CH 20

The last time Jiang Zhan said that Feng Yating dug his person away was just him being petty over how intimately she was chatting with Jiang Li. As the president of an entertainment group, how could he not know how artists dealt with each other?

However, it was different this time. Shen Yuzhi said he wanted to promote Jiang Li personally. This meant he wanted to keep Jiang Li and turn their relationship into the kind that Jiang Zhan and Jiang Li are currently having. 

When he thought of Jiang Li cooking for and having a close relationship with someone other than him, he panicked and denied this possibility subconsciously. Even if that person was someone he grew up with. 

Although part of the reason that he got involved with Jiang Li was because of Shen Yuzhi, this could not justify snatching his person away. 

Shen Yuzhi noticed that he didn’t reply, so he continued, “Since he’s in your company, I thought to tell you about it first and find a time to invite him out, you–”

“No.” 

Jiang Zhan suddenly interrupted his words, “He’s not a part of my company.” 

Shen Yuzhi didn’t understand, “Isn’t it? I saw your company’s name under his Weibo verification. Did I see it wrong?” 

“No, you didn’t.” Jiang Zhan said in a deep voice as if he was claiming his ownership, “He doesn’t belong to the company. He belongs to me.” 

This meant that Jiang Li is not a part of the company, he’s Jiang Zhan’s. 

Shen Yuzhi fell silent, he was shocked. “What the… did I hear it right?! Jiang Li belongs to you?!” 

“Yes.” Jiang Zhan frowned due to his high-pitched yell, “So don’t make any moves on him.” 

“When did this happen? Why didn’t I realize it at all?” 

Shen Yuzhi was too shocked, but he quickly understood the reason why Jiang Zhan rarely came out for gatherings recently. He exclaimed with astonishment, “Bro, so you’re actually not frigid.” 

Jiang Zhan, “…” Jiang Li would definitely not agree with your words.

Jiang Zhan didn’t want to talk nonsense with him anymore, he ended the call and threw the phone to the side. 

Shen Yuzhi was suddenly hung up on so he shouted over and called back, but Jiang Zhan didn’t receive his calls anymore. 

“What the fuck, why is he so mean?” Shen Yuzhi didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry and gave up on the intention to keep Jiang Li. With a sugar daddy like Jiang Zhan helping him, there’s no need for him to do it himself.

But the information was too shocking to him. 

Everyone within their circle has prominent families and is successful in business. Who didn’t have one or two lovers to kill the time? Not for romance, but for biological needs. 

But this was not the case for Jiang Zhan. 

The two families of Jiang and Shen had a friendship tracing back two generations or even more, so he grew up with Jiang Zhan. 

Jiang Zhan was the ‘other people’s children’ from a young age. When Father Jiang passed away, Jiang Zhan was only 22 years old. For other people at this age, he would only be a fresh graduate, but he took over the Jiang Group and managed it prosperously.

In Shen Yuzhi’s memory, Jiang Zhan wasn’t interested in romance or relationships. During all his years in school, he never accepted any confessions regardless of whether it was from the school princess or prince or anyone else, he even thought that these things are a waste of time. He also didn’t ask someone to accompany him in clubhouses. If it wasn’t for the fact that he had seen Jiang Zhan’s morning wood when they were roommates, he would have believed that Jiang Zhan was impotent.

Of course, he got beaten up by Jiang Zhan when he asked that question. 

In other words, when they were having messy relationships with other women, Jiang Zhan was earning money. When they were having messy relationships with other men, Jiang Zhan was still earning money. So, Jiang Zhan was the richest among them all.

Shen Yuzhi and Jiang Zhan were of the same age, their relationship was so close that they could share their trousers. When he thought of his bro who was busy with work in the morning and sleeping alone in the night; as a faithful bro he really couldn’t continue looking at his friend suffer like that, so he assertively chose a clean young man from the clubhouse to help him get rid of the name ‘Thousand-year-virgin’. But he didn’t expect that Jiang Zhan would escape when the time came, causing his plan to fail.

After that, he sent a pretty university student to Jiang Zhan, but he still wasn’t bothered by it and walked away with a disgusted expression. 

After these two experiences he confirmed one thing; Jiang Zhan wasn’t sexually impotent, he was just frigid.  

But now Jiang Zhan, aka The Frigid, told him that Jiang Li is his?! He even used a strict tone to warm him, it was so scary. 

After he thought for a while, he felt that he couldn’t digest this news alone, so he sent Jiang Li’s Weibo link to the WeChat group. 

Shen Yuzhi: Bros, go and support Ah Zhan’s person [Weibo Link]

Sun Zelin: Who’s that person? 

Zhao Guanyu: What did you send? Who’s Jiang Li? 

Zhao Guanyu: Wait, Ah Zhan’s person… is that what I’m thinking of right now? 

Sun Zelin: Does it mean that? 

Shen Yuzhi: Yes, that. 

Zhao Guanyu: That…

Sun Zelin: Fuck that!! 

Jiang Zhan: Who do you wanna fuck? 

Sun Zelin: …

[System Notification: Sun Zelin has been kicked out from the group chat by Jiang Zhan.]

It was a simple and rough way of handling things. The WeChat group fell into silence; everyone was afraid of getting kicked out as well and secretly DMed Shen Yuzhi to ask about what happened. 

Especially Sun Zelin, he felt really aggrieved that he got kicked out just because he innocently missed a full stop.1

Actually, Shen Yuzhi didn’t really know the details, he only told the others what he had heard from Jiang Zhan during the call. After everyone heard it, they were shocked at the fact that Jiang Zhan kept a small artist secretly and decided to find a time and visit Jiang Zhan and his person. 

After kicking out Sun Zelin who was babbling nonsense, Jiang Zhan continued watching the live show. 

…

The live show venue. 

‘Face-to-face Celebrity’ had five events, and now they were at the second one, which was the talent show. 

Feng Yating’s talent was dancing, she had debuted as a dancer and actor. She was good at folk dance and ballet, so showing her talent was as easy as drinking water. After dancing, she wasn’t even panting. 

As she was dancing gracefully, she naturally drifted towards Jiang Li, making him appear on screen.

This part wasn’t rehearsed so Jiang Li was stunned at first. After he saw Feng Yating winking her left eye at him, he quickly understood her intentions. He smiled and stood up from the chair. He then bent his waist slightly to bow towards her, his action elegant and proper. Adding up to the white shirt and pants that he was wearing, he was looking like a modest gentleman. 

Feng Yating also held up her skirt with two hands and bowed back to him. Both of them smiled as they looked at each other. The photographer even gave them a close up. 

A handsome guy and a beautiful girl in the picture would always make the crowd feel excited, the live comments increased rapidly. 

— Ahhhhhhhhh, both of them match each other so well! I’m sorry Brother Yu, I’m going to stan them!!

— Xiao Gege is too gentlemanly, how I wish I’m the princess, wuwuwu~~

— Sister Ting’s beauty is out of this world!! 

— I beg you guys to marry now!!! I’ll pay for the marriage certificate! 

— I can even feel the sweetness through the screen!! 

— Xiao Gege is so shy while smiling, I feel like my heart is gonna go wild! 

After Feng Yating finished, Zhao Ziyi was next. His talent was playing instruments and singing solo. He debuted as a singer and sang an oldie which was nice and nostalgic. A lot of the audience got into the mood with him. Then, it was Chu Mengyao. She played the Guzheng. Lastly, it was Jiang Li’s turn. 

Jiang Li wasn’t considered to have debuted yet and had little to no information on the internet, so the live comments were guessing what he would perform. 

There was a small tablet in front of the host, which was used to play the live and see the comments. Live interactions could be done as well. 

When the host saw everyone guessing at Jiang Li’s talent, they laughed and said, “Seems like everyone is curious about Jiang Li’s talent show, this talent is really unique, even I was shocked when I knew it, what is it then? Let’s ask Jiang Li to tell you guys.” 

The camera changed its view to Jiang Li and gave him a close up, the live comments were then filled with “Handsome!” 

Jiang Li undid the buttons on his sleeves as he smiled towards the camera, “I’ll cook something for everyone.” 

Audience, “Eh?” 

Jiang Li’s talent wasn’t singing, dancing, playing instruments or acting. Instead it’s cooking?!! What kind of godly move is this? 

As the audience was still shocked, the production team had brought up the cooking equipment Jiang Li needed. The host and the guests stood up from their seats and moved to somewhere where they could see Jiang Li clearly. 

The dish was Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish. 

The fish was already killed and cleaned. When Jiang Li started preparing it, the host who was standing beside specially explained that the fish was killed by Jiang Li personally without any external help.

Jiang Li horizontally cut open the fish from the middle using a knife. He didn’t cut off the tail, and only disposed of the fish bone in the middle.

His movements were skilled and swift, it looked like he cooked frequently and had not just purposely learned for the show.

After removing the fish bone, Jiang Li started to cut shallow slits on the skin in a diamond pattern. His cuts were decisive as one followed another, almost every diamond shape was the same size under the camera. 

As the oil in the wok started boiling, Jiang Li placed the fish inside. Sizzling could be heard as the inner parts of the fish were fried open. After half a minute, a fresh and rich aroma wafted out.

Jiang Li waited for the fish to be fried into golden yellow then scooped it out, placing it on the white porcelain plate. 

The meat was fried open to a golden brown with the sides curved outwards. The audience could guess how tasty it would be just by how it looked. Live comments like “I’m so hungry” could be seen. 

The sauce for the Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish was very important. It would be greasy if it was too sweet, and wouldn’t be nice if it was too sour, so the balance for both flavors was very crucial. After Jiang Li finished with the fish, he started making the sauce as he explained the steps. 

When he finished making the sauce and was pouring it on the fried fish, he suddenly heard the sound of swallowing saliva from beside him.

Everyone turned their eyes towards the source of the sound. Feng Yating waved her hands innocently, “I’m sorry, I’m hungry.” 

The audience on site laughed out loud, Jiang Li also followed suit. He then carried the fish to the empty table and showed a gesture of invitation towards the host and the three other guests. 

They didn’t resist the temptation and started tasting with clean chopsticks. 

A tinge of sourness could be tasted within the sweetness of the sauce, both of the flavors were in great balance. The slight sourness even whetted their taste buds. The meat was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. It was fresh and juicy, tasty enough to steal one’s heart. 

When the audience saw the four of them squinting their eyes in pleasure, they could tell how delicious the dish was and said that they wanted to eat it too. 

— OMG! Am I watching a cooking show?!! 

— I’ve just finished my dinner but I’m hungry now!! 

— Xiao Gege who’s good-looking and knows how to cook is literally a treasure!! 

— Don’t know who’s so lucky to be Xiao Gege’s girlfriend, she’s so blessed! 

During Jiang Li’s talent show, Jiang Zhan switched on the live comments especially and wanted to see how the audience felt about Jiang Li. 

When he saw all those compliments on the screen, the edge of his lips rose unconsciously. He saw Jiang Nuomi had been staring at the fish earlier. He then lifted him to his arms and pinched his ears. 

“Stop looking. Wait for your daddy to come home and I’ll ask him to make you…” Jiang Zhan then paused and changed his words, “Ask him to make it for us, one for you, one for me.”  

“Meow~” Jiang Nuomi rubbed his hand. 

Jiang Zhan’s mood became better when he saw Jiang Nuomi showing affection, he then hugged him while watching the live. The host was helping the audience ask Jiang Li if he has a girlfriend. 

Jiang Li shook his head and said, “No, I don’t have a girlfriend. I want to do well in acting for now, so I don’t plan to date.” 

Jiang Zhan, “…” 

Since you don’t plan to date, then what’s with the XOXO you sent?