Compared with the three of them, who remained perfectly composed, Wen Tianqi, fuming across from them, inevitably came off worse.
Fortunately, Wen Zhixin caught him in time and kept him from doing anything else extreme.
With a cold expression, Wen Tianqi gave a heavy snort, turned around, and sat down in the seating area opposite them.
An Ya tightened her grip on her little brother's hand and bent down to ask, "Xiao Yu, are you hungry? Go have something to eat over there."
An Yu immediately nodded obediently. "Okay, I'll go have some little cakes!"
Only after watching An Yu race toward the table over there did An Ya walk over to Chu Yu, sit down on the sofa beside her, and ask quietly:
"What's going on with all of you?"
Chu Yu idly twirled her hair. "Nothing much. Some people just aren't happy about coming in second, I suppose."
She was clearly all but naming Wen Tianqi.
A trace of coldness flashed in Wen Zhixin's eyes.
It seemed Chu Yu intended to tear away all pretense of civility with her this time.
That did not matter, either. As long as they had reason on their side, no amount of arrogance from Chu Yu would do any good.
With that thought, Wen Zhixin stopped concealing her feelings and spoke bluntly. "Little sister Xiao Yu, Tianqi is young and hotheaded, so he inevitably speaks without thinking things through sometimes. I already reprimanded him just now. What do you mean by continuing to say things like that?"
Chu Yu looked astonished. "Isn't there something wrong with the way you're teaching him? Being young and hotheaded means he can talk like that? Then since I'm young, does that mean I can trade insults with my elders? After all, I'm young, so I inevitably speak without thinking things through?"
Now, the flaws in Wen Zhixin's perspective and understanding were laid completely bare.
Viewers in the livestream who still had any sense of right and wrong or reason stopped lurking and began commenting.
[Exactly. Someone like Wen Tianqi, who speaks without using his brain, is bound to cause a huge disaster sooner or later.]
[Help! The way Wen Tianqi acts reminds me of those unreasonable little brats. Like parent, like child, seriously.]
[To be fair, the Wen siblings have no idea what Chu Yu's team went through. What right do they have to say the production team was unfair?]
[Heh, has the water army Chu Yu hired come out to start scrubbing her image clean?]
[Wake up, everyone. It's the twenty-first century, and even the country advocates freedom of speech. Chu Yu's team cleared the stages more easily than the other two teams, and people aren't even allowed to say so? Even if I curse her out, that's perfectly normal, right?]
Just then, the tightly shut lounge door was suddenly pushed open, and a beaming Zhao Qirui and the director walked in enthusiastically.
Chapter 25: (Typo fixes)
At the lounge entrance, the director and Zhao Qirui began politely deferring to each other over who should enter first.
"After you, Director."
"No, no, no, General Manager Zhao, please, after you." The director bowed respectfully and made room for Zhao Qirui.
After repeated courtesies got them nowhere, Zhao Qirui finally stopped standing on ceremony with the director and happily pushed the door open, lifting his head and straightening his back with a kindly smile on his face.
Zhao Qirui's gaze swept quickly around the room before settling on Chu Yu, who was leaning back on the sofa.
"Young Miss! I've finally gotten to see you."
Zhao Qirui looked excitedly at Chu Yu, who was leaning back on the sofa, his eyes reddening.
Seeing this unfamiliar man suddenly rush in so enthusiastically, all the siblings in the lounge froze.
Although Zhao Qirui did have some renown in the business world, he was someone the still-young siblings would never ordinarily come into contact with, so naturally, none of them recognized him.
Wen Zhixin instinctively frowned, seemingly pondering what was going on with this man who had suddenly barged so rashly into the lounge.
Not knowing what was happening, An Ya did not speak carelessly either and continued quietly watching how things unfolded.
Compared with the composure of the siblings at the scene, the livestream chat suddenly boiled over.
[Holy shit! This man... could he be that General Manager Zhao?]
[Who's General Manager Zhao? Is he a big deal?]
[You seriously don't even know Zhao Qirui! He's one of the Chu Group's key executives. He even made the national business leaders list last year!]
A large portion of the livestream viewers did not know Zhao Qirui either, but with explanations from those in the know, everyone gradually came to understand just how badass he was.
[So... why would someone this important suddenly barge into a variety show's filming location?]
Just as the viewers figured out the situation, Chu Yu finally came back to her senses in the lounge.
She still had some recollection of Zhao Qirui's familiar face, and soon, fragments of memories from many years ago surfaced as well.
"Uncle Zhao? What are you doing here?" Chu Yu was a little surprised.
Zhao Qirui smiled so broadly that his face creased. "Young Miss, I saw you on the show's livestream this morning, and I happened to have nothing much to do this afternoon, so I came over. I thought it would be nice to catch up with you, and with the Young Master, too."
All the unfortunate employees Zhao Qirui had stood up: "..."
Boss, are you sure you really had nothing much to do this afternoon?
While Chu Yu and Zhao Qirui exchanged greetings and caught up, Wen Zhixin looked over doubtfully as well.
So this unfamiliar man knew Chu Yu.
She had no idea what he did for a living, but he actually dared to barge so recklessly into the show's filming location.
Wasn't he afraid the staff would throw him out?
Clearly, Wen Zhixin did not know Zhao Qirui's true identity either.
She simply took him for an ordinary older man and paid him little mind.
The next second, the director entered the room right behind Zhao Qirui.
The siblings, who had been quite relaxed, immediately perked up and began sitting properly.
An Yu put down his little cake, turned around, and trotted over to sit obediently beside his sister.
Wen Tianqi stopped spacing out as well and turned to look at the director.
They all knew that if the director had come in person, he must have something important to say.
Under everyone's gaze, the director slowly walked over and did something that made everyone's jaws drop.