Chapter 454: 478 The Gossip-Soul-Taking-Flight and Exploding Little Sun (Seeking Subscriptions and Monthly Tickets)

In the café, Lin Xiuyuan looked at Zheng Xiuyan's eyes and fell into a long silence.

Then he slowly placed his fork back onto the edge of the plate, producing an extremely faint, crisp sound, as if a period had been tapped into place.

He did not speak immediately either, but instead took another look at Zheng Xiuyan.

However, she had already shifted her gaze away by now and was looking down, drinking her coffee, as if her statement just a moment ago had been completely unremarkable.

Only then did the others at the table dare to slowly exhale the breath they had been holding.

On the contrary, Sunny's hand remained frozen in mid-air; the hand that had wanted to grab Lin Xiuyuan's wrist hung there for two seconds, then awkwardly returned to her own lap to rub against it.

She looked at Lin Xiuyuan, then at Zheng Xiuyan, and opened her mouth to say something, but could not find a suitable opening line for the moment.

After a moment, she cleared her throat, looked at Lin Xiuyuan, and asked, "Then what about you, Xiuyuan? Who is the person you trust the most?"

Under normal circumstances, the answer to this question should have been a foregone conclusion.

After all, just a moment ago, Zheng Xiuyan had caught the fork he thrust at her without even blinking, and then said that the person she trusted most was him.

In this kind of mutual trust test, when it was Lin Xiuyuan's turn, he should have said Zheng Xiuyan's name back.

That would be normal.

That would align with the psychological expectations of everyone present, and better fit the unspoken rules of social occasions.

Yet, when faced with this question, Lin Xiuyuan was silent for a moment.

The time was not too long, probably about three or four seconds, and his fingers tapped on the tabletop twice unconsciously.

His tone when he spoke was not hesitant, but it definitely could not be called crisp or decisive.

"My level of trust is actually quite broad; I can give a high trust value to everyone I face. But if you insist on me discussing the one person most worthy of trust, the person I trust the most..."

When he reached this point, Lin Xiuyuan's voice suddenly paused, and a certain image popped into his mind, causing his words to get stuck in his throat involuntarily.

And this person was not the Zheng Xiuyan before him.

It was a figure whose image he had seen too many times, appearing repeatedly in various different settings, at different times, and under different lighting.

So much so that that face already had several different versions of archives in his memory.

There was the look with exquisite makeup, the look in private with makeup removed, wearing a loose hoodie and curled up in the corner of a sofa, and the look of her propping her head up and watching him in the quiet moments of late night.

That was Krystal.

Thinking of something, Lin Xiuyuan said it; he was not a person who would beat around the bush on such questions.

So, since Krystal's face appeared in his mind, he calmly said it to Sunny, "It's Krystal."

As a result, Sunny was shocked again.

"Soojung?" Her voice rose by half an octave, and her eyes widened even more than when she saw the fork thrusting toward Zheng Xiuyan earlier.

Today, she had already experienced two major events at this table, and the plot direction was completely impossible to guess or predict.

After shouting that, she immediately turned her head to look at Zheng Xiuyan sitting beside her, her head turning a bit too fast, not even bothering to brush away the few strands of hair that had been whipped over from her shoulder and were sticking to her cheek.

Looking at Sunny over there, she had expected to see an expression that was at least a little displeased, a little disappointed, or shocked and angry.

As it turned out, Zheng Xiuyan's face did not have the look Sunny had imagined.

She didn't even raise her eyelids much; instead, upon hearing the name "Krystal," her lips curved slightly, revealing a very, very faint smile.

It was actually an expression of understanding and approval, which left Sunny stunned.

Clueless, she was completely dumbfounded.

If the shock from just a moment ago was a thunderclap, then the confusion she felt now after seeing Zheng Xiuyan's reaction was like being precisely struck by a second bolt of lightning from the same dark cloud.

Thus, her gaze began to bounce rapidly back and forth between Zheng Xiuyan and Lin Xiuyuan.

Seeing that neither of them provided any explanatory supplement, she abruptly turned her head to look at Lin Xiaolu and Jin Ruanruan beside her, feeling that these two should be fellow gossip-mongers on her side.

As it turned out, Sunny discovered that these two seemed to have guessed this answer in advance as well.

Calm, very calm.

Now Sunny couldn't accept it; no, she really didn't understand.

One sister, one younger sister—what is this?

What kind of situation is this, anyway?

How did she feel like she had missed the plot of an entire TV series?

The more she thought about it, the more wrong it felt, and Sunny's gaze began to rotate among the four people, trying to capture a bit of information from any crack; she really couldn't figure out what was going on with this group of people.

The sister gives her most trusted person to a man, the man gives his most trusted person to the sister, and the sister is not only not angry but shows a satisfied smile, and the other two sisters on the side are as calm and composed as spoilers who knew the ending all along.

There must have been some major foreshadowing in this triangular relationship's arrangement that she hadn't seen before she joined.

What kind of super-invincible big piece of gossip had she missed?

She was dying, she was dying.

This point was undoubtedly a fatal attraction for Sunny, who had an extremely strong desire for gossip; after all, the thing she couldn't stand most was having a mystery around her that she couldn't solve, especially the kind of mystery that everyone else knew about except for her.

So, she decisively abandoned the idea of trying to deduce the answer on her own and instead switched to interrogation mode, starting a strict, one-by-one examination of the people around her.

First, she opened fire on Lin Xiuyuan, but Lin Xiuyuan just looked at her and smiled, saying nothing and not nodding either.

Then she turned her muzzle toward Zheng Xiuyan, who picked up the iced Americano in front of her, slowly stirred the black-brown liquid that had completely lost its bubbles with a straw, her lips pressed tightly together, not intending to let a single word leak out.

The last two were even worse; since the parties involved had shut their mouths, how could they talk nonsense?

And this was still an unspeakable secret.

So, no matter what Sunny said, shouted, or even once screamed in her urgency, Lin Xiuyuan and the others gave her no substantial answer, quietly smiling as they watched her go crazy.

When Sunny was finally tired from the fuss, she leaned back against the sofa, resignedly looked around at everyone present, and then let out a long sigh, indicating that she was calling off the troops for now.

At this moment, Lin Xiuyuan finally looked at her, then glanced over at Lin Xiaolu.

"YoonA, aren't you all supposed to be very busy at the end of the year? How come it feels like you're all here having afternoon tea, chatting and laughing—where is the busyness? Or is the situation reported on the internet not quite right?"

Because according to the information he had seen previously in news and social media, the end of the year should be the busiest time for Idol groups, with various awards ceremonies, year-end music festivals, and New Year's Eve galas, with schedules packed so tightly that they shouldn't even have time to catch their breath.

How were these few in front of him looking so leisurely?

"Today is a bit special," Lin Xiaolu took over the conversation. "I don't know if it was a lack of communication on the company's side or what, but there were some scheduling conflicts, and some things were canceled last minute, so our only work today is the rehearsal."

"And you know how it is, you have to wait for this kind of rehearsal. We only get our turn after the people before us finish recording. In between, there's a ton of equipment testing, lighting adjustments, and blocking. Sometimes waiting an hour is considered fast. So, we just happen to have no formal work this afternoon; the standby time is a bit long."

Regarding Lin Xiaolu's explanation, Sunny also helped add a few points from the side.

"As far as I know, it seems the cooperation terms weren't settled. Some conditions weren't agreed upon, and then some internal staff took it upon themselves to set the schedule, thinking the cooperation terms would definitely be settled by then."

"As a result, they only realized recently that the loophole hadn't been filled. The person in charge from the partner side was replaced, the new contact person didn't recognize the previous verbal agreement, the two sides kept getting stuck and couldn't agree, and in the end, the other party withdrew their funding at the last minute."

"So our group just got this day of rest for no reason."

"Yo, what a dramatic piece of gossip, internal corruption, right?" Lin Xiuyuan exclaimed from the side.

"Calling it corruption is a bit harsh."

Sunny held up a finger and shook it left and right, making a gesture to correct the phrasing. "At most, it counts as a side job that wasn't arranged well. Someone just wanted to hitch a ride on the year-end schedule, but they didn't manage to hitch the ride and ended up messing up our rehearsal schedule too."

Lin Xiuyuan smiled at this, his smile carrying a hint of teasing. "Even you know about this side job business..."

"Isn't that normal? People are just making a little extra money. Anyway, it's not like they shorted us on our appearance fees, right?" Sunny spread her hands, completely unbothered.

Her tone carried a kind of transparency and tact that only comes after grinding in this circle for many years. "As long as the money hits the account on time, I couldn't care less about the rest."

"Indeed, as long as there's money, it's fine." Lin Xiuyuan nodded.

Having finished this topic, the group's gossiping hearts were released from the previous discussion, and their attention shifted to the other guests in the cafe.

The people sitting in this cafe were basically all figures whose names could be called out on television, and each of them carried, to a greater or lesser extent, stories and rumors that circulated within the circle but had never been publicly confirmed.

In this environment, there was nothing better for killing the afternoon standby time than exchanging known gossip.

Thus, several pairs of eyes began to scan the surroundings with tacit understanding, then huddled together, shielding their mouths with their hands to chat about secret news that could absolutely never be heard on public channels outside.

"See that one over there? The guy in the gray coat wearing a baseball cap."

Sunny used her chin to point extremely covertly toward the direction of the window. "I heard he privately asks out quite a few girl group members, one after another. His success rate is extremely low, and he doesn't stop even after being rejected countless times. His nickname in the circle is 'The Iron-Willed Pick-up Artist'."

"My god, who has he asked out?"

"Loads of people. I know of three from different talent agencies, and it seems no one has ever agreed to him."

After finishing the tragic pick-up history of this male actor, the topic naturally slid to another more explosive rumor.

A certain girl group member whose popularity had been rising rapidly was spotted secretly dating a man in the underground garage of a certain Apartment.

When they reached this point, Lin Xiuyuan, who was chewing on a cookie someone had broken and shared onto his plate, shifted his gaze nonchalantly to the side and glanced at Lin Xiaolu, who was sitting diagonally across from him.

Then his foot was kicked by Lin Xiaolu under the table.

That kick was fast and accurate, carrying Lin Xiaolu's signature warning-style kick.

The force wasn't heavy, but the spot chosen was very tricky, hurting Lin Xiuyuan so much that his whole body tilted to the side, and he let out an exclamation, "What are you doing?"

Lin Xiaolu gave him a very shy and annoyed glare. "Don't let your imagination run wild."

Hahaha...

Zheng Xiuyan and Jin Ruanruan, who had understood the situation in '25, read the content almost at the same instant and burst out laughing.

Then it was just Sunny sitting there alone, her gaze bouncing back and forth several rounds between Lin Xiuyuan's pained expression as he clutched his leg and Lin Xiaolu's face as she feigned calmness.

Her expression went from confused to even more confused, finally hovering on the edge of being driven crazy.

Finally, she simply spread her hands forward, palms up, and made a desperate gesture. "What is it? Isolating me? What kind of riddle did you guys play behind my back again? Weren't we just talking about someone else's underground garage date? How did you suddenly start using secret codes?"

However, the result was the same as before; Sunny didn't get any answer.

Time passed very quickly under these circumstances.

The gossip topics went around in circles, the coffee and desserts were replaced twice, and the sun outside the window had quietly moved a short distance across the sky, reaching the afternoon in the blink of an eye.

Just then, Jin Ruanruan's phone rang. After picking it up and taking a look, she raised her head and said to the people present, "A message was sent; they're calling us back to work. We need to prepare for the rehearsal."

Hearing this, Lin Xiuyuan also put down the almost-empty juice in his hand, reached out to rub the back of his neck, which had become stiff from sitting too long, and rotated his neck. "Then I'm going back to sleep."

He planned to go back and catch up on some sleep.

As a result, faced with Lin Xiuyuan's statement, Sunny became interested and grabbed him. "Xiuyuan, do you want to come with me to the TV station to see how we rehearse?"

She paused and added an explanation, "You probably haven't seen what our year-end stage rehearsal site is like, right? The behind-the-scenes footage released usually is just a little bit of edited clips. The formal blocking, lighting, communicating camera positions with the director, and repeating things over and over—it's actually quite fun."

Being told this, Lin Xiuyuan was actually a bit curious.

The behind-the-scenes footage of music shows or year-end award ceremonies he had seen on the internet before were indeed all edited and packaged. In those few short minutes, interspersed with smiling faces and peace signs, one could almost never see the actual work process.

Compared to his original plan of going back to sleep, this actually seemed a bit fresh.

However, he didn't agree immediately, but turned his gaze toward Zheng Xiuyan, Lin Xiaolu, and the others nearby, still wanting to hear the opinions of these few first.

Sunny, noticing Lin Xiuyuan's gaze sweeping toward those people, immediately got a temper and pointed at them, shouting, "No, why are you looking at them? Do you still need their permission to go anywhere? This is a bit much, Xiuyan, are you guys even going to interfere with Xiuyuan's freedom?"

"We didn't." Zheng Xiuyan was amused by her righteous accusation, then likewise reached out and pointed at Lin Xiuyuan. "Don't look at him acting as if he's very pitiful waiting for our nod. You just say it, this guy is very shameless."

"Exactly, exactly." Lin Xiaolu also chimed in.

Jin Ruanruan, having confirmed no one opposed this matter from the side, concluded, "Then go. Go in and take a look around. If you feel bored, Xiuyuan, then come back."

And so, Lin Xiuyuan followed behind Zheng Xiuyan and the others as they rose from their seats one after another to leave. However, they didn't walk toward the direction of the cafe's main entrance, but instead filed out one by one from the back door at the very end.

Then Lin Xiuyuan discovered a fact that made him suddenly realize everything.

It turned out that the back door of this cafe was actually connected to the back door of the TV station next door. There was an internal passageway between them. These members didn't even need to leave the building to walk onto the street; they could walk directly into the TV station through the internal passageway.

But after the surprise, Lin Xiuyuan suddenly remembered something and turned his head to look at Sunny, who was walking beside him, his expression a bit strange.

"Ah, that's not right. Then where did you come in from, Shun Gui? I remember when you appeared in the cafe just now, you came in from the entrance."

"Is it possible that I came from somewhere else?" Sunny laughed.

The group, walking and talking, soon arrived at the corridor outside the TV station's studio hall.

This corridor was much more spacious than the internal passageway they had just passed through. The ceiling was packed with dense cable bridges and lighting tracks, and people coming and going were all staff members wearing work badges.

Some people were holding walkie-talkies, saying something urgently while walking quickly; others were pushing mobile clothing racks hung full of performance costumes, carefully threading through while hugging the wall.

Standing at the edge of the backstage, Lin Xiuyuan looked at those staff members, as well as some familiar faces walking by in performance costumes, his expression also flying everywhere.

Lin Xiaolu, walking beside him, turned her head to look at him, and was also amused by his appearance. "What's wrong? You look like you've never seen a celebrity before."

"I really haven't seen them."

"Aren't we them?"

"You are followers."

Lin Xiuyuan whispered this into Lin Xiaolu's ear; she found it quite amusing and gave him a look, then seemed to think of something, her little face turning slightly red.

Just as Lin Xiuyuan continued to follow in the footsteps of Lin Xiaolu and the others, preparing to turn into their waiting room to sit for a while, the figures of several people suddenly appeared at the corner ahead.

Those few people were wearing the same performance costumes, with a uniform black and gold color scheme; they were likely members of a group, walking toward them from the direction of the opposite corridor.

One of them just swept a glance forward and saw Lin Xiaolu and the others walking in their direction; her footsteps paused immediately, and then she quickly took two light steps forward and stood still.

She bowed and offered a greeting.

The hierarchy of seniors and juniors was displayed vividly at this moment.

Meanwhile, Lin Xiuyuan's gaze remained fixed on one person within that group.

A few strands of hair on the other person's forehead had been swept back by a stylist, but a small lock had fallen beside her cheekbone, making those delicate facial contours appear exceptionally clear against that stage outfit.

This person was none other than Pei Xiuzhi, standing in a position further back in the formation, currently following her group members in performing a bow.