HTI: Chapter 107

They entered the elevator and Wu Shui looked at Xie Yang hesitantly.

Xie Yang told him, “If you have something to say then say it.”

“Boss, you… are you angry?”

Xie Yang took off his hat and grabbed his hair. He watched his face reflected in the elevator door and replied, “No, I’m just reflecting.”

Wu Shui had a bad feeling. “Reflecting on what?”

“Reflecting on whether I believed I was too infallible.” Xie Yang put on his hat again and glanced sideways at Wu Shui. “Tell your real boss that my initiative is over. It is his turn next.”

The elevator door opened. Xie Yang retracted his gaze, went out and directly entered his room, shutting Wu Shui outside the door.

Finally, he was left alone. Xie Yang stood there for a while. Then he took off his hat and backpack, changed his clothes and left the room. He went down to the hotel gym, found a treadmill in the corner and ran for a few kilometres. After sweating, Xie Yang returned to his room and took a shower.

His restless mood was washed away slightly by the water. Xie Yang opened his eyes, turned off the taps and wiped his body. Then he put on a bathrobe and walked out of the bathroom to lie down on the bed.

Click.

The light turned off. The room became dark.

Xie Yang seriously and carefully recalled what happened today.

“Qiu Xing.” He muttered the name in a low voice. His fingers instinctively released a bit of his ability from his restored ability core and twisted it into various shapes in his mind. The thing that Tao Yang did was really irritating but…

His phone suddenly vibrated as a new message was received. Xie Yang turned to look at the phone on the bedside table. After a while, he picked up the phone and opened WeChat.

Qiu Xing: Go to bed early and don’t think about it.

“Bastard.”

Xie Yang turned off the phone and leaned back against the bed. Qiu Xing’s retreat at the critical moment and the fact that the retreat was the root cause of this situation just made him feel more puzzled.

Being in love really made people confused. He hadn’t realized until now that his method of getting along with Qiu Xing was actually a problem.

If there were no outsiders then Qiu Xing’s duplicity and habitual avoidance were well known to him. However, in front of people, Qiu Xing’s habits meant that people like Tao Yang would definitely appear again.

He shouldn’t think he was infallible and that everything would happen as it should. He also shouldn’t think that this tacit love model was good. He should’ve dealt with the announcement of their relationship before inviting Qiu Xing to attend his graduation ceremony. He also should’ve had a good talk with Qiu Xing on this matter earlier instead of blindly trusting the tacit understanding between them.

The one who was the most wrong was him. His over-proactiveness made Qiu Xing give him dominance of the relationship. However, he failed to handle everything because of his arrogance. Qiu Xing was a cowardly bastard but he was the idiot who indulged the cowardly bastard.

Xie Yang frowned fiercely and suppressed his random thoughts. He retracted his ability, opened the quilt and went to sleep.

***

It was a night of nightmares.

The moment Xie Yang’s mobile phone was turned on the next day, it exploded with various messages. He slept badly and was in a bad mood. He ignored everything else and only called Qin Cheng. “What’s wrong?”

“Mr Qiu made a will.”

Xie Yang sobered up in seconds. “What?”

***

Xie Yang opened Weibo at the fastest speed in his life.

The topic #Rongding’s chairman Qiu Xing made a will# was in first spot on the hot search with the word ‘burst’ next to it.

The hot list was even more exaggerated. The first place to tenth place all contained relevant information about Qiu Xing’s will. The media that published the information ranged from finance and entertainment to the official Weibo of the national TV station. Almost all the heavyweights in the media were talking about it.

Xie Yang took a look at the top news.

The news was very short and was pure text. The content was that Rongding’s chairman Qiu Xing suddenly announced his will on Rongding’s official website through a lawyer. It said that if his treatment failed, all of Rongding’s shares under his name and his assets would be inherited by his partner Xie Yang.

Xie Yang frowned and went to Rongding’s official website to check. He saw a big announcement hanging on top of the official website. The announcement mentioned the contents of the will. At the end of the announcement, Qiu Xing’s signature hung conspicuously.

“……”

Xie Yang was speechless.

He hadn’t expected Qiu Xing to deal with it like this. The chairman of a large group company like Rongding suddenly announced his will. The chain reaction it would cause wouldn’t just dominate Weibo.

This wasn’t just the announcement of his will. Qiu Xing also indirectly announced the fact that he was sick. For a listed company, the physical condition of the person in charge was one of the factors affecting the company’s stock price.

Wasn’t Qiu Xing afraid that Rongding’s stocks would plummet? What was the difference between the will and the direct announcement of his heir?

Xie Yang returned to Weibo to look at the comments under the news at the top of the popular list.

Hot Comment 1: Forgive me for my ignorance. I only learned now that the surname of Rongding’s boss is Qiu.

Hot Comment 2: Wait? Revealing his partner? Xie Yang? Is this a coincidence? Is it the same name? T-This name doesn’t seem to be bad.

……

Hot Comment 5: His partner is Xie Yang? This shouldn’t be my Yang Yang hahahaha. He happens to have the name of the bigshot’s partner. It will help him get rich.

……

Hot Comment 7: It definitely isn’t my Yang Yang. The leader of a big group like Rongding must be very old. Yang Yang is only 20 years old. It definitely isn’t him.

Hot Comment 8: Those guessing that the person is IUD’s Xie Yang are sick! How could the partner of the chairman of a large group like Rongding be the singer Xie Yang? It is impossible! Xie Yang fans, don’t put gold on your face. Yesterday, you were still speculating about his love affairs. Now you came to hype him up?

Xie Yang, “……”

There were no good comments. Xie Yang raised his hand and touched his forehead. He wasn’t angry but he also wasn’t happy. He was just wondering if he was actually still sleeping.

His phone suddenly rang. It was a call from Qin Cheng. His mind returned and he hurriedly picked up. “What’s wrong?”

Qin Cheng told him, “Assistant He just called me. He said that Mr Qiu opened a Weibo account and I should prepare for PR.”

Xie Yang doubted his ears and asked, “What did you say?”

“Mr Qiu opened a Weibo account. Xie Yang, didn’t Mr Qiu discuss with you in advance before doing this?”

…What damn discussion?

Xie Yang hung up on Qin Cheng and called Qiu Xing, but no one answered. He was about to call again when Qin Cheng’s WeChat message popped up.

Qin Cheng: Mr Qiu posted on Weibo. It has risen to the most popular list.

Xie Yang hurriedly opened Weibo and saw that the first popular post was a plain post with many comments, reposts and likes.

[Qiu Xing: The person I like: Xie Yang.]

A photo was attached. It was the first photo taken when the two of them attended the graduation ceremony yesterday. In the photo, the two of them were standing side by side under a magnolia tree. Qiu Xing was dressed in a silver-grey suit, standing upright with a small smile on his face. Beside Qiu Xing was Xie Yang wearing his graduation clothes and smiling at the camera while holding his diploma.

Xie Yang instinctively refreshed the page to read the comments. However, the page got stuck and didn’t move for a long time. Weibo had crashed.

“……”

The phone rang again. This time it was Qiu Xing. Xie Yang stared at the screen for several seconds before choosing to pick up. Qiu Xing’s voice was heard. “I’m sorry.”

Xie Yang didn’t speak. There were a few seconds of silence before Qiu Xing’s low and solemn voice spoke again. “Xie Yang, I made such a will without your permission. I’m sorry. I’m sorry to have wronged you. I was very happy to be invited to your graduation ceremony but I didn’t leave you with a good memory. I’m sorry.”

Xie Yang still didn’t speak.

“Xie Yang, perhaps it is a bit late and untimely but… I like you.”

Xie Yang suddenly raised his eyes and squeezed the phone.

“I’ve never been able to formally tell you this before. I’m sorry. Xie Yang, I like you. If possible, I hope you can allow me to introduce you as my partner in the future. I don’t want to divorce you. I hope that our marriage can last forever. Yesterday… I’m really sorry. I didn’t think about it well and didn’t respect you enough. You were too tolerant of me and I took it for granted.”

Xie Yang raised his hand and covered the lower half of his face.

“It won’t be like that in the future.”

After a long silence, Qiu Xing’s voice came again. “Xie Yang, can you come down and meet me?”

Xie Yang was taken aback. Then he finally reacted by getting out of the bed and coming to the window. He looked down but unfortunately, the windows of his room were facing the wrong way. He couldn’t see the hotel entrance.

He picked up his phone and said, “Wait.” Then he hung up, quickly changed clothes and washed before running downstairs.

He entered the elevator and ran into people from the crew. Everyone should’ve seen yesterday’s gossip because they looked a bit embarrassed when greeting him. Xie Yang didn’t have the energy to pay attention to these minor details. He simply responded to everyone’s greetings and stared at the floor, his heart beating quickly and uncontrollably.

He had a dreamlike sense of unreality. Qiu Xing, who was awkward, timid and accustomed to closing himself off and protecting himself had actually spoken such a long confession.

I like you.

The person who just asked ‘Would you like to have a real relationship with me?’ when he made up his mind actually said ‘I like you.’

After seeing the worst of the world, Xie Yang thought he didn’t care about such formal things. He always felt that feelings didn’t need to be too clear if both people understood. It wasn’t until this time that he discovered such a thing… actually turned people’s minds into a mess.

Ding.

The elevator arrived and the door opened.

Xie Yang regained his mind and stepped out first. He had only taken two steps when his arm was grabbed. He frowned and instinctively moved his arm. However, he was just held tighter and a familiar voice came from beside him.

“Why are you wearing slippers?”

Xie Yang stopped pulling his arm and looked back.

Qiu Xing was still wearing yesterday’s clothes that were now covered with a thin layer of dust. He met Xie Yang’s gaze, his expression tense. The hand holding Xie Yang’s arm was also tight as he said, “Slippers are too slippery and it is easy to fall. It is better to change shoes when you go out.”

“……”

Xie Yang saw Qiu Xing’s instinctive retraction and suddenly smiled. He threw away Qiu Xing’s hand and said, “You bastard.”

Qiu Xing’s lips were tightly pressed together and his eyes darkened slightly.

Xie Yang grabbed Qiu Xing’s arm. He ignored the crew members standing outside the elevator in a stunned manner and dragged Qiu Xing to the elevator. He opened the elevator, got in with Qiu Xing, closed the door and pressed the floor button. The elevator started to go up.

Qiu Xing tried to grab Xie Yang’s hand. Xie Yang ordered, “Don’t move.”

Qiu Xing froze.

The elevator opened and Xie Yang walked out with Qiu Xing. They happened to meet Man Feidi and Wen Yao who had just left their rooms. He simply nodded in greeting and went straight to his room. He opened the door, pulled Qiu Xing in and closed the door.

Xie Yang let go of Qiu Xing’s hand and ordered, “Go to bed.”

Qiu Xing became stiffer. His Adam’s apple moved and he said, “Xie Yang.”

“Go to bed. The person who is wrong isn’t qualified to object.”

“……”

Qiu Xing stood there for a few seconds before walking to bed obediently. He looked at Xie Yang and placed his hands on the button of his clothes. He couldn’t undo them for a long time and finally chose to sit on the bed. He was hesitant and worried, worried and hesitated and then finally spoke in a thoughtful, painstaking and eager manner. “Xie Yang, I think… I think this type of thing should be done after our wedding—”

“Wedding?” Xie Yang walked up to Qiu Xing, held his shoulder and pushed him down onto the bed. “You are thinking too beautifully. I’m going to work now. You sleep here. Once I’m done, we’ll have a good talk.” Then he lifted a corner of the quilt and covered Qiu Xing. He turned around to change his shoes and looked back at Qiu Xing, who had sat up. “You aren’t allowed to stay up late yet you did so anyway. Didn’t Dr Kirkman tell you that staying up late will aggravate the symptoms of hair loss?”

Then he strode out of the door and slammed the door shut with a bang.

After closing the door, Xie Yang stood there for a while. He suddenly exhaled, smiled and walked toward the elevator. Sure enough, it wasn’t right to go with the flow and be ambiguous. It was best to openly announce it earlier.

He took out his phone, called Qin Cheng and directly told him, “Be prepared for public relations. I am going to make it public as well.”

***

There were many people who looked like bodyguards inside and outside the hotel. Wu Shui was talking to one of them. Once Xie Yang appeared, Wu Shui immediately greeted him. “The paparazzi and media who came after hearing the news have been blocked by bodyguards and won’t affect the crew.”

Xie Yang knew these were Qiu Xing’s arrangements and nodded. “I see.”

Xie Yang watched Weibo all the way to the set but it wasn’t until the car stopped outside the shooting venue that the stuck Weibo finally started. Xie Yang clicked on the hot list and saw that the comments on Qiu Xing’s Weibo post had already broken through 10,000. He was curious about how netizens managed to leave comments when Weibo was frozen.

He opened the comments area.

Hot Comment 1: Wtf?

Hot Comment 2: Eh??

Hot Comment 3: Ahhhhhhhhhhh—!

Hot Comment 4: I suspect that I haven’t woken up yet…

Xie Yang was amused by the style in the comments area and continued to look down. It wasn’t until Hot Comment 7 that Xie Yang finally saw a comment with content and it was actually posted by a somewhat familiar account.

Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit: Wtf wtf wtf! It is real! Who said that group bosses are big-bellied old men? This person is so handsome! I said at the time that the interaction between the two of them couldn’t just be a pure elder and junior. Just looking at the value of these two people, I agree to this marriage!

Xie Yang smiled again. He exited the comments and went to the hot search to see.

On the hot search, the topic of #Qiu Xing Xie Yang# had replaced the topic of the will and directly jumped to first place. Below these two hot searches, the topic of #Tao Yang deleted the Weibo post and apologized# was in the middle position?

The smile on Xie Yang’s face converged. Tao Yang deleted his Weibo post? He looked at this topic but didn’t click into it. He quit his side account and switched to his main account. After his phone recovered from the overwhelming bombardment of notifications, he ignored them and chose to write a Weibo post.

Two minutes later.

[Xie Yang: It is better to announce some things directly. I graduated and fell in love. This is the person.]

There was a photo attached but it was a lone photo of Qiu Xing. In the photo, Qiu Xing was in a black suit and leaning on the railing of the observation deck. He held a handful of fish feed in his hand and looked down at the artificial lake in the light of the setting sun with a quiet and gentle expression.

The moment this was posted, a ‘like’ came immediately. It was from Qiu Xing.

Xie Yang immediately switched to WeChat and sent a message.

Xie Yang: Didn’t I tell you to sleep?

Qiu Xing typed for a long time.

Qiu Xing: Good night.

What was with saying good night in the morning?

Xie Yang smiled and sent an emoticon of being hit on the head. Then he returned to Weibo, found Qiu Xing’s account and chose to follow it. The reminder that they were following each other appeared.

Xie Yang paused. He looked at the number ‘1’ in the number of accounts that Qiu Xing was following column and smiled. Then he liked the only post by Qiu Xing, quit his account and closed Weibo.

He did what he wanted to do and put away his phone. Then he opened the door to enter the studio. Seeing Xie Yang, all crew members stopped their work. The studio was strangely quiet for a moment.

Director Zhou was adjusting the position of a machine and turned his head when he noticed that something was wrong. He frowned and glanced around. Then he raised his voice. “What are you doing in a daze? Get ready.” After that, he beckoned to Xie Yang. “Xie Yang, come here.”

The briefly stiff atmosphere of the studio was punctured. Everyone continued their work but they still watched Xie Yang.

Xie Yang ignored the unclear gazes and stood in front of Director Zhou. “Director Zhou.”

Director Zhou thought about it before asking, “Is the news on Weibo true?”

“Yes.” Xie Yang nodded before speaking sincerely, “Director Zhou, I’m sorry that the crew was targeted by the media and the paparazzi due to my personal affairs. I will find someone to guard the hotel entrance, the inside of the hotel and the studio. I will try not to let the media disturb the normal operations of the crew.”

Director Zhou watched Xie Yang and swallowed down the words he wanted to say. Finally, he just told Xie Yang, “…It seems like you have your own sense of propriety. Go get your makeup and hair done. We have to start shooting.”

***

Director Zhou should’ve specifically given orders. The crew might look at Xie Yang from time to time but they restrained themselves from stepping forward. Several of the main actors came over to talk to Xie Yang about the things on Weibo. However, they just asked a question and politely gave their blessings after getting an affirmative answer.

Most people acted restrained and well-behaved. Only Man Feidi revealed a bit of emotion. He received Xie Yang’s positive reply about the relationship and spoke in a weird tone, “No wonder. It turns out there was a backer. However, Rongding…”

Xie Yang heard something unfriendly in the meaning and wondered, “Senior, do you have an opinion on my relationship?”

Man Feidi’s expression froze before he quickly adjusted it. “How can that be? I’m just a bit envious of you. Rongding’s boss is young and promising. He is very suitable for you.”

Xie Yang smiled. “That’s right, my boyfriend always put on the appearance that he isn’t worthy of me. A person in his late 20s still knows how to act as shy as a primary school student and does stupid things that make me angry.”

“……” Man Feidi left stiffly.

Proofreader: Paranoid Kitten