Chapter 19 – Fate Might Prove That They’re The Same Person

Zhao Jing and Xie Qing stood by the end of the corridor on the third floor, next to the wide open windows that blew in the hot wind in a casual manner with the latter leaning mostly against the wall on one side. When the wind blew in, the jet-black hair that was covering his forehead was lifted, revealing his pale and clear face.

Zhao Jing lowered his eyes and took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. He took one out but didn’t light it, just placing it in his mouth to taste the faint bitterness of tobacco.

Xie Qing glanced at him and sighed, “A-Xing will get angry again if he sees you smoking.”

He’s unable to see it anymore.

Zhao Jing told himself this in his heart.

But he still threw away the cigarette that he held in his mouth into the trash can with trembling fingers. He held his face with both hands to cover his face that was full of laughter and sadness. It took a while until he let out a hoarse whisper, “I just thought that you had the same face. I didn’t expect you to come too1.”

“You look different from before.” Xie Qing said slowly.

Zhao Jing let out something akin to a soft snort.

Similar to Wen Xu, when Zhao Jing first saw Xie Ling, he also thought that he had met an old friend. But when he actually spent time with him, he easily realized that he had guessed wrongly. That was when Zhao Jing realized that he was overthinking things.

Therefore, when he saw Xie Qing, he didn’t think too much about it.

But as they got along, exchanging short words with each other, he realized some things. And that familiar smell of lion’s head meatballs almost made Zhao Jing cry. That was the most human-like moment that he experienced in the few months since he returned. It bid farewell to the lifeless sluggishness and emptiness in his heart that was hollowed out. Although it was a sour feeling, it was enough to reassure him.

He told himself, at least there was someone there to witness his love.

Didn’t his manager ask him whether he broke his head and had hallucinations?

His feelings of love, his lover, everything really existed.

It’s just that their luck wasn’t so good as they couldn’t stay together forever with each other like they had sworn to do.

Zhao Jing couldn’t help but take out another cigarette from the cigarette case. He didn’t really care about the regulations of the studio at this time. He just lowered his head and turned on the lighter, lighting a section of the cigarette. As the spark flickered, he tilted his head and showed a fake smile to Xie Qing while saying in a hoarse voice,“Don’t tell him.”

Xie Qing lowered his sight but didn’t say anything to pierce through the longing in Zhao Jing’s heart. He just nodded his head lightly.

Zhao Jing leaned against the window and gave out a soft laugh while Xie Qing stood beside him. If someone looked up from the bottom floor, they would be able to see two outstanding young men leaning close to each other at the moment. Zhao Jing handed a cigarette to Xie Qing who just looked at him and finally took it under his urging.

A slender cigarette was held in between two slender porcelain white fingers. Xie Qing slightly moved his hand away from his face after a faint smell of tobacco came into his nose.

“Why aren’t you smoking?”

“I’m not healthy.” 

Even so, Xie Qing didn’t throw away the cigarette. He just let the smell of nicotine fill the tip of his nose.

For Zhao Jing, he could no longer find his lover.

For Xie Qing, he could no longer find his friend.

Mu Xinghai was a wonderful person. Xie Qing had befriended Mu Xinghai in one of his tasks in another world. It could be said that Xie Qing inherited Zheng Jie’s culinary skills while in the real world, and learnt his cooking skills from Mu Xinghai in the small world.

Xie Qing had told himself that his days of transmigrating back and forth in various small worlds could only be regarded as a dream because the ‘him’ in this reality was the real him. It stands to reason that after waking up from a dream, everything that happened in the dream should have dissipated with the arrival of dawn.

But reality seemed to be going against Xie Qing.

Whether it was Gu Mingguo’s body that was gradually improving or the appearance of Wen Xu and Zhao Jing, they were all proof that the dream was real.

It was also telling Xie Qing that what was once lost is really lost.

There were losses and gains in the matter.

“I remember that you used to be in good health.” Zhao Jing took in a puff of the cigarette and seemed to have let out a laugh, “You used to play basketball with A-Xing. I would be jealous of you at that time.”

Hearing this, Xie Qing couldn’t help but glance at him with a desolate look.

But in the next second, his dull and thin lips curled up as he said with a smile, “You have to thank me. If it wasn’t for me, the two of you wouldn’t have gotten together so quickly.”

Yes, the role he played in that small world was that of an assist2.

It was much more difficult than having to save Wen Xu’s life.

Minutes and seconds slipped by and the atmosphere cooled down for some reason. The cigarettes that they were holding in between their fingertips had slowly burnt till the end. As the two stared at the last rays of sparks going out, Zhao Jing seemed to be asking Xie Qing, yet also as if he was talking to himself, “Do you think that A-Xing came as well?”

There were only two answers to this question.

Yes, and No.

If it was the former, everyone would be happy.

If it was the latter, it would be like falling into an abyss.

Xie Qing was silent for a long time. Just when Zhao Jing was almost unable to stand the oppressive atmosphere and wanted to deceive himself, Xie Qing spoke. The young man’s voice was as gentle as ever, but also sounded reassuring, “There’s a 50% chance. It depends on what answer you choose.”

Either search for him like a lunatic or become a lunatic from then on, not caring about anything and living life as if he was in a fictional world.

Based on Xie Qing’s understanding of Zhao Jing, he would choose the former.

Because at least it meant that there was hope.

“It’s fine. I already have the answer in my heart.”

Throwing the cigarette butt into the trash can, Zhao Jing straightened his body and turned around. He happened to see Yu Shu and Xie Ling leaving the recording set. Yu Shu was someone who was enthusiastic, being able to talk to anyone with familiarity. At the moment, it looked like Yanyan and Gu Sanshun had been friends with him for many years as they chatted together happily. Xie Ling was completely different from them.

From the moment Xie Ling stepped out of the set, his eyes looked around for Zhao Jing and Xie Qing everywhere.

When he noticed the two of them standing at the end of the corridor and that Zhao Jing happened to be facing him, he quickly lowered his head as if he was a guilty student who bumped into a teacher.

This reaction of his looked very meaningful.

So Zhao Jing just asked, “What’s the relationship between you and Xie Ling?”

Xie Qing didn’t hide the matter from him and just said bluntly, “A life or death enemy.”

Zhao Jing raised his eyebrows.

Seemingly, he understood.

The recording of this episode ended. The filming crew would record the personal interviews of several of the MCs and guests later on. If the contents of the interview were good, they would include it in the episode.

This was a very effective means of attracting traffic.

For example, they could interview Xie Ling about the story of his mother who had died when he was young or they could ask about Zhao Jing’s never-before-seen lover.

Although it was unkind to do so, who made them have to rely on such things to earn a living?

But the time was still early, so the crew just let the MCs and guests rest for an hour before the interview.

While waiting, Zhao Jing and Xie Qing sat side by side on the same sofa. Although the two didn’t sit that close to each other, a discerning person could see that the relationship between the two was slightly different from that of ordinary friends. Yu Shu and the others didn’t think that it was strange. After all, Zhao Jing, the Film Emperor, had a strange personality. Just from seeing his reaction after eating the lion’s head meatballs made by Xie Qing, they weren’t surprised by Zhao Jing’s treatment towards Xie Qing.

Everyone was quiet and from time to time, someone left to accept the interview from the crew. So at this time, Xie Qing sent messages to Wen Xu with his mobile phone. Wen Xu seemed to be very worried about his younger brother’s recording as if he would be bullied by Xie Ling. He would send a message from time to time to test if he was in a good mood or not.

Xie Qing thought that the situation was a little funny, but his heart still felt warm.

After seriously replying to Wen Xu, another message popped up, ‘Ge, are you not at home? Berry kept pawing at your door but you didn’t come out.’

Qi Huaiyu hadn’t looked for him for two days.

The reason he gave the other party was that he would be very busy for the next few days and might not have the time to chat on WeChat. This little liar really held back for two days but it seems that he couldn’t bear it anymore today.

Xie Qing raised his eyebrows and replied, ‘Mn, I’m recording a show.’

Qi Huaiyu on the other side was obviously surprised when he heard such an answer. But before he could ask anything else, the door of the lounge opened and the staff came in and politely smiled at Xie Qing, “Fufeng, it’s your turn.”

Xie Qing nodded then lowered his head to reply to Qi Huaiyu, ‘Not talking anymore, time for filming.’

Qi Huaiyu leaned on his sofa as Berry obediently lay on his lap. The young man stroked his phone with his slender fingers and after a while, let out a soft sigh.

“Berry, do you think he’s acting indifferent towards me?”

He was acting so indifferent as if he was a stranger that he had never met before.

Every word he used was perfunctory.

The young man rested his chin on his fingers, squinted his eyes and softly hummed an unknown tune. When the tune reached its end and gradually dissipated into the air, he smiled.

It’s fine.

He can only belong to him.

…

Xie Qing sat on a high chair with one leg bent while the other casually rested on the ground, showing the advantages of having long legs. The director couldn’t help but look at him twice more and couldn’t help but recall what Zhao Jing had specifically instructed just now.

The director coughed and made his face tense up on purpose, “Xie Qing, our program team is easy to talk to. If you don’t want to answer the question later, just say so. We won’t force you to answer.”

“Okay.”

The director’s first question was unremarkable, just asking him, “What’s your real name?”

The smile on Xie Qing’s face turned a bit playful as he said softly, “Xie Qing.”

The director swallowed and asked another question, “Then that… everyone thinks that you and Xie Ling are really destined to meet, what do you think?”

When this question was asked, the director really wanted to pry open Zhao Jing’s head to see what was inside.

It was strange to say. Looking at today’s situation, he had thought that Xie Qing and Zhao Jing had a pretty good relationship. But who would have thought that when it came to the time for them to have a personal interview, Zhao Jing specifically asked them: ‘When you’re interviewing Xie Qing later, you can ask whatever you can’t3.’

The director was dumbfounded at that time.

Thinking to himself that this guy really wanted to put Xie Qing to death.

Even so, the other person was a big star of their show. Whoever came here today had to give Zhao Jing face4.

So when facing Xie Qing, the director still asked the questions accordingly——

“Everyone thinks that you and Xie Ling are destined to meet, what do you think?”

Xie Qing paused as the smile in his eyes was finally unable to be restrained. He lowered his head and smiled softly. Under the director’s increasingly suspicious gaze, he said softly, “How can I see this kind of thing5? This face was given to me by my mother. Why don’t you ask Xie Ling, what was the relationship between our mothers?”

The director gasped for a moment.

Xie Qing’s sentences were really death-seeking. Did he not have enough beatings from society that Xie Ling’s name was used in such a tone?

However, this wasn’t even the end of it.

The smile on Xie Qing’s face didn’t fade as he threw out another unexpected sentence, “Fate might prove that they’re the same person.”

he means that the Xie Qing he met back when he transmigrated looks exactly the same. He didn’t expect the Xie Qing he saw at that time to be someone from the same world

a supporting role

like normally, you shouldn’t ask questions like these

they can’t humiliate him by refusing him

to clarify this matter since UM3 was confused, How can I understand things such as metaphysics or fate (was what he meant)