Chapter 52

Chapter Fifty-Two

The office door was knocked on, and Lu Yan suddenly lowered his head and planted a kiss on Gu Xu's cheek.

Then he took out his phone and sat down on the sofa as usual.

Gu Xu: "Come in."

"Boss Gu," Xu Fei walked into the office, "the next meeting starts in an hour."

Gu Xu stood up and said to Lu Yan, "Let's head back to Jiaming."

Lu Yan shook his head, "I’ve got some things to discuss with Lin An. I'll go back after we're done. Should I wait for you to have dinner tonight?"

Gu Xu: "No, I might be late."

"Alright," Lu Yan remained seated on the sofa, "Keep up the good work."

Gu Xu chuckled, "Yeah."

Xu Fei kept his head down, waiting obediently for his boss.

...Just wondering where this strong old married couple vibe came from.

In the car, Gu Xu suddenly remembered today’s message from the production team and asked, "Do we have meetings scheduled for the day after tomorrow?"

Xu Fei took out a small notebook, "One at nine AM, and one each at one and five PM."

Gu Xu: "Move them all."

Xu Fei glanced at the packed schedule, "...But Boss Gu, the schedule is packed for the next few days."

Gu Xu: "Shift them all to these two evenings."

Shift them all to the evening, how late would they be working...

Xu Fei: "Got it, I’ll notify the departments."

Shortly after Gu Xu left, Lu Yan headed downstairs.

Lin An saw him, "I thought you’d left."

Lu Yan sat down beside him, "Bring me those scripts we discussed tomorrow."

Lin An was surprised, "What? Didn’t you say to wait until January?"

"Just pick them first," Lu Yan said, then thought for a moment and added, "Actually, just bring me the highest-paying script."

Lin An: "Are you strapped for cash?"

"Yeah," Lu Yan answered straightforwardly. He had recently helped Liu Mingyi hire some online trolls, and buying furniture also cost money. Plus, he had some other plans.

Afraid of getting beaten up, Lin An didn't dare to suggest that Lu Yan ask Gu Xu for money if he was short: "Aren't you about to sell that house?"

Lu Yan: "It's not enough."

Lin An asked, "A few million isn't enough? Are you planning to start a business???"

"Starting a business doesn't require a few million," Lu Yan said, "Why all the questions?"

"Okay, okay, I’ll drop it off tonight," Lin An said, then remembered something. "Isn’t your reality show filming the day after tomorrow?"

Lu Yan: "Yeah."

"What’s going to happen with Lin Qing’s spot?" Lin An asked.

Lu Yan put on his coat and tightened his mask: "That’s the production team’s problem. Don’t forget to bring me the script. I’m leaving."

"Leaving? Aren’t we gonna talk about that ex-movie star?" Lin An shouted behind him.

When Lu Yan returned to his apartment and got into the elevator, he was trying to decide what to order for takeout when it hit him that it had been ages since he last ordered takeout by himself.

He took out his phone, browsing through the takeout options, and only to find someone crouched at his door.

The police were quick, and within just one afternoon, the arrest notice was delivered to Lin Qing—two copies at the same time.

Lin Qing rushed to the police station but couldn’t see Qin Min.

After learning the details from the police, Lin Qing felt like his world was collapsing.

He’d gone from being the son of a benefactor to the son of an enemy overnight.

Fans blacklisted him, his schedule was cut, and he was banned—all in quick succession, leaving Lin Qing reeling from the hits.

His first instinct was to find Gu Xu, but he hadn’t been able to get through to Gu Xu in forever. Given the current situation, it wasn’t appropriate for him to appear in public, so he had no choice but to camp out at Gu Xu’s door.

Instead of catching Gu Xu, he ended up running into Lu Yan.

Lu Yan looked at the person crouched at the door: "Step aside."

Lin Qing stood up and blurted out: "Did you talk trash about me to Brother Xu before?"

The abrupt movement caused the two arrest notices in Lin Qing’s pocket to fall out.

Lu Yan glanced at them and said indifferently: "You know what happened, don’t you?"

Lin Qing wanted to say more, but with a push from Lu Yan, he was shoved aside.

Then Lu Yan opened the door, entered, and closed it—quick and to the point, without another word.

The evening meeting wrapped up sooner than expected. When Gu Xu returned to the apartment, Lin Qing was still there.

The light under the door showed that Lu Yan was home. Gu Xu walked past Lin Qing and reached out to open the door.

Lin Qing jumped up: "Brother Xu, you’re finally here."

Without waiting for a response, he grabbed Gu Xu’s briefcase: "Brother Xu, all that stuff was done by my mom and the others. I had no idea!"

Afraid Gu Xu wouldn’t believe him, he added: "Really, you can ask my mom. If I’d known..."

Lin Qing stopped there.

Gu Xu finally turned to look at him, his eyes calm and unreadable.

Lin Qing finished: "If I’d known, I would’ve told you right away."

After hearing this, Gu Xu let out a sudden chuckle.

"Do you realize what you did wrong?"

Lin Qing racked his brain, but couldn’t figure out what he’d done wrong.

He looked up at Gu Xu with pleading eyes.

The man spoke calmly, "Your biggest mistake was messing with Lu Yan."

"Don’t come crawling back to me."

After saying this, Gu Xu turned and walked away.

"You can’t just leave me hanging like this!" Lin Qing exclaimed urgently.

His voice was cut off as the door closed.

The moment he stepped inside, he spotted Lu Yan leaning casually against the wall.

Lu Yan was dressed in a loose light gray sweater, a white undershirt peeking out beneath it, and he held a cup of hot water, exuding a scholarly yet cozy vibe.

Lu Yan smiled at him, "You’re back."

Gu Xu didn’t even bother taking off his shoes before leaning in to kiss Lu Yan.

Lin An had planned to drop off the script earlier, but a family emergency kept him tied up until almost 11 PM.

After checking with Lu Yan over the phone and confirming he was still up, Lin An rushed to his apartment with the script.

As he pulled into the parking lot, he spotted Lin Qing stepping out of the elevator and driving off.

When Lin An got to the 28th floor, Lu Yan was waiting at the door. "I’ve been helping my mom move boxes all day without even a sip of water. The least you could do is let me in for a drink."

"You can drink all you want when you get home," Lu Yan replied, aware that Gu Xu wasn’t keen on strangers invading his personal space, especially after Xu Fei’s past visits. He held out his hand, "The script."

"Are you that stingy you can’t even offer me a sip of water?" Lin An, who was also curious to see the famous CEO Gu’s place, tossed the script into Lu Yan’s hand. "I just saw Lin Qing in the parking lot. What’s your plan for handling him?"

Lu Yan shrugged, "I’ve got better things to do."

Lin An’s eyes widened, "You’re just going to let him off the hook?"

Lu Yan just chuckled and stayed silent.

Raised with the doting care of the Gu father and son, and a mother like Qin Min, Lin Qing had turned out spoiled rotten.

Now, aside from his degree, Lin Qing had nothing to show for himself.

After the online backlash, his chances in the entertainment industry were pretty much shot.

With his attitude, he wouldn’t last long in a regular job either. Lu Yan could already picture how rough things were going to get for him.

-

Life would teach Lin Qing a lesson; Lu Yan didn’t need to lift a finger.

On the day of the shoot, Lu Yan was woken up by Gu Xu.

Gu Xu had been tied up at work the day before and hadn’t made it back by the time Lu Yan went to bed.

Lu Yan draped his arm over his eyes, but the man beside him gently pushed it away, "You’ll hurt your eyes like that." Lu Yan cracked his eyes open, "...What time did you get back?"

"Come on," Gu Xu sat by the bed, "You’re going to be late if you don’t get up."

He stood up: "I grabbed breakfast, go get ready."

Lu Yan closed his eyes, stretched out, and held out his hand to Gu Xu.

Gu Xu laughed and grabbed his hand, while his other hand reached behind Lu Yan's neck, helping him out of bed.

Once they’d eaten, they got into the car the crew had waiting downstairs.

After the incident with Lin Qing, Jiaming paid the production team off.

The director of the production team thought that Lin Qing's continued participation would create more hype, but Jiaming's stance was clear: they’d rather pay up than let Lin Qing continue filming.

Once in the car, Lu Yan asked the staff beside him, "Who’s the new guest?"

"No new regular guest," the staff said, "The director thinks six people are just right to form three groups, making filming easier."

Lu Yan nodded and didn't ask further.

Today’s shoot was indoors.

The others had already arrived, and the crew was all set. As soon as everyone was present, they started rolling right away.

Director: "Today, all our games will be held indoors, split into two parts. The first part is the game segment."

As soon as he finished speaking, the big curtain behind them opened, revealing a dimly lit stage with a large wooden table in the center, with chipped edges. On the table were placed over a dozen small lamps, each labeled with numbers 1 to 12.

Seeing this game setup, Lu Yan couldn't help but smirk a little.

Director: "The game we are playing today is Werewolf—there are three roles: Werewolves, Villagers, and Gods. The Gods and Villagers are on the good guys' side. If all Werewolves are eliminated, the good guys win; if all Gods or all Villagers are eliminated, the Werewolves win."

At the mention of "Werewolf," everyone turned to Lu Yan.

Lu Yan, who once appeared half-naked in a Werewolf mobile game: "..."

Xu Ze: "I’ve never played, so I’m clueless."

"You’ll each get headphones, and the game instructions will be told to you through the headphones."

Lu Yan asked: "With six people, how do you play Werewolf?" The minimum number of players required for this game is eight.

"We have invited several guests, all loyal players of Werewolf, who will play the game with you."

As soon as the director finished speaking, six people walked up from backstage.

Five of them were relatively unfamiliar, likely regulars picked by the crew from gaming clubs.

...And one former movie emperor.

Of course, it’s a crew that lives for drama.

The former movie emperor first shook hands with Lu Yan. Seeing this, the director quickly said, "It seems the movie emperor admires Lu Yan very much."

"I have always admired him," said the movie emperor, who was in his early forties, then turned and patted Lu Yan's shoulder, smiling, "He’s really impressive for his age."

Lu Yan also smiled: "Thank you."

After the greetings, the game started immediately.

Twelve cards were placed on the table, waiting to be drawn. Lu Yan brushed against Gu Xu's hand and took the adjacent card.

Upon flipping it over, it was a Wolf card.

The production team had written the names of the guests behind each chair. The twelve people put on their headphones and sat around the wooden table. The headphones were of excellent quality, and soon, a calm female voice sounded: "Night has fallen, please close your eyes."

After a while, Lu Yan heard the female voice again in his ear.

"You have been hit by Cupid and have formed a third-party faction with Cupid. From now on, the two of you must eliminate all other players to win. When one of the two lovers dies, the other dies immediately. Now, please open your eyes and confirm your teammate."

Lu Yan opened his eyes, and Gu Xu was sitting across from him, smiling at him with a knowing look.