I Became Famous in the Entertainment Industry with High Martial Arts Skills - Chapter 41

Chapter 41: A Perfect Man

“Rustle” His fingertips felt along the seal of the envelope with great care. The slightly crumpled letter paper was gently smoothed out, emitting a few rough, scratchy sounds.

“What did everyone write? Is it a passionate confession of love?” Xiao Ya sat in the front passenger seat, her face full of curiosity.

Mo Li glanced at the navigation app on his phone and said with a smile, “Definitely. The fans were so enthusiastic just now; I saw several girls so surprised they looked like they were about to cry.”

Mo Li remembered when Xie Ci first joined the company, how the two of them had ended up stranded together because they signed late. He recalled the flicker of hope for the future in those cat-like eyes during their idle chats. Since that “pimping” wine party, it was as if he had re-acquainted himself with this previously unfamiliar friend. Accompanying him step by step to this day and watching Xie Ci get better and better gave Mo Li a profound sense of achievement.

“One of my sisters is a hardcore fan-girl. She used to travel specifically for offline events to give her idol a letter, but the person wouldn’t even open the car window,” Xiao Ya grew more indignant as she spoke. “Luckily she didn’t get to give it; she unstanned him immediately after going home.”

While the two in the front chatted intensely, Xie Ci in the back began to seriously check the letters handed over by the fans.

As he read, the originally joyful expression on his face grew lower. The dimples on his cheeks vanished, leaving only long eyelashes drooping over his eyes, masking the emotions within.

“Why the long face? Did the letter ask for a loan?” Xiao Ya handed an orange-yellow satsuma mandarin to Xie Ci, asking tentatively.

However, Xie Ci simply folded the letter back up. He then smilingly took the cool, round orange and shook his head. “It’s nothing. There are so many letters here; I’ll read them slowly after I get back to the set this afternoon.”

Seeing that the expression on Xie Ci’s face quickly returned to normal, the two in the front didn’t think much of it and began chattering about the dishes they were about to eat.

“How about poached prawns? I remember Xiao Ci liked them at the last gathering,” Mo Li suggested after some thought while driving.

“Good! This honey-glazed char siu looks great too, very appetizing!” Xiao Ya nodded in agreement.

The heater in the car was on full blast. The faint pine scent of the car aromatherapy drifted through the cabin, brushing against Xie Ci’s hair strand by strand. Xie Ci arranged the letters of varying sizes and placed them into a kraft paper bag in the car.

As the previously empty paper bag was filled, Xie Ci sat in the back in silence. Suddenly, he really wanted to message Ji Xiuheng. He took out his phone and swiped to their chat interface; the last message was a photo sent by Ji Xiuheng near midnight.

In the slightly blurry photo, Ji Xiuheng’s well-defined hand stood out prominently, with a red string adorned with a copper bell hanging from his wrist. The background was a stretch of yellow sand.

Xie Ci knew the source of this photo. A few years ago, Ji Xiuheng had posted this photo on Weibo, taken at the Northwest Film and Television Base. Due to the sun and wind during the outdoor shoot, the skin on the back of his hand in the photo was tanned to a wheat color and looked a bit rough.

This message hadn’t received a reply from Xie Ci. In the chat interface, the slender and powerful hand hung there in a void, looking somewhat lonely.

From the backpack on the back seat, the copper bell densely wrapped in its small velvet box saw the light of day again and gently kissed its new owner’s clean, fair wrist.

Vibrate, vibrate. The phone vibrated in a suit pocket. Ji Xiuheng glanced at the project manager who was speaking passionately in front of the projection screen in the meeting room; his sculptural features betrayed a hint of impatience. When he opened his phone, the photo sent from the other side seemed to echo his own; left and right, the two hands were held together once again across the chat box.

Inside the private room of the Cantonese restaurant, several dishes on the round table were still steaming. The savory aroma of the stewed old duck soup was particularly rich.

“Color, aroma, and taste are all present! It’ll be even more perfect after a work-mode photo,” Xiao Ya said, helping to tidy Xie Ci’s hair. She looked into her portable makeup bag for several minutes but didn’t add a single stroke in the end.

Mo Li signaled and held up a small specialized camera. With a click, beauty and food reflected each other, and this fresh photo was posted to Xie Ci’s Weibo account.

XC-Xie Ci: “In the cold winter, everyone remember to eat hot, delicious food.”

Less than a second after this Weibo was posted, the comment section was flooded.

“First!!” “Wow, looks so delicious!” “Wow wow wow, this Xie Ci looks so delicious!” “Baby, why are you so cute!” “The food on the table looks so good, Xiao Xie should eat more to gain some weight.” “Xiao Ci, stay warm as winter starts [heart]”

Xie Ci watched the comment section while eating, his eyes growing softer and softer.

The “foot-binding cloth” [long and tedious] clichés in the meeting room finally ended. Ji Xiuheng glanced at the film project on the meeting document and looked away with little interest. It was a project destined to flop—a clichéd story with a flat plot, yet they claimed they wanted to be the next Han River Crossing. By the time the project actually reached the implementation stage, it would likely be difficult to even push through to the start of filming.

Thinking of the photo Xie Ci just sent, Ji Xiuheng felt an itch in his heart. After saving the photo, he looked at it over and over again. His thumb paused on the fair fingertips in the photo; his memory still held the soft sensation of Xie Ci’s fingers resting on his abdominal muscles.

While his mind wandered, Ji Xiuheng placed an order online for several pieces of fitness equipment. A man without a good physique is not a “perfect man.”

The few scenes toward evening were filmed smoothly, finishing ahead of schedule the parts originally set for tomorrow. Ming Yang clapped her hands with a smile, indicating that the entire crew would rest for the whole day tomorrow, Saturday.

Xie Ci was still wearing his costume, his face pale and lips red, the red mole on his nose exceptionally vivid, adding a touch of romantic flair.

“Tomorrow I’m going to sleep until the afternoon!” Mo Li was a bit excited, lying lazily on the sofa in Xie Ci’s dressing room, creating several creases.

“I’m going to have some beauty sleep too; the new masks I bought just arrived today,” Xiao Ya also laughed happily.

Back under “Dog Wang,” one person practically had to be split into eight—doing post-production editing, handling business connections, and occasionally cleaning up after those arrogant, fading artists. Even then, the salary was pitifully low! It was truly a case of “little money, much work, far from home,” to the point where Xiao Ya could barely afford masks.

Although being Xie Ci’s assistant now was also busy, the work intensity was on a completely different level, and she occasionally received small “red envelopes” (bonuses). Coupled with her monthly salary, Xiao Ya felt more motivated to work whenever she saw her balance.

“Director Ming really is a case of ‘not opening for three years, but living for three years once she does.'” Thinking of the crew’s salaries, Mo Li couldn’t help but sigh. “Since tomorrow is Saturday, I can stay home with Xiao Ci and check the ratings.”

He looked at Xie Ci, who was sitting in a chair looking at his phone, and teased: “You’re becoming more and more addicted to the internet. Didn’t you use to barely look at your phone?”

Hearing his name called, Xie Ci closed the chat box with Ji Xiuheng with a bit of a guilty conscience and said with lack of confidence: “Mo Li, I’m going to Brother Ji’s place to watch the drama tomorrow afternoon. I probably can’t check the ratings with you.”

Xiao Ya, sitting on another single sofa in the dressing room, was looking at messages in a fan group. When she saw Mo Li’s expression of total disbelief, she burst out laughing with a pfft. She knew it hitting mandarin ducks is unfeasible; one only ends up looking like a clown.

Xiao Ya cast a sympathetic look at Mo Li, then her gaze was drawn to a new message in a fan group.

“I’m laughing three times! My luck was off the charts chasing the offline event today. I ran into Xiao Xie getting out of the car to hand out hand warmers, and in the afternoon we received hot drinks and warm gear!” “OMG, I’ve ordered from that drink shop before. It’s super tasty but a bit expensive.” “To my fellow fan who showed me this: aren’t you afraid I’ll jump off a building from jealousy?” “Ahhh, I’m really going to throw a fit! Everyone has it, why doesn’t this Palace have that luck!” “Actually, there’s something super infuriating.

This afternoon, some sisters heard someone whispering insults about Xiao Xie being a ‘resource-driven’ celebrity, and they even proudly said they handed him a letter scolding him.” “Dammit! Is this person mentally ill?” “Oh no, our male god wouldn’t see that letter, would he?” “Who knows. Sigh, I hope Xiao Xie doesn’t look at the letters. I don’t know how foul their language was.” …

No wonder. Xiao Ya suddenly realized the reason for the change in Xie Ci’s expression in the car at noon.

She felt a fire in her heart, thinking such people were truly too nonsensical believing whatever they heard and spreading rumors as soon as they opened their mouths. But seeing Xie Ci looking so calm, as if the insults in that letter hadn’t even registered, Xiao Ya still didn’t speak up. She could only indignantly report some unfriendly comments about Xie Ci on Weibo.

In his office, Ji Xiuheng swiped his screen. The good mood he had from the promise to watch the drama with Xie Ci vanished the moment he saw the group messages.

“Xiuheng?” Sister Tian knocked and entered the office. “Fanyun Pictures sent over a new movie; they want you as a performance consultant.” She handed over the project proposal. “I’ve looked into it. The script is okay, but there are a lot of ‘connections’ involved. The female lead and the third male lead, Wu Xinyue, are both from the investors’ side.”

Sister Tian’s finger tapped the desk. “I know the female lead; her acting is passable. But as for that Wu Xinyue…”, she paused and said with an unclear tone: “He once auditioned for the role of Yin Shisan in Deep Abyss. His team is quite good at hyping things up.”

Ji Xiuheng spoke expressionlessly: “Reject it.”

Sister Tian didn’t object and nodded. “It was optional anyway. We have to prepare for the second part of Deep Abyss in the latter half of next year; the schedule is full.” Having said that, she suddenly remembered something. “Right, didn’t Director Zhang say he wanted to revise the script with the writer? I heard Yin Shisan still has scenes in the second part?” Sister Tian raised an eyebrow and asked curiously.

“He acts well, and he’s from Director Zhang’s own studio; it even saves a favor.” Ji Xiuheng’s tone carried a hint of pride, which made Sister Tian’s teeth ache from the “sourness.”

“You haven’t even caught him yet; can you show some restraint?” Sister Tian said helplessly. “But Xie Ci’s popularity is very high lately. If it can be maintained until the drama finishes, Deep Abyss promotion can even ride the heat.”

She calculated the time in her head and couldn’t help but feel a bit envious of Xie Ci’s manager. The artist was capable and obedient. She heard Xie Ci had a good reputation among the crew staff too. Tch, why haven’t I met such an angel artist? Over the years with Ji Xiuheng, she had been angered by him more than a few times. Even though his professional ability was top-notch, privately he was truly…

It was a pity for such a fresh “little white cabbage” like Xie Ci to be targeted by Ji Xiuheng before he had even fully grown. Looking at this posture, he was likely determined to “eat” this cabbage.

“Do you really have the heart to abandon me alone at home?” Mo Li lay on the sofa, reaching out to hold him back.

“I very much do.” Since returning home last night, Mo Li’s nagging in Xie Ci’s ear hadn’t stopped. Now, he didn’t even give him a glance, focusing instead on his carving knife, performing fine carving on the wooden bell that was beginning to take shape.

Looking up at the clock on the wall and seeing it was almost seven, Xie Ci brushed the wood shavings off the wooden bell, put it into a wooden box, and placed it in his bag, preparing to head upstairs.

With a bang, the door closed, and Mo Li felt a surge of sorrow. He was no longer the most important man in Xie Ci’s heart. It’s all Ji Xiuheng’s fault!

In the corridor, Xie Ci had just knocked on the door a few times when Ji Xiuheng’s sculptural face appeared from within.

A pink letter, sealed with a heart-shaped sticker, was handed over.

“Male God, are you still accepting letters now?” Ji Xiuheng’s gaze was focused, a smile slowly spreading. His noble and upright handsomeness was as refined as jade.

Support