Chapter 113: Tricked Into Losing My Innocence
“Brother, don’t worry.”
“N-no, no need to send me money!”
“How could Xinglin Media possibly fail to recruit artists? There’s a line of people waiting for me to choose from, hahaha!”
After finally hanging up a call full of concern from his older brother, Gu Lin let out a deep breath.
His assistant beside him looked worried. “Boss, why are you forcing yourself? Xinglin Media has just started up. This is the hardest stage. Why don’t we ask President Gu for some resources first? Once we have a signature artist—”
Before he could finish, his boss pushed his head aside.
Assistant: “?”
“Move!”
Gu Lin’s gaze went past him and landed on the young man behind the bar, who was wiping a glass.
The young man was tall and slim, with exceptionally fine facial features and a striking bone structure. It was no exaggeration to say he could instantly outshine a whole crowd of pretty-boy idols. There was an indescribable nobility in every move he made. Even while working, his gestures were graceful enough to make people want to keep watching.
He had his head lowered, and there was still a smile at the corner of his lips. Though the smile looked a bit fake, more like something he had forced out.
But that wasn’t a big issue. A little training later on would fix it.
The key point was—how many ordinary people would subconsciously practice expression management on their own?
Rare!
Too rare!
By the time the assistant came back to his senses, his boss had already transformed into a talent scout and run over to hand the guy his business card.
Gu Lin plopped down in front of the bar and tapped the counter, his fingertip pinning down a business card. “Handsome, interested in becoming an artist?”
The young man paused mid-wipe and looked up.
The instant he saw Gu Lin’s face, his pupils widened slightly, and the fake smile vanished from his lips.
“Are you an artist too?” the young man asked.
Gu Lin touched his face. “Do I look like one? I’m not.”
“Then I refuse.”
Without a second thought, the young man lowered his head and continued wiping the glass.
Gu Lin couldn’t understand. “Why?”
Things had been going fine just a second ago.
The young man said, “Because your company is blind.”
Gu Lin froze.
What did that mean?
Was that a roundabout way of praising his looks?
“I’m not an artist.”
Gu Lin leaned in and lowered his voice, his tone slightly playful. “But I am the boss.”
The young man lifted his gaze to look at him.
Propping up his cheek with one hand, Gu Lin asked, “So? Interested now?”
A moment later, Gu Lin walked back over wearing a bright smile.
Seeing his boss looking so pleased with himself, the assistant quickly went up to him. “Did you close the deal? Boss, doesn’t this count as selling your looks to recruit someone?”
Gu Lin’s smile vanished. He tossed a slip of paper into the assistant’s hands.
The assistant looked baffled. “What’s this?”
“The order he wrote for you.”
Gu Lin smiled faintly. “I sold my looks. You’re responsible for drinking all of it.”
“…”
Staring at the long list of coffee names, the assistant strongly suspected his boss had bought every single item in the café.
He had seen people order rounds of drinks before, but never a whole coffee menu!
The assistant couldn’t help glancing at the company’s future “star.”
He vaguely came to a conclusion—
This little vixen is definitely not ordinary.
A few days later, Gu Lin brought the newly recruited “little vixen” to tour the company. “Well? Not bad, right?”
After a moment’s thought, the young man said, “There doesn’t seem to be many people here.”
“And there’s not much information online about this company name.”
“Did it just open?”
Three questions. Every single one hit where it hurt.
In order to reassure his “little vixen,” Gu Lin immediately started painting a big rosy picture. “It may look like we don’t have many artists now, but our company has a strong background and extraordinary strength. In a few years, we’ll become one of the industry leaders.”
He painted the dream bigger and bigger. “This is an opportunity for you. Join early, and later you’ll count as one of the old staff. You’ll even get dividends from company shares.”
The young man said evenly, “Sounds good.”
“Of course it does!”
Gu Lin had already prepared the contract and pushed it in front of him. “As long as you sign your name here, I’ll use the full power of the company to promote you.”
The young man lowered his lashes. “If I become famous, will it make it easier to find my younger brother?”
Gu Lin had already seen the young man’s personal information form.
His younger brother was missing. His father was unconscious in the hospital. His mother had no job. Only his older brother was earning money to support the family.
So while most people were still busy going to university at twenty, this young man was already working in a café.
How pitiful…
“Don’t worry.”
Gu Lin took the young man’s hand. “Once you’re famous, it’ll be much easier to find your brother.”
The young man stared for a while at Gu Lin’s hand holding his. After Gu Lin withdrew it, he lowered his eyes and silently signed his name on the contract.
“Yu Yang…”
Gu Lin read it out loud, then considered it. “That sounds nice. No need to change it for a stage name.”
Yu Yang had no opinion. His eyes stayed on Gu Lin’s face.
The young man’s gaze was hot and direct.
Gu Lin felt a little embarrassed under it. He coughed lightly and put on the expression of a capitalist. “Well… since you’ve signed the contract, let’s not waste time.”
“I’ll arrange for you to join a crew and start learning. You’ll begin with small roles. Work hard, and I won’t treat you unfairly.”
He truly meant it.
Once Yu Yang signed his contract, he belonged to him.
From now on, they were in this together. As long as Gu Lin had a bite to eat, Yu Yang would not go hungry.
Yet Yu Yang shook his head. “That’s not important.”
Gu Lin blinked. “Then what do you want?”
The young man had a pair of captivating peach-blossom eyes, but right now he looked at Gu Lin with the helpless expectancy of a little deer. “Will you come see me?”
Gu Lin stared blankly. “Huh?”
What kind of strange request was that?
Yu Yang lowered his eyes and said slowly, “I wasn’t trained professionally. I have no acting experience, and no background or connections. Once I join a crew, if even my boss doesn’t come look after me, I’ll definitely get pushed around.”
Ah, so that was what he was worried about.
Gu Lin nodded. “Fine. Don’t worry, I’ll come see you.”
At the time, he agreed very quickly.
By the time he remembered it again, three months had already passed.
And it wasn’t even because Gu Lin had remembered on his own.
Xinglin Media had only just gotten started, and he had too many things to do. He was busy spinning in circles every day.
Then one day, he suddenly received a call from the director.
That director happened to be a friend of his sister-in-law in the industry. Because of that connection, Gu Lin had managed to place Yu Yang in the director’s crew so he could learn.
Only after receiving that call did Gu Lin finally remember that he had basically exiled Yu Yang to a set.
“Ah Lin, let’s talk about that boy you sent me!”
The moment the director opened his mouth, Gu Lin instinctively panicked. “What happened?”
Had the young man caused trouble on set?
“He’s too talented!”
The director sounded overjoyed, like he had dug up treasure. “Can I let him play the second male lead in my new drama?”
Gu Lin looked completely lost. “Huh??”
Since the director was older and also not an outsider, he went straight to scolding him. “Honestly, why don’t you come show some concern for your own artist? Nobody even visits him on set.”
The more Gu Lin listened, the more guilty he felt. He answered weakly, “…Okay.”
First he had painted a big dream for the guy, then tossed him away beyond the clouds.
Gu Lin knew that wasn’t right.
So when he went to visit Yu Yang on set, he specially bought afternoon tea for the whole crew and deliberately waved Xinglin Media’s banner around, just to make sure everyone knew Yu Yang was the young artist Xinglin intended to support heavily.
That counted as giving him plenty of face.
When Gu Lin arrived, Yu Yang was in the middle of filming.
Watching the young man’s performance from afar, it was indeed striking. His appearance went without saying, but his emotions were also full and perfectly in place. Especially… there was a certain madness to him.
Anyone who made art needed that kind of madness.
What did it matter if Yu Yang wasn’t professionally trained?
That mad edge alone showed he had the kind of talent heaven itself favored.
His future was limitless.
The longer Gu Lin watched, the more he felt his own eye for talent was excellent. Out of a sea of people, he had managed to pick out such a precious piece of jade.
After the scene finished, Gu Lin personally went over to praise him, reaching out to pat his shoulder. “Very good. You’ve got a future!”
But the other man dodged his hand.
Without saying a word, the young man glanced at him, turned sideways, and walked off.
He didn’t even touch the afternoon tea Gu Lin had brought.
Gu Lin looked at his own hand that had patted empty air, and instantly got annoyed. “What, he’s sulking at me now?”
Second Young Master Gu had never had a particularly good temper. He had taken the initiative to praise someone and then got ignored—who wouldn’t be angry?
Just as Gu Lin was about to leave in a huff, his assistant hurriedly pulled him back. “Boss, go coax him a little. He might end up being the pillar of our company.”
Gu Lin gave a cold snort. “Spoiling him, that’s what this is!”
“Well, you haven’t been to see him in so long. He’s young and doesn’t know better. Feeling wronged, he’s throwing a little fit. Why lower yourself to his level?”
“Doesn’t that just prove he cares about you?”
The assistant coaxed and persuaded him.
Only then did Gu Lin feel a bit better. Stiffly, he went to coax the young man.
He didn’t know where Yu Yang had run off to.
After asking around, Gu Lin walked toward the dressing room. When he saw the door half-open, he didn’t think much and pushed it open.
Only to find Yu Yang changing inside.
His upper shirt had only been half removed, revealing a pale yet powerfully muscled back.
Gu Lin had never seen such a good-looking back before. It was clearly built through years of exercise. He hadn’t expected that his young artist, who looked so thin, would actually have quite a body under his clothes.
“Out.”
Yu Yang barked in a low voice.
Gu Lin jumped in surprise and instinctively stepped back, shutting the door.
Then he suddenly felt something was off.
“No, wait…”
Why should he be the one getting yelled at?
The more Gu Lin thought about it, the more unreasonable it seemed. So he twisted the doorknob and walked back in, saying righteously, “We’re both men. What’s the big deal about looking? If you really want to get technical, you’re one of my people too!”
“…”
Yu Yang’s eyes darkened. The moment Gu Lin came in, he shoved his arm into his sleeve.
But Gu Lin’s eyes were sharp.
He rushed over and rolled up Yu Yang’s sleeve. “What’s this?”
On the young man’s wrist was a patch of old burn scar. Smooth skin became rough and mottled there.
The reason Gu Lin reacted so strongly was because Yu Yang was one of his company’s artists—equivalent to his own merchandise.
And when the company’s most important signature product showed up damaged, how could he not panic?
But the young man’s reaction changed Gu Lin’s panic into worry.
“Don’t touch me!”
Yu Yang suddenly yanked his hand back, his eyes completely red.
After shouting, he turned around and began frantically rummaging through the makeup table drawers. After a while, he found a white pill bottle, shook out two pills with trembling hands, and swallowed them dry without even drinking water.
Gu Lin was badly frightened by the sight. “You… what’s going on?”
Yu Yang took several deep breaths. After gradually calming down, he said, “It’s a childhood injury. My younger brother went missing in that fire. Later I developed an emotional disorder. The medicine keeps it under control.”
“Sorry. I hid my illness.”
“If you want to terminate the contract and make me pay compensation, that’s fine.”
Gu Lin clicked his tongue. “Can you even afford that?”
Yu Yang said nothing.
Gu Lin stepped forward and patted his young artist on the shoulder. “It’s not that serious. But don’t put too much pressure on yourself.”
Second Young Master Gu was bad at comforting people. That was about as soft as he could get.
He hoped the young man would feel a little better.
What he hadn’t expected was for the other man to suddenly hug him.
Gu Lin felt it was a bit strange for two grown men to be hugging like this in a room.
Damn it, Yu Yang might be younger, but he was still half a head taller than him, and his shoulders were broader too!
With the two of them hugging like this,
it made Gu Lin look especially small and birdlike.
Out of sympathy, Gu Lin temporarily ignored how odd it felt and reached up to pat his back. “Don’t worry. One day, you’ll definitely find your brother.”
Yu Yang rested his chin on his shoulder. “You really think so?”
“Of course.”
Gu Lin didn’t say that insincerely.
He truly hoped Yu Yang would find his brother. More importantly, people needed hope to keep living.
“Why are you so sure?”
Yu Yang sounded sad. “Even my own brother thinks he can’t be found anymore.”
Gu Lin kept patting his back. “But aren’t you still looking for him?”
“And once you get famous, countless people will help you search. At that point, he’ll definitely be found…”
Before Gu Lin could finish, he suddenly found Yu Yang burying his face in his chest.
The young man was so tall, yet he bent down and rubbed his head lightly against Gu Lin’s chest.
Aside from his own dear little nephew, Gu Lin had never been that intimate with anyone.
Especially not with someone that big!
Second Young Master Gu was rubbed into blushing all over, and tried to make an excuse to run. “Well, I should—”
“My pressure really is very high.”
Yu Yang gave him no chance to leave. His arms tightened around him.
Gu Lin could only ask, “Because of what?”
“This role as second male lead was so hard to get. What if my acting isn’t good enough and I get replaced? I worry about it every day, so much that I can’t sleep…”
Yu Yang sounded pitiful.
Gu Lin comforted him. “You won’t. The director already told me you have talent for acting.”
“I don’t believe it.”
The young man was stubborn, impossibly stubborn.
Gu Lin, who had never been good at comforting people, was getting irritated by him. “Aren’t you supposed to be able to act anything?”
“I can’t do emotional scenes well.”
Yu Yang lifted his head.
His peach-blossom eyes were full of anxiety and self-doubt.
The sight softened Gu Lin immediately. He thought: he’s young, having no experience is normal.
And his family situation is bad too.
For all he knew, maybe he’d never even been in love.
So Gu Lin offered him an idea. “Should I find someone to practice scenes with you?”
Yu Yang shook his head. “I’d be too embarrassed to trouble some senior.”
Gu Lin was getting a headache. This kid was seriously hard to deal with!
“Then what do you want?” he asked.
As if he had prepared the answer long ago, Yu Yang immediately said, “Will you practice with me?”
At the time, Gu Lin didn’t hear anything weird about it and simply answered honestly, “I don’t know how to act.”
“You don’t have to move.”
Yu Yang moistened his lips, his eyes fixed on Gu Lin’s mouth. “For a kissing scene, I can move. You just tell me if it feels right.”
Gu Lin immediately took a step back. “…That’s not appropriate, is it?”
Two men practicing kissing scenes?!
Yu Yang’s eyes drooped. “Can’t we?”
“…”
Looking at the wronged, pitiful expression on the young man’s face, the kind of eyes a little abandoned puppy would have, and then at the bottle of medicine sitting on the table—
Gu Lin gritted his teeth. “Fine!”
Practice it, then.
Sacrificing yourself for art wasn’t a big deal, right?
Actresses did this kind of thing cleanly and directly all the time. What did he have to be fussy about?
Gu Lin sat down and closed his eyes, feeling the other man’s hands settle on his shoulders.
His breathing involuntarily grew faster.
He had no choice but to hold his breath. The instant he felt Yu Yang’s lips press against his, every hair on his back stood up.
The strange thing was—it didn’t disgust him.
Maybe it had nothing to do with gender. The other man’s face just happened to be the kind he liked.
Otherwise he wouldn’t have picked him at first glance.
Not long after, Gu Lin’s ears turned red, burning hot.
This brat!
He actually stuck his tongue in…
“Why aren’t you saying anything?”
Between their lips, Yu Yang asked him softly, “Do you feel anything yet?”
It would have been better not to ask. The moment Yu Yang did, Gu Lin suddenly jerked.
He grabbed the stage costume Yu Yang had just taken off and threw it over his lap.
His mind went completely blank.
He couldn’t understand how a man kissing him had made him react like this!
Yu Yang grabbed him and said it still wasn’t enough, that he wanted more practice.
Gu Lin shoved him away in one go.
“Th-that’s already good enough, isn’t it? You’ll definitely pass in one take, there’s no need to practice anymore…”
Even his speech had become stuttered.
He didn’t even know how he managed to walk out of the dressing room.
Luckily his assistant was waiting at the door and caught him when his legs nearly gave out. “Boss, why is your face so red? Are you okay?”
In a faint voice, Gu Lin said, “Get in the car. We’re going back to the company…”
The moment he got in the car, he called the director.
Only after finally managing to calm down a little did Gu Lin begin raging. “Isn’t this supposed to be a historical drama? Why does the kissing scene involve tongue? Even sacrificing for art shouldn’t have to be that real! Change it!”
“What are you talking about?”
After getting yelled at over the phone, the director finally found a chance to explain. “There isn’t any kissing scene in our drama.”
Gu Lin froze instantly. “…Huh???”
After thinking it over carefully once he got back,
Gu Lin became certain he had been played.
That little vixen!
He must have been angry that Gu Lin never came to visit, so he pulled that stunt on purpose just to disgust him!
Second Young Master Gu had grown up getting away with everything. The last person who had tricked him but couldn’t be punished was his own nephew. And now, because he was counting on Yu Yang to become the company’s flagship artist, he couldn’t hit him or scold him either. So he could only swallow his anger.
After that, Gu Lin never visited Yu Yang on set again. He didn’t even make a single phone call.
Let that little vixen grow wild on his own!
Time passed.
If not for the rapidly increasing amount of money in the company accounts, Gu Lin would’ve nearly forgotten that there was someone named Yu Yang in his company at all.
Then one day, Gu Lin suddenly received an invitation from a film festival.
He opened it.
Then shot straight up from his office chair. “Yu Yang got nominated for Best Supporting Actor?! Why did nobody tell me???”
The assistant lowered his head and explained, “Boss, you said no one was allowed to mention his name in front of you.”
Gu Lin: “…”
Once he calmed down and thought about it, it was only Best Supporting Actor.
N-not that big of a deal!
“Boss, aren’t you really going to show any reaction? Other companies are already trying to poach him…”
the assistant reminded softly.
Gu Lin: “…”
There was no helping it. He only wanted to keep the guy.
So Gu Lin personally picked out a suit for Yu Yang and sent it over for him to wear while walking the red carpet at the film festival.
Who knew that in less than a day, the suit would be returned to him untouched.
It was like getting slapped across the face.
Second Young Master Gu had never suffered such humiliation in his life!
He immediately called, furious. “Your wings are strong enough now, huh? If you want to fly, just say so!”
There was a pause on the other end before Yu Yang said, “Keep your voice down.”
Gu Lin was about to blow up again when Yu Yang added in a low voice, “I’m at the hospital.”
Gu Lin froze.
“Don’t believe me?”
Yu Yang directly started a video call and showed him. Sure enough, he was really in a hospital.
Gu Lin’s anger instantly died down, and he lowered his voice. “Sorry…”
So at least the part about the father and younger brother hadn’t been a lie.
But when Gu Lin thought back to getting tricked into kissing him, it made him angry again. At the same time, it had been so long ago that bringing it up now would only make things more awkward.
So he could only ask about the present issue. “Why didn’t you accept the clothes? Were the ones I sent too cheap for your taste?”
“I can’t accept that kindness.”
Yu Yang spoke softly over the phone. “I’m not worthy of clothes that expensive. No need for Boss to trouble himself.”
That single sentence cleanly drew a line between the two of them.
The more Gu Lin listened, the more uncomfortable he felt, and his temper began rising again—but he still kept his voice low so he wouldn’t disturb the patients. “Send me the address. I’m coming to pick you up!”
“You’re wearing that suit today whether you like it or not.”
At first he’d expected the young man to keep putting on airs for a little while longer.
But Yu Yang sent the address without another word.
Which only made Gu Lin feel like he had thrown a punch into cotton.
He had no idea what kind of karma he had built up to end up with such an ancestral troublemaker…
When Gu Lin drove over near the hospital, he spotted Yu Yang from far away, squatting by the roadside eating snacks.
As soon as he got in the car, he even asked Gu Lin if he wanted any.
“All you ever do is eat!”
Gu Lin snapped, wearing the full expression of an exploitative capitalist. “Aren’t artists supposed to manage their figures?”
Yu Yang put down the snack and wiped his mouth. “Sorry. This is my first meal today…”
It was already four in the afternoon.
And this was his first meal of the day.
A man about to win a major award at a film festival was dressed in unbranded clothes, holding a cheap roadside snack, and squatting by the street… and this was his first meal all day.
The more Gu Lin thought about it, the worse he felt.
He couldn’t even summon the energy to scold him anymore.
Instead, he took him straight to a restaurant, fed him properly, and then brought him to a clothing store.
It had to be said, Yu Yang was born to wear clothes.
Even in cheap outfits, his figure and features already stood out. In designer pieces, his natural elegance came through in full.
Gu Lin found a strange joy in dressing him up like a doll and told the sales assistant, “Wrap this one up, and that one too. Actually, forget it—wrap them all!”
It was only a little money.
He could afford it.
“Do you know how to tie a bow tie?”
The young man with peach-blossom eyes stuck his head out from the fitting room and looked at him.
“You can’t even tie a bow tie? You’re hopeless!”
Though speaking harshly, Gu Lin’s feet had already started moving toward the fitting room.
A moment later, the two of them were squeezed into the tiny space.
“Like this, then this, then loop it around once more…”
Gu Lin showed him how to tie the bow tie, sounding impatient but explaining the steps clearly.
“…”
Yu Yang lowered his eyes to look at the person leaning into his arms.
The space was too small.
From this angle, it looked as though Gu Lin was snuggled into his embrace.
Yu Yang liked that distance very much.
He hadn’t seen Gu Lin for a long time. He didn’t know if Gu Lin missed him, but he himself had missed Gu Lin terribly.
Call it lust at first sight if you wanted.
From the very first meeting, he had been thinking of the man day and night…
Lowering his head, Yu Yang stole a kiss on Gu Lin’s forehead while the other wasn’t paying attention.
Gu Lin jumped. “What are you doing?!”
Damn it!
This brat was teasing him again!
Yu Yang wore the most innocent expression possible. “Kissing my patron to thank him. Is there a problem?”
Gu Lin shot him a glare. “The entertainment industry is a filthy mess. Don’t learn this kind of dirty nonsense.”
“Got it.”
Yu Yang answered obediently, but his eyes stayed fixed on Gu Lin’s gradually reddening face, and his thoughts drifted in a much less pure direction.
Gu Lin himself had never realized that he was the kind of person who blushed easily.
He only knew that his heart was pounding.
Even harder than after exercise…
“Will you come to the film festival and watch me accept the award?”
Yu Yang suddenly asked.
Gu Lin forced his thoughts back into order. “It’s only a nomination. There’s no guarantee you’ll win. Don’t get too full of yourself.”
Yu Yang pressed, “So… will you come?”
“I’ll be busy those days. I might not make it. We’ll see.”
Gu Lin answered honestly.
To his surprise, however, a trace of disappointment appeared on the little artist’s face, a look he almost never wore beneath his usual playful smile.
Over the next few days, Yu Yang’s disappointed face kept surfacing in Gu Lin’s mind.
So Gu Lin rushed through his work, then specifically took the Gu family’s private plane to the film festival.
He planned to give Yu Yang a surprise.
His boss descending from the sky—how moved would the little artist be?
So Gu Lin told no one, didn’t even bring his assistant, and quietly entered the venue on his own.
He arrived just in time for the Best Supporting Actor award to be presented.
Yu Yang stood on stage, holding the trophy and giving his speech.
He wore that familiar fake smile and said a bunch of grand formal nonsense, without mentioning his boss a single time.
Gu Lin sulked. “I’m your talent scout at the very least! Ungrateful brat!”
And he was still wearing the clothes Gu Lin bought for him! Hmph!
Still, Yu Yang did mention Xinglin Media and gave it a very decent amount of publicity, so at least he hadn’t forgotten where he came from.
After Yu Yang stepped down from the stage, Gu Lin straightened his own clothes and prepared to go meet him.
But another man moved faster than he did.
The man strode up, took hold of Yu Yang’s hand, even took the trophy from him, and then draped an arm over Yu Yang’s shoulder.
The two of them sat together in close intimacy, only two rows ahead of Gu Lin…
The film festival organizers had arranged hotel accommodations.
After sending away his older brother, who had insisted on coming to support him, Yu Yang planned to spend the night there.
Too many people had seen him standing shoulder to shoulder with Yu Xiao that night. If he didn’t handle it, tomorrow’s trending topics would all be about his relationship with the Yu family.
It wasn’t that he was afraid of being exposed.
It was that he was afraid Gu Lin would get angry.
If Gu Lin found out that he was the second biggest shareholder of the Yu family empire, he’d probably kick him out of Xinglin Media on the spot.
Then where would he find another chance to pursue him?
Yu Yang swiped open the hotel room.
The moment he stepped inside, he realized someone was there.
There were footprints on the carpet.
At the end of those footprints, Gu Lin sat cross-legged on the sofa beside the tea table.
“So, you did come!”
“Did you come to see me?”
For a brief second, surprise lit up Yu Yang’s face. He held the trophy out toward Gu Lin.
But Gu Lin didn’t even look at it. He only set down the tea cup in his hand.
“Couldn’t be more obvious, could it?”
Gu Lin said in the most sarcastic tone possible. “I watched the whole thing.”
The moment he heard the tone, Yu Yang’s eyelid twitched, and he asked nervously, “What did you see?”
“I saw you not behaving yourself.”
Gu Lin stood up and jabbed one finger right into Yu Yang’s chest.
That single poke made Yu Yang’s heart race.
He wanted to grab that finger, but Gu Lin had already withdrawn it.
“Take a look for yourself.”
Gu Lin flung several photographs at him.
Yu Yang hardly needed to look. Even with a quick glance from the corner of his eye, he could tell they were all pictures of him with his older brother.
“Let me explain…”
Yu Yang really was panicking now.
He had not yet figured out an excuse, or decided how to explain his relationship with the Yu family.
But before he could think, Gu Lin angrily turned his head away and snapped, “I already told you, the entertainment industry is dirty. I told you to keep yourself clean and stop trying to latch onto a sugar daddy every day!”
Yu Yang froze. “…Huh?”
Gu Lin was so angry his cheeks had gone pink. “Playing those tricks on me in private is bad enough. Outside, too, you’re still flirting around with everyone. Do you even know who he is?”
“The head of the Yu family!”
“You’re just a poor kid—do you think someone like you can afford to provoke him?!”
“You think just because you share the same surname, you can use that to get close? What, were you planning to call him daddy next?”
Gu Lin slapped the stack of photos against Yu Yang’s chest.
Once for every sentence.
And somehow, by the end of that, he had handed Yu Yang an idea.
“Right! He’s the head of the Yu family!”
Yu Yang grabbed the hand holding the photos, tossed them aside, and clasped that hand tightly in his own. “He tried to force me!”
Gu Lin raised a brow. “He looked like he had your cooperation.”
Yu Yang started making things up on the spot. “He said if I didn’t go along with him, he’d destroy me… and destroy Xinglin Media too, so I’d have no support system left.”
Whatever happened, as long as the blame landed on his older brother, that was all that mattered.
“That bastard!”
Gu Lin smacked the tea table with one hand. “Who the hell does he think he is?! When has Second Master Gu ever been afraid of anyone? Nobody touches my person!”
Yu Yang felt heartache at that and quickly grabbed Gu Lin’s hand, rubbing it between both of his palms. “If you want to curse, fine, but why are you hitting the table? Doesn’t your hand hurt?”
Gu Lin was too furious to care whether it hurt or not.
The little artist he had worked so hard to nurture had nearly been subject to casting-couch rules right under his own nose!
Did they think he was a vegetarian?!
“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”
Being rubbed by the younger man’s hands felt pretty good. Gu Lin gradually lowered his guard. “You’ve been wronged tonight.”
His little artist was only twenty.
And after winning an award, he had to deal with something so disgusting.
It was all because Gu Lin hadn’t come in time.
The moment Yu Yang saw that he had successfully soothed him, he immediately pushed further, using every bit of acting skill he had learned for this exact moment.
His eyes lowered, and in a fragile voice he said, “To Boss, what am I really? Just an employee. Someone who can be thrown away at any time…”
Gu Lin vaguely felt that the tone sounded suspiciously like something he’d just been drinking.
Very tea-like.
But as a straight man, Gu Lin’s brain didn’t twist around corners like that.
He didn’t think much and simply reassured him casually. “How could that be? You’re very important to me.”
After all, he was the company’s golden signboard.
“Really?”
“How important?”
Yu Yang bent over him as he asked, “Would you protect me no matter what?”
“O-of course… Wait, stop coming closer!”
Gu Lin had no idea how it had happened.
One second they had been talking normally, and the next second Yu Yang had him pinned onto the bed???
Well… pinned wasn’t quite right.
It was more like Yu Yang leaned forward, so Gu Lin leaned back.
And as he kept backing away, he reached the edge of the bed, his knees gave out, and he fell backward while the other man braced himself above him.
Their clothes weren’t even touching.
Completely proper.
But the top-and-bottom position was impossibly suggestive…
To anyone looking, there was no way this could seem innocent!
After Gu Lin snapped at him, the young man simply lowered his eyes and pursed his lips, looking aggrieved.
That made it seem as though Gu Lin was the one overreacting.
In a long-suffering tone, Gu Lin said, “It’s because you have no sense of personal distance that people misunderstand you. The entertainment industry is already one giant vat of dye—if you don’t start being more careful…”
“I’m not like this with other people.”
Yu Yang lifted his head and looked into his eyes. “Only with you.”
Those peach-blossom eyes, shining faintly, were even more entrancing than usual.
Gu Lin had no idea what was happening to him.
His heart started pounding again.
The flush that had already spread across his face deepened another layer.
He awkwardly turned his face away. “If I were the kind of boss who cast-couched my own artists, you’d be doomed.”
Yu Yang stared at the shape of his moving lips and said quietly, “Isn’t everyone in this industry like that…”
“What nonsense!”
Gu Lin snapped out one loud reply, then his voice shrank down again, sounding strangely guilty. “Th-there are people like us too. Completely clean and proper.”
“I don’t want clean and proper.”
Yu Yang drew even closer, speaking right beside Gu Lin’s ear. “I want you…”
Even now, when Gu Lin looked back on that night,
he still felt as though he’d been put under some kind of spell.
Yu Yang had kissed him on the mouth and touched his body, and he hadn’t even thought to struggle.
He had somehow, in a daze, agreed.
Fine. He agreed, whatever.
But then Yu Yang hugged him and whimpered a little, and Gu Lin had also somehow agreed to be the one underneath!
It had nearly killed him!
It was all because he spoiled him!
The reason Yu Yang had become such a shameless bastard later on—none of it was innocent. Gu Lin had indulged him one step at a time.
Damn it!
Many years later, one morning,
Gu Lin woke up with a familiar ache in his lower back.
Beside the bed squatted a dog…
No.
It was Yu Yang.
Yu Yang was crouching beside him. “Linlin, coffee or tea?”
Gu Lin shoved his face away with one hand. “Are you an animal? I was that drunk and you still did it! Do you even remember we were fighting?!”
Yu Yang looked wronged. “But you were enjoying it too. You even cursed at me for not having eaten enough and told me to use more force.”
Then he pulled open his collar so Gu Lin could see. “Look how badly you bit me.”
“Slower—there, one bite.”
“Not enough force—another bite…”
“Shut up!”
Gu Lin’s face turned scarlet. He simply covered his ears and switched into “I’m not listening, I’m not listening, you stupid turtle chanting nonsense” mode.
“Still angry?”
Yu Yang pulled his hands away from his ears and looked up at him.
The moment Gu Lin saw that fake obedient expression, he got irritated again.
Back then, he had let this face fool him into giving up both body and heart. Who could have guessed that the other man was completely unhinged!
“Who told you to lie?”
“You lied from the first day we met. Second Young Master Yu pretending to be a barista—well done.”
Yu Yang rubbed his nose awkwardly. “Didn’t I explain already? At the time I wanted to learn the skill so I could make coffee for my mom. Now I can make it for you too.”
Gu Lin snorted. “You wanted to brew coffee? More like you wanted to brew me!”
“If you want to put it like that, that’s not wrong either.”
Yu Yang smiled smugly and kissed him once on the lips.
“What about the sugar daddy?”
Gu Lin shoved away the “dog head” leaning in for another kiss. “How do you explain that?”
Yu Yang answered righteously, “He was forcing me. He wanted me to go with him, and he said he’d shut down Xinglin Media.”
“Why don’t you just say he’s your brother and wanted you to come home and inherit the family business!”
The moment Gu Lin thought about those old events, he could feel himself dying of anger all over again.
Yu Yang innocently fiddled with his own fingers. “If I’d said that, would you still have been willing to sleep with me?”
Gu Lin shut his eyes and forced himself to calm down. “So now you’re inventing new tricks again just for sex?”
“That nonsense about retiring from the industry is only enough to fool children.”
Yu Yang held up both hands to show his innocence. “This time I really didn’t lie. But I never said I was retiring. The rumors online just twisted it.”
Gu Lin snapped, “Then what exactly did you say that made everyone think you were retiring?”
Yu Yang gave up trying to explain and simply handed him the phone. “Why don’t you look at the trending topics yourself?”
Frowning, Gu Lin opened the trending page.
And sure enough, high up on the list were the tags—
#YuYangRetiresToGetMarried
#SecretLover
#DatingForYears
…
The day before, the rumors had only said that Yu Yang himself wanted to retire. But in less than a day, the whole thing had fermented into this.
And when Gu Lin kept scrolling—
Good lord.
The man had hammered the final nail himself.
At first, there had only been a few whispers online, making netizens guess that Yu Yang might be retiring so he could go home and inherit the family business.
Then that idiot had personally replied: Not retiring, but getting married @GuLin
Gu Lin’s scalp went numb. “You just announced it like that?!”
Do you know how much PR work it’s going to take to fix this…
“Madman…”
Gu Lin clutched his head. When he raised his face again, something glittering appeared in front of him.
On the coffee tray Yu Yang was holding rested a pair of rings.
Simple matching bands with each other’s names engraved on them.
“Linlin, now the whole world knows you’ve been sleeping your way through me for years. I’m not innocent anymore, so I can only marry you.”
Yu Yang curved his peach-blossom eyes and smiled.
Who said this bastard only knew how to fake-smile?
Wasn’t he smiling just fine now?
Back then, Gu Lin had been tricked out of his underwear by exactly that smile!
“You…”
Gu Lin took a deep breath and held out his hand. “Put it on me already! I need to take a picture and post it!”
Yu Yang caught that hand and brought it to his lips for a kiss, then pressed it over his own heart. “As you command, my boss…”
“No, my wife.”
“? Weren’t you the one marrying in?”
“But you’re the wife, because last night we—”
“Shut up! One more word and I’m killing myself!”
After Becoming Cannon Fodder What Bad Intentions Could I Possibly Have?
