Chapter 26
-Helli
Without telling anyone, Gu Yan got on Sun Jie’s car just as familiarly as the host had in the past.
Sun Jie was a very talkative person and he was an employee in a small trading company. The two of them first met at a bar and had the same taste, add onto how Sun Jie had been deliberately getting close to him and buttering up to him, the two quickly became good friends——These were all the information Gu Yan could get out of his memories.
The original host did not find there to be a problem in any of this, but Gu Yan could see flaws in every part of it.
Sun Jie had ulterior motives from the very beginning. Out of the scandals befalling Gu Yan, more than half of the lot were involved during instances where he was in contact with Sun Jie. But the original host who had first come to Haiyun City was just a newcomer who had just signed himself up to the entertainment industry, he was not worthy at all to fall into the plans of anyone. If there was anyone who wanted to kick him down a bit, then it may be due to his personal identity......
“We’re here.”Sun Jie pulled up under a large building and snickered,”A new bar’s been opened up right around here, I’ll bet you’d like it.”
Gu Yan frowned and an unhappy look was revealed on his face,”I’m a public figure right now, it’s not suitable for me to come to such a crowded place.”
Sun Jie clicked his tongue,”No need to act so serious, buddy, we’re just here to hit up a bar, what’s the matter with that? The ladies here are pretty good. Don’t be so uptight, let’s go up.”As he said that, he put his arms around Gu Yan’s shoulder and took him in.
Gu Yan pretended to be unhappy but it was not very good of him to reject him. While half being pushed by Sun Jie, the two of them entered the elevator.
Sun Jie called the elevator directly to the highest floor.
The entire top floor of the building belonged to the bar, and the place was decorated in a very punk style. The place was very dark, mostly illuminated by colourful spotlights in a bunch of gaudy and obnoxious colours. The bodies of both the men and the women twisted together in the dark, forming a deprived land of pleasure......Gu Yan was not one who enjoyed such places very much, it was too noisy here, but these places were no stranger to the host based on what he could see of this body’s memories. In fact, the original host was a frequent customer to such establishments.
Clearly, Sun Jie was very familiar with this place. On entrance, he had already bumped into quite a few acquaintances and friends. They all greeted each other cheerfully with big smiles, clearly they were quite compatible when it came to fun. He waved his hand and a boy came over. Sun Jie stuffed a bill into his hand and sneakily received a small little paper bag from him before stuffing it into his own bag.
He turned back to Gu Yan and smiled:”Let’s go inside.”
Around the right of the bar was a row of sofas separated by a series of screens. The noise was loud and blaring outside, but everything was very well concealed within the partitions. The people outside can’t see what went on inside, nor could they hear what anyone was talking about either.
Sun Jie leaned back onto the sofa like a boneless worm and revealed a smug look in his eyes. He crossed his legs and giggled to Gu Yan,”It’s been a long time since we’ve come out to play like this.”
“Where’s your girlfriend?”Gu Yan raised a brow and spoke in a deep voice.
“Oh......Her? She’ll be here in a sec, we can have some fun while we wait for her, there’s no rush.”Sun Jie winked at him.”I just got us some good stuff, guaranteed quality. Come on, let’s try it out together.”
Sun Jie opened up that mysterious little paper bag he had purchased earlier, and contained within was a smidge of white powder.
Gu Yan’s expression changed,”I’m not touching that.”
Sun Jie’s mouth twitched,”It packs a punch I promise. If you want to compare, then weed would be as tasteless as water next to this, you’re really not having any?”
“You don’t have to pitch it to me.”Gu Yan’s face turned cold.
Sun Jie looked at Gu Yan’s eyes, and let it go in an awkwardly after a short moment,”Alright whatever, you’re really getting more and more boring these days, but I won’t force you if you don’t like it. But come have a drink instead!”
Only then did Gu Yan nod, and spoke seemingly inadvertently:”Speaking of which, I was actually pushed by someone when I fell in that day, but I never told anyone about it. It’s quite a pity I didn’t see what that guy looked like. Say, who do you think it is? You’re the only guy who knew of my trip over, did you tell anyone?”
Sun Jie’s face turned stiff for a moment, but he immediately revealed a look of anger,”What are you implying dude? Are you suspecting that I did it?”
“I didn’t say that.”Gu Yan smiled,”I just think it was quite coincidental.”
Sun Jie scoffed, seeming to be very upset,”What, am I not your buddy anymore then?!”
“Oh? Then did you ever take me for your buddy?”Gu Yan raised his eyes to look at him. The dim lights casted a faint shadow on his face, but a cold light could be seen shining from his dark eyes.
Sun Jie looked into Gu Yan’s eyes, and he suddenly felt that the man before him had changed into a different person at this moment, the familiarity he had previously felt was completely gone. Recalling the instructions given to him by that person......With a start, he felt a very strange premonition.
Bit by bit, he got himself off the sofa. With a straight face, he smiled:”Of course you’re my buddy.”
“But even you wouldn’t believe that now, would you?”Gu Yan’s tone was apathetic.
“I don’t understand what you’re trying to say, you’ve been saying some really strange things today.”Sun Jie’s butt clenched, and an inexplicable sense of crisis caused his scalp to go numb. He suddenly stood up:”I’m going to go order some drinks.”
“Hold on.”Gu Yan suddenly spoke up, and turned to look into Sun Jie’s eyes. His voice was like a whisper coming straight from hell. Deep, and melodious:”There’s no need for that.”
Sun Jie had a start, and gradually, his eyes lost focus,”Okay.”Obediently, he sat himself down once more and put both his hands on his knees, just like an obedient little child waiting for his teacher’s instructions.
Gu Yan crossed his fingers together and rested his hands on his abdomen before leaning back slightly,”Were you the one who pushed me into the water?”
“Yes, I planned everything early on for that day, and called you out to a remote club. Halfway there, I gave you a call and told you to meet me at the river. And then, I hid behind you and pushed you into the river.”Sun Jie’s voice was wooden and stiff,”After I pushed you in, I quickly left the city. Only after I ran away to another town did I receive news that you were actually alive, but I wasn’t sure whether you saw my face that day so I never dared to come back, nor did I dare to call you.”
“So why did you come today?”Gu Yan asked.
“Someone else asked me to come. I approached you at the start because someone else offered me money for it, and the goal was to destroy your reputation. I would call that person every time I called you out to fool around, and that person would send reporters to take photos of you, then they would write scandalous articles and put them on the internet. Otherwise, there would simply not be any reporters who would be interested in tracking you down with your popularity, nor would they publish so many scandals about you. After all, there aren’t that many coincidences in the world.”Sun Jie continued, his voice still wooden,”It’s him this time as well, he told me you probably didn’t take a good look at me, otherwise you would have called the cops, and there was no way you’d sit on it for so long. He wanted me to return so I could handle some matters for him, and I figured it was a good idea, I wasn’t that scared anymore either. He had always been a generous guy, and I’ve been spending too much outside the city, life was starting to get hard for me, so I came back.”
“Why did he ask you to look for me?”
“He told me to test you. He said that you’ve been a bit strange since you woke up from the accident, and told me to be careful. He wanted me to tell him if I found anything strange about you.”Sun Jie said.
Gu Yan looked at the paper bag on the table, and a sneer curled up by his lips,”Is this your idea?”
“Yeah. After I saw you, I thought that maybe he was thinking too into it. You were just as easy to fool as before, and you came out with me so easily. So I changed my mind temporarily and invited you here. I wanted to get you on drugs so you could get caught, this way you wouldn’t be able to clean up your reputation anymore, and I could get even more money out of this as well.”Sun Jie went on.”I’m only responsible for getting you into trouble, the media is operated by the person in the background.”
“Last question.”Gu Yan stood up,”Who is that person?”
“Your agent, Zhu Huan Wei.”
Gu Yan smiled, and went over. He patted Sun Jie’s shoulder lightly and landed a cold gaze at his hand,”I was going to take this arm off for you, but seeing that you’re going to die regardless, I’ll let you keep a full corpse.”
He bent over and whispered something by Sun Jie’s ears, and after that, he left the bar.
The confusion gradually left Sun Jie’s eyes, and he looked all around him strangely, as if he couldn’t understand why he was here.
..............................
Gu Yan went into the elevator and called it down to the first floor. He raised up his watch to look, at least ten minutes of his time was wasted.
When he reached the fifth floor, the elevator suddenly stopped. Clearly, someone had also called for the elevator down. The doors slowly opened, and Gu Yan raised his head casually, but what he saw caused him to be slightly startled, and his eyebrows trembled imperceptibly.
Outside the elevator stood a tall man with wide shoulders and a narrow waist. His appearance was as handsome as ever with his casual deep blue suit with one of his top buttons loose. He looked like a stereotypical wealthy prince, and his appearance was now less apathetic and slightly less out of place.
He had also seen Gu Yan. His feet paused for a moment when he stepped into the elevator, but he went in steadily after that.
The elevator door closed behind him.
Qin Yao’s eyes were fixed on Gu Yan, and a smile emerged from his lips,”What a coincidence.”
Gu Yan looked at him, and seemed to have hesitated for a moment,”You are?”
Qin Yao’s expression did not change as he responded:”We met last week, I’m a fan of yours.”
“Last week?”Gu Yan thought about it, and then smiled:”Oh, I got drunk that night so I’m afraid I can’t remember you, I’m sorry about that.”
“No worries, it’s fine as long as I remember.”Said Qin Yao casually.
Gu Yan gave him a faint smile just like a star who occasionally bumped into a fan, bringing about a hint of distance with his intimacy.
Silently, the elevator reached the first floor.
“Ding——”Slowly, the doors opened. Qin Yao suddenly spoke:”I enjoy your works a lot, I’m wondering whether I may be so blessed as to invite you out on a drink?”
“Thank you, but I still have matters to attend to, so I’m afraid tonight is no good.”Gu Yan responded politely, and had already begun to leave.
Qin Yao suddenly extended a hand and caught Gu Yan by the shoulder. His voice was plain but brought about an implication that was hard to refuse:”It was fate that we were able to meet today, please, you have to give me a chance.”
Gu Yan turned back to look deeply at him.
Qin Yao was also watching him without dodging his eyes.
Gu Yan curled up his lips into a smile, and the emotion in his eyes seemed to have moved. But following that, he was suddenly pushed back with some effort by Qin Yao’s hand which still remained at his shoulder! Gu Yan was suddenly pushed to the side and his back crashed onto the back of the elevator. Taking advantage of an opening, Gu Yan quickly leaned forward and put his left hand by Qin Yao’s waist, pulling him close to his face.
The doors of the elevator was shut once more.
“You told me you were a fan of mine.”Gu Yan’s nose was almost touching the tip of Qin Yao’s nose, and his warm breaths tickled his face as he stared deeply into Qin Yao’s eyes, his voice low,”Does that mean you like me?”