The poster of the WeChat post, as Shao Yanxi expected, didnât dare show him. Instead, it showed Liu Yuâan. Since they sat opposite each other, the shot was from behind Shao Yanxi, so it is hard to recognise him just from his back. Meanwhile, Liu Yuâan is tall enough that his entire head is above Shao Yanxi.
Normally, nobody would be able to recognise a Liu Yuâanâs head dressed in a hoodie and sunglasses and mask, but he has just spent two days on Trending. Many people are already familiar enough with his facial profile.
As soon as the picture is out, he is busted.
As for Shao Yanxi, there are all sorts of guesses, as evidenced by the comments.
[frds, probs]
[Two friends paddling a lake? Both male?]
[what, male bros paddling sound gay to u?]
[Does no one else think it might be Mr. Shao opposite him?]
[course not, shao is super cold unapproachable right? look, heâs lowering his head and hunching. if its mr shao id eat my own keyboard]
[Iâve screenshot your post. Guys, bring him up]
[i think its def the ceo shao, maybe thats how he is in front of LYA? (he sent his first ever personal post for him already!]
[Definitely An-shao and CEO Shao. I will accept no objections!]
[Itâs probably Liu Yuâanâs ploy. Look, a branded puffer coat]
[ploy? rofl, get back to me when u can get half the entertainment industry to promote a product w/ u]
[holy shit, then isnt lya super deep in bg connections???]
[Those who say heâs a toy boy, clinging to other celebrities, and steal their contracts, does your face hurt? Maybe An-shao is actually the person who pulled all the contracts in for that little company of his. PS: Zhao Xian, Executive of Zhao Entertainment, and you all know its standing in the industry, but that Zhao Xian calls LYA âAn-ge.â]
[⌠im about to be to scared to continue eating popcorn oi]
With the Internet blowing up as it is, obviously Ren Jianzhang would try to contact Liu Yuâan.
Unfortunately, Liu Yuâanâs phone is in his room. So he had to call Xiao-Zhang, who had to paddle out to the lake to get to them.
Seeing Xiao-Zhang rush to them makes both Liu Yuâan and Shao Yanxi surprised.
âAn-ge, Mr. Shao,â he greets them.
Liu Yuâan asks, âwhatâs wrong?â
âThe media caught you rowing a boat on the lake. Now youâre on Trending again.â
And thereâs a certain limit to being on Trending, especially for a short while. While people might be curious or inquisitive at first, but when itâs all they could see for days theyâd start to get information fatigue.
Itâs bad to overdo things. They all know this, and Liu Yuâan furrows his brows.
âOn Trending again?â
âYeah.â
âLetâs go back,â Shao Yanxi says.
Liu Yuâan looks at him and then agrees.
While on the way back, Liu Yuâan kept feeling like someone is looking at him.
Though when he looked about, he canât see anyone suspicious.
Itâs unlikely that his honed senses from his many worlds before would send a false alarm, so he reminds Shao Yanxi to wear his hat and mask more tightly. They then manage to return to their room without incident.
Liu Yuâan picks up his phone, to see that not just Ren Jianzhang, but Xiao-Zhang and Xu Qingqing, and even Zhao Xian has called him.
He first called back to Ren Jianzhang. Besides the Trending thing, Ren Jianzhang also reminds him that âCelebs Wilderness Survivalâ is airing a week later.
Normally it would have had to wait a little longer, until after another show called âFarm Lifeâ ends, but one of that showâs guest was found to be a criminal at large, and so the show had to be stopped all of a sudden.
Normally it would have been assigned to another show, but these two days Liu Yuâan, with the help of Shao Yanxiâs popularity, has practically dominated the charts, so both the TV showâs production and the TV station wanted to have a free ride, and they decide to put it on now.
Ren Jianzhang says that itâs good the show is showing then, especially given that he is currently enduring a popularity boom without any actual work to back him up. Though the show itself is a reality show, but having seen some footage himself, he realised that this is able to highlight Liu Yuâanâs good qualities a lot, and will be positive for him. It will help make sure Liu Yuâan doesnât end up being hated for only bombarding the public with headlines online.
And on that topic, Ren Jianzhang also tells him that the second season of the show is set already, to be on a shoreline this time, also for three days.
As for the movie, as he is a side character, his parts are currently spread out quite a lot to better fit the leadsâ schedules. Many days are like this, with him having parts for half a day then on stand-by the rest of the time.
It wouldnât be difficult to have them adjust his parts fitting his schedule for once.
Now it depends on what Liu Yuâan thinks.
Liu Yuâan replies heâd be happy to join the second season.
After that, he calls Zhao Xian back. He called for the Trending thing himself, as he works in the entertainment industry and knows what effects it may have. He wanted to remind him to reduce exposure.
Liu Yuâan agrees, feeling warm about a friend showing concern for him.
He thought itâd be over then, but, it is actually just the beginning, when he is at the studio tomorrow, where everyone is looking at him oddly, more so than when they thought he was a toy boy.
In fact, theyâre being downright meek and deferential towards him. Never mind in private, but they even bring it into the acting.
This is a martial arts movie, how could they even shoot a fighting scene with them being so careful?
In the afternoon, Liu Yuâan couldnât complete a single scene. The director, who has had enough, tells Liu Yuâan, âXiao-Liu, do you think you can invite Mr. Shao to retreat to your private room to rest a little?â
Because of the thing the day before, everyone is already nervous just facing Liu Yuâan. Add to that a poker-face Shao Yanxi sitting on-scene. Even the director is slightly subdued today.
Liu Yuâan walks over to Shao Yanxi and tells him to head back to his room first. Shao Yanxi glances over at the director and seems to know he is the one asking. He nods.
After that, the stuntman working with Liu Yuâan says, âAn-ge, Iâll apologise in advance.â
âDonât worry, just do what you should.â
Liu Yuâan thought that they would finally finish the scene this time, but they still failed due to unforeseen circumstances. And, without Shao Yanxi here, the director is able to yell to his heartâs content, not having to maintain an image in front of Shao Yanxi anymore.
Now the staff who were happy Shao Yanxi left are now wishing he is back instead, since at least the director wouldnât scold them as much.
And then, oh goodie, Liu Yuâan himself has made a mistake after repeating his repetitive motions oh-so-many-times.
But when everyone is waiting for the director to yell at him, the director doesnât, and in fact, goes on to find an excuse for him, saying, âlook at you all! You kept failing and failing and xiao-Liu had to keep repeating himself. Now his good acting got ruined because he fell into a trance.â
Everyone else ââŚâ
Can you operate by any less obvious double standard?