They rushed into the nanny car as if they were the last few humans surrounded by zombies.
The journalists crowded around the windshield and windows, their long lenses aimed at close range like targeting โกโก.
Bo Jue immediately pulled Mei Shengyao to the back row, tightly wrapped him up, and the others quickly got into the car and locked the doors. Uncle Jiang reached into his pocket and threw a dozen masks to each of them.
Corona never wore masks when they traveled.
They were confident in their ability to manage their expressions. Their strict and cruel weight control kept their features slender and exquisite, with no angles that were left unflattering. They didn’t need such superfluous things for this kind of situation.
But in that second, about twenty people pounced right in front of the windshield, using night vision lenses and powerful flashes to capture the faces of each one of them.
Sadness was wrong, smiling was wrong, and numbness was even wrong.
As long as the camera could capture the expression of even one person, it would be enough to generate an explosion of internet traffic within minutes.
Onlookers would inevitably condemn the heartless paparazzi to find solace, while eagerly clicking on the news to greedily see the reactions of each person involved in this scandal, peering into the pitiful state of the celebrities.
This was a trade rule that everyone knew.
Huo Ren put on his mask and immediately turned his head to look at Mei Shengyao in the back row. The young boy was wrapped in a blanket, held tightly by Bo Jue, resembling a breathless doll.
“Fuck,” even the usually calm driver was annoyed and stepped on the gas pedal. “Aren’t they afraid of getting run over?”
The car emitted a screeching sound, and four or five journalists retreated a few steps like moving blocks, reluctantly shifting to the side to continue capturing the iron-faced expression of Uncle Jiang.
“Go,” the manager said expressionlessly. “If we hit someone, it’s on me.”
The car’s horsepower increased again, and the congested journalists were finally pushed aside, creating a path. Some even ran after the car, pounding on the completely shaded windows with their hands.
After about five minutes, they finally shook off the pursuing journalist vehicles and continued on their way to SPF.
Uncle Jiang took a deep breath to calm himself, drank a few sips of water, and began making and answering phone calls.
In the silent car, he quickly signaled SPF to execute the emergency public relations plan while also clearing the defense at different exits to ensure that no unwanted individuals would infiltrate and take pictures.
“What’s the current situation with public opinion?”
“All media interviews have been halted, and today’s daytime schedule has been canceled. No need to record anything.”
“The triple penalty will be deducted directly from the C-card. Don’t waste my time.”
Uncle Jiang was the wall standing in front of the storm.
He had to handle the pressure and inquiries from the company’s upper management, control the spread of online public opinion, and any changes to the disrupted schedule and activity arrangements had to be approved and signed off by him.
None of the six boys spoke. Outside the car window, rain started to fall steadily, leaving scars on the glass like steel blades.
“Who? Pei Ruyeโ-You’re not asleep?” Uncle Jiang relaxed when he recognized the voice. “What’s the situation?”
Pei Ruye stood on the 17th floor of the SPF administrative building, gazing at the journalist vehicles crowding outside the company’s restricted zone.
“I’ll handle the adjustments and aftermath at SPF,” Pei Ruye said calmly. “You take care of the boys. Once I’m done, I’ll send the decisions and directions to your email. Put everything else on hold.”
“Huo Ren will take care of the boys. Several endorsement partners are assessing the public opinion trend, and I need to stabilize them,” Uncle Jiang hoarsely replied. “If Corona loses these frontline endorsements, more people will join the trend of pushing the wall. We can’t let that happen.”
“Alright, you hold steady,” Pei Ruye turned around and started walking back. “I’ll go to the PR meeting now. Do you need a car to pick you up?”
“Yes, wait for me at the intersection of Taihe Road.”
Uncle Jiang hadn’t anticipated that he would have to urgently negotiate with endorsement partners at three or four in the morning. He sighed and rubbed his temples, then turned to look at Huo Ren. He raised an eyebrow and said, “Did you all understand?”
“Understood.”
“I’ll leave the team matters to you.” He signaled in Mei Shengyao’s direction and simultaneously confirmed the location sent by the driver on Pei Ruye’s side. “If there’s anything, I’ll come back at noon to confirm with you.”
“Don’t go anywhere for now.”
Huo Ren quickly agreed, and the car exited the highway, taking a turn at the next intersection and stopping for half a minute.
When Uncle Jiang got out of the car, he tapped Huo Ren on the chest with the back of his hand, his eyes firm like a commanding marshal fulfilling his mission.
“Be patient and endure.”
Huo Ren instinctively made the same gesture.
You can trust me.
Uncle Jiang turned and got into another car heading towards the north city area, while Huo Ren led the entire team back to the SPF dormitory building.
The driver skillfully avoided the journalist vehicles and drove in through a concealed entrance. He jumped out of the car first to confirm that there were no people lurking near the elevator before waving them over.
Since getting into the car, Mei Shengyao had been trembling silently, curling up in Bo Jue’s arms without saying a word.
Huo Ren held his hand tightly and whispered, “Let’s go upstairs first, Yao Yao. We’ll talk about anything once we’re upstairs.”
The young boy finally looked up. There were no tear stains on his face, only despair and fear. He nodded, suppressing his voice.
The five of them surrounded him, and it wasn’t until they reached the seventeenth floor and closed all three security doors that they felt like they had escaped to a safe zone.
Huo Ren turned on all the lights in the room. Chi Ji hurried to make hot milk for them, while Long Jia carefully removed Mei Shengyao’s coat and placed his phone in a more distant and secure location.
“Let me take a look.” Mei Shengyao looked up at Long Jia, his eyes red. “I can see everything if I turn on the TV now.”
“Don’t watch,” Xie Lianyun threw the remote control to Long Jia, who caught it steadily, hiding it along with the phone in a glass cabinet. “Look at these insteadโ”
“What did she do?!” Mei Shengyao spoke with anger, the first time in his life. “Wasn’t she always filming abroad every day? Wasn’t she too busy to even answer my dad’s calls?!!”
Bo Jue quickly signaled them to go to the room and discuss countermeasures.
“I’ll stay here with Yao Yao. You go and unpack your luggage first.”
Huo Ren pushed their suitcases into Long Jia’s room and closed the door, then opened Weibo to check the situation.
“No need to check,” Long Jia said coldly. “I saw everything clearly on the way here.”
Wen Feng has cheated with a third-tier male actor.
There were rumors about their overly intimate behavior when they collaborated two years ago, but it was quickly dismissed when Mei Shengyao visited the set and dispelled the rumors. There was no convincing evidence in the form of clear photos. So the matter was dropped.
Just shortly after they boarded the plane and turned off their phones, Wen Feng was seen in a small alley in Prague embracing and passionately kissing that male actor for nearly three minutes. Moreover, the two of them were eight kilometers away from the filming location.
The photos were leaked by a newly established paparazzi organization. It was evident that they were seeking fame rather than demanding a huge sum of money. They immediately released the highly sharpened and watermarked photos online, along with a video from the same period.
“How can we console him? Will any of those words be useful?” Long Jia suppressed his anger. “Mei Shengyao didn’t even make a single phone call to her when she was away for concerts and recordings. And now, at a time like this, she stabs her own son in the back…”
“Brother, let’s first calm down Yao Yao,” Huo Ren said, more composed than Long Jia. “He won’t be able to calm his emotions in the short term. We’ll stay with him tonight, nobody should go back to their rooms or force him to forget and shift his attention.”
With such a major incident, no one could just let it go.
Long Jia nodded in agreement and helped move the bedding outside. Mei Shengyao, who had been leaning against Bo Jue silently, finally showed a change in expression when he saw them coming back.
“Brother,” he said hoarsely, “I’ve turned seventeen. You don’t need to accompany me to sleep.”
“It’s a team activity, not just accompanying you,” Xie Lianyun said. He had already cleaned the living room and wiped it again with a cloth. He pulled Mei Shengyao towards the area. “It’s pouring rain outside with thunder. If we can’t sleep, we can watch the lightning and tell some ghost stories.”
They spread out the blankets one after another and coaxed Mei Shengyao to take a shower and change his clothes. They gathered around him and blow-dried his hair.
Mei Shengyao lowered his head and helped Bo Jue tie his hair. He held the smooth and soft long hair in his hand and fell into a daze, distracted by the buzzing sound of the hairdryer.
“I’m wondering,” he said hoarsely, “if I made the wrong choice back then.”
If only…
“Yao Yao,” Huo Ren suddenly spoke up. “Let me tell you a story.”
“The first time my dad laid hands on my mom, he knelt down the next day, begging her for forgiveness and saying it was a momentary lapse of judgment, promising that it would never happen again.”
This was the first time Huo Ren brought up his family.
Mei Shengyao and the others simultaneously looked up at him, momentarily forgetting the previous topic of discussion.
They all came from privileged backgrounds, protected in a pure and sheltered environment, rarely experiencing even hunger or hardship.
“The second time he raised his hand, he used a clothes hanger,” Huo Ren continued. He turned off the hairdryer and used a comb to tidy Mei Shengyao’s stray hair. “When my mom went back to her parents’ house, he ran back there and slapped himself in the face, crying and telling everyone that he would treat us well for the rest of his life.”
“Then what happened?” Mei Shengyao asked instinctively.
“After that came the third time, the fourth time, the fifth time, and countless more.”
“My mom was beaten by him until she had gastric bleeding. Even after being hospitalized, he continued to hit her.”
Huo Ren spoke these words with a calm expression, as if he were narrating someone else’s story.
Mei Shengyao clenched the comb tightly, unwilling to accept it. “Don’t the police intervene?” he asked.
Huo Ren shook his head slowly.
Domestic matters are difficult to handle, as long as the divorce is not successful, these things can’t be stopped.
“Every time he sees the police, he immediately puts on a facade of a law-abiding citizen,” Huo Ren said softly. “Then he explains that he had too much to drink and it was a momentary lapse of judgment.”
Bo Jue sat in front of the mirror, looking at Huo Ren, his eyes reddened, wanting to hug him.
Chi Ji hugged both of them, turning his head to discreetly rub his eyes.
“Yao Yao,” the young man said calmly. “In the world of adults, there is never a momentary lapse of judgment.”
There wasn’t… right?
There were premeditation, greed clouding the mind, and a propensity for violence.
But there was never a momentary lapse of judgment.
Mei Shengyao instinctively took a step back.
He let go of Bo Jue’s dark hair in his hand and murmured, “She can’t even be bothered to lie to us.”
Was it always… me deceiving myself?
Just then, the sound of the electronic door lock suddenly rang.
Huo Ren thought it was the manager finishing work and returning, so he quickly went over to check the screen.
“Uncle Jiang is back?”
Drenched in rain, Mei Heng stood in front of the camera, looking tired yet gentle.
“Huo Huo, open the door.”
“I’ll stay with Yao Yao for a while.”
It was now 4:20 in the morning.
Mei Heng had rushed back on a friend’s private plane.
-2-
Huo Ren called out loudly for Chi Ji to fetch a dry towel and reached out to hand the key card to Mei Heng to open the door.
“You’ve come so late…” He paused halfway and turned, gesturing towards Mei Shengyao. “He’s over there, just finished showering.”
Mei Heng murmured a low “thank you” and walked inside, his pants still dripping with rainwater.
Mei Shengyao, wearing pajamas, stood frozen in place, thinking he was seeing things. “…Dad?”
Huo Ren gestured for the others to return to their dorms, giving Mei Heng a change of clothes, a towel, and cold medicine. He left the two of them alone in the living room.
As he walked back to the dorm area, Xie Lianyun and Long Jia simultaneously opened their doors and pulled him into their room.
The rest of the group sat on Xie Lianyun’s side, looking uneasy and restless.
Long Jia didn’t say anything; he simply opened his arms and hugged Huo Ren tightly for almost half a minute.
“No wonder you never came home for Chinese New Year…” he sighed. “Captain, you’ve been through a lot.”
Xie Lianyun also joined the embrace, followed by Bo Jue and Chi Ji.
“If you hadn’t said anything… we wouldn’t have known at all,” Bo Jue reached out and smoothed Huo Ren’s hair. “No wonder you’re so much more mature than other kids your age.”
Huo Ren never expected to receive such care and attention. He looked dazed for a moment.
“I, I’m fine as long as I have all of you,” he whispered. “Now it’s Yao Yao…”
“As long as you and he are together, you’ll always have a home, even with Corona,” Xie Lianyun said without hesitation. “These things will pass, we’re together.”
Uncle Jiang said that there are some things that can’t be salvaged, and whatever one says or does at this point is wrong.
Be patient and endure, immune to all poisons.
Xie Lianyun rubbed his temples while typing on the keyboard, letting out a long sigh.
“It’s not too bad.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s the first time I’ve seen something like this,” he pushed the computer screen towards them. “They call it… controlled commentary.”
Xie Lianyun knew his mental resilience wasn’t strong enough, so he had to constantly control his emotions while logging into his Weibo account.
He had expected to see a mess, but it wasn’t the case.
Not only were the water army under Uncle Jiang still active at this late hour, but there were also thousands of fans who hadn’t slept.
They simultaneously mobilized their main and secondary accounts to like and comment on each other’s posts, spontaneously organizing controlled commentary on every news platform.
Like an army guarding the city gates on a rainy night, immovable.
@Entertainment Frontline: The wife of pop king Mei Heng, and the mother of popular idol Mei Shengyao, Wen Feng, was caught in a foreign country tonight kissing a male actor on the street, suspected…
@Turtle Shell: [heart emoji] Take away Yao Yao, don’t interfere. Check out Corona’s new album “Nonsense”! Singing and dancing Corona [star emoji] Trophy darling Corona [star emoji] Fairy descending to earth Corona [star emoji] All members exploding with vitality Corona [star emoji] Likes (852)
@Yu Cheng: [dog head emoji] It has nothing to do with Yao Yao. Want to listen to Yao Yao’s amazing jazz piano tonight? Corona invested and didn’t lose! Please check out the latest works “Night Blade,” “Nameless Moment,” and “I Wish.” Click to see the refreshing family photo of the handsome boys! Likes (767)
โฆโฆ
They were astonishingly cleaning up the real-time square at an incredible speed.
All the marketing accounts that mentioned this scandal, even up to the fifth page of comments, were filled with spontaneously controlled commentary from the Diamond Sisters.
There were creepy men, malicious bystanders, and other fans from rival fandoms who were all leaving comments at the same time, full of sourness and spite.
“I’ve always said that Mei Shengyao doesn’t look like his dad. Mei Heng has been wearing this hat for so many years, tsk tsk…”
“I heard that Wen Feng can sleep with anyone. Maybe Mei Shengyao was infected with that thing from birth?”
“Corona debuted with such good resources. Could it be…”
These disgustingly vile comments didn’t last long before they were drowned out by copied and pasted posts, pushing them to the end. Even those who scrolled through several pages couldn’t find anything.
Their speculations, insults, and defamation vanished into thin air, precisely blocked and evaporated. At first glance, all the comments under mainstream news accounts were filled with hundreds and thousands of shining diamonds.
“Check out little lion Mei Shengyao! Corona’s strongest boy band has released a new song!”
“Are marketing accounts working overtime? What’s so fun about gossip? Come and learn about the all-around ace Huo Ren! The musical genius Xie Lianyun! The strongest main dancer Mei Shengyao! The splendid vocalist Chi Ji! The heart-melting ballad singer Third Young Master Long! The piano beauty Bo Jue!”
Huo Ren took the mouse and looked through them one by one, his gaze equally surprised and shaken.
He had initially thought that it was only them and Uncle Jiang dealing with this torrential downpour.
But everyone was there.
Fans with teary eyes clenched their teeth and liked and commented on the controlled posts. Some urgently posted more photos in the super topic square to promote and advertise.
In their controlled commentary posts, they filled them with rainbow flowers and stars, as if they wanted to present all the beauty to them.
And then, dispel all the filth and darkness.
On this night, when malice and ill will rained down like a barrage of arrows, they were stopped by one barrier after another.
SPF, Uncle Jiang, Boss Pei, all the fansโ-right at this moment, they were standing in front of them without hesitation.
Even in pouring rain, even in the chilling wind.
Mei Heng sat beside the couch, leaning against Mei Shengyao, and whispered softly, “This… is Dad’s failure to handle things properly.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No need to apologize,” Mei Shengyao suddenly said.
“What?”
“You don’t owe me anything. And you definitely don’t owe her anything,” Mei Shengyao turned his head to look at him, took a deep breath, and said, “Dad, it’s been seventeen years. What should be cut off, we should cut off.”
Mei Heng suddenly didn’t recognize the child sitting in front of him.
Yao Yao had grown taller over the years and no longer resembled the little kid at twelve.
When he was a little over ten, he would secretly cry and ask for his mother, wiping his snot and tears on Mei Heng’s performance outfit. Before going on stage, he would rush to change clothes and touch up his makeup while comforting the child.
Now, this resolute child… is still Yao Yao?
“You… have always missed Mom,” he hesitated, “Don’t take those rumors and gossip on the internet to heart. They’re all fake…”
Before the man could finish forcing himself to speak the lies, Mei Shengyao had already stood up and hugged him tightly.
“Dad,” he said hoarsely, “I’m also seventeen now.”
“When you took care of me alone… it was really difficult.”
“I know.”
Mei Heng hadn’t been hugged in many years. He would constantly encourage Yao Yao, give him hugs and love, but he never expected to be understood and accepted himself.
In that moment of being held tight by Mei Shengyao, he realized that he had walked a long way and had long been exhausted to the point of breathlessness.
“Cut it off,” the man closed his eyes and hurriedly held his child, “It won’t hurt, it’ll be better if it’s cut off.”
The young boy silently nodded as he hugged him, never shedding a tear.
They all slept together on the couch and the floor for three or four hours.
At 8:30 in the morning, Uncle Jiang rushed back in a dusty state, with his assistant carrying bags of breakfast.
“Sticky rice buns, fried dough sticks, three fresh bean sheets, fried sauce noodles, rice wine sweet dumplings.”
Uncle Jiang hadn’t slept all night, and the hem of his clothes carried the scent of wet soil that had dried from rain.
“Let’s eat first. We’ll discuss matters afterward.”
Uncle Jiang stabilized the situation.
None of the three major core endorsements were lost, and the online front was almost entirely defended.
The overall direction of public opinion focused on Wen Feng’s scandal alone. Anyone who wanted to talk about Mei Shengyao would be collectively attackedโ-don’t bring unrelated minors into this!
Although there were still a few people hoping for things to get dirtier, most people had reached a consensus and silently protected this unfamiliar young boy.
The mistakes made by the confused mother shouldn’t be borne by that child.
“My press conference is at noon,” Mei Heng had changed into a clean suit, except for looking slightly pale, everything else was well-maintained. “She has already spoken to me on the phone. The news of our divorce will be announced together.”
They were already in the midst of a storm, and they needed to swiftly resolve the situation and quell the incident. They couldn’t drag it out any longer.
“I’ll go with you,” Mei Shengyao said without hesitation.
“Don’t go,” Uncle Jiang reflexively responded, “Why would you go? Can you handle those reporters?”
“I have to go,” Mei Shengyao tightened his tie, his chestnut-colored hair perfectly styled.
When he turned to look at them, there was a sharpness in his eyes that had emerged overnight.
“Just consider it as her final coming-of-age gift to me.”
In the end, the four of them decided to accompany Yao Yao and Mei Heng as they left the seventeenth floor, leaving only Huo Ren and Uncle Jiang standing at the entrance of the executive building’s conference hall.
Huo Ren was the captain and needed to be present for major decisions.
“I’ll have to reschedule your itineraries,” Uncle Jiang’s voice was completely hoarse, sounding like a broken fan and tinged with the smell of smoke, “For these two months, try not to have too much exposure. We’ll postpone all variety shows and concerts.”
“The breach of contract fees can be covered by the company, and I can cover it as well. It’s just a matter of money.”
“But no matter what, Yao Yao is still not an adult yet. We can’t afford any mishaps with him.”
Huo Ren stood by his side silently at the entrance.
He understood that the manager wasn’t just explaining the situation temporarily. In fact, he was trying to reassure himself.
If they proceeded with this decision, all the resources that had already been arranged would need to be forcibly rescheduled.
The buffer period of these two months would not only bring significant losses to the company but also mean a sudden decrease in Corona’s exposure, making it highly likely for a newly debuting boy group to surpass them during the same period.
This was not child’s play; it was a decision that required unanimous agreement from all the company’s top executives.
“Uncle is under too much pressure,” Uncle Jiang knew this child was perceptive and reached out to pat his shoulder, “Since you’re already an adult, help Uncle share some of it.”
Huo Ren nodded and pushed open the door to the meeting room, meeting eyes with Pei Ruye, who was seated on the other side of the long table.
He adjusted his tie with two fingers, looking directly at the man and spoke in a steady voice.
“Hmm, I can handle it.”
Author’s Note:
Weibo user @่ฑ้ฅผๅญ็้ป drew an incredibly handsome Third Young Master Long and Teacher Bo Jue!
So happy!