Chapter 28
Chapter 28: Smoke Rising Over His Head
To other people, this was just the simplest blessing, but to Yang Jian Tao, who felt he was living on borrowed time after surviving his tribulation and now completely believed in Du An Rao’s words, it was an enormous comfort.
“Then I’ll borrow your lucky words.”
Du He Xuan glanced at his old friend lying on the hospital bed and at his lonely daughter beside him. Thinking of their home that was probably almost emptied out by now, he still couldn’t feel at ease.
“You can’t go on like this. Your daughter is in her senior year, right? She still has to go back to school in the next couple of days. It’s better to hire a care attendant to look after you. If things are hard on your side, just call me or Brother Zhou. Don’t feel embarrassed. Everyone runs into hard times. Once this passes, it’ll be fine.”
Yang Jian Tao knew that Du He Xuan meant well. He was worried that all of Yang Jian Tao’s money had been dug out by that woman, and that now he had no money to get through this and felt too ashamed to borrow from anyone, so he was reminding him like this.
His heart, which had been chilled by his closest family, warmed a little because of this kindness.
“Thank you. I just asked a nurse from the hospital to help me find a care attendant. Don’t worry, if I really need your help, I won’t stand on ceremony.”
They had rushed in in a flurry, but when they came out of the ward, everyone was a bit silent.
Seeing that the mood was low, Zhou Shun Zhe thought for a moment and still tried to comfort them: “You don’t need to worry too much about Brother Yang. From the way he sounded, the joint assets between him and his wife have probably already been moved away, but years ago he set up a trust fund for his daughter. Considering how much he treasures her, there should still be plenty of money in there, enough for the two of them to get through this.”
“As for what comes after, as long as Brother Yang hardens his heart and shakes off that bizarre family, once he gets back on his feet, their life as father and daughter will only get better and better.”
As soon as Zhou Shun Zhe said this, everyone turned to him in surprise.
Du He Xuan looked Zhou Shun Zhe up and down, like he was seeing his own agent for the first time: “How do you know the situation in his family so clearly?”
Zhou Shun Zhe rolled his eyes: “I’ve known him much longer than you have. And even though Brother Yang doesn’t like to talk about his family, he really loves showing off his daughter. After hearing about her so many times, of course I know.”
This explanation made sense, and Du He Xuan and the others really did feel more at ease because of it, but Du An Rao still felt a bit puzzled.
[If there’s a trust fund, then how did the two of them end up almost on the streets?]
The Du family all paused mid-step, then quickly started walking again, pretending nothing was wrong.
Du An Rao didn’t notice anything odd. She remembered how Yang Jian Tao had just said that his wife and brother-in-law were planning to use his ID card to borrow money from loan sharks, and suddenly she understood.
It had to be that in the original plot, the Huang siblings succeeded. They pried open the safe, stole the property deed for Yang Jian Tao’s apartment and sold the place, then used his ID card to take out all kinds of loans and usurious debts.
No matter how much money was in Yang Xiao Xiao’s trust fund, it couldn’t stand up to the way that brother and sister squandered and ruined everything.
Yang Jian Tao had only been a piece of background in the main plot. Early on, he was mentioned in just a few short lines to explain how he got into trouble, and later he basically had no scenes at all.
When the male lead finally became successful and famous, the author, probably wanting to stress how time changes all things and people, arranged for him to run into a homeless man who looked very much like Yang Jian Tao while he was riding in a car on the way to a press conference.
The man’s hair was a mess and his clothes were filthy and disheveled. He looked very pitiful.
Most importantly, his eyes were quite cloudy. For some reason, just one glance made people feel his mind was no longer as clear as a normal person’s.
While the male lead was waiting at a red light, he met the homeless man’s eyes from a distance. His heart suddenly trembled, and he randomly thought of that old acquaintance who had already been buried deep in his memory.
Feeling emotional, he told his assistant to get out of the car, buy a boxed meal, and leave some money for the vagrant.
From beginning to end, the author never clearly wrote whether that homeless man was really Yang Jian Tao, but based on how well Du An Rao knew the direction of the book’s plot, the homeless man was almost certainly him.
Back when the male lead was still a nobody doing tiny walk-on roles, Yang Jian Tao had already been in the industry for many years and was a respected senior.
But by the time the male lead’s career was a success and he had become a superstar who drew attention wherever he went, that old senior had turned into a homeless man with no home, wandering the roadside.
It was all about that dramatic contrast, the kind that made people sigh.
Thinking of this, Du An Rao narrowed her eyes and finally stopped feeling upset about Yang Jian Tao being hospitalized.
After all, from his attitude toward his daughter just now, it was clear that if he had still followed the original plan and ended up a miserable homeless man, then his daughter would probably have also…
The hearts of the Du family members couldn’t help lurching when they thought of that girl, who clearly wasn’t even an adult yet but still bravely stood next to her father, helping him go against her mother’s family and doing her best to defend her father.
They couldn’t help sighing: “Speaking of it, that Huang family still managed to produce one good shoot from a rotten bamboo. It’s lucky that even though that girl is young, she already knows right from wrong and firmly stands on her father’s side to support him. Otherwise, Teacher Yang would probably be heartbroken to death right now.”
The assistant director, who also had a daughter, nodded in deep agreement: “Teacher Yang really raised her well. She didn’t pick up any of that bizarre family’s terrible temper and habits. That’s at least some comfort in all this bad luck.”
After the assistant director finished speaking, he turned his head and met Director Gao’s serious, heavy expression. He thought the man was still worrying about how to arrange Yang Jian Tao’s remaining scenes.
“Before I came, I looked over Teacher Yang’s scenes,” the assistant director said, “There are only seven or eight left. Our show is a xianxia drama, so we already need a lot of green screen work and not much location shooting. Whether we film his parts sooner or later won’t have much impact. It won’t delay things.”
“I wasn’t thinking about that.”
“Huh? Then what…”
“There was a quarrel. That was right. There was a money dispute. That was right too. Once a knife is drawn, there’s killing intent. Once blood is spilled, it’s a Blood Calamity. And she got every single part right.”
The assistant director was full of question marks, but the Du family knew exactly what he was mumbling about. Their expressions instantly turned a bit strange, and they all looked over at Du An Rao.
Suddenly becoming the focus of everyone’s gaze, Du An Rao froze for a moment, and her eyelids jumped.
Sure enough, the next second, Director Gao rushed over to her with his eyes shining, rubbing his hands together like a fly: “Master Du, do you think you could help me do a reading too, for your brother’s sake?”
The assistant director: “???”
The three Du family members: “…”
Du An Rao: “…”
[So I’m Master Du now? And weren’t you the one who said I shouldn’t do this stuff on set? Now you’re the one taking the lead in breaking the rule, knowingly going against it?]
Other people didn’t know how that last Character Divination from Du An Rao had worked, but Du He Xuan did.
“Actually, doing this kind of reading depends on fate. You can’t just do it for anyone.”
“I understand, I understand.” Director Gao put on a mysterious look.
“Grandmaster, don’t worry, I know the rules.” After he finished speaking, he even raised his hand and made a rubbing-money gesture with his fingers.
The corner of Du He Xuan’s mouth twitched. He had just opened his mouth to say that wasn’t what he meant when he suddenly heard Du An Rao cry out.
[Huh, so it wasn’t just my imagination? Why is there black smoke coming out over the director’s head?]