Chapter 9 – Jiang XinCheng (1/2)
Bai Lang paused for a moment, then said, “He’s not my friend.”
Of course Qiu Qian didn’t miss Bai Lang’s pause. “‘Not my friend’ can have a lot of meanings. Lover? Enemy? Random bystander?”
Bai Lang didn’t reply but instead asked a question of his own. “What did you talk about?”
It was unknown whether or not he was trying to evade the question. Bai Lang turned and walked to the dressing table on the far side of the room and seemed to be looking for something.
Qiu Qian stared at Bai Lang. “Not much. Hanged up after asking for his name. Why, are you scared of my saying the wrong thing?”
“I’ve been stabbed by him before, in the back. You should be careful.” Bai Lang found the hairdryer. He said down dressing table and began to blow dry his hair.
[Hu—] A loud sound filled the room.
“Stabbed?” Qiu Qian frowned. This was another thing that the report hadn’t mentioned. “What kind of being stabbed?”
According to the report, other than being scammed two years ago {T/N: When he initially signed to the old entertainment company}, Bai Lang’s life had been mostly unremarkable. As for his relationship with Kang Jian, it was completely not in the report…. This report was definitely defective.
“In a deadly manner, I almost lost my life.” Bai Lang’s voice floated vaguely over the loud sound of the hair dryer.
This kind of answer was clearly being deliberately vague. Qiu Qian felt dissatisfied. “Be more specific.”
But Bai Lang’s only answer was the loud hum of the hair dryer and his expressionless profile.
This made Qiu Qian think of the time Bai Lang had gone back to T City. At that time, sitting in his car, Bai Lang also had this kind of face.
It was equally empty, completely devoid of any emotion.
Qiu Qian frowned. He looked down at the phone number again. “This Kang Jian is really thick skinned ah. He can still act as though nothing ever happened?”
“Isn’t that more frightening?” Bai Lang continued to dry his hair.
“Do you need me to help you?” Qiu Qian threw away the phone.
There was a loud [ka-cha] sound. The loud and noisy sound in the room suddenly ceased, plunging it back into silence. Bai Lang had finished drying his hair. He switched off the electricity and at the same time spoke, very cleary.
“I can do it myself.”
“Pretty cool.” Qiu Qian narrowed his eyes. It was clear he wasn’t in a good mood. “But you’re not allowed to think about other men. Come here!”
After their “exchange”, Qiu Qian often commanded Bai Lang in this way. As though he wanted to remind Bai Lang about their relationship.
Bai Lang turned his head. His expressionless face from before was gone, instead replaced by the look of helplessness that he often wore these days. He still walked over to the bed and without waiting for Qiu Qian to make any moves, voluntarily lowered his head and gave the other man a short kiss. However Qiu Qian immediately grabbed the back of his head and deepened the kiss with fervor.
“Remember.” After Qiu Qian released Bai Lang’s lips, he licked them. “Go and change your phone number today.”
“En.” Bai Lang suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. “Breakfast is bacon omelette, do you want it?”
In terms of effort, Bai Lang really had spent a lot on Qiu Qian. These days he came five days a week. Although he didn’t stay the night every time, however he would definitely completely exhaust Bai Lang before leaving. Also the Qiu Qian who originally didn’t have anything here, now had a towel, pajamas, toothbrush, bowl, chopsticks, slippers and the most evil, an ashtray. A complete set.
Qiu Qian frowned deeply. “How come you always like to cook Western food? How about soy milk and egg pancake one day?”
“I haven’t learnt how to make those yet. How about you ask Brother Hong to help you buy some?” Bai Lang didn’t feel guilty at all towards this patron.
Qiu Qian made a “pei” noise. “Fine, bacon is fine. But don’t forget to add spring onions!” {T/N: Also called scallions in some places. Often eaten with Chinese/Asian food.}
Bai Lang tried to imagine the flavor. It should be passable.
Next time he would make maple syrup pancake and see if he still wanted to add spring onion!
***
Today the next thing on the agenda was rushing to set to film the rest of “Partners for Life”.
These days because of the non-availability of the male lead Wu ShenEn, the filming had been stopped. The stockpile of previously filmed “Partners” episodes was dwindling and people were getting nervous. The almost crazy director had already filmed the rest of whatever he could, however Wu ShenEn was the male lead. There weren’t many scenes which didn’t have him in it.
If one wanted to talk about the main plot of “Partners”, it was primarily about a narrative about the struggles of the newly graduated Lin QuanXi (played by Wu ShenEn) after he moved to a big city and started working. Since he had financial constraints, he had no choice but to rent a shared house with other people.
A one level house had been partitioned into four separate rooms. They had a shared living room and kitchen. There were both men and women living there. Other than the female lead Wu XinYa and her good friend the supporting female character Chen MeiYu, there was Bai Lang’s character Jiang XinCheng and his son Jiang Le. The five people lived under one roof. It was a small production about the loves, lives and friendships of people living in an urban city.
The first part of the plot was relaxed and comical. Primarily it was about the friction and awkwardness of the five people learning to live together. Within it were many jokes and situations often experienced by people living in university dormitories. It resonated a lot with the audience.
In the middle, the relationships between the five people began to take on a different shape. The male lead and the female lead, after a lot of misunderstandings, began to be attracted to one other. Jiang XinCheng started to have good feelings towards the female lead’s best friend Chen MeiYu, resulting in his son Jiang Le’s jealousy and mischief making. And as per usual according to the rules of a love triangle, the supporting female character Chen MeiYu liked the male lead Lin QuanXi.
The latter part of the drama was filled with dog blooded drama. You like me but I don’t like you. You misunderstood me and I refuse to forgive you. After the audience had become attached to these characters, the development of the plot took into account the fervent and passionate discussions and opinions the audience shared on its official website. In this way the plot kept being refined. This was a very popular technique with lengthy dramas lasting longer than 4 months, in order to keep up the freshness of the drama and maintain the attention of its audience.
It was at this time in his previous life that Bai Lang’s brother’s ugly news had been exposed. It made the audience feel poorly about him and so his fame took a plummet. As a result in the latter half of the plot of “Partners”, there was a tendency to blacken Bai Lang’s character Jiang XinCheng. This served to compound the bad effect his family scandal had on Bai Lang.
However this time, Bai Li’s debt had been pacified by Qiu Qian’s cheque. Then would the following plot of “Partners” be the same as Bai Lang’s previous life? Bai Lang felt quite curious.
A few days before, Bai Lang had finally received the script sent by the film crew. The butterfly effect had really taken effect. Under the original plotline, Jiang XinCheng was secretly jealous of the male lead and had many dislikeable scenes, however under in the new script this part had been lightened significantly. There was more scenes between with Jiang XinCheng and his son Jiang Le added, and after his amnesia Jiang XinCheng still had his son to comfort him. This resulted in a lot more “meng” {T/N: cute} type scenes.
Today what they were filming was precisely the scene were Jiang XinCheng was jealous of Lin QuanXi.
The setting was shared house’s small living room. The timing was Chen MeiYu’s birthday. The four people living there made an arrangement to all finish early in order to help Chen MeiYu celebrate.
And for this occasion, the script’s Jiang XinCheng had put in a lot of effort. He had purchased a present for Chen MeiYu which was a carefully selected pair of earrings which he thought she would like. However because Lin QuanXi gave Chen MeiYu a stuffed bear that he had won from a claw machine on the side of the street, the earrings were carelessly thrown aside by Chen MeiYu where it fell into a crack between the cushions. In this way the pair of earrings became a single earring only, and made Jiang XinCheng’s present completely worthless.