Liu Jinhao was 26 years old this year and was the first friend Xia Yan met after transmigrating.
At that time, he was dedicated to honing his acting skills, often disguising himself and going to bars to learn. Perhaps his appearance with a hat and mask was too conspicuous, he was frequently stopped and harassed.
When he encountered another drunk blocking his way, insisting on buying him a drink, Liu Jinhao appeared out of nowhere and kicked the person out of the bar.
Xia Yan gratefully thanked him.
Afterward, the two often met at the bar, drinking, playing games, and ‘picking up men’ together, becoming good brothers.
“I’m tired today; I’m heading home, baby.”
While Tu Xi was distracted, Xia Yan quickly walked to Liu Jinhao’s car. He lightly kicked the tire, “What are you standing there for? Open the door.”
“Got it!”
‘Beep beep,’ the car unlocked. Xia Yan opened the passenger door and got in, shifting his view away from the other two, naturally unaware of their tense expressions.
The garage was brightly lit, extinguishing all the darkness.
“What a scary expression.” Liu Jinhao sneered, pulling out a cigarette, “Only that fool would think you’re kind and gentle.”
Tu Xi’s face was cold, and his eyes were full of malice. “Isn’t young master Liu’s hand reaching too far?”
“I can’t do anything about others but him…” He exhaled a smoke ring, “I can’t let it happen.”
“……”
“Besides, Xia Yan chose me this time. Forcing someone is not the behavior of a gentleman.”
This struck a nerve with Tu Xi. They had been dating for half a year, and no matter how much he hinted, Xia Yan seemed like a wooden block, unwilling to make any physical contact.
He even forced the only kiss.
He had to think of a way.
Tu Xi couldn’t be bothered with Liu Jinhao anymore. He quickly walked to the car window, gently knocked on it, and saw someone lost in thought, which made him both angry and amused.
“Yan Yan.”
“Hmm?” The young man slightly raised his head, giving him a smile and a casual wink, his tone intimate and teasing, “Xi Xi, see you tomorrow, dream of me tonight.”
Again?
Xia Yan had just rejected him, and now this young man was acting as if nothing had happened, naturally making flirtatious gestures that stirred his heartstrings.
He was right beside Xia Yan, yet he couldn’t figure him out or grasp him.
Seemingly amorous, enjoying nightlife, but actually noble and indifferent, his eyes didn’t stay on anyone, dismissing the entire world.
Like a mystery, making people sink.
–
At 3 a.m., the streets were deserted.
Liu Jinhao drove steadily. He glanced at the young man beside him and spoke in a low voice, “Your car is still in the parking lot; I’ll have someone send it over tomorrow.”
“Alright, thanks.”
“No need to be polite among brothers.”
“By the way, how did the photos turn out?”
“Pretty good.” Liu Jinhao gripped the steering wheel tightly, his face still cheerful. He pretended not to care, “Why are you taking these photos? Planning to display them at home?”
“You make it sound like I’m a pervert.”
Liu Jinhao heard Xia Yan’s laughter, which lifted his spirits, but before he could banter, the following words instantly plunged him into despair.
“I’m planning to send the photos to paparazzi to expose my secret relationship with Xi Xi.”
“Wha-what?”
“We’ve been dating for six months without going public.” The young man yawned, seemingly tired, his voice dropping a few pitches, “He probably plans to dump me in the future, so I want to expose us and lock it down.”
“……”
“Or you can help me send the photos out… Anyway, they need to be published…”
“……”
“…Zzz.” Xia Yan fell asleep.
Liu Jinhao slowed the car, quietly watching him.
He wanted to say, ‘Don’t worry, Tu Xi has been head over heels for you. As long as you want, you can get married immediately.’
But his throat felt stuffed with cotton, and he couldn’t get the words out.
Damn it! Why should he help others’ romance?
He felt a pang of jealousy.
When they arrived at the apartment complex, he gently woke Xia Yan, “Wake up, you’re home.”
“Oh… okay.” Xia Yan rubbed his eyes, still thinking about the photos, “Remember to send me the photos or upload them online.”
“Alright, all you do is boss me around. I’ll send them out later.”
After Xia Yan’s figure disappeared, Liu Jinhao sat in the car, smoked a cigarette to calm down, opened his phone, and deleted the clearest photos.
He chose a blurry one and thought it wasn’t enough, so he downloaded a beauty app and turned it into two mosaic squares.
There is no way the paparazzi would identify it.
Lockdown? Dream on.
–
“Bzzz~”
The sky was starting to lighten, a few breezes blew through the half-open window into the living room. The phone’s incessant vibrating sounded like the whispers of a resentful woman, making one irritable.
“Ugh…” The black silhouette on the couch trembled slightly, a hand extended from the blanket, slender and long, with fair pink nails. The hand was so pale in the dimly lit room that it was mesmerizing.
The hand owner didn’t even look and skillfully turned off the phone, a motion that seemed to have been repeated thousands of times.
The room returned to silence. The black figure turned over and continued to sleep.
No one knew how long it had been before the sky became bright.
Suddenly, the living room door was knocked, accompanied by the hoarse shouting of a man.
“Xia Yan!!!! Come out! You have the guts to flirt at the bar; have the guts to open the door! As your agent, do you know what kind of night I had last night?” The middle-aged man tugged at his thinning hair, his eyes blazing with fury, “What’s the deal with you and Tu Xi…”
The door ‘swished’ open before he could finish the last word.
“Wang Dazhuang, are you hitting menopause? You’re getting naggier.” The young man, hungover, propped himself against the door, stretching lazily. The edges of his white shirt rolled up, revealing a slender, fair waist.
The agent caught a glimpse and momentarily stopped breathing.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Xia Yan, watch yourself!” Wang Dazhuang moved faster than lightning, yanking down the young man’s shirt to cover the palm-sized patch of skin on his waist. “Don’t be so careless all the time. What if you run into a pervert?”
Seeing him in this mother-hen mode, Xia Yan couldn’t help but laugh aloud.
“Where are all these perverts coming from?”
Wang Dazhuang: “…” Other people might not encounter them, but you’re different!
“Come inside. What’s going on online?”
“Around four in the morning, someone posted intimate photos of you and Tu Xi online. I tried calling you, but you didn’t answer.” As he spoke, he shot a resentful glance at the young man.
Xia Yan avoided his gaze, feeling guilty. “I was asleep at the time.”
He was so tired that he instinctively turned off his phone.
“I got the company’s PR involved, trying to pull the trending topic, but there’s someone behind the scenes who is stirring things up.” The manager’s expression turned serious. “Now, your intimate photos with Tu Xi are everywhere, and the whole internet knows.”
This is excellent news! Xia Yan opened the system panel in his mind.
Task 4: Expose your underground relationship with Tu Xi (Completed).
Task 5: Participate in a romance variety show with Tu Xi as lovers (Not completed).
Task 6: To be updated.
Looking up at Task 3, which remained incomplete, he frowned: [System, is there a bug?]
System: [No bug.]
[Then what’s up with Task 3?]
System: [Perhaps it’s because Tu Xi truly believes you haven’t cheated.] 999 whispered a suggestion, [Maybe… you should find someone and kiss them in front of Tu Xi?]
[Do you think Task 5 would still be achievable after the kiss?]
[System: Oh, right.]
Thinking about last night’s events, Xia Yan felt exhausted. He didn’t want to go to the bar again for a while.
In his past life, Xia Yan was a vibrant and outgoing young man. He came from a well-off family; his father ran a medium-sized company, and his mother was a musician who played beautiful violin music.
He grew up cherished by his parents and had many good friends at school.
Until he was seventeen, when his father went bankrupt and accrued massive debts, forcing his family to move from a villa to a slum, the once-friendly friends started looking at him oddly.
They approached one by one, discussing marrying him and commercial alliances.
Seventeen-year-old Xia Yan: “…Help!!!”
Their gazes became increasingly blatant as they closed in. Terrified, Xia Yan rushed home and told his parents about it. Their faces turned pale, and they immediately moved and transferred schools, leaving the city and returning to his father’s hometown.
Nothing ended up happening, but the experience left Xia Yan with a social phobia.
He became reluctant to interact with others, putting on a cold face for the rest of high school. In university, he studied hard but had few friends until he entered the workforce.
To be fair, work is what shapes a person.
Two years of working gradually improved Xia Yan’s social phobia, allowing him to converse normally. With familiar friends, he could even crack a few jokes.
Besides, though he looked decent, he wasn’t attractive to the point of stirring up trouble wherever he went.
Keeping high school memories alive and thinking everyone lusts after his body would be too narcissistic.
Xia Yan snapped out of his thoughts and opened his phone, ignoring the 99+ private messages. He directly tapped into the trending topics, and as expected, he and Tu Xi dominated the charts.
#Tu Xi Relationship Exposed#
#Tu Xi and Xia Yan#
#Xia Yan Scandal#
#Wish for Tu Xi to Break Up#
He opened the comments section, where the top posts mainly were from Tu Xi’s fans, almost all of them criticizing him. Xia Yan was prepared for this and wasn’t upset; he even felt like giving it a thumbs-up.
[Brother, wake up! Xia Yan changes boyfriends like clothes. He’s caught with a different guy leaving the bar every few days. He’s not good enough for you!!!]
[Xia Yan’s plastic surgery scandal. Check out the before and after pictures. If he hasn’t had surgery, I’ll eat dirt. Pic1.jpg, Pic2.jpg]
[An actor with zero skills and a bad attitude barely makes it on variety shows, and even his looks are subpar. Tu Xi, what exactly do you see in him? Turn back before it’s too late!]
…
Curious, Xia Yan clicked on the photos.
The first picture is the original owner before Xia Yan transmigrated to his body. The second picture is him after the transmigration, as his body and soul merged, increasingly resembling his original appearance.
They look more or less the same, don’t they?
