CH 1

August had just come around. On a day where the summer heat assaults one’s face, Xu Juan was dragged into a clubhouse by a bunch of scoundrels. Someone demanded that he throw a celebration.

What celebration? It was all pure nonsense. The excuse they used was “to celebrate Director Xu’s return to the ranks of eligible diamond bachelors”. Xu Juan sat on the sofa in the private room and listened to their plans without much enthusiasm, nodding from time to time. Apart from indifference, nothing else showed on his face. 

This was too strange.

Today’s event was organized by Hou Shijie, Xu Juan’s younger cousin. He had lived within Xu Juan’s sphere of influence since he was young, and feared his high profile and promiscuous older cousin to death. Over the years, Hou Shijie slowly but surely grew into the role of a lapdog who dared not be impudent before Xu Juan.

But it had always been a mere facade; He harboured personal intentions. Rumour has it that their Director Xu, who usually prided himself in his gentlemanly demeanour, flew into quite the rage that day. He chased his popular celebrity boyfriend out of the house and left him outside the villa for half an hour, crying and begging at the door. Videos taken by the paparazzi were all over the hot searches, so how could Hou Shijie not be curious? If one is curious, they should just ask around and find pleasure in gossip.

And so, Hou Shijie began by beating around the bush, asking Xu Juan: “Ge, are you in a bad mood today? I saw the hot searches. What happened, that little celebrity pissed you off? Then just ditch him and get a replacement, I’ll introduce someone to you?”

Once the words were out, everyone in the private room turned to stare at Xu Juan.

Rather than this being an important matter, it was because this bunch of people passed their days with nothing better to do. They were bored out of their minds and enjoyed spectating drama. It just so happened that drama involving their Director Xu didn’t come by often, much less one that had escalated to this scale.

Thanks to the other involved party Li Mengzhou being quite well-known in the entertainment circle, the trending topics were filled with fired-up fans scolding the paparazzi for starting rumours, “Our gege isn’t gay neither is he a sugar baby”. Having been assigned his role as the evil and the bourgeoisie, despite not showing his face, the moment Xu Juan’s name was exposed, his entire family background was dug up and taken apart. So, while the online users exclaimed “this rich bastard is actually pretty damn capable”, they also wove new rumours of “aristocratic melodrama”.

Considering things had escalated to this extent, it would be weird if Xu Juan didn’t get angry. 

Ever since they started the round of drinks, Xu Juan’s phone hadn’t stopped ringing. The incoming call screen furiously displayed “Li Mengzhou”, these three big characters. Upon the fifth ring, Xu Juan picked up and said just one sentence: “Scram, don’t bother me.”

Li Mengzhou didn’t dare let out even a single squeak and hung up crying. Too afraid to call again, he reverted to texting through Wechat.

Xu Juan paid no attention to his Wechat. He leaned against the sofa and didn’t touch his phone, neither did he respond to Hou Shijie.

He raised his hand and gestured vaguely, signalling to everyone not to bother him. Then, he shut his eyes; He seemed unexpectedly tired, as if at his wit’s end. His face was so pale, it was almost sickly. 

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Despite that, Xu Juan wasn’t a complete asshole. His exes, men or women, never ended the relationship with hard feelings. He was generous with his lovers and never put them in difficult situations.

This unbridled fiasco with Li Mengzhou was truly the first of its kind. 

But judging from Li Mengzhou’s polite temperament, it was clearly Xu Juan who was one-sidedly making a big deal out of things. How could Li Mengzhou possibly dare to provoke him?

Now this was even more odd. Since Li Mengzhou didn’t provoke him, why was he so angry, to the point of chasing the other out the door? No matter how terrible it could have been, Li Mengzhou was still a recognized celebrity.

Hou Shijie inwardly mulled over this matter and secretly concluded that the problem couldn’t have been Li Mengzhou. Chances were that Xu Juan had run into some sort of personal issue, Li Mengzhou was in the wrong place at the wrong time and inadvertently became cannon fodder.

But Hou Shijie didn’t dare to be the one prodding Xu Juan’s sore spot, so he nudged Guo Shao who was beside him, urging him to speak. 

It wasn’t just any random nudge; In their circle, one’s social standing hinged on their family background and status. The Xu family sat at the apex of Hong city’s elites and the Guo family wasn’t too far behind. Guo Shao completely forgoed asking what happened, neither did he feel it was necessary, and directly said: “Xing Yun got some newbies yesterday, all of them are not bad, pure and natural. Since our Director Xu isn’t in a good mood, I’ll choose some eye-pleasing ones. A simple matter like celebrities, whether they’re big or small, if they become popular or not, revolves around Director Xu’s words.”

Xing Yun was an entertainment company under the Guo family. Once he’d said this, someone laughed: “Yo, young master Guo, could it be that you haven’t opened a company, but instead a low-grade brothel!”

Hoots and guffaws filled the private room.

Xu Juan, too, showed a trace of a smile. Truthfully speaking, Xu Juan had decent looks. Although it wasn’t the face of a first-rate celebrity, he still had profound facial features and an outstanding temperament. In addition, what set him apart from celebrities was that the aura he emanated wasn’t faked – it was carved into his bones. 

After all, a man’s most attractive feature wasn’t necessarily always his face.

Xu Juan said: “I’ll pass, I’m tired. My family’s old man has been busying himself overseas for half a year. He’ll be back soon, and once he returns to Hong city, my good old days will come to an end.”

“Aiya, that’s a shame.” Guo Shao said, “these newbies at my company really are decent. If I weren’t on such good terms with Director Xu, I would’ve hidden them for myself, without a word to outsiders!”

“Really, you’re not kidding?” Xu Juan indulged him, showing half-hearted interest. 

However, Guo Shao took him seriously, giving his secretary a call on the spot: “Nancy, are those people from yesterday at the company? Those kids that Fei jie signed. Tell them to get ready and come find me.”

Once done, he relayed the name of the clubhouse and hung up, gesturing to Xu Juan that everything had been settled.

Trivial matters like these happened frequently; Calling up some little celebrity to join them at the clubhouse was in the nature of their work. Moreover, bringing people from one’s own company made it safer. Anyway, the advantages were bountiful; In the name of fame and profit, everyone in the circle fixated on an upward climb and everything happened in mutual agreement.

To be honest, Xu Juan wasn’t fond of this practice. Not because he was noble or incorruptible. It was simply because he was even more wretched. He had no interest in the beauties who clung to him for the sake of climbing higher. Rather, he preferred messing with innocent young men and women – the purer the better. 

So, these past six months, he had cycled through a few lovers and yet he wasn’t satisfied. He began changing lovers more often, until he met Li Mengzhou.

Li Mengzhou was indeed different from other celebrities and was quite upright with his own principles, not conforming to these improper unspoken rules.

But that was at the beginning. After Xu Juan played his little tricks, Li Mengzhou fell into enemy hands and abandoned his principles to get with him.

Xu Juan was immediately bored, even suspecting that he had misjudged the other and felt disappointed. 

Despite that, he does admit that his mentality crossed some lines; It was as if he were forcing an honourable family to sell him their daughter, using underhand methods to push the other party to their limit and reach a compromise. Yet, once the deal was complete, he would retort: So you’re actually this kind of person, unprincipled and without a bottom line.

He was utterly despicable.

Today’s breakup with Li Mengzhou wasn’t due to this, though.

Xu Juan might be inherently vile, but he still maintained a gentlemanly demeanour and rarely lost his cool. To him, being unable to control his temper alluded to poor upbringing. Even a scumbag should have standards, so he would never snap at or hit his partners. 

So why did he get so mad all of a sudden? Of course, there was a reason.

That morning, he was still peacefully asleep in bed. Li Mengzhou decided to kiss him out of the blue, probably wanting to reenact a scene from romance dramas by kissing him awake.

It wasn’t a bad idea, but when Xu Juan was young, he was almost smothered to death in his sleep. After that unsuccessful murder attempt, Xu Juan became psychologically averse to similar sensations. Bleary-eyed and half-asleep, Li Mengzhou had nearly scared him to death.

But this was too personal a reason. Even Hou Shijie had no idea of it, how could he tell it to a lover that he didn’t even care about? 

It took Xu Juan a long time to calm his heart palpitations down, and the rest of the day passed with him feeling drained and his chest tight.

So when Hou Shijie suddenly wanted to act as a pimp, he wasn’t interested and was merely indulging him for the sake of being polite. He didn’t expect Guo Shao to actually call anyone over.

There were four of them, two boys and two girls. They looked young, around seventeen to eighteen, at most barely twenty, like four little heads of cabbage lining up in the private room.

Guo Shao said: “What does our Director Xu think?” 

“……”

Xu Juan suddenly felt a bone-deep exhaustion, lamenting to himself: Nowadays, not only do pimps feel stressed, even a customer such as himself will be under pressure and made to indulge out of courtesy.

He didn’t want to put Guo Shao in an awkward spot, so he randomly pointed to one of the girls and said she was pretty.

She was indeed pretty, the fresh and pure sort. Shoulder-length hair, a long white skirt, and bright, coy eyes. Which man wouldn’t be moved? 

But Xu Juan had met countless beauties, was there even any kind that he hadn’t seen before? He was sick of them by now.

With waning interest, Xu Juan held out his hand. The girl huddled into his embrace like a white rabbit, glancing at him out of the corners of her eyes, seemingly content with him.

For a short moment, Xu Juan felt as if he was the one who just got pimped, and felt like laughing. Before he could say anything, though, the door to the private room was suddenly flung open and someone burst inside.

When this happened, everyone paused. 

Hou Shijie stood up, annoyed: “Wrong room? What were you doing, you didn’t even knock!”

“I’m looking for someone.”

It was a man.

There was but one dim lamp in the private room, making the atmosphere rather ambiguous. The man stood in the doorway, angled in a way where his shadow stretched in the light. He was tall, his legs long, his body straight like pine and bamboo. All of this was meticulously wrapped in suit pants and a white shirt. Standing there, he didn’t seem to belong in a place like this. Rather, he looked like a high-level intellectual who had come to attend an academic seminar. 

Xu Juan stared at him in a daze. His spirits rose and the entire day’s exhaustion dissipated in an instant.

Disregarding who the other was looking for, he was the first to stand up, directly walking over.

–– How did the saying go again? Love at first sight occurs at the right time and place.

Xu Juan wasn’t about to make this too complicated, love at first sight was simply due to one reason: This person before him was better-looking than anyone he had ever seen, that’s all. 

“Pleasure meeting you.” Xu Juan took the initiative and extended his hand.