Tang Yu refused to budge.
Clutching the drink given to him by Xu Qingnan, he relentlessly pressed on: “What about the commercials, then? Should we take them or not? Think of it as making some extra cash.”
Xu Qingnan frowned. If Tang Yu had come over purely to talk about this, he would rather spend that time brainstorming
Tang Yu: “The minimum offer for a single ad is one hundred thousand.”
Xu Qingnan: “We’re taking it.”
Xu Qingnan’s shift in demeanor was altogether too natural, drawing a chuckle of amusement from Tang Yu. “Cousin, you aren’t even short on money. How come this stuff can boss you around no matter when or where?”
“The more money you have, the safer you feel,” Xu Qingnan stated flatly. “Though I don’t know how to shoot commercials.”
“No worries, since they’ve already come to us, they naturally don’t care whether you know how or not,” Tang Yu explained as he pulled a stack of documents out of his backpack and laid them on the table. “Though some of these are couple commercials that require coordination.”
“With whom?”
“Some are with Ren Xubai, and others are with Deng You,” Tang Yu sorted the corresponding documents and placed them right in front of Xu Qingnan, holding onto the final one. “And there’s one with both of them together.”
Xu Qingnan: “…Why is there one with both of them together?”
“These are all your currently trending CP pairings, so you don’t need to worry about the target audience,” Tang Yu continued. “The rest were all low-tier junk, so I went ahead and rejected them for you.”
Xu Qingnan flipped through the paperwork. Contracts from brands of this scale generally didn’t present any major issues, but he still had one lingering question: “Doesn’t the variety show contract state that we aren’t allowed to meet offline?”
Then how were they supposed to shoot couple commercials?
“That’s just talk for the audience; you look the same online and offline anyway,” Tang Yu explained, casually spilling classified secrets. “Besides, the original production lineup for this weekend’s shooting schedule was already planned as an offline meetup. It’s just a face-to-face meeting—you aren’t allowed to exchange contact info or ask questions covered by the confidentiality clauses in the contract.”
Tang Yu swayed back and forth, giving Xu Qingnan’s shoulder a nudge. “So you can rest easy, cousin. Before the show’s progression reaches that point, nobody is ever going to find out that you’re actually just a humble illustrator, and a Beta to boot.”
“What I’m uneasy about isn’t that,” Xu Qingnan set aside the pile of contractual documents. “It’s the breach-of-contract penalty.”
He didn’t consider his profession or gender shameful in the least.
“…Oh, wow,” Tang Yu chuckled twice, gathering up the materials and packing them back into his backpack. “Right, cousin, my mom’s birthday is coming up soon. Come back home with me every time I go back alone, she nags my ear off.”
Xu Qingnan calculated the timeline; it should land right after the show wrapped up. “Mn, alright.”
“Then my mom’s going to be thrilled,” Tang Yu clapped his hands together. “Oh, right, tomorrow you can log online a bit later—around nine o’clock, I reckon. Don’t eat anything; someone will log in early to prep breakfast, and the other three will make their selections to pair up for a date.”
Recalling the culinary prowess of those few phoenixes in the kitchen, Xu Qingnan frowned. “Can’t I cook?”
“Of course not. Anyone who knows how to cook is disqualified, otherwise it’d give it away instantly.”
“…How brilliantly clever,” Xu Qingnan offered an expressionless compliment. “Anything else?”
His cousin was telling him to get lost again.
Tang Yu rolled out this time.
And took along a massive bag of small, hand-toasted bread rolls baked by his cousin personally.
Over on Qiguang Star within the central star district, after logging off, Ye Yuyao first caught up on some sleep. When he woke up, his butler informed him that his father was waiting for him in the third-floor tea room.
A flicker crossed Ye Yuyao’s gaze as he offered a gentle smile. “Understood, Uncle Zhao, I’ll head right over.”
The head of the Ye family, Ye Mingli, harbored a passionate devotion to the art of tea. The tea room was decorated with extreme luxury; any random tea set taken outside would easily command a price of over a million.
At this very moment, the instant Ye Yuyao stepped foot into the tea room and Butler Zhao closed the door behind the father-son pair, a white porcelain cup patterned with cyan glaze came hurtling through the air, smashing squarely against Ye Yuyao’s head.
A streak of crimson trickled down from his forehead. Lowering his head, Ye Yuyao took the full impact of the blow without flinching, his mouth curving into a mocking arc of I knew it would come to this, while his voice remained respectful and deferential: “Father.”
“How on earth did I end up with a son like you?!” Ye Mingli glared, his aged visage failing to mask his boiling fury. “You fail to properly manage the company entrusted to you, and instead run off to make a spectacle of yourself on a trashy show like that! Everyone knows you’re supposed to marry into the Yang family; how do you expect me to face Elder Yang after pulling a stunt like this?”
The Yang family’s face?
Since when had the Ye family ever given a damn about that?
Who knows how much effort his father had expended just to dredge up the long-declining Yang family to arrange a marriage alliance for him? And now he wanted to talk about face? Back when the Yang family fell into ruin, wasn’t it none other than Ye Mingli himself who rushed in to swallow up the lion’s share of their assets on day one?
To pave a smooth, unhindered path for his eldest son, his good father truly spared no effort whatsoever.
“Father, it’s not that I’m refusing to follow your arrangements. It’s just that Yang Luo has someone he likes, though Elder Yang doesn’t know it yet.” Staring with a gaze bordering on numbness at the drops of blood dripping from his forehead onto the floor, Ye Yuyao offered a mild-mannered explanation.
“That still gives you no right to make a public spectacle of yourself!” Unpacified rage blazing on, Ye Mingli pointed a finger straight at Ye Yuyao. “Don’t think I haven’t figured out what schemes you’re plotting. The Ye family belongs solely to your older brother, so stop harboring delusional fantasies!”
Lifting his head to expose his blood-stained face, Ye Yuyao smiled without a trace of warmth reaching his eyes. “I know, Father. You’ve repeated those words countless times already.”
Gazing at Ye Yuyao’s face, Ye Mingli frowned. “Get lost and go bandage that up! Since you’ve already gone on the show, see to it that you don’t bring shame upon the Ye family!”
Acknowledging the command, Ye Yuyao turned on his heel to leave, pulling the door shut behind him.
He ran right into Ye Yuheyuan the second he stepped out.
His older brother.
Sharing a similar facial structure to his own, yet tinged with a sickly fragility. Catching sight of his current state, he hurried right over. “Yaoyao? What happened to your head?”
Looking at this face once the dearest in his world Ye Yuyao’s lips curled into a cold, indifferent mockery. “None of your business.”
Ye Yuheyuan pressed his lips together, asking with careful, tentative hesitation, “Was it Dad?”
“You already knew without asking.”
Ye Yuheyuan continued, “Yaoyao, I… you don’t like Yang Luo, do you? I can go talk to Dad for you.”
“Save it, Big Brother, I’ve already solved it. If you genuinely want to help me,” Ye Yuyao let out a scoff, “you’d be better off remaining bedridden and sick just like before.”
Watching the instant drain of color from Ye Yuheyuan’s face, Ye Yuyao murmured his parting shot: “And another thing stop calling me that. It sickens me.”
Striding straight ahead, the wound across his forehead throbbed with a persistent ache. Gripping the handrail tightly, Ye Yuyao forced each step to fall with steady, crushing weight. He had to secure a suitable partner, expand his own sphere of influence, and take back everything that rightfully belonged to him.
Shadow Star stood as the most industrially developed entertainment hub across the entire star system, producing seventy percent of all film and television projects galaxy-wide. And on this single planet, sixty percent of the capital rested squarely within the pockets of the Deng family.
At this exact moment, the Deng household was gathered en masse to spectate their young master’s attempts at making breakfast.
Frowning deeply yet brimming with enthusiasm, Deng You sported a smudge of flour perched across the bridge of his nose. “Mom, how do the dumplings I wrapped look?”
“They have a very unique artistic flair, darling,” Deng Mother praised without a moment’s hesitation, completely ignoring the fact that the object in question bore zero resemblance to a dumpling. “Though darling, you literally just got back yesterday after spending a whole day locked away inside. Shouldn’t you rest for a bit?”
Riding a wave of high spirits, Deng You waved a hand dismissively without looking back. “No need, tomorrow I’m making damn sure Xu Qingnan gets to taste my handmade dumplings!”
Standing nearby, Deng Father chimed in with hesitant caution, “You-you, just what kind of background does this Xu Qingnan have? What about his family…”
Deng You instantly cut him off. “Dad! I told you, you’re not allowed to run background checks on him! We have to keep it mysterious. Besides, you promised me you wouldn’t interfere. Mom, look at Dad—”
Deng Mother immediately slapped Deng Father’s arm and rushed to soothe him. “Exactly. Our family is already wealthy enough; our darling can marry whoever he wants. Don’t listen to your dad.”
Deng You burst into laughter at those words, shooting a victorious, smug look at his old man before returning full-throttle to his breakfast-making enterprise.
Huo Zheng’s household lacked this kind of bustling lively noise. Having suffered excessive spiritual power consumption, the skin beneath the inhibitor patch at the nape of his neck burned with a dull, throbbing heat. Out of sheer habit, Huo Zheng fished a tube of suppressants out of his drawer and plunged the needle straight into his arm without blinking, right as his manager walked in upon hearing the commotion.
“A-zheng, the doctor made it clear: the suppressants you’re using right now are already the newest formulation. If you develop a drug tolerance to this tier as well, you’re bound to—”
“I know,” emerging from his holographic pod, Huo Zheng tossed the spent syringe into the trash can with a look of utter indifference. “Don’t mention it anymore.”
Sighing heavily, his manager pivoted to a different topic. “Right, someone from the production crew came by and has been waiting outside for you for a while now.”
“Mn,” pivoting on his heel to head toward the reception lounge, Huo Zheng added casually, “Is that annual membership card for our usual gym still active?”
His manager thought for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, got three months left. Why? You aren’t competing anymore.”
“Nothing, just asking.”
Cheng Yanzhi had barely opened the forum when his eyes were flooded by a dizzying avalanche of notifications piling up in his inbox. This forum had precisely one annoying flaw: anyone who participated in his bidding projects was required to trigger a notification ping his way. Neatly and decisively, Cheng Yanzhi emptied his inbox entirely, then opened up his memo app.
“Name: Xu Qingnan, Gender: Unknown, Suspected Alpha, Personality: Cold, crisp, kind, slightly lacking in emotional intelligence with a touch of a sharp tongue, Appearance: Manly, robust, fiercely handsome, lips look exceptionally soft…”
Cheng Yanzhi’s virtual keyboard clicked at lightning speed, displaying a document titled 《Xu Qingnan Observation Handbook》 right across his screen.
Ren Xubai, on the other hand, had not logged off.
Owing to his injuries, his glands remained somewhat unstable. Deep sleep kept things relatively steady, but the moment he moved around, the scent of wild roses grew strong enough for even himself to catch, raising the distinct probability that the hunting hounds under his second eldest brother’s command might track him down.
Disabling the security cameras in his apartment, retrieving his optical brain from the director’s pool, clearing a handful of emails, and dispatching a few directives to ensure his company wasn’t running off the rails in his absence, he took care of it all.
Recovering enough in this sanctuary was the primary condition he had negotiated with the director to participate in the variety show.
Well-rested, Ren Xubai climbed out of bed and drifted aimlessly around the apartment without a destination, eventually pushing open the unlocked doors to Xu Qingnan and Deng You’s shared quarters.
Xu Qingnan’s virtual avatar lay flat on his back in bed, eyes closed, his chest rhythmically rising and falling to simulate steady breathing.
Soft, pure white light cascaded down. Because his eyes were closed, it stripped away a degree of his intimidating sharpness, and after lingering on him for a while, it unexpectedly lent him a soft, harmless illusion.
An uncontrollable urge prompted Ren Xubai to stretch out a hand, his fingertips brushing across the high bridge of his brow and coming to rest at the bridge of his nose, tracing the rhythmic rise and fall until his fingertip finally brushed gently against those pale pink lips.
Yet the next second, Ren Xubai whipped his hand back, his breathing turning erratic as he dropped into a kneel right beside Xu Qingnan.
Yet he did nothing at all.
After sending Tang Yu off, Xu Qingnan had originally planned to catch some sleep, but his optical brain vibrated to notify him that his commission payout for last month’s work on Dream Painting had arrived, and Xu Qingnan was instantly wide awake.
Having experienced a relatively light workload last month alongside frequent commission acceptances, his payout naturally proved exceptionally generous, hitting over thirty thousand a quite respectable sum within the illustrator profession. With prudent caution, Xu Qingnan counted the digits over and over again, set aside five thousand star coins for daily living expenses, and deposited the rest straight into his savings account.
Feeling exceptionally cheerful, Xu Qingnan decided to head out and treat himself to a proper meal today.
After all, there was no telling what kind of unappealing monstrosity he’d be forced to eat for breakfast tomorrow.
Changing into a hoodie and securing his mask and cap Tang Yu had reminded him that keeping his face concealed when stepping out was best to avoid unnecessary trouble Xu Qingnan stepped out the door.
He noticed that the apartment directly across from his had its front door flung wide open, with someone resembling a real estate agent guiding a young man through an apartment walkthrough. Paying it little mind, Xu Qingnan locked his door securely and headed out.