APCF – Chapter 45 Logic Genius

Actually, Bo Ye agreed to come today because he wanted to keep his promise to his little fan. Later, seeing that his little fan was drunk, he felt that the acting effect wouldn’t be good in this state, so he wanted to go back first and come back tomorrow.

He’s going to stay here for three to five days, so there’s no rush.

Who would have thought that his little fan would be so stubborn. He couldn’t refuse. If he didn’t come, he was afraid the little fan would be sad, and he was also a little afraid that the drunk little fan would be unsafe alone.

As a result, the situation evolved into this –

Bo Ye stood on this side of the glass wall, and Qi Xingchen stood by the pool on the other side of the glass wall. In three or two moves, he stripped off all his clothes, leaving only a pair of boxer shorts, and dived into the water.

A huge splash of water erupted.

Bo Ye quickly went to the bathroom to find a towel. When he came out, the other person had already swum back and forth twice.

His swimming style was chaotic, one moment freestyle, the next doggy paddle, as if he was trying to splash the water as much as possible to cover up some kind of aggressive mood.

Bo Ye went out through the balcony door and called out from a distance, “Xingchen.”

Only the sound of water responded.

Bo Ye was helpless. He took off his shoes and walked barefoot to the marble edge of the pool, which was completely splashed with water by him, and called out again, “Xingchen.”

Still only the sound of water responded.

“Qi Xingchen!” Bo Ye lowered his voice.

The sound of the water finally stopped, and then a person surfaced.

The person emerged from the water reluctantly, slowly raking his short hair back. His eyelids were drooping, and a few drops of water hung on his eyelashes, making it impossible to tell what expression he had.

His long neck, thin shoulders, sunken collarbone, and even his entire upper body were covered in a layer of water, and his white skin had an almost smoky texture under the refraction of the moonlight.

Thin, transparent, fragile and tough.

As if a night breeze blew, he would dissipate. And as if the night wind left, he would gather again.

Like a legendary sea monster.

Bo Ye tightened his grip on the towel and ordered, “Get up here for me.”

Qi Xingchen: “…”

“I’ll count to three, three…”

“Okay, I’ll come up if you don’t want me to!”

Qi Xingchen waded over and propped his hands on the countertop. Just as he was about to make a cool exit move, he suddenly realized something.

When he came over, he didn’t think too much about it. He thought that swimming with his clothes on would pollute the pool, so he took them all off, which made it inconvenient for him to see people at this moment.

Or rather, it was inconvenient to see the person in front of him.

His movements froze.

Seeing a flash of red in his eyes, Bo Ye guessed what he was thinking, put the towel aside, and turned to go back to the room.

Qi Xingchen jumped out of the pool and wrapped himself in a towel. Instead of coming back through the front door directly from the balcony, he took a big detour and entered the corridor from the back door of the hotel.

He took out the room card in his pants pocket and swiped it open. The sound of water splashing could be heard from the bathroom. Bo Ye was wiping his hands and said, “The bathtub is almost full, take a hot bath and then sleep.”

Feeling guilty for throwing a tantrum in the middle of the night, Qi Xingchen lowered his head and said, “Okay.”

“Have your assistant make you a cup of honey water tomorrow morning to save you from a headache.”

“Okay.”

“Call me if you need anything,” Bo Ye reached out to take the shirt and jacket in Qi Xingchen’s arms, “I’m going now.”

Qi Xingchen took a step to the right, avoiding Bo Ye’s hand: “Can you find a car so late at night? I’ll drive you.”

“You want to drink and drive?”

Qi Xingchen: “……I, I’m sober.”

“You go and rest quickly,” Bo Ye said, “I’ve asked Allen to come over.”

“Oh, okay, but the shirt…” Qi Xingchen licked his lips, “I got it dirty. I’ll wash it and bring it back to you, alright?”

After taking a hot bath and washing his clothes, Qi Xingchen still couldn’t sleep. He stared at the ceiling all night. When An Ran came to call him in the morning, she exclaimed, “Wow,” with a strange expression.

“What’s the meaning of that?” Qi Xingchen spat out toothpaste foam.

“What time did Brother Ye leave?” An Ran asked.

“Around two, why?”

“Two, two plus hours, my idol is my idol, he’s really strong…” An Ran muttered.

Qi Xingchen thought she was acting strange and ignored her. After washing up, he went downstairs with her.

As usual, after getting into the nanny car, An Ran took out a prepared nutritious meal. Qi Xingchen had wasted a lot of energy from his ‘man-whale dance’ and swimming yesterday, so he started to wolf it down.

Halfway through, he noticed that An Ran was absent-minded, holding her phone and looking at something.

He wasn’t interested in other people’s privacy, but since An Ran was sitting in the same row as him, he could vaguely see the words “Qi Xingchen” on An Ran’s phone screen.

It shouldn’t be considered an invasion of privacy to look at something related to himself, right? Qi Xingchen pretended to go to the back to get his bag and circled behind An Ran—

He saw some rather vulgar words in a Word document: “Bo Ye moved forward hard, “Ah~” Qi Xingchen immediately let out a joyful shout.”

Qi Xingchen: “!!!”

“Sister An Ran, you actually read this kind of thing, who gave it to you?!”

Qi Xingchen didn’t care about being a gentleman and reached out to grab An Ran’s phone.

An Ran reacted very quickly, quickly dodged the sneak attack and hid the phone behind her back, stammering, “I, I found it in the fan group, I was bored during the traffic jam, so I secretly opened it and took a look.”

“….” Qi Xingchen was momentarily speechless, “You’re bored, look at something else, why are you looking at my, my fanfiction? Besides, which fan group can have this kind of thing?”

An Ran was caught red-handed and was so flustered that she tremblingly opened QQ to show him: “Last night, the ‘Ye Xing Chen’ fan group.”

Looking at the striking (359) people tag at the top of the QQ group, Qi Xingchen’s eyes darkened.

His assistant was actually secretly shipping him and Bo Ye.

This was too surreal!

“CPs are made up by fans,” Qi Xingchen took a deep breath and said earnestly, “As an insider, you shouldn’t mess around with them.”

“I know, I won’t look anymore… but I really think it’s super sweet, there’s so much food.”

Qi Xingchen choked, “Where is it sweet?”

An Ran analyzed aggrievedly: “You had a falling out with your agency, and he posted on Weibo to support you; when you were filming, he came to visit the set on purpose; he clearly has his own nanny car but insists on carpooling with you, our car’s windows are ordinary, if we encounter a perverted fan smashing the glass, they can come in, it’s very dangerous. He also sneaked into the hotel with you in the middle of the night…”

Qi Xingchen corrected her: “He was visiting Director Shang.”

After saying that, he realized that An Ran’s¹ last sentence was wrong, “What do you mean by sneaking into the hotel? He went back to the hotel with me to accompany me for my scenes!”

An Ran was shocked: “You two didn’t just practice your lines for the two plus hours last night, did you?”

“……No, we did it once.”

“What about after that?”

Qi Xingchen was embarrassed to say, but in order to prove that he was innocent with Bo Ye, he hardened his heart and said, “I went swimming.”

“Swim!” An Ran was shocked to the extreme, “Xingxing, you left the top-tier traffic star in the hotel and went swimming yourself?”

Hearing this, Qi Xingchen also felt that he had been very impolite to Bo Ye last night, and turned to look out the window, “It’s all Director Shang’s fault, the red wine he ordered was definitely fake.”

After battling with An Ran for the whole morning, Qi Xingchen couldn’t find the right feeling for the first two takes of the confession scene, but he passed on the third try.

The effect wasn’t particularly good, but Shang Yuliang was already very satisfied.

He played it back once and called Qi Xingchen to his side, “Not bad, Xiao Bo’s teaching is effective, and you’ve learned very quickly. After this scene, your remaining scenes are relatively easy, so just let go and shoot well. There’s one more thing…”

Qi Xingchen: “You say it.”

“Xiao Xu made a pretty big mess a while ago, in order to save the image of our ‘Ocean Heart’, I plan to release the clip of you doing the man-whale dance yesterday, it doesn’t involve spoilers and can also have a promotional effect.”

Releasing the man-whale dance clip… no, Qi Xingchen’s heart suddenly sounded an alarm.

This part of the plot should be cut into a clip for the female lead by Director Shang, why did it become his clip?

Yesterday, Qi Xingchen chose to try the man-whale dance in order to find a technique to teach Tao Tao.

Apart from the plot of harming the Qi family, with the emotional foundation laid by “Let’s Budget Travel“, he didn’t dislike Tao Tao.

When he was at odds with the company, although Tao Tao didn’t publicly support him like Liu Ziyu and Bo Ye, it was human nature, and his relationship with her was still very good.

He couldn’t change the direction of this plot, he couldn’t affect Tao Tao’s star career, and quickly stopped Shang Yuliang: “Director Shang, I was just playing around, you don’t need to release my clip. How about you cut a clip for Sister Tao Tao, her underwater pose is definitely better than mine!”

“With this finished product, won’t it save us the trouble of editing? And Taotao hasn’t learned yet, so you can sacrifice a little.”

“It’s not that I’m reluctant to sacrifice my body, it’s just that…”

Qi Xingchen was thinking about how to persuade Shang Yuliang when Shang Yuliang’s assistant came running over, “Director Shang, I’ve posted the video you asked me to, do you want to take a look?”

Shang Yuliang was older and not very familiar with social media, so his assistant usually posted on his behalf.

Hearing this, Qi Xingchen quickly opened Weibo.

—《Ocean Heart》official Weibo: I wonder, Mr. Qi Xingchen, from which sea did you come from? [Video]

146 reposts, 251 comments, 882 likes.

It was over. Qi Xingchen’s head went “buzz”.

Even though everything he had done before was to protect himself and the Qi family, and he had never changed the direction of the main plot between the male and female leads, nor had he ever taken even a sliver of the female lead’s resources.

At this moment, with the Weibo post going out, he had already been drawn into the main plot.

So, would the subsequent plot change as a result?

Would he be punished for intervening in the plot?

Qi Xingchen’s heart was in turmoil, and his face was grave.

Probably curious why Shang Yuliang hadn’t started the next scene yet, Taotao stretched her neck and asked as she walked over, “Director Shang, Xingxing, what are you looking at?”

Hearing Taotao’s voice, Qi Xingchen withdrew his thoughts and tried to return to his normal state.

Now that the deed was done, he couldn’t change it, he could only fumble his way forward.

“I’m looking at Weibo,” Qi Xingchen carefully observed Taotao’s expression and tentatively said, “Director Shang posted the clip of me going into the water yesterday on the official Weibo.”

“Really?” Taotao seemed very interested, “I want to take a look too.”

Qi Xingchen handed her the phone, and Taotao watched it from beginning to end, holding her chest and exclaiming, “It’s so beautiful, so beautiful, it makes my heart flutter! Xingxing, I declare, from today on, I’m your girlfriend fan!”

Her expression was sincere and without any falsehood or unnaturalness, and Qi Xingchen looked away.

She didn’t seem to care that her plot had been changed.

Could it be that she was really just a paper person without her own thoughts, who was wholeheartedly following the plot?

With that video out there, Qi Xingchen wasn’t in a very good mood all day.

Fortunately, as Shang Yuliang had said, after the heavy scene of the confession, Lin Xiao’s remaining scenes were very easy, and he managed to muddle through with a bit of effort.

While he was full of mixed emotions, An Ran was overjoyed.

On the way back to the hotel, she reported the latest data every ten minutes, along with picking a few comments or bullet screens to read.

“Ah ah ah, Xingxing, do you know how many reposts there are now? Thirty-two thousand ah ah ah!”

“Oh my god, there’s a high-definition version on Bilibili, was it posted by the assistant? Woo woo woo assistant brother I love you!”

“Pfft, this generation of netizens are so talented, I’ll read you a comment—”

An Ran cleared her throat: “If the mermaid knew that there was such a beautiful prince in the sea, she wouldn’t have to turn into¹ foam for love. That makes sense!”

“Hey, this bullet screen is so long: Xingxing’s waist is so soft, Brother Ye must develop it more. Hurry up and get together, I’m dying of anxiety!”

An Ran’s brain was in an excited state, she rattled off a sentence and then realized that she seemed to have stepped on a hornet’s nest.

Qi Xingchen, who was still thinking about the plot a second ago, had his ears burn at what An Ran said, and warned in a low voice, “Don’t let me hear these things again!”

“……Sorry,” An Ran was aggrieved, “I’ll be careful next time.”

An Ran didn’t mean it, what else could he say. Qi Xingchen was so angry that he pressed the elevator button himself.

“Ding dong~” The elevator door opened a minute later, and a face he hadn’t seen in a few days appeared.

Xu Sheng and Taotao’s scenes mostly took place in their respective homes, and according to the script, they lived in the same unit but on different floors. This part of the indoor scenes was handled by Group B, so sometimes in order to catch up on the schedule, they would shoot overnight.

So Qi Xingchen hadn’t seen Xu Sheng for a long time, and Xu Sheng was also stunned when he saw him.

Xu Sheng then raised his head and walked out of the elevator. Qi Xingchen looked straight ahead and walked into the elevator.

In the fleeting moment when the two passed each other, Qi Xingchen heard Xu Sheng say, “Prince Mermaid, congratulations on your little fire again.”

“Thank you.”

“But don’t get too cocky,” Xu Sheng changed his tone, “Things can turn around, the higher you fly, the harder you fall.”

“That’s my business, it has nothing to do with you,” Qi Xingchen said coldly, “Take care of yourself.”

Xu Sheng snorted, not sure if he was laughing or angry. Qi Xingchen pressed the top floor button, and the elevator door separated the increasingly gloomy face.

Xu Sheng’s appearance finally diverted An Ran’s attention from “dying of anxiety” to scolding people.

She followed Qi Xingchen into the room, scolding and tidying up the room at the same time.

After tidying up the bed, she pulled out a shirt from the closet: “Hey, isn’t this Brother Ye’s, didn’t he take it away yesterday?”

“I got the shirt dirty, I’ll iron it and send it to him.”

“It’s just a shirt, he’s so rich, it doesn’t matter if he wants it or not, maybe he’s looking for an excuse to see you again,” An Ran muttered in a voice that Qi Xingchen couldn’t hear, then asked, “Do you want me to help you iron it?”

“……No need,” Qi Xingchen said, his liver aching for the nth time today, “I’ll do it myself.”

But An Ran’s words reminded him that he’d been so focused on Taotao all day that he hadn’t contacted Bo Ye.

Last night by the pool, Bo Ye had called him by his full name, he must be very angry.

After all, Bo Ye had told him before to be good.

He had been so stubborn and crazy last night, he was such an idiot.

Whether out of obligation or sentiment, he had to apologize to Bo Ye. Qi Xingchen took out his phone—

Just then, [Dad invites you to a video call]

Why was Dad Qi calling him? Afraid that something urgent had happened at home, Qi Xingchen immediately pressed the accept button.

The signal on Qi Xiaoming’s side seemed to be unstable, and after more than thirty seconds, the screen finally showed an image.

“Xingxing,” Dad Qi’s voice was intermittent, “Guess where I am now?”

Qi Xingchen observed the environment where Dad Qi was. Behind him was a large open space, with machines similar to drilling rigs, Qi Xingchen was unfamiliar with machinery and couldn’t name them.

There were a dozen or so workers wearing hard hats, pushing carts back and forth. He begged, “I can’t guess, Dad, where are you?”

“I’m in—”

Dad Qi deliberately drew out the sound, played a guessing game before saying, “I’m in South Africa, buying a gift for my Xingxing!”

“South Africa?” Qi Xingchen was just about to ask him why he went to South Africa, when he suddenly realized, “Dad, why are you buying me another gift, didn’t we agree not to waste money last time!”

“Oh, it’s just a little thing, don’t mind it. Xingxing, aren’t you curious what Dad is going to give you?”

It couldn’t be a “little thing” if he had specially gone to South Africa to buy it?

Qi Xingchen muttered to himself, but to avoid disappointing Dad Qi, he cooperated happily, “Of course I’m curious, what are you going to give me, Dad?”

It could be seen that Dad Qi was very satisfied with his son’s attitude. He said proudly, “I heard that Xu Sheng who bullied you, his father has a mine, right?”

“……Yes.”

“His father’s property is his father’s, not his. In the end, he’s just a penniless boy. And now, you’re completely different.”

Dad Qi pointed to the dark entrance behind him, “I bought you a diamond mine, so you can be on the same level as his father.”

“How is it, satisfied?”

Qi Xingchen: “……”

If Xu Sheng’s father had a mine, and he had a mine too, then he was more or less Xu Sheng’s father.

Qi Xingchen was astonished—damn, where did his dad get such a strange logic!