As their warm lips and tongues intertwined, Chu Qin could feel the burning hot body and rapid breathing of the person on top of him. Excitement coursed through the two people, and Chu Qin couldn’t help reaching out a hand to cradle Zhong Yibin’s neck.
Zhong Yibin kissed him, his hands naturally moving downwards. His hands proceeded down Chu Qin’s cheeks to touch the alluring lines of his neck before moving on to his beautiful collarbones. They pulled off his pajamas before suddenly halting.
Chu Qin’s ribs had not recovered, he dared not go on. Zhong Yibin massaged the flesh on Chu Qin’s shoulders for a moment with some regret. He slowly moved away from Chu Qin and took a deep breath.
Chu Qin’s eyes were closed as he lay on the bed gulping in large breaths of air. Upon opening his eyes, a film of moisture could be seen due to the lack of oxygen. He quietly gazed at the person holding him. Even at such a close distance, that handsome face was still well worth a second look.
“How long will your ribs take to recover?” Zhong Yibin buried his head in Chu Qin’s shoulder and murmured.
“Oh, two more weeks and we can…” Chu Qin said with a red face. Although injuries to tendons and bones required a hundred days to fully recover, but for a fractured rib to tolerate small movements, three weeks was sufficient.
The two people who had no way to eat to their hearts’ content hugged and kissed for a while before reluctantly cuddling together to sleep.
The next day, Chu Qin went to the broadcasting station to discuss the program outline with Teacher Liang. Recording would begin on Thursday and the opening dance needed to be finalized today so that the dancers, sound and prop artists had enough time to prepare. Zhong Yibin couldn’t be by Chu Qin’s side all the time, that would be too eye-catching. Thus, he obediently stayed at home and reviewed company affairs.
Secretary Jin had brought him the computer he usually used at work, which contained the more comprehensive work documents. Although he failed to understand why his boss needed to check so many things, but as a professional secretary, Secretary Jin maintained his professionalism and chose not to enquire.
The work of an entertainment company’s director was very complex. In addition to the company’s daily affair, there was also social niceties, which was especially important in the entertainment industry. However, ever since Zhong Yibin lost his memories, he could no longer recognize all those people whom he needed to interact with.
Zhong Yibin looked through the register of name cards on the computer and felt a splitting headache. He rubbed his temples and decided against going through them, instead choosing to first familiarize himself with the daily affairs.
Recently, the company had decided to take on several large projects. One of them was to independently start filming for a palace drama rife with conflicts, and the other was to discuss partnering with Korea for training. The script for the palace drama had already been finalized, only the direction they wanted to take for the filming process had not been decided. This issue had been brought up to the professionals at Korea, but for now, they had yet to receive any feedback.
“During the meeting yesterday, Deputy Director Li said that this drama is our exclusive investment and we must not lose money, so we should follow the shooting methods of the other stations – eye-catching and thought-provoking.” Secretary Jin relayed the contents of the meeting to Zhong Yibin. Seeing his boss’s thoughtful, silent appearance, he felt a great sense of responsibility.
Eye-catching and thought-provoking. To put it bluntly, this was to find a few good-looking actors, film some bizarre plot, and promote it vigorously. This method recently became a trend after a station had filmed a shocking and dramatic palace drama. Although the complaints never ceased, its ratings were high and would be able to pull the drama up.
“In the past, you said you wanted to film a drama of quality. However, this is our exclusive investment, the budgeting team hasn’t responded yet.” Secretary Jin honestly described the current situation.
Shengshi Entertainment and Shengshi TV were subsidiaries under Shengshi Group. They could make decisions independently, but a large proportion of their funds were allocated to them every month by the Group’s financial center. Requests for large sums of money also needed to go through approval by the Group.
Why didn’t you ask again? Zhong Yibin’s eyebrows creased slightly, but this question was not a good one to ask Secretary Jin. After all, as the second young master of the Zhong family, he should be the clearest about the Group’s current situation.
Waving his hand to signal his understanding, Zhong Yibin sent Secretary Jin back to the company. As he was at home studying the project, his phone suddenly rang. The caller ID read ‘mother’. Zhong Yibin looked at the ringing phone for a long time and only picked up after the fifth ring.
“Yibin, its mother,” Mother Zhong’s voice rang out. “I’m at the door, come out and talk to mother.”
Zhong Yibin stood in front of the window that stretched from the floor to the ceiling and looked towards the residence’s main door. There was indeed a white car parked outside. Because he was on a high floor, he couldn’t see the person inside clearly.
Zhong Yibin was silent for a moment before slowly opening his mouth, “Chu Qin doesn’t allow me to go outside on my own.”
When Chu Qin came back from work, he saw Zhong Yibin sitting at the living room in a daze, with two cups of tea on the table.
“Did someone come over today?” Chu Qin frowned. Before he left, he had told him not to leave on his own and not to let strangers in.
“En, my…mother came,” Zhong Yibin felt a bit awkward bringing her up. To be honest, he knew that she was his mother. After all, her data was stored on his phone and he resembled his elder brother. However, she had lied to him, causing him to lose trust in her words and childishly deny that she was his mother.
“Auntie came over? What did you say?” Hearing that Mother Zhong had came over, Chu Qin grew anxious. He hurriedly looked over the house, checking if it was messy. He had never hoped that Mother Zhong would like him, that would be too excessive. But at the very least, he didn’t want to leave a bad impression.
“She wanted me to go home with her, she said you can’t take care of me…” Zhong Yibin sneered, scoffing at his mother’s words. He would be worse off at the Zhong family!
Chu Qin licked his lips and patted Zhong Yibin’s head, saying laughingly, “Our Er Bing is obedient, he didn’t get cheated into leaving.”
“It’s not like I’m a child,” Zhong Yibin turned to stare at him, but didn’t shake the hand on his head off. He was just a little disappointed. After losing his memories, his surroundings were unfamiliar. He was eager to know genuine information, yet his mother had spoken to him in a false and half-hearted manner, severely disappointing him. He had originally thought that his mother had come to him today to share the truth for the sake of reconciliation but in the end, not only did she complain that Chu Qin was tired of him, she also spoke badly of Chu Qin.
“She showed me this,” Zhong Yibin took out a magazine. The magazine’s cover was a variety of unclear photos, filled with colorful words and exclamation marks. One could tell with a glance that it wasn’t a legitimate magazine.
Chu Qin was aware that this magazine was a weekly gossip magazine that specialized in black material and sneak shots. In this issue, they had captured him and a female actress leaving a hotel and wrote all sorts of things about them. He thought Mother Zhong simply advised her son to return home, he didn’t think that she would show Zhong Yibin this!
Chu Qin was somewhat annoyed but he still patiently explained to Zhong Yibin, “This weekly magazine only shows groundless things. Last week, they also reported that you ate tender tofu.”
Zhong Yibin’s eyes widened, “What kind of dish is tender tofu?”
Chu Qin: …
In order to prevent Mother Zhong from seeing Zhong Yibin again, Chu Qin brought him to the program venue on Thursday when he had to record.
Friendly Confusion was a recorded program, but an audience was also present. University students they had scouted made up a proportion of the audience and the guest’s fans made up the rest. The host could bring a friend or relative to watch the show but of course, as Shengshi’s Director, if Zhong Yibin wanted to watch, nobody would dare to stop him from doing so.
“Little Chu, you brought a friend to watch the program?” The director greeted Chu Qin and smiled at the person behind Chu Qin. This casual look almost caused the director to fall off the stool. He hurriedly stood up and greeted, “Why did Director Zhong come over today?”
“To watch the program,” Zhong Yibin replied faintly. He sat right in the middle of the front row of seats.
At this time, the audience had not yet entered the venue and the lighting had also not been set up. Chu Qin wanted to go backstage to greet the guest and check over his lines, so the director waved Chu Qin off and sat down to accompany Zhong Yibin.
Mu Chen had already arrived and was backstage doing his makeup. Chu Qin first went to the dressing room to greet him.
“Chen-ge, it’s been a while since we last met,” Chu Qn walked over and pulled at the flesh on Mu Chen’s face, smudging the powder that had just been applied.
The makeup artist was brought by Mu Chen. Seeing the situation, he was a little unhappy, “Hey, don’t touch the face, I just applied powder.”
“It’s fine, it’s still early,” Mu Chen opened his eyes and laughed a little, rapping a hand against Chu Qin’s head. “You brat, deliberately running my makeup so that you can be more handsome than me?”
Chu Qin made a face. Letting Hou Chuan drag a stool over, he squeezed beside Mu Chen to do his makeup.
“I’m injured. I can’t do strenuous exercise, so I’ll have to trouble Chen-ge to take on a greater burden today,” Chu Qin’s expression returned to normal and he introduced the program plan to Mu Chen while letting Du Wei apply his makeup.
“No need to be polite,” Mu Chen replied gently and listened seriously to the program plan.
Before other entertainment programs started recording, the guest would need to look through the program outline themselves. However, Confusion was different. As the pillar of the broadcasting station, Chu Qin would personally invite the guest over to explain the program outline and areas of concern to them. Ever since the program started airing, this had never changed, allowing guests to deeply experience the feeling of being valued.
Chu Qin’s voice was nice, his words were concise, and the program plan was outlined very clearly. The two of them finished their makeup and Chu Qin brought Mu Chen to the recording studio, Chu Qin pointed out the board showing the topic of discussion and the location of the spotlight to him. After waiting for Lin Xiaoxiao and several other guests to arrive, all of them went through the program process another time as a form of rehearsal.
Two hours later, the audience was seated and the program recording began.
“Welcoming all who turn on their television every weekend night to watch the program exclusively broadcasted by Super Ox Drinks, Friendly Confusion. I am Chu Qin,” Chu Qin held a stalk of wheat and stood at the center of the stage, calmly reciting his opening words.
“I am Lin Xiaoxiao!” Lin Xiaoxiao smiled and said.
“I… I am Zhu Chang!” The head of a plump boy peeked out from a corner as he said foolishly.
“Hahaha…” The audience laughed when they saw Zhu Chang. He was Confusion’s host in-charge of warming the crowd up. Chu Qin would throw him out to warm-up the crowd or play tricks whenever the flow of the program became stuck or the atmosphere was awkward.
“Today, we invited a very influential guest. Do you all know who it is?” The speed at which Chu Qin spoke rose, causing the atmosphere to liven up in a heartbeat.
“Ah—” At this moment, the electric door below the stage opened and a person walked out among the rays of the spotlight. He was wearing a set of clothes tailored to fit the occasion. Accompanied by passionate background music, he walked out.
“Ahhhh!” The audience screamed. Mu Chen’s fan group hollered, “Male God! Male God!”
The girl beside Zhong Yibin had been screaming continuously, making him slightly unhappy. “You’re also a fan of Mu Chen?” His tone contained some contempt, with the intent of letting the girl realize that as a fan of the film emperor, she ought to be more reserved, more tasteful.
That girl originally wanted to ignore him but when she turned and saw a handsome, heroic face not any worse than Mu Chen’s, she suddenly became patient. She said excitedly, “No, I’m a fan of Qin-ge.” Saying this, she turned back to watch Chu Qin and with a smitten look on her face, shouted loudly, “So handsome, so handsome! Aoaoao!”
Zhong Yibin became even more unhappy.
The author has something to say:
Small theater: <Following the fans to snatch my husband’s heart is very tiring>
Fan A: Qin-ge, so handsome, so handsome
Er Bing: Not allowed to see, only I am allowed to see
Fan B: Qin-ge, I love you
Er Bing: Not allowed to love, only I am allowed to love
Fan C: Qin-ge, I want to give birth to a monkey for you
Er Bing: Not allowed to give birth, only I am allowed