After doing the math, Shen Xingli looked at Jiang Nan regretfully and asked, "Could you get your mom to have you a year later?"
Jiang Nan laughed in exasperation. Forgetting all about Shen Xingli's status, he demanded fiercely, "Has nobody ever beaten you up for being so infuriating?"
Shen Xingli coughed and fell silent.
Then he quietly tagged Fu Jingzhou in his childhood friends' group chat.
[Your wife is vicious. Are his pheromones chili-scented?]
Far away overseas, Fu Jingzhou saw the message and replied succinctly: [Fuck off. Not as spicy as your vodka.]
Yes, everyone knew Film Emperor Shen was an Alpha, but very few knew his pheromones smelled of vodka-the hot, potent kind.
Shangguan Feng had once teased him, "An ordinary Omega really couldn't handle your pheromones."
Fu Jingzhou had chimed in venomously, "Perfect for an Alpha-Alpha romance."
Shen Xingli's childhood dream had been to marry a sweet little Omega. Just hearing about an Alpha-Alpha romance made him so angry his hair practically stood on end.
Seeing that Shen Xingli had quieted down and stopped talking to him, Jiang Nan let out a huge sigh of relief.
He logged into his alternate Weibo account and posted.
Little Little Jiang: [Help, the aloof Film Emperor Shen Xingli is actually a pervert.]
Just after he posted, someone suddenly opened the private dining room's door.
Jiang Nan instinctively looked up. It was Shen Anbai.
He wore a Chinese-style white shirt and loose black trousers.
He was all smiles and looked utterly harmless. "Xingli-ge, Nan-ge."
Shen Xingli resumed his aloof demeanor and nodded.
Jiang Nan, however, gave a faint, ambiguous smile. "How old are you?"
Shen Anbai paused. "Twenty."
"We're the same age." Jiang Nan smiled. "So I don't deserve that 'ge.'"
Little green tea, don't try getting chummy with me.
Shen Anbai's expression instantly soured a little, but with Shen Xingli still there, he forced himself to keep smiling. "Got it. I'll call you Nannan, then."
Jiang Nan's tone was indifferent. "Just call me by my name. We're not close, after all."
The smile vanished completely from Shen Anbai's face.
"Got it."
With that, he quickly found a seat and sat down, his eyes shimmering with tears, looking wronged and on the verge of crying.
Shen Anbai had always known his expression made him look pitiful, and most people would come over to ask what was wrong.
This time, he waited several minutes without receiving any concern from Shen Xingli.
Raising his eyes slightly, he saw that Shen Xingli still looked as impossibly aloof as ever and was concentrating on typing on his phone.
Jiang Nan's phone vibrated silently once. He picked it up and glanced at it.
The message was from the man beside him.
They were less than ten centimeters apart. Had Shen Xingli's brain short-circuited, or had he gone mute?
Couldn't he talk? Did he have to send a WeChat message?
Jiang Nan opened WeChat and took a look.
Shen Xingli: [Why were you so mean just now?]
Jiang Nan replied coldly: [Because I'm just a cold person.]
Shen Xingli: [Oh.]
The next second, several messages bombarded his phone.
Shen Xingli: [Hahahahahahaha.]
Shen Xingli: [You're so funny hahahahahaha.]
Shen Xingli: [I don't really like him either. Little bitch.]
When he saw the words "little bitch," Jiang Nan couldn't help thinking more highly of Shen Xingli.
How should he put it?
He was pretty smart.
The other guests arrived one after another.
Qiu Wen was fourth. She was the main dancer of a girl group that had exploded in popularity that year, tall and slender with fair skin and freshly dyed pale purple hair falling over her shoulders.
In a little camisole and miniskirt, she looked cool and aloof.
Li Xueying was fifth, dressed very much in keeping with her entertainment industry persona as the nation's little sister.
Jeans, a white T-shirt, a high ponytail, light makeup, and a very pale shade of lipstick.
Luo Hang arrived last.
Wearing a baseball cap and dressed entirely in black, he stood in the doorway and looked around before finally sitting beside Jiang Nan without a word.
Jiang Nan naturally recognized him.
He couldn't quite understand it and muttered to 771: [Shouldn't he go straight over and sit beside Shen Anbai?]
Li Xueying sat on one side of Shen Anbai, while the seat on his other side was empty.
771 let his imagination run wild: [Maybe he likes you too.]
Goosebumps instantly broke out all over Jiang Nan. [Help, are you sure I've got the cannon fodder script? Could it be the everyone-loves-me script?]
771 said coldly and mercilessly: [I wouldn't make such an elementary mistake.]
771 added: [I graduated with honors, thank you.]
Even at a time like this, Jiang Nan just had to be a little shit.
[Ooh, an honors graduate? You're sooo amazing~]
771: [...]
The meal was particularly difficult to get through.
Shen Xingli was like someone with a split personality. He had been chattering nonstop earlier, but now he had picked up his aloof heartthrob script again, letting out only a few words at a time.
Luo Hang was utterly silent, as if he had taken medicine that made him mute.
Only Shen Anbai, Qiu Wen, and Li Xueying chatted, with Jiang Nan and Shen Xingli occasionally chiming in.
Luo Hang truly committed to playing a mute.
Jiang Nan poured himself a glass of cola, accidentally splashing some fizz onto the back of Luo Hang's fair-skinned hand, and hurriedly apologized.
Unexpectedly, Luo Hang raised his eyes to look at him.
Those eyes were neither warm nor cold. He stared at Jiang Nan until Jiang Nan couldn't help feeling creeped out.
"What is it?" Jiang Nan couldn't resist asking.
Luo Hang shook his head. "Nothing."
Jiang Nan: "..."
Help.
What kind of lunatics populated this book?
After the meal, the celebrities headed home, and Jiang Nan received a WeChat message from Shen Xingli.
Shen Xingli: [Let me give you a ride.]
Jiang Nan's eyelid twitched.
Only an idiot would let you give him a ride.
If I did, my innocence wouldn't survive the day.
He messaged Shen Xingli: [No need. My manager is coming to pick me up.]
That was naturally a lie.
Zhu Xia was sleeping at the hotel and had even told him not to bother her unless something came up.
Shen Xingli sounded regretful: [All right.]
Jiang Nan thought, Damn pervert!
Only once everyone had left did he go outside to hail a taxi.
A solid-black sports car pulled up in front of him. Jiang Nan froze briefly. The driver's window lowered halfway, and Luo Hang, wearing sunglasses, delivered two utterly cold words: "Get in."
Jiang Nan said, "I can... take a taxi."
Luo Hang looked at him expressionlessly. "You can choose to take a taxi if you don't mind me posting your ugly photos online."
Jiang Nan quickly opened the passenger door and got in.
This was a society governed by law. Luo Hang couldn't do anything.
Luo Hang asked for the address of Jiang Nan's hotel, then discovered they were staying at the same hotel and drove toward it.
Luo Hang said nothing, leaving Jiang Nan uncomfortable all over. He thought, What a cold guy.
They hit a red light along the way.
Luo Hang tapped the steering wheel with his fingertips and finally spoke. "How have things been between you and him lately? Are you still in touch?"
Jiang Nan had no idea whom he meant and asked blankly, "Who?"
Luo Hang grew exasperated. "Who else could it be?"
Luo Hang thought Jiang Nan definitely wouldn't tell the truth, so he changed his approach. "Are you single right now?"
Jiang Nan shook his head. "No, I'm married."
Luo Hang's expression suddenly turned very ugly.