Chapter 102

  Andrei let out a pleasant laugh, his amber eyes twinkling with cunning light.

  It's as if saying "you deserved it".

  He thought it was probably his own illusion, or he had misunderstood something, so at this time he turned his head and asked Jiang Chuan: "What did you say to him? What 'your money'?"

  "Is that all you understood from these three words?" Jiang Chuan retorted.

  "I just came over for a semester, German is very difficult, it's already not easy to understand some daily expressions, and you spoke very quickly just now."

  "It's you who heard wrong, and your German is really terrible," said Jiang Chuan. "Remember to study hard next time."

  He muttered a vague "oh" and didn't react until ten minutes later, when Jiang Chuan pulled him all the way to the entrance of the cinema and into a car that had been waiting there for some time. He plopped down in the warm car with the heater on full blast, and it wasn't until half a minute later that he reacted - what did "remember to study hard next time" mean? Wasn't he going to spend the rest of his life in this country? Why would he need to "study hard" German if it wasn't necessary for him to come here at all?

  He wanted to ask Jiang Chuan, but turned his head to see the man's hand propping up his chin, lost in thought as he stared out the window, seemingly deep in contemplation - from Jian Ran's angle, all he could see was his profile, and Jian Ran loved observing Jiang Chuan from this perspective, for him, a man deeply absorbed in thought was truly handsome, like a living, breathing work of art, even the faint tremble of his eyelashes as he breathed was mesmerizing.

  On the way, Fang Yu kept asking questions from east to west, and Jin Ran's answers were also absent-minded. From time to time, he would glance at the man sitting next to him with his peripheral vision - while the latter maintained perfect silence throughout. Until the car drove all the way to the hotel entrance, Fang Yu got out of the car first, Jin Ran followed behind him and was about to get off, but just as his butt had left the seat, he was pulled back from behind.

  He lowered his head slightly and looked at the big hand on his wrist, paused for a moment, blinked and asked: "What?"

  Jiang Chuan thought for a moment, let go of him and turned his head again, saying: "Nothing, goodnight."

  However, this time Jian Ran was not so easily fooled. He directly pulled his body back into the car, which had already been half-outside, and slammed the door shut with a "bang" - when the noise outside was blocked out by the door, the inside of the car became quiet to the point where even breathing sounds could be heard clearly. Jian Ran stretched out his hand and forcibly turned the man's head, who had been looking out the window, back towards himself: "We're all adults now, don't play this 'unsaid' game."

  In the dim light of the car, a pair of black eyes met a pair of azure pupils.

  The two locked eyes for a long time, and seeing that Jiang Chen still showed no signs of opening his mouth to speak, he couldn't help but furrow his brow slightly... After waiting for a while longer, he was about to give up on continuing the conversation, muttering "forget it" as he prepared to get off the car. But at this moment, Jiang Chen raised his hand and quickly touched the furrowed spot between his brows, then, as if hinting at something, his somewhat chilly fingers slid down from the spot, coming to rest on his lips, rubbing gently before saying slowly: "I originally thought it was just Andre being one-sided in doing things that made you uncomfortable..."

  Indeed.

  "It was later discovered that things were not quite as I had imagined. I recall that you didn't seem to be a particularly slow reactor, and if someone relatively unfamiliar approached you from behind, you could react quickly... but earlier in the banquet hall, when Andrei walked up behind you, not only did you fail to immediately react, but you even let him touch you..."

  “……”

  "Here." The man's azure eyes slightly dimmed, and the hand on the young black-haired person's lips gently increased in strength.

  His rough thumb pressed against Jian Ran's lips, and the previous rubbing had even made Jian Ran feel a burning pain. Jian Ran subconsciously shrunk back, but the space in the car was just that wide, and no matter how far he retreated, he couldn't completely pull away. He could only stretch out his hand to grab Jiang Chuan's wrist, intending to say something, when suddenly he felt like something was off.

  "How did you know?"

  At that time, the guests who had invitation letters hadn't arrived yet.

  "So you're admitting it?"

  "How did you know?"

  Jiang Chuan certainly couldn't tell Jian Ran that he had taken a little time out to check the surveillance video.

  "On the way to the bathroom, I heard others discussing this matter," Jiang Chuan withdrew his hand and with the man's departure, he finally felt able to breathe normally. He didn't even have time to think about how "hearing others discuss" could involve such detailed things as "reaction speed", when in just a few seconds, he heard Jiang Chuan ask another question that made him feel suffocated: "What exactly is going on between you and Andrei?"

  He remained silent for about thirty seconds, during which he quickly processed the emotions and negative reactions that had suddenly surged up in him. After thirty seconds, he seemed to have calmed down, took a deep breath, looked into Jiang Chuan's eyes, and said in a calm tone: "Nothing, just my first love."

  He glanced at Jiang Chuan after finishing speaking, and unexpectedly saw the man's reaction was calm, looking like he hadn't had any adverse reactions to this information - perhaps he had already guessed it.

  "Ninety percent of what you said about my middle school days at the press conference is true," Jin Yan raised his hand, messing up his hair thoroughly, "When I first came to Germany alone as a young man, I didn't speak German at that time. Although my classmates were very friendly, it was really hard to make friends - after all, not everyone has the patience to talk to me in English for a long time, and my own English wasn't good enough at that time... Feeling lonely is normal, right? That's when Mundt appeared, and at first, we just played basketball together..."

  “……”

  Later, because I could always see him on the sports field, he gradually became familiar. At that time, I had no idea who he was, and I simply thought I had made a friend - He said his English wasn't good, so I taught him English, and in return, he taught me German.

  Jiang Chuan couldn't help but curl up the corner of his lips: "I thought I was reading a campus pure love comic."

  He slowly raised his hand to cover his face, "If it ended here, maybe it would be fine... but later the style of painting changed suddenly, I don't know when it started, I found that my originally friendly classmates suddenly stopped talking to me, and after observing them, they weren't not talking to me because they disliked me, but because they were afraid..."

  "Andrei is indeed such a person, it's already very kind of him not to tattoo his name on your face."

  "If I hadn't withdrawn in time, it's really hard to say what would have happened."

  "Are you sure you want to play this kind of joke on me?"

  "After all, it's already in the past. I'm sure you can guess what happened next - from a simple friendship to feelings changing, to being successfully twisted, there was indeed a normal sweet period in between... It looks like you don't want to hear this part, so let's skip it. Later on, he found out that the person he thought he knew wasn't actually that way at all. He was stubborn, violent, and possessive to the point of being crazy. When he decided on someone, he would demand that the only person in their world be him. I couldn't accept this, so I chose to leave. In response, he did something even crazier as a price for me staying - in the end, I had no choice but to use my ultimate escape technique: returning home." Zhen Yan patted Jiang Chuan's shoulder with a calm expression, his previously furrowed brow slightly relaxing. "I used to think that this matter would never be brought up again, but now I've unexpectedly spoken about it in such a calm tone... It's just that discovering another side of the people around me is a terrifying thing. I think I probably don't want to experience something like this again in my lifetime."

  Speaking to himself with a serious expression.

  So he didn't notice when he said his last sentence, the man sitting next to him had a subtle change in expression.

  He smiled slightly, muttered "I guess this is a childhood shadow", and turned his head to tell Jiang Chuan the story, by the way asking if his curiosity had been satisfied. As a result, when he turned his head, he found that at this moment, the man was frowning at him - that entangled look was even more entangled than before he knew the truth.

  "What's wrong?"

  "Not really," Jiang Chuan said calmly, "it's better if you don't film Mandoro's new movie. If possible, it's also best not to participate in the second part of 'Mysterious Seed'."

  A faint smile solidified on his lips, he paused for a moment, and asked: "Why?"

  "No why, want to enter Hollywood, there are still many opportunities."

  "I won't give up the opportunities that are already in front of me just because of some so-called 'opportunities' that may or may not happen in the future." Jian Ran slightly restrained her smile and said calmly.

  "If you participate in these two films, then your entanglement with Andrei will go on endlessly from now on."

  "I will try to avoid it."

  "You're not as strong as you think you are."

  "I never said I was a strong person, just like Xu Qianqian back then, all I could do was endure and retreat, just like now." Jing Yan leaned against the car seat backrest, one hand raised to press on his eyes - at this moment, the lower half of his face exposed under his arm looked very calm. "But isn't life like that? It's not a hot-blooded comic where everything can be solved by resisting and fighting, in fact, as long as you look at your final goal and move forward steadily towards it, that's enough. When you stand at the finish line enjoying the fruits of victory, you'll forget all the hardships you encountered along the way."

  “……”

  "It's worth it." He slowly lowered his arms, and a pair of black pupils shone even brighter in the darkness. "When I couldn't hold on anymore, I would think to myself: if I didn't grit my teeth and persevere at that moment, then tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, or next month, or even next year, or until the end of my life when I'm lying in a coffin, I would probably regret thinking: what if I had persevered back then, wouldn't the outcome have been different?"

  As soon as the words fell, he felt a big hand falling on his head, rubbing his hair - he smiled and patted Jiang Chuan's hand: "Life is short, there is no so much time to dwell on the regrets brought by one's own retreat."

  "The big truth you have tonight is many." The man said lightly.

  "I'll just confidently explain to you why I'm not strong enough." Jin Yan straightened his back slightly, "Small people also have their own way of survival, I don't think there's anything wrong with that."

  Jiang Chuan thought for a moment, first nodding his head and then slightly furrowing his brow, shaking his head to show that he wasn't quite in agreement: "Let's reconsider what I said earlier. You're working so hard, opportunities will always arise - it doesn't have to be one road all the way to the end... sometimes it's better to learn to use your brain and avoid some trouble..."

  "Is trouble saying Mond?"

  "Yes."

  "Great, because I've decided to perfectly ignore him from now on."

  "It seems difficult for you to achieve this based on your current performance."

  "After all, it was my first love, and I did have some good memories of that time. When we meet again, it's inevitable to think about those things. Whether it's Mo De or Jiang Luo Cheng, you can't just remember the scumball side of them after parting ways," Zhen Ran raised his hand to gesture at his eyes, "Isn't this just admitting that I was blind back then?... This kind of thing absolutely cannot happen."

  "So you're just going to keep thinking about them?"

  "Don't be so quick-witted and open-minded."

  "It was what you said that made me think deeply and broaden my horizons."

  "In short, I won't give up on 'Mysterious Seed'. If Mandro's movie is willing to use me, I'll participate."

  "I disagree."

  "Are all those words I said to you just now useless?"

  "I don't think what you said is nonsense, but it's a mode that can only be used when you're desperate and have no other choice. But now you're not in that situation, if you want to, I can..."

  "What?"

  Jiang Chuan seemed to have thought of something, and a sentence reached the tip of his tongue but was swallowed back into his throat. He held it in for a moment before finally revealing a helpless expression, stretching out his hand to touch Jing Ran's cheek: "In any case, don't go, this is for your own good."

  He furrowed his brow and took a step back: "What's the difference between you now and the old Mond?"

  As soon as he said this, he began to regret it.

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, before long he heard Jiang Chuan say in an extremely calm - to the point of being somewhat indifferent - voice: "I am not him."

  He could tell from the tone of his toes that he was angry - Jian Yan thought he should comfort him, but didn't know what identity and standpoint to use to open his mouth, so next he just sat there awkwardly, pretending to be stunned - until he felt the man's body leaning towards him, he subconsciously held his breath, but didn't expect that in the next second, the car door beside him was opened, a gust of cool wind mixed with snow and ice poured in, freezing him shivering, at the same time he heard Jiang Chuan say coldly beside him: "Since you insist, then just do whatever, anyway if you suffer later don't come crying to me."

  I just wanted to say it and cry, but you still remembered it once again.

  However, before he could even open his mouth to speak, the person who was originally sitting next to him had already opened the door on the other side and gotten out of the car - and as they left, they didn't forget to slam the door shut with a loud bang.

  It's really childish to death.

  ……

  Twelve years later, Jin Yan was suddenly disrupted by his first love, ruining his relationship with his current crush.

  His relationship with Jiang Chuan had fallen to an unprecedented low, and there was no sign of improvement. By the end of February, when the promotional period for "Mysterious Seed: Origin" ended, Jian Ran felt that he didn't even need to salvage it - he followed the crew to eight countries, met countless investors, and finally waited until the end of the month for the global simultaneous release of "Mysterious Seed: Origin". At this time, it had been twenty days since Jiang Chuan last spoke to him.

  From frequently taking out his phone to check in the first few days, to ignoring others' congratulatory text messages and daily weather forecasts in the first week, doubting whether there was a problem with his phone's sending and receiving function, to wondering if he had been blacklisted by someone in the second week. By the third week, also known as February 29th, Jianran finally accepted that he might be facing the tragedy of "losing love before it even started" again due to a momentary slip of the tongue.

  He hadn't even had time to sort out his sorrowful emotions.

  In early March, the contract for "Mystic Seeds 2: Purification" and Mandro's new film contract were presented to him.

  The plot of the second part of "Mysterious Seed" is a new expansion of the doomsday theme that continues from the previous part. The male protagonist, Jianyan, returns to the last remaining "Eden" in human society as the "Redemption of God", attempting to save a world that has already fallen into chaos. In the second part, Jianyan still doesn't have any lines but his role is very heavy. After carefully reading the script, he signed the contract and sent it back to Claire Corporation.

  What made him more concerned was Mandro's new movie, a film about maritime adventure. He was surprised that Mandro actually generously assigned the role of male lead to him -

  Rando Baserolo, the second mate of the Navigation II, relied on his father's wealth to live a life of indulgence, womanizing, and thievery. As a sailor, he was completely useless, contributing nothing except eating, drinking, sleeping, and defecating while on board. He became infamous in the industry as a good-for-nothing - but what people didn't know was that Rando was actually an extraordinary navigation talent, who had saved the ship from danger multiple times, with his successes being attributed to dumb luck.

  One day, without warning, Lando's wealthy old man died.

  Lando, who was completely unprepared for this, was shocked and at the same time received his father's last words: to find a lost ship called "Leviathan" somewhere in the Mediterranean.

  Leviathan, the Book of Isaiah describes Leviathan as a "coiling snake", while the Ugaritic epic calls it Litan, and describes it as a "twisting serpent", a huge monster from the sea... The "Leviathan" named after such a sea monster is often mentioned together with Captain Basile's famous ship "Sheikh" - if "Sheikh" is the ship that all sailors in the Mediterranean aspire to today, then "Leviathan" has an even greater reputation.

  "Leviathan" was a ship that once made a name for itself in the Mediterranean, even being called "a divine vessel". It is said that the construction of this ship was so fine and its materials so solid that it surpassed the shipbuilding technology of the time. It was the fastest and most stable ship in the Mediterranean, with combat capabilities that even the strongest pirates feared.

  Lando had always heard his dad brag about owning the "Gift of God" before the "She's", and the story that often came with it was one his captain dad loved to tell him, about how he got lost in an unusually violent storm and ended up docking at a fantastically rich and happy island.

  Now for the sake of his father's will, Second Master Lando must abandon his past decadence, cheer up, set sail and go find this legendary ship.

  And now the only thigh he can hold onto is that of his father's right-hand man, the second-in-command of the Seitz, Raymond Lando - the old man's dying wish was for Lando to cling tightly to Raymond's thigh and not let go, or else the Baslero family's century-old foundation would be ruined by this incompetent second-generation master.

  Deputy Raymond, tall and handsome, is the most famous young man in the Mediterranean for a century. People are wondering why he would stoop to be the second-in-command of the Basile family, thinking that if he were to start his own business, he would definitely achieve great things. For Lando, this image of grandeur and majesty is actually a cold-blooded, ruthless, and unreasonable demon king who has just crawled out of hell.

  And Second Master Lando also thinks that Raymond's tolerance is just waiting for his father to kick the bucket, and then he can usurp the throne and take over as the "Fleet Young Master" with ease, kicking him out and welcoming a golden spring.

  Although extremely reluctant, Lando had no choice but to return to the fleet and prepare to take his current fleet in search of the "legendary Leviathan". Because he was naturally incompatible with Raymond, on the first day back at the fleet, despite knowing Raymond's weakness of "not daring to eat fish", he recklessly invited Raymond to a whole fish banquet. Raymond was furious, bursting blood vessels, and viciously mocked Lando until he was speechless. Moreover, during the argument, Raymond discovered Lando's true intention for returning to the fleet——

  Take back control of "Seitz", prepare to take over his boss's class and become a new captain.

  At this time, something unexpected happened. Lando's father had just passed away, but his last wish was rejected by Vice Captain Raymond, who also refused to hand over the command of the fleet.

  “……”

  All along the way, I couldn't help but shed bitter tears for the movie's protagonist.

  After flipping through the script again, I found that as the producer of Mandrake said, there are basically no female characters with important roles in the entire script outline. This is probably a movie full of passion, sailing, adventure spirit and... bromance.

  He even didn't reply to the email asking about the cast of this movie, and directly signed his name on the contract. As a result, for the next year, his schedule was filled with three movies including Chennan's patriotic war film.

  In other words, he didn't even have time to be sad about being dumped by Jiang Chuan.

  At least he hopes so.