Chapter 56: Scammer Decides to Be a Good Person 31 – This Man, Never

Being cheeky came at a price.

Shi Lan was thoroughly taught what “proper aesthetics” meant.

Her fingertips, her lips, were forced to brush over every inch of this “model of beauty.”

This petty man was determined to make sure she remembered everything about him, so clearly she would never forget it.

After sleeping her fill from sheer exhaustion, Shi Lan got up and found that Du Heng was nowhere to be seen at home. He had left her a message saying he had to rush off to his next engagement.

And in the pot, he had left behind a peace offering for her.

A bowl of fermented rice with black sesame and lard.

It was troublesome to make, and normally Shi Lan couldn’t be bothered to cook it herself. But she really did like it.

Hmph, at least he still had a bit of a conscience.

–

The long-tail effect brought by Wind-Blown Sand directly doubled Shi Lan’s assets. Supporting Du Heng was no longer just empty talk.

Thanks to this remarkably sharp success, teams and individuals coming to hand Shi Lan business cards and photos arrived in an endless stream, but she had no plans to keep investing in the entertainment industry.

She still preferred working in food and dining. Seeing people eat with gusto made her happy too.

But Du Heng grew busier and busier.

Scripts for similar roles kept getting sent his way, and of course they had to be turned down. If he played too many of the same type, it would lose its appeal.

As for all kinds of ads, endorsement deals, and magazine shoots, those were fine, and Long Haoshu helped take them on.

Du Heng wasn’t the lead, but after the TV drama finished airing, his popularity was the highest. Long Haoshu had already raised his rates and set limits on which brands he would work with, but even so, he was still so busy he was practically running his legs off.

The most exhausting thing of all was that they were also planning a Wind-Blown Sand themed concert tour.

This wasn’t Shi Lan’s idea, but things had already reached the point where it was no longer up to her.

The fans of the drama were clamoring for it. They were practically waving money around, desperate to spend it.

When Shi Lan and Bu Hua bought the rights, they had bought them out in full, so all subsequent copyright revenue was in Shi Lan’s hands.

She still had a bit of a conscience and left Bu Hua a share. Back then, Bu Hua hadn’t cared much about those few percentage points in the contract, but now, just those few percentage points were enough for her to retire on.

Bu Hua knew how to be grateful.

She knew that without Shi Lan, this script would have amounted to nothing. It would only have stayed buried at the bottom of her trunk, and then she would have gone back to her hometown to get married and have children.

You could say Shi Lan was the one who recognized her talent, her benefactor.

She didn’t think those few percentage points were too little. If anything, she became even more grateful to Shi Lan.

If it had been anyone else, they might not have left her anything at all.

Besides, all the money for operations and promotion came from Shi Lan. She did nothing and simply collected dividends, which already made for a very high return.

The initial plan for the concert tour was thirty shows.

Shi Lan looked over the list and saw that it wasn’t just domestic. East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, most of the countries that had imported Wind-Blown Sand had dates scheduled.

Once ticket sales opened, the booking hotlines were flooded. In the end, nineteen more shows were added, bringing the total to forty-nine.

They couldn’t add any more. Any more and people would be worked to death.

Even so, tickets were still nearly impossible to get.

The rights were in Shi Lan’s hands, so every time a show was held, she received a considerable copyright fee.

But she’d rather not have it. Du Heng was far too tired.

Over the next year, Du Heng and the other main cast members of Wind-Blown Sand were out promoting together as a group. The killer part was that aside from Yang Chong, who was a professional, all the others had basically been dragged in to make up the numbers.

They had to cram in intensive music training, and the difficulty of that was easy to imagine.

Just think about it, forty-nine concerts in twelve months. On average, that meant one every eight or nine days.

And in the gaps between them, they not only had to rehearse and take lessons, but also squeeze in time for other engagements.

Du Heng hardly ever came home.

Shi Lan went to the city where he was working to visit him on set.

He had just finished rehearsing.

No two concerts were exactly the same. There was song practice, stage blocking for each number, and sometimes even dance routines.

President Shi was quite generous these days. Every time she came to visit, she made sure all the staff had food and drinks.

Pretty much everyone who had worked with Du Heng knew her.

After greeting the others, Shi Lan took her man away.

Unlike everyone else’s, Du Heng’s drinks and meals were all made by her personally. Over the years, she had even worn out several pots from carrying them around on all her visits.

For the sake of his voice, everything Shi Lan prepared was light and mild.

They claimed a corner backstage with a table, and she laid everything out. “Go ahead and eat first. I’ll go wash my hands and come back to keep you company. Oh, right, I stewed some fritillaria pear soup for you. Remember to drink it, it’s good for your throat.”

Du Heng grabbed her and wouldn’t let her go. “Stay and sit with me for a bit.” Then he told his assistant to bring over a hot towel so she could wipe her hands.

His eyes were full of tender affection. Shi Lan sat down beside him and leaned against him.

They hadn’t seen each other in a long time, and she had missed him too.

Du Heng took just one bite with his chopsticks and said with certainty, “You made this.”

Even the curve of his brows and eyes turned gentler.

“Yep.”

That kind of unspoken understanding really did make people happy. Seeing that no one was paying attention to them, she quickly pecked him on the cheek. “A little reward for you.”

“Ahem… stop messing around.”

That was what he said, but his gaze held tightly to her, and what it conveyed was definitely not the same thing.

Shi Lan wasn’t afraid of him at all. After all these years, he was still nothing but a paper tiger¹.

Du Heng held his chopsticks in his right hand and clasped her right hand with his left.

“You don’t have to come all this way just to cook for me. As long as you come, I’d be satisfied even if we were just sharing a boxed meal.”

Shi Lan lifted the hand he was holding. “If you keep doing this, I can’t even eat.”

The accused party showed no sign of loosening up. He only held tighter.

Even then, he used his own chopsticks to feed her a slice of stir-fried Chinese yam, and didn’t think there was anything improper about it at all. “It’s fine, I’ll feed you.”

Shi Lan gave a couple of fake little hmphs to show her displeasure.

But inside, she was sweet as honey.

After all these years, the two of them were basically an old married couple by now, yet he was still this clingy…

When it came to Shi Lan’s cooking, Du Heng’s appetite was as good as ever.

With chopsticks in hand, one bite for her, one bite for him, the two of them polished off every last dish.

During all this, Shi Lan felt an impossible-to-ignore gaze fixed on her.

It was a female staff member.

When Shi Lan looked back, the girl’s gaze slid across Du Heng, then she hurriedly lowered her head.

Shi Lan smiled faintly.

She didn’t take it to heart.

There was no provocation or aggression in that girl’s gaze. Toward her, it held only curiosity and scrutiny.

Her Du Heng was now famous all across the country, even internationally. His charm was hard to resist. It was completely normal for some people to admire him.

Too bad for them, though. She had picked this man up from a construction site. None of them had a chance.

Du Heng opened the fritillaria pear soup and fed her the first sip. “What are you looking at?”

Shi Lan turned back, her beautiful eyes curving as she smiled. “I was just thinking my taste is especially good, to have found you.”

Du Heng laughed softly, gave her hand a gentle squeeze, and looked at her as he said, “Maybe my taste is a little better than yours.”

Ha, so this rotten man could say sweet things too.

He’d improved.

The two of them leaned against each other in that corner while Shi Lan chattered on about what had been going on lately.

After a while, she noticed the person beside her wasn’t reacting, so she tilted her head slightly to look.

Du Heng had already fallen asleep against her shoulder, his breathing even, looking utterly exhausted.

Shi Lan regretted it.

She truly regretted pushing her husband toward fame and glory.

If she hadn’t stepped in, things developing at a normal pace would have been just fine. At least he wouldn’t be this tired now.

Fortunately, work at this intensity was only temporary.

Once that temporary concert group could walk through their formations with their eyes closed and still never make a mistake, and could switch into singing in different dialects even in their sleep, Du Heng was occasionally able to find time to come home and see Shi Lan.

And every time he came home, he brought Shi Lan a gift.

They were mostly local specialty items from places he had visited.

It was just that Du Heng seemed to have rather unusual taste, so he had her collect all sorts of strange and bizarre things.

For example, there was a flatbread as big as a millstone and a full ten centimeters thick. Not only would it be a nightmare to chew, Shi Lan had no idea where to even start eating it. She thought it would be more suitable as a chopping board.

Then there was fish gut paste made from pickled fish intestines and fish maw, supposedly a traditional delicacy passed down since the Han dynasty. How wonderful. She told Du Heng to dip steamed buns in it and eat it himself, and that guy still stubbornly insisted it was delicious.

Of course, there were normal things too. Once when he went to Hainan, he had several young coconuts shipped back to her. He said he had climbed the tree and picked them himself.

Shi Lan: “…”

Really, there was no need. If he fell, she’d be widowed.

But he was always full of enthusiasm, never tiring of bringing home all kinds of things he thought were good, or special.

That Dragon Boat Festival², he came back from Nanjing to spend the holiday with her.

Aside from the obligatory salted duck that she loved, he also brought back a whole bag of Yuhua Stones³ he had picked up himself.

Yuhua Stones really were beautiful.

Shi Lan had custom-made wooden backing boards and frames, then arranged the Yuhua Stones into all kinds of patterns, mounted them, and hung them on the wall as artwork.

The pieces she made had plenty of negative space, so they looked especially refined.

When some of her business friends came over, they were amazed when they saw them and even asked which master’s work it was, saying they wanted to buy one too.

When Du Heng came home again, Shi Lan told him about it as a joke.

This man was like a little animal. Whenever he went out and saw something good, he would carry it back to the nest and stash it away.

His taste was average, but he was devoted to his home.

It was rather funny when you thought about it.

A superstar as sought-after as him could be associated with such a down-to-earth phrase as devoted to his home, and somehow it didn’t feel out of place at all.

Thinking of that, Shi Lan smiled.

Du Heng, the little animal guarding his nest, looked at her in confusion.

“What are you smiling at?”

She walked over and wrapped her arms around him.

“I was thinking about when we didn’t have any money yet. Back then, you were the same. If you saw fruit you’d never tasted before while you were out, you’d secretly tuck it into your pocket and bring it back for me.”

This man had never changed.

Du Heng wrapped his arms around her in return, lingering at the corner of her lips.

In a coaxing voice, he said, “I’m this good, so marry me.”

Shi Lan pulled back a little.

What nonsense was this man talking about? They had already been legally married for years.

Du Heng rested his forehead against hers. “I mean a wedding.”

Yes, they still hadn’t had a wedding.

But after being married for several years, wasn’t it a little strange to only have the wedding now?

Du Heng insisted it wasn’t strange at all. He really wanted a wedding.

Shi Lan: Uh… wasn’t something off here?

Since he wanted one, it wasn’t like they couldn’t have one.

But he was at the height of his fame right now. Wouldn’t it be a bad idea to hold a wedding now? Even though this wasn’t yet the age of internet traffic and fan economy, if news of his marriage came out now, it would still have some impact on his career.

If this happened in the future, people might even scold him for getting married on his own and say he was irresponsible to his fans.

Shi Lan said as much, but Du Heng was completely unable to understand that point of view.

“I only need to be responsible to you.” He frowned as he spoke with complete seriousness. “Everything else isn’t a mandatory part of my life.”

Ahhh, when he said that, Shi Lan thought her man was unbelievably handsome.

Dazzled by lust and robbed of reason, she agreed to Du Heng’s request to hold a wedding.

Du Heng was incredibly invested in this wedding and personally followed every step of the preparations from start to finish.

As for Shi Lan, it seemed there was barely anything for her to do.

Oh, there was still one thing for her to do.

She was in charge of paying.

After all, Du Heng only kept pocket money on him. All his income was with her.

They didn’t consult the calendar for an auspicious date. Du Heng directly set the wedding on New Year’s Day of the Millennium.

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Translator’s Notes

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1. paper tiger: A literal translation of the Chinese idiom ‘zhilaohu,’ referring to someone who appears threatening or powerful but is actually harmless or weak when challenged. ↩
2. Dragon Boat Festival: A traditional holiday (Duanwu Jie) occurring on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month. It is a time for family reunions and eating zongzi (sticky rice dumplings). ↩
3. Yuhua Stones: Literally ‘Rain Flower Stones,’ these are decorative pebbles found in Nanjing. They are prized for their colorful, translucent patterns that often resemble landscapes or figures when submerged in water. ↩