[“Our Master Chi Dianqing is willing to hold his grudge and cast a single glance in your direction; you should all drop to your knees and kowtow. With a mind as broad and generous as his, your household’s vase idol wouldn’t be able to match it in a hundred lifetimes.”]
[“Exactly! Back when you were on that variety show, if you hadn’t hitched a ride on Chi Dianqing’s popularity, who would have known about a flop idol from a flop group like yours? And now you turn around and disown your daddy!”]
[“Back then, after riding Chu Tianyi’s coattails, he turned around to bump clout with us. Your precious ‘older brother’ really knows how to play the game, doesn’t he? Spending all day trying to sell CP ships with everyone, what a total male slut of the entertainment industry.”]
[“Scheming male charmer! Just a useless vase who only knows how to show off skin on stage to pander to fans. Keep away from our Movie King! Whoever gets stuck with him is doomed; he is a literal plague upon the entertainment industry!”]
Seeing the solo fans on both sides going at each other in hand-to-hand combat, the “Qingqing Ziji” CP fans, who were originally the main audience, hurriedly tried to play both sides and act as peacemakers.
[“Aiya, what’s the point of all this? One is a top-tier Movie King, and the other is a newly crowned top-tier idol. Isn’t it great for them to lift each other?”]
[“Exactly! To me, their relationship doesn’t seem that bad at all. Who knows, maybe they have a really good relationship in private!”]
[“Haha, I’m dying! The fans are tearing each other apart like dogs, while the leads are holding hands! They might even be sharing the same blanket in bed for all we know!”]
[“Spot on! Otherwise, why would someone as cold and distant as Chi Dianqing greet Yan Jingyu’s fans? Plus, I heard someone mention that Yan Jingyu has even been to Chi Dianqing’s dressing room!”]
[“For real?! Details, please! I totally missed out on this sweet lore!”]
However, no one expected this wave of commentary to make the solo fans on both sides turn their weapons around and focus all their firepower directly on the CP fans instead.
Yan Jingyu really couldn’t watch any more of it. He turned off his phone, feeling a dizzying pressure in his head and a slight lack of oxygen.
He knew that friction between fanbases was entirely normal. In fact, he had occasionally used an alt account to join in on the fun himself. But only today did he witness the full scale of a massive brawl between inner-circle fandoms in the entertainment industry; it was practically comparable to a World War.
Those bizarre, unpredictable rhetorical tactics seemed as though they had undergone some kind of strict, specialized training. Though there were no guns or cannons, he could almost see smoke rising on all sides and corpses littering the battlefield.
“Brother, the bathwater is ready!” Fan Rong called out from outside the door.
Yan Jingyu tossed his phone aside. At this precise moment, taking a hot bath was indeed better than anything else.
“Brother Yu, come out and eat something! No matter what, you still have to eat meals! Your stomach is already bad to begin with; if you don’t eat…”
Chi Dianqing was thoroughly annoyed by Shao Yang’s persistent noise outside the door, pulling it open with a face full of deep resentment.
“Brother Yu, you came out! Then…” Before Shao Yang could finish his sentence, Chi Dianqing brushed past him and turned to head downstairs.
Sitting on the sofa drinking coffee, Jiang Mingze saw him come down and spoke up: “Brother Hu already spoke on the phone with Ding Zhi’s side. They said their side will handle this matter properly. In any case, this whole situation was caused by Chi Dianqing’s side, so the ones who should be nervous are them, while we…”
“Shut up,” Chi Dianqing interrupted him without a shred of politeness.
Jiang Mingze seemed caught off guard by his tone, freezing on the spot without reacting for a moment. He carefully reviewed his own words; he clearly hadn’t said anything wrong.
To the side, Du Kang, who was lifting dumbbells, flashed him a quick look, signaling him not to provoke this demon king at a time like this. Just then, Shao Yang, who had just come down the stairs, caught him shooting glances at Jiang Mingze and said displeased, “What are you doing?”
Du Kang glanced at him and rolled his eyes. “Aiya, your ‘Brother Yu’ is in a sensitive period right now. He can’t be talked to, he can’t be crossed, so can’t we at least stay out of his way?”
Ever since he underperformed during the debut battle, Du Kang had always been dissatisfied with Yan Jingyu being the group leader, frequently dropping sarcastic, passive-aggressive remarks. Several times, because the company distributed lines for group songs based on rank, he, as the third-ranked member, was naturally discontent and went to argue with Hu Lai, making things quite unpleasant.
Meanwhile, Jiang Mingze, the second-ranked member, always maintained a gentlemanly demeanor, treating everyone and everything with consistent gentle composure. Thus, setting aside his relative lack of popularity, he managed to navigate the industry with reasonable ease.
The fourth-ranked member, Shao Yang, though lacking compared to the others in singing, dancing, rap, and music production, relied on his cute, sunshiny, youthful appearance to win over a large fanbase, successfully making his debut through their voting efforts.
Being the youngest, he had often been picked on by other trainees when he first arrived at the company. Yan Jingyu had always stepped up to protect him at the first opportunity, secretly giving him private coaching and lessons, guiding him all the way to his debut. Consequently, he had always idolized Yan Jingyu, and naturally couldn’t stand seeing Du Kang act like this.
Du Kang’s words reached Chi Dianqing’s ears word for word, yet he showed no reaction whatsoever. He simply ate his food calmly, ignoring them entirely.
After eating, he immediately dialed Hu Lai’s number, demanding to move out and live on his own.
“Aiya, my ancestor! If you move out right now, what will the fans think?!” Hu Lai said helplessly.
“What they think, what does that have to do with me? If you don’t let me move out, I’ll go stay in a hotel. By then, what the fans think will be the thing you should be most worried about,” Chi Dianqing replied.
Their group hadn’t debuted for very long and didn’t have much exposure. Their current fan base was largely built on traffic brought in by Yan Jingyu’s appearances on various variety shows.
Therefore, for this group, Yan Jingyu was an absolutely indispensable link. Conversely, for Yan Jingyu, choosing to debut in a group in the first place had been the company’s decision; he couldn’t refuse it, and this group brought him zero added value. In fact, looking at the current situation, the group was actually holding him back.
If Yan Jingyu were to leave the group and pursue a solo career, his momentum would likely be even stronger, but the group would essentially be ruined. However, it was very clear that the company prioritized group development, so they still wouldn’t let him go solo.
At a time like this, if Yan Jingyu went out to live in a hotel, fans would definitely speculate that the group was fracturing internally, which would impact the already unstable group-fan foundation. These past few years with the group would have been in vain.
By comparison, finding a suitable pretext to let Yan Jingyu move out seemed like a much better option.
On the other end of the line, Hu Lai wiped the sweat from his forehead and compromised: “Fine, fine, fine, my ancestor! I’ll go talk to President Liu about this tomorrow, alright?”
“I trust you can handle this matter properly,” Chi Dianqing said.
Chi Dianqing was used to living alone; suddenly sharing a house with these people was genuinely an excruciating ordeal for him.
Leaving aside how Shao Yang chattered endlessly behind him all day, Du Kang’s constant passive-aggressive attitude alone was something a person like him, who had never had to swallow insults, found exceedingly difficult to endure. Had it not been for his good upbringing and refined manners since childhood, he would have genuinely wanted to throw a punch right at that face, which was even more annoying than Yan Jingyu’s.
Then there was Jiang Mingze. Although this person didn’t speak much normally and always wore a warm, approachable smile, he constantly gave him an uncomfortable feeling, an instinctive rejection born from a first impression.
In short, his soul and every single cell in his body would enter a state of red alert whenever that man appeared. Thus, he was entirely certain that this person was nowhere near as simple or easygoing as he appeared on the surface.
By comparison, Shao Yang seemed much more endearing.
However, when it came to anything related to Yan Jingyu, he wanted to stay as far away as possible. Every corner of this room was saturated with that unbearable guy’s scent, putting him in an extremely irritable mood every single moment. Therefore, to keep his mental state stable, he had to move out of this place as soon as possible.
Yan Jingyu stepped out of the bathtub. Out of habit, he liked to admire his own perfect body in front of the mirror after bathing, and even under these circumstances, he still didn’t forget this habit.
Yet, as he walked up to the mirror, he was stunned by the body he saw reflected in it. Looking closer at that face, his initial moment of pleasant surprise vanished into thin air.
“Dammit!”
In the mirror, Chi Dianqing’s impressive physique was on full display: full, well-defined chest muscles, impeccably carved eight-pack abs, and powerful arms, with every single muscle sculpted into a perfect shape. Not to mention his broad shoulders and lean waist, this was simply the dream body every man lusted after!
Furthermore, although Chi Dianqing’s face lacked the fierce, aggressive beauty of Yan Jingyu’s own face, the exquisite refinement of his features was not in the slightest bit inferior to Yan Jingyu’s.
Those sharp eyes radiated a cold, detached aloofness that seemed to look down upon all living beings, subtly revealing an intimidating sense of divinity. His strong, straight nasal bridge and sharply chiseled contours truly resembled a snow-capped peak.
A flavor this unique was one-of-a-kind in the inner entertainment industry; no wonder people called him the “God of the Snow Ridge.”
Yan Jingyu was so envious his teeth practically itched.
Generally speaking, when God opens a door for someone, He also closes a window somewhere. Even if his body was this good, maybe certain other areas weren’t necessarily…
Yan Jingyu’s gaze drifted downward. The moment he saw the answer, he blurted out in his mind directly to God: Fuck!
That dog of a man! It’s bad enough his body is better than mine, but his dick is bigger than mine too?! This is utterly against all natural laws!!
However, when his eyes returned to that scowling face, he burst out laughing after all.
Although these eyes had spirit, and were even the peach-blossom eyes most adored by everyone in the entertainment industry, when paired with an expressionless, sour face, they were rendered pretty much useless.
Hmph, this? Peach-blossom eyes? Bah!
Looking at this nose again, sure, it’s quite tall and straight with smooth lines; count it as a perfect nose shape, but… fine, this one passes, can’t find fault with it. Next!
The mouth… the lip color itself is pretty good, and the lip shape is also…
Even if his lips look good, this mouth never says anything pleasant anyway; it’s as good as useless!
And looking at this face shape, holy crap!
Yan Jingyu cursed silently under his breath. The man’s face shape was sharply defined with clean, flowing lines, projecting a deep, solitary aura rich in cinematic quality; it was practically a face born naturally for the silver screen.
This was the first time he had ever examined Chi Dianqing’s “utterly average” face so carefully, forcing him to admit that Chi Dianqing’s looks weren’t actually… that average after all.
Even so! Compared to his own face, Chi Dianqing’s face still fell short. Even if placed in the top ranks of the entire entertainment industry, it ultimately couldn’t match his own uniquely gifted beauty.
Thinking of this, Yan Jingyu immediately pulled out his phone and opened his own fan super-topic, admiring his own gorgeous photos one by one.
“Tsk! This is the one-and-only, peerless beauty in all of heaven and earth! When I get back, I definitely have to get Hu Lai to buy insurance for my face.” Yan Jingyu scrolled through his pictures with deep satisfaction, but as he kept scrolling, the smile on his face gradually froze.
A large poster photo showing his upper lip stuck to his gums made it completely impossible for him to laugh. He immediately left a comment in the reply section:
[I feel like we should still protect Yuyu’s image. Let’s not spread ugly photos like this so widely, okay?]
Someone replied to him almost instantly:
[Are you new here? This picture is one of our sacred top-tier photos! How can you call it ugly? Besides, how can the word ‘ugly’ ever be used to describe our Yuyu!]
[Exactly! I think this picture is great too. Look, I even set it as my lock screen! (Image)]
Yan Jingyu truly could not comprehend the mindset of these fans, but he refused to give up and continued typing:
[Look at the picture yourself; does it actually look good? If a photo like this spreads out, what if rival fanbases use it to attack Yuyu?]
[What’s there to be afraid of? We aren’t pushovers either. If they dare to use this picture to attack Yuyu, we’ll just use even uglier photos to counter-attack.]
[Yeah, and the more seriously you take it, the more the other side will use it as a pain point to attack you. We should convert it internally, turn the ugly pictures and anti-nicknames into our own signature brand. Walk the rival’s path and leave them with no path to walk!]
[Look how happily Yuyu is smiling in this picture! I just hope he can stay this happy forever, able to laugh out loud without restraint. Even if his lip gets stuck to his gums, he can still laugh from the heart.]
Seeing this comment, Yan Jingyu’s fingers typing on the screen suddenly froze. After a moment’s thought, he deleted the comment he had already written and changed it to:
He will keep being this happy forever, and you have to stay happy too.