Through Mr. Liang’s diligent desensitization therapy, in less than a day, President Huo’s short-term stress response was officially and quite successfully cured.
The butler was somewhat traumatized and stood dejectedly in the corner with the manager: “I’m getting old, the times are developing too fast…”
Duan Ming had also been thoroughly frightened twice and was still shaken, pressing his forehead: “It’s not your fault.”
The sudden illness of the lead actor made Director Jin reflect for a night on whether he had been too demanding. He adjusted the schedule, generously giving Liang Xiao three days off to rest properly, with the return to work to be determined based on the situation.
The manager excitedly came to relay the crew’s notice, opened the door, and was almost scared to death by his own artist who was pretending to be dying.
“Always making trouble, never serious…”
Duan Ming, routinely getting headaches from Liang Xiao, sighed: “Only President Huo would indulge him like this.”
The butler had also been worried, but hearing this, he paused, looked into the room, and shook his head: “Mr. Liang indulges President Huo.”
Duan Ming was surprised: “How does he indulge him?”
The butler didn’t elaborate, just smiled and returned to the main topic: “Is everything going smoothly?”
Duan Ming nodded: “The momentum is good so far. We’ve discussed with the PR department; they’ll focus on the overall situation first, and we’re not in a hurry to handle this.”
Liang Xiao’s information was released at an inopportune time. It broke last night, and this morning the “Year’s End” crew released character-specific mini-episodes.
Intentionally or not, it happened to be an episode about Yun Lian appearing mysteriously everywhere to cheat and swindle, causing the main characters to lose everything.
With gossip and character settings becoming indistinguishable, combined with the new set of photos released for the young marquis, many people even started playing with the meme. Those who actually believed the exposé were now very few.
“Today they even gave him a trending topic…”
Duan Ming was both exasperated and amused: “#HowFarCanYouGoForYourRole#.”
“A group of people are making a fuss, saying they’ve never seen anyone so dedicated to their work. Sacrificing himself for the drama, making himself the subject of gossip to help everyone get into character… Not just them, I almost believe it too.”
Duan Ming rubbed his forehead: “Now even if Xingguan comes forward to clarify the truth, they probably won’t believe it and will suspect it’s coordinated with the crew for publicity.”
The butler laughed along, relieved: “That’s good, President Huo can rest easy now.”
“We still need to find an opportunity to discuss clearing his name with President Huo.”
Duan Ming gave the butler a heads-up: “Long Tao’s self-sabotage, with two attacks coming so close together, has kept the public’s attention on the latter incident. The earlier suspicions about sudden wealth implying a sugar daddy relationship have been temporarily suppressed.”
Duan Ming continued: “Once this wave passes, what needs to be resolved still must be resolved, otherwise it will remain a hidden danger sooner or later.”
The butler understood: “The sooner it’s resolved, the cleaner it will be.”
Duan Ming nodded slightly: “We can cooperate on our end. Liang Xiao’s intention
is to minimize the impact on Xingguan. Try to persuade President Huo to explain it clearly with the contract.”
The butler wasn’t very confident about persuading President Huo but hesitated before nodding: “Alright…”
The two of them fell silent for a moment, both lacking confidence. Together, they peered into the hospital room.
The doctor’s recommendation was to let the fever reduce gradually, not to actively use medication unless it reached 38.5°C, to progressively strengthen the immune system.
Liang Xiao had been through a lot these past days, with accumulated worries, and this aggressive flu had taken a significant toll on his body. After the fever-reducing medicine wore off, the fever that had subsided in the early morning returned by noon.
Liang Xiao was used to it and didn’t feel much different from usual. He was still full of energy, engaging in a battle of wits with their President Huo. But his energy was indeed limited. After being made to eat dinner in bed by President Huo, he didn’t last long before his head started nodding with drowsiness.
President Huo probably felt that the hospital bed and pillows were inadequate, so he placed Mr. Liang on his lap, holding him with his head resting in the crook of his neck.
With one arm around him, he read the script to him in a low voice.
His voice was soft and mellow, almost a whisper, both gentle and patient.
Liang Xiao grew limp with drowsiness, sliding down his leg and nearly falling headfirst, but was steadily caught by President Huo and brought back.
The movement made Liang Xiao slightly more alert. With his eyes still closed, he instinctively tried to sit up straight with his back rigid and hands placed flat. President Huo pressed his forehead against his and called his name softly a couple of times, causing him to open his eyes in a daze.
Dizzy from the persistent fever, Liang Xiao couldn’t immediately tell where he was, but upon recognizing President Huo, he instinctively grinned at him.
President Huo’s eyes were filled with warmth as he stroked his hair.
It was getting late, and the evening sunlight fell across the bed, covering the two figures at the head of the bed with a particularly gentle layer of pale gold.
…
In this scene, Duan Ming even felt somewhat superfluous.
The butler had been feeling superfluous all day and looked somewhat desolate as he gazed at the silhouettes against the sunset: “I’m getting old.”
Duan Ming had no way to comfort him: “…Yes.”
The butler: “The times are developing too fast.”
Duan Ming: “Yes.”
The butler, with tears in his eyes, embraced the manager for mutual comfort, then turned to arrange for a car to take President Huo and Mr. Liang back.
–
Liang Xiao’s condition wasn’t very serious, and as long as there was no relapse, he didn’t necessarily have to recover in a hospital room.
The assistant team was on high alert. After receiving the doctor’s approval, they quickly moved to bring President Huo and Mr. Liang back to the hotel suite.
When Liang Xiao had fallen asleep in President Huo’s arms, they were still in the hospital bed. When he opened his eyes, his relative position to their President Huo hadn’t changed much, but the view had changed to the particularly familiar ceiling of the side bedroom.
President Huo was handling work. Noticing his movement, he released the mouse and looked down.
Liang Xiao grinned at him and nuzzled against the palm covering his forehead: “What time is it?”
“Nine in the evening.”
President Huo helped him sit up: “Are you hungry? What would you like to eat?”
Liang Xiao really had no strength in his body. As soon as he sat up, he felt dizzy, and a black haze appeared before his eyes.
He wasn’t very hungry yet and couldn’t think of anything specific even if he tried. He caught his breath, waiting for the black haze to clear: “Anything is fine… have you eaten?”
President Huo had been checking Liang Xiao’s forehead temperature periodically, and it still hadn’t come down. He squeezed his slightly warm palm and shook his head.
Liang Xiao had a thought and couldn’t help saying: “Then-”
“No,” President Huo brought over a water cup and touched it to his lips. “Your body hasn’t recovered yet, you can’t eat what I eat.”
Liang Xiao was dissatisfied and lowered his head to bite the rim of the cup, blowing a string of bubbles into it.
President Huo: “…”
President Huo supported him and compromised softly: “I’ll eat with you.”
Liang Xiao happily reached for his phone: “Shall we have pizza? Sweet potato-”
“No.” President Huo put the water cup back and replaced it with a warm one, carefully adding some honey as the manager had taught him and stirring it thoroughly. “I’ll have porridge with you.”
Liang Xiao looked at the water cup in President Huo’s hand, wanting to blow bubbles again, but President Huo had already taken a sip and carefully transferred it to him.
Liang Xiao: “…”
After opening up about the past, their President Huo seemed to have automatically flipped some switch.
Liang Xiao opened his flushed mouth and was fed several sips of honey water as President Huo held him, becoming dazed and appeased: “Porridge, porridge is fine too.”
President Huo’s ears were also visibly warm. He put down the water cup, carefully wiped a drop of water from the corner of his lips, and got up to call the butler.
Several types of porridge had already been prepared, along with pear soup, all simmering in clay pots in the hotel kitchen, just waiting for Mr. Liang to choose.
The butler, hearing that Liang Xiao was awake, was particularly happy and came personally to ask in detail if he had any discomfort, feeling immensely relieved: “It’s good that you’re feeling better…”
“I was fine all along,” Liang Xiao’s mind was still on those few sips of honey water, and his spirits were perhaps a bit too high. He coughed and smiled: “It’s just a small cold. I tend to get fevers easily when I catch a cold.”
“Still, you shouldn’t have such a high fever.” The butler was still shaken and expressed his concern softly: “President Huo could only produce mist while holding you last night.”
Liang Xiao was surprised by the evaluation standards that President Huo’s people had for their President Huo. After thinking carefully, he found it quite reasonable: “…That’s true.”
Liang Xiao spent a long time imagining the scene of President Huo holding him and producing mist, and couldn’t help but let his thoughts wander: “In the future, when the room is too dry, could I cooperate with President Huo like this…”
The butler was startled: “No, no, that would be too taxing for you.”
“…” Liang Xiao was convinced and nodded, taking the diverse porridge menu.
Liang Xiao had never liked porridge, not for any special reason, but simply because it didn’t suit his taste. Since childhood, he had little interest in it, preferring to eat flatbread wrapped around steamed buns with rice.
Yet people seemed to have a significant fixation on drinking porridge for recovery.
During that half-year of recovery before, Liang Xiao had drunk so much porridge that he questioned his life choices. Despite being tempted by the vivid and enticing descriptions and images on the porridge menu for a long time, he still couldn’t make up his mind.
The butler waited for a while and tried asking: “Have you chosen?”
Liang Xiao took a deep breath, nodded, and was confidently about to instruct the kitchen to mix seven or eight flavors of porridge together when he suddenly remembered something: “How long has President Huo gone without eating?”
The butler was taken aback and smiled bitterly: “He… only ate a little with you.”
Liang Xiao was shocked: “How can he eat so little?”
The butler looked at him for a while, feeling somewhat troubled, and rubbed his forehead.
These two people clearly synchronized their meals and rest, but for some reason, they only had a normal understanding of eating and sleeping in line with doctors’ recommendations when it came to each other.
The butler didn’t have the heart to remind Liang Xiao. After hesitating, he gently persuaded him: “If you eat more, President Huo will follow and eat more too.”
President Huo had been taking good care of himself recently by resting on time with Mr. Liang, but in the past few days, he had been occupied with the matters of Long Tao and the branch family. With his mind also preoccupied with Mr. Liang, he naturally couldn’t eat or sleep well.
But Mr. Liang’s issue was purely being picky about food.
When he was healthy and free from illness, it was actually better. Having suffered from hunger in his youth, Liang Xiao was content with any food he could get, happily eating even a ten-yuan boxed meal.
When he was sick and had no appetite, Mr. Liang had, by himself, almost reduced an entire experienced nutritional meal team to tears.
The butler wanted to persuade him further and was about to speak when President Huo pushed open the door and returned to the side bedroom.
The butler quickly closed his mouth and gave him an extremely discreet shake of the head.
Liang Xiao couldn’t help but frown slightly. Without saying anything, he inconspicuously nodded, reselected several normal porridges and side dishes, and returned the menu to the butler.
–
The kitchen moved quickly. President Huo removed the pillow, letting Liang Xiao lean against him again. He hadn’t continued working at the head of the bed for long before steaming hot porridge was brought up.
President Huo was processing reports from various departments from the past two days. He nodded, watching as they placed the porridge and dishes on the small table: “You may go.”
All the assistants had experienced last night’s blizzard. They cautiously glanced at Liang Xiao, and seeing that he was fine, they felt much relieved and promptly disappeared outside the door.
Liang Xiao leaned against President Huo, watching with him for a while, and quietly disrupted: “Is everything going smoothly with the branch family?”
President Huo raised his arm to embrace him and nodded slightly: “No obvious obstacles, just going with the flow.”
Liang Xiao casually made something up: “Could Long Tao have another card to play? For example, what if they’re actually a Disney subsidiary…”
“They won’t.”
President Huo shook his head and patiently explained to him: “Long Tao’s legal representative and shareholders are clearly defined; it’s an independent film and television company.”
Liang Xiao certainly knew this, but during mealtime, he always wanted to pull their President Huo away first: “Could the branch family be hiding a twin brother of yours? The kind they’ve been secretly cultivating, to kidnap and replace you…”
President Huo: “…”
Liang Xiao: “…”
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
