CH 16

In the evening of the next day, Wan Tong and Su Ruojing met in a coffee shop.

Maybe it was Wan Tong’s illusion, but Su Ruojing seemed a bit strange today, and her gaze at Wan Tong was particularly intense.

Su Ruojing handed a business card to Wan Tong and said hoarsely, “I heard you’re looking for a producer. I don’t know if he meets your requirements.”

Upon seeing the name on the business card, Colin Hoffman, one of the internationally renowned music producers, Wan Tong was both surprised and amazed.

She had been searching for a producer to collaborate with, but she had never dared to even think about someone of his caliber.

Naturally, she was very tempted.

But what does Su Ruojing want to do by throwing out such a big temptation at this time?

Su Ruojing kept his gaze locked on Wan Tong, seeing her clearly tempted but restraining herself from showing it, and a small arc of a cold smile appeared involuntarily on his rigid mouth.

“Don’t worry, I just want to help you, without any ulterior motives,” Su Ruojing added the last sentence, and even he himself was shaken for a moment.

How is it possible that there are no ulterior motives?

Wan Tong didn’t try to be coy anymore, and took the business card from Su Ruojing. “Okay, thank you,” she said.

Su Ruojing’s mouth twitched, and after a moment, he spoke again. “You did a paternity test, and now I know the result too.”

Wan Tong wasn’t surprised, as this was something that was bound to be revealed sooner or later.

“Brother…” she called out, but didn’t know what else to say.

Perhaps it was the lingering emotional influence of the original host, but she always felt a sense of suffocation in her chest.

Even though she never brought it up, the original host still had a deep attachment to her brother and her family.

“I’m not your brother,” Su Ruojing threw out coldly, turning his head to the side.

Wan Tong pursed her lips and muttered to herself in her heart, “How heartless.”

She carefully tucked the business card into her purse, and out of gratitude, she stayed in the coffee shop for a while longer.

Su Ruojing seemed to be lost in thought, occasionally shooting her a deep gaze.

Feeling uneasy, Wan Tong quickly finished her coffee and left.

As he watched her figure disappear, the coldness in Su Ruojing’s eyes receded, replaced by a burning flame.

Just as he was about to leave, a figure in red sat down in the spot where Wantong had been sitting just moments ago.

Su Ruojing furrowed his brows slightly and leaned back. “Who are you?”

The other person looked pretty good, dressed in designer brands and seemed to come from a well-off family. However, he had just returned to the country and didn’t seem to know such people.

“Hello, I’m Lin Jin’er,” the person said, with red lips and extending her hand.

[074, this guy looks handsome, can I play with him?]

[As long as it doesn’t interfere with the mission, follow the host’s preferences.]

[That’s good then. Compared to Shen Bu, I prefer this one. He looks… impressive.]

[…]

Su Ruojing didn’t miss the hint in Lin Jin’er’s eyes. He glanced at her nail painted with hazy blue and didn’t reach out his hand. He just coldly asked, “Do you have something to say?”

Lin Jin’er withdrew her hand and went straight to the point, “You like Su Wantong, right? But do you know that she is now living with a younger man?”

“So what?” Su Ruojing’s eyes instantly darkened, faintly showing a hint of impatience.

“I like that boy. I think we can work together and break them up.”

“Hmm.” Su Ruojing just coldly chuckled, her gaze on Lin Jin’er becoming even sharper.

Lin Jin’er was chilled by the scrutinizing gaze, what exactly did this man mean?

“Take two days to think about it. Contact me when you’ve made up your mind.” She threw down a business card displeasedly, grabbed her bag and stood up to leave.

In the following days, Su Ruojing tried to meet with Wan Tong again, but Wan Tong declined with the excuse of preparing for a competition.

Originally, she wanted to improve the relationship between the original owner and her brother, but now she felt that her brother was somewhat unfathomable, and it would be better to have less contact with him in the future.

On the other hand, the police suddenly received a report that someone had anonymously reported Li Xu and he had been arrested and returned to the province.

Under interrogation, Li Xu confessed to what he had done without hesitation. The physical evidence confirmed his guilt, making it difficult for Su Fang to deny his actions.

A few days later, at the “Great Singer” finals, Wan Tong won the championship with a slight advantage. Her talent was fully recognized, and she made a comeback from the lukewarm state of the past few years.

On Su Fang’s side, news soon came that Li Xu was charged with attempted murder and sentenced to five years in prison. Su Fang was sentenced to three years for her involvement in the crime.

After the police released a report on the incident, they kept the identities of the people involved vague. However, netizens who had been following the case quickly connected the dots and linked the incident to Wan Tong.

It turned out that Su Wantong was not Su Fang’s biological daughter!

No wonder Su Fang was so ruthless because Wantong wasn’t her own daughter!

Due to the case, Wan Tong unavoidably came into contact with Su Ruojing. Photos of them standing together outside the courthouse were posted online by some people with ulterior motives, and Wan Tong’s scandalous rumors emerged.

Over the years, Wan Tong had never had any scandals like this. Now that there was a tall, handsome, and particularly mature and charming man by her side, it naturally touched the hearts of her fans and even some older mothers.

Someone exposed Su Ruojing’s information and it was revealed that he was Wantong’s non-blood-related brother.

So some netizens began to speculate whether there was any ambiguity between the two, and topics related to “siblings love” were created.

Wan Tong admired the imagination of these netizens, but felt that there was no need to explain anything.

At this point, “Idol Training Camp” had been recording for over half a month, and the first episode was broadcast on Friday night. While watching, Wan Tong noticed a problem: there were very few shots of Shen Bu!

Even during the initial level evaluation, almost all the shots were of Chen Jiexiu, and Shen Bu became a supporting character.

“Shishi, is it Lin Jin’er’s doing?” Wan Tong immediately thought of Lin Jin’er’s attempt to suppress Shen Bu.

[Indeed it is her.] Shishi responded, [Tongtong, the boss’ luck has been slightly disrupted.]

[At the beginning, it was Lin Jin’er who helped for A’Bu to get his spot, but later her dinner party was ruined by me, and now she can’t get close to A’Bu and can’t proceed with her strategy. So, she can only suppress him, hoping to extinguish his luck.]

As Tongtong kept thinking about it, she became more and more frustrated, but she didn’t know how to directly communicate with the production team.

The voting channel has already been opened on the video website. However, in the voting channel, the image of Shen Bu, whose appearance is not even one-fifth of his real self, how can he stand out from the hundred people and attract people to vote for him?

As Wan Tong became more and more angry, she decided to vote all of her own votes for Shen Bu, and her friends Xiao Yu and Xiao Cen also voted for him under her watchful eyes.

After that, Wan Tong went to Weibo and took a look around. “Idol Training Camp,” as a large-scale reality show for idol development, has been pushed to the top of the hot search as soon as the program was aired.

All one hundred trainees’ Weibo accounts were also made public, attracting fans to follow.

Under Shen Bu’s Weibo account, there were also many fans, but compared to the popularity of other trainees, it was not even close.

As a mentor, Wan Tong couldn’t directly show support for Shen Bu on Weibo, so she took a detour and followed all one hundred trainees, which was immediately mocked by netizens as being the best mentor.

When Wan Tong arrived at the training camp, it was already evening, and the one hundred trainees were rehearsing the theme song on stage.

She immediately spotted Shen Bu’s figure. Chen Jiexiu was in the center position for the theme song performance, while Shen Bu, although still in Class A, was arranged in the middle of the last row.

Wan Tong frowned and stared at the stage seriously. Even though Zhuang Yu and other mentors had arrived long ago, she hadn’t noticed.

“I heard they’ve already practiced many times today, but the effect doesn’t seem to be good.” Zhuang Yu’s voice suddenly rang out, startling Wan Tong.

She was about to say something when the dance teacher, Jessica, spoke up in confusion, “Huh, why did Shen Bu move to the back?”

She had always thought that Shen Bu was good-looking and talented, but just a bit rigid and silent. But could he really be arranged like this?

Wan Tong quickly spoke up, “Yes, doesn’t he have a good grasp of the theme song?”

Zhuang Yu glanced at the camera and spoke somewhat vaguely, “It’s probably because of his height.”

But his gaze clearly meant something else.

Wan Tong and Jessica probably haven’t watched the first episode, which is why they’re asking this.

He had watched the episode before coming, and noticed that Shen Bu had hardly any screen time and was placed in the least advantageous position for the theme song performance in Class A. This was clearly a deliberate arrangement by the show, and he wondered who Shen Bu had offended.

It seemed unlikely that Shen Bu could make a breakthrough in the show, but Zhuang Yu could only keep these thoughts to himself.

After hearing Zhuang Yu’s words, Wan Tong couldn’t help but grit her teeth, but she didn’t say anything inappropriate.

After the rehearsal, the director announced that all the trainees could have dinner with the mentors and use this opportunity to bond.

The trainees cheered and rushed over to be with the mentors.

Wan Tong watched as little angel Yan Luo shyly stood in front of her. “Teacher Wan Tong, I heard you won the championship in a competition. Congratulations!”

“Thank you, you guys should keep working hard too,” Wan Tong said as she was surrounded by a group of young trainees, some of whom were shorter than her. She felt overwhelmed by their attention.

Her gaze went through the group of trainees and fell on Shen Bu, who was standing alone behind them with his head slightly bowed. He seemed lonely and isolated.

It is reasonable to say that the trainees do not have any communication tools and are unaware of the program’s broadcast situation and popularity. However, who guarantees that the trainees will obediently follow the rules and not borrow phones or keep another phone for themselves?

Once they have watched the program, they know which people they can befriend, adjust their state in front of the camera according to their fans’ reactions, and establish a better public image.

Don’t be fooled by their age; they are actually more mature than their peers.

Previously, Chen Jiexiu was actively hanging out with Shen Bu, but now he preferred to stay with two other trainees from the company.

If he was with Shen Bu, the camera might cut him out, so why bother making an effort to approach him?

In her heart, Wan Tong had been concerned about Shen Bu’s situation. After following the rest of the group to the restaurant, she kept glancing over at him, hoping to find a chance to talk to him.

Although there were too many people around and too many cameras, she had no chance to get close to him.

With a heavy heart, she went to the bathroom. Just as she was about to wash her face, she saw a familiar figure enter the mirror.

She stood there in shock as Shen Bu quickly took her hand and led her into a small compartment.

“A’…”1 Just as she was about to speak, a hot palm covered her lips, silencing her.

Then, they heard the sound of footsteps from outside, it seemed like a girl had walked in.

Apart from holding onto his arm, she tightened up her expression and held her breath, her face turned slightly red.

It felt like they were having an affair… it was thrilling.

1 She was about to call him A’Bu but stopped midway