The doctor: “Everything looks fine; you can be discharged soon. Just remember to keep warm when you go back.”
Gu Chenyan: “Alright, thank you, doctor.”
Ou Yinan went to handle the discharge procedures, while Lu Yue was packing things. Gu Chenyan received a call unexpectedly and went out into the corridor. Chen Wenyuan was texting on his phone.
Qiao Shu thought for a moment and walked over, “Assistant Chen, do you have a moment?”
Chen Wenyuan put away his phone, “Yes.”
Qiao Shu: “What time did you all arrive yesterday?” Originally, he wanted to ask Gu Chenyan, but after being interrupted, he got caught up in the sweet and emotional moment and forgot.
Chen Wenyuan thought for a moment and said, “We arrived at the hospital around 9:00 PM.”
Qiao Shu: “So late?”
Chen Wenyuan: “Yes. As soon as Mr. Gu returned from his business trip to Qingcheng, he heard the news of your illness. Without even returning to the company, he turned back to the airport and took the nearest flight to come here.”
Qiao Shu caught the key point, “Qingcheng? You were on a business trip to Qingcheng this time?”
Chen Wenyuan confirmed, “Yes.”
Qiao Shu: “How many days were you on the business trip?”
Chen Wenyuan: “Ten days.”
Qiao Shu: “!!!”
Qingcheng and Yancheng were in completely opposite directions from Haicheng!
So, last time, Gu Chenyan didn’t just happen to pass by to deliver clothes; he intentionally came to see him?
This time, he had just returned to Haicheng, heard about his illness, and immediately flew to Yancheng!
This man…
How can he be so good!
“What are you guys talking about?” Gu Chenyan, who had just finished his call, looked at the two with a somewhat unclear face as he stood near the door of the ward.
Qiao Shu looked up.
He saw the man standing in the doorway of the ward, his face slightly obscured by the backlight.
He paused.
Gu Chenyan pursed his lips slightly and then walked in directly, skillfully positioning himself between the two. Seeing this, Chen Wenyuan quickly retreated to the other side, taking out his phone to continue sending messages.
Gu Chenyan: “Hmm?”
Qiao Shu snapped out of his thoughts and then revealed a big, bright smile, saying, “Gu Chenyan, why are you so good?”
Gu Chenyan looked puzzled.
But soon, he earnestly posed another question, “Why didn’t you call me ‘husband’ again?”
Qiao Shu: “…”
Even without touching, Qiao Shu knew that his face at this moment must be very hot and very red.
The man in front of him was still looking down at him seriously.
The other’s eyes were very sincere, waiting for his response.
Qiao Shu was enveloped in embarrassment, but soon he spoke. His voice was soft but clear enough, “Husband.”
Gu Chenyan was satisfied, “Hmm.”
He said, “You can call me that in the future.” After a pause, he added, “I like this term of endearment.”
Qiao Shu couldn’t help but laugh.
After completing the discharge procedures, instead of going directly back to the film set, Qiao Shu checked into the presidential suite of a five-star hotel with Gu Chenyan. They both took showers and put on the temporary clothes they had bought.
Qiao Shu: “You go and get some rest.”
Last night, it was Gu Chenyan who monitored his IV drip. Although Qiao Shu didn’t know exactly when Gu Chenyan went to sleep, it definitely wasn’t early, and he had been awakened early by him this morning.
Looking at the faint blue color in Gu Chenyan’s eyes, Qiao Shu felt a bit distressed.
Gu Chenyan didn’t refuse, “Okay.”
He was indeed a bit tired.
Gu Chenyan fell asleep quickly.
Qiao Shu closed the door, sat on the sofa in the living room, and took out his phone, opening WeChat.
There were many messages on WeChat, and Qiao Shu opened each one. They were all from people he knew in the crew, inquiring about his health.
He replied to each message one by one.
Soon, the director called.
Director: “Qiao Shu, take a good rest these days. The crew is changing locations, and I’ve asked the production team to reschedule your scenes later. Take a few more days to rest, and come back to shoot when you’re fully recovered. You’ve worked hard this time.”
The director also felt apologetic.
He was a fan of martial arts, and when shooting martial arts scenes, especially fight scenes, he pursued perfection and had high demands.
Qiao Shu had more scenes in the fighting scenes yesterday than Tang Ting, who played the female lead. Tang Ting finished all her scenes in the morning, but Qiao Shu needed to shoot some additional scenes. In the freezing weather, he was asked to continuously film fight scenes under the icy waterfall the whole day. It was quite unreasonable.
Fortunately, Qiao Shu was unharmed, or else he would truly feel guilty.
Initially, Qiao Shu wanted to say that he was fine and could return to shooting, but then he remembered Gu Chenyan sleeping in the room.
He changed his tone, “Okay, thank you, Director. I’ll rest for a few more days and come back once my body has fully recovered.”
The director chuckled, “When you come back, I’ll give you a big red envelope to ward off the bad luck from falling ill.”
After finishing the call with the director, Qiao Shu received consolation calls from Tang Ting and Cheng Yunchuan.
After hanging up the calls, Qiao Shu summoned the service butler of the presidential suite. After stating his request, the butler quickly led a team to replenish the suite’s small kitchen with new utensils and various seasonings.
Service Butler: “Sir, all the ingredients you need are here. Do you have any other requests? Would you like us to arrange for a professional chef to assist you?”
Qiao Shu: “No, thank you.”
After the staff left, Qiao Shu rolled up his sleeves and started working in the small kitchen.
Steamed fish, braised spare ribs, dry pot shredded cabbage, salt and pepper shrimp, stir-fried oilseed rape, and finally, the tea tree mushroom pork rib soup that had been stewing for a while.
These were all dishes that Qiao Shu was quite skilled at preparing.
When Gu Chenyan woke up, it was only around 11:30 am. He quickly washed his face to freshen up, changed into clean clothes, and then opened the door to leave.
The sound of the exhaust hood echoed.
Gu Chenyan glanced towards the kitchen and saw Qiao Shu, wearing an apron, busy inside.
After observing for a while, he walked towards the kitchen.
Knock, knock
Amidst the noise of the exhaust hood, Qiao Shu vaguely heard the sound of the glass door being knocked. He stopped tearing the cabbage and turned to look.
The kitchen door was opened, and Gu Chenyan walked in.
Qiao Shu was surprised, “Why did you wake up so early?” Then he hesitated and said regretfully, “Did I wake you up with my loud noise?”
Gu Chenyan: “No, the soundproofing here is excellent. I set an alarm.”
Qiao Shu was stunned.
Gu Chenyan: “Sleeping too much during the day makes it difficult to fall asleep at night.”
He walked over to Qiao Shu, casually rolled up his sleeves, and asked, “Is there anything I can do?”
Qiao Shu snapped out of his thoughts, shook his head, and said, “No need.”
“You can go outside, the kitchen here has a lot of smoke. I’ll be done in a moment,” Qiao Shu suggested.
Gu Chenyan didn’t move.
Glancing around, he noticed the unprepared shrimp. He reached out, took them, and pulled out the scissors from the shelf, starting to devein the shrimp with slightly unfamiliar movements.
Qiao Shu couldn’t stop him in time.
He murmured, “I wanted you to relax.”
Gu Chenyan continued without stopping, “Cooking together with you is a form of relaxation.”
His words sounded natural, but they hit Qiao Shu right in the heart.
Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump
Qiao Shu bit his lip, unable to control the subtle upward curve at the corner of his mouth.
Gu Chenyan: “Why did you suddenly want to cook?”
“Huh?” Qiao Shu raised his hand and discreetly rubbed his face, whispering, “I just wanted to cook a meal for you.”
At this point, he sounded a bit disheartened, “We’ve been married for a month, but we haven’t had many meals together.”
Gu Chenyan was fine, but the nature of Qiao Shu’s work as an actor forced him to travel constantly, unable to stay in one place for long.
Gu Chenyan looked up at Qiao Shu. After a while, he asked, “Do you want to have dinner with me?”
Qiao Shu nodded.
Gu Chenyan thought for a moment and said, “I can come to see you more often in the future.”
Qiao Shu: “Ah?”
Gu Chenyan: “Some work in the company can be done remotely.”
The dinner Qiao Shu cooked turned out a bit dizzy; he almost mistook salt for sugar, but fortunately, Gu Chenyan noticed and stopped him.
At the dining table, Gu Chenyan earnestly tasted every dish Qiao Shu made. After trying each one, he would look at Qiao Shu and say, “It’s cooked very well; I really like it.”
Qiao Shu couldn’t wipe the smile off his face after being praised.
After dinner, they took a short walk downstairs. In the afternoon, Gu Chenyan went to the study to conduct a remote meeting.
Meanwhile, Qiao Shu, lounging on the sofa playing games, received a call from his agent, Yu Qiong.
Yu Qiong: “The drama ‘General’ will be broadcast tomorrow at 8 p.m. on Apple TV. The official Weibo has just been posted. Remember to repost it.”
As she finished speaking, Yu Qiong added, “Wait a moment!”
A few seconds later, she said, “Zhou Yanqing just followed you on Weibo and, while reposting the official account, also mentioned you. When did you become so close to him?”
Qiao Shu was bewildered.
Zhou Yanqing followed him?
He even specifically mentioned him when promoting the new drama on Weibo? Giving him trending topics and attention?
“I, I don’t know,” Qiao Shu said in confusion. “The last time I met him was during the recording of ‘We’re Here.'”
Although Zhou Yanqing took good care of him during the variety show recording, they didn’t exchange contact information, and there was no possibility of contact afterward.
Yu Qiong: “Let’s not worry about that for now. Later, just repost Zhou Yanqing’s Weibo directly. I’ll send you the content in a while.”
Qiao Shu: “Okay.”
Yu Qiong: “The airing time of the variety show ‘We’re Here’ coincidentally falls one day after ‘General’. I remember in the second episode of the show, the character you played dies?”
Qiao Shu confirmed, “Yes.”
Yu Qiong: “The timing is just right. After the variety show airs, I’ll hype you up a bit. Be prepared; there might be some negative comments from your haters.”
This was to ensure that negative comments wouldn’t affect him too much.
Qiao Shu smiled and reassured, “Sister Qiong, don’t worry.”
After finishing their work discussion, Qiao Shu logged into his Weibo account and indeed found Zhou Yanqing had mentioned him.
Zhou Yanqing was highly popular in the industry, with over a hundred million followers on Weibo, ranging from the elderly to the young. His acting skills were impeccable, and despite being only thirty years old, he had already won numerous Best Actor awards.
Unfortunately, he didn’t participate in movies.
Qiao Shu clicked on his homepage and was shocked, tightly gripping his phone.
!!!
Just by Zhou Yanqing mentioning him for a while, his Weibo followers increased by almost a hundred thousand!
Qiao Shu felt a bit dizzy.
Is this what it feels like to be boosted?
After the dizziness, Qiao Shu quickly followed Zhou Yanqing back and copied the text Yu Qiong sent him to repost Zhou Yanqing’s Weibo content.
After some thought, Qiao Shu sent a private message to Zhou Yanqing: Thank you, senior.
Zhou Yanqing replied quickly: No need to thank me.
Zhou Yanqing: What’s your WeChat ID? Let’s add each other for future convenience.
Qiao Shu was filled with question marks, but he quickly sent his WeChat ID to Zhou Yanqing.
Soon, he received a friend request on WeChat.
Qiao Shu clicked to accept.
Zhou Yanqing: It’s me, Zhou Yanqing.
Qiao Shu: Hello, Senior Zhou.
Zhou Yanqing: Haha, don’t be too polite, or I might feel awkward asking for your help in the future.
Qiao Shu: ???
Zhou Yanqing: I’ll keep you in suspense for now; we can talk about it later. I need to go.
On the eve of the broadcast of “General”, it trended for a whole day. The Emperor Zhou Yanqing, the female lead, rising star Jiang Yuyu, and the male second lead, emerging star Wei Rong… all went through the trending topics, hyping up the show and whetting the appetites of fans.
On the night of the premiere, Qiao Shu, accompanied by the intentionally staying Gu Chenyan, sat in the small living room, eagerly waiting for the TV broadcast.
Qiao Shu felt a bit nervous.
Although the original owner auditioned for this drama, Qiao Shu was now the original owner, and Gu Chenyan was sitting beside him, waiting for the show’s premiere together.
At eight o’clock sharp, the opening theme of “General” appeared on Apple TV.
“I see you,” Gu Chenyan suddenly said.
Qiao Shu, watching the rapidly changing opening, asked subconsciously, “Where?”
Gu Chenyan: “Passed by.”
Qiao Shu: “…”
He looked at the opening and then turned his head to look at Gu Chenyan. Qiao Shu realized that Gu Chenyan’s attitude was exceptionally serious.
Gu Chenyan sat on the sofa with a straight back, his gaze fixed on the television.
Gu Chenyan: “It has started.”
Qiao Shu snapped back to reality, turned his head, and the TV was already playing the opening credits, transitioning to the main storyline.
In this drama, Qiao Shu portrays a delicate and sickly younger brother. They lived in a border town, enduring the hardships of war. Their parents had passed away, leaving the two brothers to depend on each other.
The younger brother’s dream was for the country to drive away the barbarians, ending the suffering of the border town’s people. He wanted to join the army but was hindered by his frail health.
As the older brother, the male lead chose to deceive and swindle to earn money to cure his younger brother, ignoring his advice and persistently opting for dishonest means.
The plot took a turn when the barbarians invaded the border town, causing chaos. In the face of the invasion, the younger brother sacrificed himself to save his dependent older brother, pushing him into the river leading outside the city. Before dying, he shouted to his older brother, “Survive, reclaim our land.”
Gu Chenyan: “Zhou Yanqing?”
Qiao Shu snapped out of the storyline and, hearing Zhou Yanqing’s name from Gu Chenyan, felt a bit surprised. It was the first time he heard a celebrity’s name from Gu Chenyan.
Before he could ask, Gu Chenyan suddenly became more serious. “You did well.”
Qiao Shu couldn’t help but smile and asked, “Where did I do well?”
Gu Chenyan thought seriously for a moment. “From start to finish,” he said, “but I didn’t like the ending.”
Qiao Shu was taken aback.
Gu Chenyan looked at Qiao Shu: “Qiao Shu, I want to do it.”
Qiao Shu: “…”
How did the conversation jump to this topic?
Qiao Shu: “You can do it.”
Gu Chenyan: “Do what?”
Qiao Shu’s cheeks blushed slightly, “Do… something you won’t need to ask permission about in the future.”
Oh my! What did he just say!
Qiao Shu, you really have no shame!
Gu Chenyan was momentarily surprised, then said, “Okay.”
The TV sound was automatically muted, and the two got closer. Qiao Shu relaxed, leaning against Gu Chenyan, who led him into a captivating embrace.
The next day, Qiao Shu remembered to check the viewership ratings of “General”.
The premiere had high ratings, breaking through 2.5.
Although Qiao Shu only had a small role in the first two episodes, this achievement couldn’t be credited to him. Still, as a participant, Qiao Shu was quite pleased.
After checking the ratings, Qiao Shu glanced at the comments on “General”.
Very good, almost all positive reviews with only a few negative ones.
This was definitely a great start!
Exiting the comments, Qiao Shu clicked on the hot search and found Zhou Yanqing hanging at the top.
Clicking on it, Qiao Shu realized that Zhou Yanqing had mentioned him again.
Zhou Yanqing V: Little brother, big brother promises you @Qiao Shu [Video]
Qiao Shu clicked on the video. This short video was from the last segment of the second episode of “General” last night, showing the moment when the younger brother was stabbed to death by the barbarians in the moat.
The original actor’s acting skills were not bad, and this particular scene was commendable. While reading reviews earlier, Qiao Shu saw many praises for his performance.
Of course, there were also comments about his appearance.
Suddenly, Qiao Shu felt a bit panicked.
What exactly did Zhou Yanqing want him to help with? Why did he keep asking for his help repeatedly?
Unable to figure it out, Qiao Shu could only share Zhou Yanqing’s Weibo post with a troubled expression.
“We’re Here” was also a variety show on Apple TV, airing every Sunday night at 7:30.
This time, Qiao Shu didn’t pull Gu Chenyan to watch TV together in the living room because Gu Chenyan had a video conference to attend.
He simply took out the tablet and lay on the bedside to watch.
When Qiao Shu used an app to watch TV or programs, he liked to turn on the barrage. Although there were good and bad comments, overall, it added more fun.
“We’re Here” had many funny moments during its recording, and Qiao Shu couldn’t help but laugh out loud several times. Now, watching it from the audience’s perspective, there were even more laughs. The cleverly edited post-production graphics and text always matched perfectly, adding a lot of amusement.
However, it was a bit awkward to see himself, especially when he saw himself in an inflatable fat suit being clumsily chased by Zhou Yanqing in the ocean ball pool.
Qiao Shu: “…”
Ah!
How silly!
Why is there still a bizarre and accelerated editing in post-production!
Yikes! QAQ, even the barrage is laughing at him!
Qiao Shu couldn’t help but cover his face.
“Ah, this little brother is silly but so cute.” The familiar deep voice reached his ears.
Qiao Shu turned in surprise to see Gu Chenyan, who had returned from the video conference without him noticing, sitting beside him, watching the video on his tablet.
Gu Chenyan looked at the video and solemnly read out the barrage comments.
“Did you guys notice that Brother Yanqing treats this new little brother differently?”
“Is it love if you bully him?”
“What’s with the matching vibes?”
“This brotherly CP is quite addictive, fragrant!”
Reading this, Gu Chenyan turned to look at the stunned Qiao Shu and asked in a serious tone, “What does CP mean?”
⌈Weekend chapters: 2⌉ ⌊Progress: 1/2 ⌋
