Chapter 7 Romance

At 2 p.m., the meeting room of Yunxi Technology was filled with the interplay of light and shadow.

Xu Shaoting sat firmly in the main seat, the intense sunlight outside the window slanting across the glass, illuminating his sharp profile.

A man and a woman were sitting opposite him.

The middle-aged man was at a crucial point in his speech when he leaned forward, his eyes filled with fervent hope: "If this time we could get together with Yunxi..."

"Knock knock knock──"

Three crisp knocks abruptly interrupted the conversation, bringing the man to an abrupt halt. He opened his mouth as if to say something more, but the woman beside him gently tugged at his suit sleeve, silencing him.

Xu Shaoting raised his hand to apologize to him, his brows furrowing slightly as he turned to look at the doorway.

Lin Youzhe stood quietly at the door, not daring to step in, but simply nodded to Xu Shaoting.

Xu Shaoting understood immediately. He knew that Lin Youzhe was always sensible, and that his visit must be urgent. After a moment's hesitation, he smiled faintly at the man and woman opposite him and said, "Excuse me." He then stood up, his fingers brushing against the buttons of his suit jacket as he slowly and deliberately buttoned them as he walked away.

"What is it?" Xu Shaoting asked as he left the conference room, his brows furrowed with a hint of impatience at being interrupted.

"Chairman Xu, take a look at this trending topic." Lin Youzhe handed over his phone.

Xu Shaoting took it, looking at the trending topics on Weibo's entertainment list with a dark and unreadable expression.

The words that were clearly named on the trending search list were—

Wen Jia was spotted meeting a man at night, sparking rumors of a new relationship.

His eyes darkened, and he tapped the screen to access the details of the trending topic.

The pinned post that appears is clearly the driving force behind this trending topic:

@EntertainmentIndustrySecondInsider: [Wen Jia's Suspected Relationship Exposed!] The night before last, paparazzi photographed popular actress Wen Jia heading straight to a hotel's underground parking garage after a late-night banquet, getting into a black private car. The man inside was not seen. More notably, Wen Jia appeared cautious as she got into the car, repeatedly glancing around. Currently, her studio has not made any response. What's going on? Is it a real relationship or just friendship? #WenJia #WenJiaRelationshipExposed

The blog post included three photos, all taken from different angles. Each photo was heavily watermarked, but the public could still recognize Wen Jia as the subject.

In the first picture, Wen Jia is wearing a short white dress, a mask, and her long hair is loose. She is standing in front of a black sports car, looking around. This scene was captured by the paparazzi.

The second photo is a profile shot of her leaning over to talk to someone inside the car. She hasn't gotten into the car yet, and the paparazzi have captured the moment again.

The third image isn't a still frame, but a GIF. The GIF is of just the right length, capturing Wen Jia opening the car door and getting into the car.

Although none of these three pictures capture the face of the person in the driver's seat, through the half-lowered tinted windows, one can still vaguely glimpse the person's neat short hair, handsome profile, masculine arm lines gripping the steering wheel, and meticulously tailored shirt and tie.

If these details require careful observation to notice, then the brightly lit license plate on Xu Shaoting's car provides a huge amount of information for onlookers.

The paparazzi were clever; perhaps hoping to stir up public opinion, they deliberately didn't blur out Xu Shaoting's license plate.

In fact, it was because of this that Lin Youzhe realized something was wrong.

After all, he had only met Wen Jia once when they signed the contract. But since she was someone his boss specifically requested, Lin Youzhe naturally paid more attention to Wen Jia's news. So when the Weibo push notification for the trending topic came to his phone, he subconsciously clicked on it. At first, he didn't think much of it, until he saw the familiar license plate and car model, and then thought about Xu Shaoting's schedule last night. He then realized something and hurriedly ran to the meeting room to call Xu Shaoting out.

If Lin Youzhe could think of this, the observant masses could naturally think of it too. Xu Shaoting clicked into the comments section, and sure enough, the top two comments showed no curiosity about Wen Jia's relationship, only a desire for that consecutive license plate.

"Forget about the relationship for now, how much does this license plate cost?"

"My god, that license plate! Is my sister going to marry into a wealthy family? [Shocked]"

Xu Shaoting didn't scroll down any further. He handed the phone back to Lin Youzhe, composed himself, and simply asked, "When did this leak come out?"

Lin Youzhe answered truthfully, "Just now, as soon as Weibo pushed the message to me, I showed it to you," and then asked, "Should we remove it?"

Xu Shaoting didn't answer, but turned and walked towards the conference room, waving to Lin Youzhe as he strode away: "I'll give you an answer later."

*

In a corner of the photography studio, Wen Jia looked at the phone screen that Yu Kaiqing held up in front of her.

She squeezed her eyes shut tightly.

It's true what they say, what you fear most is what happens.

But if we were to ask Wen Jia whether she had considered the possibility of this scene before getting into Xu Shaoting's car, would you answer that she was wrong?

Wen Jia would answer, naturally she had thought about it.

Having been in the industry for seven years, I've had some dealings with paparazzi. No matter how naive I am, I'm not like a newbie who thinks the paparazzi will let me off the hook.

To put it more bluntly, she had long expected to trend on social media, but she didn't expect it to happen so quickly.

Wen Jia opened the comments section, only to find that the two comments about Xu Shaoting's license plate had been drowned out by a flood of mockery.

"What?! You just missed out on the Best Actress award and you're already dating? Your ambition is only as big as a fingernail."

Some people defended Wen Jia in this thread: "OP, be rational. It's not solid evidence. Besides, Wen Jia is an actress, not an idol. We support actors' freedom to date. Her career isn't bad either."

Some netizens who surf the internet without thinking commented: "They just lost the Best Actress award and now they're releasing a dating scandal. This PR team is really good at diverting attention."

As expected, this netizen was criticized:

"Don't make me laugh. Have you ever seen someone use a dating scandal to divert attention? Isn't this just robbing Peter to pay Paul? The celebrity's team isn't that stupid; it's obviously an accidental shot."

Even more tech-savvy netizens commented: "Family members, I just checked this license plate, and I can't find any information about it at all [shocked]."

"Hahahaha, it would be strange if you could find it. Just because a license plate is displayed like that, you can find the information? Isn't that like flaunting your privacy in public? Rich people aren't stupid."

Others, seemingly rational but actually insane, commented: "They've already said the woman's studio hasn't responded at all. Isn't it possible they're just friends, or even relatives of the same generation, like cousins ​​or something??? Oh my god, wouldn't that be incest? Wouldn't that make things even more interesting...!?"

Upon seeing the first two lines of Wen Jia's poem: "There is true love in the world, and I have a clear conscience," I was finally told that someone had come to clear my name!

Wen Jia after reading the entire comment: Hell is empty, all the devils are here on earth.

After reading through most of the comments, Wen Jia was both amused and exasperated: "Seeing a man and a woman means they're in a relationship."

Unexpectedly, Yu Kaiqing said something incredibly disrespectful: "Actually... if you only look at the pictures, it does look a bit like a relationship being exposed..."

After Yu Kaiqing finished speaking, she glanced at Wen Jia and saw her look down at her. However, she was a little surprised that she didn't see a trace of surprise in Wen Jia's eyes, so she asked, "Did you expect this to happen?"

Wen Jia snorted and tossed her phone to Yu Kaiqing: "I never imagined that all these years in the entertainment industry have been for nothing," she said, then berated her, "I told you not to be lazy and not come to pick me up."

Yu Kaiqing pouted, looking a little aggrieved, "I didn't expect to be photographed. If you had told me earlier, I would have personally come to catch any falling knives."

"Hypocrite." Wen Jia tapped her forehead.

Upon hearing this, Yu Kaiqing felt regret for only a second before secretly rejoicing. "A top star is a top star; those obscure celebrities wouldn't even bother with paparazzi even if they begged."

Wen Jia almost knelt down before her: "Don't say things like that outside."

"I know, I'm not stupid. What are you planning to do?"

Yu Kaiqing was just Wen Jia's personal assistant and had no experience in public relations. In addition, Wen Jia had not had any similar scandals before, so Yu Kaiqing seemed more anxious than Wen Jia.

Wen Jia was carrying the large hem of her dress. After carrying it for a while, she got a little tired and her movements became relaxed. Her whole demeanor was elegant but with a hint of decadence, which looked quite incongruous. She thought silently for two seconds, but seemed to have no good solution. So she instructed Yu Kaiqing.

"Go get my phone, I want to call Sister Zhang."

Wen Jia's agent, Zhang Linzhi, is over thirty-five years old. Her work style is quite different from Wen Jia's former agent's impetuousness; she exudes composure in her speech and demeanor. Wen Jia didn't necessarily want a solution when she made this call; seeking peace of mind was also the best course of action.

It seemed that Zhang Linzhi had already seen the trending topic, so Wen Jia gritted her teeth and made a voice call to Zhang Linzhi.

The phone rang for more than ten seconds before it was answered.

"Sister Zhang, have you seen the trending topics?" Zhang Linzhi was a straightforward person, so Wen Jia got straight to the point.

"I'm having a meeting with PR right now about this, how could you be so careless?"

Wen Jia was a little helpless. She touched her forehead, then remembered that she was wearing makeup and immediately took it off: "It's not that I wasn't careful enough, it's that the paparazzi are too cunning. I've been careful enough. If I keep sneaking around, it's no different from being a thief. The paparazzi are too well hidden now. I really didn't notice them."

Zhang Linzhi didn't blame her, but asked, "The relationship isn't real, is it? Don't tell me it's a real romance." Wen Jia could hear the suspicion in her voice even through the phone.

Wen Jia then covered her forehead with her hand: "Sister, I'm not stupid enough to start dating right after my comeback."

"Okay, that's good. Anyway, we'll post a clarification on your Weibo first, and then I'll ask the PR department how to handle the rest."

Wen Jia hung up the phone, leaned against the wall and pondered for a moment, feeling that it was necessary to inform Xu Shaoting, since Xu Shaoting was also a protagonist in this trending topic, in addition to herself.

Although being trending on social media doesn't seem to have any impact on someone of his status.

She didn't know if he had seen it, or what his reaction would be. Silence? Calmness? Indifference? Wen Jia figured it wouldn't be shock.

She tapped on his number, intending to call him directly. Just as her fingertip was about to press the dial button, the screen felt so hot that she abruptly pulled her finger back.

Yu Kaiqing watched from the side.

When has Wen Jia ever been so hesitant in her actions?

Yu Kaiqing didn't understand.

Why didn't you call Chairman Xu?

Wen Jia didn't answer Yu Kaiqing, but thought to herself that maybe he was in a meeting and couldn't answer the phone, maybe he was talking business and didn't want to be interrupted, or maybe he saw it but didn't care at all.

So she opened Xu Shaoting's chat box, typed and deleted a string of words, then typed and deleted them again.

"Chairman Xu, have you seen the trending topics?"

"Chairman Xu, you were photographed the night before last."

"Chairman Xu, we're trending on social media!"

As I was typing, I realized that no matter how I said it, it was inappropriate, so I deleted it all.

Finally, Wen Jia typed two of the simplest words that were impossible to miss.

Chairman Xu

Five seconds after the message was sent, Wen Jia didn't even have time to exit the chat box.

A phone call came in.

Wen Jia looked at the caller ID, her palms tightening slightly, and answered the call.

"Miss Wen." A deep, mellow male voice came through the microphone into Wen Jia's ears.