After I Started Dating the Scum Gong Substitute, the White Moonlight Returned - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Bei Xinhong’s studio was a place where “the temple is small but the demonic winds are strong, the water is shallow but the kings are many.” In a small company of thirty people, there were dozens of WeChat groups, and interpersonal relationships were as complex as a spider’s web.

The news of Cheng Jianyu stealing Bei Xinhong’s spotlight in the meeting room was embellished with extra details and spread rapidly as if it had grown legs. He naturally possessed a face that appealed to women and children; consequently, most of the female colleagues in the WeChat groups stood up one after another, supporting Cheng Jianyu to “punish evil and promote good.” Bei Xinhong was stingy and miserly, having frequently withheld overtime pay, so everyone had long been dissatisfied with him.

Bei Xinhong’s cronies were also in the groups, angrily pointing fingers and calling Cheng Jianyu an ungrateful social climber a “white-eyed wolf” who could never be tamed!

A battle between the two sides was ready to ignite at any moment.

“He hasn’t written a script in five years. Can he even be called a screenwriter? Everyone else in the company who didn’t land a project in a year got kicked out, but he alone received a salary for five years while doing nothing. Have you ever seen a boss who values talent this much? I never expected him to be such a person who ‘burns the bridge after crossing it’.”

“How do you know he hasn’t written anything? Old Bei even deducts money for bereavement leave; I don’t believe he would support Cheng Jianyu for five years for free.”

“It’s good to have a rich and powerful boyfriend; you can get paid without working. Who can introduce me to Jiang Yan? @All Members, I’m willing to wait in line in the middle of the night to buy sneakers for him just like Cheng Jianyu.”

“Enough with the sarcasm. Everyone is a colleague; don’t focus on people’s private lives. Usually, he helps everyone revise their scripts plenty. Is it necessary to speak so harshly?”

“Harsh words are nothing compared to his ugly actions. Director Liang Qiu threw him an olive branch, and he’s immediately flying up the branch to become a phoenix. Does he still remember his mentor!”

Everyone held their own opinions, and tempers were high. An An was also in the group; seeing Cheng Jianyu being smeared recklessly, she typed a line with trembling hands: “Liang Qiu knew Brother Yu’s name long ago and admired him…”

When Cheng Jianyu received the screenshots of the messages from Chen Kai, he was stewing soup. The soup pot was bubbling with yellow fat, and the faint medicinal scent of Codonopsis and Astragalus was tenderly inviting. He wiped his hands and scanned the long screenshots from top to bottom, calmly replying with two simple words: “It’s true.”

Chen Kai was instantly dazed. He read it carefully over and over, his gaze stopping on An An’s last message. Was Cheng Jianyu “stamping” and confirming An An’s words?

Chen Kai’s indignation vanished like smoke in the wind along with that “It’s true.” Brother Yu didn’t take all this bloody drama seriously at all; he was calm and casual. No wonder he was the “Big Brother” too smooth, truly too smooth.

Cheng Jianyu tasted a spoonful of soup; the bitterness of the herbs mixed with the natural rich fragrance of the chicken soup left a long-lasting aftertaste. He ladled a spoonful into an exquisite small white porcelain bowl, hesitated for a moment, then sprinkled chopped ginger and goji berries into the bowl.

This habit was taught to him by someone else. When he was growing up, he always complained that chicken soup was bitter. An older brother told him that adding ginger slices and goji berries would make it perfect: “Crossing through spring, summer, autumn, and winter; tasting all the sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy.”

…

In the living room, Brother Chao had come again, this time bringing only A-Sheng. The two sat side-by-side on the sofa, their faces looking weather-beaten and miserable.

Stacks of contracts and agreements were piled on the log coffee table, their edges curled from being flipped through. Jiang Yan sat on the edge of the sofa, arms crossed lazily. Hearing footsteps, he tilted his chin. Brother Chao’s face was so bitter it looked like he was growing coptis root. He was extremely reluctant, but “the small arm cannot twist the golden thigh.”

“Xiao Yu, regarding the matter of appearing on Let’s Go on a Trip Together, I have some details to explain to you.”

Brother Chao squeezed out a stiff smile. Cutting off someone’s path to wealth is like killing their parents. It wasn’t just a day or two that he had looked down on Cheng Jianyu; first, Cheng Jianyu’s background was thin, and going public with the relationship wouldn’t bring in connections or traffic. Second, once it was public, the marketing cooperation with Zhou Jueqing’s company would come to a screeching halt, and huge piles of cash would vanish.

It was no different from Cheng Jianyu reaching into his pocket to take money. This debt was recorded in his little notebook again.

Cheng Jianyu sat on the sofa beside Jiang Yan. Jiang Yan’s hand fell to the back of his neck, his index finger unhurriedly tapping the swollen brown mole. Originally, this place was as clean as unstained dust, but after last night’s “affection” involving biting and sucking, it looked like a spot on a snow-white pear.

With the touch of his fingertip, that patch of skin tightened, as wonderful as the resonance of a guitar string.

Brother Chao took out a notebook and cleared his throat. “It’s simple, two points in total. First, during the variety show recording, you cannot interfere with Jiang Yan’s work. You can offer opinions, but we have the right not to adopt them.”

“Second, there are cameras everywhere during the recording process, including your individual rooms. To control the impact of the situation, intimate behavior in front of the camera is strictly prohibited. You cannot cause a negative impact on Jiang Yan, and you cannot say anything that damages his reputation or image during the program.”

After Brother Chao finished, he looked up. Cheng Jianyu wasn’t looking at him; he was looking down, thinking about something, a smile flashing across his lips. His side profile was elegant and very handsome.

He looks… quite happy?

“Do we have individual rooms?” Cheng Jianyu looked up, catching the key point of focus.

Brother Chao looked at him strangely. “Yes. Any other questions? Does this make it difficult for you?”

Cheng Jianyu was satisfied, as if a weight had been lifted. “No more.”

Great.

The finger tapping on the back of his neck paused. Cheng Jianyu’s breathing paused with it. Jiang Yan pinched his jaw, forcing him to turn his face. “Are you that afraid of me? Hmm?”

Cheng Jianyu’s soft eyelashes trembled. His warm, hurried breath brushed against the back of Jiang Yan’s thumb, wet and soft, like a large feline acting spoiled. There was a silent standoff; after a few seconds, Jiang Yan withdrew his hand, his index finger involuntarily touching that patch of damp skin.

He really loves to act spoiled.

The two people present were old pros; they looked straight ahead and listened to nothing. Brother Chao said nonchalantly, “Xiao Yu, for the above terms, out of work considerations, I want to sign an agreement with you…”

“We already signed one,” Cheng Jianyu reminded him softly.

Brother Chao was confused. “When did we sign one?”

Cheng Jianyu lowered his eyes, looking at his knuckles, and said calmly, “On the second day after I met Jiang Yan, you came to find me and signed an agreement. The terms clearly stipulated matters during the period of association.”

Brother Chao remembered. When he first saw Cheng Jianyu at the hotel, he had a sharp eye and saw immediately that he was a “troublemaker.” He had worked overtime to rush out a “Love Contract” with harsh conditions. Cheng Jianyu had signed it without hesitation; from this, one could see how much he liked Jiang Yan.

He vaguely remembered that the last clause of the contract to prevent Cheng Jianyu from clinging to Jiang Yan and refusing to break up stipulated that one party could unilaterally propose a breakup, and the other party could not oppose it for any reason.

After asking Jiang Yan at the time, Brother Chao had set a contract period of five years. Time had flown by so fast; in the blink of an eye, five years had passed.

There was only half a month left before it expired.

Brother Chao felt like the clouds were clearing to see the sun, looking forward to the day the contract expired so Jiang Yan could completely clear out this “bomb” that was Cheng Jianyu.

He felt in his heart that Jiang Yan had been with Cheng Jianyu for so long only because he was too young, obsessed with art all day, and hadn’t seen the world. Once Jiang Yan truly saw the world of vanity, the beautiful men and women, the “spring scenery that cannot be contained,” would he still care for this “stale leftover rice” that he was tired of eating?

Jiang Yan glanced at Cheng Jianyu indifferently, his shoulders relaxed, his weight leaning against the back of the sofa. “What contract?”

“Great men have short memories.” Brother Chao gave a dry laugh, downplaying it. “I signed a non-disclosure agreement with Jianyu back then.”

Jiang Yan wasn’t interested, scrolling through messages on his phone with one hand. Cheng Jianyu read through the contract, picked up a pen, and after the Let’s Go on a Trip Together program team’s contract, he rolled up his sleeves, took a deep breath, and properly wrote his name next to Jiang Yan’s signature.

Jiang Yan’s handwriting was fresh, elegant, and otherworldly; Cheng Jianyu’s handwriting was sharp-edged, bold, and unrestrained.

It was the complete opposite of his personality, yet they complemented each other perfectly.

Cheng Jianyu put down the pen. The breath suppressed in his heart was exhaled long and deep, traveling through his blood and bones to his four limbs like a withered tree encountering spring and sprouting again.

This was the last time. It was time to get back on track.

…

Brother Chao took the contract and hurried to the Blueberry Station to coordinate the itinerary for the coming days. A-Sheng stayed behind to organize the messy reference documents on the table.

The chicken soup in the kitchen had been simmering for a long time; Cheng Jianyu stayed with his chicken soup as it “grew old.”

“Brother Jiang.” A-Sheng moved closer to the sofa unnoticed, looking at Cheng Jianyu’s back and lowering his voice. “I have something to report.”

Jiang Yan moved his gaze from his phone and spared him a glance. “What?”

“The birthday gift my sister-in-law wanted. Those cufflinks are a Ferdinand product from ten years ago. Back then, they targeted the high-end business market and were custom-made. They were promoted in popular fashion magazines, but minimalism was in that year. As soon as Ferdinand’s exquisitely crafted and complex cufflinks were launched, they were taken off the shelves shortly after.”

“So? You can’t buy them?” Jiang Yan tilted his head.

A-Sheng shook his head and pointed at his phone. “We’ve worked with Ferdinand before. For your sake, they pulled one from their inventory. It’s on a plane right now.”

Jiang Yan’s mood improved slightly. It was rare for Cheng Jianyu to ask for a gift once; money and connections were not an issue. He raised an eyebrow. “What do you want to report?”

A-Sheng coughed and said with a smile, “The letters on the cufflinks can be customized. Yesterday I asked my sister-in-law on WeChat what letters he wanted. He replied with ‘W’.”

Shouldn’t it be J or Y?

Jiang Yan’s eyes narrowed into a handsome line. He put his phone in his pocket and looked steadily at A-Sheng. A-Sheng felt his skin crawl under that gaze and didn’t dare play games anymore, quickly spilling everything like pouring beans from a bag: “Brother Jiang, your English name is West. Sister-in-law is really too meticulous; he even remembers small details like that.”

The icy look in Jiang Yan’s eyes thawed. He turned his head away, the corners of his mouth curving slightly, his voice as cold as ever: “He’s quite bored.”

A-Sheng laughed even more happily. “I see this as all love! Sister-in-law is truly like a little wife from ancient times toward you observing the three obediences and four virtues, his heart and eyes are full of you…”

Jiang Yan’s brow relaxed, agreeing with every word A-Sheng said. He changed to a more comfortable position on the edge of the sofa and reached out his hand. “Give me your phone.”

Cheng Jianyu is so deeply in love with me; I should be better to him in the future.

A-Sheng, not understanding why, obediently handed over his phone.

Jiang Yan operated it with one hand, opened WeChat, saw that Cheng Jianyu’s profile picture was an oil painting, nonchalantly deleted him from the contact list, and tossed the phone back to A-Sheng.

A-Sheng: “…”