The Top-Tier Star Is Shipping Us Again

At nineteen, Jiang Mian had a happy family and a privileged upbringing. He was the campus heartthrob at a drama academy, and his very first role was as the lead in a top director’s film, acting opposite a newly crowned Best Actor.

At twenty-four, his father was in prison and his mother had died. To pay for his grandmother’s hospital care, he signed himself away to a shady management company.

To raise money as quickly as possible, Jiang Mian followed the company’s instructions and played up a fake romance with a male co-star to attract fans.

The newly crowned Best Actor he once acted opposite now had more trophies than he could count. He had a stellar reputation and was beloved nationwide, an undisputed top-tier star. Most importantly, after eighteen years in the industry, he was appearing in an acting competition show as a mentor for the first time.

The company forced Jiang Mian onto the show and warned him over and over: Just milk the pairing!

Looking at the actor who had played his male lover five years ago, Jiang Mian gritted his teeth. If he had to fake a pairing anyway, he might as well pick the biggest star to ride on!

Being infamous was still being famous!

So...

With four mentors and tens of thousands of viewers around, he only looked at the man in the middle.

During rehearsal, everyone got a bottle of water, but he insisted on drinking from the man’s thermos.

He sweetly called the other mentors and guests “bro” and “sis,” but when it came to the man he had worked with, he used the same form of address he had used in their film: “Teacher Gu.”

Bracing himself for an onslaught of abuse, Jiang Mian nervously opened the comments on Weibo, only to find that nobody was cursing him.

Instead, they were saying:

My little sister-in-law!

Little sister-in-law, you’re finally back!

Waaah, I ship them so hard! I knew it, Sleeping Alone is real!

Can you two get together already? Little sister-in-law, do you know what Teacher Gu has been through during the five years you were gone?!

Jiang Mian was baffled. “Huh? What has he been through?”

=

After filming the show, the company sent Jiang Mian to a set, and he decided to ride on someone else’s fame.

But the aloof, otherworldly Best Actor Gu chased after him. “Can you fake a pairing with just me?”

=

Why did Best Actor Gu, who never appeared on camera except for movies, suddenly agree to join a variety show?

Who gave him the thermos he always carries around? And whose favorite drink does he keep inside it?

And who is the person he hasn’t been able to forget since making that film, the person he has never stopped yearning to hear call him “Teacher Gu” again?

My next novel: The Little Mute [Ancient to Modern]

Wu Cheng, the most beloved little prince of the Southern Chu kingdom, dies in an instant.

When he opens his eyes again, a thousand years have passed, and he has become the real young master who was switched at birth.

Twenty years ago, the ruins of the Southern Chu kingdom were discovered. Experts came from all over to study and excavate them. By a twist of fate, the child of the archaeological team leader and a local villager was switched at birth.

Twenty years later, the biological parents learn of the mix-up and rush to claim their child, but die in a car accident on the way. His adoptive parents resent having raised him for nothing all these years and only want their biological son back home.

But a thousand years of change have passed. Wu Cheng can’t understand the language spoken now or read the writing. When people accuse and shove him, he instinctively tries to explain himself, but they think he’s babbling nonsense and pretending to be possessed. They beat him severely with willow branches and lock him in a dark basement.

One day, he hears a noise outside the door. After two days without food, Wu Cheng thinks his adoptive family has come to scold him again, or perhaps some passing children are about to throw stones at him, and instinctively backs away.

But then the little basement door opens. In a shaft of light, a man bends toward him, takes his hand, and gently brushes away the dirt.

=

After the Song family’s parents die, Song Bojian brings the real young master home.

Fans hear that the real young master grew up in a remote mountain village, with five older sisters, spoiled by his family from childhood. He can’t read a single character, is mute, and is eccentric and immoral.

They’ve seen plenty of rumors, both true and false, but still can’t understand why Song Bojian would bring this deadweight home.

Amid all the gossip, Song Bojian follows his previously arranged schedule and appears on a variety show.

Standing behind him, his hand in Song Bojian’s, is the legendary real young master.

A long, slender hand picks up a brush and effortlessly sketches an ink-wash landscape.

He plays chess with a smile, swiftly defeating his opponent without leaving a single piece standing.

His slender, pale hands may hold bubble tea every day, but he can also prepare snow-boiled tea with graceful ease.

He’s frail and delicate-skinned. A cold breeze makes his eyes redden and tears fall, and he clings to someone’s arm, begging to go outside and build a snowman.

Fans passionately call out: “?! Let him build one!”

But they watch as Song Bojian leads him back to his room, sits him at a desk to watch elementary school lessons online, and guides his hand as he learns to write, one stroke at a time.

Song Bojian holds his hand from behind and asks softly, “How do you read this?”

Wu Cheng stares at the pinyin, trying hard. “G, e, ge.”

“Older brother.”

The audience: “?! Wait, aren’t you mute?!”

“Wait, what’s going on between you two?!”

Theme: Heal yourself and keep moving forward.