Qi Xiao was lying on his stomach on the bed, looking down at his tablet. He casually controlled his in-game character while typing back and forth with his random teammate over text.
“Is it inconvenient for you to turn on your mic?”
[XiaoXiaoIsNotTalking]: Mm-hmm, my brother is right next to me.
Seeing this line of text, Lu Xingliang let out a cold scoff.
Brother again. Is he buying his brothers in bulk?
“Are we still playing together later?”
[XiaoXiaoIsNotTalking]: Nope, I’m going to sleep.
“Then shall we add each other as friends?”
[XiaoXiaoIsNotTalking]: Sure!
Thanks to Shen Ye’s solid skills and a decent stroke of luck, the four of them won the match as expected. On the final settlement screen, a banner reading “Carried Cutie” was tagged right behind Qi Xiao’s game ID.
At first, no one had paid much attention to the gender of his game account, assuming it was selected at random. Unexpectedly.
Once the match wrapped up, the entire stream chat was spammed with:
“A true master was right beside me all along!”
“Learned a valuable lesson today.”
“Can Teacher Qi open a class to teach this immediately, please?”
“Please publish a book right now, Qi Xiao! I’ll be the first to buy out the stock!”
With the match over and everyone back in the team lobby, Shen Ye asked Qi Xiao, “Are you heading off to sleep now?”
[XiaoXiaoIsNotTalking]: Nope.
Shen Ye burst into laughter: “You made it sound so real just now!”
[XiaoXiaoIsNotTalking]: Of course I tricked him. I don’t actually want to play with him.
Lin Zhiyao asked, “Then was adding him as a friend fake too?”
[XiaoXiaoIsNotTalking]: Yeah! Who told him to flame me first?
“Damn, why does this development feel strangely dramatic?!”
“Master of Online Scams—Qi Xiao.”
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I suddenly feel a little bad for that bro earlier.”
Staring at the screen flooded with “HAHAHA,” Lu Xingliang somehow felt a wave of subtle mockery directed at himself.
After playing two more matches, Shen Ye asked, “Do you want to turn on your mic? Quite a few viewers in the stream want to hear you talk.”
[XiaoXiaoIsNotTalking]: My brother is here.
Lin Zhiyao was surprised: “I thought you made that up too! Is he your biological brother?”
[XiaoXiaoIsNotTalking]: Yeah, he is.
Shen Ye joked, “Then your family’s genetics are insane—passing down top-tier genes twice in a row! Is your brother super handsome too?”
Seeing this message, Qi Xiao couldn’t help raising his head to sweep a glance at Yu Ye sitting beside him. The man was staring at his laptop reviewing financial statements, his expression meticulous and stern. Qi Xiao typed out:
[XiaoXiaoIsNotTalking]: He’s handsome, sure, but he’s way too fierce. I’m worried he won’t be able to find a wife in the future.
Seeing this, the chat immediately spammed:
“Post a match-making ad for your brother! Ask him what type he likes!”
“So curious about what Xia-Xiao’s brother looks like!”
“I’m down, I’m down! Xiao-Xiao, let me be your sister-in-law!”
So Qi Xiao continued typing:
[XiaoXiaoIsNotTalking]: My brother is thirty-one now. He’s a workaholic with zero hobbies, and he’s usually very serious.
“How can the older brother and younger brother be so different!”
“Could Qi Xiao’s brother be the legendary domineering CEO?”
“The person above has read too many novels. How could a CEO not find a partner? This looks like a software developer for sure.”
“Software developer? Not for me, retreating, retreating!”
Qi Xiao blinked, just about to type a few lines to clarify and elaborate. But because he was so absorbed in staring at his screen, he didn’t even notice Yu Ye walking over. The man reached down, snatched the tablet straight out of his hands, and said in an indisputable tone, “It’s ten o’clock. Go to sleep.”
Qi Xiao had no choice but to send a message in the group using his phone:
My brother is telling me to sleep. I’m stopping for tonight!
Shen Ye relayed his message in the stream, and the viewers immediately voiced their complaints:
“This brother manages him way too strictly! He’s not a high school student anymore!”
“Qi Xiao is already this old and still getting controlled? Is his brother a control freak?!”
“Sob sob sob, suddenly feeling bad for the baby. Judging by the description, the brother seems super tough to get along with.”
Qi Xiao, however, was completely oblivious to all this. He even turned to Yu Ye and said, “Brother, people online say your type is hard to find a partner for. How about you go on some blind dates instead?”
Yu Ye said coldly, “Are you really that eager to have a sister-in-law?”
“Of course!” Qi Xiao replied. Once he has a sister-in-law, won’t Brother have no time to boss him around anymore?
Yu Ye rolled his eyes at him: “Kids shouldn’t pry into adult affairs.”
On the other end.
Lu Xingliang had initially felt a bit annoyed, but after reading the subsequent conversation and chat messages, he fell into deep thought.
So he really does have a brother.
And it seems their relationship as brothers isn’t particularly harmonious.
In the past, to better research script roles, Lu Xingliang had studied a bit of psychology. He recalled a theory stating that emotional deprivation caused by one’s family of origin is often compensated for through alternative means later in life.
A brother, huh.
Lu Xingliang switched over to WeChat and clicked into Qi Xiao’s Moments.
The latest post was from two weeks ago:
“Is there any way to make a company go bankrupt fast?”
Lu Xingliang stared at this update and remained silent for a long moment. He had heard his assistant mention things about Qi Xiao’s agency before—that its reputation in the industry was terrible, resorting to any means necessary for traffic and clout.
As for this show, Lu Xingliang had seen the candidate list early on. The director had repeatedly confirmed with him before finalizing the guests. But because Yan Liangpeng was suddenly exposed in a relationship scandal, Qi Xiao was brought in as a last-minute replacement. It could be said that he was forced to participate.
So that’s why Qi Xiao holds resentment toward his company’s arrangements.
Scrolling down further:
“Making money is so hard.”
Did he get assigned unreasonable work?
“Brother went on a business trip! So happy!”
Looks like his brother isn’t nice to him at all.
“So tired, but still have an exam tomorrow.”
Juggling work and studies at the same time is indeed no easy feat.
Reading through it post by post, without even realizing it, Qi Xiao’s image in Lu Xingliang’s mind had transformed into a resilient, pure white flower smiling through life’s hardships.
In a state between sleep and waking, Qi Xiao suddenly sneezed.
The next day, the show’s official Weibo released a preview clip dozens of seconds long.
It was edited from the scene where the eight guests met for the first time.
They were each sitting at dining tables chatting, with background music playing throughout. Though the exact content of their conversations was unknown, the atmosphere looked exceptionally harmonious and warm. The editors had even deliberately slowed down certain shots—such as a female guest’s shyly bowed head, or a male guest’s elegant glance back.
Yet the most eye-catching shot among them was the frame of Qi Xiao and Zhou Chongyu leaning together to look at a phone screen. Qi Xiao was smiling dazzlingly on one side, while Zhou Chongyu pursed his lips slightly, not looking at the screen, but quietly gazing at Qi Xiao.
That gaze was deep as the ocean, as if time itself had stopped at that moment, with no one else existing around them.
Because the shot of the two looked as beautiful as a painting, it was quickly screenshot and shared frantically.
“HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP what kind of god-tier shot is this?!”
“The way Zhou Chongyu looks at Qi Xiao is strangely doting!”
“You’re looking at your phone, while I’m looking at you~ I’ve already written a 100,000-word novel plot in my head!”
“I am so shipping this! I am so shipping this!”
Initially, this was just a small-scale discussion, but soon someone uncovered a massive bombshell:
“Even though the production team blurred it, the phone in Qi Xiao’s hand is clearly Qise’s latest flagship model, right? It just hit the market last week, and I remember Zhou Chongyu endorses this line.”
“I was wondering why the two of them seemed so familiar upon meeting for the first time—turns out it was a long-planned scheme! Qi Xiao is definitely Zhou Chongyu’s die-hard fan!”
“Does no one feel that Zhou Chongyu’s attitude is super unusual? Seeing how strict he was as a mentor before, I’ve never seen him be this gentle toward anyone!”
“Wait, wasn’t it said earlier that Qi Xiao entered the industry for Film Emperor Lu? How did he become Zhou Chongyu’s fan now?”
“That was made up by marketing accounts! Qi Xiao has never said he was Lu Xingliang’s fan.”
“What kind of god-tier CP is this? Say no more, I’m off to create fan content!”
Within a few short hours, the “Qi-Yu CP” was born out of nowhere, swiftly climbing onto the trending search rankings.