Chapter 90
The filming for the third episode of Life came to a perfect close.
Before Lin Zhiqiao could even catch his breath, he received a notice from his manager saying that the fourth episode of Life was planning to film his life as an actor, and that he should start preparing with the production team in advance.
Lin Zhiqiao fell into deep thought.
He was just a small-time nobody. In all the dramas he had filmed over the course of a whole year, the number of named roles he had played could be counted on one hand, and each appearance was shorter than the last.
He had not even received any acting scripts lately. Instead, he had gotten several variety show invitations in a row, and the response to all of them had been pretty good.
Lin Zhiqiao honestly felt that his manager might already be planning to have him switch tracks and become a regular guest on all sorts of variety shows.
As for his actor-at-work life… Lin Zhiqiao really had no idea what exactly there was to film.
They could not possibly drag a group of friends out under the scorching sun and spend the day running around the film studio city auditioning, right?
Lin Zhiqiao sank into thought again.
Actually… that did not seem entirely impossible.
It was supposed to be a life-experience program, after all. Letting everyone experience the real daily life of a bottom-tier unknown actor might actually make for pretty good variety content.
Lin Zhiqiao stayed up late working out a plan, but before he could even finish organizing his ideas, Director Fang contacted him again and said that the plan for episode four had already been decided, so he did not need to worry about it anymore.
Lin Zhiqiao asked, “What kind of plan is it?”
Director Fang acted all mysterious and refused to say. “You’ll know when the time comes.”
Lin Zhiqiao was utterly bewildered.
So for the filming of episode four, even he—the so-called “main character”—was going to be kept in the dark?
Unfortunately, not only Director Fang, but the entire production staff seemed to have conspired together and refused to reveal even a single word.
Lin Zhiqiao could only give up.
The fourth episode of Life still needed some time to prepare. That evening, the entertainment company he belonged to, Xinghe Entertainment, held an internal social gathering.
Having spent several days lying around like a salted fish with no gossip to eat, Lin Zhiqiao instantly came alive.
As usual, the gathering for Xinghe Entertainment was held at the Rodilanter Grand Hotel.
At seven in the evening, right at dinnertime.
The banquet hall was packed with people. At a glance, it was full of handsome men and beautiful women—practically a visual feast.
Lin Zhiqiao grabbed a huge plate of desserts from the sweets table and claimed a little resting spot in the corner, ready to crack open a few pieces of gossip to whet his appetite.
But before he even had the chance to tap open a blind box, he spotted a familiar face in the crowd—one he absolutely did not want to see.
It was Lin Mubai.
Today, Lin Mubai was wearing a bluish-gray suit with dark green bamboo patterns embroidered into the fabric, smiling and chatting with the people around him.
Lin Zhiqiao’s good mood instantly dropped by half.
Lin Mubai was not an artist under Xinghe Entertainment, but he often appeared at Xinghe’s various gatherings.
The reason was simple enough. Every time there was a gathering, Xinghe would send invitations to some relatively well-known artists. Lin Mubai had a decent reputation and had collaborated with Xinghe Entertainment before, so naturally he would receive an invitation.
Lin Zhiqiao withdrew his gaze and poked at the little cake on his plate with a spoon.
Unfortunately, just because he did not want to provoke Lin Mubai did not mean the other party felt the same way.
Lin Mubai clearly had no intention of letting him go.
As if sensing Lin Zhiqiao’s brief lingering glance just now, Lin Mubai suddenly turned his head and looked in his direction.
The young man pressed his lips together slightly, a trace of hesitation flashing across his refined face. Then he quietly said something to the person beside him and started walking alone toward Lin Zhiqiao.
Lin Zhiqiao, head lowered, did not notice, but 888 reminded him: [Host, Lin Mubai is coming over.]
Lin Zhiqiao: “……”
Why was this guy haunting him like a ghost?
He thought about it for one second, wondering if it was still possible to escape to the bathroom, but before he could decide, another familiar voice suddenly sounded beside his ear.
“Lin Zhiqiao.” The person called his name, and the voice was very close.
Lin Zhiqiao instinctively looked up. When he saw the tall, straight figure before him, he almost thought he was seeing things.
[How strange. Isn’t this a Xinghe gathering? Why is President Song here too?]
Song Fengshi was holding two glasses of juice. He stopped beside Lin Zhiqiao and asked, “Want to have a drink together?”
He tipped his chin toward the small balcony off to the side.
Lin Zhiqiao nodded hurriedly. “Sure.”
The juice was freshly squeezed orange juice. The moment it touched his hand, the rich sweet-sour scent of oranges rose up to greet him.
Not far away, Lin Mubai looked at the two people standing by the balcony railing and chatting casually, then regretfully withdrew his gaze.
Song Fengshi taking the initiative to approach Lin Zhiqiao was something Lin Mubai had never expected.
The two of them were people from completely different worlds, people who clearly should never have had any intersection at all—yet somehow they knew each other, and seemed to be on fairly good terms.
To many people, that alone was already incredibly bizarre.
For someone like Lin Zhiqiao, who had no background whatsoever, being able to latch onto Song Fengshi—even if it was only the shallowest sort of acquaintanceship—was the kind of capital he could flaunt to others.
But… what use was that, really?
In the end, he was only a short-lived ghost who would not survive for much longer anyway.
Lin Mubai lowered his eyes slightly, hiding the flash of ridicule and mockery in them. By the time he looked up again, his gaze had already returned to its usual clear and gentle softness.
*
On the small balcony—
Hearing from 888 that Lin Mubai had already left, Lin Zhiqiao’s mood immediately improved.
[He’s finally gone.] he muttered inwardly. [What a clingy ghost. So annoying.]
Song Fengshi sharply caught the change in mood from the person beside him.
He glanced once at Lin Mubai’s departing figure, then withdrew his gaze. “You don’t like him?”
It was clearly phrased like a question, yet somehow sounded more like a statement.
Lin Zhiqiao did not react at first. He swallowed the orange juice in his mouth and asked blankly, “Who?”
Song Fengshi said directly, “Lin Mubai.”
Lin Zhiqiao was a little surprised by his perceptiveness, but he did not hide it. He nodded openly. “Yeah. I don’t like him.”
Song Fengshi found it a little curious. It was rare for him to see Lin Zhiqiao show such obvious dislike toward someone. Usually, when Lin Zhiqiao reacted that way, it was because the person involved had some especially outrageous piece of gossip attached to them.
But Lin Mubai… at least for now, there had not been any particularly earth-shattering gossip exposed about him yet.
“You have some history with him?”
Lin Zhiqiao nodded. “Sort of.”
Very brief and to the point. It was obvious he had no intention of going into detail.
So Song Fengshi did not press further, though he had already made up his mind about something.
He changed the subject. “I heard from Fang Xinnan that the next episode’s theme is actor life.”
Lin Zhiqiao naturally picked up the topic. “Yeah…”
And so the two of them drifted naturally into talking about other things.
Lin Zhiqiao was not actually someone who especially liked chatting, particularly not with people he was not very close to.
In his view, socializing was an activity that consumed a huge amount of energy. You had to catch what the other person said, think up new topics, make sure things did not get awkward…
Complicated and troublesome.
But when he chatted with Song Fengshi, it never felt like that.
Before getting to know Song Fengshi, Lin Zhiqiao had originally assumed that someone in President Song’s position must speak and act with sharp decisiveness—focused on efficiency, fairly aggressive, and not all that concerned with how other people felt.
But after actually interacting with him, he realized it was not like that at all.
Maybe because he had seen and dealt with so many different people and situations, Song Fengshi always gave off a calm, unhurried feeling when he talked, as though everything was under control.
He never made the other person unable to respond, and never let what the other person said fall awkwardly to the ground.
Whenever Lin Zhiqiao talked with him, he always felt a strangely comforting sense of ease.
Completely different from the “iron-blooded” public image of the Song family’s ruler.
In the middle of their conversation, Song Fengshi even thoughtfully went to fetch some snacks and drinks.
That was, until a sudden phone ringtone broke their conversation.
Song Fengshi took out his phone, glanced at the caller ID, and hung up. Not long after, the phone started ringing again.
So Lin Zhiqiao said, “Go answer it. I’ll wait here for you.”
Only then did Song Fengshi nod. “Sorry. I’ll be right back.”
Lin Zhiqiao waved a hand at him. “Go, go. Don’t hold up anything important.”
After he left, Lin Zhiqiao nibbled on pastries and started bothering 888 again: [Little System give me a few pieces of gossip to go with my food.]
Where there were a lot of people, there was bound to be a lot of gossip. That was the experience of a veteran melon-eating raccoon.
And the facts proved exactly that—
[Some young actor surnamed Sun has already gone bald from overwork at such a young age and suffers every day because of hair loss. In order to maintain a good outward image, he has had no choice but to become a loyal customer at a certain wig shop.]
Inside the banquet hall, a certain young, handsome man instinctively clapped a hand over the top of his head, his expression cycling through red, yellow, green, blue, and purple in a highly entertaining way.
Lin Zhiqiao sighed: [A grind king who grinded so hard he even gave up his hair? That’s way too desperate!]
He touched his own hair, grateful that he was just a flat-laying salted fish.
[The eldest son of the Li family spent 8.88 million to buy an excavated antique, but in reality it’s a fake. Its excavation site—ah no, its production site—is a certain famous wholesale factory…]
Another person’s face changed drastically, and he stormed angrily out of the hall.
At that moment, Lin Mubai was chatting pleasantly with the eldest young master of the Tao family.
The Tao family was in fashion design, and Tao Qianran, the eldest son, was exceptionally gifted in that field.
It was obvious that Tao Qianran was also one of Lin Mubai’s main targets of conquest—and that Lin Mubai had already made very obvious progress.
Anyone could see just how hot and sincere the gaze Tao Qianran directed at Lin Mubai was, how intense the emotions hidden in it were.
And to Tao Qianran, Lin Mubai was his muse of inspiration.
The two were talking happily when a somewhat abrupt voice suddenly appeared in Tao Qianran’s ears.
This was not the first time Tao Qianran had heard Lin Zhiqiao’s inner voice. He had heard it at the last Xinghe gathering too, so it no longer surprised him.
Even though he found the voice annoyingly ill-timed, slightly disruptive to this rare chance at being alone with his muse, still…
Everyone was interested in gossip.
Noticing Tao Qianran’s brief distraction, Lin Mubai asked softly, “What’s wrong?”
Tao Qianran came back to himself, a little ashamed at having gotten distracted. “Nothing.”
He decided to block out that chattering voice.
But in the very next second—
[The eldest young master of the Tao family’s assistant is actually his younger brother’s man. He’s been lurking by his side this whole time just to find a chance to steal his design drafts.]
[Good lord, seriously, good lord. The older brother’s newest design is a birthday gift prepared for Lin Mubai, and the younger brother is stealing the drafts for the exact same person’s birthday too!]
[The tacit understanding between you rich-family brothers really is extraordinary. Even your taste is this perfectly aligned? What moving brotherly devotion that could shake heaven and move ghosts!]
[Oh ho! The assistant has already gotten the eldest son’s computer password, and he’s planning to make his move tonight!]
[So does this mean I might get to witness the grand spectacle of rich-family brothers fighting over the same person?]
Under the surrounding people’s eager-for-drama gazes, Tao Qianran’s expression changed sharply.
Lin Mubai, not noticing the split-second change in his face, was still smiling as he asked, “Weren’t you saying you wanted to invite me to dance?”
But instead, the person in front of him suddenly said, “Sorry, Mubai. I just remembered something extremely important. I’m afraid I’ll have to excuse myself.”
Then he turned and hurried off, leaving Lin Mubai standing there alone, unable to recover for a long moment.
