Chapter 39

The exhaustion from filming disappeared in the moment he saw Shen Yuanting.

Yan Zhao walked quickly to his seat, a smile unconsciously forming on his face, making anyone who saw him feel a softness in their hearts.

Shen Yuanting chose the location carefully; behind them was a vast expanse of sky. At this moment, as day turned to dusk, the rare purple-pink sunlight spread out, creating a unique and magnificent scene. When night fell, one could enjoy the splendid night view of bright lights.

After ordering their meal, the waiter left.

Shen Yuanting looked at Yan Zhao. Because of the filming, the young man’s face had a little light makeup. The slightly upturned corners of his eyes were made even sharper, adding a touch of fierce beauty to him.

He looked good, but Shen Yuanting still preferred his natural look, with the spirit of a young man yet hiding a captivating nonchalance.

Shen Yuanting asked, “How was filming?”

Yan Zhao rested her chin on her hand. “I got along well with Director Yu. There are quite a few young actors in the crew, aged sixteen or seventeen, so it’s lively.”

Shen Yuanting nodded, then casually asked, “I saw your Weibo. Did you have a conflict with your teammate?”

Actually, he didn’t see it through Weibo. If he wanted to know something, someone would naturally inform him… But that wasn’t the point. The point was, it was Ning Yunfan again.

This person kept popping up in front of him time and time again, and Shen Yuanting was starting to get annoyed.

When he was annoyed, he wanted to take action against people, which was one of the reasons why his subordinates in the company were quite afraid of him.

But Yan Zhao’s focus wasn’t here.

“You’ve been following me? Why didn’t you tell me!” Yan Zhao put down his fork and knife, playing with a lemon slice, took out his phone, opened Weibo, and scrolled through the latest followers, “Which one is you? Confess now, resistance is futile.”

Shen Yuanting sighed, “….Mobile user 289XXXXXX.”

Yan Zhao muttered, “The rest are all random, right? You even remember such a long string.”

He typed a few numbers and then forgot the rest. Yan Zhao pointed at the screen, “What comes after 289?”

Shen Yuanting had to slowly recite the remaining digits.

The only reason Shen Yuanting used Weibo was to keep up with his household’s big star’s updates, so his follow count was still at 1, with a default profile picture. As for posting and liking, there was none.

Yan Zhao remarked, “You say you love me, yet you don’t even give me a like. Even zombie fans know how to do sit-ups in their coffins.”

Shen Yuanting: “….”

Yan Zhao complained verbally but still clicked the follow button.

When Salt Soda came online, they were eagerly awaiting something, but after waiting for a while, they didn’t see any business activity; instead, they noticed an account with no posts in the idol’s following list, which seemed suspicious no matter how you looked at it.

Fans tried to extract some information from the account’s digits and registration time, but analyzing this blank account was obviously futile.

They even suspected that their beloved idol’s account had been hacked, fearing that the next moment, the hacker might use the idol’s Weibo to post messages like: [High imitation luxury originals, interested add VX…] The idol’s appearance might appear on the hot search again due to that Weibo.

Fortunately, such a terrifying event did not occur. The mysterious account changed its appearance a few minutes later. The nickname became “Daddy Wang Zai”, and the profile picture changed to a cow patterned cat being held by its ears, pretending to be a rabbit.

Salt Soda: “Wang Zai milk, hard sell, hit with a hammer.”

Out of curiosity about the idol, many fans also followed this account. Daddy Wang Zai’s number of fans skyrocketed in seconds. Some fans even went to see his profile picture in full size, overwhelmed by the weight of Wang Zai, asking the blogger to post more cat videos.

Yan Zhao exclaimed in amazement, “Now Wang Zai is an internet celebrity, it can do advertisements and earn cat food.”

Shen Yuanting lifted the curtain, “Then it needs endorsements from pet weight loss agencies.”

Yan Zhao: “…” That’s its dad.

After finishing their meal, the two walked out of the restaurant side by side. The door of the elevator happened to open at that moment, and a couple brushed past them. The woman still had a faint smell of incense on her, with a hint of bitterness upon careful sniffing.

Shen Yuanting’s footsteps paused for a moment, and he calmly pressed the floor button.

Just as the elevator doors were almost closed, the button outside was pressed again, and the door opened, revealing the couple from earlier.

The man was dressed in a smart suit, giving off an air of success, and his position was commensurate with the first impression he gave—Li Renjun, the chief operating officer of a well-known French luxury company’s China branch.

Shen Yuanting recognized Li Renjun, but what he recognized even more was the woman beside him. Her appearance was deceptive, even younger-looking than he remembered, with the face of a beautiful young girl, smooth skin, and lips naturally rosy. However, Shen Yuanting was also aware that her personality didn’t match her sweet exterior.

Li Renjun expressed some relief, saying, “Yuanting, it’s really you. Luckily I found you familiar just now, or I might have missed you.”

Shen Yuanting introduced them to Yan Zhao, saying, “This is Li Renjun, the COO of ParisIncana Group, Mr. Li.”

Yan Zhao greeted Li Renjun and then turned his attention to the woman beside him, asking, “And who might this be?”

The woman gently parted her lips, smiling as she looked at him, “Me? I’m Yu Wei.”

Yan Zhao was taken aback for a moment, then his mind raced with thoughts. Oh my, isn’t this Shen Zhuo’s ex-wife?!

Yan Zhao wasn’t aware of Yu Wei’s whereabouts after her divorce from Shen Zhuo. He hadn’t even thought they would cross paths, considering Yu Wei seemed like a background character from the opening animation of an RPG—existing but not explored by any player.

But in reality, as long as there was no hiccup, a reappearance wasn’t entirely impossible.

Yu Wei blinked and asked, “I can’t quite recall, are you Mr. Yan Junhua’s grandson?”

Yan Junhua was the original owner’s grandfather. Yan Zhao confirmed, “Yes.”

“Oh…” Yu Wei looked him over with interest. Over the years, even though she had been abroad, she couldn’t escape news about the Shen family. Within the overseas Chinese community, many girls had their eyes on Shen Yuanting, the crown prince. Little did they know, the position of crown princess had been bestowed elsewhere.

…But this information also came from Mrs. Shen, and she had no contact with the Shen family whatsoever. She wouldn’t have been informed when Shen Yuanting got married.

Yu Wei’s direct gaze made Shen Yuanting somewhat annoyed.

He was his person, and only he could gaze at him so unabashedly.

He pulled Yan Zhao closer and warned, “Stop staring at him like that.”

Yu Wei chuckled lightly and shifted her gaze away.

Li Renjun wasn’t clear about the relationship between Yu Wei and Shen Yuanting. After all, for most divorced families, ex-spouses may part ways, but children cannot be abandoned. He kindly suggested, “Shall we have a meal together? You and Weiwei haven’t seen each other for so long, and you must miss each other.”

Shen Yuanting wanted to laugh in his heart, while Yu Wei simply burst into laughter. If there were any lingering affections, they wouldn’t have acted so decisively over the years.

The woman held her partner’s hand and said, “No need, we promised to spend today together, and nothing can change that.”

Li Renjun felt a bit awkward, thinking he might have intruded on the mother and son: “Um…”

Shen Yuanting had no intention of staying long and said, “Let’s go according to what she said. Take your time with your meal, we’ll leave first.”

…

In just a few minutes of interaction, Yan Zhao also sensed the subtle atmosphere between Shen Yuanting and Yu Wei.

Regardless of their situation, Yan Zhao stood by Shen Yuanting’s side.

He grasped the man’s hand and pointed to the night sky, “Look, there are stars over there! I haven’t seen them in a long time!”

In the night sky of the big city, starlight was always faint, and it was rare to catch a glimpse of the stars.

Shen Yuanting glanced over, “Shall we go to the observatory another day?”

Yan Zhao replied, “The experience there is different from this…”

Shen Yuanting questioned, “What’s the difference? They’re all stars.”

Yan Zhao explained, “Real stars should be a bit lonely… When I look at them, they have someone accompanying them.”

Shen Yuanting didn’t know whether a star could be lonely or not. All he knew was that in the young man’s dark eyes under the neon lights, it seemed like there was a galaxy hidden. If a few stars were shining, they certainly couldn’t be considered lonely.

Shen Yuanting turned Yan Zhao’s face towards him, “You’re more concerned about the stars than me.”

Yan Zhao replied, “I’m just casually expressing some fresh thoughts. I can act like a literary youth next time I post on Weibo.”

Shen Yuanting made an indistinct grunt from his throat, “Silly.”

Yan Zhao: “…”

Yan Zhao asked, “What did you say?”

Shen Yuanting complimented, “You have a really good style literary.”

Yan Zhao pounced forward, baring his teeth and claws, “It’s too late to change your words now, I heard it!”

Shen Yuanting still let him have a good rant before grabbing his claws when he calmed down, kissing a series of kisses on the back of his hand.

If there was anything unexpected about Shen Yuanting after they started dating, it was how unexpectedly clingy he was. He seemed to want to hold and cuddle him all the time.

Yan Zhao’s face flushed a bit as he pulled his hand back, “We’re outside, someone might see us later.”

Shen Yuanting’s lips touched a small patch of skin on the back of his hand, his breath blowing on it as he spoke, “If you’re worried, we can go to the car.”

… That sounded like they were about to have a quickie in the car.

Yan Zhao withdrew his hand and walked briskly ahead, “No, I’m tired, I want to go home.”

Shen Yuanting smiled and caught up with him.

In the end, they kissed for a long time in the car. Yan Zhao lay in his seat, feeling like he was a debauched and clueless emperor, bewitched by Concubine Shen.

He closed his eyes to rest, waiting for the car to stabilize, but then Shen Yuanting grabbed his hand again, the man’s rough fingertips were spinning around his knuckles.

Yan Zhao said, “No more kissing, I’m serious this time.”

If they kept kissing, he’d end up speaking in ventriloquism for the next few days.

Shen Yuanting’s light and satisfied tone carried a hint of contentment, “Hmm, no more kissing.”

Yan Zhao replied, “Then don’t touch me—”

A cold circle slipped onto his left ring finger.

Yan Zhao was instantly alert. He opened his eyes and moved his hand in front of him. It was a ring, with sleek and simple lines, looking quite valuable.

In that moment, he didn’t know how to describe his feelings, he just felt his heart pounding.

He dryly said, “This is…”

Shen Yuanting stated indifferently, “It’s a deposit, can’t return it if you don’t like it.”

How could he not like it? Yan Zhao looked at the ring, his eyes almost giving it wings with a filter. He couldn’t help but smile, “But I can’t wear it while filming.”

Shen Yuanting raised an eyebrow, “Then wear it on a necklace.”

Yan Zhao said, “Then you help me put it on.”

He turned around, and the silver chain around his neck took on a warm hue in the dim light.

Shen Yuanting unclasped the chain, removed the original accessory, threaded the ring onto it, and fastened it for him.

The ring touched his skin, feeling a bit cool at first, but quickly warming up.

Yan Zhao pondered, “Then I should also get you something…”

Shen Yuanting played with the original ring, “Then give me another kiss, this time, of your own accord.”

Yan Zhao replied, “I’m not giving you another one.”

Shen Yuanting scoffed coldly, accusing, “Sweet talker.”

Yan Zhao rolled his eyes and quickly planted a kiss on his face.