That night, it was hard to tell if Lu Lianning was drunk or if he was still caught up in the role from his recent shoot.
He looked completely out of it.
With his eyes shut tight, his head rested on Chen Miao’s lap. Chen Miao glanced at the time—it was already 12:40 AM.
This was Chen Miao’s first time meeting Lu Lianning’s friends, and he wasn’t familiar with them. Lu Lianning’s current state only made things more tricky.
Chen Miao managed to hold out until one o’clock, but he couldn’t take it anymore. The air in the bar felt suffocating, and the chaotic lighting was overwhelming. Lu Lianning remained fast asleep. Chen Miao had leaned down to call his name into his ear several times but got no response.
Finally, Chen Miao decided to tell the person sitting in the middle that he was going to take Lu Lianning home. He didn’t even know the person’s name, but he knew Lu Lianning had skipped the wrap-up party that night because of him.
He half-supported Lu Lianning to his feet. Even though Lu Lianning had lost weight during filming, the Alpha still wasn’t light.
“Hello… I’m going to take him back now. He’s had too much to… drink.” Chen Miao’s voice became fragmented and unclear amidst the chaotic noise of the bar.
However, just from that close distance, Qi Zhen could already smell the scent of Lu Lianning’s pheromones on Chen Miao.
Qi Zhen set down his almost-empty glass, raised an eyebrow, and grinned with delight. “Hello, we haven’t met yet. I’m Qi Zhen, Ah Ning’s childhood friend.”
Chen Miao extended his hand politely, his expression overly serious like they were attending a grand occasion on a red carpet instead of standing in the dim, hazy chaos of a bar. They shook hands.
It was a polite exchange; their hands touched only for a moment before they let go.
When Chen Miao couldn’t see, Qi Zhen kept his eyes fixed on his back as he half-carried Lu Lianning out of the bar. Only when their figures disappeared through the door did Qi Zhen slowly withdraw his gaze.
Chen Miao placed Lu Lianning in the back seat and began driving slowly, maintaining a steady pace.
Lu Lianning usually wouldn’t get drunk so easily. It was unclear why he had today—maybe he was exhausted from filming, or perhaps he was still stuck in that emotional mindset…
Just as Chen Miao was mulling over this, Lu Lianning suddenly woke up at the next turn.
He glanced around and realized he was half-slumped in the back, his head nearly slipping off the seat. Chen Miao, holding the steering wheel, didn’t even look back at him.
Lu Lianning grabbed the back of Chen Miao’s seat and called out, startling him.
“You’re awake?” Chen Miao felt helpless. What a situation—back in the noisy bar, nothing could wake Lu Lianning, but now, in the quiet of the car with empty streets, he suddenly woke up on his own. And to think Chen Miao had dragged him all the way here; he was so heavy.
Lu Lianning remained silent, and the car continued moving even more slowly than before.
When they arrived home, Chen Miao prepared some hangover soup while Lu Lianning sat on the sofa in a daze.
As Chen Miao approached with the bowl, Lu Lianning looked up at him. “Tell me, those people who admire the painter—is it because the painter’s attractive, so they get close and treat him well?” He didn’t take the soup, continuing his line of questioning. “And what about you? Why do you do all this?”
Chen Miao hesitated for a moment before replying, “Because you pay me a salary.”
Lu Lianning wasn’t satisfied with that response and felt Chen Miao was being evasive.
“But I’ve paid all my assistants a salary, and none of them have treated me as well as you do.” Tonight, he was unusually patient, and his tone remained calm.
That’s when Chen Miao realized Lu Lianning was truly drunk. Chen Miao’s attitude softened—he tended to be more relaxed around drunk people. Squatting down, he held a spoonful of soup to his lips and said, “Well, it’s because I’m greedier than they are. I want more.”
Lu Lianning’s eyes lit up. His interpretation of “more” clearly wasn’t the same as Chen Miao’s.
He raised his chin slightly, trying to assert some authority even while seated on the sofa. “Since you admit you’re greedy, shouldn’t you work harder?”
Chen Miao nodded, as if being taught a lesson, and leaned in to kiss Lu Lianning’s chin. With a tone that seemed eager to please, he said, “Mm, I’ll work harder.”
The release date for Shattered Window was set for the end of the year, and following the success of Floating Jade, Lu Lianning entered another period of high popularity.
Ren Qi and Yu Ren had once talked about this after the filming of Shattered Window. During their conversation, Yu Ren showed Ren Qi the final cut of the last scene. It was then that Ren Qi suddenly noticed one of the investors was the Shenglin Group.
“Shenglin Group?” Ren Qi frowned, turning to ask, “Isn’t that owned by the Lu family?”
Yu Ren held an unlit cigarette in his mouth, appearing unconcerned. Ren Qi didn’t like the smell of smoke, but since Yu Ren rarely had free time to spend with him, he tried to be considerate. “Ah, yeah, I thought you knew. After all, you were the one who told me Lu Lianning could act.”
“You’re reading too much into it. I said he could act because I think he’s genuinely talented. Plus, he’s dedicated. He doesn’t dabble in anything else—he focuses entirely on acting, which is quite like you, isn’t it? I thought you two would get along, so I recommended him.”
Yu Ren frowned at this assessment but circled back to say, “But doesn’t the Lu family’s stance seem a bit ambiguous? They claim they don’t support him, yet they’re secretly backing a film for their future heir.”
Ren Qi shook his head with a smile. “The head of the Lu family is not someone easy to deal with.”
At the time, they didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t until later that they realized the head of the Lu family was far more complicated than they had imagined. In the end, they even suspected that Lu Lianning’s twisted personality was purely genetic!
