Chapter 39: The Beginning of the Scandal

Words : 1311 Updated : Sep 10th, 2025

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: The Beginning of the ScandalEditor: Atlas Studios The two had lunch together. Zhou Yun contacted Zhou Lan, put her hat and sunglasses back on, and prepared to leave. "I’m going first," Zhou Yun told Song Chi. "You should leave a little later." Song Chi nodded. Zhou Yun walked to the private room’s door, suddenly thought of something, stopped, but did not turn around, and said, "Anyway, I got the better end of the deal this time, thank you." Having said that, Zhou Yun opened the door and walked out. Song Chi experienced a momentary daze, then smiled. He looked down at the selfie he just took on his phone, both he and Zhou Yun were beaming in the camera, but not intimate, it was a very common, and frequently seen, type of group photo. However, Song Chi felt that the man and woman who appeared together in the photo were quite a match. He suddenly didn’t want to post it on social media. Actually, he could still post on social media, but he decided to keep this group photo to himself, no need to show it to others. Song Chi logged into his Weibo account, edited for quite a while, and finally posted the update. Ten minutes after Zhou Yun left, Song Chi stood up and prepared to leave. Song Chi left via the back door of the restaurant, without attracting anyone’s attention. His car was parked right outside the back door of the restaurant; he got in and drove away. "Quick, follow him!" Next to where Song Chi parked, inside a white van, Lin Xiaomiao immediately shouted. She was an entertainment journalist, and had been tracking Song Chi for a long time. Her attempt to impersonate a staff member and barge into Zhou Yun’s dressing room last time was also to check whether there was anything going on between Song Chi and her. She followed Song Chi to Hainan, and after constant paparazzi work, had finally found a private trip. When she saw Zhou Yun appeared too, her radar went off instantly. "Who would have thought that Song Chi really has something going on with Zhou Yun!" another young girl in the team said excitedly, hitting her thigh, "This pair of shameless man and woman even pretended to release official denials earlier!" Lin Xiaomiao said, "Keep up, once we get concrete evidence, we can blow this wide open!" "Finally, some progress. We’ve been following Song Chi for almost three months; I’m about to die of exhaustion." "Hold on a bit longer, once we wrap this up with Song Chi, we can take a vacation," Lin Xiaomiao said, "The boss made a promise, if we get substantive evidence, setting aside everything else, each person would get a bonus of at least 200,000." The driver, Old Huang, whistled. For people like them who worked hard outside every day, real money was the only thing that mattered. At this moment, Lin Xiaomiao’s phone suddenly popped up with a notification. It was a real-time news alert from a search engine app: Song Chi reaffirms his single status! Lin Xiaomiao sneered, taking it as just Song Chi’s team managing the narrative to steady the fans’ hearts. She clicked in to check, but the content made her stunned. Song Chi had posted on Weibo ten minutes ago, but she hadn’t noticed in time because she was monitoring his car. Song Chi’s Weibo post: I came to Hainan for a shoot and coincidentally ran into Zhou Yun, who was recently trending with me. We had lunch together and finally met in person, a friend made through a bizarre trending topic. Nice to formally meet you, @Zhou Yun, hello friend, I’m the currently single Song Chi, the same Song Chi who was rumored to be dating you a few days ago. Lin Xiaomiao’s mind buzzed. Well, that rendered the whole Hainan trip useless. Lin Xiaomiao’s face soured. "Sister Xiaomiao, what’s wrong?" He Shuang asked. Lin Xiaomiao handed her the phone. He Shuang saw the information on the screen, frowned, and asked, "Did Song Chi sense that we were onto him? Did he post this Weibo on purpose?" "I don’t know, but his post has rendered all of today’s footage meaningless," Lin Xiaomiao said gravely, "He’s too cunning." "Old Huang, stop following, let’s go back," Lin Xiaomiao said. "Are we not following anymore?" Old Huang asked. "He has no more activities this afternoon and will go straight back to Shanghai; there’s no need to follow," Lin Xiaomiao replied. Lin Xiaomiao frowned as she looked at the scenery flashing by outside the window, her spirits plummeting. Ever since they received an anonymous letter three months ago, claiming that Song Chi had been involved with a woman for a long time and they should investigate, they had set their eyes on Song Chi. For the past three months, they had been following Song Chi’s schedule, but they never captured anything decisive. The photos of Song Chi and Zhou Yun entering the same hotel late at night were not released by them. In her line of work, Lin Xiaomiao valued basic credibility; she never released false information without solid evidence, sticking to mere speculation. But whether she released news or not was one thing; whether she cared was another. Lin Xiaomiao started paying attention to the Zhou Yun lead because after that branding event, Song Chi and Zhou Yun weren’t trending with the scandalous news for a few days before they attended the same event. Aren’t they avoiding suspicion at all? Lin Xiaomiao had a hunch there was an issue, so she continued to follow. All the way to Hainan, she knew the schedules of the two overlapped, and it always felt like there was something off about them. She didn’t expect to actually catch something. Until just now, when Song Chi’s Weibo post came like a bucket of cold water, leaving her utterly chilled. ... After picking up Zhou Yun, Zhou Lan didn’t go back to the hotel, heading straight to the airport. "What did you two do when you met?" Zhou Lan asked. Feeling helpless, Zhou Yun said, "Ate a meal, what else could we do?" Zhou Lan still looked excited and asked, "Did you see the Weibo post by Song Chi?" Zhou Yun shook her head, "What did he post? Our group photo? He said he wanted to post a Weibo to avoid any trouble if we were photographed together eating, they would say we’re dating." Zhou Lan did not speak, just looked at Zhou Yun with a strange expression. "Why are you staring at me like that?" Zhou Yun asked confusedly. Zhou Lan said, "Maybe you should check Weibo yourself." Hearing Zhou Lan’s comment, Zhou Yun’s heart instantly skipped a beat. Why does it sound like there’s a new problem? Zhou Yun quickly opened Weibo and everything went dark upon reading Song Chi’s post. "..." Zhou Lan said, "Let me tell you, Song Chi has been in the industry for so long, he’s been rumored with not ten but at least eight female artists, and you are the only one who has interacted with him on Weibo after the rumors, interaction aside, he even labeled himself as single while interacting with you, it’s hard for people not to think too much into it, anyhow there are quite a few people who are now saying Song Chi is subtly expressing his interest in you." Zhou Yun: "Heh, he’s crazy, and they are crazy too." Zhou Lan asked, "Are you really not the slightest bit interested in Song Chi?" Zhou Yun was silent for a long time, turned to look out the window, and softly said, "Sister Lan, I don’t have the privilege to be in a relationship now." Hearing Zhou Yun say this, Zhou Lan also became silent. "Xiao Yun, that incident wasn’t your fault."

Chapter 39: The Beginning of the Scandal

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