Chapter 13 – Just Want Some Peace and Quiet

Guan Lan took a young singer into a meeting room, locked the door, and stayed there all night. The next day, they signed a contract.

Oh my God, being so brazenly shameless in the company, this isn’t just shameless, it’s downright disgusting.

Seriously, which meeting room was it? Other people still need to use it. How revolting.

As soon as Yang Peiqing arrived at work, he overheard a few gossipy remarks from the neighboring department.

He never missed an opportunity to attack his romantic rival, so he immediately texted Chen Jin: Do you know where your boyfriend spent the night yesterday?

Chen Jin’s gossip radar immediately perked up.

Chen Jin: Our personal life is none of your concern.

He was sure Yang Peiqing couldn’t hold back and would definitely spill some gossip to him.

Yang Peiqing: Did he tell you he was working overtime at the company?

Chen Jin hadn’t contacted Guan Lan at all yesterday.

Chen Jin got into character for a moment, pondering the psychology of the situation, and replied: It’s none of your business.

Yang Peiqing felt he had guessed correctly.

Yang Peiqing: Heh, I suggest you go back and ask him properly.

So Chen Jin asked Guan Lan properly.

Guan Lan: “Is Yang Peiqing even human? He already cheated on me, and now he’s trying to tattle on me? Where does he get the nerve?”

Chen Jin: “Don’t change the subject! Who did you spend the night with?”

Guan Lan: “I didn’t spend the night, okay? I went home at midnight.”

Chen Jin: “From six o’clock after work until midnight, that’s enough time for several rounds! Starting with office play on the first try, isn’t that a bit too exciting?”

Guan Lan: “…Please dump the dirty thoughts out of your brain.”

He briefly explained Zhuang Lin’s situation to Chen Jin.

Chen Jin: “I don’t care if he’s from Juliet or Romeo Music Academy, just send me a photo.”

Guan Lan didn’t have any photos of Zhuang Lin, so he had to steal a few from Zhuang Lin’s social media.

Chen Jin: “Wow, what a fresh face! You absolutely have to sleep with him! I support you two being together!”

Guan Lan: “How did we end up together? That’s not even close to the case. Forget whether I’m the kind of scumbag who messes around with the singers I manage, he actually dislikes me a lot and doesn’t even want to look at me.”

Chen Jin: “If he was willing to stay in a small room alone with you, listening to you ramble until midnight, I can’t say he likes you, but it’s impossible that he dislikes you.”

Guan Lan sighed: “Do you know how many people in the industry are willing to pay thousands to listen to me teach? I gave him a free lesson, why wouldn’t he want that?”

Chen Jin: “Then let me ask you, do you spend half the night giving personal guidance to every singer you sign?”

Guan Lan: “Not really.”

No one else was as difficult as Zhuang Lin. If he could sign someone easily, he wouldn’t have gone to such lengths.

Chen Jin: “That’s it then. Whether you’re interested or not, he definitely thinks you are. If he thinks you’re interested and still signed with you, that means he’s interested too. You two have mutual interest, and that makes things interesting.”

…What kind of twisted logic is this?

Guan Lan: “Can you not drag everything into some kind of male-male relationship? We’re just having a normal business collaboration, does it have to mean something else?”

Chen Jin: “You might be the last pure person in this industry. The rest of us normal people think in much dirtier ways.”

Guan Lan felt like the industry was beyond saving.

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“What time did you get back last night?”

Zhuang Lin felt that if he were captured by the enemy in wartime, all they’d have to do was send Qi Fei to glare at him, and he’d spill everything.

But there was really nothing to spill in this case.

“We talked about music creation until late at night.” It sounded like a lame excuse, but it was the truth.

Qi Fei: “Last week you refused outright, then yesterday you stayed with him until midnight, and today you suddenly agreed to sign. How am I supposed to interpret this?”

Zhuang Lin: “Sister, the way you’re talking, it’s not like Guan Lan is taking advantage of me, it’s more like I’m taking advantage of him.”

Qi Fei: “So it really happened?”

Zhuang Lin: “No! Really not! If you don’t believe me, why are you even asking?”

Qi Fei: “You sound a little disappointed?”

Zhuang Lin: …So tired. I want to change managers.

Qi Fei: “I’ll just assume you suddenly came to your senses. Now that you’ve signed with him, don’t cause any more trouble. You’ve got access to top-tier platforms and resources now, make the most of it.”

Zhuang Lin: “I understand.”

Zhuang Lin had indeed come to his senses. Regardless of Guan Lan’s character, at least in their interactions, he had been a mentor and a benefactor, offering only guidance and help, without ever crossing any lines. On the other hand, Zhuang Lin had been quite rude to him at times. Guan Lan’s magnanimity in not holding it against him was admirable, and Zhuang Lin knew he couldn’t take that for granted. Now that he’d decided to work with him, he needed to treat Guan Lan with the respect due to a senior in the industry, not the disrespectful tone he’d used before.

He had to maintain proper manners, at least until Guan Lan brought up any inappropriate requests.

And if Guan Lan did? How would he respond? Zhuang Lin hadn’t figured that out yet, but his general thought process was: It’s not that you’re not good, but I have my principles. I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that, and let’s not bring it up again. Let’s not let it affect our collaboration.

The passionate speech he’d made a month ago, vowing to make Guan Lan leave in shame, had long been forgotten in another dimension.

————————————————————————

Today, Chen Jin and Guan Lan still hadn’t broken up, and Yang Peiqing was really pissed.

Chen Jin actually told him that after he and Guan Lan had an open and honest conversation, they realized they both had wronged each other. They chose to cherish their relationship, forgive each other, and move forward, feeling even closer than before.

They had only known each other for less than a month, how had they already reached this inseparable stage? Was it really fate?

He couldn’t accept it.

He had also suspected that this relationship might be some kind of act they were putting on together. But as a big shot in the industry, he had access to a lot of insider information from entertainment media. Most of the photos and videos taken by paparazzi never got released publicly, circulating only among a select few in the industry.

Yang Peiqing had a stack of photos of Guan Lan and Chen Jin on dates, and another stack of them spending the night at each other’s places.

They were intimate, their expressions ambiguous, and the way they looked at each other was full of smiles.

He couldn’t help but believe it.

Yang Peiqing had worked with Guan Lan for many years and actually had a good sense of his character. The rumors he’d spread to Chen Jin earlier were out of personal spite, but he knew that at least 80% of the wild stories about Guan Lan were fabricated. Guan Lan might not be a saint, but he certainly wasn’t the unscrupulous lecher people made him out to be.

That’s why he was even more alarmed, and more convinced that this was a serious relationship.

He and Chen Jin had been together for many years, breaking up and getting back together multiple times. Their past was tangled and complicated, and it was impossible to say who had wronged whom more. He thought that after all the twists and turns, Chen Jin would still be the one to grow old with him. But this time, for the first time, he felt the panic of losing him for good.

What’s worse, there was nothing he could do about it. Was he really going to challenge Guan Lan to a duel?

So Yang Peiqing went to challenge Guan Lan to a duel—no, to have a meal.

When Guan Lan received Yang Peiqing’s invitation, he felt like he was carrying too much of a burden. Breaking up with Chen Jin was absolutely necessary; he had to dump him when he got back.

At the same time, he couldn’t quite figure out Yang Peiqing’s thought process—You cheated on me, then tattled on me, and now what? You want to beat me up?

…He suddenly thought Yang Peiqing might actually try to hit him, so he’d better prepare some self-defense measures.

Most importantly—he wasn’t an actor, and he really didn’t know how to act out the psychological state of “having a meal with his current partner’s ex.”

Fortunately, Yang Peiqing didn’t need him to act. Yang Peiqing had enough drama of his own, fully immersed in the role of a tragic male lead, and began recounting his long, torturous love story with Chen Jin.

Using his skills as a lyricist, Guan Lan summed it up succinctly: Young and naive when they first met, they didn’t understand love. They made a mess of things, breaking up and getting back together, unable to stay together for long but also unable to fully separate. A classic case of “a pair of idiots made for each other, a broken pot and a cracked lid.”

Guan Lan had previously thought Chen Jin was the dramatic one, but now he realized Yang Peiqing was just as bad. They were a match made in heaven, perfectly suited to torment each other behind closed doors, and they shouldn’t inflict themselves on others.

Your relationship world is so complicated. As a single dog, I just want some peace and quiet.

Guan Lan: “Telling me all this is pointless. Am I really the key issue here? Even if it’s not me, wouldn’t it be someone else? Even if I break up with Chen Jin, does that mean he’ll get back together with you? Have you ever really thought about why this time, of all times, he’s so determined to break up with you? What’s changed in his life, what’s he thinking, have you really tried to understand him? If you don’t solve these issues, what’s the point of trying to break us up? What happens after that?”

Yang Peiqing looked at him in surprise.

Guan Lan knew that the man in front of him was a colleague he wasn’t very familiar with, and his future boss, so he really shouldn’t be speaking to him in this tone. But Guan Lan was just so fed up with his nagging. He used to think Yang Peiqing was quite the domineering boss type, but he had no idea the man could be so tedious.

Yang Peiqing felt like he might have had a bit too much to drink, and his mind wasn’t clear. Otherwise, why would he feel like Guan Lan was actually helping him?