On the flight back.
Lu Xingliang sat with his head down, reading a storyboard script. He had a commercial shoot scheduled for the afternoon.
Song Shishuang, sitting beside him, could no longer contain her curiosity. She asked in a hushed voice, “Why didn’t you even reply to my messages yesterday? Was it just because I said a few things about your fan and you got upset?”
Without even raising his head, Lu Xingliang said, “Less gossip, more work.”
Song Shishuang instantly caught a subtle irregularity in his attitude: “Hey, what’s going on with you? Don’t you usually hate fresh-faced young idols like him the most? Could it be you’re actually susceptible to a pretty face too?”
Lu Xingliang didn’t bother responding.
“Tsk, incredible. The iron tree is actually about to bloom,” Song Shishuang marveled. “How about I pair you two up for the next project?”
Lu Xingliang said coldly, “You’re overthinking.”
Song Shishuang scoffed: “Act solemn all you want. Watch yourself get slapped in the face later.”
Lu Xingliang ignored her. He lowered his eyes to glance at his phone, but there wasn’t a single new message on WeChat. He had assumed Qi Xiao would add his WeChat immediately after the group chat was created, yet there hadn’t been any movement for half a day. The younger man was probably busy.
“By the way, the production team said they’re releasing the official Weibo announcement tonight. Remember to retweet it when the time comes.”
“Does a minor thing like this need my direct attention?”
Song Shishuang teased, “I was just afraid you might have something to say! Like taking the opportunity to confess your feelings or something.”
Lu Xingliang: “?”
Qi Xiao had no other schedule today, so he went straight home after getting off the plane. Having unpacked his luggage, he was just about to lie down on his bed to enjoy a relaxing afternoon when the doorbell abruptly rang.
Aside from his manager and assistant, few people knew where he lived. Thinking the agency might have arranged some last-minute work, Qi Xiao reluctantly went over to open the door.
When he opened it, a tall man stood before his doorstep, his face practically written over with displeasure.
Terrified, Qi Xiao slammed the door shut instantly.
After building up his courage behind the door for a good dozen seconds, he reopened it and asked innocently, “Brother, didn’t you say you were coming back next week? Why did you suddenly come back early?”
Yu Ye looked at him like he was staring at an idiot: “Yesterday was Sunday. Today is Monday.”
Qi Xiao: “?”
Well, that makes sense.
“You must have had an exhausting journey, Brother. Come in and sit down!” Qi Xiao put on a dutiful, obedient expression.
Yu Ye didn’t buy it, cutting straight to the point: “What have you been up to these past few days?”
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” Qi Xiao blinked innocently.
“Did you see the messages I sent earlier?”
Qi Xiao nodded: “What about them?”
Yu Ye repeated, “Getting onto trending topics with all sorts of random people all day long.”
Qi Xiao felt deeply wronged: “How is it that exaggerated!” He didn’t live on the trending lists!
Unexpectedly, Yu Ye pulled a document from his briefcase: “Read it yourself.”
Qi Xiao: “?”
He knew he couldn’t dodge this, so he silently took the document and flipped through it. Though it was only a few pages long, it detailed his online public opinion trends over the past week, complete with several types of charts and big data analysis—it was practically more rigorous than the company’s monthly financial statements!
Qi Xiao couldn’t help saying, “Brother, is all this really necessary.”
Yu Ye pointed his finger at a specific spot: “Explain this.”
Qi Xiao looked down along his finger. Printed right there in bold, red-highlighted text was Lu Xingliang’s name, followed immediately by two trending topics:
#QiXiaoSucceedsInFanboyingLuXingliang#
#QiXiaoPublicityStuntBackfires#
Qi Xiao’s eyes widened. When were these even on the trending list? He had zero memory of this!
Seeing his silence, Yu Ye let out a cold laugh: “How come I didn’t know you had an idol like him?”
“This, this is all just marketing accounts making stuff up!” Although he wasn’t clear on the full picture, denying it first was never wrong. Qi Xiao said, “Don’t you know? Fabricating rumors is their favorite thing to do!”
“Then is this fake too?”
Yu Ye held his phone directly in front of Qi Xiao’s face. The screen showed the candid footage from the set that had been released online earlier—though Qi Xiao had been completely oblivious to it until now.
“You’re really getting bolder by the day. Joining a dating show now?”
“How old are you even? What kind of dating are you doing?”
“It’s not real dating anyway,” Qi Xiao said, a bit annoyed. “Besides, I’m already an adult. Even if I really fell in love, what’s wrong with that!”
Yu Ye let out a cold scoff: “What’s wrong? Believe it or not, I can ship you off to Africa right now.”
Qi Xiao grumbled internally, wondering what weird things his brother had been reading again, but still said on the surface: “I’ve already filmed one episode of this show, I can’t back out now.”
After a brief thought, he began playing the pity card: “Brother, you don’t know how bad my acting is. Right now, no director wants to hire me for dramas. I finally got this job with great difficulty—you can’t just stand by and watch your beloved little brother starve to death, can you?”
“Now you know what suffering feels like?”
Qi Xiao muttered under his breath, “Isn’t it all because you froze my cards.”
“What did you say?”
“Ah! I said Brother is the best, you care about me the most! So don’t worry about those things on the show. Your daily work is exhausting enough as it is—how could I bear to add more to your burden?”
Yu Ye swept a glance at him: “Do you know what month it is right now?”
Qi Xiao said, “July!”
“So you have five months left. Still remember what I told you back then?”
“Got it, got it,” Qi Xiao hated it most when he brought that matter up. Changing the subject, he said, “Brother, you haven’t eaten yet, right? Hold on, I’ll order takeout for you. What do you want to eat?”
“Whatever.”
A moment later.
Sitting on the sofa while waiting for the takeout, Qi Xiao browsed Weibo to check the trending searches from the past two days. The negative topic attacking him had disappeared—he wondered if the company had paid to take it down. He hadn’t expected this small, cheap agency to actually have generous moments. As for the trending topic related to Lu Xingliang.
After reading the original post, Qi Xiao was at a total loss for words. He really didn’t know how it had gotten connected to Lu Xingliang—it didn’t have a penny’s worth of relation to him!
Qi Xiao figured Lu Xingliang must have seen this trending topic too; while filming the show, he had constantly seen the man on his phone.
Yet Lu Xingliang had never brought it up. Why was that?
Pondering left and right, Qi Xiao suddenly had a flash of inspiration! Lu Xingliang’s attitude toward him had been cold at first, only to undergo a sudden shift later on. Could the reason for his change in attitude be this? He hadn’t expected Lu Xingliang to be so protective and doting toward his fans!
Thinking back carefully, it seemed that Lu Xingliang’s attitude underwent a subtle shift specifically when they were on the hotel viewing deck. And back then, he said he knew his mind.
Could it be that what Lu Xingliang meant was that he knew Qi Xiao was his fan, rather than referring to his identity as the Liar?
Qi Xiao almost jumped off the sofa in shock! Thinking about it, that made total sense—Lu Xingliang wasn’t a mind reader, how could he have exposed his Liar identity so easily!
He instantly felt a sensation of having narrowly escaped a catastrophe! He had almost blown his own cover right in front of Lu Xingliang!
At 8:00 PM, the production team of Sweet Trap released their official Weibo announcement.
Su Mei had long sent the prepared copy to Qi Xiao’s WeChat for him to copy and forward, while reminding him to follow the other guests’ Weibo accounts as well.
After finishing all these tasks, Qi Xiao shuffled over to Yu Ye, who was working on his laptop nearby: “Brother, Brother.”
“Speak.”
“Did you bring me any gifts from your trip this time?”
Yu Ye scoffed: “What do you want?”
“You know, the kind of thin, rectangular, card-like thing.” Qi Xiao hinted.
Yu Ye raised his eyelids, spitting out three words coldly: “In your dreams.”
Qi Xiao walked away in a huff.
Seeing him leave, Yu Ye pulled out his phone, expertly tapping into a group chat titled “Xiao-Xiao Data Group – Go Go Go!” Not long ago, an announcement had been posted in the group outlining today’s new task.
Yu Ye swept a glance over it, quickly switched to Weibo, and used an account named “Xiao-Xiao Must Be Cute Today Too” to leave a comment under the official Sweet Trap Weibo post:
“Looking forward to Xiao-Xiao! Have fun! [Heart]”
Once the promotional photos of the eight guests were posted, Weibo instantly exploded into a frenzy, with several guests’ names climbing straight onto the trending searches.
“Holy crap, what kind of god-tier lineup is this!”
“Am I seeing this right? Qi Xiao and Lu Xingliang on a dating show together???”
“As someone who watched yesterday’s leaks, I can tell you there’s a good show coming!”
“Say no more, place your bets! I’m betting on Film Emperor Lu and Jiang Fei first!”
“Lu Xingliang +1, who else could be the Liar if not him!”
“Maybe it’s the production team’s smoke grenade tactic, I bet on Qi Xiao!”
“LMAO, with Qi Xiao’s acting skills, if he were really the Liar he’d blow his cover in episode one. The production team isn’t stupid.”
Because of the buffer provided by the previous set leaks, most of Lu Xingliang’s fans were relatively rational, expressing excitement for their idol’s new variety show. Still, many fans were thoroughly dissatisfied with his collaboration with Qi Xiao.
As for Qi Xiao’s fan side, they didn’t really discuss Lu Xingliang. Instead, there was a wave of wailing and outrage:
“Baby, you’re still young, Mama doesn’t allow you to date!”
“So worried about baby getting tricked by the Liar on the show, sob sob sob!”
“What a trash agency, go bankrupt already! They do nothing on regular days, and now they take a dating show for Xiao-Xiao? Are you out of your mind???”
“Trash agency +1, reading these past two days’ trending topics almost gave me a heart attack. Our Xiao-Xiao is clearly so good and cute, what kind of ridiculous publicity stunt is the agency pulling!”
At 9:00 PM.
Lu Xingliang held his phone, almost suspecting that his WeChat was malfunctioning.
It had been nearly a full day since filming concluded, yet Qi Xiao still hadn’t submitted a friend request to add him.
He had even received Qi Xiao’s follow on Weibo an hour ago, showing that the younger man wasn’t busy.
It was somewhat unusual.
Lu Xingliang clicked back into the WeChat group created that morning. Initially, everyone had sent messages like “Safe travels” and “See you next week,” after which no one had spoken.
He located Qi Xiao from the chat records; his avatar was an adorable cat.
After staring at Qi Xiao’s avatar for a moment, Lu Xingliang suddenly wanted to tap open his profile to check it out. As a result of a careless slip, he tapped twice in rapid succession.
In the group chat interface, a prompt instantly popped up:
I poked “Qi Xiao’s” face and said: What a cutie.
Lu Xingliang: “?????”