wearing a light white shirt. His eyebrows and eyes were still expressionless.
Xie Chenyang grew exasperated.
“Let me see your face!”
You Huang had appeared, but the lower half of his face was still covered by a mask.
He looked out to the boundless sea. “I promised someone that I would only show my face to him.”
Xie Chenyang: “Who?”
You Huang did not answer.
Xie Chenyang walked to the sea with an irritated look on his face. “Hmph, you must’ve made that up to fool me. You said before that whoever saw your face would marry you.”
You Huang: “… Even if you can’t see your father’s face, you don’t have to jump into the sea.”
Xie Chenyang: “What do you mean jump into the sea? I’m going to catch some seafood to eat!”
Edited: Krone
Proofread: Choux_choux
