Thus, time passed in the loving and killing between the Ji family of three. In the blink of an eye, little Ji Ruochu was already four and a half years old.
Originally, the couple did not intend to expose their child to the public. They hoped to protect their daughter under their wings, at least not letting her get in touch with the entertainment industry before she could understand things. But plans could not keep up with changes.
"Where did this rumor come from at first?" Seeing the hot search that ranked first on the social platform, Ji Mochen's heroic sword-like eyebrows wrinkled instantly.
"It started with a street shooting blogger who happened to take a picture of Ruochu holding a cell phone to scan a QR code to pay. They thought it was interesting, so they took it down," agent Li said,
"Although Ruochu didn't communicate with the other party, her eyes... really look so much alike that Tan Ruo's fans who saw this video directly topped it on hot search."
"It's all my fault. I thought I was just on the bench outside the store. Seeing that Ruochu was very interested, I let her take the phone to check out."
Looking at the photo of her daughter's fox eyes curling into crescent moons with joy because she bought her favorite mousse cake, Ling Chujin regretted it.
“Actually, it was nothing at first, just that her eyes looked a little like Tan Ruo’s. But the problem became thorny because—”
The agent pointed at the next photo, where Ji Mochen was holding a baby with sunglasses on.
"Because of this photo, netizens are now guessing whether you had a relationship with Tan Ruo in the past, and even guessing that your estrangement over the years was deliberately presented to mislead the public."
"What the hell?" Ji Mochen felt like he was hearing things. "Me? With that bad-tempered Tan Ruo?"
"How can you say that? My idol is not bad-tempered at all!"
Before agent Li could say anything, Ling Chujin went up and twisted the soft flesh on the inside of Ji Mochen's arm clockwise.
"Ouch——" Ji Mochen surrendered instantly. "Pain, pain, pain..."
"Who's bad-tempered?" Ling Chujin asked with narrowed eyes.
"Me, me, I'm bad-tempered." Ji Mochen, who was strictly controlled by his wife, conceded immediately.
"Alright, stop teasing each other. The main problem now is that the public believes that the half year when Tan Ruo disappeared was most likely due to pregnancy."
...
Hearing this, the Ji couple was speechless.
"What does this have to do with anything..." Ji Mochen's head ached. "What kind of brain hole do netizens have?"
"You really can't say that. This time the netizens' brain hole is the most online in recent years. First of all, look, didn't Tan Ruo disappear for more than half a year before her sudden death?
So netizens guessed that Tan Ruo got pregnant and the company stopped her work to let her wait for delivery. With Tan Ruo's high popularity, the only reason the company would allow her to give birth to a child is because the child's father was someone they didn't dare offend. And you, you clearly have a powerful background."
"What the hell? Wasn't it clarified at the time that she went abroad to study?"
"But netizens don't believe it. It makes sense to be pregnant and give birth under the name of studying abroad." Brother Qin shrugged.
“Also, there’s news from the internet, though I don’t know where it came from, that said Ruochu was a premature baby, so she had been in an incubator all along. This could also explain why Tan Ruo was in such a hurry to catch up with the schedule. She was actually in a hurry to finish shooting and go home to see the child."
"Nonsense! The hospital has given a diagnosis that Tan Ruo clearly died because of poor sleep quality, resulting in not having a good rest for days during filming. Plus, the emotional ups and downs in the few scenes she shot were quite big, which led to her sudden death." Ji Mochen was so angry he could jump.
"It's useless for you to yell at me. Netizens are convinced now that the child is Tan Ruo and yours. And you're such a scumbag to reconcile with your ex-girlfriend just half a month after she died."
Ji Mochen: ...It's really unjust accusations out of nowhere.
"Of course, a big part of the current public opinion is your opponents trying to make trouble for you. You don't even think, how long has it been since your last concert? This is the time when they kick you when you’re down."
"What does the company say?" After a long silence, Ji Mochen could only ask resignedly, "Should I post a parent-child proof?"
"If nothing else works, I can post my pregnancy records again, as well as my hospitalization and Ruochu's medical records," Ling Chujin added.
"Is this important?" the agent asked expressionlessly.
"Isn't this important?" Ji Mochen was exasperated.
"Is it important?" The agent remained expressionless.
The Ji couple: ...Damn!
"No matter how many birth certificates, hospitalizations, and certifications you post, you can't shut everyone up. People often only believe what they see."
"Then what should we do? Just let our daughter bear Tan Ruo's daughter's name like this?" Ji Mochen felt helpless.
Ji Mochen: What does this mean? My daughter whom I worked so hard to raise turned out to be my archenemy’s?
Ling Chujin: What's going on? The daughter I worked so hard to conceive and give birth to is not my own anymore?
"To be honest, our Ruochu just happens to have a pair of eyes like Tan Ruo. Like Mochen has always emphasized over the years, Ruochu's grandmother had a pair of fox eyes when she was young. We can also say it's atavism.
The rest are just netizens and Tan Ruo's fans. I think the main reason they doubt is that the photos are too blurry. You look at the photos, apart from the eyes, other facial features are like taken with an old camera phone, which is clearly misleading.
So the company's idea is to see if you want to take the child to participate in a parent-child variety show." Brother Qin took out an invitation contract, "Strawberry Channel's "Dad Takes Care of Home", was super hot in the first two seasons, then ratings dove in the latter two seasons."
"They still haven't given up?" Ling Chujin was a little curious.
"Of course not? They had their eyes on you since last year. It was just when the fourth season was on, originally planning to take advantage of Mochen's popularity to save the show, but got rejected."
"This year for the fifth season, the recruiter ate pig-iron determination pills and called me every few days. As soon as your news came out, they caught the smell right away and came."
Ling Chujin flipped through the script and was shocked: "Live broadcast throughout?"
"That's right? The Strawberry Channel is also determined this year to take off the "one cut" hat, which was painfully criticized by netizens in the previous two seasons. What do you think? Want to take Ruochu to go?"
Hearing this, Ji Mochen fell silent.
"I think you can try it. After all, how long has it been since you did promotional work?"
Seeing that Ji Mochen did not oppose it immediately, Brother Qin continued persuading,
"Although you’ve stood your ground with your work these years, you really have been lying low for too long. It's perfect now. Take advantage of the public opinion and bring Ruochu to the show. You can clarify the situation and show off your cute kid at the same time.
Plus, weren't you planning to pick a family-themed variety show anyway? Speak of the devil, why not do it?"
...
"Alright, let's go back and discuss with Ruochu first before deciding."
In the end, Ji Mochen still took away the general script and contract.
It wasn't until the couple left that the agent realized belatedly: Discuss with whom? Ruochu? A four-and-a-half-year-old kid? Can she understand?
