FIMA Ch26: Today [Arc 2]

City S, Cuilin Grand Hotel.

Inside the luxurious presidential suite, Gu Siyuan had just regained a bit of consciousness when he felt a slender, flexible body suddenly crash into his arms. He barely managed to stand firm by grabbing the door frame in time.

A vague voice filled with secret delight came from the doorway: “Sir, please enjoy yourself next!”

Gu Siyuan’s mind was a mess right now, aching so much it felt like it was going to explode. His hands also had to support the person in his arms. By the time he looked up to ask something, there was no trace of anyone at the door.

In a daze, he closed the room door and dragged the person in his arms over to the bed to lay down.

According to the system, every time he transmigrated to a new world, there would be a period of rejection reaction between the soul and the body. However, this reaction seemed abnormally intense.

Right at this moment, the freezing cold, smooth body in his arms suddenly rubbed against him as if its life depended on it.

Perhaps it was because his body and mind were truly uncomfortable, or perhaps the coldness of the person in his arms was simply too appealing. Thus, with his eyes closed, Gu Siyuan followed his heart and reached out to stroke them a few times.

The next moment, seductive sounds of “Nn, uh, ah…” rang directly beside his ear.

These few sounds instantly cleared Gu Siyuan’s fuzzy head.

Pressing two fingers to his temples, he sat up, only to be startled by the burning heat of his own forehead. The scorching heat of his breath further proved the point: this body was running a high fever.

No wonder the reaction was so massive this time.

Squinting his eyes, he walked over to the room’s wall cabinet and searched around. Sure enough, he found a small medical kit, dug out some fever reducers, and swallowed them down with mineral water.

Whether it was a psychological effect or the medicine really worked fast, Gu Siyuan instantly felt much better.

Only now did he have the energy to deal with the person he had brought in while half-conscious, who was currently sprawled on the bed, twisting into a ball.

He walked to the side of the bed and reached out to flip the person over.

Looking at this person’s face, Gu Siyuan froze for a moment. He just felt it was incredibly familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before, but he couldn’t recall it no matter how hard he tried.

He asked coldly, “What… is your name?”

“Hmm? Then… who are you?” The person on the bed half-opened his dazed, large eyes, his tone actually quite spirited.

However, the revealed face was truly breathtakingly beautiful and handsome, excessively good-looking. Even someone with a naturally cold personality like Gu Siyuan couldn’t muster any dislike towards him.

Seeing Gu Siyuan remain silent, the young man seemed a bit dissatisfied and continued to mumble, “Speak, who are you? I… I am Xie Jinzhao.”

Xie… Jinzhao?

Gu Siyuan narrowed his eyes. He had never heard this name before.

Then it should be someone he didn’t know. With his memory, it was impossible to remember incorrectly.

So, what was with that sense of familiarity just now? Could he have degenerated into a vulgar visual animal, thinking someone was good-looking and deliberately feeling a sense of closeness?

Right at this moment, a needle-like sharp pain pierced his head.

Following that, a massive amount of unfamiliar information was instilled, and a familiar, icy mechanical voice sounded.

“Hello, Host. This is your task target for this world—Xie Jinzhao.”

“Current Mission: Change Xie Jinzhao’s character ending and let him achieve happiness.
Success Reward: One lottery draw opportunity.
Failure Penalty: Inability to obtain rewards.”

Gu Siyuan exhaled a breath. So it was the task target.

Right at this moment, the person on the bed started groaning and whining: “Hot, it’s so hot…”

As he spoke, his hands began tugging at the thin clothes on his own body.

Gu Siyuan recalled the information he had just received and remembered that the person in front of him was different from him. He didn’t have a fever; he had been drugged.

He gently shook his head, completely casting aside those messy thoughts. He bent down and scooped the slender body curled up in the soft dark blue blanket into a bridal carry.

The moment the person was in his arms, Gu Siyuan hesitated for a second. This tactile sensation was also deeply familiar, right down to his bones.

He kicked open the bathroom door, placed the body from his arms into the bathtub, and turned on the showerhead’s water valve.

As the water poured down over his head, Xie Jinzhao immediately shivered uncontrollably. He groggily grabbed Gu Siyuan’s arm beside him and murmured in unbearable discomfort, “Don’t… sleepy, I want to sleep…”

Gu Siyuan watched the person try to rub against him like a kitten, and narrowed his eyes.

Then, he continued to turn up the valve.

He half-sat leaning against the nearby sink counter. While watching the person get rinsed with water, he ran through the plot of this world in his mind.

The main plot of this world took place in the entertainment circle. It was a “group-pet” novel.

The group-pet protagonist bottom was named Qi Ran.

Qi Ran’s father, Qi Guanyu, was a company director. His eldest brother, Qi Ze, was a highly regarded new talent on the start-up board. His second brother, Qi Run, was a top-tier actor who had remained highly popular in the entertainment circle for nearly a decade, with countless fans.

And Qi Ran was the most favored youngest son in this family, held in the palms of his parents and his brother-con (doting) older brothers.

Under a normal trajectory, he would have attended an Ivy League school, entered the family company after graduation, and enjoyed a job with high pay and little work.

But because Qi Ran was infatuated with the current youngest Best Actor, Yun Yan—who was also the protagonist top of this novel—he wholeheartedly wanted to enter the entertainment circle to be closer to him and get the first chance at love.

After whining and acting spoiled to his family, Qi Ran finally got his wish and entered the cast of Wind Rises over Mountains and Rivers.

Wind Rises over Mountains and Rivers was the most highly anticipated and heavily invested costume legend drama production of the year.

Not only did it invite the youngest Best Actor Yun Yan to “descend to the mortal realm” and act as the male lead, but it also had the newly rising high-traffic male star Xie Jinzhao playing the second male lead.

And Qi Ran played the personal bodyguard of the second male lead in the drama—a special youth with a simple mind but highly skilled in martial arts. Although he didn’t have many scenes, his character setting was very good.

However, because it was Qi Ran’s first time acting, he would often make common-sense blunders on set. Since Xie Jinzhao had the most scenes opposite him, in order not to delay the shooting schedule, Xie Jinzhao frequently guided and advised him, and also helped block some sour and cynical remarks from other actors.

Over time, the two became friends.

Once, quite accidentally, Qi Ran saw Xie Jinzhao’s phone wallpaper and discovered that he was actually a fan of his second brother, Qi Run. He privately revealed his identity to Xie Jinzhao, and to thank him for his care, offered to introduce his second brother to him.

Therefore, from then on, Xie Jinzhao took even more care of Qi Ran.

Even when the other party’s studio wanted to edit behind-the-scenes footage of the two to hype up their “fairy-like friendship” or even a real-person CP (shipping pairing), Xie Jinzhao convinced his own manager to agree to it.

After Wind Rises over Mountains and Rivers aired, although it failed to explode in viewership numbers because it didn’t quite suit the tastes of the mass market, it received very high praise among the elite class.

Aside from the male lead receiving a Best Actor nomination, the highest buzz from this drama belonged to the “fairy-like master-and-servant CP” edits of Xie Jinzhao and Qi Ran.

Crucially, not only in the drama, but the two also had an excellent relationship in reality. They tagged and messaged each other on Weibo all day long, and frequently met up privately for meals, gaming, etc.

Viewers watched and cried out, praying to heaven to grant them such a good friend.

Riding the tailwind of this friendship CP hype, combined with strong subsequent resources, many industry insiders and veteran fans began to “buy stock” in Qi Ran, directly elevating him from a pure newcomer to a second-tier actor.

Regarding Xie Jinzhao’s help, Qi Ran did indeed give a return.

Not only did he introduce his second brother Qi Run to Xie Jinzhao, but he also joked that he wanted Xie Jinzhao to be his second sister-in-law.

As a doting older brother, upon hearing Qi Ran’s words, Qi Run directly smiled and said, “Okay.”

And Xie Jinzhao, facing his idol, couldn’t bring himself to say words of refusal either.

Just like that, Qi Run and Xie Jinzhao got together.

However, although Qi Ran was a group-pet favored to the heavens by everyone around him, there were still a couple of people wholly intent on harming him.

Shortly after Wind Rises over Mountains and Rivers aired, the protagonist top Yun Yan returned to the movie circle to start filming a suspense movie titled The Murderer.

The Qi family’s company had invested in this movie, so Qi Ran also found ways to join the cast as the third male lead, starting his second collaboration with Yun Yan.

By this time, Yun Yan and Qi Ran had already started dating.

Qi Ran was connected to the investors, had a good relationship with the male lead Yun Yan, and behaved obediently on normal days. Thus, the director and screenwriter subconsciously took extra care of him, even frequently volunteering to add scenes for him.

With this happening, disputes naturally arose.

It especially caused intense dissatisfaction for Zhang Chen, the actor playing the second male lead in The Murderer. Zhang Chen was a high-traffic young actor who had recently exploded in popularity from a Xianxia drama last year. He had painstakingly entered this movie’s cast through resource swapping, wanting to use it to squeeze into the movie circle and expand his acting path. Therefore, he cared a great deal about his screen time.

Thus, Zhang Chen frequently tripped Qi Ran up during filming.

However, as the group-pet protagonist bottom, Qi Ran not only neutralized these attempts one by one, but even used them to directly kick Zhang Chen out of the cast. The second male lead’s screen time that belonged to Zhang Chen was all added to Qi Ran.

By the end of filming The Murderer, it was practically no different from a dual-male-lead movie.

A few months later, the production of The Murderer was completed, and it successfully premiered in theaters.

The movie’s production quality was indeed very good. Coupled with the prevalence of CP culture in recent years and the sufficient marketing funds provided by the Qi family, the “one righteous, one evil” police-and-criminal CP of Yun Yan and Qi Ran achieved immense popularity and word-of-mouth.

By the time the movie finally left theaters, its box office was approaching 1.5 billion, making it the highest-grossing and best-reviewed police-and-criminal movie domestically in recent years.

Qi Ran vaulted directly into first-tier status, becoming a movie star and receiving Best Supporting Actor and Best Newcomer nominations at major film festivals.

However, this result made Zhang Chen—the second male lead who was kicked out of the cast earlier—practically burst his eyes with rage. In his view, if Qi Ran hadn’t obstructed him, all these achievements should have belonged to him.

Therefore, at a certain banquet, he bribed the venue’s staff, spiked Qi Ran’s water, and planned to send him to the room of a male client in the hotel.

Except, midway through the plan, it was bumped into by Xie Jinzhao, who had just come out for some fresh air. Seeing that Qi Ran’s condition seemed off, Xie Jinzhao stepped forward to ask about the situation.

The waiter, feeling guilty and panicked, actually knocked Xie Jinzhao out with a backhand strike.

Right at this moment, Yun Yan happened to come around the corner.

In a rush, that person simply dumped Qi Ran and carried away the unconscious Xie Jinzhao.

Qi Ran’s drug took effect. Upon seeing his sweetheart Yun Yan approaching, it was like heavenly thunder striking earthly fire. The two directly booked a room and rolled into bed, completely ignoring Xie Jinzhao, who had been collaterally implicated and taken away.

On the other side, after the waiter took Xie Jinzhao away, seeing that Xie Jinzhao was even better-looking than Qi Ran, he actually took it upon himself to change the target. He decided to deliver Xie Jinzhao to the male client in the presidential suite, which was the original owner of this body, Gu Siyuan.

Gu Siyuan was the stepson of Gu Hongxuan, the boss of Tianli Entertainment. He had followed his mother into the Gu family when he was seven years old.

However, his mother was only Gu Hongxuan’s third wife. Gu Hongxuan’s first two wives had given birth to three sons and one daughter for him.

Therefore, Gu Siyuan’s position in the Gu family had always been extremely awkward.

From a young age, he was bullied and humiliated by Gu Hongxuan’s three biological sons. His mother, in order to curry favor with Gu Hongxuan, never dared to speak up for him.

Growing up in this kind of environment, Gu Siyuan naturally developed a gloomy and twisted psychology.

However, he also had someone he liked, which was the protagonist bottom, Qi Ran.

Because the Gu and Qi families were old family friends, when he was bullied as a child, Qi Ran had once handed him a tissue. From then on, he regarded Qi Ran as the “white moonlight” in his heart.

This time, Gu Siyuan had accidentally learned that someone was scheming against Qi Ran, so he used some tricks to swap rooms with the original guest.

He liked Qi Ran, but felt inferior because of his own background, so he never dared to confess his feelings.

But this time, the timing was too coincidental. Through a series of mishaps, even if the incident was eventually exposed, it couldn’t be blamed on him. Perhaps he and Qi Ran might really be able to achieve a positive outcome from this…

But who could have expected that the person ultimately delivered would actually be Xie Jinzhao? This was like a bucket of cold water poured over Gu Siyuan’s heart full of passion, making him momentarily furious!

In the end, he vented directly on Xie Jinzhao. Not only did he ruthlessly torment him, but he also took many indecent photos.

When Xie Jinzhao woke up, facing everything before his eyes, his world practically collapsed.

Yet he didn’t dare call the police. He was a public figure; once such a thing was exposed, it meant his career was ruined from then on. Although he was the victim, from then on, whenever the audience saw him, they would always immediately think of this scandalous topic first. Precedents like this were everywhere.

Moreover, he was also afraid of losing his boyfriend Qi Run, whom he had finally managed to get together with.

Thus, under Gu Siyuan’s threats, he could only pretend nothing had happened.

However, from then on, due to psychological awkwardness, Xie Jinzhao gradually distanced himself from Qi Ran. They even had consecutive disputes over resources a few times, and he no longer backed down like he used to.

In Xie Jinzhao’s heart, the first to blame was the chief culprit Gu Siyuan, and second, it was because he tried to help Qi Ran that…

Facing this situation, Qi Ran first naively went to ask his second brother Qi Run: Did he have a fight with Xie Jinzhao? Why had Xie Jinzhao’s attitude toward him suddenly become so bad recently?

As a veteran doting brother, Qi Run naturally pushed all the blame onto Xie Jinzhao, only saying: “Since Ran-ran doesn’t like him anymore, then Second Brother will break up with him!”

On the other hand, at this time, Xie Jinzhao received a message from Gu Siyuan again, threatening and insulting him with the indecent photos, demanding to meet him.

Time and again, Xie Jinzhao suddenly reached an epiphany. A person’s desires had no end; he could no longer be controlled by him.

He finally made up his mind to expose this matter. First, he called his boyfriend and idol, Qi Run, hoping to get his encouragement and support.

However, the first sentence Qi Run spoke was to break up with him.

Xie Jinzhao originally only had idol worship for Qi Run, without any romantic affections. But at this moment, treating him as his last straw, he couldn’t help asking Qi Run: What was the reason for breaking up with him?

But Qi Run’s answer made him break down even more.

Qi Run stated: He himself had never liked him to begin with. It didn’t matter at all who he dated. The only reason he chose him back then was because it made Qi Ran happy. Now that Qi Ran didn’t like him anymore, he was breaking up with him.

To this, Xie Jinzhao could only smile bitterly.

On the other side, because Gu Siyuan had waited without a response from Xie Jinzhao, he released Xie Jinzhao’s indecent photos directly to the public in a fit of anger.

Because his previous drama had extremely poor broadcasting results, Xie Jinzhao’s reputation had recently been very bad to begin with, surrounded by anti-fans and terrible audience word-of-mouth.

Once this scandalous photo incident broke out, it spread like a flood almost instantly, and his reputation plummeted straight to rock bottom.

Words like homosexual, disqualified idol, chaotic private life, and promiscuity were all linked to his name.

Finally, reporters interviewed Qi Ran, asking him for his opinion on the other half of his former “fairy-like friendship CP.”

Recalling Xie Jinzhao’s sudden coldness toward him not long ago, Qi Ran only said airily: “I’m not very clear about this matter either. However, we are all adults. If someone does something wrong, they definitely have to bear the consequences.”

These words seemed fair, but in a certain sense, it was practically calling him out directly, saying that all the rumors and gossip online about Xie Jinzhao were true. It became the final straw that crushed Xie Jinzhao.

At this point, Xie Jinzhao had nothing left to lose.

He thought that even if he died, he would drag others down to hell with him. The primary target among them was Gu Siyuan.

He commissioned a private investigator. After figuring out Gu Siyuan’s identity, he went directly to Gu Siyuan’s home.

However, he shockingly discovered that Gu Siyuan and Qi Ran seemed to be old acquaintances. They chatted and acted very familiar with each other. When Gu Siyuan looked at Qi Ran, he carried a naked, unconcealable adoration and longing.

And subsequently, he saw Yun Yan driving over to pick up Qi Ran. The two secretly hugged and kissed, exactly in the manner of a couple.

Xie Jinzhao finally remembered that day at the hotel. It seemed Yun Yan was the one who came at the end, so that person let Qi Ran go and took him away instead.

Based on the mentality of “since you were heartless, I will be unjust,” he immediately took out his phone, snapped intimate photos of Yun Yan and Qi Ran, and decided to expose them.

Except, the next moment, his presence was discovered by Yun Yan’s bodyguards, and his phone was snatched away.

Looking at Xie Jinzhao being held down by the bodyguards, Qi Ran widened his eyes in surprise, “Jinzhao, what are you trying to do? Even if something happened to you, you wouldn’t go so far as to harm me, right? Aren’t we friends…”

And this time, Qi Ran let him go on the surface, allowing him to leave unharmed.

But shortly after, he told his second brother Qi Run about this matter.

As a brother-con, Qi Run naturally wouldn’t leave an unstable factor like Xie Jinzhao unchecked in the outside world. After drugging Xie Jinzhao, he sent him back to the giant pervert Gu Siyuan again.

As for being able to help Qi Ran solve a problem, Gu Siyuan naturally wouldn’t refuse. Besides, after that first time, he had acquired a taste for a spicy beauty like Xie Jinzhao and wanted more.

Until one time, Gu Siyuan was momentarily careless. Xie Jinzhao caught an opportunity and stabbed him several times. The two wrestled into a tangled mess, and ultimately, both fell off the balcony to their deaths.

At the very end, the protagonist, Qi Ran, rose all the way to the top. His career was successful, and his love life was happy. He achieved massive success in both movies and TV dramas. At an awards ceremony a few years later, Yun Yan officially proposed to him.

The two received everyone’s blessings, becoming an unquestionable fairy-tale couple.

While the once-existent Xie Jinzhao was just a fleeting passerby in their lives, leaving almost no trace behind.

…

Gu Siyuan turned off the water valve, lowered his eyes to look at the person sleeping like a little pig in the bathtub, and smiled with slight sarcasm: “Truly quite pitiful!”

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