TLSOTMTKOGAYWHTDI Chapter 79

Chapter 77: Besides Me, There Are Many Others Who Love You

Chapter 77: Besides Me, There Are Many Others Who Love You

The car drove into an unremarkable office building in the west of the city. Qi Yanwang led Zhuo Huaimo as they took the elevator to the top floor.

Pushing open the glass door, the private investigator Chen Mo’s office was filled with files and walls of photos.

“President Qi, Mr. Zhuo.”

Chen Mo stood up to greet them, handing over two files. “This is Fu Guoqiang’s information.”

Zhuo Huaimo opened the file, and a yellowed photo slipped out—

In the photo, a middle-aged police officer stood in front of the police station, his face serious. He stared at the unfamiliar face, his heart inexplicably tightening.

“Fu Guoqiang was the criminal police officer in charge of your parents’ case back then.”

Chen Mo pointed to the information. “The strange thing is, after the case was closed, he suddenly applied to review the original files. Three months later, at the same bend…”

“The same car accident?” Qi Yanwang frowned.

“No,”

Chen Mo shook his head, “It was a fall off a cliff. But his car’s braking system was intact.”

Zhuo Huaimo’s fingertips went cold, “You mean…”

“Even stranger,”

Chen Mo pulled out another file, “Fu Guoqiang was investigating your mother’s background before he died!”

Qi Yanwang and Zhuo Huaimo exchanged a look.

“Mr. Zhuo,”

Chen Mo suddenly asked, “How much do you know about your parents? Have you ever heard that they were adopted?”

Zhuo Huaimo looked blank. “I’ve never heard of it. My mother never mentioned anything about it!”

Zhuo Huaimo stared at the file, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing the edge of the paper.

Qi Yanwang noticed his unease and gently squeezed the back of his neck.

“Let Chen Mo continue investigating. Let’s go back first.”

Qi Yanwang looked at Zhuo Huaimo’s slightly absent-minded profile and asked softly,

“Do you want to go back to Xingyue Media to take a look? Everyone misses you.”

Zhuo Huaimo’s fingers curled slightly on the file bag, his eyelashes lowered, casting a shadow.

He opened his mouth, but hesitated and pursed his lips.

“It’s okay,”

Qi Yanwang reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind his ear. “When you’re ready, we’ll go back.”

When the two walked out of the office building, the setting sun was painting the entire street gold.

Zhuo Huaimo suddenly stopped in front of a closed luxury store, looking up at the empty window.

Qi Yanwang followed his gaze—there used to be a huge, three-story-high poster hanging there. Zhuo Huaimo was wearing the latest haute couture suit of the season, smiling dazzlingly under the spotlights.

That was his last endorsement.

Later, when the scandal broke, all the billboards were removed overnight, and the posters were replaced overnight, as if they had never existed.

“If you want to go back…”

Qi Yanwang grasped his cold hand, his voice a little tight,

“I’ll take you back.”

He still remembered the scene when he first saw Zhuo Huaimo at the Xingyue Media annual meeting. The young man standing in the center of the stage seemed to glow, and even his sweat seemed to be sprinkled with gold dust.

And now, those eyes that should have been chased by cameras could only hide in his shadow.

Zhuo Huaimo turned to look at him and suddenly smiled,

“No need.”

His fingertip lightly scratched his palm. “Being President Qi’s exclusive star isn’t bad either.”

He took two steps forward and turned back to wink at Qi Yanwang.

“Besides, this young master is dazzling to begin with. I’m dazzling wherever I go.”

A pang of sour pain rose in Qi Yanwang’s chest.

He knew that Zhuo Huaimo was comforting him, just like every time he mentioned the past in the past six months.

He was clearly the one who should feel wronged the most, but he always noticed his guilt first.

That night, Qi Yanwang tossed and turned, unable to sleep. At three in the morning, he sent a message to the publicity director,

“Redo the premiere plan for ‘Early Spring’.”

The next morning at breakfast, Zhuo Huaimo found a gold-embossed invitation card pressed under his plate.

“This is…”

“Open it and see.” Qi Yanwang pushed the jam towards him.

A design drawing slid out of the invitation card:

An open-air cinema-like premiere venue, with a glass stage covered with roses in the center, surrounded by countless mirrored pillars.

At the top was written a line—”To My Star That Will Never Fall.”

“The mirror pillars will reflect all the lights,”

Qi Yanwang leaned over and pointed it out to him. “At that time, you will be standing in the center of millions of stars.”

Zhuo Huaimo’s fingertips trembled slightly.

The design was exquisitely cruel—it avoided direct contact with the camera, and allowed all the light to crown him.

“If you don’t like it, there are alternatives.”

Qi Yanwang pulled out a few more drawings. “A replica of the film festival red carpet, or…”

He suddenly lowered his voice, “We’ll book the entire aquarium and let the fish be the audience?”

The last sketch was a deep blue glass tunnel, and the projector projected the movie onto the flowing seawater.

Zhuo Huaimo’s eyes were burning. Each of these plans perfectly avoided his psychological shadows, and was outrageously luxurious.

He looked up to say that it was too extravagant, but ran into Qi Yanwang’s eyes full of stars.

“Actually…”

His throat tightened. “Just do it normally. Let the movie speak for itself!”

Qi Yanwang hugged him. “You’re so, so good. You’re thinking about saving money for your husband all day long, but…”

He kissed the tip of his nose. “This is your first movie. I just want to give you the best, most memorable experience!”

Zhuo Huaimo thought for a while, “Then… the theme song of ‘Early Spring’!”

Qi Yanwang immediately stopped in his tracks. “You want to sing?”

The French window reflected the intertwined figures of the two. Zhuo Huaimo saw the long-lost light in his eyes.

He nodded lightly. “Just kidding. Actors who excel in acting can sing too. Although I was the Film Emperor back then, I also released albums, okay?”

Before he could finish speaking, Qi Yanwang kissed him. The kiss had the sweetness of jam and an unconcealable tremor.

“I’ll have the recording studio come and set up the equipment this afternoon.”

When they separated, Qi Yanwang’s forehead was against his. “But there’s a condition…”

“What?”

“After singing, you have to come with me to a place.”

——

At dusk, Qi Yanwang parked the car in the underground parking lot of the “Xingyue Media” building.

Zhuo Huaimo was about to protest, but he was blindfolded and led into the elevator.

“Count to thirty seconds.”

There was a warm palm behind his head in the darkness.

The moment the blindfold was taken off, a room full of stars poured in.

The entire wall of mirror installations refracted the setting sun into countless spots of light, and in the center hung a re-framed huge poster:

Twenty-year-old Zhuo Huaimo was wearing a Bulgari watch, proudly raising his chin under the spotlight.

“Welcome home.”

Qi Yanwang hugged him from behind. “This will always be your home field.”

Outside the window, all of Xingyue Media’s LED screens lit up, and all of Zhuo Huaimo’s classic commercials and film and television works since his debut were played on a loop!

Zhuo Huaimo stood in front of the French window, his fingertips lightly touching his smiling face at the age of twenty on the LED screen.

Outside the window, the giant screens outside the Xingyue Media building were playing all the highlights of his debut on a loop—

The stunning glance back in “Silent Night Ridge,” the choked speech at the Golden Statue Awards ceremony, and even the bright wink in a beverage commercial that he had long forgotten.

“When did you…” His voice choked in his throat.

Qi Yanwang hugged him from behind, his chin resting on his shoulder.

“I started collecting them the day you left!”

Warm breath brushed past his ear. “I originally wanted to show them on your thirtieth birthday.”

Suddenly, there were bursts of screams outside the window.

The two looked down and saw that hundreds of people had gathered in front of the building at some point. Some were holding faded banners, and some were holding yellowed photo albums. The girls in the front row had already cried and smudged their makeup.

“Are they… my fans?”

Zhuo Huaimo’s fingertips trembled.

He was too familiar with these faces. Two years ago, when he was scolded by the entire Internet, it was this group of girls who stubbornly held up the “Believe in Zhuo Zhuo” signs and stood downstairs in the company in the rain for an entire night.

Qi Yanwang’s phone suddenly vibrated frantically.

The public relations director sent more than a dozen messages in a row,

“President Qi! The hot searches are exploding! #Zhuo Huaimo Xingyue Media# #My Youth is Back# #Tears of the Times#”

“The old fans have crashed the server!”

“The media is asking if he’s going to make a comeback!”

The number of Zhuo Huaimo’s Weibo followers soared at a rate visible to the naked eye, and the ranking of his super topic skyrocketed like a rocket.

A well-known film critic posted a long article:

“How many hot searches do we owe Zhuo Huaimo?” The accompanying picture was a poster of his eight films that were withdrawn back then.

——

The next morning, Qi Yanwang was awakened by a series of calls.

The old members of the board of directors were heartbroken. “President Qi! Do you know how much the stock price has risen this morning! But we have to keep a low profile!”

“Keep a low profile about what?”

Qi Yanwang pulled the sleepy Zhuo Huaimo into his arms.

“Is it against the law for me to make my wife happy?”

There was a three-second silence on the other end of the phone. “Whatever makes you happy.”

As a result, that afternoon, Qi Yanwang was interviewed by the publicity department.

The director wiped his sweat and handed over a tablet. “President Qi, look, this is what Su Wen was asked when she was interviewed this morning…”

In the picture, the popular actress Su Wen was surrounded by reporters,

“When you were on the set of ‘Early Spring,’ did anything interesting happen?”

(The implied meaning: Did President Qi visit the set? Is the CP real? Spill some tea!)

The camera captured the light in her eyes in an instant, and she pretended to be calm and pursed her lips,

“Every day is very interesting, so the movie is also very interesting. Please pay more attention to the movie!”

After saying that, she couldn’t help but laugh.

Qi Yanwang raised his eyebrows. “What’s wrong with this?”

“The problem is in the back!”

The director was about to cry. “Now all the artists in the company are being asked this when they are interviewed! This morning’s trainee assessment, the first question the judges asked was actually, ‘If Teacher Zhuo wants to make a comeback, will Teacher Qi agree?'”

Qi Yanwang laughed out loud and took the video home that night to take credit.

Zhuo Huaimo was curled up on the sofa, flipping through a script. Hearing this, he kicked him.

“You’re still laughing! Su Wen just sent me a message saying that she was scolded by her agent!”

“What are you afraid of?”

Qi Yanwang took the opportunity to hug him. “It’s a good way to build momentum for ‘Early Spring’!”

“You’re going to hype up the CP to build momentum for ‘Early Spring’? I never bothered to hype up the CP when I was an actor. Now that I’m a director, I’m still hyping up the CP?”

Qi Yanwang said solemnly, “Can that be the same? You used to hype up the CP with others, but now it’s with me. I think it’s okay!”

Zhuo Huaimo squinted at him. “I think you’re just using your position to your advantage. You’re just afraid that the whole world won’t know!”

Qi Yanwang obediently knelt on the sofa, holding up three fingers.

“Honest to heaven and earth, it’s definitely for the sake of ‘Early Spring’! So, Director Zhuo, what do you think?”

He yearned for the screen. He had always loved this industry, so even if he was covered in bruises, he was unwilling to leave. However, if he had to return to the screen, he really hadn’t thought about it.

Qi Yanwang hugged him. “Don’t worry, think about it slowly. You only need to do what you like, something without pressure. Leave the rest to me. I just want you to know that besides me, there are many others who love you!”

Zhuo Huaimo returned a kiss on the tip of his nose.

“Thank you!”

At that moment, Qi Yanwang’s phone rang. It was a message from Liu Jinchen,

“I’m waiting for you at the clubhouse. Something’s up! Come quickly!”