Shao Yuye said that one word very slowly.
Yet they carried endless mockery.
But the haters in the barrage didn’t notice at all; instead, they all mocked:
[Finally starting the long sob story, huh?]
[I bet Shao Yuye is about to start crying. After all, he cried so dramatically when he debuted and got the center position. It really ‘tortured’ a lot of fans.]
[I’ve seen this idol whitewashing routines countless times. First, they look all depressed, then they admit their ‘mistakes’, make up a few excuses to patch things up. The braindead fans always buy it.]
Shao Yuye’s voice felt like it was infused with ice.
“A scumbag who cheated during his marriage, and a mistress who got pregnant while that marriage was still in effect—
“If you’re so filial, why don’t you kowtow to them?”
This sentence was loaded with information.
The rhythm in the barrage visibly panicked; for a moment, only the voices of ‘Yu Yu’s remained.
[What does that mean? Is he publicly tearing into his parents?!]
[What parents?! Didn’t Brother Ye make it clear enough? A scumbag father, a mistress-turned-mom. Oh, and that person claiming to be his ‘little sister’. She’s so young, she must be the mistress’ kid.]
[Imagining this really breaks my heart. A mistress breaks into the family to be the stepmother, and a clueless stepsister on top of that…]
[No, wait, is that stepsister actually out of her mind? She’s a mistress’ daughter, how does she have the face to jump out saying her ‘brother’ is Shao Yuye?!]
But soon the negative voices surged back again—
[Even if the parents divorced, he didn’t have to claim his parents were dead!]
[Exactly. Divorced and ‘both parents dead’ are clearly different things. He’s deliberately trying to manipulate fans emotionally.]
Shao Yuye let out a cold, mocking laugh.
“Some people may be alive, but they’re no different from dead.”
The barrage exploded.
Marketing accounts swarmed in. Originally, they thought Shao Yuye would gloss over things like most idols, give a simple response, cry a little, sincerely apologize, and move on.
They never expected his response to be far more explosive than they imagined.
Was he really not afraid of getting taken out of context and dragged to hell?
Shao Yuye couldn’t be bothered to describe his father’s behavior throughout his childhood, nor did he intend to play the victim. He simply said calmly:
“That so-called ‘little sister’ is the product of that woman giving birth half a year after my parents divorced.”
At this point, the disgust in his eyes was impossible to hide.
“When I turned eighteen, I officially left the Shao family.
“If it were you, what would you write in the column for ‘parents’?”
[Ughhh. I feel so bad for Brother Ye. Why did he have to end up with a father like that…]
[Thank goodness Brother Ye has us now… I really want to hug him…]
The hired trolls waiting to stir up trouble were stunned.
They imagined a thousand possible ways Shao Yuye might respond.
But never that he would confront his disgraceful past so directly, laying everything bare before the public.
Meanwhile, the viewer count in the livestream kept climbing.
Topics about Shao Yuye, which had been suppressed for the entire day, were now completely unblocked.
#Heartache For Shao Yuye#
This hashtag shot to the top of the trending list in an instant, marked with a huge, bright red ‘exploding’ tag.
[I honestly don’t understand why such stupid and evil people exist in this world.]
[Why can a mistress’ daughter still speak so righteously about being ‘family’…]
[So disgusting. No wonder Brother Ye left that filthy home so early and never mentioned this family for years!]
After speaking his truth, Shao Yuye ended the livestream.
He didn’t look at the internet again.
If it were the old him, he wouldn’t have cared what people said online.
No matter how many negative rumors there were, he never responded.
Those who are innocent need no explanation, he never needed to ‘clarify’ to anyone.
But when he saw fans saying they would still love him even if he had deceived them…
They were being labeled ‘braindead fans,’ mocked and ridiculed…
Those were the fans who had supported him the longest.
He absolutely couldn’t let them suffer for his sake.
When Shen Wanwan walked through the door, she saw her brother sitting in a chair with a blank expression.
The livestream had already ended, but he still seemed trapped in invisible chains.
Hearing the sound, Shao Yuye lifted his head.
When he saw it was her, a smile finally appeared on his face.
Shen Wanwan sat beside him. “Still upset?”
“No.” Shao Yuye touched his chest. “Just… strangely calm.”
No anger.
No sadness.
Only calm.
His mood was as calm as a pool of dead water, utterly without ripples.
Shen Wanwan lightly patted his shoulder. “Lin Kexin just asked if we want to play Fight the Landlord1. Do you want to go down and join?”
“Are you going?” Shao Yuye asked.
“Mm.” Shen Wanwan stood up. “She told me to persuade you too.”
After a pause, she added, “Probably because she’s afraid you’ll think too much. She told me to cheer you up a little.”
Shao Yuye laughed.
“It’s nothing!”
He stood up, looking eager. “Alright, let’s go. Tonight I have to play to my heart’s content!”
Anything that involved winning or losing would immediately awaken that arrogant competitive streak in him.
Shen Wanwan chuckled. “Mm.”
The two went downstairs together. Lin Kexin was holding a deck of cards, nervously asking, “Brother Ye, are you okay?”
She had watched the entire livestream just now.
Damn.
As expected of Brother Ye!
A real man should fight back against every piece of slander one by one!
Shao Yuye tipped his chin at her. “It’s nothing.”
His feelings toward Shao Hongyuan had long been worn away over the years.
When the exposé came out, at most it felt like being harassed by a fly, annoying and bothersome. He simply hated entanglements.
Seeing that he was indeed joining the game, Lin Kexin quickly said, “Flicking foreheads really hurts, so let’s play with sticky notes instead.”
With Brother Ye’s card skills…
Lin Kexin genuinely couldn’t bear to flick him.
He was her beloved idol, after all. And considering the tragic story he went through today, she decided a gentler punishment would be better.
“Sticky notes, huh…”
Shao Yuye looked a bit disgusted, but considering Lin Kexin and Shen Wanwan were both girls, he reluctantly agreed. “Fine.”
He’d let them have their way for now.
Round one—Shao Yuye, of course, grabbed the landlord position.
Lin Kexin and Shen Wanwan cooperated perfectly. Without even trying, they successfully slapped two sticky notes onto his face.
Shao Yuye puffed his cheeks and blew at the note stuck to his forehead, annoyed. “Just you wait!”
Round two—his sticky notes increased to four.
“…”
Unhappy, he ground a molar and thought that once this variety show ended, he would go home and drill his card skills.
When he returned, he would wipe them out completely!
After many rounds, he finally gave up on his obsession with being the landlord. Working with Shen Wanwan to battle Lin Kexin, who was landlord this round…
The situation finally improved a little.
At this moment Lin Kexin had five cards left, Shen Wanwan seven, and Shao Yuye six.
Shao Yuye: “8, 9, 10, J, Q!”
Shen Wanwan glanced at him approvingly and quietly pressed over his play.
She slowly laid down her cards, one by one, with a completely confident aura.
“9.
“10.
“J.
“Q.
“K.”
Next, all she needed was to throw out her pair of twos and she’d win.
The siblings exchanged a knowing smile.
Meanwhile, Lin Kexin stared at the straight they basically delivered into her hands…
She bit her lip in struggle, and then silently put down her five cards.
“Sorry guys! I’ll go first.”
“10, J, Q, K, A.”
She played the straight clearly, unmistakably.
Shao Yuye : “…”
Shen Wanwan : “…”
These two were so used to winning that their expressions were especially dramatic now that she’d beaten them herself.
Shen Wanwan frowned and looked at Shao Yuye, displeased. “How can your card skills be this bad? You couldn’t play an 8 first?”
Feeling guilty, Shao Yuye looked silently at Lin Kexin, then said boldly, “Why did you play that? Take your cards back and say you ‘can’t beat it’!”
Lin Kexin: “…”
She sighed regretfully. “Brother Ye, I’m your fan, but I’m not an idiot.”
Shen Wanwan and Shao Yuye both fell silent.
Inside, Lin Kexin complained:
—You two not only look alike, but your terrible card skills are also exactly the same, okay?!
“Come on.” She eagerly took out more sticky notes. “One each~”
By now, beneath Shao Yuye’s eyes were so many sticky notes that they looked like wide noodle-like tears, creating a ridiculous yet funny look.
Shen Wanwan only had one.
She stared disdainfully at Shao Yuye’s note-covered head, puffing her cheeks in dissatisfaction.
The image-conscious Miss Shen couldn’t help reminding, “You have to stick mine on nicely.”
Lin Kexin coaxed her gently, sticking one at her temple. “It’ll look nice, very nice!”
Shao Yuye chimed in, “Yeah, nice! Very nice!”
Shen Wanwan didn’t believe a single word.
How good could it possibly look?
She glared angrily at her brother. “I’m never teaming with you again!”
Shen Wanwan took out her phone and opened the front camera to check herself like a mirror, only relaxing once she confirmed she didn’t look too ugly.
Then she looked at Lin Kexin and tilted her chin arrogantly. “Again.”
Lin Kexin : …
—You two are really… Serves you right to be teammates…
—Even your damned competitiveness is exactly the same!
Now even her competitive spirit had been ignited.
“Bring it on!”
Thanks to this round of Fight the Landlord, the irritation that had been swirling in Shao Yuye’s chest all day dissipated just like that.
Before bed that night, Shao Yuye received a photo from Shen Wanwan.
Shen Wanwan : [I’m very angry.]
Attached was a cute cartoon angry-face sticker.
Shao Yuye looked at the photo and couldn’t help but laugh.
On the screen was a selfie of the two of them, both with sticky notes on their faces.
It turned out that she took the selfie directly when using the camera as mirror.
And this girl was obviously someone who cared so much about her image.
- 斗地主 (dòu dìzhǔ) which translates to “Fight the Landlord,” is the most popular trump card game in China. ↩︎