You Guys Wouldn’t Have Taken My Casual Acting Seriously, Right Chapter 56

While the three men were experiencing mixed emotions, Xiang Lingyun was in an even worse mood.

Just now, he and Shen Fu had finished putting on their safety harnesses and walked beneath the climbing wall. Then those three idiots had called through a staff member’s phone, rambling about all sorts of nonsense. By the time he angrily hung up the phone,  Shen Fu had already climbed halfway up the wall!

The whole point of rock climbing was that two people climbed together, helping one another and creating opportunities for a “suspension bridge effect.” But now he was so far behind. How was Shen Fu supposed to even notice him?

By the time Xiang Lingyun hurriedly checked his ropes and caught up to the middle section, Shen Fu had already reached the top.

An indoor climbing facility wasn’t exactly thrilling anyway. The wall was only seven or eight meters high.

And by the time Xiang Lingyun finally reached the top, Shen Fu had already finished climbing and gone down to drink water.

The two of them never managed to get on the same wavelength.

Worse still, by the time he got back down, Shen Fu had already greeted the production staff and left for the hotel ahead of everyone else.

Xiang Lingyun: “…”

He stood there in silence.

The hidden mission that was supposed to create a romantic atmosphere had somehow become a solo speed-climbing challenge. Not only had he failed to create any chemistry, he had barely even spent any time with Shen Fu at all. 

This was the first time Shen Fu had actively given him an opportunity, and it had been completely ruined by those three idiots. Xiang Lingyun was furious. He poured a bottle of mineral water over his head and felt an overwhelming urge to go back to the hotel and beat the three of them up.

Right now, he felt like he was the Jiang Shu of the Spring Photoshoot night. The only difference was that Jiang Shu was capable of acting like a scheming little green-tea manipulator, whereas Xiang Lingyun considered himself an upright and honorable person and simply couldn’t bring himself to badmouth others.

When Shen Fu left, Xiang Lingyun was still a short distance above the ground, preparing to release his rope and jump down.

As a result, he never saw who picked Shen Fu up outside the climbing facility.

Only the livestream comments were dying of laughter:【Xiang Lingyun still has no idea that the person beside him has already become someone else’s wife.】

But the audience didn’t get to laugh for long. After Jiang Shu and Shen Fu entered the hotel, they disappeared beyond the elevators. The viewers could only see that brief stretch of hallway and had absolutely no idea what happened afterward.

The audience immediately began wailing.【We tolerated them turning off most of the hallway cameras last night, but why are they still keeping them off today?!】

Not only could they not see where Shen Fu and Jiang Shu had gone, but after Chu Wei, Wen Zhenghan, and Gu Zhidao had inexplicably thrown keychains at Jiang Shu twice, those three male guests had also vanished.

The other three female guests barely had any screen time either.

So the show was almost over and they were expected to stare at empty camera shots all day?

Someone on the production team was constantly monitoring the livestream comments and forum discussions. Seeing viewers complain nonstop, they quickly reported it to the director.

This definitely couldn’t become a trending topic for the wrong reasons.

The director immediately instructed the camera crews to turn some of the disabled cameras back on. Afterward, the audience desperately searched every feed for traces of Shen Fu and Jiang Shu.

Still nothing.【D*mn it, why can’t we find them anywhere?!】

However, they did discover the other three men upstairs at the rooftop pool, all wearing complicated expressions.

…

After dinner, the guests would be boarding a plane and heading to the next destination.

Since they had been constantly traveling these past few days, Jiang Shu had barely even opened his suitcase. Earlier, after dropping Shen Fu off at the climbing facility, he had hurried back to quickly pack his own things. As a result, he could now very reasonably use “helping Shen Fu pack” as an excuse to follow her back to her room. 

“If you’re going to help me pack, then I’ll go take a shower first?” Shen Fu deliberately reminded him: “Make sure you fold things like the blanket that’s lying outside and put them into the suitcase.”

Her suitcase still contained that photograph of the two of them together.

She wondered what expression Jiang Shu would make if he found it.

The moment he heard the word “shower,” Jiang Shu’s handsome face immediately reddened.

First of all, he was a man nearly six feet three tall. A fully grown adult in his twenties who was old enough to be a father. The audience still thought his image was that of a deep, mysterious, domineering CEO. He shouldn’t be getting flustered like a teenage boy experiencing his first romance every other second… except it actually was his first romance!

What was he supposed to do?!

Jiang Shu glanced at Shen Fu and desperately maintained a blank expression.

His hair was neatly slicked back and fixed in place with styling gel.

Beneath his beautiful eyes, the sharp line of his high nose supporting his sunglasses made him look strikingly handsome.

Using his most “I’m perfectly calm” expression, he spoke in a reliable, steady voice. “A small matter. Leave it to me.”

Shen Fu nearly laughed.

Actually, it wasn’t just Jiang Shu who thought she was cute and wanted to pinch her toes or things like that. She often thought Jiang Shu was adorable too and frequently had the urge to poke or pinch him.

Suppressing her laughter, Shen Fu turned and entered the bathroom.

Outside, Jiang Shu nervously unscrewed a bottle of mineral water and took a drink before immediately beginning to pack her luggage, his face burning red.

Because she was curious to see Jiang Shu’s reaction when he found the photograph, Shen Fu deliberately spent extra time in the shower to give him plenty of opportunity to discover it.

Only after all movement outside had ceased did she turn off the showerhead and change into a white bathrobe.

When she emerged while drying her hair, the suitcase was already standing upright beside the door.

Everything had been packed. Jiang Shu was sitting on the sofa with one leg crossed over the other. Aside from his face being slightly red, he looked completely normal.

He didn’t find it?

Shen Fu’s mischievous plan had failed, leaving her somewhat disappointed.

But pulling it out herself would be too deliberate.

Forget it. There would be another opportunity.

Thinking that, she began checking the room for anything Jiang Shu might have carelessly forgotten.

Shen Fu had spent half an hour showering. During that entire time, Jiang Shu had appeared to be randomly pressing buttons on the remote control and watching television.

In reality, he had been completely distracted, simply waiting for her to come out.

And then, when she finally emerged, she didn’t come sit beside him. Watching her wander around the room, impossible to catch and impossible to touch, Jiang Shu felt an empty ache inside.

Unable to resist, he stood up and followed her. Wherever she went, he followed.

As Shen Fu walked toward the windowsill, she suddenly felt as though a tall man wearing sunglasses and radiating dark energy was looming behind her. The pressure was immense.

When she turned around, she immediately crashed into Jiang Shu’s chest.

“Do you have nothing better to do?” Shen Fu rubbed her forehead and couldn’t help saying, “Were you trying to bump into me on purpose?”

Listen to that. Was that really something a human being would say?

Jiang Shu rubbed his hands together, warming them up before lowering his head to massage her forehead. Meanwhile, his heart was overflowing with resentment. “Why aren’t you happy when you’re with me?”

Shen Fu looked utterly confused. “When have I not been happy?”

Jiang Shu stared at her. His handsome face was filled with grievance, frustration, and indignation as he accused: “You don’t cling to me.”

“…”

“It’s hot, Crown Prince!” Shen Fu pointed toward the blazing sun outside. “It’s thirty-two degrees outside!”

Jiang Shu considered this seriously. Then he solemnly offered a solution: “How about we set the air conditioner to the coldest setting, sit together on the sofa, and share a quilt?”

“…” Shen Fu said: “I have an even better suggestion.”

Beneath his sunglasses, Jiang Shu’s beautiful dark eyes instantly lit up. Shen Fu was proactively making suggestions about their relationship. Even though he had never dated before, Jiang Shu knew this was a positive development. Of course, outwardly, with the sunglasses on, he still looked cold, composed, and completely unfazed. 

“Go ahead,” he said.

Shen Fu pointed at her head. “How about after the show ends, we go to the neurology department and get your brain checked first?”

Jiang Shu: “…”

It was only the second day of their relationship, and she was already finding him annoying!

After checking around, they found they hadn’t forgotten anything.

Just as Shen Fu took the hair dryer out of the bathroom, Jiang Shu immediately took it from her hands and said pitifully, “Can you let me dry your hair?”

Shen Fu had always been used to doing her own things herself. But starting to rely on someone through small things, it didn’t seem like such a bad feeling.

She obediently swept her hair over the front of her bathrobe and let Jiang Shu dry it for her.

Jiang Shu sat down on the bed, pulled Shen Fu onto his lap, picked up a damp lock of her hair, and began drying it with the low setting.

Shen Fu couldn’t help glancing at him. “You’ve gotten pretty used to holding me now.”

Although Jiang Shu was wearing sunglasses, the tips of his ears still turned red. Everything now felt unreal to him. He was afraid Shen Fu would tell him the next second that all of this was a dream. So despite his embarrassment, he kept her enclosed in his arms at all times.

“What else would I do?” Jiang Shu raised a dark eyebrow and let out a blustering cold laugh. With the hand not holding the hair dryer, he tightened his grip around Shen Fu’s waist.

Shen Fu could tell that he lacked a sense of security, but she didn’t really understand why.

Hadn’t they already cleared up the misunderstanding and gotten together?

After thinking for a moment, Shen Fu affectionately wrapped her arms around Jiang Shu’s neck.

Jiang Shu stared at her in disbelief. His entire body instantly stiffened like a stone statue.

Shen Fu had been acting naturally and openly, but seeing him become so rigid and his ears turn red as if they were bleeding made her own face grow hot.

“Jiang Shu, can you stop looking like you’ve just been grabbed by your mortal enemy? Why are you blushing so much? Take those sunglasses off.”

Jiang Shu’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “Y-you think I want to blush? B-but right now, ”

The blood had rushed straight to his head.

“Then I won’t hug you back anymore.” Shen Fu started to withdraw her hands from around his neck.

“Don’t!” Jiang Shu exploded in frustration and quickly grabbed her arm, pressing it back into place. “Why do you have so little perseverance?”

Shen Fu laughed in exasperation. “Whose fault is it for being so nervous?”

Jiang Shu continued drying the person in his arms and muttered softly, “How could I not be nervous? Including last night, this is still the first time you’ve ever hugged me on your own.”

Shen Fu suspected he was doing it on purpose. She was sitting on his lap, her entire body already enclosed within his embrace, wrapped in his masculine scent. His hand was firmly clasped around her waist. Clearly, he was the aggressive, dominant one here, even wearing sunglasses, and yet he was acting spoiled.

He even lowered his eyelashes and looked all melancholy.

Shen Fu asked, “Do you still feel like this isn’t real?”

Jiang Shu gave a muffled response.

Before getting drunk, he had thought Shen Fu didn’t like him at all. In fact, after she ignored him for an entire day, he had even wondered whether she disliked him a little, or perhaps wanted to run away because of how forceful he was.

When he had rushed to her door, he had already prepared himself for the worst. But he never could have imagined that Shen Fu would tell him he was her first love. Wasn’t he being a little too favored by fate?

It was like yearning for a piece of candy for so long that, when he finally obtained it, he could only hold it carefully in his palms, not even daring to unwrap it.

After being yanked from hell straight into heaven, he still felt dazed.

Shen Fu asked, “Then before you knocked on my door, what did you think would happen?”

Jiang Shu looked up. Behind the sunglasses, his eyes were dark, and his voice was equally heavy. “I thought I’d forcibly take you for myself, and you’d resist desperately. After the show ended, I’d use the Jiang family’s power to force you to marry me. You’d have no choice but to marry me, but you’d hate me. After marriage, we’d live in a cold, loveless marriage… Every time I sat down to eat, you’d flip the dining table. Every time I fell asleep, you’d throw a suit jacket over my head and try to suffocate me. Until one day…”

“Wait a second!” Shen Fu finally couldn’t take it anymore and interrupted him. “I thought you were insanely busy before coming on this show. You actually had time to watch those brainless dramas?”

Jiang Shu suddenly said, “Those are all dramas you acted in.”

He had no interest in idol dramas. But anything she acted in, he would watch several times.

Shen Fu: “…”

The air fell into a deathly silence filled with secondhand embarrassment.

Only the sound of the hair dryer continued.

Feeling slightly awkward, Shen Fu tried to steer the conversation back. “Why did you think I’d resist so desperately?”

Jiang Shu said bitterly, “Why wouldn’t I think that?”

Until last night, he had still believed she joined this show for one of the male guests.

Shen Fu was instantly annoyed. Grabbing his shoulders, she shook him while scolding, “Why would I resist? Are you sick or something? I’ve liked you for a long time too!”

Jiang Shu didn’t say anything. But suddenly, his face turned red.

Like a wolfdog that had been chasing after an answer, only to suddenly be handed the bone it wanted most.

His heart was instantly satisfied.

“It’s dry now.” He turned his face away and switched off the hair dryer, unable to suppress the joy in his eyes and brows.

Shen Fu jumped off his lap and decided to make things clear once and for all. “That day when I ignored you all day, I was also struggling over whether you liked me.”

Jiang Shu hid behind the hair dryer and quietly replied, “Oh.”

“I’m really happy to be with you too. It’s just that I…” Shen Fu scratched her hair, unsure how to explain it.

She was used to keeping her emotions hidden.

After spending so long in the entertainment industry, even the slightest facial expression could be magnified and scrutinized. It was better to keep a poker face. On top of that, years of acting had drained so much emotional energy that she rarely experienced strong emotional fluctuations in daily life.

In truth, she also felt that things were a little unreal. She had spent the entire day feeling dazed.

After all, when she left the Jiang family, she had always believed Jiang Shu hated her.

Back then, she had forcibly kissed him while he supposedly didn’t like her back. She had been so embarrassed she wanted the ground to swallow her whole and had only wanted to drag her suitcase away and go live on Mars as fast as possible.

Suddenly, Shen Fu walked over and pulled the hair dryer away from Jiang Shu’s face, where he had been using it to hide.

Jiang Shu’s handsome face was already so red it looked as though blood might drip from it. He truly did not want Shen Fu to see. For a grown man like him, it was too embarrassing. Even sunglasses were useless.

“What?” he asked, raising his head and doing his utmost to appear calm, cool, and arrogantly indifferent.

“Do you think my reaction has been too flat…?” Shen Fu crossed her arms and looked him over.

“What about this?” Shen Fu took another step toward him.

As she leaned closer, Jiang Shu was forced to lean backward. Left with no choice, he braced himself against the bed with both hands.

Shen Fu reached up and removed his sunglasses.

Jiang Shu’s high nose bridge and handsome features were completely revealed.

Hooking a finger under his chin, Shen Fu lifted it slightly. “I admit it. Your little tricks caught my attention.”

Since he had supposedly watched every drama she had ever acted in, and she had already died of embarrassment in front of him, dying a little more thoroughly didn’t matter.

Jiang Shu: “…”

“Your drunken little tricks caught my attention, so I’ve officially decided to be with you.” She breathed softly into his ear. “Satisfied now?”

“Y-yes, satisfied.” Jiang Shu tried desperately to suppress the corners of his mouth from rising uncontrollably.

However, his body betrayed his reason. Unable to help himself, he wrapped both arms around Shen Fu and, with a complete “screw it” attitude, kissed her once.

Then kissed her again.

…

By the swimming pool, three men sat in silence for the entire afternoon.

The cameras had been turned back on now, so they could not openly talk. At best, they could exchange a few things through eye contact.

The viewers couldn’t see what was happening inside Shen Fu and Jiang Shu’s room, so they could only watch the others to pass the time.

But after watching them for an entire afternoon, nobody had any idea what they were supposedly communicating through their eyes.

Wen Zhenghan: Should we just ask Shen Fu directly?

Both Chu Wei and Gu Zhidao hesitated.

Given Wen Zhenghan’s personality, he preferred obtaining a direct answer. But Shen Fu had already admitted that she had been acting toward him. For him, things could hardly get any worse than that, so he had nothing to fear.

The other two were different.

One was still fantasizing about getting back together after a breakup. The other had only recently learned that everyone else was also an ex, shattering all the inexplicable confidence he had previously possessed.

Wen Zhenghan frowned and decided not to continue discussing things through eye contact.

If they kept staring at one another, the audience might think they had mental problems.

Besides, the production team had already informed them that it was time to board a plane for the next destination.

Wen Zhenghan stood up and headed downstairs immediately.

Seeing this, the other two hurried after him.

No matter what they were thinking, neither wanted their romantic rival Wen Zhenghan to meet Shen Fu alone.

The three exited the elevator and arrived outside Shen Fu’s room.

“Who’s knocking this time?” Chu Wei asked quietly.

Wen Zhenghan glanced at Gu Zhidao, his gaze carrying a hint of meaning.

At this point, Gu Zhidao was the only one who had not yet had a door slammed in his face.

The two pushed him to the center.

Although Gu Zhidao felt somewhat displeased, he also harbored a more hidden thought. Before joining the show, he had seen the videos of the others being shut out at the door. But if he knocked, and Shen Fu did not shut him out, wouldn’t that mean he was still special?

That was what Gu Zhidao thought. His fans in the livestream comments thought the same thing.

[I’m guessing there are three people outside. Shen Fu probably won’t embarrass Teacher Gu Zhidao.]

Although the famous commenter “No One Ships Better Than Me” hadn’t spoken up yet, they were already eagerly anticipating what would happen.

If Shen Fu didn’t shut the door on Gu Zhidao this time, a huge number of Gu Zhidao × Shen Fu shippers would definitely come back from the dead.

[If Shen Fu doesn’t shut the door on Gu Zhidao, then it means she’s not only treating the Young Master specially. The second option is pretty ship-worthy too, sisters!]

The die-hard Jiang Shu × Shen Fu fans immediately cursed them for promoting a heretical ship, and the comments section once again descended into chaos.

Meanwhile, Gu Zhidao steadied himself and knocked three times on Shen Fu’s door.

The three men outside heard the sound of the door opening almost simultaneously with the audience.

Many Gu Zhidao × Shen Fu shippers secretly became excited.

But the next second, the door opened, and standing behind it was Jiang Shu, wearing sunglasses.

Gu Zhidao: “…”

Gu Zhidao × Shen Fu shippers in the comments: […]

Jiang Shu was pushing Shen Fu’s suitcase, apparently about to help her bring it outside.

After glancing at the three men at the door, he raised a dark eyebrow. “Here to help us carry our luggage?”

“No One Ships Better Than Me”: […]

The die-hard Jiang Shu × Shen Fu fans: [HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!]

This time, Shen Fu hadn’t shut the door on Gu Zhidao.

That was because it was the Crown Prince himself who had opened the door.

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