Chapter 104: Fifteenth

The afternoon had yet to pa.s.s but the city's streets were already cold and cheerless - it was very unlike the usual scene. Chu Qin's little a.s.sistant, Hou Chuan, drove to the aiport to pick the both of them up and dropped them off at Chu Qin's apartment.

"Qin-ge, did you see that hot topic on the internet today?" Hou Chuan couldn't resist asking Chu Qin.

"What hot topic?" Chu Qin leaned against Zhong Yibin, took out his handphone, and started fiddling with it. They had both went out in the wee hours of the morning to help out and immediately after finis.h.i.+ng, they made a beeline for the airport. He hadn't had the time at all to look at his handphone.

Zhong Yibin pushed the person into his embrace, letting him lean more comfortably.

"It's that 'blind date so blind that I met Chu Qin'!" Hou Chuan saw the two lovey-dovey people in the rear-view mirror and couldn't help feeling his teeth ache; the entire country's citizens had been lied to by these two guys. Oh, it couldn't actually be considered lying - Chu Qin had never once denied it. In fact, he constantly poured oil onto the fire to no avail. The more open he was, the less likely people were to believe it.

While they were talking, Chu Qin scrolled to the topic.

This matter was caused by the post the daughter of the plump auntie from next door had sent to her Moments. It was unknown who cut out her post on Moments and posted it on Weibo. After that, someone exposed the girl from the blind date, Li Jiayi's Moments, and the internet instantly went into an uproar.

It was written as such on Li Jiayi's Moments:

[Was forced by family into going for a blind date and ended up meeting Chu Qin!] The accompanying pictures were made up of three shots - one photo was her own selfie, another one was a photo of her with Chu Qin, and the last shot was of Chu Qin with Zhong Yibin.

There were even conversations between other people and Li Jiayi at the bottom of her Moments.

[d.a.m.n, did it succeed?]

[Reply: Of course it didn't. He said he already has someone he likes. *Loud cries*]

[d.a.m.n, is that Zhong Yibin at the side?]

[Reply: En, hehehe!]

When this Weibo was posted, it immediately became the subject of envy of the fans in various regions. One after the other, they sighed with sorrow over their parents not recognizing celebrities. If it was this kind of blind date, they would go no matter what!

[Ah ah ah ah, I also want to go on a blind date with Qin Qin. Boo hoo!]

[Qin Qin already has someone he likes? My heart is breaking into pieces!]

[Isn't Director Zhong pa.s.sing the New Year at Chu Qin's hometown the main point?]

The moment this statement was made, everyone became silent before flooding the internet forum. Everyone once again dug out that thread that had incited controversy - the Moments posted by the plump auntie's daughter. The forwarded picture was slightly on the hazy side but the scene of the two youngsters carrying boxes and working could still be made out. Chu Qin's side view had appeared on camera whereas the height of the person next to him made it clear that it was Zhong Yibin.

Moreover, this Moments stated that Chu Qin had brought a friend along to help his mother open for business!

[These two even spent the New Year together. This is unreal!]

[Gasp, has Zhong Qin already met the parents?]

[Helping the mother-in-law do ch.o.r.es; Director Zhong appears to know the rules very well!]

The netizens had already gone into a frenzy and forwarded these two pieces of news wildly. They even left continuous requests for confirmation under Chu Qin and Zhong Yibin's Weibos. Some fans expressed hurt that Chu Qin actually said he had someone he liked but there were also people who were extremely optimistic and said that it was just a reason to fob the blind date off. Of course, there were also those who spoke the truth - that the supposed 'person he liked' was definitely Zhong Yibin.

Everyone treated these arguments as a laughing matter and even liked them. After all, many fans didn't like their idols to have girlfriends. Such a way of thinking could roughly be explained as the idol being out of reach - the mentality that 'if I can't touch him, then I hope that no other girl would be able to either'.

Chu Qin glanced through these online inferences and couldn't help pursing his lips in laughter. At this moment, his agent, Zhao Bo, called him. "Have you seen the hot topic online?"

"En," Chu Qin lazily made a sound of agreement.

"Ignore it, let them continue to make wild guesses. Their enthusiasm can still go higher," Zhao Bo directed Chu Qin according to their usual practice.

"No, I'm preparing to make a response," Chu Qin smiled and planted a kiss on Zhong Yibin's chin that had drifted over.

This issue was busily discussed by netizens for an entire day. After waiting for the next day when the hot topic was about to lose its momentum, Chu Qin used his handphone to post a screenshot summing up the most popular Moments post, saying, "Brought Zhong Yibin to meet my parents during the New Year. Dad and mum both like him a lot." He circled Zhong Yibin's head and even added a crafty dog expression.

Immediately, everyone became impa.s.sioned once again.

[Ah ah ah ah, the higher up sent out such a large chunk of candy. I'm going downstairs to run three rounds!]

[As expected, they went to see the parents who are in their remaining years!]

[Hahahaha, they act like it's real, so I'll believe it!]

People evidently didn't believe that this was coming out of the closet and even a.s.sumed that Chu Qin was making a joke. Him admitting it so openly conversely led people in the opposite direction. The comments were filled with all sorts of humorous teasing and everyone raced over to Zhong Yibin's Weibo to express their congratulations.

[Er Bing biscuit wasn't beaten by father-in-law?]

[Director biscuit risked quite a lot to curry favor with mother-in-law.]

[Er Bing, did your big brother know that you ran off to see the parents?]

Everyone became a sightseeing group - first, they went to Chu Qin's Weibo to laugh, then they went to Zhong Yibin's Weibo to offer their congratulations and lastly, they went to Shengs.h.i.+ Entertainment's official Weibo to post 'you all are going to have a lady boss'; they played extremely hard. Feeling that this was still not satisfying enough, they wanted to imprint their existences on the Weibo account of the Zhong family's big brother. However, Zhong Jiabin was an orthodox director and didn't use Weibo for fun. Everyone simultaneously felt that it was rather lonely and one by one, ran over to Mu Chen's Weibo to enquire when he would bring Qiao Su to see his parents.

Film Emperor Mu, who had been shot while lying down, was very confused.

Other television stations' hosts also returned to work on this day. Seeing the liveliness on the internet, they all sighed. First on the hot search list was 'Zhong Qin met the parents', second was 'blind date so blind that I met Chu Qin', and third was 'Zhong Qin'. Chu Qin on his own occupied the first three spots on the list of hot searches. A single host was able to become the topic of more discussions than celebrities - no one could surpa.s.s him.

"Only knowing how to hype," A popular television host from Three Petals station disdained. He had always felt that his talent was not the least bit inferior to Chu Qin's. But no matter what he did, he was unable to surpa.s.s Chu Qin within the country's wide range of performing arts.

"The other party didn't rely on promotion. I heard the Golden Jubilee Awards invited him to host this year's awards ceremony," His colleague couldn't put up with his arrogant and self-important manner any longer and couldn't resist making another jab at him.

This mouth immediately kept silent. The Golden Jubilee Awards was Asia's largest film ceremony. Being invited as the host was sufficient to prove Chu Qin's abilities. If the ceremony ended on a satisfactory note, within this short time, n.o.body in mainland China would surpa.s.s Chu Qin in this aspect. His position as 'First Brother of the Performing Arts' would be unshakable.

This sort of lively hot topic naturally didn't escape the discerning eye of Mother Zhong, who enjoyed watching dramas and scrolling through Weibo. Seeing that her son was helping Chu Qin's mother to do ch.o.r.es, she was somewhat dissatisfied.

"Isn't it very normal to help your mother-in-law do ch.o.r.es? That was even what you told him," Father Zhong didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"He did it for real just because I let him do so? Just doing it for the sake of doing so is enough," Mother Zhong's heart ached terribly. "Yibin hasn't even moved a stool at home, yet now he actually went to s.h.i.+ft boxes."

Her words had just fallen from her lips when Zhong Yibin's car entered the courtyard.

When they left the Chu family, Mother and Father Chu had given them a pile of local specialties. The two of them couldn't finish it so Chu Qin let him bring a large portion of it home.

"Oh, I heard the hotpot base there is delicious," Mother Zhong rummaged through several packets of hotpot soup base and was a little happy. She couldn't resist glancing in the direction of the car. After confirming that there was no one inside did she give up. "Where's Chu Qin?"

"Recording at the station," Zhong Yibin gave the things in the car to the housekeeper and prepared to drive off.

"This child, at least eat a meal before leaving when you come home!" Mother Zhong instantly held him back.

"Aiya, it's been very busy these past two days. I don't have the time to eat," Zhong Yibin waved a hand and moved to get onto the car.

"You have to come back on the fifteenth of the first month of the Lunar New Year," Mother Zhong refused to let go of her son.

Zhong Yibin frowned. That was the day he had arranged to see fireworks with Chu Qin. He didn't want to leave Chu Qin in the apartment to spend the Lantern Festival all on his own.

Mother Zhong saw that he wasn't responding and made a 'hmph' sound. "Bring Chu Qin too. Both of you even went to see his parents, why didn't you come to see us?"

Zhong Yibin was stunned for a moment. He pursed his lips. "Then let's come to an agreement - you're not allowed to throw checks at his face."

"Aiya, I know!" Mother Zhong's face simultaneously reddened and she entered the house in a huff.

Chu Qin immediately grew tense after knowing that Mother Zhong invited him to the Zhong family on the Fifteenth. This was truly in line with what Zhong Yibin had said - 'avoiding the first day but not avoiding the fifteenth'. This was even better - he didn't manage to avoid both the first and fifteenth day.

As for the present to bring to the Zhong family, Chu Qin felt somewhat embarra.s.sed. He had always been someone who liked to give presents but gifts to elders required some caution. After consulting Lin Xiaoxiao, he bought Mother Zhong a Hermes bag in the latest fas.h.i.+on and Zhong elder brother a limited-edition platinum-gold felt-tip pen. As for Father Zhong, he ran into some difficulty.

For Father Zhong who lacked nothing, he truly didn't know what to gift. After racking his brains for a long time, Chu Qin decided to give the 'experienced' Song Xiao a call.

Song Xiao had long since met Yu Tang's parents and had quite a wealth of experience when it came to buying things for elders.

"Hmm, the first official visit…" Song Xiao was also a little hesitant on the other end. "I was only in senior high school the first time I went to his house and was ignorant, so I just bought a set of chinaware."

Chu Qin, "…" It looked like visiting the parents earlier had its advantages - buying gifts could be done casually.

"Why not gift something antique. I have two first-rate larderite stones here. Before the New Year, I got someone to carve them for decoration. You can come and take one," Song Xiao had researched ancient things quite a bit and had quite a few good items.

Chu Qin instantly nodded and went to Song Xiao's house on the day itself. The larderite decoration was very expensive. Song Xiao offering it to him to resolve his emergency was already too generous.

"Despite its tiny size, its purity is quite high. Just giving a hundred thousand is fine," The stingy director Song stated bluntly.

The corner of Chu Qin's mouth twitched. He wanted to take back his previous words.

The author has something to say:

Small theater:

Qin Qin: You're too generous, such an expensive thing for my emergency

Xiao Xiao: Don't put it that way, you paid for it

Qin Qin: I should still thank you, you must have sold it at cost price

Xiao Xiao: Nope, I even earned twenty thousand

Qin Qin: ……

Translator's corner: Song Xiao is hilarious lol