The Scheming Old Man

Xu Yanche finished recording all his lines at five in the morning.

After confirming everything was in order, he sent them to Fei Yiming.

Then he collapsed into bed.

He set an alarm for eight.

He planned to sleep for three hours, then drag himself up and head to the set to film.

He Qing saw that Xu Yanche was sleeping a little too far away from him.

He shifted back on his own initiative and pulled him into his arms.

He Qing: That's more like it.

He Qing messaged Xu Yanche's assistant, Doudou.

He Qing: Before eight, buy two pancakes, two baskets of chicken soup dumplings, and two bowls of tofu pudding.

He Qing: [Transfer 200]

Doudou: Received! Don't worry, President He. I guarantee the mission will be completed.

Doudou was the assistant He Qing had arranged for Xu Yanche a few days ago. He had previously worked as a bodyguard and was skilled in martial arts.

Lying on his hotel bed, Doudou immediately accepted the transfer.

He checked the time and went back to sleep for another hour.

The eight o'clock alarm rang.

Xu Yanche wriggled around in He Qing's arms.

He Qing patted Xu Yanche's back. "Yanyan, get up. Stop squirming. If you keep squirming, you won't be getting out of bed."

Xu Yanche struggled to open his eyes.

Xu Yanche had a bad case of morning grumpiness.

Especially when someone woke him up.

Waking up on his own after struggling out of sleep and being woken by someone else were completely different feelings.

Now that He Qing had woken him, he was feeling a little irritated.

But when he opened his eyes and saw He Qing's handsome face—

The irritation that had just risen in his heart vanished.

Like some hooligan, he leaned over and kissed He Qing on the lips.

Then his lips moved down to He Qing's neck.

Leaving behind a hickey.

He looked at it and felt like something was still missing.

So he bit He Qing on the collarbone.

He Qing let out a muffled groan.

"Gentler."

Xu Yanche: "!"

[Fuck, that groan, that "gentler"—anyone who didn't know better would think I'd done He Qing. Fine, now that I've left marks on him, everyone will know He Qing is mine.]

[He Qing is so good-looking. If I take him to the set, he'll definitely attract plenty of attention. Leaving a few marks will kill off their ideas.]

He Qing was quite pleased by Xu Yanche's possessiveness.

He sat up and rubbed Xu Yanche's messy bedhead. "I'll dress you."

Xu Yanche did not refuse. "Okay."

He Qing got up and picked through the wardrobe.

He took out a white hoodie with a kitten on it and a pair of jeans.

After dressing Xu Yanche—

He took advantage of Xu Yanche going to wash up to change into a black hoodie and jeans himself.

Xu Yanche, who was brushing his teeth, saw He Qing walk in wearing that outfit.

He nearly choked.

[What a scheming old man. But I like it.]

He shifted to the side and made room for He Qing to stand beside him and brush his teeth.

After washing up—

Xu Yanche slung on his backpack, ready to leave.

Before he could get it on properly, He Qing took it from him. "I'll carry it."

Xu Yanche looked at the man standing beside him.

He Qing was wearing his clothes today.

The hickey on his neck was obvious, and if he bent down slightly, the bite mark on his collarbone could be seen as well.

His usual slicked-back hair had been let down.

It was fluffy, parted three-seven.

Making him look younger.

"Sure. Then let's go eat. I wonder if the crew's breakfast is already gone at this hour."

He Qing reached out first and took Xu Yanche's hand.

Their fingers interlocked.

"I had your assistant buy breakfast. We can eat as soon as we get there."

Xu Yanche happily leaned over and kissed He Qing on the cheek. "It's so good having you. Oh, right, I've always wanted to ask you something. I forgot before."

He Qing reached out and straightened Xu Yanche's hood. "What is it?"

Xu Yanche asked with a serious expression, "Why is your office on the third floor? Every other CEO's office is on the top floor, overlooking the city's night view."

His expression was earnest, his eyes full of thirst for knowledge.

He Qing felt a little embarrassed under that gaze.

"For safety. The third floor is safer. If there's an earthquake or something, you can leave quickly. If the floor is too high, it'll be hard to get down when danger strikes."

Xu Yanche fell silent.

What a plain and unpretentious reason.

Wait, weren't domineering CEOs supposed to never consider things like that?

He Qing pinched Xu Yanche's earlobe.

"I'm preparing for a rainy day."

Xu Yanche said, "Fine."

[Looks like I can't believe what's written in CEO novels anymore. The CEOs in those novels are completely different from the CEO I know.]

He Qing: "..."

Fine, fine, fine. Sometimes he truly wanted to grab his little wife by the clothes and tell him to stop reading those abnormal books. They were lowering his IQ.

When they arrived on set, they drew plenty of attention.

By this hour, most of the crew had already arrived.

The male and female leads had gone into the dressing room to change and get their makeup done.

Director Chai was very stingy. He put most of the budget into costumes, makeup, props, and set design, so the actors basically all used the same makeup room.

Even the actors' pay had been kept low.

By the time Xu Yanche reached the makeup room—

It was already almost full.

Holding He Qing's hand, Xu Yanche walked over to Doudou.

The table held the multigrain pancakes, soup dumplings, and tofu pudding that had been bought.

Zhou Jinsu and Qi Ya were sitting beside Xu Yanche's seat.

The makeup artist was applying Qi Ya's makeup.

Qi Ya raised a hand to greet He Qing and Xu Yanche. "President He, Yanyan, good morning."

Doudou was quick on the uptake.

He immediately found a stool and handed it to He Qing to sit on.

Xu Yanche sat down and opened the tofu pudding.

He handed one bowl to He Qing. "Morning, Sister Yaya. Sister Yaya, do you want some buns?"

Qi Ya sighed. "No, no. I'm trying to lose weight lately. Sigh, the food on this set is just too good. My agent told me to eat less from now on."

The makeup artist beside Zhou Jinsu was working on his wig.

Seeing that He Qing only had eyes for Xu Yanche, Zhou Jinsu teased, "Sigh, someone here forgets his friends the moment he sees a pretty face. Now that he has a wife, he can't even see his friend anymore."

He Qing glanced at Zhou Jinsu and replied flatly, "Oh."

Zhou Jinsu said, "Yanyan, I really admire you. You can actually get along with this expressionless guy."

Xu Yanche looked at Zhou Jinsu, somewhat confused. "No, He Qing is very nice. You're not allowed to say that about him."

[Nonsense. Who said Qingqing Darling is expressionless? Qingqing Darling is clearly a shy baby.]

He Qing, the shy baby: "..." I'm not. I'm really not. Don't make things up.

Zhou Jinsu said, "All right, all right, I won't say it." It looked like these two had a very good relationship.

Just look at how fiercely Xu Yanche was defending him.

Because he had arrived late, Xu Yanche hurriedly finished his breakfast, then went to change clothes before having the makeup artist put on his wig and do his makeup.

He felt like his scalp hurt a little.

[After this show is done filming, my hairline might recede. My precious hair, let me mourn for you for two seconds.]