Chapter 2: Paying Back the Debt

Chapter 2: Paying Back the Debt

Lu Xu took inventory of his belongings. He could now see that this namesake of his, Lu Xu, had absolutely no financial management skills.

During the Verse era, the agency's commission was sky-high, but because the income was split evenly among the four members, Lu Xu had actually earned quite a bit of money.

Some of this money was spent, and some of it was lent out.

Back when he was in Verse, the group's commercial activities were quite intensive. The income at that time was more than enough to support the original owner's extravagant lifestyle. However, as the group disbanded, the income dwindled day by day, and the original owner's savings became less and less. He moved from a large house to the smaller one he currently resides in.

Lu Xu carefully cleaned the room and found over a hundred items of clothing, most of which were barely worn or only worn once, as well as many brand-name shoes and bags. The original owner hadn't bought a house, and there was only one car. Even if he sold all these clothes and bags, he might not have enough to cover the breach-of-contract fee for *My Baby, The Noble Son*.

Moreover, he wouldn't be able to sell them off in a short time.

As for the loans—

Lu Xu had never met anyone so easily swayed!

The original owner was incredibly generous when it came to lending money. He would lend to anyone who asked, and he even lent out eight-figure sums without hesitation!

He lent money freely, but now that he had fallen on hard times in the entertainment industry, those he reached out to for help wouldn’t even reply. Some had even disappeared from his friends list.

Lu Xu wasn't too angry at first. After studying the original owner's chat history and social media accounts, he had mentally braced himself for the original owner’s overly kind and naive nature.

Someone with this kind of personality in the entertainment industry was bound to get stepped on.

But when he checked Weibo, the top trending topic was #Yao Yuan Calls Xie Qingyang His Best Friend in Showbiz#

Yao Yuan—Lu Xu knew him. He was one of the few friends the original owner had in the entertainment industry.

Although their contact had gradually lessened, when Yao Yuan's birthday came this year, the original owner, despite his financial difficulties, still sent him a gift. The original owner could no longer afford such expensive gestures but didn’t want Yao Yuan to worry or appear too shabby in front of his friend.

The original owner had lent Yao Yuan a sum of money when Yao Yuan's father was ill and had never asked for it back because he considered Yao Yuan a friend.

But now, in an interview about his friends, Yao Yuan didn't mention Lu Xu at all.

He only talked about the help Xie Qingyang had given him and their tacit understanding on a certain variety show.

"Yuanyang CP, I totally ship them!"

"He's obsessed, can't go without mentioning Xie Qingyang!"

"What Yuanyang CP? I think it's more like Yuan Yang CP (Mandarin Duck CP)!"

"LOL, Lu Xu always said Yao Yuan was his best friend and made it seem like he didn’t want to be friends with the other Verse members. But in Yao Yuan's heart, you're not even on his mind, okay?"

"It's always Lu Xu bringing up Yao Yuan! Stop clinging to a top-tier idol, okay?"

The reporter did mention a variety show that Yao Yuan and Lu Xu participated in together—back then, it was Lu Xu, as a member of Verse, who strongly recommended Yao Yuan, giving him the opportunity to appear on screen.

At this moment, when asked, Yao Yuan smiled and said, "That was a long time ago, I can hardly remember it. I'm more impressed with *Misty Pass*."

*Misty Pass* was the variety show that Yao Yuan and Xie Qingyang participated in together.

"Yuanyang is real!!"

"Perfect chemistry, full marks for couple vibes!"

After Verse disbanded, Lu Xu realized that it wasn’t just Yao Yuan who had turned on the original owner. The original owner was like cotton—swallowing grievances instead of voicing them. But Lu Xu wasn’t that kind of person.

The original owner might have been obscure and not doing well, but they had done nothing to betray Yao Yuan.

...

At that moment, Lu Xu was gritting his teeth as he looked at the Weibo account.

He finally understood why there were so many clothes in the wardrobe—they were all bought for taking selfies.

Unfortunately, even with his good looks, every selfie featured a bizarre expression, and the overly blurry filters made his normal chin look pointy.

When he saw the photos and videos from the Verse era, Lu Xu realized something was off.

The original owner’s face was clearly the best in Verse, but the performance outfits he got were the worst, and the styling did nothing to highlight his strengths, as if he were deliberately letting his teammates have the better looks.

Plus, filters only hide facial imperfections. If someone’s appearance was strong enough, they would look strange in filtered photos. So at any event where Verse appeared, the photos the agency released made the original owner look the most out of place. External photos also had to be reviewed by the agency.

Thus, since his debut, the original owner’s looks were never properly showcased, and the quality of the released images was poor.

But! The pictures the agency posted were still a hundred times better than the original owner’s selfies!

He truly couldn’t understand the original owner’s obsession with pointed chins and tilted heads.

In the past year, the sharp drop in work gave the original owner ten times more free time. His Weibo was flooded with selfies showing tilted heads, licked lips, pointed chins, and sultry eyes!

Luckily, the original owner hadn’t gone so far as to get plastic surgery.

Lu Xu: “……”

Each time he saw them, he cringed.

In his previous life, he had focused wholeheartedly on acting and wasn’t keen on managing social media accounts. After all, actors needed to maintain a sense of mystery, while idols had closer connections with their fans.

But these photos were really ugly.

Lu Xu took a deep breath and started deleting the photos.

There were too many photos on Weibo, and he was so busy deleting them that he didn’t notice anything else. After an entire hour of deleting photos, he only realized later that he had trended on Weibo.

#Lu Xu Deleting Photos#

#Lu Xu Clearing Weibo#

#Lu Xu Suspected to Be Quitting the Entertainment Industry#

"Is someone really quitting the entertainment industry?"

"If it's fake, I hope it's true. If it's real, I hope it happens tonight."

"Quit already! Stop parading around using Verse's name, it's a lifelong shame that my oshi was in the same group as him."

"I'm afraid he's just hyping this as a publicity stunt, ahhhh Lu Xu please leave Xie Qingyang, Gu Sinian, and Meng Qin alone!"

"Based on what I know about Lu Xu, he’s probably cooking up some new drama."

Lu Xu continued to delete Weibo posts, and the hashtag #Lu Xu Clearing Weibo# slowly climbed up the trending list, even surpassing #Yao Yuan and Xie Qingyang CP#.

Yao Yuan threw his phone onto the sofa and said, "What's his problem now?"

It hadn't been easy for him to get back on the trending list.

After a lot of effort convincing Xie Qingyang, who finally agreed to the CP promotion, Yao Yuan had just managed to climb to a high position on the trending list. But he hadn’t even stayed there for an hour before being overshadowed by Lu Xu’s rising heat.

There were no hit dramas or major events this week, and other agencies hadn’t been buying hot searches aggressively. He had waited a long time for this opportunity.

Yao Yuan admitted that even though Lu Xu had faded into obscurity, he was still a former member of Verse. The attention Lu Xu had gained during his time in Verse was something Yao Yuan simply couldn’t match.

It wasn’t fair.

In Yao Yuan’s eyes, Lu Xu didn’t deserve any of it. Lu Xu wasn’t as talented or as good at attracting and keeping fans as he was. Lu Xu had debuted easily on the strength of his looks alone and had ridden on the coattails of the group to gain a large following.

How was that fair, anyway?

Without that face, would Lu Xu even have a place in the entertainment industry?

Now that he had finally become popular, Lu Xu had hit rock bottom. Yao Yuan just wanted to cut ties with him as soon as possible. Thinking about how Lu Xu had effortlessly obtained what he had worked so hard for, Yao Yuan seethed with jealousy.

And yet, despite Lu Xu’s obscurity, he still managed to trend so easily!

Watching the hashtag #LuXuClearsHisWeibo# rise higher and higher, Yao Yuan began to wonder if Lu Xu was really planning to leave the entertainment industry.

The industry isn’t easy to survive in. Without an agency, commercial deals, or variety show appearances, the only thing Lu Xu had going for him was that terrible web drama. Yao Yuan couldn’t think of any reason for him to stick around.

He knew Lu Xu’s personality; he simply wasn’t cut out for show business.

After clearing his Weibo, Lu Xu would probably make an announcement.

Yao Yuan stared at his phone, while also having his agent keep an eye on things. If Lu Xu really posted a statement about leaving the entertainment industry, Yao Yuan would have to leave a supportive comment to show his concern. That way, he could display his character as an idol in front of the fans.

After all, Lu Xu’s reputation was already ruined, and few people in the industry were willing to work with him. By showing some concern for Lu Xu at this time, fans would naturally view Yao Yuan as brave and kind.

These were essential qualities for an idol.

Yao Yuan didn’t have to wait long before his agent called. "Lu Xu @mentioned you on Weibo."

"@mentioned me?"

"I’m not sure what’s going on yet, but I’ll keep an eye on it for you. By the way, he also @mentioned Qiu Qi, Ning Weiran, Zhou Zhaoyi, and Yi Quan."

Yao Yuan felt confused.

The names his agent mentioned were all idols who were around the same level of popularity as him. Recently, his own popularity had started to surpass theirs.

"Is he trying to leech off our heat?" Yao Yuan said.

"It’s possible."

Lu Xu’s Weibo post only @mentioned people but said nothing else.

"Not satisfied with riding Verse’s popularity, now he’s trying to piggyback on others' fame?"

"Can you leave Yao Yuan alone, please? He’s worked so hard just to get a bit of attention."

"…Why @ me, so annoying!"

"Get lost, has-been! Stop clinging to us!!!!"

The fans thought Lu Xu had gone crazy from his fall from grace and was latching onto anyone he could. But in the next post, Lu Xu continued to @ Yao Yuan and the others.

This time, his tweet included pictures and just two words as the caption—

"Pay back the money!"

The attached images, over a dozen in total, were all records of Yao Yuan and the others borrowing money from him.

"Tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands... so much money!!!!!"