Chapter 81
The moment he heard his manager speaking to him in that tone, the sense of foreboding in Su Jia’s heart grew even stronger.
But he still forced himself to stay calm. “What do you mean, it’s over? Can you talk properly?”
His manager had no time to argue with him over tone or wording. Using the shortest sentences possible, he told Su Jia one thing—
He was finished.
With a boom, Su Jia’s mind went completely blank. He did not hear a single word of what his manager said next. Before the other party could finish speaking, he hung up, then opened Weibo as if unwilling to accept reality.
The top three trending topics were blindingly harsh—
#The “Blue Enchantress” incident has been reversed#
#Su Jia’s real age — we were all deceived by Su Jia#
#Xie Qingchi, we’re sorry#
Just from the titles alone, Su Jia could already guess what was inside those trends.
He did not even have the courage to tap into them, nor did he dare open the sea of red unread private messages in his inbox.
Even so, some of the comments hanging high on the homepage still rushed straight into his eyes.
“Stanning Su Jia was the biggest mistake of my life.”
“This is so disgusting. I’ve never seen someone this revolting.”
…
There were countless comments like that. Su Jia even spotted many familiar longtime fans among them, along with several well-known fan-site masters.
He did not dare linger. He exited Weibo at once and dialed a number he had called countless times before.
But this time, the call would not go through no matter what.
How could it not go through? Could that person be abandoning him now too?
No. No, impossible!
Su Jia forced himself to calm down. He opened WeChat, ignored the flood of unread messages, found the familiar profile picture, and sent a message.
The message went through. There was no red exclamation mark, which meant the other party had not deleted him.
Su Jia quietly let out a breath of relief. That meant the other party had not cut ties with him unilaterally.
He tried making a few video calls over WeChat, but there was still no response from the other side.
Maybe he was busy. Maybe he did not have his phone with him…
But why now, of all times?!
At that moment, a new push notification popped up at the top of his phone screen—
“Zhou family’s eldest son, Zhou Ming, arrested on the spot for gathering to take drugs…”
Su Jia’s eyes flew wide open. In that instant, it felt as if he had stopped breathing.
Zhou Ming… had been taken away by the police?
The person he had always relied on, the backer who had let him do whatever he wanted without fear…
Had fallen?
Su Jia’s mind was in complete chaos.
Think of something. There had to be a way. There had to be. He forced himself to believe it.
The sudden ringing of his phone cut through his thoughts. It was his manager calling again.
But Su Jia rejected the call at once. He searched through his contacts and dialed another number. After the call connected, the person on the other end asked, “Who is this?”
“Brother Zhao, it’s me. Su Jia.” Su Jia adjusted his emotions, making his voice sound as calm as possible. “I—”
Before he could finish, a harsh series of beeps came from the receiver.
Su Jia froze. When he called again, the automated voice said the number he had dialed was no longer in service.
Brother Zhao had blocked him.
Su Jia’s fingers trembled faintly. He made several more calls in a row, but the results were all more or less the same.
Those powerful men he had met through Zhou Ming—those who had once had relationships with him, those who had told him that if he ever needed anything in the future, he could always come to them—
At this moment, not a single one of them was willing to offer him a helping hand.
Panic and confusion overwhelmed him. He searched through his phone from top to bottom, only to realize there was no one left he could turn to.
Just then, his phone rang again. It was an unfamiliar number, with no saved name attached.
Yet Su Jia answered it as if it were a lifeline.
A calm voice came from the other end. “Su Jia?”
“Yes, yes, that’s me.” Su Jia nodded rapidly. “May I ask who this is?”
“Your new manager. Temporarily.” The voice on the other end remained steady and unhurried. “Come back to the company this afternoon. The company has something they need to discuss with you in person.”
The moment he heard that, Su Jia’s heart went cold all the way through.
Of course he knew what that so-called in-person discussion was about. He did not even bother to ask what had happened to his old manager, because he knew full well that the other man’s ending was most likely the same one he himself was about to face.
“T-this afternoon?” Su Jia tried to avoid reality. “But I’m still filming the show. I probably won’t have time this afternoon.”
The person on the other end merely gave a light laugh and said only one sentence—
“See you this afternoon.”
Then he hung up.
The urgent beeping in Su Jia’s ear sounded like pounding drums, each strike crashing down against his heart.
The next second, there was a knock at the door.
“Su Jia, are you in there?” It was Director Xu. “Come to my lounge later. We need to talk.”
Darkness washed over Su Jia’s vision in waves. At that moment, he finally realized completely—
There was no longer any chance for him to turn this around.
The news that Idol Star Dream had terminated its partnership with Su Jia quickly shot to the top of the trending charts.
The replacement came the very next day after Su Jia left the production team. His name was Qin Qinzhou, a male idol who had risen to fame around the same time as Zhu Ge.
Although his popularity did not match Su Jia’s or Zhu Ge’s, he had the advantage of being grounded and low-key. Over all these years, he had basically never been dragged into any major controversies, and even casual viewers had a very favorable impression of him.
In terms of experience, Qin Qinzhou was naturally not inferior to the other two mentors. Having him take Su Jia’s place would also not cause dissatisfaction among Zhu Ge’s and Xie Qingchi’s fans.
Most importantly, Qin Qinzhou’s company was not Mingguang Entertainment, but Xinghe Entertainment—the same company Lin Zhiqiao, Ji Ran, and Cheng Xia belonged to.
For some reason, that simply felt much more reassuring.
Clearly, Director Xu was not the only one with that line of thinking. Quite a few people online felt the same way.
“How long has it even been? How many people from Mingguang Entertainment have already collapsed?”
“Leaving aside the less famous ones, just Yuan Yu, Cheng Li, and Su Jia alone—when any of them crashed, wasn’t it a giant explosion across the whole internet? Especially Su Jia… forget it, I won’t even mention him. Just seeing those two characters makes me annoyed. [trying to stay calm, failed.jpg]”
“I’m not targeting Mingguang’s trainees, but Mingguang Entertainment’s favorability score is already in the negatives for me. It’s reached the point where just seeing the name gives me PTSD.”
“From now on, whenever I see an idol produced by Mingguang, I’ll have to think twice about whether I can stan them. I really don’t want to go through another collapse. It hurts too much, sob sob. [crying cat head.jpg]”
“I can understand the teammates not knowing Su Jia hid his real age, but the manager and the company definitely knew. Hell, it might even have been the company’s idea in the first place.”
“Mingguang Entertainment can’t wash this clean. All I can say is, any trainee who still chooses to sign with Mingguang after something like this… well, judge for yourselves.”
There were endless comments like these.
When Lin Chen saw them, his vision blacked out on the spot. He almost performed a dramatic fainting spell from sheer rage.
Seeing how awful his expression was, his assistant cautiously asked, “President Lin… are you alright?”
Lin Chen did not answer. He only shot him a vicious glare, clearly thinking, Can’t you tell whether I’m alright or not?
The assistant seemed to realize he had asked an idiotic question and hurriedly moved to the main topic. “President Lin, regarding Su Jia’s matter, this is how we’ve been considering it…”
He rattled off a whole long explanation. After listening, Lin Chen rubbed his temples and waved him away.
Once the office was empty except for him, Lin Chen grabbed his water cup and downed it in one go, his gaze dark and vicious.
Another one had fallen.
And this time it was Su Jia—Mingguang Entertainment’s proudest creation, the living signboard that had been used to attract fresh talent.
Of course, that pride and that signboard now belonged to the past. Worse, they had become a stain Mingguang Entertainment would never be able to wash off.
Lin Chen forced himself to steady his emotions.
Su Jia’s situation was already beyond saving. All he could do now was try to recover the losses elsewhere.
For example—the only seedling Mingguang still had left in Idol Star Dream: Ming Ye.
If Ming Ye could successfully debut in the end, or even debut as the center, the company might still be able to stop the bleeding and perhaps even stage a rebound.
Lin Chen calmed himself and repeated inwardly that things could still turn around.
Very soon, news also spread that Su Jia had withdrawn from Faraway Youth and terminated his contract with Mingguang Entertainment.
Within Faraway Youth, the members who had once spoken up for Su Jia and trampled all over Xie Qingchi now all rushed to cut ties with Su Jia. One after another, they posted on Weibo saying they had been deceived by Su Jia and had misunderstood Xie Qingchi.
They apologized to Xie Qingchi and tagged him publicly from afar, all but saying they hoped he would return to Faraway Youth, and that if he were willing, the captain’s position would always remain his.
Every one of them acted full of regret, even affection, but to everyone else, the whole display only looked nauseating.
“You were all deceived by Su Jia? You knew nothing? Only children would believe that kind of lie. [rolling eyes.jpg]”
“Is it just me, or is the tea smell a little too strong in that tone?”
“Even your wording is more or less identical. Did you hold a meeting first and unify your talking points before posting? [laughing my head off.jpg]”
“You’ve scrubbed yourselves squeaky clean. So you’re all just innocent little white lotuses, huh?”
“I advise you to delete your posts quickly before you dirty Brother Xie’s eyes. [I’m throwing up first out of respect.jpg]”
…
Meanwhile, Xie Qingchi’s account also updated with a new post. It was extremely short, but perfectly direct and clear—
“Blocked and muted. Do not disturb.”
He did not name the person he had blocked and muted, but everyone on the internet knew exactly who he meant.
His comment section was filled with joy.
“666. As expected of my Brother Xie.”
“The air over here around Brother Xie suddenly feels much fresher. I almost suffocated next door.”
There were also countless groups of netizens arriving to apologize.
When Xie Qingchi read those comments, his mood did not shift much.
Over the years, he had already seen through the true nature of the entertainment industry. Compared to the noise of the outside world, he now cared more about himself. These apologies from strangers online did little more than leave him with a faint sense of irony. They did not bring him any real thrill of vindication.
Then one comment suddenly jumped into view.
“Mingguang really isn’t it anymore. I’m kind of worried about Ming Ye… Sorry if this is a bit abrupt, but Brother Xie, could you maybe help out our little Ming? I’m honestly worried that if he stays at Mingguang, he’ll be led astray too QAQ”
Ming Ye?
That trainee who had clung to Su Jia and started hyping CP content with him from day one?
Xie Qingchi gave a soft scoff and lifted his eyes toward Lin Zhiqiao.
His instinct told him—
The show was not over yet.
