ABOES 9: A Strange Phone Call

Seeing the flood of praise online and Ye Xinian’s rapidly increasing followers count on Weibo, the heavy stone in Xie Yi’s heart finally landed.

Her phone rang suddenly. She glanced at the caller ID, smiled, and answered the call. “Director Zhao, you’re up so early?”

Director Zhao replied bluntly, “If I don’t get up early, who’s going to record the show?”

Xie Yi lightly slapped her forehead. “My bad. Once I pull an all-nighter, I forget everything.”

Hearing that, Director Zhao immediately understood. “You didn’t sleep all night?”

“Just finished dealing with everything,” Xie Yi said, and then asked, “Did you see the trending topics?”

Ye Xinian was a regular guest on his variety show, and Xie Yi was an old friend of his. How could Director Zhao not have seen Weibo?

In fact, he had called Xie Yi specifically because of that. Last night, when Ye Xinian suddenly revealed his engagement during a livestream, Director Zhao was so shocked he immediately called Xie Yi to ask what was going on.

Unexpectedly, Xie Yi told him not to worry and that she would handle it.

At the time, Director Zhao had still been a little concerned but after seeing the trending topics this morning, he realized that Ye Xinian and Xie Yi must have discussed everything beforehand.

Although Ye Xinian was taking advantage of the buzz right now, this kind of popularity wasn’t sustainable and there would likely be a lot of unexpected complications down the line.

“You’re walking on a thin line with this move,” Director Zhao said.

“But Xinian’s broken through now. I received several invitations just last night,” Xie Yi replied.

Director Zhao sighed. He knew what Xie Yi had been through and didn’t want to say too much. They chatted a bit more and just before hanging up, Director Zhao said, “Xinian’s a really good kid. I have a feeling he’ll become more popular than Xiang Che.”

Hearing that, Xie Yi laughed, her cheerful voice sounded through the phone. “That trash Xiang Che? How can he compare to Xinian?”

Director Zhao chuckled too.

Ungrateful and worse than a beast—calling him trash was being generous.

After the call ended, it was time to start filming the second day of Let’s Go Travel.

An assistant knocked on Director Zhao’s door and asked if they should start recording now.

Director Zhao nodded, then paused for a second and said to the assistant, “Oh, right—let everyone know to give Ye Xinian a few more camera shots during today’s filming.”

The assistant was a little surprised but it made sense. After all, Ye Xinian’s name was still trending. Giving him more screen time was completely reasonable. He agreed and quickly left to pass on the message.

At 8 a.m. sharp, the livestream for Let’s Go Travel began.

As soon as the stream started, a flood of viewers poured into the room.

If yesterday’s livestream had been dominated by Duan Zhiyan’s fans, today’s stream was a battlefield equally split between Ye Xinian’s and Duan Zhiyan’s fanbases.

【I’m here, I’m here!】

【OMG! Just entered and saw Duan-ge fresh out of the shower!】

【My god, he’s so handsome!】

【Ye Xinian! My baby!】

【Came straight from the trending page just to see the ever-rational Ye Xinian!】

【Wait, where is Ye Xinian?】

【Why is only Ji Xi in the room?】

Not seeing Ye Xinian in the room, the fans were confused and quickly switched to other camera angles.

Soon, someone spotted him in the kitchen.

Just like yesterday, the show wouldn’t provide breakfast. There were leftover ingredients from what Ye Xinian had brought back the day before, and he was in the kitchen preparing breakfast.

During filming, Ye Xinian didn’t have his phone. While he didn’t know the exact online situation, he could guess most of it. Before joining the show, he and Xie Yi had already agreed: if anything went wrong, she would call Director Zhao.

He waited in his room until 7:30 a.m. but never saw any staff come to speak to him. That meant things had gone smoothly.

For today’s shoot, all he had to do was show off a bit of “affection” in front of the camera.

【Found him!】

【Ye Xinian’s in the kitchen!】

【He’s up so early and making breakfast for everyone!】

【Wow, it’s century egg and lean pork congee! My favorite!】

【He’s so skilled at this—I just noticed how good he is at cooking.】

Duan Zhiyan was the second to come downstairs. Hearing sounds from the kitchen, he headed over.

Ye Xinian greeted him with a smile. “Good morning, Teacher Duan.”

“Morning,” Duan Zhiyan replied, then offered, “Need help with anything?”

Ye Xinian didn’t actually need help, but he didn’t want Duan Zhiyan to feel awkward or bored just standing there, so he nodded and said, “Could I trouble you to wash the vegetables?”

Before long, the other guests came downstairs as well.

The three female guests also enthusiastically offered to help. Seeing the suddenly crowded kitchen, Ye Xinian laughed helplessly and shooed everyone out.

“Leave it to me, I’ve got this! Breakfast will be ready soon!”

The comments exploded with laughter:

【I could actually feel Ye Xinian’s despair just now!】

【Hahaha why are all these people who can’t cook squeezing into the kitchen?】

【Maybe they just wanted to get in the way.】

【Ye Xinian’s having such a hard time LOL】

Though breakfast was simple, it was plentiful—congee, noodles, eggs, and Ye Xinian even made fresh soy milk.

Ji Xi took a bite of the congee. The rich flavors of century egg and lean pork burst in his mouth. He closed his eyes in bliss and exclaimed, “Xinian, your cooking is amazing!”

After spending a day together, he and Ye Xinian had gotten familiar. Ye Xinian chuckled, “You said that yesterday too.”

Ji Xi laughed sheepishly, then asked, “I’m curious though, where did you learn to cook like this?”

“Self-taught,” Ye Xinian replied.

“Then why did you decide to learn? Just interested?”

Ye Xinian’s smile faltered slightly at the corners, but he quickly recovered and lowered his gaze with a shy smile. “Actually… I learned so I could cook for him.”

At that, everyone at the table let out a collective groan.

Jiang Yin exaggerated, “It’s way too early in the morning for this kind of PDA!”

Ji Xi looked like he wanted to slap himself. “Ugh, my mouth!”

The others laughed heartily at that.

Only Duan Zhiyan didn’t laugh. He looked at Ye Xinian with a slightly puzzled expression.

Maybe it was his imagination, but he could’ve sworn that the way Ye Xinian lowered his eyes just now resembled the preparatory movement an actor makes when getting into character.

As if sensing Duan Zhiyan’s gaze, Ye Xinian started to turn his head but Duan Zhiyan quickly looked away before their eyes could meet.

Ye Xinian glanced across at Duan Zhiyan and hesitated. Was I imagining things just now?

Breakfast ended in cheerful laughter, and the six guests were soon given their next task—catching crayfish.

When they heard the task, Ji Xi’s face fell. He couldn’t help asking the director, “Is this really a travel variety show?”

Director Zhao shamelessly replied, “It’s a rural travel show.”

The six guests couldn’t help laughing.

You’ve got some nerve!

Director Zhao pretended not to notice their expressions.

This whole exchange was captured by the cameras, and the livestream was full of laughter.

【This is totally a prank show!】

【So tragic. Yesterday fishing, today crayfish.】

【Honestly, I’m looking forward to seeing if Ye Xinian ends up covered in mud again.】

【Catching crayfish shouldn’t be as hard as fishing, right?】

【Either way, I hope he doesn’t fall again today.】

【LOL】

At that moment, Song Jing couldn’t take it anymore and angrily shut off the livestream.

When he woke up this morning, he saw Ye Xinian’s name trending again.

He clicked into the topic multiple times to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. It was indeed Ye Xinian.

Ye Xinian had only entered the industry for half a month and he was already trending twice!

Song Jing had debuted for two whole years but he could count his trending moments on one hand.

That thought made him furious.

He didn’t even know what kind of emotion drove him to click into Let’s Go Travel’s livestream but the moment he did, he saw Ye Xinian putting on a public display of affection in front of all the other guests.

Song Jing was even more annoyed but he couldn’t do anything about it.

After all, Ye Xinian was Xia Huaiming’s fiancé. And he… he was just a dispensable lover.

Everything Song Jing said or did had to be based on Xia Huaiming’s mood.

If Xia Huaiming was in a good mood, Song Jing could get some scraps of attention.

If he wasn’t, Song Jing would have vanished without a trace.

The injustice burned in Song Jing’s chest.

Why?

He had debuted earlier than Ye Xinian, and he wasn’t any less attractive, so why was he doing so much worse?

He took a deep breath. No. He couldn’t just sit around waiting to be abandoned.

He suddenly remembered that his agent had once passed him someone’s contact information.

That person was supposedly a high-level executive at Yunxing Entertainment.

At the time, Song Jing had still been clinging to Xia Huaiming, holding on to his illusions, so he had refused.

However, Xia Huaiming hadn’t contacted him in ages. Maybe he was already being cast aside.

If Song Jing didn’t start thinking about his future now, he’d be doomed.

He acted immediately, calling his agent to ask for the address and contact info. He was about to leave the house but before he could walk out the door, his phone rang.

It was an unfamiliar number. He hesitated for a moment before answering. “Hello?”

A slightly youthful voice came from the other end. “Hi, is this Song Jing Ge?”

“Who’s this?”

“Song Jing Ge, I’m Ye Nan, Ye Xinian’s younger brother. Do you remember me?”