If The Persona Is Wrong, Everything Else Is In Vain - Chapter 19

The accommodation that Xiao Li had found for Song Ranyu was not far behind the old house where they were staying. It was located on a gentle slope, about 50 meters away.

The houses here were tightly packed together, and there was only one path leading up. One had to climb a flight of concrete steps to reach their old house first, and then detour through the open space in front of the door to take a small path up the back.

Perhaps it was a continuation of the mutual appreciation between Meng Luo Wan Zhou and real on the internet, but Lin Luo found Song Ranyu rather friendly.

Song Ranyu was also cheerful and talkative. Lin Luo held two umbrellas by himself as the two of them chatted and laughed all the way up. He even lent a hand to the mushroom haired youth, who was carrying a whole load of “heavy equipment” on his back, as they climbed the stairs.

Yet, the moment they made it up, Lin Luo immediately spotted Zhou Wan sitting under the eaves.

Separated from the world by a curtain of rain, Zhou Wan’s figure looked somewhat lonely. He held an umbrella in his hand, hesitating over whether to plunge into the downpour.

There was no telling how long he had been sitting there, but his fluffy hair was already damp with mist.

The moment his eyes met Lin Luo’s, he froze for a second. His gaze shifted from blank bewilderment to sheer resentment.

Lin Luo couldn’t help but shudder. Grabbing Song Ranyu by his backpack strap, he yanked him up the last step.

Though it was a distance of only about twenty steps, the lack of exercise left the mushroom-haired youth panting heavily. Hands resting on his knees, Song Ranyu gasped for breath, completely unaware of the approaching danger.

“How much further… I really can’t climb anymore,” Song Ranyu gasped.

“We’re almost there,” Lin Luo replied, keeping a wary eye on Zhou Wan, who was staring fixedly at him.

Suddenly, an umbrella hit the ground with a sharp clack. Zhou Wan had let it go. Placing his hands on the armrests of his wheelchair, a familiar smirk curved his lips as he charged straight into the rain.

Instinctively, Lin Luo shoved his umbrella into Song Ranyu’s hands and lunged forward.

Just a second before Zhou Wan could cross into the downpour, Lin Luo managed to hold up a small canopy of shelter over his head.

At that exact moment, a raindrop that had been clinging to Lin Luo’s hair for the entire journey finally succumbed to its own weight. It slid down the side of his cheek, traced the edge of his jawline, and fell straight from the tip of his chin.

Ultimately, it landed right on Zhou Wan’s thick eyelashes.

As Zhou Wan tilted his head slightly to look up at Lin Luo, the water droplet rolled downward, looking perfectly like a single tear.

His eyes were bright and clear.

Click, click!

Several successive shutter sounds shattered their intense eye contact. When the camera flash went off, Lin Luo briefly hallucinated that Zhou Wan’s eyes were actually pooling with a long-hidden, misty sorrow.

Song Ranyu had swiftly found countless angles for himself. In less than a minute, he snapped a whole set of photos. As he flipped through them, his smile practically reached the sky, he might as well have carved the words “I totally ship it” right onto his forehead.

Snapping back to reality, Lin Luo wheeled Zhou Wan back under the eaves, shooting him a warning glare. Zhou Wan remained unfazed. With a mischievous smirk on his lips, he rested his chin on one hand and evaluated Lin Luo.

“Let’s go, I’ll walk you over,” Lin Luo said, turning around to apologize to Song Ranyu.

Song Ranyu peeked past Lin Luo to glance at Zhou Wan. Restraining a laugh, and acting with the keen intuition of a qualified CP fan, he instantly picked up on the subtle tension in the air. He repeatedly declined, “No, no need!”

He pointed to the house behind them. “Is it that one? It’s just a few steps away, I can manage on my own.”

Without waiting for Lin Luo’s response, he bolted and vanished in a flash.

The rain continued to pour heavily, beating against the surface of the umbrella with a dull, rhythmic pattern. The faint vibrations traveled down the umbrella ribs into Lin Luo’s palm, mimicking the thumping heartbeat inside his chest.

“How come you only brought one back?”

Zhou Wan tilted his head to look at him, his tone unreadable, though the resonance in his chest seemed to sync up with the rain.

Lin Luo wheeled him directly into his own room on the first floor. Finding a jacket, he draped it over Zhou Wan’s shoulders. “He’s the only one left.”

Zhou Wan clicked his tongue, teasing him, “Looks like your fans don’t love you all that much after all.”

Lin Luo ignored him. Looking around, he dug through several bags before finally pulling a clean towel out of his suitcase, tossing it right over Zhou Wan’s head.

As he aggressively rubbed Zhou Wan’s head with the towel out of pure retaliation, he fabricated a casual excuse: “I don’t need that much love.”

Zhou Wan caught Lin Luo by the wrist. Using Lin Luo’s hand, he pulled the towel down slightly just enough to expose his eyes. “Then what is your purpose in being a celebrity?”

“For money, obviously. I’m poor, materialistic, and completely profit driven,” Lin Luo said with a fake smile, pulling his hand back. “What other job makes money faster than being a celebrity?”

The light in Zhou Wan’s eyes gradually dimmed. His hand froze in midair, gripping nothing but empty air. His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I’m sorry, I…”

“It’s fine. You’re not wrong, that’s exactly the kind of person I am.”

Without giving him another glance, Lin Luo grabbed a jacket from the clothes rack.

Just as he was about to put it on, he noticed his current clothes were damp. He decided to change out of them, but just as he lifted the hem of his shirt halfway up, his movements stiffened.

Dropping his shirt back down, he turned to the completely oblivious Zhou Wan and said, “I need to change my clothes.”

Zhou Wan pulled down the towel. With his hair messy like a literal bird’s nest, he looked entirely bewildered.

Leaning back in his wheelchair with his arms crossed, he nodded and tipped his chin up as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “Go ahead and change.”

“You can leave now,” Lin Luo added.

“Why should I leave?” Zhou Wan asked, genuinely puzzled.

Lin Luo: ?

“Don’t you think the way the two of us are acting right now is a bit… ambiguous?” Lin Luo pointed at him, then at himself.

Zhou Wan pondered for a moment. “Not really.”

“We are in an officially announced relationship online,” he added stubbornly.

“No…” Lin Luo laughed out of sheer frustration. “Like you said, that’s online. Right now there are no cameras around. Is there really a need to be this dedicated to the role, Movie Star?”

“Just because there are no cameras, you won’t even put on an act?” Zhou Wan stared at him in disbelief, looking exactly like a betrayed lover confronting a heartless partner in a drama.

He pointed to his own head. The damp moisture had been rubbed into his messy hair, with a few strands sticking to his sharply contoured face, giving him a bizarrely fragile aesthetic.

“Devoted in front of the fans, to the point where you couldn’t bear to let me catch a single drop of rain. And now you claim we’re being ambiguous and want to kick me out directly.”

“I didn’t expect you to be so heartless and ungrateful.” He gripped the wheelchair handles so tightly his knuckles turned white. “Let me tell you, nothing in this world comes that easy.”

Heartless and ungrateful? Is that even how you use that idiom?

Lin Luo’s train of thought was completely derailed by Zhou Wan’s bizarre logic. “Then, how long do you plan on staying in my room?”

Seeing him yield slightly, Zhou Wan dropped his aggressive stance and patted the heavy plaster cast on his leg. “I’m supposed to stay on the second floor, but it’s not convenient right now.”

“So, you want to stay in my room?” Lin Luo finished the sentence for him.

Zhou Wan raised an eyebrow. “Is that an issue?”

“Sure, why not,” Lin Luo replied instantly. His hands didn’t idle either, he grabbed a few pieces of clothing from the drying rack and began stuffing them into a bag.

Zhou Wan frowned, grabbing the hem of the clothes in Lin Luo’s hand. “What are you doing?”

Lin Luo looked at him blankly. “Aren’t you asking to swap rooms? I’m clearing out space for you.”

With that, he yanked the clothing back and packed several more items into the bag.

He took inventory of his things in the room. Although it wasn’t much, he couldn’t move everything in one trip, and he didn’t want to bother anyone else for help.

Most importantly, he didn’t want the room swap to become public knowledge, as explaining it to every single person who asked would be a massive headache.

Lin Luo said, “I’ll leave the rest of my stuff here for now, it won’t get in your way.”

He slid the remaining clothes on the rack to the very edge, freeing up a large space.

He continued, “It’s hard to move everything at once. I’ll come back for the rest tomorrow.”

Carrying the large bag, he prepared to head out, only for Zhou Wan to block his path.

Zhou Wan maneuvered his wheelchair right in front of him, blocking the doorway completely. Reaching backward, he locked the door, then looked up at Lin Luo. “I think you might have misunderstood.”

“What I meant was,” he reached out, snatched the cumbersome bag from Lin Luo’s chest, and carelessly tossed it onto the carpet, “we are staying here together.”

Despite his injured leg, his reflexes were still sharp. He had likely anticipated Lin Luo’s resistance; before Lin Luo could even react, Zhou Wan extended his long arm and pulled Lin Luo in by the waist.

“Let go!”

Lin Luo let out a startled cry. A familiar tingling, itchy sensation shot through his waist, breaking him out in goosebumps.

“I won’t.” Zhou Wan tightened his grip around Lin Luo’s waist, applying more pressure as he resorted to pure shamelessness.

“No way! Once official filming starts tomorrow, cameras will be installed in every room. If they catch the two of us living together… what will people think?!” Lin Luo said, flustered and annoyed.

Zhou Wan refused to let go no matter what, acting like a complete rogue. “What does it matter? We’re a couple to begin with.”

“Why can’t I get through to you?!” Lin Luo roared silently.

Lin Luo pushed against his shoulders, half-tempted to knock him unconscious with a chop to the neck. He really didn’t know what had possessed him to provoke such a creature in the first place…

“In the past when I got hurt, you insisted on crashing at my place saying you wanted to take care of me. Now I’m just returning the favor,” Zhou Wan said. “Besides, this injury was caused by you.”

While the previous argument was a stretch, this last sentence hit the nail right on the head. The moment Lin Luo’s gaze brushed against the massive plaster cast on Zhou Wan’s leg, he quickly looked away.

“Aren’t you afraid I’ll kick you in my sleep again at night?”

“Sleep together?” Zhou Wan didn’t let go. Resting his head against Lin Luo’s abdomen, he looked up, his eyes glittering like scattered stars. “Are you saying you want to… with me?”

“Fine, fine, fine, I agree! Just stop talking.” Lin Luo promptly covered Zhou Wan’s filterless mouth, nodding in absolute surrender.

He truly wondered how Zhou Wan’s fans would react if they found out their idol was such a drama queen behind the scenes.

But looking at it from another angle, maybe these absurd antics could serve as blackmail material to control this unbridled horse in the future?

Next time, I absolutely have to record him, Lin Luo resolved secretly.

Only then did Zhou Wan release his grip. He smoothed down the nonexistent collar of his crewneck T-shirt and reverted to his usual demeanor. His solemn expression made it look as though his childish, shameless behavior from a moment ago had never happened.

“But once the cameras are set up tomorrow, you need to keep your distance,” Lin Luo warned.

“Try your best to avoid things on the production crew’s side too…”

“Does this mean we’re having an ‘affair’?” Zhou Wan made a shocking remark.

Lin Luo: ?

“But if we do that, and the audience spots some clues on camera, wouldn’t that just solidify our relationship status even more?”

Zhou Wan babbled on, “So you’re making me skulk around based on that kind of mindset? It seems you really do like me a lot, Luo-ge.”

Left utterly defenseless by the accusation, Lin Luo lowered his head in silence.

The frown melted off Zhou Wan’s face. His features once again wore the haughty expression of the young Master Zhou, tinged with a hint of smugness from winning the round.

“You need a lot, lot of love,” Zhou Wan said.

Lin Luo looked up blankly.

Zhou Wan took his hand, staring with infatuation at the prominent blue veins on the back of it. He then pressed it against his own cheek, planting a kiss as light as a feather, filled with utmost tenderness.

He continued, “Your fans can’t give it to you.”

“But I can.”

Those bedroom eyes were undeniably captivating. He lowered himself completely, silently pressing his face against the back of Lin Luo’s hand while tilting his gaze up to stare straight at him, a faint smile playing on his lips.

He looked like a puppy begging for its owner’s affection, yet also like a dangerous wolf that had willingly walked into a trap.

Lin Luo silently withdrew his hand, feeling entirely uncomfortable and at a loss for words for a long moment.

His Adam’s apple bobbed. Keeping a perfectly straight face, he said matter of factly, “I… can just buy fake followers.”

Zhou Wan narrowed his eyes, pointed a finger at him from across the space, let out a cold snort, and then turned to unlock the door. Without looking back, he “rolled” his way out of the room.