Rear-End Collision

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After hanging up, Li Yangxiao immediately blocked Xu Yan on every platform.

After a moment of thought, he found Chi Mingyao’s WeChat contact and blocked him as well.

Since he would never be able to get into the entertainment industry, all of these people who had anything to do with it could get out of his life.

Since the dream he had held onto for over a decade had now been destroyed, he had to live with a little more dignity.

Li Yangxiao felt that he had thought it through: from today onward, he would not act in accordance with others’ opinions.
He would live freely.

In order to bid a thorough farewell to the past, Li Yangxiao found his previous films and watched them all again.

Then, he planned out a new path for himself, something that was completely different from what he had done in the past, a path that he had never once thought about.

Even if he could not be an actor, he did not plan on living a dull, boring life.
He wanted to do something special.

That same afternoon, Chi Mingyao and his elder brother Chi Mingkai were having a rare meal together.
In their company was a director who had gained some reputation in the past year; he had come looking for Chi Mingkai to discuss an investment deal in a drama.

In the middle of the meal, Chi Mingkai left to take a call.
One could tell that he was obviously not very interested in this drama.

The director, named Xu Junzhi, stood up.
He reached out toward Chi Mingkai’s back, wanting to say something more, but Chi Mingkai left quickly and closed the door behind him.

“Ai, your brother doesn’t want to invest in this project anymore.
The director sat down dejectedly, “Last year’s drama didn’t receive the expected viewership.”

“You want to focus on movies this year, right?” Chi Mingyao asked.

“That’s right.
And the main actors this time might not be able to entice the viewers.
Your brother doesn’t want to risk it.”

“Who are they?” Chi Mingyao asked casually.

“Wei Linlin and Xu Jingye.”

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“They’ve only gotten famous in the last two years, no? They’re not very popular.”

The director sighed: “Ai, that’s right.
Originally, Zhang Xi was cast as the sidekick.
In the end, his manager called, saying that this role was too plain, and that he feared it would affect his image afterward.
As for who the role will go to, I still have to mull it over during the next two days.”

Li Yangxiao’s face suddenly flashed through Chi Mingyao’s mind: his silent, tearstained face.

That day, after he had sent Li Yangxiao home, this image often appeared in Chi Mingyao’s mind.
Whenever he sat in the Volkswagen Phaeton he had driven that day, he suddenly thought of Li Yangxiao.
Then, inexplicably, he would feel a bit depressed.

In the following days, he really could not handle it.
He switched to driving a different car, but in the end, he would still think of Li Yangxiao.

To witness the moment when a person’s dreams were shattered was not easy; who did not have their own dream at some point?

So, when Chi Mingyao was not paying attention, he asked: “What kind of actor do you need?”

“Someone young, anything’s fine as long as he’s attractive.
Nowadays, the only thing people look at is the face.” The director said.

“I have a friend,” Chi Mingyao said, “He fits your requirements quite well.
He just doesn’t have much of a name for himself.”

“That isn’t a problem.
After all, it’s just the sidekick, he’s not going to be the one pulling in the viewers.
Young Master Chi, do you have a picture? I’ll take a look first.”

“No.
I’ll look through his Moments.” Chi Mingyao found Li Yangxiao’s WeChat contact and tapped on his Moments page.

Li Yangxiao had not made any new posts in years.
The most recent one was a silly photo from New Year’s Eve, in which he was crossing his eyes.

Chi Mingyao scrolled down, trying to find a normal-looking picture.
But after looking at just a few photos, he became a bit impatient: fucking mental, why are there people who insist on crossing their eyes in every picture? Is there something wrong with your brain?! Chi Mingyao cursed him in his mind.

Only after tapping through a few photos did he find a normal-looking one.
It was the one that Cao Ye had shown him the other day.
It was probably the same one Chen Rui had painstakingly unearthed back then.

Chi Mingyao handed his phone to the director: “It’s this guy, is he all right?”

“Th-this, isn’t this that Yang… Yang… “

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“Li Yangxiao?” Chi Mingyao finished for him.

“Right! Isn’t he the actor Rui-ge called useless before?”

“News really travels far and wide around here.
You heard about it too?” Chi Mingyao was a bit speechless.

“Back then, it was spreading through chat groups.
So many of mine received the news.
Young Master Chi, will this be all right?” The director examined the photo, before he looked back up at Chi Mingyao.

“It’ll be fine.
Just see if he’s all right or not.
If he’s good, cast him.
If something happens, I’ll sort it out.”

“All right then.
Young Master Chi, why don’t you have him send his previous works over for me to look at? I want to see how he acts.”

“I’ll tell him.” Chi Mingyao took his phone back, exited the Moments page and sent a text to Li Yangxiao:

“Do you have any previous works?”

It did not send.
A system message appeared on the screen: “The message is successfully sent but rejected by the user.”

No way, he had just been able to view his Moments page! Was there something wrong with the system? Chi Mingyao closed the settings, and reopened WeChat.
He sent the text again, but the result was still the same.

Chi Mingyao found this to be a bit weird.
He tapped on Li Yangxiao’s Moments page again–and discovered that he could not view any of the photos.

Li Yangxiao had actually blocked him?!

Chi Mingyao was about to throw his phone: just moments earlier, he, Chi Mingyao, had repaid ingratitude with kindness.
Just as he had been about to give Li Yangxiao a helping hand, in less than a minute’s time, Li Yangxiao had actually finished blocking him?! 

Notes

Sorry for the delay ah~ Thanks for reading~

艺考 (yì kǎo): Art college entrance examination.
It’s an alternative to 高考, the usual university entrance exam.
This exam is for those who want to major in fine arts/music, with content and grades based on certain courses. In the raws, there is a note that points out that this line is from Gintama.
I found the episode, and the English subtitle for this line was “unlike you rich people, we can barely scrape by day to day”.