The contestants on site were lie detector experts, and there were also experts among the audience. They could tell that Ren Yifei was serious and that he was not lying.
"Truly open-minded," the contestant said, with a hint of admiration, noting that not everyone can think so clearly.
"It's not about being magnanimous," Ren Yifei shook his head, "It's mainly because I lack ability, money, connections, and so on…"
"No evidence!" the other contestants chimed in, and they all burst into laughter.
However, some people in front of the screen turned green with anger.
If these contestants weren't under constant camera scrutiny, they would have thought Ren Yifei was deliberately trying to clear his name. What a coincidence!
They just started playing the victim here, and then they got slapped in the face right away, their face swollen from the slap.
"What's going on with this He Zhaoming? Is he poisonous?" The naval commander was so angry that he couldn't even eat his instant noodles.
He's had his share of crushing defeats before, but never one so inexplicable and utterly unexpected! This isn't a matter of skill, it's luck; it's as if fate is on his side.
"I've lost to fate." Thinking about the final payment that might never arrive, the head of the online trolls burst into tears.
Inside the villa, the contestants at the long table began to get up. Those who hadn't found the answer yet went outside. The contestants who had already gone out in the morning dispersed. Some went out for a stroll, some went upstairs to their rooms, and some went to the living room to sit on the sofa and chat to pass the time.
Ren Yifei went out for a walk to digest his food.
The midday sun was blazing; going outside felt like stepping into an oven. After walking for a while, his face turned bright red from the sun. Luckily, there was a small pavilion not far away, so he went there.
A plaque with the words "Qingfeng Pavilion" in the slender gold calligraphy style hangs on the pavilion.
There is a large pond on one side of the pavilion, which is full of mosquitoes, but it is also cool.
Ren Yifei sat down on a bench by the side, leaning against the railing to admire the scenery. Before him were emerald green lotus leaves, dotted with pink and red lotus blossoms. Through the gaps in the lotus leaves, he could see colorful koi swimming, and he also spotted a water turtle moving with incredible speed.
"Ahem," Ren Yifei coughed, and faced with this scene, he decided to recite a poem, "Lotus can be picked in Jiangnan, how lush and green the lotus leaves are..."
The viewers watching the live stream were immediately stunned.
The previous topic was too heavy, and the atmosphere in the live broadcast room became visibly intense, but his unexpected recitation of a poem immediately dispelled this heavy atmosphere.
"The scenery here is truly beautiful, it feels like a mini-Jiangnan region. Listen carefully, what's that sound?"
He put his hands on his ears, closed his eyes, and the viewers in the live stream subconsciously closed their eyes as well.
What did they hear?
It sounded like a gentle breeze rustling through the lotus leaves, causing them to sway and collide. There was also a soft gurgling sound, the sound of fish playing under the lotus leaves.
And of course, there's the constant chirping of cicadas and the croaking of frogs in summer.
Where did that wing-vibrating sound come from? Was it from a dragonfly or a beetle? Do beetles also like to perch on watermelon rinds and suck watermelon juice?
Golden sunlight, emerald green lotus pond, and a cool breeze blowing through the sweltering heat.
A city dweller sitting in an office with the cold wind blowing suddenly felt a special coolness that soothed his soul from the inside out, making him feel drowsy.
They recalled their childhood summers, before air conditioning was available, when electric fans whirred. Having just finished a slice of chilled watermelon, they lay on bamboo chairs, large palm-leaf fans in their hands, already asleep.
Then the colorful beetle quietly arrived and landed on the watermelon rind where a little red soil remained.
A mosquito came, but the sleeping person swatted it away in their dream, only to have it eaten by a gecko lying in wait.
After an unknown amount of time, the viewers in the live stream opened their eyes and yawned slightly.
My soul felt like it had a spa treatment. The irritability that had accumulated in the morning dissipated, the anxiety brought on by life decreased, my body felt relaxed and lazy, and I felt full of energy, ready to fight for another afternoon.
"Oh, fifteen minutes have passed in the blink of an eye?" The audience member rubbed his face and then stretched.
In the live stream footage, Ren Yifei was lying on a stone table, seemingly asleep. A butterfly flew over and landed on his head, but only stayed for a few seconds before flying away.
It was a very common yellow cauliflower butterfly.
The number of comments in the live stream has decreased significantly, perhaps because the sound of their typing might travel across the ocean and wake up those who are sound asleep.
Who remembers all that mess now? The ups and downs outside the live stream have nothing to do with them.
The audience has "let go" and "enlightened" to decide to ignore worldly affairs, but those who still want to bring Ren Yifei down haven't let go. They invested so much manpower and resources, not to let Ren Yifei trample on them and whitewash them.
"This kid is really uncanny. We were about to succeed, and he managed to turn things around?"
The female celebrity who played the victim online for the second time is facing a major crisis in her life. Her first video has already been used as a case study by professional lie detectors, and this second video is no exception.
In particular, those scenes where she verbally condemned someone while a smile flashed across her face have almost become material for memes.
"How could you be so careless?" The agent frowned as he received another call from an advertiser. These calls were all to terminate contracts because "the artist's bad character affected the advertising effect," and the actress would have to pay a large sum of money.
"I can't see micro-expressions, so how can I adjust and control them? If they were so easy to control, they wouldn't be used as a standard for lie detectors." The actress felt wronged, saying that lying can be trained, but facial expressions are really hard to control.
The agent sighed, realizing he had been unreasonable. How could he expect a talentless pretty face to do what even politicians couldn't? Could a pretty face be more hypocritical than a politician?
"How come I never noticed how difficult He Zhaoming was before?" the manager wondered to himself. "Could it be that since he retired from the entertainment industry, he's become indifferent to everything and fearless?"
Furthermore, he noticed that He Zhaoming's star quality had only increased since leaving the entertainment industry; he was the center of attention wherever he stood. If he had been like this from the beginning, his former employer would have been out of their mind and wouldn't have let him go.
"What do we do now?" The actress didn't want to leave the entertainment industry in such a disgraceful manner.
The agent pulled out a list: "Luckily, you didn't completely shut things down before, so there's still room for reconciliation. For now, you should stay quiet. I'll find a PR team to smooth things over, and you can come out again once this hype dies down."
"Really?" The actress asked, tears welling in her eyes.
"Why would I lie to you? Netizens' brains are like goldfish; they'll automatically forget once the hype dies down. But we can't mess around with these things anymore, it's deadly."
The actress wiped away her tears: "I never wanted to go through all this trouble. I have no grudge against He Zhaoming. If it weren't for the higher-ups..."
"Shh, shut up." The agent glanced around. In their circle, two capital players were locked in a power struggle, and He Zhaoming was a pawn to be discarded. His death was not unjust.
I never expected this abandoned pawn to be so resilient; even after being banned, it managed to become popular in another way.
Once the female celebrity situation calmed down, the smear campaign against Ren Yifei in the entertainment industry quickly stopped, and some of the online trolls disappeared after taking their money.
Capital is profit-driven. When they realize that targeting Ren Yifei is not cost-effective, they will abandon the option of dealing with He Zhaoming.
But there is another group of people who don't want to stop, and are unwilling to stop.
"He Zhaoming is too threatening." Among so many contestants, some are more focused on strength, some on popularity, but he is the only one who has both.
His talent goes without saying; the phrase "He Zhaoming is about to be the first to arrive at the scene" has almost become a meme. His popularity is also steadily rising; if it weren't for the previous scandals that dragged him down, he would have skyrocketed to fame.
"If we can't kill him when he's still weak, he'll only become more difficult to deal with once he grows up."
Today, he happened to have a bet with the resurrected contestant that whoever had the lower popularity would be eliminated, so the person behind the scenes wanted to eliminate Ren Yifei in one fell swoop.
As the saying goes, opportunity knocks but once.
However, he still underestimated the person's growth rate and overlooked the factor of luck. Watching the number of online viewers in the live video room rise rapidly, the man was so angry he wanted to bite his teeth off.
He spent so much money and made so many sacrifices, not to launch this kid who just popped up out of nowhere.
"Continue to apply pressure."
"Ha—" At this moment, Ren Yifei, who had been sleeping for half an hour in the video, raised his head groggily, yawned, and opened his mouth so wide that you could see his back molars.
"Huh? I fell asleep?" He realized he was asleep and immediately covered his face with his hands. "Was I drooling?"
Actually, he has a very good sleeping posture. Apart from the red marks on his cheeks from being pressed down, there's nothing else that could be considered a black mark on his past.
"This wind is so refreshing."
Ren Yifei, who has no idol baggage whatsoever, rubbed his face and said, "Come on, I'll take you to ride the waves."
On a sweltering day, he went to the beach to get completely sunburned; only he would do something like that. These days, everyone idolizes 'fair skin,' and he's not afraid of coming back with a deep tan.
While the audience looked disgusted, they honestly followed the story with their eyes: "I'll just watch casually and see how he tries to mess things up."
Walking downstream from the lotus pond, you'll see the sea and a golden coastline in less than fifteen minutes—the Golden Beach.
He had been exposed to the sun all morning and into the afternoon. The sand was scorching hot. He tried to take off his shoes and step on it, but after just one step, he yelled and put his shoes back on.
"If you throw an egg into this sand, it'll be cooked in minutes." Ren Yifei looked shaken, while the audience laughed heartlessly and unceremoniously directed him to find crabs, shells, and fish.
Although they all knew that Ren Yifei couldn't see their comments.
Ren Yifei walked all the way to the line where the waves were crashing before taking off his shoes again, tying the shoelaces together and holding them in his hand, his chubby ten toes happily stretching out.
"The sun is too strong. I'd definitely get sunburned if I walked around in it. I'll just take a short walk."
As he spoke, he stepped on the sand, the tide rising and falling, carrying fine sand up to his feet.
The sand here isn't natural; it's fine golden sand transported from somewhere. There are no fish or crabs in it, and hardly any seashells. But he was quite happy just walking along the waves.
The viewers watching the live stream were also very happy, as if they had also taken a ride with him.
"I must go to the beach if I have the chance," thought one viewer who had never been to the sea.
Ren Yifei didn't return to the villa until the sun was almost setting. Everyone else looked at him as if they'd seen a ghost: "What have you been doing? Why are you all sunburnt?"
Ren Yifei sighed, "Don't say anymore. I accidentally went too far. I feel like my neck and arms are going to peel tomorrow. I'll go get a tube of sunburn ointment later."
Before dinner was the time to hand in the answers. This time, three people were eliminated: two veteran contestants and one resurrected contestant.
"I heard two of you made a bet?" the voice that loved stirring up trouble laughed. "A contest of strength and popularity. Now that the strengths are evenly matched, shouldn't we compare popularity?"
Ren Yifei remained silent, as did the other person.
In truth, this resurrected player was extremely nervous. He had calculated his average number of online players: 230,000, slightly higher than Ren Yifei's. However, Ren Yifei's words today had had a profound impact on them, and he worried that things might have taken a different turn.
Of course, he wouldn't show it on his face; instead, he would confidently nod and say, "Let's compete then."
The voice immediately laughed: "Since everyone is so concerned, let's pull up the data. He Zhaoming, the average number of online users is—157,463."
Previously, we only reported rankings, so people didn't really understand the significance of this data and thought it was pretty good.
Unexpectedly, the voice then said, "Your average number of viewers in your live stream yesterday was 229,776."
The contestants' expressions changed slightly: What happened? How did it drop so much? What's going on outside?
The resurrected challenger smiled faintly: he had won.