“Ahhh!”
Lin Haobai suddenly shot up from his soft bed, drenched in cold sweat.
Oh Mom, that was terrifying!
He considered himself a bold, upright tough guy, yet even he couldn’t help feeling a trace of fear over the dream he’d just had.
It had felt far too real.
When he closed his eyes, he could almost still sense the scorching heat, the damp air, the fragrant body wash, the pleasant male voice. Described like that, it sounded as though he’d had a beautiful, sensual dream. But only he, who had experienced it, knew that it hadn’t been colorful or romantic, it had been horrifying.
That sensation of weightlessness from falling out of the sky had been too frightening, as if he might lose his life at any moment.
Although in the second before he blacked out, it had seemed like something caught him.
Lin Haobai ran a hand through his sweat-soaked hair and glanced at the digital clock on the bedside table. It was already six in the morning.
He felt as if he hadn’t rested at all that night. His body wasn’t the least bit tired, but his heart felt strangely weary.
He pulled open the drawer, took out a chocolate wrapped in colorful foil, and slowly placed it in his mouth. Gradually, the panic faded. The familiar taste of the chocolate he had eaten for more than a decade brought back a solid sense of being alive.
Meanwhile, Ren Tianxing was still fast asleep. His posture was awkward, slightly hunched over, as though protecting himself.
The night before, in the bathroom, he had also experienced a startling moment.
While soaking in the bath and singing, he had suddenly remembered the little item he’d casually picked up at the marketplace earlier that day. Realizing it was still in his coat pocket and afraid it might be misplaced by the servants the next day, he had gotten out of the warm water to retrieve it.
Only, whether it was his luck or misfortune—
The little item had slipped straight out of his pocket.
Fortunately, he reacted quickly and snatched it up in time. But his movement had been too fast, and he’d accidentally scraped a rather sensitive area with it. That left him feeling uncomfortable all night.
When Ren Tianxing got up in the morning and saw the small figurine with chocolate-toned skin, dressed in a white silk top and black pants with gold-thread trim, he couldn’t help reaching out to tap its tiny head.
“Look at you, so naughty, almost fell into the toilet. You nearly scared your dad to death.”
After speaking, Ren Tianxing picked up the figurine standing on the bedside table and examined it carefully.
Yesterday, as if possessed, he had been drawn into that large figurine marketplace. Growing up, he had never known there were so many different kinds of figurines in the world.
Especially this one in front of him, he had singled it out from among a whole pile at a glance.
Although at the time it had been sealed inside a box and he couldn’t see it, his intuition told him that this figurine belonged to him.
So, under his assistant Xiao Cha’s astonished gaze, he refused the assistant’s help, carried the box himself, and lined up with a group of young girls and boys to wait and pay.
“Little thing, you’d better behave from now on. Otherwise, if Daddy’s unhappy, I’ll spank your little butt.”
Ren Tianxing said this with a smiling squint as he got out of bed.
It seemed that ever since he had this little thing, his mood had inexplicably improved.
Finally, someone can listen to me talk!
Lin Haobai, meanwhile, had no idea that last night’s dream hadn’t been a dream at all.
At this moment, he had arrived at his studio and had just sat down.
The night’s bizarre adventure made him feel that he had probably taken on too much work lately and needed more rest. A strong body would allow him to work better.
“Brother Wang, don’t accept so many jobs for me lately. I want to take a proper break.”
His manager Wang You looked at him in surprise.
This kid, although he had already won the Best Actor award, was a workaholic at heart. He never dared slack off, afraid that if he didn’t earn enough money, his mother would suffer. Why was the sun rising in the west today? He was actually taking the initiative to ask for fewer jobs.
“Don’t look at me like that!” Lin Haobai rolled his eyes, took the tablet, and began checking his schedule for the next month.
Seeing that eye roll, Wang You finally let out a sigh of relief, patting his chubby chest and laughing as he scolded, “You brat, you scared me to death. I thought someone had transmigrated into you! Saying you don’t want to take so much work. But cutting back isn’t a bad idea. You’ve already earned plenty. As long as you don’t go around buying things recklessly, it’s more than enough.”
Lin Haobai nodded, yet his thoughts drifted back to last night’s dream. That thing he had glimpsed at the end, was it really what he thought it was? If it was, that was truly terrifying.
How could a perfectly normal dream turn into something like that?
He couldn’t figure it out, but soon the data on the tablet in his hands drew his attention away.
He didn’t expect yesterday’s figurine sales to be so high! He paid special attention to the twelve figurines he had personally made.
When he had made them, it had been agreed that these twelve rare editions would be mixed in with the regular versions produced by other factories. Who got them would purely be a matter of luck. Judging by today, all twelve rare editions had sold out in just one day. That meant the sales of the regular editions had exceeded six figures.
He wondered which lucky fan had bought one!
Lin Haobai sighed lightly, then picked up the well-thumbed script and started reading. Tomorrow was the final scene of his movie. Yesterday and today had been intentionally left free; aside from attending the figurine launch event, the rest of the time was reserved for preparing the last scene.
Such careful planning was necessary because tomorrow’s scene was his first on-screen passionate scene ever.
Thinking back to the rehearsal, he remembered how stiff his hand had been when it reached for Sister Gu. He wanted to cover his face. He had been utterly useless! Although he was a Best Actor, he was one with a martial arts background, he was far too inexperienced with romantic scenes!!
Today, he decided to spend the entire day in the studio, fully internalizing the scene. He needed to convey emotions naturally, with movements flowing like clouds and water. Under no circumstances could he perform like a robot in front of his goddess, Sister Gu.
Lost in these thoughts, he immersed himself in the script.
“This set of data is wrong. Reorganize it and resubmit. Also, the entire report has no logical flow; the analysis is too one-sided. Send it back to redo and submit the new report before the end of the day.”
A steady, commanding voice gave instructions with calm precision. Occasionally, another person responded softly. From the conversation, it was clear he was in a workplace setting.
Having experienced this once before, Lin Haobai remained much calmer this time.
He knew he was dreaming again.
As the sound of footsteps shuffled across the carpet and faded away, Lin Haobai began to wonder how long this dream would last. His eyes stared straight ahead, seeing only darkness. His nose caught a faint, familiar fragrance.
“What a bunch of idiots! They can’t even do such simple data analysis correctly. If they were just a little more careful, they would notice the anomaly. Not seeing this means their brains are empty too.”
As the man muttered this quietly, Lin Haobai felt the ground beneath him tremble slightly. Then, an enlarged beautiful face appeared before his eyes.
The beauty had tousled chestnut hair that reflected deep highlights in the sunlight. His skin was fair and radiant, flawless from Lin Haobai’s perspective. A high, straight nose and rosy lips completed the face. If it weren’t for the piercing intensity in his eyes, Lin Haobai might have thought he was seeing a dream goddess.
The beauty rested his face on one elbow, staring at him intently. His other hand slowly moved toward Lin Haobai.
The tingling, electrifying sensation made Lin Haobai feel like every pore on his body had opened. At that moment, all he wanted was to escape.
“Little thing, did you miss your daddy?”
Before Lin Haobai could fully process his thoughts, the familiar voice came from the beautiful face in front of him. That’s when he realized, the man from last night’s dream was… the very same beauty standing before him!
“You’re not my dad! Who are you?” Lin Haobai tried to shout, but his mouth seemed glued shut, he couldn’t open it.
“Ah, little thing, why are there so many foolish humans in this world?”
Another complaint.
Lin Haobai stared at this gorgeous face, hearing such unflattering words coming from it, and wanted nothing more than to make him shut up.
A fierce glint involuntarily appeared in his eyes.
But the beauty in front of him couldn’t sense any of his emotions and just continued rambling.
Watching him frown while complaining about the low IQ of the company employees and how the shareholders acted arrogantly, Lin Haobai just wanted to reach out and cover his ears.
Good heavens! This beautiful man was a chatterbox!
And the chatterbox beauty had no idea that the little thing before him actually dared to call him a chatterbox.
After talking for quite a while and releasing his pent-up emotions, he finally smiled: “Little thing, it’s all thanks to you. Daddy’s mood has improved a lot!” Saying that, he opened the drawer in front of him, took something out, and tore it open.
Lin Haobai immediately recognized the familiar object.
Normally a tiny chocolate ball, it now looked as large as a watermelon. Watching this beautiful giant expertly tear open the chocolate’s packaging, Lin Haobai caught the sweet aroma.
“Do you want some?”
The last image in his memory was the beauty smiling as he brought the enormous chocolate ball, like a watermelon, right in front of him.
“Xiao Bai, wake up. Go rest! You still have to get up early for the set tomorrow.”
Lin Haobai felt his shoulder gently pushed. He rubbed his eyes. “Brother Wang, how did I fall asleep?”
“You must’ve been exhausted lately,” Wang You said, stuffing Lin Haobai’s personal items into a bag. “Get some rest tonight. After you wrap filming tomorrow, I’ll give you a long break.”
Yawning, Lin Haobai nodded, got up, and followed his manager out, his mind still replaying the dream.
Who exactly was that beauty?
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a chocolate ball identical to the one from his dream. Tearing open the packaging, he popped the sweet-smelling chocolate into his mouth.