Chapter 3

Later that day, Era Idol's official Weibo account released a two-minute video.

When viewers opened it, they found it was footage of the contestants rehearsing! Setting aside all those devastatingly handsome faces, there were even several familiar ones among them.

Sharp-eyed netizens spotted Tang Jing in a fleeting shot.

"Isn't that Tang Jing?!"

"The third-place winner from last year's New Singer?"

"It's him!"

"He actually joined a boy group survival show? No wonder I haven't heard anything about him lately! His voice is still as good as ever!"

"What's the name of the song they're performing? It sounds so good!"

"..."

"Wait, why do I feel like the person on the far left of the screen is lip-syncing?"

"You're right. Who's that pink-haired guy? He's lip-syncing during rehearsal?"

"My expectations for this show just dropped a lot."

"And he's in the same group as Tang Jing. Tang Jing's in trouble this time. Could he be some deadweight the production team deliberately arranged?"

"Who is this guy? Is the production team deliberately messing with our brother by assigning someone like him?"

"I hope Tang Tang won't be affected! Good luck tomorrow!"

"Go, Tang Tang! I heard the variety show

livestream

will begin tomorrow, and the voting channels will open too. Everyone, remember to vote for Tang Tang!"

"..."

This matter did not cause much of a stir.

Tang Jing was, after all, a newcomer to the entertainment industry. He had only debuted for a year, and his fanbase was still small. More importantly, Ye Zexi was also a newcomer with no real name recognition in the industry, so there was naturally even less discussion about him.

But no one expected that later that night, the hashtag #YeZexiPursuesTangJing# would suddenly shoot straight onto the trending list, with an "explosive" tag attached to it.

At four in the morning, Li Changjian and a staff member knocked on Ye Zexi's door and woke him from his sleep.

After Li Changjian explained the situation, Ye Zexi was still dazed. Somewhat uncertain, he asked, "I'm trending?"

Li Changjian nodded gravely.

"And it's with Tang Jing?" Ye Zexi's eyes were full of confusion.

Li Changjian nodded heavily again.

The assistant beside Li Changjian handed his phone to Ye Zexi. When Ye Zexi took it and looked, his and Tang Jing's names were prominently displayed in fifth place on the trending list.

The first thing that came up when he clicked into the trend was a video. Ye Zexi and Tang Jing were the stars of the video. The scene looked familiar to Ye Zexi. Wasn't this when Tang Jing had stopped him in the hallway today, and he had said those things to Tang Jing?

But aside from him and Tang Jing, there had been no one else in the hallway. Who had filmed this video?

Li Changjian practically treated Ye Zexi like his own nephew. The production team definitely would not have released a video like this.

Then who else could it have been?

Tang Jing?

No. Although Tang Jing could use the video to play the victim, being labeled gay right after debuting would not be good for a newcomer's future development.

Chasing the traffic right in front of him would not be worth the cost.

Then—

Li Changjian had brought his assistant to see Ye Zexi in the middle of the night. He must have found something.

Ye Zexi looked up at Li Changjian. "What do you think, Uncle Li?"

Sure enough, Li Changjian looked at Ye Zexi, his eyes full of guilt. "Zexi, Uncle failed to supervise things properly."

As soon as the online leak emerged, Li Changjian received the news. The many Era Idol staff members had just finished work when they were called back to thoroughly investigate the matter.

Finally, half an hour ago, they found the employee who had leaked the information to a gossip account.

Only then did Li Changjian come wake Ye Zexi and ask for his opinion.

"I know Tang Jing well. This has nothing to do with them. As soon as the leak came out, he was also very proactive about cooperating to clear things up. My suggestion is for the production team to release a statement saying it was rehearsal for a scripted skit. Neither you nor Tang Jing will need to respond again. Tang Jing has already agreed. What do you think?" Li Changjian added.

Ye Zexi said nothing. Lowering his eyes, he roughly skimmed through the comments beneath the Weibo post.

Era Idol's teaser had only just been released, and people had already been accusing Ye Zexi of lip-syncing. Now that this video had surfaced, netizens were mocking Ye Zexi without exception.

Some supposed insiders even claimed to be staff members, confirming that Ye Zexi had joined Era Idol solely to pursue Tang Jing.

For a time, the leaks kept coming.

Even Ye Zexi's background was dug up. People said he was Starlight Entertainment's young master, that he had long set his sights on Tang Jing, and that the two had been in contact long before this.

When falsehood mixed with truth, truth became hard to distinguish. Many spectators who had initially remained neutral began to believe it.

Tang Jing's fans were the angriest. They had already disliked Ye Zexi, the deadweight, and now that they learned he had been shamelessly harassing Tang Jing, they flooded Weibo with vicious insults.

Overall, most of the online opinion favored Tang Jing. Very few people spoke up for Ye Zexi.

The netizens' insults were vicious: "simp," "faggot," and even comments saying that if Ye Zexi was lip-syncing during rehearsal, then Era Idol probably did not have many promising contestants either. Maybe it was just a cash grab.

"Zexi?" Seeing that Ye Zexi had remained silent for so long, Li Changjian grew worried. "Don't read the comments, and don't take what people say online to heart. Don't let it affect your performance today..."

At that, Ye Zexi curved his lips into a smile. "Uncle, don't worry. I won't take it to heart."

After struggling in the entertainment industry for so many years, Ye Zexi had seen far too much abuse and criticism. What he saw today was hardly the worst.

Li Changjian was still worried. "How about you just leave this matter alone and let me handle everything? Netizens are like this—one rumor starts, and they run with it. Once the clarification statement is released..."

"There's no need, Uncle." Ye Zexi interrupted Li Changjian and returned the tablet to the assistant. "This is true to begin with. There's no need to clarify."