Lin Cimian could not wait to move out of the villa.
He had already taken a liking to a small apartment with two bedrooms and one living room. It was not large, but for one person it was more than enough.
The apartment had been renovated the previous year and came with basic furniture. The environment was very good; the only problem was that no one had lived there for half a year, so a thick layer of dust had accumulated.
Wearing a mask, Lin Cimian spent an entire day cleaning. Then he planted his hands on his hips and stood in the doorway, looking at the fruits of his labor in an excellent mood.
At last he no longer had to deal with performances, trending topics, or living with a crowd of people! Even the air tasted like freedom!!
The sofa had not been cleaned yet, so Lin Cimian casually sat on a little stool and pulled out his phone to order delivery.
The apartment was in a good location. It was not in the central business district, but the surrounding area was very lively, with all kinds of restaurants and little shops. He could rotate through different takeout places for an entire year.
After working all day, Lin Cimian was starving and decided to order something good as a reward.
He browsed the delivery app for a while and finally bought a deluxe seafood rice bowl.
While waiting for the food, Lin Cimian walked around the apartment and roughly estimated what he still needed to buy.
Living alone meant there was no need to be overly particular. He could save wherever possible, but the kitchen was the exception.
He loved eating and also loved cooking. He would never mistreat his own mouth.
Pots, bowls, utensils, seasonings, ingredients—none of them could be missing.
The more carefully he calculated, the larger the total became. Just as Lin Cimian’s heart began to turn cold, the delivery driver arrived with his meal.
There was nothing a good meal could not solve. Lin Cimian’s mood instantly improved from stormy to merely cloudy. He watched through the peephole until the delivery driver took the elevator downstairs, then opened the door and brought the food inside.
This seafood rice bowl was not cheap by delivery standards. Full of anticipation, Lin Cimian opened the container—and instantly went blank.
There was pitifully little seafood. The largest shrimp was not even as long as his little finger. A few baby octopuses barely filled the gaps between his teeth. They had been generous with the shellfish, but the meat was so old and tough he could hardly chew it.
The light in Lin Cimian’s eyes immediately dimmed. He pressed his lips together unhappily before finally picking up the spoon.
There was so little seafood that the sauce overwhelmed everything. The rice had been braised until far too soft and mushy, with no chewiness left. Even though Lin Cimian was starving, he almost could not make himself eat it.
He silently cried for his wallet, but stubbornly refused to admit defeat. He could only comfort himself that once he bought everything he needed, he could make a huge, economical seafood rice bowl at home.
Lin Cimian did not waste food. He finished the entire bowl, then rubbed his round stomach and sprawled on the sofa without a shred of dignity to digest.
He casually picked up his phone and scrolled through videos to kill time. When he found a funny one, he laughed until his whole body shook and curled into a ball on the sofa.
Holding his aching stomach from laughing, he shifted into another position, crossed one leg over the other, and habitually swiped down to keep searching for funny videos.
He had never been interested in celebrity interviews and was about to swipe away quickly when he could not help narrowing his eyes.
The celebrity being interviewed was quite young, with clean, delicate features and bright eyes. At a glance, he looked like the kind of person who had grown up surrounded by love and had been well protected.
Lin Cimian paused. The reporter’s and celebrity’s voices floated into his ears.
“Siqi, we all know you’re very close to your family. While filming on set this time, do you contact them often?”
Lin Siqi smiled, revealing a little tiger tooth. “I video-call Mom and Dad every night before bed. During the day when I’m working, they send messages to check on me too, and they take pictures of our puppy at home to cheer me up… Oh, and my brother came yesterday. He brought me things, treated the entire production crew to a meal, and stayed with me through a whole night shoot.”
Lin Siqi had debuted as a child actor. Everyone knew he came from an illustrious family and had been raised as a pampered young master surrounded by wealth and affection.
From the moment he entered entertainment, people had paved the way for him. Resources he could obtain casually were things other celebrities could only dream of.
His family was close, his parents were open-minded and respected Lin Siqi’s choices, acting as his strongest support. His older brother managed the family company so he could develop his entertainment career without worries.
The reporter could not hide her envy and joked, “Looks like your brother has the potential to become a full-fledged little-brother fanatic!”
Lin Siqi looked a little embarrassed. His gaze flickered twice, but he did not deny it.
Seeing this, Lin Cimian’s expression became very strange.
What a happy, loving family. Except… wasn’t he supposed to be the biological child?
The original owner had been switched at birth and only returned to the Lin family at fourteen. The Lin family did not like him. Compared with the adopted Lin Siqi, the original owner seemed more like an outsider.
Lin Cimian had inherited a large amount of the original owner’s memories and was just about to recall the past when a notification suddenly popped up on his phone.
One hundred thousand yuan had been transferred into his bank account.
This was the monthly living allowance his family gave him. Over time, it had accumulated into a considerable sum.
But it was not his money, and Lin Cimian did not intend to use it. Looking through the transfer history, he suddenly understood why the original owner had never touched the money either.
They were both children of the Lin family, and the original owner was even the biological son, yet the Lin family treated them completely differently. They were willing to spend enormous amounts of thought and money supporting Lin Siqi, while their relationship with the original owner was deeply unpleasant, and they even forbade him from revealing his identity.
The original owner had debuted through a survival show and spent more than a year in the entertainment industry. No matter how viciously he was cursed, the Lin family had never helped him. Their only contact was this monthly transfer of one hundred thousand yuan.
That one hundred thousand yuan was not concern. It felt more like perfunctory dismissal and a warning:
We give you living expenses every month. What more do you want? Behave yourself and don’t bring us trouble!
Compared with Lin Siqi, the difference in treatment was like heaven and earth. The original owner lacked love, not money. The monthly allowance brought him no comfort; it felt more like another wound.
Lin Cimian sighed deeply, feeling great sympathy for the original owner.
But for him, this arrangement was actually ideal.
When he was young, his parents had died in a car accident and his grandparents raised him. For as long as he could remember, he had never experienced paternal or maternal love, much less the affection between brothers.
Now that parents and an older brother had suddenly appeared, the Lin family’s parents and brother were strangers to him. He did not know them and had no emotional foundation with them. Forcing everyone together would be no different from acting out a game of house.
If they were like Lin Siqi’s family, video-calling him every day and coming to see him every few days… Just thinking about it made Lin Cimian feel short of breath, and he could not help shuddering.
This is way too hard on someone with social anxiety.jpg
So having no contact while receiving a fixed transfer every month was the best possible situation for him.
Still, the money ultimately had nothing to do with him. He could not spend it with a clear conscience. As for the original owner’s own savings, although he had been a celebrity with many commercial jobs, the predatory company had signed him to such an awful contract that he had saved pitifully little. Unless absolutely necessary, Lin Cimian did not intend to touch that money either.
Nothing hurt more than having no money. Lin Cimian felt as though he had been stabbed and abruptly sat straight up, even his gaze changing.
One-third of the reason he had chosen to rent this apartment was that the landlord had furnished it with a desk and computer he could use immediately.
Over the past several days, he had done a great deal of research. After considering everything carefully, he decided to become a gaming streamer.
He already loved games. Nothing could be happier than turning a hobby into work. Gaming streams also did not require him to show his face or expose his real identity, making the job perfect for a socially anxious, infamous former celebrity who had already left the industry.
Several games were currently popular, but he ultimately chose “Dream Record of the Nine Heavens.”
Dream Record of the Nine Heavens had been online for eight years and remained extremely popular, with a huge player base. Several gaming streamers who ranked among the top ten across the entire internet played it.
The game had beautiful art and diverse gameplay. It featured not only highly competitive player-versus-player arenas but also all kinds of dungeons and mechanics. It suited player-versus-player, player-versus-environment, and casual-content players alike, and was very beginner-friendly and easy to learn.
The streaming platform Lin Cimian chose also had the largest user base. First, that guaranteed traffic, and its recommendation mechanism was quite good. As long as a streamer gained followers rapidly within a short period, there was a chance to be featured on the homepage.
While waiting for his contract termination, Lin Cimian had already familiarized himself with both the game and the streaming platform. After skillfully setting up his stream, he logged into the game.
Dream Record of the Nine Heavens, your grandpa is here!
It was exactly eight in the evening. Most people had already finished dinner and were lying on their sofas with their feet up, leisurely scrolling through their phones, eating gossip and looking for entertainment.
Netizens had very complicated feelings toward Lin Cimian, a mixture of love and hate. On one hand, he pulled far too many outrageous stunts and was infuriating. On the other hand, the melons he produced were huge, plump, and overflowing with juice—high-quality gossip with a beginning and an end, entertaining plots, multiple reversals, follow-up service, and even personal appearances from the person involved. He had brought everyone a great deal of gossip and laughter.
After the situation fermented for several days, more and more people entered the battlefield. Major marketing accounts twisted and fabricated facts without any bottom line for the sake of traffic. The rumor mill evolved from “Lin Cimian and the captain are romantic rivals” into “the two are secretly dating and have turned from love to hate.” Gossip-eaters enjoyed every bite and eagerly waited for Lin Cimian to appear and explain everything.
But this time, Lin Cimian was unusually quiet. He never logged into Weibo. The gossip crowd and wicked netizens grew frantic with anticipation and checked in beneath his posts every day.
Only after monopolizing the trending list for three days did Lin Cimian finally post on Weibo amid countless calls for him to appear.
The post was completely different from his previous green-tea style. It was official, formal, and filled with long-winded nonsense, but everyone understood the central point.
Lin Cimian had actually terminated his contract and retired from the entertainment industry!
Netizens were collectively dumbfounded. Related tags immediately rushed onto the trending list and occupied the top positions with impressive momentum.
[Did I wake up too hard? How did we suddenly fast-forward straight to contract termination and retirement?!]
[April Fool’s Day is still three days away. Did Lin Cimian set the wrong date on Weibo…?]
[He really understands the traffic code… My blind guess is that he’ll sit right back up again!]
Aside from shocked passersby, the fans’ style was remarkably consistent.
[Congratulations to M&N for finally getting rid of that piece of rat shit!]
[Big brother finally made it through! Looking forward to even better performances from him!]
[Hahahahaha it’s New Year! Come to my Weibo homepage, I’m handing out red envelopes!]
[Looking forward to M&N’s first performance without Lin Cimian. Everyone, come support this treasure boy group! Investing now is a bargain!]
The fans thought this was earth-shatteringly wonderful news and tried to flood the comments with recommendations, but they were no match for the passersby and were quickly drowned out.
[Why do I feel kind of empty? Lights cigarette.jpg]
[Plus one.]
[I was actually really looking forward to seeing how this gossip developed. Why did it suddenly end? Sob sob sob sob]
[This hurts. If you cut a melon halfway, be careful or you’ll be a eunuch in your next life!]
[You couldn’t wait just a few more days? At least finish the after-sales service before retiring!]
[I don’t like Lin Cimian either, but the entertainment industry without his outrageous stunts is so lonely, pale, and boring.]
[Feels like someone grabbed me by the throat… Even breaking up with my dogshit ex-boyfriend didn’t feel this bad.]
[Hahahahaha, to eat the gossip immediately, I infiltrated an anti-fan group. It used to be insanely lively. Now it’s dead silent. The group owner sent several sobbing reaction images. Everyone’s pretty sad and is tearfully saying goodbye.]
[Dead laughing. Are these really anti-fans?]
[I wonder what Lin Cimian is doing. Why do I kind of miss him?]
…
With that, Lin Cimian disappeared from the internet without a trace. There was no news about him at all. Even the Lin family had no idea what he was doing; they learned of his retirement online.
His older brother hesitated for several seconds. Although he did not want to ruin Mother Lin’s good mood, Lin Cimian was still technically part of the family, so by both reason and affection he had to mention it. “Cimian suddenly retired. We don’t know where he’s been living or what he’s been doing these days. He hasn’t contacted me at all.”
Mother Lin was reading a fashion magazine. Hearing this, she frowned deeply and said unhappily, “What is he trying to do now? He fought with us so badly to enter the entertainment industry, and now he quits so easily without even telling us!”
Whenever Mother Lin mentioned this son, her heart filled with resentment and anger. She complained for quite a while. Seeing this, the older brother thoughtfully poured her a cup of tea.
Only after taking a sip did Mother Lin calm down and resume the bearing of an elegant wealthy madam. “He’s clearly my biological son, but compared with Siqi, he’s far too disappointing. He never gives me a moment’s peace! Thank goodness we never publicly admitted our relationship online. I would’ve been humiliated, and he might even have affected the company’s image.”
The older brother said nothing, but his brows furrowed deeply too. Inwardly, he agreed with their mother.
When Lin Cimian returned to the Lin family at fourteen, he had already been working outside for a year. Although he had skipped grades and completed junior high, in the Lin family’s eyes the school he attended was practically garbage, and studying there was simply a waste of time.
Environment had a huge influence on people. When Lin Cimian first returned to the Lin family, he was thin and short, his fingertips covered in calluses. He spoke with a heavy accent, and people often could not understand what he was saying.
Meanwhile, Lin Siqi, who had grown up in the Lin household, looked like a little prince beside Lin Cimian. He could play the violin, spoke fluent English, had elegant manners, was obedient, and looked adorable. Elders naturally adored him.
Lin’s parents had once considered compensating their biological child, but Lin Cimian disappointed and embarrassed them at every turn. He also targeted Lin Siqi constantly and secretly pulled infuriating little tricks. Especially after he insisted on entering the entertainment industry merely to compete with Lin Siqi, Mother Lin’s heart had been thoroughly broken. Over the past year, she had barely mentioned him at all.
At first, Lin Cimian still called home. But after sensing their coldness and dislike, he gradually stopped contacting them. He occasionally messaged his older brother, but although the brother clearly saw the messages, he rarely replied. At some unknown point, both sides lost contact completely.
The older brother felt disgust whenever he thought of Lin Cimian too, but as the eldest son, he had a responsibility to look after his younger brother. After pausing, he hesitantly said, “He doesn’t have a job anymore. Should we ask him to move back home?”
Mother Lin snorted and slammed the fashion magazine onto the table. “There’s no need to indulge him. What could he possibly accomplish out there? It won’t be long before he comes crawling back in disgrace on his own.”
