“First there were the digital misses, and now we have the fresh-faced idols who cannot even memorize their lines.”
“If it wasn’t for that assistant guy exposing the cue-card holder after he resigned, the entire internet would still be fooled by his hardworking model act.”
“Acting in dramas, yet still needing someone to hold cue cards right in front of the camera. It is not a day or two that these fresh-faced idols have been acting like entitled big shots.”
“He has only been in the industry for two years, and an issue like this never got leaked out at all? His connections must be pretty strong.”
“Just cashing in on easy money, running around to so many gigs in a year, and that counts as a role model? Utterly laughable.”
Qiu Ci looked at the rainstorm of negative trending searches about him on Weibo with a completely calm expression. His emotions showed not the slightest ripple, and he even had the leisure to brew a cup of tea for himself.
His demeanor was elegant and pleasing to the eye.
“A-Yu, you are shaking so much you are giving me a headache. Drink a cup of tea and cool your temper.”
Su Yu was Qiu Ci’s manager. Because of this incident, his mouth had grown canker sores from anxiety.
Earlier, the company had recruited a personal assistant for Qiu Ci who took care of every detail in their daily work, but who could have guessed that the assistant was actually a hidden professional anti-fan? Just resigned a few days ago, and immediately turned around to mix all sorts of true and false exposures together.
It caught them completely off guard.
People, after all, always have some unknown personal interests or little quirks. Seeing them in daily life might not feel like much, but as a public figure, both their strengths and weaknesses are infinitely magnified.
False allegations? They weren’t afraid of those; everything could be cleared up. Even minor quirks like Qiu Ci liking to soak his feet in wolfberry water didn’t matter, and they could even use the opportunity to hype up some traffic. The crucial problem was that the issue of Qiu Ci not memorizing his lines was actually true.
Actually, it wasn’t that Qiu Ci was unwilling to memorize his lines; it was simply because he possessed a goldfish memory.
Literally speaking.
Anything related to text, even if he memorized it until he was completely fluent, would absolutely be forgotten by seven or eight tenths half an hour later.
When filming on set, a single take was sometimes shot back-and-forth over a dozen times, leaving no opportunity midway for the actors to review the script again. They could only rely on the director’s guidance and direction.
Su Yu cursed in a string, but the moment he turned around and looked at Qiu Ci’s aloof, apathetic face, he somehow couldn’t summon any anger toward him whatsoever.
Especially Qiu Ci’s slightly upturned eyes; as long as one had the courage to make eye contact, in the next second, they would groundlessly experience an urge to submit to the other person.
There was definitely some metaphysics involved here. Su Yu couldn’t figure it out either, and fans certainly wouldn’t overthink it, choosing instead to believe that their younger brother Qiu Ci was naturally born with an imposing aura of dominance.
Su Yu gulped down two cups of tea like a cow chewing peonies, then probed cautiously: “Should we ask the big boss Jiuer for help with this matter?”
Two years ago, he was still an obscure little manager, while Qiu Ci, a youth whose face alone revealed the potential to skyrocket to stardom, didn’t choose a major manager, and instead chose him.
The behind-the-scenes boss of S Entertainment, which was the big boss Jiuer, had given him an order: use every method that did not violate laws and morals to elevate Qiu Ci into a mega superstar, and he had been striving toward that goal ever since.
Qiu Ci himself lived up to expectations. In two years, he had already become a top-tier trending fresh-faced idol domestically, while he had only just turned of age, leaving a long road ahead of him in the future.
Originally, relying on this wave of popularity, Qiu Ci had been lined up for a heavyweight historical drama produced by the national television station. The contract hadn’t even been signed yet when the scandal about not memorizing lines exploded.
If this couldn’t be properly resolved, that historical drama was likely going down the drain.
The crux of the matter was that this issue was difficult to wash clean. However, if the big boss stepped in, all difficulties would be effortlessly resolved.
The hand pouring Qiu Ci’s tea paused for a moment. Instead of answering, he asked back: “In your eyes, what kind of relationship do Jiuer and I actually have?”
Su Yu was left completely dazed by the question and blurted out the unvarnished truth: “Isn’t it the relationship between a sugar daddy and his kept star?”
Sugar daddies were commonplace in the entertainment industry. Su Yu had taken a very open view of it ever since the day he entered the industry; as long as it was consensual, there was nothing bad about it. Having someone backing you up in the entertainment industry was always better than fighting alone.
What’s more, Qiu Ci’s sugar daddy was also a high-quality, single, drop-dead gorgeous hunk. Handsome to what degree? If the big boss Jiuer were willing to debut, the title of the entertainment industry’s divine face would probably be split fifty-fifty with Qiu Ci.
Yet he also found it quite strange. This big boss Jiuer had a mysterious background, did not interfere with the company’s management, and was frequently as elusive as a dragon seeing its head but not its tail.
Moreover, he had been backing Qiu Ci ever since Qiu Ci debuted at sixteen. As far as he knew, during these past two years, the big boss Jiuer hadn’t even touched Qiu Ci.
This big boss actually had quite a strong sense of morality, or perhaps he simply enjoyed playing the raising-a-spouse game?
Su Yu silently marveled at how wild high society could be.
The tea in the teacup spilled over, and Qiu Ci, who was pouring the tea, fell into deep contemplation.
Qiu Ci found himself a bit baffled. He had originally intended to honor Jiuer like a father, but in the eyes of outsiders, Jiuer was actually his sugar daddy?
Recalling their first encounter two years ago, a head of silver hair carrying its own immortal aura, a peerlessly handsome appearance, in the sixteen years of life preceding that moment, he had never laid eyes on a man this good-looking.
He had witnessed with his own eyes how Jiuer summoned wind and rain, shifted forms, and wielded heaven-defying magical powers.
Jiuer had said he was looking for a mortal to assist him in his cultivation, and since Qiu Ci had just been kicked out of the orphanage at the time, right in the middle of his chuunibyou phase, believing himself to be a child chosen by the gods, he had signed his name on that golden heavenly book written entirely in ancient script without a second thought.
As for what was written inside that heavenly book, he hadn’t remembered a single word.
Yet over the past two years, Jiuer hadn’t made him do anything; he had simply sent him into the glamorous, eye-dazzling entertainment industry, letting him debut smoothly with a broad and untroubled starry path.
The two of them rarely even met, but every time they did, Jiuer would bring him some medicinal pills or all sorts of things that didn’t exist in the human world to eat.
How should he put it? His face was still this very face, and he was still himself, but with Jiuer’s pills, he could clearly perceive his own facial features as if a thin mist had blown away to reveal a blue sky, while his physical constitution was even more formidable, basically remaining immune to all illnesses.
Occasionally, he would get confused as to why Jiuer was so good to him, until the day of his eighteenth birthday half a month ago when he finally understood: the contract he signed back then wasn’t any cultivation contract at all; it was a marriage contract.
To put it another way, Jiuer wasn’t quite his sugar daddy. He seemed, perhaps, possibly, maybe, to be Jiuer’s child bride.
Qiu Ci: ” ”
He had slipped away. He bolted without stopping for breath.
He had been slipped away for half a month, yet strangely enough, Jiuer hadn’t come looking for him during this entire half-month.
He had seen plenty of relationships between men in the entertainment industry, but two years ago he was only sixteen years old. What on earth did Jiuer, an immortal being, see in a mortal like him?
This matter was truly unfathomable.
Su Yu was still trying to persuade him from the side: “Why don’t you go talk to the big boss and see?”
If they didn’t take this national television drama, the issue of not memorizing lines wasn’t that big of a deal anyway; netizens would forget about it after some time passed.
However, Qiu Ci urgently needed a production to carve out a new path. In their planning, there was never any intention to let Qiu Ci keep loitering around in various idol dramas.
It was fine for the past few years, but if he were still filming some gentle senior or refined gentleman roles in a few years, it would simply be wasting Qiu Ci’s spiritual energy and acting talent.
Thinking of this, Su Yu added: “Did you have a falling out with the big boss?”
He hadn’t returned to the big boss’s place for half a month, which made things a bit strange.
Thinking of Jiuer’s expression when he talked about dual cultivation with him, Qiu Ci immediately shivered, and his normally aloof expression developed a trace of cracking.
He said: “No, I’d better go back to the apartment tonight.”
He simply couldn’t cross that psychological hurdle.
The moment his words fell, the office door was pushed open.
Su Yu and Qiu Ci raised their heads in unison. What greeted their eyes was that striking mane of long silver hair, followed further down by a visage capable of bewitching all living beings, and those fox-like eyes that looked down upon everything in the world, filled with both deep affection and absolute ruthlessness.
Parting ways for half a month, and remembering the scene from that day, Qiu Ci subconsciously swallowed a mouthful of saliva. “You, why did you come?”
Jiuer remained silent, giving Su Yu a look. Su Yu tactfully stood up, walked out the door, and closed it securely.
Qiu Ci: ” ”
“Why aren’t you coming home?”
There was no reproach in Jiuer’s tone; he seemed to be purely asking why he wasn’t coming home.
Guiltily, Qiu Ci took a sip of tea. “I’ve been busy lately.”
Jiuer didn’t bicker over this question either. “Let’s go. Come home with me.”
“N-No way, right?” Qiu Ci gripped the sofa tightly. “Public opinion is a bit troublesome these days. I need to stay with Brother Yu to discuss a solution.”
“You don’t need to worry about it. I will help you solve it.”
With both front and back routes blocked, Qiu Ci was completely numb. He surely couldn’t blurt out that he was afraid of being dragged back for dual cultivation, could he?
Jiuer also seemed to have perceived his thoughts. “Have I ever forced you to do anything?”
That much was true.
During the first two years, the time they spent meeting was minimal, and most of their contact was through mobile phones. From the perspective of a kept canary, Jiuer was truly a thoroughly qualified sugar daddy.
He provided money, resources, never restricted his freedom and thoughts, and certainly never forced him to do anything he disliked.
Ah, well, even half a month ago when he slipped away, Jiuer hadn’t come to trouble him.
Meeting him abruptly today, Jiuer’s attitude was also very gentle.
Yet he simply couldn’t wrap his head around it. “Why me?”
Jiuer fell silent for a moment. “You will know in the future. For now, you only need to know that I will not force you, and all you need to do is seriously consider the matter of dual-cultivating with me.”
Qiu Ci: ” ”
Completely impossible to refute.
He did go home.
During the two years after leaving the orphanage, aside from filming and running schedules, Qiu Ci spent most of his time living here, only heading to his apartment to rough it out for a night when he was occasionally too busy or too late.
One had to admit, living here gave a strong sense of intimacy and belonging. For some reason, he even carried a sense of profound familiarity, as if he inherently belonged living right here.
Qiu Ci’s face looked detached and icy, but his inner world was immensely rich. He had harbored numerous speculations about this mountain courtyard house, only he had never found the opportunity to ask Jiuer about it.
Now was not the time to be thinking about such things either.
He was still calculating how on earth he could make things clear to Jiuer regarding the marriage contract.
He was no longer an ignorant child. Although he had a goldfish memory, he had still read a few novels and retained a vague, hazy recollection of what dual cultivation involved. Just thinking about it was enough to make one’s face burn red.
If one really had to trace it back, in the eyes of the few people who knew, Jiuer was his sugar daddy, and he had indeed profited immensely over the past two years.
Precisely because of this, Qiu Ci was feeling hesitant. A blunt and decisive refusal made him feel as though he were some kind of ungrateful ingrate.