In the dimly lit bedroom, two figures were ambiguously intertwined, with clothes scattered all over the floor covering a corner of a trophy.
In the living room, the TV was broadcasting tonight’s Little Red Flower Film Festival awards.
“Yan Chu, with his outstanding performance in Whale Fall, has successfully bagged the Best Actor award…”
Inside the room, Yan Chu’s wrists were crossed and pinned above his head. The man’s dry, warm palm pressed tightly against his waist as a lazy, sexy voice sounded in his ear: “Congratulations…”
The man’s voice carried a light chuckle. Although he was reluctant to admit it, the cedar-scented pheromone was like it had been basked in the sun—it smelled exceedingly good.
Yan Chu’s eyes glistened with emotion as he tightly wrapped his arms around the other man’s solid shoulders and back, exposing his slender, fragile nape in front of the man.
Suddenly, the man’s tone took a sharp turn, boastfully announcing: “The Chu-Jian fans have broken one million.”
!!!
Yan Chu woke up with a start. Staring at the ceiling in a daze for a second, he scrambled around to find his phone, tapped into the Chu-Jian Super Topic, and carefully checked the follower count.
970,000, a whole… more than yesterday…
100,000?!
As a top-tier popular idol, Yan Chu had never hyped up CP (couple pairings) nor piggybacked on trending topics since his debut; he was a model idol and a master of his craft.
However, because the dramas he starred in coincidentally happened to be penned by the screenwriter Shi Jian, claims like “the scripts were written specifically for him” and “every character under his pen is you” exploded across the internet, accumulating hundreds of thousands of “Chu-Jian” CP fans.
Yan Chu: A CP can be obscure, but it can’t be bizarre!!
These fans didn’t even know whether Shi Jian was human or ghost; they were just getting so hyped up over crack-shipping them based on a short audio congratulatory message from Shi Jian in a certain drama’s wrap-up special.
Outrageous!
Utterly outrageous!
What was even more outrageous was that Shi Jian was Song Chenyan’s alter ego.
Yan Chu was arrogant and tsundere, while Song Chenyan just loved to tease him; the two of them had been at each other’s throats since childhood.
Especially after their secondary gender differentiation—Song Chenyan differentiated into an Alpha, while Yan Chu was a Beta—making the two even more incompatible than fire and water.
At the mere thought of those overly sweet fanfictions and ambiguous CP edit pictures in the Chu-Jian Super Topic, Yan Chu would get goosebumps all over his body.
Shivering, he took a screenshot and sent it to his manager: “Help me take a look, is this number an eight or a nine?”
The manager sent back another screenshot:
#RUMOR HAS IT SHI JIAN’S NEW DRAMA ‘WHALE FALL’ MALE LEAD SET AS YAN CHU# HOT
#YAN CHU AND SHI JIAN COLLABORATE AGAIN# HOT
…
Yan Chu’s vision went black, and he hurriedly opened Weibo.
Sure enough, the Salt Grains (his fans) were already crying under his posts.
— Chu-Chu we believe in you, Salt Grains will always stand behind you!
— No official announcement, no appointment; looking forward to Chu-Chu’s new drama.
— He loves him so much, sob…
Yan Chu stared at this jarring comment, his finger trembling as it hovered over the “Delete” button.
Suddenly, his manager’s phone call came through: “Calm down, don’t move, let this storm pass safely.”
Worthy of being his manager, he snuffed out Yan Chu’s urge to seek death from afar.
Yan Chu grabbed his hair in frustration: “So why did this kind of thing make it to the hot search?”
“The producers’ idea.”
Yan Chu thought he misheard: “What?”
What kind of trash producer is so bored?
Zhang Xiao said unhurriedly: “I helped you accept the male lead for Whale Fall. Before I had time to officially announce it, I don’t know where the news leaked from.”
“…Zhang Xiao, do you still remember the first rule of the Idol Code?”
“So I also accepted a dating reality show for you. Signing or not?”
Yan Chu: “…”
Brilliant!
First gather a wave of CP fans, then use the dating show to refine the fanbase.
Worthy of a ace manager—the sound of his abacus calculations could be heard all the way on the opposite mountain top!
Hearing no sound from the other end for a long while, Zhang Xiao said faintly: “The payout for the dating show is eight figures. 6 episodes recorded over two months—on average, the daily wage is six figures.”
Yan Chu: “Sign!”
Zhang Xiao: “Open the door.”
Yan Chu: ??
Tired of saying it—worthy of being his manager, calculating every single step of his to perfection.
Five minutes later, Zhang Xiao satisfiedly put away the contract, “The show’s team should officially announce it very soon, remember to retweet it.”
Yan Chu sat bare-chested and barefoot on the sofa in a casual, slovenly posture; upon hearing this, he waved his hand, too lazy to utter another word.
Zhang Xiao couldn’t help nagging: “I say… can you pay a little attention to your image?”
Yan Chu glanced down at himself, raising an eyebrow in confusion: “Isn’t this fine?”
Wearing just a pair of boxers—how is that fine?
Before Zhang Xiao could frown tightly and say anything, Yan Chu impatiently grabbed a T-shirt and threw it on: “Alright, you may take your leave!”
Less than ten minutes after Zhang Xiao left, the official Weibo of Starry Romance made an official announcement: Welcome @YanChuV to join #StarryRomance#! “Career is my lover, work makes me happy.” Will he encounter the unique one of his life here? Come and look forward to a sweet journey with Little Star.
Yan Chu didn’t delay for a single second and retweeted it immediately.
— A dating show?? Did I see that right, Chu-Chu is actually going on a dating show?!
— Didn’t we agree on not hyping up CPs o(╥﹏╥)o
— Certain cultists, are you satisfied now?! My heart aches for my Chu-Chu.
Although it was a dating show, audiences nowadays knew that reality shows had scripts; if they liked it, they’d enjoy the sweetness, and if not, they’d just treat it as entertainment—no one would take it seriously.
Yan Chu told his assistant: “Go to the fan group and explain it, tell everyone not to worry, just treat it like a regular variety show.”
The assistant trembled: “Bu-but Boss Yan, screenwriter Shi Jian also seems to be participating in the dating show.”
“Bullshit!”
Yan Chu roared back. Although Zhang Xiao was a dog, he was a dog with bottom lines.
Hype up a crack-ship all you want, but directly pushing the actual people together—are you afraid you won’t die fast enough?
“Really, I just saw a push notification…”
Yan Chu didn’t wait for his assistant to finish; he switched back to Weibo and saw the related push notification:
#STARRY ROMANCE MYSTERY GUEST SHI JIAN#
At the same time, quite a few marketing accounts were talking about this matter. At first glance, it looked like a promotional tactic for the new drama Whale Fall, a very normal operation… normal my ass!
Yan Chu rushed out the door. “Song Chenyan!” His roar echoed through the hallway.
He kicked open the door opposite, stormed into the study, arrogantly stepped onto the chair, grabbed the man by his collar, with fire practically spurting from his eyes: “If you fucking dare to sign, I’ll kill you right now!”