Chapter 61#
“Devoted Movie King” (15)#
Kong Si flipped through those photos. The chubby kid in the pictures gradually overlapped with the person in his memory. “Right, this person seems to be the one I saved back then.”
The high school Kong Si attended was a key provincial school. Because its soft and hard power were both up to par, the school became a pilot for the Education Bureau’s quality-oriented education initiative. At the time, they ran many clubs, and the student council was run quite properly.
Kong Si was the vice president of the student council and the president of the Autumn Rain Literature Club, so his high school life was busy and bustling. Every day, he had to interact with a lot of people, but aside from his classmates and those in the literature club, he couldn’t really remember everyone else.
It was a case where most people knew him, but he didn’t know most of them.
But the brain’s ability to store memories is actually stronger than most people think. After digging hard, Kong Si recalled more details from back then: “I remember now. This person actually had pretty good grades. I recall there was a campus honor roll at our school back then, and he was on it.”
Because he himself was on the honor roll almost every time, he never paid special attention to who else was on it with him. At most, he’d glance at the top three, since they were close to him, right next to him.
He lowered his head and flipped through the photos. Standing next to the chubby kid was unmistakably a younger He Xiao.
“I think He Xiao looks familiar too, but there didn’t seem to be anyone named He Xiao at our school back then.”
Lu Yi reminded him, “He Xiao is his stage name. Same as you—he didn’t go by that before he debuted.”
True enough. Most actors change their names to something more stylish, or something that might bring better luck to their career when they debut.
He asked Lu Yi, “So what was his name? Just say it. Maybe if I think hard enough, I can recall something.”
Lu Yi said, “That’s not important. Look at the photos again.”
Kong Si examined them over and over, but couldn’t find anything special about them. “Is there something hidden here that needs a magnifying glass, or fire, or water to reveal?”
Forgive him—he’d watched too many melodramatic TV shows lately while studying.
If facial expressions could be visualized, Lu Yi would have three huge black lines on his forehead. “…”
He laid out a few photos. “From the pictures, their relationship seems pretty good.”
Kong Si picked up the thread. “You mean it was this chubby kid who told He Xiao all the details about how I saved him?”
If that’s the case, then it explains how He Xiao was able to recount those details back then. Scientists say humans are social animals; most people love to talk and share, especially when something special happens to them—whether it’s joy, winning the lottery, or being bullied and hurt.
The chubby kid, who had few friends, was being bullied. In his extreme fear, someone appeared like a hero in a movie and saved him from his plight.
Not only did this person look like a hero, he was also exceptionally good-looking and a big name on campus. With such a novel-like, TV-drama plot happening to him, the chubby kid would definitely have a desire to talk about it.
At that age, they were at their most sensitive and rebellious. Compared to parents who didn’t understand and only treated them like little kids, a good friend was clearly the best person to confide in.
Thinking about it that way, the logic was perfectly sound.
But Kong Si said, “Still, the chubby kid is the chubby kid, and He Xiao is his friend. I didn’t save He Xiao, so why is he pretending to be the chubby kid to get close to me? To repay a favor on his behalf?”
He asked Lu Yi, “Are they biological brothers or something? Is that necessary?”
Lu Yi said, “The chubby kid does have an older brother, but it’s not He Xiao. They’re not blood-related—just friends who grew up together. They lived in the same compound, so they probably had a close bond.”
Right, just friends. Kong Si didn’t understand: “It was a casual thing for me. No big deal. If he owed me something and felt guilty enough to make it up to me, I could understand that. But he doesn’t owe me anything.”
Normal people, even if they wanted to repay a favor, would choose something the benefactor liked. They wouldn’t, after the other party had clearly refused, keep shoving things at them in a “I know what’s best for you” way.
He gave a brief summary of He Xiao’s recent behavior: “I don’t think he’s repaying a favor. I think he’s getting revenge.”
“Put that way, it’s not impossible,” Lu Yi said. “The person in these photos, the chubby kid next to He Xiao, passed away a year ago. And several years before that, he was diagnosed with a terminal illness.”
When he heard the word “terminal,” Kong Si’s eyelids twitched. He didn’t mean to comment on the deceased—after all, he really wasn’t familiar with the guy at all. Their only connection in school might have been that one casual act of help by chance.
A thought occurred to him, and he broke out in goosebumps. He shook his head, pushing the awful idea away, trying to think positively: “Lu Yi, what if He Xiao, to let the chubby kid rest in peace and go to heaven, is carrying out the act of repaying the favor on behalf of his deceased friend?”
Lu Yi rejected Kong Si’s guess: “If that were the case, why not just say so outright? Why hide the truth?”
If he wanted to do a good deed without taking credit, he should have not left his name at all from the start. Telling him about the chubby kid but not the truth—what kind of weirdo “Lei Feng” was that?*
[*Lei Feng: a famous Chinese cultural icon known for selfless altruism.]
No matter how he thought about it, it didn’t make sense. Lu Yi looked at Kong Si, whose expression had turned distressed and puzzled, and said in a flat tone, “I think that deceased friend of his liked you. And he stole his friend’s identity, possibly wanting the friend to be with you.”
Some people can get completely lost in the persona they create for themselves. He couldn’t fully understand this strange brotherly bond between He Xiao and the chubby kid, but based on what He Xiao had done and the two original endings in the book, he was forced to think in very unconventional directions.
Kong Si made a face like he’d been constipated for a long time. He looked at the two people in the photo, then opened his mouth: “If that’s really the case, then I’m almost sick to my stomach with disgust. Who does he think he is? Don’t drag me into his self-indulgent sentimentality, okay?”
These past few days, Kong Si had been vaguely keeping an eye on He Xiao. Not because he was moved by He Xiao’s feelings, but mainly because he was worried the guy might try to trick him—fake a fall or something.
But he never imagined things could be even more disgusting than what he’d already considered.
His expression turned fiercer. He said bitterly and viciously, “He better not be like that. If he is, I won’t let him off.”
The problem was, this was still just a guess between him and Lu Yi. He wouldn’t let anyone who harmed them get away, but he also didn’t want to wrong a good person.
Of course, He Xiao had already shown himself not to be a good person by deceiving him first. Even without this angle, He Xiao’s method of using soft power to pressure him into submission was already disgusting enough.
Kong Si said, “What kind of ‘liking’ is that? I think he’s just indulging in his own sentimental drama. Getting off on himself.”
Realizing he’d been treated as a tool in someone else’s narrative made him feel nauseous and sick.
Lu Yi had been quite displeased too, but seeing Kong Si’s reaction, he couldn’t help finding it a little amusing. He asked Kong Si, “If it really is like that, what are you planning to do? How will you not let him off?”
Was Kong Si going to follow the “scumbag” script and play with He Xiao’s feelings? Not only was it uncertain whether He Xiao actually liked Kong Si—everything was still just their inference and guesswork—even if He Xiao had liked him because of his friend, Lu Yi wouldn’t agree to such a revenge method.
Kong Si thought for a moment, then said very seriously, “I’ll take away what he treasures most. I’ll crush him in every aspect, defeat him, look down on him.”
Lu Yi asked him, “Then what do you think he treasures most?”
Kong Si shook his head. “I don’t know.”
That wasn’t the issue now, either. The key was that he urgently needed to know the truth.
He looked at Lu Yi with eager eyes: “I think we should first find a way to get him to talk. We go in prepared, and he’s off guard—he’ll definitely slip up.”
Lu Yi countered, “And how do you plan to get him to talk? Don’t tell me you want to do it yourself.”
Kong Si said, “How could that be? I’m not a scriptwriter.”
He could say he was good at acting, but fabricating a script to trick someone into talking—that wasn’t his forte. Besides, with Lu Yi watching, even if the goal was just to get information, letting him cozy up to He Xiao felt like he’d be betraying Lu Yi.
A flash of inspiration hit him, and he said, “I remember the agent you found for me used to be a screenwriter.”
Lu Yi said, “Yes, that’s right.”
The agent he’d found for Kong Si not only had good connections to build a network and land suitable scripts, but also had an excellent eye for judging script quality.
Otherwise, after Kong Si became famous and scripts came flooding in like snowflakes, if the agent handling him unofficially couldn’t distinguish good scripts from bad, Kong Si would be exhausted.
Kong Si grinned. “Then let’s give my private number to the agent. Anyway, he’s done stuff like this before, not just once or twice.”
The couple discussed it and agreed on a method both sides could accept. Finding out He Xiao’s true intention behind his overtures became the heavy responsibility on the agent’s shoulders.
Mimicking Kong Si’s tone, the agent expressed gratitude for He Xiao’s public support on this occasion, and through that opportunity, the two struck up a conversation. Their “friendship” gradually deepened.
After about a month and a half, the agent finally had results and handed over all the chat logs from that period to his employer.
After reading through those chat logs, Kong Si was so angry smoke practically came out of his nose. He hadn’t expected that his wild guess earlier had actually been the truth.