?The atmosphere on the set the next day was different. Yating felt it as soon as he stepped in. He glanced across the staff, who were eyeing him with some meaningful gaze where he didn't understand what the meaning was. They were periodically looking into their phones and whispering something to each other.
Did something happen?
Yating tilted his head questioningly, wondering to himself.
Director Murong welcomed him with a happy grin and patted the seat beside him. "Just when I was thinking about you. We are about to start."
Yating took a cautious look around him once more and couldn't help but ask, "Is something the matter today?"
"I don't understand why is everybody gazing at me…a certain way? Something definitely feels different."
"Huh? Oh! Is this about the viral video?"
"Of you and Zhu Chyou."
Director Murong asked with interest, "Did you two go on dinner last night?"
Yating rapidly blinked his eyes. "...How do you know?"
Sharp and shock-laced gasps echoed throughout the set as soon as Yating admitted a yes. The discussions turned into something more furious and ferocious.
Director Murong took out his cell and swiped some left and right and up and down to show him the root cause of what was happening.
Yating saw the video of him and Chyou in the restaurant's garden last night where they were chasing each other.
'Okay, okay fine, I will delete the pictures!' Chyou pursed her lips heavily with dissatisfaction. 'You are no fun at all. Okay just one picture, pretty please?'
Chyou stared at Yating with her big, bright and pleading eyes to which he was averting his eyes. 'No. Delete all.'
'You have to let me keep one!' Chyou whined.
'I refuse for anybody to see me as a clown,' he smiled. 'So please delete or I can keep this game of tag going on forever.'
Yating obviously remembered as it had happened just last night, but what he didn't understand was who recorded this and why it was on social media.
"Couple of Chyou's fans were at the same restaurant as you two and they saw you two together, you know, having fun and all. You know Chyou's status very well. They didn't approach her but you can see the other result in front of you."
"Yeah well that's fine but what is the source of this frenzy?"
Yating scrolled to the end of the video and read the post which said,
'Oh my gosh, it's my favorite Queen in front of me!!! I am seeing her in the flesh! But wait…who is she with? Wait, wait, wait! Isn't he my Queen's savior!? Are they playing tag? The Queen is playing a game of tag with the Chief Editor, oh my gosh!'
Yating's brow twitched.
She has some talent in starting and ending her message with the same line, he thought.
He looked at Director Murong. "And? Of course, it's me in the video."
Director Murong smiled. "Yeah but you are not Cheng Yin."
It took half a second after which he came to a lightning fast realization with everything clicking together.
"Wait, don't tell me that people think…something is going on between us?"
Director Murong raised his brow. "I don't know about others but to me, as a director, I loved the chemistry between you two."
"There is no chemistry between us. It's just friendship." Read complete version only at NoveIＦire.net
"Hmmmmm welllllllll…doesn't look that way in the video."
He was dumbfounded. "This is nothing. Chyou was just taking some silly pictures of mine and I was asking her to delete them. She wasn't listening so I was chasing her around, that's all. Why, has the concept of friends become so distant now that this is considered as something romantically intimate?"
"So you weren't on a date?"
That left him even more speechless. "Director, Chyou is already dating Cheng Yin and I am single. There is no question of us getting together. It wasn't a date. Our fathers were there too."
The staff, who were fully concentrating on their conversation with their ears perked out, gasped once again as they almost collapsed this time.
With their fathers…? You mean Zhu Xiaosi and Gu Rong?
"It was a marriage meeting!?" One exclaimed.
"Oh my God, is the Zhu and Gu family going to…?"
"I don't know what to say! Do their families want them to tie the knot?"
"But then what about Cheng Yin?"
"Does Mr. Zhu not accept him?"
"Is this a love triangle? Wait, will the Queen and my prince's love story end in a tragedy?"
Yating couldn't wrap his head around the rapid flow of the conversation at all.
Well, even I had misunderstood that it was a marriage meeting so I cannot really blame them. I shouldn't have said that.
He said, "It wasn't a marriage meeting. Our fathers are collaborating on a project and they want Chyou and me to work on its branding and marketing together. We were there to discuss that. That's all."
The frenzied crowd calmed down a bit after hearing that. The video and then the potential conclusions arriving out of it was a rollercoaster ride on its own.
Just then, Chyou arrived ready in her getup but frowned at Yating's sight. "You are a mean person! You didn't let me keep even a single picture!"
He shrugged. He gave it a thought and quickly whispered near her. "Chyou, you need to clarify a big misunderstanding. Have you seen the viral video? Everybody is thinking that we were on a date last night."
She was confused. "I haven't checked my social media yet."
She quickly saw it too and facepalmed. "How is this a date when we were just running around like a bunch of school kids?"
The same excited girl who had exclaimed before, asked once again, "Mr. Yating said that Mr. Zhu and Mr. Gu were there too. So, so, so! Was it a marriage meeting?"
Yating's mouth twitched.
I just said it wasn't. Is it so hard to believe me?
She blinked twice. "Ah? No, it wasn't. I mean, that was already done and dusted before so why would it be a marriage meeting again?"
Yating and everybody else - "..."
Done and dusted before meaning that there were indeed potential marriage talks going on between you two at one point!?
"Huh, huh, huh?" Chyou sheepishly grinned, scratching her head and looking at the crowd that was beginning to fall out of balance. "Why this steep silence?"
Yating closed his eyes and then gave a defeated smile. "I shouldn't have brought up our fathers and you shouldn't have brought up our past meeting. Aren't we two silly peas in a pod?"