Looking forward to being flamed to death by your haters?

Trapped in the elevator for the tenth time, Yu Fengyi had veins bulging on his forehead. His face was livid as the maintenance workers opened the heavy tempered doors, and he was just about to unleash a torrent of blame.

His Special Assistant jogged over in slender high heels and intervened in time. "President Yu, are you all right?"

Yu Fengyi lifted his eyelids and cast an icy look at her, his smile utterly hollow. "What do you think?"

"Are the company's tens of millions in funding not enough? Shouldn't this elevator be replaced?!"

The Special Assistant looked troubled, but her speech never slowed. "President Yu, this elevator was only replaced this year. It was imported from Germany, supposedly of outstanding quality and guaranteed not to malfunction for ten years. Professional maintenance workers have made several service visits and found no problems. And what's strange is, every time something goes wrong, it happens while you're riding it..."

She trailed off.

Yu Fengyi's face went through even more colors. "You think the elevator malfunctions are targeting me specifically?"

Maintaining her professional smile, the Special Assistant offered a perfunctory explanation. "President Yu, please don't misunderstand. That's absolutely not what I meant. But I retrieved the Talisman Paper you asked me to throw away that day from the trash. Would you like to take a look?"

"Look at what?! I can't believe you thought of that. You'd actually dig through the trash?" Yu Fengyi lifted the bangs that had fallen limp while he was trapped and slicked them back up, attempting to substitute his fingers for hair gel. "Get Jian Ran here and have him draw me another one."

His manner was languid and perfectly natural, just as it had always been.

As though Jian Ran were still that stand-in who came and went at his command, and everything before had merely been a little sulking and playing hard to get. All he had to do was crook a finger, and Jian Ran would come scurrying back...

The Special Assistant's airy voice reached him. "President Yu, I'm afraid that won't be possible."

"Why?" Yu Fengyi raised an eyebrow, every inch the lofty heir to a top financial dynasty.

Well trained, the Special Assistant kept it succinct. "He blocked me."

Yu Fengyi: "..."

Delighted with the WeChat transfer he had received, Jian Ran bought an outrageously expensive ice cream that very evening.

The previous shop assistant had developed mental abnormalities after being electrocuted and was temporarily on indefinite leave.

The new store manager was an elderly man who neither followed the entertainment industry nor acted as a keyboard warrior. His smile was considerably kinder. "Come by often, young man."

Jian Ran waved. "I certainly will."

Once he had left, the old man settled back into his rocking chair, waved his fan, and tutted to himself. "Such a good-looking lad. Why's his head not working right? That ice cream's been sitting there for a month without anyone buying it, but he sure knew how to pick-went straight for it. Shouldn't be expired yet..."

Back in his little apartment without air conditioning, Jian Ran took a bite of the overpriced ice cream with its extra-long shelf life and continued drawing talismans. Nearby, the television was airing entertainment news.

He wasn't actually interested. It was mainly to escape poverty-pfft, no, for business.

Ever since becoming dirt-poor, Jian Ran felt he had become considerably more lowbrow. Everything out of his mouth was money, money, money. Unbearably vulgar.

Suddenly, a sweet voice came from the television. "According to paparazzi reports, Lu Yanting is about to make his variety show debut, having signed on for Lucky Inn."

"The news immediately caused an uproar on the trending charts. Die-hard fans have taken action, occupying discussion spaces across various topics and demanding Jian Ran's removal, or else they will boycott the show..."

Jian Ran's hand trembled around his weasel-hair brush. He raised his eyes, a hint of sharpness showing in his clear gaze. "Netizens these days are sick in the head."

"They need treatment."

The entertainment news had reported only the tip of the iceberg. The boycott on Weibo was raging, creating a foul atmosphere. The fan club leader personally stepped in to steer public opinion, even organizing an anonymous poll to express the fans' widespread dissatisfaction. They had even specially created promotional slogans that actually fucking rhymed.

"No clout-chasing! No Jian Ran!"

"Protect our brother! Protect his innocence!"

"Variety show cancer! Jian Ran, drop dead!"

"Boycott Jian Ran! Get out of showbiz!"

Jian Ran put down his work, gave it a quick scan, and curled his lip. "Get out of showbiz?!"

"Asking for my life wasn't enough?! You want to cut off my income too?!"

"You can have my life, but not my money!"

And so, adhering to his life philosophy of "if I'm not having a good time, nobody fucking gets to," he tapped his fingertips and posted an update.

"Wonderful, back to work again. @Lu Yanting, here's to working together."

The attached photo showed his freshly styled look. He looked every bit a fashion model, his beauty flawless and highly distinctive, truly born to make a living off his looks...

Within a second of the Weibo post going live, it stirred up a massive uproar.

The haters came flocking, picked up their keyboards, and left comments to mark their presence before the post blew up:

[Holy shit, is he taking on Emperor Lu's fan club?! This seriously feels like a public catfight. "Here's to working together"? Tell us, Jian Jianjian, are you worthy?!]

[Live long enough and you'll see everything! Staging this whole act yourself is bad enough, but you actually dared to tag him?! You think Lu Yanting is blind? That he can't recognize what a fake-innocent, scheming bitch you are?!]

[He really is good-looking, but unfortunately that's all he has. Why would Emperor Lu ever acknowledge you?! Have some self-awareness!]

[Back to work? Dream on! Just wait to spend forever on the bench after your company shelves you!]

[...]

Getting flamed was inevitable.

After all, given the original owner's penchant for courting disaster, his reputation was already blackened through and through. Cleaning it up would be harder than reaching the heavens.

Jian Ran couldn't be bothered to clean it up, nor did he need to turn off the comments. With a heart as tough as tempered glass, he feared no slander.

But mere seconds later, his phone began ringing furiously.

Jian Ran lazily glanced at it. Seeing "Xu Shortlegs" on the screen, he freed up a fingertip and pressed speakerphone. A roar immediately followed.

"Jian Ran, have you fucking lost your mind?! Don't you know how to keep a low profile?! What good does pissing off those brain-dead fans do you?! Do you really fucking want to get kicked off the show?!"

It was too piercing. Jian Ran lowered the volume, withdrew his arm, and continued rushing to finish Emperor Lu's additional talisman order. His tone was unconcerned. "Brother Xu, don't get so worked up. I'm already keeping a very low profile."

Like hell he was!

The system was off on vacation and socializing, and there was no longer anyone suddenly doling out electric shocks as punishment. Not fucking letting loose would be a waste of this wonderful time.

The other end of the line fell silent for a moment, as though he were looking for something, followed by another bout of uncontrollable yelling. "A low profile?! Jian Ran, are you fucking kidding me?! Posting an update was bad enough, but you even tagged Emperor Lu?! That god-tier idol who barely ever goes on Weibo, never gets involved with anyone, and is nicknamed 'come near me and die'... Don't fucking tell me you're waiting for a reply?!"

"Wait, waiting for a reply?!" Xu Xuda's groundhog shriek suddenly quavered, his voice filled with disbelief. "Wait, wait, wait, Lu Yanting actually replied to your Weibo post?!"

"My old eyes must be failing me!"

Jian Ran remained perfectly calm. As Party B in their sales agreement, his lips curved with complete confidence, his voice languid and unrestrained. "What did he say?"

"'Looking forward to it'!" Xu Xuda seemed to have sprung off his bed, his voice hanging in the air for a moment. "Looking forward to what?! Looking forward to being flamed to death by your haters?!"

Jian Ran said, "You'll have to get the correct answer to that question from Emperor Lu."

Sorry for the wait, my lovelies. I had some work to deal with earlier and couldn't update in time. It's all sorted out now.