Chapter 13 Puppy Hairpin
The hustle and bustle of the emergency room finally came to a temporary end, leaving behind a tired tranquility like the receding tide.
Chu Yi practically fell into his office chair. After nearly ten hours of intense work, his body felt like a bag drained of strength, every muscle wailing in protest. He leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and his cervical vertebrae cracked softly.
After a brief moment of distraction, he instinctively reached for his phone. The cold screen lit up, its glare causing him to squint uncomfortably. His fingers unconsciously swiped, unlocking the app, and he scrolled aimlessly, trying to wash away the accumulated fatigue in his brain with irrelevant information.
However, several extremely eye-catching entries with the suffix "explosion" suddenly caught his eye, dominating the top positions of major entertainment apps.
#Zhou Ai's love story#
#Zhou Ai puppy hairpin suspicion#
#Top star Zhou Ai's relationship exposed? Mysterious token appears#
Chu Yi's finger that was sliding across the screen paused, as if it had been stung by something.
He frowned slightly, and his fingertips hesitantly fell on the most conspicuous entry.
The page jumped, loading a dense stream of gossip and fan carnival.
A high-definition image instantly filled the screen—Zhou Ai, seemingly outside a recording studio, was captured by a telephoto lens. He wore a simple black short-sleeved shirt, his expression as indifferent as ever, even a hint of indifference from someone accustomed to being watched.
But everyone's focus was on an extremely incongruous yet extremely clear decoration next to the collar of his T-shirt - a plastic puppy hairpin with a cute and even somewhat childish shape, and a few shiny decorations that looked like rhinestones embedded in the puppy's ears.
Chu Yi's gaze froze on the hairpin.
A strong, absurd sense of familiarity instantly gripped him. He subconsciously straightened his relaxed back and zoomed in on the image with his fingertips, bringing the details into sharper focus.
You can't be wrong.
It was he who took it out of his white coat pocket and pinned it on that day in order to fix Zhou Ai's unruly strands of hair.
As for that hairpin, if he remembered correctly, it was a thank-you gift a little girl had timidly given to the "very gentle and handsome" doctor last week after she had emergency stitches. He had thanked her, slipped it into his pocket, and then completely forgotten about it.
What's the connection? Chu Yi rubbed his brows, feeling that the entertainment industry's imagination was too unrestrained.
He slid his finger, and the page jumped to the Weibo of the female celebrity who was "exposed" to have the same style. In the photo, she was indeed wearing a hairpin of a similar style, but with completely different details. However, the comment section had already been flooded with CP fans and netizens who were just watching the fun, and they firmly believed that it was a "couple style" and a "secret show of affection."
A subtle feeling of helplessness and a bit of absurdity came over me.
He could almost imagine Zhou Ai's usual expression of mockery and indifference when he saw these outrageous rumors.
Chu Yi stared at the puppy hairpin on the screen that was infinitely magnified and over-interpreted. A belated question pierced his mind like a tiny ice needle, catching him off guard.
wrong.
Who is Zhou Ai? A top star in the Chinese entertainment industry, his every move is watched by countless eyes. He has a huge team of professionals behind him, and his public relations skills are renowned in the industry for being sharp and powerful.
This obviously absurd "romance" rumor, which has no real evidence, also involves such an abrupt and easily disproven "token"...
According to common sense, the entry should have been quickly suppressed as soon as it appeared or even before it fermented, or at least the official studio would have issued a clarification statement to guide public opinion.
How could it be allowed to hang there, ferment, and even soar all the way to the point of "explosion" and hang there for a whole day?
This is simply like... condoning, or even tacitly approving.
Chu Yi's brows furrowed tighter and tighter, and he subconsciously ruled out the possibility of hype.
With Zhou Ai's current status and solid work, she doesn't need to resort to such low-brow, leaky rumors to attract attention. New song? Concert?
Those news would have made headlines once they were released, so why would they need to warm up with a hairpin of unknown origin and completely different style?
This method is too crude and too inconsistent with the arrogant style of Zhou Ai and his team.
So what does he want?
Chu Yi leaned back in his chair, his fingertips tapping unconsciously on the table, lost in a state of confusion that he could not figure out.
There was an inexplicable abnormality in the whole thing, like a fog, which made him, a doctor accustomed to logic and evidence, feel a little tricky and... inexplicably uneasy.
"Here, refresh yourself." A glass of iced American coffee was suddenly placed on the table in front of him, and cold water droplets quickly condensed on the wall of the glass.
Chu Yi came to his senses and looked up. It was Dr. Kobayashi, a colleague from the same emergency team. He was biting on a straw, and his curious eyes just swept across the screen of his mobile phone, which he had not yet turned off. On it was a high-definition close-up of Zhou Ai with a hairpin.
"Oh, Dr. Chu, it's rare that you also want to eat Zhou Ai's melon?" Dr. Kobayashi joked with a smile, pulling over a chair next to him and sitting down, obviously wanting to take a break from his busy schedule to chat for a few minutes.
Chu Yi calmly turned off the screen, picked up his coffee, and took a sip. The cold, bitter taste washed over his tongue, clearing his foggy mind a bit. He said calmly, "Just looking around. Too many push notifications."
"That's what I was saying. Why would you care about this?" Dr. Kobayashi sipped his milk tea and shook his head. "But I think it's fake, too fake. Even if Zhou Ai is really in a relationship—although I can't imagine who could win over that great man, but... I guess... he definitely wouldn't like the female celebrity who was dug out of the photo. Their styles are completely incompatible."
She became more and more excited as she spoke, her eyes brightening a little. "Doctor Chu, do you remember the last time he came to our department with a forehead injury? Oh my God... I knew he was a top star and must be handsome, but I didn't expect him to be so handsome in the real world! I always thought those stars were just made up of lenses and filters, and they would eventually die in the light, right? But that day, my goodness, he was helped in, blood still seeping from his forehead, his face was a little pale, but that face..."
Doctor Kobayashi took an exaggerated breath, as if still savoring the shock he'd felt. "He's so incredibly handsome! Even with his injuries, not only doesn't it diminish his looks, but on the contrary, he has this...tsk, that sense of battle-damaged shattering. Absolutely amazing! When I was doing his initial registration, my hands were shaking a little, afraid to offend this beautiful man...no, the patient."
She chattered away, completely immersed in admiration for Zhou Ai's divine face.
Chu Yi just listened silently, his fingertips stroking the cold wall of the coffee cup.
Dr. Kobayashi's unintentional words were like a faint light that passed through the fog in his heart.
Yes, for a person who has absolute capital, is used to being the center of attention, and can still look amazing even with injuries, the purpose of his actions may not be guessed by common sense at all.
The hairpin hanging on him, ridiculous and conspicuous, caused a huge wave on the Internet, while its owner, the person who should have been most anxious to clarify, seemed to be sitting back and watching it happen?
Chu Yi lowered his eyes, and his thick eyelashes cast a small shadow under his eyes, covering the deeper doubts surging in his eyes.
He always felt that this matter might not be just a boring misunderstanding.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
