Chapter 3: Male Actor X Rich Female Protagonist (3)
Gusts of wind were blowing furiously, uprooting a tree beside Zuo Xin Street, soil still clinging onto the roots of the tree. It fell onto the street, blocking the way of many cars.
Hu Yinli sat in the driver's seat and honked a few times.
Beside him, Xu Senni held up a small mirror to touch up her lipstick. The teeth in the mirror were sterling white, and her lips were wide and thin. With the bold red lipstick on them, they looked much more attention-grabbing, it's just that her facial features were too plain and the plainness couldn't be ignored.
Looking up, she saw that the street was lined with cars, none of them moving. Yet the person beside her kept on honking. His cufflinks weren't on, and his eyebrows seemed to be locked in place.
Squinting, she carefully observed her makeup while whispering. "Worrying now is useless, it'll only make you feel worse."
Hu Yinli was extremely anxious, talking while looking over at two other cars. "What do you know? This collaboration is incredibly important, if anything goes wrong, there'll be big trouble."
Xu Senni stopped, and capped her lipstick and put it back into her bag before taking out a cotton swab to smudge her lips while talking.
"Yinli, why're you mad at me?"
Her words were quite calm, and just as Hu Yinli was about to blow up at her, he turned his head, and Xu Senni pouted, her eyes filled with hurt, making her seem very pitiful and wronged.
Immediately, his temper cooled.
Xu Senni smiled, not caring about her smile lines. These days, he'd been quite unusual. At home, he would always be holding his phone, and the moment she sidled over, he would be looking at the news.
Before, hadn't he always held her hand?
Once, when he had been taking a shower, she'd unlocked his phone only to see it open into his chat with Cen Si Miao. Moreover, it had always been him to take the initiative to text, while Cen Si Miao would merely reply with an 'en'. Either that, or she would only reply an hour later.
Xu Senni's eyes were full of hatred. She wanted to see just how this Cen Si Miao would steal him back.
Cen Si Miao had been pretty busy lately. She'd been busy maintaining her young look, getting massages, going around all the shopping malls, and eating and playing to her heart's content.
'Exactly which one of these requires actual work.'
The system looked at the task bar and spoke before stopping. He'd been the small cutie developed by the Jinjiang Technological City and local government, so just how had he gotten this kind of host?
"Ah…about that."
Cen Si Miao cut into her beef ribs as she listened. The meat was fresh and tender, and it went well with the wine, after eating one mouthful she felt like she was in heaven. "What?"
"Shouldn't you be completing your task?"
"I am."
"Just look at your progress! Look at it!" The system was angry.
Cen Si Miao spoke, "It hasn't moved?"
The system used it's Crying emoji, showing it's eyes slowly redden as tears trickled down. It had already been a damn long time, yet the progress bar had only increased by 3%.
Cen Si Miao bit into her broccoli before heaving a sigh.
It was like trying to raise a child.
Everyone's heart was like a glass bottle, transparent enough to be seen through in a moment. Furthermore, she had to slowly crack open the bottle and go inside to mix the contents. Even if she was anxious, she still had to wait.
She had to lay down the foundations first.
Liu ge was rambling to Wu Li Chen.
Gulping down a cup of coffee to soothe his dry throat, his head slightly lowered. Frowning, his hands mussed up his blond hair before he sighed. "You've been under my care for a few years, so I know about all your difficulties. This time you've gotten this good chance."
Wu Li Chen held his lighter. "En."
Liu ge rubbed his eyes. "I've already done this for you. Don't waste this chance."
Wu Li Chen looked up.
Liu ge didn't say anything, waiting to see if he got his meaning.
The whole team was sitting in another car, but Liu ge had specially called for Wu Li Chen. The latter yawned, his expression confused, and blinked a few times before he suddenly understood something.
"You…"
Liu ge patted his thigh. "I was just scared that when it comes to the time where you need to perform, your skills won't be up to par."
Wu Li Chen sat shock still, not replying.
In the afternoon, the team found a hotel, and decided to let two people stay together in a room. Li You Yan's face blackened, and took out his card before ordering a room for himself.
The others held in their anger. Even if they wanted to swear at him, they couldn't. A male singer, seeing his room card held by the assistant, gritted his teeth, expression unwilling, and was about to go before he looked up and saw Wu Li Chen.
Wu Li Chen was looking down at his phone, as though it had nothing to do with him.
The male singer finally couldn't hold himself back and walked up to him. "For someone like me who can only rely on my good voice and not my face, suffering comes pretty easy. Though the same can't be said about others. "
Wu Li Chen continued to concentrate on his phone.
The male singer stopped for a moment, and hefted the guitar case onto his shoulder, snorting, and got ready to leave. At this time, Wu Li Chen looked up and said, confused. "What is it?”
"I said that you were good-looking."
"Oh. You're not bad yourself."
The person staying with Wu Li Chen, Xu Zen, couldn’t help but laugh. After taking his room card, they went to the room. Inside, Xu Zen took off his shoes and laid on his bed, tired.
"Even after working hard for a day, they still have the heart to insult people like this, I feel old now."
Wu Li Chen continued to yawn, and laid down on the other bed, his mind blank. He glanced towards his phone. 6 'o' clock.
"Hey, are you going out tonight?"
Wu Li Chen nodded.
He took out his earphones and unlocked the screen before continuing to stare at his phone. Xu Zen was tired to the point that he almost couldn't think, but he suddenly regained his enthusiasm and asked. "Have you ever talked about your girlfriend?"
Wu Li Chen lightly coughed.
At 7 'o' clock, Cen Si Miao looked through the clothes in her closet, but couldn't decide on what to wear.
Thinking, she took out a taupe dress. It exposed her bare shoulders and clung to her curves, making her figure look good. After wearing her high heels, her ankles also looked white and tender.
Even after going through many different worlds, this was still the first time that she'd had the chance to have some fun in the bedroom.
Walking to her room, she took her shoes off and laid down on the sofa. Just as she planned to pose, the system suddenly coughed.
Cen Si Miao frowned. "Why did you come out, little children aren't allowed to see."
The system suddenly felt a cool breeze, the ice cream plugin was really delicious. "There are new rules and regulations, I'll repeat them for you."
"What?”
"If the male lead's feelings aren't at 40%, you're not allowed to look at his unmentionables." [1]
Cen Si Miao had been drinking some red wine and almost choked.
…
There was a knock on the door.
Cen Si Miao swallowed and looked through the eyehole. "Who…who is it?"
His voice was low. "It’s me."
Wu Li Chen was dressed very casually today, making his temperament seem more free. It was just that his eyebrows were furrowed, lacking his usual carefreeness, instead making him look more serious.
He stood at the side, looking at the coffee table. There was a half-full bottle of red wine on it. Cen Si Miao's whole body had the scent of wine, her two eyes were unfocused, and she swayed on her high heels, almost falling onto the ground.
Wu Li Chen found a new cup and poured the wine inside before gulping it down, finding it to be rather dry. Tilting his head up, he saw that Cen Si Miao hadn't managed to find the sofa and looked confused.
He placed his cup onto the table.
Walking over, he looked down at her. Cen Si Miao was obviously drunk, her cheeks unnaturally flushed, eyes moist and breathing slow.
She said, "You…"
Even before finishing her sentence, someone carried her by the waist. Her waist was very thin, and her hands on his shoulders were very delicate. The scent of wine had mixed with the smell of her perfume.
As they walked towards the sofa, Cen Si Miao suddenly started to struggle. Wu Li Chen sank down onto the sofa, his body weighing on hers.
Cen Si Miao suddenly looked up violently, into a pair of darkened eyes.
She stared for a moment.
Wu Li Chen's hand tightened around her before suddenly hearing her yell, "Husband."
Looking down and biting her lips lightly, her tone was sad, making her whole person seem languid.
Wu Li Chen realised that something seemed strange and straightened up.
In a split second, her eyes became moist, and tears continuously flowed down onto Wu Li Chen's shirt.
Her voice softening, she cried heavily, as though she'd been wronged somehow. "Husband, why don't you like me?"
Wu Li Chen shut his eyes and endured, but in the end he couldn't hold back and pushed Cen Si Miao away. Getting up from the sofa, he found a cigarette and put it into his mouth.
Turning his head towards her, he then walked towards the balcony to light it. After finishing the cigarette, he sighed.
He bit his lips. "Fuck."
The next morning.
The two of them were eating breakfast opposite each other silently. Cen Si Miao drank her coffee and used some tissue to wipe her mouth, face indifferent as she avoided his eyes.
He too acted like this.
Cen Si Miao bit her tongue lightly and felt that the task progress bar was never going to reach a hundred percent.
"—Ding, hey, please start completing the task. After completing it, there will be a prize. It'll be very helpful to you."
"Be honest with me. Is this prize even reliable?"
In the earlier worlds, there had also been prizes, but the so-called golden fingers had been especially tasteless."
The system nodded hard. "Reliable!”
Cen Si Miao thought over it for a while and lowered her head to finish her breakfast before cleaning her hands and looking at Wu Li Chen. His face was expressionless as he chewed the sandwich, as though he hadn't noticed her staring.
Cen Si Miao opened. "Did you sleep well last night?”
Wu Li Chen stopped eating and swallowed the food in his mouth. His eyes were gentle and he smiled as he replied. "Very well."
She licked her lips. "Then, can we make a deal?"
Wu Li Chen raised his eyebrows.
Cen Si Miao's gaze was calm. "First, when you're together with me, you're not allowed to find other women."
"Second, let's try to be friends before we do anything."
"Third…"
Wu Li Chen continued to smile.
A throat was cleared.
"Don't be jealous."
Third chapter out much, much earlier than intended. Y’all are in luck because you’re gonna receive 5 chapters this week. I’ve already posted three…within the span of a day *sobs*. This chapter goes out to everyone who donated for TRCLW but didn’t receive an extra chapter during May 😦 Super sorry for this.
马赛克: This has multiple meanings. Normally, it means mosaic. But the other meaning refers to blurring out parts of pictures to protect the person's privacy. On the internet, it can mean parts that you're not supposed to see. Basically she can't…roll in the bed with him.I thought it over again, and honestly children these days are exposed to swear words when they’re what, 5? 6? I knew about the s-word when I was 7. Putting asterisks in kind of ruins the flow for me personally, as a reader, and real-life grown ups swear too, even if they try to avoid it. This novel isn’t filled with swear words, anyway. But regarding more NC16 things…It’s up to y’all. I can stick to child-friendly words, like unmentionables or bits HAHA.