As soon as the exposé came out, the search term regarding Pei Huaiyue faking his status as a rich second-generation heir immediately surged into the top ten hot searches.
Those netizens who had previously supported Pei Huaiyue were instantly slapped in the face.
“I said so! Could Pei Huaiyue’s so-called rich second-generation identity be fake? Seeing that no one was questioning it, I thought I was just overthinking it!”
“Sure enough, faking being a rich second-generation heir got him exposed!”
“Turns out Pei Huaiyue’s mom used to work as a hired maid for the Gu family. This completely explains why he insists on clinging to Gu Yanchen and refusing to let go. A servant’s child trying to climb the social ladder to become the young mistress of the Gu family, talk about wishful thinking!”
“Tsk tsk, how on earth did he get all that wealth he was flexing online before? Could it be.”
“Looking like a male vixen, where else could it come from? If he were really rich, why would he bother opening a livestream to battle PK with people? Chances are he was already kept by some rich sugar daddy from his livestream room.”
While cursing away, netizens followed the clues and quickly tracked down the top-ranked benefactor in Pei Huaiyue’s livestream room.
That was none of other than Gu Minghe’s secret account, “Princess Xue’s ATM.”
“This name is way too straightforward. At first glance, you can tell there’s some shady transaction going on with Pei Huaiyue!”
“Every time Pei Huaiyue battles in a PK, this person is always charging ahead at the front. Once, when Pei Huaiyue was battling Xia Mu, he dropped ten million!”
“Holy shit, ten million, what kind of concept is that??”
“And he only gifts Pei Huaiyue; he doesn’t even spare a glance for other streamers.”
“The more they dig, the shadier it gets. But if this person really is the one keeping Pei Huaiyue, how could he endure Pei Huaiyue tangling with Gu Yanchen in full public view with scandals flying everywhere? Could it be that he has a cuckold fetish?”
Netizens fell silent all of a sudden.
They felt somewhat that the direction of their digging was getting a bit off.
“Maybe rich people just have some weird fetishes!”
“But is it possible.” someone said weakly, “that this person is actually Gu Yanchen?”
As the CEO of the Gu Group, coming up with ten million probably shouldn’t amount to much for him.
Thinking of this, netizens gave an involuntary shudder and successively declared it impossible, absolutely impossible.
“Don’t lead the topic astray, you guys. How did this top benefactor suddenly become Gu Yanchen? Which overbearing CEO has the time to watch people livestream PKs online!”
“An overbearing CEO even went off to participate in a dating show, so what’s impossible!”
“Who cares who this guy is anyway? Since Pei Huaiyue’s pretense of being a baller got exposed, let’s see if he still has the nerve to come out and flaunt his wealth in the future!”
“A servant’s son acting like a young master who doesn’t touch the spring water of manual labor on a show, I honestly have no idea where he gets the gall. Let’s see if he dares to continue loafing around lazily from now on!”
The next day, just as Pei Huaiyue was sleeping soundly, he was woken up.
He mumbled hazily in his sleep, “Hubby, let me sleep a little longer.”
With his long eyelashes tightly closed, he showed zero intention of getting up.
However, the moment those words fell, the room plunged into silence for a second. Gu Yanchen awkwardly withdrew his hand and looked toward Su Jin to explain, “He probably isn’t fully awake yet and is still dreaming.”
Su Jin bit his lip and said nothing.
Of course, he knew that the “hubby” in Pei Huaiyue’s mouth wasn’t addressed to Gu Yanchen, yet witnessing this scene still made him feel uncomfortable inside.
The netizens in the livestream room, who had woken up early to stake out the broadcast and watch the drama unfold, were speechless as well.
Was Pei Huaiyue doing that on purpose? Pretending to be asleep and then calling Gu Yanchen hubby!
No, wait, that shout of “hubby” sounded way too practiced, as if he really has a husband. Could it be that he and Gu Yanchen are actually already married??
How is that possible? Didn’t you hear President Gu say he was dreaming? It’s obviously mocking him and telling him not to dream pretty dreams of marrying into the Gu family!
How shameless, why does he call pretty much anyone hubby?
Still sleeping? By the time you get up, the sky’s going to have collapsed on you!
The production team hadn’t confiscated their phones, and everyone was simply dying of impatience to see Pei Huaiyue’s reaction upon discovering that he had been exposed.
Seeing that Pei Huaiyue wouldn’t get up, Gu Yanchen and Su Jin went downstairs first.
In the kitchen, Xia Mu’s early-rising, busy figure could already be seen, while the other three were already seated at the dining table, waiting for Xia Mu’s provisions.
Seeing Gu Yanchen and Su Jin come down, Xia Mu hurriedly came out to ask, “I’m making sandwiches; do you guys want some?”
Su Jin said in a gentle voice, “Then sorry to trouble you.”
“It’s no trouble.” After saying that, Xia Mu turned around and busied himself back in the kitchen.
This action of his quickly earned a wave of praise in the livestream room. Pitting him against Pei Huaiyue, Xia Mu was truly both diligent and easy to get along with! Apart from his looks falling short of Pei Huaiyue’s, he completely crushed him in every other aspect!
Out of sight, the corners of Xia Mu’s lips curved into a smile.
Waking up early this morning, he had sneakily checked the hot searches. Upon learning that Pei Huaiyue’s rich second-generation identity was fake and that he was so wealthy only because he was kept by someone, he felt instantly vindicated.
To think that with so many good things in the world, how could they all concentrate on a single person? Turns out he was nothing more than a servant’s son after all. And here he was acting all like a young master, when in reality he was even worse off than him.
The resentment of not receiving a single text message last night dissipated along with it.
Xia Mu carried out the finished sandwiches. He had made six in total, exactly one for each person.
Su Jin couldn’t help saying, “It seems Xiaoxue’s portion is missing.”
Xia Mu put on a very surprised look. “Ah, sorry, I didn’t see Pei Huaiyue come down and thought he didn’t eat breakfast. Then I’ll go make another portion for him.”
He made to get up, only to be yanked right back down by Zhou Jingyuan.
“Why bother making his portion? He has hands and feet of his own; can’t he make it himself? Does he really think he’s some young master!” Zhou Jingyuan’s face was full of disdain, completely lacking the eagerness he’d had last night when scrambling to help Pei Huaiyue wash dishes.
Jiang Leran nodded as well. “Since we’re going to live together in the cabin for a month, we can’t just let him have his way with everything and not do a single chore. I think we should still divide these household chores among everyone from now on so it’s fair.”
Their sudden turnaround in attitude toward Pei Huaiyue happened literally overnight.
Both Zhou Jingyuan and Jiang Leran had checked the hot searches when they woke up this morning. Jiang Leran hadn’t expected that Pei Huaiyue, who looked so clueless and innocent, turned out to be a pathological liar. This left him thoroughly disillusioned, so he no longer wanted to lean toward helping him.
As for Zhou Jingyuan, he had originally thought that Pei Huaiyue was both gorgeous and rich, making him an excellent romantic prospect. Now that he learned his rich persona was a fake and his online public reputation was so dreadful, continuing to entangle himself with him would probably only draw netizens’ disgust, losing the watermelon to pick up a sesame seed.
Shen Zhimian glanced at the two of them and said weakly, “Weren’t you guys on really good terms with Pei Huaiyue yesterday? How come today.”
Xia Mu directly cut off his words, not wanting to keep the topic on Pei Huaiyue, and instead brought up last night’s text messages: “I waited all night yesterday and didn’t get a single text message. Maybe I just didn’t do well enough.”
His gaze turned desolate, looking as though he was about to cry.
Jiang Leran, sitting right beside him, hurriedly handed him a tissue and offered kind words of comfort.
Shen Zhimian whispered, “It’s fine, I didn’t receive any text messages either. It’s only the first day and everyone doesn’t know each other very well yet; it’ll get better in the future.”
I’m nothing like you, Xia Mu thought to himself.
He had tried so hard to perform yesterday, yet not a single text message was sent to him. As for Shen Zhimian, because of his introverted personality and low presence, it was completely normal for him not to receive texts.
Zhou Jingyuan, on the other hand, looked immensely smug. “I received one.”
After receiving a text message last night, he pondered for a long time over who could have sent it, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt it was Pei Huaiyue. After all, Pei Huaiyue had played the piano for him yesterday; it was clear at a glance that he had taken a bit of a fancy to him.
If not for the hot search exposure fiasco, he wouldn’t have decided to give up on Pei Huaiyue.
Chatting along like this, it turned out that last night only Xia Mu and Shen Zhimian hadn’t received text messages, while everyone else had at least one.
Just as they were talking, Pei Huaiyue, having slept his fill, finally decided to grace them by coming downstairs.
He was wearing an off-white knitted sweater. Although it had long sleeves, the cut was overly baggy and didn’t provide much warmth. From the collarbone down to his chest area, there was a large cutout design, revealing a thin sheet of snow-white skin that fluttered in and out of sight with his movements, stirring up infinite imagination.
Rubbing his still sleepy eyes, he walked into the dining area, his voice delicate and lazy: “You guys woke up so early, aren’t you even tired?”
Hearing this, Zhou Jingyuan and Jiang Leran snapped out of it.
Even though they had made up their minds to shift their targets elsewhere, upon seeing Pei Huaiyue appear, they still couldn’t help but lose their focus.
Especially that patch of snow-white skin hidden beneath the hollowed-out sweater, which kept beckoning their gazes to wander over.
Zhou Jingyuan coughed. “You’re just waking up way too late. Also, stop dressing like this in the future; it sets a bad influence.”
Pei Huaiyue was baffled.
What’s wrong with how he dressed?
He wasn’t wearing it for Zhou Jingyuan to look at; what kind of madness was this guy going through?
Too lazy to bother with him, Pei Huaiyue pulled up a chair right next to Gu Yanchen and sat down. Seeing that they were almost done eating, he asked, “Is there any breakfast for me?”
Xia Mu rolled his eyes internally while wearing a kindly smile on his face. “Sorry, I thought you weren’t eating breakfast, so I didn’t make your portion. Should I go make you some right now?”
Pei Huaiyue instinctively opened his mouth to say “Sure.” He didn’t have so many twists and turns in his mind; since he didn’t know how to cook and someone offered to make it for him, naturally he agreed.
Su Jin, however, intercepted him in time. “Xiaoxue, I’ll go boil a bowl of noodles for you.”
Taking a moment to check his phone earlier, Su Jin knew that right at this moment, Pei Huaiyue was getting brutally cursed online. If Pei Huaiyue really let Xia Mu help make him breakfast, there was no telling what kind of backlash he would face next. Although Su Jin cared about the situation between Pei Huaiyue and Gu Yanchen, he didn’t enjoy watching others set traps for Pei Huaiyue either.
“Brother Su Jin, you’re so nice.”
Pei Huaiyue was moved beyond words.
He had shoved his advances right in Su Jin’s face like that, yet Su Jin was still treating him so well. Ah, if it weren’t for that crappy plot in the original book, how wonderful it would be to have someone as gentle as Su Jin as his sister-in-law.
Su Jin is truly so good!
He’s just too kind-hearted, which is why he tolerated Pei Huaiyue for so long.
Pei Huaiyue is genuinely a little white-eyed wolf.
Doesn’t anyone think Su Jin X Pei Huaiyue is also quite ship-able?
Watching Su Jin take the initiative to cook breakfast for Pei Huaiyue, the viewers in the livestream room felt even more heartache for Su Jin.
Su Jin is treating him so well, and if Pei Huaiyue continues stirring up trouble between Gu and Su, then I can only say this person is beyond saving.
Let’s hope Pei Huaiyue turns back from the lost path and stops dreaming pretty dreams of marrying into the Gu family!
A servant’s son shouldn’t harbor illusions about climbing high into the main family; please know your place!
Meanwhile, back at the Gu family’s ancestral home.
Zhong Manzhu and Gu Chengyuan stared in utter bewilderment at Pei Huaiyue appearing on the dating show.
Ever since they found out earlier that their eldest son was going on a dating show to chase his wife, the old couple had been keeping tabs on this matter.
When they finally freed up some time and opened the livestream room, that was when they discovered Pei Huaiyue had gone on the dating show too.
What on earth was going on here?
Why was their second daughter-in-law participating in a dating show? Did Gu Minghe know about this?
With delicate expressions, the old couple nudged each other, trying to force the other to call Gu Minghe and ask. Finally, Gu Chengyuan lost at rock-paper-scissors and had to contact Gu Minghe with a bitter face: “Minghe, how are you and Xiaoxue doing lately? You guys haven’t been fighting, have you?”
Fearing he would trigger Gu Minghe, he could only frame the question very circuitously.
Gu Minghe didn’t answer them directly and merely asked, “Did you watch the program?”
“W-Watched it.”
Zhong Manzhu chimed in: “How did you agree to let Xiaoxue go on a dating show? Isn’t this cheating? When did you become so generous?”
Based on her understanding of her second son, shouldn’t he be rushing over to the show right now to drag the person back and stake his claim?
Gu Minghe remained silent for a long time. “No cheating. Pei Huaiyue and I got divorced.”
W-What?
The old couple wore two matching expressions of utter blank incomprehension.
“You guys.” Zhong Manzhu wanted to ask more, but Gu Chengyuan cut her off. “So that’s how it is. We won’t interfere in you two kids’ business; just handle it yourselves.”
With that, he hung up the phone.
Zhong Manzhu was so angry she slapped his arm. “Why did you hang up? I wasn’t done asking!”
“Ask what, ask what? Aren’t you just stabbing your son right in the lungs? Aren’t you afraid he’ll get triggered and jump off a building or something?”
“No, really?”
“How could it be impossible? In the past, whenever Pei Huaiyue got even a minor scratch, like accidentally cutting his finger on a fruit knife—he’d want to carve a cut onto his own hand as well. He loves Pei Huaiyue so much; the divorce definitely wasn’t something he proposed. So he must have gotten dumped by the other person. Look at how calm he can still manage to be right now; it’s already unbelievable. So stop going over there to trigger him.” Gu Chengyuan wore a grave expression.
Zhong Manzhu was persuaded by his logic. “True. Well, whatever, let’s leave him be then. Anyway, I give it a week before they remarry.”
As for the dating show, she was going to keep watching it.
She’d keep watch over her daughter-in-law for her son; just in case Pei Huaiyue really caught feelings for someone else on the show, she could sound the alarm early.
Only, the more she watched, the stranger Zhong Manzhu felt.
Why did her second daughter-in-law keep pressing close to her eldest son?
After breakfast, in order to further break the ice among everyone, the production team arranged a beach volleyball match for the day.
Pei Huaiyue detested exercising the most, yet he had no choice but to participate.
Fortunately, Gu Yanchen and Su Jin were willing to cover for him, allowing him to slack off hiding behind their backs, making it quite relaxed and carefree.
However, Xia Mu acted as though he had taken the wrong medicine, constantly aiming the ball directly at Pei Huaiyue. With his slow reflexes, he kept getting struck by the ball, leaving big red marks printed all over his skin. Frowning, he wanted to strike back, but he couldn’t aim accurately at Xia Mu at all, leaving him no choice but to scurry around pathetically for cover until he accidentally sprained his ankle in the end.
“It hurts so much.”
Pei Huaiyue collapsed onto the beach sand. Grains of sand clung to his delicate skin, sticking to his arms which were drenched in sweat from the intense workout. The corners of his eyes flushed a faint red, and large teardrops hung from his eyelashes, looking utterly pitiful like he wanted to cry.
Gu Yanchen and Su Jin hurried over to help him up, and Pei Huaiyue smoothly tumbled right into Gu Yanchen’s arms. Gu Yanchen tried to push him away, but Pei Huaiyue clung tightly. “Brother Chen, my foot is hurt and I can’t walk. Carry me back, will you?”
Blinking his eyes, he acted spoiled toward Gu Yanchen.
Looking at him looking all tender and delicate, Gu Yanchen let out a sigh.
How could he possibly dare to carry him?
If he carried him today, Gu Minghe would chop off his hands tomorrow.
Not to mention Su Jin was watching right there.
Gu Yanchen had a genuine headache.
Su Jin bit his lip and abruptly squatted down right in front of Pei Huaiyue. “I’ll carry you back on my back.”
Pei Huaiyue instinctively wanted to refuse, but Gu Yanchen had already grabbed his sleeve without room for argument. “Let’s go, I’ll take you.”
Being yanked forward by the sleeve in a thoroughly ungentle manner by Gu Yanchen, Pei Huaiyue turned pale. Beads of cold sweat trickled down his forehead from the pain radiating through his ankle, making every single step excruciating.
Yet Gu Yanchen couldn’t care about all that; he just wanted to get Pei Huaiyue as far away from Su Jin as possible.
“Big Brother, my foot hurts so much, walk slower!”
Pei Huaiyue couldn’t keep up the act any longer, waving his claws and teeth like a little cat.
Gu Yanchen gradually slowed his pace. “I’ll find you some ointment to put on when we get back.”
Ointment?
That sounded good.
Pei Huaiyue figured that if he had Gu Yanchen apply ointment on him and they happened to bump into Su Jin, wouldn’t that score more points?