In the dead of winter, even your breath could freeze in the air. And with rain falling since last night, the damp cold was harder to endure than dry frost.
The TV station had the heat on, but the cold water from the tap was still enough to make anyone shiver.
Yan Zhao scooped up a handful of water and splashed it over his face. In an instant, the cold sank through his skin to his bones.
When he opened his eyes, the man in the mirror was almost unfairly handsome. Those soft, flirtatious eyes alone were enough to make countless people scream.
Handsome as he was, Yan Zhao still wanted his own face back. His original looks had been every bit as good.
“Brother Yan, that’s enough. Your face is turning red from the cold…” His assistant, Zhong Ling, held out a clean towel, her voice uneasy. “I know you’re upset, but you have to take care of yourself.”
Yan Zhao took the towel and dried his face. “I’m just a little dizzy. I came over to clear my head.”
Zhong Ling furrowed her brows, looking so worried that she clearly didn’t believe him.
Yan Zhao smiled. “You don’t believe me? But it’s true.”
One moment, he’d been accepting the little gold statuette for Best Actor, completing his triple-crown grand slam. The next, he’d found himself somewhere unfamiliar, in someone else’s body, with a crumpled signature page in his pocket. When he unfolded it, he discovered it was the last page of a divorce agreement. He had every reason to need to clear his head.
After casually fishing for information from his assistant, he’d already guessed who he was: a supporting character in a danmei novel.
Wealthy Family Torment: The CEO’s Runaway Superstar was a Green River Literature City novel that combined melodrama, power-ups, a comeback, romance, and comeuppance. It had won the site’s annual Most Ridiculous Story award and secured a place in the annals of danmei fiction.
The reason Yan Zhao remembered it so well wasn’t that it was packed with satisfying moments or that it pulled no punches when it came to angst. It was because one of its side characters had the same name as him, and that was the person whose body he’d ended up in.
Unfortunately, the Yan Zhao in the book wasn’t a good guy. He was a cannon-fodder supporting character.
The original host and the lead had been designed as complete opposites. The original host had the face of a sultry temptress, while the lead was plain and delicate, with only his clear eyes leaving an impression. The original host came from a family of scholars, doted on by his parents and older brother, while the lead was poor, with a mother who loved money and a father who drank every day. His parents did nothing but beat and berate him. The original host was spoiled and arrogant, speaking without thinking, while the lead was humble and composed, with “Think twice before you act” as his motto.
These two men were total opposites, yet they were cousins, so their paths were bound to cross.
At first, the original host had looked down on the lead. But as the lead’s circumstances improved, jealousy took root, and the original host began taunting and bullying him at every turn. He stooped to any low tactic he could think of, acting like he was under a spell.
He even stole the lead’s white moonlight and married into a wealthy family, then spent ages gloating about it in front of the lead.
As it turned out, though, the white moonlight wasn’t the lead’s destined love. On the day the original host married him, the lead, blind drunk, met a mysterious man in a bar. What followed was a spectacular, year-end melodrama: “We agreed it was just sex, no love, but I accidentally fell for you, so why don’t you love me?” The original host naturally interfered at every turn, ultimately winning the MVP title for “sleeping with the two men the lead loved most,” before ending up in debt to the tune of tens of millions, homeless, and with his legs broken.
Yan Zhao could only go, “…”
You couldn’t mess with the men of a danmei protagonist, just as you couldn’t steal the harem of a power-fantasy hero. That was a universal truth.
Yan Zhao went back to the studio for a touch-up. He closed his eyes and let the makeup artist dab and brush at his face, one hand in his pocket, fingertips pressed against the crumpled ball of paper.
The legitimate top had an IQ of 180, was of mixed blood from eight countries, and could go seven rounds in a night. He held the global economy in his hands, could turn the world upside down with a flick of his wrist, and could doom countless companies to bankruptcy with a single word.
With a perfect top like that, any sane person would have been all over him, and never let go. So how could the original host have wound up in a power game of “Having fun, sweetheart?” with him? In the middle and later parts of the original novel, the author had frantically patched up the lead’s white moonlight.
First, the white moonlight was portrayed as a cool, aloof god of a man, impossible to forget, and the lead fell for him completely. Later, when it was time for the lead and the legitimate top to get their happy ending, the author dumped a bucket of ink over the white moonlight, turning him into the story’s biggest villain: brooding, ruthless, and vindictive, nothing like the cool, distant heartthrob he’d been before. The whole transformation could be summed up in a meme: “Once my personality splits, I’ll kill every last one of you.jpg.”
With the white moonlight so thoroughly ruined, the lead’s illusions about him were mercilessly shattered, and he obediently got together with the legitimate top. But the author got carried away. First, the white moonlight was given an overpowered buff, then the author accidentally had him clash with the legitimate top and couldn’t figure out how to resolve the plot. In the end, the white moonlight suddenly went crazy, pulled out a gun, and shot himself. The ending was completely perfunctory, all build-up and no payoff!
Knowing what was coming, Yan Zhao felt the incomplete divorce agreement in his pocket like a little fireball, hot to the touch.
If he remembered correctly, before the divorce, the original host had already sabotaged the lead and the white moonlight countless times, openly and behind the scenes. Add his brazen, bullying personality, and there was hardly anyone in the whole book he hadn’t offended, apart from his fellow conspirators.
After the divorce, revenge would naturally come pouring down. And once Shen Yuanting turned dark, crushing him would be as easy as squashing an ant. So it hadn’t taken long for the original host to bring about his own ruin.
The original host was vicious and cruel, but he wasn’t stupid. There was a reason he’d made such a disastrous move: the legitimate top had used him.
That’s right. By this point, the original host had already hooked up with the legitimate top, and believed he was the one destined for him. After the legitimate top had sweet-talked him for a while, the original host decided to use his old trick and steal the lead’s man again!
And the rest of the plot went without saying. [waves goodbye manually]
“All done.” The makeup artist spritzed him with setting spray. “I’ll skip the lipstick. That shade you had on before was too mature. I took a look, and your natural lip color is lovely. It’ll work well on camera, too.”
“Thanks for all your hard work, Sister Wang.” Yan Zhao opened his eyes and smiled. “You did a great job.”
“Of course. They call me a makeup genius.” Sister Wang returned the compliment. “But if you didn’t have such a good face to start with, even my skills wouldn’t have much to work with.”
The studio was blazing with lights.
There were four seats for the guests. Yan Zhao sat in the second, with his three bandmates beside him: the lead, Ning Yunfan; the lead’s friend, Qiu Chengtian; and the background-board member, Fang Xingyu.
Right, the original host and the lead were in the same boy band, which made it easy for him to carry out his nasty schemes.
This segment was about how the original host had happened to see Ning Yunfan’s medical records and learned that there was something wrong with his throat. He’d forced Ning Yunfan to sing on the show, and Ning Yunfan had naturally provided material for all the marketing accounts: missed notes, off-key singing, one disastrous flop after another. Countless fans had abandoned him on the spot, and he’d been so upset that he fell seriously ill. That illness had also made the legitimate top feel sorry for him, leading to a pile of resources being thrown his way later on.
The show was filmed in two parts. They were shooting the second part now, and Ning Yunfan should already have flopped. It was too late for Yan Zhao to do anything to fix that.
A large proportion of the marketing accounts attacking Ning Yunfan must have been paid off by the original host. Now that someone else was in the body, the agent and PR team could handle the rest.
As Yan Zhao thought it over, the host said into the microphone, “Looks like everyone’s still savoring that note Yunfan just hit.”
Ning Yunfan smiled. “I’m glad you liked it. There are plenty more good songs on Here, and I hope they’ll make you happy, too.”
Yan Zhao glanced at Ning Yunfan beside him.
Big Male Lead Ning looked rosy-cheeked, smiling at the corners of his mouth. There was no sign at all that he’d just flopped.
Ning Yunfan met his gaze, his eyes frank. Then he suddenly smiled and said, “You’re all praising me so much, but I don’t deserve it. I’m the worst singer in the group. Brother Yan, Qiu Tian, and Xingyu are all better than me. Especially Brother Yan. The teachers praise him all the time, too.”
He spoke calmly, his voice steady and even, but Yan Zhao felt a bad feeling creeping over him.
Sure enough, Ning Yunfan’s next words were, “Why don’t we have Brother Yan sing a song, too?”
Wait, this wasn’t in the plot at all. Had his transmigration triggered the butterfly effect?
Yan Zhao raised an eyebrow. Ning Yunfan’s tone was firm. He was clearly certain Yan Zhao couldn’t sing as well as he could.
After a performance like that, if Yan Zhao followed it up with a poor one, was he asking for a whole bundle of bad press?
But with all those expectant fans in the audience, he couldn’t just refuse outright.
“I’ll pass,” Yan Zhao said.
“Huh? Why?” Ning Yunfan said, feigning surprise. “Don’t be shy, Brother Yan. You’re the strongest performer in our group.”
“Yeah, I think so, too.” Yan Zhao shamelessly agreed. “But lately I’ve been exploring my potential as the group’s visual, so I shouldn’t hog the spotlight.”
“Zhaozhao, you’re already handsome enough!” someone in the audience shrieked.
Yan Zhao smiled in that direction, then continued, “But I don’t want to disappoint everyone, either. So I’ll settle for something else. How about I play you a song instead?”
The host laughed. “Ha, we might as well rename the show Talent Gala. What do you think, Director?”
The director, innocently dragged into it, said, “Whatever makes you happy.”
Once Yan Zhao had tuned the guitar, the host announced, “All right, next up, Mu’s Yan Zhao will perform on a guitar he snatched from the guy next door who would rather not be named, Mr. Ying. Let’s hear it for him!”
The fans dutifully applauded, with a few mysterious code words mixed in: “Hongyan/Zhaohong is real!”
As the applause died down, Yan Zhao cradled the guitar and strummed the strings. A full, clear sound rang out.
When he’d first entered the entertainment industry, he’d been marketed as a singer. He’d studied singing, arranging, lyric writing, and composing, and had achieved some success in the music world. Even after switching to acting, he’d still hum a few songs or play a tune whenever he had time. Playing guitar was easy for him.
For his song, he’d cunningly picked one most of the fans present knew and felt strongly about: Mu’s debut song, “This Moment.”
He’d barely played a short passage before longtime fans lit up with delighted smiles. They began tapping along to the guitar and singing softly. More and more fans caught on, joining in with the accompaniment. Their voices flowed together like tributaries merging into the sea, filling the studio.
The final note fell, and Yan Zhao’s hand stilled on the strings. The whole studio fell silent, as if everyone were lost in the lingering melody.
A few seconds later, applause surged like a wave.
On an inconspicuous platform in the studio, a tall man leaned lazily against the wall, eyes closed. Shadows covered half his face, accentuating his sharp features.
“Old Shen, I never studied music. Can you tell me how good his guitar playing was?” Sheng Xin leaned on the railing, clapping along with the fans. Then, as if remembering something, he smiled. “Though it definitely can’t beat my Little Classmate Ying.”
Shen Yuanting opened his eyes. His irises were very pale, with a cool, distant cast.
Below, the young man placed his right hand over his heart and gave the audience a gentlemanly bow. The gesture wasn’t stiff, but carried a touch of easy charm. Applause and screams rose up, threatening to lift the roof off the studio.
Yan Zhao looked up, smiling, the corners of his eyes curving into soft arcs.
Shen Yuanting had never understood why fans were so infatuated with a rotten person like Yan Zhao. Now he knew the reason. Under the spotlight, Yan Zhao was undeniably dazzling.
Shen Yuanting’s lips curled in a mocking smile as he looked away and turned toward the exit. “Let’s go.”
“Hey, why the rush?” Sheng Xin called after him. “My Little Classmate Ying’s guitar hasn’t been brought back yet!”
“Then go get it yourself.” Shen Yuanting stopped and checked his watch. “I’ve already spent half the day killing time with you. I have actual work to do.”
“Hey, hey, hey! I think our friendship has come to an end. You’ve left my heart in tatters!” Sheng Xin clutched his chest like a tragic heroine. When Shen Yuanting irritably snapped, “Are you going or not?” he took the stairs three at a time and made a beeline for the guitar in the hands of a backstage staff member. In a hushed voice, he called, “I’ll be right back. Wait for me!”
Shen Yuanting let out an impatient breath and waited where he was, checking his messages.
After skimming the project group chat, where a few old hands were doing their usual bragging and bantering, a new message suddenly appeared.
When Shen Yuanting read it, his pupils contracted sharply.