If one were to carefully tally the most grudge-holding creatures Jiang Lechen had encountered during his medical career, the Pekingese dog would be third, the great white goose second, and the top spot had been vacant for years.

Until today, when he finally located its true owner.

—It was none other than his boss, Gu Yuzhe!

All he did was jokingly call him “landlord” once, but he never expected Landlord Gu to take it so seriously and lie in wait for him like this.

Jiang Lechen and Wen Gui slipped into the van silently, along with several other staff members.

The atmosphere inside the vehicle was quiet.

Jiang Lechen placed his hands obediently on his knees, sitting ramrod straight.

Gu Yuzhe’s gaze lingered on his two farmhands’ new hairstyles for a few seconds. His thin lips parted, and he sparingly spat out two words: “Not bad.”

Remembering the hairstylist who worked with his nose in the air and an assistant by his side, the two little flop idols clearly understood their own status.

Wen Gui said politely, “If it weren’t for your reputation, Mr. Gu, we wouldn’t have been able to work with such a skilled A-list stylist. It’s all thanks to you.”

Jiang Lechen nudged him with his knee and whispered a reminder, “His name’s Kevin, not Tony.”

Wen Gui: “…”

Gu Yuzhe: “…Jiang Lechen, if I hear another pun like that from you, you can forget about next month’s salary, too.”

After speaking, Gu Yuzhe shot a glance at a capable-looking female assistant beside him. Jiang Lechen had seen her before and knew her name was “Feng-jie.” The previous two times his salary was docked, it was this very Feng-jie who handled it.

The glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry have always belonged to those in front of the camera. Feng-jie, however, was short, dressed head-to-toe in Uniqlo, with standard McQueen sneakers and a bucket hat. A mask was practically glued to her chin, and she always looked like she hadn’t gotten enough sleep, but her bloodshot eyes sparkled with sharp competence.

Jiang Lechen was a little afraid of Feng-jie.

She was like the empress’s cruelest attendant, Nanny Rong. The only difference was that Nanny Rong tortured her victims with needles, while Feng-jie used a performance review worksheet.

Jiang Lechen immediately straightened up. He stammered, “Land… uh, Boss, weren’t you on a business trip in Xihong City?”

Gu Yuzhe shot him a sidelong glance. “This is Hotboys’ first stage since restructuring. Of course, I had to be here.”

To put it plainly, he was here to oversee things.

Gu Yuzhe continued, “Sheng Zhixun from B.R.E.A.K. is here tonight. There will be at least six or seven thousand people in the audience. You haven’t been on such a big stage before. It’s normal to feel nervous.”

Before his words had even faded, Wen Gui subconsciously glanced at Jiang Lechen.

This single glance made Gu Yuzhe’s sharp eyes detect something.

Landlord Gu’s brows immediately furrowed. He asked sternly, “Jiang Lechen, what other side hustles have you been taking on behind my back?!”

Beside him, Feng-jie immediately whipped out the performance review worksheet.

Little Jiang felt deeply wronged. “Reporting to the boss, that doesn’t count as a side hustle!!”

“So you really did take one?”

Jiang Lechen: “It really wasn’t a side hustle—last year was our university’s centennial celebration. We held a performance at the Workers’ Stadium. The audience was full of current students, old alumni, city leaders, people from the education committee, and so on. Every college had to put on a show, and my department head had me sing two songs…”

Gu Yuzhe fell silent.

Of course, he had been to the Workers’ Stadium. It could hold about thirty thousand people at full capacity. Although the city’s largest stadiums now were the Bird’s Nest and the Mercedes-Benz Arena, holding a concert at the Workers’ Stadium remained an unattainable dream for many young singers.

And Jiang Lechen had already sung in front of thirty thousand people.

A trace of surprise rose in Gu Yuzhe’s heart. “I’ve underestimated you.”

Jiang Lechen looked a bit embarrassed. “Well… I didn’t sing one of our group’s songs.”

Gu Yuzhe: “The former boss wouldn’t give you the copyright?”

“Not exactly,” Jiang Lechen said quietly. “It’s just that our songs were too obscure. The moment I submitted it, the department head rejected it and told me to sing something everyone had heard of.”

In the end, he sang “Ode to the Motherland.”

“…”

…

At two in the afternoon, the large group arrived outside the Sanshan Music Festival.

There was a dedicated channel for artists. The two vans drove discreetly to the back entrance of the venue, expecting to drive straight into the parking lot. They never imagined that the road outside the back gate would be completely packed with fans who had arrived early.

The fans held up sky-blue support banners, crowding both sides of the road. The sea of blue stretched as far as the eye could see, like an azure ocean or a clear sky.

Sky blue—Sheng Zhixun’s official support color.

Mixed in among the sky-blue were some other inconspicuous yellows and pale purples. Those were the support colors of Sheng Zhixun’s teammates. Against the vast expanse of blue, those colors looked so dim.

Seeing the unfamiliar van approach, the fans in the front row looked on with anticipation. The fansite admins, armed with high-powered lenses, immediately raised their long guns and short cannons. But when they saw the unfamiliar license plate, their lenses dropped in unison.

Seeing this, Wen Gui seemed moved and fell into deep thought.

Gu Yuzhe never missed an opportunity to assess his new artists. He asked, “Wen, what are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that one day, I’ll be like Sheng Zhixun, anticipated and awaited by so many people,” Wen Gui said directly. “I hope that the next time I appear in front of fans, those cameras won’t move away, but will revolve around me.” His voice was soft but firm. “I want to see them go crazy for me.”

Gu Yuzhe nodded.

Right now, Sheng Zhixun was in a league of his own among domestic idols. His popularity, data, and endorsements completely outshone the other members of his group.

Compared to the star who was at the peak of his fame, Wen Gui was just an unknown flop… But Gu Yuzhe didn’t laugh at Wen Gui’s ambition.

In fact, Gu Yuzhe had asked other young people the same question during interviews.

But the answers he received left him very dissatisfied. The vast majority’s first reaction was: Sheng Zhixun’s fans are too domineering; they don’t leave any room for other people’s fans. If we were Sheng Zhixun’s teammates, we would feel ashamed and embarrassed to see our support colors drowned in a sea of blue.

They had put themselves in the shoes of “Sheng Zhixun’s teammate,” not “Sheng Zhixun.” They had already presumed their own failure, subconsciously believing they could never become the one and only.

People like that were destined to be eliminated.

Gu Yuzhe admired ambitious young people. The entertainment industry has always been a place where the strong dominate the weak. Out of a hundred equally talented young individuals, the one who truly reaches the top needs a mix of skill, luck, and the ambition to “do anything for the crown.”

As they spoke, Jiang Lechen, who was sitting by the window, was unusually quiet.

His round eyes looked curiously through the car window at the excited fans, like a little animal watching the world. Only when the van slowly drove into the parking lot did he reluctantly look away.

Seeing this, Gu Yuzhe threw the topic back to him. “Jiang Lechen, you saw Sheng Zhixun’s fans. What were you thinking?”

Jiang Lechen thought, Mr. Gu really has double standards. He calls Wen Gui ‘Wen’ so affectionately, but when he calls me, it’s my full name, so stiffly.

But when the landlord asks a question, the farmhand must answer honestly, even if he’s grumbling inside.

So, Farmhand Jiang said, “They look like they’re bird-watching!”

Gu Yuzhe: “…?”

Jiang Lechen began to describe it with animated gestures. “Last year, we had an outdoor fieldwork class, and the teacher took us to a wetland to watch birds. But birds are very timid, and different birds have different habits. Some like the early morning, some like after the sun sets…”

“Aiya, while we waited for the birds, we’d lie down in the reeds, each with a small stool, wearing sun hats, sunglasses, masks, and cooling sleeves—our gear was exactly the same as these fans! When the birds weren’t there, we’d either chat or play on our phones. But the moment a bird arrived—swoosh, swoosh, swoosh—everyone would raise their cameras!”

He described it so vividly, and with his wild gestures, the other staff members in the car could almost see Little Jiang lying in the reeds under the hot sun, perhaps with a few dry reeds mixed in his hair…

…It’s just that…

“Jiang Lechen,” Gu Yuzhe said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, “you just compared Sheng Zhixun to a bird. Does Sheng Zhixun know about this?”

…

The van stopped, and Jiang Lechen and Wen Gui followed their boss out of the vehicle.

When the eight teammates from the other van saw Gu Yuzhe, their expressions looked like an overturned paint palette—red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, creating a very “colorful” sight.

They had squeezed Jiang Lechen and Wen Gui into the other van, thinking they could “isolate” them. They never imagined it would lead to them riding in the same van as the boss!

The drive from the company to the music festival took nearly two hours. Who knew how much the two of them had been brown-nosing Gu Yuzhe?

Jiang Lechen, with the halo of a prestigious university over his head, is especially attractive. Maybe the boss would like an artist with high academic qualifications.

They let their imaginations run wild, never guessing that Mr. Gu had been on the verge of being driven crazy by Jiang Lechen the entire trip. What 985 university? Gu Yuzhe wanted to throw him into a factory and make him twist screws on an assembly line 996-style.

“Mr. Gu…”

“Hello, Boss!”

“When did you get back from Xihong City?”

“Mr. Gu, we’ll perform well today!”

“We originally wanted to ride in the same van as the leader, but unfortunately, it was full, so the leader proactively gave his spot to us. We didn’t expect you to be in the other van…”

Several of them swarmed around Gu Yuzhe, chattering all at once to show their loyalty, afraid of falling behind the others. Some even tried to subtly ask if Jiang Lechen and Wen Gui had said anything bad about them.

Although their words twisted and turned eighteen times, Landlord Gu had nineteen tricks up his sleeve. Their little games were like children playing house in his eyes.

Gu Yuzhe gave them a few perfunctory words and managed to soothe the anxious little ones.

Seeing this, Jiang Lechen laughed secretly to himself.

If you went back ten years, Jiang Lechen’s childhood dream wasn’t to debut as an artist but to become a zookeeper. He thought zookeepers were so cool. No matter if animals flew in the sky or swam in the water, they all wanted to be around the zookeeper, hugging their legs and acting cute.

Animals flattered the zookeeper for an extra fish or a piece of meat. Little idols flattered their agent for more work and money.

Both involved taking care of rare and exotic beasts. What was the difference between taking care of them in the entertainment industry versus in a zoo?

If one day he didn’t want to be an idol anymore, he would make a magnificent turn and go to the zoo—

—A zookeeper was a proper government employee with job security. If his major didn’t qualify him, he wouldn’t even be eligible to take the exam.