Where he’d been licked felt like a tiny electric current passing through, an itch that reached deep into the bone, leaving Jiang Li’s mind blank for a moment.
Once he came to his senses, he pushed against Duan Zhihan’s shoulder with his hand, instinctively raising his voice: “Don’t you think that’s dirty!”
“No.”
Duan Zhihan blinked lightly. How could it be dirty? He wished he could kiss every inch of Jiang Li’s skin.
Still, seeing the boy’s voice crack with genuine anger, Duan Zhihan let go and released him.
Jiang Li immediately moved far away from Duan Zhihan, pointing expressionlessly at the door: “Get out of my house.”
Duan Zhihan pointed at the food on the coffee table instead: “I went through the trouble of bringing this over. I’m not leaving until I see you finish eating.”
Jiang Li’s breathing system stalled for a moment.
Had he forced Duan Zhihan to deliver this?!
If he’d known that number belonged to Duan Zhihan, not only would he never have called it, he would have ruthlessly disposed of that note without mercy.
The little robot considered how to drive this human out, but he hadn’t installed a plasma cannon, this human, it seemed, he simply couldn’t beat.
Realizing this, his blue cowlick drooped dejectedly.
Jiang Li said nothing more, but his body honestly betrayed him, sitting down on the couch and eating the food on the coffee table.
To be honest speaking, human food wasn’t bad at all, though he still had no real interest in it, after all, he was a noble robot.
The little robot, reviewing Earth cuisine from a position of superiority, decided donuts tasted similar to ancient cocoa-flavored energy supplements.
He ate his food while sipping his lemon water.
Once Jiang Li finished the last sip of lemon water, strength returned to his body. He lifted his chin and ordered, “You can go now.”
Seeing that the man showed no intention of leaving, Jiang Li pulled five hundred yuan out of his pocket: “Keep the change.”
He didn’t want any further connection with Duan Zhihan, so he wanted the man to disappear from in front of him as soon as he handed over the money.
Duan Zhihan didn’t seem offended, replying leisurely: “Next time you can just call me directly for delivery.”
According to the human dictionary, “delivery” had multiple meanings, one, an actor taking the stage, two, appearing publicly for some activity, three, announcing or implementing a policy.
Clearly none of those definitions applied here, which left only one possibility, a euphemism for a sexual transaction.
This shameless fox spirit!
He took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to hit someone, and said flatly, “There won’t be a next time.”
Only then did the man stand up and walk toward the door, looking somewhat disappointed. Jiang Li’s temple throbbed with irritation.
He followed right behind Duan Zhihan, step for step, making sure this human didn’t suddenly change his mind about leaving, when Duan Zhihan suddenly stopped in his tracks.
With just a few steps left to the door, Jiang Li had never felt time pass so slowly, as if facing an impossible chasm.
He looked over, about to hurry him along, and noticed Duan Zhihan’s gaze had settled on the key sitting in the trash can.
Why was he staring at the trash can? Jiang Li was certain he hadn’t thrown out the wrong thing, that was definitely the old key.
Suddenly, the man asked casually, “You threw away our key?”
Jiang Li found the question baffling. Of course he’d use the new key with the new lock, why would he keep the old one?
Duan Zhihan quietly gazed at that key.
He still remembered how the boy had once packaged the key in an elegant little box and given it to him, seeming indifferent on the surface, but quietly clenching his hand, now discarded like worthless trash.
Jiang Li, not sure why he felt a flicker of guilt, pushed the feeling down and said, “Throw it out if I want to. If you want it, pick it up yourself.”
He said this only as a taunt, because Duan Zhihan had a cleanliness obsession.
Even though there was only a single key in the trash can, there was no way Duan Zhihan would pick it up, let alone for something so trivial.
Just as Jiang Li was turning to leave, the man bent down and picked up the key with a handkerchief.
He froze on the spot.
The man wrapped the key in his pristine white handkerchief, and before leaving, said quietly, “Eat properly, understand?”
Jiang Li felt something lodge in his chest, watching the man’s tall retreating figure, an indescribable feeling washing over him.
Ye Cheng, after wrapping up a meeting, went to a bar to unwind. Under the dazzling lights, he’d been having so much fun he’d forgotten to check his phone, but the moment he glanced at it, he sobered up instantly.
Because Jiang Li had sent him a message.
An ordinary artist sending a message like this usually meant they wanted to discuss and analyze whether to quit the show. Jiang Li sending a message like this simply meant he was informing him.
【Jiang Li】I want to quit the show
He quickly pushed away the drink someone had just handed him, threw on his coat, and headed out of the bar, hailing a cab straight to Jiang Li’s residential complex, Xieyuan.
The moment the car stopped in front of Xieyuan, he threw open the door and dashed to Jiang Li’s building entrance.
Just as Ye Cheng was about to open the front door, it opened on its own, and Duan Zhihan walked out with a calm expression.
Weren’t these two divorced?
He rubbed his eyes, and it took him a good while to come to his senses and ask, “Why are you here?”
Duan Zhihan put away the white handkerchief, anything his wife gave him, he kept: “Came to feed a hungry little kitten.”
Although that little kitten was quite fierce, not only constantly trying to chase him off, but also poking at people’s hearts.
Ye Cheng didn’t catch anything unusual about this. Winters in Yancheng brought snow, and there really were plenty of stray kittens in the complex who couldn’t find food, without someone feeding them, they’d easily starve.
He never expected Duan Zhihan to be so caring, and kindly offered advice: “If they’re old enough, you could get them neutered. Male cats only need to have their balls cut off.”
The moment he said the words “neutered,” Duan Zhihan turned to look at him.
Ye Cheng felt uneasy under that gaze, cats old enough really should be neutered, right?, but he had the sense not to bring it up again.
Although Ye Cheng wanted to chat a bit more, he was in a rush to go persuade Jiang Li upstairs, so he apologized and excused himself: “Sorry, Teacher Duan, I need to head up first.”
Duan Zhihan asked calmly, “Did something happen?”
Ye Cheng suddenly didn’t want to deal with actors anymore. His own expression couldn’t fool this Best Actor at all.
He didn’t have the nerve to lie to Duan Zhihan’s face, so he could only answer vaguely: “Just discussing the show.”
After saying this, Ye Cheng felt a flicker of unease, worried the man might use his status to press further, but Duan Zhihan politely said goodbye instead.
Ye Cheng’s raised heart settled back down, and he stepped into the elevator.
Meanwhile, Duan Zhihan lowered his head and opened Weibo, wanting to see what exactly had happened.
Once he opened Weibo, he raised an eyebrow, no wonder Jiang Li had been so angry today, the whole platform was swarmed with discussions about the reflections written on the show.
“Who exactly is the first and sixth one? This affects whether I sleep tonight”
“The production team’s anonymity setup is so heartless. The sixth one probably isn’t Teacher Duan, there’s no way he’d call anyone ‘wife,’ I’ll stake my life on it!”
“Everyone’s now agreed the third entry is Teacher Duan, and the sixth is Xu Jiawen, all the evidence points that way, only the poor ship fans refuse to accept this reality, oh well”
“Fans lost in their own fanciful fanfiction, like Teacher Duan calling him wife over and over, is this even realistic, folks”
Ye Cheng sat on the couch, earnestly trying to persuade Jiang Li, who was reading an astronomy journal: “Didn’t you think the show was fine before? Let’s push through a bit more, once we’re done filming this season, we won’t do it again.”
Hearing this, Jiang Li slowly looked up, shooting him a look that clearly said “do you think I’m an idiot.”
Ye Cheng coughed awkwardly, realizing his own persuasion tactic had been too flimsy.
He changed his approach: “So why don’t you want to be on the show anymore? There must be a reason.”
Jiang Li kept flipping through his book without looking up.
Ye Cheng probed carefully: “Is it because of Teacher Duan?”
Jiang Li’s hand flipping the pages stopped.
He instinctively glanced toward the trash can by the door.
Something someone would willingly fish out of the trash must be something really important, right? This made him unable to stop wondering whether Duan Zhihan might not dislike him quite as much as he’d thought.
The moment he let himself consider this possibility, he couldn’t focus on the text in the book anymore, but then the man’s mocking words resurfaced in his mind.
His mind gradually calmed down, bit by bit. He closed the book and said coldly to Ye Cheng, “Don’t worry about the reason. I’m absolutely not doing the show, period.”
Ye Cheng tried to say something else, but the next second, the boy shot him a glare that silenced him.
Jiang Li ignored Ye Cheng’s reaction and logged onto Weibo to prepare to announce this decision.
But the moment he opened Weibo, he found Duan Zhihan’s post at the top of trending topics, usually, whatever Duan Zhihan posted never shot straight to number one like this.
He remembered Duan Zhihan never went online, yet after their divorce, he’d apparently learned to use Weibo.
Feeling a bit sour, Jiang Li clicked into Duan Zhihan’s Weibo, curious what this human could possibly post.
Duan Zhihan had only reposted a fan’s tweet.
Of course, he still couldn’t post an original one.
The little robot was contentedly mocking him internally when he glanced at the text of the repost and froze.
【Duan Zhihan】Sorry, this is actually me @When will Jiang Li and Duan Zhihan finally do it: The production team’s anonymity setup is so heartless. The sixth one probably isn’t Teacher Duan, there’s no way he’d call anyone “wife,” I’ll stake my life on it!
The comment count had already passed a hundred thousand.
“Teacher Duan, has your account been hacked???”
“If it’s not hacked, then Old Duan, you’ve got no self-awareness, writing ‘my wife loves me so much’ on the show, where exactly did you see evidence that Jiang Li loves you?”
“Aaaaahhh, his first-ever post was to explain himself to his wife! Please, I beg you two, get back together!”
“Am I the only one worried about that person’s head being on the line”
“Am I the only jealous one wondering if coming up with a good username gets you noticed”
Jiang Li didn’t bother pointing out that Duan Zhihan had overstepped by calling him “wife” without any sense of restraint, he was just thinking, good thing the third one wasn’t him after all, a small flicker of joy spreading through his chest.
Beside him, Ye Cheng flipped open his contacts, preparing to discuss terminating the contract with the production team.
Don’t be fooled by this little tyrant talking big about covering the breach-of-contract fee himself, paying that fee would leave him practically eating dirt. Literally.
He dialed the number and couldn’t help sighing.
Jiang Li’s public image had just started improving thanks to the show. If word got out now that he was quitting, the goodwill they’d worked so hard to build would vanish completely.
Ye Cheng genuinely thought this was a shame, but there was nothing he could do if Jiang Li wasn’t willing to continue, after all, he’d had to coax him into it in the first place, and this little tyrant had never had any real interest to begin with, so terminating the contract now was hardly unexpected.
Just as Ye Cheng’s call was about to connect, the blue-haired boy walked up beside him and asked with a blank expression, “When’s the next episode filming?”
Ye Cheng, terrified: ??? Absolutely not doing the show?