Male Sing and His Pet Owner: Chapter 119

Fortunately, things didn’t blow up.

The girl seemed to think of something and stopped holding out, voluntarily handing her phone to Zhao Kaile.

Zhao Kaile deleted the videos clean in front of the staff. The videos showed Zhan Hang, the female lead, and several other important supporting actors rehearsing and chatting during breaks. There were two or three videos, each five or six minutes long. That same day, Bai Li, who had received the news, fired her. Before leaving, the girl’s eyes were red, as if she had suffered a great injustice.

Over the phone, Zhan Hang kept complaining to Bai Li without letting up. “Where did you find these people? How did you let her slip in?? Can you be a bit more reliable? If Zhao Kaile hadn’t stepped in in time, my reputation would have been ruined by her.”

“These temporary assistants were outsourced. I’ll follow up with their company later.” Bai Li said, “Are you sure everything on her phone was deleted clean?”

Lu Jiayin apologized from the side, “Sorry Brother Hang, my mistake.”

Zhan Hang made a sound of acknowledgment and continued, “You get what you pay for, don’t you understand that? Don’t go soft on her just because she’s a young girl.”

Bai Li’s eyelid suddenly twitched wildly. She asked about how the others were doing and whether there was anything that didn’t suit his taste.

Zhan Hang said, “They’re average. I’ll see how it goes in a few days.”

Zhao Kaile, listening from the side, hesitantly glanced at Zhan Hang and asked in a low voice, “Brother Hang, she might not have been your fan either, right?”

Zhan Hang looked at him with approval, that expression as if to say “wow, you’re catching on.”

“After something like this happened, it’s hard to keep the rest of them around either.” Bai Li said, holding her forehead. “Things have been too chaotic lately. If you accidentally get exposed for something else, the penalty fees they pay won’t be worth looking at.”

Zhan Hang went along with her words and said, “Keep one who can drive. Check their resume carefully. The rest can go.”

“Okay.” Bai Li said, “Focus on filming. I’ll have Jiayin come over to handle it.”

Lu Jiayin came quickly, looking exhausted, clearly having driven a long distance nonstop after getting instructions. She took the group aside to lecture them for a while, and when she came back, only one guy named Ding Peng remained. He was a local, looked honest, and didn’t talk much.

When returning to the hotel that evening, Zhao Kaile didn’t dare ask Zhan Hang anything in the car, but sat in the back seat suspiciously sizing up Ding Peng, as if he had developed paranoia in a single day and felt like everyone wanted to do something shady to Zhan Hang.

A few days later, Zhao Kaile finished revising the script and sent it back to Bai Li together with the original, attaching a sticky note with explanations. For the following days, the production team’s filming work went smoothly without any more strange incidents.

Bai Li hadn’t gotten back to Zhao Kaile about it the whole time. By the end of the month, when he had almost forgotten about it, Bai Li called to say that Director Gu had read the script, thought the changes were good, and they could go with it. But he still hoped to meet the screenwriter who took over the job in person, to chat a bit more and see if they could make further changes according to his ideas.

Zhan Hang was immediately unhappy hearing this, frowning at Zhao Kaile and saying, “It’s already generous that he gets a free rewrite and he’s still nitpicking. Just tell him you’re not available and let him figure it out himself.”

Zhao Kaile: “…….”

Bai Li laughed on the other end of the line. “Let Kaile decide for himself. This is also a path for him. He can’t be your assistant for the rest of his life.”

“What do you mean?” Zhan Hang said almost reflexively. “Why not??”

Zhao Kaile was afraid he would let something slip and hurriedly said, “Let’s leave it at that for now. I’ll get back to you later, Sister Li. Goodbye.”

After hanging up, Zhan Hang didn’t look at him, his brows slightly furrowed.

Bai Li’s casual remark, light as a feather, had gotten through to him, and he was terribly worried.

This thought had already been there since Zhou Jiyang joked about poaching him. He knew that both Bai Li and Zhou Jiyang were right. Could Zhao Kaile really just muddle through by his side for the rest of his life? He had to go pursue his own heart.

If no one brought it up, he would never have thought about these things, nor had he had time to imagine a day when Zhao Kaile would no longer be by his side.

He had some obsessions that even he himself found hard to recognize, especially when it came to relationships. Perhaps influenced by Zhan Hongyuan and Feng Biqin, they themselves had never learned how to properly love someone, much less taught Zhan Hang. There was even a period when young Zhan Hang believed that all love in the world would be like theirs, starting out incredibly faithful and ending exceptionally tragically.

So when filming romance scenes, he could always clearly position himself as a performer. He could never catch the looks from his female co-stars, completely unable to truly immerse himself in such a fake role. But when filming family bonds, brotherhood, or friendship, he could always perform wonderfully, because that kind of family love, he had received from Feng Xinghuai.

Until Zhao Kaile appeared.

Before, when Zhan Hang read romantic writing or filmed romantic scenes, he only felt that everything was formulaic, all written descriptions on paper. He thought he understood, but actually only half understood.

Only when Zhao Kaile barged into his life recklessly and stumbled into his heart did he vaguely understand what it felt like to truly like someone.

That night, Zhan Hang’s old problem of insomnia flared up. He really wanted to go to the balcony for a smoke. But Zhao Kaile was sleeping beside him, and all this rustling around, he didn’t know if it would wake him up, so he was immediately torn. After struggling for nearly half an hour, Zhan Hang couldn’t overcome his craving for a cigarette. He slowed his movements to get up, picked up the cigarette pack and lighter, and tiptoed to open the balcony door.

Zhao Kaile woke up the moment his feet hit the floor. Seeing this, he didn’t save him any face, reached out and snapped the light on with a click.

Zhan Hang: “…….”

Zhao Kaile looked at him with sleepy eyes, “Brother Hang, what are you trying to do?”

“Get some fresh air.” Zhan Hang awkwardly stuffed his hands into his pockets and said, “You sleep, don’t get up. It’s pretty cold outside.”

Zhao Kaile said helplessly, “I remember putting all the cigarettes away. How did you still sneak some in?”

Zhan Hang said, “I didn’t bring them, I definitely wouldn’t. It was that kid Ding Peng who insisted on giving them to me as a show of respect…”

Zhao Kaile had a face that said “do you think I believe that,” while his brows furrowed seriously.

Zhan Hang knew he couldn’t argue his way out of it, so he resigned himself to placing the cigarette pack on Zhao Kaile’s nightstand, then turned his pockets inside out to show him, indicating he really had nothing else hidden.

Zhao Kaile nodded, threw off the covers, got up, and stepped into his slippers to get out of bed.

Zhan Hang said unhappily, “Hey! I told you to keep sleeping, why are you getting up? I really came clean.”

“Warming some milk for you.” Zhao Kaile said, “Working so hard every day and still not sleeping well, aren’t you going to collapse?”

Zhan Hang was startled at this. Zhao Kaile kept rambling on his own, “Didn’t you stop having insomnia before? Why did it suddenly flare up again? Is the pressure too much lately? Being famous has its good and bad sides. Once you’re famous, you’re just too busy. Even rest time has to be squeezed out bit by bit…”

Thinking of this, he suddenly felt that Bai Li still had some conscience. After all, if it were any other agent, they would definitely squeeze the artist’s remaining value hard while they still had heat, not letting go of any exposure opportunity, much less squeezing out a few extra days of vacation to handle personal matters.

He was facing the storage cabinet, cutting a corner off the milk carton, when Zhan Hang hugged him from behind, not moving at all.

Zhao Kaile finished pouring the milk and bumped Zhan Hang with his elbow. “Brother Hang?”

But Zhan Hang paid no attention, burying his face in Zhao Kaile’s shoulder. After thinking for a while, he said, “Let me ask you something.”

Zhao Kaile’s face showed confusion, and he made a sound of acknowledgment.

“If after you graduated, you hadn’t applied to be my assistant, what would you have wanted to do?” Zhan Hang asked.

Zhao Kaile said, “Probably would have kept going to grad school, gotten all the certificates I could… then become a publishing house editor… or a journalist or something, and keep writing the things I like.”

Zhan Hang: “Do you still want that now?”

Zhao Kaile finally caught something off about this, turned to look at him, “Brother Hang… what’s wrong with you?”

Zhan Hang: “Nothing, just asking randomly.”

Zhao Kaile: “…….”

Zhan Hang: “…….”

So even though Zhan Hang drank the milk, the number of people with insomnia that night miraculously increased.

Zhao Kaile had always been good at playing multiple roles in his own head. After being asked like this by Zhan Hang, he liked to overthink even more. He faced the direction of the window, slowly blinking his eyes, thinking to himself, why did Brother Hang suddenly ask me this? Is he hinting that I should go do those things? But if I leave, who will take care of him? Wouldn’t that be a long distance relationship? Long distance relationships usually don’t end well…

For the first time, Zhan Hang hated his useless mouth. He’d only confessed to Zhao Kaile himself; normally, he was either bossy and straightforward, or blunt and unvarnished, unable to utter a single sentimental line like those used in acting. He realized he could effortlessly utter those vows of eternal love and devotion to a complete stranger, but with Zhao Kaile, he couldn’t muster even a single one.

Thinking until 1 a.m., Zhao Kaile felt a pang of bitterness and sighed softly.

Zhan Hang turned over, instinctively reaching for the person beside him.

Zhao Kaile felt his touch, his eyes stinging slightly. Heturned and snuggled closer to Zhan Hang, thinking, “Waaaaah, I don’t want to break up with Hang-ge!!”

Zhan Hang pretended to be half-asleep, pulling her into his arms. His brow relaxed slightly, and he thought to himself, “It’s alright if I don’t make things clear.” He smugly thought, “My little assistant will always snuggle into my arms. How can he live without me?”

The next day, Zhao Kaile absentmindedly accepted Director Gu’s WeChat friend request and chatted with him casually about the script.

Director Gu: Mr. Zhao, what name have you been credited under before?

Zhao Kaile: I haven’t been credited under any name before… Sister Li didn’t tell you? I’m not a screenwriter. I’m Brother Hang’s assistant. I read this script and tried revising it according to his ideas.