Chapter 12: Qingyuan’s Public Image Has Collapsed

After leafing through Zhao Qingyuan's Weibo, Yu Qinghuan replied with a simple ellipsis. Thanks to Zhao Qingyuan, Yu Qinghuan's empty Weibo account had hundreds of thousands followers now. And this new update immediately received tons of messages from those wide-eyed enthusiastic followers.

[Wow! A new update finally! Even though there's only an ellipsis.]

[Hahaha! Qinghuan is so chilled. Qingyuan should've been stamping his feet in anger.]

[Good, dude, you have successfully attracted my attention.]

[I'm wondering what kind of person this Qinghuan is.]

…

While those netizens were gossiping under Yu Qinghuan's new update, the blogger who had ever posted Yu Qinghuan's photo suddenly renewed his update–

San San Niang's Sailor Suit: [Oh! This Yu Qinghuan and a senior of mine are as like as two peas, including their styles. So I pinched it out that maybe…]

Having been on the hot search on Weibo a few days, this dude was under the spotlight. His new updates immediately bombed the whole Weibo.

[So this Yu Qinghuan is that school uniform cute boy from Hua University?]

[Oh my god! I didn't recognize him! I'm gonna follow him now!]

[My dreamy husband is so cute but keeps in a low profile. Why not use a photo of his own as the avatar? Why the heck does he use a blank picture?]

[Ah! I am a huge of Qingyuan! I am so jealous of him. I also want Qinghuan to set auto-responder for me.]

[Wake up. It's late night now. Don't daydream here.]

…

Because this new updates, those gossiping netizens immediately confirmed Yu Qinghuan's identity. Soon a lot of Yu Qinghuan's schoolmates had exposed his transcripts and all prizes he had won in school which aroused a huge wave.

In Hua University ranking the first place through the whole country, he had taken the first place in all the finals during the four years. And every time he could have won the National Scholarship. Besides, the trophies he had won in all kinds of competitions were as many as hell! Is he an alien?

Those gossiping citizens showed unprecedented interest in Yu Qinghuan. Only one afternoon, his followers had reached one million, comparable to an online celebrity.

Yu Qinghuan got slack-jawed. Now he was letting his character setting develop to the most boring side. He didn't post any photos on it. Why were there so many followers? This was insane!

Qinghuan threw his phone on the bed. He was hoping this was only a moment's thing. They were just curious about him. They may unfollow him after a few days.

Suddenly a burst of vibration interrupted his thoughts. He took up his phone. It was Zhao Qingyuan as expected. He knew he couldn't hold it that long.

"Yu Qinghuan!" Zhao Qingyuan's growl was heard on the other end, "You finally picked up my phone!"

"Didn't you just call me once?" said Yu Qinghuan blandly. He then turned on the TV, which happened to be broadcasting an interview ofZhao Qingyuan.

Among a bunch of excited and screaming fans, Zhao Qingyuan's emotionless face seemed quite attention-getting. Those who didn't know him in person would really think he was really normcore.

"That's not the point." Zhao Qingyuan got choked by his words, but still questioned him, "Why do you play me?" You agreed to gossip and hang out with me? You said we are friends. You liar!

After a moment's silence, Yu Qinghuan said, "I didn't expect you have found it out till now." If someone had been replying you with the same content, including the punctuations, as a normal person, shouldn't he have found it out after a few sentences?

How dumb could Zhao Qingyuan be to chat with his auto-responder the whole afternoon!

Zhao Qinghuan, "…"

He knew Yu Qinghuan detested him and be sarcastic, saying he is dumb, foolish or what. Of course he could sense it!

But he had no guts to bicker with Yu Qinghuan, so he could only play rogue, "It is your fault anyway. You made me humiliated before all my followers on Weibo. They even said my public image has totally collapsed. You owe me! You have to apologize!"

Yu Qinghuan, "…"

Yu Qinghuan, "That's because you posted the screenshot on your Weibo."

Zhao Qingyuan, "!!!"

It seems quite reasonable…Wait! That's not the point! The point is Qinghuan has to apologize to him!

"Anyway, you are the initiator of all this!"

"All right. In what way you want to me to apologize? Treat you to dinner?" For Zhao Qingyuan whose IQ only equaled to a five years old kid, Yu Qinghuan surrendered.

"There's a long line of people wanting to treat me to dinner." Zhao Qingyuan snorted. He rolled his eyes and immediately came up with a plan, "You have to cook for me yourself."

As a standard affluent second generation, as far as Zhao Qingyuan could recall, few people in this world knew how to cook. So he thought this would be a super challenge for Yu Qinghuan.

"No problem." Yu Qinghuan agreed without any hesitation, which stunned Zhao Qingyuan, "Let me tell you. You can't buy any from outside. No helping hand. All by yourself!"

"I know." Yu Qinghuan turned on the warmer. He then asked while warming his hands, "What would you like to eat? What about baked ribs?" One of Yu Qinghuan's biggest hobbies was cooking.

Maybe because his parents had died young. Although those folks had given their greatest care to him, he still lacked the sense of security. Only by stuffing the empty fridge with a kinds of ingredients and make delicacies with them could fill the hole in his heart and make him have a sense of security.

He had great gift in cooking. Pity that he had made few friends in his precious life, plus he had to keep fit, so his superb cooking skills had been totally wasted.

Honestly speaking, he felt a little happy about Zhao Qingyuan's demand. After all, finally someone could enjoy the dishes he personally made. That was a joyful thing.

"That's…that's great!" Zhao Qingyuan swallowed some saliva. He had been on diet for the movie The Line of Life and Death. He was already drooling on hearing the words baked ribes, let alone the taste of it.

"Then I'll see you at the filming site." After saying that, Yu Qinghuan was about to hang up, but Zhao Qingyuan stopped him, "Wait! When are you arriving? I can pick you up at the entrance."

Pick him up? He is picking up the bakes ribs. But Yu Qinghuan didn't puncture his lie, "About 8."

"OK. See you tomorrow."

A few days ago, Yu Qinghuan had already stuffed his fridge. So he didn't have to buy the ingredients. This was the first time he would cook after his reincarnation, so he felt extra excited.

Cut the quality ribs into pieces of the same size, pickled with the seasoning, then put them into the oven to bake, then make barbecue sauce with honey, lemon juice, soy sauce and cooking wine, when the ribs start to spit in the oven, brush sauce on the surface, turn them over and keep baking.

In his small but neat kitchen, the warm light radiated from the oven reflected on Yu Qinghuan's delicate face, making a harmonious scene.

The moment he opened the oven, the fragrance special to the barbecue immediately filled the whole kitchen. The ribs were baked just right, plump and juicy, ruddy and tempting. Only by watching it would already make one drooling.

The only imperfect thing was he had made too much.

But there should be a lot of people there. Zhao Qingyuan could share with others. So seen from this point, this amount was OK.

Yu Qinghuan got a MKM and put the ribs in it in apple-pie order and took it to the filming site early the next morning.

Yu Xin was still in Peach Village. He may not have come to an arrangement with those people. So Yu Qinghuan had to go to the filming site alone. Compared with other casts accompanied by a bunch of retinues, he was like a pauper who broke into brownstone district accidentally. What a scene!

Zhao Qingyuan, who had been waiting at entrance early in the morning, saw Yu Qinghuan the moment he appeared. He didn't know why. He meant to ask about the bakes ribs in the first place. But when the words came out of his mouth, it turned into, "Why do you come alone? Where is your agent? This is your first play anyway. Why no one sent you?"

Is it possible he got excluded in the company?

On thinking of that, Zhao Qingyuan's expression immediately became unfriendly.

Having seen through what he was thinking, Yu Qinghuan felt a stream of warmth in his heart. After handing the MKM to him, they walked inside together, "My agent has gone somewhere else to do something for me."

"I knew it. You wouldn't be that pathetic." Zhao Qingyuan smiled while putting his hand on Yu Qinghuan's shoulder, then paced up, "Come on. Hurry up. I told them to bring me a microwave."

Yu Qinghuan pursed his lips. He even bought a microwave for a meal of bakes ribs? That was the way how rich people acted.

Now was the coldest time of the year. Though the ribs in the lunch box were not frozen, Yu Qinghuan took too many of them, he was afraid they might not be fully heated, so he set it to eight minutes. But Zhao Qingyuan was a short fuse. When it was only five minutes, he couldn't wait any longer and opened the microwave and took out the ribs.

A thick fragrance was immediately smelled, making Zhao Qingyuan drooling. He put one into his mouth with two of his fingers.

The delicious taste special to barbecue exploded on his tongue, and then spread to the whole mouth. His mouth got burnt, but Zhao Qinghuan still wouldn't spit it out. Before he finished the first one, he already stretched out his hand for the second one, meanwhile he gave Yu Qinghuan a thumbs-up with the other hand, "Hiss…It's…it's goddamn yummy!"

"What smells so good?" A rough voice was heard from behind suddenly. Liu Jia'an followed the scent and came to them. On seeing the lunch box in Zhao Qingyuan's hand, his eyes shone, "Where do you get the ribs? Come on. Give me some!"

Their shooting site was in a desolate area. One could barely see a bird nearby, let alone a restaurant! Liu Jia'an had lost a lot of weight recently. Now on seeing meat, his image? Already gone with the meat! He sprinted to Zhao Qingyuan and snatched the lunch box from him.

Zhao Qingyuan nearly cried with tears in his eyes, "Qinghuan made them for me!"

"Don't be so stingy. You can ask him to cook for you next time." With a dodge, Liu Jia'an escaped away from Zhao Qingyuan's hand, and immediately stuffed two ribs into his mouth at the same time.

"Enough! Enough!" Zhao Qingyuan's heart was bleeding. When he was about to grab it back, a crowd of people ran here like the wolves seeing a small animal.

"What are you eating, Liu? Come on. Give me some!"

"Ribs! Ribs! Come on. You can't havethem to yourself!"

"Smells so good! I smelt it already there! Come on. Give me one."

…

The counselor, scriptwriter, the producer…all surged forward like a bunch of ravenous wolves. When Zhao Qingyuan came to his sense, the lunch box was already emptied.

Looking at the empty lunch box, Zhao Qingyuan scanned around those people who grabbed the food from him with his resentful eyes. Now those people realized that they had snatched food from the best actor winner.

They immediately ran away, leaving Zhao Qingyuan alone looking at the empty lunch box .

Looking at his puppy eyes, Yu Qinghuan's heart immediately softened. When he was about to move to him and tell him that he could cook for him next time, someone grasped his hand from behind. He turned around and saw a whisker old man was staring at him like a wolf staring at a small animal, "Are you Yu Qinghuan? You make two meals for me and I will write a exclusive script with you as the male lead, what do you say?"

That was the legendary scriptwriter Zeng Peirong, who was hard boned, the most quirky, and never wrote scripts for celebrities no matter how much they paid him.

Yu Qinghuan, "…"

Only two meals in exchange for a script Zeng Peirong personally wrote for him as the male lead? This must be a dream!