Chapter 55

Su Xingyao had already finished making the little fox costume for the third stage performance.

However, the staff, as usual, gently informed him that if he had a new costume, it would be better to wear it on the day of the competition to surprise the audience.

Su Xingyao had only prepared the little fox costume, and the remaining Sunset and Coral costumes had already been borrowed by Lu Zhiyun.

Reluctantly, he had to ask his driver, Master Wang, to go to the shop where he had bought the frog mommy costume last time and buy him a new little bear costume.

With the weather getting hotter, the costume that Master Wang picked for him, although the lightest one available, still felt hot in such weather.

Especially after leaving the cool air-conditioned car, as soon as Su Xingyao got out, he was immediately hit by the oppressive heat in the air, which made his face turn red.

Wanting to get to the air conditioning as quickly as possible, he hurriedly ran toward the VIP elevator entrance.

However, when he got there, he found a sign indicating that the elevator was out of order and the staff was currently repairing it.

T.T

How unlucky.

Helpless, he went to the stairwell, looked up at the tall stairs, and in his clumsy little bear costume, he could only start from the underground second floor and climb step by step toward the first floor.

Only on the other side of the first floor was there an elevator directly leading to the studio.

After climbing three floors, Su Xingyao finally got to enjoy the building’s air conditioning again.

The cold air greeted him, and Su Xingyao was convinced that air conditioning must be one of the greatest inventions in the world!

After cooling down for a while, he noticed that it was still early, so he slowly wandered through the building.

Just as he was halfway through, he suddenly heard someone shouting at him from a distance in a loud voice.

“Catcat!!”

Su Xingyao looked up, and his little bear head turned left and right to look around.

“Over here!!! In the front!!”

Su Xingyao followed the voice and saw a large group of people standing in front of the B entrance.

The person who had shouted at him was one of the fans standing at the door.

As soon as Su Xingyao looked over, the fans let out excited screams.

“Ahhhhhh!”

“It’s really Catcat!!”

“Today Catcat has turned into a little bear~”

Today wasn’t the official competition day, it was just a day for the contestants to record some video materials.

Su Xingyao didn’t expect that even with just this, so many fans who liked him would show up on site.

After just feeling unbearably hot from climbing the stairs without air conditioning, Su Xingyao saw the fans still waiting for him at the entrance in the hot sun and quickly walked over to them.

Through the railing, Su Xingyao asked them, “Did you all come specially today?”

One fan, holding a support banner and enthusiastically taking photos of his bear costume, responded, “Yes!!”

“I’ve been here since five in the morning.”

“I’m so happy to finally see you at work~”

Upon hearing the “five in the morning,” Su Xingyao was shocked for a moment.

After debuting for so many years, it was the first time he had seen so many fans waiting for him at his workplace.

The feeling of being cherished and enthusiastically liked by others made him feel an indescribable, wonderful sensation inside.

He looked up and saw that every fan there had a satisfied smile on their face after seeing him. Su Xingyao gratefully said, “Thank you for your hard work.”

But despite his gratitude, he couldn’t help but remind them, “But it’s really hot here. After I go in, you should head back. Don’t get heatstroke.”

He had just climbed the stairs, so he knew how hot it was.

The fans were standing by the door without air conditioning, and waiting there aimlessly wasn’t a good idea.

On the one hand, Su Xingyao was trying to persuade them kindly, while on the other hand, the fans felt a bit wronged as they hadn’t had enough of seeing him and were now being told by the star to go back.

“But baby, you don’t have a personal account, and you’re not active either. We don’t know where to look for news about you unless we wait by the program building.”

Su Xingyao, who had been called “baby” by the enthusiastic fans, felt a bit guilty upon hearing this.

When he joined the program, he hadn’t thought too much about it, nor had he thought about things like social media accounts.

So, he hadn’t planned on opening a Weibo account.

For a moment, he didn’t know how to explain his situation to the fans but didn’t want them to feel so sad.

Su Xingyao stood there, facing the camera, and tentatively asked, “Well… would you like to take a picture now?”

After saying that, he made a peace sign with his fingers toward the camera and started “working.”

The little bear costume had a smiling face, and as soon as Su Xingyao made the gesture, he looked even more silly and cute.

Seeing their idol trying so hard to engage, the fans on-site were almost melting.

“Ahhhhh, I didn’t know peace signs could be so cute~”

“Uuuu, my son is so adorable~”

“Son, mama loves you~”

The bear’s peace sign froze in the air for half a second…

Su Xingyao, who hadn’t been cared for by his mother when he ran away, started to question life.

“Son? Son?”

It wasn’t until the time for the program’s notification was almost up that Su Xingyao finally left.

Before leaving, he still didn’t forget to continue advising the fans to go home.

The fans stayed in the same spot for another half hour, only to discover that their idol, Catcat, had ordered each of them an iced milk tea.

After the elimination from the previous episode, there were only 24 contestants left.

During the first recording, the scene had been filled with a sea of people.

Now, they couldn’t even fill half the seats.

However, compared to the first episode, the contestants’ makeup and styling were clearly much more refined this time.

The teams of contestants with assistants had also grown significantly.

Through chatting with the contestants in the same group, Su Xingyao learned that most of the remaining contestants, after gaining popularity due to the show, had signed with entertainment companies.

So, seeing Su Xingyao come alone was a bit strange to the rappers.

“Catcat, have you signed with a company?”

The little bear shook its head three times in response.

The traditional singer, after hearing this, was surprised and leaned over.

“Your popularity is so high, shouldn’t those companies be fighting to sign you?”

In the face of everyone’s surprise, it was contestant number 77 who found the issue.

“Maybe… probably… they don’t know who Catcat is…”

Although the show hadn’t revealed their identities yet, by now, the 24 contestants had basically all had their identities exposed.

That’s why the entertainment companies were able to smoothly find the show and sign those contestants.

But among them, only contestant number 78 had kept their identity a secret throughout the entire show.

That’s why, despite being an extremely popular contestant, major entertainment companies had held back from making any moves.

After all, they had to find out who the real person was before signing them.

When contestant 77 said this, the traditional singer, who also didn’t know anything about Su Xingyao, nodded repeatedly.

“That’s true. Catcat, you don’t even have a Weibo account. I was actually thinking of following you.”

The singer-dancer, whose Weibo had surged by three million followers after Su Xingyao’s boost in the last episode, also felt a bit regretful after hearing the traditional singer.

“If you opened a Weibo account, Catcat, you’d definitely have more than five million followers by now.”

When contestant 77 saw Su Xingyao smile and say nothing, he sensed that he wasn’t really keen on discussing the topic, so he smiled and teased, “Experts are usually more individualistic.”

Just as he finished saying that, he saw Song Yingming passing by and immediately changed the topic to him.

“Director Song, when are we starting the recording…”

Song Yingming, who had been pulled into the conversation: ?

He reached out and touched the phone in his bag.

Song Yingming resisted the urge to reveal the truth.

It wasn’t that no entertainment companies were coming to sign him—his phone had almost been blown up recently.

All of the calls were from people asking for Catcat’s contact information.

After the contestants chatted for a while, the recording for today began.

This time, Shen Huaixi had already withdrawn from the show, so everyone was speculating about which mentor the show team would bring in to replace him.

Especially the poor contestants in his group, each of them had their hearts hanging in the air, not knowing what their future would hold.

But unexpectedly, no new mentor arrived at the scene today.

The mentors were still the same three as before.

Fu Qingyan, who had missed the last recording due to a scheduling conflict, had specially come today.

Not long after, Fu Qingyan stood in the center of the stage and announced to everyone.

“Due to Mr. Shen’s health condition, he is unable to participate in the subsequent recordings. Therefore, starting today, I will be taking over the contestants in his group.”

After hearing Fu Qingyan’s words, the first thing everyone focused on wasn’t that he was taking over Shen Huaixi’s mess.

Instead, it was the reason he gave for Shen’s absence.

The fact that Shen Huaixi had made such a huge fool of himself, with the entire audience shouting for him to leave the show, was already common knowledge.

Yet, when Fu Qingyan mentioned Shen, he was still trying to save his face.

The contestants in the audience couldn’t help but laugh at Fu Qingyan’s blatant attempt to cover for him.

“Looks like Mr. Fu and Shen really have a deep bond…”

After Fu Qingyan finished his announcement, the staff called the contestants to record individual interviews.

This interview hadn’t been planned before and was only added in this episode.

At first, everyone thought, knowing the show’s tendency to set traps, that the interview would be full of pitfalls.

However, to their surprise, the questions were relatively simple.

They were about their performance in the last episode, their expectations for the next episode, and there were some questions about the other contestants as well.

After recording for about ten minutes in the “small dark room,” Su Xingyao thought it was over when he saw the staff didn’t ask any more questions. He stood up and prepared to leave.

Seeing this, the staff quickly called him back.

“Catcat, wait, wait.”

Su Xingyao sat back down, only to notice that the staff was holding a card and an envelope.

“We have one more segment.”

“Write down the contestant you most want to avoid meeting on this card and place it in the envelope.”

Upon hearing this, Su Xingyao immediately looked at them warily.

“Are you planning to reveal this information during the live broadcast of the third episode?”

The staff member, whose intention had been exposed by Su Xingyao with a single glance, quickly shook his head, feeling guilty. “It’s just… a preliminary survey.”

Su Xingyao didn’t buy their excuse. He picked up a marker from the table and quickly wrote down a number on the card.

After showing it to the camera, he sealed the envelope and handed it to the staff.

Once this task was completed, Su Xingyao finally walked out of the “small dark room.”

As expected, the contestants who had finished their interviews were already discussing who the most disliked contestant was.

But since the show had instructed them to keep it confidential, no one actually revealed who they had voted for, despite some trying to probe each other.

The interview took a long time to record.

By the time everyone finished, it was already afternoon.

After a quick boxed lunch, Song Yingming gathered everyone in a studio.

“I can see everyone’s a bit nervous, so how about we play a game?”

As he spoke, the staff wheeled in a wall.

The wall was covered with cards.

Su Xingyao took a closer look and saw that they were all song titles.

The arrangement of the cards didn’t seem to follow any pattern, and the genres of the songs were completely random.

There were dark-themed ones, healing ones, anime songs, show-off songs, pop songs…

There were even a few children’s songs mixed in.

“There are a total of 24 songs here,” Song Yingming said with a smile, pointing at the wall. “You can take a look at the songs above.”

Seeing the song list, the contestants’ scalps began to tingle.

Someone couldn’t help but guess, “Director, are we going to perform songs from here in the next episode?”

These songs looked so explosive. If they had to perform one of them, the contestants would really go crazy.

Fortunately, Song Yingming shook his head directly. “No, it’s not that extreme.”

The contestants breathed a sigh of relief, but before they could fully relax, Song Yingming suddenly added, “But these songs were voted for by the netizens, and you will need to perform them the day after tomorrow.”

As soon as Song Yingming finished speaking, the scene fell into complete silence.

???

What?

They still had to sing these?

And!!! How come they didn’t know the netizens had voted for these songs?

The internet had been completely calm before they came here!!!

Song Yingming glanced at the stunned faces of the contestants and smiled mischievously.

“Ah, well… it was voted on while you were recording your interviews this morning…”

The contestants, upon learning the truth: …

Damn, this is something else.

No wonder they all looked clueless, like fools.

Turns out, the show crew took advantage of the fact that they had all handed in their phones and launched a surprise attack!

This mischievous show crew had been causing trouble for quite some time. After rolling their eyes in disbelief, the contestants quickly accepted the situation with remarkable calmness.

Everyone began to comfort each other.

Although the songs voted for by the netizens seemed a bit outrageous, at least it was just material for a recorded video. Singing them wouldn’t affect the final outcome of the competition.

However, the contestants clearly underestimated the show crew and the netizens’ ability to stir things up.

Just as they were comforting themselves, thinking it was no big deal and they were just recording a video, the next moment, someone who had received their song card completely broke down.

The cool, cocky rapper’s scream, like that of a pig being slaughtered, echoed throughout the recording site.

“Why does my card say I have to dance to a boy band routine???”

“Do you think I know how to dance like that???”

No. 77 glanced at his card with an equally wronged expression and said, “So why do I have to sing this children’s song in a depressive, sad style?”

The two unfortunate souls stared at their troublesome songs, ready to break down in tears.

But suddenly, they heard a contestant from the next group, looking bewildered, ask Song Yingming, “Director Song, did you print this wrong? Why does mine say ‘acrobatics’ at the back?”

Song Yingming smiled and shook his head. “No, remember when you did a backflip last time? This time your fans want you to perform acrobatics to this BGM.”

The backflip contestant: …

The others, enjoying the spectacle: Hahahahahaha

Seeing someone else in such a miserable situation, the other contestants suddenly felt better about their own assignments.

In the crowd, Su Xingyao, who had watched the backflip contestant angrily do two more backflips, couldn’t help but laugh too.

But the next second, when he saw the song and card content he had received, his smile faded.

The song chosen by the netizens for him wasn’t outrageous at all—it was just a super cute song sung by a very kawaii girl.

But the content on the back of the card left him speechless.

It just said two words.

Falsetto.

A second ago, he had been laughing at others, but now he felt a sense of dread.

Falsetto?

How do you even fake that?

This was something his own fans had come up with…

This segment was originally intended to be comedic, and the production team didn’t place too many demands on them, simply telling them to prepare and come back tomorrow for the next recording.

After the contestants received their respective songs, the group interview for the day was complete.

However, to enrich the material, the production team decided to film a scene of everyone having dinner together, so everyone gathered at the restaurant on the top floor of the building.

The long dining table was already covered with various ingredients, and the production team had prepared a sumptuous dinner for them.

Su Xingyao and contestant 77 sat in a corner.

Because there were too many people, and some contestants and mentors had not yet arrived, the contestants who were there early did not rush to eat.

While waiting, Su Xingyao chatted with contestant 77.

But before they could say much, the lights suddenly went out.

Immediately, various voices could be heard around them.

“Why did the power go out?”

“What’s going on?”

The sudden unexpected situation caused chaos at the scene.

Worried about any problems, the staff quickly came out and asked everyone to remain calm and stay in place.

The contestants didn’t dare leave, so they took out their phones, turned on their flashlights, and used them as makeshift lights.

It seemed like some accident had happened with the building’s electricity. After more than 20 minutes of repairs, there was still no sign of progress.

No one knew whether they should eat the dinner or not, but since it was a recording task, no one dared to say they wanted to leave.

So everyone could only continue waiting.

The power outage was hard to bear for everyone, not just because of the poor visibility but also because it was unbearably hot.

They had recently been hit by a heatwave, and since the city was already quite warm, now with no air conditioning, the temperature in the crowded restaurant was unbearable.

Everyone was sweating and uncomfortable.

But compared to the others, Su Xingyao had it the worst.

While others were at least wearing short sleeves, he was still wearing a thick mascot costume over his short sleeves.

Su Xingyao felt like he was in a steamer, his head buzzing from the heat.

At this point, he could feel something in his back, scraping against his skin painfully.

“Catcat, do you want to take off your mascot costume? You might get heatstroke,” contestant 77 said.

Having finally managed to find two production team cards to use as fans, 77 frantically waved them to cool Su Xingyao down.

He originally thought Su Xingyao might not agree, but to his surprise, Su Xingyao nodded directly.

The two of them went to the restroom. Su Xingyao didn’t take off the costume but instead said to 77, “77, could you help me check something? It feels like there’s something on my back.”

Upon hearing this, contestant 77 quickly placed his phone on the sink and hurriedly unzipped the back of Su Xingyao’s bear mascot costume.

“Where is it?”

“On the left shoulder.”

Contestant 77 lifted up Su Xingyao’s short T-shirt.

Without the fabric covering it, his slim waist and fair skin were fully exposed to the air.

No. 77 didn’t pay attention to these details, focusing solely on helping Su Xingyao check for any abnormalities on his back.

After scanning around, his eyes were immediately drawn to the butterfly bone on the left side.

There was a large scar there.

Although the color had faded considerably, it still stood out against the surrounding pale and delicate skin, looking somewhat shocking.

Seeing such a large scar on Su Xingyao’s slim and beautiful back, 77 couldn’t help but ask, “Is your butterfly bone hurting? That’s a pretty big scar.”

Noticing that No. 77 had looked in the wrong place, Su Xingyao quickly corrected him, “It’s not there, that’s a burn scar from before.”

He added, “A little lower.”

“Oh, okay,” 77 said, rushing to look lower.

Sure enough, he found a faint scratch at the very bottom of the scar.

The wound seemed fresh.

“I see it now, there’s a scratch here.”

He quickly picked up his phone to shine a light on the scratch, a bit puzzled in his mind.

“Why does it look like a knife wound…”

After saying this, he immediately lifted up the left side of Su Xingyao’s half-opened mascot costume and carefully checked twice. Finally, in a less noticeable spot, he found something sharp, like a staple.

“Holy crap, there’s a nail in your costume.”

He quickly took the nail out of Su Xingyao’s costume.

“Here, look.”

Seeing the sharp object that 77 handed to him, Su Xingyao was also shocked.

“This costume was bought last minute. Maybe the seller didn’t check properly, and it accidentally got left inside.”

77 nodded and quickly threw the culprit into the trash.

When he looked back at Su Xingyao, he saw that he had already zipped up his costume again.

“You’re going to get too hot like this. Won’t it press on your burn scar?”

77, still concerned about Su Xingyao’s scar, voiced his worry.

Su Xingyao wasn’t worried, though. “That wound happened six years ago. It’s fine now.”

“Six years? How did it end up like this?”

After 77 said this in surprise, he realized that it might not have been the best thing to say. Just as he was about to apologize, not meaning to pry into someone’s private matters, he heard Su Xingyao speak in a casual tone.

“I was saving someone at the time…”

Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly noticed a figure about two meters away.

It was Fu Qingyan.

Su Xingyao didn’t continue his sentence.

It was as if a fire had suddenly appeared before him, and the wound that had long since stopped hurting now inexplicably began to sting again.

Noticing Su Xingyao’s gaze, 77 also looked over and awkwardly called out, “Mentor Fu…”

His original intention had been to suggest that Su Xingyao take off the mascot costume to get some air. Knowing that he didn’t want to reveal his identity, 77 had found a restroom on the 13th floor, intending to wait until the power came back before returning to the others.

But who could have expected that Fu Qingyan would also be there…

Fu Qingyan, appearing suddenly, nodded casually at 77, then turned his attention to Su Xingyao.

Thinking about what he had just seen and heard, Fu Qingyan took the initiative to apologize. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.”

He gestured upstairs. “There were too many people up there.”

Su Xingyao didn’t speak, but 77 waved his hand. “Ah… It’s fine, it’s fine.”

After that, 77 thought that Fu Qingyan was probably going to the restroom.

But to his surprise, Fu Qingyan didn’t leave. Instead, he came over to Su Xingyao’s side.

He lowered his head to look at Su Xingyao, his gaze passing over his shoulder.

“Have you been burned before?”

Su Xingyao didn’t reply.

Seeing that Su Xingyao didn’t speak, Fu Qingyan lightly smiled and rolled up his sleeve, exposing a bit of his forearm.

“I don’t mean to offend you, I’ve been burned before too.”

After saying this, he looked at Su Xingyao. “I know a very skilled doctor abroad. If you need help with scar removal, I can introduce you.”

When Fu Qingyan arrived earlier, he had happened to see 77 lifting up Su Xingyao’s shirt.

Because Su Xingyao always wore the mascot costume while recording, there had been many speculations about him from the outside world.

Especially about his body and appearance.

Those with malicious intent on the internet assumed that Su Xingyao must be hiding his face because he was unattractive and had a bad body.

But what Fu Qingyan had seen just now was clear.

Su Xingyao’s waist was slim, and his back was beautifully shaped.

Except for that conspicuous scar, he was almost flawless.

Such a person, it was obvious, must have a very elegant presence in person.

Fu Qingyan couldn’t help but think back to the first time he met No. 78.

Just with one glance, he felt an inexplicable desire to get to know the person and be close to them.

Unfortunately, they had been recording the show for so long, and the person had always been distant and cold toward him.

Fu Qingyan began to self-reflect, wondering if he had done something wrong.

However, he didn’t mind Su Xingyao’s coldness.

Instead, he thought about how he and another person had both been burned by fire six years ago, such an unfortunate shared experience. Feeling a sense of fate, Fu Qingyan couldn’t help but want to introduce him to a doctor.

After all, someone as beautiful and talented as this person shouldn’t have any scars on his body for any reason.

While Fu Qingyan was lost in his thoughts, his kind offer didn’t seem to touch Su Xingyao at all.

“Thank you.”

After leaving that simple, polite response, Su Xingyao just walked away.

Watching No. 78 leave, Fu Qingyan fell into contemplation.

Returning to the fifteenth floor, the professionals had already fixed the issue.

The contestants, now with the air conditioning back on, felt as if they had been reborn.

After the staff touched up their makeup, everyone was finally able to enjoy this hard-earned dinner.

In order to make it up to everyone, after finishing the recording, the production team also bought a lot of crayfish and seafood to treat the contestants.

Once the cameras were off, the contestants didn’t hold back and happily dug into their food.

77 had peeled a piece of crayfish and looked at Su Xingyao, only to find that nothing in front of him had been touched, and he was just focused on eating his dessert.

“Are you allergic to seafood?” 77 asked him.

Su Xingyao nodded. “Sort of, but I’m only allergic to shrimp and crab.”

77 nodded in understanding. “I have a friend who’s the same as you.”

He then waved a spicy crayfish in front of Su Xingyao and teasingly said, “What a shame… this one’s really good.”

Su Xingyao smiled. “Then you’ll have to eat extra for me. Eat double portions.”

77 laughed and gave an “OK” gesture.

Meanwhile, Fu Qingyan, sitting across from Su Xingyao, observed the interaction between the two.

Because he disliked spicy food and wasn’t fond of seafood, he didn’t have a bite himself.

Hearing that the person across from him was allergic to those two things, his mind suddenly thought of Su Xingyao.

It had been a long time since he thought of him so casually.

Fu Qingyan lowered his gaze to the shrimp and crab in front of him, moving them slightly to prevent himself from thinking about anything related to Su Xingyao.

After all, any bond they once had had already been burned away in that great fire.

There was nothing worth remembering about this person.

After the contestants finished their dinner and late-night snacks, it was already quite late.

Su Xingyao bid farewell to No. 77 and went down alone to meet Master Wang, who was already waiting for him in the underground parking lot.

Not long after getting into the elevator, he ran into Fu Qingyan again.

When Su Xingyao saw his face, he instinctively took two steps back, trying to distance himself from him.

However, Fu Qingyan, who had been observing his every move, walked up to him and softly asked,

“Catcat, am I that scary?”

Su Xingyao: …

Su Xingyao didn’t say anything, just gently shook his head.

The little smiling bear reflected in the elevator, even without saying a word and simply shaking its head, still looked adorably cute.

After receiving no response, Fu Qingyan sighed and helplessly said, “Then why do you always avoid me? Don’t you want to talk to me?”