Fans online hailed Xie Li as the "Scandal Forecaster."
The goodwill campaign Anni had purchased earlier finally started bearing fruit. Public opinion about Xie Li began to turn.
✦ ✦ ✦
Qiao Ming had booked three twin-bed rooms — one bed per person. Now that Zhou Moyao was gone, the hotel rooms were fully accounted for. No one except Xie Li was initially willing to sleep in hers.
He said to Yu Miao and Xia Fangxing with serene indifference: "In this world, I am no longer afraid of death itself."
Yu Miao was startled: "Don't say things like that — you're just trying to reassure us, I know it."
Xie Li said nothing.
When it came to the keys, Wang Shaoyue suddenly volunteered to take the room and wouldn't let Xie Li compete for it. Xie Li's smaller build meant he'd lose any physical contest anyway, so he let it go.
With the original headcount, some male-female room sharing would have been necessary. Now the numbers worked out: Yu Miao and Xia Fangxing together, Qiao Ming and Xie Li sharing the remaining room.
But Qiao Ming abruptly refused. Xie Li appeared to have already seen this coming — his expression was flat.
"Fangxing and Miao are girls — surely you're not suggesting you'd sleep in their room?" Xie Li said.
"I could share with Shaoyue — Shaoyue, what do you think?" Qiao Ming had assumed Wang Shaoyue would agree, but he said flatly: "No." And immediately began moving his luggage to the vacated room.
Xie Li also grabbed his bags, saying to Qiao Ming on the way: "It's not like I want to share with you either."
One sentence cut Qiao Ming's whole two-faced-sweetheart strategy off at the knees.
Tonight was going to be a long one.
Xie Li's recent sleep quality hadn't been great either. He kept waking through the night.
Qiao Ming went to shower, and Xie Li — wanting nothing to do with sharing a room — went downstairs for some air.
Past the elevator, he heard Wang Shaoyue talking with someone. This late? Who was in Wang Shaoyue's room?
Xie Li thought he'd imagined it. He even pressed his ear closer to the door to confirm — and the next moment, sounds came through: dull impact, muffled sounds, voices laced with cruelty.
Xie Li's eyes went wide.
He had, apparently, stumbled straight into another story.
✦ ✦ ✦
Inside the room, Wang Shaoyue threw the assistant onto the bed and pinned him there, yanked his hair without mercy, stripped him, demeaned him in the most degrading way imaginable. Guo Bai couldn't hold back his tears.
"Crying? You have the nerve to cry? You want it badly enough — obviously you deserve this!" Wang Shaoyue slapped him. "Write the lyrics or not? Write them!"
"Lately I've been too good to you. You think you can disobey me? I'll show you what disobedience gets!"
Guo Bai curled in on himself, fighting back continuously, spitting: "Wang Shaoyue, you deserve the worst!"
"The worst? Weren't you the one who loved me, worshipped me, said you'd give everything for me?" He forced himself through, brutal and deliberate. "You traitor. Betrayer. Say it out loud. Scream!"
Guo Bai listened to every insult and filthy word in his ear, jaw clenched, teeth pressed together, not a single sound leaving his lips.
He and Wang Shaoyue had once been the campus couple everyone praised. Back in high school, his grades had been strong, Wang Shaoyue's anything but. They seemed like polar opposites — and yet. He was introverted, his home life fractured, isolated, targeted by rumors. Wang Shaoyue had cut class to come to his defense. He hadn't dared look at Wang Shaoyue — back then, that boy was electric, warm, the kind of person every student admired — and yet every day he sought Guo Bai out, made him laugh, drew him out of his shell. Slowly, they began something.
University came, different schools, still inseparable.
Until Wang Shaoyue entered a singing contest at his university and was discovered by a talent scout.
The lyrics and compositions had always been Guo Bai's work. Wang Shaoyue couldn't write anything of substance on his own. At first he still created independently, but his work landed nowhere and was met with harsh criticism. So Wang Shaoyue came asking. One time, Guo Bai had allowed it — mired in his feelings and still raw from the grief of losing a loved one, he needed Wang Shaoyue desperately. Once became twice, twice became endlessly. If he refused, Wang Shaoyue beat him.
After Wang Shaoyue made it big, he tried to create his own album to break free. Sales destroyed him. His reputation collapsed. He lost huge numbers of followers.
Furious at himself, he took it out on Guo Bai. When a new project came up and he needed to win back the public's trust, he'd come crawling back. Guo Bai was aware, was drowning, but kept sinking deeper — every time Wang Shaoyue did well, the abuse got worse. His body was covered in marks.
He'd finally tried to end it. Wang Shaoyue begged him. Until recently, Guo Bai discovered by accident that Wang Shaoyue was using drugs to find inspiration, throwing parties, attaching himself to wealthy sponsors while maintaining a separate relationship behind their back.
Vile. Utterly vile.
Guo Bai hated himself for being exploited, for giving in, for letting this person keep going. "Get away from me! You're not human, Wang Shaoyue. If you have any courage, let me leave. If you have any courage, write your own songs — go on, write them!"
"Shut up. Shut your mouth!"
Every position, every cruelty, not once enough — Wang Shaoyue pinned him against the door, knowing he hated this and feared being heard, doing it precisely to demean him.
And yet it was Wang Shaoyue who truly feared being discovered.
So Guo Bai stopped resisting.
If they're found out — fine. Let it all come out.
……
Xie Li stood frozen outside. [Checking: Wang Shaoyue. I appear to have stumbled into another story…]
[AAA Photography/Commercial-Teacher: !!!]
[LuLu Wedding Photography: Boss, you're basically living in a gossip field 24/7]
Couldn't argue with that.
Some time passed. Xie Li didn't leave.
Early the next morning, Xie Li came to wake people for the day.
Today's plan: hiking. A significant undertaking.
The schedule was tight. He knocked on Wang Shaoyue's door half an hour ahead of time.
Several minutes went by with no answer. He called instead.
The door opened. The one who came out was Wang Shaoyue's assistant. He said hurriedly he had come to wake Wang Shaoyue, who was already up and in the bathroom.
Xie Li said "ah" and let his eyes linger a moment longer. The assistant left quickly, steps small and careful, one hand hovering at his lower back.
He wasn't sure if it was instinct, but Xie Li moved, caught up, and took hold of the assistant's hand.
Guo Bai flinched and immediately pulled his coat tighter around himself. His body had marks that couldn't be seen.
Early Yunnan mornings were cool — a coat was reasonable. But the man was also wearing a high-neck undershirt.
"Here — you're hurt." Xie Li pointed to the back of Guo Bai's head. "There's blood. Dried already…"
Wang Shaoyue had thrown his phone at him.
Guo Bai covered the spot and managed a "thank you" and tried to leave. Xie Li held his hand, drew him into the stairwell, his expression full of genuine concern: "This is beyond ordinary violence. You and Wang Shaoyue aren't just colleagues, are you. I can help you get out of this."
"What… what do you mean? I don't, I don't know what—"
"Trust me." Xie Li held Guo Bai steady, eyes direct and certain. "Last night — what he did to you — I heard it."
"You… what are you going to do? Don't come near me — he'll hurt you — he'll kill you—" Guo Bai retreated a step, unfocused.
"I'm not afraid to die." Xie Li saw Guo Bai pull back his sleeve to expose the livid marks beneath — a sight that made even Xie Li's chest seize — and said: "I genuinely am not afraid to die."
