Chapter 16.1

Editor: Uncia, Sahloknir

Proofreader: DarkSapphire 

Lin Xizhou’s part in the drug enforcement film was completed before New Year’s Eve.

As there were many fight scenes during the shoot, he felt like he had developed muscles—maybe not an eight pack, but definitely a four-pack.

The filming of the whole drama went fairly smoothly—except for Xu Nan’s harassment from time to time—so Lin Xizhou was quite satisfied.

In the later stages of his undercover process, he had to wear many different suits and even his hair was tied up in a manbun. This style was the most ‘tough guy’ look Lin Xizhou had ever worn during his entire acting career. 

Of course, this was only from his point of view. Even though a part of the ‘Little Rice Porridge’ fans would scream about how their son was growing up, there was still a large part of them that would say unsightly things like ‘ascetic feminine cop’.

Lin Xizhou also checked his own super-topic and was very familiar with the different types of fans, so he would usually block ones that he didn’t want to see.

For example, every time Lin Xizhou accidentally clicked on the ‘JiuZhou’ and ‘ZhenXi’ CP super topics, he would get goosebumps and then feel grossed out for the rest of the month.

Sitting in the car back to B City, he was still looking through his attractive new photos.

His fans could be regarded as a group of hard-working minions. Many of the Little Rice Porridge sisters squatted near the set to take pictures, as if it was their job. Everyone clearly knew what casual clothes he wore every day.

Seeing the fans complimenting him, he yawned and then happily fell asleep in his blanket.

Hong-jie, his manager, was close friends with Mother Lin. Many times, Mother Lin would directly discuss something with Hong-jie. For example, at this moment, she told Hong-jie to send Lin Xizhou back to their family villa.

So, without the little actor’s knowledge, he was sent back to his home instead of his apartment. 

For the sake of comfort, what he wore today was like zongzi—soft filling in thick layers, with no concern for his image. He already left the film crew anyway, and no fans could take pictures of him now, so he just tossed on some comfy clothes.

When the car stopped on the road in front of the Lin family villa, he hugged his bag sleepily and got out of the car. The scenery startled him.

Hong-jie pulled out his suitcases from the trunk, spotted the dazed Lin Xizhou at the car door, and sighed. Nineteen and still acting like a child. Always looking foolish like this.

She patted Lin Xizhou on the back. “Your mother asked me to drop you off here.” 

Before he could react, the villa’s door was opened, and three people suddenly appeared at the entrance.

Hong-jie got into the car, waved to him, and drove away, leaving behind a cloud of dust.

Lin Xizhou held his big backpack in his arms, stood by a few large suitcases, and had blankets draped over his shoulders. He froze in front of his house like the perfect picture of a refugee and watched the three people approaching him.

The most familiar one was his beautiful mother, who was in her forties and still gorgeously dressed every day. Next to her was a very classy woman who was about the same age as his mother, and then… 

And then…

Uh…

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Why does this person look so familiar?

That nose…those eyes…and that mouth? 

Putting all the pieces together…was he seeing ‘I am Ji Beiling’ written across this person’s face?

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The woman next to her said, smiling, “Oh, so this is Xiao Zhou. He looks more handsome in reality.”

Lin Xizhou returned to his senses, showing his signature good boy smile. “Hello Auntie, and thank you for the compliment.”

The woman introduced herself. “Hello Xiao Zhou. You can call me Aunt Xu. This is my son, Ji Beiling.”

Lin Xizhou wet his lips, feeling slightly dizzy, and waved his hand subconsciously. “We met before, hello, North God.” 

Ji Beiling had just returned from vacation. Before he was home for too long, his mother dragged him out to visit her friend. He was completely against this until he learned the friend was Lin Xizhou’s parent.

Wasn’t Lin Xizhou the celebrity who hadn’t said a single word after they added each other on WeChat? There was nothing in their chat history except for the group photo. He never expected that fate would reunite them.

Ji Beiling reluctantly forced a smile and said to Lin Xizhou, “Hello, nice to see you again.”

The two mothers exclaimed, “You two know each other?” The group walked into the living room. Lin Xizhou and Ji Beiling were sitting stiffly on the sofa next to each other—especially Lin Xizhou, who was feeling like he could embarrass himself with his passion at any time. 

He was so nervous that he began to sweat, and he came home sloppily dressed too. He didn’t know such a catastrophe would be waiting for him. Fortunately, Ji Beiling didn’t know that Lin Xizhou was a fan of his, otherwise, he would be too ashamed to face North God.

Mother Lin looked lovingly at the two children sitting on the sofa as she brought over a plate of cookies.

“These are the cookies I learned how to make from Aunt Xu. Try some and tell me what you guys think.”

Lin Xizhou took one and chewed it mechanically. Yup, even Aunt Xu, who was praised for her cooking many times by his mother, couldn’t save his mother’s lethal chef buff. It tasted just a little bit better than ‘horrible enough to vomit.’ 

After eating a cookie that tasted like wax, Lin Xizhou still praised his mother with thumbs up, even though his stomach would say otherwise.

Mother Lin smiled brightly amongst the sea of praise as she said to Ji Beiling,

“Beiling, did you know that our Xiao Zhou really liked playing that game you are playing?”

Lin Xizhou: “…” 

It was over.

“Back then, he not only played it but also threw a tantrum about wanting to go professional—am I saying it right? Anyway, at that time, he wouldn’t listen to anything. He would play games every day. If I knew that playing that game could one day win the World Championship, I might have let him continue.”

Lin Xizhou burst into tears inside—mother, how could you tear down the image that your son has diligently built like this.

Lin Xizhou wanted to salvage things and interjected dryly, “Oh, I wasn’t very good at that time. I blame my peers for filling my head with a childish dream!” 

Mother Lin’s face darkened. She patted Lin Xizhou’s hand and scolded, “Why are you just telling me this now? At that time, didn’t you tell us every day what kind of king you were and how none of your classmates could beat you?”

Only Mother Lin could talk negatively about her son, but she would not allow others to talk negatively about her son—including Lin Xizhou himself.

If Lin Xizhou badmouthed himself with one sentence, she would make up for it with ten more. “Ah, at that time, someone really came to recruit Little Porridge. They even sent the contract. This child of mine was overqualified, but I don’t know why he turned it down. So now, he can only do acting.”

Lin Xizhou wanted to dig himself a hole—he wasn’t overqualified. Someone even beat your son into giving up his professional esports gamer dream, and that someone is sitting next to your son right now! 

Ji Beiling could probably guess Lin Xizhou’s skill level from Mother Lin’s praises. He glanced at the red-faced boy beside him with some surprise. He didn’t expect this actor to be good at gaming.

Lin Xizhou felt Ji Beiling’s gaze as if there was a laser aiming at his back. Inside, he was very thankful that his mother didn’t know his account username, otherwise, everything he had would really be put on display.

He secretly sized up his idol out of the corner of his eyes. Today, Ji Beiling wore a black shirt and a checkered cashmere vest. It made him appear youthful, like a college student.

Ji Beiling had a very handsome face—not the pale and feminine type that was popular nowadays. His skin tone was a light wheat colour. With his defined facial features and his elegant eyebrows, he could be mistaken as a hero portrayed in martial arts novels—every inch giving off an awe-inspiring temperament. 

He spotted Ji Beiling’s faint double eyelids from how his eyes were curved. There was a small mole at the corner of one eye, which added a point to his rebellious look.

Not only do eighteen-year-old girls go crazy over this face, middle-aged women like Mother Lin also like a face like Ji Beiling’s.

So much so, the serious-faced Mother Lin showed the man her highest enthusiasm as she turned over the albums of young Lin Xizhou and young Lin Xiting for Ji Beiling to admire.

Lin Xiting only took photos with Lin Xizhou before she was ten years old. Once she turned older, she refused to take pictures with her brother. Every time they took a family photo, she would hide from the camera. Therefore, most of the photos at home were taken during childhood. There were basically no photos after growing up. 

But Lin Xiting has had a very good-looking face since she was a kid—sharp chin and big eyes, which were not much different from her older self.

Lin Xizhou could only secretly pray in his heart that North God didn’t have a deep impression of his sister and would not recognize that the person in the photo was Custard Cream Pineapple Bun’s sister.

He nervously listened to his mother’s introduction of his sister to Ji Beiling.

“Xiao Zhou also has a younger sister named Xiting, you will see her once she comes home for dinner. She just started college this year, three years younger than you…” 

The more Lin Xizhou listened, the nagging in the back of his mind became louder.

Was his mother trying to score his sister a date? A date with North God?!

Plus, Lin Xiting visited the BLK gaming house in his place too!

It was all over for him once Lin Xiting returned! 

Lin Xizhou took advantage of Ji Beiling being distracted by the photo and opened Lin Xiting’s WeChat on his phone.

Zhou Not Porridge: [Where are you?!!!]

Ting: [Outside, I’m about to go home. What do you want.]

Ting: [Mom said that there are guests today and wanted me to come home early.] 

Zhou Not Porridge: [You must not come home, do everything possible to not come back!! Mother is setting you up on a blind date—he is a super ugly guy!!!]

Ting: [???]

Ting: [Are you pulling my leg???]

Ting: [How ugly are we talking about???] 

Zhou Not Porridge: [Super-ultra-mega ugly, you will definitely go blind when you see him!]

Ji Beiling, who accidentally turned his head: “…”

Although he found this embarrassing, his eyesight was very sharp from gaming for so long.

The ugly Ji Beiling glanced at the boy, whose expression was enraged as he was typing. He felt that the younger sister in the photo was very similar to Custard Cream Pineapple Bun’s younger sister, who visited the BLK gaming house at the meet-up… 

But, do fans that slander their idol really exist?

Or was it a tradition in the entertainment industry that they were in?

Mother Lin stuffed another photo into Ji Beiling’s hand. In the photo, a little boy stood, pouting with an unenthusiastic expression in a cute, small skirt. He looked adorable and distressed.

There were two blushes painted on his face, making him appear silly and soft. 

It conjured up memories of the short video sent of the boy on WeChat, striving to pat his chest with his palm.

Ji Beiling glanced at Lin Xizhou, who was still typing. The blush on the younger man’s ears was dark as if they were bleeding.

Custard Cream Pineapple Bun.

He straightened out the photo’s wrinkled corners and couldn’t resist raising the corner of his lips, bringing out a smile. 

In the WeChat interface, he got a glimpse of [Don’t come back] which was quickly covered by [I will blow my cover if you come back!!!].

Tsk.

You have already blown your cover, legendary underworld boss Custard Cream Pineapple Bun.