Xia An'ge took small bites of her own cooking. Her mother had taught her this recipe. She used to pester her mom to make it all the time, so naturally, she learned how to do it herself.

  Gu Zhinan's sudden loud outburst made her look up at him, but he just blurted out that one sentence before rushing back to his room, leaving her confused.

  Pressing her lips together, Xia An'ge continued eating her noodles at a steady pace. It took her about 20 minutes to finish the entire bowl. When she stood up, she noticed that Gu Zhinan’s bowl and chopsticks were still on the table.

  Since he had gone straight back to his room, he obviously hadn’t cleaned up after himself. Xia An'ge pursed her lips and decided to consider it repayment for him helping her clean up the broken gss earlier. She picked up his dishes and carried them to the kitchen.

  Meanwhile, in his room, Gu Zhinan sat down and opened his notepad, quickly writing out a poem.

  "To Green Grass Lake in Longyang County"

  "The west wind ages the waves of Dongting Lake, One night, the River God gains a head of white hair. Drunk, I cannot tell if the sky is in the water, A boat full of dreams pressing against the Milky Way."

  "Absolutely perfect!"

  Gu Zhinan admired the poem, which he had "borrowed" from his original world. It was a seven-character quatrain, also titled "Passing by Dongting Lake," written by Tang Ju, a poet from the te Yuan Dynasty. Not much was recorded about his life, but this poem was a cssic.

  Especially the st two lines—"Drunk, I cannot tell if the sky is in the water, a boat full of dreams pressing against the Milky Way"—were pure genius. They brought the entire poem to life, sparking vivid imagination and romantic visions. Countless people had memorized these lines, even if they didn't know the author's name or the rest of the poem. All they cared about was the beauty and dreamlike fantasy captured in those final words.

  Earlier, as Gu Zhinan gazed at the vast, star-filled sky, the st line suddenly came to mind—"A boat full of dreams pressing against the Milky Way!"

  Time to submit it!

  He logged into a Chinese literature ptform, clicked the submission link, and filled in all the required information.

  Now came the crucial part!

  Submission title: "Passing by Dongting Lake" Author: "Straight Man"

  That had always been his pen name—simple, direct, and to the point.

  Then, he pasted the poem: "The west wind ages the waves of Dongting Lake, One night, the River God gains a head of white hair. Drunk, I cannot tell if the sky is in the water, A boat full of dreams pressing against the Milky Way."

  He comforted himself—he was just helping the poem find a new audience in another world, ensuring its legacy would live on!

  Pgiarism?

  Nonsense! A schor’s work isn’t pgiarism—it’s inspiration! Learning! Promotion!

  After filling out everything, Gu Zhinan hit submit.

  Submission successful. "We look forward to seeing your work achieve great results!"

  Great results? Ha! If not gold, at least bronze, right? He was eyeing that 50,000 yuan gold prize money!

  The voting would begin on July 1st, which was tomorrow. He had nearly missed the deadline—good thing he randomly browsed the ranking list today!

  For now, he put aside his writing and continued scrolling through web pages, trying to learn more about this world. He realized he still knew too little, which wasn’t good for the future. So, tonight, he’d do some research.

  As he skimmed through entertainment news, he almost scrolled past it like usual—until a certain name made his hand freeze on the mouse.

  His eyes locked onto a headline, which wasn’t prominently pced, meaning it wasn’t considered major news.

  Big entertainment headlines were usually things like, "Shocking! Superstar rumored to be secretly married!""Celebrity spotted te at night with a mystery man/woman—did they spend the night together?""Famous couple announces their breakup!""Actor rushed to hospital after cutting finger—needed anesthesia and multiple bandages!"

  If it wasn’t scandalous, it wouldn’t make the front page.

  But what caught Gu Zhinan’s attention was the name Xia An'ge.

  The headline read, "Starlight Entertainment singer Xia An'ge rumored to have fallen out with the company, facing industry freeze and downfall."

  Almost instinctively, Gu Zhinan clicked on the article.

  A photograph loaded—a breathtaking young woman in a floral dress, smiling gently at the camera.

  His breath hitched.

  Not just because of the smile—but because he recognized her.

  His ndlord.

  Xia An'ge.

  She was a singer? She was actually a celebrity?! How did he not know this?!

  With shock and curiosity, he kept reading.

  The article expined that Xia An'ge was the runner-up on Happy Voice, a famous talent show, two years ago. She should have been heavily promoted by Starlight Entertainment, using the popurity she gained during the show to quickly become a second-tier idol singer.

  But Starlight Entertainment never really pushed her career forward. They gave her some exposure in the first six months, but then—nothing. She didn’t even have a single original song.

  According to insiders, Xia An'ge had a falling out with Starlight Entertainment. As a result, the company retaliated by invoking a contract cuse:

  If Xia An'ge could produce an original song within three months, the company would promote and release her album.

  If she failed, she would have to follow the company’s assigned work arrangements.

  She had three months to prove herself.

  Reading this, Gu Zhinan felt a bit sorry for her. She had really been frozen out, a cssic entertainment industry tactic.

  The article was from two days ago. And Xia An'ge moved in three days ago. The timeline matched perfectly.

  No wonder she had strict rules about keeping their cohabitation a secret. Even if she wasn’t a big-name star, she still had fans.

  If the paparazzi found out that a supposedly "frozen" singer was living with an unknown man, the headlines would be insane:

  "Shocking! Frozen singer Xia An'ge already has a boyfriend—cohabiting sweetly!"

  "Scandal! Former talent show runner-up Xia An'ge secretly married—now living with her husband in Lin City!"

  Completely ridiculous.

  Even male celebrities just putting an arm around each other could get beled as a couple.

  Gu Zhinan couldn’t even begin to imagine what would happen if this got out.

  But then again… she wasn’t that famous. I didn’t even know who she was, he thought.

  Of course, the original Gu Zhinan didn’t follow entertainment news at all, and now that he had transmigrated, he had even less reason to care.

  He liked music, movies, and novels but keeping up with celebrity gossip? Not his thing.

  Well, there was nothing he could do about it now. The rent was already paid for months in advance—he wasn’t about to move out.