If The Persona Is Wrong, Everything Else Is In Vain - Chapter 15

By 1:30 PM, with only ten minutes left before the director’s scheduled shooting time, Lin Luo finally managed to rush back to the filming area just in the nick of time.

His throat was parching, and he was gasping for air. It wasn’t until he took a gulp of water that he finally managed to catch his breath. Not far away, Gu Ning emerged from the bushes, looking around anxiously as he walked. Trembling and wrapped tightly in his clothes, he looked as if he had just seen a ghost.

“Did you and Ming Songqin get into a fight?” Lin Luo hurriedly handed him a towel, pointing at his drenched state. “How did you end up looking like a drowned rat?”

Ming Songqin stepped out right behind him, his expression equally grim. A prominent bruise marred the side of his cheek, and his lip was split, dripping with blood. He reached out to grab a bottle of water from the table, but just as he was about to drink, Gu Ning snatched it away.

“This is mine!” Gu Ning snapped furiously.

Ming Songqin rolled his eyes at him, bypassed him, and picked up another bottle.

The atmosphere between the two was visibly tense and strained.

“Get ready to…” The director, having just woken up from his afternoon nap, was feeling refreshed and full of energy. But the moment he saw the four guests, each wearing a unique expression of utter misery, his world instantly crumbled.

Ming Songqin was the first to react. Addressing the director, he said, “Today is indeed our fault.” He gestured toward the group, offering a compromise, “Could you do us a favor and push the shoot to tomorrow?”

“Don’t worry, Qinchao Entertainment will cover all the losses for manpower and resources,” he added.

The director found himself caught in a dilemma. Ming Songqin had always been strict about work and rarely gave anyone a free pass. He held his company’s artists to a high standard, but he was even harsher on himself. One could easily tell just by looking at the artists from Qinchao, though they constantly complained about the “hardships” Ming Songqin subjected them to, those very hardships had propelled them to the front lines of the entertainment industry.

Although the schedule was fixed for an entire month, it was completely normal for delays or disruptions to happen due to unavoidable circumstances. Since Ming Songqin had already offered to compensate for the losses, it would be bad manners to refuse. “Alright, okay then.”

With that, the director headed off to coordinate with the various departments to pack up for the day.

“Where are you going?” Lin Luo grabbed Gu Ning, who was turning to leave like a walking corpse.

Gu Ning looked as if his soul had drifted away and he had suddenly been caught red-handed. Stunned for a moment, he snapped back to reality. “I… I’m going back to sleep.” He forced a smile. “Can’t we rest for the day?”

“I’ll take you back,” Ming Songqin said, catching up with his coat tucked under his arm.

“No need.” Gu Ning shot him a glare and sharply refused. Grabbing Lin Luo, he pulled him straight into the car he had arranged. Lin Luo looked back at Ming Songqin in a daze, only to see him standing in place, staring intently at Gu Ning with an ominous glare. God knows what he was thinking. In Lin Luo’s memory, anyone Ming Songqin looked at with that kind of expression never ended up with a good shifting.

Inside the car, the heater was turned on slightly. Gu Ning casually grabbed a clean towel that had been prepared beforehand, threw it over his neck, and began rubbing it frantically and irritably. Within moments, large red streaks of friction marks appeared on his neck. Yet, he refused to stop, completely obsessed with wiping away the “filth.”

Lin Luo snatched the towel from his hand, his brow furrowed deeply. “What on earth happened?”

Gu Ning brushed it off perfunctorily, “Nothing.”

Lin Luo deftly dodged his reaching hand, hiding the towel behind his back. Looking straight at him, he raised his voice, “Is there something going on between you and Ming Songqin?”

“Ever since we arrived at Shuihe Village, the two of you have been acting strange.”

Gu Ning froze, avoiding his gaze. “What could possibly be going on between us? I’m not even close to him.” He didn’t even notice that he always displayed subtle nervous habits whenever he lied. For instance, while his face remained nonchalant, his hands were far from idle, he was restlessly picking at a specific button on the hem of his shirt.

Lin Luo glanced at his hands. “When you scouted me back then, you told me that the two of you only had a business relationship and had crossed paths a few times. But Fanxing Entertainment was only established after I left my previous agency. Before that, where did you get any business from?”

“I… can’t it be my family’s business?” Gu Ning countered, but the sheer lack of confidence in his voice clearly gave away the lie.

“You’re a young master from a wealthy family. Instead of staying home to inherit the family fortune, you had nothing better to do than sell your cars and house just to start your own business?” Lin Luo continued to provoke him.

“That’s only because…” Gu Ning cut himself off just in time. He scoffed, “I don’t even care to explain it to you.”

Lin Luo took an ice pack out of the car refrigerator and pressed it against Gu Ning’s neck. “Weren’t you the one who cared most about your looks? You’ll regret it to death if a scar forms.” As he spoke, he used the towel to cushion it, preventing the melting ice water from sliding into Gu Ning’s collar.

Just as he leaned closer to Gu Ning, a piercing scent rushed into his nose, causing him to cover it immediately. “Just how many types of perfume did you spray? You’re practically marinated in it.”

“Nonsense,” Gu Ning grabbed his own collar and sniffed it. “I never wear perfume. I rely entirely on my natural body scent, alright?”

Lin Luo: “?”

“Are you sure?” He fanned the air, drawing a bit of the scent toward himself to sniff carefully. The scent was inexplicably familiar, carrying hints of various aromas. It felt like a haphazard blend of every well-known commercial perfume on the market… Pheromones?

Lin Luo’s eyes widened in shock. “Why do you have the scent of pheromones on you? Aren’t you a Beta?”

His expression turned complex. “And it’s a mix of so many different pheromones. You…”

“Get lost, get lost, get lost,” Gu Ning pushed his head away. “I’m not that cheap.”

Suppressing his temper, he cursed Ming Songqin up and down in his heart. He instinctively reached up to touch the faint, aching bite mark left on his neck by that dog of a man. Fearing that Lin Luo would notice, he pulled his hand back halfway through the motion. However, the guiltier a person felt, the more flaws their every move revealed.

Lin Luo took everything in but chose not to expose him. He continued, “You better be.”

“By the way, when did your preferences change?”

Gu Ning took the ice pack and towel himself, holding them against his neck as he looked at him in confusion. “What?”

“I mean, didn’t you use to prefer cute, beautiful, and delicate Omega boys?”

The little star Lin Luo had been obsessed with during his adolescence was exactly that type of beautiful Omega boy. Because he was so stunningly gorgeous, even during the peak of his online harassment by anti-fans, no one could ever find a flaw in that beautiful face.

Back then, Gu Ning also constantly frequented the entertainment and romance circles. The people around him were always changing, but he never deviated from his preference for gentle, beautiful, and soft young boys.

Gu Ning grew even more puzzled. “So what?”

His question instead left Lin Luo at a loss for words. “Xiao Yang, the young guide you were flirting with so crazily and showing off for earlier. He’s a Beta, didn’t you know?”

“Oh.” Gu Ning didn’t seem as surprised as expected. Instead, he appeared distracted. “So what? My preferences are completely open and limitless.”

Lin Luo let out a dry laugh, muttering in a voice only he could hear, “Then you better hope you can also accept the fact that he already has someone in his heart.”

Upon returning to their accommodation, despite Gu Ning repeatedly emphasizing that he was fine and that nothing would happen, Lin Luo still insisted on seeing him to his room on the second floor, adhering to the principle of seeing a good deed through to the end.

In front of the second floor rooms lay an open corridor. Looking out from the wooden railing, one could see the vast fields ahead and the Heshui River winding before them. At this time, the rapeseed flowers had not fully withered yet, leaving patches of golden yellow scattered across the fields. A faint fragrance still lingered in the air.

Lin Luo had only been sitting down for a few minutes, his seat barely even warm, when Gu Ning forced him out under the pretext of wanting to sleep. Lin Luo had no choice but to remind him to take care of himself before being pushed out the door.

Since Gu Ning’s room happened to be the very last one at the end of the corridor, standing side by side with the adjacent building, the moment Lin Luo closed the door, his peripheral vision caught a glimpse of the scene inside the narrow window on the first floor of the neighboring house.

Following the sound of porcelain shattering came a sharp scream. Even the window glass developed a spider web crack, successfully blocking Lin Luo’s view.

He hurried down the stairs from the other side. At the corner, he ran into Zhou Wan, who was gripping the railing and climbing up with great effort. Startled, Lin Luo pointed upward and asked, “Is your room up there?”

Zhou Wan didn’t answer him. Instead, he asked, “Where are you going?”

Lin Luo replied, “I just saw from upstairs that something seems to have happened at Wei An’s place. I want to go see if I can help.”

“You certainly are a good Samaritan,” Zhou Wan sneered softly. “I’ll go with you.”

“No need, you should rest well.”

Lin Luo instinctively refused, but Zhou Wan cut him off, “He can’t stand you as it is. Are you sure you can actually be of help?”

“Uh… alright then.” Lin Luo threw Zhou Wan over his shoulder, entirely ignoring the struggles of the man on his back, and marched straight downstairs.

Wei An’s room was in complete disarray. Everything in the house that could be broken had been smashed to pieces on the floor. Shards of pottery flew everywhere, leaving absolutely no place to step.

Vibrant red camellias lay scattered amidst the shattered porcelain, crushed and broken together.

“Xiao An…” Xiao Yang crouched, one hand clutching a wound on his abdomen. His face was deathly pale, and large beads of sweat had formed on his forehead. “Don’t hurt yourself.”

“Get out!” Wei An screamed. “You lied to me! All of you are lying to me!” He held a sharp piece of porcelain in his hand, his palm already bleeding from his tight grip. His eyes were bloodshot. “It’s absolutely impossible to regain one’s sense of taste after secondary differentiation!”

“True love doesn’t exist in this world at all.”

“No one loves me,” he smiled bitterly. “No one will ever love me again.”

“He won’t either…” After screaming his lungs out, his emotions stabilized slightly. Despondent, he slid down and collapsed onto the floor, his fall cushioned by a pillow Xiao Yang had thrown over just in time, preventing him from sitting directly on the carpet of broken shards.

When Lin Luo entered through the doorway, he was greeted by the sight of the wrecked room. Wei An held a shard of a broken mirror, tracing the reflection of the person inside with an obsessed gaze. The scene looked both eerie and sorrowful.

He helped Xiao Yang up, who was kneeling amidst the debris, at a loss for words.

Perhaps the sound of Zhou Wan’s wheelchair rolling over the shards was too loud, drawing Wei An’s attention. He glanced at the reflection in the mirror, then at Zhou Wan who stood against the light by the door. After a momentary pause as if deep in thought, he ultimately chose the real life Zhou Wan at the door.

Dropping the mirror shard, he rushed forward excitedly and said, “You’re here.”

He brushed aside the messy hair covering his forehead, tucking the strands by his temples behind his ears. He instinctively reached his hand out, but stopped halfway and pulled it back. He wiped his hands frantically against his clothes, but the more he wiped, the dirtier they became, leaving him increasingly dissatisfied. In the end, he simply stood across from Zhou Wan without touching him.

Lin Luo’s gaze drifted back and forth between the two.

In truth, he couldn’t quite understand Wei An’s feelings toward Zhou Wan, why he treated Zhou Wan so uniquely. In his eyes, the emotion Wei An harbored for Zhou Wan didn’t look like love.

At the very least, it was entirely different from the look in the eyes of someone in love that he had seen before.

Xiao Yang silently stepped forward, inserting himself right between Wei An and Zhou Wan. Whichever way Wei An tilted his head, Xiao Yang would shift his body to block him, as if he had made a firm resolution.

He picked up a bowl of porridge from the low cabinet near the door, held it out to Wei An, and said in a heavy voice, “It’s time to eat something, Xiao An.”

Wei An was clearly angered by his behavior, but he wasn’t in a hurry to push back. He merely looked at him coldly and suddenly said in a calm voice, “I don’t want to eat this.”

“Xiao An…”

“I want to eat the fish made by Uncle Zhao,” Wei An continued.

Xiao Yang’s eyes lit up, his face filling with joy. “Really?” He immediately agreed, “Alright, I’ll take you to eat it right away.”

Wei An shook his head. “I don’t want to go out.” He smiled brightly, “Bring it back for me.”

Xiao Yang looked at him, hesitant. “This… might not be a good idea.” If he left, there would be no one to watch over Wei An, and things could easily go wrong.

Taking advantage of Xiao Yang’s hesitation, Wei An coldly observed the room from his corner. Lin Luo’s back was turned to him. Quietly, Wei An slipped behind Zhou Wan, resting his hands naturally on Zhou Wan’s shoulders. Zhou Wan’s instinct was to resist, his shoulders tensing, but in the next second, he froze completely in place.

He looked up at Wei An, only to see a terrifying smile on his face. At an angle hidden from the other two, Wei An silently mouthed to Zhou Wan. Make him leave.

The photograph in his hand featured a version of Lin Luo that even Zhou Wan had never seen before. He was smiling radiantly at the man beside him, their school uniforms clearly identifying their school. The two stood shoulder to shoulder, holding hands, looking so… well-matched?

Zhou Wan’s eyes flickered, his fists clenching secretly in the dark.

Lin Luo took half a step forward, just about to say something to Xiao Yang, when Zhou Wan pulled him back. Zhou Wan said, “You guys go ahead. I’ll stay and keep watch.”

Lin Luo squeezed his hand, completely bewildered. Zhou Wan had never been one to meddle in others’ business, his biggest aversion was trouble. His current act of voluntarily taking on this chore was completely uncharacteristic of him.

“Can you manage?”

Zhou Wan shot him a sidelong glance and said bitingly, “Then why don’t you stay? And then the two of you can fight to the death? It happens to be your hometown anyway, which is very convenient. When the time comes, we can just find a spot to bury you right here too.”

Although his words were harsh, they made perfect sense. Lin Luo let out a soft chuckle and patted his shoulder. “Thanks for the hard work.”

Xiao Yang was still wavering, conflict evident in his eyes, but Lin Luo threw an arm around his shoulder and pulled him out by force.

Xiao Yang looked back every three steps. In front of Zhou Wan, Wei An was indeed much tamer. He merely confessed his love to Zhou Wan repeatedly. Even though the other party offered absolutely no response and even showed signs of impatience, he remained untiring. He was like a dam with its gates wide open, the floodwaters rushed forth violently, driving straight ahead with absolutely no turning back.

Yet, the more Wei An acted this way, the more worried Xiao Yang became. A terrible foreboding sensation threatened to swallow him whole.

The look in Wei An’s eyes was malicious. The glance he cast toward Xiao Yang carried a sense of smug triumph, along with an incomprehensible feeling of malicious satisfaction.

“Watch where you’re going.” Lin Luo took everything in. After checking the latest message on his phone, he exchanged a look with Zhou Wan, shoved the phone back into his pocket, and turned Xiao Yang’s head back forward. “If you trip and fall in a moment, someone’s going to break their heart.”

Xiao Yang froze, staring at him for a long time, speechless. “How did you…”

Lin Luo paused for a moment, a flash of mischief crossing his eyes. “Nothing, I was just talking nonsense.”