Shao Yanxi asks âwhat is it?â when Liu Yuâan hangs up.
âNothing. Just some keyboard warriors dissing my acting.â Itâs not like Shao Yanxi wouldnât know if he doesnât tell him now.
âBut your parts havenât even come up yet?â Shao Yanxi replies. Since heâs been inundated with fan and general Internet culture, keyboard warrior is not an unfamiliar term. They like to hold their opinions as absolute truth, whether substantiated or not, and argue with people online based on those opinions.
He takes out his phone to look online himself. When he does, Liu Yuâanâs new fans and the anti-fans have already blown the argument onto Trending.
âWhether my parts are here yet doesnât matter for them,â Liu Yuâan says, then starts sweeping a rather amorous gaze up and down Shao Yanxi, who shifts uncomfortably and goes âkuhum.â Liu Yuâan then continues, with his voice lowered in tone, âprobably because they know how perfect a partner Iâve managed to marry, so theyâre jealous.â
Shao Yanxiâs hand, which is on Liu Yuâanâs thigh, goes stiff, as he clears his throat again, and says, âenough with your BS; whatâs your teamâs plan.â
âIgnore it. Weâll start the counterattack and marketing after my part has aired.â
âI see.â
âDo you still want to watch the TV?â Liu Yuâan asks, as Evernight has ended a short while ago.
âNope,â Shao Yanxi says. Then Liu Yuâan takes his hand, and starts playing with his thumb. Shao Yanxi presses Liu Yuâanâs fingers down, asking, âtime to sleep?â
Liu Yuâan has been busy with work these days and he had a big contract to deal with too. Itâs been a while since their bodies have interacted at a negative distance from each other.
Since Shao Yanxi is so proactive for once, Liu Yuâan naturally obliges. He immediately pushes him down. After that, undressing, showering, getting in bed, intimate â contactingâŠ
Shao Yanxi is served comfortably, so much so heâs clinging onto Liu Yuâan, and not letting go the entire time, until it was time to clean up in the bathroom in the end.
Though Liu Yuâanâs team is going to fight back later, Shao Yanxi still made his own post in support of Liu Yuâan on his alt the next day, which reads, [I believe that you are definitely the most excellent Highness himself]
Some people are dissing Shao Yanxi in the comments, about how an entrepreneur isnât doing business but is lingering about in the entertainment industry, making a clown of himself for the entertainment of others and being a shame to other entrepreneurs.
Some also say no matter how much Shao Yanxi praises Liu Yuâan his bad acting would still stay bad acting.
Also present, of course, are the CP fans who are having a party saying how sweet this is.
Not that whatever the discussion was would affect what Liu Yuâan and Shao Yanxi are doing. Theyâre all busy people.
Still, Shao Yanxi has taken Evernightâs first reveal of Liu Yuâanâs Emperor tonight, with that river scene, and so finishes work an hour early to go home to catch it. Unfortunately, Liu Yuâan is delayed by many others NGâing so he canât make it back, so Shao Yanxi is watching the TV alone.
While waiting for the part to come up, Shao Yanxi is browsing online. As soon as Liu Yuâanâs character appears by the river, his team gets to work already. And as the Emperor continues the impeccable performance, the comments start to shift.
[OMG this is the character that is most similar to the original character in âEvernightâ! I can feel it!]
[im sold, im gonna be an Anan fan from now on!!!]
[holy shit i cant even, this is so handsome! i <3 u so much!]
[âI believe that you are definitely the most excellent Highness himselfâ aakjfsljfkdls Anan and Yanxi are so sweet Iâm diabetic]
[Iâm sorry about dissing your acting online before. This Emperor of the Yaoguai is really the most Emperor of the Yaoguai that ever Emperored or Yaoguaied, I love it!]
âŠ
Ren Jianzhang also releases the precomposed post at this time [Liu Yuâanâs previous acting really was bad, and it is something he realised as well. To better himself in his career, he has stopped appearing on the screen after his first TV drama to study acting under a teacher. After the teacher has finally approved of him did he finally accept âEvernightâs offer]
Though itâs actually just the original cannon fodder too lazy and disinterested to take any jobs.
Ren Jianzhang managed to spin it into a big positive too.
Therefore this whole thing managed to become Top Trending with the companyâs push behind it. Several other celebritiesâ popularity and discussion are hampered, of course, though they donât really dare doing anything in retaliation.
Besides the post, âEvernightâ even released bonus footage from when Liu Yuâan did martial arts. Starting from when the coordinator had low expectations of Liu Yuâan, to him dropping his jaw over Liu Yuâanâs performance, and finally talking with him and discussing all the martial arts technique in the end, becoming impressed.
The comments are all sold too, going [so handsome], [No wonder the fighting scenes are so amazing], [Hahaha look at that starry eyes the coordinator had by the end!], [So Anan is actually a very good fighter?]
âŠ
Though Shao Yanxi visited him often and knew about him discussing martial arts with the coordinator back then, he didnât feel anything without seeing it himself.
But he has felt a chill down his spine when he finally sees him wielding a weapon in the video today. He knows for a fact Liu Yuâan has never studied martial arts; he cannot imagine any possible scenario in which he would have suddenly become so adept at swordplay.
Liu Yuâan is home while heâs still looking at the video, he greets him then walks over, asking âwhat are you looking atâ as he takes off his puffer coat.
Shao Yanxi lets him see his phone, and Liu Yuâan sees that itâs his martial arts, and asks him with a shit-eating grin, âhandsome, right?â
He doesnât realise that there is already a seed of doubt in Shao Yanxiâs mind.
Shao Yanxi doesnât reply, and seeing that Liu Yuâan didnât seem like heâs going to explain, he assumes he doesnât want to, and feels slightly bitter, but he lowers his head and replies with a nod, âyeah, it is.â
âMy Yanxi is super handsome too.â
Three days later, when Liu Yuâan is at work, Zhao Xian has called. After his part is done, Xiao-Zhang gives him a warm blanket and Xu Qingqing also quickly gives him a hand warmer.
Xiao-Zhang tells him that Zhao Xian called earlier, and Liu Yuâan immediately calls him back. Zhao Xian seem to be tripping over his words and hesitant though, making Liu Yuâan irritated enough to say, âspeak up, what is it?â
âAn-ge⊠You are An-ge, right?â Zhao Xian suddenly asks.
Liu Yuâanâs heart sinks a bit, but he puts up an angered tone, âwho do you think you might be talking to, then?!â
Zhao Xian has always been the more reasonable of the two between him and Zhuang Feiyu. For him to ask such a question, he must have found the real deal, and the things inside⊠he might have connected the dots.
Zhao Xian then says, after a brief pause, ânever mind. I did find a few books that fit what you asked for. Iâll send them to you. Tell me if you still need me to look through the rest of the database.â
âAlright, thanks,â Liu Yuâan then quickly opens up his mailbox. Thereâs five of them.
Liu Yuâan reads through them and sighs in relief. For better or worse, there isnât this worldâs book among them.
He sends Zhao Xian a message that the book heâs looking for isnât among them, so he should continue.
That said, he would much rather that the book he wanted isnât found at all.
If it really exists, then thereâs definitely someone whoâs read it. Among them might be Shao Yanxi and especially Jiang He, who worked in the industry himself; in general, if you happen to come across a novel depicting something really like someone else you knew, it makes for a good piece of conversation with friends and family.
But for Jiang He and Shao Yanxi, it isnât just âsimilar,â but exact retellings, plus private feelings nobody else could have known also written exactly as is. One can imagine how much trouble that might bring, both for Shao Yanxi and Jiang He.
Thinking of Shao Yanxi, Liu Yuâan canât help but imagine how he would react if he knew about it; would he want a divorce? Would he cry by himself all alone?
Itâs probably most likely he would just bawl out in his lake mansion before divorcing him.
Liu Yuâan canât help but feel irritated and a bit pained at the thought; something he never thought would happen. Have his feelings for Shao Yanxi grown that much already? Though he did go through numerous worlds before, he has never actually fallen for anyone or been in a relationship with anyone, or affected like this ever before.
The feeling is so distracting that he keeps being unable to get into his part as the cranky, paranoid teacher. The director lashed out at him by the end, and, with all else failing, the director pushed the othersâ parts forward first, letting Liu Yuâan adjust. He goes back to the hotel himself.
He tries to contact the Virtual Worlds Management Centre again⊠Only to fall into true despair.
The voice at the other end of the line tells him that there was a catastrophic earthquake that has caused major damage, among which is the collapsed Management Centre's building . While the building has collapsed, theyâve moved everything and set up camp in a temporary location, but with the computer controlling the virtual worlds down for the count, many virtual worlds are currently bugging up. She neither knows, nor is unable to look up either whether the novel describing Liu Yuâanâs current virtual world has appeared in the world itself.
Great. Thatâs unhelpful.
Liu Yuâan is anxious at this point, because of Shao Yanxi .
Should he tell him about this? But if the novel didnât end up in this world, Shao Yanxi might be angry with him telling such a tall story that depicted their story as such a tragedy.
Liu Yuâan is extremely conflicted right now.
Meanwhile, Shao Yanxi has also finally obtained definite proof that Jiang He is targeting him by working with his siblings. With that in hand, he is finally able to go all-out at the Jiang family.
They have been fortuitous in their business these years, and tried to expand as much as possible, even running into the situation where they need to borrow money to keep expanding. And, perhaps by sheer coincidence, the bank theyâre borrowing from, is a bank whose major shareholder is Hengâan.