Chapter 73: Transmigrated as a Stingy Phoenix Man (73)
Cen Yu felt immense gratitude that his ride-hail driver wasn’t one of the gossip-obsessed net-citizens.
When he returned home, Yu Xinyu had still not come back—
“Host! Someone online is slandering you again.”
“…” Cen Yu was completely speechless. “You really don’t need to give me a special notification for every little thing.”
As he spoke, he opened Little Red Book and began searching for tall buildings in the city—preferably unfinished, abandoned ones with nobody living around them, so if he jumped off later, he wouldn’t crush anyone to death.
Yet, despite his lack of interest in searching for gossip, the big data algorithm insisted on thrusting it right into his face.
Cen Yu squinted at his screen for a moment. “Why is this big brother joining in on the fun, too?”
The person barging in to stir up trouble was none other than Pei Zhuo’s former bodyguard. Given that his relationship with Pei Zhuo was merely an employment contract, Pei Zhuo had naturally hired someone else from the agency to serve as a temporary bodyguard after he got injured.
And so, this guy had begun harboring a deep grudge against Cen Yu.
Adding oil and vinegar to the mix, he recounted the events of that day, taking full advantage of the camera blind spot to spew utter nonsense.
He claimed that Cen Yu probably possessed violent tendencies, alleging that after he caught Cen Yu secretly peeping at Pei Zhuo, Cen Yu had actually beaten him up.
“…If this guy wants to fabricate rumors, go ahead, but can he not slander other people’s taste?” Cen Yu complained to the fat cat.
“Me peeping at Pei Zhuo? Is he even worthy?!”
Yet regardless of Cen Yu’s complaints, the bodyguard’s topic gained massive traction. Marketing accounts even began reaching out to him, planning to host a live stream where he could detail the situation from that day!
“If this idiot ends up assembling all the Cullinan fragments because of this, I won’t let him off even as a ghost!” Cen Yu declared viciously to the System.
He remembered the fat cat mentioning that in order to review each transmigrator’s task completion and check for cheating, the main system would record every transmigrator’s full run via sub-systems.
He was confident the fat cat had the complete video recording of the hot spring incident on hand.
Sure enough, the fat cat let out a meow and forwarded the video snippet by the hot spring straight to Cen Yu’s phone.
“Heh.” Cen Yu offered a cold smile at the camera lens. “Set up a Weibo account for me.”
Pei Zhuo had naturally seen the bodyguard’s statements as well. When he checked with his agent, he found that the bodyguard was utterly unwilling to step forward and clarify the situation.
The entire incident had been a misunderstanding from the start, and Pei Zhuo still remembered that he owed Cen Yu a favor.
Had it not been for Cen Yu stepping in at the filming site, who knew what dangerous stunt that stalker might have pulled off.
Holding his phone, he tapped his fingers against the screen a few times, looking somewhat indecisive.
His hesitation did not escape his agent’s notice—
“Brother Pei, it’s really not worth it,” his agent advised. “It’s crystal clear that someone higher up wants to crush Cen Yu into the dirt.”
He pointed upward. “Who knows, maybe those two brothers communicated beforehand and agreed on this.” No matter how much weight Pei Zhuo carried in the industry, he was a nobody compared to the two Yu brothers.
“Besides, Mr. Yu might be fuming right now.”
Holding his phone, Pei Zhuo didn’t actually think Yu Jinheng was angry with Cen Yu. If nothing else, when Yu Jinheng won the game and took all the ingredients, he refused to believe the man hadn’t done it to bail Cen Yu out of a tight spot.
Grasping his phone, he pondered for a long while.
A mind accustomed to calculating costs and benefits found itself wavering in this moment.
He admitted he owed Cen Yu a favor, but just as his agent said, there was no need for him to wade into these muddy waters… He pulled a coin from his pocket, tossed it into the air, and caught it securely in his palm.
“Heads,” Pei Zhuo said, looking down at the coin. Having made up his mind, he prepared to log onto Weibo and clarify the bodyguard situation on Cen Yu’s behalf.
Unexpectedly, his agent let out a sudden “Holy crap!”
“Cen Yu posted on Weibo!”
As he spoke, he turned his phone screen toward Pei Zhuo. The account named I Am Cen Yu had uploaded a video directly, tagging the bodyguard’s ID with a caption that read—
Stop barking like a dog.
The video clearly captured Cen Yu passing by the hot spring, being abruptly grabbed by someone, followed by the entire chain of events that ensued.
Although Pei Zhuo’s face was blurred out, anyone could tell the person was him.
The video even captured Cen Yu neatly snatching his phone back, then kicking away the bodyguard who was deliberately picking a fight and trying to strike him.
The moment the video dropped, the comment section below erupted into chaos.
Pei Zhuo lowered his phone, knowing that the Weibo post he had drafted to speak up for Cen Yu could no longer be sent… His agent looked at him. “Let’s prepare for PR,” he said.
Although the video clearly showed the fault lay with the bodyguard, as his employer at the time, Pei Zhuo had indeed overreacted, leading to the subsequent mess.
Pei Zhuo looked down at the half-typed message on his screen and chose to exit.
Weibo prompted him with a pop-up asking whether he wanted to save the unsent draft.
Pei Zhuo had intended to click Discard, since Cen Yu no longer needed a late clarification anyway. Yet as he went to tap Discard, his hand slipped, tapping Save Draft instead.
He considered deleting it completely, but felt it was too much hassle. Since it was a post that could never be published, he decided to just leave it sitting in his draft box.
While Cen Yu was busy fiercely arguing with people online, the front door suddenly swung open.
A travel-worn Yu Xinyu stood in the doorway carrying a suitcase. He simply stood there, refraining from stepping inside, as though hesitating over something.
Cen Yu, fully occupied with his online flame war, leaned back on the sofa and threw him a glance. “What are you standing there like an idiot for?”
Yu Xinyu’s face reflected a mixture of fear and trepidation. He looked like a condemned prisoner on the brink of execution who had suddenly received news of a royal amnesty, letting out a long breath from the bottom of his heart.
Dropping his suitcase, he walked slowly over to Cen Yu, who was sitting on the sofa, and dropped to his knees on the floor before him.
Burying his face against Cen Yu’s knee, he waited a few moments before looking up at Cen Yu. “…That video really wasn’t leaked by me.”
“Yeah, I know,” Cen Yu said.
Because he had posted the video himself.
Yu Xinyu remained silent. Although he had defended himself by saying he hadn’t posted that video, everything else had been his doing.
He only wanted to be with Cen Yu. The moment Cen Yu decided to join the variety show, he knew with absolute certainty that everyone would fall in love with Cen Yu.
Love and hate were two sides of the exact same coin… Since that was the case, why not let Cen Yu gain exposure first, only to have everyone despise and reject him afterward? That way, perhaps Cen Yu would abandon everything here and follow him far away, leaving behind everyone he had ever known.
It would be even better if Cen Yu became terrified of leaving the house from then on, growing entirely dependent on him.
Yet Yu Xinyu had merely entertained those thoughts in his mind. He recalled those videos from the security cameras, knowing that the moment they were leaked, Cen Yu’s reputation would plummet to rock bottom—
Even if he wished for the sun to plummet from the sky, he couldn’t endure the eternal night that followed.
And so, even when his mind harbored the most unhinged thoughts, wishing more than anything to drag Cen Yu down to perish together, he had never truly intended to carry it out.
Yet in the end… the sun had fallen anyway.
Yu Xinyu had been living in constant terror all the way here, hardly daring to close his eyes. He hadn’t known how to face Cen Yu, yet now, Cen Yu had forgiven him with such nonchalant ease… He stared at Cen Yu, kneeling on the floor—
Pressing his forehead against Cen Yu’s palm, he resembled a martyr receiving baptism, devoutly accepting the grace bestowed by his Lord.
“…Without you, I will die…” he murmured under his breath.
