Esports world champion, debuted as the center of a talent show

He opened each photo one by one and couldn't help but exclaim, "No wonder they're trainees, how come they're all so good-looking?"

As he was swiping his name, a face so beautiful it was almost unreal came into his view with an aggressive intensity.

The owner of the face has a pair of beautiful peach blossom eyes. In the moment the photo is captured, he looks down at the camera with a faint smile on his lips. He is relaxed, noble, and aloof.

The poster has three characters written in the lower left corner: Jiang Zhiyu.

The cashier's movements suddenly froze.

He stared blankly at the face on the screen, his mind going blank for two seconds, then his eyes widened suddenly, his whole body jolted, and he instantly stood up from the cashier's chair, his voice rising uncontrollably: "Holy crap!"

That face!

Isn't this the rich guy who paid for Chen Yue back then?

He stood there stunned for a long time, then his mind raced as he tried to organize his thoughts: "Wait, wait—so, the person who paid is on the same show as Chen Yue, what a coincidence!"

The cashier's eyes gleamed with gossip: "Isn't I the only one in the world who knows this?"

He paced back and forth excitedly, feeling as if he had discovered a new continent.

He immediately began searching for the name on the poster. His phone screen quickly refreshed with information about Jiang Zhiyu, listing all the news about him since he participated in the show, including his overwhelming popularity, his phenomenal debut performance, his multiple breakout performances, his viral fame, and his top-tier talent and looks, etc.

The dense stream of messages overwhelmed him, and he couldn't help but exclaim repeatedly, "Wow, is he really that popular now? How come I've never seen him on social media before?"

As she looked at the screen, the cashier couldn't resist taking out her phone to share it with her friends:

Do you remember the dispute I told you about regarding the wine at the convenience store where I work?!

[It's about someone breaking something and refusing to pay for it, but a complete stranger paid 39,000 yuan for them without batting an eye!]

[I just found out! The one who's cheating and refusing to pay is Chen Yue from "Project Shining"!!]

[That wealthy guy who quietly helped out back then is now Jiang Zhiyu, who's overwhelmingly the most popular contestant on that show!! They're competing together!! I was completely stunned!]

My friend replied quickly, her words also filled with shock: "What a coincidence! Did they already know each other back then?"

The cashier carefully recalled the scene, then replied confidently: "No, I still don't think they knew each other at that time; it must have been a coincidence."

He thought for a moment, then said, "Do you think I should tell anyone about this?"

My friend's message came a while later: "Didn't you say the store's security cameras were just broken? You have no proof; nobody believes you without evidence."

The cashier saw the message, scratched her head, and instantly deflated: "You're right."

He leaned against the wall, slightly lost in thought, his gaze drifting casually to the street outside the convenience store. The next second, a flash of inspiration struck him, and his eyes suddenly lit up: Wait, I think I have evidence.

The street scene suddenly reminded him that when Jiang Zhiyu left, he had taken a picture of Jiang's back and posted it on his social media platform. Although Jiang Zhiyu's face was not shown, it could still serve as evidence for his statement.

Thinking of this, he instantly perked up, immediately opened his long-dormant social media account, browsed through his past posts, and successfully found the old post from several months ago.

Without hesitation, he took a screenshot, saved it, edited the post, added the "Shining Project" hashtag, and published it: "What a coincidence! I just found out that the person involved in the dispute at our convenience store a while ago was Chen Yue from this talent show, and the kind passerby who paid for Chen Yue's meal was Jiang Zhiyu."

Just as the post showed as successfully published, a new customer pushed open the door and entered the store.

The cashier temporarily suppressed her excitement, put away her phone, and focused on processing the customer's bill. She was completely unaware of the kind of online storm that her casual post was about to unleash.

At this moment, among the countless fans scrolling through the "Shining Project" topic, an ordinary fan was the first to see this new post.

She is a typical casual fan who loves everyone. She has a slight liking for all the trainees, big and small, on the show. Her greatest pleasure in daily life is to use one device to play the footage from various live streams and another device to browse materials and clips on the topic square.

When she first glanced at the post's title and content, her immediate reaction was summed up in two words: "making a scene."

It seems like netizens are just photoshopping and making memes to grab attention again!

She originally planned to just swipe away, too lazy to waste time.

But even as my fingertips paused, I couldn't suppress my curiosity to gossip.

She clicked into the poster's profile page, scrolled down the activity list, and quickly found the original post from two months ago.

The old post, clearly dated well before the premiere of "Shining Project," reads: "Is this what rich people are like? Paying 40,000 yuan in compensation for a stranger without batting an eye. But they seem mentally unwell, looking rather dazed. Do rich people have worries too?"

The accompanying image shows a hooded figure holding a black umbrella from behind, with a pattern faintly visible on the back of the sweatshirt.

All of this seems to suggest that what the poster said is likely true.

She froze on the spot, repeatedly comparing the old post's time and IP address with the poster's latest activity. Her brain completely shut down, and she gasped sharply, her mouth agape in shock, unable to close it for a long time.

She took a few deep breaths and couldn't help but comment below the post: [Really? But I can't see the face, are you sure it's Jiang Zhiyu?]

The poster replied quickly: "I couldn't possibly mistake his face. I thought he was very handsome back then, unlike ordinary people. I was searching for news about Chen Yue when I happened to see the promotional poster for this show, and I recognized him immediately!"

She bit her thumbnail, looking at the poster's reply, her head buzzing: [What do you mean by "not in a good mental state"? What happened to him at the time?]

The poster wrote: "Well... literally, he seemed very uncomfortable at the time. I tried to stop him to testify, and it felt like he was about to lose his balance."

"Holy crap... what does this mean..." She stared at the conversation between herself and the poster on her phone screen, her brain struggling to process such a sudden and massive amount of information.

She snapped out of her daze, feeling her heart pounding and even her fingertips trembling slightly. She immediately forwarded the post to the Jiang Zhiyu fan group she was in, adding the comment: 【Quick look!】