Chapter 35

Chapter 35

On the day of the finals, Su Xingyao woke up early.

For today's competition, he brought Sunset's dog headpiece to the venue.

However, to maintain the mystery, the program team instructed him to wear it only on stage, so he had to pack the dog headpiece in his suitcase.

Before they left, it was still dark, and Lu Jiuxu went to get the car.

While Su Xingyao was waiting at the door, Sunset, hearing the commotion, ran out of its little bed.

Sunset dashed over but skidded to a halt in front of Su Xingyao, then sat down obediently, its shiny black eyes fixed on the coral cat headpiece Su Xingyao was still wearing, barking, "Woof woof woof!"

The little dog was very puzzled and gently scratched Su Xingyao's cat paw glove with its paw in dissatisfaction.

Su Xingyao removed his glove and crouched to pet the dog's soft, floppy triangular ears.

"I'll switch to your headpiece once I get to the program team!"

As Su Xingyao spoke to Sunset, Lu Jiuxu pulled the car around.

He parked a few meters off, resting an arm on the half-open window.

"Coral Cat Cat, let's go."

Su Xingyao waved with his cat paw glove and hurried to the passenger seat.

As he bent down to fasten his seatbelt, he corrected Lu Jiuxu's incorrect nickname.

"At eight tonight, I'll become Sunset Dog."

Su Xingyao looked down, hearing the man beside him drawl.

"Got it, Sunset Dog."

Lu Jiuxu, having driven to the program's building several times, knew the route well.

This time, he skipped the GPS and headed straight for the VIP entrance.

In his mascot suit, Su Xingyao moved a bit slower. By the time he got out of the car, Lu Jiuxu had already brought his suitcase down for him.

Su Xingyao reached out with his cat paw to grab it, about to bid farewell when Lu Jiuxu spoke up first.

"Teacher Su..."

Su Xingyao glanced up, "Hmm?"

Lu Jiuxu glanced at the entrance before meeting Su Xingyao's eyes.

"Didn't the program team provide complimentary tickets?"

The question took Su Xingyao by surprise.

He was puzzled by Lu Jiuxu's sudden interest in the program's complimentary tickets.

The cat head shook as Su Xingyao replied honestly.

"No, the audience for this round was randomly selected from online registrations."

Lu Jiuxu asked casually, lowering his head and gently rubbing the black dog design on his phone case with his thumb.

"Got it."

With that, he got into the car.

Su Xingyao stood still, waiting to see him off before heading up.

Lu Jiuxu skillfully turned the car around right there.

Before driving off, he rolled down the passenger window, steering with one hand.

"Good luck in the competition, Sunset Pup."

Su Xingyao chuckled and waved goodbye, "I will."

After Lu Jiuxu left, Su Xingyao quickly swiped his card and took the elevator.

Because of the live broadcast, there were many precautions and scheduling details.

The production team told everyone to arrive by 8 AM.

Su Xingyao arrived early, and most contestants hadn't shown up yet.

He went to his group's practice room and found the rapper had arrived first.

Su Xingyao was about to say good morning when he noticed the rapper was on the phone with his girlfriend.

"Okay, okay."

"Be good, go back quickly, and be careful on your way home."

Not wanting to intrude, Su Xingyao quietly stepped back and left the room.

As he closed the door, he overheard the rapper say, "There might be tickets for the next round. If I advance, I'll save the best seat for you."

The door clicked shut, but Su Xingyao stood frozen in place.

Tickets? What tickets?

Then it hit him—what Lu Jiuxu had said before leaving.

So that's what he meant—the live tickets...

Su Xingyao finally got it.

Was Lu Jiuxu planning to come to the live show to support him?

Su Xingyao wasn't sure, but it seemed likely.

But Lu Jiuxu had already left, so he couldn't ask directly.

Lu Jiuxu had helped him so much without asking for anything in return.

Thinking about it, Su Xingyao pulled out his phone and typed a message on WeChat.

After 520, he switched to the white cat phone case Lu Jiuxu had won from the claw machine.

His finger brushed the cat's face on the phone case as he quickly typed, "Thanks for everything. I’ll do my best."

Mr. Lu, were you just asking me about the tickets? I misunderstood at first. There should be tickets for the next round. If you still need one, I can get one for you.

After typing out such a long message in one go, Su Xingyao's finger hovered over the send button.

But before sending, he hesitated.

Su Xingyao looked at the words he had typed, feeling that something was a bit off.

Was it too presumptuous?

What if something unexpected happened today, and he didn't make it through due to bad luck...

After some thought, Su Xingyao decided to delete the message he had typed.

After deleting it, he revised part of it.

But then he felt that no matter how he phrased it, it didn't seem quite right.

While Su Xingyao was agonizing over deleting and revising, Lu Jiuxu, who had parked his car outside the building and hadn't left yet, was gently watching the WeChat interface where the words "The other party is typing..." kept flashing.

He patiently watched these words appear and disappear, over and over.

After about seven or eight cycles, the six words finally stopped appearing.

He waited another thirty seconds or so.

Seeing that Su Xingyao's message still hadn't come through, Lu Jiuxu decided to take the initiative and send a message.

It was a photo.

Mr. Lu: The sunrise over the city.

Su Xingyao was just about to lock his phone when he saw the photo sent by Lu Jiuxu.

Between the rows of skyscrapers, the rising sun was gently radiating its light.

Teacher Su: It's so beautiful.

After sending this, Su Xingyao paused for a moment and added another sentence.

Teacher Su: Drive safely.

After sending it, his finger paused for a few seconds before sending another message.

Teacher Su: Tonight's competition will be live-streamed at 8 PM...

As soon as Su Xingyao sent this last message, Lu Jiuxu replied immediately.

Mr. Lu: Okay.

Mr. Lu: I'll watch it on time.

Su Xingyao glanced at Lu Jiuxu's reply.

Watch it on time, huh?

*

As Su Xingyao busied himself with the preparations for tonight's performance with the program team, Shen Huaixi remained the hot topic of discussion among netizens today.

Although his team had already removed all his trending topics, the buzz around him was still through the roof.

Especially after he just passed the buck to the show's production team yesterday, the show's official Weibo account has been aggressively promoting tonight's live broadcast.

Netizens, who are all experts at sarcasm, were thoroughly entertained.

"Always going on about the live broadcast, live broadcast, live broadcast—hahaha, this show's team is killing me."

"Voice of Heaven is low-key telling everyone to tune in tonight to see if there was any shady editing, right? Right?"

"Wow, let’s go! Just thinking about it gets me hyped. Song Yingming’s already taken the fall, so you better step up tonight—get a high-def camera right in Shen Huaixi’s face, that fake saint."

The hottest music show’s first live broadcast + a mentor in the middle of a scandal + a production team that’s already burned bridges but loves stirring the pot...

With all three coming together, tonight at eight, we’ll get to see it all go down.

Netizens, hyped for the drama, couldn’t focus on anything else all day, camped out on the site with the live broadcast rights, counting down to the show’s start at eight sharp.

On one side, netizens are rubbing their hands together, like hungry little birds waiting to see Shen Huaixi crash and burn.

On the other side, Shen Huaixi, who’s already burned bridges with the show, still showed up for tonight’s live performance.

All day, he was a mess, his mind racing.

Suddenly hit with all this backlash, getting roasted by netizens, the spoiled young master didn’t even want to show up for this dumpster fire of a show.

But his manager talked him into it, pushing him to nail tonight’s performance and even wrote him a script to help him clear his name during the live broadcast.

Shen Huaixi knows tonight’s his chance to set the record straight.

If he plays his cards right, he might still save his reputation.

But knowing it’s one thing—getting dragged by thousands overnight is another.

Especially since he’s been coddled his whole life, with everyone around him treating him like a prince.

The shock is too much, and Shen Huaixi’s still struggling to cope.

During today’s recording, Wen Ningshu, seeing her son upset, made a special trip to be there for him.

Of course, she had another agenda.

She’d seen the clips of Shen Huaixi that netizens had twisted and dissected.

So today, while she was there to support her son, her real goal was to confront the show’s team.

She planned to strong-arm the show into cutting the scenes that got Shen Huaixi roasted.

It’s no secret that Wen Ningshu’s spoiled Shen Huaixi rotten since he was a kid.

But even though he’s been in the industry for years, the family’s rarely pulled strings for him.

This time, with Shen Huaixi getting screwed over by shady edits, his mom naturally stepped in to clean up the mess.

In the dressing room, Shen Huaixi was getting into his outfit for the night, while Wen Ningshu, waiting in the corner, got a notification on her phone.

Since both of her sons entered the entertainment industry, she has also been paying frequent attention to such news.

Wen Ningshu opened her phone and found that both Shen Huaixi and Su Xingyao's names were mentioned.

It had been a long time since she last saw her two sons' names appearing side by side online, and Wen Ningshu's eyes suddenly twitched several times.

In the past, such news would always involve the media and Shen Huaixi's fans chasing after Su Xingyao to criticize him.

At first, Wen Ningshu only noticed her son's name and didn't pay attention to the content of the headline, thinking that Su Xingyao had once again been exposed for bullying Shen Huaixi.

However, when she opened the message, she found that the content completely overturned her previous understanding.

In the video, Su Xingyao's face was hit several times by Shen Huaixi with a pillow, and his originally fair skin instantly turned red, even slightly swollen.

Wen Ningshu's hand trembled, almost dropping her phone.

In her impression, it had always been Su Xingyao who deliberately played tricks and bullied Shen Huaixi... but in this video, it was the opposite.

She rewatched this segment many times, and each time, her expression grew heavier.

The Shen Huaixi in the video felt so unfamiliar to her.

It wasn't until Shen Huaixi came out after changing his clothes that she saw the two lines of text accompanying the video below—

Shen Huaixi playing the victim is just too ridiculous!

Beating Su Xingyao but then pretending to cry, accusing the other of bullying him!

Instinctively, Wen Ningshu turned off the video's sound and watched the entire video.

Shen Huaixi was in a bad mood, his mind filled with thoughts of being criticized, and he was so angry that he felt as weak as if he hadn't eaten for days, so he didn't notice his mother's unusual behavior.

After he finished his styling and the other staff left, Wen Ningshu walked up behind him.

"Huai Xi," Wen Ningshu smiled gently, complimenting Shen Huaixi's outfit for the day, "This outfit suits you well, like a prince stepping out of a mirror."

Although Shen Huaixi was being heavily criticized by netizens, he couldn't help but constantly go online to see what people were saying about him.

So he was very aware of his nickname "Fu Qingyan's Muzzled Prince."

Suddenly hearing the word "prince," his heart twitched, and he said somewhat displeasedly to Wen Ningshu,

"Mom... I'm not in the mood for jokes right now."

Wen Ningshu nodded.

However, she still stood motionless behind Shen Huaixi.

After a while, she spoke again, "I just saw that video of you and Xing Yao."

Shen Huaixi, who had been frantically searching his name with a small account, suddenly changed his expression.

The reason he was being so heavily criticized these past two days, apart from his performance on "The Voice of Heaven," was also because of this video with Su Xingyao.

As soon as Wen Ningshu started, he knew which video she was referring to.

The intense online activity and criticism throughout the day had left his nerves extremely tense, so he couldn't fully calm down to think about many things.

Hearing his mother mention this video, feeling somewhat guilty, he didn't probe what she wanted to say as he usually would, but instead directly started explaining.

"Mom... don't pay attention to those haters and gossip accounts spreading lies. They keep photoshopping and editing clips maliciously to tarnish my reputation. The incident with Xing Yao was also deliberately hyped up by those netizens. You know, many people didn't like Xing Yao back then, and I have no idea how it got to this point..."

Wen Ningshu didn't reply but glanced down at Shen Huaixi.

She didn't look at his expression, just smiled faintly and spoke in a calm tone.

"Mom just wants to ask, why were you crying so hard back then?"

Shen Huaixi's heart, which had been clenched tightly, suddenly relaxed.

He let out a soft sigh, steadied his breathing, and said, "I got hurt."

Wen Ningshu looked up and caught Shen Huaixi's eyes in the mirror.

"Where did you get hurt?"

Shen Huaixi didn't dare to meet her eyes and quickly looked down. "I think I twisted my ankle when I fell..."

Wen Ningshu laughed softly.

"I saw you clutching your waist. Wasn't it your waist that got hurt?"

Hearing this, Shen Huaixi's right hand tightened involuntarily. After a moment, he looked up and whined to Wen Ningshu.

"Yeah, it was probably my waist. It's been so long, I can't really remember..."

Wen Ningshu nodded. "Be more careful when filming shows in the future."

After saying this, an assistant knocked on the door of the dressing room. Wen Ningshu opened it and, realizing the assistant needed to speak with Shen Huaixi alone, made an excuse to leave.

The moment she stepped out of Shen Huaixi's dressing room, Wen Ningshu's smile disappeared completely.

She pulled out her phone and searched for a while before finding Su Xingyao's number. She dialed it directly.

However, this time, instead of the busy tone indicating she was blocked, she was told by the system that the number she dialed was no longer in service.

...

After Wen Ningshu left, Shen Huaixi sat alone in front of the makeup mirror, his heart racing.

His mind kept replaying the conversation he had just had with Wen Ningshu. He didn't catch a single word of what the assistant said to him.

While Shen Huaixi was still deep in thought, a staff member from the show came to notify the mentors to take their places.

Realizing what was coming, Shen Huaixi took a deep breath and stood up, following the staff member out with a mix of emotions.

As the mentors prepared, the live audience and netizens were buzzing with excitement.

The show's main live stream hadn't started yet, but viewers could already join the room.

Even before the show began, millions of people were already watching online.

The topic of conversation among netizens that night was remarkably consistent, with everyone flooding the chat with "Waiting for Shen the White Lotus."

However, after a while, some enthusiastic netizens suddenly informed everyone that Shen Huaixi had opened his own personal live stream.

Hearing this, netizens quickly exited the main live stream and discovered that there were indeed four new live stream channels below the main one.

These four channels corresponded to the four mentors: Wen Yun, Sheng Yan, Shen Huaixi, and Xu Beizhou.

After stumbling upon this clever move, netizens immediately flocked to Shen Huaixi's live stream.

"Awesome!"

"LOL, the production team totally gets us."

"I love having a dedicated live stream."

"Hehe, with a live stream set up, if the production team doesn't zoom in on Shen Bailian's face, I'll be disappointed!"

"I've already started screen recording; I won't miss any of Bailian's subtle expressions."

"So, is it bad editing, or is he really this fake? We'll see."

"Ahhh, you're all so mean, staring at him like that! Unlike me, I just want to see what kind of drama Bailian will cause tonight."

Netizens were having a blast in Shen Huaixi's live stream, but when he sat down and found the camera pointed directly at him, he was so mad he wanted to swear.

Shen Huaixi quickly turned to ask Xu Beizhou beside him, "What's going on?"

Xu Beizhou pointed to the same type of camera in front of him, "We're going live soon."

Hearing this, Shen Huaixi's temper flared up immediately.

He raised his eyebrows, his expression no longer soft and innocent but rather a bit panicked.

"Are you messing with me on purpose?"

Because his team had previously blamed the production team in a quick PR move to clear his name, feeling guilty, Shen Huaixi immediately thought the production team was getting back at him.

Xu Beizhou didn't get why Shen Huaixi was so worked up, but seeing his resistance, he thought he was just not used to live broadcasting and tried to explain.

"This was announced after the last grouping; each mentor has their own live stream. Don't you remember?"

After saying this, Xu Beizhou continued to comfort him, "It's just regular recording, no big deal. Today was always supposed to be live."

Xu Beizhou's words didn't comfort Shen Huaixi; instead, they made him feel uneasy.

He had indeed forgotten about this, and today's sudden backlash had left him totally on edge.

And at this moment, he suddenly had a bad feeling that something might go wrong later.

At this crucial moment, he couldn't risk any more mistakes.

Thinking this, Shen Huaixi stood up, ready to leave and tell his manager to inform the production team that he wouldn't be recording tonight.

He knew very well that leaving before the broadcast would definitely get him roasted by netizens, but he really didn't want to think about that anymore.

But things didn't go as planned.

As soon as Shen Huaixi stood up, the on-site director began to announce.

"Thirty seconds to broadcast; all mentors, audience, and staff, please get ready."

After saying this, the countdown immediately started on the screen, and the audience in the venue began to scream excitedly.

Shen Huaixi, who had just stood up, had no choice but to sit back down.

He closed his eyes in frustration, too mad to stand up again.

He shouldn't have listened to his manager and come to tonight's live stream!