Who Needs a CEO? I Choose Stardom

”So, which friends are coming today?”

Ni Bingyan couldn’t help but ask as soon as the car left their neighborhood.

”Quite a few! And even more if you count their families. I could tell you now, but you wouldn’t remember them all. I’ll introduce you when they get there. They’re all my sworn brothers from high school. We’re still really close, so don’t worry.”

”Sworn brothers? The kind where you drink yellow wine and behead a chicken? Did you burn incense and kowtow? When you became brothers, did you say something like, ’We don’t ask to be born on the same day, but we ask to die on the same day’?”

Neither the original owner of this body nor Ni Bingyan herself had ever gotten along well with classmates in school. She’d never experienced anything like this, nor had she seen it in real life. Hearing Sang Yuan talk about it was actually quite fascinating.

He certainly couldn’t tell her about how the brothers had gathered at the Temple of Heaven with all sorts of offerings to worship heaven and earth, then made a solemn vow never to betray each other.

Sang Yuan cleared his throat and downplayed it. ”Nothing like that. We were just a few close classmates who ranked ourselves by age and called each other ’Big Bro,’ ’Second Bro,’ and so on.”

”So where do you rank?”

”The youngest.”

”How many of you are there in total?”

”Eight.”

”So they must call you Sang Eight? Ahem. Good thing your last name isn’t Wang.”

Sang Yuan: ”...”

That was a difficult line to follow up on.

”Actually, if you had seven sworn sisters, having the last name Ni wouldn’t be so great either.”

’Something about mud...’

Ni Bingyan thought about it and laughed out loud.

The things you do in the heat of youthful passion might seem a little embarrassing as you get older, but no one would deny that they happened. Seeing her laugh, Sang Yuan said:

”It’s hard to find friendships that sincere once you grow up. Even if you just find it funny, I still cherish it.”

Sang Yuan blinked, looking at her with a completely serious expression.

”I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have joked about it.”

Ni Bingyan scratched her head, embarrassed. She kept her eyes on the road, not daring to look at him.

”I’m actually a little envious. I think I grew up too fast. I never had the time to make any true friends when I was young.”

Sang Yuan knew that she had spent her childhood constantly busy, struggling to survive. Maintaining friendships would have been a difficult thing for her. But he could only pretend he didn’t know.

”It’s okay, you have me now. Your affection for me can wax and wane as you wish, but my devotion to you is eternal.”

Ni Bingyan’s face immediately turned red!

If she didn’t have such strong nerves, she might have driven the car right into the divider!

Yesterday, she had given Sang Yuan a collection of art prints. On the one titled ”Ink’s Charm,” she had written a short phrase: ”The intensity is up to the heart, but the essence is eternal.”

On the surface, it meant that while the shades of ink in a painting might vary, its underlying spirit remains the same. In reality, it was a confession: no matter if Sang Yuan’s feelings for her were to fade in the future, she would always be serious about him.

Seeing her blush, Sang Yuan chuckled mischievously.

Afraid she’d get annoyed, Sang Yuan quickly pulled out his phone, turned the volume all the way up, and played voice messages from their group chat:

”Damn it! Stuck on the elevated highway during rush hour! Talk about rotten luck! I’m completely cursed!”

”I told you we should have left earlier! But no, you had to procrastinate!”

”It’s because the kid wouldn’t get out of bed! Third Bro, don’t you get all smug! The tables will turn. When you’re a dad, you’ll know how hard it is to get out of the house with a kid!”

”Oh no, I forgot the mosquito repellent patches. My daughter’s chubby little arms are going to get eaten alive!”

”Don’t worry, I brought some.”

”By the way, did any of you bring a grill?”

”Yuanzi said he was bringing it last night, so I didn’t.”

...

Perhaps because they were stuck in traffic with nothing to do, the group chat was flooded with messages. It took Sang Yuan a while to play them all.

When he heard himself being mentioned, Sang Yuan quickly sent a message back:

”I’m bringing a lot of fruit and marinated meat, and my wife is bringing a ton of vegetables. Whoever has space in their car, remember to grab a couple of large jugs of water. We’ll need it for cooking and washing dishes later. I’ve got too much stuff here to fit it.”

”Okay, okay. Yuanzi, where are you guys now? Did you really leave at six? You’re the closest one, why would you leave so early?”

”Ahem, well, I was thinking I’d go and catch some fish first, right?”

”It’s not that I’m looking down on you, but with your skill level? Are you going to be fishing for fish, or are the fish going to be fishing for you?”

”I may not be any good at it, but my wife is, and that’s all that matters, right? You guys just wait and see! By the time you get here, the two of us might have already had our fill of grilled fish!”

...

Listening to their banter, Ni Bingyan was reminded of the time she spent with her own friends.

The people she’d met after starting work weren’t as close, perhaps, but the few she hung out with regularly were still great for sharing meals and taking trips together.