Chapter 45: Transmigrated as a Cheapskate Phoenix Man (45)
“Of course not!” Cen Yu immediately refuted.
He practically wanted to leap right off his seat at the dining table.
Noticing that the moment his words fell, Lou Baichuan as well as the two Yu brothers were all staring fixedly at him, he cleared his throat and said, “His choice of partner for the reality show hasn’t been finalized yet.”
“So there is a plan after all,” Yu Jinheng said with a soft smile.
“Sang Qianshan even made a special trip to our place that day just to talk about this matter,” Yu Xinyu added.
So that was it!
The thought immediately flashed through both Pei Zhuo’s and Lou Baichuan’s minds.
When Sang Qianshan was photographed with Cen Yu that day, it really was for the sake of that reality show.
However… Pei Zhuo thought a step further than Lou Baichuan. He didn’t believe Sang Qianshan could have failed to notice the paparazzi tailing him—the man was famously sharp when it came to camera lenses.
And even if he hadn’t noticed, if Sang Qianshan truly hadn’t been willing, the paparazzi wouldn’t have dared to offend the Sang family by publishing this “same-sex scandal.” The fact that it got published without being taken down meant it had clearly received Sang Qianshan’s tacit consent.
Did he intentionally build up hype in advance just to get Cen Yu onto the show?
At that thought, Pei Zhuo suddenly had a sickening feeling—had his previous series of moves actually ended up giving that bastard Sang Qianshan a helping hand?!
Cen Yu genuinely didn’t know why Yu Xinyu would suddenly bring up the reality show at this time. Could it be that he’s already developed an impression of Sang Qianshan? Did seeing Pei Zhuo remind him of Sang Qianshan?
While he was pondering this, he didn’t expect Yu Xinyu to unleash another ultimate move. Yu Xinyu turned his gaze toward Pei Zhuo, who was quietly enjoying the drama from the side—
“By the way, I heard Little Yu say this afternoon that you’ve been harassed by a sasaeng stalker recently?”
Yu Xinyu put on an innocent look. “Are sasaengs really that terrifying?”
“You almost mistook Little Yu for a stalker, too,” he said with a beaming smile, his eyes filled with total reliance when he looked up at Cen Yu. “How could Little Yu possibly be a stalker?”
Oh, crap!
Cen Yu truly hadn’t expected Yu Xinyu to bring this up during dinner.
The moment those words left his mouth, Yu Jinheng looked toward Pei Zhuo as well, while Qiang Yuanqing was completely out of the loop, utterly baffled as to how he had missed so much drama during a single afternoon.
Lou Baichuan calmly took a sip of water from his glass, quietly studying the group.
“A stalker?” Yu Jinheng seemed to spark with interest, his eyes drifting over Cen Yu and Pei Zhuo. “What’s this all about?”
Pei Zhuo couldn’t afford to offend this grand deity. Though he felt Yu Jinheng probably didn’t care much for Cen Yu, the fault in this matter lay with him after all… Thus, he briefly laid out what had happened that afternoon.
He deliberately omitted the part about his bodyguard.
He had thought that would be the end of the matter, but Lou Baichuan, who had remained silent all along, suddenly opened his mouth. Looking surprised, he remarked, “How could Mr. Pei forget something?”
“…” Pei Zhuo cursed Lou Baichuan internally for meddling in other people’s business.
Yet unable to offend the Lou family either, he could only force a polite smile and make a long story short regarding the bodyguard.
Yu Jinheng looked thoughtful upon hearing this, but merely offered Pei Zhuo a slight smile. “It seems you need to replace that bodyguard of yours.”
“Not only is his eyesight poor, but his skills don’t seem like much either.”
“Isn’t that the truth?” Yu Xinyu chimed in, looking at his elder brother. “Where does Little Yu look even remotely like a stalker?”
Yu Jinheng merely looked at the smiling Yu Xinyu without saying a word.
Seeing that the atmosphere was turning terribly awkward, Qiang Yuanqing hurriedly came to the rescue. “What’s this stalker situation about? How come I haven’t heard you mention it before?”
Seeing that Qiang Yuanqing was willing to throw him a lifeline, Pei Zhuo immediately said—
“It’s a fan on Weibo.”
He knit his brows as he spoke, looking genuinely distressed by the situation.
The matter was simple enough: Pei Zhuo had a fanatical follower who stalked him wherever he went, no matter the location. Even in residential complexes with top-tier security, the person managed to slip through the cracks and get inside.
Not to mention movie sets and backstage areas.
He only knew the person was a young man, but had no idea what he looked like.
On occasion, he would receive phone calls from the person as well—untraceable numbers, naturally.
Over time, Pei Zhuo had been driven to a mild mental breakdown by this stalker, which was why he had acted somewhat impulsively at the hot spring earlier—of course, saying all this served as a bit of a self-defense explanation.
Still, he genuinely was heavily tormented by this stalker.
Once he finished speaking, the reactions around the table varied greatly. Cen Yu hadn’t expected Pei Zhuo to be dealing with such massive drama, Yu Xinyu and Yu Jinheng couldn’t care less, Lou Baichuan appeared to be listening intently while his gaze merely rested on Cen Yu beside him, and Qiang Yuanqing was the sole person actually playing along.
Cen Yu wanted nothing more than to pull out his phone right then and there to text his only connection in the entertainment industry.
To check if Sang Qianshan knew about this.
All in all, every single person at the table finished the meal with their own hidden thoughts.
It wasn’t until dinner ended and Cen Yu and Yu Xinyu were preparing to leave that Pei Zhuo appeared once again.
He sincerely apologized to both Cen Yu and Yu Xinyu once more.
Cen Yu genuinely didn’t mind the incident, while Yu Xinyu also offered a slight smile, saying it was fine now that the misunderstanding was cleared up.
Because they were somewhat full from dinner, Yu Xinyu suggested they walk back instead, to which Cen Yu had no objections. The two walked along the path through the villa area for a while.
Cen Yu looked up at the moon overhead; faint streetlights illuminated the small paths around them.
At this moment, only the two of them were still walking outside in the entire villa complex.
“Hubby…” Cen Yu suddenly felt Yu Xinyu, who was walking behind him, slowly draw close and wrap his arms around his waist.
Yu Xinyu rested his face against Cen Yu’s shoulder.
He held Cen Yu tight. If they were in a brightly lit place, he might still pretend to be a delicate nestling, but right now, he held zero interest in keeping up the act.
The way the others at the banquet had idly studied Cen Yu made him feel thoroughly disgusted.
He allowed the dark feelings in his heart to fester.
After a moment, he spoke softly to Cen Yu, “…Have you and my elder brother met already?”
Cen Yu could feel Yu Xinyu’s body pressed completely against his own, the man’s entire weight resting almost fully on him. His arms wrapped around Cen Yu’s waist, making him feel an odd sense of breathlessness.
Just as he was about to say something,
he found Yu Xinyu tightening his embrace even further.
“…No,” Cen Yu decided to lie after all.
“Then do you know my elder brother?” Yu Xinyu asked again.
Under the dim light, Cen Yu’s skin looked cool and white. Yu Xinyu reached out a hand, tracing the air over the tattoo on Cen Yu’s abdomen. “I feel as if you’re very afraid of him.”
“…” Who wouldn’t be afraid of Yu Jinheng?
Naturally, Cen Yu still remembered that he wasn’t supposed to know Yu Xinyu’s true identity at this point, let alone who Yu Jinheng was.
So he said casually, “Why would I be afraid of him? I’m not afraid of him at all.”
The moment his words fell, a bout of coughing echoed from the other side of the path.
Cen Yu: “…”
He looked up, and sure enough, he caught sight of Yu Jinheng walking over from the side.
With another coat draped over his shoulders, it was hard to tell just how long he had been listening to their conversation.
