Chapter 9: Transmigrated as a Cheapskate Phoenix Man (9)
Leaning back in his chair, Cen Yu turned his head to look at Gao Lanyuan, who had sidled up to him. He genuinely couldn’t fathom where on earth the guy got the impression that he was interested in watching band performances.
“Me?”
He pointed to himself.
“Not interested.”
“Aww, don’t be like that, Brother Cen.” Gao Lanyuan scooted over, his chair dragging along the floor.
His eyes sparkled as he looked at Cen Yu. “I think your tongue piercing and tattoos are super cool!”
“…” Speaking of this matter, Cen Yu was utterly speechless.
Basically none of his colleagues at the company knew he had a tongue piercing.
He wouldn’t just randomly stick his tongue out for people to see, and the piercing stud he chose wasn’t a flashy style either. There was only that one day—the exact day he had just transmigrated over.
An old classmate of Cen Yu had set up a studio and asked him to help take a few photos.
The friend insisted on using him as a model.
Logically speaking, Cen Yu didn’t need to do him this favor, but it served as an important piece of foreshadowing in the plot—it was precisely because of this set of photos that Cen Yu was deemed an absolute playboy and scumbag by the diehard fans Yu Xinyu gained after joining the reality show.
They posted this set of photos online and criticized him mercilessly.
In truth, there was nothing wrong with the photos; at most, they were just a few shots of Cen Yu lying on his side on a bed and in a bathroom.
His classmate had shot black-and-white artistic portrait photography. Cen Yu didn’t even need to show his face; most of the photos showcased the interplay of light, shadow, and the human body. For instance, Cen Yu lying on a white bed surrounded by pillows and white fabric, resting on his side as a beam of light happened to spill in through a gap in the window.
The focus was on the snake bone tattoo across his abdomen and the rise and fall of his side abdominal muscles beneath the light and shadow as he lay on his side.
The bathroom photos focused on his arm propped against the sink and the deep dimples of his lower back above the wrapped bath towel.
The camera framed him from behind, with the only close-up being a shot captured in the mirror.
In that shot, Cen Yu had his mouth slightly open, as if about to say something, which caught the tongue stud on his tongue.
The photos were completely normal, but after being dug up by busybodies, they insisted that these were post-coital photos and evidence of Cen Yu sleeping around. Even when his friend clarified that the photos were taken specifically for his photography studio, people dismissed it as a whitewashing attempt demanded by Cen Yu.
It so happened that on that day, Cen Yu’s friend wasn’t the only one who had rented that photography base—Gao Lanyuan had also tagged along with a friend.
Just as Cen Yu had changed his clothes and said goodbye to his friend to leave, he spotted Little Gao waiting for him right outside the studio door—
“Brother Cen!” Gao Lanyuan had looked at Cen Yu with excitement. “I had no idea you had tattoos.”
Cen Yu had wanted to say something, but for the photoshoot that day, he had specifically swapped his tongue stud for a more noticeable style—
“You even got a tongue piercing.”
“I got an industrial bar, too,” Cen Yu had said, speechless, turning his head to show him his ear. “What are you doing, young master?”
“I wanted to get one too!” Gao Lanyuan had said, pointing at himself. “And tattoos as well…”
He had leaned in close to Cen Yu’s face, about to say more, only to be shoved away by Cen Yu. “Get outta here.”
Saying that, Cen Yu grabbed his bag and prepared to leave, only to find Yu Xinyu sending him messages again to ask when he’d be home.
He turned his head to look back at Gao Lanyuan, thinking to himself: Once you find out how I ‘torture’ your idol, you’ll be the very first one to beat me up.
Cen Yu waved a hand. “Im out.”
With that, he left the photography base without looking back. Unexpectedly, from that moment on, Gao Lanyuan seemed to suddenly develop an intense interest in tattoos and piercings, asking for Cen Yu’s thoughts whenever he had time.
“Then go get one yourself,” Cen Yu said as he opened a review app. “I’ll search a few places for you; you can just turn on navigation and go.”
Gao Lanyuan’s face instantly slumped, looking like a big golden retriever whose excitement had been squashed. He looked at Cen Yu aggrievedly, “Brother Cen, I think you’re really unromantic.”
“Don’t you feel like this is a little secret between the two of us?”
“I just want to pretend my colleagues are dead after off-work; I don’t want to share any ‘little secrets’ with my colleagues,” Cen Yu said candidly.
Seeing that Gao Lanyuan was about to say more, he immediately gestured for him to shut up.
Though Gao Lanyuan felt terribly aggrieved, he still obediently retreated to his own seat.
“By the way.”
Hearing this, Gao Lanyuan turned around instantly—
“Can you change your cologne?” Cen Yu said seriously.
“I really don’t like the smell of your perfume.”
Sang Qianshan sat expressionlessly as he watched his manager nag continuously in front of him—
“Brother Sang, it’s not that we wanted it to be like this,” the manager said with a bitter face. “Isn’t it because of that incident? We want to turn public opinion around, which is why we hope you can accept a reality show like this.”
Sang Qianshan’s entry into the entertainment industry was an accident and a casual endeavor in the first place. It was just that his talent was exceptionally great, and since he found playing different characters interesting, he simply continued in the profession.
However, he was naturally not a sociable person.
Even after filming together with a crew for several months, he wouldn’t follow them back on social media—that was all handled by his manager.
Logically speaking, this shouldn’t have been a problem. But as luck would have it, a supporting male actor from one of Sang Qianshan’s previous movies recently blew up after starring in a drama. While participating in a reality show as Sang Qianshan’s supporting actor, the host couldn’t help asking a few questions related to Sang Qianshan.
For example, what everyone talked about in the group chat while filming on set.
Whereupon this supporting actor wore an innocent expression and uttered a line—
“Ah? Brother Sang didn’t join our group chat.”
Saying this, he let out a somewhat embarrassed laugh. “None of us have Brother Sang’s contact info.”
The moment these words came out, a full-blown war between fans and anti-fans erupted.
That supporting actor’s fans reached a climax, leaving comments below telling their favorite not to be sad, calling Sang Princess a total jerk.
Yet Sang Qianshan’s fans and anti-fans were surprisingly united—
[How could a snob like Sang Princess look down on a nobody~ If Sang Princess actually has friends, I’ll do a handstand and shit!]
[Our Brother Sang just doesn’t like interacting with people!! Maybe Brother Sang’s friends are all non-celebrities…]
Either way, everyone firmly believed one thing: Sang Qianshan had no friends in the entertainment industry—and of course, anti-fans believed that with a terrible personality like Sang Qianshan’s, he had no friends outside the entertainment industry either.
Noticing that Sang Qianshan’s expression was growing even foul,
The manager, amidst his fear, finally couldn’t help asking what was truly on his mind—
“…Brother Sang, do you really not have any friends?”
He wanted to say that if push came to shove, they could always hire one, find a non-celebrity to sign a contract, and put on an act on the reality show.
Upon hearing this question, Sang Qianshan’s face darkened by several shades.
In the end, he unwillingly spat out to his manager—
“I do.”
The manager’s face was written with utter disbelief, suspecting that the “friend” Sang Qianshan referred to was some Ultraman toy.
Seeing his manager’s incredulous expression, Sang Qianshan flared up with rage. “I’ll call him right now to prove it to you!”
With that, regardless of what time it was, he dialed Cen Yu’s number.
