Chapter 3

In the video, Ji Nuo showed his face by turning toward the camera after getting out of the police car. He entered the station and never came back out. The person who broke the news claimed they had waited for two hours at the police station entrance and never saw him leave.

Once the news hit, the internet instantly exploded.

In recent years, tainted artists had become a common sight. Several who had been locked up previously had vanished without a trace. Abstaining from pornography, gambling, drugs, and tax evasion had become the four new virtues of the entertainment industry.

Add to that Ji Nuo’s public perception hitting a new low recently, and even without the Anti-fans having to lift a finger, casual onlookers automatically categorized him as a Pure Prison Style artist. Not to mention the large crowd of toxic solo stans for Best Actor Han, who practically hated him to death already, immediately took the chance to kick him while he was down.

The comments section was filled with lamentations:

[Ji Nuo really threw away a winning hand. The Little Book Attendant he played was once the White Moonlight in my heart… sob… it’s all gone to the dogs!]

[Waiting here online for a blue-bottomed notice @HanCheng @WhereAreWeGoingCubOfficialBlog @HanChengStudio @XuLi]

[Thank goodness I stopped being a fan when Han Cheng made the official announcement. Han Cheng getting stuck with something that unlucky means his good fortune has come to an end. Hah!]

[I never understood why Han Cheng would go public with Ji Nuo. Even if something was going on, he should never have admitted it. Now I get it. Is it possible both of them are lawbreakers, and Han Cheng has some fatal weakness Ji Nuo is holding over him? /Doge Head]

[Hahaha the Cen Xi fans are reacting so fast, they’re already frantically holding prize draws in their Super Topic. That’s hilarious. Cen Xi can finally shake off this blood-sucking copycat for good!]

[Actor Han Cheng (/Flower) The youngest Triple Gold Best Actor (/Star) Powerful strength (/Flower) Not selling his face (/Flower) Not relying on girlfriend fans for charts (/Exclamation Mark) Love life is a personal matter (/Smile) Don’t believe rumors, don’t spread them (/Fist Bump) Better to look forward to Brother Cheng’s Northwestern Road Movie, “West Wind” (/Heart/Heart/Heart)]

… …

The further Xu Li scrolled, the deeper her frown became. She inwardly lamented that this kid had absolutely zero Public Appeal whatsoever.

When she thought about it, Ji Nuo was truly the only unlucky fool she had ever encountered in all her years in the entertainment industry who managed to step precisely into every single pitfall.

Back in high school, because Ji Nuo bore a slight resemblance to the then Top Streamer Cen Xi, he landed the role of Han Cheng’s Little Book Attendant.

Although he had less than ten minutes of total screen time in the whole drama, the character was likable. At the time, Cen Xi was frequently buying publicity campaigns claiming Han Cheng was stealing his resources and playing the victim. This ironically created a very bizarre Archrival CP between Cen Xi and Han Cheng. The production company naturally took advantage, promoting Ji Nuo as “Little Cen Xi,” which sparked a chaotic war and successfully farmed a huge wave of hype.

After the hype subsided, Ji Nuo worked a month-long summer job at background extra wages, making a few thousand dollars and gaining a tiny bit of notoriety, equal parts black and red fame. But right after, he signed with a notoriously awful talent agency infamous in the industry.

During his final year of high school, he focused intently on preparing for the college entrance exams. But then his father, a language teacher, was fired for molesting a female student. Ji Nuo, left at the school, became a living target, and his exams consequently suffered.

He officially debuted in university. The agency signed him purely to feed off Cen Xi’s leftover heat. But Cen Xi’s side discovered that the “Little Cen Xi” had grown up to be far more refined and striking than the original, and significantly younger too. Ji Nuo’s acting career was thus naturally strangled in its cradle by Top Streamer Cen.

Under Cen Xi’s manipulations, Ji Nuo starred in a web drama specifically designed to uglify him, after which the company put him on ice. The agency was paid to do a job, so naturally, they gave Ji Nuo not a single chance to explain. He wanted to break the contract, but that agency contract, riddled with hidden traps, was hardly so easy to dissolve.

Ji Nuo’s looks were a fact. Did the agency think selling him once would be enough? Subsequently, Ji Nuo was set up and embroiled in a casting couch scandal. His reputation reached its absolute lowest point.

The reason Xu Li knew the situation so clearly was half because no wall in the world is completely airtight. The truth behind Ji Nuo’s scandals was an unspoken understanding for many in the industry. However, in a vanity fair like the entertainment world, everyone had long grown used to seeing Little Cannon Fodders like Ji Nuo. The other, more detailed half came from the fact her older cousin almost became Ji Nuo’s Stepmother.

During the trial marriage phase, she discovered Ji Nuo’s father had issues and split immediately. But her cousin always enjoyed keeping tabs on how miserable her exes were. Every New Year’s, she would forcibly update Xu Li, along with a couple of sighs about how terribly ill-fated the kid Ji Nuo was.

Of course, she wasn’t the Bodhisattva of Salvation. She’d lend an ear, sigh twice along with her, and that would be that.

Never did she imagine she would have the fortune to sign a true Living Buddha. When he was targeted, he simply went along with it and posted a blog acknowledging it, then scolded her for not mentioning all these years just how miserable this little fan of his was.

Xu Li nearly had smoke coming out of her ears in rage, but she was utterly helpless against this ancestor of hers. She could only do her utmost to salvage the situation. Otherwise, why would she have resorted to such a desperate measure? When the die-hard fans came to the studio, what could she say? That Best Actor Cheng was tired of being a Movie Emperor and wanted to go be the Grand Buddha at Leshan?

When Ji Nuo had nothing to do with her, she felt he was indeed a supremely unlucky little poor thing. But the moment she had to clean up after him, he became a huge headache.

Take today’s incident, for example. Anyone else would have had a bunch of fans fiercely defending them. Ji Nuo even had a child with him; he shouldn’t have been instantly sentenced by the internet.

But Ji Nuo didn’t have a single passerby to speak up for him. Clearing this up wouldn’t be something a few words could convince people of. Even if he went to the police station to get an official statement proving his innocence, he’d very likely be slapped with the black mark of shameless self-promotion. This was what being targeted by Cen Xi, who had resources and backing, resulted in.

As long as Cen Xi remained active in front of the screen, it was impossible for Ji Nuo, this upgraded version of a face, to ever see the light of day. But who could have guessed her family would produce a Grand Buddha of Salvation!

Just as Xu Li was thoroughly vexed, the office door was knocked on again. The Burly Assistant who had just left a short while ago burst in, face full of excitement. “Sister Li! I found the kid!!”

The veins on Xu Li’s forehead could no longer be suppressed. “Xue Xiaoshan, are you finished or not?!”

The big guy flinched at her tone. Seeing Xu Li was genuinely angry, Xue Xiaoshan hesitated, clutching his phone. Should he wait until Sister Li cooled off a bit?

But remembering the painful experience of missing the trail last time because he’d paused to rest, Xue Xiaoshan absolutely did not want to go through that again. He took a deep breath, bravely stepped forward, and handed over his phone.

Xue Xiaoshan pointed to an enlarged video screenshot, speaking cautiously. “Sis… really… I’m not lying to you. Look at this kid beside Ji Nuo, his side profile. Doesn’t he look like Brother Cheng? The front view looks even more like him!”

Half an hour later, Xu Li, through contacts, obtained the child’s front-facing photo from the registration.

She discovered that the truth was not only not a new scandal for Ji Nuo, but the guy had bravely rescued a trafficked child. Even more miraculous was that this rescued child truly shared a seventy to eighty percent resemblance to Han Cheng!

The smile at the corner of Xu Li’s mouth grew deeper and deeper. In her mind, she quickly finalized an upgraded plan.

~

Ji Nuo had spent the entire previous night online researching his illness. The more he researched, the more he couldn’t sleep. He had barely made it to the morning to go to the hospital. After receiving the terminal diagnosis, the man fell into a complete daze.

If he hadn’t been interrupted by the child-snatching human traffickers, he didn’t know how long he would have wandered the streets in a fugue.

But as soon as the Lu Ao’ao incident was over, Ji Nuo’s mind began playing the doctor’s words on a loop again. “This rare malignant tumor… the significance of treatment is low, and it will only intensify the patient’s suffering…”

Although Ji Nuo had always been frail and sickly since childhood and had considered he might live a shorter life than normal, suddenly entering the death countdown at twenty-one still left him unable to accept it calmly.

All his plans were thrown into disarray. By the time he got home, he felt utterly drained.

He sat blankly for a while before his abdomen began a dull ache. Ji Nuo took two painkillers, and when the medicinal drowsiness kicked in, he collapsed onto the bed and slept.

He slept fitfully until the middle of the night, when he was woken by the sound of the front door slamming in the living room.

Ji Nuo rubbed his temples and pulled the blanket up, unwilling to deal with the man who had come home late and drunk.

But tonight, his father was exceptionally manic. He stood outside Ji Nuo’s door, pounding on it intermittently. As he hammered, he howled drunkenly, “Yo, the big star finally deigns to come home? Aren’t you selling your ass and clinging to that big Movie Emperor? Why… why bother coming back?”

“I, Ji Shufeng, have no such shameless son! Get the hell out!” Immediately followed was the bang-bang sound of a liquor bottle smashing against the door.

Ji Nuo rolled out of bed, stepping to the door in one stride. He opened it, snatched the bottle, smashed it on the doorframe, and pressed the jagged edge against Ji Shufeng’s neck—all in one fluid motion.

Ji Nuo didn’t even need to speak. The stinging pain on his neck quickly sobered Ji Shufeng up significantly.

He had long been beaten into fearing Ji Nuo, but alcohol emboldens the coward. Every time he got dead drunk, he’d hallucinate that Ji Nuo was still the Sickly Little Weakling he could abuse and curse at will. Coupled with the impotent rage he had suppressed over the years being controlled by Ji Nuo, he always liked to act out when drunk.

Ji Nuo spoke with disgust. “Get back to your room.”

Ji Shufeng staggered and stumbled into the small bedroom opposite. Once the door was locked, he started cursing again. “Little Bastard will get his just deserts sooner or later! Always playing the hero against your old man, but still a cheap whore selling ass everywhere I look! I spit on you!”

Ji Nuo had long become numb to his biological father. The reason he hadn’t completely moved out was to prevent Ji Shufeng from committing further evils.

He swept the broken glass into the trash can, intending to go back to his room and continue sleeping. Halfway there, he suddenly remembered something. He curled his lip and turned back to kick Ji Shufeng’s door. The room inside instantly fell silent.

Through the door, Ji Nuo said expressionlessly, “Don’t worry. Before I die, I’ll definitely take you with me.”

This was a decision he had made back in his third year of high school when he caught his father touching a female student. In the past, although his life wasn’t worth much, he was unwilling to throw it away for such human scum. But now his days were numbered. Before dying, he certainly couldn’t leave this kind of pest behind to disgust and harm more people.

Back in his room, all sleepiness had vanished. Ji Nuo resigned himself to planning his own final arrangements.

After he and Ji Shufeng were dead, there was no need to leave any money. He’d just donate their bodies directly. It could be considered the only contribution human scum like Ji Shufeng could make to this society.

The apartment was rented. From high school part-time jobs until now, he had saved about sixty thousand yuan. Originally, it was a reserve fund set aside so he could focus solely on passing the civil service exam. After all, besides the civil service exam automatically releasing him from his agency contract, he couldn’t find any other way out.

Now, there was no need to take the exam to break the contract. Sixty thousand was enough for him to live out this final year well enough.

As for the CP-baiting agreement with Han Cheng…

Ji Nuo felt a little lost. A month ago, he had been preparing to use this opportunity to make one last fight. He truly loved acting. And he also harbored a tiny bit of… desire to spend more time with Han Cheng. So he had shamelessly agreed to the solution proposed by Han Cheng’s agent.

The CP-baiting plus the full paycheck from “Where Are the Cubs Going?”, after taxes, would have been just enough to pay off his contract termination fee with the company. Free from the company’s shackles, even running bit parts at the Film & TV Studio City wouldn’t have betrayed his original dream. But now… none of it was necessary anymore…

Logic told him he should cancel the agreement, issue an unbinding statement to disentangle the kind Best Actor Han who was helping him. But he still found it hard to let go completely.

This was the closest he had ever been to his dream.

Ji Nuo sat slumped for over half an hour, his mood sinking to its lowest point. Only then did he send the drafted text message to Xu Li asking to terminate the agreement.

[Sister Xu, I’m very sorry to disturb you so late. I want to cancel the agreement…]