Where was he?

[It took Si You just two short years to go from a promising rising star in show business to dying miserably in a rented room, and no matter what he did, Shen Chuan would never love him-]

Huh???

When that snippet of plot popped into his head, Si You thought his assistant Bai Tian must have played too many melodramatic audiobooks during the day, influencing him. Otherwise, he had no explanation.

"Si You, get up right now! If you want to die, don't do it here!" An impatient male voice exploded beside his ear. The man yanked the curtains open, and the harsh light instantly made the exhausted Si You uncomfortable.

"You're dead," Si You muttered.

Zheng Hao turned around in surprise, the contempt still lingering on his face. "What did you say?"

Si You sat up, froze for a moment, then looked around blankly. His gaze lingered on Zheng Hao's face, which looked like a clear case of hormonal imbalance, before a question rose from the depths of his soul: Where was he? Who was that?

Hadn't he finished three straight months of filming and been resting at home? Yet the little apartment before him was utterly unfamiliar, with clothes and trash strewn all over the floor.

As information flooded madly into his mind, Si You rubbed his temples with a deathly pale face and slowly made himself accept one fact-he had inexplicably transmigrated.

The original owner of this body shared his full name and also worked in show business. He had shot to fame on a talent show for newcomers and gained a following. His future should have been bright, but somewhere along the way, he had developed a terminal case of lovesickness.

His company had arranged for him to take part in a dating reality show called Spring Heartbeat, where he fell for the popular actor Shen Chuan at first sight. Note the wording: Shen Chuan was a "popular actor," not just a celebrity entertainer. That meant he had genuine talent, and the productions he had appeared in were all highly acclaimed. His fans took pride in that and rarely backed down from online fandom fights.

After that, the original Si You launched a whole series of desperate advances.

And desperate they were. On camera, his eyes practically clung to Shen Chuan. He conspicuously fussed over him, bringing him tea and water, and kept finding opportunities to touch him. Regardless of gender, that sort of boundary-crossing behavior qualified as harassment.

At first, Shen Chuan's fans managed to keep their tempers in check, treating him as a fanboy who was overly excited to meet his idol. But after the first week of filming, at a celebration dinner for the entire production team and cast, the original Si You drunkenly charged onto the dance floor and tried to force a kiss on Shen Chuan. Someone captured clear footage and posted it online. Unsurprisingly, Shen Chuan's fans all exploded.

The original Si You's Weibo was overrun overnight.

All the dirt from his trainee days was dug up in one go. In short, he had never deserved his position. He had gotten ahead by playing the victim and putting on a calculating act of innocence, sniffling at the camera as he said, "I missed my grandfather's funeral to prepare for this show." In reality, his grandfather had died over a decade earlier.

You fucking...

Si You was stunned by this bizarre stunt, which should never have happened under any circumstances.

Si You knew all too well how treacherous show business could be. Saying that the original owner had "cut off his own escape route" was no exaggeration.

Faced with the almost bloodthirsty abuse on Weibo, the original Si You panicked and begged his company for help. Instead, the company packaged him up and sold him to the industry leader, New Victory Media.

A storm of that magnitude was beyond the little company he had previously worked for.

Selling him off was as good as abandoning him. Shen Chuan had already announced that he was withdrawing from filming, openly severing ties with the original Si You. What few fans Si You had were all worn down and driven away, one incident at a time. New Victory Media had taken him in at this juncture purely as a disposable tool to generate buzz for season two of Spring Heartbeat, making him an outlet for the audience's and fans' hostility.

Si You blinked slowly, confirming that he was not dreaming.

This was absurd...

Once his new film premiered, he would most likely have won the Dawn Award and become the youngest actor in film history to complete a grand slam of best actor awards. Instead, he had opened his eyes to this. It was not even a matter of being back at square one-he had been thrown into hell!

"Got a cigarette?" Si You asked. Having just woken up, his voice was hoarse, and even his double eyelids had folded into single ones. But his lowered gaze looked cold and detached. All his former timidity and melancholy had vanished.

Zheng Hao had never seen that expression on Si You's face. He seemed like an entirely different person.

Then Zheng Hao recovered and scoffed. "A cigarette? You've got the nerve to ask for one? You've ruined everything!"

"Fine." Si You suppressed his temper. Given his current situation, he had no choice but to swallow his pride. "You want me to move out, right?"

"What else?" Zheng Hao glared at him. "Your contract with the company's already been terminated. How much longer do you plan to squat here? If you've got nowhere to live, ask Xinsheng!"

No one was better than the entertainment industry at fawning over the successful and trampling the fallen. Besides, because of Si You, the company's Weibo and private messages had been flooded lately, and even its stock price had dropped. Naturally, Zheng Hao was not about to be pleasant to him.

Zheng Hao waited for Si You's eyes to fill with tears. Instead, Si You simply nodded. "I'll move out by tomorrow at the latest."

"Fine. I'll come check the apartment tomorrow. Get the hell out as soon as you can!" Zheng Hao turned to leave. He had just reached the door when the man behind him suddenly asked, "When I become famous, will you regret the way you treated me today?"

Once again, Zheng Hao lost control of his expression. He offered Si You a sincere suggestion. "Have the haters driven you crazy? Go get your head checked at a hospital when you have time."

Si You smiled. "Definitely."

For some reason, a chill crept up Zheng Hao's back. He did not want to stay any longer.

As soon as Zheng Hao left, Si You grabbed his phone, unlocked it with his fingerprint, and checked his finances. For several seconds, he did not move.

Thirteen thousand... That was the entire net worth of a minor celebrity who had once enjoyed a burst of fame in the third tier. It had been a long time since Si You had experienced what it felt like to scrape by. He had no income now. The company had collected his payment for the previous shoot and apparently had no intention of handing it over. After all, anyone could take a kick at the current Si You.

Si You had weathered countless ups and downs. It was not as though he could not start over, but dumping him straight into the starter village was going too far, wasn't it?

Still, his circumstances left him no time to waste.

Si You dragged his exhausted body out of bed. He had no idea how long the original owner had gone without sleep, and he clearly had not been eating properly either. Stepping over the trash, Si You entered the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. There were two eggs and a bunch of leafy greens; everything else had gone bad. He also found some dried noodles. He put those on to boil, then went to the bathroom to wash up.

The person in the mirror looked almost exactly like him. His skin was pale, but his features were finely sculpted, especially his brows and eyes. The outer corners of his eyes tilted slightly upward, and even the faintest smile gave him an air of disdain and mockery. It was a strikingly aggressive face, but the original owner had failed to make use of it. He habitually played innocent for the camera, with slicked-up hair and a powdered face. The look was jarringly mismatched, and even casual viewers had little affection for him.

"Idiot." Si You shook his head lightly, scooped up a handful of clean water, and splashed his face.

After washing up, he felt a little more alive. He fried the eggs and mixed them into the noodles, then wolfed everything down despite the heat. Once his stomach was full, he pulled over a stool, sat down, and began browsing rental listings on an app.

The place could not be too remote, or every trip out would turn into an epic pilgrimage. But he could not afford anything expensive either. After searching for half an hour, Si You finally found one he liked: one bedroom and one bathroom. It was small, but conveniently located, and it looked very clean in the photos. One month's deposit and three months' rent up front, at two thousand a month. He could afford that.