After resting at the hotel for one night, Yu Shiqing and Jiang Yu returned to Yufeng Scenic Residence by car the next day. In the afternoon, Ren Bai also arrived, and the three of them went together to the new home.
When Lin Shuang opened the door, she was still wearing an apron. Seeing them, she smiled and said, “You’re here! Come in!”
Behind her was Gao Yuan, holding a small birthday paper crown. After Lin Shuang spoke, Gao Yuan stepped out from behind her and raised the crown to Yu Shiqing. “Happy birthday, big brother!”
Yu Shiqing smiled and said, “Thank you.”
Jiang Yu glanced at him, then put both hands under Gao Yuan’s armpits and lifted her in front of Yu Shiqing.
Gao Yuan cried out in surprise and quickly placed the paper crown on Yu Shiqing’s head. Then she turned to Jiang Yu and said, “Thank you, Brother Jiang Yu!”
Jiang Yu put her down. “You’re welcome.”
Lin Shuang then reached out and pressed her hand on Gao Yuan’s shoulder. “Alright, let your big brothers sit and rest.”
Ren Bai watched her walk away a few steps with Gao Yuan, then leaned over to Yu Shiqing and asked quietly, “How are you two planning to tell Auntie about your relationship?”
After speaking, he looked at Jiang Yu.
In his eyes, the opinions of online users weren’t that important. After all, Yu Shiqing never cared much about what strangers thought. But Lin Shuang was the person Yu Shiqing cared about most. Her opinion, Ren Bai thought, must be extremely important to him.
Hearing this, Jiang Yu’s eyes flickered slightly, but his voice stayed calm. “Let it happen naturally.”
Ren Bai was stunned for a second before reacting. “Have you been spending too much time with Yu Shiqing? You’re starting to sound just like him.”
Jiang Yu raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
Ren Bai: “…”
He gave up on asking more and went straight into the kitchen to help.
But when Yu Shiqing and Jiang Yu went in afterward, they were both kicked out.
“The kitchen’s not that big. If all of you come in, it’s too crowded,” Lin Shuang said. Then she turned and saw Ren Bai secretly laughing. “You too, Bai. Go out.”
The smile on Ren Bai’s face instantly fell.
Lin Shuang said, “You’ve all been tired lately. Today, your only job is to rest well. Leave everything else to me, alright?”
Ren Bai wanted to say something, but when he saw Lin Shuang looking at Yu Shiqing with nervous and cautious eyes, the words stuck in his throat, and he didn’t insist.
That’s right. This year was the first year that Yu Shiqing and Lin Shuang had cleared up their misunderstandings. It was also the first birthday in many years that Lin Shuang had prepared for Yu Shiqing again.
It made sense that she wanted to do her best.
Thinking of this, he took the initiative to pull Yu Shiqing aside. “Let’s go sit in the living room. Auntie will call us when she’s ready.”
Yu Shiqing also saw the emotion in Lin Shuang’s eyes. After a moment of silence, he said, “Thanks for the effort.”
Lin Shuang quickly replied, “This isn’t hard at all. You guys go sit. Don’t just stand around!”
Jiang Yu reached out and held Yu Shiqing’s hand, turning to look at him.
Yu Shiqing didn’t say anything else and went back to the sofa in the living room with the two of them.
Today was Yu Shiqing’s birthday, and Ren Bai didn’t want the mood to get awkward. He was the first to take out a gift and hand it to him.
It was a set of small camera equipment and some books about screenwriting and directing.
“You said you wanted to try something new. You can practice with these when you’re free.”
Yu Shiqing took it. “Thank you.”
Ren Bai had always been thoughtful. Just by looking at the titles of the books, you could see how meaningful the gift was—they were all very useful.
Seeing Yu Shiqing open the book right away showed that he was satisfied with the gift. Ren Bai smiled and looked at Jiang Yu without thinking.
Jiang Yu raised his eyebrows again.
Ren Bai asked, “Where’s your gift?”
Jiang Yu said, “At home.”
Ren Bai: “…”
How did he forget about that and embarrass himself?
He gave a dry cough and quickly picked up his phone, trying to change the subject. “Let me see if there’s any news to—”
Halfway through the sentence, he suddenly stopped talking.
Yu Shiqing had just turned a page when he looked up. “What is it?”
Ren Bai’s mouth was open, and his eyes were wide with shock, like he had just received the surprise of the century. Hearing Yu Shiqing’s voice brought him back to his senses, and then his face lit up with an expression of pure joy.
“Shiqing!” He couldn’t hold back the excitement rushing through him. “Look!”
Yu Shiqing looked at the phone screen Ren Bai handed him.
It was a notification received just ten minutes ago.
“Du Han’s drunken video exposed! Yu Shiqing’s signing with Huaze was actually a hidden scandal?! [Video]”
He tapped it.
The thumbnail showed Du Han. The camera was aimed at him, and his face could clearly be seen.
In the image, Du Han looked nothing like the graceful and polite person fans were used to. Instead, his face was full of drunken hatred, clear as day.
The video was posted just ten minutes ago, and the comments had already passed 10,000.
The top comments showed everyone’s shock:
“WTF!!??”
“??? Is this title just clickbait? Yu Shiqing really signed with Huaze under shady circumstances?!!”
Ren Bai didn’t even look at more comments. He couldn’t wait to open the video.
It had been clearly edited. The beginning showed Du Han talking.
He sat at a dinner table with a few dishes, none of which looked like they had been touched. But the table was full of empty liquor bottles—red, white, yellow. Mixed drinks are enough to get anyone drunk, and with this much alcohol, it was no wonder he didn’t notice someone filming.
“You idiot. Back then, tricking Yu Shiqing into signing was all luck. You think it’s that easy?” Du Han sneered. “Besides, Huaze has already declined. Now it’s just a paper tiger with no real power. The dirty tricks we used on Yu Shiqing four years ago wouldn’t work today or even two years ago.”
Someone probably said something off-screen, and after the cut, he shouted:
“You think I wanted to?!”
Du Han slammed the table. His face looked vicious and angry on camera. “Use your brain! Once Yu Shiqing becomes successful, do you think he’ll let me go? Or let you go?”
His urge to spill everything grew stronger. Even without being asked, he kept talking.
“Back then, Huaze forced him so hard that even theater groups wouldn’t dare use him. But he’d rather do charity shows than give in acting all noble. Who was he pretending for?”
At this point, Du Han grabbed a bottle and drank straight from it, alcohol fueling the years of resentment he had buried inside.
“What’s so great about him? Why is he the only one people see?!”
The rest of the video was all about his drunken, ugly outbursts.
Ren Bai forced himself to watch to the end and just exited the video, about to check the comments but found that Weibo had crashed from the sudden news explosion.
By the time the page finally refreshed, the trending list was filled with Du Han’s name:
- #DuHanFramedYuShiqing
- #DuHanDrunkConfession
- #DuHanHuazeScandal
One after another, the topics dominated the charts. The video of Du Han drunk had already spread across every corner of the internet.
Compared to Qi Taihua’s “parking lot fight,” this was even more explosive.
Unlike Qi Taihua’s long series of twists, Du Han’s video appeared suddenly but his behavior in the video was so shocking, and his personal confession so ugly, that even his fans were horrified and couldn’t defend him.
At that moment, Huaze was completely silent.
Huaze Media’s official Weibo had already been overwhelmed by angry netizens countless times.
Starting from the unfair treatment Yu Shiqing suffered during the Qi Taihua incident, to his agent revealing unreasonable salary records, and now, with one of Huaze’s leading actors drunkenly admitting that the contract with Yu Shiqing was a complete scam, the entire thing had become uncontrollable.
The public was furious, and Huaze couldn’t handle it.
New Era also found out about the matter right away.
But they didn’t need to do anything. The video itself had already lit a fire. The netizens’ rage exploded and reached a peak.
Everyone demanded an explanation from Huaze.
But Huaze knew no one could clean this up.
All they could do was hear the nonstop ringing of their office phones and see thousands of furious comments on their official account.
And the movie Dawn, which Huaze had spent a fortune on and had just been released in theaters for a few days, was now being boycotted by netizens. Ticket sales completely froze.
Even after more time passed, all the media could find out was that Liu Mingguang, a Huaze executive, had been taken away from Huaze Tower by ambulance. His condition was still unknown.
