Chapter 59: Scheming White Lotus
Almost at the exact moment the livestream was cut off, the door was pushed open.
Ma Hongping, who had rushed over from the next room after hearing the news, was panting heavily. But he had no time to catch his breath—he directly reprimanded, “Why did you cut the livestream?”
The staff member stammered, “Didn’t you say to be mindful of the livestream’s content? Just now…”
Just now—was that something that could be said out loud?
Ma Hongping was furious.
Of course, that shouldn’t have been said.
But now that it had already been said, cutting the stream so abruptly and crudely would only make things worse, as if they were trying to cover something up!
Anyone who didn’t know better might even think their show was up to something shady!
His temples throbbed, and he turned to leave, heading straight to find the PR department. The moment he stepped out, he bumped into someone. Their eyes met, and Xie Xizhao blinked. “Director Ma, hello.”
Ma Hongping: “…”
This time, he couldn’t even force a smile.
He gave Xie Xizhao a complicated look but had no time to say anything before hurriedly leaving the hallway.
Xie Xizhao lowered his gaze slightly.
He walked into the room. The reckless kid who had just been acting so boldly was now sitting in a chair, staring blankly. Seeing Xie Xizhao enter, he snapped back to his senses and stood up awkwardly. “Brother, did I… did I cause trouble?”
It had just hit him—what he said had essentially dragged Xie Xizhao from behind the scenes into the spotlight.
Never mind anything else, how would Xia Ruiyan react?
The more he thought about it, the more he regretted it. The impulsive courage from earlier had completely vanished, and he looked as if he was about to cry.
Xie Xizhao chuckled, then sighed. “You did cause me some trouble.”
Yun Pan: !
“But it’s not a big problem,” Xie Xizhao finished his sentence.
Then he said, “Let’s go. Back to the dorm.”
Yun Pan hesitated for a moment but still stood up and followed him.
He had already moved out a while ago, and his current dorm had new roommates.
None of them had gone to sleep yet. Seeing the two enter, they greeted them, “Panpan, Xizhao.”
“You’re all still up,” Xie Xizhao remarked.
“We were a bit worried,” one of the guys nearby said, scratching his head.
As his roommates, they all knew Yun Pan was doing a livestream tonight. After spending so much time together, they had grown close and sympathized with his situation. So they had stayed up to watch, even helping him fight back against some of the nasty comments in the chat.
But when Yun Pan said those words at the end, none of them had reacted immediately.
Now, they finally processed it.
And strangely, it felt like something they had expected all along.
After all, since the initial evaluation, Xie Xizhao had an unusually good reputation among the trainees. One reason was that he often helped others. If he happened to walk by and someone asked for advice, he was always patient enough to offer guidance.
So rather than being surprised, they were just… curious.
They had only seen the result but had no idea how things played out behind the scenes.
Considering that Xie Xizhao had been repeatedly suppressed by the production team, yet still managed to persuade them to cooperate, the process must have taken quite a bit of effort.
Thinking about it that way, the guy felt that Xie Xizhao probably didn’t have it easy either.
He asked, “Do you want to come in and sit for a bit?”
“No, thanks,” Xie Xizhao politely declined.
Then, under Yun Pan’s reluctant gaze, he closed the door for them.
The moment he turned around, he was met with Fu Wenze’s face.
—
The air fell into an eerie silence for a brief moment.
Xie Xizhao glanced at Fu Wenze’s black hoodie and jeans, assessing his current state.
Then, he greeted him quietly, “Still awake?”
Fu Wenze kept it brief: “Waiting for you.”
He paused for a moment before adding, “Guan Heng hasn’t come back either. I thought you two were together.”
Xie Xizhao was momentarily stunned.
He hadn’t run into Guan Heng much lately. In fact, if not for the situation with Yun Pan, he had been planning to find an opportunity to talk to him.
The public wasn’t aware of the details regarding their group’s center position, but Xie Xizhao had heard some rumors. If those rumors were true, Guan Heng was probably not in a great state of mind right now.
However, Guan Heng had been practically elusive recently. Whenever they happened to meet in the practice room, it was only a brief greeting before he disappeared again.
As if seeing through his thoughts, Fu Wenze said, “Can you think about yourself first?”
Xie Xizhao was still distracted and responded with a confused “Hmm?”
A moment later, he heard Fu Wenze let out what seemed to be a sigh.
Then, he finally snapped out of it.
“You watched the livestream too?” he asked.
“There’s probably no one in the entire program who wasn’t watching,” Fu Wenze stated matter-of-factly. “Including Xia Ruiyan.”
The two of them stood in the hallway, the cold draft sweeping past them.
Xie Xizhao shuffled closer to the wall for warmth. Noticing this, Fu Wenze casually pushed open the door of an empty dorm. They stepped inside, and Xie Xizhao closed the door behind them.
Xie Xizhao found it amusing. “Are we isolating Ai Qingyuan right now?”
Their movements had been seamless, as if done by unspoken agreement. The reason was clear—they just didn’t feel like going back to their own dorms for now.
It wasn’t that Ai Qingyuan couldn’t hear whatever they had to say. It was just that he was too noisy. The mere thought of dealing with him made Xie Xizhao’s head ache.
As for Fu Wenze, he simply didn’t like Ai Qingyuan to begin with.
The two of them had somehow reached a strange kind of understanding.
“Then let’s isolate ourselves for half an hour,” Fu Wenze said.
After a brief pause, he added, “What Yun Pan said… wasn’t exactly good for you, was it?”
Xie Xizhao popped a hard candy into his mouth, his words muffled, “Depends on how you look at it.”
“If you’re talking about clarification, then yeah, it was definitely cleared up. He just—” Xie Xizhao recalled the scene earlier, along with Ma Hongping’s expression, and couldn’t help but chuckle. “If I were Director Ma, I’d have no idea what to do right now. Do you think they’ll cut it or not?”
If they stuck to their usual strategy of evil editing, Yun Pan’s statement was right there in the open—no one would believe their edits anymore. On the contrary, if they did twist the narrative, it would only confirm Yun Pan’s words.
And if they didn’t edit it?
The production team would instantly look guilty as hell.
…Hmm.
Xie Xizhao thought to himself.
Luckily, this kind of dilemma wasn’t his problem to solve.
Of course, the fact that Fu Wenze brought it up so seriously meant that there was a downside to all this.
Namely, he had just handed people a convenient excuse to stir up controversy.
Yun Pan had spoken so confidently—he had found the courage to face his past, all thanks to Xie Xizhao’s encouragement.
So… how exactly did Xie Xizhao encourage him? And how did he help him “face” things?
This was a survival show.
And in a survival show, everyone was in direct competition. If Xie Xizhao had been a staff member uninvolved in the contest, no one would have questioned Yun Pan’s words. But the problem was—he was also part of this game.
That made things… delicate.
Xie Xizhao knew that most people wouldn’t overthink it, but it only took a few with bad intentions to twist the narrative—accusing him of having an “ulterior motive.”
“What’s said is said,” he stated. “I can’t expect a kid to take it back. Besides, I really was the one handling everything from start to finish.”
Fu Wenze was about to say something when Xie Xizhao casually remarked, “Let’s take the worst-case scenario—say I did have that kind of motive. The result is still a good one, isn’t it? Xia Ruiyan’s b*llying is backed by both witnesses and evidence—it’s set in stone.”
He paused, then chuckled. “Hmm… I guess I’ve evolved from a pure white lotus into a scheming white lotus. You have to admit, that character arc is kind of exciting.”
Fu Wenze: “…”
Sometimes, he truly admired Xie Xizhao’s ability to spout nonsense at any given moment.
—
Joking aside, Xie Xizhao genuinely wasn’t too concerned about the situation.
His instincts were usually spot on, and he had told Yun Pan the truth—this was something that could stir up discussions, but it wouldn’t cause a major storm. Especially with Yun Pan’s unexpected finishing move and the even more unexpected decision from the staff to cut the stream.
The only potential trouble was Xia Ruiyan’s side, but—
Fang Qingqing’s update was: “Relax. You’re now Xiao Qi’s most treasured person. Xiao Qi said your place is so locked down that even a fly couldn’t get in. You’re safe.”
Xie Xizhao: “…”
He replied, “Sister Qing, between you and Mr. Qi, which one of you is reading more CEO romance novels?”
Fang Qingqing humbly admitted that they were both avid readers, eagerly passing them back and forth.
Xie Xizhao: “…”
Fang Qingqing added, “The general reaction outside isn’t too bad. Most people just feel bad for you.”
And they really did.
Before, the rumors of suppression were just private speculation—no matter how much the production team wanted to hold someone down, they wouldn’t openly admit it. But now, by sheer accident, the truth had been cemented.
As for how the fans were reacting?
In Fang Qingqing’s words—
“Your fans are heartbroken beyond belief and are currently launching an indiscriminate attack on the entire world.”
Of course, this was just a playful exaggeration. But whenever Xia Ruiyan’s fans tried to paint the situation as an elaborate scheme to frame their beloved idol, they were immediately shut down.
And the response was simple and direct: “80-follower fans, get lost. Who asked for your opinion?”
As for the general audience who had watched the whole thing unfold…
Some saw a conspiracy. Others blamed both sides equally. But the majority chose to believe Yun Pan’s words.
The reason was straightforward—real-time reactions were hard to fake, and even harder to fake was the genuine sincerity in front of the camera. In an era dominated by marketing tactics and traffic-driven narratives, people preferred to believe that this was a rare, heartwarming story untouched by ulterior motives.
And so, the b*llying scandal concluded with Xie Xizhao’s fans relentlessly dragging the production team. Every single post on the show’s official Weibo was now flooded with affectionate inquiries from his supporters:
[Hello? Have you eaten? Finished the evil edits yet? Hurry up and release them, we’d love to see what fresh tricks you’ve got this time. We’ll accept the evil edits—just let us watch the kids in action.]
As this daily interrogation continued, Super Rookie finally aired its first episode featuring the second group competition.
No one expected that the performance—originally meant to be pushed to the second episode—would be moved up to the first.
Why? Because the production team, desperate to salvage their reputation, had rushed to prove they weren’t biased.
That night, when audiences saw the pure performance upload titled “Boundless Sea”, the entire Super Rookie fandom exploded.
