Unable to be Arrogant [Entertainment Circle] | Chapter 4 | Critiques and Cringe | Novela.app

After mocking his younger sister for a while, Zhang Jin’an continued scrolling through her WeChat Moments. As it happened, the very next post mentioned him. [Zhang Shuyu]: I told my brother about this drama. My brother: "Is this some kind of mythological fable?" Me: "?" *Was I wrong?* A story about saving a life and repaying a debt—isn't that exactly what a fable is? Zhang Jin’an thought to himself that she just didn't understand, and he casually tapped on the video. "Zhou Li!" a woman screamed, accompanied by eerie sound effects. The man on the screen suddenly turned his head. The shot was in slow motion; his hair seemed to dance in the air, and the cinematography was so detailed you could almost see his pores. It was no wonder that author had started writing fanfiction based solely on their looks. With short hair, Jiang Siyang was a bright, refreshing youth, but with long hair... Zhang Jin’an squinted at the screen; he almost thought he was looking at a beautiful woman. "Not bad..." Zhang Jin’an leaned back, sinking into his chair. It wasn't that Zhang Jin’an disliked watching dramas; in fact, he had entered the industry because he grew up watching television. He just didn't enjoy it anymore because ever since acting became his profession, he could no longer watch as a mere spectator. He would inevitably succumb to "professional habits," unable to stop himself from analyzing the lines and performance. From this short, few-second clip alone, Zhang Jin’an identified several points. Jiang Siyang’s acting wasn't bad, and his delivery had a good feel to it, but likely due to a lack of experience, he was still a bit green—at least in this shot. According to the order of Zhang Shuyu’s screenshots, this was the moment where Zhou Li believed he had killed the villain who had imprisoned him for years, only to find the villain wasn't dead and was actually standing right behind him. Jiang Siyang’s expression focused solely on surprise, failing to convey the underlying terror of the realization. If Zhang Jin’an were playing it... He would pause for two seconds before snapping his head around. That pause would represent the self-doubt of "Is this real?" A pause, a turn, and then the full face after the turn. There were three distinct time points, which were just enough to support two major emotions. This breakdown of timing was an acting technique Zhang Jin’an had summarized for himself. If he ever had the chance in the future, he would definitely tell Jiang Siyang. After all, if this kid kept acting like this, his prospects were truly excellent. Seeing this, Zhang Jin’an also remembered that when this show aired, it didn't make much of a splash. Brother Qiang had specifically shown him the quarterly charts, and *Falling Petals* hadn't even made the top five among the dramas of that season. Li Qiang was right; if Jiang Siyang were given a good script, he could definitely stay popular for a while. [Zhang Shuyu]: I’ve really become a fan of Four Sheep. I went back to watch his other dramas; this man is seriously handsome. Zhou Li, I can! Chu Hui, I can! The comments below were a conversation between Zhang Shuyu and Su Zhiyang. [Su Zhiyang]: Why don't you ask your brother to get an autograph? [Zhang Shuyu]: My brother? Forget it. [Su Zhiyang]: Why? [Zhang Shuyu]: What kind of social activity do you expect from a shut-in? If those two ever managed to have a conversation, I’d thank his entire family tree. [Su Zhiyang]: Hahahaha, true. *True? True my foot.* And this girl was getting bolder and bolder. It was a good thing he was only seeing this conversation now; otherwise, he would have immediately dragged Zhang Shuyu into a thirty-minute "heart-to-heart" to teach her the meaning of respecting one's elders. Zhang Jin’an returned to Weibo and scrolled down quite a bit before finding a post that seemed to be written by Jiang Siyang himself—a photo someone else had taken of him, though it dated back to January. [@JiangFourSheep]: Worthy of celebration; it finally snowed in the south. Jiang Siyang was wearing a white, knee-length down jacket, standing in a vast expanse of white snow. He had his arms spread wide, grinning at the camera. The Polaroid photo had a bit of a vintage effect. In this moment, Jiang Siyang looked different from his on-screen persona. It seemed he was better suited for this kind of unadorned lens, which brought out his youthful aura. That author, Tuan Yuan, seemed particularly fond of writing about Jiang Siyang’s eyes. [Jiang Siyang had never lacked praise for his appearance since he was a child, especially his eyes; everyone who saw them said they were beautiful.] [Jiang Siyang’s heart was full of joy, and it nearly overflowed from his eyes; he couldn't hide it, nor did he want to.] [A pair of peach-blossom eyes that looked as if they could see through three lifetimes of affection; one couldn't help but wonder, if he looked like this in photos, how handsome must he be in person?] Zhang Jin’an recalled his second meeting with Jiang Siyang at the film festival. At the time, Zhang Jin’an was sitting on the right side of the third row, while Jiang Siyang was on the left side of the same row. Besides the four people between them, they were also separated by an aisle. As the presenters called out names one by one, Zhang Jin’an clapped, his gaze following the winners as they slowly descended the steps. When a winner reached the third row, Zhang Jin’an’s gaze briefly drifted and happened to lock eyes with Jiang Siyang, who was also looking over. It was just an accidental collision of gazes, and the memory was a bit blurry, but those eyes were indeed beautiful. Thinking about it, that author was quite impressive. Although her timeline was a mess, she hadn't missed a single one of these real-life moments. She had written about the film festival earlier in the story, setting it before the awards ceremony. In her story, "Jiang Siyang" was a newcomer to the screen who got lucky and was invited to the film festival. It was also at this moment that "Jiang Siyang" saw the real "Zhang Jin’an" for the first time. There was a passage in there that Zhang Jin’an quite liked: [Jiang Siyang sat in his seat wearing a white suit. A champagne rose—one of which had been given to every guest—seemed to grow right out of his clothes, resting quietly in his breast pocket. He clapped with a smile, his gaze following Yao Zhiman as she moved down the aisle. Yao Zhiman’s Koles gown was encrusted with diamonds; a thousand pairs of eyes were focused on her. But Jiang Siyang’s were not. As Yao Zhiman reached the third row, Jiang Siyang took a deep breath and, just as he had planned, intentionally let his gaze linger. In such a setting, Jiang Siyang could openly look at the person sitting in the same row, even if it was only a profile. He intended to linger for a few more seconds, but Zhang Jin’an unexpectedly turned his head. Without missing a beat, their eyes met. For a moment, Jiang Siyang seemed unable to hear any sound. What kind of eyes were these? They transported Jiang Siyang back to the summer of 2009, when he had accidentally seen *Best World* on television. It was those very eyes—bright and clear even beneath the mire. He didn't know when his feelings had deepened; he only knew that with one look back, he had fallen in love with every frown and smile of that man.] Zhang Jin’an really liked the line: "He didn't know when his feelings had deepened; he only knew that with one look back, he had fallen in love with every frown and smile of that man." What was originally an inadvertent moment felt, under her pen, like a long-premeditated scheme—a plan three years in the making. Unexpected, yet perfectly logical. "Kids these days can really write," Zhang Jin’an chuckled and hit the follow button on Jiang Siyang’s profile. Zhang Jin’an remembered something Zhang Shuyu had once said: "To a CP fan, breathing is the same as living and dying together." He hadn't understood what that meant before, but now he understood it about eighty or ninety percent—anything could be used as material, and with the stroke of a pen, a whole other world was created. Zhang Jin’an didn't hate such worlds. Having an imagination was a good thing, as long as it didn't go too far—like what his friend Zhai Yaoyan had encountered before. That, he could accept. Thinking of Zhai Yaoyan’s situation, Zhang Jin’an found it utterly ridiculous. Zhai Yaoyan was a fairly famous singer; Zhang Jin’an had met him while filming the drama *Obsessed and Stained*, for which Zhai Yaoyan sang the OST. After the drama aired, Zhai Yaoyan’s popularity surged. Riding that momentum, Zhai Yaoyan publicly announced that he and his girlfriend had decided to get married the following year. It should have been a double celebration, but unexpectedly, when Zhang Jin’an searched Weibo, he found that aside from the posts congratulating him, the rest were from CP fans who shipped him with someone else. The content was mostly the same: claiming his girlfriend wasn't good enough for him. Fortunately, Zhai Yaoyan didn't pay much attention to fan circles and was completely oblivious to the whole thing, so it didn't affect the couple. Toxic fans existed every year, and they were always full of drama. Thinking of this made Zhang Jin’an feel a bit disgruntled, so he went back to the #ZhangYangUnstoppable tag to find some entertainment and change his mood. As luck would have it, he saw a post with a very recent comment and quite a few reposts. Comparing it to the repost count of *Heatwave*, this one probably wasn't bad either. Without a second thought, Zhang Jin’an clicked in. [Overbearing CEO AU. President Zhang (Seme) x Newcomer Jiang (Uke)] Zhang Jin’an had read CEO stories before. Back when he was being shipped with Gu Yirou, seven out of ten stories were CEO AUs. However, he hadn't read a male-male one yet. He figured it might be a bit more hot-blooded, or at least different from the romance novels... ...or so he thought. Clearly, he was wrong. It was practically a carbon copy of those previous CEO stories, just with the genders swapped to male-male; nothing else had changed. In those stories, a character would show up with a starting price of 500,000 yuan. Here, it didn't even stop at 500,000—it started directly at a billion. ["Heavens, you don't know him? He's the President of the Zhang Group, Zhang Jin’an. He’s worth a billion! He has three companies under his name!" Gu Yirou looked at the man before her in disbelief. "You actually don't know?"] ["What does he have to do with me?" Jiang Siyang gave a disdainful smile. "With that attitude of his, it's obvious he has more money than manners."] *A billion,* Zhang Jin’an scoffed. That was a gross overestimation. If he had a billion, he definitely wouldn't be running a company; he’d be at home playing video games, waiting to die of old age. Fearing he had misread something, Zhang Jin’an exited the image and checked the reposts again. 135 reposts, and everyone was looking forward to the sequel. Zhang Jin’an thought that maybe the beginning was just a bit... but the rest should be quite good; otherwise, there wouldn't be so many people reposting and saying they liked it. Zhang Jin’an skimmed through. The plot was roughly about "Jiang Siyang" coming to work at the corporation and accidentally running into "President Zhang Jin’an." Not knowing he was the CEO, he spoke to Zhang Jin’an with the attitude of an ordinary employee. As a result, "Zhang Jin’an" was extremely narcissistic and assumed this person liked him and was trying to hit on him. But because "Jiang Siyang" wasn't bad-looking and was exactly "Zhang Jin’an’s" type, "Zhang Jin’an" mentally agreed to the pursuit. The further he read, the more Zhang Jin’an found the story... thought-provoking. Especially the two protagonists. These two were truly a perfect match. One was a total moron, the other a complete nutcase. When Zhang Jin’an read the line: [Zhang Jin’an gave a cold laugh. "Man, don't be too insolent. Aside from you, no one dares to speak to me like that,"] he finally couldn't help but question himself: "Excuse me, is there something wrong with me?" Next came the climax of the plot: the two of them got into an argument. Zhang Jin’an was reaching the point where he could barely recognize Chinese characters anymore, but in his daze, he saw the word "quarrel," and his eyes immediately lit up. [Zhang Jin’an was intoxicated by Jiang Siyang’s incomparably gorgeous smile. He couldn't help but pull out a bank card: "Man, there’s 20 million in here. Swipe it however you like."] [Jiang Siyang’s face hardened, and he slapped Zhang Jin’an’s hand away. "In your heart, am I that kind of easy man? I don't need you to keep me!"] ["Then what exactly do you want?" Zhang Jin’an felt very frustrated. He had already given this man the best things he owned. Why was this man still like this?] [A drop of sweat rolled down Zhang Jin’an’s sculpted jawline and dripped onto the floor.] ["I—don't you know what I want you to do?" Jiang Siyang’s eyes were already turning red, and his blood-red thin lips began to tremble.] [Zhang Jin’an couldn't bear to see him like this and tried his best to speak softly. "Can you stop being so unreasonable? Be good."] ["No! Don't touch me!" Jiang Siyang took a step back.] *Are these two finally going to start fighting?* Zhang Jin’an held his breath, not daring to exhale. He held his phone reverently with both hands, terrified of missing the segment he had been waiting for. This posture even startled Li Qiang, who happened to glance at him and thought he was reading some kind of script. Zhang Jin’an’s thumb slowly slid upward... ["What... do you actually want?"] ["I want you to love me!" Jiang Siyang seemed to use up his last ounce of strength. As soon as he finished speaking, he fainted.] [Zhang Jin’an immediately caught him. His chest felt a pain like never before. Why?] [Did this man actually hold such a position in his heart?] ? Zhang Jin’an felt as if a fishbone were stuck in his throat, momentarily unsure how to even evaluate this. After the minute hand on his watch had made a full circle, he finally leaned back, turned off his phone, threw it onto his lap, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He didn't know if those two ended up together in the end, but he was certain that if he kept reading, he would either go crazy or go blind. ***