Mr. Yuan is Always Unhappy - Chap 31
Edited by Yummers
The interview went by smoothly. Towards the end, Yuan Rui’s fans even prepared a surprise for him. It just happened to be Yuan Rui’s third year anniversary since his debut, the representative of the fans pushed in a cart with their delicately prepared cake. Yuan Rui was both very happy and moved. He gave his fans a rather long bow.
Once the event was over, the fans asked him for his signature and pictures, so he ended up staying on the stage for almost another half hour.
At seven that night, Zheng Qiuyang was flipping through a Luxury by JCK magazine while the mopping robot buzzed as it did its job.
Yuan Rui came home holding a big bundle of roses and a cake box in his hand.
Zheng Qiuyang put down the magazine to take the flowers and cake for him. He purposefully teased, “Are these for me?”
Yuan Rui spoke gleefully as he changed his shoes, “My fans gave me them!”
Zheng Qiuyang put the flowers and cake on the table. He went ahead and opened the cake box to find out that there was only one tiny piece left, it probably wasn’t even one-eighth of the original size. He joked, “It makes sense for you to bring the flowers back, but why did you bring back the cake too when it’s already like this?”
Yuan Rui threw his arms around the other’s shoulder, speaking with a smile, “Ever since my debut three years ago, this is the first time my fans have prepared a celebration for me.” He threw himself forward again, giving Zheng Qiuyang a big embrace as he expressed pleasantly, “I went through great efforts to save that last piece just to bring back for you. Have a taste, it’s super sweet and delicious.”
Zheng Qiuyang swiped some cream onto his finger and said as he sucked it off, “Mn, sweet.”
Yuan Rui’s mind was set on showing off. “Let me show you what the cake originally looked like, it was so pretty.”
One of his arms was still wrapped around Zheng Qiuyang while his other flipped through his photo album. “Look, isn’t it nice?”
Zheng Qiuyang spoke exaggeratingly, “Isn’t this way too pretty? I’ve never seen such a pretty cake!”
“Hahaha.”
“Your fans are also very pretty.”
Yuan Rui was proud. “Of course.”
Zheng Qiuyang smirked, “Wow, nice bodies too.”
“…”
Yuan Rui put his phone away.
“Hahaha!”
Yuan Rui stared at the back of his head for a while, then decided to pinch his butt.
“…Are you rebelling?”
Yuan Rui quickly turned to run. Even while running away, he laughed cheekily, “Ha! Ha! Ha!”
Zheng Qiuyang chased after him. He blocked him in the corner that connected the living room and the bedroom, pressing him against the wall as he made out with him passionately for ten whole minutes.
Once they fooled around enough, Yuan Rui went to cook. After the meal, the two shared the cake as dessert, giving each other smooches as they ate, causing the cake to taste even sweeter.
On Friday night, the second episode of The Sparkling Friends broadcasted. Its ratings skyrocketed again, the click rate on the internet also kept rising.
Yuan Rui watched the live stream, then proceeded to watch the replay. He laughed all the way past twelve until Zheng Qiuyang—who finally had enough—dragged him away from the tv for some fun time before they went to bed.
Unfortunately, on Saturday morning, Li Lingling called Yuan Rui to ask him to come to the company. Yuan Rui’s waist was still sore, his butt hurt, and his chest was swollen. He wanted to cry bleakly, but there was no way around it as he dragged his aching body out of the house.
Zheng Qiuyang slept comfortably until nine, where he was woken up by a phone call. Once he saw that it was his mom who was calling him, his head immediately started aching.
A few days ago, his mom would call him a few times consecutively, she only settled down when she found out that he wasn’t going to resign anymore. But she still showed her disdain towards Yuan Rui. Zheng Qiuyang didn’t try arguing either, he just let the words go in one ear and out the other, letting her do whatever.
It was just like when he started to mature as a teenager, he’d tried many times to convince his mom to put an end to the abnormal “marriage” of her’s. Then, he came to realize that his words didn’t have any effect, slowly, he allowed her to do as she wished.
His mom’s background was actually quite nice. She was both pretty and excellent as a young girl, a college student from the 80’s who had a bright future ahead of her. Then, however, she met his dad. The candid young girl thought she’d met a kind man, but once she was pregnant, she found out that the other already had a wife who was also pregnant at the time. After many failed suicide attempts, for some reason, she decided to keep the child. Due to that, she couldn’t attend college anymore. That angered Zheng Qiuyang’s grandfather so much that he passed away. The woman didn’t choose to return home. Along with the bawling baby, she willfully became the mistress of the Zheng family.
She had always been prideful ever since she was young. She firmly believed that with her youthful beauty and how much she sacrificed for her lover, that one day, she’ll become his lawful wife. But in the end, it was dragged to the point where she turned into a faded old woman. Her pride vanished, all she had left was the desire to not wanting to lose face.
Although she had a rather pitiful life, she couldn’t really blame that on others. Of course, Zheng Qiuyang couldn’t tell her that. There was really nothing to gain from arguing with his own mom. Aside from him dating Yuan Rui, he went along with everything else that she wanted
His mom called him to go shopping with him since she couldn’t find anyone else to hang out with. He had no choice but to get up, tidy himself up before going to pick her up.
The moment the woman got in the car, she started nagging, “I had nothing to do last night so I took a glance at The Sparkling Friends. The audience nowadays sure are interesting, what a crappy show, especially that big dumb man, I wouldn’t have hired him if I was the director…”
Zheng Qiuyang drove in silence. His head was planning on where he should eat dinner tonight with Yuan Rui. Today was a rare break, he might as well reserve a hotel room with french windows for the romanticism, though he wasn’t sure if Yuan Rui’s butt was still sore.
Yuan Rui’s butt wasn’t too sore anymore. But his swollen nipples were aching from the friction against his clothes, it was also a bit itchy. He sat there listening to Li Lingling as he endured the desperate need to rub it.
Li Lingling said, “The Sparkling Friends filming will be done after two more episodes. I talked with the TV station’s higher-ups, they said you performed very well and wished that you could be back for season two as well. This is the contract, take a look.”
Yuan Rui flipped open the contract.
Li Lingling continued to explain, “The filming is starting next spring. And about the skincare product, they also hoped that you can sign the contract for the next seasonal commercial.”
Yuan Rui couldn’t stop a wide smile from displaying on his face. “Awesome, I’m becoming more and more expensive.”
“…”
Li Lingling smiled too. “Tell Zhao Zhengyi to go get your pay from the finance office, check if the calculation was right. Our company’s not too tight on money recently, so we got the payment from all the recent jobs you’ve taken, including tax.”
Yuan Rui was even more delighted. “Thank you, Lingling-Jie.”
“Keep up your hard work.”
Yuan Rui nodded like a pestle pounding on garlic.
Li Lingling put back on a serious face. “I have another good news for you, by the way.”
“???”
“The Star Dream Culture company is arranging the filming for a new idol drama, it’s an adaption of the web novel, Who’s The Sand Between Your Fingers. They want to recruit you as the male lead.”
“…Ah?”
Li Lingling held her palm out. “Isn’t that a great surprise? And you say Yang Lu didn’t like you, it was her who appointed you.”
Yuan Rui was overwhelmed, “No no, I can’t act well.”
“…”
“The drama that I filmed with Le Ningyu last time was so cringy, a bunch of people on Weibo said I should just stick to variety shows. I couldn’t even bear to watch it.”
“…”
Yuan Rui then continued a bit shyly, “Only my boyfriend was biased enough to say that my acting was good.”
Li Lingling pointed at him, wanting to scold him. However, she paused for a moment, then swallowed it all back down, trying to persuade the other, “You know that whatever Yang Lu directs, it gets all the popularity, right? Who cares if it’s cringy, as long as it’ll get views.”
Yuan Rui still said, “I recognized the novel title even though I’ve never read it, I shouldn’t ruin a work with such a high IP…I feel like even Le Ningyu suits the role more than me.”
Li Lingling glared at him. “You won’t gain that many fans from doing reality shows alone, with our country’s current situation, reality shows will only broadcast by the season. The most you could do is two shows in a year, what are you going to do in the extra time in between? Dating? Didn’t you say you wanted to retire by thirty-five? If you don’t quickly stock up the money, how can you retire? Do you understand?”
“I do, but I’m afraid that I won’t play the character well and the novel fans would give me hate.”
“You’ll do well, this character’s made for you.”
Yuan Rui looked at her doubtfully.
Li Lingling explained irritatingly, “The male lead’s a super model who’s a little naïve.”
“…”
Zhao Zhengyi went to get Yuan Rui’s bill from the finance office. In the end, Yuan Rui was paid over 700 thousand by the company.
Yuan Rui jumped excitedly in front of Li Lingling’s office with the paper in his hands, he was so rejoiced he couldn’t help himself.
Through the door, Li Lingling scolded him in Shanghainese. Yuan Rui couldn’t really hear what she was saying, but he could detect the other’s mood from looking at her face, so he quickly fled.
