Rose of Heaven

165-166

On the second day of the Chinese New Year, Cheng Yaosi and Lin Jingmo returned to China one after the other without informing each other.
    Tomorrow is Gu Ci'en's death memorial. Every year on this day, there is a bunch of green roses in front of the tomb, rain or shine.
    It was windy and snowy a few days ago, and the tomb was a little dirty. He asked his assistant to borrow cleaning tools and cleaned it up bit by bit. When the dust on the tombstone dissipated and the stone color became clear, a clear family photo of her and her parents appeared on the glass.
    The photo was taken when Gu Ci'en was in junior high school. She had two pigtails and her young and cute face showed eight teeth in a smile. This smile used to bring him endless grief, but today, it seemed that the weather was good. He stroked her cheek, and the grief was not as deep as before.
    The wind blew, and the rose buds moved slightly, as if they were about to bloom with the wind.
    Cheng Yaosi stayed for a while as usual, and when he left, the night was dark.
    ...
    Chen Xingyan started to take on work. She first filmed a backlog of commercials. The shooting scene was like a head of state in person, with three layers of protection inside and outside. But Chen Xingyan went home angrily halfway through the shooting.
    Holding her breath, she started to complain when she saw Chen Xingchen, saying that everyone looked at her with strange expressions. What she wanted was obsession, admiration, jealousy and envy, not the kind that seemed obscure.
    Chen Xingchen had something on his mind, so he was in no mood to pay attention to her. In the past, he listened to her talk and forgot about it. Now, his eyebrows were on fire. She was still concerned about how many people loved her. Chen Xingchen was annoyed and turned around and slammed the door.
    Chen Xingyan cried at home and realized that something was wrong. After a while, she called Chen Xingchen and asked him what happened. Chen Xingchen knew that it was useless to tell her. He had spoiled her as his sister and lover. She could only enjoy happiness but not hardship, and could not withstand any setbacks.
    He perfunctorily answered, closing his eyes and letting the car run aimlessly on the road, thinking about how to break the situation.
    Previously, in the casino in Nan'ao, he saw an acquaintance who was an assistant of Li Mingze. He lost a lot and asked the moneylender outside the casino to borrow hundreds of thousands. When he saw Chen Xingchen, he felt like a savior and hesitated to speak. Chen Xingchen waved his hand and lent him two million. A few
    days later, he came to the door and said that he had lost all the money. Shen Xingchen didn't care about that little money, but wanted to plant one of his own people next to Li Mingze. Before he opened his mouth, the other party said that he hoped to use something to ask Chen Xingchen to give him another three million. When
    Shen Xingchen heard this, he became curious and waited for him to turn on his phone to play a voice.
    "Mr. Shen, I can give you this phone directly, even without the card number. I will pretend that I have never heard this. I don't have any backup in my hand. You can absolutely trust me. Is this worth five million?"
    Chen Xingchen smiled calmly, "Smart AI is developing so fast now, and it is difficult to distinguish the true from the false when simulating human voices. You may have been deceived by someone. However, since we have known each other for a while, I don't want to see you desperate, but you should be more careful in the future. Casinos are not so fun. If you are not careful, you will lose your life and property."
    After the people left, Chen Xingchen smashed the wine glass in his hand to the ground.
    Li Mingze really had a trick up his sleeve.
    With only a recording, Chen  Xingchen was not afraid that someone could convict him, but if this recording fell into Cheng Yaosi's hands, Cheng Yaosi would never let him go.
    The scenery outside the window was receding at a constant speed. He tapped his fingers on his knees. He thought about it and thought that it might not be a bad thing to know this matter in advance. He should make plans early so that Li Mingze would not sell him out and he would be kept in the dark. He was unkind, and he was only unjust.
    Chen Xingchen opened her eyes and sent a message to her assistant: Check where Li Lingxian often hangs out in Kyoto.
    ...
    The candlelight flickered in front of her. Under Tang Tianyu's gaze, Lin Jingmo closed her eyes slightly and blew out the candle.
    She didn't really like to celebrate her birthday, and this wasn't the kind of birthday she was used to, so she chose a time to stay on the plane for a day. After getting off the plane, she started to run around, trying to make herself forget it, but things are different now. As a public figure, her birthday date is public information. She needs to post on Weibo to her fans, and needs to reply to the blessings on WeChat one by one. Everyone around her is reminding her of the existence of this day.
    When Tang Tianyu saw Lin Jingmo, her birthday had already passed, but he  still bought a cake.
    He didn't ask her what her wish was, took down the candle, cut a piece for her and handed it to her, and the aroma of cream mousse hit her face. It
    's not easy to buy cakes in this shop. They all have to be reserved three days in advance. Tang Tianyu was able to get it at the last minute, which probably took some effort. Lin Jingmo picked up a small spoon and scooped some into her mouth, chewing it delicately and elegantly.
    "Delicious."
    Lin Jingmo smiled at him.
    In an instant, the light became brighter.
    Tang Tianyu sat there and thought, so what if she doesn't like me, anyway, she is willing to stay by his side, and she spent her birthday with him. Of course, if she can like him, it would be even better.
    Seeing him staring at him, Lin Jingmo hooked his finger on the cake, smeared the cream on the corner of his mouth, and said: "Maybe you don't believe it, this is my first time eating birthday cake, thank you."
    Gu Ci'en had eaten it ten years ago, but "Lin Jingmo", it was indeed the first time.
    She lowered her eyes slightly, with a smile on her face. There was no sadness in her smile, but Tang Tianyu's heart ached when she continued: "Now you have 65 points."
    Tang Tianyu's tense nerves were loosened by her words. He rushed over, and Lin Jingmo screamed and was lifted high by him, spinning around and around.
    ...
    Time passed in a flash. Two days passed. Ji Nanting asked Lin Jingmo to meet before the Lantern Festival. Lin Jingmo asked Ao Yang to continue monitoring Zhang Qi's movements.
    At the same time, she secretly knew everything about the deceased internet celebrity Liu Tianmei, and even sent some money to her mother.
    One day, the Spring Festival holiday was about to end, and a paparazzi on the Internet suddenly exposed a notice, saying that at 7 o'clock in the evening, there would be some big news to wake up those who were returning to work, and gave clues that a first-line actress had revealed her love affair for the first time
    . This paparazzi was quite famous, but he often took pictures of trivial things, such as 18th-line stars driving on the line, and liked to exaggerate, so no one took his notice seriously.
    Lin Jingmo's management team and she had a work group with six people. In addition to Lin Jingmo, there was Sister Shan, her agent Ren Xuexin, assistant Gao Na, and two publicity. This team configuration was basically the basic configuration of mature artists. Because she was a newcomer and easy-going and talkative, this work group also served as a gossip group. Her two lively and talkative publicity gave Tang Tianyu a name "brother-in-law".
    When it was seven o'clock, the publicity who often surfed the Internet threw a Weibo link into the group and said: The one who was exposed was Yang Liuqing.
    When Lin Jingmo saw the message, she was reading a movie script sent by Sister Shan.
    She clicked on the link, and the video played automatically. With the paparazzi's commentary, it vividly described how Yang Liuqing left the scene early on New Year's Eve and came to a luxury car on the street.
    Because it was night, there was light in the car, so even with a layer of sunscreen film, the scene inside could still be seen.
    The figures overlapped in the back seat for several minutes, and they seemed to be kissing. Then the paparazzi followed the car to the community where Yang Liuqing lived, and the video ended there.
    Yang Liuqing is indeed a first-line actress. She has been competing with Chen Xingyan for several years and has accumulated a good national popularity and fan base. Suddenly, the relationship was exposed, and there was such ironclad evidence. It was all over the forums for a while. Everyone wanted to know who the man in the car was. It was more than ten minutes past seven o'clock. Except for the eagle-eyed spectators who recognized that the car was worth a lot of money, no one could accurately tell the other party's identity.
    And Lin Jingmo had ridden in this car, so how could she not remember the owner of the car.
    She knew that he had many women, so it was not surprising. When she was in New York, she asked Yu Wan about his white moonlight in a roundabout way. Although Yu Wan didn't know what the girl Cheng Yaosi really liked looked like, she knew very well that he had never found a substitute.
    Lin Jingmo understood. If Yang Liuqing looked like his white moonlight, then her association was indeed a misunderstanding.
    That day, Lin Jingmo also received a bouquet of flowers at the hotel, 99 red roses, very tacky, with a card on it, and it was written in thin gold: I want to apologize and need flowers.
    Thinking about it now, the bouquet of red roses should have been thrown directly into the trash can.
    Lin Jingmo pushed the link, and the video had 404 errors and was directly deleted by the backend.
    The phone rang, and she looked at the incoming call. It was an unfamiliar number, but a voice emerged in her heart, how many red roses did he plan to send this time?
    Lin Jingmo answered the call, but no one spoke for a long time.
    In the end, Lin Jingmo spoke first: "Hello."
    Cheng Yaosi hummed on the phone: "It's me."
    Lin Jingmo continued to wait for him to continue.
    At this time, Tang Tianyu came out of the bathroom and saw that she was talking on the phone. He hugged her from behind and asked, "Who is it?"
    Lin Jingmo's face had changed since he leaned over. Tang Tianyu originally just said this casually, but he keenly noticed the panic on her face.
    He frowned, then smiled and kissed Lin Jingmo's cheek vigorously, making a popping sound.
    Lin Jingmo turned around and hung up the phone in a hurry, so that he didn't see the string of numbers.
    Tang Tianyu did not ask further. He saw the script she put aside. It was a play adapted from ancient Chinese. Tang Tianyu just glanced at it and saw the outline of the main points. The heroine experienced love-hate entanglements with three charming male characters. The audience's favorite battle of heroes...
    What a bad taste the audience has nowadays!
    He suppressed his anger and smiled faintly. He said to Lin Jingmo: "Your company let you act so soon. What if you are not good at acting and get scolded?"
    Lin Jingmo's mouth twitched: "Are you looking forward to me being scolded?"
    Tang Tianyu looked very considerate of her. He said seriously: "I think, otherwise you can take four or five years of classes like those actors. It's not too late to act again when you have experience. Moreover, "I don't think the heroine of this script is very suitable for you..."
    "Who said my role is the heroine? My role is the second female role." Lin Jingmo interrupted him and pointed to the role he circled on the script.
    The female lead of this crew had been decided long ago. She was a first-line actress. The original work was a very popular IP, and the director team was also good. Originally, Sister Shan would never consider a role like the second female lead for her, but this crew was indeed a sure-fire hit, and the second female lead also had a lot to show, so she asked for the script for her to take a look first.
    Tang Tianyu glanced over again, and saw that the biography next to the second female lead read: a career critic who cut off love and affection, a sickly female version of Long Aotian who got the script by mistake, and no one in the world was worthy of her several times narcissistic and talented player...
    "... Well, if you start with the second female lead, there shouldn't be so many people scolding you."
    How could Lin Jingmo not know what he was thinking? SHe laughed, but before she finished laughing, his phone rang. Lin Jingmo looked at him and he picked it up, calling out, "Uncle, what's the matter?"
    The voice on the other end of the phone was very light and shallow, and the smile on Lin Jingmo's lips gradually faded. Then, she leaned into Tang Tianyu's arms and raised her head to kiss him.
    Lin Jingmo rarely took the initiative between the two of them. This time, Tang Tianyu's mind was immediately attracted by Lin Jingmo, and he didn't even hear what Cheng Yaosi said.
    The long silence was not pure silence. Cheng Yaosi held the phone and listened to the subtle sounds from the other end. There was the gentle and repressed sweet moan of a familiar girl, the ambiguous and intense stirring of water. His eyes melted into the broken ice in an instant, and his face was full of coldness.
    "Tianyu, I want to see you, now."
    He raised his voice and said coldly.