Chapter 28: The Fallen Child Star (28) Part 1

Yao Rong fully supported Xu Weiheng’s decision.

She had been contemplating this issue for a while.

Earlier, she hadn’t rushed to discuss it with Xu Weiheng for two reasons: first, his emotional state wasn’t yet at its best, and second, the school was on summer break at the time.

Unexpectedly, before she could broach the topic, Xu Weiheng brought it up himself.

“Your student registration is still in A City. Where do you plan to attend high school?”

“Of course, I’ll stay here,” Xu Weiheng responded without hesitation.

“Then we’ll need to transfer your registration back. How about we fly to A City tomorrow? It’s also been a while since you’ve seen Aunt Zhang.”

The next afternoon, at A City’s airport.

As soon as Yao Rong and Xu Weiheng exited, they spotted Zhang Qingyi.

Her hair had grown longer, cascading over her shoulders. She wore a sky-blue suit dress and her favorite pearl earrings, looking no less radiant than before.

She held the hand of a boy around seven or eight years old.

The boy, dressed neatly in a shirt and suspenders, looked polite and well-mannered, clearly raised with care by Zhang Qingyi.

When they met, Zhang Qingyi excitedly rushed to hug Yao Rong. “Sister Yao, it’s been so long!”

After exchanging pleasantries, Zhang Qingyi introduced the boy. “This is Li Chu.”

Li Chu greeted them sweetly, calling out “Aunt Yao” and “Brother Weiheng.” He wasn’t shy, and his bright, curious eyes stayed fixed on Xu Weiheng.

“Why are you staring at me? Is there something on my face?” Xu Weiheng squatted down, playfully ruffling the boy’s hair.

Li Chu answered, “I often watch your variety shows with my mom.”

While watching, his mom would repeatedly tell him how great Aunt Yao and Brother Weiheng were, praising Weiheng as a brave person for him to learn from in the future.

Zhang Qingyi chuckled, “He’s always wanted a big brother or sister. When he heard you were coming, he was so excited he barely slept last night.”

Li Chu blushed from his mother’s words but couldn’t help sneaking more glances at Xu Weiheng.

Xu Weiheng stepped forward, pushing his suitcase with one hand and holding Li Chu’s hand with the other.

The four of them headed to the parking lot, where Zhang Qingyi drove them home.

After her divorce, Zhang Qingyi had bought the apartment across from her parents’.

The apartment had three bedrooms and a living room. Yao Rong would sleep in one room, while Xu Weiheng and Li Chu would share another.

“My parents are thrilled you’re visiting,” Zhang Qingyi said. “My dad even prepared dinner especially for you.”

Yao Rong was familiar with Zhang Qingyi’s parents.

Zhang’s father, Zhang Hongyu, was the chief editor of A City Daily, and her mother also worked in the industry. They had helped Yao Rong and Xu Weiheng immensely back then.

That evening, at Zhang’s parents’ house, they were warmly welcomed.

After dinner and tea, Zhang’s father learned about Xu Weiheng’s situation and offered to help if they encountered any trouble transferring Xu Weiheng’s student registration.

Once dinner was over, they returned to Zhang Qingyi’s apartment.

Li Chu and Xu Weiheng went to the bedroom to unpack.

Meanwhile, Zhang Qingyi sliced some apples, pushed them toward Yao Rong, and started sharing her recent experiences.

After returning to A City, she had met with her ex-husband.

The couple had a long, frank discussion, covering everything from their marriage issues to the child’s custody arrangements.

Initially, their conversation had been quite heated, but before Li Chu’s summer camp ended, they reached a preliminary agreement, managing to avoid showing their marital disputes in front of Li Chu.

Later, they went to pick up Li Chu from camp together. Zhang Qingyi found an appropriate opportunity to tell Li Chu everything that had happened during this time, completely and honestly, without any exaggeration.

“He’s such a good child. When he first heard about the divorce, he cried so hard…” Zhang Qingyi’s eyes reddened slightly.

“But after calming down, he told me… he would support my decision. He asked me not to be sad, and not to punish myself for others’ mistakes.”

With the most worrying issue resolved smoothly, everything else seemed manageable to Zhang Qingyi.

Divorcing her ex-husband, moving, and starting to work hard to earn money kept her busy and bustling.

Her life had become even more fulfilling than before the divorce.

Yao Rong poured her a glass of water.

After drinking the water, Zhang Qingyi smiled. “I’m starting to believe in Weiheng’s words more and more.”

When she didn’t know how to tell her child about these things, Xu Weiheng had earnestly told her: Sometimes, children can be stronger and more understanding than adults think.

It was precisely because of Xu Weiheng’s words that she found the most suitable way to communicate with her child, minimizing the negative impact of her and her ex-husband’s divorce on Li Chu.

After catching up, Zhang Qingyi asked how long Yao Rong was staying.

Learning it was only for three days, she expressed disappointment: “Why only three days? I was hoping to show you around more.”

Yao Rong smiled helplessly. “School is starting soon, and he has a lot of missed lessons to catch up on.”

“That’s true. Then let’s go handle the student registration first thing tomorrow morning.”

It took two days to successfully complete the student registration process.

After taking care of the main business, Zhang Qingyi took Yao Rong shopping at the mall, buying pearl necklaces for both of them.

“It’s not an expensive gift, but I think it really suits your style, Sister Yao.”

Yao Rong accepted the gift graciously, planning to pick out a watch for Zhang Qingyi’s birthday in return.

After buying jewelry, the two went shopping for clothes.

With the change of seasons approaching, it was time to add some autumn clothes to their wardrobes.

Li Chu and Xu Weiheng obediently followed behind them, carrying the shopping bags.

Li Chu sighed, lifting the three shopping bags in his hands: “Good thing I don’t often go shopping with my mom.”

Amused by Li Chu’s little adult manner, Xu Weiheng bought him a new basketball and two 1,000-piece puzzles as a belated meeting gift.

Li Chu was overjoyed with the new basketball.

Before dinner, Li Chu dragged Xu Weiheng to the basketball court in the community to play.

When they got tired, Li Chu hugged the basketball, obediently following beside Xu Weiheng.

The setting sun cast their shadows long and slanted from behind them.

“Brother…” Li Chu suddenly tugged at Xu Weiheng’s clothes, “Is it very hard for a single mom?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Oh…”

“So we need to take good care of ourselves and also take good care of her. If she’s in danger or being bullied by someone, we need to protect her. That’s what it means to be a man.”

Li Chu nodded vigorously.

Xu Weiheng turned to face Li Chu.

He bent down slightly, looking at Li Chu, his eyes filled with gentle light: “So let’s make a promise and keep each other accountable. If one of us fails to do this in the future, the other one should remind him. This is a promise between men.”

Li Chu excitedly said: “Great, this is our shared secret!”

Xu Weiheng patted his head and added: “However, if you encounter difficulties, don’t try to be tough. You’re braver than she thinks, and she’s stronger than you believe.”

When they returned home with the basketball, Yao Rong asked curiously: “Why are you back so late?”

“We chatted for a while after playing basketball.”

Yao Rong glanced at Xu Weiheng, smiled, and didn’t ask further.

The next day, Zhang Qingyi saw Yao Rong and Xu Weiheng off at the airport, bidding them a reluctant farewell.

After returning home, Xu Weiheng quickly enrolled in school.

During this time, many fans privately messaged Xu Weiheng asking about his upcoming schedule, and several variety shows and TV dramas had also contacted him. In response, Xu Weiheng specifically posted on Weibo, stating that he would focus on studying for the next three years and only act during free time in winter and summer vacations.

Many fans expressed regret, feeling that he should take advantage of his current popularity to act more.

However, even more fans showed their support for this decision.

[Although it feels regrettable, it’s precisely because Xu Weiheng made this choice that I’m more convinced I didn’t pick the wrong idol to support]

[Being able to stay calm in the face of popularity, Xu Weiheng’s future will surely go higher and further. Best wishes!]

After posting on Weibo, Xu Weiheng picked up his junior high school studies again.

Having been away from school for a long time, Xu Weiheng started off slowly, but by finding online video tutorials and other learning methods, he gradually got back into the rhythm.

In early September, when the first year of high school began, Xu Weiheng’s arrival at school initially caused a stir among all the students. He maintained his own pace of life, and as his classmates gradually got used to his presence, his campus life returned to normal. He even made a few friends and formed a study group with them.

On weekends, Xu Weiheng would specifically learn guitar, piano, and dancing, and would also study some movies and TV dramas. Following suggestions from his fans, he would occasionally post snippets of his practice sessions on his personal Weibo account.

Strangely, although he wasn’t active in the entertainment circle, his Weibo follower count didn’t drop but instead increased.

Especially when Xu Weiheng made significant progress in his piano and dance skills, he even topped the hot search list, with the comments section bustling with activity.

[Our boy’s grown up!]

[Watching Xu Weiheng start learning piano from scratch to now making great progress, I feel the joy of nurturing]

[Even though he once lived in an unfavorable environment, he’s now shining brightly through his own efforts]

During this time, Yao Rong’s second novel “Light Years” was also published.

Building on the foundation of her first book, even though the promotion for the second book wasn’t as extensive as the first, its performance was still very impressive.

At the same time, Yao Rong received a long-awaited phone call.

This call came from Tiangong Visual Effects.

A year ago, Yao Rong had invested all of Xu Weiheng’s compensation money and his earnings from “Dear Family” into Tiangong Visual Effects, a special effects company, and contributed technology as part of her investment.

After a year of research and development, Tiangong Visual Effects finally developed their latest special effects technology.

“This special effects technology can achieve glasses-free 3D to a certain extent. According to our investigation, this technology is at least five years ahead of the industry’s top standards.”

Current 3D movie technology requires wearing 3D glasses to view.

Wearing 3D glasses is still relatively friendly to viewers who don’t normally wear glasses, but for those who already wear glasses, adding another pair of lenses on top of their own glasses can be burdensome.

Moreover, if the additional lenses don’t fit well, the viewing experience can be quite frustrating.

Glasses-free 3D technology can eliminate the need for 3D glasses entirely.

Therefore, glasses-free 3D technology is the next big move for the entire film industry, but this technology has long been unable to achieve a significant breakthrough.

The results achieved by Tiangong Visual Effects have finally made a breakthrough in this field.

Pei Rou from Tiangong Visual Effects excitedly asked: “Would you like to come and see it in person?”

If it weren’t for Yao Rong’s financial investment, Tiangong Visual Effects would have been sold off long ago.

If it weren’t for Yao Rong’s technology investment, even with their talent, they wouldn’t have been able to achieve such rapid technological progress in such a short time.

So Pei Rou and the others were always very grateful to Yao Rong and wanted to thank her in person.

Yao Rong glanced at the calendar: “Then I’ll come over tomorrow.”

Pei Rou was delighted: “Great! We’ll book the flight tickets for you!”

“Okay,” Yao Rong smiled and made another request, “I’ll bring my son with me when I come. Don’t tell him about my technology investment, to avoid scaring him.”

Although he didn’t understand why Yao Rong would make such a request, since she had asked, Pei Rou naturally agreed.

…