Wei Sama, Let’s Stuff Them with Dog Food

25. What Are the Odds

Translator: Sissy That Walk

To Perish Demons became a total hit!

It ended up with record-breaking record since the first night it was broadcast. The average ratings in the following week of the show was as high as thirty-three percent. It had become the talk of the town, the OST became a hit as well, it was played in the malls, on the streets, everywhere! You needed to keep up with every episode to join the conversations with your friends.

Hu Bin had become even more popular after To Perish Demons, projects of new movies and variety shows kept coming in a continuous stream on his desk, he was pursued by hot money!

However, the biggest winner was Qi Le An in every respect. He was an unknown trainee before the drama, and now he had gained a large fan base due to his portray of the adorable and loyal Spirit Bunny Beast.

Posts like “Bell the Bunny is a Hidden Gem”, “Qi Le An is Lit”, “Best Moments of Bell”, “Treasure boy Qi Le An” would get over ten thousand views and pages of comments within just a few hours.

Qi Le An had also felt the other trainees’ attitude towards him had changed overnight, including that arrogant Yan Lang. Mr. Li had that pleasant smile on his face whenever he talked to Qi Le An, he tried so hard to pretend the slapping incident and the cursing over the phone incident had never existed.

Along with the success of the drama, Qi Le An had been indulged with so many activities. He would ask for days off frequently to make time for different activities, Glory had to suspend Qi Le An’s schooling and training since the second week.

“An, don’t worry about your curriculum, we’ve got you!” Mr. Li flashed a pile of commercial contracts in front of Qi Le An, then he picked one out and handed it to Qi Le An, “Look at this one, that’s a handsome paycheck, isn’t it?”

Qi Le An was glad that he got the opportunity to shoot commercials in this life, but his countenance changed abruptly as he took a close look at the contract.

It was a pretty well-known yogurt brand, the thing was Qi Le An remembered vividly that there would be a scandal about the ingredients of this brand in just a few months, the spokesman’s reputation had nosedived as well. And the whole scandal had caused a stir about whether the spokesmen should be responsible for the consumers who had bought the products to support them.

The spokesman who had endorsed the yogurt was universally condemned after the scandal, he had to hold a grand press conference to apologize to the public but it was no avail. He had lost all of his fans and he ended up vanishing from the scene in a few years.

‘I cannot let my supporters down and endorse any questionable products!’thought Qi Le An, with that in mind he pushed the contract away and said, “Mr. Li… I’ve watched a few articles about this brand, it’s got serious food safety issues.”

Mr. Li’s face darkened, he didn’t expect Qi Le An would have the guts to question him about the arrangement, “Forget about the food safety issues! Have you seen the endorsement fee they are willing to pay you! As a starlet, you should be grateful for such a handsome pay! Qi Le An, you get to be picky.”

Qi Le An didn’t say anything, but his expression was saying a lot.

Mr. Li threw the contract on Qi Le An and said, “You think you are grown now and you can leave the nest? No way! Tell you what, you are taking it because I’m asking to take it.”

The contract hit Qi Le An’s head and fell on the ground, Mr. Li stamped his foot on the contract and said, “Qi Le An, trust me, Glory has bought you outright for a really long time, you don’t want to rub us in the wrong way.”

With that Mr. Li left the room in a huff.

Qi Le An heaved a sigh and called Jiao.

“Sister Jiao, have you heard of XX Yoghurt? Here is the thing… …”

Jiao and Qi Le An still kept in touch after Qi Le An’s roadshow tour even though now Jiao was back to her old position of being a notorious actress’s assistant.

Qi Le An told Jiao about the potential endorsement deal thus Jiao could suggest the actress fight for it. Qi Le An had heard so many shocking things about the actress in his last life, not only would she put on airs around the staff but also she liked to bully the starlets, Qi Le An felt it served her right by letting her have that endorsement deal.

Qi Le An was sure that actress would pull strings to get the deal considering the handsome paycheck. Even Mr. Li couldn’t help it when a famous actress showed interest in the deal.

Qi Le An wasn’t happy to find out that Glory decided to suspend his schooling so that he could make more money for the company. He skipped a commercial activity that afternoon and turned off his phone as protest, he decided to visit his parents in the cemetery. He had been so busy since his rebirth that he hadn’t visited his parents even once yet.

Qi Le An’s parents passed away in an air crash, Uncle had buried them in a cemetery in an isolated suburb.

Qi Le An was still cash-strapped even thought he had gained a large fan base and had attended quite a few commercial activities now, he pondered a little while and decided to take a cab instead of the bus for he didn’t want to be recognized by the people on the bus.

Qi Le An lowered his hat after he hopped on the cab, he couldn’t help but think what he should do next. Glory had been looking for only commercial activities and endorsements for him since To Perish Demons, they couldn’t even be bothered to select one screenplay for him, it was obvious that Glory just wanted to squeeze his commercial value as much as possible while he was famous.

‘Should I select a screenplay by myself? No, Mr. Li is right, Glory did buy me outright, I’m not allowed to make my own decisions by law!’

Qi Le An thought a lot, but he couldn’t figure a way out.

It wasn’t until the driver parked the car at the gate of the cemetery did he realize they had arrived.

Qi Le An paid the fare and got off the cab. Emotions welled up inside him as he thought about the last time he met his parents, it was a summer, his father stroked his haor and told him to spend a few days at grandpa’s when he and mom were on a business trip. Mother told him that they would pick him up soon.

But they never picked him up from grandpa’s.

And the next thing he could remember was two officers in uniform knocked on grandpa’s door on a night, grandpa slumped down on the ground when he heard what they told him.

Qi Le An rushed towards grandpa to support him, an officer stroked Qi Le An’s hair and wept, Qi Le An comforted the officer, “Aunt, why are you crying? You miss your mom too, it’s okay, my mom will be back soon and she told me she would bring me candies, I will share my candies with you, there there, don’t cry.”

Grandpa passed away not long after Qi Le An’s parents were buried. Qi Le An was sent to Uncle after that, Uncle was nice to Qi Le An in the beginning, but he showed his true color after he had got Qi Le An’s parents’ pension.

… …

Qi Le An bought a bunch of chrysanthemum and walked inside the cemetery, he found his parents’ tombstone and placed the flower on it after he took a deep breath.

He stroked the picture on the tombstone, his parents were such a beautiful couple.

“Mom, dad, how are you doing in the other world? I miss you every day. Mom and dad, please give me your blessings if you can hear me. I will make everyone who has wronged us to pay a huge price! Mom, dad, have I told you I miss you guys every day… …”

Qi Le An spent a few hours in the cemetery talking to his parents. He didn’t turn on his phone until he walked out of the cemetery, he knew Mr. Li must have had been calling him like crazy since he was supposed to attend a commercial activity this afternoon. But Qi Le An didn’t care at this point, he was glad that he spent his afternoon visiting his parents.

The cemetery was located in a remote suburb, Qi Le An didn’t see one cab or bus for about half an hour, there was no Uber back in 2011 either.

A black car stopped by Qi Le An when he was distressed, the car window was rolled down slowly, it was Wei Chang Feng!

Wei Chang Feng looked at Qi Le An in surprise as well, “An, it’s really you! What are you doing here?”

Qi Le An stared at Wei Chang Feng with disbelief, ‘What are the odds! How come we can always run into each other!’

Wei Chang Feng waved his hand, “Get in, there’s not a lot cabs around here.”

Qi Le An hesitated for a brief second and got in the car, he said hi to Gary who was driving and thanked Wei Chang Feng.

“Where are you going?” asked Wei Chang Feng.

Qi Le An opened his mouth, but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to go back to Glory, he didn’t want to face Mr. Li yet, but sadly he had nowhere else to go.

Wei Chang Feng said considerately, “Care to join me for dinner then?”

Qi Le An lowered his head, he didn’t want to trouble Wei Chang Feng, but it looked like he had to say yes in that situation.

Wei Chang Feng was a gentleman from sole to crown.

Qi Le An looked at the cemetery disappearing in the rearview mirror and said, “I just.. I just visited my parents.”

Wei Chang Feng who was checking a message now put his phone away and turned to look at Qi Le An, and Gary had put on some soothing music.

Qi Le An sighed, “Sometimes it worries me that what if I forget what my parents look like one day.”

“Trust me, that’s never gonna happen.”

Qi Le An forced a smile.

“I just visited my best friend.” Wei Chang Feng leaned back and said, “We knew each other since we were little, we basically had grown up together on the set, we were so close that we would share a bed and count stars.”

Wei Chang Feng paused and added, “You reminded me of him when I first met you.”

Qi Le An was dumbstruck on hearing that.

“But he died in a wire accident on the set, he was so young!” sadness rippled in Wei Chang Feng’s eyes, “I was devastated by that, I had to go abroad for a few years to accept the fact that he was gone.”

Qi Le An believed he knew who Wei Chang Feng was talking about now.