Wake Up, This is Not a Dating Show! Chapter 3

Chapter 3 This apology must absolutely be made…

Actually, Ye Nai’s public reputation wasn’t this bad before. If this video had been exposed half a year ago, netizens taking sides would likely have been a fifty-fifty split. But after a few subsequent uproars, his public reputation was considered gone forever.

Last year, at 22 years old, Ye Nai participated as a newcomer in the program “This is True Rap”, defeating a host of seniors and pulling off a stunning upset to win the championship.

Although his talent was obvious to all, there were still those who believed he just happened to blow up the stage in the finals, winning by a fluke. If it truly came down to comparing fundamental skills and creative ability, he couldn’t have taken first place.

The doubts on the internet came from fellow contestants as well as the contestants’ fans. No matter who it was, as long as Ye Nai saw them being passive-aggressive, he would immediately descend into the fray and fire back.

[First time I’ve heard a competition relies on who’s older. Don’t pull out experience or the past with me, do it a few more times and it’ll be exactly the same. Wanting to beat me is just wishful thinking.]

[Know you love making a fool of yourself, clearly haven’t lost enough. You behave worse than pigs and dogs, don’t deserve to have household registration.]

[Now running over here saying he wants to trash talk, how come I didn’t see him score high in the competition?]

He didn’t suffer a single loss in the exchanges, but he also ended up offending people from all walks of life, including Li Wan.

Relying on the popularity accumulated from the competition, Ye Nai spent half a year enjoying days of being treated like a star surrounded by the moon.

Later, Li Wan participated in a program and was introduced by the host as the runner-up of that competition. He instantly darkened his face and said, “There’s no need to mention this kind of competition where the championship is won through ‘money ability’ anymore. It’s simply a stain on my rap career!”

A single sentence stirred up a thousand waves. Upon hearing this, netizens successively dug into Ye Nai’s background. Digging deeper layer by layer, they finally unearthed that he was Ye Songbo’s son and possessed a formidable family background.

Immediately, people speaking in hindsight came out, saying no wonder he always acted so insufferably arrogant; it turned out he was relying on strong backing.

After that, major marketing accounts successively released multiple videos showing Ye Nai either turning a blind eye to industry seniors, calling them by their full names directly, or even dissing them to their faces. In short, he was considered highly disrespectful.

Soon, malicious comments spread like a tidal wave. The public’s evaluation of him uniformly turned into: arrogant, haughty and rude, and lacking upbringing.

Ye Nai actually knew that these malicious edits—which deleted the other party’s initial provocations—mostly came from the hands of the people he had offended. Moreover, quite a few were definitely instigated by Li Wan. But he would rather face the trouble than reconcile with these people.

It wasn’t until his management company released the complete videos clarifying the truth, coupled with Ye Songbo’s covert assistance, that they finally managed to sway the rhythm back a bit. The fierce curses finally subsided somewhat, but many people still preconceived that he was just a wealthy playboy who bullied others by flaunting his power.

Ye Nai, on the other hand, remained the same as always, not holding back in his cursing or firing back at all. Of course, the consequence was that his reputation went from bad to worse, fewer and fewer people spoke up for him, and the gigs he could take became incredibly scarce.

“You’re riding a tiger and can’t get off now,” Jiang Kuan sighed heavily. “If you don’t go, you’ll be cursed as a coward withdrawing into his shell. If you do go, look at the prospective guest list—there’s virtually no chance of winning. The moment you lose the bet, you’ll be bombarded by mass ridicule even more!”

Ye Nai knew this wasn’t alarmist talk, and the truth might be even more than this. Once he lost, he feared that his few remaining supporters would also defect, and by then, there would be even fewer stage opportunities.

“If I go, there’s a hope of survival. If I don’t, it’s just throwing myself into the net.” He had already returned home and was sitting at his own desk, casually tilting his chair back and forth. His gaze landed on the wall directly in front of him.

There was a sticker on it, containing a lyric he had excerpted himself:

[Nirvana of the phoenix, reborn from the ashes. Without destruction there can be no construction, facing death to live.]

The handwritten words were flamboyant and cursive, arrogant and stubborn.

Ye Nai fearlessly twitched the corner of his mouth. “Even if it’s death either way, I have to die on the battlefield.”

Hearing this, Jiang Kuan fell silent for a long time before spitting out three words: “Chunibyo syndrome!”

After deciding to go on the variety show, Ye Nai put all his thoughts into preparing for his debut stage. He planned to write a new song. Regardless of whether he could ultimately take first place, he had to let more people see his strength in his solo debut.

On this day, Ye Nai was preparing to record the demo for his new song. Jiang Kuan said the recording studio he usually went to had just swapped in a batch of new equipment and was still tuning it, so he contacted another studio for him.

When he walked through the main doors, melodies and lyrics were still playing in Ye Nai’s head. His footsteps also moved very fast in time with the rhythm.

Just as he turned a corner, he suddenly saw a figure infinitely expanding before his eyes. Unable to brake in time, his nose slammed hard into the other person’s shoulder.

That person was walking fast too. Ye Nai genuinely hit him quite hard. His nose stung intensely, and a rush of heat surged straight to his eyes.

Covering his nose, he stepped back twice, sucking in a breath of cold air. He subconsciously wanted to start cursing, but then felt he wasn’t exactly in the right either, so he merely looked up and glared angrily.

A handsome, clean face entered his vision. It was a face displaying uncanny workmanship, hard to forget even if one wanted to. It was Yi Xingzhi, whom he had seen at the music festival not long ago.

Yi Xingzhi’s face also bore undissipated anger. His eyes were cold enough to freeze a person. Only after meeting Ye Nai’s gaze did his expression rein in somewhat. But once again, without saying a word, he just walked right past.

Ye Nai was already suffering from a stinging nose with nowhere to vent, and he hadn’t expected Yi Xingzhi to do this a second time, ignoring him once again. He had never suffered the indignity of being repeatedly ignored by someone like this. His young master’s temper instantly flared up.

“Can you not see me? Or were you born unable to speak and can only sing?” Ye Nai’s mouth fired off at a rapid-fire speed, like he was rushing to a market. “Then sing a tune for me to hear. Come on, ready, sing.”

Yi Xingzhi had already walked a few steps away. Hearing this, he turned his head and looked at him again.

The person in front of him had his eyes wide and round, bristles raised all over his body as if he had activated attack mode, looking like he wouldn’t rest until he pricked someone and hurt them.

But because of the collision just now, the tip of his straight, pert nose was slightly red, and a watery glint faintly flickered in his eyes, inexplicably giving off an incongruous sense of grievance.

“Sorry.” Yi Xingzhi originally didn’t want to say more, but somehow he still added a sentence, “I was in a bad mood.”

Ye Nai blanked.

First, he was already fully prepared to continue outputting, yet Yi Xingzhi directly apologized and even offered an explanation.

Second… although he didn’t want to admit it, hearing that crisp, magnetic vocal line truly made his ears go soft.

Yet while he was distracted, Yi Xingzhi had already walked far away again.

No, wait, why does this guy always repeatedly jump back and forth between being polite and impolite?

When Ye Nai walked into the recording studio rubbing his nose, the producer Zac had already arrived.

Zac was also originally from the rap scene. Having known him for several years, their relationship was rock solid. Seeing his current appearance, he couldn’t help but tease, “What, did you have a good cry?”

“Is that even possible?” Ye Nai said in annoyance. “Just bumped into someone.”

“It couldn’t be Yi Xingzhi, could it? I just saw him next door, seemed to be arguing with someone, the commotion was pretty loud.”

A person who treats words like gold possesses the skill of arguing? Ye Nai found it hard to imagine.

“You know him?”

“The lead singer of the Feidu band, you don’t know him?”

Ye Nai rarely paid attention to matters outside the rap circle, but the Feidu band was indeed extremely popular at one time, so he still knew a thing or two.

Four years ago, the Feidu band won the championship in a highly anticipated domestic band competition show, and their fame skyrocketed. Concert tickets were hard to come by. But last year, they suddenly announced their disbandment, and all four members went solo.

As for more detailed circumstances, Ye Nai didn’t know. He hadn’t even watched Feidu’s stage performances, so naturally he didn’t know what the lead singer looked like. He had only occasionally heard the name Yi Xingzhi in daily life and had a vague impression.

However, one incident did stir up a massive uproar.

That competition where Feidu won the championship was held by Zhuolai Media. Originally, it was obvious they wanted to push another band, providing all sorts of escort and protection in the competition format. However, they couldn’t withstand Feidu’s unmatchable popularity. They overcame all obstacles to reach the finals and defeated the pre-determined champions.

Ye Nai suddenly remembered what Li Wan had said that day—

“Who can rewrite Zhuolai’s script?”

“Just like rewriting the championship script your daddy wrote for you.”

Immediately following that was the sound of Yi Xingzhi strumming his guitar.

At the time, Ye Nai thought he was watching the fun and blowing things out of proportion, but now he realized—could he have been using that as an answer to Li Wan?

Since he had rewritten Zhuolai’s script once, then of course, the same thing could potentially happen again.

No wonder Li Wan’s face looked so ugly at the time; he had actually been put in checkmate without a sound.

That being said, Yi Xingzhi could be considered to have helped him vent his frustration, and what did he do?

It seemed he had fired back at the guy indiscriminately…

Ye Nai swallowed dryly and asked, “Who was he arguing with just now, and about what?”

“I didn’t hear the first part, just heard him say ‘If you don’t want to record, just say it directly’ when he came out. I’m guessing he got into an argument with the sound engineer.” Zac lowered his voice. “I know that sound engineer, he’s quite snobbish. Loves to treat people based on their status.”

“Isn’t Yi Xingzhi’s popularity pretty high?” Ye Nai said in confusion. “If he really is a snob, he shouldn’t even have enough time to curry favor with him, right?”

After speaking, he suddenly recalled the discussions bystanders had about Yi Xingzhi at the music festival that day, saying he abandoned his teammates to go solo.

“It used to be very high, but last year Feidu disbanded, and it was also exposed that the bassist was pushed out by him and is living miserably now. When everyone’s sympathy exploded, didn’t the spearheads all point at him?” Zac shook his head and sighed, seemingly feeling sorry for Yi Xingzhi. “Besides, it was the band that had the huge reputation before. If you single out the lead singer alone, many people wouldn’t recognize him.”

He slapped Ye Nai’s arm. “Like you, for example, didn’t you not know him?”

Ye Nai: “…”

That was true too. With Feidu’s great reputation, they would absolutely have been the finale heavyweight guests at the music festival. But that day, Yi Xingzhi was the second to last to take the stage. In terms of current popularity, his situation probably wasn’t much better than his own.

And this sound engineer who argued with Yi Xingzhi probably also knew that his glorious days were gone, so he didn’t put his heart into the recording at all. That was why Yi Xingzhi walked away so fast in a fit of anger just now that he ended up bumping into him.

Only now did Ye Nai figure out the meaning behind Yi Xingzhi’s “I was in a bad mood.” He probably just didn’t want to take his anger out on him and transmit negative emotions. Yet he unleashed a torrent of attacks, even demanding that the guy sing a couple of notes for him to hear…

Although he had done plenty of reckless things and rarely felt regret, at this moment, a sliver of remorse truly surfaced, mixed with a little guilt.

Ye Nai was very unaccustomed to this emotion. He irritably ruffled his hair, messing up his slightly curly locks.

“Are you washing your hair?” Zac looked at him, bewildered.

“It must be because I saw him ignore that staff member on the day of the music festival, so I had a bad preconceived impression, which led to the misunderstanding.” Ye Nai truly couldn’t accept that he had wrongfully accused someone like this and tried hard to find a reasonable explanation.

“You mean the Jinping music festival a while ago?” Zac caught the gist of it and reminisced. “That day, someone complained to me that there was a staff member at the venue who first ignored the little-known singers, then later sought out Yi Xingzhi for a photo while he was practicing his singing, and then even refused to replace a broken chair for a little singer. I don’t know if that’s the person you’re talking about?”

So the staff member was the one who ignored people first? Looking at it this way, Yi Xingzhi probably witnessed this scene, and then gave him a taste of his own medicine.

This… truly was a thoroughly delightful misunderstanding.

The result was that not only had Yi Xingzhi silently helped him, but he even apologized to him first?

Ye Nai felt even more frustrated.

Maybe he should just go knocking on his door and return this apology?

But he had never done this kind of thing before, it was so annoying!

Just as he thought of this, his phone vibrated. He received a message.

[Brother Kuan: The guest list for “Battle of the Defending Champions” has been finalized. I’m sending it for you to see. It’s better for you to get a rough idea first. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles.]

He sent a file over; it was the roster and a brief introduction for each guest.

Ye Nai opened it absentmindedly. Aside from him, the other few people were respectively the singer champion, idol champion, street dance champion, acting competition champion, and band champion.

Wait, band champion?

His gaze shifted to the side, only to see Yi Xingzhi’s name conspicuously written next to it.

Ye Nai widened his eyes, feeling that there couldn’t be such a coincidence. He looked back and forth, tossing and turning over it several times. His eyes were sore from looking, but those three characters didn’t change at all; they were like three pitch-black fists, heavily striking his eyeballs.

Very well, now this apology must absolutely be made.