Chapter 7: Heard I Got Married?

7:30am in the morning.

Right in the middle of rush hour.

Shao Si was awakened by knocking on his door.

The knocking was accompanied by very familiar yells. 

“Daddy! Open the door quickly Daddy!”

“We’re in trouble! Are you still sleeping? Don’t sleep! Wake up right now!”

Shao Si subconsciously pulled his blanket over his head in an effort to shut out the noise for a while.

“We’re doomed——！”

It wasn’t until Li Guangzong’s throat started to feel a little sore from the yelling, did the lofty door in front of him open.  

——He got a clear and up-close view of his blazing popular, on-the-rise megastar, who was leaning against the door, heavy-eyed and mildly grumpy. Shao Si’s whole body was emitting “cold” vibes.

Looks like this big shot didn’t know pandemonium had broken loose. 

Li Guangzong darted inside with lightning speed, and closed the door, asking in an interrogating manner: “Why’s your phone turned off?”

Shao Si ran his fingers through his hair, Stopped at the kitchen to pour a glass of water, then sat down on the sofa: “So I should keep my phone on and let the radiation damage every inch of my skin without any hindrance? “

Li Guangzong glared at him in anger: “…Keep bullshitting. The first time I called, your phone was still turned on for sure. Then you hung up on me, and when I called again, that’s when your phone turned into being switched off. “

Shao Si paused for a second: “What do you want me to say? Do I have to admit that I didn’t want to answer the phone?”

Congratulations to Li Guangzong for unlocking the achievement of getting pissed off daily [1/1].

While Shao Si sipped on his water, Li Guangzong ran to and fro, closing the curtains for every window.

Then he stood in front of Shao Si, bent down, and put his hands on his shoulders: “Listen to me, something very serious has happened.” 

 Shao Si was expressionless, still immersed in his irritation about having his sweet dreams being interrupted. 

Yesterday he ate Malatang with Chi Zijuan, and then returned home in a perfectly content state to sleep. 

The person who hung out with Shao Si in the dance practice rooms and on variety shows a few years ago had successfully transitioned into being a restaurant owner instead. Last night, Chi Zijuan donned an apron and rolled up his sleeves to expertly cook fish balls inside a huge pot to perfection, skillfully coating them in chili oil.   

The aromas of delicious food enveloped Shao Si’s entire being.

As Shao Si thought more about last night’s meal he felt that he wasn’t just irritated right now, but also a little hungry…

“The netizens decided to make up some stories about you based on hearsay — don’t look at me! It wasn’t me and doesn’t have anything to do with the company. It really was the netizens who had the time and decided to create some news for you. Perhaps you were meant to experience this disaster in your life. “ Li Guangzong took his phone out, tapped a few times to get to the Weibo hot topics list before showing the screen to Shao Si, “Take a look, it’s the first one, the top search.”

Shao Si took his phone, discovering that the top topic on the list only had two names. He and Gu Yanzhou were oddly paired up, their names placed side by side and separated only by a space. The second and third top searches were each of their names.

Shao Si couldn’t figure out for the life of him what connected the two of them. He rubbed his chin, putting his glass of water aside: “Did the media find out he didn’t follow me back? And then we both made the news?” 

Li Guangzong honestly didn’t know how to explain to him, only saying: “Actually, how about thinking even more outside of the box.”

Shao Si raised an eyebrow, casually clicked into the hot topic, and was shocked by a full screen of news on ‘marriage’.

[Breaking Exclusive: Gu Yanzhou and Shao Si Suspected to be Married! We’ll now take you into the secret world of the two film emperors!]

The top comments under the post:

　　 —— OMG Gu Yanzhou and Shao Si are married! The rings! Couple tattoos! Honeymoon! Damn, this is actually kind of romantic!

　　 —— They’re married???

　　 —— I only dared to fantasize, but they actually quietly went and got married! And they’re even wearing rings! The rings look so nice!

　　 —— My two hubbies got married, too bad it’s not with me. Do all handsome men swing that way nowadays?

Shao Si lifted his head, face expressionless, and asked Li Guangzong “…I got married?”

Li Guangzong: “…Who knows.”

Shao Si clicked into the article linked in the post, his brows furrowed as he read.

Lead Paragraph: ”Speaking of these two, they’re known by everyone in the entertainment industry. If it weren’t for some netizens who inadvertently noticed that the two wore the same rings in the past, this shocking hidden marriage would’ve stayed off the radar. [/image link]”

The first photo was of Shao Si at an opening event in May two years ago. The enthusiastic netizens even drew a red circle around the ring he was wearing at the time. 

Coincidentally, in March of the same year, Gu Yanzhou was photographed on the street by paparazzi. In one of the photos, he wore the same style of ring on his right ring finger.

The netizen who first uncovered these two photos was called “Yan Ran Yi Xiao*”, a CP fan of Gu Yanzhou and Shao Si.

*TL/N: This fan is using an idiom with chinese characters that are homophones of Gu Yanzhou and Shao Si’s names (so it combines the two names). The idiom is used to describe someone with a beautiful smile. 

But she didn’t expect that these two pictures would arouse so much enthusiasm among netizens. In a little over ten hours, a bunch of netizens uncovered other evidence to verify the relationship, making the story of the two being married turn from being an indiscernible rumor into a “truth” that couldn’t be debunked.

“Yan Ran Yi Xiao” expressed that during the Golden Dragon awards ceremony, when Gu Yanzhou presented Shao Si his award, she became smitten with this CP because they just looked too perfect standing together. And so, she started collecting their photos from everywhere as a hobby, photoshopped them together to satisfy her own fantasies, and shared the goods for other CP fans to enjoy. 

She never thought that she would discover this kind of secret.

Regarding the ring, since it was two years ago, Shao Si couldn’t remember it too clearly. But one thing for certain was that the accessories he wore for different occasions were managed by his stylists.

Other pieces of ‘evidence’ were even more outrageous.

“This couple’s tattoo…I’m sure that the tattoo on Gu Yanzhou’s back is real.“ Shao Si zoomed in on the photo, comparing carefully, “but my picture’s just my underwear waistband sticking out, are these people dumb?”

Li Guangzong: “…Who knows.”

Shao Si continued scrolling, lightly drumming his fingers on the sofa armrest: “Three years ago, I was vacationing in Sweden, and Gu Yanzhou just so happened to be attending an event in Sweden. So therefore, they jumped to the conclusion that he and I went on a honeymoon, and even deduced that we either got our marriage certificate a few months before the honeymoon, or secretly got it directly in Sweden… Such great imaginations, quite vivid.”

Li Guangzong looked away: “To be honest, if I wasn’t your manager and read this article…I’d pretty much almost believe it.”

Shao Si: “Don’t suddenly say dumb things that’ll make me question your IQ.”

“Then let’s think about other things, ok?” said Li Guangzong, “Look at the comments, a lot of people think you guys are just pretending to be in love as a tactic for publicity but didn’t actually get married. You see, daddy? Don’t you feel relieved?”

“I think you’ve lost your mind” Shao Si was going to close the post, but accidentally clicked ‘like’.

Shao Si: “……”

Li Guangzong: “…………??!”

“WHAT DID YOU JUST DO!!! ヾ(｀Д) You’re done for!!!!” Li Guangzong frantically snatched the phone back, hurriedly unliked the post, then went to double-check, to double check that the account he was logged into was…

Damn it! He was logged onto Shao Si’s main account!

Shao Si’s Weibo was basically managed by Li Guangzong nowadays, as he had to do some regular posting to prevent the account from sitting idle. He also occasionally sent the fans some warmth, such as if it just so happened to be a fan’s birthday, he would send them birthday wishes or something of the like. 

So…without realizing, whenever he logged onto Weibo, the default account he used was actually Shao Si’s account. 

However, unliking the post now was sort of useless, as the eagle-eyed netizens had long screenshotted the ‘like’ as evidence. A new hot topic rose: Shao Si Clicked Like.

Facing Li Guangzong’s extremely resentful eyes, Shao Si just held his hands up, expressing his apology: “It was an accident.”  

　　Because of Shao Si’s accidental like, the situation continued to escalate. Instead of dying down as the night went by, the topic rose in popularity.

　　—— Young master clicked like, is he indirectly admitting it’s true?

　　—— Publicity stunt!!! It must be a publicity stunt!!

　　—— The comment above saying it’s a publicity stunt should go away, who would spend three years building up for the stunt, this is clearly true love!

……

Netizens had varying responses to scandals like this, some fans turned into haters, some became fans because of the news, the possibilities were endless. 

Of course, there were a lot of rational fans, too, who tagged the two and wanted to hear from the involved parties about the rumours.

Li Guangzong called the company, and also called Gu Yanzhou’s manager, becoming busy to the point that he didn’t have time to take a break and drink some water.

“Chen Ge*! Hi, I believe you’ve already seen everything that’s on Weibo, just wanted to discuss some countermeasures with you,” Li Guangzong was currently in a state of distress. The company wanted to use this rumour to further build Shao Si’s fame, but it depended on if Gu film emperor was willing to play along, so that’s why he reached out to Gu Yanzhou’s manager to feel out their attitude about the situation, “How do you plan on clearing the rumours up?”

*TL/N: Ge: older brother, other than using this for relatives, it’s also a way to address older male friends/colleagues or a less formal way to express respect.

Chen Yang had also been bombarded with phone calls. He stole a glance at Gu Yanzhou, and put the call on speakerphone, responding: “…This situation should be dealt with quickly. We should gather evidence to address the fabricated photos, clearly state our position on the matter, and issue a demand letter requesting netizens to stop spreading rumours.”

Gu Yanzhou had never really been caught up in any rumours or scandals since his debut. The only time before this news with Shao Si, was when Yang Yinyin’s company one-sidedly stirred up rumours to promote their new drama.

“Ok,” Li Guangzong pretty much shared the same thoughts. When he turned around to relay this to Shao Si, he realized that Shao Si had already finished making breakfast for himself. 

And so, Gu Yanzhou and Chen Yang got to hear the following conversation unfold through the phone:

“Daddy, you still have time to eat? When did you fry that egg. You sure are carefree…Instead of eating, why don’t you hurry up and try to resolve the problems from the like you accidentally gave to the post. I’m so mad.”

“If you’re hungry, there’s a pack of instant noodles in the kitchen.”

“…I’M! NOT! HUNGRY! Whatever, just shut up!”

TL Lumi:

I agree with Shao Si. Nothing should be able to get between me and food.