Taking Liu Yifei back to Northeast China for the Chinese New Year has sent the entire internet into

Outside a five-star hotel.

A cold wind was blowing sharply at the street corner.

Paparazzi A and B slumped on the curb of a roadside flowerbed, their eyes vacant.

"Damn it, where the hell can I complain to about this?"

Old A took out a cigarette, lit it, and took a deep drag.

I thought I was going to catch a major scandal of the year – a fairy-tale beauty being cheated on – but I ended up with nothing.

"Who would have thought?"

Old B put the camera on his lap, completely exhausted.

"Fang Yu doesn't play by the rules at all."

"You have such a beautiful girlfriend in Beijing, yet you fly all the way to Changsha just to go to a hotel with some guy?"

Old A coldly added insult to injury.

"It's still the one he used to clash with the most on the show."

Both of them fell silent.

The chilly evening breeze carried the bitter taste of shattered KPIs.

Old A stubbed out his cigarette and let out a long sigh.

"Forget it, let's pack up and leave."

"This material is completely useless."

He was about to stand up when Old B next to him didn't move.

"etc……"

Old B stared at the photo on the camera screen, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper.

A few seconds later, as if he had suddenly realized something, he turned his head sharply.

"Hey A, what's Hua Yu been up to in Xingcheng lately?"

Old A was stunned for a moment.

"A recording competition."

"Isn't the 'Peak Concert' going to record a collaboration round this week...?"

He was only halfway through his sentence.

Old A's voice suddenly caught in his throat.

He looked down at Hua Yu in the camera, then looked up at Old B, and felt a chill run down his spine.

"Holy crap?!"

Their eyes widened in disbelief.

The previously broken chain of logic in my mind instantly closed perfectly!

"Cooperative match..."

"A guest performer?!"

Old B grabbed Old A's arm, his voice trembling with excitement.

"Hua Yu's guest performer has not been officially announced yet!"

"The whole internet is speculating whether he has such poor interpersonal relationships that he can't get people to participate, and there are even rumors that he's withdrawing from the competition."

"As a result, today, Fang Yu sneaked into Flying Star City, and upon landing, he was personally picked up by Hua Yu in his private car..."

Old A swallowed hard and added the last sentence.

"Fang Yu is here to be Hua Yu's guest performer!"

The two spoke in unison.

After they shouted, they could see the uncontainable ecstasy in each other's eyes.

The rumors about infidelity have indeed died down.

But by sheer chance, they unearthed another huge scoop with their bare hands!

Who is Fang Yu now?

That's a newly minted top star who just broke into the mainstream cultural circle with "Heaven and Earth Dragon Scales" and "Light", and was shared by countless big names in the history, cultural relics and opera circles overnight!

Who is Hua Yu?

A former top star in the music scene is now in a precarious position in the "Peak Concert," and the next collaboration competition will almost certainly determine his fate.

If these two people really stood on the same stage—

The show was absolutely amazing!

"Dry!"

Old A instantly stood up straight.

"We can't just make a wasted trip!"

"Let's release the breaking news right away! We two have to be the first to get this hot topic!"

Old B is no longer depressed.

The two grabbed their cameras and dashed into the nearby 24-hour convenience store.

I bought two cans of Red Bull and reserved the small table by the window.

The computer boots up, the hotspot connects, and the photos are imported at lightning speed.

Two hands left afterimages as they typed on the keyboard.

Less than ten minutes.

An exclusive post with pictures and text appeared out of nowhere on Weibo and China's largest gossip forum.

The title is quite arrogant.

Breaking News! Fang Yu abandons the fairy tale for a secret rendezvous with a "mysterious person"—who turns out to be his former nemesis?! Hua Yu's mysterious guest performer at the "Peak Concert" revealed!

……

Nine o'clock in the evening.

Xingcheng University, girls' dormitory.

Fang Yu's die-hard fan Zhao Jiajia had just finished a daily debate with Lin Xiao, the only fan of Hua Yu who shared a bed with her.

The topic of the debate is very classic.

— Fang Yu's original talent versus Hua Yu's singing and dancing skills, who is truly dominating whom?

The two argued all the way back to their dorm from the cafeteria.

Neither side convinced the other, and they exchanged a bunch of performance charts.

Finally, everyone put on noise-canceling headphones, quickly drew the bed curtains, aiming for an out-of-the-eyes-and-out-of-the-mind experience.

Just then.

Both of their phones started vibrating wildly at the same time.

Zhao Jiajia swiped the screen.

Upon seeing the Weibo notification that she was particularly interested in, her eyes widened in surprise.

"What the hell?"

"Yu-ge went to help Hua Yu sing?!"

She yanked off her headphones and clicked on the trending topics.

The paparazzi's photos are crystal clear.

The comments section is in complete chaos.

[Holy crap! Am I seeing things? Fang Yu and Hua Yu?! Weren't these two just the comparison group, constantly putting each other down during the New Year?]

[What the hell is this comparison? It's a one-sided crushing defeat! But Fang Yu is actually willing to help Hua Yu? What kind of magical plot is this?]

[I'm dumbfounded. I was arguing with Hua Yu's fans on the forum for 300 posts during the Chinese New Year, and today my brother went to bail him out?]

Zhao Jiajia stared at the photos of the group, her mind a jumbled mess.

She slowly turned her head and looked at the upper bunk across from her.

The bed curtains had been pulled open at some point.

Lin Xiao also sat there blankly, holding her phone.

The two people's expressions were not unrelated, but rather exactly the same.

sluggish.

Shocked.

There's also an extreme sense of awkwardness that's hard to explain.

Five minutes ago, they were mortal enemies who wanted nothing more than to smash each other's filters with their keyboards.

Five minutes later.

Their respective partners not only reconciled, but also entered the hotel in the same car.

……

The fans of both sides were left speechless by this bizarre alliance between their idols.

Right in the eye of the storm, a group of people were knocked unconscious by the sudden giant wave.

Star City.

The "Peak Concert" program team's base.

Chief director Liu Feng slumped in his office swivel chair, staring at the data prediction table for the next round of the collaborative competition, looking worried.

The production team really went all out this season.

A top tenor in the national team.

A veteran diva who retired for ten years.

A perennial favorite in the Hong Kong music scene.

Any one of their names alone would be enough to anchor a regular music variety show.

But that's precisely where the problem lies.

The lineup is strong, the talent is substantial, and the reputation in the industry is absolutely solid.

But in the internet age where excitement and topics are desperately needed, there is a lack of explosive content that could dominate the trending topics list.

What troubled Liu Feng even more was that Hua Yu's team was still unable to deliver the final list of guest performers.

The production team urged them three times a day.

The response I always get is, "It's still in the process, and we hope to keep it confidential for now."

With the recording and rehearsal imminent, marketing accounts have already started stirring up trouble, saying things like "Hua Yu has lost all his popularity and nobody cares about him" and "He will most likely withdraw from the collaboration competition."

Liu Feng was so worried that he didn't dare to rub his hair too hard these past few days.

She was afraid that her already thinning hair would become even thinner.

Just then.

The office door was suddenly pushed open with a bang.

The head of the publicity team rushed in.

"Director Liu, something terrible has happened!"