Chapter 43: The Chosen One

After the exam, the huge weight in his heart finally lifted. For the next few days, Lu Shi slept like the dead, waking up each day with no idea what year it was.

Before Lu Shi came back, the Chen family always planned a year-end trip.

In the eyes of outsiders, Chen Qiming was always a good man who could both earn money and care for his family. To maintain that image, he had his secretary draft a detailed travel plan every year, arranged his work in advance, and specifically set aside time to travel with his family.

But this year, Zhu Wanqing never received the travel plan details from the secretary.

She pushed open the study door and walked in.

Chen Qiming was busy with work, and his face didn’t look good.

“What’s wrong? Is the new project not going smoothly?” Zhu Wanqing carried a bowl of soup that the auntie had just made, gently placing it beside Chen Qiming.

Back then, the Zhu family was in trouble and nearly went bankrupt. To save the company and for the family’s interests, they arranged a marriage with the Chen family, which hadn’t yet grown big.

Chen Qiming indeed had skills. Using the connections and relationships the Zhu family had accumulated in the capital over the years, he not only founded a group but also managed to prop up the crumbling Zhu family.

So Chen Qiming held a high status in both the Chen and Zhu families. Zhu Wanqing was completely obedient to him, doing her best to manage the household logistics, and often socialized with the wives of other big groups and bosses to build relationships.

Chen Qiming’s brows were tightly knit. He picked up the soup and took a casual sip, his attitude perfunctory, not even tasting it.

“It’s nothing to do with work.”

For some reason, his threats suddenly stopped working on Lu Jinguo.

At first, the other party didn’t want to go to prison and was afraid that Chen Qiming would sue him for swapping the child over a decade ago. After being kicked out, he never came to the group to find him again.

But yesterday, Lu Jinguo messaged him again, constantly harassing him with an arrogant tone, as if certain that he wouldn’t sue. He even asked for three times the previous amount. If Chen Qiming didn’t pay, Lu Jinguo would go make trouble online.

In fact, he really didn’t intend to sue Lu Jinguo. It would cost a lot of time and money, and if it came out that the child was deliberately switched rather than accidentally swapped, it would cause a huge uproar. Plus, if Lu Jinguo’s true behavior at home was exposed, the group’s stock price would fluctuate again.

Chen Qiming had dominated the business world for so many years, and now he was being blackmailed by an illiterate scoundrel. This made him extremely unhappy, with a fire burning inside that he couldn’t release.

Zhu Wanqing: “Have you arranged the year-end matters? When are we going on a trip this year?”

Chen Qiming: “A trip?”

Zhu Wanqing: “Yes, let’s bring Xiao Shi this year too. It just so happens that Youxuan participated in a competition a few days ago. He feels good about it and should do well. Why not let him decide the travel destination this time? Consider it an early reward.”

Chen Qiming was fretting over Lu Jinguo’s matter and had no mood to think about anything else. When Zhu Wanqing asked him, he only felt irritation.

“Reward, reward, the results aren’t out yet and you’re already thinking of rewards. What if he messes up and doesn’t do well? Can you return the reward?” Chen Qiming rubbed his brow. “Family expenses have been high lately. This year’s trip is canceled.”

“It’s just a trip, how much can it cost? Youxuan looks forward to going out with us every year. If you suddenly cancel, he’ll be sad.”

“He’ll be sad for a while, so what? We can spoil him, but there has to be a limit.”

Zhu Wanqing was stunned. Chen Qiming had always tried his best to satisfy all her and Chen Youxuan’s requests. This was the first time he had refused so bluntly.

“What do you mean? Wasn’t it always like this? Traveling once a year is spoiling without limits? If you had objections, why didn’t you say so before?”

Chen Qiming slapped his phone down in front of her.

“Here, take a look, see for yourself. The two million hush money I gave that Lu guy before was enough for him to go back to that small county town and live comfortably for the rest of his life, right? But what happened? He gambled it all away in a month. Now he’s come looking for me again, asking for another two million.”

Zhu Wanqing: “But what does this have to do with Youxuan…”

“How is it not related? Isn’t he his son? All these years I’ve treated Youxuan like my own son, invested so much money in him. I might as well just support his whole family!”

Outside, Lu Jinguo was being unreasonable, and at home, his wife wasn’t understanding him in time. Chen Qiming was so furious that he momentarily spoke without thinking.

Even though Zhu Wanqing had always been docile, hearing this made her temper flare up.

“Chen Qiming, what are you saying? Is that what you really think? What do you mean ‘his whole family’? Has your bond with Youxuan all these years been fake?”

The sound of their argument in the study grew louder, and finally came the noise of something crashing to the floor. Zhu Wanqing came out of the room with an ugly expression.

This seemed to be the worst quarrel between the husband and wife since their marriage. During meals, they ignored each other, and at night they slept separately, one in the master bedroom, the other in the study. The servants bustled about, not daring to breathe loudly.

Yu Xi’s birthday happened to fall on a weekend. A group arranged to meet at the tourist center outside the resort in the afternoon.

The resort was located in a snow-covered tourist attraction in the neighboring city. In the distance, mountains layered upon each other. A heavy snowfall had fallen all night, making it even colder than the capital.

Yu Xi had invited many of his old friends, six in total, both male and female.

Yu Xi’s family was nouveau riche. His old friends weren’t wealthy; they came from various backgrounds, some had parents who were teachers, some had families that ran supermarkets, and some had fathers who drove taxis.

But they were all down-to-earth and friendly.

This made Lu Shi think of his own days in the small county town, where he had decent classmates. That period wasn’t entirely dark.

“Can you not be so stiff? When you walk, can you occasionally glance at the camera? You’re being too deliberate. Anyone can tell it’s staged. You have no sense of the camera at all.”

While waiting for the resort’s shuttle, the resort’s promotional team was carrying a camera to shoot a winter promo video.

The editor-in-chief held a notebook, teaching his apprentice with frustration how to walk more naturally.

The apprentice walked back and forth several times, each try worse than the last.

Just then, the cameraman’s lens swept and caught Lu Shi squatting by the roadside to keep warm.

The editor-in-chief called the cameraman twice but got no response. He was rubbing his hands and breathing into them, about to lose his temper, but the moment he saw that face in the lens, his anger dissipated.

The boy seemed very sensitive to cold. He wore a long black down jacket. Having slept for an hour in the car on the way, his expression was still dazed, his eyelids drooping tiredly, his ears red from the wind.

But even squatting casually by the roadside, he was eye-catching.

This was the sense of camera he had been searching for! He was simply the chosen one for shooting promos!

The editor-in-chief’s blood boiled. He felt he could immediately take off his down jacket and do a hundred push-ups in the snow.

The apprentice watched the editor-in-chief rush over with shining eyes: “…”

The apprentice, after a moment of silence, said, “You really worked hard criticizing me for so long.”

The shuttle slowly drove from the tourist center parking lot. Shen Zheming put away his phone and was about to call out to the drowsy Lu Shi.

He turned around.

In just the moment he wasn’t paying attention, Lu Shi was surrounded by a group of people again.

When the camera was shoved in his face, Lu Shi was just about to stand up and move around to wake himself up.

Ding Wei also saw what was happening: “Don’t you think Brother Lu looks like a ball squatting there?”

No sooner had he said that than the ball stood up, walked over, and lifted his leg to kick him.

But the down jacket was too long, past his knees. Lu Shi couldn’t lift his leg high, so he could only kick a leg-full of snow onto Ding Wei’s calf, doing little damage.

A few staff members from the promo team followed behind, blinking.

This chosen one seems a bit aggressive.

“Why don’t you film him? He’s more handsome,” Lu Shi recommended Shen Zheming to the staff.

When people in the capital’s upper class mentioned Shen Zheming, they rarely said he was handsome, because his looks were the least noteworthy of his qualities.

The editor-in-chief saw Shen Zheming: “!!!”

What day is it today? Not only is the snowy scene beautiful, but the people also make one’s eyes light up again and again.

He was sure that this promo video would definitely go viral.

The editor-in-chief was making a mental calculation and suggested, “Can you two do it together? We could shoot some small interactions. We can pay an appearance fee.”

Lu Shi had originally planned to offload the task onto Shen Zheming and escape, but he didn’t expect the editor-in-chief to be so greedy.

He licked his lips. “It’s not about the money.”

His reputation in the capital was already like that. If this promo video blew up online and affected Shen Zheming, what if the Shen family came after him?

He imagined that one day, Mr. Shen or Mrs. Shen might find him and slap a check down: “Here’s a hundred million. Stay away from my son.”

Lu Shi thought about it.

A hundred million… wait, that’s a hundred million. That might not be so bad.

Lu Shi’s mind was full of a hundred million.

But Shen Zheming probably wouldn’t agree. Who would ask for trouble and let the internet stir things up?

However.

“How do we film?”

Lu Shi snapped back to reality: “?”

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