The Beautiful but Obscure Star Is Targeted by a Scheming Movie Star - Chapter 5

Ah!

Ahhh!

Ahhhhhhh!

I’m going to die, I’m going to die, I’m going to die!!!

What is the most awkward way to die in this world?

It’s when you are composing a message to someone, and the other person can see how long you’ve been typing in the chat box, and as you try to exit, you accidentally “nudge” them. Before you can even recall the nudge, you are caught red-handed by the person in question—and then they proactively send you a greeting.

Tang Jingran tossed his phone onto the bed, intending to pretend he knew nothing, but the person on the other end clearly didn’t understand the concept of awkwardness and kept sending messages.

Gong Yingxiao:?

Gong Yingxiao: Why aren’t you saying anything?

Resigning himself to his fate, Tang Jingran fished the phone back up from the bed, acting as if nothing had happened.

Tang Jingran: Thank you very much for helping me clean my wound just now.

Looking at the message that had been sent over, Gong Yingxiao couldn’t help but let out a laugh.

He even used the formal “you”; he must be shy.

Gong Yingxiao: It was nothing.

Gong Yingxiao: I really wanted to invite you to the bonfire party tonight.

Gong Yingxiao: But unfortunately, I have an appointment.

Gong Yingxiao: I’ll definitely invite you next time.

Little Money Grubber: I wish you a pleasant date.

In the evening, Bai Wensheng came to find Tang Jingran, and Ying Chen was standing beside him.

“Hello, I am Ying Chen,” Ying Chen spoke first as the door opened.

“Teacher Ying Chen is coming with us too,” Bai Wensheng said with a smile. “I mentioned it to you on WeChat.”

Tang Jingran had no objections; after all, the more people there were to watch a bonfire, the better. He reached out his hand: “Hello, I am Tang Jingran.”

Ying Chen smiled: “That’s a very nice name.”

The group walked toward the bonfire party.

The scenery in L City was quite good, as it had always been a tourist destination. Since they were attending a bonfire party, the three of them were dressed quite lightly. Ying Chen and Bai Wensheng bought grilled skewers at a roadside stall, hurrying to eat a few bites while their managers weren’t around.

Tang Jingran was still eating ice cream, though it wasn’t mint-flavored this time; he was eating yogurt flavor.

“Teacher Tang, can I call you that?” Ying Chen asked as he walked beside him.

“There’s no need to call me ‘Teacher,'” Tang Jingran said. “Just call me by my name.”

“Alright.” Ying Chen looked at Tang Jingran’s exquisite, fair face and smiled. “Jingran.”

Tang Jingran nodded: “Mm.”

Watching Tang Jingran’s indifferent expression, Ying Chen spoke up: “Jingran’s personality really matches his looks; a bit cold.”

“Is that so? I think I’m okay,” Bai Wensheng cut in. “After all, everyone isn’t that familiar yet. It’s only natural not to talk much.”

“I was too impatient.”

With that small interlude over, the three continued toward the bonfire party.

Once they arrived, Bai Wensheng went to the restroom. Ying Chen and Tang Jingran sat on chairs, watching the surrounding crowds of tourists.

“Is Jingran interested in bonfire parties?” Ying Chen asked with a smile.

“They’re alright.” Tang Jingran wasn’t intentionally acting cold; it was just that this person named Ying Chen always gave him the impression of deliberately approaching him to fish for information.

The feeling was different from the one he got from Gong Yingxiao.

Thus, Tang Jingran decided to ask directly.

“Let’s not beat around the bush. You have something to say to me, don’t you?”

Ying Chen was stunned for a moment before slowly speaking: “Well, it’s nothing special.”

He looked into Tang Jingran’s dark eyes again. “I just wanted to ask what your relationship is with Mr. Gong.”

In his mind, Tang Jingran began clapping and setting off firecrackers for himself.

Fine, here’s another one who likes Gong Yingxiao.

Although the man was indeed very handsome, it couldn’t be that every person he met liked him, right?

“Passersby.”

“Huh?” This time, it was Ying Chen who couldn’t react in time.

“Just a passerby relationship.” Tang Jingran took a sip of water. Feeling that saying it this way might hurt Gong Yingxiao’s handsome reputation, he decided to give him a “good person” card. “But that doesn’t stop him from being warm-hearted; he just likes helping people.”

“As expected of a Film Emperor.”

Ying Chen: “…”

He certainly hadn’t seen any sign of “warm-heartedness” on that cold face of Gong Yingxiao.

“…Mm, Jingran really knows how to joke.”

“How is this a joke?” Tang Jingran looked at Ying Chen with a face of disapproval. “This is a compliment.”

Ying Chen: “…”

Fine, as long as it was confirmed that there was nothing between the two of them, it didn’t matter if the Film Emperor was so warm he melted the sun.

Ying Chen smiled and said, “I take back what I said earlier.”

Tang Jingran: “What words?”

“I misunderstood Jingran. You are indeed not cold.”

On the contrary, he was quite interesting.

Tang Jingran watched as the man’s eyes clearly changed after hearing about his relationship with Gong Yingxiao.

Regardless, as long as he himself was comfortable, it was fine.

“Oh.”

“When do you plan on going home?” Gong Lingya tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, her red lips parting slightly. “You’ve done well for yourself, running off to enjoy your leisure while leaving Mom and me at home to face Dad.”

“It’s not ‘leisure,'” Gong Yingxiao corrected his sister. “I’m out here for work.”

“Stop, stop, stop! Cut it out!” Gong Lingya waved her hand to interrupt her brother’s nonsense. “Don’t give me that. With your current status, who would dare make you work?”

“Hurry back and meet the partners Dad introduced to you. Dad has lowered his standards very far now. He said if you can just bring back a living creature, he’ll thank the ancestors for their blessings.”

Logically speaking, with his brother’s conditions, finding a partner shouldn’t be a problem, right?

He had the looks, the body, and the family background—he was practically a walking pile of cash. More importantly, he had never even been in a relationship!

With such great conditions, he hadn’t brought anyone home in all these years. In the beginning, their father introduced them to girls. Seeing how cold he was, their father did some mental prep and started looking for guys, but his son remained lukewarm.

It made the old man so angry that he wanted to kick him, but instead, he accidentally slipped and is currently recovering in the hospital.

Part of the reason Gong Yingxiao participated in this variety show was to escape the blind dates arranged by his family, but he did genuinely like the show’s concept. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have joined.

More importantly, it wasn’t as boring here as he had imagined.

“Dad is faking it again, right?” Gong Yingxiao would have believed it before, but after seeing his father jumping around in the hospital as if he wanted to climb a tree during previous visits, he no longer fell for it.

Furthermore, his father was accompanied by different blind date candidates every time.

Gong Lingya took a sip of water, pretending to know nothing. “I wouldn’t know about that. Seriously, though, what kind of person do you actually like?”

Hearing Gong Lingya’s words, the image of Tang Jingran smiling at him unexpectedly flashed through Gong Yingxiao’s mind.

“It depends on the connection—someone who fits.”

“Tsk, high maintenance.”

Gong Yingxiao: “…”

Gong Yingxiao looked ahead and saw a familiar figure, as well as the person leaning close beside him.

“I’m telling you, Dad has given you an ultimatum to go home this week…” Before Gong Lingya could finish, she was interrupted by Gong Yingxiao standing up. By the time she looked up again, he had already disappeared.

Gong Lingya: “…”

Wait, where did he go?

“Jingran, why did you want to enter the entertainment industry?”

“To make money,” Tang Jingran said succinctly.

Ying Chen let out a low laugh. “Honest.”

“What, you don’t want to make money?”

“I do, but not that much. My family asked me what I wanted to do, and after thinking about it, I chose to enter the entertainment industry.”

Tang Jingran clearly had a different focus than others. He asked, “You’re this rich, and you still entered the entertainment industry?”

“There is a lot of money.”

Tang Jingran’s dark eyes lit up.

“However, it’s just not as much as Mr. Gong has.”

The light in Tang Jingran’s eyes died out. Remembering that he was even poorer than this guy, he bit back his words of comfort. “Then keep working hard; surpass him soon.”

Seeing that the two of them were chatting well, Ying Chen took out his phone and leaned in to add Tang Jingran on WeChat. “Jingran, let’s—”

“Move over.” Gong Yingxiao stood tall, looking down with lowered eyes at Ying Chen, who was trying to get close to Tang Jingran.

Ying Chen froze for a moment and instinctively moved aside.

Tang Jingran turned around, surprised. “Why are you here?”

With a cold face, Gong Yingxiao sat down between the two of them.

“What?”

“Am I interrupting you?”

What was there to interrupt?

Tang Jingran looked at Gong Yingxiao’s cold face in confusion.

“No.”

“Mm.”

Gong Yingxiao responded without any expression, sitting coldly between the two.

The scene was truly a bit bizarre. The lively atmosphere nearby stood in stark contrast to the three of them, where it was cold enough to act as a refrigerator.

The slow-witted Tang Jingran finally realized belatedly—this man seemed… unhappy?

Tang Jingran turned his head to observe his expression closely. The warm colors of the distant bonfire hit the high bridge of his nose, casting a small shadow to the side.

However, Tang Jingran was captivated by his thick eyelashes, his gaze following them as they fluttered up and down.

This man was indeed handsome, even with a cold expression.

‘I was joking about you building a relationship with him. Someone like him has seen everything; those who approach him with ulterior motives never end well.’

Tang Jingran recalled the words Yan Jun had said to him.

To be honest, he didn’t want to look for connections or cling to anyone’s coat-tails. Since he was a child, his “Director Mom” had told him that he could only rely on himself, and he had indeed practiced this principle over the years.

But the problem now was that this man was proactively approaching him. Even though Tang Jingran had clearly shown his rejection, the other party continued to stay close.

Since he was approaching proactively, Tang Jingran wouldn’t be pretentious about it. He had nothing right now anyway; one more friend meant one more connection—and this was a very significant connection at that.

He wanted to see what exactly the Film Emperor was up to.

Gong Yingxiao was looking absentmindedly at the distant bonfire when half of a fair face suddenly stopped in front of him.

It was Tang Jingran.

Gong Yingxiao’s pupils contracted slightly.

The distance between the two was so close that Gong Yingxiao could see the fine fuzz on Tang Jingran’s face. His gaze swept down and noticed a tiny black mole near his chin.

Gong Yingxiao’s eyes narrowed.

Tang Jingran naturally noticed Gong Yingxiao’s observation, but he didn’t plan on saying anything. After pouring some water, he sat back naturally and handed the cup to Gong Yingxiao.

“Teacher Gong, please have some water.”

Gong Yingxiao looked at Tang Jingran’s slightly curved eyes, then at the wrist that was handing him the cup. That bit of inexplicable unpleasantness in his heart vanished with the wind.

In a good mood, Gong Yingxiao took the cup.

“Mm.”

Ying Chen: “…”

Ying Chen: “?”