After Jiang Yu came out of the bedroom, he sat back down at the dining table.
He didn’t say anything.
Yu Shiqing didn’t ask anything either.
Only Ren Bai waved his phone at him and said, “Okay, I’ve sent it to you.”
Then he rubbed his hands together and picked up his chopsticks. “It’s been so long since I’ve had Auntie’s cooking. I’ve really missed it!”
Hearing that, Jiang Yu paused before opening his email and looked up at Yu Shiqing.
Yu Shiqing’s lips curled slightly into a rare gentle smile.
Jiang Yu simply put his phone down on the table and asked, “You don’t see your aunt often?”
Yu Shiqing’s smile faded. “No.”
Seeing that, Jiang Yu felt a little regret for bringing it up.
But Yu Shiqing’s emotions were always hard to read. Very quickly, he smiled again and said, “Try it.”
Jiang Yu had no choice but to pick up his chopsticks.
Yu Shiqing asked with a smile, “How does it taste?”
Jiang Yu replied, “Not bad.”
Then he looked at the empty bowl in front of Yu Shiqing. “Why aren’t you eating?”
Ren Bai casually said, “He already ate downstairs. Just save a few pieces for him to taste later. He’s allergic to seafood—shrimp makes him react too, so he can’t eat much.”
Jiang Yu frowned.
He clearly remembered that the woman had said herself that she made pork and shrimp dumplings because it was Yu Shiqing’s favorite.
Yu Shiqing glanced at Ren Bai.
Ren Bai shrank back a little. “What? I didn’t say anything wrong.”
Yu Shiqing then looked at Jiang Yu and explained, “The allergy developed later in life. I only became allergic after growing up. She didn’t know.”
Ren Bai mumbled, “If she cared even a little, she would’ve known.”
Yu Shiqing said calmly, “She has her own family now. She doesn’t have the time or energy to care about me. Is that what you were trying to say?”
Ren Bai buried his face in his bowl and stopped talking completely.
Jiang Yu quickly tried to change the topic. “What about your dad? Did he remarry too?”
Ren Bai looked up, about to say something, but stopped.
Jiang Yu realized right away—this wasn’t a good topic either.
Sure enough, Yu Shiqing said, “He passed away. When I was ten. Car accident.”
Jiang Yu: “…”
He said awkwardly, “Sorry…”
Yu Shiqing asked, “What else do you want to know?”
“Huh?” Jiang Yu hadn’t caught up yet.
Yu Shiqing said, “You seem really curious tonight.”
Jiang Yu coughed lightly. “Really?”
Yu Shiqing’s tone stayed calm: “Only for tonight. After that, no more questions.”
Jiang Yu originally didn’t want to bring up any sadder topics.
But for some reason, he had this growing desire to understand Yu Shiqing’s past.
So he asked again, “I heard Qi Taihua used to be your assistant?”
“Qi Taihua is a classic ungrateful traitor,” Ren Bai jumped in right away.
After getting Yu Shiqing’s nod, he continued, “He was picked up by Yu Shiqing on the set of Tomorrow Is Sunny. He was only 17 back then, even younger than Yu Shiqing. He followed Yu Shiqing around all day, very hardworking, always asking if he was cold or hungry.
“Now that I think about it, that kid had bad intentions from the start.”
Jiang Yu asked, “Was he also involved in the signing contract thing?”
“No, not really.”
Ren Bai sounded angry, but it wasn’t the same hate he had for Du Han.
“Yu Shiqing signed him as an assistant. He was always talking about acting. Yu Shiqing saw he was eager to learn and taught him everything himself. Even pulled some strings to get him a big role in a major drama as the second male lead. That’s a great start, right? Treated him well, right?
“But guess what? He said he’d use his earnings to help Yu Shiqing with legal fees, and then turned around and signed with Huaze and got close to Du Han. He’s even better at playing dirty than Du Han. Isn’t that disgusting?”
Jiang Yu looked at Yu Shiqing. “Is that why you don’t hire assistants anymore?”
Yu Shiqing thought for a moment. “You could say that.”
Of course. Being betrayed again and again must’ve been hard.
But before Jiang Yu could feel too much sympathy—
“Oh, please,” Ren Bai said. “The real reason you don’t hire assistants is because you’re broke, right? Hiring one costs a few thousand a month, almost a hundred thousand a year. Plus, meals and housing—it’s just not worth it.”
Jiang Yu: “…”
Yu Shiqing seemed thoughtful. “That makes sense too.”
Jiang Yu: “…………”
With this kind of Yu Shiqing, it was hard to hold on to the emotions he felt earlier.
This guy never says anything seriously.
Suddenly, Ren Bai let out a surprised sound. “Yu Shiqing, why are you trending again?”
When he read the full topic, he had a bad feeling.
#YuShiqingBoxOffice
He clicked into the details page, and sure enough, it was a negative trend.
All kinds of marketing accounts were posting sharp comments.
“Called a grand slam film emperor, but Yu Shiqing’s real results are this bad? Here’s a list of all his films’ box office numbers in the past four years.”
“After Tomorrow Is Sunny, Yu Shiqing ran out of talent? Four years of flop movies, the king of box office poison. That one genius film—was it real skill, or just luck?”
Some posts were clearly trying to stir things up.
“Isn’t this the same Yu Shiqing who’s going to act with Jiang Yu? Applause! Congrats to Jiang Yu for working with a walking box office curse. Another flop incoming!”
“Jiang Yu’s fans must be crying. Yu Shiqing’s not just unlucky—he might be cursed. That level of bad luck feels supernatural…”
Ren Bai kept scrolling—pages of the same kind of talk.
He said angrily, “This is obviously bought. Totally different tone from before.”
Yu Shiqing looked over just as Ren Bai scrolled to the real-time updates.
No one knew how long the topic had been trending, but many of Jiang Yu’s fans were already complaining and even asking Jiang Yu’s studio to reconsider the casting choice.
The goal was clear:
Whoever was behind this wanted to use the fans’ pressure to make Jiang Yu speak out and force the production team to replace the actor.
Jiang Yu also saw it on his phone and immediately took a screenshot to send to Tan Yanfei.
He added a voice message: “What’s going on?”
Ren Bai looked at Yu Shiqing. “Could it be Du Han?”
Yu Shiqing said, “It’s possible. But not certain.”
Du Han might do this out of a personal grudge.
But Huaze Media didn’t invest in Doomsday Rescue. They had a poor opinion of the project.
So Du Han might not go this far just for revenge.
Otherwise, Huaze would have to spend extra effort finding another flop to give him, which wasn’t worth it.
Jiang Yu heard that and asked, “What do you mean?”
Yu Shiqing said, “Check the file in your email first.”
Only then did Jiang Yu remember.
That was actually the most important thing tonight, but he had forgotten all about it.
Yu Shiqing said, “I can step away if you want.”
“No need.” Jiang Yu had already opened his inbox.
