Who would dare make a sound?
Yu Cheng lived in mortal terror that if he said a single wrong word and it got edited into the final cut by the post-production team, it would look like he was clinging to someone out of his league.
He didn’t care about himself, but he couldn’t afford to cause trouble for Fu Nian.
Yu Cheng had a good impression of Fu Nian, so he took the initiative to change the subject: “Why did you get back so early?”
Chu Hanfeng merely stared at Yu Cheng’s face. The moment he heard the word “back,” the outer corners of his brows twitched slightly, as if he found it grating to the ear no matter how he listened. The aloof color surging within his dark, deep pupils inexplicably grew a few shades denser, making him look even more unapproachable than usual.
“Did I disturb you two?”
Chu Hanfeng set down the bag of breakfast, but his gaze never left Yu Cheng’s direction.
Just as Fu Nian let go and turned back following Yu Cheng’s line of sight, he raised his head and caught sight of Chu Hanfeng’s frost-cold face.
Yet sandwiched between Chu Hanfeng and Yu Cheng, Fu Nian’s very first reaction was: Wow! As expected of my idol, so cool!
“How could that be, of course not,” Fu Nian waved his hands repeatedly. “Just a moment ago, Yu Cheng was even saying that he was sleeping too soundly and didn’t hear you go out, and was super disappointed after waking up.”
His eternal brother status wasn’t worth mentioning in front of his idol; in the blink of an eye, he had sold Yu Cheng out completely before Yu Cheng could even stop him.
My foot!
Anxious, Yu Cheng blurted out: “That last part was clearly you yourself.”
Paying no heed to Yu Cheng’s rebuttal, Chu Hanfeng stepped back lightly by half a step, increasing the distance from Fu Nian by a small margin before replying: “Is that so?”
As he spoke, he gave another glance at Yu Cheng’s flustered and exasperated expression.
Acting as a dutiful fanboy, Fu Nian nodded frantically: “Yeah, Yu Cheng was even looking at your gossip posts.”
Hearing this, Chu Hanfeng raised his brows slightly.
Fu Nian paused for half a second, swallowing back the words that had already reached his lips.
Still retaining a shred of brotherhood from helping him secure first place on WeChat friends’ game leaderboards, Fu Nian thought back and forth and figured that looking at gossip posts claiming Chu Hanfeng had a stinky face or the like was truly unfriendly, as it would ruin Yu Cheng’s image in Chu Hanfeng’s mind.
Fu Nian rummaged through his brain for a long time: “The gossip post said…”
“Said what?”
“Said that you coming to our show, Brother Feng, is totally a gimmick, and Yu Cheng was sad about it for a long time. Oh—”
“Shut your trap.”
Gritting his teeth, Yu Cheng hooked Fu Nian’s neck with the crook of his elbow while trying to cover Fu Nian’s mouth, looking very much like he wanted to drag the guy away and tie him up right in front of Chu Hanfeng: “Stop talking nonsense!”
Unable to speak, Fu Nian could only blink rapidly until Yu Cheng finally let go and he seized the chance to run for it.
As he bolted, he still jeered: “If you’re shy, be shy, why resort to physical violence?”
Yu Cheng felt as though he had just stepped in dog shit; what sunshine-and-energy handsome boy, he was nothing more than a big-tailed wolf who could trap people without even drafting a script.
Yu Cheng tried to explain to Chu Hanfeng: “I didn’t…”
“Don’t I know what kind of nonsense can come out of that mouth of yours?” Chu Hanfeng bantered.
Yu Cheng smiled amiably: “That’s right, I only spout fragrant flowers.”
Chu Hanfeng paused with words hanging on his lips, feeling that this little ancestor’s knack for killing people with a single retort was bubbling up again. Normally it would be fine, but if this were recorded by the cameras right now, he’d have to specially instruct someone to edit it out.
Intending to end this bloodless battlefield, Chu Hanfeng gave full affirmation to Yu Cheng’s response.
He nodded: “Right, truly wonderful.”
Yu Cheng: “…”
Yu Cheng straightened his face, his original intent merely to express his dissatisfaction to Chu Hanfeng, but he inexplicably felt as though he had been mocked.
Yet there was no helping it; he had dug this hole himself.
Buried by his opponent, he didn’t even have anywhere to go to reason it out.
As it turned out, not long after, the very person who had ungratefully dragged him into Home unceremoniously shot up to the trending searches, though unlike his usual appeals for sympathy through pre-arranged press releases,
Even Yu Cheng felt that Tong Shi must have really landed himself in hot water this time:
[Tong Shi spotted staying overnight at a director’s home and kissing by the window, rumored to be entangled with multiple producers.]
[Party involved responds: Groundless accusations, just discussing the script.]
The netizens exploded.
After all, Tong Shi had always presented himself with an innocent and cute persona; with this sudden blow, not just fans, but even passersby found it preposterous.
Yet the leaked photo used as evidence was far too clear. Through the incompletely drawn gauze curtains, one could see the two of them in a closely entwined hugging posture, especially the ambiguous move of Tong Shi raising his head to kiss the other’s corner of the mouth, it was truly hard for people not to let their imaginations run wild.
Besides, that director was a married man who had just announced the birth of a baby daughter not long ago.
Utterly disgusting.
When Zeng Meng brought these things up, Yu Cheng was eating the breakfast brought by Chu Hanfeng alongside Fu Nian.
Kou Xiangzhong and Zeng Meng had already eaten, while Liang You was still sick, so in the end, the bulk of the pan-fried buns and scallion pancakes went into the stomachs of Yu Cheng and Fu Nian.
Zeng Meng purposely turned off her mic, avoiding the camera frame as she whispered to Yu Cheng: “Are all these things written here true or fake?”
Yu Cheng was still holding the packaging bag of a pan-fried bun, occasionally poking a tiny piece with a bamboo skewer to pop into his mouth. With the air of someone for whom everything except eating was trivial, he shook his head and replied: “I don’t know, I don’t live under his bed.”
Zeng Meng: “…”
Dying of curiosity, Zeng Meng turned her head to look at Fu Nian instead.
Yet that fellow was completely immersed in the scallion pancakes brought by his idol, his mouth full of oil and aroma with zero time to spare for talking. Only when his conscience was suddenly pricked by how bad the habit of hogging all the food to himself was did he lift the remaining large half of the pancake toward Yu Cheng’s mouth, asking if Yu Cheng wanted a bite, only to have his hand pushed away in disgust by Yu Cheng.
In the end, Zeng Meng had no choice but to cast her gaze toward Kou Xiangzhong.
Kou Xiangzhong was discussing the upcoming arrangements with the production team. As one of the initiators of the show, Kou Xiangzhong poured a lot of thought into Home, and many highlights and nostalgic touches beloved by the audience in the program originated from his ideas.
Just in time with Chu Hanfeng’s arrival, Kou Xiangzhong intended to let Song Feiwan make an appearance via voice call.
On one hand for the sake of program effect, and on the other hand, old friends catching up wasn’t out of the question.
Only, he didn’t know if the person on the other end would agree.
When Zeng Meng looked over, Kou Xiangzhong was discussing this exact matter with Chu Hanfeng.
Chu Hanfeng nodded, giving a low reply to Kou Xiangzhong.
Amidst their conversation, Liang You suddenly walked out from the house.
Because he hadn’t slept all night, Liang You had bloodshot eyes. Paired with dark circles and a pale face, he looked exceptionally haggard, causing even Yu Cheng to momentarily freeze in surprise.
He had only heard that Liang You was sick, but he hadn’t expected him to be this sick.
Yu Cheng finally stopped chewing, wiped his oil-stained fingertips with a tissue, and sized him up with a question: “Are you alright?”
The moment those words fell, he saw Liang You shudder violently, as though severely startled by something terrifying. He froze in his steps with a shiver, and then hurriedly averted his gaze from Yu Cheng.
Yet the next second, as if afraid of something else, his gaze darted toward Chu Hanfeng’s direction in a flash before standing stock-still right in front of Yu Cheng.
Yu Cheng raised his chin slightly, sitting on a stone stool and looking over in a daze: “Looking for me?”
Swallowing a dry gulp, Liang You ignored Fu Nian’s equally bewildered gaze, speaking in a low, timid voice: “Can I talk to you alone for a couple of minutes?”
Yu Cheng didn’t react in time: “Huh?”
Liang You drew a breath, feeling as though even breathing had become difficult: “It’s not about the show, I just want to say a few words to you in private.”
Yu Cheng: “?”
Hesitating for a moment, Yu Cheng still walked off a bit further with Liang You.
The two of them stood in a corner of the front yard. Glancing sideways, one could still catch sight of Kou Xiangzhong bursting into hearty laughter after Chu Hanfeng said something to him.
Yu Cheng’s gaze swept past the polite and appropriate smile on Chu Hanfeng’s face, pondered for a few seconds, and then turned back to look at Liang You standing before him, waiting for the other to speak first.
Yet Liang You hemmed and hawed, failing to squeeze out a single word for a long time.
Yu Cheng finally lost his patience: “What on earth do you want to tell me?”
Liang You lowered his head to avoid Yu Cheng’s gaze. His bangs vaguely obscured his brows and eyes, revealing only tense cheeks and lips pressed into a tight line, while his fingers nervously picked at his fingernails amidst his internal struggle.
Urged repeatedly by Yu Cheng, Liang You finally spoke with an unstable breath: “Can you please help me put in a good word with Chu Hanfeng and ask him to let me off this once.”
Yu Cheng almost doubted his own ears: “What?”
Gathering his courage, Liang You continued: “I truly know I was wrong, and besides, if Tong Shi hadn’t been running his mouth, I wouldn’t have said those things either. I was just being blunt on the spur of the moment, I didn’t mean anything else.”
Pondering briefly, Yu Cheng asked: “Are you and Tong Shi very close?”
Liang You: “I…”
Yu Cheng: “What did you say?”
Breathing heavily, Liang You took two deep gasps of air before abruptly raising his head. As if desperately trying to grab onto a life-saving straw right in front of him, he unceremoniously reached out toward Yu Cheng: “Believe me, I just went along with what Tong Shi was saying during our phone call and said a bit too much, and Chu Hanfeng overheard it and misunderstood.”
Yu Cheng dodged Liang You’s touch in time, vaguely sensing something amiss as a trace of displeasure crept into his tone: “If you have something to say, say it properly. Hands off.”
Stumbling, Liang You almost fell over.
He hunched his body, choked back a sob for half a second, and raised his eyes to gaze into Yu Cheng’s face: “Then are you willing to help me?”
He refused to end up like Tong Shi, whose world turned upside down overnight with his future looking bleak.
Xue Ji was one thing; that was merely a verbal warning and the loss of some readily available resources.
But Chu Hanfeng was different. Merely hearing the name of Tong Shi drop from his lips in an offhand manner had resulted in those scandalous rumors spreading everywhere the very next day. If anyone said Chu Hanfeng had nothing to do with that, who would believe it?
He certainly didn’t believe it.
Yet why?
Why was Yu Cheng able to make Chu Hanfeng go to such lengths?
Liang You even felt that if this reality show weren’t still in the middle of recording, the person exposed for negative news today wouldn’t just be Tong Shi alone; the one falling off a cliff might well be him.
The mere thought of the look Chu Hanfeng had given him last night filled him with lingering dread.
That man had clearly done nothing, yet simply looking over with those deep, dark, and unfathomable pupils caused the obscure color at the bottom of his eyes to instantly blend like ink into the thick surrounding night, chilling one to the bone with a single glance.
Not to mention Chu Hanfeng’s lukewarm yet bone-chillingly cold tone.
Every single sentence was fatal.
Liang You managed with difficulty to organize his words: “I really have no other way out. Music is my dream; if I get driven out of the entertainment industry, I’ll have nothing left.”
Unfortunately, Yu Cheng had zero intention of showing sympathy: “Yet for all this time you’ve been talking, you haven’t told me what actually happened, or why you’re inexplicably asking me to help you.”
“The reason Tong Shi ended up in this state is because he brought it upon himself by doing wrong.”
“And the person you’ve offended right now probably isn’t even me, is it?” Yu Cheng frowned, cutting off Liang You’s words. “Or could it be that you’ve had it in for me all along, and since yesterday you’ve been harboring crooked thoughts, plotting to do something to me?”
“What?”
“For instance, if I had followed the arrangements after drawing lots and gone to the river with you, would some accident have happened very easily, leaving me to fall and blame it on bad luck or something?”
Hearing this, Liang You froze in place, his eyes widening as he failed to spit out a word for a long time.
Yu Cheng asked indifferently: “What you’re losing is a dream, but what about others? Are they just passing whims of unrequited foolishness to you?”
“I didn’t!”
“Whether you did or not, you know best in your heart. Besides,”
Yu Cheng took a few steps to the side, widening the distance between them.
“I don’t have that kind of grand ability to make him launch such a massive mobilization.”
“Instead of wasting time here with me, you’d better think carefully about which sentence of yours dragged Chu Hanfeng into it and offended him.”