The Salted Fish Stirs

Chapter Two

Li Wenchuan had never imagined that he, who had once ruled all under heaven, would be strapped for cash—completely and utterly strapped for cash. There were no ministers left for him to fleece, and it pained him deeply.

The previous owner of this body had pitifully few contacts on WeChat Moments. He was even more alone than an emperor.

His phone rang. When Li Wenchuan saw the caller ID—Jin Yue—he hung up without hesitation.

When it rang again, Li Wenchuan suddenly saw the light and chose to block the number.

Unexpected attentiveness always hid ulterior motives. That piece of trash definitely had no good reason for calling him. He might as well spend his time figuring out how to make money.

His current identity was that of a very minor actor, but in this era, so-called traffic could still bring in plenty of money. He had to make a living off his face. Li Wenchuan did not resent this identity. Back when he traveled the world, what sort of people had he not encountered? Everyone had their own way of surviving.

Meanwhile, Jin Yue's expression did not look too good. He clenched his phone and made several more calls, only for each one to show that the other party was currently on another call.

"Tch." He had not expected Li Wenchuan to push his luck and play hard to get with him.

Sun Hao frowned. "Didn't you say you could handle him?" Jin Yue had said Li Wenchuan was the easiest person to manipulate. Now that he had a use for him, naturally he was to be used as a stepping stone.

Jin Yue's career had stalled somewhat lately, as though he had hit a bottleneck. His resources were neither good nor bad. Because of his affectionate and gentle persona, he mostly played the second male lead. On the rare occasions he landed a leading role, the scripts were not particularly good either, creating barely any buzz.

Sun Hao naturally knew exactly what his artist was capable of, but wasn't the entertainment industry all about popularity? Traffic was the easiest thing to monetize. As long as Jin Yue became wildly popular again at this critical moment, better resources would surely follow.

"He's probably just throwing a tantrum." Jin Yue pinched the bridge of his nose, sounding unconcerned.

He knew Li Wenchuan too well. That man simply was not suited for the entertainment industry. He had none of the self-awareness expected of an artist, doing whatever he pleased without considering the consequences. He had no young master's life but all of a young master's illnesses, putting on airs to the extreme.

Jin Yue naturally knew Li Wenchuan's limits and could not help feeling disdainful.

After Wang Yiwen had been driven off in anger yesterday, she truly kept her word and stopped managing Li Wenchuan. Since he was still under contract, the company began arranging for a new agent to take him on.

At the time, Li Wenchuan was practicing tai chi with some elderly men in the residential compound. The old men had merely been copying along with videos, but they had not expected the newcomer's movements to be so precise. One after another, they gathered around and asked him for guidance.

Thus, when He Meng arrived, she saw an exceptionally handsome young man leading a crowd of elderly men and women through push-hands and sweeping arm movements in an open area of the compound. The scene was strange yet harmonious. Quite a few young women were secretly recording with their phones, egging their friends on to ask for his WeChat.

He Meng: I'm numb. So the company really doesn't value me at all.

A newly appointed agent paired with an unreliable artist as washed-up as black sesame paste—no matter how she looked at it, this was a double retirement package.

But in Li Wenchuan's eyes, a soft, delicate little girl was walking toward him. He stepped aside slightly, only for her to move closer again. He could only stop and ask kindly, "Are you looking for your mom and dad?"

He Meng: "..."

He Meng: That hurt so much. It felt like a cold wind was throwing a rave inside her body.

She was twenty-five. Twenty-five! Yet just last week, while waiting by the roadside for a ride, she had been mistaken by a police officer for a lost little girl. Even showing her ID had not eased the awkwardness in the air that day.

Was it her fault for looking young? She was truly numb.

"No, I'm your new agent."

"Damn, the company hires child labor?"

"..." TAT.

The two stared at each other, wide-eyed. In the end, they moved to his rental apartment to discuss work.

He Meng had entered this industry full of passion, only to be dealt a brutal reality check right from the start. Looking at the schedule in front of her, blank as a brand-new sheet of paper, she suddenly wanted to go back home and become a teacher. How was she supposed to manage this?

"Are you really not going to consider Director Wang's drama?" She should at least struggle a little.

Li Wenchuan answered righteously, "No."

Watching her artist lounge on a secondhand sofa with the bearing of someone reclining on a dragon throne, He Meng unwillingly said, "Director Wang actually thinks highly of you. He said it's fine if you don't like that drama—he has another one called <Six Babies in One Pregnancy: The Cold CEO's Little Runaway Wife>. He can let you be the male lead."

"Touch your conscience. Doesn't it hurt to even say that title out loud?"

"..." Her heart was twisting in pain.

Influenced by her artist's aura, He Meng curled up on the sofa too. For a moment, the room was filled with the scent of the sea—salty.

She opened Baidu and typed: How can an excellent agent secure resources for an artist?

—Thanks for the invitation. I'm at Cannes right now, having just accompanied my artist down the red carpet. I know many people in the industry, so I'll remain anonymous due to conflicts of interest. I think those who understand will understand, while those who don't won't understand even if I explain...

She closed it. Another Zhihu post.

—How can an agent lack guidance for the future? Whale Elephant Media teaches you hands-on how to grasp industry rules and gain insight into the changing landscape of the business. During our anniversary event, courses from top instructors worth millions are only 68,888. Teacher Xiaotian will help you become a star agent.

She closed it. A WeChat seller peddling courses.

She truly did not know why these things were like centipedes. Last time, she had seen one advertising a 99-yuan short video course that guaranteed a monthly income of over ten thousand.

Looks like there's no hope, He Meng thought. Then the call screen suddenly popped up. She hurriedly answered, "Hello? Yes, yes, I'm Li Wenchuan's agent."

Then her expression shifted from shock, to disbelief, to wild delight, until her face practically cramped.

It gave Li Wenchuan goosebumps. Once she ended the call, he could not help asking, "Did you have a stroke?"

He Meng felt that Li Wenchuan might belong to the water element. With a casual word, he could extinguish every spark of hope for the future, then stomp on it a few times to make sure it would never reignite.

"No, you have a work schedule now."

"???"

"You and Jin Yue have been invited as guests for the next episode of You and Me Back Then."

This news was no different from a pie falling from the sky. Given Li Wenchuan's current state, the only way he might get on TV was through a legal affairs program. He had not expected that one day he would appear on a hit variety show. He Meng felt that her sincere hopes had moved the god of resources.

You and Me Back Then was this summer's breakout variety show, built around emotional nostalgia. It invited guests to recreate classic roles they had once played. Many casts dispersed after filming ended, and the actors went their separate ways. Now, the show brought them back together in this manner, greatly satisfying the audience's thirst for gossip.

For the next episode, they decided to invite Jin Yue and Li Wenchuan. Naturally, this was because the two had become popular through the same drama, with their CP heavily promoted, only to fall out for all kinds of intriguing reasons. No matter how one looked at it, this was a huge selling point.

Sure enough, the moment the preview was released, it set the internet ablaze. All sorts of people tore into each other beneath the program's official Weibo, cursing the production team for being inhuman. Of course, most of the attacks were directed at Li Wenchuan.

"What does the production team mean? Can just anyone go on a show now?"

"They actually invited Li Wenchuan. All my previous goodwill is gone."

"I'm just a passerby, but I heard long ago that Li Wenchuan climbed his way up through casting couches. I'm boycotting this problematic artist under my real name."

"Let me tell you, it's more than that. He even used Jin Yue as a stepping stone. Jin Yue still speaks well of him everywhere."

"+1. Our Yueyue is too kind. He even speaks up for trash like that."

Soon afterward, Jin Yue updated his Weibo. He posted a still from his old drama with Li Wenchuan. The two young men smiled at each other, as though time had frozen for them. His caption read: "We are still the boys we were back then. @Li Wenchuan @You and Me Back Then Official Weibo."

With that one move, he tagged both Li Wenchuan and the show, acting as though he bore no grudges. In an instant, many CP fans had their hopes rekindled.

"Even though so much happened, I really loved the two of them back then."

"The best Yueyue, you'll always be a young man."

"I never expected Li Wenchuan to be such a disgusting person."

"People's hearts are hard to read. Li Wenchuan is truly revolting."

One trending topic after another climbed the charts, and He Meng's expression darkened as she looked at her phone. Although she did not have much experience, she could tell someone was definitely steering the narrative. Combined with her own artist's current reputation, the more she looked at Jin Yue's Weibo, the more something felt off.

His words sounded nice and seemed to defend Li Wenchuan, but they had no real effect. Instead, they only made netizens more indignant and attack Li Wenchuan even more fiercely. Especially under Jin Yue's Weibo, the attacks on Li Wenchuan could not have been more obvious.

"Don't look at Weibo," she said. Protecting her artist's physical and mental health was also an agent's unshirkable responsibility.

When she turned around, Li Wenchuan had already seen it and offered a sharp evaluation. "That lotus stench is really strong."

He was exactly like Consort De from the palace—gentle and soft-spoken, seeming the easiest to deal with, yet striking down every newcomer in the harem with unerring accuracy. Fortunately, that woman had devoted all her intelligence to palace intrigues, so the son she raised had no great vision either.

Saying it was one thing, but He Meng never expected Li Wenchuan to actually post on Weibo. He reposted a pet blogger's post featuring a plump, fat tabby cat being carried around in a plastic bag by its owner, looking thoroughly unhappy.

Li Wenchuan captioned it: "What brand of plastic bag is that? It can hold so much."

He Meng: ...Damn, he was being a master of sarcasm.

Sure enough, the antis among his followers caught wind of it and mocked Li Wenchuan in every possible way, claiming he was using the mulberry tree to curse the locust tree.

But not long after, the original poster replied that it was a bag from some shop on Pinduoduo. She had repurchased it many times, and one bag could hold three chubby little cats.

Li Wenchuan replied cheerfully: "Buying it now, buying it now. There's been too much trash lately, so this is perfect."

Furious hater: He must be implying something.

Humble face fan: My idol is so cute today too.

Gossiping passerby: It's that useful? I'm buying one too.

Some unknown shop owner: Why did my order volume suddenly skyrocket overnight? And why are people teasing customer service by asking whether the bags come with chubby cats?

A tense online war of insults actually ended in such harmony, leaving everyone caught off guard.

What was more surprising was that ordinary users even pushed the topic onto the trending list. The bizarre hashtag #LiWenchuanBuysPlasticBags somehow climbed into the top five. Passersby accustomed to entertainment industry feuds clicked in out of curiosity, and quite a few ended up following this refreshingly unconventional artist.

Thus, Li Wenchuan gained followers.

He Meng: My way of managing artists must be wrong.

The public discourse had completely exceeded expectations. The newest episode of You and Me Back Then began airing.