After Transmigrating into the Main Shou, I Topped the Paranoid Big Shot 6

Chapter 6

When Zong Mo woke up in the morning, the first thing he did was make breakfast.
Practice makes perfect. He was so skilled it was heartbreaking.
Who would have thought he was once a web novel author who slept until noon and only ate two meals a day?

In the gap while waiting for Ruan Chi to come downstairs for breakfast, he finally scrolled through Weibo.
Where was this trending topic he was told about?
He selected the entertainment section and finally found it at number 20.
It was the same old story: there were too many good-looking people in the entertainment industry. You couldn’t break through with just your face, unless your sponsor daddy stepped in.
He still remembered An Lan saying last night that he had gotten on this trending list on his own, with no one pushing from behind the scenes.
It was all genuine heat!

He rubbed his hands together excitedly and clicked on the hashtag #DAVIDCoverModel to check it out.
Even if it wasn’t a hashtag with his name on it, it still made him happy!
He perked up and first sorted through the timeline of this trending event.

First, it was the loyal readers of DAVID who were complaining. Why did a good adult magazine suddenly change its style? Why put the pants they had taken off back on?
Some were scolding the magazine for not wanting to stay in business anymore. They had carved out their niche in the fashion world by selling flesh, so why were they destroying their own brand? Some even went as far as to curse the censorship and other indescribable agencies, but there weren’t many of those.
Most of them aimed their fire at the easiest target:

【Where did this new model come from? Why is he so conservative?】
【You’re already shooting for an adult magazine, and you’re still trying to put up a chastity arch?】
【If you’re a real man, don’t wear pants!!】

Zong Mo: …
On one side, his manager was helping him take off his clothes; on the other, his sponsor daddy was forcing him to put on his pants. He was caught in the middle, in a terrible dilemma, and had to bear all the firepower for no reason!
More wronged than Dou E!

[T.N: Dou E is the protagonist of the classic Yuan dynasty play The Injustice to Dou E, in which she is a virtuous woman who is framed for murder and wrongfully executed. Her name has become synonymous with suffering a great injustice.]

As it turned out, netizens cared far more about the result than the process. The magazine had only just gone on sale online, and few people had received their copies yet. They were already joining the chorus of curses just by looking at the cover.
Up to this point, the storm was mostly contained within the comments section of DAVID‘s official Weibo and the personal Weibo accounts of some long-time readers, and hadn’t attracted much attention.

It wasn’t until the second day that some lost melon-eaters and sharp-eyed long-time readers discovered that this cover model seemed to be a little bit handsome.

[T.N: Melon-eaters : A popular Chinese internet slang term for onlookers or bystanders who are enjoying drama or gossip from the sidelines, much like people eating melon seeds at a show.]

Zong Mo didn’t know which photo was chosen for the cover. He clicked on it to see.
It wasn’t the clear photo he had seen on the camera at the scene, but a black-and-white, hazy style that had been post-processed.

The studio was fully equipped with all the necessary scenes and props for an adult magazine. This photo was taken in the bedroom set after he had unbuttoned his suit.
The lighting was dim, and he was backlit. The only light source was the small square window in the background, which barely illuminated a corner of the white bed below. The rest was darkness, instantly maxing out the ambiguous atmosphere.

The figure in the center was a half-body shot, down to his thighs, so readers could see at a glance that he was wearing pants, and had even fastened his belt, very securely. The dark suit jacket above had blended into the dark background, leaving only a sliver of white in the center.
Strangely enough, it was just a narrow sliver. You couldn’t even make out the shape of his pectoral muscles, and only half of his eight-pack abs were visible.
But wearing these clothes was really worse than wearing nothing at all.

Zong Mo remembered that there was lighting in front of him during the shoot. So, the background had been darkened in post-production, but the lines of his muscles were very clear, obviously the focal point of the entire image.
Zong Mo couldn’t help but sigh. To be able to achieve this under Ruan Chi’s demands, it was truly worthy of an adult magazine.

In front of his face, there was another focal point. It was the lighter and cigarette the props master had given him. Smoking was prohibited indoors, so of course, he didn’t actually light up. The photographer had just captured the moment of lighting the cigarette.
A red glimmer danced on the lighter, the only color in the entire picture. A cigarette was held lightly between his lips, and his well-defined hand, glowing white, half-shielded the faint flame.
What was this if not a post-coital cigarette?
So lewd.

Zong Mo continued to look, expressionless. Fortunately, in this photo, his head was lowered. You could tell from his distinct facial contours that he was very handsome. Thanks to the poor lighting and his long, lowered eyelashes, his expression was completely hidden.
Good.
Good thing the cover wasn’t a high-definition, front-facing photo of him. If that overindulged face and messy expression were put on the cover of a magazine, he would really die of shame.
He had to say, the magazine was clever. They understood the art of playing hard to get.

Zong Mo was lost in thought. It was a long while before he noticed a shadow had fallen over the table in front of him.
He looked up and met Ruan Chi’s eyes, who was also looking at his phone.
…Why was an overbearing CEO peeking at someone else’s phone?

“Was this the thing from last night?” As soon as he was discovered, Ruan Chi sat down next to him magnanimously, not going to the opposite side. “Let’s look together.”
…Don’t you have a phone too?
Zong Mo didn’t dare to say it. He placed his phone flat on the table for his sponsor to see.

The trending topic appeared on the third day after the magazine was released. A large batch of fearless readers had successfully received their pre-ordered magazines.
The inner pages of the magazine were thus made public.
Zong Mo was placed at the very end as the grand finale, but the table of contents had a clear guide to the cover model, leaving him nowhere to hide.
Eight of his high-definition headshots and half-body shots were published at once.
There was also an insert that was twice the size of the magazine, which you had to unfold by hand. As it happened, when you unfolded the photo of him looking back over his shoulder, inside was a huge, straight-on, incredibly lewd face.
It felt like you were personally grabbing your wife’s shoulder, forcing him to look at you, and dragging him back to bed for business.

Pah, what wife?
It was all because of those popular comments…

【So lewd, so lewd, so pure and yet so lewd, I love it.】

【Wuwuwu wife, let’s cuddle!!!】

【Let me introduce everyone to my fresh new wife prprprpr】

[T.N: prprprpr: An onomatopoeia popular in ACG (Anime, Comic, Game) culture, representing the sound of licking. It’s used to express extreme desire or adoration for a character.]

【Fuck, my phantom limb is standing at attention!】

【This is the comments section, not DAVID, don’t take off your pants, hey!!!!】

They didn’t even know his name, and they had already claimed him as their wife.
Modern people’s feelings really moved fast, like a tornado, sweeping Zong Mo up and leaving him unsure of where to go.
He didn’t dare to look at Ruan Chi, but first heard a soft “Heh.”
A standard cold laugh, two parts coolness, three parts contempt.

“Wife?”
Five parts amusement.
The person who slept with him every day was being called “wife” by others outside. One could imagine CEO Ruan’s mood.

Zong Mo: …
He didn’t know how to respond, so he just gave an “Ayy~” in acknowledgment.
Ruan Chi: ?

Zong Mo continued to scroll through the comments, looking for one that might please his sponsor.
It was too difficult. Math problems weren’t this hard. Ruan Chi started eating breakfast, leaving him to sweat while scrolling through his phone.

“CEO Ruan, look at this one. Someone said my gaze looks very affectionate.”
“Oh? Who were you looking at then?”
“Looking at you.”

Ruan Chi had no reaction. This kind of low-quality flattery probably wasn’t enough to fool the heart of an overbearing CEO.
“I think you were just sleepy,” he said.
Zong Mo: …

He continued to look at the nested comments under this one.
【The moment our eyes meet, I feel like I’m going to be eaten…】
Zong Mo thought to himself: I did want to eat someone. I wanted to eat the person next to the camera, in both senses of the word.

【Hehehe wife, let me eat you, hiss ha hiss ha /lewd/lewd】
Ruan Chi happened to look over at that moment.
Zong Mo: …
Too lazy to explain, he just locked the screen and took a big gulp of soy milk.

Because of the trending topic, DAVID, an adult magazine, had successfully broken out of its niche world and entered the vast world of all ages.
Little did they know, the world outside was even more obscene and filthy.
Zong Mo sighed at the decline of public morals.

No one except An Lan knew he was living here with Ruan Chi. It wasn’t even convenient for An Lan to pick him up and drop him off for work, let alone come over to deliver the magazine. If the magazine company wanted to mail it, they would only be told that the address was not convenient to disclose.
It was better not to bring such an indecent magazine into the house. Zong Mo was thinking about how Ruan Chi didn’t seem to care about the magazine he was on the cover of when he suddenly remembered: he still had a set of photos that perfectly fit the purpose of DAVID.
Was that the reason?
Zong Mo felt as if Ruan Chi was holding his underwear in his hands. It would be all too easy to destroy him. Those photos could be randomly arranged and combined into hundreds of Category III films.

In the magazine, there were only a few small words in the corner of the last photo: Cover Model: Zong Mo.
Some people wanted to pull his pants off, and naturally, some were curious about his name. He had only found those words on the photo by following the readers’ directions. He then saw someone asking who Zong Mo was and why they couldn’t find his Weibo.
Of course they couldn’t find it, because his Weibo name was—
CEO Mo is Here

Zong Mo really wanted to complain.
The former Zong Mo dared to call himself “CEO” in front of CEO Ruan. He was truly audacious.
A kind person directly @’d “CEO Mo is Here” and introduced everyone, saying that this model was once a D-list celebrity with terrible acting skills. It seemed he had finally recognized his own limitations, given up acting, and entered the sea… and changed careers.
A few days passed, and many people followed the trail to his Weibo. His followers increased by tens of thousands, but the total was still in the two hundreds of thousands.

An Lan’s call came again, this time during the day.
And before calling, she even sent a WeChat message asking: [Is it convenient to take a call now?]
Zong Mo: …

Ruan Chi saw the caller ID on his phone screen and said, “Speakerphone.”
A small bit of fame was just a drop in the ocean in the ever-changing entertainment industry. Zong Mo obediently continued to be a golden canary and didn’t dare to disobey his sponsor’s words.

An Lan, oblivious to the speakerphone, said excitedly, “I was originally considering those modeling invitations, but today I was contacted by a new-and-upcoming director. He wants you to film a campus movie, as the male lead.”
After seeing that kind of magazine, they want him to film a campus movie?
Zong Mo: …

“Although it’s a low-budget movie, I’ve read it, and the plot is really melodramatic. As long as the actors are good-looking, there’s a high chance it could become a small hit. It’s okay if the acting is bad, it won’t lose money. And being infamous is also a kind of fame. Being able to get scolded is a skill in itself.”
Zong Mo: …
Sister An Lan was really looking out for him. It made him too embarrassed to say no.

“This director is named Yang Lexing. He participated in a grassroots director selection competition last year. Although the show was a huge flop, he won first place with his solid results. It’s said that he has a good relationship with several big-shot directors who were judges.”
“He even borrowed money from friends to film the drama. I guess he might pull in a few actor friends he knows for cameos to support him. Maybe there will be some big names you can ride the coattails of, and you can also learn from the good actors. Although the pay is low, they don’t mind your bad acting. Ay, anyway, no matter what, you must consider it carefully.”
“Ask CEO Ruan. If he thinks it’s okay, I’ll send you the script tomorrow. Even if you don’t take it in the end, you can still take a look.”

No one on the other end responded, but An Lan could chatter on and on.
Until a lazy, magnetic voice sounded: “Fine. Send it over.”
An Lan: …
She didn’t say anything wrong, did she?
She hadn’t said anything wrong, but there were some things in the script that CEO Ruan shouldn’t see.
Anyway, CEO Ruan never cared about the specific content of scripts before. He probably… won’t notice, right?