Chapter 121: Transmigrated as a Scumbag in a Boy Group Survival Show (3)
Cut the crap, I know because I read the novel, Cen Yu thought to himself.
In the original work, Li Yanxiao was currently in a standoff with his family. His relatives hadn’t expected their son to make such a massive stir without uttering a word beforehand. In the end, however, they had no choice but to compromise. Both sides agreed that after his year-and-a-half contract with this temporary project group expired, he would return home to inherit the family business and walk the path he was originally meant to take.
Yet listening to Jiang Jueming ask like that, Cen Yu picked up a faint trace of displeasure in the man’s tone.
It was almost as if Jiang Jueming was angry and jealous because he knew the guy’s secret.
That’s impossible, right? Cen Yu eyed Jiang Jueming suspiciously. How come I remember the Jiang Jueming from the original novel being completely straight?!
“I calculated it,” Cen Yu said, making a quick motion with his fingers as if reading a fortune.
Naturally, Jiang Jueming knew he was spouting nonsense. Still, he merely assumed Cen Yu had happened to catch a glimpse of Li Yanxiao with his family before coming backstage, without giving it much further thought.
He snapped his lighter shut. “I was the only one here just now.”
Consider it his answer to Cen Yu’s earlier query.
Meanwhile, back in the hallway, Xie Jinshen—seemingly feeling that Cen Yu should have departed by now after so much time—stepped out from where they had just been talking… only to run right into Cen Yu and Jiang Jueming.
The very second his eyes landed on Jiang Jueming, Xie Jinshen’s face in the shadows turned cold.
Yet after taking a few steps forward, he instantly reverted to his pure, innocent demeanor. He looked at the two standing by the trash bin with a flustered expression, apologizing repeatedly, “I’m sorry…”
“Hmm?” Jiang Jueming flicked his lighter open once more, watching the flickering flame. “Who are you?”
“What are you doing here?”
Leaning against the corridor wall, he stared at the panicked Xie Jinshen. The moment he realized this guy was Cen Yu’s partner, a quiet sneer rose in his heart, thinking that Cen Yu’s taste was pretty mediocre.
“Are you a sasaeng fan? Or a paparazzi?” Saying this, Jiang Jueming snapped his lighter shut again and stashed it in his trousers pocket.
“I’d better call security…”
“Don’t!” Cen Yu immediately reached out, stopping Jiang Jueming’s hand as he reached for his phone.
“He’s my college classmate!” Cen Yu explained right away!
Finishing his sentence, he shot a look at Xie Jinshen. After a second’s hesitation, Xie Jinshen gave a nod, doing exactly as Cen Yu wished.
“I see,” Jiang Jueming gave a slight nod.
He turned to Cen Yu. “Let me know when you’re done. The manager is looking for us.”
Cen Yu pondered this plot point for a moment. Up next, they were supposed to move into their shared dorms… So he offered Xie Jinshen a brief goodbye, using his eyes to glare a warning at him not to talk out of turn, before leaving the backstage area.
Xie Jinshen simply watched the backs of the two as they walked away.
Finding Jiang Jueming more and more of an eyesore by the second.
“Where were you just now?”
The moment Cen Yu and Jiang Jueming stepped into the lounge, they spotted their current manager—He Ci.
Though titled as a manager, He Ci possessed immense, terrifying influence in the entertainment industry. Assigning him to manage a rookie boy group like theirs was an absolute overkill.
However, this boy group happened to be the company’s flagship project for the upcoming year, so it wasn’t particularly strange for him to step in as manager. Still, Cen Yu guessed that once operations were underway, other people from the company would likely take over the day-to-day execution.
Perhaps because this was their first official meeting, He Ci was personally present in the lounge.
He Ci wore a three-piece suit pressed so immaculately that not a single wrinkle could be found. Perhaps from pulling late nights at work for extended periods, he gave off a gloomy yet strikingly handsome impression… Right now, he was looking at the late-arriving Cen Yu with an unmistakable air of impatience.
“If Jiang Jueming hadn’t gone looking for you, I’d have called the police to check if you’d been kidnapped.”
The moment those words left his mouth, a few members in the lounge who didn’t get along with Cen Yu were just about to curl their lips into a smirk, only to be swept by He Ci’s sharp glare. “Find that funny? Am I here to do stand-up comedy for you?”
“…” The people who were just about to laugh.
“…” Cen Yu, who was currently the one wanting to laugh.
Jiang Jueming didn’t care about He Ci’s attitude in the slightest, walking straight inside to find a chair and sit down.
Meanwhile, as the missing person retrieved by Jiang Jueming, Cen Yu naturally didn’t dare act so brazenly. Besides, his persona had always been the cautious, walking-on-eggshells type in front of these big shots, so he scrambled to apologize, “I’m so sorry, Brother He. I was on the phone with my family just now, and it took a bit longer than expected.”
Hearing this, Jiang Jueming raised his eyebrows in mild surprise, not expecting Cen Yu to be so adept at making up lies on the spot.
Leaning back in his chair, He Ci lightly tapped his fingers against his knee a few times. “You think using family as an excuse means I won’t scold you?”
Tough customer, Cen Yu rolled his eyes in his heart.
Fortunately, He Ci was here to cover serious business today and didn’t dwell on the matter for too long. With a subtle flick of his finger gesturing for Cen Yu to sit down properly over there, he began laying out the rules and upcoming schedule for everyone.
“There’s a fashion brand event in half a month, which will serve as your first public appearance,” He Ci cut straight to the chase. “Many heavyweights will be attending that day, and I won’t be accompanying you the entire time.”
After all, his roster held plenty of top-tier movie kings and queens; he didn’t have the time to baby a group of survival show rookies.
“Your executive manager will go over the specific precautions with you later.”
“What I want to address next is your dorm arrangement.”
He Ci scanned Cen Yu and the others. “You will temporarily reside in a large luxury flat provided by the company, two people to a room. As for the extra single room…” He looked toward Jiang Jueming, “You take it.”
This was an explicit perk acknowledging that because Jiang Jueming held the highest popularity, he earned the right to a private room.
“The remaining rooms will be decided by drawing lots.”
He Ci looked at them. “I know some of you get along well, while others don’t.”
“However, since you’re a team now, I don’t want those who dislike each other to fail at even keeping up appearances during performances. If that’s the case, it’s better to start building rapport early.”
Cen Yu wasn’t in any rush. He remembered that in the original novel, he had drawn lots with a teammate who barely had any presence.
When He Ci signaled his assistant to bring out the box for everyone to draw, He Ci’s eyes landed directly on Cen Yu—
“You go first.”
