The Emperor's New Acting?

"Bzz, bzz~"

Especially when he was still half-asleep, the vibration of his phone seemed infinitely amplified.

Couldn't he sleep in even a little?

Ye Yizhou frowned and instinctively moved toward the warmth beside him, burying his face in the man's neck. He bit him irritably and mumbled:

"Yan Qingdu, answer the phone. It's so noisy."

Yan Qingdu froze for a moment at the inexplicable bite, then lowered his head to rub his chin against Ye Yizhou's soft hair. He glanced toward the vibrating phone:

"It's yours."

Clearly, it would have been easier for him to reach over and get it.

"Can't you answer it, then?"

Ye Yizhou hugged Yan Qingdu's lean waist, his face buried in his chest. His voice was muffled and utterly unapologetic. "We've already shared a bed. Why draw a line between yours and mine?"

Yan Qingdu chuckled helplessly. Keeping one arm around Ye Yizhou, he rolled over slightly and stretched out his other arm to retrieve the phone from the nightstand on Ye Yizhou's side.

After answering, he held it in front of Ye Yizhou and switched straight to speakerphone.

"Ye~ Yi~ zhou~"

An ominous whisper came from the other end. It was his manager, Wei Zhao.

Ye Yizhou said nothing.

"Ye Yizhou? You there?" With the call connected but no one speaking, Wei Zhao asked in confusion.

Ye Yizhou turned over in Yan Qingdu's embrace and lay faceup with his head on Yan Qingdu's arm. His eyes remained closed as he drawled, "What?"

"I should be asking you that! Do you know how many times I've called and how many messages I've sent? Why haven't you answered any of them?"

"It's perfectly normal for me not to answer messages."

Compared with Wei Zhao's agitation, Ye Yizhou sounded lazy and dismissive. "What trash collector isn't busy?"

Wei Zhao: ...

"Are you still sleeping? How can you sleep?" Hearing the drowsiness in Ye Yizhou's voice, Wei Zhao unconsciously doubled his volume as he demanded an answer.

"Why wouldn't I? I slept great."

Ye Yizhou slowly opened his eyes and looked at the incomparably handsome face before him. Cupping Yan Qingdu's face in his slender, fair hands, he leaned in and planted a kiss on his lips, his voice soft and husky from sleep.

Ye Yizhou's misty eyes were like a clear lake. He resembled an elegant, noble ragdoll cat, sweet and ethereal.

As Yan Qingdu gazed at Ye Yizhou's alluring eyes and brows, his gaze darkened, and he lowered his head to kiss him.

Ye Yizhou pressed a hand against Yan Qingdu's lips and pushed him away, rejecting his advances with the smile of someone whose prank had succeeded. At that moment, he looked like a little devil with two horns on his head, adept at toying with people's hearts.

Yan Qingdu gazed deeply at Ye Yizhou and lightly bit his fingertips.

Unaware of what was happening on Ye Yizhou's end, Wei Zhao was still trying to calm himself. He clenched his back teeth hard and kept his voice steady. "Do you remember what you told me three days ago, before I rushed off to catch my flight? What you promised me?"

"Three days ago..."

Ye Yizhou released Yan Qingdu and sat up in bed. Remembering what he had said that day, he finally couldn't hold back his laughter. "Was there anything wrong with what I said? Pfft."

Wei Zhao was so angry that he began to stammer. "You! You! You fucking did it on purpose!"

That day, Ye Yizhou had been scheduled for an interview, and another artist under Wei Zhao happened to have an important audition.

After weighing his options, he had taken the other artist to the audition and sent an assistant with Ye Yizhou to the interview.

Afterward, while out of town, he had even made a video call specifically to ask how the interview had gone. "How was today's interview? They didn't give you a hard time, did they?"

"No."

"You..." Wei Zhao hesitated before asking tentatively, "You didn't say anything you shouldn't have, right?"

"Relax. I debuted two years ago. I know what I should and shouldn't say. There wasn't a single problem."

Ye Yizhou had looked perfectly well-behaved, his tone sincere. He had raised his brows slightly and even given a thumbs-up to show that Wei Zhao could trust him to handle things.

And in reality?

Wei Zhao now regretted it immensely. How had he fallen for Ye Yizhou's bullshit back then?

Relax, his ass!

"For heaven's sake, don't you think you have enough haters in the entertainment industry already? Sure, we're obscure, but that doesn't mean you can act with impunity! Is 'the Oscars owe me an Oscar statuette' something you can just casually say?"

Over the past few days, he had been running around making arrangements for his other artist's audition and commercial shoot. His flight had only landed before dawn today, and he hadn't heard about this until he reached the office that morning.

"I was telling the truth. Why should I be afraid of them trashing me?" Ye Yizhou shrugged, looking even more innocent.

"Are you serious?" Ye Yizhou sounded so earnest that Wei Zhao couldn't help wondering whether he was the one with a problem.

Ye Yizhou was perfectly self-assured. "When have I ever lied to you?"

Wei Zhao: ...

Don't you feel even a little guilty saying that? Are you sure you've never lied?

"Ugh, how do we handle this? Let it blow over? Or should I log into your Weibo later and explain?"

At this point, Wei Zhao no longer wanted to investigate what exactly Ye Yizhou had been thinking. Handling the PR was what mattered most.

When he had logged into Weibo that morning and seen the interview video, his vision had gone black.

What was more, it had been trending for days. Forget notifying him immediately-no one had even told him by today. He had only learned about it after coming to the office and overhearing other people gossiping.

Thanks a fucking lot!

There was one question Wei Zhao had spent two years trying and failing to understand.

When the company first signed Ye Yizhou, they had specifically instructed Wei Zhao to take good care of him.

They had seemed to value him greatly, as though a dazzling future of stardom lay ahead of him.

And then?

What were these scraps of roles they gave Ye Yizhou, with barely a few lines?

No boosting his numbers, no publicity, and no PR even when scandals were flying everywhere?

He had gone to ask the company's boss for instructions.

The boss had said indifferently, "Let Ye Yizhou do whatever he wants. Just don't spend money on him."

???

He truly couldn't make sense of that approach.

"Don't worry about that trending topic. I've handled it."

"Huh? What did you handle?"

Wei Zhao couldn't help panicking a little. His fingers moved faster across his tablet as he scrolled through Weibo, where he found a new post from Ye Yizhou.

Ye Yizhou V: I'm laying my cards on the table. I'm done acting.

Without a doubt, this response was bound to trend again.

"Could you show me, your manager, a little respect? Are you sure there's nothing wrong with replying like that?"

Angry and helpless, Wei Zhao's headache worsened.

"What's wrong with it? Even a best actor winner says my acting is good."

Ye Yizhou turned toward the man standing beside the bed, his back to him as he put on a white shirt.

The shirt was only halfway on. His shoulders and back were straight, the muscles of his back forming perfectly smooth lines, with several conspicuous scratches across them, suggestive and ambiguous.

At Ye Yizhou's voice, Yan Qingdu turned to look at him, clearly defined tooth marks still visible on his neck.

Ye Yizhou sat on the bed, his cream-colored silk pajamas rumpled from sleep. Several buttons were undone, and the top hung crookedly, leaving one lovely shoulder half exposed.

Having put on his shirt and trousers, Yan Qingdu knelt on one knee at the edge of the bed and looked deeply at Ye Yizhou. With an aloof, aristocratic expression, he straightened Ye Yizhou's pajamas for him.

His long fingers fastened the buttons one by one, concealing the faint pink on Ye Yizhou's porcelain-white, slender collarbones.

Only then did Yan Qingdu rise in satisfaction and take a tie from the wardrobe to put on.

"Acting that only a best actor winner can understand? The emperor's new acting?" Wei Zhao couldn't resist snarking.

"That's a pretty apt comparison. Hahaha." Ye Yizhou seemed quite pleased.

"You..."

"Wei."

Before Wei Zhao could finish, an assistant came in with new information and interrupted him. He told Ye Yizhou, "Something's come up here. Give me a moment. Don't hang up yet."

"Oh."

Ye Yizhou answered perfunctorily, his attention entirely on Yan Qingdu. Tall and slender, dressed in a shirt and tie, he exuded a hint of abstinence as he lowered his eyes and adjusted his cuffs.

"Whew~"

Unable to help himself, Ye Yizhou gave a wolf whistle, raising his brows slightly as he teased Yan Qingdu.

He successfully earned himself a faintly warning look from Yan Qingdu.

In bed, he was as fierce as an intensely possessive wolfhound, but out of bed, he was so proper and restrained, like an untouchable flower on a lofty peak. Tsk, that was fucking hot.

Ye Yizhou's eyes shone as he smiled unconcernedly, musing to himself.

"Fuck!"

Wei Zhao's irritated voice suddenly came through the phone. "Someone's snatched your spot on the dating show."

"Director Ji was way out of line here. At that dinner a few days ago, when we treated him, he clearly agreed to everything. He even walked off with two very expensive bottles of liquor, and now he's turned around and kicked us out. What the hell is this? Fuck."

Wei Zhao cursed without stopping. His anger was palpable even over the phone.

"A dating show?"

A deep, magnetic voice sounded beside his ear, its unhurried tone carrying a hint of danger:

"You sleep with me, then go on a dating show with someone else? Ye Yizhou, you really do play wild!"