Chapter 7: A Cameo

Zhu Sheng returned to the small courtyard and didn’t leave his room for the rest of the day.

Immortal Lord Wuyang had stayed calm even when surrounded by dozens of experts. But after learning that this celestial realm wasn’t that celestial realm, he needed time to process the news.

He sat cross-legged on the bed, eyes lowered to Budu, which lay across his knees.

He’d been sitting in the same position for a long time.

Knock, knock.

Two brief taps brought his thoughts back. Zhu Sheng raised his eyes toward the sound.

It had come from the wall between his room and the next.

Before Zhu Sheng could say anything, a man’s voice came through from next door. “Thank you for the oranges.”

His voice was a little low. He coughed softly after speaking, swallowing the end of his sentence.

Only then did Zhu Sheng remember the two oranges he’d left that morning.

He’d been so rattled when he got back that he hadn’t noticed whether they were still on the windowsill. The other man had found them after all.

“They were sweet. Unfortunately, my health isn’t very good. Otherwise, I would’ve thanked you in person.”

Zhu Sheng came back to himself, raised his voice a little, and said there was no need to mention it.

“We live next door, but I haven’t had a chance to ask your name.”

The man introduced himself as Xi Chengu.

“Chengu as in ‘the affairs of the world,’ and ‘the person from that time.’”

Zhu Sheng’s reply was brief. “Zhu Sheng.”

When he finished, he heard Xi Chengu give a soft laugh from the other side of the wall.

“That’s a beautiful name.”

Zhu Sheng didn’t respond to the polite compliment.

The conversation between neighbors, prompted by two oranges, had started suddenly and ended just as quickly.

Zhu Sheng’s room fell silent again. Seated at the table in the next room, Xi Chengu toyed with the two round oranges. He tapped one gently with a long finger and sighed so quietly it was almost inaudible.

“How did he grow up so cold and taciturn?”

They’d spoken all of six words.

When he’d been little, Xi Chengu had at least sometimes seen him smile, his eyes crinkling at the corners.

Modern society was the celestial realm to the old monk. It wasn’t the celestial realm to Immortal Lord Wuyang, Zhu Sheng.

But even after a spiritual sword had pierced his heart, Zhu Sheng had survived without a scratch. So even in the twenty-first century, where ghosts, gods, and cultivators didn’t exist, he had no real complaints.

Still, when his mind had been shaken the day before, he’d seemed to feel a faint thread of spiritual power flowing through his body.

The sensation had vanished in an instant, and Zhu Sheng wasn’t sure he hadn’t imagined it.

The old monk fingered the prayer beads around his wrist and looked at Zhu Sheng. “Are you sure you want to go down the mountain and look for work?”

Now that he knew this wasn’t the celestial realm, Zhu Sheng nodded.

He didn’t know if he’d ever be able to open the storage pouch with its treasures again. The old monk was kind enough to let him stay at the temple, but Zhu Sheng couldn’t live here for free forever.

Xuan Kong had told him that the guest in the room next door, Xi Chengu, was on the mountain to recover from an illness.

Xi Chengu was generous. He donated a considerable amount of incense money to the temple every year.

Since he’d made those donations, he was naturally allowed to stay in the back courtyard.

The old monk said, “You got your ID card expedited. If you want to find a job, you can…”

He paused. “What kind of work are you hoping to do?”

Zhu Sheng, who knew no one and nothing about the place: “I don’t know.”

He didn’t even know what sorts of jobs existed in this world.

The old monk wasn’t surprised by the answer. He tried a different question. “What can you do?”

Zhu Sheng answered calmly, “Music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. Blades, spears, swords, and halberds. I’ve studied all kinds of weapons, but swordsmanship is my specialty.”

The Crown Prince had been raised from childhood to inherit the empire. He’d had many teachers and learned a great deal.

He was skilled in music, chess, calligraphy, painting, etiquette, music, horsemanship, and archery. He’d even spent some time learning divination from the elderly National Preceptor.

Later, when Crown Prince Sheng became Immortal Lord Wuyang, the value of his old works of calligraphy had soared. They were worth more than gold.

The old monk considered this. “You could try teaching classes.”

“Teaching?”

Zhu Sheng knew nothing about how things worked, so the old monk explained how the tutoring and enrichment programs at the foot of the mountain operated.

Zhu Sheng could manage that kind of work, but the pay wasn’t ideal. He’d have to wait until the end of the month to get paid, and he had no money at all. He couldn’t wait that long.

The old monk said, “You can stay at the temple until things are more settled.”

“That would be too much trouble.”

Judging by how the old monk treated him, the man surely knew something about his past. Even so, Zhu Sheng couldn’t impose on him for too long.

More importantly, if he found a job, the daily journey from the mountain would waste a lot of time and be terribly inconvenient.

Since he’d decided to go down the mountain and make a living, staying up here wasn’t a good option. The old monk didn’t push him.

“Then I’ll keep an eye out for you. There’s no need to rush into finding a job.”

Zhu Sheng’s ideal job paid by the day. As soon as Zhu Sheng left, the old monk called Xi Chengu and told him what the young man was looking for.

The old monk’s scheme was already rattling along.

“Why don’t you give him a job? You capitalists are always hiring secretaries and assistants, aren’t you? You can afford it. One more person won’t hurt.”

With Xi Chengu’s abilities, he could do more than arrange a job for Zhu Sheng. He could make Zhu Sheng his own boss.

“Pay him well, and you’ll have the advantage of being close by.” The old monk’s imagination ran away with him. “Everyone wins. Problem solved. Happy ending. Rejoice, world. Amitabha.”

And if Zhu Sheng worked for Xi Chengu, he wouldn’t have to struggle or get beaten down by society.

The more the old monk thought about it, the better the idea sounded.

“If he works at your company, you can give him things as employee benefits. And you’ll get to see him every day.”

Wasn’t that better than keeping his distance—or waiting until the middle of the night to sneak a look while Zhu Sheng slept?

Xi Chengu was silent for a long time after hearing the old monk out. Then he finally asked, “Do you think…that just because he’s in a new environment, he’s become that easy to fool?”

Crown Prince Sheng was well-read and quick-witted. Immortal Lord Wuyang was famous across the world. He was a once-in-a-thousand-years genius. He’d never been some canary who needed another person to survive.

Xi Chengu had never intended to tie him to his side.

The old monk faltered, then argued, “Can’t you at least try to fool him?”

He made a reasonable point. “He’s at the stage where he doesn’t know anything. He’ll believe whatever you tell him, won’t he? I told him we were in the celestial realm, and he believed me.”

Xi Chengu gave a quiet scoff. “You’ve got some nerve bringing that up.”

Before the old monk could speak again, Xi Chengu said, “He’s Crown Prince Sheng, renowned throughout the land. He’s Immortal Lord Wuyang, famous across the world. He’s a once-in-a-thousand-years genius. He has never been a bird in a golden cage, dependent on anyone else to live.”

He’d never planned to keep Zhu Sheng bound to his side.

The old monk: “… So you’re going to sit back and do nothing?”

Could Xi Chengu really be that heartless?

Xi Chengu heard movement at the courtyard gate. “He’s back,” he said, then hung up.

The old monk stared at his dark phone screen, the space between his brows twitching. After a long pause, he managed, “Serves you right for having to sneak a look in the middle of the night!”

Before the old monk could figure out what Xi Chengu intended to do, another group of people came up the mountain.

Zhu Sheng hadn’t expected the old monk to be so efficient. He’d mentioned that morning that he wanted to find work down the mountain, and before noon Xuan Kong came to get him, saying someone was looking for him.

When he reached the front courtyard, he immediately spotted several unfamiliar people.

Unfamiliar wasn’t quite right. Two of them were the people he’d met by the pool the day before.

Their eyes met, and the two waved at him enthusiastically.

As soon as Zhu Sheng stepped inside, everyone turned to look at him. A young man around thirty sat beside the old monk. The moment he saw Zhu Sheng, his eyes lit up.

The man stood and came over, holding out his hand. “You must be Mr. Zhu?”

Zhu Sheng looked down at the hand held out in front of him. He didn’t yet know about handshakes.

“Who are you?”

Since he ignored the man’s hand outright, the people around them thought he was acting rather aloof.

The man awkwardly withdrew his hand and took out a business card to introduce himself.

He was a variety-show director. Everyone called him Director Zhang.

The two people Zhu Sheng had met the day before had been sent to scout Sangshan by Director Zhang. They were planning to film an episode of a celebrity outdoor competition show there.

Director Zhang had learned about Zhu Sheng from those two.

The man had shut off the camera on his shoulder as soon as he ran into Zhu Sheng, but it had still captured a short clip of him practicing his sword.

When the crew met to review the footage, someone recognized Zhu Sheng immediately.

“Huh? Isn’t this the nameless guy who can fly from the Weibo trending searches? The one the whole internet’s been trying to track down?”

After the short video of Zhu Sheng saving the little girl went viral, more and more people came forward to confirm that it was real. Different videos of the rescue, filmed from different angles, were uploaded one after another.

By now, the story had spread far beyond the short-video platform. Zhu Sheng had been trending for almost two days.

Netizens debated his looks and whether he was really exempt from Earth’s gravity.

His popularity kept climbing. Thanks to videos from all the different angles, he’d even reached the top of the trending list.

Unfortunately, despite the whole internet digging for clues, no one had figured out the handsome stranger’s name.

It was as though he’d appeared from nowhere, leaving no trace behind.

So the trending topic still called him the nameless handsome guy.

Director Zhang hadn’t expected the subject of such a sizzling trending topic to fall right into his lap. He’d packed up and headed straight for the mountain.

He had no grand plans for Zhu Sheng. He just wanted him to play an NPC in their show and make a brief appearance.

On the way up the mountain, Director Zhang had already come up with the promotional hashtags:

#TheHottestNPCInHistory#

#TheNamelessHeroEveryoneIsLookingFor#

#UnbelievablyHandsome#

To keep the topic from cooling off, Director Zhang was even thinking of changing the shoot to a livestream. With Zhu Sheng’s face and the attention already surrounding him, the show would be a hit if they promoted it properly.

Director Zhang couldn’t take his eyes off Zhu Sheng. “You’ve got the looks for it, Mr. Zhu. If you’re interested in entering the entertainment industry, our show could be a great opportunity.”

Zhu Sheng wasn’t interested in entertainment and had no intention of playing an NPC.

He listened with a cool, impassive expression. The refusal was almost on his lips when Director Zhang held up a hand and offered a figure.

“If you agree, we can pay you this much. We’ll transfer it right away!”

Zhu Sheng: “…”

The words “transfer it right away” made Immortal Lord Wuyang swallow his refusal.

He stared at Director Zhang’s hand for a long moment. Then he slowly lifted his eyes and asked, “How much is that?”

His voice was as cool and calm as ever, but Director Zhang, a sharp judge of people, caught a hint of wavering. His spirits soared.

“Just one day of filming. Twenty thousand yuan.”

Zhu Sheng had no real sense of what renminbi was worth. After hearing the amount, he turned to look at the old monk.

The old monk gave him a subtle shake of the head.

Not enough.

Did Director Zhang think he could buy an entire day of Immortal Lord Wuyang’s time for twenty thousand yuan?

Zhu Sheng turned back and looked at Director Zhang in silence.

Director Zhang: “?”

The two stared at each other. Thinking of the attention he could get for the asking, Director Zhang gritted his teeth and raised two fingers. Halfway through, he folded one down.

“Thirty-five thousand. I can’t go any higher!”

Director Zhang rattled on, “Nobody else gets paid that much. Even a minor celebrity making a cameo as an NPC wouldn’t get more than that.”

The other NPCs only got a few hundred or a thousand yuan for a day’s work.

Director Zhang was an honest man. He wanted Zhu Sheng’s face and the attention he brought with him, and his offer was already fair.

Zhu Sheng nodded and agreed.

Afraid the deal might fall through, Director Zhang pulled out the contract he’d prepared and asked Zhu Sheng to sign it.

A one-day job was a simple, one-time contract, without so many complicated clauses and hidden traps. Even so, the old monk looked it over for Zhu Sheng.

After the contract was signed, Director Zhang took out his phone.

“Let’s add each other. Send me your account details, and I’ll have accounting transfer the money.”

Zhu Sheng looked at the phone in Director Zhang’s hand and shook his head. “I can’t add you.”

Director Zhang stopped what he was doing and looked at him. “Why not?”

“I don’t have a phone.”

Director Zhang: “???”

“You don’t have what?”