Qi Le An went to see Mr. Li after Hu Bin drove him back to Glory, he knew he’d better tell Mr. Li that he showed up at Hu Bin and Lin Xue’s fan meeting as a guest for Mr. Li would be upset if he found that out through his reporter friends.
Mr. Li was still working in his office even though it was the weekend, Qi Le An entered the room and said, “Mr. Li, I ran into Hu Bin in the library in the afternoon.”
“Hu Bin? And what happened?”
Qi Le An looked a bit shy and continued, “We talked for a bit, then he took me to a fan meeting, Lin Xue was there too.”
Mr. Li’s eyes sparkled, “That’s wonderful! You are one lucky boy, well, keep in touch with them and remember to talk them up.”
“I’m lucky to have you as my teacher, Mr. Li.”
Mr. Li was more delighted, he handed a Project Proposal to Qi Le An, “I was going to give you this tomorrow, here is the thing, I can take two trainees to this mall opening ceremony in B City, I’m going to take you and Yan Lang.”
Qi Le An was surprised when he heard Yan Lang’s name, he hadn’t seen his roommate for so long, he thought Yan Lang must have had left Glory already. Well, Yan Lang could have such a good opportunity after he had skipped so many classes, Yan Lang’s family must have powerful connections.
This activity was an easy commercial show-up, Qi Le An and Yan Lang would sing a song together on stage, it would look good on their portfolio, but Qi Le An didn’t expect he could get any pay. Mr. Li poured exhortations into Qi Le An’s ear, which could be boiled down to ‘you need to build good relations with Yan Lang’, Qi Le An nodded.
Qi Le An checked his stuff carefully after he got back to the dormitory, he burned his diary just in case Yan Lang would find anything from his diary. As for the anonymous SIM card, he decided to carry it with him.
Mr. Li had already told Qi Le An that Yan Lang would get back the next morning, but Qi Le An was still astonished to see Yan Lang in the classroom because Yan Lang’s features looked more delicate than ever.
But there were a touch of stiffness under that delicate, Qi Le An knew immediately Yan Lang had spent the past few days in a cosmetic surgery clinic.
To Qi Le An’s surprise, Yan Lang waved his hand at Qi Le An and invited him to sit next to him, “An! Long time no see!” with that he handed Qi Le An a nicely wrapped present, “I bought this for you in my family trip, I think you will like it.”
Qi Le An cast a glimpse at the box, he knew it was a designer watch in the box, so he acted like he was so flattered, “You shouldn’t have... it must be very expensive!”
Yan Lang chuckled, “Don’t mention it, please accept it, my good friend.”
Qi Le An felt nauseous on hearing ‘good friend’, but he took the watch after a million thanks.
Yan Lang ignored his little clique after they finished their morning class, he turned around and asked whether Qi Le An wanted to join him for lunch.
Qi Le An said yes for he was curious to find out what Yan Lang was up to.
Yan Lang wrapped his arm around Qi Le An’s shoulder on the way to the canteen, Qi Le An managed to force a smile at him instead of pushing him away. And to Qi Le An’s surprise, Yan Lang didn’t say anything suspicious at lunch, they had a simple meal together.
Mr. Li asked the two to meet him in his office in the afternoon and told them about the commercial activity, Mr. Li had arranged them a studio to practice for their duet starting the next afternoon. Yan Lang didn’t act surprised or anything, it looked like Mr. Li told Yan Lang about this activity even before Qi Le An.
Qi Le An heaved a sigh of relief when he found out that Yan Lang wasn’t going to live in the dormitory, he didn’t want to keep his eyes open in his sleep. Qi Le An kept tossing and turning that night, he couldn’t fall asleep at all for he had no idea what Yan Lang was up to, he searched his memory so hard, but he had barely found anything about Yan Lang.
After so many failed attempts on falling asleep, Qi Le An turned on the light and switched on the anonymous SIM card. It took the phone quite a few seconds to turn on, then the phone vibrated twice.
Wei Chang Feng: I’ve looked it up, what you told me is all true thank you.
Wei Chang Feng: Your number attribution is in B City, I’m going there next week, can I meet you in person?”
Wei Chang Feng: As return, please let me know if there is anything I can do for you.
The last text was sent on that very afternoon while the first two were sent days ago. Qi Le An was so glad that Wei Chang Feng had done his research and found out what Poised Deer was really up to. But he cursed the shopkeeper who promised him that no way could anyone find out where number’s attribution was. On a second thought, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, for he was in Hai City, and his number showed B City, hopefully Wei Chang Feng would never suspect him to be the whistleblower.
Qi Le An slumped down in his bed with relief, his heart felt so warm and soft on thinking about Wei Chang Feng.
Qi Le An and Yan Lang started to practice their duet the next afternoon, they both had some vocal training, but this was their first cooperation, so the instructor wasn’t happy about their performance. Qi Le An listened to the instructor’s suggestions carefully and kept practising even after class, while Yan Lang got impatient quickly. For several times Qi Le An had seen Yan Lang clenched his fists and rolled his eyes, but Qi Le An just ignored him and kept practising.
Finally the instructor nodded with a big smile on that Friday afternoon, two days before the commercial activity.
Mr. Li took the two to the airport on Saturday morning, they had a good flight. The airport in B City was packed with fans who were there for some big star, Mr. Li encouraged Qi Le An and Yan Lang to work hard, and they would become bid stars soon.
Yan Lang pouted and he turned green with envy, while Qi Le An made up his mind to work even harder on his acting skills.
After they checked in, Mr. Li allowed them to have a free afternoon as long as they could make it before dinner with the organizer. Yan Lang called his friends and left the hotel with joy while Qi Le An chose to read in the hotel room.
The organizer was a real estate developer in B City, and this activity was one of his new malls opening ceremony, he had invited several celebrities to perform and create some buzz for the ceremony, Qi Le An and Yan Lang were basically nobody at that dinner, even Mr. Li got ignored a few times.
Luckily Yan Lang had left a good impression on the organizer by his clever words and charming smiles, Mr. Li heaved a sigh of relief when the organizer cracked up on one of Yan Lang’s jokes.
Qi Le An just felt exhausted after dinner even though he didn’t say anything, while Yan Lang was still talking cheerfully and humorously.
After they went back to the hotel, Mr. Li told them to have some good rest and no mistake was allowed on stage the next day.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Li, me and An know what we are doing, we won’t let you down, right, An?”
“Yes, please rest assured, Mr. Li.”
Mr. Li nodded and asked them to go back to their own room.
Yan Lang had been nothing but nice to Qi Le An the whole week, but Qi Le An hadn’t let his guard down, they were going to share one room this night, so Qi Le An had made a few marks on his suitcase before he went to shower.
To Qi Le An’s surprise, all the marks he left on his suitcase were intact after he showered. He couldn’t believe Yan Lang hadn’t done anything, ‘Is he just really nice to me?’
Once bitten, twice shy. Qi Le An’s alertness had saved him the next day... ..