In room 603 of the Yinhao Hotel, Jiang Yinnian sat on the sofa holding a box of vegetable salad, expressionless as he ate it bite by bite.
Suddenly, unmentionable sounds came from the adjacent room separated by a wall. He lowered his head and glanced at the time on his watch.
Then he picked up his phone and sent a message.
Room 604 at the Yinhao Hotel, your husband is having a great time.
After sending it, Jiang Yinnian picked up his fork again, stuffed a mouthful of Chinese cabbage into his mouth, and his calm eyes gained a hint of resentment. He had a constitution that easily gained weight, and for 365 days a year, he spent 300 days controlling his calorie intake.
Yet last night, someone walked right into the line of fire, attempting unspoken rules with him as if he had eaten poisonous mushrooms and turned into an idiot.
He easily investigated and found this person’s information. It was bad enough that the man was ugly, but he was also a live in son-in-law. The man had made an appointment with him, only to find the room empty, and then turned around to call someone else. It truly embodied the phrase of not letting a trip go to waste.
After eating, Jiang Yinnian leisurely pulled out a tissue to wipe his mouth, wondering if this person could even last until his wife came to catch them in the act, hoping that thing of his was not useless.
Before long, the commotion next door quieted down until it became completely silent.
Jiang Yinnian thought to himself, “Oh, what a truly useless fellow.”
Just a few minutes of quiet passed before the sounds of forceful door kicking and curses rang out together. The man’s wife had arrived.
The good show he had been waiting for was about to begin, and Jiang Yinnian had no desire to stay any longer. He put on his duckbill cap and stood up to walk outside. As soon as he stepped out and raised his gaze, he locked eyes with a pair of brilliant, starlit eyes.
His hand pausing on the door handle froze.
It was Le Zhiyi.
Le Zhiyi saw him too, one hand propped against the opposite doorframe as he smiled at him, while the other hand handed him a pack of melon seeds. “Hi A-Nian, what a coincidence. Do you want some melon seeds?”
Jiang Yinnian stared in silence.
He did not take them and said coldly, “Do not call me A-Nian. Why are you here?”
“Fine then, A-Nian.” Le Zhiyi withdrew his hand, completely ignoring the warning and continuing to smile as he called out to him.
Jiang Yinnian frowned slightly and ignored Le Zhiyi altogether. He lowered the brim of his cap and walked away without looking back.
Once he left, Le Zhiyi happily continued cracking melon seeds while listening to the wails of misery, finding the sound deeply soothing.
After cracking seeds for a short while, several paparazzi photographers rushed over with cameras and charged straight inside to take pictures frantically.
Le Zhiyi closed his door in satisfaction and went to sleep.
The system remarked, “Well executed with borrowed knives. Host, you really have some tricks up your sleeve.”
That night, trending searches soared. [Famous senior executive Yang Wei caught in the act, his wife creates a scene demanding a divorce and fiercely declares that Yang Wei will leave with nothing.]
The protagonist of this trending search in the novel had changed from Le Zhiyi to Yang Wei.
The system prompted, “Ding dong, task one is complete, reward twenty points.”
Le Zhiyi replied with a string of snores.
As he was sleeping soundly, the system’s notification sound rang out again.
“The host is trending again. The level of online abuse is tied for first place with Yang Wei, deducting twenty points.”
Le Zhiyi murmured, “Sleep… huh?”
Awakened from his dream, Le Zhiyi sprang up from the bed to grab his phone. He had done nothing over the past two days, so how was he trending again?
Upon opening it, a glaring hot tag containing his name sat at the top.
[Le Zhiyi is rude and lacks basic manners, making a child cry in public.]
It even came with a video. In the video, Le Zhiyi ran toward a child holding a piece of cotton candy, and somehow ended up stepping on the child’s foot, making the child burst into tears.
The child cried and called for mother, looking utterly miserable.
Le Zhiyi fell silent.
The system explained, “Well… this was from last month in the novel, where Le Zhiyi wanted to buy a cotton candy for a child, but ran too fast and accidentally stepped on the child’s foot. This video has been hidden for a month, impressive.”
Haters completely disregarded the provocative nature of the video and started spraying venom directly, almost hurling filth right into Le Zhiyi’s face.
Le Zhiyi sighed. “It is fine, little black, I understand.”
Seeing that Le Zhiyi was understanding and had a good temper, the system tearfully said, “I will allow you to call me little black.”
Yet the very next moment, Le Zhiyi spent money to hire review boosters, having people reply to every single malicious comment with the word, [Rebound.]
After finishing this, Le Zhiyi went right back to sleep, a smile even lingering at the corner of his mouth.
The system wondered what was happening.
It finally understood: Le Zhiyi could not tolerate even the slightest grievance.
The next day, Le Zhiyi’s studio released a video filmed from another angle and issued a solemn statement clarifying that it was purely an accident.
However, haters refused to listen and continued hurling insults, so Le Zhiyi refused to back down either and kept hiring people to reply with rebounds.
The male lead’s Shou stepped forward bravely and posted on Weibo to speak up for him.
[Shen Qing]: Zhiyi is a good person.
The public sentiment in the comment section was the complete polar opposite of Le Zhiyi’s situation, with fans loudly proclaiming that Shen Qing was simply too kind.
This directly praised Shen Qing onto the trending search list.
Along with Jiang Siyu, whom Le Zhiyi had previously pursued with high-profile love confessions on Weibo before being rejected—yet stubbornly kept chasing while pulling endless bizarre stunts—offending the fandoms on all three sides.
Anxious shipping fans begged Jiang Siyu to come out and protect Shen Qing so he would not be deceived by Le Zhiyi, making things overwhelmingly lively for a while.
Le Zhiyi turned around and bought a trending search for Jiang Yinnian. Since everything was already in utter chaos, he might as well add some spice to the mess.
The farce became even more bustling.
Just then, a message box popped up at the top of Le Zhiyi’s phone screen.
[Shen Qing]: Zhiyi, are you alright? Would you like me to try out for your drama?
Looking at the message, Le Zhiyi raised the outer corners of his eyes. The male lead’s Shou was a close friend of the vicious male supporting character, being very pure and cute, and treated the supporting character wonderfully. Yet the supporting character refused to appreciate it and directly broke the male lead’s Shou’s heart.
One treated the other as a love rival, while the other treated him as a best friend.
Le Zhiyi gave a light chuckle and typed his reply.
Le Zhiyi: Alright, A-Qing, you are the best! Let A-Qing be the male lead!
Le Zhiyi: I was kept awake for two nights by these vicious comments, but fortunately you are here (crying emoji).
Shen Qing seemed somewhat at a loss for words regarding his enthusiasm, taking three full minutes to type and send back a message.
[Shen Qing]: Pat pat, Jiang Siyu invited me to go fishing this afternoon, do you want to come along to clear your mind?
Fishing? Le Zhiyi twitched the corner of his mouth. No wonder the male lead’s Gong took so long to chase his wife back in the later stages.
What normal person goes on a date to fish?
[Shen Qing]: Sounds good!
In the afternoon, Le Zhiyi simply wore a white shirt and light-colored jeans, the shirt tucked into his trousers to reveal a slender waist. He possessed striking, gorgeous features, and his eyes brimmed with amorous springtime water, making him alluring and breathtakingly pretty.
Yet at the same time, he possessed large, round eyes. When he smiled, combined with his fresh outfit, it allowed him to switch seamlessly between innocence and allure.
Upon stepping outside, Shen Qing’s eyes lit up when he saw him, and he ran over. “Zhiyi.”
Jiang Siyu and Jiang Yinnian were leaning against the car watching the two of them, though one looked gentle while the other was ice-cold.
Le Zhiyi grabbed Shen Qing’s hand and responded warmly, “A-Qing.”
Shen Qing was delighted, pulling him toward the car while talking nonstop. “I bought the egg tarts you like. You do not need to care about the online comments, I have already hired people to control the narrative.”
“Thank you, A-Qing,” Le Zhiyi said sweetly in gratitude.
Shen Qing became even happier.
When getting into the car, Jiang Yinnian had already taken the lead in sitting in the back row, saying, “Le Zhiyi, sit in the back.”
Shen Qing uttered an ah sound. He had not finished talking with Zhiyi yet, but since Jiang Yinnian was already seated in the back, it was hard for him to say anything else.
Noticing Shen Qing’s reluctance, Le Zhiyi called upon the system.
“Is there a rewind function?”
“You can use today’s single fast-forward to exchange for a single rewind.”
“Rewind.”
Ding dong, the time has rewound to one minute ago.
Before Jiang Yinnian could firmly settle his backside down, his body suddenly moved out of his control, pushing open the car door and getting out while taking a few steps backward.
Jiang Yinnian looked confused. “What?”
He narrowed his eyes suspiciously, took a few tentative steps forward, cautiously pulled open the car door, and let out a sigh of relief.
Before that breath could settle, someone shoved him aside from behind with such force that it sent him stumbling unsteadily.
He clutched his aching hip and looked up, only to see Le Zhiyi smiling at him.
“A-Qing and I will sit in the back. Please go to the front, A-Nian.”
Jiang Yinnian stared in silence.
Damn it.
The person who was always indifferent let out a rare, low curse.
Le Zhiyi heard it, but without a reaction, he slammed the car door shut with a loud snap.
Jiang Yinnian had no mood to go fishing and wanted to tell his older brother that he was not going. He walked to the driver’s side and tapped on the window. Before he could speak, his actions suddenly sped up.
He pulled open the driver’s door, dragged his brother directly out of the car, and sat in the driver’s seat himself, while his brother spun around with teleportation-like speed to sit in the passenger seat.
Once seated, everything returned to normal.
Jiang Yinnian felt completely bewildered.
“A-Nian? Why did you suddenly start driving? Do you not usually get carsick when driving?” Jiang Siyu asked.
Jiang Yinnian remained speechless.
That was a good question, and he wanted to ask it himself.
With words failing him, he squeezed a few syllables past his lips. “I cannot drive well, brother, let us switch back.”
“Alright.”
Jiang Yinnian opened the car door, tentatively stretched his foot out to touch the ground, and deliberately paused for two seconds. Only after confirming everything was safe did he step out with peace of mind.
After getting into the passenger seat, Jiang Yinnian still felt uneasy, looking around the car interior. When he happened to catch Le Zhiyi’s gaze, Le Zhiyi blinked innocently back at him.
Jiang Yinnian paused for a moment, then immediately averted his eyes in disgust.
Le Zhiyi did not miss Jiang Yinnian’s disgusted look. Once the other person turned away, he secretly shot a look of disgust back at him.
Still unsatisfied, Le Zhiyi gave him one more before withdrawing his gaze in satisfaction.
Because he found Jiang Yinnian too slow to get into the car, he had directly accelerated time. Who would have thought that when Jiang Yinnian walked over to the driver’s seat, the system would directly judge that Jiang Yinnian wanted to drive and speed him up as well.
Hearing that Jiang Yinnian got carsick from driving, he had almost failed to hold back his laughter.
Fishing was genuinely boring. Le Zhiyi half-reclined in his chair, burying himself inside an oversized jacket and drifting off to sleep.
Jiang Yinnian held his fishing rod, looking somewhat drowsy as well. He glanced at Le Zhiyi before expressionlessly finishing the last sip of his coffee.
Meanwhile, Jiang Siyu and Shen Qing were full of enthusiasm, clutching their fishing rods and chatting and laughing the whole time. Inside the shared bucket between the two of them, quite a few fish were already swimming around.
“Zhiyi, I caught another one, here you go.” Shen Qing placed a fish into Le Zhiyi’s bucket.
Le Zhiyi had only fished for half an hour before finding it tiring and leaving under the excuse of resting, yet his bucket already held three fish thanks to Shen Qing.
Le Zhiyi pulled down his jacket collar, stood up, and walked over. “Wow, that is amazing, A-Qing.”
As he spoke, he murmured listlessly, “It is all my fault for having a stomachache and not being able to sit for long, otherwise I would have stayed to keep you company.”
“Do not blame yourself. We should have brought hot water out with us. You have a stomachache and yet you still stayed to keep us company, Zhiyi, you are just too wonderful,” Shen Qing said.
Jiang Siyu nodded as well. “Go sit down and rest, Zhiyi.”
Jiang Yinnian let out a scoff from the side without speaking, wondering if the stomachache was just a lazy excuse to shirk.
Le Zhiyi heard that scoff. He blinked obediently and shook his head. “I am not feeling uncomfortable anymore, I will come fish too.”
Shen Qing smiled. “Wonderful.”
Le Zhiyi sat down next to Jiang Yinnian and picked up his fishing rod. Since Jiang Yinnian ignored him, he did not bother paying attention to Jiang Yinnian either.
When the fishing rod held by Jiang Yinnian finally had a bite, Le Zhiyi’s eyes lit up, and he silently recited in his heart: Speed up by one minute!
Ding dong.
Jiang Yinnian’s movements abruptly accelerated. The fishing rod jerked upward violently, and just as he sped up to grab the fish, Le Zhiyi leaned over, feigning clumsiness as he bumped into Jiang Yinnian.
The acquired fish slipped right out of his palms and flopped back into the fishpond.
Le Zhiyi let out a soft scoff, sat back down, and continued fishing with his own rod.
Jiang Yinnian stared in silence.
He was certain of it now: he had not gone crazy from hunger, there were definitely ghosts at play here.