Qi Gu leaned languidly against the wall outside Consultation Room Three. After thinking for a few seconds, he decided even leaning was rather tiring, so he went inside, dragged out a chair, wiped it clean with a wet wipe, and sat down comfortably to keep eating his snacks.
Consultation Room Three was right in the middle to begin with. Waiting here meant he could get to anyone who called for help as quickly as possible.
He had already finished half of the four bags of snacks he had brought. Rummaging through the remaining bags, he pulled out a tiger-skin chicken foot, tore open the packaging, and happily began eating.
This shop's chicken feet had soft, tender skin and springy tendons inside, with flavor soaked all the way through. They were among Qi Gu's favorite snacks.
Enjoyment showed on his handsome face, and his almond-shaped eyes narrowed slightly, as though he were feasting in a top-class restaurant rather than sitting in a pitch-black, haunted clinic.
[??? Seriously, how is he eating again? Could you be a little more professional, Qi Gu?]
[Uh, why exactly did the production team invite this useless loser onto the show? Did Qi Gu save your whole family?]
[Being useless is one thing, but he even pays for postproduction to boost his status, using ghost-catching effects to force this metaphysics master persona on everyone.]
[Uh... would it kill you newcomers to watch the livestream replay? I'm a visual effects artist. You think I can't tell whether something's an effect?]
[Forget it, stop insulting him. Even insulting someone like Qi Gu gives him too much credit. I see plenty of his paid trolls in the comments. Didn't he even pay someone off earlier to say Qi Gu saved his whole family? I'm dying of laughter.]
[You mean that OkayOkayOkayOkay guy above, right? I remember him too.]
[What an eye-opener. There really are people in this world who use their family's safety to generate publicity for celebrities. Have they got no conscience?]
[Wait... hurry and check the local news from where the film studio is!]
[I saw it too. Holy shit, this really is supernatural.]
[Whoa, between Qi Gu's performance on the show and this, I'm honestly starting to waver. Does anyone know where Floating Mist Temple is? Maybe I should go pay my respects?]
[What news? Just tell us already!]
The viewers who had been insulting Qi Gu had their attention caught. They opened Weibo and entered a search for news from the film studio's location on the home page.
The results popped up without a hitch. The first headline they saw was, "Shocking! Two Elderly People Home Alone Encounter a Burglar!"
What the hell?
Dubious, the viewers clicked on the short video. A female presenter in a business skirt suit immediately appeared, with the white walls of a hospital ward behind her.
The presenter said, "Good morning, viewers. We're interrupting with a morning news report. Yesterday morning, two elderly residents of Changjiang District experienced a terrifying incident! A burglar targeted their home after casing it, figuring the family would be out during the day, and broke in to steal. But as soon as he opened the door, he saw that both elderly residents were home. Afraid they would call the police, the burglar attacked on the spot, plunging a knife into Grandma Kang's chest. Grandpa Kang already had a heart condition, and when he saw his wife fall to the floor bleeding, his distress triggered an immediate attack..."
"Fortunately, the couple's grandson happened to discover them and called 120 in time. After emergency treatment, both have regained consciousness. Now, let's follow the camera and see how the Kang family is doing."
The elderly couple in their hospital beds already looked much better. When the reporter came to interview them, they gave a full account of what had happened, then stressed, "We really owe it all to Master Qi and our grandson this time. Otherwise, these two old lives of ours would have been over."
The presenter keenly picked up on the key phrase. "Master Qi?"
She clearly thought the elderly couple had been scammed by some so-called master.
She had not expected an interview with the people involved to turn into an opportunity to expose a fraud on the spot. She immediately steered the conversation further. "Who is this Master Qi?"
"Qi Gu," Kang Hao, who was staying with them at the hospital, said outright.
The presenter froze for a moment. "What?"
"A few days ago, Qi Gu and I were working as extras together. He said he told fortunes on the side, and a reading only cost fifty yuan, so I asked him to do one for me. As soon as he finished, he told me to take leave and go home, saying something had happened at home. I didn't believe him at first, but he sounded so certain that I took leave anyway."
Kang Hao smiled as he spoke, but his voice trembled, and his eyes brimmed with tears. "Thank goodness. Thank goodness I believed him... otherwise, I wouldn't have my grandparents anymore!"
The presenter, who had intended to expose a scam, found his account increasingly uncanny the longer she listened.
Were there really people in this world who could predict the future?
And that person was Qi Gu, who had only left the entertainment industry last year?
No matter how she looked at it, this sounded like a publicity stunt planned long in advance. But... the elderly couple really had been injured, the police and emergency treatment records were all there, and Kang Hao's joy was hard to fake.
For a moment, the presenter did not know what to say.
She said nothing, but Kang Hao had something to say. "Can I use your platform to say a few words? You won't edit them out afterward, will you?"
"As long as they don't violate public order or accepted standards of decency, we'll keep them," the presenter said.
"To the people who insulted Qi Gu earlier: my Weibo username is OkayOkayOkayOkay. I told the truth about what happened, but you all said I was a paid troll hired by Qi Gu and refused to believe the pictures I posted. Now that an official television station is backing this up, you ought to believe it, right?" Kang Hao's gaze sharpened as he stared into the camera and spoke each word distinctly.
"In short, I hope everyone who insulted Master Qi Gu because of the incident I described will apologize to him. If anyone's conduct was particularly egregious and they refuse to apologize, I will take legal action to protect the relevant rights and interests!"
After hearing about the unfair treatment Qi Gu had suffered online, his father had specifically transferred him a hundred thousand yuan to defend the rights of Qi Gu, their family's great benefactor!
The video ended there, and the screen went black.
The comments section had already erupted.
[That's so terrifying, aaaah... what a completely undeserved disaster. They were just staying at home, minding their own business, and some criminal stabbed them. They're both so old, too. Even a slight delay really could have killed them!]
[I can picture it way too clearly. I've already locked my door in terror.]
[Holy crap, I saw this when I was following the drama before. I always thought it was an excuse Qi Gu's fans made up to save face. I never imagined it was actually true, and now it's officially confirmed???]
[Just yesterday, my friend and I were laughing about how ridiculously over-the-top the story from Qi Gu's paid trolls was. Now you're telling me it was all true?]
[My face stings so much... I'm sorry, Qi Gu!]
[Sorry, sorry. I was just jumping on the hate bandwagon before.]
[What a fantastical turn of events. So where can I find this Master Qi Gu's contact information? I'm willing to pay five hundred yuan for a reading!]
[Contact his old agency and say you want to discuss a collaboration?]
[Uh, didn't Qi Gu terminate his contract ages ago? After that ugly falling-out with his agent last year, how could he not have?]
[Try Floating Mist Temple? Isn't Qi Gu the temple master there?]
[Which brings us to the question: where exactly is this little Taoist temple that doesn't even show up on Baidu?]
The netizens who believed in such things had already begun digging everywhere, wishing they could contact Qi Gu right that instant and get a reading.
As for those who did not believe, they simply found other angles from which to attack Qi Gu.
[Seriously, you actually want to get your fortunes told by that scumbag Qi Gu???]
[Night Meteor: Aren't masters supposed to have both virtue and ability? You're really going to worship someone with Qi Gu's character, who sleeps with fans and bullies the people working under him?]
[Don't flatter Qi Gu, commenter above. Maybe he just got lucky and happened to guess right. What kind of master does that make him?]
Seeing how favorable the situation was, the previously hired troll operated the account named "Night Meteor," preparing to muddy the waters again.
This time, however, before he could send the half-written insults, a Weibo account named "Tiancheng Law Firm" tagged him.
The other party said... they would file a lawsuit against him on Qi Gu's behalf, demanding that he immediately cease infringing on Qi Gu's rights and interests and compensate him for his losses.
And he was not the only one. Over the next three hours, every paid troll who had hurled vicious insults online received a warning letter from Tiancheng Law Firm!
The internet was not a place beyond the reach of the law!
Before you continue