Chapter 108

The question of what gift to give for a birthday has always been deeply troubling.

But most of the time, it's the guys who are troubled, because when girls say "I want" or "I don't want," you never know if they mean it literally or the opposite.

Sometimes it's even worse—they enjoy making you guess.

Damn, it's outright harassment!

Fortunately, Bai Liang generally doesn't have this problem; he usually just expresses his feelings.

Truly, just feelings.

Or he gives her some odd little trinkets he bought casually, and the girl is still perfectly happy.

Back then, he realized: for a girl, what the gift is doesn't matter—it's who gives it that counts.

Even if he didn't want to spend a single cent and wanted to enjoy himself, a simple "mwah" would do.

Or he could simply show up in person and give her a thoroughly satisfying workout, and she'd be perfectly satisfied.

But Bai Liang's own birthday is more troublesome.

The good news is, he was born in the first lunar month, so his birthday always falls around the New Year.

This timing is perfect—at least no girl will excitedly show up to celebrate his birthday only to find another girl already there.

The bad news is, one of his family's New Year traditions is watching how many gifts Bai Liang receives from girls.

Every year there are many; some gift-givers have slowly faded from Bai Liang's memory.

The white moonlight of youth really does stay memorable for a long time.

For boys, their white moonlight is usually fine—they just keep it in their hearts, like the lyric says: "If only I had been successful when I was young, I wouldn't have been insecure."

But some girls truly have remarkable persistence and determination in this regard.

To be fair, Bai Liang doesn't mind receiving gifts, but he wishes he could pick which ones the girls give him—some are just so useless.

Bai Liang isn't the kind of "bad person" who throws away gifts others give him; his house is god-knows-how-full of jars full of paper cranes and folded stars.

Even though he knows some girls write secret messages inside them, he truly lacks the ability to open and read each one.

So when Mencius stammered and asked him, "What gift do you want for your birthday?" Bai Liang made a direct wish.

"Can you give me a house?"

"Huh? Get lost! I haven't even bought myself a house yet."

"Aren't you saying Sister Qian Jie is rich? Houses in the northeast are cheap~"

"Stop trying to take advantage of Sister Qian Jie!" Mencius grumbled, but her face turned bright red on the other end of the line.

Because she thought Bai Liang was hinting at marriage again. Oh no, she couldn't say it anymore! That cunning, sneaky man!

The main purpose of this call wasn't to discuss birthday gifts—it was actually about the upcoming promotion of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes."

Although Mencius personally didn't want to ride Bai Liang's coattails, objectively speaking, she had no choice.

After Bai Liang suddenly became a sensation overnight, Guo Jingyu's mouth nearly split from grinning!

He had taken some pressure casting Bai Liang, unknown and without major company backing, as the male second lead.

But the filming later proved his choice was perfectly correct.

Now it was even more of a pleasant surprise!

Pure profit, no loss!

Who could have guessed this kid would explode in popularity like this? Not quite top-tier, but definitely enough.

"The Legend of the Condor Heroes" was most lacking in this kind of traffic.

Originally, they'd considered avoiding Mencius online due to her mixed reputation, fearing backlash during promotion.

But now that Bai Liang had emerged, they absolutely had to include her! No matter what, they had to bring her along!

If she wasn't there, who would pair up with Bai Liang for the CP?

Since childhood, he'd always thought these two were perfectly matched—born for each other.

Besides, Bai Liang didn't need to worry about Mencius's negative traffic backfiring; her tiny group of haters couldn't even match the college students who daily flooded Bai Liang's Weibo with comments.

Boldly, before the God of Exams, haters retreat!

Who dares to provoke the Immortal here? Don't they know this is where everyone comes to pray?

Not only do people come to pray, but some come to fulfill vows—these people's combat power is even stronger.

In short, Guo Jingyu declared that this CP of Mencius and Bai Liang must be used! The drama's traffic would rely on these two to carry it.

More accurately, it relied entirely on Bai Liang.

His male second lead role generated more traffic than the male lead, female lead, and female second lead combined.

But Old Guo was still good at handling people—he promised a big red envelope if the drama's reception was good, which stopped Sister Yanzi from shouting, "Add money!"

"By the way, do you know who the competitor airing around the same time as our drama is?"

On the other end of the line, Mencius's tone suddenly changed, sounding strangely odd.

But Bai Liang didn't bother thinking about it—he just asked, "Who?"

"Someone you know well—Gu Li Na Zha."

"Na Zha? 'Immortal Sword: Cloud of the Ordinary'? That's not a competitor—I was in it too. Both are my own work. I'm neutral, okay?"

Huh?

Perhaps because Bai Liang's presence in "Cloud of the Ordinary" was too minimal.

Even though Tang Ren had started some promotion, they hadn't mentioned him much.

Mainly because a certain Ms. Cai really didn't want to see Bai Liang's name anymore.

So Mencius had forgotten this detail, but she reacted quickly this time: "Then which side do you support?"

"I support both—they're both my own dramas."

Please... you... collect... 6... 9... books...!

What if you're forced to choose one?

Then I'd definitely pick The Legend of the Condor Heroes—I don't die until the last few episodes, so I can watch it many times; my role over there is just too small.

First, never act on impulse; second, never miss judging any wrongdoing; third, always render judgments fairly and beautifully.

The referee robot, Dragonfly Captain, reports for duty!

Faced with such an "opponent," Mencius, who was never particularly skilled in this area, truly had no solution.

But Bai Liang gently comforted him at this moment: "You don't need to be so afraid of her; she's not scary."

"Who's afraid of her? I'm not afraid at all!"

Though he claimed not to be afraid, only Mencius himself knew how deeply he feared Gu Li Naza.

There was no way around it—most of the time, Gu Li Naza seemed harmless, even a bit foolishly cute; her only moment of sharpness was always directed at Mencius.

Even if she tried again, she probably couldn't do it.

But that time on Mango TV's direct confrontation, Gu Li Naza truly commanded the entire atmosphere—that overwhelming, supremely confident beauty's pressure made Mencius feel uneasy.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have retreated voluntarily.

"Big Brother Dou Xiao Bai, Di Li Sister Reba is calling you over to rehearse~"

"Tell her I'll be right there."

Hearing Bai Liang's conversation with the crew on the other end of the line, Mencius suddenly felt a surge of anxiety. "Who? Di Li Sister Reba?"

"Yeah, the female lead in the drama I'm filming now—do you know her?"

"I don't know her, but I've heard of her."

Gu Li Naza, Di Li Sister Reba—you've gone up against the new Jiang beauties?

Just hearing their names makes your heart race.

After hastily hanging up, Mencius went online and thoroughly searched for every photo and magazine feature on Di Li Sister Reba.

Her light, youthful makeup looked fine, but once she wore heavy makeup, her aggression far surpassed Gu Li Naza's.

A sense of threat and defeat surged simultaneously.

The words he'd wanted to blurt out under the pressure of his birthday were ultimately swallowed back down.

After a long while, she scrolled through her friend list and finally found Li Yitong.

"Help! The boy I like is surrounded by beauties—what should I do?"

"You deserve it!"

Li Yitong's reply was brutally piercing, yet precisely accurate.

If you know she's a succubus and still rush toward her, isn't that exactly what you deserve?

This bitter cup of love? You'll have to drink it.

Still, she was soft-hearted, and Mencius was quite good at pouting—after much wheedling, the two of them huddled together to brainstorm some utterly implausible ideas.

When to use them? Of course, when everyone comes together for the promotional recording.

——

Four basic updates delivered. There's still a backlog of bonus updates tonight. Mu mu da.

——(End of Chapter)—