Chapter 50 – Within Three Years

When the long, long story was finished, Bai Lang’s tears had already soaked through the collar of Qiu Qian’s pajamas.

As he spoke, maybe because the immense pressure in his heart finally found a source of relief, Bai Lang’s tears couldn’t stop flowing out.

After finishing talking and crying, Bai Lang really had a sense of exhaustion and relief. However at the same time logic returned to his brain.

“If you don’t believe me, that’s okay.” Bai Lang burrowed himself into Qiu Qian’s chest. His voice was thick. “I only thought I should tell you. I should have, told you earlier….”

At this time Qiu Qian only continued to hold Bai Lang’s hand. For a long time he didn’t speak.

In the few minutes that passed, only Bai Lang’s hoarse breathing could be heard in the darkness. Bai Lang also didn’t say anything more, only sighing slightly as he calmed his feelings down. He wanted to withdraw however this movement caused Qiu Qian, who had been holding him the whole time, to suddenly tighten his arms. He forcefully embraced Bai Lang and pulled him back onto his chest.

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Beside Bai Lang’s ear, a vibration came through the warm chest he was pressed against.

“I believe you.”

Bai Lang froze. He listened as Qiu Qian continued.

“But everything won’t be the same…. except for that umbrella I held up for you in your past life. This life I will still hold be holding it.”

With these words, Bai Lang’s tears flowed out again. He closed his eyes and burrowed his face deeper into Qiu Qian’s chest.

“En.”

“So I’ll definitely be well. You too, and also Xiao Hai.” The strong arm held Bai Lang tightly and he spoke as though making an oath. “Because in this life, we didn’t miss each other.”

“….. en.” Bai Lang agreed again. He didn’t know that Qiu Qian could also be poetic.

“That Kang Jian, I’ll take care of him down the road. So you don’t need to cry anymore.”

When he said this, Bai Lang laughed through his tears.

He used Qiu Qian’s pajamas to messily wipe his tears dry and then Bai Lang struggled to raise his head. His eyes, which had been made swollen and red by crying, looked at Qiu Qian.

“… I love you.”

The arms around Bai Lang’s body tightened even further.

“Me too, little white rabbit.”

***

From that day forward, Qiu Qian no longer became angry or impatient during rehabilitation. Step by step, he progressed steadily and obediently followed the instructions the doctors gave him.

He had determination, optimism and cooperated fully. As long as there was still a thread of hope, he wouldn’t let Bai Lang down.

As his illness slowly stabilized, Qiu Qian relocated to D country. This country was the top in the field of rehabilitative medicine, and here he continued to receive the most comprehensive and cutting edge treatment. Bai Lang and Qiu XiaoHai accompanied him the whole way. After two years time, Qiu Qian finally and miraculously was able to recover a walking ability similar to normal people. Even his athletic ability would only be slightly behind normal people.

During this time, Qiu Qian also didn’t delay to take care of the perpetrators behind the car “accident”.

Qiu EnXin’s second wife Ji Yi.

While Qiu Qian was seriously ill, his power and status in the Qiu family was clouded with doubt. However it was discovered that Qiu Qian’s business ventures were very secure and other people were not able to get their hands on it. This was because every business contract he had signed contained the following clause: if the parties involved changed, then the opposing party had the power to call off the agreement.

This clause meant that all of the deals that Qiu Qian had worked hard on, would disappear if he himself left.

This was the back path that Qiu Qian had left for himself. After all he didn’t have too many feelings towards the Qiu family and had only been taken back in by Qiu EnXin after he was already grown up. By doing this, Qiu Qian’s loyalty to the Qiu family might be called into question however this also demonstrated that the fact that each contractual party was willing to sign the clause, meaning that what they looked highly upon was Qiu Qian’s personal ability.  After everyone in the business world knew that the success of a project did not just depend on the money that was backing it, but also on the brain that making the core decisions.

Thus after Qiu Qian left ICU and entered rehabilitation, with the help of a small team of people loyal to him, he easily and without much effort regained the power he had prior to his accident. And then the time for revenge had come.

The person behind the car accident, who had contacted them and also who was planning behind the scenes, were all investigated clearly by Qiu Qian.

All of the evidence pointed to Ji Yi. However just getting rid of Ji Yi wasn’t enough. Qiu Qian didn’t want to have to keep being on his guard against others later.

So when “taking care” of Ji Yi, Qiu Qian at the same time exposed the history and evidence of all the corruption that several of his brothers had been involved in these few years. Clearly the only thing that had happened was the accident that Ji Yi had arranged, but Qiu Qian forcibly dragged Qiu Kuo and several other brothers into the matter. He put them all under one big hat of being responsible for attempted murder.

His actions were incredibly efficient, ruthless and cruel. In addition Qiu Qian had long ago collected a wealth of materials and they were very complete. When Ji Yi, Qiu Kuo and the others were met with these so-called “evidence”, they all appeared to be cancerous outgrowths of the Qiu family, not only was their greed disgusting and dirty, but they were also ungrateful and disloyal. Of course everyone was aware that certain aspects of the evidence must have been inflated or exaggerated, but Qiu Qian did it so well that no one would find evidence of any fault. He completely sealed off all their back paths and left them the road to death. Even some of the elders of the Qiu family who had been alive for a long time and seen many things, couldn’t help but sigh and be awed.

After a few months of “cleaning”, even Qiu EnXin looked as though he had aged quite a few years. After all the things that the dirty things that his sons had done within the family corporation also reflected badly on him, their father . At this time V country’s oil investment received its first considerable amount of profit, and at the same time the shipping business new lines received new orders. Pressured by several elders in the family, Qiu EnXin finally decided to take the big step of announcing that Qiu Qian, who was responsible for all these successes, would be his successor. He even announced that he would hand over all power within three years.

At this time Qiu Qian hadn’t even stood up from his wheelchair yet.

But he had already confirmed his control over the Qiu family.

***

In these three years, Bai Lang’s investments also achieved a beautiful fruition.

Four years after the first book in the series was published, now already five books were out. There were six in total and only the big finale was left to be published. The sales from the publication of these books as well as associated merchandise had already achieved an unimaginable profit of over a billion yuan.

All of this money had been invested into online shopping platform “Full Circle”. During this period of growth, Full Circle also become the entire country’s biggest and most professional online shopping website. It was responsible for trade, logistics and associated commerce and finance, and was rapidly growing into a huge monster of a corporation. Behind the scenes, Bai Lang owned over ⅓ of its total stocks (if you added Qiu Qian it would be over ⅔), he was someone who could be said to be able to stamp his feet and cause the entire stock market to shake.

Thus the Bai Lang who had left the acting world for three years seemingly didn’t have any pressing need to return to his old job.

However Bai Lang continued to maintain that he didn’t know anything except acting. Also he really liked it. Although this road, just like in his old life, was fraught with many difficulties, however when Qiu Qian returned home to China three years later, Bai Lang finally said that he wanted to return to acting.

Qiu Qian didn’t have any problems with it.

Originally Bai Lang had sacrificed three of the best years of his acting career for him. So it was only natural that he wanted to compensate Bai Lang.

However when Qiu Qian proposed this, Bai Lang only smiled and rejected it. He said that right now, even without Qiu Qian’s power, he was already able to achieve the position of being able to act in whatever role he liked. As for what path he wanted to take, then he wanted to figure it out himself. Qiu Qian had better not disturb his fun.

Qiu Qian didn’t say anything however his expression was a bit strange.

The two of them had been together for many years so Bai Lang could naturally tell something was up.

After he questioned him, Qiu Qian admitted that three years ago, while Bai Lang was in no state to think about filming, he actually completely purchased out Chaos Street. At that time the production crew had waited for Bai Lang for several months and only when they really could not wait any longer, they finally made the painful decision to change actors. They also didn’t really want to accept that Bai Lang wouldn’t play this role any longer. After all Luo Zai’s role had been carefully and personally crafted by Bai Lang. If anyone else took over this role, even if they did their best, the character would still be ruined by 80%. Qiu Qian also knew that Bai Lang had put a lot of his heart into this role and when he heard that Bai Lang insisted on quitting acting, he decided to completely purchase the entire production. Thus they would earn their money even without broadcasting.

When Bai Lang heard this he didn’t know whether to get angry or to laugh. He asked, at that time weren’t you wearing an oxygen mask every day!?

Qiu Qian shrugged. He replied that Er Hong could still read his ugly writing ma. Then he scooped up Bai Lang who was wearing a disbelieving expression, kissed him and asked, “Do you want to continue that role?”

How could Bai Lang say no? It was Qiu Qian’s desire and it also was really one of the unsatisfied regrets in his heart.

Thus the filming of Chaos Street became Bai Lang’s first job after returning to the acting world.

***

But no matter what, there had been some big changes these three years in the entertainment circle.

Not only had Rong SiQi already won three major singing awards in three consecutive years, right now he was the most promising and most successful newcomer. He had already reached superstar level of being able to hold sold-out concerts at major venues.

In the past life, Rong SiQi’s rise hadn’t been so quick. This time, possibly because of exposing his Rong family background, everyone around him pushed him up and his music very quickly reached a wide audience. Rong SiQi also had a professional personality, he wouldn’t let the praise around him affect his dedication to seeking perfection in his work. With both of these factors working together, it would be strange if he didn’t progress quickly.

As for Zhu Kuan, in these three years he had shot two very well-received films.

After the box office of “Outside Gold and Jade” flew into the sky, Zhu Kuan was able to jump out of the ranks of new directors. The year that “Outside Gold and Jade” came out, because it was too focused on popularity and box office returns, Zhu Kuan was not nominated for best director. However his following two movies, leveraging off Gold’s results, did not lack funding and many large stars were interested in being involved. These two movies were both popular at the box office as well as being critically acclaimed. Lots of people said it was about time for Zhu Kuan to make a movie for the purposes of winning the Golden Emperor award. Just by saying this it meant that Zhu Kuan had already been recognized by his audience.

Bai Lang’s friends were all doing well. And those that weren’t his friends, were also doing well.

Fei Hong, who had given a warning before Qiu Qian had his accident, lost Qiu Kuo as her patron. However she didn’t slide down at all.

By contrast, she seemed to have found enlightenment. Her acting these few years had made progress. She no longer just played female leads but was willing to throw away her image and play female roles that were more controversial and villainous. After three years of working hard, many people said Fei Hong ought to be given the title of film empress for the second time and this time it should be genuine.

As for Kang Jian, who at this time had a target painted on his back by Qiu Qian, his progress was also very good.

After Kang Jian married Li Sha, he successfully used his status of Harmony Entertainment’s son-in-law and won a string of good opportunities to show himself.

First there was an adaptation of a popular wuxia novel. He played the original male lead’s senior disciple brother who had a sly and cunning outward image, but who internally was actually loyal and courageous. This role was very easy-to-please and this type of production, which was adapted from a popular story, would become popular easily. After that Kang Jian through various methods and tactics, pushed this role into being the male lead and started on his path of becoming famous.

When that drama was finished, the result was similar to when Bai Lang filmed “Partners” and Kang Jian’s name become something that everyone knew and was talked about on the streets. After that Kang Jian didn’t stop but continued to film a light-hearted and comedic city life drama. He continued to play a character who had an outwardly playboy appearance but whose inner heart was incredibly loyal. This continued the same meng feeling as the previous work when his outward and inner personality were contrasted, and left a even deeper impression in the hearts of the audience.

Both of the above dramas were long dramas which aired for a long time. They played one after the other and over these two years, Kang Jian’s popularity flew up into the sky.

Right now even if he just went by the company, he would be surrounded by fans waiting for him at the door and screaming his name.

However Kang Jian, who had only just started earning some good money, immediately took it and invested it in business unrelated to the entertainment world.

This was the same method that many artists used to earn money. They wanted their money to earn more money for them, it wasn’t unusual. But when Kang Jian used it, it was clear to insiders that the reason was probably because he didn’t want his father-in-law to continue controlling him any longer.

Thus when Bai Lang returned to the country and saw Kang Jian again for the first time, it wasn’t on a filming set.

Instead it was in the lobby of the “Full Circle”.

{T/N: For those that forget, Full Circle is the online shopping company that Bai Lang invested heavily in. Think Taobao or Amazon.}