Nan Chu quickly replied: What’s the benefit of quitting smoking?
Lin Luxiao leaned back in his seat, one hand holding the phone, the other propped on the window frame, the back of his hand pressed against his lips — a habitual gesture of his when thinking. After a long moment, he typed back quickly: It’s good for your health.
【Little Miss Troublemaker: …Quitting smoking kills my motivation. My reason to keep living. You have to give me a reason.】
Lin Luxiao frowned, just about to reply — and then immediately another message came in.
【Little Miss Troublemaker: Like — quit for one week and you have dinner with me. Quit for two weeks and we hold hands. Quit for a month… hmm…】
Lin Luxiao gave a scoff and almost laughed out loud. He tossed his phone onto the dashboard and couldn’t be bothered to reply.
The phone buzzed again.
He leaned on the window frame, back of his hand resting at his lips, and flicked a glance at it. Didn’t respond.
A moment later, it buzzed again.
He glanced back, furrowed his brow, and — a little irritably — reached out to grab the phone. He unlocked it, and the last message that jumped to the screen was a photograph: an iron basin with several premium cigarettes burning inside, half already turned to ash.
The teammate in the seat beside him caught sight of the photo and was genuinely stunned, craning his neck to look. “What the — who is that? Those cigarettes are worth several months of our pay combined.”
“A lunatic,” Lin Luxiao said, and shoved the phone back in his pocket.
……
After that day, Nan Chu genuinely quit smoking.
Over the following days, even on the busiest shoots, she would sit quietly to the side reading, and always kept a box of candy in her pocket — whenever the craving became unbearable, she’d pop a piece in her mouth. Even Shen Guanzong started to feel like this girl had hit her head and had a personality transplant.
Even when he held a cigarette out to her, Nan Chu ignored it.
Shen Guanzong had been puzzling over this for a while, thinking it was all quite strange. He took advantage of a pause in filming to sit down next to Nan Chu and interrogate her — only for the girl to shut him down with a single sentence: “Move further away — the smoke on you is triggering my cravings.”
“What the — how did you suddenly turn over a new leaf?”
“Cherishing my life.”
“Holy crap, you haven’t been diagnosed with lung cancer, have you? If you’re actually sick you need to tell the company! No matter what, we can’t give up on treatment!”
Nan Chu kept her head down, leafing through a Buddhist scripture. She waved her hand at him: “Go away.”
A few days later, Han Beiyao heard about this and paid a personal visit to the set. He sat under a canopy and observed for the entire day. Once satisfied that Nan Chu hadn’t touched a single cigarette, he shook his head in disbelief and gestured for Xi Gu, who was standing nearby, to come over. He kicked his feet up with an air of ease, leaning back in his chair, and studied the young woman standing before him — barely five feet tall.
The blazing sun at his back, the light coming from behind him, Han Beiyao actually noticed that this little woman was shaking.
Xi Gu had met the big boss for the third time. She honestly didn’t know why she was shaking — but looking at Han Beiyao’s handsome face, she really was a little scared. Probably because she’d been conditioned by Shen Guanzong’s constant threats.
Whenever anything happened with Nan Chu, Shen Guanzong would come screaming at Xi Gu at the top of his register:
“Do you know what the big boss used to do?! Do you?!”
“Do you know that doing this could cause trouble for the big boss?! Do you know how frightening the big boss gets when he’s angry?! I’ve worked under the big boss for years, and I’ve only ever seen him lose his temper once — and it left me too scared to set foot in his office for six months!”
“Nan Chu is the big boss’s last trump card! If anything happens to her — do you know the big boss will throw you into the sea to feed the fish?!”
Xi Gu had shrunk back: “K-killing someone is… illegal…”
Shen Guanzong gave a cold laugh: “In this company, the big boss IS the law!”
“……”
So now, seeing Han Beiyao in person, Xi Gu genuinely couldn’t stop her legs from shaking.
Han Beiyao took off his sunglasses. “Are you cold?”
Xi Gu drew in her neck: “No… not at all.”
Han Beiyao smiled, brows lifting. “Should I have someone bring you a padded coat?”
He wanted to smother her?!
Xi Gu shook her head frantically: “No no no, I’m very warm.”
Han Beiyao looked at her and smiled.
Xi Gu’s heart lurched. That smile was unsettling!
She said in a trembling voice: “B-big… Boss, I… I need to go… go touch up… Nan Chu’s… makeup.”
Han Beiyao: “……”
She stammers?!
Han Beiyao crooked a finger at Xi Gu. “Come closer.”
Xi Gu inched forward one step.
Han Beiyao frowned. “Closer.”
Xi Gu shuffled forward another tiny step.
Running out of patience: “Why do you act like I’m going to eat you?”
Forward, forward.
“Has Nan Chu been acting unusual lately?”
Xi Gu shook her head. “R-re-really not.”