Yan Jingyu and Chi Dianqing’s cars parked at the venue’s entrance one after the other. Fans lined both sides of the pathway to welcome them, and as far as the eye could see, there were light boards and massive banners of every color. The moment they saw the two step out of their vehicles, the fans who had been waiting with bated breath began to cheer at the top of their lungs.
After getting out of the car, Yan Jingyu smoothly pulled off his sunglasses from the bridge of his nose and habitually waved to the familiar fan site admins he recognized.
However, not only his own fans, but even Chi Dianqing’s fans acted as though a bucket of ice water had been poured over their heads. The fans who had been pumped up with adrenaline just a second ago instantly looked as if they had seen something filthy, their expressions turning extraordinarily strange.
Just as Yan Jingyu was feeling puzzled, Chi Dianqing, who was currently inside the car behind him, trapped in Yan Jingyu’s body, opened the door and stepped out. Only then did Yan Jingyu remember that he was currently wearing Chi Dianqing’s face.
Given the bad blood between them, the sight of Chi Dianqing waving to Yan Jingyu’s fans was indeed enough to make the fans of both sides wear expressions as if they had just swallowed a fly.
Chi Dianqing stared back at him gloomily with a dark face, looking as though he might rush over at any moment and land a punch right on the smiling face that belonged to him. Yet Yan Jingyu wasn’t worried in the slightest; if Chi Dianqing rushed over to hit him right now, he would only be punching his own face.
When Yan Jingyu’s fans saw their idol finally step out of the car, they immediately broke into cheers once again. However, Chi Dianqing kept a cold face from start to finish, without the slightest intention of greeting them. On the contrary, Shao Yang, Du Kang, and Jiang Minze, who got out of the car behind him, were very enthusiastic, interacting with the fans on the side as they walked toward the venue.
It seemed to be the first time the fans had ever seen Yan Jingyu act like this. Coupled with having been disgusted by “Chi Dianqing” just moments ago, their initial morale-filled cheers gradually died down.
Seeing Chi Dianqing treat his fans so coldly, Yan Jingyu maintained a smile on his face, but he was gritting his back teeth so hard they were nearly shattered.
Beyond the fans lining the entrance, there were even shuttle buses wrapped in posters of various celebrities driving back and forth.
When Yan Jingyu saw his own face printed on one of the buses, specifically that notorious meme photo where he bared his teeth so wide that his upper lip was stuck to his gums, he finally understood how those fans felt earlier.
“Ha! Beautiful!” Yan Jingyu let out a lifeless laugh, turning to head inside only after Fan Rong reminded him.
Walking behind Chi Dianqing, Yan Jingyu stared at the back of his own head, looking at his broad shoulders, trim waist, long legs, and shapely gluteus maximus…
“Wow~” The unpleasantness in Yan Jingyu’s heart vanished in an instant; his eyes filled only with his own flawless physique. “I never knew my body looked this perfect from behind!”
“Bro, what did you say?” Fan Rong, walking beside him, leaned in and asked.
Yan Jingyu pulled himself out of his self-absorbed admiration of his perfect body and chuckled softly. “Nothing. Just that Yan Jingyu’s figure is actually pretty good.”
Hearing this, Fan Rong’s eyes opened wide as saucers. He felt that his master was utterly off today, not just that unnatural smile on his face, but especially hearing him praise Yan Jingyu’s physique. He even began to suspect that Chi Dianqing had been possessed by a ghost.
“Bro…” Fan Rong rolled the words around in his throat twice, but ultimately didn’t ask. Yan Jingyu had already picked up his pace and stepped into the dressing room.
Just as Fan Rong stepped out to grab a coffee, a shadow slipped into Yan Jingyu’s dressing room. Before he could even see clearly who it was, he was dragged straight into the changing cubicle.
“Who the hell are you? Are you out of your, ”
Click.
The light in the changing room was switched on. Looking at his own face standing right before him, Yan Jingyu felt utterly speechless. “Hey, I say, you’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? Walking into Chi Dianqing’s dressing room so openly while wearing my body, have you considered what tomorrow’s trending topics will be?”
Chi Dianqing continued to stare at him with a cold face and answered completely off-topic: “I came over just to warn you. You better put away that smirking, playful attitude of yours before you demand anything from me. Also, in front of the fans, you’d better exercise some restraint. Don’t pull off those disgusting fan-service tricks of yours like you did today.”
“Then let me give you a piece of advice too. You’d better adjust the attitude you use when talking to me. Stop putting on that high-and-mighty posture as if you look down on everyone.”
Saying that, Yan Jingyu let out a cold laugh. “Besides, you’re the one who is panicked right now, not me. Like I said before, you care about your image, but I don’t give a damn about mine. If you want me to listen to you, you’ll have to learn how to show some weakness.”
Though he said that out loud, it was the first time Yan Jingyu had ever looked at himself from this perspective. In his heart, he had already marvelled at his own handsome appearance a hundred and eighty times. He even felt that the way he looked while keeping a cold face was actually pretty handsome, wasn’t this the exact cold, distant god-tier heartthrob that the entire internet idolized? He could definitely try this look next time.
Chi Dianqing, of course, had no idea what kind of ridiculous thoughts were running through his mind, but he was thoroughly infuriated by Yan Jingyu’s words. Seeing his own face in front of him acting like a careless, frivolous idiot made him want to blow his top.
“Heh,” Chi Dianqing suddenly let out a cold laugh of his own. “You might not care whether I do anything outrageous, but have you forgotten that your phone is in my hands? All those embarrassing photos of yours and the things that can’t be leaked to the public, I have the right to dispose of them right now.”
Upon hearing this, the bright smile on Yan Jingyu’s face instantly turned dark. There were indeed many things on his phone that could never be leaked. While it wasn’t anything illegal or unethical, if it were actually released, his image as a handsome, dazzling star would be ruined in a single day, and his acting career would essentially come to an end.
He might not care what Chi Dianqing did on the surface, because given Chi Dianqing’s personality, even if they swapped bodies, he was still a rigid, old-fashioned stick-in-the-mud at heart who cared deeply about his idol baggage.
However, his phone contained secrets that an idol could never expose, and now those were all in the hands of his rival, Chi Dianqing. He couldn’t afford to care.
Yan Jingyu put on a fake smile and said, “We’re both smart people here. A stupid move that hurts the enemy by a thousand while costing yourself eight hundred, I assume you wouldn’t want to do that either.”
Seeing Yan Jingyu’s attitude soften, the expression on Chi Dianqing’s face finally relaxed slightly. “For tonight’s award ceremony, I know you’ve definitely altered the presentation speech I prepared. I won’t hold that against you, but there’s one condition: I expect you to put away this playful, smirking demeanor of yours. Of course, I will also do my best to closely match your original persona.”
Although the words didn’t sound pleasant, getting Chi Dianqing to compromise to this extent was indeed a rare occurrence, based on Yan Jingyu’s knowledge of him.
“Since that’s the case, let’s reach a temporary agreement: we will both try our best to maintain each other’s original personas,” Yan Jingyu agreed.
Just at that moment, Fan Rong returned with the coffee and entered the dressing room, only to find his master nowhere in sight. He shouted toward the changing room, “Bro, are you in there?”
Both of their eyes shifted toward the door at the same time.
“What now? How are you going to get out?” Yan Jingyu threw a reproachful glance at Chi Dianqing.
“How else would I get out? By walking out, of course.” Saying that, Chi Dianqing raised his foot to step out, but his hand stopped as it rested on the door handle.
Seeing him pause, Yan Jingyu crossed his arms over his chest with an expression primed to watch a show, mockingly asking, “Why aren’t you walking? Can’t move? Do you need my help?”
If Chi Dianqing walked out so openly right now, tonight’s trending searches would feature yet another headline: #YanJingyuSecretMeetingWithChiDianqing. He didn’t want to have any more entanglements with this annoying guy.
“Hmph.” Yan Jingyu scoffed coldly. “If you knew it would end up like this, why didn’t you use your brain when you came in? Even if you burrow underground to leave now, you won’t miss a single trending topic that’s meant for you.”
“We’re two grown men; what’s there to be afraid of?” Chi Dianqing gritted his teeth, pulled open the changing room door, and walked straight out of the dressing room right under Fan Rong’s stunned gaze.
Fan Rong looked at his master, who emerged from the changing room right behind “Yan Jingyu,” his expression growing increasingly bewildered and contorted.
“Bro, why was Yan Jingyu in our dressing room? Did he come to pick a fight? The whole awarding thing was set up by the organizers; even if he wants to find trouble, he shouldn’t be taking it out on you!”
When Yan Jingyu heard this, his brows furrowed, and he was just about to ask a question when staff members came over to invite them to take their seats inside the hall. The question he wanted to ask was forced right back down his throat.
He had practiced the award presentation speech with great enthusiasm many times. Just thinking about standing on stage in a moment to present an award to himself, taking the opportunity to lavishly praise his own greatness, he couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from curling up.
Just as he was happily grinning, he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. Thinking the venue’s air conditioning was set too cold, he turned around, only to meet Chi Dianqing’s dark, sinister glare.
The smile on Yan Jingyu’s face froze, and he forcefully pulled down his upturned lips. Then, he glared back at Chi Dianqing with an equally sinister look.
Fortunately, although Chi Dianqing was a bit insufferable, he was at least smart enough. After a moment’s hesitation, he managed to pull his lips back into an awkward, forced smile.
Seeing his own handsome, striking face being ruined like that by Chi Dianqing, Yan Jingyu found it genuinely difficult to laugh. Thus, he turned his gaze back toward the stage, out of sight, out of mind.
Truth be told, on occasions like this, top-tier idols like them usually sat in the back rows. Every single time before, he could only stare at Chi Dianqing’s annoying back of the head; he hadn’t expected the field of vision to be so broad without Chi Dianqing’s head blocking the way.
It wasn’t until the second half of the award ceremony that it was finally Yan Jingyu’s turn. Having been sitting there nearly asleep, he snapped awake with a jolt the moment he heard the staff call for him to go on stage.
Out of habit, he turned his head to glance in Chi Dianqing’s direction. Fortunately, Chi Dianqing was a qualified actor; he simply treated playing Yan Jingyu as taking on a new role, which made things much simpler.
Yan Jingyu was fairly satisfied with his performance and began to earnestly act out Chi Dianqing. However, things rarely go as planned; he was so focused on acting like Chi Dianqing that he overlooked the steps beneath his feet, stumbling and nearly face-planting right onto the stage.
Thanks to his solid dance background, he instantly executed a breakdance move on the spot, perfectly masking the awkwardness of almost being tripped up.
Because no one expected the cool and distant Movie King to actually know how to breakdance, the entire venue erupted in wild enthusiasm.
Chi Dianqing himself, however, was far from pleased. The persona he was carefully maintaining for Yan Jingyu had completely collapsed in an instant. He simply couldn’t accept those fan-service tactics of Yan Jingyu appearing on his own body.
Yan Jingyu composed himself and walked to the center of the stage, taking the microphone.
“We heard that Teacher Chi personally prepared a presentation speech for Yan Jingyu. Let’s invite Teacher Chi to read the presentation speech!”
Yan Jingyu let out a breath and spoke slowly: “Through years of unremitting effort, he has created a legend, becoming the most representative all-around artist of China’s new generation. He is the leader of fashion trends, the transmitter of peak influence, and he represents the rise of new forces. He is the king of the stage, the winner of the New Force of the Year Award, Yan Jingyu!”
If it weren’t for the word limit, Yan Jingyu felt he could have written an eight-hundred-word essay. The entire ceremony seemed to reach its climax right at this moment.
The organizers had arranged for two rivals who were at each other’s throats online to present and receive the award; everyone in the audience was eagerly waiting to eat up the drama live.
Chi Dianqing walked up to the stage with a dark face and took the trophy from Yan Jingyu’s hand, whispering softly under his breath, “What was the meaning of that just now?”
“I didn’t do that on purpose either,” Yan Jingyu raised an eyebrow and explained softly.
Chi Dianqing gave him a deep look and actually rolled his eyes!
The shock level of such an expression appearing on Chi Dianqing’s face was as unexpected as Mount Fuji exploding and shattering all of Japan into fine pieces.
Yan Jingyu gasped in shock at that eye-roll: This narrow-minded fellow must be taking personal revenge! Absolutely! If this gets captured on camera, my embarrassing photo collection will gain several new additions; this is simply outrageously unfair!
However, due to the people surrounding them and the host already walking over with a microphone toward Chi Dianqing, “Little Yan, after hearing the presentation speech Teacher Chi wrote for you just now, do you have anything you’d like to say?”
“Under normal circumstances, shouldn’t you be asking me about my feelings after winning this award?” Chi Dianqing asked unceremoniously.
He knew the host was asking that specifically to stir up gossip topics, but he had never been one to indulge such behavior.
“Ah…” The host seemed unprepared for “Yan Jingyu” to talk back like that, momentarily stumbling over his words. “Then… then what feelings does Little Yan have to share?”
Chi Dianqing accepted the microphone with a cold face. “Regarding Teacher Chi’s presentation speech, I feel…”
A pile of dog shit, completely trashy, pretentious, exaggerated…
The words he originally wanted to say were blocked behind his teeth just in time. “I feel it was written very well, extremely artistic, and possessed great tone. Teacher Chi truly lives up to his reputation as a Movie King; not only is his acting exceptional, but I didn’t expect him to be so talented in writing as well.”
The way he said this with a cold face made anyone listening attentively sense a strong layer of sarcasm underneath.
These words undoubtedly acted like a bomb dropped on the crowd. The drama-loving audience turned their gazes back onto Yan Jingyu once again, eager to see how “Chi Dianqing” would handle this situation.
Seeing that Chi Dianqing wasn’t abiding by their agreement at all, Yan Jingyu stopped pretending altogether.
“I really didn’t expect that my mere two ounces of writing talent could receive such high praise.”
Having achieved the desired publicity, the organizers didn’t dare push things too far and promptly instructed the host to cut off this impending disaster in time.
Although the catastrophe on-site was successfully intercepted, the internet had already completely blown up.