After Sharing Senses with the Paranoid CEO, the Infamous Starlet was Forced into Pampering Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Your Mouth is Quite Small
Crap. My true nature just leaked out.
Xia Mu was completely dumbfounded. He nearly lost his surface-level composure, and his heart pounded like an uncontrollable drumbeat.
“No… I mean Xiatian! A fortune teller told me a few days ago that I’d meet Xiatian’s owner from his past life. So it was you! I didn’t expect him to be male too. What a coincidence, huh?”
Xia Mu’s brain was spinning fast, but his mouth was often even faster. He babbled out a long string of excuses to cover up.
Even though there was no light and he couldn’t see Li Yanzhou’s face clearly, Xia Mu felt as if the air around them had frozen.
Li Yanzhou lowered his gaze, lost in thought. Once Xia Mu shut his mouth, he silently took off his own hat and placed it over Xia Mu’s still-damp hair.
“Don’t let your head freeze.”
Inexplicably, Xia Mu felt as if there was a trace of pity in Li Yan’s eyes.
Actually, that part about the fortune teller wasn’t a lie—it just wasn’t about Xiatian; it was about himself.
A few days ago, Xia Mu had originally just wanted to go to a temple to see how much longer it would take for him to get famous. The master there said that not only would he become a massive hit this year, but he would also meet his other half. He even specified the date: today.
Today was almost over. He hadn’t become a massive hit, but he had run into an earthquake.
So who was the other half? Could it be this man beside him?
No way.
Xia Mu never believed in things like “fate.” When he was little, a fortune teller even said a name would appear on his body after he became an adult. It was simply ridiculous.
He was twenty-one now, and his body was still perfectly clean.
However, Xia Mu did believe the part about his career taking off. But it turned out to be a fluke. The drama became a hit, the leads became hits, and he, the third male lead, only became slightly popular.
But it only slightly increased his name recognition. No endorsements, no new scripts, and his status remained the same.
The earthquake had stopped now, but there might still be aftershocks. Xia Mu knew he couldn’t return to his room immediately, but because of his earlier slip of the tongue, sitting here alone with Li Yan was a bit awkward. Xia Mu began to search for topics:
“Um… are you hungry?”
“What is it?” Li Yanzhou’s arm rested casually on the back of the bench, his hand supporting his chin as he asked.
“If you’re hungry, I have…” Xia Mu turned to his side and picked up that pile of things.
Cat food, cat cans, snacks, and even cat lick-treats—he had grabbed them all. It seemed he had forgotten to grab any food for humans.
“Xia Mu, do you really take me for a cat?” Li Yanzhou was almost driven to laughter by his antics.
“Sorry.” Xia Mu sheepishly retracted his hand. “I was in such a hurry I only grabbed Xiatian’s food.”
Forget it.
Li Yanzhou didn’t want to look at Xia Mu for a second longer. For all these years, why hadn’t the private investigator following Xia Mu told him that this kid had something wrong with his head?
Xiatian continued to purr in his sleep. Xia Mu used his arm to shield the cat from the whistling cold wind.
Li Yanzhou’s gaze fell on Xia Mu’s feet, which were in flip-flops. Even though there were no lights nearby, Li Yanzhou could see Xia Mu’s pale insteps and his ten toes, which were frozen a bright red.
No wonder Li Yanzhou felt as if his own feet had been swimming in a frozen lake for three days and three nights. Resigned, Li Yanzhou took off the scarf from his neck and glanced at Xia Mu:
“Feet.”
“Huh?” Xia Mu, not reacting in time, looked up at Li Yanzhou.
Li Yanzhou lost himself for a moment. Realizing he was actually feeling dazzled by this face he knew so well, he couldn’t help but despise himself.
Li Yanzhou didn’t speak again. He leaned over and grabbed Xia Mu’s ankle. It felt even more slender in his palm. He looked down and wrapped Xia Mu’s feet with the scarf.
Xia Mu was too shocked to speak. His brain short-circuited as he asked, “You aren’t a bad person, are you?”
Realizing he had said another stupid thing, Xia Mu waved his hands frantically. “I mean… what good person hugs and touches someone the first time they meet?”
Li Yanzhou’s movements in wrapping the scarf stiffened. He gave Xia Mu a expressionless sideways glance. He opened his mouth as if to say something but ultimately didn’t. He pushed Xia Mu’s feet forward and sat back up.
“My apologies,” Li Yanzhou said flatly. You think I wanted to touch them?
Xia Mu curled his feet. He leaned back against the bench. Afraid of saying the wrong thing again, he chose to remain silent.
Perhaps because he had just finished showering, combined with the fact that Li Yanzhou’s down jacket was particularly warm—like a thick, heavy duvet—Xia Mu tilted his head and fell asleep.
With him asleep, Li Yanzhou also felt a wave of exhaustion. He leaned his head on his hand and started to drowse. Several small aftershocks occurred, but neither of them noticed until an assistant found them an hour later.
Li Yanzhou pressed his thumb between his eyebrows. Looking at the person and the cat sleeping soundly beside him, he waved his hand at the assistant to tell him to leave first.
Li Yanzhou stood up, intending to pick Xia Mu up, but then he remembered what the boy had said before sleeping. So, he pulled back his hand and leaned in to whisper:
“Xia Mu, wake up.”
Xia Mu rubbed his eyes and looked at Li Yanzhou bleary-eyed. With the help of the distant lights, Xia Mu could see Li Yanzhou’s face clearly. His eyes were deep, his nose was high, and his thin lips were pressed together. He was quite handsome—exactly his type.
Xia Mu licked his lips. His gaze fell on the tip of Li Yanzhou’s nose. His voice, having just woken up, was still a bit raspy. “Isn’t it said that people with big noses are also big… down there? What about you?”
Li Yanzhou never expected Xia Mu’s first sentence upon waking to be this. He shouldn’t have bothered waking him up.
Li Yanzhou let out a cold laugh. He stared at Xia Mu’s rosy lips and said:
“I don’t know if I’m big or not, but your mouth is certainly quite small.”
“The exit is on the right. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
Watching Li Yanzhou’s slender figure walk away, Xia Mu realized the man’s clothes were still on him—and not just the coat, but the hat and scarf too.
That damn mouth of mine. Does this count as sexually harassing my savior?
Xia Mu rubbed his face hard and let out a silent scream. He must be possessed! Xiatian, woken by the noise, batted Xia Mu’s face with a paw. “Meow~”
Xia Mu practically fled from the garden. He didn’t have the face to see Li Yan ever again.
Upon returning to his hotel room, Xia Mu’s phone had been ringing incessantly. He saw the caller ID and reflexively sighed before answering:
“Hong-ge, is something wrong?”
It was already one in the morning. Why was his manager, Zhu Yunhong, calling him at this hour?
“Xia Mu, have you decided to rebel by not answering for so long? Do you have any idea how much trouble you’ve caused? Can’t you just behave for once? Do you not think you’re embarrassing enough already? Running around the streets like a monkey without pants—do you think anyone with money would look at a body like yours?”
“The drama is airing. I worked so hard to give you some name recognition, and now look! All for nothing. You might as well go work the streets tomorrow. If you don’t want to be an actor, then don’t be. There are plenty of people in the company more obedient than you; we don’t lack someone like you…”
A torrent of verbal abuse followed. Even though Xia Mu was used to being belittled as worthless by his manager, he remained uncharacteristically silent this time.
He hung up the phone. Ignoring the more than one hundred missed calls, he went straight to the trending searches. When he saw that almost the entire page was filled with his name, Xia Mu was completely stunned.
The fortune teller was right.
He really had become a massive hit—just in a different sense.
Translator’s Note
- Fox Spirit (huli jing): In the text, people recognize Xia Mu as a “fox spirit” from a drama. In Chinese mythology, fox spirits are often incredibly beautiful and seductive. Being cast as one usually means the actor is acknowledged for their striking looks!
- 18th-tier Actor: This is a common Chinese internet term for an actor who is basically a “nobody.” They aren’t A-list, B-list, or even C-list—they’re right at the bottom of the ladder.
- The “Nose” Banter: This is a cheeky folk belief that the size of a man’s nose is proportional to… well, his “manhood.” Xia Mu really has no filter when he’s sleepy, does he?