Chapter 30: Transmigrated as a Cheapskate Phoenix Man (30)
Normally, Lou Baichuan wouldn’t bother opening his phone for this kind of thing.
However, upon hearing the name Tianhe Tower, he unconsciously unlocked his phone and began searching for Sang Qianshan’s name. Nearby, Qiang Yuanqing—who had just been thinking how utterly dull these people were—turned to see Lou Baichuan actively searching for gossip as well.
Qiang Yuanqing: “…”
Didn’t realize you were such a gossip, too?!
He studied Lou Baichuan with a complex expression, entirely unbeknownst to Lou Baichuan himself, whose eyes had immediately recognized the person beside Sang Qianshan in the paparazzo’s secret footage.
It was Cen Yu!
In the video, Sang Qianshan wore a baseball cap and non-prescription glasses. Upon reaching the drop-off area of Tianhe Tower, he began speaking into his phone, clearly sending voice messages.
With one hand resting on the steering wheel, Sang Qianshan muttered a few words into the phone.
Then, setting his phone aside, he drove straight down into Tianhe Tower’s underground parking garage.
At this point, the paparazzo added a cheeky, annoying voiceover—
[Huh?! This pap was heading out for dinner with friends today, only to spot our god Sang Qianshan downstairs at a certain office tower?! Seeing him in such a rush, could he be picking someone up from work…?]
The video then cut to the paparazzo following Sang Qianshan down into the underground garage.
After Sang Qianshan parked in a spot, he lowered his head to play on his phone, not looking up once the entire time.
After roughly ten minutes passed, a figure appeared in the frame. Dressed in casual clothes, the moment this figure showed up, Sang Qianshan immediately put his phone away.
When the person opened the door and slid into the passenger seat, a faint smile actually surfaced on Sang Qianshan’s face.
After exchanging a few words, Sang Qianshan drove the car out of the parking lot—
[Didn’t expect our male god to actually be picking someone up from work! But to all you girlfriend-fans out there, rest assured—our god is just picking up his ‘good bro’ from work~]
The paparazzo intentionally placed heavy emphasis on the words “good bro,” as if driving a subtle point home.
Then came another commentary line from the pap—
[The last time we saw our male god smile like that was when he won Best Actor! Getting our god to smile is no easy feat! Looks like this friend is extremely important to him… Could he be that non-celebrity best friend everyone’s talking about?!]
Unable to stomach the noisy commentary any longer, Lou Baichuan hit the mute button.
He then watched as Sang Qianshan drove Cen Yu all the way back to a place he recognized as extremely familiar—the apartment complex where Cen Yu lived.
The paparazzo hadn’t followed them upstairs, only capturing footage of Sang Qianshan and Cen Yu walking into the building together.
Lou Baichuan frowned deeply.
The comment section beneath the Weibo post had already erupted into a full-blown war between fans and anti-fans, with all kinds of wild claims floating around… When he saw people speculating that Sang Qianshan and Cen Yu were secret lovers, his frown deepened even further.
What absolute nonsense were these people spouting? Cen Yu clearly already had a boyfriend.
Qiang Yuanqing caught every shift in Lou Baichuan’s facial expressions.
He hadn’t expected Lou Baichuan to be capable of showing such a vivid range of expressions either. Unable to resist, he searched for the related news himself—only to find there was no need to search at all, as it was already pinned right at the top of Weibo’s hot search list.
Aside from Sang Qianshan himself, the mysterious friend only showed a partial side profile at most…
He indeed looked like a man, and a rather good-looking one at that.
Qiang Yuanqing genuinely couldn’t fathom why everyone around him had suddenly developed a thing for men lately. Losing interest, he closed Weibo, just in time to see Lou Baichuan putting his phone away as well.
The two chatted casually about a few other topics on the balcony.
Yet Qiang Yuanqing could clearly feel that Lou Baichuan was utterly distracted.
The moment Cen Yu walked into the company, he felt the subtle, lingering glances from the people around him.
Feeling somewhat odd, he clocked in and prepared to walk over to his desk, only to bump into his red-haired designer friend—
“My apologies for any offense,” the red-haired girl said, raising her clasped hands in a dramatic salute. “Just don’t tell Sang Qianshan that I mocked him for needing to hire a friend.”
“Who knew I was standing in the presence of greatness without recognizing it. Pardon my disrespect, pardon my disrespect.”
With that, the red-haired designer zipped away like a phantom.
Cen Yu: “…?”
Why is everyone acting so bizarre today??
Feeling thoroughly bewildered, Cen Yu slowly made his way back to his desk. Before he could even sit down, Gao Lanyuan beside him spoke up.
“The guy who picked you up yesterday was Sang Qianshan?”
“Ah… Huh?!” Cen Yu reacted instinctively, looking at Gao Lanyuan in sheer shock in the next second. Just as he was about to tell him to keep it down, he noticed the eyes of everyone in the office secretly drifting toward his direction.
What is the meaning of this?
He felt thoroughly confused internally.
Looking at Gao Lanyuan, he asked, “How did you know?”
Gao Lanyuan hooked a finger at him.
Cen Yu leaned over, and Gao Lanyuan turned his computer monitor directly toward him—
“You’re quite the celebrity now,” Gao Lanyuan said with a half-smile, eyeing Cen Yu. “I reckon the entire company knows by now.”
Cen Yu stared with wide eyes at the news headline—
Sang Qianshan’s Late-Night Meetup with “Mysterious Friend”! Escorts Him Upstairs… Leaves Hastily After a Two-Hour Battle!
Looking at the high-definition close-up of Sang Qianshan’s face alongside half of his own side profile, Cen Yu wanted nothing more than to spit a mouthful of blood onto Gao Lanyuan’s screen to prove his innocence!
How could this paparazzo fabricate such shameless rumors?!
What on earth did he mean by “leaves hastily after a two-hour battle”?!
What was wrong with spending two hours having a meal with a friend?!
He nearly gagged on his own blood, but facing Gao Lanyuan’s gaze and the subtle, gossip-hungry eyes surrounding him, he forced himself to speak calmly—
“It’s true…” He added, “But he and I are just old university classmates.”
“We just met up for a meal yesterday.”
“A meal at your place?” Gao Lanyuan asked.
“Well, it’s inconvenient for him to eat out in public,” Cen Yu said, trying his best to maintain his composure as he pulled out his chair and sat down.
“So are you going to join that reality show of his?” Gao Lanyuan pressed.
“The reality show?” Cen Yu immediately dismissed it. “No way, he’ll probably invite someone else.”
Like Yu Xinyu, for instance.
Naturally, he couldn’t say those words out loud to Gao Lanyuan. Since official work hours had just arrived, Cen Yu simply put on a busy facade of working hard to stave off further probing from others.
Seeing that he couldn’t dig out any more details, Gao Lanyuan turned back to his own workstation as well.
Before Cen Yu could let out a breath of relief, however, the office door clicked open. Lou Baichuan, dressed in a fresh suit, stood at the doorway.
Just as Cen Yu was about to lower his head and pretend not to notice him,
he saw Lou Baichuan slowly walk over to his desk—
Tap, tap.
Lou Baichuan knocked lightly on Cen Yu’s desk. Only when Cen Yu raised his head to look at him did Lou Baichuan nod at him—
“Step into my office for a moment. I have something to say to you.”
“…” Dear Lord above.
Cen Yu genuinely wanted to slam his head against his desk and die on the spot, yet he still begrudgingly followed behind Lou Baichuan into his office—
“Sit.” Closing the office door, Lou Baichuan signaled for Cen Yu to sit across from him.
Anxious and on edge, Cen Yu watched Lou Baichuan, only to find that the man had called him in seemingly to discuss the progress of the previous proposal.
After Cen Yu had finished revising and submitting it earlier, the client company had been fairly satisfied with the preliminary review.
“I will continue to follow up on the subsequent stages,” Lou Baichuan said to Cen Yu.
Just as Cen Yu thought Lou Baichuan was done laying out the work matters, the man suddenly shifted his gaze away from his screen and looked directly at him—
“What follows is my personal question, though it also pertains to the company’s progress.”
“I would like to know whether you plan on joining Sang Qianshan’s reality show. My apologies, I saw the news today,” Lou Baichuan said in a strictly businesslike manner. “Considering that if you need to film a reality show, it will impact the progress of certain projects, I will need to make alternative arrangements.”
“So I would like to ask you right now…”
“Do you plan to film the reality show together with Sang Qianshan?”
