Chapter 62: Blushing
Su Jinli really wanted to leave, so he casually said, "I'm tired, can I go back first?"
"Do you sleep with your eyes open?" An Zhiyan was curious about this matter.
"I keep my eyes open when I'm a fish, and closed when I'm a human."
"Oh, that's good, I was afraid I would be startled later."
"Do you think it's really necessary to prepare for something like this?" Su Jinli couldn't help but ask. He remembered that he seemed to have just refused.
An Zhiyan laughed at the question but didn't respond. He pointed at Su Jinli's shirt, "Your buttons are done wrong. Let me help you fix them."
Su Jinli lowered his head and only then noticed that he had buttoned his shirt incorrectly, as he was too anxious earlier and hadn't paid attention.
An Zhiyan gently unbuttoned each button, then helped him fasten them correctly. After that, he patted Su Jinli's shoulder, "All done."
"My brother used to help me with this kind of thing," Su Jinli said to An Zhiyan, looking at his buttons.
"Oh... please don't think of me as your brother." He wanted to be the dominant one!
However, Su Jinli didn't pay any mind and kept reminiscing about his brother: "Back then, I used to wet my pants a lot. I couldn’t control myself, and he would help me clean up every day. We didn't have any diapers in the mountains, only cotton changing pads. He would help me wash them, hanging them in a long chain to dry."
"What about your parents?"
"I don't even know which two fish were my parents. By the time I gained consciousness, they were probably already dead or eaten."
"Doesn't it make you... sad?" An Zhiyan asked tentatively.
"Us koi spirits aren't the same as you humans, generally, we can’t be certain who our parents are unless we're born from enlightened koi spirits. So, it doesn't matter."
By now, An Zhiyan had reached Su Jinli's bag, picked it up, and then turned to ask Su Jinli: "In what other ways are you different from us?"
"Other ways..." Su Jinli walked next to An Zhiyan, chatting as they headed towards their residence, "I can do this."
Su Jinli raised his hand, conjuring a nearby plastic bottle, which flew into his hand.
Upon seeing this, An Zhiyan immediately took it away: "Don't randomly pick up things from the road. It's filthy!" It was not until he wiped Su Jinli's hand that he fully reacted, "Ah! You can retrieve things from afar?"
"Correct."
"Do you have other abilities? Like telepathy, X-ray vision, or something similar?"
Su Jinli shook his head: "No, my magical abilities are weak. I'm the weakest in our mountain."
Seeing Su Jinli reveal these little secrets, An Zhiyan wasn't afraid. Instead, he felt happy.
He always thought that knowing things others didn't, as well as his relationship with Su Jinli, made him different from the rest.
A man whose mind is occupied by love can be extraordinarily wise in some ways and surprisingly slow in others.
Returning Su Jinli back to his room, An Zhiyan handed him his stuff.
He somewhat didn't want Su Jinli to leave, and holding onto his hand, he asked hesitantly, "Can you stay with me a little longer?"
"No, I'm tired." Su Jinli was genuinely tired; getting up in the middle of the night to swim was extremely strenuous.
"Can I kiss you one more time?"
"No." As soon as Su Jinli answered, he swiftly swiped his card and entered his room.
Watching Su Jinli go in, An Zhiyan raised his hand and touched his own lips. Then he returned to his room.
Once in his room, he grabbed his phone and dialed Jiang Pingqiu's number.
Jiang Pingqiu took a long time to answer, asking in a daze, "Young Master An, what's up?"
"I was just alone with Su Jinli. I want all the surveillance around here deleted. If there are paparazzi hiding around, you must control them completely."
Jiang Pingqiu immediately understood, responding, "Okay."
Being alone together so late and needing to delete surveillance records, Jiang Pingqiu understood what was going on without asking further.
After ending the call, An Zhiyan laid on his bed, rolling restlessly. He couldn't sleep at all and soon took out his phone to search: how to chase a boy.
Realizing the results were off, he changed his search to: how does a boy chase another boy.
In the end, he found almost no answers.
Thus, he gave up on searching how to pursue a man.
________________________
Zhang Heming only received the call from Huasen Entertainment in the morning, questioning them why they eliminated Zhou Wenyuan.
Zhang Heming was completely stunned.
In the beginning, Mai Feng promised that they could boldly eliminate Zhou Wenyuan without worry. Boruo Pineapple from Huasen would negotiate on this.
Zhang Heming firmly believed that. Plus, with all the negative information in front of him and his desire to protect the film crew, he agreed.
Now that Huasen Entertainment was calling to question and even demand compensation, Zhang Heming was left speechless.
Zhang Heming's original planning case was not favored. The judges he found were either has-beens or never-weres.
It was rare that An Zhiyan came because of his younger brother, and they really revered An Zhiyan.
To his surprise, the program was able to make a successful comeback, gradually improving and attracting the favor of investors. This made him increasingly confident and his attitude began to float too high.
At the time, his focus was on protecting this program.
After Su Jinli had an incident, Zhang Heming's decision was to block the news, report it quietly, and cooperate with the investigation. As long as it didn't cause a public uproar, didn't spread any unrest, it was okay to just protect the program team.
Boruo Pineapple was also extremely cooperative, going above and beyond.
Later, when Mai Feng presented Zhou Wenyuan's negative information to him, his first thought was still to protect the program team, while also being able to invite Lu Wenxi to help.
Yet, everything always seemed against Zhang Heming's wishes.
When Qiao Nuo took to the stage publicly challenging Su Jinli, he still wanted to protect the program team.
Success was too hard-won, so it was especially treasured.
However, this move angered An Zhiyan and the people from Shen Cheng.
Looking back now, he was afraid it was a trap set by Shen Cheng from the beginning, willing him to jump right in.
If they performed well, Shen Cheng would negotiate with Huasen Entertainment.
However, when they harmed Su Jinli afterwards, Shen Cheng left them to their own devices, making them deal with it themselves.
During this period, Zhang Heming had never felt so exhausted.
Every day, he had to keep an eye on the program team and deal with all the negative news that was constantly being shared.
In the past, hoping for the program team's participants or the show's content to become trending topics, now whenever they make the trend list, he becomes terrified, fearing another large-scale denunciation incident could occur.
Moreover, every time he saw An Zhiyan, he felt tremendous pressure. Treating the young man like a revered elder didn't seem to make him regard Zhang Heming in a favorable light.
Normally, his unexpected success could serve as a model case, potentially drawing a lot of support for future program planning.
Even if there was indeed a second season, he should be able to hold his head high.
However, he didn't feel this way. There was too much negative news and the higher-ups had criticized him once, saying his ability to handle emergencies was far below average.
But under such circumstances now, who could tell him what to do?
Huasen Entertainment sent their trainees over, hoping that Zhou Wenyuan would debut. However, he was unexpectedly eliminated by the program team.
Just after Zhou Wenyuan left the program, he went missing. They had been trying to control the spread of information, but it was only when Zhou Wenyuan's parents went to Hua Sen Entertainment to process his resignation that they became aware of the situation.
This was an absolute disgrace!
Now, Huasen Entertainment demanded a compensation of 50 million yuan, otherwise, they would not let this matter rest.
Already facing immense challenges, another incident like this was definitely adding fuel to the fire.
Zhang Heming was on the verge of going mad.
He could only tentatively make a phone call to Mai Feng. After connecting, Mai Feng still jovially asked, "What? Huasen Entertainment doesn't agree? How are you going to handle it?"
"Aren't you supposed to inform them?"
Mai Feng, an old fox, was afraid that Zhang Heming would record the conversation, so he never mentioned this matter directly.
Zhang Heming had no choice but to apologize.
Su Jinli was from Shen Cheng's side. He was injured in the program and nearly abandoned by the team afterward. It was no surprise that Shen Cheng would take such actions.
It was well-known who the untouchables in the industry were.
An Zhiyan was one of them.
Shen Cheng was another.
He had managed to offend two of them in one go.
"I don't understand what you're saying. We don't need any rigging. Wu Yu is from our company, so why would we fix Su Jinli as the top one? Even without fixing, Su Jinli could rank first, right?" When Mai Feng spoke, he carried a regional accent and seemed to be feigning ignorance.
Zhang Heming was truly at his wit's end, almost begging Mai Feng for help in a tearful tone.
"Fine, edit the next episode according to our agreement, and we will send someone over," Mai Feng finally changed his tone.
The next episode was when Qiao Nuo openly challenged others, and Zhou Wenyuan was eliminated.
If Boruo Pineapple was to control the editing, they would probably lean towards emphasizing Su Jinli and eliciting sympathy from fans.
Additionally, they would handle Zhou Wenyuan's elimination discreetly.
"Okay…" Zhang Heming agreed.
After hanging up the phone, Zhang Heming's back was covered in cold sweat.
Feeling disheartened, he sat in his office the entire day, unsure of what to feel.
It's unclear how much time had passed when someone knocked on the door of his office, excitedly exclaiming, "Director Zhang, the new episode has been aired, and the ratings have broken a record!"
Zhang Heming finally stood up and followed the staff outside.
The new episode of National Idol was aired.
This episode mainly focused on group performances. The highlights of this episode were the performances of Su Jinli and An Zhihan.
The section where Su Jinli hit the high notes has become the biggest highlight of this episode.
Not long after this part was aired, various platforms were dominated by Su Jinli's clips, which occupied the headline spots.
His real singing prowess, especially in the rare domain of male high notes in the country, was impossible to bury.
Wu Yu's performance had already received praises from many industry insiders. When the version of Su Jinli's song without noise was played, it was like lighting a fuse.
This explosion resounded ear-splittingly in the domestic music industry.
Consequently, Su Jinli's beatboxing performance was also posted on Weibo by Yang Zehua, from CCTV's "National Cultural Treasures".
Yang Zehua: To be honest, seeing this beatboxing performance again, I am still moved to tears. It gives me hope. I have confirmed with his manager that his injuries have healed well. Moreover, we have officially scheduled a time, hoping to collaborate with this young man on a wonderful show. [Video]
On that day's hot Weibo, if you scrolled down a bit, Su Jinli dominated the screen.
Su Jinli had become popular. This time, it wasn't because of a forwarded lucky post, or because of controversial news, but purely because of his singing.
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