Can't Hide My Love for You - Chapter 78

Cheng Yixin, who had not updated her Weibo for a long time, posted a non-business “lifestyle” update: a photo of her and Chi Yi. The caption was simple, consisting of only three words: With Chi Yi.

Most fans were delighted to see her posting again. From the photo, she looked healthy and vibrant; it seemed the shadows of her previous scandals had finally passed. However, the internet is a vast forest with all kinds of birds, and a top comment soon broke the peaceful atmosphere.

@MagicBuddhaHilton: Chi Yi has thin lips and the face of a mean person. Her fans have no class, too. I’m sick of seeing her. Yixin should stop hanging around her to avoid getting dragged into her mess.

The replies within the thread were mostly retorts against the original poster, and people “liked” the comment simply so more people could see this idiocy.

@ZhongxingMe: Are you sick? We’re just standing here and getting shot. Tell me, how exactly am I “classless”? If anything, isn’t it more classless of you to fire off random insults? How does Cheng Yixin have a fan as uneducated as you? [Image: Stepped on s**t on the internet.jpg]

@IWorkTenJobsToSupportYou: Don’t misunderstand, everyone. The OP is a professional anti-fan who likes to stir up trouble in comment sections. Just ignore him and don’t let him ruin your mood.

@HowSo: The two of them have a great relationship. Who are you to brainstorm drama? You call her mean? I think you’re the mean one. Why don’t you post your own face so we can all have a look?

The original poster, humiliated by the backlash from both fanbases, grew desperate and began to spiral.

@MagicBuddhaHilton: You actually believe this “sisterhood” celebrities put on for business? It’s all for profit. Look, I’m trash-talking Chi Yi, and has Yixin said anything? Chi Yi fans, stop jumping around; you’re just embarrassing your “idol.” When Yixin was being attacked by the whole internet, I didn’t see Chi Yi standing up for her. Now that it’s over, she’s crawling back to leech off the traffic? Disgusting. I love seeing Cheng Yixin suppress Chi Yi. If you’re not convinced, come hit me! Trolls.

After posting this inflammatory reply, he found his comment had been swallowed by the filter. Just as he was about to post another, Cheng Yixin reposted his words.

@ChengYixin: Chi Yi is an exceptionally important person to me. I do not like people pointing fingers at her under my posts. If you harbor hostility toward her, please unfollow me. //// @MagicBuddhaHilton: You actually believe this “sisterhood” celebrities put on for business? …

When a celebrity publicly reposts a civilian’s reply—unless it’s for a fun meme—it can be labeled as “cyberbullying a private citizen.” In the past, Cheng Yixin would have been too lazy to argue and would have simply deleted the comment. But now she realized that if she didn’t state her position firmly, some irrational fans would continue to act out.

She had seen “Magic Buddha Hilton’s” first comment and suppressed her anger, thinking she would just unfollow him and be done with it. She hadn’t expected the person to grow so emboldened and say something that made her even more furious. After reposting the Weibo, she immediately blocked him. As for how much noise he made—whether he called her arrogant or accused her of bullying—she had been cursed at by so many people that she didn’t care about one more bad reputation.

“You…” Chi Yi, who had Cheng Yixin on her “Special Following” list, saw the post the moment she picked up her phone. She was worried that fans would be dissatisfied with the attitude and cause trouble. “Maybe you should delete the post. What if your fans…”

“I’m not deleting it,” Cheng Yixin said decisively. “I’ve done a deep self-reflection. The reason those people attacked you before was entirely because of my indulgence. I didn’t constrain them, which led to certain people acting out the ‘praise one, trample the other’ behavior of fan circles.”

“I’m laying it out now: love me or don’t. If a fan leaves just because of this sentence, there was no point in them staying anyway.”

As a normal person, Cheng Yixin didn’t see anything wrong with her words. She was simply standing up for a “friend” who was being insulted. If she weren’t a public figure and unable to truly “go crazy,” she would have torn into the person for several rounds herself.

Cheng Yixin’s repost received support from the vast majority of fans, and even many of Chi Yi’s fans felt a surge of goodwill toward her. However, there were still a few fans who felt they weren’t being “valued” by Cheng Yixin and grew dissatisfied. Thinking their comments would be buried quickly, they mouthed off a few more insults at Chi Yi.

Cheng Yixin refreshed the comments in real-time, removing every one of those people from her follower list without exception. Those with particularly aggressive comments were blocked directly.

When those removed followers realized what happened, they grew even more incensed. Combined with the fact that Cheng Yixin had recently become a “hot search password,” she was back on the trending lists within minutes.

Several hashtags appeared: #ChengYixinChiYi, #ChengYixinFanLoss, #ChengYixinUnfollows.

“My lady!” Li Wenjing’s call came through immediately. “You’ve been like a runaway horse lately! I can’t control you at all!”

“Are you talking about the hot searches?” Cheng Yixin played dumb. “It doesn’t affect my work. People online support my attitude of openly ‘protecting’ a friend. This is positive traffic.”

“If you don’t restrain yourself, you’re going to play yourself into a corner! Public perception of you has finally improved; you need to seize this opportunity to transition, not get on the hot search list for random messes.”

“I know, I know. I’ve got this.”

Cheng Yixin’s attitude remained one of “actively admitting fault but resolutely refusing to change.” Li Wenjing felt her hairline was going to recede another centimeter from stress.

“By the way, weren’t you supposed to join the film crew next week? The director contacted me today. There’s a situation with the investment, so the start of filming might be delayed.”

“Okay, got it.”

Just as Cheng Yixin finished the call, Chi Yi came out of the house to remind her: “Dinner is ready.”

“Coming!” Cheng Yixin tucked her phone away. “What time is our flight again?”

“Eight o’clock. We’ll head to the airport after dinner. There’s plenty of time.”

“Okay.” She hooked her arm into Chi Yi’s, intentionally slowing her pace as she whispered, “After dinner, my parents will ask us to stay the night. Just say we have things to handle back home. Otherwise, it’ll be inconvenient since we didn’t bring toiletries, skincare, or a change of clothes.”

“Okay.”

Chi Yi agreed. But once they were at the table, Old Cheng pulled her aside to drink. Cheng Yixin tried to dissuade him; she didn’t want to carry a “drunken cat” onto the plane, and Chi Yi would feel terrible if she drank too much.

“Uncle, I can’t really dri—” Chi Yi was still thinking of her girlfriend’s instructions and the “no drinking” signal Cheng Yixin was sending with her eyes.

Before she could finish, Old Cheng gripped the bottle with one hand and slapped the table with the other. “Coming to our house and not even having a drop of alcohol? And you still want to be with my daughter!”

When Old Cheng got emotional, the redness would spread from his face to his neck. That flushed face made it look like he’d already had a few glasses before dinner even started.

“What are you saying? Chi Yi and I are dating—what does that have to do with whether she drinks with you? You old drunk, stop harassing Chi Yi. Her tolerance…” Before she could say “is bad,” Chi Yi grabbed the bottle and set it down firmly on the table.

With a determined look, Chi Yi said, “Uncle, I’ll drink with you!”

“???” Where did this sudden burst of energy come from?!

Cheng Yixin couldn’t stop them at all. Mother Cheng also hoped they would stay and rest rather than rush back, so she didn’t participate in the “drinking intervention.”

Having learned her lesson from the last painful experience with white liquor, President Chi was smarter this time. When Old Cheng drank half a glass, she only took a sip. She toasted Old Cheng several times over a single small glass of wine.

Without fail, Old Cheng was the first to get drunk. The first sign of his drunkenness was talking nonsense.

Old Cheng grabbed his daughter’s hand, tears flowing down his face. “Daughter, your mother and I raised you, but sooner or later you have to leave this home and have your own family. You have to walk the road ahead yourself; Daddy can’t stay with you… wahhh…”

Cheng Yixin, whose hand was being gripped by her sobbing father, gave a forced smile while offering perfunctory “Mhm, mhm” responses. It was clear she had been through this many times. Sometimes when he was drunk, Old Cheng would even try to demonstrate the entire wedding processional for them.

After finished nagging his daughter, Old Cheng turned his gaze to Chi Yi, who was sitting in her chair trying to sober up. He raised his hand, waving it in the air twice before finally landing it on Chi Yi’s shoulder. His eyes were wide like copper bells, but his gaze was hazy.

“Do you… truly love my daughter?”

Chi Yi’s brain, slowed by the alcohol, paused for two seconds before she nodded heavily. “Yes! I love Cheng Yixin.”

Old Cheng finally smiled. He took Cheng Yixin’s hand and placed it into Chi Yi’s palm. “Then I’m leaving Xinxin to you. If you ever dare to treat her poorly, I’ll chase you all the way to Jingning to hit you!”

“I will definitely treat Yixin well!”

“Promise me!”

“I promise!”

“Swear it!”

“I swear it!”

Watching the two of them acting like a comedy duo, Cheng Yixin couldn’t hold it in any longer. Eventually, she had to call Mother Cheng to help pull them apart.

“Alright, take Chi Yi to the room to rest. I’ll look after your father.”

Chi Yi was much more sober than Old Cheng—at least she could walk in a straight line without help. Or so Cheng Yixin thought.

That was until Chi Yi walked into the room, reached the bed, and flopped straight down in the shape of a “Spread Eagle.”

Cheng Yixin’s lips twitched. She hadn’t expected Chi Yi to fall for Old Cheng’s reverse psychology and end up as a drinking companion again. It looked like they wouldn’t be returning home tonight.

She brought a warm wet towel from the bathroom, only to see the person on the bed had rolled over and was lying there with her eyes open.

“Come, let me wipe your face.” Cheng Yixin rested her knee on the edge of the bed and leaned over. She cupped Chi Yi’s cheek with one hand and wiped her face with the towel using the other.

“What are you thinking about?” After her face was wiped, Chi Yi remained staring at the ceiling, lost in thought.

“I was thinking… if my parents were still here and I brought you home, they would probably be as warm and welcoming as Uncle and Auntie,” Chi Yi said, a look of loneliness in her eyes.

Cheng Yixin froze, then leaned down to hug her, lying on her side next to Chi Yi. This was essentially the first time Chi Yi had expressed her feelings of missing her parents in front of her.

“My parents are your parents, too.”

Chi Yi’s body stiffened for a moment, then she also turned on her side and squeezed into Cheng Yixin’s arms.

Cheng Yixin stroked Chi Yi’s hair gently. She didn’t know how to continue the topic; Chi Yi had only ever mentioned that her parents died in a car accident and nothing else. She was afraid that asking would make Chi Yi sad, so she didn’t dare. All she could do was accompany her in silence and kiss her forehead.

After a while, Chi Yi’s mood slowly calmed down. She lifted her head from Cheng Yixin’s arms and said belatedly, “I guess we can’t go back tonight. We’ll have to rebook the flight.”

“Mhm, I’ve already rebooked it for tomorrow,” Cheng Yixin said, patting her head. “Get a good night’s sleep, or you’ll have a headache tomorrow.”

“And there’s one more thing to tell you…” Bringing up the film crew matter felt a bit wrong, but she couldn’t deny that the delay made her feel a little happy, as it meant she could spend more time with Chi Yi. “I was supposed to join the crew next week, but there was a problem with the investment, so it’s been delayed.”

Chi Yi felt a bit of joy, too. Before her smile could fully form, another thought occurred to her: “If it’s delayed, won’t the work schedule you already arranged have to change?”

“Yeah, that is a bit of a hassle.”

Chi Yi wanted to tell Cheng Yixin right then and there that since investment was the problem, she would simply invest herself so the filming could start on time—and as an investor, it would make sense for her to visit the set frequently. She planned to give Cheng Yixin a surprise once the deal was settled.

However, she didn’t expect that after returning to Jingning the next day and having Si Wen contact the director about the investment, the feedback she received was that the director had already found a new investor.

When she asked who the new investor was, the answer was completely unexpected.

“If the information is accurate, the new investor is Old Master Feng—your grandfather.”