The Beautiful but Obscure Star Is Targeted by a Scheming Movie Star - Chapter 6

Bai Wensheng returned only to witness a bizarre scene.

Gong Yingxiao, who had arrived at some unknown point, was sitting boldly and imperiously between Tang Jingran and Ying Chen. Judging by the relaxed way he was drinking water, he seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood.

Beside him, his own partner Ying Chen had a look on his face that was… well… utterly despondent?

Only Tang Jingran looked natural when he saw him, greeting him casually.

“You were gone for so long. Is everything okay?”

Bai Wensheng smiled and shook his head. “I’m fine, there were just a lot of people, so I had to wait a bit.”

As he spoke, he walked over and greeted Gong Yingxiao. “Hello, Teacher.”

Gong Yingxiao set down his water cup and gave a slight, expressionless nod in response.

What the hell, Bai Wensheng thought.

He always felt like the Movie Star didn’t quite like him, but he didn’t think he’d done anything wrong.

Seeing that the bonfire party was about to start, Bai Wensheng made a suggestion.

“The party is about to begin, let’s head over now.”

The group had no objections and stood up to leave.

Ying Chen wanted to walk next to Tang Jingran, but Bai Wensheng was quick and pulled him to his side.

“Ying Chen, let’s walk together.”

Ying Chen looked at the image of the two people standing behind them; his lips thinned, but he said nothing and stayed beside Bai Wensheng.

Looking at Gong Yingxiao walking silently beside him, Tang Jingran felt a bit awkward. After all, the other man was a Movie Star; staying silent felt somewhat disrespectful.

Thus, Tang Jingran took the initiative to start a conversation.

But a second later, Tang Jingran wished he could beat his past self to death for asking that question.

“Isn’t Teacher Gong on a date?”

Gong Yingxiao turned his head to look at him. “Are you very concerned?”

Heh, what would I be concerned about? Tang Jingran complained inwardly, but he didn’t let it show on his face.

“You’re joking, Teacher Gong.”

“I just didn’t expect your date to be so short.”

Gong Yingxiao let out a soft laugh. “Mm, because there were other important matters.”

Tang Jingran keenly sensed the trap within those words, so he cautiously refrained from following up with more questions.

“Oh.”

Sure enough, as soon as Tang Jingran replied, he heard a muffled chuckle from the man beside him.

Tang Jingran: “…”

As the group arrived at the bonfire party, Ying Chen handed a sparkler to Tang Jingran.

“Jingran, want to go play together?”

The sparklers at the bonfire party weren’t real sparklers; for safety reasons, the ones being sold were electronic sparklers.

The lights of blue, purple, cyan, and rainbow hues intertwined beautifully, and Tang Jingran was instantly drawn in.

However, thinking of the person following beside him—after all, they had come out together, and no one would be happy being left out—Tang Jingran suppressed his desire to play. He turned and asked, “Teacher Gong, do you want to join us?”

Gong Yingxiao looked at the two of them standing together and then at the longing in Tang Jingran’s eyes. His lips moved, but in the end, he didn’t say much.

“No.”

Hearing his answer, the three of them—Tang Jingran and the others—took their sparklers and headed toward the bonfire.

Gong Yingxiao stood alone to the side, his gaze constantly trailing after Tang Jingran’s figure. Nearby, Ying Chen glanced toward him once before continuing to move closer to Tang Jingran. Gong Yingxiao’s expression remained calm.

However, the aura radiating from him made those nearby afraid to approach.

Gong Yingxiao felt a sense of irritability that he couldn’t alleviate, so he chose to leave.

This wasn’t the first time he had faced such a scene, yet the emotion was stronger than any time before.

The bonfire party officially began. Beside the fire, the crowd gathered in a circle and began to dance joyfully.

Tang Jingran’s natural playfulness was sparked, and he grew increasingly happy.

By chance, his eyes swept the area, and he noticed that Gong Yingxiao was gone. Tang Jingran froze. He wanted to keep playing here, but his logic pushed him toward the idea of looking for the man.

Some people enjoy the lively atmosphere while others prefer to stay in the quiet; these were the most common and ordinary of things.

But inexplicably, the expression Gong Yingxiao had when he said “No” flashed before Tang Jingran’s eyes.

Ying Chen noticed Tang Jingran’s distraction and asked with concern, “Jingran, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”

Tang Jingran shook his head. “I’m fine.”

After thinking it over, he added, “You guys play first, I’ll be back in a bit.”

Ignoring Ying Chen’s attempt to stop him, he headed toward the place where Gong Yingxiao had been sitting.

Ying Chen watched Tang Jingran’s departing back and frowned slightly.

Beside him, Bai Wensheng saw this and couldn’t help but speak up: “Do you like Jingran?”

Hearing the voice, Ying Chen turned his head to look at him.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Bai Wensheng said. “It’s not that I don’t have faith in you, it’s just that Jingran probably doesn’t have those kinds of feelings.”

“I don’t know what your intentions are. If you truly like him, I won’t say anything; that is your freedom after all. But if you’re just looking to play around, I advise you to give up sooner rather than later.”

When Tang Jingran found Gong Yingxiao, the man was sitting on an open-air second-floor terrace with his back to the bonfire party.

Tang Jingran, who had been full of determination just a moment ago, now felt strangely hesitant to approach that back.

Just as Tang Jingran was contemplating how to start a conversation, the owner of that silhouette spoke up first.

“Why aren’t you still playing?”

Tang Jingran gave a couple of “Haha” laughs, rubbed his hair, and pulled out a chair to sit beside Gong Yingxiao.

“It wasn’t that interesting, so I stopped. It’s a bit hot with so many people.”

Gong Yingxiao listened to his words and observed his expression without speaking.

It was clearly the face of someone who hadn’t played enough.

However, his mood became much better than it had been a moment ago.

At this point, Tang Jingran also realized his excuse was weak and began to overcompensate.

Tang Jingran spun the sparkler in his hand back and forth several times, psyching himself up before speaking to Gong Yingxiao.

“Teacher Gong, look up.”

Fortunately, Gong Yingxiao was cooperative. He looked up just in time to see the sparkler blooming before him.

And, behind the sparks, a pair of bright eyes.

“How is it? Is it pretty?” the owner of those eyes asked.

Gong Yingxiao stared at the sparkler for a long time without saying a word.

Seeing that the man just stared without speaking, Tang Jingran retracted the sparkler awkwardly. “Actually, it’s not really that pretty…”

Gong Yingxiao interrupted him, asking, “Who gave you the sparkler?”

“No one gave it to me,” Tang Jingran said bluntly. “I specifically went to the auntie’s shop to buy it when I came to find you…”

Before he could finish, Tang Jingran slammed the brakes on his words.

But clearly, Gong Yingxiao had already heard the keywords and the specific phrasing he was interested in. He crossed his legs and turned to look at Tang Jingran.

“Oh, you specifically looked for me?”

“No, you misheard,” Tang Jingran replied with a wooden face.

“I said, I ‘specifically’ bought this sparkler at that shop.”

“Mm.” Gong Yingxiao didn’t expose him and instead reached out his hand toward him.

Tang Jingran: “What are you doing?”

Gong Yingxiao gestured with his eyes. “Isn’t it for me?”

Gong Yingxiao looked at the sparkler in his hand and spoke: “Thank you. I like it very much.”

Seeing that Gong Yingxiao’s mood had stabilized, Tang Jingran breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s good that you like it.”

“The bonfire party is actually quite nice. You should participate next time.”

“Mm, the bonfire I saw today was also very beautiful.”

Tang Jingran had learned his lesson and remained silent.

This time, Gong Yingxiao was kind enough not to pursue the topic further.

Not far away, Tao Shuiyuan gritted his teeth as he watched the two people on the terrace with their backs to the bonfire. What was so good about this Tang Jingran that he was worth Gong Yingxiao giving him such special treatment time and time again?

He had someone look into Tang Jingran’s background; turns out he was just an orphan who grew up in an orphanage.

When he saw this background, he nearly died laughing. He had thought that since Tang Jingran’s temper was so stubborn, he must have a massive backing, but he was nothing more than an orphan.

What made him even angrier was that he was actually being outshined by someone like that.

He wasn’t going to let such a thing happen a second time.

Beside him, Xu Sheng saw that his expression was wrong and followed his gaze to see the two people on the opposite side.

For the sake of being in the same company, Xu Sheng reminded him: “Don’t do anything unnecessary.”

“None of your business,” Tao Shuiyuan said before turning to leave.

Tang Jingran had just finished his shower and hadn’t been lying in bed for long when he heard a knock at the door.

Opening it, he found it was Yan Jun.

“What is it, Uncle Yan?”

“I came to talk to you about some things. How was it? Did you have fun today?” As he spoke, he came in and sat on the sofa, placing the papers in his hand on the table.

“It was alright.” Tang Jingran brought over two bottles of water, handing one to Yan Jun. “The bonfire was quite pretty.”

“Good,” Yan Jun said. “Did anyone recognize you?”

Speaking of which, Tang Jingran was also a bit surprised. When he was coming back, there really were people who liked him and asked for a photo.

And it wasn’t just one person.

Tang Jingran nodded. “There actually were more than one.”

Yan Jun teased him, “How does it feel?”

“Excited, definitely. This is the first time I’ve been stopped on the street for a photo.” As he spoke, his face showed signs of turning red.

“Good, there will be many more opportunities like that in the future.” Yan Jun smiled and continued, “A few of us gathered tonight to review things. Because of Gong Yingxiao’s addition, the popularity of this variety show is quite good; it’s currently ranking first among similar shows.”

“When we were reviewing, we found that a lot of netizens are shipping couples. Some people support you and Gong Yingxiao. I came over specifically to talk to you about this.”

Tang Jingran had just taken a sip of water, and upon hearing this, he sprayed it right out.

Tang Jingran: “Cough, cough, cough!”

Yan Jun quickly handed him some tissues from the side while patting his back to help him breathe, joking, “No need to be so excited.”

Tang Jingran stared at him with wide eyes. “Cough, I—I’m not excited!”

“Alright, alright.” Yan Jun saw him recover and continued, “Regardless of whether you’re excited or not, when the broadcast starts again, remember to interact more with Gong Yingxiao.”

“Gong Yingxiao’s manager, Jiang Guo, will also discuss it with him, but Jiang Guo said that Gong Yingxiao will most likely not cooperate.”

“Every time, people want to form a ‘CP’ (Couple) with him, but he is always so cold that the effect is actually bad. They are working on it on his end. If you find he isn’t cooperating on the show, then you don’t need to do these things.”

Yan Jun looked at Tang Jingran, who was still catching his breath, and suddenly spoke: “Maybe you two really can get along.”

As a talent scout, Yan Jun’s eye for people was very accurate.

He could feel that Gong Yingxiao was currently interested in Tang Jingran, but the level of that interest hadn’t been revealed too much.

In short, if they got along and it gave his artist more fame, then he was a good person.

“Alright, I won’t disturb you anymore. Get some rest early; the broadcast continues tomorrow.”

[The Cat Cafe Variety Show is broadcasting!]