Chapter 16 Chapter 16 Ten years later...
Xia Ji returned to the courtyard where he lived with a heavy heart. He walked through the corridor and was about to enter the house when he saw Lily.
"Why did you come back? Didn't you find the young master?" Lily took his hand with concern and asked while squatting down.
"Found him. He's playing chess with grandpa. I want to take a shower and go to bed." Xia Ji couldn't help but smile.
"Then I'll prepare hot water and pajamas for you." Lily put her arm around his shoulder and went in together.
When Lily went downstairs, Si Cheng just came back.
After scanning the hall for a while and failing to find the child, Si Cheng asked in confusion, "Where is the child?"
"Ji Ji? Didn't he go to your place? He just came back to take a shower and go to bed. He looks a bit listless. I wonder if he's feeling unwell." Lily said.
Si Cheng paused for a second, "I'll go take a look."
Xia Tian's room was just opposite him. After going upstairs and walking to the door of Xia Tian's room, there was a small blue doll hanging on the door. Si Cheng put his hand on the door handle and heard the child's soft sobbing from inside.
Gently turning the handle, I saw a small bulge in the quilt of the child's bed not far away, twitching occasionally.
The cheerful look on Si Cheng's face disappeared, and he knew in his heart that Xia Ji might have heard what he had just said.
Although he felt that Xia Tian should not be the Xia Tian of his previous life, he did feel that he knew a lot. So who could he be?
Si Cheng didn't say anything, closed the door, went back to his room and sat on the chair next to the desk. He picked up the pen and started turning, thinking a lot in his mind.
Ten minutes later he went downstairs, walked to the door of Lily's room, curled his fingers and knocked on the door.
It was almost eight o'clock in the evening. Lily was getting ready to wash up and go to bed. When she heard the noise, she quickly opened the door.
"Young Master?"
"Excuse me, could you please go to Annie's kennel and pick out a dog and give it a bath?"
"Okay, which one should I choose?"
"Which one do you like in summer?"
“I also…”
"The one he often sneaks into the room."
"Oh, I know that one. That one is just called Huahua."
"Well, thank you. I'll take him to his room after he's done with the shower."
"If he's asleep, don't wake him."
The next morning, Xia Tian was woken up by being licked. When he opened his eyes, he saw a handsome adult German Shepherd sitting on the floor at the head of the bed, panting enthusiastically and licking his face quickly.
The puppies born in summer have grown into majestic dogs, with erect pointed ears, yellow and black hair, weighing dozens of kilograms and a tall and strong body. When they are quiet, they look like a serious general.
"Wow! Huahua!"
Seeing the pure and gentle eyes of the dog, Xia Tian was instantly healed. He stretched out his hands and hugged the big dog's head and rubbed it for a while.
Lily stood next to Huahua and said with a smile, "Xia Ji, it's time to get up."
Xia Ji suddenly came to his senses and asked, "Why did you bring it here? My brother said he couldn't be allowed into the house."
"He has taken a bath. The young master specifically ordered it yesterday."
After washing up in the summer, I changed out of my pajamas and went out with Huahua.
As soon as I opened the room, I saw Si Cheng from the room opposite just coming out.
Si Cheng glanced at him and went downstairs as if nothing had happened.
Xia Ji hurriedly followed, "Si Cheng, thank you for letting Hua Hua into the house."
Si Cheng paused, then returned to normal, "She can come in from now on, as long as she keeps it clean."
"Really?" Xia Tian was surprised.
"You can't let him get on the bed."
"knew."
The two of them were having breakfast together in the restaurant. Ding Man came in late, yawning, "Good morning, kids."
"Good morning, Auntie. Did you not sleep well last night?" Xia Ji picked up the glass and drank milk.
"Well, I came back late yesterday after drinking with some sisters." Ding Man found a place to sit down, and the servant brought her some of her usual breakfast dishes.
"So are you going to rest at home today?" Xia Ji asked with a mustache on his mouth.
"No rest, I'll take you to shoot a commercial later. This commercial will be broadcast on the same platform as 'Dear Child'." Ding Man ate a sandwich, "Si Cheng, are you going?"
Xia Ji immediately looked at Si Cheng, his eyes clear and sincere, with implicit expectation.
Si Cheng also glanced at him and said, "There's nothing to do at home anyway, so let's go. Wipe your mouth, it's covered in milk stains."
"Oh oh." Xia Ji's eyes lit up and he hurriedly took a tissue.
After signing with the agency, Xia also had her own exclusive agent and two assistants. Today, the assistant drove a nanny car to pick them up, and the agent was also there.
After Ding Man sent them to the shooting location, she spoke a few words to the other party's director, instructed her agent and assistant to take good care of them, and then left.
There were several other children filming together. During the summer shoot, Sicheng was reading a book and waiting nearby.
This kind of commercial shoot is very tiring. You have to run, smile, act, and cooperate with other children.
One of the children behaved badly no matter what, which made the photographer angry several times. The other children were also terrified.
Among the children, Xia Ji is the least famous. In the entertainment industry, people treat people differently based on their appearance. If Ding Man hadn't come over today, it would probably have been Xia Ji who was yelled at.
It was the first time that Si Cheng accompanied Xia Ji to shoot an advertisement. He watched from the side with a frown on his face. He didn't even read his book and just stared at the photographer.
During the intermission, Xia Tian came over and asked directly, "Do you really have to be this star?"
Because Xia Ji was also a star in his previous life, he has a strong disgust and contempt for this profession.
It’s not discrimination, the reality is that there are few clean people in the entertainment industry. They appear clean on the surface, but it’s all fake. Their private lives and personalities are questionable.
Xia Ji took the juice handed to him by the assistant with both hands, drank it, blinking his big eyes, "What's wrong?"
“I asked you why you wanted to be a star?”
Xia Tian thought for a moment, sat down next to Si Cheng, and said, "Because I feel like I have the talent to be a star."
Si Cheng snorted coldly, "What talent is needed to be a star? As long as the team is professional, even a dog can be packaged as a star."
The assistant next to him could hardly hold back his laughter, while the other children who heard it glared at him.
"Okay, that's true, but being a celebrity makes money quickly, and a lot of people like you."
Si Cheng glanced at him and asked, "Are you short of money? Or are you short of people who like you?"
"This has nothing to do with whether there's money or not. Many people from wealthy families can still become stars, right?"
Si Cheng stopped talking. Xia Ji moved closer, biting the straw. The two of them were very close. "What's wrong? Are you tired of waiting? Why don't you go home first?"
Si Cheng leaned back to create some distance, opened the book again, and glanced around at the various staff members on the set. "No need."
Just be a star, the Si family can protect you.
When the two commercials were finished, "Dear Child" had already been broadcast on the children's TV channel. Nowadays, there are many children's reality shows. "Dear Child" does not have any well-known star partners and the lineup is not outstanding, but it has also gained some popularity. Ding Man received many business invitations in the summer, but they were all rejected by her.
Xu Suxin was so anxious that she went to find Ding Man, but was stopped by Ding Man on the grounds of abusing minors.
After the New Year, Xia Tian went to school steadily. During the summer vacation, Ding Man got him a movie shoot. He joined the crew in July. The role was not important, just a small one. It was finished in more than a month. It was the first movie he shot in the summer.
In the following years, Xia Ji never returned to the Xu family, except that Xu Suxin would occasionally go to the crew to find him.
After completing high school courses, he reduced his filming time and entered J University to study college courses seriously.
During this period, he has accumulated a good reputation in the entertainment industry. He is recognized as a child star with good looks and acting skills, and his popularity among the people is very high.
He is very low-key in his daily life. Apart from filming and advertising, he is basically not on the hot searches. He rarely interacts with other celebrities on Weibo. He occasionally posts about his daily life, almost never showing his face, or reposts promotional activities. He has only more than one million fans.
Ten years later...
The H City Film and Television Shooting Base was bustling with activity early in the morning. There were extras in various costumes, busy staff, more than ten crews, more than twenty scenes, and some fans waiting for nanny cars outside the venue. There was an endless stream of people of all kinds.
"Night Rain" is a martial arts film directed by the internationally renowned director Xu Yuan. After more than six months of filming in more than a dozen cities across the country, the last few scenes were shot at the film and television base in H City.
It was June, and the temperature had climbed to over 30 degrees Celsius at nine in the morning. The actors in the martial arts crew were wearing thick and long ancient costumes, waiting in pavilions or corridors. They all looked uncomfortable with the heat and kept fanning themselves.
Filming has already started on the set. Several young people in ancient costumes are drinking and chatting happily. The set is silent, the camera is sliding silently, and the director is wearing a sun hat and sitting behind the monitor, watching closely.
A few minutes later, the director picked up the loudspeaker and shouted "cut". The scene became noisy again. The makeup artists touched up the actors' makeup and the props team rearranged the scene.
The seventeen-year-old boy was extremely handsome, wearing a white suit, his long hair tied up high with a red rope, his black eyelashes drooping as he said something to the assistant next to him, took the straw cup to drink water, and then walked towards the director with an upright posture and high spirits.
Xia Tian bent over and watched the playback with the director. Her profile was beautiful and her eyelashes were curled. "Is this part okay? Do you want to reshoot it?"
The director nodded and gave him a thumbs-up. "Perfect, no need to reshoot. Next part here..."
While he was communicating with the director, assistant Yang Li suddenly came over, patted him on the shoulder, and whispered, "Xiao Ji."
Xia Tian looked in the direction he pointed and saw a young man wearing gold-rimmed glasses and a suit standing outside the court, looking in his direction. His elite demeanor was clearly different from the crowd around him, making him feel out of place.
Since joining the group last year, Si Cheng has been surrounded by a group of such elites in suits.
Xia Ji put down the cup and walked towards the elite man.
"Assistant Du, why are you here?" Xia Tian asked in surprise.
Du Feng smiled and said, "Boss Si is here."
There were some fans gathered on the roadside, most of them belonged to other people. Xia walked through them and headed to the road farther away, where a black Rolls-Royce Phantom was parked on the roadside.
Sicheng doesn't like to be exposed to public cameras. When working in the summer, he usually asks his assistant or driver to deliver the messages on his behalf.
The air conditioner was on in the car, and a faint fragrance floated in the air.
Si Cheng was dressed in a more business casual style today, a beige short-sleeved casual shirt and trousers. At eighteen years old, he was already 187cm tall. When his long legs crossed, he still looked youthful, but no one dared to underestimate his deep and sharp aura. In terms of strength, he was every bit a grown man.
Seeing Xia Ji running towards him, his face remained expressionless, but his eyes followed him closely.
"Brother, why are you here?"
Xia Ji opened the back door of the car and squeezed in happily, with uncontrollable enthusiasm in the corners of his eyes and eyebrows.
He had been on set for over five months, traveling all over the country for filming. Sicheng had also been frequently on business trips since joining the group. The last time we met was a month ago, when Sicheng had just returned from France.
"I finished a meeting in S City and came to see you." Si Cheng raised his hand to brush away Xia Tian's hair that had stuck to his face from running. Seeing that Xia Tian was sweating profusely from the heat, he frowned slightly. "How long will it take for it to end?"
The young man had red lips and white teeth, and his eyes were full of smiles. "It's okay now. We have one more scene to shoot tonight before we wrap it up."
Si Cheng looked him up and down, "Change your clothes and I'll take you out for dinner."
"Okay, then you wait for me." Xia Ji smiled, with two dimples at the corners of his mouth.
After saying that, he got out of the car and ran away like a happy little bird, as if he had run so far just to meet Si Cheng and say a few words to him as soon as possible.
More than ten minutes later, Xia Tian, wearing a white sleeveless T-shirt, black shorts, and a big baseball cap, with only a pointed chin exposed, long arms and legs, and delicate white skin that seemed to glow in the sun, came running over again.
Panting, he opened the door and got into the car, shouting, "Okay, you can go out and play. Just bring me back in the evening."
Now that she had removed her makeup, her skin was even whiter and more translucent, with a faint blush due to excitement and warmth.
Si Cheng asked the driver to drive, and Xia Ji asked, "Brother, are you going back today?"
Si Cheng leaned back in his chair, browsing work emails on his tablet. "I'll go back with you tomorrow."
"Ah! That's great!" Summer cheered softly.
They were still some distance away from the dinner place, so Xia Ji used his mobile phone to make a video call to Ding Man, asking if she had gone for a physical check-up on time and telling her to get enough rest. The two chatted more intimately than a real mother and son.
Xia Ji pointed the phone at Si Cheng. Si Cheng put one hand behind Xia Ji and just glanced at them, too lazy to bother.
The place we had dinner was a Taizhou restaurant, located in a quiet area in the city center and not many people around.
After entering the private room, Xia Tian discovered that there were two other people inside. They were both friends of Si Cheng. One was called Liang Xuan, and the other was called Ouyang Xin. They were in their twenties, a few years older than them. Xia Tian also knew them.
"Hey? Why are you here too?" Xia Ji asked in surprise. These two people were from J City and now they came to H City.
"I have a relative from here. He is getting married and we came here to attend the wedding." Ouyang Xin said with a smile.
"Hey, little star, I haven't seen you for a while, and you've become more handsome again." Liang Xuan joked.
"Really?" Xia Ji curled his lips and sat down with Si Cheng.
Ouyang Xin poured them a cup of tea and asked, "What kind of movie are you filming?"
"Night Rain, directed by Xu Yuan." Xia Ji took the tea with both hands and took a sip. He didn't like tea, except milk tea.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
