HOYSE CHAPTER 63

Chapter 63 — “A Kissing Double. You Don’t Mind, Right?”

Gu Xi’s face stayed cool as ice while he watched the drama unfold, which looked hilariously out of place.

Zhou You unconsciously shifted aside to give him the best viewing angle.

“Wuu wuu wuu…” Qi Ying was sobbing hard, long past caring about the image he always guarded. To top it off, he had just been told by the producer that he was being released from the project. The excuse was, “Your vibe clashes with our set’s feng shui.” A reason so laughable it might as well have been stamped This Is A Pretext!

He tried to call Xie Ling to ask why but only got through to the assistant. The meaning could not be clearer. Xie Ling saw the bet as tainted and had simply kicked him to the curb.

One line from the assistant hit Qi Ying like cold water: if you keep pestering, it will not just be Xie Group who blacklists you.

Only then did he truly grasp how scary Xie Ling could be. He was soft only to his younger brother and ruthless to everyone else. A personality like that was how he had driven Xie Group upward in barely ten years.

He had been relying on the idea that Rong Jing hated him yet still had a lingering attachment, which was why he dared to be so brazen. Maybe Rong Jing had let go long ago and had not kept even a thread of sentiment for him.

Otherwise why be this absolute? Maybe it was only Qi Ying who was stuck in their old memories, unable to walk out.

“Rong Jing, are you never going to look back?” Qi Ying asked, wiping his face as he stood and confronted the Alpha before him.

At those words, Gu Xi felt his heart lifted in someone’s hand.

He wanted Rong Jing to reject him, not let sticky candy latch on. He also did not want it to be too brutal. He was a knot of contradictions and nerves.

Rong Jing’s brows and eyes were cool, without the slightest hesitation. “Yeah.”

He had to be. Had he not made it obvious enough already.

Qi Ying had been too confident, confident enough to believe that if he turned around, someone would always take him back.

Rong Jing could feel the looks at his back and helplessly flicked an eye toward the two spectators. Hearing the answer, Gu Xi’s heart that had been picked up gently settled again.

“Even if I post all of this online, is there really no room to turn it around?” Qi Ying’s phone held nothing but once-sweet photos of him and Rong Jing. Back then he had never been pure in motives when he agreed to date, so he never let Rong Jing get any further than hand-holding or leaning on a shoulder. Even so, he remembered how giddily happy Rong Jing had been, scenes still vivid as yesterday. “I will put them all online. You are a rookie right now. You know what that can do to you.”

Idols do not date. Everyone knows the rule. Qi Ying had found Rong Jing’s soft spot, his final card.
Leaving his sugar daddy this time and chasing wholeheartedly was not entirely fake.

People are flesh. If Rong Jing had been a rich man who treated him well, Qi Ying would not have chosen money over him.

Precisely because he now knew what he had lost, he was grabbing for it with both hands, only to find Rong Jing was sand. The tighter he held, the faster it ran out.

Gu Xi’s grip tightened on the armrest. He nearly tore the leather.

Zhou You’s worldview was cracking. In his mind Gu Xi had been an aloof immortal, so why did he look more invested than the people involved?

Rong Jing, for his part, could not be bothered. “Post them. That is the past. I have no reason to stop you.”

He made a living by ability. Dating or not did not matter. He did not act for fans to call him their husband.

It was the original Rong Jing’s past. He did not intend to deny it, and the original had paid with his life for those feelings.

Thinking back to how the original had died, Rong Jing felt he had still been too gentle with Qi Ying. “In this world, whoever I end up with, it will never be you.”

Qi Ying’s face, still wet with tears, went bloodless in a second.

Rong Jing said, “You know why?”

Qi Ying looked up, a last sliver of hope in his eyes.

“Because the person who held you in his palms was killed by your own hands.”

“To me, you are a stranger.”

Qi Ying’s knees buckled, and he almost fell. This time, no warm hand caught him.

Before, he could pursue with a thick skin, fearless and shameless. In this moment everything broke. He had never regretted so much, never regretted crushing Rong Jing’s heart into the ground until there was no way to find it again.

Tears streamed down Qi Ying’s face. Silent sobbing now, no more pretense.

Gu Xi had already pulled up the photos he had once saved from the forum, images of how Rong Jing had pursued Qi Ying back then.

He had been afraid he would not recognize his benefactor, so he had saved plenty just in case, then gotten too busy and forgotten to delete them.

His gaze went from photos to reality and back again, over and over.

In those pictures, love shone clear. In front of him, Rong Jing was courteous and cold, ruthlessly final, like autumn wind sweeping leaves until nothing remained.

Rong Jing now, was really…!

When Rong Jing climbed into the car, Gu Xi still stared at him.

Zhou You murmured, “In front…”

“He will move,” Rong Jing said.

Sure enough, Qi Ying stepped aside.

Rong Jing studied Gu Xi’s expression, which looked a little off. “Not feeling well?”

“I… am fine.” He just needed a moment.

Two emotions had him by the throat.

Thrilled and sadness.

The kind of sadness a fox feels for a rabbit.

---

Whatever the outside noise, the set kept rolling as usual in the days that followed.

Besides his scenes, Rong Jing had to visit several newly acquired companies to handle matters. Zhou You reported that most of the first batch had closed, including hard-mode Shengteng Entertainment.

Some of Shengteng’s artists were already in talks with their lawyers to sue Xu Shengteng and several agents.

While listening, Rong Jing asked if the Wu family had made any big moves lately.

Zhou You remembered a major deal. Wu Group had acquired Xu’s, the largest supplier of electronic components.

Xu’s. Was that not Xu Juelian’s family?

He had not expected one incident with Xu Juelian to ripple this far. Was this what happened when a male lead’s halo got stripped away?

Rong Jing had wanted a bite too, but that company was one of the Wu family’s cheat-code assets and their momentum was still strong. He could fight on the money front, but he did not want Wu Hanqi’s eye on him yet. Of course, maybe it was already on him.

There was more. The second batch of targets would need fresh capital cycling back in. Many were promising small firms. Quite a few had already drawn interest from the scum gongs and the Wu family, and Rong Jing’s negotiators had come back empty-handed.

He realized that no matter how much he broke the plot, the world would find ways to compensate the scum leads.

Impossible to guard against. No wonder the weather had been glaringly sunny with no hint of thunder. The romance line stumbled, so the career line gets a subsidy.

Given the old rule of gains and losses, when the male leads blazed with glory, the one who ate dirt was always the bug named Rong Jing.

Maybe the next hallucination-assassination was not far off.

He could be careful in daily life, but against hallucinations, caution had limits.

On a rare free noon, Xie Ling called him out for lunch. One look at his little brother and Xie Ling’s whole face creased. “Why are you so thin?”

“…” Everyone on set says I am putting on a layer.

There is a kind of skinny called “big brother thinks you are skinny.”

Xie Ling hauled him away for a mandatory meal at a regular spot of his.

They ordered, traded updates, when a bold, ringing voice came from behind.

“Ling-ge, you're eating here too.”

Second young master of the Xie family, Xie Jisheng. In the original story, he pulled off a triple-kill within the family, rose to the top, and was ranked by netizens as one of the top three most eligible diamond nobles.

Rong Jing had nearly forgotten he was already out of lockup. Why had they not kept him longer? The Omega on Xie Jisheng’s arm was a familiar face: Qi Ying, whom Rong Jing had rejected just days ago. Qi Ying also froze when he saw Rong Jing, then trailed behind Xie Jisheng to sit.

Xie Ling did not spare Qi Ying a glance. He leveled a cold stare at Xie Jisheng. “I thought you were busy at the Ji house. What are you doing out?”

At the mention of the Ji family, a shadow passed over Xie Jisheng’s face.

Someone had leaked that since he had tried to have Xie Zhanhong killed, he would not spare the Ji clan either. He had indeed prepared two paths, wanting both Xie and Ji. Caught by the Ji wolves, he now had to rebuild their trust even as he hunted a chance to move on the old patriarch.

A certain meddler had wrecked his plans. He was livid.

Let him find out who spread that rumor. He would make them regret it.

“Third brother, long time no see. How are you lately?” Xie Jisheng had never liked Rong Jing, who was superfluous and an eyesore.

His tone and look made the disgust plain.

“With you in the Xie house, great,” Rong Jing shot back.

“You are still so unlikeable. By the way, this is that ex you begged for back then, right. Not much of a taste.”

Qi Ying stared, stunned. They had done nothing. Today, Xie Jisheng had forced him out, threatening consequences if he refused. He looked nervously to Rong Jing, only to find Rong Jing did not care enough to look at him. His eyes dimmed again.

“If you are not eating, get out,” Xie Ling said.

“Sure. In big brother’s eyes, the third brother can never do wrong. I will not intrude.” He squeezed Qi Ying’s rear and swaggered off with him.

After they left, Xie Ling could not bring the knife down. His eyes stung as if full of sand.

He spoke slowly. “When I was a kid, I was kidnapped. Almost did not make it back.”

Rong Jing knew. The original’s memories carried it.

Xie Ling had never told anyone. For the first time, the man who seemed to have no emotions opened his chest.

“The person behind it was Xie Jisheng’s mother. It happened because I went out to find him when he wandered off. They thought I had passed out and could not hear. I heard everything. I crawled back from the edge and never trusted him again.”

“He says I never treated him like a brother. When did he ever treat me like one? He wants me dead.” Xie Ling’s voice went quieter. His eyes were a little red. “Because he carries Xie blood, I have given him chances for years.”

“And now…” Rong Jing asked.

“Now he has used them up.”

“Later, Xie Zhanhong was still out chasing skirts. A few years on, Xie Jisheng’s mother died in an accident, and your mother brought you over.” Xie Ling smiled faintly. “You were so small and so scared. I had to treat you well. But you feared me, loathed me, hid when you saw me. Do you remember what you said the day you left home?”

Rong Jing’s pupils tightened. He remembered.

“You said you never wanted a brother like me in this life. That I should get as far away as possible.”

After that, you never came back.

I waited a long time until I did not want to wait anymore.

Not everyone needs Xie Ling. If they do, it is one-sided.

He could not afford to fall. Xie Group could not survive without him, and the old man could not bear the loss of a grandson. Duty sat heavy on his shoulders, he would carry them and keep walking.

Xie Ling looked like an impregnable fortress that had been hollowed out inside. Rong Jing often felt that in some ways Xie Ling and Gu Xi were painfully alike.

He finally understood why the villa had gas masks, ropes, Swiss knives and escape gear. It was a pain left unspoken, long since sunk to the bottom of time.

Only Xie Ling’s memories were forever stuck back there.

Head down, he cut his own steak into neat pieces and slid them onto Rong Jing’s plate one by one.

“You are here. That is good.” Whoever you are.

Afternoon sunlight slanted warm across their shoulders.

“Ge…”

“Mm. Good boy.”

---

After wrapping his scene, Gu Xi checked the time and sent Mo Dian to the new milk-tea shop by the studio to buy drinks and snacks for everyone.

Only when he treated the whole team could he happen to include Rong Jing.

Rong Jing had taken personal time today but should be back soon. Han Jie, his scene partner, saw Gu Xi lingering and asked, “Not taking your makeup off?”

“I want to stay and watch the next few scenes. See what I can learn.”

“You already won the Golden Lion, and you are still this diligent.”

He kept the small talk going, deliberately friendly.

Gu Xi smiled and kept it polite. He knew how to set the distance. Almost every Alpha and Beta actor found excuses to talk to him, and he was used to this kind of admiration and approach.

In the scene he had just shot, he played Seventh Prince Shao Hua, who had been humiliated since childhood, bullied even by the lowest servants. Only one person had ever helped him, the prime minister’s son, Liu Yusheng. The two grew close, but Liu Yusheng later betrayed him and backed the Third Prince.

After that, Shao Hua’s heart went cold. He clawed upward by any means. When he needed a partner, he discovered the near-demonic cunning of Fu Qianming.

Across from him was Han Jie, a tier-one-and-a-half idol with so-so acting and thankfully, not much attitude.

Rong Jing came back under the burning sky of sunset.

Mo Dian was handing out drinks. Per Gu Xi’s instructions they had bought both hot and iced, something for every taste. Mo Dian set aside the single sugar-free macchiato. It was for Rong Jing.

Rong Jing sighed. Sugar-free had no soul.

What was he drinking? Loneliness.

He stabbed in the straw and took a few pulls.

His resentment deepened.

Gu Xi ignored his gloom and looked away, cool. Be grateful you got a drink at all. Also, maybe stop forgetting you are up two kilos.

Two kilos of pork belly is a hefty slab on a scale.

Rong Jing had a scene later, so he stayed near the monitors, waiting and watching.

Xia Manni hugged her arms and cradled the hot coffee Gu Xi had bought. “Why does it feel so cold all of a sudden?”

Seeing her costume was thin, Rong Jing draped his blanket over her. He always came prepared, a habit from a former life.

She had met many Alphas. Most had that little streak of “male entitlement.” Rong Jing’s kind was rare.

She teased, “You are so nice I want to chase you. Tell me straight, are you hard to chase?”

“Do not joke like that,” Rong Jing said. He knew she sometimes spoke before thinking.

Gu Xi happened to pass and overheard. “…”

He felt a tickle in his throat. “Achoo.”

Crew and cast flocked around in a second, fussing if he had caught a chill.

Watching Gu Xi surrounded like a moon by stars, Xia Manni sighed, “Only Gu Xi gets this treatment.” Rong Jing looked over and murmured in agreement.

He pulled out his phone and typed: Caught a cold?

On the way to the lounge, Gu Xi replied: No. Season change dries my throat.

Five minutes later: Do you think Xia Manni is pretty?

It read exactly like dorm-room chatter from school days when guys commented on a pretty girl in the hallway.

Rong Jing glanced at Xia Manni blowing on her coffee. Big eyes, tall nose bridge, like a doll. Answering honestly: Pretty.

And then he received nothing from Gu Xi for the rest of the day.

That night after a shower, staring at the quiet phone, Rong Jing realized he might have stepped in it.

Rong Jing: Are you mad?
Gu Xi: [smile] No.

He had grown up with two older sisters. Even a straight man could read that.

Gu Xi was a man, and an Omega. Praising another Omega as pretty in front of him was just asking to die.

Rong Jing dug out an old magazine he had found in Xie Ling’s study and snapped a photo of the spread. The shot of Gu Xi: Was this when you made the “Global 50 Most Beautiful” shortlist years ago?

Gu Xi had not expected Rong Jing to hunt down an out-of-print issue from his debut era.

Gu Xi: What is there to look at.

Rong Jing: Mm. It looks good.

Gu Xi: …

There is a kind of man who never says sweet talk, only truth. Which somehow hits even harder.

---

Maybe the investors were too generous, but crew meals were comically abundant. People posted spreads of main dishes plus desserts every day, and #SovereigntyCrew even trended once because netizens wanted to crash the set and eat.

At every meal, Rong Jing and Gu Xi sat far apart, eyes rarely meeting. When they did, there was a hint of drawn blades.

The crew unconsciously kept them separated to avoid sparks.

Even the deputy director, who never found Rong Jing particularly pleasing, asked Director Liu Yu,

“Those two are not getting along, are they?”

Liu Yu, who had been stewing over it, sighed, “It is my fault. Gu Xi admired the junior at first, but I told him to rein in the negative press and somehow they really did fall out. Look, they are at it again…”

The deputy director looked. Sure enough.

At the table, they sat at opposite ends. Gu Xi stared over, cold. Rong Jing frowned back.

Two strong auras, plenty of friction.

Gu Xi watched Rong Jing pick up a piece of pork belly and did the calorie math with his eyes. He shot a look: You have had enough. Diet properly.

Rong Jing aimed one back: Did you take your meds? I always have to remind you.

Gu Xi hated taking medicine. He had twice battled anorexia. He was better now, but pills still turned his stomach.

He endured the old nausea and right in front of Rong Jing, swallowed one, forcing the acid back. Then he arched a brow: Your turn.

Reluctantly, Rong Jing lowered the meat. He had put on a few pounds, and Gu Xi had even changed his WeChat note-name to Fat So You Cannot Fly.

He was tall so it barely showed, but for the lens he let Gu Xi police him.

He accepted the leash. Left alone, his appetite would fly.

When work wrapped for the day, Liu Yu kept Rong Jing back.

They went to a small conference room. He studied the hard-working, handsome newcomer he truly liked.

“Come sit, little Rong,” Liu Yu said in a tone halfway between gentle and grave.

Rong Jing eyed him. This felt serious.

“Pre-shoot head work is important,” Liu Yu said. “Have you ever kissed in real life?”

“!” Rong Jing blinked.

“There is something I should tell you in advance. Tomorrow besides your scene with Manni, you have a kiss with Gu Xi. Both are high-tension sequences, and emotion carries across better if we do them together. Gu Xi has already asked for a few stand-ins, including a kissing double. You do not mind, right?”

---

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