APCF – Chapter 37 Quite A

Qi Xingchen didn’t want to pay attention to Xu Sheng because in Night’s Peach, Xu Sheng’s character was a sycophant who liked the female lead and was the type who would end up with nothing after all his efforts.

As Heart of the Ocean neared the final stages of filming, Xu Sheng, unable to win the love of the female lead, started walking down a darker path. After a crew gathering, Xu Sheng used the excuse of sending the female lead home to take her back to his room when she was drunk, with ulterior motives.

At her most desperate moment, the female lead called the male lead. At this point, they weren’t familiar with each other, but he immediately rushed over to save her. He knocked Xu Sheng out with two punches and stayed with the female lead in her room all night.

That night, a subtle chemical reaction occurred between them: the female lead realized the male lead wasn’t as cold as he appeared, and the male lead realized that no matter how kind or strong the female lead was, she was still just a little girl who needed protection.

Xu Sheng was the catalyst for the development of the relationship between the leads.

A stupid, malicious tool—done for.

Qi Xingchen glanced at the key card Xu Sheng was holding. “Go to the front desk for a new one. Otherwise, you won’t be able to get in.”

Xu Sheng: “…”

Damn, just you wait!

Qi Xingchen dragged his suitcase into the top-floor suite, No. 1. As expected from a top-tier suite at 7,000 per night, everything from the layout, size, decor, and amenities was flawless.

The wall facing the pool was made of an entire sheet of LCD glass, exuding a high-tech feel, and had three modes: transparent, semi-transparent, and closed.

If you wanted to enjoy the view, you could switch it to transparent mode, and the LCD glass would become regular transparent glass. You could lie in bed and enjoy the sea view without leaving the room.

If you wanted privacy, you could switch to closed mode, and the glass would turn into a beautiful ocean blue.

The most impressive feature was that all the appliances in the room were controlled by artificial intelligence. Just clap your hands twice—

Clap, clap, Qi Xingchen clapped twice. “Glass wall, transparent mode.”

AI: “Transparent mode activated.”

The scene of the producer, in swimming trunks, passionately doing the breaststroke in the pool appeared on the screen before him.

“…” Qi Xingchen clapped twice again. “Glass wall, closed mode.”

It was the middle of the afternoon; who needed to swim now?

He organized his clothes and toiletries, went to the bathroom to wash his face, and rinsed out the irritation caused by the producer’s fiery glare earlier.

Before he could dry his face, Qi Yujie called. He tucked the phone between his shoulder and ear.

“Xingxing, are you at the crew yet?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you happy with the room?”

“It’s great, but…” Qi Xingchen hesitated. Not wanting to upset his sister, he carefully added, “But the people from the crew already suspect my identity.”

“That’s fine. I’ve already thought of an excuse for you. Just say that your friend always books this room for vacations, and recently, they’re not around, so you’re borrowing it for a while.”

Qi Xingchen was speechless for a moment. Who did he have as a friend like that?

But after thinking about it, it seemed like the most reasonable explanation. So when Tao Tao asked him about the source of the room at the script reading session, he repeated the excuse exactly as Qi Yujie had told him.

> I really don’t like that he’s trying to hide his identity. And it’s not because he don’t want to use resources from family, he just doesn’t want people to know he’s rich so there won’t be any expectations while using the resources and expect more from others. It’s hypocritical of him.

“I see,” Tao Tao wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. “When you were filming Let’s Budget Travel, you didn’t like luxury, and I was curious why you suddenly changed and started splurging on this expensive room.”

Qi Xingchen yawned: “It’s just sitting empty, no harm in using it.”

He checked the time. “It’s 5:50. Director Shang should be coming soon.”

“Almost… Hey, speak of the devil, Director Shang’s here.” Tao Tao picked up her script. “I’m going ahead. We’ll talk later.”

Script readings were an important part of the filming process, mainly to help the actors organize their thoughts. If there were any difficult scenes, the actors could read them aloud and discuss them, which usually helped clarify how to perform them.

Today, they were reviewing the scenes for the next week, and Qi Xingchen had a few lines, but not many. Most of the focus was on Tao Tao and Feng Qingyuan. After they finished reading, two hours had passed.

“An hour left, we need to leave early,” Director Shang looked up at the actors sitting in a circle. “Xu Sheng, you go first.”

Xu Sheng obediently read through his lines. With his experience in a few web dramas, his performance was decent—neither too good nor too bad, just average.

Next was the second female lead. Director Shang said, “Qi Xingchen, get ready.”

Qi Xingchen, who was reading a script for the first time, swallowed nervously.

The second female lead finished in ten minutes, and Qi Xingchen swallowed again, this time nervously.

Director Shang was most concerned about him. His resume had only a few minor roles related to acting—roles where his lines didn’t exceed ten words.

Director Shang looked at him with a serious expression, and Qi Xingchen, nervous, forgot to lower his head, meeting Director Shang’s gaze. He began to read his lines, reciting his dozen or so lines in various emotional speeds he’d learned from the script.

Director Shang, staring at him for eight minutes: “…”

Director Shang, feeling helpless: “Did you memorize all your lines?”

“Yep.”

“How long did it take?”

“A while.”

“…”

Seeing Director Shang not respond, Qi Xingchen anxiously asked, “If I’m doing anything wrong, just say it. It’s fine, I have thick skin.”

Xu Sheng snorted coldly from the side: “Thick skin, huh? Even at this age, already learning to find a sugar daddy.”

Xu Sheng’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was within hearing range of Qi Xingchen. Qi Xingchen subtly furrowed his brow but chose to ignore him.

In fact, right after he inexplicably won over the company, many conspiracy theorists came out, accusing him of relying on a sugar daddy and questioning his confidence in taking the lead.

The most likely candidate for this sugar daddy was the girl in the green dress who had ripped apart a scumbag—based on what she had sent him, she was definitely not an ordinary socialite!

As for these rumors, Qi Xingchen just laughed them off—his sister was supporting him?

…Actually, that did seem to be the case.

Anyway, he didn’t pay any attention to these nasty rumors, nor did he care about what Xu Sheng had said earlier. He just kept eagerly looking at Director Shang.

Then, Director Shang smiled: “No, it’s quite good. Keep it up, young man. Keep working hard.”

While the script reading session was going on, the venue for the opening banquet was already fully prepared.

On the open space outside the aquarium, a red velvet cloth was laid out on the offering table. In the center of the table stood a statue of Guan Yu, with roasted suckling pigs and various fruits on either side.

At 9:30, the auspicious time arrived, and Director Shang led the group, with Tao Tao and Feng Qingyuan on either side, and the main creative team behind them.

They offered a few bows to Guan Yu, and Director Shang personally lifted the red cloth off the camera, signaling that Heart of the Ocean officially began its production today!

The media surrounding them clapped and congratulated, and Director Shang, along with the two lead actors, distributed cigarettes to the media. Having directed for many years, Director Shang had accumulated quite a few connections, and the scene was very lively.

At such a moment, Qi Xingchen, a mere background character, couldn’t play any role. He quietly slipped to the back and started playing with the seal sculpture’s paw.

“Little Qi!”

Just as he touched the 30th paw, a voice filled with three parts curiosity and seven parts fear came from behind: “W-when did you arrive?”

Qi Xingchen was startled and quickly turned around: “Didn’t I tell you to pretend not to know me in front of others?”

The manager thought he was here to inspect, and remembering the sculpture hadn’t been cleaned today, he suddenly felt his position was in jeopardy.

Realizing he had forgotten the instructions from his boss, he made things worse and quickly covered his mouth, hoping to salvage his image in front of Qi Xingchen.

Looking around and seeing that the media was all focused on the leads and not paying attention to this side, Qi Xingchen let out a long sigh of relief.

Seeing the manager was scared, he tried to look serious: “Why cover your mouth? Take your hand away.”

“Oh, oh.”

“I’m here filming in this crew. If people find out I’m the owner of Baisha Port, do you know how serious the consequences will be?”

“…”

“Luckily no one has found out,” Qi Xingchen waved his hand, “I’ll forgive you this time, but don’t let it happen again. Tell the other staff, when you see me, you must pretend you don’t know me. Got it?”

The manager was overjoyed: “Got it! Just give me a photo, I’ll send the message to the group right away!”

Qi Xingchen did what the manager expected and immediately sent him a photo, then watched as the manager sent it to the work group with the announcement: [@everyone, this is our Little Qi, remember, if you see him, you must pretend you don’t know him!】

Employees who received the photo: “Wow, so handsome! I really didn’t know him before, but now I do!”

After sending the message, Qi Xingchen shooed the manager away: “Alright, you can go now… Oh, by the way, I just got dust on the seal’s paw. You need to pay more attention to it from now on. Not only should it be cleaned, but it should also be disinfected. Otherwise, it’s not hygienic for kids to touch.”

The manager thought: “What kids? You’re the only one touching it.”

“Okay, okay,” he nodded and left, bowing respectfully.

Director Shang was still busy, and Qi Xingchen continued playing with the seal. After a hundred touches, he suddenly remembered that he hadn’t taken off his hat when he picked up the flight and had dinner the other day!

Bo Ye had yet to comment on his hairstyle!

Today, since they were about to start filming, he had gotten up early to do his hair and makeup. His look wasn’t bad. He opened the front-facing camera, preparing to take a selfie to send to Bo Ye.

Just as he raised his phone to his face, he lowered it again.

No, this wouldn’t work—it would seem too intentional. If Bo Ye saw it, he would immediately guess it was specially taken for him.

After thinking for a moment, Qi Xingchen half-squatted down, hugged the seal’s neck, and took the picture.

He found Bo Ye on WeChat and sent it to him.

Xingxing: [Am I cute?]

Bo Ye replied five minutes later: [Cute.]

Xingxing added: [I’m talking about the seal.]

Bo Ye: [Hmm, the seal is very cute.]

Qi Xingchen: “…”

He lowered his head and scratched his feet on the ground. The seal sculpture’s paw had been worn off from all the touching—how could it be cute?

Then, another message popped up on his phone. Bo Ye: [You’re cute too.]

Qi Xingchen: “…Oh.”

Now that was more like it.

But even though he got a compliment, Qi Xingchen didn’t forget why he had sent the photo. He found the sunniest spot, basked in the sun, and typed: [Did you notice any changes in me?]

Bo Ye: [Your hairstyle?]

As expected, Bo Ye hadn’t seen the photo in the group. Qi Xingchen grumbled: [Yes, new hairstyle. How does it compare to before?]

After sending the message, he predicted Bo Ye’s response in his mind.

With his idol’s bad temper, he would probably just reply with two words: [It’s fine]—this was based on the assumption that Bo Ye’s character was exactly like the one in Night’s Peach.

But now, he thought the male lead in Night’s Peach had actually been modified. His idol had always been distant and wouldn’t have drawn stars in his palm like Bo Ye had.

After a few minutes of scattered thoughts, Qi Xingchen finally saw a reply. He rubbed his eyes and looked down at his phone.

The message read three words:

“Quite A.”

Qi Xingchen: “…”

So you know about ABO novels too?