When Sheng Xing Ze came back, he saw the WeChat notification kept on flashing; his dad had been messaging him in the group chat since this morning.
Xing Baba: My son, don't hold your anger in alone, tell me and I'll find a way to help you.
Xing Baba: Xing Xing [1], don't listen to the nonsense on the Internet, those people have no idea what performing art is, do they even know what is being called acting? I believe in your acting. If you don't win an award, it's because the judges are blind.
Sheng Xing Ze put a piece of snack in his mouth while swiping up the chat history between him and his family in the chat group. The corner of his mouth had been curving up all this time.
He finally found the root of the original owner's confidence with such bad acting skill.
Xing Baba: Xing Bao [2], why are you ignoring me?
Xing Ma: Don't scream, your son hasn't got up yet.
Right when Sheng Xing Ze read this message, his manager Wan Bo Xue's call came in.
"We've made a thorough investigation on the matter, it's Yuan Xiu," his tone did not sound very good as he impatiently explained, "I'm telling you now is to warn you not to try any trick on him by using your influence; you know that the company is now touting him, no matter what you do, it will be suppressed by the company; so you can only swallow this loss."
Wan Bo Xue [3] was being hired by Father Sheng at a high price, indeed his knowledge in the industry was just like his name, very knowledgeable; and his business ability was as good as his knowledge; on the down side, he was also very well-known for exploiting his own artists.
It was just that his attention was never on Sheng Xing Ze. Although he received a high paycheck from Father Sheng, he did not treat Sheng Xing Ze as his own artist. He had always regarded him as a useless idol, seeing him as a stepping stone for other artists under his management. His main attention was placed on Lin Mu, another artist under his management.
When he got the role of Su Jin Mu, his first reaction was to give it to Lin Mu; but who knew that he got cut off by Sheng Xing Ze halfway. He was annoyed that he lost a chance to let his artist soar, and resented Sheng Xing Ze's self-assertion; that was the reason that Sheng Xing Ze had been on the set for many days yet he had never once come by.
And now he would be even more unlikely to offend Yuan Xiu for the sake of Sheng Xing Ze, he knew better which one is more beneficial for him.
"How long until my contract is up?" Sheng Xing Ze narrowed his eyes, a flash of danger flowing through them.
"Four and a half years left, I know you have someone backing you up. It'll just put you at a disadvantage to terminate the contract with the company now..." such flavorful words, in fact Sheng Xing Ze's termination was actually not favorable for him. He would lose a huge source of income.
"Needless to say," Sheng Xing Ze interrupted him, "I want to terminate the contract." He would show them how much they would have lost with him leaving for the company.
Hanging up the phone, Sheng Xing Ze heaved out a sigh of relief. The WeChat notification was still ringing, he held up his phone to take a look.
Xing Baba: What we should do when facing cyberbullying
Xing Baba: Some celebrities could not stand cyberbullying and committed suicide, what shoud we have done?
Xing Baba: When it comes to cyberbullying, some people resisted and some people swallowed it; yet, he took the matter up to the court.
Sheng Xing Ze read each message and gradually laughed out loud. In his opinion, the Shengs' parents, who were just a string of characters, came to life in an instant. He decided to call Mother Sheng.
The other side obviously had been waiting by the phone, the call was immediately answered after one ring, "Xing Xing."
Hearing this name, Sheng Xing Ze felt his nose getting stuffy, he only mumbled an "uh" sound.
In his previous life, when his mother was still alive, she told Sheng Xing Ze the reason she named him this name was because he is her star; when his mother passed away, no one had ever called him that anymore.
"Ma has helped you scold those brainless people, so don't be sad anymore, okay," Mother Sheng said over the phone, Father Sheng's anticipating eyes were glued on her the whole time, as he did not dare to take the phone from his wife.
"Uh," Sheng Xing Ze did not know how to get along with the Shengs' parents, so he just nodded agreeing to all of what Mother Sheng said.
Father Sheng tried to eavesdrop on the phone, Sheng Xing Ze's feeble response sounded to him like his son was very depressed, this alone made him withered as he said, "Look, our star is being aggrieved."
Mother Sheng pushed away his head in annoyance and continued to speak into the phone receiver.
Sheng Xing Ze heard Father Sheng's mumble and suddenly smiled, "Mom, tell Dad that I'm not feeling down."
Father Sheng heard this and hurriedly grabbed the phone, "Xing Xing, Baba will come to see you in two days."
"Okay."
Father Sheng kept on talking nonstop once he got a hold of his son, Mother Sheng took the phone away impatiently, "You should take a good rest for two days, don't overwork yourself. We will pay for loss of earnings if they ask. After all, our family making money is so you can live a comfortable life."
Sheng Xing Ze said everything is well, and exchanged a few words with Mother Sheng.
After hanging up the call, Sheng Xing Ze lied back down on his bed, the corners of his mouth still curved up.
Only now, he clearly felt the parents' love that the original owner received was really belonging to him.
His parents in his previous life got together due to a business marriage, and the two people had no feelings for each other. After his mother gave birth to him, her health had not been as good, and she was not able to see Sheng Xing Ze grow up.
His father did not like his mother, so he did not even like Sheng Xing Ze. He usually did not come home, it was normal for Sheng Xing Ze to not see him for ten days or even a whole month. If it was not for the monthly allowance being deposited in his bank account, he would have forgotten that he does have a father.
As soon as his mother passed away, his father immediately married the love his life and brought her into the house. The son of his true love justifiably became Sheng Xing Ze's younger brother. Since then, Sheng Xing Ze had become an extra person in this family.
When he was young, Sheng Xing Ze thought his father was just busy, so they did not get to see each other often. When his father's true love entered the house, he realized that his father did not come home because he did not like his mother and him.
He struggled alone in the entertainment industry, thinking that he was good enough to be seen by his father. When he stood at the peak of his career, his father did not bother to take a look at him. He thought he was not good enough, but then he saw his father holding his brother dearly.
The number of times he returned home became less and less, but there was never once a phone call asking why he had not come home yet. Sheng Xing Ze even thought that if he were to die, they would not even know about it.
But now everything was different, the heaven above had granted him a new pair of loving parents. The affection that the original owner couldn't care less about was like a treasure to him.
* *
Yu Bai was sitting in his dressing room, swiping through Weibo with an expressionless face on. The whole world was now going against Sheng Xing Ze, all the articles were all negative views about him. Sheng Xing Ze's Weibo was even hard to look at, and the reason for that was actually his own fans.
"Give me access to my Weibo." He reached out to Yuan Yuan.
Yuan Yuan looked at his in-a-bad-mood boss and idol with an expression of rather die unyielding, "Sis Tao said to never give you access."
Yu Bai was a flamboyant youth when he first debuted, and he often offended many people on Weibo. His manager, Tao Yi Ning, got angry and decided to seize his Weibo account, usually she only allowed him to play with a small account; luckily Yu Bai did not have the hobby of posting on Weibo all the time. Although his temperament had calmed down in recent years, Yu Bai did not have the urge to get his Weibo account back, now this was the first time he asked for it.
Seeing Yu Bai's face getting darker and colder, Yuan Yuan secretly called Tao Yi Ning.
Yu Bai knew Yuan Yuan would not pay attention to him, so he continued to scroll Weibo with his brows knitted together.
In two minutes, Yuan Yuan came back with his phone, "Sis Tao wants to talk to you."
Yu Bai did not get to have the first say when the manager on the other line immediately preempted, "Don't cause me more trouble this time, even if you don't like Sheng Xing Ze, this kind of ruining-your-image act won't do."
Yu Bai did not understand why people around him always thought he did not like Sheng Xing Ze, "Who said I would step on him?"
"Don't tell me that you want to help him?" Tao Yi Ning sneered.
Yu Bai crossed his legs while leaning back in his chair, a lazy smile hanging at the corners of his lips.
"Exactly what I have in mind."
---
Notes:
[1] Xing Xing - his nickname, meaning "star" or in this context "my star".
[2] Xing Bao - again, another intimate nickname from parents, "xing" star, "bao" baby, "my starlight"? I don't know LOL