Chapter 48: Public Opinion
When Su Jinli returned to his room, he saw An Zhihan moseying around the place, claiming he was looking for a handy weapon to go confront Qiao Nuo for justice.
Upon Su Jinli's arrival, Fan Qianting explained, "Despite his mature age, our Second Young Master An still suffers from 'chunibyo.' I was once as spirited as him in my youth."
Wu Yu, no longer interested in An Zhihan, immersed himself in an English book that Su Jinli couldn't understand.
Su Jinli sighed and said, "I just ran into Chang Siyin and Qiao Nuo. They were leaving with their luggage."
"What?!" An Zhihan was furious.
"Yes." Su Jinli walked further in, no longer trying to conceal his ability to speak, and directly spoke to them in his hoarse voice.
"Chang Siyin is smart, he knows to send the person away," remarked Wu Yu, before flipping a page of his book.
Their training camp had a rule: if a fight broke out, the instigator would be kicked out of the competition.
An Zhhihan was restless all night, and there was a strong possibility he would confront Qiao Nuo in the middle of the night.
Knowing An Zhihan well, Chang Siyin, not wanting to cause a ruckus, quickly helped Qiao Nuo pack his bags, ensuring his departure from the entertainment company Muzitao.
On their way out, they chanced upon Su Jinli who had just returned. Feeling awkward, Chang Siyin explained, "I… I didn't want An Zhihan to make trouble."
"I understand," Su Jinli replied without even glancing at Qiao Nuo.
"I'll tell you when I get back!" Chang Siyin continued leading Qiao Nuo away in their "escape."
An Zhihan finally sat quietly at the bedroom table and, spreading his arms to Su Jinli, he said, "Come here, let your brother comfort you."
"Big Brother An comforted me just now.”
“He comforted you? Did he slam the table and tell you, 'It's okay, I've got your back' — with an air of a mountain king about him?"
An Zhihan's words amused Su Jinli. It took him a while to regain control of himself.
"I just feel it was my carelessness that has caused trouble for you," Su Jinli whispered. The room fell silent for a moment.
"This victim mentality really is…" Fan Qianting felt a little uncomfortable.
"Are you the one who wanted to vomit blood, or wanted to be rescued, or wanted to delay the competition? Someone wrongs you, why should you apologize?" An Zhihan continued to ask.
"I was too careless," Su Jinli admitted.
"I've also eaten snacks sent by fans," Wu Yu comforted Su Jinli, setting down his book. "Now, we just need to find out who the culprit is, and then..."
Su Jinli closed the bedroom door and pointed at the camera.
An Zhihan, now a pro at dealing with the camera, promptly turned it off, leaving the production team probably weeping in silence.
"It was Zhou Wenyuan who did it," Su Jinli revealed.
"Do we have evidence?!” An Zhihan asked in shock.
"That's precisely why I turned off the camera; we have no direct evidence. But we have found out that Zhou Wenyuan is behind this," Su Jinli responded.
All three of them were stunned.
Fan Qianting, who usually enjoyed watching drama unfold, was taken aback. He felt as if he'd bitten into a huge piece of gossip — even more startling than the meeting of An Zhihan's three ex-girlfriends.
"So, Zhou Wenyuan's elimination today wasn't an accident?" Wu Yu questioned.
Su Jinli nodded in confirmation.
An Zhihan picked up his "weapon" — a mop, preparing to go confront Zhou Wenyuan for a duel.
"Too hateful! This is murder, isn't it?" An Zhihan, seething with fury, was about to storm out.
"Haven't you heard there's no direct evidence?" Wu Yu immediately yelled and then turned to Su Jinli to ask, "Is it confirmed, but we just lack evidence? Or are we merely suspecting?"
"It's confirmed, but he's been too clean."
"How did you find out?" Fan Qianting asked.
Su Jinli could only reply, "My brother sent people to investigate. He didn’t provide specifics, but he wouldn't act without certainty."
"You've found your brother?" Fan Qianting was not aware of this.
"Yes, we found him, there's another huge piece of gossip, but we don't plan to tell you, we want to torment you," An Zhihan instantly intervened, speaking to Fan Qianting.
Fan Qianting jumped up, "On what grounds?!"
"You gloat over our quarrels every day, let's see if you can enjoy this!" An Zhihan retorted.
Su Jinli just shrugged his shoulders and said to Fan Qianting, "If I tell you, he will be endless with me..."
"Alright, little brother, don't speak anymore, it's not good for your throat, be good, go to sleep." An Zhihan waved his hand at Su Jinli and then gripped his "weapon" again.
Wu Yu did trust Shen Cheng, knowing that he wouldn't falsely accuse someone nor eliminate Zhou Wenyuan without any certainty. Therefore, after staying quiet for a bit, he accepted the fact.
Looking up, he saw An Zhihan wanting to confront Zhou Wenyuan. Fan Qianting, despite his feelings, tried to stop him, saying pleasingly: "Don't go. Here, here, give me a melon slice to eat."
Wu Yu felt the scene was somewhat speechless; he could only say in a low voice, "We can't access the internet right now. I reckon that the outside world has already started a bloodbath."
An Zhihan finally stopped, not caring: "It's fine, my brother is there. He has been slandered a lot. He's not afraid of this situation."
An Zhiyan surely was an elite in the contenders for being unlucky. Since his debut, he has been bad-mouthed, derided with GIFs made from his acting scenes, and his dialogue openly mocked. Even the tiniest thing would get him on the trending news.
Nowadays, his fans refer to him as the real-deal. Gradually, fans have discovered that An Zhiyan is indeed kind of adorable, leading to more and more people becoming his fans. Now, An Zhiyan has become one of the hottest male celebs.
In such a big situation, it's nothing new for Sejia Legend.
Merely a piece of cake for them.
Wu Yu looked at Su Jinli, who was sneaking snacks by tearing open a packet of instant noodles.
An Zhihan snatched it quickly: "This stuff is salty! You can't eat it." With that said, he ate a piece himself.
"Indeed!" Fan Qianting followed suit and grabbed a handful.
Wu Yu sighed, always feeling that his roommates didn't have the IQ to match the situation. Nonetheless, he also reached out and grabbed a handful of instant noodles.
Su Jinli could only watch as his snacks were shared among them.
So, in a petty retaliation, he said, "These were given to me by someone else."
The three immediately looked flustered. Seeing Su Jinli's smirk, they realized that he had managed to counter-attack.
________________________
As expected, the internet dispute began.
The incident started when a netizen uploaded a video clip of An Zhiyan furiously throwing down a microphone.
This person appeared to intentionally defame An Zhiyan by only selecting a short clip, seemingly to paint An Zhiyan as having a bad temper.
However, in the comments, the sentiments did not overwhelmingly lean towards attacking him.
[Jiu Zui Ge Ge Protects You: I've been watching the show all along, not knowing what happened before or after so I can't really say much. But it's the first time I've seen An Zhiyan lose his temper in public so much. Even when he was stuck in the mud for a whole day on a reality show and was flushed back in every time he wanted to climb up, he didn't get mad.]
[Little Swallow Flies: Was this contestant trying to challenge Su Jinli, which got An Zhiyan angry? Suddenly I remember the news I saw a few days ago about Su Jinli, bloody all over and carried out of the training camp by An Zhihan. Is there any cause-and-effect connection between these incidents?]
[Little Ember: Still, my focus is on how cool our Brother looked when he threw the microphone!]
Soon, someone posted a relatively complete video of the incident, resulting in a minor reversal.
The second video started with Qiao Nuo declaring his challenge and ended at the point where An Zhihan publically questioned Qiao Nuo's character, indicating that Su Jinli had been sent for emergency treatment.
The release of this clip stirred up a bit of a storm.
Netizens fell into several different camps.
There were the logical ones: Why did Su Jinli need emergency treatment? Why did An Zhihan get so angry after the challenge to Su Jinli? We demand the truth.
The critical ones: It's said that in the end Su Jinli won, but Su Jinli's singing was really bad. Rumor has it that Sejia Legend bought over Su Jinli's studio. Is this about having some behind-the-scenes pull? They're promoting An Zhihan and now they want to promote Su Jinli too? No wonder An Zhihan and Su Jinli are so close. Why bother with the competition? They might as well just directly promote their own persons.
And the shocked ones: Holy moly! What a turn of events! Is Su Jinli a deity descended to earth?
Those who insist on sharing: It's said that sharing this 'Brocaded Koi' could bring good luck.
Those who vent wildly: Can those who blindly share, please leave? It's been spamming my newsfeed and I'm seriously annoyed now.
________________________
After several hours of debate, finally an entertainment influencer unveiled the full context of the situation.
This entertainment influencer posted a long detailed graphic summarizing the incident.
Firstly, they revisited the brief news that had previously surfaced, which included a picture of An Zhihan carrying a blood-covered Su Jinli out of the training camp, with Wu Yu helping to drive the car.
The entertainment influencer had evidently conducted an investigation at the hospital and uncovered some “inside truth”.
According to what they found out, the show's production team was negligent in checking the gifts from fans. Su Jinli was poisoned after eating chocolate sent by a black fan. Su Jinli's throat, stomach, and some organs were corroded. Su Jinli, who originally had a pleasant voice, now has a husky voice from the damage.
The following content was an explanation for why An Zhiyan was so angry.
Su Jinli was in poor health and was challenged by Qiao Nuo, a contestant who was in the danger zone. If Su Jinli lost this challenge, he would be eliminated.
From previous shows, it's clear that An Zhiyan greatly admires the contestant Su Jinli. An Zhiyan is known not to have a great temper and doesn't hesitate to express his feelings — his anger is understandable given the situation.
Moreover, An Zhihan's statement was thoroughly analyzed: Qiao Nuo, who has been known for his questionable character, had gloated over Su Jinli's misfortune, this is also one of the reasons for the chaos.
What's most eye-catching is that this entertainment influencer managed to obtain video footage as well. Clips from the video, clearly shot secretly on a mobile phone, were shared. One could even see half of a person's hair blocking the view in the clip. The horrifying footage showed Su Jinli vomiting blood and struggling to stay upright in his bedroom.
The second video clip was of An Zhihan carrying an unconscious Su Jinli out of the bathroom.
Among the comments, the responses were overwhelmingly on one side.
[Qiao Ba: This show crew is toxic, truly toxic!]
[Tian Ya Ye Die: I'm about to cry just watching these clips. It's no surprise that the An brothers are protecting Su Jinli.]
]Mu Qi Shuang: I didn't like An Zhihan before, but now I suddenly appreciate his temper. He is doing the right thing.]
[Xiao Dan: According to the game rules, Qiao Nuo did nothing wrong by challenging, but it's just really sickening to see. Why doesn't he challenge Wu Yu instead? What kind of person takes advantage of others' adversity?]
An Zhiyan was scrolling through Weibo on his mobile phone and couldn't help showing Jiang Pingqiu the comments: "Did we hire these bot accounts or 'water army'?"
"No, actually. Only a few of the major entertainment influencers are on our side."
"I'm not used to suddenly not be criticized. There are even those switching sides to support us," An Zhiyan said, looking at his phone as he read comments.
As he scrolled through them, he came across the image of Su Jinli vomiting blood again. His fingertips trembled, and he tossed the phone to one side, continuing to read the script.
After a while, he asked, "Has there been any movement on Shen Cheng's side?"
"There hasn't been any movement, but... Zhou Wenyuan is missing." Jiang Pingqiu replied.
"Oh." An Zhiyan nodded his head, "That is something. I don't believe Shen Cheng can look at these pictures without feeling devastated."
However, how did Shen Cheng investigate this unnatural incident?
An Zhiyan was a bit puzzled. Besides controlling public opinion, was there anything additional he could do now?
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