Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Even if someone had come looking for him, Ah Wan would typically not dare to wake the Young Master up as he tended to throw a massive tantrum after being woken up abruptly.
“Miss Zhou, the screen-protector lady, would like to meet you.”
A period of dead silence followed.
The young master, who had just come to his senses from being woken up, spoke with a slight slur, indicating that he was currently in a harmless state. “The door’s not locked.”
Zhou Xufang entered the room just as Jiang Zhi was putting on his overcoat. He raised his arms as he slipped the coat over his shoulders, revealing just a sliver of pale white skin, peeking out from underneath his black wool shirt. Perhaps sensing her gaze, the young master swiftly covered up his exposed skin by pulling his shirt down.
Jiang Zhi glanced at Ah Wan. “Get out. And don’t forget to shut the door.”
“Understood.”
Ah Wan did as he was told. Shutting the door, he stood guard outside the entrance with an ear pressed against the wooden door. He even held his breath just so he could hear a little clearer.
“What do you want from me?” Jiang Zhi sat down with a glass of warm water in hand. Evidence that he had just woken up was found on his face in the form of two red creases, pressed into his skin as he had slept.
‘This person must’ve been a wild sleeper,’ thought Zhou Xufang.
She placed the black rucksack she had slung over her back onto the ground. “This is for you, as compensation.” It seemed that to this day, Zhou Xufang was facing a hard time getting over the chicken poop incident.
Jiang Zhi’s eyes shifted from her face down onto that bag. “Another chicken?” He could no longer conceal his despise at the thought of another bothersome ball of feathers.
“No, not that. It’s milk.” She paused for a second before adding. “Two boxes of them.”
Whenever she spoke, her face would always be devoid of any emotion. Likewise, the tone in which she spoke would always sound formal and serious, giving off a cold and robotic vibe to the people she spoke to. Also, this brand was an extremely premium item. For her to be able to afford two boxes worth of milk, just how many hours worth of screen-protectors had she sold and applied?
Weirdo.
Jiang Zhi put the glass down and stood up from the sofa. He slipped on a pair of indoor slippers and walked over to the girl, standing just shy of a meter away from her. He gazed into her eyes. That pair of eyes were mesmerizing, almost as if he was peering into a bottomless abyss, which was enough to make his heart beat wildly.
“Zhou Xufang.” This was the first time he had called out to her like that.
Zhou Xufang raised her head, revealing eyes that stared steadily straight into his soul. In her mind, she noted that not only was he an extremely gorgeous man, he also had a voice that she could listen to for hours on end.
Jiang Zhi took one step forward. The look in his eyes was hard to decipher, All she could see was pitch-black darkness. “Am I attractive?” He asked.
Why did he ask a question for which its answer was already known? He was by far, the most attractive man she had ever come across. He was just as pretty as her glass box of marshmallows. She wasn’t blind. In fact, it was quite the contrary. Her eyesight was extremely good, far surpassing that of regular humans, so it was impossible that her eyes were mistaken.
She nodded her head. “Yeah, very.”
The corner of Jiang Zhi’s mouth curled downward. It was just as he thought, his cursed looks again. For the first time in forever, that air-headed Ah Wan had been correct. This woman had fallen for his looks, which was the most plausible explanation as to why she acted so bizarrely—it was all an act to pique his interest.
In all fairness, the bizarre-ness had faded away since he had faced situations like this countless times in the past.
Raising his jaw, he looked down on the young lady arrogantly. His mood today wasn’t too bad, which was reflected in his tone as he spoke. “Falling for me is futile. I have no interest in women.”
While this person was weird, she was pretty interesting. If she was a man, then surely…
“Alright. I no longer like you.”
Jiang Zhi nearly choked himself when he heard her answer so seriously and with little to no hesitation. He held his breath and his face turned bright red as if it was a bomb that was about to explode. A jolt of pain spread through his lungs which prompted his hand to block his mouth before he started coughing uncontrollably. “Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough…”
Why was she so different from the men and women that chased after him? Where was the part where after rejecting her, she would grovel at his feet, begging for a chance of happiness with him?
“Cough, cough, cough, cough…”
The more he coughed, the more pain he felt in his lungs!
Zhou Xufang stood idly beside him with an aloof expression on her face. “Are you okay?” She asked.
Jiang Zhi grabbed the glass he had just set down, and ignoring the burning sensation it had on his mouth as it was still piping hot, he downed gulp after gulp of water. It took quite a while before his coughing fit died down. With a reddened face, he stared coldly at her. “What’s with the stiff upper lip? I won’t eat you or anything, you know?”
Zhou Xufang’s blank expression changed into a dumbfounded look.
She was not forcing a stiff upper lip.
Like the pretty marshmallow box which she would gaze at from time to time, she also enjoyed looking at Jiang Zhi’s face. However, she was no greedy pig. She also liked the new chandelier which was just recently set up at the rice porridge shop where she worked. Every time she dropped by the shop while doing her deliveries, she would steal a glance or two at the fixture, but the notion of bringing it back home had never once crossed her mind.
Jiang Zhi’s emotions were stirred up even more by the expression on Zhou Xufang’s face. Turning away from her, he began unbuttoning his coat. “Get out. I’d like to go back to my nap.”
“Oh.”
Zhou Xufang left the room without any second thought.
“…”
Was her IQ the same as Lin Wanwan!?
The time leading up to Xufang’s visit to his room was the only period where he was able to rest his eyes. After she had left though, he struggled to fall asleep no matter how hard he tried. A prickling discomfort crawled through his skin as he felt his pride utterly crushed by that cursed woman’s heel. She was the only human so far that had utterly defeated him, so how could he possibly sleep soundly right after that?
There were 3 separate scenes scheduled to be shot that afternoon. One of the actresses, however, was struggling to keep up as she constantly “um-ed” her way through the script. That naturally made the Director infuriated with her performance. With a particularly bad look on his face, he dropped the script onto the ground.
“That’s it. The shoot ends here. Go back and fix yourself up. If your performance remains like this tomorrow, then you’re better off not coming at all.”
The actress wore an apologetic look on her face in the face of the Director’s criticism.
“Who’s that?” Zhou Xufang asked her friend, Fang Lixiang.
“You talking about Cheng Feiran?” Fang Lixiang asked nonchalantly as more focus was placed on the Battle Royale match she was currently playing. She glanced one more time at the actress before explaining. “An artist from Tian Xing. Not very popular so perhaps she’s a rookie… D*mn! This dumbf*ck sucks at this game!”
As the match came to an end, Fang Lixiang’s team had suffered a total defeat. That pissed her off royally. It was fine and all for a noob player to have crappy skills, but the thing that ticked her off was the fact that in the final showdown, that…that newbie sonuvab*tch accidentally killed her by friendly fire through a poorly-aimed grenade throw.
Argh, raaaaage!
Fang Lixiang took in a deep breath to calm herself down before turning to ask Zhou Xufang, “What’s the matter?”
She shook her head.
Her sense of hearing was just too good. Today, she had forgotten to bring a pair of noise-canceling earplugs, so unintentionally, she had overheard that girl’s phone call.
“I’ll never let you guys go!”
“I will make those heinous acts public!”
“I’m not afraid! It’s either you or me now.”
Cheng Feiran.
Zhou Xufang had bumped into her once back at the Floating Hall. At that time, she was being bullied by a bunch of men.
Because Cheng Feiran had messed up her parts of the script too many times, the shoot which was originally scheduled to end at 5 pm had to drag on till 7 pm. As Zhou Xufang belonged to a group of mass actors in the final scene, it was almost 8 pm by the time she returned to Yuquan Bay.
She ordered a takeaway meal and immediately after, she kicked off her shoes. Plopping down onto the sofa, she began eating marshmallows, her favorite sweet.
It turned out that Shuang Jiang was looking for her online. “There’s a new client.”
Xufang rose from her seat to get something from the fridge. She didn’t intend to hide herself from the webcam of her computer, so the speed it took for her to reach the fridge from her position took less than two seconds.
Pulling open the fridge door, she retrieved a can of milk. “What’s the client requesting?”
She was no home-cook so there was no point in owning a fridge. However, because she had recently taken up a liking to Jiang Zhi’s favorite brand of milk, she had specifically bought a new fridge just so she could enjoy a fresh, cold can of moo juice.
“The client has deposited something on Everest Tower. Wants us to retrieve it seven days later. After that, we’ll send it to a TV station. Zhou Qing has allowed us to handle this request.” A line of Shuang Jiang’s words came popping up across Xufang’s computer screen. “Reward. Two million yuan.”
Two million yuan was no small change.
Zhou Xufang leaned against the wall beside the fridge, focusing on every single sip of milk she took. “The client?”
“I’ve checked. Nothing special about her. Name’s Cheng Feiran.”
Cheng Feiran…
It was her again, huh.
“Accept?” Shuang Jiang asked.
She gulped down a final mouthful of milk. With the can between her fingers, she took a well-aimed shot and the can was sent flying in the trajectory of a perfect parabola, ending up cleanly in the trash can. “Accept.”
That weekend, Xue Baoyi invited a bunch of his buddies out for a supposed “urgent business discussion”, which turned out to be a match of Battle Royale with him. This game was all the craze recently and he had become quite addicted to it. Unfortunately, no matter how much he played the game, he sucked terribly at it.
Qiao Nanchu was immediately caught in a phone call the moment he stepped into the room.
“The person who reported this appears to be kinda sketchy.”
He took off his necktie as he spoke over the phone. “Lawyers have already been hired, and for him to withdraw his case so suddenly…”
“You go check on it again.”
Leaning back into the sofa, a pair of long slender legs rested themselves on the coffee table in front of it. His fingers pinched an unlit cigarette. “No need to report it for the moment. Further actions will have to wait until we reach a clear conclusion on this.”
Upon wrapping up this matter, another case popped up. After speaking on the phone for over ten minutes, Xue Baoyi threw a lighter at the detective. “That’s enough. Everything that ever came out of your mouth this weekend is work, work, and more work. Hurry up and get online. Help me kill these noobs.”
Qiao Nanchu hung up before sneering at his gamer friend. “How old are you again? You’re acting really immature right now.”
At twenty-five, here was a man who could still get angry with a petty mobile game.
Xue Baoyi wore an angry look on his face. “Screw this guy! That hoe is calling me a noob!? You think I can hold back my anger at this?” In a wicked tone, he urged. “Hurry up and join the d*mn game! Help me decimate this little f*cker!”
Qiao Nanchu snorted as he booted up the game on his phone.
As Xue Bingxue joined the match, Xue Baoyi turned toward Jiang Zhi. “Brother Zhi, we’re waiting for you to join.”
He nestled himself comfortably into the sofa and without even flinching, he lazily replied. “Tired, don’t think I can play.”
Xue Baoyi walked over to pull him up.
Jiang Zhi however, forcefully turned his back against the gamer before yelling out. “Don’t disturb my naptime!”
“…”
Gosh darn it! The daintiness of this man had surpassed all levels of daintiness Xue Baoyi had ever seen. Lying there with his eyes closed, Jiang Zhi would breathe out softly at a consistent pace. The tip of his tongue would also make an appearance from time to time to wet his lips…ahh, this person was the embodiment of living poetry.
This sexuality-warping fairy! Xue Baoyi kicked the man sitting nearby. “Uncle, call up Jiang Zhi’s fifth aunt. She’s pretty good at the game. We’ll let her carry the team.”
Xue Bingxue showed a reluctant expression. There was even a slight hint of dissatisfaction in his reply. “Don’t bother Wei’er with your childish games. She has a group of friends to tend to, she doesn’t have time for silly games.”
“…”
‘D*mn! Y’all are a useless bunch!’
Xue Baoyi licked his lips. Fine, if that was so, he would have to use the final trick up his sleeve. He made a temporary pact with the player that called him a noob to play a match at 10. Whoever chickened out would be the ultimate noob!
Ten minutes later…
“Nanchu, c’mere! He’s killing me!”
“Uncle, come support me!”
“…”
“Hey, save me! Quick, save me!”
“I’m picking up loot!”
“Sh*t it’s an ambush! Oh my God! Nanchu, Uncle, where the hell are you guys!?”
“…”
“…”
Xue Baoyi was still squealing. “Nanchu, Nanchu!”
Qiao Nanchu kicked at the source of the noise. “For God’s sake, can’t you quiet down? My head feels like it’s about to split open from all the noise.”
Just as Qiao Nanchu finished his lecture, the man on his screen fell flat on his back. He had been shot dead by another player.
“…”
Qiao Nanchu felt something stuck in his throat as he grit his teeth in frustration. “Xue Baoyi! Why the hell did you kill me!?”
Xue Baoyi was so nervous that sweat came pouring out of his pores. “Slip of the hand, man!”
That was it!
Qiao Nanchu tossed aside his phone and picked up a pillow. Then, he started assaulting Xue Baoyi who was still entirely focused on the game.
This time, it was Ah Wan who interrupted them when he pushed open the door of the room.
“Master Jiang…” He moved one step forward. “…you’re on the headlines.”
The brawl between Qiao Nanchu and Xue Baoyi came to a halt in an instant. Almost in perfect unison, they looked in Jiang Zhi’s direction.
The man’s eyes remained shut. He was still asleep, hence the lack of a response.
“What’s the matter this time?” asked Xue Baoyi. For Jiang Zhi, being a talented director as well as the owner of that face, appearing on the headlines generally shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise.
Ah Wan thought for a moment. “It’s related to romance.”
Xue Baoyi’s interest was piqued. “Hey, hey, there’s finally some romantic gossip about Brother Zhi! Who’s the lucky girl? A top-tier celebrity?”
“That screen-protector girl.” Ah Wan replied. “Miss Zhou.”
Jiang Zhi’s eyes sprung open.