Transmigration into a Book
Shen Chen had been woken by the heat. The room was pitch-black, and his hangover had left his head pounding so badly he couldn’t tell whether he was dreaming or awake.
In that hazy space between sleep and waking, ragged breathing brushed his ear, setting his reason ablaze.
Shen Chen felt as though he were adrift in an endless sea, with nothing to do but cling desperately to whatever he could reach, or risk losing himself beneath the waves.
This had to be a dream, right? But it felt far too real.
* * *
At dawn, Shen Chen was jolted awake by his phone ringing.
He fumbled around until he found the phone wedged beside the bed. Eyes still closed, he answered without looking. “Hello?”
“Where are you? I’ve called you so many times and you haven’t picked up. Are you even going to shoot this film or not? The director’s already chewing everyone out. Are you trying to get me killed?!”
Shoot what? Hadn’t they just wrapped yesterday?
His thoughts were a mess. Shen Chen couldn’t remember what other project he’d taken on, and snapped, “Tell the director to wait.”
“What? Xiao Jinghan, who do you think you are? You expect the director to wait for you? Looks like you don’t want to work in this business anymore!”
Xiao Jinghan? Who was that?
Shen Chen said coldly, “You’ve got the wrong number.” He hung up and tossed the phone under the bed.
He was thirsty. Even during the call, he’d noticed how hoarse his voice was, as if he’d spent the whole night singing karaoke. His throat was painfully dry.
Shen Chen was about to get up and find some water when he turned his head and opened his eyes. A man’s face, magnified by its closeness, lay beside his pillow. Shen Chen instinctively tried to back away, only to find himself trapped by the arm the man had flung across his waist.
The fog in his mind cleared at once. Heart pounding, Shen Chen carefully lifted the man’s arm away, then pulled back the covers to check.
Shit. Sure enough, he was wearing nothing.
Clothes were scattered all over the room. A pair of white underwear lay abandoned on the sofa, and a black pair had fallen on the carpet, silently proclaiming how intense things had gotten last night. The two of them must have been in quite a hurry.
Shen Chen was deeply troubled. He’d kept himself clean for over a decade, only to lose his virtue in a one-night stand with a man he didn’t even know.
He guessed this was yet another young hunk who’d been trying to get into his bed. His expression immediately turned cold. While the man was still asleep, Shen Chen climbed out of bed, intending to get dressed first, then wake him and negotiate.
When he pulled back the covers and saw the dark and light marks covering his body, a jumble of memories suddenly surged through his mind. Recalling how those marks had been made, he felt heat creep up to his ears.
Just get used to it. Just get used to it. Everyone had a first time, Shen Chen told himself.
But the instant his feet touched the floor, weakness and soreness from the waist down made him silently curse. A hand appeared behind him and caught him around the waist, saving him from collapsing to his knees.
The man helped Shen Chen back onto the bed, then pressed his warm body against him from behind.
“You’re awake?” The man’s voice was lazy and hoarse, a rich baritone with that particular hint of morning-after sexiness.
Shit. Just hearing his voice was enough to make Shen Chen’s mouth go dry.
“Morning.” The man rested his chin on Shen Chen’s shoulder. The intimate gesture gave Shen Chen goosebumps.
Shen Chen pushed his arm away and tried to keep his voice calm. “Let go first. Get dressed.”
The man gently stroked Shen Chen’s arm. “We don’t have to check out until noon. Isn’t it a little early to get dressed?”
The implication was unmistakable. Shen Chen had to admire his one-night stand’s flirting skills.
Last night, he’d been drunk and made a mistake on impulse. But now he was sober, and he didn’t know where this man had come from or what his motives were. He needed to be careful and not let a pretty face cloud his judgment.
Shen Chen regained his composure, picked up a towel from the floor, and wrapped it around his waist. Then he folded his arms and scrutinized the man. “We need to talk.”
The man sat up slightly, laced his hands behind his head, and raised an eyebrow with a smile. “About what?”
There was no denying that the man was handsome in exactly the way Shen Chen liked. He had an air of refined elegance, gentle features, clear eyes and graceful brows. A faint melancholy seemed to come naturally to him, along with a cool, untouchable air of chastity.
Shen Chen clicked his tongue inwardly. No wonder they said the more chaste someone looked, the wilder they were in bed.
The man had been the one to climb into Shen Chen’s bed, yet now that he’d been found out, he showed no panic or shame. If anything, he looked like the one who’d been taken advantage of.
Shen Chen asked coldly, “How did you get into my room last night? Or did someone send you?”
The smile on the man’s face faltered. He gave Shen Chen a strange look. “You’re still drunk? Didn’t you open the door for me?”
Shen Chen froze. He remembered that after the production’s wrap party the night before, he had gone back to the hotel and fallen asleep.
Had he really gotten carried away while drunk and brought someone back to his room? How could he not remember? He’d had a lot to drink, but surely he hadn’t blacked out.
The man saw Shen Chen’s expression turn complicated and let out a derisive laugh. “What? President Shen, you said last night you wanted to keep me. We’ve already slept together, and now you want to pretend it never happened?”
“Keep you?!” Shen Chen choked and coughed violently. He’d actually agreed to keep someone while drunk? “Well… ahem, you know how it is when someone’s drunk… You can’t take it seriously…”
The man frowned, as if he was about to say something, but the phone under the bed started ringing again, relentless as ever.
“I’ll take this.” The man threw off the covers and got out of bed. He picked up the phone from the floor, glanced at the screen, answered, and put it on speaker.
An angry man’s roar came through the phone. “Hello! Xiao Jinghan? This is your last warning. If you’re not at the set in half an hour, you’re off this production! And don’t expect to shoot another film after this, whether it’s good or bad!”
So the man’s name was Xiao Jinghan? Only now did Shen Chen realize he must have answered the wrong call earlier.
But why did the name Xiao Jinghan sound so familiar?
After listening to his agent, Xiao Jinghan replied briefly, “I’m not doing it.”
“You’re not doing it? You should be grateful you’ve got work at all! What gives you the right to be so picky? Keep this up and you won’t even get background roles! How did I get stuck with such a spoiled young master? If you quit, can you afford the penalty? Don’t drag me down with you!”
Xiao Jinghan said mildly, “Don’t worry. I can pay it.”
His agent scoffed. “How can you pay it? You can’t even afford your rent!”
Xiao Jinghan turned to look at Shen Chen and smiled. “My patron has money.”
Shen Chen took a step back under his gaze. I haven’t even decided whether I’m going to keep you, he thought. Then he heard the agent ask in surprise, “You’ve got someone keeping you?”
Xiao Jinghan admitted it without hesitation. “Yeah.” He didn’t show the slightest shame about living off someone else.
His agent pressed him. “Who?”
Xiao Jinghan cast a sidelong glance at Shen Chen and drawled, “President Shen, obviously.”
“Which… President Shen?”
“Who else? Shen Sining, the one who’s going to acquire our company.”
After explaining, Xiao Jinghan hung up and smiled at Shen Chen. “President Shen, I’ve already told my agent you want to keep me. If you back out now, you’ll be breaking your word. You’re not the sort who sleeps with someone and then runs off, are you?”
Shen Chen’s eye twitched. “I… of course I’m not. But may I be so bold as to ask who Shen Sining is?”
Xiao Jinghan’s expression darkened. In a flash, he flipped over from the other end of the bed and loomed over Shen Chen, gripping his chin and forcing his face up. His narrow eyes were cold. “Are you messing with me?”
Shen Chen wanted to protest that he wasn’t. Then a sudden thought flashed through his mind.
Wait. Xiao Jinghan? Shen Sining? Why did both names sound so familiar?
He glanced around the room. The furnishings only added to his shock. This wasn’t the hotel room he’d stayed in before!
“Xiao Jinghan, Shen Sining…” Shen Chen repeated the names several times before finally remembering where he’d heard them.
Weren’t those the names of characters in The Scum Bottom Reforms, the novel he’d just finished reading?
What the hell? What the hell, what the hell, what the hell?
Shen Chen’s head began to ache. Grimacing, he pressed a hand to his forehead. At the same time, memories belonging to the original owner of this body flooded into his mind.
Shen Chen was an actor. Since his debut, he’d won best actor awards left and right. He’d played countless characters who transmigrated or were reborn, but he’d never imagined it would happen to him one day…
And he’d transmigrated into a danmei novel, becoming a cannon-fodder villain doomed to a tragic end.
The first part wasn’t so bad. Shen Chen himself was deep in the closet. A veteran actor who’d started out as a child star, he’d been required by his company to maintain a positive public image.
Even though he’d known for years that he was attracted to men, all he’d dared to do was secretly drool over the men he liked. He hadn’t dared to date anyone, let alone come out publicly.
So transmigrating into a book wasn’t all bad. With those worries out of the way, he could finally let himself go and unleash the little beast inside!
The problem was the second part. In The Scum Bottom Reforms, Shen Sining was a textbook playboy heir. After his white moonlight rejected him, he happened to meet the actor Xiao Jinghan, who looked about half like the man he loved, and launched an aggressive pursuit.
The Scum Bottom Reforms was a one-bottom, many-tops “stock-picking” novel. The male lead (bottom) had the charm of everyone’s darling, drawing countless high-quality “tops” to fall for him. Xiao Jinghan had stood out among all those love interests and been chosen by readers as the main top, thanks in no small part to his compelling character.
On the surface, Xiao Jinghan was an actor who’d reached thirty without ever becoming popular. But in reality, he was the heir to a multinational corporation. Unwilling to accept an arranged marriage, he’d cut ties with his family and entered the entertainment industry.
So he’d entered the business just for fun. He didn’t care whether he became famous.
But in the entertainment industry, if you weren’t famous, you didn’t make money. Xiao Jinghan’s family cut off his financial support, and eventually he couldn’t even afford rent. He ended up being forced by his agent to take terrible roles.
That was when he met Shen Sining. Shen Sining took one look at Xiao Jinghan and, wanting to win a smile from the handsome actor, acquired the company he worked for and proposed keeping him.
The book described Xiao Jinghan as aloof and unruly. No one could understand why someone so proud and hard to please would accept Shen Sining’s offer.
At first, Shen Sining treated Xiao Jinghan fairly well. But when Xiao Jinghan’s protagonist halo began to work its magic and he started making a name for himself in the industry, Shen Sining worried Xiao Jinghan would become too famous to control. So he buried Xiao Jinghan again.
Gradually, Shen Sining revealed his true intentions. He’d only ever treated Xiao Jinghan as a substitute for his white moonlight, and had taken out on him all the resentment he’d felt because his beloved had looked down on him.
How could someone as proud as Xiao Jinghan stand being treated as a substitute? The book said Xiao Jinghan had initially felt something genuine for Shen Sining, which was why he was even angrier when he discovered Shen Sining had betrayed him.
Then, just like in every wish-fulfillment novel, the male lead swooped in to help Xiao Jinghan turn the tables and slap his enemies in the face. In the end, the two leads joined forces to take revenge on the cannon-fodder villain, Shen Sining. He was ruined and disgraced, went bankrupt, and finally jumped to his death.
Judging by what Xiao Jinghan had just said, and by the situation now, Shen Chen must have landed right at the moment Shen Sining proposed keeping Xiao Jinghan.
Oh, shit.
This joke had gone way too far.