The big puppy nuzzled Wen Jiu's neck unhappily, taking his Adam's apple into his mouth and giving it a light, punishing bite.
"Mm!"
Wen Jiu's ears burned at the sound of his own voice. He frantically shoved the man off him, craned his neck, and shouted, "What the fuck are you nuzzling around for?!"
The moment he finished shouting, he met a pair of glistening phoenix eyes.
Wen Jiu: ...
Wen Jiu's Adam's apple bobbed, and his confidence instantly deserted him. "W-why do you look so wronged? Did I bully you again?"
That was the man's usual line. Having spotted the little tsundere's macho streak, Feng Chi always seized the initiative and pronounced Wen Xiaojiu "guilty."
That made it easier for him to demand "compensation."
Wen Jiu wasn't that calculating. Feng Chi's handsome-man stratagem and masterful green tea act always left him dizzy and disoriented. He had never spotted a single trap, but he remembered those lines perfectly.
Feng Chi nodded, his beautiful, watery eyes watching him with a hint of accusation. Yet his words were as cool as ever, his tone as serious as though he were discussing a deal worth hundreds of millions-
"You already have a wife, yet you're still thinking about seeing someone else. That makes me feel very wronged."
"What's worse, you only cared about your own pleasure. You never considered my feelings at all, and you weren't even planning to comfort me."
Wen Jiu said, "I wasn't! I didn't! I just finally found a romance novel, the kind with a sweet, soft, adorable girl! I got too excited. I didn't mean to ignore-"
Feng Chi was so angry that his eyes reddened. "You even want to look at sweet, soft, adorable girls?!"
Wen Jiu: ... I'm sweating bullets here, bro.
Wen Jiu didn't understand. He just wanted to listen to a romance novel. Why did this feel like he was about to cheat???
But faced with Feng Chi's wounded, shocked gaze, Wen Jiu swallowed and ultimately surrendered.
Wen Jiu raised his hands as though pleading guilty, and little traces of guilt actually welled up inside him.
"Okay, sorry. It won't happen again."
Feng Chi took the opportunity to pin his hands down, forcefully pushing his fingers between Wen Jiu's and tightening his grip.
"Then I want compensation."
The man's eyes brimmed with desire, seductive and bewitching. His stare flustered Wen Jiu, who unconsciously licked his lips.
"O-okay," he stammered.
Then he suddenly remembered something. "I have a variety show tomorrow. Be gen-mm!"
His lips were forcefully pried apart. From his teeth to the tip of his tongue, then deeper inside, he fell step by step.
With practice, Feng Chi's kissing technique had grown increasingly polished. In just a few days, he had learned to kiss someone weak all over and senseless.
When he released him, sure enough, Wen Jiu was already dazed. A mist veiled his pale peach-blossom eyes, and he looked like a little kitten that had sniffed catnip, its paws clutching a cat toy as it lay in a haze.
Those eyes looked over adorably, as though silently protesting: Why did it stop?
The little kitten soon paid the price for his "greed."
Perhaps because they were about to part, Feng Chi was especially... today.
Even when Wen Jiu cried until his eyes were red, wrapped his arms around Feng Chi's neck, and pleaded nicely for mercy, Feng Chi still didn't...
Worse still, that awful man actually turned around and complained to him, pitifully blaming him for leaving his wife alone in an empty bed.
Wen Jiu couldn't outplay him when he was clearheaded, let alone now.
Held in his arms in a daze, he felt unbearably guilty.
His soft, obedient manner made it harder and harder for Feng Chi to restrain himself. Only after holding back until his veins bulged did he finally let him go, panting.
Wen Jiu disgracefully passed out again.
So much so that, after waking the next morning, being bundled into the car in a fog by his manager Qu Feng, and catching another half hour of sleep under a gaze that couldn't bear to look at him, he finally realized something.
I'm fucking straight to begin with!
Isn't it normal for a straight guy to read a romance novel?
Why should I feel guilty??
In that case, there's even less reason for me to avoid that guy surnamed Lin!
Fuck! I got bullied for nothing!
Wen Jiu was absolutely furious!
"What's going on in that little head of yours now?" Qu Feng had been explaining what to watch out for during this variety show, and the brat's sudden bristling startled him. "Did you hear what I just said?"
Wen Jiu instantly chickened out. "N-no."
Qu Feng: ...
"You can't go on like this. Were you out stealing chickens last night?"
Qu Feng normally had barbs for his artist ready on his tongue, and this time he had only said it in passing. Who knew which nerve he had hit this time? The brat immediately launched into a tirade in his slightly hoarse voice.
Wen Jiu said, "You were the one stealing chickens!"
What's all this talk about chickens and dicks?
Say 'chicken,' not 'dick'-keep it civil for everyone! Don't you know that?!
Qu Feng: ...?
Getting bold, are we?
"Qu Feng..." Wen Jiu had never been this brave in either of his lives. "I-I didn't mean it like that."
Qu Feng said, "Then how did you mean it?"
Wen Jiu didn't dare say a word.
It was all that damned Feng Chi's fault. Last night, he had said with tearful eyes and a pitiful expression, "You'll be gone for days at a time. We've only just gotten familiar with each other, and now you're leaving me all alone in an empty bed."
He had even said something about "not wanting my husband to leave," then gently yet forcefully pressed his head down-
Aaaaaaaaaah!
Wen Jiu instinctively wiped his mouth, wishing he could fly back right now and give Feng Chi two hard slaps to show him that he, Wen Xiaojiu-
Wasn't so easy to mess with either!
"All right." Qu Feng was already used to the kid's occasional baffling behavior and magnanimously chose to let it slide. "I don't care whether you and Feng Chi are married now, or how your relationship is-"
Wen Jiu: What relationship? I'm straight!
Qu Feng raised a hand to signal Wen Xiaojiu not to get worked up and to let him finish. "Anyway, after that trending-search incident, you've gone viral online yet again.
"You need to do well on the variety show, cooperate with the publicity, and seize opportunities to showcase your talents. Win yourself some solid, proper, die-hard fans through talent-can you do that?"
Wen Jiu had just been about to ask what publicity he was supposed to cooperate with when the familiar phrase at the end set his DNA stirring. His mouth reacted before his brain. "Mission accomplished, guaranteed!"
"Very good." Qu Feng was pleased with Wen Xiaojiu's answer. He nodded, flipped to the next page of his notes, and continued, "Also, you and Lin Shuheng are both guest stars for this episode. Watch your emotions and facial expressions. Don't let anyone lead you off track."
Wen Jiu said, "He's going too?"
That day, Lin Shuheng had incited his fans to come into Wen Jiu's livestream and bite indiscriminately.
Now he didn't even dare touch livestreaming!
Wen Jiu narrowed his peach-blossom eyes. He would definitely get revenge!
"What's with that look?" Qu Feng had truly become afraid of his explosive little temper. "I'm telling you, this variety show is live. They can't edit it afterward. Take it easy, and don't clash with him head-on... Wen Xiaojiu, did you hear me?!"
Wen Jiu jolted. "Oh!"
Besides the headache, Qu Feng genuinely couldn't understand it. Didn't the director know they were rivals? Or was he deliberately generating buzz?
With such a big appetite, wasn't he afraid of losing control and having the whole thing blow up?
Even if the director was unreliable, surely Feng Chi, as an investor, wouldn't be muddleheaded along with him?
Unfortunately, Qu Feng was only a lowly manager. He couldn't influence the big shots' decisions, so he could only keep his own artist's words and actions in check and explain every last detail.
"Also, we found the bastard who drugged your drink that night-and you actually dared sneak alcohol at the banquet while I wasn't there! I'll settle that score with you later!"
As for the bastard who had drugged him, it was Li Peiqi.
An investor Wen Jiu had offended before.
Now, under Feng's suppression and retaliation, his company faced a flood of negative news and had fallen into a financial crisis, teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.
The government-partnered rural cultural tourism project Li Peiqi had bid to participate in was his last bargaining chip.
This live variety show was his last chance.
With Boss Feng around, there was no need to worry about Li Peiqi retaliating with impunity, but Qu Feng knew his kid's ways all too well. This little shit might very well go and provoke him first.
"I'm telling you this to warn you: leave matters involving the investors to the professional big shots. You just focus on your own work and do your job properly. Can you do that?"
Wen Xiaojiu was still laughing at the news his manager had brought and plotting how to get revenge. At those words, he instantly raised his hand in salute. "Yes!"
Wen Jiu truly wondered who on earth Qu Feng had picked that catchphrase up from!
Even after transmigrating into a novel, he still couldn't fucking escape the terror of being ruled by his manager!
"Diary of a Secluded Life in Peach Blossom Land" was the latest season of renowned director Zhang Guozhong's debut in the variety show world-"Travel Around the World, Starting Now!" The travel series had remained popular through eight seasons, celebrated for its live broadcasts with no editing or scripts.
Of course, celebrities' public personas collapsing and their vicious feuds had also made outstanding contributions to that success.
As Zhang Guozhong had put it in an interview, "Travel Around the World," as it was known for short, owed everything to every guest's selfless contributions and the enthusiastic support of all the netizens watching the drama.
Wen Jiu had done his preparation. When he watched that interview video, he could still laugh goofily at how wicked the chief director was, but now that the wickedness was being directed at him, it wasn't quite so amusing.