Chapter 57#
“Devoted” Best Actor (11)#
Star Media Company had been established for over half a year, but for this newly emerging media company, it was still in a period of rapid development. Lu Yi had limited energy and had to also focus on family matters, so he temporarily put aside other investments and concentrated on developing Star Entertainment wholeheartedly.
On typical workdays like today, he basically worked in his office. If Kong Si had filming tasks and couldn’t be by his side, Lu Yi would choose to work overtime even on holidays.
When Kong Si called, he was in a meeting. After receiving his lover’s message and hearing all the important reports, Lu Yi simply ended the meeting early: “Alright, let’s stop today’s meeting here.”
After the meeting, he returned to his office. Opening the door, he saw Kong Si standing there, holding a small watering can and watering the succulents on the desk.
This pot of succulents on the desk was bought by Kong Si, and the watering can was personally selected and mailed to the office by Kong Si as well.
Seeing him enter, the other turned around with a bright smile: “The meeting ended so quickly. Did I interrupt your work?”
Lu Yi shook his head: “You never interrupt my work no matter when you come. Aren’t you supposed to be resting these past few days? Why did you suddenly come over?”
Earlier, after finishing a film, Kong Si had little time to adjust before immediately participating in the second drama under Star Entertainment—an urban romantic light comedy. However, he played the second male lead, with screen time comparable to the male lead and a likable role.
He could have been the male lead, but since this was a romance drama, neither Lu Yi nor Kong Si was particularly willing to let him play a couple with another man or woman in a TV series.
Especially those urban romance dramas often had wedding scenes, and sometimes even those not-so-explicit bed scenes.
Usually, it would be a young couple sleeping in the same bed, with the camera pointing at the two of them.
Kong Si refused wedding scenes because he and Lu Yi had a flash marriage. Back then, they slept together, then went straight to the civil affairs bureau to get their marriage certificate. From unmarried to married, the total cost was less than ten yuan—no ring, no wedding.
Of course, later their feelings deepened, and Lu Yi made up for the ring, but the wedding was never held.
Later, Kong Si entered the entertainment industry, and Lu Yi was fully dedicated to his career, leaving even less time and energy for a wedding.
After finishing the second drama, Kong Si took a short break. His first drama had already aired. With the huge success of that xianxia drama, Kong Si participated in many promotional variety shows to increase his exposure.
During that time, the couple often lived apart. Now that the initial craze of the first drama had subsided and the variety shows were winding down, Kong Si planned to rest for a while.
He wasn’t particularly ambitious career-wise, but perhaps influenced by Lu Yi, he had resolved that after entering the entertainment circle, he would win the Best Actor crown before retiring.
After all, his original intention was just to play various roles; the fame and money that came later were merely incidental.
As soon as Lu Yi finished speaking, Kong Si said, “I missed you, so I came. What? Only Chairman Lu is allowed to visit the set, but not the family member to check up on him?”
Lu Yi’s eyes crinkled with a smile: “Allowed, of course allowed. How would I dare to stop the future Best Actor?”
After some banter, Kong Si revealed his purpose. He unlocked his phone with his fingerprint and handed it to Lu Yi: “Here, take a look.”
With slight curiosity, Lu Yi took Kong Si’s phone. What caught his eye was a light green interface.
He scrolled to the earlier content, looked through the two people’s chat history, and asked Kong Si: “What are you thinking?”
Kong Si countered: “What do you mean?”
Lu Yi said, “Regarding He Xiao, don’t consider me. Just tell me your true feelings about him.”
He knew these two would eventually cross paths, since in the original trajectory, they were supposed to be a couple. Had he not entered the wrong room back then, Kong Si might have ended up with this He Xiao.
Perhaps in the original story, Kong Si got together with He Xiao because of a similar accidental hookup. Thinking this, Lu Yi’s breath caught, and his mood inevitably sank a little.
“I feel his attitude is a bit strange, kind of ill-intentioned.” Kong Si wasn’t stupid; he was very sensitive to people’s likes and dislikes. But he wasn’t willing to assume the worst of others, and sometimes he would willingly suffer a small loss to avoid trouble.
But now that he was in the entertainment industry, he couldn’t be as carefree as before. As a celebrity, any casual remark in public could be blown out of proportion.
He was wary of this “friend” who suddenly showed up out of nowhere with no prior connection. After saying this, he immediately sensed that Lu Yi’s mood was off.
He stood up straight, raised his hand, and swore: “I really don’t like him at all. Anyway, anyone you don’t like, I’ll definitely dislike. Whoever you like, I’ll like.”
Of course, the second half about “liking someone” referred to liking celebrities or liking pets—the kind of liking for a cat or dog. As for a special romance between men, he definitely couldn’t like that “someone.” Just imagining the two of them together would drown him in jealousy.
Lu Yi gave a dry laugh: “That’s not what I meant.”
He paused for a moment, then asked Kong Si: “Try hard to remember. What did that chubby kid you helped look like? Any distinguishing features?”
Kong Si had already thought about it on the way over: “That was eight or nine years ago. How could I remember it clearly?”
He had just given a random helping hand back then. He wasn’t the type with a super memory, so remembering such trivial details clearly was unlikely.
“If I’m talking about a chubby kid, all I remember is that he was much shorter than me back then, fair-skinned and plump, short, and bullied pitifully.”
Lu Yi frowned: “That’s it?”
Kong Si said firmly: “That’s it.”
Kong Si’s attitude undoubtedly proved to Lu Yi that there was nothing improper between him and the other person. Lu Yi relaxed a little inside, but kept his expression calm: “Don’t contact him for now. I’ll give you an answer later.”
“Alright. Since I’m resting these days, can you also take a break to keep me company?”
When he was at home playing games earlier, it was fine—he was focused and didn’t think about all kinds of nonsense. But now that he saw Lu Yi in person, his ambition was thrown to some distant place.
Lu Yi thought for no more than ten minutes and then replied decisively: “Okay.”
The two hadn’t spent time alone together in a while. Since they had this rare chance to rest together, they decided not to think about anything troublesome.
They went to watch a movie, shopped for new clothes at the mall, and even went to an amusement park.
Lu Yi wasn’t particularly interested in amusement parks, but Kong Si liked them. Moreover, since Kong Si wasn’t famous yet, wearing a large sunglasses or mask on the street made him unrecognizable. He wanted to enjoy all the fun things while he still had anonymity, so he wouldn’t have regrets later.
As it turned out, Kong Si was more famous than he thought. While at the amusement park, a fan recognized him and took photos.
That fan was an entertainment blogger with millions of followers on Weibo. That same day, she posted the photos with tags: #EncounterJingming# #EncounterYuSi#
Jingming was the name of the male lead in the xianxia drama Kong Si starred in.
Initially, the topic’s popularity wasn’t too high, ranking around 124th on the hot search list. But when staff noticed it, they immediately started buying retweets and exposure, using large numbers of bots to boost the topic’s heat, successfully pushing the blogger’s two topics to the front page of the hot search list.
Besides Kong Si, Lu Yi, wearing a mask that only revealed half his face, also appeared in the photos. In the photos the blogger posted, the two looked very intimate. However, as the topic heated up, there were no trending discussions about actor Yu Si being gay or his mysterious lover.
The main reason was that the two gave off such a similar vibe. Seeing them, people’s first thought was that they must be brothers or something, never suspecting a romantic relationship.
After discovering that he and Lu Yi had made it to the hot search together, Kong Si was on edge for a whole day, constantly checking Weibo comments. Only when he saw that public opinion wasn’t leaning toward the truth, but was veering off in the wrong direction, did he relax and order his staff to stop manipulating the trend as bots.
Thinking that his relationship wasn’t immediately exposed thanks to the similar features he and Lu Yi shared, Kong Si found it both amusing and frustrating.
Actually, back then, after sleeping together, the reason he agreed dizzy-headedly to marry Lu Yi was largely because of Lu Yi’s face. Kong Si certainly didn’t think of himself as a narcissist, nor was he that self-absorbed.
It was just intuition. He found Lu Yi particularly agreeable to look at, especially since the two got along so harmoniously over time. This convinced him that they were a natural match—arranged by heaven, destined to be together.
Kong Si’s memory wasn’t as good as Lu Yi’s. He only remembered things and people important to him. The daily moments he spent with Lu Yi were enough to cherish and savor, so trivial matters were quickly forgotten.
It wasn’t until a month later that Lu Yi suddenly handed him a thick kraft paper envelope.
Curiously, he opened the envelope to find a large stack of photos. The person in the photos looked very familiar. Though the outline was a bit youthful, he recognized him immediately—it was none other than He Xiao, who had proactively approached him to get close.
Kong Si looked at the photos but still didn’t understand Lu Yi’s intention: “Why are you giving me these photos?”
Lu Yi asked him: “Do you think the person in these photos is fat?”
“Fat? I think he’s so skinny he’s practically a bag of bones.”
Lu Yi then said: “These are photos of He Xiao from his high school years. He was never fat.”