Chapter 20#
Endless Brilliance#
This time it was unavoidable; Mo Xuzhi and Du Minsheng exchanged contact information.
After adding Du Minsheng on WeChat, he placed him in the “infrequent contacts” category.
Du Minsheng lowered his head, set the chat to “sticky” at the top, and then put down his phone.
Mo Xuzhi was about to open the document Wang Zhifeng had sent him, but seeing the others arriving one after another, he silently turned off his phone again.
Aside from the four of them sitting close together, four more people boarded the bus.
One was Zhang Xuanxuan, a popular contestant from a recent hit survival show. There was also a movie king and a movie queen who were currently rumored to be in a hot relationship, plus a fresh-faced boy named Fan Yibai, likely a newcomer the entertainment company intended to promote.
Regardless of the others, with Luo Wenyun, Du Minsheng, and the movie king and queen, the lineup could be described as ultra-luxurious.
They introduced themselves to each other and found seats in pairs.
Up until now, everything was normal.
But the production team didn’t want “quiet and beautiful.”
Just before the bus started, they saw two staff members moving several suitcases onto the bus one by one.
The guests on the bus all recognized these as their own luggage.
Clap clap.
The director clapped twice. Seeing that everyone’s eyes were on him, he cleared his throat and said simply and directly, “Surprise luggage check.”
He claimed it was to check for prohibited items.
Except for Du Minsheng and Luo Wenyun, the other guests looked shocked.
Du Minsheng swept a glance over them and could tell at once that some people’s acting was indeed lacking; their eyes were wide like copper bells, and if one didn’t know better, they’d think something terrible had happened to them.
Turning back to Mo Xuzhi, Du Minsheng found that while his expression wasn’t exactly shocked, he did look a bit stunned and confused.
He leaned closer to Mo Xuzhi and asked in a low voice, “You didn’t know?”
Mo Xuzhi really didn’t know.
He asked back, “Should I have known?”
Before entering this book, he only acted and had never participated in a variety show; he didn’t understand the process at all. After arriving here, he had only participated in a few short variety shows that didn’t require suitcases. He didn’t know the tricks of the trade. The novel hadn’t detailed this plot either, only mentioning that the show happened to capture a photo of Shen Le and Luo Wenyun together.
Furthermore, even if he didn’t understand, this involved private privacy issues, so the production team should have communicated in advance.
He hadn’t received any prior notice.
But looking at the others, they all seemed to know there would be such a segment.
Du Minsheng said, “It’s the default.”
Surprise luggage checks were generally a default segment for variety shows. Sometimes, to save trouble, the production team wouldn’t notify them, but guests would usually prepare in advance.
Mo Xuzhi slumped back into his seat and wiped his face with his hand.
His whole being looked indescribably haggard and tired.
The staff were checking the boxes in turn. When they encountered one with a password, they had to ask the guest to open it themselves.
Several people’s suitcases were checked and found to contain only clothes. Zhang Xuanxuan had additionally packed a copy of An Actor Prepares and a diary. Fan Yibai had even packed several classic literary works. All were conventional and full of substance, impossible to find fault with.
However, the atmosphere livened up when it was the movie king and queen’s turn. Each of their suitcases contained two identical pieces of clothing, which was very eye-catching.
Then it was Mo Xuzhi’s turn.
Mo Xuzhi was about to use the “salted fish” tactic and say he forgot the password, but with a click, the suitcase opened.
“…”
“Force majeure” again.
Seeing that he seemed to have something to say, the staff member asked sincerely, “Does Teacher Mo have anything to say?”
Mo Xuzhi slumped back into a salted fish state: “No.”
Both guests and staff craned their necks to see what was in the suitcase.
Unexpectedly, there were very few things in the suitcase.
More accurately, the variety of items was very limited.
Two sets of spare clothes, a laptop in a specialized bag, and two large blue folders, packed very neatly.
The staff member even weighed the folders. “So heavy.”
The entire suitcase exuded a mysterious vibe of “sexual frigidity.”
Mo Xuzhi didn’t look like a guest on a dating show; he looked more like a corporate slave here to work.
The staff member expressed his confusion through his expression. Pointing at the laptop, he asked, “What did you bring this for?”
Mo Xuzhi said succinctly, “To play games.”
The staff member tapped the thick blue “bricks” in his hand. “What are these?”
“Game guides. Top-secret version. I spent money to buy them. If you want to open and look at them, you have to pay first.”
The staff member’s mouth twitched. “Then you’re quite diligent.”
Mo Xuzhi smiled. “Just reached Silver yesterday.”
“Then how long have you been playing this game?”
“Five years.”
Mo Xuzhi calculated seriously. Excluding the years he hadn’t touched the game at all, the actual time he played was probably less than half a year.
He had a serious face, but the others couldn’t hold it in.
Zhang Xuanxuan was the first to laugh out loud, and then the others followed suit. Even Luo Wenyun had a faint smile on his face.
The staff member lost interest in this “top-secret game guide” that allowed Mo Xuzhi to successfully cross from Bronze to “Noble Silver” in five years. Finally letting go of the blue folders and putting them back in place, he picked up another suitcase that had been set aside.
That was Shen Le’s.
His suitcase didn’t have a password; it could be opened by pulling a zipper.
He brought some clothes and several books, with a few photos tucked inside the books.
The photos weren’t placed properly, showing a few corners.
The staff member asked, “May I take these out to look?”
Shen Le saw the corners of those photos, and his face suddenly turned red. He looked a bit conflicted, then as if making a decision, he nodded hesitantly, “You can.”
The staff member briskly pulled the photos out.
It was a photo that looked like it was taken a long time ago.
The two people in the photo were neither too close nor too far apart. Both smiled with restraint, but the intense emotion seemed to overflow from the small piece of paper.
The others looked at Luo Wenyun, then back at Shen Le, their eyes flickering with suspicion.
One or two even glanced at Mo Xuzhi, finding that he was leaning against the backrest and talking to Du Minsheng, not noticing the situation here at all, and then withdrew their gaze.
The two people in the photo were Luo Wenyun and Shen Le. They looked not much different from how they did now, only much greener in the photo, looking like they were in junior or senior high school.
The “hot point” had arrived!
Netizens were currently most concerned about Luo Wenyun’s love life, but day after day, besides Mo Xuzhi who actively tried to piggyback on his popularity, other scandals were hard to capture.
Who would have thought it would be delivered to their doorstep today?
The director felt a bit hot, took off his hat, set it aside, and asked, “Lele and Teacher Luo know each other?”
The director changed his way of addressing him quite quickly, calling him “Lele” already.
Shen Le glanced at Luo Wenyun, then smiled, his ears a bit red. “Mm.”
As expected, it was this photo.
Luo Wenyun noticed the gazes from others and also saw the photo; his expression remained unchanged.
Then he paused for a moment, raised the corners of his lips slightly, and smiled faintly.
The smile didn’t reach his eyes, but no one saw it.
Luo Wenyun didn’t deny it!
This was like a signal. The center of the conversation instantly shifted to the two people sitting side by side. The guests moved to the seats next to them, and the cameras focused on them.
Luo Wenyun didn’t speak much. Shen Le seemed to have a good temper, speaking gently and answering various questions from the other guests one by one.
The excitement was all theirs. In the front, Mo Xuzhi and Du Minsheng had already downloaded and opened the game.
Neither had any interest in the topics in the back. Since everyone’s attention was glued to the back, they didn’t have to deal with other guests or staff, so they took the opportunity to play the game instead.
They were playing the mobile version of the game Mo Xuzhi had played on the computer before.
Mo Xuzhi originally just wanted to see what this game would look like as a mobile game, but Du Minsheng said he was also interested, which turned into the current situation of two “noobs” teaming up.
Du Minsheng had never played this game at all. Mo Xuzhi was used to computer operations; suddenly switching to a mobile phone, he found that his fingers had ideas of their own.
Fortunately, both were using newly registered accounts. Their actual opponents were only bots, so they wouldn’t lose face in front of real people.
They played several rounds in a row until the system prompted that the next battle would be against real players. Both Mo Xuzhi and Du Minsheng turned off their phones together.
Du Minsheng put on his headphones and explained, “Suddenly got some inspiration, recording it first.”
Mo Xuzhi nodded. “Someone sent me a message. We’ll play again later.”
Both had their own thoughts and exited the game interface.
Mo Xuzhi didn’t expect that someone really had sent him a message.
It was from his copyright editor, sent an hour ago.
The editor had typed a long paragraph, roughly saying that a production team wanted to buy the film and television rights and was seeking his opinion.
The country had recently been vigorously promoting “rejuvenating the country through science and technology,” actively popularizing matters related to technology, hoping that more young people could enter this field.
What he wrote happened to be technology-related, so they naturally found their way to him.
Mo Xuzhi didn’t reply immediately. After saying he wanted to think about it more, he closed the dialog box.
He didn’t have the energy for these things for the time being.
The novel’s plot had begun to gallop from this point. He had too many scenes to rush to, plus the matters at the Institute of Science; he really couldn’t find the time to deal with this.
While they were playing the game, the bus had driven away from the airport and arrived in the suburbs.
Mo Xuzhi turned his head and, through the window glass, suddenly met a vast field of golden rapeseed flowers.
There were no residences here. The entire small hillside was covered in rapeseed flowers, enclosed by wooden fences. It was a golden expanse, extremely brilliant.
Mo Xuzhi held up his phone and took a photo.
Then he skillfully switched accounts and uploaded it to Weibo.
[Wuzhi: Saw this while at work, sharing it with everyone [Image]]
Under the azure sky was a golden sea of flowers, with small field paths hidden within. One could feel the exuberant vitality even through the screen.
Fans who came upon hearing the news looked at the photo back and forth, inside and out, several times, and finally discovered something was wrong.
Most of the photo’s colors were vivid, but the corner was a bit dark.
The reflection on the glass window showed a pair of slender fingers, so faint they were almost non-existent.