Chapter 53#
The “Devoted” Best Actor (7)#
I don’t remember which movie said it, but the most touching love words in the world aren’t “I love you,” but “I’ll take care of you.” Kong Si and Lu Yi silently stared at each other, and suddenly Kong Si let out a howl.
Lu Yi was startled and quickly asked him, “What’s wrong?”
Kong Si said, “No, let go of me first. I need to go to the bathroom and take a cold shower to calm down.”
He felt like he was being seduced. What a terrifying man. Who knew where he got so many flirtatious lines from?
When he turned his head, Lu Yi was still tilting his head to look at him. Clearly a serious, proper man, yet he shamelessly acted cute. How shameless!
Lu Yi said, “Take a shower later. You haven’t even grabbed your clothes.”
Kong Si shook his head. “No! I’m going right now.”
He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to resist pouncing on him, burning with passion and snapping his own waist. They’d just finished, so he had to restrain himself. Restrain.
Lu Yi couldn’t help but chuckle and let go. “Fine then, go ahead.”
The warmth of the young man’s arm left his side, and Kong Si felt a bit unsatisfied. “Do you not love me anymore? You didn’t even try to stop me.”
This wasn’t following the script. Shouldn’t his man have hugged him tight and let the flames burn?
“I’ll go with you.”
Kong Si’s lips curled up. That’s right, he thought. His charm is irresistible. This was more like it.
That night before they slept, the sound of water in the bathroom rang for another full hour before stopping.
The next morning at 6 o’clock, Lu Yi woke up first to his biological clock. Two minutes later, the bedside alarm went off. He got up to turn it off, planning to get dressed and start his day.
A hand reached out from under the covers and forcibly pulled him back down. “So sleepy. Sleep with me a little longer.”
Actually, Kong Si’s hand didn’t have much strength—it was soft and limp—but Lu Yi still followed the force and lay back down.
It was rare to have such good weather. Occasionally, he could afford to indulge for a day.
In the end, they both slept until 9 a.m. before getting up. For breakfast, they went to the Congee House downstairs and had century egg and lean pork congee.
The congee was piping hot when served, needing to cool a bit before drinking to avoid burning the tongue. Kong Si received an important text message, so he pulled out his phone to reply.
After replying to his friend, he looked up and noticed Lu Yi’s eyes focused intently in one direction. Following Lu Yi’s gaze, he saw the TV on the wall of the Congee House.
The TV was playing an old variety show from Fruit Channel. This show’s format mainly invited guests to participate in various fun activities each episode.
The guests were usually actors from newly aired popular dramas or upcoming movies, or rising stars from Fruit Channel’s own hit variety shows. What was playing now was the latest episode from last night, featuring guests from a recently popular youth drama.
At home, Kong Si rarely saw Lu Yi watch anything other than financial or legal channels. But today, Lu Yi’s gaze lingered on this variety show for a long time.
For Kong Si, this old variety show had brought him joy in his childhood, but now, unless it invited a celebrity he liked, he wouldn’t spare a second of his time on it.
Kong Si asked Lu Yi, “Do you like this kind of show?”
Lu Yi withdrew his gaze and gently stirred the hot congee in his bowl. “It’s okay. I wouldn’t say I like it.”
The two started chatting about the show, but Kong Si could clearly feel Lu Yi’s mind wandering.
Whenever he paused, Lu Yi’s eyes would drift back to the TV, forgetting to continue the conversation.
Kong Si didn’t think a rational person like Lu Yi would enjoy the guests’ silly, laugh-out-loud antics, yet Lu Yi’s eyes stayed glued to the screen for a long time.
He glanced at Lu Yi, then at the show. Even when the hosts delivered punchlines and the audience roared with laughter, Lu Yi’s expression remained perfectly calm, showing no sign of amusement.
More precisely, he gave off a very serious vibe.
Since it wasn’t the show, it must be the guests. After finishing half a bowl of congee, Kong Si used his keen observational skills to identify the focus of Lu Yi’s gaze.
When the TV rang out, “We’ll be right back after these messages,” Lu Yi looked away and began sipping the now-warm congee slowly.
Kong Si finally dared to ask, “Do you like that male guest? The one in the black jacket, the one named He Xiao?”
Lu Yi looked a bit surprised, but he denied Kong Si’s guess. “No.”
Kong Si said, “There’s nothing wrong with liking a celebrity. I have plenty of celebrities I like too. I’d glance at them a couple more times if I saw them. I’m not that petty.”
Everyone liked a beautiful, youthful face. Even though he was gay, he could appreciate the beauty of the pretty female celebrities on TV.
Lu Yi said, “No. It’s because I don’t like him.”
“You’ve been paying so much attention to him. Why lie…” Kong Si was about to say more when the words caught in his throat, and he suddenly understood. “You mean, you’re watching him because you don’t like him?”
He had forgotten that there’s a saying: the person who knows you best isn’t your lover, but your rival.
Apart from liking someone, you might also pay attention to them because you hate them.
Kong Si looked at the delicate young idol on the screen, curious. “Why don’t you like him? Did he have some conflict with you?”
But Lu Yi didn’t want to talk much about He Xiao. “Liking someone doesn’t need a reason. I just simply can’t stand him.”
Come to think of it, in the original timeline, it was Kong Si who ended up with He Xiao. It was because he walked into the wrong room that everything had changed.
He looked at Kong Si. “Do you like him?”
“Like who?”
“That celebrity on TV. He Xiao.”
Kong Si said, “I didn’t have any particular feeling before, but now I hate him.”
Lu Yi was a bit surprised. “Why?”
He thought Kong Si would at least find him agreeable. Otherwise, it was hard to imagine how the two could have ended up together.
Kong Si said matter-of-factly, “Because you hate him. I like what you like, and I hate what you hate.”
Taking sides without caring about reason—that was mostly the rule. No matter how outstanding or capable He Xiao was, if his lover hated something, he would hate it too.
Just like he never liked drinking congee before, but because Lu Yi liked it, he gradually fell in love with this simple dish.
When two people spent a long time together, they inevitably influenced each other.
Lu Yi’s lips curled slightly upward. “I was just thinking, if you were also an actor, there might be some competition between you.”
Kong Si lowered his head and fiddled with his phone for a while, reading about He Xiao for over ten minutes. “I don’t think so. Our positioning is quite different. I’m going for the strength-based route, and he’s more of an idol type.”
The entertainment industry was much harsher on women than on men. Women had narrower career paths, playing silly, sweet, clichéd roles when young, and turning into vicious mothers-in-law in family dramas once they had to settle down. Most of today’s popular flower actresses started at fifteen or sixteen, or even five or six, or exploded onto the scene overnight. Past thirty-five, most had passed their golden period.
But male celebrities had a much broader path. The idol type relied on their looks from ages 20 to 25. After that, their acting skills gradually settled, and many didn’t truly begin their careers until their thirties.
Kong Si was now twenty-four. His features were set, and unless he went under the knife, his appearance wouldn’t change much.
He was exceptionally handsome, unlike the popular flower-boy types of the day. Red lips, white teeth, sharp eyebrows, and bright eyes. Individually, his features weren’t the most exquisite, but together, they were very distinctive.
When he closed his mouth, he gave an impression of quiet elegance, quite deceptive. He could be said to be as still as a virgin, as lively as a rabbit.
Lu Yi said, “You’re going for the strength-based route. That’s even more likely to clash with him.”
He Xiao’s first drama was basically all newcomers, and it was a self-produced, episode-by-episode broadcast. In the original script, he played the second male lead. Under the abysmal performance of the male lead, he became popular. The production team was young too. Seeing the second male lead’s popularity far surpass the first, they simply changed the later script. He Xiao succeeded in his comeback, his ranking went from second to first, and the second male lead became the male lead.
Because his debut performance was impressive, the company that signed He Xiao began to hype his acting skills. They used the familiar method of pulling others down: by comparing the acting skills of the more experienced male lead, they highlighted the excellence of the pure newcomer He Xiao.
After his explosive debut, He Xiao’s manager quickly capitalized on the heat and signed him for several dramas. But those dramas all flopped. With no standout works, the company started to create a persona for He Xiao.
But for an actor, the most important thing was to have solid works. Without a good script, at least his acting had to be passable.
Besides eating up He Xiao’s looks, the press releases and fans mostly hyped his acting: a young genius, a new-generation idol and strength-based actor.
Kong Si said, “You’re not one of his anti-fans, are you? You seem to know a lot about him.”
Lu Yi shook his head. “Not really. Just because of some past incident, I’ve paid a little attention to him.”
Over the past half year, besides stocks, he had been collecting information on He Xiao roughly every three days. He even created a document to analyze all his news and the growth of his popularity index. He analyzed He Xiao’s positioning based on the scripts he had recently taken and his exposure.
After all, He Xiao was an important figure related to his goal of collecting fragments. Even if he didn’t like him, it was necessary to focus a little more on him.
He had been keeping an eye on He Xiao, but Kong Si usually wasn’t home much, and when they were together, they didn’t talk about irrelevant people. So Kong Si hadn’t noticed how much attention Lu Yi paid to that young male star.
Kong Si poked the century egg in his bowl with his chopsticks, feeling his appetite disappear.
He said quietly, “Good thing you hate He Xiao. Now I hate him even more.”
If Kong Si’s thoughts had been somewhat predictable before, this time Lu Yi really couldn’t figure him out. “What now?”
Kong Si looked at him, then said very seriously, “Even though I know you hate him, seeing how much attention you pay him still makes me jealous.”
He was a stranger, yet he was diverting so much of Lu Yi’s attention. How could that not make him jealous?
Faced with Kong Si’s very childlike words, Lu Yi laughed. “Then you should work hard and become an even more dazzling star than him, so that my eyes only stop on you.”
After breakfast, Lu Yi asked him, “Yesterday you told me you decided to become an actor. Was that true?”
Kong Si nodded. “I don’t lie to you.”
Lu Yi continued, “An artist’s life isn’t as glamorous as you think. Beneath the flowers, applause, and adoration, you’ll have to endure a lot of hardship. Even so, do you still insist?”
Kong Si nodded again. “I’m not afraid of hardship. I’m afraid the hardship is worthless. I love acting, and I want to do it.”
After confirming several times, Lu Yi said, “Then I’ll give you ten days off. If there are no particularly good scripts or opportunities in these ten days, clear all your time for me.”
Kong Si was curious. “Ten days? That long?”
Lu Yi said meaningfully, “Better make it long. Because you might not get to enjoy it later.”
Within those ten days, he took Kong Si to buy a car, watch movies, travel, visit amusement parks—almost all the fun things they could do.
On the evening of the tenth day, Lu Yi drove them to a tall building. “Starting today, you’ll train here every day until the teacher says you’re ready to graduate.”
Kong Si still had the strawberry-flavored cotton candy Lu Yi had bought him in his hand. Hearing this sudden bad news, his heart tightened. “Can I ask… what kind of training?”
“Your posture, your lines, even dance, martial arts, and music.”
Since Kong Si had decided to become a strength-based actor, he had to build a solid foundation.
He looked at his lover. “I’ll fully support whatever you want to do. But I don’t want you to be a quitter with no ambition. Even if I have the ability, I can’t help mud stick to the wall. Do you understand?”
Lu Yi didn’t want to impose his high standards on his lover. “I’ve said it before. Being an artist isn’t easy. With me behind you, you can avoid some detours, but that doesn’t mean you can just lie back and win awards.”
Kong Si said, “I know.”
Before, he had secretly gone to a film set to shoot a small supporting role. It was scorching hot; he wished he could go out in just shorts, but for the shoot, he had to wear a heavy cotton-padded jacket over ten pounds.
“If you can’t handle it, call me and tell me. If it’s really unbearable, then don’t go.” He allowed Kong Si to be a deserter. If the other couldn’t take it, the money wasted would be just that—wasted.
Ten million, twenty million—it didn’t matter. The most important thing was Kong Si’s happiness. As for He Xiao, he didn’t think a person of poor character would stay clean in the big dye vat of the entertainment industry, never harming anyone.
Lu Xingchen back then was the victim he knew of. There would be others. Once the filth was exposed, He Xiao might not remain as successful as before.
Kong Si nodded, then shook his head. He took a big bite of the cotton candy. “I know. I’ve made my decision. I won’t let you down.”
Becoming famous required not only skill but also luck. But since he was going to do it, he had to give it his all. Even if he failed, he would be true to himself and to Lu Yi.
After finishing the cotton candy, he planted a big kiss on his man’s cheek, opened the car door, and walked toward the sunlit, gleaming building like a warrior heading to a glorious death.
In the entertainment industry, there was no shortage of good-looking people, nor of those with good acting skills who worked hard. But in the increasingly superficial industry, very few became big stars on acting skill alone. They lacked capital and didn’t know how to market themselves.
While Kong Si was locked away in intense training, Lu Yi began focusing on setting up an entertainment media company. Three million in capital was just the minimum investment. He needed more money to ensure Kong Si’s future was worry-free.
Lu Yi wasn’t particularly good at Marketing, but he understood capital operations. Besides his own entertainment company, he made other investments, leaving professional matters to the professionals.
If the entertainment company didn’t do well, he could pour in money earned from fields he was good at. As long as it was spent on Kong Si, he was happy and willing.
He was willing to delegate power and willing to spend money. If ten million wasn’t enough, then twenty million, thirty million, or more.
Because the training was completely closed-off, Kong Si had a really tough time.
The teachers Lu Yi hired for him weren’t one-on-one private trainers. One teacher taught several students at once.
Among these students, several weren’t there for acting. Some had married into wealthy families and needed etiquette training. Others wanted to enter high society, had talent, worked hard, and got the teachers through connections.
Kong Si and the other trainees had no competitive relationship, but since they were all students, comparisons were inevitable. During etiquette training, he sometimes couldn’t even match a five- or six-year-old girl. He wavered occasionally, but because he had promised Lu Yi, he slowly pushed through.
At first, he called Lu Yi every day—video calls, at that. After a few days, he only called, refusing to turn on the video.
In the end, he called every two or three days, and the frequency dropped to once a week, just to avoid distraction.
Otherwise, hearing Lu Yi’s voice every day would make him want to run out of that building and go to Lu Yi’s side.
To minimize distractions, he even reduced how often he looked in the mirror, because every time he saw his reflection, he immediately thought of Lu Yi.
But he endured every time. He didn’t know how Lu Yi had found these teachers, but judging by their standards, he knew Lu Yi had spent a lot of money.
In his heart, Lu Yi was a legend in the investment world. He wanted to be the most successful investment Lu Yi ever made, not a failure.
After a month of training, the teachers gave him a day off. His peers all went out to let loose, but Kong Si kept practicing.
After three grueling months, he finally graduated.
Walking out of that building, he felt like he was seeing the light of day again, as if a lifetime had passed.
But he didn’t want to go anywhere except to see Lu Yi.
He took a taxi home, knocked on the door, then pulled out his keys to let himself in, wanting to surprise his man.
But when he opened the door, Lu Yi wasn’t there.
He called him. Lu Yi’s voice came from the phone, sounding as distant as from another world. “Where are you? I went out this morning. I’m at XYZ Building now.”
The building Lu Yi mentioned was where Kong Si had been training these days. Since the teacher had called ahead, Lu Yi had driven there in the morning to pick him up, turning down most of his company work for the day.
Kong Si laughed wryly. “I’m at home now.”
Lu Yi was silent for a long moment. “Then stay at home. Wait for me to get back.”
Because of traffic, it took a full hour and a half before they finally met.
When Lu Yi opened the door, a figure like a black lightning bolt rushed into his arms and hugged his waist. “Surprise!”
Lu Yi kissed Kong Si’s cheek. “Very surprising. Let me close the door first.”
He closed the door behind him, and Kong Si lifted the hem of his T-shirt. “Look! Abs! Muscles!”
Before, although his work intensity wasn’t low, he rarely exercised. His belly was mostly soft flesh, flat to look at but with a bit of a paunch to the touch.
But now, there was no belly fat. He had beautiful diamond-shaped abs—a classic frame that looked slim in clothes but ripped without.
Lu Yi reached out and touched them. He felt a bit regretful; he still preferred a softer feel. But the current Kong Si was good too. He praised, “Beautiful.”
“That’s it? Nothing else?” Kong Si sounded disappointed.
Lu Yi thought seriously. “You’ve lost weight. What do you want to eat for lunch? I’ll take you.”
“It’s only ten in the morning. I’m not hungry.” Kong Si pressed on, “Don’t you want to test the strength of my waist after all that training?”
Lu Yi was silent again.
Just as Kong Si was wondering if he hadn’t hinted strongly enough, his man suddenly lifted him onto his shoulder and carried him into the bedroom for a thorough, two-hour, painstaking inspection from the inside out.
After they both rested, Lu Yi said, “You’ve lost so much weight.”
Where he couldn’t see, Kong Si must have endured a lot of hardship.
Kong Si asked him, “Does it hurt?”
Lu Yi couldn’t say anything too direct or mushy, so he just nodded.
Kong Si’s lips curled up like a proud little peacock. He said, “No need to hurt. This was my choice.”
He gazed at Lu Yi, starlight reflected in his eyes. “No matter how much hardship I endure, I can bear it. I want to be your pride.”
Lu Yi was silent for a moment, then laughed. “Then you’re losing out. You don’t need to work hard. You’re already my pride.”