Chen Die left. Chen Shao followed shortly after.

This summer was the hottest Yan City had experienced in recent years. The air was stifling, making it difficult to breathe, as if summer was burning summer itself.

Chen Die tied her long hair into a high ponytail. Her neck was slender, like a white swan.

Chen Shao looked at her for a moment, then carefully recalled Wen Liang’s dark face earlier, and was so delighted that his hand holding the cigarette trembled. “Fuck, I’ve known Wen Liang for almost 20 years and never seen that expression on his face. That was fucking satisfying.”

Chen Die asked, “You know him?”

As soon as she asked, she remembered that these young masters probably all knew each other.

“Elementary, middle, and high school, plus college,” Chen Shao flicked off some ash. “We were classmates, though, after his first two years of college, his father sent him to a military camp.”

He very un-environmentally tossed his cigarette aside, stepping on it to extinguish it, and sighed, “The resentment runs deep. That savage has had that arrogant face since he was young. Who the fuck could stand looking at it?”

Chen Die withdrew her gaze, ignoring him.

Being ignored didn’t affect Chen Shao’s self-amusement. He pointed at his neck and said, “See this scar? The beast who left a scar on this young master’s precious neck was none other than Wen Liang.”

“…”

Walking to the garage, Chen Shao pointed at his car. “I’ll drive you back?”

Chen Die was indeed very tired and thanked him before getting in the car.

She leaned against the seat, tilting her head, staring at the scenery passing by outside the window.

The towering buildings, the bustling streets, and overpasses—she had spent six years living here, all of them with Wen Liang.

Chen Die looked for a while, then calmly turned her head away.

Chen Shao chatted as he drove Chen Die to the community she mentioned. He peeked around with his neck stretched out, looking quite disdainful. “You’re living here?”

“…”

Wasn’t Xia Ying’s community quite nice?

Chen Die said flatly, “Yes, thank you for driving me back.”

“Wait a moment.” Chen Shao grabbed her, leaning over to take a document from the back seat and tossing it onto her lap. “That show I mentioned to you earlier.”

Chen Die picked it up.

It was an outdoor food variety show. She would join as a guest star for just one episode—the final one of the season.

The show had five regular guests—three were currently popular young idols and starlets, one was a famous variety show personality, and another was an older actor known for his bad temper.

Chen Die’s gaze fixed on one name—Qi Cheng.

“Isn’t this…”

“Yes, the male lead candidate for your movie. Since you’ll be working together anyway, might as well get to know each other in advance.” When talking about work, Chen Shao was much more serious.

“Alright.”

Chen Die sincerely thanked him and got out of the car.

A week later, Chen Die boarded a plane to the show’s filming location.

Chen Shao had arranged a manager-cum-assistant for her named Fang Ruan, who was a few years older than her with a baby face, but who took her work very seriously.

“Have you watched ‘Wild Kitchen God’ before?” Fang Ruan asked.

“I finished catching up the day before yesterday.”

Fang Ruan sank into the business class seat, stretching her legs with a yawn. “Yesterday the company held a discussion meeting about you. We decided to position you with that cool campus beauty image from four years ago. We need to protect our reputation and not go for the controversial route right from the start. Be mindful of your words and actions after joining the crew. The most taboo thing for newcomers is being overly obsequious—it’s obvious on screen and everyone can see it.”

Chen Die thought to herself that Chen Shao’s company seemed to operate quite professionally after all.

After getting off the plane, they took a bus to the filming location.

Fang Ruan gave a few more instructions before Chen Die got off the bus and entered the filming area.

She was dressed very fresh and clean in a short-sleeved shirt and light blue pencil pants—beautiful but not flashy.

Everyone in the production team already knew she would be coming today and naturally appeared very warm and friendly on camera.

Chen Die introduced herself.

Everyone was preparing to cook. The show used the wild, natural environment, and slow living as its selling point. The ingredients needed each day were obtained by fishing and picking wild vegetables.

“Let’s do this then. Yun Xi can go pick up stones and collect some firewood over there. We’ll do hot stone cooking tonight,” said He Sheng, the oldest member. “Our new friend Chen Die can go fishing with Qi Cheng, and the rest of you can pick vegetables on the back mountain.”

“Sounds good,” Qi Cheng was the first to agree.

Chen Die raised her eyes to look at him.

The last time she saw him was at the script discussion meeting for “Flower Hairpin.” That time he wore a mask and hat, completely without makeup. Today for the show, he had light makeup on, and his hair was cut very short.

Everyone split up for their tasks.

Qi Cheng handed a small basket to Chen Die.

“Thank you,” Chen Die slung it across her chest. “Where do we go to catch fish?”

“The small creek ahead.” Qi Cheng picked up two fish nets and headed over. “Fishing should be the most fun. Come on, I’ll teach you.”

The environment here was extremely beautiful, with winding mountain paths and terraced fields in yellow and green. A stream flowed between two mountains, very much like the small town where Chen Die had lived before.

The two of them wore flip-flops with their pants rolled up.

Qi Cheng was the first to climb down to the creek, reaching out his hand to Chen Die.

Chen Die held his arm and also climbed down. The stream water was cool, reaching her ankles, quite comfortable in this summer heat.

The stream was crystal clear, and they could see small fish swimming through.

“Look, when catching fish, you need to slowly approach with the net like this. You can’t be impatient.” As Qi Cheng spoke, he demonstrated, holding the net and slowly stepping closer, then quickly scooping.

The fish escaped.

Chen Die laughed.

Qi Cheng scratched his hair, laughing. “Well, this is embarrassing. I was just teaching you too.”

Chen Die spotted a fish, gestured to Qi Cheng to be quiet, and took the net from his hand, extending her arm to approach.

The jumping little fish swiftly wiggled its tail, splashing water onto Chen Die’s face.

“Amazing, Chen Die!” Qi Cheng opened his eyes wide, grabbing the fish by its tail and putting it in Chen Die’s basket. “You’re the only guest in so many episodes who could catch a fish so quickly after getting into the water. That’s incredible!”

Chen Die smiled slightly, while driving another fish she spotted toward Qi Cheng. “When I was young, my parents were fishing folk. I used to do this before. I didn’t expect I’d still remember how.”

This answer exceeded Qi Cheng’s expectations.

Having been in the entertainment industry for a long time, he had gradually developed an eye for people.

The aura around Chen Die was not something that could be cultivated in a simple fishing village. He had originally thought she was a rich family’s daughter experiencing life in the entertainment industry.

“No wonder. Then I don’t look so bad after all,” Qi Cheng joked. “I bow to your superior skills.”

With Chen Die’s help, the fishing task was completed quickly.

When the two returned, the others had not yet come back.

Qi Cheng, acting as the host, went to the kitchen refrigerator and brought out two canned drinks.

Chen Die had just finished washing her hands when she came out, thanked him, and accepted the drink.

Qi Cheng asked, “By the way, did you meet Yun Xi just now?”

“Yes.”

Wang Yun Xi was the leader of a sexy female dance group, known for her sex appeal.

“In ‘Flower Hairpin,’ she plays Bei Luo,” Qi Cheng said.

Chen Die recalled the script. Bei Luo was the second female lead in “Flower Hairpin,” with many scenes opposite her character.

But she remembered that her counterpart in those scenes wasn’t Wang Yun Xi before?

Chen Die frowned slightly and asked very tactfully, “She wasn’t at the discussion meeting, was she?”

Qi Cheng answered just as tactfully, casually glancing at the camera in the room, and calmly said, “The person was changed.”

Chen Die understood that it was probably due to capital operations.

She didn’t have much of a reaction, just nodded and moved on.

As night fell, everyone returned with full loads and began making dinner.

Since it was the final season, the whole atmosphere was created to be quite emotional. Chen Die sat quietly on the side drinking milk.

She wasn’t an outgoing person by nature and wouldn’t initiate conversation, but fortunately, everyone was quite considerate of her. Except for Wang Yun Xi, they all chatted with her to ease any awkwardness.

The next day was the official finale.

The production team even specially added footage of each of them leaving.

Fang Ruan was waiting in the business car when she came out and immediately asked, “How did you get along with everyone?”

Chen Die hadn’t rested well the previous night and yawned. “It was fine.”

“Did you treat it like a vacation?” Fang Ruan said helplessly.

Chen Die thought about what had happened yesterday and could easily guess in what direction the editing would go, so she added, “I got along well with Qi Cheng.”

Fang Ruan nodded with satisfaction. “Was there anyone you didn’t get along with?”

“Wang Yun Xi, I suppose.”

Chen Die paused. Last night during rest time, the two girls naturally shared a room. There were no surveillance cameras in the girls’ bedroom, so Wang Yun Xi had completely revealed her true self.

Her chin was practically raised to the sky.

Fang Ruan frowned slightly, probably aware of Wang Yun Xi’s style, but didn’t say much. “I’ll contact the production team later to make sure they don’t maliciously edit that part.”

Over the next few days, Chen Die attended acting classes arranged by the company.

Unlike the acting classes at school, the company’s acting teacher directly guided her in grasping the character image and journey based on the “Flower Hairpin” script.

“Wild Kitchen God” was broadcast weekly and filmed weekly.

A week later, the final season aired. Due to the addition of three popular stars, the show’s ratings had always been good, and the final episode had been heavily promoted in advance.

It had already occupied three trending topics before it even aired.

Undeniably, this opportunity given by Chen Shao was indeed rare and valuable.

When the show aired, people began to notice Chen Die.

“Wait, who is this lady? I don’t think I’ve seen her before?”

“Is there such a person in the entertainment industry? This face is exactly my type!!”

“What kind of goddess is this?!”

“I remember now! Isn’t she the one who won the beauty contest across universities a few years ago? That film academy beauty? It was several years ago. I just remember the beauty’s name also had the character ‘Die’ in it, and she was so beautiful it was infuriating to both humans and gods. I still think my Yun Xi Unnie fits my aesthetic more. She’s truly A on stage!”

“Speaking softly, I think this newcomer’s aura doesn’t lose to Wang Yun Xi at all.”

…

These were the barrage of comments at the beginning of the show. By the time it got to the scene of Chen Die and Qi Cheng catching fish, the comments were completely different.

Chen Die had guessed the production team would definitely have a direction in editing that part, but she hadn’t expected it to be so excessive—romantic background music, coupled with manually repeated playback, creating an atmosphere between the two that was brimming with pink bubbles.

She clearly remembered that they barely exchanged a few words that day, yet they were forcibly edited to have a very coordinated, enthusiastic, and tacit relationship.

“What’s going on? Coming to ride on the popularity of my Qi God???”

“I urge the production team to be human. It’s the finale and you’re still pulling this kind of stunt?”

“I take back what I said about this newcomer being prettier than Yun Xi Unnie :)”

“What’s this person’s background? Never heard of her before, directly debuting on Wild Kitchen God and leeching off Qi God?”

“As a pure show fan, they have quite good CP chemistry. The show has been mixing CPs for a while, isn’t it nice to just enjoy the eye candy?”

“No way, no one can touch my Qi God!!”

As the show aired, the number of followers on Chen Die’s long-dormant Weibo began to rapidly increase.

After signing with the company, that Weibo account was managed by the company. An hour before the show aired, it had reposted the promotional Weibo from the “Wild Kitchen” official account.

The number of comments under the Weibo post kept growing.

After all, not all show fans were Qi Cheng’s fans. There were quite a few “face dogs” who quickly fell at Chen Die’s flowery dress.

“Wuwuwuwuwuwuwu Sister look at me!!”

“Sister is too beautiful, both sensual and cool, shooting straight at my heart ahhh!”

“Visually speechless.”

“Sister Chen Die, I’ll handle the foreplay myself, you can trample on me however you want after that!!!”

“Sister’s collarbones can hold water, right? If I drink this water, I definitely won’t age for thousands and tens of thousands of years.”

Chen Die thought, “…”

Everyone was very skilled at flattery.

On the other side, everyone had heard the whole process of Wen Liang being dumped.

They had always heard that Wen Liang was keeping a beauty hidden away and had never brought her out to meet everyone, but their relationship seemed genuinely good.

Occasionally, they could hear Wen Liang calling that “Lingling,” his voice different from usual.

This group of people loved to play around and more or less all had some anti-marriage ideology.

The aura around Wen Liang also seemed to be at odds with words like “marriage,” especially now that he had obtained real power in the Wen Yuan Group. There was no need to worry about arranged marriages by his family in the future.

They had originally thought the two would continue to live happily together.

Even if one day Wen Liang grew tired or bored, the benefits that the lady of the house had gained over these years would be enough.

But they had never imagined that Wen Liang would be the one who got dumped.

The woman’s appearance was exquisite and dazzling, open and unrestrained, saying goodbye.

Although in the end, Wen Liang didn’t show any intention of trying to keep her, the woman’s demeanor was so unrestrained that it increasingly made Wen Liang look like the one who had been dumped.

In the following days, no one dared to say much in front of Wen Liang, afraid of touching on something that would anger this boss.

But gradually they discovered that Wen Liang didn’t seem to care.

Eating, drinking, and having fun continued as usual, and his temper remained the same as always.

So what did keeping a beauty hidden away for so many years amount to?

That evening, Xiao Shi invited Wen Liang to have dinner together.

Wen Liang hadn’t returned to the villa in the western suburbs for the past few days, staying instead in an apartment near the company. With no one to prepare dinner, he agreed.

Zhang Sao had previously mentioned that she could go to the apartment to prepare meals for him, but for some reason, Wen Liang still had her stay at the villa.

Xiao Shi also brought his younger sister. The Xiao family doted on this youngest daughter very much. They had just held a grand coming-of-age birthday celebration for her a while ago, and Wen Liang had seen her once.

“Hello, Brother Wen Liang,” Xiao Xuan Yi waved at him in greeting when she saw him.

Wen Liang responded faintly.

He had been incredibly busy these past few days. The project he had snatched from Chen Ke’s hands was about to begin construction.

He sat down, casually unbuttoned his shirt, and loosened his tie, his whole person relaxing.

“No ice cream, and change the watermelon juice to room temperature,” Xiao Shi said to the attendant beside him.

Xiao Xuan Yi immediately became annoyed. “Why no ice cream? And why do I have to drink room-temperature beverages in this hot weather!”

Xiao Shi pushed Xiao Xuan Yi back into her seat, nodded to signal the attendant that the order was complete, and turned to say, “Who was still having a cold and runny nose yesterday? Disgusting.”

Xiao Xuan Yi argued a bit but couldn’t change anything, so she sat back down sulkily and took out her phone to play.

Wen Liang and Xiao Shi chatted casually.

Suddenly, Wen Liang heard a familiar voice coming from Xiao Xuan Yi’s phone.

His expression slightly tightened as he looked up.

That familiar beautiful face appeared on the screen, glowing white in the sunlight, her expression gentle and humble as she greeted others, introducing herself: “My name is Chen Die.”

Xiao Shi’s peripheral vision also caught it.

The woman’s appearance was the kind of stunning beauty that one couldn’t forget at first glance. Xiao Shi recognized her and was also stunned.

Xiao Xuan Yi tilted her head to look at him and smiled. “Do you like her because she’s pretty?”

That accusation was too serious.

Xiao Shi immediately said, “I like hell.”

“Isn’t she beautiful?” Xiao Xuan Yi didn’t sense any issue and thought to herself, disdainfully saying, “You men probably all like seductive temptresses like Wang Yun Xi, but I think she’s such a diva, with a face that just screams prima donna. She’s not nearly as likable as this beautiful sister.”

What did any of this have to do with anything?

Xiao Shi didn’t even know the name of the person she was talking about.

He looked up at Wen Liang, who had already withdrawn his gaze, appearing uninterested.

If not for seeing Chen Die with his own eyes that day, he would have truly believed the two didn’t know each other at all.

The food was served, and Xiao Xuan Yi continued watching while holding her plate of pasta.

After the self-introductions, the scene shifted to Qi Cheng taking Chen Die to the creek to catch fish.

And so, the sweet BGM of “I think I’m slowly falling for you because I have the courage for love” kept playing in the private dining room, along with equally eye-piercing images.

Each time the BGM played, Xiao Shi’s heart sank a bit more.

The face of the “King of Hell” opposite him gradually darkened, and all that earlier pretense of not knowing her disappeared.

Finally, when the BGM started again, Xiao Shi grabbed the phone and turned off the screen.

“How old are you? Watching videos while eating! And playing them out loud! Xiao Xuan Yi, do you have any manners!” Xiao Shi pointed at her and scolded them.

“…I forgot to bring my earphones.”

“Then go home and watch it!”

“…”

Xiao Xuan Yi was a dedicated show fan. Just now, watching the handsome man and beautiful woman on screen, she couldn’t suppress her smile. Finally, she compromised, “Then I’ll watch with the sound off, okay?”

Xiao Shi thought, “…”

Fine, at least with the sound off, it would be less stimulating.

Wen Liang could see the screen on Xiao Xuan Yi’s phone from the corner of his eye.

Chen Die wore a large waterproof fishing outfit with the pant legs rolled up and a neat ponytail, laughing and talking with that man called Qi Cheng.

Before the sound was muted, Wen Liang had heard Chen Die say, “When I was young, my parents were fishing folk,” and he felt a moment of disorientation.

He was a person who almost never reminisced about the past, and his impression of Chen Die seemed to have stopped at her current face, but that sentence instantly pulled him back to six years ago.

Chen Die had come from a small town.

When Wen Liang first saw her, she wasn’t this dazzling, becoming the focus of everyone wherever she went.

At that time, she was also beautiful, but she was a timid beauty, without aggression.

When Wen Liang walked up to her and asked if she would go with him, Chen Die looked at him with clear, deer-like eyes, confused and somewhat timid, then nodded and said “Yes.”

Like a pitiful stray cat.

Wen Liang had almost forgotten what Chen Die had been like before, but those eyes had always been branded in his heart.

Subconsciously, he indeed believed that Chen Die had followed him without any wariness from the first time they met, and had obediently stayed by his side all these years.

How could she possibly leave his life?

So he kept Zhang Sao at the villa, arrogantly waiting for the day when Chen Die couldn’t live on her own anymore and would come back like a stray cat to beg for his forgiveness.

Until this moment.

He finally understood her words, “I don’t want to be that cat you keep anymore.”

Chen Die was never a fragile kitten, nor did she need to rely on her owner’s love and favor.

From that time at the train station, when she took just two seconds to dare to abandon those so-called blood relatives behind her and follow him, a stranger, he should have known. Even at 16, Chen Die wasn’t a cat but a leopard with many wounds who had retracted her claws.

For these six years, this little leopard had been pretending to be a cat by his side.

But she wasn’t able to leave. She had a leopard’s claws, and whenever she wanted to leave, she equally possessed the resources not to look back.

Like now.

She could shine just as brightly, so far away from him.