57: Take care of your health.

A large carnivore, the kind of fierce and cold-blooded carnivore, has unimaginable lethality once it shows such a pitiful expression.

Shen Lian doted on Chu Yilan intensely. With a lecherous, excited expression, he scooted toward the edge of the bed. "What do you say, Master Chu? Should I tell you a bedtime story in a bit?"

Chu Yilan: "..."

Chu Yilan said helplessly: "I think it would be better if you didn't speak."

"That won't do." Shen Lian admired Chu Yilan up close, seeing how "handsome" and "alluring" he looked in his bathrobe, and kept muttering: "My taste is truly incredible. You have to pick a man yourself. If soft tactics don't work, use hard ones. What I'm eating is good."

Chu Yilan: "..." He wanted to grab his pillow and leave.

Turning off the lights, the room plunged into darkness. Chu Yilan quietly felt his slightly rapid heartbeat, the scent of peppermint body wash at the tip of his nose.

Except for his childhood, this was the first time he had slept in the same bed with someone as an adult. Chu Yilan thought he would be somewhat repulsed, but he wasn't. The air seemed to be soaked with comforting elements.

"Hehe!" Shen Lian laughed, wrapped in the quilt.

Chu Yilan: "..."

"Hahaha!" Shen Lian couldn't hold it back. He flipped over, immediately crossing the "Chu-Han Boundary" in the middle, and draped a leg over Chu Yilan through the quilt.

"Shen Lian..." Chu Yilan said in a deep voice.

"Lying like this, my breathing is smoother." Shen Lian interrupted.

Chu Yilan knew he was spouting nonsense, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything harsh.

He turned his head and saw that in the dim light, those eyes were sparkling, incredibly alluring.

Chu Yilan turned on his side, facing Shen Lian: "So happy?"

"Yeah." Shen Lian said as he closed his eyes. "It's warmer with two people. You'll know in the future."

Master Chu rarely had question marks pop up in his head. That's it?

Subconsciously, he had prepared himself for Shen Lian to pounce on him and act like a hooligan.

"How could I dare," Shen Lian thought. Once things escalated, a shower wouldn't be enough to calm down.

Compared to instant gratification, Shen Lian quite enjoyed the feeling of taking it slow.

Both of them had sweet dreams all night.

The next morning, Chu Yilan opened his eyes and subconsciously reached for his phone to check the time.

Hmm?

It's eight o'clock...

Eight o'clock?!

You have to know that CEO Chu was a notorious workaholic. When working, he would get up at six o'clock without fail, or even earlier. This was also the reason why Shen Lian often couldn't meet him. Who wakes up at this hour?

Chu Yilan opened WeChat. Apart from various work reports, there were three messages from Sun Binghe.

Separated by forty minutes each.

【Boss, should the meeting be postponed?】

【Boss, I moved the meeting to the afternoon. Are you stuck in traffic?】

The last one was from half an hour ago:

【Boss, take care of your health.】

Chu Yilan had black lines all over his head. What kind of mess was this?

"Are you awake?" Shen Lian mumbled. A hand reached over, resting on Chu Yilan's chest, and soon his breathing became steady again.

With the curtains drawn, the morning light was thin, but Chu Yilan still admired him seriously for a few minutes before lifting the quilt, getting out of bed, and heading to the bathroom.

Chu Yilan hadn't expected to oversleep either. Logically speaking, his biological clock was very fixed, but compared to Sun Binghe's meaningful gaze, none of this mattered.

"Special Assistant Sun." After being stared at for a few minutes, Chu Yilan walked to the office door and couldn't bear it any longer. "Is there a flower on my face?"

"No." Sun Binghe averted his gaze, paused, and then added: "Boss, you are always the strongest in my heart."

Chu Yilan: "?"

"It's no wonder Yang Bin always wants to seal your mouth." Chu Yilan was so angry he laughed. "Special Assistant Sun, I hope your imagination doesn't have to be so intense."

Sun Binghe looked unhappy. "Okay, Boss."

Shen Lian slept until ten o'clock. When he woke up, there were bone broth noodles made by Aunt Fen. Afterward, he petted Chu Zhumi a couple of times, feeling very comfortable.

At noon, Hu Kailan called.

"Shen Lian, I've secured two good scripts for now. I'll email them to you in a bit. See which one you want."

Shen Lian was invigorated: "Sounds good, Brother Hu!"

"But let's be clear, neither is the male lead."

"As long as the script is good, I don't mind being a supporting character." Shen Lian had a clear self-assessment. With his current reputation, if he didn't accept roles or film, how could things get better?

As for the male lead role, without a foundation to build on, he would be criticized later. Although his soul was that of the top-tier best actor, the situation was different. Shen Lian still believed in taking things one step at a time.

More importantly, good scripts were hard to come by.

After hanging up with Hu Kailan, Shen Lian sat on the sofa, clutching his laptop, and carefully reviewed the scripts.

Both stories were good; one was a romance, the other a social drama.

Actually, whether looking at the co-stars or the IP, the former was better, but for some reason, Shen Lian was drawn to the latter.

"blazing fire" told the story of the protagonist and his hooligan friend moving from a small town to a big city.

If Shen Lian took the role, he would be that hooligan.

It was a remote town with a severely lagging economy. It had only been three years since water and electricity were fully connected. The self-built houses were uneven, winding and scattered like snakes in the tiny town.

A small-time hooligan who dropped out of junior high school and rode his bike all day looking for odd jobs, he had known the protagonist since he was thirteen.

Later, encouraged by the protagonist, he went to the big city. Unsurprisingly, he was immediately dazzled by the city's prosperity. Everywhere he went, he was filled with shock and envy. He didn't have the protagonist's clever mind, but he had a beautiful, stunning face—so beautiful that it was as if all the spiritual energy of that barren land had condensed onto it.

He watched the protagonist move step by step toward the right path. While envious, he was also eager for quick success, and then, under the manipulation of a big boss, he experienced a series of disgusting and desperate events.

His life unexpectedly veered onto another path.

Actually, he could have stayed; there were plenty of bosses willing to pay, but he didn't want to. The darkness beneath this steel beast of a city terrified him. He finally realized that he was nothing. He didn't belong here, and every day he spent here made him feel confused and terrified.

In the end, the protagonist stood on a high building shaking hands and thanking business partners. In the bustling traffic below, the boy who once carried dreams, carrying the old, worn-out canvas bag he had arrived with, squeezed onto a bus, then onto a green-skinned train, and returned to the place where he had taken root.

Another morning, he rode that old, dilapidated bicycle, continuing to roam the streets of the town.

"Ding-ling~"

The bicycle bell was familiar and crisp.

The space dedicated to the hooligan wasn't much. He wasn't a foil to the protagonist; he was more like an epitome of a slightly sparkling yet very mediocre existence. Disaster could strike at any time, but his final destination was stability and peace.

Like a dry sigh on a dull afternoon; once the wind blew, nothing was left.

But was there really nothing left?

Shen Lian sent a message to Hu Kailan.

【Brother Hu, I'll take blazing fire.】

Good lad. Hu Kailan was surprised yet somewhat happy. He couldn't say why, but he just felt that Shen Lian would definitely succeed.