The Film Emperor Is Sick, I have No Cure - Chapter 12

Chapter 12

“……”

To his surprise, the one who picked up the call was Xing Cheng himself. Lu Danggui opened his mouth, but suddenly found himself at a loss for words.

There was no response for quite a while, and the other end of the line fell silent as well.

Just as he thought Xing Cheng had already hung up, a faint breathing sound came through the receiver, so soft it was almost inaudible.

The other party was waiting for him to speak.

Usually, when receiving calls from unknown numbers, not to mention waiting patiently, Lu Danggui would hang up immediately if the caller didn’t speak right away.

Could it be that Xing Cheng answered every unknown number?

Lu Danggui found that hard to believe.

As a top celebrity, Xing Cheng couldn’t be more guarded against obsessive fans, how could he possibly answer some random stranger’s call?

He didn’t have time to dwell on it. Seizing the moment before Xing Cheng hung up, he quickly cleared his throat:
“Excuse me… is this Mr. Xing?”

The other party paused for a moment—

“It’s me.”

“Mr. Xing, this is Doctor Lu, Lu Danggui.”

Lu Danggui hurried to strike while the iron was hot and said everything he wanted to ask in one go:
“I’ve already returned to the hospital today. I heard from the Dean that you’re no longer continuing inpatient treatment. Is there some other arrangement in place?”

In order not to let Xing Cheng sense anything off, he did his best to adjust his tone to the usual businesslike professionalism.

There was the sound of splashing water from the other end. Xing Cheng’s voice came through faint and unclear,
“…Is it enough?”

“Sorry, what did you say?”

Lu Danggui didn’t quite catch it.

Enough what?

A moment later, the water stopped.

“I said,” Xing Cheng’s voice now came unhurriedly through the receiver,
“Was the amount of compensation, enough?”

“……”

Lu Danggui tightened his grip on the phone, took a deep breath.
“Does Mr. Xing think I contacted you to ask for money?”

“Didn’t you?” Xing Cheng asked in return.

The corner of Lu Danggui’s mouth twitched slightly.

He was so mad it felt like his lungs were about to explode.

He had originally wanted to ask if, since leaving the Tingtian Residence that day, Xing Cheng’s mental state had shown any mild improvement.

But now that he thought about it, why bother with someone like this??

Let it all burn, the sooner the better!

“If Mr. Xing doesn’t wish to continue treatment, I’m sure you have your own reasons,” Lu Danggui forced down his irritation and continued with a smile,

“Though I’m your doctor, I can’t arbitrarily interfere with your decisions. But I’ll have to trouble Mr. Xing to give me an address, so I can mail back the bank card you left behind.”

“What card?”

Xing Cheng’s tone held a trace of confusion.

“……”

Lu Danggui raised his hand, ready to end the call. Goodbye to you, sir.

Just as he was about to hang up, the voice on the other end suddenly spoke again,
“I got it. You can bring it over.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Xing Cheng hung up, decisively and swiftly.

A few seconds later, the phone in Lu Danggui’s hand vibrated. He received a new text message.

Unknown number:

【Rehab Department VIP03-01】

Lu Danggui: “……”

Fine.

If not for the fact that the meeting room was on such a high floor, he would’ve thrown his phone out the window right then and there.

—

S University Affiliated Hospital, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine Inpatient Wing.

When he got to the nurses’ station, Lu Danggui originally just intended to drop off the black card at the front desk and be done with it. But he was stopped by a young nurse.
“Excuse me, are you Doctor Lu? The patient in Room 03 asked for you.”

After walking through several corridors, Lu Danggui finally found the rather hidden VIP Room 03.

Although he was quite annoyed, he stood at the door and thought for a moment before knocking.

The automatic door slowly opened in front of him. Lu Danggui walked into the room and immediately spotted the person sitting by the bed.

The entire ward had already been cleaned, and the monitoring equipment at the bedside had all been shut off. It looked like the patient was about to be discharged.

Hearing someone walk in, Xing Cheng didn’t lift his head.

He was leaning against a pillow, a Bluetooth earpiece in his ear, looking at the tablet in his hands.

Steam from the bathroom was still wafting out through the half-open door, and the air carried a faint scent of body wash. He must have just finished showering, a white towel draped over his shoulders, the ends of his hair still wet with a few droplets that hadn’t been fully dried.

Lu Danggui stepped forward and pulled a black bank card from his pocket, placing it on the cabinet beside the bed.
“Mr. Xing, I’ve left the card here.”

Seeing that Xing Cheng didn’t react at all, he was ready to slip out quietly while the man wasn’t paying attention. But just as he turned around, he heard movement behind him.

Xing Cheng pressed pause on the tablet. He tilted his head slightly and asked toward Lu Danggui’s back.
“Doctor Lu, are you a fan of mine?”

Seeing Lu Danggui freeze mid-step, Xing Cheng continued asking,
“Otherwise, how do you explain being so familiar with the lines from Mad Dog that day at the Tingtian Residence?”

Lu Danggui was momentarily speechless.

He was honestly impressed by the way Xing Cheng’s mind worked.

He, Lu Danvgui, being this guy’s fan?
The man really had the imagination.

“…Let’s say I am.”

Lu Danggui gave a half-hearted, ambiguous reply.

If being a black fan counted, sure.

Xing Cheng took off the earpiece from his ear.
“Then Doctor Lu, which one of my works is your favorite?”

Xing Cheng had debuted as an idol singer and only switched to acting three years ago. He had released several music albums, but his acting résumé wasn’t particularly extensive. Aside from the breakout hit Mad Dog, he’d only starred in two moderately popular online films.

Lu Danggui pressed his lips together.
“Do you mean music, or film and television?”

Xing Cheng smiled. “Either is fine.”

“Then… Pale Star, I guess.”

Lu Danggui blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

Pale Star was the lead single from Xing Cheng’s fourth solo album, and also Lu Wenfei’s favorite song. Back in high school, she sang that very song at a campus singing competition.

Because Wenfei used to hum it around the house all the time, it left a deep impression on him too.

Looking at the young doctor standing by the bed with a complicated expression, Xing Cheng’s gaze deepened slightly.
“Why that one?”

“‘The Pale Star’, wasn’t that the encore track you used most often at your concerts?”

As he recalled those old days of accompanying his sister on her fangirl adventures, Lu Danggui said to the celebrity in front of him,
“The melody’s nice, and the fans can all sing along together.”

Upon hearing Lu Danggui’s explanation, Xing Cheng let out a soft laugh.

He handed the Bluetooth earpiece in his hand to Lu Dangvui, gesturing for him to put it on.

Although he didn’t quite understand why, Lu Danggui still accepted the earpiece.

What came through the headphones was a beautiful piano melody, no vocals. The tune was soothing and graceful, with a calm, storytelling quality to it.

What a shame, the melody lasted only thirty seconds before ending.

Lu Danggui was a little puzzled. “This is…?”

“My new song demo,” Xing Cheng said.

“New song?”

Lu Danvgui was somewhat surprised.

Anyone who had followed Xing Cheng even a little knew that he had abruptly announced a halt to his music career three years ago to transition into acting, something that had stirred no small amount of discussion online.

Many netizens joined the debate, especially those who disliked Xing Cheng. They said he had no business leaving music behind and insisted on jumping into film and TV just to grab a share of the spotlight.

The haters even launched a trending Weibo topic—#XingChengFedHisOriginalIntentToTheDogs—mocking how he used to go on and on about being committed to singing, dancing, and songwriting, only to cave to the forces of capital and abandon his so-called passion.

And now, after three years of no new musical work whatsoever, Film Emperor Xing suddenly pulls out a demo and claims it’s his new song?

Who would believe that?

Wait a minute.

Lu Danggui suddenly remembered why he had come looking for Xing Cheng in the first place.

Could Xing Cheng bringing up music now be his way of trying to initiate further communication, with him, his psychiatrist?

He had initially wanted to just say something perfunctory, but immediately revised his tone.
“Mr. Xing, are you considering releasing a new song?”

Upon hearing this, Xing Cheng’s smile faded slightly.

“No.”

He said, “Doctor Lu, I can’t sing anymore.”

“If it were you, would you go listen to a singer who always sings off-key?”

He lifted his hand, gently rubbing the silver earring on his earlobe with his fingertip.
“I had an accident a few years ago that damaged my left eardrum. I can’t grasp rhythm or pitch anymore.”

—

Lu Danggui didn’t respond for a long while.

He only felt his thoughts getting jumbled, his mind momentarily unable to sort anything out.

He had never once imagined that the reason Xing Cheng gave up on music creation would be something like that.

If Wenfei found out…

The thought had only just surfaced when Lu Danggui quickly shut it down.

His little sister didn’t follow celebrities anymore. Bringing up Xing Cheng now, there was no point.

As if he could guess what the young doctor was thinking, Xing Cheng glanced at him quietly and said:
“Doctor Lu, you signed a confidentiality agreement. Don’t forget that.”

There were things he said not to be broadcast to the world.

From the corridor came the steady sound of leather shoes hitting the floor. A man in black, his bodyguard, appeared at the room’s entrance.

“Eldest Young Master, the car is ready downstairs. We can leave whenever.”

The bodyguard stood in front of the automatic door, stepping aside to create a path for Lu Danggui.

It was clearly a gesture of dismissal.

“Mm.”

Xing Cheng shook out his still-damp hair, then motioned for Lu Danggui to hand him the coat on the bedside table before leaving.

As he handed the coat over, Lu Danggui felt his heartbeat gradually speeding up.

He actually still had questions he wanted to ask Xing Cheng, but didn’t know if there would ever be another chance.

This man named Xing was hiding too many secrets.

For some reason, Lu Danggui had this vague, inexplicable feeling that underneath Xing Cheng’s cold and distant exterior, something was quietly starting to stir back to life.

Take today, for example, his rate of smiling was already noticeably higher than during their last interaction.

But Xing Cheng didn’t yet seem to be aware of the change in himself.

Thinking of this, Lu Danggui blurted out instinctively,
“Mr. Xing, if there were a possibility of your illness being cured, would you be willing to continue treatment?”

Xing Cheng was in the middle of changing clothes, having already undone two buttons of his hospital gown.
At those words, his movements paused.

“It’s useless.”

Lu Danggui heard him say,
“Doctor, I’m already beyond saving.”

Hearing someone speak those words in such a calm tone made Lu Danggui’s anger flare on the spot.

“There are so many cancer patients who, as long as they actively cooperate with treatment, end up fully recovering in the end!” He raised his voice, almost shouting at the man on the bed.

“Why are you so quick to declare yourself hopeless?”

His back still straight, but accelerating his own withering all the same.

He wanted to ask Xing Cheng: even Lu Wenfei, that girl who lost her legs because of you, still managed to bounce back from rock bottom, study hard, get into university, and start a new chapter in life.

And you’re just going to give up like this?

Turn tail and run?

“Doctor, only kind people deserve to be saved by you?” Xing Cheng asked in return.
“Someone like me, a villain, don’t I have the right to sentence myself to death?”

Lu Danggui clenched his fists.

He felt it wasn’t worth it, for his sister, and for all the fans who had liked this man for so many years.

“Suit yourself.”

He tossed down those words and turned to leave.

As he passed by Xing Cheng’s hospital bed, his eyes happened to glance at the tablet propped up beside it.

The tablet’s screen was still on the text message interface, and the message displayed there clearly caught his eye.

Lu Danggui froze in place.

He suddenly understood why Xing Cheng hadn’t hung up on that unknown number.

Xing Cheng had already known, it was him calling.

Message content:
【Rehabilitation Department  VIP03-01】

Recipient:
【Dr. Bunny】