Chapter 50: Stirring Up Trouble
Note: Hi! I'll be doing multiple updates this weekend — probably two to three a day — to make up for the lack of chapters these past couple of weeks. I was working on the final chapters of Forcefully Doting On You, which is now finally completed. If you haven't read that yet, I would love it if you could check it out. The first arc also has a Produce 101-style setting.
Lu Wenxi was quite impressed by Shen Cheng, who sat on an old, empty barrel in an abandoned warehouse, yet the way he sat was still so impeccably graceful. It really demonstrated the tremendous burden of being an idol.
Shen Cheng was holding his phone, watching the latest episode of National Idol.
Upon seeing the An brothers chasing Su Jinli to a corner and Su Jinli declaring that he would have his brother deal with them, Shen Cheng couldn't help but click his tongue.
The more he watched, the more he found the An brothers bothersome.
Lu Wenxi stood amid the ruins, glancing from the elegant Shen Cheng to Zhou Wenyuan, who was locked in the soul chain, writhing on the ground in pain, and emitting desperate, hoarse roars. He felt that the contrast between the two scenes didn't seem right.
As he turned his head, he saw Xu Chen busy adjusting the tassels on his fan, completely unconcerned with what was happening nearby.
Taking a deep breath, Lu Wenxi asked Shen Cheng, "How should we handle this?"
Shen Cheng slightly furrowed his brow and gestured to Lu Wenxi not to speak, as it was getting in the way of watching his brother's video.
Seeing this, Lu Wenxi decided not to press the matter further. He jumped onto a barrel and squatted behind Shen Cheng to watch the video together.
When they reached the part where Su Jinli danced to fight for the song, Lu Wenxi couldn't help but exclaim, "Yo!"
After watching the video, Shen Cheng immediately shut it off and dialed the production team's number, asking them to call Su Jinli.
It seemed like the production team was a bit apprehensive, but they agreed anyway. After all, they didn't dare to neglect anything related to Su Jinli now. After about three minutes, Su Jinli came to answer the call.
"Hello?" Su Jinli excitedly picked up the phone.
"It's me." Shen Cheng said seriously, holding his phone.
"Um, I know, I miss you so much!" Su Jinli knew he couldn't reveal his identity, so he spoke very carefully in a low voice.
"We've just been apart for a few days." Shen Cheng replied.
"I started missing you two minutes after we separated! I miss you even more today."
Shen Cheng was initially frowning, but his expression finally eased a bit, "The dance you did during your song snatch, I don't like it at all. You're not allowed to do that dance anymore."
"Oh... then I won't dance it anymore."
"Also, don't hang out with An Zhihan so much."
"Why is that?"
"You've been led astray by him, haven't you noticed?"
"No, Zhihan is a good person."
"What's good about him? Smoking, drinking, gambling at such a young age, and even messing around with girlfriends, he has no self-respect. What good can you learn from hanging around him?"
"I'm already eighteen, he's a friend... it puts me in a difficult position when you say things like this."
Shen Cheng was annoyed again, but he ultimately compromised, always feeling that he was being a bit too controlling.
He still instinctively treated Su Jinli as a naive little fish and added, "Anyway, don't pick up any bad habits in the training camp. Don't dance like that too much, or else I'll take you out of the training camp to quit immediately."
"Oh." Su Jinli agreed, then heard a strange sound and asked, "What's that noise on your end? It's quite annoying."
"Oh, that's Zhou Wenyuan."
"What?!"
"He was supposed to be dead, but he became an evil spirit and survived. We're dealing with him now." Shen Cheng replied.
"Be careful then!" Su Jinli immediately showed concern.
"Don't worry."
"Just... don't break the law..."
"I know what I'm doing."
"And... how about me?"
"Take care of yourself. I do watch your competitions, keep going."
Su Jinli immediately responded, "Okay!"
"That's all from me."
"Okay! You're the best! I like you the most!"
"Mhmm."
"I want to chat with you a bit longer." Su Jinli began to beg pitifully again.
Shen Cheng helplessly sighed, giving Su Jinli a few more reminders before Su Jinli reluctantly hung up.
After hanging up, Lu Wenxi couldn't help but sigh, "Your younger brother is quite clingy, isn't he?"
"Mhmm, he's always liked to run after me since he was young."
"A brother complex?"
"A bit, but it's not extremely serious."
"Since you've paused, you might as well address the situation here." Lu Wenxi pointed at Zhou Wenyuan and suggested to Shen Cheng.
"So he's possessing his own body?" Shen Cheng turned his gaze towards Zhou Wenyuan to ask.
Xu Chen finally stopped fiddling with his fan, he explained in detail to Shen Cheng: "According to my calculations, he only had a life of 16 years. He died in an accident when he was 16. Because his obsession was too strong, he turned into an evil spirit, possessed his own body, surprisingly made his body grow naturally and continue to live, and even could do what evil spirits could do."
"What about the Heavenly Sacrificial Blood?" Shen Cheng asked further.
"In order to stabilize his soul state and avoid extreme pain, he deliberately went to the Gu family, paid a lot for my blood to stabilize his soul. Once he knew my blood could reveal Su Jinli's true form, he started having evil thoughts."
Shen Cheng lightly jumped towards Zhou Wenyuan, looking at him coldly.
Zhou Wenyan was still struggling. Due to discomfort, his soul tried to leave his body several times but was continuously bound by the soul-locking chain.
"Heh—Su Jinli… quite impressive huh… The entertainment circle… only has so few popular idols, yet you're acquainted with them all… What's the point of participating in auditions…" Zhou Wenyan struggled to articulate his words while in discomfort, yet he continued to mock them.
Indeed, among the hottest figures in the entertainment industry, two were standing here dealing with him, and another had angrily smashed the microphone for Su Jinli. With so many people protecting him, what's the point of participating in the auditions? He could easily become famous with a little bit of support.
"Do you feel any remorse?" Shen Cheng asked.
"You're also an immortal… but your spiritual pill is… empty, yet you're here boasting."
Shen Cheng's spiritual power, all had been used to heal Su Jinli, and now his spiritual pill contained no more magic power.
Given Shen Cheng's busy schedule, with no time to cultivate and rest, it was likely to take some time for him to recover.
However, all this was certainly not Zhou Wenyuan's place to mock.
"What is the usual way you handle such situations?" Shen Cheng turned to ask Lu Wenxi.
"It's quite tricky, I don’t want to invite trouble. If we execute him on the spot, and someone suddenly dies, what to do with the body and as for us, would we be considered murderers?" Lu Wenxi looked troubled in her response.
"So what to do then?"
"I want a fish scale."
Shen Cheng sighed and ultimately nodded, "Alright."
Finally satisfied, Lu Wenxi squatted down in front of Zhou Wenyuan and said, "For someone like you, we usually purify your soul. Then, if you can endure it, you can continue to live, but you will have completely lost your memories. If you can't hold on, you'll generally die, and turn into a dried corpse, looking as though you've been dead for several years."
Zhou Wenyuan began to struggle, but it was futile.
"Have you really been content living like this before? Didn't the Gu family tell you that reversing your destiny will consume the years of life of your loved ones? Each year you live, means three years less for one of your parents."
At last, Zhou Wenyuan paused, looking shocked at Lu Wenxi.
"It seems you're not entirely heartless, and still care about others. But it's useless now, as you've already lived for several years, and their years have been consumed. So, you should pray that you can still live after being purified. Then, you can continue to drain their lives."
"Leave him some life," Shen Cheng suddenly spoke.
"Why?" Lu Wenxi looked puzzled.
"He hasn't apologized to my brother yet."
"If we use the purification array method, he'll lose his memory in a week at most. By the time your brother's competition ends, it will be several months later, right?" Lu Wenxi felt this was somewhat inappropriate.
Shen Cheng pulled out his phone and aimed the camera at Zhou Wenyuan, "I'll record it for him."
"Stop it, don't scare the child with this sight," Lu Wenxi immediately prevented Shen Cheng's phone.
Shen Cheng finally reluctantly stepped back a few steps, "Then you guys do it."
Xu Chen quickly began to set up the array, with Lu Wenxi simultaneously assisting, purifying Zhou Wenyuan's soul.
Shen Cheng watched for a while, seeing Zhou Wenyuan's painful and fierce expression, he finally felt somewhat satisfied, then spoke to Lu Wenxi, "I'll go back first."
"What about the fish scales?"
"I'm currently low on energy, can't control my body well. And I'll send them when I've recovered." With that, Shen Cheng drew a barrier in the air in front of him and walked into it.
Lu Wenxi was extremely aggravated, "You're using teleportation when you're low on energy?! Are you planning to weasel your way out again?"
Shen Cheng didn't answer and directly left.
All Lu Wenxi could do was grumble, "I can't offend the koi, it will bring bad luck, it will bring bad luck..."
________________________
"National Idol" announced the rules for the new round of the competition.
This time, it was an online voting system. Netizens would vote for their favorite contestants and group them together, then assign them songs to perform.
"What kind of rules are these?" Su Jinli was baffled.
"I don't understand either," An Zhihan replied.
At this point, Gu Ju had already begun announcing the groups.
The first few groups seemed quite normal. Fan Qianting would be collaborating with another contestant on a rap song, while Chang Siyin would be singing a duet of a sentimental song with a male contestant.
When it came to Su Jinli's team, people started to make noise.
"Su Jinli is..." Gu Ju saw the list and laughed a little, "partnered with Zhang Caini."
"Wow..."
"That's impressive."
"Was that intentional?"
Both Su Jinli and Zhang Caini hadn't expected this outcome, looking at each other with astonishment.
Following that, Gu Ju announced the song title, "The result of the netizens' voting is that you two will be performing 'More Than Just Like.'"
After announcing this, the whole scene erupted. The netizens of this season indeed did a fantastic job.
This team and this song were both a bit... ambiguous.
"What's wrong?" Su Jinli asked innocently.
"Nothing, it's great. It's a new challenge for you," An Zhihan replied, but his face was full of mischief.
"The next group is also interesting, An Zhihan and... Wu Yu."
After Gu Ju made his announcement, An Zhihan exclaimed, "You've got to be kidding me?!"
"Why is it him?" Wu Yu was also unhappy.
The other contestants on site immediately asked, "What's the song?"
Gu Ju, trying to hold back his laughter, answered, "It's called 'One Like Summer, One Like Autumn.'"
An Zhihan looked like he was about to have a breakdown. He cast a glare at Fan Qianting, who was laughing like rolling dice.
"The song title seems quite fitting for you two," Su Jinli said.
"Nonsense!" An Zhihan retorted.
"This doesn't fit at all." Wu Yu followed up.
Troublemakers!
Those fans are such troublemakers!
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