Entertainment news always followed the latest trends. The hit broadcast of Bureau of Mysteries brought Ye Qiusuo back into the public eye, and any news about her naturally attracted the audience's attention.
It was quite a coincidence.
The person who snapped the photos of Ye Qiusuo and Lu Minglang was an up-and-coming paparazzo. He had just staked out and captured photos of an A-list celebrity's extramarital affair, and he had come to this restaurant today because the other party wanted to pay to buy his silence. After receiving the money, the paparazzo didn't leave. The meal had already been paid for, so it would be a shame not to eat it.
As a result, he witnessed this scene. He immediately picked up his camera, snapped a few shots, and slipped out before anyone noticed. He then turned around and sent these photos to various marketing account companies, earning himself another sum of money.
The marketing accounts were just worrying about the lack of interesting news lately. Upon receiving the photos, they couldn't wait to post them to hit their KPIs.
Professor Ye Dining with a Man Late at Night
It immediately skyrocketed up the trending topics list.
Wan Yurou was originally looking at her own trending topic, but when she backed out to look, Ye Qiusuo's trending topic was suddenly ahead of hers.
"What kind of news is this to deserve being on the trending list? She's just an ordinary person," Wan Yurou thought resentfully.
Clicking into it, she couldn't help but freeze. The person sitting opposite Ye Qiusuo was Lu Minglang.
This was someone she couldn't even curry favor with, no matter how hard she tried.
She wasn't the only one who recognized him. As the topic climbed higher on the trending list and more people saw it, others also recognized who Lu Minglang was.
[The person sitting opposite her looks a bit familiar.]
[He's so handsome! Is he a new celebrity?]
[He's not a celebrity, he's the head of the Lu Group. Didn't he attend the Tianqiu Technology press conference a while ago? He was sitting right next to Professor Ye.]
[Tsk tsk, a candlelight dinner, and he even specifically went to support her at the press conference, so...]
[Are they a couple? Then is the Xie-Ye ship... going to sink?]
[It's just a meal, I don't believe it!]
[It doesn't really feel like a romantic relationship; it looks more like a business discussion between two equally matched opponents.]
...
Regardless, the photos of Ye Qiusuo and Lu Minglang were already circulating wildly on the internet.
Lu Minglang's side found out quickly enough, and someone asked him if he wanted to suppress the news.
Lu Minglang raised an eyebrow: "We did indeed have a meal together."
As for Professor Ye, she didn't have time to check Weibo; she went straight to work as soon as she had a free moment.
...
"What's wrong?" When Xie Xi woke up, he found Zhang Dong looking extremely solemn.
"Brother Xi, there's something you should know, but please don't be too sad," Zhang Dong let out a long sigh, speaking with some hesitation.
"What is it?" Xie Xi pulled out a chair, getting ready to eat breakfast.
Zhang Dong looked up at the ceiling and mumbled something vaguely and extremely fast: "!"
Xie Xi, biting into a piece of toast spread with strawberry jam, turned his head: "Speak clearly."
"...Professor Ye has a boyfriend."
"..." Xie Xi hadn't even finished biting off his mouthful of toast. He stared at Zhang Dong, suddenly freezing in place.
Zhang Dong: "It seems like it, haha... It's not confirmed yet, Brother Xi. This is definitely a rumor."
Xie Xi slowly placed the toast back onto his plate: "Where did you hear this?"
"Just, late last night, this suddenly popped up on the Weibo trending list, and it's still up there now," Zhang Dong muttered.
Big Star Xie felt his heart almost stop. With a stiff hand, he reached for his phone and opened Weibo. Sure enough, it was still hanging on the trending list.
Clicking on the hashtag, several photos popped up all at once. They were all pictures of Ye Qiusuo and Lu Minglang.
Smack—
Xie Xi slammed the phone face down on the table: "It's just eating a meal together."
Zhang Dong remained unusually quiet beside him, even feeling a bit like sneaking away.
After a while, Xie Xi abandoned his breakfast and went upstairs with his phone. He tried hard to calm his emotions, opened Weibo once more, and stared at those photos.
Although they had no other intimate gestures besides clinking glasses, she had smiled at Lu Minglang.
Big Star Xie felt a bit jealous.
When he saw the numerous comments below saying how well the two matched, his heart grew even more jealous.
What was so great about Lu Minglang? He definitely couldn't sing as well as him, and... Xie Xi felt that he was taller than Lu Minglang, and better-looking too.
Xie Xi looked at the photo of them smiling and clinking glasses once again. Could they really... have some kind of relationship?
Just as Xie Xi was still pondering, Mother Xie called.
"Mom?"
"Xixi, I saw the photos of Professor Ye and the eldest Lu son on Weibo. I see netizens are all saying they're together."
"...They were just having a meal together, it shouldn't be anything." Xie Xi tried to hypnotize himself.
"That's good. I was wondering how the eldest Lu son could be with Professor Ye while simultaneously going on blind dates." Mother Xie patted her chest, having almost thought her son's first secret crush had ended in failure.
"Blind dates?"
"They've been preparing for a marriage of convenience recently and have looked at several families. Your dad and I reckon it's the lady from the Wang family."
"Mom, I have something to do, I'll hang up first." Xie Xi immediately got up and went downstairs. He had a copy of Ye Qiusuo's work schedule in his hands, which he had beaten around the bush to get at the show's recording site that day.
"Brother Xi, where are you going? Do you want me to drop you off?" Zhang Dong shouted from behind.
Xie Xi grabbed his hat and mask: "No need."
Today, Ye Qiusuo should be teaching at the university.
Xie Xi drove all the way to the university, familiarly parking his car in front of the office building. Wearing his mask and hat, he walked to the side door.
The door was closed.
Xie Xi looked down and took out his phone. After hesitating for a moment, he still sent a message to Ye Qiusuo, saying he was at the side door of the office building.
He hadn't even thought of an excuse for looking for her yet when a message came back from the other side.
[I'll come down to get you.]
Xie Xi froze for a second, then took off his mask and used the screen to check if his face was clean and if his collar was too messy.
"What's wrong?" Ye Qiusuo had been at the university for an hour, preparing her lessons.
Xie Xi's eyes darted around; he wanted to talk bad about Lu Minglang.
"Let's go to my office first." Ye Qiusuo held the door open, letting him go up.
The office building was the territory of professors. Especially early in the morning, it was very quiet, with hardly anyone in the corridors.
Ye Qiusuo had pulled all-nighters for several days, and there were actually faint dark circles under her eyes. She had drunk two cups of coffee in a row early in the morning and was now sitting in her office preparing to teach her students.
Xie Xi followed behind her. Getting a little closer, he could smell the aroma of coffee on her.
Suddenly, he didn't want to say anything at all.
"Don't you usually wake up at nine or ten?" Ye Qiusuo closed the office door, turning her head and asking casually.
It was currently eight-twenty.
Xie Xi looked at Ye Qiusuo, taken aback: "How did you know?"
Ye Qiusuo unplugged the USB drive she had just finished downloading files to and looked up: "Didn't you wake up around that time on the reality show before?"
"!"
Xie Xi suddenly felt a bit happy: "You watched my show?"
Ye Qiusuo was so busy, Xie Xi completely didn't expect her to watch this kind of variety show, and his show at that!
"Mhm, it's quite interesting." Professor Ye said it casually, but it landed differently in Xie Xi's heart.
The jealousy he had accumulated all morning suddenly lessened just a little bit.
Big Star Xie sat reservedly opposite Professor Ye, pretending not to care as he said, "I might have a campus drama coming up, so I came over to get a feel for the atmosphere." As for what campus drama it was, who cares.
Ye Qiusuo placed the USB drive together with her lesson plans, then sat down, crossing her hands on the desk: "Is there anything I can help with?"
"Nothing much, I mainly just want to familiarize myself with the environment." Big Star Xie blurted out effortlessly.
"Mhm."
Xie Xi stole a glance at Ye Qiusuo, only to meet her gaze directly.
"...On my way here, I saw some marketing accounts on Weibo posting photos of you and Lu Minglang," Xie Xi said, feigning casualness. "Lu Minglang is obviously about to get married, yet those marketing accounts still want to use you for clout."
"Photos?" Ye Qiusuo raised an eyebrow. She took out her phone, opened Weibo, and sure enough, saw the pictures.
"Do you want me to have Sister Wei handle it for you?" Xie Xi asked tentatively.
"We must have been photographed last night when we were having dinner together," Ye Qiusuo said, looking at the photos on her screen. "We had a bit of a conflict over business."
As she spoke, she logged into her previously verified account and made her second ever Weibo post: "Normal business negotiations for the company. No other relationship."
"Professor..." When Xie Xi heard her mention having dinner together, he felt a twinge of jealousy, but upon hearing about the conflict, he cheered right back up. "I need to familiarize myself with the campus vibe. Can we have lunch together?"
Just then, the alarm clock on the desk went off. It was eight thirty.
"I need to head to class." Ye Qiusuo stood up, gathering her lesson plans and other materials.
Opposite her, Xie Xi stood up immediately as well.
Before leaving, Ye Qiusuo asked, "Familiarizing yourself with the campus environment, all by yourself?"
Xie Xi: "..." He panicked a little.
Ye Qiusuo turned to look at him and suddenly smiled. "I have plans for lunch today. I'll call you tonight when I'm free."
