Flirted Then Forgot Everything - Chapter 16

Yu Manman dutifully headed out to buy breakfast. Meanwhile, Jian Li took Yu Cheng’s wrinkled shirt to the dry cleaners, repeatedly urging the staff to ensure it was restored to its original state.

By the time he finished breakfast, it was just past eight o’clock.

Yu Manman had been nervously scrolling through her phone all morning. Jian Li laughed and said, “For a leak like this, they’ll wait for a high-traffic window. If they have patience, they’ll drop it around eight or nine tonight. If not, it’ll be nine this morning or noon. Besides, Yu Cheng has likely handled the PR already. You don’t need to be afraid.”

Yu Manman shook her head. “That’s not it. Yesterday, Zhou Qingbai asked Yu Cheng if he wanted to do PR, and he said no.”

This time, it was Jian Li’s turn to be shocked. “No PR? Why? Why wouldn’t he stop it if he knew in advance? Is Yu Cheng crazy?”

Without looking back, Jian Li bolted out of the room and headed straight for Yu Cheng’s door next door.

He knocked over a dozen times before Yu Cheng slowly opened the door. The man’s face was sour; clearly, his anger hadn’t dissipated. Jian Li didn’t care about the attitude. Seeing Yu Cheng blocking the doorway, he glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then shoved against Yu Cheng’s chest and squeezed his way inside.

Once in, Jian Li shut the door and, after a thought, even turned the deadbolt.

Yu Cheng took a step back, leaning against the wall and watching Jian Li in silence.

Jian Li walked up to him and asked with a frown, “Why aren’t you doing PR? It’s past eight. Tell your team to handle it now! Catch it before it blows up—stop it while you can!”

Because he was anxious, he spoke rapidly. His concern and worry were written all over his face, devoid of any pretense; he was as transparent as glass.

Amidst Jian Li’s rapid-fire urging, Yu Cheng suddenly said softly, “If you care about me this much, why did you run?”

Jian Li didn’t catch it. He stopped and asked blankly, “Huh? What did you say?”

Yu Cheng turned his head away, refusing to look at him. His expression suddenly turned icy, and his voice dropped several degrees. “The paparazzo only caught me; he didn’t get a clear shot of your face. You don’t need to worry about the photos being exposed.”

Jian Li frowned, his light-colored eyes filled with confusion. “But they caught your face! Even if you’re at a level where you don’t have to fear much, photos like these still have a huge impact—”

Yu Cheng interrupted him. “Are you worrying about me?”

Faced with the sudden question, Jian Li faltered, his mouth hanging open slightly. He looked a bit dazed. “I.”

He couldn’t answer. He couldn’t bring himself to state his inner thoughts so bluntly. Was he worrying about Yu Cheng because Yu Cheng was his mission target? Or because his life was tied to Yu Cheng’s favorability? Was that really the only reason?

Seeing Jian Li speechless, Yu Cheng let out a short laugh. The sound made Jian Li’s shoulders twitch instinctively. He knew that laugh well; over the past year, whenever they crossed paths at events, Yu Cheng would look at him and laugh like that—with mockery and coldness.

“Jian Li, my business has nothing to do with you.”

Jian Li’s index finger trembled. The moment the words left Yu Cheng’s mouth, his heart gave a heavy jolt. The tremor spread through his entire body, leaving his limbs feeling weak. For a fleeting second, his chest actually ached.

“I, I see.”

Jian Li took one step back, then another, until his back hit the door. He reached for the handle, twisted it, and ran out immediately.

Yu Manman was still waiting in his room. Seeing Jian Li return pale-faced, she rushed over to ask what happened. Jian Li forced a smile and waved her off. “Manman, I want to be alone for a bit.”

Once she left, Jian Li sat on the sofa, feeling lost.

“System, did Yu Cheng’s favorability drop just now?”

“No.”

Jian Li pressed a hand over his heart. The pain seemed to linger, transitioning from a sharp sting to a dull, continuous ache. It was subtle, like a bee buzzing around—threatening you with its stinger, liable to prick at any moment.

“System, is your favorability tracking really accurate?”

“Yes.”

The system went quiet for a moment, but Jian Li was in no mood to notice. He slowly lay down, curling up on the sofa and muttering to himself.

“I suppose it makes sense. A score in the sixties is barely a passing grade. Why would he have a good attitude? But before, he clearly—”

Jian Li looked at the slippers Yu Cheng had given him sitting by the door. He thought of the warmth of Yu Cheng’s fingertips on his ankle and the memory of that steady embrace last night. Why had Yu Cheng treated him like that before?

Being so kind all of a sudden had made him forget the distance between them. Everyone in the industry knew that the Film King looked down on the idol Jian Li, and Jian Li knew it too.

Jian Li subconsciously bit his lower lip. I hate Yu Cheng too, he thought. I couldn’t hate him more if I tried. He had simply forgotten for a moment.

The system chimed in opportunely:

“A reminder to the host: you have a conquest mission. Only by continuously increasing favorability and completing the mission can you ensure your safety.”

Jian Li steadied himself and sat up with a look of resolve. “You’re right. Yu Cheng is just a target. I should treat him like a favorability ATM and stop caring about what he thinks!”

With that thought, he finally felt a little better. He grabbed his phone and sat up straight, watching the clock. The moment it struck nine, Jian Li went straight to Xunsheng.

He explained defensively to the system, “I just want to see how the media exposes him. I want to see him fail!”

System: “Whatever makes you happy.”

Just as Jian Li predicted, the media couldn’t sit on such a scoop. It was a miracle they’d waited until today. At nine o’clock, a headline quickly climbed the trending list, and within ten minutes, it took the number one spot.

#Film King Yu Cheng’s Secret Midnight Tryst with Mysterious Woman; Top Star Jian Li Suspected of Being Dumped#

Lately, the internet had been rife with speculation about their relationship. Between the awards ceremony kiss and the upcoming dual-lead film, opinions were polarized between “marketing stunt” and “true romance.” The two fanbases were constantly at each other’s throats.

Jian Li was a top-tier idol with a massive, fierce fanbase that frequently clashed with Yu Cheng’s. He had even used his “alt” accounts—and even his admin account—to go into fan groups to tell them to get along with Yu Cheng’s fans.

However, the effect was negligible; it had even sparked such outrage that he was “impeached” and stripped of his admin status.

Yu Cheng had been in the industry for seven years and won countless awards, so naturally, many people were jealous. The moment this trending topic appeared, all sorts of trolls came out of the woodwork to take a swing at him.

Jian Li scanned the comments and couldn’t help but switch to his alt account to fight back. Even though the trending topic mentioned his name and many people were mocking him, his eyes were fixed solely on the insults directed at Yu Cheng.

While battling the anti-fans, Jian Li didn’t forget to explain to the system: “This is called ‘muddying the waters.’ I’m just trying to escalate the conflict between the fanbases. I’m definitely not defending him.”

If the system had a mouth, it would have been twitching in disbelief. Yu Cheng’s fanbase was so massive; did it really need one more person to “muddy the waters”?

Jian Li argued for a while before deciding to switch to his main account and go into the fan groups personally. He told his fans to be rational, to stop making random comments, and that it was best to remain silent.

The fan groups were busy strategizing how to fight this trending topic and how to shift all the blame onto Yu Cheng. When Jian Li suddenly popped up, the frantic scrolling came to an eerie halt.

Jian Li logged out as soon as he posted, going back to the trending topic to fight the anti-fans. He didn’t notice that the fan groups exploded after he left, nor did he realize that he had forgotten to switch back to his alt account.

Hater: “Yu Cheng’s romance is confirmed. Looks like that kiss a while ago really was a marketing stunt. Some ‘Film King’—kissing a man just for marketing. He really can stomach anything.”

Jian Li’s reply: “Forget the fact that you won’t match Yu Cheng’s talent in eight hundred lifetimes—let’s talk about ‘stomaching anything.’ With your looks, he certainly couldn’t stomach you. Even a pig wouldn’t.”

Hater: “Disgusting. Yu Cheng has been on the trending list for two days now. Must have hired a water army. Don’t his braindead fans always say he’s a serious actor? Does a serious actor buy this many hot searches?”

Jian Li mimicked the hater’s tone and fired back:

“Disgusting. What kind of ant learned how to type? You’re so tiny I can’t even see you.”

After blasting through several more rebuttals, his door was suddenly pounded with a frantic bang-bang-bang.

Yu Manman burst in, clutching her phone and on the verge of tears. The moment Jian Li opened the door, she cried out:

“Jian-ge, have you lost your mind? You’re using your main account to brawl with anti-fans?”

Jian Li froze. Realization dawned on him like a bucket of ice water. He immediately opened his Xunsheng profile, saw his verified account’s notification bell exploding, and scanned the long list of his recent activity. He was petrified.

Because Jian Li had personally descended to the “front lines” to tear into anti-fans with his main account, the traffic surged so violently that it caused the entire Xunsheng system to crash for nearly half an hour. No one could log in.

Once the app finally recovered, Jian Li didn’t even dare look at it. He sat cross-legged on the sofa, his mind entering a blank, transcendental state of shock.

“I’m finished.” Jian Li muttered.

Yu Manman was holding up slightly better than he was. She continued scrolling through the feed, her expression shifting from grim to utter shock.

“Jian-ge, look at this!”

Jian Li squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m not looking!”

Yu Manman tapped on a specific post. “Look at this one! This just hit the trending list—right now!”

Jian Li slowly pried his eyes open to see a new trending tag wedged right underneath the scandal involving him and Yu Cheng.

#Carp Couple# (Note: A pun on “Li-Yu,” using their surnames.)

Yu Manman tapped into the tag. The top post was from Jian Li’s fan club president, one of his most loyal, long-time veteran supporters.

The post featured the photo of Jian Li and Yu Cheng’s kiss from the awards ceremony, captioned:

“Repost this ‘Carp Couple’ for good luck and to make all your wishes come true!”

The post had only been up for a short while, yet it already had hundreds of thousands of shares. Tapping into the comments, he saw it was almost entirely Jian Li’s fans—they were “controlling the narrative” by posting wishes and positive vibes.

Jian Li was utterly bewildered. He opened his fan group again, only to find the admins were methodically directing members to the “Carp Couple” tag to flood it with positive engagement.

A few admins were sighing as they gave orders:

“The boy has grown up; Mother can’t hold him back anymore. I never thought I’d be the one personally seeing our Little Chestnut off to his wedding.”

“Tell me about it. He was so anxious he even rushed into the group to protect his ‘husband.'”

“Sigh, what mother doesn’t want the best for her son? Our boy is so dim-witted; that face is the only thing he has going for him.”

Jian Li: “…”

He had always thought his fans loved him for his looks. He didn’t realize that in addition to loving his face, they all wanted to be his mother.

“AHHH!!!”

Yu Manman suddenly let out a piercing shriek, causing Jian Li to drop his phone in fright.

Before he could even ask what happened, she shoved her own phone into his hands.

On the screen was Yu Cheng’s Xunsheng profile. His latest post was a repost of the “Carp Couple” luck-charm, captioned:

“Praying for the success of the new movie. Repost @Mother-Who-Is-Worried-Sick-For-Little-Chestnut: Repost this ‘Carp Couple’ for good luck and to make all your wishes come true!”

But that wasn’t all. The few updates immediately preceding that one had all been posted just minutes ago.

Yu Cheng had gone through and “liked” every single comment where Jian Li had torn into the anti-fans.

“AHHH!!!”

Jian Li joined Yu Manman in a chorus of screaming.