Perfect Divorce [Entertainment Circle] - Chapter 30

Ye Huai had forgotten to tell them, and the production crew really had the nerve to edit it that way; Yuan Xingzhou nearly had a heart attack. However, he didn’t even have time to settle that score, because the crew’s “shady operations” only got worse—they cut out all the segments of Ye Huai being nitpicky and talkative, rearranged the chronological order, and added whatever captions they liked.

Consequently, Ye Huai’s “cold and aloof” persona remained rock solid, while Yuan Xingzhou was instantly portrayed as a “licking dog” (a desperate devotee).

While cooking, Ye Huai arrogantly extended his hand, and Yuan Xingzhou knelt on one knee to perform a hand-kissing rite—the stylized caption read: “The Romantic Huai-Zhou Couple.”

Later, when Ye Huai was chopping onions and was moved to tears by the pungency, Yuan Xingzhou distressedly used a tissue to wipe them away—captioned in bold red: “Xingzhou, Distressed for His Family Member.”

Finally, as Ye Huai was plating the food, Yuan Xingzhou clutched his heart with both hands, his eyes sparkling as he said, “You’re simply an angel”—and the show even played “Only You” as background music.

Yuan Xingzhou: “…”

During the meal, Ye Huai turned his head and reminded Yuan Xingzhou: “Not full yet?” “…Your abs are gone.”

After the meal, Yuan Xingzhou received a large apricot macaron jelly… Everyone looked at Yuan Xingzhou with envy. The crew added a ring of tacky cherry blossom buds around them with the romantic caption: “Disdaining him with his words, yet unable to let him go hungry.”

Yuan Xingzhou: “??”

“This, this, this… this isn’t right, is it? Weren’t we going to watch the selection that night?” Yuan Xingzhou stared at the program in a daze, turning his head to ask, “Why did they skip directly to the second night?”

“Edited out,” Ye Huai said, sitting cross-legged and hugging a pillow. “The performances were so bad, they probably didn’t want to include them in the main feature.”

Yuan Xingzhou thought that made sense. The selection performances that day were too cringeworthy; showing them would likely draw a lot of flak.

On the screen, the two of them returned to the dormitory building in a display of mutual affection. The camera provided a wide shot of Yuan Xingzhou eating the jelly while looking up at Ye Huai with a smile.

“This is too much,” Yuan Xingzhou said, wanting to cry but having no tears. “Is the editing team part of your family? Why did they edit you to look like such a male god, while I look like such a fanboy!”

“Oh?” Ye Huai remarked. “Isn’t that how it is normally?”

Yuan Xingzhou was furious: “When was I ever a fanboy! Was the look in my eyes really that suggestive??”

Ye Huai denied it flatly: “No, I meant—am I not a male god normally?”

“…” Yuan Xingzhou: “…Oh.”

Yuan Xingzhou thought to himself that comparisons truly are odious; the production crew was simply too biased.

“Furthermore, someone with no sex life,” Ye Huai added, “probably wouldn’t look at someone suggestively.”

Yuan Xingzhou: “…”

Yuan Xingzhou sat up, glaring at him. Ye Huai clutched his pillow and laughed out loud. Yuan Xingzhou was so angry he tried to grab the remote. “Trash program, I’m changing the channel!”

“Look!” Ye Huai hid the remote behind his back and pointed at the TV before Yuan Xingzhou could explode with embarrassment. “Your hero moment is here.”

On the screen, it was already the second day. The crew’s editing style followed a typical chronological flow with the guests’ activities as the main thread. Therefore, the segment of Yuan Xingzhou volunteering to swap with Yin Fei wasn’t deleted; the editor even used a close-up to magnify everyone’s expressions. Following that, Tan Yanke gentlemanly stepped forward and stood beside Yuan Xingzhou.

Although he knew Ye Huai was a bit petty, Yuan Xingzhou didn’t expect the man to actually give Tan Yanke a “glare of death” in the program! However, the Ye Huai giving the death glare had his brows furrowed and was rolling his eyes slightly, making him unexpectedly cute.

Yuan Xingzhou suppressed a laugh. He then saw that after they had headed up the mountain with their bamboo baskets, everyone else went back to their business, but Ye Huai remained standing in place. He looked as if he were enjoying the scenery, but the crew added a “frozen” special effect to him with the caption: “A Waiting Wife Stone.”

Ye Huai: “??”

Now it was Ye Huai’s turn to be embarrassed.

“Hahahaha!” Yuan Xingzhou finally had a moment of triumph and pointed at the screen, laughing. “What kind of expression is that? Waiting for your husband to return?”

Ye Huai said gloomily, “I was just looking at the scenery!”

He turned his head to reach for the remote. Yuan Xingzhou was quick, pouncing over to grab it and jumping to the other end of the sofa.

“I shouldn’t have watched this with you!” Ye Huai said angrily. “It’s already been recorded, what’s so good about watching it!”

“Exactly!” Yuan Xingzhou mimicked him. “What’s so good about it! Go to sleep then. Don’t endure this kind of torture.”

Ye Huai was speechless. He could only frown slightly and continue watching with a look of displeasure.

The part where the few of them worked was clearly omitted. The crew added cheerful background music and quickly cut through their work footage in sync with the rhythm. Thus, everyone’s hard morning of labor ended just like that, condensed into a few wide shots and cute post-production animations.

Ye Huai’s face was dark, but Yuan Xingzhou found it hilarious.

Ye Huai was simply too childish—announcing he only loved him at the press conference, and now on the show, he had to be portrayed as high and cold while Yuan Xingzhou was the fanboy… just how narcissistic could he be?

But he was also right; the way the show was edited was indeed uninteresting, as if the two of them were just props. What they were actually like and how they interacted depended entirely on the editor’s mood.

However, the CP fans were very happy. The Super Topic homepage was refreshing at lightning speed, filled with giveaways and various screaming posts.

“Watching the livestream in the dorm using data—it was worth it! To celebrate the New Year (the CP moment), I’m giving away one TF lipstick from a choice of shades 15, 16, or 80. Requirement: Must not have ever hated on Zhou-zhou or Brother Huai! Huai-Zhou is the best!”

“Sisters! I’m about to explode! No more nonsense—giving away a bottle of Un Jardin sur le Nil! Requirement: Super Topic level 7 or above. Picking from likes and comments!”

“Giveaway today! Two Bose headphones! See image for model.”

“I’m different—I’m giving away two boxes of Shiroi Koibito chocolates! A little replenishment for the sisters!”

Yuan Xingzhou scrolled through and saw that in just a moment, over twenty new giveaway posts had appeared. He was stunned. In his impression, the fans were all young girls, many of them students; he didn’t want them to spend money.

Every time Yuan Xingzhou thought about having few commercial endorsements, he would comfort himself with this thought, thinking it allowed the fans to save their money, study hard, or buy more clothes. But in reality, kids nowadays generally had better conditions than he did back then; when he mentioned this to others, they found him simply ridiculous.

Ultimately, it was because he had been too poor in the past, so he cared about this a lot.

Yuan Xingzhou restrained his hand from telling everyone not to spend money and scrolled further down; without exception, it was all “rainbow farts” (extreme flattery).

GIFs of him and Ye Huai were clipped and discussed individually—one moment calling for the two of them to restrain themselves, the next saying it was too sweet to handle, and that they were “dying from sweetness” repeatedly today.

Someone else with sharp eyes discovered that Ye Huai’s face turned red when his hand was kissed, leading to a discussion on whether they had been “doing it too much” lately.

Yuan Xingzhou: “…”

Even more people were expressing what kind of “divine CP” these two were! Yuan Xingzhou was described as a delicate, soft, “calculating little goblin” who was sweet-talked and lovable, while Ye Huai was a “boyfriend-material” tsundere god with level-ten possessiveness.

There was also a familiar long-time Zhou-fan who couldn’t help but post: “To be fair, if I saw Zhou-zhou being so pure yet seductive, with his eyes sparkling as he admiringly praised ‘You’re so great,’ while looking completely innocent as if he were just speaking from the heart—even if I were straight, I definitely couldn’t hold back! I’d turn as gay as a coil of incense on the spot! Men love being admired most, okay! Ye Huai looks cold, but he actually has a bit of a straight-guy mindset—he’s definitely been caught hook, line, and sinker!”

This Weibo post was quickly reposted back and forth, instantly occupying the “square” (trending area).

Yuan Xingzhou looked at it with a flushed face, thinking, What the hell! Haven’t you always been my solo fan? Why are you shipping this so crazily… and it wasn’t at all like what you saw, hey, we were arguing at the time, okay…

He was dazed by what he saw. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Ye Huai staring at the TV. He glanced over and found the show was almost over. It had reached the last day; while others went to work, the two of them sat on the sofa in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, leisurely soaking up the sun. While Sun Kai was working in the distance, Ye Huai turned his head and asked Yuan Xingzhou with a cocky air, “What are you looking at?”

…

The cameraman gave a close-up here. Yuan Xingzhou hadn’t noticed that day, but watching it on TV now, he realized that after hearing him praise him as “good-looking,” Ye Huai turned his face back, turned off the game console, used the display as a mirror to admire himself for a moment, and then curled his lips into a satisfied smile while tossing his hair.

Yuan Xingzhou: “…”

Although it was somewhat inappropriate, he suddenly thought of the “solo fan’s” post he had just read. Just a praise of “good-looking” made him ripple with pride like that? Could it be that praise really brings such exceptional satisfaction?

Yuan Xingzhou suddenly really wanted to try it again. However, before he could open his mouth, his phone rang.

The show was almost over; the preview showed the final footage and the campfire party. Yuan Xingzhou looked at his phone in surprise and saw that Li Yu was actually calling in the middle of the night. He immediately had a bad feeling.

“What are you doing?” Sure enough, Li Yu started questioning him angrily as soon as he answered. “Didn’t I tell you to act like you’re not getting along and have an occasional argument? How did you end up showing off your affection instead!”

“I didn’t show off any affection.” Yuan Xingzhou shrank his neck at the scolding and hurriedly explained, “We did argue, but the production crew didn’t air it.”

Li Yu was clearly very angry and remained silent on the other end.

Yuan Xingzhou knew the crew’s editing was too misleading, so he could only say, “Actually, the two of us really did argue, but the editor didn’t use those parts. And the chronological order of this show was changed at will—didn’t you see that on my first night, my clothes were different in two consecutive shots?”

Ye Huai turned off the TV and looked over at him in confusion.

Yuan Xingzhou pointed at his phone and then said, “I’m sorry, Brother Li, I…”

“You figure it out yourself,” Li Yu said. “I don’t understand you two. Are you actually going to ‘divorce’ or not? If you two think this is good, you can continue, and I won’t have to waste my effort laying the groundwork for you.”

Yuan Xingzhou: “…”

“I know the current heat of ‘Huai-Zhou’ is good for both of you, but Xingzhou,” Li Yu said earnestly, “think about it carefully when you’ve calmed down. How many loving couples in the entertainment circle turn on each other and refuse to acknowledge each other after breaking up? You two don’t even have an emotional foundation. If Ye Huai wants to break up the CP in the future, how will you deal with it? The higher the heat now, the more uncontrollable things become, and the greater the backlash you’ll face later…”

“I’m sorry,” Yuan Xingzhou said. “I… I know.”

“Think about it yourself.” Li Yu sighed. After a while, he said, “Come to the company tomorrow. The script I was negotiating for you is almost settled. If there are no objections, we’ll sign the contract on Monday.”

Yuan Xingzhou: “!!”

“An urban emotional drama,” Li Yu said. “A female-centric drama; you’ll play the male lead. It’s a wealthy second-generation character. Prepare your own private clothes—get a couple of decent sets.”

Yuan Xingzhou knew that if Li Yu said this, both the script and the character were up to standard. His visit tomorrow would likely just be to get familiar with things. The male lead script he had hoped for so long had finally landed. Yuan Xingzhou let out a sigh of relief, but then he thought about how Li Yu had been picking scripts and preparing public relations groundwork for him, while he hadn’t cooperated well.

“Thank you, Brother Li,” Yuan Xingzhou said sincerely. “I didn’t handle the show well this time.”

“Forget it, it’s already like this. Just wait for this wave of attention to pass,” Li Yu said. “I’m not asking for anything else now. You have an ‘affectionate’ persona in this drama; since you two think this is fun, I only hope your interest lasts a bit longer. Whatever you do, do NOT let your personas collapse.”

“That’s all I have to say,” Li Yu said helplessly. “Also, that self-composed song you sang—the production crew has been notified, and it can’t be aired. Yuan Cheng’s manager also contacted me, saying there are some ‘coincidences’ between you and Yuan Cheng. To avoid unnecessary trouble, they intend to buy the copyright for that segment of the melody.”

Yuan Xingzhou was quite surprised by this, but he really didn’t want to have too much contact with the other party.

“Not selling,” Yuan Xingzhou said. “If they think it’s fine, they can release it. If they think there’s a problem, they can change it.”

Li Yu gave an “un-huh” and didn’t try to persuade him otherwise.

After hanging up, Ye Huai finally couldn’t help but ask: “What, got scolded again?”

Yuan Xingzhou nodded and said truthfully, “Brother Li wanted me to argue with you on the show, but I didn’t listen.”

“You didn’t listen?” Ye Huai said in shock. “We argued for an entire day, okay?”

Yuan Xingzhou was suddenly at a loss whether to laugh or cry, thinking, How do I explain that? That was me being jealous, and the show didn’t air it anyway.

“Li Yu is simply insane,” Ye Huai said, speechless. “Give me the thing on your foot; I’ll process it for you.”

Yuan Xingzhou was stunned, then realized he meant the anklet. He hurriedly took it off himself. “I’ll go wash it.”

“No need.” Ye Huai took it, hooked it on his finger, and twirled it. He tilted his head and asked, “What do you like? Diamonds, rubies, sapphires, or emeralds and the like?”

Yuan Xingzhou was stunned: “What are you going to do?”

Ye Huai shook the black leather ring.

“I don’t want any!” Yuan Xingzhou said in alarm. “Gemstones are incredibly expensive! I definitely don’t want them!”

“It depends on the size, color, clarity, and cut. Do you have any common sense?” Ye Huai said with a look of disdain. “I’m using scraps. Just tell me what you want.”

Yuan Xingzhou looked at him suspiciously, thinking, Is that for real? Gemstones can have ‘scraps’ that you can just pick from like anything else?

He really didn’t understand this and didn’t know which one was valuable.

“Use the cheapest one,” Yuan Xingzhou paused and whispered, “Aluminum alloy is fine too…”

Ye Huai was simply unable to complain about this. He turned and walked away, returning a moment later and tossing over a black-and-gold Hermès bracelet.

Yuan Xingzhou: “!!”

“It’s taking up space,” Ye Huai said. “You should be able to wear it, right?”

Yuan Xingzhou hadn’t thought much of it before, but looking at this leather bracelet with its shiny H-buckle now, he immediately thought of the CP fans’ fantasies.

“I’m not wearing it!” Yuan Xingzhou protested. “What would I look like wearing this? I don’t want it!”

“What would you look like?” Ye Huai asked.

Yuan Xingzhou opened his mouth but couldn’t say it.

“I can’t wear it,” Yuan Xingzhou could only change his tune, struggling. “How small is this thing…”

Ye Huai didn’t believe him. With a suspicious look, he brought it over and tried it on his foot. Sure enough, the buckle was a bit short and couldn’t be fastened.

Yuan Xingzhou immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Ye Huai didn’t dwell on it. After comparing the sizes of the two leather rings, he went back to his room. Yuan Xingzhou felt as if he had been granted a grand pardon and hurriedly washed up and ran back to his own room.

On his phone, Zhu Yueming had just created a group and invited him to join.

Yuan Xingzhou clicked accept and was about to greet everyone, only to see that even in the middle of the night, his classmates were chatting excitedly. They were discussing this very romance variety show; someone in the group really liked Li Yi, but even more people were saying that after seeing Yuan Xingzhou and Ye Huai, they “believed in love again.”

Yuan Xingzhou: “…”

Yuan Xingzhou could only exit embarrassedly and continue browsing Weibo.

However, in just half an hour, all the websites and push notifications were filled with topics about two pairs of CPs—one was him and Ye Huai, and the other was a top-tier star who had just been exposed for cheating.

The other pair was exposed on Weibo. The male was a top-tier actor who had suffered a soft tissue contusion in a certain area because he had played too hard with an escort he had hired.

The front pages of Weibo were all about the “melon” (scandal) news, so the “Huai-Zhou” topic broke into the top ten in the cracks, appearing slightly out of place.

Large threads were also being built on forums.

Half of the front page consisted of “skin-peeling” and “itemizing” threads about the cheating star, while the other half consisted of “dog food” posts about Yuan Xingzhou and Ye Huai. Netizens seemed to have split personalities: first going into the thread “Exposing a certain scumbag star’s true face: Lying, cheating, and sleeping with fans” to curse the scumbag for being heartless, then taking a left turn into “A compilation of Huai-Zhou CP’s sweet moments: From meeting to knowing each other, we have always been together” to eat a bite of dog food and say, “Woohoo, I’m okay again. As expected, true love exists in the world.”

An entertainment public account on WeChat had one post: “Why are top-tier CPs so popular? What are they relying on?” analyzing his and Ye Huai’s gazes and small movements before promoting the variety show. The very next post was: “Celebrity couples tearing each other apart—is there any meaning in discussing who is more of a scumbag?” and then started digging for clues of cheating from the scumbag’s Weibo and alt accounts.

On video websites, the homepage recommendation was “Things the Huai-Zhou CP Tells You,” and right beside it was the cheating couple’s “The youth of those years was ultimately misplaced.”

Yuan Xingzhou looked back and forth until he was dizzy.

To make matters worse, someone was privately circulating a short video of the male star and a young model—it was only five seconds long, but the activity was intense and made a deep impression.

Yuan Xingzhou: “…”

Ye Huai was in his room clinking and clattering, doing something late into the night. Yuan Xingzhou was “eating melons” through the headlines and push notifications of major portals, looking at himself and Ye Huai, then glancing at the neighboring male star who was being hammered to pulp by the public. He was terrified and had “wet dreams” all night long.