CH 16

People’s hearts have always been biased. Although a few rational netizens withdrew in time, most fans had followed Su Ge for so long and it would be false to say that no feelings had been involved. After being shocked, out of selfishness, they unconsciously began to find reasons for him.

Several big fans of Su Ge jumped out first to appease people:

[A video can’t say anything. I believe Su Ge will not do such a thing. I’m willing to wait for him to come out and explain. Sisters, we must not get confused. The more critical the situation is, the more we have to be careful to not be taken advantage of by other’s intentions!]

[I have been a fan of Su Su for five whole years, no matter what, I will not leave him at this juncture. Those who have stopped being fans, don’t you have any trust in Su Ge?]

[The video is fuzzy and blurry, just based on a few screenshots it cannot be taken out of context. Su Ge may have really not walked steadily, so he accidentally poured water on Xi Nian…]

[Actually, the technology is so advanced now, pictures can be photoshopped, and even videos can be photoshopped.]

These people could say these words, perhaps either their fan filter was too thick, or they were not the ones on whom the glass of boiling water was spilled. 

Now not only Xi Nian’s fans, but even those melon eaters could not stand it. Being a human one might be shameless sometimes but one shouldn’t be shameless to this degree. As long as you have a little bit of three views1 and morals, you would not be able to continue to follow Su Ge and help him speak.

Anyone who was not blind would be able to tell that Su Ge deliberately slipped the glass of water. Besides, he refused to drink the ready-made warm water and insisted on filling a cup full of boiling water. Wasn’t he afraid of scalding his ruthless iron mouth2?!

When the entire network was in full swing because of this incident, Su Ge had not been online, and the studio team was also quiet without giving a positive explanation.

Su Ge’s fans had been in the fan circle for many years, and they were able to arrange anything. Nobody knew for sure if they secretly bought a water army3, as it didn’t take long for other rumours to spread. Some people started saying that Xi Nian used this incident to step on Su Ge’s position, and some people said that he made a fuss, and just wanted to use this incident as a pretext to hype his fame and appear on hot searches. Therefore, it resulted indirectly shifting the attention of netizens from “Su Ge hurt people” to “For hype, was Xi Nian intentional”.

Due to this incident, Xi Nian’s fans had to temporarily form a fan group to collectively discuss how to suppress black fans. When they encountered malicious defamation, they directly reported and appealed the complaint. Also, they started reposting the previous video of the incident so that more people can see Su Ge’s true colors clearly. However, because the number of people was too small, the effect was very little.

The group leader spoke angrily: [I’m so angry, I’ve been a fan of Xi Nian since he debuted. No one talked about him and even knows him as he walks down the streets, it has been so cold like not even a blade of grass grows4. If he wanted to be hyped up, he would have tried to be hyped up a long time ago, and he did not have to wait until today!]

[That’s right, Xi Nian has always been a little muddled bean5 with no money or resources. How can he hype up and buy hot searches? If you want to buy hot searches, you have to sell the house first!]

[…He has no house, and has lived in the small apartment arranged by Shanxing Entertainment for artists for several years!]

[I went to look it up, and Xi Nian has not even posted two Weibos since his debut, even fewer than my grandpa. He doesn’t seem to be looking for hype but is like the roadside fried rice6!]

The group fell into a deathly silence because of the above conversations. After a long while, someone finally made a comment.

[Forget it, let others scold. It might be a good thing if to think about it from another angle, maybe Xi Nian will become popular…isn’t it?]

Because the fan group was formed temporarily and there was no time to check their identity, so unknowingly many dragons and fishes were jumbled together7. They wanted to see what Xi Nian’s fans were secretly discussing, but they didn’t expect to see this scene……

A thought came to everyone’s mind by coincidence: were all Xi Nian’s fans this fucking poisonous?

The second thought was: miserable, really miserable, the world was really miserable.

Some busybodies spread the screenshots of the dialogue, and the melons eater netizens saw the conversation and rolled in laughter as they scrolled through it. This was definitely a fake fan support group, wasn’t it? They had never seen fans calling their idol little muddled bean, called him poor, deserted, and unable to be popular. This was not a knife inserted to injure but a whole ass Yi Tian’s sword8 to kill, okay?

In Xi Nian’s previous life or even in his entire life, he never took care of his social account seriously. As for Sun Ming, he also did not care much about it. Everyone searched and flipped to look for Xi Nian’s social media, only to find two quite official Weibo updates. One was from six months ago, and the other was relatively recent, three months ago. From beginning to end, there was a sense of detachment from the world.

In recent years, there have been many celebrities in the entertainment industry who had become popular due to hype, whether they are tall or short, beautiful or ugly. There was no need to list them all but without exception, they all had one thing in common: they were particularly capable of stirring the wind and rain9 on Weibo, which was comparable to Ne Zha’s Huntian Cloth10, but it was the first time they saw someone as quiet as Xi Nian.

When he was buried in oblivion, he was indifferent and when he was climbing the top he was still as s quiet as a chicken11, so much so that everyone forgot that he was the victim.

This night was destined to be unsettled but time did not stop for a moment. Because it—as ever—slipped away silently through the fingers, pulling a ray of skylight pouring down from the clouds and illuminating the room brightly in the warmth of the new morning. 

Most of the time, Xi Nian didn’t like to play on his mobile phone, nor did he the night this all happened. When he woke up the next morning, he turned on his mobile phone and found that he was on Weibo’s hot search again, and the entries were strange and inexplicable.

#Xi Nian’s world is truly miserable#

#Su Ge’s character setup collapses, and video of framing opponents off the field is leaked out#

#Xi Nian Hype#

Xi Nian went to bed very early yesterday, but he didn’t fall asleep all night, his head was still hurting. He frowned without a trace, and looked through all the gossip posts on the Internet, only then did he understand what happened. However, what he cared about was not Su Ge, but the Big V blogger who first exposed the video.

In his previous life, Xi Nian also made full use of Lu Xingzhe, and he knew the other person’s cards very well. Of course, he remembered the nickname Lu Xingzh usually posted with, but it was because of this that he couldn’t figure it out even more.

Lu Xingzhe was stingy and held grudges, and he was rejected yesterday. It would be strange enough that he would decide not to cheat him secretly, so how could Lu Xingzhe help him for no reason—it shouldn’t be like this.

It shouldn’t be like this…

Xi Nian suddenly spoke out, “Why did he help me?”

Clearly, he did not give any benefit to Lu Xingzhe this time.

Xi Nian squinted slightly, unsure if he was asking himself or someone else—his words fell, leaving only silence in the air.

Out of sympathy, the system kindly said to him: 【In this world, there is no absolute evilness in anyone.】

No matter how vicious a person might be, there would always be a trace of kindness in his heart. As despicable as Lu Xingzhe might be, there ought to be also people or things that he did not want to harm. It was just that at a certain moment, Xi Nian was blinded by greed, and he couldn’t see clearly at that time, which also made him unable to see clearly now. 

Xi Nian frowned fiercely, then eased his expression after a while. He took a coat from the closet, put on a mask and went out, and drove to the gymnasium. The question just now seemed to be merely his own self-conversation, with no intention of obtaining any answers from the system or anyone.

The system seemed to want to tell him something, but it gave up again when it remembered that it might violate the rules.

The last time the Star Movement Association had to record a promotional video, but it was forced to stop due to rain and hence changed to today. However, when Xi Nian arrived at the venue, he saw a group of staff gathered in front of the women’s locker room arguing about something. The leader was a neat woman with short hair and high cheekbones, holding a finely crafted gymnastics suit in her hand, The voice suppressed anger and said, “Xi Lin’s competition uniform was cut for no reason, and someone even put broken glass in her shoes. You must explain this to me, do your security guards only know to eat dry rice12?!”

The venue manager was in a fit of anxiety, sweating profusely, and along with it the director’s face was also unsightly: “I’m sorry, this matter was our negligence and we have already sent someone to investigate it…”

“Investigate?! How are you going to investigate?! As long as Xi Lin’s feet are fine, let’s forget about this. But if there are any sequelae or injuries that prevent her from dancing in the future, I will definitely pursue them to the end! Then, you all don’t even think about having an easy time!”

Xi Nian didn’t like to join in the fun, but seeing the commotion over there, he couldn’t help but ask, “What happened?”

Probably because everyone had gone to watch the excitement, Sister Jian rarely had leisure time. She crossed her arms, shook her head, and said, “Today we recorded a promotional video, but I don’t know what happened, Shen Xi Lin’s specially made competition uniform was cut to pieces, and her shoes were even filled broken with glass. In an emergency, she was sent to the hospital just now, and her manager quarrelled with the director and security because of this incident.”

Xi Nian: “Have you found out?”

Sister Jian said that she didn’t know: “We were adjusting surveillance, and I don’t know who’s so wicked. Shen Xi Lin is a rare versatile singer and dancer among female artists. If she can’t dance in the future, not only will she have to withdraw from the competition, but the new song MV will also have to be suspended, and the losses are incalculable. No wonder her agent is so angry, but there are many private intrigues among female artists, and nothing can be done about this.”

Despite the recent hot searches by Xi Nian and Su Ge, the female artist side did not seem to be too quiet likewise. Not only were their bodies based on beauty tend to be compared but also they were subjected to comparison on their clothes endorsements. It had become inevitable that they would be pulled out for comparison, therefore, with Shen Xi Line’s beautiful appearance and popularity it was unknown how many people might be jealous.

Xi Nian nodded and didn’t speak again. Sister Jian glanced at him, and then her gaze fell on his hand again. She didn’t know why and suddenly sighed: “I’ve heard about everything on Weibo, and you are really good at bearing it. You don’t even take a chance to bubble13. When you were in the knockout stage, I thought you had something wrong with your hand…”

Xi Nian bought a bottle of cola from the nearby beverage machine, unscrewed the bottle cap three or two times, and made a hissing sound: “Bubbling14 will not affect the results.” 

Sister Jian knew what he was referring to: “I’m not new here, and I’ve seen too many reds and blacks15 in the entertainment industry. Su Ge’s fans are still willing to defend him, but it’s just that the knife hasn’t been inserted16 into them. I think it’s quite sad for them, after chasing someone for so many years, they failed to see his true face.”

Xi Nian paused, unknown what did he think of.

At the end of the corridor, the director managed to persuade Shen Xi Lin’s agent after all, and then eagerly urged everyone to record promotional videos. Xi Nian came out of the dressing room and looked around, only to find that Su Ge had not come, which made him happy.

Good.

Otherwise, when seeing his thousand knives17 face, would make him want to hit him.

[sān guān]: The three views generally refer to the world outlook, outlook on life, and values. These are the three views recognized by most people. 

[wú qíng tiě zuǐ]: A ruthless iron mouth generally refers to a person or an animal with a super powerful mouth that dares to eat anything and can eat anything. Ruthless iron mouth often appears in various eating and broadcasting videos. 

[shuǐ jūn]: It refers to paying people to post comments in someone’s support or engaging in the lowest-level work such as posting and reposting to get paid.

[cùn cǎo bù shēng]: To describe the barren land and harsh environment where not even a little grass grows. This idiom obliquely points toward the degree of desertedness. 

[xiǎo hú dòu]: On the internet, this term is used to refer to idols/actors who were not popular, or were forgotten by people and did get a chance yet to become popular. 

[lù biān chǎo fàn]: In August 2015, a fried rice stall on the streets of Nanjing (Shanghai, China) suddenly became popular on the Internet. It was said that was set for ten years but suddenly got famous on the internet due to some’s people interest and posting it on social media. The use of this term here probably refers to this, such as Xi Nian debuted a long time but was ignored and never got the exposure that he deserved.

[yú lóng hùn zá]: This Chinese idiom is used to refer that good people and bad people mixed together, as in an admixture of the genuine and the false.

Yitian Sword: The sword in Jin Yong’s novel “The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber”, and the sword is owned by Guo Xiang, the leader of the sect. In the novel, this sword was used to kill many characters. 

[hū fēng huàn yǔ]: It means good causing trouble, as it is a metaphor that people have great power to dominate nature.

哪吒的法宝/[né zhā de fǎbǎo]: Ne Zha (哪吒) is a protection deity in Chinese folk religion. Based on the novel Fengshenyanyi he had various magical weapons, they were sometimes called the Five Artifacts of Nezha. One of them was Huntian Cloth (混天绫). A red cloth, sometimes presented like a scarf, that Nezha wore. It allowed him to create and fan flame upon waving, or call it to bind his enemy. This treasure had the power to envelop everything and overwhelm the river and sea, representing the chaos of the universe. Hence, here this allusion is used to refer to indicated chaos in a hyperbolic way. 

[ān jing rú jī]: Quiet as a chicken: don’t speak, just watch you quietly

[chī ɡān fàn]: translates to eating dry rice, which means only eating but not doing anything, refers to being useless and lacking the ability to do anything. 

[mào pào]: This translates to bubbling, a forum slang. A term used in forums that means discussion; or pretending to be big/showing off. There is a saying: “After diving for a long time, come out to take a bubble and increase your popularity.” This refers to people to people who remain silent, who often read posts in the post bar and do not reply to them suddenly post or reply to posts. In other words, diving(silent) for a long time and suddenly coming out to say a word, or make a speech. 

[mào pào]: Seek footnote number 14 again. In short, this refers here this means that saying something, or taking a chance to make a statement.

Black and Red: In the entertainment circle there are many ways to become popular, some people use their strength, luck, or talent, this popularity is referred to as Red. And no matter what kind of red (popularity), it is without any kind of bad deeds, basically no black material. But now, there has been a strange red in the entertainment industry, which can be called “black red”, it is that some people do not rely on strength, ability, or even luck at all, but rely on theirs/others’ “black material” to become popular.

In other words, it’s not them who are hurt, so they won’t know the pain of the person who is hurt. 

qiān dāo: thousand knives. In n ancient times, there was a punishment of cutting into pieces by a thousand knives, where flesh was cut to show the seriousness of the crime, and even death cannot atone for it. Now, it is used in a derogatory way to curse someone as ugly or to bear a thousand knives as in receiving bad luck and punishment due to hatred toward them.