Shoutout to nyanmaru for the commission!
The next day, the four families experienced the Snow World at Xingyao Theme Park, which was built at great expense. In the afternoon, they completed tasks at the aquarium and had dinner at an underwater-themed restaurant, wrapping up the first live stream perfectly.
Cheng Jingyao, Ye Yunqing, and Tuntun returned home just as the online rumors began to spread.
While Ye Yunqing was bathing Tuntun, Tong Shu quickly reported to Cheng Jingyao.
“You and Brother Ye have been trending a lot these past two days, and your CP fanbase has grown rapidly. As people dug into your high school days, someone found an old Weibo post screenshot, which has now gone viral.”
Cheng Jingyao frowned and checked his phone, “There’s nothing about Yunqing and me on the trending list.”
Tong Shu pointed to the top trending topic: #ChildBride#[Explosive]
Cheng Jingyao: “???”
What the h*ll?
He clicked on the trending topic, ignoring the snide tone of the marketing accounts, and went straight to the screenshot of the old Weibo post.
[@ObsessedWithTrigFunctions: #TwinCampusHeartthrobsHistory# I heard many people were curious why School Grass Ye’s birthday party was held at School Grass Cheng’s house yesterday. A friend of a friend found classmates from their middle school, elementary school, and even kindergarten to confirm: School Grass Ye has been living at School Grass Cheng’s house since childhood, and not only have they been classmates and best friends all along, but they’ve also been childhood sweethearts!
Comments:
@YouDon’tUnderstandChemistry: LOL, the poster must be a junior in high school, right? Who doesn’t know that the two school grass go to school and go home together every day?
@INeverWriteEssays: Childhood friends, huh? Don’t even need to mention that they grew up together. Even if they slept in the same bed since childhood, I wouldn’t find it strange.
@OrdinaryElementarySchoolLoser: Ahhh, am I the only one excited? Growing up together and being together now, isn’t that basically a child bride, folks!
@IDon’tCareHowElectronsFlow: @OrdinaryElementarySchoolLoser Whoa! Looks like you really know how to handle things!
@ChasingWindSchoolBully: Exactly, a child bride. Didn’t you know that Ye Yunqing is an orphan? He was bought by the Cheng family when he was young, accompanied the “crown prince” for studies as a child, and warmed the “crown prince’s” bed as he grew up. If you think about it, it might not even be accurate to call him a child bride, considering the young master of the Cheng family would never actually marry a man. [Laughs]
There were also some replies questioning whether @ChasingWindSchoolBully’s revelations were true, but Cheng Jingyao already remembered the events that followed.
“This Weibo post wasn’t deleted at the time?” Cheng Jingyao asked.
At that time, they were in their second year of high school. After Ye Yunqing’s birthday, rumors about him being an orphan suddenly appeared at school. Cheng Jingyao traced the source to this Weibo post and immediately contacted @DieHardTrigFunctions to have the post deleted.
At that time, Cheng Jingyao and Ye Yunqing were not yet together, but Cheng Jingyao already had feelings for him and didn’t want him to know about it. The term “child bride” was particularly derogatory, he couldn’t make @ChasingWindSchoolBully apologize to Ye Yunqing in person and could only issue a warning.
“Someone must have saved the screenshots at that time,” Tong Shu said. “Now people are questioning Brother Ye’s background and status, suggesting he doesn’t deserve you, even spreading rumors that Brother Ye supports adopting children to secure your marriage and divide the Cheng family’s assets.”
After all, from a legal perspective, an adopted child also has inheritance rights.
Tong Shu continued, “Just now, someone pretended to refute the rumors but actually questioned Brother Cheng’s position in the Cheng family, saying you actually have an older brother who is the real ‘crown prince’ of the Cheng family.”
With each statement from Tong Shu, Cheng Jingyao’s expression darkened.
Cheng Jingyao asked, “Is this the group that was smearing Tuntun during the live broadcast yesterday?”
Tong Shu, unsurprised by Cheng Jingyao’s keen perception, nodded, “According to the PR department’s analysis, it should be the same group, but now there’s also Brother Ye’s rival involved, muddying the waters.”
Cheng Jingyao asked, “Ye Yunqing’s rival?”
Tong Shu replied, “Preliminarily, it seems to be one of the actors who competed with Brother Ye for the lead role in ‘Sunshine.’”
Currently, Ye Yunqing only had that one work. His competitors were largely overlapping in appearance or character setup, so they not only had old grudges over competitive resources but also had motives to prevent Ye Yunqing from rising further.
Cheng Jingyao asked, “Can we identify who it is?”
“The PR department has a few suspects, but it will take a little more time to be certain,” Tong Shu said. “For now… should we withdraw the trending search?”
“No need,” Cheng Jingyao said coldly. “If the attention is free, then we should take it.”
Saying that, Cheng Jingyao opened Weibo and started editing.
Tong Shu glanced over and silently sent a message to Wang Xiao: [Chief Wang, the PR plan may need to be redone.]
Wang Xiao, who was working overtime, frowned upon receiving the message, sensing something was wrong. They immediately opened Weibo:
@ChengJingyaoV: Why is there no option for “promoting feudal superstition” in the Weibo complaint categories? In a socialist society, are people still believing in feudal rubbish like child brides and crown princes?
Wang Xiao: “…”
I suspect you’re implying Zhao Jun, and I have evidence!
Meanwhile, in the children’s room, Ye Yunqing’s phone suddenly rang while he was reading a bedtime story to Tuntun.
It was a notification tone from Ye Yunqing’s special attention list on Weibo.
And his special attention list had always had only one account.
Ye Yunqing paused, finished reading the bedtime story, watched Tuntun’s eyelids grow heavy and fall asleep, bent down to kiss him goodnight, checked the temperature of the central air conditioning, and then quietly went out.
In the living room, Tong Shu, who had finished reporting the work, and Xu Youyou, who had helped pack the luggage, were about to leave.
Xu Youyou said, “Teacher Ye, we’re leaving now.”
Ye Yunqing replied, “Yes, thank you for your hard work these days. Jingyao and I don’t have any announcements in the next two days, so you two can take a break.”
Xu Youyou and Tong Shu smiled, “Thank you, Teacher Ye/Brother Ye.”
After the two left, Ye Yunqing took out his phone and opened Weibo, asking Cheng Jingyao, “Did you just post something on Weibo?”
“Yes,” Cheng Jingyao replied, reaching out to put his arm around Ye Yunqing’s waist, but Ye Yunqing avoided him.
“Go take a shower,” Ye Yunqing frowned. He had just taken a shower with Tuntun, but Cheng Jingyao had not yet done so.
Cheng Jingyao: “…”
“Do you dislike me?” Cheng Jingyao grabbed Ye Yunqing’s wrist and pulled him into his embrace, deliberately rubbing his clean face and neck against Ye Yunqing.
Ye Yunqing leaned back and pushed him away, “You smell awful.”
Cheng Jingyao smiled, “Since my wife dislikes me so much, I guess I have to make my wife dirty too. Please shower with me again.”
Ye Yunqing: “…”
Before he could refuse, Cheng Jingyao picked him up and carried him into the master bedroom’s bathroom.
“…”
Ye Yunqing was forced to take another bath that lasted over an hour. In the end, Cheng Jingyao carried him back to bed. Ye Yunqing, feeling dazed, reached for his phone, his voice soft and hoarse with a slight nasal tone.
“You did this on purpose…”
There must be something he didn’t want him to know.
Cheng Jingyao stopped his hand, laid down, and held him close, “It’s nothing serious. We’ll talk about it when you wake up.”
Ye Yunqing was indeed too tired to move a finger. Hearing this, he lifted his eyelids to glance at Cheng Jingyao and then closed them heavily.
Cheng Jingyao looked at his sleeping lover. His eyes were tinged with a delicate redness from being bullied too much, his soft lips were swollen, and his breathing was light and shallow.
Years ago, he had hoped to shield Ye Yunqing from the filthy rumors, never expecting them to resurface after six or seven years. Now, the trending search was causing an uproar. Even if they forcibly removed it, traces would remain, making it impossible to hide.
At the very least, he hoped that Ye Yunqing could have a good night’s sleep tonight.
As for the troubling matters, they could be dealt with tomorrow.
***
The next day, when Ye Yunqing woke up, Cheng Jingyao was no longer by his side. Groggily, he reached for his phone to check the time, guessing that Tuntun had woken up and gone to the master bedroom to find them, and Cheng Jingyao had taken him to wash up.
He lingered in bed for a bit, easing his sore body, then opened Weibo and saw Cheng Jingyao’s post from last night.
And that still trending hot topic.
The old Weibo post in the trending topic reminded him of the rumors that suddenly appeared and then disappeared back in school. Clearly, Cheng Jingyao had quietly taken care of it back then.
Ye Yunqing had never intentionally avoided his own background, but neither was he generous enough to let others poke at his wounds. So he had to admit that sometimes, he especially liked Cheng Jingyao’s “dominance.”
Because this “dominance” had always protected him so well.
Ye Yunqing smiled, liked Cheng Jingyao’s Weibo post, and was about to get out of bed when his phone suddenly vibrated.
The caller ID displayed: Mom
—Cheng Jingyao’s mother.
