Chapter 3: Transmigrated as a Cheapskate Phoenix Man (3)
[Host, you did great just now!]
The system popped up again at this moment, appearing in the bathroom as a large orange cat.
Cen Yu took off his shirt and looked at another tattoo on his arm—this one was a little angel blowing a trumpet.
The tattoo occupied half his forearm… In truth, Cen Yu getting tattooed wasn’t for any special reason; as mentioned before, he was strapped for cash.
It so happened that someone needed a person to practice tattooing on and asked if he was willing to take the gig. Cen Yu, who needed the money, accepted. Because the design was quite large, it took some time, and after coming and going, the two exchanged contact information.
And this person was none other than… Sang Qianshan.
Before becoming an actor, Sang Qianshan’s dream had always been to do tattoos.
Perhaps driven by some form of perfectionism, Sang Qianshan hadn’t inked any large designs on himself before reaching perfection. Finding Cen Yu was also because he had already practiced countless times on synthetic skin and various pigskins, feeling he could finally tattoo a real person.
He wasn’t short on money and didn’t plan to become a professional tattoo artist, so he simply paid to hire a model.
He had a laundry list of requirements, from skin condition to height and muscle definition—
However, because the pay was genuinely generous, Cen Yu went. Unexpectedly, not long after the tattoo was finished, Sang Qianshan was scouted and entered the entertainment industry.
After finishing his shower, Cen Yu lay in the bathtub, unable to resist venting to the system—
“Only novels would write it like this,” he said. “Who gets that many opportunities to become an overnight sensation?”
[Sang Qianshan’s plot line is super important!] the little cat emphasized.
Of course, Cen Yu knew. In the original novel, after Cen Yu and Yu Xinyu had a breakup fight, Cen Yu remained cold and ruthless while Yu Xinyu nursed his heartbreak in secret. Sang Qianshan, unable to stand by and watch, decided to take Yu Xinyu out to clear his head.
He then took Yu Xinyu to participate in a slow-life reality show he was scheduled to record.
The show’s main selling point was inviting non-celebrity friends of big stars to participate.
“This plot is way too unreasonable!” Cen Yu said. “These two aren’t even really friends, and he’s already inviting him on a reality show?”
[After all, Yu Xinyu needs to win everyone’s affection on the reality show, realize he has so many merits, and see that the outside world is wonderful, so he can finally steel his resolve to break free from the scumbag!]
[And during the breakup and Yu Xinyu’s time on the reality show, the scumbag realizes he can’t stand Yu Xinyu leaving at all… kicking off the ‘chasing the wife in a crematorium’ arc.]
The little cat squatted on the edge of the bathtub, looking down at its host soaking in the bath.
[This is the climax of the book… Both Yu Xinyu’s firm decision to break up and the scumbag’s regretful wife-chasing crematorium happen during this opportunity.]
“Alright, fine.” Cen Yu leaned against the edge of the bathtub and looked at the little cat. “What’s Yu Xinyu doing now?”
The little cat glanced away to check.
[Reporting to host, Yu Xinyu is hand-washing clothes for you… right now, he’s scrubbing your underwear.]
“…” Cen Yu said, “You don’t need to be that specific.”
Yu Xinyu sat on a small stool in front of the washing machine.
One by one, he pulled out Cen Yu’s clothes that had been thrown into the washing machine, while stuffing all of his own non-machine-washable garments into it without a second thought.
“I bought him this one~” Yu Xinyu looked at one of the tops, recalling how Cen Yu had looked wearing it yesterday, and stroked it carefully a few times. “Hubby looks good in everything.”
He held it in his hands and looked at it for a while.
In the end, he slowly leaned in and gently sniffed the clothing… He could only catch a subtle trace of Cen Yu’s light cologne. Since a day had passed, only a lingering, faint hint of cold, woody fragrance remained.
“…Doesn’t seem to have anyone else’s perfume on it.”
Yu Xinyu muttering to himself.
“Not that annoying perfume scent.”
It was a month ago when Yu Xinyu first noticed an unfamiliar perfume scent on Cen Yu occasionally. Sometimes it was on his shoulder, sometimes on his cuff, sometimes on his collar… It wasn’t a woman’s perfume.
On the contrary, it was an aggressively masculine cologne.
A mixture of rum and patchouli—definitely not the low-key woody fragrance Cen Yu usually wore.
Yu Xinyu despised that smell, and even more so despised seeing it on Cen Yu’s clothes. These were clothes he had bought for Cen Yu; Cen Yu belonged entirely to him, so how could he carry someone else’s perfume scent?
Yu Xinyu felt like a male lion whose territory had been invaded.
The first time he smelled that unfamiliar perfume on Cen Yu, an intense hostility had flared up inside him.
Yet when questioned, Cen Yu had merely looked at him with impatience, sniffing his own clothes. “What perfume scent?” he had said. “Where is there any perfume scent?”
“…Has anyone new joined the company recently?” Yu Xinyu had asked, wringing his fingers, the nails of his other hand almost piercing his palm.
“New people?” Cen Yu unfastened his tie and tossed it onto the sofa nearby.
Taking off his leather shoes, he stepped onto the floor and flopped onto the sofa before seeming to remember something, his expression souring—
“Actually, yes.”
“An parachuted boss arrived.” Cen Yu leaned back on the sofa. “Transferred from headquarters.”
It’s him.
That was Yu Xinyu’s very first thought.
He stared at Cen Yu, who leaned against the sofa with his eyes half-closed. His impeccably combed hair had become slightly messy after coming home.
Cen Yu had a cool, pale skin tone that took on a jade-like texture under the light.
Beneath his left eye sat two beauty marks; whenever he wasn’t smiling, he carried a melancholic look as if he were about to weep, making anyone who saw him want to smooth away all his troubles.
Yu Xinyu gazed at Cen Yu, utterly captivated. He then slowly approached his side, crouched on the floor, and stared at Cen Yu’s face.
…At the thought of the perfume scent he had smelled back then, a surge of anger flared up in Yu Xinyu’s chest.
He couldn’t help tightening his grip on the shirt in his hands, only to snap back to his senses a second later.
Softly addressing the clothing, he murmured, “I’m sorry, Hubby, I didn’t mean to.” He stroked the shirt’s collar and chest. “I was just too angry and jealous.”
Clutching the top, he whispered, “…Luckily, when Hubby came home today, he didn’t bring that perfume scent back.”
He babbled to himself for a long while before finally resuming the slow hand-washing of the shirt.
When he finally finished hand-washing it… his gaze settled on the last piece of clothing in the laundry hamper.
It was a thin piece of black fabric.
With a flushed face, Yu Xinyu pulled out that final piece. He held it in his hands for a long time, looking thoroughly embarrassed.
After hesitating at length, he stood up, retrieved a brand-new, unopened box of the exact same style from a nearby cabinet, unpacked a fresh pair, and tossed it into the clean water.
“Throwing them out after wearing them once and calling me wasteful…” he muttered to himself. “This should be fine, right?”
“Throwing it out now might get me caught. I’d better hide it first and throw it away after Hubby leaves for work.”
