The rumors came as expected and, sure enough, spread like wildfire.
Their visit to Shen Yi's hometown a few weeks earlier had been the spark.
Posts quoting residents' "eyewitness accounts" spread rapidly through internal chat groups.
Reporters had clearly caught wind of it and began contacting them relentlessly, lying in wait for a chance to catch them.
Shen Yi turned off his phone for the time being and sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing his aching forehead.
The laptop screen on his knees had been lit for an hour.
The revelations included rumors of Yuan Chen's appointment, his marriage to his secretary, and the fusion of their imprints.
It was all true. There was no denying any of it.
The problem was that they needed to release an official statement, and the person responsible for drafting it was one of the subjects of the rumors.
Writing it himself was mortifying.
He had handled countless difficult matters over the years, but this time alone, the words simply refused to flow.
Shen Yi rubbed his temples, his brow furrowing again and again.
The mattress dipped slightly, and a fresh, just-showered scent drifted over as Yuan Chen joined him on the bed.
"..."
He seemed untroubled by Shen Yi's distress and simply watched him stare at the screen.
Seeing Shen Yi's anguished expression, he turned his gaze to the screen as well.
The text in the Word document had barely progressed since half an hour earlier.
"If you can't write it, let PR handle it."
"Even if they write it for us, I still have to give them the basic facts."
So what? Yuan Chen looked baffled.
Shen Yi merely lowered his head. Handing over his private affairs as "material" for someone else to describe was hardly easy. In the end,