After Transmigrating into the Main Shou, I Topped the Paranoid Big Shot 16

Chapter 16

On New Year’s Eve, December 31st, Zong Mo politely declined a dinner gathering. After quickly eating dinner at the hotel, he returned to his room to wait for the video call.
Such a self-aware golden canary.
Today’s video call came a little later, close to ten o’clock.
Zong Mo looked at the screen and found that Ruan Chi was outdoors.
Perhaps on a terrace somewhere. It was very dark, the wind was strong, and there was only a faint glimmer of firelight flickering on and off.
Before, it was practicing for a role. Tonight, he was smoking voluntarily.
The camera moved. Ruan Chi shifted his position slightly, allowing the distant streetlights or starlight, some extremely faint light, to barely outline a face in the darkness.
It was very dark. He could tell it was a close-up shot in portrait mode, another video call made from a phone.
Zong Mo turned up the screen brightness and noticed his face was a little red. He didn’t know if it was from the wind or from drinking.

“Did you drink?” Zong Mo asked.
“Mm.”
“Was it… for work today?”
Ruan Chi held a high position. Although there were times he had to socialize for business, if he didn’t want to go, didn’t want to drink, no one could force him.
So he had drunk voluntarily. Again, a rich man who seemed tired of living.
But Ruan Chi said, “Not for work.”
After a moment, he added, “It was a family dinner.”
Zong Mo: …
He had thought Ruan Chi had no family, since he didn’t even celebrate his birthday. He had almost forgotten the family background of Gong #2 that was mentioned in passing in the novel. He was a third-generation heir from a wealthy family who was also diligent himself.
A large family, a large business, and many relatives.

When they were living in the villa, Zong Mo would eat at least two meals a day with Ruan Chi. He had long discovered that he drank but was not an alcoholic and knew what moderation was.
As for smoking, he had never done it in front of Zong Mo. The one time in the car on the way to the magazine shoot had been intercepted by him midway. He was a very considerate overbearing CEO who wouldn’t let his golden canary inhale second-hand smoke.
With some simple reasoning, Zong Mo felt that the current Ruan Chi was not quite right. So he asked, “Does your stomach hurt?”
Ruan Chi didn’t beat around the bush and said directly, “A little.”
Zong Mo: …
So why was he video-calling him at this time, especially when they were in different cities? Zong Mo was not good at caring for people to begin with, and now, over the phone and a thousand miles apart, it seemed hypocritical and ethereal.

December 31st, a special day.
Ending the old year and welcoming New Year’s Day, it was very suitable for a gathering.
Filming had proceeded as usual during the day. The crew had a dinner gathering at night. Everyone was given a day off on the 1st, and work would resume on the 2nd. There was some humane consideration, but not much.

Ruan Chi suddenly showed concern. “You don’t have to film tomorrow, right?”
Zong Mo nodded. “Mm, a day off.”
Ruan Chi stubbed out his cigarette, and the screen went dark.
“Zong Mo,” he called out in the darkness, his voice low and hoarse.
Zong Mo leaned closer, listening attentively to his sponsor’s words.
Then, he heard Ruan Chi say very clearly, “Fly back now. Immediately. I want to see you before dawn.”
Zong Mo: ?
Not only was he a thousand miles away, but the film set was located in a small town, far from the city. It would take an hour or two just to drive to the airport.

“Did you hear me?”
Zong Mo: “…I heard you.”
He still didn’t think Ruan Chi was serious at this point, only that he was drunk.
The screen moved. Ruan Chi swiped on his phone a few times and said, “Take the twelve o’clock flight.”
Zong Mo: …
CEO Ruan said it so casually. But this was twelve o’clock at night, not twelve o’clock at noon.
He asked, “Really?”
Ruan Chi didn’t reply, which meant it was real.
What other choice did he have but to agree?

Fortunately, besides him, An Lan and Little Wan couldn’t sleep tonight either.
An Lan’s feelings were complicated. “…To the airport?”
Zong Mo had a mournful look on his face. “At this time, there are no taxis around here. Who’s going to drive me?”
In the end, all three of them went to the airport. The nominal boss and the real boss weren’t sleeping, so what right did they have to sleep!?
However, Zong Mo was the only one flying back. An Lan’s reason for refusing was simple: CEO Ruan hadn’t asked her to go back, and hadn’t even told her.
At a glance, it was a matter between CEO Ruan and his golden canary.
Only a fool would go and join the fun.

Zong Mo got on the plane alone and slept for two hours.
When he woke up, a new year had already begun.
The cold light of his phone illuminated the young man’s slightly weary face. On the screen was the name of a hotel and a room number.
Even though the new year had just begun, a time for family reunions, the airport was full of hurried travelers with weary faces. Zong Mo passed through the crowd, got into a taxi, and sighed softly.
Only then did he realize, with hindsight, that even if he hadn’t come back, Ruan Chi couldn’t have done anything to him.

The taxi driver was a talkative person and struck up a conversation. “What are you sighing about, young man? I’m an old man working overtime on New Year’s Day, and I’m still full of energy.”
Zong Mo wasn’t very sleepy now, so he chatted with him, asking, “You’re not going home for New Year’s?”
“It takes more than ten hours by train to go back to my hometown, too much trouble. It’s better to drive and earn some overtime pay. I’m working the night shift today so I can go back and spend New Year’s Day with my wife and daughter during the day.”
Zong Mo sent a red envelope. The driver smiled from ear to ear, and his mood also improved a little.

He found the hotel entrance, feeling slightly tired.
And he had left in a hurry, without a hat or scarf. The biting cold wind in the middle of the night made his head ache.
The hotel, however, was very warm, as was the room on the top floor.
Once he relaxed, he wanted to sleep.
Before him was a ceiling that seemed to be two stories high, a huge floor-to-ceiling window that took up an entire wall, and standing in front of the window, a person in a white bathrobe, looking leisurely.

Ruan Chi happened to be standing under a spotlight. A deep shadow lay in his eye sockets, his expression unreadable, but it couldn’t help but remind Zong Mo of the night they first met.
The difference was, back then he was as red as a boiled shrimp, his body limp and powerless, completely non-aggressive. No one who saw him would have guessed that such a shell contained such a temperament.
Now, his exposed skin was porcelain white and lustrous, blending with the snow-white bathrobe. The hint of intoxication he had in the video had long since dissipated.

“At twelve o’clock, the view of the fireworks from here is very good,” Ruan Chi said regretfully. “It’s a pity you didn’t make it.”
“I don’t want to see fireworks. I want to sleep,” Zong Mo didn’t dare to have a temper, but he wasn’t in a good mood either.
Ruan Chi’s attitude, however, was very good. He even added a smile. “Mm, you go to sleep then.”
Zong Mo: ?
Didn’t he call him here to exercise?
Turns out it was to let him sleep in a different city?

Zong Mo couldn’t fathom the CEO’s thoughts. He chose to take a shower first to warm up.
The longer he showered, the more awake he became, and the angrier he got.
A bold idea suddenly occurred to him.
He put on a bathrobe and called out from the doorway, “CEO Ruan, can you come here for a moment?”
Ruan Chi strolled over, not looking afraid of him at all.
He gave a sudden pull and yank, pinning the also-bathrobe-clad Ruan Chi against the sink, looking very fierce!

Ruan Chi asked faintly, “…What are you doing?”
Zong Mo tugged at his bathrobe, letting him experience the coldness of the tiles, and said viciously, “You order me around all day. Isn’t it just for sex! Huh?!”
Ruan Chi: …
“Mm, let’s do it,” Ruan Chi said. “Right here is fine.”
He wasn’t scared at all. In fact, he was even enjoying it.
Zong Mo: …

Zong Mo had really been a little angry at first, but in the end, he also started to enjoy it.
And Ruan Chi was uncharacteristically different today. Not only was his voice particularly loud, but he also kept calling his name.
He called it so much he almost came prematurely.
He chose to bite people to distract himself, but even when bitten, Ruan Chi was happy, his tone rising and trembling.
Zong Mo: …
It was truly killing him.

The sky was almost light, and he still hadn’t managed to sleep. When he was finally about to sleep, Ruan Chi lay beside him and delivered the fatal blow. “You shouldn’t have cared about me, Zong Mo.”
Zong Mo subconsciously said, “I didn’t care about you either.”
Ruan Chi: “Hmm?”
Zong Mo: …

“If you didn’t care about me at all,” Ruan Chi continued, “I wouldn’t have called you back.”
Zong Mo: …
He regretted it so much.
He tossed and turned for a long time before finally falling into a deep sleep.
Ruan Chi wasn’t very sleepy yet.
He had nothing to do, so he just stayed up, forcing himself to.
He looked at Zong Mo, patted him a few times, pinched him a few times.
Tsk, he still doesn’t wake up. He must be dead tired.
Ruan Chi let him sleep and opened his phone to look at photos.

The set of photos he had forcibly bought from DAVID was really worth it. But after looking at such exquisite and explicit things for a long time, he wanted to switch to something pure and natural. He looked again at Zong Mo beside him. His hair was messy from sleep, but it had a very lived-in feel.
Click, he took a picture.
But lying on a hotel bed, it didn’t look very pure.

Ruan Chi finally fell asleep. He hadn’t slept for long when he was woken up by heat.
?
He felt around and confirmed the source of the heat was beside him. His face darkened. He touched Zong Mo’s face again; it was covered in sweat.
“Zong Mo, wake up.”
He couldn’t wake him up by calling, so he started patting him.
Zong Mo whimpered and pried his eyelids open a crack, then immediately squeezed them shut again, his brows furrowed in discomfort.
“So hot…”
How could it not be hot? He’s burning to the touch.