Yuan Rui was very confident in his boyfriend, so he encouraged, “Good luck! You’ll definitely win a prize!”
Zheng Qiuyang replied, “But I haven’t thought of a theme yet. I’m not in the best condition right now.”
Yuan Rui spoke with a smile on his face, “Don’t rush yourself, just take your time to think. You’re so amazing, you’ll definitely design the best one!”
Zheng Qiuyang smiled too. He had been sketching for two days but still couldn’t find the right feeling. Just as he was starting to lose confidence, he was suddenly pumped with energy in this instance.
Yuan Rui kept talking, “Are you going to be free sometime soon? My agent has that doll of me, she says you have to go pick it up yourself at the company.”
Zheng Qiuyang thought about it before answering, “Alright, I’ll go get it tomorrow.”
Yuan Rui gave him Li Lingling’s phone number. The two exchanged some cheesy lines and wished each other goodnight, then they exchanged some more cheesy lines and wished each other goodnight again. Neither of them wanted it to end, after the continuous drag, they finally went to bed at twelve.
Since Zheng Qiuyang came to visit him in Shanghai, the two ended up missing each other even more intensely than before. Even during the short water and lunch breaks that Yuan Rui had, he would pull out his phone to send some messages to Zheng Qiuyang.
Zhao Zhengyi, as the front row audience to this whole ordeal, would like to express, They’re so cheesy!
The next day, Zheng Qiuyang gave Li Lingling a call. He scheduled to go and pick up the doll after work in the evening. That way, it’d be easier to avoid other people in the company since holding such a big doll would draw too much attention.
Yuan Rui’s company wasn’t too big, there were only about twenty contracted artists under the label. Most of them were C-list actors who only ever got the supporting role in films. Out of the two most known artists there, one was the CEO’s wife—an elderly actress who had won a Hundred Flowers Award for the best actress of the year before—and the other one was Yuan Rui.
The CEO’s main business was a chain restaurant. This entertainment company was just built for his wife. He wasn’t relying on it to bring in any revenue either and wasn’t very serious about the people they signed. The reason why they signed with Yuan Rui back then was simply that the CEO’s wife thought he was handsome, they didn’t expect him to be a cash cow. After Liang Xi’s contract with the company ended, Yuan Rui basically supported the entire company. So now, aside from some movie posters of the CEO’s wife hanging in the building, the rest was a variety of Yuan Rui’s promotional posters that could be seen everywhere.
When Zheng Qiuyang first came to learn what Yuan Rui’s company was like, he wanted to ask his friends to change him to a company with better resources. Then, he realized that Yuan Rui was the absolute top dog there, so any good resources would be handed to him first. On the other hand, he might not receive such treatment at a new company.
Furthermore, this company wasn’t too strict with their artists. For example, the fact that Yuan Rui was allowed to live with his boyfriend under the same roof. If it was any other company’s agent, they’d completely lose it. All Li Lingling did was give him a scolding that didn’t do much damage. Li Lingling was also a creative agent with good skills. She wasn’t the type to sign a bunch of random commercials and films, trying to raise Yuan Rui’s fame and get as much money as they can at the moment, planning as they go. That way their fame could die down very fast and it’d be hard to bring it back up. Her method was a very dependable career plan for Yuan Rui.
All in all, the company Yuan Rui had a contract with was pretty good, so Zheng Qiuyang didn’t worry about that topic again.
He left with the doll in his arms, then immediately snapped pictures of the doll once he got back to his car. He sent Yuan Rui the pictures and said, “Look, I picked up your little cousin. We’re on our way home now.”
Yuan Rui was currently reciting the script in his head, he quickly replied, “Okay, drive carefully.”
That night, he got off work later than usual. He was extremely exhausted by the time he made it back to the hotel. He forced his eyelids to stay open as he talked to Zheng Qiuyang, “Why did you call the doll my little cousin?”
Zheng Qiuyang responded, “Well, you call me uncle. He calls me daddy.”
“……”
Zheng Qiuyang picked up the doll beside him, waving its arms as he said, “Come on, son, say hello to your cousin.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Tejc Eel rwlifv. “Pa’r wjvf rb kfii, la gfjiis ibbxr ilxf wf.”
The doll was about 120 cm with long and thin limbs, and the body proportions were rather cute. It was wearing a white T-shirt with the words The Sparkling Friends printed on it and denim overalls. The hair ran in thick strands of fur with cute chibi features sitting on its face: red cheeks, smiling eyes, and no nose. The perky pink lips were made out of a silicon material that allowed them to have a plump texture when one squeezed them.
Itfcu Hlesjcu tfiv atf vbii jr tf raglqqfv la bo lar bnfgjii, gfnfjilcu akb qlcxlrt-ktlaf ifur.
Tejc Eel, “……”
Itfcu Hlesjcu kjr jwerfv. “Ktlr jmaejiis mbwfr boo? P atbeuta la’v yf rfkfv bcab atf vbii.”
Ktfc tf abbx boo atf vbii’r K-rtlga jr kfii, tbivlcu j cevf vbii jr tf byrfgnfv la ogbw jii jcuifr.
Yuan Rui couldn’t bear to watch anymore. “Hurry and put the clothes back on!”
“Hahaha!”
Once Zheng Qiuyang had enough, he put the clothes back on the doll. Seeing Yuan Rui’s sleepy expression, he suggested, “You should sleep.”
Yuan Rui was indeed tired, but he still wanted to talk with him. “Let’s chat a little more, then I’ll sleep.”
Zheng Qiuyang joked with him, “I saw your manager today, she’s pretty good-looking.”
Yuan Rui’s eyes widened. “She already has an eight-year-old son!”
Zheng Qiuyang replied on purpose, “Wow, she’s pretty good at maintaining her figure then.”
“……”
Zheng Qiuyang said again, “I saw two other girls at your company. They seemed familiar, maybe they’re also actors. Their looks aren’t anything special, they have nice boobs though.”
Yuan Rui’s eyes widened even more. He was clearly upset, saying, “I’m going to sleep.”
Zheng Qiuyang said with a smile, “Oho, are you mad?”
Yuan Rui realized that he might be joking, which instantly made him even angrier. “If you keep going, I’m going to insult you.”
“……What insults are you going to use?”
Yuan Rui had to think for a while before exclaiming, “I’ll insult you with bad words!”
“Hahaha!”
Yuan Rui’s mouth hung open but he couldn’t bring himself to curse. He said angrily, “You bastard.”
“Hahahahahaha!”
Yuan Rui also ended up laughing at his own words as well. “You went there to get a doll that I got for you, but you had the audacity to check out another girl’s boobs while you were there, doesn’t that make you a huge bastard?”
Zheng Qiuyang answered as he laughed, “Yes, yes, yes. I’m a huge bastard. I didn’t look, I was just kidding.”
Yuan Rui raised his hand and lightly patted the iPad screen. He threatened with a ferocious face, “If this happens again, I’ll hit you.”
Zheng Qiuyang was laughing uncontrollably, almost falling over. Yuan Rui’s cuteness was making his heart a little numb too.
On Friday night, Zheng Qiuyang held his son in his arms as they watched The Sparkling Friends together. One of the special guests for that episode was Tomas, who also ended up on the same team as Yuan Rui. Yuan Rui had a fawning face—similar to the doll—the whole episode.
Zheng Qiuyang watched as anger rose in him. He pinned down the doll and gave it a beating.
That episode of the show hit the 5 viewing rate mark, making it the most successful episode since its broadcast.
The next day, Wang Chao called Zheng Qiuyang, saying, “Hey, did your partner tell you yet? His show’s going to do a movie and they’re inviting Tomas too!”
Zheng Qiuyang, “……”
Wang Chao was jubilant. “He said that it was all thanks to your partner during that one episode, it brought him a bunch of views. Or else he wouldn’t have been invited to collaborate on the movie with so many other famous celebrities. It really was all thanks to your partner. I’ll treat y’all to a meal next time! We can start to build a closer relationship, what do you say?”
Zheng Qiuyang yelled back, “Are you fucking dumb? Can’t you tell that my partner likes him?!”
“……what?”
“‘Build a closer relationship’? Closer relationship my ass, I can feel the top of my head shining green even without that. Go eat by yourself, I’m not going!” Zheng Qiuyang cursed.
Tomas was dumbbell-curling when Wang Chao appeared behind him sneakily, scaring him.
Tomas questioned, “What are you doing?”
Wang Chao started with a stone face, “Mr. Xie, you’re always on me for fooling around and beating me, now it’s finally my turn to give you a beating.”
As：“……”
Tomas, “……”
Wang Chao jumped towards him like a wild beast. However, Tomas threw him over his shoulder with no sweat. Wang Chao laid on the ground as he saw stars. That’d settled him down immediately.
Yuan Rui received the news from Li Lingling all the way in Shanghai. The Sparkling Friends was filming a movie. It was going to be under Yang Lu’s production team as well. They planned to film on Hainan Island. Since they wanted to broadcast it during the Spring Festival, Yuan Rui didn’t have time to stay for the last days of the idol drama either. He would be given a 3-4 day break to travel to Hainan.
Yuan Rui was a little apprehensive about it. He’s never been on the big screen but he knew well that these reality show’s movies were just there for the money, he didn’t think it was too good.
Li Lingling couldn’t do anything about it either, she explained, “This was included in the contract. If the viewing rate was high enough, the show will plan to shoot a movie. Now that the show has hit a 5, it’s pretty impossible to tell them not to make money. Just think of this as being there for another episode of the show, don’t think of it as a movie.”
Yuan Rui could only comply, “Alright, understood.”
Li Lingling smiled from the other side. “Aside from the original cast, the special guests have also been decided, the Tomas you like a bunch is going to be featured as well.”
Now Yuan Rui’s mood was lifted a bit.
Li Lingling continued, “Your boyfriend came and got the doll, he told you already, right?”
“Yep, he even said that you were pretty.”
Li Lingling kept smiling. “Really? Honestly, he was rather handsome, very interesting as well. Seeing a dozen of your dolls collecting dust in the storehouse saddened him enough that he asked me if he could take them all home. I said that our company was going to use them as giveaways during the New Years celebration, so he left with only one.”
Yuan Rui, “……”
Li Lingling sighed ruefully, “He’s handsome, a fine person, and sincere towards you, you better keep a good eye on him.”
Yuan Rui answered proudly, “Of course!”
He was so happy! Now everyone knows he has a great boyfriend! That’s super super awesome!
But his boyfriend wasn’t the happiest at the moment.
Zheng Shaoyang’s daughter was a month old now, so he was able to come back and work at the company again. Once he realized that a good amount of his half-brother’s design had been passed—with some of the molds for them already produced as well—he was obviously irked. During a meeting, he scolded those who were in charge of them both openly and covertly.
Zheng Qiuyang sat there and listened. He didn’t say anything. Honestly, he saw it coming from the very beginning.
He was preparing to attend a design competition, but he’s been down this whole time. After half a month, he still hadn’t made much actual progress. So he wanted to use his old designs that were rejected by Zheng Shaoyang. But his assistant informed him that although those designs were rejected, they were all stored in the company’s designs regardless. Yun Chang owned the copyright to them, so they couldn’t be used for competition.
Yuan Rui was always confident in him. He encouraged him every day and would send him texts to cheer him up during film breaks.
But Zheng Qiuyang could not seem to place himself in the right mindset.
Designing was something that took creativity after all. Strikes of inspiration usually came out of nowhere, it wasn’t like it can be there whenever needed. The stress downed him even more. Facing a blank piece of sketch paper, he could not make a single stroke.
On Sunday, his mom came to see him. When she saw him with stubble as he held the Yuan Rui doll in his hands, she asked dumbfoundedly, “You dumb child, did that Yuan vixen drug you? Are you lovesick now?”
that “godmother” did more harm than good with her little talk >_>
thanks for the chapter <3
Thank you for the chapter ❤️
Thanks for the chapter ♥️♥️
His brother is a stupid @sshole!
thanks for the chapter!