Chapter 233: A Celebrity’s Alcoholic Father – 1

When Xie Hui opened his eyes, he felt a rare sense of disorientation. His body was wracked with pain, and he remained frozen in his current position for a long time before he could barely manage to exert control over himself.

Attempting to sit on the sofa, his vision remained blurred. He took a single step and felt his foot kick something, followed by a sharp, clinking sound.

He leaned back against the sofa and closed his eyes for a long while. The pain showed no signs of receding, but at least his vision was no longer as distorted as before.

Several beer bottles lay scattered across the floor, waiting to be cleared away. The entire room reeked of a foul, alcoholic stench.

Based on Xie Hui’s assessment, the Client must have gotten drunk the previous night and passed out directly on the floor.

He stood up and walked to the window. After opening it to let in some air, he tidied up the glass bottles. Just as he was planning to take a shower and get some rest, the phone sitting on the coffee table began to ring.

The phone was a decent brand and looked brand new. The caller ID flashing on the screen read: Xie Chuan.

Xie Hui gripped the phone and sat back down on the sofa before sliding the screen to answer.

“Hello?”

“Dad, can you please stop drinking?”

Xie Hui wasn’t surprised by these words. His throat felt wretched, and every word he spoke came out hoarse.

“Mhm.”

On the other end of the line, Xie Chuan had offered the advice out of habit. He had fully expected his father to lash out at him with the usual insults.

He expected to hear things like how a son had no right to manage his old man, or that his father’s business was none of his concern.

His father’s behavior over the years made it impossible for Xie Chuan to believe he had truly changed in an instant. He guessed that his father was simply feeling too miserable from last night’s binge and was in a hurry to sleep, unwilling to waste words on him.

“Dad, go get some sleep first. Give me a call back when you wake up. I have something very important to discuss with you.”

“Alright.”

After saying that, Xie Hui decisively hung up. This child was just as considerate as he appeared in the Original Host’s memories.

From the tone of his voice, Xie Hui could guess that the matter was indeed important, but right now, he truly didn’t have the mental energy to think about it.

Every time he transmigrated into the body of an alcoholic like this, Xie Hui found himself curious as to why they were so keen on drinking themselves to death.

After a night of drinking and a bout of sleep, the head would throb so violently it felt like it might explode.

Xie Hui stood up and followed the Original Host’s memories to the bedroom to find clean clothes. After taking a hot shower in the bathroom, he pulled back the covers and closed his eyes the moment he lay down.

He slept from morning until dusk. When Xie Hui finally woke up, a faint hint of the sunset was still visible on the horizon. He sat there in a daze for a long time, shaking his head before finally getting out of bed.

Putting on his shoes, he headed to the kitchen. After a quick search, he found that aside from some peanuts meant to accompany alcohol, there was nothing but instant noodles. There wasn’t a single green vegetable in sight.

The cabinets were scrubbed clean, containing only two bowls in total.

Xie Hui didn’t really want to go out. Fortunately, he found a few eggs at the bottom of a cabinet. He boiled two packs of instant noodles with the eggs, and after finishing his meal, he spent some time tidying up the living room.

Once everything was done, he went out to the balcony to catch the breeze while calling Xie Chuan.

“Dad, you’re up?”

“Yeah, just woke up. What was that thing you wanted to talk about this afternoon?”

Xie Chuan didn’t have work today and was resting in his apartment. From the moment he called his father in the morning, his heart had been in his throat. He gritted his teeth and spoke:

“Dad, when I was taking on a job previously, I didn’t read the contract clearly. Besides the advertisement, there’s also a Parent-Child Variety Show^[1]. If I don’t go on it, I’ll have to pay a lot of money in liquidated damages^[2].”

It was only then that Xie Hui recalled this event. It did exist in the Client’s memories, but at the time, he had flatly refused.

Later, Xie Chuan, who truly couldn’t afford the breach of contract fee, had brought an elderly man onto the Reality Show to pretend to be his father.

After the deception was exposed, Xie Chuan’s public image crumbled completely. Everyone condemned him for being unfilial, accusing him of being unwilling to even acknowledge his own biological father.

“That Parent-Child Variety Show requires either bringing a child or appearing with a parent. I…”

Xie Chuan had only been married for a short time, so he couldn’t possibly have a child. Moreover, his mother had passed away long ago. After calculating his options, his father was the only suitable candidate.

“Dad, I know you look down on this kind of thing, but can you help me just this once?”

Xie Chuan began to plead, clinging to a final shred of hope. He had initially prepared himself for his father’s refusal, but he couldn’t help but ask one last time.

“Be more careful when you sign contracts next time.”

“Dad, I beg—”

Xie Chuan hadn’t even processed what his father said; he had instinctively assumed he would be rejected. He had only uttered two words of his plea before he suddenly realized something was wrong.

“Dad?”

“When is the filming? Where is it being recorded?”

“Dad, it’s great that you’ve agreed. I’ll call you once the specific itinerary is finalized.”

“Fine. I’m going back to sleep then.”

After Xie Hui finished speaking and heard the person on the other end agree, he hung up the phone.

The Client had always believed that Xie Chuan had been driven to despair by his verbal abuse, but Xie Hui felt that wasn’t the case. It was more likely that Xie Chuan himself was already struggling with issues that the Client had failed to notice.

The father’s insults had simply been the final straw that broke the camel’s back, leading him to choose such a desperate way to end it all.

In the Entertainment Industry, artists live under the spotlight, and essentially no one escapes being criticized.

If one cannot resist looking at content related to themselves, the malice hidden behind the internet can indeed easily crush someone like Xie Chuan.

Thinking back to how the Original Host had refused out of embarrassment in his memories, one could only imagine how helpless Xie Chuan must have been to resort to hiring someone to play his father.

Having slept during the day, Xie Hui found it difficult to fall asleep at night. He cleaned the house inside and out and checked the Original Host’s bank balance.

Since Xie Chuan entered the Entertainment Industry, he had never been stingy with his father financially. The Original Host had a significant amount of savings.

Even though Xie Chuan was far more successful and capable than other children, the Client had continued to look down on the profession of acting, considering it undignified.

Added to this were occasional rumors caught from the wind, making the Client feel that no one in that circle was decent.

After Xie Hui finished tidying the room, he took the trash to the community bins and went for a stroll to enjoy the evening breeze.

Given the Client’s current body, even if it looked strong and healthy now, it would eventually collapse if things continued this way.

No matter how good a physique was, it couldn’t withstand having day and night reversed, drinking every day, and sleeping on the floor all night after getting drunk.

…

Although Xie Chuan had not contacted him over the past few days, Xie Hui guessed it was highly likely that the filming location would be this house.

After all, besides the main content of a Reality Show, filming the home allowed for a glimpse into an artist’s private life, something many people were very interested in.

After throwing away everything related to alcohol, Xie Hui bought some green plants and placed them on the balcony, which significantly brightened the mood.

Ever since the Client’s company went under, he had viewed his child as his next investment. Before applying for college, Xie Chuan had always followed the path arranged for him.

Everything changed once he entered that university.

Xie Chuan was willing to listen to what the Client said, but he never did what the Client wanted. On the surface, he would agree readily, but behind his back, he treated it all as wind passing his ears.

Feeling more like a useless failure the more he thought about it, the Client began drinking day and night, becoming a total alcoholic. The house Xie Chuan bought for him had also been turned into a mess.

Xie Hui cleared out the sofa, carpets, and some decorations he didn’t like. The residual stains on them were impossible to clean, and they looked filthy and unpleasant.

After finishing all this, Xie Hui opened the door to Xie Chuan’s room.

This room had remained exactly as it was when they first moved in.

It was a pre-furnished apartment, so the overall decor wasn’t much different from a hotel. There were very few items inside, and most had nothing to do with Xie Chuan.

When Xie Hui opened the wardrobe, it was also empty, with only two pieces of clothing hanging in the second section.

Since there were no belongings of Xie Chuan’s anyway, Xie Hui directly hired people to start working, knocking and hammering to renovate the space.

Even if the filming didn’t end up happening here as he guessed, it didn’t matter. He was doing this so that when the boy, Xie Chuan, returned in the future, he would feel a sense of belonging to a home.

Only after Xie Chuan finished his current assignments did he have time to settle down and think.

He had been puzzled before about how such a good opportunity had fallen into his lap. He hadn’t expected there was this catch waiting behind it.

He knew his father well. Rather than believing his father was truly willing to cooperate, Xie Chuan felt it was more likely that he hadn’t been sober at the time.

Although his father failed in many aspects, he was a man of his word. Once he made a promise, he would never break it.

After the filming schedule was set, Xie Chuan took his suitcase and headed home, wanting to make some preparations first.

Before he left the company, a good friend had asked if he needed help, mentioning he had a house nearby that had been vacant for a long time.

Xie Chuan politely declined. He didn’t want to owe too many favors. Even though they were good friends, the other had already helped him too much.

This time, Xie Chuan did not tell his father in advance that he was coming back.

According to the production team’s plan, he was indeed supposed to return suddenly on that day.

Of course, this scene might be recorded multiple times to pick the most satisfactory version for the final cut.

However, Xie Chuan wanted to see what his father would be like if he truly returned unannounced.

After getting off the plane, Xie Chuan put on a mask and a baseball cap and returned to the residential complex where he had bought the apartment. He inserted the key into the lock. Just the simple action of turning the key made his palms sweat with nervousness.

Perhaps because his father had rarely agreed to such a request before, a sliver of hope had grown in the depths of Xie Chuan’s heart. He gritted his teeth and gripped the doorknob.

Upon pushing the door open and seeing the scene before him, Xie Chuan doubted for a moment whether he had entered the wrong house.