Chapter 1 Ingrained Hypocrisy

A hangover is the most torturous thing in the world.

If alcohol didn’t bring such annoying side effects a few hours later, he would definitely like drinking even more, thought William Carter, who opened his eyes while sprawled on the carpet. He propped himself up on the sofa and managed to stand, his head throbbing badly. He rummaged through the coffee table for an ibuprofen, swallowed it, and checked the time on his phone.

13:24.

His memory, numbed by alcohol, finally began to function sluggishly. Suddenly, he remembered that tonight at six was James Turner’s movie release press conference, and he already had a VIP ticket in hand—of course he had to go.

James Turner is an actor who started as a child star. Although he’s only 20 this year, he’s been acting for 14 years, debuting at age six as the childhood version of the male lead. That drama won the annual ratings championship that year and instantly made him the most popular child star. Because of this, James Turner later acted in many other film and TV works, but was always boxed in by the child star label.

Later, when he took the college entrance exam, he stopped acting for a few years and disappeared from the public eye. He didn’t even take the art exam, but, like all other seniors, took the regular national college entrance exam and was admitted to P University’s physics department with an astonishingly high score. For as long as the freshman military training lasted, James Turner trended online.

But he seemed to keep a low profile. After entering university, his acting frequency dropped even more. The public thought he was going to leave the entertainment industry to focus on his studies, but a set of candid photos taken at school put him back at the top of the trending topics.

In the photos, he was playing in the school basketball game, the smooth, solid muscle lines under the red jersey, sharp brows and eyes that couldn’t be hidden by his short hair, sweat dripping down to his jawline, and the slight frown as he shot the ball—these details, blurred by the flash, were so clear from the candid angle, and every shot exuded a dominant aura.

By a twist of fate, James Turner, always labeled as a child star, was suddenly dubbed a “walking hormone,” unintentionally transforming and stepping onto the popular “Alpha” path. Not to mention the high school girls who loved chasing stars—even women a few years older than him fell helplessly into this hormone trap.

After coming of age, James Turner almost never acted in TV dramas, not even romance films. His choice of roles was very consistent—mostly realistic genres, and even his commercial films were mostly sci-fi. Even in this film, there was finally a female lead, but she played his older sister, so James Turner was always teased by netizens as “the actor who wastes his looks the most.” Even so, whenever he appeared on variety shows or programs, fans and netizens always found plenty of swoon-worthy moments.

William Carter also became a fan after his transformation. At that time, he was studying abroad and happened to see those basketball photos of James Turner. He thought his body proportions and muscle lines were perfect, and suddenly wanted to draw him. So he casually did a watercolor and posted it on Weibo. Unexpectedly, fans tracked him down and shared it like crazy, and he became popular.

He naturally became a so-called “big-name fan artist” in the fandom.

Looking in the mirror, William Carter noticed his hair was indeed getting long and needed a cut. He found a hair tie that had been holding his paintbrushes, tossed the brushes onto the table with a clatter, casually tied up his hair, grabbed a white shirt from the closet, put on a black mask, and headed out.

When he arrived at the venue, the main cast hadn’t arrived yet. William Carter took a photo and posted it on Weibo, quickly receiving a flood of comments from James Turner’s fans.

[Young Master James]: Ahhh, did Summer-sama go too!!!

[The Universe’s #1 Alpha]: Damn, Summer-sama! Isn’t Summer-sama living overseas? Ahhh, I’m so excited!

[I’m Mrs. Turner]: Oh my god, I really want to meet you in person, ma’am~

[James Turner – Lone Wanderer]: Hey, I’m at the venue too. Ma’am is so close to the stage, could it be VIP??