WAM CH41

Shao Si’s flight was scheduled for 6:00 AM the day after tomorrow, and almost every trip to the airport required quite a fuss.

The stylist carried big bags and small bags, dragging him up from bed by the collar while Shao Si was still deep in sleep, then spreading clothes across the bed one by one, constantly holding them up against his body to gauge the fit.

“Stand up for a second. Let me see whether these pants are better or those ones.” Lisa was still wearing a miniskirt today, showing off most of her legs, paired with an asymmetrical knit sweater—strange strands hanging long and short—another piece of clothing Shao Si didn’t quite understand. “Can you be a little more cooperative? Do you have any idea how important airport photos are?”

Lisa threw down a garment, placed her hands on her hips, and pointed at him: “Airport photos are the single most crucial occasion to showcase an artist’s fashion sense. You have to give it one hundred and twenty percent! This is basically a mini runway show!”

Shao Si collapsed headfirst back into bed. Pulling the blanket up high, he said lazily, “Oh, then thanks for your hard work.”

“Get up!” Lisa kicked off her high heels and climbed onto the bed, trying to reason with him. “Get up!”

Shao Si rolled over: “Let me sleep a bit more.”

“If you keep sleeping, I’m going to post on Weibo,” Lisa opened her phone camera, pointing the lens right at him, and finally issued a strict order: “Thank you for mentioning me in the livestream last time. I have a million followers now, and a few advertisers even reached out to me for promotions a few days ago… Anyway, getting off track. In short, if you don’t get up right now, I’m going to show everyone what their beloved Daddy Shao looks like when he’s being lazy.”

Shao Si ignored her completely.

“Li! Guang! Zong!” Lisa finally ran out of options. She jumped off the bed, yanked open the door, and stomped out. “Look at the artist you’re managing! Was he a sleep bug reincarnated in his past life? What sleep can’t be saved for the plane?”

Li Guangzong was frying an egg for Shao Si. Hearing her holler, he flusteredly used the spatula to flip the egg over, then hastily handed the spatula to Lisa: “Don’t you know what he’s like by now? Keep an eye on it for me. Put a sausage in when it’s almost done, I’ll go wake him up.”

Lisa held the spatula with a displeased look on her face. Standing exceptionally far back, she stretched her arms out to flip the egg, muttering under her breath, “What is this? This auntie hasn’t cooked in eight hundred years. What if splattering oil ruins my outfit?”

It took a considerable effort for Li Guangzong to haul Shao Si out of bed.

“It’s exactly four o’clock Beijing time,” Li Guangzong said. “Hurry up. I made you a sandwich. Clothes… Lisa, which outfit is he wearing?”

Lisa poked her head out from the kitchen and shouted across the room: “The long coat—the one from the French L brand. Never mind, don’t touch it, I’ll come grab it for you.”

When Shao Si left home and got into the car, he still held reservations about the outfit: “Wait, I want to ask: why do I have to dress like Gu Yanzhou?”

A long black coat, a minimalist inner layer—wasn’t this literally a carbon copy of Gu Yanzhou?

At most, the shoes weren’t quite the same; the British-style leather shoes skewed the overall outfit’s vibe in a slightly different direction.

Lisa was putting on lipstick in front of the compact mirror. Pouting her lips as she spoke, she used her finger to smooth the lipstick slightly at the corner of her lips: “Nope, doesn’t look like him at all. Wearing this, you’re nowhere near as handsome as Best Actor Gu.”

Shao Si pried his eyelids open and said, “Are you looking to get fired?”

“Best Actor Gu’s fashion taste is timeless, but this style also happens to be trending in Europe and America this year…” Lisa shrugged. “We have to keep up with the trends.”

Shao Si twitched his mouth, ultimately saying nothing more.

…At least he had a coat to wear today, rather than leaving his neck exposed to let the cold wind seep freely into his sweater. That was already quite good.

The airport was already so jammed with media and fans that not a drop of water could trickle through. As the car slowly pulled to a stop and Shao Si barely had time to extend one leg out, countless hands swarmed forward with redoubled zeal, waving as they tried to touch him—even if it was just a corner of his clothes.

Li Guangzong guarded Shao Si at the car door and turned around to yell: “Security! What are you all getting paid for?! Disperse the crowd, hurry!”

Earlier, it was simply because Shao Si appeared that the media members previously held back went wild, pushing forward almost as if their lives depended on it, somehow forcing a batch of themselves through.

Now that the guards were on defense, they naturally couldn’t let them succeed a second time, firmly building a line of protection.

Thus, Shao Si successfully stepped out of the car and walked into the airport as if nobody else were there.

Li Guangzong followed alongside to manage the reporters: “Sorry, Shao Si isn’t taking interviews today. I know you all don’t have it easy either. Let me ask everyone to be mutually understanding and respectful. Okay, next time there’s an opportunity, we’ll sit down and talk properly…”

Most of the media friends were fairly reasonable. They took a few photos and didn’t press further about other matters, instead offering congratulations: “Wishing you all smooth sailing, and may Undercover‘s box office hit new heights.”

“Thank you, thank you, from your lips to God’s ears,” Li Guangzong nodded in acknowledgment. “Please head back, we need to go inside.”

As he spoke, he secretly pinched Shao Si’s lower back. Shao Si stopped moving forward, addressing the reporters as well as the fans: “You’ve worked hard. Please head home, be safe on the road.”

However, there were always those few who would resort to any means necessary for a headline. Like a dog-skin plaster, they stuck ruthlessly onto people, immediately aiming for sensitive subjects the moment they opened their mouth: “Did you and Gu Yanzhou coordinate this? I heard his flight this afternoon is also to Nanyang City. Did you two make plans together?”

Li Guangzong squeezed him off to the side, away from Shao Si, repeating: “Sorry, we aren’t accepting interviews.”

Yet that person was completely fearless.

When a person has no shame, they are invincible under heaven. Li Guangzong could see through what he wanted to do at a single glance.

It was nothing more than wanting to provoke them into getting physical.

Striking a reporter was an extremely sensitive topic.

Using netizens who sat on the moral high ground evaluating events to turn a profit for themselves. Therefore, some unscrupulous media outlets would even specifically train their reporters on how to provoke artists—or rather, how to stage a fraudulent accident (pengci).

Positioned behind Li Guangzong, Shao Si locked his gaze on the reporter who kept pressing forward. Bracing his back heel, just as Li Guangzong reached out to block the camera lens, Shao Si swayed his body, putting on a stance as if he were about to fall over.

In that split second, Li Guangzong felt someone yank him from behind. Slipping his footing, he also naturally tumbled backward.

That reporter “strenuously” propped himself up from the ground with his hands, just about to accuse them of using violence and intentionally pushing him, but when he looked up, he was dumbfounded.

…

Because Li Guangzong looked like he had suffered an even nastier fall than he did.

—Nonsense, do you have any idea how much force I used when I secretly pulled him just now?

Shao Si thought coldly in his mind.

In short, this staged accident was smoothly defused by their preemptive tactic.

Shao Si helped Li Guangzong up and said with a cold face: “Please apologize.”

The reporter hadn’t snapped back to reality yet. Paired with Shao Si’s overly assertive and natural tone, it caused him to momentarily forget his own stance, stupidly following along: “S-Sorry…”

Only after saying it did he realize he had fallen into a trap. By apologizing like this, wasn’t he implicitly admitting that the party at fault was himself?

“I hope you can be more careful next time. Fortunately, no harm was done this time; if something truly happened, you’d be in big trouble.” Shao Si stared into his eyes, finishing without changing his expression, then turned and walked inside.

Li Guangzong patted down his pant legs and followed.

“Dad, that move of yours was simply brilliant!”

“Next time, you shouldn’t need me to pull you. Have some initiative on your own, got it?” As they went through security, Shao Si said while fishing out his ticket, “Proactively trip on flat ground, and make sure you crash even harder than the other guy.”

…Looking at Shao Si’s thin, lean back, Li Guangzong thought to himself: That move is truly way too wicked.

Only his Daddy Shao could come up with something like that.

On the plane.

Shao Si kept his eyes closed, the sound of Li Guangzong flipping through a newspaper rustling in his ears.

Just when Li Guangzong thought he had fallen asleep, he saw Shao Si remove his sleep mask and ask him, “Gu Yanzhou is also coming to Nanyang this afternoon?”

“…” Li Guangzong said, “I don’t know, I haven’t heard Brother Yang mention anything about it.”

“Oh,” Shao Si brushed his slightly long bangs to the side, then put his sleep mask back on, offering a completely fabricated explanation out of nowhere: “I don’t mean anything by it. I’m not checking up on him, just asking casually.”

Li Guangzong found it suspicious and said, “I didn’t say you meant anything either…”

Shao Si: “Alright, shut up.”

Meeting Director Wang again, several months had already passed.

Before the promotional event began, Director Wang pulled Shao Si aside to chat for a while, the conversation mainly revolving around ‘Director Ou’.

“That guy has a stubborn temper, completely uncompromising,” Director Wang said. “Filming under him, your days won’t be easy.”

“Director Ou is actually quite good. He has exceptionally high standards for quality, almost harsh even, but I’ve learned a lot. Plus, Director Ou gave us the day off today…”

Shao Si didn’t mean anything special by saying this; he had never connected Director Ou to the matter involving Ye Xuan. He just didn’t expect… saying this would actually yield an unexpected clue.

Director Wang let out a sigh: “What day off? He probably ran off somewhere to drink again… How many years has it been since Ye Qing left, yet he still hasn’t walked out of it.”

“Ye Qing?”

Shao Si thought for a second that he had misheard.

“You know him? That’s all ancient history,” Director Wang waved his hand, though his mood clearly dropped at the mention of that name. “Alright, get ready, we’re starting in a moment.”

Shao Si wanted to press further, but Director Wang turned and walked away with broad strides.

This haze of mystery seemed to enshroud many people.

From the instant the hidden scandal mission commenced, the compass of everyone’s fate quietly began to turn. Crossing paths by chance, only to part ways once more.

Where exactly… did it want to guide them, and what lost truth buried in time were they searching for?

Just as the makeup artist packed up her kit to leave, Shao Si pulled out his phone and opened an email titled “Forum”.

[Discussion] Is a certain Y-surname male celebrity gay?

Original Poster: I’ve always felt he looks neither like a man nor a woman. For a man to look like that and sing opera… singing female roles has turned him into a pervert, right?

…

This early, small anonymous forum had long been destroyed, and the discussion posts regarding Ye Qing could only be restored through other means.

Regardless of whether the content was true or not, it was undeniable that the social consensus, general ethos, and acceptance of homosexuality back then were extremely narrow-minded.

Prior to ’97, homosexuality could even land a person in prison under the crime of “hooliganism.”