I really didn't intend to make a living based on my looks.

Chapter 105 Pretending to be a Boyfriend

She spoke with such sincerity, like any true fan meeting their idol.

"I've been a fan of yours since 'Palace'! Your portrayal of the Fourteenth Prince was amazing! Then I watched 'Swords of Legends' as Baili Tusu three times! I bought fifty copies of your album! I even snagged concert tickets!"

"By the way, Brother Chen, that anti-fan Bailu is awful! I argue with her online every day. If she insults you, I insult her back; if she posts negative content, I report it; if she organizes people to leave bad reviews, I organize people to leave good reviews!"

"I feel that's what I should do!"

Jiang Chen:

'

This guy's watched too much Infernal Affairs, hasn't he?

He picked up the basic information Li Yitong had given him and looked at it for a while.

"Orange Number Two, her real name is Bai Mengyan?"

"right!"

"Egret————"

Bai Mengyan's heart skipped a beat, but her smile remained unchanged: "Brother Chen, what did you say?"

"It's nothing," Jiang Chen shook his head. "I'm just saying, Bai Lu's haters are really despicable."

"Right!"

Bai Mengyan was filled with righteous indignation, "Brother Chen, don't worry, with me here, she won't dare to come out again!"

"Hmm," Jiang Chen nodded, "By the way, what did that Bailu guy say about me online?"

Bai Mengyan was taken aback.

"what?"

"I'd like to hear it," Jiang Chen said. "Knowing yourself and your enemy is the key to improvement. You've been fighting with her for so long, you should remember it very clearly, right?"

Bai Mengyan opened her mouth.

Of course she remembers it clearly.

She typed all those words out word by word, late at night, hiding under the covers in her dorm room. It must have been so hard.

"She—she said that Brother Chen, you—you got to where you are by relying on Yang Mi. She said that when you were filming 'Palace,' you deliberately clung to her and tried to ride her coattails. You're just a gigolo!"

"They even said your album sales were all inflated by brainless fans spending money, and that 'The Wind Rises' has a corny and unoriginal melody, empty and meaningless lyrics, and is just trash among pop songs, completely lacking in talent!"

"Saying that your kind of popular celebrity is just a flash in the pan, a mere bubble, and that you'll be completely forgotten within eighteen months, unable to even get minor gigs, is utterly ridiculous!"

She spoke more and more fluently, and faster and faster.

"They even said your concerts are just a way to make money off your fans. You can't possibly hold a 10,000-seat stadium; the audience will be mostly empty seats. It'll just be a waste of money and create an embarrassing situation!"

"I'm saying you'll always encounter traffic jams when you go out, your internet connection will always drop, you'll always get caught by a dog while stealing vegetables online, and you'll always get a parking ticket if you try to steal a parking space—"

"You'll never collect rare cards by eating instant noodles, but scratch cards always just say 'thank you for your patronage' —"

"In Dou Dizhu (a popular Chinese card game), if you play 3456 without a 7, you'll always get bombed in Bubble Fighter —"

"Even Yuanfang would shake his head at you, Du Fu would stay up all night for you, and even believing in Brother Chun can't save you from your obscurity. All that talk of instant fame is just a pipe dream!"

"Oh, and I also said that when you walk in shoes, your socks always slip down to the bottom—"

She was talking until her mouth was dry when she suddenly noticed that Jiang Chen's face had darkened.

"Chen—Brother Chen?" Bai Mengyan's voice trailed off.

Jiang Chen stared at her, a half-smile on his face.

"Your memory is excellent."

"ah?"

"You managed to criticize me so much without even reading the script?"

Bai Mengyan stood frozen in place, her mind buzzing.

It's over, it's over, it's over!

He was so engrossed!

She opened her mouth, then stammered.

"I—I remember it clearly because—because I fought her for so long! As a great man once said, in tactics we must take all enemies seriously!"

"Yes! We must remember the enemy's words so that—so that we can fight back!"

"Yeah?"

"yes!"

"You also participated in the auditions for SM Entertainment in South Korea?"

Bai Mengyan was taken aback, then quickly nodded, "Yes! I participated!"

"So you like Lu Han?"

"Lu—Lu Han?" She seemed to be trying hard to remember. "Ah, that—I'm not very familiar with her. At the time, I just—I just liked dancing and wanted to give it a try, I didn't have any other thoughts."

She mentally praised herself wildly.

Look, look!

That's what makes a qualified undercover agent!

How perfect is the excuse?

I love dancing! I pursue art! It has absolutely nothing to do with idol worship!

Jiang Chen said "Oh" and nodded.

"You love dancing that much?"

"Yes! I absolutely love it!"

"That's perfect," Jiang Chen closed the documents and looked at Li Yitong. "Tongtong, my concert's backup dancer team is still short one person. Let Mengyan fill in."

Bai Mengyan: "??????"

"Me? A backup dancer???"

"Don't you love dancing? You've even participated in SM auditions, so your skills must be pretty good. Every song in my concert has its own independent choreography, done by a Korean team. We just happen to need a backup dancer who can speak Korean and communicate with the choreographer."

"By the way, to be my assistant, you'll need to start at the front desk, then rotate through different positions to familiarize yourself with the operation of each part of the studio."

"6

"But that will be quite tiring, working as a receptionist during the day and rehearsing at night. Can you handle it?"

"I can handle it!" she forced a smile. "It's my honor to dance with Brother Chen!"

"Okay," Jiang Chen stood up, patted her on the shoulder, "Then it's settled. Yitong, take her to the front desk to familiarize herself with the place. She'll report to the rehearsal room at six o'clock tonight."

"Okay!"

Li Yitong pulled Bai Mengyan outside, muttering, "Mengyan, you're so lucky! You're a backup dancer at Brother Chen's concert. So many people want to be there but don't even have the chance!"

Bai Mengyan was being dragged along, feeling somewhat dazed.

She turned and glanced at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen was looking at her kindly, a smile on his lips.

But that smile—

Why does it look so gloomy?

Not long after, Li Yitong returned.

She stood at the office door, looking as if she wanted to say something but hesitated.

"Um—boss."

Jiang Chen looked up: "What's wrong?"

Li Yitong bit her lip, as if gathering her courage: "I feel—the pressure of filming is too much. Maybe—I should go back and open a teahouse?"

"teahouse?"

"Yes!" Li Yitong's eyes lit up. "You remember that business plan I did before? Dancing while drinking tea? I thought that direction was pretty good. Maybe I'm more suited to business—"

Jiang Chen: "Tongtong, I have a question for you."

"What's the problem?"

"If your friend comes to your teahouse for tea, doesn't have any money, and borrows 200 yuan from you to pay the bill, and then transfers 200 yuan back to you after she gets home, do you think that's reasonable?"

Li Yitong was stunned.

She thought about it for a long time in her office, but something still felt off.

The crew of the TV series "Women in the Cubicle" in Shanghai.

Tang Yan sat in the dressing room. In the mirror, she had a neat short haircut that was cut very thin against her scalp, revealing her slender neck.

To better embody the role of Tan Bin as a working woman, she cut off her long hair, which she had kept for nearly twenty years.

The stylist was tidying up the scissors, muttering, "Tangtang, this hairstyle really suits you. It makes you look elegant and capable, and much more energetic than long hair."

Tang Yan twitched the corner of her mouth but didn't say anything.

spirit?

-

All she wants to do right now is lie down.

There were other actors in the dressing room. Mo Xiaoqi was memorizing her lines, Li Chengxuan was practicing his Chinese pronunciation on his phone, and Wu Zhuoxi was playing games in the corner, occasionally letting out a Cantonese swear word.

The atmosphere on set wasn't dull, but Tang Yan just couldn't fit in.

She sat in the chair, her eyes unfocused, staring at herself in the mirror as if she were a stranger.

The stylist had to call her three times to touch up her makeup before she snapped out of her daze.

"Tangtang, what's wrong with you today?"

"It's nothing," she shook her head, "I'm just a little tired."

At 7 PM, we finished work and returned to the hotel.

She removed her makeup, changed into her pajamas, lay on the bed, and stared blankly at the ceiling.

She's been in this state for several days now.

Around 8 PM, the phone finally lit up.

The name on the screen wasn't the one she wanted to see.

"Honey! Are you alright?"

Tang Yan opened her mouth, but tears fell first.

"Husband—I'm not good enough."

"Hey, hey, hey, don't cry!" Yang Mi cried anxiously on the other end of the line. "What can I say to you? Is it worth it for a man?"

Tang Yan sniffed but didn't say anything.

In 2010, filming began for "Summer's Desire," and Qiu Ze pursued her.

At that time, she had just made her name with her role as Zi Xuan in "Chinese Paladin 3". She was as sweet as the girl next door, so how could she resist this?

Later, their relationship blossomed on the set of "Love Wakes Up," and the two naturally got together.

However, the relationship remained a secret throughout, and Chiu Ze never admitted it to the public. When asked by reporters, he would say, "We are good friends," and when asked by fans, he would say, "I am focused on my career."

A few days ago, on January 3rd, my partner cheated on me.

Qiu Ze was caught having a secret rendezvous with Li Yufen late at night; intimate photos taken inside the car were exposed, and they returned to the same apartment together, confirming the affair.

Tangtang is heartbroken.

"Tangtang, listen to me. Qiu Ze is clearly no good. Look at his eyes, those flirtatious eyes, always wandering around, never looking at you. Let me tell you, the first thing to look at when choosing a man is his eyes; someone with wandering eyes is definitely fickle. The second thing is his mouth; people with sweet words are usually unreliable. He's both fickle and sweet, you should have run away from the start!"

"I heard he even puts your picture on his race cars?"

"This kind of person is a classic case of 'riding a donkey while looking for a horse,' using your picture to pretend to be deeply in love, while out with other women pretending to be single. They don't want to waste time on either, and they deny being with either. Tell me, why keep someone like that around?"

"We women should prioritize our careers."

"And look at his style of dress, always so flashy, with his collar turned up so high it looks like it's sticking out of the sky. Who dresses like that?"

"Waaah, please stop talking—"

"Okay, okay, let's not talk about that. Tangtang, my man is having a concert on January 18th, and I want to go on stage too. Will you come with me as a guest?"

Tang Yan was taken aback: "Your man? Jiang Chen?"

"yes."

"Was it him who called me, or you?"

"Me!" Yang Mi said matter-of-factly, "She's my own best friend, of course I'll treat her myself."

"But that was his concert."

"My man is mine, and his concert is my concert," Yang Mi said, her tone laced with undisguised pride. "Wherever he goes, I'll follow, right? Besides, you're my best friend. If I bring you on stage, would he dare say no?"

"Honey, I'll definitely say yes if you ask. But be careful."

"Be careful of what?"

"Men are all the same."

"Tangtang, we can't condemn all men because of one jerk."

"Is your Jiang Chen really such a good person?"

"My Ah Chen is different. He dares to acknowledge me, dares to go public, and dares to let me visit him on set. It's just that that old woman Zeng Jia here doesn't agree. Your man, he doesn't even dare to go public, what kind of good person could he be?"

Tang Yan: "————"

"And did he make me clean the toilet? No. It's more like he made me clean the toilet."

Tang Yan:

'

"Also, I'm telling you, don't tell anyone, last time we did it seven times in one night—"

Tang Yan suddenly cried even harder.

Three kilometers north of the Tangren Polo Field, there is an area surrounded by poplar trees. There is no sign at the entrance, only two security guards in black uniforms and a speed bump.

As you drive in, you have to pass through a straight ginkgo avenue. In winter, all the leaves have fallen, and the bare branches point straight at the sky.

It houses Beijing's top equestrian club.

Northern Hemisphere Horse Racing Hub.

Membership fees start at 600,000 yuan per year. The stables house warmblood horses imported from Germany and Ireland, and the value of one horse is enough to buy a one-bedroom apartment outside the Fifth Ring Road.

Those who come here are all wealthy and influential, including celebrities, entrepreneurs, and a few others whose names I would like to mention.

Liu Shishi stood beside the stable, dressed in riding attire: a black fitted coat, white riding breeches, and knee-high boots.

Her hair was tied in a high ponytail, revealing her slender neck.

Beside her was a brown warmblood horse, which was nuzzling her hand, its breath spreading in the cold air.

"Shishi,"

A voice came from behind me.

Liu Shishi turned around.

Wu Qilong walked over, wearing a dark gray cashmere coat, a plaid scarf, and carrying a riding crop.

He is 17 years older than Liu Shishi, but he is well-maintained. He has fine lines around his eyes when he smiles, but he doesn't look old. Instead, he has the composure of a mature man.

"You've got time to come out today?" He stopped beside her. "Haven't you been busy lately? Did you wrap up filming for 'Pocahontas'?"

"Not yet," Liu Shishi said. "I took a day off to get some fresh air."

"It's good to get some fresh air," Wu Qilong said. "Don't be too tense. That resort I mentioned last time, it's in Huairou, the snow scenery is nice, how about we go this weekend?"

"Brother Long," Liu Shishi turned her face to look at the horses in the stable, "I've already said that before."

"What?"

"We are not a good match."

Wu Qilong's smile froze for a moment, but quickly returned to normal.

"Shishi," he softened his tone, "I know you're in the prime of your career and don't want to be distracted. I can wait, until you're ready to talk—"

"It's not a matter of waiting," Liu Shishi interrupted him, "it's that I—have a boyfriend."

Wu Qilong was stunned.

"Boy friend?"

"right."

"Who?"

Before Liu Shishi could answer, the sound of horses' hooves came from afar.

They both turned their heads at the same time.

A white Arabian horse trotted over from the other end of the paddock, its hooves making a dull thud on the sand.

A person immediately sat down.

Black riding attire, white riding breeches, black boots, the heels tapping against the stirrups, the rhythm steady and powerful.

He wore black gloves, held the reins, and swayed slightly with the horse's movements, his posture composed.

Sunlight shone on his face, revealing his sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, exuding an air of nobility.

It's like Prince Charming has come to life!

Jiang Chen pulled on the reins, and the white horse stopped in front of Liu Shishi and Wu Qilong, snorting.