Mr. Zhou Doesn’t Want to Work Hard Anymore!

Mr. Zhou Doesn’t Want to Work Hard Anymore

Chapter 27

Zhou Chenxi remembered that he first started reading that book before he was reborn. The storyline of that book was smooth and easy. It was moderately paced, there was nothing out of place.

 

However that book which he was reading in his dream last night was either awkward here or something was wrong there, like the plot had been artificially twisted.

 

But he felt very real when he read it in his dream. It was the same with what he felt before he was reborn, so he had a sudden thought and wondered if Lu Ji had also read the book.

 

Of course, he had no real foundation for his speculation. That was why he was so eager to see Lu Ji.

 

Zhou Chenxi sat down on the edge of Lu Ji’s bed.

 

There were still flowers on Lu Ji’s bedside that Zhou Chenxi had given to him yesterday.

 

Yesterday, because of a momentary impulse, he didn’t think like this at the time when the money papers were folded into the flowers but now, when he glanced at the flowers, he just realized that it was vulgar and unsophisticated, by just holding it up and directed it to people as if it could shout ‘老铁666′. “

 

[See the meme and the explanation; 

老铁 666 :

 

老铁 means a friend who is close, reliable and trustworthy. It describes a very good relationship between friends.

“666” means ‘Very good!’ or ‘Very cool!’ or could also mean Lol (laugh out loud), often used when playing games, etc]

 

Zhou Chenxi was slightly ashamed and said, ” Why don’t you put this flower away….”

 

“Why?” Lu Ji followed his line of sight, and said with satisfaction, “I think it’s pretty good. It won’t wither. Moreover it is valuable so the practicability of this is even higher if you compare it to artificial flowers made from plastics.”

 

Zhou Chenxi: “….”

 

How is it practical?

 

Do you mean that when you want to eat the pancakes (Jian bing) you could just easily pull a hundred yuan out of the flower?

 

Zhou Chenxi couldn’t bear to look straight at it, so he might as well pretend not to see it.

 

He pondered for a moment and then went directly into the topic, “I saw the news last night…”

 

Lu Ji lifted his head to look at him.

 

“Luo Xinghe really …”

 

Zhou Chenxi didn’t know where to start.

 

Fortunately, Lu Ji understood, “I’m still collecting evidence, whether it’s true or not, let’s wait for the results of the investigation ba!”

 

Zhou Chenxi kept silent. 

 

Lu Ji was afraid that he would think that he was too formal, so he explained again: “Luo Xinghe is Luo Xingzhou’s younger brother, you know that, right? Whether or not Luo Xinghe did those things, Luo Xingzhou is suspected of business crimes but since the evidence is clear that he will be prosecuted and receive the punishment he deserves.”

  

He had rehearsed this matter in his mind countless times. Even in his dreams, he had thought about what to do over and over again. This time, since he had decided to take action therefore he would not let himself fail again.

        

Zhou Chenxi always felt that Lu Ji was hiding something else from him. He did not know how to continue the conversation. 

 

Lu Ji said: “What else do you want to ask?”

 

“I had a dream last night…” Zhou Chenxi described everything in the dream to him, Lu Ji was silent.

 

“In the dream, you were tragically hurt by Luo Xinghe and his brother. Although I know a dream doesn’t mean anything. But yesterday, when I saw the news, I was really shocked, that’s why I came here looking for you …”

 

“That’s right.”

 

Lu Ji said : “Yes, I have lived more than once.”

 

Zhou Chenxi was surprised and he looked at him blankly.

 

Lu Ji didn’t know how to tell him about his experience, “I’ve come to this world twice and this is the third time .”

 

Zhou Chenxi was dumbstruck. 

 

“Previously I…I’ve wondered countless times that I probably shouldn’t be in this world. I even thought sometimes that I might have been here more than three times. Because subconsciously, there are many thoughts and images, but those are too vague. I’m not sure those were my own experiences but the only one I remember clearly is this third time.”

    

“I knew everything and how it would end up, but I couldn’t stop it, until I met you.”

 

“It was like inside the darkness,then suddenly I saw light…” Lu Ji said, “It was as if in the unseen world of spirits, something was guiding me to be a little closer to you and everything will be different.”

 

He saw the light. The sky was already bright! 

 

Zhou Chenxi suddenly got a little excited and said, “I can understand that kind of feeling!”

 

Lu Ji was amazed.

 

“It’s like I suddenly feel that I don’t want to work hard anymore and even if I lie down and be a salted fish, I can also win!”

 

Lu Ji: “….”

 

“E…” Zhou Chenxi suddenly felt that he made up something funny, “I’m just describing it. It’s good that you understand.”

 

He indeed experienced that kind of feeling from Lu Ji in his dreams.

 

Besides that, sometimes he felt that when he saw Lu Ji, he would also feel that way. 

 

“So you’ve really lived more than once?” Zhou Chenxi asked.

 

Lu Ji nodded his head.

 

If that was true, then Lu Zhong was really too pitiful. 

 

Zhou Chenxi thought to himself, failing again and again, trying again and again but in the end, he could only look on helplessly and watch himself head for the already fixed ending, what kind of feeling would it be? 

 

If it were him, he would have been lying down and accepting his fate.

 

Zhou Chenxi hesitated for a moment and said, “Actually, me too.”

 

Lu Ji was shocked for a moment and then he felt relieved.

 

Nothing was too strange in this world, Zhou Chenxi wouldn’t have just suddenly accepted the situation and moved on. He must have experienced something to become different.

 

“There’s a special term for this in web novels, it’s called rebirth.”

 

Lu Ji didn’t read many novels, but he was smart enough to ponder over Zhou Chenxi’s words and combine the context together and conclude it quickly, “So not only we are reborn but we’re all inside the book?”

 

“That’s right,” said Zhou Chenxi, scientifically, “There’s also a specific word for this in the novel, it’s called book transmigration where people from the real world cross over into a book, e… I also don’t know if we count as real people or not, but that’s what it means anyway.”

 

Zhou Chenxi was suddenly a little nervous, afraid that Lu Ji would ask for his list of books.

 

That won’t do, his phone was full of novels like《The Overbearing CEO and His Contract Male Wife》,《I Had a Child From My Secret Marriage with a Big Shot Husband》and all of them were these kinds of embarrassing novels. It wasn’t too good for Lu Zong to know his hobby. 

 

Zhou Chenxi only relied on the fact that he read more novels but he could not speculate on the higher level things.

        

Lu Ji was silent and quickly moved on, “It doesn’t matter, whether it’s reality or not, it doesn’t affect us doing our own thing.”

 

Zhou Chenxi felt that Lu Ji was both intelligent and open-minded, accepting all of this at once. He thought he would have to digest it for a moment.

 

Since the two of them had similar experiences and they just crossed paths, Zhou Chenxi was very happy to know that Lu Ji was on his side. For a moment, he said everything he knew, talked endlessly, blah blah blah and chatted with him in the ward for a while. Until it was the time when the bodyguard came in and said, “Mr. Lu, it’s … time for your medicine.”

 

Only then did Zhou Chenxi realize that he had disturbed Lu Ji for a long time, even though just now he had been the one talking and Lu Ji listened to him. 

 

He stood up and said, ” Lu Zong, have a good rest, then I will leave first.”

 

Lu Ji raised his eyes and said to him, “Don’t you worry, I’m here.”

 

Zhou Chenxi’s ears were hot for a moment as he nodded haphazardly, hurriedly bypassing the bodyguard and went out.

 

Standing in the hospital lift, Zhou Chenxi thought to himself, wasn’t he too timid just now? He should have said this to Lu Ji, ‘Good brothers should

have the guts to look out for each other!’

1[肝胆相照 ( 肝膽相照 ) gān dǎn xiāng zhào : to treat one another with absolute sincerity (idiom); to show total devotion]

 

Bringing the regret along with him, Zhou Chenxi decided to save that for later when he met Lu Ji again. He then took a taxi home.

 

According to Lu Ji, Zhou Chenxi’s previous unlucky encounters, such as the odd events he encountered on the stage of《I’m a Real Actor》were most likely all done secretly by Luo Xingzhou.

 

The program team certainly had its problems but there were some basic safety measures that the program crew could take. After all, Lu Group also attached great importance to this aspect and would have someone to do the appropriate risk assessment before investing. Even if they were not careful, It was not possible for everything to be directed at one person unless that person, even by drinking the cool water,could get stuck between his teeth. 2[喝涼水都塞牙 literal meaning: even drinking cool water can get stuck between the teeth. The phrase here means to be unlucky to the extreme or particularly unlucky / out of luck]

 

 

Zhou Chenxi was sure that he was the unlucky guy mentioned by Lu Ji, but after being told so, he decided to look into it a little more closely. 

 

He had secretly asked several people, probably with too much fanfare, his brother still found out about it. 

 

His brother was always concerned about Zhou Chenxi’s affairs so when Zhou Chenxi told him about this, Zhou Mingxuan’s face changed. He immediately said that he would look into this matter and wanted to give Zhou Chenxi a few bodyguards.

 

Zhou Chenxi hurriedly refused.

 

What’s the point of having bodyguards? How weird is that?

 

He was not even an international star. Besides that, if even by drinking cool water, it could get stuck between his teeth, what were the bodyguards going to do by standing next to him, hand him the dental floss?

 

Fortunately, Zhou Chenxi didn’t want to hide this from Zhou Mingxuan. Luo Xing Group’s affair was a big deal so it was not a bad idea to let his brother know sooner, so he could be prepared. 

    

But regarding Zhou Chenxi’s personal safety, Zhou Mingxuan was still very uneasy, and he suggested, “You can let your bodyguards not get too close to you but someone has to protect you secretly, otherwise I can’t sit still.”

 

Zhou Chenxi had no choice but to go along with his brother.

 

So much so that the next day Zhou Chenxi went to the office to talk to Zhi Qi about work. Zhiqi asked him in a mysterious way: “Don’t you feel like someone is following you? Moreover, there’s more than one!”

 

Zhou Chenxi was speechless as he looked back at the dark shadow in the corner behind him.

 

Indeed, it was more than one, Gege had given me four bodyguards!

 

Luckily, his brother knew his taboo and didn’t let his bodyguards follow him too closely, otherwise just now when Zhi Qi had tapped him on the shoulder, they might have come over, picked him up and thrown him out because he was too close to him.

 

No matter what, the work must continue. Zhou Chenxi sent a text message to his brother. He urged him to keep an eye on Luo Xinghe. This man was too dangerous. At the moment, there was not enough evidence, Lu Ji had to beat the grass to scare the snake,3[打草惊蛇 dǎ cǎo jīng shé ; lit. beat the grass to scare the snake / to inadvertently alert an enemy / to punish sb as a warning to others (idiom)] in order to take down Luo Xingzhou. Soon Luo Xinghe will be released. He may have other backers, so he couldn’t be left unguarded.

 

 

He didn’t want anything to happen to his brother, other things were secondary. If his brother got himself into trouble for the sake of Luo Xinghe, it would not be worth the loss.

 

If he failed, he could still go home and inherit the family business.

 

Zhou Mingxuan expressed his appreciation for Zhou Chenxi’s last comment, bestowing him an old fashioned thumbs up emoticon. 

 

Zhi Qi quickly let go of his doubts and became serious again when it came to work : “The《Carp》crew has contacted me that the show will still be filmed next. Luo Xinghe footage would be cut. After all, he was a suspected ‘bad record artist’. The rest of the content will be broadcast as usual, the follow-up crew has found a temporary program saver guest at the last moment. Lu Zong will not be able to make it though. However, there is an advantage beside it, the next few episodes will be filmed intensively within a week before a long delay may cause trouble.”

    

Zhou Chenxi was disappointed. 

 

He felt that in this program he was happy because he could play together with Lu Ji, so without him it seemed dull. 

            

Fortunately, Zhi Qi added: “Director Qin Chuan has already contacted me and said that Lu Zong had specifically instructed that there was only a week left to shoot《Carp》anyway. Once the《Carp》is finished, the filming of《The Journey Record to Immortality》will start. It’s good since It’s continuing and I don’t need to arrange the other work for you.”

 

Zhi Qi wished that Zhou Chenxi could have jobs all the time, after all, for an artist, the busier the artist the more popular he was. 

 

But Zhou Chenxi was still very unhappy.

 

Lu Zong was still in the hospital, and he wouldn’t be able to see him for a week.

 

It was hard to bear. 

 

It took two lifetimes when he was finally able to meet a ‘brother’ who he could talk to but as a result, they didn’t even have time to talk to each other.

 

[兄弟/ brother/ bro : the context in here is for a male friend not a real blood related brother.]

 

Two days later, Zhou Chenxi left for the recording of《The Carp》.

 

Without Luo Xinghe and Lu Ji, Zhou Chenxi worked harder. He no longer had to worry about Luo Xinghe’s presence making him unlucky so he completed the game mission at all costs. 

 

He wanted to win back Lu Ji’s share along with his. 

 

Even the film director said that Zhou Chenxi was different from before, as if he had suddenly changed from a lying salted fish to a rabbit that can run three feet high! When the follow-up show was aired, it should have a good effect.

 

Zhou Chenxi didn’t care about this. He was actually very distracted during this week until he returned by plane. His flight landed in H City, he was excited to visit Lu Ji in the hospital. Suddenly a masked man rushed over and held Zhou Chenxi by the neck, saying: “Do not move!”

        

Oh no!

 

Zhou Chenxi’s first thought was : he had actually been kidnapped! When he was followed by four big burly men!

 

I hope the kidnappers are okay!

 

Big brother bodyguard, please be merciful!

 

    

    

 

 

1[肝胆相照 ( 肝膽相照 ) gān dǎn xiāng zhào : to treat one another with absolute sincerity (idiom); to show total devotion]2[喝涼水都塞牙 literal meaning: even drinking cool water can get stuck between the teeth. The phrase here means to be unlucky to the extreme or particularly unlucky / out of luck]

3[打草惊蛇 dǎ cǎo jīng shé ; lit. beat the grass to scare the snake / to inadvertently alert an enemy / to punish sb as a warning to others (idiom)]