Chapter 40: Transmigrated as a Cheapskate Phoenix Man (40)
“Yu Xinyu?”
Hearing this name, Lou Baichuan immediately recalled Cen Yu’s roommate… or more accurately, his boyfriend.
He still remembered the way the guy had looked at him in the car—a gaze so venomous it practically seeped poison.
Lou Baichuan actually knew a bit about this young master of the Yu family. From certain angles, the Yu family was even more of a tangled mess than the Lou family. Aside from Yu Jinheng and Yu Xinyu—the two biological brothers who didn’t look very much alike—the rest of the family was filled with all sorts of sordid, messy affairs.
Yu Jinheng resembled the Yu family more, possessing purely Eastern features, whereas Yu Xinyu looked more like his maternal grandmother, with his mixed-race traits being far more pronounced.
Furthermore, Yu Jinheng was clearly a ruthless character—not only unhinged, but also completely reckless… Which was why the Yu family currently consisted solely of the two brothers. All those mistresses, illegitimate children, side-branch relatives harboring bad intentions, and various friends and family didn’t dare cross Yu Jinheng. After all, the entire Yu family was now under Yu Jinheng’s absolute rule.
What good could Yu Xinyu possibly have to say about Pei Zhuo? Lou Baichuan thought absentmindedly.
Yet perhaps because the eager-to-share expression on Cen Yu’s face was far too obvious, Lou Baichuan put on a look showing he was all ears.
Cen Yu cleared his throat right away—
“Pei Zhuo likes to play wild.”
Seeing that Lou Baichuan hadn’t quite grasped what he meant, Cen Yu simply added fuel to the fire, explaining it through his own interpretation.
In truth, Cen Yu didn’t really remember the exact setup for Pei Zhuo in the original novel. After all, this guy’s entire purpose in the story was to tell everyone that Sang Qianshan had a rival in the entertainment industry, and to serve as a stepping stone for Sang Qianshan to defeat later on for an extra rush of satisfaction.
Besides, he felt that someone like Yu Xinyu didn’t seem the type to speak ill of others behind their backs. Since he had said so, he must have had his own channels for obtaining information.
Looking at Lou Baichuan, who was lost in thought, Cen Yu asked, “Have you heard about it?”
Lou Baichuan knit his brows as he looked at Cen Yu.
He genuinely could not fathom where this man got his unconditional trust in Yu Xinyu—
It was as if even if Yu Xinyu threw someone into a deep-fryer right now, Cen Yu would still believe Yu Xinyu was just trying to warm the guy up.
As for those rumors regarding Pei Zhuo, he had indeed heard whispers about them. Whether things were actually as Yu Xinyu claimed was another matter entirely. Either way, with truth and falsehood mixed together, Lou Baichuan wasn’t going to buy into it completely.
The reason Cen Yu intentionally warned Lou Baichuan like this was that he was still keeping the upcoming reality show plotline in mind.
—Good lord! A pure white lotus like Yu Xinyu going on a show together with a big-tailed wolf like Pei Zhuo.
Could that possibly end well?!
Cen Yu desperately wanted to shake Lou Baichuan and say: Open your eyes and look clearly! Yu Xinyu is your main protagonist!
“…While I don’t know much about those rumors regarding Pei Zhuo, I did hear about his recent plans to join that reality show,” Lou Baichuan said after a moment’s thought.
Hearing this, Cen Yu instantly grew interested.
After all, Pei Zhuo hadn’t possessed this plot segment in the original novel.
“Do you know who he’s bringing along?” Cen Yu asked curiously.
“Someone who’s practically an acquaintance of yours,” Lou Baichuan said with deep meaning.
Although he didn’t want to meddle in the Lou family’s affairs, due to the intricate web of connections inside the family, a subsidiary company currently managed by one of his younger brothers happened to handle the brand Pei Zhuo endorsed.
Because of this, he was privy to some insider information, knowing that his younger brother was currently betting heavily on Pei Zhuo, believing the man was bound to become even more famous. The reason was simple: the friend Pei Zhuo had invited was an absolute heavyweight.
“It’s your roommate’s elder brother.”
“…Yu Jinheng?!” Cen Yu’s jaw nearly hit the floor.
How on earth could Yu Jinheng come to participate in this stupid reality show?! One had to know that in the original novel, Yu Jinheng hadn’t made a single direct appearance from beginning to end, remaining a behind-the-scenes figure the entire time. Why was he suddenly exposed to the spotlight now?
“Who knows,” Lou Baichuan said.
In truth, he had vaguely heard a few things—such as Yu Jinheng being “unhinged.” The fact that the man had spent a period of time in a psychiatric hospital was hardly a secret in their circle.
It seemed someone in the Yu family was planning to make a major fuss about this recently, which was why Yu Jinheng intended to ride the momentum of Durian TV’s reality show, using his natural interactions with Pei Zhuo and the others on camera to turn those so-called rumors into mere slander.
He might even use the opportunity to pull off a few move of his own.
However, these were merely vague conjectures on Lou Baichuan’s part, nothing he could be entirely certain of.
He didn’t plan on telling Cen Yu about these details either. After all, everyone knew Yu Jinheng was a genuine lunatic, and only an idiot would think of going down with a madman.
The moment Pei Zhuo returned to his villa, he received a reply from his manager—
[Manager: Brother Pei, we pulled it off.]
Still draped in his bathrobe, Pei Zhuo casually clicked on the news link sent by his manager, finding an article where the media was making a huge fuss out of Sang Qianshan and that “male friend.”
To put it simply, this had been part of the plan devised by Pei Zhuo’s team.
The person who had initially planted the “hiring a friend” rumor on the forum was someone from Pei Zhuo’s team. It was a universally acknowledged fact that Sang Qianshan had no friends in the industry, and Pei Zhuo had subtly heard that the man seemed to have no friends outside the industry either.
After all, he hardly socialized with anyone in high-society circles.
So his team simply pulled the rug out from under him, posing as a non-existent “Acting Student A” to post a thread implying that Sang Qianshan’s team might hire a friend just to get him on the reality show.
This way, even if Sang Qianshan’s team had originally intended to do so,
they wouldn’t dare hire anyone after such a fuss—
After all, netizens possessed eagle eyes. No matter how much of a non-celebrity someone was, it was impossible for them to pop out of nowhere without leaving a trace. Furthermore, if the friend were truly hired, there would inevitably be unnatural moments during the show.
Netizens would certainly pick apart every single frame, effectively cutting off any plan Sang Qianshan’s team had to hire a contract friend.
As a result, Sang Qianshan would either be forced to track down some “ordinary acquaintances he wasn’t particularly close with”—yet who could stomach Sang Qianshan’s foul temper? Those so-called ordinary friends were bound to act extremely distant, which would once again solidify the fact that Sang Qianshan had a terrible temper, bad character, and didn’t have a single friend.
Or, by some miracle, someone actually could stomach Sang Qianshan’s foul temper, and he genuinely possessed a non-celebrity best friend with whom he shared a great relationship—as for this point, everyone on Pei Zhuo’s team felt it was impossible, so they hadn’t considered it at all.
Yet the paparazzo’s leak had completely shattered that impression.
In the secret footage, Sang Qianshan was the picture of patience, the definition of “gentle and endearing.” Zero trace of his usual foul temper could be seen, and a smile hung on his face the entire time—directly earning Sang Qianshan a massive wave of new fans.
Pei Zhuo’s team was naturally even less willing to accept this outcome.
So the manager came up with another scheme—
To force Sang Qianshan into either “coming out” or having no choice but to bring this close friend onto the reality show.
They figured that when those rumors had broken out before, Sang Qianshan hadn’t revealed this friend’s existence because the friend was unwilling to go on camera, or perhaps his identity was unsavory (?), or he possessed some terrible vices.
Secretly, they hyped up the narrative that Sang Qianshan and this best friend were in an open-secret relationship.
By forcing Sang Qianshan to clear up this “open-secret relationship” rumor, his only option would be to bring the person onto the reality show to prove they were purely good friends!
—Of course, if the guy actually ended up going on the show, they would deal with that when the time came.
The manager was poised to seize any opportunity, planning to see if this friend had any dark dirt to exploit once on screen.
When sending messages to Pei Zhuo, he was brimming with confidence like a tactical advisor, convinced this scheme was bound to succeed.
Yet Pei Zhuo, leaning back in his chair, carefully browsed through the images in the news report, taking a few serious looks at the side profile of that “male friend,” until he ultimately had to admit one thing—
This person looked as though he had just seen him moments ago.
