A Gentle Facade [Showbiz]

One casting-couch encounter awakened Xu Wu, an obscure entertainer in the showbiz world, to his own existence. He realized with a shock that he was the protagonist-receiver in an old-school, angsty novel.

To avoid getting entangled with the powerful scum gong and ending up reviled by everyone and imprisoned, he kicked the scum gong, who was about to assault him, right off the bed and pinned his hopes on movie emperor Fu Chengzhou.

Fu Chengzhou was the scum gong's uncle, and the one person in the whole novel the scum gong wouldn't dare provoke lightly. Xu Wu had once seen him casually step in to save a stranger, and thought he might be a lifeline he could cling to.

Xu Wu deliberately approached him. Fu Chengzhou would lend him a hand, partly because he was pretty, but never more than that.

Xu Wu understood that the only way to escape the scum gong's control for good was to become the apple of Fu Chengzhou's eye.

He carefully played the part of a resilient, fragile-looking young man he thought Fu Chengzhou might like, sending him gentle words and carefully staged selfies every day. Fu Chengzhou's replies were few, but his fingers betrayed him: he saved every single photo.

His chance came when Fu Chengzhou's new drama began filming. The actor cast as the protagonist-receiver was embroiled in a scandal and fell from grace. As the director struggled to handle the crisis, Fu Chengzhou was in an accident and hospitalized.

Xu Wu went to visit him. When Fu Chengzhou looked up from his hospital bed and saw who had arrived, he was convinced Xu Wu was his boyfriend.

After being discharged, Fu Chengzhou overruled everyone's objections and gave the vacant lead role to Xu Wu, who had neither fame nor acting experience.

In front of the camera, Fu Chengzhou's character tormented Xu Wu until he was emotionally shattered, and the director praised his superb acting.

Once the cameras stopped rolling, Fu Chengzhou was a completely different person: thoughtful and attentive, with a gaze so clingy it seemed to melt.

Behind-the-scenes footage leaked, and the whole internet was in an uproar: How was this acting? He was obviously a hopeless romantic who couldn't hide it! The aloof movie emperor Ling, who kept everyone at arm's length off screen, was actually smiling at Xu Wu like a lovestruck boy experiencing his first crush?

His devoted fans were devastated: “His one and only flaw is that he's never a lovesick fool!”

Reality slapped them in the face. Off screen, Fu Chengzhou was even more lovesick than ever.

The scum gong: “Did Fu Chengzhou get hit in the head by a car or something??”

Xu Wu knew better than anyone that Fu Chengzhou's sudden “lovesick” behavior really was because the car accident had damaged his brain.

He took shameless advantage of Fu Chengzhou's affection to pave the way for his career, and trampled underfoot everyone who had bullied him, including the scum gong who wouldn't leave him alone.

He thought he was wearing the perfect fragile-flower mask and keeping up the image Fu Chengzhou liked.

That was, until his hidden dark side and underhanded tactics were exposed by accident, sending public opinion into an uproar and bringing a storm of abuse.

Some fans were excited in a disturbing way: “A sweet-faced, dark-hearted psycho? That's so compelling!”

More people condemned him: “That scheming little minx should get out of showbiz!”

At the center of the scandal, Fu Chengzhou calmly announced, “I know. I like him.” He gazed at Xu Wu, his eyes full of understanding and indulgence. “Every side of him.”

Netizens: “Damn! The movie emperor is even willing to love that scheming little minx?!”

Only then did Xu Wu understand that the lifeline he had hooked might never have been a lifeline at all, but a deep sea that was willingly sinking for him.

A doting, double-standard, fatherly gong x a resilient-looking, fragile-flower receiver with a hidden dark side

Both are each other's first and only. A sweet, satisfying story with no need to think too hard.

Theme: Be self-reliant