Chapter 25

Some He? Some Shen?

That title was just short of naming names directly.

After his brief friendly cameo and his own first scene appearance, Shen Yu heard the commotion from the crew. He removed his makeup, took out his phone, and glanced at it intently. He raised an eyebrow slightly.

There were three photos in total.

One showed him standing at the entrance of Jingyang School, leaning against a sports car while looking at his phone. Another was a neck-to-neck shot of him and He Qian. Thanks to the angle, it must have been a sneaky shot taken while they were discussing the script. The image quality wasn’t very clear.

But precisely because it wasn’t clear, it seemed even more ambiguous.

The last one was older, from the time they attended the Deer Cry Charity Auction. Both of them were dressed quite formally, sitting on the same sofa. Dim, hazy lighting enveloped them faintly as they chatted and laughed. In that boundless, dazzling atmosphere, they looked perfectly matched no matter how you viewed it.

He Qian clutched the script in his hand and ranted, “Nonsense! With that shooting angle, anyone would look perfectly matched!”

He Qian had originally considered lightly hyping the CP between Shen Yu and Yu Qi to boost the movie’s popularity. But he never imagined that before his plan even took shape, his own hot search with Shen Yu had been ignited by someone else.

Hearing He Qian’s complaint, Zhang Miaomiao blinked her eyes and reacted belatedly. Her heart, which had plummeted after seeing the hot search, suddenly bounced back up resiliently a couple of times.

She saw hope once again. She scooted over, her face flushed, and asked, “Brother Shen is so good to Director He. Does that mean they’re not a couple?”

After the Xu Shengyang incident, the movie that should have died in the womb had suddenly come back to life. Not only had a famous director joined, but they had even roped in the currently red-hot Yu Qi to take over the male lead role. And the director of this film was just a recent graduate from the directing department?

No matter how you looked at it, it didn’t make sense.

But if you added Shen Yu into the equation, everything fell into place.

After all, audiences never tired of the trope of a CEO keeping an actor.

Stumped by Zhang Miaomiao’s question, He Qian choked for a moment. He couldn’t help but reflect on himself. Looking back at everything that had happened, the more he thought about it, the more it seemed… like, perhaps, indeed… Even he couldn’t figure out why Shen Yu would go to such lengths to help him.

Even if he was very optimistic about the movie, this level of investment was too much, wasn’t it?

The more He Qian thought, the more off it felt. The more he thought, the more reasonable those rumors seemed. His gaze toward Shen Yu gradually turned strange.

Could it be, was it possible—

Little Shen CEO really wanted to keep him?!

“These photos make me look pretty handsome.” Shen Yu touched his chin. Getting no response, he wondered why it had suddenly gone so quiet.

Shen Yu looked up from his phone in confusion. In an instant, everyone’s gazes scattered away as if they had encountered the King of Hell. Uncomprehending, Shen Yu finally raised an eyebrow at He Qian, only to find the man’s gaze toward him growing increasingly strange.

He Qian’s gaze shifted from disbelief to wavering, then to suspicion, and finally to touched.

A bad premonition flashed through Shen Yu’s mind.

He Qian, unusually bashful, spoke in a pinched voice like a little wife: “Little Shen CEO, I…”

Shen Yu froze in shock. How could he not know what the man was thinking? His eyes flicked aside, and he swiftly grabbed a piece of bread from nearby and shoved it straight into He Qian’s mouth, using physics to defeat magic and preventing He Qian from uttering any more wolfish words or launching a mental assault on him.

Shen Yu’s tone was exceptionally cold and ruthless: “Stop right there. I don’t like men.”

He Qian blinked his eyes: “Wah wah wah wah—”

Shen Yu remained cold and ruthless: “I don’t like men.”

“Wah wah wah wah—”

“I don’t like men.”

“Wah wah wah wah—” Realizing his misunderstanding, He Qian blinked to indicate he understood, but with his mouth stuffed with bread, he could only make wah wah sounds.

After repeating three times, Shen Yu’s polluted heart finally calmed. He looked at He Qian, who kept making wah wah sounds, completely unable to understand what the man was saying.

Shen Yu frowned: “If you understand, nod.”

He Qian nodded hurriedly.

Shen Yu released his hand and kicked He Qian away from his side with one foot. He Qian tore into the bread in his mouth, clutched his butt, and walked off cursing under his breath.

An assistant nearby came over and asked, “Should we find someone to remove the hot search?”

This kind of sugar daddy scandal seemed harmless on the surface, but their movie was meant to take the orthodox route. If the scandal blew up, this black material would stick to them like an indelible dog-skin plaster.

Even if clarified later, haters would bring it up repeatedly.

He Qian took a vicious bite of bread to vent and retorted, “Do we look like people who have the money to remove hot searches?”

As the saying goes, even a single coin can stump a hero, let alone their group of heroes.

The assistant fell silent.

The assistant said nothing.

The assistant retreated.

A moment later, someone exclaimed in surprise: “Hey, why is the hot search gone?”

“Holy shit, we saved another sum!”

“How?”

“Damn, it’s really gone! Never seen one withdrawn so fast! Five minutes? Or ten?”

Someone pulled out their phone to verify. The hot search page no longer showed any messages about their crew. It had vanished completely clean. Scrolling down forever didn’t bring it up, and searching the keyword showed nothing. It was clear some big shot had intervened behind the scenes.

Everyone exchanged glances, then unanimously turned to stare at Shen Yu, who was playing on his phone.

Suddenly subjected to everyone’s gaze, Shen Yu’s fingers paused.

Someone said:

“President Shen is mighty!”

“President Shen is mighty!”

Shen Yu: “…”

Although he knew Yu Tingsi had been sent by someone to monitor him, the two usually minded their own business and got along fairly harmoniously.

If only Yu Tingsi wouldn’t stare at him while he was using the toilet, Shen Yu would actually be quite willing to keep getting along with him long-term.

The sound of running water echoed as soft toilet lights scattered everywhere.

It was well known that bathroom mirrors always made people look good. Shen Yu twisted the faucet shut tightly, his mood ruined for properly admiring his handsome face. He pulled out a tissue from nearby, slowly dried his hands, and glanced through the mirror at the man leaning against the wall with arms crossed.

Shen Yu was utterly speechless: “Hey, where’s my right to privacy?”

“No such thing exists, for you or me.” Yu Tingsi was still in the blue-and-white school uniform from filming, with dust and mud on his pant legs and hem. A sharp red mark smeared his corner of the mouth—unclear if it was a real injury or makeup.

Shen Yu dried his hands, balled up the tissue, and tossed it into the trash: “Thanks. If that’s meant to be comfort, it didn’t work.”

“Who’s comforting you?” Yu Tingsi shot back and reminded him: “I advise you not to get too close to He Qian.”

“It’s just a work relationship.”

Shen Yu glanced at him and walked out of the toilet first.

Today’s filming progress wasn’t interrupted by this minor interlude. Shen Yu finished his scenes for the day and instructed his secretary to pick him up and take him to the company.

Zhou Jinsheng wasn’t around. Lately, he basically shuttled between the set and the company. At first, he had been mindful of the contract and returned to Little Zhou Mountain on time. But one busy day, he forgot and stayed overnight at the company with no consequences. He hadn’t gone back for several days now.

After handling company matters, the night outside the window had grown extremely thick. Shen Yu had stayed overnight at the company for several days straight. At first, the employees thought it was some mysterious test from the BOSS and were pumped like they’d been injected with chicken blood, volunteering to work overtime late into the night.

But when they turned around after finishing files and saw their own BOSS snoring away, their moods grew complicated. Realizing the boss was just simply crashing there, everyone tacitly agreed to clock out on time, letting their boss eat well and sleep soundly!

The company employees had all left cleanly. Shen Yu looked out the window, pondered for a moment, then grabbed his car keys and stood up, planning to head back to Ten Islands Hotel.

Shen Yu took the elevator down. It was late at night now, with hardly anyone downstairs at the company building. The streetlights were out temporarily for pipeline repairs. Looking out, the buildings under the thick expanse resembled a silent black steel forest—deadly still and silent.

Shen Yu’s steps halted. In the distant darkness, something swayed.

Was it the wind blowing something?

After the Limit of Heat, autumn’s late nights foreshadowed the coming chill. Threads of cold had long permeated the air.

Though the temperature was low, his senses told Shen Yu there was indeed no wind.

Not wind—what was swaying then?

Shen Yu frowned slightly. In the dim view, building outlines, roads, ornamental trees, streetlight shapes, lurking unknowns… everything, all of it, seemed like ingredients casually tossed into a pot, melting into a thick, dark broth, indistinct.

No fog, yet it felt shrouded in heavy mist. Shen Yu focused and made out a vague silhouette.

Like a… human figure?

Endless night surged from all directions, enveloping the man’s form.

In the black gloom, a spark suddenly flickered—not wind, but a finger clamping a cigarette. The scorching ember greedily burned upward along the fragile thin paper. The smoker shook off ash, and faint smoke curled up into the air.

Alarms blared in Shen Yu’s mind. He stared warily at that patch of darkness.

The man seemed to notice his gaze. He lowered his eyes and pinched out the cigarette butt. The ground was littered with ash—who knew when this person had arrived or how long he had waited.

The mountain-like tall figure stepped forward, instantly detaching from the thick, eerie darkness.

In the hazy moonlight, Shen Yu saw the newcomer clearly.

The man’s height carried overwhelming pressure. His shoulders were solid and broad, stretching the fitted black shirt without a single wrinkle. No tie; the top two buttons of the black shirt undone, pectorals faintly visible. Black suit pants, black leather shoes, and a long black overcoat even darker outside.

Pure black, dangerous and profound.

His steps were steady, bringing a chill of murderous austerity, as if he had just emerged from a storm of blood and gore.

Shen Yu’s scalp tingled; the hairs on his back stood on end.

Zhou Jinsheng strode up to Shen Yu and stopped less than a step away. The man slightly lifted his eyelids, his emotionless black misty eyes landing on Shen Yu’s face. No expression.

His cold, heavy voice pressed close in the night thick enough to cut:

“Where are you going?”