Le Siyan sat in front of the apartment’s floor-to-ceiling window.
It was approaching midnight. The streetlights lining both sides of the residential road cast bright light upward, illuminating half of Le Siyan’s face hidden in the darkness because he had not turned on the lights. His expression was stiff and grave, bloodshot veins filled his eyes, and anxiety and irritability were written plainly across his face. He took a deep drag from his cigarette. In the ashtray by his feet, cigarette butts had already piled into a small hill.
Every two or three minutes, he would unlock his phone, deliberately log onto Weibo, and refresh the trending rankings. His gaze swept from the top of the list to the bottom. Only after confirming that his own name was nowhere to be seen would he suddenly let out a sigh of relief. But that brief relaxation never lasted long before unease surged back again, completely swallowing his thoughts.
Even in his dreams, he had never imagined Shi Yong would be taken away by the police, and in such a public environment at the company no less. Although upper management had pressured everyone to keep the matter hidden, Le Siyan understood human nature too well. There would definitely be some people incapable of keeping their mouths shut. Perhaps it was only a matter of time before the news leaked online.
Crushing the cigarette in his hand, he blamed Shi Yong in his heart for the first time, wondering why he had not been more careful.
Leaning back onto the floor, he stared at the pitch-black ceiling as his fingers slowly tightened.
After spending the entire night in fear and anxiety, Le Siyan contacted the company the next morning, but the company still failed to provide any definite answer.
Other than the police, no one knew exactly what had happened to Shi Yong.
Time passed into the afternoon. Before the related news was exposed, Le Siyan stared at the official Undercover account tagging Ming Qi on Weibo, dark currents seemingly surging in his eyes. The topic tag #ChosenShenYushan# and that sentence — “Sweetie, audition results always go to the most outstanding one~” — felt like a vicious slap across his face.
He took a deep breath, fully aware that the intentional teasing and ridicule from netizens no longer mattered now.
Because reality always developed in the worst possible direction.
The moment Le Siyan refreshed Weibo’s trending list, his eyes locked firmly onto the number nine trending topic: #LeSiyanManagerHiredHitmen#. His heart violently stalled, and all the blood in his body seemed to flow backward.
…In the end, it still came.
He bit the flesh inside his mouth, letting the metallic taste of blood spread through his entire mouth as he trembled and tapped into the topic.
LosingMyMind: A piece of insider gossip with 100% accuracy — Le Siyan’s manager Shi Yong hired someone to break MX’s legs in order to secure the #ChosenShenYushan# role. But there was a little accident: the guy Shi Yong hired turned out to be a murderer who had been on the run for more than ten years. Right now both he and the fugitive are enjoying tea at the police station 🙂
Each word seemed magnified in Le Siyan’s eyes, causing his pupils to constrict uncontrollably.
…That man called Wang Liu was actually a fugitive?
Le Siyan’s face instantly turned deathly pale. Once he snapped back to himself, he hurriedly put on a mask, grabbed his phone, and drove to the company to find Yu Boguang.
…
The moment the topic #LeSiyanManagerHiredHitmen# entered the public eye, the netizens who had still been happily eating popcorn over Ming Qi and Le Siyan fighting over a role nearly spat out the water in their mouths.
Holy shit, what the hell is this?!
Isn’t this supposed to be the entertainment industry? How did it suddenly turn into a legal crime show?!
[Little alt-account bro, perhaps you should know that spreading rumors is illegal.]
[Are the opening scandals of the year this explosive?!]
[Thinking about it another way, should @JingCityPolice give Shi Yong some sort of reward? Without him, they probably wouldn’t have caught the fugitive that quickly. Then again, maybe the reward should just be letting Shi Yong stay in detention a little longer.]
[Let the gossip from the alt account sit for a while first, but if this is real… Shi Yong is disgusting. Ming Qi is seriously unlucky.]
[But yesterday Jing City Police really did release a notice saying they caught a fugitive, though. Ninety percent believable.]
The popularity of the exposé post skyrocketed. Naturally, Le Siyan’s fans could not just sit by and watch dirty water get splashed onto their idol and his manager. They immediately gathered members from their fan groups and started frantically flooding the comments to control public opinion. Even when netizens used Jing City Police’s Weibo post as evidence, the fans still replied self-righteously: So what? Didn’t the police only say they caught a fugitive? Aren’t the rest of the details all made up by you people?
Hearing that, the netizens felt like it actually made some sense.
However, that guilty confidence lasted less than five minutes. Under every single comment made by Le Siyan’s fans to control the narrative appeared the exact same reply:
@JingCityPolice.
Clicking into it for a look—
Jing City Police’s official Weibo directly named Shi Yong and clearly detailed the collaboration between Shi Yong and Wang Liu.
It perfectly matched the leak from [LosingMyMind].
Not only that, the police also organized all the illegal acts Wang Liu had confessed to committing over the years. What shocked everyone was that within the entertainment industry alone, Ming Qi was far from the only target.
[Holy crap, my mind is blown. So Yan Jing’s hand was ruined like this?]
[…I thought your entertainment industry only pimped people out. Turns out you guys also share fugitives? My whole family is shocked.]
[Does anyone still remember how Yan Jing missed the Spring Festival Gala piano solo because of his hand injury? His fans blasted him for not protecting the hands he lived off of, and netizens roasted him for wasting all the staff’s hard work.]
[Wait, so is Ming Qi okay?!]
Meng She’s sharp eyes immediately caught this question. Without hesitation, he used his own account to reply to Ming Qi’s small number of fans:
Shi Tianliang really did stake out Qizai for several days, but he was discovered by the neighborhood residents. Qizai’s fine, and he just finished filming his costume photos today. Thank you everyone for the concern /heart gesture
After replying, Meng She turned to look at Ming Qi, the smile on his face especially bright. “Our fans may not be many, but they really care about you.”
While rubbing Xiao Ba, who was sleeping curled in the crook of his legs, Ming Qi logged into his main account on his phone. “Then I should probably report that I’m safe too.”
Meng She’s eyes lit up. “Want me to take a picture for you?”
“Like this?” Ming Qi lowered his head to glance at himself. His clothes at home were always casual, and he worried it might seem too perfunctory. Meng She, however, saw no problem at all. His movements were lightning fast as he switched the phone into camera mode. While finding angles for Ming Qi, he said, “You’re at home to begin with. Do you wear a suit and dress shoes at home too? That’d be way too pretentious.”
True enough.
Even Yu Qinzhou did not dress like that.
Ming Qi turned around to glance at the furniture behind him.
After Yu Qinzhou went on a business trip, Ming Qi had moved to another villa because Meng She came over. Although the furnishings behind him were not an exact one-to-one replica of Yu Qinzhou’s place, they were obviously all expensive pieces. Ming Qi had heard Min Zhengyue mention that sometimes the vases and similar items he won at auctions would also be sent over here — such as the tall-necked vase by the staircase.
It had cost Min Zhengyue sixty million.
The thought processes of rich people really were unique.
Ming Qi sighed inwardly and quietly instructed Meng She, “Try not to capture the villa’s interior.”
Stretching his neck to peek behind Ming Qi, Meng She quickly found an angle where the background was only a blank wall and gave him an OK gesture. With a click, the photo was taken. Meng She examined it from several angles twice over and felt extremely satisfied. He directly sent it to Ming Qi. “No need to edit it. Looks insanely good. As expected of you.”
While Ming Qi uploaded the selfie and posted his reassurance update, Meng She received a message from Cao Bin.
There was only one sentence:
I saw Le Siyan come to the company. He went upstairs. If nothing unexpected happens, he’s probably going to see President Yu.
Meng She let out a cold laugh. “Le Siyan went to find Yu Boguang.”
Ming Qi uploaded the photo, added a caption saying he was safe, then tapped send.
Hearing that, he was not particularly surprised. “Le Siyan and Shi Yong belonged to Yu Boguang’s faction to begin with. Shi Yong’s at the police station now, so it’s normal for him to seek help from Yu Boguang.”
“The question is whether Yu Boguang will help him,” Meng She said.
That was a good question.
Ming Qi set down his phone and thought seriously.
Le Siyan was pretty famous. If the role of Shen Yushan in Undercover had gone to him this time, entering the first-tier celebrity ranks would have been practically guaranteed. Even if he had not reached that level yet, the fanbase he had accumulated over the years was there, and he had acted in quite a few dramas, earning Qi Chuang Media a lot of money… Besides, Le Siyan was obedient enough. Yu Boguang also seemed to like him very much, often bringing him along to various banquets.
Looking at it this way, the possibility of Yu Boguang protecting Le Siyan was actually very high.
However—
“Even if he helps him, Yu Hanya’s side won’t just watch him walk away unscathed.”
Yu Hanya dreamed day and night of kicking Yu Boguang out of the CEO position at Qi Chuang. She definitely would not miss this opportunity to sever one of Yu Boguang’s arms.
And besides—
With the most harmless-looking face imaginable, Ming Qi said something capable of killing Le Siyan on the spot:
“Other than the recording of Shi Yong collaborating with the Conquer the World production team, I also have other dirt on Le Siyan.”
The moment Meng She heard this, his interest instantly flared.
“Other dirt on Le Siyan?” he asked in shock. “Shouldn’t Shi Yong have already cleaned up all of Le Siyan’s scandals? I remember some paparazzi found something on him before, and he spent seven figures buying the story off them.”
“The paparazzi probably kept a backup.”
Min Zhengyue had given him this dirt.
First there was Lu Yongning’s outdoor sex video, and now Le Siyan’s black material. For the first time, Ming Qi truly felt how wonderful it was to be rich enough to open a paparazzi studio.
“Then let’s first see what Le Siyan plans to do over there. We’ll counter every move as it comes — give him hope, then make him despair.”
Less than half an hour after Meng She said this, Le Siyan’s counterattack arrived. The trending topic, which had already reached the top and even carried the explosive “爆” marker behind it, suddenly dropped to sixth place. After refreshing, it continued falling.
The moment Meng She saw this movement, he knew Yu Boguang intended to protect Le Siyan.
But unexpectedly, before the curse words in Meng She’s mouth could even come out, the topic shot from sixth place back to first.
Meng She: “?”
While muttering that Yu Hanya was indeed going head-to-head against Yu Boguang, Ming Qi lowered his head and looked at his phone.
Min Zhengyue had sent him a message:
Qi-ge, do you have any other topics you want trending? I’ve got money. I can pin it there for seven days and seven nights straight — all the way until his funeral rites.
Ming Qi: “?!”
How are you even more overbearing-CEO than Yu Qinzhou?!
…
Qi Chuang Media, CEO’s office.
The public relations manager bent slightly at the waist, clutching a handkerchief as he continuously wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. From the corner of his lowered eyes, he glanced at Le Siyan sitting on the sofa with an unreadable expression. Inwardly miserable, he could only brace himself and say to Yu Boguang:
“President Yu, we can’t suppress the trending topic.”
Yu Boguang’s facial features were not as refined as Yu Hanya’s; he looked ordinary, and because of his sunken cheekbones, he carried a somewhat ferocious air. He sat tall and broad in the boss’s chair, slamming the steel pen in his hand onto the desk, letting out a cold laugh: “The heat can’t even be suppressed, and you’re telling me you can still do anything?”
The PR manager felt extremely wronged.
They were the ones paying, after all—but they only gave that little budget. Who would even bother replying to you on Weibo?
Yu Boguang knew in his heart that Yu Hanya must be the one stirring things up behind the scenes. His anger burned hotter and hotter, and he cursed Shi Yong countless times for being incompetent and causing more trouble than help. Over the years, that idiot had probably gotten too arrogant, to the point that he could even be caught with leverage.
Useless trash.
“Just find some other celebrities’ dirt and buy it onto the trending list. Do I need to teach you how to do that?”
The PR manager didn’t even dare look at Yu Boguang, and quickly shook his head: “Yes, Mr. Yu. I’ll handle it immediately.”
However.
Ideal imagination, shitty reality.
Before any other celebrities’ scandals could make it onto the hot searches, one of the top five trending topics was already: #Which unlucky bastard is about to have their dirt exposed#
The account behind the post clearly understood all kinds of entertainment industry heat-suppression tricks. After blocking their plan to spend money lowering the trending topic, they directly and generously bought another trending slot, predicting exactly what they were going to do next.
PR manager: The world is beautiful—so beautiful it makes me want to die.
Facing the confused and helpless eyes of the team members, he gritted his teeth hard: “Whatever. The most important thing right now is to get Li Siyan’s trending topic down first.”
Just after he finished speaking, there was a knock at the door.
People from Yu Hanya’s side carried a stack of milk tea and desserts in, smiling as they delivered them, and asked considerately: “You’ve worked hard today, right? Mr. Yu is concerned about you all, so he specially sent some afternoon tea over.”
The PR manager glanced out the window. It was pitch black outside: “It’s night.”
The other party responded casually: “Then treat it as late-night snacks. Looking at you all like this, you probably won’t be sleeping tonight anyway.”
PR manager: “……”
Damn it, so annoying!
PR manager: “So why aren’t you guys off work yet?”
The other party answered righteously: “Isn’t it obvious? Watching the show.”
Damn.
Even more infuriating!
…
In the next two hours, a brand-new unlucky victim replaced Ming Qi—
Lu Yongning.
Even Ming Qi and Meng She couldn’t figure out why Qi Chuang Media ultimately picked Lu Yongning, until chatting with Cao Bin, who said: “Lu Yongning has been holding a grudge about the accidental exposure of his wild hookup last time. He didn’t plan to reconcile with Li Siyan’s team. I heard he wanted to take this chance today to step on Li Siyan a few more times, but Qi Chuang simply decided to go all-in and grab whoever they could.”
The scandal exposed about Lu Yongning was sleeping around.
Netizens sharply commented: Although Lu Yongning clearly looks like a decoy unlucky guy dragged out, your brother really never leaves anything outside the lower half—damn impressive.
After Cao Bin finished, he couldn’t help asking Meng She: “Now Lu Yongning and Li Siyan are basically evenly matched, and Li Siyan’s fans are using the claim that Li Siyan didn’t know about Shi Yong’s actions to whitewash him. What are you planning to do? Are you really going to let Li Siyan escape?”
Meng She’s response was to directly release the chat audio between Shi Yong and YJDAOEN.
[Holy shit, holy shit! The whole Jinxi North is a mess!]
[Hahaha I’m dying laughing, so Shi Yong and Li Siyan set a trap for Ming Qi, accidentally exposed Lu Yongning’s hookup video, one failed move and Shi Yong went to Wang Liu, and now after everything blew up they’re dragging Lu Yongning out to whip the corpse?]
[@Lu Yongning bro, you’re really one unlucky guy]
[@Lu Yongning bro it’s your turn to counterattack, hurry up and release the dirt you have on Li Siyan!]
[I hereby declare today the Spring Festival Gala of the entertainment industry]
Meng She really understood how to kill psychologically. He asked Ming Qi: “I think we can give the material you have directly to Lu Yongning. What do you think? First, it saves us from hiring more water armies and spending money, and second, we can treat it as a favor to him. We sit back and watch the tiger fight the tiger.”
Ming Qi gave Meng She a thumbs-up: “Impressive.”
Meng She laughed: “Too kind, too kind. I didn’t bother with schemes before because there was no need. Now it’s different—we’ve already been stepped on.”
After getting the material, Lu Yongning’s team showed absolutely no mercy, fully embracing a “we die together” attitude. They went completely insane and directly posted candid photos of Li Siyan and two different women leaving a gynecology department from the studio account, even adding a smiling emoji.
While maximizing mockery, they also maximized the spectacle.
[I’ve never seen such an exciting scandal war in my life]
[Honestly speaking, the past subtle sarcasm between celebrity teams is weak compared to this]
[I hope in the future all teams fighting for resources and C-position can be this direct. Us drama lovers really enjoy it, okay? Promise me?]
[This world really has gone insane]
[Very good, very consistent with modern people’s mental state]
While Ming Qi was also joining in the fun and reading netizen comments, a message appeared in the cast group chat of “Undercover,” tagged @Zhang Cong @Jiang Pengyi and Fu Yu: Go to bed early. If you still show up with dark circles tomorrow morning, you don’t need to come.
Today only Ming Qi, Bu Hongfang, and Huai Manyun took their costume fitting photos; Jiang Pengyi and the others were scheduled for tomorrow.
Jiang Pengyi: [Two-eyes-blackout.jpg]
Jiang Pengyi: Director Zhang, how can you even sleep?
Zhang Cong: I can’t sleep, but I don’t have to take costume fitting photos.
Jiang Pengyi truly went black-eyed, collapsed onto his bed, and sighed silently.
Tonight’s melon-eating crowd was destined to go to bed early and wake up early.
…
The entertainment industry was lively all night. Li Siyan and Lu Yongning both gained the highest attention since entering the industry, and Ming Qi and the “Undercover” official account also gained hundreds of thousands of followers.
The next morning, Meng She even received many messages from Cao Bin.
It was unclear how the media got the news, but they actually found out Li Siyan was at the company yesterday and led people to completely surround Qi Chuang Media. This made it impossible for Li Siyan and others to go home, and the farce escalated again—someone disguised themselves as a delivery rider in a yellow uniform and sneaked into the company.
Cao Bin: You guys don’t know how lively Qichuang Media was last night. Also, I heard that someone from the rival side slipped in on purpose and drowned the CEO’s office two money trees to death 🙂
Cao Bin: Also, people under Vice President Yu bought a bunch of firecrackers, opened champagne in the company, and made Mr. Yu so angry he almost ended up in the hospital.
Cao Bin: It’s really a pity you guys weren’t at the company.
Meng She felt a sense of missing out on a billion yuan when he heard this, regretting that time couldn’t be reversed.
If time could be reversed, he would definitely also buy a takeout worker uniform and sneak into Qichuang Media.
Meng She told Ming Qi these messages, drinking the milk sent over by Cen Jing next door, and sighed: “This is all karma.”
Then he changed his tone, “Speaking of which, Mr. Yu is really too good to your idol. He even had Butler Cen send you breakfast this morning? He’s afraid you’ll go hungry, right? I ask you, in the whole entertainment industry, who else is like you, having such a big-shot die-hard fan.”
Die-hard fan might not be accurate; a boyfriend is more like it, actually.
Ming Qi lowered his head and looked at his phone. Last night in the middle of the night, he had received news that Yu Qinzhou had landed, saying that his transfer flight was delayed for a long time due to weather. It was too late then, Ming Qi had already been asleep, and only replied this morning. Yu Qinzhou still hadn’t responded.
He might be adjusting to the time difference.
While waiting for Yu Qinzhou’s reply, Ming Qi first received a message from Wen Yulan.
Wen: Awake? I just saw the news online. Are you okay?
Ming Qi replied: I’m fine.
Meng She saw him typing and casually asked, “Who is it?”
Ming Qi: “A Lan. She said she saw the news online and asked if I’m okay.”
Meng She gave an “oh” and didn’t care much.
He wasn’t very familiar with Wen Yulan—well, not that familiar. But sometimes Wen Yulan would invite him and Ming Qi to eat together. Although Meng She himself had never successfully pursued a girl, he thought he still understood relationships quite well. Every time he saw Wen Yulan looking at Ming Qi, he felt that Wen Yulan had a bit of interest in Ming Qi.
But Wen Yulan had never brought it up to Ming Qi. Presumably she knew Ming Qi wasn’t interested in her, and was afraid that if she said it, they wouldn’t even be friends anymore.
Since that was the case, Meng She pretended he didn’t see it.
Ming Qi exited the chat and was about to close the screen when WeChat vibrated again. This time it was finally Yu Qinzhou.
Y: Awake?
77.: [cat nodding.jpg]
77.: Are you already at the hotel now?
Yu Qinzhou, half-naked on his upper body, rubbed his slightly sore brow and replied with one hand: Yeah, but it’s still before dawn.
He lifted the blanket, got up, and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, taking a photo of the night view outside the window and sending it to Ming Qi. In the photo was the hotel’s beautiful lighting creating a night scene, with a bright full moon hanging in the distance. But Ming Qi noticed a hidden detail in the photo.
He didn’t know if Yu Qinzhou had noticed, but the floor-to-ceiling window completely reflected his shadow.
So Ming Qi could clearly see his lazy posture while taking the photo with one hand.
…He saw it again.
After seeing it again, the abs were still very nice, and once again confirmed they were indeed excellent.
“Why did your face suddenly get so red?” Meng She, who had casually glanced at Ming Qi’s face, widened his eyes, thinking: could it be Wen Yulan confessed?
Ming Qi was startled by him and looked away nervously: “Is it that red?”
Meng She: “Why don’t you check yourself in a mirror.”
As he spoke, he already turned on the front camera of his phone and shoved it in front of Ming Qi.
Ming Qi looked closely. The camera without beauty filters perfectly captured his current state.
It really was quite red.
Seeing him mumbling without speaking, Meng She grew more and more suspicious, and cautiously asked: “Someone confessed to you?”
Ming Qi: “…Why would you think that?”
Meng She: “Then what did you see?”
After hesitating a few seconds, seeing Meng She’s attitude of digging until the end, Ming Qi finally chose to tell the truth. “I saw a man’s nude body.”
Meng She: “?”
Ming Qi quickly added: “Of course, only the upper half.”
Meng She: “!?”
He opened his mouth: “Was there abs?”
Ming Qi nodded.
Meng She: “Eight-pack?”
Ming Qi raised his phone and brought it close to his face, carefully counting once again, and nodded again.
Meng She couldn’t hold it in anymore and quickly leaned over: “Let me see too!”
Ming Qi’s reaction was faster than his brain and words. The moment Meng She’s head leaned over, he instantly turned off the phone screen and looked back at him with innocent eyes.
“Wen Xiaoqi, what do you mean? You’re enjoying good stuff and don’t even share it? Am I still your closest Meng-ge?”
Ming Qi didn’t buy it: “This is an idol-only benefit.”