Xie Qingci was finally driven to the side bedroom and told to go out early to work to pay the rent.

Translated, it means he’s being told not to stay at home all day, being a bother.

Ignoring his pitiful look, Yu Xia not only set a series of room-dividing terms but also proactively contacted He Ci by phone the next day to express her desire to quickly take on work to earn money and improve Hai City’s per capita GDP index.

To make her words sound more reliable and more like a positive pursuit of personal development, she even said, "It’ll also help He buy a bigger villa sooner."

Then He Ci laughed mysteriously over the phone.

"The male fox spirit has greatly increased his powers and is draining you empty, right? I told you earlier that younger guy-older woman relationships aren’t easy to manage."

Yu Xia feigned ignorance, reiterating her determination to earn money and rise to the pinnacle of an acting career.

This urgency almost moved He Ci, who said she could take on an environment ambassador documentary in a couple of days.

It’s unlikely to be criticized at this point for going on a variety show and consuming reputation; the title of environment ambassador fits the style of a "low-profile actor with acting skills" very well. It’s a good and relatively easy job.

"And it can take you away from the hustle and bustle of the city, find life’s truth in nature, how wonderful."

A bald old man with weak kidneys who can’t handle the beautiful concubine at home is eager for an official excuse to go out and cultivate himself for a while; it’s normal, he understands thoroughly.

This job seems tailored to her current situation, so Yu Xia immediately agreed.

And in the evening, she informed Xie Qingci of this matter.

"He said he got me an appointment, filming an environmental documentary. The other party is pressing, and I need to leave in a couple of days."

She spoke effortlessly, as if He Ci was the one rushing her to take it.

Xie Qingci looked at her through the steam from his porridge bowl, observed her nibbling a shrimp cake with an indifferent demeanor, and smiled.

"Driving me to the side bedroom and taking a job outside. Is it really that scary?"

Yu Xia said with a poker face, "What’s there to be scared or not scared of? I can’t possibly tell He I want to live a life of drunken pleasure at home and don’t want to work, right?"

Still pretending, Xie Qingci reached out to brush the crumbs of shrimp cake from the corner of her mouth, sighed, and said, "Then He is truly not considerate of you; next time we meet, I’ll tactfully propose a suggestion."

"... No need," she said with a forced smile, "it’s not good if he thinks I don’t want to work just because I won an award; that would chill his heart."

As they finished speaking, their eyes met, one full of understanding and laughter, one faintly collapsing.

Yu Xia stopped pretending, grabbed some grapes from a nearby dish, and tossed them at him.

Xie Qingci quickly caught them, deftly tossed one into his mouth, and squinted briefly at the sourness as he bit through the peel, soon swallowed, and looked at her with innocent amusement.

"Why throw at me? Did I do something wrong?"

"You did nothing wrong; the fault is mine!" Blaming herself for not thinking clearly and retrieving a wolf.

Seeing her indignant look, Xie Qingci found it adorable, stood up, circled around to her side, and tried to pick her up.

Yu Xia hugged her arms, turned away from his touch, and stared toward the kitchen not giving him a glance.

This made him want to pursue her even more, so Xie Qingci reached out again and directly lifted her up.

Yu Xia angrily patted his arm.

"What are you doing? I’m still eating, put me down!"

"Ah, a fan messaged me saying that if your girlfriend is angry, you must appease her, or else you’ll be unlucky yourself."

She sneered, "How could you be unlucky, who can make you unlucky?"

"Getting kicked out of the room by my girlfriend, facing an empty room in a few days, is that not unlucky?" he asked with feigned melancholy.

Yu Xia looked at him and wanted to laugh but didn’t want him to think she was easily appeased, so she laughed as she hit him, "You’re so annoying!"

Xie Qingci laughed along and spun her around.

"Feeling better now? Can I return to the room tonight?"

"No!"

"You’re leaving in a couple of days—really can’t? Are you really so heartless?"

"I am."

She said that, but after a bit more acting and coaxing from Xie Qingci, she reluctantly agreed.

Although she repeatedly emphasized that it was merely sharing a room as roommates.

Anything more delightful and she’d be exhausted; by then, traipsing around with the filming crew, she probably wouldn’t be able to keep up.

Xie Qingci nodded gloomily.

He was actually assigned work by Mr. Yang, though he would leave a day later than Yu Xia.

Mr. Yang figured he’d played the role of ’bedmate’ long enough, and specially picked a relatively challenging task, urging him earnestly, saying things like "Don’t you want to keep up with Yu Xia" and "If you only play the kept man, you two won’t have a perfect future," making it seem like not going out to work would be a crime against humanity.

If your girlfriend wakes up and turns on you, and your agent treats you like an adored kept man, your girlfriend’s agent "affectionately" calls you a male vixen, there’s no way out but to take a job.

So after spending another warm two days together, they parted ways at the doorstep, each attending to their appointments.

Yu Xia went with the filming crew to a province outside, while Xie Qingci stayed an extra day before heading to the next film’s shooting location with Mr. Yang.

This film is a detective plus high-IQ crime type, a Sino-foreign co-production, with lots of action scenes.

The director required his physique to be neither too weak nor too strong, and specially hired a personal trainer to train him.

Sure enough, it was very challenging; every day besides shooting, he had to train, learn foreign languages, and read various detective novels, filling his daily schedule to the brim.

His phone calls with Yu Xia were compressed, and when she was in areas with no signal in the wild, he could only rely on previous call recordings to fall asleep.

As language learning progressed and detective novels were almost finished, the shooting location switched to the second one.

It’s right near his home.

The day they arrived, the crew knew his home seemed to be nearby and told him to go back and check whenever he had time.

Xie Qingci didn’t reply; this home is an empty house, a memory of over a decade, so there’s not much worth seeing.

His home is still floating in the wilderness.

While thinking of that home, his phone vibrated.

Before answering, he smiled first but upon looking, it turned out not to be Yu Xia calling.

It was his high school mate.

Mr. Yang was busy alongside, not paying attention, thinking it was Yu Xia calling him; when he’d finished and came over, he was a bit incredulous seeing how quickly Xie hung up the call.

"Did Yu Xia lose signal again over there? Where did they go, the primitive forest?"

Xie Qingci shook his head.

"Not her."

"Not Yu Xia? Who was it?"

"A classmate," he said, checking the route and asking, "No plans for tonight, right? I have a classmate reunion."

Oh—his artist is still a university guy; university guys love reunions.

Mr. Yang waved his hand, "Go ahead, it’s fine. Just keep your distance from female classmates, or I’m afraid Yu Xia will see the gossip and rush back to deal with you."

Mentioning this, Xie Qingci wasn’t bothered, shrugged and said, "Then I might have to file for workplace injury."