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The livestream continued as He Tiao carried the duck and bought some other groceries, heading to the location where they were going to set up the stall with Chi Yizhen.
Meanwhile, the segment of the earlier mix-up had been clipped and uploaded to Weibo. Under Zhang Miya’s direction, her marketing team’s accounts were all retweeting it with astonishing captions that didn’t seem like they were ordered.
Entertainment Little Sister: Chi Yizhen, the new host of “My Days in the Apartment Building,” was mistaken for Yu Yuxing? [Embarrassed] This scene is just like me scratching the Great Wall with my toes…
Exposing Brother Li: The variety show “My Days in the Apartment Building” just started, and we already have an epic case of mistaken identity!! Is Yu Yuxing a plastic surgery face?? [Laughing]
Tonight, We Don’t Disperse: My dear friends, I can’t believe I’m laughing so hard. I didn’t expect to see a surprise guest on this live variety show. They said Yu Yuxing quit this show, but here he is??? [Images][Images] This is uproarious.
Chi Yizhen’s and Yu Yuxing’s Wikipedia entries began to climb in the rankings.
Yu Yuxing’s trending page was flooded with fans trying to control the narrative. It was the first time his dedicated fans were experiencing such distress.
They were firmly convinced that the opposing side was a group of internet trolls, but when they clicked into the comments, they found that real people were involved!
It turns out, there were a lot of zombie fans among them too!!
The live broadcast of “My Days in the Apartment Building” was generating high viewership, and the new venture into this different field was clearly invigorating it.
Even the videos that were being reshared came with their own heat.
On weekends and in the afternoon, the traffic surged even more. He Tiao was more famous than Chi Yizhen, and once tags were added, the show’s content was continuously pushed by big data.
Even the employees of StarTrack Game Technology didn’t know that their CEO was appearing on a variety show until they saw it trending.
This made them even more eager to witness the excitement of the entertainment industry.
Not to mention Du Binbai, who loved to join in on the fun, and was asking Zhang Miya if she was having a blast watching it live.
Xiao Zhang, always pursuing her ambiguous target, had a long-term strategy and didn’t pay much attention to it.
Du Binbai had set his heart on her and even noticed something unusual about He Tiao while watching the livestream.
What was the personality of the gaming magnate e-god, who had never shown his face?
After so many years of being classmates and colleagues, Du Binbai had a say in this matter.
Even if He Tiao had negotiated terms with Zhang Miya and had to appear on the show, the business wouldn’t have boomed to this extent without a reason.
Seriously, the idea of He Tiao selling fan merchandise didn’t make any sense in the first place, especially considering the cut interactions that were extracted.
The more Du Binbai watched, the more convinced he became that He Tiao had some interest in this young celebrity.
But why?
This guy spent his time either working or plucking duck feathers at his own braised duck shop. When did he ever come across a young celebrity? When did they even get to know each other?
But it didn’t seem like they were very close. No matter how you looked at it, Chi Yizhen seemed to be the one taking the lead.
It was probably just He Tiao’s exceptional looks that made this interaction seem so detached from the usual greasiness, and surprisingly cute.
Many people in the upper echelons of the company initially tuned in to make fun of He Tiao, thinking it was a once-in-a-millennium occurrence.
The “sell-face” idea was initially meant to mock He Tiao, but unexpectedly, he got caught up in it.
A certain senior, who also served as the marketing director, even asked if they could invite Chi Yizhen to play games for the promotion of the new project next quarter.
Perhaps due to the comparison with Yu Yuxing in ancient costumes, she was confident that Chi Yizhen would look better in historical attire.
The only unfortunate part was that there was no reference at all because this young celebrity, who had a tragic background, had never acted in a period drama before.
Chi Yizhen’s Weibo followers were skyrocketing, and this led to the discovery of the Weibo accounts of the previous owner of his body, which had dismal statistics.
Perhaps it was due to the harassment they received, or perhaps Chi Yizhen himself had never aimed for massive popularity. His early Weibo posts were very casual, often featuring his family members, either mentioned or in slightly blurry photos.
There were more pictures of Chi Yiming, and there were childhood photos of the two brothers.
After their family fell apart, he didn’t post much.
Now that Chi Yizhen had opened a new account, everyone noticed the last Weibo post on his old account.
The post was made at 3:03 in the morning, with just one sentence: “I miss you very much…”
Combined with the rumors, the ellipsis alone sparked countless people’s imaginations.
People tend to fill in the gaps, magnify their pain, and empathize, making it even more difficult.
When Yu Yuxing’s fans started insulting Chi Yizhen under his latest promotional Weibo post, many others stepped in to defend Chi Yizhen.
In the end, the other party deleted the Weibo post.
Perhaps the hype was too high, and a beauty blogger even captured a 3×3 grid GIF of Chi Yizhen and He Tiao together in the live stream, from their first meeting to their unexpected encounter, their eye contact, conversation, and finally some individual animated gifs, capturing Chi Yizhen’s mournful gaze and He Tiao’s intense stare.
Even people who weren’t interested in the variety show couldn’t help but retweet when they saw it.
In fact, Du Binbai could be considered half of e-god’s manager. If He Tiao didn’t go live on time or was even a few minutes late, there would be people causing a commotion at Du Binbai’s place.
Of course, some gamers were dissatisfied with the new projects or skins, and even Du Binbai faced some backlash.
He casually retweeted the post from the beauty blogger:
StarTrack_Du Binbai: They look great together! [Heart]
– Dog Deputy, why are you swooning!! Can you please reveal whether e-God joined this variety show because he likes Chi Yizhen?
– What’s going on? The woman who was shouting “sister-in-law” is actually a real sister-in-law?
– Wait, so the famous gaming magnate appearing on a variety show is because he’s been in love for a long time???
– I used to think e-God would like glamorous female celebrities and the like…
– We used to stick to his established persona, but now that we see him on a variety show, it’s probably his real personality!! Can’t wait!
– Why am I surprisingly accepting of Chi Yizhen… I can’t help but feel sorry for him. I actually hope someone can love him properly. [Crying]
Chi Yizhen had no idea what was happening. He sat in the beat-up pickup truck provided by the production crew, feeling utterly hopeless.
He Tiao didn’t seem to be picky at all, or perhaps he hadn’t even realized he had a car.
As he adjusted his seat and glanced at Chi Yizhen, seemingly sensing Chi Yizhen’s low spirits, he said, “It’s okay. I’ll drive a luxury car to take you to work in the future.”
Chi Yizhen sighed heavily, “My manager drives this car.”
He Tiao asked as he drove, “And then?”
Chi Yizhen replied, “Before going on the show, I said recording the show was good, probably better than your car, but I only sat in it for a while.”
The beaten-up car was probably on the verge of being scrapped, and its engine was noisy, not to mention the lack of shock absorption.
[This is hilarious, I can feel Chi Yizhen’s despair even through the screen, hahaha.]
[That’s so tough. Did he have a manager all along?]
[I heard it’s a friend of his brother’s, otherwise, who would take care of him? His mother is in the intensive care unit at the hospital and all that…]
As the car approached an intersection, a long red light accompanied the dimming sunset.
The pace of the old city wasn’t as fast, and there were many migrant workers in this area, so there was still some traffic.
Chi Yizhen stared at the unfamiliar streetscape of this unfamiliar world, feeling that it was still not quite real.
A hand reached over and plucked something from his hair.
Chi Yizhen turned to look, and it was a duck feather.
He remembered He Tiao’s words, “I’ll tell you later,” and curiously asked, “You still haven’t told me what kind of shop your family runs.”
He Tiao answered solemnly, “A duck shop.”