In the city of An in Z country, the time is ten at night.
The final concert of Templars, a super popular idol group's world tour, is slowly drawing to a close here.
The formerly bustling, noisy stadium, which had been bubbling like boiling water, gradually cooled off after the end of the concert... Replacing it were reports flooding the internet about the successful conclusion of Templars' world tour concert.
With the heat of these reports, Templars quickly topped the headlines of major webpages and topped the trending lists on social media apps.
On Weibo, the top ten trends, Templars, in various names, monopolized the top five topics of the trending list. Everywhere you can see fans of Templars either clinging to their screens or shouting about wanting to give birth to monkeys for their idols, with the majority being fans wanting to give birth to monkeys for Tang Yuyan, the leader of Templars. As a result, topics about just Tang Yuyan alone occupied two out of the top five.
From this, one can see the immense popularity of this group!
*Jinxiu Garden*
"Ding dong ding", the hour hand of the clock on the wall points to ten.
Shen Jialan, who had been tidying up in her room, put down her work and walked to the living room.
Sure enough, the phone she had left on the coffee table was now lighting up blue, vibrating incessantly.
Looking at the caller ID on the phone, almost subconsciously, a faint smile of warmth surfaced on Shen Jialan's face, "The concert is over? When will you come back, I'll wait for you at home..."
However, before she could finish her sentence, Tang Yuyan's hurried and apologetic voice came from the other end of the phone, "Jialan, I'm sorry, I might not be able to come back right away. The company has arranged a celebration party for us, many people will be there, so..."
Upon hearing this, the smile on Shen Jialan's face froze, an indescribable sense of loss rose in her heart.
It's like this again.
She had lost count of how many times this had happened.
She should have gotten used to it by now, but no matter how many times it happened, it seemed she still hadn't become accustomed. From high expectations to profound disappointment. It was like a balloon filled with air suddenly had a hole in it and deflated, causing a dull ache in her chest.
She took a deep breath, and interrupting the continuous apologies of Tang Yuyan in a light tone, Shen Jialan said, "Okay, I understand. I'll sleep alone, and won't wait for you anymore." She delivered this line in a rigid tone, wanting to end the call.
"Okay." On the other end of the phone, Tang Yuyan, filled with guilt, didn't know what else he could say. Now hearing that Shen Jialan was not only not angry, but also exceptionally understanding, he couldn't help but soften his voice, "I'm sorry, wife, I've broken my promise again."
Shen Jialan was not a very emotional person, but hearing the two words "wife," she couldn't help but feel a touch of sadness, remaining silent.
Seeing that Shen Jialan kept quiet, Tang Yuyan knew that his repeated broken promises had disappointed her once again.
There was nothing else he could do, so he simply said, "Goodnight, wife."
Hearing these words, Shen Jialan replied softly, "Take good care of yourself and don't drink too much." She didn't say much more.
Moreover, it seemed that it was noisy where Tang Yuyan was, not a suitable place for much conversation.
"I…"
In order to prove her correct, almost immediately after Shen Jialan's words, at the moment when Tang Yuyan had just spat out the word "I," a deep voice from his end interrupted, "Ah Yan, who are you calling? The celebration is about to start, everyone is waiting for you!"
The interruption stopped Tang Yuyan's unfinished sentence.
So, all Shen Jialan heard was him saying "I'm on the phone with a friend," before the call was hastily hung up.
Shen Jialan looked at the disconnected screen and thought about his earlier words, "Sorry dear." A self-mocking smirk tugged at the corner of her lips.
Due to Tang Yuyan’s profession, they had a concealed marriage and had not announced it to the public.
In other words, to the outside world, Tang Yuyan is still single.
Perhaps because of this, to avoid inadvertently saying something inappropriate in certain situations, Tang Yuyan seldom addresses her as his wife. Most of the time, he directly calls her by her name, Jialan. Therefore, on the rare occasions when she heard him call her "dear," it always brought an indescribable warmth to Shen Jialan's heart.
However, after hearing him address her as a "friend," the warmth turned into an unspeakable irony.
Shen Jialan gripped her phone tightly. She raised her tired eyes and once again realized clearly –
She was a secret existence that would potentially jeopardize his stardom.
Sometimes, Shen Jialan found her own marriage utterly ridiculous.
From the time they got their marriage certificate to now, two years have passed yet the time she spent with Tang Yuyan is pitifully scarce.
In the public eye, she, as a wife, is like a complete stranger who has never crossed paths with Tang Yuyan at all. Even though, as a makeup artist at a TV station, Shen Jialan occasionally intersects with him professionally, but for the sake of Tang Yuyan's career, they would always pretend not to know each other and calmly pass by each other.
Other than work, Tang Yuyan is often occupied with his career and they ended up spending more time apart than together. Even their phone conversations are brief and direct.
Sometimes, Shen Jialan couldn't help but think wearily that perhaps, their marriage was a mistake in itself.
When she falls sick, he is away, busy attending to schedules and shows.
When she is feeling vulnerable, again, he is away, occupied with his schedules and shows.
...
Whenever she needed him, he was always absent.
In this marriage, Shen Jia Lan never experienced the happiness she thought she could obtain. Instead, she was filled with weariness towards the marriage.
Perhaps, has the time come for her to give up?
Shen Jia Lan furrowed her brows slightly at the thought, only to let them relax apathetically.
Seven years of pursuit, a secret marriage of two years.
She and Tang Yu Yan had walked together for nine years!
She, couldn’t bear to let go!
Thinking about it like this, Shen Jia Lan couldn’t help but let out a bitter laugh.
Clearly, she had no ability to persist, and yet she just couldn’t let go. Since when did she become so indecisive?
She put her phone on the coffee table and leaned against the sofa, placing the backs of her hands over her eyes. She slowly exhaled, suppressing the faint tearful look in her eyes.
In just a few minutes, Shen Jia Lan straightened her body.
This time, she logged onto Weibo.
She wasn't present at the event and didn't have the opportunity to watch the live broadcast; her only choice was to go on Weibo and find out his news based on updates shared by passionate fans from the front line.
As expected, Templars dominated Weibo's headlines, and the platform was flooded with fans declaring their love, humorously stating they'd "give birth to monkeys" for their idol.
Looking at the gushing admiring comments under the sub-topic #Tang Yuyan_such_a_hottie, I_want_to_have_your_babies# which stemmed from the main topic "Templars", Shen Jialan, who had long been used to all this, couldn't help but feel a surge of irritation, which she had just managed to suppress.
Her finger unconsciously stayed on her phone's screen, pausing for several minutes.
On an impulse, before even Shen Jialan herself could react, she uncontrollably posted a Weibo update: "Tang Yuyan is my husband."
Still somewhat dazed after posting the Weibo update, Shen Jialan couldn't really fathom why she had acted so impulsively, she was even lost as to what exactly she was doing.
The sound alert for a successful Weibo post finally brought her around. Only then did it dawn on her what she had just done in that moment of clouded judgement.
She couldn't even begin to imagine what consequences this Weibo post would bring to her and Tang Yuyan if it got noticed by others.
Almost immediately, Shen Jialan deleted the tweet, less than a minute after posting it.
Fortunately, she was just a relatively unknown TV makeup artist. Although her account was verified, she didn't have many followers.
Zero comments, zero likes.
So, presumably, no one will notice or see the tweet she just posted.
Looking at the screen displaying the successfully deleted post, Shen Jialan couldn't help but feel a mix of relief and aftermath scares.
However, due to the occurrence of this incident, Shen Jialan no longer had the energy to pay attention to the Weibo topics she had just browsed through, and subsequently logged out of Weibo. After hurriedly cleaning up, Shen Jialan went to sleep, still feeling somewhat apprehensive.
Little did she know, her zero-like, zero-comment Weibo post that she thought no one would notice and was quickly deleted, had already been swiftly screenshotted and posted on Weibo by someone.
Given no one probably expected that a national heartthrob like Tang Yuyan would ever get married, upon seeing this screenshot, many people didn't even contemplate its veracity, instead deeming it a new prank on their idol. This inspired many fangirls, infatuated with Tang Yuyan, to create various spins of the statement: "Giving birth to an idol's child? He's my husband!", "His lawful wife is right here, how dare you all try to have my husband's babies? Shameless tarts, make no mistake, I will not yield, and you all will forever remain his secret loves!"
It didn’t take long before it was spoiled by some people.
Fortunately, it was so. Therefore, an event that would have stirred up a big fuss was quietly settled.
*
The morning light poured into the room through the window, dazzling like broken diamonds, but a bit too glaring. This made Shen Jialan inevitably open her eyes.
Looking at the other side of the bed, devoid of any wrinkles or depressions, her lips slightly curled.
Tang Yuyan did not return all night.
Ignoring the subtle, yet existent feeling of desolation deep within her heart, Shen Jialan opened her phone and logged into Weibo.
Although she deleted the post on Weibo very quickly last night, to prevent any unexpected issues causing trouble for Tang Yuyan, Shen Jialan had to confirm it again.
The confirmation allowed Shen Jialan to breathe a sigh of relief. Her post indeed didn't stir up any waves. That's because her Weibo didn't gain any followers nor did it receive any comments. Otherwise, it would have been a completely different scenario.
However, what Shen Jialan didn’t know was that it wasn’t her Weibo post from yesterday that didn’t shake up any waves.
It was because compared to the joke post about flirting with a male god widely circulated by netizens and fans, another matter was obviously more impactful—
"Superstar idol group Templars’ world tour concludes successfully. At the celebration party in Meiye bar, the leader Tang Yuyan, and the award-winning actress Jiang Qianlan appeared together, displaying affectionate and ambiguous behavior, sparking rumors of their romantic relationship!"
"Award-winning actress Jiang Qianlan spotted at Templars’ concert in An city, presumably to cheer for Tang Yuyan, exposing their suspected relationship!"
…
Almost early in the morning, the scandal between the national heartthrob Tang Yuyan and the young award-winning actress Jiang Qianlan swept the headlines of various websites, igniting nationwide discussions. Compared with such scandalous news, Shen Jialan's quickly-deleted Weibo post from yesterday naturally lacked appeal!
