Chapter 96: Holding Hands

Zhou Yun met Tang Zhichu at the entrance of the villa and immediately caught a whiff of alcohol on him.

“Director Yu really is a model leader. Imagine finding time in his busy schedule to wine and dine musicians,” Zhou Yun said as she moved to stand between Tang Zhichu and Yu Hua, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

Wang Xiaoyan called out softly, “Yun-jie.”

Yu Hua just smiled, not taking offense. “I was going to invite you too, but I didn’t see you along the way. You’re not very considerate, coming here and just playing by yourself, not even keeping Xiaoyan company.”

Zhou Yun glanced at Wang Xiaoyan and said, “Sure, Xiaoyan, why don’t you stay with me?”

Wang Xiaoyan hesitated, looking over at Yu Hua. Yu Hua gave her an indulgent look and said, “As you wish, you can live wherever you like.”

A smile finally broke out on Wang Xiaoyan’s face. “So I can really stay with Yun-jie?”

“Of course. I’ll arrange a new dorm for you two, a bigger one. I’m a bit busy these days, so I’ll just give the key to Xiao Tang and have him hand it over to you.”

Yu Hua said this while looking at Zhou Yun.

Zhou Yun gave Yu Hua a long look, then took Tang Zhichu’s hand and walked away.

On the narrow path by the woods, Zhou Yun still hadn’t let go of Tang Zhichu’s hand.

Perhaps Zhou Yun was preoccupied, not even aware of her own actions. When she finally noticed, she stopped, trying to withdraw her hand—only to find she couldn’t. Tang Zhichu squeezed her soft, boneless hand gently before speaking. “It’s not your fault.”

Zhou Yun swung their clasped hands, murmuring a soft assent, and they continued walking side by side.

Yu Hua was an old fox—Zhou Yun heard the implication clearly. He was washing his hands of Wang Xiaoyan. Either Zhou Yun would deal with it, or he would, and if he did, Tang Zhichu would get dragged in.

Only now did Zhou Yun realize: when she signed up for the “Little White Cap” program, she hadn’t gone through Yu Hua at all. It was just a minor role, no need to ask his help—she could register through official channels herself. It was Yu Hua who’d somehow caught wind of it and contacted her first, even suggesting she bring Wang Xiaoyan along.

At the time, Zhou Yun found it odd—why would such a prominent director be unable to control his own desires? Now it was clear: he wanted to sever the connection.

Tang Zhichu saw through it too. Otherwise, Yu Hua wouldn’t have pushed Wang Xiaoyan away, much less exposed the relationship right to her face.

Tang Zhichu had witnessed countless such situations in his past life—nothing new.

“Back when Yu Hua came to our gym, I saw he had an unusual air about him, so I assigned Wang Xiaoyan as his personal trainer. Officially, we have rules—trainers can’t cross the line with clients. But there are always exceptions. The more they interacted, the more Wang Xiaoyan fell for him. So I’m not surprised…”

The story was simple enough: the usual entanglements between a wealthy client and a trainer. Zhou Yun had warned her from the start about the worst possible outcome, but once a woman falls for someone, she throws caution to the wind. In the end, Zhou Yun told her to let it go—if you can’t control your feelings, then just focus on improving yourself. Since you’re already by his side, you might as well learn as much as you can.

After they parted ways, they both grew. There wasn’t really a winner or loser.

Tang Zhichu listened quietly throughout, the two of them wandering hand in hand along the path.

“I’ll handle it. You stay out of it,” Zhou Yun said after finishing her story.

Tang Zhichu nodded. “You really should spend more time with her when you have the chance. If we can sense things, how could she, someone who shares his bed, not know? She’s just pretending to be clueless.”

Zhou Yun rolled her eyes. “Right, I guess I was the one with blinders on.”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t notice?”

“Hahaha! Let’s talk some more—I think there are details I haven’t told you yet. How about we take another lap?”

Tang Zhichu let go of Zhou Yun’s hand.

Zhou Yun pouted, thinking to herself how petty he was.

“Old Tang.”

“What is it?”

“That outfit you wore on stage to sing—where is it? The white shirt and slacks.”

Tang Zhichu looked at her, puzzled. “Why do you ask? Those were provided by the wardrobe team.”

“Which wardrobe team? Tell me, I want to buy that outfit.”

“You’re up to something!”

“Oh, come on! You men are allowed to do the uniform tease, but when it’s us girls it’s not okay?”

Tang Zhichu ignored her. His attempts at consolation were clearly unnecessary.

The moon was not yet full at the beginning of the month, but it hung high in the night sky.

Zhou Yun glanced back at the villa, shook her head, clasped her hands behind her back, and trotted after Tang Zhichu.

“Old Tang, did you really write that song because of me?”

“Yes.”

“And ‘Recognizing the Right Eyes, Meeting the Right Person’—was that about me too?”

“No, I was thinking of Chen Siyang.”

“Why don’t you just drop dead!”

Tang Zhichu didn’t turn around, laughing heartily as the two of them left the villa complex one after the other.

……

The next day, the Alliance dormitory was deserted—everyone had left.

When Tang Zhichu went downstairs, he really did find a set of keys on the table.

“Director Yu is so arrogant,” Tang Zhichu muttered.

At nine-thirty in the morning, following instructions sent by text, Tang Zhichu opened the door of a small house in an area not open to the production crew.

This place was a bit far from the filming location, across the lake.

From the balcony here, he could see the small stage by the lake, supposedly the backup stage.

Tang Zhichu sent a message to Zhou Yun with the location.

Then he sat down on the living room sofa, pulled out his phone, and waited for Zhou Yun to arrive.

He seemed to have received an email last night but hadn’t checked it yet.

Opening his inbox, he saw it was from Su Qingzhu.

After skimming it, Tang Zhichu opened Penguin Video and found the newly released fourth episode of the romance show.

The fourth episode had been out for a few days, but Tang Zhichu hadn’t watched it yet; Yun Miao, on the other hand, talked to him about the show every day.

This episode marked a small climax in the series, as Su Qingzhu had mentioned in the email.

Two hashtags from it were still trending:

Tang God’s Comeback and Heartache for Chen Siyang.

Viewers of the show now called Tang Zhichu “Tang God.” Why a comeback? Because in the fourth episode, Tang Zhichu received date invitations from all three female contestants.

During the first episode, no one had high hopes for Tang Zhichu. By the fourth, all three women had their eyes on him.

Tang Zhichu skimmed through the episode. The view count had already surpassed one hundred million. The live comments were so dense you could barely see the video, let alone the people.

The gist of it was Tang Zhichu receiving three date invitations and his date with Chen Siyang.

Tang Zhichu scrolled down, eager to see the comments section.