A perfect life begins with changing the timeline.

At this moment, inside the hotel, Li Mu, who had been feigning drunkenness since getting into the car and couldn't even give his home address clearly, held his phone, looked out at the night view, and sighed:

"Director Zhou assigned me the task of clarifying Zhao Wei's situation. He didn't even give me a chance to refuse... And, Brother Bie, Zhao Wei's brother gave me 200,000 yuan."

He turned his head, looking at the two stacks of rectangular prisms wrapped in black plastic bags on the table in the room, his tone still calm:

"I pretended to be drunk because I didn't want to engage in his conversation. After he took me to the hotel, the driver left me 200,000 yuan in cash."

Upon hearing this, Bie Yan thought for a moment, then waved to the dealer and tossed him two chips.

The dealer sensibly withdrew.

The others also had no objections.

After the dealer left, Bie Yan immediately switched to speakerphone:

"Tell me what happened. Who were you having dinner with tonight?"

"Just the three of us: Director Zhou, myself, and Zhao Jian. At the dinner table..."

Li Mu, who had only drunk half a jin of liquor that day, used his excellent memory to recount the events, if not exactly flawlessly, but certainly perfectly.

After saying that, he continued:

"I actually started pretending to be drunk at the dinner table. But the director didn't give me a chance to refuse; he forcefully demanded that I write an article in the next couple of days and submit it to him for review. Brother, what should I do? I had already decided to pretend I didn't know anything, but with this 200,000 yuan, isn't that forcing me to contact Zhao Jian tomorrow?"

"Hmm... logically and emotionally, whether you were genuinely drunk or faking it, seeing 200,000 on the table the next day would definitely prompt you to contact someone to ask what happened. Have you figured out what to do with the money?"

No sooner had Bie Yan finished speaking than Zhang Yujing, who was standing to the side, laughed and said:

"That's easy. Doesn't your company have a disciplinary inspection department? Just send the money there... or simply pretend you don't know anything and walk away."

Bie Yan was speechless.

I thought to myself, "You really know how to come up with terrible ideas."

"Sister Zhang is here too?...Brother Bie, are you in Macau?"

"Uh...yes, I just arrived."

"It's almost eleven o'clock."

"Damn it! Think about your own things first, why are you bothering me?"

The older man retorted irritably, but the next second, Zhang Yujing snatched the phone away:

"Hey, Xiao Li."

"Hey, Sister Zhang."

"How about I give you an idea?"

"Uh...you said."

"hey-hey."\

A mischievous glint appeared on Zhang Yujing's face:

"What hotel are you staying at? What star rating?"

"Crown, five-star, right?"

"That makes things easier. Tomorrow, wake up early, preferably around six or seven. Don't worry about the money. Just take out your room key, go downstairs, and give it to the front desk. Tell them you're unsure if your room is still available and want to leave the key there. Then you can leave."

"Huh?...So you're just going to leave this 200,000 in the room? What if it gets stolen?"

"What's it to you?"

Sister Zhang countered:

"You wake up around six or seven in the morning, realize you're almost late for work, or need to rush home because Bingbing is waiting for you. So you hurriedly leave, leaving your room key at the front desk before you go. Money? I didn't see it. I don't know what happened; I was just woken up drunk and dizzy. Who pays attention to that? Besides, the cleaning staff at a five-star hotel are usually professional. If they see a large amount of cash, they'll definitely report it to the hotel directly. Then the hotel can contact the person who booked your room."

"..."\

Li Mu was silent for a moment, then asked:

"Sister Zhang, what's the point of doing this?"

"What's the point? It's pointless. You were in such a rush this morning, you didn't even notice the money. The hotel receptionist who took your room key and the time you went downstairs are proof. If someone reports you, you can explain yourself. And if no one reports you, the hotel will definitely contact the person who booked the room and return the money to them. A five-star hotel won't damage its reputation over a mere 200,000 yuan. And once the money is back, they'll definitely come after you. It's Qingming Festival in a couple of days, aren't you going home to burn paper money? If they contact you, just say you went home to burn paper money. Hide for a couple of days… and then just drag it out."

"But we can't keep dragging this on, can we?"

"Well..."

Zhang Yujing chuckled and pushed the phone towards Bie Yan:

"That depends on how your brother plans to save you."

"Well……"\

Li Mu was somewhat puzzled, but Bie Yan was even more confused.

I thought to myself, "Didn't you take all the trouble your way? Why are you giving it back?"

He was somewhat at a loss for words, both amused and exasperated.

After thinking for a moment, he said:

"Okay, Xiao Li, you should go to sleep now. As your sister Zhang said, get up early tomorrow and leave early. Tomorrow's Saturday, and the day after is Qingming Festival, so you definitely have an excuse to go back. Use that excuse for now, I'll think about it and call you again tomorrow."

"...Okay, then I'll rest first?"

"Um."\

Beep beep, the call has ended.

Bie Yan frowned slightly.

"Oh dear, look at Bie Yanchou. You really care about your little apprentice, hahaha..."

Sister Zhang joked, while Bie Yan sighed helplessly:

"Sis, stop teasing me. Of course I care about him, especially... the Guangdong News Awards results should be out in the next few days. This kid's news might even win the National News Award this year. With something like this happening, how can I not worry?"

"Oh?"

Sister Zhang looked somewhat surprised.

"twenty two?"\

"Yes, basically no problems."

"Wow, you've only been working for a year, right?"

That's practically limitless potential. No wonder you value him so much... But speaking of which, Little Li is a pretty good kid. Most importantly, we're a good match! So, Old Sun, how about you lend a hand?

After Zhang Yujing finished speaking, Bie Yan subconsciously looked at Brother Sun.

This time, Brother Sun's expression turned into a mixture of laughter and tears:

"So you've been plotting against me all this time?"

As he spoke, he took out a cigarette, lit it, and looked at Bie Yan helplessly, saying:

"I was originally planning to give you this news too, it's quite significant..."

"What news?"

Bie Yan became interested.

……\

In fact, from the very beginning, Li Mu had already prepared himself for a falling out with Zhou Long.

However, in his mind, the most he did was dislike the other person because he "didn't pull the GG button."

But they never considered actually drawing a clear line.

But... after Zhao Wei's incident, from the moment Zhou Long tried to shift the blame onto himself, the relationship between the two sides, while not necessarily irreconcilable, was at least severed.

This job is absolutely out of the question.

Even if it might end up becoming the next Zhang Zhengwen, I still can't accept the offer.

But he wasn't afraid.

This is a gamble.

He staked everything on the Guangdong News Awards on the 18th.

Having this provincial award, while it might not be as catapulting as a national award to international recognition, would still allow him to practically have access to any newspaper in the vast country.

This is a provincial-level award.

As for national awards at a higher level... that's the limit, and he won't think about that for now.

But if he could win a provincial award, he would have a backup plan.

Zhang Zhengwen didn't have it, but he did.

That's the source of his confidence.

Slightly tipsy from half a jin of liquor, he mentally prepared himself, ignored the two stacks of cubes, and simply lay down on the bed and closed his eyes.

Just as I was starting to feel sleepy, the phone rang again.

Upon seeing the caller ID, he answered the phone:

"Feed."

"I'm off work... I'm exhausted!!"

His girlfriend's voice didn't invigorate him; instead, it made him feel even more tired.

"Huh... Hmm. Are we home?"

"Not yet, almost... I have tomorrow off, hehehe, I'm going to sleep in, the kind where I wake up naturally!"

Her tone was full of excitement:

"You should be arriving in Xiamen soon, right?"

"No, I'm back."

"……ah?"\

Fan Bingbing was taken aback, then said with a wry smile:

"Honey, April Fool's Day is long gone. Besides, didn't we already say we'd never celebrate April Fool's Day again? So, please speak properly!"

"No, I'm serious. I'm in Guangzhou right now, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel."

"...Are you serious?"

"Um."\

"You're really back?"

"Um."\

"...Why don't you go home?"

"I pretended to be drunk, and they took me straight to a hotel."

"You were drinking with someone?... Didn't you say you were going to Xiamen on a business trip? Who were you drinking with? What happened?"

"Ha...uh."

Li Mu was even more sleepy.

I even feel a bit of a headache.

"Can we talk about the details tomorrow after I wake up? My head is a little sore right now."

"Uh... are you awake now?"

"Yeah, just half a jin of liquor, not much."

"Then I'll go back to Guangzhou now, and you can go home."

"No, I can't go back yet. I need to be around six or seven o'clock tomorrow before I can leave this room."

"...I need a reason."

"The reason was Zhang Jie's idea. Don't worry, there's no one else in the room, just me. As for why I did it... my head hurts a bit right now, I don't want to talk about it, I just want to sleep."

"...Okay, I understand. You go to sleep now. I'm going back to Guangzhou now and will wait for you tomorrow morning."

"Um."\

"Then I'll hang up."

"good."\

The call ended.

Fan Bingbing, sitting in the car, frowned.

What's going on?

She gripped the phone and thought for a moment... then decided against it.

It's too late to ask Sister Zhang.

Let's wait until tomorrow.

"Xiaomi, let's go back to Guangzhou."

"OK."\

Having also spent the entire day on set, Xiaomi had no questions or complaints and drove straight towards the ring road.

……\

At 6:40 a.m., Li Mu was woken up by a lullaby.

Last night, he didn't even take off his clothes or take a shower.

My hair is not only oily, it's also a bird's nest.

But he ignored it, disregarding the two black plastic bags on the table, and simply pulled out the room key and walked out the door.

When I went downstairs, it seemed the hotel reception staff hadn't changed shifts yet because it was so early.

Upon seeing Li Mu, the receptionist, who had been up all night, quickly perked up:

"Sir, would you like to check out?"

"It's uncertain at the moment. We'll leave the room key with you for now and discuss it again at noon."

"OK."\

Li Mu turned to leave, but immediately stopped in his tracks:

"By the way, could you tell me what time it is?"

The receptionist was taken aback, her gaze shifting away with a strange look in her eyes.

I glanced at the clocks hanging on the wall beside them, displaying "Beijing Time, Tokyo Time, and US Time"...

"Six forty-four, sir."

"good."\

Li Mu nodded, quickly walked out of the hotel, and hailed a taxi.

At 7:20, he returned to Mingya Garden.

At 7:30, the door was opened.

As soon as he opened the door to the master bedroom, he bumped into his girlfriend, whose hair was disheveled.

"..."\

"..."\

The two looked at each other.

Li Mu looked at his girlfriend's bloodshot eyes.

Fan Bingbing looked at her boyfriend's disheveled appearance...

They looked at each other, speechless.

She opened her arms and pulled her boyfriend into her embrace.

There's no "I didn't sleep well all night because I was worried about you," nor is there any "Who did you go fooling around with last night?"

She simply hugged him, listening to his long, weary breaths, and softly said:

"Take off your clothes, I'll run you some water, go take a bath."

"Um."\