Daily Life in the Pet Shop Ch. 233

Prev | Directory | Next

"Is that so?" Chi Rui gave him a smile with an unreadable meaning. He gently placed some food on Du Qianze's plate and softened his tone. "I'll be heading abroad soon, probably for good. This might be the last meal we have together. Can you just talk with me for a bit?"

Chi Rui's voice was so soft it could drip water. Du Qianze shivered a little inside and felt goosebumps all over. He forced a smile and replied, "President Chi, you're kidding. Aren't we already talking?"

"Seems like the image you have of me isn't very good. I used to think that if we spent enough time together, you'd come to understand how I feel about you. But then so many things happened along the way. Honestly, I really like you. I just wanted a chance to get along with you." Chi Rui looked totally sincere, even a bit emotional. For a second, Du Qianze almost believed him.

"President Chi..." Faced with such a heartfelt confession, Du Qianze didn't feel touched—just more creeped out.

"I know everything I'm saying right now probably just feels like a burden to you. But I've liked you for so many years. If I don't tell you, I won't be able to move on. If I'd been a little braver back then..."

Du Qianze was honestly so glad Chi Rui hadn't been braver back then.

"I know you probably won't say yes, but I still want to ask—would you come abroad with me? I've got a lot of connections there. I could help you reach a whole new level. Would you be willing?" Chi Rui reached out a hand toward Du Qianze.

"Thank you for the offer, President Chi..." Du Qianze replied, "But I've never had big ambitions, and I'm kind of a homebody. Living abroad doesn't really suit me."

"So that's a no," Chi Rui said. His face didn't change, but to Du Qianze, his eyes looked a whole lot colder.

"I already knew you'd say no, but I still wanted to try. I guess it really was just wishful thinking. When I leave, will you come see me off?" Chi Rui withdrew his outstretched hand and asked calmly.

"Of course I will," Du Qianze answered right away.

After the meal, Chi Rui asked Du Qianze to walk him to the door. Even though Du Qianze said he still had to deal with the drunk messes in the private room, Chi Rui insisted and dragged him out. At the door, Chi Rui held out his hand, saying it would be their last handshake. Du Qianze had no choice but to reach out. Just as he was about to pull his hand back, Chi Rui yanked hard—Du Qianze nearly got dragged into the car. Luckily, he held his ground, because Fang Yi pulled him back in time.

Fang Yi shielded Du Qianze behind him and slammed Chi Rui's car door shut, telling him to get lost. Chi Rui shot Fang Yi a dark, cold glare, waved his hand, and drove off.

The next day, Hai Yang sent Du Qianze a message that made him break out in a cold sweat—Chi Rui had flown out of the country right after leaving the hotel yesterday. The guy had his pride. Once he realized the situation at the company was set in stone, he didn't want to leave in disgrace, so he resigned and left on his own. If Du Qianze had actually been dragged into that car yesterday, there was a real chance he'd already be overseas by now.

"That's true love," Hai Yang said, adding a smug little comment.

"I hope you run into that kind of 'true love' too," Du Qianze snapped before hanging up on him. Then he thought back on it all and realized, kind of depressingly, that maybe Chi Rui did really have feelings for him. Otherwise, why go through all that? Thankfully, he had good taste—and set his eyes on Fang Yi early on.

"Fang Yi," Du Qianze walked up and hugged him from behind, taking the chance to grope his muscles a little. The moment he felt Fang Yi tense up, he dragged him back to their room.

Du Qianze didn't tell Fang Yi about what happened with Chi Rui. Now that Chi Rui was abroad, there wasn't much he could do from that far away. Plus, with the Chi family's influence shrinking, Du Qianze felt like he could finally breathe a little. Chi Rui was scarier than a damn ticking time bomb—when he was around, Du Qianze couldn't feel safe doing anything. At least Chi Rui had enough pride not to mess with him behind the scenes. Otherwise, with that kind of power, blacklisting Du Qianze would've been a piece of cake.

Half a month later, the movie Du Qianze starred in was officially taken off the theaters. It made 380 million at the box office—double what he'd expected. Considering the total budget had only been 20 million, this was a massive win.

Thanks to this movie, Du Qianze's status rose another level, and the quality of scripts he was getting went up too. But choosing one turned out to be tough—because Fang Yi had said he couldn't be away filming for more than two months. That was way too hard.

In the end, Du Qianze gritted his teeth and decided to ignore him—he couldn't let a great script slip through his fingers.

As Du Qianze took on more acting roles, his fame started to rise too. He had a good temper, got along well with people, and with his orientation, a bunch of fujoshi fans worked hard to promote him—his popularity shot up fast. He also got offered a lot more roles, but he still didn't take on too many projects, keeping up his routine of doing one show and then taking a two-month break.

After all, he had a family now, and he couldn't just throw himself into work all the time.

Hai Yang totally looked down on this kind of thinking. He said Du Qianze had no long-term vision at all—for the sake of his family, he was actually turning down work? He should be taking advantage of this popularity surge to do more films and make more money. That way, Hai Yang could get a salary bump too.

Hai Yang's salary had already doubled compared to before, but he still thought it wasn't enough. Du Qianze couldn't even be bothered to argue with him.

"Always filming makes me feel empty inside. I need some time to reset," Du Qianze said. Getting to where he was now was already way beyond what he expected, but he was still a bit greedy—just having popularity wasn't enough. He wanted real fame. The best way to get that was by winning awards. Even if he didn't win anything, at the very least, he couldn't take on bad roles. That was his bottom line.

Over the past few years, Du Qianze had really sharpened his acting sk**ls, but that came with its own downsides—sometimes he got too into character, and if he didn't take a break in between projects, he couldn't properly perform in the next one. The pet shop with Fang Yi had become his safe space to recharge. Even though he just cooked for Xiao Yuan and took care of the animals there, it still gave him a deep sense of peace.

All credit goes to the original author
Feel free to pinpoint us if there are any grammar error or typos
Please don't use Guazi's translation to re-translate in other languages

Prev | Directory | Next