Everyone in the industry knew me as a washed-up, worthless star, but little did they know that my anonymous works were priceless.

Back then, I founded the largest entertainment company solely to fulfill my girl’s dream of becoming an agent. Ten years after debuting, I proposed to her during a livestream, but she hesitated.

“We can get a marriage certificate, but we can’t have a wedding.”

I thought she was obsessed with her career until she openly confessed her love to her newly signed boyfriend.

“I’m Zachary’s first and last girlfriend fan! I’ll only love him in this life!”

A reporter joked, “What about your fiancé?”

My girlfriend smiled shyly.

“I’ll provide him with resources, but not with my feelings. After all, my heart is completely with my Zachary.”

I smiled and dialed.

“Stanley, I want to promote that new artist from a few days ago.”

The major shareholder on the other end of the line was silent for a few seconds.

“But that new artist is tone-deaf and only has a pretty face. How are you going to promote him, Mr. Nicholson?”

——

My index finger tapped the last note of the music sheet. The tune was so bright and moving that even the staff auditioning for the song couldn’t help but tear their eyes apart. I said calmly, “This song, give it to that newcomer.”

Stanley nearly spat out his tears.

"Are you crazy?! If this song were sold to anyone in the industry, several top stars would beg for resources. It’s a hit among hits and you’re willing to give it to a newcomer?”

I curled my lips.

“In this industry, whoever I say can become famous will become famous. As for songs like this... I have as many as I want.”

I closed the piano cover and stood up.

“Cut back some of my remaining announcements. I don’t want to be seen lately.”

“Yes.”

Stanley agreed respectfully.

I walked out of the recording studio and turned into the company hallway when I saw my girl, held on her lap by her beloved little puppy, forced to touch his abs.

Scarlett screamed excitedly, “I hate it! Enough, enough!”

“Not enough! Scarlett, you haven’t even touched my mermaid line yet…” Zachary said and pulled Scarlett’s hand downwards.

Scarlett covered her face and blushed with shame. But when her lustful eyes turned and saw me, they suddenly cooled, a flicker of impatience in them.

“I heard you didn’t get the audition again? That’s all you can do. Can you please stop wasting my resources?”

I smiled bitterly.

No one knew I was the shadow behind Scarlett.

She said she wanted to break into the entertainment industry, so I started my own company and made her a top-tier agent.

She hated the spotlight, so I stood in front of the camera, singing, writing and smiling.

Unintentionally, my company grew, my music sold like hotcakes, but my girl had fallen for another man.

“Then leave me alone. Find someone else to take care of me.”

Scarlett was stunned, her eyes filled with resignation.

“What nonsense are you talking about? Do you think you’re still popular now? Without me, you’d have been kicked out of the company long ago.”

I didn’t respond and simply touched the spot on my chest.

The burns from the fire had long since scabbed over.

It was Scarlett’s parents who gave me their hope for life. I once swore to heaven that I would take care of her, love her and protect her for the rest of my life.

I kept my word.

For so many years, I had done my best to fulfill her every wish.

And now, her wish was to find another man.

Zachary immediately bowed deeply to me, almost 5 feet 4 inches tall, looking bewildered in front of me.

“Senior Calvin! I’m sorry, I auditioned for the role that originally belonged to you. Please don’t make things difficult for Scarlett!”

I sneered. How could he have auditioned for it?

He’d just used the same trick, letting the casting director feel his shark muscles, abs and mermaid lines.

“Okay then,” I held out my hand and said lazily. “Since you’re sorry, give me the role back.”

His face flushed and he seemed frozen in time. He stared at Scarlett helplessly. She immediately exploded and stood in front of him, her petite body radiating boundless energy.

“Calvin, are you sick? You’re incompetent, yet you insist on forcing Zachary to his death? How did Zachary offend you?!”

A wry smile curled my lips.

Ignoring the lingering bitterness in my heart, I asked, “Oh? You didn’t know?”

Scarlett clearly knew. She loved to “cultivate.”

From my first audition, when she led me through line practice and character development, to now, when she coaxed her little puppy to sleep and posted on X app, the routine was exactly the same.

She loved watching a young man slowly blossom under her care, like a game of victory all her own.

She called it a sense of accomplishment.

I was willing to accommodate her preferences and pretended to be the way she wanted.

But ultimately, my pretense wasn’t convincing enough and she no longer liked it.

Now, she had found a new “replacement.”

That tone-deaf little puppy with a perpetually aggrieved expression. When she forced the song she’d originally written for my stage comeback onto her little puppy, I didn’t object.

She pressured me into a late-night variety show, euphemistically calling it “rekindling my popularity,” but it left me stranded in the studio for four straight nights, which caused a relapse of my old kidney injury and hospitalization.

I finally made it onto the trending search list for the first time in a long time, but she called me “squeamish” and didn’t come to see me.

She spent every night with her puppy and danced passionately at bikini parties.

Until that day, I had just been discharged from the hospital when a thick file was slammed in my face.

“Are you crazy?! You hired a group of trolls to discredit Zachary?!”

I flipped open the report, which was filled with revelations about Zachary’s misconduct on the set and it topped the trending search list.

But I had never seen this data before. Seeing that I didn’t respond, Scarlett raised her hand and slapped me.

“Calvin, why are you so petty? Did you know that Zachary had a depression episode and self-harmed?! I’m telling you, if Zachary doesn’t recover, I’ll never let you, a piece of shit, go!”

The slap mark on my face burned and I sneered.

“Let’s check the data source.”

I contacted the hacker and ten minutes later, the IP address was found.

“These were all trending searches Zachary bought himself to ruin his popularity.”

Scarlett didn’t believe it until I showed her the screenshots from backstage. Her face grew colder and colder.

“I’m sorry... I’m jealous. I’m just so scared.”

Zachary’s fingers and lips trembled as he nervously picked at the shallow scar on his wrist until it bled.

“I’m afraid of losing popularity, afraid of losing resources. I’m afraid of losing Scarlett.”

Rich in holes and contrived, Zachary’s acting was so fake, yet Scarlett believed it. Her eyes welled up with heartache and she rushed over to hug him tightly.

"Zachary, you’re so silly…”

She looked up at me.

“Brother Calvin… why don’t we just let this go?”

I froze for two seconds and suddenly remembered the last time she called me Brother Calvin. It was when we were kids.

She looked at me like that, tears welling in her eyes.

“Brother Calvin, I don’t have a mom and dad anymore. You’re all I have.”

At that time, I was willing.

Hearing it now, it felt like a knife ripping my heart out.

She completely shattered every little detail of our relationship and trampled it underfoot.

From then on, Scarlett no longer hid her preference for Zachary.

She knew I was allergic to seafood, but Zachary loved it, so from then on, the company lunchboxes consisted of only seafood.

Every Valentine’s Day, she spent it with Zachary and her WhatsApp status was filled with photos of them checking in at various couples’ spots.

Scarlett even got a matching tattoo on the spot where Zachary was injured and even managed to send Zachary a birthday greeting on X app: [We’ve been hurt together and we’ll never be apart.]

She even gave Zachary the wedding ring her parents had left her before they died as an earring.

The moment I saw it, my voice trembled.

“Scarlett, this is what your parents left us as a wedding ring.”

This was my final line.

Zachary’s face paled.

“Sorry, senior, I really didn’t know it was yours.”

With that, he dug his fingernail into the earring and pulled it off, immediately oozing blood!

Scarlett immediately became furious, looking at me with uncontrollable disgust.

“Why are you so petty? We’re going to get the marriage certificate anyway. You’re my legal husband, isn’t that enough?”

In Scarlett’s eyes, I was always that hopeless artist, that worthless commodity, the humble man who would always pursue her.

I owed my life to her; I couldn’t live without her.

She never questioned my sincerity. I looked at her familiar yet unfamiliar face and smiled softly.

“Scarlett, why are you so sure I’ll only marry you?”

The air suddenly became quiet.

She looked up, a sneer on her lips, her eyes slightly raised, a look of disdain on her face.

“Listen to what you’re saying. Are you crazy again?”

She glanced at me coldly, raised an eyebrow and asked softly, “If you don’t marry me, who else can you marry? You’re a has-been, a worthless person. Besides me, what other agent would dare to hire you? What other woman would dare to marry you? Without me, you’re nothing!”

I was about to tell her I’d decided to find another partner. But she interrupted me, her chin raised impatiently.

“Come on, stop messing around. After Zachary’s birthday party in a few days, I’ll go get the marriage certificate with you. Is that okay?”

Zachary sighed heavily, a look of dejection unconcealed on his face.

“I really envy Senior Calvin. If I could marry a woman as wonderful as Scarlett, I’d be unable to resist having you every night…”

Scarlett immediately covered Zachary’s mouth, her face flushing red.

“You rascal, what nonsense are you talking about?”

Watching Zachary kiss her palm, Scarlett’s eyes melted.

“You don’t know, the only reason I agreed to marry this loser was to fulfill my parents’ last wish. But I’ve already said it: my heart is with you. I’m even happy for our son to take your last name.”

Zachary’s eyes instantly reddened. He lowered his head to hug her and pecked her on the lips.

Scarlett didn’t even try to dodge.

And so, right in front of me, they kissed. My grip tightened gradually and watching this scene, I felt like I was sinking into an ice cellar.

“Scarlett, don’t go too far.”

She turned back, anger in her eyes and sneered.

“I’m going too far.”

As she spoke, she raised her arm to wrap around Zachary’s neck and kissed him fiercely on the lips, even sticking out her tongue and digging in.

I clenched my teeth, resisting the urge to rush forward and spoke each word with clarity.

“Get out of here!”

Without looking back, she took Zachary’s arm and walked away.