Dark Fire chapter 39
Wrap-up
Two days later, Zhang Jing called Ling Zhuo again to update him on recent events. The rumors about him and Lu Chixie had spread widely on the internet, with heated discussions on various gossip and entertainment forums. Most people were just spectators, either overly enthusiastic fans or troublemakers stirring the pot.
“But not many people really believe it. Either they’re hardcore shipper fans or just trying to tarnish your image. Most people are just enjoying the drama. Lu Chixie’s PR team is handling it well, so we just need to cooperate,” Zhang Jing said.
After discussing some business matters, she added with irritation, “And guess who’s involved in this mess? Jiaxin Media. They’ve got some nerve. I heard Xu Yusen’s team was furious after losing a few good opportunities. They’re targeting you out of jealousy, thinking you’re an easy target.”
Ling Zhuo frowned, suspecting Lu Chixie might have orchestrated this move through intermediaries. He warned Zhang Jing, “Be careful from now on. Their tactics are low, but it’s pointless to engage with them. We’ve clashed once before, and I don’t want to be dragged into it again.”
Zhang Jing understood the situation well but couldn’t swallow the injustice. Ling Zhuo sighed and admitted, “Lu Chixie said he’ll handle it.”
Zhang Jing asked, “Did he cause trouble for Xu Yusen?”
Ling Zhuo replied, “Probably.”
After a moment of silence, Zhang Jing said, “You’re being heavily criticized, and you’re not gaining anything positive from this situation. Isn’t it frustrating?”
Ling Zhuo clarified, “We’re not in that kind of relationship.”
Zhang Jing persisted, “What kind of relationship then? I’m not saying it’s an unequal transaction, but even in a relationship, isn’t it normal for him to help you out?”
Ling Zhuo admitted, “He’s helped me a lot already. I haven’t done much for him.”
Zhang Jing said firmly, “Alright, I won’t argue. I won’t oppose you two either. What good would it do?.”
Ling Zhuo fell silent.
After a moment’s hesitation, he told Zhang Jing about Lu Chixie’s suggestion, “Jing jie, what do you think about hyping our CP?”
Zhang Jing replied thoughtfully, “I’ve heard about his proposal from others too. The business opportunity is significant. But as for stirring up rumors, Ling Zhuo, think carefully. Is he suggesting this out of personal interest? Does someone with his background need to stir up rumors? You’re a top star; you don’t need this publicity stunt for endorsements. Avoiding suspicion could reduce the impact of the rumors.”
Ling Zhuo questioned, “Wouldn’t avoiding suspicion make us look guilty?”
Zhang Jing countered, “Do you intend to continue like this with him?”
Ling Zhuo asked, “What do you mean?”
Zhang Jing clarified, “If you plan to stay with him long-term or publicly announce your relationship when the time is right, then I support stirring up rumors. Consider it a preparation for the future. But if it’s just a fling or if you’re not confident it will last, then forget it. There’s no need. It’s only been four months since you’ve known each other, right? Do you really need to decide on this now?”
Ling Zhuo was taken aback. He hadn’t realized it had only been four months.
“… Jie, I want to give it a try,” Ling Zhuo said, as if making a decision.
Regardless of what happens in the future, for now, he didn’t want to hesitate anymore.
On the other end of the phone, Zhang Jing sighed, “Alright, I won’t dissuade you. If you’ve decided, do as you see fit.”
Ling Zhuo thanked her.
At the end of the month, filming for “Burning Love” wrapped up.
That morning, after Ling Zhuo finished his last scene, he felt a wave of relief when the director called out, “Okay!” As he relaxed, he saw Lu Chixie approaching with a bouquet of flowers.
Accepting the flowers, Ling Zhuo smiled and asked softly, “Why are you the one giving me flowers?”
Lu Chixie replied with a nod, “Is it not allowed?”
Ling Zhuo nodded back, “Thank you.”
Throughout the day, more actors finished filming, leaving only the lead actors for the final two scenes. Like others, Ling Zhuo accepted flowers from Lu Chixie on behalf of the crew and stayed behind for a group photo.
“Let’s take a photo together,” Lu Chixie suggested when they finally had a moment.
Ling Zhuo, holding flowers and still in his costume, was pulled close by Lu Chixie. Behind them, the bustling crew captured their first official photo together on Yang Ming’s phone.
Before heading back to the dressing room, Lu Chixie whispered in Ling Zhuo’s ear, “Let’s leave together tonight.”
Ling Zhuo agreed, “Okay.”
Lu Chixie remained busy all day, and Ling Zhuo had lunch alone in his dressing room. Yang Ming sent him the morning’s group photo, and Ling Zhuo meticulously crafted a heartfelt Weibo post while eating.
The final draft was nearly a thousand words long. He was especially grateful to Lu Chixie. Even if not out of personal interest, Lu Chixie helped him leave the set early every night, which was a great help. He should formally express his thanks.
Nine photos were selected, all group pictures with other key creators. Lu Chixie’s photo was deliberately placed in the center. After double-checking to ensure everything was fine, he clicked “publish.”
Two minutes later, Lu Chixie came online and liked his Weibo post.
Ling Zhuo smiled, refreshed the page, and noticed that DarkFire had just updated with a snapshot of Lu Chixie presenting him with flowers.
The moment he took the flowers, they exchanged a smile.
It was clearly a very ordinary scene, but Ling Zhuo sensed a hint of ambiguity in that snapshot. He bent down, pressing his hand against his own heart, feeling the increasingly erratic heartbeat.
They filmed the final scene of the entire drama in the evening.
The male and female leads met again at the place where they first met years ago. This time, Xuan Jiang really had amnesia, but he made the same gesture as he did back then, extending his hand slowly towards Zhuge You who was approaching. Zhuge You stopped in her tracks and did not move closer or leave, and the entire drama ended there.
Originally, this final scene was scheduled to be filmed two days ago, but on the day of filming, many media journalists showed up for the open set visit. In order to leave some suspense, they pushed it to the last day.
Ling Zhuo deliberately went to watch from the sidelines, his gaze following Lu Chixie.
It was the last scene, but Lu Chixie still acted with dedication. Xuan Jiang’s infatuation with the female lead, mixed with confusion and bewilderment due to his amnesia and mental regression, was portrayed to perfection by him.
Ling Zhuo watched attentively from the sidelines, inexplicably imagining himself as Zhuge You in the drama, encountering such a Xuan Jiang. He feared he would also have mixed feelings of love and hate towards him.
When the director called “cut,” Lu Chixie turned his head towards him, his gaze seemingly still in character. Ling Zhuo met his eyes, and for a moment, he almost couldn’t tell if he was looking at Lu Chixie or the character he portrayed.
Lu Chixie walked up to him, “Are you lost in thought?”
Ling Zhuo snapped out of it and smiled, “Congratulations, Teacher Lu, on successfully wrapping up filming.”
Lu Chixie reached out and hugged him.
Ling Zhuo was stunned, but Lu Chixie whispered in his ear with a low chuckle, “Congratulations to both of us.”
Afterwards, the entire crew took a group photo. Ling Zhuo originally didn’t want to squeeze in and stood on the edge, but Lu Chixie pulled him over, “Stand next to me.”
Ling Zhuo chuckled, “I don’t want to steal the limelight from you and Fei Jie, it doesn’t matter where I stand.”
Lu Chixie replied, “It doesn’t matter where you stand, stand here.”
Ling Zhuo chuckled again and during the photo shoot suddenly leaned towards Lu Chixie, smiling brightly. Lu Chixie turned his head to look at him, with a fleeting look of surprise in his eyes, a moment captured by the camera.
That night, after the wrap party, Ling Zhuo returned to the hotel first. Yang Ming had already packed his bags for him.
He grabbed his backpack and went downstairs again, bumping into Zhang Tianqi in the elevator. He nodded casually in greeting, but Zhang Tianqi ignored him, his expression looking somewhat strange. Ling Zhuo glanced at him a few more times, feeling a bit odd, but didn’t think much of it.
Lu Chixie went directly from the set to the restaurant where the wrap party was being held. He waited at the restaurant entrance for Ling Zhuo for a moment before they entered together.
Zhang Tianqi had already entered the restaurant ahead of them and gone up in the elevator. Ling Zhuo muttered to Lu Chixie, “Why does he look so guilty when he sees me? I didn’t do anything to him, did I?”
Lu Chixie chuckled, “He’s just feeling guilty.”
Ling Zhuo asked curiously, “What did he do?”
Lu Chixie replied, “He leaked a video of our rumored relationship, he had someone secretly film it and sold it to Jiaxin’s people.”
Ling Zhuo was surprised, “He did that?”
Lu Chixie nodded, “Yeah.”
“…I don’t know what to say,” Ling Zhuo said, not particularly surprised. “Since you already know, what are you going to do about it?”
Lu Chixie smirked at him, “Do what? I just told Gao Cheng about it. He’s lost credibility after being exposed for cheating and sleeping around before. Gao Cheng was quite happy to let me handle it as I please. I just told Gao Cheng that I would delete all the messy scenes he added during editing.”
That’s not bad, messing around with scenes will affect the quality of the entire drama. Deleting them is good for everyone.
Ling Zhuo asked, “Is that all you’re going to do? Are you just going to let it go like that?”
Lu Chixie glanced at him. “Is that not enough for you? Didn’t you say ‘an eye for an eye’?”
They entered the elevator, and Ling Zhuo pressed the button to go up.
He said, “No, I just find it a bit strange. Jing Jie said that Xu Yusen had been cut off from several good resources. Did you ask someone to do this? You’re quite forgiving of Zhang Tianqi.”
Lu Chixie said, “Yeah, it depends on how annoying they are.”
The elevator door had already opened, and Lu Chixie walked out first.
Ling Zhuo followed him and only realized the meaning behind Lu Chixie’s words after they had walked into the private room. Xu Yusen’s team fabricated his romantic relationship with a woman, and Zhang Tianqi secretly took pictures of him and Lu Chixie. The former was indeed more annoying, and Lu Chixie had previously said that he would give someone a red envelope.
At the wrap-up dinner, Ling Zhuo still sat next to Lu Chixie.
The atmosphere at the table was lively, and after four months of shooting, everyone was finally finished, and everyone was excited and reluctant to part, toasting each other. He Jingping got drunk and was still looking for people to drink with. Ling Zhuo was also forced to drink several glasses by him, and Lu Chixie smiled as he watched, not helping him block the alcohol, as he drank quite a bit himself.
It wasn’t until after nine o’clock that the dinner was finally over.
Ling Zhuo was helped into the nanny car by Yang Ming. Behind him, he said goodbye to others, and others to him, and he couldn’t remember how many drinks he had. He drank himself to sleep.
Leaning against the seat, he asked lazily, “Where’s Lu Chixie?”
Yang Ming said, “There are many fans outside. He went to his own car.”
Ling Zhuo said, “Oh,” murmured, “He said we’d leave together,” and closed his eyes.
When he woke up, someone touched his face, Ling Zhuo felt itchy, subconsciously turned his head, and opened his eyes.
Lu Chixie sat beside him, smiling and looking at him, “Awake? Can you still walk? Do you want me to carry you?”
Ling Zhuo looked outside for a moment, the car was already parked in the underground parking lot.
He rubbed his face, barely awake, and climbed out of the car himself.
Entering the elevator, he watched the numbers on the display rise steadily. Standing beside Lu Chixie, he felt much more awake now. That day they finished shooting their scenes together, and he followed Lu Chixie home, even bringing his luggage over. From now on, they would really be living together.
As they entered, Ling Zhuo was still lost in thought. Yang Ming, who helped carry the luggage upstairs, couldn’t resist whistling. “This house is really great. Six bedrooms, three living rooms, over four hundred square meters—all furnished with a taste of wealth.”
Ling Zhuo came to his senses and looked around. The whole house was decorated in a simple style with cool tones, quite attractive.
Lu Chixie casually said, “I used to live here alone. I made a study, a gym, and an entertainment room. There’s only one guest bedroom, where Xiao Qian occasionally stays overnight.”
Ling Zhuo asked, “Then where will I stay?”
Lu Chixie ignored him and went to the fridge for water.
Xiao Qian whispered, “The master bedroom is very large,” as he pushed the luggage inside.
It was already late, and Lu Chixie sent Xiao Qian and Yang Ming away, asking them to come back tomorrow to help with unpacking.
Seeing Lu Chixie busy at the bar counter, Ling Zhuo walked over and leaned on it. “Are you still going to drink?”
Lu Chixie replied, “I’m not drinking. You’re drunk. I’ll make you something to sober up.”
Ling Zhuo asked again, “Where am I supposed to sleep?”
Lu Chixie placed a drink he had prepared in front of him. “Drink this first.”
Ling Zhuo looked at the brightly colored drink and asked, “What is this?”
Lu Chixie said, “Try it.”
Ling Zhuo remarked, “You’re intentionally trying to get me drunk tonight.”
He hesitated, took a sip, and found it cool and sour-sweet, with flavors of lemon and plum. It was quite enjoyable and indeed seemed to help sober him up.
Lu Chixie reminded him, “There’s only one master bedroom. Are you going to sleep with me?”
Ling Zhuo replied, “No.”
Lu Chixie turned his head and touched his lips over the counter. “No negotiation.”
Ling Zhuo couldn’t be bothered.
However, when he later entered the master bedroom and saw the huge oval bathtub in the bathroom, he compromised.
The lights above suddenly dimmed, and Ling Zhuo didn’t react at first. “Why are the lights off?”
Lu Chixie came up behind him and whispered softly, “For taking a bath.”
Ling Zhuo asked, “How can you bathe with the lights off?”
Lu Chixie pressed a switch, and the curtain by the bathtub slid open to reveal a brightly lit cityscape outside the floor-to-ceiling glass window.
Ling Zhuo said, “It’s awkward to bathe like this…”
Lu Chixie assured him, “No one can see from outside.”
Ling Zhuo pushed him back, “You go first. I’ll come in later.”
The person behind him didn’t let go, biting his ear and slowly saying, “Ling Zhuo, once you enter my territory, do you think you can escape?”