NOVEL NEXT Chapter 23
Chapter 23
Edited by Isalee
【Gu Yiliang’s Diary — Excerpt 11】
I’m— keeping my adversary as a boytoy.
When writing these words, my emotions feel very unsettled. Looking at the words in front of me, I also do not dare to believe them. They’re really too fantastical.
Sigh, how did things turn out this way?
【Gu Yiliang’s Diary — Excerpt 12】
The company had instructed us to sell our “bromance”. I was originally disdainful about it. After all, I’ve been doing well enough the past three years, not getting involved in any scandals, and didn’t I still end up here?
I observed for a while. My adversary seemed to have the same opinion as me. To rebel against the company’s intention, he even said something like “weight-lifting” which went against his stipulated character.
I also did not mean to expose him; I was doing it mindlessly. In the end, he was stunned, and could only watch me blankly. How adorable. Him being like that was not compatible with the top idol image he’s supposed to have, and shouldn’t be seen by fans. Hence, I helped him block the camera.
Halfway through the livestream, his assistant delivered some items to him. When he saw his assistant, he seemed to be delighted.
Probably because he wasn’t sitting by my side, I actually had time to think alone. I suddenly felt that there was nothing wrong about going along with the company’s request to promote our “bromance”. Pride and arrogance would make a person fall from his peak. A person can always make further progress, and one has to always continue with his journey in life.
And I would also be able to call him “Yanyan” with good reason.
Mn, it feels nice to call him by that name.
My adversary seems to be inexperienced in fanservice, yet he still tried his best to cooperate with me. Looking at how muddled and a little lost he was, I felt slightly guilty.
However, I thought about how if it wasn’t me, there would still be someone else. What if the company paired my adversary up with someone else? Wouldn’t that be delivering something that should belong to me into another person’s hands? That would be a relief.
I’m referring to the bromance’s popularity, not us.
Delivering this person to someone else isn’t very acceptable either.
Although my adversary also doesn’t belong to me, right now, he could be considered belonging to me, right?
Sigh, how did I end up having him as my kept man?
During the past few years, I’ve heard some rumours about him.
It wasn’t me who took the initiative to learn about them. It’s just that he’s my adversary, and is often tied to me. Even if I don’t want to know about it, I have no choice.
In the pile of unsubstantiated evidence, the rumour about him being a kept man was the most prevalent. Everyone was guessing who the person behind him was.
To put it in the open, with his acting capability, to be able to last so long in this industry is already the biggest problem.
But he looks too clean and innocent, definitely not like someone who could be kept. If not for the phone call I overhead, I wouldn’t believe it either.
Eavesdropping on people’s phone calls is not good, I’m reflecting on myself now.
I’ve clearly done nothing while interacting with him. However, he thinks that I’m very good to him. I don’t know how that President Huang treated him in the past. He’s probably some scum.
Discussing a person behind his back is not good, I’m reflecting on myself now.
【Gu Yiliang’s Diary — Excerpt 13】
After being in the industry for three years, I’ve tried my best in avoiding all possibilities of getting involved in a casting couch situation. I never thought that I would be the one having a kept man instead.
My status rose too suddenly, and I am completely unprepared for it.
However, it also wasn’t an impulsive decision. I carefully considered it during a period of smoking three cigarettes.
The first cigarette. I wondered, “Can it not be like that?” I was the one who asked the question, and did not plan on getting an answer. However, my adversary pondered over it, and gazed at me with trusting eyes. He smiled and said, “Sure, don’t I have you now?”
— It really couldn’t reject him. I couldn’t let down his trust in me. It’s a problem I mentioned, and I have to take responsibility for it.
The second cigarette. I estimated my financial power, as well as the resources I could give to him. Comparing them with the resources he got previously, it would work. It would be better; this was not an issue. (His qualifications are so good. Why didn’t President Huang give him better resources? Sigh, he’s so… uncalculative, he must have been treated perfunctorily.)
The third cigarette. I imagined what would happen if this relationship was exposed… Actually, nothing much would happen. We can just use our company-sanctioned ship pairing as a cover. If it is really exposed, there’s also a thousand ways to explain it. We can be confidants, buddies, in any case, and the public relations team would handle it. We won’t cross the bridge until we come to it. At most, we’ll just come out as a couple and head down the true love path, and try to expand into the overseas market—
Speaking about this, the feeling my adversary gives me is always rather marvellous. I thought about it before. If, I’m saying if, because of this, I… Mn, develop feelings towards him or something, what’ll happen? However, he stopped me from smoking my fourth cigarette.
【Gu Yiliang’s Diary — Excerpt 14】
Sigh, I’ve been sighing a little too many times today.
However, I really have no clue on dealing with a kept man.
He temporarily doesn’t want me to provide him with any resources, and temporarily doesn’t want me to give him any gifts. He even said he couldn’t take his assistant’s salary from me, and insists on being fair… It made me hesitate for a long time after sending him back to his room. I didn’t know if I should do something like… kiss him?
Whatever I came up with, I felt that it wasn’t quite right. I still have yet to give him anything, so how can I take advantage of him?
Although he says that I just have to treat him like a boyfriend, I’m not his boyfriend after all—
Sigh, I can’t directly ask someone about something like this, right? Baidu wouldn’t tell me about the strategies of keeping a man… Oh, there might actually be something like this, let me go search and see.
I’m back.
I searched for a few keywords, and a few folders appeared on the first page of the results. They might be some records of such actual situations, and so I downloaded a few, planning on reading them before I fell asleep as homework.
Knowing so little about it, I should really read more and learn more.
Right, I plan on quitting smoking now. I heard him telling President Huang to smoke a little less on the phone.
Since I’ve decided to keep him, I should be better than that President Huang.
【Gu Yiliang’s Diary — Excerpt 15】
After reading a few articles, I couldn’t really fall asleep. Getting up from the bed, I decided to write down an account of my mood.
I selected a folder and scanned through a few articles. It’s me who had too filthy thoughts about physical interaction in a relationship like this. There was no physical contact below the neck at all between the keeper and the kept.
So it turns out that all the things my industry friends have been telling me was to warn me that I shouldn’t walk down this shortcut of menacing parables.
It’s good that it’s like that too. Actually, I really don’t want to make my relationship with my adversary to be associated with such benefits… Mn.
Sigh. (I’ve gotten too used to writing it, so I drew a strikethrough.)
【Gu Yiliang’s Diary — Excerpt 16】
It’s too terrifying. I opened another folder to read, and the abominable actions described within were invariably worse than what my industry friends mentioned. There was the usage of drugs to control the kept person, transferring the kept person to another, many… forget it. I won’t write it down and dirty my diary.
It’s me who underestimated the darkness of humanity.
I decided that I must protect my adversary well, and let him be distanced from such filthy matters.
【Gu Yiliang’s Diary — Excerpt 17】
Grasping the essence and ignoring the dregs, I looked through a few articles and had a rough plan on a few interaction methods. Tomorrow, I’ll try them all one by one, and see which type my adversary prefers.
【Gu Yiliang’s Diary — Excerpt on Little Details About My Adversary】
My adversary likes to eat chicken cartilage and ordering a lot of items, but he only tastes a little of everything. Next time, I must try my best and help him finish some, so as to prevent wastage.
When my adversary sings, it’s very moving. He’s way better than me. By the way, since we now have this — relationship, can I get him to just sing for me alone, and I’ll give him the resources? (Proposal)
My adversary doesn’t play DOTA, but he plays LOL, and he’s even an expert. They’re all MOBA-type games. So if we have time, we can play together and learn from each other. I hope he can accompany me to play DOTA. If he really cannot, I’ll just endure it and play LOL with him. That’s fine too. (I need to stop despising other games, this I must change, must change.)