Chapter 58 - 1#
Press Conference#
Because of the puppy, Mo Xuzhi stayed at Wang Zhifeng’s house for another day.
His previous phone had been damaged by snow water, and since he had been lying in the hospital afterward, there was no place to use a phone. After entering the base, he completely forgot about this matter. He only remembered it today when he was about to send messages to the researchers at the Institute of Technology, so he bought a new one.
The phone purchase came with two keychains, and Mo Xuzhi conveniently gave one to Wang Zhifeng.
The puppy had frolicked for an entire afternoon and fell asleep in Mo Xuzhi’s arms after dinner.
The light in the room was just right, not glaring. Mo Xuzhi was tinkering with the new phone, installing software and transferring data, while Wang Zhifeng changed to another book and continued reading.
Although the previous phone was broken, fortunately, Wang Zhifeng was reliable, and the data was rescued in time and saved. Now it just needed to be transferred into this phone.
Mo Xuzhi leaned on the sofa, holding the phone and clicking around randomly.
Wang Zhifeng glanced at him, then took a throw pillow and tucked it behind his back.
Mo Xuzhi moved cooperatively, his eyelashes curving: “Thank you, Professor Wang.”
Professor Wang then went back to reading his book.
The data was a bit large and still being imported. Mo Xuzhi had nothing else to do, so he casually opened Weibo.
He logged into his author account.
He hadn’t logged in for three years; who knew what it had become.
He had already left enough saved drafts; normally, it should have been finished.
When he was filming “Beijing’s Final Echo,” he had already agreed to discuss with the copyright editor and ultimately sold the copyright to Song Zhenrui.
Three years had passed; he didn’t know how it was being handled.
There were quite a few messages for the account. Mo Xuzhi held the phone and looked for a long time, but it remained stuck on the main interface, motionless.
The interface finally refreshed. Mo Xuzhi waited a bit longer before he dared to move.
The software was still lagging a bit, but it was barely within an acceptable range.
Mo Xuzhi first flipped through the private messages.
Compared to his other account, his Weibo followers were very, very few. Not many people sent private messages every day, and the private messages were all seemingly lively and cute daily greetings, so he hadn’t turned off private messages.
This time, however, there were far more private messages than he expected, and he couldn’t reach the bottom after sliding for a long time.
His fingers were a bit sore from sliding. Mo Xuzhi gave up the idea of sliding to the bottom and slid up one by one from the most recent message.
A three-year span was indeed a bit long.
He saw many readers who had persisted in sending him messages. They didn’t send many—only greeting him before the completion, then clapping and throwing flowers when it was completed, and then saying congratulations on selling the copyright.
After replying to a few recent private messages, Mo Xuzhi looked at his profile picture as he clicked on the comment section and suddenly saw a sharp change in the number of followers.
The number of followers had somehow surpassed one million.
Mo Xuzhi’s expression remained unchanged as he continued to look at the comment section.
After reading, he understood.
Song Zhenrui was very active this time. In more than three years, he had finished filming the movie, and it had now entered the promotion stage. Even he, the original author, had benefited from the traffic.
Mo Xuzhi clicked into the Weibo posted by Song Zhenrui through the link in the comment section.
At the top of Song Zhenrui’s page was content related to this movie, including the lead actors’ promotional photos and various behind-the-scenes clips.
Mo Xuzhi took a few looks, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.
As he thought, Song Zhenrui was always very accurate in his choice of people. The several lead actors in the promotional photos all looked very fitting to the image of the characters he imagined.
He didn’t know if these people were currently popular stars, nor did he care about how much traffic and profit these people could bring him.
He just wanted to see that group of people in his mind be brought to the big screen, so that more people would know about their hard work and struggle.
Mo Xuzhi conveniently gave a like.
With this like, the readers who had been waiting for the author to come online for several years immediately discovered it.
The private messages began to ding-dong.
Many people sent messages, the general meaning being that he finally decided to “return from the dead.”
Mo Xuzhi had seen it before—many readers sent messages saying they were worried that some accident had happened to him, and they persisted in sending messages for a long time asking about his situation, almost calling 110 directly.
Mo Xuzhi slowly edited the text, preparing to post a Weibo. Seeing that his previous Weibo posts all had pictures, he looked back at the editing interface and felt that it was a bit strange and empty to have only text without pictures.
Glancing out the window, he found that it was completely dark outside.
The weather was good today, the stars were very bright, and the sky looked very beautiful.
Mo Xuzhi walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and took a photo of the sky.
The phone was chosen by Wang Zhifeng, and the pixels were startlingly good. The entire sky looked very deep, and the stars were captured very well.
[Wuzhi: I’m fine, back from a business trip. Thank you for your concern :) [Image]]
The moment he finished posting, Mo Xuzhi, with great foresight, turned off the phone volume.
As expected, in an instant, the phone immediately began to vibrate.
[Ta-ta-ta-ta! It’s a live Ta-ta! Wailing, it’s so good that Ta-ta is fine (Tough girl crying.jpg)]
[It’s still the familiar middle-aged person emoticons; it’s definitely the Big Boss (Tears)]
[The movie is about to be released! So looking forward to it, so looking forward to it!]
[Looking forward +1. Originally afraid it would be ruined, but seeing the director is Director Song, I immediately started to look forward to it! Ever since watching “Beijing’s Final Echo” last time, I’ve caught up on all of Director Song’s movies, EVERY! SINGLE! ONE! is so good!]
[When does Ta-ta plan to write the next book? Wailing, I’ve read this one back and forth more than ten times, and I still want to continue reading.]
[Big Boss, food, hungry.]
[What beautiful stars. Blindly guessing that Big Boss lives on a high floor; the view is so open.]
…
Mo Xuzhi lay back on the sofa and slowly replied one by one.
[Don’t cry :D]
[I’m also looking forward to it.]
[Haven’t decided on the next book yet. If I have any ideas, I’ll let everyone know at the first instance.]
[This is a friend’s house; the view is indeed very good.]
He was smiling when he replied to the messages. The smile was shallow and looked very vivid.
Wang Zhifeng put down the book in his hand and turned to ask: “Why so happy?”
Mo Xuzhi: “Hmm?”
Wang Zhifeng said: “You look very happy.”
Mo Xuzhi turned off the screen. When he looked at the phone again, he saw his own face.
So he had smiled.
He hadn’t noticed it himself at all.
“Mm,” he nodded and said, “There’s a group of very cute people.”
They blow “rainbow farts” every day; for an extra chapter, they can blow out a flower. They can praise people without ever repeating words, and they’re very lively.
Wang Zhifeng smiled: “That’s good.”
He looked at his watch again and said, “It’s already 10:30. Before going to the press conference tomorrow, we have to go back to the military region hospital. Might have to get up early, so go to bed early.”
Mo Xuzhi nodded: “Okay, I’ll sleep after replying to this message.”
While Mo Xuzhi was still sitting in the living room replying to messages, Wang Zhifeng went to the kitchen, tinkered for a few minutes, and then came out again.
At that time, Mo Xuzhi was crouching in front of the puppy’s kennel, watching it sleep.
Wang Zhifeng crouched down to watch with him, and after realizing he was blocking the light, he moved aside.
“Professor Wang,” Mo Xuzhi asked, “Has the puppy’s name been chosen yet? What’s its name?”
“It’s called Mo Xiaobao.”
“?”
Mo Xuzhi asked, “Why does it have the same surname as me?”
“It’s closer to you,” Wang Zhifeng said seriously. “Taking the surname of the person it’s close to will make the puppy grow stronger and healthier.”
Mo Xuzhi was intimidated by Wang Zhifeng’s serious tone, then reacted and said: “Professor Wang, you’re being superstitious.”
Wang Zhifeng smiled and took the opportunity to help Mo Xuzhi up, saying: “The doctor said you can’t stay up late. Time to sleep.”
Wang Zhifeng watched Mo Xuzhi return to his room, then moved the puppy’s kennel closer to the room door to ensure the puppy could find someone when it woke up, and then went to his room to sleep as well.
Early the next morning, Wang Zhifeng got up and glanced at Mo Xiaobao. Seeing that it was still sleeping, he went to the kitchen to make breakfast.
When he came out after finishing breakfast, he found that the puppy that was originally lying in the kennel had disappeared.
Mo Xuzhi’s room door was open.
Wang Zhifeng untied his apron and knocked on Mo Xuzhi’s room door.
“Mo Xuzhi, time to get up.”
A humming sound came from inside, followed by Mo Xuzhi’s voice. He had just woken up, and his voice was still a bit hoarse. He threatened:
“Mo Xiaobao, if you squeeze me again, I’ll throw you down.” His voice was small, and combined with the fuzziness of just waking up, it didn’t sound threatening at all.
It seemed he accepted the name Mo Xiaobao quite well.
Wang Zhifeng knocked on the door again and said: “Mo Xuzhi, Mo Xiaobao, time to get up and eat.”
“Wang Zhifeng, quick, quick, quick, Mo Xiaobao is fighting for my spot!”
Hearing this, Wang Zhifeng pushed open the half-closed door and entered the room.
As soon as he entered the door and turned his head, he saw a large lump and a small lump on the bed moving continuously.
The large lump retreated to the very edge and then sat directly up from the bed.
Mo Xuzhi’s face was written with exhaustion.
The small lump also moved beside him, nuzzling around his body, and finally found a comfortable position and stopped moving.
Wang Zhifeng asked: “What happened?”
The victim said: “Just now I heard it barking, so I opened the door to let it in, and then it got onto the bed.” And then it became like this.
While he was still sleeping, he heard a sound at the door. As soon as he opened the door, he saw Mo Xiaobao spinning around at the door, with tearful eyes, so he let it into the room.
Once in the room, the puppy climbed up the quilt and crawled into the bedding.
He thought, let it climb; anyway, the puppy had had a bath and its paws were clean. It was just a matter of giving up a spot, so he didn’t pick it up and take it down.
Then this tragedy happened. The result was that Mo Xiaobao kept pushing him toward the edge of the bed, making it completely impossible for him to sleep.
Wang Zhifeng probably knew what was happening.
The puppy was clingy to Mo Xuzhi and wanted to nuzzle up beside him. Mo Xuzhi was afraid of squashing the puppy if he got too close, so he kept retreating until there was nowhere left to retreat.
“I’ll teach it a lesson later.” Wang Zhifeng suppressed a smile and said, “Get up and wash your face and brush your teeth. Time to eat.”
From getting up to sitting at the dining table, Mo Xuzhi’s eyelids were always drooping. Only after smelling the aroma of breakfast on the table did he perk up a bit.
The culprit, a certain Xiaobao, was happily eating breakfast under the dining table.
Wang Zhifeng looked at Mo Xuzhi’s still somewhat tired eyebrows and realized something, asking: “Did you fail to fall asleep last night again, or did you take sleeping pills?”
Mo Xuzhi took a sip of milk and said: “Took medicine.”
Wang Zhifeng unconsciously adjusted his glasses frame, then chose to skip this topic for the time being, saying: “Take a good rest after returning from the press conference. Once you’ve rested well, you’ll have energy. We’ll take Xiaobao out for a walk then, and I’ll cook for you when we get back. What do you want to eat tonight?”
The thing he was worried about still happened.
The doctor had told him about Mo Xuzhi’s insomnia long ago. When they were at the base, he was also responsible for keeping Mo Xuzhi’s medicine. He watched Mo Xuzhi continuously swallow sleeping pills for more than three years, just to force himself to rest and ensure he could work better the next day.
The day before, he saw that Mo Xuzhi could sleep without sleeping pills, and slept for a long time and very deeply, and he had thought that perhaps he wouldn’t need to use sleeping pills to fall asleep anymore. It turned out that that day was only because he hadn’t rested for too long.
He had thought too simply.
“Tonight?” Mo Xuzhi slowly put down the milk cup and said, “Next time. I’ve lived here for so long; it’s time to go back.”
" I’m not worried," Wang Zhifeng said very directly. “You didn’t ask the auntie to cook. Are you going to have upside-down meals or one meal a day again when you go back?”
Mo Xuzhi said: “No way, I won’t.”