58 5.4

With their most suggestive scene out of the way, Xiao Jiu and Wu Xuan's exchanges became sweeter and more chaste, illustrating how a typical master started to genuinely fall for a male servant.

The actor who was partnering with Chen Yu was a professional after all, once he'd spent some time cleaning up in the restroom, he carried off their tamer interactions without a fuss. As such, despite the fact that other scenes were intermittently slotted in to accommodate the bigger stars' schedules, the two managed to finish shooting within a few hours.

During their time together, the actor had been increasingly attracted to Xiang Kai. The boy's talent and looks combined were lethal, and as a person who was widely experienced in romance, the man came to accept that he was apparently able to sexually react to another man.

Thus, once they were dismissed for the day, he cordially approached Xiang Kai to thank him for a smooth run by inviting him as his plus-one to the movie's wrap party that would take place next month. Just as he was rejoicing that the boy had expressionlessly nodded in agreement, however, a large hand curled around the back of Chen Yu's neck, making the youth jerk and look up in surprise.

Sun Ri crinkled his eyes in a friendly smile, politely dipping his chin at the useless actor then gazing down at Xiang Kai.

Haha, that little jump had been very cute, very adorable, he was dying from silently laughing inside.

Unfortunately, Sun Ri's poker face wasn't very good, his amusement leaked through loud and clear. Seeing that the man's broad shoulders were trembling from suppressing his chuckles, Chen Yu also twitched his lips.

Haha, this thigh was very funny, very interesting...Did he have a death wish?

A few beats later, having calmed down slightly, Sun Ri glanced at his coworker and asked, "I was passing by when I thought I heard you offering to take Xiang Kai to the wrap party?"

The man reluctantly confessed that he had. His face was somewhat sheepish, because he was known for always taking his companion for the night from whatever event they were attending straight to the hotel room he kept reserved for this purpose. His reputation was so firmly established that everyone called him "Shui Re Dian," a play on words off the English nickname "Suite Revolving Door." Even his fans barely remembered to correct the title to "Shuai Re Dian"—that is, "Sweet Revolving Door." But upon consideration, the actor relaxed, reassuring himself that Senior Sun should understand since he was gay himself.

Sun Ri was basically aware of what the idiot was assuming with his bird brain, but he merely snorted, then bent his knees to be on the same eye level as Xiang Kai. He hadn't realized the boy was so small, the top of his head barely came to his shoulders. "We've met before, I'm Sun Ri. This guy isn't too safe to stick around with, wouldn't it be better if I take you instead?"

While Shui Re Dian was stunned at Senior Sun's unexpected cockblocking, he couldn't refute his words outright. For one thing, they were pretty accurate, and, for another, Sun Ri's façade of friendliness was very shallow. On several occasions, this king had revealed his ruthlessness, often enough and easily enough that no one in the entertainment circle would risk disturbing him if they wished to keep their jobs.

Before he could give up all hope, however, Xiang Kai solemnly rejected this powder keg by tersely spitting out, "It'd be better for you to bring Junior Guo."

Sun Ri's face sank. Of course he knew that Ziyue enjoyed such parties. Previously, he hadn't minded it and had naturally invited him along to many of his. But hearing Xiang Kai refuse him only to yield the opportunity to Guo Ziyue, he was rather annoyed and uncomfortable, he regretted that he couldn't frankly say that the place next to him had never been reserved for anyone. Frustrated, he tried coaxing, "I really admire your acting, Xiang Kai, I don't want to see you getting polluted by someone like Shui Re Dian..."

Despite his dissatisfaction at the phrase 'someone like him,' the insulted actor didn't budge, he waited avidly for Xiang Kai's response. This heroic junior had even defied the king for this unworthy Shui Re Dian, he must be an angel! Would he perform another miracle?!

Chen Yu didn't disappoint, he rejected Sun Ri again with a simple "Senior Shui is fine."

Having settled things, he solemnly scribbled his contact information on a piece of paper for Shui Re Dian then walked away with a perfunctory bow to Sun Ri, musing to himself, "Oh, so that's what that actor was called..." He hadn't taken the trouble to remember his partner's name before, so he didn't realize that 'Shui Re Dian' was merely an informal handle and not a very flattering one at that.

Anyway, Chen Yu didn't care much about him, his resolute refusal of Sun Ri was intended to demonstrate that he loved Guo Ziyue so much that he could sacrifice such a good networking chance for him. This should provoke the jealous thigh into feverishly pursuing the protagonist, thereby allowing him to move his scheme along. Chen Yu did briefly wonder why the man who'd so blatantly disdained him a couple days ago was pretending to be concerned about him now, but he put it out of his mind as soon as he noticed that a new email had arrived.

Left behind by Xiang Kai, the Shui Re Dian whose debut name had been completely forgotten didn't know whether to laugh or cry at his junior's inadvertent snub. Nevertheless, he gripped the precious note in his hand and scurried away after releasing a smug snort at the king's ugly complexion.

Hng, he'd been chosen over the almighty Sun Ri, this must be what it felt like to reach the pinnacle of life! Thinking about his victory, he found that the more he looked at the phone number, the more pleasing it was, turning to face Sun Ri, he gave the memo a firm smack of his lips then escaped.

Sun Ri glared gloomily at the coward who'd dared to taunt him, but his head was too full of questions to retaliate. Why had Xiang Kai rejected him? Was it to save Shui Re Dian's face? Or because he wanted to see Guo Ziyue at the party?

Before, he had believed that Guo Ziyue was quite good, very clever and kind, but now he felt that the child lacked judgment. How could he miss such obvious signs that Xiang Kai was just shy, not promiscuous or callous?

As for the fact that he had been vaguely heading toward a romantic relationship with Guo Ziyue, luckily they had never formally started dating due to the other's young age, he had nothing official tying him down. Moreover, while it was true that he had to look after Ziyue as his legal guardian for another year, he wasn't obliged to be his boyfriend to fulfill that duty.

In any case, looking at Xiang Kai today had thoroughly aroused his appetite, he wouldn't give up on attaining him no matter what. Trying to work out what approach would work best to soften the youth, he sat back down to wait for his next scene.

---

Once he returned to Xiang Kai's flat, Chen Yu lay on his stomach and turned on the laptop to open his new messaging account.

According to the plot, around this time Guo Ziyue had managed to collect some fans, but he wasn't overwhelmingly popular yet, he still had to respond to each one personally. To live up to the story's danmei tag, some of the protagonist's 'responses' ended up becoming very intimate, they were often described in detail.

Taking this into account, Chen Yu had smoothly integrated himself into Guo Ziyue's fan club the day before yesterday and had sent a very passionate message to the star, which the protagonist had replied to today. Along with the generic lines that celebrities usually used to express appreciation for their supporters was a subtle request for pictures; Guo Ziyue probably wanted to judge whether or not to seduce this new fan.

Although Chen Yu was, without a doubt, planning to help the protagonist ruin his own reputation, he was also hoping to expand his repertoire through this task. Recently he'd only been torturing, imprisoning, killing, and defacing his targets, and while this wasn't necessarily boring, he admittedly liked the new and hated the old, he was eager for some refreshing change. Therefore, in this mission, he had decided to present the protagonist with a life worse than death, he would inflict precisely enough damage to hurt him without tipping him over the edge.

For this purpose, Chen Yu carefully stoked Guo Ziyue's ego in his second email, pressing all the right buttons. Since his shell at least had been proven to be the protagonist's exact type, he attached a blurry photo of himself, but his words overflowed with praise, they were completely contradictory to the original owner's personality. There was no way the affection-starved protagonist would be able to resist.

Having finished, Chen Yu clicked off the account and rolled into the blankets to consider everything that had happened, in particular focusing on why the thigh was acting so weirdly outside of his predictions. But, unexpectedly exhausted from the little work he'd done that day, he slipped into a deep sleep the moment he closed his eyes.