Chapter 56.1: Second Performance Training Situation
The assistant director, still stuck on the thought that “fake corporate warfare is billion-dollar takeovers in suits, while real corporate warfare is having your subordinates dump milk tea on the competition”, suddenly had a bad feeling.
He turned around and saw Shi Buwen holding a phone clearly still inside a livestream room—his bad feeling came true.
Assistant Director: “?”
Wasn’t dumping milk tea on Du Heng supposed to be the end of it? Why was the director also eavesdropping now?! And doing it on a livestream no less? This whole thing felt off!
So the real fool… was him?
The assistant director opened his mouth to speak, but Shi Buwen shushed him with a finger to his lips, pointing at his phone. “Everyone, see you next time.”
Then, logging out of the livestream as a moderator, Shi Buwen quickly spoke before the assistant director could: “I didn’t do anything illegal. No eavesdropping.”
The assistant director was skeptical: “Then what was that livestream audio just now?”
He and his assistant had gone to throw milk tea on Du Heng thinking the director was being childish.
But now? Ha—he and his assistant were the real childish ones for believing the director’s nonsense!
Watching the nanny van drive off in the distance, Shi Buwen replied, utterly self-assured: “I swear I wasn’t eavesdropping. They were just talking really loudly.”
Seeing the assistant director’s doubtful expression, Shi Buwen sighed. “Why don’t you ever believe me? I never lie.”
“Here, see for yourself.”
He opened the car door and got out, walked over to a column in the underground garage, and reached up to the top of the fire equipment box mounted on the pillar.
When he brought his hand back down, the assistant director—who had also stepped out—saw a phone in his hand, still streaming live.
Shi Buwen didn’t bother checking the barrage of comments on the livestream. He just shut it down, pocketed the phone, and looked calmly at the assistant director.
“You see? I told you I wasn’t lying. I just accidentally opened a livestream and dropped my phone on top of the fire safety box. That’s a public area—it doesn’t involve any of Duan Mingfei’s private space. How was I supposed to know they’d be talking with the windows open?”
Assistant Director: “……”
Shi Buwen patted the assistant director on the shoulder. “This whole incident teaches us a valuable lesson: when you’re out and about, especially in a car, close your windows when you talk. Duan Mingfei gave us a perfect example of what not to do.”
With that, Shi Buwen climbed into his nanny van with the phone in hand.
Duan Mingfei probably would’ve never imagined that his dislike for enclosed spaces—and his insistence on keeping the front windows cracked open for ventilation year-round—would end up costing him like this.
The more Shi Buwen thought about it, the bigger his grin grew.
His assistant came running over with a few cups of milk tea. “Director, here’s your milk tea.”
Shi Buwen, already seated in the car, leaned out the window and waved at the assistant director. “Why are you still standing there? Get in the car! I’m in a good mood today—milk tea’s on me~”
Following his cousin’s advice: when you do something shady, run fast, or risk getting caught when the other party sees the trending topics and comes back for revenge.
The assistant director was speechless. He couldn’t understand how someone with such… over-the-top behavior could come up with such a complex and layered scheme.
—
Youth Unstoppable Training Camp.
The transport van finally arrived. After the long trip, everyone was a bit tired and slowly got off the vehicle one by one.
The assistant and driver who had brought the nine contestants had already gotten out first. As they walked, one of them started scrolling on their phone.
Whatever they saw stopped them in their tracks.
“What the hell is going on with Duan Mingfei?”
Another staff member heard just a few seconds of the recorded livestream between Du Heng and Duan Mingfei—and was completely stunned.
“I never would’ve thought he was that kind of person. His fans adore him so passionately—there’s no way they’d imagine he was calling them idiots behind their backs.”
The gossip was too juicy, and the two couldn’t contain their excited voices.
“Ah, and that Lin Jiashi is pretty slick too. Right after Duan Mingfei’s explosive remarks went public, Lin Jiashi jumped into a livestream crying, saying things like, ‘I didn’t expect Brother Ming to be this kind of person… I’m so heartbroken.’ Hilarious. Just think how many of Duan Mingfei’s fans he’s about to win over with that move.”
“These paparazzi are seriously impressive. They were the ones who exposed that fake sandbag video too. What if… just maybe… one of them is actually a celeb themselves? That’s why they know so much!”
Duan Mingfei?
Hearing that familiar name drift in through the car window, Xiang Yueting practically launched himself out of the vehicle. Like the overly friendly guy he was, he ran straight up to the staff, face full of curiosity. “What? What happened? What about Duan Mingfei?!”
Since entering the training camp, all the trainees had their phones confiscated—no access to gossip.
Now, finally hearing something juicy—and not just any gossip, but about someone who had recently appeared on a livestream show with them—their inner busybodies were burning with anticipation.
None of them said anything out loud like Xiang Yueting did, but their feet acted faster than their mouths. One by one, they quickly got off the van, casually moving closer to the staff, ears perked up, silently soaking in the gossip.
In an instant, the car was empty.
Shen Xiu: “!”
The surprise came out of nowhere. It was just a pity… he’d have to get off too.
Shen Xiu was the last to step off the vehicle. From a distance, he could already see the content expressions on his teammates’ faces.
“?” Gossip… is really that powerful? Can it make people that happy that easily?
And it was gossip about Duan Mingfei too—something Shen Xiu instinctively rejected. He didn’t want to hear anything about Duan Mingfei. It would only bring back unpleasant memories.
After hearing the gossip, the group saw Shen Xiu approaching calmly and couldn’t help but feel a sense of admiration.
As expected, Shen Xiu was different from them—the ordinary folk who loved gossip. Even on the livestream variety show, he had so clearly shown his dislike for Duan Mingfei, yet here he was, not needing to indulge in Duan Mingfei’s scandals for pleasure.
If it had been them, they’d be enjoying every bit of gossip about someone they disliked, secretly feeding that little, hidden sense of pettiness, delighting in it.
Truly, Shen Xiu’s dislike for Duan Mingfei was limited to Duan’s lazy performance. As for the rest, Shen Xiu clearly didn’t care at all.
In a way, this calm indifference was another kind of transcendence—one that only someone strong like Shen Xiu could possess.
Thinking of this, everyone’s gaze toward Shen Xiu once again filled with admiration.
Shen Xiu: “……”
Wait—weren’t they just listening to gossip about Duan Mingfei? Why are they all staring at me again?
Could it be… that because he alone didn’t join in the gossip, he now seemed out of place? Too different?
Looking at the eight teammates crowded around the staff, and then back at himself standing all alone at the rear, Shen Xiu figured he was probably right.
Convinced he had understood the situation, Shen Xiu quickly walked over to join the group, silently shouting in his heart that he wanted to fit in.
Wanting to seem closer to Shen Xiu, Xiang Yueting held back the urge to keep questioning the staff and stood up straight. “Ahem… actually, there’s not much to hear. Let’s go inside.”
Trying to restore his image in front of Shen Xiu, Song Chengwang chimed in, “Yeah, pretty boring stuff.”
Shen Xiu: Huh? Now no one wants to hear the gossip? That interest came and went so fast…
Shen Xiu didn’t dare ask aloud, afraid of sounding clueless or slow to catch on. He just nodded, “Mm.”
At the back of the group, Shang Yu—having just finished listening to the staff’s retelling—couldn’t help but raise a hand to his forehead in exasperation.
He hadn’t expected Shi Buwen to be this obedient for once—actually remembering, word for word, the casual consolation he’d tossed out back then.
…
The nine trainees entered the training camp building, stepping right into the livestream camera’s view inside the building.
[Ahhh the boys are back! It’s been so long, I missed you so much! Not seeing you roll for one day feels like ants crawling all over me!]
[Ahem, sister, didn’t we also sneak into the other variety show’s livestream though?]
[They’re back in formation—guess we’ll be seeing the behind-the-scenes of the second group evaluation now?]
[Wait, seriously sisters, how did you resist eating the Duan Mingfei melon?]
[Oh we’re eating it, don’t worry. Got the livestream on the tablet, scrolling the trending list on the phone. The snarky netizens are killing it—I can’t even keep up with the likes!]
[LMAO just thinking of Duan Mingfei is hilarious. We are going in both directions with Master Xiu. But Duan Mingfei and his fanbase are out here exposing each other. Once that audio from the livestream dropped, the trending page filled up with long breakup posts from his veteran fans. All kinds of dirt’s getting dug up—truly, no one knows an idol’s dark secrets better than a long-time fan.]
[LOL Duan Mingfei called his fans idiots. The rational ones must be crushed—some already quit the fandom, and the die-hards are still trying to spin it.]
Duan Mingfei’s fans had originally thought their beloved idol had been wronged on the variety show. They were planning to storm into Youth Unstoppable’s livestream after the show ended and fiercely “teach a lesson” to the yet-to-debut trainees.
But before they could make a move, their own idol stabbed them in the back.
Now, ex-fans were turning on him, stans were scrambling to do damage control, and everything was in chaos. They didn’t have time to deal with the trainees anymore.
Not long after leaving the parking garage, Duan Mingfei saw a trending topic with his name on it. Curious, he tapped into it—only to discover that his entire conversation with his agent in the parking garage had been livestreamed to the public.
Du Heng immediately sent a private message to the paparazzo who had streamed the recording, but received no reply.
By the time Du Heng and Duan Mingfei rushed back to the parking garage to try and access the surveillance footage, they were denied due to lack of authorization. Duan Mingfei, on one hand, quickly contacted his boss to ask for help; on the other hand, he instructed his studio to release a clarification statement along with a lawyer’s letter.
However, Duan Mingfei’s fans had followed him for so many years—they could tell whether it was his voice or not.
Having attended countless events with Duan Mingfei, Du Heng’s voice was also familiar to the fans.
As a result, the clarification and lawyer’s letter issued by Duan Mingfei’s studio had little effect and could not stop the disillusioned fans from leaving.
Having been in the industry for so many years, Duan Mingfei naturally knew that their current efforts were largely futile. He shut off his phone in avoidance, not daring to look at the comment sections or trending topics related to himself.
His only hope for salvaging the situation was to get in touch with the paparazzo who published the livestream recording, negotiate a price, and have them publicly admit they had been paid by someone else to slander him.
Shi Buwen returned to the training camp and completely ignored the private messages from Du Heng and the staff of Duan Mingfei’s studio.
