"It was not a big deal, just a little misunderstanding," Sheng Xing Ze laughed. "But since you and Lin Mu are not in the kind of relationship I thought you are, then you won't stop me from teaching him a lesson, right?"\n
"Need help?" Yu Bai leaned over and asked.
"If you want to, then recommend a reliable private detective, and I will do the rest myself." Sheng Xing Ze touched his flat stomach and prepared to get up, "Are we eating out tonight?"
"Wait for a bit, I have something to talk with you."
Yu Bai put his hand on Sheng Xing Ze's shoulders and pressed the young man to sit back down on the sofa, "Is...is it true that you want to cancel the contract with the company?"
"It's not like I can't pay the liquidated damages, and they have not been neglecting me altogether," Sheng Xing Ze did not shy away from this question. His discord with Wan Bo Xue was not a secret, coupled with Lin Mu's instigation from time to time; everyone with a level headed brain could see that if Sheng Xing Ze wanted to go further in his career, the first critical step was to leave Wan Bo Xue.
"Do you have any plans afterwards?" Yu Bai had his own plan in mind, but he also wanted to see what Sheng Xing Ze wanted to do.
"To start my own studio, our family has a lot of money to spend," Sheng Xing Ze shook his cell phone with a diamond studs phone case and said carelessly.
"Have you picked out an appropriate manager for yourself? Your dad is not familiar with this entertainment industry, he doesn't know much about the business in this circle. Your career is just getting started. You need a well-connected manager to help you get through the market."
"And your point is," Sheng Xing Ze crossed his legs looking at Yu Bai, saying those words to him, Sheng Xing Ze could somehow guess what Yu Bai wanted to do.
"Have you ever considered coming to my studio?" Yu Bai said exactly what Sheng Xing Ze had guessed.
Sheng Xing Ze looked at him with his head tilted and smiled teasingly, "Film Emperor Yu, are you trying to extricate me?"
"I'll pay for the liquidated damages. Mi He Qiu is still your assistant, as for manager--what do you think of Tao Yi Ning?"
"But I want to be the boss," Sheng Xing Ze knew very well that signing with Yu Bai's studio was his best choice. Yu Bai's conditions did sound tempting to him, but he just wanted to tease the other man.
Yu Bai did not get Sheng Xing Ze's teasing, thinking that the young man must be worried that he would be assigned to do some strange work by the manager, "I will not interfere with any of your choices, the company has enough respect for you, Tao Yi Ning will be instructed to never force you to take on works that you don't want to accept..."
"Since I can't be the boss, how about being the boss's spouse?" He did not even hear the plausible words that Yu Bai was saying, his bright eyes shone slyly.
Yu Bai stopped talking and looked at Sheng Xing Ze with a blank expression. After being teased by the young man like this for such a long time, he would not be as helpless as he used to.
"You're not cute at all right now," Did not get to see the flushing face and ears as he had imagined, Sheng Xing Ze's tone was quite regretful, "I agreed to switch the company matter, but I want to be honest about something. I might be able to win an award in the future, right then I'll retire from acting. If Film Emperor Yu doesn't mind, I'm honored to be under your care." He put away his humorous expression, and stretched out his hand to Yu Bai in a serious expression.
Yu Bai smiled lightly, holding Sheng Xing Ze's right hand, the smooth touch gave him a nostalgic feeling of a smooth white jade, "it's my pleasure."
**
In the evening, Sheng Xing Ze ignored Mi He Qiu's complaints and still stayed over at Yu Bai's suite.
After coming back from dinner, Sheng Xing Ze was taking a shower in the bathroom, and Yu Bai leaned on the sofa to check Weibo. During this time, he used various intimidations and temptations to Tao Yi Ning, and finally the other party let him have his Weibo account back.
Since "Xing Lan" first poster was published, Tao Yi Ning had started following Sheng Xing Ze's Weibo using Yu Bai's account. Soon, Yu Bai saw Sheng Xing Ze's Weibo post in the afternoon.
It had only been one afternoon, but this alienated Weibo post had become evidence in other's eyes that there is a crack in their relationship. Several marketing accounts had created similar headlines like "Sheng Xing Ze and Yu Bai are suspected of disagreement, conflict of interests" articles of such started to pop up everywhere. The articles described how the two people always had disputes with each other on the set, the Film Emperor's acting skill overwhelmed the newcomer, and the newcomer blamed the Film Emperor for it. The person wrote it like he was personally involved with the two men, and had personal experience with this whole conflict.
Yu Bai was just browsing Weibo to kill time, he was reading the other post's description going into climax with ups and downs tone, which was quite interesting.
However, he could see that there were more and more fans and passer-bys who were being misled by the marketing accounts. His own fans' comments in Sheng Xing Ze's Weibo post had exceeded the number of his Weibo fans, Yu Bai decided to do something. Soon, Sheng Xing Ze would be an artist under his wing, as the young man's boss, how would he let his own artist be bullied by the media and not do anything?
"Let me borrow your phone," He got up and knocked on the bathroom door, the water inside slowly came to a stop.
"Password is 0505, use it yourself," Sheng Xing Ze did not ask Yu Bai what he wanted to do with his phone. Although they had known each other for quite a short time, after the misunderstanding, their relationship seemed to take one step further. Sheng Xing Ze believed that Yu Bai would not do anything that would harm him.
After unlocking the phone with the given password, Yu Bai neatly deleted the Weibo post by Sheng Xing Ze.
The marketing accounts that had been paying close attention to this matter got even more excited at the deletion. It was simply the best proof that Sheng Xing Ze did not expect that their true relationship would be exposed. The news that the two are at odds was a big blow. The marketing accounts were intended to publish a long article about this.
Yu Bai V: I deleted it. [ Video ]
The short three words were exactly Yu Bai's usual attitude. The video clearly showed a hand holding the phone while clicking on the delete button of Sheng Xing Ze's Weibo, deliberately slowing down the action so that people can see the full deletion process of the Weibo.
Some people immediately countered that this was an act of interaction between the two artists. In order to boost the movie's succession, Yu Bai made this Weibo post to correct the mistakes made by Sheng Xing Ze, and tried to lead the passer-bys to discredit the previous articles.
As soon as such remarks were published, the Yu Fans immediately jumped out to deny.
--With our President Bai's popularity, why does he need to personally post a Weibo to help a newcomer?
--They must have a really good relationship, they can casually use each other''s Weibo account.
From the perspective of the passer-bys, this person called Sheng Xing Ze just wanted to kindly remind the painter not to mention real people in the CP arts, what was so weird about this? It would be embarrassing for the two good friends to be paired up in a CP together.
Interpretation of intentional people.
Previous poster +1
Both Sheng Xing Ze's and Yu Bai's fans were confused by their interactions, but those who believed that they have a good relationship still accounted for the majority.
Yu Bai V: We're senior-junior for now, soon we will have a new relationship status.
Fans: ?? We know you have a good relationship, but can you not be so ambiguous!
With the precedence occurrence, CP fans dared not arbitrarily do anything under the two men's Weibos, and ran to their own small forum and screamed:
--Seeing President Bai's Weibo, rounding off, this is the official announcement!
--Official announcement!
--I demand you two to get married on the spot!
Yu Bai turned off Weibo after making the posts on Weibo and ignored how his posts would affect the social media. He had always followed the path of being an accredited actor, even if he were to be in a relationship, it would not have a fatal impact on his career; not to mention that he still had an entire entertainment company as a back up.
The boss posted some weird Weibo posts in the middle of the night without a warning. Although the boss himself was happy, his company's public relations suffered throughout the night, crying as working overtime to clean up the mess the boss made.
"What are you doing!" The only person in the company who dared to question Yu Bai this way was Tao Yi Ning, who was rushing to Yu Bai's room while screaming to her phone, "send such ambiguous Weibo, do you think you are too popular?"
Yu Bai lazily leaned on the sofa, one hand poking the belly of the bunny doll, and the other hand holding the phone, seamlessly switching personality between the overbearing president and a young innocent girl.
"What's the problem?"
"It's a huge problem. Do you want to have anything to do with Sheng Xing Ze? Are you falling in love with him?"
"I want to sign him on, you should come here," Yu Bai said as if it was the most normal thing.
"You want to sign him on? Aren't you afraid of creating conflicts with his sugar daddy?" Tao Yi Ning could not understand it. Since Yu Bai met Sheng Xing Ze, the other man had crossed all the bottom lines.
She had been by Yu Bai's side since his debut, from a not-well-known agent to an A List actor's agent. She had seen Yu Bai once being bullied by those celebrities with a reliable investor; no one could know how much Yu Bai hated these kinds of people more than she did, but Sheng Xing Ze appeared to be special to Yu Bai.
"We're all wrong about him, that investor is his father," Yu Bai's tone was having a tint of regret.
Tao Yi Ning got silent on the other line.
She tried hard to recall the face of that Chairman Sheng she had seen once; although the man indeed was quite chubby, one seemed to vaguely see how handsome he was when he was young.
Tao Yi Ning initially thought that Sheng Xing Ze changed his surname in order to please the Chairman Sheng. She did not expect that the boy was born as a Sheng. [2]
She sighed, "Understood, I'll manage him, what about you?"
"Is it too much for one agent to manage two artists?" Yu Bai hugged the little bunny and murmured.
Although Yu Bai's voice was in a whisper, Tao Yi Ning managed to hear every word he just said.
One Yu Bai was enough to give her a migraine, now adding one Sheng Xing Ze, Tao Yi Ning could not help but worry about her health in the future.
Standing at the door, Tao Yi Ning knocked on it with pain in her heart.
When Sheng Xing Ze got out of the shower, the opinion on Weibo had changed dramatically. He took a towel in one hand to wipe his hair, while holding his phone on the other hand.
"Film Emperor Yu, you..."
Tao Yi Ning and Yu Bai were discussing Sheng Xing Ze's contact on the sofa. When she saw him come out of the hot shower, Tao Yi Ning was so surprised that her mouth opened wide.
Sheng Xing Ze quickly regained his posture quicker than she could, and smiled at Tao Yi Ning, "Sister Tao, nice to meet you, I'm Sheng Xing Ze."
---
<b>Notes:</b>
[1] The title - 挖墙脚 -- to dig a hole in a wall -- to undermine -- this means to seduce someone away (in relationship) or in this case, to steal an artist from another company. It's not a very praising act, but it happens often. In this chapter context, it was used as a joke.
[2] Name changing - it's super common in the entertainment industry; stage name and real name to make it clear. So Tao Yi Ning thought that Sheng Xing Ze's real name is not actually Sheng Xing Ze. After all, only the company that signed the contract with him knows his real name; other people might not even know about his real name if he doesn't speak, and we all know Sheng Xing Ze does not like to explain himself most of the time. Even so, we do have cases of people legally changing their name both given name and surname to a totally different one. I have a friend who changed her name completely! So I know it's possible and it's not that hard.