FLME Ch50

Yi Ming still had work to do, so he logged off after the variety show ended. The livestream’s popularity remained high. Yu Wen went to the restroom and returned to find Jian Heng trying his best to answer viewers’ questions about the plot.

“‘I can’t get out’—what does that mean? It’s just as it says. This detail indicates that the bard already knew about the curse within the castle. It also foreshadows him being swayed by the demon king later on…”

Jian Heng thought for a moment. “But the bard’s words are different from the others. The others were unwilling to sacrifice their companions and were prepared to sacrifice themselves. The bard, on the other hand, had no companions to sacrifice—”

Yu Wen was just sitting down when he heard this and was stunned. “Is that the right interpretation?”

“That’s how I understand it, at least,” Jian Heng replied. “After all, I’m a supervillain.”

「Bard: I’m a super bad guy.」

「Ask away, ask away. You could get 108 different versions.」

「Really, each time you ask, you get silence.」

None of the other guests had started their own livestreams, and with nowhere else to channel their enthusiasm, the netizens flocked to Yu Wen’s stream. On the other hand, Yu Wen had performed outstandingly in the first episode, with several moments of quick thinking that had viewers praising him. Naturally, he became the most focused person.

At 10 p.m., the Battle Royale episode was just released on the online platform. Newcomers kept pouring into the livestream, and Yu Wen’s eyes were overwhelmed by the flood of comments, so he simply stopped looking at them and concentrated on crocheting a koi fish.

Jian Heng had a bit more leeway on his side, so he dutifully relayed messages for viewers who were kicked out of Yu Wen’s livestream.

“Xiao Yu, everyone wants you to crochet a hero…”

Yu Wen looked up, confused, and said to the camera, “You guys have too much faith in me.”

Does he look like he has that kind of skill?

The comments burst into laughter. After a while, Jian Heng relayed another message: “They said, if you can’t crochet a hero, how about crocheting a dragon?”

Yu Wen tilted his head and thought for a moment, “Crocheting a dragon? I can give it a try, but not an evil dragon. The evil dragon from the show is made with a lot of money, and I can’t recreate that.”

Chu Han heard this and excitedly crawled over, “An evil dragon? Let me crochet it. I have the talent.”

Yu Wen looked at the barely recognizable ball of yarn in Chu Han’s hand.

Chu Han said, “Koi fish are too simple. I didn’t even take it seriously.”

Yu Wen had no choice but to give him another ball of yarn, reminding him, “Be serious this time.”

Xie Heyu was sitting nearby, looking up tutorials on a tablet. Yu Wen leaned over to take a look.

Seeing a fail compilation video, he leaned his head on Xie Heyu’s shoulder, hiding his face as he laughed. After laughing, he said to Xie Heyu, “Oh no, this looks really hard.”

Wearing a mask, Teacher Xie had a slight smile in his eyes, and his voice held a hint of laughter.

He said, “It’s fine. We’ll just say it was Teacher Chu who crocheted it.”

Yu Wen: “But what if it turns out well…”

Xie Heyu: “If it turns out well, then it’s yours.”

Yu Wen: “Hahahahahaha…”

Xie Heyu was entirely off camera. Yu Wen leaned in so much that half his body was out of frame, showing only his beaming profile occasionally.

He whispered secrets with Xie Heyu, leaving no attention for the viewers in the livestream. The neglected viewers were unhappy and started calling for Chu Han and Xi Su to eavesdrop.

Chu Han was busy showcasing his talent in handicrafts and didn’t notice the comments, but Xi Su, who was tied up in the corner of the sofa and had nothing to do, caught them.

He squinted at the comments for a long time, confirmed they were calling him, then turned his head and spat out the towel in his mouth, giving the viewers a look that said, “Leave it to me; don’t worry.”

He wriggled a few times and tried his best to move toward the two.

Everyone wasn’t sitting too far apart; otherwise, they wouldn’t all be in the frame. Xie Heyu was positioned a bit further away, but by craning his neck, he could still hear the conversation.

Xi Su listened in for half a minute and immediately reported, “Attention everyone—they’re planning to blame the ugly crocheted things on Chu Han and claim the good-looking ones as Yu Wen’s. That’s a big hit to their conscience!”

Chu Han, who hadn’t even finished crocheting yet, said, “…Huh?”

Yu Wen was speechless. He was now seriously doubting Xi Su’s mental state and felt there was a need to get him checked at a hospital; this guy didn’t seem quite right.

“You, sit back down.” Yu Wen pointed to the corner of the sofa and said, “You’ve embarrassed our entire company.”

“Heh,” Xi Su scoffed with three parts mockery, three parts coldness, and four parts casualness. “The Party and the people will stand by me.”

Yu Wen: “…”

Crazy!

Xie Heyu quickly crocheted a dragon prototype and showed it in front of the camera, blatantly lying with a straight face: “This is what Teacher Yu just crocheted; isn’t it beautiful?”

「The manager really dotes on Xiao Yu Bao…」

「Me (pretending to be blind): Oh, right, right, right, this was crocheted by Xiao Yu. This time, I’ll pretend I didn’t see the crochet hook in your hand. Put it away.」

「First time hearing the manager speak. So he’s not mute after all (strategic lean back).」

「I’m laughing so hard. The manager’s voice is actually quite nice.」

Jian Heng had met Xie Heyu before. When they were filming “Immortal Sect,” he was still an assistant and would occasionally come to the set to deliver things to Yu Wen.

He watched the interaction between the two, always feeling that their conversations were particularly adorable—serious to an extreme, yet very close. Whenever they were in the same space, there was a sense that no one else could intrude on their atmosphere.

Jian Heng had once asked Yu Wen if he could sit at the main table when the two of them got married.

At the time, Yu Wen had said he was being ridiculous.

But now, watching the scene in front of him—Yu Wen had crocheted an incredibly ugly dragon tail and showed it to Xie Heyu, laughing so hard that he almost fell onto Xie Heyu. Right in front of thousands of viewers, Xie Heyu swapped his crocheted piece with Yu Wen’s. Perhaps thinking he was being too obvious, he looked at Yu Wen, his eyes slightly curving…

With his many years of experience in all sorts of ships and his sharp intuition for CP (character pairing) vibes, Jian Heng swore:

He was about to sit at that main table.

In the latter half of the livestream, Yu Wen gave away all the handmade items as prizes. The viewers didn’t mind at all; even the yarn ball crocheted by Chu Han was in demand.

Unexpectedly, before the livestream ended, Yu Wen received a call from Feng Chengzhou.

President Feng was calling to discuss business.

He had observed the great success of tonight’s Battle Royale and, inspired by Yu Wen’s handmade items, wanted to collaborate with the program team and several guests to explore the peripheral market.

“You won’t need to make them by hand, but you’ll need to help promote them. Ideally, there will be a limited release of one hundred signed pieces…”

Xie Heyu picked up the phone and went outside to discuss the profit sharing and contract details with Feng Chengzhou. Yu Wen quietly thought to himself that he had almost forgotten this man was a capitalist after watching Feng Chengzhou act foolishly for so long…

After all, he was the original male lead, and his business acumen and work capabilities were still intact.

Both “Battle Royale” and “Immortal Sect” were aired on online platforms under the Huiteng Group. Both were very popular, and it was currently the summer vacation period, a time of high traffic. When the drama and the variety show finished airing, Yu Wen’s value would definitely be incomparable. Feng Chengzhou, seeing that no one else had acted yet, personally called to ask for his opinion.

Yu Wen didn’t have much of an opinion; as long as the pricing wasn’t too outrageous, merchandise could be seen as a kind of perk in a way.

Speaking of perks, Yu Wen recalled the money Feng Chengzhou had given away in the livestream during the last floor tour.

When Xie Heyu returned, the call was still ongoing. Yu Wen asked, “President Feng, how are you feeling today?”

Feng Chengzhou: “Huh? Pretty good, actually.”

Yu Wen, with his back to the camera, whispered, “I have a ball of yarn here, purely handmade by Teacher Chu. It’s a work of talent that took over two hours of effort… I’ll give it to you at a friendly price of two million. Deal?”

Feng Chengzhou: “…”

Two minutes later, the voice on the other end of the line replied without hesitation: “Deal.”

With a raffle worth two hundred thousand per round, Yu Wen drew for ten rounds.

He told Chu Han about this, and Chu Han was a little displeased, yet also a little pleased.

He was displeased because he had originally planned to keep this ‘masterpiece’ as a collectible; he was pleased because selling it for two million indicated he indeed had quite a bit of talent and value in this field.

Although the buyer was Feng Chengzhou, Yu Wen said that since Feng had come to discuss work, if he liked Chu Han’s handmade item, it should be due to some artistic value rather than personal affection.

“Fine, sell it,” Chu Han said reservedly.

During the raffle, Xi Su, who was tied up on the sofa, erupted with unprecedented violent struggles. Kicking his legs, he yelled, “Phone! Phone! Give me a phone! I haven’t entered the livestream yet—wait for me!”

Xi Su only won once, but he won more than one hundred thousand in one go. At the end of the livestream, he looked into the camera with genuine sincerity and said, “Thank you, President Feng. Thank you! Please come again!”

Jian Heng was laughing so hard on the other side that his face was about to split.

Even Xie Heyu joined the fun in the livestream and won a few thousand. He showed the winning screen to Yu Wen, who smiled with squinted eyes and whispered, “Say thank you to Xiao Yu.”

Xie Heyu whispered, “Thank you, Teacher Xiao Yu.”

The popularity of “Battle Royale” fermented for a few days, just in time for a break in updates for “Immortal Sect,” so Yu Wen didn’t end up competing with himself. However, quite a few viewers were left feeling devastated by “Battle Royale” and turned to the more lighthearted “Immortal Sect” for comfort, even asking for more updates on the official account.

The finale was coming up, and Yu Wen didn’t dare to say much.

That morning, he opened his phone and habitually checked Weibo to see what new angles the netizens had come up with to explore “Battle Royale.”

Ah, today, it was he himself being explored.

Second on the trending list—＃Yu Wen, a healing little cat good at empathy＃

Top comment: [Words cannot describe the shock in my heart at the moment when his forehead touched the dragon’s. When he said “My friend,” I thought the god of empathy had descended.]

The netizens were really good at praising, and the comments below were even more exaggerated, with mentions of “Nobel Prize for Reactions” and “The ancient Greek god of variety show roles”… Seeing their enthusiastic praise, Yu Wen couldn’t help but curl his toes in embarrassment.

But even while curling his toes, he also felt a subtle sense of pride. So, I performed this well…

「If there hadn’t been the segment unlocking the dragon’s memories, and the segment where the guests watched him walk out of the castle, I might not have been so moved. Without these two segments, the variety show would have just been a variety show. But now, the brave party has come alive.」

「I watched as the health bar on the back of his hand kept dropping, and he made a desperate gamble. At that moment, I felt that this story was worth it, that the brave warrior was worth it—worth being the center of the story and surrounded by everyone’s love.」

「When his health bar dropped to 1%, I began to understand why so many people were waiting for him to wake up.」

「’This sword is mine,’ ‘I will win’—from these two lines, I fell in love with the brave warrior.」

「Actually, at that time, Yu Wen didn’t have all the clues; his reaction was more like an instinct. I can’t imagine how sharp an instinct it must have been for him to make such a fitting response.」

「Yu Wen’s ability to empathize gave the brave warrior flesh and blood, and the brave warrior’s flesh and blood remained in his body, giving everyone’s love a place to dwell.」

In the eyes of the netizens, Yu Wen’s empathy healed the entire story. Without him, the tone of this episode of the variety show would have been one of regret. However, Yu Wen’s reaction turned the tone of the first episode into one of flourishing hope.

Hope means anticipation.

Everyone is anticipating each episode’s victory, anticipating the resurrection of the brave party. The high viewership for this season has already been established at this moment.

Yu Wen watched for a while, then went downstairs to have breakfast. It was a rare occurrence that Xi Su was also up today, live streaming in the living room.

Xi Su never woke up before noon, so seeing him in the living room at this time was a bit surprising for Yu Wen.

As he got closer, he heard Xi Su saying to the viewers in the livestream, “I’m actually a very steady person in private. That day, it was mainly because the atmosphere felt so heavy, so I tried to lighten things up a bit, hahaha. I’m not usually like this…”

Yu Wen: “…”

After that day, Xie Jiamao called three times to lecture Xi Su. Xi Su let himself go for a day, but for the sake of his future, he started pretending to be calm again.

The internet doesn’t have memory, but it doesn’t forget this quickly either. No one in the livestream bought it; everyone was teasing him, expressing disbelief. Some even told him to speak plainly without any nonsense.

Xi Su couldn’t keep up the act any longer. He collapsed on the sofa and said, “The boss says if I keep acting like this, I won’t be able to get any roles in idol dramas.”

Fans comforted him: 「It’s okay; you can go home and sell barbecue.」

Xi Su: “…I’m just not getting any roles, not quitting the industry!”

The fans, enjoying the spectacle, didn’t mind stirring things up. When someone is in trouble, everyone comes to mess around.

「Go drink some vinegar in the kitchen; it won’t help much, but your mouth will taste sour.」

「It’s not a big deal; just buy a bowl of snail noodles first. I feel like eating some.」

「If you can’t get any roles, just take it easy. Watch more TV, eat more, stay in a good mood, take a bath with bath salts every day, and then you’ll turn into a delicious salted fish.」

Xi Su got so annoyed that he turned off the livestream.

In the afternoon, a new topic started trending on social media.

“Look, this is the wind.”

At first, it was just a few bloggers who liked “Battle Royale” who co-produced a video. In the video, they held up bags bulging with the wind and smiled brightly at the camera, saying, “This bag of wind is our trophy.”

Within just a few hours, the number of videos under this topic skyrocketed. People held bags, coats, and anything that could catch the wind, running across grass fields, open spaces, and playgrounds. Overhead was a clear sky, and in their hands was the outline of the wind.

They said, “I can conquer the sky and I can challenge the mountains.”

Yu Wen saw this topic in the “Battle Royale” group, where Yi Ming had shared a few videos, saying, “Oh my god, so romantic.”

Daniel Li sent a voice message, choking up, “It’s so touching…”