Sheng Yiyang drove Momo back home and said softly, "I'm heading to the studio to talk to Ji Rong about some work. Be a good boy and stay home. Send me a message if you need anything, or go find Yu Chen and the others."
Sheng Yiyang had bought Momo a phone long ago, but since he was always by Momo's side, it had barely been used.
Momo shook his head and tightly grasped Sheng Yiyang's hand. He could sense that Sheng Yiyang's mood was off; he seemed angry.
"With Yangyang."
Momo said it slowly and firmly.
Sheng Yiyang's eyes softened instantly, a warm wave washing over his heart. But he could not let Momo go with him, because he suspected that Ling Chen was the one who had taken the candid photos.
Yet, faced with Momo's worried gaze, Sheng Yiyang forced his tone to soften. "Be a good boy, Momo. None of the people at my studio have met Momo yet. I'll go say hi to them, and Momo can stay home and wait for me obediently, okay? Mm, I'll be back before dinner."
Sheng Yiyang guided Momo's gaze to the time on his phone and spoke to him gently.
Momo blinked, then suddenly lunged into Sheng Yiyang's arms, wrapping his arms tightly around his waist. He mumbled into his chest, "Yangyang, stay safe."
Sheng Yiyang paused, then raised a hand to stroke his head, lowering his head to kiss him from his forehead down to his lips. "Yangyang will! Yangyang will protect Momo forever."
After holding him for a little longer, Sheng Yiyang finally headed out.
Closing the door cut off Momo's view, and Sheng Yiyang's gentle expression vanished instantly, replaced by a fierce, dark rage.
As he walked toward the parking lot, he called Ji Rong. "What has Ling Chen been up to lately?"
Ji Rong froze for a second, his mind wandering somewhere odd, and suddenly blurted out, "What is wrong with you! Don't tell me you're rekindling things with Ling Chen!"
Sheng Yiyang: "……"
Sheng Yiyang replied in an icy tone, "Ling Chen probably took pictures of me and Momo. Handle the PR, I'm arriving at the studio now."
Hearing the cold indifference in Sheng Yiyang's voice, Ji Rong immediately recognized his anger and understood the gravity of the situation. He hurried over to the three PR team members sitting at the very back of the studio and told them to monitor the news online.
"What's up? Is that person acting up again?" The speaker was the head of the PR department, a scruffy-bearded man everyone liked to call Big Beard.
"This probably isn't that person, right? Hey bro, did Sheng-ge swap partners?" Sitting next to Big Beard was a slick, punk-looking guy with a cap on, chewing on an e-cigarette and speaking vaguely. His nickname was Skinny Monkey.
"Swap what partners!" Ji Rong raised a hand and gave him a knock on the head. Catching sight of the computer screen, he blurted out a curse, "What kind of stunt did he pull this time?"
On the screen was a picture of Sheng Yiyang holding Momo's hand as they walked out of the hospital, the two of them smiling and looking sweet. Even though both were wearing masks, Sheng Yiyang hadn't bothered to disguise himself carefully, so it was still very obvious who he was.
Below the post, numerous paid trolls were steering the narrative:
[Is Sheng Yiyang in a relationship? How long has it been since he broke up with Ling Chen, and he's dating again already?]
[Who is that person coming out of the hospital? Must be a mistress!]
[So the reason Sheng Yiyang broke up with Ling Chen in the first place was because of her?]
Seeing those internet trolls steering the narrative toward labels like "mistress," "homewrecker," and "pregnant," Ji Rong was somewhat speechless. Should they be thanking Sheng Yiyang for shielding Momo so well that it wasn't immediately obvious he was a guy?
"Control the traffic first, suppress the hot searches, and wait until Sheng-ge gets here before we do anything else!" Ji Rong looked at the steadily rising trending topic, furrowed his brow, and told Big Beard and the others gravely.
"Wake up, time to work!" Skinny Monkey slapped the sleeping balding man beside him awake.
Ji Rong's mouth twitched. He really had no idea their studio's PR department had it this easy nowadays—sleeping during work hours?!
"Holy crap, someone on the other side is buying hot searches!" The balding man yelled, looking at Ji Rong with a questioning look: Should they suppress it or not? If so, to what extent? After all, these operations all cost money.
"Don't suppress it. Let them buy. Ji Rong, contact the top fan club leaders and tell them to keep the fandom under control. Fans leaving or whatever is fine, but nobody is allowed to hurl abuse!" The first thing Sheng Yiyang said upon entering the studio was addressed to the balding man.
"You guys compile some stats on which marketing accounts are kicking up the most fuss. Once the engagement and click-through rates are high enough, sue them!"
"Then we wait. Wait for Ling Chen to post, and once he boosts the engagement, you guys throw out the video and crush Ling Chen once and for all!"
Sheng Yiyang's words carried an intense, chilling hostility.
Big Beard and Skinny Monkey stared at the video Sheng Yiyang tossed out, eyes widening in shock before giving him a simultaneous thumbs-up. This move was absolute genius.
In a student dormitory at Kyoto University, a young woman was lying on her bed, scrolling through her phone out of sheer boredom, when a push notification suddenly popped up:
Turns out Sheng Yiyang and Ling Chen broke up because of a homewrecker!
"What the heck! How is there a homewrecker?!"
She bolted upright into a sitting position on the bed, her fingers swiftly tapping open the notification.
"Yueyue, who has a homewrecker?" Her roommate asked curiously.
"My idol!" Shen Yue hopped off the bed in a hurry, rushed back to her desk, and furrowed her brow. "This marketing account must have lost its mind! When has my idol ever been with that white lotus Ling Chen!"
"Besides, that figure doesn't even look like a woman!"Shen Yue looked at the picture over and over again. As a fan who had fallen in love with Sheng Yiyang at first sight, she thoroughly disliked Ling Chen. When Sheng Yiyang previously announced that he had nothing more to do with Ling Chen, she had even happily celebrated. Yet now, people were telling her that a mistress had intervened in the relationship between Sheng Yiyang and Ling Chen?
"But Yueyue, the message Sheng Yiyang posted before about having nothing to do with Ling Chen came out of nowhere to begin with. It's totally normal for people to think along those lines!" her roommate said gently.
Shen Yue was clearly driven mad by the gossip columnists. Her fingers were flying across the screen as she retorted, "Normal my ass! My idol said before that he'd seen through the true face of that hypocritical lotus! These tabloid rumors were definitely bought by them!"
The roommate merely smiled, writing Shen Yue off as completely obsessed.
What she didn't know, however, was that Shen Yue was Sheng Yiyang's very first major fan—the very first person to follow him when he first opened his Weibo account.
Back then, Sheng Yiyang was mainly focused on his studies at the academy, only occasionally working as an extra on film sets. Perhaps Sheng Yiyang didn't even know what had attracted Shen Yue to him in the first place, seeing as he had nothing back then except for sheer good looks.
Shen Yue: It was simply your looks that made me fall for you at first glance!
When Shen Yue saw the post Ji Rong had published—telling fans "not to hurl casual abuses and to wait quietly for news"—a flicker of doubt arose in her heart. This instruction not to curse casually probably meant they shouldn't randomly insult the person by Sheng Yiyang's side, right?
She felt as though she understood. She zoomed in on the picture again and again, finding herself increasingly convinced that Sheng Yiyang's gaze was truly gentle~ Meanwhile, the eyes of the person beside him actually felt somewhat familiar to her.
Without delving deeper into it, Shen Yue posted a message in the fan group to calm the others down, ignoring those who threatened to un-stan and turn against him.
[Yueyue, is there some kind of inside information?! Is our little sheep really dating again?]
[I feel like the person next to him looks so much better than the last one! As long as the sheep's smile is sincere!]
[Don't you guys think this is way too fast? Didn't the sheep really like Ling before? He's changing his mind way too quickly now!]
[Let's not jump to conclusions. Once this blows over, the sheep will give us an explanation!]
[Everyone go look at what he posted! Damn, it sounds so pathetic! He's even talking about being forced? What is going on here?]
Sheng Yiyang's fans, who had been quietly waiting for news in the group chat, instantly flooded Ling Chen's Weibo page upon seeing what he had written:
So it was because of her that you wanted to leave me. We've known each other since childhood, yet I still can't compare to someone who just appeared out of nowhere? Yiyang, were you forced into this? If you are, just say the word and I'll believe you~ Don't shut me out anymore, okay? @Sheng Yiyang
[Forced? Oh right, I heard Sheng Yiyang is the young master of the Sheng Family, and that he was kicked out of the family for coming out!]
[Kicked out of the Sheng Family for coming out with Ling Chen? Sheng Yiyang loved Ling Chen so much, how could he suddenly claim they had nothing to do with each other? So it was because of her presence!]
[They dug her up—she looks so ordinary! Nowhere near as good-looking as Ling Chen. Is Sheng Yiyang's eyesight getting worse and worse?]
[Holy crap, this woman is wild. Didn't Sheng Yiyang say earlier that he chose to break up with Ling because Ling got together with someone else? How is he hanging out with such a promiscuous woman now?]
[No way, are you guys blind?! That woman is obviously photoshopped!]
Ling Chen's post threw the trending topics into an even greater frenzy. Even onlookers who had previously been watching from the sidelines joined in, calling Sheng Yiyang blind and berating "her" for lacking morals. Any normal comments were completely buried by internet water armies and haters.
Looking at the online commentary, Ling Chen gently swirled his wine glass. He hadn't actually wanted to post this so soon, because Sheng Yiyang had protected the person by his side far too well—this was the only clear photo he had managed to get, and he still hadn't figured out who this person actually was.
Yet Sheng Yiyang had discovered it!
He had known Sheng Yiyang for so many years after all, and he was well aware of Sheng Yiyang's methods. That was why he couldn't afford to give Sheng Yiyang time to react; he had to strike first, post it himself, and steer the public narrative.
Although his original intention was merely to attack "her," netizens had spontaneously rallied to his defense, calling him pitiful. At that point, he no longer cared who the netizens were actually cursing!
Insulting anyone was fine; the main thing was that his follower count had shot up!
Several scripts that had previously rejected him were now reaching out to him.
It happened so fast, and it was so bitterly ironic.
Ling Chen chuckled, took out his phone, and sent Sheng Yiyang a message: Yiyang, let's go back to the way we used to be. That way, the netizens won't insult you anymore!
Except the message didn't go through—he hadn't been added back by Sheng Yiyang at all!
A flash of coldness crossed Ling Chen's eyes. He tried calling, but he was still blocked. The smile on his face grew even more brilliant. Taking a roundabout way, he had Lin Junhua send a message to Ji Rong.
Lin Junhua: "I've already applied to the company, and they will arrange a new manager for you. Stop messaging me!"
Furious, Ling Chen hurled his phone onto the floor. With a sharp crash, the phone shattered into pieces. Fine! Everything is just wonderful! The day will come when all of you come crawling to me!
Watching the shifting updates on his Weibo page and his growing follower count, Ling Chen broke into a satisfied smile.
Meanwhile, on Sheng Yiyang's end, he looked at the netizens' comments with a sneer and let out a cold huff. "You can get ready to start now! One by one, take your time!"