Tong Jian’s text message came back quickly and he was very vigilant: Why do you want me to call Brother Lan? Do you still hate him for taking away your opportunity?

Xie Yang felt it was really a miracle that Tong Jian could live safely in the entertainment industry for so many years. He typed back: No hate. Help me ask Ke Lan if he wants to make IUD completely disband in a beautiful scenery. Think about it and reply before 8 o’clock tomorrow night or the offer will expire.

The words ‘disband in beautiful scenery’ stimulated Tong Jian. He sent a bunch of text messages over, asking what Xie Yang meant and what he wanted to do.

Xie Yang was prepared to ignore it but didn’t expect that Tong Jian wouldn’t understand the meaning of stop before going too far. He sent text messages alone for 20 minutes. Finally, Xie Yang couldn’t bear it and replied: Do you know that if I sell these messages to the media, IUD will be completely over? Let’s talk about it later, okay?

Tong Jian instantly became quiet.

Xie Yang sighed with relief and leaned back against the sofa to go to sleep.

Just before going to sleep, the phone rang again. Tong Jian had sent over a text message in a weak manner: How much do you want to sell the text messages for? I have saved up some money in these years. As long as it doesn’t involve Brother Lan, I’ll pay as much as you want. Don’t sell the text messages. Consider this… consider this as me begging you.

“……” This idiot.

Xie Yang tossed his phone to one side, leaned against the sofa and closed his eyes. After less than an hour, Xie Yang was awakened by the sound of the door opening. He opened his eyes and turned his head to see Qiu Xing coming from the inner room.

“It’s time for you to wake up.” Qiu Xing held the door of the office. “Pack up and prepare to leave.”

The sensitive Xie Yang noticed Qiu Xing’s tone was different from before and asked, “Are you in a bad mood?”

Qiu Xing pulled something off the bookshelf, glancing back at him but ignoring him. Sure enough, this person was in a bad mood. Xie Yang asked no more questions. He put his phone and sheet music into the backpack and got up. “I’m good. Let’s go.”

The two people went downstairs and got into the car. Once Qiu Xing got in the car, he closed his eyes and relaxed. Xie Yang was quiet and took out his phone to check Weibo.

Just like in the original novel, the Weibo hot search was once again dominated by the female lead. The photo of the female lead kneeling to save someone was forwarded passionately. The fans of the female lead had been suppressed all day and now they happily hit back at the sunspots.

Xie Yang clicked into the female lead’s Weibo and found that in just one day, she had gained hundreds of thousands of fans.

“Do you have a place to live in B City?”

Xie Yang glanced over at Qiu Xing. He saw that Qiu Xing still had his eyes closed and withdrew his gaze, exiting the female lead’s Weibo. He replied while searching the Weibos of the IUD members, “The company has a dormitory but I’m going to buy a house.”

Qiu Xing just hummed.

Xie Yang clicked into Mo Bin’s Weibo.

Mo Bin’s latest Weibo was sent last night. It was nine selfies with the text: The recording has ended and I’m going back to B City. I have to get up early tomorrow to meet my brothers. It is very tiring but I’ll stick to it [Clenched fist][Clenched fist][Clenched fist]

There were several people mentioned in this post. They were all guests of his reality show and there was no mention of IUD.

Xie Yang raised his eyebrows and clicked on the comments below. The top three hot comments were nonsense praise like ‘distressed brother’, ‘brother, cheer up’ and ‘brother is awesome.’ Then at the fourth comment, a discordant message appeared.

Master of Pen and Sword: It is all because of the reserve member, causing my brother to be delayed there for another day. Now he has no time to rest. The sudden emergency is a fake! One of my classmates is a staff member of S City TV Station. She said that the reserve member performed poorly on the show and pretended to be sick, so as to not be too shamed after the show is broadcasted.

Under this comment, many of Mo Bin’s fans were urging the fan not to talk nonsense and don’t just make rumours. They also expressed their expectations for when the show was broadcasted and the newcomer would be officially unveiled. Some ‘neutral’ passersby also said that if the news was true, the new IUD would be very ugly.

Xie Yang smelled the rhythm of a water army and clicked on Tong Jian and Ke Lan’s Weibos respectively. Sure enough, under their latest posts, there were fans asking if he pretended to be sick.

“Are you prepared to continue being an artist?”

Xie Yang closed Weibo and looked back at Qiu Xing. “I will be more than that.”

Qiu Xing finally opened his eyes and stared at him before smiling. “How much more than that?”

“You don’t need to know.”

“A good thing doesn’t need me to know.” Qiu Xing’s mood seemed better again and this tone was slow. “Then when can I know?”

“When I need your help.”

Qiu Xing froze before laughing. He leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes and slowed down his breathing as he muttered, “Then I’ll wait…” His voice gradually lowered. The sunlight entered through the window, covering him, but it couldn’t warm his pale face or fade away the blue shadows under his eyes.

This was a terminally ill patient who was very tired and severely sleep deprived.

Xie Yang’s gaze moved down and fell on Qiu Xing’s distinctive hand, seeing the dark nails that appeared very unhealthy. He bent down to pick up the blanket that had previously covered him and threw it on Qiu Xing.

Mother Qiu was in poor health. She had been living in a sanatorium for nearly a year and was carefully guarded by a professional team. The distance from the urban area to the sanatorium was a bit far away and there was a traffic jam. By the time Qiu Xing and Xie Yang arrived at the sanatorium, it was completely dark.

Qiu Xing slept all the way and only opened his eyes when they arrived at the gate of the sanatorium. He noticed the blanket on his body and froze for a moment before throwing it away with a low snort. “Mind your own business.”

Xie Yang played with his mobile phone and ignored this person.

The car parked in an open-air parking lot deep in the sanatorium. The two people got out of the car and walked toward a cozy little building surrounded by trees and flowers not far away.

“Be obedient for a while.” Qiu Xing stepped on a spot where the street light shone. “Don’t make her feel uncomfortable. She doesn’t have much time.”

Xie Yang looked up and found that in the backlight, Qiu Xing was really thin.

In the original novel, Mother Qiu had died in February of next year. It was less than half a year from now.

He gently stepped on the shadow under Qiu Xing’s feet and nodded. “Okay.”

On the terrace of the second floor of the small building, the grey-haired Mother Qiu sat on a rocking chair, slowly shaking while looking at the stars in the sky. Qiu Xing lightly walked over, squatted down beside her and asked with a smile, “Are the stars beautiful? Every time I come, you’re watching them.”

Mother Qiu watched him silently before smiling and raising a hand to touch his hair. “You came. Have you eaten dinner?”

“I’ve eaten. Uncle Liao made those pig foods for me every day and I really have no appetite when I see it.”

“Don’t be a picky eater. Xiao Liao is doing it for your own good.”

Qiu Xing pulled down her hand, sat on the chair next to her and waved to Xie Yang. Xie Yang walked over to stand next to Qiu Xing, politely greeting Mother Qiu. “Hello Auntie, I am Xie Yang.”Mother Qiu carefully examined him. “Is Ah Xing okay?”

Xie Yang honestly replied, “He’s okay. His temper is a bit bad but it’s fine for me.”

Mother Qiu smiled and waved at him. Xie Yang didn’t understand what this gesture meant. Was he supposed to go?

He looked at Qiu Xing.

Qiu Xing happened to be watching Xie Yang, his expression a bit weird. Once Xie Yang glanced over, he put on a disgusted and impatient expression and scolded, “Can’t you understand this? Mother is telling you to go. Go to the car and wait for me. Don’t run around. Every day you are so stupid.”

“……”

Xie Yang didn’t understand what type of disease Qiu Xing had and was too lazy to care about him. He politely said goodbye to Mother Qiu and turned to leave.

After Xie Yang left, Mother Qiu asked, “Do you hate him?”

Qiu Xing didn’t answer. He reached out to pull the blanket over her and changed the topic. “Qinglin was in a small car accident two days ago. His head was injured but he is fine. He was driving the car I gave him. The reason for the accident was that there was something wrong with the brakes. When I went to see him, he tried to test if I like men or not.”

Mother Qiu’s face was cold. “The Feng family is really good at calculations. In the past, Qinglin used to worship you and want to be close to you. Now he has learned to test you.”

“I think it’s a good thing. The previous Qinglin was too rigid and not bloody enough to start a big event. Now he was in a car accident and has become better. I heard he is going to leave the Feng family to start his own company.”

Mother Qiu’s expression finally looked good.

“People have to come out on their own.” Qiu Xing said with relief. “Business is like a battlefield. The weak are food for the strong and it is the survival of the fittest. The former Qinglin was too soft-hearted and had too many scruples. If he is daring to test me then perhaps he will really grow up if I push him a bit harder.”

“What about you?” Mother Qiu grasped his hand. “If he grows up, what about you?”

“Me?” Qiu Xing raised a hand to tidy her wind-blown hair and smiled softly. “I’ll accompany you to watch the stars.”

Mother Qiu gripped his hand hard. “I didn’t find a companion for you only for you to accompany me to watch the stars! The child of the Xie family looks better than rumoured. His five elements belongs to water and will definitely be good for you. You will definitely be better…”

Her voice suddenly lowered, the clearness and clarity replaced by dull doubts. She once again gripped Qiu Xing’s hand and muttered, “Ah Xing, go and find your sister. She has been deceived by the Feng family and her life isn’t good. Xiao Qinglin, go and find them…

“I’ll find them.” Qiu Xing was used to her intermittent confusion and patted her back comfortably. “I’ll find them and bring them back.”

***

Xie Yang found that Qiu Xing’s mood had become worse after leaving the sanatorium and it was very obvious.

The moment the car arrived in the city, Qiu Xing had the driver stop and let Xie Yang get off.

Xie Yang opened the door and got out of the car. He turned and told Qiu Xing, “The next time you want to look for me for something, can you tell me in advance? I’ll be very busy over the next period of time. If you look for me like these two times, I probably won’t have time to come out and see you.”

Qiu Xing sneered. “I want to see you dare refuse to see me. Zhou Miao, drive!”

The car sped away in the dust, only to come back a minute later.”

“I see that other people have assistants while you have no one. What does this look like? Wu Shui, you follow Xie Yang in the future!”

The car drove off again.

Xie Yang glanced at Wu Shui, the bodyguard who was left behind. Wu Shui smiled in an awkward manner and tried to sell himself. “Mr Xie, in fact I…”

“Shut up.” Xie Yang took the backpack off his shoulder and threw it at Wu Shui. “Can you look at houses? I want to buy a place as soon as possible.”