Fu Zhen propped his head up with his fist and tilted his head as he looked at the screen of his phone. His finger slid back and forth. The director’s large body blocked most of the screenshot behind him. This film had not been released yet, and the director was equally vague about its contents, so Fu Zhen could not completely guarantee that this was the film he had made back then.
Speaking of it, it was rather laughable. Back then, Fu Zhen had made a film about family
affection. It was originally meant to be a Father’s Day gift for Fu Jianchen. Later, it was banned by his father, and the film never again had the chance to appear before the public.
Fu Zhen turned off his phone and continued the profile picture he had not finished drawing earlier. From time to time, scattered images still flashed through his mind, images about that film, about Chronicles of Shazhou.
It was true that he had no real ability now, but he would not allow people to bully him to this extent. If that film remained forever sealed in the box of memory, he would have nothing to say. But if it truly appeared under another person’s name, he had ways to make the other party utterly ruined.
There was indeed nothing left for him to say to Fu Jianchen or Fu Ting. He simply did not want his hard work to be trampled.
Fu Zhen put down the drawing pen in his hand and studied the finished profile picture on the computer screen. A smile appeared at the corner of his lips, carrying a trace of bitterness. It seemed that in his own reflection on the screen, he also noticed that his smile at this moment did not look good. His lips moved, and he withdrew the smile from his face.
After finishing the profile picture, Fu Zhen rubbed his fingers and began drawing the draft for that illustration.
As usual, Jiang Hengshu did not return from the construction site until the sky had darkened.
Unlike usual, he did not go directly back to his own room. Instead, he raised his hand and
knocked on Fu Zhen’s door. When Fu Zhen opened the door and saw Jiang Hengshu standing there, he froze for a moment.
Previously, Jiang Hengshu had always avoided him. But ever since Fu Zhen had been rescued, Jiang Hengshu’s attitude toward him had returned to what it had been before. No, it seemed even a little better than before.
Jiang Hengshu took an envelope from his pocket. “This is the wages the foreman settled for you this month. Count it and see if anything is missing.”
Fu Zhen accepted it. In front of Jiang Hengshu, he opened the envelope and quickly counted the money. There was a total of one thousand eight hundred yuan, forty yuan more than what he had recorded in his account book.
Fu Zhen remembered that once, when he had gone to wash a wound, he had happened to be
caught, and the foreman had deducted half a day’s wages. With the foreman’s stingy personality, he probably would not have given him those forty yuan. But perhaps the foreman had forgotten when calculating the accounts, or perhaps he had heard Fu Zhen had been kidnapped and was compensating him. It was only forty yuan, so Fu Zhen did not think much about it. He accepted the money and said thank you to Jiang Hengshu.
Jiang Hengshu nodded, his lips pressed together without speaking. Fu Zhen’s guess was right.
The foreman was indeed stingy. That money had naturally been made up by Jiang Hengshu.
Fu Zhen threw the money and the envelope onto the bed. Originally, he had wanted to choose a gift for Jiang Hengshu at Christmas to thank him for taking care of him during the previous period. But Christmas had already passed, and at that time, Jiang Hengshu had been at his coldest toward him. The gift he had chosen was still sitting in a drawer, never given. Yesterday, Jiang Hengshu had saved him again. How should he repay him?
According to those cheesy old films, a life-saving favor should be repaid by giving oneself in marriage. But thinking about it, Jiang Hengshu probably would not like him repaying his kindness in that way.
Coincidentally, he had received his wages today. Fu Zhen thought for a moment, then asked Jiang Hengshu, “Do you have time tomorrow night?”
“What is it?” Jiang Hengshu asked.
Fu Zhen looked up and said to Jiang Hengshu, “I want to treat you to a meal.”
Jiang Hengshu looked at Fu Zhen’s pale lips and at his black eyes, which reflected his own figure. As if possessed, he nodded. “All right.”
After agreeing, Jiang Hengshu felt a little regretful. He did not actually have much free time. Although the missing-person case at the construction site was almost reaching a conclusion, his mother had recently been urging him to go home.
But at that moment, Fu Zhen smiled. His brows and eyes became vivid and bright, and his entire person gave off a happy air. Jiang Hengshu then felt there was nothing wrong with having agreed just now.
Not long after Jiang Hengshu returned to his room, he received a phone call. It was from the
person he had contacted that morning. Jiang Hengshu asked, “Didn’t you say you’d give me the results in three days?”
“Wasn’t that because I thought the Fu Zhen you mentioned was some mysterious person?” Jiang Hengshu said, “Go on.”
“You know Fu Jianchen, right?” the person on the phone asked him. “I’ve heard of him.”
“Fu Zhen is Fu Jianchen’s younger son. Two years ago, Fu Jianchen brought back an illegitimate daughter from outside. That was Tang Wanwan. Fu Zhen and Tang Wanwan didn’t get along.
The two of them often had conflicts. Later, because Fu Zhen found someone to switch the wire rope while Tang Wanwan was filming, causing Tang Wanwan to fall from the wire rig, Fu Jianchen severed the father-son relationship with Fu Zhen after he found out and drove him out of the Fu family.”
“I checked into this matter. Back then, Fu Zhen did indeed have someone sneak into the crew, but what was tampered with may not have been the wire rig.”
“Recently, Fu Jianchen and Fu Ting seem to have looked for Fu Zhen several times because of the copyright issue with Chronicles of Shazhou. The Liu brothers also saw Fu Jianchen looking for Fu Zhen and thought they might reconcile, which is why they wanted to kidnap Fu Zhen and demand money from Fu Jianchen. They didn’t expect Fu Jianchen had never thought of acknowledging Fu Zhen as part of the Fu family again.” The voice on the other end paused, then continued, “Tang Wanwan redirected the photo that should have been sent to Fu Jianchen’s
phone to her own phone. She probably thinks Fu Zhen is already dead now.” Jiang Hengshu said, “I understand.”
“What exactly is your relationship with that Fu Zhen? I heard from Wang Tong that you even specially dragged him along yesterday to play the hero saving the beauty?”
“None of your business,” Jiang Hengshu said coldly.
The voice on the phone sighed. “Crossing the river and tearing down the bridge; killing the donkey once the millstone is pulled. That’s exactly you.”
Jiang Hengshu was not annoyed either. Calmly, he asked, “Did you learn your idioms from Wang Tong?”
“What’s wrong with them?”
“There’s nothing else. I’m hanging up.” Jiang Hengshu slid the red hang-up button.
After hanging up, Jiang Hengshu tossed his phone aside. He sat in the chair, holding a copy of The Interpretation of Dreams, but after reading barely two lines, his thoughts flew elsewhere.
Last night, in that cramped room, Fu Zhen had obediently lain on the bed with his eyes closed, murmuring some indistinct words. Tears had swiftly slid from the corners of his eyes and soaked the pillow towel. Jiang Hengshu’s heart had been caught off guard, bound by a fine thread, tightened until it hurt.
There was a knock at the door. Jiang Hengshu closed the book in his hands and put it on the table beside him. Then he stood and went to open the door. Fu Zhen was standing outside, holding his laptop. His hair was slightly messy, and there were fine beads of sweat at his temples. Somewhat embarrassed, he asked Jiang Hengshu, “My computer broke. Can you help me take a look?”
“Let me see.”
Fu Zhen handed the computer to Jiang Hengshu and followed him into his room. Standing beside him, Fu Zhen explained, “When I was drawing just now, the keyboard suddenly stopped
working. Then I restarted the computer, and after that, it wouldn’t turn on again.”
Jiang Hengshu nodded. One could tell that Fu Zhen had used this computer for several years. After the computer powered on, it stayed stuck on the loading screen. Jiang Hengshu was not Wang Tong; he was not familiar with computer operation or repair. After pressing randomly for a while, there was still no response.
“Forget it.” Jiang Hengshu returned the computer to Fu Zhen. “Use mine.” Fu Zhen said, “Huh?”
Jiang Hengshu turned, bent down, and dragged out the enormous suitcase he had brought with him the day he arrived from under the bed. The suitcase was not locked either. After he opened the lid, there was a pile of clothes on top, while underneath were some documents, bank cards, membership cards, and the like. Fu Zhen was too far away and could not read the words on them.
Jiang Hengshu crouched and rummaged through it for a while. From the innermost part, he found a silver laptop, stood, and handed it to Fu Zhen. “Here.”
Fu Zhen was still a little dazed. He looked at the laptop being handed to him. Although he had long since been driven out of the Fu family and had no money, he still recognized the brand of this computer. The computer Jiang Hengshu was lending him cost at least fifty thousand yuan.
Jiang Hengshu had not lied to him. He really was not short of money.
Fu Zhen could not describe what he felt. He both hoped that one day Jiang Hengshu would make a sudden fortune, have a wife and children, and live happily for the rest of his life, and also hoped that he himself could help him.
But in the end, it turned out he could do nothing at all.
“Thank you,” Fu Zhen said with a smile. “I’ll return it to you tomorrow.”
Jiang Hengshu did not understand. Although Fu Zhen was smiling, he could sense from him an emotion called disappointment.
“You can use the computer for now. I don’t have much use for it.”
Fu Zhen carried the two computers back to his room. After returning, he plugged the drawing tablet into Jiang Hengshu’s computer. Fortunately, before the computer shut down, he had saved a copy of his unfinished illustration to the cloud. Fu Zhen downloaded the draft from the cloud drive, opened it with the drawing software, and continued refining it.
Jiang Hengshu’s computer was much better than Fu Zhen’s old second-hand machine. As Fu Zhen drew, he could not help becoming distracted, and the speed of his pen gradually slowed. Who exactly was Jiang Hengshu?
Fu Zhen could not understand. Jiang Hengshu clearly was not short of money. Why did he still come to the construction site to suffer?
Fu Zhen thought of the Jiang Hengshu he had seen in the bar. The bar manager had some background too, yet in front of Jiang Hengshu, he had not put on any airs at all. The distance between him and Jiang Hengshu might be even greater than he had imagined.
Fu Zhen let out a long breath. He did not need to think about all this. It was enough to know that Jiang Hengshu would live well in the future.
Tomorrow, he still had to treat Jiang Hengshu to a meal. Just now, he should have asked whether Jiang Hengshu had any foods he avoided. Fu Zhen scratched his head. He had only just come out of Jiang Hengshu’s room; would it be too much of a disturbance to go over again now?
Maybe he could choose a few restaurants and let Jiang Hengshu pick tomorrow. Fu Zhen felt this method was not bad. He drew back all these messy thoughts, lowered his head, and continued drawing.
This color illustration was harder to draw than he had imagined. After revising it several times, he still could not make himself satisfied. He put down the pen and sighed. If he had enough time, he should first read the other party’s original work, but he did not have that much time now.
Fu Zhen opened Weibo and searched for some topics related to the original work. In the end, he found that out of ten Weibo posts, five were dirty jokes, three were exaggerated praise, and the remaining two were advertisements telling people to follow a public account.
Author’s note: This book will probably go VIP this Sunday. If it goes VIP on Sunday, then it should be listed on the ranking next Wednesday. I’ll owe everyone the comment bonus updates during this period for now, and after I finish the ranking period, I’ll make them all up to you.
Thank you all for your support. I really am trying hard to make it sweet. Chapter complete. Source: