This Crown Prince is Ascending the Throne in the Entertainment Industry - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Dragging his exhausted and starving body, like a fresh zombie that had just crawled out of a grave, Xiang Xu followed the man all the way along the road like a walking corpse.

They passed many restaurants during their journey, yet the man before his eyes consistently showed no intention of stopping. Xiang Xu, however, watched his gaze swiftly scan across those restaurants, murmuring:

“Too dirty!”

“The grade is too low!”

“The glass storefront door offers poor privacy!”

“Painting a cat on the door must be for attracting wealth, engaging in nothing but superstition!”

Regarding his pickiness, Xiang Xu was already powerless to complain, but hearing the last one, he still couldn’t resist defending a sentence in his heart: Who did cats provoke?

Starving beyond endurance.

Xiang Xu’s eyes were flashing green and his steps were hollow; his waist couldn’t straighten up, and he intensely wanted to lie on the ground.

A thread of the clear and light aroma of noodle soup hooked the tip of his nose. Already dizzy and vision-blurred, he finally stood still on the spot, turning his head mechanically toward the direction from which the aroma drifted.

The man ahead took a few steps, and failing to hear his following footsteps, turned his face back in perplexity.

He cast a glance at Xiang Xu’s lean and thin face, seeing the undisguised longing inside his eyes. The man averted his gaze, turning his eyes toward the direction his gaze was cast.

A small roadside noodle shop, its steps mottled and encrusted with grime, its walls showing no trace of their original color, its storefront cramped and visible to the end at a single glance—and it was a glass door.

Through the glass door, one could clearly see the fortune cat waving its hand at him on the check-out counter inside.

Intentionally doing the exact opposite against him, is it?!

His face pulled down, venting air from his nose with sounds.

Hearing a noise like a kettle boiling open, Xiang Xu lifted his blurred eyes, looking toward the direction from which the sound traveled.

The man suddenly stopped venting air. After the white spots before his eyes receded, Xiang Xu saw the opposing party freeze there, the expression looking at him carrying a shred of emotion.

What’s wrong? Is there something on his face?

Xiang Xu couldn’t make heads or tails of it, yet was pushed by the opponent vigorously toward the direction of the shop door: “Go, go, go! I’ll eat, is that not enough? Truly can’t stand you…”

Xiang Xu: ???

But the man had already pushed him into that noodle shop. After entering the noodle shop, the man’s gaze scanned all around with disdain, finally leading him to the innermost seat to sit down.

“What to eat,” the man asked Xiang Xu opposite him, holding the menu sheet with a magenta background and large black characters handed over by the boss.

Xiang Xu merely stared at him with wide eyes; he still hadn’t reacted from the series of unexpected changes just now.

Particularly when he saw that fortune cat waving its hand at the check-out place, he became even more puzzled.

Didn’t he hate cats? Or does he merely hate painted ones, and doesn’t hate waving ones?

“Forgot you’re a bit feeble-minded.” The man clearly didn’t understand why he was surprised, merely taking him as dull and silly. After letting out a long sigh, the man took the menu back, ordered some things at random, and handed it to the boss.

Xiang Xu’s mind continued its brainstorm, unable to resist running his fingers across the cover of that dictionary held in his hand, while staring at his face, wanting to investigate the answer.

Stared at by such a gaze, the man appeared a bit uncomfortable, pulling his phone out from his pocket and playing with it in a make-believe manner.

Just now in the bookstore, he used this object to check out as well.

Xiang Xu had observed a great deal today. He found that most of the people on the road held this object. His Imperial Sister used it to calculate numbers, find roads, and pay money, some people held it to strike various poses, and there were those who turned it horizontally to emit sounds, their fingers sliding back and forth across it.

In short, this object appeared to be quite important, possessing fully complete functions, and everyone had one.

He couldn’t help but touch his own pocket.

Xiang Xu ought to possess this object as well, so perhaps he could discover some important clues. He would have to search for it inside his room after returning.

He kept pondering like this, but once the soup noodles were brought up, he could no longer care to ponder.

Only after three large bowls of noodle soup went down his stomach did he recover a little bit from the state of extreme hunger. Pulling over a fourth bowl of noodles, the man opposite him still had his phone pinched in his hand, yet was facing him, those eyes staring so wide they almost fell out:

“You… you shouldn’t be so feeble-minded as to stuff yourself to death, right?”

A person who doesn’t know the suffering of the human world—has he never seen a starved person? He hadn’t eaten a single item of food from last night until now!

Xiang Xu complained with disdain in his heart. Swallowing his fourth bowl of noodles, he thought triumphantly in his heart: “Although I am a dignified Crown Prince, I still know that when a person is starved badly, they will eat a great deal of things all at once. I still possess a bit more common sense than him.”

By the time the fifth bowl of noodles came up, Xiang Xu’s speed finally slowed down. The man opposite also let out a sigh of relief, continuing to fiddle with his own phone.

Having his belly treated well, Xiang Xu gradually recovered his thinking ability. Scanning across the opponent’s face illuminated by the light of the phone, he suddenly realized that from just now until now, it was consistently himself eating; the person opposite merely pushed over one bowl of noodles after another, not eating a single bit.

Didn’t he make me serve him for a meal?

Xiang Xu was somewhat unable to make heads or tails of it. He had been unable to make heads or tails of things too many times today, to the extent that the number of times he lifted his eyes was too many. The man glared at him viciously: “What are you looking at! Go on eat yours!”

Xiang Xu felt as though he had suddenly been struck by a grandfather clock, jarring him so much he bit the noodle right in half from the middle.

Could it be that although he appears very fierce, in reality he is performing a good deed?

Xiang Xu had never seen this type of person. After all, aside from his good imperial father and elder brother, no one in the Yin Dynasty even dared to address him with malicious words.

If those ministers performed a good deed, they couldn’t wait to put on the most kind-hearted face in the world, writing their achievements upon their faces; how could there be someone saying unpleasant words while performing a good deed.

“Truly don’t know how your eyesight was managed, out of so many high-class restaurants you didn’t choose, yet you just had to find this kind of shop—!”

The man looked around his surroundings, the malicious words spat from his mouth covered by the mask causing the emotion that had just risen in Xiang Xu to fade a great deal.

The face of the boss standing behind them sank down, his gaze laced with anger as it scanned across the two of them.

Whether you are performing a good deed is impossible to understand, but you are currently still inside someone else’s shop, using this kind of disdainful tone to talk about his shop, are you truly not afraid of being beaten up?

Thinking of this kind of consequence, Xiang Xu buried his face down, working harder to eat his noodles.

Must finish eating the noodles before being beaten up! Cannot waste!

Arriving here less than a day’s time, Xiang Xu already completely knew his own impoverished situation, and consequently knew that every single meal of food didn’t come easily.

Lacking money was still secondary. The greatest problem was that even if one possessed money, being unable to communicate with people made it very difficult to obtain food.

Precisely because of this, although he appeared to be eating noodles all along right now, those words of how the other incoming customers ordered their meals were also committed into his brain sentence by sentence.

In truth, he could perfectly well learn from this local before his eyes, without needing to specially listen to others. However, this person’s speaking style was far too easy to get him beaten up; he felt that for the sake of his own life security, it was better not to easily learn from him.

Finishing six bowls of noodles, Xiang Xu was finally content. His expression relaxed down, moistened by the steam of the noodles, and even his hair was a bit damp.

“Full?”

Xiang Xu nodded his head.

The man stood up from his position, and Xiang Xu stood up as well, his gaze constantly chasing after him.

Only to see the man walk before that check-out counter, his gaze glaring fiercely at that fortune cat waving its hand to him, before pressing the receipt onto the check-out counter.

“7 yuan a bowl, 42 in total.”

The price of a bowl of noodles was 7 yuan, then his medicine could buy 28 bowls of noodles, and that book could buy roughly 32 bowls of noodles.

Xiang Xu calculated instantly. He had long known that using the price of food to judge commodity prices would be relatively accurate, only that after judging this way, he once again felt he was incomparably ruinous to the family.

Yesterday the medicine dregs boiled by his Imperial Sister shouldn’t have been poured out, right? Go back and add some water to boil it three more times, must fully exert the value of those medicines!

Xiang Xu settled the plan in his heart, holding his own and the man’s books, obediently following the man who finished checking out to walk out of the shop.

“Give it to me.” The man extended his hand, demanding his own bag containing the books.

Having eaten his fill, Xiang Xu’s mood was exceptionally pleasant. Although the man spoke unpleasantly, he indeed treated him to a meal. Consequently, a bit of a smile arched upon the corners of Xiang Xu’s mouth, his damp face appearing exceptionally clear and bright.

“…Don’t reveal this cheap appearance. The one treating you to a meal isn’t necessarily a good person. A feeble-minded person like you wouldn’t even know if you were tricked and sold away by others.”

The corners of Xiang Xu’s mouth pulled down. This point of the opposing party firmly taking him as an idiot quite made him unhappy.

But recalling that he owed him a favor after all, the corners of Xiang Xu’s mouth returned to his cheeks.

The man rubbed the space between his brows with a headache, his expression appearing as though he felt Xiang Xu was quite beyond saving.

“Do you know how to go home?”

Xiang Xu nodded his head. Although he had walked very far along this road, he remembered the way.

“…Fine then. Then you go ahead, I’m waiting for a car here.”

Xiang Xu nodded his head again, and then turned around to leave without a shred of lingering attachment.

Seeing him leave so cleanly, a tiny bit of loss was carried inside Mu Lianyi’s eyes, but it was quickly covered over by the pride of performing a good deed without leaving a name.

He cleanly threw that bag of books onto the ground; making him carry such heavy books to walk so many roads truly made it difficult for him, consequently once the boy left, he didn’t need to fake it anymore to wrong himself.

Mu Lianyi opened his phone to send a message to his assistant Li Li, asking where the car picking him up had reached.

Suddenly, he heard a string of distant footsteps sprinting toward him. He lifted his head from the screen, only to see that boy running back against the wind.

He immediately bent his waist, wanting to pick up those books, but felt that picking them up in a disheveled manner right now wouldn’t look good, so he straightened his body again.

“Why did you come back?!” He put on a displeased appearance.

The next second, that boy stuffed an object into his hand, and then bowed to him somewhat oddly.

“Thank you.”

Mu Lianyi suspected he was having a auditory hallucination. By the time he reacted, the fluffy head had already slipped away as swiftly and lightly as a cat.

The fallen leaves swept up by him drifted down again. Mu Lianyi froze for a good while before shifting his gaze down, looking at that string of small white flowers in his hand.

This was the flower of a very common small wax tree by the roadside. There were still many inside the roadside bushes where he stood.

Although it was the most ordinary flower, this string in his hand looked different no matter how one looked at it.

The small white flowers crowded and jostled tightly together. He looked at that flower, running his fingers across those few tiny leaves upon the flower stem, a bit of a proud smile revealing upon his face.

“Boss! Weren’t you buying books? How did you run so far?!” A man wearing a professional suit hurried over from the other side of the road, only to see his boss holding a flower in one hand, his gaze looking blankly into the distance.

At his feet, those books of no small value lay scattered upon the ground.

Mu Lianyi answered beside the question: “Li Li, someone just gifted this flower to me, would you say it’s because I am very likeable!”

Joyous light shot out from the eyes of this fickle man, his expression much softer than usual.

Uh… likeable… given your reputation…

But you are the boss, whatever you say goes…

Li Li possessed a great deal of awareness as a working man. Just opening his mouth preparing to flatter a few words, the two of them saw a person walking over from across the road leading a Golden Retriever. The Golden Retriever ahead suddenly stopped, dragging its following master to stop as well.

—The Golden Retriever sniffed by the bushes, and then turned its body around, lifting its hind leg.

—A curved stream of water traced an arc in the air, drenching those small white flowers of the small wax trees by the roadside.

—The next second, he saw the flower pinched by his boss fall down from between his fingers…

Li Li immediately picked those books up from the ground, packing them into the bag and holding them in his hand. He cautiously looked toward his boss’s face which changed several degrees. Finally, Mu Lianyi’s expression steadied down. Unexpectedly, the fury Li Li originally thought would arrive did not come.

“Although he isn’t mute, he is indeed a feeble-minded person.” Mu Lianyi shook his head, “Let’s go.”

After gifting the flower to express his gratitude, Xiang Xu’s heart was much more peaceful.

Although a single flower couldn’t repay the favor of treating him to a meal when he was about to starve to death, this method of expressing gratitude highly possessed the demeanor of an ancient gentleman’s friendship. Xiang Xu was very satisfied.

If there was a fate hereafter, he would find a way to repay the favor again.

Under the current situation, rather than entangling oneself with a stranger’s kindness, it was better to ponder how to change the status quo.

Xiang Xu was a highly realistic person. The reference tool book was obtained. At least he could first resolve the trouble of communication.

He found a park, sitting onto a long bench beside a small path, pulling out that dictionary to study it.

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