Chapter 4
Ever since that brief contact during makeup that day, Chen Xiaolin had started paying attention to Lin Zhiqiao.
There was not much information about Lin Zhiqiao online. No matter how she searched, all she found were those so-called “black materials.”
Chen Xiaolin grew irritated from reading them and blocked those gossip marketing accounts one by one.
It would be great if there were another chance to work together in the future.
She muttered that to herself, then casually tapped on a trending link pushed by Weibo.
It was the livestream room for the variety show Our Life.
[Ah, I’m sooooo scared!]
Chen Xiaolin: …What the hell?
Wait, that voice sounded a little familiar?
She focused her eyes on the screen, and they instantly lit up!
It was Lin Zhiqiao!
Out of all the guests invited to Our Life, Xiao Qiao was actually one of them!
Livestream variety shows were the best kind of program for showing an artist’s true side. Since everything was broadcast live, many situations could not be predicted in advance, and a guest’s instinctive reactions were the easiest way to expose their real personality.
Chen Xiaolin immediately realized that this was a very good opportunity for Lin Zhiqiao.
Letting the audience see his truest side was the best way to clear up all those baseless “black rumors” about him!
A boy as adorable as Lin Zhiqiao deserved to be seen by more people!!!
However—
[Cross-dressing as a woman… making money while eating gossip… erotic streamer, R-18…]
Chen Xiaolin: “…?”
Th-this, could this be… Lin Zhiqiao’s inner thoughts?
She could hear Lin Zhiqiao’s thoughts?!
There were quite a lot of people in the livestream, but not many comments scrolling across the screen. Mixed among them were some “???” that looked just as confused as she was.
Chen Xiaolin tried sending a comment: Can you guys hear Xiao Qiao’s inner thoughts too?
The system showed that it had been sent successfully, but Chen Xiaolin could not see her own comment anywhere in the comment feed.
She tried many times. All her other comments went through normally, but any comment related to “hearing inner thoughts” simply would not show up no matter what.
Chen Xiaolin thought about it for a while, could not figure out the reason, and simply gave up.
In the livestream, the young man’s chestnut hair was slightly curled, and his amber eyes looked clean and pure. Under the sunlight, his already fair skin was so pale it almost seemed to glow.
He clearly looked like a cute and shy little boy.
Yet his inner activity was so rich, so bold, and so down-to-earth.
The contrast was just too huge!
Chen Xiaolin covered her face.
But…
Why did she feel that Lin Xiao Qiao like this was even more real and even cuter!!
*
After the awkward small talk ended, the car quickly reached its destination.
Lin Zhiqiao leaned forward to look. “Tomorrow’s Light Star-Making Base…” His voice paused slightly. “A trainee boot camp?”
He was a little surprised.
Tomorrow’s Light belonged to Mingguang Entertainment, and the president of Mingguang Entertainment… was the eldest son of the Lin family, Lin Chen.
If Lin Juezhou’s personality could be described as rebellious, arrogant, and overbearing, someone who rarely thought before speaking, then Lin Chen was his complete opposite.
He treated people warmly and politely, had a smooth personality, handled things in an orderly manner, and always wore a smile. He looked extremely approachable and was publicly recognized by the Lin family as the ideal elder brother.
But that kind elder brother did not belong to Lin Zhiqiao.
Even at home, sitting at the same table for meals, Lin Chen had never once given Lin Zhiqiao a glance, as if such a person did not exist in the house at all.
“That’s right!” the cameraman’s voice interrupted Lin Zhiqiao’s thoughts. “Congratulations on unlocking a new identity—idol trainee!”
Lin Zhiqiao came back to himself.
If he remembered correctly, Lin Juezhou’s Mingguang Entertainment had a total of 1,440 trainees who had not yet debuted—
Lin Zhiqiao exclaimed, “Wow!”
[What training base? This place is clearly a paradise for gossip!!!]
“Who’s the one getting excited already? Not me saying it. [starry-eyes.jpg]”
“Excited for what? The variety show or…”
“So everyone’s speaking in riddles now, huh? [dog-head.jpg]”
“Okay, okay, count me in too!”
Mingguang Entertainment had already launched several idol groups, including top-tier boy groups and girl groups that had exploded across the internet.
Because of that, Lin Chen was not stingy when it came to pouring money into the training base.
The base was divided into a dormitory area, a leisure area, a training area, and a cafeteria. Both the leisure area and the training area had indoor and outdoor sections.
The entire base covered a huge area. It even had a small artificial lake and a patch of woods.
[A little forest… isn’t this the holy land of gossip? Hehe!]
“hehe.jpg”
“Who wouldn’t love a little forest! [puppy-looking-away.jpg]”
Lin Zhiqiao was the second guest to arrive at the training base. The first was a Mingguang trainee who already lived there, named Ji Ran.
From far away, Lin Zhiqiao could already see the figure standing downstairs by the dorm building.
The young man’s striking red hair was gathered back into a tiny little tied-up tuft. The ends of his eyes tilted upward, giving him a naturally sharp look. He wore an asymmetrical pair of silver cross ear cuffs on both ears, and there was a lip stud on the right side of his lower lip. He was extremely distinctive.
Lin Zhiqiao let out a small sound in his heart.
[Xia Ye?]
Ji Ran, who had been standing around doing nothing, looked up, and his raised brows lifted slightly.
“Xia Ye” was one of the male leads in the boys’ love web drama Cool Summer Night, a low-budget production that had unexpectedly blown up all over the internet.
When it had been airing not long ago, Lin Zhiqiao had squatted on time every day waiting for updates, completely addicted to the beautiful love story between the two male leads.
But as someone who was also in the entertainment industry, Lin Zhiqiao knew very well that an actor and a role were not the same person.
He smiled politely, a little shy. “Hello, I’m—”
“Lin Zhiqiao?” The red-haired boy frowned. “Why is it you?”
Lin Zhiqiao blinked.
[System, is it just my imagination?] Lin Zhiqiao muttered quietly. [Why does it feel like he’s pretty annoyed with me?]
888 replied in a tiny voice, [It’s not your imagination, host.]
[Ji Ran’s favorability toward you is negative.]
Lin Zhiqiao: “…”
First meeting, and he immediately got a negative favorability score.
As expected of him.
Lin Zhiqiao took a look and suddenly felt comforted. [It’s okay, it’s okay. Only negative fifty. Still not lower than Lin Mubai.]
“Did Ji Ran and Lin Zhiqiao have a conflict before? Why does Ji Ran’s attitude feel kind of weird…”
“Xiao Qiao was even about to introduce himself, so they probably didn’t know each other before, right?”
“Feels like Ji Ran is a little rude. [puts pot lid on head.jpg]”
“Brother Ran’s attitude is totally right. He’s a hardcore fan of Lin Mubai. Of course he wouldn’t give Lin Zhiqiao a good face. [eye-roll.jpg]”
“Who? Lin Zhiqiao? That clout-chaser? Then never mind.”
“He looks pretty cute, but how dare he call our brother Mubai ‘little’? He’s even a year older than Mumu, isn’t he!!!”
Ji Ran curled his lip. He had a straightforward personality, and even with cameras shoved in his face, he had no interest in putting on an act.
“Let’s go.” He gave a light snort. “The others haven’t arrived yet. I’ll take you to the dorm first.”
The red-haired boy had both hands in his pockets, and his lips were pressed tightly together. Clearly, he was not in a good mood.
Lin Zhiqiao followed behind him. In the dormitory lobby and along the hallways, they could already see many trainees around.
There were already quite a lot of people nearby.
It was time to open a blind box and satisfy his craving a little.
As for this whole “clout-chaser” issue, Chen Xiaolin also remembered it. But from beginning to end, that article had just been gossip accounts talking to themselves. They had never produced any real evidence that Lin Zhiqiao had called himself “little Lin Mubai.”
When there was no proof at all, then either the gossip accounts had simply fabricated the whole thing, or some rival camp had deliberately splashed dirty water on him.
Chen Xiaolin was furious. Hugging her keyboard, she fought a one-woman war against the masses. Just as she was furiously typing away, she suddenly heard—
[Okay, okay, okay. On the surface he’s an irritable young master, but in reality he’s a super-sensitive crybaby! He cries when it hurts, cries when he’s angry, cries when he’s happy—even when he gets too worked up during an argument, he’ll burst into tears on the spot!]
[So the whole thing is a gap-moe setup, huh? I really never expected you to be this kind of Ji Ran!]
Ji Ran’s steps halted, and the tips of his ears instantly turned red!
“Lin Zhiqiao!” He suddenly came back to himself and blurted out in false bravado, “You—”
But the rest of his words seemed to be strangled in his throat. No matter what, he could not get them out.
Lin Zhiqiao was happily absorbed in his gossip when he was suddenly called out. He instinctively took half a step back. “Huh? What did I do?”
[Sc-scary!]
[Who would’ve thought that this cool and handsome little young master is actually such an adorable crybaby in private!]
Ji Ran’s face cycled through red, yellow, blue, and green in a spectacular display.
He tried several times and still could not get the words out. Then he suddenly realized that Lin Zhiqiao… had not seemed to speak just now at all.
Then the voice he heard—could it be Lin Zhiqiao’s inner thoughts?
Lin Zhiqiao asked him, “Did something happen?”
Ji Ran glared at him. “…Nothing.”
He strode quickly toward the elevator, his furious back view looking awkward no matter how one looked at it.
Lin Zhiqiao felt baffled and continued eating gossip—
[Whoa! This bad-tempered young master’s favorite thing is actually a little yellow chick plushie! He has to hug it to sleep every night, or else he can’t fall asleep!]
[He even bought more than ten outfits for the little yellow chick! A JK skirt, suspender dress, wedding dress… whoa! There’s even a maid outfit!]
“Lin Zhiqiao!”
Lin Zhiqiao: Eek!
Ji Ran: “…”
He took a deep breath and said through gritted teeth, “The elevator is here.”
[So what if it’s here? Why make it sound so scary!]
Ji Ran closed his eyes and simply decided that what he could not see would not bother him.
Still, Lin Zhiqiao’s inner thoughts had reminded him of something. His little yellow chick plushie had just been tossed into the washing machine, and he had not taken it out yet.
Ji Ran secretly glanced at the cameraman following them.
Stay calm.
Don’t panic.
He would wait until late at night, when everything was quiet, then secretly take it out and hide it in the cabinet.
As long as the cameras did not catch it, his fans would definitely never find out! Then his cool and edgy image would not collapse!
The training base had specially prepared a dorm for the guests of Our Life—one living room and six bedrooms, exactly one room for each person.
Ji Ran was moving in too, so this was the perfect chance for him to pick up his luggage on the way.
The cameraman asked, “Ji Ran, can we film your dorm room?”
Ji Ran nodded. He had tidied up in advance. There was nothing that could not be filmed.
He pushed open the dorm room door. “Come in, and remember to take off your shoes—”
Before he could finish speaking, another person’s voice came from inside the room. “A-Ran? Weren’t you off filming the variety show? Why are you back?”
The moment he heard that person’s voice, Ji Ran’s expression visibly improved. “I came back to get my luggage.”
“Lin Zhiqiao,” he introduced, “this is my roommate, Yuan Yu.”
“Brother Ran and Brother Yu are actually in the same dorm!”
“Who’s gone insane shipping this? Me, ahhhh!!!”
Yuan Yu was the other lead of Cool Summer Night. Ever since Summer Night became a huge hit, the “double-fire” CP formed by him and Ji Ran had gained a massive number of CP fans across the internet.
Lin Zhiqiao had once been one of them.
Well, a former one.
But at this moment, Lin Zhiqiao had no time to ship CP. His attention was completely drawn to the bright yellow figure in Yuan Yu’s hands—
It was a little yellow chick clipped to a hanger, both of its wings mercilessly stretched out to the sides by clothespins, as if it were struggling and flapping in resistance.
Ji Ran’s little yellow chick.
