Xie Li's team was busy compiling the full file on Guo Bai and Wang Shaoyue when Xie Li went back to checking social media and found yet another trending topic with his name attached.
#SubtlyMockingTheScandalForecaster
He clicked in, curious. The one doing the subtle mocking was someone named Wei He.
[@WeiHe: Don't understand what kind of mentality makes people mindlessly rally behind and praise Xie Li. You're all just reading into things — actual delusion. Wang Shaoyue is innocent in all this. Didn't expect someone like Xie Li — a disgraced actor who can't cry on screen without eyedrops — to actually make a comeback.]
Xie Li searched his memory for Wei He and then remembered who he was.
The second male lead in a drama they'd worked on together years ago. Xie Li had moved up after the show; Wei He had stayed stuck at the same level. Of course he'd come for a dig. Clearly a long-standing resentment.
But who exactly was the one who couldn't cry without eyedrops? This person had the audacity to point fingers while having the exact opposite problem, and he did it like he had every right to be indignant. Same graduating class as Qiao Ming?
And just like that, another one was lining himself up to fall.
He hadn't forgotten: early one morning, going to find the director to discuss an early scene, he'd arrived to find Wei He slipping out of the director's room. After that day, Wei He's screen time had overtaken Xie Li's — the actual lead.
Before he died, clearing out the rot in this industry would count as accumulating good karma for the next life. Next time around, he'd like to be born into a loving, genuinely happy family.
[@XieLi: Wei He, I nearly forgot you existed. But since you brought up the past, I've been remembering some things. Your crying has always been dreadful — so bad that eyedrops weren't enough, so you'd watch a tearjerker before each scene. My assistant happened to catch you on camera during one of those pre-scene prep sessions. Want me to jog everyone's memory? And while we're here — how did a second male lead end up with more screen time than the lead? Want me to help you recall the specifics? Oh right. I remember now. You're the most dedicated actor I've ever seen. You'd stay up all night with the director talking through your role. When it comes to commitment, who can beat you?]
[The public has eyes everywhere.]
The gossip audience exploded.
Xie Li's online speed was terrifying. How does he DO this?
Two exposed in one post — Xie Li, are you doing this for the gossip-hungry masses with absolutely no regard for your own safety?
Fans and viewers tore into the old drama's crew, surfacing receipts about how Xie Li had been undercut — how Wei He had dominated his promo space and led the isolation campaign on set.
One thing after another, viewers became furious. The director of that drama and Wei He's various official accounts were bombarded.
Some Director: ?! What are you doing to me?!
He immediately called Wei He to pull the post and apologize. Too late.
Neither of them could get the trending topic taken down. That director was mid-production on a new project — investment backers and brand partners fled the moment the wind turned. The crew threatened to strike and demand unpaid wages. Every project he'd lined up stalled; streaming platforms replaced him. Wei He's hard-won new drama fell through. His recent small body of work was suppressed, and his company declined to intervene.
Both of them were finished.
Just then, the team finished compiling the Wang Shaoyue file and logged into the account: [Lyrics inconsistent — some inspired, some pedestrian. What's the real reason? Drug use for inspiration. Hired ghost-writer trapped as assistant. The real genius exploited, buried, beaten down. Full story of "Rapper-to-Ballad Prince" Wang Shaoyue's rise to the top—]
Viewers still digesting the Wei He fallout stepped right into Wang Shaoyue.
Entertainment industry, please — do you have any hope left?
Fans who had just been shouting at Xie Li and screaming the gossip accounts were fakes — now completely shut up.
What — Xie Li, are you literally running this simulation with an NPC script?!
The exposure account and you — what exactly is the relationship?!
[Xie Li lost the Xie heir title — why does he still have connections? Did he hook up with some wealthy backer?!]
[? This sounds like a Wang Shaoyue fan breakdown]
[!!! Wang Shaoyue, you piece of — I made banners for your new album across every platform. You owe every single ghost-written lyric to your assistant. I didn't fall in love with you — I fell in love with words that were never yours. Assistant — please debut. Please!]
[Drugs — zero tolerance. An artist like this needs to be banned. He cheated his way to the top on someone else's talent. Disgusting.]
[Several of his songs were clearly a step above the rest. We kept defending you — told ourselves you just had off days. You took all of that and threw it back at us. Wang Shaoyue, you have failed every one of us]
……
Even so, some irrational fans held the line — refusing to believe. Minutes later, Wang Shaoyue's social media was unsearchable, then banned across all platforms.
Wang Shaoyue himself was still contentedly eating grilled food and harmonizing with Yu Miao on a chorus.
The director, now monitoring social media with full attention, terrified a cast member would implode the moment he looked away — stepped out for lunch, and when he came back: Wang Shaoyue had gone down.
Surely this was a joke. Wang Shaoyue, a singer — how would a singer even go down?
#WangShaoyueExposed — the director read and his worldview crumbled.
Three days of filming. Three people gone. Was this a travel show or a lie detector?
"Stars Have Arrived" had launched with the bold promise of a simultaneous livestream and edited highlight format — a groundbreaking approach that would redefine what travel variety shows could be.
Now "Stars Have Arrived" was barely a travel show anymore. It should be called "Stars Came and Were Ruined" or just "Stars Were Ruined."
Who would rescue their post-production later? Viewers opening the edited cut would see nothing but pixelated blurs used as visual effects.
Directors who hadn't watched the livestream would be completely lost: it would look like every special effect was a censored blur.
The director pressed a hand to his heart: "I cannot take this. I said at launch we were doing edited highlight episodes — can I… take that back…?"
Tears forming, he dialed the police emergency line. The local officer picked up: "Hello, how may I—"
"Yes, it's me again, officer. Our address is… another celebrity has fallen. Yes. What charges? Drugs and misconduct — two out of the three big ones."
"Send the nearby unit over. Yes. Thank you."
Wang Shaoyue was in high spirits, joking with Qiao Ming, who was playing enthusiastic hype man for a hypothetical Wang Shaoyue concert tour.
Xie Li listened from nearby and said quietly: "Hope there's still a chance."
Wang Shaoyue, hearing his tone, looked up suspiciously: "What does that mean?"
"Nothing. I just genuinely feel like I won't have the opportunity to support you. Is that a problem?"
Wang Shaoyue turned the phrase over carefully. Something about it felt wrong from every angle, yet he couldn't find the fault in it.
"Are you still going to sing?" Xie Li asked.
"Of course — I'm always singing. What do you all want to hear? I'll sing it."
"Sing the one you're most proud of. Let me hear your best." Xie Li kept up his act of total innocence about what was unfolding online, warmly inviting Wang Shaoyue to dig his own grave.
Wang Shaoyue let out a confident little laugh: "None of my songs are ones I'm not proud of."
"Is that so?" Yu Miao said. "Young man — a bit of humility goes a long way."
Wang Shaoyue shrugged: "When you have the talent, humility isn't necessary."
Xie Li genuinely almost laughed out loud at that. He slowly lowered his head and sent the message to the team: [Look — he's up there glowing over your hard work. Not a shred of guilt.]
The sun beat down on the open grassland. In the distance, a column of figures approached in black, surrounded by an air of order and authority.
Xie Li narrowed his eyes.
When the police officers reached them, everyone stared.
"Which of you is Wang Shaoyue?"
Wang Shaoyue, frowning: "I am. You're looking for me?"
The next instant, several officers had him on the ground. Wang Shaoyue flailed in confusion, then in full panic: "Why are you arresting me? I didn't do anything wrong!"
"Hold still!"
Cheek pressed against the grass, Wang Shaoyue's eyes swept the field. In the white glare of the sun, a figure was walking toward him. He fixed his eyes on that silhouette, lips moving soundlessly, unable to make a single sound.
The handcuffs clicked. Wang Shaoyue was hauled to his feet. He looked across the field and screamed at the figure: "You! You actually reported me?!"
An officer shoved him down: "Quiet! Stop struggling!"
Wang Shaoyue's rage had nowhere to go. He kept screaming toward the motionless figure in the distance: "Guo Bai! I'll never let this go — you did this to me, I will never let you go!"
The figure standing at the far end of the field didn't move. Relief and release wrapped around Guo Bai, warm and real. The sun fell on him in a way it never had before. He walked slowly toward Wang Shaoyue — and without a word, delivered two measured, ringing slaps directly to his face. The sound was stark in the stillness.
Their eyes met. The one who had always held power now stood shackled, helpless — his whole person imprisoned, unable to threaten, unable to frighten. He stared at Guo Bai's eyes — calm and flat and wide, completely unmoved by what was happening to Wang Shaoyue. Those eyes, which had once looked at him with nothing but love, now held him with perfect emptiness.
Guo Bai said, very quietly: "Go to prison. You deserve it."
"You said you'd never let this go. Neither will I." Guo Bai turned to the officers and showed them the back of his head. "He hit me with his phone. I have a lot of evidence."
The wound was severe and still scabbed over. Yu Miao and Xia Fangxing immediately looked away.
The two women hadn't fully understood what was happening until this moment. They had assumed Wang Shaoyue had attacked his own assistant and the assistant had called the police.
They leaned into each other and pressed close to Xie Li.
