Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Although Shen Zhou's statement was sudden, it wasn't hard to understand given the previous events and the current situation.

Clearly, after being separated from the other guests two hours ago due to the housing issue, Ji Tianfeng and Zheng Gu had "calmed down" and started to mull things over. The more they thought, the more something felt off—

In the live stream, some comments in the live chat were explaining the sequence of events to those who hadn't been following the movements of the three Alien boy band members.

"After those three arrived at the glass house, Ji Tianfeng and Zheng Gu had another huge fight."

"They were just hitting each other's sore spots, and they both acted pretty ugly."

"While they were arguing, Shen Zhou didn't join in or try to mediate. He just picked a room by himself and quietly went to pack his luggage."

"Speaking of that glass house, it really doesn't have any curtains at all. It's hilarious—transparent on all six sides."

"Shen Zhou was more concerned about this. While Ji Tianfeng and Zheng Gu were fighting, he went to ask the production team about the situation with the glass house."

"The production team said it seems the island owner originally planned to install fully automatic curtains and projection screens inside, but the entire tourism island development project was abandoned before it was finished. So the glass house looks complete on the outside, but the most important fittings for privacy weren't installed."

"I'm dying of laughter. The production team even cried foul, saying they really didn't mean to make the guests look foolish. It's just that no one had raised the curtain issue before."

"Shen Zhou also asked if the production team had prepared other houses, probably wanting to move. After all, that glass house really offers no privacy at all, and it's quite glaring with the sun shining in during the day."

"I guess even if they had prepared other houses, they wouldn't agree to let them switch. What did the production team say?"

"Who knows if it's true or not, but they said they hadn't prepared any other cleaned houses. The five best-conditioned houses had already been found by the production team. They told the three male idols from Alien that if they didn't want to stay in the glass house, they could try asking guests in the other, not-yet-full houses if they were willing to take them in."

"Speaking of which, I'm so envious and jealous! A private island, developed to a semi-finished state in all aspects, and the initial investment was just abandoned? The whole island was just left here. Is this the extravagance of the rich? Wuwuwu."

"Continue, continue. Did Ji Tianfeng and Zheng Gu start fighting again later? Their facial injuries look even more exaggerated now."

"Well, after Shen Zhou failed to change houses and went back, Ji Tianfeng and Zheng Gu had already escalated from verbal arguments to physical fighting."

"Hmm... Shen Zhou still didn't intervene. He really knows how to stay out of trouble and mind his own business."

"But after he finished packing, he probably still felt awkward about leaving alone, so he finally went to try and break up the fight."

"And then, the fire of conflict burned onto him, hahahaha!"

—At that time, Ji Tianfeng and Zheng Gu were actually tired from arguing and exhausted from fighting. So when Shen Zhou symbolically tried to mediate, they took the opportunity to step down and stopped fighting.

Then the production team sent them some medical supplies for their wounds. Ji Tianfeng and Zheng Gu started treating their own injuries, while Shen Zhou just stood nearby.

He was just standing there. Ji Tianfeng and Zheng Gu were already in a bad mood, and the more they saw Shen Zhou unharmed and detached, the angrier they became.

"You had a great time today, didn't you? Enjoyed watching us make fools of ourselves?!" Ji Tianfeng said.

Shen Zhou shook his head and remained silent.

Zheng Gu sneered, but it pulled at the injury on his cheekbone, making him grimace in pain, which only made him more irritated. "All things considered, Shen Zhou, you turned out to be the smartest among us. Do nothing, say nothing, and then you have no faults, right? Today, you were also the one with the fewest and least severe revelations... Wait, why didn't Ning Yichu expose any of your scandals? Even your plastic surgery was only mentioned later by Ji Tianfeng!"

Ji Tianfeng thought about it and agreed. "Yeah, why is Ning Yichu being so nice to you?!"

Shen Zhou smiled bitterly, thinking to himself, how was Ning Yichu being "nice" to him? Zheng Gu and Ji Tianfeng were so angry they were talking nonsense.

"No..." Shen Zhou wanted to explain, but he was better at staying silent. After opening his mouth, he got a bit stuck.

Ji Tianfeng and Zheng Gu were already growing more and more suspicious.

Ji Tianfeng eyed Shen Zhou suspiciously. "The things Ning Yichu revealed are all internal matters of Alien. Even if he really could psychically revisit the past, there's no need to use that ability on our trivial affairs... No, he must have heard it from someone. He just doesn't want us to discover there's a traitor within the team, so he's putting on a mysterious act, pretending to have well-informed sources, and even scaring me by saying he has psychic powers..."

Shen Zhou: "I..."

Zheng Gu, holding an iodine swab, pointed excitedly at Shen Zhou, causing a few drops of iodine to splatter onto the glass floor.

He said, "It's you! Shen Zhou! It must be you! You usually act like you don't like to talk, but secretly you've already figured out all our situations! You deliberately told Ning Yichu our scandals so he could expose them, destroying us. Meanwhile, you, with the lightest situation, can still argue that you didn't know about the corpse lipstick and the later incidents, that you were just timid and didn't stop Ji Tianfeng from releasing the snake in person. You want to climb to fame by stepping on our popularity!"

Shen Zhou quickly shook his head, trying hard to maintain the steady image he had always presented in public. "No, it really has nothing to do with me! I really didn't know about your later affairs, and I didn't even know Teacher Ning Yichu before this. How could I partner with him? Why would he partner with me?"

"For popularity! With today's commotion, his attention has also risen, and you..." Ji Tianfeng gritted his teeth, "...with the other four members of Alien finished, you're the best of a bad bunch. The agent would have no choice but to promote you, hoping you could make a comeback and recoup the company's investment in our group... That makes sense!"

Zheng Gu was also practically foaming at the mouth. "Once our affairs are exposed, you would naturally be affected and suspected by the audience. So you even knew to have Ning Yichu criticize you a few times to clear your name. That way, we wouldn't suspect you of being the mole, and the audience would think that since Ning Yichu didn't say anything more about you, you must have no other scandals besides inaction. You're clean and innocent, aren't you?!"

Thus, Ji Tianfeng and Zheng Gu, for once united against a common enemy, wanted to beat up Shen Zhou.

Shen Zhou backed away, on the verge of tears. "You... although your reasoning sounds logical, you've been mistaken from the start. I'm really not the traitor, and I don't know where Ning Yichu dug up these things, but I really didn't tell him! If you all get shelved, how could I possibly benefit? The company would definitely abandon our entire group together..."

Ji Tianfeng: "Oh? So you're saying one of us others is the traitor? That I voluntarily told Ning Yichu about buying corpse lipstick and getting scammed? Or that Han Wushuang voluntarily told Ning Yichu about his fraud?"

Zheng Gu: "Tao Jin and I are even less likely! Only you... Shen Zhou! Don't run!"

Shen Zhou didn't want to get beaten up—no normal person would. Besides, his face had cost a fortune in plastic surgery. If his nose got knocked crooked or his chin damaged on live stream, the financial loss and difficulty of repair would be huge. And how would he continue recording the show? How would he survive in the entertainment industry afterward?

Ji Tianfeng and Zheng Gu were two people. Beating up one not particularly strong Shen Zhou should have been more than enough. But Zheng Gu stepped on the iodine that had splattered on the floor earlier, his foot slipping on the glass surface, and he ended up hindering Ji Tianfeng.

Shen Zhou reacted quickly. Without thinking, he seized the chance and ran straight outside. The production team members wanted to step in and mediate between the three, but they had no chance to even get a word in. They could only watch as Ji Tianfeng and Zheng Gu got up and chased after him.

—Other viewers in the live stream, after understanding the sequence of events, could only sigh: "Life in this boy band is really eventful."

And in front of the live stream cameras, at the dining area, Ji Tianfeng and Zheng Gu finally caught up.

Ji Tianfeng pointed at Shen Zhou, gasping for breath. "You... you..."

Zheng Gu was also panting like a broken bellows, but he was looking in Ning Yichu's direction. "You... we... already... know! It was Shen... Shen Zhou... who leaked... the information... to you! I... we..."

Shen Zhou said despairingly, "I already said it wasn't me... How could I possibly know all your affairs in such detail? If I were that capable, would I be in the state I'm in now?"

Ji Tianfeng insisted, "It was... it was you! I... won't... be wrong!"

Ning Yichu, finding it tiresome to listen, interrupted, "If you want to hear Shen Zhou's scandals, just say so directly. Don't underestimate my information channels like that."

Shen Zhou himself, and the two who wanted to beat him up, Ji Tianfeng and Zheng Gu, were all taken aback.

Zhang Kejiu and Cui Yun silently looked at Ning Yichu. Their gossipy gazes, though restrained, were still barely concealed. The more experienced Ren Shi and Qin Muyun remained relatively calm.

"Arguing about him not exposing Ji Tianfeng's snake-releasing incident on the spot is meaningless. After all, that kind of thing can be interpreted as cold-hearted indifference or as knowing how to stay out of trouble." Ning Yichu tilted his head slightly. "As for the plastic surgery, fans will cover their eyes and ears, insisting on praising it as a 'born with it' face. That's pretty common in the entertainment industry, right?"

Shen Zhou's face, which had been flushed from running, now turned pale.

"So... how about we talk about Teacher Shen Zhou's debt situation?" Ning Yichu said leisurely.

"Shen Zhou is in debt?"

"Han Wushuang scams money, Ji Tianfeng gets scammed, Zheng Gu embezzles money, Tao Jin lets him embezzle, and now Shen Zhou adds debt to the mix... Great, all five members of Alien are neatly accounted for."

Shen Zhou pursed his lips. "I... Teacher Yichu, you don't need to say it. I admit I owe some money because... the plastic surgery expenses were too high. My family background is relatively ordinary and couldn't afford it. At that time, I hadn't debuted yet and didn't understand the tricks. In short, I was coaxed into signing a high-interest loan..."

"After debuting, the resources were decent at first, but soon Alien wasn't as popular anymore. Only Tianfeng remained relatively popular. Although I managed to get some resources, they couldn't keep up with the high-interest loan's compounding rate. I quickly couldn't repay the debt... I know, even though high-interest loans are illegal, it was ultimately my own vanity, wanting to gamble on plastic surgery..."

"Looking at his face now, the plastic surgery turned out pretty well, huh?"

"But plastic surgery is a road of no return. You have to keep investing in maintenance, otherwise after that 'expiration date,' it only gets worse, right?"

"I feel like this is another money-making scheme in the entertainment industry. Luring wannabe stars into taking out high-interest loans for plastic surgery—profiting while also holding leverage over them."

"Putting it that way, Shen Zhou actually got off relatively lucky. At least his surgery was successful and he debuted smoothly, even if he failed to capitalize on it afterward."

"Is that it? Aside from Shen Zhou's image being a bit more lowbrow now, it doesn't seem that juicy..."

Ning Yichu propped his chin in his hand and asked Shen Zhou, "Is that it? If you don't want to talk about what happened next, should I say it for you?"

Shen Zhou gritted his teeth. "How on earth... do you know so much about these things..."

Ning Yichu couldn't help but chuckle. "I've heard that question so much lately my ears are practically calloused. Can we skip the pointless questions that obviously won't get an answer?"

Shen Zhou fell silent. He stood still for a good ten seconds, still not uttering a word, then just shifted his feet and sat down in the nearest dining chair on his own.

Seeing this, Ji Tianfeng and Zheng Gu, who had mostly collected themselves, urged Ning Yichu in unison, "What else is there?"

Ning Yichu shrugged. "Shen Zhou's face may be surgically altered, but it does look decent at the moment..."

He Shixia suddenly interjected in a mock-hurt tone, "A Ning, didn't you say I was ugly before? How can you call Teacher Shen's face 'decent'?"

Ning Yichu hadn't expected him to speak up so abruptly. He paused, somewhat exasperated. "Trying to be clever now? Do you think that makes you seem funny, He Shixia?"

He Shixia suppressed a laugh, wiping the fake misery off his face. "Sorry. You've been looking at them so much today, I couldn't help but try to get a bit of your attention."

Ning Yichu: "..."

"Hahahaha understandable, but don't interrupt the tea session, okay!"

"Wait, I don't get it! Ning Yichu said He Shixia was ugly? Ugly?!"

"Clearly just a couple's playful banter."

"The way Ning Yichu said He Shixia's full name is so charged, ahhh!"

"We usually call that flirting."

Ji Tianfeng and Zheng Gu were now more eager than anyone to hear Shen Zhou's scandals, looking at Ning Yichu anxiously as he trailed off. "And then?"

Ning Yichu blinked. "Where were we? Oh, right, saying Shen Zhou's face looks decent. You've met plenty of people in the industry, right? Someone previously made a pass at Shen Zhou, wanting to buy a night with him..."

Zheng Gu reacted instantly. "Holy shit, he sold himself to pay off his debts!"

He said it so bluntly that Zhang Kejiu and Cui Yun couldn't hold back, snickering before quickly lowering their heads to cover their mouths.

Shen Zhou gritted his teeth, finally unable to resist retorting to Zheng Gu. "I accepted some invitations, but who are you to talk? At least I didn't swindle people's feelings for money. You milked Tao Jin for cash, and after being exposed, you still had the nerve to play the victim and call Tao Jin disgusting. Zheng Gu, you really have thick skin."

Ji Tianfeng seized on the key phrase. "My god, how many times did you sell yourself? 'Some invitations'... some? Uh... were they men or women? You don't have... STDs or AIDS or something, do you... My god, we live together at the company!"

Shen Zhou's face, which had been white as a sheet, flushed red again. "I'm not sick! I..."

He turned his head away, resentful. "I always used protection and got checked regularly... What, now you think you're better than me? The corpse-oil-lipstick user is cleaner than me? The guy who pretends not to know his 'girlfriend' is a boyfriend is more respectable than me?!"

Ji Tianfeng: "That corpse oil lipstick was fake! I never used real corpse oil!"

"But you thought it was real and kept using it!" Zheng Gu mocked.

Even though they'd just teamed up against Shen Zhou, Zheng Gu didn't consider himself and Ji Tianfeng allies. He kicked Shen Zhou while he was down, then lifted his chin and said, "I admit I'm no saint either, but at least I didn't become a prostitute! And Tao Jin was happy to spend money on me!"

Shen Zhou sneered. "Ha, yeah, thanks to your superstitious beliefs and that 'master' tipping you off!"

Before this, Shen Zhou had at least maintained some basic dignity among the three Alien members. Now, he too plunged into the messy drama, the three of them arguing fiercely.

The show's director tried to interject and stop them but couldn't even get a word in.

Finally, it was Ning Yichu who tapped his knuckles on the dining table. "There's one more thing, if you want to hear it..."

The three, who had been shouting over each other, instantly fell silent.

Shen Zhou was uneasy. "There shouldn't be any other scandals about me..."

Ji Tianfeng and Zheng Gu weren't so sure.

Ji Tianfeng asked with false bravado, "Who else are you going to talk about?"

Ning Yichu blinked. "Don't be nervous, Teacher Shen, Teacher Ji—oh, right, Teacher Zheng. Arranging a ghost marriage is pretty despicable. Your sister died young, which is tragic enough, but you even sold her ashes for a ghost marriage? That's not right. Doesn't your superstition tell you that'll get you struck by lightning?"

Zheng Gu's face fell. "How do you even know about that..."

Then he flatly denied it. "Don't spout nonsense! I didn't sell my sister's ashes for money! She died last year, only in her thirties, never married. Being alone after death makes her vulnerable to bullying. Arranging a ghost marriage was to give her completeness in the afterlife..."

"Ridiculous! Absolutely ridiculous!"

"Disgusting words, my god. Ghost marriages still exist in this day and age?"

"Leave the sister alone, this is too pitiful. Sold even after death."

"Hmph, Zheng Gu didn't sell himself, but his money-grubbing is shockingly ruthless."

"Compared to him, Ji Tianfeng and Shen Zhou seem almost clean..."

"I thought he'd deny the ghost marriage thing even as a last resort, but he's denying that it'll get him struck by lightning?"

"Is he that desperate for money? He doesn't have plastic surgery debts, right? Ji Tianfeng can afford 1.88 million yuan lipstick. Even if Zheng Gu only gets scraps, he shouldn't be that hard up, especially with Tao Jin giving him money. Can't he even spare his own flesh and blood?"

"If the sister had an afterlife spirit, she'd jump out and beat him to death."

As Zheng Gu spoke, he realized his justification wasn't exactly positive, so he quickly backtracked. "I actually hesitated too, but my parents thought it was good, and the master kept persuading me, so I didn't object..."

Ning Yichu watched him coldly. "You've got it backwards, haven't you? Isn't the truth that your 'master' had another 'client' whose son died and wanted to arrange a ghost marriage for him? The master was looking for a match, and since you'd mentioned your sister's death, he saw an opportunity to broker the deal for a cut, and persuaded you that you'd get money too."

"Right, so the master used his transaction with Tao Jin as leverage. He told you about Tao Jin approaching him, and in exchange, you agreed to provide your sister's ashes for the ghost marriage. Your parents initially refused, but after persuasion from you and the master, they agreed..." Ning Yichu scoffed.

Zheng Gu fell silent again.

Ning Yichu added, "Oh, and Teacher Zheng, your sister died from a hereditary illness on your father's side. Your grandfather died young from the same disease. Your father was lucky not to develop it in his youth. Shouldn't you worry about how long you have left too?"

Zheng Gu's face changed again. "What do you mean? Are you saying I'm going to die too? Can your eyes diagnose illnesses or something?!"

Ning Yichu gave a slight smile. "Maybe not diagnose illnesses, but I'm pretty good at reading people, right?"

Zheng Gu said nothing more.

At this point, Ji Tianfeng slumped into a chair at the dining table, exhausted, and asked Ning Yichu directly, "Are there any other scandals about the three of us that you plan to expose? Just say them all at once. Since it's come to this, I really don't want to live in suspense anymore."

Ning Yichu was highly amused. "Really? Well, you can rest easy. These are all the Alien scandals I know. I originally planned to share them one by one over these three days of filming, but you were more impatient than me, forcing me to spill everything right at the start."

Even though there was no going back, the three members of Alien still let out a sigh of relief when they heard it was finally over.

However, Zhang Kejiu and Cui Yun from the girl group started to get a little nervous... Now that Alien's drama was over, would Ning Yichu target their group, Make, next?!

"Um... since there's no more tea to spill..."

"Then maybe they shouldn't stay on the show and keep filming?"

"Seconded! It's disgusting to watch them."

"It really ruins the mood. They were just guest stars anyway, so I think dropping them shouldn't affect the whole show, right?"

"But from the production team's perspective, losing three guest stars at once must be a huge headache."

"Production team: I wanted buzz and popularity, but this much scorching drama is a bit hard to handle..."

The director indeed wasn't sure what expression to wear at the moment, so he simply stopped appearing on camera, letting his voice guide the guests through the process without being seen.

"Regardless, it's getting late, and I'm sure all our guests are hungry. How about... we eat first?" the director said.

"This is everyone's first meal on the island. Considering the long journey and that you've just arrived, our crew is providing this meal for you. However, starting from dinner tonight, you'll need to go to the dining area to cook for yourselves. So, make the most of this one!"

After speaking, the director signaled for the food to be served.

Yet, before the dishes arrived, Ning Zeshu, seated at the table, glanced at his phone and smiled at Ning Yichu. "Xiao Chu, Big Brother is watching the live stream too. He just sent a message scolding me—it's the first time I've received such a stern one. Want to see? It mentions you too."