At twelve o’clock on Gu Tang’s eighteenth birthday,
Gu Tang and her father, Gu Fugui, sat at the dining table staring at each other, as the hour and minute hands overlapped.
“What did you just say?” Gu Tang thought she must have misheard.
Gu Fugui spoke again with utmost sincerity.
“Actually, I’m a billionaire.”
Well, she really hadn’t heard him wrong.
The more sincere he sounded, the more dumbfounded Gu Tang became.
Gu Tang pointed at the ten-year-old television in the living room that had never been replaced and was filled with static, then at the enormous ceramic tile mural behind them depicting prosperity and wealth through blooming flowers, and finally at the pair of plastic slippers on Gu Fugui’s feet that had cost five yuan and twenty cents.
She asked Gu Fugui for confirmation once again.
“You’ve watched me live in this place for eighteen years… and this is?”
“It was all to cultivate your independent and self-reliant personality, my beloved daughter!” Gu Fugui spoke with the cadence and emotion of someone reciting a grand speech. “If I waited so long to tell you, wasn’t it all for the sake of your all-round development in morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and practical skills?”
“Develop this!”
Thinking about all the billions she had been deprived of for eighteen years, all those missed opportunities for yachts, private island vacations, luxury villas…
Gu Tang was equally heartbroken, her emotions overflowing.
Gu Tang knew that this world was the fictional world of Prosperous Sweet Love: The Black-Bellied Film Emperor’s Moonlight Goddess, a novel she had read in her previous life. The story was about an ordinary girl named Lin Yueyue who came to the entertainment industry in pursuit of her dream. After enduring countless hardships, she eventually ended up happily together with the Film Emperor.
There were quite a few vicious supporting female characters in the novel. Among the girl group “Sunny Girls,” which marked the starting point of Lin Yueyue’s acting career, there was a beautiful and alluring girl who was jealous of Lin Yueyue. She was the first vicious supporting female character to appear in the story, Gu Tang herself.
However, she… had never heard that this supporting female character had a billionaire father!
If she had a billionaire father, then who would still bother being a vicious supporting female character?
She would absolutely be an innocent little princess who knew nothing of the world’s hardships, worrying every day only about how to spend her money, while regularly doing charity for other people. Wouldn’t that be great?
Seeing Gu Tang standing there in a daze, Gu Fugui straightened himself up and coughed twice.
“Sugar, Dad has kept this from you for so many years. Now that you’re an adult, it’s time I told you. I’m a low-key wealthy man. The reason I never told you was because I wanted you to enjoy the happiness of an ordinary person.”
Gu Tang had a different opinion.
“Dad, compared to the happiness of an ordinary person, I’d much rather have the happiness of a rich second-generation heir who has nothing to do all day.”
Looking at the intense anticipation in his daughter’s eyes, filled with the joy of getting something without lifting a finger, Gu Fugui suddenly felt that all his years of painstaking education had been a complete failure.
Although his daughter had lived an ordinary person’s life all these years, it had taken her only three sentences to transition from an ordinary person into a spoiled rich kid.
The newly minted rich second-generation heir had already taken out her phone. Her fingertips tapped impatiently against the dining table.
“Dad, I’m eighteen! What an important day! Shouldn’t you show some appreciation?”
“Of course I’ll give you something, but Dad hopes you can obtain true happiness.” Gu Fugui began his final struggle.
Gu Tang didn’t even need to think.
“Transfer money to me and I’ll be very happy. Come on, just tap your phone and let’s make you, me, and everyone happy.”
Having money really was happiness.
The newly minted rich heiress, Gu Tang, was so excited that she barely slept that night. Yet she wasn’t sleepy the next day. With a pair of bright, sparkling eyes, she went straight to class.
She was studying acting at A University. The school was fairly ordinary, and the teachers weren’t particularly strict either.
The morning class was Film and Television Appreciation. Although Gu Tang had a history of skipping acting classes and ditching vocal lessons, she never missed this particular class, where the entire class watched movies together. She had perfect attendance.
“Gu Tang, over here! Here!”
As soon as she entered the classroom, she heard a girl’s voice. She looked up and saw a punk girl wearing heavy eye makeup waving at her. A seat had already been saved beside her.
The girl’s name was Xu Piaopiao, and she was Gu Tang’s good friend.
“You’re a little late.” Xu Piaopiao pulled her schoolbag out from beneath the desk, clearing the seat for Gu Tang.
“Sister, I might be a little full of myself these next few days, so I hope you’ll show me a little more respect.” The newly minted rich heiress, Miss Gu, was taking precautions in advance.
“That sentence of yours is already pretty arrogant.” Xu Piaopiao glanced sideways at her and pulled out an eerie smile. “Go ahead and say two more arrogant things. Let’s see if you can keep your dog head attached.”
Gu Tang immediately calmed down and even took the initiative to apologize.
“Sorry, I got carried away.”
“Wasn’t your birthday yesterday?” Xu Piaopiao handed Gu Tang a box. “Here, your birthday present.”
The box landed in Gu Tang’s hands. The smile that had just blossomed on her face froze.
The outer packaging was black and red, with a knife design on it. For some reason, the pattern made the dark red patches look extremely suspicious to Gu Tang, almost like dried bloodstains.
…What the hell was this thing?
“I absolutely love it. Out of respect for you, I’ve decided to wait until I get home to open it, then place it on my bedside table as a constant reminder to myself. I swear!”
Gu Tang spoke with absolute conviction as she grabbed the gift and stuffed it into her bag.
But Xu Piaopiao was even faster. She intercepted the hand Gu Tang had reached into the bag.
“Open it and take a look.” Xu Piaopiao gave her a meaningful look. “This is good stuff!”
Seeing Xu Piaopiao’s confident expression only made Gu Tang feel more conflicted.
With that much confidence, it was probably not a good thing.
Gu Tang opened the gift box. Inside was a silver necklace, double-layered, with leather intertwined with silver chains. The silver skull hanging from the necklace was enormous and impossible to miss. There were even scars carved across the skull. It was heavy in her hand, and somehow felt heavy in her heart as well.
“Do you like it?” Xu Piaopiao asked.
To be honest, Gu Tang didn’t know whether she had simply spent too much time with Xu Piaopiao or what, but she actually thought it looked pretty good. At the very least, it was something she could accept.
With that thought, her answer became much more sincere.
“I like it! I really, really like it!”
After receiving such enthusiastic praise, Xu Piaopiao shifted her gaze and changed the subject.
“During class, the teacher asked who was interested in auditioning for a girl group. I signed both of us up.”
Gu Tang froze slightly and met Xu Piaopiao’s gaze, suddenly getting a very bad feeling.
Xu Piaopiao had no idea what her expression meant.
“It won’t take up much time. The teacher said more than fifty girls are competing for four spots. For people like us, who are just there to collect a participation fee and make up the numbers, we might as well take the money.”
Gu Tang had only just escaped poverty the night before. She had skipped straight past the moderately well-off middle class and become a capitalist billionaire overnight. She was now so rich and confident that she looked down on such small sums of money.
Besides, she knew that this girl group audition was the starting point of the female protagonist’s entry into the entertainment industry.
She still hadn’t met the female protagonist of the novel. All she remembered was that the author constantly emphasized how gentle and kind she was. There probably wasn’t anything to be afraid of.
But Gu Tang’s identity as the vicious supporting female character made things a little awkward.
When the time came, should she follow the plot and be vicious toward her just for the sake of it, or should she avoid the female protagonist altogether and simply live her own comfortable little life?
She hadn’t even had time to consider this question before. Back when she was an ordinary person, simply making a living had already taken all her energy.
Before Gu Tang could agonize over it for even three minutes, the movie for Film and Television Appreciation began.
This time, it was a comedy, and Gu Tang laughed louder than anyone else.
Watching a movie couldn’t cure the worries in Gu Tang’s heart, but this particular comedy really was hilarious. It wasn’t until the movie ended that Gu Tang returned to her faint melancholy and inner turmoil.
After living an ordinary life for so many years, suddenly having to get involved with the female protagonist was genuinely worrying.
The moment she stepped out of the classroom, Gu Tang began sighing. She sighed all the way to the school cafeteria.
Then, when she saw the food in the cafeteria, her sigh suddenly turned into the sound of a bellows.
Noticing Gu Tang’s gloomy mood, Xu Piaopiao had no idea what artistic mood she was trying to cultivate.
“That movie just now…”
“Hahahahahahahaha! The male lead was so stupid!”
People with a low threshold for laughter weren’t suited to being depressed. She didn’t even need anyone else to help her. She had cured herself.
Xu Piaopiao ordered noodles and sat at the table waiting for her number to be called, while Gu Tang, who had chosen rice, carried her tray over to get some dishes.
The girl in front of them was wearing earphones and watching the currently popular television drama Destined to Miss You on her phone while waiting in line. It was a hugely popular campus idol drama.
Gu Tang was following the drama too. She immediately had something to say, but every thought in her head was a complaint about the show. She was well aware of her own mouth, and afraid of getting beaten up, so she could only keep it all inside.
In the end, with a whole stomach full of things she wanted to say, she carried her tray of food over to Xu Piaopiao.
“There’s a drama that’s been really popular lately, Destined to Miss You. Have you watched it?”
“No.” Xu Piaopiao was curious. “Is it good?”
“A youthful suspense medical industry thriller sci-fi drama.”
Gu Tang immediately shook her head, her expression deadly serious.
“It’s already gone beyond just fighting. We’ve had an eighteen-year-old CEO, a miscarriage, a car accident, snow, leukemia. The latest episode reveals that the male lead is actually an alien, the second male lead traveled back from the future, and the third male lead is a special forces soldier.”
Xu Piaopiao paused for two seconds, unsure how to respond.
“Wow. That’s a huge production.”
For someone who loved passionate, action-packed dramas, this was the first time Xu Piaopiao had ever been so indifferent toward the words “huge production.”
“Even though it’s an idol drama, it really has been my source of happiness lately. I strongly recommend you catch up!” Gu Tang said seriously. “So many people are following it. The second male lead, Yin Fan, even ranked first last month on the list of ‘The 50 Male Celebrities in the Entertainment Industry People Most Want to Sleep With’!”
“Yin Fan?”
Xu Piaopiao vaguely remembered the name, but not from the television drama.
“Wasn’t there a photo of him in that ranking? You even reposted the ranking on Weibo and said you were willing.”
Gu Tang herself didn’t even remember reposting that Weibo post. She looked highly skeptical of Xu Piaopiao’s claim.
“Do I look like that kind of person?”
Xu Piaopiao was silent for two seconds.
“Do you not have the slightest idea what kind of person you are?”
When Gu Tang returned home that evening, no one was there.
She turned on the lights and saw a letter in the middle of the living room. It was an apology letter from Gu Fugui.
【Dad deeply regrets not telling you sooner that I’m a billionaire. Daughters should be raised with wealth, then you wouldn’t have become so obsessed with money. Dad was wrong. Dad will make it up to you. Have a little fun tonight. Let me give you a taste of the life of a rich second-generation heir your age. Don’t think Dad has abandoned you.】
Gu Tang stared at the letter for two seconds.
She could already picture a private island and a Lamborghini right in front of her. If the key to a vacation villa in Koh Samui was waiting for her instead, wouldn’t that be even better?
However, that final sentence, “Have a little fun tonight,” made Gu Tang feel somewhat uneasy, given how well she knew Gu Fugui.
The doorbell rang.
Full of anticipation, Gu Tang opened the front door.
The moment she saw who was standing outside, she slammed the door shut with a loud bang.
She took a deep breath, then opened the peephole of the security door.
Standing on tiptoe, Gu Tang stared at the person outside through the peephole with trembling eyes, trying to make sure she hadn’t mistaken what she had just seen.
…She hadn’t.
Yin Fan!
The number one man on the “50 Male Celebrities in the Entertainment Industry People Most Want to Sleep With” list she had been talking about at lunchtime!
The devoted senior who had traveled back from the future and was hopelessly in love with the female protagonist in Destined to Miss You, the white moonlight who was gentle and considerate enough to instantly captivate countless girls, the dream lover of every young woman!
And he was even Yin Fan wearing those refined gold-rimmed glasses, giving him that irresistible scholarly-but-dangerous look!
Who wouldn’t panic when confronted with such a deluxe package?
Gu Tang opened the peephole and looked again.
It really was that deluxe package!
She opened the door and, with a slightly apologetic expression, let the deluxe package inside.
Unlike his gentle, devoted image on television, today’s Yin Fan seemed to carry a somewhat restrained and aloof aura. There was no discernible emotion in his eyes behind his lenses.
Gu Tang had never imagined that she would have any contact with Yin Fan. Yin Fan was also a named character in Prosperous Sweet Love: The Black-Bellied Film Emperor’s Moonlight Goddess.
In the original novel, although Yin Fan possessed extraordinary acting talent, he came from an ordinary background and therefore remained stuck playing supporting roles, taking one terrible production after another. The kind and adorable female protagonist tried to help him, but this aroused the male lead’s jealousy, eventually turning Yin Fan into a casualty of the romance between the two of them.
The novel once devoted a considerable amount of space to the struggle between the male lead and Yin Fan. One line in particular had left a deep impression on Gu Tang. The male lead had said to his friend:
“Don’t let him get hold of a single opportunity.”
The reason he said this wasn’t because the male lead was particularly cold-hearted. It was because as long as Yin Fan seized even one opportunity, he would be able to make a comeback.
Gu Tang had been written out early in the novel, while Yin Fan didn’t appear until much later. The two had never crossed paths in the original story.
So seeing Yin Fan with her own eyes, when his career had only just begun, still came as something of a surprise.
There was even a faint feeling of sympathy between two people who were both destined to become casualties of the plot.
However, Yin Fan acted as though he hadn’t noticed her surprised expression at all. He calmly closed the door, then returned to stand in front of her.
He raised his hand.
His fingers were long and well-defined, clean and slender. His skin was slightly pale, perfectly matching his temperament. They were an exceptionally beautiful pair of hands.
Gu Tang remembered that these hands had once trended on Weibo. A whole crowd of fangirls had gone wild, screaming about what kind of heavenly beauty could possibly possess such heavenly hands.
“You…”
Those beautiful hands began undoing the first button of his shirt.
Gu Tang’s body reacted faster than her brain. She instinctively crossed her arms over her chest and hurriedly backed away.
“Big brother, let’s talk this out! Big brother, don’t get carried away!”
What the hell kind of rich second-generation lifestyle was this supposed to be?
Where the hell were her private jet, sports cars, and giant mansion?!
Author’s Note:
Male Lead: …I know what you want to do. I’m already prepared.
Female Lead: No, you don’t! Brother, please wake up!
Who wouldn’t want to experience the happiness of being a rich second-generation heir?
I’d rather trade my ordinary life for this plain and simple happiness. [Shut up.]