How much to keep him?
The moment Jiang Nan’s words land, an icy glint flashes through Shen Li’s eyes. His brows, already furrowed from pain, immediately tighten further.
How many years has it been since anyone said something like that to him?
—Could this “Jiang Nan” be someone who knew them in the past?
Shen Li’s gaze is cold as frost, carrying an authority that does not permit offense. His lips press into a thin line, revealing a trace of disgust. “What do you mean by that?”
“What do I mean? Exactly what it sounds like.” The man’s eyes are disdainful. “I call you ‘Teacher’ a few times and you really think you’re a teacher?”
Shen Li knows that in the entertainment industry, even if a dog wanders past the camera, these “civilized people” will respectfully call it “Teacher.”
And the moment the cameras are gone, “fucking idiot” replaces “Teacher” and can be appended to the name of anyone who disobeys them.
As long as you are not famous enough and your background is not powerful enough, even a dog with a little traffic in the industry can climb onto your head, shit on you, and proclaim itself king and emperor at the same time.
Shen Li nearly laughs at the speed of this guy’s face-changing act. He restrains himself so the corner of his mouth does not curl contemptuously upward.
Seeing Shen Li remain silent, Jiang Nan apparently assumes he is completely panicked and continues, “I knew about you before. Aren’t you that assistant Qian Xingzhi kept, the one who successfully climbed into position? What? Qian Xingzhi dumped you, so now you want to use this show to debut?”
Shen Li’s eyes narrow dangerously. “You saw us more than ten years ago?”
Jiang Nan says, “More than saw you. At Qian Xingzhi’s original engagement banquet, I heard his mother mention you.”
Shen Li’s expression turns cold. He thinks: then that confirms it.
This really is someone from Qian Xingzhi’s side who happened to know him.
More than ten years ago, not long after Qian Xingzhi entered the entertainment industry, entertainment tabloids everywhere reported that the eldest young master of the Qian family had abandoned a marriage alliance with the real-estate tycoon Zhao family, offended both the Sun and Li families, refused to study properly or amount to anything, and would neither pursue scholarship nor business.
Not only did he go against his parents’ wishes and attend a media university, he even genuinely intended to enter the entertainment industry and become an actor.
And among the countless “crimes” attributed to Qian Xingzhi, there was another especially absurd one: he spent every day mixing with little amateur models.
He had supposedly even kept an extraordinarily beautiful male escort and brought him around as his personal assistant.
So those trashy entertainment tabloids wrote: Qian Xingzhi made his assistant work when there was work, and worked his assistant when there wasn’t.
And Shen Li, this unlucky “amateur-model assistant,” although he never appeared in newspapers or online, truly had been seen by a small group of people more than ten years ago.
Shen Li is not sure whether Jiang Nan had briefly crossed paths with Qian Xingzhi at that time or merely glimpsed him once.
After all, among Qian Xingzhi’s relatives and friends, the story that circulated about their relationship was that after Young Master Qian entered the entertainment industry, he met Shen Li, a seductive slut, spent some money to keep him at his side as a traveling assistant, and brought him everywhere.
But the truth was:
Shen Li and Qian Xingzhi were doing everything they could to repay a nine-million-yuan bank loan.
—That loan of more than nine million had been taken out by Qian Xingzhi after mortgaging the property his maternal grandfather left him before dying. Every cent went toward treating Shen Li’s mother’s rare disease.
At that time, the two of them were not even married yet.
Logically speaking, around nine million yuan should have been nothing to a family like Qian Xingzhi’s.
But ever since Qian Xingzhi started dating Shen Li in high school, Qian Xingzhi’s extremely controlling parents cut off every source of his income. Because Qian Xingzhi fell in love with a man and refused to break up, his parents even underwent IVF in their forties and forcibly produced a younger brother.
When Qian Xingzhi graduated from university, defied his parents by entering the entertainment industry, and explicitly rejected the arranged marriage,
Qian Xingzhi’s father even wrote out, right in front of Shen Li, a declaration assigning one hundred percent of his inheritance to his younger son, who was not yet five.
Shen Li thought it over repeatedly and told Qian Xingzhi many times that maybe the two of them should just end things.
Qian Xingzhi refused, so they dragged on like that.
Later, Shen Li became a SWAT officer and worked away from his hometown. Qian Xingzhi moved into Shen Li’s family home and took care of Shen Li’s mother in place of her own biological son.
Later still, Shen Li went to provide disaster relief in a flood zone and was swept away by floodwaters. His death notice had already been prepared. Shen Li’s mother, devastated, repeatedly tried to end her life, and it was Qian Xingzhi who stopped her every night.
So after kind villagers from Gengjia Village pulled Shen Li from the water and Shen Li called home, learned his mother’s condition had worsened and her life was in danger, and had no idea what to do, it was Qian Xingzhi who carried the still badly injured Shen Li off the plane at the airport.
Without even leaving the terminal building, Qian Xingzhi took Shen Li and his mother-in-law and immediately flew to Northern Europe to consult renowned doctors.
They used more than seventy boxes of a special medication that cost one hundred thousand per box.
Together with surgery, the total exceeded nine million.
Shen Li thought that if he continued working as a police officer, there was no possible way he could ever repay Qian Xingzhi.
So he resigned from SWAT. While caring for his mother during her recovery, he tried to find work in the entertainment industry.
Everyone knows money comes quickly in entertainment.
But with Shen Li’s looks, which could easily outshine a male lead, no formal professional training, no family background, and an absolute refusal to accept casting-couch arrangements, naturally nobody wanted to hire him.
In the end, after searching for more than half a month, only magazines and online-shop advertisements were willing to use him as a model.
The money he earned was a drop in the bucket. At that rate, it would take seventy or eighty years to repay more than nine million.
Seeing him work so hard, Qian Xingzhi tore up Shen Li’s IOU in one motion.
What he said was, “I already told you it was a voluntary gift. You don’t have to repay me.”
Shen Li did not know whether to laugh or cry. “Do you think I’m the kind of person who takes advantage like that?”
Qian Xingzhi tugged the corner of his lips as if trying to look cool, but the smile in his brows and eyes could not be suppressed. “Then marry me. Starting now, we’ll carry the loan together.”
And just like that, in a muddle, without even choosing a date, the two went straight to register their marriage.
Since Shen Li still could not find work that paid serious money, he stayed by Qian Xingzhi’s side, helping him review the details and arrangements for establishing a company and incidentally managing parts of Qian Xingzhi’s daily life. Gradually, he stopped modeling too.
That was when those entertainment tabloids started writing:
The eldest Qian son had gone completely off the rails, playing with men and keeping amateur models, forcing his assistant to do every dirty and exhausting job.
—Pure fabrication built from rumors.
Looking back now, Shen Li thinks those days were the happiest and easiest period of his life:
If his mother took proper care of herself, her illness could still allow her another twenty years;
he did not have to go to work and could sleep until he woke naturally;
forget making Shen Li work—Qian Xingzhi would not even let him pull a suitcase. The only two things Qian Xingzhi allowed him to do were read materials: first, documents about setting up the company; second, materials for the Ministry of Public Security’s criminal-investigation recruitment exam—and with Shen Li’s brain, whatever materials he read were simple.
At the time, of course, he did not care what people outside said or how far the rumors spread.
They were married, after all.
As for what outsiders wanted to say, he could not control it.
But after the divorce,
Shen Li became especially sensitive to anyone using that past to slander Qian Xingzhi.
After all, Qian Xingzhi is successful and accomplished now. After all these years fighting his way through the entertainment industry, he has never again been involved in a single romantic scandal. Shen Li naturally does not want the clean reputation Qian Xingzhi worked so hard to build destroyed because of him.
Since Shen Li has come on this show today and accepted public scrutiny, then the contents of those tabloid reports from more than ten years ago should also be clarified:
They had been legally married with a certificate. Qian Xingzhi never had any hobby of keeping amateur models. And before Shen Li entered his next public-service position, he voluntarily relinquished all rights to equity dividends through a transfer of rights in the new company, settling all debts and obligations between himself and Qian Xingzhi. How could that count as being kept?
All of the above naturally should be explained clearly to the broad audience.
However.
There are no cameras in the restroom.
Explaining it to Jiang Nan in front of him would be pointless.
A streak of cold light flashes through Shen Li’s pain-dimmed eyes. His breathing becomes slow and deep as he silently suppresses the anger inside him.
In the end, he says very calmly, “Oh. So Mr. Jiang didn’t come on the show to remarry his ex-wife. You came to keep me, this ‘amateur model’?”
Jiang Nan’s gaze still lingers on Shen Li’s waist as he says meaningfully, “Not exactly.”
“Not exactly? Then what?”
Shen Li does not evade him, intending to learn Jiang Nan’s actual purpose for joining the show.
But the man is clearly a seasoned operator and refuses to answer directly. “I mean, if you’re willing, we can consider a private relationship based purely on money—if things fall apart between you and Qian Xingzhi, follow me privately. I won’t mistreat you.”
He says “privately” twice in one sentence. Clearly, he intends for it to remain deeply hidden.
Shen Li does not comment. He simply looks at him quietly.
Even though tiny movements betray the enormous physical pain Shen Li is currently enduring, his posture remains upright like a tightly drawn bowstring. His clear gaze is sharp as a knife, and his voice stays very calm as he asks:
“You won’t mistreat me? Then how much are you planning to pay?”
“I told you. Whatever Qian Xingzhi paid you, I’ll pay double.”
Shen Li frowns and answers matter-of-factly, “More than ten years ago, Qian Xingzhi gave me 9.48 million a month—I won’t even count inflation. Round off the change and call it nine million. So your double would be?”
Jiang Nan’s expression changes visibly.
Shen Li continues, “Eighteen million. I’m sure that isn’t expensive for you, so paid in full up front?”
Jiang Nan gives a contemptuous snort. “Stop fucking jacking up the market price of ass and disrupting the whole industry. Nine million a month? Is your ass set with diamonds?”
Shen Li gives a derisive laugh. His cool gaze pins the lower half of the man’s body as he says expressionlessly, “Oh. So there’s an actual market where you come from?”
“Of course.” Jiang Nan lifts a brow. “Even the top performer at the highest-end club isn’t as expensive as what you’re asking, okay? I suggest you learn the market before taking clients.”
Shen Li’s brows knit tightly. “What club?”
“Yellow Donkey Club.”
“Be more specific. Where is it usually? What time are there activities?”
“On Jinshui Road. After ten at night. You can only enter with a member invitation.”
“You know the person in charge?”
Seeing Shen Li so interested, the man lowers his eyes and smiles. “More than know him. He’s one of my closest brothers. If you want to go, I’ll take you after the variety show finishes.”
“No need. Tonight I’ll have my apprentice go take a look.”
“Oh? You have an apprentice too? Someone like you, specializing in fishing for men?” Jiang Nan suddenly senses something is wrong and asks with a frown, “Right, your shooting ability—”
Shen Li cuts him off and smiles faintly. “Learned it at a training course. Specifically for dealing with men.”