Ji Shuyao paused mid-adjustment of his glasses when he heard the name "Pei Zhiyan." "Young President Pei?"
Song Shi'an turned to look at him. "You know him?"
"I've heard of him. I don't know him." Ji Shuyao's tone recovered quickly, but Song Shi'an kept feeling that something had flickered in his eyes behind those lenses.
Song Shi'an mulled it over. In the original novel, it seemed to have been an older woman-younger man romance. The female lead was a full five years older than the male lead and had already graduated and started managing the company, while the male lead was still in college.
Thinking of it that way, Pei Zhiyan was indeed still a college student now, and it was normal for Ji Shuyao to have heard of him. The Pei Group's reputation spoke for itself.
Ji Shuyao didn't continue the topic and steered the conversation back. "It's not really possible for you to keep living on campus now."
"Why?"
"First, you saw it yourself this morning. People are already staking you out downstairs. There'll only be more in the future, and it'll disrupt the school's normal operations."
Ji Shuyao counted the points off on his fingers. "Second, living off campus will make it easier for our team to communicate with you, and we can handle any emergencies during filming promptly. Third, it'll also prevent another situation like this morning, when someone secretly took pictures of you."
Song Shi'an thought it over. The reasoning was sound. The sight of himself cornered on the balcony in his bear pajamas that morning was still vivid in his mind. If it happened again, he'd lose every last scrap of face.
But he had an even more practical problem.
"That makes sense, but I don't have money for rent." He counted the costs off on his fingers for Ji Shuyao. "You know what rent is like in the Capital. Any old single room near campus costs two or three thousand. Besides, I can't get up for eight a.m. classes. At least living on campus puts me closer to the classroom buildings. It's just a few steps away."
Ji Shuyao pressed a hand to his forehead. "The company will rent it for you. Don't worry. We can also arrange for someone to drive you whenever you need. You won't be late for eight a.m. classes."
Song Shi'an considered it. He wouldn't have to pay rent, and someone would drive him to class. No matter how he worked it out, he wasn't losing anything. He nodded. "Then that's no problem."
Ji Shuyao raised his hand to glance at his watch. "I'll send someone to your dorm to pack a few clothes in a bit, then take you to your new place this afternoon."
Song Shi'an froze. "That fast!"
"Efficiency." Ji Shuyao kept it brief and to the point, already picking up his phone to send messages.
Meanwhile, back in the dorm, Jiang Ye and Chi Xun had just woken up and were sitting on their respective beds, staring blankly as they shook off sleep, when someone knocked on the door.
Pei Zhiyan got up to answer it. A young man stood outside in a light blue shirt, carrying an empty suitcase and wearing a very professional smile.
"Hello, is this Song Shi'an's dorm?"
Pei Zhiyan leaned against the doorframe. "What do you need?"
"I'm Mr. Song's assistant. My name is Lin Fan. I'm here to pack a few clothes for him. He's moving off campus."
Pei Zhiyan picked up his phone and sent Song Shi'an a message. "You're moving out?"
Song Shi'an replied instantly. "Yep, someone should be there to pick up some things. I'll still stay on campus when I have classes. I'm not moving out completely."
After reading the message, Pei Zhiyan pulled the door open to let him in and pointed to the bed on the far left. "The first one on the left is his."
Lin Fan thanked him and walked over to Song Shi'an's bed.
The desktop was very tidy. His textbooks were arranged by size on the bookshelf, while a toothbrush cup and that bottle of cooling two-in-one shampoo and body wash sat on the storage rack beside it.
He opened the wardrobe. Inside were a few T-shirts and two pairs of jeans, all neatly arranged.
A few packets of crunchy snack noodles and two boxes of instant noodles were piled on the bedside table, with a vacuum-sealed bag of beef jerky beside them.
Lin Fan took the clothes out of the wardrobe and folded them into a luggage bag, then opened the notes app on his phone and carefully recorded the brands of the toiletries and the flavors of the instant noodles. They would come in handy when he bought daily necessities later.
There wasn't much, and he finished packing in less than twenty minutes. Carrying the suitcase, Lin Fan said goodbye to Pei Zhiyan and left, gently pulling the door shut behind him.
Only when the door closed did Jiang Ye fully wake up. He blinked toward the doorway. "Shi'an's moving out?"
"He'll still stay on campus when he has classes." Pei Zhiyan sat back down in his seat.
"Oh, that's good." Jiang Ye flopped back onto his pillow, then sprang up again two seconds later. "Wait, did that guy just say he was Shi'an's assistant? Shi'an even has an assistant now?!"
Chi Xun poked his head down from the upper bunk and adjusted his glasses. "He's a signed artist with Stars Entertainment now. Having an assistant is normal. You, on the other hand, should hurry up and get out of bed. Look at the time."
As the car drove into the villa complex, the more Song Shi'an looked, the more familiar it seemed.
The driveway at the entrance was lined with Japanese viburnum, and warm yellow light spilled through the floor-to-ceiling glass of the security booth built from dark gray stone.
Wasn't this the place he'd come to last time when he brought that little boy home?
Now, sitting in the company's business vehicle, he was recognized by the middle-aged security guard from last time.
"Oh, it's you!" The guard leaned out of the booth's window, looking pleasantly surprised. "What brings you here?"
Song Shi'an lowered the window and greeted him a little sheepishly. "I'm moving here."
"Well, that's great! So you're the new resident." The guard chuckled and patted the window frame. "When you brought Little Xing home last time, I thought you were a fine young man. You've really made something of yourself."
Song Shi'an smiled and said goodbye to the guard. Once the window was rolled up, he turned to Ji Shuyao with an earnest expression. "Brother Yao, isn't our company a little too generous to its employees? Does every artist live somewhere like this?"
Ji Shuyao smiled without saying anything.
He had worked at Stars Entertainment for eight years and had managed two TV award-winning actors and one top star, yet he was still renting.
It wasn't as though he didn't know the housing prices in the Capital. This villa complex, in particular, only sold its properties and didn't rent them out. He didn't even have the courage to view one.
Heaven knew why President Shen had arranged for Song Shi'an to live here. This wasn't artist housing. This was the treatment you'd give your own son.
Song Shi'an didn't press him. In any case, he wasn't paying out of his own pocket. A place to live was a place to live.
The car stopped outside Villa Seven. Ji Shuyao led him to the door and entered six sixes on the keypad lock.
"The code is six sixes. Change it yourself in a bit."
The door opened, and Song Shi'an walked inside. The entryway ceiling was at least three meters high, and the living room's floor-to-ceiling windows faced the complex's artificial lake. Sunlight reflected off the water and streamed inside, casting a shimmering patch of light across the ceiling.
He ran around upstairs and down: the master bedroom, the second bedroom, the study, the walk-in closet, the open-plan kitchen. Every space was so roomy that it left him feeling unsettled.
Standing in the middle of the living room, he sighed from the bottom of his heart. "You really can't beat a big company. Now that's generous!"
Ji Shuyao leaned against the doorframe and watched him.
Song Shi'an sat on the sofa to test its bounce, then got up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows to look at the lake outside. Then he turned around and said in an utterly sincere tone, "I'm going to work for this company for the rest of my life."