No wonder Ethan felt guilty.

He wasn’t a trained actor—heck, he hadn’t even attended a proper university. Born in a rural village, he scraped by with a degree from a sports academy, just enough to call himself a college graduate.

Despite his humble background, his ambitions were sky-high. He refused to settle for a job as a P.E. teacher like most of his classmates, wasting his youth disciplining unruly kids. At the time, military-themed TV dramas were all the rage, and an alumnus from his academy had been cast as the male lead in one such series. The guy skyrocketed to stardom overnight, becoming one of the hottest celebrities in...