Chapter 66
A cheat ability called the “Harem King Halo.”
Even the cyber sunflower seeds in Lin Zhiqiao’s hand dropped: [There’s actually a halo like that?]
[Yep.] 888 nodded. [There’s also “Whoever I Glare At Falls for Me,” “Never Gain Weight No Matter How Much I Eat,” “Warm in Winter, Cool in Summer”… In theory, there are all kinds of cheat abilities.]
Lin Zhiqiao let out an envious sigh: [Is there one called “The More I Eat, the Richer I Get”?]
888 fell silent for a moment, then said hesitantly: […Maybe?]
The conversation that had gone off track was urgently pulled back.
[So what exactly does the “Harem King” halo do?] Lin Zhiqiao asked. [Is it like Lin Mubai’s “heartthrob” system? Beloved by everyone, flowers blooming wherever he goes?]
888 said, [Kind of similar, but not as powerful as the heartthrob system. And its range of effect and activation conditions are much more limited.]
Lin Zhiqiao instantly understood: [Got it. So it’s basically a low-budget version of the heartthrob halo.]
While they were chatting, FOUR’s three minutes quickly came to an end.
Anyone who could stand out in Mingguang Base clearly had solid ability, and the three mentors on site all gave Ming Ye pretty good comments and scores.
Su Jia in particular praised him nonstop.
‘The moment Ming Ye came onstage, I knew for sure he’d win Brother Jia’s favor.’
‘Exactly his type. Our Brother Jia just likes this kind hahaha.’
‘Brother Jia came from Mingguang Entertainment too, right? Would that make Ming Ye his junior from the same company?’
‘What a senior-junior combo. I’m shipping it first out of respect [doge.jpg]’
Lin Zhiqiao was taking notes so hard his hand was going numb when Su Jia finally finished commenting on Ming Ye.
“I’m really looking forward to what you do next,” Su Jia said with a bright smile. “Keep it up.”
Hearing that, Ming Ye smiled dazzlingly at Su Jia from the stage. “Okay, thank you, Brother Jia. I won’t let you down.”
Lin Zhiqiao’s pen paused for a moment, and he instinctively looked up at him.
Was it just his imagination?
Why did that sentence sound so loaded?
Before he could figure anything out, Ming Ye had already stepped off the stage and headed toward the trainee seats behind the mentors.
On the surface, Lin Zhiqiao kept staring straight at the stage, but in reality, he had been watching Ming Ye from the corner of his eye the whole time.
It couldn’t be helped—he was way too curious about that “Harem King” halo.
And then he saw it. As Ming Ye passed by Su Jia, he suddenly tilted his head just slightly and gave Su Jia a very subtle blink.
No, calling it a blink wasn’t quite accurate.
“Wink” was probably the better word.
After witnessing the whole thing, Lin Zhiqiao was both shocked and thrilled: [Whoa! He’s flirting every second of every day! Truly worthy of being the man crowned by the deep sea!!!]
‘What the hell is a deep sea crown [lost in thought.jpg]’
‘Hahaha that wink was lethal, absolutely lethal. Who wouldn’t fall for that [clutching chest.jpg]’
‘Did you see the little expression on Brother Jia’s face when he got hooked?’
‘Is a new CP about to be born [secretly peeking.jpg]’
‘So bold! He even dares flirt with Brother Jia!’
‘The hormones are way too intense, I’m about to faint, save me [so into it.jpg]’
‘How do I put this… Ming Ye gives me the feeling that he’s not here for an idol survival show, he’s here for a royal consort selection [muttering.jpg]’
‘Turns out I’m not the only one who feels that way hahaha’
Lin Zhiqiao suppressed his excitement. The next group came up quickly, but Ji Ran and Cheng Xia still hadn’t appeared.
[They can’t have gotten eliminated during the preliminary audition, right?] Lin Zhiqiao rubbed his chin. [That would be way too—]
‘Too tragic, way too tragic.’
‘That would be heartbreaking. If they really got eliminated in the audition round, it’d basically be a career disaster for Baby Ran and Baby Xia [doge.jpg]’
Lin Zhiqiao: [Then they’d be absolutely worth laughing at mercilessly hahaha!]
‘Ji Ran: cruel, but not as cruel as you [grumbling.jpg]’
‘Confirmed, this is what real friendship looks like hahaha’
Several more groups passed by, and Lin Zhiqiao immersed himself in mentally cracking cyber sunflower seeds.
[Number twenty-eight dances really well. He looks so relaxed!]
[Huh? His family is rich? If he doesn’t debut, he has to go home and inherit the family business?!]
[Wow, wow, wow. So the entertainment industry really is a rebellion base for rich kids, huh? Whenever they feel like it, they just come here and mess around for a bit!]
‘Nodding. There really are more and more rich people in the entertainment industry now.’
‘Rich, handsome, and talented—yep, you’re my pick!’
Lin Zhiqiao pressed harder with his hand and scratched a deep mark into his notebook.
[Number thirty-four’s styling is really good! I love the color of that shirt!!!]
[The shirt pattern is… a giant wok? And his lucky charm is a spatula?? He even brought it with him to the training camp?! Oh, so he graduated from New Oriental before this…]
[What?! He didn’t just bring a spatula, he brought a whole set of kitchenware too?! Sir, don’t tell me you’re planning to make extra money while competing on this survival show?!]
Lin Zhiqiao was deeply shaken, and a trace of suspicion rose in his heart: [I mean… the cafeteria at the base shouldn’t be that bad, right? Director Xu wouldn’t… wouldn’t treat our mouths that poorly, right…?]
From the production team seats, Director Xu glanced in Lin Zhiqiao’s direction, his eyes carrying a bit of helplessness.
‘Good lord, a new business opportunity has been discovered!’
‘Could this be: Reborn into an idol survival show, and now I’m getting rich by running a food stall?’
‘Begging the production team to give this chef guy more screen time. I’m not drooling, I just want to watch such a handsome guy sweating while cooking [how embarrassing.jpg]’
‘This chef guy looks very delicious, and yes, I mean the food he makes [doge.jpg]’
Lin Zhiqiao had feasted on plenty of gossip when another new team stepped onto the stage.
This one was a duo. One had red hair, the other blue. They wore identical outfits, and their dance movements were perfectly in sync.
More importantly, they looked exactly the same.
Lin Zhiqiao heard Su Jia mutter softly, “Twins, huh…”
[So they’re twins.] Lin Zhiqiao suddenly understood. [No wonder they look so alike. Good thing they dyed their hair, otherwise there’d be no way to tell them apart.]
[Alright, alright, another pair of rich young masters out here doing social practice.] Lin Zhiqiao casually opened their blind box. [Are rich people these days really that free? Don’t they have family businesses to inherit?]
Lin Zhiqiao tapped the notebook in his hand.
After the twins left the stage, the seats they took happened to be not far behind Lin Zhiqiao. The two seemed very close and occasionally lowered their voices to whisper to each other.
The next group caught Lin Zhiqiao a bit by surprise—another group from Mingguang Entertainment.
Including Ming Ye’s earlier team, this was already Mingguang Entertainment’s second group.
‘Mingguang Entertainment may have a lot of gossip, but they really are good at training trainees.’
‘Damn, the little guy standing in the middle is way too my type! That teardrop mole hit me right in the heart [clutching chest.jpg]’
‘I’m doomed. This is the feeling of falling in love.’
‘Help, this face is basically my ideal omega [deep breathing.jpg]’
Lin Zhiqiao also noticed the young man standing center position at first glance.
His black choppy hair looked soft and a little messy. His features were delicate, leaning toward a gentle kind of beauty, but not in a way that would make anyone mistake his gender. There seemed to be a natural trace of melancholy between his brows and eyes, and the vivid red teardrop mole at the corner of his eye was the perfect finishing touch.
His name was Zhou Zili.
Lin Zhiqiao repeated the name once in his mind.
[Little System don’t tell me he’s also bound to some weird cheat ability?] Lin Zhiqiao asked. [This aura—he’s absolutely on par with that Ming Ye from earlier! Even if you threw him into a crowd, he’d still be the center of attention!]
888 sensed for a moment. [I don’t detect anything.]
Lin Zhiqiao let out an “oh.”
Then that meant it was all natural, which made it even rarer.
[Such a naturally gifted idol… what a waste that Lin Chen gets to have him.] Lin Zhiqiao sighed.
888 immediately chimed in in righteous indignation: [Exactly! Exactly!]
On stage, Zhou Zili was shining brightly in the center position. Lin Zhiqiao propped up his chin, but his ears were tuned in to Su Jia and Zhu Ge quietly talking beside him.
They also thought very highly of Zhou Zili.
At the same time, a small voice of surprise came from the trainee seats behind them.
“Zhou Zili? He actually came too?”
“Didn’t expect that. What a coincidence… I thought joining this show would be boring.”
It was the twins who had just stepped offstage, whispering to each other. Since Lin Zhiqiao was sitting so close, he caught most of their conversation.
Lin Zhiqiao instantly perked up again.
From the sound of it… were they acquainted with Zhou Zili? And it seemed like there might even be some unknown story between them.
The gossip radar was ringing wildly, but the performance by Zhou Zili’s group had already ended, and the mentors were now commenting on them.
So Lin Zhiqiao could only temporarily hold himself back and wrote Zhou Zili’s name into his little gossip notebook.
In less than a single day, that notebook was already filled with names, along with many pieces of gossip that were obviously only half-opened and not fully eaten yet, all waiting for him to dig deeper later.
Lin Zhiqiao held the notebook in his hands, waiting for Zhou Zili to pass by him after leaving the stage so he could experience the impact of that god-tier face up close.
But to his surprise, Zhou Zili didn’t take the middle path. Instead, he made a slight detour and walked through the far-left passage.
Lin Zhiqiao let out a disappointed sigh in his heart.
And for some reason, it seemed like the twin brothers sitting not far behind him also let out a simultaneous, regretful little click of the tongue.
Very soon, it was the final group’s turn.
When he heard the name Xinghe Entertainment, Lin Zhiqiao wasn’t surprised at all. In fact, he even felt a kind of “finally, they’re here” sensation.
He couldn’t help sighing: [They really saved them for the finale.]
