NOVEL NEXT Chapter 11 – Following Car
“We attended the same training programme. We studied for over half a year together.” Kang Jian immediately explained. “So we became close.”
Actually during the training days, Bai Lang and Kang Jian could really only be called acquaintances that sometimes ran into each other.
“Its like this.” Fan Shan nodded her head. “The training programme is a good foundation ah. Once you come out to work, your fellow students can help support you. If there’s problems you can discuss together. It’s good to keep networking.” As she spoke she looked at Bai Lang.
Everyone had seen how Bai Lang had given to the green bean soup to Chen DongLi. How would he reply now?
Unexpectedly, Bai Lang said very lightly, “You troubled yourself. In the future you don’t need to do so anymore.” {T/N: He’s replying to KJ about the green bean soup.} After he spoke he stood up and said to Director Zhou, “It’s getting a bit late. I’ll take my leave now so I can change into the next outfit.”
Kang Jian visibly froze. He stared at Bai Lang’s cold attitude with disbelief. He couldn’t understand how someone who was warm and gentle on the phone two weeks ago now seemed like he had suddenly completely changed.
Director Zhou ignored Kang Jian’s awkward expression. He smiled and looked at his watch. He said to Bai Lang, “Go ahead. Take your time. The next scene is of the landlord so you don’t need to rush.”
Bai Lang nodded. He nodded at the people at the table, of course not including Kang Jian, and then left.
Both Fan Shan and Yu QianQian looked shocked. This was because they had never before seen this cold side of the gentle and friendly Bai Lang. They were curious about what Kang Jian had done to make the usually good tempered Bai Lang reject him in this manner. When they looked at him, their eyes both expressed disdain at his manner of “not being close but pretending to be close”.
As for Kang Jian’s senior brother Wu ShenEn, he felt as though Kang Jian had made him lose face. Hence he was very unhappy and his entire face fell heavily. Thus he also gave his leave and went to his dressing room to fix his makeup. He also dragged the awkward and confused Kang Jian with him.
***
As soon as they entered, Wu ShenEn slammed the door and immediately begun cursing.
“What the hell are you trying to do!? Look at this disgusting face of yours, trying to stick it where people don’t want you! Even if you don’t care, you should think about my position, I’m your senior brother don’t forget!!”
Kang Jian’s expression was frozen. “Senior brother, what, what’s the matter? Are you having problems with Bai Lang?”
“Problems!? He’s been eyeing my position, waiting for a chance to drag me down. How can we not have problems? Don’t mess things up for me even more you idiot! Can’t you see he doesn’t want to be close to you! Can’t even be bothered looking at you in the eye. Even I think he’s quite cool ah!!”
“But, but I’m really close with Bai Lang. I’m not lying! Look, I have lots of call logs with him in my phone…” Kang Jian hurriedly dug out his phone.
“Was that before or after he got famous? Don’t tell me it’s from before. You’re already this old, do you think making friends is still the same as when you were in primary school? Please grow up!” Wu ShenEn scolded him angrily. “You made me lose face with you, what kind of pig teammate are you? In the future don’t come here again, when I go back I’ll tell Old Hao about it. You make me so angry!”
“No, senior brother! I really didn’t know. I, I was fooled by Bai Lang okay?” When Kang Jian heard this he really panicked. If he couldn’t even follow Wu ShenEn to his filming set then it was a huge loss for the recently debuted Kang Jian who desperately needed to show himself. “Please I beg you to overlook it. Just forgive me this once. I definitely won’t do it again.”
“Forgive you?” Wu ShenEn violently threw off Kang Jian’s hand. “If I forgive you who’s going to return my face to me!! Just now Director Zhou and Producer Chen were both present. With your attitude, who dares to talk to you in the future? They’ll be scared to accidentally turned into your “good friend”. Just like how you always call me “senior brother” {T/N: Usually said in the context of two people learning under the same teacher or in the same school}, we don’t have the same teacher so who’s your senior brother? Get out now! Just looking at your face makes me angry.”
This time Wu ShenEn released all his anger onto Kang Jian. He immediately began to push Kang Jian and wanted him to get out immediately.
Kang Jian’s entire face was green. He was so panicked he wanted to cry.
“Senior brother, don’t be like this, don’t throw me out! I, I know something about Bai Lang. Maybe it can be of help to you?”
“Bai Lang? What do you know?” Wu ShenEn paused and asked in an angry voice.
Kang Jian had just been treated coldly by Bai Lang and been mocked in front of everyone. A sudden streak of anger passed through his heart.
“This morning when I called him, a man picked up the phone… and said he was in the shower.”
***
With a sudden [ji—-] sound of the car suddenly breaking, Bai Lang who was dozing in the backseat hit his head on the glass of the car window. He confusedly opened his eyes.
Without waiting for Bai Lang to ask, Hong Hong turned the steering wheel and explained, “There’s a car following us.”
Bai Lang immediately woke up. “Following us?”
“Yes. I specifically took a few more loops around the street and found out that there’s a small black car that’s following us from behind. I’m definitely not wrong.” Even though the car was accelerating very fast, the pace of Hong Hong’s steady voice didn’t change.
Bai Lang turned his head to look. “Paparazzi?”
This question might seem a bit superfluous. After all as a star, who else would be following but the paparazzi? However Bai Lang somehow felt a bit suspicious.
He wasn’t a new person. More or less he understood the standards of the journalists in the entertainment world. In this life he didn’t have any ugly rumors currently and he was a small star that had just started getting popular. Many of the endorsements he had signed hadn’t even been broadcasted yet. There wasn’t hot topics or news that could be gained from following him.
Hong Hong however was sure. “It should be. The triads don’t follow in this manner.” He spoke as though he often ran into the latter.
Bai Lang paused slightly but he didn’t have time to question it because right now they were on the way home.
The place Bai Lang currently lived in, which was the new place that Qiu Qian had given him, was a luxurious apartment complex which had been listed as number one most desired on the “Mistress Apartment” rankings.
The luxury condos were built on the side of a hill, ensuring the balconies on every floor had a gorgeous night view of A city. However the wealthy people who lived here much more appreciated the ease of travel to get to the apartment.
The road that the government built only led to the front gate of the apartment complex before ending. On the backside was a small mountain. On this side there there three intersecting small roads leading to the bottom of the mountain, which conveniently connected it to a highway.
In addition the underground parking was like a maze, ensuring that once a car entered, it was impossible to tell from which exit it would leave from, which was a double layer of security. Once the design of this complex was released, it was a big hit among wealthy people who clamored to buy. Just a single bedroom cost several tens of millions of dollars.
Thus someone of Bai Lang’s background could definitely not afford something like it. If he tried to explain it as an apartment that the company had prepared for it, people would only laugh is disbelief. After all even Total Entertainment’s movie emperor Su Quan didn’t have this kind of service so how could someone as unimportant as Bai Lang be worthy of such a high price?
Thus if his place of living was exposed, then at least 80% of the audience would undoubtedly conclude that the only reason was because he was being kept by a rich person. Actually it was not as though Bai Lang didn’t prepare himself for something like this when he moved into this place.
However if they furthered the investigation, at least Qiu Qian would be safe. After all everyone who had bought in this apartment complex were high flying individuals. Thus the details of who lived here were all kept extremely confidential and would not be easily found out. This was also one of the promises the sales team had made when discussing the purchasing of the property.
“Put your seatbelt on properly. I need some time to shake them off.” Hong Hong suddenly reminded him.
After that there was another [ji—-] sound of the wheels frantically screeching.
Bai Lang’s head was again swung against the window. He hurried to grab a hold of something to steady himself.
The scenery outside sped by at breakneck speed. Once they left the city it would be difficult to throw off the cars so Hong Hong was still making circles in the city. Over and over again the breaks screeched. The other cars on the road honked their horns loudly. This kind of scene was usually only seen in movies.
Bai Lang was swung around until he felt dizzy. He quickly said, “Its, it’s not necessary. It’s too dangerous.”
“I can do it.” Hong Hong looked in the rear view mirror. “Just bear with it a bit longer, behind the seat there’s a plastic bag.”
There was another sharp turn. Bai Lang swayed back and forth. “That’s not what I meant. Just let them follow, it’s okay.”
Hong Hong didn’t pay any mind to him. He continued to show Bai Lang a highly skilled driving technique which Bai Lang never knew until this day that he had. Bai Lang had no choice but to follow his instructions and put on his seatbelt {T/N: Unlike in the west, it’s not customary practice to put your seatbelt on in the backseat in China. Only in the front. However there is a seatbelt there just no one really uses it.} After a few more minutes, the speed of the car gradually slowed down. Hong Hong announced, “I threw them off.”
“You threw them off today, but what about tomorrow?” Bai Lang’s face was a little pale. He sighed. “There’s no point to put your life on the line every day. It’s impossible to hide it forever.”
“It won’t look good,” Hong Hong was also conscious about how the news would impact Bai Lang.”The living place can be changed. Wait until I talked to the big boss about it.”
“Then where should I move? To a cheaper place?” Bai Lang smiled. He knew Hong Hong was being dedicated, just like in his previous life. “Then it will be even worse. Right now if word gets out it will only affect me. But in another place, Qiu Qian might get dragged into it too. If it’s possible to avoid trouble to others then we should avoid it.” Bai Lang spoke honestly. He thought this would also be Qiu Qian’s thinking.
Hong Hong was silent for a few seconds. Then he said, “In just a few days, the people behind will be “taken care of” cleanly.”
Bai Lang once again froze. However he didn’t want to enquire about this method of being “taken care of”. He only laughed helplessly. “That will still require money and effort. It’s better to treat things logically. Right now all they can write is some rumors and conjectures. If I keep my mouth shut no one will dare write the truth.”
Hong Hong didn’t reply again. He only quietly drove the car home.
“And also, what they write won’t be untrue. So it’s not like I’ll be wronged.”
Bai Lang added this sentence. He realized he really wasn’t very worried.
***
“…. he said that?”
That night, Qiu Qian didn’t come to the apartment. Hong Hong gave him a call to report to him about being followed that evening as well as Bai Lang’s opinion on the matter.
“Yes.” Hong Hong replied.
“Then do as he says. If they want to write, just let them write. Fang Hua will take care of it.” Qiu Qian’s voice on the phone appeared casual. “However we still need to find out clearly who is behind it. Bai Lang is right. He isn’t very famous yet, so this should be a targeted attack.”
“I understand.” Hong Hong said.
“But Er Hong, what do you think Bai Lang is thinking?” On the other end Qiu Qian suddenly laughed a little. “He found a patron but doesn’t even want to use him. What’s he doing? Is he trying to keep me hanging?”
Hong Hong paused. Then he simply answered. “I don’t know.”
Qiu Qian knew Hong Hong’s personality. He felt a bit suspicious. “What, do you have a different opinion?”
Hong Hong didn’t get a chance to reply before there the suddenly the sound of metal clanging together. It was transmitted through Hong Hong’s phone to Qiu Qian’s side.
Qiu Qian thought it sounded familiar so he asked, “What’s the noise? Where is he?”
“In the kitchen. He said the steak is nearly expired so he is cooking it for me to eat.” Hong Hong answered honestly.
“….” Qiu Qian felt suddenly angry. “That’s my pan and that’s my meat. Why the hell are you eating?”
On the first day Bai Lang had moved in, Qiu Qian had given him a credit card with an extremely high limit for household expenses and his personal spending. He was an extremely responsible patron. So when Qiu Qian said the meat was his, it was indeed true.
“Bai Lang said if he eats it then he’ll get fat. So there’s no choice but for me to eat it.” Hong Hong moved his nose slightly.
The delicious smell of meat was wafting from the kitchen.
“Seems like you’re feeling very wronged, eh?” Qiu Qian spoke in a vicious tone.
“I don’t mind. It tastes pretty good.” Hong Hong intently stared at the oily and beautiful steak that was cooking inside that cooking inside the pan.
“Get out!”
“Okay, after I eat.”
***
Three days later the headline in the entertainment news read: “Diamond Watch! Luxurious house! Jiang XinCheng can afford it!?”
Bai Lang had only half finished his breakfast when he received Fang Hua’s phone call.
“You have time in the morning right? Come by the company.”