Chapter 57

Lu Tianyan was on the verge of death.

He was now hanging onto life by a thread. The collateral branches of the Lu family and the group’s shareholders were eyeing the wealth in his hands with greed.

As the heir to the vast Lu family fortune, Lu Jiuxu had naturally been facing frequent pressure from them lately.

In order to stabilize the situation, he had basically been working overtime every day recently.

Today, there had been an issue with the bidding for the land in Xiangwan, which had already made him restless.

But when Su Xingyao suddenly appeared, it made him instantly sober.

He lowered his gaze, looking ahead.

The person with their back to him seemed like a defenseless little kitten, completely unaware of the person behind them.

The voice was soft and gentle, carrying the pleasant scent of bath lotion.

Su Xingyao’s slender fingers lifted the hem of his shirt.

The smooth, slender waist exposed under the shirt came into Lu Jiuxu’s line of sight.

At the lowest point of the concave waist, it was hidden under the loose sleep pants.

Connecting the waistline was a full, round curve and delicate, straight legs.

Seeing that the person behind him hadn’t moved, Su Xingyao turned his head and spoke in a pleading tone.

“Mr. Lu, could you help me apply some medicine? I can’t sleep because of the itching…”

Su Xingyao’s tone was completely normal.

But to the person listening, it strangely sounded like he was being coquettish.

It felt as though his heart was lightly scratched by the claws of a kitten.

Lu Jiuxu snapped back to reality and reached out to take the ointment and cotton swab from Su Xingyao’s other hand.

He glanced at the sudden small red bumps on the fair skin before speaking in a low voice.

“Are you allergic?”

As he spoke, the cotton swab dipped in ointment gently applied the cream to Su Xingyao’s skin.

The force Lu Jiuxu used with his hands had never been so gentle.

The cotton swab quickly touched the delicate skin, and the cool sensation instantly relieved the original itch.

Su Xingyao squinted his eyes in comfort, his shoulders gently relaxing.

He wasn’t sure if it was because Lu Jiuxu’s movements were too gentle, but he felt as though the cotton swab was gliding over his skin like a feather.

It was a subtle sensation.

It even seemed to spread quickly to other parts of his body along the skin that had been treated.

“It’s from being covered…” Su Xingyao murmured, “There was a power outage while recording the program today.”

Lu Jiuxu noticed the slight tremor in Su Xingyao’s shoulders and paused his movements.

“Does it hurt?”

“It doesn’t hurt…” Su Xingyao shyly explained, “Actually, it’s quite comfortable, just a bit itchy.”

“It’s not a wound itch, it’s just… I’m a little ticklish.”

Lu Jiuxu didn’t respond immediately, instead dipping a new cotton swab in the ointment and continuing to apply it.

“I’ll do it faster then.”

“Okay.”

Su Xingyao felt that Lu Jiuxu had applied enough of the ointment, so he started to roll his shirt back down.

However, with his hands behind his back, it was a bit difficult to do.

After Lu Jiuxu finished applying the ointment to his lower back, he helped by tugging at the hem of his shirt, slowly pulling it up bit by bit.

In less than two seconds, Su Xingyao’s slender, beautiful back was almost fully exposed in front of Lu Jiuxu.

It was an incredibly beautiful and perfect figure.

Not overly delicate, but with extremely graceful lines.

However, the only imperfection was the scar at the top of his shoulder blades.

Lu Jiuxu’s gaze fell on the scar, and he stared at it for a long time.

Seeing that Lu Jiuxu had not moved, Su Xingyao remembered the other scratch on his back from the costume and handed him the iodine bottle.

“Do I have another scratch on my back? Has it scabbed over? Could you help me apply some to it too?”

Lu Jiuxu softly hummed in response, switching to a new cotton swab and using iodine to treat the wound.

Yet his gaze was still fixed on the scar.

His stare was so intense that Su Xingyao, even with his back to him, could feel the weight of it.

He could casually talk about this scar with 77, but at this moment, he strangely didn’t want Lu Jiuxu to see it.

Just as he was about to ask whether the medicine had been applied, he noticed Lu Jiuxu gently touched the skin around the scar with the cotton swab.

It was only a very light touch, but under the man’s gaze, the skin in that area began to heat up unusually.

It felt as if his body had triggered some strange sensation from the touch.

The surrounding pale skin quickly flushed with a faint red tint, becoming more lustrous.

Even the ugly scar seemed to take on a subtle hue, as if it had gained a certain allure.

“Does this area need medicine too?”

The man’s voice was even deeper than before.

Su Xingyao shook his head and gently inhaled, “No need there…”

“Did I hurt you?” Lu Jiuxu furrowed his brow.

Su Xingyao saw that Lu Jiuxu had misunderstood and vaguely explained, “No, it’s an old wound. It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

Lu Jiuxu didn’t speak, tightly pressing his lips together, his gaze meticulously tracing the scar.

If Su Xingyao were a flawless white jade, then this scar would be the only imperfection on it.

And the person responsible for this accident…

Damn.

Out of Su Xingyao’s sight, Lu Jiuxu’s expression darkened, but his tone carried pity.

“A wound this large must have hurt a lot back then.”

It must have hurt a lot back then…

Six years later, Lu Jiuxu was the only one who could recall what it had felt like at that time.

Su Xingyao, who had long since stopped caring about the scar, suddenly felt his heart skip a beat at Lu Jiuxu’s words.

A strange feeling flooded his heart.

Su Xingyao couldn’t quite figure out where this emotion was coming from, but he lowered his gaze and nodded slightly. “It hurt a lot.”

“But it’s all in the past now.”

Noticing that Su Xingyao didn’t want to discuss the scar any further, Lu Jiuxu suppressed all his emotions and didn’t ask any more questions.

He tightened Su Xingyao’s shirt and, once the ointment had absorbed into the skin, gently let go.

The back that had been treated with the ointment felt cool, and Su Xingyao immediately felt much more comfortable.

He turned to thank Lu Jiuxu but saw that the usually vibrant man now looked somewhat fatigued.

“Mr. Lu, have you been very busy recently? You come home so late every day.”

Lu Jiuxu casually unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt and responded indifferently, “Almost done with it.”

He looked up at Su Xingyao, who was still standing there watching him, and smiled.

“I’m fine, you should go to sleep. It’s very late.”

Su Xingyao nodded, placing the ointment and cotton swabs back in the medicine box before turning to say goodnight to Lu Jiuxu. “Then you should rest early too.”

“I will.”

However, despite promising Su Xingyao that he would sleep early, Lu Jiuxu couldn’t fall asleep that night.

Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the ugly scar on Su Xingyao’s delicate white skin.

With such sensitive skin, even the lightest touch of the cotton swab made him tremble.

How deep must the wound have been when it was burned like that? How much must it have hurt?

The more Lu Jiuxu thought about it, the more the scar bothered him.

He wished he could immediately contact the best doctor in the world to have it permanently removed for Su Xingyao.

—

The small red spots on Su Xingyao’s back appeared quickly but disappeared just as fast. By the next day, they no longer hurt, itch, or remain swollen.

Without these worries, he began preparing to sing the cute song he picked out yesterday with falsetto.

After searching online for how to use falsetto, all he found were videos of 180-pound guys trying to disguise themselves as cute little lolis. So, Su Xingyao decided to give up…

The next day, the production team notified all the contestants to go to the studio to record new content.

With the third live performance broadcast approaching, everyone knew that in just a few days, the production team would announce the details of the next competition.

When Su Xingyao arrived at the venue, he found that the rapper, who usually wore black clothes and pants, was wearing an idol trainee uniform.

The contestants from his group all surrounded him and started teasing him.

“Yo~~~~~~~~ Handsome, who are you?”

“How come we have a trainee here?”

The rapper, dressed in a singing and dancing idol uniform, was so embarrassed he couldn’t even lift his head.

His gaze accidentally landed on the singer who was about to perform acrobatics live. He quickly grabbed him.

“Bro, how’s your acrobatics preparation going?”

The other confidently pointed to the ropes hanging in mid-air.

“Want to experience it live?”

The rapper hurriedly waved his hand and hid behind Su Xingyao’s teddy bear.

When the acrobat saw he hadn’t succeeded, he turned to Su Xingyao and invited, “Catcat, do you want to try it? I’ll take you flying, become a flying cat.”

Su Xingyao stepped back three steps, bent over, and hid behind the rapper as if using him as a shield.

“No, bro, I’m afraid of heights!”

From the mentor’s seat, Fu Qingyan watched the contestants fooling around when two messages popped up on his WeChat.

It was from Shen Huaixi.

Shen Huaixi: Qingyan, have you contacted Director Zhang for me?

Since the last incident, Shen Huaixi’s reputation had completely crashed with the audience.

Because it involved suppressing Su Xingyao, he had no face to go to Shen Liangyu and Wen Ningshu to complain.

He had barely managed to deal with his foster parents, only for Qin Mingchuan to have a falling-out with him and cancel his star status.

Before, he had the support of Qin Mingchuan and the Shen family, and he never worried about resources.

But now, without Qin Mingchuan feeding him resources, he couldn’t risk provoking the Shen family during this time.

Therefore, he could only rely on Fu Qingyan, who still hadn’t abandoned him.

Celebrities who have once tasted the high life will never willingly accept obscurity.

Thus, Shen Huaixi kept thinking about how he could turn things around.

During his time of silence, he began to consider following Fu Qingyan’s path as an actor.

After the storm settled, he planned to make a comeback, using works from renowned directors to impress fans and netizens.

When he heard that Director Zhang was making a new movie, he immediately asked Fu Qingyan to help him get a role.

But after waiting for a long time without hearing back from Fu Qingyan, he decided to ask directly today.

After reading Shen Huaixi’s message, Fu Qingyan quickly typed a reply.

【Director Zhang wants you to come for an audition next Wednesday.】

After sending those few words, for some reason, the conversation he had with Qin Mingchuan the day before suddenly flooded into Fu Qingyan’s mind.

On impulse, he typed another line of text.

Fu Qingyan: Huaixi, do you still remember the fire six years ago?

The 【typing…】 indicator on the phone instantly disappeared.

About two minutes later, Shen Huaixi replied.

Shen Huaixi: What’s up?

It’s usually difficult to gauge someone’s real emotions through text alone when communicating over the phone.

However, Fu Qingyan could almost feel Shen Huaixi’s tension and impatience through those three words.

Fu Qingyan: Nothing, I just dreamed about that big fire again last night.

Fu Qingyan: I dreamt you rushed through the flames to carry me out.

After sending the message, Fu Qingyan gently closed his eyes.

The unpleasant memories rushed back to him once more.

The fact that Shen Huaixi carried him out of the fire was something Fu Qingyan later heard from those around him after he woke up.

Ban Yang said he had regained consciousness briefly and saw him and Shen Huaixi lying together.

Others at the scene also told him that it was Shen Huaixi who saved him, and that he had been injured in the process.

Fu Qingyan himself didn’t have a very clear memory of the incident.

He only remembered that before he lost consciousness, the last thing he saw was Shen Huaixi, frantic and rushing towards him through the flames.

Then everything went black, and he remembered nothing.

After recalling the scene, Fu Qingyan quickly typed another message.

Fu Qingyan: You’re such a small guy, you really had it rough.

Surprisingly, Shen Huaixi didn’t reply immediately.

After deleting and editing the message several times, Shen Huaixi finally replied with a single line: 【I didn’t think much of it at the time.】

Fu Qingyan read these words twice, and then finally asked the question he had been holding in ever since his conversation with Qin Mingchuan.

Fu Qingyan: Do you know where Su Xingyao went during that time?

This time, Shen Huaixi replied quickly.

Shen Huaixi: ?

Shen Huaixi: Why are you suddenly asking this?

Fu Qingyan also felt that his question was a bit pointless, so he was about to reply with a simple “nothing.”

However, Shen Huaixi quickly sent a third message.

Shen Huaixi: Have you seen Qin Mingchuan?

Fu Qingyan didn’t understand why the topic shifted to Qin Mingchuan, but he still truthfully replied with 【I have】.

When Shen Huaixi saw those two words, his heart immediately sank, and he quickly sent a precautionary message to Fu Qingyan.

Shen Huaixi: He’s been acting really strange lately, seems like he has a big issue with me.

Shen Huaixi: And he’s been very eager to badmouth me everywhere, don’t listen to him.

After sending these few sentences, Shen Huaixi asked again.

Shen Huaixi: Did he say anything to you?

Fu Qingyan looked at these flurry of messages from Shen Huaixi.

After hesitating for a moment, he chose to conceal the details of his meeting with Qin Mingchuan, almost instinctively.

He replied with: No.

After sending those two words, Fu Qingyan looked up from the mentor’s seat at the stage.

He just happened to see Su Xingyao, who was frantically waving and shouting that he was afraid of heights at the acrobatic singer.

Watching this scene, Fu Qingyan felt that it seemed a bit familiar, as if he had heard similar words before…

Suddenly, something flashed in his mind, but Fu Qingyan wasn’t able to catch those key details.

At this moment, Cheng Yan happened to walk past him, so Fu Qingyan reached out to stop him.

“Do you know who contestant 78 is?”

Cheng Yan shook his head, “No idea.”

Although he was Su Xingyao’s mentor, he had never asked about any gossip like that underground.

However, after hearing their conversation, Xu Beizhou provided Fu Qingyan with some useful information.

“I overheard some staff saying that he was a lyricist and composer who was popular online about six or seven years ago.”

Cheng Yan, surprised, picked up the conversation, “No wonder he sings so well but doesn’t have fans decoding him. Turns out he’s been working behind the scenes.”

“I’m not really sure,” Xu Beizhou smiled, “But this time, for the public performance, all the contestants’ identities will be revealed.”

“Then you’ll know exactly who he is.”