10: Firefly of Misty Fragrance

Beta'd by SnowyEgrett

On the registration page for the Weibo account, Lin FenXiang paused, staring hard as he mused.

He frowned, his fingers ghosting over the keyboard. As the make-up artist continued removing his make up, she looked at his state of hyperfocus and asked in confusion.

"Young Master Lin?" She called softly.

Lin FenXiang snapped his head in the direction of her voice and pulled himself out of his trance, answering very eloquently.

"Huh?"

"What are you so focused on?"

"Ah, that," he said awkwardly. "I'm thinking about the username I should enter. Just using my name seems boring." A look of realisation dawned upon her face as the makeup artist smiled good-naturedly.

"I see. Do you need some help?"

Lin FenXiang shook his head, denying her help. "I'll think of something myself." He flashed her a small smile.

After thinking long and hard, he smirked and typed slowly, hitting the register once he was done.

Before long, the makeup artist has finished removing his make up as well. Lin FenXiang stood up and went to the changing room after thanking her for her help.

While he changed out of the costume carefully, he also browsed Weibo only to see his name in the hot topic.

#Lin FenXiang entering the drama through back door#

Followed by, #Heart aches for Si YuYan#

Lin FenXiang's lips twisted into a mocking sneer, with a frown, he clicked on the first hot topic.

The most popular post on that forum was by an entertainment gossip account.

[Hot Gossip Today: The soon to be released and highly anticipated drama 'Ode to Faith' reportedly accused of promoting nepotism by kicking out popular fresh meat actor Si YuYan from the cast in order to make space for the company's CEO's younger brother. The company involved in this is JiangXing Entertainment and Lin FenXiang, their CEO's younger brother. Should such a person be allowed to stay in this industry? With rotten roots, no tree can stand tall for long… What has this industry come to?]

In the comment section, Si YuYan's fans were jumping in indignation. Spraying all over Lin FenXiang, cursing him to hell and back, even digging his ancestral grave.

Lin FenXiang almost wanted to laugh, these netizens really had a nice talent for spraying people dead and stomping on them.

Snorting out of amusement, he shared the post with a playful smile.

Soon after, in the restless river of Weibo, an account emerged while sharing a post made by the gossip account.

[Firefly of Misty Fragrance*: Bold of you to assume I want to stay in this industry ^_^ ]

The post would have sunk into the flow of the internet—had Bai LiuYao not followed the account immediately and had it not been verified.

As soon as the post came out, the account immediately became the target of Si YuYan's fans' resentment and cyber abuse.

Lin FenXiang scrolled through the comments under his post in some sort of evil glee and proceeded to completely ignore them until the entire thing blew up.

Having changed out of his costume, Lin FenXiang walked out of the changing room and was faced head-on with Lin FengYuan's ferocious but tired glare.

"What the hell, Xiao Xiang?" The older male gritted out while trying to sound calm.

Lin FenXiang shrugged non-committently. "Well, it's all a mess, might as well add some fuel." He said, voice and conscience completely clean.

Lin FengYuan sighed, trying to stave off an incoming headache. "You are a pain in ass."

"Well," Lin FenXiang stuck out his tongue somewhat childishly. "I don't deny that."

His older brother shot him another glare and stormed away in other direction, which Lin FenXiang assumed to be for damage control PR.

He gave another shrug for his own effects and walked onto the set, standing in sidelines to watch the actual seasoned actors play.

His phone gave another ding, prompting him to open the device to check the notification.

Wang YiZhou had followed him as well, Lin FenXiang threw a nonchalant glance at the lead actor and hit the follow back button, then proceeded to sit down by the screenwriter's side.

With a silence between them, he continued to fiddle with his phone, aiming to bother Bai XiNian as much as he could.

[Bai XiNian: You want to sell that painting to me?]

[It's a bit rough, how about I make you another one, for free?]

A moment later, the reply came:

[Bai XiNian: Then what are you going to do about that painting?]

[Auction it?]

Bai XiNian answered with a series of ellipses to convey his speechlessness.

Lin FenXiang suddenly felt defensive, with a slight scowl, he typed:

[It won't be that cheap, so what can't I?]

[Bai XiNian: Dumbass]

A single word contained so much frustration and defeat that Lin FenXiang wanted to laugh like an absolute menace that Martin claimed him to be.

[Bai XiNian: To send it to an auction, you first have to have contacts and understanding of how auction houses work]

Lin FenXiang raised an eyebrow in judgement. Considering the fact the he — Drystan Meyer — was from 1700s, he had a good guess on how auction houses worked because, of course, rich people liked to show off their wealth, and there was no better place than an auction house to do that.

So yeah, he had some — if not a lot — knowledge on that topic. But he refrained from telling his — original Lin FenXiang's — best friend that, lest he should bring doubt upon himself.

Even if Bai XiNian did — somewhat — remind him of Martin Huxley.

Lin FenXiang pursed his lips together at that thought, his expression turning sombre at the memory of his friend.

After sharing some back and forth banter with Bai XiNian, Lin FenXiang was just about to close his phone when a Weibo notification caught his eye.

A comment to be precise.

It was from a Si YuYan fan.

[YanYan is the cutest: Quit playing humble, you bastard. You stole out YanYan's role!]

After a short second, the same user wrote another comment in passionate bold letters.

[YanYan is the cutest: Fuck you!]

Lin FenXiang scoffed, stopping himself from rolling his eyes as he took a screenshot of the comment, censored the username and ID, attached it to a new post and wrote.

[Firefly of Misty Fragrance: If you want me so bad, you can just say it. Why insist on looking stupid ^_^?]

Then, he posted it.

With that a seemingly harmless smile spread over his shoulder and then he muted the notifications.

Out of sight, out of mind. He sighed.

Little did he know that his casual post blew up the Weibo once more.

As soon as he closed his phone and put it in his pocket, he noticed Bai LiuYao standing by this side, observing him.

Silently, he scooted away from her and pulled a chair for her to sit on. Turning his eyes away from her, paying the beautiful actress no mind, he watched Wang YiZhou masterfully perform his scene.

From his side, Bai LiuYao spoke.

"What kind of chaos are you aiming for?"

Lin FenXiang turned his attention back to her. Looking at her through his eyelashes, the former Marquess, shrugged elegantly.

"I just want them to know that whoever they are trying to target is a useless endeavour. I really have no intention of dabbling in this industry any more than I already have," he answered in a deep, magnetic voice. "I don't particularly care how much they smear shit on me."

Bai LiuYao stifled a laugh, blocking her mouth with her hand, she gave a muffled answer. "So your solution was to call Si YuYan's fan stupid and thirsty for you?" Lin FenXiang smirked at her.

Leaning to her side, he stated innocently. "Well, they did say 'Fuck you' so it did probably mean they want to sleep with me," he ended his words with a flourishing hand gesture.

"Well," Bai LiuYao cleared her throat, trying to appear serious. "You shouldn't have posted that though."

"Too late, my friend, too late. The damage is done and I'm sure Brother Yuan is going to come for me soon." Lin FenXiang shook his head in regret. "But what is a little chiding to the chaos I've caused? It's worth it, I tell you that."

Bai LiuYao doubled back, laughing without a care of her — if there was any to begin with — image. Lin FenXiang suppressed back a smile.

Bai LiuYao was a good person, she didn't deserve to be hung up on a person like him. A person who already gave his heart to someone else.

Lin FenXiang snapped out of his trance and shook his head as he watched the set being wrapped up.

Oh, right. The party they were supposed to give him.

He sighed, already feeling a headache coming.

Standing up from the chair, he stretched a little to loosen up his muscles.

As soon as he straightened up, he saw Wang YiZhou coming to him. Raising an eyebrow, Lin FenXiang tilted his head to the side, with question in his eyes, he was about to speak when the other man beat him to it.

"Damn, Young Master Lin," Wang YiZhou gave him a thumbs up with a mischievous smile. "You are actually in the mood to fight!"

Lin FenXiang shook his head, sharing the man's smile. He answered plainly. "Well, it's not like I have a company coming for my ass every time I act on my own."

Wang YiZhou snorted, feeling a little crossed. "Not everyone is as lucky as—"

"—He's not," Lin FengYuan's deadpan voice cut into their conversation. "Not right now." He turned to Lin FenXiang and continued. "You are really a chaos incarnate. Now the company has to do PR and damage control until the publicity phase of this drama starts and people realise that we were right to let you act."

Lin FenXiang had the decency to look sheepish at least.

"I hope the process is quick," he remarked, looking at his phone. "I have got a flight to Britain the day after tomorrow."

Lin FengYuan turned to look at him, his neck turning so fast that Lin FenXiang was amazed that he did not get a whiplash.

"Britain?" Lin FengYuan asked, stunned.

Lin FenXiang froze, standing still he remembered.

Right, he hadn't informed his family about this trip.

"Uh, hear me out, I—"

══⊹⊱≼≽⊰⊹══

Author has something to say:

Firefly of Misty Fragrance*: Lin FenXiang's name is [林芬香] in Han but it's pinyin is very similar to [獜雰香]. In [獜雰香] Lín (獜)means Firefly while in Lin FenXiang's name Lín (林) means forest.

Also while in [林芬香] FēnXiāng (芬香) collectively means fragrance, in [獜雰香] Fēn (雰) means Misty and Xiāng (香) means fragrance.

So his username is, in fact, just homonyms of his own name.