APCF – Chapter 100 Birthday

In the morning, Qi Xingchen was woken up by a long-distance phone call from An Ran.

Sitting up in bed, he felt like he had been run over by a truck—his whole body ached.

The multifunctional record player was of decent quality; despite playing music all night, it was still running. Right at this moment, a new song was playing. Holding his blanket, he lazily listened for a while, becoming increasingly confused.

Acrobatic performances usually have background music, and because he had practiced acrobatics since childhood, he had a keen sense of music. He replayed the melody several times—it really did sound similar to the one the fan site had sent him.

Maybe his memory was off due to the car accident, or maybe it had just been too long, and he had mixed things up.

Then there was Bo Ye’s profile picture—the one with the in-ear monitor. Ever since adding Bo Ye on WeChat, he’d been curious about it.

Could the world within the book be so real that even the fan who gifted the in-ear monitor to “Qi Xingchen” actually existed?

Qi Xingchen glanced at the time and thought: Forget it, I’ll just ask Bo Ye when I see him.

Rubbing his eyes and stretching lazily, Qi Xingchen reluctantly got out of bed to freshen up.

When he went downstairs, he deliberately lightened his steps, not wanting to wake his family.

But when he reached the first floor, he found that—aside from Qi Jiaze, who was still at the hospital—everyone else was already up, fully dressed, and sitting on the sofa, looking at him in unison.

“Dad, you guys…” Qi Xingchen was surprised. “Why are you up so early? It’s not even six yet!”

“To send you off,” Dad Qi announced. “Let’s go.”

Qi Xingchen had seen such a lineup before, but today, something felt off.

His father and older brother’s expressions were normal, but his sister seemed a little nervous.

The driver was driving a seven-seater business car. Confused, Qi Xingchen got in. As usual, Qi Yunxiao took the front passenger seat, Dad Qi sat in the first row of the back seats, and he and Qi Yujie sat in the last row.

Not long after the car started moving, Qi Yujie hesitated, then said, “Xingxing, I noticed your skin was a little dry last night, so I bought some skincare products and face masks for you. They should arrive at the film set tomorrow. I also sent some snacks—they should arrive around the same time. If you can’t use everything or can’t finish the snacks, share them with your colleagues.”

Hearing “if you can’t use everything or can’t finish them”, Qi Xingchen’s scalp tingled—his sister always bought things in bulk, so this time, she had probably gone overboard again.

But it was a gesture of love from his family, so he happily said, “Thanks, Sis!”

“It’s nothing,” Qi Yujie replied. “The dozen or so face masks I sent are really good—you should try them.” She paused before adding, “Oh, and I heard that overseas they’ve recently come out with butt masks. Do you want some? If you do, I’ll ask my friend to bring some back for you.”

Qi Xingchen: “…”

As the name suggests, a butt mask is applied to the buttocks.

But why would anyone need a butt mask? It had to be for beautifying the butt.

And why beautify the butt? It’s normally covered by pants, and even the person wearing it can’t see it—only in certain situations would someone else be able to see it…

The conversation had suddenly taken a wild, unexpected turn.

Qi Xingchen was so startled that he instinctively glanced at his father and brother, wondering if they had overheard.

Unfortunately, both of them were leaning slightly forward, ears exposed—just short of pressing their ears against his mouth to listen in.

Qi Xingchen: “…”

How Much Did My Family Find Out?!

“S-Sis,” he panicked, “I don’t need it! Really, I don’t!”

“Oh, okay. Just let me know when you do, and I’ll send it over,” Qi Yujie exchanged a glance with Qi Yunxiao. “By the way, how much of the stuff I gave you last time have you used?”

Qi Xingchen: “…”

So it really was her!!!

If body temperature could be visualized, he would definitely be smoking right now. He wished he could jump out of the car immediately. Every word he spoke felt like it was squeezing out a bucket of blood from his face.

“I-I haven’t used it…”

“You really haven’t?” Qi Yujie raised an eyebrow. “We’re all adults here, you don’t have to lie to your sister.”

Qi Xingchen was on the verge of a breakdown. “I haven’t used it! Really!!”

Seeing his genuinely distressed expression, the other two members of the Qi family let out a long sigh of relief.

They were both happy that their precious golden cabbage hadn’t been “devoured” yet, but also a little annoyed—why weren’t the “pigs” interested in their cute little star?

For the sake of not completely humiliating their beloved little brother, Qi Yujie decided to drop the topic. But just as Qi Xingchen was getting out of the car, she whispered to him:

“Use as much as you want. The family has stocked up thirty thousand of them for you—plenty to last.”

Qi Xingchen slammed the car door shut and fled for his life.

Back in the snowy city of J, he got off the plane and saw An Ran waiting for him in the parking lot with the lead actor’s designated car.

It was nearing the end of the year, and the weather was getting colder. Worried that Qi Xingchen might be freezing, An Ran had prepared two thick military coats in the car.

As soon as he got in, An Ran wrapped a coat around him and scolded, “Why didn’t you wear a scarf?”

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to—it was just that he had been in such a rush when leaving the set that he hadn’t had time to grab one. He mumbled, “Forgot. It’s fine, I’m not cold.”

“You look so flushed.” An Ran studied him for a moment. “Are you running a fever?”

Qi Xingchen touched his cheeks, but since his hands were cold, everything felt warm to the touch. He couldn’t be sure. “No,” he shook his head, “don’t worry about me. Let’s just go back to the set.”

Knowing his personality, An Ran didn’t press further.

Once back on set, Qi Xingchen greeted the director, while An Ran went out to buy some ginger and brewed him a pot of ginger tea.

Qi Xingchen promised he’d drink it later, but as soon as An Ran left, he secretly poured it all out in the restroom.

Since he had just returned to the set, the director didn’t give him too many scenes to shoot that day. By six in the evening, he was dismissed to rest at the hotel.

While pressing the elevator button, An Ran remembered something. “I didn’t get to ask you this morning—yesterday, the first batch of letters from your fan club arrived at the company. Do you want to see them?”

“What’s today’s date again?” Qi Xingchen was a little out of it.

“The 23rd. Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve, then Christmas, and then your birthday on the 28th—just a few days away. Other fan sites and unofficial clubs have also started sending letters to the company.”

At this, An Ran paused, frowning slightly. “Xingxing, you don’t look well. The last batch of medicine is about to expire. Go up first—I’ll run to the pharmacy to get a thermometer and some cold medicine.”

The weather was freezing—how could Qi Xingchen bear to let An Ran go out in the cold? Besides, he just felt a little dizzy; he didn’t actually have any symptoms of a cold or fever.

He stopped her. “I’ll be fine after a good night’s sleep. If you’re going to buy medicine, let’s wait until tomorrow.”

“Alright…” Before getting off the elevator, An Ran sighed helplessly. “If you feel worse tonight, call me immediately.”

“Got it, don’t worry.” He watched her leave.

Yesterday, he hadn’t been able to shower properly. Today, he had taken public transport. So, the first thing Qi Xingchen did when he entered his room was head straight for the bathroom and fill up the bathtub with steaming hot water.

He grabbed his phone and sank into the tub, originally planning to chat with Bo Ye on WeChat. But as he was typing, he accidentally dozed off.

By the time he opened his eyes again, the water had gone completely cold.

Shivering, he jumped out of the tub, wrapped himself in a towel, and climbed into bed.

His head felt too heavy and his limbs too weak to even video call Bo Ye. He quickly sent a message:

[I’m super, super tired today. No video call.]

Then, he passed out.

The consequence of all this was obvious.

The next morning, Comrade Qi Xingchen—unsurprisingly—got sick.

Not just a mild cold, but a full-blown fever, with a completely blocked nose that left him gasping for air. His temperature soared past 38°C. An Ran dragged him to the hospital, where he was put on an IV drip for three bottles before his fever finally subsided.

The doctor diagnosed inflammation and suggested several more days of IV treatment.

Determined to recover quickly and return to filming at full strength, Qi Xingchen embarked on a grueling schedule: shooting during the day, IV drips at the hospital at night.

During this time, he didn’t dare tell Bo Ye that he was sick, using night shoots as an excuse and only communicating via text.

Normally, he never cared much about being sick. But now, not being able to freely look at Bo Ye made him feel… strangely uncomfortable.

Three days passed like this.

On the fourth day, the doctor finally approved stopping the IV treatment.

Qi Xingchen looked at the back of his hand—covered in needle marks from the inexperienced nurses—and nearly cried with joy.

He no longer had a fever, his voice wasn’t as hoarse as before, and though his nose was still a little stuffy, it wasn’t a problem for reciting lines anymore.

Probably in another two or three days, he’d be fully recovered.

The fourth day happened to be the 28th—his and the original host’s shared birthday. After arriving at the set, he followed the usual process of getting dressed and made up. Once everything was ready, but before the first scene was shot, the director’s assistant, Da Zhuang, came running over, shouting, “Xingxing, there’s a handsome guy outside waiting for you in a super-evolved luxury motorhome. You should go take a look!”

Super-evolved luxury motorhome? Handsome guy?

Could it be that Dong Noah wanted to kiss up to him and got him a new trailer?

Curious about these two descriptions, Qi Xingchen followed Da Zhuang’s directions and walked out.

On the largest street surrounding the urban village, there was a military-green off-road motorhome parked there—its size comparable to a tank. As he got closer, he saw that the length of the vehicle was roughly the same as two large trucks combined, and it was about three meters tall—practically the height of a small building.

At that moment, over a dozen pedestrians had gathered around, marveling at the vehicle. Qi Xingchen was equally stunned and squeezed into the crowd.

“Hey, you there, young man!” A middle-aged woman, apparently jostled by him, put her hands on her hips and scolded, “Why are you pushing? You’re tall for nothing! If you want to look, do it from outside!”

“Sorry, I didn’t notice,” Qi Xingchen quickly apologized.

“You think just saying ‘sorry’ is enough? You squeezed my shoulder, and it hurts! You should compensate me—though looking at you, you probably can’t afford it.” The woman spat on the ground. “Ugh, forget it, I’ll just consider myself unlucky.”

Qi Xingchen was wearing a food delivery uniform, so the onlookers assumed he was a delivery guy. Another man chimed in, “Yeah, and even if you come over to look, what’s the point? This is rich people’s stuff—each one costs millions. How many deliveries would you have to make to afford one?”

Poverty can narrow people’s perspectives, but Qi Xingchen couldn’t be bothered to argue with them. He just pretended not to hear.

Just then, a man jumped out of the vehicle—and to be honest, he really was quite handsome.

The man placed his left hand on his abdomen and bowed slightly. “Second Young Master, I’m President Qi’s assistant. President Qi asked me to bring this vehicle here as a gift for you.”

Oh, so it was from his big brother! Qi Xingchen suddenly understood and shook the man’s hand.

The woman who had mocked him earlier turned pale upon hearing this and quickly dragged the man beside her away.

The rest of the crowd, now with juicy gossip to discuss, chattered excitedly among themselves.

Qi Xingchen had no interest in what they were saying—he was too busy being stunned by his brother’s extravagant gesture. “What model is this? I’ve never seen it on TV before!”

“A Mercedes-Benz Metros 6×6 off-road motorhome, globally limited to just nine units.”

“!!” Qi Xingchen blurted out in an unfiltered display of ignorance, “That must be super expensive, right?!”

“It’s alright—each one costs just over ten million. But—” The assistant held up nine fingers. “To ensure you have a truly one-of-a-kind off-road motorhome, President Qi bought all nine of them. So its value has increased accordingly.”

Qi Xingchen stood there, dumbfounded.

Over a hundred million! That’s over a hundred million! Doesn’t Big Brother feel the pain of spending that much?!

Seeing his silence, the assistant opened the rear compartment and continued introducing the features. “This vehicle is fully equipped—bedroom, kitchen, small living room, small study, bathroom, and toilet, all included. The kitchenware, bedding, and bathroom fixtures have all been replaced with top-tier brands from home and abroad, personally arranged by President Qi, so you can use them with confidence.”

“G-good…” Qi Xingchen didn’t even know how to respond.

“My task here is done, then. Wishing Second Young Master a happy birthday.”

“Wait!” Qi Xingchen stopped him. “Can you take it back first? I don’t need it for filming!”

“To avoid disrupting your filming, President Qi already spoke to the director in advance. The vehicle will stay parked here, so you can rest in it during breaks or invite colleagues out for a ride.”

With that, the assistant got into another escort vehicle and drove off.

Qi Xingchen stood there in a daze for a few minutes before calling Qi Yunxiao to thank him. Then he arranged for Old Qin to watch over the car while he returned to the set.

However, just after the first scene of the day was filmed, a loud rumbling sound suddenly came from the sky. Looking up, he saw a helicopter circling at low altitude.

Apparently, they hadn’t found a suitable landing spot, so someone on board used a loudspeaker to announce, “Second Young Master, we’re delivering a helicopter on behalf of President Qi! Since there’s no helipad here, we’ll park it on top of the Shiheng Building. Wishing you a happy birthday!”

Qi Xingchen: …… Hello? I don’t even have a pilot’s license!

“No worries, a pilot in J City is on standby for you 24/7!”

With another loud rumble, the helicopter took off again, kicking up a gust of wind as it left.

The entire film crew: “Damn… A helicopter and a luxury RV? Xingxing, your family is too rich! If we wait a little longer, are they going to send over something from the ocean?”

Qi Xingchen thought to himself: Probably not—I already have a yacht.

“Go, go, go! Stop watching the spectacle and get back to adjusting the cameras!” Director Zhou shooed everyone away, then turned to Qi Xingchen. “Coincidentally, we have a deep-search scene coming up in post-production. Xiao Qi, can I borrow your helicopter for that? I’ll cover the fuel costs.”

“No problem,” Qi Xingchen replied numbly.

The Qi family quieted down for a bit. The morning passed without much incident—except for Dad Qi asking if he liked the “Purple Qi Rising” color of the helicopter.

Qi Xingchen thought that was it for the day. But in the afternoon, after filming two partner scenes, a SF Express delivery man arrived, exhausted from the ride on his tricycle.

“Excuse me, are you Mr. Qi Xingchen? You have a delivery, please sign for it.”

Qi Xingchen nodded. The delivery man got off the tricycle and opened the iron compartment at the back.

Out tumbled a massive pile of packages, all packed in document envelopes.

Qi Xingchen signed his name so many times that his hand was sore. After sending the delivery guy off, he opened the first envelope.

Inside was a real estate ownership certificate.

He opened the second one—another real estate ownership certificate.

The third one… Forget it. He stopped checking.

It seemed Qi Yunxiao had achieved his goal of buying him two properties in every city.

Da Zhuang stared, dumbfounded. “Xingxing, I’m just saying—you have this kind of money, and you’re still here suffering on a film set? Just go home and be a landlord!”

Another supporting actor chimed in, “Seriously!”

Qi Xingchen explained that he genuinely loved acting. The others actually believed him—after all, if he didn’t love it, what rich second-generation heir would willingly endure the hardships of filming?

Director Zhou, looking utterly resigned, shooed everyone away for the third time. “Enough gawking, get back to filming!”

Fortunately, nothing else crazy happened in the afternoon. Qi Jiaze had been busy looking after Tao Xuan and didn’t have time to send over any more extravagant gifts. Instead, he filmed a cutesy dance video for Qi Xingchen and went a step further—he bought out all the electronic billboards in J City and H City to show his support.

As a result, Qi Xingchen now saw his own face everywhere he went—honestly, it was kind of embarrassing! (qaq)

That evening, Director Zhou wrapped up filming an hour early and announced, “Xiao Qi’s family is loaded—I can’t compare—but I still want to make sure he has a proper birthday celebration. I booked a private KTV room. Let’s go, we’ll drink and relax tonight!”

“Wow!” The entire crew cheered and raised their fists. “Thank you, Director Zhou! Thank you, Xiao Qi!”

But Qi Xingchen felt a little guilty. “I already delayed filming for a few days because of my cold. If I delay more, it won’t be good. Maybe we shouldn’t—”

“Nonsense! Why are you being so polite with me? Now hurry up, take off your makeup, change clothes, and let’s go! Besides, there’s a guest waiting for you at the KTV. If you don’t go, I won’t be able to explain it to them!”

A guest? What guest?

The Qi family had already sent their gifts, so it probably wasn’t a family member. Maybe it was one of his friends?

Qi Xingchen thought about it the whole way there but still couldn’t figure it out. Eventually, he was shoved to the front of the private KTV room.

Director Zhou had booked a high-end venue, similar to a private club, with a very exclusive atmosphere and few guests. At that moment, the corridor was empty, and the crew playfully urged him on.

“Xingxing, hurry up and open the door!”

Qi Xingchen, caught up in their excitement, grinned as he pushed the door open. “Alright! One, two, three—Sesame, open—”

Before he could finish the last word, his voice abruptly stopped.

Inside the room, the soft melody of a birthday song played. Standing in front of a five-tiered cake was Bo Ye, gazing at him tenderly and deeply.

Mouthing the words: “Baby, happy birthday.”