Chapter 80 - send off

One and a half months passed in a flash, and the whole crew rushed to catch up and finally managed to control the last few scenes in mid-August. The previous heavy rain disrupted all the plans. The group first filmed the part of Gao Kun who was seriously ill in the later stage of the script. In order to act, he once lost his morbid figure of 120 catties. Later, when the film was about to wrap up, he came to make up for the previous scene. Zhou Ziheng every day In addition to filming, he also worked hard to gain weight and keep fit.

Xiao Luo took out the steak and boiled eggs from the bento box, “Ziheng’s body is about to become a balloon.”

Zhou Ziheng felt disgusted when he saw these things, but he had to continue for filming, “Forget it, I have motivation to exercise now, and it will be too late to exercise after finishing the filming, and I can’t shoot commercials or anything.”

“You’re pretty good at comforting yourself.” Xia Xiqing sat down next to Zhou Ziheng with his luxury lunch box, and happily ate his sweet and sour pork ribs and Kung Pao chicken in front of him.

“Can you do me a favor and stay away from me when eating,” Zhou Ziheng felt desperate when he smelled the aroma of Xia Xiqing’s boxed lunch.

In fact, in order to play Jiang Tong, Xia Xiqing’s box lunches for the past few months were all fat-reducing meals, and he only had good dishes when he was about to wrap up. He picked up a piece of sweet and sour pork ribs with his chopsticks and brought it to Zhou Ziheng’s mouth, “You can eat a piece secretly, it’s fine.”

“Who said it’s okay?” A powerful female voice came from behind. Zhou Ziheng immediately sat across from him.

Xia Xiqing also put away the chopsticks, put the meat into his mouth, and laughed while eating, “Sister Jiang Yin, you are too stern and selfless. He is your uncle.”

Jiang Yin also sat down, “Didn’t he come here like this before.” After speaking, Jiang Yin glared at Xia Xiqing, “If you don’t recruit him, he won’t.”

“All right, all right, I’ll recruit him.” Seeing Zhou Ziheng nodding behind Jiang Yin’s back, Xia Xiqing also admitted, “I’m done today, and I won’t be able to provoke him anymore.”

As soon as this sentence was finished, Zhou Ziheng frowned at him, looking very unhappy.

Xiaoxiao poured a cup of tea for Jiang Yin, Jiang Yin took it over and said thank you, then turned to Xia Xiqing and said, “Speaking of finishing, do the crew have to celebrate tonight? It’s your first time acting .”

“Forget it.” Xia Xiqing thought of Xihui contacting him the day before yesterday, and his grandfather was seriously ill, and he had to go back to Xi’s house to settle the inheritance after the wedding.

Although Xia Xiqing didn’t have any idea about Mr. Xi’s inheritance, just like what Xi Hui said, he couldn’t let what belonged to his mother fall into other people’s hands.

“I still have something to do in Beijing, and I have to go back after I’m done.”

Zhou Ziheng was so busy looking at Xia Xiqing that he didn’t even bother to eat. Jiang Yin kicked him with the toe of her high-heeled shoe, and then she came back to her senses, “That’s all right, I just have to go back at night, so I asked my assistant to buy an extra plane ticket. Let’s go together.”

Xia Xiqing’s last scene was on a bench in the corridor outside the ward, and it was also the last scene in which the crew rented a hospital for filming. He was wearing the clothes he wore for part-time work, and Guo Yang in a suit was sitting next to him. After the two of them exchanged their words for the last time, the camera was pushed over and aimed at Xia Xiqing’s face.

“Scene 121 of “Tracking” for the first time, Action!”

“Have some coffee.” Cheng Qiming handed the paper cup in his hand to Jiang Tong, and sat down next to him, “Just finished work?”

Jiang Tong nodded, took a sip of coffee, but still wrinkled his face from the bitterness.

Cheng Qiming saw a stainless steel thermos bucket next to his leg, so he asked with concern, “For him?”

“I bought…” Jiang Tong’s condition is not good recently, his vocal cords have been using abnormal vocalization for a long time, and his voice is very hoarse. Cheng Qiming also felt that it was pitiful after seeing it, “Drink something hot.”

Since Gao Kun was sent to the ICU, Jiang Tong quit his job at the convenience store and stayed with him in the ward every night. Occasionally, when he woke up, Jiang Tong could take care of him and talk to him for a while.

Cheng Qiming looked at the black eyes under his eyes, turned his head and took out a folder from his briefcase and handed it to him, “Look, this is what I told you last time.”

Jiang Tong put the coffee on the floor, took the folder and opened it. It was full of materials about adult education. After reading it for a long time, he handed the folder back to Cheng Qiming, without saying a word, just bowed his head pursed his lips.

“You haven’t looked carefully yet,” Cheng Qiming sighed, “Don’t you like painting? When Gao Kun recovers from his illness,” Cheng Qiming felt a little inappropriate after saying this, and changed his words again, “I That is to say, when his condition stabilizes, you can learn to paint. I have seen all these schools. You can apply for a bursary, and I will help you. You don’t have to worry too much about money. And…” His The voice was a little lower, “Don’t get me wrong, I really just think you are very similar to my brother, I feel guilty for him in my heart, and I feel very distressed when I see you. That’s all.”

After hearing this, Jiang Tong hurriedly took out a post-it note and wrote a sentence and handed it to Cheng Qiming.

[When you help him, you help me, and I thank you very much. ]

Cheng Qiming couldn’t help being a little annoyed when he saw it. What he was talking about with Jiang Tong was about his own future, but he couldn’t listen to it anyway, “I said it all, and I will help him, but you have to know that this is not an ordinary disease. , Gao Kun can almost be said to be in the worst situation now, some things cannot be solved with money.”

His tone was a little anxious, and he forgot to take into account Jiang Tong’s mood. He felt a little regretful right after he finished speaking, but he listened to what he had said, and couldn’t take it back.

Jiang Tong nodded twice, covered his face with two palms, curled up and bent down, like a thin and thin shrimp.

“You…you are, I know you are friends,” Cheng Qiming tried to find a suitable wording, “but you have to think about yourself.”

It took a long time before Jiang Tong raised his head, holding back tears in his red eyes.

He rubbed his nose, took out a post-it note and wrote a sentence, his shoulders were shaking, his handwriting was crooked, and it didn’t look good no matter how he wrote it. After enduring it for a long time, I finally shed a tear and dripped it on the sticky note.

[He said that after meeting me, he didn’t want to die, and I thought so too. ]

Cheng Qiming took the piece of paper over, looked at it carefully for a long time, and finally could only nod his head.

“Okay. Let’s talk about it after he stabilizes.” Putting the note in his suit pocket, Cheng Qiming stood up, “I’m leaving first, and I’ll ask someone to bring some fruit supplements tomorrow.”

Jiang Tong stood up in a hurry and bowed deeply to Cheng Qiming. Jiang Tong didn’t straighten up until he had walked for a long time. Having been busy all morning without eating, he felt a little dizzy. He hurriedly sat down against the wall and took out a lollipop from his pocket.

Before he forced Gao Kun to quit smoking, Gao Kun could only go out and buy lollipops that cost one yuan each to keep in his mouth, and occasionally bought some for him.

Jiang Tong lowered his head, his mind was full of how he was healthy before, alive and well, repairing his bicycle, and following him to send him to the night shift. He slowly peeled off the candy wrapper, and stuffed the crystal clear candy ball into his mouth.

For some reason, the tears just couldn’t stop. Jiang Tong glanced at the nurse in the corridor, raised his hand and quietly wiped away the tears, but not long after wiping, the tears gushed out again, and Jiang Tong wiped them with his palm again, but Can’t control it. Following Gao Kun’s example, he crunched the candy ball into pieces, the candy was too sweet and bitter.

With a mouthful of sugar in his mouth, Jiang Tong sat alone on the bench, crying so hard that he couldn’t lift his head.

The camera gradually zooms out, including the entire hospital corridor, a long shot, filling a small world full of joys and sorrows.

“Pass!”

This crying scene was filmed five or six times, and the last one was in such good condition that the director even temporarily changed to a long shot.

“Okay, this one is over. Jiang Tong has worked hard.” Kun Cheng walked over to the monitor and patted Xia Xiqing on the shoulder, “Xi Qing has worked hard, and it’s finally finished.”

Many of the female staff members on the set were infected by Xia Xiqing’s emotions, and they went up to hand him papers one by one.

“Xi Qing is so pitiful, crying so much that I want to cry.”

“That’s right, I don’t even dare to watch the feature film anymore, this is the worst group I’ve ever been with.”

Crying so hard that he couldn’t breathe, Xia Xiqing took a deep breath, turned around and saw Zhou Ziheng, startled, holding a large bouquet of red roses in his hand, walking towards him with a smile.

This scene brought him back to the day when he and Zhou Ziheng were shooting magazines together.

Xia Xiqing was startled, “Where did you buy it…”

“Congratulations on the finale.” Zhou Ziheng smiled softly, and handed him the flowers. Such a large bouquet of flowers made him feel ashamed while holding them. Xia Xiqing took them and immediately smiled at the person next to him. he. It was originally a finale, and these are normal things in the eyes of outsiders, not to mention that the entire crew knows that the two of them have a good relationship.

With the strength of a hug, Zhou Ziheng leaned close to his ear and whispered.

“Brother Xi Qing cried until my heart broke.”

Here it comes again, “You…”

“I want to kiss your eyes.”

Xia Xiqing was completely at a loss, so he could only wipe tears on his shoulders.

Except for Zhou Ziheng, several other main creators in the same group also stepped forward to hug him one by one. Everyone knew that Xia Xiqing still had things to deal with, and the production team was very tight, so the finale banquet had to be avoided. Xia Xiqing ordered takeaway for the entire production team at the most famous local meal spot at his own expense, and bought a big cake. before leaving.

When the plane landed in Beijing, Xia Xiqing had a good night’s sleep, and the first thing he did when he woke up was to tidy himself up. When he wasn’t with Zhou Ziheng, Xia Xiqing paid a lot of attention to his appearance. After all, he was an art student and in the **** circle, so his face and body were of equal importance.

It doesn’t look strange after the hair has been styled. The hair on the front is all blown up, and there is a small beauty tip on the forehead, which is not in the middle, but tilted to the left, which is also in line with Xia Xiqing’s unrighteous temperament.

Xi Hui picked him up in a car, and Xia Xiqing exchanged pleasantries with him on the way, but didn’t say anything more. Xi Hui was a golden bachelor all his life, never married or had children. He had no interest in art and only wanted to do business. For this reason, he had already fallen out with Mr. Xi. His youngest son was unfilial, and his daughter died early because of bipolar disorder. The two elders have kept their collections all their lives, and they only want to share them up until the day they are gone.

When they arrived at Xi’s house, Xia Xiqing went upstairs with Xi Hui. When they arrived outside Mr. Xi’s room, there were several young children standing at the door, most likely children brought by those relatives. Xia Xiqing seldom came to Xi’s house. The most recent time was before he went abroad to study. There were very few relatives who knew him, let alone these children.

But he has been one of the traffic on the Internet recently. These children all know him. They were taken aback when they saw Xia Xiqing, and then whispered to each other.

Xia Xiqing half-lowered his head, straightened the buttons of his shirt cuffs, pretending he didn’t hear anything, and went straight into the room when the doctor inside came out.

Mr. Xi’s bed has become a family hospital bed. His old face is covered with grooves and lines, but he is still well-dressed. Even though he is sick in bed, he still wears a ventilator mask on his face. An old artist.

Standing next to him was a man about forty years old, who was dressed expensively. He squinted at Xia Xiqing, and said bluntly, “Who is here again, butler, invite him out.”

Xia Xiqing smiled and turned to look at Xi Hui. Before he could speak, Xi Hui explained, “This is Dad’s cousin.”

“Cousin?” Xia Xiqing’s eyes drifted away, and his tone was leisurely, “I thought I had another uncle.”

The other party was obviously stabbed by these words, and his eyes rolled in front of Xia Xiqing and Xi Hui. Xia Xiqing didn’t bother to give him a face anymore, so he pulled up a chair and walked slowly to the window, and sat down generously.

The sick old man seemed to hear the sound, opened his eyes, saw Xia Xiqing’s face, and seemed to see his daughter in a daze.

“Xin’er…Xin’er is back?”

Hearing grandpa call mother’s nickname, Xia Xiqing felt sore in his heart, and reached out to hold grandpa’s hand.

Xi Hui watched from the side, and then turned to look at the cousin who didn’t know it, “Cousin, if you have nothing to do, go down and have some tea. It’s really hard work for you these days.”

“You! You are here to seek the Xi family’s property!”

“Murder?” Xia Xiqing raised his head, “I am grandpa’s grandson,” he turned his head to look at Xi Hui again, “this is grandpa’s only son, who are you?”

After being teased by Xia Xiqing, the man’s face turned blue and pale, and he couldn’t say a word for a long time.

Xi Hui called someone, and came up to invite all these irrelevant and unwilling relatives out.

Mr. Xi’s lawyer also came to the house, and while they were awake, they counted all collections, working capital and real estate.

Xia Xiqing was very clear about Xi Hui’s purpose, “All I want is the collection and the art museum, and I will give you the other funds and real estate.” Seeing that he was so direct, Xi Hui stopped hiding. Until the day Mr. Xi left, Xia Xiqing stayed by his bedside. He had never been with an elder for such a long time before, and he never thought that the only time he had a chance would be such a scene.

On the day Mr. Xi left, Xia Xiqing pushed a wheelchair and took him to a room where there was a plaster sculpture of a beautiful woman holding a beautiful baby.

“This is… my own hands… when you were born…” Grandpa coughed several times, breathless and continued, “It should have been given to you long ago…”

Xia Xiqing had a sore nose and touched the sculpture with his fingers.

In these short ten days, he seemed to feel the warmth of his family for the first time.

Although it was too late.

After handling all the affairs, Xia Xiqing temporarily put all the collections in the safe of Xi’s family, and planned to wait until the art museum opened before making plans. On the day of the funeral, Xia Xiqing, as a grandson, stood at the front with Xi Hui to carry old man Xi’s coffin. Xia Yunkai also showed up, but Xia Xiqing pretended not to see him and didn’t say a word.

After returning home, Xia Xiqing nestled in his house and drew sketches for several days. When he was sleeping on the wooden table in the studio, the voice of WeChat woke him up. It was Zhou Ziheng’s news.

[Moral Benchmarking]: I’ve landed, where are you?

Xia Xiqing rubbed his eyes twice. He had just woken up and his hands were too weak to type, so he took the phone and sent a voice message.

“I am home.”

Zhou Ziheng on the other end of the phone came out of the chaotic and noisy airport pick-up scene and finally got into the car. Then he put on the earphones and turned on the voice. Xia Xiqing’s voice was much softer than usual, sticky as if he had just woken up. Zhou Ziheng’s heart was broken. After listening to the pronunciation of the four words more than ten or twenty times, he couldn’t hold back the corners of his mouth.

“Why is Ziheng so happy?” The driver brother glanced at the rearview mirror and asked Xiao Luo.

Ronaldinho responded with a clear expression on his face, “Who knows?”

“Where are you going, Ziheng? Back to the company?”

“Go home, go to my apartment.”

In late August, the heat in Beijing has not completely dissipated, but it is not always the humidity and heat in the south. Zhou Ziheng was not used to it when he came back from Wuhan suddenly.

As soon as he got out of the apartment elevator, Zhou Ziheng went straight to Xia Xiqing’s house. He rang the doorbell for a long time but no one responded. He leaned against the wall and sent a message, then opened the door of his house with his fingerprints.

“Where did you go…” Zhou Ziheng changed his shoes to himself, went to the sofa in the living room and lay down on his back.

The room was very quiet. Zhou Ziheng sent several messages to Xia Xiqing in a row. When he heard the WeChat notification tone, he stood up and searched around, only to find that Xia Xiqing’s cell phone was actually on the sofa.

“Where is the person?” Zhou Ziheng stood up and went upstairs to look for him while calling his name. Several rooms were empty, so he had to go back to the living room.

“How old are you and you still play hide-and-seek with people?” Zhou Ziheng tentatively walked to the French windows, and pulled open the curtains, “Not here.” He stepped back a few steps and leaned back against the pool, facing the French windows, “Hurry up Come out, I know you’re here…”

Before he finished speaking, a wet hand grabbed Zhou Ziheng’s ankle and pulled it downward. Zhou Ziheng’s center of gravity was unstable, and he fell backward into the swimming pool.

Xia Xiqing got out of the water, wiped off the water on his face with his hands, stroked all his hair back, pushed his palms on his chest and pushed Zhou Ziheng, who hadn’t reacted yet, to the edge of the pool, and pressed his shoulder forcefully and cunningly .

Zhou Ziheng looked at Xia Xiqing who came out of the water with his upper body naked. His fair and thin skin seemed to be covered with a layer of silk satin. The water was glistening, and the light golden sunlight penetrated through the floor-to-ceiling windows, covering Xia Xiqing’s smooth shoulders inch by inch. . He was dripping with water, his skin was so thin that it was almost transparent, and he was so beautiful in the backlight that he was only short of a bright fish tail.

“I’m dying of waiting for you,” Xia Xiqing caressed the side of Zhou Ziheng’s face, met his fiery eyes for a moment, and then pressed his chest intimately, his lips came together but not completely, and after a while, With a subtle distance, Zhou Ziheng’s soul was almost taken away by a slightly panting voice, “Hurry up and give me artificial respiration.”

Zhou Ziheng stretched out his hands, and turned over with a strong hug. The situation was immediately reversed. He grabbed both of Xia Xiqing’s hands and pressed them on the marble floor outside the swimming pool, and kissed him.

The moment the wet and soft tongues touched, the sky thunder caught the fire on the ground, and the fire could start a prairie fire in an instant.

After the kiss was over, Zhou Ziheng pinched Xia Xiqing’s chin and kissed the tip of his nose, “Who told you to come in for a swim?”

A pair of Bai Shengsheng’s long legs were swinging in the water, hooking Zhou Ziheng’s calf. Xia Xiqing smiled and put his arms around his neck, tilting his head.

“Who said I came in for a swim?”

Zhou Ziheng let him hug him, and said, “I heard the voice, and thought you were asleep?”

Xia Xiqing rubbed the tip of his nose against Zhou Ziheng’s chin, his voice was crisper than his voice, and Zhou Ziheng’s ears softened.

“I’m sleepy right now.”