SFBF CH110.2

Wasn’t he completely cut off from everyone and stopped using a mobile phone ages ago???

From the moment Shen Qing “ordered” Gu Huaiyu to Gu Huaiyu making the call, every single motion and exchange of looks was plain as day to the people across from them.

“…So President Gu actually still uses a phone?”

“The way President Gu whipped out his phone just now, it was totally like Teacher Shen’s secretary, haha…”

Aside from murmuring about President Gu’s phone, Gu Huaixiang, recovering from her momentary stupor, instinctively spoke up to intervene: “Pull up surveillance? Pull up what surveillance? …I don’t think that’s necessary, Huaiyu. It was just kids fooling around…”

However, the people opposite her clearly refused to speak with her any further before the footage was brought out.

Gu Huaixiang grew anxious. Not wanting this to blow up, she glanced at the onlookers gathered around and deliberately raised her voice: “Everyone present here is someone of status and reputation. Pulling up surveillance privately? That isn’t appropriate, is it? People will say you’re acting tyrannical!”

It was Shen Qing who answered her once again: “If Ms. Gu has objections, we can call the police first and let the officers review it.”

Gu Huaixiang: “…”

“Wait, why would it be pulling surveillance privately?”

Song Yuke, who had just finished another round of petting Ao-zai, couldn’t understand at all. She looked up at Gu Huaiyu: “Isn’t this Uncle Gu’s house? As the master of the garden, can’t Uncle Gu check the security cameras in his own home?”

The moment her puzzled voice fell, a stir rippled through the crowd. What? They only knew that this prime, gold-dust piece of land was backed by a sentimental, wealthy patron.

They had no idea that the mastermind behind this private museum was actually Gu Huaiyu!

If Gu Huaiyu owned the place, that meant he was also the host of the event. As the host, dealing with a conflict that broke out during the event gave him every right to check the cameras; it wasn’t him throwing his weight around at all.

If the others were surprised, Gu Huaixiang was so shocked her jaw nearly dropped.

She prided herself on being bourgeois and cultured, which was why she adored this garden villa. Yet she had never imagined that even this garden villa… was Gu Huaiyu’s property???

Just how much about Gu Huaiyu was she completely in the dark about!

Over on the other side, seeing how surprised everyone was, Song Yuke thought she had blurted out something she shouldn’t have. A wave of fluster and embarrassment washed over her.

Even cuddling the cub didn’t feel as fun anymore!

She whispered, “Uncle Gu, I’m sorry…”

The uncle standing next to Uncle Gu, however, smiled and said, “It’s alright.”

Having said that, Shen Qing glanced at Gu Huaiyu. He felt that since the big boss had brought up this place so casually earlier, there shouldn’t be anything secretive about it, right?

Besides, Song Yuke had likely picked up this information while listening to President Gu chatting with her grandfather. If it were something confidential, knowing President Gu’s personality, he wouldn’t have let a child hear it in the first place.

Sure enough, Gu Huaiyu didn’t mind. Catching Shen Qing’s gaze, he looked down to comfort Song Yuke: “It doesn’t matter.”

…His tone might not have been brimming with tenderness, but it was considerably softer than when he had questioned Gu Ming. Listening closely, he was clearly mimicking the exact tone Teacher Shen had used to soothe the little girl.

After speaking, he set Gu Duo down from his arms, telling the kids to go back to playing.

The adults on this side decided to wait for the surveillance footage.

Across from them, ever since watching Gu Huaiyu pull out a phone and make a call, Xiao Hangying’s eyes had gone wide with utter astonishment.

Could there truly be someone in this world who could give orders to Gu Huaiyu?…

Shen Qing’s tone earlier had clearly been an instruction, yet Gu Huaiyu hadn’t raised the slightest objection!

Xiao Hangying’s face drained of even more color.

No matter what the outside rumors claimed, no matter how much he had believed Gu Huaiyu was deeply and unrequitedly in love with him in the past, Xiao Hangying, snapping to his senses now, finally realized something: he had never once been able to boss Gu Huaiyu around.

He had never received an ounce of help from him, nor had he ever received a single gift from him.

Even right after the accident, when he rushed to the hospital to confront Gu Huaiyu and spoke to him in that arrogant, demanding tone, Gu Huaiyu’s eyes when looking at him had been cold and detached.

…It was as though he wasn’t looking at him at all.

Nor was he even listening to what he was saying.

From start to finish, he had been nothing more than an ant in Gu Huaiyu’s eyes, a nonentity. It was just like how a human wouldn’t care what an insect or bird chirped beside them!

Realizing this dealt a crushing blow to Xiao Hangying. Over the past two years, he had endured so much exhaustion and hardship abroad, yet he had instinctively kept up his pride because of a conviction in his heart: if he truly reached a dead end, he could always return home to seek out “Gu Huaiyu, who harbored a bitter crush on him.”

Even before returning to the country this time, he had resolved to maintain his aloofness, having no intention of playing this trump card.

Still, to him, it was his ultimate fallback. It had become his beacon of hope.

Yet seeing Gu Huaiyu again after returning home, Xiao Hangying finally woke up to reality. What ultimate fallback? What trump card?

They had never existed in the first place!

The reality was that Gu Huaiyu didn’t care about him, and he wouldn’t even spare him a look!

Now, devastated by the truth, Xiao Hangying had to witness with his own eyes how exceptionally Gu Huaiyu treated someone else.

It was truly exceptional: the indulgence in his gaze, his immediate responsiveness and swift execution of a single request, and the way he was even willing to speak so gently to a little girl at his prompting!…

Having paid close attention to this man for years through twists and turns of fate, Xiao Hangying could be certain that this was the very first time he had ever seen such an expression on Gu Huaiyu.

That doting, easygoing warmth even stripped away his usual biting frost and razor-sharp edge!

…Once upon a time, everyone assumed Gu Huaiyu was simply born that way.

“He’s naturally difficult to talk to, completely lacking in human warmth, like a frozen shell… In reality, he’s just secretly passionate with low EQ. So even if he likes you, you won’t feel it because he loves putting on airs.” That had been Gu Huai-yu’s description of his brother, Gu Huaiyu.

Yet now, Xiao Hangying cursed Gu Huai-yu fiercely in his heart once more.

Not a single word that came out of Gu Huai-yu’s mouth had ever been true!

When Gu Huaiyu liked someone, there was an unmistakable smile in his eyes!

“Uncle?” Xiao Miao cried out, pinched in pain by his uncle.

Xiao Hangying snapped back to reality and looked down at Xiao Miao. Suddenly gripping his shoulders, he hissed, “Don’t call me uncle. Your surname is Gu, not Xiao.”

Clamping down on the boy with one hand, he dragged him out onto the open lawn, marching straight in front of Shen Qing and Gu Huaiyu.

He looked at Gu Huaiyu and stated, “This is a child of the Gu family.”

Suddenly filled with bitter hatred for everything related to Gu Huai-yu, as well as resentment toward Gu Huaiyu’s “favoritism,” Xiao Hangying’s eyes turned bloodshot. Looking somewhat unhinged, he glared fixedly at the family of four: “…Since you can adopt other people’s children, why can’t you take this child back as well?!”

“…Uncle?” Xiao Miao looked up at the visibly deranged Xiao Hangying in bewildered shock, terror lacing his voice.

The incident flared up out of nowhere. With Film Emperor Xiao suddenly pulling a stunt like this, all eyes shifted toward Xiao Miao. The onlookers surrounding them couldn’t help but murmur:

“…What does Film Emperor Xiao mean? This kid is also a child of the Gu family?”

“Could he be Gu Huaiyu’s illegitimate son?!”

The media crews that had rushed over immediately snapped photos of the entire group.

Standing opposite Xiao Miao, Shen Qing and Gu Huaiyu looked down at the little boy together.

…In fact, ever since hearing that Film Emperor Xiao and Gu Huai-yu had adopted a child, Shen Qing had guessed Xiao Miao was probably that very boy.

He had vaguely sensed Xiao Hangying’s harsh discipline and suffocating control over Xiao Miao, and he had felt sorry for the kid.

Yet what was he trying to pull right now? What Film Emperor Xiao just said sounded terribly misleading.

Gu Huaiyu cut in with an indifferent voice: “He is your and Gu Huai-yu’s child.”

His chilling gaze fell squarely onto Xiao Hangying, completely devoid of the warmth and ease from earlier. He was unwilling to waste even half a word more on him.

“…”

Hearing this, Xiao Hangying took a step back, as if suddenly remembering that Xiao Miao was indeed adopted by him and Gu Huai-yu, not Gu Huaiyu.

Yet why wasn’t it Gu Huaiyu? Why hadn’t he chosen Gu Huaiyu back then?… If he had chosen Gu Huaiyu, then he would be the one standing over there as part of that happy family of four, instead of living through this hopeless, bleak misery.

No, wait… It wasn’t that he hadn’t chosen Gu Huaiyu. The reality was that Gu Huaiyu had never loved him in the first place!

“Gu Huaiyu!” After a bout of frantic turmoil, Xiao Hangying screamed out suddenly.

Even if he didn’t have to cover Gu Huai-yu’s exorbitant medical bills, Xiao Hangying’s life in Country M had already become an uphill struggle.

He had no new resources, no acting gigs, and when he wanted to return home, having been away for too long meant he couldn’t land any decent scripts. Yet he refused to grovel before people he had once looked down upon.

Add to that Gu Huai-yu’s mother constantly harassing him, and Xiao Hangying was on the verge of a total breakdown!

“Just what is so good about this person?!” In the midst of his spiral, Xiao Hangying redirected his wrath at Shen Qing.

He convinced himself that if Shen Qing didn’t exist, Gu Huaiyu might have come to love him after all…

In his eyes, Shen Qing was merely a junior. In seniority, experience, and industry status, Shen Qing fell short in every single metric!

If this were an awards ceremony, he would be the one walking onto the stage to accept a trophy, or presenting one to others! He was the white moonlight adored by the masses, revered on a pedestal. Who in the entertainment circle didn’t address him respectfully as Film Emperor Xiao?!

Yet this Shen Qing didn’t even have a single truly acclaimed work to his name! He was blatantly countless times superior to him…

Even putting their careers aside, Shen Qing was nothing more than a foolish slacker who hadn’t even graduated middle school. He, on the other hand, had education, broad horizons, and far more worldly experience than Shen Qing ever would!

If it weren’t for Shen Qing, Gu Huaiyu would still be that man secretly pining over him…

Losing his mind, Xiao Hangying unleashed a rapid string of English at Gu Huaiyu, passionately venting his arguments.

He wanted this Shen Qing to know that a mere middle-school dropout didn’t belong in their world at all.

He also wanted everyone to see that Shen Qing was completely unworthy of standing beside Gu Huaiyu!…

“Excuse me, Mr. Xiao, but I can understand everything you’re saying about me.”

Shen Qing abruptly interrupted him, his tone tinged with awkwardness. “Maybe… would you like to switch to a different language? If your goal was to keep me from understanding, I recommend trying something other than English, French, German, or Italian. Otherwise, it really gets quite awkward.”

“…” Xiao Hangying’s voice halted dead in its tracks.

?

Shen Qing could understand English??

And what did he mean by that? Did he speak more than one foreign language?!

Shen Qing continued, “After all, carrying on like this is pretty awkward for everyone here.”

“Oh, and another thing. I’d like to make a few points.”

Shen Qing spoke up again: “First off, even without me, President Gu wouldn’t be into you. You don’t understand him at all. As for how little you understand him, I won’t even bother spelling it out, and you don’t deserve to know anyway.”

…To believe for so many years that Gu Huaiyu had a crush on him, yet not even know that the relationship between Gu Huaiyu and Gu Huai-yu was terrible, or that Gu Huaiyu never contacted his mother at all.

If he genuinely didn’t care about this secret admirer, why count on him for so many years, always relying on Gu Huaiyu as his ultimate backup?

And if he did care about this secret admirer, how could he know so little about him?

Wasn’t this just wanting to have his cake and eat it too? When I need you, you belong to me; when I don’t, I won’t even bother caring or learning a single thing about you.

Film Emperor Xiao truly had always maintained the lofty posture of someone basking in being loved.

Could someone like that ever find true love? Shen Qing wasn’t so sure.

Then again, there was no need to explain any of this to him.

He really didn’t deserve it.

Shen Qing: “Second, while your career might be far more prominent than mine, let’s be fair: first, you’re older than me; second, didn’t you ride quite a few of Gu Huai-yu’s coattails? You keep complaining that Gu Huai-yu’s mother is watching you now and restricting your freedom, but he’s only been in a coma for two years, whereas before that, he spent ten whole years propping you up.”

“Much as I dislike Gu Huai-yu, one thing has nothing to do with the other. Film Emperor Xiao, I really think you shouldn’t be so ungrateful.”

For the second half of that sentence, Shen Qing rattled off a stream of fluent English.

With a British accent, no less.

There was no helping it; it wasn’t like Shen Qing deliberately planned to show off.

Originally, he had passed the TEM-8 level. After graduation, he became an ordinary worker, and since his job didn’t require foreign languages, his English had mostly been returned to his school days. He still retained the foundational listening and pronunciation, though his vocabulary might have shrunk.

Yet who told his Duoduo and Ao-zai to study every single day? Lately, they were even practicing a British accent!

Caught between two little tots day in and day out listening to them memorize words and practice pronunciation, how could he not be influenced?

It was hard not to remember!

Perhaps not everyone understood the latter half of his sentence, but whether they understood the words or not, anyone could tell that Shen Qing’s pronunciation was impeccably standard and his foreign language flowed effortlessly.

“I really don’t know what Film Emperor Xiao is flaunting. Is knowing English something to boast about these days? Slandering someone in English of all things!”

“I think Teacher Shen makes complete sense.” Some people from the entertainment industry couldn’t stand it any longer either.

Everyone knew that the reason Xiao Hangying became so popular back then was the sheer quality of resources at his disposal!

Naturally, his personal talent mattered, but luck and resources mattered far more!

People in showbiz understood that better than anyone.

So someone couldn’t help sneering, “Someone backed him for ten years, yet here he is, throwing tantrums and crying like the world ended after taking care of him for just two. Talk about an ingrate!”

Before Shen Qing could say another word, Ao-zai, standing by his leg, chirped out a fluent string of English roasting Xiao Hangying. He basically said this uncle had such thick skin, asking how he could have the nerve to compare himself to their Little Dad!

Beside Ao-zai, Duoduo agreed wholeheartedly and followed up with another long paragraph of English.

Xiao Hangying and the onlookers: “…”

All eyes turned to the little toddlers beside Shen Qing.

Because Ao-zai and Duoduo had accurately pointed out why Xiao Hangying was so shameless, no one doubted that they had understood the English Xiao Hangying had just spat out.

What was more, the spoken English of these young kids was so smooth and fluent; they certainly didn’t seem like kids who didn’t understand English.

Even the children in Shen Qing’s family spoke such fluent English!

Besides, these two kids were incredibly sharp-tongued and smart! They were actually able to accurately state that Film Emperor Xiao had debuted twelve years ago, while their Little Dad had only debuted two or three years ago, so Film Emperor Xiao comparing his achievements to their Little Dad’s was utterly shameless!

In the end, Ao-zai even pointed out that his Little Dad relied entirely on himself and never let Big Dad arrange resources for him, whereas this uncle relied completely on someone else.

To think he still considered himself so impressive after that; how shameful!

Ao-zai delivered his words in all seriousness, leaving everyone around them astonished.

Someone asked him in English, “…What do you mean by your Little Dad relying entirely on himself?”

Being insiders or having some knowledge of showbiz, they had felt Shen Qing’s resources were mediocre at best, which indeed didn’t look like President Gu had stepped in.

So he really did rely on himself??

Since Ao-zai was somewhat of a little child star himself, his manager, Uncle Lin, often chatted with him about these matters. Even if Ao-zai didn’t understand the finer details, he could still repeat parts of it.

“Yup! My Little Dad was invited to Xingcheng Agency by my Big Dad! And the brand grandpas were all signed by Little Dad on his own!”

Ao-zai switched back to Chinese for this line.

For brand-new human cubs like Duoduo and Ao-zai learning multiple languages simultaneously, foreign languages were often much easier to pick up than Chinese.

More often than not, speaking foreign languages was Ao-zai’s comfort zone.

When he discovered that Little Dad was also proficient in English, there was a period where Ao-zai only spoke English.

However, both fathers insisted that the mother tongue had to be mastered and must remain their primary daily language, so Ao-zai and his brother always did their best to speak more Chinese!

Hearing the boy’s crisp little voice, an adult nearby couldn’t help teasing Ao-zai, “Little handsome, what on earth is a ‘brand grandpa’?”

The adults chuckled. Some were charmed by Ao-zai’s clever, adorable appearance, while others laughed among themselves: who ever called a brand sponsor “grandpa”?!

Ao-zai, however, felt that these adults were all so silly for not understanding what a cub meant.

Still, not everyone failed to understand him. His Little Dad, for instance, understood.

Shen Qing stroked Ao-zai’s round, bowl-cut head. With a clear voice and a suppressed chuckle, he asked, “Is it because Daddy’s daddy is called Grandpa?”

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