From the moment Jiang Nan’an entered the industry, Qi Hong had been managing him-seven years now. Over those years, her mindset had toughened: from being on edge every time he opened his mouth, to now, resigned and letting things go, scolding him when in a good mood, not caring when in a bad one.
Tonight Jiang Nan’an had performed well, so for once, she let his nonsense slide.
Shanghai is a city where even the night is dazzling.
Jiang Nan’an leaned against the car window. The tinted glass made the outside scene seem dimmer, the night wind carrying the city’s bustle inside, ruffling the hair on his forehead.
The hot honey water gradually cooled in his palm. Up front, Xiao Sun glanced back and saw Jiang Nan’an asleep by the window. He opened his mouth to ask the driver to close the rear window so he wouldn’t catch a chill, but Qi Hong quietly stopped him.
“Leave it open,” Qi Hong yawned.
“Otherwise, he can’t sleep well.”
Jiang Nan’an dozed off in the car, but when he woke, he felt even more groggy and headachy.
He was never a good drinker. In seven years in the industry, he’d learned a bit of everything-except how to handle alcohol.
At home, the floor-to-ceiling windows offered a panoramic view of the sparkling river. The neon lights outside the glass looked like a flowing painting. Jiang Nan’an stood by the window for a while, then drew the curtains and took a shower.
After drying his hair, he lay on the big bed in the master bedroom, spaced out for a bit, and reached for his phone on the nightstand.
He opened his apps-his WeChat contacts were all work-related, and no one ever messaged him unless it was business. Even if they did, it was just a few polite greetings. Only Xiao Sun had messaged a minute ago to say he’d gotten home, and to ask if he needed lunch delivered the next day. His Weibo DMs were full of heartfelt essays from fans-and, of course, malicious attacks from anti-fans. Strangers he’d never met hated him so much they wished him dead on the spot.
Jiang Nan’an often wondered why the media said young people were addicted to their phones. To him, this brick held no appeal at all.
Tipsy and sleepy, Jiang Nan’an squinted at his phone screen and yawned.
He was about to put his phone down and sleep when he noticed a red notification dot on one of his apps.
It was a friend message from the Cat Paw app-a platform he rarely used, with only one mutual friend there.
Spring: Mr. Hang, get ready to compete!
Spring: [Click to open the app and check out 【SSSSpring’s work】Hubby loves you, getting old, give me something new…]
Jiang Nan’an let out a heartfelt sigh.
Hang Me Now: You’re really so bored.
That’s what he said, but he still clicked the link Spring sent, curious what he was up to.
It didn’t seem to be an internal Cat Paw link-when he clicked, a popup appeared to open the app, and he just tapped confirm without looking. After a brief load, he saw the post: a short video Spring had recorded of a perfectly ordinary city night scene.
What was so interesting about this?
Jiang Nan’an, groggy and slow, didn’t get it until he opened the comments and saw nothing but rainbow flattery-then it hit him.
Oh, this was the praise contest Spring had mentioned.
What kind of person organizes a whole contest just to get praised?
Jiang Nan’an didn’t know, but he was deeply shaken.
Since he was already there, Jiang Nan’an scrolled through the comments, lips quirking in what might have been a sneer.
He tapped into the comment box.
A minute later, he tossed his phone aside, pulled up the covers, and, with the warm glow of the nightlight, drifted into a sweet sleep.
“Di-di-boo-beep-beep–”
“Di-di-boo-beep-beep–”
“Di-di-boo-beep-beep!!!”
The phone on the nightstand was shouting itself hoarse, the little robot’s quirky ringtone blaring round after round. Who knows how many times it looped before the person bundled up and sleeping soundly in the big bed finally showed even the slightest reaction.
Jiang Nan’an was famous for his good sleep. Once he was out, not even thunder, Hou Yi shooting down the sun, or Nuwa patching the sky could wake him.
Lying in bed, eyes closed and groggy, he stretched lazily, and only after a long while did he finally wake up.
He reached for the phone on the nightstand, squinting as he turned on the screen. After half a second of confusion, his eyes flew wide open in shock-
[Missed calls-from Qi Hong (197)]
How…
How many?
No matter how much of a heavy sleeper Jiang Nan’an was, seeing that glaring red number was enough to wake anyone up.
And in the blink of an eye, the 198th call came through.
He immediately sat up and answered:
“…Hello?”
From far away, Qi Hong’s furious roar came through the phone:
“Keep calling! If it rings five times with no answer, hang up and call again! Where’s Xiao Sun? Has Xiao Sun gotten to his place yet? What do you mean you’ve nearly broken down the door and still can’t wake him?? What, did Jiang Nan’an hang himself out of guilt on that money tree at home?!”
“Uh… Sister Hong…”
Whoever the unlucky assistant was on phone duty, their voice was trembling as they answered:
“Brother Jiang picked up…”
Then Jiang Nan’an heard the furious clack of high heels, and the next second, Qi Hong’s voice stabbed through the receiver, piercing Jiang Nan’an’s soul.
“Jiang! Nan! An! What’s wrong with you? What’s wrong with you again?! You can still sleep?!”
Jiang Nan’an looked down at the blanket on his lap, gently scratching the soft fabric with his fingertips, and answered honestly:
“I was asleep.”
“If you can sleep, I can’t!! I got home at 2 a.m., went to bed at 2:30, and was woken by calls at 3! You’re something else, Jiang Nan’an, do you know how many people stayed up all night celebrating your trending topic?! Huh?! And you still have the nerve to sleep?!”
Qi Hong unleashed a barrage of scolding through the phone. Jiang Nan’an listened quietly, not understanding a word, completely bewildered:
“…So what did I do?”
“What did you do?” Qi Hong sneered:
“Your life is over! Go look at the trending topics yourself!”
She sounded like she wanted to hang up in anger, but before she did, she added:
“Open the door and let Xiao Sun in! The kid’s been waiting at your door for an hour!”
Jiang Nan’an stared at the phone, full of question marks. After a brief pause, he rubbed his messy hair and went to open the door for Xiao Sun.
Sure enough, Xiao Sun was squatting at his door, blinking his big eyes pitifully. The first thing he said was:
“Brother-”
“Sorry, I was asleep and didn’t hear anything. It wasn’t on purpose.”
Jiang Nan’an admitted his mistake with a good attitude, even giving Xiao Sun a proper bow to show his apology.
Xiao Sun was startled, shaking his head like a rattle drum, repeating “It’s fine, it’s fine.”
He’d worked with Jiang Nan’an long enough to know he was impossible to wake once asleep. During filming, he always kept a spare key to Jiang Nan’an’s hotel room just to go in and shake him awake. But this was Jiang Nan’an’s private residence, and since he was on vacation, Xiao Sun only occasionally dropped by with food and didn’t have a key. Who would have thought that just as Jiang Nan’an slept, something would happen and no one could reach him? By the time he finally woke up, the incident had been trending for nearly ten hours.
Sister Hong’s high heels were about to snap, and Jiang Nan’an himself was still clueless about what happened.
“Brother… You’d better check the trending topics. What the heck happened? Sister Hong’s been furious all morning.”
Xiao Sun carried the lunchbox to heat up Jiang Nan’an’s meal. Jiang Nan’an glanced at him, said nothing, and flopped onto the sofa, lazily lifting his phone, still not understanding why everyone was making such a fuss so early in the morning.
He was still yawning as he opened Weibo.
Three seconds later, his eyes widened, and he shot upright.
The number one trending topic had turned red from all the attention.
#Jiang Nan’an Spring#
A bad feeling rose in Jiang Nan’an’s heart.
Why was his name paired with the word “Spring”???
He clicked into the topic. The top post was from a familiar marketing account.
[Spring Praise Contest features Jiang Nan’an-what is this hahaha, did Jiang Nan’an get hacked???]
The attached image was a screenshot of the comments under Spring’s video. Jiang Nan’an opened the image, and memories of last night’s blurry, half-asleep actions flashed through his mind.
Spring had sent him an external link…
He seemed to have clicked it directly…
But…
The app he was logged into was…
[Pinned] Jiang Nan’an V: Brother, you’re wrong, you’re so wrong. Do you know, every night I bolt upright in bed screaming, going mad and crying helplessly, and no one cares about me. I can only slap myself to force myself to calm down, but when I see your face, your hands, your godlike moves, I burst into tears, hating myself for not being you, wishing I could hang myself in my room. I love you, do you hear me? I love you. The biggest mistake of your life was stealing my heart!
[Author’s reply] SSSSpring: ? Anyone who dares criticize the king must be executed, haha.
It was his own big, gold-verified account, shining for all to see.
Jiang Nan’an was frighteningly calm.
He took a deep breath. “If I said I was hacked…”
Xiao Sun, holding the freshly heated lunch, shuffled over, his face scrunched up in agony:
“Actually, Sister Hong was planning to use that excuse too, but this batch of netizens are like Sherlock Holmes! Brother… scroll further down the trending topics!”
Jiang Nan’an didn’t believe things could get any worse.
Until he saw:
#Nice Weather, Go Hang Myself#
#Mr. Hang Jiang Nan’an#
#Hang Me Now#
#Jiang Nan’an Has Gone Crazy#
……
【Entertainment Quack: Watched @天下第一SSSpring’s stream replay, so the ‘Mr. Hang’ fans said sounded like Jiang Nan’an was actually @Jiang Nan’an himself??? His personality off-camera is totally different from on-camera… So celebrities really are all about personas, huh? What does everyone think? Waiting for an official response.】
【SherMeow Holmes: Did some digging on that account suspected to be Jiang Nan’an-what’s his relationship with Spring? The only account he follows besides Cat Paw’s official is Spring, he’s thrown tens of thousands in gifts, and his likes include CP edit videos of him and Spring… What is this… Has the world finally gone mad…[Cat Paw TV-Hang Me Now liked | #Boating at Guazhou##Ship Tease##SpringMountain##SpringXJiangNanan# See you at the top! My CP is one step away from marriage!!]】
【Boating at Guazhou is Divine!!: -Boating at Guazhou supertopic- Huh? Dream crossover?? Damn??? My CP came true???? Woke up and found the supertopic at #3 on the CP chart, thought I was dreaming but turns out my OTP got married?????】
#Boating at Guazhou is on the Table#
#Jiang Nan’an Spring Relationship#
Jiang Nan’an truly felt the world spinning.
—
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
