Lin Cimian’s heart had turned to ashes. With a wooden face, he somehow managed to infuriate all nine Calabash Brothers until they left.
After closing the door, Lin Cimian remained locked in a standoff with the phone lying on the floor for a while before gritting his teeth and walking over.
He might not dare face it, but he did not want to remain ignorant either.
In such a short time, the trending tags had climbed several more positions. He took a deep breath, mentally prepared himself, and randomly opened one.
The top Weibo post came from a famous gossip account. It had posted a video with a caption consisting only of several strings of “hahahaha.”
Lin Cimian opened the video and was immediately ambushed by the sight of his own corpse-white face.
So ugly.
The video showed him backstage watching the boy group perform. Lin Cimian tried to determine the hidden filmer’s location from the angle of the footage, but ultimately failed.
The video continued. Lin Cimian stared at himself onscreen, his mind completely blank.
He barely moved at all. Aside from still breathing, his lashes trembling at extraordinary speed, and his entire face turning so red it looked ready to drip blood, he resembled a lifeless statue.
After an endless three minutes, the video finally ended.
Lin Cimian received such a massive shock that his hands began trembling like someone with Parkinson’s and his expression distorted.
How could he have made so many! So bizarre! So exaggerated expressions?!
And which immoral bastard uploaded this to the internet?!
Lin Cimian vaguely realized something but did not want to admit it. Trembling with fear, he continued scrolling.
Below were GIFs made by netizens:
There was one of him becoming so overwhelmed by embarrassment that his nervous system seemed to malfunction, both arms hovering awkwardly with nowhere to go, terror written all over his face… It perfectly overlapped with Song Keyun’s classic meme expression, no wonder one tag was “Song Keyun.”
And that was not all.
Under a picture of him covering his eyes because the greasy performance hurt to watch, netizens had added the caption: What has blinded my eyes?
A picture of him instinctively leaning backward was labeled: Tactical lean-back.
A shot of him staring ahead in horror with all five fingers spread over his chest was captioned: Don’t come any closer!
Even the moment he rolled his eyes had been clipped out and captioned: Guards! Someone is trying to assassinate this emperor with greasiness!
…
Netizens were more talented than the last, and each caption was more addictive and absurd than the one before it. They did not care whether Lin Cimian survived, laughing loudly throughout the comment section.
[Thank you, everyone. In just five minutes, I’ve already collected thirty reaction images. Dog-head.jpg]
[Hahahaha, Lin Cimian’s ugly-cry face paired with these chaotic expressions is honestly hypnotic.]
[From now on, please give Lin Cimian his own camera. His reactions are worth it!]
[So I’m not the only one. Even the person involved thinks their dancing is greasy.]
[Every time I see hip thrusts I feel uncomfortable all over. I posted one Weibo about it before and their fans chased me for three streets cursing me out. Now that I have Lin Cimian’s reaction, let’s see what the fans have to say!]
In the time it took to browse a single Weibo thread, Lin Cimian had already used his toes to complete the enormous engineering project of Qin Shi Huang’s Mausoleum and had moved on to constructing the city of Babylon in an attempt to recreate the wonders of the four ancient civilizations.
After extreme stimulation came endless emptiness. Half an hour later, Lin Cimian slowly put down his phone, lay rigidly flat on the bed, placed one hand over his chest, and wore the serene smile of someone who had seen through the mortal world and embraced emptiness.
Some people were alive, yet already dead.
Tonight, he was buying a ticket to Mars!
The blow was far too destructive. Lin Cimian shut himself in the room for the entire afternoon before his overheated brain finally calmed down.
His manager and the other nine members had not been idle. They were frantic as ants on a hot pan, their mental states nearly collapsing.
Just after telling interviewers that Lin Cimian was unwell, a video emerged of Lin Cimian perfectly fine backstage watching the performance. Wasn’t that a public slap in the face?!
There had always been criticism online, but the operations team and fans had forcibly suppressed it. Lin Cimian’s video was like a fuse. Negative comments multiplied rapidly.
Every member’s face burned with humiliation, especially the captain’s. He kept going berserk and pressuring the manager and the team, already close to losing his reason.
Faced with this kind of negative publicity, the best and most effective method was to smear Lin Cimian. The manager immediately bought paid commenters to spread baseless rumors online.
[Lin Cimian is really something. He acts like a diva and refuses to participate in filming, forcing the captain to say during an interview that he was unwell, then stands backstage looking disgusted while watching his teammates perform. What a disgusting backstab!]
[First he forcibly rode Yan Shiyue’s popularity, now he backstabs his teammates. How can trash like this still stay in the entertainment industry? Waiting for Lin Cimian’s retirement announcement.]
[I really feel for the captain. He has to hold his nose and clean up after Lin Cimian every day, and the other members don’t complain at all. What a treasure of a boy group!]
[Recommending the world’s gentlest and most tolerant captain to everyone.]
There was no hard evidence, but the paid commenters spoke with such apparent logic that, combined with Lin Cimian’s terrible reputation and dreadful public favorability, online opinion quickly reversed.
The manager and the group members had just begun to relax when another audio recording suddenly appeared online: the conversation between the captain and Lin Cimian in the dressing room.
The audio had not been processed at all. The voices were crystal clear, laying out exactly why Lin Cimian had not performed. Even if the captain and manager wanted to deny it, they could not find a good excuse.
Public opinion reversed again.
[??? Where are all the people who were feeling sorry for the captain before? Why aren’t you talking now?]
[I thought he was gentle and tolerant and almost became a fan. Turns out it was all an act.]
[Dead laughing. So this is the legendary united and loving boy group? More like an entire cast of villains.]
Fans always had ten layers of filters over their idols. Someone quickly jumped out to defend the captain.
[He’s a human being, not a bodhisattva. He’s already done enough. Can’t you be a little more forgiving toward him?]
[I don’t think big brother did anything wrong. If it were me, I would’ve kicked Lin Cimian out ages ago!]
[Even if he wasn’t allowed to perform, they’re still in the same group. You can’t smear the others behind their backs. The video and audio were definitely leaked by Lin Cimian.]
Where there were fans, there were anti-fans. The captain’s anti-fans and fans immediately started fighting. Passersby held their melons, watched the spectacle, and added fuel to the fire. They were practically one step away from writing “Fight! Fight!” across their faces.
Now that things had developed this far, the manager could only sacrifice Lin Cimian to protect the captain and the others for the sake of maximum profit. But online opinion kept moving in the wrong direction. In his panic, while trying to divert netizens’ attention, the manager accidentally dragged Shen Ruyao into the mess.
He paid a large number of marketing accounts, and various “inside leaks” soon appeared. They mixed truth and falsehood and were highly sensational.
[That recent controversy really isn’t their fault. Even a bodhisattva couldn’t endure this kind of nonsense! He schemed to ditch his other teammates and record the program alone, acted completely ungentlemanly during filming, and after it ended he even forced a certain female celebrity to give him her WeChat. If he offended her, the whole team could lose future work. Everyone needs to eat. When you have to support a Buddha this difficult, who knows when he’ll drag everyone down with him. It’s understandable that they wanted him to settle down a little.]
The leak was skillfully written. It named no one directly, yet might as well have written Lin Cimian’s name in enormous letters.
Gossip-hungry spectators rushed over. The previously filmed episode had not aired yet, but from scattered clues, everyone soon pieced together what had happened.
[The female celebrity isn’t Shen Ruyao, is it…?]
[Lin Cimian really dares. No one knows Shen Ruyao’s exact background, but judging from how freely she can walk sideways through the entertainment industry, someone powerful must be backing her.]
[Everyone in M&N is a saint. If it were me, I would’ve kicked him out ages ago, not merely stopped him from performing!]
[I feel so bad for big brother. The truth is clear now. Everyone who cursed big brother earlier, crawl out and apologize!]
The captain’s fans seized the chance and edited together highlight videos of him, trying to cement his gentle and tolerant persona.
Unfortunately, just as #ProtectM&NCaptain#, #EveryoneInM&NIsAGoodPerson#, and #LinCimianDeservedIt# appeared near the bottom of the trending list, Shen Ruyao posted on Weibo.
[@ShenRuyao: False. Cimian was very gentlemanly during filming, and we got along very well. Someone did ask for my WeChat after filming, but it wasn’t him. I hope everyone won’t simply repeat whatever they hear.]
If it had been another celebrity, they would never have responded to such vague and unreliable gossip for fear of getting dirty themselves. But Shen Ruyao had always been tough-tempered and willing to say anything. Even though the rumor had not named her directly, the comment section was full of her name, so naturally she had to come out and patrol the battlefield.
That made the captain’s trending tags extremely awkward. Passersby treated everyone equally and cared nothing for the dignity of the captain or his fans; the tags filled with unrestricted laughter.
By this point, multiple parties had been dragged into the mess. The story had reversed, reversed again, then reversed once more. The gossip became unbelievably entertaining, and some netizens began checking Weibo at fixed intervals, eagerly waiting for Lin Cimian’s response.
But Lin Cimian never came online.
He knew himself well and understood that his psychological endurance was poor, so he simply cut off the internet entirely, hid inside his little world, and pretended nothing had happened.
Time passed second by second until someone finally could not sit still.
Seeing that he could no longer control the direction of public opinion, the manager had no choice but to grit his teeth and go find Lin Cimian for the sake of maximizing profit.
First, he tried reason and emotion. “I know you were wronged this time. The captain and the others were at fault, but they missed such an important recording, so they acted impulsively… You’re all in one group. Why make things this ugly? I hope you can forgive them this time and post on Weibo to explain everything clearly.”
“That would be better for the group’s overall image, and your personal development would improve too. Maybe we could get you better resources. When that happens, I’ll definitely promote you into a popular young star.”
Lin Cimian refused to eat this pie in the sky. He looked at the manager with a complicated expression. “Isn’t what happened already the truth? What is there to explain?”
The manager choked for a moment, then said without any psychological burden, “The truth can be adjusted to benefit us more. People will believe whatever you say anyway. You can change a few details. For example, say you argued in the dressing room and used inappropriate wording, which made the captain lose his temper and say those things. He apologized afterward, but you were angry too and couldn’t back down, so you didn’t perform.”
Lin Cimian: “…”
He looked at the manager and asked with genuine sincerity, “Do you think I’m stupid?”
“…” The manager coughed awkwardly. Even after being exposed, he did not feel guilty. Instead, he became angry that Lin Cimian did not know what was good for him and decided to use force directly.
“I’ll tell you the truth. The captain and M&N as a whole are worth far more than you. Before this, do you have any idea how much trouble your personal issues caused us?! The captain and I have been protecting you all this time. Your contract only has half a year left. If you refuse to cooperate now, the company will terminate it early. Other than us, no management company will want you. You don’t want to leave the entertainment industry just like that, do you?!”
Lin Cimian: “…”
No. I do!
He had wanted to terminate his contract before, but he was worried that if he initiated it, he might have to pay a huge contractual penalty.
Who knew that the moment he got sleepy, someone would hand him a pillow? Contract termination could actually be this easy. In that case, there was absolutely no way he could give in!
The manager’s threat had the opposite effect. Lin Cimian suppressed his wild joy, kept his face tight, and said firmly, “I absolutely will not post what you want me to post.”
The manager frowned so deeply a fly could have died between his brows. He tried both soft and hard tactics and said a great deal more.
Unfortunately, everything went in one of Lin Cimian’s ears and out the other. He did not take any of it to heart. Occasionally, he responded perfunctorily, but his answer always boiled down to the same thing: “I won’t. Impossible. Do whatever you want.”
The manager talked until his mouth was dry and he was panting like an ox, pacing circles around the room. Lin Cimian sat there calm and composed, in such a good mood he wanted to hum. For the first time in his life, he unlocked the achievement: “Smile faintly and infuriate the other person to death.”
So this was the highest form of arguing!
In the past, the manager had always been able to control Lin Cimian easily, but this time he hit a wall and lost both face and dignity. Furious beyond reason, he pointed at Lin Cimian’s nose, weakly threw down, “Just you wait,” and slammed the door behind him.
Thinking back on the manager’s expression, Lin Cimian felt that termination was almost guaranteed, though he still worried the manager’s words might merely have been spoken in anger.
And in truth, that was exactly the case.
Lin Cimian might have overwhelming amounts of black material and an apparently irredeemable reputation, with very few genuine fans and a number of anti-fans nearly rivaling popular young stars, but in an era ruled by traffic and attention, his presence brought M&N many benefits.
Back during the survival talent show, the production team had seen that Lin Cimian had no background and a highly controversial personality, so they pushed him out as cannon fodder. Through chaotic editing and deliberate guidance of public opinion, they sent Lin Cimian onto the trending list again and again, allowing the contestants they actually wanted to promote to gain plenty of reflected attention and fame.
Cannon fodder like Lin Cimian should normally have been thrown away after use, but he had too much potential to become infamous-famous. The production team could not bear to abandon all the traffic attached to him and gave him the final debut slot.
Normally, a newly debuted group would enjoy a glamorous period, but without later achievements, it would most likely fade into obscurity.
M&N was exactly that kind of group. Only because of Lin Cimian’s existence did M&N’s attention keep rising instead of falling, bringing an endless stream of commercial deals and scheduled appearances.
The manager saw this and, in a moment of greed, forcibly took control of Lin Cimian’s Weibo account. He frequently pretended to be Lin Cimian and pulled outrageous stunts. The earlier incident of deliberately touching porcelain with Yan Shiyue and forcibly riding his popularity had been the manager’s work.
Lin Cimian was cursed viciously as a result, while the captain and other members gained sympathy and attention. Having tasted the sweetness, they often deliberately or indirectly sold misery and gained many followers.
The members of M&N thought very highly of themselves. They believed all their current popularity and traffic came from their own hard work, while Lin Cimian, that piece of rat shit, only dragged the group downhill. Only the manager retained enough self-awareness to know Lin Cimian was the key and was reluctant to give up such an effective attention-attracting tool.
But under the captain’s leadership, the members all threatened to terminate their own contracts unless the manager got rid of Lin Cimian. The manager’s head became a tangled mess. Then he remembered Lin Cimian’s behavior that day, gritted his teeth, and decided to terminate Lin Cimian’s contract.
Still, Lin Cimian was far too useful. The manager did not want to leave him for another management company, so he decided to play the villain to the end and force Lin Cimian to retire from the industry.
To his surprise, Lin Cimian agreed immediately!
The manager had been holding onto his anger and had devised countless methods beforehand to force Lin Cimian into submission. Now it felt as though his fist had landed in cotton. His heart felt strangely hollow, and an absurd suspicion quietly arose:
Had he been schemed against?
The other members of the group could not understand the manager’s complicated feelings. When they learned that Lin Cimian had terminated his contract and was retiring from the industry, they felt delighted and smug.
They knew better than anyone how much Lin Cimian valued everything he had in entertainment and how desperately he wanted to succeed, almost as though he needed to prove himself in front of someone.
Now that he had been forced to terminate his contract and retire, he had to be miserable enough to want to die.
Without discussing it, the members all appeared outside Lin Cimian’s door, hoping to mock him to his face and watch his expression twist under the blow.
The captain snorted coldly. His eyes brimmed with venom, his face distorted as he pushed open the door.
The sight inside was completely different from what he had imagined. The room was empty, without a trace that anyone had lived there. Lin Cimian was already nowhere to be seen.
Only ten short minutes had passed since Lin Cimian signed the termination agreement. There was no way he could have packed and left that quickly. That could only mean one thing—Lin Cimian had packed his luggage long ago and had been eagerly waiting to leave.
“…”
The nine Calabash Brothers stared at one another, eyes wide, expressions blank.
Just as the atmosphere became impossibly awkward, a breeze blew in from outside, lifting the curtains and carrying them toward the doorway, delivering the invisible message Lin Cimian had left behind:
Hahahahahaha, stop flattering yourselves. Did you really think I wanted to stay with you idiots? I’m finally free from this sea of suffering. See you never.
