"...What are you laughing at?" Bei Sining went outside and bought some donuts, handing the paper bag to Wen Zheng and emphasizing, "We've been in line for ages."
Wen Zheng tore off the sticker on the paper bag and asked him what flavor he wanted. Bei Sining picked out a pure wheat flavor.
The two sat on a bench in the waiting room, happily munching on their desserts. A passing policeman looked at them with a smile and said, "Oh, you're eating already?"
Wen Zheng asked, "Is the statement completed?"
"Soon," the policeman said. "You're not his family or friends, are you? You don't need to wait here."
Wen Zheng swallowed a donut in a couple of bites: "It's alright. I've already meddled in other people's business, so what's a little cleanup?"
The case Wen Zheng reported was simple and was resolved in two hours; the rest was just matters for the Xuanyuan family to worry about. But after he finished, he pushed the little bear with the red bowtie who had come with him forward and reported the case again.
This was also his main objective.
The little bear with the red bow tie stammered and was led into a separate interrogation room. Wen Zheng and Bei Sining waited for a while, eating donuts because they were hungry. Wen Zheng also browsed "current affairs" for a bit.
I didn't expect that Aimao Live would issue a statement so quickly. I wonder if Wen Zheng has any ulterior motives behind it.
He was pleased with the outcome and even visited the live streams of those individuals to view the announcement that "the live stream is suspended due to special reasons"—taking a screenshot of the former residence as a memento.
Bei Sining finished her wheat-flavored drink elegantly and properly, then took out a strawberry-flavored one and showed Wen Zheng the trailer video that the official Weibo account had posted that afternoon.
"Look, everyone's praising you," Wen Zheng said.
Within an hour of the video being reposted to a video-sharing website, the number of comments had already reached an astonishing level.
Bei Sining couldn't see his comments when playing games with him, but this was the first time he was directly facing the witty remarks from netizens, which left him stunned.
Whenever Bei Sining appears on screen, rows of "husband," "I can," and "pregnant" fly by, with a total density roughly three times that of Wen Zheng's scenes.
"So many people are pregnant?" Bei Sining was confused and got goosebumps. "Why are they saying this in the scenes with me in them? And what do you mean by 'I can't'?"
Wen Zheng: "It's not that you're really pregnant, these are just compliments on how beautiful you are."
"..." Bei Sining showed a disgusted expression: "Don't these people know how to speak?"
After scrolling through his phone for a while, Wen Zheng got sleepy and unconsciously leaned against the person next to him and dozed off for a little while. A short while later, the fruit wine, red bow tie, and teddy bear appeared, and Wen Zheng woke up quickly at the sound.
The boy blushed slightly, bowed to Wen Zheng, and said, "Um, thank you so much for today..."
Wen Zheng said he was fine, and then asked him what his name was.
"My name is Yu Jin." He smiled shyly.
The police station was quite humane; they didn't rush them to leave and even offered them tea. Wen Zheng asked him to sit opposite him and gave him a donut, not noticing the displeased expression on Bei Sining's face behind him.
Yu Jin said he is 26 years old this year and has been working in Lecheng for less than half a year.
Lecheng Infinite Park is not a national chain, and its scale is not large among theme parks. It lacks the ability and desire to expand. Many employees are relatives or fellow villagers of the owner and managers, and there is more or less nepotism involved.
The shops along the road in the park, including the few small shops selling cheap toy guns and slingshots that Bei Sining had been harassed by, were all run by the owners' distant relatives from the same hometown.
Bei Sining: "..." No wonder that slingshot was so brittle!
Yu Jin said in a low voice, "Lecheng only has this one amusement park. It usually does well, never delays wages, and makes a lot of money, so I've been doing it... Sometimes I'm lucky and achieve high targets, and occasionally I get trouble, but it's okay... I'm used to it."
"Because you've gotten used to it, that's why you get into trouble," Wen Zheng said coldly. "If you don't fight back, you'll never have a good life."
Yu Jin held the chocolate-coated donut, looking somewhat timid with his head down.
He murmured, "But it's clearly their fault."
Yu Jin tilted his head slightly, looking up at an angle of nearly thirty degrees, and his face instantly became more three-dimensional under the side light.
"Just because I have this kind of personality, does that mean I deserve to be bullied?"
After saying that, he took a small bite of the donut, as if the sharp words he had just spoken had not come from his mouth.
Wen Zheng was stumped by the question and glanced at Bei Sining.
Bei Sining rested his chin on one hand, holding the bag of donuts Wen Zheng had paid for and the ones he had queued up to buy on the table, which he had encircled with his forearm, and replied, "Some people are just bad, but it's stupid not to fight back."
"Bei Sining." Wen Zheng interrupted him by calling his name, their arms lightly touching, and then said to Yu Jin, "That's not what he meant."
Yu Jin may have seemed to eat in small bites, but he was actually quite quick. By the time Wen Zheng had eaten half of it, he had already finished the whole donut.
He gently rubbed the oil off his hands, looked up and smiled: "I know. Fools deserve to be bullied; that's just how the world is."
After he finished speaking, he stood up and said with a slightly nasal voice, "Thank you for treating me to donuts..." He paused and then added, "Thank you for saving me too, you are such good people."
The police station was heated, and he was only wearing that light t-shirt, revealing the bruises on his arms. His arms looked thin, but when he exerted force, you could see the distinct muscle lines.
He pulled a black jacket from a worn gray sports bag, wrapped it around himself, thanked them again, and turned to leave. With his backpack on one shoulder and his back slightly hunched, perhaps from years of looking down, his figure quickly disappeared into the police station entrance.
Bei Sining frowned, feeling something was off.
He thought to himself, "This short guy is weird. Why should he give me donuts for free?"
***
This event was like an inconspicuous pebble thrown into a pond, leaving no trace other than a ripple.
Wen Zheng doesn't consider himself a savior. He thinks that giving blood is selfless enough. How can he control how others live their lives?
I'm just in a bad mood, it's okay, I'll feel better after a while.
The two returned to the hotel and had barely sat down when the planner and Director Liu knocked on the door to visit, saying they had important matters to discuss.
Bei Sining was taking a shower when Wen Zheng left him a message and went to the hotel's water bar with the planning director.
When I went over, I saw that Bai Shuang, Deng Puyu, and Yanghe were there too.
So much happened today that Wen Zheng didn't even have time to properly gossip about the current relationship between his two friends, but just looking at the pink-bubble-like background around them made his teeth ache.
The booth was semi-circular. Yanghe was a seat away from the two of them, looking dazed. When he saw Wenzheng, it was as if he had seen a relative. He was just short of standing up and singing a line from the song "The sky over the liberated area is a clear sky."
"Please have a seat, please have a seat!" Director Liu said cheerfully. "What would you like to drink? I'll call the waiter. Hey, Xiao Z, stop looking at the coffee. It's such a nice evening, you should have some wine... It's not strong, not strong at all!"
“Yeah, right!” Deng Puyue even chimed in, “Order this, Spring Desire, it’s super delicious!”
Bai Shuang narrowed her fox-like eyes: "Xiao Yu is right."
Wen Zheng: "..."
Deng Puyue has been laughing since the afternoon. Wen Zheng thinks his mouth is wide open, and he's even talking about springtime desires... Does this story even want to pass the censorship?
"I don't feel well, I won't drink anything." Wen Zheng said to the waiter, "A peach oolong tea and a coconut cocoa milk, please."
"Are you feeling unwell?" Deng Puyue finally came to her senses and leaned over to touch his forehead. "Did you catch a cold? Where do you feel unwell? By the way, where did you go this morning? Brother Ning choked on my whole breakfast, and I didn't eat well..."
"It's nothing serious, but you can't drink alcohol."
"Oh," Deng Puyue said, relieved to see that he was indeed alright, her eyes sparkling with a pinkish glow. "Why did you order milk? When did you start liking it?"
“…Bei Sining likes it,” Wen Zheng said with great difficulty.
Bai Shuang: "yoooo——"
Yanghe closed his eyes beside him, feeling that the sky over the liberated area would never clear up.
Bei Sining was taking a long time to come down, and Director Liu and the planner didn't want to wait any longer, so they found an opportunity to switch the subject.
"Z Da, Xiao Yu, and Yang He... you are all pillars of the cat-loving platform, this is—" Director Liu immediately gave a thumbs up, the praise was well-placed: "Today, I'd like to toast you all first, thank you for your hard work all this time, you have truly made outstanding contributions to the platform!"
The four of them secretly wondered why they had to toast at the bar, but they all took a sip of their drinks without hesitation.
Director Liu was particularly eloquent, praising each of them to the point of obedience. Even Bai Shuang, whom he didn't know at all, received honorary titles such as "Young Talent," "Look at that temperament, it's like a drawn sword," and "People with small eyes can hold onto their wealth." Hearing this, Wen Zheng laughed twice, and even through Deng Puyue, one could feel Bai Shuang's goosebumps rising and falling.
Fifteen minutes later, Director Liu finally got tired of talking and, feeling that his compliments had been effective, began to get down to business.
"Well, you probably already know what happened today..."
"What is it?" Deng Puyue asked, bewildered.
Deng Puyue genuinely had no idea; she hadn't checked social media or WeChat Moments all day, busy solidifying her relationship with her new boyfriend. Could some unmissable, earth-shattering gossip have happened on the day she settled down?
Seeing Deng Puyue about to take out her phone, Director Liu quickly and awkwardly stopped her: "Oh, Xiaoyu, don't look, let me do it, let me speak..."
Director Liu gave a brief, evasive account of the matter, leaving Deng Puyue speechless.
"So, the Xuanyuan family really bribed actors to frame Wen Zheng?"
Director Liu knew their real names and nodded awkwardly: "Yes, it was their personal behavior, but it's having a very bad impact now..."
The platform's concerns are very clear—if things escalate, they can't cover it up and have to push people out. Although Wen Zheng and Bei Sining weren't implicated, the Xuanyuan family are also streamers on the Aimao platform, and their wrongdoings have damaged the platform's image.
"These days, netizens, once they find a stain, they'll start attacking us all, saying things like our platform is full of backstabbing... the streamers are all just putting on a show... what's been exposed is just the tip of the iceberg, who knows what dirty tricks are going on behind the scenes... it's so awful, we're victims too! Old Liu, my bonus for this year has all been deducted, I'm wronged too!"
"So?" Wen Zheng took a sip of tea and asked calmly, "What do you want us to do?"
"Oh, this is just a small favor for you..." Director Liu: "Our platform also has a public relations department. We will manage online comments, but we want a starting point to promote the positive energy of the streamers and tell everyone that the streamer family is not all backstabbing and infighting, but also has deep brotherhood!"
The four people: "..."
Bei Sining, standing behind Director Liu: "..."
"Deep affection?" Bei Sining said disdainfully, "Which eye of yours saw deep affection between us? We're not brothers, there's no deep affection between us, get out of the way."
His hair was still wet. Wen Zheng guessed that he didn't use magic and didn't know how to use a hairdryer, so he could only go downstairs like this.
Bei Sining pushed aside Director Liu and then pushed aside Yanghe, who had no human rights, and plopped down next to Wen Zheng.
"This is yours." Wen Zheng pushed the cocoa coconut milk towards her, and Bei Sining raised her head and snorted softly, then picked up the cup and took a sip.
Director Liu was quite embarrassed: "Well... I think our Wang family is quite harmonious..."
Bai Shuang, still bothered by the fact that she almost became a giant turtle, interjected at the opportune moment: "He is the king, and we are guards and maids. How can we be harmonious?"
Fearing they might go further and further astray, Yanghe stepped in to smooth things over.
"Director, stop with the formalities. Just tell us what you need us to do."
The planner, who had been pretending to be mute, finally sat up straight, raised his hand to silence Director Liu, and remained unfathomable.
"I hope you can perform a show."
"A program?" the five asked in unison, exchanging bewildered glances.
The planner said seriously: "The program for tomorrow's gala was finalized a month ago. The Xuanyuan family has three programs, but because of what happened today, none of them can perform."
Bai Shuang lost interest upon hearing this and began to slouch back in her chair, saying, "Can't we come up with a program just by asking?"
Most of the performances at the gala were collaborations with hosts from the music and dance sections, and some lifestyle hosts also showcased their talents.
As for the hardcore gamers in the gaming section, their managers wouldn't even ask them.
The only person here who knew about this was Yanghe, but he had only been operating his music account for half a year, so it was already good enough that he got an invitation, let alone qualified to go on stage.