Chapter 25
Lin Zhiqiao fell into deep thought.
A three-meter-tall building?
He measured it with his eyes. It looked like… maybe only about two stories high?
Lin Zhiqiao: “…”
Seriously?!
Ji Ran waved everyone inside, and Lin Zhiqiao briefly pulled his attention back.
In order to let everyone relax and enjoy themselves freely, Father Ji and Mother Ji were not at home. They had left all the time and space to the young people.
The butler and housekeepers had already prepared a lavish dinner, and the coffee table in the living room was also piled full of snacks, fruit tea, and treats for the guests.
Lin Zhiqiao grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds and, unable to resist, clicked into that trending topic anyway—
[Cheng Li is suspected of attempting suicide. He leapt from a three-meter-high building. Fortunately, his life was not in danger, and he was promptly sent to the hospital by the police…]
Everyone around him almost simultaneously pricked up their ears.
Hm? There was gossip?
[According to people at the scene, Cheng Li looked half-crazed at the time and kept shouting things like “I’m not from this world! I want to go home! Let me go home!” It seems the blow from his downfall may have been so severe that he’s lost his mind…]
[The hell do you mean lost his mind, hahaha! If Cheng Li knew you were talking about him like this, he really might lose his mind, hahahaha!]
Lin Zhiqiao did his best to keep a calm face and cracked open another sunflower seed.
[So when he transmigrated here, it was because he slipped and fell from the second floor, and now he thinks if he falls from the second floor again, he’ll be able to return to his original world?]
Lin Zhiqiao clicked his tongue twice. [He still hasn’t accepted that this world is real? Transmigration isn’t as simple as you think it is!]
Everyone around him was shocked at the same time. When they looked at each other, they could see the same astonishment in one another’s eyes.
Transmigration?
Was it the kind of transmigration they were all thinking of?
But they did not dwell on it for long. Very quickly, they accepted this unbelievable fact, and not one of them even questioned whether it was true.
—After all, something like hearing another person’s inner thoughts had already happened to them. At this point, there was basically nothing left in this world worth making a fuss over!
So everyone continued holding their breath, waiting for the next part of the gossip.
[Wait, shouldn’t Cheng Li still be in detention right now? How did he find a chance to sneak out?]
Lin Zhiqiao was so startled that even the sunflower seeds in his hand dropped.
888 thought for a moment and said, [Maybe it was something like one of the special skill cards he exchanged for before?]
Lin Zhiqiao looked blank. [Didn’t you say they all stop working after the system unbinds?]
[The buff-type cheats used directly on the body all become invalid, but some special skill cards can remain effective for a limited amount of time.] 888 explained. [Cards like those are usually one-time use only, and they come with restriction conditions. They also won’t obviously exceed the technological level of this world.]
Lin Zhiqiao nodded to show he understood.
The report on the hot search was not detailed, and after only eating half the melon, Lin Zhiqiao was already itching for more. So he set his sights on the Designated Gossip Card again.
He had already saved up quite a lot of favorability points, so exchanging for one card would not hurt that much.
He hesitated for less than a second before clicking exchange—
[Cheng Li found a chance to leap off the second floor, and unfortunately fractured his right leg. After being sent to the hospital for treatment, he was placed in a special ward… whoa! They even installed iron bars on the windows! Is that to stop him from trying any more free-fall exercises?]
[I really feel for the police officers. Getting stuck with a detainee like this and then running into this kind of bullshit too—they’ve got it way too rough!]
Everyone nodded in agreement.
A menace was still a menace. No matter where he went, he could not hide his true nature.
[Eh? Cheng Li’s mother went to visit him? Tsk tsk, what deep mother-son love. She’s already unable to care for herself, yet she still remembers to visit her son… oh, so she went there to ask for money. Never mind then.]
[Cheng Qiang has already gone inside to sew prison uniforms, but the loan sharks outside still haven’t been paid back. The debt collectors found Cheng Li’s mother, and now Cheng Li’s mother has gone to find Cheng Li. A father’s debt paid by the son—that’s the logic, I guess.]
[The moment Mother Cheng entered the room, she started asking for money. While crying, she said, “You’re so famous, you must’ve earned a lot of money! Save your mother! Those people are going to beat me to death!”]
[Cheng Li is still immersed in the grief of not being able to go home. He’s crying and laughing at the same time: “Your son is already dead! I’m not your son! He’s already dead, hahaha!”]
[The fight is getting pretty intense… definite proof now that this mother-son relationship is made of plastic… whoa! They’ve actually started throwing hands!]
Lin Zhiqiao loved chaos when it wasn’t happening to him. [Damn it, something this exciting and I can only watch the text version? What a waste!]
Everyone nodded. They could not have agreed more.
[Mother Cheng slaps him across the face and yells, “How did I give birth to such an ungrateful white-eyed wolf! I worked so hard to raise you this big, and you won’t even help your father pay back his debts!”]
Lin Zhiqiao cried out excitedly: [Great scolding!]
[Cheng Li gets slapped stupid, flies into a rage, and throws back a textbook left hook straight into Mother Cheng’s jaw!]
Lin Zhiqiao clapped like a delighted seal: [Great punch!]
The battle between mother and son did not last very long. The police officer nearby stepped in to break it up, only to unfortunately take a few punches himself.
[Poor officer. Total innocent victim in all this…] Lin Zhiqiao shook his head. [If I remember right, assaulting the police does get you sentenced. Good, good, good—so the family of three is having a reunion in prison, huh?]
[What a moving family of three! So touching it could shake heaven and weep ghosts!]
Once Lin Zhiqiao finished narrating this wonderful farce live, the others who had piggybacked on the melon all wiped their mouths in satisfaction and left behind one unified review—
They brought it on themselves and deserved no sympathy.
With such a huge melon to spice things up, the atmosphere of the celebration gathering became even more lively.
After the party ended, everyone asked Cheng Xia when he planned to sign with a new company.
Cheng Xia did not hide it. “I’m already preparing and making contact.” After thinking for a moment, he decided to reveal a little in advance. “Director Xu has been preparing a survival variety show recently, right?”
“I’ve already signed up.”
*
After the Ji family dinner gathering ended, Lin Zhiqiao was still busy with moving-related matters. He had gone to inspect many places in person, but still had not found a residence that made him fall in love at first sight.
Then one day, just after entering the door and taking off his cap and mask, he received a life-and-death serial call from his manager Wu Yuan.
Lin Zhiqiao’s mood instantly dropped a little.
“What is it?” he asked.
Wu Yuan said, “Get yourself ready. Be downstairs at the company by six. There’s a dinner gathering.”
Dinner gathering = free dinner + a huge amount of gossip.
Lin Zhiqiao immediately lit up with joy and agreed without hesitation. “Okay, okay, okay! I’ll definitely be there on time!”
888 was thrilled. [A feast of gossip!]
Lin Zhiqiao was excited too. [Exactly!!!]
His rental place was a little far from the company, so Lin Zhiqiao arrived almost exactly on time. Wu Yuan had clearly already been waiting for quite a while.
“What are you dawdling for?! Everyone’s waiting for you!” Wu Yuan waved at him from inside the car. “Get in, quick!”
Lin Zhiqiao gave an “oh” and quickly climbed into the car.
There were already several people seated inside. It did not surprise Lin Zhiqiao in the least to find that basically all of the artists under Wu Yuan were there.
Wu Yuan looked him over critically twice. “You’re wearing that?”
Lin Zhiqiao lowered his head.
Loose hoodie, casual pants—an energetic, youthful outfit, very fresh and college-boy-like.
Then he looked at everyone else in the car—
Every one of them was dressed like peacocks in mating season. Hair waxed, perfume sprayed, suits put on, some even secretly contouring their hairlines…
Lin Zhiqiao: “…”
[This doesn’t look like going out to eat. It looks like going on blind dates.]
Everyone else: “…”
You really are the only one here who thinks this is just dinner, huh!
Lin Zhiqiao tentatively suggested, “If it really won’t do, should I go to the company and rent an outfit from someone now?”
Wu Yuan let out a cold snort, said no more, slammed the gas pedal, and set off immediately.
Lin Zhiqiao secretly let out a sigh of relief.
[Thank goodness. The free dinner has been saved!]
Wu Yuan was almost laughed into anger by him. He instructed them word by word, “There will be quite a few big shots at tonight’s dinner. Be proactive. Think more about your own future.”
He glanced at the rearview mirror inside the car. His gaze swept over Lin Zhiqiao in the back seat, almost spelling it out openly. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch. If you want to get what you want, then you’ll definitely have to sacrifice something.”
“You’re all adults. Learn to weigh the pros and cons yourselves.”
Everyone in the car clearly understood Wu Yuan’s hint.
Only Lin Zhiqiao remained as carefree and heartless as ever: [A lot of big shots? Good, good, good. This round of gossip-eating is guaranteed!]
Where there were many people, there was gossip.
And this was even more true for the entertainment industry’s capital backers, who were covered in melons from head to toe.
Lin Zhiqiao rubbed his hands together eagerly.
[A grand feast of gossip! Here I come!]
