If The Persona Is Wrong, Everything Else Is In Vain - Chapter 10

I don’t know how much time had passed before Lin Luo was woken up again by a series of tiny, incessant noises.

Thinking it was Zhou Wan again, he cursed under his breath, but the warmth beside him and the sound of regular breathing told him he had guessed wrong.

Lin Luo opened his eyes to pitch darkness. He fumbled for his phone and the screen lit up. 3:00 AM.

At this hour, who else could it be?

Perhaps hearing the creaking of the old wooden bed as he moved, a message popped up on his phone simultaneously.

Gu Ning: 【Open the door, quick! It’s an emergency!】

Lin Luo’s mind snapped awake instantly. He hurriedly switched on the light and gave the sleeping Zhou Wan a light shove. No reaction. He shoved him again.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Wan was dead to the world, his breathing steady, likely in the middle of a beautiful dream.

Anxious, Lin Luo gave him a sharp kick. He didn’t temper his strength or aim particularly well; a muffled “hiss” followed as the person beside him curled into a ball, dragging all the blankets away with him.

Two minutes passed. “What the hell are you do… ” Zhou Wan’s anger spiked as he poked his head out from under the blankets. His sudden loud voice shattered Lin Luo’s frayed nerves.

Lin Luo reflexively clamped his hand over Zhou Wan’s mouth. In his haste, the force was so great it sounded like a slap.

Zhou Wan was stunned. His resentment vanished, replaced by eyes full of pure confusion.

“Shh, don’t make a sound,” Lin Luo whispered. Once he was sure Gu Ning hadn’t moved outside, he continued: “Gu Ning is here. Hide, quickly.”

Zhou Wan: “What is he doing here this late?”

“How should I know?” While talking, Lin Luo scanned the room, looking for any space large enough to hide a man over 1.8 meters tall.

The results were disappointing. The room was small, and there wasn’t a single piece of furniture large enough to act as a shield. Even the space under the bed was too low to squeeze a living person into.

In desperation, he grabbed Zhou Wan and stuffed him toward the side of the bed against the wall. Fortunately, the duvet was large enough. The old lightbulb in the center of the room was dim with age, and the dark curtains blocked most of the light, burying someone under the covers seemed like a viable plan.

Still confused, Zhou Wan poked his head out. “What are you doing?”

“Don’t speak. If you’re found, I’ll bury you alive on the spot,” Lin Luo threatened expressionlessly.

He stuffed him back under the covers.

Lin Luo crept to the door, unlocked it for Gu Ning, then hurried back to the bed. He squeezed Zhou Wan into the innermost corner and sat leaning against the outer edge of the bed himself.

Gu Ning grumbled as he entered, “There are people keeping watch outside, why are you locking the door? Is the security that bad around here?”

Lin Luo forced himself to look calm. “Who doesn’t lock their door when sleeping away from home?”

It wasn’t even his lock to begin with, Zhou Wan had locked it himself after sneaking in.

Gu Ning stared with wide, innocent eyes. “Me.”

Lin Luo: “…”

“Anyway, what exactly is the matter?” Lin Luo urged.

“Oh, right,” Gu Ning said, reaching out to pull at Lin Luo’s blanket. “It’s about today.”

Lin Luo reflexively slapped his hand away. “What are you doing? Sitting in someone’s bed the moment you arrive? Where are your manners?”

“No,” Gu Ning laughed in frustration. “I’m freezing, big brother. It’s only March or April; the temperature drops to a few degrees at night. Are you trying to freeze me to death?”

“Besides, since when did you have so many weird hang-ups?”

His gaze sharpened, staring at Lin Luo’s forced composure. “Wait… you aren’t…”

Lin Luo looked at him immediately, both trying to find a crack in the other’s expression.

“What… what?”

Gu Ning’s eyes flickered toward the bulge in the blanket. He spoke in a playful, low tone: “Under there… it couldn’t be…”

“Huh?” Lin Luo subconsciously swallowed, his throat feeling parched.

“Alright, I get it.” Gu Ning smirked understandingly and even tucked the blanket in for him.

At that moment, the restless soul under the covers crawled up Lin Luo’s body, his hand reaching his waist and giving it a light pinch.

A wave of goosebumps broke out over Lin Luo, and he gave an involuntary shudder. Gu Ning’s expression grew even more complex, everything unsaid was written in his eyes. He patted Lin Luo on the shoulder and nodded knowingly. “You’re a man, it’s natural to have those ‘days’.”

He then switched to a tone of earnest advice. “But don’t overdo it, be careful of your health. Also, filming starts tomorrow. Look at the mess you’ve made, staying up this late for… well…”

He sighed. He was the personification of “no shame,” so getting a rare chance to lecture someone else felt quite refreshing. No wonder people loved gossiping so much.

The veins on Lin Luo’s forehead throbbed. He felt the person under the blanket huff a soft laugh, seemingly amused.

Before those restless hands could do anything more scandalous, Lin Luo grabbed them firmly, not daring to let go for a second.

Though he maintained a dark, scowling face throughout Gu Ning’s nonsense, there was a suspicious flush beneath the dark expression, making his act very unconvincing.

“Spit it out or get out,” Lin Luo hissed through gritted teeth.

“Right, right,” Gu Ning finally returned to his purpose. He turned serious. “Did your social media account post a CP fanservice photo this afternoon?”

“Yeah, so?”

Gu Ning pulled out his phone, swiped a few times, and turned the screen toward Lin Luo. “See for yourself.”

Lin Luo immediately locked onto the trending keyword: “The Lin-Zhou CP is real!”

“So what?” he asked, confused.

People joked about it all the time, it wasn’t the first time such a hashtag had trended. He took Gu Ning’s phone and clicked on the tag. He was stunned, blabbing out, “Holy crap.”

It was the solo photo of Zhou Wan he had posted on his burner account that afternoon. It had climbed to the top of the trending list.

Of course, a solo photo of Zhou Wan wasn’t enough “hard evidence” to prove the CP was real. However, when combined with the leaked chat logs between the CP fan leaders “Dreaming of the Night Boat” and “Is Lin-Zhou Real Today?”, the “shipping scholars” had plenty to dig into.

From collaborative performances to daily life, details even the stars themselves hadn’t considered were being analyzed for “sugar.”

Lin Luo checked his own phone in a daze, thinking he had warned Real not to spread it. How did even the chat logs get out?

When he opened the chat, his vision went dark. The signal in the mountains was terrible; while all his other messages had sent, the one warning her not to share it had failed.

It was pure bad luck.

Looking at the increasingly wild rumors, even Zhou Wan’s solo stans were coming out to accuse Lin Luo of “unrequited love” and trying to ruin Zhou Wan by posting misleading content. Lin Luo saw a sea of comments “pitying their poor Oppa.”

Please. Compared to Zhou Wan, Lin Luo and the rest of the world were the ones who deserved pity. “Weakness” really was relative.

Lin Luo said with a bitter smile, “Should I just delete the photo and post a clarification?”

In truth, deleting it now was useless. He had figured that as long as Real knew and didn’t broadcast it, it wouldn’t be an issue. He hadn’t expected a single slip-up to cause such a disaster.

Gu Ning narrowed his eyes, looking profound. He said, “Don’t delete it. Instead, post more ‘evidence’.”

Lin Luo: “?”

“If we delete the post now, doesn’t it just look like we’re guilty?” Gu Ning added. “So we can’t delete it. We have to utilize this unexpected wave of traffic. It’s fine if people scold you, it’s worse if you exhaust yourself clarifying things only for it to backfire, losing you the support of your original fans.”

“Your main fan base right now is CP fans. You don’t have any major solo works yet, so it’s hard to convert them or attract new solo stans.”

“What are you suggesting?” Lin Luo asked.

He had to admit, Gu Ning had some skill when he was serious. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have dared to poach talent from Ming Songqin’s company, and his small studio wouldn’t have miraculously survived the suppression of Qinchao Media for several months.

Gu Ning looked at him with a mysterious smile. “Become a ‘stalker parasite’,” he said, placing his hands on Lin Luo’s shoulders. “From today until the CP contract ends, you love Zhou Wan. You and Zhou Wan are real.”

Lin Luo’s body stiffened. He distinctly felt the head under the blanket press against his waist. The person wrapping an arm around his waist, whose fingers had been tracing his side, stopped moving.

That palm was scorching hot, damp with a layer of sweat, pressing against Lin Luo’s waist and making his heart race.

“I…” Lin Luo hesitated. “Is there any other way?”

“Sure,” Gu Ning reverted to his usual flippant self. “Quit right now and disappear from the public eye again.”

He added: “If you’re willing to accept that.”

Lin Luo knew Gu Ning was just scaring him, but there really was no better option.

He thought for a moment and asked, “Will Qinchao agree? Wouldn’t this violate the original contract?”

The CP binding contract was for three years. During that time, they were to act primarily as a pair. Once the three years were up, they would unbind, whether they disappeared back into obscurity or took off as solo stars was up to their own abilities.

The contract explicitly stated: No real feelings allowed.

To better attract fans and harvest traffic and resources for commercial gain, both sides had reached a consensus, they should only show an ambiguous attitude, never a definitive relationship.

As the saying goes, “the grass is always greener” statistics showed that the “push and pull” of an uncertain relationship was more attractive to audiences.

“Psh,” Gu Ning said disdainfully. “Who cares about them? Is Ming Songqin going to kill us?”

He encouraged: “Why don’t you try actually pursuing Zhou Wan? From what I know, he’s exactly your type, isn’t he?”

“Maybe after three years, you’ll walk away with both a career and a boyfriend?” Gu Ning winked at Lin Luo. “Want to give it a shot?”

“What are you talking about?” Lin Luo tucked the blanket in tighter. “This kind of thing… it can’t be one-sided.”

Gu Ning looked at him and sighed. “True. Between the two of you, one’s an oblivious block of wood, the other’s a short fused mad dog. If you actually dated, you’d probably have brawls at home every day.”

“Just make sure you drag Zhou Wan along for the fan service. Even if you can’t get him, you have to be shameless and maintain the image that you’re a couple in public. If he doesn’t cooperate, you take the initiative to cling to him, just like when you chased after…” Before he could finish, Lin Luo covered his mouth.

“Say another word and I’ll beat you,” Lin Luo threatened. “I should have silenced you back then.”

Back when he was in his peak “chunibyo” phase in school, he had been so obsessed with a celebrity that he missed the last bus home. He saw the star’s car, thought it was his taxi, and in a fit of madness, chased the car for a kilometer, actually catching up to it at a red light. He was almost arrested as a stalker fan.

There had been three people in that car: the driver, the starlet, and the starlet’s boyfriend, the playboy heir, Gu Ning.

Gu Ning had used this story to mock him for years. The frequency of its mention was predictably annoying.

Gu Ning grinned. “Can’t even talk about it now?” His eyes were full of nostalgia. “I thought back then, this kid is definitely going to do great things.”

Lin Luo’s face slumped as he changed the subject. “Are you done? If you’re done, I’m sleeping. Get back to your own kennel.”

“Hmph, stingy.” Gu Ning stood up and stretched.

He leaned down and pinched Lin Luo’s cheek. “Don’t worry, I’ll definitely make you famous.” His gaze was steady.

“Sleep well. Goodnight.”

Lin Luo glanced at the faint light of dawn peeking through the window and scoffed. “What’s ‘night’ about it anymore?”

As the door creaked shut, Zhou Wan emerged from under the covers. Propping his head up on one hand, he lay on his side. A few minutes of oxygen deprivation had made his breathing heavy, and a slight flush stained his fair skin. His pajamas were damp with sweat and clung to his chest, rising and falling with his breath.

He was watching Lin Luo with great interest. The beast in his heart had snapped its chains and burst from its cage. The long-suppressed aggression in his eyes was undisguised as he suppressed a smile and patted the spot in front of him.

“So,” he asked, “how do you plan on ‘pursuing’ me?”

“And in what ways do you intend to express how much you ‘like’ me?”

“Also… who was the person you chased that I’m supposed to be like?”