Chapter 130: Exposé
She looked at her agent beside her. "You said Lin Chuyue is here too?"
"Yes. And that Xiao Ye you had me ask about—he's here as well."
A smile appeared on Ye Baiwei's face. "What a coincidence. I came to South City for a commercial shoot and just happened to run into him. Wouldn't you call that fate?"
Her agent's expression turned sour. "Bai Wei, don't tell me you're going to… for some man…"
Ye Baiwei cut her off impatiently. "You can go now."
The agent had no choice but to turn and leave.
"Xiao Ye… it really has been a long time."
Ye Baiwei's eyes curved into a smile as she took out her phone.
「That night.」
In a quiet, secluded restaurant.
Xiao Ye spotted Ye Baiwei immediately. She was dressed simply today, but her face alone elevated the plain clothes into something more.
"Sorry about this," she said. "I wanted to dress up, but it's too easy to get photographed, so I had to come like this."
Ye Baiwei wore no makeup, and her smile was radiant.
"What did you want to see me about?" Xiao Ye sat across from her, getting straight to the point.
Ye Baiwei shot him a playfully indignant look as her slender hands filled a glass with red wine. "Can't I see you just because? We're friends, after all."
"I came to South City for a commercial shoot and happened to run into you. As friends, there's no problem with us sharing a meal, is there?"
Since she'd put it that way, Xiao Ye couldn't very well refuse her. "Alright."
Ye Baiwei's smile deepened. She pushed the glass of red wine toward him. "Have a drink. This isn't the restaurant's house wine; I brought it myself."
"This is a prized vintage from a Country F winery. You probably can't find it anywhere else in the country. If I wasn't working with a director from Country F, I'm afraid I wouldn't have had the chance to taste such a fine wine either."
Her description piqued Xiao Ye's interest.
Confident in his tolerance for alcohol, he took a sip.
'It's actually very good,' he thought. 'Master would have loved this.'
Ye Baiwei was a woman of immense emotional intelligence and cunning. Otherwise, she never would have navigated the murky waters of the entertainment industry so successfully, let alone become such a sought-after, A-list star.
With her deliberately charming company, even Xiao Ye felt completely at ease.
The dinner was, by all accounts, a pleasant affair for both of them.
The two of them walked out of the restaurant together, completely unaware of a person crouching in the bushes not far away.
He looked at the photos on his camera, a grin spreading across his face. "This is a huge scoop!"
「Later that night.」
A piece of entertainment news shot to the top of the trending topics.
A-list actress Ye Baiwei's late-night rendezvous with a man! Their relationship is far from simple—they were even caught kissing in public!
The news report included several photos.
Although Ye Baiwei was wearing sunglasses, the lower half of her face and her figure were instantly recognizable.
And the man next to her was handsome, with an extraordinary air about him—it was Xiao Ye!
While the first few photos didn't look like anything special—just the two of them walking out of the restaurant—
the last one clearly showed them kissing at the restaurant entrance!
Ye Baiwei got the news immediately. She flipped to the last photo and let out a laugh of exasperation. "These paparazzi have even been taking classes on photography techniques."
"We didn't kiss at all, and there was nothing intimate going on! This is just a photo taken from a tricky angle!"
Her agent was already frantic. "My dear girl, you can say it's a trick of the angle, but do you think anyone will believe you?"
Ye Baiwei wasn't flustered in the slightest. "It just so happens I know the owner of that restaurant. I'll have him release the security footage from the entrance."
'The innocent have nothing to hide.' She wasn't afraid of anything.
Entertainment news always travels fast.
Even Lin Chuyue saw it in her news feed. Since she and Ye Baiwei were acquainted, she clicked on it.
But the moment she did, her expression soured.
The man from the late-night rendezvous was actually Xiao Ye!
She remembered how Xiao Ye had kissed her so deeply just a few days ago, only to turn around and kiss Ye Baiwei!
'And to think I was blaming myself for what happened,' she fumed internally. 'I even… even started to develop feelings for him!'
Lin Chuyue slammed her phone face-down, ashamed of the feelings she had let herself develop for Xiao Ye!
"Xiao Ye, you're clearly just playing me!"
"You really are a scumbag! How could I have ever believed a scumbag like you could change!"
Fuming, Lin Chuyue threw on her trench coat. "Let's go. We're going back to Jiangcheng!"
Xiao Ye had no idea that she drove back to Jiangcheng that very night.
It wasn't until the next day that he heard about last night's entertainment news from Chu Yan.
Chu Yan was delighted to see Lin Chuyue upset. Although it was obvious Ye Baiwei also had her sights set on Xiao Ye, so what?
'She's just an actress from an unremarkable family. She could never be taken seriously in the end!'
Compared to Ye Baiwei, Lin Chuyue was the much bigger threat!
Chu Yan continued, "I heard Ye Baiwei was going to get the security footage, but it was dealt with beforehand. It seems someone is trying to make a move against her."
"Otherwise, they wouldn't have gone to the trouble of sending someone all the way to South City to get these secret shots."
"From what I know, Ye Baiwei's trip to South City was supposed to be secret. Besides her agent and assistant, not even her superfans knew about it."
Many celebrities, in order to maintain their public exposure, will coordinate with their superfans for so-called "content" or staged paparazzi shots.
This time, Ye Baiwei kept it tightly under wraps but was still photographed. It's obvious someone is targeting her, most likely another actress.
"But Ye Baiwei's team has already suppressed the trending topic. They also leaked news of another starlet's romance, so most of the public's attention has been diverted."
"Once most of the news online is deleted, no one will remember this."
That was just how the entertainment world worked. It moved at a breakneck pace; one day a star was the center of attention, and the next, everyone's eyes had already moved on to someone else.
Xiao Ye didn't pay it much mind. "What about Lin Chuyue? Is she at the company?"
Chu Yan chuckled lightly. "I only found out today. She left last night and went back to Jiangcheng."
「Jiangcheng.」
「The Lin Family Estate.」
Lin Chuyue got a good rest and then went to the office in the afternoon.
But the moment she walked in, she felt something was off.
"President Lin, congratulations!"
'Congratulations for what?'
As more and more people came up to congratulate her, Lin Chuyue finally realized something was wrong. She immediately pulled her secretary aside. "What's going on?"
The secretary was taken aback. "President Lin, you don't know? Just yesterday, the Lin Clan announced the news of your upcoming engagement to Mr. Xiao Ye."
Lin Chuyue froze on the spot. A few seconds later, she hastily grabbed her coat and rushed back to the Lin family home.
The only person who could have done this was Lin Aoshan!
"Grandpa!" Lin Chuyue shouted the moment she burst through the door. "Why did you announce that Xiao Ye and I are getting engaged!"
Lin Aoshan set down his teacup and sighed. "I had no choice. You have Chu Yan over in South City to deal with. You know how she feels about Xiao Ye."
"And yesterday, that scandal between Ye Baiwei and Xiao Ye broke out. If I hadn't made the announcement early, my perfectly good grandson-in-law might end up belonging to someone else one of these days!"
"With this news out there, and since Xiao Ye is a man who values loyalty and relationships, he will definitely go through with the engagement."