Silent Confession
When Xia Zhitang went to Cheng Shubai's office to submit the information for the new project, Cheng Shubai was watching the variety show she and Gu Zian participated in.
The scene showed Gu Zian holding the script board to his chest. Cheng Shubai laughed so hard that tears came out: "Director Xia is so lucky."
"Nothing serious, I'll go back and edit the storyboard."
"Wait." Cheng Shubai turned off the variety show and resumed his serious demeanor. "Lao Lin has been tearing up notices on set every day lately."
"Can you arrange for me to join the team soon?"
"cannot."
"Then I'll go back and edit the storyboard."
"Alas, he only has a canary." Cheng Shubai continued, "You are so damn good."
Xia Zhitang pressed the door handle and turned back to Cheng Shubai and said, "This only proves that he is a scumbag."
In the office of Gu Group, Xia Zhitang sat by the window drawing a storyboard and waited for more than half an hour.
After finishing her work, she looked up at the city outside the glass curtain wall, which had been turned into a blurred watercolor painting by the heavy rain.
She never expected that Gu's father would send the invitation letter to Cheng Shubai in the name of the company.
Since the filming of the variety show ended, her contact with Gu Zian has returned to just discussing work and academic issues.
"Miss Xia, please come this way." The secretary came late with a professional smile.
Xia Zhitang pushed open the solid wooden door of the chairman's office of Gu Group. Gu's father was sitting behind the mahogany desk and motioned Xia Zhitang to sit down.
"Try this year's Mingqian Longjing." White mist rose from the spout of the purple clay teapot, and Father Gu pushed the teacup in front of Xia Zhitang.
Xia Zhitang took the teacup, stood up and poured another cup of tea for Gu's father, and then poured another for himself.
Father Gu didn't want to talk, so Xia Zhitang accompanied him to drink tea.
After three cups of tea, Father Gu slowly spoke, "My son has been mentioning Miss Xia a lot lately."
Just as Xia Zhitang was about to respond, Father Gu took out a brown paper file bag and placed it on the table.
"I heard that Miss Xia is at the Cha Su family?"
Father Gu gently pushed the file bag toward Xia Zhitang, "Our Gu Corporation's legal department has some interesting materials."
Xia Zhitang placed his hand lightly on the file bag and looked at Gu's father.
"Miss Xia, you won't open it?" Father Gu twisted the teacup lightly in one hand, his eyes full of pressure falling on Xia Zhitang, "From what I know, you have worked hard for the past three years for this information."
"There's no such thing as a free lunch." Xia Zhitang didn't back down in the face of Gu's father's aggressiveness. "What do I have to pay?"
Father Gu slowly put down his teacup and said, "Use this to exchange for Gu Zian's return..."
The red string hanging from Xia Zhitang's wrist trembled slightly, her hand trembling unconsciously: "His dream is not a commodity."
"Miss Xia, you might as well take a look at the contents before making a decision." Father Gu said slowly.
The image of her deceased husband lying on the cold hospital bed, his body mangled and bloody, and Gu Zian's brilliant smile kept interweaving in Xia Zhitang's mind.
The scenes of her constantly practicing drawing storyboards, scene drawings, and manuscripts over the past three years gradually overlapped with the scenes of Gu Zian repeatedly failing to hang on wires and getting up on the set.
Xia Zhitang gently placed her fingertips on the file bag, and her fingertips felt like the last time she touched her late husband's cold touch.
"Who are you to decide his life?" Xia Zhitang slowly pushed the file bag back to Gu's father.
"Young people always have to suffer a little bit," Father Gu said, changing the subject. "Miss Xia's husband's car accident..."
"The justice I want should not come at the cost of his dream." Xia Zhitang excitedly knocked over the teacup on the table, and the brown tea dripped down the table onto the thick carpet.
Xia Zhitang turned and left without looking back.
"Miss Xia!" Father Gu's voice came from behind her.
Xia Zhitang continued to walk out without looking back or even stopping.
The solid wooden door suddenly opened, and Gu Zian's anxious face appeared outside the door.
He looked at Xia Zhitang's resolute face, and his heart felt both swollen and soft.
Before Xia Zhitang could say anything, Gu Zian pulled her into his arms. His warm body wrapped around her tightly, gradually warming her cold and trembling body.
Gu Zian hugged Xia Zhitang and patted her back gently: "It's okay, I'm here."
Father Gu coughed lightly, took out a USB flash drive from the drawer and threw it over: "Surveillance backup, just as an apology."
Gu Zian caught the USB drive with one hand: "Are you kidding me?"
"Let's test whether Miss Xia is after money." Father Gu poured the Longjing tea into the trash can. "She drank several cups of such bitter tea without frowning. Better than you."
Father Gu turned around, opened the safe, took out a box of original case documents and stuffed them into Gu Zian's hand.
The heavy rain dyed the street lights into hazy balls of light. Gu Zian protected Xia Zhitang and the case box given by Gu's father and went into the old residential building.
Xia Zhitang took out an old set of men's home clothes from the closet and handed it to Gu Zian.
Gu Zian ran to the bathroom with his clothes and changed. When he came out, his hair was still stuck to his face, like a big wet dog.
"Sit down." Xia Zhitang grabbed the towel and pressed it on Gu Zian's wet hair.
"Sister." Gu Zian looked up at her, "I heard everything in the lounge."
Xia Zhitang paused while wiping his hair: "Three years ago, after I resigned..."
As soon as she opened her mouth, Gu Zian pushed her onto the sofa: "Eat first!"
Gu Zian ran in barefoot. Amid the clinking of pots and pans, the aroma of instant noodles wafted from the kitchen.
Gu Zian returned with a bowl of steaming noodle soup. He placed the bowl on the table, pinching his earlobe from the burn on his fingertips. "My dad's lousy tea is incredibly bitter. You must have missed your meal."
Xia Zhitang sat at the table, looking at the golden poached egg lying on the noodle soup. This extremely ordinary food carried an extremely warm power.
While the two empty bowls were soaking in the sink, Gu Zian hugged Xia Zhitang and snuggled on the small sofa.
“My dad had just left…”
Xia Zhitang pinched the corner of Gu Zian's clothes and slowly and briefly spoke about the pain that had been buried for three years.
"The Su family's cousin was driving a silver Maserati, right?" Gu Zian stood up and inserted the USB drive given by his father into the computer. "Let's review the surveillance footage first."
Xia Zhitang held the back of his hand and said, "Do you know how dangerous it is to get involved?"
"Sister said when she was teaching me about lighting..." Gu Zian took her trembling hand in his and intertwined their fingers, "Even the darkest corner can be illuminated if you find the right angle."
"Sister..." Gu Zian hugged Xia Zhitang and wanted to say something, but couldn't help sneezing.
"Go take a hot shower." She pulled Gu Zian into the bathroom.
Amid the sound of the shower, Xia Zhitang placed the hot ginger tea on the table outside the bathroom door.
When she turned around, the sound of the shower stopped, and Xia Zhitang heard Gu Zian's muffled voice coming from inside the door: "Sister, I can act in martial arts scenes now."
Her fingertips gently stroked the shadow behind the glass door: "Why are you saying this suddenly?"
"Because...if I had met you earlier..."
The sound of shattering porcelain interrupted Gu Zian's next words, and startled him so much that he rushed out wrapped in a bath towel.
Xia Zhitang was squatting on the ground picking up the large teacup she had broken. The sticky brown sugar ginger looked like a blood-red flower on the floor.
"They changed the brake pad inspection report..." Her hand holding the broken porcelain pieces kept shaking. The sharp porcelain pieces cut her fingertips, and drops of bright red blood mixed into the reddish-brown ginger tea.
"When I chased them to the auto repair shop, the surveillance cameras had just been cleared..."
Gu Zian's hands were shaking as he snatched the porcelain piece.
Xia Zhitang looked at the faded red string in his hand, "Before he left, he said he would bring me some sugar-roasted chestnuts."
Gu Zian pressed a tissue against her bleeding palm and cried, "Wait!"
He rushed into the convenience store in the heavy rain with an umbrella, and came back ten minutes later with gauze and hot chestnuts, with a wilted rose in a plastic bag.
"Bandage it first." Gu Zian knelt on the ground and wrapped her with gauze. "We'll call the police later."
Xia Zhitang leaned on Gu Zian's chest and laughed until tears came out: "I've reported it twenty-seven times."
The young man paused with his bandaged hand. "I'll contact the reporter I know right away..."
"Gu Zian!" Xia Zhitang held his trembling hand, "The Su family is more powerful than you think..."
"Then let's crush them with public opinion!" Gu Zian grabbed his phone and opened the Weibo editing page. "My fans are not just for show..."
Xia Zhitang snatched the phone and threw it on the sofa: "Are you crazy? Don't you want to work anymore?"
"What's the point of having a career!" Gu Zian shouted back with red eyes, "If it weren't for you, I would have already..." He suddenly choked up, grabbed the hot chestnuts in the bag and started peeling them, "Eat first, then I'll help you organize the evidence."
Under the warm yellow light, the two of them huddled in front of the coffee table, peeling chestnuts.
Gu Zian gasped from the burn, and the peeled chestnut rolled to Xia Zhitang's feet.
"Clumsy." Xia Zhitang pushed the whole chestnut kernel in his hand over.
Gu Zian grabbed her hand and said, "Teach me how to investigate a case, just like you taught me lighting." There was a hint of warmth on his fingertips. "I have a fan club, paparazzi contact information, and..."
The end of his voice was blocked by a sudden kiss.
Xia Zhitang grabbed Gu Zian's collar and kissed him, the sweet scent of chestnuts spreading between his lips and teeth.
Gu Zian frantically held onto the coffee table, cold, salty tears streaming down his tongue. He tentatively touched the corner of Xia Zhitang's trembling lips, only to be bitten hard on his lower lip.
"I...I don't know how to investigate cases..." Gu Zian panted and hugged Xia Zhitang tightly, "But I can learn!"
Xia Zhitang laughed with a nasal sound, and his tears rubbed against his collarbone: "Shh! Be quiet."
She grabbed Gu Zian's collar and pulled him down.
"Don't rush into someone and kill them." She held the young man's burning earlobe in her mouth and inserted her fingers into his damp hair. "The Su family has deep roots. Don't rush in rashly..."
Gu Zian's Adam's apple rolled as he tried to raise his head, but was pushed back into his neck. Xia Zhitang's warm breath puffed against his ear. "Come with me to the auto repair shop in a couple of days. Say you're filming a car commercial."
"But I want to now..." Gu Zian's hand just touched her waistline, but his wrist was grabbed and pressed against the back of the sofa.
Xia Zhitang sat astride his legs, the hem of her pajamas brushing against the young man's tense knees.
"Shh..." She pressed her fingertips on his lips, which were about to defend themselves. "The more ferocious the enemy, the more patient the hunter must be." Suddenly, she bit his rolling Adam's apple. "But now..."
Gu Zian's mind was like a thousand fireworks exploding in a riot of colour. By the time he realized what was happening, he had already smashed open the bedroom door, carrying someone.
Xia Zhitang sank his back into the fluffy duvet, raised his hand to unbutton his shirt, and his fingertips lightly brushed across his chest.
Gu Zian's gasp made her chuckle: "So hot?"
He gritted his teeth and tried to stand up, but was pulled down by the scruff of the neck again.
Xia Zhitang's sigh, mixed with warmth, entered his ears: "Teacher Gu is not paying attention in class..."
"Sister..." Gu Zian turned over and changed his position, and the strands of hair on his forehead brushed across her eyebrows. "Collecting evidence requires attention to detail..." The ending tone changed to a muffled groan, and Xia Zhitang's nails left red marks on his back.
Gu Zian grabbed the wrinkled bed sheet and tried to get up to look for something. Xia Zhitang hooked his arm around his waist and said, "Take your medicine later."
"It's harmful to your health." Gu Zian dodged and tried to get up.
"One last time." She bent her knees and pushed open the young man's tense abdomen. "Focus."
At three o'clock in the morning, Gu Zian was awakened by thunder. Xia Zhitang in his arms was tracing his eyebrows with his fingertips, and his eyelashes cast a trembling shadow under his eyes.
"Would you like some water?" He tried to stand up with a hoarse voice, but was entangled like an octopus.
"Don't move." Xia Zhitang buried his face in his chest. "Remember, going to the auto repair shop is just for filming. If you dare to move without permission, I will bite you to death."
Gu Zian smiled and touched the mineral water on the bedside.
As he tilted his head back to drink the water, Xia Zhitang's fingertips drew warning circles on his waist: "Did you hear that?"
"As you command." He leaned over and kissed her lips gently, "My chief director."
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