Shen Jiyu followed Feng Mian onto the small house, well it was small compared to back home, but considering the shack that he had woken up in, this place was a mansion.
He hesitated at the threshold but still stepped over. The house was furnished tastefully in grey, white, ad black undertones but there was something off to Shen Jiyu. It felt empty with signs of it being lived in, it didn't seem like a home but rather a courtyard for receiving guests.
The moment he entered the house, Nian Zhen turned around, his gentle gaze landing on Shen Jiyu, the more he looked, he felt like the youth in front of him perfectly fit all the proportions he was searching for.
"You must be feeling cold." He pointed at the stairs, "By your left, there is a bedroom there. It is yours for the night. There are clothes in the wardrobe, take a bath, change and come down for a hot meal."
The youth gave him a long stare before he looked away and walked up the stairs. He was prickly but it did not matter much to Nian Zhen, although he doubted Shen Jiyu's awareness of society if he could just follow a stranger home.
A runaway? Or kicked out? Hopefully, he was not a minor.
Nian Zhen took out his phone and dialed a number. A sour voice grumbled sleepily, "Who the f**k refuses to let me sleep in the middle of the night?"
"Fei Lin?" His voice took an even friendlier tone as he called the man.
There was a thump on the ground from the other side of the receiver and a more alert voice hurriedly sounded, "Manager Nian? To what do I owe this pleasure?" Fei Lin felt as if he had just finished two cups of coffee as he wondered whether any of the brats in the office had posted an article on Nian Zhen's artists without his permission.
"I sent you a picture just now. I need you to find out everything about him and submit it to me as soon as possible."
"Ah! The person that caught Manager Nian's eyes must have saved a village in his past life."
Nian Zhen did not intend to exchange pleasantries for long so he said good night and ended the call. He then clicked a restaurant app and ordered a couple of dishes suitable for a cold, rainy night.
Finishing the two tasks, he looked again in the direction that the youth had gone and his fingers trembled in anticipation.
"Be patient." Nian Zhen whispered to himself, he had waited for eight years, he could wait a couple of years. However, if he was impatient, he might ruin it all.
**
Shen Jiyu walked up the stairs to the room Feng Mian had just talked about. This body felt weak, cold, and dreary. Perhaps after bathing and being in a better frame of mind, he would begin to compute his plan.
"Wow!" The floating Xiao Shu said beside him as he watched the elegant and luxurious room.
Shen Jiyu raised an eyebrow, "You claimed to have undergone a hundred transmigrations. Surely such a sight is nothing new to you." He commented off handily as he stripped his clothes and entered the bathroom.
There were a lot of things that he was not used to seeing but with a little time, he figured out how the taps worked and began to fill the bathtub.
He was right. The moment his body sank into the hot water, he could feel his muscles relaxing and his brain becoming clearer.
Recounting the day's events, It was quite funny, it had not even been an entire day and he was in a realm so low that it didn't even have a trace of spiritual energy.
After a bath, Shen Jiyu stood in front of the mirror and finally saw the image of the body he was inhabiting. He raised his chin with his hands as he pulled it left and right in assessment. A bit thin but not bad.
He left the room, dressed up in a loose long-sleeved top and trousers before sitting on the bed and facing Xiao Shu who was sitting cross-legged in front of the door.
"What is his obsession? Why is his soul stuck here?"
Xiao Shu felt himself sitting at attention at the authority that slipped past Shen Jiyu's voice. "Marquis Feng's name in this realm is Nian Zhen." His eyes widened in realization that the person that had helped them was Feng Mian. Marquis Feng was really as kind and noble as everyone in the Bureau rumoured. "His obsession is the truth. He is obsessed about exposing the truth about one Mr Xiu Fan who ruined his father's business and is planning to contest for Mayor."
A sense of pity filled Xiao Shu's heart and he looked at Shen Jiyu, "Realm master. Maybe I should possess a host with a much higher status so that it would be of help to Marquis Feng in resolving his obsession."
Shawn Jiyu narrowed his eyes in thought, Feng Mian was stuck here because he wanted to expose some truth, it was truly difficult to believe.
"Send the information and memories of this body."
"I will transmit it at once."
A sudden flurry of images appeared before his eyes, imprinting themselves on himself as he read the entire fate of the body, both past, present and future.
The identity of the body was Lu Yan and his life was filled with ups and downs, more downs and a little up towards the end. He was born into an upper middle-class family and had lived a comfortable life till he was ten years old when his parents got into a car accident, killing them both.
Not only did his relatives not try to help him, but they also shipped him to an orphanage while they squandered and divided the remainder of his parents' fortune. The orphanage was located in a small village and they did not have the fortune of a lot of donations.
When Lu Yan was eighteen, he was kicked out of the orphanage and he came to the big city to find work. He had dropped out of high school and did not have many of the skills that companies were looking for so he struggled to make things meet.
Lu Yan's tragedy began the moment that he was scouted by the gold manager, Nian Zhen into Shang Zhen Entertainment. Seeing his chance, the hardworking and simple Lu Yn worked harder than ever, setting himself apart from other trainees in his year. He was then placed under Nian Zhen who had three A-list celebrities under his management.
Nian Zhen did not hold anything back but rather went above and beyond. From piano lessons, and voice lessons, to roles besides top-notch actors and hit singles. With his help, Lu Yan went from being an unknown in the entertainment world to a well-known idol. He had a lot of girlfriend and wife fans who followed his every move, stalking his every action.
However nothing was given for free and one day, Nian Zhen asked Lu Yan for a favour. He wanted him to accompany a well-known political and family man, Xiu Fan who had taken the world by storm. Lu Yan had been skeptical, however, Nian Zhen had assured him that Xiu Fan was just a fan and wanted to have wine with him.
Lu Yan had met Xui Fan and against his wishes, he began to fall for the married man. Luckily enough, Xu Fan also had the same feelings and intended to divorce his wife but before he could, the pictures of their secret relationship filled the internet.
The netizens went crazy, it didn't help that the other 'woman' was a popular traffic star. Those girlfriend and wife turned against Lu Yan, tearing him to shreds.
Within two weeks, he had become the most hated person in the country with people surrounding his house to throw stones at him. Lu Yan had fallen into a deep depression. He then learned that everything had been under the scheme of Nian Zhen. That he had been carefully cultivated with the image of Xiu Fan's desire just to ensure the downfall of Xui Fan and the Xiu industry.
Lu Yan's heart had been shattered and had left the country for eight years.
When he returned, he was an even more powerful man than Xui Fan had been at that time, he destroyed the scum Nian Zhen and married Xui Fan in a wedding like never seen before. As what happened at the end of his life, he and Xui Fan lived happily ever after, adopting two cats and a dog.
Shen Jiyu was shocked at the eventful story that he had just watched and his eyes darted to Xiao Shu, however, the other looked even more terrified than he did.
At this moment, a gentle voice sounded from downstairs, "Are you not done? The food would get cold."
Goosebumps appeared on Xiao Shu's skin and he looked at the Realm Master with pleading eyes, "Realm Master. Let's run away!"