Little Pink Starfish

When Gu Bai woke up again, he still went to look in the mirror.
However, all of his emotions instantly turned into one word: “囧”.

Damn it, why did the person in the mirror look exactly like the City Lord’s shell! If not for the fact that there was not a single trace of power in this body, he would have suspected he had directly returned to the original world!
…Although the environment in this room clearly looked modern.

No, this face—no matter how he looked at it, it felt wrong.
Gu Bai pondered for three seconds.
It was clearly the same face, so why did it feel wrong?
This kind of contradiction made him stare fixedly at his reflection in the mirror, once again falling silent…

“Ding!”
The light bulb above his head lit up!

Gu Bai finally discovered the source of the discomfort.
That was because…
The person in the mirror looked way too sloppy!

The originally jet-black hair had become messy and disheveled, you know!
There were two red pimples on his smooth and flawless skin, you know!
Dark circles under his dark and indifferent eyes were super noticeable, you know!
His lips were chapped, complexion dull, the whole person looked extremely haggard, you know!

This looked like the degree of alcohol abuse…
Kind of feel.

Yes, the smell of alcohol was also really strong, you know.

Gu Bai felt slightly displeased.
But for some reason, there was a faint hint of familiarity.

When he thought about it again, he finally reacted—
No wonder! Back when he used to be a shut-in at home, pulling all-nighters to rush manuscripts, didn’t he look exactly like this? No wonder it felt so familiar orz this was literally the classic look of a shut-in man.

So now the question was:
What was his current identity, what kind of world was he in, what was the plot of this world, and would it affect his life?
He had to quickly figure all that out.

At this moment, a powerful surge of energy rushed into his mind, and within his vast spiritual sea, it stirred up a bit of… mm, a tiny ripple.
Yes, this energy came from the original owner of the shell’s memories, but would such a small amount of memory cause any impact on Gu Bai’s soul, which had crossed through so many worlds and had been tempered for so many years?
It was pretty much like tossing a small pebble into the ocean—not even remotely enough to affect him at all.

Soon after, Gu Bai understood what had happened.
Still a transmigration into a book, confirmed. The world indeed still had a plot, confirmed.
And this time… the world was completely different from before.
It was a modern entertainment world, mwah!

Gu Bai: “…”
What the hell is the entertainment industry!
I’m used to fighting violence with violence, okay!
Acting and whatnot, I never even unlocked that skill, okay!

Fine, let’s first look at the background and plot of this world.
Actually very simple, the male lead transmigrated into a parallel version of himself, and then discovered that this world actually didn’t have many of the cultural aspects from his past life. Everything from the Song Dynasty onward had changed! So poems, prose, novels from the Song Dynasty and later—all were nonexistent in this parallel world!

So the male lead, who was a total loser in his past life, decided he would bring all of that culture from his world into this one!
After all, he stood on the shoulders of an entire world!

What followed was only natural—he started writing web novels, copying various masterpieces from his past life, creating new genres, earning huge money. Meanwhile, he also wrote traditional literature like “The Affairs of the X Dynasty,” opening up the physical book market. Then he brought out works by the great wuxia authors like X Diao, Gu Yong, and Liang, opening the martial arts novel market. In the process, he also wrote songs, screenplays, and eventually opened a publishing house, funded and developed games, and founded his own entertainment company. Ultimately, he became a top-tier tycoon and even influenced a generation’s culture!

Copy copy copy!
Copied until the sky turned dark! Copied with flair and flourish! Copied until he was world-famous!
In the process, he also copied himself a bunch of beautiful women who all offered their hearts to him, and finally chose the one with the highest status and greatest support as his main wife, while the others each managed parts of his business. He even attracted the attention of the underworld boss because of his “entertainment talents” and received covert support from the authorities, becoming a cultural icon of the nation. His power only rose from there!

So flashy!
…A typical urban harem male lead.

And although it was all based on copy-paste tactics, he eventually established an entertainment empire and became the richest man in the world.
In short, by the end he was basically a modern-day emperor.

Although… considering he was a loser in his past life, how come just remembering some stuff from before allowed him to stir up world-shaking events? More confusingly, how did writing some books make the underworld boss fall for him and get government-level support? Even weirder, how did the second female lead, whose background was only slightly below the main female lead, willingly share a man with a bunch of other women?
The most baffling thing of all was: every single one of them thought they were his “true love”!

True love was crying.

Gu Bai silently complained in his heart eight hundred times, but still—
This kind of collapsing moral baseline and illogical harem writing… honestly wasn’t even that strange.

Everyone was a writer.
Why criticize fellow writers?
Sigh.

As for his current identity—
He was… a movie king.

Gu Bai: Hehe.
Just thinking about acting while making various expressions made his face hurt.
Didn’t anyone know that his poker face had long since gone numb!?

Alright, let’s set aside the whole “movie king” thing. The point is: how did a grand movie king end up drinking himself into this state at home? That’s worth looking into.
According to the movie king’s memories, it was because his role got stolen.

Eh, you might think: isn’t it just a role? You’re already a movie king, why be so obsessed over one part? No need to be so sad and despairing, right?
Actually, there was another reason—
The person who stole his role also stole his girlfriend of many years.

Heartbreak and “job loss”—a man has tears of blood too!

But when Gu Bai went over the original novel in his memory—which he had also read before—he was surprised to find that the movie king didn’t appear at all!
Based on analysis, the one who stole the movie king’s girlfriend should be the harem male lead. With such a grudge, the movie king shouldn’t have had zero reaction in the original. So why was he completely absent?

After thinking it over for a while, Gu Bai finally understood.
Because, if he hadn’t transmigrated into this person, the movie king would’ve… died from alcohol poisoning.
Dead people don’t go up against harem leads, you know!

Gu Bai then remembered—the original did mention the movie king, just very briefly.
It was during a plot point where the harem lead helped a “promising” young actor get a role, and they mentioned that the person who lost the role became so discouraged that they gave up on themselves. On another plot line, the harem lead was comforting a girl whose boyfriend didn’t appreciate her, making her fall in love with him instead. That discouraged one and that unappreciative boyfriend—were both the movie king!

Maybe because the movie king was never fully written out from the beginning, or maybe this was the author’s intention all along… The movie king also had the face of the City Lord.
That was also pretty囧!

Gu Bai, perceiving the original host’s memories, silently lit a candle [🕯] in his heart for him.

The original host was seriously cannon fodder to the extreme—his role was snatched just because of one line from the harem male lead. And his girlfriend? They met in college and dated for seven years. Whether the movie king was still a student, a nobody, or already a star, he never dated other women, even avoiding fake romances used for publicity. No matter how busy he was, he called her weekly and tried to take her on dates when he had time… and this is considered “not caring about his girlfriend”? That’s super unfair!

Not to mention, the original host was working so hard not just because he loved acting, but because he wanted to earn money to buy a big house and propose to her. He was even trying to win an award with the new role to retire early and take care of his family…
And just before scoring the goal—he lost everything.

The fact that he just got drunk and passed out was already really restrained, okay…
Yet the author just waved their pen and wrote him to death!

The reason the movie king didn’t become one of the harem lead’s mini-bosses was probably because the lead was too busy juggling three women and writing songs and novels for each to prove his love, so any potential boss like the movie king—better off dead!
Totally ridiculous…

Gu Bai felt a bit melancholic.
Because of the original host’s memories, he suddenly had a strong urge to smash the male lead’s stupid face.
Even though he clearly knew this had nothing to do with him…

But still!

Although the original host had broken up, it was only because when he tried to go find his girlfriend for comfort after losing the role, he secretly saw her frenziedly kissing another man! And that man? The one who wrote that script and said, “I believe XX portrays the character I imagined better”—that damn screenwriter!

And those two, secretly fooling around, had no idea that he already knew about their affair! The female lead was still torn up over how to explain and break up “reluctantly” with the original host!

Which meant—
The original host hadn’t officially broken up with her yet.
And he originally still wanted to try and save the relationship…

But now that Gu Bai had taken over the shell, how could he go beg to get her back? Absolutely not okay!
Though perhaps the only thing worth being thankful for was this: the author wanted the male lead and the girl to feel “spiritually fulfilled” when they finally did the deed, so despite dating the movie king for seven years, they’d never actually slept together.

If they had…

Gu Bai: Cleanliness obsession says nope.

And cleanliness was just a small issue. Damn it, someone might die—that’s the big problem, okay!
Although no one knew where that psycho was right now, in most cases, his arrival wouldn’t be far off…

Therefore, the most urgent thing Gu Bai needed to do now was—
Ask the girl out.
Then break up with her.