Li Xuan failed to go home that night as promised. By the time he left the office, it was almost dawn.
When he went downstairs, he planned to go to a cake shop not far away to buy a rose condensed milk cake for Sheng Min as breakfast, and then drive back and maybe sleep for two hours.
He looked at his watch. There were less than four hours left before the new day of recording began. As he walked, he listed in his mind what he needed to do today, including confirming the special effects design with Chu Tianheng and finding time to call Zhu Zhou and ask him to send the money to Qingshui Lane... ...
The sanitation workers began to sweep the road. There was a regular rustling sound as the brooms were waved. The software park, which had been silent for a few hours, was soon back in action.
Li Xuan took out a mask and put it on, then quickened his pace towards the parking lot. However, as soon as he walked out of the gate of the software park, he saw Sheng Min.
The sun is coming out, the boundary between night and day is blurring, but the moon is still hanging in the sky, refusing to set.
The air was moist and slightly cool. Sheng Min wore a beige shirt over his light-colored T-shirt. He sat on a bench by the open-air parking lot. Behind the chair, white acacia flowers fell on his hair and shoulders. He held a piece of bread in his hand and broke it into pieces to feed the birds.
As if sensing something, Li Xuan stood opposite and looked at him for a while, then Sheng Min suddenly turned around, smiled when he saw him, scattered the remaining bread crumbs on the ground, and stood up and walked towards Li Xuan.
The bird flew up behind him, and Li Xuan seemed to think that Sheng Min was also a white bird flying to his side.
"Why are you here?"
"You didn't come back." Sheng Min stopped one step in front of him.
"Why don't you go up?"
"I'm afraid you're busy."
Li Xuan coughed: "There are a lot of things to do."
"Yeah." Sheng Min nodded, "Is it handled?"
"alright."
"That's good." Sheng Min looked up at him and wrinkled his nose slightly, "You look tired. Did you smoke?... ..smoke less."
After not sleeping all night, his face looked haggard. In fact, Sheng Min's complexion was not good either, with a faint blue color under his eyes.
"Okay." Li Xuan avoided answering and asked him, "How long have you been here?"
"Not long ago, just arrived."
But his hem was clearly wet with dew, showing a bit of transparent color. Li Xuan did not expose him: "Are you hungry? Do you want to have breakfast?"
Sheng Min thought for a moment and said, "On my way here, I saw a fish porridge restaurant on the corner."
"Next to the porridge shop is the chain cake shop you often buy from." Li Xuan said.
Sheng Min indeed didn’t notice and blinked.
"Let's go." Li Xuan smiled and reached out to pick a fallen flower off his shoulder. "First, accompany me to order some porridge, and then we'll go buy some cake."
Without repeating yesterday's opening remarks, Li Xuan could say fewer words in today's recording. When announcing the contestant's grades, the trainees who received A covered their mouths to express surprise and joy, while those with lower grades had tears in their eyes and said they would definitely work harder and perform better in the next evaluation.
Li Xuan looked at him indifferently, and then thought of Sheng Min again.
Sheng Min's initial evaluation was C. Two years ago, he had nothing but a face. But he did not cry. He was too calm, like an alien among a group of emotional people. He nodded, said thank you teacher, and left quietly.
Li Xuan vaguely remembered that he had never seen Sheng Min cry before.
Just like the day before, the recording that day ended smoothly. Qin Zhengchen did not provoke him again, and Li Xuan also turned a blind eye.
However, when the recording of this episode reached the last day, the situation changed a little. Twenty minutes after the original opening time, Qin Zhengchen had not yet appeared.
"Where's the person? He should have arrived long ago, but he hasn't shown up even after the show started?" The director paced anxiously on the edge of the stage. "Why is everyone's progress delayed because of him? Have you found him?"
"No." The coordinator answered him, "I can't contact him, and my agent can't find him either. Maybe he drank too much somewhere..."
"You came here so shamelessly. What's your attitude? Go find someone. Why are you still standing there?"
The show took a long time to start and the trainees started talking. There were so many people and they deliberately kept their voices down, it was like ten thousand bees buzzing in their ears.
"Oh, this is so annoying. I've already booked my flight and I have a magazine shoot tomorrow morning. Please don't waste my time." A mentor on the jury complained.
"Who can be free of problems?" The vocal instructor said, "Maybe there was a traffic jam. Young people are prone to being impatient. When we first debuted, we also overslept and missed announcements, but we were timid at the time. If it happened too many times, our manager would scold us."
The first person kept insisting: "How young? He's not even two years younger than you. Oh, you debuted earlier. Besides, being young doesn't mean you don't know things. It's not his turn to act so arrogant. Look at Xiao Min... Hey, Xiao Min."
"Hmm?" Li Xuan turned his head.
"Is your phone ringing?"
"Oh, thank you." He rubbed his forehead and smiled apologetically, "Then I'll go answer it."
"Go ahead. You never know when we can start."
Li Xuanhe signaled to the director that he wanted to go out to answer a phone call. The director was extremely worried and agreed without thinking.
He took the elevator all the way up to the rooftop and called back slowly.
"Done?"
"It's settled." The voice of the skinny guy from that day came from the other end of the phone. "Just as you said, his two legs were broken and his right fingers were chopped off. I left some souvenirs on his face. I also mailed the cell phone to the address you gave me. It should arrive this afternoon at the latest."
This is the 27th floor. Li Xuan lowered his eyes and looked at the cars and people passing by below, which looked like blurry black dots.
"Did he die?" He lit a cigarette nonchalantly.
"No, it's just a small wound, no one will die. I cut the knife myself, so I know the amount. Besides, the price won't be the same if you kill me. I won't charge you for the severed hand, it's a gift from me." The skinny monkey chuckled twice, as if he was talking about a piece of pork, "It's rare that you still remember me when you need help. I thought you didn't recognize us anymore after you became rich."
"I don't know you, so when the online casino was shut down, you went in with it."
"Yes, yes. That's true. But you've been out of touch for three years." Shouhou sighed, "It's okay for me to go in, everyone is familiar inside. The main thing is that your sister-in-law was about to give birth, and I wasn't there for the first baby... ... I've always remembered your kindness for this matter."
Li Xuan smiled without commenting: "Where are the people?"
"Ohama threw it back."
"You didn't follow?"
"I followed. I must have followed your order throughout the whole process. I called you as soon as I got back."
"Sober?"
"Of course. I held his eyelids the whole time and didn't let him close them. You didn't see..." The skinny monkey clicked his tongue twice, "He was so scared that he paralyzed. You say this star, he looks so glamorous when he speaks out. But his bones are as soft as noodles. Coward. He knelt down immediately before I even put the knife to him. He cried so miserably. His leg was broken and he didn't have the energy to cry. He asked me who he had offended. I threw the photo you gave me in his face. He was stunned on the spot and asked me if I was Mr. Zhou's wife's man. He said a bunch of nonsense and I can't remember it clearly..."
His tone was full of mockery: "Is this guy a male mistress? He did this kind of thing and kept photos? The photos are so disgusting. Cheap. And the man is also a cheap one. He has a wife but he is still messing around outside. I don't accept such people under my command... Hey, Nineteen. What's your relationship with that man's wife? The couple who took you away didn't seem to have the same surname, right?"
"There are too many questions." Li Xuan said lazily.
"Just asking. We haven't been in touch for so long, what's wrong?" The skinny monkey said dissatisfiedly, "I know you are a young master now, and the couple looks rich. Are you living a comfortable life as a young master?"
"Relaxed." Li Xuan chuckled and took a puff of cigarette, the smell of nicotine and tar passed through his lungs. "I have had someone send the money to the shabby mailbox at the door of the house where I used to live. It's 60,000. I added 20,000 because the weather is hot. Half of it was used to buy water for my brothers, and the other 10,000 was for my sister-in-law. She gave birth to a child and I didn't come back to see her."
"You kid... I was going to give it to you. Well, since you've given it to me so readily, I won't refuse. I'd like to thank you on behalf of your sister-in-law and nephew." The skinny monkey smiled and said, "If you need to make money in the future, remember to look for me."
"Let's talk later. I have something else to do."
"Okay, go ahead and do your work... ..Oh, right." He suddenly called Li Xuan again, "I remember that the snake skin is supposed to be out next month?"
After hanging up the phone, Li Xuan pinched his temples. Talking to the skinny guy was very tiring for him, and it reminded him of many unpleasant past events. He flicked off the ash and sent a message to Qi Boyuan, asking him to help delete the location plug-in.
Who are you following again? Qi Boyuan asked him.
People I don't like.
Speak nicely. Qi Boyuan responded with a trembling expression and went back to work.
Li Xuan lowered his eyes, took out his phone card and lit it with a lighter. After it burned out, he threw it into the trash can along with the remaining half cigarette butt.
Back in the studio, it was still chaotic. Because they had waited too long, the students were whispering less restrainedly. The staff held a loud speaker and shouted back and forth: "Quiet, keep quiet."
"Have you finished the call?" the female tutor asked him enthusiastically.
"Yeah." Li Xuan unbuttoned his suit and sat down, saying softly, "Aren't you recording yet?"
"Not here yet! God knows where he went."
"Is that so?" He pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses that decorated his face, lowered his eyes and smiled slightly, "Then let's wait."