HOYSE CHAPTER 54

Chapter 54 — I Really Like It

Mo Dian noticed that Gu Xi seemed to be trembling, but the room had air conditioning, so it should not have been cold.

Gu Xi kept his back to him, holding the same pose for a very long time, long enough that the crew came to hurry them for the third time.

“Gu Xi, we need to go.” There was still makeup to set and an entrance to make. They were on a tight schedule.

Gu Xi turned his head. His eyes looked as if they had been rinsed in water, sparkling with a quick, lively light. It was like tears, and also like a bead of dew on a leaf at dawn. He was holding what looked like a very plain cross necklace. He asked, “I want to wear it.” This is my armor.

He had never expected that the chain he had been thinking about for so long would appear in front of him without warning.

When he bought it, he was pretty sure it was not for him. Rong Jing was too mean.

Except that kind of mean made his heart pound.

His emotions were rising and falling so hard that the other consciousness felt as if it had just reawakened in the dark.

If you want someone to know you and like you, you have to break your own walls first.

You want to go crazy for what you want. Why not look your heart in the eye?

You are afraid.

Afraid the psychos will notice him, and that you cannot protect him.

Afraid of becoming a burden, afraid that even he will not be able to stand it and will leave.

Afraid that once you spend enough time together, he will find out you are not at all as good as you pretend to be.

Those voices sounded as if they drifted down from the sky.

It sounded like Gu Feng talking, and also like some voice inside Gu Xi’s heart starting to stir.

Gu Xi did not realize it yet, but the thick wall he had just built had a thin crack running through it.

He ignored the noise, ignored Gu Feng, went to the restroom to wash his hands, dried them, then solemnly looped the cross’s leather cord around his neck. The ruby at the center caught the light and burned the color of flame.

When he had helped Rong Jing choose a necklace, Gu Xi had already learned where the trigger was. He pressed it, a faint blue light flickered on to show it had started, then the piece settled down and looked like any ordinary chain again. Once Rong Jing logged into the backend, he would be able to see Gu Xi’s location at any time.

The corner of Gu Xi’s mouth lifted, held carefully in check.

Mo Dian could tell Gu Xi’s mood had improved a lot. If you asked him how, he could not point to one thing, since Gu Xi always kept the same cool, distant persona, mostly to fend off buzzing flies. It was less of a persona now and more of a habit of character, but people who were around him long enough could read him clearly. Right now, it felt like he had come back to life.

When they stepped out, Mo Dian noticed that Gu Xi had not fastened the top button. You could see a small stretch of the cord and the shadow of his collarbone.

Maybe it was because Gu Xi’s skin was so pale. That little contrast of black and white was dangerously attractive.

In a flash of inspiration, Mo Dian said, “I heard a saying once…”

Gu Xi said, “Mm?”

“When an Alpha gives you clothes, what he really wants is to take them off you one by one himself.”

Heat rushed to Gu Xi’s face. He thumped Mo Dian’s forehead. “What kind of trash are you spouting. So dirty.” As if Rong Jing would ever…

The image of the T3 restroom stall came back to him all at once, breath mingling. Gu Xi felt even less at ease. His good mood took a sharp turn. The car was moving too fast, and he felt a little dizzy.

While they waited for the elevator, the doors slid open and a hotel staffer walked out carrying an expensive-looking box. He stopped at Gu Xi’s room number and knocked. Looked like a “gift.”

Gu Xi and Mo Dian glanced at each other and hurried into the elevator.

Only after they reached the hotel entrance and got into the car did they both exhale at the same time, like they had dodged a crisis.

It was always the same pattern. When Gu Xi ran into trouble, the plotline for the original “gong” would pop up.

Here too, as long as they watched Gu Xi’s movements in real time, no way would they pass up a chance to fawn.

Rong Jing had not logged into the backend yet, so he did not know Gu Xi had already turned on the tracker.

He had never given a man something this particular before. He had wanted to ask, but he was pretty sure that once Gu Xi realized it was a tracker he would be furious, then storm over to settle accounts with him.

Judging by the silence, maybe he had not activated it yet?

Should he ask?

He was just thinking that when he noticed ahead of him that Xie Ling had lifted his eyes from the documents and was staring straight at him, as if holding something back.

“Why did you not have Zhou You push it down?”

Xie Ling had woken with a hangover and felt awful. Then he saw the sobering soup his little brother had made specially for him and felt so comforted he could not help finishing the whole pot, and now his stomach was tight.

“Do we just push down every problem from now on?”

“Why not?”

“And how will that make the Xie family look.”

The “we” in that sentence struck Xie Ling right in the heart. He was a little happy.

On the way in, he had checked and seen the rumors splashed over his little brother, and he had planned to force those trending topics down.

But Rong Jing did not intend to do it that way. Blocked water does not drain. The harder you push, the bigger the backlash later.

Netizens were wizards now. Once they realized he was a Xie, they would start making up—

For an old company, building a reputation takes ages, and ruining it is simple. Sometimes one incident is enough.

“Is the identity of the Xie family’s youngest son something that cannot be seen in the light?” That was really what Xie Ling disliked.

“Of course not. I like being a Xie.” Rong Jing’s eyes did soften when he looked at Xie Ling. He also had a little imp’s grin. “But first impression, I am an actor. Only then a Xie. Ge, I want you to be proud of me, not for people to think my… you know. I am an adult. I can handle these. This stuff is drizzle.”

In his last life he had been born into an acting family. He had been in the spotlight and under public fire for years. Compared to those days and that anti-fandom, this was nothing.

Xie Ling looked at him like watching an eagle that had been testing its wings and was about to take off into the open sky.

What he could do was to escort his brother when he is tired, not to cage an eagle.

“You did very well yesterday. Those executives could not stop praising you. If there is anything you need to collaborate on later, stop hiding it.”

“Ge, if there is meat on the table, some should go to our own entertainment company first. Did you agree to invest in Sovereignty? No matter what people say, that is also my—” Rong Jing slipped in a little maneuver.

“It is already signed. It will be finalized in a few days.” He cut off the “recommend me” before it fully formed. All that high-minded talk, and in the end still angling for family resources. Unlike others, Xie Ling had no doubts about Sovereignty. He would have invested just to back his brother.

Satisfied, Rong Jing headed to Xie Entertainment. He found most of the trainees crowded around a big LCD screen, watching intently.

In a sweep of the camera he glimpsed a familiar face. He started forward, but a few trainees shoved him without even looking up. “Do not squeeze. Do not squeeze. Have some order.”

A beat later, the room erupted. “Ahhh, Gu Xi is out. He looks too handsome today.”

“First time seeing him in white. It is perfect on him. Why did he never wear it before? My heart is going to give out.”

“My god, I grew up watching him. He is the reason I became a trainee.”

“They said it was V’s haute couture. How come I have not seen this look before.”

Rong Jing had to stand back and look through the gaps. On the screen, Gu Xi was wearing the outfit he had given him. So something had happened after all.

Gu Xi stepped out of a long sedan. A suit cut to him like it had been made for him drew out a body that was slender but not weak. His expression was cool and sharp, and then for a second it was not, and you could see the warmth at the edges. When all the lights and cameras turned his way, he moved forward without a ripple and took a moment to greet fans along the path.

It was like he had put on a suit of armor that belonged only to him. Confident and at ease, he burned on his stage.

Fans from China who had specially gone to Venice shouted his name in unison. Even foreign fans who did not know him were swept up by the wave and the looks that crossed borders. They learned how to say it and shouted with them.

The chants rose and fell, and the Western artists ahead actually thought some mega star had arrived and glanced back.

Gu Xi seemed to feel a lens turn toward him. In the tight close-up, those indifferent eyes suddenly flooded with life, a brilliance that pulled at the heart. His fingers rested lightly at his collarbone, as if pressing something there.

Then, under the gaze of the world, his mouth curved.

It felt like he was looking through the camera at someone.

Saying: I really like this gift.

Rong Jing stared at the man blazing in the frame. In that moment, the still surface of his heart felt as if a feather had brushed it.

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