Chapter 8

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

“If you’re not dissolving the contract, are you going to work?” CEO Ning asks.

Ren Jianzhang also pays attention to his answer.

He never did have work in mind before, but would that change now that he knew?

Ren Jianzhang is curious, but he’s not particularly hopeful.

Though he gets a face-slap right there, “any good scripts?”

“Yep,” the CEO answers, “modern settings, dynastic settings. We also have teenage flicks and even detective thrillers… Anything you want.” Even if it’s something they don’t have right now, they’ll be able to get one immediately.

Because they have the capital.

“Right, you could send the scripts…” Liu Yu’an didn’t finish his sentence, but instead glances over to Ren Jianzhang who is looking at him ferociously, “to Ren-ge. Ren-ge, help me pick some scripts, please?”

Ren Jianzhang is a capable enough agent in the field even if he’s not one of the very top; he might have held resentment towards the original cannon fodder but he never did show it in public. Nor did he ever pick on him or force him to work… His character seems to be trustworthy.

Most importantly, Liu Yu’an himself has been acting out in these bad scripts for so long that he can’t really critically examine them anymore.

——Most worlds on the verge of collapse requiring intervention are badly-written ones with anomalies all over the place, which speaks volumes to the quality of the works deriving them in the first place.

Of course, that’s not always the case, but exceptions are really rare.

He has been immunised to these badly written scripts already.

“Sure!” Ren Jianzhang’s eyes seem to have sparkled hearing that, thinking, Liu Yu’an, good on you. He’ll try to view him without the prejudice-tinted glasses from now on.

Liu Yu’an leaves the office and parts from Ren Jianzhang. Outside, he gets a call from his mother, who asks, “have you annulled the contract yet?”

His mother must have been worrying head-over-heels.

Understandable, though. She wants them to be a happy, or at least a mutually respecting couple. Both for her son, and for the fact that the most wealthy man ever, Shao Yanxi, might be able to crush their family in one fell swoop if he angered him.

“I didn’t,” Liu Yu’an answered, quickly following up before his mother could start rambling, “Yanxi has bought the company out, so it’s his. It’d be better to remain here than sign on to Zhao Xian’s company.”

“Really? You’re not pulling my leg for that little idol?”

“… Just ask Yanxi if you don’t believe me.”

“Fine, I’ll take your word for it for now. But don’t try to pull anything, alright?”

“Alright.”

He hangs up then drives home, during which he also bought groceries in a supermarket and called Shao Yanxi to ask, “what do you want to eat for lunch?”

“Anything would do,” Shao Yanxi replies.

Before, Liu Yu’an told him he’s going to pack lunches for him, so Shao Yanxi knew what he was asking.

“There isn’t a dish by that name, choose another one,” Liu Yu’an swings the rib in his hand slightly and chuckles.

His eyes are so gentle that a girl next to him is absolutely enamoured. She grabs her companion’s arm tightly and whispers in an exasperated manner in her ear, “my god, what a handsome fella, oh my god, he’s so handsome, the smile is so electrifying. I want to be the one he’s calling, it must be so dreamy!”

Though the companion replies, “that person? Isn’t he some celebrity who’s… got that extreme reputation for scolding people and acting pompous and having sex with fans and being a sugar daddy’s toy… He’s despicable, you know.”

“Holy shit, for real? You’re not bullshitting right? He’s really handsome why can he be such a shitty person aaargh my heart is split into two…”

The two girls blabber as they move away.

Liu Yu’an, who heard everything “…”

Everything the other girl said, other than acting pompously were actually mere rumours.

All circulated by the protagonist Top of the novel.

Speaking of, since Shao Yanxi had acquired the company early on already, why didn’t he help whitewash it for the original cannon fodder?

Though it would be foolish to try to apply common sense to a virtual world, especially one filled with bugs like this one.

Liu Yu’an decides to let the thought go and continues asking, “want ribs? I can make steamed ribs for you.”

“Alright.”

“Anything else?”

“I want tofu .”

Liu Yu’an breaks into laughter, “sure, feel free to eat as much as you want, as long as you want when I’m there.”

Shao Yanxi fails to react at first, but when he does he hangs up the call in frustration.

Liu Yu’an puts his phone back in his pocket with a smile. He bought a kilo of ribs and some vegetables, tofu and ingredients for steaming home.

Liu Yu’an learned to steam this way a long time ago in another world. It’s been long enough that he doesn’t remember the recipe well so he has to look it up online on his phone.

He spends some time chopping the meat up and preparing the rest of the ingredients. The steaming itself will take 40 minutes, during which he made spicy tofu and a tomato and egg soup.

——There’s not enough time.

If he tries to make anything more complex Shao Yanxi wouldn’t be able to have lunch until way past one.

Afterwards, Liu Yu’an quickly travels to Shao Yanxi’s company with the lunch in hand. The receptionist is still as enthusiastic as he remembered.

Upstairs, the people of the secretariat are probably still on their lunch breaks, so Liu Yu’an walks straight ahead to Shao Yanxi’s office.

Inside, Shao Yanxi is still working.

“Eat first before working,” Liu Yu’an puts the lunch box down onto the coffee table.

Shao Yanxi shuts down the monitor then washes his hands.

When Liu Yu’an sees him eating the spicy tofu he recalls Shao Yanxi saying he wants ‘tofu’ and can’t help but chuckle again.

Shao Yanxi sees it, and quickly realises what he’s thinking about. He bites his lips slightly before coldly remarking, “the dishes will cool if you don’t start eating.”

It’s May, obviously the meals are at least still lukewarm.

Though Liu Yu’an decides against teasing him more and says, smiling, “yeah, sure.”

After that, he remembers that CEO Ning talked about the company being bought up and Liu Yu’an mentions it in passing. Shao Yanxi doesn’t seem to want to talk about it though, and only says, “yeah, it was cheap and it seemed to have some potential to make money still. Anything else?”

He doesn’t mention him, that is, the original cannon fodder, at all.

Since Shao Yanxi doesn’t want to talk about it Liu Yu’an also lets the topic go. They chat a bit more before Liu Yu’an drives home.

He gets a call from Zhao Xian soon enough, “An-ge, where are you? There’s no one at home.”

Liu Yu’an is actually at Shao Yanxi’s place right now.

“Wait there, I’ll be there soon enough.”

Shao Yanxi’s apartment is thankfully less than 10 minutes away from his own place by car.

Liu Yu’an arrives home soon enough, and sees that Zhuang Feiyu is with Zhao Xian.

These two sure get along well, thinks Liu Yu’an.

Then he hears Zhuang Feiyu yell out with that loud voice of his, “An-ge, where were you?”

“Something came up,” Liu Yu’an says as he parks his car, “come inside for tea?”

“I want to drive,” Zhuang Feiyu says, biting his lips like a pitiable doggy.

“Sure, you can go drive. I need to talk to Zhao Xian for a bit.”

Zhuang Feiyu asks, gossip in mind, “about Yue Zhun?”

“Kinda.”

They go upstairs and Liu Yu’an sits on his sofa, saying, “there’s stuff in the fridge, you can get anything you want.”

He’s just too lazy to serve his guests.

Zhuang Feiyu got two iced colas and takes a seat on the sofa, looking very much ready to listen in on the gossip.

Liu Yu’an gives him a glance before asking Zhao Xian, “what kind of work were those that I asked you to put money down on?”

The cannon fodder was dumb but rich. He has given Zhao Xian close to 200 million Yuan by now——Liu Yu’an suspects part of it is Shao Yanxi’s own wealth.

Since ‘Liu Yu’an’ has always just been a pampered rich boy, the kind that holds no sway over actual authority.

He wouldn’t know ‘saving’ if his life depended on it, so he couldn’t possibly have had normal access to 200 million.

What a scum, seriously——To Shao Yanxi, of course. But Ren Jianzhang was right about him being deeply committed to Yue Zhun, to the extent that even if Yue Zhun sees him as no more than an acquaintance, and is already close with Jiang He, he still tried to cling to him without asking for his feelings to be reciprocated.

In a certain sense, both the cannon fodder and Shao Yanxi are similar.

They would both spoil the person they like without asking anything in return nor consider any moral quandary.

What makes Shao Yanxi distinguishable though is that he spoils ‘Liu Yu’an’ without hurting anyone; ‘Liu Yu’an’ spoils Yue Zhun knowing very well how badly he is treating Shao Yanxi in turn, especially when he’s using up Shao Yanxi’s own money to spoil Yue Zhun.

What kind of dumbass author could have come up with such a ridiculous setting, he wonders.

At least spend some time to think character motivations over, even if it’s only for a cannon fodder, alright?

Though thankfully the cannon fodder only handed the money to Zhao Xian and didn’t care how it was used.

Not that he’d understand anything about it in the first place.

So he didn’t care about making sure Yue Zhun got the protagonist or deuteragonist role, or got to appear in some variety show, as long as Yue Zhun got in.

Of course, Zhao Xian did report what offers he made to Yue Zhun, but ‘Liu Yu’an’ didn’t pay much attention.

Now that he transmigrated, he will of course need to wipe the original cannon fodder’s ass.

Zhao Xian starts listing, “a variety show that’s still in pre-production; two works based off of hit novels, one where Yue Zhun is the second male lead and one where he’s the male lead; one detective thriller, one movie where he’s the third male lead. I heard your current company had money in them except for the soap opera…”

While Zhao Xian continues listing, Liu Yu’an can only go “…”

If he didn’t know Shao Yanxi was behind their company he’d not think too much. Now that he knew, Liu Yu’an can only go, “Jesus Fucking Christ” inside.

Obviously, Zhao Xian has no telepathic abilities and asks, “An-ge, are you going for them?”

“Send me any script without Yue Zhun, I’ll take a look,” he says.

Zhao Xian nods, but is actually thinking about what a powerful husband the wealthiest man turned out to be. Liu Yu’an was still madly head-over-heels for Yue Zhun a few days ago but as soon as he got married he even refuses to be in the same cast as Yue Zhun.

Zhuang Feiyu meanwhile directly voices his inappropriate opinion, “holy shit, you’re really settling down after, how many days of being married again? The man really is the…” He looks like he’s thoroughly impressed.

Zhao Xian cuts him off though, “I’ll send some over when I go home. An-ge, anything else?”

Zhuang Feiyu gives Zhao Xian a glare, which he ignores completely.

Liu Yu’an kind of knows what’s going on, so he doesn’t say anything, instead, he says, “yeah, don’t talk about how I invested any money in these, both of you.”

“Sure,” Zhao Xian understands.

It would be hell on Earth if the current partner found out about these absurd investments on the ex-partner, especially when this current partner is no trivial person.

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