Love Me Harder, Mr. Fu - Chapter 99

“Have you seen the news!” Ruxi exclaims, opening the tab for Shi Lian. Her eyes gleam and she grins as if she has seen something funny. “God. I can’t believe he would be gay!” She chuckles and hands the tablet to Shi Lian.

Confused, Shi Lian cannot reciprocate what she wanted her to see. She has been busy since the morning with the models and the hall arrangements. “I’ll check that out later, we have work to do,” she says, her tone serious.

Ruxi shrugs, “But you have to look at this! This is trending at no. 1 and the hottest news of today!” she says.

Shi Lian sighs, “Unless it’s about our company or me, I don’t have time to see other’s business now.”

“Just see.” She chuckles, unable to hide her amusement.

Shi Lian’s fall on the screen and her eyes widen. She is not at all expecting this, not a single percent. Her jaw drops in astonishment and for a split second, she thinks it is fake. On the screen, the news about Zichen is trending. She does not know if she should laugh at this or be angry or surprised. “Oh my god”

“Yeah, totally shocking!” Ruxi chimes, watching at the screen with her as well. Shi Lian scrolls down and reads the article. The headline is enough to make her roll her eyes and laugh. In bold letters, it says, ‘THE LEADING TYCOON FU ZICHEN IS A GAY?!’ She narrows her eyes and reads the article in murmurs. The article says that Zichen was seen yesterday at a high-end restaurant dining with his ‘special friend and a woman. He was seen holding hands with his lover and was intentionally showing it off. His lover? Shi Lian wants to scoff internally. She reads further, “….they love each other, as what found by the restaurant people and also the people who were present at the moment.” She holds the tablet tightly as anger boils in her nerves.

“His lover was involved with a woman, however, she is told as the third wheel between them” Ruxi reads it out. “No wonder I never saw Fu Zichen being photographed with a woman before” Ruxi expresses, controlling herself not to laugh too hard. Shi Lian ignores her and continues reading the article.

“The woman was rejected and they finally confessed that they love each other.”

There is another photo of Zichen and another man, probably around his age, who is rumored to be his ‘lover’ striding inside the restaurant, appearing very close and never leaving each other’s gaze. “What bullshit!” Shi Lian mutters. And close the tabloid and hand it to Ruxi. She does not says anything and turns around to focus on the models. She is angry, not because of the stupid article but because when she called him several times yesterday, he didn’t answer her. she thought maybe he was busy but now looking at this, she was stupid to think that.

“What are you doing, Cai Li? Walk-in sync!” Shi Lian barks, her rage bursting on her cousin. Her cousin scowls her face reddening but says nothing and does what she is told.

Noticing her bad mood, Ruxi says, “Chairman, the stage is ready and the arrangements as well.” She has never seen Shi Lian barking, not to mention fuming like a steam engine. She continues, “Um… the meeting with the directors will be in twenty minutes…..we should be leaving by now.”

“They can wait, we haven’t finished yet” Shi Lian snaps. Ruxi opens her mouth to argue but remains quiet. She has no idea what makes her angry and she also does not wants to be the one to get lectured by her.

“Li! Haven’t eaten anything since the morning?” she barks at the model. The model startles by her sudden rage and her walking falters. Rubbing her temples in frustration, she leaves from there and goes somewhere else to get fresh air.

**

Zichen has no idea what has been happening outside the world about him. He is in his office doing his work and his mood is neutral, better than yesterday. While he works, one of the staff comes after knocking on the door.

“Sir, h-here are the documents. They are checked for the fifteenth time and there is no mistake.” The woman says, hoping to get it passed. Zichen has rejected her analysis for the nineteenth time because his mood was off and there were mistakes but most probably it was because of his sour mood. She too also read the news before coming and she is torn between wanting to ask him and hoping about her analysis.

“He nods and takes the document from her hand. Checking thoroughly with his eyes narrowed, she flips through pages, eyeing every single line carefully. “Good. You did your job” he says, closing the document and handing back to her. his face remains expressionless.

“Thank you, Sir,” she says, sighing a heave of relief. She can feel the weights lifting off her shoulder that have been burdening her for days. Taking the document, she leaves the office.

Before she can go any further, Rong appears, breathing hard as if he was running. He opens the door with a bang not caring what his Sir would say. Zichen looks up, cocking his eyes, he questions, “What are you doing?”

“Sir! There’s a big problem” he manages to say. Sliding the tablet screen onto Zichen’s desk, he shows today’s hot trending news. Zichen sees his face captured and narrowing his eyes, he remembers that it must be taken yesterday. “The media, reporters are howling outside the company, waiting for you.”

He taps on the headlines and reads them at lightning speed. “Shit” he mumbles, scrolling through other topics which are all about him and his ‘lover’ Junjie. “When did they take the photos?” he questions himself.

“Sir, the media is going crazy and they want to interview the two of you” Rong informs. Zichen pinches the bridge of his nose, muttering something to himself. Now, he can only blame Junjie and his stupid idea. Partly, he blames himself as well because he agreed to his plan without even knowing anything about it.

“Where is that troubled idiot?” Zichen asks in annoyance. Rong shrugs saying he hasn’t seen him since morning. The desk phone rings and Zichen quickly picks it up.

“Sir, the reception area is getting crowded. We are unable to control them” the receptionist, working downstairs informs, her voice troubled. Zichen sighs because he does not know what to do.

“Handle them for a while, Lia. I’ll look into it” Zichen says and hangs the phone. then the other phone rings and he picks it up, glancing at Rong and cautiously says, “Hello.”

“Mr. Fu Zichen, when did the two of you met? Please tell us more about your love story1” the voice of a man fills his ears and he grimaces. He abruptly hangs the phone but the phone rings again. He tries to ignore it and says Rong to ignore the calls from the media. He orders him to inform the staff to not pick the calls as well. he rubs his forehead, trying to think of a solution. He has never been involved in a scandal like this, he is always careful of the paparazzi clicking his photograph with any of the females or whenever he is outside the company.

His personal phone rings in his pocket and reaches to take it out. Seeing the name of her mother, he slid the answer icon. “Mother, that isn’t true. I’ll handle it.” he knows for what reasons his mother has called because the news must have circulated all over the city. It then hits him that Shi Lian must have seen the news as well.

“Son….the media are standing in from the company, they are on TV. I know there’s nothing between but..” she says from the other end.

“It’s complicated. I’ll tell you later about this. Take care.” He says to her.

“Alright, son. Please take care of yourself and tell Junjie to take care as well,” she says and ends the call. He immediately dials Shi Lia’s number but the line appears busy. He dials again but her phone is unreachable. He continues dialing her number again and again but every time the line appears busy or unreachable. He throws the phone to the desk in frustration, shoving his hand in his hair, tugging its roots.

He is sure she must have seen the news and she must be angry about it. He reaches to grabs his phone and dials Junjie’s number. He answers in the first ring. “Man….what the heck!” he grunts.

“Fuck you dammit. Look what mess you have done!” Zichen barks. So done with this guy.

“I know I know. The media is gathered around my house, I can’t even get out of my room. Shit, I didn’t think the media will cook stories like this” he expresses, being the dramatic he is.

“Good for you or else you would be dead if you were in front of me” Zichen threatens. “Anyway, how did your parents take this?”

“They were shocked, of course. Dad is currently trying to shoo them away. Mom is kind of still in shock” he sighs. Zichen can understand that. Junjie’s mother is fragile like glass and hearing this kind of news will definitely shock her.

“I’ll try to stop the news. You also try to stop it as well” Zichen says. Junjie agrees and ending the call, Zichen rises from his seat and goes to the IP department to clear the mess.