Chen Ziyan parked the car at the entrance of Hongfu Community and said to Lu Yanhe, "Take a good rest these two days, and you don't have to come to the company. Filling out your college application will probably take some time. Have you decided yet? Where are you going to study?"
Lu Yanhe shook his head and said, "I haven't thought about it yet. The admissions teams from Zhenhua and Yuming have called me and invited me to apply, but I haven't really thought about it yet."
"That's right. Think about it carefully these next few days. When you go back to fill out your application, remember to change your password. I've noticed in the past two years, there have been news reports of people secretly tampering with other people's applications just to make things difficult for them. You may not have such people around you, but you should be prepared."
"Okay." Lu Yanhe nodded.
After getting out of the car, Lu Yanhe waved to Chen Ziyan and walked towards the Hongfu community.
The road was dark and the street lights were not very bright. In addition, he had not seen them for a long time, so when He Bangan and He Leming walked towards him, he did not recognize them immediately.
"Yan He." He Bangan shouted.
Lu Yanhe looked at them in confusion, and then recognized them.
"Uncle?" He was stunned.
Yesterday I was still thinking that this person would show up, and today he actually showed up.
People really can't stand being nagged.
Lu Yanhe looked at them indifferently, "Why are you here?"
"Look at what you're saying, kid. Why can't we come?" He Bangan patted Lu Yanhe's shoulder affectionately. "I'm your uncle, so why can't I come visit you?"
"Oh, it's just that I haven't seen you for a long time. I'm a little surprised." Lu Yanhe said calmly.
He Bangan stared at Lu Yanhe's almost emotionless eyes, momentarily stunned. He still remembered how this child had been a few years ago: timid, afraid to lift his head, and without a single opinion. He had truly changed a lot now, from the inside out. He felt like a stranger.
This made it difficult for He Bangan to say the words he had prepared at the beginning.
"Yan He, do you have a problem with your uncle? Well, it's not anything else. He just saw you coming here to be an artist and didn't want to disturb you for fear of affecting you." He Bangan said while scratching his head, "You know, your uncle runs a restaurant and is usually very busy. It's not easy."
"Um."
"Yanhe, you don't want to abandon your uncle, do you?" He Bangan looked at Lu Yanhe with a pitiful look on his face and asked.
Lu Yanhe glanced at him, then glanced at He Leming who was standing timidly beside He Bangan, and sighed a few times in his heart.
"Let's keep it the same as it was before," Lu Yanhe said. "It has nothing to do with whether he wants me or not. Did my uncle abandon me three years ago because he didn't want me anymore?"
"That's not it, that's not it!" He Bangan immediately denied. "Well, after being scolded by your two teammates today, your uncle realized that he hadn't paid enough attention to you. I will definitely correct this in the future."
"My teammate?" Lu Yanhe frowned. "Who else did you go to find?"
"That guy called Li Zhibai, and Yan Liang." He Bangan immediately said the names of these two people. "They even wanted to fight with me and threatened me. It made me so angry. Yan He, I am your uncle!"
Lu Yanhe said, "They and I are just teammates. Did you say anything unpleasant to them, and that's why you're angry?"
He Bangan: "What bad words can I say? As soon as I walked in, the two of them turned their faces and said something..."
He Bangan stopped talking midway.
Lu Yanhe looked at him, "What else did you say?"
He Bangan was really embarrassed to repeat those words in front of Lu Yanhe.
"Forget it, let's not say those unpleasant words. Yan He, you've finished the college entrance examination now. Come to your uncle's house sometime and your uncle will make you something delicious." He Bangan smiled and looked concerned. "Look at you now, you're too thin. You must have worked too hard. You don't even know how to take good care of yourself——"
"Because I can't take care of myself, because I'm poor." Lu Yanhe looked at He Ganban and interrupted his performance. "I pay for my own tuition, go to school by myself, take care of my own food, drink, defecation and urination, and calculate every meal carefully. I can't consider how to eat the most nutritious food. Uncle, you should know all this, right? Before you wanted money from me, didn't you already look at my bank statements? How much money I earn, how much I spend, and how much I can save every month? You have already calculated it clearly, right?"
Deep down, Lu Yanhe was calm and indifferent.
The original body's memory is revived bit by bit.
"Yanhe, are you blaming me?" He Bangan looked at Lu Yanhe in disbelief and asked.
Lu Yanhe shook his head. "I don't blame you, nor do I hate you, but I don't want to get close to you either. Let's just keep this relationship like this. After all, uncle and nephew... when you threw me here and ignored me, this relationship was already dead in name only."
At this moment, Lu Yanhe practically lost sight of his original self. He simply observed the uncle-nephew relationship between his original self and He Bangan from a third-party perspective, feeling an indescribable disgust. Even these words seemed to fade with gusto. He lacked the kinship his original self felt for He Bangan. He felt only repulsion, hoping to keep people like him away from him. The farther, the better.
He came from an ordinary but happy family, with ordinary but harmonious relatives. Therefore, Lu Yanhe could not accept He Bangan's behavior of taking him out of the countryside and then leaving him alone. Because he could understand whatever He Bangan said, he still refused to accept it.
He Bangan mumbled, as if he wanted to say something.
Suddenly, at this moment, He Leming, who had been silent the whole time, yelled at Lu Yanhe: "If it wasn't for my father bringing you out of the countryside and letting you participate in the competition, how could you be like this now?!"
Lu Yanhe looked at the little fat man in surprise.
Because of his loud roar, people passing by looked over.
Fortunately, no one came over just to watch the fun.
Lu Yanhe looked at He Leming, smiled playfully, and looked at He Bangan.
"Uncle, Le Ming still doesn't know why you brought me out of the countryside?"
He Bangan was stunned.
"Oh, maybe you think I don't know either?" Lu Yanhe said, "Grandma called you and said she wasn't feeling well and asked you to take care of me and take me out. You refused at first, saying you didn't want to bring a burden along, right?"
He Bangan looked at Lu Yanhe in disbelief.
Lu Yanhe said, "Later, grandma took out all her savings and gave them to you, asking you to take care of me. So you took the money and reluctantly brought me out. At first, you asked me to help out in the restaurant. Later, you saw there was a talent show with free food and accommodation, so you helped me sign up. Later, I debuted and signed a contract. You thought I was going to be famous and a star, so you wanted to interfere with my work. Zhou Pingan scolded you and wanted to take money from the company. During that time, I was scolded by Zhou Pingan every day. You never cared about my situation in the company, and didn't care whether Zhou Pingan would scold me. After you finally realized that I really couldn't make any money, you never showed up again. Do you think you have the right to make me grateful for bringing me out and bringing me to Yuming?"
He Bangan clenched his fists.
He Leming looked at He Bangan in shock: "Dad, did grandma give you money to bring him here? Where's the money?"
He Bangan growled at He Leming, "Shut up!"
He Leming was startled and dared not speak.
Lu Yanhe: "That's enough, you can leave now, and don't come here again."
He lifted his legs and walked forward.
"Lu Yanhe!" He Bangan suddenly raised his voice and shouted.
Lu Yanhe turned his head to look.
The uncle who had seemed somewhat timid and close to him before now had a desperate and threatening expression on his face. For some reason, Lu Yanhe always felt that this look was more suitable for him.
"Now that you've finally made some progress, do you want others to know that you're a heartless person who doesn't care about your relatives anymore after you've become rich?"
Lu Yanhe pondered for a moment and said, "That's good too. If others know about you and me, those villains will know they can't take advantage of me, so they won't come around. It will ward off evil spirits."
He seemed not to care at all. He curled his lips lightly and walked forward without paying any attention to He Bangan's distorted facial features.
"Dad, is he calling us villains?"
"Shut up!"
…
The wind on a summer night never makes people feel gentle.
It was hot and stuffy, like ocean waves, with a salty, damp smell, as if coated in sand and dust.
Lu Yanhe went upstairs, but hesitated before entering.
The door suddenly opened.
"Hey——" Yan Liang was holding a bag of garbage in his hand, as if he was going out to throw it away, but he ran into Lu Yanhe standing at the door.
Lu Yanhe: "Throwing out the trash?"
"Yeah." Yan Liang nodded.
"Give it to me, I'll throw it away." Lu Yanhe took the garbage bag from Yan Liang's hand and turned to go to the trash can in the stairwell.
Yan Liang looked at Lu Yanhe's back with some confusion.
After spending time together day and night, Yan Liang already knew Lu Yanhe very well.
He keenly noticed that something was wrong with Lu Yanhe today.
What's wrong?
Yan Liang turned around and said to Li Zhibai, "Something seems amiss with Lu Yanhe today."
Li Zhibai: "What's wrong?"
"I don't know. He looks a little listless."
"You must be tired," Li Zhibai said. "You have classes every day, which is hard work."
Yan Liang: "I don't feel like I'm tired from class."
At this time, Lu Yanhe came over after throwing away the garbage.
Yan Liang said nothing more.
He left the door ajar, walked into the living room, and whispered to Li Zhibai, "Should we tell him that his uncle came?"
"Tell him, you can still keep it a secret." Li Zhibai said, "But you have to talk to him properly and tell him not to be soft-hearted."
Yan Liang nodded.
At this time, Lu Yanhe came in.
"Old Lu!" Li Zhibai shouted.
Lu Yanhe walked over and saw that both Li Zhibai and Yan Liang had hesitant expressions on their faces, and guessed what they wanted to say.
"I ran into my uncle downstairs. He was here just now, right?"
Lu Yanhe took the initiative to talk about this matter.
"He's still downstairs?" Li Zhibai jumped up immediately upon hearing this. "This bastard is not done with this, is he?"
"He's gone now." Lu Yanhe said, "Thank you so much for helping me get rid of him."
"What are you thanking me for? I hate people like this the most, you know that," Li Zhibai said. "They disappear when something happens, but they're so eager to take advantage of you."
Lu Yanhe smiled.
"Alas, I'm not really unhappy, but I feel really upset."
"That's quite normal." Yan Liang patted his shoulder and said, "Anyone would feel upset if they met a relative like that, but we'll help you curse back."
"I've made it clear. I don't want to play coy with them," Lu Yanhe said. "It's just that seeing him today reminded me of something."
Memories that existed previously but were rarely specifically recalled.
Over the past year, Lu Yanhe has been thinking about what he should do and how he can live a good life in the future.
But people not only have the present and the future, but also the past.
An unhappy past is a debt that must be repaid, even reluctantly, but one cannot just not pay it back.
Lu Yanhe said, "I'm not afraid of them making this matter public. I don't think I've done anything wrong, but I don't want this matter to keep haunting me, so I can't get rid of it and have it hinder everything I do."
"Then we'll cut the Gordian knot," Li Zhibai said. "The worst that can happen is we'll just sever ties."
"That's easy for you to say." Yan Liang rolled his eyes at Li Zhibai. "Family relations are always the most troublesome. If Old Lu doesn't handle it well, some people will really think he's ungrateful and cold-blooded."
Li Zhibai: "If you care about so many things, you can't win everyone's favor."
"But his career, which he finally managed to revive, may not be able to withstand such a turmoil." Yan Liang said, "You should still talk to Sister Zi Yan and ask her to help you deal with it. Really, this kind of thing is the most annoying. My cousin has changed jobs several times just because he has a father who is a drunkard and a whoremonger. A burden is a burden. Even if it's not your fault, but the trouble is caused by you, others will think you are a burden."
Yan Liang's pessimistic words made Lu Yanhe's heart skip a beat and also made Li Zhibai silent.
-
Lu Yanhe thought the matter through in one night and decided to talk to Chen Ziyan face to face the next day.
Let's see how this matter can be resolved.
Chen Ziyan listened with a relaxed expression, "Don't worry, he'll make a scene if he can. We're the ones who deal with the media regularly. Your story is even more inspiring, as a self-reliant young person unencumbered by family circumstances and upbringing. Don't forget, you're only nineteen years old. You have no ability to give back to them. Exposing this now will actually be better for you."
Lu Yanhe breathed a sigh of relief after hearing what Chen Ziyan said.
Unconsciously, he had become dependent on Chen Ziyan.
As long as Chen Ziyan said it was okay, he would breathe a sigh of relief.
"That's good. I was worried that this incident would have a big impact."
"The impact can be big or small, Yan He, you have to understand one thing: for an artist, even if you're in a mess and surrounded by negative news, it's not a bad thing. As long as you're always visible, you'll always have a chance to turn things around. The most terrifying thing for an artist is not being seen." Chen Ziyan said, "Ten years ago, an artist's complicated family background would make people think their image was imperfect and would damage their star's aura. Now times have changed, and the star's aura no longer requires perfection. This is a flaw in you, and I will magnify it to let everyone know how difficult it has been for you to get here. If an artist can gain everyone's sympathy, that's never a bad thing."
Lu Yanhe nodded.
"Okay, stop worrying about it. Get some rest for a few days. Now should be the time when you're most proud of yourself," Chen Ziyan said. "Many media outlets have wanted to interview you, and I've turned them all down. Publicity is fine, but if you appear in person for interviews too often, people will think you're too proud, even if you don't mean to. People are like that. Your achievements are admirable, but if you keep repeating them, people will get annoyed. Aside from the biggest media outlets, I don't intend for you to discuss your Gaokao scores or your future university plans."
"good."
"You've always been a very modest person, but you should be happy when you should be happy." Chen Ziyan said, "Okay, I have something to do later, you can go back first."
"Okay." Lu Yanhe stood up and said goodbye to Chen Ziyan.
Chen Ziyan saw Lu Yanhe out.
"Learn from Li Zhibai." Chen Ziyan said as she walked Lu Yanhe to the door, "Don't take things so seriously. Nothing is really a big deal."
Chen Ziyan had thought before that Lu Yanhe's uncle would be a trouble, but she never thought that this trouble would break out so quickly.
Chen Ziyan has always been worried that Lu Yanhe, a self-disciplined, hardworking, and diligent young man with a shadowy past, would have a problem with his mentality.
The so-called inner demon.
Therefore, Chen Ziyan would instill this concept into Lu Yanhe from time to time, hoping that he would comfort himself and not fall into emotional internal consumption.
After sending Lu Yanhe away, Chen Ziyan sighed.
She hopes that Lu Yanhe will be able to truly overcome this hurdle one day.
-
In the rehearsal room, MX were practicing dancing together, but because Ma Zhiyuan couldn't learn a move no matter how hard he tried, the progress was stuck.
Ma Zhiyuan himself was also annoyed and complained: "What a crap move."
Qu Yousong went to get the kettle, took a sip of water, and said, "Don't be impatient, drink some water first. The more impatient you are, the harder it will be to learn."
Ma Zhiyuan went to the corner and opened his bag.
Seeing that they had all left the team, Chen Jing went to the other side to drink water.
This move is indeed a bit difficult, but it is also unexpected that Ma Zhiyuan has not learned it for so long.
After all, he has received several years of professional training.
Chen Jing thought that it was probably because Lu Yanhe had been unable to concentrate on Ma Zhiyuan these past two days because of the college entrance examination results.
In fact, Chen Jing also didn’t understand why Ma Zhiyuan cared so much about Lu Yanhe.
Judging from the current situation, Lu Yanhe is no match for Ma Zhiyuan. It will take at least one or two years for him to surpass Ma Zhiyuan. Why should we regard Lu Yanhe as a thorn in our side now?
Not to mention, Lu Yanhe doesn't seem to be planning to follow the idol artist route in the future. Acting in movies is not the same track.
Chen Jing curled his lips.
"Chen Jing, why are you pouting?" Qu Yousong suddenly said loudly.
Everyone else looked at Chen Jing.
Chen Jing was stunned and looked at them at a loss.
"ah?"
Qu Yousong said angrily, "I know you're a fast learner, but there's no need to ridicule Old Ma, right?"
Chen Jing looked bewildered and said, "What sarcasm? I didn't mean that at all!"
He looked at Ma Zhiyuan in panic.
The latter looked at him with a gloomy expression.
Chen Jing's heart skipped a beat.
This time... he offended Ma Zhiyuan again for no apparent reason.
He quickly explained: "Zhiyuan, I didn't mean that. It was Qu Yousong who said that!"
"It's okay. Regardless of whether he made that up or not, it's normal for you to mock me. Anyway, none of us can dance as well as you do. That's a fact." Ma Zhiyuan said with a sneer, "You are so talented, you shouldn't stay with us MX. Why don't you make a solo debut?"
Chen Jing's palms were sweating.
"Oh, we're all in the same group, forget it." Jiang Bai, who had been silent the whole time, spoke up. "Qu Yousong, you're so narrow-minded. You can interpret so many meanings from someone's pout. Isn't it just that your previous fan club president praised Chen Jing for dancing better than you? You're so narrow-minded. He's not a dancer, and you're only comparing who dances better. Ma Zhiyuan is the undisputed most popular, and he's the captain. He's our core, so shouldn't the others have their own specialties?"
As soon as Jiang Bai said this, Qu Yousong exploded.
"You fart, I——"
"That's enough." Ma Zhiyuan interrupted Qu Yousong, "Wei Zhuoran has stopped working now, and there are only a few of us left. Is there going to be internal strife? Let's continue practicing."
Qu Yousong glared at Jiang Bai unhappily.
Jiang Bai didn't take it to heart at all.
Chen Jing looked at him gratefully, but Jiang Bai didn't even look back.
He has always been like this in MX, indifferent, not sticking to groups, and not talking much. It seems that he has been staying out of things from beginning to end. Today, he rarely speaks too much.
At this time, Lin Suyang suddenly came.
As soon as he appeared, everyone except Ma Zhiyuan walked over and called Su Yang "Brother".
Lin Suyang greeted them with a smile and asked, "How's the dance practice going?"
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ma Zhiyuan sitting in the corner without getting up. He felt a little annoyed, but he didn't show it on his face.
"Almost." Qu Yousong was the first to speak. After that, he glanced at Chen Jing and Jiang Bai, warning them with his eyes not to expose it.
Lin Suyang nodded and said, "Practice well. The performance the day after tomorrow is very important. It's on the national TV station and there will be a lot of viewers."
"good."
Lin Suyang looked at them, nodded, and said, "Okay, you guys practice slowly, and we'll have lunch together later."
"Brother Su Yang, will you treat us?" Qu Yousong asked immediately.
Lin Suyang smiled and pointed at them, saying, "You always try to take advantage of me, even though you earn more than me."
Qu Yousong said, "No way, we all heard that you, Brother Su Yang, bought a mansion of over 400 square meters."
Lin Suyang: "You've all heard about this."
"Hey, there are no secrets in this company."
"Okay, then I'll treat you." Lin Suyang said with a smile.
The others immediately cheered.
Lin Suyang walked to the door and suddenly seemed to remember something. He turned around and said to Ma Zhiyuan, "Chen Biqiu just contacted me and told me that Lu Yanhe has been cast in 'Young Days' and asked me to apologize to you."
As soon as Lin Suyang finished speaking, the rehearsal room became silent.
Everyone was quiet.
Everyone knows that Ma Zhiyuan went to steal "Young Days" just to take revenge on Lu Yanhe and disgust him.
In fact, no one thought Ma Zhiyuan would fail before.
Even though Lu Yanhe has been very popular these days and has been on the hot searches, there is still an unbridgeable distance between him and Ma Zhiyuan.
Why did "Young Days" choose Lu Yanhe instead of Ma Zhiyuan?
This doubt emerged in everyone's mind.
Everyone looked at Ma Zhiyuan, whose face was so dark that it looked like water could drip out.
It was not until this time that everyone realized belatedly why Lin Suyang told Ma Zhiyuan about this kind of thing in front of everyone?
Is this intentional to embarrass Ma Zhiyuan in front of everyone?
Lin Suyang glanced at Ma Zhiyuan and walked out of the rehearsal room.
-
At noon, Lu Yanhe, Li Zhibai and Yan Liang went to have lunch outside the community together.
He was still a little worried that He Bangan was still waiting for him.
Lu Yanhe searched his name several times that morning, just to see if He Bangan had done any so-called exposure online, but he didn't see anything.
"Has "Young Days" signed a contract with you?" Li Zhibai asked.
Lu Yanhe nodded and said, "Sister Zi Yan said she has already signed it."
"That's good. This time it feels good. We chased Ma Zhiyuan away." Li Zhibai was a little proud and chuckled, "He's going to be pissed to death."
Knowing that Ma Zhiyuan would be angry, Li Zhibai was overjoyed.
Yan Liang nodded and said, "He'll probably be angry. I heard he's already told others that he's already made an agreement with Chen Biqiu to kick you out of the show."
"You think very highly of yourself." Li Zhibai said disdainfully.
"It seems like he and his agent Lin Suyang had a fight over this matter." Yan Liang said.
"Why are you arguing?"
"Ma Zhiyuan went to find Chen Biqiu and didn't tell Lin Suyang."
"Behind his agent's back?" Lu Yanhe was puzzled. "Why would he do this?"
"I don't know. Anyway, I heard that he and Lin Suyang have argued several times in the past six months." Yan Liang shook his head. "Maybe he's become famous, so he doesn't want to listen to his agent's arrangements. He even told others that Lin Suyang was lucky to be their agent. No matter who manages them, they will be successful."
"Is he saying that kind of thing outside? Lin Suyang would be furious if he heard it." Li Zhibai tutted, "What's wrong with this guy's brain that makes him so blindly arrogant?"
The waiter came to serve the food.
The three of them stopped discussing and started browsing on their phones.
"Huh?!" Yan Liang suddenly exclaimed in shock.
"What's wrong?" Lu Yanhe and Li Zhibai looked at him.
Yan Liang's face showed a look of surprise. "What a coincidence! We were just talking about someone... saying that Ma Zhiyuan and Lin Suyang had a fight in the company."
Lu Yanhe and Li Zhibai were both shocked.
Are there fights between artists and their agents?
"Who started it first?" Lu Yanhe asked.
There's one more update! Wait!