Male Sing and His Pet Owner: Chapter 34

“Taking two productions at the same time, won’t you get the roles mixed up?” Zhao Kaile asked the question weighing most heavily on his mind: “Both have pretty heavy dialogue loads, right?”

Zhan Hang said, “I don’t care. Both are supporting roles anyway……. I’ll still have to memorize the lines on set. Everything’s dubbed these days anyway, nobody cares about my line delivery.”

Zhao Kaile looked at him silently, knowing that despite his tough exterior, he must still feel quite discouraged inside, so he spoke up to comfort him: “Hang-ge, it doesn’t matter if you’re playing supporting roles. Didn’t Uncle D act in supporting roles his whole life? But everyone loved him. Those roles wouldn’t have had that same flavor if anyone else had played them.”

Zhan Hang’s face was expressionless. He was about to say something when Zhao Kaile hurriedly cut in: “I know, I know, I don’t understand anything, but I just think you’ll do great in whatever you act in. Keep working hard, and people will definitely notice you someday! Your fundamentals are all solid, right? Those traffic idol pretty boys and girls who survive on editing and marketing are all just fake prosperity! One day your hard work will pay off!”

If Zhan Hang hadn’t been in the entertainment industry for all these years, he would have been genuinely moved by this youthful, passionate speech right before his eyes.

Zhan Hang couldn’t help but cover his face with one hand and laugh.

Zhao Kaile was a bit dejected, sitting there looking at him, his face full of confusion.

Zhan Hang said, “You say some pretty interesting things, kid.”

Zhao Kaile: “…….I’m being completely serious!”

“I know.” Zhan Hang stood up, and as he passed by him he casually ruffled his hair: “I’ll take your good words.” Then he hummed a song and slowly went upstairs.

Zhao Kaile sat there with his messy hair, his expression even more blank.

The next day both of them slept in late. Zhan Hang, as per his usual routine, went to see his psychologist.

Zhao Kaile had originally thought he had some serious mental illness, but the answer he got was that he was going for insomnia treatment.

Zhan Hang raised his hand to put on his jacket, slightly lifting his chin to appraise himself in the mirror, and said to Zhao Kaile, “You don’t need to come either. Xiao Li can accompany me. You stay home and play.”

Zhao Kaile said, “How can that be okay!”

“Why not? I’m not actually telling you to play at home!” Zhan Hang asked with a stern face, “How much have you written today?”

Zhao Kaile whimpered: “…….I, I’ll still go with you, Hang-ge.”

Ever since Zhan Hang had dug up his real identity online, he was finding it harder and harder to experience the joy of writing.

Zhan Hang firmly refused him, supervised him as he opened his computer, then went out fully equipped himself. Zhao Kaile watched him leave with a pitiful expression, then snapped his laptop shut and went to the cat room to play with KIKI and TITI.

KIKI quickly got reacquainted with his scent. TITI still found him a bit unfamiliar and kept her distance.

Zhao Kaile was holding his phone filming a video of the two of them when an unfamiliar number called in. He hesitated before answering, and a familiar voice on the other end said, “Hey? Bro.”

“……” Zhao Kaile was confused for a moment, then realized: “Zhao Kaiming??”

Zhao Kaiming laughed: “It’s me. So disrespectful. Where are you? Still at school?”

Zhao Kaile was both angry and excited, struggling to control his emotions as he said, “I graduated ages ago, okay? You really are…….. Where the hell did you go? Why didn’t you come back for so long?”

Zhao Kaiming said, “It’s a long story. Let me come find you first. Send me a location, add this new phone number.”

Zhao Kaile hurriedly wiped his eyes and looked down at his phone: “Got it! Don’t tell me you’re going to disappear again in the middle of talking!”

“You little brat, how do you talk like that…….” Zhao Kaiming was caught between laughing and crying: “I won’t!”

Cross Street, a certain apartment.

A woman around forty years old with long hair got up and pulled open the curtains, letting a bit of afternoon sunlight filter in. The room was decorated with warm-toned furnishings and household items, and dust motes drifted lazily through the sunlight.

She brought over a glass of water, smiling, and asked her guest gently, “How is it? Doing better lately?”

“Much better than before.” Zhan Hang took the glass of water she offered and said politely, “Thank you, Teacher Jiang.”

Jiang Wenjing asked, “Have there been any significant changes around you?”

“Same as always, running around, filming.” Zhan Hang said, “Gained a decent assistant.”

Jiang Wenjing laughed: “Your previous assistants were always being changed or replaced very frequently. Sounds like this one has made you quite satisfied.”

“Yeah.” Facing her, Zhan Hang seemed to shed a layer of his shell, becoming much more candid: “When he first came, I thought he wouldn’t last this long. It was a bit unexpected.”

Jiang Wenjing nodded: “So, the improvement in your sleep quality lately is somewhat related to him, correct?”

Zhan Hang said, “I don’t know.”

“I think it is.” Jiang Wenjing said with a smile: “After all, he is the only variable.”

Zhan Hang asked, “Why?”

Jiang Wenjing looked at him for a moment, as if trying to read something from his eyes.

Zhan Hang added, “He did think of many solutions for my insomnia, but none of them produced any significant results when implemented. It just inexplicably got better during this period.”

“The primary factor causing your insomnia is a lack of security.” Jiang Wenjing said, “This source of security can only come from family, relatives, close friends, lovers, and so on, similar to this kind of intimate relationship.” She casually scribbled a few strokes on the paper: “To use an analogy, no matter how comfortable or soft a new bed is, no matter how quiet the environment, you would have trouble sleeping because you’re not used to it. But if at this time, the sounds of your parents doing laundry, cooking, flipping through newspapers, coughing, and so on came from nearby, even if it was noisy, you could still sleep peacefully, because you know you are in the safest place in the world.”

Zhan Hang was speechless for a moment, then nodded: “That’s true.”

“So.” Jiang Wenjing shrugged and smiled at him: “This shows that you now trust your current assistant very much, because you know he won’t leave at any moment, won’t just up and go. No matter where you are, if you call out, he will respond to you. This is the source of your current security.” She thought for a moment and continued, “The unhappiness of your parents’ marriage once brought you a trust crisis in intimate relationships. You were always worried that others would betray you. But now you don’t worry about him doing that at all, do you?”

Zhan Hang fell completely silent, some belief in his heart gradually shaking. He had always thought Zhao Kaile was a bit of a dolt, panicking and asking him about everything he hadn’t heard or seen before. He should be the one depending on him, so how did Jiang Wenjing make it sound like he was the one depending on Zhao Kaile instead?

Jiang Wenjing asked with interest, “Is he your fan?”

Zhan Hang’s Adam’s apple moved, and he said uncertainly, “He didn’t know me before entering the industry. Now……. I don’t know either.”

“I think he probably is.” Jiang Wenjing teased again, “Otherwise, with your temper, without the halo of idol worship and filters, how could he possibly endure this long.”

Zhan Hang: “……..”

He was somewhat incredulous: “Is my temper really that bad?”

Jiang Wenjing gave him a “what do you think” expression.

Zhan Hang rubbed his forehead: “Yes…… I know. There was one time I couldn’t hold back and almost laid hands on him.”

“It’s fine. As your sleep quality improves, your temper should be somewhat more restrained than before.” Jiang Wenjing made a tiny gesture with her fingers, then said with a smile, “But specifically, you still need to control it yourself.”

“Yeah.” Zhan Hang exhaled and said in a low voice, “I’ll try.”

Meanwhile, at Clearwater Park.

Zhao Kaile sat on the bench for quite a while, finally waiting for that familiar figure to slowly walk in from the entrance.

He couldn’t sit still, immediately got up and ran toward the entrance.

Zhao Kaiming looked around left and right, about to lower his head and take out his phone to ask for the exact location, when he saw a figure rush over and crash headfirst into his chest, nearly knocking the wind out of him. Then that person hugged him with crushing force.

“Bro?” He looked down and asked in confusion, not having figured out what was happening yet, when Zhao Kaile pushed him away with extreme force, sending him stumbling several steps, nearly falling over.

“???” Zhao Kaiming reacted, about to curse at him a few times, when he looked up and saw Zhao Kaile’s face streaming with tears, sniffing with red-rimmed eyes, and was instantly frightened into silence, unable to say a single harsh word.

Zhao Kaile was panting, trembling uncontrollably, and said angrily, “You still know how to come back…… Why didn’t you just die out there!”

“Hey!” Zhao Kaiming was full of guilt and hurriedly said, “Bro was wrong…….”

“Text messages, you don’t reply to text messages. Phone calls, you don’t answer phone calls. Is it that hard to get internet??” Zhao Kaile cursed him up and down: “Are you living in the mountains with no signal?? Don’t tell me you can’t even afford to pay your phone bill!”

“Ouch, okay okay, bro was wrong.” Zhao Kaiming hurriedly pulled him into his arms, stroking the back of his head to comfort him, “Really wrong! How about this, you punch bro a couple times to vent, okay?”

Zhao Kaile looked up and wailed, “Are you crazy!! What if you actually died out there!!”

Passersby cast sidelong glances, looking at the two of them suspiciously, then whispered to each other as they walked away.

Zhao Kaiming: “…….”

A few minutes later Zhao Kaile finally calmed down. Zhao Kaiming pulled him to sit on the bench, lifted his shirt hem to wipe his tears and snot.

Zhao Kaile disgustedly dodged, but Zhao Kaiming’s hand strength was much greater than his, forcibly wiping his face a few times before laughing and saying, “Bro never really made a name for himself, so I wanted to do some business. A friend came to talk to me about partnering to open a shop, so I took out that five hundred thousand to invest. But who would have thought, it was a scammer.”

Zhao Kaile was still trembling a bit, asking with a nasal tone, “Then what.”

Zhao Kaiming said, “Bro called the police right away and chased after them all the way, hoo…… you know where the scammer’s nest was? In Northern M.”

Zhao Kaile quietly listened to him rambling on, only feeling that the worry that had been hanging over him for so long could finally be safely put down. It was truly wonderful.