Wen Feiran: "..."
He remembered now.
Li Tao hadn't been the one who signed him back then. Liu Fengyuan had seen him after he'd grown so thin he was unrecognizable and, to curry favor with Li Tao, interfered and had him transferred over.
Li Tao had exploited his value to the fullest. In the end, Liu Fengyuan had reaped the benefits of the hate and traffic Wen Feiran had attracted by making himself ugly, while Wen Feiran had been shelved after a massive wave of online abuse.
Although Liu Fengyuan hadn't acted directly, he was indirectly responsible too. He had a debt to settle here.
Wen Feiran's thoughts changed in an instant, and he glanced instinctively at Liu Fengyuan's hair.
This was different from most cases of a man being cheated on and made to wear a green hat. At most, other people wore ordinary green hats. His was fluorescent green.
So green it made one's heart race.
He let out a laugh of unclear meaning but said nothing.
He wasn't about to repay evil with kindness. Even if he warned Liu Fengyuan, given his personality, Liu Fengyuan wouldn't believe him and would instead turn around and accuse him.
A prenatal checkup could expose such a lousy excuse. But Liu Fengyuan, that pigbrain, trusted others so easily and refused to believe in scientific methods. No one else could save him.
He was kind enough not to gloat!
Wen Feiran smiled again, practically dripping with sarcasm.
Liu Fengyuan's scalp tingled. "What are you laughing at?"
"Nothing. I just think..." Wen Feiran looked at the manager. "Where there's a Crouching
Dragon
..."
"...there's a Fledgling Phoenix." As he said the last two words, his gaze settled on Liu Fengyuan again.
Liu Fengyuan: "..."
Li Tao: "..."
There's no proof, but it feels like he's insulting us.
Li Tao was about to flare up again when a colleague arrived and interrupted him. Wen Feiran, whose presence was barely noticeable, slipped away along the wall without anyone noticing.
The day of the variety show recording soon arrived. At five in the morning, the makeup artist hauled Wen Feiran out of bed and started applying makeup to his face.
Beauty lay in the bones, not the skin. Wen Feiran's bone structure was flawless, so the makeup artist could only use East Asian sorcery to alter his appearance a little.
His makeup was dirty and patchy, giving him a drab, ashen look. Realistic freckles were dotted across his cheeks, and his hair was styled in an extremely ugly fashion. Finally, he was fitted with bulky black-rimmed glasses that covered almost half his face.
Wen Feiran dozed on and off throughout the process. Four hours later, he finally got a clear look at himself in the mirror.
He fell silent for a few seconds, then reached out with two fingers and gingerly pinched his bangs, lifting the whole thing (?) up.
"..." Did they use an entire bottle of hairspray?
Wen Feiran had no real desire to take part in the show, much less become a star. He didn't care what a mess they had made of his appearance; his mind was full of something else.
He had no time to rest. In the blink of an eye, he was bundled into the production crew's car, and when he looked up, he found himself facing a camera.
It was pitch-black, like a bottomless pit that could swallow all his emotions. The other end seemed to be connected to countless people, all staring straight at him, watching and judging his every move.
As if someone had pressed pause, his whole body went rigid. It felt as though countless ants were crawling over him, an indescribable discomfort. His mind went completely blank, and he lost all sense of time.
For the next half hour, he simply sat there stiffly, though his mind was actually in turmoil. The little figure in his head alternated between crashing into a wall in despair and curling up into a ball to pretend to be a mushroom. Though he hadn't done anything, by the time the car stopped, his eyes had grown dull with exhaustion.
For someone with social anxiety like him, recording a variety show meant his every move would be magnified, watched and judged by countless people, while he had to deal with complicated interpersonal relationships at all times. It was practically hell!
Damn it, why make things so hard for someone with social anxiety!!
The five stars taking part in the recording had already arrived. He was the last one, and through the car window, he saw everyone looking over at him.
Wen Feiran's heart tightened. His nervousness and panic had already gone off the charts, and he tried to steady himself by taking deep breaths.
It's okay. I've practiced my opening lines so many times they're practically a reflex. There's absolutely no...
Some kindhearted staff member pulled the car door open for him. Before Wen Feiran had mentally prepared himself, he was exposed to the cameras and everyone present.
*!!!*
Wen Feiran felt as though he'd drunk bootleg liquor, and his memory briefly went fuzzy. He didn't know how he got out of the car, walked to the center of the set, or what expression and tone he used to introduce himself.
"Hello, my name is Wen Feiran very, happy to meet everyone, and I'm also looking forward to making wonderful memories in Peach Blossom Land, a place I've longed to visit."
He lacked control over his expressions and didn't know how to find the camera. He delivered the whole introduction expressionlessly, though his voice trembled almost imperceptibly on the last syllable, and he pursed his lips.
Ow, I accidentally bit my tongue.
He was the least conspicuous and least important person there, and no one noticed. In the livestream, it was as though he didn't even exist.
[You really dared to do it, inviting Zou Yuxing and Su Shangting onto the same variety show. Aren't you afraid they'll tear into each other every day?]
[A catfight sounds great. Fight, fight!]
[As a passerby, let me say something fair: Su Shangting spends all day marketing himself as a heavenly prince descended to earth, claiming he joined the entertainment industry to experience life, but he's actually just a giant baby! His fans have the nerve to go around asking people to look after him too. It's disgusting. Who owes him anything?]
[Aaaaah, Ningning is so handsome. Please * me from the front!]
[Hahaha, you're all so mean. You know Ningning is thin-skinned, so you tease him all day.]
[Mu Qianyu and Duan Haoran are so good-looking together. I can't even imagine how beautiful their children would be.]
Wen Feiran went to the back of the group of his own accord and said nothing more. His presence barely noticeable, he arrived at the Dream Cottage with everyone else.
Forward All the Way was livestreamed from start to finish. As long as they reached the required popularity score, each guest could open their own livestream.
Fans loved this sort of thing and charged into battle for their own idols. They didn't just want to get their idols' livestreams opened; they also wanted to compete over who would be first and whose popularity would be higher.
While the struggle among the fans reached a fever pitch, only Wen Feiran's corner remained peaceful.