Mad Dog

Chapter 34: Friends are not like friends, lovers are not like lovers

This ‘fake’ winter romance was the last meeting between Jiang Qi and Zhi Qi in recent days.

The next day, the entire cast of “Jiao Si” set off to Jiangwu for filming—there were no promised two remaining days off, which made Jiang Qi quite annoyed. It was said that there would be typhoon days during those days, so they couldn’t fly, and they had to depart early on Wednesday.

That day Zhi Qi happened to have class and couldn’t go to the airport to see him off. But later she found out that even if she had gone, she couldn’t have seen him off. Qiu Heng was generous, and the “Jiao Si” crew used the VIP channel for chartered flights, so fans naturally couldn’t see them off.

However, there was no “special channel” on the way to the airport, and many fans who were waiting outside still managed to take some airport photos.

Zhi Qi saw Jiang Qi on the hot search after class.

The young man now has many fan sites. Various fan sisters compete to release retouched pictures, various filters, and so on… Zhi Qi found it fresh at first, but later she basically only looked for “raw pictures.”

Those messy retouching and filters would actually diminish Jiang Qi’s stunning appearance; he was actually a guy who didn’t need retouching. In the photos, Jiang Qi walked briskly in the airport passage, surrounded by several black-clad bodyguards.

The young man liked black very much, so it wasn’t anything new that he was all in black. With a mask on, only his slightly furrowed brows and eyes were visible. His lustrous eyes seemed to be aching from the flashes all around.

Jiang Qi was dressed plainly, only showing his eyes, yet he still made it to the hot search…

Looking at the comments below the Weibo hot search, Zhi Qi couldn’t help but laugh and cry—

[= =: No way, seriously? This can make it to the hot search? Don’t they understand that excessive marketing will backfire?]

[= =: What nonsense are you talking about upstairs? Isn’t it common sense for celebrity airport photos to trend? If your master hasn’t trended on #airport#, could it be that your mouth is just full of sh*t?]

[= =: Getting anxious, aren’t we? I can see that Jiang Qi’s fans are getting anxious, but unfortunately, even if he lives on the hot search, you can’t change the fact that he’s a notorious artist, right?]

[= =: #EmperorJiangLaughs@MadDogs#.]

[= =: #BigPancakeLaughs@MadDogs#.]

[= =: Sorry, but nobody really covets his ‘big pancake’. Fans of Jiang Emperor are really interesting. #DisgracedArtistsGetOutOfTheEntertainmentCircle#.]

…

After Jiang Qi won the Best Actor award, the comments section of Weibo related to youth was like a ‘bloody battlefield’.

No matter how extraordinary Jiang Qi’s face and acting skills were, there was always a group of people who couldn’t accept a former convict becoming a star. Moreover, Jiang Qi was not humble, and most of the images he presented to the public were cold, sinister, and rebellious. There was even a ‘history of insulting reporters’…

Moreover, Jiang Qi had blocked the path of too many people.

Becoming a true purple star as an actor also made him a target of criticism. In the words of the fans nowadays, he was ‘black and red’. However, on the path of one’s growth, one always has to endure various criticisms, not just insults, but also slander and rumors.

Fortunately, she knew Jiang Qi’s heart was definitely strong enough. But… Zhi Qi frowned, sighed silently, and put away her phone.

However, she would still feel distressed if she looked at it, so most of the time Zhi Qi just didn’t bother to look. At one point, she was so angry that she uninstalled Weibo directly.

Then she installed it again within a day, repeating the process dozens of times.

Even Meng Chunyu laughed at her, saying she was the most ‘fragile’ among the fangirls.

But her relationship with Jiang Qi was not just that of a fangirl; she cared because she liked him.

Speaking of which, what exactly was her relationship with Jiang Qi now? Not quite friends, not quite lovers.

On the way back to the dormitory from the elective class building, Zhi Qi pondered this question.

Actually, she had never thought about this question before. Her relationship with Jiang Qi had always been natural, and she had never thought about ‘officially’ defining their relationship. But now that she thought about it, she realized it was indeed a problem.

Was she his girlfriend now?

Zhi Qi tilted her head and pondered for a while, subconsciously wanting to take out her phone to ask him. But after hesitating for a while with her finger hovering over the screen, she decided against it.

Forget it, she thought, I’ll ask Jiang Qi when he comes back.

In the evening, as she lay on her bed after washing up, Zhi Qi’s hair was half-dry, with tiny droplets of water falling on her slender collarbone. The curve of the girl’s collarbone seemed capable of holding wine, shimmering beautifully under the warm yellow light.

Her phone on the table buzzed, and Zhi Qi paused in her hair-drying motion, lowering her gaze to look at it.

It was several messages from Jiang Qi, accompanied by a picture: [I’ve always wanted to give this to you, but I forgot.]

Zhi Qi opened the picture and saw the crystal tree-shaped Best Actor award from the Golden Tree Awards, shining so brightly that each leaf was clearly visible.

So this was the special gift Jiang Qi had always said he wanted to give her.

It truly was ‘one of a kind’, something no one else would give.

After being momentarily distracted, the girl couldn’t help but smile slightly.

[Okay.]

Zhi Qi replied to him warmly with a voice message: “Jiang Qi, I’ll wait for you to come back.”

*

But this wait lasted for nearly half a month.

“Jiao Si” had a lot of scenes filmed in Jiangwu. When the crew returned, it was already mid-December, just a few days before Christmas. But in the city, it seemed like they were treating this foreigner’s New Year as a festival, and the atmosphere was building up in advance.

For the past half month, apart from talking to Jiang Qi, who finished work almost every night, most of the time, Zhi Qi was seeing him on the hot search on Weibo.

Although the young man went into seclusion after filming, there were still articles about him on the ‘rivers and lakes’.

From time to time, there were hot searches like #Jiang Qi exposure# and #Jiang Qi’s new drama#, and Zhi Qi couldn’t help but click on them whenever she saw them.

But in reality, time and again, it was just a few set photos—Jiang Qi sitting in the makeup chair in the pictures, tilting his head back to let others dress him up, his slender figure delicate and ‘graceful’, almost with a sense of broken beauty.

His slightly raised profile extended to his chin, neck, and Adam’s apple, all exquisite and beautiful.

The first time Zhi Qi saw this exposure, she couldn’t help but save it, but several times afterwards, it was just the same beautiful exposure, with no fresh pictures. It seemed that the “Jiao Si” crew was extremely strict in their management, even the paparazzi who made a living by taking sneak shots of the crew and selling them to fans couldn’t capture much.

Occasionally, Zhi Qi wanted to ‘plot privately’, asking Jiang Qi to take a few selfies and send them to her to admire, but it always ended up with nothing.

The reason was that the young man was not skilled in taking selfies, and he seemed to be very averse to letting Zhi Qi see his appearance.

“It looks a bit feminine,” Jiang Qi once said to her on the phone, seriously, “Stop looking at it, just look at me in person.”

Jiang Qi’s grumpy voice made her laugh out loud, but after the laughter, she felt a little lost.

She really missed Jiang Qi.

Fortunately, the young man was about to come back.

The day the “Jiao Si” crew returned, it was a rare sunny day.

And Qiu Heng, like a devil, seized this opportunity and excitedly ‘suggested’ in the car, “Since it’s not raining today, let’s shoot the outdoor scenes!”

The entire crew: “…”

“Not speaking means you agree.” Qiu Heng didn’t say anything more, directing the driver without hesitation, “Change the location, go to Chen Kong Alley.”

Everyone in the car was tortured and squeezed to the point of anger but dared not say anything. They could only listen to the director’s orders and call people to clear the scene and make arrangements.

Qiu Mi glanced at Jiang Qi, who was sleeping next to her wearing an eye mask, completely unaware that he would have to shoot later. She was torn about whether to wake him up.

Should he wake him up? It would only tell Jiang Qi about it, and it wouldn’t change the fact that he ‘couldn’t rest’. Moreover, it would disturb his sleep, but if she didn’t wake him up… who knows if Brother Qi has any appointments? After all, Qiu Heng said earlier that he would let the whole crew rest for a day when they returned. Who the hell would have thought that they would have to shoot outdoor scenes now?

After much hesitation, Qiu Mi still didn’t dare to wake him.

The large nanny van of a film crew swayed and rumbled towards Chen Kong Alley—a rundown area in Lin Lan City, the most dilapidated place in the entire urban area, chosen to depict the bleak situation of the protagonist’s teenage years being bullied.

As they approached the location, Jiang Qi’s phone on the passenger seat kept buzzing incessantly.

Qiu Mi glanced at it and saw the name “Qiqi” on the screen. After a moment’s thought, he decided to answer for Jiang Qi.

“Jiang Qi.” On the other end of the phone was indeed the soft voice of a girl, soothing to the ears. “Have you returned?”

“Miss Zhi.” Qiu Mi felt himself being soothed by her voice; he lowered his voice and responded softly, “Brother Qi is sleeping, so I’m answering his phone.”

“Oh, is he very tired?” The girl’s voice sounded somewhat disappointed, like murmuring to herself, “Can we still have dinner together later?”

They had made plans.

“I’m afraid not.” Qiu Mi sighed, feeling a bit regretful as he informed her, “The director said they’re shooting an outdoor scene while the weather’s good today in Lin Lan. I don’t know when it’ll end.”

“Shooting again?” There was a hint of surprise and annoyance in Qiqi’s voice. “Didn’t you just return from Jiangwu?”

What kind of director was this, not giving people any rest time?

“Ah, there’s no choice, it’s common to work continuously.” When the director gets tough, their assistants suffer too, and Qiu Mi couldn’t help complaining, “We also want to rest early.”

Qiqi was amused by his sighs and asked casually, “Where are you shooting? Still in Hengdian?”

“No, it’s an outdoor shoot today.” As they got closer to Chen Kong Alley, the surrounding roads were all under repair, and the car rattled along. Qiu Mi answered her intermittently, “It’s a place called Chen Kong Alley, a shantytown.”

…

After he finished speaking, there was silence from Qiqi’s end for several seconds.

Qiu Mi thought the call might have dropped due to poor signal and looked at his phone in confusion.

“Chen, Chen Kong Alley?” Then the girl’s voice came through, sounding hesitant and surprised, “Have you arrived there now?”

Qiu Mi didn’t understand why Qiqi’s tone suddenly changed, so he answered in a daze, “We’re almost there.”

“I’m coming over now.” Qiu Mi faintly heard the sound of things being packed up on the other end, accompanied by Qiqi’s serious tone, “Assistant Qiu, please make sure to keep an eye on Jiang Qi and preferably keep him away from there.”

With that, the call was disconnected.

Qiu Mi looked at his now black screen, utterly puzzled.

Why did Qiqi say not to let Jiang Qi near Chen Kong Alley? What did that mean? Besides, this was where they were shooting the outdoor scenes. How could Jiang Qi, as the protagonist, not go near there?

At this moment, the car had already reached the edge of the dilapidated shantytown and couldn’t go any further inside, so it stopped. Perhaps because the car had stopped, Jiang Qi also woke up from his broken dream, taking off his eye mask and suddenly facing a bright light.

The young man blinked groggily and saw Qiu Mi’s puzzled look beside him, as if he had done something wrong.

Frowning, Jiang Qi’s voice, just woken up, was a bit hoarse. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing, um, Brother Qi…” Qiu Mi thought of what Qiqi had said, hesitated for a moment, and was about to say something, but then there were extras murmuring in front of them—

“Director Qiu found such a place? Chen Kong Alley? Heh, it’s really rundown.”

Qiu Mi clearly saw a hint of confusion flash through Jiang Qi’s previously calm eyes when he heard the words “Chen Kong Alley.”

Then, the faint blood color on the young man’s face, due to sleepiness, disappeared completely.