Wake Up, This is Not a Dating Show! Chapter 17.2

Part 2

After venting, he let out a breath, and only then did he have the mood to look at other things.

Battle of the Defending Champions had just finished broadcasting, and quite a few related search terms had already entered the real-time rising hot topics. Among them, one that had charged into the lower ranks of the hot search list and whose popularity was rapidly soaring caught his attention—

#YiXingzhiDoesNotLikeThisFeeling#

Ye Nai paused his hand and clicked in.

The top post was from a marketing account, posting a video clip of Yi Xingzhi saying that specific phrase. The caption read:

[How exactly should these words be interpreted? The editor’s intuition says it has to do with the disbandment of Feidu! Is it because Yi Xingzhi’s popularity plummeted after he backstabbed his bandmates to go solo, so he doesn’t want to do anything involving betrayal anymore?]

The post didn’t have a high number of likes, but the comment count was staggering. It hadn’t been posted long, yet there were already over three thousand comments, and it was still continuously climbing at this moment.

Currently, the top comment with the most likes was:

[Veteran Feidu fan here. I saw early on that E was the undercover agent, but he didn’t do a single thing an undercover agent should do. I immediately understood the reason. Even if it’s just a game, he doesn’t want to be a betrayer. He doesn’t want anyone else to experience the same feeling he did back then. I just want to say, wcy will forever owe him an apology, owe Feidu an apology!]

The nested replies underneath seemed mostly to be from people in the know.

[Watching Brother E and Coconut Milk confront each other at the end without delivering the killing blow, I was grinning widely and shipping them so hard. I didn’t expect a knife to suddenly fly my way, wuuwuu /crying loudly]

[Is no one cursing Zhuolai Media? Choosing E as the undercover agent was definitely intentional! Wasn’t it just to create a gimmick and hype up the topic of Feidu’s betrayal? If he didn’t explain himself, they really wouldn’t care if he lived or died! Act like human beings!]

[Even at a time like this, Brother E didn’t fall out with Zhuolai Media. He used his own method to complete the task, preserved the gaming experience for the other guests, didn’t break the competition format or rules, and even won in the end. He truly is a decent and respectable person!]

However, there were also many completely different voices in other threads.

[Wait, what are you guys talking about? Who owes who an apology? Wasn’t it yxz who suppressed wcy and forced him out? Is my memory messed up?]

[Are fans working this hard to whitewash him now? But you can’t invert right and wrong, black and white!]

[It’s obvious that yxz is deliberately guiding fans to set the narrative and taking the opportunity to whitewash himself.]

Ye Nai browsed rapidly. These non-involved parties acted as if they understood the situation better than the people actually involved, jumping to conclusions and definitions purely based on hearsay, when in fact they had absolutely no idea what the truth was.

Sooner or later, he was going to write a song blasting this kind of chaotic phenomenon.

As for the “wcy” frequently mentioned in the comments, Ye Nai simply couldn’t piece together who it was.

After scrolling for a bit longer, he finally learned it was Feidu’s former bassist, Wu Chengyao. He was the one rumored to have an overwhelmingly strong presence, becoming a stumbling block on Yi Xingzhi’s path to going solo, and was subsequently forced out of the band by him.

But looking at the top comments now, it seemed more like Wu Chengyao had backstabbed Yi Xingzhi?

It was impossible to judge this matter without understanding it deeply, and Ye Nai had no mood to play judge right now. Yet when he detached himself from it, he realized he was already standing on Yi Xingzhi’s side.

There was no particular reason for it, purely that he just couldn’t associate Yi Xingzhi with being a betrayer.

Brushing through the hot searches again, Ye Nai saw his own name gloriously on the list—

#YeNaiRhymesEvenWhenDissingPeople#

Clicking into it, it was a compilation of his several clap-backs today. Spliced together, it created the effect of a diss-style rap, surprisingly carrying an alternative artistic vibe.

Having already endured a baptism of malicious comments under Li Wan’s Weibo, Ye Nai’s heart was now as still as water. He was even a bit curious about whether Fu Tingyuan or Pei Ze’s fans had stronger combat power, clicking into the comment section fearlessly.

He browsed the comments one by one, his finger swiping lightly from time to time. After watching for a while, he nudged Jiang Kuan’s arm with the back of his hand.

Jiang Kuan was still immersed in the sorrow that his career was going to perish along with Ye Nai’s entertainment career. He pulled his arm back, dodging his hand.

Ye Nai clicked his tongue and asked, “Did you see the comments online?”

“I want to live for another half a day. I don’t want a heart attack this quickly.” Jiang Kuan didn’t even lift his eyes, continuing to type.

Ye Nai directly stacked his phone on top of Jiang Kuan’s screen. “See for yourself.”

Not knowing what was going on, Jiang Kuan squinted, wanting to look but afraid to. Mustering his courage, he took a few peeks before fully opening his eyes. Looking further down, his eyes went wide.

[It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a real person in the domestic entertainment industry hahaha!]

[This handsome guy has the aesthetic of someone retiring from the industry tomorrow. Say a few more words before you leave, I love listening to it, I love watching it!]

[Protect our… oh, it’s Ye Nai. Protect yourself then, sis is retreating first.]

Switching to the real-time feed, a continuous stream of new Weibo posts carrying this hashtag popped up.

[The Ye Nai in my eyes before: Disses anyone he sees, arrogant and rude, doesn’t respect seniors. The Ye Nai in my eyes now: Disses with style, disses with skill, disses out the voice of the audience’s hearts. Hahahaha he’s basically my internet mouthpiece, speak more if you know how!]

[To be honest, I just thought it was funny when he was dissing people. But after watching the fast-talking part during the mission later, I felt he genuinely has some skills. Turning from a passerby to a fan.]

[Saw someone ask if Ye Nai has always been this brave? Let sis reluctantly come out and answer this. Of course not. This is already the result of him restraining himself a lot. For his true combat mode, please refer to This is True Rap. Friendly reminder: don’t watch the haters’ maliciously edited version!]

Although there were still some insults mixed in—for example, saying he couldn’t survive without badmouthing people, relying on this disgusting method to farm presence, or leeching off the popularity of other guests—they were only in the minority.

Even Pei Ze and Fu Tingyuan’s fans were mostly watching with an attitude of enjoying the drama, claiming that although they were fans, they still couldn’t hold back their laughter, telling Ye Nai not to hog all the bamboo shoots on the mountain and to leave some for them.

As for the two lines cursing the production team, they resonated even more. The audience was also fed up with Zhuolai Media’s celebrity-effect antics and joined in the dissing.

“Fascinated?” Ye Nai pulled his phone back from Jiang Kuan’s hand. “If you’re interested, browse it yourself.”

Jiang Kuan closed the resignation letter with a whoosh and truly opened Weibo to start scrolling. The dark clouds on his face gradually dissipated, and the more he looked, the wider his smile grew. “OK, just keep this persona. Maintain it, and returning to the peak of your popularity is just around the corner!”

“That’s not a persona, it’s a conditioned reflex,” Ye Nai corrected. “It’s hard to change even if I want to.”

“My god, what’s going on?!” Jiang Kuan suddenly exclaimed.

“What now? Making such a fuss.”

Ye Nai was used to his exaggerated reactions. He glanced absentmindedly at the phone handed to him, and his half-open eyes instantly went round.

The page was parked on Yi Xingzhi’s Weibo profile, displaying the post he had just liked.

It was a video clarifying the truth about Ye Nai “disrespecting seniors in the industry,” restoring the full picture of the parts that were maliciously edited in the past. It proved that it was always the other party who rudely provoked him first, only to turn around and play the victim.

And this Weibo post was exactly the result of Jiang Kuan’s operation half an hour ago.

After seeing Ye Nai go on a dissing spree again on the variety show, he urgently had the management company repost the previously published clarification video, hoping it would have some effect in controlling the negative public opinion.

He never expected that the public opinion would be so positive, and that this post would actually be liked by Yi Xingzhi.

With Yi Xingzhi currently trending and his popularity high, he directly brought a massive surge of clicks to this post.

Ye Nai: “I haven’t even reposted it yet.”

Jiang Kuan: “How did he see this?”

The two asked simultaneously, staring at each other in dismay.

Translator’s Note: “Snakes and rats are of the same nest” means bad people colluding together.