Chapter 85: Where

In the afternoon, rumors began to circulate online that a homicide had occurred at the entrance of a certain high-end residential complex. Police cars had arrived, and the murderer had been arrested.

Soon, a resident of the complex came forward to clarify that it wasn’t a homicide, but that an artist who had been a hot topic recently had been taken away by the police. It seemed a fight had broken out, and the scene was very chaotic.

The melon-eating netizens, with a great spirit of exploration, went through a process of elimination and found that no famous artists lived in that complex. The one who got into a fight was most likely some eighteenth-tier starlet. Their interest in the gossip immediately waned. With nothing better to do, they just chatted about the housing prices in that complex and planned to wait for the police report to see who was brawling in the street.

Unexpectedly, they didn’t get the police report by eight o’clock that evening. Instead, they got a high-definition video over ten minutes long, jointly released by several media outlets, with no content summary.

The first few hundred comments that appeared were almost all exclamation marks, question marks, and ambiguous exclamations like “Damn!” This was followed by, “After watching it, I understand why the editor didn’t add a tag. This really can’t be summed up in one sentence…” and “There’s huge gossip, come quick,” as well as a direct surge in the number of shares in a short period of time.

“Brother Thorn’s” live stream rarely went on in the evening. In the video, Brother Thorn wore a slightly tattered, handmade mask made from a delivery box.

“Good afternoon, my dear audience—ptooey, good evening! Before I clicked on this video, I really didn’t expect that with the Lantern Festival just around the corner, the Spring Festival movie season wasn’t over yet. And now, the micro-movie ‘The Suspenseful Saga of the Entertainment Circle: Who is Your Mom, My Jiajia’ is out! Looking at the number of shares, which is erupting like a volcano, I can vaguely feel the surprise and enthusiasm of the melon-eating masses! Also, several official media accounts released the video at the same time, and no one was allowed to include a content summary. What does this mean? It means everyone’s KPI tasks are heavy! No one wants to be at a disadvantage. After some sneaky pulling and arguing, it was simply ‘you’re good, I’m good, let’s all post it together’.”

With that, Brother Thorn clicked on the ten-minute video and, in his usual movie-commentary tone, said, “This opening part can be described as the calm before the storm, a typical example of suppressing before raising. Xu Lingjia and Ms. Cheng Ningyu are standing at the entrance of the complex waiting for a car, and from their expressions, it looks like they’re arguing. It’s okay if they argue. They have more fights to have later, so it’s a good chance to practice.”

When Zhuo Suli appeared on screen and her cry of “She’s not your mom! Jiajia, I’m your real mom!” came from the speakers, Brother Thorn’s eyes gleamed, and he slapped his thigh.

“Good heavens! Isn’t this better than most of the movies released in theaters in the last two years? Look at this rhythm, these explosive points! It’s exciting, attention-grabbing from the start, and the suspense and anticipation are maxed out. Even a passing dog would have to stop and take a look!”

“—Hahaha, I knew it was the right choice to watch this video in Brother Thorn’s live stream room! It even comes with a bullet comment atmosphere team and professional commentary. Isn’t this more interesting than eating melons by myself?”

“—A Thorny fan who came in after seeing the live stream notification is bewildered. What movie is this? Why do the main characters look like Xu Lingjia and his mom, Cheng Ningyu, being cornered by reporters? Damn! What did that woman say? Xu Lingjia is not the Xu family’s child? Swapped at birth? Forced his own mother to her death? This is so outrageous! It’s too exciting!”

“—It’s really good. This plot has three, four, five twists, more than a supermarket sale. And it’s an all-villain route. Every single one of them is so criminal. I haven’t even finished watching, and I’ve already called the police. The police said they’ve been receiving calls all night from people watching this video. It seems I’m not the only one who thinks it’s very criminal!”

Brother Thorn had a full plate of sunflower seeds and peanuts in front of him. He ate, watched, and commented, “Our number one male lead, Xu Lingjia, in this film, has contributed the most exquisite acting of his career! At first, he lost his composure a little. That pale face that would make even a ghost give up the race had ‘fear’ and ‘guilt’ practically written on it. But later, his expression control was very good, haha. A sneer was a sneer, and sarcasm was sarcasm. There were no flying facial features. It was much better than his performance in ‘Mountain Range Line.’ I suggest he take out this video of his, analyze and study it more, and learn from it. Maybe his acting skills will improve!”

“—Hahaha, Brother Thorn, you’re so mean! If you can talk, talk more!”

With a “smack,” a crisp slapping sound was heard.

Brother Thorn, cracking a sunflower seed, let out a “hiss.” “Oh, oh, oh, this plot, isn’t it just, ‘How could my precious son possibly be wrong? It must be you who are wrong! You’ve corrupted my good and kind Jiajia baby!'”

He pointed at the screen. “To be fair, the quality of this old-person phone is really good. It was probably wrapped in several layers of plastic bags and went for a swim in the river, yet it can still be turned on normally. If this appeared in a real movie, I would have to complain that the product placement is too heavy.”

“—I love Brother Thorn’s sarcasm. His real mom really loves him, huh? She treasures that phone so much because it has those voice messages from Xu Lingjia, right? At first, I felt a little sorry for this woman, but unfortunately, when I think about what this woman did, my fists tighten. She’s really rotten to the core!”

“—Xu Lingjia’s first act after finding out his true parentage was to force his own mother to her death? Awesome. I really underestimated Xu Rotten Mud before! He got used to the good life in the Xu family and didn’t want to acknowledge his real mom, but there’s no need to force someone to die, right? This kind of incitement to suicide, what’s the sentence for that?”

“—Damn, damn! My Brother Zhong? That juice incident was really intentional! Shit, shit, shit, Xu Rotten Mud, you’re finished. This old lady won’t be able to close her eyes at night if I don’t slander you to death!”

“—So satisfying, so satisfying! His real mom finally knows what kind of character her precious son is. Isn’t it exciting? Isn’t it unexpected? Your son not only despises you, but he also wants to kill you!”

Brother Thorn stopped cracking sunflower seeds and pressed pause. The screen froze on Xu Lingjia staring at Cheng Ningyu with a venomous expression.

After a moment of silence, Brother Thorn sighed, his tone becoming a bit more serious. “To be honest, I’ve always known the entertainment industry is dirty. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many bad movies that cause nuclear-level damage to our hearts and eyes. But I never expected human evil could reach this level. Forcing his own son to steal another child’s asthma medication… I read online that that child is still alive, but he almost didn’t make it out of the ICU at the time. As for Jin Wenli, the media unanimously reported it was due to depression, but behind it, there were at least the hands of Cheng Ningyu, Ye Mei, and that weirdo old man. It makes my heart ache to see this. Compared to these life-and-death cases, tax evasion and donation fraud are indeed small problems.”

“—Sob, sob, I really don’t dare to imagine what my gentle and cheerful Wenli went through to be in so much pain that she decided to commit suicide. I really thought she was depressed at the time. I never thought the truth would be so ugly. My baby, I hope you’ve gone to heaven. There’s no filth in heaven [crying].”

“—Pouring glue for someone to drink, causing a miscarriage, framing someone for cheating, stealing a child’s asthma medication… Damn, the couple Xu Yuanjin and Cheng Ningyu, is there any wicked thing they haven’t done? And this is just what was casually revealed in a few sentences. How much more hasn’t been exposed? It’s terrifying to think about! I suggest a thorough investigation! @Ping’anNingcheng (Safe Ningcheng Police)”

“—Tax evasion?? @NingchengTaxBureau, you’ve got work! Come investigate! Make them pay it all back and then give them a heavy fine and a heavy sentence!”

“—My worldview has truly collapsed. I used to really, really love that parent-child variety show, especially the interaction between Xu Lingjia and his parents. I still rewatch it when I’m in a bad mood. So I’ve always had a thick filter for Xu Lingjia. Even when so many things happened before and many fans turned into anti-fans, I still stood firm in the fan group. Now you’re telling me yourself that it was all fake? Even the opportunity to be on the show was obtained by harming others? Xu Lingjia, you have failed all of us fans who stood by you!”

“—Am I the only one who thinks the most pitiful one is actually the Xu family’s biological son? Although the Xu couple are no good birds, at least he would have been a second-generation star who went to an international school in a big city and didn’t have to worry about food and clothing, right? Listening to Xu Lingjia’s real mom, her home is in the mountains, her husband drinks, gambles, and is abusive. This mom clearly only loves Xu Lingjia and ignores him. It’s really hard to imagine how miserable he would be. I wonder if he even lived to grow up, and how he is now.”

“—I agree with the person above. At least in the ten-minute video, no one mentioned that person. He’s clearly the most miserable and innocent one, the one whose life was swapped. Sigh.”

In the personal studio, the few employees were all gathered around Lan Xiaoshan’s tablet, eating melons together in Brother Thorn’s live stream room.

A giant, special-effect font appeared in the bullet comments: “Report! Ye Mei was taken away directly from JiaRui Media by the police!”

Countless people replied in the bullet comments: “Scout again and report back!”

Ge Lanjing was holding a cup of coffee. Seeing that message, she sighed. “This time, Cui Yunwei must be laughing in his dreams. His competitor has completely collapsed, and no one will be competing with him for the CCO position at JiaRui anymore. No matter what the outcome is for Ye Mei this time, there will be no place for her in this circle anymore.”

On the tablet, Brother Thorn’s voice sounded again.

“Alright, my dear audience, that’s all for today’s movie appreciation. See? Our domestic entertainment industry still has living people, right? Isn’t this just a dog-eat-dog fight, blaming each other, complaining about each other, digging up each other’s dirt, and trying to send each other to the legal program and then to prison? This micro-movie is very exciting, but Brother Thorn hopes there won’t be a sequel. It’s better for this world to have more truth, goodness, and beauty…”

Brother Thorn ended his stream, but the screen was still filled with dense bullet comments. Everyone was still discussing the matter in the live stream room. Although Lan Xiaoshan had been on set for a long time and had seen many open and secret struggles, he couldn’t help but shiver at this kind of thing that involved human lives.

He also felt a lingering fear. “Luckily, Xu Lingjia didn’t go after Brother Shen!”

Ge Lanjing, who knew Ye Mei’s methods, said, “Perhaps at that time, they didn’t even see him as a threat and thought your Brother Shen couldn’t threaten them, so they just played some small tricks in the live stream and casually screwed him over.”

“They stole Brother Shen’s role, slandered Brother Shen for knocking on Wen Yage’s door in the middle of the night, and hired people to spread rumors about Brother Shen bullying people on set, all without even paying attention? If they had paid attention, what would have happened?” Lan Xiaoshan rubbed his arms, which were no longer so thin. “Is this even human? I’m getting goosebumps!”

Ge Lanjing, having been in the circle the longest and in an old media group like JiaRui, had seen more than Lan Xiaoshan. “The interests are great, the temptations are many, the returns are high, and they’ve seen too much of the power of money and authority. So in this circle, being able to hold onto the bottom line of one’s conscience already surpasses many people.”

The more Lan Xiaoshan thought about it, the more scared he felt. He shook his head vigorously to stop himself from overthinking and turned his attention to the creative bullet comments. “Hey, this bullet comment sums it up so precisely: ‘Xu Lingjia, his real mom, real dad, adoptive father, adoptive mother, plus a godmother—a gambler, a villain, a murderer, a harmer, and a human trafficker—what a perfect family. They even step on sewing machines in perfect unison!’ That’s right, these kinds of legal cases should go to prison to step on sewing machines!”

“It’s not as simple as just stepping on sewing machines,” Ge Lanjing counted for Lan Xiaoshan. “Xu Lingjia is really ruthless. Bai Fenglai’s husband started out in real estate and later made a fortune. He has connections in both politics and business. Although Jiang Xuexiao’s throat was ruined and she retired from the circle, she married well. The one whose son was harmed and ended up in the ICU should be Huang Jiaqin. She herself is a capitalist now.”

Lan Xiaoshan immediately took out his notebook. “Then Sister Lanjing, in this situation, should we use some PR tactics to add fuel to the fire?”

“No need,” Ge Lanjing taught on the spot. “If we send in water armies now, it’s a waste of money. Don’t get in the way of Bai Fenglai, Jiang Xuexiao, and Jin Wenli’s fans seeking revenge. The momentum is already very strong now. After it ferments, it will be even greater. We just need to watch from the sidelines.”

Lan Xiaoshan nodded repeatedly. “Okay, okay, I understand!”

Shen Xici came downstairs with his jacket. Seeing that Ge Lanjing and Lan Xiaoshan hadn’t left yet, he found it strange. “You’re not off work yet?”

Lan Xiaoshan pointed at the screen. “Hehe, just finished watching Brother Thorn’s live stream. I want to wait for more bullet comments. Many of them are so insightful! I saw on Weibo that many people are complaining that too many people are crowding into the live stream room, and it keeps kicking people out. The studio’s internet speed is fast and stable. I haven’t been kicked offline once. If I were using my own phone, I’d definitely be kicked out in a second!”

Seeing Shen Xici holding his jacket, his face showing a hint of urgency, Lan Xiaoshan looked outside with understanding, his “oh” turning into several tones. “Brother Shao is here? Then Brother Shen, you should hurry. I won’t keep you for a chat!”

“Yes, he’s outside,” Shen Xici was indeed a bit anxious. “Then I’ll go first. Remember to lock the door when you leave.”

Walking towards the door, Shen Xici heard Lan Xiaoshan and Ge Lanjing discussing behind him, wondering how the person whose life was swapped with Xu Lingjia was doing now.

Ge Lanjing asked, “Why did you suddenly think of this?”

Lan Xiaoshan was a bit emotional. “Many people in the bullet comments are also discussing this issue. They said if that person had done anything bad, Xu Lingjia’s real mom would have definitely brought it up. But on the contrary, she didn’t mention a single word, which means that person must be good. Someone else said he probably died in childhood. With an abusive father, a neglectful mother, and in such poor conditions in the mountains, it must have been very difficult to survive.”

The door of the old mansion closed behind him, and the conversation inside could no longer be heard.

The next day, public opinion continued to ferment.

Someone analyzed frame by frame the movements and micro-expressions of everyone in the videos shot from different angles. Someone else found the parent-child variety show from back then and took screenshots of Xu Lingjia’s family’s performance, discovering many subtle inconsistencies.

A large number of fans spontaneously mourned Jin Wenli, demanding a thorough investigation of what happened back then and refusing to accept a hasty conclusion, because they didn’t know how many more Jiang Xuexiaos and Jin Wenlis were being secretly destroyed in the dark.

The people mentioned in Xu Lingjia’s words all recorded videos or issued written statements, saying that this matter would absolutely not just pass. And the brands that had signed endorsement contracts with Cheng Ningyu and Xu Yuanjin successively issued statements terminating their contracts.

Because the level of public attention was too high and had sparked discussions from various aspects, two days after the incident, the police issued an extremely detailed report and stated that some of the old stories needed further investigation due to the long time that had passed. As for the tax issues, the Ningcheng Tax Bureau was already following up, and any progress in related incidents would be further reported to the public.

Many influential figures in the legal field took advantage of the hype and published special features, analyzing the crimes that the Xu family’s explosive revelations would constitute, and also adding Wu Ya’s previous acts of stealing scripts and storyboards and secretly transferring crew funds, as well as the corresponding punishments.

Soon, the hot searches #AFamilyNeatlyTogetherInPrison# and #TheEntertainmentCircle’sLarge-ScaleLegalEducationProgram# entered the top ranks of the hot search list.

Having left something at his rented apartment, Shen Xici came back to stay for one night. Lying on the sofa in the living room, he watched the hot search topic rankings go up and down. In the top twenty, only three were unrelated to this matter. One was #FleetingLifeBoxOfficeBreaksThreeBillion#, another was #ShenXici’sActingPraised#, and the last one was #ShengYuen’sFamilyPrototypeReallyExists#.

Actually, Shen Xici had already mentally prepared himself for his life story to be exposed.

But he hadn’t expected that neither Zhuo Suli nor Xu Lingjia had mentioned his name. Was it that they didn’t have time, or that they wanted to but didn’t dare?

Also, according to the media’s usual style of digging into hot topics from every possible angle, they would definitely have dug up Zhuo Suli’s background, experiences, marriage, and family, as well as all the details of her adopted son’s life from childhood to adulthood. After turning everything upside down, they would have written one or even several long articles with explosive popularity.

But strangely, they hadn’t.

Not a single media outlet had dug into his past. In the overwhelming news, not a single article mentioned him.

It was as if on this issue, everyone had submitted to some invisible force and collectively maintained their silence.

He barely needed to think to guess—

Sheng Shaoyan was protecting him.

The sofa was one Sheng Shaoyan had moved over before. Shen Xici stared at the light on the wall for a while, then slowly curled up. Knowing that Sheng Shaoyan’s scent had long since dissipated from it, he still couldn’t help but greedily sniff it.

Just then, there was a sound at the door. Shen Xici turned his head, suddenly realized something, threw away his phone, got up, and ran over in his slippers, just in time to meet Sheng Shaoyan’s gaze as he closed the door.

“Ah Shao?” Shen Xici was pleasantly surprised. “It’s so late, why are you here?”

Sheng Shaoyan was wearing a dark long coat, his figure tall and straight, carrying a bit of the cold from outside. He didn’t answer, but asked instead, “It’s one o’clock. Why aren’t you asleep?”

Shen Xici instinctively bit his lip, hesitating for a moment before answering, “…I’m a little not used to it.”

Having grown accustomed to the other’s body temperature and embrace, when he lay in a bed all by himself, he couldn’t help but wonder what Sheng Shaoyan was doing now, whether he was in a meeting or already asleep.

He didn’t notice that a gaze had fallen on his lip, which was marked with a tooth print.

“Xici.” Sheng Shaoyan took off his black leather gloves, overlapped them, and placed them on the cabinet beside him.

“Hmm?”

His gaze focused on Shen Xici. Sheng Shaoyan reached to the side, pumped out some of the clear, medical-grade hand sanitizer Shen Xici often used, and slowly spread it over his fingers and between his fingers and palm, answering his initial question, “I haven’t done the check-up today.”

Shen Xici’s breathing became disordered. Under his thin eyelids, his eyes shimmered like trembling starlight. His throat was a little dry. “…Check where?”

Long, strong fingers pressed heavily on the tooth mark on Shen Xici’s lips, rubbing it until it turned red, then slid between his slightly parted thin lips. Sheng Shaoyan’s gaze was dark as he asked knowingly, “Why are you trembling so much?”

His voice was hoarse from deep desire. “Be good. Open your mouth.”