After finishing the performance, Yan Jingyu did not breathe a long sigh of relief until he stepped inside the car. He reached out and took a sip of the water handed over by his assistant, Xiao Meng, who was sitting beside him.
“It’s finally over.”
His exceptionally beautifully shaped phoenix eyes were half-squinted, with half of his face concealed in the shadows. The dim lights inside the car cast an amber glow on his profile, making him look like a mysterious siren wearing a mask.
Meanwhile, the colorful neon lights streaming through the car window flickered across the hidden half of his face, resembling storyframes unspooling frame by frame in an old movie.
Sitting in the front passenger seat, his manager, Hu Lai, turned around with a hesitant glance at him before shifting his gaze toward Xiao Meng. He asked, “Did you tell him about tomorrow night’s award ceremony?”
Hearing this, Xiao Meng stiffly turned his head and let out a bitter, awkward smile while shaking his head.
“Didn’t I already tell you about this…”
Yan Jingyu opened his eyes, cutting him off. “Aiya, Brother Hu, speak normally. That style doesn’t suit you; stop copying Ding Zhi’s pretentiousness all the time.”
Ding Zhi was the manager of the popular Movie King, Chi Dianqing. He was famous in the entertainment industry for never cracking a smile, exuding an elite aura that seemed entirely out of place in showbiz.
However, in Yan Jingyu’s eyes, that praised elite aura was merely a synonym for being pretentious, resembling nothing more than a pheasant wearing peacock feathers trying to pose as a divine beast. In comparison, the chubby, adorable Hu Lai was far more down-to-earth.
Hu Lai’s stiffened shoulders finally relaxed, and his mustache relaxed quite a bit along with them. “Aiya, my young ancestor! Who was the one looking down on his own manager, saying I was worse than Ding Zhi? Didn’t I specifically go out and buy this suit to wear just to satisfy your wishes?”
“Who asked you to imitate Chi Dianqing and his manager’s arrogant, self-important act?” Yan Jingyu retorted. “When I said that, I only meant for you to improve your professional competence, not to act like Dongshi blindly copying Xishi.”
“Hey! What do you mean by blindly copying?” Hu Lai almost fainted from anger upon hearing this. Restraining the urge to pinch his own philtrum to stay conscious, he continued, “Fine, fine, fine, let’s not talk about that. Let’s talk about official business. The guest presenting you with the award tomorrow is Chi Dianqing. You’d better be mentally prepared…”
“What! Chi Dianqing?” The sleepiness in Yan Jingyu’s eyes instantly vanished without a trace. He reached forward and grabbed Hu Lai in the front seat. “Why him? On what grounds is he giving me an award? Explain! Explain it to me right now!”
His outburst startled the driver into a sudden serpentine maneuver. If not for his years of professional driving experience giving him effortless control over the vehicle, they might have ended up in a multi-car chain collision like a game of Snake.
Wearing a suit and dress shirt, Hu Lai was already struggling to breathe due to his thick neck. Being pulled like this by Yan Jingyu made his face turn completely red. “Ancestor… young ancestor… I’ll explain… just let go first!”
Yan Jingyu gritted his teeth and shoved Hu Lai back. Crossing his arms over his chest, he glared fixedly at him, looking as though he would jump forward, tear Hu Lai to pieces, and swallow him alive if he failed to provide a satisfactory explanation.
“This matter… it was the organizer’s idea,” Hu Lai adjusted his collar and panted heavily as he continued. “Recently, the clash between you and Chi Dianqing on the internet has been fierce, and the heat is extremely high. Anyone would want to take advantage and ride the wave of publicity. Think about it, love rivals presenting an award to each other is quite an explosive presence in the entire domestic entertainment industry. Besides, compared to you, Chi Dianqing can be considered a senior. He is completely qualified to present you an award.”
“Bah!” The moment Yan Jingyu recalled Chi Dianqing’s deadpan, zombie-bitten face, he felt an overwhelming wave of bad luck. “A senior? What kind of senior, a senior who dies before me?”
The grudge between Yan Jingyu and Chi Dianqing dated back to two months ago.
Ever since the two of them participated in a variety show together with Chu Tianyi, the “White Moonlight” of domestic entertainment, rumors regarding the two of them and Chu Tianyi gradually began to circulate online.
Initially, neither of them paid it any mind. Chi Dianqing and Chu Tianyi came from families who interacted frequently, so people had been shipping their CP since their debut, which everyone was long accustomed to.
As for Yan Jingyu, as the leader of a top idol group boasting a face capable of bringing ruin to cities and states, he was practically a walking CP component himself. No matter where he went or who he was in the same frame with, fans could find a way to ship him. Even if there was no shared frame or any real interaction, fans could still create fan-edited videos to ship them across space.
Most importantly, no matter who Yan Jingyu was paired with, the CP chemistry was always off the charts.
What no one expected, however, was that the matter escalated out of control in the end. Somehow, the narrative evolved into both of them being in love with Chu Tianyi, and even releasing black PR drafts against each other over “fighting for the domestic entertainment White Moonlight.”
For such matters, the conventional approach in the industry was to issue an official statement and wait for the heat to die down on its own.
Yet, after Yan Jingyu’s side cooled things down for a long time, the topic still failed to lose momentum. Instead, numerous “black material” leaks about him popped up like mushrooms after rain. Upon investigation, those smear posts were all put out by Chi Dianqing’s paid fan leaders.
Yan Jingyu, who already couldn’t stand Chi Dianqing’s cold-faced, pretentious attitude, never expected that Chi Dianqing would actually delusionally view him as a love rival and use such despicable methods to suppress him.
“Bah! What love rival! I’ve said it a hundred and eighty times, I don’t like that whatever domestic entertainment White Moonlight!” Chi Dianqing was like an explosive trigger on Yan Jingyu.
Normally, as an authoritative yet occasionally dorky, reliable leader, Yan Jingyu would blow his top the moment he heard the three words “Chi Dianqing.”
“Hey! Is Chi Dianqing a performative personality? How can he have so much drama? Are those terrible script offers he gets every day not enough for him to act out? He likes Chu Tianyi himself, yet he insists on setting up a love rival persona for me. Tell me, is he sick? Is he sick in the head!”
Beside him, Xiao Meng sat bolt upright and nodded vigorously, shrinking his stiff body as much as possible. The water cup in his hand was nearly squeezed out of shape for fear of being caught in the crossfire of Yan Jingyu’s random wrath.
Because of this outburst of rage, Yan Jingyu’s already hoarse throat felt as though he had swallowed a burning piece of charcoal. He snatched the water cup from Xiao Meng’s hand, tilted his head back, and downed a huge gulp before feeling most of the anger subside.
Due to the heavy burden on his throat, Yan Jingyu finally forced himself to swallow a bellyful of unpleasant words. Hu Lai and Xiao Meng were able to breathe a sigh of relief. Even after arriving at the villa and getting out of the car, their faces still bore expressions of having survived a narrow escape.
However, the exhausted Yan Jingyu had no energy to pay attention to them. After a quick and careless wash, he lay straight down on his bed.
Although he fell asleep quickly, no sooner had he entered deep sleep than Chi Dianqing’s annoying face entered his dream.
Yan Jingyu abruptly sat up from the bed. Recalling Chi Dianqing’s sinister expression when presenting him with the award in the dream, he had already grabbed a throw pillow and hurled it out.
“What a cursed dream.”
Fortunately, his sleepiness didn’t vanish because of a nightmare, so he fell back asleep once again. This time he dreamed of nothing and slept straight until broad daylight, without Shao Yang coming to wake him up.
Shao Yang was the youngest in the group, but he was full of energy and very obedient to Yan Jingyu. He always kept in mind the requirement set by Yan Jingyu, as the leader, to go to bed early and wake up early to grow properly.
Even with his eyes closed, Yan Jingyu could feel the bright light shining through the window, but because his body was overly fatigued, he chose to keep playing dead on the bed.
It wasn’t until the phone on the nightstand began to vibrate that he half-squinted his eyes, grabbed the phone, and placed it by his ear.
“Hello…”
Surprisingly, his voice was not as hoarse as he had imagined.
However, the person on the other end of the line was saying something unintelligible, speaking in a dead serious, articulate tone that reeked of Ding Zhi.
Although Yan Jingyu inexplicably marveled at how professional fraud syndicates had become these days, he still irritably cursed at the phone: “Get lost.”
The incessant talking on the other side suddenly ceased. Yan Jingyu simply tossed the phone aside, preparing to go back to sleep. On a rare day without any scheduled itineraries, if he didn’t sleep his fill, his resentment would linger all day long. He didn’t want to attend the award ceremony that evening brimming with resentment.
As a result, less than three minutes later, the phone tossed aside began to vibrate again. Yan Jingyu’s time-bomb-like morning rage was finally ignited.
Gritting his teeth, he answered the phone and snapped before the other party could speak: “You’d better know what’s good for you and get lost while I can still speak nicely!”
Having said that, he gave the other party no chance to respond, hanging up the call directly and pulling the blanket over his head. Just as he was about to fall back asleep, the doorbell rang. He originally thought Xiao Meng and the others would open it, but the doorbell rang for a full two minutes.
Unable to endure it any longer, Yan Jingyu flipped up abruptly with his eyes half-squinted, but almost took a heavy tumble while going downstairs.
He finally opened his eyes and kicked the wall. “Damn stairs, when did you change places?”
Yan Jingyu pulled the door open angrily, only to find that standing at the doorway was unexpectedly Chi Dianqing’s assistant, Fan Rong.
Already bottling up a stomach full of morning rage, Yan Jingyu became even more furious upon seeing Fan Rong.
“What are you doing here?” Yan Jingyu said ill-temperedly.
After he asked this question, the expression on Fan Rong’s face cracked. He stuttered, “Brother Ding said he called you… but… you… that…”
“What, Brother Ding? I’m asking you why you are here?” Yan Jingyu’s messy, bedhead hair seemed to express his agitated mood.
“I came…” Fan Rong asked somewhat uncertainly, “Teacher Chi, what’s… wrong with you?”
Seeing that Fan Rong answered off-topic, combined with having just woken up and his head being a complete mess, Yan Jingyu didn’t quite catch the meaning of his words, so he slammed the door shut.
Turning around, he only then realized that the layout of the house seemed to have changed. This dark, cold, frigid style was completely unlike the combination of Nordic countryside style and flashy, colorful aesthetics in their villa.
“Damn!” Yan Jingyu swallowed his saliva, instantly clearing his head quite a bit. “Did I time-travel?”
However, holding in a full bladder, all he wanted at the moment was to solve his physiological needs before figuring out the time-travel situation. He quickly searched around the house and finally found the bathroom.
What happened next left Yan Jingyu, who was standing in front of the mirror, as if struck by a bolt from the blue: scorched on the outside, tender on the inside, with his internal organs shattered.
He raised his hand and slapped his own face hard, only to discover with shock that although he clearly slapped Chi Dianqing’s face in the mirror, the pain was felt by himself.
“Ah! Chi Dianqing, you massive idiot, what did you do to me?!” Yan Jingyu roared with a contorted face.