That lean, taut waist—caught somewhere between boyhood and adulthood—faintly outlined firm abs. His back stretched like a drawn bow, and with a sudden lift and stride of his long legs, he cleared the obstacle in one smooth motion.
The big boy flipped right in front of the middle-aged man, wearing a grin brighter than the blazing sun, flashing a mouthful of white teeth.
“Teacher Ren, I caught you!”
Ren Wenwu—addressed as Teacher Ren—raised both hands in surrender and sighed.
“How did you figure out where I was?”
This spot had been pretty well hidden.
The “teammate” who’d also been caught couldn’t help laughing.
“He spotted you ages ago! He said he wanted to lull you into a false sense of security—let you squat here until your legs went numb so you couldn’t run! Didn’t see that coming, did you?!”
Ren Wenwu froze, his face screaming how could anyone possibly think of that?!
The barrage of on-screen comments rolled by, dense yet oddly uniform, like something churned out by a printing press.
“Hahahahahaha who on earth could’ve predicted that?!”
“This is insane, absolutely insane! I said earlier Jian Feiyang clearly glanced this way—he definitely spotted Brother Ren! But the ‘wait till his legs go numb’ part? I can only say—beautifully done!”
“Hahahahaha I’m dying! What brand of smart little brain does Jian Feiyang have?! This strategy—simple, practical, brilliant!”
“Hahahahahahahaha sisters, I’m laughing so hard I’m crowing like a rooster, my neighbor’s about to call the cops—what do I do?!”
“I’m dead, I’m dead—rewatching this for the second time and I still can’t stop laughing. What kind of genius kid is Jian Feiyang? He’s really something!”
The entire screen was flooded with comments about Jian Feiyang, and more than ninety percent were open praise without the slightest restraint.
Fan Qing casually scrolled through Weibo and noticed Jian Feiyang’s follower count steadily climbing—not explosively, but at a speed that was absolutely impressive for a newcomer.
Not bad.
Fan Qing raised an eyebrow, genuinely impressed.
Jian Feiyang’s personality really was perfect for variety shows.
“Outrageous.”
An unhappy voice suddenly cut through the lively atmosphere.
Now what?
Fan Qing looked up at Jian Feishuo.
What was wrong with him now?
Jian Feishuo stared at the scrolling comments with an expression that said I don’t understand this at all, but I’m deeply shaken.
“What nonsense are these people spouting? A-Yang is a human—how could a human give birth to monkeys?”
Fan Qing: …?
He slowly turned to look at Jian Feiyang, then glanced back at Jian Feishuo, falling into deep thought.
If he remembered correctly, Jian Feiyang was only around twenty, right?
Then why did his older brother sound like he was living in the last century?
Jian Feiyang was equally shocked.
He stared at Jian Feishuo in disbelief.
“Big brother, don’t tell me you don’t know this is just something fans casually say when they’re stanning someone? And of course I’m human—why are you looking at me like you’re not sure?!”
At a time like this, shouldn’t you at least sound a little more confident?
“Why do you look like your entire understanding of the world just got shaken?!”
Jian Feishuo hesitated for a second, his voice dropping slightly.
“At present, it’s not impossible for humans to experience atavism…”
Jian Feiyang: “???”
Are you seriously my biological older brother?!
Jian Feishuo cleared his throat before saying, dissatisfied, “Fine, fine. Kids these days—fans are way too shameless. How can they just say things like that?”
And why would anyone want to give birth to monkeys anyway? Humans are humans because of evolution—why would anyone go backward and devolve?
Even as he complained, Jian Feishuo felt oddly distracted.
A-Yang actually seemed… kind of handsome?
And kind of fun. Judging from everyone’s reactions, it really did look like people liked him a lot?
But he remembered Jing Yuan had once shown him some of A-Yang’s acting footage. And A-Yang’s acting had been… well—
Jian Feishuo suddenly stopped mid-thought.
His brows slowly knit together.
Jing Yuan… so that guy really did have ulterior motives?
If even someone as out of touch as Jian Feishuo thought Jian Feiyang’s performance was good, then for ordinary viewers it went without saying.
Some fans who had originally been Guan Junhao’s looks-only fans even sincerely went to leave comments under Guan Junhao’s Weibo.
“Brother Guan really lives up to his name—your eye for talent is insane! What brand of little angel is Jian Feiyang? That face, those faintly visible muscles—hiss—! But don’t worry, Brother Guan, my favorite is still your face!”
“Hehehe Brother Guan, recover well! We’ll take this ‘stand-in’ Jian Feiyang off your hands! Waiting for you to come back~ PS: Brother Guan, maybe consider training a bit? Gotta say, I’m really craving Jian Feiyang’s body.”
Guan Junhao couldn’t help laughing and crying at the same time at these comments, but he also quietly relaxed.
Finding someone to fill in for him for two episodes had actually been pretty tricky. If the replacement performed poorly, viewers would complain about why he’d gotten injured. If the replacement did too well, he’d have to worry about being overshadowed.
But Jian Feiyang…
Guan Junhao silently tapped replay.
Not long after, goose-like laughter echoed out of the room.
“Hahahahaha! Ren-ge, you finally got what was coming to you!”
After the episode aired, Jian Feiyang gained a huge wave of new fans.
What surprised Fan Qing, though, was that Jing Yuan’s screen time had been cut down quite a bit.
Although what remained didn’t look bad, the reduction made it seem as if Jing Yuan had only made a brief guest appearance to boost exposure.
Sure enough.
Fan Qing soon spotted similar comments under the show’s trending topics.
“Brother Jing is really such a good person. I even checked—Jian Feiyang isn’t even under the same manager as him anymore, and Brother Jing still went on that kind of variety show just to help boost his popularity.”
“I’m so mad. Jing Yuan is way too gentle! Now the whole world is talking about Jian Feiyang, but would he even have this kind of effect if Jing Yuan hadn’t brought him popularity? And Jing Yuan is the one who really got the short end of the stick—having to go on a low-tier variety show with an eighteen-liner. It’s infuriating.”
“Sisters, don’t be mad. They used to be under the same manager, so it’s normal for Brother Jing to help him out a bit. And looking at the footage, Brother Jing didn’t even have to work that hard—just treat it as doing a good deed.”
“Exactly, just think of it as charity work. Brother Jing is just that gentle—there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“Looks like I underestimated this guy’s tactics.”
Scrolling through the comments, Fan Qing felt uncomfortable, but he also knew there wasn’t much he could do for now.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t do anything.
It was just that although Jian Feiyang was riding high at the moment, his fan base was essentially nonexistent.
If they tore into Jing Yuan right now, it would do Jian Feiyang far more harm than good.
What Fan Qing hadn’t expected, though, was that while he had no intention of making a move against Jing Yuan, Jing Yuan decided to strike first.
When Jian Feiyang’s Weibo follower count surged by nearly half a million, a new trending topic slowly climbed its way up the charts.
The poster had even deliberately tagged the show’s official topic.
EntertainmentWhispersV:
“This variety show newbie everyone’s been hyping lately #ChargeAhead sure seems popular, but what people might not know is that this person was originally an actor and was forced by his own manager to switch to being a variety-show performer.
“Also, this manager is really something. Not long ago, he was just a little assistant following someone around. Now he’s already latched onto a big thigh and become a manager himself. Just goes to show—if you’re willing to ‘put in the effort,’ a lot of things in this industry are actually very easy to get.”
As soon as the topic hit the trending list, plenty of uninformed people took the bait.
Among them were many who had grown fond of Jian Feiyang after watching the show.
After reading the hot search, they were completely stunned.
“What does this mean? Wasn’t little angel Jian Feiyang always a variety-show guy? Then how did he end up on a variety show?”
“Sis, didn’t you read carefully? The little angel was originally an actor, and his current manager used to be his assistant. Apparently he climbed his way up somehow, became a manager, and then forced the little angel into being a variety-show performer. And honestly, the status of variety-show performers in this industry is worse than dogs. That manager is probably just trying to cash in fast using the little angel… sigh.”
“??? There’s something like this? Didn’t Jing Yuan’s side say little angel Jian Feiyang and Jing Yuan had the same manager? Why is it suddenly someone else?”
“I don’t care about anything else—I just want to know one thing. Was the little angel really forced?”
“Of course he was forced. Otherwise why would he do it voluntarily? Don’t you know the industry’s disdain hierarchy? If you can act, why would you do variety shows? And you probably don’t know what that manager was like back when he was an assistant. I’ll say this outright—having him manage Jian Feiyang is seriously going to ruin him. I really don’t get it. The original manager brought up Movie Emperor Nie and the currently hot Jing Yuan. And now he’s switched to a nobody—no credentials, not even a proper professional, just an assistant who climbed up… hehe. I can only light a candle in advance for those poor kids who’ve become Jian Feiyang fans.”
Similar comments suddenly started pouring in, and the fans who were newcomers to begin with immediately began to waver.
“What do we do? I’m suddenly freaking out! Is Little Angel’s manager really that bad? If he keeps being managed by him, will Little Angel even have a future?”
“Honestly, I’m panicking too. I just looked it up—his manager seems to be called Fan Qing, and he basically has zero reputation in the industry… And he really does seem to have been Jian Feiyang’s assistant before. I even asked a friend to dig up some old photos of them on set. You guys should take a look yourselves… what even is this?”
Before long, photos of the former “Fan Qing” were rapidly exposed online.
Everyone who saw them was struck speechless.
In the picture, the young man was huddled in a dark, damp corner. Long bangs hid his face, and thick-framed glasses obscured it even further.
He was hunched over, shoulders caved in, wearing dull gray clothes. Standing there, if the photo hadn’t been deliberately circled in red, no one would have noticed him at all.
Everyone who saw the photo was dumbfounded.
“This is Little Angel’s manager?”
“I mean, sorry but I’m just gonna say it—doesn’t this guy look like some kind of sewer rat? Shady, sneaky, creepy, slovenly, with a dark mind? Damn it! How did Little Angel end up with someone like him?”
“Wait—no way. This is Jian Feiyang’s manager? He doesn’t look like a good person at all. Following someone like this, can Jian Feiyang even become popular?”
“I’m suffocating. I only got to know Little Angel Jian Feiyang because of that variety show, but—! Variety-show celebs really aren’t it. Sweetheart, wake up! Being an actor has way more prospects than being a variety show regular!”
“Nothing more to say. I’m going straight to DM the company’s official account. This kind of thing is fit to be a manager? Please hurry up and switch him back to the original manager, thank you very much!”