Chapter 14

During that time, he had been dating different people.

He really was a master of time management.

As far as Fei Yue was concerned, an idol could have a few insignificant flaws.

He hadn't debuted yet, so there was still time to change.

But Fei Yue absolutely didn't want to train a scumbag to debut.

If Qi Wang really debuted,

never mind the bloody storm his two girlfriends would stir up, he would probably drag the entire group down with him and get them branded a group of scumbags.

Once he had thought it through, Fei Yue gritted his teeth. "If Qi Yao has something to say, he can come to me. If it comes down to it, I'll do without the funding."

In any case, the Qi family only held an eighteen percent stake.

He still had the final say at the company.

Yu Wenwen shook her head. "Leap is already short on working capital, and the group's debut will be another major expense. If you insist on falling out with the Qi family now, you'll only make things worse."

"The Qi family has considerable influence, too."

"It's very possible," she said softly, "that Leap will go bankrupt."

Fei Yue fell silent for a while.

Just then, his phone rang again.

Fei Yue glanced at the caller ID and answered. A long while later, he hung up, looking even worse than before.

Yu Wenwen asked, "What's wrong?"

Fei Yue slapped his phone face down on the table with a touch of force, nearly giving Yu Wenwen a fright.

After a long moment, his shoulders slumped. "Wang Jue has requested to terminate his contract and leave the company."

Fei Yue's contracts were very lenient. The termination fee for trainees wasn't high, calculated as a proportion of their monthly base pay, and was affordable for most people.

But bringing it up at a time like this seemed a little like kicking them while they were down.

"He was also on the list of people who privately contacted fans."

Fei Yue sneered. "I haven't even decided how to deal with him yet! Leap hasn't gone bankrupt, so why is he running off now?"

He closed his eyes briefly. "Qi Wang. It must be Qi Wang."

"Next, he'll spread the news that Leap is about to go bankrupt. Of course, he thinks I can't keep the company going once the Qi family pulls its money. Naturally, the other trainees won't see any reason to stay. They'll just save themselves when disaster strikes."

"Once the other trainees have scattered and I don't have enough suitable people left, I'll have to swallow my anger and keep promoting him."

"Ruthless. Truly ruthless."

"If I compromise, will he be the one calling the shots at Leap from now on, or will I?"

Fei Yue opened his eyes and made up his mind. "Qi Wang has to go."

"And Leap..."

"Leap won't go bankrupt."

Fei Yue spoke word by word, each one seemingly forced out through clenched teeth. "I swear, as long as I'm here, Leap won't go bankrupt."

Chapter 15

Over the next few days, Qi Wang still didn't return to the company.

He did, however, appoint someone to handle the contract matters, hoping Fei Yue would think carefully about what to do.

As for Qi Wang himself, no one knew where he had gone to lie low.

After all, he had two girlfriends to placate, one on each side. That probably wasn't easy to deal with.

Fei Yue chose to tell him to get lost.

But because the cheating was such an ugly affair, Fei Yue still chose to keep it under wraps for him.

As a result, most people at the company only thought things had blown up because he had privately contacted fans and dated them. On top of that, Qi Wang had people constantly spreading the news that Leap was about to go bankrupt, leaving many of the trainees uneasy.

And so, after Wang Jue requested to terminate his contract and leave, other trainees gradually began asking to leave as well.

Fei Yue didn't try to make any of them stay.

In the dorm.

For the past few days, Jiang Yu hadn't even been in the mood to practice. He was worried sick. "Linyuan, do you think the others are really going to leave?"

He spat angrily at the mention of his nemesis. "That bastard Qi Wang even took the teachers with him when he left. We haven't had a class in almost five days."

"I don't know what Brother Fei's been busy with these past few days. He never shows his face, and I'm getting a little worried too."

Xu Linyuan was troubled as well. "This thing with Qi Wang came out of nowhere. I reckon Brother Fei's original debut plans have all been thrown into disarray."

As things stood,

the debut plan might be postponed, or it might fall through altogether.

Xu Linyuan hesitated for a moment, then tentatively asked Jiang Yu, "Are you leaving?"

Jiang Yu froze, then immediately grew agitated. "How could I possibly leave? Don't I know how Brother Fei usually treats us? If I left now, could I even call myself human?"

His gaze suddenly turned suspicious as it roamed over Xu Linyuan. "Don't tell me you're leaving?"

Xu Linyuan shook his head. "How could I?"

After all, he was among the first trainees to join the company, and he was deeply attached to it.

Walking away at a time like this would be letting Fei Yue down far too badly.

There were suddenly two light knocks on the dorm door.

Qin Xiaochuan from the dorm next door poked his head in, dragging a suitcase behind him. "You're still not leaving?"

Qin Xiaochuan and Xu Linyuan had joined the company around the same time, but unfortunately, his skills hadn't kept up, and he had long ranked near the bottom.

This upheaval happened to make him reflect on whether the idol path was unsuited to him, and he planned to take a different direction.

Xu Linyuan held Jiang Yu back and asked, "You're leaving?"

"Yeah."

"Let me give you two some advice. I hear Leap is about to go bankrupt."

"While Brother Fei hasn't said anything yet, anyone who can leave should hurry up and go. Otherwise, if Leap really does go bankrupt in a few days, they might very well refuse to release you from your contracts and sell you off cheap to some other company you know nothing about. Then you'd really be screwed."

Qin Xiaochuan smiled. "I've already terminated my contract, so I'll be off. Our paths may cross again. If fate allows, we'll meet again in the entertainment industry someday."

The suitcase rattled away.

Xu Linyuan let go.

Jiang Yu had been bottling up his anger, and now he finally let it all out. "Go on, leave! All of you! You'd better mean it. Not a single one of you had better come back!"

"Our paths may cross again, my ass! When we become popular and Leap becomes popular, I'll make them regret it! Even if they cry their eyes out and beg to come back, it'll be no use!"

Xu Linyuan sighed. He didn't feel like criticizing the people who had left any further. "Actually, if the debut plan really does fall through and Leap's funding dries up, we can't blame them for leaving now. After all, they're only making early plans for their own dreams."

Xu Linyuan's words proved prophetic.

One upheaval followed another like falling dominoes.

Starting with Qi Wang being caught privately contacting fans, everything came crashing down one thing after another.

Qi Wang was fired, the other trainees left one after another, the Qi family withdrew its funding, and quite a few staff members resigned as well. The debut plan had to be put on hold, and the livestreamed debut evaluation originally scheduled for the end of August was consequently canceled.

Leap Entertainment's official Weibo account released a statement.

Several trainees' official Weibo accounts were also deactivated.

But the fans didn't know what had happened behind the scenes. Feeling deceived, they flocked to the comments on Weibo to complain and curse.

[What's going on? Does that mean the debut group is gone too?]

[I'm speechless. A small-time outfit is a small-time outfit.]

[Good thing I was still just watching for free and hadn't gotten invested. I'm out.]

[Did some trainees leave? Then I advise the rest to run sooner or later too, or the company will drag them down into obscurity with it.]

The dorm and practice room grew emptier by the day.

More and more people left.

Amid all the unease, only two people acted as though nothing had happened, continuing to train in the practice room every day.

"That's enough. Take a five-minute break."

Sheng Chi picked up a bottle of water and tossed it over. "Wet your throat."

Gu Zhijing deftly caught it out of the air and smiled. "Thanks, Brother Chi."

His rapping had improved greatly under Sheng Chi's guidance.

Even though the debut evaluation had now been canceled, he still thought there was no harm in learning something from Sheng Chi.

The two sat down against the practice room mirror, neither saying a word.

The fifth day.

Gu Zhijing counted the days in his head.

Today was already the fifth day since the trouble with Qi Wang.

How fast.

Sheng Chi suddenly spoke. "If Brother Fei really gives up on us, where do you plan to go?"

It was the first time in five days that they had brought up the subject.

Gu Zhijing instinctively retorted, "Don't let your thoughts run wild. How could Brother Fei possibly give up on us?"

Sheng Chi said calmly, "I said if."

"..."

Gu Zhijing was silent for a long time. The words "there's no such if" were on the tip of his tongue, but he didn't dare say them.

He lowered his lashes and tightened his grip on the bottle of mineral water. "Where could I go?" he said softly.

"Ever since the day Brother Fei took me in,"

"this place has been my home."

When he first came to Leap, Fei Yue had only recruited three trainees, including him.

Later, Xu Linyuan joined, followed by others. Along the way, some trainees who couldn't keep going chose to leave, and new trainees came in to replace them. People had never stopped coming and going.

Gu Zhijing thought perhaps that was simply how this industry worked.

Restless people couldn't stay long. Only those who truly loved it and could endure the loneliness could make it to the top of the mountain in the end.

At the time, Gu Zhijing hadn't loved it all that much, nor was he a particularly patient person.

He had been able to stay and become the one who had stayed the longest

because he really had nowhere else to go.

Brother Fei had been willing to take in a young master like him, who had nothing going for him except his face.

So he trained hard to repay Brother Fei. That was all.

He had never considered where he would go

if Fei Yue's project failed.

Gu Zhijing had lived here for nearly half a year.

All the trainees who had trained with him at the beginning had already left.

Xu Linyuan came later. He was mild-tempered and treated everyone well, and the two often stayed up all night talking about everything in the past, present, and future.

Qin Xiaochuan came after that. He wasn't fond of training either and often secretly ordered takeout with Gu Zhijing. He occasionally shared snacks with him too.

Then Jiang Yu came. He was a great dancer and a little hot-tempered, but he was also good at games, and the two often teamed up for duo matches.

The last to arrive was Sheng Chi.

He was amazing.

He was a good person too.

Of everyone Gu Zhijing had met, he was the one who best fit his idea of an idol.

Gu Zhijing really didn't want to leave.

He thought for a moment and said, "At least, if the two of us don't leave, I don't think Linyuan and Jiang Yu will leave either."

"Wouldn't the four of us be enough?"

"Leaving aside whether they'll stay,"

Sheng Chi's voice remained calm even as he spoke about this, "if there are only four people left in the end, the group won't even be able to decide on a center."

The center was the most central figure in a group.

That was why many groups had an odd number of members.

Besides, all of Fei Yue's previous plans had been made for five people.

If they really changed it to four, almost everything would probably need a major overhaul.

Their debut would be even further out of reach.

Even if he could afford to wait,

could the others afford to wait too?

Hearing this, Gu Zhijing suddenly sat bolt upright. "Why can't four people work?"

His expression abruptly turned serious. "Three people are enough to establish a Party branch, so why can't four people form a group?"

Not long ago, he had still been dreaming of becoming Sheng Chi's head fan once he debuted and became a big star.

How had everything fallen apart in just a few days?

Young Master Gu Zhijing's temper flared, and he said stubbornly, "Four people it is."

"For interviews and award ceremonies, we can line up in a row, and for stage performances, can't the choreography just have a main center? Why can't four people form a group? You're overthinking it, Brother Chi!"

"If there's no investment, then there's no investment."

"We can take commercial gigs on the street and look for bar singing jobs."

Gu Zhijing pointed to his ear. "If it comes down to it, I'll sell this stud and put all the money into the company. That would make me a shareholder too, right?"

His thinking was far too straightforward and simple.

Sheng Chi was momentarily taken aback. The next second, Gu Zhijing took his hand.

His palm was burning hot, filled with a youth's wholehearted enthusiasm, sending waves of tingling through Sheng Chi's heart.

Perhaps it was precisely because he hadn't experienced so many disappointments, hadn't suffered society's harsh blows, and hadn't seen the world's darker side.

That was why he was still full of hope for the future.

"It won't end here, Brother Chi."

Gu Zhijing's eyes