As Hao Ritian drank his warm cup of milk tea, his body relaxed and he released his pent-up breath. He bought another drink according to Li Bufan's taste and returned to the film studio.
His return coincided with the shoot wrapping up, and just as he came closer, the director shouted, "Cut! Alright, let's take a break. We'll resume in half an hour."
The actors and crew noisily broke up in response to the director's words. Lin Li, the woman who'd instructed Hao Ritian to buy milk tea, noticed him holding it and frowned when she saw that he wasn't delivering it to her. However, seeing that Yuan-jie was about to come over, she had no choice but to endure her displeasure and run to Hao Ritian. She reached out and said, "Hand it over."
Hao Ritian looked at the woman's sour expression and had the urge to fling the milk tea at her face. This world was practically testing the limits of his endurance. For a normal person like him, brain-damaged people were simply insufferable beyond words.
Seeing Hao Ritian stupidly stand still, completely lacking in acumen, the woman became upset and was ready to reach out and snatch the milk tea herself.
Just then, a hand suddenly came between them, and the milk tea was taken from Hao Ritian's hand and drunk through a straw. "Mmm, just how I like it. Thanks!"
It was Li Bufan, who placed a hand on Hao Ritian's shoulder as he spoke.
"What? Does Assistant Lin still have something to say to my assistant?" Raising his eyebrows, he looked at Lin Li in puzzlement but appeared easygoing.
Though Li Bufan was young, he'd been navigating the entertainment industry for several years. He had good looks and good acting skills. This year, he'd been lucky and performed in two decent TV dramas, amassing a batch of fans. He could be considered a third-tier star, and this was his first time ever playing the male lead. As such when Lin Li found that the person who'd snatched away the milk tea was actually Li Bufan, she could only smile awkwardly.
"…Uh, it's nothing. Yuan-jie just finished. I have to take care of her so I'll be leaving first, Li-ge." She scurried away in embarrassment afterwards.
Li Bufan took another sip of milk tea and pushed Hao Ritian to his break area using the hand on his shoulder. Once he turned around, his face became dark, frightening the assistant who was holding an overcoat out to him.
In the end, it was Hao Ritian who received the overcoat from the assistant's hand and helped Li Bufan put it on. Though Li Bufan's face was gloomy, he didn't refuse his help. The assistant standing by the side smiled gratefully. Sure enough, Li-ge listens to Xia-ge the most. With Xia-ge here, his job had become a lot more relaxed, so he was sincerely thankful to him.
"Is that woman bullying you again? Did you help run errands for her again?" 'Assistant Lin' immediately became 'that woman'. After putting on the overcoat and sitting down, Li Bufan glowered at Hao Ritian as if he'd explode on the spot.
Hao Ritian was amicable to Li Bufan – something he rarely was to others – and smiled. As an upset Li Bufan glared at him, he answered honestly, "No, I meant to buy this for you. Look, isn't this just the way you like it?"
There was, of course, a reason he was so amicable towards Li Bufan.
Li Bufan had been 18 when he began working in the entertainment circle, his start unsurprisingly rocky. What was the use of only having looks? What the entertainment industry lacked the least was handsome men and beautiful women. Moreover, since Li Bufan never completed his elective courses and had no background or connections to speak of, it had been extremely difficult for him to get ahead. In the beginning, he could only play basic, insignificant roles as extras in television shows and films.
For a year, Li Bufan mostly played small roles. But good looks did have advantages and he'd occasionally land roles that made appearances and would say a couple of lines. He seized every opportunity to diligently learn acting and endured countless hardships in the process.
The entertainment industry was a scourge that trampled on those below and flattered those above. As Li Bufan was trampled on, he began to moderate the ambition he displayed and slowly learned to interact with others diplomatically. Moreso, he'd simply learned to fake it. His intrinsic nature wasn't something that could be changed just because he said so.
After a long time, his luck took a turn for the better and he signed with a entertainment company that treated him fairly well—his current company. Originally, though his manager had been in charge of many people, because of Li Bufan's training potential, he'd slowly started allocating resources to him this year.
This was why Li Bufan's heart was cold and hard. It had been hardened by life.
However, ever since Xia Luo became his assistant, not only did he diligently take care of Li Bufan, but when he learned that Li Bufan would secretly find time to study because of his lack of schooling, Xia Luo even went out of his way to arrange learning materials and tutor him. Whether in work or in life, Xia Luo looked out for him wholeheartedly. Even an iron heart would melt.
Naturally, Li Bufan was no exception.
He regarded Xia Luo as one of his own and adopted him into his protective circle, covering for him in every aspect. Knowing that Xia Luo had asthma, he wouldn't allow him to do any heavy work. In front of Xia Luo, Li Bufan was a tsundere, firm in speech but a softie on the inside.
Although Xia Luo was older, he couldn't compare to Li Bufan when it came to interpersonal affairs. While he was said to be taking care of Li Bufan, how could Li Bufan not do the same for him? The two of them were more like brothers than some actual brothers.
Xia Luo was lucky to have met Li Bufan. His death was miserable. Despite the stigma of being a murderer, the investor soon calmed down after his initial panic because he had his identity to back him up. Xia Luo was born with asthma and died because of it—what did that have to do with him?
Nearly everyone believed that Xia Luo's sudden death was because of his affliction. Li Bufan was the only one who didn't buy it. Due to his care and warnings, Xia Luo didn't do strenuous activities and would put aside a part of his salary to get examined at the hospital and receive treatment, so his asthma had been alleviated to a certain extent. Unless in a special situation, he couldn't have suddenly dropped dead.
He knew this matter wasn't simple and had to get to the bottom of things.
Though Xia Xin was a white-eyed wolf, she was aware that Xia Luo's death was more or less related to her. Regardless of if it concerned the death of a stranger or her brother, it was obviously impossible for her to be unaffected and show no flaws. After all, she was just a university junior. How could she have such a strong psychological quality?
Li Bufan detected the chink in her armour and, through guesses and tricks, pried the truth of Xia Luo's unexpected death out of Xia Xin's lips. His entire body trembled with anger after learning the truth, and on the spur of the moment, he slapped Xia Xin so hard her lips split and she lost a tooth.
Heaven knew how envious he was of Xia Xin simply because she was Xia Luo's younger sister. Though they'd only known each other for a year, Xia Luo had treated him extremely well. It went without saying that Xia Xin, who was Xia Luo's biological sister, had been spoiled beyond limits. Li Bufan had witnessed Xia Luo concede to Xia Xin countless times while feeling envious. But looking back, Xia Luo had treated him almost the same way, which made him secretly smug and proud despite showing indifference on the surface.
He knew all too well about Xia Luo's kindness.
And yet, Xia Xin, who'd been adored by Xia Luo, was actually so moronic that she'd killed him. Li Bufan wished he could murder that idiot with his own two hands.
He wouldn't let Xia Xin off the hook, nor the investor who'd killed Xia Luo.
One could well imagine the conclusion. All charges were eventually pushed onto Xia Xin and Xia Luo was even judged to have died of anger because of her. While there was no way to hide the fact that his death was anger induced, ultimately, nothing beyond that could be determined.
Xia Xin reaped what she sowed and was sent to jail by Li Bufan. After only a few months inside, she began reminiscing on Xia Luo's kindness to her and sobbed, regretting her bad deeds. However, there was no longer anyone who would be distressed for her.
Meanwhile, the investor got away scot-free. How could Li Bufan give up? He confronted the investor, filming as he collected evidence. When his action was discovered, the investor immediately suppressed him, putting him in a very difficult position in the entertainment industry. His popularity, which he'd spent much effort to amass, plummeted, sending him back to square one.
Still, Li Bufan didn't give up. He spent 10 years climbing step by step onto the throne of the Film Emperor. During this period, he received countless fans, praises, and trophies. Yet, as he stood holding the trophy cup at the award ceremony, bitter tears streamed down his face, shocking and puzzling numerous people.
After enduring, toiling, for 10 years, Li Bufan finally handed the criminal evidence which he'd collected on the investor to the police. With such an unscrupulous personality, the investor had been stained with many matters besides that of Xia Luo, and his various charges were enough to make him sit in prison till he wore a hole in the ground.
When the whole truth came to light, Li Bufan's fans were both distressed for him and, at the same time, proud of how seriously their idol valued friendship. His number of fans soared, half of them being die-hard fans, leading Li Bufan to become the first ever star in the entertainment industry to have over one hundred million fans and securing his place as the uncrowned king of the entertainment circle.
Li Bufan, however, wasn't happy. After completing his revenge, he visited Xia Luo, his figure appearing quite lonely as he stood before the gravestone.
Despite being 10 years late, he'd eventually avenged Xia Luo through his own means. As his fans had mentioned, he was a man who valued his friends greatly.
Even Hao Ritian couldn't hate a person like that. Though the current Li Bufan was still a 22-year-old young man, Hao Ritian was willing to yield to him.
Li Bufan had been about to argue in preparation of Hao Ritian saying 'yes', yet his answer was the opposite of what he'd expected. He nearly choked, but after hearing Hao Ritian say that he'd specially bought the milk tea for him, the tips of his ears twitched and flushed. Be that as it may, outwardly, he snorted, "Just like this. If she dares to ask you to run errands for her again later on, just refuse, got it?"
Hao Ritian stared at his twitching ears in amusement.
Before he could answer, Li Bufan continued muttering, "How do I say this? I'm the male lead of this drama and Xu Yuan is an assisting female role. In terms of status, Xu Yuan doesn't have as many fans as me, and that woman is just Xu Yuan's assistant while you're my assistant. It should be you asking her to run errands!"
Li Bufan wasn't, in fact, as ignorant of the ways of the world as his words implied. On the contrary, he was an expert in it. It was crucial to maintain good social relationships in the entertainment circle as the relationships among the stars and assistants could prove useful in the same drama crew. However, that couldn't offset the fact that Xia Luo was too good-natured. As long as someone asked him for help, he would demurely agree without care for his body's condition.
He just couldn't stand people bullying Xia Luo.
The more he thought about it, the stronger his frustration. He poked at Hao Ritian's shoulder with his finger, his tone bitter as he spoke, "Why are you so spineless, huh? It pisses me off. Remember this, you can't agree when someone asks you for help next time. If you do, I'll dock your salary."
Hao Ritian, "…"
As far as he knew, not only had Li Bufan never docked Xia Luo's salary, his salary was even higher than the average assistant's.
Most assistants would actually only earn about three thousand a month, with those who had it better getting five or six thousand, but the salary Li Bufan set for Xia Luo was eight thousand per month. Because of this, Xia Luo became even more eager to work to repay Li Bufan's kindness towards him. One followed the other and the two of them formed a never-ending circle.
Hence, Hao Ritian really wanted to laugh when he mentioned deducting his salary or something.
Still, seeing Li Bufan stare at him as though waiting for an answer, he nodded. "Got it."
As for what Li Bufan said about him being spineless, Hao Ritian decided not to pursue it seeing as the kid meant well. Besides, Xia Luo really was spineless. Now that he was the person behind this face, he would practice what he preached and help him start a new life. Since he'd come, naturally everything would be different.
Finally satisfied, Li Bufan finished his cup of hot milk tea, his body feeling a lot more relaxed. Upon seeing this, Hao Ritian immediately told him, "Take your chance to rest. I'll call you when it's time."
Though Li Bufan hadn't said anything, he couldn't hide the exhaustion on his face. Essentially, his workload had been heavy lately, with him having accepted two dramas and even a few advertisements. He only had three to four hours of rest a day, and even a man made of iron couldn't withstand that.
He didn't object when he heard Hao Ritian's suggestion. He pulled his overcoat over himself and soon drifted off to sleep.
Most artists had perfected this divine skill—no matter how awful the environment, they could be out like a light in seconds. It was what it was. If they didn't seize the time to rest, the only one tired would be themselves. No matter how unaccustomed to it they were at first, they'd eventually become used to it.
Aware of how the plot developed, Hao Ritian naturally knew that Li Bufan's current idol drama would explode in popularity and even propel a few of its actors into the spotlight. As the star of the show, Li Bufan gained a wave of fans and became the cream of the crop among the second-tier stars, just short of being a first-tier star. With Li Bufan's strength, as long as he was given the opportunity, he could fly beyond the sky.
So his present hardship wasn't all for nothing.
Compared with Hao Ritian, the atmosphere on Lin Li's side wasn't as harmonious. Though Xu Yuan couldn't compare to Li Bufan, she was still well-known among the third-line stars. Busty and with legs for days, she was considered an otaku's goddess. In the drama, she performed the role of a willful and arrogant rich young lady whom she shared a similar bad temper with in reality.
She had two assistants, Lin Li being the less valued of the two. When Xu Yuan realised that, after the performance was over, Lin Li had come late and hadn't prepared anything, her face immediately showed her displeasure. "Where the hell did you go? Do you think just because Chen Wei does everything well, you can slack off? If you can't handle the job, you better leave in advance. I can't accommodate a big Buddha like you."
Chen Wei was Xu Yuan's other assistant.
The expression on Lin Li's face instantly turned stiff. When she came back to her senses, she hurriedly sucked up to Xu Yuan, "Yuan-jie, I was wrong. Let me off this once. I definitely won't repeat my mistake again, I swear."
It was only after she humbly fawned over Xu Yuan that the matter passed.
Subtly, she glanced at Hao Ritian's direction and found him sitting by Li Bufan's side, doing nothing. They'd been working with the same crew for a while now, and whenever she saw Li Bufan treating him particularly well, her eyes would radiate resentment.
Her bullying Xia Luo on the pretext of 'helping' wasn't without reason; they were both assistants, so why was she constantly being scolded and having to tread lightly while Xia Luo could behave like blood brothers with Li Bufan? After realising Xia Luo's good nature, she became addicted to bullying him. No matter how highly Li Bufan values you, aren't you still bullied by me?
Bullying Xia Luo gave Lin Li a sense of superiority and made her feel as though her standing had been elevated. In fact, her psyche was simply twisted. But she was unaware of this trait and was very pleased with herself. No matter how one saw it, she had the life of a cannon folder.
This was what Hao Ritian had garnered from his encounter with Lin Li and seeing her ensuing treatment by Xu Yuan's side. He couldn't even muster the desire to deal with people like her. It was beneath him. Hence, when he noticed Lin Li looking at him, he pinched his lips, his eyes deliberately filled with pity and compassion. As expected, he saw Lin Li's face contort for a moment.
Losing interest, Hao Ritian averted his gaze and examined Li Bufan. When he was certain that he was deep in sleep and hadn't been disturbed, his heart calmed. What the hell? He hadn't been affected by Xia Luo's motherly personality, had he?
Hao Ritian's expression looked as though he'd been damned.
Still, knowing what kind of person Li Bufan was and how hard he'd worked to avenge Xia Luo, he really couldn't harden his heart against this child.
That's right. In his eyes, Li Bufan was just a child.
Calling to mind how he'd have to serve this child later, he felt strange. After all, he'd always been the one waited on and had never served people before.
For a while, his mind was a mess of thoughts before his expression suddenly stilled. He wondered if that man would appear in this world. When would he appear, and with what identity? Or would he no longer show up?
To an actor on break, half an hour passed in the blink of an eye. Hao Ritian woke Li Bufan up three minutes ahead of time, firstly to allow him to come around, and secondly so he could get in the right frame of mind. Otherwise, he was sure to NG in the following shooting. Setting aside time in advance was for the sake of avoiding this problem, adhering to the phrase 'always prepare for the worst'.
Awake, Li Bufan stood up, stretched his body, then flung his coat to Hao Ritian's arms. "Another hour or so and my part of the drama for today will pretty much be over. There aren't any advertisements this afternoon so we can take a proper break. After the shooting ends, I'll take you out for a good meal."
That said, he hurried to the shooting location, his back unexpectedly looking rather dependable.
After Li Bufan left, the assistant beside him enviously said to him, "Xia-ge, Li-ge treats you really well, but there's still people saying his temper is bad. What a load of rubbish."
Hao Ritian hugged the coat in his arms and said with a somewhat deep voice, "What ought to be said and what should be kept to yourself; what to listen to and what to ignore; what to believe in and what to disregard—you have to learn them well. Bufan's personality can't be determined by a few words from some outsider. As long as you do your part as his assistant, he definitely won't treat you unfairly."
He couldn't utter the words 'Li-ge'. Luckily, their relationship was good so Xia Luo had begun directly calling Li Bufan by his name half a year ago. If that hadn't been the case, he really couldn't show his old face.
"Got it, Xia-ge." The assistant who was given a lesson by him immediately lifted his head high and squared his shoulders, though he silently said in his heart: Look, you directly address Li-ge as 'Bufan' familiarly, which Li-ge tacitly consents to. And whenever there's a break, he would treat you to a meal. Doesn't he treat you well?
Even so, he was delighted to follow such a good-natured celebrity.
Following that, Hao Ritian watched the filming process. This was a first for him and he had to admit that Li Bufan's acting skills were exceptional. He played the role of a rich second-generation vividly and was quite on point, but—
The group of actors and actresses had to perform together, and when one made a mistake or if the director was unsatisfied, they had to repeat the scene all over again. Every once in a while, in order to act cool, they had to make a very middle-schooler-esque action or expression, which appeared incredibly silly. Critique over.1
Watching the thorough process of filming a drama could really kill people's interest; Hao Ritian had only watched for a dozen minutes or so before arriving at this painful conclusion. Therefore, when he stood watching to the side until the end of Li Bufan's part, he really wanted to give himself a pat on the back.
Li Bufan's acting quota for today was full. As soon as the director confirmed that nothing was amiss and gave him the OK to leave, Li Bufan headed straight for Hao Ritian, his face finally relaxed. "Let's go, I said I'd treat you for lunch today."
In spite of his words, he still had to change first before leading Hao Ritian and his other little assistant to the nanny van. He directed the driver once the door closed, "To Red Sun."
The driver could be considered the third assistant that Li Bufan's company had assigned to him. There were many artists under his manager's care, and since his manager couldn't be personally available for only one of them, Li Bufan was arranged to have three assistants take care of him. While this treatment wasn't especially good, it wasn't bad either. Hearing Li Bufan's instruction, the driver promptly replied, "Got it, Li-ge."
Red Sun was a private restaurant Li Bufan frequented. The environment inside was good, their ingredients fresh, and the food tasty. As long as they were careful, they wouldn't give away his whereabouts. Once the van set out, he sat back and relaxed. Just as he was thinking of saying a few words to Hao Ritian, Hao Ritian's phone inconveniently rang and he closed his mouth.
Hao Ritian didn't expect someone to call him and looked at the caller ID. Great, he almost died from disgust. It was actually Xia Xin, that white-eyed wolf.
To be honest, Hao Ritian had never been so disgusted with a person. Unfortunately, making a serious stratagem for a person with Xia Xin's type of brain damage would get him nowhere and would only piss himself off, so Hao Ritian was extremely unwilling to speak to her as he felt he would be sullied.
Nevertheless, he couldn't avoid her. Who told this moron to be Xia Luo's younger sister?
He picked up. "Hello, Xia Xin? What did you call me for?"
Xia Luo had always called Xia Xin 'Little Xin' or 'Xinxin', but he really couldn't say it and didn't want to make it difficult on himself.
Hearing that it was Xia Xin who'd called Hao Ritian, Li Bufan, who sat next to him, frowned, feeling a bit displeased. His ears immediately pricked up.