Chapter 63
Lin Zhiqiao secretly rubbed his hands together in excitement.
What he did not know was that, aside from Su Jia and Xie Qingchi, everyone present was feeling exactly the same way he was.
The livestream comments section had already exploded.
Su Jia’s fans and Xie Qingchi’s fans, unsurprisingly, had started tearing into each other. Everywhere you looked in the barrage, countless system-censored “xx” and “**” were flying all over the place.
Of course, besides the two groups of fans who were seriously fighting, there were also plenty of gossip-loving spectators sitting neatly in rows and enjoying the show.
‘Good lord, in my lifetime I actually get to see Su Jia and Xie Qingchi on the same variety show? Did the sun rise in the west today? [cat stunned.jpg]’
‘I hereby declare Director Xu the number one boldest person in the entire entertainment industry!’
‘Director Xu really has the secret formula for traffic completely under control. [doghead.jpg]’
‘Just for this mentor lineup alone, I’m absolutely following Idol Star Dream. [caught off guard by anticipation.jpg]’
The atmosphere on set suddenly turned a little strange.
When Xie Qingchi pushed open the door and walked in, the moment he saw Su Jia, his steps visibly paused, and his brows furrowed.
He clearly had not expected to see Su Jia among the mentor seats.
Su Jia, on the other hand, controlled his expression quite well.
After his brief surprise faded, he was actually the first to raise a hand and clap twice. “Welcome!”
Xie Qingchi looked at him in silence for a moment, gave a slight nod, and sat down in the last mentor seat.
Zhu Ge, sitting between the two of them, looked left and right, then asked as if she loved stirring the pot, “Do either of you want to switch seats with me? If I’m sitting here, won’t it be inconvenient for the two of you to catch up?”
The moment she said that, she was immediately rewarded with several looks that all clearly said, wow, you’re brave.
The corner of Su Jia’s mouth twitched. He smiled and said, “I’m fine. Let’s see what Brother Xie thinks.”
Without even lifting his eyes, Xie Qingchi replied blandly, “No need. This is fine.”
‘What kind of attitude is that? Our Brother Jia already took the initiative to greet him and give him a way out!!’
‘Still the same as before, always walking around with that dead expression on his face. Ugh, he’s annoying just to look at. [rolling eyes.jpg]’
Su Jia shrugged with an I can’t do anything about it expression.
Lin Zhiqiao looked left, then right. From the system store, he redeemed a handful of virtual sunflower seeds and began crunching away in his head, while also reviewing the past history between Xie Qingchi and the old Faraway Boy Group.
To sum it up in one sentence: Xie Qingchi had made a huge mistake that nearly dragged the whole group down with him, then tried to dump the blame on Su Jia, and in the end was forced to leave the group and go solo.
This had happened several years ago. At the time, Lin Zhiqiao had not paid much attention to it. He had only glanced at it when he saw it trending, so he did not know many of the details.
So 888 pulled up the old summary post for him.
The Faraway Boy Group officially debuted five years ago under Mingguang Entertainment. They had already been somewhat famous before debut, and after debut they shot straight to the top and became wildly popular.
The group had two stunning visual standouts. Besides the youngest member, Su Jia, the other striking beauty was then-group leader and center, Xie Qingchi.
Xie Qingchi was the oldest member in the group, calm in personality and extremely capable in performance. He had always been the group’s big brother, and at the time was unquestionably their top popularity member.
If you had to name a flaw, the thing people complained about most was his mouth.
When he stayed silent, all was well. But the moment he spoke… he could poison people right to their souls.
It could be said that Xie Qingchi’s sharp tongue was just as famous as his beautiful face. People who liked him were utterly captivated by his cutting remarks, while those who could not accept it felt he was too harsh.
Of course, considering how many strengths Xie Qingchi had, the overwhelming majority of people were able to accept his sharp “venom.”
After all, he was only sharp-tongued and brutally direct, not morally flawed, and to fans that was actually a plus.
That was until that one time, when a marketing account released photos showing Xie Qingchi appearing late at night at a bar called Blue Enchantress.
Blue Enchantress was a famously well-known gay bar, and their age restrictions were extremely strict. You had to be at least twenty years old to be allowed inside.
Everyone understood perfectly well what it implied when someone went alone to Blue Enchantress late at night.
And the day after Xie Qingchi appeared there was an extremely important stage performance for the Faraway Boy Group.
The moment that news broke, the whole internet exploded.
“Chaotic private life,” “promiscuous,” “unprofessional”…
In just one night, labels like these were plastered all over Xie Qingchi.
The timing of the news explosion came right before the stage performance. On that day, every member of the group seemed affected, and their performance was such a mess it could be summed up in one word: bad.
But no one blamed the other members. Everyone believed Xie Qingchi’s scandal had affected the whole group’s performance.
What pushed public opinion all the way to its peak, however, was a Weibo post Xie Qingchi made.
He directly called out Su Jia from afar, naming him openly and demanding an explanation. The meaning between the lines was crystal clear—
The one who had actually gone to Blue Enchantress that night was not him, but Su Jia, and he had only gone there to look for Su Jia.
That move immediately made public opinion tilt completely to one side and pushed Xie Qingchi even deeper into disaster.
Because Blue Enchantress had a minimum age requirement of twenty, while Su Jia had only just turned nineteen at the time and did not even meet the entrance requirement.
Anyone in the Faraway Boy Group might possibly have appeared at Blue Enchantress—except Su Jia.
And yet Xie Qingchi had specifically chosen Su Jia as the scapegoat.
The other members of the group also openly took Su Jia’s side, firmly supporting him. Xie Qingchi, without any surprise, became the target of universal condemnation.
After that, there was really no suspense left.
The Blue Enchantress scandal was too severe. Huge numbers of fans turned against him, and countless people demanded that Xie Qingchi leave the group, unwilling to let the other members continue being affected by him.
And Xie Qingchi really did leave the group.
Not only did he go solo, he even accepted a sky-high breach-of-contract penalty and terminated his contract with Mingguang Entertainment, striking out on his own independently.
From that point on, Xie Qingchi had no further connection to the Faraway Boy Group, and he never again appeared in the same frame as them.
He no longer worked as a full-time idol and instead began moving into other fields, drifting further and further away from his former teammates.
Until this time, on Idol Star Dream, the two sides, after so many years, were finally appearing once again in the same shot.
After Lin Zhiqiao finished filling in the missing pieces of that old gossip, the little gossip alarm in his mind started ringing madly.
[Something feels off.] Lin Zhiqiao muttered quietly to 888. [Xie Qingchi isn’t stupid. Even if he wanted to dump the blame on somebody, he really wouldn’t have picked Su Jia, would he?]
888 nodded in agreement. [Host, you’re right. It is very strange.]
Lin Zhiqiao’s palms started itching. His desire to eat gossip rose in waves.
But right then, Director Xu suddenly spoke. “Alright, now that everyone more or less knows each other, you have ten minutes to choose the mentor or mentor’s assistant you want.”
Every mentor came with one mentor’s assistant, and the choice was mutual.
Ji Yuan raised her hand and asked, “Do both sides make a choice? If the people choosing each other don’t match, then whose choice determines the final result?”
Director Xu smiled. “You’ll find out when the time comes.”
So mysterious. It really gave people the feeling that there was some sort of trap hidden inside.
‘I have a strong feeling it won’t be that simple. [falling into deep thought.jpg]’
‘The most popular mentor is probably Su Jia, that should be obvious, right? But the most in-demand mentor’s assistant… whew, that’s a bit hard to say.’
‘My guess is Little Qiao. Those who get it, get it.’
‘I get it, I get it. The Gossip King’s charm. [doghead.jpg]’
‘Eh, why did Brother Jia step out?’
‘Brother Jia: You all carry on, I’m just taking a halftime break.’
Naturally, everyone in the room noticed Su Jia leaving too.
Still, when nature calls, stepping out during a livestream for a moment is not a big deal, and besides, it was currently free activity time, so no one paid much attention to it.
Lin Zhiqiao did feel a bit regretful. Su Jia had gone a little too far away, which made it harder to open up gossip about him and Xie Qingchi.
But Lin Zhiqiao was not in a hurry. The show had only just begun. He still had plenty of time ahead to slowly eat his way through the gossip.
Meanwhile, after using the excuse of urgently needing the bathroom to leave the room, Su Jia came to an empty restroom.
He was obviously not there just to take care of a physical need.
Su Jia called his manager.
The manager on the other end picked up almost immediately, and before Su Jia could say anything, blurted out anxiously, “My little ancestor, this is a live broadcast and you still dared to slip out and call me? Are you trying to die?!”
Su Jia snorted dismissively. “So what if it’s live? There isn’t a camera following me right now.”
The manager let out a long, fierce sigh, sounding helpless and drained. “Go on then. What is it this time?”
“I’m not recording this show anymore,” Su Jia said bluntly. “Think of a way to get me out of it.”
“Ah?” His manager was stunned. “Weren’t you the one who insisted at the start that you absolutely had to take this job? Why are you suddenly refusing to film now?”
Su Jia let out a cold laugh. “Ran into someone I hate.”
“You mean Xie Qingchi?” the manager said, suddenly understanding. “Why are you worried about him? If anything, he should be the one wanting to quit when he runs into you! Why are you the one trying to leave?”
Su Jia paused, then said, “Not wanting to film means not wanting to film. Think of something—schedule conflict, emergency, whatever. I’m not doing it.”
But only Su Jia himself knew that the so-called “person I hate” he spoke of was not actually Xie Qingchi.
At most, Xie Qingchi was just a defeated former opponent—hardly worth fearing, and definitely not enough to make Su Jia give up such a good variety show resource from Director Xu.
The person he was truly talking about was Lin Zhiqiao.
Su Jia had watched the livestream of Our Life and followed quite a lot of the gossip. He knew about Lin Zhiqiao’s “strange” quality.
He had to admit, watching the Gossip King dish out gossip from behind a screen was an extremely entertaining and stimulating experience.
But when the “Gossip King” showed up right beside him, that whole thing instantly stopped being quite so fun.
Especially for someone like Su Jia, who had “secrets.”
To him, Lin Zhiqiao’s presence was no different from a disaster.
Unfortunately, his manager had no idea what Su Jia was really thinking.
“Su Jia, it’s not as simple as you’re making it sound,” the manager said earnestly. “If this were before the show started, maybe there’d still be room to maneuver. But now the program has already begun, and it’s live.”
“The entire internet is watching you. You cannot afford even the slightest mistake. And leaving aside whether Director Xu would agree, do you know Idol Star Dream is already trending?”
“Your fans all know you’re a mentor on Idol Star Dream. If you suddenly quit now, what do you expect your fans to think?”
“Let them think whatever they want,” Su Jia said indifferently. “You’re worried about public opinion? Don’t worry. The public opinion won’t be a problem. They’ll only think this is Xie Qingchi’s fault.”
“But Director Xu isn’t just anybody, Su Jia. She won’t agree to this,” the manager said. “She has serious backing. Even if that person were to step in… Director Xu still wouldn’t be afraid of him.”
Su Jia’s tone turned irritable. “Is there really no other way?”
The manager on the other side of the line fell silent. After a long while, he finally said, “Su Jia, don’t be so willful.”
Su Jia’s heart instantly went cold.
Ten minutes was not exactly short, but it was certainly not long enough for Su Jia to keep loitering in the restroom.
After hanging up, Su Jia punched the restroom door panel in anger.
Now that it had come to this, he had no choice but to accept the outcome.
Su Jia closed his eyes and took a deep breath, calming his emotions as quickly as possible.
Then he lifted his head, smiled at himself in the mirror, and in no time adjusted his expression back to the one he always wore.
—It’s fine, he told himself.
So many years had already passed. Lin Zhiqiao might not know anything.
Su Jia comforted himself that way.
Fortune had always stood on his side. There was no reason for him to be afraid of this, much less panic and lose his composure.
He was the one favored by luck.
