Release that Man

The thermos cups were just a joke. After the call that morning, Luo Mingxin had felt annoyed because he was threatened. He was Celebrity Luo; how could he be threatened by a woman‽ After realizing his face had been lost, he had purposely challenged Brother Shuang to make himself feel better. However, to everyone’s surprise, the joke did not become a joke, and it was really exciting.

With everyone watching, Brother Shuang looked at Luo Mingxin with a half-smile before downing the three cups of brandy without any comment. A cup was about 300 ml, so three cups were about one liter. Brother Shuang gulped them down like they were water. His face did not redden, and he even managed to maintain his polite demeanor.

“Even if it’s just water, the stomach will be bloated,” someone grumbled, and the gazes in the room looked at him like they had seen a ghost.

“You dummy!” Director Zhou recovered from his shock and immediately ordered his men, “Quick, go take a look at him. Don’t let the alcohol burn a hole in his stomach. You really think you’re shooting a drama‽”

Then he smacked Luo Mingxin on the back of his shoulder and berated, “You’re another one! You’re already an adult, so why are you bullying Xiao Ye?!”

Chaos erupted in the room. Even Luo Mingxin came to offer Ye Shuang some concern. Ye Shuang felt embarrassed being the focus of so much attention. After Ye Shuang confirmed that he was really fine and the people saw he did not show any symptoms of alcohol poisoning, they finally relaxed.

Competitiveness… Ye Shuang snuck into her seat silently, and while she was chatting with others, she felt like sighing. She had once again been influenced by testosterone. Testosterone made her territorial, so when she was in a same space as other males, she would not allow other males to blind her light unless it was the ‘leader’. In this case, it was Director Zhou who called for the gathering… Otherwise, it would have been seen as a taunt from any other male.

Thinking back to how she had been taunted by Brother Fei in the past and Luo Mingxin today, Ye Shuang realized that her Brother Shuang seemed to be slowly going down the domineering route. This was not a good thing. It was satisfying, yes, but it also very easily garnered her plenty of unnecessary enemies. Therefore, she reminded herself to be low-profile in the future.

“Xiao Ye, you’re such a good drinker!” Director Zhou said in a booming voice. He raised his thumb at Ye Shuang after seeing how unaffected she was after downing so much alcohol. He happily gave her a mission. “Tomorrow night, you’ll be following me when I go socializing with those government officials. This is perfect! Finally, someone to help block that alcohol!”

Wait, what about my low-profile‽ Ye Shuang’s lips twitched slightly before saying, “…Okay.”

When the gathering ended, everyone was slightly drunk. Thankfully, the designated drivers had not touched a drop of alcohol. Therefore, two full cars drove everyone back to their hotels.

Luo Mingxin was handled by his assistant while Ye Shuang could handle herself just fine. He looked not much different from when he arrived. His face was not flushed or pale, and his eyes were shining with brilliance. His tapered fingers used the chopsticks masterfully to pick at the food. It did not seem like he needed anyone to look over him.

“You really don’t need us to send you home‽” Luo Mingxin was blurry from alcohol, his electric eyes even more alluring than usual. Due to the drinking, his voice had become sexily hoarse. He leaned against his assistant and drawled, “You don’t need to be polite around me. After all, you’ve asked me for a lift before.”

“I don’t want to be that much trouble since it’s already midnight.” Ye Shuang smiled and then shook her head. “You need the rest more than me. After all, I can hide myself tomorrow, but you’re the main character.”

Ye Shuang’s plan was to arrive after the screening had started. Then she would hide backstage. After all, she did not need the exposure.

“You’re boring.” Luo Mingxin shook his head. He shoved his assistant aside and leaned toward Ye Shuang. “Everyone wants to be famous but not you. The thing that you have been given, others fight their whole life for. You’re not keeping a low-profile; you’re creating enemies. Things that other people want, you have, but you toss it away. You think you’re keeping a low-profile, but others will think you’re looking down on them.”

The assistant was shocked; he apologized profusely as he tried to drag Luo Mingxin to the car. “Brother Ye, I’m so sorry. Celebrity Luo likes to talk when he’s drunk, please don’t mind it.”

Ye Shuang sighed as she reached out to hold Luo Mingxin, who had smacked his assistant’s hands away. “It’s fine, I don’t mind it… But your analysis this time is wrong. I’m not trying to look down on anyone; I simply do not have the time.”

“Because of that crappy job‽” Luo Mingxin’s face fell like he just remembered something, “That con woman can take care of everything; she won’t need you.”

Ye Shuang did not know whether to laugh or cry. “Can you please be more tactful with your words?”

She hated dealing with drunks; they would make use of their drunkenness to say horrible things, but the next day, they could officially say that they did not remember anything.

Luo Mingxin puffed up his chest and replied, ” No! ”

After a few more words, Luo Mingxin fainted, and Ye Shuang resigned to her fate of helping get him into the car. Celebrity Luo trained his body daily, and the weight of his muscles was leaning fully on other people because he could not maintain his balance. It was hard to deal with. When this happened in the past, Luo Mingxin would be conscious enough to allow his assistant to haul him into the car, but after the tussle with Ye Shuang, he fainted before he even entered the car. The assistant was helpless. Thankfully, Ye Shuang was there to help him. Otherwise, the poor assistant would have needed to drag the man in alone.

“I’m so sorry, and thank you so much for your help.” Looking at the ease with which Ye Shuang carried Luo Mingxin, the assistant wiped his sweat and gasped with shock. Then he had to explain, “Celebrity Luo didn’t mean anything by the things that he said; he just had a little too much to drink tonight…”

“I don’t think that’s all.” Ye Shuang shoved the man into the backseat and, after she straightened herself, asked, “There has to be something on his mind, right?”

Thinking back to the sponsor offer that morning and the drunken words that night, Ye Shuang felt like the man would not recommend her so much for no reason. After all, they were not that close, and Luo Mingxin would not care so much for an acquaintance.

The assistant was embarrassed. “It’s nothing big. Celebrity Luo has a good script—a wuxia script—but he could not find a good partner to shoot it with, so it has been delayed for almost a year already… Have you heard of Xiao Zhu Hou?”

“A web novelist?” Ye Shuang thought about it. “He’s quite famous, but I don’t read many web novels.”

That was a lie. She did not read many male web novels. After all, she was a woman; she would relate more to female webnovels. “The one who writes historical drama?”

“Yes, that’s the one.” The assistant smiled shyly. “He has a novel with the topic on Nan Song. The word count is just right for an adaptation, but the characterization is hard. As people like to say, there’s no Hwa Xia after the Battle of Ya San ¹ . Celebrity Luo is actually a nationalist and couldn’t rest easy hearing the youths today showing their admiration for other cultures, so he has been vying to try a historical drama, but he’s picky so…”

Ye Shuang thought about it, and indeed, she had not heard about Luo Mingxin doing any historical dramas before. Firstly, it was the limitation of topic, and secondly, the limitation of the actor. Even though there were plenty of historical dramas, most of them were about emperors, like Kang Xi or Wu Han… Nan Song‽ People knew about Wen Tianxing, Lu Xiufu, and Yue Fei, but none of this era’s emperors were popular!

“I understand, but I simply don’t have the time.” Ye Shuang did want to help her idol fulfil his dream, but she could not guarantee the appearance of her male form, so she could only apologize.”Just pretend like you haven’t said a word to me today. Take good care of Celebrity Luo.”

The assistant tried to say something, but Ye Shuang had already jumped into the cab.

The taxi drove a distance away, and the assistant pulled open the backdoor carefully and nudged Luo Mingxin. “Celebrity Luo?”

Luo Mingxin did not open his eyes and mumbled, “Nothing works with him…”

He then turned over and continued to sleep.

He had asked his assistant to stay to try to persuade Ye Shuang. Even if he might reject it, at least he could use this topic to continue to persuade him, but he did not expect the man to be so adamant in rejecting it. He had even told his assistant to not tell him that he knew anything about this.

The man did not intend to enter this business. The assistant shrugged. There was nothing much he could say. He closed the door and walked to the driver’s seat to drive the car.

At the same time, Ye Shuang logged into the website inside the taxi.

It was easy to find Xiao Zhu Hou’s works. The man was either a history student or Chinese language student. His writing was interesting and started his timeline from Shang Zhou. He had written something in every Chinese dynasty, and the shortest among them was tens of thousands of words, and the longer ones reached into millions. His latest work was on the Ming Dynasty, and probably next year, he would start one about the Qing Dynasty.

Nan Song… Ye Shuang followed the timeline and soon found the webnovel that was being adapted into a drama that Luo Mingxin’s assistant had spoken about. The word count was 460,000 words.

Goodness, that’s long. Thankfully, I didn’t promise anything.

Since she had time on her hands, Ye Shuang added the book into her library and started to read.