Big Shot Ch.92.2

Chapter 92.2: #StarlightRing#

9:30 PM.

The trending topics on the entertainment hot search were entirely dominated by discussions about Shen Xiu’s endorsement of VG’s summer collection.

You basically couldn’t go online without seeing it.

Duan Mingfei’s assistant, Xiao Gong, looked at the trending searches and VG’s official announcement post. After a few seconds of hesitation, he still decided to bring the tablet over and place it in front of Duan Mingfei.

Ever since seeing Shen Xiu’s handwritten reply to fans half an hour ago, Duan Mingfei hadn’t looked at Weibo once.

Seeing Xiao Gong offer the tablet, Duan Mingfei frowned and glanced at him. “Something wrong?”

Xiao Gong didn’t dare explain—he simply said, “Brother Ming, just look at the trending searches. You’ll understand.”

After saying that, Xiao Gong instinctively took a few steps back—away from the eye of the storm.

Duan Mingfei, puzzled, picked up the tablet. Without even needing to refresh, he could see all the trending topics on the entertainment chart, each marked with a fiery red “HOT” tag:

#VGOfficiallyAnnouncesSummerSeriesSpokesperson

#UltimateCoolStarlightBlackRing

#ExploreHeart-PoundingMomentsWithShenXiu

#ShenXiuAndKaiserFleetingEncounter

#TopPerformerShenXiuStrengthRevealed

…

Duan Mingfei stared at these trending topics—popping up like mushrooms after the rain—and was stunned.

“Didn’t he say it was just a brief encounter? That they didn’t sign anything?”

“Shen Xiu lied to me?!”

A dazed sense of cognitive dissonance washed over him.

Then, within seconds, rage exploded—so intense he nearly coughed up blood. He shot up from his seat and, losing all control, smashed the tablet to the ground.

That wasn’t enough. He then kicked over every chair and vase in the studio, all while shouting through gritted teeth:

“Shen! Xiu!”

Hearing the crashing and banging, Xiao Gong silently thanked his own foresight for backing away earlier—otherwise that flying tablet might’ve hit him square in the face.

Sigh… money’s hard to earn, and crap’s hard to swallow.

But… Shen Xiu lied to Duan Mingfei?

Xiao Gong snuck a glance at the furious Duan Mingfei, and the thought occurred to him—something about that didn’t quite sit right.

From everything he had observed and researched about Shen Xiu recently, Shen Xiu carried an innate indifference toward the world. Things that might be of huge importance to others were often insignificant or irrelevant to him.

Could someone like that really go out of his way to lie to Duan Mingfei?

Absolutely not.

It must be that Duan Mingfei got ahead of himself…

Wait a minute… why was he starting to sound like a Xiuologist himself?

Realizing how strange that was, Xiao Gong shook his head in horror, trying to shake the “Xiuology Studies” right out of his brain.

He was getting paid by Duan Mingfei—having his heart elsewhere while working for him was something he absolutely couldn’t allow!

After a few minutes of venting with a dark expression, Duan Mingfei suddenly froze as if struck by a realization, eyes lighting up like he’d discovered something exciting. He quickly walked back to the sofa and bent down to pick up his phone.

Duan Mingfei scrolled through Shen Xiu and VG’s official endorsement posts again and again—three full times—before a smile crept onto his face.

“Hahaha, who would’ve thought! Truly unexpected!”

Xiao Gong: “?”

One second he was gritting his teeth like he wanted to tear Shen Xiu to shreds, and the next he was suddenly grinning like a maniac?

Oh no… had the rage finally driven Duan Mingfei insane? Would Xiao Gong even get paid this month?

While Xiao Gong’s imagination spiraled, he suddenly heard Duan Mingfei’s voice:

“Go get the studio lights set up. I’m heading over to stream.”

What, only Shen Xiu knew how to do livestream hype? Hah—He, Duan Mingfei, could too.

As a 24/7 on-call assistant who even had to work late at night, Xiao Gong accepted his fate and replied obediently, “Got it, Brother Ming.”

At 10 p.m., Duan Mingfei’s fans were suddenly hit with the news that their idol had gone live.

At the same time, #DuanMingfeiLiveStream shot up to the mid-tier of the trending chart, boosted by bot accounts.

Xiao Gong took one look at Duan Mingfei, dressed in the same outfit he had worn during a recent shoot and sporting a prop ring, and instantly understood what was going on.

“Hi everyone, good evening~”

“Huh? Shen Xiu? I don’t really know much about him. Why do you ask? I just got back from outside and missed you all, so I decided to hop on live and chat a bit~”

“Ahem…” Duan Mingfei cleared his throat and smiled apologetically at the camera. “Sorry, it ended a bit late today, and I caught some wind. Probably why I’m sounding a bit hoarse.”

[Kisses for you, Brother Ming! We’re here for you always—we don’t envy anyone else, hmph!]

[Wuwuwu Brother Ming, you’ve worked so hard]

[What kind of assistant lets this happen? Brother Ming caught a cold because of them—this kind of assistant should be fired!]

“It’s fine, it’s fine. My assistant’s been working hard too, it’s not his fault.”

“It’s not tiring. I’ll keep working hard to show everyone the best version of myself.”

Xiao Gong: “…”

Saying things like that—did Duan Mingfei not feel the least bit guilty?

[Brother Ming, isn’t this the alternate look of campus bad boy Jiang Ming from before?]

[So cool! Brother Ming must’ve gone back to the company to reshoot some scenes as Jiang Ming. His sense of style is top-tier—using his own alternate styling to help the production team reshoot! It’s all because of that D-list internet celeb messing things up and dragging the whole crew down. Now our Brother Ming has to do reshoots.]

[Wait a minute—doesn’t Brother Ming’s outfit, from the black tracksuit to the black ring on his index finger, look kinda… familiar?]

[Damn, isn’t this almost identical to the look in VG’s endorsement announcement…?]

After patiently chatting for a while, Duan Mingfei finally spotted the comments from the paid commenters. He glanced down at his outfit, then looked back up at the livestream camera with a puzzled expression.

“Familiar elements?”

“How come I’ve been busy for just a few days, and now I can’t even understand what my babies are saying?”

[Just spill it—VG’s newly announced endorser Shen Xiu’s outfit looks suspiciously like a copy of our Brother Ming’s Jiang Ming alternate styling.]

[No need for ‘suspiciously’—it is the same: tracksuit, black ring, ring on the index finger. What more proof do you need?]

[So the rich kid gets to bully our Brother Ming just because he doesn’t have anyone backing him? Sisters, let’s protect Brother Ming!]

In Duan Mingfei’s livestream room, aside from the bots, the viewers were all his fans—so naturally, the comments leaned in his favor.

Reading these reactions, Duan Mingfei said, “Don’t jump to conclusions, babies. Let me go check what’s really going on.”

Then, right there on the livestream, Duan Mingfei took the tablet from his assistant and opened Weibo with a puzzled look.

Next, the fans in the livestream saw Duan Mingfei’s stunned expression: “This…”

“Cough, cough, cough…” Duan Mingfei seemed to realize something and covered his words with a cough. Facing the camera, he said, “Didn’t expect Shen Xiu and I to end up on the same wavelength.”

Watching Duan Mingfei’s smooth acting, Xiao Gong thought to himself: If Duan Mingfei acted this naturally while filming, maybe he wouldn’t have been criticized for so many years.

“Babies, don’t overthink it—it’s just a coincidence.”

The more Duan Mingfei said things like that—putting on an aggrieved look like he didn’t dare go up against Shen Xiu—the more his fans felt heartbroken on his behalf.

This round of playing the victim worked perfectly. His fans quickly pushed the hashtag #ShenXiuVGEndorsementLookPlagiarism onto the trending list.

With it trending, gossip-hungry netizens clicked into the livestream to see what was going on.

[What’s going on? Styling plagiarism?]

[Help, plot twist after plot twist—this night is getting too chaotic. When will this melon ripen? I still want to sleep tonight!]

[How do you prove it’s plagiarism? Show the evidence, or it’s just slander.]

[Exactly. Aren’t you ashamed riding the hype like this?]

Of course, Duan Mingfei’s fans couldn’t stand seeing their idol being insulted and immediately clashed with the hired commenters trying to steer the narrative.

The gossip-hungry viewers just wanted a juicy, ripe scandal to munch on before bed and kept fanning the flames.

The comment section turned into utter chaos.

Duan Mingfei looked troubled as he watched the live chat:

“I just wanted to chat with everyone… Can you not fight?”

“I said it’s just a coincidence.”

“I didn’t copy Shen Xiu’s styling, I really didn’t…”

He looked up at the assistant sitting across the table.

Xiao Gong let out a sigh—once again, it was time for him, the professional scapegoat, to take the hit.

“Brother Ming, everyone just wants to know who came first… How about we release the footage from the original shoot?”

The livestream bullet comments were all in agreement with the assistant, uniformly demanding that Duan Mingfei release the timestamp of when this particular look was shot.

Duan Mingfei let out a deep sigh and raised his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.

Frowning helplessly, he said, “Since it’s come to this, then let’s release it.”

Five minutes later, in front of the livestream audience, Duan Mingfei’s assistant released both the original footage from the shoot and the surveillance video from the studio that had the edited version.

Whether it was the timestamp on the original video or the one shown on the surveillance footage, both clearly indicated that the shoot featuring Duan Mingfei and Shen Xiu’s look happened earlier than today’s official announcement of VG’s brand ambassador.

In an instant, the accusations that Shen Xiu had copied the summer series look for the VG endorsement exploded across the internet.

More gossip-hungry netizens swarmed into Duan Mingfei’s livestream. Even after watching the video and seeing the earlier timestamp presented by Duan Mingfei’s side, Shen Xiu’s die-hard fans still firmly believed in him.

[Copycat. Stealing someone else’s resources halfway through? Disgusting!]

[Wearing athletic clothes and a black ring counts as copying a look? LOL. My brother wore it way before your little “giegie.” My brother copying your giegie? Get real!]

[Isn’t this kind of outfit super common? You see tons of guys at sports schools dressed like this, especially during PE classes. Look around and it’s everywhere. They all wore it before your giegie~]

…

The sound of running water echoed from the bathroom, muffling the faint vibration of the phone charging on the nightstand.

A few minutes later, Shen Xiu stepped out of the bathroom after his shower. Noticing the phone on the gray desk vibrating continuously, he walked over with large strides.

His long fingers picked up the phone. Seeing it was a call from a teammate, Shen Xiu let out a breath of relief.

Although he felt reluctant to answer the phone at first, knowing it was someone familiar from the team gave him the courage to press accept. “Shang Yu, what’s up?”

Because he wasn’t used to taking phone calls, Shen Xiu’s voice was not the only thing stiff—his whole posture as he stood by the bed answering the call was rigid.

Hearing Shen Xiu’s familiar and calm voice, Shang Yu asked in confusion, “Didn’t your agent tell you?”

Agent?

Who would’ve thought—his so-called “Xiu Xiu Studio” was a one-man operation with just him running the show.

Shen Xiu awkwardly replied, “I don’t have an agent.”

Shang Yu: “……”

As expected, Shen Xiu didn’t like other people interfering in his life. His desire to control his own destiny was so strong that he wouldn’t even hire an agent.

“Duan Mingfei is saying you plagiarized his look. You’ll understand everything if you log on to Weibo.”

Shen Xiu: “?”

He thanked him in a daze: “Thanks.”

Hearing Shen Xiu’s still calm and steady voice—a tone that sounded confident and unshaken—Shang Yu felt much more at ease. After all, they had personally seen what Shen Xiu wore that day, and the timeline clearly predated the video Duan Mingfei had released.

After hanging up, Shen Xiu opened Weibo.

Ten minutes later, Shen Xiu had finished watching the videos and checking the timestamps on the photos Duan Mingfei had posted.

Recalling when he had worn that outfit and what his mood had been like, Shen Xiu felt completely baffled. What confused him even more was the fact that such a common outfit could be linked to plagiarism. He truly didn’t understand.

After scrolling through the trending topics, Shen Xiu naturally saw the comments from fans who firmly believed in him. Without hesitation, he reposted Duan Mingfei’s Weibo—with a sincere, soul-level question.

@ShenXiu: Are you okay? //@DuanMingfei

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