Gu Shen Ci went up to the second floor and headed toward the room Qian the Butler had mentioned. The bedroom door stood half-open, and he could hear two people talking inside.
Wasn't one of them his third brother? The other was probably the younger brother who had just come home, right?
Gu Shen Ci walked up to the doorway, leaned against the frame, and raised a hand to wave at the people inside. Gu Shuoyan had his back to the door and didn't see him. Gu Zhiyue was stuffing grapes into his mouth, and when he saw someone outside the door waving at him, he raised a hand and waved back.
"Who are you waving goodbye to?" Gu Shuoyan looked back and rose from his stool. "Second brother, you're finally back!"
Gu Shen Ci walked into the room. "I came straight home after finishing filming at the theater. I wanted to hurry back and see our little brother."
Gu Zhiyue greeted him with a smile. "Hi, second brother."
"Mm, our third brother was right."
"Right about what?"
"Our little brother looks like me."
Gu Shuoyan clicked his tongue. "You really do remember things like that clearly."
Gu Zhiyue touched his face. "Mom said my eyes, brows, and face shape take after her, just like yours."
Gu Shen Ci said, "I don't have much of a gift for you, so I'll give you a few front-row concert tickets, and my albums too."
"Thanks, second brother!"
Gu Shen Ci stretched his neck. "I'll go back to my room and rest for a bit. See you at dinner."
Gu Shuoyan draped an arm over Gu Shen Ci's shoulders. "I'm going back to my room too. See you in a bit, little brother."
"Okay, see you at the dinner table."
The door closed, and Gu Zhiyue flopped backward onto the bed. "My eyes feel a little uncomfortable after playing games for so long. I'll close them and rest for a bit."
Gu Jiangfeng knew Gu Shen Ci had come back from the filming set that day. Zhao Wanling had also reminded him to come home early that evening so the family could eat together.
Fortunately, there wasn't much work that day. After dealing with the last document, Gu Jiangfeng left the office and went home.
Gu Jiangfeng arrived just in time for dinner. Zhao Wanling took the jacket from his hand and laid it over the arm of the sofa. "Go wash your hands and eat."
"Okay. Is our second son back?"
"He's been back for ages. He's over at the dining table, chatting away with Xiao Yue and Shuoyan."
Zhao Wanling served Gu Shen Ci half a bowl of soup. "Shen Ci, it's your favorite lotus seed soup. Drink it while it's hot. Xiao Yue, I'll get you a bowl too."
Gu Zhiyue pushed his bowl over. "Thanks, Mom."
After taking the soup, Gu Zhiyue scooped up a spoonful, blew it cool, and drank it. [Mm! This savory lotus seed soup has a distinctive flavor too. Delicious!]
Xiao Jiu made a sound like a yawn. [Host, it's been so long since I shared any gossip. I can't hold it in anymore.]
[Then go ahead. It'll go perfectly with dinner.]
Gu Shen Ci looked up and glanced around. Everyone was eating normally, and nothing seemed unusual.
Gu Shen Ci felt someone nudge his leg under the table. Gu Shuoyan shook his head slightly at him, signaling for him to eat first and leave the explanations for later.
Gu Zhiyue picked out the vegetables he didn't like and set them on the table. [What new gossip have you got?]
Xiao Jiu chuckled. [Keeping up with current events, of course it's gossip about your second brother!]
Gu Shen Ci nearly failed to swallow his mouthful of soup and only recovered after coughing several times.
Zhao Wanling patted his back to help him catch his breath. "Drink slowly. You're a grown man, yet you're still so hasty."
Gu Shen Ci gave a couple of sheepish laughs. "I took too big a gulp. I'll be careful next time."
Seeing that Gu Shen Ci was fine, Gu Zhiyue returned to gossiping with Xiao Jiu. [What gossip is there about my second brother? It's not some scandal, is it? How big is it?]
Xiao Jiu said, [It's not that big, but if you call it small, it's actually pretty big too.]
[Tsk, are you playing guessing games with me?]
[Basically, someone filmed Gu Shen Ci during this shoot and maliciously spread rumors, saying he exploited the staff and even made someone else change his shoes.]
Gu Zhiyue raised his brows slightly. [Do these people have nothing better to do? They spend all day looking through an eight-hundred-times magnifying glass just to smear people. It's only changing shoes. I thought he'd done something utterly unforgivable. I often had my roommates help me put my shoes on in high school. Am I going to get exposed online too?]
Xiao Jiu laughed for several seconds before continuing. [That was because the crew was racing against time to finish shooting three scenes during that brief stretch of sunset. After filming, Gu Shen Ci was so exhausted that he collapsed into a lounge chair, so he had a staff member help change his shoes.]
[These trolls really do have too much time on their hands. Can't we find something for them to do? Spending all day watching other people isn't a solution.]
Xiao Jiu sounded slightly disappointed. [No. I can only foresee future events to avoid danger and share interesting gossip with you, Host.]
Gu Zhiyue silently shook his head. [Fine, what a shame. This shouldn't affect my second brother much, right? He seems to have plenty of fans.]
[It's impossible for it to have no effect. Having fans is good, but there's a bad side too. Rational fans are fine, but quite a few fans are emotionally extreme. Someone tracked down the person who posted the video and took it upon themselves to contact several other irrational fans. They left abusive messages in her inbox and maliciously edited pictures to curse her to death.]
[The person who filmed the video was already a Gu Shen Ci anti-fan, so this blew things up even more. Later, rumors even started spreading that Gu Shen Ci had deliberately directed his fans to attack her.]
Gu Zhiyue's brows knitted slightly. [That's going a little too far. Sure, it's wrong for someone to slander your favorite idol, but if you turn around and slander and smear them, how are you any different from that anti-fan? Aren't you both destroying someone?]
Gu Shen Ci frowned as he thought back. He had been so tired from filming that he'd asked a staff member to help change his shoes-hadn't that been the night before last?
Then he heard Gu Zhiyue ask Xiao Jiu, [When will that person post the video?]
[Tomorrow at eight in the evening.]
Gu Zhiyue sighed helplessly. [A circle for acting and singing, yet it's a battlefield every single day. Anyone who can keep going must have resilience to rival a mammoth's.]
Zhao Wanling asked, "Xiao Yue, would you like some more rice?"
"Yes!" Gu Zhiyue passed his bowl over and had just under half a bowl of rice added.
Gu Shen Ci smiled. "Eat more, little brother. You're still growing. Our third brother said you've just started college. Want to join the entertainment industry after you graduate and act with me?"
Gu Zhiyue shook his head. "No."
Gu Shen Ci sighed. "What a shame. You're so good-looking."
Gu Zhiyue's eyes and brows resembled Gu Shen Ci's. They both had upturned phoenix eyes inherited from Zhao Wanling, but the corners of Gu Shen Ci's eyes held an extra touch of coldness. Gu Zhiyue hadn't fully grown into his looks yet, and the contours of his face still had a softness to them. His cheeks rounded outward slightly, and his bangs lay softly across his forehead. He lacked Gu Shen Ci's cool, aloof air.
If Gu Shen Ci was a cold, aloof beauty, then Gu Zhiyue was a gentle, soft beauty.
Gu Zhiyue said, "Good-looking people can pursue other fields too. Maybe I'll become an editor or director or something and have you come act in my productions, second brother."
"A director? Sure. If you really become a director, I won't take scripts from any other directors anymore. I'll only act in your productions."
Zhao Wanling shook her head helplessly. "All right, you two. Eat."
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