I Rely on My Versatility to Reach the Top of the Entertainment Industry [Ancient Times to Modern] - Chapter 10

Jing Yi took out his phone and checked the time.

“…I still have thirty minutes free.”

“That’s enough.”

As Shi Long spoke, he was already walking toward the grassy area between hospital departments.

Jing Yi had no choice but to follow.

The two stopped at a corner of the lawn, while Xue An waited at a distance. Afraid the silver-haired guy might seek revenge, he kept his eyes fixed on the two of them.

However, as time passed minute by minute, neither of the two at the corner of the lawn spoke.

Jing Yi remained silent because he was considering whether to tell Shi Long the truth. Just as he decided to reveal everything, Shi Long frowned slightly and spoke with a serious expression: “If you need money, you can borrow from me.”

“Thank you, benefactor.” Jing Yi pressed his palms together in a Buddhist salute. “This humble monk does not lack money.”

Shi Long took a deep breath.

“Is there any point in lying to me now? You left so many messages for me on WeChat before…” His dark eyes grew somewhat complicated. “You and Zhang Lang’s father probably don’t have any special relationship, right?”

Zhang Lang was a blabbermouth – to those he was close with, he’d pour his heart out and say anything. As Zhang Lang’s teammate, Shi Long had learned many dirty secrets about the entertainment industry that he never wanted to know.

These matters originally had nothing to do with Shi Long. As an esports player, he just needed to focus on competing. Yet against his will, he had gotten to know this D-list celebrity from the entertainment industry standing before him.

From Shi Long’s words, Jing Yi also caught some memory fragments related to Shi Long.

One particular scene was of the original host late at night, holding his phone and tapping out message after message to Shi Long. That was when the original host was about to collapse under pressure, treating Shi Long as his lifeline.

Shi Long hadn’t replied.

The original Jing Yi had cried and laughed, murmuring “I’m just a simp.”

Jing Yi sighed.

“Benefactor Shi Long.” His calm, ancient-well-like eyes faintly concealed his heartache for the other Jing Yi. “This humble monk and Zhang Lang’s father, Zhang Qiang, only have a doctor-patient relationship.”

Shi Long didn’t speak, looking at Jing Yi before him with a strange expression.

He wasn’t part of the entertainment industry. His initial contact with Jing Yi came from carrying a fan in ranked games. Later, Jing Yi gifted him several more items, and only then did they exchange WeChat contacts.

At first, it was just normal late-night voice chat while duo queueing. But as time went on, Shi Long found this fan increasingly strange, often saying depressing things for no reason.

Shi Long would patiently comfort him each time. Never expecting that after sleeping too early the day before a competition, when he checked WeChat and learned Jing Yi had revealed his identity, he wanted to reply but found himself blocked.

When he called, Jing Yi wouldn’t answer.

Time after time, Shi Long didn’t have that much time to keep contacting someone who didn’t want to be contacted.

This encounter was purely due to that last bit of concern he couldn’t let go of.

“Are you telling the truth?” Shi Long still didn’t quite believe it. “You never said you could practice medicine. Anyway, if you need money, just come to me. We won the Summer Cup and got quite a bit of prize money.”

Jing Yi looked at the young man who genuinely cared about the original Jing Yi, remained silent for a long time, then revealed a faint smile: “It’s true, I’ve already found a way to solve the problem. Shi Long… you should also let go of what I said before. Your concern, Jing Yi will definitely receive it.”

Shi Long froze.

Jing Yi saluted Shi Long again and bid farewell: “I need to hurry back to the film set, I won’t disturb you further. Farewell.”

He turned and left.

Xue An immediately followed.

Shi Long stood where he was, not moving.

He felt something was off, as if the Jing Yi he had just faced was speaking to him from another person’s perspective. Yet, the voice was still the same, and the slightly made-up eyes and brows visible were identical to those in the photo?

…

Returning to the film set just at 5 p.m., Guo Lin was filming solo scenes with Jiang Wenwen and the evil cultivator.

Lu Yuzhi was not on set.

Jing Yi sat to the side, taking out the script to study it carefully.

After finishing a take, Guo Lin heard from the crew that Jing Yi had returned and walked over to him.

“Back? Later, you and Jiang Wenwen will shoot a few night scenes to make up for lost time. We’ll wrap up early today.”

Jing Yi set down the script, stood up, and replied respectfully, “Okay.”

“Lu Yuzhi seems to have some matters to attend to and left first. He won’t be back on set until tomorrow.”

“Mm.”

Guo Lin patted Jing Yi’s shoulder and turned to leave.

The remaining main storyline scenes between Xuan Kong and Shui’er were all daytime shots, and the night scenes were almost finished. Guo Lin hurried through the work, wrapping up before 7 p.m. and giving the crew an early finish.

Everyone returned to the hotel together. Jing Yi went downstairs to a nearby park, practiced a few sets of martial arts, worked up a light sweat, and then went back to his room.

His phone in the room had already stored several messages.

[Shi Guang requests to add you as a friend: I’m Shi Long, add me.]

[Jiang Wenwen requests to add you as a friend.]

Jing Yi first opened the friend request page and added Jiang Wenwen.

Perhaps because she was on her phone, Jiang Wenwen’s message came quickly: [Jing Yi, I really don’t know how to express my gratitude. I went to the hospital for a check-up, and the doctor said I have a small tumor in my chest, but thankfully it’s benign.]

As soon as Jing Yi finished reading, Jiang Wenwen’s message disappeared.

[Ahahaha, that was too blunt. Anyway, thank you for telling me to get a check-up. I’ll treat you to a meal another day!]

[No need to be polite. Good health is what matters most.]

Jiang Wenwen: [You’re right, wuwuwu! The doctor said I need surgery, so I have to rest early during this period. I’m going to sleep now. Good night~]

Jing Yi slowly typed “good night,” then opened Shi Long’s friend request.

Just as he was about to reject it, another request came through with an attached message: [Are you still mad at me?]

Mad?

Jing Yi sorted through the fragmented memories he had inherited from the original Jing Yi and came to a conclusion.

He added Shi Long back and slowly replied: [Jing Yi was never mad at you.]

After typing that, Jing Yi was about to continue when Shi Long sent another message: [If you’re not mad, then log in, okay? It’s been so long since we played ranked together. Well, if you’re busy, forget it.]

Jing Yi: [I’m not busy…]

Before he could finish typing the rest, Shi Long sent: [Then you are mad at me.]

This…

Jing Yi suddenly felt a sense of helplessness.

He simply dialed a voice call, and the other party answered quickly.

“If you’re not mad and not busy, then log in. I just finished a competition and haven’t ranked up yet. I can relax a bit lately.” Shi Long’s tone was cheerful. “Actually, if you weren’t a celebrity, you could play esports. Your skills are really good.”

“Patron Shi Long, actually…” Jing Yi sighed. “Let the past be the past. Jing Yi was never angry with you, and you don’t need to keep thinking about Jing Yi. Besides, you and Jing Yi were always from two different worlds. Now, it’s best for you to let go.”

A long silence fell on the other end.

After a considerable while, Shi Long’s voice finally returned: “Then play one game with me, just one. After we finish, I’ll know if I can let go.”

Seeing this message, Jing Yi hesitated for a moment before replying, “Mm.”

He tapped the only game icon on his phone and logged in using the method from his memory.

Almost the instant the game interface loaded, Shi Long’s invitation appeared.

Jing Yi accepted the invitation, and the game began.

As soon as they entered the game, Shi Long typed in the team chat: “Fifth position support my jungle, duo queue, jungle carry.”

When their teammates saw Shi Long’s ID, they uniformly spammed exclamation marks.

Shi Long’s account had the prefix of his professional esports team.

The hero selection phase ended harmoniously. Jing Yi picked the support healer that the original Jing Yi had loved most and followed behind Shi Long.

Jing Yi had a good memory and could roughly replicate whatever he saw. But his hands were still unaccustomed to the controls—while helping attack the buff, he accidentally pressed the attack button one too many times, and the blue buff instantly appeared at his character’s feet.

A major mistake.

Jing Yi stood still and typed “Sorry” in the chat.

But Shi Long didn’t respond…

In this game, when duo queuing, the matched teammates were either a three-stack or a duo plus a solo player.

As luck would have it, Jing Yi and Shi Long’s teammates were a three-stack.

In their team voice chat, two boys heard their female teammate complain: “Who’s Shi Shen’s duo partner? This support plays so poorly, stealing the buff at the start?”

“Probably carrying a fan. I’ve seen this ID in Shi Shen’s livestream quite often.”

“It’s fine. Just being able to play one game with Shi Shen is lucky enough.”

After the three chatted for a bit, they saw Shi Long issue an attack command.

The healer beside Shi Long’s character obeyed and moved forward, but all their control skills missed. Despite desperately healing themselves, they couldn’t save their health bar and fell before the enemy’s marksman and support.

As the jungler, Shi Long shouldn’t have engaged at that moment.

But he did.

Right there, with his team ID displayed, he fell beside Jing Yi’s character.

The enemy team typed in the all-chat: “Is that really Shi Shen? He’s not even streaming!”

“Too trashy, is this really the level of the Summer Split champion??”

“Hahaha, even the blue buff is on the support. What are they even playing?”

Amid the barrage of taunts, Jing Yi respawned.

He apologized again and continued following Shi Long.

The two repeatedly died together on the map, leaving their teammates speechless.

In the end, the game concluded in defeat.

Shi Long didn’t queue again and logged off directly.

After a while, Jing Yi received a message from Shi Long.

Shi Long: [In that last game, were you playing seriously? You weren’t deliberately messing with me, were you?]

Jing Yi typed his reply: [I was playing seriously, not messing with you, but… I don’t know how.]

A monastic does not speak falsehoods.

Shi Long’s chat showed “typing…” for a long time, but no new message came through.

Jing Yi stood up to fetch clean clothes, preparing to bathe.

After gathering his clothes, he glanced at his phone screen.

Shi Long: [Where is he?]

“Amitabha.” Jing Yi bowed toward the direction of the original Jing Yi’s memorial tablet in the room, then picked up his phone, took a photo of the tablet, and sent it to Shi Long with the message: [Please accept my condolences, benefactor. Letting go will be better for both you and Jing Yi.]

The silver-haired youth guarding his phone widened his eyes, tossed the phone aside, collapsed onto the bed, and buried his face in his pillow.

He hadn’t meant to ignore Jing Yi’s messages, hadn’t meant to be cold.

But all the online posts claimed Jing Yi was a habitual fraudster, that he had poor character, and that he often used pity-seeking tactics to attract attention… He feared he might just be another stepping stone for Jing Yi’s next viral headline.

How could this be?

The tone of voice, the gaming habits, and even the other party’s admission all confirmed his suspicions were true. That Jing Yi who used to seek comfort from him had truly vanished from this world.

Shi Long took out his phone again and played the voice message saved in his favorites.

After a long silence came a clear yet nervous voice: “I like you.”

Tears finally soaked the bedsheet.