Chapter 65#

“Devoted” Movie King (19)#

He Xiao absolutely couldn’t believe his eyes. He told himself that this must be Kong Si doing publicity stunts—wasn’t it common for many artists? Strange keywords would trend, and upon clicking in, it would turn out to be an advertisement.

Or maybe it was a TV drama, or an investor-bought trending topic. In this case, it should be Kong Si starring in some drama and marrying a female co-star in the plot.

With that thought, he clicked into the trending topic.

But at the very top, there was no familiar large banner-like page he knew.

It wasn’t a press release for any drama, nor an advertisement for a brand Kong Si endorsed.

Feeling uneasy, he clicked into Kong Si’s Weibo.

Under the authenticated orange V account of artist Yu Si, a marriage certificate and two intertwined hands were posted.

The photo on the certificate had been pixed out, but below it clearly said: Kong Si, Lu Yi. The date on the certificate was blurred with a mosaic.

But many knew that actor Yu Si’s real name before debut was Kong Si.

He Xiao thought, the marriage certificate was quite carefully edited, deliberately changing Kong Si’s name to his real name.

Besides these two images, Kong Si added text: “Let me introduce my legal husband, Lu Yi @Xingchen Media Lu Yi.”

Kong Si’s Weibo was flooded with stunned fans, unable to believe their idol was married.

This must be a scheme by Xingchen Media to hype up their artist, most thought, and then followed the account Kong Si had tagged to Lu Yi’s Weibo.

Although he was the chairman of Xingchen Media, Lu Yi hadn’t even had the company’s official account promote his registration. He didn’t use social media much; he registered mainly to check on Kong Si’s updates.

After Kong Si tagged him, everyone saw that Lu Yi’s verification was “Chairman of Xingchen Media,” and they were immediately shocked.

Kong Si’s fans had a high opinion of Xingchen Media because their artist had been heavily promoted since joining the company, never suffering any losses.

Of course, in return, their artist worked hard and was ambitious, often helping junior colleagues in the same company, both male and female, with a very proper attitude, never engaging in any ambiguous behavior.

Kong Si had starred in several dramas, all of which were serious or male-centered with little romance. Especially recently, Kong Si’s self-indulgent fan fiction was thriving, and fans never imagined he would be tied to another male artist.

But unexpectedly, after not posting for days, he dropped this bombshell on them.

Fans flooded Kong Si’s Weibo comments, demanding a response from the real person.

Lu Yi’s account was registered about two years ago, completely clean, with only one tweet—the default automatic forward from the first day of using Weibo.

He clearly couldn’t be bothered to delete it, so it stayed there.

That auto-forward post, which originally had no likes, instantly garnered tens of thousands of comments from agitated fans. The comment count grew rapidly; after a few minutes of browsing, a refresh showed an increase of ten thousand.

Netizens and fans seemed caught in a strange frenzy.

#YuSiMarried#

#KongSiLuYi#

#XingchenMedia#

These topics related to Kong Si rapidly rose in popularity, from red-hot to blazing red.

He Xiao’s agent called to ask, “What should we do? Should we join in the excitement and ride the wave?”

After thinking it over, He Xiao rejected Zhao Qian’s suggestion: “Wait and see—I don’t know what he’s up to.”

Hype requires both parties to be single. Or if he promoted fan fiction first and the other revealed later, that could also stir up sympathy and boost popularity.

But Kong Si didn’t post his boyfriend; he posted a legal spouse. In recent years, the entertainment industry had stricter requirements for artists. Besides drugs, crimes, and the like that would lead to a blacklist, if something caused a negative impact—like cheating—the artist would also be affected.

They wouldn’t be explicitly blacklisted, but in terms of resources, they’d almost be unable to get roles, and the company would gradually freeze them out.

Now it was March, but the date written was July. Though the year was blurred, it could be inferred that it happened at least by the end of last year.

At that time, he hadn’t started the rumored relationship with Kong Si.

Not to mention that his own hype wasn’t fully underway; even if it were, jumping in now would do no good.

Kong Si could be suspected of cheating, while he would definitely be called a third party. And from the person Kong Si tagged, the other was the chairman of Xingchen Media. Without solid evidence of cheating, spreading rumors could lead to major accounts being sued for defamation.

With Lu Yi backing him, Kong Si would still have no shortage of resources. But for He Xiao, if his reputation was ruined, the company would abandon him without hesitation.

He Xiao didn’t dare to bear the stigma of being a third party. No matter how much he envied this popularity, he wouldn’t easily try to ride it.

Now he had no mind to focus on anything else. He just kept refreshing Weibo, watching different fan reactions, thinking about whether to steer the narrative—accusing Kong Si of deceiving fans as an actor, or something.

Time passed unnoticed as he scrolled.

He glanced at the trending list and saw that the top real-time hot search on Weibo had changed to “YuSiMarriageCertificate.”

He clicked into actor Yu Si’s Weibo again and found that he had indeed posted a new tweet not long ago.

This time, it included a marriage certificate without any mosaic.

The two people in the photo had similar faces, almost like different versions of the same person. But upon closer inspection, the differences between left and right could be clearly distinguished.

The blurred marriage date was also revealed—it was three years ago, a year before Kong Si debuted as actor Yu Si.

He Xiao felt relieved for the first time that he hadn’t proactively hopped on this hype. Otherwise, since they had been married for three years, he would have been properly branded a third party.

Amid his relief, he suddenly remembered something. If Kong Si had been married from the start, why had he suddenly agreed when He Xiao made advances, only to cut him off? Had Kong Si discovered something?

Because He Xiao wasn’t a professional actor, his former college and high school classmates were mostly outsiders. After his popularity rose, he almost never contacted them. After searching for a while, he managed to find the phone number of his former class monitor from school days, got the contact list, and called everyone one by one to ask.

Sure enough, Kong Si had been wary of him since then.

From the responses of his old classmates, he discovered that Kong Si had indeed inquired about the chubby kid back then.

Realizing the truth, He Xiao felt an overwhelming anger.

But before he could get angry, he saw that his own name had somehow also trended.