Chapter 29

After much effort calming the furious Ke Zhengye, the crowd that had gathered to watch gradually dispersed. Madam Ke, both physically and mentally exhausted, returned to her group of friends, who were now gossiping about recent events.

Before she left, the ladies had been discussing which beauty salons had the best results, but now—who knew why—they were suddenly talking about a car accident that had happened near the airport.

At first, they were just describing how tragic the crash was and how many people had died. Then someone brought up a couple who survived because they had turned back after receiving a phone call—apparently, a pair of local entrepreneurs doing quite well in business.

Someone said, “My husband was also on a business trip that day. When the crash happened, he was just nearby. Guess what he told me when he came back?”

The others couldn't stand her being so secretive and urged her to spill.

That lady lowered her voice, speaking mysteriously: “There was some kind of tower maintenance going on along that stretch of road that day—no signal at all. My husband’s important meeting was completely cut off, and he didn’t regain signal until the crash happened and he had to pull over.”

She paused. “Our newspaper interviewed people afterward, and almost everyone on that road had no signal. Except that family. They got a call from a family member just before reaching the intersection, prompting them to suddenly change course and turn around. Isn’t that bizarre?”

“So coincidental!” everyone exclaimed in awe, though no one found it particularly unbelievable.

After all, lucky people are everywhere. Miraculous escapes happen daily. Most people just sighed and said that the daughter’s call came at the perfect time and saved the family.

Though the Xie family had only risen in the last decade through the couple’s hard work, they were developing rapidly. Their daughter was also very gifted in business, and several people there recognized them.

Another lady added, “I’ve met them before. They say that every month they personally go to welfare homes and elderly care centers to do charity work. They even helped with funeral arrangements for some elderly people with no family!”

“Just goes to show—good things happen to good people.”

At that moment, a short-haired woman who didn’t get along with Madam Ke scoffed with clear disdain.

Once everyone turned their eyes to her, she slowly said, “That’s not the version I heard. You all know my daughter—outstanding since childhood. She’s friends with the Xie family’s eldest daughter and found out long ago. All that talk about luck and intuition—that’s just fluff for the media. Only you gullible types would buy into such a half-baked explanation.”

The other ladies weren’t pleased.

“Oh, so you know? Then spill it! Let’s all hear. The Xie family’s eldest daughter has won so many awards. Why would she go around airing her family’s business?”

“Exactly. Are you sure your daughter isn’t friends with a fake Xie daughter?”

“What nonsense!” The short-haired lady glared fiercely, immediately silencing the others.

With a snort, she continued, “It wasn’t their daughter who saved them—it was their younger son. My daughter said their daughter was off looking for her best friend at the time, had handed over all company matters to the parents, and didn’t even think to call since she knew they were away on a trip. It was their son who met a ‘master’—some kind of seer—who warned him his parents were in danger. That’s when he called his sister and had her help contact the parents!”

Everyone was stunned. “Seriously?”

“The Xie family’s son had an encounter like that? But didn’t I hear he was focused on joining the entertainment industry, even had a fight with the family and ran away to enter some talent show?”

“Speaking of that,” another lady chimed in, “I caught a livestream yesterday where someone spilled some gossip—also about the Xie family. Apparently, the Xie family’s general manager—the eldest daughter—went on a talent show to get her fortune told. The reading said her best friend had been harmed and even revealed the location of the body. She rushed over with a team and actually found the corpse at the far end of a small village—in a pigsty!”“Oh my god! A pigsty? How could it be in a place like that?”

“How else? Probably got trafficked there, and when she didn’t behave, they locked her up in the pigsty. Then that family forgot to feed the pigs for a few days, and the pigs went mad with hunger and literally ate a living person... sigh, such a sin!”

This horrifying news stunned everyone. The atmosphere turned dead silent—you could hear a pin drop, and no one even touched their drinks.

After a long while, someone brought up another topic: “By the way, Wanru, didn’t both your sons also join some kind of show? Was it the same one?”

Everyone turned to look at Mrs. Ke.

Mrs. Ke was briefly confused—what did this have to do with her two sons?

Then she slowly realized—her two “real and fake” sons both seemed to be in a talent show too.

All-Round Idol was backed by the Wanli Group. No one dared go head-to-head with such a top-tier conglomerate, so it had been the only boy group talent show airing recently.

She instantly felt a little awkward and stammered, “I-I think so?”

The other ladies didn’t notice her discomfort. Upon hearing that, they all perked up with excitement: “Then could you ask your son to help us find out how to contact that master from the Xie family? You know, I’ve been having the worst luck these days. I even broke out from a beauty treatment—I really want to find someone reliable to get a reading.”

“Me too. I lost my brand-new handbag just last week. My maid searched everywhere and couldn’t find it, and then at the company dinner, I saw one exactly like it on my husband’s secretary. I was furious.”

Mrs. Ke: “……”

Mrs. Ke couldn’t help falling into deep thought.

—

Thinking of her two sons—neither of whom she really knew well—and their glorious feats of making Ke Zhengye so angry he nearly burst like a pufferfish, gave Mrs. Ke a headache.

But in front of her friends, she couldn’t show any difficulty, so she maintained a graceful smile and nodded: “Alright, I’ll ask my son.”

In her heart, though, she didn’t care much.

These gossips sounded more and more unreliable. If that so-called master really had any ability, why would they show up on a talent competition, doing fortune-telling for a bunch of rookies?

As for that livestream story—what nonsense.

She didn’t pay much attention to her sons, but she’d seen the program’s format before. All-Round Idol did have a livestream segment, but it was just for the contestants to promote products and battle for sales—not some mystical fortune-telling stream.

Could it be that clever eldest daughter of the Xie family actually found one of the contestants for a reading?

That’d be beyond absurd!

Shaking her head, unable to resist her friends’ enthusiasm, she hesitated for a moment but finally decided to message Ke Xingzhou.

Although she often said the kid was always muttering mysterious nonsense, he truly had been their family’s little lucky star when he was young. He’d helped them dodge quite a few disasters. Even the Ke family’s current status was partly thanks to one of Ke Xingzhou’s so-called “random rambles” when he was little.

The newly found son clearly didn’t believe in the mystical stuff—so for something like this, Ke Xingzhou was probably the better choice, right?

She opened the WeChat chat with Ke Xingzhou, only to realize their last conversation had been months ago. Mrs. Ke paused immediately.

Looking at the cold and sparse messages in the chat, her previously righteous attitude suddenly faltered a little—had she really been this distant with Ke Xingzhou before?

A friend standing beside her noticed she wasn’t moving and peeked at the screen. Her expression changed too.Carefully glancing at her, then signaling to the others still urging her on, the ladies suddenly quieted down. They looked at each other awkwardly and quickly laughed it off, changing the topic.

Only one friend patted Mrs. Ke on the shoulder with heartfelt sympathy and said earnestly, “What’s done is done, don’t dwell on it. Try to focus on those still with you.”

As she spoke, she even helped her exit the chat window and tapped on another pinned contact.

However, there were even fewer messages between Mrs. Ke and this son—just the system message from when they first added each other: “The other party has accepted your friend request.”

“……” Mrs. Ke felt even worse.

The ladies assumed she regretted not treating Ke Xingzhou better when he was around. While they were speechless about her sudden burst of maternal affection, they kindly chose not to bring it up.

After all, losing a son she’d raised for over twenty years and still managing to sit and chat with them all evening with a smile—that was strength.

The short-haired lady looked at her holding back tears and, after hesitating, gritted her teeth and said, “Don’t be sad anymore. Worst case, I’ll let you have that Hermès bag from last week.”

A few days ago, both of them had their eyes on the same limited-edition bag, but there was only one available at the time. The short-haired lady snatched the slot first, which made Mrs. Ke furious—she hadn’t even greeted her today.

This woman adored bags like her life depended on it. Surely this would cheer her up?

Sure enough, the moment Mrs. Ke heard that, she immediately tossed aside that faint trace of motherly love. Her eyes lit up: “Really?! Oh my god, darling, you’re the best!”

She was now a completely different person from the one who had been cursing her as a horrible woman just days earlier for not letting her have the bag.

Short-haired lady: “……”

You’re a grieving adoptive mother who just lost her son—aren’t you a bit too happy?

In the dormitory, just as Ke Xingzhou was getting ready for bed, he suddenly felt a chill down his spine and had a bad feeling.

Fortunately, it passed quickly. When he looked up, he just happened to see Lu Li drifting in through the balcony.

Ke Xingzhou paused for a moment.

“Even though you were crushed by a falling glass door from staying up late working overtime, do you really have to enter through the balcony every time?” Ke Xingzhou sincerely suggested. “It’s creepy.”

Lu Li gave him a gloomy look and, quite out of character, didn’t snap back.

He didn’t even turn his head, just floated forward in a daze until he reached the wall—then slowly slumped down like a puddle of mud, face-first on the floor, his head halfway inside the wall.

Right now, his ghostly state looked utterly drained—like a rag that had been wrung out over and over again. Even though his soul form shouldn’t visibly change, anyone could tell at a glance that he was completely exhausted.

Ke Xingzhou had long suspected how busy the underworld must be, and now he couldn’t help but click his tongue. “What happened in the underworld? How did you end up this swamped?”

“……” Lu Li’s back heaved a few times, like he was trying to answer, but no sound came out.

After a long while, Ke Xingzhou finally heard him croak like he was about to breathe his last: “It’s a… long story…”

Ke Xingzhou: “……”

“Forget it, don’t bother.” Ke Xingzhou couldn't bear to watch anymore and got straight to the point. “I’ve saved up a bunch of merit lately, and there are several fortune-telling payments I haven’t settled yet. Help me calculate how much to charge those people… I mean, collect from them?”

At this, Lu Li seemed to finally regain a bit of life. He moved his neck, and his head slid back out of the wall."Which 'them'?"

As soon as their eyes met, before Ke Xingzhou could speak, Lu Li guessed, "Those two unlucky bastards who cursed you last time?"

Ke Xingzhou nodded.

"Nice work!" Lu Li suddenly perked up and even sat up. "If it's those two, then we definitely need to calculate this carefully."

The earlier grievance couldn't go unavenged!

He waved at the air, summoned a copy of the Book of Fate and his own keyboard with a spell, then gathered his energy and began converting rapidly.

Since he hadn't been with Ke Xingzhou these past few days, he hadn’t witnessed the merit light merging firsthand, so the calculation took a bit longer than usual. After over ten minutes, he finally stopped.

Ke Xingzhou was nearly asleep, barely managing to lift his eyelids to glance over.

He thought Lu Li would just give the result like before, but to his surprise, a small object came flying toward him.

Ke Xingzhou reached out and caught it—it was a physical item.

A phone USB drive.

He looked up in confusion. Lu Li had already slumped back like a dead fish. Sensing Ke Xingzhou’s gaze, Lu Li weakly waved at him. "Software. Try it."

Ke Xingzhou plugged the USB into his phone. Inside was a single installer file named “Merit ATM,” with an icon that Lu Li clearly drew himself. In horribly written characters, it said, “I ♥ php.”

Ke Xingzhou: "..."

It looked like a virus.

"You just made this in the past few days?" Ke Xingzhou hesitated to install it. "Isn’t the Underworld super busy? You still had time for this?"

"Why do you think..." Lu Li gasped, "I'm so exhausted?"

Ke Xingzhou: "..."

He had to admit, when it came to programming, Lu Li had an obsession and persistence he simply couldn't comprehend.

After thinking it over, he went ahead and opened the installer.

He skipped a long string of risk warnings and clicked “Install Now.” It finished almost instantly.

Ke Xingzhou opened the app, entered his name and birth date and time, and then passed facial recognition by opening his mouth, blinking, and turning his head in front of the camera. Finally, he reached the merit calculation page.

The screen was all black, with just a single pure white wooden fish. There were no other buttons.

"...How do you use this?" Ke Xingzhou asked after a moment of silence.

Lu Li, practically braindead from exhaustion, took a while to respond: "...Silently think of the name of someone who added to your merit, then tap it once."

Ke Xingzhou did as told. A string of numbers quickly appeared above the wooden fish.

After a dizzying flurry of calculations, it actually displayed the final merit value.

But before he could get a clear look, the app popped up a message: 【Ke Xingzhou?】Two options appeared below—one was "Yes," the other "No."

“……”

Ke Xingzhou tapped "Yes."

The long string of merit points instantly changed, converting into a slightly shorter string of numbers.

This time, Lu Li explained just in time: "Divination gold."

Ke Xingzhou, who had just opened his mouth to speak, immediately fell silent.

Looking at the five-digit number on the screen, his expression softened noticeably. Even that ugly-looking app icon began to seem more pleasing. Feeling quite gratified, he moved the app to the most prominent spot on his home screen.

"Thanks," he said. "When I die and go to the underworld, I’ll definitely help promote this app for you—make it big and strong, and let it replace the Book of Fate in the Judges’ Office!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the copy of the Book of Fate suddenly began shaking violently. The heavy tome, which had been floating in midair without support, came crashing down hard on the back of Lu Li’s head.

Lu Li: "…Shift!"

Having used up the last of his strength, the pitiful, overworked ghost stubbornly raised a middle finger at his heartless friend.

--

In the following days, the contestants on All-Round Idol all felt that something was off.

After the first individual livestream ended, they woke up the next day to find that the most popular contestants suddenly seemed like they’d been possessed—their behavior grew increasingly strange.

First, there was the real young master from the fake-young-master scandal—Ke Yuanbai. He had taken a leave from the base, and after returning, he seemed like a different person—becoming even more silent and withdrawn.

Though he had always been cold and rarely interacted with others, before, he was just quiet—still polite in attitude. If someone directed a conversation his way, he wouldn’t leave them hanging.

But now, Ke Yuanbai not only disliked speaking, he also rarely showed up in public.

He spent almost 24 hours a day in the practice room, and even at night he was nowhere to be seen. It was rumored that he was doing extra training somewhere else. If his dormmates hadn’t seen him every morning, they might have reported him missing.

Besides that, Ke Yuanbai’s attitude toward Ke Xingzhou had also undergone a drastic change.

Before, whenever he saw Ke Xingzhou pulling tricks, he’d always step in righteously to correct him. But now, he hardly appeared in the same place as Ke Xingzhou. Even during group activities, he stayed in the farthest corner from Ke Xingzhou, silently keeping to himself with his head down.

This obviously odd behavior left everyone baffled.

Wasn’t he the real young master?

The Ke family had also clearly been standing by him from the beginning, so logically, it should have been Ke Xingzhou who kept a low profile. Why was it Ke Yuanbai who now avoided him?

The contestants were completely confused, privately speculating about what had happened to Ke Yuanbai during the day he left on leave. Before long, someone found out what had occurred at the Wang family banquet that day.

—Ke Father had actually scolded Ke Yuanbai in front of all the guests—at someone else's banquet!

The details of the scolding weren’t leaked, but that didn’t stop the public’s imagination from running wild.

Everyone began saying that the Ke family’s support for their biological son online was all an act. In truth, how could a son they’d raised for over twenty years be so easily replaced by a blood-related stranger?At that banquet, Father Ke’s attitude was probably the Ke family’s true attitude.

From a poor orphan with no home, to a child found and taken home by wealthy parents, to the pampered treasure unconditionally doted on—and now finally seeing their true colors—Ke Yuanbai's journey had been full of twists and turns. With such a blow, it was only natural for him to fall into a slump.

For a while, the other contestants all looked at Ke Xingzhou differently.

Those who had ganged up on him before were now afraid and started avoiding his path. Even those who had never wronged him treated him with unexpected politeness, completely dropping their previous aloof attitudes.

Their reactions were so obvious—how could the audience watching the livestream not notice?

But the viewers naturally knew less than those living together day and night. So they could only assume Ke Xingzhou had done something outrageous off-camera again.

Ke Yuan□□’s fans reacted the most strongly.

In the first couple of days, many fans who had liked Ke Yuanbai since his small internet celebrity days were so furious they rushed to Ke Xingzhou’s livestream to curse him—only to find he wasn’t even on camera. Instead, they clashed with fans of Xie An.

Xie An’s fans, having already come to their senses after his clarification, now felt both guilty and grateful toward Ke Xingzhou. They wished they could put him on a pedestal.

How could they allow their idol’s savior to be treated like this?

The two fandoms clashed fiercely. No one knew exactly what Ke Yuanbai told his own fans, but the once-aggressive “White Rice” fanbase suddenly went quiet.

Ke Yuanbai even formally posted a public apology on his social media.

Since then, both he and his fans had become noticeably quieter. If not for his vote count still being far ahead, many would’ve thought he had quit the show altogether.

What unsettled the contestants most was: he wasn’t the only one acting strange.

There was also An Heguang.

This entertainment company prince, who had publicly declared he’d make sure Ke Xingzhou couldn’t survive in the industry, had changed even more dramatically than Ke Yuanbai—

After the solo livestream, he practically chased Ke Xingzhou around every day. His eager and cautious attitude made him look exactly like the lackeys that used to cling to him.

Even An Heguang’s fans were speechless. They couldn’t find him in his own stream anymore—only when watching Xie An’s group stream could they occasionally catch a glimpse of An Heguang rushing past.

Sometimes he was feeding kittens. Other times, he was being kicked out by Ke Xingzhou for “disturbing my group’s practice.”

Embarrassing. Truly embarrassing!

And so, with Xie An’s fans shielding the stream, and Xie An’s company PR backing Ke Xingzhou in public opinion, Ke Xingzhou had been unusually peaceful these past few days.

After the ghost-catching livestream that day, Ke Xingzhou had thought Nie Chen would come for him again. But up until the first episode of the live show ended, and the production team closed the livestream channel to prepare for the assessment stage recording, Nie Chen had not appeared again.

Nie Chen’s friend with the pure yin constitution, however, kept his promise—someone contacted Ke Xingzhou the very next day to ask how he intended to collect his divination fee.

Ke Xingzhou looked at his barely five-digit “gua-jin” (divination gold) limit and felt that this amount might not even be enough for Nie Chen’s appearance fee. So after some thought, he cautiously opened his mouth: “Just send it directly to my—”

Before he could finish, a sudden chill ran down his spine.

That dreadful sense of being stared at by death returned, enveloping his whole body.

The golden glow of merit surrounding him—barely thicker than before—immediately began trembling, as if it were a bunch of disloyal pretty boys fleeing when disaster struck. They skittered away from Ke Xingzhou’s phone and huddled to the other side of his body.

Although they didn’t directly try to abandon Ke Xingzhou like when Xie An offered 1.88 million, the situation wasn’t far off either.But back when Xie An wanted to give him money, his fee limit was only ten yuan!

Ke Xingzhou roughly calculated the difference and was once again overwhelmed with hatred for those evil capitalists—

Damn rich people!

At that moment, the contact on the other end of the call noticed his silence and couldn’t help asking, “Master?”

Ke Xingzhou snapped back to attention.

He frowned, just about to painfully reject the overly generous fee, when his eyes swept forward and suddenly landed on Xie An, who was radiantly youthful and dripping with sweat in front of the mirror.

Sensing his gaze, Xie An instinctively looked back, his big round cat-like eyes filled with clear, dumb innocence.

Ke Xingzhou’s heart stirred, and the words on the tip of his tongue instantly changed: “Send it to my friend.”

Just then, Zhu Chu returned from feeding the kittens. His eyes casually swept past Xie An and suddenly froze.

He rubbed his eyes in disbelief. Even when the now much stronger kitten in his arms smacked him on the forehead, he didn’t care—he just stared wide-eyed at the sudden reddish glow on Xie An’s wealth palace.

“Damn, Young Master Xie, did you just rob a bank or something?”

Xie An: “?”

Ke Xingzhou hung up the phone, took the black-and-white kitten to inspect it, and replied flatly, “He didn’t rob it. It’s my money. I plan to temporarily keep it with him.”

Xie An was even more confused. He wiped his sweat as he walked over: “Wait, bro? When did you send me money again?”

This isn’t a bank, you know!

Zhu Chu and the other teammates were all lost in the conversation, only understanding that Ke Xingzhou said he wanted to store some money with Xie An.

Thinking about how Ke Xingzhou had lived in the Ke family for over twenty years and had always been a wealthy young master, yet ever since appearing, he had lived so frugally—it was hard not to read more into it.

Zhu Chu was quite envious: “So much money! Master, you treat Xie An better than me, boohoo…”

Faced with this little complaint from his disciple, Ke Xingzhou was totally unfazed: “Be good. You’re still young. You can’t handle that much money.”

The other teammates also looked at Xie An with envy.

Had they known Ke Xingzhou treated those around him so well, they wouldn’t have quietly excluded him before just because of those fake rumors online.

But it was too late for regrets now. They could only watch helplessly as Ke Xingzhou got close to Xie An.

Under everyone’s gaze, Xie An was still a bit confused. But knowing that everyone was just jealous of his closeness with Ke Xingzhou, he scratched his head and gave a goofy smile.

At this moment, Lu Deben, standing nearby, casually said, “This doesn’t seem very appropriate, right? After all, we’re not earning money yet. You’re putting so much money in someone else’s hands—would your family even agree to that?”

Here we go again.

Every time he spoke, it was a veiled jab at how Ke Xingzhou wasn’t the Ke family’s biological son. This time, he basically pointed at Ke Xingzhou’s nose and said that money belonged to the Ke family and that he had no right to use it.

Ke Xingzhou expressionlessly glanced at Lu Deben, who looked completely innocent and naive—but next to the genuinely simple Xie An, his poor act really didn’t hold up at all.Facing Ke Xingzhou's deep gaze, Lu Deben’s back stiffened, but he still maintained a confused expression: “Did I say something wrong again?”

The teammates standing next to him couldn’t take it anymore. They reached out to tug at him, signaling him with frantic eye gestures.

Another teammate quickly spoke up to change the subject.

Everyone expected Ke Xingzhou to, as usual, ignore Lu Deben and disregard his words. But unexpectedly, this time, Ke Xingzhou walked straight up to Lu Deben.

His gaze swept over Lu Deben’s left shoulder, paused for a moment, and then met his somewhat smug eyes with a meaningful look.

The atmosphere became tense, and everyone instinctively held their breath.

However, just when everyone thought Ke Xingzhou was about to teach Lu Deben a lesson, he suddenly curled his lips and smiled at him.

Ke Xingzhou was already good-looking, with a much higher appearance than the stars in the entertainment industry. However, his usually lazy demeanor made this not so noticeable. Now, with that smile, Zhu Chu and several teammates were stunned.

Ke Xingzhou raised his hand and heavily patted Lu Deben’s left shoulder. Furrowing his brows in apparent annoyance, he asked, “Did you eat durian at lunch? The smell is so strong.”

Lu Deben: “…”

For a moment, he couldn’t hold his expression, and his face turned pale.

However, he didn’t notice that when Ke Xingzhou’s hand left his shoulder, it had triggered an almost invisible fine thread.

At the same time, the expressions of a few people around changed.

One teammate suddenly rubbed his shoulder. “Strange, we didn’t practice for long today. Why does my shoulder feel so sore?”

The one speaking was the second-in-command of Xie An’s group, who was only younger than Lu Deben, so they usually called him that.

“You’re not kidding. You really aren’t kidding.” Another teammate, the third in line, adjusted his neck and painfully twisted it a few times. “I’ve been feeling my neck’s been sore too. I even took leave yesterday to go back and sleep, but it didn’t help at all. It actually got worse.”

“Right?” The second-in-command nudged Lu Deben. “Old Lu, you feel it too, don’t you? I’ve seen you rubbing your shoulder a lot these past few days... Hey, are you feeling it now?”

Lu Deben’s face began to change when the third teammate chimed in. His expression even looked a little confused, and his hand subconsciously reached up to rub his left shoulder.

When the second-in-command suddenly said this, everyone turned to look at him.

He didn’t have time to stop, so he awkwardly nodded and rubbed his shoulder. “Yeah, a little.”

The second-in-command and the third-in-command immediately found their rhythm, eagerly looking at the other two teammates.

Ke Xingzhou didn’t count. Since the first day he joined the program, he had been slacking off. His sleep time was almost double theirs, and it was impossible for him to empathize with them.

So, the two of them simultaneously shifted their gaze away from Ke Xingzhou and onto Xie An.

Xie An: “…”

They hadn’t mentioned it before, but now that they did, Xie An also felt a little uncomfortable in his shoulder and neck.

He rubbed the back of his neck, not thinking much about it. “Maybe it’s from the bed? When I first left home, I couldn’t get used to the hard school bed, and I ended up getting a stiff neck for over two weeks. Later, I worked part-time to earn money and bought new bedding to fix it.”

Zhu Chu, who had been observing Lu Deben, looked at his left shoulder—there were no signs of illness—and then looked at Xie An in surprise. “Two weeks? Is your school part-time job that bad, working half a month just to earn 500 yuan?”

During his university days, he also worked part-time to earn his tuition and living expenses. Although he slept on a hard bed, every new semester, he would work part-time, selling mattresses and bedding to new students.In the package he set up, the bedding set priced at 500 yuan was already the top-tier option.

Unexpectedly, Xie An blinked in confusion and asked a soul-piercing question: “Isn’t a bedding set over twenty thousand?”

Zhu Chu: “?”

It wasn’t just Zhu Chu; every contestant here came from families with some money. The second-in-command and third-in-command both had small businesses at home, but even they were momentarily stunned by his words.

Xie An seriously counted on his fingers: “A custom-sized mattress costs 18,000. The silk four-piece set—I specifically compared prices and chose the cheapest one. Did I get scammed?!”

Zhu Chu: “...???”

The second-in-command and third-in-command were also dumbfounded.

For a moment, they didn’t know whether to be shocked that Xie An spent five figures on a small mattress for his dorm or that he somehow managed to earn over twenty thousand in half a month while running away from home.

Zhu Chu was genuinely a little envious of him now: “Wait, are you talking in RMB? How did you make that much money in such a short time?!”

“Uh... I did backup work for a musical, and I also taught dance to a friend’s kid.” Xie An’s question hit even harder: “Isn’t that the going rate for part-time jobs?”

Everyone: “...”

Not all of them had done part-time jobs, but just the two jobs Xie An mentioned weren’t something just anyone could find.

Let’s not even talk about the musical—though they could strum a few notes and sing, at best they were decent among amateurs. If they went to a professional venue, they’d probably be kicked out right away.

As for the dance tutoring...

A teammate tentatively asked: “The friend you’re talking about... is she maybe the boss of a big company?”

“No, not really.”

Xie An’s words made everyone breathe a sigh of relief, as if the pressure on their shoulders had eased considerably.

However, the next moment, just as their confidence was rising, Xie An’s words completely shattered it.

“It’s my cousin. She married into a small country and became a princess. She only comes back once a year. Last year, when she came home to visit, I saw my little niece was interested in dance, so I scammed her a bit of pocket money.”

At this point, Xie An suddenly remembered something, and his expression changed.

He became tense, his face full of anxiety: “My cousin doesn’t know about this, so don’t tell anyone! If she finds out I scammed money from a kid, she’ll definitely complain to my sister, and my sister will break my legs!”

Everyone: “............”

Forget about Xie An’s sister—they now really wanted to beat up Xie An.

Zhu Chu felt complicated: “...No wonder you’ve been running away from home for so long. Your family doesn’t seem worried at all.”

With his earning ability and connections, he could live comfortably anywhere, couldn’t he?

Thinking back to when he had assumed Xie An was young and naive, worrying that he might get sold out one day, and even helping him count the money, Zhu Chu and the others couldn’t help but close their eyes.

—It was almost self-inflicted humiliation!