In the North, the late autumn weather was cold and windy outside, but warm and soft inside, even making one want to wear short sleeves and eat ice cream.
It was just like someone's personality.
"Your schedule for today is as follows: it is 8:18am Yangcheng time on the morning of November 10, 2022.
10am–4pm, Solace Inhibitor commercial shoot.
Gulu Gulu platform interview, 5 p.m. to 6.30 p.m.
The themed salon dinner starts at 8 pm.
Once again...."
With a click, a white, long-fingered hand touched the big-eyed robot cat lying on the coffee table and pressed a pinch of hair on the top of its head, stopping the electric female voice from trying to repeat it all over again.
The owner of the hand rose from the soft sofa and stood in place for two more seconds, waiting for the black fog to clear before he stepped forward.
"Brother Che," a sweet female voice called out behind him, "What are you taking? Why didn't you call me again? "
Tong Che paused in his steps, turned around, and helplessly looked back at the petite Omega in the kitchen, who was fighting with the soy milk machine, the bread machine, and the egg baking machine, and wanted to use two hands as four.
"What do you want me to ask you? Are you going to split up and come get it for me? "
Ruan Tang immediately dropped the string of machines, wiped her hands with a wet wipe, and rushed out of the kitchen, "What kind of splitting technique, brother Che? Please call me, I’ll be here. It's been more than a year; why are you still treating me weirdly? "
Ruan Tang had been Tong Che's assistant since July last year, and it had been almost a year and a half now, but Tong Che still seemed unaccustomed to it a lot of the time, and still did most of the life chores by himself.
It was not the first time for Ruan Tang to be an assistant to someone. The artist before Tong Che was not as popular as him, but had a hundred times greater stature than Tong Che, and never hesitated to call on her.
When she was first assigned to Tong Che by the senior management of the company, Tong Che was just a nameless trainee. At that time, he was picked up by an ancient puppet drama and was offered a role that could barely be considered a male number five. Which is why management assigned Ruan Teng as his assistant when he went on set.
At that time, even Tong Che himself did not expect that he would become an instant success and become a top actor with his role as the fifth lead.
Ruan Tang was worried that when Tong Che became popular, he would become more arrogant, not to mention that when Tong Che was not smiling, he looked really cold. Maybe becoming even more aggressive than the last artist, but after such a long time, Tong Che was still as humble and polite as that little trainee, which made Ruan Tang feel that she had not done enough and was not good enough.
"Brother Che," Ruan Tang couldn't help but open her mouth again, "I'm your assistant. I'm paid a high salary every month to serve you. You really don't have to be so out of touch with me..."
"It's not that I'm being weird with you. Tong Che sighed lightly to interrupt Ruan's barrage of words and scratched his hair with a bit of a blush, "I want to get painkillers. Will you get them for me if I ask you?"
As soon as he said that, Ruan Tang instantly stopped talking and looked up at him with a frown.
According to the latest statistics, the average height of an adult male Omega in China was 170 cm, but Tong Che's net height was 178, which was almost as tall as the smaller percentage of short Alphas.
To Ruan Tang, who was not even 5'6", it was a real struggle to tilt her head, "Brother Che, why are you taking painkillers again? You're eating painkillers like chocolate. How harmful! "
Tong Che raised his hand and squeezed his brow twice, and when he squeezed at a certain point, there was another burst of pain. He inhaled lightly without a trace and explained good-naturedly, "I have to work all day again today. I may not be able to hold on without painkillers."
Ruan Tong paused for two seconds, but finally said nothing, turned around and ran to the big cupboard, took out the medicine box for the painkillers, and handed them to Tong Che. Then she ran to the kitchen and poured him a cup of warm water.
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Tong Che thanked her gently, swallowed a painkiller with the warm water, and slid back into the soft sofa.
The fair-skinned, delicate-looking boy was sunken into the goose yellow sofa with his head tilted back, his eyebrows slightly furrowed, his lips almost white. His oversized T-shirt with a large collar revealed a clear neckline with deep-set collarbones. A silver bracelet was on his left wrist, with visible wrist bones protruding from the edge of the bracelet, causing people to ache for no reason.
Ruan Tang sighed, then opened her mouth again, her voice much lighter, "Brother Che, when this month's notices are all finished, why don't you mention it to Brother Lou, at least take a break for a week and five days."
Tang Che’s figure stagnated for a moment, but he quickly relaxed again. He shook his head and said, "Forget it, I can still hold on."
Ruan Tang knew that she was only an assistant and could not be the master of Tong Che, let alone the boss of Tong Che's manager, so she could not say anything more and finally changed her tone to a lighter one, "It's good to be busy, it's good to be busy."
After saying this, she hurriedly rushed back into the kitchen to continue her struggle with the string of machines.
Tong Che smiled to himself and closed his eyes.
The ancient online drama he starred in started last March, and while it was still running, Tong Che could feel that he was getting more and more attention, and by the time the drama was over, his Weibo followers had gone from less than a million to ten million.
It was only then that Tong Che really felt that he had become so popular.
But what Ruan didn't know was that he had a compelling reason for being so desperate. Ruan Tang didn't even know that although his constant headaches were related to overwork and lack of rest, they were mainly due to the side effects of his constant use of suppressants.
Tong Che had a secret that no one knew-he's not like any other Omega, he's in heat every fucking day, 365 days a year!
Unless he is fully marked by a highly attuned Alpha, he will have to be in a relationship with the suppressants for the rest of his life.
From the time he diverged as an omega at 13 years old, he had been on suppressants for 10 years. No matter how good the formula is, even after so many years of use, there are inevitably side effects, and frequent headaches were just one of them.
But Tong Che didn't really care much, or to be more precise, it was useless to care. His life was like it was taken over by someone ten years ago. What could he do now except make as much money as he could while still young?
"Brother Che," Ruan Tang came out of the kitchen with a tray, "It's breakfast time!"
Tong Che answered and got up to sit at the table.
Ruan Tang placed a plate of whole wheat bread, a cup of unsweetened soy milk and a poached egg on the tray in front of Tong Che, while she ate a sandwich with a grilled egg, ham and ketchup.
"Brother Che," Ruan Tang said vaguely as she took a big bite of the sandwich, "Doesn't it really bother you to eat this kind of food every day? If it were me, I probably wouldn't be able to."
Tong Che took a small sip of soymilk and smiled, "It's no trouble. I'm used to eating it."
He started working as a trainee four years ago, and the first lesson he learned in this circle was restraint. True, Omegas are naturally smaller than Alphas, but that's no reason to indulge.The management of his body and skin condition is long-term.
Ruan licked the ketchup off the corner of her lips and sighed in admiration as she took another large sip of hot chocolate, not noticing the momentary glint in Tong Che's eyes as he stared at the cup. But it was really only for a moment before Tong Che lowered his eyes and ate his whole wheat bread again.
After breakfast, Ruan Tang took Tong Che's coat and scarf from the cloakroom. The coat had dark camel coloured horn buttons, and the scarf was light camel. It was paired with dark grey suit pants and a pair of small leather boots, making Tong Che look like a young British prince from an old castle.
"You really look great, Brother Che!" Ruan Tang was not stingy in blowing up rainbow farts, "You're really worthy of being a peerless Omega, the face of the entertainment industry!"
Tong Che looked at her helplessly, "That's just a joke from the netizens." You're still poking fun at me. "
The title came from one of the episodes of the drama he acted in. The character he played had accidentally fallen into the water, and when he resurfaced, he didn't have the usual messy look of someone who had fallen into the water. Instead, his long hair was wet and slightly messy against his cheeks, his white clothes were half-permeable, and his eyebrows were like a painting. Tong Che looked like a lotus flower out of water.
Later on, the screenshots, stills, and moving pictures of this scene were uploaded on the internet, and netizens said that they had seen good-looking people, but not such good-looking ones.
"Tsk tsk," Ruan Tang smacked her lips, "Brother Che, you are just too modest!".
Tong Che didn't fight her anymore and took out a neck collar from the cupboard by the door and put it on.
This neck collar is exclusively for Omegas, and its main function is to block pheromones. Although he had already taken a suppressant, to reassure both himself and others, Tong Che would wear the collar whenever he went out in public places.
When he went out, the company car was already parked downstairs. Ruan Tang took the passenger seat, leaving the back seat for Tong Che.
On their way to the Solace studio, Tong Che received a phone call from his manager, Lou Gui, who sounded like he was in a noisy place and spoke very fast. He told Tong Che that he was very busy today and would not have time to come during the day, so he would have to wait until after dinner in order to see him.
Tong Che hung up the phone and looked out the window at the trees passing by and let out a small breath.
He knew a little bit about what Lou Gui was up to.
Aside from Tong Che, Lou Gui had three other artists with him, but none of them were as popular as he was.
Tong Che was not bothered by the fact that someone else was taking away his manager's attention; on the contrary, he didn’t want to have too much contact with Lou Gui. Although it is true that his manager is treating him well now, he already knew what kind of person Lou Gui was four years ago.
Without allowing himself to get caught up in the unpleasant memories, Tong Che thought of something else.
The Solace inhibitor was well known throughout China, and a survey earlier this year showed that 70% of all Omega's in China were using Solace, which was almost like an industry monopoly.
And Tong Che himself used it as an inhibitor.
Therefore, Tong Che attached great importance to the shooting of this advertisement. It was rumored that Solace was going to have a new brand spokesperson, so if this commercial is shot well, it will undoubtedly be a chance to get closer.
If he could really become the new spokesperson, he wouldn't have to worry about suppressants for at least three years, which would save him a lot of money.
Solace had its own dedicated studio in the headquarters building. It was a magnificent building with modern and upscale décor.
Ruan Tang exclaimed, "It's gorgeous! It's really grand!"
When they entered the lobby, they were greeted by someone who guided Tong Che and Ruan Tang to the studio.
As soon as they saw Tong Che, they all greeted him with smiles and even blew rainbow farts, to which Tong Che responded politely.
The studio was already very lively. The makeup artists, stylists, photographers, and photographers were all there. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Tong Che started to try on the clothes and do the styling.
The new Solace product had a pure iced candy flavor, which was imitated from the 50-cent popsicles from childhood, and was clear and lightly sweet. Tong Che was chosen to shoot this advertisement, not only because he was very popular now, but also because his temperament was very much in line—a cold and clean gentleman.
His light blonde bangs were combed up with hairspray and his overall make-up was light, but it made his already cold features look even more refined. The overall style was that of a prince of ice and snow. The ice blue retro shirt is paired with pure white, slim-fitting trousers, a white coat, and a pair of short boots of the same color. Standing on the setup scene of ice and snow, he looked extraordinarily noble, and instantly attracted everyone's attention.
He had a natural sense of camera work and didn’t need much prompting from the photographer. The suppressant could be played within his hands, sometimes in his mouth, sometimes in his fingertips, and sometimes he could simply do a little magic, entering through this cuff and leaving through that cuff.
....
The shoot was originally planned to take six hours, but ended up taking only five hours to complete, and the photographer was very happy with him and was full of praise.
"You're great, Brother Che!" Ruan Tang was still unable to hide the excitement on her face when they got into the company car, "Brother Che, you don't know that the eyes of the ladies watching you were glowing during the shoot!"
Tong Che leaned back in his chair and smiled at her, his eyebrows showing a bit of fatigue.
The high intensity of filming, even in his best state, was actually very taxing, not to mention that Tong Che was already in poor health and was relying on painkillers to get through it.
Ruan Tang could see this, so she wisely shut up and said no more. She turned up the hot air conditioner, turned on the car stereo, and played a gentle post-rock song.
Tong Che closed his eyes, gradually relaxed his mind, and fell asleep in no time.
As soon as he fell asleep, he started to have the dream he had been having for the past ten years again.
The blue sea, the delicate sandy beach, and a young man with an illusory silhouette but no visible face.
The smell of the sea was on the tip of his nose.
......
"Brother Che, wake up," Ruan Tang's voice rang in his ears after an unknown time. "You haven't eaten lunch yet."
Tong Che's eyebrows drew together as he slowly opened his eyes, taking a couple of seconds to wake up completely.
After taking a sip of the warm water Ruan Tang handed him, Tong Che asked, "What time is it?"
"Four twenty," Ruan Tang looked at her watch, "We've already arrived at the place, Brother Che. You can go up just in time after eating. "
Tong Che looked out of the car window and realised that they had already arrived at the car park of Gulu Gulu Live.
Nodding, he watched as Ruan Tang set up a small table in the middle of the car and put two lunch boxes on it, one of which was filled with boiled vegetables except for a small amount of chicken breast, which was naturally for Tong Che.
Tong Che took a bite of the lettuce and said to Ruan Tang, who was sucking on the hot and spicy risotto, "You don't have to wait for me to eat with you every time, I'm busy and my meal times are irregular, so you can eat first next time you're hungry."
Ruan Tang shook her head vaguely, "I'm not hungry. It's not fun to eat alone; it's more delicious to eat when there are two people."
Tong Che looked at her bowl full of red oil and thought to himself, "It does smell good!"
After eating, he went upstairs and arrived at the live studio at four-fifty.
After debugging the equipment, the interview started on time at five o'clock.
This kind of personal interview is always confirmed with the artist beforehand, so there would not be that kind of intentional embarrassment of people.
The first 80 minutes of the 90-minute interview went smoothly, and Tong Che was well-prepared, answering the questions without any mistakes, and occasionally making a joke.
When all the prepared questions were finished, the host suddenly said that the last 10 minutes would be an Easter egg session, in which five questions would be randomly selected from the audience's questions in the live stream for Tong Che to answer.
Tong Che didn't know about this session beforehand, but he didn't care too much. After all, it was only five questions. He thought he could still play well on the spot.
As expected, the first three questions were all very friendly.
When it came to the fourth one, the host gave a "wow" when he saw the question card, and then looked at Tong Che with a smile, saying, "Xiao Che, this question is: how do you evaluate the movie star, Mr. Mu Hanfeng?"
Tong Che froze for a moment.
Everyone knew that one of the most difficult questions to answer in the circle was to evaluate another person, saying too much would attract suspicion, while saying too little might be labelled as making a big name for yourself and being uncaring.
Not to mention the fact that the person Tong Che was asked to evaluate was in the same company as him. Though they were not on the same path at all, his face and strength were both top-notch, and his family background was rumoured to be very strong.
After tilting his head and thinking for a second slightly, Tong Che gave a very moderate answer, "Mr. Mu's acting skills are explosive, and he is a model worthy of my constant study."
He quietly added a sentence in his heart -
In fact, Mr. Mu's acting skills are not the only thing that has been studied; his face and body are even better looking!
The host smiled gently and let him off the hook for the moment, throwing out one last question: "One last question, little Che, as the current national idol, who is your own idol?"
This question was very cleverly asked. If it was a question about whether or not he had an idol, Tong Che would have easily used something like "all seniors are idols worth learning from," to beat around the bush, but this was a direct question about who his idol was, as if it was certain that he had one.
It just so happened that Tong Che hadn't completely recovered from the last question, and his head was even still showing a slow-motion picture of Mu Hanfeng's upper body in a movie he had seen before.
The Adam’s apple, the collarbone, those abs, the waist..
Every single one of them was flawless, each one a high point in its own right... so fucking hot!
When he heard this question, Tong Che blurted out, "Mu".
But before the last two words were out of his mouth, Tong Che came back to his senses, biting the tip of his tongue secretly and hitting the emergency brake.
Not only was he an insider, but even outsiders in the circle knew that Mu Hanfeng was always extremely cold and avoided Omegas, and what he despised the most was when someone drew him into a hype. Tong Che knew without a doubt that Mu Hanfeng's fans and many passers-by would accuse him of attempting to capitalise on Emperor Mu's popularity if he admitted to Mu Hanfeng being his idol, no matter how true it was.
After all, he became popular with a small role. A fan favourite is not the same as the three gold movie star who has steadily risen through the ranks of the entertainment circle.
However, although he stepped on the emergency brake, the word "Mu" was still transmitted through the headset, and the pop-ups in the live stream instantly doubled again.
After all, Mu Hanfeng is the only artist in today's circle who can start with Mu.
....
Until he got out of the live broadcast room and got into the car, Tong Che was still in awe. He could testify to God that he really didn't want to rub off on Mu Hanfeng's popularity at all! But the heavens obviously didn't hear him, and within ten minutes, "[shock! Tong Che's idol is actually him]", was now third in the hot search, and its popularity was still rising rapidly.
When he clicked in, it was naturally the clip of the interview that had just taken place.
Tong Che didn't look for abuse to read the comments; he just wanted to poke himself to death with ten injections of suppressants, but there was a Ruan Tang next to him who kept muttering, "Brother Che, is your idol really Emperor Mu!"
Tong Che closed his eyes and recited the Heart Sutra, ignoring her.
Ruan Tang continued to mutter, "Are you shy, Brother Che? Why don't you answer!"
Tong Che's breath lagged, but he still didn't make a sound.
Who knew that this little girl was so happy with her own brain that she didn't even notice Tong Che's obvious intention of "refusing to talk" and even added, "But it's normal that it's him. After all, Emperor Mu is definitely the dream man of thousands of young Omegas!"
Now Tong Che couldn't help himself. He opened his eyes to look at Ruan Tang, and after a pause, he finally popped out a retort, "You don't say that. The man of my dreams is really not him..."
Ruan Tang’s voice stopped sharply. She exaggeratedly stared at Tong Che with round eyes and stumbled over her words, "B-b-brother Che, you really have a dream lover?"
Tong Che’s ears, under the blond hair, were inexplicably red. He knew Ruan Tang’s character. If he didn't tell her the truth today, the little girl would probably pester him all day. In the end, he had to say, half-truthfully and briefly, "I did dream about him, but I couldn't see his face at all, and it definitely wasn't Teacher Mu anyway."
Ruan Tang's excitement really dropped when he said that.
"Well," she reacted, "If you can't even see his face, how can you be sure it's not Teacher Mu?"
The car drove into the car park, and Ruan Tang finally stopped muttering about his dream lover.
This time the car was driven straight back to the company, and Tong Che had to change into the high-fashion suit he was going to wear for the evening dinner and had to have himself restyled.
At that moment, Tong Che was very glad that although Mu Hanfeng was nominally in the same company as him, he could only be considered part of it only in title. He had his own studio and would rarely appear at the company unless necessary. As for the dinner party, he did not have to worry about it, as it was common knowledge within the circle that Emperor Mu never attended events of this nature.
Reluctantly relieved, Tong Che entered his own separate workroom and greeted the stylist and make-up artist assigned to him by the company. The manager, Lou Gui, was not yet there, probably because he was still busy. It was only when he had finished changing and styling his clothes that the door to the workroom was violently pushed open and Lou Gui came in hurriedly.
"Brother Lou." Tong Che looked up and called out.
As soon as Lou Gui saw Tong Che, his triangular eyes glowed with gold, and he gave him a thumbs up, "I saw the hot search, little Che. You're really good!"
Tong Che didn't say anything. He wanted to explain that he was really just speaking out of turn, but he didn't think it was necessary. Anyway, Lou Gui never cared what he thought in his heart. Lou Gui only saw the heat and traffic.
After confirming that Tong Che's looks were fine, Lou Gui took him outside.
This was the kind of event where an agent usually accompanies you, without an assistant.
As the two of them walked towards the lift, looking around to see if there was no one around, Lou Gui told Tong Che in a low voice, "I just heard from the news that Emperor Mu will also be at the dinner today."
Tong Che was stunned. "Mu... doesn't Mr. Mu never attend these kinds of events?"
"Who knows, he'll go if he wants to," Lou Gui waved his hand without a care in the world and changed the subject. "But this is a great thing for us! You've still got that hot search on your hands, so make sure you do well tonight and get it while it's hot..."
However, after a corner, Lou Gui couldn't say anything else. Just half a meter away from them, there was a tall Alpha leaning against the wall. The pure black shirt was half-buttoned to the top, revealing an overly sexualized Adam’s apple. The light was not too bright and it outlined the angular facial lines. On the high bridge of his nose were a pair of thin-rimmed glasses. A pair of long legs wrapped in western trousers, his body exuding the quiet smell of the sea.
Who else could it be if not Mu Hanfeng?