You're so bad, making me wait this late for a reply!

After returning to the apartment and taking a shower, Nan Zhou lay down on the bed.

With only him left on the narrow bed, he could finally stretch out, yet he felt empty. The apartment, too, seemed far too cold and quiet without Huo Xingye's scent.

"...Are pheromones really that powerful?" Nan Zhou did not quite understand. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the vinyl record Huo Xingye had given him on the coffee table, and the guitar beside the sofa.

The record, the guitar, and...

He shot upright, ran over to the wardrobe, and yanked it open.

There, the plush puppy Huo Xingye had packed away in its lovely gift bag and put in the wardrobe was looking at it.

Swallowing, Nan Zhou reached in, took out the gift bag, and opened it again.

The rich, familiar scent of the gift giver's pheromones instantly filled his nose.

Taking the plush Tibetan mastiff out of the bag, Nan Zhou slid his hands beneath its front legs and lifted it high against the light. He realized that this dog really did look like his Ailong!

Clear eyes, pitiful little bean-shaped eyebrows, fluffy fur, and a sturdy body like a little lion's.

"Ailong." Drawing his long arms inward, Nan Zhou buried his face in the plush toy's furry chest and took deep breaths.

The Alpha's pheromones and the soft, comfortable plush toy made him let out a pleased, kittenlike purr.

He had inexplicably transmigrated into this world, and he had no idea whether Ailong was doing well in his original world.

He should be all right. At least Nan Zhou had written his will long ago: if he died an untimely death, Ailong would be given, free of charge, to the girl who came over from time to time to look after him.

The girl liked him so much. She would treat him well.

To be honest, he had not had many friends in his original world. Apart from Ailong, his only everyday company had been an online friend he had never met.

At the thought of that person, a trace of disappointment crossed Nan Zhou's eyes.

If a friend he chatted with on WeChat every day suddenly stopped replying, would the other person feel a sense of loss?

What would he think? Would he try to find out what had happened to him?

Never mind. To the other person, perhaps he was just one ordinary friend among many. Losing contact would certainly be unpleasant, but he would soon come to accept it.

Returning to bed with the plush toy in his arms, Nan Zhou lit up his phone screen and discovered that someone had sent him a string of WeChat messages.

"Hey, our song topped the charts! Did you see?"

"When are you free? Let's pick a time to go out and celebrate. My treat!"

"Why aren't you replying? Don't tell me you're having fun in some little vixen's bed?"

"Come on, reply to me."

"You're so cold. Makes me want to borrow you to freeze a Want Want ice pop."

Holding the plush toy in one arm, Nan Zhou tapped his slender fingers across the screen. "Even weather this cold hasn't frozen your love-addled brain?"

Almost the very next second after he sent the message, the other person sent him an enormous sticker of a little fox blowing a kiss.

"You replied! You're so bad, making me wait this late for a reply!"

"Now you've gone and made it impossible for me to sleep again."

Nan Zhou's expression did not change. "I can't sleep either."

"Is something on your mind?"

"It's too cold. I'm going to message eight hunks privately to warm my bed. First to reply gets to come first."

The other side fell silent for several seconds, before the status above changed to "Typing..."

A few more seconds passed, and a few words popped up in the message window: "You're awful. Teasing me again."

Hundreds of kilometers away, the gorgeous singer Xu Xi, who had dominated the trending searches all day, pushed away the young stud on her left who had leaned over to ask why she was ignoring him.

Her lips curled as she continued composing a message to the WeChat contact saved as "TA." "What theme are you planning for your next song?"

Before she could send it, however, a message arrived from him: "Don't overthink it. Get some sleep. That song isn't your style."

The young stud's eyes widened. "Who's TA? How clueless can he be, talking to our Xu Xi like that?"

Xu Xi smiled and locked her phone without much concern, then accepted the drink another young stud offered her and took a couple of sips.

"You've got all the money and looks anyone could want. The Alphas and Betas chasing you could form a line from your front door all the way overseas. If you really wanted someone, wouldn't a crook of your finger be all it took?" The third young stud eagerly offered Xu Xi a fruit platter.

"Your new song is so good. Listening to it even got me, you know... It immediately made me think of all the wonderful times we've spent together."

Inside the private room, the three young Alpha studs competed to wait on Xu Xi, flattering her with every sweet thing they could think of.

Xu Xi said that today was her big day and told the three young studs to perform "High Mountains and Flowing Water" for her.

As she watched the three younger Alphas fawning over her, Xu Xi's thoughts were on her conversation with TA.

Three years earlier, shortly after her group's debut, her contract had nearly trapped her into working as a wage slave for the company. Luckily, a lawyer had approached her and told her that a distant relative had died of an illness. She was that relative's only family, so he had made a will leaving her all his property.

Overnight, Xu Xi had gone from an ordinary girl to a wealthy woman with tens of billions in assets. She had immediately terminated her contract with the company and paid the compensation.

However, her relative's will had come with one condition: she was to take over his overseas factory and keep its workers from losing their jobs. So Xu Xi had traveled across the ocean and spent nearly three years running the factory.

Only six months ago, once she was certain that the factory's professional manager would run it conscientiously, had Xu Xi begun planning her comeback.

She truly loved singing. Her reason for entering the talent show back then had also been to sing for everyone.

Having money had made Xu Xi much more composed. She knew she needed a work strong enough and eye-catching enough to bring her back into the public eye, so she had been extremely careful about choosing a single.

Yet no matter how many she went through, she could not find what she wanted, until two weeks ago...

After listening to the demo, Xu Xi had been certain it was the song she had been searching for. Delighted, she had added the composer using the contact information he had left and asked his price.

"I won't charge you."

"But you must follow my instructions and post a message on Weibo for me after you become popular again."

He was strange. He was clearly a newcomer with no released work who needed to collaborate with her to gain exposure, yet he spoke with all the authority of an industry heavyweight, as though he had never considered the possibility that the song might not become a hit.

Xu Xi had deliberately tested him. "I don't have to work with you."

He had been very confident. "Of the two of us, you're the one who needs this collaboration. Without you, I still have eight alternatives. Do you want a chance to make a hit comeback or not? You have ten minutes to consider it. Think it through before you answer."

He was arrogant, but that suited Xu Xi's tastes.

She had decided to take a gamble.

The facts proved that she had bet right.

TA really was a gifted, seasoned, incredibly badass professional producer.

And he was interesting. She could not help wanting to peek behind the screen and discover exactly what kind of person he was.