Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  The creases on Uncle Hu’s face became more obvious as his smile widened. Little Tuan Tuan’s eyes reddened as he hung onto Lin Nuan.

  He was hugging Lin Nuan, his little forehead and Lin Nuan’s forehead pressed against each other, seemingly unwilling to part. What to do now that he loved Mama even more now?

  The morning sun was striking the spot where Lin Nuan’s and little Tuan Tuan’s foreheads were pressed against each other, the glorious golden rays outlining the pair’s side profile, smiling. The rays of the sun seemed to have penetrated their skin, giving their facial features a golden layer.

  A breeze swept by, and Lin Nuan’s stray hairs flew in the wind…


  Fu Huai’an shifted his vision away from his phone screen and saw this image when he looked up. The corners of his lips turned up slightly as he picked up his phone and captured this moment. Only then did he say, “That’s enough! Tuan Tuan, you need to go to kindergarten now!”


  Tuan Tuan turned his head, his arms still tightly held around Lin Nuan’s neck, staring at Fu Huai’an pitifully.

  Fu Huai’an removed the octopus-like Tuan Tuan from Lin Nuan, pulled open the back seat car door, stuffed Tuan Tuan inside, then mercilessly closed the door.

  Tuan Tuan was kneeling on the leathered back seat, his little hands spread out on the window, waving hard to Lin Nuan as he called out, “Mama!”


  Lin Nuan bent over and pressed her relatively bigger hand on the window, smiling at Tuan Tuan.

  “Sir, Madam, I’ll send Young Master to kindergarten now,” Uncle Hu said, beaming.

  With Fu Tianci still at Tianfu Bay, Auntie Li had to take care of him and couldn’t leave the house, so Uncle Hu had to send Tuan Tuan to school alone today.

  Fu Huai’an gave a courteous nod.

  Uncle Hu got into the car. When the engine started, Lin Nuan took a step back, and only after the car was gone did Lin Nuan get into the car with Fu Huai’an.

  In the car, Lin Nuan was the first to continue their unfinished conversation from the dining room that morning.

  “Huai’an, regarding what you said this morning, I’m not afraid to be criticized behind my back, but I’m worried you might become the subject of gossip.”


  Lin Nuan had suggested keeping their marriage a secret previously largely due to this reason.

  “Am I not the subject of gossip now? The Fus’ maternal grandson and illegitimate son vying over the Kaide Corporation, there’s plenty of nastier talk than this!” Fu Huai’an gripped Lin Nuan’s petite hand. “As you said, it’s my life, and it’s enough that I’m leading it well, what others say isn’t important to me. You can take some time to think about this, there’s got to be an explanation, and the sooner we can explain this, the better!”


  Lin Nuan was nervous for some reason, her back involuntarily straightening.

  Gazing at Fu Huai’an’s sexy face soaked in the sun’s golden rays, she saw his lips moving, his voice in the morning clean and pleasant-sounding. “Regarding this matter, you can hear what your manager, Fang Yan, has to say about it.”


  Managers were good at seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages.

  Lin Nuan nodded.

  Fu Tianci woke up shortly after Fu Huai’an and Lin Nuan left…


  He heard from Auntie Li that Lin Nuan had wanted to let him sleep a little later and said to only wake him up at 8:30 am.

  Fu Tianci’s mood wasn’t bad that morning after he woke up. He stirred the porridge in his bowl a little and shoveled a spoonful to his mouth. It didn’t taste too bad… it was just that when he was opening his mouth, the wound on his face tended to hurt a little, even more than it did last night.

  Fu Tianci bore with the pain as he finished the porridge, but he didn’t feel like eating much else. He couldn’t care about the wound on his face as he dashed out and hailed a car to rush to the broadcast station building.

  …


  By the time she got out of Fu Huai’an’s car, Lin Nuan had already properly put on her mask and cap.

  She had given Fang Yan a call, but the latter had yet to arrive, so she asked Lin Nuan to wait for her at the relatively more secluded cafe opposite the building’s north gate.

  Today, a bunch of reporters had camped at the entrance of the station building for Fu Tianci, whereas another group of reporters had gone to “The Exorcist’s” shoot to try to get hold of Lin Nuan. There was no doubt they were there to find out about the stepmom incident that had blown up on Weibo.

  There were already background checks done on Lu Tianyu, but for some reason, they could only manage to find out that Lu Tianyu used to be an exemplary student. They weren’t able to dig up any more news about him. It was as if Lu Tianyu had vanished into thin air after that.

  Regarding Fu Tianci’s identity, Fu Huai’an got people to hold it down. Fu Qingquan had the same intentions, and Secretary Song had always been swift and capable, so he had started taking action yesterday night. Thus, as of now, there was no news on the Internet about Fu Tianci’s true identity.

  Fu Tianci already knew he had gotten into trouble on the way to the station building. The program crew had called him up since the matter implicated a show host of their tv station; the people at Haicheng TV station tended to shield one of their own. He was asked not to delete the Weibo post, for it would certainly make matters worse if he were to do so.

  The program crew also told Fu Tianci to enter from the relatively more secluded north gate, and they would send someone to pick him up downstairs, in case he got accosted by the reporters who were waiting at the south gate!

  Lastly, they reminded Fu Tianci that if he really got caught by the reporters not to say anything and not to be reckless. He was only to say that it was a misunderstanding and that he would explain things soon.

  Fu Tianci hung up the call, his heart thumping, wondering if he had brought trouble upon Lin Nuan.

  He opened his Weibo app and saw the number of retweets on his Weibo post, as well as the insults and heckling towards Lin Nuan. He felt miserable reading everything.

  He had been reckless in sending out that Weibo post…


  Would Lin Nuan hate him from now on?

  Also, would Fu Huai’an hate him too?

  Fu Tianci felt incredibly guilty. If he had known earlier, he wouldn’t have posted such a picture. Who knew it would snowball into such a big fiasco?

  Thoroughly vexed and with nowhere to vent his feelings, Fu Tianci couldn’t resist silently cursing. “F*ck!”


  The driver took a glance in the rearview mirror and saw the wounded Fu Tianci sitting in the back. She could vaguely tell this young man was the participant on the talent contest whom her daughter adored, called Lu something!

  “Young man, are you that talent contest’s participant…”


  “No!” Fu Tianci was in a rotten mood, so his tone was unpleasant. “Focus on driving! Talk too much!”


  The cab driver was a good-tempered one and understood that kids his age tended to be in a rebellious phase, so she didn’t hold it against Fu Tianci. She pursed her lips and stopped talking as she continued driving, only thinking to herself that she had to tell her daughter not to regard someone like that as her idol, in case he led her astray.

  Fu Tianci was used to shouting at people and totally hadn’t considered that if this driver was a bad-tempered one, he would long have been thrown out of the car.

  When they got to the entrance of the station building, Fu Tianci handed a 100 yuan note to the driver, very generously telling her, “No need for change!”


  As he got out of the car, Fu Tianci saw the masked Lin Nuan in a cap carrying two cups of coffee and exiting from the north gate of the station building…


  Fu Tianci recalled the Weibo incident, and feeling uneasy, wanted to cross the road to tell Lin Nuan he hadn’t meant it. But before he could take another step, a staff member from the program crew had started jogging towards him with his phone in hand.

  “Let’s go… hurry, come inside with me. It’ll be troublesome if you get caught by the reporters!” The staff member grabbed the hand of Fu Tianci, who was lost in thought while staring at something across the road. He got a shock when he saw Fu Tianci’s face. “What happened to your face?”