The Novelist Forced to Become Famous
Chapter 87

Wan Boss knew he had offended Kang Mu Cheng and Jian Jing, so he stopped trying to win them over. The next day, he went back to meet with the higher-ups at Fei Niao to have dinner.

Zhang Hongchun didn't leave with him, instead staying behind to continue improving relations.

Early next morning, Jian Jing received the congee, pan-fried pork buns, potato cakes and freshly ground soy milk that Zhang Hongchun had made with her own hands.

It was very...virtuous housewifey.

Zhang Hongchun also said she was doing this with no other intentions - it was because Wan Boss greatly regretted his actions yesterday, but was too busy with work to apologize in person, so he asked her to bring gifts on his behalf.

"A sincere apology doesn't involve sending others on your behalf." Jian Jing didn't completely reject her, but her attitude was firm. "This has nothing to do with you, don't do this anymore."

Zhang Hongchun could only take the breakfast back.

Jian Jing ate breakfast with Kang Mu Cheng. The innkeeper's wife had made traditional Japanese breakfast, and it tasted great.

"I'll be heading back soon, are you staying?" Kang Mu Cheng asked her.

She thought about it, quite reluctant to leave the hot springs, and said, "I'll stay two more days, there's still plenty of time before school starts."

"Okay then, the contract preparation will take a few days anyway." Kang Mu Cheng was in a hurry to leave, mainly to finalize the contract with Fei Niao as soon as possible. Going through legal review with both sides would take quite some time, so the earlier the better.

He was a workaholic demon, hurriedly packing up and leaving after breakfast. Producer Sun did the same, taking the contract back to find the big boss.

Jian Jing, Director Huang and Scriptwriter Xu slowly outlined the content for the second installment.

Of course, they also discussed the roles.

Scriptwriter Xu said, "Many people have their eyes on our female lead, what do you guys think, how should we plan the female lead's scenes?"

Jian Jing: "Can the female and male leads not have a love storyline?"

Scriptwriter Xu sympathetically said, "No, they can't."

Her: "..."

Director Huang said, "We have to consider what investors want, but I feel there shouldn't be explicit romantic scenes."

"Right, subtle hints are enough." Scriptwriter Xu agreed, "Demons lose their mystique when they act human, once they fall in love it becomes cliche. The audience won't like it either, some flirting is fine."

After much spirited discussion, they finalized the female lead's general character design.

The difficult one was the second male lead, the hunter.

"We can just write him according to Jingjing's storyline, he shouldn't be a big issue." Scriptwriter Xu started feeling troubled. "Sigh, Xiao Xue's appearance is quite good, with a melancholic scholar feel to him, while Xiao Bai seems a bit too sunny."

Jian Jing frowned: "The hunter's darkness is inside, not on his face."

Scriptwriter Xu suddenly got interested: "So you prefer Xiao Bai, huh?"

"This isn't about preference or not." Jian Jing brought up the document in WeChat, "The review he sent me on New Year's."

Scriptwriter Xu leaned over to take a look, a review of over two thousand words, fully analyzing the demon and hunter's characters.

"Tsk, no problem with Xiao Bai's attitude, very professional." He praised, then suggested, "I think we should write a scene of the hunter's first appearance, it'll make auditions easier too."

Director Huang had no objections. Sᴇaʀᴄh the N0vᴇlFire(.)nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

"Right, let's also ask Shao Meng for his opinion." Scriptwriter Xu suddenly recalled something important and hurriedly asked, "Old Huang, how did you finalize his contract? No issues right?"

"It's for the whole series." Director Huang had great foresight, firmly locking in the main lead when signing the contract. "Many people have been hinting to me this time, but Shao Meng performed well, he has no problems on his end, and we won't make changes on our side either."

Shao Meng soon arrived and directly said he had no issues at all.

He was very cooperative, saying everything would follow the contract terms. He even told Jian Jing, "I've also read the Demon 2 book and gained some insights and feelings about it."

Unlike Jiang BaiYan's text commentary, he had written his thoughts in a small notebook, which he handed to her to read.

Jian Jing politely took it and read through it once. Shao Meng's understanding of the demon was undisputed after acting in the first season, it was nothing more than "amoral, disguising human feelings" in eight words, with hidden reversals in the details.

He also had his own ideas about the hunter.

"The demon's attitude towards the hunter is one of toying with him. His life is too boring, he needs something out of the ordinary to stimulate him." Shao Meng said, "The hunter isn't an ordinary person, he's special to the demon."

Scriptwriter Xu said, "Right, their relationship is actually quite subtle, tied together by karma, bearing a grudge from past lives. Although they're enemies, they could also potentially cooperate, just like a thief and detective."

A flash of inspiration hit Jian Jing and she said, "The demon doesn't care about human life and death, but he will care about infants. In his view, infants are the existence closest to himself, similarly chaotic, neither good nor evil."

"That's a great idea." Scriptwriter Xu laughed and wrote it down.

Director Huang said, "For now I don't want to pick someone too good-looking for the second male lead."

Scriptwriter Xu laughed hard, fully understanding his friend's concerns.

Jian Jing protested: "No way."

Shao Meng also laughed, but as he was laughing, he suddenly frowned, clutching his stomach with one hand and bulging veins on his temple, seemingly in great pain.

Director Huang asked, "Little Shao, what's wrong, are you sick?"

"It's nothing, I drank yesterday, my stomach feels a little uncomfortable." Shao Meng said with difficulty, "My old problem again."

"Then you should go back and rest first, we still have plenty of time before shooting starts. Relax for a couple days." Director Huang still cared a lot about his actors when not shooting.

Shao Meng didn't pretend to bear it and apologized before going back to his room to rest.

The remaining three continued their discussion.

Scriptwriter Xu started outlining and took the chance to teach Jian Jing how to write scripts, while still chatting idly: "Who knows who else might come today, lots of people have their eyes on the second male lead. Oh right, Old Huang, do you know Xie Wei is also here?"

Director Huang was surprised.

"Has been here for several days already, said he's here to recuperate." Scriptwriter Xu sighed, "He's also pitiful."

Jian Jing asked, "Who's Xie Wei?"

Scriptwriter Xu laughed, "Jingjing hasn't seen The Great Song Dynasty Cases?"

Jian Jing: "Uh..." She actually hadn't watched most of the TV dramas in this world.

"It was a smash hit drama from ten years ago. No exaggeration, even the small supporting roles back then have made a name for themselves now. Xie Wei was the first male lead." After revealing this, Scriptwriter Xu continued, "But oddly enough, the second male lead played by Shao Meng became more popular than him."

Director Huang sighed, "In our line of work, effort doesn't directly translate to rewards. Becoming popular or not is all fate."

"He was always a step away from success, hard to blame him for not taking it well." Scriptwriter Xu said, "He's kept out of sight this whole time, likely doesn't have any other intentions. And playing second fiddle to Little Shao again probably doesn't sit well with him either."

Director Huang said, "Let's pretend we don't know. It'll be less awkward that way."

*

Shao Meng felt like he might have a fever. Returning to his room, he told his assistant, "I'm feeling a little uncomfortable, go buy me some medicine for my stomach."

The assistant was shocked, "Shao Ge, what's wrong?"

"I drank yesterday, my stomach feels bad." Shao Meng rushed into the bathroom, leaning over the sink and retching, but only brought up sour fluid. Yet it felt like he'd caught a chill, with waves of pain in his head.

He clutched his temple, "I'm going to sleep for a bit."

The assistant quickly said, "Okay, I'll go buy medicine right now. Shao Ge, rest well."

Shao Meng drank some hot water and collapsed into bed.

In his half-awake state, he felt someone standing at his bedside, looking down at him from above. That gaze was so resentful and icy cold, like a poisoned steel blade, slicing off chunks of his flesh one knife at a time.

He was shocked awake and opened his eyes in panic.

No one was there, only strange wisps of smoke lingering in the room.

The smoke was greyish black, like a strip of gauze lifted by the wind, swirling and dancing about the room, at times becoming a pair of eyes, at times morphing into a human face.

Shao Meng was both frightened and afraid, with sweat beading on his forehead.

What was this stuff?

Was this place haunted?

In a fluster, he tumbled out of bed, wanting to flee out the door, but the smoke suddenly transformed into a blurry human figure that violently rushed forth to embrace his body.

Thump, his heart jerked violently, waking him from the dream.

Shao Meng stared blankly up at the ceiling for a long while before realizing it had only been a dream.

Dream within a dream.

He breathed a sigh of relief and picked up his phone to text his assistant: [Change my room, something's off about the one I'm in now]

The assistant didn't reply.

He closed his eyes again and fell back asleep.

--

Tao Actress lay on the sofa browsing Weibo, searching the keyword "Tao Peach". Only some irrelevant content popped up now.

After half a year, she finally didn't see those overwhelming photos everywhere.

But she was fully aware that while she had spent a lot to wipe them from major sites and forbid their transmission, countless people still privately had those humiliating photos of her.

Whenever she thought about the vulgar words they said behind her back, her head pulsed and her stomach churned with acid.

But what had she done wrong?

What was wrong with taking some intimate photos with her boyfriend? Wasn't the person who leaked them the real criminal? But people would never blame the one truly at fault, instead pointing fingers at her privacy.

They criticized her unscrupulously, destroying her career.

Those directors and producers who refused her, hadn't they seen her body before? Yet now they acted all high and mighty, saying she had a "bad influence".

Bah, not to mention how they acted in private, were there few actresses who had stripped on screen?

But no matter how unjust or angry she felt, it wouldn't change the reality - her career was ruined in an instant, and she had to find a way to salvage it.

What should she do?

After coming this far, what could she do to get through this catastrophe?

Or was she doomed to never make a comeback?

Tao Actress anxiously bit her nails, vexed and perturbed.

--

The hotel had a glass room with some goldfish inside, and the owner's short-haired cat sat next to the pool, reaching in with its pink paws to catch the fish.

Xue Xiaosheng opened a can of cat food to lure the cat over. "Here, kitty kitty."

The short-haired cat treacherously sold itself out for the canned food.

Xue Xiaosheng took the chance to grab the cat's front legs and pick it up.

"Don't hold a cat on its back, it'll get scared," someone said from behind, coming over to adjust the cat's position to a squat in Xue Xiaosheng's arms.

Xue Xiaosheng looked back to size up Jiang Baiyan.

He could tell at dinner last night that Jiang Baiyan had probably come rushing over straight from a show recording without any sleep, reacting sluggishly. But now after catching up on rest, his eyes were bright and he was much more spirited than yesterday.

"Why are you helping me?" Xue Xiaosheng asked.

Jiang Baiyan smiled, "Afraid you'd feel too bitter losing?"

Xue Xiaosheng's piercing gaze swept over him. "You move quickly."

"I bought Demon 1 on the first day it came out, and I also bought Demon 2 on its first day," Jiang Baiyan didn't refute but simply said, "I've read both books no less than three times, I know all the plots by heart. How about you?"

Taking off clothes did indeed make many things easier, but if you could manage without taking them off, why take them off?

It was easy to take clothes off, but hard to put them back on.

Xue Xiaosheng stared fixedly at him for a moment, then suddenly smiled. "You think you've already won?" His eyes shone with strange brilliance as he slowly said, "You know what? There's one more person here besides us."

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