Director Xia was stunned. What had this world-renowned Best Actor seen in their show? Surely he wasn’t upset they’d called a bit late?
That was, of course, impossible.
It took him a good while to process the fact, marveling at what they’d done to deserve such luck, and resolving to make the show as good as possible!
Night settled over the osmanthus-filled residential complex. A white nanny van pulled into the underground parking garage and stopped.
Once the driver opened the door, Jiang Li got out, Ye Cheng trailing behind him, still chattering away. “It’s really great that Xiao Li agreed to do the show.”
The little Jiang robot covered his ears with a blank expression, wondering how he could ever make Ye Cheng understand that Duan Zhihan would never appear on the show.
That seemed like a tall order.
He escaped the scene of human baffling behavior and took the elevator up. He urgently needed a lemon water recharge.
He fumbled for his keys by the door, and just as he was about to unlock it and go in, his movements suddenly stopped.
Because he heard the sound of the elevator, which had already closed, starting up again.
The elevator in this complex served one household per floor, it could only be activated with a card, so who had just come up?
Jiang Li gripped the small knife on his keychain and turned around.
At that moment, the elevator arrived. He held his breath and stared fixedly at the closed elevator doors.
Not until the elevator settled on the fifth floor did the doors slowly open, revealing, under the dim light, a sharply defined face.
Duan Zhihan held a bag in his hand. “What a coincidence.”
“Coincidence my ass, this is my house!” Jiang Li resumed breathing. “Get the hell out of here.”
“Watch your language, kid.” Duan Zhihan’s voice was low. “I forgot something.”
“Other people can curse, why can’t I.” Jiang Li threatened before opening the door. “You’d better actually have something to get, or else today—”
Before he finished, the man opened the door and walked toward the desk, where trophies sat that would make outsiders green with envy, unlike him, who only had a Razzie.
Forgetting something this important, humans really were a forgetful species.
Jiang Li grudgingly lowered his guard, thinking of what happened that morning, and shuffled slowly over to the man’s side.
He dug two hundred yuan out of his pocket and awkwardly held it out toward Duan Zhihan’s hand.
The man clearly didn’t understand what he meant.
The little robot had no choice but to reluctantly lower his noble head. “This is for today’s breakfast money. I shouldn’t have said that about you.”
He’d braced himself for Duan Zhihan to be petty about it, but the man merely raised his fine eyebrows.
“I’m only worth two hundred?”
Jiang Li was speechless. This human cared more about his own worth than what had happened that morning, there’d been no need to apologize at all, honestly.
Besides, what he’d paid for breakfast was two hundred, not counting the delivery fee, theoretically, Duan Zhihan wasn’t even worth that much.
Jiang Li left without hesitation.
As he turned, he glimpsed the bite mark under the man’s white cuff, still red even by evening.
The guilt from that morning surfaced again in little sparks. He stood there and asked, very quietly, “Does it still hurt?”
Duan Zhihan set down the trophy leisurely, taking two seconds before realizing he was asking about the bite mark on his hand.
He walked up to the boy and bent down to show off his injured wrist. “It hurts so much.”
Humans really were too delicate. The little robot hesitated for a moment, then went to fetch medicine, saying coldly to Duan Zhihan, “Give me your hand.”
Jiang Li lowered his head, his lashes falling like fine drifting snow, carefully dabbing the medicine onto the human’s wound.
When he finished and looked up, he found the man staring at him without blinking. He turned his face away. “Why haven’t you left yet!”
“Leaving right away.” Duan Zhihan stood up straight. “That bag is something I brought for you.”
Jiang Li glanced at the bag on the table, it was packed full with a late-night snack.
Although he had no interest in eating human food, he could tell it was a gesture of goodwill. As far as he understood, no one gave gifts to someone they disliked, maybe the man didn’t dislike him as much as he’d assumed.
Some thought crossed his mind, and he went to get his own precious lemon slices from the fridge, packing them into a small bag as a return gesture.
Duan Zhihan walked out the door and pressed the elevator button when Song Hang’s call came through: “The filming schedule’s set. Why didn’t you answer earlier?”
“My wife was applying medicine on me. Wasn’t convenient.”
“You call that a wound? It’s like a cat scratch.” Song Hang took a deep breath. “Want me to apply it for you instead?”
“No need.” Duan Zhihan chuckled. “You’d have no sense of restraint, and that would bother me.”
Song Hang wanted to terminate the management contract right then and there, when his wife applied medicine, he was delighted, when his friend did it, apparently he had no restraint.
Jiang Li only caught the last sentence, standing by the door holding his small bag.
Even if the man didn’t dislike him, staying in touch after a divorce was still a lack of restraint, even if he didn’t say so out loud, it would still bother him deep down.
He blinked his lashes lightly, unable to understand why his heart felt swollen, his hand holding the bag going soft.
Jiang Li suddenly came to his senses and closed the door, tossing the neatly packed bag into the trash can, he disliked the man’s lack of restraint too.
Duan Zhihan heard the abrupt sound of the door closing and turned back. Everything had been fine when he left, who could have upset this little tyrant?
Jiang Li went back inside, only unable to bring himself to throw away the late-night snack on the table.
He ate while playing games on his phone, deciding he’d change the door lock tomorrow, and the elevator card too. They’d never see each other again after that.
Just then, a trending Weibo post popped up on his screen. He opened it, and the pudding spoon covered in pudding slipped out of the little robot’s hand.
【CCTV Variety Show】Welcome to our new show’s two guests @DuanZhihan @JiangLi
His body froze involuntarily. Could someone tell him why Duan Zhihan would be participating!
The comments below fell silent for a moment before exploding.
“Which new show?!”
“The only new show recently is that divorce-themed variety show”
“I left a comment under the show’s Weibo before! I didn’t have much hope, but it actually came true”
“Aaaaaaaaah I can’t believe this at all”
“This is insane”
The TV station held a meeting that lasted all night.
Director Xia believed the show should be as polished as possible, and the choice of other guests still needed discussion, but station leadership wanted it aired as soon as possible. In the end, Director Xia had to give in.
That very week, pre-show interviews began.
Public demand online was too high, so to satisfy the impatient audience, the interviews were livestreamed.
One of the guests was named Ruan Yan, a small-time celebrity who’d been in the industry for two years, twenty-one years old, who had just divorced that same week.
During the interview, he held nothing back, telling the camera he’d come on the show to become a better version of himself. When the cameraman asked whether he’d consider reconciling, he lowered his head with a smile, winning quite a bit of goodwill.
“That smile really works”
“He knows exactly what the audience wants to see”
“Seems like a pretty good personality too”
“But the timing of his divorce announcement is way too convenient, did he divorce just to get on the show?”
When the cameraman arrived at Jiang Li’s door, he knocked while carrying the camera, but no one answered no matter how many times he knocked.
Just as he was about to move on to the next guest, the closed door was flung open impatiently, revealing a somewhat dazed blue-haired boy.
The boy’s skin was pale, and he wore a fuzzy white pajama set with a hood shaped like pointed animal ears, the whole look was unusually soft.
“Who is this well-behaved little brother!”
“I need his contact info within one second”
“Wait, is that Jiang Li?”
“Him being this soft when waking up?”
“I just got charmed by how cute Jiang Li is”
The next second, the door slammed shut, and the cameraman stood outside awkwardly, not sure whether to knock again.
Five minutes later, Jiang Li opened the door, now fully dressed.
Only then did the cameraman enter the room. Naturally, he didn’t dare film recklessly, aiming the lens at Jiang Li, whose face was set in a cold morning grumpiness.
The boy had changed into a gray-blue jacket, its metal zipper pulled up halfway. His features no longer held any drowsiness, carrying instead a “keep away” kind of beauty.
The livestream chat regained its composure.
“This is the Jiang Li I know”
“Almost thought Jiang Li had a cute little brother”
“He couldn’t have a cute little brother even if he tried”
“The person above is about to get assassinated by the top star’s fans”
The nervous cameraman conducted the interview: “What’s your purpose for being on the show?”
“My manager’s too loud.”
“What do you expect from the show?”
“For it to end as soon as possible.”
“The cameraman’s heart is shattering right now”
“Is his temper always this big even though he’s just a celebrity? Such a stark contrast to that last person”
“Big or not doesn’t matter, I just want to see him and Teacher Duan on the show together”
“I want to see them reconcile too”
Finally reaching the last question, the cameraman quietly breathed a sigh of relief and asked, “Is there any chance you’ll reconcile through the show?”
The boy glanced at him. “If you’re hoping to see me regret it, forget it. I’d swallow this camera before I’d reconcile.”
“Well, looks like reconciliation is hopeless after all”
“Not even leaving me a shred of hope to fantasize about?”
“Such a thoroughly bad ending”
“Jiang Li, how heartless can you be”
The cameraman, holding up the camera, had no idea how to respond, and the livestream viewers felt utterly deflated. Later—
This interview footage became the year’s most-watched clip.