HEIFEIGU -Chapter 33

After the show ended, the whole cast and crew of the mansion held a celebratory dinner—sort of a small wrap-up banquet.

The director, assistant director, and screenwriter were all drunk, huddled together and crying their hearts out.

“Waaah, the first season is finally done, it wasn’t easy!”

The root cause of all that hardship—Yue Qinyao—was sitting on top of a cabinet, legs dangling, sipping milk tea.

Today had been another day of contribution.

She had touched the hands of two players, successfully scaring them until they trembled.

She had burned a distracting talisman, nearly breaking the villain’s immersion.

Why wasn’t she considered part of the crew? That milk tea was rightfully hers!

Yu Yueting, Huai Xinhou, and Ran Shi hadn’t acted opposite Xie Jixing before, so they politely came over to greet him, exchanged a few words, and the social niceties were done.

But Quan You’er and Meng Zezhou stuck around Xie Jixing, chatting non-stop.

Quan You’er seemed unable to shake off her immersion. Seeing Xie Jixing after makeup, pale and soft-skinned, she felt even more tender.

A “Mom loves you” feeling naturally arose in her.

“Are you really never going to sing again?” Quan You’er added, along with Xie Jixing’s green bubble emoji. “I have a personal music studio. If you want to keep singing, I can be your producer. Recording studio fees and everything would be discounted for you.”

Xie Jixing glanced over, still unlucky and subdued ever since Zhu Qian appeared, and shook his head regretfully. “My vocal cords were severely damaged. It’s already a blessing that I can still speak. Singing is out of the question.”

Quan You’er looked disappointed too, downing a large glass of fruit-flavored beer and muttering under her breath, “Damn Ji Jin, sooner or later you’re going to—”

Xie Jixing leaned over to listen. Wow, that’s filthy, and damn, it was satisfying!

“Have you thought about acting?” Meng Zezhou sipped his drink and finally spoke. “You aren’t signed with a company, right? I could recommend you to ours.”

“Acting?” Xie Jixing stuffed a piece of osmanthus-flavored lotus root into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully.

For now, he didn’t want to leave the entertainment industry.

With his reputation slowly improving and exposure increasing, he had gained a small group of fans. His accumulated ‘faith points’ were growing.

Those points were more than enough to support the two ghosts at home—and maybe even a third.

If things kept going, he could even imagine a “rebuilding the sect by being a celebrity” type of feel-good plot.

Although he remained frugal—never paying for something he could get for free—most of the money he earned could now be spent on himself.

For example, he recently bought several new seasonal outfits and hadn’t eaten instant noodles in a long time. Thinking about it now, he even missed their flavor a little.

Since he didn’t want to leave the entertainment industry, he had to consider his future and find a professional direction he was both skilled at and capable of doing well.

Being a variety show regular wasn’t sustainable long-term; acting was a good choice.

At the very least, he was a professional at playing ghosts!

As for signing with Meng Zezhou’s company, he still needed to investigate further.

After the crew dispersed, Xie Jixing started a live stream, reporting to his electronic “mommies” about recent events and chatting a bit.

Not long after going live, the top-ranked fan, who had been absent for a long time—‘I really don’t want to lose weight!’—suddenly appeared.

He only said, “I came to fulfill my promise,” then promptly sent gifts worth 20,000 yuan and logged off.

【Big bro is so generous!】

【Big bro is too generous (laugh-cry).】

【I want a top-ranking big bro like this too. I’m so broke lately.】

“This money’s burning hot!” Xie Jixing exclaimed. “Maybe I should do some after-sales.”

【After-sales for this?】

【Hahaha, after-sales? Go roast Meng Zezhou’s trolls again?】

【That’s fine, I’m a diehard fan, the trolls have calmed down lately. We can handle it ourselves! (puffs chest proudly)】

【LOL, even climbing walls feels so righteous and open now.】

“Given that my top-ranked big bro is a fan of Meng Zezhou,” Xie Jixing stroked his chin, “I should be able to deduce who I should roast—the person Meng Zezhou hates the most.”

“Alright, I already know what to do.”

Then, Xie Jixing opened Ling Peng’s trending topics on the “Big Eye Social” app and went all out!

Fans: tsk tsk tsk.

【Such meticulous logic, such a clever angle—no wonder he has a top-ranked big bro.】

【Help! Son’s words are sharp!】

【From enjoying the spectacle to trembling, then memorizing it word for word.】

【Xie Jixing, still the entertainment industry’s living dad today.】

---

“You said this script was flawless?!”

After the show, Ling Peng immediately dragged Jiang Zhengqi back to the company. “Then explain to me—what’s going on now?”

“When I secretly checked the script, it was perfect. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have matched from the start,” Jiang Zhengqi said, sweating nervously. Their company was small, most resources came from Ling Peng’s backers, and Ling Peng was the absolute top dog. Offending him could mean no future at the company.

“Don’t worry, Brother Ling. I’ll ask a friend.” He immediately called his friend at the hidden-camera program crew.

After hanging up, Jiang Zhengqi sighed with relief—someone else would take the blame.

“My friend said the script was revised once, a complete overhaul. It took a long time. They said it was… because of Xie Jixing.”

“Xie Jixing?” Ling Peng frowned. “The last ghost that appeared?”

Jiang Zhengqi nodded.

“Does he have connections?” Ling Peng narrowed his eyes, exhaling smoke with ill intent.

“Apparently not,” interjected agent Li. “We checked before. He isn’t signed to a company, is self-employed, an orphan, no family backing.”

Recalling the last failed publicity stunt and loss of some marketing accounts, Li ground his teeth.
“Just lucky.”

“People can’t always be lucky,” Ling Peng said, exhaling again, then asked his assistant, “What about the trending topics?”

“They’re being removed, but the heat is too high to suppress,” the assistant said, sweating. Ling Peng’s temper was fierce; he couldn’t imagine how furious he’d be seeing the posts.

“Useless!” Ling Peng muttered, opening the Big Eye Social app.

The hottest topics were indeed the four he had purchased.

Clicking the top one: #LingPeng, the Ultra-Clever Boyfriend—full of mockery.

The most painful part? The first comment, nearly 200,000 likes.

【Little bro, take my advice: Big boobs, no education, just be a male Bodhisattva. Don’t show your face, don’t speak… never mind, can’t save it. Basically, the smart-love circle is too deep, your IQ is too low. Quit while you’re ahead, stop pretending to be clever.】

The commenter ID? Xie Jixing.

Again, Xie Jixing!

Ling Peng clenched his teeth, re-entered the trending topic, now #LingPeng, Greek God of Truth!

First comment:

【Let me start: #LingPeng, Greek God of Greasy Double Doors!】

【#LingPeng, Greek God of Self-Sabotage!】

【#LingPeng, Greek God of Failed Advance!】

【#LingPeng, Greek God of IQ -32!】

【QAQ, what do I do now? Breaking formation (evil grin)】

【I’ll help: #LingPeng, Greek God of Ugly-Unaware!】

…

The memes went on. Ling Peng’s face darkened. Why was Xie Jixing still first comment?

And his body wasn’t bad, right? Ling Peng looked at his chest, flexed twice—big, firm, nowhere greasy.

#He had guessed the ending so vividly!

Xie Jixing posted a short video using the previous marketing account’s mash-up version.

When Ling Peng made a prediction, a red exclamation mark appeared with rapid “beep beep” sounds.

Then the screen was overlaid with a flashy red X.

AI voice and Yuxing Han’s voice were mixed: “Intelligence, minus, minus, minus 20!”

Full of rhythm, super chaotic.

Finally, at the end, a line of blood-red letters appeared on Ling Peng’s hanging avatar: “Ending: IQ -32!”

The video received 156,000 likes.

#Still, Ling Peng knows Meng Zezhou best. Xie Jixing didn’t get carried away this time—he was a little scared too.

The top comment was by ID ‘Super Fierce MengMeng’.

【He knows nothing!】

Simple, brutal, accurate, logical.

The second comment was a short essay, heartfelt:

【Who knows? After all these years, we fans finally break free from the leeching idiots! Pengzhou’s CP fans, seeing this trending topic, don’t you realize the sugar you ship isn’t even glass shards—it’s all shit!
And it’s all forcibly fed to you by Ling Peng!
Still claims to know Meng Zezhou?
For years, he’s clung to Meng Zezhou, never missing a chance to leech. Now? He’s ripped off his own mask!
If he truly understood Meng Zezhou, he wouldn’t exploit CP points for publicity!
Every old fan knows, MengMeng wants to act, not chase traffic, nor be stuck in the same type of role.】

Ever since his first drama, he hadn’t taken another Republican-era role. He kept trying all kinds of performances, yet in Ling Peng’s mouth, he was always “the deeply affectionate noble young master”?

All these years, he had endured massive online attacks just for breaking up CPs. And you CP fans keep claiming both sides “love each other equally,” that “everything is fair and balanced”—is this how you love Meng Zezhou?

The third floor was a hardcore fan of the Pengzhou CP. Now they had changed their avatar to black and left just one sentence:

“Unfollowed, not seeing this anymore.”

Clicking into their thread revealed an entire row of black avatars. Those who had once been active in the Pengzhou CP super-topic all unfollowed, saying they would never be seen again.

Xie Jixing couldn’t even get a word in—he could only sigh: “So many people… .JPG”

On the fourth floor, he could finally contribute.

【Since everyone’s just a hype junkie, why not hype something better? Pengzhou is old and stiff, let me take you to something good!

Click → Xing*Zhou CP, yandere X psycho, mutual destruction, genius looks, intense vibes!】

Xie Jixing immediately queued in the comments and replied:

“Exactly, you need some quality!”

Wait… hold on—what the hell is Xing*Zhou CP???

A faint, eerie laugh came from behind him: “Hehe~”

Xie Jixing whipped around and stared.

Yue Qinyao, caught nearly pressed against the screen, took a step back, speaking softly and earnestly:

“Actually, I think you two have overlapping roles; I can’t tell who’s 0 and who’s 1. But you’re slightly more 0.”

Xie Jixing felt he needed to clarify:

“I’m not 0! Last time I said that, it was because I was afraid you’d like me—I lied to you.”

Sister Yue tilted her head, her black, hollow eyes fixed on him.

“I don’t buy it, hehe~”

Condemned by this label, Xie Jixing thought of the original culprit and glared fiercely at the unlucky ghost.

“It’s all your fault!”

The unlucky ghost, leaning against the corner, turned their head 180 degrees to look at Xie Jixing, confused: “Huh? Me again?”

Ling Peng scrolled through his trending topics, gritting his teeth so hard it hurt.

How is Xie Jixing everywhere?!

“This Xie Jixing… can he be dealt with?”

Brother Li hesitated: “It’s possible, I guess…”

“What’s the problem?” Ling Peng’s tone was awful. “Is it that the company is broke or out of resources? Meng Zezhou, you’re saying no one dares to move him because of someone behind him? So even a mediocre extra like him can’t be touched? Do you really think I don’t have anyone backing me?!”

“Think carefully—who keeps the company running? Who pays your salaries?!”

Brother Li had wanted to say that Xie Jixing was a bit dangerous, and trying to take him down might backfire, but after Ling Peng’s roar, he didn’t dare speak.

After all, Ling Peng was now the company’s top star—with people behind him, and many at that.

“Calm down, Peng Ge,” the manager immediately nodded and hurriedly lit a cigarette for him. “I’ll arrange it right away; this time we’ll make sure he quits the industry!”

Ling Peng’s words brewed on the trending list for a full day and night, costing a fortune before finally dying down.

The entertainment section on Big Eye Social had a new trending topic.

#818: The New Super-Resource Star in the Chinese Entertainment Industry

The post came from a well-known entertainment marketing account, NeiYuBaGong.

【Recently, since Ba Ye hasn’t been active, the industry has produced some new scandals. Today, we 818 the latest super-resource star and see how he single-handedly dismantled groups, got top-level writers to rewrite scripts for him, had the whole crew revolve around him, even delayed filming for half a month.

Let’s just call him Xiao Baicai (Little Cabbage), because ever since his debut, he’s been a pitiful orphan with no background.

Xiao Baicai is like a legendary nightingale descended to earth—he gets picked by top-level teammates just for singing in livestreams, debuting as the main vocalist in a group.

But after debut? The response was lukewarm. Looking back, there’s no music worth mentioning; his so-called singing skills are all self-praised. When his powerful teammates went abroad, he got many negative reviews, frequently dragging the group down in performances, completely incompetent.

Ba Ye knows many livestream singers who are talented, but none debuted—probably not due to skill, but lacking a powerful teammate to notice them.

Constantly criticized, Xiao Baicai wasn’t happy. He caused chaos in the group, even on live shows on Orange TV, practically trying to flip the world. The company couldn’t handle it and agreed to unconditional contract termination—but he wasn’t satisfied, demanding that his teammates and manager be arrested before he would stop.

He single-handedly dismantled a group. Even the wealthy, influential former leader was forced to cry and apologize.

Ba Ye, having shallow life experience, asks: have you ever seen a wealthy, powerful person cry to apologize to an orphan like Xiao Baicai? I haven’t. Usually, the rich and powerful only apologize to someone richer or more powerful.

More impressively, on a recent popular show, Xiao Baicai, dissatisfied with the script, delayed recording for weeks, even making the top writer redo the entire script for a custom one for him.

The show even hired a top male star to pair with him, just to hype a CP.

I’m astonished—if you say Xiao Baicai achieved all this by himself, I don’t believe it.

What do you think is the reason?】

As soon as the topic appeared, it went viral—clearly someone was pushing it behind the scenes.

NeiYuBaGong wasn’t reputable; they had no exclusive evidence, but by posting sensational topics and made-up stories, they generated huge traffic.

Previously, they spread a false scandal about a female star, got sued, and their account was frozen for a month. This was their first post after returning, naturally attracting massive attention.

The replies were essentially a large-scale gathering of Xie Jixing’s haters:

【Still calling him Xiao Baicai—how is that different from naming him directly? Is he even worth a trending post?】

【Blanked out, can’t tell who it is, I guess I’m trash.】

【Singing in livestreams, debuted in a group, recently paired with a top male star on a show—must be XJX.】

【I’ve always thought there’s something wrong with him. Lawless, especially online, says whatever he wants, no one else has his chill.】

【Yeah, looks good though, maybe… can’t say.】

【Also maybe he’s more relaxed elsewhere?】

【Before, he bought marketing saying the group bullied him. I didn’t believe it. On the surface, teammates have backgrounds, but now one’s worse than the other. No one behind him, who’d believe it!】

【Thinking about it, Xia Letian really suffered, forced to cry and apologize for nothing.】

【Honestly, I even feel some sympathy for Ji Jin.】

Xie Jixing now had some fan support. Sister Muyu wouldn’t let haters run wild and quickly organized an effective counterattack:

【Former teammates messed up because he broke the law. You know breaking the law gets you punished, right?!】

【Really, making things white look black. How do you know he has backing?】

【The group disbanded because of a legal-minded member. What does that have to do with him? Oh wait, he’s the victim!】

【I really can’t. Can you marketing accounts stick to a story? First they say he’s poor, eats takeout, earns 500/day as an extra; now they say he has a backer. Can you coordinate?】

【Rumor monger, you’re out. Last time you were frozen a month, didn’t learn? You dare make shady money. Next time, beware of being banned.】

【Stop abbreviating—aren’t you clearly talking about Xie Jixing? Internet has no memory—you forget so fast he was blacked out, poisoned, yet sympathize with the law-abiding member? Where’s your morals? Orphans already acknowledged, yet you call it a character setup? Such lies will backfire!】

NeiYuBaGong popped up in the comments, cowardly and obnoxious:

【You said the name, I didn’t. If I didn’t create this character, how would you fools feel sorry for him? And rushing in barking, ups and downs, understand? Read a book, little sister—elementary school Chinese.】

The argument between haters and fans heated up. One comment shifted the focus:

【Watching the live show, the script seems off. Especially the top male star’s character—seems intentionally vilified. His family is scholarly, sent overseas, elder brother a revolutionary, yet he smokes and kills? Makes no sense.】

【Agreed! Feels like Ling Peng’s story direction is more accurate.】

【It’s probably for suspense and NPC design, a deliberate reversal, really vilifying historical figures.】

【I think it’s not just vilifying history, but also guiding gender antagonism.】

【Resist vilifying history, resist gender manipulation.】

The discussion instantly escalated from ordinary fan disputes to gender conflict and historical distortion. The stakes were high.

After the Grand Mansion shoot wrapped, Meng Zezhou told Qian Shuyun he wanted to sign Xie Jixing to the company, using the same manager as him. Qian Shuyun readily agreed.

“Have you contacted Xie Jixing?” A few days had passed and they hadn’t met yet. Meng Zezhou asked his manager, Qi Zhen.

Qi Zhen was swiping through his tablet. “He’s been stirring up some public opinion lately. It’s risky—let’s not rush.”

Meng Zezhou had been at home these past few days, focusing on spending time with his family and staying off the internet. “Public opinion? What do you mean?”

Qi Zhen handed him the tablet. The more Meng Zezhou looked, the deeper his frown became.

“This is definitely the work of a professional team,” Qi Zhen analyzed from the side. “First, they find a notorious marketing account to spread rumors and muddy the waters. Then they steer the topic toward broader social issues, giving it more weight.”

“Did he offend someone?”

Meng Zezhou exited the trending topics and clicked into Xie Jixing’s account. The profile was filled with posts showing Xie dominating Ling Peng’s trending topics.

He handed the tablet back to Qi Zhen. “Who did he offend? Isn’t it obvious?”

Qi Zhen froze. This was outrageously bold and unpretentious!

“I shouldn’t have given him gifts that day!” Meng Zezhou said, half laughing, half crying. “Ling Peng wouldn’t dare touch me, but now he’s only picking on him.”

“Contact Xie Jixing as soon as possible and announce the contract,” Qi Zhen said.

“I’ll also tell my family to look into Ling Peng. I’ve tolerated him long enough. I didn’t even want to bother with him before, and he really thought I was easy to bully!”