Chapter 2

“Little bro, my good little brother, just help me out this once!”

Chu Ci had traveled from the ski resort to the hotel and was now lying lazily on the suite’s big bed, his hair slightly damp. He was lean and tall, around 185 cm, with fair skin. At 18, he had an explosive energy about him. His short, choppy hair was stiff, and his face matched his overall aura—handsome but stern and intimidating when he wasn’t smiling.

Like a young lion.

The aroma diffuser in the room was set to his favorite tea and lily scent, which soothed his irritated mood a little.

The Chu family ran a hotel business. Chu Ci didn’t like going home, so he spent his days rotating between the luxury suites of the family’s various hotels in the city. Contrary to his rebellious personality, however, the Chu family rules were very strict. When he had to go home, even Chu Ci had to put on an act.

Needless to say, he had been acting since he was a child. Perhaps that was the very reason he had become increasingly rebellious.

Tch. A certain dear older male cousin had called him countless times from different phone numbers.

Even though he knew it was him again this time, Chu Ci couldn’t be bothered to blacklist another number. Instead, he answered leisurely.

“Cousin, it’s not that I won’t help, but the whole thing blew up on the Hot Search. Even if I go plead your case, Grandpa won’t calm down. You’d better figure something out yourself,” Chu Ci said nonchalantly.

This cousin of his was a known playboy, his romantic escapades rather famous throughout Jinghai City. He was the grandson the Old Master looked down on the most. Normally, the cousin would change girlfriends every three months, but if Chu Ci remembered correctly, he had been chasing this minor celebrity for over half a year now.

A few days ago, he hadn’t hesitated to risk exposure by going on vacation with her. Sure enough, this mess happened. His older cousin could forget about ever getting involved in family affairs again after this.

“Little Ci, just give it a try. If it doesn’t work, I won’t blame you. I don’t dare go home right now, or I’ll have my legs broken…”

The Old Master was truly furious this time. Among the younger generation of the Chu family, Chu Ci was the most favored. It couldn’t be helped; since he was little, Chu Ci had always been the boldest in front of the Old Master. The other kids would cower and hide from the fierce, stern-looking old man.

“If you knew this would happen, you should’ve been more careful, Cousin. Playing around in private is one thing, but you had to let that little celebrity expose it,” Chu Ci said with a mocking smile, taking pleasure in the drama. He could tell at a glance who was behind it all.

“Sigh, if I didn’t stick close, she’d end up with someone else. I had no choice.”

Chu Ci looked down on his cousin’s lack of resolve. Beautiful women and handsome men were a dime a dozen in Jinghai; a minor celebrity wasn’t anything special.

But on second thought, Chu Ci was a little curious. He tapped his fingers and opened the Hot Search list. It had been taken down now, but it was still easy to find the topic about actress Zhang Xuehan and her mysterious boyfriend.

Mm… She was indeed quite good-looking, mainly because her aura wasn’t bad. Even among celebrities, she was recognizable.

Chu Ci looked a moment longer, then pictured his cousin’s pathetic demeanor and grimaced.

“Fine. Stop worrying. I’ve been pretty busy since school started, and I haven’t been home in a while. I need to go see Grandpa in a couple of days anyway. I’ll put in a good word for you then.” With that, Chu Ci hung up the phone, not catching the surprised cheers on the other end.

People might think Chu Ci valued brotherly affection, but the real reason he changed his mind was simple: His sister-in-law’s looks cleared the bar.

That’s right. Chu Ci was a top-tier looks supremacist. He made decisions centered around that principle, utterly unbound by logic.

But he was very single-minded; he had no other intentions toward her. That was because he was simultaneously gay and only interested in men. Everyone close to him in his circle knew this. However, they all took it for granted that this young master, who had been a troublemaker since childhood in school and looked the way he did, must be a top.

Considerable family wealth, a top, and handsome looks—he was practically a blessing to the gay community.

Thus, many beautiful bottoms in the circle had their eyes on Chu Ci, finally waiting until he came of age.

Nobody knew that Chu Ci was actually the one on the bottom.

But so far, no one had sparked any desire in him to be a bottom. Judging by his impossibly picky standards, none of them were good-looking enough. The handsome men and beautiful women in ordinary people’s eyes were just indistinguishable cabbages to him.

Chu Ci’s aesthetic standards were extremely strict. If people’s looks were rated 1 to 10, he only had three tiers.

1 point, 6 points, and 10 points.

He had yet to see a 10-point person.

As for being busy with school, that was an excuse Chu Ci casually threw out. Having never liked studying, Chu Ci actually hadn’t been to school many times yet. Because he had to participate in family affairs, he’d also asked to be excused from military training. In fact, he wouldn’t be spending much time at school over the next four years of university.

School had always been Chu Ci’s natural enemy.

They said students at Jinghai University were the best-looking in the University Town, but after looking at the Campus Belle and Campus Hunk selection thread on the Jinghai University Forum while browsing online, Chu Ci thought they were just so-so.

He paid slightly more attention to the comment section and noticed a certain name mentioned multiple times. Supposedly from the Economics and Management Department.

【If the Academic God agreed to post his photo, the Campus Hunk first place would definitely change hands.】

【I’m from the neighboring department. I often see the guy you all are talking about, Tang Yi, at the library. He really is a great-looking guy!】

【Pity he’s a die-hard straight man. Our school’s gay circle really likes his looks. He’s prime gay material. Otherwise, he’d be a huge competitor for us!】

Reading this, Chu Ci pondered slightly. The name sounded vaguely familiar, like he’d glimpsed it on his roommate list before.

Tch, Prime material?

August and September were the hottest time of the year in Jinghai City. A full month of outdoor military training had the new students grumbling nonstop.

The freshmen who’d bought new clothes and got new hairstyles after the college entrance exams had uniformly turned into swarthy little greenies under the sun god’s gaze.

The forum was abuzz with new content daily. All sorts of mocking memes emerged endlessly. He Yuxuan’s antics were occasionally bumped up to be mocked again, and he’d earned the label of “Ugly people do the most.”

The girl he’d harassed had temporarily become the poor little thing of the Media Department. While nobody knew each other yet, everyone was inclined to be a bit kinder to her.

Actually, calling it harassment was a bit of an overstatement. He Yuxuan had merely sent her a few extra messages expressing his admiration, unaware she had a boyfriend. It was just that her boyfriend had seen the messages, which led to this outcome.

Naturally, the bystanders ignorant of the inside story thought that ugly guy was heinously guilty.

Zhang Xiangdong had broken his leg. Although it wasn’t serious, he forcibly stayed in the hospital to avoid military training, spending his days enjoying the air conditioning, quite pleased.

Whenever he browsed the forum and saw anything negative, he wouldn’t mention it to his wardmate. Thankfully, that guy didn’t surf the web much and paid more attention to fashion magazines.

Come dinnertime, Zhang Xiangdong was no longer eating like a glutton as he had at the very beginning. He was a bit on the chubby side and now had a girl he liked.

Especially after witnessing his wardmate—previously mocked as an ugly guy—undergo a huge transformation in just over half a month, Zhang Xiangdong was incredibly envious.

So he started eating and drinking alongside He Yuxuan.

He used this time to be attentive to the girl he liked. She wasn’t from the Mathematics Department. They’d met in a used-goods trading group. Because they were on different campuses, they hadn’t met in person yet.

But Zhang Xiangdong had her photo; she didn’t know what he looked like.

He really didn’t want to be a disappointment in person.

“Bro! Bro! Bro! We agreed to meet after military training ends in a week so I can sell her my book. I get the feeling she’s really into following celebrities. Her idol is pretty handsome. What if she can’t accept my looks? Do I need to dress up better?”

Zhang Xiangdong inexplicably felt his wardmate would be quite insightful in this area.

A few days ago, the guy had bought a set of clothes to wear after being discharged. After seeing He Yuxuan try them on once, Zhang Xiangdong’s eyes had lit up.

Nothing particularly special—just a simple logo-print white tee and black pants—but the cut was amazing. It made a person look slender, tall, and very handsome.

Zhang Xiangdong even felt that if his wardmate kept improving like this, he’d probably end up better-looking than that boy band leader his crush idolized. The guy had the basic facial features for it. If he weren’t a die-hard straight man, he might have felt a twinge of attraction… Mainly, the guy had a total handsome-guy aura.

In comparison, he felt his previous self was simply too unfashionable.

But he was also mentally prepared for a big expense.

Because earlier, he’d casually asked He Yuxuan how much that outfit cost, and the guy had lightly replied, “Over a thousand.”

Damn, that was half a month’s living expenses gone.

But the guy hadn’t seemed particularly thrilled, probably meaning he didn’t love it, just thought it looked okay.

“Bro, is your family pretty well-off?” he asked bluntly.

And then he got a rare glimpse of He Yuxuan’s true feelings. The other propped his chin on his hand and sighed. His melancholy yet beautiful eyes held a trace of wistfulness, like a Persian cat.

“No. Right now, my entire net worth is only a thousand yuan.”

Honestly, He Yuxuan had never been this poor in his previous life. No matter how composed a male celebrity was, he couldn’t suppress his emotions right now. What could a thousand yuan even do?

“I’ll pick something out for you.” He Yuxuan didn’t waste words, just continued lying there tranquilly, scrolling his phone.

The original owner’s pimples weren’t teenage acne but caused by bad eating habits and excess internal heat. Therefore, they had already faded quite a bit, leaving only faint red marks that instead made He Yuxuan’s skin look even more flushed and healthy.

He felt that Zhang Xiangdong was a good guy. Zhang had even said he’d introduce him to suitable part-time jobs when he got the chance. He Yuxuan felt he desperately needed that now.

This book world had the same timeline as his original world. That meant all the brands he liked would still release new collections as scheduled!

Hah, forced to sell his talents.

“I’m counting on you, bro!” Zhang Xiangdong put his hands together in prayer, feeling utterly at ease.

Soon, it was almost time to be discharged, and they faced parting ways. The school military training was also nearly over, and formal classes would begin soon.

Zhang Xiangdong was lucky enough to become one of He Yuxuan’s friends. He always felt this bro would be no simple person in the future. He’d also acquired clothes suiting a hip-hop style.

He couldn’t change his body type much in that short time, but wearing them made him look incredibly cheerful and fun. Besides, the girl quite liked hip-hop culture, too.

Zhang Xiangdong felt his hospital stay had been well worth it.

As for He Yuxuan, one could only say he entered the hospital as one person and left as another. Even the nurse attending to him had gone from indifferent initially to feeling a bit shy around him later.

He packed his things slightly. There wasn’t much, just enough to fill a backpack.

Walking across the enormous campus, He Yuxuan felt it was all unreal.

Students bustled around him, their laughter and chatter filtering into his ears. For the first time since his debut, he didn’t need to wear a mask and hat to hide himself, but could walk openly under the sun.

Yet, every now and then, when he caught others’ scrutinizing gazes, He Yuxuan would immediately pay more attention to his appearance and posture. After being a male celebrity for so long, it was hard not to carry himself that way…

Jinghai University’s grounds were very large, and He Yuxuan was somewhat directionally challenged. Before, he never had to think about routes himself, not to mention the original owner hadn’t stayed at the dorm for more than a couple of days before that incident happened. His memories were even less clear.

He could only rely on Amap while wandering aimlessly.

His injury hadn’t fully healed yet, so he walked with a slight limp. He Yuxuan was trying his utmost to control it so it didn’t look too strange, but his speed was very slow.

Suddenly, he sensed a car behind him honking frantically, a bit noisy.

He looked back quizzically, then slowly moved to the side so as not to block the way.

Chu Ci impatiently removed his sunglasses and frowned, looking out the window. Already having some morning irritability on his first day of school, he thought, fuck, what kind of sickly invalid is blocking the road?

Then he saw that delicate, refreshingly pleasant profile, looking slightly aggrieved.

Huh?