Fang Yinnian experienced terrible cyberbullying for the first time and realized how difficult it is to be a public figure. Anyone with slightly weaker psychological resilience would definitely have an emotional breakdown from being cursed by the entire internet.
Fortunately, there were five of them. Being cursed together was better than being cursed alone, at least they had teammates to share the firepower.
FTM’s official studio lawyer’s letter did not completely stop the spread of rumors. The malice spread across the internet continued to ferment.
Those people, wearing various “casual viewer” disguises and opening countless fake accounts, wantonly spread so-called “ironclad evidence” of Mo Xun’s bullying and Tan Junwen’s plagiarism on platforms like Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and Weibo.
Weibo’s #FTM# square completely fell, with multiple teams buying black water, filling the entire topic with dirt on all five members.
There were even photoshopped black images with exaggerated expressions.
This New Year’s Eve made FTM a thorn in the side of all boy band fans. When other groups’ fans saw FTM’s scandals exploding, they all rushed over to take advantage and step on them, wishing they could trample FTM into the mud.
This wave of attacks was so fierce that the entire entertainment industry was shocked.
#First big scandal of the year# stayed on the trending list for a long time.
Entertainment industry professionals from music, film, fashion and other related fields also joined in “eating melons” and following the developments.
Fang Yinnian and Mo Xun didn’t sleep all night.
There were three flights daily from Jiangzhou to Bangkok. Xiao Chen booked them the earliest one, departing at 6 AM and arriving 4 hours later.
International flights required early arrival at the airport for security and customs checks. They planned to leave at 3 AM. Not wanting to trouble Driver Jiang in the middle of the night, they directly called a Didi ride-hailing service.
Late at night, the two packed their luggage together. Short trips didn’t require many clothes—traveling light was best.
Jiangzhou was a southern city where down jackets weren’t needed in winter.
Mo Xun suggested: “We can wear short sleeves inside with thick coats outside. Once we get to Thailand, we’ll just take off the coats and bring two sets of summer clothes for changing.”
Fang Yinnian nodded and opened Mo Xun’s suitcase.
They were used to bringing this small carry-on when traveling, each packing half the luggage. With one packing the left side and the other the right, they worked in perfect coordination and quickly finished.
Fang Yinnian’s gaze swept around the bedroom, carefully thinking about what else to bring. After a moment, he took two hats from the closet, handed one to Mo Xun, and said: “It’s too cold outside at midnight. Wearing this hat will be warmer and can also hide your hairstyle so people won’t recognize us.”
Mo Xun looked down—it was a red knitted hat with handwork stitching similar to the blue hat Fang Yinnian wore a few days ago.
He smiled and asked: “Did your grandmother knit this too?”
Fang Yinnian: “Yes, my grandmother is very skilled. She’s been knitting sweaters and hats for me since I was little.”
Fang Yinnian was especially cute wearing sweaters as a child. Mo Xun had seen photos of him at age 1, and even those little clothes were knitted by his grandmother.
Grandmother must love Yinnian very much.
Mo Xun put on the hat in front of the mirror, looked left and right, and said: “I’ve never worn this kind of hat. It’s fluffy and feels strange.”
Fang Yinnian said: “It’s very warm in winter. With your baseball cap, I always feel like the back of your head is exposed to wind.”
Mo Xun chuckled and put the hat away: “Alright, I’ll listen to you and wear this.”
Fang Yinnian asked: “Is there any other luggage to bring?”
Mo Xun suddenly remembered something, turned and left the room. A moment later he came back with a cardboard box, opened it with a box cutter, and took out two plastic compression bags.
Fang Yinnian looked closer curiously: “What’s this?”
Mo Xun opened one of them and said: “Travel pillows. Don’t you like to sleep on planes? I saw many people online recommending this brand of pillow, saying it’s very comfortable to sleep with and won’t cause neck pain or shoulder aches, so I bought a pair.”
Fang Yinnian was stunned for a moment before reacting: “You bought them for me?”
Mo Xun said: “Of course.” He gently placed the U-shaped pillow around Fang Yinnian’s neck. “Try it.”
Fang Yinnian’s neck was surrounded by soft foam, and warmth also rose in his heart: “Thank you, I’ve never used one of these.”
Mo Xun handed him the other one too: “Both are for you.”
The two pillows were light blue and light red, with cute collaborative cartoon animals drawn on them.
Fang Yinnian said: “You use the red one first. The flight to Thailand is 4 hours, you should also lean back and sleep a bit.”
Mo Xun thought about it: “Okay, let’s bring both.”
At 1:30 AM, after finishing packing, the two had no sleepiness at all and simply opened their laptop to watch videos.
There was too much negative public opinion today that gave them headaches. Mo Xun found a well-reviewed comedy film from last summer to pass the time.
At 3 AM, the two set off together. Hats, sunglasses, masks—fully armed.
The streets were clear, and they quickly reached Terminal T3 of the international airport. There weren’t many passengers at this time. Mo Xun was from Jiangzhou and had frequently traveled internationally over the years, so he was very familiar with the airport.
He led Fang Yinnian through security and customs to rest briefly in the VIP lounge in the departure hall.
They kept themselves completely covered the entire time, only briefly removing their hats and masks for a dozen seconds when going through security and customs to verify their ID information.
At 6 AM, the plane took off on time.
Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian quickly found their seats, each took a pillow and leaned back to sleep.
What they didn’t know was that a passerby took photos of them with their phone while boarding and posted them on Weibo with the #FTM# hashtag.
Blogger: “On an early morning flight to Thailand, I actually ran into the recently popular Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian!”
Someone quickly replied: “They’re covered up so well, how did the blogger recognize them?”
Blogger: “They took off their masks and hats when going through customs. I was walking in front of them and saw clearly—it was definitely them. No photos allowed at customs.”
“They’re flying to Thailand early in the morning?”
“Ahhh is it really Mo Ge and Yinnian?”
“Blogger, blogger! Are you sure it’s them?”
Blogger: “I’m accompanying family on vacation to Thailand and happened to run into them. Don’t know what they’re doing there. Didn’t see other members.”
Blogger: “The plane is about to take off, hehe. First time encountering celebrities on a flight, so excited!”
This blogger didn’t follow fan circles or chase stars. She knew FTM from the cover contest and New Year’s Eve gala but didn’t know about recent trending scandals.
Not everyone spends all day online eating melons.
Therefore, she had no malice toward FTM members, just surprise at “encountering celebrities on a flight,” and shared photos of the experience.
After takeoff, she went offline and didn’t reply further.
Unexpectedly, this Weibo post exploded, with comments quickly exceeding a thousand.
FTM fans were suffering from the impact of scandals and hoping to see Mo Xun clarify, when the next day a passerby encountered Mo Xun flying to Thailand.
“What’s Mo Xun doing in Thailand? Why did Yinnian go too?”
“The Asian Music Festival is being held in Bangkok tomorrow. BNC seems to be invited to perform. Could it be related?”
“Hope Captain Mo is going to clarify rumors. Praying everything goes smoothly!”
“Flying to Thailand at this time definitely isn’t simple. Ah, looking forward to results!”
Meanwhile, CP fans’ eyes lit up after seeing the blogger’s photos.
“Red hat and blue hat, such a good match~”
“The pair of U-shaped pillows they’re holding are couple’s edition from PIC brand’s anime collaboration ahhh!”
“Damn, couple’s pillows? So Magic Cube is real!”
“So cute, both fluffy”
“Seriously suspect Mo Ge’s hat was given by Yinnian. He doesn’t seem like the type to like wearing this kind of hat hahaha!”
“Reporting Mo Xun for showing off! He always wore baseball caps to look cool at airports before. Why is he wearing matching ones with Nian Nian today?”
“Mo Xun says: I’ll wear whatever Yinnian tells me to wear”
No wonder CP fans were shipping again.
The hat Mo Xun wore today was completely different from his usual style. He used to go for a cool, handsome look with trendy big logo baseball caps.
But today, going to the airport at midnight, he instantly switched to cute style, wearing the fluffy hat knitted by Fang Yinnian’s grandmother. A 188cm tall guy wearing this hat in a crowd was indeed very noticeable.
Their hat colors were perfectly red and blue.
They also held brand collaborative couple’s pillows—actually Mo Xun didn’t notice the couple’s edition. When buying, he saw there was a promotion for 20% off two items, so he bought two since they were both for Yinnian anyway.
CP fans shipped while discussing what Mo Xun and Yinnian were doing in Thailand. FTM group fans also closely followed this blogger.
4 hours later, the plane landed on time.
When the blogger’s phone connected to the internet and she checked Weibo, she was startled—thousands of comments made her think she was being cyberbullied!
With trembling fingers, she opened them to find they were all from FTM fans wanting her to share news about the two.
The blogger replied: “They were picked up by a pre-arranged car after arriving at the airport. I don’t know where they went.”
“Just a chance encounter at the airport! They looked very tired and slept the whole way. I didn’t have the heart to disturb them.”
This comment stung many fans’ hearts.
Very tired? Did Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian not sleep all night? Catching a 6 AM flight to Thailand must have been very hard.
Poor five members probably didn’t sleep well last night.
Everyone silently prayed that Mo Xun could resolve this public opinion crisis.
At this time, Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian had arrived at the lobby of a five-star hotel in Bangkok and checked in at the front desk.
This was the same hotel where BNC was staying.
BNC had flown from Seoul on an early morning flight last night. They would go to the Asian Music Festival venue for rehearsal this afternoon, had interview activities tomorrow morning, and the official performance tomorrow night.
So during the relatively free time period this morning/noon, they might be able to see Mo Xun.
Mo Xun first stored their luggage at the hotel front desk and called BNC’s manager, speaking in Korean.
Fang Yinnian couldn’t understand what he was saying, but seeing Mo Xun’s slightly furrowed brow, things were obviously not going smoothly.
After the call ended, Mo Xun said: “They’re out taking promotional photos and don’t know when they’ll be back. They told me to wait.”
Fang Yinnian said, “It’s okay, let’s wait.”
As the top K-pop boy band in Asia, BNC’s schedule must be very full. Although Xu Baichuan has coordinated with the Korean PR, it’s impossible for them to wait specifically for them.
This time, Mo Xun has a request, and the negative public opinion is only targeted at Mo Xun, which won’t affect BNC. They can watch coldly and even take the opportunity to let Che Changxu play the victim.
They can only hope that Mo Xun’s former friends still have some bottom line and conscience and are willing to provide the original video.
The two sat in the lobby waiting.
Time passed minute by minute. They waited from 10:30 to 12:30 but still saw no sign of BNC.
Fang Yinnian was glad he came with Mo Xun this time.
Otherwise, Mo Xun alone in a foreign country, being so neglected, sitting alone waiting, would surely feel very uncomfortable.
He accompanied him, so at least they could chat.
Fang Yinnian said, “Maybe they went to eat after taking promotional photos and will return to the hotel after dinner.”
Mo Xun said, “Maybe, let’s wait a bit longer.”
They sat together watching videos on a pad to pass the time.
However, they waited until 2:30 PM and still saw no sign of BNC returning.
Mo Xun picked up his phone and made another call.
Fang Yinnian couldn’t understand the Korean on the other end well, but he could hear the contempt and impatience in the tone.
Mo Xun hung up and clenched his phone tightly, saying, “They went to the beach to take photos after dinner, then went to rehearsal. They said they would come back very late and told me not to wait.”
Fang Yinnian: “…”
They waited here for a full four hours.
Perhaps in the eyes of the “top stars,” it doesn’t matter how long they make these unknowns wait?
Mo Xun looked at Fang Yinnian apologetically: “Sorry to make you wait so long. If I had known, you could have gone back to rest first…”
Fang Yinnian took the initiative to hold Mo Xun’s hand: “Why say such polite things to me? I slept on the plane and now I feel energetic. Let’s just wait. Let’s go eat first, then wait after we’re full.”
Mo Xun felt warm inside. Yinnian was the most considerate person he had ever met, always able to soothe his emotions instantly.
They were not familiar with the area, so they followed the navigation to a shopping center, randomly picked a restaurant to eat, and then returned to the hotel.
After walking a while, they suddenly heard someone whispering behind them, along with the sound of phone cameras.
“Isn’t that Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian?”
“It really is them!”
“Damn, what are they doing in Thailand?”
“Mo Xun, that bullying guy, is really disgusting…”
“He wouldn’t have the nerve to go to Thailand to find BNC, right?”
These comments just happened to drift into Fang Yinnian’s ears. He didn’t know if they were deliberately speaking loudly for them to hear.
The weather in Thailand was very hot. After arriving at the hotel, the two took off their coats and removed their hats and sunglasses, only wearing masks.
Unexpectedly, there were many Chinese fans on the streets of Thailand, probably fans who follow Korean entertainment coming to watch BNC’s performance.
Fang Yinnian looked at Mo Xun worriedly.
Mo Xun pretended not to hear and returned to the hotel with Fang Yinnian.
Fang Yinnian asked, “You can only contact their manager, but can’t get through to the others, right?”
Mo Xun: “Yes, their phones are kept by the manager when they go out. When I call, the manager answers.”
Fang Yinnian frowned slightly—he always felt the manager’s tone was very impatient with Mo Xun. Maybe the manager didn’t even tell the BNC members that Mo Xun came.
Fang Yinnian asked, “When you were a trainee in Korea, did you have any particularly close friends you trusted?”
Mo Xun thought for a moment and said, “Jung Taemin, BNC’s leader, he’s one year older than me. When I first became a trainee, I was unfamiliar with everything and my Korean wasn’t fluent. He took good care of me.”
Fang Yinnian believed that with Mo Xun’s straightforward and cheerful personality, he must have made some good friends during his trainee days in Korea.
Even though BNC is very popular now, the years of living and training together couldn’t be completely erased. Not everyone likes to worship the powerful and flatter the powerful.
Moreover, BNC mainly targets the Korean market, and FTM won’t develop in Korea, so they aren’t really competitors.
It’s very likely that their manager is just too lazy to deal with Mo Xun and thinks this matter has nothing to do with BNC.
Thinking of this, Fang Yinnian said, “Do you have other ways to contact them? Try leaving messages they can’t ignore.”
Mo Xun suddenly had an idea and said, “I’ll leave them messages on Instagram. Jung Taemin and Che Changxu often log in there.”
Mo Xun took out his almost unused Instagram account and sent private messages to the two, telling them he was in Thailand, staying at the same hotel as them, and asking if they could meet.
After sending the messages, Mo Xun and Fang Yinnian returned to their room to rest.
They waited until late, and Xu Baichuan urged them several times, but still no sign of BNC.
Until nearly 10 PM, Mo Xun’s phone suddenly rang with a notification—an Instagram message reply.
It was from Che Changxu, with a series of emojis and a sentence in Korean.
Fang Yinnian didn’t understand the Korean and asked, “What does it mean?”
Mo Xun translated, “He told us to go to room 1731, knock three times, pause, then knock twice.”
Fang Yinnian: “They even have a secret code?”
Mo Xun smiled helplessly, “Probably afraid of sasaeng fans.”
The two immediately got up and went to room 1731.
