Mr. Zhou Doesn’t Want to Work Hard Anymore!

Even Zhou Chenxi was still completely at a loss for this kind of situation, let alone the others.

 

Zhou Chenxi watched his name as the keyword went from tenth to fifth, third, before finally, briefly stayed in the number one spot, and settled in the second place.

 

The first place was the 30340 news about the currently popular idol in the entertainment circle who was photographed and suspected of having romantic relationships secretly. 

 

Zhou Chenxi was dumbfounded.

 

Zhi Qi was also dumbfounded. 

    

He thought at first that people were just having a good discussion regarding Zhou Chenxi. After all, when he messaged Zhou Chenxi, his keywords were still in the top ten. But in just ten minutes, his keywords had rocketed to number two.

 

Zhiqi called Zhou Chenxi quickly.

 

Zhou Chenxi answered.

 

“What’s going on?” Zhiqi said.

 

“I don’t know ah?” Zhou Chenxi said.

 

The two of them remained silent while looking at each other across the phone.

 

On the same night, Zhou Chenxi was featured in three keywords on the trending topic. Besides the ‘Zhou Chenxi doesn’t want to work hard anymore’, ‘Zhou Chenxi, did you attend nine years of compulsory education?’ and also ‘Zhou Chenxi bought insurance’, in one fell swoop, the variety show《Carp》became a hit.

 

Even the director couldn’t wait to call and thank him.

 

Only Luo Xinghe was staring at the trending topic list on his phone as his expression changed unpredictably.

 

It seems that no time for him to move slowly, he had to continue quickening his pace. 

 

For the fourth episode, the show was recorded in the ancient capital of the north city. Everyone met at the entrance of the Museum of the Ancient Capital.

 

On the way to the museum, Lu Ji accidentally had a car accident.

    

Originally, Zhou Chenxi was supposed to sit in that car too but at the last moment he went to his brother’s office because he was called by him. He couldn’t catch the flight the crew had booked for him so he changed to the next flight at his own expense. He didn’t expect this to happen to Lu Ji.

 

According to one of the staff members, the program team was driving Lu Ji’s commercial vehicle from the airport to the museum when the car overturned on the mountain road and plunged into the ravine.

 

        He heard that it was because the road was narrow then a car was coming from the opposite direction, so there was no time to avoid it. It was too late to brake on the other side, which led to these kinds of consequences.

 

        Unfortunately,the museum was in the suburban district therefore to get there from the airport, you had to go through this mountain road.

 

        Luckily, there was CCTV on the mountain road, and the other party’s driver was fully responsible for it. He couldn’t run away even if he wanted to.

 

        In the end, Lu Group’s lawyer came out personally to deal with the driver who was responsible for the accident to see how the matter should be handled.

    

Because of this accident, the recording of the program was forced to be postponed. Lu Ji probably would not be able to take part in the recording of the next episode of the program. 

 

        He had hurt his arm and leg and the injuries seemed to be quite serious.

 

        Lin Yujiao was very furious. She called up the person who was in charge of the program team and scolded them one by one. She said that if anything happened to Lu Ji, the program team would not be able to get away with it.

 

        Zhu Fang felt very wronged. She was the producer of the program. She had vaguely heard that Lu Group’s investment and sponsorship of several programmes had recently met with a mishap. She couldn’t even imagine that this would happen to her. 

    

In terms of security measures, she believed she had done everything she could. Besides that, Lu Ji was also very careful and had personally gone over many things. But, even if she had been more careful, such a large crew, a thousand precautions could not really prevent a pervasive natural disaster. She tried her best not to offend such a large company as Lu’s, apart from apologizing sincerely and making a profound review, she didn’t know what else she should do.

 

        Fortunately, Lu Ji himself did not care about this. After he finished his plaster cast (for the broken bone)1 at the hospital, he learned about the follow-up from his men. He did not say anything, but only expressed that he did not blame Zhu Fang. He knew exactly what was going on about this matter in his heart.

 

        As for how he knew, others didn’t know.

 

Lu Ji asked someone to find out the name of the driver who had caused the accident, while having his lawyers engage the person in talks and keep a close eye on him in the name of asking for compensation. He himself was still busy and working (on his official business) in the hospital.

 

Towards evening, an unexpected person came to see him.

 

It wasn’t really that surprising though. 

 

For the sake of his safety, several bodyguards took turns guarding outside Lu Ji’s ward and didn’t know whose turn it was at this point, the ignorant one was outside, stopping the visitor: “Who are you?”

 

A sharp and clear youngster’s voice came up, “I’m here to see Lu Zong.”    

     

“Go back!” The bodyguard said impatiently, “Lu Zong is not seeing anyone.”

 

Zhou Chenxi was holding a bouquet of flowers in his hand while his other hand was carrying a box, a little aggrieved. 

 

He glanced into the ward and thought to himself that it was probably all his fault that Lu Zong was in such a state, so how could he still have a face to meet with Lu Zong? He should leave then. 

 

As he was preparing to leave with his head bowed in despair, Zhou Chenxi heard a voice inside saying, “Is that Chenxi? Let him in.” 

 

The bodyguard looked at Zhou Chenxi, checked his ID card and respectfully invited him into the ward.

 

Zhou Chenxi placed the things he brought in his hand on Lu Ji’s bedside.

 

        “What is this?” Lu Ji gave him a look.

 

        Zhou Chenxi was busy handing over the flower for him to look at. 

 

The flower didn’t look like a flower, it was a paper stack, red and white, on which the head of a certain solemn and great man’s portrait could be faintly seen.

 

        Lu Ji: “….”

 

Zhou Chenxi said in deadly earnest : “I looked it up on the internet. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to make it in time, so I had the florist fold them together for me in a hurry. Altogether, it used up 68 paper money. Don’t mind the small amount, it means ‘good luck and prosperity’. The website says that RMB 2 can remove bad luck and misfortune.”

 

 

        Lu Ji: “….”

 

Which fake website is so deceitful and harmful to people?

 

After saying that, Zhou Chenxi also opened the fish box. 

 

“Hua la3!”

A red koi vigorously and lively popped out of the box, bringing out a handful of water and almost splashing Zhou Chenxi.

 

Zhou Chenxi flustered to pick the fish back up and put the lid back on.

 

        Lu Ji: “…”

 

        Zhou Chenxi said, “This koi, you know it.”

 

[Zhou Chenxi mean this koi, you know la, it’s the symbol of luck]

 

Lu Ji didn’t want to hear the word koi, so he made a “stop” gesture and said helplessly: “I don’t want you to send me a koi, I’d rather you send me a salted fish.”

 

Lu Ji’s words sounded like he meant something, but Zhou Chenxi didn’t react to it. He was silent for a split second, thought it really made sense, and said : “Alright then, fish soup, it’s a good supplement.”

 

Lu Ji understood without being told explicitly, waved at the bodyguard outside.

 

The other party came in and Lu Ji gestured for him to take the fishing box away, “Take it and cook it!”

 

        “Mr. Lu, this…” The bodyguard didn’t react.

 

        Lu Ji gave him a deep look, “Fish soup, great tonic.”

 

        Zhou Chenxi: “….”

 

        The bodyguard messily took the box and went away, intending to discuss it to someone about how to cook the fish.

 

        The room quieted down, Zhou Chenxi and Lu Ji were the only two people left.

 

“I …” Zhou Chenxi finally opened his mouth, wringing his  fingers uncomfortably, “I’m sorry, if only I could stay away from you…”

    

Lu Ji had a plaster cast on his hand. His feet seemed to be injured too, it was bandaged. Zhou Chenxi felt that the snow-white bandage particularly offended his eyes, it was as if it was tied to his own body.

 

The tip of his chin was cold, Zhou Chenxi felt a finger lightly nudging his chin,causing him to tilt his head to meet with Lu Ji’s deep black eyes.

 

“I remember, I told you this more than once.” Lu Ji laughed, “This has nothing to do with you. Besides, why do you want to stay away from me? Do you think we’re not close enough? Or do I not deserve for you to get close to?”

 

        Close?

 

        What do you mean?

 

Zhou Chenxi’s head was burning, for a moment, he suspected he had misheard.

 

“Don’t say everything is your fault! If you do that, it will make me misunderstand.” Lu Ji said.

 

Misunderstand what?

 

Lu Ji had already put his hand down.There was a faint clean scent in the air. That was Lu Ji’s usual scent, he remembered that when he was recording the first episode of 《Carp》, when Lu Ji was helping him to fasten his seat belt, he smelt this scent on Lu Ji.

 

Later, when he fell asleep, he could not help but smell it on the end of his nose, which made him sleep very well.

 

Zhou Chenxi thought, maybe he and Lu Ji were just supporting characters in someone else’s story. Every fortune and misfortune depended on how they were going to create it with their own hands. Not like Luo Xinghe, all he only needed was to sit back and wait for a pie to fall from the sky.4

 

Until it was almost dark, because the hospital had a fixed visiting hours and the bodyguard said that Lu Ji’s mother would come to stay with him in the evening, only then did Zhou Chenxi stand up and say goodbye to Lu Ji.

 

He wasn’t ready to meet Lu Ji’s mother. After all, last time, the program director had clearly arranged for him to find out about Lu Ji and Shao Yunyi’s information, but it was ruined by his lame play.5

 

He also made the crowd passionately bless or wish them to get married.

 

With a red face, Zhou Chenxi hurriedly came out of the hospital, took a taxi and went home.

 

In the evening, Zhou Chenxi was getting ready for bed after a fragrant bath when he heard Zhou Mingxuan calling him from downstairs, “Chenxi? Are you asleep?”

 

Zhou Chenxi rubbed his eyes and came out with a sleepy look with his eyes half closed on his face, holding a pillow, “I’m just about to sleep, what’s wrong?”

 

Zhou Mingxuan’s face was grave: “You come down!”

 

Zhou Chenxi woke up halfway through his doze and thought something big had happened, so he wore his pyjamas and hurriedly went down.

 

Zhou Mingxuan was dressed in formal attire, as if he was returning from a meeting at the company. He turned his laptop around and pushed it in front of Zhou Chenxi: “Is this your colleague from the show?”

 

Zhou Mingxuan’s style was still so old-fashioned that it was the first time Zhou Chenxi had ever heard anyone care and call the person he ever worked together with in the entertainment industry as ‘colleagues’.

 

Zhou Chenxi took a closer look and found that there was a picture of a man with peach blossom eyes and a pretty face on the page. Although he was wearing a mask, Zhou Chenxi recognised by the first glance that the man was Luo Xinghe.

 

        What happened to Luo Xinghe?

 

        Zhou Chenxi hurriedly brought Zhou Mingxuan’s notebook over to him and tapped the mouse to pull the page up.

 

Pulling it to the top, he found the news with a headline that shocked him.

 

        《The Chairman of the Luo Xing Group has been indicted for allegedly accepting bribes, commercial fraud and many other charges. His brother, Luo Xinghe is suspected of criminal offences and is now under police control.》

 

Zhou Chenxi’s pupils in a flash dilated, he rubbed his eyes and then rubbed them again, totally couldn’t believe what he had seen. 

 

        Is this still the world he knew?

 

        Luo Xinghe?? He’s been arrested by the police?!

 

    

 

1

[石膏: gypsum CaSO4·2(H2O) / plaster] 

2

[Renminbi (RMB) / Chinese Yuan (CNY)]

3

[哗啦/huā lā: (onom.) sound of a crash / with a crash]

4

[Because there is an idiom that said; 天上不会掉馅饼 ( 天上不會掉餡餅 )/ tiān shàng bù huì diào xiàn bǐng : there is no such thing as a free lunch]

5

[骚操作: mickey mouse operation/ foul play]