Translator: Sakhyu

TLC: Midnight

Editor: Forseti

Quality Check: Me3

First Published on Ainushi.

 

He Zhiyuan came to help Jiang Ran package things.

In the afternoon, he had wanted to invite Jiang Ran to go out and eat dinner. However, Jiang Ran said she was too busy packaging and shipping out the goods. Thus, He Zhiyuan volunteered to go over and help her.

But He Zhiyuan hadn’t expected that there would be so many packages before the Chinese Valentine’s day. The two of them had divided up the work before working together and unwittingly worked until twelve o’clock.

Jiang Ran felt a bit sorry for him in her heart as she apologetically told him, “It’s already twelve o’clock……the rest of the things I can finish packaging myself, you should go home and rest.”

He Zhiyuan didn’t really mind, replying, “It’s fine. Fortunately I came over to help, otherwise, with so many things, you would’ve had to pull an all-nighter.”

Jiang Ran smiled. She was just about to say something when her little dog suddenly rushed over. “Woof woof!”

He barked twice in an unfriendly manner toward He Zhiyuan. Jiang Ran quickly hugged him into her arms. “Er Huang, what are you doing? You don’t recognize Big Brother He Zhiyuan anymore?”

“……” Who recognizes a Big Brother He Zhiyuan ah!

“He came here to help me pack, so how could you bark at him? So rude.”

“Woof woof!” It was already midnight yet he was still staying at a single woman’s house——from his observations of the past few days Jiang Ran was indeed single——in the end, did he want to help her package things or did he want to do something else? As a man himself, how could he not understand?

“Er Huang, just what are you making a fuss about?” Jiang Ran frowned as she looked at him. Because his dog biscuits were confiscated today, this fellow’s mood had been very low. Just now, he had clearly been lying there and sleeping, so why did he suddenly rush over and randomly bark?

He Zhiyuan watched the interactions between these two before he gave Jiang Ran a smile. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll take my leave first, you should rest early too.”

“Alright.” Jiang Ran stood up, still hugging her struggling dog. “On another day I’ll invite you out to eat to show my gratitude.”

“Woof!” Why do you still have to invite him out to eat??

He Zhiyuan thought for a moment, before saying, “I just happen to be on leave the day after tomorrow, it would be better to just pick that day.”

“Sure.” After Jiang Ran saw him out, she walked back into her living room and proceeded to seriously educate her dog. “Dog Egg, He Zhiyuan is the benefactor who saved your life, how can you be so ferocious with him? You can’t be such an ungrateful dog.”

“……” The benefactor who saved his life? Could you give a summary of past events please?

As if she had understood the message in his gaze, Jiang Ran rubbed his dog head brusquely to vent out her anger. “You actually forgot? That day when I found you on the road, your whole body was covered in blood because of your wounds. No taxi driver was willing to drive us. Finally, it was He Zhiyuan who was passing by who kindly sent us to the hospital.”

This event had occurred over a year ago, but once she recalled it, it was still a scene that was vivid in her mind. At that time she had just moved here. When she was going to the supermarket one day, she personally saw a stray dog getting hit by a car. The driver who had hit him immediately ran, and the wounded dog lay in the middle of the road. The dog used his dying gasps to cry out as blood continuously flowed from his body. In fact, Jiang Ran was scared pretty badly, but that dog was just too pitiful. Thus, she gathered her courage and walked over, intending to send him to the hospital.

The result was that when taxi drivers saw this situation, they all told her that the dog could no longer survive and that she shouldn’t waste so much effort. Jiang Ran couldn’t bear to abandon the dog and not care about it anymore, so she kept trying to stop cars to help.

In the end, a private car stopped in front of her, and the driver was He Zhiyuan.

He sent them to the pet hospital, and then accompanied her as the people there took photos and began performing surgery. Jiang Ran felt extremely moved. He Zhiyuan and her were complete strangers, but the other was willing to lend a helping hand to save a dog. When she was on the road trying to hitch a ride, there had been people who had told her that sending a dog to the pet hospital was very expensive and that it wasn’t worth it for a stray dog.

Humans not only divided themselves into different social classes, even animals were not spared.

Fortunately, in the end this small dog managed to snatch his life from the jaws of death, and he was discharged after being hospitalized for three days.

“Therefore, you must remember his kindness forever.”

“Woof.” Feng Jing wagged his tail. Alright, you could consider He Zhiyuan as someone who was relatively compassionate. However, for a man to help a woman package things until midnight, you wouldn’t think that was him being compassionate too, right?

Of course, Jiang Ran knew that He Zhiyuan felt something for her in that manner. In the past year, he would invite her out to play every now and then. Truthfully, the way they had met was very similar to the plotlines of popular romantic novels. However……Jiang Ran just didn’t feel that way for He Zhiyuan.

Perhaps He Zhiyuan was also aware of that fact, because he had never said anything about this matter. Thus, Jiang Ran didn’t know what to tell him.

“Ah, forget it. Let’s not think about this anymore. Spending the whole day packaging exhausted me to death.” Jiang Ran massaged her own shoulders, before reaching into her shirt, undoing her bra, and throwing it onto the couch.

Feng Jing: “…………”

Don’t be so casual ah! Why is there such a difference between the you before and now?

Jiang Ran was completely oblivious to the roar of indignation in Feng Jing’s heart. Instead, she walked into the kitchen and pulled out a bottle of beer from the refrigerator. “Today had been this tiring, so let’s just let loose this one time.” She placed the beer to the side before taking out a block of cheese. After slicing up the cheese into small pieces and placing them on a small plate, Jiang Ran walked out holding both the beer and the cheese.

She sat on the sofa and opened the refrigerated beer, taking a sip before letting out a contented sigh. “Ahh——so nice.”

Feng Jing: “……”

“Let’s find a movie to watch.” Jiang Ran turned on the television before scrolling through the movie library. Feng Jing recalled the scene in which she had watched that ghost movie and couldn’t help his eyebrow twitching.

“Hmm, what should I watch?” Everything on the first page of recommended movies were not bad. Jiang Ran took a look around before choosing the “God’s Forbidden Zone 3” Mo Zhen had starred in.

“Woof!”

She hadn’t pressed the confirmation button when her dog suddenly rushed over, placing his paw onto the remote control and choosing the neighbouring movie “Deep Blue”.

Jiang Ran: “……”

She silently lowered her head before looking at her dog. “Do you want to watch this?”

“Woof woof!” Of course. This was the first movie he had acted in. He had relied on this to win the Taurus Award for Best Supporting Male Character and the Best Newcomer Award.

“Well……alright then. In any case, I’ve already seen “God’s Forbidden Zone 3” in theatres.”

Feng Jing: “……”

So, you just haven’t watched any of my movies, right? 🙂

Jiang Ran ate a piece of cheese before taking another sip of her beer. She adjusted her posture reclining deeper into the cushions before she started watching the movie. Because it was already late at night, she adjusted the sound until it was barely a whisper. However, that didn’t prevent her from feeling shocked.

When this movie “Deep Blue” came out two years ago, it was a smash hit. With director Li Liang combined with Film Emperor Guan Ran, together with the support of the Film Empress Ni Bai, this combination allowed the movie to win both profit from the movie box office sales and public praise. However, what attracted Jiang Ran’s attention was the second male lead, Lin Yu.

Lin Yu and Guan Ran, who played Zhou Zhiyu, both used to be the apprentices of the most famous master magician of that time. Ever since they were children, the two of them grew up together and studied together. However, their master thought that Lin Yu’s calculating mind wasn’t proper and upright. Thus, he imparted his entire life’s knowledge to the eldest apprentice Zhou Zhiyu. In the end, the development and growth of the two was the same as what he had expected. Zhou Zhiyu became a wise magician who could replace him, someone who stood in the limelight of the whole world. On the other hand, Lin Yu relied on some of his magic skills as he wandered the streets, deceiving people in all directions.

The story progressed step by step. However, when it was about to end, it suddenly threw a big curveball——the seemingly frivolous and good-for-nothing Lin Yu was actually controlling the underground world and darker sides of society in order to protect his senior brother Zhou Zhiyu, someone who didn’t know anything other than magic. In the end, he replaced Zhou Zhiyu to perform a large-scale ocean escaping magic spell, before fading away in the vast and open sea. He walked in the darkness alone, leaving all of the limelight for his most respected senior brother.

After finishing the movie, Jiang Ran couldn’t calm her feelings down for a long time. She thought that this movie shouldn’t have been called “Deep Blue”, it should have been called “Deep Closet.”

Poor female lead.

The actor who had played the role of Lin Yu was Feng Jing, and he was someone Jiang Ran knew. Recently, he had just been awarded the Film Emperor title, so online his fans had been fighting with the fans of Emperor Mo.

Although Jiang Ran was Mo Zhen’s fan, she believed that Feng Jing was truly good at acting. In the midst of a movie filled with a mishmash of Film Emperors and Film Empresses, Feng Jing never lost the limelight. This was really quite rare.

In addition, he was very handsome, and his figure was extremely nice as well.

……No, why was she becoming smitten with a male star in the middle of the night? She must’ve been single for way too long.

Feng Jing had been lying beside Jiang Ran’s thigh for the entire time. He had also silently finished watching his own movie.

This was the movie he took up three years ago. In his opinion, at that time his performing skills was still quite lacking. If he acted this role now, he would definitely do a better job than before.

While he was analyzing his own acting skills, Jiang Ran had opened her phone to do a search on Feng Jing.

An encyclopedia page on him was at the top of the search results. Jiang Ran skimmed it before clicking open the film review for “Deep Blue”.

User 1023: Have those people praising Feng Jing’s acting skills said enough? If it wasn’t how my Emperor Mo married and had a child, thus placing more time on his family, would your Film Emperor Feng so easily get the limelight? Keke.

User 1057: The people who like Feng Jing must all be very young girls. The people who had followed Emperor Mo in his time wouldn’t so easily climb this wall. Children, have you memorized your multiplication table? Have you finished writing your homework? Have you learned to chase stars this young? 🙂

User 1099: Hehe, to that auntie upstairs, have you finished your chores? Have you fed your child yet? I really don’t know where Mister Feng stepped on one of your. Sensitive. Spots. 🙂

Jiang Ran: “……”

She had thought that weibo had been the main battlefield, and didn’t expect that even a small place like this would have the silhouettes of fans fighting bravely.

Suddenly, she felt too embarrassed to say she had once chased a star before.

Though she heard that recently there had been a popular saying. It was ‘chasing stars like a Buddha’. She probably belonged to this category.

Closing the page, Jiang Ran opened the website for the introduction of the movie “Codename Omega”, the one that had won Feng Jing his title.

“Fifteen years ago, a young couple adopted a boy from the orphanage. Soon, they discovered that he had an astonishing gift with the computer. This couple exploited his skills to acquire illegal profits, before becoming a business empire. Fifteen years later, an international crime organization found the already grown-up boy, inviting him to participate in their ‘Project Omega,’ and the story unfolds from there……”

Because Jiang Ran hadn’t watched this movie before, she closed the website in fear there would be some spoilers. “Codename Omega” had aired in July during summer vacation. It was reasonable to say that by now, they should have long started selling DVDs. However, the box office sales for the movie had always been extremely high. This, combined with how Feng Jing had been awarded the Film Emperor title thanks to his role in Omega, meant that it continued to be played in theatres instead.

Jiang Ran opened her ticket buying phone app and made a search. There was only one screening this afternoon, so she had no choice with the time.

However, that was fine. Being self-employed, the most flexible thing she had was her time. Jiang Ran raised the tip of her eyebrow before buying a ticket for herself.

 


Translator’s Notes:

 


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