Chapter 9: 9

Seeing him coughing like this, Xia Xingchi couldn’t help being alarmed. His mind, dazzled by the huge sum of money, didn’t point himself out as the culprit at all.

In order to prevent his benefactor from accidentally dying on his first day on the job, he quickly got up and patted Li Chengyuan gently.

Meanwhile, he thought to himself, this person’s body is so precious and fragile, he needs to be taken care of carefully so that he can live longer.

Li Chengyuan covered his mouth with one hand and pushed him away with the other.

He didn’t expect Xia Xingchi to be so flexible. He was obviously terrified of him before, but now, for the sake of money, he could call him husband casually.

After coughing for a long time, he finally calmed down and said with an unnatural expression on his face: “Just call me by my name.”

Xia Xingchi noticed that he seemed unhappy, so he resolutely grabbed the shiny golden bank card and put it away before he could change his mind.

After so much excitement, Xia Xingchi finally remembered to ask: “Mr – Li Chengyuan, may I ask why me?”

This pie that fell from the sky was too big, and the poisonous ones should not be eaten.

“I needed a legal partner and you just showed up.”

As Li Chengyuan spoke, Summer finally managed to jump on top of him.

This time he didn’t drive it away. He just absent-mindedly touched its head, and it immediately started up a happy purr, like a small engine.

Xia Xingchi tilted his head. If you need a legal partner, you can marry casually regardless of gender?

This method of resolving a lifelong matter seemed a bit too unreasonable.

But remembering that Li Chengyuan only had half a year to live, he felt that it would be better to be casual.

Otherwise, if he really fell in love with someone, how sad would his lover be when he died?

This idea finally convinced Xia Xingchi, and he no longer had any doubts about this pie from the sky. He even felt that he was just right for this job.

Just as he was thinking happily, he heard Li Chengyuan say: “Come here.”

Xia Xingchi didn’t know what he wanted, so he got up obediently and walked around the table to stop in front of him.

He couldn’t help but silently look down, and saw Li Chengyuan’s slender fingers with well-articulated joints lightly resting on Summer’s flawless pure white fur, caressing it casually.

Xia Xingchi looked more and more greedily, and saw Li Chengyuan lift his chin slightly: “Touch it.”

 — Huh? He knows I keep thinking about his cat? It’s so obvious?

But most importantly, he could finally stroke the big fluffy tail of the cat of his dreams!

With Li Chengyuan around, it was a rare moment when Summer’s fur didn’t puff up. It squinted its eyes in enjoyment on its master’s lap, letting Xia Xingchi’s fingers stroke its soft, fluffy fur.

Even grasping the tip of its tail lightly didn’t annoy it.

Xia Xingchi happily squatted on the ground and petted the cat. He buried his face in the fragrant fluff, raising his head and sighing contentedly.

In just ten minutes, he had received money and the freedom to play with a cat at the same time.

Was this the joy of having a wife, kids, and a warm bed?[1]

“Right, I —”

The second half of the sentence stuck in his throat.

Because when Xia Xingchi raised his head, Li Chengyuan wore a very strange expression.

He……was smiling.

It was a terrifying smile, and those dark amber eyes were staring at him intently, filled with strong, unknown emotions.

Like the ecstasy and obsession after getting something you had only dreamed of.

Xia Xingchi suddenly shivered, forgetting what he was going to say. He just felt his hair stand on end and immediately sat down on the ground.

— I’ll go, this scary expression is really inappropriate for the crazy villain, please excuse me.

Fortunately, Li Chengyuan also realized the problem. He turned away awkwardly, his expression suddenly restrained as he returned to his usual indifference in an instant.

Xia Xingchi’s heart was still beating wildly, and he wondered what had happened to him.

It can’t be that he’s unhappy because I petted his cat.

Or is he so vicious all the time, and it wasn’t directed at me?

The scene fell into silence for a time.

The two of them didn’t speak to each other, and it just went on like this until Aunt Li happened to knock on the door: “Sir, Young Master, dinner is ready.”

Xia Xingchi breathed a sigh of relief when he heard these words and jumped up to run downstairs.

– – –

Dinner was quite sumptuous. It would have been a month’s worth of meals for him before.

Coincidentally, it seemed to particularly suit his tastes. The delicious smell of braised pork ribs seduced him, and the weird occasion in the study was left behind at last.

Due to poverty, Xia Xingchi had always adhered to the revolving principles of “eat just enough” and “eat everything.” But in fact, there was a clear distinction between what he liked and what he didn’t like.

The dishes in front of Li Chengyuan were very light. He didn’t move his chopsticks immediately, but silently watched Xia Xingchi eating happily.

The person in question was enjoying the freedom of eating meat, and didn’t notice.

Then the phone suddenly vibrated, and he turned to look with a small fish in his mouth. There were two big characters, “Lin Meng,” on the screen.

It was his agent. He was now a low-tier, low-key artist, and Lin Meng was an unpopular little agent on the bench. The two of them were simply like two peas in a pod.

Xia Xingchi chewed the little fish and thought, yes, I am not a vagrant now, I am……ah! It’s over!

He finally remembered what that half sentence he uttered in in the study just now was, before Li Chengyuan’s smile frightened him into forgetfulness —

He had a commercial shoot tonight!

Having only transmigrated for a few days, he was still not familiar with the business, so he completely forgot about his current occupation.

As a flop who had been secretly suppressed by “Popular Idol Xia Yu” before he could get popular, Xia Xingchi had countless anti-fans and black materials.[2]

As well as the pitiful leftover resources, such as this ad.

Thinking that he was done for, Xia Xingchi quickly answered the phone.

On the other side, Ling Meng pressed: “Xingchi, have you set off yet? Let’s go early today.”

“This is Han Ningyu’s home field, he’s a notorious bully who steps on the weak and is afraid of the powerful. His favorite thing to do is show off in front of the bottom tier artists for a sense of superiority.”

Lin Meng was an agent and an assistant all in one. Clearly very busy, she urged him to leave quickly and then hung up the phone in a rush.

Xia Xingchi freaked out as soon as he glanced at his watch. No wonder she was in a hurry. Let alone getting there ahead of time, it was likely that he would have to examine the circumstances before he took action when he arrived at the shooting location.

Luckily, the original owner was forcibly dragged into the entertainment circle by Xia Yu as a foil character. It had only been half a year, and like himself, he was not very skilled in the business.

Otherwise, it would be more than just forgetting to work, and he might invite even more ridicule.

Xia Xinchi quickly clicked on the rideshare app, praying in his heart that a driver would pick up the order soon.

While typing the location, the screen went blank, and no matter how hard he poked it, there was no response.

This weather-beaten mobile phone with a cracked screen actually went on strike at this critical moment.

Xia Xingchi:……

Why did his unlucky self always open the door to bad fortune?

I was just born unlucky!

Li Chengyuan abruptly said: “Go change your clothes, I’ll drive you there.”

This reminded Xia Xingchi that he was “kidnapped” back from the engagement banquet, and all of his clothes and luggage were at the Xia residence.

At this time, he saw the servants carrying a lot of paper bags in, all of which contained the latest clothes from high-end luxury brands. When he opened them, he found that they were sized just right for him.

It was a gift in his time of need. When Xia Xingchi glanced at Li Chengyuan, the look in his eyes became a little more worshipful.

This was more than a big villain, this was a Doraemon.[3]

It was actually like the engagement was premeditated. These clothes were ready two days ago.

On the night Xia Xingchi transmigrated, when Li Chengyuan regained consciousness briefly and pushed him down on the bed, he already roughly knew his size.

So Secretary Ye got the opportunity to “go shopping on Imperial orders.”

Under the eyes of the shocked and awed female clerks, she took out Mr. Li’s black card and swiped it to experience the fabled joy of completely booking a place.

It was too late to choose, so Xia Xingchi grabbed a paper bag and rushed to his room. Before closing the door, he advised: “You eat your meal, just lend me your phone and I’ll take a taxi.”

Taxi drivers didn’t even pass by this mansion, and encountering one randomly on the road would be hopeless.

Unexpectedly, when Xia Xingchi ran out of the room like a rabbit, Li Chengyuan was also completely dressed.

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But he hadn’t even taken a bite of the food on the dining room table.

Xia Xingchi hesitated: “Wait, you haven’t eaten yet……”

He had a delicate, fragile glass stomach. If he didn’t eat any dinner, he would probably fall ill that night.

Li Chengyuan turned a deaf ear to this. He picked up the car keys and walked to the villa’s elevator, obviously not to be argued with.

Xia Xingchi had no choice but to obediently shut up, and followed him all the way downstairs, visiting for the first time the underground garage that was comparable to a top auto show.

Likely because he didn’t bring a driver along, instead of the standard Rolls-Royce, he chose a rather cool silver-gray sports car.

He didn’t recognize the car logo, but Xia Xingchi guessed that it must be very expensive.

– – –

“Ancestor, ah, you are finally here! I was really afraid you wouldn’t be able to get a taxi at this point” Lin Meng hurriedly pushed Xia Xingchi to the dressing room.

The company didn’t provide him with a complementary car, and the original owner was too poor to buy a vehicle.

Lin Meng, as the dismal, unpopular agent, was no match for Xia Xingchi’s misery.

In the makeup mirror, Xia Xingchi’s rather attractive countenance was reflected. He had a defined look, with bright and delicate features, but didn’t show the slightest femininity. It only made people feel that the youth was full of warmth and vigor.

Lin Meng watched from the side, and the more she watched, the more amazed she became.

It took her a while to realize —

Good-looking was good-looking, but it seemed……that it wasn’t like this before?

But no matter how carefully she thought about Xia Xingchi’s original appearance, or looked back through photos and videos, the three characters “Xia Xingchi” always corresponded to this face.

There were just silent and mysterious changes that no one could detect.

Several people entered the dressing room one after another.

They were all young male artists who conformed to the current aesthetics, but were also unknown and had extremely low social status.

This was an advertisement for a new brand of massage chairs. Because there was no money to hire high-value celebrities, they had to get together seven Calabash Brothers[4] and try to save grandpa together.

The only well-known artist was “Han Ningyu,” whom Lin Meng had mentioned earlier on the phone.

Because Xia Xingchi looked so good, the makeup was done quickly and without much effort on the part of the makeup artist.

Lin Meng looked out of the corner of her eye and happened to see something glittering on his middle finger.

Taking a closer look, she found that it was a blindingly big pigeon egg diamond surrounded by more diamonds, and she quickly reached out to tap his finger: 

“Quickly take it off. You can’t wear this ambiguous style, it will be interpreted as a love affair or engagement ring……and since it’s fake, it will be easy to draw ridicule.”

With such a large size, it would be worth several million, but how could Xia Xingchi have that kind of money?

Xia Xingchi was taken aback for a moment, then suddenly remembered this major life event and that Sister Lin Meng didn’t know he was engaged.

As a result, various questions arose in succession:

Can an artist get engaged and get married?

How is the content of the contract written, will it be a breach of contract?

And the most concerning issue for a little money-grubber – whether there would be fines.

Forget it, it’s not really love anyway.

Xia Xingchi shook his head. Li Chenyuan would be gone within a year at most, and it would be better to avoid unnecessary trouble.

He obediently took off the ring. Lin Meng nodded, and then went out again in a rush.

– – –

Although there were more and more people in the dressing room, they didn’t converse much. This was likely due to unfamiliarity, and that it would be embarrassing not to recognize each other since they all shared the occupation of “artist.”

The atmosphere was tranquil until the door opened forcefully without warning!

The other party walked in loudly, as if carried by the wind.

Baffled, Xia Xingchi raised his head to look with disdain, and saw a very conspicuous man walk in, wearing sunglasses at night.

Followed by two assistants, he stood out from the crowd among the lonely low-tier artists.

“Brother Sunglasses” frowned and looked around for a moment, then asked contemptuously then and there: 

“There aren’t even separate dressing rooms here? Do you expect me to squeeze in with them?”

He also specially emphasized “them,” full of superiority.

Xia Xingchi immediately understood. It seemed that this was the protagonist of today’s advertisement, Han Ningyu.

The atmosphere was silent. Of course, there was no one who wasn’t irritated at having someone show off in front of them.

But no one refuted him. Some kept silent, but some even said hello to “Brother Han,” and others had no choice but to politely follow suit.

Everyone here without exception had very little backing, otherwise they wouldn’t be so conflicted.

Therefore, even if Han Ningyu was not a big figure, no one wanted to confront him head-on.

“Brother Han, your separate dressing room is next door.” A staff member of the ad group quickly greeted him with a smile. “I’ll take you there right away.”

The person who spoke was polite, but was also speechless in his heart: How had such large signage gone unnoticed?

It was nothing more than the fact that the pheasant couldn’t wait to show off his prestige after turning into a phoenix. For the sake of his new backer, everyone had to endure it.

Han Ningyu looked at everyone’s flattering expressions through his sunglasses, and was immediately very satisfied.

But as he glanced around, he frowned once more —

In the corner, a young man dressed head-to-toe in luxury brand clothes not only did not look at him, but kept his head down as he fiddled with a ring and a length of string.

Han Ningyu’s eyes were suddenly unkind, and he stared at Xia Xingchi for a long moment, perhaps hoping to threaten him in this way.

The others couldn’t help turning their heads to look at him.

The embarrassing thing was that Xia Xingchi didn’t respond by the time Han Ningyu’s eyes were sore, as if he didn’t intend to acknowledge him at all.

Although it was harmless, it was extremely insulting.

Therefore, Han Ningyu was incredibly annoyed when he left and closed the door in a grandiose manner, as if he intended to shatter the windowpane.

The earth-shattering sound of the door closing echoed for a long moment, and someone couldn’t help but say angrily: “Fuck! He has a lot of nerve!”

“I heard that Han Ningyu has a new benefactor. His resources are really good now, and he’s made a lot of money!”

Fully absorbed in his work, for fear that his hand would slip and drop the pigeon egg diamond, little money-grubber Xia finally finished his project.

Hearing the word “money,” the radar antenna on the top of his head immediately stood up, wanting to learn how to make more money in this circle.

“Benefactor? Seeing that he’s such a pompous ass, who is the benefactor?”

“I don’t know, but they must be rich – I was just downstairs and saw a Shelby!”

Xia Xingchi tilted his head, wondering what a Shelby was.

He heard someone exclaim: “Oh my god, that top supercar with a starting price of at least 50 million? I’ve never seen one with my own eyes!”

“The chauffeur certainly wouldn’t drive this car, so was it his benefactor who personally sent him here? He’s really favored, ah, no wonder Han Ningyu dared to become like this.”

The more Xia Xingchi listened, the more astounded he became. The values of a small money-grubber were shattered several times in one day by the power of money. It turned out that in life, there was a luxury car worth tens of millions?

Was it made of gold? This must not be on offer at an auto show. Was the owner really willing to drive it?

In any case, Han Ningyu was truly blessed. Making money and doing whatever he pleased, where could such a benefactor be found?

One of them looked out the window, and then took a breath: “Is that the one you’re talking about? His benefactor didn’t leave, but is actually waiting downstairs.”

Everyone had nothing to do, so they all leaned toward the window and looked out.

Seeing this, Xia Xingchi also raised his head curiously.

In the vast night, a rather conspicuous silver-gray sports car was parked in the dark, and it couldn’t be more familiar.

Xia Xingchi: ……!!!

Were they talking about Li Chengyuan?!

This person who had been eating melons with relish as he stayed out of the matter was stunned, and the non-existent melons were dropped to the ground in fright.

[1] Having “a wife, kids, and a warm bed” is an idiom for “living a good and simple life.” ⮐

[2] “Black material” is kompromat/dirt/skeletons in the closet. ⮐

[3] Doraemon is an old Japanese manga series where the titular character is a robotic blue cat. The context here is that Doraemon comes from the future and uses various future tools to help a family in their time of need. ⮐

[4] The Calabash Brothers is a popular 80’s animated show that featured seven brothers who successively went to rescue their grandfather from a monster and were captured. They won in the end, of course. ⮐

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