Chapter 19: The 19th day after quitting the entertainment circle. Seven handsome guys, my mother is jealous...

In the past two years, he had been living in a muddle. Initially, he could still keep an eye on the outside world through the jade pendant, but as Qiao Tianyi became more famous and his face became uglier, and as the hope of escape became slimmer, Fu Rui often curled up in the corner of the jade pendant, shutting himself in silence.

Until Sang Qiqi started to confront Qiao Tianyi.

Fu Rui's fingertips caressed the calendar, and his gaze toward Sang Qiqi was tinged with hesitation and conflict. Sang Qiqi understood immediately and waved her hand, saying, "Go find your grandmother and brother. But for your safety, I need to leave a little gadget with you."

Sang Qiqi had just punched Qiao Tianyi and stunned him. Although the sound of her knuckles hitting Qiao Tianyi's forehead was very clear and loud, Sang Qiqi knew that the force she used would at most cause a bump on Qiao Tianyi's forehead, and it was unrealistic to break his skull.

It is estimated that within an hour, Qiao Tianyi will wake up and tell everyone like a madman that it was Sang Qiqi who beat him up.

Of course, this is not the key.

The key is that Qiao Tianyi will soon notice that the jade pendant around his neck and the small doll in his pocket are missing. If he is smart enough, he will realize that the current Sang Qiqi is different from the previous Sang Qiqi, and perhaps even possesses some "special abilities", so he should seek Tongxuan's help.

According to Fu Rui, he died in a car accident, and his ghost did not attach to the body and enter the hospital with him.

This also suggests that Tong Xuan stripped Fu Rui's ghost from his body as soon as he died. Because it is currently unclear whether Fu Rui's death was intentional or a simple accident, the extent to which Tong Xuan cares about Fu Rui's ghost is also uncertain.

Just in case is the best option right now.

Sang Qiqi snapped her fingers, and a pure black cat leaped from a corner of the small western-style building's living room, landing gracefully on the armrest of the sofa. The slender black cat licked its fur gracefully, its green eyes like fine jade. It meowed at Fu Rui and then disappeared from her sight.

Fu Rui followed the black cat and left. As he stepped out of the door, he turned back and promised Sang Qiqi, "I'll come back to find you after I see Grandma and A-Liu."

The town's cemetery is old, having been used by generations. With no renovations or expansions over the years, the area remains as small as ever. Consequently, the deceased are confined to a small glass shelf, unworthy of even the tombstone in the courtyard. Fu Rui had lived a hard life since childhood, and Grandma Fang and A Liu naturally didn't want him to suffer the same after his passing. So, they spent a fortune to purchase a plot of land in the most expensive local cemetery and selected the finest headstone, inscribed with "Fu Rui's Tomb."

When Fu Rui arrived at the cemetery, Grandma Fang was hunched over, placing paper money for the dead one by one into the enamel burning bucket in front of her. The glaring firelight blurred her wrinkled, increasingly aged face. Ah Liu knelt in front of the tombstone, his gaze fixed on the black and white photos, and he recounted the various interesting and boring things that had happened over the past month.

"Brother Da Zhang and his girlfriend are finally getting married. The wedding date has been set for the 13th of next month, and he asked me to be his best man. I know you two originally agreed that if you got married first, he would be your best man, and if he got married first, you would be his best man, right?"

"Sister Linlin broke up with her previous boyfriend, but she's found a guy who treats her really well. Last time we had dinner together, he was so sweet and fed us so much dog food that I almost choked to death."

"Xiao Qi was admitted to the police academy."

"And me, I got in too." Fu Liu showed a bright smile on her face, "Xiao Qi and I got into the same police academy, and we'll be classmates in the future."

Fu Rui stood behind Fu Liu, listening quietly. When she heard that he and Xiao Qi were going to the police academy together, her eyelashes seemed to moisten. Ever since his father's accidental death, which was blamed on the construction site manager by saying "he drank too much," Ah Liu had wanted to become a police officer.

At that time, A Liu even asked him: "Brother, what do you want to do when you grow up?"

Fu Rui wanted to be a scientist at that time.

But he just smiled, put his hand on his brother's face, and said casually: "I want to be a rich man, then send you to school, and you can pass the police academy and come home to bring honor to our family."

Fu Rui raised the corner of her mouth and said softly, "A Liu is great."

The voice was quickly blown away by the wind, as if it had never existed. But Fu Liu seemed to have noticed something, and he stopped talking and suddenly turned his head to look behind him.

There was a hint of confusion in his eyes, and they were unfocused, but the direction he was looking in was exactly where Fu Rui was standing.

Fu Rui was slightly stunned.

After a long while, he suddenly stepped forward and, like before, put his hand on his brother's head and rubbed it gently.

The ends of her hair moved slightly, and she felt an almost weightless pressure on her head. Fu Liu blinked, and tears immediately flowed down.

He felt it, it was his brother.

It was his brother rubbing his head like he did when they were little.

Fu Liu raised her hand and wiped her eyes fiercely with tears, crying and laughing in the direction of Grandma Fang: "Grandma, it's my brother who came to see us."

Although Grandma Fang is old, she first lost her husband, then her son and daughter-in-law, and when she was in her seventies, she lost her beloved eldest grandson. The successive blows made her much stronger than the child Fu Liu. At least in front of Fu Liu, she never shed a tear.

She smiled at Fu Liu through the curling smoke and was about to speak when she suddenly felt a hand around her shoulder. The familiar yet gentle voice that she hadn't heard for two whole years came to her ears again: "Grandma, thank you for your hard work."

Click.

I could no longer control my tears, and they fell drop by drop into the enamel paper burning bucket.

She choked and called out, "Ari."

-

Fu Rui spent almost the entire day at the cemetery with Grandma Fang and Ah Liu. Meanwhile, Sang Qiqi, returning to the funeral service, saw it was getting late and hurriedly opened the shop door. She encountered Bai Yingxin, who was passing by with breakfast in hand. Sang Qiqi sniffed the faint ghostly aura around her and greeted her, "Good morning."

"Good morning, Qiqi." Bai Yingxin waved her hand familiarly and handed over the buns. "Want some buns? I bought too many. I'll give you two."

Sang Qiqi didn't bother to be polite with her. She took the bun and said thank you.

I thought about bringing one for Bai Yingxin when she ordered takeout at noon.

Bai Yingxin saved herself a bun stuffed with mushrooms. She ate it, squinting her eyes and enjoying it. When her mouth was empty, she shared some gossip with Sang Qiqi: "Did you see that video about Qiao Tianyi's acting? I watched Qiao Tianyi's fans arguing with netizens until two in the morning yesterday. It was so addictive."

Sang Qiqi asked curiously, "Who won?"

"How can you tell who's winning here? Qiao Tianyi's fans are so foul-mouthed that several of his biggest fans' accounts have been blocked. Um—the one who cursed you the most has now been banned from posting. If you want revenge, you can do so now. As for the netizens, they've suffered a bit, but then someone exposed the scandal that his fans threw paint at a milk tea shop in the middle of the night and cursed them for a horrible death just because a netizen said something bad about Qiao Tianyi. Now other netizens who are just here to watch the fun have joined in the fray."

Some netizens are even more rebellious, weighing 99 kilograms out of a total of 100 kilograms. They would even specifically @ fans after cursing Qiao Tianyi, and proactively give out the address for fans to come and throw paint on them in the middle of the night.

Bai Ying searched out of curiosity and found that those addresses were either police stations or mental hospitals, which were almost sending Qiao Tianyi's fans to a dead end.

Sang Qiqi didn't hear the second half of Bai Yingxin's words clearly. Her mind was filled with the thought, "If you want revenge, you can go now." She thought about it carefully and asked, "Is it that crazy fan who called Hui Yi so beautiful?"

Bai Yingxin: "Yes, yes, yes!"

Sang Qiqi: "I see. Thank you for your reminder."

Raising an eyebrow at Bai Yingxin, Sang Qiqi returned to the store, the first thing she did was pull out her phone and search for "Hui Yi is so beautiful." She had a deep impression of this fan. Initially, he'd chased Sang Qiqi herself, scolding her for riding on her popularity and being a sycophantic man. Then, he'd arranged for someone to send a dead rat to the original owner. He'd even disguised himself as a fan, lovingly cultivating a friendship with her. Only to then turn around and expose so much of her personal information. He was an absolute villain.

Sang Qiqi frantically implemented the life principles of taking advantage of others, kicking them when they are down, and gloating over their misfortunes. She took screenshots of various ugly photos of Qiao Tianyi during the audition and uploaded them one by one to the comment section of "Hui Yi is so beautiful".

Netizens who are still fighting with Qiao Tianyi’s fans: Good, good, the strongest fighter finally appears!

In stark contrast to the netizens' excitement, Wang Hao's headache started to build whenever he saw Sang Qiqi's Weibo account show she was online. Ever since Sang Qiqi successfully reported Zhong Jie for murder and body concealment, he'd noticed she was on to something. And whenever Sang Qiqi got involved, they were the ones who would suffer in the end!

"This woman feels uncomfortable if she doesn't go crazy for a day, doesn't she? She's clinging to us like a dog-skin plaster and won't let go!"

The members of the brokerage team touched their noses and said nothing, but what they were thinking in their hearts was - isn't this normal?

They had made Sang Qiqi suffer so much scolding in the past, and now Sang Qiqi must pay it back.

And…if they really had to be picky, they felt the problem lay with Qiao Tianyi. Who knew Qiao Tianyi's audition would turn out like this? Even Qiao Tianyi's family members didn't dare to look at the video, fearing they'd be embarrassed and startled. Wasn't this just giving Sang Qiqi a slap in the face?

The team's silence made Wang Hao feel even more upset. He frowned and asked, "Has Tianyi not been contacted yet?"

"No, but I just checked Weibo and someone saw him in Chengjiang, Yang Province."

Yang Province becomes a river?

"Isn't he auditioning? Why is he going to Chengjiang--" Wang Hao's memory was awakened, and he suddenly remembered that two years ago, Qiao Tianyi took him and Zhong Jie to Yunhe Temple in Chengjiang.

It seemed that from that day on, Qiao Tianyi began to rise in the entertainment industry.

Did he pray to the Buddha? Did that work?

Wang Hao's expression became strange, but he didn't say anything more.

At the same time in Tongzhou City.

Song He glanced at the still bloody Weibo, and then opened the secretly recorded audition video in disbelief. The more he watched, the tighter his brows furrowed, and the more his teeth ached. He was puzzled - what kind of role was Qiao Tianyi playing?

Isn't he known as Little Fu Rui? Didn't he win the Golden Crane Award for Best Actor?

He also went to the cinema to watch "Searching for Family" twice. Qiao Tianyi's acting in it was really outstanding. How come he was worse than Song Qiuqiu in front of him?

As for who Song Qiuqiu is——

Song Qiuqiu is a dog he raised. He once pretended to be lame and was admitted to the hospital just to get a bite of food.

If he hadn't taken a video to show that its leg was fine, Song He would have really thought that he had broken its hind leg by sitting on it, and he fed it three bags of snacks out of heartache.

"Hey, isn't this Director Song?"

The sound arrived before the figure.

A loud voice rang out in the coffee shop, causing the cashier to look over frequently. Song He, whose thoughts were interrupted, frowned and looked towards the door. He first saw a tall shadow, and then Fu Honglang's very distinctive bearded face came into his sight.

Song He's expression fell.

Why is it Fu Honglang?

Fu Honglang is also a director. He looks like a pirate villain from a fairy tale, but he really enjoys art films. The road movie he and his wife co-produced is still ranked among the top three of the top ten art films in China.

"What are you doing here?" Song He was not in a good mood and was too lazy to exchange pleasantries with Fu Honglang. He raised his eyelids and glanced at him. "Is it a day off today?"

"Yeah, we've been filming non-stop for almost two months. If they don't get a break, the actors are going to go on strike. But you—" Fu Honglang sat down across from him, crossed his legs comfortably, raised an eyebrow and poked him right in the heart, "Have you confirmed the male lead?"

Song He: “…”

He knows, he knows!

Fu Honglang saw the secretly recorded video on the Internet and laughed at him!

As proud as Song He was some time ago, he is now as nauseous as he is now.

He didn't intend to hide it from Fu Honglang and said bluntly, "Qiao Tianyi ran away."

"Run away?"

"Well, he said he wasn't feeling well yesterday, and I can't contact him today, but I saw someone took a picture of him in Chengjiang online." At this point, Song He couldn't help but mutter, "He doesn't look unwell to me... If he wasn't feeling well, why would he run so far away?"

"So... that video is really not a funny video?" Fu Honglang asked curiously.

The claim that the audition video was a prank was made by Qiao Tianyi's fans after a lengthy argument with netizens, hoping to preserve Qiao Tianyi's rather useless face. While the claim is a bit bizarre, few netizens believe it. However, Fu Honglang believes it's possible, after all, Qiao Tianyi's performance in "Searching for Family" is undeniable.

And now, Song He rolled his eyes and officially declared that his guess was pure wishful thinking.

Fu Honglang: "..."

Song He asked him, "Do you have any good male actors?"

Fu Honglang: "Not waiting for Qiao Tianyi anymore?"

Song He: "What a waste of time! The producer sent me a video explaining the situation half an hour ago, telling me that the big boss said he wanted to replace me."

Analyze video?

Without waiting for Fu Honglang to ask, Song He took the initiative to hand over the phone.

The so-called analysis video is actually considered as a joke by many people. The person who made the video is an up-host on Q station who specializes in analyzing various supernatural stories and cases. The name of the video is: A simple analysis of whether the big change in the actor Qiao Tianyi's acting skills before and after is because he saw something strange.

"Many people only focused on the huge change in Qiao Tianyi's acting over the past one second. One second he was at the level of an award-winning actor, and the next second he was giving a bunch of nonsense. Fans also mistook Qiao Tianyi's pause for a sudden feeling of discomfort. But if you look closely, you'll find that he only paused for half a second, and then turned his head to look in this direction, as if he had noticed something."

As the UP host spoke, he turned the video to 0.1 times the speed, clearly outlining the contrast between Qiao Tianyi's gaze direction before and after.

"So in my opinion, rather than saying that Qiao Tianyi is unwell, it's more like he saw something he shouldn't have seen and got scared. What do you think?"

Fu Honglang: "..."

He was a little incredulous: "Science Society, investors want to replace people because of this analysis video?"

Song He: "Have you heard of Ningchuan Real Estate? My drama's biggest investor is Ningchuan Real Estate. Their boss, Ning Changsheng, believes in supernatural things, almost to the point of obsession. He even has to check the almanac before leaving the house. I heard that when his wife gave birth, he also requested an auspicious day."

Song He looked at Fu Honglang's indescribable expression, shrugged, and said, "The producer told me that after the big boss saw this video, he specially consulted a fortune teller, and the fortune teller told him that Qiao Tianyi couldn't be used."

"And I heard from the producer that in the future, if there are movies or TV series invested by Ningchuan Real Estate, Qiao Tianyi won't even be able to touch them."

"Rich people think a lot," Fu Honglang concluded.

Song He glanced at him and said, "Didn't you believe this before? I remember you and your wife went to the Taoist temple to burn incense and gave tens of thousands of dollars for incense, didn't you?"

Fu Honglang got angry when he talked about this: "Come on, I just paid the incense money and the Taoist priests ran away. Oh, by the way, that Taoist temple is also in Chengjiang, I think it's called Yunhe Temple. After those Taoist priests ran away, a new Taoist priest took over. I heard that making wishes there is quite effective."

He had been cheated before and didn't intend to do it again.

After chatting with Fu Honglang in the cafe for a long time, Song He drank coffee like it was wine, feeling dizzy and his temples swollen. He sighed, took out his phone and sent a Weibo post: "The casting for Dark Thorn is not over yet. Any male actors who are interested can send their information to my email. We can discuss audition-related issues later." / Handshake

Once this recruitment advertisement was released, the already turbulent Weibo scene became even more turbulent.

[? ]

[This is so funny! Qiao Tianyi really got eliminated?]

[If I were the director, I wouldn’t be impressed by his terrible acting either…]

How could Qiao Tianyi be so ridiculous? This is the first time in my life I've seen an actor publicly told he wasn't chosen.

[You have to live long enough to see everything.]

[Hurry up and eat melon @桑柒柒]

Sang Qiqi was so busy she wished she had four arms, and she had no time to pay attention to Qiao Tianyi's final audition results. Furthermore, when she took Fu Rui away from Qiao Tianyi, she knew Song He wouldn't give him the leading male role again. Given Qiao Tianyi's abysmal acting, unless Song He got his head knocked out, Qiao Tianyi still had a chance.

But obviously not.

The fact that Song He was able to haggle for such a long time for a leading male role proves that he is very dedicated to his work.

Therefore, he would never allow Qiao Tianyi, this bad apple, to spoil his pot of delicious porridge.

After Sang Qiqi finished mocking "Returning to Yi is so beautiful", she welcomed the first customer of today's funeral service, who was a regular customer.

Jiang Zhen had never imagined that a day later, he, who had always been so averse to funerals, would appear at the door of Sang Qiqi's funeral home. Facing Sang Qiqi's smiling face with a raised eyebrow, Jiang Zhen coughed lightly and said, "I'll buy some more paper figurines."

Although the measure word used was "point", Jiang Zhen ordered countless things as soon as he entered the room.

Although Sang Qiqi knew that her one-stop funeral service would definitely have repeat customers, she was still a little surprised to see Jiang Zhen being so generous.

Jiang Zhen touched his nose and told the truth: "I bought this for someone else."

This story begins from the night before.

After Jiang Zhen finished shopping at Sang Qiqi's store, he turned off the livestream and found a place to burn all the paper crafts he'd bought. He returned home, edited the video, and, seeing it was getting late, hurried to bed. He dreamed of his mother excitedly dragging him to a park-like place. Then, in that park, Jiang Zhen spotted three men, each holding a Dalmatian, a golden retriever, and a corgi.

Jiang Zhen: “?”

Before he could react, his mother patted him on the back rather forcefully and said excitedly, "Ah Zhen, these handsome guys you picked up for me... they're all good-looking, have great figures, and have good tempers. They even fight for my affections. I'm very satisfied!"

"If I could meet a handsome guy like this while I'm still alive, I'd have to live two more years."

"By the way, I ran into your aunt when I was taking Little One, Little Two, and Little Three for a walk. Your aunt wasn't polite to me at all. When she heard that I had seven handsome guys to keep me company, she insisted that I give her one. I couldn't bear to do that."

"It's a good thing I met you right now. So, why don't you buy some handsome guys for your aunt? When she was alive, she was very kind to you. She always gave you the good things first. Even though she's dead now, you still have to be filial to her."

"Also, buy your grandparents a nice house, preferably with a TV and reading glasses. Seriously, when your grandparents passed away, I forgot to burn their reading glasses. Now they keep stumbling when they walk, it's really worrying."

His mother chattered on and on for a long time, and Jiang Zhen went from being shocked at first to being numb later. When his mother shouted, "I'm going to walk the dog," and disappeared with three handsome guys, Jiang Zhen woke up from his dream.

The strange thing is that although he used to dream, he would forget the contents of his dreams completely as soon as he woke up.

But I remember it clearly today!

He was a little skeptical and deliberately waited half an hour before recalling the content of the dream, but he could still clearly remember every word his mother said.

Including asking him to burn a set of dentures for his grandfather.

Is there something wrong?

Before he could figure it out, he received a phone call. As soon as the call was connected, a ghostly howling voice came in: "Brother, let me tell you a very funny story - I dreamed of my mother yesterday. I also dreamed that my mother told me that your mother has seven handsome men in the underworld! Oh my God, seven! A different one every day! My aunt lives a more carefree life than she did in heaven. My mother is so jealous. She asked me to burn a few handsome men for her too... Where can I burn them for her?"

Jiang Zhen: “…”