7:30 in the morning.
It was the peak of rush hour.
Shao Si was jolted awake by a knock on the door.
The knocking was accompanied by a familiar shouting voice.
"Dad! Dad, open the door quickly!"
"Something terrible has happened! Are you still sleeping? Wake up, hurry!"
Shao Si instinctively pulled the blanket over his head, trying to muffle the noise.
"Someone's really going to die—!"
Just as Li Guangzong's throat was starting to hurt from yelling, the proud door finally opened before him.
—He saw, with perfect clarity, this big star under his management, successful and at the peak of his career, looking half-asleep and leaning against the doorframe, slightly grumpy from being woken up, the very picture of 'indifference'.
It seemed this lord had no idea that all hell had broken loose outside.
Li Guangzong darted into the room at top speed, closed the door, and demanded: "Why was your phone off when I called?"
Shao Si scratched his head, went to the kitchen to pour a glass of water, then flopped onto the sofa: "Should I keep my phone on and let radiation damage every inch of my skin unimpeded?"
Li Guangzong was so angry his mustache quivered: "...Keep joking. The first time I called it was clearly on, but you hung up and when I called back it was off."
Shao Si thought for a moment: "What do you want me to say? Do you need me to admit I just didn't want to answer the phone?"
Congratulations to Li Guangzong for achieving his daily 'driven to death by anger' accomplishment [1/1].
While Shao Si was drinking water, Li Guangzong ran around, closing all the curtains on the nearby windows.
Then he stood in front of Shao Si, crouched down, and put his hands on his shoulders: "Listen to me, something very serious has happened."
Shao Si's face was expressionless, still immersed in the irritation of having a good dream rudely interrupted.
Yesterday he had eaten spicy hot pot with Chi Zijuan, then gone home satisfied to sleep.
Chi Zijuan, who years ago had practiced dancing with him and appeared on variety shows together, had now successfully transitioned to become a spicy hot pot restaurant owner. Wearing an apron, with sleeves rolled up, he skillfully cooked fish balls for him in a large pot, scooping them out at just the right moment and drizzling them with chili oil.
The aroma was intoxicating.
As Shao Si thought about it, he realized he was not only irritated, but also a bit hungry.
"The vast internet crowd has stirred up rumors and created some gossip about you—don't look at me like that, it wasn't me or the company, it really was just netizens with too much time on their hands making trouble for you. Maybe it's just your destiny to face this tribulation." Li Guangzong finished speaking, took out his phone, opened the Weibo hot search rankings with a few taps, then turned the screen towards Shao Si, "See for yourself, the first one, the one that's exploded."
Shao Si took the phone and saw that the first item only had two names, his and Gu Yanzhou's in a mysterious combination, the two names side by side with only a space between them.
The second and third hot searches were their individual names.
Shao Si really couldn't imagine what event could have linked the two of them together. He rubbed his chin and set his water glass aside: "Did the media discover he didn't follow me back? And that made us blow up?"
Li Guangzong really didn't know how to explain it to him, and only said: "Actually, your imagination could be a bit more vivid."
Hearing this, Shao Si raised an eyebrow and casually clicked into the topic, then was stunned by the word 'marriage' all over the screen.
[Exclusive Bombshell: Gu Yanzhou and Shao Si Suspected to be Married! Editor Takes You into the Private World of the Two Film Kings!]
Below were some popular comments:
—Oh my god, Gu Yanzhou married Shao Si! Rings! Couple tattoos! Honeymoon! Damn, it actually feels a bit romantic!
—They're married???
—I usually only dare to ship them quietly, I can't believe they actually got married without anyone noticing! And they're wearing rings! Those rings look so good!
—Both of my husbands got married, unfortunately neither to me. Are all the handsome men going gay now?
Shao Si looked up, his face expressionless, and said to Li Guangzong word by word: "...I got married?"
Li Guangzong: "...Who knows."
Shao Si clicked into the detailed article with pictures and text, frowning as he read.
Introduction: "Speaking of these two, they are household names in the entertainment industry. If it weren't for a fan accidentally noticing that they had worn rings of the same style, this shocking truth about their secret marriage might never have come to light. [/image link]"
In the image was a publicity photo of Shao Si attending an opening event around May two years ago. An enthusiastic netizen had specially circled in red the ring he was wearing on his hand at the time.
However, coincidentally, in March of the same year, in a certain photo of Gu Yanzhou captured by paparazzi on the street, he was clearly wearing the same style of ring on his right ring finger.
The first fan to dig up these two photos was called 'A Gentle Smile', a shipper of Gu Yanzhou and Shao Si.
Perhaps even she hadn't expected that by uncovering these two photos, she would spark such great enthusiasm among netizens. In less than ten hours, other fans had dug up more 'evidence'. This turned the marriage rumor from an unverifiable gossip into a 'truth' that couldn't be washed clean.
'A Gentle Smile' stated that she had only become secretly obsessed with this pairing because of how good they looked standing together when Gu Yanzhou presented an award to Shao Si at the Golden Dragon Awards ceremony. So she liked to collect photos of the two from various periods, cut them out and photoshop them together to make 'couple photos', satisfying her own fantasies and benefiting other shippers.
She never imagined she would discover such a secret.
Regarding the rings, Shao Si couldn't remember clearly about something from two years ago, but he could be certain that all his accessories for various occasions were handled by his stylist.
And the other 'evidence' was even more far-fetched.
"This couple tattoo... I can confirm that the one on Gu Yanzhou's lower back is indeed a tattoo," Shao Si zoomed in on the image for a closer look, "but this photo of me is just my underwear band showing when my clothes rode up, don't these people have brains?"
Li Guangzong: "...Who knows."
Shao Si continued reading, his fingers lightly tapping on the sofa armrest: "Three years ago I was vacationing in Sweden, and Gu Yanzhou happened to be in Sweden attending an event, so by rounding up that equals us having a honeymoon together. They even deduced that we must have gotten our marriage certificate a few months before the honeymoon, or secretly got it in Sweden... This imagination is really quite rich."
Li Guangzong turned his face away: "Actually, if I weren't your manager, after reading that article... I might almost believe it."
Shao Si: "Don't suddenly say such stupid things and make me start doubting your intelligence."
"Shall we think of something positive?" Li Guangzong said, "Look at the comments, there are still many people who believe you're just selling fanservice and aren't really married. Dad, look, doesn't that make you feel a bit relieved?"
"There might really be something wrong with your brain." Shao Si was about to exit when he accidentally hit the like button.
Shao Si: "..."
Li Guangzong: "...??????"
"What are you doing!!!! ヾ(｀Д) Are you trying to get us killed!!!!" Li Guangzong frantically snatched the phone back, quickly unliked the post, then checked repeatedly to confirm he was logged in as...
Damn it, he was logged into Shao Si's Weibo account.
Shao Si's Weibo was now basically managed by him. He was mainly responsible for regularly posting things to keep the account active, and occasionally leaving warm comments for fans, like birthday wishes for little fans on their birthdays.
So... at some point, whenever he logged into Weibo, he defaulted to Shao Si's account.
However, unliking at this point was useless. Sharp-eyed netizens had already taken screenshots as evidence, and a new hot search topic was rising: Shao Si likes post.
Faced with Li Guangzong's incredibly resentful gaze, Shao Si just shrugged, showing a hint of apology: "Finger slipped."
Because of Shao Si's slip of the finger, the situation was hyped to its peak. The topic that had been burning for most of the night not only didn't cool down, but heated up even more.
—The young master liked the post, is this confirming it?
—Hype!!! Absolutely just hype!!!
—Those yelling 'hype' get lost, who would hype something for three years, this is clearly true love!
...
Netizens had all kinds of stances on this matter, fans turning into anti-fans, passersby becoming fans, emerging in endless streams.
Of course, there were also many rational fans who tagged both of them, wanting to hear what the parties involved had to say.
Li Guangzong finished calling the company, then called Gu Yanzhou's manager, busy as a spinning top, without even a moment to pause for a sip of water.
"Brother Chen! Hello, it's like this, you must know about that thing on Weibo, I wanted to discuss a strategy with you," Li Guangzong was quite troubled. The company wanted to use this to promote Shao Si, but it also depended on whether Gu Yanzhou was willing. So he could only probe Chen Yang, Gu Yanzhou's manager, for their attitude. "How do you want to clarify this?"
Chen Ming had also been bombarded with various phone calls since early morning. He secretly glanced at Gu Yanzhou twice, put the call on speaker, and said: "... Let's resolve this quickly and decisively. Find evidence, explain those fabricated photos, state our position, and send a lawyer's letter demanding an end to the rumors."
Since his debut, Gu Yanzhou had rarely been involved in gossip. Even his previous situation with Yang Yinyin was just one-sided hype from the woman's company to indirectly promote their new drama.
"Alright," Li Guangzong had pretty much the same idea about this matter. He turned around and found that Shao Si had already prepared breakfast for him.
So Gu Yanzhou and Chen Yang clearly heard this conversation through the phone:
"Dad, you still have time to eat? When did you fry this egg? You're really too relaxed... Rather than eating, you'd better quickly resolve that 'like' you accidentally tapped earlier. It's driving me crazy, you really are..."
"If you're hungry, there's still a bag of instant noodles in the kitchen."
"... I'm! Not! Hungry! You'd better just shut up!"