Spilling the Tea on the Movie Star Who Won't Leave Me Alone - Chapter 55

Xu Chi was pinned to the bed and “showered with love” by Gu Jingxuan once more. It was not until Lin Tao came to knock on the door and told the two of them to get up quickly that Gu Jingxuan finally withdrew his hands from teasing Xu Chi.

Seeing Xu Chi putting on his clothes and pants with the corners of his eyes still red, Gu Jingxuan felt like doing something indescribable to him all over again.

He decided to turn his head away and not look. By the time Xu Chi had finished tidying himself up, he realized Gu Jingxuan was still lounging in bed. Half of his face was buried in the quilt, his eyes closed as his long eyelashes fluttered.

Xu Chi walked over and gently poked Gu Jingxuan’s cheek. Finding the texture quite nice, he poked it several more times in a row.

“Brother Gu, get up. Director Jiang and the others should be setting out soon.”

The two people, who had woken up early in the morning, had essentially spent their time fooling around in bed until lunch. When Xu Chi opened the door and saw the expression on Lin Tao’s face, he wanted nothing more than to sink into the ground, his face turning red all the way to the base of his neck.

“Director Jiang contacted me just now. They should arrive around 4:00 PM. He said they will arrange an opening ceremony as soon as they get here.”

Seeing that the two of them had not left the room, Lin Tao simply ordered lunch from the restaurant downstairs and brought it up for them to eat in the room.

Xu Chi picked through his meal, moving all the meat from his bowl into Gu Jingxuan’s, then gave him a bright smile.

“Why are you giving all the meat to me?”

Gu Jingxuan’s portion originally had more meat than Xu Chi’s, yet Xu Chi had gone out of his way to pick out every bit he could find in his own bowl for him.

Gu Jingxuan reached out and pinched Xu Chi’s face. While filming the last movie, Xu Chi’s weight had dropped at a rate visible to the naked eye. Every time Gu Jingxuan saw Xu Chi after a few days’ gap, he almost wondered if the boy was on drugs.

“Director Jiang arrives this afternoon, so I have to control my diet again,” Xu Chi said as he stuffed a large mouthful of green vegetables into his mouth. “If I eat meat today, I won’t be able to resist later, and I really don’t want to be forced to lose weight again.”

Xu Chi was very happy to be cast in Director Jiang’s project. However, Director Jiang was exceptionally strict about the physical appearance of his actors; even for a bit-part extra, he would insist they hit the gym to match the original book.

Getting the role was joyful, but losing the weight was truly painful.

Lin Tao had already eaten lunch at the restaurant beforehand. Now, being stuffed with “dog food” as the two fed each other bite by bite, he felt like he was going to throw up.

Leaving behind a quick “I’m leaving if there’s nothing else, call me if you need something,” he slipped out of the room and headed back to his single-man den.

Little did he know, Gu Jingxuan had wanted to kick him out long ago but felt too embarrassed to ask him to leave.

“By the way, that matter with Zeng Shuqi has been handled, right?”

Gu Jingxuan had not seen Xu Chi fretting over his phone these past few days, so he guessed that Zeng Shuqi’s situation was likely resolved.

“Who is Zeng Ziqi? His name is Zeng Shuqi.”

Xu Chi corrected Gu Jingxuan’s mistake while shoveling rice into his mouth.

“Whatever his name is, was he fired or did your company terminate his contract?” Gu Jingxuan had been furious when he first saw the reports. Setting aside the fact that just anyone could act alongside him, even if an award-winning actress came, Gu Jingxuan wouldn’t even look her in the eye if her acting wasn’t up to par.

Let alone a Zeng Shuqi whose name Gu Jingxuan had never even heard of. When he saw the man claiming he was supposed to be the original actor for the second male lead, Gu Jingxuan specifically went to search for his profile. He burst out laughing the moment he saw the photo. The man was a total old-timer, old enough to play a father figure.

“Him? He’s probably just indignant and wanted to ride the hype of this drama,” Xu Chi, despite being the direct victim, still spoke up for his senior colleague. “I saw him when he went to the audition. He probably thought he could land a role like this, but in the end, there was no part for him in this show at all. He got desperate and said those things.”

“To put it bluntly, he’s just an old man who wants to be famous.”

As soon as Gu Jingxuan said those words, Xu Chi found he had no way to refute them.

“If Old Man Jiang really hadn’t helped you this time, would you have just let him keep acting up over there like that?”

Gu Jingxuan didn’t know much about the internal affairs of Xu Chi’s company, but he felt that for an artist who could land a role in a Jiang Yusen production and earn praise from netizens and original fans alike, the company should protect him properly no matter what.

Xu Chi shrugged helplessly. He could hardly admit that, even now, he didn’t even know what his own manager looked like.

“I don’t know anything about the upper management of the company. If he insisted that I stole his role, I really would have had nothing to say. But what could he have done? I’ve already appeared on screen, and the TV show has already aired.”

No matter how much he slandered Xu Chi, he couldn’t get the role of the second male lead anymore. In comparison, Xu Chi felt that being scolded by netizens wasn’t such a bad thing. It could be viewed purely as a way to boost his own popularity.

Gu Jingxuan was nearly laughed into a fit of anger by this idiot. He reached out and poked Xu Chi’s forehead forcefully several times.

“You little dummy. You didn’t even know to seek help from Jiang Yusen for something like this. If he hadn’t spoken up, you really would have been scolded by netizens until even your Brother Lin wouldn’t recognize you.”

Xu Chi smiled and caught Gu Jingxuan’s finger as it poked his forehead, pulling it down to the table.

“Didn’t Brother Gu help me? The fact that Brother Gu was willing to speak up for me makes me very happy.”

Fine, the little brat had learned how to play sweet now.

Gu Jingxuan shook his head with a smile, completely helpless when it came to Xu Chi.

Having slept enough in the morning, the two sat by the floor-to-ceiling window after lunch, watching the snow outside melt bit by bit under the sunlight.

“It snowed in the north too, but I never looked at it this seriously before.” Xu Chi had fallen head over heels for the south these past few days.

He had used up a whole roll of film just taking landscape photos of the river and trees. He wanted to run out of the hotel every day, completely unlike the old Xu Chi who liked to stay home and watch Gu Jingxuan’s old movies and interviews whenever he was free.

If it weren’t for the constraints of his company and career, Gu Jingxuan had no doubt Xu Chi would have already bought a house to settle down in the south.

“Yeah, back in Beijing, all I thought about was work. How could there be time to look at the scenery like this?”

Gu Jingxuan had seen plenty of grand scenes, but after being with Xu Chi, every view became novel.

The two chatted back and forth, and most of the day passed just like that. By the time Lin Tao came to fetch them, Gu Jingxuan and Xu Chi felt as if they had been in another world.

They originally thought the opening ceremony would be uneventful, but the first thing Jiang Yusen said upon seeing Xu Chi was to tell him to work out and maintain his weight.

“You can’t be too heavy, but you can’t be too light either. You have to be able to fill out the costume.”

The smile that had been on Xu Chi’s face dropped instantly, and he hurriedly agreed to Jiang Yusen’s instructions.