45 Discussion

Xu Youxiang insisted on dragging Lu Shengxing away. A few reporters were still staked out in front of the company entrance, and alerted by the commotion, they noticed the two men tugging at each other. Fearing that his unsightly image would be captured on camera, Lu Shengxing did not put up much of a struggle, half-willingly letting himself be pulled along.

Reaching the deserted side of the building, Xu Youxiang still did not let go, shaking his head while wearing that grotesque green frog mask.

Lu Shengxing pushed his hand away, holding his bag as a barrier between them: "Allow me to ask, why have you been performing a shamanistic dance at me this whole time?"

Xu Youxiang said anxiously, "I can't see! Its mouth isn't aligned properly!"

Lu Shengxing: "..."

After enduring an entire morning of being ignored, Xu Youxiang’s neck felt as though it was about to be snapped. He removed the headgear, revealing a gaunt, haggard face. With pale lips and drenched in sweat, he looked like a bag of bones that would prompt anyone to dial an emergency hotline immediately. The only thing on his entire body with any vitality was that untrimmed, half-long hair.

Lu Shengxing had initially been itching to perform, wanting to accuse the man of being a human trafficker. But upon getting a clear look at his appearance, he felt too embarrassed to sling any mud. Subduing his imposing manner, he asked with simple-minded obedience, "Do you know my brother?"

Xu Youxiang said, "Your cousin is Zhou Zuirong, right? I'll show you his WeChat contacts."

He fished out an old smartphone with a cracked screen and tapped into WeChat. The interface remained stuck on the deep blue image of the Earth, looking precisely like a static photograph.

He tapped exit, but there was no response. Muttering "It's frozen," he skillfully powered it down and rebooted.

Lu Shengxing: "..." Brother, seriously, stop performing sketches for me.

"Fine, I believe you. No swindler is as poor as you," Lu Shengxing said powerlessly. "Let me treat you to breakfast."

Looking at Xu Youxiang’s emaciated face, he worried the man might collapse onto the street at any moment.

Xu Youxiang wiped the screen on his clothes, put away his phone, and said, "Just buy two steamed buns."

The two of them sat side by side on the curbside of a small breakfast shop, eating their buns amid vehicle exhaust fumes.

Lu Shengxing felt a pang of guilt for spending a pauper's money, and his demeanor softened considerably.

Xu Youxiang said, "Your brother said you're planning to sign with Liang Yizheng's MCN company. You haven't actually signed yet, have you?"

Lu Shengxing said dejectedly, "No. I read through the contract and felt it was unreasonable, so I asked them to modify a few clauses. Their expressions changed on the spot, and they chased me out."

Xu Youxiang wore an expression of sheer disbelief, his pupils filled with the shock of *You actually read contracts?*

"Shut your mouth!" Lu Shengxing shot him a disgruntled side-eye, adjusted his hairstyle, and scoffed, "With my qualifications, it's their loss if they don't sign me!"

Xu Youxiang scrutinized his face for a good while, but being poor at lying, he lowered his head and exchanged blank stares with the green frog he was holding in his arms.

Failing to detect the goodwill hidden within Xu Youxiang’s silence, Lu Shengxing poked him with his elbow to seek validation: "Right?"

Xu Youxiang stammered, "Has nobody around you ever told you the truth?"

"Huh?" Suffering unprecedented humiliation, Lu Shengxing pointed an accusing finger in righteous indignation: "Do you even know what beauty and ugliness are? Is your aesthetic sense as negative as your bank balance?!"

Facing his fury, Xu Youxiang mumbled, "You and your brother don't look very much alike..."

His IQ didn't seem particularly high, either.

The expression of genetics is truly cruel...

Xu Youxiang comforted him: "Still, you're more innocent than your brother. Really."

Lu Shengxing was ready to explode, feeling for the first time that he had nothing to talk about with this person.

He took two bites of his meat bun, gathered his thoughts, straightened his posture, and announced, "I'm going back this afternoon. Once I see Liang Yizheng, he'll definitely want to sign me."

"You're still going?" Unable to fix iron into steel, Xu Youxiang pounded Lu Shengxing's back with a clenched fist. "Are you willing to resort to any means just to get famous? I'm telling you, Liang Yizheng can't even protect himself; you have no future following him!"

Lu Shengxing yelped, rubbing the sore spot and saying, "What do you know? I've been in this industry—no, I've been studying the internet for several years, I know what I'm doing. I've browsed through all those news articles about Liang Yizheng online. Even though it's been kicked up into such a huge storm, there's fundamentally not a single shred of substantive evidence. Calling it sensationalized is putting it mildly. Do you even know how this trending topic blew up?"

Xu Youxiang said with righteous anger, "Netizens are witnessing his utter depravity!"

"To hell with you." Lu Shengxing didn't expect any valuable insights from him anyway. He opened a short video and hit play.

"The night before last, when Xu Yuan went on a knife-wielding rampage in the night market, this matter was still contained within a certain scope. After all, strictly speaking, it was just a false alarm that didn't result in any casualties. What truly caused the heat to climb exponentially was the concentrated eruption of similar videos after midnight."

Reading the subtitles while listening to Lu Shengxing's summary in his ear, Xu Youxiang was multitasking and paid little attention.

"A bunch of marketing accounts started exposing Liang Yizheng's earnings, claiming that in his early years he built his persona on being bullied, making hundreds of millions, while the truly bullied person was driven to ruin by his protective umbrella, ultimately pushed into a corner where they had no choice but to resort to crime to drag him down with them. Yet even risking his life, Liang Yizheng was rescued by police providing 24-hour personal protection and emerged completely unscathed. The most popular video has already surpassed a million likes. Do you understand what kind of reach that is?"

It wasn't until the video ended that Xu Youxiang turned his face and concentrated on watching Lu Shengxing's analysis.

"Even yesterday, in Xu Yuan's hometown, absolutely nobody caught footage of the police unearthing anything, and the Public Security Bureau hasn't released an official announcement either. Yet a large swarm of bloggers couldn't wait to spin the narrative that what was unearthed was Xu Yuan's father's corpse, and that the final autopsy result will definitely be suicide. The intention behind this is far too obvious," Lu Shengxing said with absolute confidence. "Gathering materials for a video takes time. Such an organized and efficient operation clearly shows paid trolls pushing things from behind the scenes, with the objective of stirring up social conflict. At least 80% of it is fake. Who knows if that Xu Yuan doesn't just have some kind of delusion? The person in the video clearly doesn't look normal!"

Xu Youxiang squeezed the bun in his hand and said fiercely, "The one with the knife wasn't Xu Yuan!"

"How do you know?" Lu Shengxing's mind spun, and he probed, "Have you met Xu Yuan?"

Xu Youxiang let it slip, his expression instantly turning remorseful.

Lu Shengxing's heart skipped a beat. He pounced on him, grabbed his head, and patted it back and forth.

Possessing great strength, Lu Shengxing brushed off Xu Youxiang's attempts to push him away as the latter shouted, "What are you doing?!"

Confirming that there were no surgical scars on his head, Lu Shengxing secretly breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I'm checking if your brain has any holes in it."

"Your brain has holes!" Finding this kid's behavior bizarre, erratic, and utterly unpredictable, Xu Youxiang placed both hands on his knees. The bun in his hand was crushed flat, soup spilling all over the plastic bag. He carefully pulled the bag apart, rubbed the eyes that had caught stray hairs in the wind, and said with low energy, "What happened with Xu Yuan is true. Most of what's said online is true. Public opinion has reached this stage, yet the police remain indifferent. Since you insist on treating those righteous netizens as paid trolls, I have nothing more to say."

After deep contemplation, Lu Shengxing malicious speculated with sharp malice: "Have you ever thought that Xu Yuan is using you? He lied to make you sympathize with him, the same way he's now using netizens as cannon fodder for his cause. He hides behind the scenes watching this farce play out, and his goal is to bring down Liang Yizheng. Then why doesn't he show his face himself? Is he too ashamed to be seen?"

Xu Youxiang retorted angrily, "How can you call this bringing him down? Do you know how despicable Liang Yizheng's tactics are? The crimes they're cursing him for now are just the tip of the iceberg. Under the guise of talent management, he signed a massive number of female anchors. Those who didn't know better wouldn't get recommended or paid. He set up class divisions inside the company, graded everyone like an emperor distributing power, brainwashed them, oppressed, slandered, and humiliated them just to force them to obey. He's played these kinds of tricks countless times! He's been like this since his student days!"

Giving him a sidelong glance, Lu Shengxing let his rejection and contempt ooze out: "You're the one who got brainwashed by Xu Yuan, aren't you? Most corporate systems are unfair. Positions naturally have hierarchies. Which working stiff doesn't have to bow and scrape before their superiors? Otherwise, why would people call themselves beasts of burden?"

"Ordinary jobs allow people to quit. Once they sign with Liang Yizheng's company, can they get away? They can't afford the breach-of-contract penalties," Xu Youxiang said with mounting agitation, a pale flush creeping from his neck all the way to his face, boiling with rage.

"If you stepped into a cult-like place like that, you'd be stripped to the bone. First, they find someone to play the good cop, hooking you with sweet words to make you obedient. Then they find someone to play the bad cop, picking apart your flaws with a fine-toothed comb and imposing all sorts of harsh demands. When you fail to complete them, they have an excuse to punish you, using fairness and comedy as excuses to make you do humiliating things, lowering your bottom line step by step. Once you get used to their rules, you start yearning for money, fans, and status, wanting to use success to make up for your trampled dignity, and then you unconsciously choose to take shortcuts following the trends around you.

"Do you think the influencers Liang Yizheng signed—who don't even have many followers yet rake in such huge tips—get those because they're good at dancing?"

Lu Shengxing demanded sharply, "You've never even worked in Liang Yizheng's company, so why do you talk as if you saw it with your own eyes?"

Having presumably heard similar questions and rebuttals too many times, Xu Youxiang suddenly lost all color, his voice growing weak as he insisted, "I just know."

"Xu Yuan told you," Lu Shengxing looked at him with clear eyes, the focus of his gaze sweeping across his face like evidence collection. "You're still in contact with him."

The roaring waves in Xu Youxiang's heart completely dissipated. Defeated, he shrank his neck back, instantly reverting to the gaunt, desolate, and ruined young man from before.

"You only know how to speak for Liang Yizheng, acting as a disciple of his crooked doctrines." Cowering with an ashen expression, Xu Youxiang wiped his face, his voice sounding on the verge of tears. "City B only has one MCN company of that scale. My ex-girlfriend signed into it, and then she completely changed. I wanted to report Liang Yizheng, but the police said the evidence wasn't enough to file a case; posting videos online gained no traction; going to his company resulted in the security guards refusing entry. After I offended him, he sent a few thugs to stir up trouble at my workplace and ruined my job. To retaliate against me, they even forced-fed me alcohol and nearly scared the half-life out of me.

"Anyway, nobody will believe me even if I tell them. Believe it or not, do as you please."

"I'm not one of Liang Yizheng's disciples. Alright, I believe you, okay? But I think you shouldn't treat Xu Yuan as such a good person either," Lu Shengxing said. "I heard from my cousin that City B isn't safe, and someone is instigating murder behind the scenes. The knife-wielder is one of them. I previously thought he was just alarmist, but now I think it's pretty close to the truth. Xu Yuan telling you all these things might just be to agitate your emotions and make you his next target. Don't contact him anymore."

"He even dares to tell you such undisclosed investigative details?!" Xu Youxiang was startled for a moment before quickly figuring it out, "Whatever, since he's a photographer anyway, it's hardly surprising. Don't go spreading it outside; your cousin might get detained if word gets out."

His biting tongue was indiscriminate, and Lu Shengxing decided to forgive him for now.

Seeing that Lu Shengxing was no longer debating him and looking at him in a new light, Xu Youxiang was moved to remark: "You're actually a pretty good person." Just a bit stupid, believing whatever anyone said.

His expression was too glaring, so Lu Shengxing raised his fist at him: "I'll hit you. A fragile guy like you would lose half your life from one punch."

Depressed by the remarks, Lu Shengxing lost his appetite for the remaining half of the bun.

Sighing, he prepared to throw it away, seeing which Xu Youxiang said, "Give it to me, don't waste food."

"Are you disgusting?" Seeing him make a move to snatch it, Lu Shengxing shoved the entire bun into his mouth. With his cheeks bulging and unable to swallow, he choked and felt a bit nauseous, glaring with fierce, wrathful eyes as he scolded, "You have so many issues! I really don't want to stay with you!"

Xu Youxiang refused to back down: "I don't want to be with you either!"

If he hadn't taken Fang Qingzhou's twenty thousand yuan, he wouldn't bother dealing with such a pampered young master who loved courting death.

Speaking of which, he realized he had forgotten to notify Zhou Zuirong.

Xu Youxiang took out his phone and powered it on. This time, it successfully booted into the social app, and he dialed a voice call to the other end.

"Mr. Zhou, I've run into your younger brother," Xu Youxiang said with utmost respect toward his benefactor. "He's right beside me."

"My brother?" Zhou Zuirong said. "Oh, Lu Shengxing?"

His anger flared up a beat late, his tone gradually rising as he said, "That damn brat, ran off where he couldn't be found and won't even answer my calls. You must keep an eye on him for me and don't let him do anything foolish."

Suffering unprovoked scolding, Lu Shengxing made a sour face and said, "Zhou Zuirong! Shut up!"

Zhou Zuirong said, "Look at that, he doesn't listen to a single word I say. Can you help me take care of him for a few days? I can wire you living expenses."

"No need, I still have some," Xu Youxiang said with a troubled expression. "But wouldn't that be inappropriate?"

Lu Shengxing stared at his phone, pondering inwardly: Stealing a phone... no, stealing trash, would that be a crime?

"Lu Shengxing!" Zhou Zuirong issued a stern and severe warning from the other end. "If you dare play truant again, I'll tell your parents and freeze all your cards. I'll strip a layer of skin off you for sure!"

Lu Shengxing gritted his teeth and swallowed his grievances.

Switching back to a familiar and grateful tone, Zhou Zuirong pleaded, "Xu Youxiang, talk to him more. If you can persuade him to change his mind and come home with me to do an honest job, you'll be the benefactor of our old Zhou family."

Xu Youxiang: "Didn't you say his last name is Lu?"

Zhou Zuirong smoothly picked up without missing a beat: "The benefactor of the old Zhou, old Lu, and old Fang families. We're all one big family."

Being all alone, Xu Youxiang felt a bit envious hearing this. After hanging up, he told Lu Shengxing, "Don't ruin such a big family of yours. Your relatives genuinely have your best interests at heart."

Having not yet developed any special feelings for this extended family composed of three unrelated colleagues, Lu Shengxing lamented, "Why didn't you want the money? Make him wire living expenses! Ask for more!"

"I still have some," Xu Youxiang said. "I have 19,011 yuan. It's enough for you to eat."

...That had exact amounts down to the single digit; that was his true life savings.

Lu Shengxing deliberately refrained from asking him what he intended to do wandering back and forth in front of Liang Yizheng's company wearing a frog mask. After tossing away the trash, he casually asked, "How big is your place? Is there room for me to live?"

Still hugging his salvaged headgear protectively, Xu Youxiang said, "About 50 square meters."

Lu Shengxing: "..."

He had never truly been a working stiff in his life, and now he was going to live in a rabbit warren.

Lu Shengxing: "Quickly ask me why I won't get a proper job."

Xu Youxiang: "Why?"

Displaying righteous indignation, Lu Shengxing cursed Zhou Zuirong's inhumanity: "Because the first job I got after graduation was meeting a vicious Shang Yang! A slave master at the beast-of-burden breeding farm! A human-rights-ignoring dictator!"

·

"I somehow feel..." Zhou Zuirong rubbed his itching nose, "like firecrackers are cursing me."

That was beyond a doubt.

Fang Qingzhou said, "I heard it too. The cursing is coming from so close."

"Bastards! A bunch of dogs!"

A roaring bellow, sounding as though it had been put through a loudspeaker, pierced the door panels from deep down the corridor.

Approaching further inside, Zhou Zuirong clearly heard Liang Yizheng ranting in the precinct.

He twisted the door open, and a destructive wave of sound smashed over them like a tempest, making him realize the issue wasn't poor soundproofing.

"I'm getting married on September 15th, and now the internet is full of rumors smearing me. Classmate says, neighbor says, net rumors—slinging a bunch of garbage to slander me, how am I supposed to get married now? Why aren't you banning those accounts, what are you doing? Do you want to go dark-red too? Are you leaving those people unarrested to save up performance metrics for next year? Aren't paid trolls illegal?"

The scene had evidently already weathered a preliminary wave of impact. Officer Xiao sat as steady as a mountain. Waiting for Liang Yizheng to finish cursing, he put on a standard customer service smile and said, "The Major Crimes Unit doesn't handle cyberbullying; you can go register at the local police station. Besides, communicating with platforms and verifying things takes time, and cyber police can't just ban whoever they want."

Struggling to catch his breath, Liang Yizheng laughed out of extreme anger: "You asked me to cooperate with the investigation, fine, I accompanied you for a whole night of depositions. Now people online are accusing me of murder with zero consequences. I'm clearly the victim—I almost had my throat slit by a knife—yet I'm the one being cursed at like a grandson. Who is cooperating with me? Where is the police clarification announcement? Who the hell is that lunatic anyway!"

Ji He chimed in: "He said his name is Xu Yuan."

Only then did Fang Qingzhou notice Ji He sitting by the window with a cup of tea, soaking up the sun in an unhurried, leisurely manner.

"So who the hell is Xu Yuan?!" Liang Yizheng roared, slapping the table. After shouting, he realized the name sounded far too familiar—it was precisely the victim deeply bound to him these past few days.

"Bullshit!" Liang Yizheng's voice lowered slightly. "Did his plastic surgery botch? How could anyone grow to look that grotesque?"

Rolling his eyes and pushing aside the suspicious details, he once again launched into a high-momentum attack: "So what if he is Xu Yuan? I'm blind! See this! I'm blind in one eye, while he's completely whole. Exactly who is supposed to be exacting revenge on whom?"

Taking a sip of tea, Ji He repeated, "Yesterday, an adult male corpse was unearthed in the backyard of Xu Yuan's house."

Liang Yizheng's curses cut off abruptly. Slowly turning his head to look at her with a ghost-seen expression, he showed that he was genuinely surprised—those absurd rumors he had been scolding actually turned out to be true.

"What does that have to do with me?" His lips moved as he pointed at himself, "How could I possibly have killed him? I was only in middle school back then. Don't tell me you actually believe those outrageous theories online, thinking my father abused his power?!"

Fang Qingzhou found a spot beside Ji He, crossed his legs, and settled into a comfortable posture.

"He isn't seeking revenge on you because of his father's death either," Fang Qingzhou said. "So he didn't kill you. He wants to mobilize society to condemn you. And what's being condemned isn't the mistakes you made in your ignorant youth, but your ongoing lies and illegal profit-making methods."

Liang Yizheng's sarcastic retort died on his lips.

Without giving him a chance, Fang Qingzhou completed the self-questioning and answering: "Because he's mentally abnormal. Doing this is based on his own stance, not some lofty faith or pursuit of justice."

This single sentence choked back the profanities Liang Yizheng had been about to spew.