True Star Chapter 97

Tang Feng and Lu Tian Chen returned to their hotel suite. After closing the door, Tang Feng turned and saw Lu Tian Chen looking at him with an unhappy expression.

“I seem to remember telling you to come back here after talking with the director and that I would be waiting for you. Yet without a word, you went to have coffee with someone.” Lu Tian Chen took off his jacket and tossed it onto the couch. Loosening his tie, he plopped down and gazed questioningly at Tang Feng.

Was Lu Tian Chen trying to scare him? Unfortunately for him, he was still far too young for that.

Tang Feng merely smiled in response. Like Lu Tian Chen, he took off his jacket and tie. Only, Tang Feng slowed his movements down as if putting on a striptease show. However, that was only a pretense. Tang Feng had no plans of taking off anything else after removing his jacket and tie.

“I don’t think there’s a clause in my contract stating that I have to listen to your every word like a slave.” Tang Feng walked towards the bar in the room. He took out a gla.s.s and ice and poured himself some whisky. The weather was starting to become too warm for his liking.

“Is that so? I also don’t think there’s a clause in your contract stating that you can call your boss whenever something troublesome happens, right?”

Tang Feng tipped his head back and took a drink of the whisky. He turned and leaned against the bar. Smiling, he said, “Lu Tian Chen, don’t put it that way. Who were the ones responsible for Albert’s interest in me? If you hadn’t given me away to Charles and if Charles hadn’t brought me to that meeting, would I have ever met Albert?

“I don’t ask for much. I simply want to be an actor, to enjoy the pleasures of being able to act and the fame and wealth of being successful. Most importantly, I want to enjoy a good life. I’m not interested in joining the criminal world.”

Just as Tang Feng mentioned the criminal world, Lu Tian Chen reached behind him, pulled a black handgun out of his waistband, and stored it in a box right in front of the actor’s eyes.

Tang Feng sighed and said, “I also don’t want to see something like that.”

“You’ve already seen it,” Lu Tian Chen said irritatingly.

Tang Feng rolled his eyes. “Lu Tian Chen, can you at least try to be a good boss?”

“I’ve always been a good boss to you.”

Lifting an eyebrow, Tang Feng said drily, “Of course you are. Despite almost drowning and suffering from a concussion, you sent your employee―recently discharged from the hospital―to someone’s bed. You even let him be drugged and raped. President Lu, you sure are a good boss.”

“You didn’t tell me about this.” A slight furrow appeared between Lu Tian Chen’s brows.

“I didn’t even know who you were back then. President Lu, who do you expect me to tell? Charles?” Tang Feng never held back when it came to biting retorts.

Lu Tian Chen shook his head. “I’ll take care of it. You only need to know that I will never send you to someone’s bed again.”

“That includes your bed.” Tang Feng thought it wise to add a sentence about that.

“I may be a man, but I’m also a businessman. The fact that I’ve been able to climb to where I am now shows that I don’t think with my lower half. Tang Feng, I can see your potential. It doesn’t matter who you were before or what you have done. From now on, you belong to me. I know you will become a true star.” Lu Tian Chen stood up and walked towards Tang Feng.

Swirling the whisky in his gla.s.s, Tang Feng said, “Of course. I’m your employee. I won’t disappoint you.”

Lu Tian Chen walked right up to Tang Feng and gazed into his eyes. He reached out and took the gla.s.s of whisky from the actor’s hand. Even while tipping his head back to take a drink, his eyes never left Tang Feng.

“That’s my whisky.”

“Right now it’s in my stomach.” Lu Tian Chen handed the empty gla.s.s back to the actor.

“And soon it’ll be in the toilet,” Tang Feng replied with a remark that completely destroyed the mood.

Lu Tian Chen couldn’t resist chuckling. He put both  hands on the bar and trapped the actor between him and the counter. “You’re becoming better at talking. You weren’t like this before.”

“Maybe it’s because you’ve never tried learning more about me?”

“I’ll do my best to learn more about you from now on,” Lu Tian Chen said with a downcast gaze, his voice also seemed to have softened.

“I’m thankful you can say something like that.” Tang Feng pushed Lu Tian Chen away. When I was dating, you were still wearing diapers and attending kindergarten. Brat, don’t try to play some intimacy game with me.

♦

As he wasn’t part of the criminal world, Tang Feng wasn’t able to glean any more information about Albert from the internet. Since that was the case, his best source of information was someone who had collaborated with Albert before: Lu Tian Chen.

From what Lu Tian Chen told him, Tang Feng managed to gain a basic understanding of Albert’s character.

Albert was a northern European whose family originated from Denmark. He was born in France, but raised in England. His family held considerable power and influence in Europe and had a hand in many different businesses. Simply put, Albert was both rich and powerful. His parents pa.s.sed away when he was young, so he had been raised by his grandfather. In a large family like Albert’s, for him to have climbed to the top at his young age meant he had both the brains and the means to be successful.

However, Tang Feng wasn’t interested in Albert’s success story. He’d surmised that the stress of being part of a powerful family had left Albert no other option but to scheme and fight for survival from a very young age. Due to his unhappy childhood, Albert’s personality turned out completely twisted. There was no structured order in his actions. At times, he acted purely on his whims. His private life was, of course, also a mess.

Tang Feng already knew that Albert liked to take people who seemed gentle and pure as lovers. However, Albert never kept the same person by his side for more than a month before switching to someone new. Logically, Albert should prefer someone “angelic” like Ge Chen. Tang Feng didn’t understand how Albert had suddenly developed an interest in him. Lu Tian Chen was also none the wiser.

There was one thing Tang Feng did understand: the most un.o.btainable things were often what people craved the most.

Fortunately, Albert wasn’t a brainless psychopath. By saying “He belongs to both Charles and me,” Lu Tian Chen had given Tang Feng a protective charm against Albert. If it had merely been Charles or Lu Tian Chen alone, Albert might have picked up a torch and started a fire. However, he was facing two evenly matched adversaries. No matter how interested he was in Tang Feng, Albert would never devolve into an idiotic male lead in a romantic comedy airing on prime time just for a man.

Despite knowing that, Tang Feng couldn’t dispel the nagging feeling in his heart. He couldn’t be that charming, right?

“Before Albert gives up on you, you can’t date anyone. Can you accept this condition?” Lu Tian Chen summed up the results of their discussion with a question.

They needed to maintain the lie until Albert turned his eyes to someone else. The question was for how long? A month? Two months? Or maybe even a year? Of all people, why did he have to attract the attention of someone so troublesome?

“If you’re asking me to predict whether I’ll be attracted to someone in the future, that’ll be too difficult.” Tang Feng wrinkled his nose. He didn’t like being restricted. “I don’t like this.”

“Have you ever felt attracted to Charles or me?” Lu Tian Chen asked suddenly.

“So far, I’d say no.” Tang Feng shook his head without any contemplation.

“Then it’ll be hard for you to be attracted to someone else,” Lu Tian Chen replied.

Where is he getting all this confidence? Tang Feng thought to himself.

Lu Tian Chen then added, “If you feel it’s unfair, just think about how it’ll be for Charles and me. For these few months, Charles and I won’t touch anyone else.”

Tang Feng looked at Lu Tian Chen skeptically. He could believe it if Lu Tian Chen was only talking about himself. During the time he spent with Lu Tian Chen, Tang Feng had never seen the president go out and fool around with someone. Then again, Ge Chen probably counted as a “someone.” But Charles? He was Charles! A playboy who couldn’t live if there wasn’t someone in his bed every night! How would he be able to endure?

“Am I really that important for you guys to do this?” Tang Feng widened his bright and intelligent eyes, making them appear even more endearing than usual.

Lu Tian Chen stared into those eyes. It was a wonderful feeling just staring into them. He’d never found Tang Feng’s eyes beautiful before. He’d never noticed that they were framed with long and thick lashes and that the light reflected in them changed with the actor’s mood. Right now, those eyes were staring at him, reflecting only his silhouette.

“I don’t want to owe you. Can’t we think of something else?”

“You said before that it’s mine and Charles’ fault that Albert took an interest in you. Since that’s the case, you don’t have to feel like you owe us anything. As for other ways, well, it’s not that there aren’t any. Albert likes novel things. If you sleep with him once, there is a chance he would lose interest and stop bothering you.” Lu Tian Chen frowned when he came to the last sentence.

He glanced at Tang Feng, who was thinking over the situation. “Are you actually considering it?”

“I’m not careless when it comes to my bed partners. Plus, how can you be sure he’ll leave after sleeping with me once? Look at Charles.” The topic was becoming stranger and stranger the more they talked. Tang Feng quickly shook his head and ended the discussion. “Forget it. I’ll take it one step at a time and go along with your idea for now. But will Charles agree to this?”

“You mentioned that Charles hasn’t lost interest in you, so I think he’ll agree.” Seeing that Tang Feng was still staring at him, Lu Tian Chen couldn’t resist explaining, “The reason we’re protecting you is because you have the potential to become a great actor. I don’t want you ruining your future because of a bunch of unrelated things.”

“I know.” Tang Feng shrugged indifferently.

Suddenly remembering something, Lu Tian Chen asked, “What were you and Albert talking about?” Albert had ended the call soon after it connected so Lu Tian Chen didn’t hear much of the conversation.

Tang Feng thought back to their conversation and ran through the bunch of nonsense Albert had told him. In the human language, the main point of all that nonsense should be: “He’ll wait until I become famous before taking me.

“That means I have nothing to worry about, for now at least. I’m still a small-time celebrity. Albert doesn’t think I match up to him.”

A slightly miffed expression appeared on Lu Tian Chen’s face when he heard Tang Feng’s explanation. For what reason then did they have that long discussion about what to do?

In self-comfort, Lu Tian Chen said, “Then our plan will be handy when you become famous.”

Tang Feng nodded in response. Before that, he could freely date whoever he wanted.