Chapter 24

Translator: kirie

Proofreader: celare

Editor: alexie

Li Shaoyao was extremely drunk, and after he hugged for a while, he lost his strength and fell asleep.

Ji Zhinong half-supported and half-carried the sugar daddy onto the bed of the second floor dormitory. He then went into the bathroom and wrung a warm towel dry.

He didn’t know what drunken fit Li Shaoyao had outside, but Li Shaoyao’s entire face was a little pale from the cold, his nose also red. When Ji Zhinong rubbed his face, he reduced his hand strength. Even like this, a certain someone groaned uncomfortably without stopping.

The heater in the room was fully turned on. Afraid that his cheeks might chap tomorrow, Ji Zhinong got a moisturizing face cream and applied a thick layer on him while he was still asleep.

Li Shaoyao was way too skinny these few years; one couldn’t even pinch out a few grams of flesh. Luckily, he was young, and his outstanding bone structure was wrapped by collagen, a complete handsome guy.

That same handsome guy that made Wen Che’s heart from six years ago pound.

But he missed those chubby flushes on this kid’s face more. It was a pity that men went through great transformation once grown. He probably wouldn’t be able to touch them in the future.

Ah Jing had already gone home. Currently, there were only two people in the villa: the drunk Li Shaoyao and he. It was rare free time.

Zhinong glanced at the time. It was already late: 12: 30 am. He took his phone and walked to the balcony, quietly pressing the number saved as “L”.

At the current time six years ago, Lu Yuankong might have been waiting at home to celebrate his birthday.

The fans on the Internet missed Wen Che so much, so what about Lu Yuankong, his almost fiancé of the past?

Zhinong pressed the call button. He didn’t know what he wanted to hear either.

He both hoped that he could walk out of the trauma of his passing and felt scared that he would really forget it all.

When the call was picked up, it was still that familiar voice, but this time, his patience had run out. After not receiving a reply, he ended the call before even two seconds were over.

But in these two seconds, Wen Che could make out what Lu Yuankong was doing from the noise in his surroundings——he was probably listening to a music concert. The music was pleasant and soothing, so the listeners of this song probably wouldn’t be in a bad mood either.

Countless strangers were reminiscing about Wen Che on this day, but the fiancé who had the closest relationship with Wen Che was leisurely listening to a music concert in a foreign nation.

Qin Xiaohuo said he was living well. It seemed like he was really listening very well.

Wen Che realized that he might have really become one of the passersby in Lu Yuankong’s life.

He comforted himself. There was a time difference between Australia and here. Maybe he still didn’t know what day it was.

He didn’t have the courage to look deeply into how much of a time difference it was.

In reality, he was well aware that a time difference of three hours was not enough for him to believe his own lies.

On the second day, Li Shaoyao woke up energetically, a red flush returning to his cheeks without signs of chapping from the cold. He had clearly already left his sorrow from his drunken state last night. Ji Zhinong, on the other hand, was in an especially downcast mood.

The five days of break passed in the blink of an eye.

After eating breakfast, Zhinong should have returned to the production crew and finish shooting the remaining one third of the drama.

In Li Shaoyao’s mind, the closest similarity Ji Zhinong had to Wen Che was nothing more than their passion for acting and their talent in this area.

The current Ji Zhinong was a satisfactory actor who could perform well even after taking a dozen slaps. For him to be so low-spirited today, he wasn’t a satisfactory worker in the mind of Capitalist Li.

“Cheer up.” He extended his hand and patted Ji Zhinong‘s bouncy cheeks lightly. “My Lu Yun isn’t in this kind of mood.”

The character of Lu Yun allowed Wen Che to win two Film Emperor awards. Zhinong was clearer than anyone what sort of mood this character was in.

He wasn’t easily overcome by negative emotions, but now, those two seconds of symphony from last night were echoing endlessly in his mind.

Lu Yuankong didn’t have to say a thing to make Wen Che so sorrowful that it was as if he were sick.

“Lu Yun isn’t yours.” He rebutted Li Shaoyao.

Lu Yun didn’t belong to Li Shaoyao. Lu Yun belonged to the audience; he belonged to Wen Che. He belonged to Lu Yuankong, who stayed up overnight with him for the drama back then.

He had nothing to do with Li Shaoyao.

But that was six years ago.

This touched Li Shaoyao’s sore spot. “I arranged this entire project. Even you are mine.”

He restated in a way that allowed no room for argument, “Lu Yun, of course, is also mine.”

Ji Zhinong didn’t argue with the chunni 1 Chuunibyou(中二病) is used to describe early teens who have grandiose delusions, who desperately want to stand out, and who have convinced themselves that they have hidden knowledge or secret powers. —Wikipedia kid in front of him.

He stuffed some bread into his mouth casually and then planned to leave for the production crew.

Li Shaoyao didn’t know what happened to his little substitute today, so he reminded him, “You have to get a Best Male Lead award with the character of Lu Yun. Don’t put my efforts to waste.”

In just one sentence, he pulled the two’s gradually closening relationship back to that paper contract.

“Got it, boss.” Ji Zhinong forced a half-hearted smile. “I won’t violate the contract.”

Qin Xiaohuo had already parked the car at the door.

So Ji Zhinong planned to change his shoes and leave. But right when he was going to bend over, Li Shaoyao squatted down before him and helped him wear a pair of new shoes that prevented slipping on snowy days. He also specially checked Ji Zhinong’s right ankle. After confirming that the swelling was gone, he put on his shoes for him and even tied standard, butterfly-shaped bows on both sides while he was at it.

Wen Che: “…”

The two just had a bit of a verbal disagreement. Him doing this was, without question, covertly giving in.

He didn’t know who this little kid took him to be. It really wasn’t necessary for him to be so meticulous. Even Lu Yuankong, who was infatuated with him back then, had never cared for him so much.

Wen Che suddenly felt his heart ache.

In reality, being loved by someone like Li Shaoyao was pretty nice too.

He could be so tolerant and loving to a slightly similar shadow. How lucky the actual person he loved was.

The two butterfly-shaped bows landed on Zhinong’s heart like real butterflies. They finally made him temporarily forget those two seconds of the symphony. Before getting in the car, he poked Li Shaoyao’s slightly red nose, actively showing goodwill in reciprocation. “You got frostbite here. Remember to apply some moisturizing cream.”

Li Shaoyao raised his hand and wrapped it around his index finger. “No wonder there was a fragrance on my face when I woke up this morning. So the ‘culprit’ was you.”

Ji Zhinong laughed, saying, “You should’ve said thanks to me. Or else this morning, you would have had to go to his company with two red flushes on your face, CEO Li. Your employees will laugh at you, saying you look like a luck doll. 2 Like in this picture: https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.eVz9McbtXWvtfPYUpF7aNAHaI0&pid=Api ”

CEO Li took it in stride. “Then, can I apply your bottle of face cream? It smells like you.”

“Whatever you want. Af-after all, I bought them with your money!”

Zhinong broke free from his hand and shrunk into the car like he was escaping.

Qin Xiaohuo, who had witnessed the entire thing from the side, rubbed his dry cheeks. He really wanted to know what face cream was so amazing. ‘How about letting me use it too?’

Before the departure, Li Shaoyao ordered Yang Yi to take good care of Zhinong. New Year was approaching, and there were quite a number of corporate matters. He couldn’t go to the production crew and keep an eye on it personally like before. Yang Yi was reliable, so Li Shaoyao relaxed after she agreed.

Li Shaoyao only returned to the house when the car drove out of sight. He went upstairs and opened the bottle of face cream obediently, applying a thick layer on the area where the nose had reddened from the cold. As he rubbed and rubbed, a bolt of lightning swept through his mind.

Huh… huh?!!

‘How does Ji Zhinong know that I used to have two red flushes on my face?!’

Actor Ji, who was carrying the knowledge of his sugar daddy’s dark history, went back on camera and started to work towards the Best Male Lead award conscientiously.

The director still didn’t stop complimenting his Lu Yun. Those working on the Treading on Orchids project all personally saw Wen Che’s graceful bearing from back then. They didn’t have the guts to say ——Ji Zhinong, who was performing Lu Yun, was no inferior to Wen Che from back then.

After recovering from his “seafood allergy,” He You kissed up desperately to Ji Zhinong. As soon as the shoot ended, he kept calling “Brother Ji, brother Ji” when he clearly was Ji Zhinong’s senior by a year.

Ji Zhinong reminded him that he messed up the seniority, but He You refused to change the form of address even if he died. So Ji Zhinong just let him be.

In reality, He You did have to call Wen Che “brother”. Even if he called him “senior” or “teacher”, Wen Che could accept those terms of address.

Without He You making trouble, the entire production crew was a lot more peaceful. Happily, half a month passed.

The weekend half a month later, Perfect Vacation broadcasted the strawberry selling episode. Not only did the views reach a new record, but many people also noticed Ji Zhinong. Now there were even people who were surrounding Ji Zhinong and taking photos. It could be said that that was the solid proof of his increase in popularity.

Ji Zhinong, the male lead, gradually developed a sense of reality in the production crew. At the very least, he couldn’t “take advantage of being a flop to do whatever he wanted” anymore!

The few scenes the third male lead had were all concentrated in recent days. After making up some important scenes, Zhang Yunan would be done.

He had few parts to begin with. Originally he wanted to use He You to establish some brotherly affection, but He You quit halfway.

With Ji Zhinong suddenly going slightly viral too, naturally, Zhang Yunan wasn’t very happy.

He couldn’t tolerate being suppressed by a good-for-nothing like Ji Zhinong.

The role of the third male lead didn’t have many parts, but it won in terms of having an outstanding persona. De Yu won two fan-attracting scenes for this role, which was the reason why Zhang Yunan could lower himself to take on a supporting role.

Important scenes were being filmed today, so the entire production crew surrounded Zhang Yunan. In order to show support, Qin Kaiyu even came to accompany him.

Ji Zhinong had finished his parts early on and sat on the side, eating strawberries.

The strawberries were specially gifted previously by the farmers from that town. The video of Ji Zhinong sneaking bites during the livestream had unexpected advertising effects that directly increased the town’s strawberry sales drastically!

The publicity department was itching to contract Zhinong as an agricultural product promotion ambassador. Of course, they could only consider that. After all, there were some unclear rumors about Zhinong, and any endorsements would be affected.

Since they couldn’t contract him as ambassador, they could only express their gratitude in the most down-to-earth method.

Two boxes of strawberries. One was given to the staff of the production crew, and the other was left for himself to eat. Perfect.

When Zhang Yunan started shooting, Qin Kaiyu was watching from the side. As he watched and watched, his gaze shifted to Ji Zhinong, who was currently eating strawberries at the side.

His current demeanor was so different from his previous demeanor that it was as if they belonged to two different people. The previous Ji Zhinong had a crude bowl cut hairstyle, and the hair half-covered his eyebrows. Qin Kaiyu originally thought that Ji Zhinong had a plain appearance, but he realized that he had thick eyebrows, a high nose, red lips, and white teeth upon seeing him expose his forehead today. It was the combination of the outstanding genes of the Ji family. Especially now that he had an ethereal-looking hairstyle and makeup on, he would believe it if someone said Ji Zhinong was the deity Lu Yun, who had walked out of the novel.

Qin Kaiyu didn’t know what was wrong with him, but his feet moved towards Ji Zhinong uncontrollably.

Ji Zhinong was startled by someone suddenly appearing by his side and then protected the large strawberry in his palm, asking guardedly, “What business do you have with me?”

Qin Kaiyu didn’t think that he would even protect his food. How childish!

He shifted his gaze onto the plate of strawberries next to Ji Zhinong, asking very confidently, “Aren’t you going to treat me to a strawberry?”

Ji Zhinong: ???

“If you want to eat, go buy it yourself. I’m not close with you.”

Qin Kaiyu stared at his moist, red lips. “How aren’t we close? We almost got married.”

“…” With that said, Wen Che’s expression while looking at him changed. ‘What a guy. This person isn’t content with what he already has.’

Probably also realizing that his words weren’t appropriate, Qin Kaiyu forcibly shifted the blame. “Didn’t you just want to attract my attention when you forced Yunan to admit his surname was Zhang before? You achieved your goal.”

Ji Zhinong: “??????”

Author’s Note:

Ji Zhinong:

Translator’s Note:

Sorry the update is late again! T_T

1

Chuunibyou(中二病) is used to describe early teens who have grandiose delusions, who desperately want to stand out, and who have convinced themselves that they have hidden knowledge or secret powers. —Wikipedia 2

Like in this picture: https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.eVz9McbtXWvtfPYUpF7aNAHaI0&pid=Api