TSBDRA 34: Heart Racing

While Xu Xishuang was chatting with Guoguo, on the other side, Tang Min was contacting the internet troll team he had worked with for years.

Ever since the recording of that episode of Can I Like You, Tang Min had been on edge for several days, having people keep a constant eye on any online activity.

After several days, Xu Xishuang hadn’t released any information, Yan Yushan hadn’t made any moves, and the staff who were present at the time hadn’t said a word. They all knew Tang Min had powerful backers and didn’t want to risk their jobs by offending him, so no one dared bring it up.

Tang Min was now even more convinced that Xu Xishuang had been bluffing that day and that he hadn’t gotten any solid evidence at all.

Just thinking about how Xu Xishuang had embarrassed him in front of so many people, humiliated him, and even faked a bloody injury to frame him, made Tang Min burn with rage. He couldn’t swallow this insult.

Tang Min barked at the troll team, “Are all the dirt files on Xu Xishuang ready? The one with the photo that proves he had plastic surgery—upload it all now!”

The troll team was hesitant. They had originally planned to play up Xu Xishuang’s cold personality, accusing him of disrespecting seniors and acting like a diva on set. Those kinds of rumors were easy to write and hard to refute. Tang Min insisted on attacking Xu Xishuang’s appearance, so they were forced to dig up old unflattering photos of him. And then…

They realized that since the day Xu Xishuang entered the industry, there wasn’t a single bad photo of him. Plus, Xu Xishuang was relatively low-key, so even finding photos was difficult. Every single one they found was stunning in its own unique way—each one worthy of collection.

Several members of the team nearly defected on the spot, becoming fans of Xu Xishuang’s looks. Even the troll team leader felt guilty about smearing someone so beautiful. For the money Tang Min was offering, he gritted his teeth, edited one of Xu Xishuang’s old photos into an ugly one, and compared it to a current photo, then lied that every feature on Xu Xishuang’s face had been surgically altered.

After preparing everything, the team contacted over a dozen marketing accounts, ready to publish the dirt at the scheduled time. Just as the troll team leader opened Weibo, he froze.

After a few seconds, he closed his gaping mouth, deleted the draft containing the dirt on Xu Xishuang, and messaged all those marketing accounts to stop the release. Only after doing all this did he turn to message Tang Min: “We’re out on this one.”

Tang Min was baffled: “What do you mean? Did Xu Xishuang bribe you?!”

Troll Leader: “I always knew you were trash, but I never expected you to be this trash. Goodbye, scum.”

Tang Min sent a string of question marks and was about to unleash a storm of curses when he noticed a little red dot next to his message—he froze. That meant he had been blocked. He nearly smashed his phone in anger.

Trying to calm himself, Tang Min opened Weibo. The moment he saw the new trending topic, his previously flushed face turned deathly pale, with a hint of green.

#TangMinGoToJail

Under this trending hashtag, now labeled “explosive,” were others like #TangMinIsTrash, #TangMinGetOutOfTheIndustry—waves of insults with his full name.

Hands trembling, Tang Min mustered the courage to click on it.

It was a long post by a young woman.

In calm, composed language, she recounted Tang Min’s crimes. Every sentence revealed nauseating truths. Though her anger, grief, and helplessness were buried beneath the calm tone, reading closely made one ache with sorrow.

At the end of the post, she thanked someone—someone who had pulled her out of the abyss, comforted her with care, helped her retreat from the brink of suicide, rekindle her love for life, and convinced her that Tang Min would get what he deserved—that the one at fault was Tang Min, not her. She shouldn’t punish herself for someone else’s crimes.

The words on the phone screen hit him like a truck. Tang Min’s head was spinning, vision dimming. In a daze, he vaguely remembered what the girl looked like, but couldn’t recall her name.

Back then, he had deliberately targeted girls who were desperate for love and easy to control. He believed that even if they eventually learned the truth, they’d keep quiet for life out of fear and weakness. They were victims—meek, breakable—and he could trample them at will.

But now…

Tang Min stared at the name mentioned at the end of Guoguo’s post. His mouth tasted of rust.

Xu Xishuang! Xu Xishuang!!

How dare he?!

Tang Min saw that Xu Xishuang had shared the post. He told himself not to panic and there was still room to maneuver. If he begged his sugar daddy, maybe he could still fix this. The trending post could be taken down, Guoguo’s statement could be censored, and Xu Xishuang could be blacklisted. In a few days, the internet would forget, and he could return to his glamorous life in the industry.

When Tang Min saw who else had shared the post, his heart plummeted and his body turned cold.

It was over.

Yan Yushan had shared it.

Yan Yushan had gotten involved for Xu Xishuang.

It felt like a punch to the face. Tang Min’s head buzzed like a broken speaker. He barely stayed conscious. Hands trembling, he opened his sugar daddy’s contact info and used his most sycophantic tone. “Daddy…”

“You still dare call me that?!” the man on the other end exploded. “Do you even know who you’ve messed with?! What the hell did you do to provoke Yan Yushan?!”

Tang Min opened his mouth to say he didn’t do anything to Yan Yushan, to plead for help, but then heard his sugar daddy’s low, furious voice, “For the sake of how obedient you used to be, I’ll tell you this—Yan Yushan is already looking for evidence from that party. He’s going after a lot of people. If he succeeds and everyone gets dragged down…”

“Then the first one they’ll all want to destroy—is you.”

Tang Min couldn’t stop shaking.

Meanwhile, Weibo was blowing up. Even though the year was already more than halfway through, everyone agreed that the Tang Min scandal would be the biggest bombshell of the year. Netizens were cursing him nonstop, demanding him to stop playing dead and come out to apologize then go to jail. At the same time, they were showing support and love for Guoguo.

【Worked in the industry before. There are a lot of scumbags like Tang Min in this circle. Huge respect to Xu Xishuang and Yan Yushan for stepping up.】

【At least Yan Yushan has the powerful Yan family backing him, but Xu Xishuang has no background at all. He’s really brave… I believe now his no-nonsense persona isn’t just an act. I’m a fan.】

【How could Tang Min do that?? Did he ever respect the law??】

【Probably thought his sugar daddy could cover for him. But now that Yan Yushan’s involved, Tang Min’s protector is useless.】

【Hugging Guoguo! I can’t imagine what she’s gone through all these years. She’s so brave!】

【It takes real courage to speak up like that in public. I could never do it. Don’t cry, Guoguo, Tang Min will definitely get what he deserves!】

【Tang Min, you piece of trash, go die already! Can we sentence him to death?! @TangMin】

When Guoguo posted her story, she braced herself for backlash from Tang Min’s rabid fans. So far, the comments under her post were nothing but support and comfort, suggestions on how to move forward, and curses at Tang Min. His fans had seemingly vanished into thin air.

She had thought about not tagging Xu Xishuang in the post, to avoid dragging him into trouble but Xu Xishuang didn’t mind—in fact, he deliberately shared it to help direct traffic and amplify her voice.

When she saw that Yan Yushan had also shared her post, she screamed and rolled excitedly on her bed, then frantically messaged Xu Xishuang.

Guoguo: “I didn’t imagine it, right? My eyes aren’t deceiving me, right? That’s Yan Yushan, right? Not a fake account, right?!”

Xu Xishuang: “Yeah, it’s him.”

Guoguo: “And you still say you have nothing going on with him! He shared my post—for you!!”

Xu Xishuang: “Maybe he just likes standing up for justice.”

Warmhearted Citizen Mr. Yan.

Thinking that, Xu Xishuang couldn’t help but smile.

Guoguo: “I don’t believe it! That’s the top-tier film emperor Yan Yushan—so aloof and untouchable! He’s posted so few times on Weibo, and now one of them is actually about me. Oh my god, my life is complete.”

Guoguo: “My parents just called and messaged me, telling me to delete the post because I’m embarrassing them. Pfft, like I care. I’m not deleting anything. They never acted like parents before, left me to rot, and now they want to control me? Dream on. I’m an adult. I’ll do whatever I want.”

Guoguo: “The comment sections under our posts are so clean. Did Yan Yushan get people to help moderate them?”

Xu Xishuang: “Probably.”

No one else could’ve done that.

Just as Xu Xishuang guessed, shortly after Guoguo’s post, many of Tang Min’s fans swarmed her Weibo, unwilling to believe their idol could do such things. Every hostile comment was reported by a team hired by Yan Yushan, the accounts swiftly banned to keep the comment section free of any victim-blaming.

Not only that, Yan Yushan also had his people package up all the damning evidence and send it to the most prominent paparazzi team in the industry.

The professional paparazzi team was nearly scared to death when they received a message from Yan Yushan, they thought he was coming after them with a lawsuit. They quickly did some soul-searching and realized they had never actually published any fake news about him. Then they gather the courage to ask what he wanted—only to be hit with a massive batch of explosive scoops from Yan Yushan himself, leaving them completely stunned.

The terrifying Yan Yushan had actually handed them exclusive content—guaranteeing that none of the powerful figures behind Tang Min would retaliate against them. How could they possibly say no to such a golden opportunity?

The team leader, face glowing with excitement, wanted to post everything right away but remembering Yan Yushan’s instructions to hold off on the rest for now and only post Tang Min’s dirt to avoid diluting the buzz, he barely managed to restrain himself.

Weibo was still on fire. More and more people were sharing Guoguo’s post, furious and vocal. Suddenly, more hashtags appeared about Tang Min’s misdeeds—clearly newly promoted.

The accounts posting the leaks were well-known in the industry. They had massive followings because 90% of what they shared turned out to be true and the remaining 10% just hadn’t been fully confirmed yet.

【Wait, is this Tang Min’s alt account? How disgusting can someone be to act so nice in public and so vile in private?】

【From what happened to Guoguo, we already knew what kind of person he is. It’s no surprise he’d use an alt to insult women. Die, scumbag! @TangMin】

【His alt account got deleted. Must be lurking and reading Weibo now, huh? Hey trash, come out and face us! Afraid to speak up but brave enough to ghost? @TangMin】

【Come out, Tang Min! @TangMin】

【I used to be a fan and now I want to puke. Can’t believe I spent money on him. What a fool I was.】

【How many people did he slander with his troll army? How many lives did he ruin?】

【Just go to jail already, Tang Min!】

Tang Min sat lifelessly on the sofa, staring at the trending list and the hate-filled comments. He didn’t dare answer his manager’s repeated calls. Only now did he understand why Yan Yushan had earned the nickname “Devil King.”

Now that his sugar daddy had cut him off, he had no hope of recovery. If Yan Yushan exposed the rest of the powerful men involved, they would come for him first and they would destroy him.

All because of Xu Xishuang… all because of him!

He didn’t know how long had passed when the door opened. Tang Min looked up dazedly and heard someone say, “Mr. Tang, we’re the police. Please come with us.”

At the same time, viewers watching Can I Like You suddenly saw their screens go black. Confused, they exited the show—only to find it had been abruptly taken down!

【The show’s been pulled! Thank god I downloaded it in time…】

【LOL, I just searched—every one of Tang Min’s works has been taken down. Not that there were many. The clean-up was fast!】

【Just blur out Tang Min and keep airing it! Don’t take the whole show down!】

【I want to watch Yan Yushan and Xu Xishuang! Tang Min, you useless rat, just die already! @TangMin】

【No way our idol could do such things!】

【Yeah, right. His scandal is clearly just a cover-up to distract from Yan Yushan and Xu Xishuang’s romance (sarcasm)】

【Still don’t believe it? Your idol just got arrested.】

【Normal fans already unfollowed. Only the deranged ones are still making excuses.】

News of Tang Min’s arrest quickly spread. When the police issued an official statement, everyone cheered. Even the diehard defenders finally shut up.

Other victims, previously too afraid to speak, now saw a chance. Inspired by Guoguo, they stepped forward, shared their evidence, supported one another, and exposed the painful pasts they’d buried—adding their voices to the outcry against Tang Min.

Seeing how many women Tang Min had hurt, netizens cursed him even more fiercely. Even the old man sweeping the street had something to say.

Guoguo and the other victims received countless blessings, but the first thing she did was message Xu Xishuang.

So many emotions gathered into a single sentence. Wiping her tears, Guoguo typed with a choked voice: “Thank you.”

Xu Xishuang: “Mm. Congratulations on getting what you deserved.”

Guoguo smiled through her tears. Without Xu Xishuang, she didn’t know what she would’ve done. Maybe she would’ve kept drifting through life, or one day ended it all.

Slowly, she typed: “I’ve bothered you for so long and made you worry. I won’t trouble you anymore.”

“I’m starting a new life—changing my number, moving to a new place…” Guoguo laughed and cried at once. “Thank you so much. I’ll always be your fan.”

Xu Xishuang: “Alright. Wishing you all the best.”

After exiting the chat with Guoguo, Xu Xishuang opened Yan Yushan’s profile and hesitated for a moment.

Xu Xishuang: “Thank you.”

Yan Yushan: “Don’t mention it.”

The reply was as distant and polite as last time, but Xu Xishuang gently clutched his chest—unsure whether his racing heart was from changing another storyline, or from Yan Yushan’s unwavering support.