Even though it was the New Year, Zhao Biezhi didn’t dare slack off on her review for even a moment. After all, that “feel” for solving problems—once you stop for a period of time—declines at a visibly noticeable rate. With less than a month left until the exam, this was the critical period, and she absolutely couldn’t afford to let up.
After the Spring Festival came to an end, Zhao Biezhi didn’t rush back to City B. Instead, she planned to stay in City S to take the provincial exam before returning.
The exam day arrived soon enough—administrative aptitude test in the morning, essay writing in the afternoon.
Zhao Biezhi was thoroughly prepared, so answering the questions in the examination hall naturally came with ease.
When the afternoon essay section ended, she walked out of the exam hall and let out a long sigh of relief, the heavy weight in her heart finally settling down.
Although the results wouldn’t be announced for another month, she was confident in her abilities, and her performance in the exam hall had been steady. Even if she didn’t place first, passing the interview stage shouldn’t be much of a problem.
After the exam, Zhao Biezhi had to return to City B to start preparing for the variety show filming.
With less than a week left until the recording, even though the filming location was in City S, there was no telling when Chen Yong might suddenly need her at the company. So Zhao Biezhi went back to her tiny rented room.
With the provincial exam’s written portion finished, Zhao Biezhi’s livestreaming career was temporarily put on hold. Over this period, livestreaming had brought in quite a bit of extra income, and her followers had accumulated to over twenty thousand.
However, Zhao Biezhi had no intention of devoting herself to the self-media industry. So one afternoon, after briefly saying goodbye to her fans, she prepared to deactivate her account. The fan group was shrouded in gloom, with messages flooding the screen as everyone begged her to stay.
Zhao Biezhi felt a bit reluctant to leave as well. After all, these were people who had accompanied her for several months—to part so hastily felt too abrupt.
After thinking it over, she chose to uninstall the “Tiaofu” app but kept her account on the platform, and the fan group would also be preserved.
Though the fans were still unwilling to see her go, they respected her decision.
By the time Lu Xichao logged onto his account and saw the news, her avatar had already gone gray—clearly she had logged off.
Lu Xichao anxiously wanted to send her a private message, but when he remembered she’d said she wouldn’t operate this account anymore, a certain corner of his heart rapidly crumbled.
His eyes suddenly turned red.
“Chaochao? What’s wrong?” Uncle Zhuang noticed something off about Lu Xichao.
Lu Xichao shook his head, but tears streamed down uncontrollably. His shoulders trembled up and down, and even the tip of his nose was red from crying—he looked utterly pitiful.
He typed shakily in his memo app.
“I’m fine, just a little sad… I’ll get over it soon…”
With that, he got up and ran toward his room upstairs.
In the dark room, Lu Xichao curled himself into a tiny ball, tears soaking the pillow.
He tried to comfort himself, but the bitterness in his heart kept spreading.
Everyone he liked and cherished would eventually leave him…
He always made the people around him worry and feel disappointed.
Grief gnawed at his heart, and his gaze gradually returned to its former numbness.
“Ding-dong—” The notification sound rang out, and the phone screen lit up.
Lu Xichao slowly looked up, but when he saw the content on the screen, he suddenly turned over and sat up.
【Biezhi: Hello there, Weiming, thank you so much for accompanying me through these months of exam preparation. Haha, you could be considered my number one fan, and your support has always been the motivation for me to keep going.
Every journey comes to an end, but that also means the start of the next one. I hope that in the days ahead, we can both become better versions of ourselves than before—wishing this for you and for me.
May we all meet again at the summit!】
Lu Xichao pressed his lips tightly together, hot tears sliding down his cheeks once more, but something in his heart seemed to be shifting.
Become a better person… meet again at the summit?
Out of the corner of his eye, Lu Xichao caught sight of the cabinet in the corner, where his painting supplies were stored.
He stared at it blankly for a while, then stood up and walked over step by step, as if he had made some kind of resolve.
…
After sending farewell messages to some of his long-time fans, Zhao Biezhi uninstalled Tiaofu once again and pulled out the books on farming he had ordered online a few days earlier.
After all, he was going to actually farm on the variety show. Although he had done some farm work in the countryside as a child, it had only been helping out the adults. Relying on that to truly farm would be far from sufficient.
Besides, he had always held the attitude of doing whatever he did with dedication and mastery. Since he was going to farm, it was better to learn some relevant knowledge about scientific farming and agriculture in advance.
And so, in the days leading up to the show, he mostly stayed home reading and studying. This well-behaved demeanor even made Chen Yong privately sigh with admiration—whatever else could be said about Zhao Biezhi, at least he was honest and didn’t stir up trouble, which was satisfying enough.
…
Three days remained before the recording of Treasure-like Countryside began. In a corner no one paid attention to, the show’s official account quietly went online and posted a promotional message tagging all the guests.
Treasure-like Countryside Official Account: Ding-dong! You have a pastoral life guide to check out~ The country’s first farming slow variety show, Treasure-like Countryside, is about to premiere. Five young people will cultivate the fields and mountains over half a year, using their own hands to prosper through hard work.
The show will feature both a full live-stream version and an edited post-production version. See you starting March 1st. @Actor Wu Liuyi @Xie Chengyu @Duan ZhijieJay @Zhao Biezhi @Jason Qiao
Zhao Biezhi had completely forgotten about managing his own Weibo account, and Chen Yong was entirely focused on fighting for resources for Xin Yun, leaving no time to attend to Zhao Biezhi. So he remained completely in the dark.
However, just because he wasn’t paying attention didn’t mean others wouldn’t notice.
Ji Yi was a freshman at B University, and her biggest hobby was following celebrities. Her latest idol was Wu Liuyi, who had risen to fame half a year earlier through the role of “Hao Shi” in the comedy film Love Ten Thousand Years.
In the movie, he played a lovesick supporting character who never won the affection he sought—alone in his melodrama among a crowd of comedians, creating a stark contrast with the film’s comedic atmosphere, which ironically made audiences in front of the screen burst into laughter.
But laughter aside, Wu Liuyi’s handsome appearance and outstanding acting still attracted a large fanbase. Within just a month, his Weibo followers broke the million mark, and Ji Yi was among them.
However, after going viral, Wu Liuyi didn’t seize the momentum to take on youth idol drama roles that matched his looks. Instead, he went to his own company and appeared as a guest performer several times on a sketch comedy show co-hosted with Watermelon TV.
Although his comedic performances—whether delivering punchlines or engaging in banter and mimicry—were passable, and his sketches always managed to make the audience laugh, his fans weren’t buying it.
In the fans’ view, this was clearly the shady company squeezing Wu Liuyi to promote their own invested variety show.
Otherwise, with his looks and acting skills, why wouldn’t he be starring in the currently popular costume romance or youth campus dramas?
They refused to believe that no directors were offering him scripts—it must be the company being inhuman, trying to hinder their idol’s career development!
Ji Yi didn’t initially share this view, until recently when she attended an offline brand event that Wu Liuyi appeared at.
Although she was thrilled to see her idol, Ji Yi keenly noticed the weariness and confusion hidden beneath his enthusiastic smile. Clearly, his state was off.
Combined with the conspiracy theories other fans had been spreading about the agency, Ji Yi couldn’t help but suspect that Wu Liuyi was being overworked by the company. So she joined the majority of fans in cursing out the agency “Laugh Star Entertainment” on their official Weibo almost every day, accusing them of being heartless.
Today, as soon as she opened Weibo, she saw that Wu Liuyi had reposted an official announcement for a variety show, stating that he would be a regular cast member on the show Treasure-Like Countryside. This would be his first regular variety show appearance.
Fans first expressed their anticipation in the comments, but then immediately stormed over to the agency’s official Weibo to unleash a torrent of abuse.
[Is Laugh Star Entertainment dead today? They’re actually making my husband go farm, and for half a year at that—are they insane?!]
[I’m done. Did Wu Liuyi owe you people in a past life? The company is suppressing him like this, sending him to some nobody farming variety show where the other guests are practically indistinguishable from amateurs.]
[Let my husband go film dramas, or I’ll curse you out every time I see you!]
Watching the fans furiously denounce the agency, Ji Yi couldn’t help but furrow her brows.
“What’s wrong?” Her roommate beside her noticed something was off and turned to ask.
Ji Yi shoved her phone in front of her roommate, fuming: “Laugh Star Entertainment is making my Liuyi go on some nobody farming variety show for half a year! That’s a six-month gap in his career.”
The roommate looked down at the phone carefully and said somewhat helplessly: “I think this show actually looks pretty interesting—it’s not as bad as you all are making it out to be. And what if he actually wants to go himself?”
“Impossible! He should be filming dramas right now. A face that good-looking not appearing on the big screen is an absolute waste!”
The roommate shut up and didn’t dare respond, instead trying to change the subject.
“Hey, do you know what happened with Qiao Xingjie’s thing?”
Sure enough, Ji Yi’s attention was diverted.
“Didn’t he get into a fight at a bar and end up at the police station? But his family is pretty rich, so getting him out shouldn’t have been a problem, right?”
“Yeah, apparently they settled it and he was released that same night. But yesterday when I went to the counselor’s office to submit my scholarship materials, I heard he’s taken a year off from school.”
“Taking a leave of absence?! Now that you mention it, I haven’t seen him around these past few days since school started.”
Ji Yi thought carefully and realized she hadn’t seen Qiao Xingjie in class these past few days, nor had his name been called during roll call. But it had never occurred to her that something like taking a leave of absence would happen.
“Forget it, forget it. It’s none of our business anyway. Come on, let’s go eat. When we get back to the dorm, watch me curse out Smile Entertainment on Weibo!”
Her roommate could only hold her forehead and force a wry smile. No matter how the conversation turned, it always circled back to her ranting about that company!