Are You Smitten?

"Old Su, be honest. Are you smitten?" Xing Ying nudged Su Tingbai with his elbow.

Su Tingbai's behavior was far too strange right now. He had never been this attentive even toward his friends.

He was a little better with Old Master Su, after all, since the old man had raised him from childhood.

As for Father Su and Mother Su, he treated them only slightly better than his friends. But being exceptionally attentive? That was impossible. At most, he remembered his family's food preferences. Being dutiful as usual already made him better than most people.

Come to think of it, Xing Ying had grown up playing with Su Tingbai, and this was the first time he had seen him carefully fuss over an outsider like this.

Su Tingbai gave Xing Ying a gloomy look and did not answer.

Huo Heng raised an eyebrow. "So you're admitting it by default?"

Su Tingbai gave Huo Heng another gloomy look.

Huo Heng made a zipping motion over his mouth and raised his hands in surrender. "Fine, I talked too much."

Su Tingbai glanced at Shen Rui'an, who was on the other side eating grilled sausage and teasing the dog, then lowered his head to prepare the ingredients. "I think you're overthinking it."

Like him? Maybe a little, but it wasn't that obvious, was it...

Su Tingbai recalled how he had treated Shen Rui'an lately and fell silent.

It did seem a little different!

But that was because Shen Rui'an had come here to recuperate. His health was so fragile, the Shen Household had entrusted him to Su Tingbai, and his grandfather had reminded him too. He could hardly let him get hurt, could he?

Su Tingbai convinced himself that, in over twenty years, he had never had that particular nerve for romance. It had always been others pursuing him, while he rejected them.

Shen Rui'an did not mean that way toward him. He was like a child pampered by his family, instinctively whining and acting cute toward people who cared for him.

Bound by his grandfather's request, Su Tingbai was good to him too. Besides, Shen Rui'an was not as annoying as those other people. He was pretty and well-behaved, so wasn't it only right for Su Tingbai to treat him well?

Besides, Shen Rui'an was only staying here temporarily to recover. Once he got better, he would leave.

Su Tingbai's heart tightened. Shen Rui'an would leave once he recovered.

His whole mood suddenly sank, so much so that even Xing Ying and Huo Heng, who were helping skewer the food beside him, noticed.

The two exchanged meaningful looks.

Xing Ying tilted his chin at Su Tingbai, who was immersed in his own world: What was wrong with Su Tingbai now? Why was his temper getting more and more unpredictable?

Huo Heng shrugged and waved a hand: How would I know?

Su Tingbai's emotions were too obvious. Not only Xing Ying and the others, but even the viewers in the livestream could sense it.

[? What's wrong with Su Tingbai? He seems to be in a bad mood.]

[Who upset him again?]

[Who upset him?]

[Wasn't he fine just now? I think I heard him call out something, but I don't know what happened.]

[Did Boss Xing upset him?]

Since Xing Ying and Huo Heng had been close by and appeared on camera often, the livestream viewers were fairly familiar with the two of them.

Huo Heng was multitasking, looking at his phone. With his sharp eyes, he spotted the comments flashing across the big screen and spoke up. "I didn't upset him! Don't falsely accuse an innocent man!"

With Huo Heng interacting with them, the livestream chat laughed and joked around for a while.

Then someone suddenly posted:

[If it wasn't President Huo and the others, then it must've been the new guest?]

[I really did hear Tingbai call out something like Shen... An? Then not long after he came back, his mood got worse.]

[Tsk, why does everything involve the new guest? He's so annoying.]

[...Su Tingbai himself hasn't said anything, yet some people are already blaming the new guest?]

Noticing that someone was steering the livestream chat in a bad direction, Xing Ying hurriedly signaled for Su Tingbai to look at the comments.

The moment Su Tingbai looked up, he saw a comment saying [The new guest is so pretentious]. He immediately frowned and explained, "It has nothing to do with him. I just thought of something unpleasant. The new guest is very nice. Moderators, mute the people stirring things up."

At his word, the person who had called the new guest pretentious was muted and kicked out. Furious, that person switched accounts several times to come back and curse, only to be muted and blacklisted every time.

Unable to let it go, that person returned to a small group chat and began twisting the truth.

Meanwhile, with Su Tingbai having spoken up, the viewers eagerly joined in. Someone teased:

[What's wrong with Su Tingbai? He looked so gloomy just now, like his wife ran away.]

When Su Tingbai saw that comment, his face darkened even further. What did they mean, his wife ran away? His wife was perfectly fine—no, he did not have a wife!

Those viewers had completely led him astray.

Su Tingbai turned over the meat skewers and sprinkled them with seasoning. "What wife? Nonsense."

[He's panicking.]

[He's panicking.]

[This is the first time I've seen Su Tingbai respond to this kind of comment. Could he really have someone?]

As soon as that was said, netizens who loved gossip immediately flooded in, and the livestream viewer count quickly climbed past fifty thousand.

Ever since Su Tingbai became popular, plenty of viewers had confessed to him. His comment section was also full of jokes about who would be lucky enough to marry him.

Su Tingbai turned a blind eye to all of it and had never responded.

Ever since people like Young Master Locke had tried to ride his popularity by pairing themselves with him, many viewers asked about his relationship status whenever he went live.

Fans and viewers more or less knew Su Tingbai's circumstances: he owned companies, had considerable wealth, seemed to have an unusual background, was tall and handsome, and had over ten million followers as a content creator. His traffic was impressive too. He was basically walking golden testosterone—meaning he was as sought-after as an eligible rich bachelor, while also being alluring as hell.

Naturally, there was no shortage of people fantasizing about him.

Who would not fantasize about a domineering CEO loving them with the force of a home invasion?

On top of that, gossip was practically a national pastime, so many people were curious about his love life.

Every livestream, someone would beat around the bush and ask. Once Su Tingbai got tired of it, he would answer, "I'll never date in this lifetime. No one is good enough for me."

Once he said that, everyone knew he was single and had high standards.

A single, rich, handsome man was practically a fan-attracting machine, and even more people started following him.

Whether people admitted it or not, most preferred celebrities and influencers to be single, especially when that person was young and outstanding in every way.

That was why so many people went underground with their relationships while maintaining a single-person image.

Apart from certain niches, such as couple influencers, many people presented themselves as single to the public.

Although Su Tingbai had never deliberately built a single-man persona, his longstanding attitude of being unattached and not caring about anyone had given some people hope. Anyone who could get even a little romantic gossip linked to him could latch onto that wave of traffic.

The rumored partner of a playboy was nowhere near as eye-catching as the partner of someone perpetually single.

That was why Su Tingbai had always been popular with admirers. Because of this, he even had to carefully select his livestream moderators, removing people who had sexual fantasies about him. He did not want that sort of thing turning his personal account into a mess.

As an influencer and half an insider in the industry, he had heard far too many stories of influencers flirting ambiguously with their wealthy supporters, juggling multiple people, and eventually getting exposed.

Su Tingbai did not lack money. To be honest, most of his wealthy supporters were just his mischievous friends watching for entertainment. His livestream moderators were also hired specifically for the job. It was purely a work relationship, unlike most livestreams where top donors were made moderators, thus eliminating gossip from that angle.

Whenever his livestream chat asked about his relationship status, he would usually toss out a casual line: "Even dogs wouldn't date."

Now that the viewers had brought it up, combined with Su Tingbai's recent unusual behavior, the others in the livestream were curious too.

[Looks like he failed to win them over.]

[Could he have been rejected?]

[Stop making things up. The person involved hasn't admitted anything.]

Su Tingbai fell silent. He did not answer, focusing intently on the ingredients in his hands, as though nothing but them could occupy his mind.

The more he acted like that, the more curious the viewers became. Passing netizens who saw the stream joined in for the fun and stayed to egg them on.

[Silence means he's admitting it, right?]

[Could he really be dating someone?]

[Hard to say. Even if he isn't, he looks just like I did when I was pursuing my goddess—completely out of it.]

[I looked just as stupid when my crush rejected me.]

[Betting on it—Su Tingbai's heart has started to flutter!]