TL: Hua
The farce ended, and not only did Xuan Yihan fail to vent his frustration, but he also made a fool of himself in front of Gu Siye.
Thinking of what just happened, he was utterly speechless.
But the people who embarrassed him were his own parents, so he didn’t dare to lash out. He could only bottle up all his emotions, huddling silently in a corner.
Xuan Hongwei, who had lost even more face, clearly hadn’t recovered from the incident. Now that no one was around, he was still muttering curses about how Xuan Yanran was a piece of trash.
Seeing Xuan Yihan looking dejected and upset, Qiu Yayu came over to comfort him. “Don’t be unhappy about a person like that. Mom will go talk to the production team right away and have them kick him out.”
Xuan Yihan finally felt a bit better after hearing his mom’s plan.
However, he hadn’t forgotten his persona and continued to feign kindness and innocence. “That’s okay, Mom. I’m sure he won’t dare to do it again.”
Xuan Hongwei was still fuming, and when he heard Xuan Yihan’s words, he immediately retorted, “Did he look like he was scared just now?”
Xuan Hongwei was clearly furious, and his voice wasn’t quiet at all.
Xuan Yihan, who had said it on purpose, was suddenly yelled at and shrank back, his eyes filled with innocence, his face donning a pitiful expression.
“I’m sorry, Dad…”
Seeing this, Qiu Yayu shot her husband a glare, scolding him, “Why are you yelling at Hanhan?”
Xuan Hongwei knew it was wrong to take his anger out on the child, so he kept quiet.
A few minutes later, he spoke again, asking Xuan Yihan, “Who was that person just now?”
He thought the young man looked a bit familiar and seemed to have an impressive background.
“He’s Gu Siye,” Xuan Yihan told him. “He’s the super mentor of our show.”
When Xuan Hongwei heard the name, he felt like he had heard of Gu Siye before. But as soon as he remembered Xuan Yihan saying the other person was just a show mentor, he dismissed him.
Xuan Hongwei scoffed, “A super mentor? So, he’s just a minor celebrity.”
Xuan Yihan wanted to argue that Gu Siye was much more than that, but seeing his dad wasn’t interested, he changed his approach. “But my popularity has dropped a lot recently… if the mentor also has a bias against me, what am I going to do?”
“He’s just a mentor; he can’t make any decisions,” Qiu Yayu reassured him. “By the way, baby, Mom bought you some milk tea and snacks. Take them and share them with the staff and the other trainees. Don’t worry about anything else; your dad and I will handle it. You just focus on doing well.”
Upon hearing his mom’s promise, Xuan Yihan knew the purpose of meeting his parents today had been achieved. He didn’t say anything more and obediently went to hand out the snacks to the trainees.
To maintain his humble persona, Xuan Yihan told everyone the milk tea was sent by his fans.
Originally, he imagined that the trainees rarely had access to snacks, and today he was helping them satisfy their cravings, so everyone should be very grateful to him.
But as it turned out, his attempt to hand out the snacks was not very smooth.
Many trainees politely declined his offer, citing concerns about getting acne, gaining weight, and looking bad on camera.
Most of the others who did accept didn’t seem particularly happy and appeared to be taking it out of politeness.
And Qiao Ye, who was in the same group as him, flat-out refused and wouldn’t even look at him.
Xuan Yihan, who clearly felt rejected, pulled back the hand holding the milk tea for Qiao Ye and felt a lump in his throat.
He had thought this move would win over the other trainees, but instead, he hit a wall everywhere he went.
He had a vague feeling that after the first public performance, the trainees in his group were no longer as trusting or friendly as before.
But he never expected the trainees in the other groups to also change their attitudes.
Sensing something was wrong, Xuan Yihan quickly went to his dog-licker, Fang Su, to plead his case, hoping the other party would help him find out the reason.
Fang Su, however, lay down on his bed, chugged his milk tea in a few gulps, and told him not to overthink it.
Seeing the idiot constantly eating like a pig, Xuan Yihan rolled his eyes in frustration.
Later that night, the trash cans outside the practice building were filled with unopened milk teas.
While showering, a few trainees quietly discussed Xuan Yihan’s snack delivery from earlier.
“Fans aren’t supposed to send things in, right? Why did he lie?”
“Who knows? I heard he didn’t participate in the phone call segment; it seems his family came directly. He probably didn’t want anyone to find out.”
“It’s great to have a background. We can only make phone calls, but he gets to meet his parents directly. These snacks must be from his parents. I saw the staff got some, too. They’re very generous.”
“Did you guys drink it? The last time Pei Luo gave us similar snacks, we all got acne all over our faces, and it was impossible to cover it up during the first performance. But Xuan Yihan was fine; he was the only one who looked great…”
“Speaking of that, it makes me so mad. I used to think the footbath Yanran gave was lame, but now I realize how useful it was. Look at Xia Xingxing and the others; they soak their feet every day and look so comfortable and healthy.”
“Their group is also fair, unlike ours…” The speaker trailed off.
The other understood what he meant and could only sigh helplessly. “There’s nothing we can do. Pei Luo is biased toward him. We’ll just have to be his backup dancers again next time.”
“Sigh, I wish I had chosen Xuanran. He’s so capable and fair.”
While the trainees were secretly expressing their dissatisfaction with Xuan Yihan, Xuan Hongwei and Qiu Yayu went to see the head director, Song Yingming.
Upon meeting him, their words, both overt and subtle, were filled with blame for Song Yingming’s incompetence.
They had clearly asked someone to inform him a long time ago, but this useless man still hadn’t kicked Lin Yanran out of the show.
Not only that, but what was most infuriating was that Lin Yanran had gained a huge number of fans on the show, causing Xuan Yihan’s popularity to plummet.
Song Yingming smiled apologetically while explaining to the two: “The production team signed a full contract with him. It’s difficult to replace someone suddenly. There are also financial issues…”
Hearing that it was about the fee for breaching the contract, Qiu Yayu raised her eyebrows dismissively. “It’s just a penalty fee, right? Do you think we can’t afford it? Didn’t we tell you we’d handle the penalty fees?”
“No, no, of course not,” Song Yingming quickly denied. Seeing that the couple was still acting arrogant and condescending, he suppressed his discomfort and his strong urge to complain about them. He came clean. “Money is a small matter. The main thing is that the investors think his performance is pretty good.”
Sure enough, upon hearing the word “investors,” the couple immediately sobered up.
They didn’t know much else about the show Super Idol, but they remembered the investors very clearly.
When they first heard rumors that the Lin family wanted to get involved in the entertainment industry, they learned from their elder brother that the Lins had already decided to invest in an amateur reality show. The people who made it to the final group would be directly signed to the entertainment agency they founded.
This was why they rushed to get Xuan Yihan on the show, hoping to use this opportunity to get close to the Lin family.
But very few people knew that the trainees would be signed with their company. So how did Lin Yanran get involved with the Lin family?
Xuan Hongwei and Qiu Yayu exchanged a confused look.
Song Yingming saw their reaction and didn’t say anything more. He stopped there and found another excuse. “The investors also need to consider click-through and return rates.”
Hearing this, the couple immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
If the Lin family was only interested in the return rate, it meant Lin Yanran had no real connection to them.
So, Qiu Yayu became arrogant again. “So our son has to suffer in his place?”
Song Yingming quickly smiled apologetically. “Of course not! The last live broadcast was just an accident…”
Seeing that the couple was still not satisfied, he had to offer a suggestion.
“How about this? I’ll have the writers write some better storylines for Hanhan, and during post-production, we’ll do our best to edit in his positive and inspiring moments. I’m sure the audience will love it.”
“Fine,” Qiu Yayu reluctantly agreed.
At the end of the day, the Xuan family, who relied on the generosity of their elder brother for money, were no match for a real wealthy family like the Lin family, which had a huge and powerful business.
They didn’t dare to truly provoke them over this Lin Yanran issue.
So they had no choice but to compromise on the solution Song Yingming provided and didn’t dare to force him to replace the person anymore.
After the couple made many other demands, they finally left.
After seeing them off, Song Yingming almost rolled his eyes so hard they went to the back of his head.
Even though they weren’t his financial backers, they were relying on their family’s wealth and connections to make demands, interfering with the show at every turn and acting like they knew best.
People like the Xuan couple, who were self-righteous and arrogant, were exactly the type he disliked the most.
Song Yingming slowly messaged his staff, telling them to make sure to edit a good growth story for Xuan Yihan.
After sending the message, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for Lin Yanran.
Being targeted by such a bizarre family was just terribly unlucky!
Fortunately, he was quite capable on his own.
Not only did he have the investors’ approval, but even Gu Siye had just called him to give him a heads-up.
*
After Lin Yanran finished reading the original owner’s diary, Ding Weikang sent someone to pick him up for the recording of “Almighty Showdown.”
This time, the other party kept his word. He was not only provided with a nanny car and a personal assistant, but the official social media account even posted his schedule.
Lin Yanran had gained a lot of fans after the fourth episode of “Super Idol” aired.
As new fans, one of the first things they had to do was look up old photos and content.
However, when they checked the official account, they found no promotional content. They then went to his super topic[mfn]Weibo Super Topic (微博超话, wēibó chāohuà) is a dedicated sub-community within the larger Weibo platform that focuses on a specific topic, celebrity, brand, TV show, or hobby. Think of it as a combination of a subreddit and a Facebook group, but built directly into the Weibo ecosystem.[/mfn], only to find it a complete mess with no one in charge.
After learning about the company’s bizarre behavior from the old fans, they started furiously scolding the incompetent and neglectful management.
After a long time of yelling and seeing that the company was just playing dead and not responding, the new fans decided to reorganize the super topic and the fan club.
Just then, the official fan club account, which hadn’t posted on Weibo in years, suddenly released a brand-new schedule.
Fans: “They finally remembered to promote him?”
Before they could see the content, the fans thought the company had finally pulled it together and was ready to seize the momentum to help Lin Yanran with his career and resources.
However, after a closer look at Lin Yanran’s schedule for the next few days, the fans were furious.
[Is this stupid company sick? Do they think Yanran’s reputation is too good? Why would he go on a show that ruins his image?]
[This show made Zhang Jincheng so miserable he threw up last time. Now, fans from every other camp are boycotting this show. I can’t believe there’s still a dumb company willing to send their artist there!]
[I’m so mad, I’m so mad. This show always records all night. Yanran has been staying up late teaching trainees how to dance for the past few days. He hasn’t even caught up on sleep, and now he has to stay up late again. Does the company even have a heart?!]
But the company didn’t care about what the fans said. After posting the schedule, they disgustingly posted another separate Weibo post about Lin Yanran’s departure.
The caption read: “Looking forward to it~”
After reading the post, the fans felt angry and heartbroken, worrying that Lin Yanran’s body wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Meanwhile, the haters were overjoyed. They seized the opportunity to mock him.
[Didn’t his fans say their idol was “blowing up” every day? Do I misunderstand what “blowing up” means? Who with a bit of traffic would take resources like this that even dogs would hate? It’s hilarious!]
[He’s just too poor. He’ll take anything as long as there’s money.]
[I’m just saying, the game on this show tests both physical and mental strength. Can Yanran handle it?]
[He didn’t even finish high school. What does he have to be afraid of? LOL.]
[Our “gege” only dropped out of high school, he’s not an uneducated person, ying ying[mfn]嘤嘤 (yīng yīng) is an onomatopoeia used to represent a light, high-pitched crying or whining sound. It’s the sound of someone pretending to cry or whimper cutely. Btw not the same character as Yingying (lyr assistant)’s name.[/mfn]~]
[Haters, get lost!]
After the schedule was released, the fans and haters on the internet were arguing endlessly.
The haters, in particular, helped spread the word about the show and mercilessly mocked how awful and low-end Lin Yanran’s new gig was.
Because “Almighty Showdown” had a live-stream channel, many haters even logged into the live-stream room early and just waited to watch Lin Yanran embarrass himself in every way imaginable.
In the airport lounge, Yingying was using her various side accounts to help Lin Yanran manage comments.
Next to her, Lin Yanran was calmly reading a foreign book he had just taken from the bookshelf.
He had only read a few pages when someone tapped him on the shoulder from behind.
Lin Yanran looked up and turned to face the person.
The other party looked about his age, with big eyes, appearing fresh and adorable.
“Yanran, it’s really you!”
The person looked very happy after seeing Lin Yanran’s face and sat down next to him without any hesitation.
“When I was on my way to catch my flight, my assistant told me you were also going to ‘Almighty Showdown.’ I thought it was a joke, but I can’t believe we ran into each other here.”
The person was very enthusiastic and seemed to know Lin Yanran well.
However, Lin Yanran’s eyes were filled with confusion.
Because he found that in his head, the original owner seemed to have no memory of this other person at all.
