Chapter 72
‘You can actually do that? [pupils shaking.jpg]’
‘I’m dying laughing. If Heng family’s parents find out the cooperation got blown because of something like this, the twins are gonna get beaten so badly when they get home, hahaha.’
‘This proves that whoever you mess with, don’t ever mess with a member of the gossip squad—especially our Gossip King [doge.jpg]’
‘It feels like I just witnessed a ridiculously absurd business war. I really don’t understand the world of rich families [the melon in my hand dropped from shock.jpg]’
After being stunned for a while, Lin Zhiqiao quickly accepted Ji Ran’s move.
The moment he realized this kind of operation was actually possible, Lin Zhiqiao suddenly pulled out his phone, looking eager to try it himself.
Cheng Xia noticed his movement right away and asked in a low voice, “What are you trying to do?”
“I think I also have someone I can call.” Lin Zhiqiao lowered his voice too. “He still owes me a favor!”
“Who?” Ji Ran didn’t react at first, then suddenly remembered what Lin Zhiqiao had said before. “You mean Song…?”
Realizing the livestream was still on, Ji Ran abruptly stopped himself, barely managing not to say Song Fengshi’s name out loud.
Lin Zhiqiao nodded. “Maybe I can give it a try? Let the Heng family experience what it means for misfortunes to never come singly.”
Ji Ran fell silent for a moment. Seeing that Lin Zhiqiao actually seemed ready to place the call, he hurriedly stopped him.
“No, no, no!” He quickly pressed down Lin Zhiqiao’s hand. “If you bring him in for something like this, it’s way too making a mountain out of a molehill! A favor that hard to come by should be saved for something more important.”
Lin Zhiqiao said, “This already feels pretty important.”
Ji Ran still didn’t let go. “Besides, as far as I know, his family doesn’t have any business dealings with the Heng family. The Heng family… heh, they’re not even qualified.”
“Is that so?” Lin Zhiqiao blinked. “Then forget it.”
Only after seeing Lin Zhiqiao put his phone away did Ji Ran finally let out a sigh of relief.
‘So who was Xiao Qiao about to call? Why is Baby Ran so panicked [confused.jpg]’
‘Song what? Could it be someone from the Song family?’
‘Don’t tell me it’s President Song, hahaha.’
‘No matter who it is, Baby Ran already said this favor is super hard to get, but Xiao Qiao still said “this already feels pretty important.” Our Xiao Qiao really is the best Xiao Qiao in the whole world [sobbing noisily.jpg]’
‘From Ji Ran’s tone, this favor might be something even he couldn’t get. So our Gossip King is actually this awesome?’
‘He’s called the Gossip King—do you still not get how he got that favor in the first place? [doge.jpg]’
‘Just look at Baby Ran, Baby Xia, and Yuanzi at the scene. Maybe add Baby Li too, and you’ll understand.’
‘I’ll bet one gold coin—actually never mind, no point betting on a guaranteed win [old man with hands behind back.jpg]’
Meanwhile, at Heng Group—
The twins’ father, Heng Yu, was in a meeting.
The meeting had reached its most critical point when his secretary suddenly knocked on the door, interrupted, and hurriedly pushed it open with a grave expression.
Heng Yu frowned slightly, displeased by the secretary’s behavior, and asked in a lowered voice, “What is it? Didn’t I say not to disturb me?”
“It’s something very important.” The secretary glanced at the others in the room and whispered into Heng Yu’s ear in a voice only he could hear, “The Ji family… suddenly wants to cancel the cooperation.”
Heng Yu’s heart skipped a beat. He abruptly stood up and said to the people in the conference room, “Sorry, let’s pause the meeting for a moment.”
The people meeting with him were not Heng Group employees, but representatives from other corporations who had come to discuss cooperation.
Seeing the change in Heng Yu’s expression, the representatives exchanged looks, each forming their own conclusions.
Back in the office, Heng Yu urgently asked, “What happened?”
The Heng family was in the building materials business. Just two days ago, the Ji family had said they were preparing to place a large order with them. The original plan had been to formally sign the contract today, yet right at the moment of signing, he received this disastrous news.
“I’m not clear on the exact situation either.” The secretary was anxious too. “The Ji family only sent an email saying the cooperation was canceled, but they didn’t explain why.”
The Ji family’s order was a major one. Canceling it at the last minute would obviously have a significant impact on Heng Group.
Heng Yu immediately tried to contact someone from the Ji family, but the other side remained cold and only said that plans had changed and there was temporarily no need for cooperation, without giving any further reason.
He did not get the answer he wanted, nor did he manage to salvage the deal. Helpless, Heng Yu could only accept it.
Just pretend the Ji family had never mentioned this cooperation in the first place, he told himself.
After adjusting his mood, Heng Yu returned to the conference room, ready to continue the meeting. But the representatives from the other companies all stood up one after another, saying they still needed to reconsider the matter of cooperation.
Deals that had originally been eighty or ninety percent certain to go through had all fallen apart in one day!
Heng Yu was so frustrated that he started thinking about inviting a fortune-teller to take a look, just in case he had accidentally offended some taboo or triggered bad luck.
What he did not expect, however, was that that day was only the beginning.
In the next short three days, one deal after another in Heng Group’s hands all collapsed in succession.
The Ji family was just the first. Then came the Ning family, the Zhu family… close to ten deals in a row all went down the drain.
Heng Yu was overwhelmed, and immediately hired a master.
After a round of all sorts of strange and mysterious rituals, Heng Yu carefully asked, “Master, did the Heng family unknowingly violate some taboo recently?”
“Not that,” the master said, stroking his beard. “But you have offended someone.”
“Offended someone?” Heng Yu froze and tried to search his memory for clues, but failed. “Offended who?”
“That, this old Taoist does not know.” The master spoke slowly. “If President Heng wants to know, perhaps you should ask the younger generation in your family.”
The younger generation? Heng Yu’s brows knit tightly together.
Heng Yuan was already dead. Among the younger generation in the house, aside from him… only the twin brothers Heng Yang and Heng Xing remained.
As if suddenly remembering something, the secretary reminded him from the side, “President Heng, could it be Second Young Master and Third Young Master… and that idol survival variety show they joined?”
Heng Yu snapped back to himself. “What influence could a survival show possibly have?”
The secretary lowered his voice. “The Ji family’s two young masters are also on that show.”
That one sentence instantly woke the dreamer.
*
At the filming base—
During an utterly ordinary break, Heng Xing suddenly realized while buying something that his card no longer worked.
“Bro, I think my card got frozen,” he shouted. “Can you swipe yours for me?”
Heng Yang didn’t even raise his head and just handed his card over. “Take it.”
Among the twins, Heng Xing was the more mischievous one. Because of all the mistakes and trouble he caused, his card was often frozen by the family.
Both brothers were already used to it and assumed that something Heng Xing had done before had suddenly been discovered at home, so the family had frozen his card on the spot.
This was not the first or second time Heng Yang had let his younger brother use his card, but this time it was different from before.
“Bro,” Heng Xing said, his tone carrying both hesitation and shock, “I think your card got frozen too.”
Heng Yang paused mid-motion. “How could that be?”
But no matter how unwilling they were to believe it, this time both of their cards had indeed been frozen by the family.
Using the very little cash they had on them to pay, the two returned to the base and called their father, Heng Yu.
Not only did they fail to learn why the cards had been frozen, but for the first time ever, both of them—Heng Yang included—got thoroughly cursed out by their father.
The sharp busy tone came from the other end of the phone. Heng Yang and Heng Xing stared at each other.
“What the hell is wrong with him now?” Heng Xing clicked his tongue irritably. “Could it be that he’s unhappy we ran off to join an idol survival show?”
Heng Yang was calmer. “Who knows.”
Heng Xing impatiently raked a hand through his blue hair and muttered, “We just came out to have some fun. Is it really necessary to freeze both our cards over this?”
“Maybe he’s using this as a way to force us to come home,” Heng Yang said.
Heng Xing felt that made a lot of sense, but he had no intention of obeying. “No way I’m going back. It took so much effort to run into him again. Of course we have to have our fun for a while.”
Heng Yang said nothing, but from the look they exchanged, both brothers understood the unspoken meaning between them.
*
After the evaluation and the second round of class reassignment ended, the next major task would be the contestants’ first official stage performance, along with the first elimination voting round that came with it.
Before the stage performance, the contestants’ task was to form groups, choose a concept, and begin training.
During this period, the jobs of the three mentor assistants, including Lin Zhiqiao, remained the easiest of all.
Every day, aside from recording various data, checking the dorms morning and night, and acting as messengers, their main job was simply to find a comfortable place to sit and observe how the mentors trained the trainees.
During the second class reassignment, the mentors and mentor assistants were also reshuffled.
Tang Nan and Ji Yuan swapped places, while Lin Zhiqiao had the great honor of once again continuing as Su Jia’s assistant.
It was worth mentioning that ever since the twins dropped from Class A to Class B, they had never found another opportunity to get close to Zhou Zili.
The people in Class A were all guarding him like a protected cub. No matter what Zhou Zili did, there were always at least two people by his side.
This moved Zhou Zili deeply.
‘This is what healthy competition looks like! On stage we’re opponents, but off stage we’re comrades and friends!!!’
‘Everyone is so great. Comparing them like this just makes those twins next door look even more like trash [cussing non-stop.jpg]’
‘Don’t put trash in the same sentence as these amazing people. They’re not worthy [take this kitty punch.jpg]’
‘Help, the moment I think about how only five people can debut in the end, I already want to cry, wuwuwu.’
‘A knife flying straight into my heart [clutching chest.jpg]’
‘Can’t they really make it ten debut spots? Doesn’t Director Xu think five is way too few, QAQ’
Inside Class A’s training room—
Lin Zhiqiao held his assistant notebook in his arms, sitting quietly in an inconspicuous corner of the room, staring without blinking in Su Jia’s direction.
Su Jia had just taught a new set of dance movements and was now going around correcting each contestant’s details one by one.
After Zhou Zili’s turn ended, the next one was Ming Ye.
Lin Zhiqiao instantly straightened his back and sat upright: [Good, good, good—the main event is finally here!]
‘Who understands this? I’ve been waiting so long just for this moment!’
‘Brother Ming, please don’t disappoint me. Such a rare chance [rubbing hands in anticipation.jpg]’
