Chapter 9: The Fallen Child Star (9) part 2

It was Xu Weiheng’s laughter.

Recently, Yao Rong had seen Xu Weiheng smile a few times, but those were only faint smirks, merely the corners of his mouth lifting. This was the first time she had heard him laugh out loud so joyfully.

Infected by his laughter, Yao Rong stepped out of the room.

Moonlight poured down like flowing water, mingling with the lamplight to illuminate the courtyard.

Xu Weiheng had just been sitting on a small stool when Ping’an, returning from who knows where, came bounding towards him at full speed.

The momentum knocked Xu Weiheng onto his back, his clothes getting smudged with dirt from Ping’an’s paws.

He tried to get up, but just as he rose slightly, Ping’an knocked him down again.

It didn’t hurt; it was just amusing, so Xu Weiheng couldn’t help but laugh out loud as he grabbed Ping’an by the scruff of its neck.

“How did you get so strong that you could knock me over twice in a row?”

“Ping’an is barely a year old. How much strength could it possibly have?” A gentle laugh spread as Yao Rong walked up to Xu Weiheng, extending her hand to him.

Xu Weiheng instinctively wanted to rub his nose with the back of his hand, but remembering he had just gotten his hands dirty, he quickly stopped. “My hands are dirty. I’ll get up myself.”

He got up from the ground on his own, patting the dust off his clothes.

Yao Rong reached out to touch his hair, removing a thin, dry leaf from it.

Who knows when it had gotten stuck there?

Yao Rong smiled and said, “Go change your clothes, then make another trip to call Auntie Zhang downstairs.”

Xu Weiheng asked, “What’s going on?”

Yao Rong pointed at the well: “I’m treating you all to watermelon.”

This afternoon, she had specifically gone to the market to buy a large watermelon weighing ten kilograms. She had put it in the well early, just for this moment.

After being in the well for a few hours, the large watermelon was refreshingly cool to the touch.

The three of them sat in the courtyard and began eating the watermelon.

“Have you heard about what happened with ‘Entertainment New World’ tonight?” Yao Rong first asked Zhang Qingyi.

Zhang Qingyi glanced discreetly at Xu Weiheng: “Yes, I’ve heard.”

Xu Weiheng caught Zhang Qingyi’s glance and asked puzzledly, “What happened?”

He hadn’t been online for a long time.

However, he did remember the variety show “Entertainment New World.”

His agent had signed a contract on his behalf, resulting in a penalty of two million yuan for breach of contract.

Yao Rong took a bite of the juicy, delicious watermelon and played her recording for Xu Weiheng.

Xu Weiheng froze in place. After a long while, he calmly asked, “And then?”

Yao Rong didn’t hide anything. She told Xu Weiheng everything that had happened that evening.

Xu Weiheng lowered his head, his right thumb constantly rubbing the back of his left thumb, lost in thought.

Finally, Yao Rong gazed steadily at Xu Weiheng.

She softened her voice: “Do you want to see what the netizens are saying?”

This tone, as if afraid of startling him, suddenly made Xu Weiheng’s eyes redden.

He was, in fact, still very afraid.

After the live apology, he had curled up alone in the gap between the wall and the sofa, obsessively scrolling through his phone all night, almost masochistically reading every single word of the netizens’ abuse towards him.

Until his phone completely ran out of battery and shut off.

From that day on, he began to fear touching his phone.

He locked his phone in a cabinet and never took it out to use again.

Even when contacting Lawyer Zhou, he always used Yao Rong’s phone.

But… but…

It turns out that while he knew nothing, she had done so much to protect him.

Yao Rong sensed his intense emotional fluctuations and tried to comfort him: “If you don’t want to look, it’s okay. Don’t force yourself.”

“No,” Xu Weiheng gently held her hand, using his fingertip to light up the darkened phone screen. “If you and Auntie Zhang are with me, I won’t be so afraid.”

He had been avoiding it because of his cowardice.

He was a man now, and should bravely stand up to protect her, not let her worry about him, not let her always shield him.

Perhaps Xu Weiheng himself didn’t realize it, but his whole body was now trembling slightly. Yao Rong gripped his hand firmly in return, her palm warm and dry.

“How about I read the comments instead?” Zhang Qingyi suggested, feeling somewhat distressed.

If she read them, Xu Weiheng would definitely not see those negative comments.

Xu Weiheng gently declined Zhang Qingyi’s kind offer: “No need, Auntie Zhang. I’ll read them myself.”

He had to face it on his own.

Yao Rong opened Weibo, found the latest promotional video for “Entertainment New World” on their official account, and gestured for Xu Weiheng to read the comments.

Xu Weiheng lowered his gaze.

His eyelashes were long and curled, dense as crow feathers. When they fell, they cast a fan-shaped shadow beneath his eyelids.

He read slowly, noticing netizens criticizing “even tigers don’t eat their cubs,” others expressing “the more you think about it, the more terrifying it becomes.” He also saw comments saying, “The incident of Xu Weiheng hitting Xu Yiyuan must either be fake or have some hidden truth…”

He smiled gently.

A dimple appeared faintly on his right cheek.

Public opinion had once driven him to despair, but now, it seemed to be advocating for his justice.

Xu Weiheng couldn’t pinpoint his feelings; he just thought he shouldn’t let public opinion upset him anymore.

“I’ve finished reading,” Xu Weiheng suddenly pointed at a notification that popped up on Weibo. “It seems Grandpa Zhang posted something?”

“Huh?” Zhang Qingyi, who had been secretly contacting her father, looked up and laughed awkwardly. “My dad, being the editor-in-chief of City A Daily, sure knows how to keep up with social hot topics.”

It was so embarrassing.

Xu Weiheng had caught her red-handed.

Wait, why was she embarrassed? She was clearly doing a good deed.

Thinking this, Zhang Qingyi contentedly took another bite of watermelon and quickly opened her father’s Weibo page to see what he had said.

After a while, Zhang Qingyi exited, feeling satisfied.

As expected of her father.

His words were sharp, criticizing without using a single swear word.

It felt refreshing.

Xu Weiheng also finished reading the post from Zhang Qingyi’s father and exclaimed in surprise, “The number of reposts is really high.”

“Even official blue V accounts have reposted it,” Yao Rong pointed out to him.

Xu Weiheng blinked, quickly scrolled down, and started reading the comments below: “Haven’t Xu Yiyuan and the others responded yet?”

“They don’t dare to respond carelessly, fearing we might have other solid evidence,” Yao Rong replied calmly.

Xu Weiheng understood.

Having been in the entertainment industry for two years, he had picked up on these things.

“It seems they’re trying every means to contact you and me.”

“Let them run around like ants on a hot pan for a while,” Yao Rong said nonchalantly.

Xu Weiheng nodded and continued reading the comments seriously.

In reality, not all comments were in his favor.

Some people held the view of “victim-blaming,” arguing that regardless of whether Xu Ji and Xu Yiyuan were biological father and son, if Xu Weiheng had such a poor relationship with his father, didn’t he bear some responsibility?

There were also Xu Yiyuan’s fans mixed in, frantically trying to control the narrative, their malice palpable.

Xu Weiheng had come to understand the nature of public opinion. He could now easily ignore one or two negative comments among a hundred positive ones.

Eventually, Zhang Qingyi couldn’t stay awake and went to her room to rest.

Later, the moon quietly slipped behind the clouds.

Xu Weiheng read the netizens’ comments word by word throughout the night.

…The difference was, this time he wasn’t alone.