Chapter 236: A Celebrity’s Alcoholic Father – 4

Xie Hui helped Xie Chuan carry his luggage downstairs, and the production crew packed up their gear, preparing to depart.

The reality show consisted of several segments. One family featured a pregnant wife, and the husband was using this opportunity to spend time with her.

Two other groups involved parents bringing children on the show: one was a son from a single-parent household, and the other was a daughter with both parents present.

In the two adult-focused groups were Xu Shuo and Xie Chuan.

Unlike typical variety shows that edit while filming, this production followed a format where everything was filmed in its entirety before being edited for broadcast.

Upon arriving at the apartment arranged by his agency, Xie Chuan set down his heavy luggage and sat on the sofa. He closed his eyes, reflecting on his trip home, and the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but curl upward.

In truth, every previous trip home had been an ordeal. Far from feeling the warmth of home, he usually returned feeling physically and mentally exhausted.

He would clean up the messy house, have a massive row with his father, and finally leave when he could no longer stand it. Even after returning here, he would still be simmering with resentment.

This time was different. Having only just arrived back at the place where he spent most of his time, Xie Chuan was already starting to feel a bit homesick.

After resting for a while, he intended to unpack his luggage. He noticed an unfamiliar bag sitting to the side and paused for a moment before opening it.

The jars inside looked familiar; he had seen them at home just yesterday.

Inside were pickled cowpeas, prepared dried radish, shredded radish, and a jar of pickled chili peppers. They were all his favorite varieties.

Xie Chuan stared at the items for a long time. When he stood up again, intending to call his father and ask about them, he realized his leg had fallen asleep.

He stumbled and limped over to the sofa, grabbed his phone from the coffee table, and dialed his father’s number.

“Didn’t you just leave? What are you calling for?”

Previously, hearing these words would have made Xie Chuan angry enough to hang up immediately. But now, thinking of those jars of food he had just seen, a sense of sweetness almost bubbled up from the bottom of his heart.

“Dad, did you do something behind my back?”

“Speak properly.”

He had originally wanted to act a bit spoiled with his father, but hearing the slight tone of disdain in his father’s voice, Xie Chuan could only shrug helplessly.

“Dad, you made those jars of food, didn’t you? It’s been so long, yet you still remember the things I like to eat?”

“There was too much at home and no room for it, so I thought I’d fry some up for you to taste.”

“Oh, so it’s just because there was no room?”

After saying this, Xie Chuan couldn’t help but cover his mouth and laugh.

“Is there anything else? If not, I’m hanging up.”

“No, I’m going to go unpack my things.”

Before Xie Chuan could even say goodbye, the call was disconnected. He shook his head with a smile and placed the items into the kitchen cabinet.

He stared at the cabinet for a moment, still feeling a bit uneasy. He felt that once he had some free time, he absolutely had to buy a lock to secure this cabinet.

As for his clothes and other items, Xie Chuan stuffed them haphazardly into the wardrobe, too lazy to hang them up one by one.

Just as he was about to lie down and check if his manager had sent any messages regarding his work schedule, he saw a message from Xu Shuo sent ten minutes ago.

[Are you at the apartment? Should I come over to see you?]

Xie Chuan didn’t actually have many good friends in the entertainment industry. Everyone wore masks, and their smiling faces often felt as though they might push him into a ditch the very next second.

Consequently, he was mostly on nodding terms with everyone.

Only Xu Shuo was different. Back when Xie Chuan’s first drama had just aired, since they were in the same company, they had exchanged contact information. They found their personalities to be similar and got along well.

Furthermore, Xu Shuo had given him a lot of guidance regarding acting.

[I’m here, I just got back. Come on over.]

Xie Chuan had slept quite well at home last night. Although he was a bit tired now, he couldn’t fall asleep.

When he contacted his manager earlier, the manager told him to wait for the schedule. There was no work for today, so he was told to take a good rest. The primary focus remained the CCTV reality show.

Even if the two contracts were bundled together, a reality show of this caliber was a rare opportunity for an artist of Xie Chuan’s level.

It was just that his specific situation was somewhat awkward.

Right now, Xie Chuan didn’t want to worry at all about what would happen after the broadcast. He was happily immersed in the pleasant interaction he’d had with his father.

A short while later, Xu Shuo arrived. Hearing the knock on the door, Xie Chuan hurried over to open it.

“You’re here. Do you have no work today either? My manager said I should take a good rest today, I thought I had misheard him.”

Xu Shuo looked at Xie Chuan’s current expression, twitched his lips, and nodded.

“Yeah, same as you.”

“By the way, what’s your recent work schedule? Why didn’t I hear you mention you were participating in that reality show before?”

In fact, Xie Chuan had wanted to ask the moment he first learned the news.

After all, their public personas and career paths were similar. Normally, if Xu Shuo accepted a script, Xie Chuan would subconsciously avoid it for a short period to prevent people from comparing the two of them.

It wasn’t that he felt Xu Shuo shouldn’t take the same scripts as him.

It was just… ending up on the same reality show, how could there be such a coincidence?

Although it might seem a bit petty upon closer inspection, Xie Chuan was exactly that kind of person, subconsciously cautious about everything.

It was precisely because of this personality that he had very few close friends in the industry.

“My manager just told me. I was quite surprised when I heard it too. You won’t mind, right?”

At Xu Shuo’s words, the smile in Xie Chuan’s eyes began to fade.

It would be one thing if he had proactively brought up that he didn’t mind, but hearing Xu Shuo say it like that made him feel inexplicably unhappy. Nevertheless, he still said:

“It’s fine, we’re friends. How could I possibly care about something so small?”

The two began talking about their recent work. Before they knew it, dinner time had arrived. Xie Chuan enthusiastically wanted to keep Xu Shuo for dinner and even took him to the kitchen to show him the pickled vegetables his father had prepared.

“My father’s cooking is excellent. With these pickled vegetables, I could eat several bowls of plain white porridge just by pairing them together!”

Because of previous events, Xie Chuan had developed some wariness toward Xu Shuo, but since they were still friends, he wanted to share something his father had made.

When Xu Shuo saw the pickled vegetables packed in the jar, he subconsciously frowned. With a polite smile on his face, he declined.

“Maybe not. I actually have some things to take care of.”

“That’s fine.”

Xie Chuan saw Xu Shuo to the door, and the moment the door closed, his expression turned cold.

He had clearly seen the fleeting look of disgust in Xu Shuo’s eyes the moment he brought the jar out.

Although Xu Shuo had adjusted his expression quickly, it felt like a thorn driven deep into Xie Chuan’s heart.

Even back when his father spent every day in a drunken stupor, Xie Chuan had maintained a fiercely protective attitude toward him, let alone now when his father had become so much better.

Xie Chuan could understand if Xu Shuo didn’t like his father’s homemade pickles, but he could not accept that attitude of disdain.

With too many emotions weighing on his mind, Xie Chuan didn’t feel like doing much else. He simply cooked some porridge in the kitchen for dinner.

While eating, he took a photo with his phone and uploaded it to his personal social media account.

As he sipped his porridge, he scrolled through his phone, occasionally replying to a few fan comments. Seeing them complain that he was posting “food porn” late at night made him chuckle.

During this period, Xie Chuan filmed an advertisement before packing his bags and heading home again. The director had warned them in advance that because they were rushing to air, the upcoming filming schedule would be a bit tight.

Fortunately, for this variety show, the footage of the five groups of guests would be edited into only three episodes in total.

Even with the accelerated schedule, the filming wasn’t overly exhausting.

During the filming of the second episode, the production crew suggested they could appropriately reminisce about scenes from their childhood.

For Xie Chuan, this was an excellent prompt.

The relationship between him and his father had only soured after he became disobedient and insisted on attending the Film Academy to become a star. But before that…

Even though he didn’t have a mother’s love like other children, his father had never let him feel a single bit of unhappiness. Instead, he had given him double the love, making up for that lack perfectly.

“I’ve kept all your childhood things well-organized.”

As Xie Hui spoke, he brought out all the items the original host had stored in the second bedroom.

When the child’s wings had grown strong and he was no longer willing to follow his demands, the client would often bring these things out to reminisce about the Xie Chuan of the past.

Xie Hui brought the items out and laid them before Xie Chuan. There were drawings from kindergarten, various award certificates, and handmade cards from Father’s Day.

Even though the paper had yellowed over the years, everything was still flat and smooth, showing they had been very well preserved.

As Xie Chuan looked at these things, his sense of being moved momentarily outweighed his curiosity about his childhood self.

Many memories of his childhood had become blurred, but the only one that remained profoundly vivid in his mind was happiness. He had been truly happy.

“This was from kindergarten. The teacher had you do a craft project. You finished it and the teacher said it was the most beautiful one, but no matter what, you wouldn’t let the teacher keep it. You said the most beautiful thing had to be given to Dad.”

“And this one was a kindergarten assignment where the teacher asked you to wash your father’s feet. You were obsessed with cleanliness back then, so you just perfunctorily dipped your fingers in the water a couple of times and took a photo to finish the task.”

The client had disliked the child who escaped his control as he grew up, so he had firmly memorized every instance of his former obedience.

Now, as Xie Hui spoke, he didn’t even need to organize his words. Those scenes had already played out in his mind countless times.

Paper planes, origami cranes, star-shaped candies – many things that looked childish evoked blurred memories in Xie Chuan’s mind.

His throat felt inexplicably tight, and his nose began to sting. After a long pause, he called out in a slightly raspy voice:

“Dad, I thought you’d thrown all this stuff out as trash a long time ago.”