Chapter 121
Outside the door came the chattering voices of the children.
“The door’s still closed!”
“Is Brother Xiao Qiao still asleep? Should we knock?”
“Let’s knock, right? Aunt Qin’s breakfast is almost ready!”
“But Aunt Zheng said to let Brother sleep a little longer. She said he was really, really tired yesterday…”
As if shocked by electricity, Lin Zhiqiao immediately let go of Song Fengshi’s hand.
A hint of laughter flashed through Song Fengshi’s eyes as he raised a hand to straighten Lin Zhiqiao’s slightly wrinkled collar.
“Let’s go,” he said.
Lin Zhiqiao gave a quiet “Mm.” Before the children outside the door could finish debating, he opened it first.
The children gathered outside all lifted their heads in unison.
Xu Mingyu, who was leading them, lit up at once and threw himself around Lin Zhiqiao’s leg, then let out a puzzled sound. “Brother Xiao Qiao, why are your lips so red?”
Lin Zhiqiao: “…”
Without changing expression, he said, “It’s an allergic reaction.”
Xu Mingyu let go of him in worry and immediately ran off. “I’m going to get medicine for Brother Xiao Qiao’s allergy!”
The other children scattered after him in a flurry.
Only then did Song Fengshi lean close to Lin Zhiqiao’s ear and speak in a low voice tinged with amusement. “Are you allergic to me?”
“Yes,” Lin Zhiqiao nodded, his face not red and his heartbeat not betraying him in the slightest. “So you can do it a few more times in the future. Maybe one day I’ll build up immunity.”
Song Fengshi had not expected that answer. He paused slightly, his gaze falling on the tips of the young man’s ears, already red to the point of transparency, and the smile in his eyes deepened.
The Lin family’s departure had not affected the filming at all. If anything, everyone felt even more at ease without them.
The final day of filming for One Family also came to a perfect close.
When it was time to part, Mother Song held Lin Zhiqiao’s hand warmly and invited him, “Have Xiao Shi bring you over to our home more often!”
Lin Zhiqiao felt a little embarrassed and nodded with reddened ears. “Okay.”
“Oh, but that’s not quite how to put it,” Mother Song added. “Now that you and Xiao Shi have made things official, why not just move in with us?”
Lin Zhiqiao: “…”
His ears turned completely red.
Song Fengshi sounded somewhat helpless. “Mom.”
Mother Song waved her hand cheerfully. “All right, all right, I’ll stop.”
Song Fengshi rubbed Lin Zhiqiao’s soft little curls. “That’s just her personality. Don’t take it too much to heart.” He paused, then added, “Though you can take it to heart too.”
Lin Zhiqiao did not understand what he meant at first.
So Song Fengshi explained softly, “If you want to… you can come anytime. It doesn’t matter how long you stay.”
Ji Ran could not help letting out a teasing, sing-song “Ooooh~” from the side, dragging out the ending in a way that was deeply suggestive.
Hearing the anticipation in Song Fengshi’s voice, Lin Zhiqiao suddenly wanted to laugh.
“There’ll be a chance,” he said.
Filming for One Family ended, but Lin Mubai’s situation was far from good.
Father Lin, Mother Lin, and Lin Chen had all been taken away by the police. Lin Juezhou, perhaps too overwhelmed by the shock, had locked himself in his room and refused to see anyone.
As for Lin Mubai…
The online backlash had almost driven him insane.
The glaring 999+ in his Weibo inbox—more than ninety-nine percent of it abuse directed at him. Those fans who had once loved him so fiercely now hated him just as intensely, tearing him apart with every insult.
Even the fan count that had once been his pride was now plummeting at an astonishing rate.
The entire internet was flooded with criticism. There was so much of it that Lin Mubai did not even dare turn on his phone. The slightest notification sound made his thoughts snap tight with tension, and he was too afraid to check who had sent it.
—Most likely a push notification, and probably something related to the Lin family.
Like a turtle hiding in its shell, Lin Mubai simply switched off his phone entirely, refusing to face everything that had already happened.
He could not understand how things had ended up like this.
It was only after night fell that Lin Mubai finally worked up the courage to turn his phone back on.
There were countless missed calls and unread messages—so many that the phone lagged for a long time before finally returning to normal.
Lin Mubai was so frightened he nearly shut it off again on the spot, but the next second, the ringtone rang out.
It was his manager, Zhao Ming.
After hesitating for a long time, Lin Mubai answered.
Contrary to the furious tirade he had imagined, Zhao Ming’s voice sounded relatively calm.
“Where are you right now?” Zhao Ming asked.
“At home…” Lin Mubai answered, as if grabbing at a lifeline. “Brother Ming, what am I supposed to do now?”
Zhao Ming did not answer directly. Instead, he said, “There’s going to be a press conference in a few days. Get yourself ready.”
“No! I’m not going!!” Lin Mubai reacted violently. “Brother Ming! Everyone online is cursing me right now. If I go to a press conference, I’ll just be walking into my own death!”
“You have to go,” Zhao Ming said firmly. “Mubai, listen to me. The abuse online is aimed at your parents, not you. As long as you insist you knew nothing and that you’re innocent too, this situation is not impossible to salvage.”
Lin Mubai’s breathing caught, and for a moment he said nothing.
“Listen to me. I’ll go contact the reporters and arrange the press conference right away. Tomorrow, you go back to the set and focus on filming,” Zhao Ming continued, his tone easing somewhat. “A lot of your fans are career fans. As long as you deliver work they’re satisfied with, they may not abandon you over this. It might even strengthen their loyalty.”
Zhao Ming lowered his voice. “Beautiful, strong, tragic—you know the type, right? You had no choice in the kind of family you were born into. And if you can rise from the ashes in such an extreme environment—”
With a thump, Lin Mubai heard his own heartbeat.
He was tempted.
But in the very next second, cold reality doused him like a bucket of icy water.
Zhao Ming’s plan was good, but he could not do it.
He no longer had the acting ability to satisfy his career fans.
Lin Mubai opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Zhao Ming had already made the decision final. “It’s settled then. Prepare yourself well.”
The sharp beep-beep-beep from the receiver matched Lin Mubai’s state of mind exactly.
Early the next morning, Lin Mubai returned to Director Tang’s film set.
He had not been on set for quite some time because of filming One Family.
The moment he appeared, the entire place seemed to fall into an unspoken silence.
Even though he had already prepared himself mentally, the stares from those around him still felt painfully sharp.
Forcing himself to ignore them, he found the busy Director Tang. “Director Tang, I’m back.”
Director Tang looked up and swept a glance over him. “Good timing. I was just about to look for you. Come with me.”
With that, he stood and headed toward the lounge.
Lin Mubai followed after him, unease growing stronger and stronger in his chest, as if something bad was about to happen.
—For once, his bad feeling was absolutely accurate.
After entering the lounge, Director Tang pulled out a contract from the cabinet, slapped it onto the table, and said, “Lin Mubai, terminate the contract.”
Lin Mubai froze on the spot.
Director Tang’s tone left no room for argument. “I’ll inform your manager later. Before this turns even uglier—”
He did not phrase it too harshly, but every word still stabbed straight into Lin Mubai’s chest, hurting so much he almost wished he could faint on the spot.
After saying all that, Director Tang left the lounge, closing the door behind him as if preserving the last bit of dignity for the other party.
But Lin Mubai clearly had no intention of accepting that so-called kindness.
He stood there blankly for a long time, then suddenly lifted his leg and kicked over the stool beside him.
After suppressing himself for so long, Lin Mubai could not hold it in anymore. He let his emotions take over completely and vented wildly.
And in that fit of emotional collapse, he failed to notice that at some point the lounge door had been pushed open just a crack, with the gleam of a camera lens flickering faintly behind it.
Several days later, at the press conference venue.
Lin Mubai arrived as scheduled and sat in the dressing room while the makeup artist worked on him. Reflected in the mirror was a face that looked absolutely terrible.
His complexion was deathly pale, his eyes lifeless, and beneath them hung two absurdly heavy dark circles. Even the silky, glossy hair he had once been so proud of now looked dull and dry, like a patch of withered grass.
Zhao Ming stood nearby and instructed, “Don’t make him look too healthy.”
Playing the victim was one of today’s key strategies.
At that moment, the Alluring Protagonist System once again tried to stop him—who knew how many times by now. Host, a press conference is not the best option. You—
Lin Mubai cut it off. Improve myself and use my strength to speak later, right?
The system responded, …Yes.
Lin Mubai tugged at the corner of his mouth, as if trying to smile, but what emerged looked uglier than crying. I can’t wait that long.
The system fell silent.
It knew this was the last time it would try to persuade him.
The press conference began on time. Zhao Ming had arranged several reporters for Lin Mubai in advance; those reporters would ask leading questions and guide the event in a direction favorable to him.
Lin Mubai had also prepared his answers beforehand. If everything went smoothly, once this press conference ended, he would be able to wash away most of the stain on his name and even gain a perfect excuse for his current poor condition.
But things did not develop in the best possible direction.
After several rounds of normal questions, one reporter in the front row suddenly struck. “May I ask whether the video circulating online of you losing your temper and smashing things is real? Were you dissatisfied because Director Tang replaced you?”
At that instant, Lin Mubai’s mind went completely blank.
Perhaps out of regard for past feelings, Director Tang had not yet publicly announced the replacement of the lead role. Lin Mubai had originally planned to wait until after the press conference, then announce it himself, saying his condition was poor and he did not want to disappoint his fans—thus framing it as a voluntary withdrawal rather than being forced out.
But now—
After numbly answering the last question, Lin Mubai practically fled backstage.
Zhao Ming rushed over with his phone. “Someone secretly filmed you.”
Lin Mubai instinctively looked down, only to see the video of him losing control in the lounge. The footage was crystal clear, impossible to refute. The glaring red headline was painful to look at—
Shocking! The gentle and elegant persona was all fake! This is Lin Mubai’s true face!!!
And that was not all. There were also many photos and videos of Lin Mubai behaving ambiguously with numerous different people, all now being exposed one after another.
The comments section beneath the video had already become a disaster zone.
Lin Mubai’s expression is terrifying. [shivering.jpg]
So his good temper before was all an act… When he loses it and smashes things like that, does he seriously not have anger issues??
My heart aches for the janitors who had to clean that up. That’s miserable.
So he just smashes things and leaves? Doesn’t even pay for the damage?!
Good grief, so Lin Mubai has been stringing along all these people all this time.
As long as the relationship never gets clearly defined, they can all stay “good brothers”—is that the idea? [stunned.jpg]
Hilarious. He said in the livestream press conference that he was innocent, but looking at him like this, I absolutely don’t believe he’s innocent.
All those big shots who used to shower Lin Mubai with support have all unfollowed him now. It’s hilarious—just look at how fast they run when things go bad. [eye-opener.jpg]
…
And there were even more vicious comments and insults.
Lin Mubai nearly hurled the phone back into Zhao Ming’s hands as a broken, beast-like sob tore out of him.
The reporters had still not left. The chaotic noise outside made it feel like his head was about to explode.
Trembling, Lin Mubai clutched his head, then suddenly turned and ran, unable to remain one second longer in that suffocating place.
Outside the venue, besides the reporters, there were also countless gawkers gathered behind the barricades.
The moment they saw Lin Mubai rush out, someone in the crowd started shouting, “Fraud! Green tea bitch! Homewrecker! Third party!!!”
Lin Mubai screamed in collapse, “Stop shouting! Stop shouting!!!”
But of course, that did nothing.
By the time Zhao Ming finally caught up with him, Lin Mubai was crouched on the ground, covered in rotten vegetable leaves and foul eggs that someone had thrown at him. A disgusting stench clung to him, almost unbearable.
Zhao Ming thought that if it were not for that disgusting smell acting like “protective armor,” Lin Mubai would probably already have been torn to pieces by furious anti-fans.
In the end, Zhao Ming drove Lin Mubai home.
Lin Mubai stayed silent the entire ride. Only when he got out of the car did he finally ask, “Brother Ming… what am I supposed to do?”
Zhao Ming did not answer. He only said, “Get some rest.”
As for the future… with things having turned out like this, there would be no future anymore.
Lin Mubai caught the implication in Zhao Ming’s tone. He wanted to press further, but the other man had already stepped on the accelerator and driven away.
Lin Mubai stood in a daze at the gate of the Lin residence for a long time, until the door opened from inside and he finally came back to himself.
The one who opened the door was Lin Juezhou.
Seeing his second brother—the brother who had always cherished him and could not bear for him to suffer even the slightest grievance—Lin Mubai’s accumulated sense of injustice completely broke loose.
He threw himself into Lin Juezhou’s arms and cried so hard he could not stop, until at last he ran out of energy and the tears stopped on their own. Only then did Lin Mubai realize something was wrong.
Lin Juezhou, the second brother who had always doted on him, had not spoken a single word of comfort even after seeing him cry in such misery.
Lin Mubai lifted his head, his face pale as he said, “Second Brother?”
Lin Juezhou lowered his eyes to look at him, saying nothing.
“I’m hurting so much, Second Brother.” Lin Mubai sniffled, and tears poured down again at once. “None of them believe me. They’re all cursing me. You’re all I have left, Second Brother. Even if we’re not related by blood, you’re still my brother—”
Lin Juezhou interrupted him. “Is that really true?”
Lin Mubai’s sobbing halted. “Second Brother… what do you mean?”
“Dad, Mom, and Eldest Brother have all been taken away by the police.” Lin Juezhou spoke in a flat tone, slow and soft. “All this time, have you ever thought about them? Thought about doing anything for them? Or even just going to see them, asking how they’re doing in there…”
“Have you?”
Lin Mubai’s face turned stark white. “I-I did think about them, of course I did. I just… I just…”
“Too busy?” Lin Juezhou supplied.
Lin Mubai nodded rapidly. “Yes, I-I was too busy. I had too many things to deal with—”
“Busy trying to clear your own name and wash your own hands clean? Dad and Mom may have done wrong, but the love they gave you was never fake. And now, the moment something happens, this is how quickly you avoid them?” Lin Juezhou said softly. “Mubai, you make me feel strange and… afraid.”
He looked at Lin Mubai with eyes as cold as if he were looking at an unrelated stranger.
“I’m not your brother. And you are not my brother either.”
“Don’t come to me again.”
