After arriving at the best viewing spot.
Gu Yan sat in a banquet chair, resting his face on his right hand while watching the popular singer Lan Zizhen perform on stage.
He yawned boredly.
He glanced at Leng Ling'er, who was watching Lan Zizhen perform with sparkling eyes, and smiled gently.
This was how a normal girl her age should be - loving celebrities and dramas, full of energy, and fearless about everything.
Perhaps even if a big burly man stood in front of Leng Ling'er, she might just say, "Get out of my way, small fry."
She's really young...
Wait no, I'm not that old either.
Gu Yan smiled and reached for the fruit plate on the table, wanting to try some snacks while listening to this world's music.
However, his hand happened to touch another hand reaching for the same thing.
"You!"
A surprised and angry voice rang out. Gu Yan looked over.
He saw a woman sitting there with swollen cheeks, being tended to with an ice pack by her subordinates.
"Miss Yan, it's you again."
Gu Yan looked at her, inwardly smiling.
Yan Qingqing, her cheeks still swollen and painful, glared angrily at Gu Yan. It was bad enough that he had pushed past her bodyguards to sit here.
Now he was casually eating her snacks, and worse, he was speaking as if she had sat down here after him!
"Don't misunderstand, my sister-in-law wanted to come listen to the concert."
"I was dragged here, and seeing an empty seat, naturally sat down."
In truth, Gu Yan had spotted Yan Qingqing sitting here earlier, so he deliberately guided Leng Ling'er to bring him to this area.
"Hmph!"
Yan Qingqing merely snorted coldly: "I never expected the young master of the Gu family would beat up so many family disciples for a girl, and even knocked several elders to the ground."
"But that's not the main point. The main point is!"
Yan Qingqing pointed angrily at her swollen left cheek: "You actually hit the face of me, a beautiful woman who was just trying to mediate!"
"Don't you know our families' elders are good friends! If you don't want my father to know about you hitting me, then apologize!"
Gu Yan looked at Yan Qingqing with a "what does this have to do with me" expression: "Who saw me hit you? You clearly ran into my hand yourself."
As he spoke, Gu Yan raised his hand and said mischievously: "Look, this is my right hand. He hates hearing phrases like 'give me face' the most."
"You!"
Yan Qingqing's face flushed as she covered it and leaned back: "You jerk! Who would believe that!"
Gu Yan lowered his hand and shifted to a more comfortable position, glancing at Yan Qingqing: "Believe it or not, it's up to you. Who asked you to play peacemaker? Didn't you know I was angry at that time? You should've read the room better."
"Actually, you getting hit wasn't my fault at all."
Gu Yan righteously declared: "It's all because you had to come stop me, that's why this happened. In other words, this is entirely your fault."
At this point, Gu Yan seemed to think of something.
He continued: "You should know—"
"Me hitting you ≠ Me being wrong."
!!
Yan Qingqing was stunned on the spot. She pointed at Gu Yan, stammering without being able to say anything.
It seemed what Gu Yan said was true - his friend had been insulted, so he went to teach that person a lesson.
Yet she had run over while he was still angry, as if inviting him to hit her.
The bodyguards behind Yan Qingqing couldn't stand it anymore and said in deep voices: "Young Master Gu, you're going too far."
As soon as they spoke, Gu Yan shot them a cold look: "Shut up, who gave you the right to interrupt?"
"Uh..."
The bodyguards immediately fell silent.
Yan Qingqing was already thinking too much. She shook her head: "This is so annoying! Whatever!"
"Fine, that incident was my fault! But there's definitely another thing that was your fault!"
Yan Qingqing glared at Gu Yan through gritted teeth: "You need to apologize for that!"
Heh, here it comes.
Gu Yan's expression remained unchanged as he laughed inwardly.
Yan Qingqing was the young miss of the Yan family, which rivaled the Gu family in status.
Though she could have lived comfortably as a rich heiress, she had dreams of becoming a singer.
She dreamed of becoming the most popular singing diva.
She was extremely narcissistic and very confident in her beauty.
That's why she was developing her career in the entertainment industry - it wasn't uncommon for singers to enter showbusiness.
Her goal was to become both the most popular singing diva and an award-winning actress.
In the original story, she was also one of Xiao Lin's harem members, falling in love with him due to various circumstances.
And she had a secret that no one knew about...
She was an M (masochist).
This was a secret that even Xiao Lin in the original story never discovered, because Xiao Lin was just a hot-blooded idiot who always thought Yan Qingqing was attracted to his righteous qualities. In reality, it wasn't that at all - she was attracted to the domineering aura he occasionally revealed.
Unfortunately, Xiao Lin didn't understand her and always spoke to her gently, which caused Yan Qingqing to frequently give him the cold shoulder in the original story, trying to provoke his anger so he would be more forceful with her.
Sadly, until the end when Yan Qingqing and the rest of the harem were killed by Leng Qingqiu, Xiao Lin had never really raised his voice at any of his harem members.
In any case, when Gu Yan first saw Yan Qingqing, he had actually recognized her.
She looked exactly like the figure he had seen during his morning run not long ago.
Combined with the fact that in the original story, Yan Qingqing also lived in Tianhu Cave Villa.
She was definitely the Yan Qingqing from the original story.
Thinking of this, Gu Yan's lips curled into a smile as he asked: "What thing?"
"It's! It's! You called me... ug...ugly."
Yan Qingqing's voice got increasingly smaller, as if she really didn't want to say those two words.
But before she could hear Gu Yan's apology.
Suddenly, she heard an interesting voice near her ear.
"Oh?"
Then, Yan Qingqing felt her chin being firmly gripped and turned to one side.
She looked over accordingly.
She saw Gu Yan firmly gripping her chin, scanning her features with a predatory gaze.
"Young Master Gu! Please release the young miss!"
The bodyguards were shocked and hurried to intervene.
But Yan Qingqing shouted: "Wait! You have no right to speak here!"
These words immediately froze the bodyguards in place.
They could only watch as the young master of the Gu family bullied their young miss.
Yan Qingqing looked at Gu Yan, her heart racing.
Her breathing became slightly heavy, and she felt her body temperature rising.
"What... what are you trying to do?"
Yan Qingqing's tone carried an unnatural quality, her hands tightly clenched together, trying to maintain composure on the surface.
But her face gradually showed an unnatural expression.
Such... such a predatory gaze... and looking at him now, Gu Yan is so handsome.
His hands are so beautiful too...
Her chest rose and fell.
Then Gu Yan released his hand and looked at Yan Qingqing meaningfully, saying with a mischievous smile: "I took a careful look."
"You are indeed very beautiful. Alright, I take back what I said about you being ugly."
Hearing this, Yan Qingqing bit her lip hard, glared at Gu Yan, took a deep breath to calm herself down.
Then she turned her head and snorted lightly: "Good that you know."
Gu Yan pretended not to notice Yan Qingqing's unusual state and smiled while watching Lan Zizhen on stage: "Let's listen to how people sing."
"Aren't you also a popular singer?"
Hearing this, Yan Qingqing glanced at Lan Zizhen, then dismissively curled her lip: "This person is just a packaged idol star."
"Please don't call these idol types singers, okay? These people are mass-produced on idol variety show assembly lines."
"Lan Zizhen just happens to have some connections behind him, that's why he could stand out and stay popular until now."
Speaking of this, Yan Qingqing seemed to have a headache as she said: "The most annoying thing is that after we collaborated on a school movie, this guy keeps clinging to me."
"And paparazzi keep catching photos and posting them online, often with suggestive headlines about 'on-screen CP.' It's driving me crazy."
When Gu Yan heard this, he secretly thought it was exactly the same as in the original story.
Leng Ling'er was watching the performance, but as she continued listening, her excitement gradually diminished.
Because....
"Why does it sound so terrible?"
Leng Ling'er was confused. Lan Zizhen was supposed to be her favorite idol.
His singing was usually good, and she had bought many of his albums.
But listening to him live today, why did it sound so unbearable?
"Even brother-in-law sings better than this."
Leng Ling'er muttered, unconsciously looking for Gu Yan, only to find him happily (in her opinion) chatting with a beautiful woman.
Instantly, she cursed in her heart.
Cheating! This is cheating! That damn fish Gu!
On stage.
Although Lan Zizhen was singing, his eyes were constantly fixed on Yan Qingqing in the audience.
When he saw that thug sitting next to the person he liked and getting handsy with her,
Lan Zizhen was actually ready to burst out cursing.
However, Gu Yan was the young master of the Gu family, and such a terrifying violent person.
No matter how foolish he was, he wouldn't dare to cause trouble with him in public.
But there were other ways. He noticed another girl with yellow hair in the audience.
She seemed to be his fan and had come together with that thug.
Lan Zizhen thought of something and started singing with even more enthusiasm.
After the song ended.
Just when everyone thought Lan Zizhen would continue singing,
He spoke softly: "Everyone, I believe you might be getting a bit bored just listening to me sing."
"So next, I have a small activity planned. I'd like to randomly invite a lucky audience member to come up and sing with me."
As soon as he said this,
The wealthy women who loved Lan Zizhen's puppy-like charm started cheering: "Me! Me! Come sing with mama, Zhenzhen!"
"Zhenzhen! Mama loves you!"
Feeling the audience's enthusiasm, Lan Zizhen felt very pleased with himself.
Then, he extended his hand toward Leng Ling'er in the audience: "Beautiful lady, would you like to come up and perform with me?"
Indeed, judging from how Gu Yan protected Leng Ling'er, this woman must be someone Gu Yan liked.
And since she was his fan, heh, when you see the person you like singing with me, you'll definitely be jealous!
But you won't be able to say anything, after all, the girl you like is a fan of mine.
However.
Leng Ling'er waved her hand: "No thanks."
?
Lan Zizhen's mouth twitched, and he looked at her with embarrassment and shock: "Um, aren't you my fan?"
The other wealthy women wanted to criticize Leng Ling'er for rejecting their puppy, but remembering that dangerous Gu Yan was backing her,
They all kept quiet.
Then, Leng Ling'er said sheepishly: "Because I'm not good at singing."
Oh, so that's it.
"That's okay, it doesn't matter if you're not good. It's mainly about interaction."
Lan Zizhen said with relief.
"No, no, no, let's not... Oh! I know!"
Leng Ling'er still shook her head, then thought for a moment, quickly ran to Gu Yan's side, and pulled him up while he wore a confused expression.
She shouted: "My brother-in-law is a great singer! Let him sing!"
Gu Yan, who had been thinking about his next move to win over Yan Qingqing, was suddenly speechless.
You little brat....
He looked kindly at Leng Ling'er, while she grinned triumphantly at him.
That's what you get for talking to other girls!
Yan Qingqing looked at Gu Yan with surprise: "You can sing?"
"A little bit, I suppose."
Gu Yan shrugged.
"Come on, brother-in-law!"
Leng Ling'er had already dragged Gu Yan onto the stage.