The Beautiful but Obscure Star Is Targeted by a Scheming Movie Star - Chapter 2

Tang Jingran himself heard that sound clearly, and his face flushed a few shades darker.

“He—hello,” Tang Jingran spoke. “I am Tang Jingran. I’m sorry, is your hand alright?”

As he spoke, he tried to withdraw his hand, but with a tug, he couldn’t pull it free.

Tang Jingran’s pitch-black eyes looked toward Gong Yingxiao. Seeing the youth staring directly into his eyes, Gong Yingxiao finally smiled and released his hand.

“It’s nothing.”

“Mr. Gong, please come inside, come inside!” Dean Zhang hurriedly stepped forward to smooth things over.

The large group of people filed into the house in a grand procession. Although Gong Yingxiao shook hands with the others, he did not smile at them the way he had while shaking hands with Tang Jingran.

As Yan Jun passed by Tang Jingran, he asked, “Are you and Gong Yingxiao relatives?”

Tang Jingran looked at Yan Jun with a “What is wrong with you?” expression.

Fine.

Knowing he was asking nonsense, Yan Jun patted Tang Jingran on the shoulder. “It seems the Movie King likes you quite a bit. Build a good relationship.”

Watching Gong Yingxiao’s back as he entered the house, Tang Jingran thought that this Movie King wasn’t as cold as the rumors suggested.

“I didn’t know you were coming, so we didn’t make much preparation here. I hope Mr. Gong won’t mind.”

It was evident that Dean Zhang also hadn’t known beforehand that the person coming was Gong Yingxiao.

“Um, sorry about that,” Dean Zhang said, cautiously glancing at Gong Yingxiao before continuing. “The remaining few artists won’t arrive until tomorrow.”

Zhang Song couldn’t help but complain in his heart; they really had no sense of timing. Even if it wasn’t a top-tier variety show, they couldn’t just show up. No wonder they couldn’t get famous.

Gong Yingxiao’s expression remained indifferent as he indicated it was fine.

“Good, good, good,” Zhang Song quickly responded, continuing, “Everyone is very tired from traveling here today. We have arranged rooms for you upstairs. You can all go up to rest now.”

Bai Wensheng came over to ask Tang Jingran which room he was in.

“Number 5.”

“I’m in Number 6, right next door,” Bai Wensheng said. “Let’s hang out when we have time.”

“Sure.”

The two talked as they walked. One of the other two artists looked Tang Jingran up and down with disdain as they passed him. Tang Jingran didn’t even give him a glance.

“Alright, you unpack your things first. I’m going downstairs to chat with the other managers,” Yan Jun instructed in the room as he watched Tang Jingran squatting on the floor, organizing his belongings. “If you’re going anywhere, remember to send me a WeChat message.”

Tang Jingran gave Yan Jun a backhanded “OK” gesture.

Not long after Tang Jingran finished unpacking and lay down on the bed, there was a knock at the door.

Tang Jingran thought it was Bai Wensheng coming to find him, but to his surprise, when he opened the door, it was Gong Yingxiao.

Tang Jingran met Gong Yingxiao’s eyes, paused for a moment, and spoke: “Hello.”

“Hello,” Gong Yingxiao said with a smile. “I’m not disturbing you, am I?”

Gong Yingxiao particularly liked Tang Jingran’s pitch-black eyes; they were like black obsidian that made it impossible to look away.

Tang Jingran asked, “What is it?”

“It’s like this. I brought something that needs someone to hold it steady. Could I trouble you to help me for a moment?” Gong Yingxiao put on an air of consideration. “If it’s inconvenient, it’s no problem.”

Gong Yingxiao’s voice was always magnetic and very pleasant to the ear.

Since it was just helping to hold something, Tang Jingran agreed.

“I can do that. It’s no disturbance.”

Gong Yingxiao’s room wasn’t much different from Tang Jingran’s; both were single rooms. If there was any difference, it was that Gong Yingxiao’s room had a floor-to-ceiling window.

The cat café was near the sea in the distance; at dusk, when the sun set, it would be an excellent viewpoint.

Seeing him staring at the window, Gong Yingxiao spoke: “Do you like it?”

“It’s alright,” Tang Jingran retracted his gaze. “I just feel the view at night would be quite good.”

Gong Yingxiao said generously, “If you want to watch, you can come over anytime.”

“No, no, no, that would be too much of an intrusion,” Tang Jingran waved his hands hurriedly. He felt this Movie King was a bit too approachable. Clearly, he looked like someone of few words, yet unexpectedly, he seemed to enjoy talking quite a bit.

Gong Yingxiao smiled and said nothing more.

“Just help me hold this side.”

Gong Yingxiao had brought a DIY garment rack. Tang Jingran held down the side that Gong Yingxiao requested.

Seeing that Tang Jingran was uncomfortable, Gong Yingxiao chatted with him while assembling it.

“Which company’s artist are you?”

“Star Universe Entertainment.”

“Being this handsome, do a lot of people like you?” Gong Yingxiao then added another question: “Does your girlfriend get jealous?”

Tang Jingran thought of his single-digit follower count on Weibo, which probably couldn’t even compare to the other man’s bot accounts, and gently shook his head.

Hearing the word “girlfriend,” as a pure-hearted little dragon-li cat who had lived two lives and had never even held the hand of a peer of the opposite sex, his face instantly turned scarlet.

“I… I don’t have a girlfriend yet.” After several interactions, Tang Jingran’s courage had grown a bit, and he asked: “Then… will you move to behind-the-scenes work?”

“Am I very old?”

“No.” Tang Jingran didn’t know why he was suddenly being asked if he was old.

“Then why do you address me as ‘You’ (honorific)?”

“That is out of respect for you.”

“Just call me by my name,” Gong Yingxiao said.

That wasn’t proper. Tang Jingran looked at Gong Yingxiao and didn’t speak.

Seeing him like this, Gong Yingxiao continued, “Just call me Teacher. Don’t use the honorific anymore; it makes me feel very old.”

“I certainly didn’t mean it that way,” Tang Jingran promised quickly.

Gong Yingxiao finished the assembly, set the rack aside, and said to Tang Jingran with a smile, “Sit. I’ll go get you some water as thanks for your help.”

“For now, there is only water. I’ll treat you to something else later.” Gong Yingxiao pushed the cup in front of Tang Jingran.

Tang Jingran took it. “Thank you.”

Because he was originally a cat, Tang Jingran used his tongue to lap the water while drinking.

Gong Yingxiao paused when he saw his drinking motion.

Tang Jingran looked up. “What’s wrong?”

Gong Yingxiao smiled and shook his head, sitting on the sofa to answer the question Tang Jingran had asked earlier. “Currently, I only have plans.”

After saying that, he asked again, “Are you a fan of mine?”

Tang Jingran didn’t have a specific favorite idol. He entered the entertainment industry solely to make money, but Gong Yingxiao was indeed quite outstanding.

“I have followed you for a while, Teacher Gong.”

“So you don’t like me anymore?” Gong Yingxiao’s deep eyes looked straight at Tang Jingran.

“I do like you.” Thinking it sounded a bit strange, Tang Jingran added, “Everyone likes you.”

Gong Yingxiao gave a shallow laugh and stretched his body out against the sofa. He was about to speak when he was interrupted by Tang Jingran’s phone.

Tang Jingran picked it up and found it was a call from Yan Jun.

“Sorry, Teacher Gong, my manager is looking for me.”

“Alright, let’s talk next time.”

Gong Yingxiao walked Tang Jingran to the door. Just as Tang Jingran was about to wave goodbye, the person in front of him suddenly leaned down.

Tang Jingran froze abruptly.

A moment later, Gong Yingxiao straightened up. “There was a hair on your collar.”

Seeing Tang Jingran staring at him, he asked, “What is it?”

Tang Jingran looked at Gong Yingxiao with a hint of wariness in his eyes. How could anyone be this friendly upon a first meeting? Recalling Gong Yingxiao’s actions, Tang Jingran thought the man had that kind of intention.

But the man acted so naturally and behaved so properly at every turn, as if he simply wanted to help a colleague pick a hair off their collar.

It left Tang Jingran with no way to handle the situation.

“It’s nothing.”

Watching Tang Jingran’s retreating figure and recalling the wary look he had given him, Gong Yingxiao’s lips curled up.

When Tang Jingran returned to his room, he found Yan Jun sitting on the sofa in the living area.

“Where did you just go?” Yan Jun turned to ask him.

Thinking of what had just happened, Tang Jingran shook his head.

“I didn’t go anywhere special. What’s wrong? Is something up?”

“Dean Zhang just said the remaining people will arrive tonight. Once everyone is here, he wants everyone to go down for a meal to get to know each other.”

“Okay.”

Tang Jingran responded, then thought for a moment and asked, “Is Gong Yingxiao very enthusiastic toward people?”

Yan Jun looked at Tang Jingran with a “Have you taken the wrong medicine?” expression. “Enthusiastic? Even if the sun melted and the universe exploded, he wouldn’t be enthusiastic.”

“Although Gong Yingxiao usually appears gentlemanly and polite, he is cold-blooded to the bone. This man’s family is dripping with wealth. He insisted on relying on himself to get to where he is today because he likes being an actor. His family background was only exposed after he became the Movie King.”

“Of course, some people still don’t believe he is clean and hasn’t relied on his family.”

“Also,” Yan Jun remembered Gong Yingxiao’s attitude toward Tang Jingran, “I was joking when I told you to build a good relationship. A person like him has seen all kinds of people and things; those who approach him with ulterior motives never end up well.”

Although Tang Jingran was smart, it was clear he was no match for Gong Yingxiao right now.

Tang Jingran thought to himself: He was the one approaching me.

Still, Tang Jingran noted everything down. With sparkling eyes, he asked, “He must be extremely rich, right?”

“You bet,” Yan Jun said. “A conservative estimate is at least 100 billion. There’s a ceiling but no floor.”

“Why are you asking this?”

“Nothing, just admiring.” Tang Jingran stretched and took his clothes into the bathroom. “I’m going to take a shower.”

After Tang Jingran came out, Yan Jun told him a few more things to watch out for. Shortly after, someone came to notify them that everyone had arrived and to go down to gather.

“Alright, that’s all the issues for now. Let’s head down; the people are here.”

When Tang Jingran followed Yan Jun downstairs, he saw the late-arriving artists surrounding Gong Yingxiao and talking, while the protagonist listened with an indifferent expression.

Tang Jingran thought that he must have been mistaken; the Movie King was actually a decent person. He shouldn’t think so poorly of people. Just as he was thinking this, he saw Gong Yingxiao smiling in his direction.

After the afternoon’s interaction, Tang Jingran felt this smile was a bit malicious. Consequently, he mentally revoked the “Good Person Card” he had given Gong Yingxiao.

But Gong Yingxiao kept looking over, causing everyone else’s gaze to follow. Thus, Tang Jingran made a strange, half-smiling expression, which only made the amusement in Gong Yingxiao’s eyes grow stronger.

Tang Jingran put on a cold face.

This is a bad person.

“Thank you all for coming down. I’ve asked everyone here to explain some requirements and issues for tomorrow’s program recording,” Zhang Song said, sitting in a chair.

Tang Jingran found a spot as far away from Gong Yingxiao as possible. Bai Wensheng sat next to him. Out of the corner of his eye, Tang Jingran saw Gong Yingxiao glance in his direction a couple of times.

“Next, let’s have everyone introduce themselves. We have a total of eight guests this time, and our variety show will be in a live broadcast format.” Zhang Song patted the people sitting to his left and right. “I presume everyone knows Teacher Gong’s reputation, so I won’t go into detail there.”

“Moving down, we have Xu Sheng and Tao Shuiyuan from Rose Entertainment, and Ying Chen from Fengsheng Entertainment.” As he spoke, he patted the table to his right. “Two from Hongfei Entertainment, Jing Xianmeng and Jiang Nannan—both are female teachers. The remaining two are Bai Wensheng from Panyu Entertainment and Teacher Tang Jingran from Star Universe Entertainment.”

Tang Jingran noticed that Tao Shuiyuan from Rose Entertainment was the same person who had looked at him with disdain that morning; when he heard Tang Jingran’s name, he gave a small snort.

Tang Jingran smiled. If you choose to crash into me yourself, don’t blame others.

“The eight of you will be divided into four groups tomorrow. The groupings are not fixed; you will form your own combinations during tomorrow’s live broadcast.”

“Our variety show this time mainly involves interacting with and caring for cats. There isn’t much else.”

“Alright.” Zhang Song clapped his hands. “I won’t disturb you all any longer.”

After Zhang Song finished, everyone clapped and dispersed.

When Tang Jingran left his seat to go upstairs, Tao Shuiyuan, beside him, deliberately tried to trip him. Unexpectedly, Tang Jingran was prepared and dodged to the side.

Tao Shuiyuan was stunned and instead tripped over his own feet, nearly falling. Fortunately, Xu Sheng, beside him, was quick and caught him.

“Be careful,” Tang Jingran raised an eyebrow, his beautiful eyes narrowing slightly as he looked down at him. “Teacher Tao.”

“Don’t delay tomorrow’s schedule.”

Turning his head, he saw Gong Yingxiao standing on the second floor, watching the whole scene with interest.

Recalling how this man had laughed at him before, Tang Jingran gave Gong Yingxiao the same kind of smile.

Watching Tang Jingran’s toothy, gnashing smile, Gong Yingxiao suddenly thought of the dragon-li cat he kept at home. The more he looked at him, the more he liked him—it really made his heart itch.