Dressed As a Cannon Fodder For the Rich and Powerful

TL: Hua

The Xun family villa, contrary to usual, was still brightly lit in the early morning.

Qi Xiaoyu got out of the car at the gate, tightly wrapped up the thin suit he wore during the performance, and braved the cold wind in the middle of the early winter night.

When he was about to reach the villa, several luxurious starlight BMWs drove past him like flying.

Butler Cheng stood in front of the steps at the entrance of the villa, maintaining a bowed posture, as if he were sending someone away. There were also a few servants standing beside him, all bowing uniformly.

Qi Xiaoyu looked curiously at those BMWs left in the dust, walked towards the exhausted Butler Cheng, and supported him. “Uncle Cheng, why are people still coming at this late hour?”

Butler Cheng sighed silently and slowly stood up straight with Qi Xiaoyu’s help. “It’s the old madam.”

The old madam—that’s Xun Qian’s mother.

Xun Qian is not in good health, and Qi Xiaoyu has been here for more than ten days, but it’s only today that he sees his mother for the first time.

“Old madam? When did she come?”

“She has just arrived tonight. She heard that the third master was ill and came back for a visit. She also wanted to see you; that’s why I told you to come back quickly.”

Qi Xiaoyu immediately said, “Sorry for coming back late. But why did the old madam leave so soon?”

The night Qi Xiaoyu first crossed over, he already felt strange. Madam Xun was the one who found him for the wedding, so why didn’t she come to “inspect the goods” by herself?

It’s even more strange now. Isn’t she worried that her son is seriously ill?

Moreover, on such a cold and silent night, she came but left so soon, not even staying for one night.

It’s written in the original book that since Xun Qian’s sister and father passed away one after another, the relationship between mother and son has not been very good.

But these few sentences didn’t describe in detail why the relationship between mother and son deteriorated, nor did they describe how bad it was.

“It’s good that you came.”

Butler Cheng showed a bitter and helpless smile and said slowly in a tired voice, “The relationship between the old lady and the third master finally eased up a bit. The old lady asked you to come here, and the third master also agreed… Unfortunately, because of her brother’s matter, it has become like this again…”

Qi Xiaoyu helped Butler Cheng get to the villa. The Xun family had a big family business, and Xun Qian was in charge of such a big power at a young age. Madam Xun’s natal family was naturally jealous. These kinds of things need no detailed explanation. Qi Xiaoyu can guess the end by listening to the beginning.

He turned to ask, “Then how is the third master’s situation now?”

“The fever hasn’t subsided yet. He still needs an IV drip and is under observation.”

“Why not send him to the hospital?”

“Already did. I sent him there last night when he got a high fever.” Butler Cheng said, holding Qi Xiaoyu’s forearm tightly. “Yesterday’s situation was really dangerous. Fortunately…”

Qi Xiaoyu comforted him with a slight sense of shame: “Heaven always provides for good people.”

“He stayed in the hospital all day today.” Butler Cheng sighed again. “He should have recuperated in the hospital for half a month. But he refused.”

Qi Xiaoyu remained silent. He knew a little about Xun Qian’s character, which is stubborn and unpredictable. No one could probably make him stay in the hospital.

Butler Cheng sighed as if he knew what Qi Xiaoyu was thinking: “After so many years of suffering like this, whose words would he listen to? Even what the old lady said is useless.”

*****

Xun Qian was lying in his bedroom with a needle inserted in the back of his hand, and the bottle had to be changed every half hour.

Butler Cheng was getting old. After traveling from home to the hospital and then from the hospital to home for two days, he immediately showed the fatigue of the elderly.

The others looked as if they would rather die than take care of Xun Qian.

Qi Xiaoyu could only take the initiative to pick up the burden: “Uncle Cheng, you go back to rest; I’ll watch the third master.”

After getting along for more than ten days, Butler Cheng can trust Qi Xiaoyu. “Okay, remember to tell me as soon as the third master wakes up, and call me immediately if there is any situation. Also, don’t forget to replace the hanging bottle.”

Qi Xiaoyu smiled obediently and said, “Okay, Uncle Cheng, don’t worry.”

After Butler Cheng closed the door, the room became so quiet that only the sound of dripping water in the hanging bottle could be heard.

Qi Xiaoyu walked in, first opened the curtains, and then turned on several wall lamps and the night lamp on the bedside table.

Then he moved the cushion bench at the foot of the bed close to the hanging bottle and put it parallel to the bed.

In this way, he can lie down and rest, and it’s also convenient for him to keep an eye on Xun Qian’s situation at any time.

He took off his coat, loosened the top buttons of the stand-up collar shirt, lay sideways on the bench, and stared at Xun Qian’s profile.

After not seeing each other for only two days, Xun Qian has lost a lot of weight.

Even under the dim light of the night, his face was paler than usual, but his lips were bright red, with thick eyelashes and narrow eyeliner. The color scheme of black, white, and red had a sense of ghastly beauty.

It’s not bad to just appreciate this beautiful face.

Qi Xiaoyu stared at Xun Qian for a while and couldn’t help feeling sleepy, so he yawned.

This bottle of liquid medicine has just been replaced and would probably take more than half an hour to finish.

Qi Xiaoyu set the alarm clock on the phone half an hour later, set it to vibrate, put it at hand, and then closed his eyes to prepare for a rest.

He didn’t know how long he’d slept, but it felt like he only squinted and was woken again.

It wasn’t the phone that rang; the sound came from Xun Qian.

“Sister.” Xun Qian half-opened his eyes. His long eyelashes trembled slightly, and his bright red lips opened and closed slightly.

At first, Qi Xiaoyu thought Xun Qian was murmuring in his sleep, so he ignored it.

It took a while to realize that Xun Qian was talking to him.

He stared at Qi Xiaoyu’s face with eyes that seemed bewildered but also awake and called out again, “Sister.”

Qi Xiaoyu thought that Xun Qian was so sick that he confused himself for his sister.

He got up from the bench and put his hand on Xun Qian’s forehead to test the temperature, thinking that if it was too high, it would be better to call a doctor.

His hand rested on Xun Qian’s forehead for a while, and Xun Qian looked at him with half-opened eyes.

After Qi Xiaoyu tested the temperature and was about to withdraw his hand, Xun Qian suddenly grabbed his wrist.

Qi Xiaoyu struggled to break free but couldn’t. He didn’t expect the sick Xun Qian to be quite strong.

“Sister, don’t go.”

Qi Xiaoyu finished recording the show and rushed back without removing his makeup. His red lips, white teeth, and eye makeup made his already exquisite facial features more beautiful and androgynous.

“Sister—”

Xun Qian called out again. His hoarse, smoky voice and spoiled ending tune, paired with those naturally amorous eyes…

Qi Xiaoyu’s gaze fell on Xun Qian’s long and slender fingers, and he hesitated for a moment.

Seeing that he was not moving, Xun Qian smiled very lightly.

Xun Qian still knows how to smile. This was Qi Xiaoyu’s first thought, and then he remembered that old photo. The little boy in the photo smiled much more innocently than this.

Qi Xiaoyu’s heart softened a little, and he felt that although this person was usually very annoying, he could barely be called cute and good-looking at this time.

He also felt that Xun Qian’s sickness was partly his fault, so he let him hold his hand and said, “I won’t leave; you lie down.”

Xun Qian wandered back and forth between a high fever and a low fever. The tired Qi Xiaoyu also slept on the bench for several days to look after him.

****

During the days when Qi Xiaoyu worked hard to accompany the patient, there was a heated discussion outside about his affairs.

The main focus is on his performance on the night of the final and the inside story of the show.

On the night when the show ended, the only two hot searches rushed to the front row: one was “Qi Xiaoyu Sings” and the other was “Qi Xiaoyu Shady”.

The first hot search is naturally all beautiful pictures and videos, and everyone is licking his face from a 360-degree angle.

The second is much more complicated. There are people who eat melons, people who watch the excitement, and fans who accuse each other. There’s a little bit of everything.

Those who followed the trend and ridiculed Qi Xiaoyu for singing out of tune are now fighting against the injustice, asking, “What the hell? I’ve only heard of Qi Xiaoyu’s name on this show. Why hasn’t the most famous contestant made his debut yet? There’s something shady about this show.”

“This ranking is really unexpected.”

The netizens who became Qi Xiaoyu’s fans on the final night said, “My friend and I both voted for Qi Xiaoyu on the day of the final. How could it be possible that he didn’t even rank in the top ten? Wasn’t he the second before?”

“In terms of appearance, singing level, and stage presence, at what point does Xiao Yu fail to meet the debut standard? This is obviously too shady.”

Someone dug up the previous post that predicted the debut list: “There are too many face-slappings in this show. Two days ago, someone said that Qi Xiaoyu could perform exceptionally well, but everyone didn’t believe it, and then was slapped in the face. Later, someone said that Qi Xiaoyu couldn’t make a debut; everyone still didn’t believe it and got slapped in the face again.”

“Hahahahaha, the most successful thing this show does is slap fans in the face.”

There is also the indignation of the fans: “Have we not felt distressed enough before? Or Xiao Yu didn’t work hard enough? The fans have been very fired up, and there are even a lot of netizen votes. Why can’t he make it into the top ten?”

The support team also made a long table that detailed the number of votes cast by each voting group during the finals. “Let’s speak with data. Leaving aside the netizens and passerby vote pool, the results of fans’ votes aren’t much worse than Yu Zhou, let alone Gu Lei, who was ranked outside the top ten before.”

Reasonable and compelling.

There was a lot of scolding about the rigged show to Gu Lei, who relied on capital for his position, and Orange Juice Entertainment behind Gu Lei.

Then someone found out that the scale of Orange Juice Entertainment is not large, not comparable to big companies like Feichi Media. Where did the capital come from?

It turns out that the Xun family is behind the investment.

Then someone else picked up that the show’s titleholder, Golden Butterfly Wash & Care, is also owned by the Xun family.

No one knows who the boss of Xun Enterprise is. Xun Qian lives in seclusion and neither accepts interviews nor shows up in public. However, everyone knows that the largest company under the Xun family is Wanhai Real Estate.

Wanhai Real Estate includes the Weihao Hotel, Xingye Commercial, and many other projects. They also have an official blog.

So netizens who paid attention to this incident swarmed to leave comments under the official blogs of Wanhai Real Estate and Golden Butterfly Wash & Care.

At the same time, although Qi Xiaoyu’s popularity reached its highest peak since he participated in “Let’s Debut, Trainees”, it did not bring any practical benefits.

There are still no announcements, no advertisements, no invitations to variety shows, not even a feature in small domestic magazines.

Yu Xiaosheng helped Qi Xiaoyu contact several production crews, but the news that was cast was like stones sinking to the bottom of the sea.

After a few days, Ren Fei felt that something was wrong and asked Yu Xiaosheng on a leisurely afternoon, “Brother, what’s going on? The show just ended, and Xiao Yu’s popularity is still high. Why hasn’t there been a single announcement? Those who made their debuts are so busy that they have already accepted five or six advertisements.”

Yu Xiaosheng took a dull puff of smoke and said, “How would I know?”

Ren Fei bit his finger and thought for a while: “Brother, did Orange Juice Entertainment trip you up behind the scenes?”

Yu Xiaosheng spat all the smoke on Ren Fei’s face and asked, “What do you think?”

“Cough, cough, should we talk to Xiao Yu about this? Let him post a Weibo message to show off to Gu Lei?”

“Ptooey. Thank you for speaking up. Didn’t you see that Xiao Yu was in a bad mood that day? And you want to tell him this?”

“Then…then what should we do?” Ren Fei’s voice gradually became weaker. “We can’t have trouble with the money either… If you didn’t bring in enough money, be careful that Old Ding will trouble you.”

Yu Xiaosheng stomped the cigarette under his feet a few times and said, “Don’t mention it to Xiao Yu about the public announcement. How great are big companies? I, Yu Xiaosheng, have been in this industry for so many years. Do you think I take people’s money without getting the work done?”