CH 31.3

Zhou Xun was terrified by his own thoughts.

Jian Xingsui saw that he was still holding the candy box, and told him, “Put it back after eating.”

Because Fu Jinxiao had a throat problem, he always prepared throat lozenges just in case the actor needed them someday. As a fan, he could only do this small thing to share the actor’s problems. 

Zhou Xun was a little bit emotional: “You are quite good at taking care of people, why didn’t I see it before…”

Jian Xingsui laughed at himself: “How much did you know me before?”

Zhou Xun was taken aback by this sentence.

All along, he has been more sympathetic to Anran. He always thought that Anran was a very pitiful boy – he was hard-working and pure. In opposition to that, he thought Jian Xingsui was too vicious, always bullying the poor Ranran. Jian Xingsui was way richer than Ranran was, but that fact didn’t stop him from bullying Ranran. 

But when Jian Xingsui said that suddenly, Zhou Xun finally had an epiphany that he “knew” Jian Xingsui solely from Anran’s mouth. Anran always said that Jian Xingsui bullied him, but in fact he hadn’t actually seen it with his own eyes.

Zhou Xun’s mood suddenly became very complicated: “…I don’t know you… very well, yes.”

It’s hard to let his preconceived notions go. If Jian Xingsui wasn’t that bad… wouldn’t it be outrageous for Zhou Xun to be targeting him all the time?

If he wasn’t that bad, then why did he help “Shimmer” to lose?

After this encounter, everything felt… off. When he read through “Peak of War” again later, he felt that everything he previously thought as normal was wrong. He even felt that if they didn’t perform “Shimmer” during the stage, they would lose in the competition with other groups.

In the morning, Anran was the first to find out what was wrong with him, and asked in a soft, caring voice, “A-Xun, what’s wrong with you?” 

Zhou Xun walked beside Anran, and after hearing the words, he tentatively asked, “Ranran, be honest with me. Do you think… Jian Xingsui’s ‘Shimmer’ was actually pretty good? Even better than ‘Peak of War’? Because now… I think that way.” 

Anran’s smile froze.

He replied slowly, “I think it’s very ordinary, not as good as Xu’an-gege’s song.”

Zhou Xun frowned slightly, wondering: “Is that so?”

Seeing Zhou Xun like this, Anran was at a loss.

He didn’t know when it started, but he found that everything around him was slowly out of his control. Not only many things didn’t get better, but it went way worse than his previous life.

Yes, in fact, this was his second life – he was reborn.

Compared to his first life, he felt that his glorious moments were much less. 

At his first life—

When he returned to Jian Family’s house, he got to know Fu Jinxiao through the things he scraped from Jian Xingsui’s room and study. He slowly but surely knew the actor’s past, achievements, works, and other things. Reading all of that quickly made him attracted to the actor’s excellence. Moreover, thanks to “Starlight”, he could use that information to place himself in front of Actor Fu’s eyes. That was the starting point when his life went smoothly. 

But later, things changed. He didn’t know how it went wrong exactly, but it seemed that once he took Actor Fu to visit his house and mentioned the then-deceased Jian Xingsui… things snowballed downhill. He remembered being forced to confess that all of Fu Jinxiao’s memorabilia and knowledge came from Jian Xingsui’s things. 

After that point, Fu Jinxiao’s attitude towards him dropped down to near sub-zero. Originally, their relationship was very good, and they were just a step away from making things official, but…

Fu Jinxiao’s alienation could be said to be the finishing blow to Anran’s comfortable life.

His good luck has come to an end. He was met with misfortune after another misfortune. Not to mention his abysmal development of the entertainment industry, in the end he had to marry the son of a wealthy businessman! His previously glamorous popularity crumbled, and he could only live a nobody’s life! 

But then, the Gods seemed to favor him.

He woke up one day, and actually found himself in the past with enough time to correct the trajectory of his life.

This time, Anran wanted to be on the offensive to seduce Fu Jinxiao. He needed to win the man’s heart if he wanted to succeed. 

There were some things in his previous life that still confused him, though. Why did Fu Jinxiao’s attitude towards him change drastically after that forced confession? He still doesn’t have the answer, but his gut instinct told him to make sure Jian Xingsui stayed far, far away from himself and Fu Jinxiao. He subconsciously knew that it would be very dangerous for him otherwise. 

Therefore, this pest Jian Xingsui must be eliminated. 

Best if he died early like in his previous life.

His thoughts finally came back to the present, Anran sweetly coaxed Zhou Xun, “A-Xun, I think Xu’an-gege’s song is very good, and the other two people think so too. What’s wrong with you? Why did you suddenly start mentioning this?” 

Zhou Xun replied with a sigh, “It’s nothing…”

Anran smiled, trying to change the subject, “You may be under too much pressure, let’s go to the cafeteria to have breakfast.”

Zhou Xun said in return, “But don’t we have to go to the training room early to clean up first? There will be staff to check at 8 o’clock… which is soon.”

Anran had something else on his mind, so he replied without thinking too much, all in a casual tone, “It’s okay, it’s okay. We don’t need to clean up. Jian Xingsui will do it anyway,  those things Jian Xingsui will do, as he always did every time.” 

“…….”

Anran was met with a deafening silence.

That woke him up from his stupor. He suddenly realized that he might have said something wrong. He looked back, and met with Zhou Xun’s unreadable emotions, pooling on his eyes.

Zhou Xun stopped, and looked as if he realized something. He took a deep, tired breath and said, “Ranran, I… I think you are so much different from before.”

Hearing that, An Ran’s heart tightened.

“None of us here are ‘supposed’ to clean the room as our primary job, yes, however… we are expected to share the burden together as a team. So, we do have to clean it ourselves. We can’t rely on Jian Xingsui every time. It is not fair.” 

Zhou Xun took another deep breath before continuing, “I always thought that… you didn’t clean it up because you are too tired after practice to do anything else. But it seems that… you didn’t do it because it’s not something you have to do?” 

Anran was hit with Zhou Xun’s unusually harsh words, leaving him speechless. But, he still wanted to quibble to defend himself. He cranked up his charm and leaned closer to Zhou Xun, looking pitiful, “A-Xun, you know I didn’t mean that. Please, listen to my explanation first…”

If this was yesterday, Zhou Xun would let Anran plaster himself onto his body.

But this time, Zhou Xun took half a step back, putting an extra distance.

Anran is more of a malicious idiot than I thought… deserve tho

Also: congratulations to Zhou Xun for FINALLY being tired of drinking green tea all the time!