Chapter 15 – The Fear of Vocabulary Words

“I love work. Work makes me happy.”

That kind of sentence seemed wildly popular on social media, though most people were obviously lying.

After all, very few people genuinely loved working and found happiness in it. Most people worked because they were poor. The average office worker’s attitude was basically: “Don’t talk to me about ideals at work. My ideal is not working.”

Yan Dun had originally been exactly that sort of dreamless, salted-fish zombie employee.

But all of that changed because of An Zao.

Yan Dun had started sincerely saying, “I love work. Work makes me happy,” and even put the sentence in his SNS bio. When his coworkers saw it, they all expressed admiration:

“No wonder he’s the boss’s favorite secretary. He can say nonsense like it’s the truth.”

Ridiculous as it sounded, it actually was true. Right now, the only connection between Yan Dun and An Zao was work.

Only through work could Yan Dun see An Zao. Because of that, even work schedules started looking handsome and lovable.

Now, Yan Dun and An Zao’s job was filming Celebrity Office Workers. On the first recording day, their task was selling the “Ancient Tomb Sect” perfume. Thanks to leaked set photos and the PR team’s marketing, the perfume successfully trended online, and sales exploded accordingly. It counted as a very successful marketing campaign.

On the second day of filming, Yan Dun and An Zao arrived early to record some follow-up interviews they had missed the previous day.

After finishing the interviews, they heard commotion coming from the dressing rooms. Yan Dun curiously craned his neck to look, but he was afraid that acting too nosy would lose him points with An Zao. An Zao glanced at him and said, “Want to go take a look?”

Yan Dun immediately nodded and followed An Zao toward the dressing room.

Inside, Hong Xiaohua was pointing at Bai Lisu and yelling, “Fuck you!”

Bai Lisu sniffled tearfully. “Why?”

Hong Xiaohua fumed, “Go die!”

Bai Lisu wailed, “I won’t!”

…

Watching this kindergarten-level catfight, Yan Dun found it painfully boring. He grabbed a staff member and asked, “What’s going on?”

The staff member replied, “Bai Lisu and Hong Xiaohua are fighting over a dressing room.”

Yan Dun was confused. “What’s there to fight over? Aren’t the rooms already assigned?”

The staff member explained, “Bai Lisu’s dressing room had an electrical problem and can’t be used. Chen Jiangchen was being nice and offered to share his room with her. But Hong Xiaohua didn’t like that. She said she’d give Bai Lisu her dressing room, and she’d share with Chen Jiangchen instead. Bai Lisu thought switching around was too troublesome and refused. Then Hong Xiaohua exploded…”

Yan Dun immediately understood: Oh, so Hong Xiaohua is competing with Bai Lisu over Chen Jiangchen?

Seriously, what was there to fight about? Chen Jiangchen was gay!

Just as Bai Lisu and Hong Xiaohua were arguing fiercely, Chen Jiangchen emerged from his private dressing room with his hair already styled. Though he wasn’t wearing makeup yet, he was already stunningly beautiful.

Chen Jiangchen was already eighteen, but his face still radiated youthful energy. When he smiled, dimples appeared in his cheeks, sweeter than pear syrup with osmanthus honey. One smile from him immediately calmed Hong Xiaohua down; she was too embarrassed to keep cursing.

Chen Jiangchen looked innocent and confused. “Why are you arguing so fiercely?”

Hong Xiaohua hurriedly said, “Nothing… I just heard Bai Lisu’s dressing room broke down, so I wanted to switch with her.”

“Sister Xiaohua is so generous.” Chen Jiangchen smiled sweetly. “Then let Sister Lisu use Sister Xiaohua’s dressing room. It’s more convenient for two girls to share than for her to share with a man like me.”

“…”

Hong Xiaohua nearly died of rage: Why the fuck?!

Although Chen Jiangchen was young, he was the biggest celebrity in the entire cast. On top of that, he was personally favored by the investors, so he had considerable authority. Since he’d spoken, the staff quickly rearranged things, and Bai Lisu ended up sharing Hong Xiaohua’s dressing room.

Because she was one of the more important characters, the makeup artist naturally had to dramatically exclaim:

“Oh my god, your skin is so good! How do you maintain it?”

And Bai Lisu naturally replied:

“Haha, I was born this way.”

This conversation nearly made Hong Xiaohua—who treated cosmetic fillers like daily meals—pass out from anger.

Naturally, Hong Xiaohua glared viciously like a standard evil supporting actress:

The center position on this show belongs to me! Chen Jiangchen belongs to me too!

Meanwhile, Chen Jiangchen who was considered just as important as the center position was currently doing Five-Three exam prep exercises.

Even a movie emperor couldn’t escape the college entrance exam…

Chen Jiangchen painfully twirled his pen, then sent Yan Dun a message asking him to come over. Yan Dun didn’t have anything else to do, so he quickly arrived at Chen Jiangchen’s dressing room and asked with a smile, “What is it, Young Master Cousin?”

Hearing “Young Master Cousin,” Chen Jiangchen smiled slightly too. “Don’t call me that outside.”

Yan Dun knew Chen Jiangchen liked to keep a low profile and didn’t want people knowing about his relationship with the An family, so he changed his wording. “Okay then… Teacher Chen?”

Chen Jiangchen smiled. “Just call me Jiangchen.” Then he added, “And I won’t call you ‘Secretary Yan’ anymore.”

“You and President An can just call me Xiao Yan,” Yan Dun replied. Then he leaned over to look at Chen Jiangchen’s desk and laughed when he saw an open workbook. “You’re still studying while filming?”

“I’ve fallen behind too much. If I’m not diligent, I’m doomed,” Chen Jiangchen answered seriously, his dark eyes in his pale face making him look both earnest and adorable.

Yan Dun said, “Then why did you call me over?”

Chen Jiangchen replied, “There are a few things I don’t understand. I wanted to ask you.”

“So you called me over to tutor you?” Yan Dun laughed. “Why not ask Bai Lisu? She was your tutor before, so she understands your situation better.”

“I originally planned to,” Chen Jiangchen answered. “But with all that drama just now…”

Yan Dun immediately understood. Chen Jiangchen hadn’t invited Bai Lisu into his dressing room out of romantic intentions at all—he just wanted her to tutor him. But in other people’s eyes, it looked suspicious. To avoid gossip, he stopped asking her over.

Chen Jiangchen added, “Big Brother Yan, teach me?”

With his baby-faced looks, calling someone “big brother” sounded unbelievably natural and softened people instantly.

Yan Dun’s vanity surged, and he genuinely started tutoring Chen Jiangchen. Unlike Bai Lisu, who had a tutoring-system cheat helping her solve problems, Yan Dun was actually highly educated himself, so he could still handle subjects like English.

After tutoring Chen Jiangchen for a while, there came two knocks at the door, and An Zao walked in.

When Chen Jiangchen saw him, he immediately stood up. Even though An Zao was technically his cousin, Chen Jiangchen treated him with the respect of someone facing their father.

“Big Cousin, why are you here?”

An Zao smiled. “I’m undercover right now. Don’t call me Big Cousin.”

“Okay.” Chen Jiangchen obediently smiled. “Then why did Mr. An suddenly come over?”

An Zao replied, “Xiao Honest has been staying here so long, I came to see what you two were doing.”

Chen Jiangchen suddenly sensed danger. He wrapped an arm around Yan Dun’s and affectionately said, “I asked Brother Xiao Yan to tutor me.”

Without leaving any trace, An Zao pulled Yan Dun back toward himself. He glanced at the workbook and spoke with the sternness unique to elders:

“This kind of tutoring is inefficient. Your vocabulary is too weak. Memorizing all the required college entrance exam vocabulary is more useful than anything else.”

As he spoke, An Zao picked up the vocabulary book from the table and asked, “How far have you memorized?”

The young movie emperor immediately felt unprecedented pressure.

“Uh………………”

“Since you’re so eager to study, I’ll supervise you properly.” An Zao casually flipped to a page and said, “Memorize up to here. I’ll quiz you in a couple days.”

Chen Jiangchen’s fair face instantly turned deathly pale. He didn’t even need foundation anymore.

After assigning the memorization task, An Zao lightly pulled away with his own Xiao Honest in tow.

Soon afterward, Celebrity Office Workers resumed filming. After one full day of sales, it was finally time to announce the results.

The one announcing the results was the ever-pretentious An Chi.

With a stern expression, An Chi declared, “The winning team this round is Team B.”

“Cut!” the director suddenly shouted. Then he hurried over to An Chi with tiny steps, smiling apologetically. “Um… President An, when announcing the result, you shouldn’t be so direct. You need buildup… and when you reveal the winning team, you should pause dramatically first…”

“Isn’t that a waste of time?” An Chi frowned unhappily.

The director thought silently: You fucking idiot.

Still smiling politely, the director said, “Well… it’s to build suspense…”

“That’s still wasting time. Do you know how valuable my time is? The few minutes I spent listening to your nonsense already cost me millions.” An Chi waved dismissively, clearly annoyed. “I like saying it this way. If you don’t like it, slow it down in post-production.”

“…”

The director forced a dry laugh and apologized. “Y-Yes, yes…”

Watching the conversation between the director and An Chi, Yan Dun deeply empathized.

Working under An Chi really does feel absurd every day…

But no matter how dumb everyone privately thought An Chi was, they still treated him with utmost respect.

After all, he was a domineering CEO. In this world, nobody could oppose a domineering CEO.

So the director had no choice but to continue filming.

Just moments ago, everyone had been standing around like wooden posts while watching the director and An Chi talk. But the moment filming resumed, they instantly became drama masters possessed by spirits.

Team B members jumped around celebrating:

“Amazing! We won!”

They acted like lottery winners.

Team A members looked devastated:

“Ahhh, what a pity! We lost!”

They burst into tears instantly like they’d lost a parent.

Once everyone had reacted enough, the director announced, “Okay, next segment…”

Immediately, everyone withdrew their emotions and returned to standing like lifeless wooden poles.

Among this crowd of wildly emotional actors, Yan Dun and An Zao—two normal people—looked painfully out of place.

Nearby, others coldly observed the pair of wooden logs and shook their heads.

“They really are newcomers…”

Then came the elimination round.

One member from the losing team had to be eliminated. Each member had to explain to An Chi why they deserved to stay, and then An Chi would decide who got eliminated.

Everyone spoke earnestly; some even cried on the spot.

When it was An Zao’s turn, he smiled pleasantly and said:

“You can’t eliminate me.”

An Chi nodded. “Mm.”

“Because I’m the most valuable contestant…”

An Zao calmly praised himself a little.

An Chi replied, “Good! I admire your confidence!”

The next contestant immediately copied him:

“You shouldn’t eliminate me—”

An Chi interrupted:

“Are you teaching me how to do my job?”

The contestant panicked and quickly continued:

“No, I mean… I’m very valuable…”

“I don’t see it,” An Chi replied. “You’re eliminated.”

“?”

The cannon-fodder contestant was stunned.

The director quickly rushed over again with tiny steps and an apologetic smile.

“President An, um… the eliminated contestant isn’t supposed to be revealed until the end…”

“Are you teaching me how to do my job?” An Chi’s eyes flashed.

The director instantly shut up.

An Chi waved grandly. “Can’t you just edit it in post?”

“Yes, yes…” The director bowed repeatedly.

Making money is hard. But sucking up to people is harder…

After the eliminated contestant was announced, everyone had to pretend to cry while sending the cannon fodder off. An Zao and Yan Dun genuinely couldn’t cry, so they simply kept blank expressions.

Yan Dun quietly whispered to An Zao, “Do we look heartless like this?”

An Zao whispered back, “Just tell post-production not to include our shots.”

Yan Dun suddenly felt sorry for the editing team.

After the elimination segment ended, the contestants professionally stopped crying immediately.

An Chi announced the next mission:

The new task was still promoting a new An Corporation product. This time it was a drink called “Cilantro Celery Juice.” The two teams had to separately plan a campus sales campaign for it.

Seeing that the company was actually producing sugar-free cilantro celery juice, Yan Dun once again fell into deep thought:

Why hasn’t this trash company gone bankrupt yet?

Apparently the domineering CEO aura really was invincible. Even selling shit would somehow succeed.

The production team “randomly” selected Bai Lisu as Team A’s new leader.

Inside the conference room, Lisu asked everyone to brainstorm ideas. The group started throwing out suggestions chaotically, though none of them were professionals, so the ideas weren’t very impressive.

Bai Lisu then turned her gaze toward An Zao and asked if he had any thoughts.

Before An Zao could answer, another contestant mockingly said:

“Yeah! Didn’t An Zao say he was the most valuable member? Hurry up and contribute some ideas then!”

Yan Dun glanced at the contestant mocking An Zao and thought:

You’re definitely the next cannon fodder to get eliminated.

An Zao calmly stood up and casually shared several points. Surprisingly, his analysis was sharp and insightful, and everyone found themselves impressed.

After speaking, he sat back down.

Bai Lisu’s eyes sparkled. “Great! Let’s go in that direction…”

Yan Dun quietly whispered to An Zao:

“Didn’t you say we’re supposed to lose this round too? Why are you still giving them ideas…?”

“Giving ideas is meaningless. In the end, execution is what matters,” An Zao replied softly.

“Bai Lisu can’t control the group. No matter how good the idea is, she won’t be able to implement it.”

Looking around, Yan Dun realized that was absolutely true. Every time Bai Lisu suggested something, Hong Xiaohua immediately shut her down. And because Bai Lisu was inexperienced while Hong Xiaohua was more famous, nobody was willing to support her.

The only person who had some friendship with Bai Lisu—Chen Jiangchen—was currently memorizing vocabulary words.

The young movie emperor and rich young master was trapped in the terror of:

“Big Cousin is going to quiz me on vocabulary in two days.”

He had no attention left for worldly affairs.

Meanwhile, his manager was telling the director:

“You absolutely cannot air footage of Jiangchen studying and reviewing for exams—”

“Of course, of course,” the director repeatedly assured him. “Our editing team is very professional.”

Once again, Yan Dun felt deeply sorry for the post-production editors.