Male Sing and His Pet Owner: Chapter 102

After “Sharp Sword” wrapped, Yu Wenrong did not attend the promotional events. The other lead actors were quite supportive, doing whatever the production team and investors asked. Zhan Hang and Bai Li discussed it and decided each would take a step back.

Zhan Hang didn’t need to go to the venue in person. He would find time to seriously record a promotional vlog, and afterward just help repost the production team’s posts on Weibo.

Just when everyone thought this drama would flop beyond salvation, a related piece of news suddenly shot up the trending searches. The writer’s words were sharp, pointing at the mulberry and cursing the locust, insinuating and implying, It’s almost like… “Zhan Hang being kept” five characters clearly written in the headline. Between the lines was full of contempt and disdain for Zhan Hang himself, and mockery of the rich fool sugar daddy, ridiculing that he spent nine figures of massive funding and still couldn’t smash out a top billing.

Once these words were spoken, countless reposts and comments immediately flooded in like a tidal wave. Fans and antis instantly went to war, water armies from various camps arrived one after another. Some cursed the writer for daring to stir up trouble without solid evidence. Some said Zhan Hang never had any acting skills to begin with and must have slept his way to his current position. Some called for fans to help report together. Some unknown antis directly dragged a bunch of traffic stars into the fray. And some self-proclaimed enlightened ones said this was definitely the “Sharp Sword” production team’s scheming marketing tactic. It was simply a carnival of demons.

Originally this kind of groundless rumor circulating in the industry was within acceptable limits. After all, which little flower or little grass who rose to top tier at a young age didn’t have similar gossip? But when jokes were written out formally and hung on the trending searches, the nature became completely different.

Bai Li hadn’t even finished her current tasks when she learned this unfortunate news from Lu Jiayin. She nearly fainted. One hand rubbing her temple, she sat in her chair and calmly thought for a moment, then made a phone call to the investor of “Sharp Sword.”

On the other side, the person at the center of the storm was completely unaware of this news.

Zhan Hang was rarely at leisure. Filming work was done, socializing was done, the promotional vlog was recorded. He didn’t want to actively contact the outside world at all. Looking completely unpresentable, he lay sideways on the sofa watching a concert recording of the XX rock band. During the commercial break, he lifted his eyes to look for Zhao Kaile’s position, only to discover this person sitting by the small table with a grave expression, staring at his phone screen.

Zhan Hang thought for a few seconds, got up lightly, and silently circled around behind him.

Zhao Kaile was completely unaware, continuing to message Lu Jiayin: Then what should we do now?

Lu Jiayin: We can only spend some money first to suppress the trending search…… The one who made the late-stage additional investment is the real daddy. He himself doesn’t want to show his face. The investors will definitely protect his privacy well. Sister Li is talking to them about this right now.

Zhao Kaile: Who is the writer?

Lu Jiayin: Haven’t found out the general direction yet. Sigh, Hang-ge has accumulated quite a few rivals in recent years…… This matter actually needs to be viewed from two sides. If hyped well, we and the production team both win. If hyped poorly, Hang-ge’s popularity plummets, and for the production team it can only count as black traffic.

Zhao Kaile: Could it be someone from the same production team……..

Lu Jiayin: Probably not……. You’ve been with him these few months, have you seen him have conflicts with anyone?

Zhao Kaile: Quite a few actually. They often argued with each other when repeatedly working on a scene together. Sometimes he even argued with the director.

Lu Jiayin: …….. That doesn’t count!

Behind him, Zhan Hang got the general picture and immediately pulled out his own phone to look at related news. Kept, freeloader, sleeping his way up, and other filthy unbearable words fell into his field of vision one by one without missing a single one.

Zhao Kaile heard the sound of bones cracking behind him and nearly jumped out of his skin in fright. Turning around, he indeed saw Zhan Hang with a dark face, clenching his fist, his eyes unfriendly.

“Ha, Hang-ge……” Zhao Kaile said tremblingly: “Don’t look anymore.”

Zhan Hang said angrily: “I slept my way to a second billing? Is there something wrong with my brain?”

Zhao Kaile said excitedly: “They’re the ones with something wrong with their brains!!”

“And what rich woman keeping me? Freeloading?” Zhan Hang was simply furious beyond measure: “Go to hell! Have these people’s brains all been kicked by donkeys??”

“Hang-ge calm down calm down, this is completely baseless stuff. They can talk until the sky falls and still can’t produce solid evidence!” Zhao Kaile hurriedly stepped forward to pat his back and smooth his breath, persuading: “It must be some rival of yours getting jealous, they can only make a fuss about this kind of thing!”

Zhan Hang continued roaring: “Don’t let me know who this investor is! Daring to give money but not daring to show his face! Am I that desperate for his money?? Ridiculous!!”

Zhao Kaile chimed in: “Ridiculous! Simply a turtle hiding its head!”

Zhan Hang grew more agitated from his patting, glared at him, waved his hand, and went to the refrigerator to get herbal tea to drink, gulping down a whole cup before barely suppressing this wave of anger. Zhao Kaile followed behind carefully attending to him, occasionally catching a cup, throw pillow, or glass bottle that was about to be smashed on the floor, working hard to protect Zhan Hang’s existing possessions.

In the afternoon, Zhan Hang casually changed into casual clothes, put on a baseball cap, and prepared to go out for a walk to clear his mind.

Zhao Kaile wanted to follow. Zhan Hang wouldn’t let him. The two tugged back and forth for half a day. Zhan Hang couldn’t outstubborn him, and compromised with a blank expression.

“I’m just walking around nearby, what could happen??” Zhan Hang was quite puzzled, but his eyes honestly checked Zhao Kaile’s equipment for him, asking: “Did you bring your keys?”

“Brought them.” Zhao Kaile said: “All prepared!”

Zhan Hang made an mm sound, slung a small chest bag, and slowly walked toward the central plaza.

Zhao Kaile asked: “Where are we going, Hang-ge?”

“Don’t know.” Zhan Hang said: “Walk straight, wherever we end up is wherever we end up.”

Zhao Kaile made an oh sound, pointed his phone at his back and opened camera mode.

Zhan Hang heard no movement from him for a long time and couldn’t help turning back to look at him, frowning and asking: “What are you filming again?”

“Take more photos when there’s free time.” Zhao Kaile smiled, looking at him through the phone screen: “Every time you enter a production, it’s so busy, there’s no time to maintain your public presence.”

Zhan Hang pulled his cap brim a bit lower and said: “Not in the mood. Not filming.”

Zhao Kaile had to put his phone down, somewhat helplessly saying: “Okay……. Hang-ge, don’t be unhappy. Sister Li will definitely fix it.”

He actually didn’t want to use these videos and photos to maintain public presence that much. More than that, he wanted to keep them as mementos, lest one day he stopped being Zhan Hang’s assistant, and this secret crush ended without a trace, leaving no memories behind.

Zhan Hang was completely unreceptive to his comfort, only saying lightly: “I really envy you.”

“Should we post a clarification on Weibo?” Zhao Kaile asked: “Or a clarification video?”

“Foolish……” Zhan Hang said: “What’s the point of clarifying something that never happened? This is called the more you paint, the blacker it gets. Understand?”

Zhao Kaile touched his nose, finally showing a troubled expression on his face. He truly didn’t know what to do.

Zhan Hang saw him drooping his brows, and felt an indescribable strange pleasure in his heart. He discovered his psychological state was really quite perverse. When Zhao Kaile was happy, he wanted to talk Zhao Kaile into depression. When the other person was actually depressed, he couldn’t bear it.

“Unless that investor jumps out himself.” Zhan Hang said jokingly: “Best if it’s an old man with a very positive image, great speaking authority, and completely unrelated to me. That way, no matter how they try to hype scandals about freeloading or being kept, it won’t gain traction.”

Zhao Kaile nodded, feeling this made a lot of sense.

The two walked in silence for a moment.

Zhao Kaile asked again: “But if it’s a completely unrelated relationship, why would he invest so much money in you?”

“……..” Zhan Hang: “He admires my strength, okay?? Feels I have prospects, I’m a potential stock, I’m a fine horse and he’s the horse expert. You understand?”

Zhao Kaile: “Oh oh.”

Of course, actually this whole string of reasoning couldn’t even convince Zhan Hang himself. He leaned more toward another conspiracy theory. This behind-the-scenes gold master made a late-stagea additiononal investment to promote some other artist in the drama. It’s just that this artist didn’t want to expose their real relationship, so they pushed him Zhan Hang out to be the punching bag. But this guess also had no evidence whatsoever, merely speculation. Qihua Entertainment.

“Didn’t expect that investing just this small amount of money would cause such a huge stir.” The man laughed softly on the other end of the phone and said: “I’ve caused you trouble.”

Bai Li also smiled: “It has indeed brought some negative impact to our Zhan Hang. I wonder if it would be convenient for you to come forward and help clarify?”

“I would naturally be very willing.” The man’s tone carried slight helplessness: “But Zhan Hang might not be willing.”

Bai Li heard this and said puzzledly: “He’s not willing, why?”

The man said: “He has always been unwilling to publicly acknowledge my relationship with him.”

“……..” A rare look of alarm appeared on Bai Li’s face: “What is your relationship with him?”

She was really afraid of hearing some ambiguous phrase from the other person’s mouth. After all, same-sex keeping was a scandal just like opposite-sex keeping, but the former was clearly uglier by one dimension than the latter.

But the man didn’t answer directly, only saying gently: “Send him the recording you’re making right now. He’ll naturally understand.”

Bai Li subconsciously glanced at the recording button, her heart thumping, but on the surface she remained composed, saying: “Okay…… no offense intended.”

“Understood.” The man smiled: “When he responds, contact me again.”

Bai Li: “Okay, goodbye.”

After hanging up, Bai Li quickly uploaded the audio and sent a copy to Zhan Hang.

District A.

Zhan Hang wandered to the activity center, seeing the original plaza in a complete mess, and couldn’t help showing a puzzled expression. Zhao Kaile followed behind and explained: “The property management said this place is being renovated. They’re rebuilding a golf course. In the future this area will be open to more business professionals.”

Hearing this, Zhan Hang made a disdainful mm sound, thinking to himself how boring, building a golf course, might as well build a soccer field or basketball court.

His phone notification sounded. Zhan Hang received the audio file Bai Li sent.

“I would naturally be very willing, but Zhan Hang might not be willing.”

“He has always been unwilling to publicly acknowledge my relationship with him.”

“Send him the recording you’re making right now. He’ll naturally understand.”

Zhao Kaile listened completely baffled, while also feeling this voice sounded somewhat familiar. But when he lifted his eyes to look at Zhan Hang, he discovered Zhan Hang’s brows tightly knitted, his expression complex, as if he were seeing some sworn enemy.