AS Chapter 40

Xiao Lian saw Li Mu with a coat draped over his arm and carrying something in his hand, suggesting he was there for a reason. After hesitating for a moment, she let him in on the account of him being Zhuang Qin’s colleague. “Keep your voice down,” she whispered.

Li Mu followed the light seeping through the door and entered.

He only intended to take a quick peek, not to visit a sickbed; there was no reason not to see the person in question.

Standing by the bed, he could see half of Zhuang Qin’s face covered by the blanket. The dim light obscured his complexion, but it was clear that Zhuang Qin was in discomfort.

Breathing seemed difficult; it would be odd if he felt fine. Li Mu crouched down and adjusted the blanket a little lower.

Xiao Lian almost burst in: “What are you doing…”

“Shush,” Li Mu stood up, took one last look, and then left.

The door closed quietly, and they headed downstairs.

In the room, Zhuang Qin turned over and groggily opened his eyes, noticing the dimness of the day. He took off his earplugs.

He checked his phone by the bedside; there were several messages. He first looked at Xiao Dao’s message sent three hours ago, right when he had gone to sleep, along with some missed calls he didn’t hear because his phone was on silent.

“Senior brother, I’ve arrived… but I’ve discovered a serious problem.”

“Senior brother, I seem to not know where you live.”

“You should be living near the company, right?”

“Senior brother, are you asleep?”

Ten minutes later.

“I’m taking a cab to your company, remember to reply when you wake up!”

Zhuang Qin was about to reply when he heard noises downstairs as if two people were talking.

Eh?

He rubbed his eyes and sat up in bed, not bothering with slippers, he directly opened the door and looked down from the second floor: “Did Xiao Dao arrive?”

“Zhuang Qin, you’re awake?” Xiao Lian, listening to Li Mu explain how to care for the patient, looked up.

Zhuang Qin and Li Mu exchanged looks, Zhuang Qin rubbing his eyes again.

The man who could make a zebra-striped T-shirt and ripped low-rise jeans look like a high-fashion runway outfit was none other than Li Mu.

“Why are you here?”

“Just passing by,” Li Mu said, eyeing Zhuang Qin’s thin cotton pajamas, the loose collar revealing his collarbone, worried he might catch cold, “Came to check on you, you’re wearing too little.”

“It’s almost June…” Zhuang Qin descended the stairs. Li Mu saw his bare feet and chided him: “You’re sick, put on some shoes.”

“My fever just broke, it’s nothing serious.” Nonetheless, Zhuang Qin put on his slippers and sent the address to his junior brother.

Xiao Lian went to heat up some porridge, and Li Mu sat with Zhuang Qin on the sofa. Besides showing concern, Li Mu couldn’t think of much else to say; their conversations usually revolved around scripts, and he barely knew anything about Zhuang Qin outside of the set.

Li Mu didn’t want to seem overly concerned.

“You sound like this, are you still planning to perform Kunqu opera in a few days?” Li Mu noted that Zhuang Qin, despite not looking his best, still had bright, glowing eyes.

“I’ll be fully recovered in a few days,” he rasped. “About the tickets you asked for, I’ll give you a work pass. Give it to your friend, they can enter directly from backstage.”

Li Mu nodded, and Zhuang Qin asked for his address: “I don’t have it on me, I’ll send it to you later. How long are you staying in the country?”

“A few days.”

Zhuang Qin: “…”

Li Mu subtly added, “Maybe I can return to the set with you.”

“I haven’t booked my ticket to Thailand yet. I’ll ask you beforehand so we might book together.” After the porridge was ready, Xiao Lian asked him to come to the dining table, and Zhuang Qin got up: “It’s late now, are you staying at a hotel?”

“Yes.” Li Mu did have a house in Imperial City, a siheyuan once owned by his maternal grandfather who was the dean at Yan Jing University, and his parents had a villa near the Third Ring Road. Li Mu himself owned a large apartment downtown, but since he seldom visited, he had never stayed there.

Li Mu preferred hotels for convenience. He stood up, handing over the shopping bag he was carrying.

“For me?”

“For you, it’s a birthday gift. Open it later.”

Although Li Mu planned to attend his birthday, he didn’t intend to make a big deal about it; he just wanted to enjoy some traditional Kunqu opera.

“Thank you,” Zhuang Qin took it, somewhat embarrassed, and also handed him a gift box, “Don’t look down on it, take it home to play.”

After exchanging gifts, Li Mu saw the designer pattern printed on the bag, feeling its heft, along with Zhuang Qin’s name, curious about its contents.

Zhuang Qin: “It’s your birthday, why are you giving me something?”

Zhuang Qin: “It’s nothing expensive, just a trinket.” It was a thoughtful gift package he had been planning to give to fans attending his birthday party, designed by him six months ago. Xiao Lian had specifically brought it over that afternoon for him to check, but Zhuang Qin hadn’t had the chance yet.

Li Mu nodded, accepting it without refusal.

Zhuang Qin: “Have you had dinner?”

Li Mu mentioned he had eaten a little.

Zhuang Qin: “Do you want to join me for porridge?”

Li Mu, seeing there wasn’t much porridge and fearing it wouldn’t be enough for both, declined.

“Shall I walk you out?”

“No need, I know the way, you go eat.” He politely declined.

Zhuang Qin insisted: “My junior brother is about to arrive, I need to go downstairs to meet him… Let me put on some clothes, wait for me.”

Zhuang Qin quickly ran upstairs, changing his clothes in a hurry, and didn’t forget to put on a hat in the night.

As they headed downstairs, Li Mu glanced at him: “You have scandals about you, aren’t you afraid of being photographed?”

“You know about that?”

“I just heard it from your assistant.” Li Mu pretended to be somewhat clueless. “Going to a female star’s set visit?”

“It was for another reason, and they just said it was a set visit, but I was accidentally photographed…” Zhuang Qin blamed his carelessness, as in the few months since his return, he hadn’t often encountered such persistent paparazzi.

“Those romantic rumors online, all fake?”

“Of course, fake.” Zhuang Qin chuckled. “Just by talking a bit more to someone or smiling, and I get photographed, they can cook up a scandal if they want. Sometimes even I start to believe them.”

He inevitably had some scandals, but since there was no follow-up evidence, his fans vehemently defended him, sending those marketing accounts scurrying back to their nests.

“Like now, if we’re seen coming out of my house and chatting, if that gets photographed…” As they walked out, Zhuang Qin, sensitive to cameras, glanced in a certain direction.

“It’s fine to be photographed now,” Zhuang Qin withdrew his gaze, “but next year when our film is released, it might cause some small problems.”

Li Mu paused: “Are there paparazzi over there?”

“Hey, no worries, don’t look at them. Although I also hate being photographed like this, there’s nothing I can do about it. If I scold them, they’ll just expose that I scolded someone.” He adjusted his hat slightly lower, naturally loving the camera yet fearing it in such situations.

Li Mu frowned, holding back from causing a scene: “Then you should change houses.”

“I’m planning to switch, my lease is expiring soon, still looking at places.” After finishing, Zhuang Qin picked up a call from Xiao Dao, his junior brother.

“I’m coming out now, did you bring a lot of luggage?”

Li Mu listened to him talk on the phone, wondering how young his junior brother was.

When he went outside, he saw a man about Zhuang Qin’s age, even looking a year or two older, vibrant and energetic.

“Senior brother!!” Xiao Dao almost ran up to hug him, but Zhuang Qin ducked behind Li Mu: “Don’t come, there are paparazzi around.”

Xiao Dao: “…”

Dragging a 29-inch suitcase, he noticed Li Mu, not resembling an assistant or bodyguard, and took a longer look: “These paparazzi are so annoying!”

Li Mu’s driver pulled the car out of the parking lot to the gate of the residential community.

His car, hard to miss and very conspicuous, Zhuang Qin pointed: “Mu Ge, is that your car?”

“Yes.” Li Mu nodded to Zhuang Qin: “You’ve met your junior brother, go home, I’m leaving.”

Zhuang Qin said goodbye, watching Li Mu get into the car and waved.

The junior brother looked at the car, asking cautiously: “Who is that?” Engrossed in the messy entertainment industry, Xiao Dao constantly browsed online forums and had joined Zhuang Qin’s fan group and rival fan groups, occasionally undercover praising his senior brother.

“You don’t know him, an actor I’m working with… I’ll carry your bag.” Zhuang Qin offered.

“No need, I can carry it myself… What was he doing at your house?”

“Just rehearsing lines.”

“Oh.” Reassured, he asked, “Senior brother, do you have a room I can stay in?”

“Yes.”

Li Mu in the car, opened the gift box.

The box was thoughtfully designed, of good quality, with an outer package printed with the English phrase translating roughly to “You are the light in my eyes,” along with a signature from Zhuang Qin in a crafty design, reflecting laser light in the dim car interior.

At this point, Li Mu still hadn’t realized that the “You” in the phrase meant “you all,” not just “you.”

Opening the box, larger than a typical shoe box, divided into two sections, one square and the other narrow, he unpacked them one by one. The smaller part contained a watch with a cartoon-like simple drawing, very minimalistic, with lines under a transparent dial reminiscent of Picasso.

Li Mu recalled this brand from a large ad he had seen in a mall, apparently endorsed by Zhuang Qin himself.

The watch had several small details all highlighting the identity of the giver, with Zhuang Qin’s initials at the bottom.

Feeling the thoughtfulness in the gift, it seemed specially prepared for him.

Despite already wearing a watch, Li Mu took his own off and replaced it with the plastic-cased watch gifted to him, pleased.

The other box was somewhat large; Li Mu opened it, not quite understanding at first until he found an instruction manual, which indicated it was a star projector that played with a CD, meant to be operated in a dark room.

Li Mu closed the box, planning to play with it later.

Throughout the ride, he examined the watch, studying its features.

Hmm… The watch hands were fluorescent.

Perhaps because the partition between the front and back seats was closed, the driver couldn’t see, and he didn’t hide his curiosity about the watch, even lifting it to his ear to listen to the second hand moving.

…It seemed to be silent.

Li Mu opened his phone, thought for a moment, and instead of messaging Zhuang Qin, sent one to Qiu Ming.

“Check the shareholders of Yuedong Media, one by one, we can buy shares at a high price, also gather some scattered stocks.”

Qiu Ming: “Received.”

Li Mu arrived at the hotel, checked in, and entered his room.

The hotel delivered a candlelit dinner, which he ate alone. After the dishes were cleared and the scented candle still burning, Li Mu spent a minute under the light figuring out how to use the star projector.

He inserted the CD, turned on the switch, and adjusted the focus.

A splendid galaxy lit up the entire dark room, reflecting in Li Mu’s eyes, a white meteor swiftly crossing, the realism of the projector impressively lifelike, stunningly real.

It wasn’t anything too expensive, but he felt Zhuang Qin’s sincerity in carefully selecting it.

As another meteor streaked by, Li Mu leaned back, his hand resting behind his head, the projection shining on his face and body.

Then, Li Mu saw a line of cursive English gradually appear.

Roughly translated, it said: “Meeting you, I am so fortunate.”

Signed, Zhuang Qin.

Probably out of shyness, the line of text quickly disappeared.

In that instant, Li Mu found himself in the galaxy, his heart uncontrollably stirred.

Author’s Note:

Zhuang Qin: Meeting you all, I am very fortunate.

Fans: Ahhhhhhh!

Li Mu: ?