Chapter 11
It had already been more than two years since Cheng Xia’s incident.
Lin Zhiqiao’s memory of it was no longer that clear, so he had 888 help him look up the reports from back then.
Two years ago, Cheng Xia had taken part in an idol survival variety show. He had excellent looks, strong professional ability, and was low-key, humble, and hardworking, earning widespread praise from viewers. Even quite a few of his competitors had given him extremely high praise.
At the time, Cheng Xia had fought his way out from among more than a hundred trainees. His popularity had always remained in the top tier and had never once dropped out of it.
That program was very well produced, and Cheng Xia became famous because of it. During that period, he was explosively popular across the whole internet—if you walked down the street, you could practically hear his name everywhere.
However, just before the final debut stage, Cheng Xia’s image collapsed.
His uncle went to the filming site of the show and tearfully claimed that after Cheng Xia’s parents died, they had kindly taken him in and raised him for more than ten years. But now the family was in trouble: his aunt had gotten into an accident and was lying in the hospital, yet Cheng Xia would not even answer a single phone call, let alone go see her even once!
He also said that some time earlier, he had gone to Cheng Xia and hoped Cheng Xia could lend the family some money first for the emergency, promising they would pay it back later. But Cheng Xia had directly thrown him out the door and completely ignored whether his aunt lived or died! He had truly had no other choice, so he was forced to make a big scene out of it.
The moment this news was exposed, the uncle and aunt’s family won deep sympathy, and Cheng Xia was immediately spat on by the entire internet!
“Ungrateful white-eyed wolf” became a label that could never be washed off him. The boy who had once been praised as the “Son of God” fell from the altar and became a rat everyone despised.
In the end, Cheng Xia’s popularity plummeted. He did not even get the chance to stand on the final stage and was forcibly withdrawn from the competition by the production team.
Ji Ran could not help glancing at Cheng Xia several times and said with emotion, “Back then Cheng Xia was really huge. He came out of our Mingguang base. At first the company had planned to heavily push another trainee, but Cheng Xia, this dark horse, suddenly shot out of nowhere. As soon as the first episode aired, he exploded all over the internet and caught everyone completely off guard…”
He sighed. “At the time, he was the goal for all of us. His ability was beyond question, and he was also incredibly good at attracting fans. If that incident hadn’t broken out, Cheng Xia would probably already be top-tier now, right? Who would’ve thought that in the end…”
Ji Ran did not finish the sentence. Lin Zhiqiao asked curiously, “What happened after that? Did the situation ever reverse?”
“Probably not? I never heard about any reversal.” Ji Ran said, “If there had been one, it would’ve happened a long time ago. It’s already been two years and there’s still no news… hard to say.”
Lin Zhiqiao let out an “oh,” then could not resist poking open a gossip blind box.
[The old security guard staying up deep into the night is actually doing this kind of thing—]
[A certain trainee, in order to prove how big his mouth is, stuffed a lightbulb into it and couldn’t get it back out.]
[A certain trainee went to colorectal emergency and claimed that while he was sleeping, a fish swam into his body.]
Lin Zhiqiao, stubbornly refusing to give up: “…”
What kind of shabby little melons growing out of random dark corners are these?!
Ji Ran, forced to listen to the gossip: “…………”
I want to escape, but I can’t.jpg
The designated gossip card in the system shop was too expensive, and Lin Zhiqiao did not have enough shop points, so he could only give up for now.
[Was there really no reversal at all…]
Lin Zhiqiao was still unwilling to give up. His many years of gossip-eating experience told him that this melon had not yet reached its end.
Ji Ran suddenly pulled him.
Lin Zhiqiao stepped aside and looked up blankly. “What’s wrong?”
Then he saw Cheng Xia walk past them. He seemed to glance in their direction, but his slightly long bangs covered his eyes, making it impossible to tell what emotions were hidden there.
After Cheng Xia walked far away, Ji Ran muttered, “That scared me. I thought he was going to…”
Ji Ran did not finish the sentence and pulled Lin Zhiqiao toward the training building.
*
The next two days of training did not go very smoothly.
Although both were still dance, boy group dance and girl group dance were not the same after all. Even after practicing for days, Ji Ran still had not managed to find the right feeling.
Not to mention the others.
Tang Zhou came from a modeling background. He was tall, with long arms and even longer legs, and when he danced it was practically a disaster. He had even tripped over his own feet and fallen flat on level ground before.
Jiang Qianqian, Pei Ning, and the others were women, but none of them had learned dance before, so they stumbled along awkwardly. Running into each other during formation changes was an everyday occurrence.
Wen Li was relatively better off. She was a figure skater and had some dance foundation, so her progress was the second fastest among the six of them.
And Lin Zhiqiao unexpectedly became the one making the fastest progress.
‘Does anyone else think Xiao Qiao dancing girl group choreo doesn’t feel out of place at all? It actually looks pretty nice [starry eyes.jpg]’
‘Well, he graduated from Nandu Dance Academy. I heard his major was classical dance’
‘Any Nandu Dance student who graduates successfully probably won’t have weak fundamentals, right?’
‘I understand all that, but why has there been no melon to eat these past few days [hungry raccoon dog roaring.jpg]’
‘Days without melon are unbearably lonely, sigh’
‘Holy shit! Everyone go look at the hot search! There’s new gossip!!’
The training in the studio was interrupted.
The one who came was Fang Xinnan. He had rarely appeared in front of the camera over the past two days, yet now, against all odds, he showed up.
“Ji Ran, come with me for a moment.”
“Huh? Me?” Ji Ran followed him out with a baffled look.
Lin Zhiqiao heard the girl group trainees in the same studio whispering among themselves. “Weibo… did you see it? Ji Ran, he…”
Their voices were too low for Lin Zhiqiao to hear clearly, so he simply opened Weibo’s hot search.
#JiRanSeenActingIntimatelyWithUnknownRichWomanSuspectedOfBeingKeptBySugarMommy# (Explosive)
Lin Zhiqiao: pupil earthquake!!!
What melon had he missed?!
But after he clicked into the post and saw the photos and text—
Lin Zhiqiao: “…”
He could not help commenting inwardly: [Turns out I was there at the scene too.]
The whispering around him abruptly stopped, and several subtle gazes quietly landed on him.
[This so-called unknown rich woman even called Ji Ran “good baby.” She was petting his head and hugging him too. That’s not ordinary intimacy.]
[Oh right, she hugged me too.]
Everyone else: “???”
So it was a three-person scenario?!
[But isn’t this Ji Ran’s mother?! Who exactly buys this kind of black hot search that falls apart the second you poke it? Do they not have a single brain cell?]
[Oh, it’s Yuan Yu. Never mind then. He doesn’t deserve to have a brain.]
After eating a bite of fake gossip, Lin Zhiqiao saw that people were already starting to clarify the relationship between Ji Ran and the “unknown rich woman,” so he prepared to close Weibo.
But his hand slipped, and he clicked into a new push notification instead.
It was a post from the president of the Ji Group: “Can you guess how I felt waking up and seeing candid photos of my wife and son on Weibo? [smile.jpg]”
Lin Zhiqiao nodded inwardly. Exactly, exactly.
Wait, Ji Group?
Ji Ran was actually the young master of the Ji family?!
If Lin Zhiqiao remembered correctly, the Ji family had only one son. And half a year ago, rumors had suddenly spread online that the Ji family’s young master was actually not the biological child of Mr. and Mrs. Ji!
But whether he was biological or not, the Ji couple very obviously adored Ji Ran. Both of them openly supported their child, and Mother Ji had even personally jumped into the fray and fought three hundred rounds in the comment section with some of the netizens who insulted Ji Ran the fiercest.
They were both wealthy families, yet the difference between the Lin family and the Ji couple was honestly far too great.
Lin Zhiqiao pursed his lips slightly and casually opened another blind box—
[After discovering that the child they had raised for nearly twenty years had no blood relation to them at all, Mr. and Mrs. Ji had constantly been searching for a type O blood boy born around June 6, nineteen years ago…]
[Oh, so it looks like the babies got switched at birth. Fake-young-master-and-true-young-master drama is really happening right beside me!]
[According to my many years of reading novels, there’s a fifty percent chance that in this kind of true-and-fake young master story, one is the protagonist and the other is the villain.]
[As for the remaining fifty percent, the true and fake young masters get along like real brothers—and in around twenty percent of those cases, they get along so well they end up rolling into the same bed—]
At that moment, Ji Ran pushed the door open. “Lin. Zhi. Qiao!”
Lin Zhiqiao felt guilty for a second but forced himself to stay calm. “W-what is it?”
Ji Ran took a deep breath. “Nothing. I just wanted to compliment you. Your split is pretty impressive.”
Lin Zhiqiao let out an “oh” and silently drew his leg back in.
[Does the Ji family’s real young master not have any obvious identifying features? Like a birthmark or something? With only this much information, finding him is basically like searching for a needle in the sea… huh?]
Lin Zhiqiao suddenly froze.
[The Ji family’s real young master… is at Mingguang Base right now?!]
