Chapter 569: The Wind That Blew in Youth

"Brother Xiaoming, how's it going? It's almost Mid-Autumn Festival now—any progress?"

The Imperial Capital, inside a VIP private room of a clubhouse.

His friend's question made Huang Xiaoming, who had just been laughing and joking, let out an involuntary sigh—

"Not really, but we can still chat. I basically always make time to share with her some things I've run into, some gossip from the industry, that sort of thing—basically looking for common topics. In your words, she doesn't reject my desire to share, so that should be a good sign, right?"

"That's it?" His friend savored it for a moment, frowning as he asked back.

Huang Xiaoming found it a bit strange: "What else then? Didn't you always say that as long as a girl doesn't reject your desire to share and is willing to keep chatting with you, that means there's hope?"

"…Bro, you two aren't just getting to know each other. That trick only works for finding topics with girls you've just met. What on earth have you been putting into practice?" As the strategist, Du Chun was a bit speechless at his own senior brother whose brain didn't seem all that clear.

I know you're a dimwit, but could you not be such a dimwit?

No wonder back in school you got reeled in by Little Swallow until your mouth hooked open, and even the fallback guy wouldn't pick you.

"Desire to share, desire to share—that's just for finding topics and subtly introducing yourself to the girl. Your personal image fills out through the bits and pieces you share.

"But if all you can do is share, then the girl will just treat you as an emotional trash can or a chatting tool. Get it?"

Du Chun's earnest teachings—then he took a look at the phone's text message history—every single one was Huang Xiaoming checking in warmly and sharing daily life, while the other side's replies were clearly just a few polite lines out of courtesy and deference to Huang Xiaoming's status…

Hopeless.

I told you to be a warm guy, and you really only know how to be warm…

"She did reply to me, look—it's not even the perfunctory kind of 'mm, ah, oh.'"

Huang Xiaoming argued his case: "Even though she went to film Zhou Yi's MV, she also said that was all the media making stuff up. Isn't that her sharing with me too?"

Du Chun: "…"

Is there any chance she just doesn't want to completely offend you?

Since the broadcast of "Young Son of Heaven" in '02, Huang Xiaoming had stepped steadily, one footprint at a time, to the position of a top-tier new-generation actor on the mainland—

Although he still couldn't shake Lu Yi's dominant position in that age bracket, his acting and reputation in the industry were clearly better than the former who could only rely on his face and physique—truly a comprehensive talent where acting and looks soared together.

Qin Lan is just a nobody right now. If she had the guts to kill the conversation with you outright, she wouldn't have agreed to Qiong Yao and served as the peace ambassador to act in Zhou Yi's MV.

"You should just switch targets."

Du Chun shook his head: "She has zero desire to explore you, which equals zero interest in you. Or rather, she really does just see you as a friend."

Huang Xiaoming was dumbfounded: "Desire to explore?"

"Brother Xiaoming, remember this—to tell whether a girl has good feelings toward you, likes you or not, just look at whether she has the desire to explore you.

"If she occasionally asks you some playful questions during chats, and through those questions gets to know you, keeps actively finding topics and switching topics to chat with you, then that means at the very least she has good feelings toward you, willing to use chatting as a means to understand you, to explore your life…"

Du Chun, who had become good friends with Huang Xiaoming while filming "Great Han Son of Heaven 2" this year, was teaching his hot senior brother from his own experience.

……………………

The next day, far away in Shangrao, Jiang Xi, the "Gui Cang" crew.

After priority reshoots of the last few scenes wrapped up, all the crew members gave Masami Nagasawa and Aragaki Yui applause and flowers—

Zhou Yi himself even personally drove them to the station.

"Other people's Mid-Autumn Festival is about reunion; ours is about parting."

Watching the Warner staff escort the Japanese team into the station, Qin Lan, who had returned to the passenger seat of the BMW, stretched lazily and, in the moment of buckling her seatbelt, sighed: "But I feel saying it like that might be a bit melodramatic—after all, that's just how it is in our line of work, don't you think?"

September 11, 2003, Thursday, Mid-Autumn Festival.

A day that represents reunion and gathering.

Over these past days Qin Lan had gotten along pretty well with the two girls, although without a translator present the two sides often had to gesture wildly, mix and guess to communicate.

So she had also come to take part in today's send-off.

"You're you, I'm me."

Zhou Yi, who had put on his sunglasses, chuckled lightly: "I can go home anytime, anywhere—just a tap of the accelerator."

Qin Lan: "…"

The man's tone was somewhat smug. Qin Lan rolled her eyes, sighed, and at the same time turned to look out the window at the empty streetscape that kept flashing backward—

Honestly, she really was a bit homesick too.

Ever since going against her parents' wishes—giving up accounting to become an actress—she had never really made a name for herself. Basically every year she only went home once for Chinese New Year; the rest of the time it was texts or phone calls.

"Do you go home for Mid-Autumn every year, Zhou Yi?" Qin Lan, after reflecting on herself, turned curious and asked.

"Not really."

Zhou Yi turned the steering wheel and shook his head: "This year is actually the first time I've gone home for Mid-Autumn since my debut. Before, I always spent it out there, basically busy with work. Otherwise why do you think I scheduled the MV shoot in Shangrao? Treating yourself to a holiday on the company card, get it?"

"Eww…"

Qin Lan clicked her tongue a few times: "So you gave the crew today off just to go home for the holiday?"

"What do you mean 'gave them off'—today's a statutory holiday, understand?" Zhou Yi, beating around the bush, was educating her on the concept of statutory holidays.

He was the best boss in the hearts of every Warner employee.

Since he was the best boss, naturally he had to give them a holiday.

Qin Lan was amused by this bit of "sophistry."

After dropping her back at the hotel, Zhou Yi didn't linger at all, tossed out a farewell, and floored it straight home.

Watching the car disappear at the edge of her vision, Qin Lan slightly lifted her chin, took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, then took out her phone—after a long hesitation, she finally dialed home.

"Hello, Mom, it's me…"

While chatting on the phone with her parents, Qin Lan took the elevator back to her room. After putting down her bag, she casually turned on the TV. In the empty living room, only the advertisement remained as background, along with a daughter curled up on the sofa telling her mother how much she missed home.

"If it really won't work, just come back. Stop being a celebrity. You've had your dream, time to wake up. You're not young anymore—24 without a proper job, how are you going to support yourself in the future, how are you going to get married…"

The mother-daughter phone chat was ruined by one piece of advice from her old man that he couldn't hold back.

Only this time, Qin Lan didn't talk back, just calmly made one promise: "I know, Dad. If it still doesn't work out this time, then I'll come home."

With the double buff of a Qiong Yao drama and Zhou Yi's Ziwei Star, if she still couldn't become famous and make money, she would truly have to go home and honestly become an accountant, putting an end to the dreams of her youth.

People grow up, and they always have to face reality.

After hanging up the phone, feeling stifled, Qin Lan simply closed her eyes. It wasn't until Director Ning Hao called to ask if she wanted to join the crew's Mid-Autumn Festival holiday dinner that the sleeping Qin Lan jolted awake—

"Mid-Autumn Festival holiday dinner?"

"Yeah, we don't have to pay ourselves, eat whatever you want, it's on Zhou Yi. We found a farmhouse restaurant, we're confirming the headcount now."

"Is that so? Then you guys have fun, I won't go. The air conditioner blew on me a bit and I'm a little chilly, I don't have any energy at all. I'll just go downstairs and grab some rice noodles later."

"... Are you okay? Do you need to see a doctor?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine, don't worry. It's just a simple chill."

The voice of the just-awakened Qin Lan did sound a bit weak. Realizing he had disturbed her rest, Director Ning Hao hurriedly apologized before hanging up.

A glance at the time — just past three in the afternoon, clearly still early.

Afraid that if she slept any longer she might become an immortal by night, Qin Lan quickly touched up her makeup, changed into a T-shirt, slipped on her sandals, and left the hotel again—

There's usually a gala to watch during Mid-Autumn Festival. She planned to buy some snacks and come back to watch the gala in the evening, taking it easy alone.

"Boss, how much are your mooncakes?"

"Which kind? Five-nut, bean paste, egg yolk? Or something else?"

"Uh, egg yolk then..."

After hesitating for a moment, just as Qin Lan had chosen her flavor, she heard the sound of a child crying and making a fuss coming from the Anta store next door—

"I don't care, I don't care, I don't care! I want this pair! I want this one!"

A half-grown kid in a light blue T-shirt threw a tantrum and lay down right at the shop entrance. No matter how his family pulled, they couldn't get him up. While crying and fussing, he also rubbed his head on the ground, treating himself like a human mop.

The helpless parents had no choice but to turn around and take a new pair of shoes off the shelf that used Zhou Yi's promotional poster as a backdrop—

"Sigh, these kids nowadays are really impossible. We've already bought so many pairs of shoes at home, and he still wants more, insisting they have to be Zhou Yi's new shoes..."

"..."

Watching the kid instantly scramble up from the ground the moment he got the new shoes, Qin Lan smiled. Coming back to her senses and just about to ask the boss the price, two more Gao Zhongsheng-looking kids rushed past her in a frenzy—

"Hurry, hurry, if we're late we won't be able to buy it. I told you ages ago that Fatty's place was having a promotion and selling Zhou Yi's album at a discount, but you just wouldn't believe me. Look what happened."

"Alright, alright, let's go, let's go..."

"..."

"Oh, I think I remember you. You're that woman who came back with Pingzai's kid to film the TV drama, right?"

On the other side, the boss lady who had handed her a box of mooncakes finally figured out why Qin Lan looked familiar. The moment she opened her mouth, she left Qin Lan completely bewildered—

TV drama?

"No, no, we're filming an MV, Auntie, not a TV drama."

"Same thing, same thing, it's all filming."

The boss lady waved her hand dismissively, then stuffed the mooncake box into her arms: "We're all old acquaintances, no need to pay, it's a gift."

"Ah? No, Auntie, I can't accept this."

Never expecting to run into something like this, Qin Lan hurriedly declined: "How much, I'll pay you—"

"It's not anything valuable, take it since I'm giving it to you. I have plenty here."

The auntie, whose skin was tanned a bit dark by the sun, smiled very kindly: "That stinky kid Yi Yi used to come to my place all the time when he was in school to buy stuff and mooch food and drinks. You're his friend, if you don't believe me you can go ask him later."

"Yi Yi? Oh, you mean Zhou Yi, right?"

"Right, that's his nickname, we all call him that around here. We watched that kid grow up. Back when he was in high school, he got bullied and extorted, but he refused to pay, so he got into fights. He could take on a few but not a whole group, so he got chased by a bunch of people, and when he was running away he'd often hide out at my place..."

In an era when little thugs ran rampant, "don't leave after school" really wasn't just an empty threat.

Things like pinning someone down on the concrete, beating them on a ping-pong table, stepping on the back of their hand with a foot — those were all common tactics of thugs and delinquent students.

Especially in places like arcade halls on the black street and roller rinks, thugs and delinquent students picking targets to extort was as common as daily meals.

Logically speaking, a top student like Zhou Yi would definitely be well protected by his teachers at school. But he just couldn't help sneaking off to arcade rooms and even roller rinks...

Surprised that Zhou Yi was actually a rebellious student, Qin Lan gaped in astonishment.

Wait, this doesn't match what CCTV promoted — wasn't it that he studied by hanging himself from a beam and jabbing his thigh with an awl until he got into Peking University?

How could you specifically target lone delinquents and thugs to beat them up in revenge?

Having been a good girl her whole life and gone to college following her parents' wishes, Qin Lan suddenly felt that Zhou Yi, who had always seemed so far from her, seemed... a little closer?

She knew fighting all too well.

Even if she hadn't eaten pork, hadn't she seen pigs run? In her era, the schools in Shenyang never lacked brawls.

"First, I need to make one thing clear: this isn't fighting, this is called self-defense."

The next day.

When Zhou Yi headed to Shangrao No. 1 High School to prepare for his performance, hearing Qin Lan bring up this matter, he couldn't help but raise his right index finger and correct her righteously: "If it's ten or twenty of them, I'd definitely just run. But if they're alone and still threatening me, I'd definitely fight back."

"..."

The other party is alone... and threatening?

Can "alone" and "threatening" even be linked together?

"Second, just take these old folks' memoirs with a grain of salt. If the village sow gets pregnant, they'll spread it as the village sow crashed into a tree — they're professional rumor-mongers, not to be trusted."

Feeling his glorious image might be crumbling a bit, Zhou Yi decisively blamed it on rumors—

It was merely a touch of hardship from his youth.

Qin Lan nodded repeatedly in amusement, indicating she understood.

September 12, 2003, Friday.

This day was supposed to be during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, yet the playground of Shangrao No. 1 High School was now buzzing with noise.

At a glance, a sea of students stretched out. To the front, beside the main stage, the school leadership and teachers led by the principal watched the student who had once caused them equal parts heartache and pride step up the stairs one footprint at a time, his figure reflected in everyone's eyes—

A white short-sleeve with a pattern, dark blue jeans, and Anta sneakers.

Crew members could enter as guests; Qin Lan sat on the lawn below the stage, gazing up at that spirited figure.

"Wuhu!!!"

"Zhou Yi!!!"

"Zhou Yi, I want to see Sun Yanzi!!!"

On the playground, a chaotic clamor filled the air, and the teacher in charge of discipline was at his wit's end—

"Ahem, ahem, that thing, Teacher Wang, you might as well stop busywork."

Spotting his familiar teacher immediately, Zhou Yi smiled, adjusted the microphone, and joked, "Otherwise, this always makes me feel like I'm back in high school, after all, you were the one who managed me the most back then."

The students, understanding the joke, all turned into Taishan and roared for a while.

Since everyone was one of their own, no great achievements could be hidden, let alone Zhou Yi, who was now a legend at No. 1 High surpassing even Chen Hong, his past long since stripped bare.

"Alright, let's get back to business. Actually, I really wanted to set the date for next Monday, because then you'd all be in class, and I could secure half a day off for you. Don't thank me; I've been through it too."

Speaking, Zhou Yi poked his own chest and pointed toward the audience, instantly triggering a round of cheers and whistles.

"But unfortunately, due to my personal schedule, I could only arrange it for today." Removing the microphone, Zhou Yi stepped up to the front of the stage and made a rock gesture—

"I wish that for your future college entrance exams, you all achieve results that satisfy yourselves!"

The next second, the prelude to "Stubborn" played from the speakers brought in for the school event.

"Bang! When I am different from the world!

"Then let me be different!

"Persistence for me is overcoming hardness with hardness!"

The moment Zhou Yi opened his mouth, thousands of students below, whether mixed with students from other schools or not, immediately joined in for a massive chorus—

The volume was so great it directly drowned out Zhou Yi's microphone.

As one of Zhou Yi's "school songs," "Stubborn" had such a terrifyingly high appearance rate on the school broadcast.

An open-air playground, youthful students, arms swinging in perfect unison—

The microphone, now completely ineffective, was suppressed; though the lead singer, Zhou Yi, at this very moment became a backing vocalist, pointing out toward the people on the playground.

"The most beautiful wish must be the craziest!

"I am my own god, in the place where I live!

"My stubbornness and I, holding hands tight, never letting go!

"The next stop, is it heaven? Even if disappointed, never despair!"

The roar of youth, the venting of emotion.

The unfortunate little grass was helplessly bent to its knees—living very stubbornly.

Similarly swept up in the chorus atmosphere, Qin Lan stood up unconsciously, swinging her arms, her eyes reflecting Zhou Yi's figure strolling atop the high platform with a smiling expression; she shouted and sang along, overcome with excitement.

The summer wind flowed through her fingers, yet could not blow away that year, that month, that summer—that dream of youth.