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

Chapter 25

In comparison, Luo Xinghe was much more chilled, but he had high efficiency and good luck as he took down two clues by himself.

        At the end of the show, the (film) director announced the number of clues they had, and even Zhuang Jingle was a little envious of Luo Xinghe.

        The next mission would be recorded in the evening. There was still time for everyone to have a good time strolling around the West City, at the same time giving and providing the show some sightseeing material. 

        Zhou Chenxi had just eaten so he had lost interest in numerous culinary food shops on the street.The view of Xijiang River could be seen from the snack food street. 

        The Xijiang River is the mother river of Xicheng (West City). As soon as the color of the sky changed into night, the surface of the river was brightened up with starlight. A cruise ship on the river traveled along a route, making a loud and clear steam sound. 

Zhou Chenxi stretched out lazily, while enjoying the evening breeze and holding the railing of the riverside,: “The scenery is so beautiful! I want to live here when I’m old. If I get tired of it, I’ll just move to another place.”

       [意境/ Artistic conception refers to the artistic mood and realm represented by the artistic expression of a literary and artistic work through its image description. Ex: This painting is not only beautiful in appearance, but also beautiful in color and beautiful in artistic conception.]

        Lu Ji glanced at him, one word said it all: “Thinking of retirement life again?”

        “But, isn’t the point of working to retire better?” Zhou Chenxi, as a salted fish, was very reasonable. 

        Lu Ji was left speechless for a moment. Suddenly he heard a cry from the other side: “Help! Someone come and save my child!”

        Zhou Chenxi followed the sound. He saw a child who looked to be in his teens standing outside the guard bar of the Xijiang River. With a dejected look on his face, he was staring at the incessant turbulent Xijiang river. seemingly trying to commit suicide.

        “Not good,” Zhou Chenxi’s brow tightened, “Gotta save him!”

        Before he could finish his sentence, Lu Ji moved even faster than he did. He was tall and had long legs,therefore in three or two steps he crossed the first guardrail at the edge of the Xi Jiang River and slowly approached that child.

        There were two guardrails along the Xijiang River to prevent tourists from accidentally falling over.

        Lu Ji stood by the embankment of the Xijiang River, steadied himself and slowly advised him in a voice: “Life is precious, don’t give up so easily.”

        The boy seemed not to have heard what he said, his fixed eyes still staring straight at the surface of the river.

        The photographer was a little nervous, shooting the camera at them. At the same time, he called the police. Some people went to help, but the area outside the fence was too narrow and small. Many people were more afraid of irritating that child. Instead, more and more people gathered around them.Some people even grabbed their mobile phones, watching the bustling scene, not minding the big event, filming while also staring fixedly at the river bank.

The police were still on the way, but they couldn’t just leave the child unattended, so Lu Ji spoke carefully: “Give me your hand. Look, your mother is waiting for you over there.”

        Hearing the two words ‘Mama(妈妈)’, the teenager’s gaze briefly glanced over the railing.

        His mother was already choking with sobs, so scared that she couldn’t even stand.

        Zhou Chenxi was even more nervous that he felt his hands trembling.

        He was afraid that Lu Ji might accidentally fall over.

        Suddenly, as if the boy had made some kind of decision, he let go of his grip on the guardrail and threw himself and jumped towards the river.

        “Ah!” Zhou Chenxi cried out in surprise, “Lu Zong!”

       At the river’s edge, screams rang out, one after the other, as Lu Ji grabbed the railing with one hand and tugged firmly at the boy’s collar with the other, both of their bodies hanging over the guardrail.

          The moment the boy jumped, Lu Ji leapt over the second railing, but the riverbank was so slippery that it was hard to find a place to land.The two of them hung on the railing, slipped down and almost couldn’t keep their hands on the guard bar. 

        Beneath their feet, the current of the river was fast flowing. If they fell, they would be swept away by the current in an instant. The situation was extremely dangerous.

        Zhou Chenxi overturned the handrail. In a split second, he summoned his courage as he trembled, leaned down and pulled Lu Ji’s arm.

        “Don’t let go, Lu Zong!” Zhou Chenxi shouted, “I’ll pull you up!”

        His trailing voice drifted through the air with the river breeze. Lu Ji looked up at him, noticing that his eyes were faintly red.

        “It’s okay,” Lu Ji reassured him, “I can still hold on.”

        At last,the passers-by finally came forward. By gathering the wisdom of the crowd, some found a rope, others just held their hands in hand and lent each other strength, finally pulling Lu Ji and the child up together.

        The police arrived in a hurry so after they understood the situation, they began to educate that child.

        Lu Ji’s arms and body were bruised to varying degrees. The private doctor and safeguard from the nearby ambulance rushed over after receiving the news and gave Lu Ji a simple bandage.

        “Lu Zong,” the private doctor who came to accompany him, suggested, “why don’t we go to the hospital and take a rontgen?”

        “No need for it,” Lu Ji usually played sports; he had bumps and bruises all the time, so this small injury was nothing for him. He knew his condition very well, “It’s just a scratch, it doesn’t matter.”

        Lu Ji was surrounded by many people. Zhou Chenxi stayed on the outskirts of the crowd, watching him with concern.

        After dealing with the appropriate matters, the program team sent a car to take Lu Ji and Zhou Chenxi back to the hotel.

        The teenager’s mother kept thanking Lu Ji afterwards and was persuaded by Lu Ji to leave, telling her to enlighten her child, hoping that this kind of thing would not happen again.

        It was later revealed that the boy was under too much pressure to study. He had not done well in his exams, he took things too hard (then became depressed). 

Because of the accident, the crew had to reschedule the filming.The (film) director told Zhou Chenxi and Lu Ji to go back and rest first.After that, they will be informed of the shooting schedule. 

        Zhou Chenxi sat in the car, feeling very guilty for a moment: “It’s all because of me. I have caused you to suffer from the same bad luck as me.”

        “Why do you take everything on yourself?” Lu Ji held his injured arm and looked back at him with a smile, “Does this matter have anything to do with you?”

        Zhou Chenxi was mumbling.

        Lu Ji knew what he wanted to say :  “I’m not always lucky in everything, but the last accident and this time, the company’s insurance will reimburse the accident. Is that a bit of luck in the midst of misfortune?”

        Zhou Chenxi lifted his head to look at him.

        Lu Ji added: “Unlucky and unlucky people together will be ‘two negatives make a positive’. Maybe one day we’ll get luckier and luckier.”

[负负得正: The bad results bring good together/ Two negatives make an affirmative.]

        —— The most fortunate thing about me is that I met you.

        Zhou Chenxi kneaded his own palms in a confused manner, squeezed out an ugly smile and smiled at him.

        In the end, the (film) director team decided to continue the recording in the evening. The (film) director asked Lu Ji again and again to make sure he was okay, and then cautiously changed the recording schedule indoors.

        In the large conference room of the hotel, the program team handed out a set of game cards, forming a team of two. The rules of the game were somewhat similar to “24 Points” but of course, this game would depend on strength as well as luck.

[“24 Points” is a mathematical game, just like chess and Go, it’s a popular game card]

It was impossible for Luo Xinghe to fight alone, automatically he formed a team with Ren Qian again. Ren Qian generously gave Shao Yunyi the clue he got this afternoon. Zhuang Jingle also got one clue from Lu Ji and Zhou Chenxi’s two clues. 

        In this way, all the other teams had two clues and only Lu Ji and Zhou Chenxi’s team had one.

        Zhou Chenxi’s luck (in gambling) was always bad, the cards he drew were all very bad.

        Luckily, Lu Ji’s brain was quite quick. Although Zhou Chenxi’s playing card was a bit tough, Lu Ji tried hard to save it from the desperate crisis and eventually lost to the other two groups only by two points.

        The (film) director, apt to the occasion, came out to ‘cue’ (originally in english) the flow: “The final battle for points begins, with each person holding a pouch that has a different use, ‘free voucher’ gain one point, two ‘half-price vouchers’ are equivalent to one ‘free voucher’ and a ‘discount voucher’ requires three to be equal to one ‘free voucher’.”

        The crowd’s minds spun for a while before they understood the rules.

        Zhou Chenxi opened the remaining brocade bag he had and he was speechless.

        They had eaten to get two brocade bags this afternoon, one containing ‘half-price coupons’ and one containing ‘discount coupons’ so the ‘half-price coupons’ were blindly given to Zhuang Jingle.

        If I had known, I would have taken a look at the contents first.

        Zhou Chenxi’s stubborn head and mood ‘down’ (originally in english) to the lowest bottom.

        “It’s okay, there’s still a chance.” Lu Ji comforted him.

        Luo Xinghe’s team had two half-price coupons, Zhuang Jingle and Shao Yunyi had one discount coupon and one half-price coupon, but Zhou Chenxi’s team only had one discount coupon.

        The (film) director said: “The remaining coupons are hidden in various corners of the hotel. The group of Luo Xinghe and Ren Qian won first place in the mini-game just now, they can go first to find the coupons. After ten minutes passed, the second team of Shao Yunyi and Zhuang Jingle may go and in another ten minutes, Lu Zong and Zhou Chenxi can go.”

        They had the full twenty minutes difference from the first team, Zhou Chenxi was very anxious. He continuously walked around the lobby until the director announced that they were ready to go, Zhou Chenxi was the first to rush out.

        “Pay attention to safety!” The (film) director reminded them.

        This time, Zhou Chenxi was the main force in finding the coupons.

        As a salted fish, it was the first time Zhou Chenxi had worked so hard on the show, not for the points or also not for something like “coupons”, but because he felt that Lu Ji had been working really hard all along this time, so he couldn’t lose either.

Who says that hard work is useless? Hard work is to prove that all luck in this world can be created.

        With these words echoing in his head, Zhou Chenxi nimbly ran around the various corners of the hotel, even tactfully dodging Luo Xinghe to avoid colliding with him.

        He was actually also having a pair of long legs too, although he was on the lean side and not as sturdy as Lu Ji looked, when he really ran, the photographer somehow could not even catch up with him and kept panting behind him.

        Zhou Chenxi found a total of two brocade bags, a half-price coupon and a discount coupon, but the (film) director who accompanied him reminded him that the half-price and discount coupons he already had on hand did not equal a free coupon.

    Zhou Chenxi didn’t feel disheartened. When he was thinking about where else he hadn’t looked for it, he suddenly heard Lu Ji’s voice coming from downstairs, “Chenxi, come here!”

        Lu Ji had just been resting in the lounge, his personal doctor had reminded him not to over-exercise, lest his wounds become infected, so he just took his time looking on that floor. 

        Probably because he heard Zhou Chenxi’s movement upstairs, he came out and called out.

        Zhou Chenxi hurried downstairs and saw Lu Ji standing outside an utility room, pointing to the top of a pile of cardboard boxes inside and saying, “Is there one there?”

        Zhou Chenxi stood on tiptoe and saw that there was indeed one.

        “You don’t move, I’ll think of a way to get it down.” Zhou Chenxi rolled up his sleeves to see if there was anywhere he could climb on it. 

        The cardboard boxes were stacked quite high. There were no footrests in the utility room, plus the place was cramped, so maybe the stool couldn’t be well used. Zhou Chenxi had reached by stretching out to see that the cardboard boxes were too heavy, couldn’t be carried down. He planned to search for other people and borrow something else.

    “No need,” Lu Ji heard the sound of footsteps coming from outside the door and suspected that other guests had come over, “Come here!”

        He waved his hand at Zhou Chenxi.

        Zhou Chenxi wasn’t able to respond yet, as soon as Lu Ji went over, he felt a tightness around his waist. The next thing he knew, he was wrapped in Lu Ji’s single arm with his feet already in the air. 

“Aaahhh!” Zhou Chenxi lost his voice, “I’m heavy,  Lu Zong!”

        “Not heavy,” Lu Ji’s voice carried a bit of a dull tone in the room, “Is it here?”

        “A little more to the left.” Zhou Chenxi reached out and touched it.

        Lu Ji moved to the left.

        “Can’t see ah!” Zhou Chenxi said again, “Cameraman, make a light!”

        “Are you done?” A thin sweat broke out at the end of Lu Ji’s nose, he smelled the sweet scent of shower gel faintly coming from Zhou Chenxi’s body.

        The body wash he used was actually Lu Group’s milk and vanilla scented shower gel. 

        Lu Ji thought, no wonder he always felt that he smelt like milk on him.

        But Lu Ji had forgotten that this shower gel sponsored the show so every guest was given a bottle in their hotel room.

        Next season, he could consider asking the branch office to mainly popularize it.

        Lu Ji was thinking about it when he suddenly noticed Zhou Chenxi move, “I got it! I got it!”

        In his excitement, the t-shirt around his waist slipped upwards, revealing a skin color snow-white waist in front of Lu Ji’s eyes.

        Lu Ji’s eyes couldn’t help but sweep to the side.

    Zhou Chenxi was put down by Lu Ji. Lu Ji didn’t know what made him tripped over so when he turned around earlier because the utility room was too narrow so all of a sudden, they were facing each other. With one hand, he propped himself up on the side of Zhou Chenxi’s face. 

It was too close, so close that they could feel each other’s breath.

        Zhou Chenxi blushed and said: “Is this some kind of new pose to celebrate victory?”

        Lu Ji: “If you say it is then it is.”

        The two were embarrassed for a moment. Before they could separate, they heard Zhuang Jingle say from outside, “Sorry for the interruption!”

        He accidentally entered the scene of a fantastic celebration. He felt his little life was in danger, so he hurriedly exited, and thoughtfully closed the door for them.

        Lu Ji: “….”

        Zhou Chenxi: “….”

        Zhuang Jingle was outside, he closed his eyes and sadly thought to himself, ‘Sorry Boss, I know too much!’

        The author has something to say:

Zhuang Jingle, You are done! 1!