Jiang Li entered the drama set for 'Long River and Falling Moon' just a short while after he came to this world. As he was acting in two roles and his scenes were many and important, he dunked himself in the drama set almost every day. So, it had been a while since he had met Zhang Ziyang. Jiang Li had almost forgotten this person's existence. He felt it was unexpected to suddenly encounter him.
As Jiang Li would be punished if the male lead's favorability dropped to negative value, he had been busy with the main mission of capturing Jiang Zhan and didn't take much care of the side mission.
Zhang Ziyang was also shocked to meet Jiang Li. He looked for Jiang Li a few times but Jiang Li did not only change his living address, but also his phone number. He initially thought that Jiang Li went back to his hometown, so he contacted Jiang Li's mother privately, but she said she wasn't sure of it and didn't even provide Jiang Li's new number to him.
Zhang Ziyang had no other ways to contact him and he needed to go for filming in other provinces at that time, so he could only place this matter aside. When he once again saw news about Jiang Li, it was on the Weibo of the drama crew for 'Long River and Falling Moon'.
In order to get the roles on 'Long River and Falling Moon', Zhang Ziyang did not hesitate to lie to Jiang Li, asking him to sell his body for his benefit. He didn't think that the benefit would fall onto Jiang Li at the end, while he went for wool and came home shorn. He was not only hated by vice-director Jiang and faced hardships in the new drama set, but he also lost money to gambling on football matches and was hiding outside for a period of time.
This all happened because Jiang Li went back on his word at the last minute!
Now, Jiang Li did not just act in 'Long River and Falling Moon', he even signed a contract under Jiang Group. He had become much more popular than him in a short time! But all of these should have been his!!
He had finally managed to collect money from here and there to pay his debt and returned to City S secretly. Zhang Ziyang did not expect that he would meet Jiang Li by chance. When he thought of how Jiang Li was the reason why he fell so low, he quickly walked towards Jiang Li ignoring Feng Dong and Xiao Zhou who were beside him. He then grabbed Jiang Li's hand, wanting to drag him away.
Jiang Li guarded against him in his heart when he saw him. When Zhang Ziyang grabbed his hand he flipped his wrist agilely, broke free from his capture, and pushed him down.
"Say if you need anything, don't touch me," Jiang Li patted on the parts that were grabbed by him earlier. He looked at him condescendingly with a warning signal.
Feng Dong and Xiao Zhou came to their senses and blocked in front of Jiang Li. Feng Dong asked solemnly, "Who are you? What do you want to do?"
Zhang Ziyang staggered as he was suddenly pushed, the flame in his heart burned even more vigorously. He pointed at Feng Dong and Xiao Zhou after straightening his body, "I have something to say to him, you guys better get out of my way!"
"If you have anything to say, say it in front of– "
"Brother Feng." Jiang Li interrupted his words. He asked the waitress standing nearby to leave. He then said towards Zhang Ziyang, "I know what you want to say. Coincidentally, I wanna tell you something too."
After he finished his words, he pointed towards the door of the private room, signaling him to enter the room.
"Ah Li…" Feng Dong was a bit worried.
Jiang Li waved his hands and asked him and Xiao Zhou to wait outside, he then took the lead and entered the room.
Zhang Ziyang hesitated for a moment then followed him in, while Feng Dong and Xiao Zhou waited outside.
As the door was just closed, Zhang Ziyang immediately wanted to take action. Jiang Li took a few steps backwards to avoid him, he said calmly, "You better not act on impulse, or else you won't be able to walk out of this restaurant."
Zhang Ziyang stopped his actions, he remembered Feng Dong and Xiao Zhou who were still guarding outside. Xiao Zhou is big and strong, he then did not have the scruples to act on impulse.
Jiang Li noticed that even if Zhang Ziyang was wearing a cap and a mask, it still showed how tired and dejected he was. He most probably didn't have a smooth progress in this period of time.
"Looks like you're not living well." Jiang Li smiled, "If this is the case, I'm happy."
"You dare to say it?!" Zhang Ziyang clenched his teeth and looked at Jiang Li, "If it weren't for the fact that you broke the promise, how would I fall to this point?!"
"You're blaming me?" Jiang Li snorted, he looked at him from top to bottom.
"You wanna depend on your face, but you are unable to crawl vice-director Jiang's bed, so you told a pack of lies to get me to serve as an exchange for your benefit. You wanna depend on your acting skills, but you can't pass Director Zhou's audition, so the role fell into my hands."
"Zhang Ziyang, you're good-for-nothing, how can you blame others?"
"It's you who agreed to go!" Zhang Ziyang refuted, "You've been clinging to me so shamelessly for so many years, isn't your aim just to be with me? Why are you acting so virtuous now?"
The one who wanted to be together with Zhang Ziyang was the original host, but not the current Jiang Li. To Jiang Li, let alone getting together with Zhang Ziyang, he felt nauseous just by looking at him now.
"So now it's your turn to cling onto me shamelessly?" Jiang Li responded sarcastically, he felt sad for the original host. If it weren't for the fact that he fell in love with Zhang Ziyang blindly, he would not have died like that.
Zhang Ziyang suffered quite an amount of losses in the drama set in this period of time, he was also tormented while hiding from debts. He flew into rage out of humiliation, "Jiang Li, don't be too arrogant! Don't think that I don't know how you got the roles, didn't you also sell your body? Don't forget that I have proof of you agreeing to accompany Vice-Director Jiang!"
When Zhang Ziyang knew Vice-Director Jiang was the reason why he was heckled in the drama crew, he went to look for him and wanted to offer a meal to apologize, hoping that he would forget about the incident with Jiang Li.
However, no matter how he begged, the vice-director rejected him without hesitation and did not want to meet him, he even said, "Do you know Jiang Li belongs to who now? Don't drag me into courting death with you."
As the saying goes, a sentence wakes someone up from one's dream. He understood why Jiang Li suddenly entered the entertainment industry with such a strong momentum.
Although he did not follow Vice-Director Jiang, he got to follow someone who had more power than him!
Zhang Ziyang did not think it would turn out that Jiang Li said he liked him on the surface but stabbed him behind his back. He really could not bear the anger! So when he saw Jiang Li earlier, he shouted subconsciously.
If it weren't for the use of threatening Jiang Li, he would have already exposed the chat history in which Jiang Li agreed on accompanying Vice-Director Jiang.
Jiang Li and Jiang Zhan's relationship was a secret. Other than Ji Shu, even Feng Dong and his assistant didn't know about it. Jiang Li believed Zhang Ziyang wouldn't know about it either, he was just guessing like the netizens.
Jiang Li didn't care about what Zhang Ziyang said. Instead, he sat beside the table relaxdly. He took out his phone, opened a recording, and played it.
"Listen to this recording first."
Zhang Ziyang initially felt weird as Jiang Li suddenly wanted to play a recording when they were talking, but his facial expression changed when he heard the contents clearly.
The recording was intolerable to the ear, moans and filthy words could be heard, and one of the main characters was Zhang Ziyang.
After Zhang Ziyang came to his senses, he wanted to snatch the phone that was in Jiang Li's hand quickly, but Jiang Li dodged it and closed the recording.
"Don't move." Jiang Li shook his finger towards Zhang Ziyang, he smiled as he said, "It's not a good thing if I accidentally send it out due to nervousness."
Zhang Ziyang stopped his actions. He suppressed his voice and asked furiously, feeling anxious, "Where did you get it?!"
It was recorded during the night Jiang Li had just transmigrated into this world, but he wouldn't tell Zhang Ziyang that.
"Don't care about how I got the recording. If you don't want this recording to be exposed then take proper care of the proof you mentioned." Jiang Li said coldly.
The recording consisted of the voices of Zhang Ziyang and another man; the current entertainment industry would not tolerate gays, if this were to be publicly posted, Zhang Ziyang would have no future in his entertainment career.
While both of them were confronting each other, Zhang Ziyang's phone rang. When he saw the incoming caller, he quickly accepted it. He spoke in a flattering manner, saying that he would immediately reach a certain place.
…
Feng Dong and Xiao Zhou, who were guarding outside, were worried about what happened inside. From Zhang Ziyang's attitude towards Jiang Li, it could be seen that their relationship was not considered good. So, they were worried that he would take action against Jiang Li.
Just when Feng Dong was hesitating if he should knock on the door to ask about it, the door opened.
Zhang Ziyang came out, he did not even look at them and left hastily.
Feng Dong and Xiao Zhou looked at each other. They saw Jiang Li sitting on the chair complacently after they entered the room. Jiang Li even pointed at the seats beside him when he saw them coming in.
"Take a seat."
Both of them sat down. Xiao Zhou couldn't help but ask, "Brother Li, who's that person just now? You're not bullied by him right?"
"Just someone I know from last time, I'm not familiar with him." Jiang Li said casually, he handed over the menu that was placed beside, "Order first, I'm hungry."
Xiao Zhou then ordered. Feng Dong was still worried and asked, "Are you sure? You must tell me if there's any problem, we can think of a solution together."
"It's nothing, don't worry Brother Feng." Jiang Li smiled towards him and stopped talking about it.
Zhang Ziyang's incident was not something significant, it was common in this entertainment industry. However, it was not trivial either. Jiang Li had just started his acting career. Once it was exposed that he had agreed with the vice-director to sell his body, no matter who he did it for, it would cause the reputation he had just built up to take a drastic fall.
Of course, he could use the recording to force Zhang Ziyang to delete the proof that the original host had agreed on such a thing, but it wasn't guaranteed that Zhang Ziyang had no copies of it. Both sides were at a point of restraining each other.
Feng Dong could not deal with this problem, he himself could not deal with it as well, but Jiang Zhan could.
Jiang Li was thinking of telling him about this incident. He would need to remove the proof first, or else Jiang Zhan would definitely be angry with him if he heard of this incident by chance.
However, once it was told, Jiang Zhan, who's a meanie, would definitely be angry with him; and once he's angry the favorability might drop. Lastly, he would need to depend on his body to increase the favorability again.
Jiang Li did not know if he should laugh or cry at this point.
After the meal, Feng Dong sent Jiang Li back to Jade River Garden and had agreed to fetch him to the drama set tomorrow morning to rush the shoots that he had missed these three days.
Jiang Zhan was still not back from work yet, Jiang Nuomi was the only one at home. Jiang Nuomi had not seen his daddy for three days, so it clung aggrieved onto Jiang Li's pants and meowed as loud as it could.
Jiang Li bent his waist and picked it up. He took a glance at the food plate and found out that there was still cat food in it. Jiang Zhan had probably fed the cat today and he felt his heart warm towards his caring attitude.
He appeased Jiang Nuomi for a while then went back to his room for a bath. He half-laid on the sofa after bathing. He then stroked the cat as he looked at the System's tablet.
As he was too busy recently, other than listening to System reporting the progress of the task, he almost did not check on it at all. He found out that not only had the main mission reached 63%, the side mission had also reached halfway.
Jiang Li thought of Zhang Ziyang being spiritless this morning, and he thought that it might be the reason.
After checking the tasks, Jiang Li found out that the reward column on the top right side had a new notification. After pressing on it, it was the reward for achieving the 'Primary Love Achievement'.
Jiang Li felt that the system of punishing when the favorability dropped and rewarding when the favorability rose was actually something really user-friendly. However, he would be more satisfied if the reward was not something so weird.
[Reward of Primary Love Achievement]
Item Name: Luxurious Cat Sex Toy Set
Item Function: This reward includes a pair of cat ears, a cat collar belt, a pair of cat gloves and a cat tail. It is created to highly imitate genuine cat fur. The texture is outstanding. Users will not feel uncomfortable with it, instead they will be addicted to it. It is very suitable for couples that need some fun in bed. It can effectively improve your relationships and make him fall in love with you even more.
Jiang Li, "…"
What bullshit is making him fall in love with me even more, I only feel dizzy looking at it.
Jiang Li stared at the set of Luxurious Cat Sex Toys for quite a while and asked System in a headache, "Little Cutie, are you sure this game is not a R18 game?"
"… Not too sure about that."
System obviously felt shocked towards the rewards, its voice weakened.
"I'm already getting a sex toy set for the primary love achievement, are you guys giving me Hui Ren Kidney Pills1 if I reach the deep love achievement?"
Jiang Li's lips twitched and he complained internally, he really could not find any suitable adjectives to describe how weird this game was.
At least the white skin pill from the beginner package still had a little effectiveness, but what can I do with this bullshit cat sex toy set? Wear it for Jiang Zhan? Then won't my butt blossom?
Jiang Li felt dizzy just by looking at it, he closed the interface and returned to the page of the main mission.
Players reach primary love achievement when the favorability passes 60%, secondary love achievement if the favorability passes 80%, deep love achievement if it passes 90%, and 100% is considered as completing the mission.
Frankly, Jiang Li was not in a rush to increase the favorability. The first reason was because he just started his career; there would be a lot of things for him to go through in the future. The second reason was that although his relationship with Jiang Zhan started with a trade, he couldn't deny that he had a favourable impression of Jiang Zhan while they were living together.
Since both of them had favorable feelings towards each other, then why don't they enjoy their moments now? Since he had a chance to live again, no matter what, he didn't want to waste the opportunity.
After looking at it for a while, Jiang Li found out that there was a male lead's impression column beside the favorability. It was not there previously.
"What's this?"
Jiang Li opened it and saw a few tags on it.
'Favor at first sight', pick-up artist', 'soft-hearted', 'one night seven times', 'caring', 'gentle'
"These are the impressions of the male lead you have had since you came to this world." System told him.
Even if it didn't tell Jiang Li he would have understood it. These were all the labels he gave President Jiang.
'Favor at first sight' was labelled when he first saw Jiang Zhan, he thought that he was the type of guy he would like. Later, 'pick-up artist' was labelled as Jiang Zhan agreed to give him the role but he did not fulfill it, while 'one night seven times' was because of the butt-blossoming incident that nearly happened when he joked and called Jiang Zhan grandpa.
He didn't expect that the impressions he had would be shown on the system. Jiang Li looked at the words 'pick-up artist' and could not resist laughing out loud. If this were to be seen by Jiang Li he would definitely become angry again.
"Meow~~"
Jiang Nuomi, who was in his embrace, used its claw to scratch his leg incomprehensibly as it saw Jiang Li laughing out.
"It's nothing." Jiang Li patted its head, "I just thought of your grandpa and felt funny."
"Meow?"
While a cat and a human were chatting with each other, the sound of the door opening was heard from the porch. Jiang Zhan had come back.
Jiang Li carried the cat and welcomed him. He raised Jiang Nuomi and said towards Jiang Zhan, "Welcome home, President Jiang. "
Jiang Nuomi, "Meow~"
While Jiang Li was out these few days, Jiang Nuomi often ignored Jiang Zhan. This was the first time it greeted and welcomed him home.
Jiang Zhan stretched out his hands and wanted to carry it; but it turned its head, jumped onto the floor, and ran away quickly.
Jiang Zhan, "…"
Jiang Li smelled a strong alcohol scent coming from him and he frowned his nose. "You're so smelly, that's why Jiang Nuomi dislikes you."
"Is it really smelly?" Jiang Zhan smelled his own sleeves, he indeed reeked of alcohol, but it was not smelly for him. "I'll go take a bath."
"Okay."
After Jiang Zhan finished bathing, he purposely confirmed that there was no smell of alcohol and only came out. He saw Jiang Li doing something in the kitchen while he just came out.
"What are you doing?" Jiang Zhan walked towards him.
"Making sober-up soup for you." Jiang Li answered as he stirred with a ladle.
Jiang Zhan wanted to say that he was not drunk, but when he looked at Jiang Li who was lowering his head and cooking the soup for him so attentively, he swallowed his words back.
Since he wanted to perform well, then let him be.
While Jiang Li was making the sober soup, his phone that was placed in the living room rang. Jiang Zhan saw that he was busy so he went out to take the phone, he saw Feng Dong's name on the screen.
"Why is he always calling you during midnight?"
"Who?" Jiang Li tilted his head and took a glance, "Oh, I think he has something to tell me, look at the soup for me, I'll go accept this call."
After he finished explaining he handed the ladle to Jiang Zhan, took the phone, and went out to accept the call.
"..." Jiang Zhan looked at the ladle in his hand and Jiang Nuomi who was squatting beside his foot, he was speechless.
Didn't he say that he was gonna cook the sober-up soup for me? Jiang Li, can you put some effort into pleasing someone?
The one who did not put in any effort, aka Jiang Li, did not know of his resentment. He walked to the living room and accepted the phone call. "Brother Feng, what happened? Why are you calling me at this late hour?"
"I'm sorry, something urgent happened." Feng Dong's voice sounded restless. "After yesterday's live show and appearing on the hot search, your popularity increased a lot, your fans also increased more than ten thousand."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"It's good, but it's also easier to be targeted, there are people online who have started to stalk you for your information now."
"Stalking me?" Jiang Li froze, "You mean…"
"Yes, your personal information, academic qualifications, or household registration location, I remember you're a graduate from University S right? There are a lot of alumni saying that they know you in the forum."
"I know, I'll go and take a look… hey, turn the heat down, don't burn the soup!" Jiang Li suddenly shouted towards Jiang Zhan who was in the kitchen.
This made Feng Dong, who was on the other side of the call, freeze. He then realized that there was someone in his house. He had a guess but couldn't resist asking after hesitating, "… Who are you talking to?"
"The tenant." Jiang Li side-stepped the issue and consoled him, "My information will be dug out no matter what. I excel in both academics and morals, there's nothing to be hated so don't worry."
Feng Dong listened to him praising himself seriously and couldn't help but laugh, he didn't continue any longer and hung up the phone after asking him to rest early.
Jiang Li was not in a rush to surf Weibo and see what information they dug out. After he poured out the soup for Jiang Zhan, only then did he sit beside him and pressed open the Weibo link sent by Feng Dong in WeChat.
— What kind of godly figure is the small artist, Jiang Li, who has been appearing on the Weibo hot trending list recently? Let's walk into the true face-to-face celebrity. [Picture] [Picture] [Picture] [Picture]
The one who posted the weibo was a Weibo VIP user with more than 800 thousand followers. The post already had more than 6000 comments and 10000 shares in less than two hours.
The first picture was the graduation picture that Jiang Li took during University S' graduation day; other people except him were blurred. The second picture was the picture of Jiang Li in the school's hall of fame. He was always in the top three for every semester's results. Moreover, he received a scholarship every year so he was considered a famous outstanding student in school. The third picture was a picture of the registration form that Jiang Li handed in when he was applying to join the school's club. His age, height, and home address were shown. However, the exact location of the address was blurred. The fourth picture was his student card.
The comments were filled with people recognising him as Feng Dong had said.
— OMG! Shixiong from the same school as me became a celebrity? I wouldn't have believed it if it wasn't for the same name and appearance!
— Graduated from a prestigious school… So Xiao Gege is a top student ah…
— Even the picture on the student card is so handsome, those who said that he went for plastic surgery, please shut up!
— Turns out that he's a senior from the same school, I'll definitely pick him!!
— Computer science major?? A programmer suddenly switched to acting??
— So I had stayed with a future artist in the same dorm building for four years during university life.
— Putting aside his acting skills, his appearance is already enough!!
"What are you looking at?" Jiang Zhan finished the soup and got up to return the bowl. After he went out of the kitchen, he sat beside him.
"Someone stalked me and exposed my information online." Jiang Li showed the post to him.
Jiang Zhan took the phone and scrolled down using his fingers. He then saw people commenting about Jiang Li. They stated that Jiang Li came from a single-parent family. His family condition was not good enough and he did not learn acting before, but he was able to get such good resources. So, there must be someone supporting him behind the scenes.
In the comments below, a lot of people agreed and guessed that Jiang Li was most probably kept by someone, it's just the matter of whether it's a sugar daddy or sugar mummy.
Although Jiang Li was kept by him, his eyes turned cold when he saw the comments. He exited Weibo and contacted the public relations department, asking them to deal with the people who exposed his information online.
While he called the department, Jiang Li was just beside him listening. The feeling of being protected flowed out in his heart.
After Jiang Zhan hung up the phone, Jiang Li then leaned on his shoulder as if his bones became soft. He then asked the question that he already knew the answer to, "Why are you so nice to me?"
Jiang Zhan's hand that was holding the phone paused, he turned his head and met Jiang Li's smiling eyes.
It was a pair of clear, bright eyes. They even had a sense of affection while they were looking at him. Two pairs of eyes met each other. Jiang Zhan was burned by the affection inside. His heart pounded uncontrollably, he nearly blurted out the words 'because I like you'.
The word 'like' made Jiang Zhan freeze, he stared at Jiang Li and forgot to react.
So I actually like Jiang Li?
This realization made Jiang Zhan nervous. He always thought that he was merely interested in Jiang Li and wanted him to be his possession, but he did not think that he would get seriously attracted along the way.
Jiang Zhan had lived for 32 years and never had this feeling before. Both of them were really close to each other. He felt that his heart was going to jump out of his chest. It was pounding so vigorously that he was having tinnitus.
"Why are you not talking?"
Jiang Li came closer, his lips nearly touching Jiang Zhan's face.
Jiang Zhan's sight dropped to the lips that were opening and closing in front of him. The red lips were just in front of him, he could feel his ears turning hot. He suddenly stood up subconsciously, while Jiang Li who was leaning on his shoulder abruptly lost support and fell onto the sofa.
Jiang Li, "…"
Jiang Zhan didn't even look at him, he just threw the words 'I'm going back to my room to sleep' and left. He hurried and did not realize that he went into the study room. He even staggered as his left leg tripped his right leg.
Jiang Li looked at him staggering and laughed his ass off. He really didn't expect that Jiang Zhan would be so pure in his heart that he would escape.
Such a Jiang Zhan was… really cute.
Jiang Li lowered his head and smiled. He felt like he should do something to boost their relationship, so he switched on System's tablet and used the set of cat sex toys with embarrassment.
In the study room, Jiang Zhan sat at the study table. His back was towards the door and his ears were still hot. While he was thinking about staying calm and getting his dignity back, he heard Jiang Li's voice from behind him.
"Didn't you wanna sleep? Why are you hiding in the study room?"
He sounded like he was mocking him, so Jiang Zhan lost his cool and angrily turned his head, "None of your bus…"
He was met with the pair of fluffy ears on Jiang Li's head and stopped his words.
Jiang Li grasped the tail behind him and swayed it. He tilted his head and looked at him, asking, "Am I cute?"
Jiang Zhan, "…"
Fuck, I'm dead.