Top-tier star Zhu Yu, a three-time Best Actor award winner, never appeared on variety shows. This time, he made an exception and agreed to join a reality show for Shen Entertainment, helping build hype for the return of their young heir's debut. He was doing it to repay a favor from years ago.
Before filming began, Zhu Yu tracked down the young heir using the information he'd been given and got straight to the point. “Tell me, how do you need me to play along?”
The handsome young man before him froze for a moment, then replied in a low voice, “I'd like to fake a CP with you, Teacher Zhu. Would that be okay?”
Zhu Yu looked down and sneered, his eyes full of scorn.
Another one looking for a shortcut. What a waste of a pretty face.
“Sure,” he agreed. “But we'll only keep up the act until the show ends. Once filming's over, we have nothing to do with each other.”
*
After the first episode aired, the “Fried Fish” CP became a huge hit.
But Zhu Yu realized he'd found the wrong person. Shen Jian wasn't the heir to Shen Entertainment. They just happened to share a surname.
Shen Jian hadn't come forward to correct the misunderstanding and had instead gone along with it, which annoyed Zhu Yu a little. But after seeing Shen Entertainment's stock price soar on the back of the show and their CP's popularity, he decided to let the misunderstanding stand and keep promoting the CP with Shen Jian.
Bringing him real benefits was also a way of repaying the favor. They were each getting what they wanted.
“It's rare to see you being so kind. Someone schemes against you, and you don't hold it against him. You even introduced him to several directors,” Zhu Yu's industry friend teased at a film festival. “Is it really just that you saw how hard he was working and wanted to help, or are you falling for him for real?”
“It was no trouble,” Zhu Yu said coolly. “I've faked a CP with so many people. I don't have the energy to fall for every one of them.”
After brushing off his friend, Zhu Yu went backstage to change.
But as he passed a lounge, a large hand reached out and pulled him inside.
In the darkness, he was pinned against the wall, his breathing growing ragged.
After a long while, the other person pulled away and wiped the moisture from Zhu Yu's lips. He whispered in Zhu Yu's ear, “Do you do this with every CP you've faked, Teacher Zhu?”
*
Shen Jian never hid the fact that he would stop at nothing to achieve his goals.
He had carefully planned everything, making Zhu Yu mistake him for the heir to Shen Entertainment so he would agree to fake a CP with him. Then he made Zhu Yu feel sorry for him because of how hard he worked and how unfairly he was treated, getting him to play along until the end.
But as his fame grew, Shen Jian began to panic.
Would Zhu Yu stop keeping in touch once his circumstances improved, now that he no longer needed Zhu Yu's pity and sympathy?
Would Zhu Yu find a new CP once he joined a production in a few days and think his old partner was nothing but a nuisance?
…
He seemed to have fallen in love with Zhu Yu all by himself.
That wouldn't do.
If their fake romance turned real, he couldn't be the only one.
[Reading Guide]
1. Cool and reserved shou x scheming gong. Both are strong, 1v1, sweet romance.
2. No real-life inspirations. Please don't project real people onto the characters.
3. The shou is a little bit of a heartthrob, and the gong gets a little bit of a groveling arc.
Theme: Love can overcome anything.
