"I'll just lie flat and take the ridicule."
Xie Jianyuan finally couldn't help laughing. He bent down, picked up the other newspapers and books from the floor, and arranged them neatly on the coffee table.
"It's fine. I won't laugh at you, Brother Chun. I just think..." He paused, his gaze falling on the person sprawled on the sofa with a look of utter despair. A faint smile curled his lips again. "You're different from how I imagined."
"Sorry to disappoint you." Xu Chun yawned listlessly. "I really am no good at tidying up."
So this was the real reason he didn't like letting outsiders into his home.
While Xu Chun went to the kitchen to cook noodles, Xie Jianyuan helped him tidy the room. Xu Chun absentmindedly beat an egg, thinking no wonder Xie Jianyuan was doing this. He had forgotten about Xie Jianyuan's obsession with cleanliness and compulsive disorder.
Once the noodles were ready, Xu Chun and Xie Jianyuan sat down to eat at the dining table. The talent show they had both participated in was playing in the living room. They knew the theme song so well they could sing it backward.
Xie Jianyuan looked at the yellow and red noodles in his bowl and hesitated for a moment. He then carefully picked some up with his chopsticks and had a taste.
"How is it?" Xu Chun asked gently, smiling at him, his eyes full of anticipation.
Xie Jianyuan swallowed the noodles. A few seconds passed before he slowly said, "Pretty good."
Before Xu Chun could feel happy, Xie Jianyuan added what was on his mind, tactfully but without being subtle.
"It would be even better with a little less salt."
Xu Chun refused to believe it and tried a bite himself. He too fell silent for several seconds before finally saying, "How about we add some boiled water?"
After they ate, Xie Jianyuan even helped Xu Chun wash the dishes. Xu Chun absentmindedly tested the water temperature. The more he thought about it, the more he felt Jiang Xiuyan wasn't good enough for Xie Jianyuan, leaving him deeply conflicted.
"What do you think... of Jiang Xiuyan?" After hesitating for a long time, Xu Chun finally decided to sound him out indirectly.
When Xie Jianyuan heard him bring Jiang Xiuyan up, his smile faded a little, and his eyes involuntarily darkened.
"Why bring him up? Did he say something to you again today?" Xie Jianyuan asked with a smile. "He confessed to you last time because he was drunk. You didn't take it seriously, did you, Brother Chun?"
Xu Chun's expression turned a little strange. How was he supposed to explain that the confession hadn't been meant for him? Jiang Xiuyan had mistaken him for Xie Jianyuan after getting drunk, so he had actually been confessing to Xie Jianyuan.
"Forget it." Seeing that he couldn't get anything out of Xie Jianyuan and had instead brought a string of questions down on himself, Xu Chun decided not to pursue the topic.
It was none of his business anyway. As for Xie Jianyuan... Xu Chun couldn't help sighing inwardly. If Jiang Xiuyan really did turn Xie Jianyuan gay, there was nothing he could do about it.
He would leave everything to fate.
Before the second episode of the talent show officially aired, another sensational incident occurred online.
A paparazzo secretly photographed Xu Chun getting into a black sedan alone and posted the pictures online. The accompanying text was full of insinuations, emphasizing that the person inside the car was a major company's
CEO.
Whether it was because the paparazzo was good at taking candid shots or not, the angle of the photos did make the two look somewhat intimate.
For a time, speculation ran wild online, but most people agreed with the sugar daddy theory, spreading word that he had been kept by one for a long time.
When Xu Chun saw the news, he didn't feel particularly angry. He just found it somewhat ridiculous and absurd.
He wasn't famous enough yet for paparazzi to stake him out around the clock. The only possibility was that someone had paid a paparazzo to keep watch on him and see if they could dig up a major story.
Xu Chun already had a faint idea who was behind it. Lu Xian had liked using such tactics in his previous life, though he hadn't targeted Xu Chun then, but a young idol who had debuted around the same time as him. The paparazzi he kept on his payroll had taken plenty of sensational photos of that idol. Although their authenticity was questionable, they had ultimately ruined the young idol's future.
Xu Chun sneered. Did Lu Xian think such underhanded tactics would affect him? It seemed Lu Xian was still too young.
Everyone reacted differently to the sudden incident. Most people felt some regret when they saw a scandal suddenly emerge around Xu Chun while his career was on the rise.
Seeing that something so serious had happened to Xu Chun, Su Li rushed around trying to suppress public opinion, her head aching.
For the past few days, Xu Chun's haters online had been having a field day. The marketing accounts, always quick to follow the wind, also knew how to generate buzz and found all sorts of ways to smear him.
One Weibo post recently trending was an example.
[#Xu Chun and Xie Jianyuan not only have similar faces and roles, they even wore the same outfits. One netizen says: Xu Chun wins on every count. What do you think?#]
Below it were photos showing the two wearing the same outfits at events, from every angle.
Wearing the same outfit wasn't uncommon in the entertainment industry. After all, celebrities' looks were handled by professional stylists, and there were only so many clothes in the big brands' new collections to go around. With so many celebrities in the industry, it was perfectly normal for them to end up in the same outfit.
But in such cases, the uglier one was the one who suffered the embarrassment.
And by seemingly praising Xu Chun to excess without realizing it, the marketing account was actually finding another way to smear him.
Sure enough, quite a few of Xie Jianyuan's fans gathered under the post. Most aimed their fire at the marketing account that was sowing discord, but many also hurled abuse at Xu Chun.
After the flame war started, Xu Chun's fans joined the keyboard battle as well. Just as the two sides were trading insults fiercely,
a Weibo post brought everyone's fight to a halt.
As the sisters on Super Star Rice Ball later recalled wistfully, that day was an ordinary yet extraordinary one.
Xie Jianyuan, who hadn't logged on for months, suddenly came online in the early hours and reposted the Weibo post that had sparked the fight.
His caption read:
[#Stop comparing us. Xu Chun is good-looking. I vouch for it.#]
Chapter 22: Indulgence
"Xu Chun, it looks like you and Xie Jianyuan are pretty close. He even stepped in to help you out. No wonder his sissy manager looked at me so strangely when I came to the company this morning, like he wanted to eat me alive."
Su Li appeared in the conference room in her high heels and straightened her documents. The PR department had already managed to suppress public opinion, but she hadn't expected Xie Jianyuan's intervention to send it trending again.