Happy working together ❤

"Mm... huh? HUH!!!!"

Chu Xinghui opened his eyes to find himself face-to-face with a gloomy-looking Gu Kai.

"What's wrong?"

He propped himself up and rubbed his head.

He still felt a little unwell from yesterday's hangover.

"Brother Hui, tell me the truth." Gu Kai rested his chin on both hands, an indescribable expression on his face.

"What exactly is your relationship with Pei Hanmo?

You got drunk yesterday... he came looking for you... uh, carried you home.

His assistant only messaged me this morning to tell me to come over."

That was what made Gu Kai feel so aggrieved. He had been Chu Xinghui's manager for over a year and still didn't know the code to his door.

How did a big-name best actor like Pei Hanmo know it?

Something was up! Something was definitely up!

"Him?" Still groggy from just waking up, Chu Xinghui failed to register Pei Hanmo's name.

"What do you mean, carried? Carried what? Don't talk nonsense."

Gu Kai was certain Chu Xinghui was playing dumb, but he had no grounds to say so.

"Fine, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. The company found you a variety show. They said you have to go..."

His lips moved a few times, but he didn't know how to get the words out.

"Brother Hui, how about we find a new entertainment company?"

Chu Xinghui was the first and only artist Gu Kai had managed since becoming a manager.

Although he could neither sing nor dance and his acting was a complete disaster, that was no excuse for the company to use his traffic to promote its crown prince.

He had just looked into that supposedly decent singer and dancer.

He was the son of one of the company's business partners. All that talk about being decent was just hype. He wasn't even as good-looking as Chu Xinghui.

"Huh? I'll go. Even if I have to promote him, won't I get some traffic out of it too?"

After hearing Gu Kai out, Chu Xinghui got up from the edge of the bed, ready to wash up.

"It's fine, Gu Bear. You don't have to worry about me. Besides, our combined savings wouldn't cover the contract termination penalty, would they?"

He had to admit that Gu Kai was a good manager, but this heartless company demanded an exorbitant sum. Obscure nobodies like them could barely hope to pay that astronomical penalty.

Wait...

His pupils trembled as he looked in the mirror at the matching pajamas he was wearing, which had been buried at the bottom of a box.

"Who did Gu Kai just say... brought me home?"

Damn it!

He checked his phone, and sure enough, there were messages from Pei Hanmo.

[Pei Hanmo: I'll let you off this time. Drink less next time.]

[Pei Hanmo: Also, happy working together ❤]

[Chu Xinghui: Get lost!]

Damn it, he couldn't remember a single thing that had happened last night.

He didn't even remember meeting Pei Hanmo.

Without even taking the toothbrush out of his mouth, Chu Xinghui shot out of the bathroom and appeared in front of Gu Kai a second later.

"Can I skip that variety show?"

He could put up with being hated, but he refused to embarrass himself in front of Pei Hanmo!

"No... the company says you have to go."

Chu Xinghui's vision went dark at Gu Kai's answer.

"Well, Xinghui, you know how it is."

Chu Xinghui had barely finished washing up when his boss summoned him from home for a meeting.

"Our company doesn't have that much money. We more or less promote whoever's popular. I didn't expect this tactic of yours to work so well.

But now the whole internet is bashing you, and the company doesn't have the money to help you.

How about this? You help make Little Tian famous, and you'll get a share of the benefits."

Everyone at the company thought this whole thing was Chu Xinghui trying to be clever.

He had even received plenty of disdainful looks on his way in.

The person his boss called Little Tian was sitting opposite Chu Xinghui.

Wen Liangtian. Chu Xinghui had heard of him at the company, but rarely saw him.

"Chu Xinghui, you entered the entertainment industry before I did, so I suppose I'll call you my senior."

Wen Liangtian sat with his legs crossed, looking at Chu Xinghui with contempt.

"You really know how to scheme. Best Actor Pei was just kind enough to tag you and get you out of that mess.

If it were me, I'd never cause him so much trouble."

With that, he rose to leave the office.

"You should be secretly celebrating that you get to appear on a variety show with Best Actor Pei because of me."

Then he slammed the door shut, leaving the boss and Chu Xinghui inside.

The boss gave a couple of awkward laughs and offered an excuse.

"Xinghui, he's still young and doesn't know any better. As his senior, don't stoop to his level."

Young?

Chu Xinghui looked up. He remembered that Wen Liangtian was already twenty-three, a year older than Pei Hanmo.

That counted as young?

It looked like the company was banking on him being unable to pay the termination penalty.

"Mm, all right, boss."

He nodded, pushed the door open, and left.

"How did it go, Xinghui?"

Gu Kai had been waiting anxiously outside. The boss wouldn't let him get involved.

At times like this, he always felt powerless. He was nothing more than a tool.

The moment he saw Wen Liangtian emerge with an arrogant expression, he knew things had gone wrong.

Chu Xinghui shrugged to show there was nothing he could do, then draped an arm around Gu Kai's neck.

"Come on. This variety show is the only thing on my schedule anyway."

The company hadn't scheduled any more variety shows, dramas, or anything else for him afterward.

They were clearly planning to shelve him.

At worst, he could finish this job and find a new one to scrape by.

After returning home, the two of them took a quick look through the variety show.

It was called "Let's Travel Together." Put simply, it was a reality show.

It was livestreamed and unscripted, famous for stirring up trouble.

Plenty of obscure celebrities had become popular through this show, and plenty of top stars had attracted haters because of their bad habits.

The company wanted Chu Xinghui to act a little more unpleasant to make Wen Liangtian look outstanding by comparison.

Resting his chin on his hand as he watched previous episodes on his phone, he wondered how the director had survived this long.

He wondered even more why that irritating Pei Hanmo insisted on appearing on this show.

Hadn't that guy said he hated variety shows more than anything?

"Brother Hui." Gu Kai looked as though he had discovered a whole new world. "This show actually looks pretty good. They won't edit the footage, so I can relax."

Most variety shows were good at stirring up drama and heavily edited their footage. With this director, at least he could feel a little more at ease.

Filming was originally scheduled for a week later. Since Chu Xinghui and Wen Liangtian were joining partway through, the official account needed to make another announcement.

But public opinion online was extremely unfavorable toward Chu Xinghui right now. The trending topic accusing him of chasing clout was still on the list.

"The show will probably announce it soon. Brother Hui, you'll need to repost it."

Gu Kai pressed his lips together before speaking.

"Why don't you let me manage your Weibo?"

He was a little afraid that the comments online would upset Chu Xinghui.

"No need." Chu Xinghui shook his head in refusal and took out his phone to change his Weibo password. "I can manage it myself."

The company had already decided to sacrifice him, so there was no need to let them control his Weibo.

As it happened, the show tagged him just then.

[Let's Travel Together Official: For this season's travels, we're welcoming two new friends, @Chu Xinghui and @Wen Liangtian. Welcome aboard!]

[Wait, what? Who did you say?]

[Why is my fave listed after that little bitch Chu Xinghui?!]

[Exactly! Exactly!]

[Chu Xinghui's just shamelessly chasing clout! He knew Pei Hanmo was going on this show, so he came to leech off him too.]

[A huge win for the Xinghan Combination! I just got here and we're already getting sweet moments! Keep investigating! Keep reporting!]

Over the past two days, the shipping Super Topic for Chu Xinghui and Pei Hanmo had skyrocketed from nothing. No matter how much their fans fought, they still couldn't stop its rise in the Super Topic rankings.

Chu Xinghui sighed and tagged Let's Travel Together Official.

[Chu Xinghui: @Let's Travel Together, looking forward to meeting you.]