Chapter 2

Chapter 2

At first, I was extremely wary of Tang Chen.

It was common enough for rich men to keep a few starlets as mistresses. The entertainment industry was a giant dye vat, and people outside it were always full of fantasies about what went on inside.

When I first started acting, my family had earnestly warned me again and again not to forget who I was and lose my way. A girl had to keep herself clean and protect herself, they said. With how worried they were, I felt less like I was entering the entertainment industry and more like I was stepping into some kind of pleasure district.

And to be fair, after that one scene of mine blew up, there really were bosses who approached my agent and hinted that if I spent a few days with them, they could trade me certain resources. My agent wasn’t a pimp. She fully respected her artists’ wishes, and since I wanted nothing to do with that, every one of those offers was dropped.

I’m not an ambitious person. I never wanted to trade my looks or my body for opportunities. My philosophy in life is to let things take their course. I don’t care about becoming wildly famous; I just want peace and happiness.

So if Tang Chen was looking for a female celebrity to keep around for fun, he had picked the wrong person.

But in truth, he had an excellent sense of boundaries. The first real intersection between us was when he helped me deal with my housing problem.

The entertainment industry was full of all kinds of beauties, but my agency didn’t have much backing. On top of that, I had turned down the casting couch a few times, so the resources that came afterward couldn’t keep up. In the end, all I could get was the lead role in a low-budget web drama. That probably disappointed my sasaeng fans terribly. Around that time, I was being harassed nonstop by them, receiving packages for a whole week straight containing bloodied corpses of rats, pigeons, cats, and other animals.

I was driven nearly to the point of collapse, so I asked around everywhere, trying to find a private home with strong security.

I don’t know how Tang Chen found out, but from contacting the developer to getting the property deed in hand, I didn’t have to worry about a thing. I just paid the down payment, and Tang Chen had people handle all the procedures for the rest. It wasn’t until after I moved in that I learned how unbelievably strict the security in that residential complex was. Supposedly, it was specifically reserved for people in confidential government departments. You needed special access credentials to get in. Money alone couldn’t buy a place there.

That was normal enough, really. There were plenty of people in the entertainment industry who were either rich or powerful, and Tang Chen was probably one of the very best among those standing at the top of the pyramid. No one could find out anything concrete about his background. My agent had once vaguely mentioned that he was the eldest son and grandson of the Tang family, raised as the future heir.

But none of that had anything to do with me.

I was just curious about Tang Chen. I couldn’t see through him.

That man was strange. By then, we had already known each other for several months. He kept in touch with me in an even, measured way. He never came on to me in some oily, overeager manner, nor did he use his power to threaten or tempt me. Even when he helped me solve my housing problem, he didn’t hint at wanting anything in return. He was like a gentle, tranquil, powerful harbor, standing there quietly, silently helping me resolve trouble whenever I needed it.

I didn’t know what he wanted.

You don’t accept favors for nothing. After thinking it over for a long time, I finally called Tang Chen and said I wanted to treat him to a meal to thank him.

There was a brief silence on the other end before I heard his reply.

“Sorry. I probably won’t have time lately. I’ll contact you when I do.”

After hanging up, I felt a little embarrassed and stunned. I couldn’t help wondering if this man was playing hard to get. It wasn’t until three days later, when I accidentally caught a local news broadcast-some kind of international economic exchange conference-that a familiar, refined, gentle face flashed across the screen, and I froze.

That meal didn’t happen until a month later. I had just returned from the set when I saw Tang Chen standing outside my door. He was wearing a black overcoat, tall and elegant as he stood by the wall with his head lowered. I had no idea how long he had been waiting there. A red ember glowed faintly at his fingertips-he was smoking. He must have heard me coming, because he lifted his head. There was obvious exhaustion on his face, but the instant he saw me, he smiled very lightly.

He stubbed out the cigarette between his fingers and looked at me.

“You’re back.”

After a pause, he added, “That meal you said you’d treat me to before… can we still have it now?”

I stood there blankly for a moment. I couldn’t really describe what I felt when I saw him, but the smile at the corner of my mouth came faster than my brain could make sense of my emotions. I didn’t have time to rationally stop my lips from curving upward, so my voice came out with a trace of unmistakable delight.

“You’re back?”

He looked at me with a smile, and the warmth in his eyes deepened a little more. Then he gave a soft “Mm.”

Tang Chen was the one who made that meal. He had only just returned to the country, and there were probably piles of matters waiting for him to handle. He didn’t have much free time, and given the nature of my profession, it wasn’t really suitable for us to go out either.

At the time, I was running to set every day, and aside from eggs, my fridge contained nothing but a few packs of instant noodles.

I couldn’t tell one grain from another and was useless around the house. The only thing I knew how to do was boil water. Tang Chen and I looked at each other, and in the end, he took off his overcoat, rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, and went into the kitchen himself to cook instant noodles. I sat at the dining table with a pair of chopsticks in hand, waiting. When Tang Chen finally brought over the bowl of noodles, I eagerly picked up my chopsticks and took the first bite in complete satisfaction.

Then I heard Tang Chen laugh.

I looked up at him in confusion. He was just standing beside the table, head lowered as he watched me, his tone tinged with emotion.

“It’s nothing. I just suddenly realized it’s been many years since anyone ordered me around like this.”

After a pause, he added, “The last time I went into a kitchen was when I was in college overseas.”