KC | Chapter 51

Chapter 61 This Is Life

The next day, Chen Xi showed up with two panda eyes and discussed the stage layout plan with the marketing department. The marketing department had to combine his suggestions to improve the stage decoration drawings and the exhibition setup process.

Although the money he had asked for from Shen Yuesheng was enough to cover Lanhai’s labor costs, the Pisheng event execution time was tight and the marketing department was short-staffed, so Chen Xi could only work along with them.

Shen Yuesheng’s position was awkward, he was both the client and, in a sense, half a “pursuer.” The moral model citizen felt that when he had been secretly in love with Lin Yiran before, he could go on blind dates; but now that his relationship with Lin Yiran had already changed, he could no longer be ambiguous with anyone else. But Shen Yuesheng was the client, so he still could not avoid contact.

Then he would have to keep contact to the minimum unless necessary!

His brain, which had not gotten enough rest, could not handle high-intensity work. Chen Xi rubbed his temples and deeply regretted not going to bed early yesterday.

It was all that old demon’s fault for seducing me!

People with split personalities often fantasized: if dating someone could be like dealing with a client, that would be great. No need to be nervous, no need to consider the surrounding environment, just make a strategy after deciding on it, then break through according to the plan.

But reality was that dealing with clients was already hard enough, and dating someone was much harder than dealing with clients.

Chen Xi also wanted to take it easy. More than once, he had tried to convince himself to just switch to someone else, but his liking for Lin Yiran could not be changed. He had gotten through the unreturned secret crush from before, and now he had finally been hoping for the other side to get divorced. How could he give up now?

There was no way around it. Who told his crush to be so smart? Since he had chosen him himself, he could only endure it.

Lin Yiran had never said it outright, and Chen Xi could not figure out what he meant. While he hoped for a response, he also feared that he was misreading it. This contradictory feeling made him uneasy.

–

Previously, among the three stage layout options provided by Guan Chao, the one Shen Yuesheng finally settled on was the research and study theme.

The designer had combined the requirements to design the stage, and the marketing department coordinated all kinds of materials and equipment. Chen Xi confirmed the specific items such as lighting, sound, and props with the project manager. The stage setup also had to take the students’ perspective and experience into account, trying as hard as possible to satisfy everyone. Besides exhibition setup, Chen Xi also had to monitor the progress of the event, coordinate personnel, and handle safety保障 and other work.

This damned work drained Chen Xi’s energy dry. During the day, his mind was in a frenzied state, and at night when he got home, he had only one breath left, barely hanging on while he ate takeout, and only then did he remember Lin Yiran.

「晨曦：Brother Lin, event execution is too deadly, I listened to you, I’m never taking one again in the future Orz」

Lin Yiran’s status was not much better either. There were lots of end-of-month collections and dinners, and by the time he replied, it was already late at night.

「林狗：1」

Back when there was no enterprise WeChat, Lanhai used WeChat for work. Chen Xi had joined many WeChat groups as soon as he started, and every announcement had to @everyone. The replies below were all kinds of different things. There were “Received,” “Got it,” “Okay,” and some people directly replied with “1.”

The salespeople who replied with “1” were busy negotiating deals in some cases, but most of them just did not want to talk and replied symbolically to show that they knew.

「晨曦：Is Brother Lin still busy?」

Half an hour later,

「”林狗” patted me and said “You really got me.”」

He did not even bother to type, so he really must have been busy.

「I patted “林狗” and said “Daddy, I was wrong.”」

「林狗：Haha!」

Chen Xi: ……

His phone rang, and Chen Xi answered. Lin Yiran was clearly at a dinner, and the background noise on the phone was very loud.

Chen Xi forced his eyelids open and said, “Brother Lin, something up?”

“No.”

“I’m not busy either…” So why call if there was nothing? Although I really want to talk to you, I truly don’t know what to say. How about we chat about something unhealthy to perk ourselves up?

“Mm.”

“Uh, what are you doing right now?”

“Listening to the phone.”

Chen Xi: I turned my brain all day long, and now I have to turn my brain again to find a topic, I…

There was the sound of a door being pulled on the other end. Lin Yiran should have left the private room. His voice was very low and sounded extremely tired: “Chen Xi, I figure I won’t get home until after midnight. It’s not convenient to talk in the private room, but if you want to say something, I’ll listen.”

If it had been usual, Chen Xi would already have been so happy that he jumped up, but these past few days he really had no energy to jump.

Chen Xi rubbed his temples, his voice muffled: “But I don’t know what to say.”

“We can keep the call connected, and when you fall asleep, I’ll hang up.”

–

Facts proved that the effective way to treat split personalities was high-intensity work. Physical therapy was absolutely immediate and effective, much stronger than seeing some unreliable psychologist or using hormone-based drugs.

Chen Xi felt that once this period of busyness was over, he could make a video about easing psychological barriers. He sincerely suggested that some “little princes and princesses” who were always whining without any real problem should find something proper to do, and stop blabbering all day long about how difficult their lives were. In reality, they did no work at all, and only wanted to gain traffic and attention through playing the victim and using every means possible to build a persona.

These “mouth experts” would seize on even a little setback to announce it to the outside world through every platform available for spreading information, trying to stir up public opinion. They did not even use their brains to think about it. Five thousand years of Chinese history, there had been plenty of unfair things. Why should the whole internet be forced to stand on their side, just because they had a mouth?

All fairness was built on rules. There was only relative fairness, no absolute fairness. The environment Chen Xi was in was one where the client suppressed others under unfair rules. He had to survive in the cracks, squeezed dry of energy by work. He did not even have time to complain about unfairness. And “mouth experts” spent a large amount of time occupying public resources online, complaining about the conditions they were in, making a spectacle of themselves to get attention, and then what? Then they monetized traffic through livestreaming, pushed their persona, and made fans buy things.

The people hauling bricks on construction sites did not know how to play the internet. Researchers disdained showing off professional results on social platforms. Office drones worked diligently only for food, shelter, and not having to drift around… Practitioners in countless industries were all fighting for life. Most of them were unknown, quietly sticking to their duties.

Why should the eloquent drama queens get favoritism? With just the upper lip touching the lower lip for a few minutes, they could get labor results that others could not achieve even after decades of work?

Big traffic streamers in the two-dimensional world lowered their heads in the real world, quietly acting like dogs, not daring to let out even a fart too loudly, afraid that others would find out; the strivers in the three-dimensional world were silent, and when they met setbacks, they thought of strategies. When they suffered injustice, they did their best to bear it, and from bearing it they produced three different versions of themselves, together resisting a suffocating life.

The environment they were in could not be changed, so they could only adapt. Those who could not adapt were eliminated by society. Most people went with the flow and gave up themselves. Only a very small number of people could keep their original intentions in a difficult life and insist on doing the right thing.

–

The sun was blazing. Chen Xi stood at the Huiling Mountain event site, sleeves rolled up and arms bare, working.

A suit and leather shoes looked good on, but they were not convenient for moving around. If they got scratched or rubbed, it would hurt to look at them. It was still better to wear the cheap stuff bought for 19.9, loose and baggy, and if it got dirty there was no need to wash it. If it got ruined, just throw it away, and it was more trouble-free.

The contract had been signed, the money had been received, so there was no need to wear tightly woven shirts that squeezed the body.

Most importantly, he could not see Lin Yiran these few days anyway, so even if he dressed well, it was useless.

As the saying went, one minute on stage took ten years of work offstage. For the two-hour summer camp performance, Chen Xi walked more than 20,000 steps a day, kept busy setting up the venue, supervising the project progress, and coordinating with the performers. Before the event, he went through N rounds of preparation and rehearsals… The marketing consultant, who had never participated in event execution, kept up high-intensity work every day and had to soak their feet when they got home at night to ease the exhaustion.

The little slacker collapsed on the bed and fell asleep dazedly. The next day, he got up and looked at his phone with 0 battery, plugged it in, and washed up at lightning speed.

Once the phone turned on, he sent Lin Yiran a message first,

「晨曦：Brother Lin, I fell asleep yesterday.」

「林狗：Mm, work hard. Keep it up.jpg」

Chen Xi was very tired and had no time to think about what he should chat about with Lin Yiran, but fortunately Lin Yiran also did not know what to say. The two of them fooled each other, I fool you and you fool me, tacitly getting by with each other’s nonsense.

Since that vague voice message, the two of them had not met, and Chen Xi somehow had a sense of unreality, like an online romance.

But an online romance was also still a “romance.” Right now, he could not tell whether this situation counted as dating. If it did not count, then who in a relationship would casually take time during the day to reply on WeChat and call in the middle of the night? Besides, they had already slept together, and the ambiguity was a little too much. If it did count, Lin Yiran had never clearly stated their relationship, much less made a promise.

–

Four days passed in the blink of an eye, and in the blink of an eye it was Saturday, the event execution date for the 8.27 Pisheng summer camp, and also Wang Xin’s wedding date.

Chen Xi had originally promised Wang Xin that he would be there in person, but today’s situation really did not allow him to leave. If something went wrong with the stage he had carefully prepared for days, he could not bear the consequences.

Although Wang Xin would definitely understand his situation and forgive and be tolerant of him, Chen Xi only had this one best brother. Even the most sufficient reason could not make up for the guilt in his heart.

He could not fulfill his promise to his friend.

「晨曦：Bro, sorry, there’s a 213 client event today, I have to follow it the whole time.」

「晨曦：Wishing you a happy marriage, a hundred years together, and an early birth of a precious child!」

「You transferred 1000 yuan to Wang Daxin」

Heaven was forcing Chen Xi to choose between friendship and work, and he had no choice but to choose the latter.

There was regret, but there was nothing he could do. This was life.

There were 208 students taking part in the Pisheng summer camp event. Four 53-seat buses, after excluding the drivers, were exactly 208 seats. The four teachers accompanying them had nowhere to sit, so Shen Yuesheng drove them here. This time he had not driven a Maserati, because a sports car only had 2 seats and could not fit 5 people.

In the morning, Chen Xi saw the buses full of students and was once again convinced by capitalism’s meticulous calculation.

Shen Yuesheng rarely followed events. This time he came to Huiling Mountain not because of “meticulous calculation,” and even less because he was supervising Lanhai’s event execution, but to find someone. Although Huiling Mountain was not a star-rated scenic spot, like Zao Wang City it was under the jurisdiction of the Culture and Tourism Bureau, so not just any institution could hold an event here. Shen Yuesheng happened to have government and tourism connections.

In the morning, Chen Xi saw the off-road vehicle blocking the road at the Huiling Mountain entrance and thought it was driven by some foreman. Unexpectedly, a group of well-mannered teachers got out from above, and the “big brother” who was driving really was wearing sunglasses. The PRSR had the dual effect of looking flashy and blocking the sun.

Once Shen Yuesheng put on his sunglasses, he became the brightest guy in the crowd. He took off the sunglasses, nodded at Chen Xi, got in the car, and left.

Chen Xi: I thought you were here to supervise the work, but I didn’t expect you to just be here to drop people off. Then you could have left right after dropping them off, why bother getting out of the car and making a fuss? Last time it was a Maserati, this time it was an off-road vehicle with sunglasses, I have to say, you really have quite the skill when it comes to acting flashy.

Everything was proceeding in an orderly manner. Chen Xi held the execution checklist that he knew by heart and ticked off every item’s progress, striving for perfect completion.

However, humans could not outplan heaven. At noon on 8.27, the situation suddenly changed, and Yu City unexpectedly began to pour with heavy rain.

–

Thunder roared. Raindrops slammed onto the event stage, and moisture filled the air. Chen Xi felt cold, cold all the way through.

The downpour came crashing down and disrupted all plans.

No one on site had expected it to rain, so no one had brought an umbrella. The moment it started raining, people rushed into the building to avoid it, while Chen Xi stood in the vortex of rainwater, cutting through the chaotic crowd, and walked alone toward the stage, gathering up all the event props that were afraid of rain.

Chen Xi knelt on the ground, and his thin body seemed to have been drained of strength by this rain that did not obey the weather forecast.

The carefully prepared stage had already been ruined, and there was a very high chance the event could not continue. The cold rain swallowed Chen Xi up, and everything around him was moving farther and farther away. Chen Xi was an out-of-place lone warrior, down and helpless.

His originally clear thoughts instantly became chaotic. Raindrops landed on his hair and soaked him through in an instant. Chen Xi took a deep breath, trying to calm down.

Damn weather broadcaster, why didn’t they bother to fix the wrong information? Why did the phone still show there was no rain now!

I skipped my friend’s wedding to take on a project with no margin and no profit, followed the execution site for a week, and this was the ending.

It still wasn’t time yet. I cannot give up.

But if I don’t give up, what else can I do? Can I make the rain stop?

He had thought that when people did things, heaven was watching, and effort would eventually be rewarded. He had thought that if he tried his best to fight for things, they would develop along the trajectory he had expected. He had thought he could be like Lin Yiran, in control of everything, calm and at ease…

But in reality, I’m just a fucking idiot who can’t do anything!

The rain all over the sky was like sharp knives flying through the air, stabbing Chen Xi until he was covered in wounds.

Life was never smooth nine times out of ten. There were always regrets, but there was no choice. Life still had to go on, he still had to keep living.

He really wanted to fuck through this damn life.