“Thief crying ‘stop thief’—that’s exactly what this dog of a man, Shi Linchuan, is doing.”

Having said that, he leaned back without a shred of guilt, resettled on the sofa, and dropped his black-rimmed glasses while burying his face in his hands, radiating an air of utter dejection.

In reality, he was brimming with delight, waiting for Xie Jinghe’s reaction.

And as he expected—

At this very moment, Xie Jinghe was panicking like crazy.

The room was sealed tight, the thick smell of cigarette smoke gathering in the space, impossible to ignore. He stood helplessly next to his suitcase, his brain completely short-circuiting.

Having been married to Shi Linchuan for three full years, this was the first time Xie Jinghe had ever seen his partner like this.

The man who was usually gentle and approachable was polite even when questioning him. But when he sat there in silence, he made one’s heart shudder in terror.

…It was strange. He felt a chill running down his back.

Xie Jinghe didn’t know why he had such a bizarre sensation.

He stood frozen for several seconds before coming to his senses, hurriedly lowering his head to sniff himself. He didn’t smell the perfume the man mentioned at all.

However, he didn’t doubt the man’s claims; instead, he suspected his own sense of smell had dulled.

After all, when the dinner party ended, the investor Pei Yue had bumped into his side, and Xie Jinghe had quickly turned to steady her before distancing himself.

Logically, a simple bump with less than a second of physical contact shouldn’t leave a scent… but after thinking it over, Xie Jinghe concluded the only possibility was that bright and stunning investor.

He wasn’t used to wearing perfume, and Le Yan didn’t like to use it either.

To be honest, ever since Pei Yue entered the private room, Xie Jinghe had felt something was off. There were empty seats, yet she had deliberately sat right next to him…

Xie Jinghe entered the industry at sixteen; he was twenty-seven now.

In his eleven-year acting career, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t encountered investors or others with ulterior motives, but he had always strictly refused them, keeping his distance.

Once Pei Yue sat down, Xie Jinghe could feel her turning to look at him from time to time, her gaze so intense it felt tangible, as if she were observing some rare animal.

Not to mention she had repeatedly started conversations, not only exchanging contact information but also inviting him to visit NO1 to chat and drink tea when he had time.

She was abnormally enthusiastic.

But upon reflection, Xie Jinghe felt it made sense.

Before being poached by NO1, she had been an established gold-medal agent in the industry. Unfortunately, her vision clashed with her previous company’s, leading to restrictions and many unpleasant confrontations.

Later, NO1 emerged out of nowhere.

Before long, Pei Yue had taken a group of artists and resources with her to defect to NO1, transforming into the executive president with the power to make decisions, signing many new artists.

It just so happened that Xie Jinghe was in the middle of a contract termination lawsuit with his old agency, and Director Shao Wei had expressed an interest in acting as a bridge between them…

So, Xie Jinghe hadn’t thought too much about it.

The problem was, he was afraid Shi Linchuan would think too much.

In Xie Jinghe’s eyes, his partner was perfect in every way.

First, he had a good personality.

Shi Linchuan was gentle, polite, kind-hearted, and had impeccable character.

When he was a child, he was the big brother Xie Jinghe liked the most. Meeting him again after all those years—it was no exaggeration to say Xie Jinghe felt as if he had lost his mind and gone foolish that night.

Later, he worried that Shi Linchuan would misunderstand his lifestyle as loose or frivolous, and he wanted to explain several times. But considering they weren’t getting any younger, he feared the man would think he was just trying to stir up old feelings…

It was on a night after they started dating.

Shi Linchuan took him to his apartment for the first time. He had looked around excitedly, turned, and bumped into the man’s embrace. The two immediately began kissing, and in their urgency, they became intimate in the living room.

Afterward, Xie Jinghe lay on the long sofa wrapped in a blanket. He stared at the man’s back as he cleaned up the mess and suddenly said: “Xiao Ge, you are my first man, and my only one.”

As soon as the words left his lips, he couldn’t help but blush, hurriedly retreating his head into the blanket, cursing himself for being a complete fool.

A grown man, why say something like that?

The blanket wrapped him up tight, and perhaps because of the lack of ventilation, Xie Jinghe’s face turned redder and redder. The living room was dead silent, with no response whatsoever.

The man acted as if he hadn’t heard him.

A while later, he silently pulled down the blanket. Before Xie Jinghe could even peek out, he saw the man kneeling half-crouched by the sofa, looking at him. He didn’t know how long he had been watching.

Xie Jinghe: “!”

The next second, Shi Linchuan reached out to ruffle his hair, then pulled him and the blanket into his arms, whispering: “I am very honored to be that person. But Xiao Jing… even if you had experiences before, you don’t need to explain anything.”

“That is a part of you. I love it just the same.”

In that very instant, Xie Jinghe’s brain went blank. All he could say were four words—

“Ah, I’m dead.”

He buried his face in the man’s neck, fiddling with the buttons, and chuckled: “Mm, ha… mm.”

After he finished chuckling, the man said: “Actually, you didn’t have to specify. I knew you were a first-timer because, at that moment, you were truly…”

The last syllable was lost, but Xie Jinghe still heard it. He shrank, burying even the parts that were praised.

Of course, that wasn’t the point.

The point was, the man’s personality was truly excellent!

If Xie Jinghe were to sit down and list his partner’s merits, he didn’t know when he would finish. But even someone as perfect as Shi Linchuan had some “flaws” that gave him a headache.

—Shi Linchuan was incredibly jealous.

And Xie Jinghe was known for his rumors and his ability to generate “CP” (couple) chemistry. He could control his own behavior, but he couldn’t control others trying to ride his coattails, tabloid accounts writing nonsense, or the vast number of fans shipping him in various pairings.

Actually, that wasn’t really a flaw.

In fact, most of the time, Xie Jinghe quite enjoyed it, as it proved his lover was always focused on him and possessed a sense of possessiveness.

In Xie Jinghe’s view, this was a display of love and care.

…It was just that his body couldn’t quite keep up sometimes.

But that wasn’t a big problem! He was still young!

The most urgent priority now was to quickly appease the man.

This was the first time Xie Jinghe had seen Shi Linchuan so furious, smoking so many cigarettes in one go; he was genuinely afraid he would damage his heart and lungs, even thinking about whether he should book a medical checkup for him.

His expression sharpened. With a nimble movement, he stripped off his suit jacket, first throwing it forcefully to the floor and then stomping on it twice before moving closer to the man. Finally, he affectionately climbed onto Shi Linchuan’s back and recounted the events of the dinner.

“Really, I just steadied her. I didn’t even touch her hand. She’s a big investor, and she’s a girl, too. I couldn’t just watch her fall.”

“…”

“Linchuan, Linchuan, Linchuan.”

“…”

“Shi—Lin—Chuan—”

Shi Linchuan felt the weight on his back and the incessant calling of his soul in his ear, his heart remaining completely unmoved.

If he knew what Xie Jinghe was thinking just now, he would likely sneer and ask with mocking tone: “Do you know what it means that ‘the gifts of fate have already been marked with a price in the dark’?”

Tsk.

Forget it, that was also nauseating to say.

He wasn’t a gift of fate, either.

Shi Linchuan’s self-awareness was very clear. He knew he wasn’t a good person; he was filled with malice and ill intentions to the brim. Xie Jinghe meeting him was like a ghost encountering a tragedy.

He lowered the hand covering his face and caught sight of the two arms wrapped around his neck, the smooth folds of the white shirt, the cuffs slightly moved up, revealing the bony wrists.

Due to the requirements of being on screen, Xie Jinghe ate a balanced diet, worked out on schedule, and managed his physique meticulously, fitting the description of “slender in clothes, muscular out of them.”

His skin tone was also very healthy, not excessively pale, and the texture was particularly fine, especially the skin on his inner thighs…

Soft and smooth.

Perfect for tattooing.

However, Shi Linchuan hadn’t spent all this effort setting the stage just to have a simple sexual encounter.

Such a simple need—which day couldn’t he satisfy it?

Whenever he said he wanted it, Xie Jinghe would obediently take off his pants.

In Shi Linchuan’s view, Xie Jinghe could be described as an idiot; he believed everything the man said. That he would still dare to trust another man was proof he never learned his lesson.

His head was full of water; even if you shook him into the mattress, it wouldn’t come out.

Therefore, Shi Linchuan was fully prepared for today.

Actually, the plot in the original novel was very simple—four or five months ago, the protagonist Xie Jinghe received a major film project, while the scumbag ex-husband happened to be laid off.

The scumbag ex-husband harbored extremely twisted thoughts toward Xie Jinghe. He hoped the other would make more money so that he could benefit from it, yet he was jealous that Xie Jinghe was superior in every way.

So, on the night Xie Jinghe was dragged to a banquet by the director, he threw a massive tantrum, relying on malicious speculation and belittling the other to gain pleasure.

Including getting a tattoo on the other’s inner thigh.

This was also one of his ways to belittle Xie Jinghe.

What jealousy? It was merely an excuse for the scumbag ex-husband to vent his emotions on Xie Jinghe.

What a low-life.

While adhering to the original plot, Shi Linchuan had made some reasonable “optimizations” to the content.

That’s why the system said he was more of a dog than the original.

But for someone like Shi Linchuan, such a backhanded compliment could almost be heard as praise.

Letting Xie Jinghe call his soul on his back for a good few minutes, Shi Linchuan followed his original plan, turned his head with a straight face, and looked at him, his expression appearing half-convinced:

“Really? You just steadied her?”

Xie Jinghe was especially good at “climbing up the pole.” Even though he was wearing a full suit, he slid into the man’s arms, face-to-face, nodding forcefully.

“Mm, really!”

Shi Linchuan stared at him for a long while; his stiff expression gradually softened, and then he reached out to wrap his arms around his waist, holding him tight.

Perhaps due to a lack of love growing up, Xie Jinghe had signs of skin hunger. Being pressed against Shi Linchuan wasn’t enough; his hands couldn’t stay idle and began unbuttoning his own shirt.

Like peeling a lotus seed. He peeled himself out.

Just as he wanted to throw the white shirt aside to the sofa, Shi Linchuan, like a hunter who had been lurking in the dark for a long time, finally waited for the best opportunity and struck instantly.

The man suddenly snatched that piece of white fabric from Xie Jinghe’s hands, his eyes locked onto that smudge of bright red lipstick on the collar…

A moment later, he looked up at Xie Jinghe, pushed the trace right before his eyes, and asked coldly:

“If you only steadied her, what is this?”

Xie Jinghe wasn’t blind; of course, he saw it. He subconsciously touched his neck and denied it: “I don’t know, I didn’t even feel her touch me.”

He didn’t know.

But Shi Linchuan did; in fact, he was the culprit.

He watched Xie Jinghe frown, stupidly shrinking into his arms, his expression seemingly nervous but actually explaining with great confidence:

“You still don’t know me?”

“Besides you, who else could there be?”

As soon as Xie Jinghe finished speaking, the “gentle knife” Shi Linchuan had sharpened for three years finally left its sheath.

He casually threw the soiled shirt onto the floor, leaned back, distanced himself from Xie Jinghe, and then said with an expressionless face:

“What do I know?”

“What should I know?”

Shi Linchuan deliberately paused. He lifted his eyes, and a cold gaze shot straight into Xie Jinghe’s face.

The man was visibly stunned.

…As if he couldn’t understand how the partner who had shared his bed for three years could suddenly be so strange in tone and attitude.

So mean it was unbelievable.

Shi Linchuan appreciated his expression and then, in a light, airy tone, said coldly:

“Who knows, when you’re drunk outside, who you might throw yourself on?”