The staff had, in the end, misjudged the severity of the weather. After a dozen or so minutes, not only did the rain show no signs of stopping, but it actually began to pour even harder. The competition was forced to a halt and had to be rescheduled for another time.

Su Ge's already bad mood grew even darker. He brushed off the raindrops that had accidentally spattered onto his shoulder and frowned at the assistant holding an umbrella beside him. "Get me a clean set of clothes. I'm changing when I get back to the car."

Seeing that he was about to leave, the assistant hesitated. "But Brother Lun wants you to interact with the fans for a bit before you go, otherwise, there's no content for today's press release."

Su Ge glanced at him. "Interact? Interact with what? It's pouring right now. Even if you're not cold, I am. If I get sick from the rain, are you going to take responsibility?"

Usually, after an event wrapped up, celebrities would interact with their fans off-stage. This was why the fans were willing to wait for so long. The assistant, caught in the middle, felt wronged no matter what he did. He stammered, "But, Brother Lun said..."

Brother Lun was the top agent at Shanxing Entertainment, a man of considerable means. He was the one who had single-handedly built Su Ge's career.

Su Ge's wings weren't sturdy enough to fly solo yet. Hearing this, he muttered "troublesome" impatiently, adjusted his cuffs, and finally walked towards the audience seats accompanied by his assistant.

When the fans saw him approaching, their fatigue vanished. They waved their light sticks and excitedly gestured at him, their voices rising and falling in waves.

"Su Ge! Su Ge!"

"Su Ge, I like you so much!"

Li Xixi had been completely listless from the downpour. But hearing someone shout Su Ge's name, she immediately perked up and squeezed her way to the front row. She held up the gift box in her hands, her face red with excitement, and said, "Su Ge, Su Ge, this is for you!"

The gift box had been protected under her jacket the whole time and was still dry to the touch. The assistant was about to step forward to take it, but Su Ge accepted it himself. He smiled at Li Xixi and said gently, "Thank you for your gift. I'll treasure it."

"O-okay..."

Meeting his smiling eyes, Li Xixi's mind went completely blank. She felt light-headed and could barely stand steady, having completely lost her ability to think. She didn't even know when Su Ge had left. It wasn't until her companion nudged her. "Xixi, are you done being starstruck? Look at your silly face. Let's hurry home, I'm freezing to death."

Li Xixi cupped her face with her hands. "If you were me, you'd be starstruck too."

"For shame, for shame. I would not."

"Yes, you would!"

"..."

Due to the rain, the filming of the promotional video had to be temporarily put on hold as well. The program's staff were swamped, going around backstage to apologize to each artist for the delay and promising to treat them to a meal next time before hastily wrapping up.

Xi Nian didn't go. He stood in the hallway smoking. The sky outside was gradually darkening, creating a stark contrast with the bright lights of the corridor. He poked his head out the window for a look, only to get a stream of cold rain on his neck, and quickly straightened up again.

Xi Nian had been a heavy smoker in his previous life. As his career was on the rise, the pressure was immense, and he basically never had a cigarette out of his hand. Today, he had lit one out of habit, only to end up choking and frowning.

The System sensed that his mood was off and flew a circle around Xi Nian: 【You Earthlings say this thing called a cigarette is harmful to the body.】

Xi Nian flicked the ash from his cigarette, his handsome face blurry in the smoke. "You sure are controlling. There are so many criminals in the world, I don't see you going after them. Must you follow me around like a hanged ghost?"

The blue light on the System's body flickered, and a crackling electric sound, like it was thinking, could be heard: 【Because it's an equivalent exchange.】

It said to Xi Nian: 【It's very easy to break free from the System's control. As long as the host voluntarily gives up the chance of rebirth, the Interstellar Executor will reassign the System to a new reformation target.】

Xi Nian paused. "And then?"

The System said in a bewildered tone: 【Then you'll be dead.】

Be dead...

Dead...

Dead...

Hearing this, Xi Nian unconsciously stood up straight. He nervously crushed the cigarette butt out on the trash can. For an instant, the scattering ash was as beautiful as sparks, but it was immediately extinguished into nothing.

That's right, he had already died in his past life.

Xi Nian had never been conscious of the fact that he was already dead. This was the first time someone had pointed this fact out to him so clearly. He wiped his face, feeling a rare sense of helplessness. He turned to walk to the lounge, not wanting to continue this topic, but the System, utterly lacking in tact, continued to press: 【Dear host, do you want to give up your chance of rebirth?】

Xi Nian shot it a glance. "Who would want to die if they can live?"

There was a long corridor on the way to the lounge. As Xi Nian was getting his personal belongings from a locker, he saw Su Ge walking over, accompanied by several assistants whose arms were filled to the brim with gifts from fans.

Su Ge was holding a pink and blue box. He opened it and saw a glass bottle filled with straw stars. He frowned and muttered "boring," then casually tossed it into a nearby trash can.

An assistant glanced at it and saw that the stars were folded beautifully. "It's from a fan, after all. Isn't it a bit of a pity to throw it away..."

Su Ge was completely uninterested. "What's there to be pitiful about? You can buy a huge bunch of them on the street."

Xi Nian watched from where he stood, raising an eyebrow. He waited until Su Ge and his group had entered the elevator before he showed himself.

The System seemed to have a particular fondness for shiny things. It flapped its wings and flew over to the trash can. Seeing the bottle filled with colorful stars, it asked, perplexed: 【The stars are so pretty, why doesn't he like them...】

Xi Nian was waiting for another elevator. Hearing this, he replied perfunctorily, "Because they're not valuable."

Fans gave so many gifts, it was impossible to keep them all. Some artists accepted them on the surface, but who knew if they were thrown away or burned in private.

Perhaps out of anger, the System's blue body turned reddish, like boiling water: 【He still shouldn't have thrown it in the trash can.】

Xi Nian let out a scoff. "Go tell that to Su Ge, don't tell me."

The System's round, chubby body landed on Xi Nian's shoulder, its touch very light this time: 【Won't you pick it up...】

The radiant glass bottle lay quietly in the pile of trash. Before long, it would become dull, lusterless, and shattered. That's just how people were; when they had too much of something, they stopped cherishing it. And when they stopped cherishing it, they learned to discard it.

"No."

Xi Nian wasn't a sympathetic person. He crossed his arms and lifted his eyelids indifferently. "First, I don't pick things out of trash cans. Second, even if I pick it up, it won't be yours. Third, a gift from Su Ge's fan has nothing to do with me."

The System was reluctant to let it go. It gently tapped the trash can, which made a clanging sound in the empty corridor, almost as if the place was haunted: 【Please pick it up, okay? I'll help you once, you help me once.】

That was the truth.

And in this life, Xi Nian hated owing favors more than anything.

Hearing this, he shot a deadpan look at the System, then glanced around. After a few seconds of silence, seeing no one around, he cursed under his breath, pulled a tissue from his backpack, and walked over to the trash can to rummage through it, but couldn't find it after a long time.

Xi Nian was on the verge of snapping. "Where's the bottle?!"

The System remembered kicking the trash can earlier, and the glass bottle was quite heavy. Its tone was sheepish: 【It probably fell to the bottom...】

Xi Nian practically wanted to kill the sphere. He took a deep breath, simply tipped the entire trash can onto its side, and shone his phone's flashlight on it for a long time. Finally, he saw the shiny bottle. He pinched it with the tissue to pull it out, his brow furrowed tightly the whole time.

Damn it, if someone saw him right now, the entire entertainment circle would think he had a weird habit of digging through trash cans by tomorrow!

Xi Nian went to the nearby restroom to wash his hands. As for the glass bottle, he washed it and placed it on a long bench. Whoever picked it up next was none of his business; he had done his part.

Because of this delay, it was almost dark. Xi Nian took the elevator downstairs and drove off, preparing to go home. As he sat in the driver's seat, he said to the System, "I've paid you back. Don't bother me with this kind of thing again."

Right and wrong, black and white, surplus and deficit, it seemed Earthlings always had to draw a clear line, but many things in the world couldn't be so clearly defined.

System: 【Then have you ever owed anyone?】

As its mechanical, electric voice sounded, the car was suddenly plunged into silence. Xi Nian's window was open, and the wind shook the tree branches outside, causing rain to fall and a chill to creep inside.

Xi Nian didn't speak. He seemed to recall something, his gaze turning distant for a moment. Then he stepped on the accelerator and sped away from the stadium. A black car parked quietly in a corner saw this and unhurriedly followed.

A single sentence from the System had easily thrown Xi Nian's thoughts into disarray.

Had he ever owed anyone?

Perhaps.

Then who did he owe? The fans who had been constantly deceived? Or Lu Xingzhe?

But Xi Nian had always felt that their relationship was one of mutual benefit.

The night poured down like spilled ink. Xi Nian drove around and around the area, visibly agitated. When he came back to his senses and casually glanced in the rearview mirror, he saw a black car that had been following him the whole time.

Xi Nian narrowed his eyes, unsure if it was a coincidence. He turned the steering wheel to the left and drove directly into a secluded street. It didn't take long for the black car to follow closely behind.

Xi Nian was now basically certain that he was being deliberately followed. He straightforwardly pulled over and parked the car, then opened the door, got out, and strode over.

Lu Xingzhe had been a paparazzi for so long, he was rarely discovered. The moment he saw Xi Nian walking towards him, he knew the situation was bad. He hurriedly started the car to leave, but he was a step too slow. The car door was pulled open from the outside.

Xi Nian leaned over, propping himself up on the car roof. When he saw the person in the driver's seat, he wasn't surprised. "Get out."

Lu Xingzhe licked his crimson lower lip, unconcerned. He leaned back lazily in his seat. "You tell me to get out, so I get out? Do we know each other?"

He completely ignored the fact that as he said this, he was still wearing the jacket Xi Nian had given him to shield him from the rain today.

Xi Nian was used to his slippery, eel-like personality. "Why are you following me?"

Lu Xingzhe simply moved his injured leg and got out of the car. He wasn't wearing a hat, his features exposed to the air, so beautiful it was hard to look at him directly. He steadied himself by holding onto the car door. "Are you the only one who can drive on this road?"

This attitude was truly asking for a beating.

Xi Nian asked, "Then what are you doing here?"

Lu Xingzhe randomly made up a reason: "Working."

Hearing this, Xi Nian suddenly broke into a slow smile, repeating the word as if savoring it. "Working?"

His gaze swept over Lu Xingzhe's slender figure, lingered on his fair collarbone, then he reached out and pinched Lu Xingzhe's chin, forcing him closer. His hot breath spread by his ear, causing a ticklish sensation. "Then do you know, at this time, in this place, only streetwalkers come out to work?"

Xi Nian never held back his malice.

Growing up, Lu Xingzhe had heard every nasty insult, from 'bastard' to 'wild child'. Hearing this, he wasn't the least bit angry. A smile slowly bloomed in his phoenix eyes as he said nonchalantly, "If I'm a streetwalker, then what are you, a john?"