Is This The Right Way To Repay A Favor? Chapter 39
byPick Up and Drop Off
“Mr. Jiang, you’re joking. How could I impose like that?”
“Mr. Jiang is so busy, how could he possibly have time to cook just for me?”
Before Jiang Zhou could speak, Jiang Hua grew anxious.
“Mr. Shen, I’m serious! Cooking is a small matter, why would you feel like you’re imposing! Azhou, tell him, do you have time?”
Jiang Zhou immediately replied, “I have time. As long as Mr. Shen wants to eat, I always have time.”
“Then I won’t be polite. Just don’t let Mr. Jiang complain that I’m bothering him later.”
“He wouldn’t dare! If he does, just call me anytime. Don’t worry, I can handle him.”
Jiang Zhou: ….
Anyone who didn’t know better would think Shen Zhiyu was his biological son.
Shen Zhiyu took advantage of the situation and, playing the good guest, even helped Jiang Zhou by placing several pieces of food onto his plate.
“Then Mr. Jiang really needs to eat more. You’re too thin; I’m afraid you won’t be able to handle it.”
The end of his last sentence was slightly drawn out, and for some reason, Jiang Zhou felt there was a hidden meaning in those words.
While they were eating, Jiang Hua remembered something else.
“Azhou, after dinner, you and Mr. Shen should go back together.”
Jiang Zhou: “?”
What now?
“Jiang Yue starts school in another week. Go pick her up and let her spend some time at home with Aunt Fang and me.”
So that was it.
Jiang Yue had been with Ye Mo for half a month. Jiang Zhou had already planned to have the driver pick her up in the next couple of days.
“Alright, I’ll have Uncle Xie go tomorrow,” Jiang Zhou said, seeing that everyone had finished eating, and began clearing the dishes.
Jiang Hua was dissatisfied with Jiang Zhou’s attitude. “You go pick her up yourself.”
“Look at you, so insincere. Mr. Shen helped us so much back then, and now Jiang Yue has bothered Teacher Xi for half a month. You want to send a driver to fob them off instead of going yourself?”
Jiang Hua continued to scold Jiang Zhou, “It’s the same with this program recording. I told you to take good care of Mr. Shen during the show, but what did you do? You took such good care of him that he fainted from low blood sugar….”
Jiang Zhou went to collect the dishes in front of Shen Zhiyu and saw the other man listening to their father-son conversation with a composed expression, a faint smile hidden in his eyes.
Jiang Zhou’s cheeks felt slightly warm.
“And today. Mr. Shen is leaving, and not only did you not offer to see him off, but you didn’t even invite him over for a meal. If I hadn’t been here, how would you ever repay the kindness you owe Mr. Shen?”
Jiang Hua’s scolding was endless; he looked ready to dig up ancient history from years ago. Jiang Zhou raised his hands in surrender.
“I’ll go, I’ll pick her up myself.”
Jiang Hua stopped only after hearing the satisfactory answer.
“We left in such a hurry last time that we didn’t have time to prepare anything. I’ve prepared some local specialties. Take them to Teacher Xi when you pick up Jiang Yue.”
Even the gifts were ready.
It turned out this had been planned all along.
Jiang Zhou now realized that his actions had indeed been impolite. His father’s considerations were much more thorough than his own.
“Before you came back, I already asked Mr. Shen. He’s returning to Qingzhu this time.”
“Take this opportunity to properly drive Mr. Shen home and bring Jiang Yue back along the way.”
“Okay.” Jiang Zhou finished clearing the dishes and went to the kitchen.
Jiang Hua started making tea for Shen Zhiyu and the others.
Aunt Fang walked into the kitchen and took the dishes from Jiang Zhou’s hands. “I’ll do it.”
“Your dad just doesn’t watch his words sometimes, don’t take it to heart.”
“He hasn’t seen you in a long time, and he’s actually very happy inside. He looks for opportunities to visit you at Taoyuan every day.”
“Visit me?” He hadn’t known, nor had he ever noticed.
“Yes. The vegetables at Languang Xiaoguan are all pulled from the ground by your dad early in the morning, and those fish are ones he caught late at night. He’s very diligent.”
“The last time he sprained his back and didn’t go to the tea garden with you, it was because he sprained it fishing the night before.”
“But he’s thin-skinned and didn’t want you to know, so he tipped off the production crew.”
The production crew had said the vegetables were prepared by the villagers early in the morning. At the time, he thought the crew was very thoughtful.
He never expected…
Jiang Zhou’s eyes felt slightly warm, and a sourness welled up in his throat.
“Just know it in your heart, don’t tell him. He’s thin-skinned and doesn’t know how to talk. He’ll just end up arguing with you again.”
Jiang Zhou quietly reached up to wipe away the moisture at the corner of his eye and nodded. “I understand.”
—-
The gifts and local specialties filled the entire trunk.
At Jiang Hua’s request, to show sincerity, Jiang Zhou drove Shen Zhiyu back. Wei Yan took Shen Zhiyu’s commercial vehicle back to Haishi.
Shen Zhiyu was quite polite. “Thank you, Uncle Jiang. I’m really troubling Mr. Jiang.”
“Don’t be a stranger, feel free to trouble our Azhou in the future. It’s Azhou’s honor,” Jiang Hua said, respectfully seeing Shen Zhiyu into the car.
Jiang Zhou closed the trunk door and sighed softly when he saw Jiang Hua’s demeanor.
Sure enough, father and son were two peas in a pod. He finally knew who he inherited that from.
Jiang Zhou hadn’t slept last night and had been busy all day. Fearing he might get drowsy on the road, he put on some music.
He saw Shen Zhiyu engrossed in his phone and, worried about disturbing him, kept the music volume low.
Shen Zhiyu tapped his phone, heard the music, and looked up at him.
Jiang Zhou paused the music. “Did I bother you? Sorry.”
“Why didn’t you play my songs?” Shen Zhiyu asked.
So it wasn’t about being disturbed, but about the music choice.
Jiang Zhou explained, “This is the company car.”
He usually preferred to drive his own car so he could play Shen Zhiyu’s songs freely. But he never interfered with the company car, partly because he worried about revealing too much of his own feelings.
“Oh.” Shen Zhiyu sounded intrigued. “I’ll play something.”
“Okay.”
Most people have a sense of shame. They feel awkward listening to their own songs or watching their own TV shows in front of others.
But Shen Zhiyu didn’t. He was open and generous, and he didn’t even play group songs; he put on his solo album.
Soon, Shen Zhiyu’s voice filled the car.
His singing voice was very different from his speaking voice. His speaking voice was softer, but when he sang, it was somewhat raspy, though not entirely hoarse. A fan once described it as a metallic timbre, and Jiang Zhou thought that was a very apt description.
Just as Jiang Zhou drove onto the highway, Wei Yan suddenly called.
Jiang Zhou didn’t answer immediately. He couldn’t drive dangerously, and he didn’t really want to put the call on speaker in front of Shen Zhiyu.
He even had a premonition that Wei Yan’s call was related to Shen Zhiyu. After all, all necessary work discussions had been completed before they left.
Yet, Jiang Zhou was afraid of missing something important. Since Wei Yan knew he was driving Shen Zhiyu, the call must be an emergency.
Just as the ringtone was about to end, Shen Zhiyu kindly reached out a hand, answered the call for him, and put it on speakerphone.
“Mr. Jiang.” Wei Yan was mindful and didn’t jump straight to the point, calling out first.
Shen Zhiyu thoughtfully held the phone up for him.
In this situation, Jiang Zhou couldn’t say he was unavailable to talk, so he forced himself to ask, “What is it?”
“You and Mr. Shen were photographed last night,” Wei Yan said.
Last night?
On the tea mountain?
When Shen Zhiyu came to record the program, many fans and paparazzi also came to Yongnan Village to follow his schedule. Fortunately, the “Taoyuan” selected for the program had a natural advantage: it was a high-walled enclosure surrounded on all four sides, effectively blocking all photography.
After a month of filming, people had only managed to take blurry candid shots of Shen Zhiyu and the others harvesting rice and picking tea.
To avoid being blocked today, the production crew had released news that Shen Zhiyu had left Taoyuan after the gathering last night.
“Did it trend?” Jiang Zhou feigned composure.
“Yes. But the distance was far and the light was dim, so only two blurry figures can be seen.”
“I’ve already contacted Wang Lei’s side, and Mr. Shen said not to deal with it.”
Jiang Zhou glanced at Shen Zhiyu.
Was that what he was doing on his phone just now?
“Okay, do as they say.” Jiang Zhou thought for a moment, still feeling it wasn’t secure enough. “Release the dirt we had from last time.”
To suppress a trending topic and reduce discussion, the most direct and brutal method is to launch a more explosive headline.
“Shouldn’t we wait for Qian…” Wei Yan was about to offer a reminder but remembered something and stopped himself, replying “Understood” before hanging up.
Shen Zhiyu was curious. “What dirt?”
“Xu Yang cheated on Zhang Jiajia with Ye Zhi during her pregnancy.”
Xu Yang was a high-traffic young star in recent years, known to the public for his role as a devoted male lead a few years ago. His ten-year long-distance relationship with his wife, Zhang Jiajia, further cemented his image as a good man in the entertainment industry.
Zhang Jiajia had acted in TV dramas early on and later taught at a film academy. Ye Zhi was Zhang Jiajia’s student; the two had even participated in an acting competition program together, emphasizing their teacher-student bond.
As soon as this news was released, backed by clear, solid photographic evidence, it immediately topped the trending searches on all major platforms.
Netizens eagerly devoured the gossip, quickly digging up all the details of Xu Yang and Ye Zhi’s interactions when they collaborated on a previous TV drama.
As for the blurry photo rumored to be of Shen Zhiyu, after fans led the charge in denying it and no further evidence emerged, it gradually became buried under the other trending topics.
Shen Zhiyu received a push notification on his phone showing the real-time trending searches.
One of the trending topics was “Can Xu Yang’s Thousand Machine Lead still be broadcast?” Shen Zhiyu recalled Wei Yan’s hesitation on the phone, clicked on the topic, and discovered that the film’s production company was indeed Languang Media.
“Mr. Jiang, do you have too much money?”
“?”
“Thousand Machine Lead,” Shen Zhiyu reminded him.
The action seemed to have gone too far.
Jiang Zhou still had to save face. “The movie is launching tomorrow. Being infamous is still fame.”
“Oh.” Shen Zhiyu mused, looking enlightened. “So it’s to build momentum for the movie launch.”
“Speaking of which, Mr. Jiang knows a lot of entertainment gossip?” Shen Zhiyu asked with a smile.
“I… I guess so.” Jiang Zhou’s palms were sweating slightly, making the steering wheel feel sticky.
“Tell me some. I just returned to the country, and I haven’t heard much gossip.” Shen Zhiyu looked genuinely interested.
Jiang Zhou’s expression showed hesitation. Shen Zhiyu seemed to understand and said, “Oh, sorry, I crossed a line. That’s a business secret. You can’t tell me.”
“No, it’s fine.” Jiang Zhou was completely unaware that he had fallen into a trap and immediately spilled one major piece of gossip after another to Shen Zhiyu.
Most film and television companies maintain a specialized team dedicated to digging up dirt and scandals on various celebrities in the industry, both to undermine rival companies at critical moments and to keep their own artists in line.
This was not a secret; it was common knowledge in the entertainment circle.
After hearing several pieces of gossip about major stars, Shen Zhiyu couldn’t help but ask, “What about me?”
“Did you dig up any dirt on me?”