Chapter 160: Don't be dramatic

"Don't be dramatic, it doesn't suit you," Xi Zirui says, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"It seems the problem was that I didn't suit you," Su Xueyi says, his smirk widening.

"That too."

"A modern tragedy," Su Xueyi says, looking meaningfully into Xi Zirui's eyes.

"Maybe an ancient one, too." He keeps a close eye on Su Xueyi's reaction, hoping he might give himself away in a way Xi Zirui can exploit.

He just smiles wider. "Sure."

"What is your gameplan? Are you trying to humiliate me on live TV? Is that it?" Xi Zirui sincerely hopes it is, because that would be harmless, as he has no interest in a career in the entertainment industry.

But, considering how often Xi Zirui said as much and to anyone who asked, in the first week of the show -- he has his doubts.

"Are you trying to ruin my career as payback?" he asks, hopeful.

"No," Su Xueyi says with an amused chuckle. "Quite the opposite, I want to make you a star."

Ah, just what he feared.

"Thanks, but you don't need to go to the trouble on my behalf."

Su Xueyi grins darkly. "I'm not doing this for your benefit." He gets up from his chair, the expensive leather creaking under the strain.

He makes his way around the table and leans his hip into the glass edge, looking straight at Xi Zirui.

"Did you know my company is one of the biggest investors in this show?"

Xi Zirui groans. Just what he needed, Su Xueyi to be a rich and powerful asshole again.

This time around with a massive grudge.

"This is not publicly disclosed, but the NNI boyband will be signing with my company."

"That's great for them, but I won't be making it into the top ten." He says, fully convinced of this.

Su Xueyi and Shen Yun went to great lengths to ensure viewers, either motivated by pity or anger, won't vote him into the band's final lineup.

Which he's extremely glad for, but doesn't exactly see how it can benefit Su Xueyi's plan.

"Of course you won't, the winning ten members will sign a perfectly regular industry standard contract." His grin widens, shark-like. "I'll be signing you to a solo contract that will be anything but regular."

"And what makes you think I'll be signing anything with you?" Xi Zirui asks, trying to keep his expression neutral.

"You know, I figured out something about whatever is happening here," Su Xueyi says, gesturing between the two of them but meaning the larger world-hopping situation. "You have no recollection of your life in each reincarnation, do you?"

That doesn't seem like the kind of admission he wants to make, so Xi Zirui merely scoffs and says, "Of course I do."

Su Xueyi shakes his head. "You don't, or you wouldn't ask me that question."

He raps his knuckles on the glass tabletop with an amused grin. "You see, I live a perfectly average life, until the day I'm assaulted with memories from what I can only assume are previous lives despite some of them seemingly happening in our contemporary days."

Xi Zirui keeps quiet, his stony face betraying nothing, but Su Xueyi is on a roll now.

"From one of those memories, I remember the same thing happening. A perfectly average life, until the day it isn't."

He leans forward to poke his index finger into Xi Zirui's shoulder. "But that's not the case for you, is it? You don't remember any of it. You just show up, jumping into the scene with no memory of what got you to this point."

"No, I remember, I was  a digital influencer before I joined this show," Xi Zirui says, hoping not be questioned further, because if they get into childhood pets territory he might be in danger.

"Something you changed your mind on, in the very first day," he chuckles ruefully, almost as if Xi Zirui's attempts to lie to him are amusing. "Why is that? No, you have no memory of your current reincarnation, because if you did, you would know you've been evading taxes and declaring earnings far below the ones you got ever since your influencer career began."

Ni Ni chimes immediately in alarm. "I'm sorry Host, he's right, but that information wasn't classified as priority for the current world scenario."

Well, she's right, it kind of isn't. It's not like if he had that information, Xi Zirui would have guessed that Su Xueyi would regain the specific memories from the world in which they played mental games with each other as a married couple.

"Are you trying to blackmail me?"

Su Xueyi nods.

"Well, I'm not going to sign with you, even if you go public with that information. What's the worst that can happen, I'll pay a fine?"

Su Xueyi's grin grows threateningly wide, and that's how Xi Zirui knows he's in trouble.

"Maybe if you had the money to pay a fine, which you don't, meaning you'll go to prison." He shakes his head. "If you really had any memories of this life, you would know about the gambling addiction, which is the number one reason that made you apply for NNI."

What else can Xi Zirui say to that, Su Xueyi has him where he wants.

"I'm not going to sign a contract with you," he insists, glaring stubbornly up at Su Xueyi. 

"You will, in a few hours you'll understand the gravity of the situation, and you'll do it."

He walks away from the table and towards the door of his office. "I look forward to many fruitful years of close collaboration, I think you'll enjoy performing every day in rural villages, we can use your downtime to travel between them. One day you'll perform in the south, another in the north. You'll never be bored again." 

Xi Zirui makes it through the door with his head held high. Su Xueyi can try to scare him all he wants, it won't be the stupid Idol survival show world that makes Xi Zirui give in to his demands.

"Good luck for the final," Su Xueyi says, closing the door behind Xi Zirui with a self-satisfied smirk

---

The first thing Xi Zirui does once he's out of the office is text Han Yu.

[Not an Idol: We have a problem, Su Xueyi is trying to blackmail me into signing some shady contract with him, or he'll turn me into the authorities]

[Shizunfucker: What, how?]

[Not an Idol: Because I'm a criminal apparently]

[Shizunfucker: D:]

[Shizunfucker: Why'd you do that, Rui-er?]

[Not an Idol: It was the original, you idiot, I have nothing to do with it]

[Shizunfucker: Original you is such an asshole, I wonder why that is, you're so great <3]

Xi Zirui is heartened by the sentiment, but now is really not the moment.

[Shizunfucker: Maybe you became a better person after meeting me]

[Shizunfucker: Love made you repent for your past]

[Not an Idol: Sure, that's it]

[Not an Idol: Find a way to get Jin Ranyu and Cao Fei together, we're going to the pocket realm to brainstorm a way out of this]

[Shizunfucker: Shame we have to waste the last use like this]

[Not an Idol: If I go to prison we won't be fucking at all for a long long time :)]

[Not an Idol: Nor if I sign some kind of slave contract with Su Xueyi to avoid going to prison]

[Shizunfucker: I'm on my way, meet you in the bathroom]

He stops texting after that, and Xi Zirui speeds towards the bathroom, where he finds the three of them already waiting for him.

They don't have much time, So Xi Zirui enters the pocket realm without another word, and waits for everyone else to follow after him.

"What's going on?" Cao Fei asks, as soon as he steps into the lush meadow.

"Yeah, I need all the practice I can get if I want to get the choreography right," Jin Ranyu complains. "This body remembers being a dancer, but all my mind knows is being and assassin."

"Well, that might just come in handy," Xi Zirui says with an exasperated sigh.

"You know you can't kill him," Han Yu says, his expression growing tight. "Don't joke about that."

"What's the point of staying here, anyway?" Xi Zirui asks, letting himself drop to the soft grass with a sigh. "We learned from the previous world that we can only delay the inevitable for so long, better rush to the next world and hope we'll have better luck in that one."

Han Yu sits down next to him, his expression unreadable until he raises his chin and Xi Zirui sees the watery sheen on his eyes. "That's easy for you to say."

"I-"

"You aren't the one who gets to live an entire life waiting for you to show up." He shakes his head, trying to hold back his tears. "I remember everything, my life in each world from childhood until death, I remember it all. For you, only a few days or hours pass before we see each other again, for me years go by."

He looks at Xi Zirui then, his mouth flattened into a thin line. "So don't talk about jumping into the next world like it's easy."

Xi Zirui can't come up with anything to say.

It isn't easy for him either, but what else can they do when the odds seem stacked against them?