Chapter 7
The day’s training ended very quickly.
Ji Ran still did not take the initiative to speak to Lin Zhiqiao, but the other party’s inner voice kept circling around his ears one after another. Even plugging his ears could not block it out.
It was even more tormenting than Monk’s chanting spell.
By the time they returned to the dorm and finished showering, it was already late at night.
Ji Ran threw himself heavily onto the bed. With the heavy makeup, earrings, and lip studs removed, his face lost some of its sharp aggressiveness and gained a bit more youthful softness.
He was not even twenty yet. Many people his age were still worrying about credits at school, but he had already been a trainee for two years and had become the light some fans chased after. All he lacked was the right debut stage.
Ji Ran felt especially tired today.
His body was tired, and his heart was even more tired.
—It was all Lin Zhiqiao’s fault!
Grinding his teeth, Ji Ran hugged a pillow and kneaded and tugged at it hard as if venting his anger, as though he were treating it as Lin Zhiqiao.
But the emotions in his chest still hung heavy, making him feel awful.
Ji Ran put on his earphones, turned the music up to the maximum, and casually opened Weibo to scroll through posts.
He had a side account on Weibo, which he usually used to do the things he did not dare do on his main account.
For example, fighting with haters, showing off Little Yellow Chick’s cute doll outfits, and also… following the Double Fire CP supertopic and watching those adorable CP fans dig out sweet crumbs between him and Yuan Yu from all kinds of weird little details.
But today, mixed into the supertopic were some things that were not so wonderful.
‘Did everyone go look at that account? I’m kind of panicking. Double Fire isn’t going to be over, right?’
Ji Ran froze, almost immediately realizing that they were talking about Yuan Yu’s side account, “This Filthy and Absurd World 40298.”
Of course, whether it was really his account was still unconfirmed.
Ji Ran did not believe it.
In the post, most people held the same attitude as Ji Ran.
‘The IP addresses aren’t even the same, panic my ass’
‘A three-nothing alt like this with zero identity info can be fabricated by anyone, okay?’
‘Anyway, I don’t believe it’s Brother Yu. I trust what I see with my own eyes’
‘Exactly, during today’s livestream Brother Ran and Brother Yu were so sweet there’s no way it was fake!’
Ji Ran nodded while reading.
Exactly, exactly.
Double Fire was real—realer than real!
But no matter how much he comforted himself, Ji Ran still could not help feeling uneasy.
It was not just because of Little Yellow Chick and Pink Peppa. There were also many other details… things Lin Zhiqiao should not have known, yet he knew them all.
For example, Yuan Yu’s obsession with cleanliness.
The disinfectant and alcohol wipes that were always stocked in the dorm and ran out extremely fast, the bed sheets and quilt covers on Yuan Yu’s bed that were changed almost every day…
Ji Ran was suffering inside.
By the time he came back to himself, he realized that without even noticing, he had already typed that side account’s nickname into the search bar.
Ji Ran bit his lip and clicked in.
‘Fuck fuck fuck fuck! So disgusting, so disgusting!… May all idiotic homosexuals disappear from this world forever!!!’
The posting time was a little after one in the afternoon today.
Ji Ran thought back. At that time, he should have just picked up Lin Zhiqiao and been on the way to their new dorm.
On the way, he had made a stop at his old dorm to get some things and had happened to talk with Yuan Yu for a while.
Ji Ran pressed his lips together and kept scrolling down.
Just like Lin Zhiqiao had revealed, this side account was filled with nothing but unbearable emotional outbursts. The hostility and malice coming off it made Ji Ran feel terrible.
‘Faggot, street stall, couple date, ninth level of hell :)’
The posting time was ten days ago. Ji Ran’s heart skipped hard. He remembered very clearly that after training ended that day, he and Yuan Yu had indeed disguised themselves and gone out on a date.
And what they ate had happened to be street food.
Ji Ran stayed silent for a long time. It took him quite a while before he gathered the courage to keep scrolling.
‘Why do we even have to wear couple outfits? It’s like disgusting opened the door for disgusting… someone save me, ahhh’
‘He saw the takeout plated nicely and actually believed I cooked it for him. Who the fuck would cook for a dead gay? So fucking stupid hahaha’
‘A country bumpkin is still a country bumpkin. He can’t even tell it’s second-hand fake designer stuff’
…
‘Why is a man crying like that? Isn’t it disgusting?! What if his tears carry a virus… fuck, the new clothes I just bought are ruined again and again and again’
With a smack, Ji Ran flipped his phone face-down and buried his face deep into the pillow.
He did not even need to check the posting time. Ji Ran could already guess that this post must have been from half a year ago.
At that time, something had happened in his family, and he had been feeling miserable. Yuan Yu had noticed his low mood and came to comfort him. It was the first time Ji Ran had failed to hold himself together in front of him—he cried his heart out, soaking Yuan Yu’s shoulder with tears.
Back then, Yuan Yu had been very gentle. To make him laugh, he had even joked that the marks left by his tears were shaped like “QAQ.”
Now Ji Ran wanted to cry again. His nose stung with sour pain.
Once could be a coincidence. Twice could be a coincidence. But three times, four times, or even more—
There were not that many coincidences in the world.
Reason told Ji Ran that this side account was Yuan Yu’s nine times out of ten, but emotionally he could not accept it.
No matter how many overlaps and similarities there were, there was still no clear evidence proving that this account belonged to Yuan Yu.
Ji Ran tossed and turned on the bed, then suddenly remembered something—
Back when Summer Night had just started airing and the Double Fire CP was exploding in popularity, he had once received a rather strange private message.
That private message had warned him not to tie himself to Yuan Yu for CP promotion. If he had already started doing it, it hoped he would find a way to get out as soon as possible.
At the time, Ji Ran had been in the honeymoon phase with Yuan Yu, so he had treated the sender like some obsessive anti-fan and ignored it.
Back then he had even clicked into that person’s homepage. The latest post was a photo of a civil service appointment certificate, and the caption seemed to be something like “Successfully made it ashore, escaped the sea of suffering.”
At the time, Ji Ran had not thought much of it. But now…
Passing the civil service exam, escaping the sea of suffering, and that strange tone of advice that sounded exactly like someone who had been through it before…
It was exactly like what Lin Zhiqiao had revealed—that male actor who had once hyped a CP with Yuan Yu and later went to take the civil service exam.
Ji Ran suddenly sat up and cursed under his breath, “Fuck.”
Instead of sitting here overthinking, it would be better to go find Yuan Yu and ask him face to face.
He had never been the kind of person to tangle himself up like this.
Once he decided, he acted.
Ji Ran casually threw on a jacket, carrying a belly full of pent-up anger, and left the dorm.
*
Lin Zhiqiao had not gone to sleep yet.
The sound of the door opening caught his attention. Those footsteps sounded like Ji Ran’s.
This late at night, where would Ji Ran be going…
Lin Zhiqiao curled his lips.
Oh.
No need to think. He was definitely going to find Yuan Yu.
Lin Zhiqiao rolled over, feeling a little conflicted about how to warn Ji Ran.
Yuan Yu was absolute trash.
Trash was not worth it!!!
Unfortunately, his Blind Box energy had run dry again, and the gossip he had opened earlier was not enough to hammer Yuan Yu to death directly.
Just then, 888 suddenly spoke up: [Received 30 favorability points from Song Fengshi. Please check, Host!]
Lin Zhiqiao froze. [From who? Song Fengshi? President Song?]
888: [That’s right.]
A sudden rise in favorability at this hour.
Surely President Song would not, in the middle of the night, suddenly…
His phone chimed. It was a message from Fang Xinnan.
‘Song Fengshi asked me to pass along a message. He says thank you very much. When he has time another day, he’d like to treat you to a meal.’
Lin Zhiqiao: [Oh, looks like he went for a physical check-up and found out he’s sick.]
On the other side, Song Fengshi had received his medical examination report.
This time, he had undergone a very comprehensive and in-depth examination, thoroughly checking even the areas that ordinary annual physicals would normally miss.
Once the results were out, his doctor rushed to the Song residence overnight.
“Good thing it was discovered in time. Right now, one surgery will be enough to get it under control, and after that it can be gradually regulated,” the doctor said. “If it had been another year or even half a year later… fortunately, fortunately, it’s still not too late now.”
Song Fengshi’s fingers resting on the table tightened slightly.
The doctor let out a long sigh. “The sooner the surgery is done, the better. Think about when you want to do it.”
Song Fengshi said, “I’ll wait until I arrange a few things.”
Some matters concerning the Song family, and also… Lin Zhiqiao.
The Song family’s information network was fast. Song Fengshi had already learned Lin Zhiqiao’s identity, as well as his past and relationship with the Lin family.
He lowered his eyes and thought for a moment, and soon had a plan in mind.
*
Song Fengshi’s favorability was like timely help in the middle of a snowstorm.
Very good. Tomorrow’s side-dish gossip for training was secured again.
Satisfied, Lin Zhiqiao closed his eyes and prepared to sleep, only to hear the sound of the door opening and closing outside once more.
Ji Ran was back.
Why had he come back so quickly? When little couples went on dates, did they not even spend time being lovey-dovey?
Lin Zhiqiao thought this, and subconsciously opened another blind box—
[Hm? Yuan Yu has a secret rendezvous tonight? He’s not in the dorm? Who is he dating? Ji Ran?]
[That’s not right. Ji Ran just went out and came back so fast. It can’t be a three-second date, can it?]
[Fuck fuck fuck! So it really isn’t Ji Ran! The little woods! Southeast direction, near the edge of the base, by the corner with the old dead tree! The other party is a girl group trainee from Mingguang Base—]
A loud bang interrupted Lin Zhiqiao’s inner voice.
Startled, Lin Zhiqiao pushed open the door and looked outside. All he saw was Ji Ran’s tightly shut bedroom door, along with the heads of the other guests poking out one after another from behind their own four doors.
Oh, and also the cameraman’s head sticking in from outside the dorm.
The six of them looked at one another in silence. Lin Zhiqiao asked quietly, “No one’s asleep yet?”
The others: “…”
Jiang Qianqian coughed lightly and said pointedly, “The noise was a bit loud. It’s hard to sleep.”
Lin Zhiqiao gave an “oh” and closed the door.
[Where is Ji Ran going this late? Does this kid not sleep at all… holy shit? Why is he heading toward the little woods?!]
888 timely reminded him: [Host, the on-site gossip bonus doubles!]
Lin Zhiqiao: ….
Was he the kind of person who would stop at nothing for money?
He was.
The door opened.
Lin Zhiqiao and the five pairs of eyes outside fell into silent mutual gaze.
After a long while, Lin Zhiqiao cleared his throat. “Wow, what a coincidence, everyone.”
The cameraman said, “Ji Ran seems to have had a fight with Yuan Yu.”
Lin Zhiqiao, who had been worrying about what excuse to use to chase after them, immediately said, “A fight? Fighting is bad. I’ll go break it up!”
And with that, he slipped out of the dorm at top speed.
A moment later, Lin Zhiqiao heard a flurry of footsteps behind him. He turned around and was shocked. “Why are all of you following me too?”
The cameraman was right behind him, still carrying the camera on his shoulder. “I’m going to preserve evidence!”
Next came Tang Zhou. “What if they start fighting? Yuan Yu’s strong and sturdy… I’m afraid Ji Ran won’t be able to beat him, so I’m going to help!”
Then Wen Li said, “I know first aid. I might be useful.”
Jiang Qianqian racked her brain. “I-I… I’m going to make up the last hit!”
Pei Ning looked perfectly calm, though her steps were not slow at all. “Someone has to collect the corpse.”
A whole group of them rushed noisily into the dark little woods.
Lin Zhiqiao sighed inwardly with emotion: [They’re all such warm-hearted good citizens! There really are more good people than bad in this world after all!]
