World Hopping: Avenge Our Love
Translator: translationraven
First Published on Chaleuria
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Song Yucheng watched him go as he stood in his office. He shook his head, packed up, and got ready to go home.
Whether by coincidence, or not, Song Yucheng spotted Lu Mian right when he got out of his car after arriving home. It looked like he had just arrived too.
This neighbourhood was supposed to be the most secure in City B, but Lu Mian seemed to have no problems coming in every time. The man’s rich. Was this due to it being a capitalist world, or what?
With that thought in mind, Song Yucheng quipped, “Seems like you’re blocking my door every time I see you.”
“You’re just too busy.” Lu Mian waved his phone to remind Song Yucheng that he had not contacted him for quite some time though he’d wanted to work together.
Er… Well, this was awkward. Song Yucheng was in the wrong this time — rare, for him. He gentled his tone and explained himself. “I really was busy. There’s the thing with the manager qualifications recently. My income would have dried up if this hadn’t worked out.”
“Mm, I know about that, so I didn’t push you on progress. There’s no rush on my end. I can wait.” Lu Mian’s voice was calm, and his tone sincere. He didn’t have any airs about him at all.
System: Aay! Lu Mian the beauty has a beautiful heart too! Such warmth on top of his good looks!
Song Yucheng, who was usually at odds with the System, couldn’t help his soft grunt of agreement when he heard what the System said.
He led Lu Mian upstairs and gossiped with the System about Lu Mian’s good temperament as he went. Lu Mian stayed silent throughout all of this and didn’t interrupt the conversation in Song Yucheng’s head.
Song Yucheng only noticed the strange development in the situation after the two of them walked into his home, and Lu Mian went to the kitchen, saying he was going to prepare supper.
Waaaaait… He’s a big boss, the biggest boss in this world. What the heck was he doing here in his home, cooking for him? Song Yucheng’s head was full of work but he could see that Lu Mian was treating him differently.
System: Waaaaaaah! You cheater!
Song Yucheng: Shut it!
Lu Mian came out of the kitchen with the plates just then. The beige plaid apron made him homely, and he looked a little seductive in it.
Song Yucheng’s eyes lit up and he gave him a 360-degree once-over. His gaze was hungry, like a predator going after prey, plundering his being.
Um… It’s a little too close…
Lu Mian handed chopsticks to Song Yucheng. His fingers had a slight tremble. His ears were bright red too. This man was surprisingly pure.
Song Yucheng gave a deep chuckle. His warm husk made Lu Mian’s heart thump louder. Lu Mian subconsciously licked his dry lips, and that little bit of moisture from his lips from his tongue made his beautiful features even more gorgeous.
Song Yucheng narrowed his eyes and subconsciously moved closer to have a better look.
“Uh, sorry, you…” Lu Mian wanted to say something but Song Yucheng pressed a finger to his lips.
The spectacles upon his nose were soon removed too.
“Non-prescription.” He spoke with a smile, and perhaps it was his body language, or the mood in the room, but it seemed a little too seductive. His tone of voice seemed especially alluring. Lu Mian’s mind went blank instantly.
Song Yucheng’s voice rang clear in his ear.
“You’re more good-looking than any of the talents I’ve managed, President Lu.”
This was rather rude, but Lu Mian didn’t look angry at all. He even felt his heart give a little skip of joy.
Xie Qianchen was one of the top most beautiful people in the industry. The talents he’d managed were also top-of-the-line, and this man, this Xie Qianchen, looked to have lost himself over his looks.
Lu Mian was suddenly very satisfied with his looks. He rashly decided to hire a stylist when he got home to dress himself up better. He wanted to see amazement in Xie Qianchen’s eyes the next time they met.
He pushed Song Yucheng away, almost by reflex, and made to leave.
“It’s getting late. I won’t disturb your rest any further.” Lu Mian’s face was still flushed from Song Yucheng’s teasing but his voice was as calm as when he’d first walked in. This audio-visual difference easily piqued a curiosity, and made Song Yucheng want to break away the mask and force him to reveal more shameful sides of himself.
‘I seem to have been very subtly seduced by Lu Mian’, thought Song Yucheng. He had to admit, though, that this personality of Lu Mian’s was just the sort he liked to tease. Even so, he did not stop Lu Mian from leaving.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want him to leave, but this Lu Mian guy gave him a feeling of danger. He was one of the big dogs, so how could he really be harmless? Unless… he had something in particular he wanted from him. Song Yucheng decided to observe him for a bit.
Lu Mian was the important part of his plans. The script he was going to give Lu Mian would be the biggest helping factor for his future plans, and the best thing to use to part ways with Cao Kun.
This was why he needed to be certain of what Lu Mian’s intentions were. He also needed to speed things up and solve the problem of the manager qualification before the submission deadline.
After his victory in the matter involving Shen Yi, he could finally set his plan in motion to steal those major celebrities away!
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Song Yucheng glanced at the data his subordinate sent him and couldn’t help laughing.
Oh, Luo Tong, Luo Tong.
Song Yucheng didn’t think that the man loved him so much. He gave him his own neck on a chopping block, and was now giving him all these opportunities.
The first two names on the list of major celebrities were familiar ones. One was the young man who’d gone up against Shen Yi for the role, and the other was Bai Siwei. She was the main female lead in the web drama which had been labelled ‘trash’ by Luo Tong’s hired help, saying that Shen Yi had not acting skills and that he was an “attention hog”.
The young chap was all right, but Bai Siwei was infamous.
The netizens said that she demanded a high fee but she had not been to the studio for even a day. She sat all day at home, staring into thin air. They also said that a web drama made with cardboard cutouts as main actors would have more real acting than Bai Siwei’s acting.
This was old news, but the web drama was brought up again because Shen Yi’s name had gained more recognition, and this production was sort of his debut work.
Honestly speaking, this was quite embarrassing.
The result should have been good with the amount of traffic on the internet, major celebrities as the main male and female leads, and a popular book as the base of the script. Even if it did poorly, it should’ve garnered at least tens of millions of clicks!
But this drama didn’t have that. Popularity of web dramas were at a five-year low too, and what’s more, external websites making clips that ridicule the drama had even greater web traffic than the individual episodes of the web drama itself.
Bai Siwei read the scathing comments about herself on the internet and was speechless. A whole lot of hatred for Luo Tong manifested.
In the beginning, she wanted to go straight to a production set to act, but Luo Tong had arranged for her to take on another movie at the time and she could not make time in her schedule. He’d told her that she could just wing it for a web drama like this.
But it seemed things were going wrong now.
Who would have thought that a small web drama like this would attract so many expert critics of technique? They had taken the cast apart in just a few scenes. Bai Siwei herself was also given the insulting label of “Queen of Cutouts”.
News of this had been quieted down, but Luo Tong had dug this up again for his scheme against Shen Yi, forcing her out to be paraded like a fool in front of the masses. It was even worse this time too.
Bai Siwei covered her face in annoyance when she saw the insults increasing on the internet. Her assistant grew anxious too. “Don’t give up, Siwei. I’ll contact Brother Luo.”
However, the assistant had no responses from Luo Tong. She called again and again, unwilling to give up, but all the calls went unanswered.
Bai Siwei pulled her assistant over and patted her on the head. She sighed. “I have to pay the price for the wrong I’ve done. Let them scold. I deserve it.”
Her voice was calm, like she didn’t mind it, but the assistant was already crying.
Bai Siwei was being so wronged!
The lousy acting for the web drama had been Luo Tong’s suggestion back then. After things blew up, the male lead actor had claimed to be better, and pushed all the blame to Bai Siwei. Luo Tong had also quite cold-heartedly washed himself clean of this matter.
He actually released gossip about Bai Siwei being pregnant during filming to move public attention away from this topic instead of using a more direct and convincing reason, like emphasising how she could not participate due to her schedule, to apologise and explain things.
The attention of the public was diverted, but Bai Siwei’s reputation as an actress had been ruined. She was being criticised online right now, but Luo Tong was doing absolutely nothing about it.
“Xie Qianchen is so right! Luo Tong is trash! What sort of “elite” manager is he?! Look, Shen Yi ran into trouble and his manager was the first to spring to action, and half of the big names in the industry came forward to defend Shen Yi too. Look at Shen Yi’s background too — he isn’t even a minor celebrity and he got into a film shot by Director Yang. Siwei, how about you jump ship to them?”
“How can it be so easy? I could do it in the past, but my reputation is in ruins now. Who would be willing to spend a large amount of money to take over my contract? I can only dream.”
“Ay.” The assistant understood this too. She sighed with her, and fell silent.
That night was a difficult night for Bai Siwei. A reversal came in the morning, however. Bai Siwei had never in a hundred years imagined that one Weibo post from Xie Qianchen would give her a chance to change her image. Her, the actress who’d been ridiculed by the nation!
Xie Qianchen had caused a lot of trouble on Weibo over Shen Yi’s matter, and stepped on the toes of many. Things had finally died down a little but it looked like trouble was brewing again.
The tone of his message was like the two of them had done it, and Xie Qianchen was sorry. You couldn’t stop yourself from laughing after reading it.
Xie Qianchen: @DoubleUniverseLuoTong Luo Tong, baby, are you all gloomy ‘cos you don’t know how to make yourself all innocent again? Come to me, baby! I got a way! Don’t worry, I won’t charge you for my services this time as thanks for getting my talent up into the trending search terms without me having to spend a cent! [Geoduck_Confidence.jpg]
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