Chapter 105: Modern Entertainment Industry
“Convict No. 7098, please accept the fourth task in this world: sign a keeping contract.”
The familiar electronically synthesised voice sounded in his ears.
Ge Xiu was stunned, his lifted his eyes slightly, his dark pupils flashed under the shadow of his long eyelashes as he quickly swept his sight towards the man sitting across him at the dining table.
The dazzling sunset shone in from the floor-to-ceiling windows and fell on the man’s cold and sharp profile, with the tall and narrow nose bridge as a boundary dividing his face into dark and bright side by the light.
His expression was unfathomable and his posture was relaxed, the warm light from the setting sun was reflected in his deep eyes, like a cluster of flames burning silently, with a calmness as if everything was under control, patiently waiting for Ge Xiu’s response.
Ge Xiu withdrew his gaze and stared thoughtfully at the contract in front of him.
The task this time was again of the nature of the previous ones.
——it was “promoting”,not “preventing”.
The “tasks” in this world say a lot.
This was the first time that Ge Xiu had been in a close contact with the behind-the-scenes “intent”.
To construct a virtual world, it was necessary to pre-set the world background and the line of the world’s operation. According to their desire to obtain pain points, all of the settings should have been created for the purpose of torturing him, making the worlds become like highly efficient machine designed to squeeze and harvest pain value from him.
It tried to prevent Ge Xiu from acquiring Xingchen Entertainment and exposing Wang Xuejiu’s dirty transactions, which means that such a trend destructed the pre-designed route, if he went further in that direction, he would get rid of the frame set by the other party and go beyond the control range of the other party.
And this promoting task showed that the current situation was designed by the people behind the scenes, and it was even possible that they have designed a route for him before the world began.
If this trend was in line with the expectations of the behind-the-scenes, it means that what awaits him must be pain and torment.
Logically speaking, this was true.
but……
Ge Xiu was a little unsure now.
He didn’t even need to look up to feel the man’s tangible sight, branded on him with a sense of presence, giving him a distinct sense of being watched.
Ge Xiu was a little confused now, what role did he play in this process.
The electronic voice in his ear sounded again: “Convict No. 7098 please accept the task.”
It seemed a little impatient, but it did not directly shock him like last time, which clearly proved that the outside world was monitoring the inside of the virtual world and was trying to get him to take on the task without disrupting the world progress.
Ge Xiu raised his eyes and looked at Zuo Yan:
“All right.”
Zuo Yan didn’t look very surprised — he had obviously investigated Lu Nan’s life experience and background before making this decision. Of course, he learned that he was riddled with black material, desperate and still owed a lot of debt, for a starlet in this situation, accepting the keeping contract would be the most sensible choice, and rejecting it was stupid.
“Wait a minute, the butler will give you the key to a property in the city.”
He crossed his hands on the table, his slender fingers were thin and well-proportioned: “You will stay here tonight.”
Ge Xiu turned to the last page of the contract, on which he signed the name:
Lu Nan.
As he wrote, he nodded casually, and replied: “Okay.”
.
After dinner, Ge Xiu was taken to a room upstairs.
The room was very large, with fully decorated interior in a cold and simple style, but without losing a vague sense of luxury.
He threw the contract on the table and then threw himself onto the soft and spacious bed. The mattress under him bounced slightly with his movements and the ceiling above his head swayed with his vision.
Ge Xiu yawned, took out his phone from his pocket and swiped on the screen.
His agent didn’t come to him, and the mailbox that had always been full didn’t have any new messages at the moment.
It was not incomprehensible.
After all, his previous performance was really too shocking. It could be estimated that he was now guessing Lu Nan’s background and identity in uncertainty. —In addition, this Fang Zhengye was well aware of his previous attitude towards Lu Nan. If it was really a young man who came to the entertainment industry as a hobby and to experience life, or had some powerful backer that supported him… Even he had a courage of a few men he wouldn’t dare to come over and make himself a target at his time.
Ge Xiu turned over and threw the phone aside.
Although he was unconscious for more than half a day, after suffering from the electric shock, the feeling of exhaustion that couldn’t be dispersed swept over him like a tsunami, quickly swallowing and drowning his consciousness.
Ge Xiu’s eyes gradually blurred.
He blinked slowly and fell into a deep sleep.
The nightmare that had been haunting him for a long time was like a persistent haze and quickly struck again. He couldn’t sleep peacefully, as if his ankles had been entangled in cold water algae, and then he was dragged into a deeper and darker abyss.
After finishing the affairs, Zuo Yan walked towards the direction of the room.
He loosened his tie, and there was a rare casualness between his sharp and handsome eyebrows.
Zuo Yan pushed open the door and walked in.
When he saw the scene in the room, he couldn’t help but be slightly taken aback.
The little star that he had just fostered, not only did not take a shower and change clothes, but also did not wait at the door, trying to find the best angle to show himself nor came up to please the sponsor the moment the door opened——
instead, he was lying in messy and cluttered bed with his clothes, having already fallen asleep.
Zuo Yan felt both amused and ironic.
He walked to the bed and looked down at the young man lying on the bed.
The other’s eyes were tightly closed, his brows were slightly furrowed, as if he was not sleeping very peacefully, his rather thin back slowly undulated with his breathing, and his complexion was still pale, which made the dark blue shades under his eyes even more shocking.
He was laying next to the bed’s edge, subconsciously curled up.
The young man was tall and had long arms and legs, but when he curled up, his body seemed to have shrunk by half, and he looked even more smaller in such a huge bed.
Zuo Yan subconsciously recalled the night when the other party was drunk.
After destroying his shoes and trousers, he fell back on the bed and curled up into the exact same position.
It’s just… The only difference was…
That night, his cheeks were as hot as fire, but at this moment—
Zuo Yan reached out and touched the other’s pale cheek, and the cold touch made his heart move.
It was cold.
It was clear that he had been stood up, but unexpectedly, Zuo Yan didn’t feel any anger. On the contrary, when looking at the sleeping face of the other party, he actually felt calm and stable.
Zuo Yan was not going to wake him up.
——He went to another bed for the second night tonight.
Just turned around and took a few steps, Zuo Yan seemed to have thought of something, and stopped abruptly. He turned his head to look at the young man sleeping on his bed, and raised his eyebrows slightly — however, there was clearly a much better choice in front of him.
Half-consciously, Ge Xiu felt the bed under him sink slightly.
In the next second, a familiar scent surrounded him, and the warm and light aroma of rum diffused in the air, vaguely smelt, but invading his senses with a great sense of presence.
Ge Xiu subconsciously approached the heat source.
Immediately afterwards, he fell asleep again — but, unexpectedly, this nightmare did not come back to disturb him.
Dark night passed.
When Ge Xiu opened his eyes, it was already early in the morning, and the dazzling morning light fell on his face, causing him to frown uncomfortably.
Immediately afterwards, he felt something was wrong.
There was a warm body close to his back, a sturdy arm was draped around his waist, firmly imprisoning him in other’s embrace. The moist and hot breath sprayed on the side of his neck, causing Ge Xiu to suddenly freeze.
He slowly turned his head to look around.
A handsome face was close at hand.
“Ah!”
Ge Xiu’s hair stood on end, his body’s automatic flight response caused him to bounce up, jumping three feet high in the air like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, and then roll weightlessly towards the edge of the bed.
Seeing that he was about to roll off to the ground, he was caught by Zuo Yan who opened his eyes and pulled back again.
“Why are you here?”
Ge Xiu looked at the man in front of him, his voice changed a bit from shock.
Zuo Yan pinched the bridge of his nose, his voice still seeming lazy and hoarse from just waking up: “This is my room.”
“…Then why am I in your room?” Ge Xiu frowned and looked around in disbelief taking in environment he was in, and then changed his words: “Why did your butler bring me to your room?”
Zuo Yan put down his hand, raised his eyebrows and looked at him: “Why not?”
Ge Xiu was even more confused: “What why not?”
Zuo Yan blinked and seemed to finally understand the point. He frowned and asked,
“Do you… know what it means to keep?”
Ge Xiu was silent for a while: “You keep me?”
Zuo Yan: “…”
He laughed sullenly, stretched out his long arms, fetched the contract from the table beside the bed and threw it on Ge Xiu’s lap.
Under the interference of that mission, Ge Xiu really didn’t read it carefully yesterday — in order to understand the purpose of the behind-the-scenes person, he had to take on this task, plus the task target was his old acquaintance, and he had not yet recovered from the sequelae of the electric shock so he was a bit negligent.
Ge Xiu scanned the entire contract at a glance, then fell silent.
Zuo Yan observed his expression with interest.
After a long time, Ge Xiu finally raised his head, closed the stack of papers, and after hesitating for a while, he slowly asked:
“Did we sleep together last night?”
Zuo Yan: “…”
After a short period of silence he burst into laughter: “Hahahahahahhahahahaha…”
Ge Xiu’s face darkened.
He tightened his fingers holding the contract, wrinkling the paper a bit: “Shut up!”
Zuo Yan took a deep breath, resisted the urge to laugh again, and sat up from the bed: “You…did you ask that question seriously?”
“…No.” Ge Xiu’s face became even worse: “I was joking.”
Keeping someone was equivalent to physical trading.
Ge Xiu only now knew what kind of contract he signed yesterday.
This incident really gave him too much impact, causing his brain to stop working in an instant.
It wasn’t until he blurted out that sentence that he realized what a stupid question he was asking — he had absolutely no experience, maybe he had before, but he had also forgotten everything when he was arrested, and since entering the virtual worlds, he had constantly been racking his brains every day to meet those malicious challenges and only had a vague and inaccurate concept of this kind of thing.
What a shame.
·
Until he came to the set, Ge Xiu still had a cloudy expression on his face.
He slammed the car door shut and walked quickly towards the studio.
The driver who specially came to see him drove the vehicle away slowly, leaving only the hidden various sights looking at him from all directions.
A deliberately lowered whisper sounded in the corner:
“Did you see the car this guy was in just now?”
“Yes.”
“…Who is it so close to the gold master?”
“Have you read the latest news, Star Entertainment’s Wang Xuejiu had been rectified, he has been a little interested in this person before he went to prison, do you think…?”
“Shh, he’s here.”
Ge Xiu strode toward the studio and after disappearing for five days he finally re-appeared at the scene of the online drama filming again.
As soon as he arrived, he was surrounded by unfriendly gazes.
Although nobody was an actor with very good acting skills, it was rare for the entire crew to stop working for a long time. Even the director felt a big headache when he saw Ge Xiu. He took a deep breath and rubbed his temples hard, as if he could relieve his hurting head this way.
He waved to Ge Xiu: “Lu Nan, come here, this is your new script.”
A stack of newly printed scripts was handed to him.
Ge Xiu took over the script, flipped through it casually, and roughly scanned the few pages that were not too many.
The script had not changed much in general.
The only difference from the previous one was that his role had been cut.
Ge Jiao’s appearances in this script weren’t to begin with, and in this new version, it became even more pitiful. Such large-scale changes would often only be determined after consultation with the actor, but it was only when he arrived on the set that he was notified of the deletion of the scenes, which made it clear that he was looked on by others lightly, was in a weak position, and had no support behind him, that’s why he was bullied by other’s powers and had cut scenes.
Countless gloating eyes were cast on him, waiting for him to get angry or simply turn and leave.
Ge Xiu raised his head and asked: “My salary hasn’t changed, right?”
The director was stunned, obviously not expecting the other party to ask such a question. He paused and replied: “…No.”
Ge Xiu breathed a sigh of relief, his gloomy complexion finally lightened a bit, the corners of his lips twitched slightly, and he said with relief:
“That’s great.”
Everyone: “…??
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The author has something to say:
Ge Xiu (hesitant): Is this what making love is all about?
Zuo Yan: …
Ge Xiu: It can actually keep me from having nightmares! This is great! Please do it again!
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