Author: 公子于歌 / Gong Zi Yu Ge

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 14: The Little Fairy is Very Good at Playing

Yan Qiuchi unexpectedly supported him. Not only was he surprised, but even Li Meilan and Xiao Tang were both surprised.

“Then…” Li Meilan was at a loss for words. “Then he is quite benevolent.”

Everyone knew how annoyed Yan Qiuchi felt about Shen Jintai due to their past entanglement. When Shen Jintai auditioned, her biggest worry wasn’t Guo Rui or Bai Qingquan, but Yan Qiuchi. Since <The East Palace is Coming> was a project produced and mainly invested by Sunshine Media, Yan Qiuchi would have the most say.

Shen Jintai’s passion for his work and love for the role of Li Xu made him extremely thankful for Yan Qiuchi. After all, it was through his intervention that allowed him to secure his role.

“Where are you going now? Isn’t this in the direction of your home?” Li Meilan looked out the window.

“I’m going to wash* the tattoo,” Shen Jintai said. “It’s time for the second wash.”

*This wash isn’t in a sense of cleaning but to get rid of. I believe the method they are using here is salabrasion. It involves rubbing the tattoo with a mixture of water and salt particles until the skin surface of the tattoo becomes tender. The saline solution then slowly dissolves the tattoo ink, helping it to fade away. But this is a lengthy and painful process and might lead to scarring of the skin.

Li Meilan thought he was going to a regular hospital, but when the car stopped at a street tattoo shop, she was stunned and grabbed Shen Jintai. “You’re still a big star. If you wash in this kind of shop, are you not afraid that they will blow your cover?”

“This is the shop I came to last time, and I said I would come again.” Shen Jintai put all the scripts in his bag. “Don’t worry, I have common sense.”

How could Li Meilan be rest assured? She followed him into the tattoo shop.

The handsome tattoo guy failed to recognize Shen Jintai when he entered, probably because he no longer had red hair.

“I’m back for a second wash.” Shen Jintai said.

The tattoo brother asked, “Did you wash it here with me last time?”

Shen Jintai smiled and said, “Yes.”

As soon as he took off his clothes, the little brother immediately recognized him. His eyes lit up, and he was very excited. His girlfriend had recently seen a lot of hot searches lately about Shen Jintai. There was already a trend of turning black into powder*. Should he call his girlfriend over?

*Basically turning a black powder (anti-fan) back into a fan.

Li Meilan and Xiao Tang watched from the side. Li Meilan stretched out her hand and poked Shen Jintai’s stomach and said, “You haven’t danced for so long. All your abdominal muscles are gone. “

Shen Jintai: “I will practice again when I have time.”

Shen Jintai closed his eyes and thought. He found that he had most of the memories of the original’s body, and he remembered many dance moves. In the future, if one day he had a rush of enthusiasm, perhaps he would go onstage as an idol again for a while.

There was a bit of pain during the tattoo washing. Shen Jintai kept his eyes closed while frowning. Li Meilan stared at him. Examining him closely like this, she felt strange. She thought she had always had a weird feeling recently whenever she looked at Shen Jintai. He was a very different Shen Jintai, who had a plain face with no flamboyant makeup and no dandyish habits, but still retained his assertiveness.

Li Meilan took out her phone, took a photo, and posted it on her Weibo. When it came to hype, she, as an agent, was very good at it.

Shen Jintai had already landed on the hot search once for tattoo removal. If he posted it again, it would appear very deliberate. As an agent, Li Meilan had no fans, but there were many gold powders who follow her. If she posted it on her Weibo, it would only spread to a small number of people. While it wouldn’t make the hot search, at least it could stir up some heat.

If it reached Yan Qiuchi, he could treat it as a reward! President Yan, you can rest assured that our Jintai has changed.

—

The Yan family mansion was surrounded by towering trees. Their shade made the garden look darker than outside. Yan Qiuchi changed into his home clothes and went down to the dining room. He looked at the table and asked the maid, “Why hasn’t dinner been served yet?”

Maid: “The madam said to wait.”

As she finished speaking, Mrs. Yan came out of the kitchen holding a casserole and walked quickly to the dining table to set it down. She pinched her ears hotly.

“We have guests today?” Yan Qiuchi pulled a chair out and sat down.

“Xiao Jin called and said he was still on the road. It’ll be about another ten minutes or so. You, wait a bit so that we can all eat together.” Mrs. Yan pretended to be nonchalant about it. Without giving Yan Qiuchi a chance to ask questions, she turned to the maid and said, “Why hasn’t Yaoxuan come down yet? Go call him. It’s almost time to eat.”

Yan Qiuchi glanced at her, and Mrs. Yan smiled. “Wasn’t he just here a few days ago? Why is he coming again?”

Mrs. Yan: “You know the situation of Xiao Jin’s family. Their house has been seized by the court, except for the home Xiao Jin lives in. He’s a good person. Although he didn’t have the best relationship with his father and stepmother, he still felt sorry for them and gave them his house. Xiao Jin may have a bad temper, but he’s actually very soft-hearted.”

Mrs. Yan took this time to put in a good word for Shen Jintai, then turned back to the main subject. “He gave up the house and went to stay in a hotel by himself. He’s also in a difficult situation now. He has no money right now. The hotel he was staying in is really run down. Your brother and I went to see him and felt sorry for him, so we took him back to our house for a few days. You won’t object, right? You all grew up together, so don’t you have any sympathy?”

Yan Qiuchi remained silent as he let her have her say.

The sound of a car was heard outside. Mrs. Yan untied her apron and greeted happily, “You’re back!” She had never cared this much for her own son.

Yan Yaoxuan ran into Shen Jintai as he was heading downstairs. He looked at Shen Jintai, then at Yan Qiuchi, who was sitting by the dining table, and went into the dining room.

“Isn’t dad coming back today?” Yan Yaoxuan asked Mrs. Yan.

“It’s rare for him to come back for dinner. He’s gone abroad again,” Mrs. Yan said.

Yan Yaoxuan: “He is really busy.”

“When you graduate and share the work with your brother, he won’t be as busy,” Mrs. Yan said. “Wash your hands and come eat. I’m hungry.”

Shen Jintai felt a little embarrassed when he saw Yan Qiuchi. Their relationship had been awkward, mainly because of him. Yan Qiuchi, however, looked calm and composed.

It was Shen Jintai who climbed into the bed and was kicked down, and it was also Shen Jintai who was being misleading in the car. In Yan Qiuchi’s heart, he thought that he was nothing more than a showbiz slut.

Yan Qiuchi wore his home clothes. It looked loose and casual, but the buttons were still very tightly buttoned. Sitting there, he looked very proper and strict. When Shen Jintai met his gaze, he pursed his lips and said hello as naturally as possible.

Shen Jintai went to wash his hands, and Yan Yaoxuan went in with him.

Yan Qiuchi looked at the backs of the two of them coldly and spread out the napkin in front of him.

“How was racing today? How many times did you win?” Shen Jintai asked Yan Yaoxuan while washing his hands.

“Not too many times,” Yan Yaoxuan said. “Did work go well today?”

“It’s okay.” Shen Jintai smiled.

Shen Jintai seldom smiled at Yan Yaoxuan. Recently, however, every time he talked to him, Shen Jintai was always kind. He couldn’t help but feel aggrieved but excited at the same time.

He couldn’t control his joy, but the more joy you have, the more worried you become.

“When you start shooting, I’ll go to visit the set.” Yan Yaoxuan said.

“Alright.” Shen Jintai smiled again.

Why did he love to smile at him so much now?

The light in the bathroom was a hazy yellow. When it shone on people’s faces, it made their skin look like jade. Yan Yaoxuan’s heart thumped wildly. He wanted to tell Shen Jintai, ‘Don’t smile at me like this.’

The Shen family had fallen apart. Shen Jintai went from a rich young master to a self-reliant pauper. Not only did he have to enter the entertainment industry to make money, but he also had no real family left. Poverty may not be too big of a deal, but he had no one looking out for him. He lost his mother at a young age, and his father became a stepfather when he remarried. It was too pitiful.

Mrs. Yan was very distressed. She made a very extravagant meal and was careful to leave the chair next to Yan Qiuchi empty for Shen Jintai.

Her plan was easily seen through by Yan Qiuchi, but he had always been tolerant in front of her. He didn’t plan to talk to Shen Jintai, so it didn’t matter where Shen Jintai sat. While he was thinking this, he saw Shen Jintai gently nudge Yan Yaoxuan’s arm, leading him to one side while he took the other side, seating himself next to Mrs. Yan.

Yan Qiuchi: “…”

He has been exposed already. How dare he still pretend to play hard to get?

Yan Qiuchi would not fall for such a trick!

When Yan Yaoxuan came out of the bathroom, he knew about the seating arrangement as soon as he looked at it. His face had just darkened, but he didn’t expect Shen Jintai to nudge him over and sit down by his side.

He was shocked, delighted, and confused. He could never tell what Shen Jintai was thinking, and because of this, he became even more fascinated with him.

This little fairy was too good at poking his heart!

“Didn’t you finish work at five? Why did you come back so late?” Mrs. Yan asked while eating.

Shen Jintai was grateful for what Yan Qiuchi did for him today and decided to repay him with a piece of joy.

He replied to Mrs. Yan, “I went to wash my tattoo.”

The dining room instantly fell into silence.

---

The author has something to say:

Yan Qiuchi: This is all a cover-up! Don’t believe it! Don’t believe it!

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Kinky Thoughts:

Just want to give a shout out to everyone who’s been helping me with the slang and translations. Thank you so much!

As always, please do point out any errors in translation, spelling, or grammar. Especially the grammar. I know it’s pretty terrible, especially the tenses. You can leave a comment or contact me directly.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 公子于歌 / Gong Zi Yu Ge

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 13: Role Change Storm

Yan Yaoxuan stood at the door and had a panoramic view of everything. His eyes suddenly fell on Shen Jintai’s ass.

…

He hadn’t noticed before, but Shen Jintai’s butt looked a little plump, but it was still through his pants.

Yan Yaoxuan’s throat bobbed up and down as he swallowed. His lips were slightly dry.

Shen Jintai closed the closet. When he turned around, he saw a gap in the door of the room, and there was a person standing outside the gap.

Holy shit! The sight startled him.

“Yaoxuan?” He didn’t know how long Yaoxuan had been standing there.

Yan Yaoxuan opened the door and said, “Your door wasn’t closed. I didn’t mean to peek at you.”

Shen Jintai laughed and said, “Are you looking for me? Come in.”

Yan Yaoxuan shook his head and said, “I still have something to do, and I’m about to go out. I want to go racing with my friends. Do you want to come?”

Shen Jintai: “I have to go to the crew today.”

Yan Yaoxuan didn’t speak, closed the door, and left.

Shen Jintai checked the time and called Xiao Tang.

—

For today’s script reading, neither Bai Qingquan nor Yang Lizhi came. They were both top stars, and their itineraries were full, so they could not make it to all the script readings. Because the main male and female leads weren’t present, the parts that could be read around them by the supporting roles were very limited. The script reading was mainly used as a trial run.

During the trial run, Shen Jintai went to the entrance of the corridor to smoke. After just two puffs, he saw Zheng Siqi coming towards him.

Zheng Siqi seemed a little guilty. “I’m sorry, I had dinner with you yesterday, but I didn’t expect to be photographed by paparazzi.”

Shen Jintai took a puff of smoke, narrowed his eyes slightly in the smoke, looked at Zheng Siqi with a smile, and said, “It’s okay.”

He took out a cigarette and gave it to Zheng Siqi. Who knew that Zheng Siqi didn’t often smoke? Just by looking at his smoking posture, it was obvious he was a novice.

The sunlight outside shone in from the window. It had just rained, so the sun’s rays were light. Zheng Siqi took two puffs from his cigarette, lowered his head, and said, “That hot search was bought by our company.”

In the end, he was a newcomer who was thin-skinned. He felt bad for using Shen Jintai to rub heat off him. Shen Jintai comforted him and said, “Then I have to thank your company for getting on the hot search for free. This is a matter of mutual benefit and a win-win situation. You don’t have to feel sorry for me. On the contrary, shouldn’t you be more concerned about it affecting you? My reputation isn’t good.”

Zheng Siqi blushed and said, “I just listen to the company.”

Shen Jintai chuckled.

Zheng Siqi was always a little nervous when facing Shen Jintai. Though he was 20 years old like him, Shen Jintai was two months younger than him, but he felt that Shen Jintai had a very mature feeling. Shen Jintai had debuted early, but it was different. Although he was young, it felt like he had already seen the world. This made Zheng Siqi feel that despite Shen Jintai’s extreme personality, he was still an existence that he looked up to.

Zheng Siqi: “Sister Wen said that our company would issue a statement at eight in the evening to clarify… Sister Wen is my agent.”

Shen Jintai nodded, tapped the cigarette in his hand, and saw a group of people coming from the other end of the corridor.

The group had about seven to eight people and was headed by a man with a beard. Following him was a handsome guy who was fashionably dressed. When he saw them, he tugged at the bearded man, looked at Shen Jintai, and said, “He’s the one who stole my role.”

The bearded man was a bit fierce. He glanced at Shen Jintai and went straight into the director’s room, leaving behind the rest of the men in black clothes to stand in the corridor like bodyguards.

A battle was about to start.

“Do you know him?” Shen Jintai asked Zheng Siqi.

Zheng Siqi: “His name is Liu Hui. He was one of the last two alternatives for your role… I saw it posted on a forum.”

Whether it was a movie or TV series, as long as it was a place where money was spent, it would attract those who would bring their capital. Even a top director must have close contacts. Liu Hui was one of those contacts. His local tyrant*, the bearded man, was one of the important investors in <The East Palace is Coming.>

*(金主) Investor refer to as “local tyrants”, “rich people”, and generally refer to local tyrants with entangled interests.

The little lover wanted to act, and the local tyrant would pay for it. This was a common thing in showbiz. The bearded man wanted to gift him the second male lead.

The little lover was sulky. While he was good looking, his acting was terrible. Guo Rui tried him for a while, but he couldn’t accept it, so he could only drag it out. This was also one of the reasons why the role of Li Xu wasn’t settled… He needed to find someone who was capable of playing Li Xu, either by reputation or by skills so ineffable that no one could criticize them. In the end, Shen Jintai was decided. On the one hand, his acting skills were average. On the other hand, he had an infamous reputation. Besides, his relationship with Bai Qingquan was simply free publicity.

Although the contract had been signed, Shen Jintai was still nervous. A signed contract didn’t mean anything. Not to mention, the filming hadn’t started yet. In the past, he had experienced being replaced by someone else halfway through the filming process.

There were a lot of noises coming from the room that sounded like quarrelling. Shen Jintai went to the bathroom between photoshoots. As he was lowering his head to wash his hands, he saw Liu Hui come in. He leaned on the door frame while crossing his arms, staring coldly at him.

Shen Jintai pretended not to see it and turned off the faucet.

“The role of Li Xu is mine.” Liu Hui said, raising his eyebrows.

Shen Jintai pulled out a paper towel to wipe his hands and asked, “Is it settled?”

Liu Hui: “Not yet, but it will be decided soon. I will tell you in advance, don’t try it on again. Those clothes will be redone according to my size.” He was a flamboyant little beauty with sharp eyebrows.

“Then we’ll leave it at that.” Shen Jintai said lightly. He was calm on the surface but panicked on the inside. He felt that the director liked him better, but the director was no match in the face of capital. The bearded man must really want to please his little lover. As for Sunshine Media, the biggest investor was Yan Qiuchi. It would be even more difficult to change his heart. If the two major investors wanted to change him, he would be finished.

Everyone had probably heard the news, so the afternoon reading was very quiet. The director wasn’t even there.

Bai Qingquan, who was traveling, heard the news through the WeChat group and frowned while sitting in the lounge.

“What’s up?” Wei Ge asked. “Something wrong?”

Bai Qingquan raised his head, his handsome face full of surprise. “I heard Xiao Wang say that Shen Jintai is going to lose his role.”

Wei Ge also knew about this. “Didn’t you regret recommending him? Wouldn’t you be relieved if he lost his role?”

Bai Qingquan: “But I’m so entangled. Should I say something for him?”

Since the fight against Shen Jintai was settled, he had been harrowing between regret and non-regret. He wanted to enjoy the competitive rivalry between him and Shen Jintai, but he was afraid that Shen Jintai would outperform him and steal his limelight. Bai Qingquan let out a sigh.

Bai Qingquan: “Shen Jintai used to be so rich. When he debuted, he used money to buy fans to take away the C position. Later, I competed with him for the same drama. I was about to sign the contract when he dumped tens of millions in investment to squeeze me out. At that time, he was more powerful than me.”

The result was that someone had replaced him in the drama.

Don’t believe it, look up!

Wei Ge had the same idea. “If there’s a cause, there’s an effect.”

Bai Qingquan leaned on the chair and chuckled. He felt that his heart was still not hard enough. Perhaps it was because he had also experienced being replaced before and knew how frustrating and disappointing it would be. Seeing Shen Jintai going through the same thing like this didn’t make him feel happy at all. If Shen Jintai was really replaced, he would intercede.

‘I’m so selfless!’ Bai Qingquan thought. ‘Such a kind-hearted male artist like me would continue to be popular for thousands of years!’

—

Because of the anxiety in his heart, Shen Jintai did not speak on the way back. He was lying down to recuperate.

Li Meilan comforted him, “I’ve asked. The director is still fighting for you, and the contract has been signed. It’s not that easy to change people.”

Shen Jintai opened his eyes and asked, “Is there any company that wants to sign me recently?”

Li Meilan was stunned for a moment. “You want to sign with a company?”

Shen Jintai: “I don’t think it’s enough with just the three of us. Only by leaning against a big tree can we take advantage of the coolness*.”

*Idiom referring to having backing, doing things easily, and enjoying the blessings. In this sense, he is referring to having a backer.

People like him, who had no support when encountering this kind of thing, could only accept the outcome*. No one would fight for him.

*Renren fish 任人鱼肉 = Translated directly, it would be “Can only let people fish (renren fish meat)”. This is an idiom meaning to be slaughtered by others. Basically, his fate is left in the hands of others.

“There are many big companies that want to sign you. In the past, since you kept rejecting their offers, everyone thought you didn’t want to sign with a company, so they stopped contacting you,” Li Meilan said. “You need to be cautious when signing with a company. You can’t just sign with any company.”

Shen Jintai nodded. “Let me think about it again.”

When encountering an unscrupulous company, their only goal is to suck your blood dry. It was better to be alone and to be free. He would come out of the muddle in the future, open his own studio, and be his own boss.

While thinking about it, his phone rang. It was Guo Rui who was calling.

Shen Jintai sighed. He said, in a trembling nervous voice, “Director Guo.”

Guo Rui: “Ah, you have already gone back?”

“Yes.” Shen Jintai asked, “Do you need me to go back again?”

“No,” Guo Rui said. “I called you to tell you not to worry. Li Xu’s role is still yours, and it won’t change.”

Shen Jintai’s emotions surged, and his eyes turned red. This incident evoked many painful memories of his past. What he had gained was suddenly lost. This type of loss was unpleasant, and only those who had experienced it could relate.

“Thank you, director,” Shen Jintai said. “I know that that you fought for me. Don’t worry, I will act well and I won’t let you down.”

Guo Rui smiled and said, “In fact, I’m only half responsible for this. In the end, it was President Yan who made the final decision to keep you.”

Shen Jintai was floored.

---

The author has something to say:

The first thing he did for his wife.

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Kinky Thoughts:

Awww Yan Qiuchi’s already earning brownie points before he’s even pursuing his wife!

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 公子于歌 / Gong Zi Yu Ge

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 12: Moving in With the In-Laws

“Touhua is in a new relationship? Does anyone have the scoop?”

“He’s really going to make a comeback, right? There’s been a lot of hype recently.”

“Isn’t his family bankrupt? How does he still have so much money to buy hot searches!”

“Although Touhua has been out of the circle for many years, that demonic physique has not changed. Bloody winds about to enter the circle!”

“The old cow eats tender grass*. I think the fresh meat is very handsome!”

*Idiom that means an amorous relationship between two people with a considerable age difference (AKA A May-December romance).

“Shen Touhua is only in his early twenties. What do you mean, an old cow eats tender grass!”

“Touhua is only 20???!”

“Damn, Shen Jintai is only 20. He hasn’t been around for a long time.”

“He was only 18 when he debuted! The benefits of debuting young.”

“I envy it*.”

*I admire it (慕了慕了) Slang when translated is “I admire it.” It means they actually envy it. I decided to use the meaning of the slang rather than the actual translation.

“Am I the only one who thinks that Shen Jintai’s personality is very interesting? At the peak of the entertainment industry, he retired for love, and after suffering from emotional injuries, he repented and is trying to make a comeback. Such a good subject matter, LJJ* authors must have written it!”

*(Green Jinjiang) = jjwxc. It’s where this novel is posted/published. The author is kind of poking fun at himself because, yes, he did come up with this kind of plot… We’re reading it.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen someone talk about such stupidity in such a fresh and refined tone. There is gold powders upstairs, ha ha ha ha.”

“Let me just say that gold powders have been resurrected. Touhua used to be ridiculed by groups in your area. Recent posts have people speaking up for him. At first glance, it looks like an empty bottle*!”

*Fan control. It means fans will work together to control the posted content to promote praise for their celebrity, so only positive comments are at the top, while burying negative comments or causing the user to delete them.

“Although Touhua’s love history is ridiculed in your area, I guess I’m the only one who likes this particular type of messy romance. Now he’s washing the tattoo and starting a new affair! The love between the infatuated star and the iceberg CEO has shattered. I’m crying!”

—

“I’m on the hot search again.” Shen Jintai called Li Meilan. “I swear, I really didn’t mean to do it this time.”

She felt she had underestimated his popularity. This flow* felt even better than Bai Qingquan’s. He was truly an idol!

*Network traffic/stream/flow (流量) = refers to popularity.

Li Meilan woke him up with a single sentence. “Zheng Siqi and his company should have bought this for him, right?”

Shen Jintai suddenly came to a realization. This hot search should have been bought by someone. Since he didn’t do it, the only other person who would benefit from it would be Zheng Siqi, but buying this kind of hot search was very dangerous, especially since it was an implication that showed him hooking up with a gay guy before his debut.

He went to find out the company behind Zheng Siqi. His search resulted in Monsoon Entertainment, which sounded familiar to him. It was the company ran by Yan Qiuchi’s arch-rival!

The original Shen Jintai was just cannon fodder and was not qualified to act as a villain, so the task of being the villain was handed over to Yan Qiuchi’s business rival, Ji Fengxing*, the CEO of Monsoon Entertainment.

*The Jifeng (季风) in his name means monsoon. Note that Yan Qiuchi’s company is Sunshine Media, so it’s like Sunshine vs Monsoon.

Monsoon Entertainment was known for its hype. Rumors had it that the brokerage department had tens of thousands of marketing accounts, and the company’s artists all followed the black-red route*. Monsoon Entertainment had wanted to poach Shen Jintai in the past. For a company that loves hype, having a top idol with countless black spots, was simply a match made in heaven.

*Self-creating controversies and black materials about themselves with the main purpose of attracting attention (AKA there’s no such thing as bad publicity). They then whitewash themselves after becoming famous.

However, Shen Jintai only had Yan Qiuchi in his eyes, so how could he possibly go to Monsoon Entertainment. Not only did he categorically refuse, but he also said, “A hundred monsoons are not as good as Yan Qiuchi’s toes!”

Everyone in this novel seemed to be obsessed with toes.

Shen Jintai didn’t have a problem with this kind of hype. He’d been in the entertainment industry for a long time and had seen many things. He was a semi-popular little actor himself. He could best understand the situation of these little actors. Who didn’t want to be popular? Everyone was trying to climb up in the entertainment industry. If one couldn’t climb up, one could always hug a thigh*.

*Refers to the behavior of using the advantages of other people to gain benefits, especially when the weak take the initiative to take advantage of the strong (AKA riding on someone’s coattail). 

Starlight was for people to rub. In the entertainment industry, there wasn’t a star that dared say they hadn’t rubbed against another’s traffic, and there was no big star that could escape the fate of being rubbed.

Moreover, he was an outdated star. Someone trying to bind him to the hype was not a bad result. He was able to get on the hot search without spending a single penny.

—

There was a heavy rain in the middle of the night, causing the temperature to be much colder. It was almost autumn. Mrs. Yan was ordering the servants at home to change the window screens.

“Mom, can you call Xiao Jin and ask…” Yan Yaoxuan pestered her. “Ask him if the news is true.”

Mrs. Yan turned her head and saw Yan Yaoxuan’s dark circles under his eyes. “You didn’t sleep well?”

Yan Yaoxuan said, “I have had a bit of insomnia recently. Mom, you can call and ask him. Don’t you care if he starts a new relationship?”

“You can’t do it yourself?” Mrs. Yan asked.

“He’s never paid much attention to me.” Yan Yaoxuan looked lost.

Yan Qiuchi sat down and ate breakfast. Without raising his head, he said, “Have you finished all your summer vacation homework? All you care about is useless things all day.”

Yan Yaoxuan glanced back. “Can’t I care about my idol? I’m already a college student and I have no summer homework.”

Yan Qiuchi folded the newspaper aside and said, “Fake news. It’s just hype.”

Yan Yaoxuan: “How do you know? Did he tell you?”

Yan Qiuchi said nothing. Of course, it was fake news. He had tested it. Shen Jintai tried to seduce him in the car a few days ago. His bodily reaction immediately gave him away. He had almost won a small stone*!

*Referencing the game pick up stones (which goes by various types of names).

Recalling Shen Jintai’s tricks, Yan Qiuchi rolled his throat. It should be easy for a scheming man like Shen Jintai to seduce Yan Yaoxuan. He didn’t know what his sweet and innocent brother liked about Shen Jintai. He wondered if Yan Yaoxuan’s love for Shen Jintai was like a fan’s love for idols. However, sometimes it felt more like brotherly love, but other times it felt like a secret hidden desire coming from Yan Yaoxuan’s heart. It’s just that everyone knew Shen Jintai was chasing him, so Yan Yaoxuan didn’t dare to reveal his hidden feelings.

Yan Yaoxuan was at home on vacation and had nothing to do all day. Because he saw Shen Jintai’s new relationship trending last night, he couldn’t sleep well all night. After thinking about it for a long time, he decided to go to Shen Jintai to find out the situation in person.

As a result, he came back after leaving in less than half an hour.

“You met with Xiao Jin?” asked Mrs. Yan, who was about to go out.

“Xiao Jin has moved,” Yan Yaoxuan said.

Mrs. Yan was taken aback for a moment. “Moved? I wasn’t aware of this. Where did he move to?”

Yan Yaoxuan: “I don’t know. I went to his house and didn’t see him. Instead, I saw his stepmother leading the workers to move things inside. She said that their family has no place to live now, and they have all moved to Xiao Jin’s.”

When Mrs. Yan heard this, she immediately called Shen Jintai.

Because of the rain, Shen Jintai overslept. As soon as he connected the call, he heard Mrs. Yan ask excitedly, “Why is your stepmother moving into your house? Where do you live now?”

Shen Jintai sat up and yawned. “Their house has been seized by the court and it’s going to be auctioned off. They have no place to live, so I let them move into my place.”

Mrs. Yan: “How about you? Are you living with them?” She recalled that Shen Jintai and his family didn’t get along well.

Shen Jintai: “I moved to a hotel.”

Mrs. Yan said, “Which hotel?” She wanted to visit him, given his predicament.

Shen Jintai said, “I am temporarily staying in a hotel. We’ll start filming in a few days. I’ll be spending most of the time with the crew.”

Mrs. Yan: “Cut the crap. Which hotel?”

Shen Jintai had no choice but to tell her. “Four Seasons Hotel.”

Mrs. Yan immediately drove over with Yan Yaoxuan. When she got out of the car, she looked up and saw the dilapidated exterior wall of the Four Seasons Hotel*. She was about to break down in tears.

*The Four Seasons Hotel is supposed to be a luxury hotel chain. I find it hard to believe that the hotel Shen Jintai is staying at would be THAT run down. It’s not like it’s a holiday inn or some side motel. Anyways, this is just a fictional novel, so I guess in this world, Four Seasons Hotels are crappy.

Yan Yaoxuan felt even more distressed. “Why is it so dingy?” It seemed that the bankruptcy had a great impact on him.

Shen Jintai was showering when he heard the doorbell ring. He hurriedly got dressed and ran to open the door. As soon as the door opened, Mrs. Yan leapt in and hugged him.

Mrs. Yan: “You poor child… Trying to put on a brave act and don’t even tell Auntie when you encounter difficulties.”

Shen Jintai’s hair was messy, his beard wasn’t shaved, and his face wasn’t washed. Because he had slept for too long, his face was still a little puffy, and he looked sloppy and pitiful.

“Come, come home with Auntie.” Mrs. Yan released him.

Yan Yaoxuan walked directly towards his bedroom. “If you have any luggage, I will help you pack it.”

“No, really I don’t need it,” Shen Jintai said. “I’m only staying here for a few days, and then I’ll join the crew.”

Mrs. Yan gave him a push. “You go and wash first.”

Shen Jintai obeyed and went to wash.

“You, help Xiao Jin tidy up.” Mrs. Yan said to Yan Yaoxuan while tidying up the clothes on the sofa.

“Let him organize his own things. Everyone has their privacy,” Yan Yaoxuan said lightly.

Shen Jintai rinsed his mouth and came out of the bathroom. Mrs. Yan’s attitude was very tough. She didn’t allow him to stay in a hotel. “It’s not that you’re homeless, you just can’t live in your own home, so come to Auntie’s. My place is like your home too!”

Shen Jintai was moved by the look of redness and pity in her eyes, so he packed his luggage and followed the mother-son pair to the Yan family mansion.

The Yan family mansion had a total of four floors. On the first floor were the servants’ and guest rooms, the second floor was Mr. and Mrs. Yan’s room, the third floor was the Yan brothers’ rooms, and the fourth floor was the entertainment venue that had chess and card rooms, mahjong rooms, home theater, etc. There was a large swimming pool at the back of the house. The water sparkled blue when you looked down at it from the window.

“This is your room. Auntie will find someone to clean it regularly,” Mrs. Yan said to Shen Jintai while instructing a maid to make the bed. “Qiuchi’s room is next door.”

Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, Shen Jintai turned her head and saw Mrs. Yan had the expression of “I will always support you” on her face.

Shen Jintai: ……

Mrs. Yan had originally had a spa day appointment with her sisters. After tumbling around for so long, it was getting late. Ensured that Shen Jintai had settled in properly, she hurried out. Shen Jintai closed the door and laid down on the bed.

He was actually next door to Yan Qiuchi’s room. What kind of face would Yan Qiuchi make when he returned and found out?

An image of Yan Qiuchi’s reticent and abstinent aura came into his mind.

---

The author has something to say:

Your coat is still hanging in his closet.

Empty bottle: fan control

LJJ: Green Jinjiang*

*Referring to jjwxc. It’s called “green” is because the site background is green. You can read more about the history of jjwxc here, especially the controversy behind China’s censorship and the impact it had on danmei. (It’s also why we don’t get smexy scenes anymore).

---

Kinky Thoughts:

I’m actually having fun researching as I’m translating. It’s a huge fucking rabbit hole, let me tell you. It’s quite interesting to read about Jinjiang and how China’s regulation impacted Danmei. This line stood out: “Five years later, a renewed crackdown on internet content in China banned military-related romance, danmei, and any remotely sexual content below the neck.” Sounds familiar? It’s what the system in this novel is trying to implement LOL.

Side note: Anyone knows what the current situation in China is now? According to the source I linked, in 2019, a crackdown on the internet banned danmei… but it seems like jjwxc still hosting and publishing them? Are danmei at risk? If so, that would be quite tragic.

Thanks everyone for the comments. BL is more fun when you can gush with each other about it~

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 公子于歌 / Gong Zi Yu Ge

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 11: Amaze Everyone!

Although they only read the lines according to the script, they could all hear Shen Jintai’s cadence and emotions during his delivery. Though their basic skills were solid, they hadn’t practiced for a long time, so their voices were in poor condition. As such, they couldn’t keep up with Shen Jintai.

Yang Lizhi, who was originally quite arrogant, also turned her head sideways to look at Shen Jintai. Bai Qingquan, who was sitting on the other side of her, only saw the back of her head the whole time. A hairpin was attached to Yang Lizhi’s hair. The shape was a simple orchid, but very beautiful, causing a tickle in Bai Qingquan’s heart.

Wuwuwu*. He wanted to wear it.

*(嘤嘤嘤.) Originated from online chat. In online language, “bibibi” means crying, which means the appearance of aggrieved crying (mostly with cute attributes). I used Wuwuwu instead, since it sounds better.

“Qingquan,” Guo Rui reminded, “It’s your turn.”

Bai Qingquan returned to his senses. He was so nervous that he became tongue-tied. “My brother doesn’t seem to know… That he doesn’t like the opposite sex…”

“It’s not this sentence. The sentence above,” Guo Rui prompted.

Everyone gave a small chuckle, causing Bai Qingquan to blush.

Damn, he actually lost to Shen Jintai! Bai Qingquan immediately raised his chest, sat upright, and vowed to compete with Shen Jintai to the end!

Guo Rui was very satisfied with the meeting. Everyone was putting their best foot forward and was full of energy. The main highlight was the scenes between Bai Qingquan and Shen Jintai. It looked as if they were the embodiment of the actual characters in the drama.

Since Bai Qingquan’s role was already a prince, he had to be more restrained and not as emotional, unlike Shen Jintai’s role. Shen Jintai got really immersed in the play. His eyes were flushed with tears as he reached out his hand. He was supposed to be very stubborn in this scene. Though he was crying, there were no traces of girlishness at all as the tears kept falling down. Bai Qingquan wanted to compete against him so badly that he lost control of his emotions. In the end, he burst into tears and his voice cracked. “You’d better go back and think clearly about who you belong to!”

Hearing the dialogue like this stunned everyone. It was like they were seeing a live stage play. You could imagine how exciting it would be when the filming officially started.

Everyone was impressed with Shen Jintai, especially the screenwriter, Meng Xiaosheng. She knew Bai Qingquan’s acting was good, but Shen Jintai surprised her. His eyes were still red, and his eyelashes were still moist from the crying, that she couldn’t help but feel they were made to play those roles.

During the gap in the meeting, Song Wei and Shen Jintai went to put on their makeup.

This time, Song Wei’s attitude towards Shen Jintai was a lot kinder. “You were very good young man. I don’t know much about you. Have you taken acting classes?”

Shen Jintai shook his head and said, “No.”

Song Wei: “Your line delivery was fantastic. Have you ever acted in a play before? I remember you were quite young at that time.”

“Young” was a nice way of putting it. Shen Jintai had searched the internet for his first drama two days ago. The acting was disastrous. After watching for only 10 minutes, he had to stop due to self-embarrassment.

Shen Jintai: “It was the first time I had acted, and I completely bombed. The internet was full of bad reviews. Since then, I have been determined to practice my exercises well and have learned a lot in the past two years.”

Song Wei was beginning to like Shen Jintai’s tone more and more. It was calm and confident, gentle and restrained, especially the voice. The rhythm of the words and his pronunciation were particularly pleasing to listen to.

Reading lines was the basic skill of an actor. Nowadays, despite having graduated from an acting major, very few young actors, let alone those who were “wild roads*,” could deliver their lines well. Idol actors were even more disastrous.

*Refers to those who come from non-major classes and are informal. The sentence was translated a bit confusing, so for clarity: it’s basically saying that regardless of whether they majored in acting or not, nowadays there were too few actors who could act (read their lines) well.

After Shen Jintai finished putting on his makeup, Song Wei took another look. She didn’t expect him to look so good in makeup. When he didn’t have makeup on, his facial features, especially the lips, were quite dull. Seeing him with makeup on put her into a trance. He looked like the shadow of a beautiful little eunuch.

Shen Jintai had acted in many shows for years, so he was familiar with the process. The photographers were surprised by his cooperation and tacit understanding when they took his pictures, which made the process much easier. The makeup shoot wrapped up pretty quickly. Guo Rui and the producer came to see him and were very satisfied with the results.

“It would be better if he was more handsome,” Producer Zhang whispered.

Guo Rui: “He eats makeup*. With the right lighting and a bit of polish, it should suffice. He has good acting skills. When the shooting officially starts, you can come check it out.”

*Refers to the fact that regardless of whether makeup was applied, the results would be the same. Basically, he’s saying applying makeup to Shen Jintai would have very little change to his appearance.

Producer Zhang smiled and said, “We’ve been working together for so long, so I believe in your vision.”

Shen Jintai was undressed as they were having their conversation, so he was only wearing a pair of small shorts. His body was well-proportioned, and his back muscles were thin and stretchable. Producer Zhang eyed his butt, which stood out too conspicuously, which made him suddenly recall Shen Jintai’s sexual orientation. Shen Jintai definitely had an ass fit for a gay man.

Such a pity that a gay stone hammer would have difficulty catching fire. Thinking about in that way, he felt that that the role given to him was a bit wasteful.

The costumes in the drama was very heavy due to them having multiple layers. Shen Jintai was about to change to another set when Zheng Siqi came in.

Zheng Siqi, was the third male lead who plays the Crown Prince Zhou Ying. In the drama, they were pairs of entangled lovers. He was a young man with clear, distinct eyes and smooth facial features. Shen Jintai recalled the novel description of Zheng Siqi that used ancient prose to describe him: “Stones like jade, and the pine trees are like emeralds. Lang Yan is unique, and there is no second in the world.*” Zheng Siqi was handsome, but more importantly, he had a bright and noble aura. It could be said that he was the best fit for the role he was cast for in this entire production.

*A verse from “Baishi Lang Song” from Guo Maoqian’s song compilation “Folk Song and Ballad”. Its meaning is to describe someone with indescribable beauty.

Like him, Zheng Siqi also took makeup photos today.

Zheng Siqi was still in college and was a pure newcomer. He was very respectful of him. When he came in, he bowed and greeted Shen Jintai, “Hello, Brother Shen.”

Shen Jintai smiled and said, “Which one of us is older?”

Zheng Siqi was taken aback for a moment and asked, “Are you younger than me?”

Shen Jintai: “I’m twenty.”

Zheng Siqi showed a surprised expression. Feeling a bit embarrassed, he said, “I’m sorry, I thought…”

“I made my debut early.” Shen Jintai said with a smile, “You don’t have to be so polite to me. Just call me by my name from now on. We are both the same age.”

Zheng Siqi had been worried these days. As a college student, it wasn’t easy for him to get this role. He had to audition seven to eight times before he was finally successful. After he got the role, he anxiously waited to see who would play Li Xu. After all, this was the character he had the most scenes with. As a result, a few days ago, the crew secretly leaked to him that it was Shen Jintai.

The news made him bitter. Shen Jintai was notorious for his bloody winds*.

*(血雨腥风) Idiom describing a dangerous atmosphere or environment of crazy killing.

Shen Jintai hasn’t been in the entertainment industry for a long time. As soon as he entered the circle, he became a top star. At his peak, he retired. Regardless of his short time in the circle, everyone still remembered those bloody days. Zheng Siqi still recalled his famous outlandish remarks and unruly appearance. He also had a very bad temper and was constantly bullying Bai Qingquan, which caused him to land on the hot search multiple times.

Zheng Siqi was so anxious about working with such a person, especially since this was his debut, that he had bouts of insomnia. Unexpectedly, when he met the live person today, he found that Shen Jintai was not as he had imagined.

It was too different from the Shen Touhua in his memory.

Shen Jintai didn’t leave after his photoshoot. He stayed to look at Zheng Siqi’s photoshoot. He was really a beautiful man, like a cypress pine tree, who was cold and handsome.

After the script reading was over, Shen Jintai stopped Zheng Siqi. “Are you free tonight? Shall we have dinner together?”

Zheng Siqi was flattered.

Shen Jintai took the opportunity to also ask Bai Qingquan, “Qingquan, do you want to come too?”

Bai Qingquan got goosebumps. ‘Qingquan*?! How dare he call him that. So disgusting!’

*Clarity: in Chinese culture, you don’t normally call someone just by their given name (first name). On a side note, regarding names: Chinese names are family name (last name) + given name (first name).

Bai Qingquan smiled brightly, shook his head and gave a gentle look. “No, I have a plane to catch. Maybe next time.”

Bai Qingquan got into the car with a smile, but as soon as he sat down, his face turned black.

His agent, Wei Ge, pulled on the car door and said to the driver, “Drive faster and don’t be late.” After speaking, he turned his head and looked at Bai Qingquan, who was leaning his head against the car window, staring at the backs of Shen Jintai and Zheng Siqi.

“You fancy him?” Wei Ge asked.

Bai Qingquan: “This Zheng Siqi is handsomer than his picture. So tall.”

Wei Ge: “…Can you not turn into a nymphomaniac whenever you see a handsome guy? Mixing in this circle, there are no shortage of handsome guys!”

Bai Qingquan: “This kind of newcomer who hasn’t debuted yet has a special aura around him. He’s also an acting major and a college student.”

Bai Qingquan made his debut in the “wild road”. He didn’t even graduate from high school. When he saw those in college, especially acting majors, he couldn’t help but feel sour.

“Shouldn’t you be feeling a sense of crisis? Didn’t you find that Shen Jintai’s lines were much better than we thought?” Wei Ge said, “His role is already outstanding. If he steals the limelight…”

“Arghhhh.” Bai Qingquan couldn’t stand it anymore. “Impossible! I will never be stepped on by him again!”

Shen Jintai was his nightmare!

Wei Ge: “Then you have to work hard. You didn’t perform well today, mainly because you didn’t review the script properly. You have to finish a lot of work before entering the group. Time is tight. You need to work harder to memorize the script. Even though you were reading directly from the script, you still said the wrong lines.”

Hearing this, Bai Qingquan sprayed on some mint oil and started reading his script. He was very tired. His eyes were fighting to stay open. He’d only slept for a total of four hours in the last two days, and he was still on the road.

But he still had to work harder. He couldn’t lose to anyone, especially to Shen Jintai. He called Shen Jintai over to lift the sedan chair for him, not so that he could be stepped on.

—

Shen Jintai wanted to use his east wind¹ to start a comeback and realized his spring and autumn dreams²!

¹(东风) Driving force || In this context it’s saying he wants to use his momentum to jumpstart his comeback.
²Unrealistic ideas.

He invited Zheng Siqi to dinner to get better acquainted with him. The two of them shared many scenes together, yet Zheng Siqi was very polite and fearful of him. How could it be possible to act well in an emotional drama if he’s like this?

After returning to the hotel after dinner, it was past ten in the evening. Shen Jintai was about to go to bed when Lin Xu called.

“Who is it?” Lin Xu asked when he picked up the phone.

Shen Jintai: “What?”

Lin Xu: “Who were you eating with? So handsome.”

Shen Jintai: “…Were you also eating at that restaurant? I didn’t see you.”

Lin Xu: “I saw it on Weibo. Sister, you’re on the hot search. They’re saying it’s your new love.”

Shen Jintai: “Huh?”

Shen Jintai felt that the hot searches in this world were like Chinese cabbage*. In the past few days, he had basically become numb to them.

*Reference to say that there’s a lot of them.

He hurriedly checked Weibo, and found that ranked fourth on the Weibo hot search was: [Shen Jintai’s new love affair].

Is having a meal with someone that explosive enough to get him fourth in the hot search?

He clicked to look. It was a photo of him and Zheng Siqi having dinner. The photo was relatively blurry and was a GIF. The blurring inadvertently created a beauty filter for him, as he looked quite handsome in the GIF. Some of the pictures were taken from inside the restaurant, and a few were taken outdoors when he sent Zheng Siqi to his car. The night was hazy, showing a thin figure wearing a baseball cap with a bright smile.

“Hehe!” As soon as Bai Qingquan got off the plane, he saw Shen Jintai’s hot search.

“How shameless. Whenever you get the opportunity, you just have to hype yourself. You wouldn’t even let newcomers off.” Bai Qingquan bleary-eyed and looked at Wei Ge. “Isn’t he broke? Where did he get the money to buy hot searches?”

“A dead camel is bigger than a horse,” Wei Ge said. “Besides, he may not have bought the hot search.”

Bai Qingquan: “Even I have to rely on spending money for hot searches. Can his hot searches be natural? As if hundreds of thousands of people would search for his new relationship at the same time. What complete bullshit!”

Wei Ge said, “Just ignore it. Hurry up and sleep for a while. I can see that your eyes are red and bloodshot.”

Bai Qingquan raised his head, propped up his eyelids and dropped in a few eye drops. “I really regret introducing him to this drama. Doesn’t he like President Yan? I really want to see President Yan abuse him.”

The whole world knew that Shen Jintai liked President Yan of Sunshine Media. Bai Qingquan would love to see Shen Jintai’s hot face and cold butt*. How refreshing would that be?

*Idiom the means the face is passionate, but the butt is indifferent. It means that you try hard to please and compliment others, but others are indifferent towards you.

One thing drops one thing*. Who would have thought that the star-studded Shen Jintai would have a time when he couldn’t get what he wanted?

*Colloquialism means if there is one kind of thing, there will be another kind of thing to subdue it. (AKA Everything has its vanquisher.)

He recalled a scene from last winter when he was having a meal with some company executives. When he came out of the restaurant, he saw Shen Jintai chasing after Yan Qiuchi’s car but was unable to catch up. He stood alone on the side of the road, looking haggard and embarrassed. When Shen Jintai saw him, he gave him a fierce look.

Bai Qingquan felt incredibly great at that moment. He loved seeing such unsightliness from Shen Jintai.

Who told him to bully him, squeeze him out, step on him, and encourage his fans to slander him!

If you don’t believe me, look up, and see who the heavens have spared*.

*Idiom means good and evil will eventually be repaid. In other words, karma.

---

The author has something to say:

Never be able to pick up the pounds* of two beautiful 0’s.

*A few pounds and a few taels (几斤几两) Refers to knowing your status in terms of your own value, role, and influence.

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Kinky Thoughts:

Turns out Bai Qingquan isn’t just a one-dimensional white lotus after all. He does have legit beef about why he hates Shen Jintai, so I wouldn’t consider him to be a “villain” per se… I’m really liking all the characters so far. None of them seem one-dimensional (well maybe Yan Qiuchi, but there’s not much written about him yet).

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 公子于歌 / Gong Zi Yu Ge

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 10: Start the Face Slapping

Shen Jintai, who had been silent for two years, recently made a lot of small movements.

“Shen Jintai is really going to make a comeback. The recent hype has been wave after wave.”

“Are you in the DGLL group?”

“Can the cuckoo upstairs not use abbreviations? Every time I visit your group, it takes me a long time to solve your codes!”

“I don’t know why this information is being spread or cared about. Even if he hasn’t been unruly, it’s impossible for him to act in the same drama as Bai Yueguang, right?”

“Why is it spreading? Ha, ha, ha! What else could he do besides rub off the heat from Bai Yueguang in order to make a comeback. The gold powders will cue Bai Yueguang’s whole family crematorium*!”

*Clarity: I think it’s referring to gold fans wronging Bai Qingquan and eventually seeing the errors of their ways and seek his forgiveness.

“With his current popularity, would Bai Yueguang let his nemesis rub heat off him? Don’t think too much about it. It must be fake!”

“Moonlight powders are also shameless. The likes of Shen Touhua may not bother to lift Qingquan’s sedan chair.”

“The information about the TV series is fake, but Shen Jintai’s comeback must be true. His Weibo has just opened again. He hasn’t been active on Weibo for several years, yet suddenly there’s been a huge spike of activity. He must be making a comeback!”

“What’s the meaning behind Shen Jintai’s recent Weibo post? Is it related to his nickname?”

“Hahaha, I can’t believe you don’t even know. It’s true what you said. There’s really a big red flower on his head!”

“Is he going to rely on self-blackening¹ then whitewashing²?”

¹Blackening = Slandering and creating or spreading negative information to defame someone or some projects, usually done by anti-fans. Self-blackening is doing it yourself.
²Deliberately misleading people in various ways, causing them to forget a celebrity’s bad past. For instance, a celebrity with lots of scandals may whitewash themselves by doing a lot of charity work. Eventually, people will be overwhelmed with their positive energy and forget their past scandals.

“Can he even whitewash? Gay stone hammer*!”

*(石锤) Slang referring to conclusive evidence. || In this context, he’s saying there’s irrefutable evidence he’s gay, so it can’t be whitewashed. Since being gay is taboo in the entertainment industry, he won’t be able to deny his sexual orientation.

“Is there anyone in the entertainment industry more disgusting than him? He bought all that black material to slander Bai Qingquan. Did the gold powders forget the origin of the name of your family’s Shen Touhua?!”

When Shen Jintai went online, he was scolded so badly he quickly turned off his phone.

His tried-and-tested actor’s tricks didn’t work anymore!

“You still shouldn’t post on Weibo right now. I think many people have guessed that you’re going to act in the East Palace,” Li Meilan said on the phone. “Bear it for a few more days. Friday will be the opening conference. We’ll try to make a splash then.”

Before the official comeback, they should remain silent. Shen Jintai’s popularity was currently too low. To get any traction, they’d need hot spots but too much movement would look abnormal. Netizens would suspect that it was fake news.

Now that the heat was rising, they would break the news directly at the right time. In the past, Shen Jintai had naturally made it to the top of the hot searches. Li Meilan felt that she didn’t need to buy marketing accounts to push news of his comeback. The natural heat would detonate the hot search organically.

Shen Jintai hung up and read the script at home wholeheartedly. After he finished reading 20 episodes of the script, he was so itchy that he wanted to continue reading the rest of the story.　　

However, even top-tier celebrities, like Yang Lizhi, would rarely see the entire script when picking up a drama. Sometimes it was due to confidentiality issues; other times it was because the script was unfinished. Shen Jintai understood that this was the norm of the industry. However, he was really hung up on the plot and really wanted to see how it would develop next.

Impatiently, he searched for relevant information about <The East Palace is Coming> and discovered that this drama was adapted from a well-known IP.

Shen Jintai’s favorite thing to do when he had nothing to do was read novels. He immediately looked for the original work so he could read it.

“Damn.” The original work was classified as R18 on a novel website!

Isn’t this colored texts*?!

*Reference to vulgar materials.

Shen Jintai continued reading the novel and found that it was a conspiracy novel that had a particularly good mix of drama and plot. The author was even more bold and had a mixture of both BL and BG*. The plot of the novel was very different from the script version. In the original novel, his supporting role was more important, and there were many wonderful scenes that belonged to him. These scenes were all arranged for the female lead in the script adaptation.

*BL = Boy’s Love. || BG = Boy-Girl (love).

This was also reasonable since Yang Lizhi was a top-tier celebrity, they had to give her a much more impactful and heavier role so that she would be willing to accept it.

Shen Jintai continued reading, forgetting to sleep and eat until he reached the scene between the eunuch, Li Xu, and the exiled prince. He prided himself on having read many novels, but he was still embarrassed when he read about the eunuch’s penis*. Apparently, the author was an expert in this field because he wrote more than a thousand words about it. He had a hard time continuing.

*Car (车) = euphemism for penis/sex/doing the explicit ect.

The writing became very salacious. Since the eunuch lacked a penis, the bed scenes described would naturally be a bit different than an ordinary danmei. The author wrote in great detail about Li Xu’s physical defect and, because of it, how much it aroused the Crown Prince, Zhou Ying.

The innocent prince had such kinky taste. My god. Shen Jintai had to put down the phone, not daring to look at it anymore. While on the subject, the person who had the most scenes in the first twenty episodes was neither the female lead, Yang Lizhi, nor the male lead, Bai Qingquan, but was actually the third male lead, Prince Zhou Ying.

Shen Jintai didn’t know who would be playing Zhou Ying’s role.

<The East Palace is Coming> was this year’s most expensive costume drama* in China. The cast members encompassed three generations of old, middle-aged, and young actors who were well-known in the industry. Shen Jintai was to play the little eunuch who was known for his beauty. He felt like his current appearance was a bit unworthy for the role.

*A genre under historical drama. The costume drama is often separated into a genre of historical dramas. Early critics defined them as films focusing on romance and relationships in sumptuous surroundings, contrasting them with other historical dramas believed to have more serious themes.

He intended to go to bed early tonight in order to have a good look tomorrow. When taking a bath, he couldn’t help but touch his ass. ‘It’s so soft!’ Shen Jintai smiled and kept staring at it helplessly.

He really wanted to…

While he was distracted, the sound of his cell phone ringing brought him back to attention, startling him. He quickly put on his bathrobe and came out. The caller ID showed “old fairy”.

Who’s the old fairy?

A vague memory popped into his mind. The old fairy was Shen Jintai’s stepmother.

When it came to feelings, Shen Jintai and his stepmother had a very amicable relationship.

He coughed and picked up the phone.

“Xiao Jin,” A gentle and charming female voice cried. “What am I to do?!”

Shen Jintai: “What’s wrong?”

“Our house has been seized by the court. We have to move out by tomorrow,” His stepmother cried in a grandiose tone. “We have nothing left. No home, no car. It’s all gone! You must help your father. He’s going to be unable to survive!”

Shen Jintai frowned. “Stop going around in circles. Just say it directly.”

“Your house is so big just for just one person to live alone, right? Can you let us move in? When we have money in the future, we’ll definitely move out. It’s not a big deal for adults like us to live anywhere, but your sister is so young. She can’t be allowed to suffer with us…”

Before his stepmother finished speaking, a man snatched the phone away. “Your Aunt Liu is not begging you. She’s telling you that we are moving in tomorrow. Although the house is under your name, it was laozi* who bought it for you!”

*Reference an old master. Commonly used slang to referred to say “Your Father”. Basically, it’s saying this great one… but in this case above, the person speaking really is his father.

Before Shen Jintai could respond, the other party hung up the phone. Judging by the tone, it was Shen Jintai’s bankrupted father. He thought about it all night, whether he would agree to it or not.

He remembered that Shen Jintai in the original work only loved two people in this world. One was Yan Qiuchi, and the other was his half-sister.

Shen Jintai was a very ambitious person. If he had the opportunity in the future, he would most likely live with the crew. He would fly everywhere as a star and would rarely return home. Most likely, he would live in his home for only a few days throughout the year. It would indeed be empty. For the sake of the original owner, he did feel a little pity for his little sister.

When the Shen family went bankrupt, he didn’t know how he was able to keep this villa. Although the original owner used to be the top performer in the entertainment industry, he didn’t make much money. He mainly relied on his family’s money for support. Despite the poor relationship between father and son, his father had never been stingy about giving him money.

Shen Jintai checked the balance on his bank card. There were still more than 200,000 yuan left. He went to the garage to look at his luxury cars. There was still an Audi left. For a star like him, it was really a bit too poor. He had more money than this in his previous life when he was a third or fourth tier actor.

He didn’t want to meet with Father Shen and the others. He felt it would be too awkward. After all, these were the relatives of the original owner, but he had already died. According to the plot, he died the day Shen Jintai transmigrated over.

Shen Jintai left 100,000 yuan and the car keys at home. He sent a text message to Father Shen, carried his suitcase, and went to a motel.

—

The next day, when Li Meilan and Xiao Tang came to the motel to pick him up, they asked, “Why are you staying here?”

Shen Jintai got into the car and said, “Doesn’t matter. No one recognizes me.” No one in the country would expect a famous star like him to be living in a shabby little motel.

Xiao Tang looked at the dilapidated building, closed the car door, and said, “At least it’s very close to the crew.”

“What about your house?” Li Meilan knew about his family’s situation. “Was it also seized?”

“No, my dad and the others are moving there, and I don’t want to be a bother and live with them.” Shen Jintai said, “Anyways, I’ll be living with the crew in a few days… By the way, it’ll be covered by the crew, right?”

“It’s written in the contract. Food, clothing, housing, and transportation are included in the remuneration. It’s been several days since the contract was signed. If there are no surprises, they will pay a deposit today. They will pay 60% of the remuneration when the filming starts, 30% when it’s halfway done, and the rest when it finishes.”

They didn’t ask for a high salary this time. After all, this was his first job at the start of his comeback. The intangible benefits of being in this drama were more important than the fact that it would eventually pay in millions down the line.

Shen Jintai didn’t really have an opinion on film remuneration. If he liked the film, even if he didn’t get paid, he would still shoot it. Compared with ordinary jobs, being a celebrity was a lucrative business. If a star was willing to work hard, money would eventually land at their feet.

Shen Jintai was still reading the script in the car. Li Meilan picked up the book and flipped through it. She circled it and made a lot of annotations, some with a red-colored pen and some with a blue-colored pen. There were notes in the blank spaces written by Shen Jintai so he could reference them to better his understanding of the script when he was acting. The words were slightly scribbled and intermittent, so she couldn’t understand some of them.

It seemed like things were looking up. The bankruptcy of the Shen family and the loss of love must have hit Shen Jintai hard. His whole personality seemed to be reborn and he became highly motivated.

While they arrived early, there were already others who had arrived earlier than they did. The veteran star, Song Wei, who played the queen mother, was the first to arrive.

The staff introduced him to her, and Shen Jintai respectfully called her Teacher Song.

“So you are the final cast member,” Song Wei said with a smile. “Whether this drama will be good or not is highly dependent on your role. Director Guo had been looking for a long time to fill it. I didn’t expect he picked you.” The tone was not at all subtle.

Guo Rui himself was very fond of the second male lead, Li Xu, and the third male lead, Zhou Ying, so he was very cautious when choosing the actors. When the role of Li Xu was cast, everyone thought it would be some outstanding newcomer, but it turned out to be Shen Jintai.

The circle all knew Shen Jintai’s reputation and acting skills. Everyone understood why he got the role.

Song Wei thought silently, ‘With the current situation of the entertainment industry, anyone can become an actor. If the acting skill isn’t sufficient, the face can still be used as a vase*. Though Shen Jintai looked white and pure, in terms of beauty, don’t bother mentioning the entire entertainment industry; in their crew alone, he was simply average-looking.’

*Clarity: It means even if the acting sucks, they’ll still attract viewers anyway because they have a nice-looking face.

As the cast started to arrive, handsome men and beauties came in one by one, yet no matter how high ranked they were, everyone was still cordial. The late Yang Lizhi sat next to Shen Jintai and had a slightly perfunctory attitude. Among all the makeup, only hers was exquisite and gorgeous. When she tossed her hair carelessly, a wonderful fragrance could be smelled.

The last ones to arrive were the director, screenwriter, and Bai Qingquan. He was very considerate and gave all the actors and staff on the scene a bag of tea that was famous in the local area. Shen Jintai stared at him from his seat. Bai Qingquan looked very low-key. He wore a simple white T-shirt and jeans and had no makeup on.

Shen Jintai thought, despite this, his bare face looked better than others that had on makeup. With a full smile, lush red lips, and shiny white teeth, he truly was a heartthrob.

Because Shen Jintai was the last to be cast, not everyone knew the news, so many had faces of surprise that they couldn’t hide. An idol with a bad reputation and average appearance, let alone any acting skills. The only thing similar to Li Xu’s character was the identity of being gay.

When Guo Rui introduced Shen Jintai, he had a very satisfied look. He smiled and said, “Everyone should already know this person. Shen Jintai is our Li Xu. “

Shen Jintai stood up and bowed humbly. “It is an honor to participate in this drama. Please give me your guidance in the coming days.”

Yang Lizhi picked up her cup and took a sip of water, trying to suppress the urge to flip over a table at this moment. Her current position depended not only on the crew but also on the actors she collaborated with. The role of Li Xu was the second male lead, and in the later stages, the main villain. She had a lot of scenes with him. Guo Rui had promised her that he would be cautious in choosing the actor, and she’d been looking forward to it for a long time, only to find out that the result was Shen Jintai.

Shen Touhua… She often did the flower dance at Station B. Moreover, he squeezed out a younger brother from their company, who was much more beautiful than him. In the end, she maintained her celebrity demeanor, tossed her hair, and turned to look away.

Bai Qingquan was sitting on the other side of her. The two of them looked at each other, and Yang Lizhi gave him a shrug.

Many people saw this little gesture. They understood Yang Lizhi’s disdain. Even they were surprised by the result.

It was rumored that Young Master Shen Jintai had a bad temper and a bad personality. The image he gave now looked so warm and peaceful as he gave everyone a smile.

After bankruptcy, the young master also became a slave to the sedan chair, and his life was turned upside down. Many people could sympathize with it.

Under the leadership of the director, everyone got to know each other first, and then they started the script run-through. All the main actors were present, and the supporting roles in the script, which had very few lines, were temporarily played by the staff. When everyone was situated, the formal reading commenced.

Everyone was stunned during this round of reading, because Shen Jintai’s lines were too good.

---

The author has something to say:

Shen Jintai: I’m here for the acting.

Everyone was slapped in the face, starting from the supporting role.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 公子于歌 / Gong Zi Yu Ge

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 9: The Ass Reward Has Arrived

Shen Jintai got out of the car bleakly. As soon as he got out, the heat from outside rushed towards him. He fastened his buttons and watched as Yan Qiuchi’s car drove off.

The air conditioner in the car was too cold. It was a normal physiological response to the excitement! It wasn’t what Yan Qiuchi thought!

This misunderstanding was really embarrassing. He wasn’t some prodigal kid who reacted to lust. He was a 1! His “head” wouldn’t rise for another 1!

Mrs. Yan was in the middle of sending off her sisters when she saw Yan Qiuchi’s car coming from the distance. After sending off her sisters, she immediately followed Yan Qiuchi upstairs. “So fast. Did you send him home properly?”

Yan Qiuchi said “Nn” and continued to walk to his room.

Mrs. Yan said, “Wait a minute. I have something to tell you.”

They both went to the study.

Mrs. Yan: “I heard that you invested in the TV series that Xiao Jin is participating in?”

“This is one of our company’s main film and television projects this year,” Yan Qiuchi said. “I know what you are going to say. I have always kept public and private issues separate. The casting is the responsibility of the producer and the director. I will not interfere. Don’t worry.”

“That’s good,” Mrs. Yan said solemnly. “Xiao Jin has a lot of issues at home right now, so he can’t help it. It’s also pitiful that he’s trying to make a comeback. He hates acting the most, yet now in order to make a living, he has to do what he doesn’t like. Even if you don’t like him, don’t embarrass him. In any case, you both grew up together. Now that he’s experiencing difficulties, we must try to help him.”

Yan Qiuchi only responded with an, “Nn”.

The mother-son pair have always been relatively distant. Usually, they had nothing to talk about when they were together. It was strange that they were biologically related as their relationship was even worse than that of strangers.

Since it was her birthday today, it was rare for her son to be so filial to her. She went on to ask, “You are not young anymore. Why haven’t you fallen in love? I heard that you like an artist in your company named Bai Qingquan. Is this true?”

Unexpectedly, Yan Qiuchi said directly, “You shouldn’t listen to Shen Jintai’s words. Don’t take them seriously.”

Mrs. Yan was a little unhappy in her heart. For Shen Jintai’s sake, she barely squeezed out a smile and said, “Look at me. In the blink of an eye, I’m already fifty. Time flies by so fast. It only seems like yesterday that I was a young woman and you were still a little baby who had just started preschool… Speaking of this, I remember when your Aunt Lin was pregnant with Jintai. The two of us discussed that if she gave birth to a girl, she would become my daughter-in-law in the future. In ancient times, this would have been an arranged marriage.”

Yan Qiuchi said, “Mom, if you have nothing else to say, I’m going to change my clothes. Dad and the others are still waiting for me.”

Mrs. narrowed her smile and gave Yan Qiuchi a hard pat on the shoulder, which caused her to hurt her hand. “Have you grown taller recently?” She frowned.

Yan Qiuchi: “Mom, I’m twenty-five.”

“Oh…” Mrs. Yan smiled wryly. “Time really flies.”

—

Shen Jintai felt indescribably embarrassed and returned home with a blushing face.

Just as he was about to enter the house, Lin Xu, who was next door sitting on the balcony, called out, “Sister!”

What god damn* sister.

*Big-headed ghost (姐你个大头鬼啊) It’s basically cursing/swearing and, depending on which dialect, could refer to an unlucky person or thing or a rich person.

“Call me brother,” he shouted to Lin Xu.

After entering his villa, Shen Jintai went to take a shower. After finishing, he suddenly remembered about his reward. He quickly wiped the mist from the mirror and turned around to look.

Fucking hell.

He was startled when he first saw his ass. He didn’t know what he was looking at.

So white. So voluptuous. He wanted to grab it as soon as he saw it.

Hold up!

This ass was superb! It looked very… satisfying!

Shen Jintai: “Hello, Xiao Ai!”

With a ding dong, Xiao Ai came online. “Dear, are you satisfied with our first level reward?”

Shen Jintai: “Why does this ass look so good?! I’m a 1. Let me emphasize that again. I’m a 1!”

Xiao Ai “Perhaps you’re too pure. Our rewards are based on the understanding of the population. This is their preference.”

Shen Jintai was silent for half a second. It was fine. It didn’t matter. He could always strengthen his gluts by doing gluteal exercises and become a sexy, handsome guy with strong hips.

Shen Jintai: “My next reward level is to become more beautiful, right?”

Xiao Ai: “Yes.”

“Can I know what it is in advance?” Shen Jintai explained, “It’ll make me more motivated to start the task.”

Xiao Ai: “Where do you think your current face needs the most change?”

Shen Jintai carefully examined his face in the mirror. Because he was not familiar enough with his current face, he evaluated it objectively. “Lips.”

His lip color looked very bleak, giving his lips a bad look.

Xiao Ai: “It seems that we have a spiritual connection. A nice rosy lip color will brighten your whole complexion. If you successfully accumulate ten points, you will be rewarded with glowing red lips. The color will be fresh and clean, as if you were born with a beauty filter. People would want to kiss those lips when they look at them.”

He had mixed feelings towards these rewards that were shaping him in the direction of beauty.

“Dear, you shouldn’t think that way,” Xiao Ai said. “As a veteran actor in the entertainment industry, you must admit that exquisite and handsome male actors have a wider range of roles compared to rough and burly male actors. Moreso, they’ll look much more pleasant in close-up shots.”

That’s true. The most impactful performance on the screen comes from the acting skills of a beauty. He wanted to be beautiful!

Xiao Ai: “You have to trust our system. We will mold you into an extraordinarily beautiful man, suitable for all ages. You’ll be able to entice men and women everywhere. This is not only about successfully completing your but also about but your path to your dreams of stardom! So, brother, charge forward!”

This “brother” was triumphantly placated.

Lin Xu: “Sister!”

There was a crisp shout from outside, causing him to return to reality.

As Xiao Ai went offline, Shen Jintai wrapped a bathrobe around himself and came out, seeing Lin Xu standing in his living room.

Shen Jintai: “How did you get in!”

“I know the password to your house.” Lin Xu walked towards him while eating a plate of fruit. “How was the Yan family banquet? Was it very grand? Who was there? I heard that the mayor was present.”

“I don’t know.” Shen Jintai took a bottle of water out of the fridge, leaned against the refrigerator door with one leg propped up, raised his head and gulped down almost the entire bottle.

Lin Xu sat on the sofa and tilted her head. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to reach the upper echelon circle like the Yan family.”

While she was considered a rich second-generation who had no shortage of brand-name bags, villas, and sports cars, she was nowhere close to the Yan’s inner circle of high society.

One mountain was higher than another mountain*, and her family was only halfway up the mountain.

*Idiom meaning there’s always somebody who’s better than you.

Shen Jintai picked up a thin blanket from the sofa and threw it over. “Wrap yourself up.”

Lin Xu said, “You are crazy to ask me to cover myself with a blanket on a hot day.”

“I’m asking you to cover your chest. Did you not look at yourself when you went out?” Shen Jintai was speechless.

Lin Xu glanced down, and smiled as she raised her chest. “How about it? Is it a little bigger than before? I met a trainer abroad and followed her for more than half a month doing breast enhancement exercises. Guess what size cup I’m now.”

They were girlfriends, so they would always chat like this!

Shen Jintai was a little embarrassed and pretended to be impatient and said, “I’m not interested in women’s cup sizes.”

“I’m not covering up. It’s too hot. Give me a T-shirt or something.” She followed Shen Jintai towards the bedroom. As soon as she entered, she saw the suit jacket and thong hanging on the wall.

The style and color of the suit jacket did not match Shen Jintai’s taste.

Shen Jintai rarely wore suits, and if he did, they would be ostentatious with all kinds of bells and whistles. Alternatively, the thong by the suit jacket was very much Shen Jintai.

Lin Xu: “Whose clothes are these?”

Shen Jintai: “Yan Qiuchi’s.”

Lin Xu showed a look of disbelief. “Fuck…”

Shen Jintai took out a shirt from the closet. “Why are you cursing?”

“Why do you have Yan Qiuchi’s clothes?” Lin Xu asked with a pause. “You said you’ve given up on him yet you’re hanging these clothing on the wall as if they were treasures. His suit jacket wrapped around your underwear. Sister, do you know how profound the implication is?”

Was it too late for him to say the suit jacket belonged to someone else? He’d only have himself to blame for being too honest.

“Did you steal it?” Lin Xu asked again.

Shen Jintai: “This brother got it fair and square. These were the clothes he and I wore when I climbed into his bed and was kicked out. I hung it on the wall as a reminder to never forget the shame of my past disgrace.”

“I hope you can really remember it for a long time. Yan Qiuchi is not someone who will belong to you. You will die early and be born early*.” Lin Xu opened his closet and put on a shirt. “Why are you staring at me? Aren’t you changing?”

*你早死心，早超生) In Buddhism refers to the rebirth of the soul after death. This term is generally used as a superstition or generous treatment of death (a positive view on death). In this case, the death of Shen Jintai’s love for Yan Qiuchi.

Shen Jintai: “How could I change when you’re still here?”

Lin Xu: “We’re all sisters here. You weren’t embarrassed like this during Quan Luo’s party last time.”

Shen Jintai: …

“I find that you have changed a lot in the past few days.” Lin Xu leaned over to look at his face. “Is it because of your lovelornness? Sometimes when I talk to you, it feels like I’m facing a stranger.”

Shen Jintai: …

He untied his bathrobe and started to change clothes, but he was still a little embarrassed, so he turned his back to Lin Xu. It seems he needed to familiarize himself with having girlfriends.

When he was about to put on his pants, he heard Lin Xu screaming behind him. “Fuck!”

Shen Jintai was taken aback, quickly put on his pants, turned to look over, and saw Lin Xu staring at his lower half.

“Damn.” Lin Xu was surprised. “Your ass…”

Shen Jintai was embarrassed, and quickly put on a T-shirt. “What?”

Lin Xu: “I wasn’t paying attention before, but your ass is so fine. Shit! My phantom limb is rising*.”

*Clarity: Yes, it’s what you’re thinking. She’s inferring that her dick (if she had one) is getting hard.

Shen Jintai: “…”

“Don’t move, I want to look at it again.” As Lin Xu said this, she hugged his waist and reached out to touch it.

Shen Jintai quickly avoided her. “It’s always been like this! I was born with this ass!”

Lin Xu’s heart was still beating wildly. “You’re very thin, so did all the meat go straight to your ass? I just want to pinch it when I look at it. Is Yan Qiuchi impotent? How could he be so indifferent. Even I can’t hold myself back when I look at it. Me, a woman, am struggling with self-restraint!”

“You still remember you’re a woman, ah? In the future can you behave more ladylike.”

Lin Xu cackled. Her eyes fixated on his ass the entire time. Shen Jintai picked up the script and sat down on the bed.

Lin Xu leaned over and asked, “Is this the script for your new drama?”

Shen Jintai nodded. “You can go back if you have nothing to do. I’m going to start reading the script. Next Monday, there’s going to be a script read-through, so I need to read it a few times before that.”

Lin Xu: “I have nothing to do, so give me one to read.”

Shin Jintai: “Okay, you can look but don’t leak anything.”

“Of course. I know all the rules. Otherwise, how can I be friends with big stars.” Lin Xu took one as she sat down next to him and started reading it.

Lin Xu was reading the second volume that had the palace fight scene. This scene was considered one of the climaxes. The female lead was smart and bright, so it felt refreshing to read such a story. “This show is going to be hot. The fight scenes are so fierce. Who do you play?”

Shin Jintai: “Li Xu.”

“For real?” Lin Xu looked up. “The eunuch?”

“How is my scene?” Shen Jintai asked.

“He’s very lousy and despicable,” Lin Xu said. “He’s hiding behind the heroine. Does he like the crown prince?”

Shen Jintai: “He likes the exiled prince.”

Lin Xu: “The exile prince? I didn’t see it.”

Shen Jintai: “It’s in my script.”

Lin Xu sat up, turned on the bedside lamp, and then looked out the window. “Looks like it’s about to rain. My clothes are still drying outside.”

The sky outside darkened, and black clouds rolled over the city.

Lin Xu hurriedly went back to collect her clothes. As she left, the rain started to fall.

Shen Jintai continued to read his script, and the more he read it, the more he felt that the drama was not unreasonable.

The script was solid, and the second male lead was also very impressive.

The beautiful little eunuch he was going to play, named Li Xu, was sent to the palace at the age of five. Within a few years, he became the companion of the second prince, Zhou Jing. He had a deep relationship with Zhou Jing. In order to help Zhou Jing ascend the throne, he used his beauty to seduce the crown prince, Zhou Ying, who was a cut-sleeve, though his allegiance always remained true to Zhou Jing.

The scheming and beautiful little eunuch, the innocent and pure-hearted crown prince; this CP wouldn’t be inferior to the male and female leads.

Shen Jintai was sitting by the bay window. Outside was a small garden. Roses in the garden covered the wall. Their various petals were wetted by the rain, and their branches drooped dripping with water. He was so immersed in the atmosphere of the script that he stretched out his hand to push the window open, causing rain to splash in. He leaned against the wall and raised his head.

He envisioned in his mind Li Xu, the little eunuch, secretly going to see the exiled crown prince, who was claustrophobic on a rainy autumn evening.

The prince was imprisoned in solitary confinement and had long lost his former glory. The door of the palace was deserted and covered with lush flowers and plants. The palace wall was enclosed with roses. Li Xu lowered his head through the paper window, wiped away tears with his thin white fingers, got up and left, leaving behind only a snow-white double mandarin duck* jade pendant.

*In Chinese culture, mandarin ducks are believed to be lifelong couples, unlike other species of ducks. Hence, they are regarded as a symbol of conjugal affection and fidelity and are frequently featured in Chinese art.

The script had a flashback showing a scene where Li Xu, an eunuch in charge of the lights, was holding onto a lamp when he met the crowned prince for the first time. His delicate and handsome face emerged from the darkness, and when he raised his head, the yellow light shone on his eyebrows, making Prince Zhou Ying fall in love at first sight.

Shen Jintai sighed. His eyes were a little moist. Good actors were sentimental and empathetic. His friends used to say that he was born to be an actor. He was full of emotions. He could cry when he watched videos on TikTok. He had a compassionate and soft heart.

A good script is the same as a good novel. When you read it, it was difficult to get out of the immersion.

When he encountered a good character, it always made his heart feel a little itchy. He wanted to share it with the entire world. After some thought, Shen Jintai leaned his body outside to pick the roses hanging by the window. The roses were covered with water and their branches were thorny. He was about to break one off when he had an idea. He pressed the branch with his palm, took out his phone, and took a selfie.

Shen Jintai’s hair and shoulders were wet, his smile was brilliant, and dripping on his head was the rainwater from a rose. He had superb photography skills, so the picture turned out dazzling. His artistic ability was truly compelling.

Then he posted it on Weibo. He was now open for business.

---

The author has something to say:

Shen Touhua is now open for business.

I like to review comments and I read every comment, love you!

What plots you hope to see in this novel? I will write down the comments in this chapter and try my best to satisfy them. First of all, he has to chase his wife in the crematorium*!

*Genre in novels where one character hurts their lover, realizes their mistake, and does their best to seek their forgiveness.

---

Kinky Thoughts:

Lin Xu is easily my second favorite character! I also find it funny how Shen Jintai insists he’s a gong. Oh, you poor sweet summer child.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 公子于歌 / Gong Zi Yu Ge

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 8: Is This Called Nothing at All?

Shen Jintai had said countless more excessive things than this in the past. It was just that this time, it was a bit different. The tone was subtle, less colorful, but more roguish.

Yan Qiuchi was silent.

Shen Jintai waited for Xiao Ai to come online and give him the extra points. However, even after a long time, he didn’t hear anything from it. When he looked at Yan Qiuchi again, he had already taken a step back and was staring at him coldly.

……

“You two…” Mrs. Yan stood at the door blankly staring at them. “It’s okay. It’s okay! You guys continue.”

Mrs. Yan quickly retreated to her room.

……

Shen Jintai fastened up his collar and rushed towards Mrs. Yan. “Auntie…” After a couple steps, he was forcibly dragged back by Yan Qiuchi.

Although he claimed to be a 1*, he was trapped by Yan Qiuchi, who was more of a 1 than himself. Looking at that handsome and terrible face, Shen Jintai shuddered.

*Top/seme/gong.

Whether it was height, appearance, or masculinity, he was ruthlessly crushed.

What could he rely on to snatch Bai Qingquan from Yan Qiuchi’s hands? That was, of course, by getting sexier and prettier!

Thinking of this, he immediately became more arrogant and stared back at Yan Qiuchi.

Wrong. Yan Qiuchi looked at Shen Jintai. The eyes are wrong. The former Shen Jintai didn’t look at him like this. His eyes should be wretched, hungry, with unabashed desire, not like how they were now, lucid and provocative.

While changing his appearance couldn’t be considered unusual, he felt a strangeness from Shen Jintai. It was like he was a completely different person. Yan Qiuchi released Shen Jintai.

Shen Jintai’s clothes were all wrinkled. He pulled his neckline and asked, “Do you still want to bite? If not, I’m leaving.”

Yan Qiuchi said, “No matter how many tricks you play, it’s useless. I will not love you.” Shen Jintai deliberately said to him that Bai Qingquan was better than him. He deliberately got close to his brother, Yan Yaoxuan. The reason? To anger him. To make him jealous. How unamusing.

When Shen Jintai heard this, he became angry. “You can rest assured*. I’m not interested in you at all now. I have someone else I like.”

*Have one hundred and twenty hearts (一百二十个心.) Idiom referring to be reassured.

Yan Qiuchi asked coldly, “Who?”

Shen Jintai gave a smile. A tiny malicious slyness suddenly appeared on his face. Without answering him, he walked directly towards Mrs. Yan’s room.

Shen Jintai: “Hello, Xiao Ai. Was there any fluctuation at all?!”

Xiao Ai: “The fluctuation value detected just now was not high. I’ll reluctantly give you one point. You have accumulated a total of six points.”

Shen Jintai: “…Is this something you could give at your discretion? If so, can I please have you open a back door?”

Xiao Ai: “Ah?! What back door! How despicable!”

Shen Jintai: “…”

Shen Jintai knocked on the door and heard Mrs. Yan say excitedly behind the door, “Come in.”

When he entered, he saw Mrs. Yan smiling at a flower more brilliant than the one on her head. “…Auntie, let me explain…”

Mrs. Yan: “No need to explain. Auntie understands.”

No, you don’t understand, Mrs. Yan!

Mrs. Yan: “The thing about Qiuchi is that he’s cold on the outside and hot on the inside. Even if he likes something, he doesn’t like to show it. You two grew up together, so there must at least be some affection. Auntie can’t say whether it’s love or not, but as the saying goes, after seeing people’s hearts for a long time, the iron rod will be grounded into a needle*.”

*Proverb that means if you have determination and are willing to work hard, you can accomplish it (AKA perseverance will prevail).

Auntie, aren’t you using that idiom incorrectly?

Shen Jintai hurriedly said, “No, auntie. I really don’t like him anymore. I am now chasing the male lead in my next drama.”

Mrs. Yan was taken aback and asked, “Who?”

Shen Jintai: “An extraordinary, beautiful man, Bai Qingquan.” The moment he said it, Shen Jintai suddenly realized his mistake.

Sure enough, Mrs. Yan’s complexion changed when she heard it. “That little fairy! Don’t you hate him the most?!”

Shen Jintai remembered that the original body had spoken ill of Bai Qingquan in front of Mrs. Yan. He was thinking about how to explain his change of heart when Mrs. Yan suddenly showed a look of sudden enlightenment. “Ah, I understand…”

Looking at her expression… No, Mrs. Yan, you still don’t understand!

Mrs. Yan smiled and said, “Don’t worry, no matter what you do, Auntie will support you!”

…Shen Jintai was ready to leave. “I have to go back and read my script.”

“Boys should have a career. I used to always advise you not to focus on Qiuchi. Only men with ambition are the most charming,” Mrs. Yan said as she dialed her phone. “Xiao Jin is returning home. Please send him back for me.”

Shen Jintai thought she had called the driver of the Yan family, but to his surprise, when he walked outside, he found that it was Yan Qiuchi who was sending him home.

“Let Qiuchi send you.” Mrs. Yan’s face had the expression of “I will always support you” on it.

How dare he bother the male protagonist to be his driver?! Shen Jintai was about to speak, when he heard Yan Qiuchi said lightly, “Get in the car.”

Shen Jintai got in under Mrs. Yan’s satisfied gaze.

The car passed through the garden of the manor. It was filled with colorful flowers on both sides of the road. Green grass dotted the ground. The trees gave ample shade for the path. Yan Yaoxuan stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows on the third floor and stared coldly at the car driving away.

Shen Jintai: “Hello, Xiao Ai.”

With a ding dong, Xiao Ai could not help but shout excitedly, “Dear!”

“I want to ask,” Shen Jintai paused. “Is he fluctuating?”

Xiao Ai: “No.”

Shen Jintai was bewildered. He was hell-bent on becoming beautiful. Nothing would get in his way of his goal. In his eyes, Yan Qiuchi was simply a steppingstone for him to reach the top. It was a godsend that they were currently both together, alone, in the car. The stepping stone was right before him. He would surely regret it if he didn’t step on it.

He turned his head and looked at Yan Qiuchi. He was a very handsome man, with a particularly charming side-face. The bridge of his nose wasn’t too high. He was tall and sturdy. Looking closely at the shirt he wore, the buttons around the collar looked a bit tight. Was it such an unacceptable thing for a man to have skin hunger? Was it so bad that he longed for bare skin?

‘Sure enough,’ Yan Qiuchi silently thought. He wanted to know now whether Shen Jintai truly changed or, as Gao Qiao said, these changes were just to attract his attention and were just an act of playing hard to get.

Perceiving Shen Jintai’s eyes sweeping hotly on his face, Yan Qiuchi’s face became like a pool of unwavering water. Except for the road in front of him, there was nothing within his line of sight.

“Didn’t you say you weren’t interested in me anymore?” Yan Qiuchi said suddenly but didn’t look at Shen Jintai.

Shen Jintai: “I was just thinking, why on earth have I been obsessed with you… Have you ever unbuttoned your collar?”

His illogical* words finally made Yan Qiuchi turn his head.

*A bull’s head is wrong with a horse’s mouth (牛头不对马嘴) A metaphor for doing things too illogically.

“I think, before, I wanted to unbutton your collar,” Shen Jintai said. “You buttoned it too tightly.”

Yan Qiuchi’s expression clouded. He was positive that Shen Jintai had not changed, so he didn’t bother continuing the conversation.

Shen Jintai: “Are you still a virgin?”

Yan Qiuchi slammed on the brakes, parked the car on the side of the road, and then turned to look at Shen Jintai. He saw a seemingly innocent smile on the corner of Shen Jintai’s mouth.

Xiao Ai: “Dear, the male protagonist became very emotional. You’ve been rewarded with 4 points, accumulating 9 points total!”

Just one point short!

Shen Jintai’s face turned slightly red. As expected, he still had a task to finish!

“Shen Jintai,” Yan Qiuchi called his full name directly. He seemed to be holding back his anger. “Do you know that I can replace you at any time for the drama you’re in now.”

“I said I’m not interested in you anymore. Do you not believe me?” Shen Jintai felt as if one point was dangling in front of it. Any second now, that 9 would turn into a 10.

He stretched out his hand and unbuttoned his shirt. Yan Qiuchi’s face completely blackened. “What are you doing?!”

Shen Jintai tore open his shirt and said, “What do you see?”

See? What could he see? “Put your shirt back on,” Yan Qiuchi said. “Either that or get out.”

With a”Ding!”, Shen Jintai heard Xiao Ai screaming like a groundhog, “Congratulations, dear! Your ass reward has been sent!”

Shen Jintai only felt the heat all over his body, and his heartbeat was extremely fast.

Damn, he finally saved enough.

He breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Didn’t you see it? My determination.”

When Yan Qiuchi heard this, he looked at his chest and saw the washed-out tattoo. Clearer than the photo, on the fair body was a smudged colorful tattoo on slightly reddened and swollen skin.

“All the things in the past were my fault. The twisted melons are not sweet*. I have seriously affected your life and caused you a lot of trouble, but don’t worry, it won’t happen in the future. Do you believe me…?” Shen Jintai felt that his heartfelt words were quite touching. If this was a drama scene, it’d be regarded as the highlight of the show. He said excitedly, “If you don’t believe me, you can touch it. I definitely don’t feel anything for you anymore.”

*This is referencing a love song by Lu Tong. The main idea the song expresses is that you can’t force feelings. Letting go is the best choice. Even if you barely get it (the feelings), you won’t be happy.

Yan Qiuchi: “…”

Shen Jintai straightened his chest, still immersed in the joy of receiving a reward for the first time. His eyes were gentle, with a look of encouragement.

Yan Qiuchi was puzzled. He almost believed Shen Jintai’s words just now until he said the latter half. It felt like he was being tricked again! He almost fell for it!

Yan Qiuchi sneered in his heart and stretched out his hand.

Shen Jintai watched Yan Qiuchi stretch out. His palms were wide, and his fingers were slender. He felt that one hand could cover his entire chest.

He really wanted to reach out, but it didn’t matter. He was truly not interested in Yan Qiuchi. He only acted this way to anger him so he could collect his reward. He felt a little guilty, so he wanted to repay him. After all, from the perspective of the male protagonist, it wasn’t easy to be entangled with a dog skin ointment* like him for so many years. It wasn’t easy.

*[Gou pi gao] (狗皮膏) It’s saying he stuck to Yan Qiuchi like a plaster. Gou Pi Gao, translated word for word, literally means dog skin plaster, which is indicative of its history.

Touch his tattoo and feel the enmity!

Yan Qiuchi: “This is called having no feelings at all?” Yan Qiuchi stopped his fingers in the air and did not touch him. His tone was indifferent, with a little contempt.

Shen Jintai followed his gaze, glancing down, and became embarrassed.

---

Kinky Thoughts:

Could you guess why Yan Qiuchi doubted him? Perhaps some kind of bodily reaction.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Okay, I’m a fan of Mama Yan! Best character yet! She fucking cracks me up.

My inner thoughts when Shen Jintai asked Xiao Ai to open the backdoor, ‘Umm sweetie, the only backdoor that’s going to be open is yours…’

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 公子于歌 / Gong Zi Yu Ge

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.wordpress.com/

---

Chapter 7: First Fierce Collision

Mrs. Yan’s birthday banquet was lively and grand, and she drank and was merry. However, she carefully noticed something strange. Shen Jintai, who usually stuck his eyes on Yan Qiuchi before, suddenly changed his temperament and wasn’t even looking at him.

Mrs. Yan called Yan Qiuchi to the living room and asked, “What the hell is going on?”

Yan Qiuchi asked, “What?”

“You and Jintai,” Mrs. Yan said. “Did you bully him again?”

Bully? If he really bullied Shen Jintai can that shaking M* be that arrogant?

*Masochist.

Yan Qiuchi remained silent. He had always been like this. Knowing how much his mother loved Shen Jintai, he would not talk about him.

Mrs. Yan: “Let’s see what kind of person you can find. You’ll come to know that finding someone who loves you is a real blessing. Where will you find someone that loves you so much that he’ll be at your beck and call.”

“I have hands and feet, and I don’t need to be served by others,” Yan Qiuchi said. “If there is nothing else, I’ll go out first.”

Mrs. Yan was very angry.

Her son excelled at everything; he was truly one in a million when it came to talent. It was just that he had trouble finding someone, so it made her feel doubtful. Shen Jintai had told her that the reason why Yan Qiuchi had always rejected him was because he liked a male artist in their company, a little fairy named Bai Qingquan.

Shen Jintai slandered Bai Qingquan in front of her every day, causing her to smell of green tea whenever she saw Bai Qingquan. She had seen too many green tea bitches*!

*Used to describe women who seem innocent/pure but are actually ambitious and scheming.

She had a violent temper. What she hated most were white lotuses with a pure and innocent appearance but a belly full of thieves and prostitutes. Although Shen Jintai had slight issues, at least he was upfront about his love and hatred.

Yan Qiuchi came out of the room, and when he arrived in the banquet hall, he saw Shen Jintai chatting with his younger brother, Yan Yaoxuan. The environment was a bit noisy, so Yan Yaoxuan leaned into Shen Jintai’s ear to speak. His fair face was flushed red from the wine. At first glance, it seemed like he was drunk.

Yan Qiuchi frowned.

In the past, Shen Jintai had never liked talking to his little brother. He professed that he only had eyes for Yan Qiuchi and had drawn a clear line with other men.

“What do you think Shen Jintai wants to do?” Xiao Yang squeezed his glass of whiskey as he stared at Shen Jintai and Yan Yaoxuan. “You guys are really interesting. Shen Jintai is your licking dog¹, and your brother is his licking dog. It’s a dog-blooded² love triangle.”

¹Basically, a simp (an internet slang term describing someone who shows excessive sympathy and attention toward another person, typically someone who does not reciprocate the same feelings, in order to win their affection.)
²Melodramatic.

Yan Qiuchi said, “How old is Yaoxuan? All he does is chase stars.”

“I don’t think so,” Xiao Yang said. “Shen Jintai couldn’t do anything to chase you. Your brother is not his opponent.”

Yan Qiuchi suddenly remembered what Shen Jintai, who was entangled with him one day, said to him ambiguously, “Yaoxuan likes me very much.”

Yan Qiuchi couldn’t tell what he was feeling in his heart while he looked at Shen Jintai with a cold face. Shen Jintai, during the entire dinner party, talked and laughed and never glanced at him.

—

Shen Jintai discovered that Yan Yaoxuan was really silly, pure, and sweet.

Yan Qiuchi’s younger brother, like himself, was also a cannon fodder used for the emotional development of the novel.

Outstanding people, regardless of gender, must be admired by a few cannon fodder supporting roles so that their excellence could be more conspicuous. He played the role of Yan Qiuchi’s stalker, while Yan Yaoxuan played the role of Bai Qingquan’s admirer in the later stage.

Both brothers fell in love with the same person. How exciting! How spicy!

Of course, Yan Qiuchi couldn’t stand it, so he became jealous, which eventually led to: “Yan Qiuchi pressed Bai Qingquan to the wall and kissed him.” Why did he press him to the wall? Because the wall was an important prop. The kabedon* was a must-have in any love story.

*When a person forces another against the wall with one hand, or leans against the wall and makes the sound of “don”. This has become popular as a “clever move of confession”.

Poor Yan Yaoxuan. He considered saving him.

“Why don’t you go to a regular hospital to remove your tattoo? Are the sanitary conditions of this kind of street shop up to standard? They don’t know how to keep secrets, so they’ll stab you in the back the very next day,” Yan Yaoxuan said.

“It’s pretty good. It saves me the trouble of hyping myself up,” Shen Jintai said. “Though I’m afraid it won’t be breaking news.”

Yan Yaoxuan: “Xiao Jin, you really don’t like my eldest brother anymore?”

Though Yan Yaoxuan was one year younger than Shen Jintai, he liked to call him Xiao Jin like his family.

Shen Jintai: “I have learned from the pain and decided to change my past mistakes!”

Yan Yaoxuan laughed and said, “That’s great. I’m just waiting for you to make a comeback. You used to be so dazzling onstage!”

Before he climbed the wall to Bai Qingquan, Yan Yaoxuan was a Shen Jintai fan.

The past Shen Jintai was a little unstable. It was obvious Yan Yaoxuan liked him, but he simply didn’t care. Instead, he became a licking dog for someone who didn’t like him at all.

Cannon fodder should stay together to keep warm. Shen Jintai’s enthusiasm for Yan Yaoxuan today was unprecedented, causing Yan Yaoxuan to blush and his heart to beat wildly.

Shen Jintai watched all this in secret. He wanted to turn Yan Yaoxuan into his true love powder in order to infuriate Yan Qiuchi. Though having thought of it, he didn’t know if Yan Qiuchi saw this scene, so he swept his eyes through the crowd, seeing many people he didn’t know.

As he was scanning around, Shen Jintai suddenly saw Yan Yaoxuan’s face darken.

Yan Yaoxuan asked, “Who are you looking for?” Just as he thought. Shen Jintai was still obsessed with his brother. How could he have easily given up? Naturally, he was looking for his brother!

“I want to go to the bathroom,” Shen Jintai said. “Where is the downstairs bathroom?”

Yan Yaoxuan refused to expose his botched lie and pointed to the corridor on the right. His smiling face was now covered with a layer of haze. Shen Jintai had lived in his house for a long time. How could he possibly not know where the bathroom was?

Shen Jintai put down his wine glass and went to the bathroom. As soon as he unbuttoned his pants, he noticed that someone was standing next to him, looking at him secretly. He turned his head and saw that he was a pretty handsome young man.

The man looked at him, turned his head quickly, shook his hands, and nearly peed outside the urinal.

Shen Jintai sneered and went out after solving his bladder problem. Seeing that the man followed him out, his eyes kept peeking at his face. Shen Jintai washed his hands, grabbed a piece of tissue, and looked at the man through the mirror while wiping his hands.

He didn’t know if this was a simple wretched man or one of his remaining fans.

When he came out of the bathroom and walked through the corridor, almost reaching the living room, he suddenly saw Yan Qiuchi.

Yan Qiuchi lowered his head slightly, with an upright and calm posture. He was chatting with a group of old men who seemed like they were either rich or elite. He looked across the crowd with sharp eyes.

He was certainly the male protagonist. Among the vast group of people, he stood out with his superior height and extraordinary noble and heroic aura.

An idea came to Shen Jintai’s mind. He stopped against the wall of the corridor, looked back at the man who had just followed him, and then grabbed his hand.

The man froze for a moment, but still walked towards him with a flushed face. He was both nervous and excited.

“Know me?” Shen Jintai asked.

The man nodded. “You’re Shen Jintai.”

Shen Jintai smiled and asked, “Is there anything you want to tell me?”

The man became overly excited and a little overwhelmed, so Shen Jintai stretched out his hand and put it on his shoulder.

“I… I like you.” The man was babbling incoherently. “I know you like men. You… Would you consider me?” He loved Shen Jintai deeply. He almost exploded when he went to the bathroom with him just now.

True, the radish and cabbage each have their own love. Yan Qiuchi avoided him like poison, but some people regarded him like honey. If you didn’t treat other people’s honey well, you could turn it into poison. This kind of inverted behavior would never happen to him again!

“Thank you,” Shen Jintai said. “But I have no plans to fall in love now.”

The man didn’t feel sad. He simply said, “I know everything about you. Don’t be sad. Yan Qiuchi doesn’t know the goods… I’m not referring to you as a product… I mean…”

Shen Jintai patted the young man on the shoulder with satisfaction. “Young man, I think you’re right. He really doesn’t know the goods. Come on, if you know the goods, tell me, what do you like about me?”

The young man: “…”

Shen Jintai: “To tell you the truth, you must have heard about Yan Qiuchi. I was used to being disliked by him constantly. This has caused me to become seriously insecure and unable to see the good things about my body.”

When the other party heard it, he immediately became excited. “Why are you not confident? You’re so good!”

Shen Jintai lifted his hair and exposed his forehead. He turned his head left and right. “Which part of me do you think looks best?”

The other party blushed. “You look good! “

It seemed like he was a hardcore fan. It was pointless to ask him anything since he was looking at Shen Jintai through rose-tinted glass.

Shen Jintai felt that he had stayed at Yan’s house long enough. He wanted to find Mrs. Yan to say his goodbyes. He intended to go back and read his script. As an enterprising person, whether it was wine, food, handsome men or beauties, they weren’t as attractive as a script.

“My wife is upstairs,” said Mr. Yan.

Shen Jintai went upstairs. The banquet was arranged on the first floor. The second floor was where the host lived, so few guests would come up. There were a lot of flowers on the second floor today. They were all fresh and fragrant. Shen Jintai couldn’t recognize several of them. They were so beautiful and fragrant that he couldn’t help but lower his head to smell them. As he was reaching over to pick up the flowers, he noticed someone walking over.

He looked back and found that it was Yan Qiuchi.

Adhering to the principle of never looking at him too much for the day, Shen Jintai quickly got up and walked to Mrs. Yan’s room. He walked fast, but he felt that the footsteps behind him matched his pace. He felt tight in his chest and quickly turned his head back. Yan Qiuchi suddenly grabbed his arm.

Shen Jintai was slammed into a wall. He smelled the aroma of wine, looked up, and saw Yan Qiuchi’s dark eyes, tall nose, and thin lips that were bursting with abstinence.

Such abstinent facial features, when they were close, had a strong sexual charm, rendering him speechless.

What’s going on? Why did Yan Qiuchi just kabedon him?

Male protagonist, if you dare to kabedon the cannon fodder, you would be the worst scumbag in history.

Shen Jintai: “What are you doing?”

“What are you planning?” Yan Qiuchi asked back.

Yan Qiuchi wasn’t the kind to use fierce restraint. He stood there indifferently, as if he hadn’t used any force. Only Shen Jintai knew how strong he really was.

Shen Jintai recalled that if he provoked Yan Qiuchi, he could score extra points. He glanced at Yan Qiuchi darkly, and finally fixed his gaze on the bite marks on his neck. The location of the bite marks was relatively low. Since Yan Qiuchi dressed rigorously, after buttoning the top button, the bite marks were hardly visible.

Shen Jintai had an idea. “Did you suffer because I bit you last time?”

Flexibly opening up his collar with his fingers, he untied his collar and turned his head slightly, revealing a long, white neck. His Adam’s apple protruded as it bobbed up and down.　　

“Come on. Dad will let you bite back.” Shen Jintai said.

Yan Qiuchi’s eyes sank suddenly when he heard the word “dad”.

“Ding Dong!” Xiao Ai went online suddenly. “Congratulations, dear! You receive 3 points and have accumulated 5 points total! Keep going!”

Holy shit. Xiao Ai, are you running some kind of covert operation to hand out points?!

Xiao Ai: “The male protagonist’s mood swings were detected here to be even greater than last time.”

Shen Jintai wanted to accumulate those ten points quickly. After he received the ass reward, he could smoothly march towards becoming beautiful.

What could irritate Yan Qiuchi the most? You couldn’t catch a tiger without entering the tiger’s den!

Shen Jintai lost control of his excitement, turned his head, looked at Yan Qiuchi, and said, “Baobei*, bite me!”

*Baby/babe/darling ect.

---

The author has something to say:

Want to bite, chomp.

---

Kinky Thoughts:

God! What a fucking spicy ending that was! Shen Jintai was just oozing with GONG aura.

When Yan Yaoxuan was introduced, my internal thoughts were:

1. ‘Ding! Another player has entered the match’. Are we going to have some kind of love triangle, square, hexagonal thing going on? After all it’s a drama within a drama (getting some inception vibe here haha). We’ll have to find out!

2. ‘Is the Yan clan gonna be okay? Two brothers are already gay. Are there any other siblings to carry on the family line?’

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 公子于歌 / Gong Zi Yu Ge

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 6: That Yan Dog Dared to Steal My Man

One stone stirred up a thousand waves. Several major entertainment forums were all discussing the post.

“I just saw on Weibo that Shen Jintai is about to make a comeback. Is it real? Do you have any proof?”

“I don’t know, but looking at the momentum, most likely it looks like he’s going to make a comeback.”

“Let me break the news. He’s indeed going to make a comeback, and it is a certain palace fighting drama that is being hotly discussed in your district. I’m quite shocked.”

“Damn, it’s not <DGLL*>, is it?”

*Abbreviation of <The East Palace is Coming> [Dong Gong Lai Liao] (东宫来了)

“Isn’t the male lead Bai Qingquan in <DGLL>?”

“That rumor isn’t true. Bai Qingquan has already been set as the lead. He even posted the makeup photos for it. How could Shen Jintai play the same role as him!”

“Please Shen Touhua, walk independently. DON’T CUE* OUR WHITE MOONLIGHT. THANK YOU.”

*Originally in English. Refers to bringing in or involving someone/something.

“The moonlight powder will arrive on the battlefield in three seconds!”

“I’m glad to hear it. Hurry up and tear Shen Touhua apart!”

“Tear him up, tear him up, then tear him up again!”

“Tear your mother! Get Bai Yueguang away from my house. He’ll never hook up with you*!”

*Not interested [bu yue] (不约) Slang for “I will never hook up with you.” He’s saying Shen Jintai doesn’t want anything to do with Bai Quinquan.

“Please be beautiful by yourself, Shen Touhua. Can’t you live without rubbing heat¹ off someone else’s cooking²?”

¹Refers to (short-term) popularity. || Rub heat = Riding off of someone else’s popularity.
²Refers the object of your admiration/fandom.

“He’s not even a star! Tearing him up is to help the poor! If you think about it like that, Shen Touhua is truly magnanimous.”

Immediately afterwards, Bai Qingquan’s fans filled the comments with beautiful personal photos of Bai Qingquan. Shen Jintai watched for a long time, and finally fell asleep gazing at Bai Qingquan’s prosperous beauty.

In his dream, he was still the same as he used to be. He started as an errand runner, doing random chores, then worked as a stuntman. With his love for acting, step by step, he became a golden male actor, and finally won the nomination for best male actor for an indie literary and artistic film.

It seemed that he had lived a long life only to wake up extremely tired.

He was also gay, which was the most taboo in the showbiz industry. Because he had finally climbed up the ladder, he was afraid that being exposed would affect his acting career, so he never revealed his sexual orientation. Let alone falling in love, he had never even dated anyone.

Now that he had the opportunity to make a career by virtue of his beauty. Along the way, he could also snag up a handsome man. His situation wasn’t bad if he carefully thought about it.

He rubbed his eyes and lay down on the bed to sort out the relationship between the three of them.

Yan Qiuchi said that he couldn’t even match Bai Qingquan’s toe. This was consistent with the plot because Yan Qiuchi had not yet succumbed to the temptation of Bai Qingquan. In <Everyone Loves Bai Yueguang>, according to the traditional setting, only after many suitors fell in love with Bai Yueguang did the male protagonist start to understand his feelings. Before this, Yan Qiuchi was still “Yan Paifang”.

Shen Jintai’s nickname was “Shen Touhua”, which sounded good to hear but was quite ironic, given its meaning. On the other hand, Yan Qiuchi’s nickname “Yan Paifang”, which didn’t have a nice ring, was still full of readers’ adoration.

Yes! Because of his “high abstinence” characteristic, Yan Qiuchi was unsympathetic and indifferent to everyone. He never showed any sign of tenderness towards them.

Can you imagine such a chaste arch turning into a clothed beast in seconds? Can you imagine that he would press Bai Qingquan against the wall to kiss him? Can you imagine him doing all kinds of “plays” in bed? Can you imagine Yan Qiuchi, who was extremely self-disciplined and abstinent, suffering from skin hunger and needing to “hug every day and night” after liberating his nature?

Shen Jintai thought, ‘Absolutely not!’

How dare that Yan Dog tries to steal his man!

It was first come, first serve! He was going to take advantage while filming this drama to take down Bai Yueguang!

Shen Jintai got up to wash and was about to undress to see how the tattoo on his chest was when his cellphone rang. He hurriedly picked it up along with this toothbrush and looked at the caller ID above. It turned out that Mrs. Yan was calling.

This would be a good time to talk about the relationship between the Yan family and the Shen family.

The wives of the Yan family and the Shen family were good friends. Later, both married into wealthy families. Unfortunately, Mrs. Shen was unlucky and passed away within a few years of marrying, leaving behind only one son, Shen Jintai. Because Mrs. Yan missed her best friend, she gave an abundance of love to Shen Jintai. She would often invite Shen Jintai over to play at their house, and after this happened multiple times, Shen Jintai and Yan Qiuchi became childhood friends*.

*Green Plum and Bamboo Horse 青梅竹马. Idiom that means childhood sweethearts or a couple who grew up as childhood friends. It’s important to point this out because (see next footnote).

Of course, the childhood friend later changed. They were not people in the same world, nor could they truly be friends. Yan Qiuchi hated him in his heart. Because of his fate as a cannon fodder, he fell in love with Yan Qiuchi.

Since ancient times, the bamboo horse has usually been used for assistance. If it was a cannon fodder they were usually portrayed as affectionate man #2. Unfortunately, because they were a cannon fodder, they were generally vicious and brainless*.

*Clarity: This bamboo horse (竹马) refers to the bamboo horse from Green Plum and Bamboo Horse (青梅竹马). What this paragraph is saying is that the bamboo horse is generally used to assist with plot and character development, so if the bamboo horse is the cannon fodder, they are usually portrayed as a love rival, and depicted generally brainless and vicious in order to lift the protagonist. In this case, Shen Jintai’s original role was Bai Qingquan’s love rival and he’s portrayed extremely crazy and idiotic in order to elevate Bai Qingquan’s character.

Shen Jintai answered the phone, “Auntie*.”

*Not blood-related.

Mrs. Yan said loudly, “Qiuchi is coming back for lunch today, so come to my house as soon as possible.”

Mrs. Yan was the staunchest supporter of the “JinQiu” CP*! In the original novel, the powders of this CP were considered evil. From a reader’s point of view, since it did not support the “QingQiu” CP but instead the vicious cannon fodder, they considered Mrs. Yan to be some kind of evil mother-in-law.

*Couple || It means she ships Shen Jintai x Yan Qiuchi.

Of course, this wicked mother-in-law was quite dissatisfied with Bai Qingquan. Later in the novel, she was hell-bent on breaking the two up; thus, she received no fewer personal attacks than Shen Jintai!

Shen Jintai put down the toothbrush. “I don’t like him anymore, so I won’t go.”

Mrs. Yan: “…Xiao* Jin, what’s the matter with you? I have seen all the hot searches. Is it true?”

*Little (小) Use as a way to address someone that’s younger than you. I left it in it’s pinyin form since it makes better sense. Also not to be confuse with the character Xiao (萧) Yang. That Xiao is a different character.

Shen Jintai: “Yeah, I just received a script and plan to go over it at home, so I won’t come over.”

Mrs. Yan seemed lost for words and finally said, “But… but today’s my birthday. “

Shen Jintai was taken aback for a moment. He must go.

Mrs. Yan was like a mother to the original owner of this body, yet she wasn’t as kind to her actual son.

“Sorry, I forgot all about it.” Shen Jintai said.

Mrs. Yan: “It’s okay. Auntie understands. You have a lot going on concerning all the issues with your family recently. Come over. I made a lot of your favorite dishes. The whole family is here. I’ll have the driver pick you up.”

After hanging up the phone, Shen Jintai hurried to wash up.

Yan Qiuchi was his rival in love and the object of affection in the former owner’s body. In front of him, he must not lose his momentum! He immediately took out all the clothes in the closet and tossed them on the bed.

Bankruptcy was bankruptcy but a lean camel was still bigger than a horse*. While his family went bankrupt, it hardly affected him. He still lived in a villa, and all his clothes were high-end brands.

*Idiom that expresses the gap between a rich person and a poor person. Even if the rich person suffers asset damage, the rest of his possessions are still much greater than the poor person.

He chose a navy-blue shirt with dark gray suit pants that gave him a casual and quiet look. As he finished dressing, the driver from the Yan family arrived. He glanced at the suit jacket and thong hanging on the wall, turned, and walked out the door.

The driver who came to pick him up didn’t recognize him at first sight. His reaction made Shen Jintai very satisfied. He wanted to give others the impression that he had turned over a new leaf.

The Yan family lived in the center of the city, in a closed community of villas behind the city government building. This was the most valuable area in Nancheng. Shen Jintai leaned against the car window and watched for a long time. Unfortunately, he felt that this city was no different from what he had seen before in his previous life.

If he had transmigrated into a xianxia* novel, he could be flying on an imperial sword at this moment, right?

*Fictional martial arts story that is set in a cultivation world. At a certain stage, you’ll be able to fly on your sword. A popular series that is widely known is The Founder of Diabloism or its live action series, The Untamed.

When the iron gate opened, Shen Jintai saw the full splendor of the Yan’s family in Nancheng.

This villa was completely different than the villa he lived in. It was out of the norm of what one would consider a “villa”. The villa that he lived in was connected to each other like townhouses. These villas, on the other hand, were separated from each other and even had a huge garden. Even the gate alone was the size of a manor.

There were already a few guests mingling in front of the courtyard. When Mrs. Yan saw Shen Jintai’s car coming, she stood on the side of the road with a smile. She was a fifty-year-old woman, plump and thick. Her jet-black hair was coiled up in a bun, and a red flower was pinned on her head.

“Xiao Jin.” Mrs. Yan cried with a smile.

When she saw him, she was astonished. Shen Jintai stepped out of the car and buttoned up his suit. The red hair he used to have was now dyed black. He looked very mature and stable.

Even the guests nearby were surprised.

“Is that Shen Jintai?”

“What a radical change…”

“It seems he was serious. Did you see yesterday’s hot search?”

How could rich people have time to scan Weibo every day? Many did not see the hot search, so they grouped together to gossip.

Shen Jintai glanced around, but did not see Yan Qiuchi. Mrs. Yan smiled and took his arm. “What are you looking at?”

Shen Jintai: “Nothing. Auntie, happy birthday.”

“Thank you.” Mrs. Yan’s voice was very bright. She looked like a forthright person at first glance… But it was different if you were at odds with her. An evil mother-in-law’s aura could vaguely be seen around her. “Looking for Qiuchi? He hasn’t come back yet. He said that he would be here later.”

Shen Jintai was startled. Shit. Was his expression looking for Yan Qiuchi too obvious?

This won’t do. Everyone would think he was still missing that thousand-year-old popsicle. They would say he was all talk and no action. It would be too shameful. When Yan Qiuchi arrives, he would definitely not give him a look!

As he was thinking about Cao Cao, the man in question arrived. Mrs. Yan smiled and looked into the distance. “Qiuchi is back.”

Shen Jintai looked back and saw a black Bentley slowly driving over. The weather was good today. The rays of the sun that shone on the car gave an occasional dazzling reflection. The car stopped not far from them. A driver, in a black suit, got out of the car first, then ran to the back, bent over, and opened the door for Yan Qiuchi.

Truly he was worthy of the title male lead Long Aotian*. This big boss was full of panache.

*(龙傲天) Basically the male version of a Mary Sue. English equivalent would be like a Gary Stu.

His long legs stretched out, revealing black socks at the ankles. His leather shoes were shiny and spotless, and his trousers were straight without wrinkles. A man with long legs was truly the sexiest. Forget the ass! He wanted long legs! It was good for men to grow up with long legs.

Yan Qiuchi got out of the car, frowned slightly when he saw Shen Jintai, and nodded at him very courteously. While he was distraught internally, in front of outsiders, Yan Qiuchi maintained his gentlemanly demeanor.

Shen Jintai felt embarrassed if he didn’t give a response, so he nodded his head and said hello. After just nodding his head, Shen Jintai turned away. With combed back hair and formal attire, he looked rather arrogant, like a proud peacock.

He vowed he would never look at Yan Qiuchi again! He remembered that in the novel, Yan Qiuchi had a personal description. What was it again?

“Regardless of whether you’re a man or woman, if you like men, then you want to be fucked by him.”

Well, why couldn’t he be the exception to it!

---

The author has something to say:

Some little angels don’t understand the abbreviations of the previous chapter.

XYXF: bloody

XXJ: elementary school chicken

DGLL; the abbreviation for <The East Palace is Coming>.

I am dumbfounded: Our little friends are all stunned.

CUE: Mentioned

Bai Qingquan’s fans are called Moonlight Powder, and Shen Jintai’s fans are called Gold Powder. Their CP is called BaiJin*CP.

*Combining Bai (白) + Jin (金) gives Baijin (白金) = Platinum.

QingQiu CP refers to Yan Qiuchi and Bai Qingquan.

As for the CP of Yan Qiuchi and Shen Jintai, it is the JinQiu* CP.

*Combining Jin (金)  + Qiu (秋) gives Jinqiu (金秋) = Golden autumn.

I didn’t think about it too much when choosing their names. I didn’t expect that the composition of the CP would be very good, and they all form new words. This must be God’s will!

---

Kinky Thoughts: 

Me after reading the author’s note: (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Author, why couldn’t you provide your author notes in the previous chapter, so I didn’t have to stress my head off and spend so much time trying to figure out what those abbreviations meant?

Side note: Mama Yan I’m definitely hopping on your boat. Cause we all know that ship is sailing~~ QingQiu CP ain’t gonna happen. They don’t even form new words (unlike the other two CPs). Besides, how can anyone ship BaiJin. What’s two fucking shous gonna do in bed?! (To be honest, quite a bit with the right equipment…)

But on a more serious note, I strongly dislike how BL novels/manga ect. in general tend to stereotype gongs and shous. Tops and bottoms come in all shapes, sizes, characteristics, and personalities. There are even those who are vers (verstile). Just a PSA to everyone to not look at gays through rose-tinted glass and stereotype them as shou or gong based on their outward traits. There is nothing wrong with a manly shou or an effeminate gong. But I digress.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 公子于歌 / Gong Zi Yu Ge

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 5: His Fans Have Returned!

Yan Qiuchi stood behind the floor-to-ceiling windows and cast his gaze below.

Gao Qiao said while scanning Weibo, “What the hell is Shen Jintai doing?!”

“He really… gave up?” Xiao Yang asked.

Yan Qiuchi didn’t speak, but stood in front of the window watching Shen Jintai get into the car and drive off.

He recalled the scene that happened earlier when Shen Jintai looked back at him and said, “Then it’s just as you wish.” His tone was firm, and his eyes were clear.

“What did you want to tell me just now?” He turned around and asked Gao Qiao.

Gao Qiao quickly put down the phone. “Oh, yes, I forgot to tell you. I just went out to buy coffee and ran into Shen Jintai and Li Meilan. As a result, I heard him say…”

Xiao Yang impatiently said, “Can you just spit it out.”

Gao Qiao: “He seems to be planning to make a move on Bai Qingquan. He wanted to pursue Bai Qingquan and said… that Bai Qingquan is much better than the boss…”

“Holy shit,” Xiao Yang said. “What kind of ridiculous trick is this.”

“Didn’t he hate Bai Qingquan the most? How many times has he stepped on him by slandering him in the past? Is this some kind of diversion to deliberately arouse the boss?” Gao Qiao said. “As if Bai Qingquan would even look at him. If nothing else, the moonlight powder will tear him apart. It’s like a toad wanting to eat swan meat*!”

*Idiom that refers to wishful thinking or unrealistic aspirations.

How shocking!

Bai Qingquan was the most profitable artist of Sunshine Media while Shen Jintai was still struggling.

Bai Qingquan planned to appear in the hot search today.

He took the little fairy route, so he didn’t dispute it when he was referred to as the white moonlight. These days, eight out of ten hot searches were usually bought with money. At the lowest level, one could buy it at one’s own expense by creating a fake hot search. While netizens couldn’t tell, people in the circle would immediately recognize that the search was bought.

Alternatively, one could find a marketing account* to push a topic, and then rely on fans to create a commotion, causing it to become a hot search.

*Public accounts on social networking platforms that create or collect content about every hot topic and event all over the Internet. Many of their contents are untrue and unreliable.

People like Bai Yueguang tend to have neither hot spots¹ or black spots². His hot searches were usually bought and only when it was related to his current work making netizen quite amiable to them.

¹High interest material.
²Like hot spots but is negative material (scandals).

Today, the makeup photo¹ of his performance in <The East Palace is Coming> was announced, and Wei Ge bought a hot search for him. Probably because he hadn’t shown up for a long time, relying on his fan injected with chicken blood², his hot search shot straight to second place.

¹Makeup photo/set photo = Photo take by an actor to play a certain role after being dressed up, generally used for promos.
²(鸡血就) Internet slang to mean that someone is crazy or obsessed about something or an idol. It could mean making someone very excited (injecting chicken blood).

Ranked third was Yang Lizhi, the flowering orchid, who, like Bai Qingquan, had also posted their makeup photos. This search was most likely bought as well.

Bai Qingquan looked at the Weibo hot search today and was very satisfied. He suppressed a top-notch little flower like Yang Lizhi.

As for the current number one hot search, it was an 18th-tier actress who relied on sharing hot searches with her model boyfriend. It was bought personally by them. Such immature action that led to over-marketing will eventually undermine them in the long-run.

Looking at the position, Bai Qingquan was still in the position of being the top male in the entertainment industry. It gave him a sense of relief.

But, wait…

Bai Qingquan seemed to have seen a familiar name.

In sixth place in the hot search was…. Shen Jintai!

He thought he had gone blind for a second.

Their contracts were all signed with confidentiality agreements. Shen Jintai’s participation in the drama <The East Palace is Coming> was still under wraps. He needed to wait for the official announcement of the crew. Bai Qingquan believed that Shen Jintai wouldn’t dare buy hot searches at this time. He hurriedly refreshed it and saw that the hot search for “Shen Jintai Tattoo” had already surpassed Yang Lizhi and had risen to third place!

“Fuck!” He sat up with fury and swiped it again, only to watch Shen Jintai’s hot search overwhelm him and jump to second place.

“………Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah!”

He immediately jumped up and wailed to Wei Ge, “Where are your 300 marketing accounts you bought. Hurry and push me up! Why is Shen Jintai on the hot search? I rather die than be beneath him!”

—

Shen Jintai was sitting in the car reading his script when his phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID showing Lin Xu. Lin Xu was Shen Jintai’s girlfriend* who lived in the same community.

*Platonic sense.

This was the first time he had dealt with his best friend. He took the call with some anxiety and heard Lin Xu howling on the other end of the phone, “Holy shit, sister*, you’re on the hot search!”

*She calls him older sister [jiejie]. 

Shen Jintai: “What?”

“You are on the hot search!” Lin Xu was very excited. She and Shen Jintai were childhood friends, so she knew that Shen Jintai shouldn’t have bought this hot search. Shen Jintai was one of the few real hot searches in the entertainment circle that was completely dependent on blood and sweat.

“Where are you now?” Lin Xu asked excitedly.

Shen Jintai: “I’m in the car heading home.”

“I just got off the plane, and I’m halfway there. Let’s go home and talk,” Lin Xu finally said with emotion. “Sister, you finally figured it out!”

Shin Jintai: “…”

After Shen Jintai hung up the phone, he hurriedly looked on Weibo and saw that his name was second in the hot search with the word “boiling” at the back.

So magical.

It was weird to see his name appear on the hot search.

Li Meilan turned to look at him. “What’s the matter?”

Shen Jintai handed the phone to her.

“Shit!” Li Meilan was shocked, and quickly took out her mobile phone to look, confirming that it was not a photoshopped picture.

“You bought it?” she asked Shen Jintai.

“I don’t have the money to buy hot search now.” Shen Jintai said.

That’s true…

Li Meilan’s hands trembled with excitement. Shen Jintai’s was on the hot search. It felt like she had just accomplished a life-long goal. She wanted to even cry a little.

“You… You’re washing away your tattoo?” She raised her head with red eyes and asked Shen Jintai.

Shen Jintai nodded while looking at the hot searches.

—

“Shen Jintai. Which Shen Jintai is it? That Shen Jintai?”

“I’m sure there have been a lot of XXJS¹ in my district during the summer. I haven’t even heard of any Shen Touhua².”

¹Referencing elementary school chickens The term came about from the imagery of small primary school children running around the playground or lining up in the canteen for food, just like little chicks on a farm. It is also frequently used to describe people who are immature, petty, and go out of their way to pick fights, so this is one insult that can be applied to anyone, regardless of their age.
²Nickname for Shen Jintai. Will be explained by the author shortly.

“Without pictures, I can make a hundred of this kind of material a day!”

“Shen Jintai broke out and the fans are frothing.”

“It should be true. There’s a photo of him and the tattoo artist. As soon as he got on the hot search, all the gold powders* started screaming.”

*Shen Jintai’s fans. The Jin in Jintai means gold, so that’s why they’re referred to as gold powders.

“Shit. Shen Touhua still has fans? I thought they all abandoned him a long time ago.”

“I saw someone move this yesterday, but it didn’t spread. Today, it was pushed by several entertainment accounts, and it became a hot search. Like always, a top stream is a top stream*.”

*(顶流) = Internet slang refers to a title given to a very famous person, thing, or content. It means that famous people are walking Weibo searches. Their topicality is very high, and it can arouse widespread public attention.

“Recently, my district clamored about this explosion and that explosion. It’s time for them to see what real traffic is.”

“XYXF* Shen Touhua!”

*Bloody according to the author.

“Someone doesn’t know who Shen Touhua is? It’s time to give away the memes that I have treasured for many years.”

“My eyes are becoming hot…”

“Damn, I’m blind.”

Shen Jintai clicked it open and saw a few moving pictures of ghosts and animals, all of which belonged to him, twisting in anger.

Shen Touhua was Shen Jintai’s nickname. The reason why a cannon fodder was cannon fodder was because of their low IQ. The cannon fodder Shen Jintai had countless black materials* but if you want to refer to the #1 scandal, it would have to be the “head-pulling flower” incident.

*Information or historical records (which can be either true or not) that will have a negative impact on a celebrity or a project (like scandals).

“Pulling the head flower”, Baidu Encyclopedia explains: “When boys are weak to a certain extent that they can’t even beat girls in a fight, they need to use the method of pulling the head flower*. Only by doing so would they stand a chance to protect themselves.”

*Hair.

Shen Jintai once had a fight with a female star backstage at an awards ceremony. The scene became: a man actually started a fight with a woman and pulled her hair. Such a scene made people and even the gods angry.

Because of this, Shen Jintai nickname was Shen Touhua*.

*Head Flower (头花).

He always had a flirtatious image, and his actions on stage were even more coquettish. Someone had photoshop a big red flower on his head and named it the “head flower dance”. This was how these animated gifs came to be.

Shen Jintai looked sweaty.

Li Meilan said, “Have your fans returned? I remember that you only had more than a million followers some time ago.”

Shen Jintai was taken aback for a moment, and quickly ran to his Weibo to look.

Holy shit!

Shen Jintai: “So many! Two million!”

Li Meilan: “Brother*, you used to have 20 million.”

*[Gege] (哥哥) = Not related in this context. It’s used to refer to men who are older than you and of higher rank or to someone you’re close with. || In this context, Li Meilan is using it sarcastically (like Bro).

Shen Jintai: “…”

Okay.

But two million was more than enough. He dared not be too optimistic.

He refreshed it, and it became 2.1 million. His fans had really returned.

—

“Let’s talk about it.” The little beauty Lin Xu crossed her legs on his sofa. “What has happened to you in the past few days when I went abroad?”

Shen Jintai: “What do you want to hear?”

“Of course, it’s about your tattoo! Yan Qiuchi’s business!” Lin Xu said as she stretched out her hand to pull at his shirt.

Shen Jintai blocked her. “No need to look, it’s true. I really washed it, but I haven’t completely washed it off yet. I have to go a few more times.”

Lin Xu: “Fuck. What happened? Why did you suddenly want to wash off the tattoo?”

Shen Jintai said, “Because I think it’s stupid to tattoo Yan Qiuchi’s name on my body.”

Lin Xu: “I know it’s stupid, but haven’t you always been stupid? Why are you not stupid all of a sudden?”

Shen Jintai: “…”

Lin Xu: “Quickly! Hurry up and dish about everything! What happened between you two?!”

Shen Jintai thought for a while. The scene from that fateful night appeared in his mind.

That was also the last scene of Shen Jintai, the cannon fodder in the original text. He had stalked Yan Qiuchi and gotten entangled with him in the hotel room but was pushed away. His eyes were red, as if he was crazy, and he bit Yan Qiuchi’s neck.

“Do you like that Bai Qingquan’s bastard? What do you like about him? Am I not comparable to him?!” He roared.

Recalling this, he couldn’t help but shudder. The cannon fodder went completely bonkers. It was like crazy was running through his body. After biting Yan Qiuchi’s neck, he was immediately kicked out. He then went and jumped off a building to his death, hoping to make Yan Qiuchi remember him forever. Unfortunately, the male protagonist’s heart was already set. How could readers accept such vicious little cannon fodder trying to attack him. When Shen Jintai leapt off the building, they all celebrated with gongs, drums, and thunderous applause!

It was disgusting that the cannon fodder didn’t even know their own weight*.

*Clarity: In terms of how little impact his death would really have on Yan Qiuchi.

He focused on the two sentences Yan Qiuchi said to him.

“Even in my next life, let alone touching you, I will never love you!”

“Because you can’t even match his toe!”

Lin Xu was stunned when he finished speaking and said, “I really don’t know what to say to you.”

Shin Jintai: “Then don’t say it. I have no face to review it again. I have completely given up.”

Lin Xu: “I hope you are serious this time. How many times now have you said you’ve given up only to end up slapping yourself in the face again the next day.” But this time, he even washed away the tattoo. It looked pretty serious. “Yan Qiuchi has been notoriously cultured since he was a child. If you can force him to say such things to you, then I’m convinced.”

Although she was Shen Jintai’s best friend, Lin Xu privately was on Yan Qiuchi’s side. Honestly, even as a best friend, seeing some of Shen Jintai’s behavior made her cringe. It was too cheap. If it wasn’t for the affection she had growing up with him as a child, she would have kicked him to the curb a long time ago.

Yan Qiuchi was different. Because he was so cultured, his indifference to Shen Jintai was like a simple courtesy.

Lin Xu: “Then what are your plans now? Are you going to return to the entertainment industry?”

Shen Jintai nodded. “I just picked up a drama as the second male lead.”

“Wow.” Lin Xu was also surprised. “Even now you can still get the role of a second male lead.”

“The male lead is Bai Qingquan,” Shen Jintai whispered.

Lin Xu frowned, “Bai Qingquan…You mean Bai… Jian¹… Shit!”

The word “Huo¹” almost came out.

He couldn’t blame her. Shen Jintai used to call Bai Qingquan that white bitch¹ whenever he talked about him. After constantly listening to him call Bai Qingquan this, she had almost forgotten what his real name was.

¹Clarity: Lin Xu almost called Bai Qingquan (白清泉) Bai Jianhuo (白贱货). Bai (白) = white. Jianhuo (贱货) = cheap goods. When combined (白贱货) she’s calling him Bai (white) cheap goods. Jianhuo (贱货) can also mean bitch so he could also be referred to as a white bitch.

“This drama you’re in… This sister can’t accept it!” Lin Xu said.

After a while, Lin Xu asked, “You didn’t sleep well? Don’t hide it from me.”

Shen Jintai: “…No!”

Lin Xu: “Why did you bring him up? I don’t think you’re that bad.”

Shen Jintai: “Lies. I’m not beautiful enough.” Compared with Bai Qingquan.

“But you’re so sexy.” Lin Xu commented objectively. Although she didn’t agree with the cheap and outrageous behavior of her good friend, she occasionally felt that his crazy actions had a bit of an allure to them.

“That might be because I was born with no morals,” Shen Jintai said.

Not everyone had the ability to eat Yan Qiuchi’s kind of food that can make people “tremble and weep”!

Shen Jintai’s hot search was still trending on Weibo for most of the day. Before going to bed at night, it was still trending, but it fell more than 20 ranks. Shen Jintai lay in the dark for a while. Unable to sleep, he turned on the bedside lamp, then untied his pajamas, grabbed the phone, and took a few pictures.

Finally, using photoshop, he covered the important parts with emojis and then posted his first Weibo post in a long time.

“The old me is dead, and the new me has been reborn.”

The picture showed a slightly red and swollen tattoo. The lines have been blurred, showing only an unmodified face, which looked fresh and clean. The words “Yan Qiuchi” can still be vaguely distinguished.

Yan Qiuchi threw the phone on the table, raised his head, and drank a few sips of water. His phone screen was still on. [Shen Jintai Tattoo] jumped to the top of the hot search in the middle of the night, followed by the word “Explosive”.

The first comment: [Breaking news! The inside story: He’s making a comeback.]

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Kinky Thoughts:

*Sigh* What did I get myself into picking a showbiz novel. It’s so difficult translating Weibo/bystander comments, especially when they use slang that I’m not familiar with, so there’s a lot of footnotes regarding those.

Side Note: I love how Lin Xu calls Shen Jintai jiejie. The gay equivalent would probably be like gurl~~ or sis~~ Haha.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>