Esports world champion, debuted as the center of a talent show

Discussions about the conflicting properties of the two drugs in the picture quickly spread to major social media platforms.

The public opinion, which was initially overwhelmingly sympathetic to Xu Xiaoyu and criticizing Jiang Zhiyu for being heartless, began to show clear signs of reversal, with more and more people starting to question the authenticity of Xu Xiaoyu's "faking illness to gain sympathy".

Some netizens with pharmacological knowledge have created popular science articles that explain in detail the ingredients, effects, and dangers of taking the two drugs at the same time, accompanied by professional pharmacological analysis charts, making them very convincing.

Some netizens also dug up live stream clips of Xu Xiaoyu before he joined "Shining Project" and found that his appearance on camera did not resemble that of a patient with severe mental illness, which was inconsistent with his description in his blog post that he had "many years of mental illness".

Jiang Zhiyu sat in a swivel chair watching Qi Sixian strum the guitar. The warm sunlight streamed through the window and fell on Jiang Zhiyu's face.

He faced the light, lowered his eyes to listen to the chord of "day and night," and at that moment, the roles of hunter and prey were officially reversed.

At the same time, Xu Xiaoyu's phone started vibrating incessantly; it was a call from his agent.

He hid in the bathroom, and as soon as the call connected, his agent's angry and anxious voice came from the other end: "Xu Xiaoyu! Who told you to talk nonsense? Can't you refuse to answer questions you don't know? Now the whole internet is questioning whether you're faking illness, and all the groundwork we laid is ruined!"

Xu Xiaoyu was somewhat bewildered, not knowing what had happened, but he instinctively felt fear: "What happened? What did I say?"

The voice on the other end was furious: "Those two medications can't be taken together!"

"Then why didn't you tell me?" Xu Xiaoyu's first reaction was to shirk responsibility, and panic rose in her heart.

The agent sighed heavily and remained silent for a long time before finally speaking: "The company can't protect you anymore. Good luck to you."

Xu Xiaoyu was stunned, not expecting things to develop this way. He hurriedly said, "It's Jiang Zhiyu! He set me up! We'll expose him!"

"Dude, are you really sick? Why expose him for what? To expose him because he made you fake illness and got exposed?"

The person on the other end of the line lost patience and hung up the phone as soon as they finished speaking.

Xu Xiaoyu dialed back with trembling hands, but only heard a busy signal.

His company was indeed too busy to deal with his affairs anymore, because at this moment, a counterattack against the entire company officially began.

First, an internet blogger revealed that he had all the evidence that Xu Xiao and her company "maliciously tied themselves to Jiang Zhiyu, fabricated her illness, hired online trolls to bully her, and manipulated public opinion." This blog post immediately caused a huge uproar.

However, instead of immediately releasing so-called evidence to fuel the controversy, he quietly waited for the right moment.

The first to get restless were Xu Xiaoyu's company. They tried to delete posts, cover up evidence, and even hire online trolls to launch a counterattack, issuing a series of public relations statements such as "the picture of the medicine was a staff mistake" and "Xu Xiaoyu is indeed ill, but the statement was incorrect."

But at this moment, the hunter, who had been lying in wait for a long time, revealed the barrel of his gun.

The internet blogger released evidence he had been holding for a long time, including not only the complete chat logs of this malicious attack on Jiang Zhiyu and the transfer receipts for buying online trolls, but also solid evidence that the same company had previously arranged for other artists under its management to maliciously associate themselves with several popular figures in the industry and fabricate personas to attract attention.

Meanwhile, an anonymous tip-off was filed regarding the company's tax evasion, prompting relevant departments to launch a swift investigation.

Xu Xiao and her boss knew perfectly well that their company was not clean and that the company was on the verge of collapse, just one step away from utter ruin.

He was furious and slammed his fist on the table: "Didn't you say there wouldn't be any problems? Didn't you say you'd take care of it? Now explain to me what's going on!"

The agent's face turned ashen: "Xu Xiaoyu's side ran into trouble first. We originally thought that sacrificing the pawns would save the king, but we didn't expect Jiang Zhiyu's side to suddenly have several companies involved at the same time. We couldn't stop them..."

"What company?" The boss was taken aback. "Didn't you say Jiang Zhiyu was an individual trainee?"

"Our public opinion monitoring department discovered that Feixing Entertainment, Jingcheng Entertainment, Xingyun Group, Qiyuan International, and Ruixi Esports were all involved in fueling this fire behind the scenes..."

"Didn't we say we didn't have any trainees targeting Fei Xing? You, Mi Lan and the others, right? What does this have to do with them?"

"I don't know."

"What's Jingcheng's reasoning? Do they want to sign Jiang Zhiyu?"

"I don't know..."

"What does 'Nebula' mean? Is it because we've affected the programs sponsored by their affiliated companies?"

"I don't know..."

"What does this have to do with Qiyuan? Isn't that a financial company?"

"have no idea……"

"What's the last one? I've never heard of it before. What's this 'Ruixi'?"

"This company is also known as RXG Esports Club."

"Are you kidding me?! Why are esports clubs meddling in the hype surrounding our tiny draft?!"

"have no idea."

"What exactly do you know?!"

"I know we're probably doomed, boss."

The more excessive Xu Xiaoyu's sob story marketing went, the more severe the backlash became.

The sentimental and pitying comments on the internet have all disappeared, replaced by an overwhelming barrage of insults and attacks. Among them are people who were speaking up for him just yesterday, now joining in with anger and resentment at being deceived.

The extent of the attack on Jiang Zhiyu directly correlates to the significant boost in online traffic he receives after the reversal.

All the negative keywords on the trending topics disappeared, replaced by positive keywords such as #JiangZhiyu'sUndeservedMisfortune#, #JiangZhiyu'sReversal#, and #JiangZhiyuGainsFans#.

Many of those who had attacked him left messages on his account apologizing, and his owner reluctantly deleted the highly-rated insults.

Many passersby became acquainted with the talent show "Shining Project" and Jiang Zhiyu after witnessing this farce.

Jiang Zhiyu's famous square is constantly updating with comments from people becoming fans:

[Who knows? I just came to watch the drama unfold, and then I saw Jiang Zhiyu and I immediately fell into the trap.]

[Nobody told me the food during the talent show was this good... It's been so long since I've seen Jiang Zhiyu's face, which is so much to my liking.]

[Yesterday, when I saw that Xu Xiaoyu's tea talk, I felt something was off, and today I saw it was indeed fake. (But Jiang Zhiyu is really handsome! I joined the live stream this morning for fun and haven't left yet... My anti-addiction system is completely useless!)]

Jiang Zhiyu is really popular lately; I see his name trending on social media every day. I'll have to try his salty food too.

"So Xu Xiaoyu is really faking illness?"

During lunch, the trainees queuing for food whispered among themselves.

"Yeah, it's really speechless. They're almost dragging down all of us just to create a persona."

"His teammates are really pitiful. They're being used as pawns and targets."

"I feel like Jiang Zhiyu is the most pitiful one. He just happened to be passing by and got cyberbullied for a whole day..."

"That's really true—"

Jiang Zhiyu, who appeared at the end of the line, interrupted their conversation. They immediately shut their mouths and left with their plates.

Having accomplished her task and left without a trace of fame, Mi Lan strode forward and took the initiative to speak: "Alright, the matter is almost resolved."

Lin Sen, standing nearby, lowered his voice and asked, "What do you mean? You really contacted your company?"

Mi Lan nodded indifferently: "I can certainly help with this small matter."

Jiang Zhiyu looked at him, his expression very serious: "Thank you, Mi Lan."

"We're friends, no need for thanks." Mi Lan looked back at him earnestly, then paused for a moment before adding, "But what's strange is that people in my company said other companies have also made offers."

Jiang Zhiyu chuckled and took a step forward: "Who knows?"

Although Jiang Zhiyu doesn't have a mobile phone and can't keep up with public opinion in real time, everything is developing as he expected.

However, what he didn't know was that a "mishap" he had never imagined was quietly born by chance.