Ji Zehui took Xie Yang to a cafe opened by people in the circle. The location of the coffee store was a bit out of the way and it had a narrow facade. It looked unimpressive from the outside but it was completely different after entering.

Ji Zehui couldn’t hold back after entering. “Without me, a newcomer like you would never be able to enter.”

Xie Yang replied, “If you continue to stimulate me like this, I believe you will soon lose your identity as a person in the circle and never be able to enter here again.”

Ji Zehui choked and stopped talking. Instead, Xiao Jin looked at Xie Yang several times.

Ji Zehui took Xie Yang to a commonly used box. He had the waiter casually serve some coffee and dessert before getting to the point. “What do you want?”

“There is no hurry. Before talking about business, let’s clarify the current situation.” Xie Yang sat upright while slowly pointing his finger at the table. “You can’t delete all traces of the duet. Production has already started for the new issue of Who is King of the Songs. The materials that can be edited in for Ji Zehui including willfully changing the music, changing the music and then not using it, singing badly, being criticized by the guest commentators, having a dark face on stage, forcing the director to interrupt the recording and re-recording the performance. I believe that as soon as these black materials come out, the sales volume of Broken Cocoon will be stagnant immediately. Senior Ji will also lose a few endorsements.”

Xie Yang’s words caused Ji Zehui’s face to darken and he almost stood up. His agent Xiao Jin pressed down heavily on Ji Zehui and stated, “Xie Yang, we aren’t going to beg you. You should converge a bit. We have other ways to get rid of these things.”

“However, there is Long Shuyou. You will find it ten times more difficult to use other methods like you normally do and you will have to pay ten times more interest and energy for this. After you pay, you won’t be able to completely calm down this matter. I just have to tell a bit of the truth then Ji Zehui will fall into a scandal. The sales of Broken Cocoon will be stagnant and Ji Zehui won’t win any prizes. More seriously, you will need to have Huangtian spend resources to help you suppress the news or simply follow the black and popular route in the future.” (TL: Meaning someone with a lot of black fans as well as popularity)

Any artist wouldn’t want to take the black and popular route. Ji Zehui also wanted to rely on Broken Cocoon to win the prize. It was related to their interests so Ji Zehui and Xiao Jin had to calm down.

Ji Zehui couldn’t help confirming. “Long Shuyou was really invited by you?”

Xie Yang nodded.

Xiao Jin tried to spy things out. “What background do you have?”

“So far, I haven’t used my background to suppress people.” Xie Yang glanced at them. “Can we talk about business?”

Xiao Jin pulled Ji Zehui out to talk alone. Once he came back, Ji Zehui had calmed down a lot. He asked, “How can we talk about business?”

Xie Yang replied, “It’s very simple. I can’t and don’t want to control the crew of Who is the King of Songs so that they cut out all of your shameful scenes—”

Ji Zehui almost blew up again after hearing this.

“—But I can speak for you later and set up a straightforward design for you. Your actions were very angry but your heart is still good and you take good care of newcomers. This way, the show will only be a hindrance instead of a black material that will throw you off the altar.”

Ji Zehui calmed down a bit.

“If you do well, you might be able to take advantage of this storm to sell more copies of Broken Cocoon.” Xie Yang poured himself a glass of water but he didn’t drink it. He just turned it around in his hand. “Senior Ji, I believe that you aren’t intentionally aiming for you. You were provoked by a villain. Between you and me, there is no direct conflict of interest. IUD is only selling a digital version and the group has disbanded. There is nothing threatening you. It isn’t worth the loss for you to struggle against me.”

Ji Zehui frowned and fell into contemplation.

Xiao Jin could see it clearly. This time, Ji Zehui went after Xie Yang because he was provoked by the overshadowing of his album sales and Mo Bin. He thought that if he really followed Mo Bin’s words, it would be good to step on a newcomer who was too bold. In any case, the company hadn’t been happy with Xie Yang recently but it was clear they thought it wasn’t good to obviously bully a newcomer.

They were too confident and made a mistake that shouldn’t have happened. “Then how do you want to help Zehui?”

“It’s simple.” Xie Yang put down his cup. “I want Huangtian to block Mo Bin. Don’t tell me that you can’t do it. Mo Bin is nothing in Huangtian. I don’t want to ask for anything else. If Huangtian wants to continue targeting Yang Xing then they can. I just don’t want Mo Bin to jump around in the entertainment circle.”

Xiao Jin was stunned. He hadn’t expected that this was what Xie Yang wanted. He only reacted when he saw Xie Yang’s calm eyes. After doing so much and forcing Ji Zehui to gain so many black materials, it was all for Xie Yang to clean up Mo Bin?If this was Xie Yang’s plan from the beginning… he suddenly felt terrible. This newcomer was really bad.

***

Xie Yang easily returned to Yang Xing.

Hu Biao instantly rushed over and asked anxiously, “How was the recording? Were you bullied? I said that I should’ve followed you. Ji Zehui’s side—”

“Stop.” Xie Yang scratched the hair that had been styled by the stylist. “Can I wash my hair first? It is itchy.”

Hu Biao was almost choked to death by Xie Yang. Wash his hair, what to wash at this time?! However, workers had no human rights. The boss Xie Yang went to wash his head first.

Xie Yang came out wiping his hair and saw Hu Biao sitting on the sofa with a face like he had constipation. Xie Yang was afraid Hu Biao would suffocate and simply told him about today’s recording. Then he mentioned the deal with Ji Zehui after the recording.

Hu Biao was stunned. “You mean, Mo Bin is going to be banned?”

“Yes, from today on, there will be no news about him in the entertainment circle. You can tell Tong Jian and Ke Lan that there is no need to worry every day. They can be at ease and make money for me. By the way, have you got the fan gifts I asked you to arrange last time?”

Hu Biao was in a trance as he pointed in the direction of the storage room. “It is finished and placed in the storage room.”

Xie Yang removed the towel and headed straight to the storage room.

The spacious storage room was full of large and small boxes. Xie Yang rummaged through it carefully for 10 minutes before finally finding what he wanted in a pile of key chains, small fans, pillows and blankets.

There were a few sets of cartoon dolls and chibi version handsome dolls customized according to the appearance of IUD in the group performance. The number was limited and it was originally prepared to be a special prize for random fans who bought the album.

Xie Yang took out two sets and took them back to his office. Then he took out his own dolls and placed them in the bag. After that, he went to the storage room and picked out some small objects with his cartoon image to fill the bag. Finally, he went downstairs and asked Wu Shui to send him to the bottom of the Rongding Building before calling Qiu Xing.

Qiu Xing picked up quickly and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Are you busy? I’m downstairs in Rongding and I want to go home with you.”

Qiu Xing was quiet for a few seconds before his voice was heard. “Wait.”

Around 10 minutes later, Qiu Xing’s car drove out of the parking lot and stopped beside Xie Yang. Xie Yang grabbed the bag, got out of the car and got into Qiu Xing’s car.

“This is for you.” Xie Yang handed a bag to Qiu Xing.

Qiu Xing glanced at Xie Yang and didn’t speak. He reached into the bag and pulled out a chibi version Xie Yang doll.

The doll was only a bit bigger than the palm of his hand, with a big head and a small body. It wore a black outfit and held a small microphone sewn out of cloth. It was very cute.

Xie Yang explained, “These are dolls that the company made in accordance with my appearance. There aren’t many of them and I got one for you. Does it look good?”

Qiu Xing still didn’t speak. He raised his eyebrows slightly, pinched the doll’s small belly, pinched the doll’s face and pulled the small microphone. Then on a whim, he pulled down the suit pants of the doll.

The pants fell straight down, revealing two stick-thin legs.

“……”

Qiu Xing quickly pulled up the doll’s pants. He couldn’t believe it and became stormy. “How can the clothes be taken off? Do you want to give this type of merchandise to fans? Who designed the doll?” “It isn’t giving it to them, it is a draw. The clothes can be pulled off for the sake of changing clothes. The dolls are wearing small underwear that can’t be taken off.” Xie Yang explained. He leaned over and pulled a set of spare clothes out of the bag. “Look, this is another set of clothes that can be changed into.”

Qiu Xing looked at the bag in Xie Yang’s hand.

The bag was transparent. From the outside, he could clearly see a mini white t-shirt, mini jeans, mini white sneakers and even a mini guitar. Qiu Xing remembered Xie Yang holding the guitar and singing on stage. The storm finally scattered from his expression. Then he pulled off the doll’s pants to confirm it. Seeing that there was underwear, his expression finally returned to normal.

Xie Yang spoke in a timely manner. “Thank you for giving me the clothes. This is a gift in return.”

“…You have a conscience.” Qiu Xing pulled the doll’s small arm and then stuffed it back into the bag. Then he took away the clothing that Xie Yang was still holding and placed it aside with the gift bag.

Xie Yang asked, “Aren’t you going to take a look? There are other things in the bag.”

Qiu Xing leaned back against the chair and closed his eyes. “I’m tired.”

This was the first time that Qiu Xing had confessed his tiredness to Xie Yang.

Xie Yang saw the tiredness that Qiu Xing couldn’t hide and guessed that Qiu Xing must’ve had a headache last night and didn’t sleep well. Xie Yang quieted down and stopped talking.

After a while, Qiu Xing suddenly opened his mouth. “Qinglin contacted me again.”

Xie Yang stopped looking at Weibo. “He didn’t contact me.”

In other words, Feng Qinglin didn’t listen to what Xie Yang said that day.

Qiu Xing opened his eyes with no expression on his face. “I know he wants to stimulate me so that I can go to clean up the Feng family. He is very good at fishing for benefits. Previously, I would’ve thought that his progress was great if he could think to do this. Now looking at you, I found that I was wrong.”

“I tried to make assumptions for the future. In those assumptions, Qinglin was successfully pushed up by me to a high place according to my initial plan and the Feng family and Qiu family fell into his hands. His heart would be as hard as iron and all his actions towards his relatives are calculated based on his benefits. He proceeded smoothly for several years until… he met you in business.”

Xie Yang remembered the final ending of the original book. The male lead successfully took charge of the Feng and Qiu families and stood at the highest point of the business circle. He asked, “He met me and then?”

“Then he would lose to you. He would have no chance of winning and would be defeated. He only learned to calculate against his loved ones and would be completely new to the real world of business.” Qiu Xing folded his hands over his abdomen, a faint shadow in his eyes. “Xie Yang, you are right. I indulged him too much.”

“So what will you do?”

Qiu Xing stopped talking and closed his eyes again. Some time later, he suddenly raised a hand and gently laid it on the bag next to him.

***

At 9 o’clock that night, Who is the King of Songs released the view preview video of the new episode.

The title of the video was ‘One Sword is Equal to Spring and Autumn’ and the cover image was of Xie Yang standing in the practice room. All the people who read that ‘objective comment’ article were excited and clicked on the video.

The video wasn’t long, it was a bit more than a minute. It started with Ji Zehui questioning Xie Yang.

[How is the adaptation coming along?]

Xie Yang took out his phone while answering: [It’s almost there. I made the accompaniment version myself based off the original sound. I’ll sing along to the original sound. Do you want to hear the effect?]

Ji Zehui agreed. Then Xie Yang plugged his phone into the practice room’s music equipment.

One Sword is Equal to Spring and Autumn started to play. Xie Yang didn’t move until the first chorus was finished. Here, the video cut to Ji Zehui looking very serious.

After the chorus was played, the accompaniment suddenly changed and Xie Yang finally opened his mouth. Here, it zoomed in on Xie Yang’s face and his serious expression.

Then the preview video ended.

Everyone, “……” Swearing.jpg