Chapter 9
In the end, Yuan Yu was carried to the infirmary by several of the boys working together.
The doctor said there was nothing seriously wrong with him. He had simply been too badly frightened and was temporarily unable to process it, so his body was instinctively trying to escape reality.
As for the injuries on his face, all three were just superficial wounds. Nothing major.
Hearing that, everyone present let out a sigh in unison.
Lucky bastard.
On the way back to the dorm, Ji Ran’s emotions were still relatively stable.
Lin Zhiqiao kept glancing at him again and again along the way, until Ji Ran gradually puffed up in irritation. “Why do you keep looking at me?!”
Lin Zhiqiao withdrew his gaze a little awkwardly.
[Something this huge happened, and he still didn’t cry! Did his tear-sensitive constitution stop working? This is not river-li!]
Ji Ran: “…”
He said, one word at a time, “Lin. Zhi. Qiao.”
That tone was far too familiar. Lin Zhiqiao shrank his neck a little and asked quietly, “What’s wrong?”
Ji Ran fell silent for a moment, then his voice suddenly weakened. “…Thank you.”
Lin Zhiqiao looked blank. “Huh?”
He had not really done anything, so why was Ji Ran suddenly thanking him?
[Could it be the shock was too much and his brain got a little…]
Lin Zhiqiao’s eyes filled with sympathy.
Ji Ran closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Don’t get angry, don’t get angry.
He could not get mad at his benefactor over such a “small matter.”
He said softly, “I mean, you thought to come help me, and you even brought the cameraman and the others with you.”
Lin Zhiqiao let out an “oh.”
So that was what it was about.
Lin Zhiqiao waved a hand. “It’s nothing, it’s nothing. No need to thank me.”
[I’m kind of embarrassed. I was actually there for the gossip.]
Ji Ran lowered his eyes slightly and said nothing.
And everyone present, except for Lin Zhiqiao, knew that Ji Ran’s “thank you” was not just for that one thing.
If not for Lin Zhiqiao, Ji Ran still had no idea how much longer Yuan Yu would have kept fooling him.
888: [Ji Ran’s favorability +120! After offsetting the negative value, the remaining favorability has been stored as Blind Box Energy. Please check it, Host.]
Lin Zhiqiao blinked.
Wait, even eating gossip could raise favorability?
Tonight was destined to be a sleepless one.
After returning to the dorm, 888’s voice could not hide its excitement. [Gossip rating: B+. Reward: 280,000 RMB. On-site gossip reward doubled. Actual amount deposited into your little vault: 560,000 RMB! Congratulations, Host, ahhhh!]
Lin Zhiqiao was excited too. [Ahhhh, System, I love you, you are my Juliet!!!]
One man and one system embraced in his mind!
888: [Total reward has exceeded 880,000 RMB. New feature “System Shop” has been unlocked!]
Lin Zhiqiao clicked into the shop to take a look.
At one glance, all the products sold in the shop were gossip—
From “F-” level gossip worth 88 shop points, all the way to “S-level” gossip worth 88,888 shop points.
There was even a special “Designated Gossip Card.” After buying and using it, he could specify whose gossip would come out of the next blind box!
Lin Zhiqiao was dazzled. [Wow!]
888 explained that shop points were converted from favorability. Different people had different conversion ratios: the greater a person’s influence, the higher the ratio, and vice versa.
To help Lin Zhiqiao understand better, 888 gave an example. [For instance, Song Fengshi’s favorability—10 points of favorability might convert into 1,000 or even 10,000 shop points. Ordinary people are usually one-to-one, but if it’s Yuan Yu, 100 favorability points might only convert into 1 shop point.]
Lin Zhiqiao: [Pah, bad luck!]
Too bad he had already poured all 10 points of Song Fengshi’s favorability into the energy bar. Otherwise, he could have used 1 point to test how high President Song’s conversion ratio really was.
888 suddenly started reporting: [Favorability +60 from “Zhang xx”! Favorability +36 from “Li xx”! …]
Lin Zhiqiao: ???
888 went on for several minutes without stopping. Lin Zhiqiao hurriedly said, [Stop reporting, stop reporting. Just tell me the total first.]
888: [A total of 6,218 favorability points!]
Lin Zhiqiao looked puzzled. [Where did all this favorability… come from?]
He did not know a single one of the people 888 was mentioning.
Then a thought suddenly struck him.
Could it be… he had fans now too?!
When Lin Zhiqiao had first debuted, he had actually had a small batch of fans because of his striking and memorable looks.
But later, he was constantly hit with massive amounts of “black material,” and with so few works and so little positive exposure, those fans gradually all disappeared.
Lin Zhiqiao logged onto Weibo again after a long time, and when he saw the little icon showing 99+ new followers, his inner reaction was…
Honestly, not that big.
Lin Zhiqiao sighed.
Ai, sure enough, he was older now.
He no longer had that same drive he had when he was younger.
Now the only things that could truly move him were money and gossip.
Dog head.jpg
*
At the same time, Our Life’s sudden midnight livestream, along with the content shown in it, had already caused a massive uproar across the entire internet.
#NeverExpectedThisSideOfYuanYu#, #DoubleFireIsOver#, #YuanYuCollapse#…
One trending tag after another dominated the hot search rankings in a truly spectacular scene.
The Double Fire CP supertopic, Yuan Yu and Ji Ran’s personal Weibo pages, and even Mingguang Training Base’s official account all failed to escape being stormed by fans.
Ji Ran’s pinned Weibo post was filled with comfort from fans.
‘Brother Ran, don’t be sad. Out with the old, in with the new. The next man will smell even better!’
‘Hugging Princess Little Yellow Chick. Don’t hide under the blanket and cry secretly tonight, big sis will feel bad for you [soybean tears.jpg]’
The other guests on Our Life all gained quite a lot of followers as well, and even Shu Qing unexpectedly won the affection of many casual viewers.
‘Big sis slapping that scumbag was so freaking cool!!!’
‘Who understands, I’ve replayed that “If I don’t beat you to death” line a hundred times, I’m obsessed!’
As for the melon owner Yuan Yu—
‘Human trash, get the hell out of the entertainment industry!!!’
‘You made me bite my keyboard upside down! You’d better keep your face hidden when you go outside, or I’ll beat you up every time I see you [cursing.jpg]’
‘Trash like you actually thought you could convert us CP fans into your solo stans? Pah! Did you really think we’d support a piece of garbage like you?!’
‘Here’s a suggestion: maybe livestream yourself eating shit. You’ll gain followers faster [smile.jpg]’
And countless gossip-loving bystanders swarmed in after catching the scent of drama, happily eating melon to their hearts’ content.
‘The first huge melon of the year has officially been born [party popper.jpg]’
‘The cameraman even made a special Weibo post explaining that it wasn’t a livestream accident, and that the extra overtime livestream wasn’t unpaid overtime either, they’d be compensated for it [dying laughing.jpg]’
This farce continued almost the entire night.
The next day.
As soon as Lin Chen arrived at the company, his assistant hurried over to report, “President Lin, the company’s stock price has dropped compared with yesterday!”
Lin Chen said, “What happened?”
“The trainee Yuan Yu was exposed for pretending to be gay while actually straight, using CP hype to deceive people’s feelings, and two-timing…” the assistant quickly explained the situation.
“How could something this minor affect the stock price?” Lin Chen frowned. “Just distance the company from that trainee immediately and issue a termination notice. Where’s the PR department? They can’t even handle something this simple?”
The assistant stammered, “But President Lin, Yuan Yu is from the Yuan family. Back then… back then they had already spoken to you about him.”
Lin Chen paused for a second, then changed his words. “Was the trending search taken down?”
“It was,” the assistant said. “But netizens are saying that taking down the hot search is the company shielding a disgraced artist, so…”
Lin Chen waved his hand. “As long as it’s taken down, it’s fine. Push some black material about artists from other companies onto the hot search and divert public attention. In two days, the heat will naturally go down.”
The assistant hesitated. “But…”
Lin Chen said, “But what?”
“The hot search is back up again,” the assistant replied. “We can’t suppress it for the time being. Someone is boosting it.”
Lin Chen asked, “Do we know who?”
The assistant shook his head.
Lin Chen frowned.
Could it be Fang Xinnan?
He waved the assistant away and immediately contacted Fang Xinnan, only to hear the other side say, “There’s no use coming to me. I’m not the one behind the hot search.”
Fang Xinnan said, “It’s that one.”
Lin Chen did not react right away. “Who?”
Fang Xinnan let out a laugh. “If someone can be called that one, who else could it be?”
Lin Chen: “…President Song?”
Fang Xinnan: “Mm-hm.”
Lin Chen’s breathing tightened slightly. “The Lin family and the Song family… shouldn’t have any grudge between them, right?”
“Who knows?” Fang Xinnan said. “President Song’s thoughts are hard to read. I don’t know what he’s thinking either.”
The call ended, leaving Lin Chen alone in confused thought, a growing unease in his heart.
*
Mingguang Entertainment quickly issued an official statement: trainee Yuan Yu had committed serious disciplinary violations and displayed severe moral corruption, and his contract with the company had now been terminated.
Ji Ran was distracted the entire day. After hearing the news, his foot slipped and he nearly fell to the ground.
Lin Zhiqiao caught him. “Careful!”
The others gathered around and asked, “Are you okay?”
Ji Ran shook his head, his expression dark. “I’m fine.”
That gloomy mood lasted all the way until training ended, when they ran into Yuan Yu waiting outside the dorm entrance.
Ji Ran frowned hard. “What are you doing here?”
“Ran, I came to apologize.” Yuan Yu’s expression looked sincere. “I’m sorry, I was wrong, I—”
Ji Ran cut him off. “Apologize?”
He did not give Yuan Yu any chance to continue speaking. “You’re apologizing now not because you know you were wrong. You’re only afraid of facing the consequences and afraid of taking responsibility.”
“The people you should apologize to are not just me, but also Shu Qing, who waited for you for three years!” Ji Ran spoke very fast. “And that male actor you once hyped a CP with, only to be scam later and force him into leaving the industry to take the civil service exam! And that middle school classmate you bullied so badly they had to transfer schools! And all those fans you betrayed and deceived!”
“Scumbag, get lost! Don’t come near me!”
After spitting it all out in one breath, Ji Ran did not spare Yuan Yu another glance. He entered the dorm and slammed the door shut with a bang.
Lin Zhiqiao secretly looked at him.
Whoa!
His eyes had gone red!
Ji Ran closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then another.
No, no.
The livestream was still on. He could not cry!
He absolutely had to hold it in!
Lin Zhiqiao carefully poked him. “Are you really okay?”
Ji Ran: “…Wuu.”
Lin Zhiqiao did not hear clearly. “What did you say?”
“I…” But the moment he opened his mouth, he could not hold it anymore. “I wuuwuuwuu!”
Ji Ran lunged forward and hugged Lin Zhiqiao, crying so hard it was practically earth-shaking.
“Why am I so miserable, wuwuwu!” Ji Ran cried until his features were all scrunched up in every direction. “Black history! This is seriously black history! My first love is way too embarrassing, wuuu wuuu!!!”
