It was already evening when they returned to the apartment. They had also eaten dinner at the Chu residence. Wang Cheng quietly slipped into the bedroom to get his pajamas and take a shower. By the time he came out, Chu Yifeng had come upstairs.
“I’ve taken your pajamas out for you. They’re on the bed.”
Wang Cheng was walking toward him while rubbing his wet hair with a towel when Chu Yifeng suddenly caught his hand. In an instant their positions were reversed, and Wang Cheng found himself pinned to the bed. The weight pressing down on him nearly knocked the breath out of him.
“What are you doing? You’re not getting into bed with me until you’ve showered. I’m a clean freak now.”
Chu Yifeng laughed. “Did something happen at the hospital today?”
Wang Cheng’s expression stiffened slightly. He changed the subject. “What could have happened? I should be asking you something. What did you mean by what you said to Grandma today? You’re not seriously planning to agree to have a child once all my family members have accepted our relationship, are you?”
He still found the whole subject of having a baby terribly strange. He was a man, yet everyone around him discussed him having a baby with such composure, as though he were a woman. He really did not want to have to pull down his pants to prove he was male. The whole thing was absurd.
“I only said we’d consider it. I never said we’d have a child as soon as your family came around. Besides, what’s so bad about children? You and Kun Kun seemed to get along very well today.” Chu Yifeng idly played with Wang Cheng’s damp hair, apparently giving little weight to his objections.
Wang Cheng narrowed his eyes. “Where did you get the idea that we got along well? That little imp only cares about his eldest uncle, which is you. The only reason he clung to me was that I promised I’d let you hold him. Otherwise, do you really think he likes me? He’s already so sly at his age. If every child is like that, I’m afraid my life will be miserable.”
“Two isn’t all that young.”
“…”
Wang Cheng gave him a hard shove, rolled over, and sat astride him. “Listen, when I was two, I still fell over while walking. Are you telling me you could practically fly on your feet at that age?”
Chu Yifeng actually nodded.
Wang Cheng suddenly lost all interest in discussing the subject. He tried to climb off, only for Chu Yifeng to drag him back.
“You still haven’t answered my question,” Chu Yifeng said.
“…”
Why did he have to remember that so clearly? Wang Cheng had hoped he had forgotten. “I already told you. I ran into Yuan Xia this morning when I was about to come back. He mentioned to you before that he wants a child who is biologically related to both him and Jiang Xuan. That’s why he went to the hospital today, so I accompanied him. You called just as we were leaving.”
“I want to know what happened while he was having his examination.” Chu Yifeng was not so easily fooled. When they had met up earlier, Wang Cheng kept stealing glances at him. If he had nothing to hide, why would he keep looking? Something must have happened during that time.
Wang Cheng had not expected his instincts to be so sharp. Should he tell him or not?
“If you won’t tell me, I’ll have to ask Yuan Xia. He should know something,” Chu Yifeng said, deploying his ultimate weapon.
Wang Cheng stamped on his foot and feigned anger. “Do you even know what it means to respect your partner? If your partner doesn’t want to talk about something, you’re supposed to be considerate enough not to pry.”
Chu Yifeng caught his foot and lightly tickled the sole. “And do you know that if it has anything to do with IVF, I, your partner, have a right to know about it too?”
It tickled, so Wang Cheng pulled his foot away. Now that Chu Yifeng had named the subject, there was no point in hiding it. He told him almost word for word what Dr. Eric had said.
After listening, Chu Yifeng delivered his verdict with a broad smile. “He has excellent taste. So you really promised him that if you ever decided on IVF, you’d let him help you?”
“I did. The choice is mine anyway.” That was true, but Wang Cheng had forgotten something. When a person made too many promises, piling one on top of another, the outcome might eventually stop being his decision alone.
His love life was going well, and his career was steadily improving too.
Wang Cheng had been enjoying himself these past few days. Yazhi had been pouring money into projects for some time, but it had recently begun to see returns. Several of its artists were gradually making names for themselves.
Take Huang Yaqin, for example. She had not joined Extreme Challenge. Reality shows of that kind usually featured relatively few women, so the company had ultimately sent Meng Chaofan instead. But Huang Yaqin had not been left idle. The company found an opportunity for her to sing the ending theme of a film. That film had opened in theaters two days earlier, and its box-office performance was impressive, reportedly exceeding thirty million yuan on its first day. The exposure had given Huang Yaqin a small taste of fame.
Then there was Tang Sai. He genuinely loved acting, and his training at Jingxi Drama Academy had given him a strong foundation. Pan Zhihai had secured him the second male lead in a television drama funded by Zhou Group, then arranged for some publicity. Tang Sai was already gaining recognition. The drama itself had a good script, and the production team had cooperated with their request to stir up rumors of a romance between Tang Sai and the second female lead. They had originally intended to use the female lead, but she was already married. Things were going fairly well overall, though Wang Cheng and Pan Zhihai were paying particular attention to He Zihuan.
The previous day, He Zihuan had traveled abroad with the Fashion Vanguard team for a photo shoot. Although the location had not been announced publicly, such an eye-catching team was difficult to conceal. On the first day, someone uploaded blurry pictures, saying they might have spotted the outdoor-shooting crew of a famous magazine in a certain place, though they were not sure. Fashion Vanguard had many devoted fans, so the news immediately sparked discussion. Fashion enthusiasts talked about fashion, but far more people debated which major celebrity would be featured in the issue. Some listed a host of international film and television superstars. The blogger who took the pictures soon denied those guesses, saying that the person she had seen appeared to be a black-haired Asian man. He had been too far away for her to make him out clearly, but he seemed quite handsome. Speculation promptly shifted to Asian superstars.
Soon an explosive new revelation appeared. A person claiming to have inside information said he knew who the Asian superstar was because they were friends. The person making the claim was a verified celebrity on Weibo, so everyone knew his identity: he was an artist signed with Yaxing. If the two were friends, the mystery star was probably another Yaxing artist. Yaxing was the dominant force in the entertainment industry, with a history spanning thirty or forty years. It had signed countless stars over the decades and produced many major celebrities. Nearly half the industry’s leading male and female stars had been developed by Yaxing. The entertainment business changed rapidly, but Yaxing’s position remained unshakable. It still commanded half the industry.
Even the biggest stars eventually faded. The once-famous giants of the industry were unlikely candidates; many were getting older and were no longer well suited to modeling the latest fashions. So whoever Fashion Vanguard had selected was surely a young, charismatic superstar.
Yaxing’s two most popular male stars at present were Bei Size and Sun Chu. News had broken the day before yesterday that Sun Chu was filming a movie with a certain production crew, so he was unlikely to be the one. That left Bei Size. Moreover, the person who leaked the information, Dai Ping, had interacted with Bei Size on Weibo before. People put the likelihood at seventy percent. What truly persuaded the media, however, was Bei Size’s current career situation.
Bei Size was undeniably an Asian superstar who had won countless awards. But if he remained confined to the Asian entertainment scene, he would never reach the next level. He needed to expand overseas, and Fashion Vanguard offered the perfect platform. After analyzing the situation, the media concluded that it had to be Bei Size.
Although everyone was naming Bei Size, he never appeared to confirm the rumor. He did not even respond when Dai Ping mentioned him on Weibo. Fans assumed their idol could not speak before an official announcement. Only Dai Ping sensed that something was wrong.
On the third day, Fashion Vanguard suddenly posted an announcement on its official website.
The message thanked the magazine’s fans for their support and promised that, as always, Fashion Vanguard would live up to their expectations. Only at the end did it mention the subject of the upcoming issue. Although it did not reveal the person’s name, it hinted that this would be their first collaboration and that the subject was a highly talented newcomer. The magazine was extremely pleased, and readers would not be disappointed when the issue came out.
When the announcement appeared, Bei Size’s fans erupted.
Wasn’t it supposed to be their idol? How had he suddenly turned into a newcomer?
Soon someone else claimed that the newcomer who had replaced Bei Size was an artist from Yazhi, one with absolutely no name recognition. The wording strongly suggested that Yazhi had used underhanded means to force Bei Size out.
The earlier controversy surrounding Yazhi had only just died down. Now a similar incident had surfaced, pushing the company back into the spotlight within a day. Still, some people were skeptical. The previous Extreme Challenge incident involved a sponsor with business ties to Zhou Group. It was understandable for that sponsor to curry favor with Zhou Group. But Fashion Vanguard had no such connection. It was a famous international magazine. However powerful Zhou Group might be, its influence was domestic. Could it really dictate Fashion Vanguard’s decisions?
While speculation raged, a wealthy young heir suddenly posted several photographs on his Weibo account. The subject was none other than Wang Cheng. They were the pictures Master Paul had taken, with his logo visible in the bottom-right corner. The wealthy heir explained that these were private photographs from a limited edition that was not available for general sale. Everyone knew that Master Paul was the chairman behind Fashion Vanguard. That offered a plausible explanation for why a Yazhi artist had been chosen for the magazine’s cover, and there was no longer any need for wild guessing.
Wang Cheng had barely heard about the news and had not yet had time to deal with it when he received a call from his maternal grandfather asking him to return to the Zhou residence.