Chapter 98: Film Emperor (18)

With their vast abilities, passersby and Tong Jianxu’s fans managed to uncover Assistant Zhang’s identity through various channels.

She was a top graduate from the country’s number one university, often winning competitions during her school years. Her résumé sparkled with achievements, and her photo as an outstanding student was still displayed on the university’s official website. Now she was a young, attractive executive at a major company.

Someone even dug up that she was the manager of the children’s clothing brand “QIAN.”

Once netizens discovered this, they became even more convinced—naming the company after her daughter? She had to be the real mom!

The real boss, Zaiye, just like in the previous photos, faded into the background amid netizen discussion. No one cared that the company was actually his.

Under the careful guidance of Feng Yu and the PR team, many fans had already come to terms with the fact that the Film Emperor was secretly married with a daughter. As for the rumors online digging into the child and Tong Jianxu’s wife, any leaks involving Assistant Zhang’s real name or home address were swiftly handled by Feng Yu and Assistant Zhang.

The surrogacy smear campaign pushed by a certain influencer had long since disappeared without a trace. The topic of Tong Jianxu’s non-celebrity wife had its moment in the spotlight but gradually faded from public attention—there was always something new to distract netizens.

Thanks to how well everything was handled, Assistant Zhang’s life wasn’t much affected. Even if some friends were suspicious, they wouldn’t say anything in front of her. Instead, they’d joke that she’d kept it secret, pretending not to know the Film Emperor just to test if they knew her real identity.

To such minor complaints, Assistant Zhang’s response was to give gifts.

There was no problem a gift couldn’t solve. If there was, just give three.

Some minor ripple effects came from within the company too.

It wasn’t until Assistant Zhang took on the “fake identity” of being the Film Emperor’s wife that she realized just how many of her colleagues were Tong Jianxu fans.

Especially Gao Jia, the marketing manager who had a decent relationship with her, grabbed her hand and exclaimed emotionally.

“Waaah! Film Emperor Tong was my husband—no, he’s your husband! How could he be your husband! Why didn’t you say so earlier! If I’d known earlier, I would’ve stopped being a fan—waaah, friends’ husbands are off-limits!”

“How could this happen! I always felt he was from a different world than me, and it turns out he’s your husband! So jealous!”

“Look at these dark circles under my eyes! I’ve been losing sleep over this!”

Assistant Zhang calmly replied, “I have a few sets of X-brand skincare kits, a friend gave them to me, and I can’t use them all. I’ll bring you one tomorrow.”

These skincare products had been a gift from Feng Yu, supposedly from a partner brand—they gave her a whole stash.

Gao Jia: “Fine… only half of my dark circles are your fault. The other half’s from overtime. The boss has gone nuts assigning me more work lately. Babe, it’s not the skincare I care about, you know what I really want…”

Seeing her hopeful expression, Assistant Zhang nodded: “I’ll bring you a signed photo of the Film Emperor along with the skincare.”

Only then did Gao Jia smile, teasing, “He’s your husband and you still call him the Film Emperor?”

Assistant Zhang paused and replied calmly, “It’s part of the fun.”

Gao Jia clearly imagined something NSFW and grinned like an adult who’d just heard a dirty joke.

“So tell me—do we have the honor of seeing the Film Emperor in person? Will he ever come to our company? If not, could your daughter come? It’d be so fun to have her here.”

Assistant Zhang: “He takes care of the child most of the time. I’m busy too, I can’t manage it.”

Gao Jia suddenly glanced toward the door—the boss had just gone up in the elevator.

She leaned close and whispered to Assistant Zhang, “You know the boss had a kid before, right? That child’s name was also Qian.”

Assistant Zhang: “Yes.”

But she didn’t know much.

“Sis Gao, do you know more about her? I’m curious—tell me more?”

“Hahaha, sure, it’s rare to see you curious. I joined the company back when it was in Ningshui. The boss often brought Qian to work. She’d even be around on weekends. While he was in meetings, she’d play in the lounge. I played with her too. She loved drinking those little yogurt drinks…”

Assistant Zhang listened, looking thoughtful.

Not just Gao Jia, a few senior employees had also met the original Qian. Assistant Zhang took the opportunity to chat with them and slowly pieced together information about the child.

What games she liked, how she enjoyed feeding people, what yogurt she preferred, her favorite candy flavors, and her cute little habits…

More time passed. The buzz about the Film Emperor’s secret wife faded completely—even within the company, no one paid it much attention anymore.

One day, while Assistant Zhang was working as usual, she suddenly received a message from the Film Emperor.

She brought her phone to Zaiye’s office.

“Boss, I’d like to take a half-day off.”

Zaiye looked at her in surprise. In all these years, he could count on one hand the number of times she’d asked for time off. She had once even skipped going home during the New Year to stay and work at the office.

“Sure, just submit a leave request in the system—I’ll approve it.”

He agreed readily, then casually asked, “Got something going on?”

Assistant Zhang: “My daughter is sick. I want to go check on her.”

Zaiye: “…Qian?”

Assistant Zhang: “Yes.”

Zaiye immediately stood up. “Forget the leave request. I’ll go with you.”

Since winter began, H City had been cold and damp. There had even been an early snowfall.

Qian had been ecstatic when it snowed. Tian Miao hadn’t been able to stop her from running wild in the snow for ages. It wasn’t until Tong Jianxu rushed over between filming breaks that he managed to scoop her up and bring her back inside.

She’d gotten all sweaty from playing and then caught a chill. The sudden temperature change made her sick.

It started with a high fever, which thankfully subsided quickly, but was followed by a persistent low-grade fever for three days. She had to go to the hospital for daily injections.

There were no hospitals near the new film lot—just two small clinics. Tong Jianxu didn’t trust them, so he drove an hour each way to the nearest hospital.

While sick, Qian became extra clingy. Whenever she didn’t see him, she’d whimper from discomfort, and sometimes cry in a daze.

Tong Jianxu wished he could stay by her side constantly, watching over her as she slept in his arms.

But the production was rushing to finish, and as the lead actor, he had scenes from morning till night.

Letting the assistant take the child to get injections alone made Tong Jianxu uneasy, so every day during lunch break, he would drive the child to the hospital himself, stay with her for the injection, then rush back to the set.

He also had to beg the director to shoot other scenes in the afternoon and shift his schedule a bit. Because of that, he often didn’t get back to the hotel until two or three in the morning.

Recently, many people in the crew had caught colds and were coughing. Tong Jianxu was terrified the child would catch something else and wanted her to rest at the hotel.

But the sick child was crying and clingy—not only did she insist on staying at the set, she refused to stay in the lounge and had to sit next to the director to watch her father.

This was the first time the Film Emperor had dealt with a sick child, and he looked even more haggard than she did.

When Zaiye and Assistant Zhang arrived and saw Tong Jianxu, they both felt he had lost quite a bit of weight since last time.

“What did the doctor say?” Zaiye first went to check on the sleeping child in the lounge.

“Cold from exposure. She’s had four days of injections already, still has a low-grade fever,” Tong Jianxu answered without energy, though his tone remained relatively calm.

It wasn’t just the child’s illness that had him anxious—the recent scenes in the drama were heavy. His role, Li Lingshu, was spiraling into madness. He was the type to be deeply affected by his characters, leaving his mood gloomy and his mental state poor. Even outside the scenes, the signs of exhaustion and frailty were evident.

Zaiye, for once, didn’t tease him and even offered some comfort.

“It’s okay. Kids get over fevers quickly. Back when… when Qian got sick for the first time, I was so nervous I almost cried carrying her to the hospital in the middle of the night.”

Both Assistant Zhang and Tong Jianxu turned to look at him, their expressions strange.

Zaiye said, “What? I was really young back then.”

At first, he’d been terrified by how quickly this little thing could fall ill. Later, when she got sick once or twice every year—just minor colds and fevers—he got used to it. He kept medicine at home and learned how to care for her, so he wasn’t as flustered anymore.

Now seeing Tong Jianxu in a complete panic, Zaiye couldn’t help feeling a little sympathetic—like comrades in arms.

“She’s not resting well here, and it’s not convenient for food or drink. I can take her back and look after her for a few days. Once she’s better, I’ll bring her back,” Zaiye offered.

Assistant Zhang, standing to the side, thought to herself: The boss is really playing the long game here.

Tong Jianxu glanced at Zaiye but surprisingly didn’t refuse right away. Instead, he gently touched the child’s forehead. When she blinked open her drowsy eyes, he let her see Zaiye.

“Daddy’s too busy lately and can’t take good care of you. Do you want to go stay with him for a few days?”

The sick child clung only to him and wouldn’t even let the assistant carry her. When the manager had come by earlier, she refused to go back to S City with her.

But this time, hearing his question and seeing Zaiye, the child nodded without hesitation. When Zaiye reached out to her, she let him hold her.

Even so, while being carried by Zaiye, she still held tightly to one of Tong Jianxu’s fingers with her small hand.

Tong Jianxu comforted her, “Be a good girl, okay? I’ll come pick you up in a few days.”

Zaiye wanted to say something like “Just focus on work, it’s okay if you don’t come pick her up,” but he held his tongue, afraid it would make the other man change his mind.

Tong Jianxu agreeing to let him take the child back for a few days was already more than he expected.

“You’ll take good care of Qian, right?” Tong Jianxu asked.

“Of course,” Zaiye replied.

After packing up some of the child’s daily necessities, Tong Jianxu saw them off.

Zaiye moved quickly with the child in his arms, and Assistant Zhang followed behind, feeling like he was worried the Film Emperor would come running after them to snatch the kid back.

“Boss, are we heading back to S City now?”

“No, to Ningshui.”

The house in Ningshui was regularly cleaned. Zaiye would sometimes return there to catch up with friends and stay at the place. But truthfully, he preferred living alone in the apartment near the company in S City.

The door swung open to reveal everything exactly as it had been a few years ago. Even on the sofa and in the cabinets, toys that his friends had once gifted Qian were still scattered everywhere.

Colorful furniture, every sharp corner covered for child safety, long-fiber carpets for crawling—all the corners of the house bore traces of a child’s life.

Qian had napped in the car and was feeling a bit better. When Zaiye set her down on the floor, she looked around at everything familiar and immediately padded off in her socks.

Zaiye instinctively called out, “Put your slippers on!”

The shoe cabinet had his black slippers and also children’s slippers in all colors, from when she was two up to six.

He took out a pair of strawberry ones, but Qian clung to the cabinet door and said, “I don’t want to wear those.”

Zaiye asked, “Which ones do you want?”

Qian thought for a moment. “The pumpkin ones.”

Zaiye: “You don’t have pumpkin shoes.”

Qian insisted, “Yes, I do!”

Not wanting to argue with his sick daughter, Zaiye rummaged through storage until he found the pumpkin shoes she mentioned—winter shoes, not slippers. They were from when she was six, so they were too big now.

But Qian wanted to wear them, so he let her.

Clomp, clomp, clomp—Qian wandered around the living room and kitchen, inspecting her long-lost domain like a little queen returning to her palace.

Zaiye caught her by the hat and carried her into her old bedroom.

“You’re still running around with a fever? Not feeling bad anymore, huh? Take off your coat and lie down.”

He tucked her under the warm covers.

“Do you want some water?”

Qian shook her head.

“Want something to eat?”

Still a shake of the head.

Zaiye didn’t say anything more, just sat at her bedside and watched her.

After a while, just as her eyelids were starting to droop, he spoke again.

“Why don’t you call me Daddy anymore?”

Qian opened her eyes and stared at his stern face.

“I’m not your daughter anymore… will you still want to be my daddy?”