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

Jiang Zhiyu was completely unaware of Chen Yue's complicated love-hate relationship from beginning to end.

He could only vaguely recall Chen Yue's face by chance. The events of that night had not left any deep impression on him, let alone allow him to fathom the other's complex and conflicted inner thoughts.

Jiang Zhiyu's clearest memory of that night was that when he returned, he was still not in good condition, but unfortunately, he ran into Lin Shi's surprise inspection. In order to fool Lin Shi, he pretended that nothing had happened, and thus delivered the best performance of his life.

Wearing monitoring headphones, Jiang Zhiyu stopped thinking about anything else and focused all his attention on the melody in his ears.

When the song ended, both of them fell silent.

Qi Sixian nervously swallowed, looking expectantly at Jiang Zhiyu: "How did it go?"

Meeting his expectant gaze, Jiang Zhiyu didn't mince words. He nodded and exclaimed, "Such an immersive arrangement, amazing!"

"Hehe." Qi Sixian scratched his head and grinned foolishly, his tail almost wagging in the air.

Lin Sen, who was doing stretches in the corner, peeked over and, seeing that the two seemed to be making good progress, quickly stepped forward: "Let me listen too."

[Let me hear it too... Hey, does anyone remember there's someone in this shot?!]

It was pitch black, but thankfully the computer light allowed me to barely make out faces.

This group is so harmonious! So many days have passed, and there hasn't been a single dramatic moment. Some groups next door are either having conflicting opinions or disagreements about part allocation.

[Actually, I feel it's also related to Jiang Zhiyu. This man has a strange kind of charm; people who revolve around him unconsciously center their attention around him, and who cares about arguing anymore?]

I completely agree.

Jiang Zhiyu sat quietly watching Lin Senxing put on the monitoring headphones, then suddenly remembered something and asked, "By the way, could the interlude in the middle be a little longer?"

"Of course." Qi Sixian nodded, then casually asked, "You already have an idea?"

"Yes, I want to insert a group dance in the middle, which will serve as a transition between day and night." Jiang Zhiyu twirled the pen in his hand, his expression serious and focused.

Qi Sixian's expression gradually turned serious as he began to consider more possibilities for the interlude. After a while, he spoke again: "I understand what you mean. I'll lengthen the interlude to give our group dance more room for transition."

Meanwhile, in the program director's office.

"What do you mean?" Hong Liu asked the staff member in front of him with a shocked look.

He thought that after dealing with Xu Xiao and the company, he could finally take a breather. However, he didn't expect that he could only relax for a short time. He had just sat down on the sofa in his office and picked up his water glass to have a sip of tea when he was stopped by the staff member who had come to visit.

The story begins with the operation of the program's official account.

The person behind the official account of "Shining Project" routinely and simply checks the account's private messages.

At first, everything was unremarkable, with the screen filled with mixed comments from fans, including many who criticized the show and complained about the competition format.

Those who work on variety shows are used to being bombarded with private messages and complaints from netizens; it's nothing new to them.

After all, it's common knowledge that almost all official accounts are used to get criticized.

He remained calm and continued scrolling the mouse wheel until his gaze settled on a particular ID, at which point he abruptly stopped.

The private message came from an account he recognized very well; if he remembered correctly, the sender was a big fan of Jiang Zhiyu.

Without hesitation, he opened the chat box. The content inside was remarkably straightforward, containing only one sentence:

"Hello, I wanted to ask, in the background of the previous dormitory live stream, what kind of medicine was that medicine on Jiang Zhiyu's desk? It looks very similar to the medicine box that Xu Xiaoyu used when she pretended to be sick."

The specific time points of the live stream segments were also thoughtfully included at the end for staff to verify.

The staff member's heart jumped. He froze for a few seconds, then quickly pulled up the previous dormitory live stream recording and fast-forwarded to the clip the other person had mentioned. Sure enough, when Mi Lan got up to get her daily journal, there was a small medicine box on Jiang Zhiyu's desk. It flashed by so quickly that it was easy to miss if you didn't look closely.

Questions involving trainees' private lives are inherently difficult to answer casually, and this one is further complicated by the recently concluded controversy surrounding Xu Xiaoyu's alleged feigned illness. If not handled carefully, it could reignite a new wave of public debate.

After hesitating for a moment, the staff member stood up, took his phone and computer, and quickly walked towards Hong Liu's office.

He knocked gently on the door, and Hong Liu's voice came from inside: "Come in."

"Director Hong, there's something I'd like to ask you about." He walked into the office, put his computer on the table, and opened the private message and the live stream recording. "A fan just messaged me asking what medicine was in the box on Jiang Zhiyu's desk during the dormitory live stream, and said it looked very similar to what Xu Xiaoyu used before. I didn't dare to reply casually, so I came to ask for your opinion."

"What do you mean?" Hong Liu's face was full of shock. He paused, leaned forward slightly, and frowned. "What do you mean by 'similar to what Xu Xiaoyu used before'?"

The staff member paused for a moment, then said, "Take a look, Director Hong."

Hong Liu put down the glass of hot tea in his hand, leaned over to look at the private messages and screen recording, frowned slightly, and after a few seconds of silence, said in a crisp tone: "Not replying to anything may escalate the situation. Here, reply in a more tactful way, say that it is a trainee's personal privacy and the production team is not in a position to disclose specific information about personal items. Soften your tone and don't let the fans feel that we are deliberately covering it up."

"Won't not revealing anything cause problems for the fans?"

"There's no other way, this is the only way to handle it." Hong Liu's tone was helpless. "I don't know the specifics right now, and explaining rashly could easily cause problems. Also, immediately arrange for someone to delete all the dormitory screen recordings and clips containing this footage from the official account."

The staff member responded and walked out of the director's office in a few steps with the laptop.

The wall-mounted TV in the office is playing a popular idol drama that has been airing recently. The male lead is Bai Rong, a rising star.

On the screen, the male and female leads are arguing fiercely. The girl, with red eyes, questions, "I've already suffered so much, why are you treating me like this? Do you even have a heart?"

Hong Liu, annoyed by the repeated "Do you have a heart?" playing in his ears, stood up, took a big step, picked up the remote control on the table, and pressed the power button hard.

He sighed deeply, but still dialed a number on his phone.

A long busy tone came through the receiver, and just as Hong Liu thought no one was answering and was about to hang up, the call was finally picked up.

"What's wrong?" The other party spoke first, their tone clearly hurried, as if they had just finished their work and answered the phone hastily.