YPHC Chapter 25

Yan Jie was momentarily speechless.

 

His expression froze on his face. Though it was a smile, the curve of his lips revealed three parts desolation, three parts unwillingness, three parts heartbreak, plus one part left blank for readers’ imagination.

 

He nodded.

 

Took a deep breath, then nodded again.

 

Perhaps his mind clouded by anger, he remained silent for nearly a minute, wanting to speak but stopping himself, then wanting to speak again. Finally, he softly uttered:

 

“It’s little Spring’s fault then…”

 

That’s too hurtful, Mr. Hang. Even if you’re good-looking, I won’t forgive you.

 

Perhaps people pretend to be busy when embarrassed. Yan Jie adjusted his jacket sleeves:

 

“So your wish is to never associate with me for the rest of our lives?”

 

“No,” Jiang Nan’an calmly said.

 

“You’re different from him.”

 

“Oh?” Yan Jie’s wounded heart lit up with a glimmer of hope. “How am I different?”

 

Jiang Nan’an looked at him and honestly said:

 

“You’re noisier than him, more boisterous. More inexplicable, more irritating. More likely to make people want to escape.”

 

The five “mores” crushed Yan Jie back to the ground.

 

He turned away and pinched his philtrum with his fingertips.

 

“But,”

 

Jiang Nan’an finally delivered the turning point in a leisurely manner:

 

“You also make me feel that interacting with this type of person might not be as bad as I had imagined.”

 

Hearing this, Yan Jie was slightly taken aback.

 

He instinctively turned back to look at Jiang Nan’an, meeting his calm and frank gaze.

 

The young man’s medium-length hair fell beside his cheeks, dyed a golden, shining color by the orange evening light. His eyes were clear and beautiful, his whole person clean and cool, looking like a flower growing from the snow.

 

For a moment, Yan Jie strangely thought of a trip from a few years ago when his car broke down on a deserted road. As he sat on the roof waiting for rescue, he happened to look up and see the distant sacred mountain’s snow turned golden by the setting sun.

 

Yan Jie’s eyes moved slightly.

 

Perhaps not understanding why he was lost in thought, Jiang Nan’an raised his eyebrows slightly in confusion.

 

“You…”

 

Yan Jie opened his mouth, then seemed to suddenly come back to himself and looked away:

 

“Ah, this, no… actually, there’s something else…”

 

“Brother!”

 

A trembling shout from outside the door interrupted Yan Jie’s words, followed by knocking that sounded like a drum set:

 

“Brother, are you there? Something terrible has happened!”

 

Guessing that this “brother” was meant for Jiang Nan’an, Yan Jie walked over and pulled open the door.

 

Then he was slammed against the wall by a young man.

 

“Brother!” Xiao Sun burst in, grabbed the person who opened the door, realized the height was wrong, abandoned him, looked around the room, and finally locked onto Jiang Nan’an by the window.

 

Perhaps feeling the room was stuffy, Jiang Nan’an was by the window about to open it for ventilation. Just as he grabbed the handle, he suddenly heard Xiao Sun, who had just entered, shouting “Brother” heart-rendingly, sliding on his knees and firmly hugging his waist:

 

“Don’t do anything rash, Brother! Don’t jump!! How can I live if you die, Brother!!!”

 

“?” Jiang Nan’an looked down at him, calmly opened the window, then dragged Xiao Sun to another window and said serenely:

 

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t choose jumping as a way to die. Too messy.”

 

Hearing this, Xiao Sun was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly released Jiang Nan’an’s waist and struggled to stand up.

 

Right, right, right, his brother wanted to hang himself.

 

Jiang Nan’an still didn’t know why he was so agitated: “What’s wrong?”

 

“You don’t know yet, Brother…” Xiao Sun quickly pulled out his phone from his pocket, opened Weibo, and handed it over.

 

Jiang Nan’an looked closely and saw his name at the top of the real-time trending list on the screen Xiao Sun handed him, along with a single word.

 

Haha, how familiar this scene was.

 

#Jiang Nan’an Fire#

 

Clicking into the topic, the top trending item was a livestream recording. Jiang Nan’an could vaguely make out Monica’s bewildered expression through the thick barrage of comments.

 

“We’re done training today…”

 

“You think you play well… if you’re bad, practice more…”

 

“This is what I call getting angry at you. Understand?”

 

【Fire Fire Fire Fire: @Burning Eternity Official come out and explain, isn’t it normal for contestants to make mistakes during training? Just because someone didn’t play a game well, they deserve this kind of sarcastic, cold mockery? How is it that @Teacher Jiang Nan’an wasn’t satisfied with bullying people on set before and now wants to bully kids on variety shows? I guess us nobodies deserve it, right?】

 

【In Xiao Shan’s Arms: Thanks everyone for watching~ Friction and conflicts between teammates are very normal~ Don’t start a war because of a livestream recording that cuts out the context. Our Jiang baby is flourishing in both film and television, and is also a super strong mid laner in Summoner’s Rift! Welcome everyone to book the first episode of “Burning Eternity” this weekend to judge our beautiful, wild-hearted, high-ridge man-eating flower Teacher Xiao Shan! [Image]】

 

【Ice Cream 778: Just a passerby saying that in esports, being bad is the original sin. Being both bad and stubborn deserves criticism. Fans, don’t argue-if you do, I’m right. By the way, go answer some questions.】

 

Jiang Nan’an casually scrolled through the trending plaza, then frowned slightly and asked Xiao Sun:

 

“Was it this kind of flower before?”

 

“Huh?” Xiao Sun was confused.

 

Wasn’t this trending topic about his brother’s dispute with a teammate? What did flowers have to do with it?

 

Then he watched with a head full of question marks as Jiang Nan’an pointed to the phrase “high-ridge man-eating flower” in the fan’s comment on the screen.

 

“Oh… no, it used to be ‘high-ridge flower,’ but after the incident between you and Liang Cheng, fans thought your combat power was strong, so they unanimously changed the promotional phrase to ‘high-ridge man-eating flower’… but that’s not the point. The point is, Brother, what do we do now? Sister Hong just called me to come stabilize you first, saying she’s already on her way.”

 

This meant that in a few hours, Jiang Nan’an would once again have to hear Qi Hong’s piercing, explosive voice up close.

 

He immediately felt a headache coming on.

 

“Since things have already come to this, what can I do? Hang myself in apology?”

 

Jiang Nan’an sighed:

 

“Let’s wait until she gets here to discuss.”

 

After saying this, he paused, then looked at Yan Jie who was leaning against the wall watching the drama:

 

“What were you about to say earlier?”

 

Yan Jie wore an official smile, mechanically blinking his eyes, presumably thinking.

 

Finally, he raised both hands in a surrender gesture:

 

“Nothing now.”

 

–

 

“Jiang Nan’an, you really don’t let me have a moment’s peace! Just yesterday I was bragging to people, saying my Jiang baby has been performing so well on the variety show, with such great livestream reception! The variety show’s official episode is airing this weekend, and I’ve already booked the trending topics, just waiting to blow things up for you! Do you know how reassured and expectant I was? Huh?? Today I had just made a beauty appointment, thinking I could enjoy afternoon tea, get a facial, and have a glass of wine at home in the evening. But what happened? I didn’t even get to take a bite of my tiramisu before you hit the trending topics. Now I’ve flown here-are you satisfied now that you’ve exhausted me? Huh???”

 

Qi Hong paced back and forth in the third-floor tea room, her high heels going “click-click-click,” so angry that steam seemed to be coming from her head:

 

“Wasn’t everything fine for the past month? Why did you suddenly open fire today? Huh?? Does your condition come with an incubation period???”

 

Jiang Nan’an sat obediently in his chair, watching her:

 

“There was a problem within the team. I’m the captain, so I needed to solve it.”

 

“Then why didn’t you solve it as ‘Gu Qingze’! Isn’t that what we agreed on?”

 

“That was the original plan,” Jiang Nan’an answered seriously.

 

“Then why didn’t you stick to it in the end??” Qi Hong was on the verge of collapse.

 

Jiang Nan’an looked at her, then shifted his gaze away, stating with certainty:

 

“Because at that moment, ‘Jiang Nan’an’ couldn’t hold back anymore. I’m sorry.”

 

Qi Hong really wanted to pinch her philtrum:

 

“Before you exploded on the spot with that silver tongue, couldn’t you at least have asked if anyone else was livestreaming? This was a completely avoidable problem. You got carried away and satisfied yourself, but do you know how many people have to clean up after you?”

 

Xiao Sun stood nearby, instinctively wanting to defend his brother:

 

“Sister Hong… I don’t think it’s that serious. The fault wasn’t originally with Brother. We just need to clarify the maliciously edited video. Conflicts and friction within a team are normal, right? I see that fans and bystanders aren’t reacting too strongly either-they’re all helping to speak up for him, aren’t they?”

 

“The fans just spoil him too much!”

 

Qi Hong fanned herself in anger:

 

“I thought that treating this as work would help you control yourself, but I was too naive! How did I never notice before that besides having low emotional intelligence, you also have a temper? Sigh, if I had calculated this earlier, I would have… tsk, your personality is really difficult to manage. We had just barely recovered your image a bit, and now even more has been exposed with no way to explain it… What to do, what to do? How can we cover this up? Will fans still like you? Maybe they won’t even accept it, let alone like it. What if all your tens of millions of fans turn against you? What if… oh baby, your star career is over, baby…”

 

Qi Hong was so anxious she wanted to pull her hair, but she had just had it done a few days ago, so she thought better of it and threw a couple of elbow jabs at the air instead.

 

Qi Hong had been in the entertainment industry for too long. She had seen too many examples of people shining brilliantly one day and falling into oblivion the next. She had been guiding Jiang Nan’an since he was sixteen, for a full seven years. The higher and further he went, the more anxious she became. Every day she dreamed about paparazzi or rivals digging up something that would cut off his path. By now she had become somewhat neurotic, getting anxious at the slightest disturbance, seeing threats everywhere.

 

Jiang Nan’an listened to her rambling, lowering his eyes slightly, seemingly lost in thought as he pinched his fingers.

 

He felt that at this moment, in this situation, he should add another “I’m sorry,” but just as he was about to speak, he suddenly heard another voice cut in:

 

“What’s over? I really can’t listen anymore. Sorry, I wasn’t intentionally eavesdropping-I was here first, and who would have thought you’d come in and start discussing serious matters? It would have been too awkward for me to just walk out, so I hid for a bit… Anyway, that’s not important! Hey, beautiful lady, Sister Hong, right? Don’t say such discouraging things! Our Mr. Hang has a great personality! He’s so likable!”

 

Yan Jie suddenly popped up from behind the island counter in the tea room, holding a cup of freshly brewed coffee.

 

Perhaps no one had expected there to be a fourth person in the tea room. Yan Jie met the shocked eyes of the three people as he leaned against the counter, taking a leisurely sip of his coffee in a very comfortable posture, while wagging his finger at Qi Hong:

 

“You know what I think, Sister Hong? Don’t be anxious, don’t waste energy on internal conflict. There’s always a way out when you reach the mountain. Since what happened has happened, let it be. If others don’t like your baby, that’s definitely their problem-they lack vision! Right? Listen to your brother’s advice! Always look for the problem in others first. Our own people are definitely the best in the world! Right!”

 

The room fell into dead silence. Qi Hong was the first to react, looking at the closed door and then at the strange man who was acting as naturally as if he were among family members, and asked in desperation:

 

“…Who are you??!!”

 

—

 

 

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(advanced chapters available on kofi)