I dislike you more.
Would you like to hear a lullaby?
A stub of a thumb, seemingly untouchable, mischievously slipped into the palm of Jiang Songhe's hand and tickled him. Jiang Songhe was being teased like a child by a 25-year-old younger man. His old face turned pale and then red in the darkness. He tried to pull his hand away, but then he heard the younger man whisper, "It's a song my mother used to sing to me a long time ago."
Jiang Songhe stopped moving, letting the younger man pull their hands toward her as if returning something to its rightful owner.
Even top singers need to mentally prepare themselves before improvising a song: "Uh-huh."
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.
(Amazing grace, how sweet!)
That saved a boy like me…”
(The sins of children are forgiven)
This was the first time Jiang Songhe had heard Jonathan sing a cappella up close. Without any accompaniment, her voice, resonating and echoing in the confined space, seemed purified and made even more flawless.
Unable to tell whether it was because she was singing "Amazing Grace" or because her voice itself possessed a divine quality, Jiang Songhe couldn't help but recall fragments of her childhood from the depths of her mind.
He was once held firmly on his father's shoulders, and he was once gently soothed by his mother, dispelling the shadows of nightmares...
The tide receded without our noticing, and the fog silently obscured our vision.
Jiang Songhe squeezed Jonathan's hand, not paying attention to the pressure.
The singing stopped abruptly.
"A fever can affect the tone of my voice. That last piece wasn't my true level. Oh well, I'll sing it another time when I have the chance, haha..."
"No! ...Actually, no."
"You're such a terrible liar."
No, not at all.
"Then tell me, why do you care about me?"
"...It's only human nature."
"The 'human nature' of treating stray cats and dogs the same way?"
Jonathan's ability to organize his thoughts was not affected by the perilous situation at all. He spoke faster and faster, and Jiang Songhe, who was barely alive, could not keep up at all.
"You actually dislike me more than you hate me, don't you?"
"..."
"I'm sorry for drugging you, using your precious little brother to manipulate you, doing those despicable things to you, and even faking my death to scare you... I'm so sorry for constantly disrupting your life!"
"I admit, just like you said, that relentless harassment was entirely my own malicious scheme! But you're not entirely innocent either! You disrupted my rhythm just as much! No one can refuse me, no one! Only you!"
"No, you're not some victim who can be easily manipulated! Your mouth is rotten! You either don't speak at all, or you say the most awful things! What do you mean 'everyone has choices and limits'? What do you mean 'I'm promiscuous and don't accept verbal sparring'?"
Jiang Songhe was not only unable to cope, he was almost overwhelmed by the barrage of old grievances.
"That's so vicious and arrogant!" Jonathan's barrage of attacks was tinged with tears. "Let me tell you, I didn't commit adultery! I do like playing games, but that's all! Ha, I really can't accept verbal abuse, because my stepfather really did treat me like that before!"
"..."
"..."
The moment the words left his mouth, the space fell into a deathly silence; both of them were clearly stunned.
As if an eternity had passed, Jiang Songhe felt the icy coldness on the back of her hand move to her wrist, and she was applying force in the opposite direction, trying to break their clasped hands.
Jiang Songhe clenched his already sweaty palms and pulled them towards him, letting out a mischievous gurgling sound. He pursed his lips and said, "I'm sorry."
What he actually wanted to say was something like, "I'm such a jerk," but self-criticism and self-deprecation were meaningless to the victims he was hurting, so he solemnly and clearly repeated, "I'm sorry."
The coldness on his hand disappeared in one area. Jiang Songhe's brow twitched. Just as he was about to release the other part as well, the coldness that had disappeared shrank in size. He stroked his eyebrows and eyes, and then climbed up to the "川" character between his eyebrows.
With a breath close to his lips, Jiang Songhe closed his eyes as if he knew what was going on. He guessed that Jonah might try to negotiate with him again, taking advantage of his mistakes.
You guessed wrong.
Jonathan's voice suddenly broke into laughter, panting as he moved away from Jiang Songhe's lips, his tone oily and slick: "You got fooled again, didn't you? Don't worry, haha, I don't have such a tragic childhood trauma! How can you be as innocent as your penis? Hahahaha..."
Jiang Songhe was suddenly stung by the exaggerated laughter, not because he had been tricked by Jonathan again, but on the contrary, he hoped more than ever that he had been successfully fooled once more.
Not hearing the expected reaction, Jonathan stopped laughing and said in a deep voice, "This is a little punishment for your venomous mouth."
"Hmm." Jiang Songhe squeezed Jonathan's hand again, this time very gently, and murmured in a muffled tone, "Good punishment."
"..."
-
There was no signal in the elevator. Exhausted, the two held each other's hands and drifted off to sleep, half-asleep.
After an unknown amount of time, a cacophony of voices came from outside the sedan chair, growing louder as it approached.
Squeak—Crack—
The elevator doors were pulled open with a sound.
Flashing lights impatiently swept past the figures of people lying prone on the floor between the two floors and into the elevator car.
Jiang Songhe immediately released his grip, slid his numb and aching legs to the side, and used his upper body to shield the still dazed Jonathan, yelling at the onrushing light sources, "Shut down the lights!"
Reporters, eager to grab headlines, wouldn't listen to anything like this.
The most urgent task was to get Jonah to the hospital. Jiang Songhe didn't have time to waste words with the wolves and tigers. He squinted in the blinding, flashing white light, searching for someone he could entrust with the top celebrity.
Where are the bodyguards?! They're fucking clueless!!!
"Grass."
Jiang Songhe cursed as he couldn't find a suitable candidate, while taking off his suit jacket and thinking of a public relations pitch for Jonah's company: "At worst, we can say that I am Janus's agent, and because I am still in the probationary period, I have not made it public yet."
Having made up his mind, Jiang Songhe quickly turned around to face Jonathan, covered Jonathan's head and face with his suit jacket, and, avoiding the injury, lifted him up by putting his arms under his armpits and around his chest.
Before turning around, he whispered through his suit jacket, "Don't say anything."
"Move! Right now!"
"Hey, f*cker?! (Hey, you bastard?!)"
"Don't try to provoke me."
...
A brief commotion erupted behind the flashing lights, followed by silence, and soon the flashes were turned off one by one.
Wasin braced his broad shoulders against the top of the elevator car, blocking the prying eyes, and leaned in to extend his iron arm into the elevator.
After Jiang Songhe and he worked together to push Jonathan to safety, he stayed behind and whispered, "Take him away first. His wound is infected and has caused a fever. He needs to see a doctor immediately. Tsk, do you understand?"
Before Jiang Songhe could translate into English, Vasin withdrew his hands and feet from the entrance, nodding his broad chin and saying, "Hmm."
They then broke through the encirclement with Jonathan and disappeared into the crowd.
After Vasin and Jonathan left, Jiang Songhe was pulled out of the car by the maintenance workers. He turned to the swarm of microphones and said "No comment" before leaving.
As I walked through the emergency exit to the hotel lobby, a sense of disorientation belatedly washed over me.
It was late at night, and he didn't know where to go.
"Mr. Jiang?" The receptionist called out to Jiang Songhe, who was pacing back and forth. As the guest approached, she presented him with a bottle of red wine from below the table with both hands. "Good evening, Mr. Jiang. Mr. Qiao left a message the other day saying, 'I cannot accept your refusal to accept this.'"
-
Jiang Songhe, carrying the Latah 91 cigarette, found a 24-hour convenience store nearby.
I bought a bottle opener and casually asked the clerk for a few disposable paper cups.
Jiang Songhe spent several hours drinking alone by the window, until he finished the last drop in the bottle. He found that he wasn't drunk at all, but rather entered a strangely clear-headed state.
Driven by this state of mind, he inexplicably felt that he should do something.
So he took out his phone and sent a WeChat message to "Executive Producer Lin Duole, who was recently promoted," with the message mainly focusing on the following points.
1. Using the name of Yunhe Entertainment, TANG was contacted directly to extend a cooperation invitation to Janus.
2. In addition, try to negotiate the film and television rights to Janus's first original single, as well as the performance rights for a duet and solo performance by Kang Song-yoon and Janus.
3. Highlight the key point of "try to talk" in point 2: do not conduct negotiations, and prioritize the other party's intentions.
Scenario A: Janus accepts the offer and pays the full amount quoted by the other party.
In scenario B, Janus does not accept the invitation. Respect this and do not continue to try to persuade him indirectly.
4. Approach the conversation as a "producer at Yunhe Entertainment," and proceed with step 1, 2, and 3 after HR issues an internal promotion notice.
5. Do not mention or mention less about who the boss of Yunhe Entertainment is.
After clicking send, Jiang Songhe changed the WeChat nickname for "Executive Producer Lin Duole's recent promotion" to "Producer Yunhe Lin Duole". After making the change, he added a personal aside.
"Use concise and professional language, don't ramble on. If that doesn't work, have Xu Qin assign a translator to sit next to you and let him filter it first."
...
At four o'clock in the morning, Jiang Songhe returned to the top floor of the Tang Dynasty Hotel.
He knocked on the door of room A.
I didn't intend to do anything else; I just impulsively knocked on the door and then went back to sleep next door.
But the door opened.
He stood there for a long time, holding the empty bottle of Rattahi 91, before finally asking the person inside a stupid question.
"...Are you hungry?"
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