Chapter 3: CH 3

Jiang Changshen took a deep breath. “There are cameras in the house,” he reminded him. “You’d better get your clothes on. Be careful when it’s time to broadcast again.”

“You mean that?” Shen Qi smiled crookedly as he pointed to the camera he’d covered up with his clothes. “I covered it up. Don’t worry, Brother Jiang. No one will see it.”

What stake did he have in this situation? Jiang Changshen could see it was useless to try to persuade him, so he left and went to the toilet.

Shen Qi listened to the sound of water. After a moment, he left the bed and knocked on the door. “Brother Jiang, would you like me to rub your back?”

There was a lull in the sound rushing water. “No need.” The voice was indistinct.

Perhaps Shen Qi was imagining things, but the voice seemed to have a darker tone.

He narrowed his eyes and said nicely: “Well, if you need any help, just yell for me, I’ll be in bed.”

The voice seemed to sigh. “Got it.”

Shen Qi raised his eyebrows and shuffled back onto the bed without taking off his slippers. He fiddled with his phone, picking out three of the pictures he’d just taken at dinner. There was a selfie, a group photo with Jiang Changshen, and a photo of all four people. He wrote a text and posted them.

Shen Family’s Xiao Qi: I have been successfully stargazing!

The entire fan community knew that Shen “Xiao” Qi was a fan of Film Emperor Jiang and had been so before his debut, microblogging for three years, content to only speak of two things. The first was a personal diary of random moments and the other was Jiang Changshen. Most of the posts were related to Jiang Changshen and almost every day there was something about Brother Jiang. He also liked all of Jiang Changshen’s posts. Before he’d become famous, he’d comment and repost each one. He’d slowed down a bit after his debut, but the praise never stopped.

Shen Qi’s fans had been cheering him on for a while now, and now their beloved bean had finally met his idol.

So as soon as Shen Qi posted this message, his fans burst into cheers.

‘Goodness, my sweet pea has finally met his idol!’

Those of them who are aware of their idol’s posting history are overjoyed for him.

Even Jiang Changshen and his fans saw it. The fans were moved, seeing this journey of a star-struck fan as a reflection of themselves. Shen Qi had fought hard to get close to his idol and he received a lot of respect from fellow fans for it.

Shen Qi looked at the new Shen(燊)xShen(沈) CP, and smiled. He didn’t need this kind of help in this world, he just needed one life.

After reading the comments, he looked up Ning Yuntian’s tweets. It was said that if you knew yourself and your enemy, you could win a hundred battles. So in addition to Jiang Changshen, he had privately become close acquaintances with Ning Yuntian.

Given that Ning Yuntian was an employee in the same company as him, Shen Qi knew him better than Jiang Changshen. He had even met him twice before.

Ning Yuntian was good-looking; anything else would be absurd. After all, how could you be ugly when you had made it big as an idol? But unlike Shen Qi, who was intensely handsome, he belonged to the category of handsome hanger-ons. He didn’t look sharp or defined, instead he appeared very harmless and endearing.

Unfortunately, his insides didn’t match his outsides. His personality was far from being as harmless as he presented himself to the world.

His origins compared to the Shen Qi of today were like the sky and the earth. His mother had died young, his father remarried, the stepmother had her own son and treated him badly because of his looks and love of acting. He went to Beijing alone to work hard. By coincidence, he got into the entertainment industry because of a photo shoot and was signed on to a major company.

Shen Qi was the same age as him. He had arranged it this way on purpose. Before he entered a world, he only knew a synopsis of what was to come. So when creating the person he would become, he choose the same age as Ning Yuntian, and since Jiang Changshen could be interested in Ning Yuntian, regardless of whether he was related to him or not, he had tried to set the same exact character setting anyway.

Originally, he was even planning to mould his personality after Ning Yuntian, but after thinking about it, he’d left that part blank. He intended to wait until he had more specific information before making a decision. That was why he was currently acting as a ‘fanboy Shen Qi’.

And just to be on the safe side, he’d chosen to undergo the same process as Ning Yuntian, starting with being on the show “Countryside Life”.

As far as it had gone until now. the progress was pretty much as he expected.

He gotten to know Jiang Changshen’s character a bit, but he knew Ning Yuntian better. Later, why would Jiang Changshen fall in love with Ning Yuntian? Because of his pretty, harmless face? His outward display of humility and reticence? Or was it the inconsistencies?

He pulled up Jiang Changshen’s happiness value and looked at it: 20.

With tens of millions of fans, it didn’t make sense that a film emperor with no money to lose would only have 20 happiness points. The average person had a happiness value of at least fifty. Even if they were a criminal in prison, they’d have thirty or forty.

If a person still felt unhappy despite having material satisfaction, there had to be a psychological side to it.

Thoughtful, Shen Qi gently slid his index finger over his lower lip, recalling Jiang Changshen’s life.

Ning Yuntian’s hadn’t posted much on Weibo, unfortunately. Like Shen Qi, he was only just starting out, and there was a team controlling all his social media accounts.

Shen Qi went from that account to several of the team’s accounts and then stopped paying attention. He listened to the noise in the bathroom and retuned his own social media page.

Soon, the bathroom door opened and Jiang Changshen walked out.

“Brother Jiang!” Shen Qi got up bonelessly from the bed and crawled over to the edge of the bed. “Have you washed up? Do you want a hair dryer? I have one in my suitcase! I’ve heard that the countryside is full of mosquitoes at night, so I brought mosquito repellent. Do you want to put some on?”

Lying down with one hand on the edge of the bed and the other reaching for the luggage on the floor… it was as if his entire body was surrendering to Jiang Changshen.

His bare waist was stretched in a beautiful curve, calling attention to his loose shorts as the pose elevated his hips.

……

Jiang Changshen closed his eyes. It was probably the recent heat that had made him a little fidgety.

“No, it’s too hot to use a hairdryer. I’ll just wipe with a towel, it’s better. I brought my own mosquito repellent. Plus there’s a mosquito net, which enough.”

And in turn, he expressed his concern for Shen Qi in a few sentences:

“It’s chilly in the mountains at midnight. You’d better put on a shirt and watch out for the cold.

“Don’t get greedy with the time you spend on your phone. We’ll normally have to start recording at 7:30 in the morning. It’s not good for editing to get up late.”

There were three seniors while he was the newcomer. If he woke late, he was properly going to be glared at.

Shen Qi understood, looking up at Jiang Changshen with shining eyes. ‘Aww, my idol’s got my back!’ He was another step closer to his idol!

“Thanks Brother Jiang, I’ll—Ouch!”

He was going to put the suitcase down and sit back, but he was climbing too far forward and stumbled off the bed.

Since this happened right in front of Jiang Changshen’s eyes, obviously he couldn’t remain indifferent. He reached out to catch him.

Shen Qi was shocked. It would hurt like hell to fall headfirst. He immediately grabbed onto the arm like driftwood and held on tightly.

“Ouch, mother—!”

He couldn’t stop his heart from palpitating with fear.

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“Thanks, Brother Jiang.”

He eased up and looked up as he thanked Jiang Changshen. There was a smile on his face, and he was laughing at the embarrassment he had just suffered.

Jiang Changshen stepped back motionlessly, pushing him away. The teen’s naked upper body had been in his arms. The delicate, smooth texture under his hands had made him feel a little hot.

They’d only been separated by a thin layer of fabric. It almost amounted to skin to skin contact. He wasn’t straight, the whole thing was as if Shen qi was throwing himself at him. Only a saint would be indifferent.

Maybe he really needed to find someone.

The thought flashed through his mind.

He picked up the towel that had fallen to the floor. “All right, I’m going to bed. You go to bed early too. Good night.”

Shen Qi didn’t seem to notice anything and waved his hand cheerfully. “Good night, Brother Jiang!”

That night, he had a wonderful sleep.

Shen Qi had gone to sleep so early that he woke up at around six o’clock.

He peeked over. The others were still asleep.

The shirt covering the camera had been removed before he’d gone to sleep. After all, there had to be footage of sleep and early mornings. Glancing at the camera that followed his movements, he took his bag of toiletries into the bathroom.

There were no cameras in the bathroom.

After a quick wash with the bathroom door half closed, he sat down on the toilet. At an angle that the camera couldn’t capture, he lit a cigarette.

Shen Qi never treated himself badly. Even though he portrayed a different character set on each mission, all the other little details were faithful to himself. Whether it was his taste in food or other hobbies, he tried to stay close to his true self. A mixture of falsehoods and truths was the secret to him never failing his missions.

Getting up early for a cigarette was his habit.

Halfway through his cigarette, there was a noise outside. Someone seemed to be coming in. The footsteps, though soft, could still be heard in the small, silent courtyard.

The footsteps were coming towards the bathroom. When they passed by the bed, they seemed to pause.

Shen Qi had a change of heart and didn’t immediately extinguish the cigarette. Instead, he squeezed the remaining half of his cigarette and leaned back, turning his head to look out the window.

There was a small window in the bathroom. From this angle, he could just make out the lush branches of the trees outside, the morning light illuminating them.

“Shen Qi?”

The door to the bathroom was pushed half-open. It was indeed Jiang Changshen.

The man was startled when he saw what was going on inside.

The teenager in a white t-shirts and khaki shorts was sitting on the toilet. His right leg was propped up, revealing a beautifully defined calf, and his right hand rested idly on his knee. With a half-burned cigarette between his slender fingers, he was looking sideways out the window and seemed to be staring absently.

His freshly washed hair, damp and dishevelled, had been brushed back, exposing his forehead. It was curling up in the heat. This had a different kind of charm compared to yesterday’s fresh-faced boy. His side profile showed no smile, looking a bit cold.

Jiang Changshen couldn’t help but narrow his eyes.

Seemingly sensing the intrusion of an outsider, the teenager turned his head. The charm and the coldness vanished immediately. Startled and alarmed, Shen Qi jumped off the toilet.

“Br-Bro-Brother, Brother Jiang…”

He looked at the cigarette in his hand and looked around for something to crush the cigarette butt with and throw it away.

Jiang Changshen stepped forward, his slender fingers lightly taking the remaining half of the cigarette from Shen Qi’s hand. Then he put it in his own mouth and took a small drag while Shen Qi watched on with a shamed blush.

He leaned against the wall, only half an arm’s length away from Shen Qi. He exhaled a ring of smoke and gazed meaningfully at Shen Qi through it.

Shen Qi’s face turned bright red and he took the cigarette case from the side.

“There are, um, new ones here…” he stuttered.

Smoking a cigarette with another man didn’t mean much, but perhaps because of Shen Qi’s hang-ups or because of the look in Jiang Changshen’s eyes, the atmosphere felt somewhat ambiguous.

Jiang Changshen didn’t pick up on it. Instead, he finished the cigarette after three or two puffs. Then he took a step forward.

Shen Qi was behind the toilet, unable to retreat. Curling his legs, he leaned back, “Brother, Brother Jiang…”

They were too close. The tone was even more ambiguous.

Jiang Changshen took another step forward and looked down at him, his eyes dark and unfamiliar.

“What?” he whispered with a smile. His voice was husky and low, as if he’d smoked more than just one cigarette.

Shen Qi’s heart was beating like a drum. His blush was so intense it was almost dripping blood.

‘Don’t tell me that… Could it be that…’　　

Brother Jiang was just like him….

Jiang Changshen looked at his quivering eyelashes and let out a chuckle. A second later, he retreated, tossing the crushed cigarette butt in the trash.

“Come on, it’s just smoking. It’s normal. But this show has a lot of cameras, after all, so be careful to not get caught.”

He patted the young man on the shoulder with a clear gaze and gently smile, as if the previous ambiguity had just been an illusion.

‘Tsk.’ Shen Qi laughed lightly in her heart.

-o-

Translator’s Note: Some of you might have noticed that this site was down on Friday the 4th and Saturday the 5th. Terribly sorry about that.

For the Shen(燊)xShen(沈) CP that appears in this chapter, basically Shen Qi and Jiang Changshen both have a ‘Shen’ in their name, but it’s not the same character. I left the character in to reflect that.

If you want to support the work I do translating this, then please show your appreciation by leaving a comment. It motivates me to know people are happy to read this, and seeing as every chapter takes more or less 6 hours to translate, receiving comments would really help make the effort feel worth it.

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