159. The Departure

That night, Wei Changfeng and Qi Le’an discussed the philosophical issue about “handsome guy” the whole night. The next day, Qi Le’an got up with a serious backache. He cursed Chen Shan for shouting so loudly on the phone and made Wei Changfeng hear about the “handsome guy”.

Wei Changfeng had already left, but there was a warm breakfast kept in the pot. While eating the pork buns and corn, Qi Le’an also added the tutor on WeChat.

The tutor’s WeChat profile picture was a handsome man as expected.

Qi Le’an swallowed his saliva and zoomed in on the picture. He found that the European and American people had a racial advantage. The creases of his double-fold eyelids were so near the eye socket.

The two of them chatted on WeChat. Qi Le’an learned that this handsome man was a Chinese American who grew up in the USA and traveled the world during college. Now that he returned to his mother’s homeland, he earned money by being a part-time tutor.

Thanks to his mother, his Chinese was good, and he had a Chinese name—Yichuan.

Later, he found out that Yichuan was also a place name and his mother’s hometown.

Qi Le’an found that this tutor was quite easy to get along with. They made an appointment to have a try on his class.

After eating Wei Changfeng’s loving breakfast, he contacted his tutor. Qi Le’an was just about to find something to do when he was suddenly stunned by a message that popped up on Weibo.

“The Persona Was Ruined! The Popular Star Went Whoring and Abused His Wife!”

He had a faint sense of foreboding. He clicked on it and saw that it was a post from a paparazzi studio.

“A popular star surnamed as Hx was not only a fake single but also reported to go whoring, abuse his wife and cheat on her! Got his wife’s recording as the solid proof! Check the details at eight o’clock!”

There was also a silhouette attached to Weibo. It had been forwarded up to 4,000 times within 40 minutes after it was posted!

Hidden marriage, whoring, domestic violence, and cheating! These were all shocking scandals! They stirred up heated discussions among netizens. Everyone was guessing who the star was!

No one cared about Li Zheyu’s scandal anymore. After all, it was not a crime that Li Zheyu had a bad temper.

The moment Qi Le’an saw the surname Hx, he knew who this post was targeted at.

Hu Bin.

When he was reborn, he entered the first crew. Back then, Hu Bin helped him a lot. Afterward, they rarely contacted each other after the shooting was finished, but they still texted each other on festivals.

Qi Le’an could even remember the scene of him, Hu Bin, and Assistant He sitting on the bed of the hotel with him and playing cards.

He couldn’t help but sigh. Although he knew that such a thing would happen to Hu Bin, he didn’t expect it to be caused by Li Zheyu.

Yes! This cracking scandal exposed at the crucial moment had something to do with Li Zheyu!

Moreover, the scandal about Hu Bin exposed online was sheer slander, which caused a disaster for him. He didn’t prove innocence until he and Assistant found evidence and sued the poster a few years later. However, back then, his popularity was much lower than before.

Qi Le’an clicked the contact list and wanted to send a message to Hu Bin, but he didn’t know what to text when he opened the texting page.

That night, there was a bloody sensation in the entertainment circle. The famous paparazzi exposed the audio and video material of Hu Bin’s wife. In the materials, the wife cried and complained that Hu Bin had gone whoring, cheated on her, and even abused her. She even showed their marriage certificate as well as the injuries and bruises on her body as evidence.

The marriage certificate showed that they were married two months ago. In addition, Hu Bin vaguely confessed that he had a girlfriend. Now the woman showed a lot of evidence to show her identity, which confirmed the scandal back then.

Then, the woman told more dirt that Hu Bin went whoring during her pregnancy and he even beat her after being discovered, which caused her miscarriage. Later, her medical history and the original photo of the medical proof were exposed, which indicated that the woman did have a miscarriage a few days ago!

The paparazzi also claimed that after learning about the situation, he quickly contacted Miss W, who was said to be the prostitute spending the night with Hu Bin. Miss W also admitted that she did have a thing with Hu Bin! She even had nude photos as proof!

Hu Bin’s Weibo had completely collapsed. This was the first time that such a shocking sensation happened to Weibo about the entertainment industry since it was founded. The server of the platform was overloaded, and the trending topic of Hu Bin even had the hashtag “hottest”.

The fans and the media, related or not, all went crazy! Police even investigated the authenticity of this matter!

Over one night, everyone was talking about Hu Bin, sympathizing with Hu Bin’s ex-wife and scolding him as a scumbag despite his nice persona on screen.

Although this turmoil had nothing to do with Qi Le’an, he was still very upset.

“Hu Bin must be wronged.”

Qi Le’an told every his acquaintance about this.

Chen Shan told him not to intervene in other people’s affairs. Wei Changfeng touched his head and told him that the entertainment industry was quite messy. The new tutor looked confused. He didn’t use Weibo or know about the entertainment circle.

Finally, one night, Qi Le’an couldn’t help but text Assistant He.

“Brother He, I know Brother Bin can’t do such a thing. I believe he is innocent. I wonder how he is feeling now? But please believe that the truth will come out in the wash!”

His text didn’t get any reply. Qi Le’an thought that Assistant He was too busy, but to his surprise, he received a call from Hu Bin in person later.

“Le’an?” Hu Bin’s voice sounded like he was drunk.

Qi Le’an was stunned and quickly replied, “Brother Bin!”

Hu Bin smiled and his voice was still drunk, “I saw your message… I don’t know what to say… Thank you!”

Qi Le’an felt a little guilty. After all, it was because of the conflict between him and Li Zheyu that Hu Bin was involved. Although the scandal about Hu Bin was prepared a long time ago, it could have been exposed later…

“No… Brother Bin, you must hold on,” Qi Le’an said dryly.

It was quiet on the other side of the phone and then Hu Bin’s crying just came to his ears.

“I… I’m so sad! Le’an, I loved that woman so much. I gave her the house, married her as she wished… I loved her that much… Why….”

Qi Le’an did not expect that after Hu Bin’s life and career suffered such a devastating blow, the most hopeless thing for him should be love.

He listened to Hu Bin crying and talking about the strange woman. Hu Bin had been busy filming for the past two months, and it was only today that he found out that the woman had been pregnant before.

Qi Le’an wanted to say that the baby might not be Hu Bin’s, but he held his tongue when he heard Hu Bin crying so sadly.

In the end, Hu Bin might be tired from crying, and gradually, there was no sound on the other side of the phone. Qi Le’an listened for a while and still felt a little worried. He hung up and called Assistant He.

Assistant, He didn’t pick up, but after a while, he replied with a text.

“He is finally sleeping. Thank you, Le’an.”

Only then did Qi Le’an know that Hu Bin had never closed his eyes in the past few days since the scandal was exposed.

A person’s strength was too weak, he didn’t have ways to help Hu Bin. He could only pray to himself in his heart that Hu Bin could pull himself together soon.

August just came with a sensational event in the entertainment industry. For half a month, the discussions about Hu Bin just kept going on. The investor of the new movie terminated the contract with him. Various brands claimed that they wouldn’t work with indecent artists. Hu Bin’s works, released or not, we're all affected. His home and his parents’ home were both surrounded by paparazzi. The police started investigating the case and all of Hu Bin’s work was suspended.

It wasn’t until half a month later that the turmoil stopped, and Wei Changfeng also got the brand endorsement contract of WIIIn.

Before the two of them could celebrate, Wei Changfeng flew to City B with Devin while Qi Le’an was busy going to the school to handle the formalities.

The summer vacation of the high school hadn’t officially ended yet, but the students of the twelfth grade started class half a month earlier. Mr. Luo was shocked when he found out that Qi Le’an was going abroad for further study and then got a feeling of mingled hope and fear after knowing that Qi Le’an was going to New York University.

“Is this your decision made after deliberate consideration?” Mr. Luo asked.

Qi Le’an nodded and said, “My… my friends have given me a lot of suggestions and we all think this is the best for me.”

Mr. Luo nodded after hearing this. He looked at Qi Le’an with relief and said, “I think you are old enough to decide your future. The world is so big. I hope your heart will always be on the travel.”

Qi Le’an was so touched to hear that. It had been less than two years since he and Mr. Luo met each other. They didn’t spend much time together but the virtue of this teacher would probably influence him for his lifetime.

The formalities with the school were very easy. Most of the students in the international department had to go abroad to study. They quickly handed over the domestic materials to Qi Le’an. Before leaving, Mr. Luo gave him the contact information of several of his students in America, telling him to call these people if he needed any help…

In September, most students returned to school. Wei Changfeng and WIIIn signed a contract for a whole year. Qi Le’an, with Chen Shan’s company, got the visa and could leave the country at any time.

The baby sister could utter a few simple words, like “dad” or “mom”. A month later, one night, Chen Shan just made a call with excitement, saying that with his endeavor, his sister finally called him “bro”.

After dealing with the last things in China, Wei Changfeng talked to Wei Xin’an for a night. Although he didn’t say it expressly, he had made it very clear that he would go abroad for further study with Qi Le’an.

Wei Xin’an was half-happy and half-worried. She didn’t find her brother was gay earlier but when she saw the loving glint in his eyes, her objection just turned into melancholy.

On National Day, Qi Le’an and Wei Changfeng went to the cemetery of Hai City. When Qi Le’an saw the photo of his parents on the tombstone, his feelings were completely different.

After they returned home, they cleaned the whole villa and packed all the things up. Qi Le’an sent some of his things to his small apartment and told Chen Shan to take care of the things.

The cactus that Wei Changfeng gave him couldn’t be taken away and was finally entrusted to Chen Shan. Chen Shan placed it in his room and then it was taken by Li Che to City B.

Qi Le’an packed his things into a 20-inch suitcase and found in disbelief that after living for so many years, the things that could be taken away were so few.

The little crystal horse that Wei Changfeng gave him, the earrings he hid away, the greeting card written by Wei Sama for his birthday, the picture of the two in the Alps Mountains, and the photos of his parents…

Time rolled on. The leaves of the ginkgo tree by the gate slowly turned yellow. Qi Le’an knew that it was time to leave.