Chapter 33
Ji Yuan cried so hard it was earth-shattering. Tears came streaming down in an instant—she was clearly heartbroken to the extreme.
Ji Ran: “…”
At this point, he could not think of anything comforting to say either.
Ji Yuan’s tearful complaints had stirred up his own painful memories. The moment he thought about how he and Ji Yuan had gone through almost the exact same thing, he too felt his nose turn sour and the urge to cry well up faintly.
Ji Ran had already accepted the fact that his ex was a scumbag.
But a first love too shameful to show anyone was a black history that lasted a lifetime. Ji Ran felt he might never truly get over that for the rest of his life.
Ji Yuan was still bawling beside him.
In a muffled voice, Ji Ran said, “…Stop crying.”
But Ji Yuan was crying too hard to hear him.
Ji Ran: “…”
If he could not persuade her, then he would give up persuading.
He chose to join in.
Seeing aunt and nephew clutching their heads and crying together, everyone looked at one another.
[Who doesn’t have an ex they can’t proudly show off!] Lin Zhiqiao calmly gnawed on a skewer. [Ah, of course, that excludes those who’ve been single from birth.]
The certain people present who had indeed been single from birth were suddenly pierced through the chest by arrows out of nowhere, and all fell speechless.
Fortunately, Ji Ran and Ji Yuan calmed down fairly quickly.
On the drive home, in order to make sure the road was safe, Cheng Xia quite proactively took over the role of driver.
Ji Yuan sat by the car window, her gaze fixed outside, the melancholy in her eyes still refusing to fade.
Ji Ran had already composed himself and opened his mouth to comfort her. “Don’t be too upset. You should be glad you found out early and could stop your losses in time. If it had really gone as far as meeting the parents or even marriage later…”
Ji Yuan shuddered. “Stop! Don’t say any more!”
She did not dare imagine it—if she had never discovered the truth and had stayed in the dark the whole time, even actually walking all the way to marriage with Xu Mu’an—
Ji Yuan squeezed her eyes shut hard.
That would have been way too terrifying!!!
Ji Ran slapped her shoulder hard.
Out of everyone present, he was undoubtedly the one who understood Ji Yuan’s feelings best.
In the tone of someone who had already been through it, Ji Ran said, “You’re still young. If you want to date, just find another one. What’s the big deal?”
Lin Zhiqiao nodded. [Exactly, exactly. There are plenty of good men out there. The next one will be even better. There’s no need to hang yourself on one crooked dead tree.]
Hearing his inner voice, Ji Yuan suddenly turned her head, looking past Ji Ran beside her toward Lin Zhiqiao on the other side.
Her lips pressed tightly together, and faint moisture seemed to shimmer once more in her wide, round eyes.
888 suddenly spoke up: [Favorability from Ji Yuan +10 +20 +30… favorability has reached full value. Overflowing favorability will now automatically be stored in the transfer station!]
Lin Zhiqiao: “?”
It filled instantly—no, no, had it directly broken past the cap?!
His heart skipped a beat, afraid Ji Yuan was about to jump from one pit straight into another.
So he hurried to explain, “Don’t look at me. I’m not an option.” He said that, then fearing Ji Yuan might misunderstand, quickly added, “I’m like Xu Mu’an too… no, I mean, I’m like you. I also like men.”
Ji Yuan: “…”
In an instant, she did not know whether to laugh or cry. The heavy sadness in her heart lightened quite a bit.
“Don’t worry, that’s not what I meant.” Ji Yuan let out a long breath. “Anyway, about today… thank you very much to you… all.”
Faced with Ji Yuan’s sincere gaze, Lin Zhiqiao instead felt a little embarrassed.
[No need to thank me, really… I was mainly there for the gossip and just happened to make up the numbers.]
[Though to be fair, the Ji family really does get information quickly. If it had been some ordinary girl from an ordinary family, she probably really would’ve had a much harder time seeing a scumbag’s true face.]
Ji Yuan said nothing more.
She withdrew her gaze and looked once more at the scenery racing backward outside the car window.
Lin Zhiqiao had no idea they could all hear his inner thoughts, so of course he would never know that the reason Ji Yuan learned about Xu Mu’an’s secrets had actually not depended on the Ji family’s power at all.
Not long after, Ji Yuan received a call from Zhou Ci.
Under the eager gazes of a whole car full of people, Ji Yuan simply switched it to speaker.
“Zhang Ziqin doesn’t have any major injuries, just flesh wounds,” Zhou Ci said from the other end. “As for Xu Mu’an…”
He paused before continuing, “The doctor’s exact words were: the organ can be preserved, but as for whether it will still function… hard to say.”
Hearing this tragically painful piece of news, everyone in the car revealed smiles that were both sorrowful and happy at once.
If you don’t go looking for trouble, trouble won’t find you.
Sadly, there were always some people in this world who found it very hard to understand such a simple truth.
*
After returning home, Ji Yuan took a shower, then threw herself hard onto the soft sofa.
Everything that had happened today felt like a dream to her.
Only one day ago, she had still been sweetly in love with her boyfriend. Who could possibly have guessed that in just one single day, she and Xu Mu’an would break up in such a disastrous way?
—Of course, with a piece of trash like Xu Mu’an, breaking up was only a matter of time sooner or later.
But clearly, not everyone got the chance to experience such a breathtakingly dramatic breakup scene.
Ji Yuan hugged a huge cushion for a while, then suddenly threw it away.
The scumbag had bought it. She did not want to hold it.
With a quick movement, Ji Yuan sat upright again and looked around the room, immediately spotting many familiar things.
There were many reasons not to sleep in the middle of the night.
Some people soaked in the sweet joy of first love. Some fought with their partner and were too angry to sleep.
Ji Yuan chose to clear out every single thing remotely connected to that scumbag.
Only when she truly started sorting everything did Ji Yuan realize that after dating for four years, Xu Mu’an had actually not given her that many things.
Xu Mu’an had never hidden his family situation from her.
Ji Yuan knew his background was not as good as hers, so whenever money was involved, she had always taken care of him in every possible way. Because of that, even when he casually gave her a small gift, she had been overjoyed.
Thinking back on it now, she was simply stupid to the extreme.
People always said the person inside the situation was confused while outsiders saw clearly. Ji Yuan thought that perhaps she herself was exactly that confused fool—the kind who could be sold off and would still happily help count the money.
If not for Lin Zhiqiao… she probably had no idea how much longer that scumbag would have kept deceiving her.
Right!
Lin Zhiqiao!
Ji Yuan, who had just sat down after finishing tidying up, sprang back up as though shocked by electricity. In hurried steps she rushed into the study and connected her beloved camera to the computer.
In the recycle bin lay more than a hundred photos she had deleted.
Aside from some that really were useless shots, Ji Yuan quickly restored all the others.
They were all photos of Lin Zhiqiao that she had taken unconsciously.
At the time, Ji Yuan’s heart had been full of hostility toward Lin Zhiqiao. Her photographer’s instincts made her unable to stop herself from taking the shots, but keeping them made her feel uncomfortable, so after taking them she deleted all of them.
Luckily, the recycle bin only auto-cleared after three days. The photos she had deleted were still there and had not yet been permanently erased.
Ji Yuan looked through the photos one by one, and the excitement rising inside her pressed back all the fatigue in her body.
—Ji Ran had been right.
Only after personally getting in contact with someone could you know what kind of person they really were.
After these past two days of contact, Ji Yuan had already faintly realized that labels like terrible acting, strange personality, violent temper, and lashes out physically at the slightest disagreement…
did not stick to Lin Zhiqiao at all.
On the contrary, during these two days of shooting for Four Seasons, Ji Yuan had watched the entire process very clearly, and Lin Zhiqiao was actually the one who had performed best out of everyone.
His acting was not bad at all. Though still a little green, he was extremely expressive. Even in shots only a few seconds long, he could express the required emotion very well.
As for his personality…
Ji Yuan thought back to the last two days.
Honestly speaking, because of her earlier prejudice, she and Lin Zhiqiao had not even exchanged a single sentence.
But then again.
Compared to spoken words, what someone thought in their heart was a far better reflection of their true character.
And quite coincidentally, over the past two days Ji Yuan had heard nearly all of Lin Zhiqiao’s inner thoughts.
Aside from the fact that his mental activity was far too rich and dense, that every so often he popped out some strange comments that were hard for people to handle, and those gossip items of his, each one precise enough to make people stop breathing, and no one knew where he even got them from…
Lin Zhiqiao really was an extremely normal human being.
Completely unlike the “weirdo species” the marketing accounts had described.
What was more, Lin Zhiqiao had also helped her tremendously.
Now that she had cast aside the tinted glasses she used to look at him through, Ji Yuan found herself satisfied with him from every angle.
His appearance landed exactly on her aesthetic taste. When he moved during sports, he carried a full sense of youthful boyishness. His acting was not bad either. And that perfect lean musculature she absolutely could not resist—
He was simply her dream bias!
The low mood of heartbreak vanished completely. Ji Yuan covered her face, feeling only burning cheeks and a heart full of excitement. Looking at the nearly perfect photos on the screen, she could not stop screaming inwardly.
So what if it was a dual bias?!
She could handle it!!!
A blazing fire burst from Ji Yuan’s eyes. She immediately opened her editing software and decided that tonight she would not sleep at all!
Tonight was the final battle night!
Right now she was so powerful that even she herself was afraid!!!
*
The next day.
Lin Zhiqiao was woken up by a phone call from his new manager, Ning Qing.
Since changing managers, this was the first time Lin Zhiqiao had heard his new manager’s voice.
She sounded younger than he had imagined, and also much gentler—a completely different type of manager from Wu Yuan.
“Have you seen the trending searches?” Ning Qing asked him. “Congratulations. It looks like you have a station sister now.”
What sister?
Lin Zhiqiao did not react for a second.
Only after clicking into Weibo’s trending page and seeing the tag hanging near the bottom—#XiaYouQiaoMu#—did he finally realize what had happened.
“Xia You Qiao Mu” was a brand-new account, and it had only posted one single Weibo.
From today onward, liking you is not too late.
[Lin Zhiqiao · Youthful Sports Boy.jpg] * 9
The post’s popularity was not low. At first Lin Zhiqiao assumed this was Four Seasons doing some marketing, but when he looked through the comments, he discovered they all seemed to be genuine passersby reacting naturally.
“Whoa! Such a handsome little brother!”
“This boyish vibe is incredible!!!”
“Does such perfect lean muscle really exist in real life? It looks even more CG-modeled than my 3D model, ahhhh!”
“Just passing by, let me steal one kiss, and another kiss, hehe.”
…
Lin Zhiqiao became instantly wide awake.
Compared to Four Seasons’ marketing, this set of photos really did look much more like the work of a station sister.
All of a sudden, Ji Yuan’s figure came to mind.
During the ad shoot over the last two days, aside from the director team’s people with their cameras, the only other person who had been carrying a camera the whole time was Ji Yuan.
But wasn’t Ji Yuan Lin Mubai’s station sister?
Could it be…
She’d climbed the wall?!
Lin Zhiqiao tried to hold it in, but failed, and burst out laughing.
It felt a little satisfying.
He was a little curious what kind of expression Lin Mubai would show if he learned that one of his station sisters had climbed the wall and come over to him instead.
That set of fan-site preview photos brought Lin Zhiqiao a fresh wave of appearance-focused fans.
Lin Zhiqiao switched to his alt account and gave the post a like. Just as he was about to exit Weibo, another trending push notification popped up at the top—
Explosive! Click here to see! A certain three-character young actor surnamed Xu caught in a cheating bust scene!!!
Hm?
Gossip!
Lin Zhiqiao immediately became interested, only to find after clicking in that this was exactly the gossip he had already eaten live last night!
The video was a little shaky, and the background audio was very noisy, but it had recorded the entire cheating-bust process from beginning to end.
Certain key body parts that couldn’t be shown had been covered with mosaic, but that did not affect the completeness or clarity of the video at all.
Someone had actually filmed it and uploaded it online.
The Weibo post did not directly state the full name of the three-character actor surnamed Xu, but the all-powerful gossip-eating public still dug out his identity very quickly.
Xu Mu’an, the actor who played the second male lead in the drama Qingquan.
The director of Qingquan was named Lin Juezhou.
Lin Zhiqiao’s eyes widened instantly!
Lin Juezhou! His deranged second cheap older brother in the Lin family!
No wonder he had felt that Xu Mu’an’s name sounded familiar. So this was where he had heard it!
*
The Lin family.
Lin Mubai had recently just entered a production set, while Father Lin and Mother Lin were out traveling, leaving only Lin Chen and Lin Juezhou at home.
At breakfast, Lin Chen asked, “Has your new drama’s air date been set yet?”
Lin Juezhou shook his head. “It’s still in the publicity period. It should probably be finalized after a while.”
The new drama they were referring to was Qingquan, the first television drama Lin Juezhou had personally led after switching careers to become a director.
Lin Chen nodded and spoke in the tone of a good elder brother. “If you run into any difficulties, you can come to me.”
Lin Juezhou did not care much. “Got it, got it. Everything’s going smoothly. Big Brother, stop worrying so much.”
“You still need to be a bit more cautious. After all, you’re new at this.” Lin Chen, however, disagreed.
Lin Juezhou waved his hand, just about to say something, when the phone beside him suddenly rang.
It was his assistant director.
“Director Lin, bad news!” The assistant’s tone was anxious and panicked. “Qingquan has hit the trending searches!”
Lin Juezhou looked full of confusion. “Isn’t getting on the trending searches a good thing? Why are you panicking?”
“Xu Mu’an—the one playing the second male lead, Xu Mu’an!” The assistant took a huge breath. “He’s collapsed!”
Lin Juezhou still remained unhurried. “Collapsed? What kind of collapse?”
When it came to a collapse, after all, it could be big or small. Everything depended on exactly what kind of collapse the artist had gone through.
Qingquan had filmed for a fairly long time. While they were in the production team, he had spent a long time around Xu Mu’an and knew what kind of person he was.
Gentle, motivated, humble. As a young actor of the new generation, his acting was very decent. He also took relationships seriously—according to what he himself had said, he and his girlfriend had already been together for several years and were very stable.
For a person like that, even if some gossip came out, usually it would not be the kind of gossip that was beyond saving.
But that was not the most important point.
The most important point was that Xu Mu’an had been able, as a completely new actor, to get an audition for the second male lead in Qingquan and successfully win the role, not because of anything else—
Xu Mu’an had been personally recommended by Lin Mubai.
The Lin family had all personally witnessed Lin Mubai’s eye for choosing people. Their trust in it had practically reached the point of myth.
So Lin Juezhou was not panicking at all. On the contrary, he was remarkably calm.
Compared to him, Lin Chen sitting across from him had his chopsticks tremble the moment he heard the word collapsed, and the xiaolongbao in his hand plopped straight into the bowl.
The spilled white porridge splashed onto his sleeve, leaving behind tiny glaring stains.
Too many things had happened over this period of time. He was almost starting to get PTSD from the word collapse.
Lin Chen frowned, put down his chopsticks, and looked questioningly at his younger brother.
Lin Juezhou asked the person on the other end, “So what exactly happened? Let me hear it.”
The assistant on the other side stammered for a long time, then let out a long sigh. “…It’s a long story.”
Lin Juezhou replied, “Then make the long story short.”
Assistant: “Can’t shorten it, Director Lin. You’d better just go look at the trending searches.”
Lin Juezhou muttered under his breath, “Acting all mysterious.”
Then he clicked into the trending page—
#XuMuanPretendingToBeStraightWhileGayCheatedAnInnocentGirlForFourYearsAndPlannedMarriageFraud#
#XuMuanScumbag#
#XuMuanGotIntoABigFightWithHisUndergroundBoyfriendAndWasApparentlyDealtWithHumanely#
#QingquanSecondMaleLeadXuMuan#
#BoycottScandalRiddenArtists#
#YuShengYouNianSecondMaleLeadRecast#
For one brief moment, Lin Juezhou almost thought he had not entered Weibo’s trending page at all, but had clicked into Xu Mu’an’s fan supertopic instead.
The moment he saw the top-ranking trend, Lin Juezhou’s heart sank.
He did not click into the trending topics right away. More glaring than those were the messages in his backend that had already reached “999+.”
There were comments under his own Weibo, comments tagging him, and also private messages in the backend.
Lin Juezhou scanned them hurriedly, and more than ninety-nine percent of them were all expressing the same idea—
They wanted him to replace the scandal-ridden artist.
“I used to be drawn in by his face. Turns out I was just blind. [manual goodbye.jpg]”
“If they don’t replace Xu Mu’an, then the moment Qingquan dares to air, I dare to mobilize my whole family to give it low scores. [smile.jpg]”
“Is the domestic entertainment industry seriously out of people?”
“The other actors in Qingquan are such innocent victims. If the show really ends up unable to air, that would be way too miserable for them after working so long for nothing.”
“My suggestion here is that Director Lin should immediately replace the actor and reshoot the relevant scenes.”
“The production team next door, Yu Sheng You Nian, already posted an announcement. Where’s your Qingquan announcement? Are you pretending to be dead? [cursing.jpg]”
The large number of malicious comments made Lin Juezhou’s anger surge sky-high.
How could Qingquan be the same as Yu Sheng You Nian? The other production team had only just started filming, so even if they replaced a role at the last minute, it would not delay things too much!
But Qingquan was different! Qingquan had already completely finished filming. Even the post-production was more than half complete. Before long, it would have been ready to lock in an air date!
Xu Mu’an was also the second male lead, with quite a lot of scenes in the whole drama. Using high-tech face replacement would absolutely affect audience experience, and Lin Juezhou would never do something so thankless and exhausting.
Lin Chen soothed him. “What are you panicking for? First take a look at what exactly happened. If it’s not too serious, then suppress it if you can.”
Lin Juezhou calmed himself down and finally clicked into the video pinned high on the trending topic.
The absurd, outrageous cheating-bust scene ended.
Lin Juezhou only felt darkness sweep across his vision.
It was over.
A collapse on this level was absolutely beyond saving.
Whether they followed public sentiment and chose to replace the actor and reshoot his scenes, or used AI face replacement technology, neither option was something that could be done in just a day or two.
The original launch plan had now been forced to postpone, and the production team’s losses would be far more than just a little.
His first attempt at directing a television drama, only to meet such a disastrous Waterloo—Lin Juezhou almost wanted to shout, What rotten luck!
Lin Chen’s brows were tightly furrowed.
A gay man pretending to be straight, cheating feelings, planning marriage fraud, while also straddling two boats and secretly still dating another underground boyfriend.
This was practically a replay of Yuan Yu’s collapse.
Lin Chen watched the video again, and in one frame that flashed past quickly, a familiar chestnut-haired figure seemed to appear for an instant.
Lin Chen froze.
Then he pulled the progress bar back. After trying several times, he finally managed to pause exactly on that shot—
It was Lin Zhiqiao.
Lin Zhiqiao standing at the cheating-bust scene, holding a skewer in his hand and eating with enormous enjoyment.
After Lin Juezhou, Lin Chen also felt darkness sweep before his eyes.
—Why is it him again!!!
