48. Freedom

Sang Jia Yi just came out from there, she was wearing a pink hooded jacket and a white baseball cap on her head, looking innocent and lovely.

Qi Le An walked to the seat and pretended to be surprised on seeing Sang Jia Yi: “Sister Jiayi, why are you here?”

Sang Jia Yi was still a little scared when she saw Qi Le An, she quickly said: “I heard this restaurant was quite renowned, today I finally found a chance to sneak out and eat without my assistant’s nagging.”

Sang Jia Yi sounded very sincere. She was not on the set that afternoon. It was an on-the-spur-of-moment decision for Qi Le An and Wei Chang Feng to come here for dinner. And Sang Jia Yi didn’t bring her assistants with her, was it really a coincidence?

However, Qi Le An was still a little bit unhappy deep down. He said to Sang Jia Yi, “What do you feel like eating, Jiayi Jie? I just ordered for Wei Ge and myself.”

‘Just read the air and leave our table!’

Sang Jia Yi didn’t get the undertone of Qi Le An’s words. She looked at the menu, pouting, trying so hard to decide what she wanted, and finally, she ordered a serving of cold noodles.

‘You came all the way here just to eat a serve of cold noodles? Why don’t you just order in?’

Sang Jia Yi sighed, “It’s so easy to get fat, my managers and assistants have been nagging me about my diet…”

Wei Chang Feng was just a perfect gentleman anytime, he put on a smile and said, “Since you are here already, why not make the best of it and eat something you really like. Go to the gym and run a few laps before going to bed. There will be nothing wrong.”

Sang Jia Yi’s eyes lit up suddenly as if she had been waiting for this out, “Since Wei Ge said so…then I will add more!”

Qi Le An: “…”

‘Yeah yeah yeah, add more and get fast! You third wheel!’

Qi Le An went to the counter added fried rice cakes, kimchi soup, and seaweed rice for Sang Jia Yi despite himself.

The food was served very quickly in the store due to the small number of customers. Wei Chang Feng was a master of barbecue. He took charge of the grill and kept busy serving the other two. Sang Jia Yi kept saying she was full, but her eyes were glued to the grill.

Wei Chang Feng smiled knowingly, then served a piece of meat for Sang Jia Yi, and said, “Here you go.”

Qi Le An pulled a long face, he had been eating with vengeance!

Sang Jia Yi sighed with emotion, “Le An, you don’t tend to gain weight easily, right? I’m so jealous…”

Qi Le An smiled and said, “Yes, usually eat several meals a day.”

Everyone lived in the same hotel so they went back together naturally. After eating a meal together, Sang Jia Yi started to become more chatty around them, and she kept playing cute in front of Wei Chang Feng, Qi Le An bitterly picked a strand of Sang Jia Yi’s long hair from the seat, and prepared to fabricate a dream for her that night!

Days on the set passed uneventfully, Qi Le An tried to enter Wei Chang Feng’s dream several times but to no avail.

In mid-November, and the filming progress of “Better Days” was faster than expected. Director Chen was so happy about that, he gave everyone two days off to have a good rest and he decided to check the material that he had filmed.

Everyone on the crew was thrilled about days off, but Qi Le An was the exception because his birthday was just around the corner.

Celebrating his birthday was supposed to be a happy thing, but no one had done anything for him after his parents died, so Qi Le An was not stoked about birthdays. This year, he has gathered a lot of popularity because of “To Perish Demons “, and Glory decided to take advantage of that popularity in the name of his birthday.

Qi Le An didn’t have to listen to Glory’s nonsense since he had been working with Chen Shan. But as luck would have it, Glory had heard about his days off, so they had come up with a plan last minute.

The celebrities would start selling tickets one or two months in advance for a birthday meet-and-greet. In Qi Le An’s situation, everything was so urgent and last minute, it was so obvious Glory was making use of his popularity to sell tickets and make profits.

“Chen Ge…” Qi Le An looked at Chen Shan, who was frowning, and said, “How is it?”

Chen Shan hung up the phone and took a deep breath, “Little An, I’m sorry.”

Chen Shan’s words were full of guilt, and he looked so painful for the first time, Qi Le An was taken aback, and then lowered his head and said, “Let’s just accept it, it’s okay.”

Now Chen Shan was Qi Le An’s manager, and of course, Qi Le An’s schedule would require Chen Shan’s approval. The news of the crew’s days off was announced a week in advance. The next day Chen Shan received a call from the company, saying that they wanted to prepare a birthday party for Qi Le An.

Chen Shan thought about it, this matter was profitable and harmless, and Qi Le An would not go celebrate his birthday with his family anyway, so he agreed, and he specifically asked them not to make the party too long.

The company naturally had a team to arrange Qi Le An’s birthday party, plus Chen Shan had been busy selecting the right endorsement contract for Qi Le An recently, so he left the birthday party in Glory’s hands. When he saw the final version of the plan, the ticket sales channel for Qi Le An’s birthday party was already open.

The starting fare was 380 Yuan, and the VIP fare reached as high as 880 Yuan. The entire birthday party would only last an hour.

For a starlet like Qi Le An, this price was too unreasonable for the fans.

“I was negligent this time.” Chen Shan looked so grim and he said, “There will have…some consequence.”

Surely there would be some scathing attack from the reporters, to make it worse, some people might blow this out of proportion, and it was hard to imagine what kind of storms Qi Le An would suffer.

“No! I’ll go make another call!”

Chen Shan sullenly scratched his hair and took the phone to the corner.

Qi Le An knew in his heart that no matter how many phone calls Chen Shan made, it would be of no use. After all, the price had already been marked and the sale had already begun. If the price was lowered at this point, the fans who had bought it would be unhappy.

As he had expected, after a while, Chen Shan returned with a long face. Qi Le An sighed and said to Chen Shan: “Chen Ge, you are not to blame for this.”

Chen Shan had been busy looking for high-end brands contracts for Qi Le An recently. However, high-end brands would hesitate about cooperating with a starlet. Chen Shan got quite a few cold-shoulder treatments, and finally, he found a promising deal.

Unexpectedly, the birthday party went wrong before he actually had a chance to talk further about the deal.

“I know you have been busy for me.” Qi Le An said softly, “I… I am very grateful to you.”

He was telling the truth, and he knew Chen Shan was doing his best.

“About the birthday party, what is done cannot be undone… Let’s prepare in advance.” Qi Le An said.

Chen Shan looked at Qi Le An with a complicated expression, and said, “You are right… I’ll call my contacts.”

In an era where Douban and Tianya BBS dominated the internet, the spread of news was far less rapid than that of the Weibo and Twitter era. If Chen Shan reacted fast, he could get everything under control.

Qi Le An kept tossing and turning in bed that night and couldn’t help but search for his news online using his Nokia.

It didn’t look very good. Some people have already started talking about tickets price to Qi Le An’s birthday party. Fortunately, fans were still defending him for the time being. What Qi Le An fears most was to disappoint the fans.

Qi Le An’s birthday was on November 21. Director Chen held a gathering on the evening of the 19th. The crew had dinner together that night to celebrate their days off, and Qi Le An flew back to Hai City.

His apartment was a bit dusty now that he had been away for nearly two months. The discussion on Qi Le An on the Internet in the past two days had become more and more intense, making him and Chen Shan feel so blue. Chen Shan didn’t arrange any activities for him, and the two ended up cleaning the apartment for most of the day.

Before he left, Chen Shan looked at Qi Le An and said, “You… cheer up, it’s your birthday tomorrow.”

Qi Le An nodded, he held the food that Chen Shan ordered in for him and said, “I am happy, don’t worry about me, Chen Ge!”

Chen Shan had been away from home for a long time as well, and he volunteered to do cleaning with him first thing he was back in Hai City. Qi Le An felt so touched.

Qi Le An couldn’t help turning on the computer again and kept reading the posts about him.

The posts about his birthday party dominated the front page on the entertainment section, Qi Le An only felt bitter when he looked at the posts.

‘Everything is going on so well, but why do they have to sell those pricy tickets in my name!’

Helplessness seized him.

Qi Le An realized that as long as he was still in Glory, he was at the mercy of those bloodsuckers even though he had got Chen Shan.

However, leaving Glory seemed to be an unsolvable problem.

Qi Le An became depressed.

He went to bed early that night, Qi Le An’s cell phone rang at midnight.

He looked at the screen in a daze, he meant to hang up but he woke up with a start on seeing the caller’s name!

Wei Chang Feng!

Qi Le An pressed the green answer button, and Wei Chang Feng’s soothing voice came from the other side of the phone, “Little An, Happy birthday.”

Qi Le An’s eyes became moist on hearing that.

“Wei Sama…”

Wei Chang Feng said with a smile, “Are you asleep? Have I woken you up?”

“No, no!” Qi Le An sat up all of a sudden, “Wei Sama, you are calling to wish me a happy birthday… I just feel like I’m dreaming.”

After Qi Le An’s parents passed away for a long time, he did not receive birthday greetings until he met his ‘good friend’ Chu Cheng Yuan…

“Little An? Are you listening?” Wei Chang Feng’s voice had dragged Qi Le An from thinking about that viper Chu Cheng Yuan.

He quickly said: “I’m listening! Wei Sama!”

“I thought you fell asleep,” Wei Chang Feng said in a gentle voice, “Tell me what you want for your birthday, and I will get it for you.”

Qi Le An was amused by Wei Chang Feng’s words, “Can I ask you to get the moon in the sky for me?”

“This is a bit difficult…” Wei Chang Feng pretended to think, “But it’s not impossible.”

Qi Le An couldn’t help laughing.

“Do you want the moon?” Wei Chang Feng asked.

Qi Le An was afraid that Wei Chang Feng would give himself a “moon”, so he said, “Just kidding, I want…”

‘What do I want? What do I want the most?’

“Freedom……”

“I want to be a free man…”