Chapter 84
At the table beside them, Lin Zhiqiao and the others were already on the verge of laughing themselves to death, yet none of them dared make a sound, afraid of interrupting the wonderfully dramatic “standoff” between Yan Jue and Jiang Yang.
‘This really is one hell of a coincidence hahaha.’
‘I’m laughing so hard I’ve twisted myself into a fried dough braid on my bed, help.’
‘Who gets this? I’m slacking off at work watching the livestream, wanting to laugh but not daring to. My boss walked by and asked why my face was so red, whether I had a fever [slamming desk in laughter.gif]’
‘Even though they got tricked terribly by a scumbag, this scene is honestly hilarious [merit -1 -1 -1.jpg]’
‘What a pity. If all of the playboy’s fish were here, this would definitely be even more interesting.’
‘Went to check for a second—girls, your fighting power is insane. That damn playboy is already on the trending list. How far away can the moment the other victims learn the truth still be!’
Yan Jue and Jiang Yang had no idea about the storm raging in the livestream or on Weibo.
After Jiang Yang’s words fell, the table sank into dead silence.
Yan Jue and Jiang Yang looked at each other, both clearly catching every tiny shift in expression on the other’s face.
From excitement, to confusion, to shock and suspicion—
Yan Jue let out two awkward dry laughs and asked, “Could there be… two contestants named Ming Ye on Idol Star Dream?”
Jiang Yang answered stiffly, “There… probably isn’t, right?”
The two stared at each other again.
A moment later, Yan Jue and Jiang Yang almost simultaneously pulled out their phones and brought up their respective chat records with Ming Ye, couple photos… and a whole series of solid evidence proving that she/he was in a relationship with him.
In the photos, Ming Ye was the same Ming Ye.
But the person by his side was different.
Yan Jue said, “I got together with him in October last year. He confessed first.”
Jiang Yang said, “Mine was in December last year. He confessed first too. We’d known each other for less than a month back then.”
He paused, his voice dropping even lower. “Sorry. I didn’t know he already had a girlfriend. If I had known, I definitely wouldn’t have…”
“You don’t need to apologize. You’re not the one in the wrong.” Yan Jue ground her teeth. “So only one month after getting together with me, he was already out there messing around with someone else?! You dog scumbag, I blank-blank your big blank-blank!!!”
Yan Jue’s small, delicate face was filled with anger, looking like she was about to roll up her sleeves and rush out to beat someone senseless the very next second.
That contrast left Jiang Yang staring in shock.
Jiang Yang stammered blankly, “I… you… we…”
Yan Jue tugged the corner of her mouth slightly. Her speech was slow, but enough to make one’s back go cold. “No rush. Let’s sort out the timeline again and collect all the evidence properly…”
She took a deep breath, practically radiating killing intent. “I’m going to make everyone see his true face. He wants to debut as an idol while two-timing people? He can keep dreaming in broad daylight!!!”
‘Beautiful! This girl’s values are so right! When something like this happens, you go straight to the source and deal with the real problem!!’
‘At first I thought this pretty girl was a little love-brained. My bad, I apologize first. She’s actually clear-headed as hell [cheering for this beauty! .jpg]’
‘My heart aches for the votes I used to waste on Ming Ye. Might as well have given them to Brother chef, wuwuwu.’
‘Damn, I even dragged my whole friends list into voting for Ming Ye. Now it’s all become black history [completely screwed.jpg]’
Jiang Yang swallowed hard, seemingly too shocked by Yan Jue’s overwhelming aura to move.
After a long while, he finally spoke in a small voice, “Yan Jue…”
“What is it?” Yan Jue turned back, the killing intent in her round almond-shaped eyes not yet fully faded.
So Jiang Yang’s voice became even smaller. “We… we don’t seem to be the only two victims.”
Yan Jue did not react at first. “What do you mean?”
“It means Ming Ye isn’t just two-timing.” Jiang Yang pushed his phone in front of her. “See for yourself.”
The phone screen was lit up, looking especially glaring in the dim little corner, and making the huge words on it stand out even more clearly.
At one glance, Yan Jue saw the glaring bold headline—
‘Reincarnation of an Octopus! A trainee from a talent show was actually dating eight people at the same time. Is this the collapse of morality or the distortion of human nature…’
Whether human nature was distorted or not, nobody knew.
But Yan Jue’s expression definitely was.
She shot to her feet in fury, stomped toward the restroom, and grabbed a boy who was walking out. With a sweet smile, she asked, “Sorry, could you help me call my boyfriend out of the men’s restroom? He said he wasn’t feeling well, and he’s been in there forever without coming back. I’m a little worried. Oh right, his name is Ming Ye.”
But the boy said, “There’s nobody in the restroom anymore.”
Jiang Yang guessed, “Maybe he saw that I came too, got scared of being exposed, and slipped away?”
Yan Jue opened her phone, and sure enough, saw a message Ming Ye had sent her just a few minutes ago.
Ming Ye: ‘Something urgent came up with the production team. They were pushing me really hard, so I left first and didn’t get a chance to tell you. Sorry.’
Ming Ye: ‘Head home first. Once filming’s over, I’ll make it up to you. Love you [kiss kiss baby.jpg]’
Yan Jue was so angry she almost laughed. “Still acting. He’s still acting! So what if he ran? I’m definitely pinning you to the ground and beating the hell out of you today!”
With that, she charged toward the bar’s back door.
Jiang Yang hurried after her and asked blankly, “Why the back door?”
“He left through the back,” Yan Jue said. “The wind chime at the front door hasn’t rung once since you came in.”
‘Amazing. I thought this girl had already lost her mind, but her thinking is still this clear [please accept my knees.jpg]’
‘Looking forward to a playboy crash-and-burn scene [melon-eating raccoon rubbing hands.jpg]’
‘What a pity. There are still a few people missing. If everybody were here together… the scene would probably be spectacular.’
‘Not counting the ones who already broke up, there are eight! Eight people, one slap each, and the playboy could turn into a swollen-headed fish on the spot hehe.’
‘Report—latest progress on the trending topic! It looks like the other victims have already gotten in contact!!!’
‘!!! So can I dream of the full cast assembling [screaming.jpg]’
On the other side, seeing that the main characters of the gossip were about to leave, Lin Zhiqiao hesitated for less than a second before dragging his tablemates along and quickly following after them.
[What a pity. Just two people confronting him is way too easy on Ming Ye,] Lin Zhiqiao muttered inwardly. [Even though he’s only stepping on eight boats right now, at his craziest, he was juggling sixteen at the same time!]
Everyone around him sucked in a breath at once.
Dating sixteen people at the same time!
What kind of shocking, terrifying number was that?!
[If only two more could show up. The more people there are, the more fun it’ll be.] Lin Zhiqiao sighed, then suddenly—[Holy shit, holy shit!]
Everyone immediately held their breath and pricked up their ears.
[The other six actually all came too! Do people have this much tacit understanding? They all decided to come visit him and conveniently bring the playboy some Dawn Dusk…]
[Is this about to become world war? An eight-person condemnation… Ming Ye, oh Ming Ye, when you were juggling eight boats, did you ever think this day would come!]
Clearly, Ming Ye had never thought about that question.
After secretly slipping out through the bar’s back door, the first thing Ming Ye did was send Yan Jue a message, then immediately rush back toward the production base.
Not because he was narcissistic, but Ming Ye was almost certain that Jiang Yang showing up here, just like Yan Jue, had also been for him.
So to avoid the two of them running into each other at the wrong time and place, he tried to coax Yan Jue away with sweet words.
Ming Ye was not worried that Yan Jue would refuse to leave. The halo effect was still active on her, and she was almost completely obedient to him, not the type to disturb him when he said he was “busy with work.”
After sending the message, Ming Ye finally felt a little more at ease.
The bar’s back door opened into an alley. In order to avoid the street at the front entrance, Ming Ye looped around the alley a few times, planning to take another small road back to the base.
The plan was a good one.
Unfortunately, plans could never keep up with changes. Before he even managed to get out of the alley, someone appeared coming straight toward him.
“Brother Ming?” The person said in delight. “What a coincidence! I can’t believe I actually ran into you here!”
The moment Ming Ye saw who it was, his scalp tightened and began tingling.
Why was there another one?!
The newcomer was clearly one of his partners.
She was a girl with a ponytail, youthful and pretty.
The girl stepped forward, affectionately looped her arm through Ming Ye’s, and said with a smile, “I heard you were off today, so I was just about to buy two cups of Dawn Dusk and go see you!”
Ming Ye laughed dryly. “Really…”
“Yes, yes. I checked online, and people said the Dawn Dusk here tastes really good. You’d probably like it.” The girl smiled sweetly, seemingly not noticing anything wrong with him. “But my GPS led me onto this little road. Do you know where that bar is?”
As she spoke, her nose twitched twice. “Hm? That smell is so familiar… did you drink Dawn Dusk? You just came out of the bar?”
Ming Ye gave a dry laugh and had no choice but to admit it. “Y-yeah.”
But the girl frowned. “Then was what someone told me true? You were in a bar drinking and chatting intimately with some girl?”
Cold sweat nearly broke out on Ming Ye’s back.
He knew she meant Yan Jue. If this had been before, he could have thrown out some excuse without the slightest guilt.
But not today.
Setting aside the fact that Yan Jue still had not replied to his messages, meaning he had no idea whether she was still in the bar or not, there was also Jiang Yang—the one who had forced him to flee the bar in panic—who was very likely still there too.
Ming Ye had a splitting headache now.
If the girl insisted on going to the bar with him, and he agreed, then they might run into Yan Jue and Jiang Yang. If he firmly refused, he would only look guilty.
But even so, Ming Ye could not possibly take the girl back to the bar, nor could he bring her to the base, because Jiang Yang might have gone there looking for him too.
So Ming Ye could only grit his teeth and say, “Who have you been listening to? There weren’t enough seats in the bar, so I just shared a table with that girl. I don’t even know her. Where would there be any intimate behavior?”
The girl narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Really? Look me in the eye and say that.”
So Ming Ye met her gaze and secretly activated his cheat ability. “Absolutely true! Wanwan, don’t you trust me? The only one I like is you. Heaven and earth can testify—”
But before he could finish, a sudden voice cut him off.
“Heaven and earth can testify? Last night you were telling me that I was the only one you liked.”
That familiar voice made Ming Ye’s scalp explode, and the exact same sentence rang through his mind—
Why was there yet, yet, yet another one?!
This time it was a refined-looking young man, a few years older than the girl, wearing thin-rimmed glasses and a white shirt, looking delicate and cultured.
Ming Ye instinctively stepped back, breaking free from the girl’s hold on his arm.
But even though his reaction was fast, it was already too late.
The young man pushed up his glasses and asked with a cold laugh, “Or is it that the person you like yesterday and the person you like today are different?”
This time, Ming Ye’s cold sweat really did start flowing.
He took two steps back, trying to forcefully use the cheat halo on both people at once, but failed.
“Y-you… listen to my explanation…” Ming Ye said, his voice dry.
The young man and the girl both smiled at him at the same time. Neither of them spoke, yet another voice rang out.
“Go ahead, talk. I’d love to hear what kind of flowers you can explain out of this.”
From behind the nearby corner, a curly-haired woman stepped out slowly in high heels and tipped her chin at Ming Ye.
And behind her, two men and one woman followed out as well. Six people blocked Ming Ye from the front, completely sealing off the narrow road ahead of him.
Ming Ye: “……”
Ming Ye stumbled back two steps, his pupils shaking. “I… I…”
He “I”-ed for half a day without managing to squeeze out a full sentence. Instead, he suddenly spun around, seemingly preparing to run from this suffocating situation.
With six people here at once, Ming Ye’s cheat halo could not activate. He could only think of ways to “soothe” them one by one later.
The dream was beautiful.
Reality, however, was painfully thin.
Only after turning around did Ming Ye realize that two more people were standing behind him now as well, blocking the path he had come from.
They were Yan Jue and Jiang Yang, who had chased after him from the bar.
Yan Jue smiled sweetly at him, but the bones in her fingers cracked loudly as she clenched them. “Where exactly do you think you’re going, darling?”
