Dressed As a Cannon Fodder For the Rich and Powerful

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Qi Xiaoyu wisely chose to remain silent.

He didn’t want to take on this topic, firstly because he was afraid that if he didn’t take it seriously, it would make Xun Qian angry. Secondly, this topic broke through the security line in his heart.

He turned around, pretending not to hear this sentence, and looked up at the moon in the sky.

Pushed by the cold wind, a few streams of clouds quickly slid over the moon.

Fortunately, Xun Qian didn’t speak again.

Qi Xiaoyu breathed a sigh of relief and then looked up at the moon. The bright moonlight gave him peace of mind.

He loved every night with the moon; even if he didn’t light a lamp, the house wouldn’t be dark.

He is quite afraid of the dark.

But no one knows about this.

The senior sister once laughed at him, “Why do you still sleep with the lamp on at night? Are you still afraid of the dark, although you’re already an adult?”

He casually lied, saying that he was too tired from singing yesterday and forgot to blow out the light when he went to bed.

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But in fact, as long as he stays alone in absolute darkness, he will easily get nervous, suffer from insomnia and restlessness, and even when he falls asleep, he will have nightmares again and again.

He looked at the moon for a while and then sneaked a glance at Xun Qian from the corner of his eye. Xun Qian also raised his head, and the moonlight shone on his jade-like facial features.

Qi Xiaoyu couldn’t help but think of the lyrics from “A Dream of the Lady in Spring”,

“The end of the day is like drunken sickness; I’m sitting near a smoked cage until morning.

The flowers on the street were like brocade when I was there, and the willows at the top of the building are green again today.”

As soon as he thought of it, he sang softly:

“Poor me, I’ve been waiting for you in my room, but now the begonias are in bloom.”

He hummed very lightly, and the melodious tune accompanied by the faint moonlight was like a frame of silent and ethereal animation.

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“Cough, cough, cough—”

Halfway through his singing, Qi Xiaoyu was suddenly interrupted by a fit of coughing.

Xun Qian, who was just sitting there holding a hand warmer, covered his mouth with a handkerchief, as if he were about to cough up his lungs. The corner of the handkerchief was vaguely dyed red.

Qi Xiaoyu was startled. The rumors that Third Master Xun was bleeding at every turn were not groundless.

He didn’t ask for Xun Qian’s idea and quickly pushed him into the bedroom, helped him onto the bed, and closed the doors and windows tightly.

Xun Qian was still coughing so hard that he couldn’t straighten up, even though he covered his mouth and coughed with a graceful and cold motion.

“I’ll call a doctor for you.” The last time Xun Qian was ill, he accompanied him to bed, and he had already written down the doctor’s number.

*****

The doctor came quickly after receiving a call from the Xun family, as if he were on standby at any time.

When Butler Cheng heard the news and rushed to Xun Qian’s bedroom, the doctor had already finished the examination and prescribed the medicine for Xun Qian. Qi Xiaoyu was sitting quietly in the same position where he accompanied the bed last time.

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Butler Cheng stared wide-eyed in disbelief at the doctor who appeared in Xun Qian’s bedroom and didn’t respond for a long time.

The doctor, surnamed Song, stood straight at the head of the bed in his clean white coat and was urging Xun Qian to go to the hospital in a very soft voice, “Third Master, if you have time, it’s better to come to the hospital for an examination. Take a lung X-ray, so we can see where the problem is and prescribe the right medicine.”

After Dr. Song finished speaking, as if he were afraid that Xun Qian would disagree, he continued to lobby: “Now there are many ways to treat lung diseases, with good results and few side effects, so it won’t take much time for Third Master to come and see us.”

Xun Qian lowered his eyes; his long eyelashes held back all his emotions, seemingly lost in his own world. Whether he listened or not, at least he waited for Dr. Song to speak before sending him away.

Butler Cheng sent Dr. Song off and said, “Thank you for your hard work, Dr. Song. Did the third master call you over tonight?”

Dr. Song shook his head. “No, it was Mr. Qi who called me.”

Butler Cheng came to a sudden realization and said, “The third master didn’t dismiss you after you came?”

“No,” Dr. Song also said, showing doubts. “The third master was very cooperative tonight. That’s why I wanted to try to persuade him to come to the hospital.”

“Very good, very good.” Butler Cheng signed several times in succession. “It’s time to go to the hospital for a thorough examination. Can the third master really recover from his illness? Sigh, it’s been dragging on for so many years, and in the past two years, it’s gotten worse and worse.”

“Nowadays, medical technology is very advanced. It shouldn’t be a big problem to cure the third master’s lung disease. The key is whether he’s willing to be treated. As for the years of delay with which he hasn’t been properly treated, the lung disease is prone to recurrent attacks. Like this sudden attack, it was caused by the aftermath of the previous high fever. If he was willing to be hospitalized for treatment last time, this situation would not have happened.”

Butler Cheng’s eyes lit up. “Okay, I will definitely find a way to persuade him to go to the hospital.”

*****

On the night when Qi Xiaoyu and Xun Qian watched the moon and went to see a doctor together, Weibo was buzzing with excitement.

First, there was an account that broke the news: a certain talent show idol, who gained a bit of popularity, started to act like a prima donna and disrespect the staff. They complained about the makeup taking too long, not cooperating with the shooting, and ditching the magazine.

Immediately after this piece of news came out, the gossip account and the marketing account moved over, causing a wave of speculation.

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Some people guessed that this was Dong Fan, saying that only Dong Fan had such a bad temper among the newly debuted talent show artists.

There are also people who guess that this is an artist from another talent show. Here and there, the fans are pointing at each other, saying that their flopped idol is the one who’s thick-skinned and disrespecting the staff.

Anyway, at this time, each fan secretly brought up the name of their opposite favorite.

Probably because the netizens are not up to the mark, this account continues to tip-off: the talent of this “idol” is not directly proportional to their appearance. Apart from a short-lived live performance that was good, the rest was lackluster. After debuting, he disappeared without any work, unable to receive even a single advertisement. Even this hard-to-come by magazine invitation was screwed up by him, a really incompetent and unprofessional person.

“Wow, it turned out to be him—”

“Oh, I get it; I get it; I have decoded it.”

“Hey, sisters upstairs, the code is qxy right?”

“No wonder there was no sound when he debuted; that’s why.”

The point of the revelation is so obvious: the talent is not directly proportional to the appearance; there is only a short-lived stage, and he disappears after his debut. With so many things combined, who else is there besides Qi Xiaoyu?

Gu Lei’s fans were the first to react and rushed to the front line: “It’s strange that he can debut with this kind of temper. Please, please, qxy family’s fans don’t dump pots on my family in the future.”

“Who’s to blame for someone not being able to debut? Of course, the person in question is to blame. He probably offended the staff when he was on the show at the time.”

“It’s him who bullies others. From now on, the eliminated contestant in the show should stop rubbing my family’s popularity, okay? My family is the main vocalist now, and I refuse to be tied up with other trash.”

Some people pretended to be insiders and posted on Weibo that Qi Xiaoyu was acting like a big name, had a bad temper, and didn’t cooperate with the filming. “The makeup artist just told them to wait, but Qi Xiaoyu turned around and left with a black face.”

They spoke as if they were at the scene and were frantically reposted by Gu Lei’s fans.

At the same time, at Gu Lei’s home, Gu Lei was contacting the magazine’s makeup artist, asking her to help post a Weibo to prove that Qi Xiaoyu was acting like a superstar and ditching the shooting.

On the side, his manager was pacing back and forth with his mobile phone. “Gu Lei, do you think this matter should be settled here? This afternoon, Mr. Jiang just told us that we need to do things a little more low-key lately. If you’re like this now, what if Mr. Jiang finds out?”

“What’s the matter? I didn’t do anything.” Gu Lei’s excited face darkened slightly. “Besides, it’s rare to have such a good opportunity; how can we let it pass? Have you forgotten Qi Xiaoyu’s attitude today? His nose is facing the sky, and he mocks me in front of so many people… And did you forget how his fans curse at me? I won’t let it slide!”

The agent thought for a moment, but couldn’t resist the way Yu Xiaosheng turned his head and left. He gritted his teeth and said, “Okay, then I will listen to you.”

When Yu Xiaosheng saw this breaking news, he snorted coldly.

He has the recording of the day in his hand; what is he afraid of?

He has been in the entertainment industry for so many years that, although he has not accumulated enough network resources, he still has some tricks.

Ever since he saw Gu Lei and the others appear at the magazine shooting, he paid extra attention and turned on the phone recording.

As long as this recording is played, anyone can tell that it was Gu Lei and the makeup artist who bullied people first.

They made an appointment for shooting at 3:00 p.m. and an appointment for makeup at 2:30 p.m. They were on time, so what’s to stop them from getting their makeup done? Instead, they let others cut in line?

What’s more, he still has the chat records of the shooting appointment in his hand.

Yu Xiaosheng urgently contacted the person in charge of Qi Xiaoyu’s support club and asked her to organize Qi Xiaoyu’s fans to stay calm and stay still.

After the other party has been reposted 500 times, take screenshots of all these rumor-making accounts and hand them over to the police the next day.

At that time, we will see who can have the last laugh.

The next morning, netizens got up one after another to check Weibo with their mobile phones, and there were more and more people eating melons. However, except for Gu Lei’s fans who continued to repost Weibo, the other passersby were just spitting out the fact that celebrities nowadays are ignorant and aren’t dedicated to their work.

Qi Xiaoyu’s fans, on the other hand, have been under calm control. Except for the occasional few who were too young to know better and wanted to rush up to curse, the rest of them, with the experience of battling the water army before, did not casually venture out.

On the other hand, the editor-in-chief of the magazine, Mr. Fang, was calling his old friend, “Old Jiang, how’s your investigation going?”

Jiang Feibai sighed. “Recently, all the people and things have been investigated, and all that’s left is one named Qi Xiaoyu, who is suspicious.”

“Qi Xiaoyu? Why does this name sound familiar?”

“It’s just a trainee who participated in “Let’s Debut, Trainees” and was eliminated before making his debut. His popularity is pretty good, but other than that, he’s nothing special. Because he didn’t make his debut, his fans made a big fuss. Zhou Zheng and I just… did a little bit of work. He hasn’t shown up much. Say, if he were Third Master Xun’s person, how could he be so easily…”

Although Jiang Feibai spoke hesitantly, Editor Fang understood what he meant: “Who knows, but if there are no other suspicious characters, you should pay attention to this one.”

Jiang Feibai frowned worriedly. “Okay, I’ll check and contact you again.”

Less than ten minutes later, Jiang Feibai called first, “Old Fang, I got in touch with Zhou Zheng. Did you know that his brother has also been suspended!”

“Ah?”

“I’ve thought over all the recent events, and the only thing that Zhou Zheng and his brother and I were involved in at the same time was the matter related to Qi Xiaoyu. It must be him!” Jiang Feibai exclaimed in chagrin, “This is really unexpected. He has a relationship with Third Master Xun but still messes around like this.”

“Since he has something to do with Mr. Xun, maybe he has some background, but you never know…”

Halfway through his sentence, Editor-in-Chief Fang suddenly slapped his thigh. “Oh, no wonder I think his name is very familiar. It would be bad if it was him. It’s over. I won’t talk to you now. I’ll contact you later.”