He had originally thought he would wake up the next morning to good news from Ding Zhi. He never expected that Ding Zhi’s solution to the problem would actually be dragging Fan Rong out to take the fall, directing the full force of the fans’ anger directly at Fan Rong.
What was even more despicable was that he had bribed marketing accounts to post slanderous material about Yan Jingyu, using it to divert the public’s attention.
Yan Jingyu was completely dumbfounded by Ding Zhi’s series of outrageous maneuvers. This made him even more certain that the previous incident, where rumors were spread across the entire internet claiming he was in love with Chu Yi and adding insult to injury by treating Chi Dianqing as a rival in love, was definitely Ding Zhi’s handiwork. Perhaps Chi Dianqing had even tacitly approved of it. It truly proved that these two were birds of a feather, working together in bad faith, and neither of them was any good.
Now, fans on the internet were collectively demanding that the company replace Chi Dianqing’s assistant. If this continued, Fan Rong would almost certainly be replaced.
Although Fan Rong was Chi Dianqing’s assistant and had nothing to do with him, and even seemed to hold quite a few grievances against him, Yan Jingyu still felt uneasy in his heart.
After all, this matter had originally been sparked because of him. Furthermore, Fan Rong was just a fresh college graduate. If he were truly fired from Chi Dianqing’s side now, it would be extremely difficult for him to find a suitable job in the future.
After much deliberation, Yan Jingyu decided to give Chi Dianqing a phone call.
Chi Dianqing remained silent on the other end of the line for a long time before finally saying, “You know this is the best way to handle it.”
Upon hearing these words, Yan Jingyu was so enraged he nearly fainted on the spot. He immediately cursed, “Chi Dianqing, I originally thought you just had a bad personality, but now I realize you simply have awful character.”
“Speaking of the root cause of this whole thing, if you hadn’t been so hand-fidgety…”
“Fine, fine, fine, just shut your mouth. I can’t say a single normal sentence to you.” Just as Yan Jingyu was about to hang up, he heard Chi Dianqing speak again from the other side.
“I told Hu Lai that I want to move out.”
These words struck right at Yan Jingyu’s heart. After living together with the three of them for so long, just having to endure Du Kang’s sarcastic and passive-aggressive demeanor every single day was more than enough. Chi Dianqing had actually managed to do something human this time.
He hurriedly asked, “What did Hu Lai say?”
“Hu Lai said he would go talk to President Liu about it.”
“You…” This matter was not easy to handle at all. Not only would the company have to incur extra costs, but it would also impact the group to a certain extent. He was genuinely curious as to how Chi Dianqing had convinced Hu Lai to go negotiate with Manager Zhang about this.
Just moments ago, his words toward Chi Dianqing had been far from polite, so asking about this now made him feel a bit embarrassed to open his mouth. Nevertheless, Yan Jingyu intended to put on a thick skin and ask anyway.
“How did you persuade Hu Lai to go look for President Liu?”
“Hmph.” Who could have anticipated that Chi Dianqing would merely let out a soft laugh before hanging up the phone.
“That bastard really doesn’t have a shred of humanity…” The phone suddenly chimed with a notification as a new message came in.
It was sent by Chi Dianqing.
【Go clarify that your account was hacked.】
“What kind of terrible idea is this?”
Though he said that, it seemed this was the only viable solution at the moment. Judging from Chi Dianqing’s message, it appeared there was no need to inform Ding Zhi, and that he should post the clarification directly.
This matter was best dealt with sooner rather than later. Yan Jingyu immediately logged into Chi Dianqing’s Weibo account and posted a statement clarifying that the account had been hacked.
Less than two minutes after the Weibo post went live, Ding Zhi’s call came straight through.
“Didn’t I already resolve this matter? What are you doing? It was originally just a very small issue. Clarifying it back and forth like this makes it seem like there’s actually a problem instead. Don’t you understand that?”
Facing Ding Zhi’s interrogation, Yan Jingyu merely said, “I really don’t quite understand your methods for handling things. Besides, I can’t control what other people think about this whole situation. In any case, Fan Rong stays with me.”
With that said, without waiting for Ding Zhi to say anything further, he hung up the phone. He figured that since this was a conflict between Chi Dianqing and his manager anyway, it had nothing to do with him, Yan Jingyu.
Furthermore, Ding Zhi’s methods were thoroughly disgusting, and when he had dealt with him before, he hadn’t held back in the slightest. Rebutting him like this felt extremely satisfying. Whatever conflicts arose between them in the future because of this incident could simply be left for Chi Dianqing to handle…
Thinking up to this point, Yan Jingyu’s heart suddenly skipped a beat!
I couldn’t possibly be stuck inside Chi Dianqing’s body forever, could I?!
No! I refuse! I refuse to be an ugly person!
The real issue was that, up until now, he still had no idea why he and Chi Dianqing had swapped bodies, or why it had to be the two of them instead of someone else!
The more Yan Jingyu thought about it, the more panicked he grew. Suddenly, his stomach began to feel empty, and he craved something to eat immensely. This was a habit he had possessed since childhood: whenever his nerves grew tense, he would desperately want to eat something or have something to chew on in his mouth.
Right now, he desperately wanted to eat the river snail rice noodles from that shop hidden deep in an alley on the north side of the city. However, ordering delivery from the north side to his location meant the noodles would likely be inedible by the time they arrived.
After considering it for a moment, he decided to go eat at the shop in person. Once he was fully dressed and bundled up securely, he opened the bedroom door, only to see a person sitting against the base of the wall right by his doorway.
Yan Jingyu assumed a stalker fan had tracked him down here and was just about to retreat inside to find a “weapon” when the person turned his head around. It was none other than Fan Rong, who had been dragged out to take the fall.
Both of his eyes were swollen and red from crying, and even the tip of his nose was flushed red. Seeing Yan Jingyu come out, he stood up, looking somewhat embarrassed.
“Brother, where are you going?”
Yan Jingyu did not answer him. Instead, he asked in return, “Why didn’t you come inside when you got here? What were you doing crouching out here?”
“I… don’t know the passcode,” Fan Rong said.
Yan Jingyu’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You’re Chi… You’re my assistant, and you actually don’t know the passcode to my apartment?”
Fan Rong looked at him with an aggrieved expression. “You said you don’t like people entering as they please, so…”
Yan Jingyu thought about it. This indeed sounded like something that pervert Chi Dianqing would do, being so abnormal that he wouldn’t even let his assistant know his door passcode.
Questioning him further would likely run the risk of exposing his true identity, so he jerked his head toward Fan Rong. “Let’s go. Brother is taking you out to eat something delicious.”
“De… delicious food?!” Fan Rong asked uncertainly. “Didn’t you say you don’t like eating food from outside?”
“Aiya, I like eating it now,” Yan Jingyu urged. “If you want to go, hurry up. If we get there late, there won’t be any left.”
Fan Rong, who had originally thought he would be joining his boss for a lavish feast, sat at a small wooden table inside a shabby hole-in-the-wall diner, staring gloomily at the bowl of river snail rice noodles in front of him.
If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have dared to believe that the person currently slurping noodles with great relish right in front of him was actually his master, the cold and aloof film star known as the God of the Snow Ridge, Chi Dianqing.
Something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong.
Yan Jingyu took several large, hearty mouthfuls of noodles before finally catching Fan Rong’s contorted expression.
“Why aren’t you eating? Do you not like river snail rice noodles?”
“No, no… I like it, I like it.” Fan Rong hurriedly picked up his chopsticks and took a big gulp of noodles, only to be choked by the chili oil, coughing so hard that tears came to his eyes.
“Aiya, can’t you eat a bit slower?” Yan Jingyu complained with clear annoyance in his voice, yet he still set down his chopsticks, walked over to the front counter, grabbed a bottle of water, twisted it open, and handed it to him.
Fan Rong took the water, drinking it while sneaking glances at “Chi Dianqing,” repeating over and over in his heart: Something’s wrong, something’s wrong, something is absolutely, definitely wrong!
At this moment, Yan Jingyu was entirely focused on satisfying his stomach and had no time to pay attention to Fan Rong, let alone know what he was thinking.
“Brother, have you been too tired lately?” Fan Rong asked tentatively. “If you’re too tired, maybe you should consider Brother Ding’s suggestion and take a rest.”
Yan Jingyu, who had been slurping noodles in a great mood, had his mood thoroughly ruined the moment he heard the name Ding Zhi.
“Are you going to eat or not? If you’re not eating, let’s leave.”
Seeing Yan Jingyu’s face darken, Fan Rong immediately shut his mouth and focused quietly on slurping his noodles.
“But Brother, you never used to eat these things in the past. How come suddenly…” Halving his sentence midway, he stuck out his tongue and swallowed the rest of his words.
Yan Jingyu’s brow twitched upon hearing those words. He had been so focused on satisfying his own appetite that he had completely forgotten he was currently living as Chi Dianqing.
“How long have you even been here? How much do you really know about the real me?” Yan Jingyu wiped his mouth, but without giving Fan Rong a chance to reply, he stood straight up and walked away.
Unexpectedly, as soon as they stepped out of the door, they noticed quite a few people gathering in the alleyway.
Yan Jingyu’s intuition told him that these people were definitely not here out of boredom or looking for river snail noodles like he was. He immediately shouted “Run!” to Fan Rong behind him, took off on his long legs, and began sprinting.
Fan Rong, who hadn’t reacted yet, immediately understood the situation when he saw a crowd of people chasing from the other end of the alley. Turning around, he saw that Yan Jingyu was already nearly fifty meters ahead of him.
Yan Jingyu ran for a long time, yet he was still unable to shake off the group of people behind them. In their current state, no matter where they went, they would be recognized, which would likely attract even more people and cause a public commotion.
Yan Jingyu thought for a moment. This area was quite close to his idol group’s villa. Without saying another word, he led Fan Rong down the roadside, running while raising his hand to hail a taxi. However, there were very few cars on this road, making it nearly impossible to catch a cab, while the people pursuing them had somehow managed to drive a car up from somewhere.
“Holy shit! They’re breaking the rules and using hacks! Truly shameless!” Yan Jingyu cursed, taking the opportunity to duck into a narrow alleyway where cars couldn’t enter.
Fan Rong, following behind Yan Jingyu, was panting heavily as he was led left and right, feeling as though they were fighting a war of guerrilla tactics.
Just as he was about to suggest stopping to rest for a moment, Yan Jingyu ahead actually came to a stop. However, after stopping, Yan Jingyu took a few steps backward, charged forward with a burst of momentum, and scrambled straight up onto a perimeter wall.
“Brother! What are you doing?! This is someone’s private residence! If we trespass inside, we’ll be arrested!” Fan Rong immediately ran over to the base of the wall, wanting to pull him back down.
Yan Jingyu was just about to jump off the wall into the courtyard when Fan Rong grabbed hold of his ankle. No matter how much he kicked his feet, this idiot just held onto his ankle tightly and wouldn’t let go.
“Brother, last time when you accidentally liked that post, it was because I didn’t watch over you properly. This time, I absolutely cannot let you end up on the trending searches for trespassing on private property!”
Looking at Fan Rong’s heroic expression as if he were off to sacrifice his life, Yan Jingyu instantly regretted keeping this idiot around. He truly couldn’t understand how Chi Dianqing had chosen him to be an assistant with such a foolish temperament.
However, when dealing with someone this stubborn, one couldn’t use force; he could only guide him step-by-step.
“Little Fan, I know the owners of this house. Even if we go in, it won’t count as trespassing on a private residence,” Yan Jingyu said patiently. “But if you keep holding onto my leg like this, by the time those people catch up, our situation won’t be as simple as mere trespassing.”
“You know them?” Fan Rong asked uncertainly. “Do you really know them?”
“I really know them,” Yan Jingyu answered helplessly.
Seeing that Fan Rong still seemed somewhat skeptical, he had no choice but to tell the truth: “This is the villa where Yan Jingyu and his group live.”
“Ah? Yan Jingyu?!” Upon hearing Yan Jingyu’s name, Fan Rong reacted like a mouse seeing a cat, his entire body’s defense systems springing onto high alert. “Then that’s even worse! Brother, do you really not have any idea in your heart what kind of relationship you two have?!”
“What kind of relationship do the two of us have?” Yan Jingyu felt his temples throbbing violently, feeling as though he might not be able to hold back from kicking him in the very next second.
“The two of you…” Looking at Yan Jingyu’s darkened face, Fan Rong swallowed back the words that were about to spill out of his mouth. “Anyway… anyway, we just can’t go in. Going in right now is equivalent to delivering ourselves on a silver platter over a distance of a thousand miles! It won’t do, it won’t do!”
Fan Rong’s head shook like a rattle-drum. Hanging over the wall, Yan Jingyu watched as that crowd of people was already running toward their direction, yet this stubborn, inflexible fellow was still dilly-dallying here.
Grit his teeth, he used a surge of strength in his leg to finally break free. Leaving behind the phrase, “If you don’t want them to catch us trespassing on private property, then get your ass over here,” he disappeared over the top of the wall.