Sheng Mingzhi slept exceptionally deeply.
When he woke up again, it was to the sound of his phone ringing. Still half-asleep, he unlocked the screen to find forty-six missed calls from Xiao Wang.
He stared at the screen blankly, wondering if he was dreaming.
The last time he had accidentally “liked” a Weibo post claiming his visuals crushed the top eight traffic stars, Xiao Wang had only called him ten times.
Forty-six… had he live-streamed a striptease last night?
His consciousness slowly returned as a realization hit him: Wait, why am I in bed?
Wasn’t he live-streaming yesterday? Did he fall asleep on camera and sleepwalk back to his room? He sniffled; his cold didn’t seem to be better yet. His brain felt heavy and muddled.
He pressed answer.
Xiao Wang’s voice came through, suppressed but vibrating with excitement: “You’re famous.”
“?”
Sheng Mingzhi didn’t know how to respond for a moment. He hesitated. “Then, congratulations on your dying wish finally being fulfilled?”
Xiao Wang: “…”
“Aren’t you surprised at all? Don’t you want to ask me why?? You ‘broke the circle’ last night, do you know that! Oh, right, how are you feeling? Is your cold better?”
Sheng Mingzhi was completely baffled. “What do you mean, broke the circle?”
Xiao Wang: “Do you have any idea what happened last night?”
“…I fell asleep during the stream?”
“Yes,” Xiao Wang said. “Open Weibo.”
Still not fully awake, Sheng Mingzhi did as he was told. The moment he logged into Weibo, his phone nearly crashed. Comments and reposts were all 999+.
He clicked on the comments, and a tidal wave hit him. It was all gibberish to him.
【Checking in from Douyin.】
【Early bird here to see the handsome guy.】
【So handsome! So, this is what he looks like when he opens his eyes~~】
【The little brother and his husband are so loving! I’m so jealous~~】
Sheng Mingzhi: “?”
He immediately messaged Xiao Wang: “Did you buy bots for me?”
The bots’ comments were far too idiotic. Even ten years ago, people stopped using tildes (~~) in internet slang.
“Who bought you bots!” Xiao Wang retorted loudly. “It’s the video of you sleeping during last night’s livestream that went viral.”
“Me… live-streaming? Sleeping? Video… viral?”
Sheng Mingzhi paused between words, seemingly unable to comprehend the concept of a sleeping video going viral. He knew he had fallen asleep, but he had underestimated modern netizens. Apparently, people were bored enough to watch someone sleep.
Xiao Wang said excitedly, “Exactly. Guess how many views your stream got last night.”
Sheng Mingzhi: “…”
“Two hundred thousand?”
He made a random guess. He remembered there were a hundred thousand viewers before he drifted off; doubling that seemed about right.
The next second, Xiao Wang said calmly, “It was one million.”
…
…
Sheng Mingzhi froze, then burst into a coughing fit on the bed. He almost suspected his ears were broken.
Xiao Wang had moved past the shock and shared the trending Weibo post with him. It was shared by a marketing account; the reposts had exceeded fifty thousand overnight, and it had peaked at fifth on the hot search list.
Sheng Mingzhi clicked the post in disbelief. “How is that possible? Is everyone crazy? What’s so good about watching me sleep?”
Xiao Wang said slowly, “Watching you sleep alone isn’t that interesting. Do you know how long your husband held you last night?”
The moment those words were spoken, Sheng Mingzhi’s entire body stiffened at a bizarre angle.
In terms of content and implication, the explosive energy of that sentence was off the charts. Sheng Mingzhi’s mind went blank. It took several seconds before he could speak: “My husband?”
Who? Lu Jiayan?
Lu Jiayan appeared on camera?
And Lu Jiayan held him?!
Xiao Wang: “Yeah. After you fell asleep, your husband entered the stream. He held you the entire time without saying a word. I thought he’d carry you upstairs when your slot ended at 8:30, but you were completely out of it. Your husband probably didn’t want to wake you, so he just held you in front of the camera until your phone ran out of battery.”
“Until the phone ran out of battery, and the stream cut off automatically.”
Xiao Wang repeated every word, emphasizing the battery part, then concluded: “You have no idea how shocked I was. Your husband is truly incredible.”
Holding a grown man and sitting motionless in front of a camera for four hours? Anyone would call that impressive.
Sheng Mingzhi was now incapable of rational thought. His mind was filled with the image Xiao Wang described. How could Lu Jiayan hold him during a livestream? It was already ridiculous enough that Lu Jiayan even appeared in the stream!
Am I still asleep? Is this a dream?
Like a sleepwalker, Sheng Mingzhi clicked on the video with over fifty thousand reposts. It was a recorded segment of last night’s stream. It was fast-forwarded, condensing four hours into ten minutes.
Lu Jiayan’s face wasn’t in the frame. There was only the scene of Sheng Mingzhi sleeping obediently in his arms. He fidgeted a few times in the middle, and Lu Jiayan used his hand to steady his shoulder and adjust him into a comfortable position.
From the moment Lu Jiayan appeared on screen, Sheng Mingzhi’s brain crashed. He didn’t even know how he finished the ten-minute video. When he snapped out of it, he realized he had subconsciously saved it to his album.
The top comments were dominated by passersby:
“I only have these eyes so I can suffer (puppy crying emoji).”
“Just kill me to provide entertainment for them.”
“No single dog can walk out of this video alive.”
“Why do I feel like the ‘Top’ is a hottie just by seeing his body (puppy crying emoji)?”
“I feel like a dog sleeping by the road who just got kicked.”
…
Xiao Wang had hung up but was still incessantly messaging him:
【Video Screenshot.jpg】
【Didn’t you say your husband was celebrating his 80th birthday last time?!】
Sheng Mingzhi: 【…】
Sheng Mingzhi: 【He just looks young for his age.】
After replying to Xiao Wang, Sheng Mingzhi aimlessly scrolled through his WeChat Moments. His eyes were glazed; his heart wasn’t in it. After ten seconds of mechanical scrolling, he finally couldn’t take it anymore and exited WeChat.
He switched to his photos and decisively clicked on the recorded livestream. Like a madman, he dragged the progress bar back and forth several times, still unable to recover from the shock.
Why did this dog man hold him while he slept? Why didn’t he wake him up?
On his seventh viewing, a cough sounded from the bedroom door. He looked up to see Lu Jiayan. He had no idea when the man had arrived.
Sheng Mingzhi felt like he’d been caught red-handed. In a frantic scramble, he tried to hide his phone. But the more nervous he got, the clumsier his movements became. His phone flew off the bed, tumbled twice, and landed right at Lu Jiayan’s feet.
Lu Jiayan held a glass of warm water in one hand and picked up the phone with the other. The screen hadn’t locked yet; it displayed the video Sheng Mingzhi had just saved and the screenshots he had just taken.
…
…
The silence in the bedroom reached a terrifying level.
After a long while, Sheng Mingzhi sat up straight, pretending nothing had happened. His voice was steady: “My phone fell. Thank you for picking it up.”
Lu Jiayan let his tongue brush against the roof of his mouth and let out a dry laugh. “The real person isn’t enough? You have to take screenshots and save them for your collection?”
…
Ignoring his words, Sheng Mingzhi continued nonchalantly, “Thank you. Now, can you please give me back my phone?”
If one ignored his blood-red ears, Sheng Mingzhi looked quite composed.
Lu Jiayan slowly raised the phone to admire the screenshots. He critiqued: “The quality isn’t great. Do you need me to take a new one with you? The kind with my face shown, to make it easier for your collection.”
He was dancing right on Sheng Mingzhi’s triggers. Predictably, Sheng Mingzhi snapped and leaped from the bed.
He lunged at Lu Jiayan, clinging to him like a koala, reaching for the phone. Lu Jiayan was nearly knocked over, his body swaying slightly.
Sheng Mingzhi’s face was flushed. He said nothing but, after reclaiming the phone, indignantly cleared every single photo in the album. Not one was left!
“Don’t get the wrong idea.” Having done this, Sheng Mingzhi felt he had regained some dignity. He argued stubbornly, “My phone has a feature where it automatically saves any video I watch.”
“Does it take automatic screenshots too?”
“Yes.” Sheng Mingzhi nodded, biting the bullet.
Lu Jiayan watched him for a long time before laughing and letting him off the hook. “I see. My apologies for my lack of knowledge.”
“As long as you know,” Sheng Mingzhi said sheepishly, feigning composure. “You can’t just give up on yourself because you’re old. Sometimes you need to look at the world of young people. In this era, AI is developing very fast.”
Give him an inch and he takes a mile?
Lu Jiayan was already immune to the “little ancestor’s” habit of starting a dye works the moment he’s given a bit of color. He placed the warm water on the nightstand and said smoothly, “Then send the video to me. I’d like to keep a copy for my collection. Is that okay?”
Sheng Mingzhi: “…”
Do I look like the kind of idiot who hands you leverage against myself?
________________________________________
Sheng Mingzhi had slept for eighteen hours straight. After getting up, he first messaged Shen Ling to let her know he was safe, then finished his fever medicine under Lu Jiayan’s supervision. Half an hour later, a private doctor performed a full check-up.
By the time the commotion settled, it was dinner time. Lu Jiayan had someone make porridge and sent it to the bedroom.
Sheng Mingzhi stole glances at him while eating. Lu Jiayan hadn’t gone to the office all day. While taking care of him, he hadn’t seen him make any business calls. Would this delay his work?
The porridge tasted bland. Perhaps his emotions were too obvious, as Lu Jiayan noticed and tilted his head. “What is it?”
Sheng Mingzhi put down the bowl. “Jiayan-ge.”
Calling him that usually meant he was feeling guilty. Growing up in the south, his speech naturally carried a soft, lilting tone. It was especially obvious when he had a cold—his voice was soft and lacked any edge.
“Don’t you have to go to the company today?”
“No.”
“Oh.” Sheng Mingzhi gripped the edge of his sleeve. “If you don’t go, won’t it interfere with your work?”
Lu Jiayan paused for a moment and looked over, his eyes teasing. “Are you worrying about me?”
Sheng Mingzhi: “…”
I shouldn’t have softened my heart for this dog man.
“Who’s worrying about you!” he retorted. “I’m worried that if you don’t work, Shengjia will fall apart. Let me tell you, if you go bankrupt, don’t expect me to suffer with you. I’ll definitely divorce you.”
“Don’t worry,” Lu Jiayan said idly. “Shengjia won’t go bankrupt just because I missed one day of work.” He seemed to think of something and added coldly, “In order not to be dumped by a certain someone who ‘despises the poor and loves the rich,’ I will definitely work hard.”
The “certain someone”: “…”
Sheng Mingzhi couldn’t be bothered to argue and finished the last of the porridge. Setting the bowl down, he remembered something else and looked up. “Lu Jiayan, last night’s video spread pretty widely online. Won’t it affect you?”
Although Lu Jiayan’s face was never on camera, Sheng Mingzhi couldn’t help but worry for a moment. It wasn’t anything else, but when he entered the entertainment industry, he had vowed never to use the resources of either the Sheng or Lu families. Now, in less than three years, his identity was exposed. What did that make him?
Wouldn’t that be a slap in the face in front of his father? Sheng Mingzhi could never let his father have a chance to be smug. Furthermore, he remembered the misunderstanding between Qiao Yan and Lu Jiayan; Lu Jiayan had used forceful means to delete it and even pulled several of Qiao Yan’s resources.
It was clear Lu Jiayan didn’t like being associated with the entertainment industry. To prevent the dog man from thinking he was trying to ride his coattails, Sheng Mingzhi added solemnly, “If you think it affects you, you can go handle it yourself.”
Lu Jiayan listened and asked with interest, “Do you want to delete it?”
…?
Sheng Mingzhi found the question baffling. He didn’t mind being on the hot search list, so why delete it? He said, “I don’t care.”
The room fell silent for a moment. Suddenly, Lu Jiayan let out a light laugh. “True.”
He seemed to take Sheng Mingzhi’s answer as a reason not to delete it. He leaned lazily against the wall, his features relaxed, and his peach-blossom eyes crinkled with a smile. “After all, with such a good husband, it’s hard to resist showing him off.”