Chapter One Hundred and Twelve

  Los Angeles, midnight twelve o'clock.

  He Yuesong hung up the phone and walked slowly into the bedroom, following a faint light. The floor-to-ceiling glass door on the balcony was open, and the wind between the high-rise buildings howled by, blowing up the pale blue gauze curtains. On the recliner on the balcony, a handsome man was half-leaning and half-reclining, his long legs casually draped over the side, one hand holding a book, and the other hand lazily propped against his chest, under the lamp light, his index finger seemed to be drawing circles on his pajamas unconsciously.

  He Yuesong walked over to his side, and the man naturally made room for him. He then lay down, resting his head on the man's shoulder, stretching out his arm and tightly wrapping it around him.

  "Is the call over?" Shu Mu asked.

  "Uh-huh." He Yuesong tilted her head, leaned over through their clothes, and gently kissed Shu Mu's chest. She said in a muffled voice, "Let's go back."

  "Good." Shu Mu rubbed his hair and turned the page.

  He Yuesong thought Shu Mu would ask him why, but after waiting for a long time, he only heard the sound of Shu Mu's calm heartbeat in his ear. He gradually felt awkward in his heart, raised his head and asked: "What are you looking at?"

  "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." answered Shu Mu.

  "Kid's stuff." He Yuesong pouted and said in a low voice.

  "It's very interesting." Shu Mu didn't say anything else, he didn't even lower his head to coax his little lover, but instead focused on the text on the page, as if the words had some kind of mesmerizing magic.

  He Yuesong looked up at him and said, "Recite it for me."

  "Shu Mu began to recite: 'The Ferber family is that kind of small farm, about the size of a palm. Such small farms are all over the place and look almost the same. Two acres of land, one courtyard, surrounded by a fence. There's a row of stepping stones, made from sawn-off logs, like uneven wooden buckets, from which you can step over the fence, women can stand on it and jump onto the horse...'"

  "Axu," He Yuesong suddenly slapped his book away, propped himself up, and stared straight into Shu Mu's eyes. "I love you."

  Shu Mu looked at him.

  "Say you love me," He Yuesong said.

  Shu Mu didn't respond, he just averted his gaze and stretched out his arm to pick up the book that had fallen on the ground.

  "Ashu, you never used to shy away from my requests." He Yuesong's upper body was pressed against Shu Mu's, restraining his movements.

  "You wouldn't have been so unreasonable before." Shu Mu sighed and said.

  He Yuesong didn't respond, but instead looked at Shu Mu with a very stubborn gaze.

  "Alright," Shu Mu conceded, "I love you, Song Song, I love you."

  "I love you too." He Yuesong smiled and leaned in, kissing his lips.

  This love is what I came for.

  He Yuesong thought sorrowfully, this love is what I came for.

  Five days later, the film "A Tree in Born" held a grand opening ceremony.

  All the main creators were present, and more than 100 domestic media outlets gathered together. On that day, it was also the birthday of Ning Xiu's actor, veteran male star Fu Cong, and the crew members sent a five-layer large cake and champagne tower to wish the movie a smooth shoot.

  On that day, **appeared at the premiere of "Chu Mu". As a mysterious guest and one of the shareholders of He Shi, Chu Mu played the only villain in this movie, the superstar Mo Xi. This is Chu Mu's first return to the film industry after being in the fashion circle for over a year. The outside world speculated that Chu Mu took on such a role that seemed like "typecasting" as soon as he returned, wondering whether it was due to his consideration of being comfortable with the role or wanting to challenge himself and subvert his usual positive image on screen.

  However, these have nothing to do with Luo Fei.

  Against everyone's expectations, he took down the pivotal role of Ning Hui. For Luo Fei, who had just started acting and basically had zero acting skills, playing a character with such complex inner thoughts and crazy outer behavior was an extremely big challenge. When the news got back to the company, it was said that Xiao Pu knocked over the coffee in his hand, splashing Qi Yi Chen all over. Then, Xiao Pu pulled Luo Fei to prepare for the "crazy bombardment" of questions from reporters at the opening ceremony, until one day, when the two were enthusiastically and leisurely rehearsing the Q&A session with mock reporters, they were seen by Li Jin.

  "Take a rest, you two." Li Jin said, pinching Xiao Pu's ear, "Luo Fei is just a newcomer who has just started his career, what can he possibly have to do?"

  As expected, at the press conference, Luo Fei was bombarded with questions, and this one was particularly annoying, even a fool would want an answer.

  Even with good mental preparation, Luo Fei was still severely impacted, and the next few days of filming were not smooth. He became listless and lethargic, like an eggplant that had been frostbitten. Occasionally, when someone would quietly approach him, he would switch to high alert mode in a split second. Due to his numerous NGs (mistakes), he was even crowned the "NG King" by the film crew.

  What a relief!

  Doubts arose both inside and outside the crew. Everyone dared not speak openly, but privately it was said that Art Song Company secretly gave money to the producer to insert their own artist, and even rumors that Luo Fei had a leg with a certain powerful figure, so they were taken care of everywhere.

  Rumors had been circulating for a long time, and some of them eventually reached Bei Fengming's ears. One day, he saw Li Jin again and couldn't help but ask, grabbing him: "Do you really think Luo Fei is suitable for acting in movies?"

  Li Jinchao was about to go out wearing a big coat, but he was pulled back and had to loosen his hands on the buckle. He smiled and said: "What if it's not suitable? At the Star Voice Finals, didn't you ask the host in front of millions of viewers to promise Shu Mu that she would participate in the movie?"

  Bei's eyes narrowed even further as he said in a deep voice, "Even if we agree, why can't Luo Fei just make a cameo appearance like Yi Chen did? Why does he have to play the role of the second male lead?" He paused for a moment before sighing and saying, "We've had such a big feud with Shu Mu's Liangzi for so long, and now you're participating in a movie invested by the He family. Aren't you afraid that he'll cut out all of Luo Fei's scenes later on?

  "So, we'll play the second male lead and let him delete it if he can't. Li Jin shrugged his shoulders, and in the light gray woolen scarf, his chin seemed to be sharper than before. Ren Jilin is a well-known actor, since Luo Fei will eventually take this path anyway, I'm willing to let him meet his mentor from the start. As for Shu Mu..."

  He stopped and smiled somewhat unnaturally. Bei Feng could discern three parts of the smile, and felt that there was some unbearable meaning hidden within.

  "Shu Mu...," said Li Jin, "shouldn't be involved in this film."

  He said nothing more and turned to continue walking away.

  "Wait!" Beifong called out to him.

  Li Jin's body leaned back, looking back in confusion.

  "What's this place like today?" asked Beifong.

  Li Jin thought for a moment and replied: "Not bad."

  "Not bad, I wish you an early opening." Bai Fuming said, "Give me a free bill."

  Li Jinxiao smiled and nodded, turned around and went downstairs, took the car from the parking lot and drove east.

  He was foolish in his past life, taking comfort as the entirety of his life, earning countless wealth and assets. With just a few words from Comfort, he invested everything in HM Company. When he died, he discovered that all his assets had been transferred, leaving him with nothing. This lifetime, he learned from his lesson, using his money to do financial management and investments. Recently, while drinking at the bar street, he came up with the idea of opening a restaurant, so he asked around for a store location. After inquiring for a long time, he finally found a decent second-hand store, and upon receiving the news, he went to take a look.

  The store is located in the middle of the bar street, with a dense flow of people nearby, and the environment is beautiful. It's a good place to open a restaurant. He parked his car far away and walked over, seeing a sign on the door that said "closed", but the door was not locked. He pushed the door open and saw a person standing inside the dimly lit bar, who slowly turned around when he heard his footsteps.

  His breath caught in his throat.

  For over ten seconds, he didn't know what expression to make or what to say. He thought, how did this person end up here? His little thoughts were clearly hidden, even Bai Fuling only found out by chance.

  In this brief moment, he had already completely turned around, looking at him with a profound and mysterious smile.

  Li Jin resigned herself to her fate.

  "Li Yi Heng." He called out his name as he walked towards him.