"Who let you up here?"
"This did." Xia Shule waved the chairman's ID badge in his hand.
At this distance, Su Jin could just make it out. "The new chairman. I received the notice."
Su Jin looked at the young, boyish face before him, recalling what the notice had said: just let the new chairman sit back and collect the money. Even then, he had figured this person must have some connection to President Yan.
Mostly, he hadn't expected President Yan to be someone who would lavish a fortune on a lover.
Clearly, he had handed over a company for someone to play with. As long as this person didn't cause trouble, Su Jin could tolerate him.
Su Jin looked Xia Shule up and down. Neatly dressed, all designer brands. Young, and his looks... were undeniably top-tier. Otherwise, Su Jin wouldn't have considered making him a star.
He just didn't know whether his temper would be difficult to handle. Please don't throw a tantrum... Su Jin prayed.
"If there's nothing you need, you don't have to come in. The company is doing fine. Having you here would only cause trouble."
?
Why was this guy so rude?
Did he look like some kind of idiot?
Despite the polite form of address, every word dripped with contempt. Xia Shule didn't need to think to know this man had dreamed up an entire drama in his head.
He just didn't know what role he had been cast in, or where he fit into it.
Such blatant contempt and hostility instantly set Xia Shule's temper ablaze.
He had awakened, not swapped souls. Deep down, he was still himself, with the same bad temper and tendency to get angry.
Who had ever dared speak to him like this before? In all his twenty years, this was the first time he had heard that tone.
Xia Shule walked up to the desk and tossed his ID badge onto it with a thunk.
Su Jin froze at the sight. Great. The lover was throwing a tantrum, and he was the one who would suffer.
Xia Shule braced his hands on the desk and looked down at Su Jin. "You really don't care about your emotional intelligence, do you? Such a way with words. Tell me, how much grief has that lousy mouth gotten you over the years?"
Su Jin froze, his refined, handsome face stiffening for a moment. Somehow, this man had struck precisely at his sore spot.
Back in school, he had been singled out and ostracized because he refused to flatter others with pretty words.
But he had never believed he was wrong. "I'm only telling the truth."
In truth, Su Jin looked down on the sort of person he imagined Xia Shule to be: someone who could get everything with a crook of his finger. Naturally, that prejudice had seeped into his words.
Many people in the company said Shengshi had been given to him because he had pleased President Yan in bed.
"The truth?" Xia Shule dropped into the chair behind him and rotated his wrist. It still hurt. "You jump to conclusions and speak without using your brain. How can you be sure anything you say is the truth? Apologize to me!"
Xia Shule's brows were tightly furrowed, his face full of displeasure, the ends of his words rising sharply.
He looked exactly like the delicate, pampered lover Su Jin had pictured, someone no one could criticize or so much as touch.
Yet he felt... the other man wasn't wrong.
Su Jin sat there in a daze, thinking who knew what, and the sight only made Xia Shule angrier.
Xia Shule let out a heavy breath. Suddenly, he realized he seemed to have grown up. He could actually stay this calm now, instead of exploding at the slightest spark as he used to.
"You run an entertainment company. After all these years in the industry, you still haven't learned not to judge someone based on hearsay and your own assumptions? Every last person on those standees downstairs has been through this, two hundred percent guaranteed. And you, their boss, judge people the same way?"
"You're not blunt, buddy. You're stupid. Stupid enough to tell your direct superior something as idiotic as 'Having you here would only cause trouble.' Did you think that would make me respect you? Make me go, 'Wow, this guy is so different!' Or... did you think I'd be easy to push around?"
Xia Shule had been used to throwing his weight around since childhood. Whenever he grew angry and his expression went blank, he gave off an air of, I have powerful people backing me. If you don't like it, choke on it.
Su Jin looked up at Xia Shule and met his bright, dark eyes. They held a trace of anger and spoiled arrogance, but they weren't off-putting. Su Jin thought he seemed more like a spoiled young heir from a wealthy family.
Which was exactly what he was. Su Jin simply didn't recognize the Xia Family's young master, who had never shown his face in business circles.
Only after a long while did Su Jin speak. "I'm sorry. I jumped to conclusions."
Xia Shule's expression remained cold. "Good that you know it. Nasty habit."
Su Jin lowered his head, a little embarrassed. But judging by the situation now, things didn't seem to be as the company rumors claimed. The man before him hardly had the sort of temperament to sweet-talk President Yan.
Could it be... President Yan liked this type? What was this type called again? A little spitfire?
He secretly raised his eyes again, hesitating to speak.
Xia Shule noticed him struggling with something. "What's with that look? Can't take a shit?"
At Xia Shule's question, Su Jin hesitated before saying, "If I may ask a presumptuous question..."
"If it's that presumptuous, don't ask." Xia Shule lowered his head to read the messages on his phone, ignoring the man before him.
The messages on his phone were more important. Apparently, Song Dimu had signed with Shengshi Entertainment and was currently still a small-time nobody.
What was going on? Neither in his previous life nor in the original plot had he heard anything about Song Dimu joining an entertainment company.
Could his actions have caused a butterfly effect? That butterfly had flown way too far, hadn't it?
But what could possibly have happened to change the course of Song Dimu's life like this?
Xia Shule frowned deeply, unable to figure it out no matter how hard he tried.
Xiang Lin: Apparently, he's really short on money. Shengshi's five-year contract gives newcomers five hundred thousand as a signing payment. Maybe he did it for that money?
Le Shuxia: That part I do know a little about.
Xia Shule knew Song Dimu was short on money. Money had been what first bound the two male leads together.
Jiang Gechen gave Song Dimu a hundred thousand a month, on the condition that he be available whenever called and answer the phone immediately. His life practically revolved around Jiang Gechen.
Their story was actually the most melodramatic kind. The innocent little flower, Song Dimu, had a younger brother who needed to attend school, a mother who was both mentally unwell and seriously ill, and a father who had long since been imprisoned over certain matters.
So Song Dimu alone supported the entire family.
He was resilient and unyielding, never giving up easily. He covered all his own living expenses with the school's hardship grants and sent every penny he earned home.
Meanwhile, Jiang Gechen was a wealthy young heir and a rising star in business, seeking comfort after his first love went abroad.
(Of course, by this point, Xia Shule suddenly no longer felt he was some villainous first love. He even suspected Jiang Gechen had held a grudge against him for several lifetimes.)
That was how the two met. Jiang Gechen was drawn to the sight of Song Dimu swallowing his tears after being wronged at his part-time job. The boy's eyes and brows also bore some resemblance to the first love who had gone abroad.
Jiang Gechen took an interest, and so he offered a hundred thousand a month in exchange for being available whenever called.
At first, Song Dimu thought this meant becoming a kept lover. Furious, he felt the other man was insulting him and refused to submit. He even gave Jiang Gechen a thorough scolding.
Later, Song Dimu's mother was rushed into emergency care again, and the money he earned could no longer fill that enormous hole. So he swallowed his pride and went to Jiang Gechen. That was how the two began their tangled relationship of love and hate, becoming bound to each other.
And the very end was what had happened to him in his previous life. At that thought, Xia Shule spat vehemently...
So, if Jiang Gechen gave Song Dimu money every month, why would he bother coming here?
Had the two of them fallen out?