95. A Stunning Revelation: The Entertainment Industry Has Its Own Hierarchy

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“No, you came at just the right time,” Ji Fangxing said, lifting the yogurt in his hand in jest. “You’re our sponsor. Want to toast together?”

“What does Yinu have to do with me?” Chu Hao’s face darkened immediately. He hated it when people used his identity to speak about him; otherwise he never would have hidden who he was to enter the contest.
Yet he said it and still took the yogurt from Ji Fangxing’s hand with unnaturally natural ease.

“Hey! There are so many cups on the table over there. Why take the one from Fangxing?” Ning Ze sounded irritated. He remembered Chu Hao from earlier, when he had called out to Ji Fangxing to challenge him during the competition. Instinctively, he disliked this arrogant type.

“She didn’t hand it to you. She handed it to me.”

Chu Hao didn’t know Ning Ze, and he never liked a pretty boy in a mask of innocence. His tone was anything but friendly. He took a sip from the yogurt, then looked at him in a way that was almost a taunt.

Ning Ze was blunt by nature, and he was about to lose his patience, so Ji Fangxing, sensing how oddly tense things were becoming, gave him a light pull and opened a fresh bottle of yogurt anyway.

“No problem, I’ll drink this.”

Fortunately, that one had only just been opened, or things would have turned awkward.

Only later did Chu Hao realize how impulsive he’d been. Misreading Ji Fangxing’s move was bad enough—then to react like a sulking child over it was ridiculous.

For a moment he felt as if his mind had gone foggy. Why was he picking a fight with Fangxing for no reason?

“Tch, tch, tch… the arrogance of youth,” He Hongjing muttered from the side, hiding a smile as she watched. She worked to keep the mood light.

“All right then, let’s carry on,” she said.

Chu Hao silently raised his cup.

“To friendship! To music! To our dreams—cheers!”

Five cups of yogurt went high, tapped together in the air, and then parted.
Using yogurt instead of alcohol took away some of the boisterous heat, but brought a bracing kind of sincerity.

Ji Fangxing, Hai Lan, and Chu Hao had come to this point as rivals and, at the same time, as friends.

“By the way, Chu Hao, is there something you want to ask?” Ji Fangxing said as he sipped what remained. Hai Lan and He Hongjing had an early flight the next day, so they were preparing to leave soon.

After a long pause, Chu Hao reached into his pocket and handed Ji Fangxing a flash drive.

“This is material from all previous editions of the National Music Exchange Conference.” The awkward scene kept nagging at him; why had he thrown a fit because of some smooth-faced fool’s words?

Still keeping his face expressionless, he tossed out coldly, “If you don’t want to go to that conference, then don’t. If you do, you can look through the files,” and then walked away without looking back.

Ji Fangxing hooked his index finger through the flash drive’s ring and waved at Chu Hao’s retreating back. “Thanks then, Young Master Chu.”

“If you want to treat me as a friend, call me by my name,” came a voice from outside, impatient.

“Alright, got it!” Ji Fangxing replied cheerfully.

At a five-star hotel in Hai City, Ji Shengxue and her group declined the production team’s accommodation arrangement and found a place on their own.

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“Sorry, there’s a scene I need to reshoot, so I had to run back to set. How did your performance go today?”
The text came through from the suite.

“I’m fine. Thank you for coming to help me, Xu Mo,” came the reply. After sending it, Ji Shengxue finally snapped and flung her phone to the floor.

Her eyes were full of bitter frustration. Why had things gone so wrong? Why had that invitation ended up with Ji Fangxing in the end?

Ji Fangxing’s words from the stage had become a haunting thought in her mind.

“Am I really going to be left behind forever from now on?”

She had been raised to be the best since childhood. Over the years, she had succeeded, and she liked that feeling of being ahead, of surrounding herself with admiration and praise.
Ji Fangxing had broken all of it.

It was especially Fang Zhijing’s move—forcing the invitation into her hand despite her refusal—that had rattled her. He was disregarding his own promise, and that crossed a line.

The phone dropped from the wall. When its screen struck the floor, cracks spread across it, like her mood.

“No… I cannot give up like this,” Ji Shengxue murmured. Her fingers clenched the sofa’s armrest until her fingertips turned faintly pale.

She suddenly remembered her parents’ attitude toward Ji Fangxing, and the way Ji Fangxing had refused the invitation. Her eyes flashed in a way that was almost frightening.

“I still have chances,” she whispered.

At the hotel entrance arranged by the production team, Ji Fangxing unexpectedly met Liu Qi again. As expected, he was still trying to persuade her to sign with Golden Leopard. He also brought a contract. This time, she pushed it back without even looking.

“Thank you for your kindness, Producer Liu, but my decision remains unchanged.”

“Y-you...!” Liu Qi thought she was immovable, and the words he wanted to speak wouldn’t come. She had made it clear she was beyond persuasion.

Liu Qi, who once flourished in both the bright and shadowed worlds, felt a long-unfelt defeat.

Most people become more obstinate with age, but this girl in her early twenties was more stubborn than all the old men he had ever met combined.
He had never imagined the girl before him could be a crafty spirit that had survived a thousand years.

He could only hand over his business card.

“The road ahead is long. If you ever hit trouble later, you can contact me anytime. I can keep this contract available for you for another six months. I hope you’ll think it over seriously.”

“Thank you for taking me seriously, Producer Liu. I’ll think it through carefully.”

Ji Fangxing tucked the card away without outward reaction, but her mind immediately started analyzing his words.

“‘If I run into trouble later?’ Why would he say that?”

Today she had won both fame and profit, and gained the invitation everyone in Dragon Country’s music circles had long dreamed of. To anyone looking, her future looked wide open.

It had only been hours. And already he would speak like that?
Unless… Liu Qi had already decided she would surely face difficulties.

The coming crisis did not unsettle Ji Fangxing. She had lived this long—she had completed a hundred tasks on Earth, and not one had ever been easy from the start.

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Ji Fangxing never feared hardship. She even found herself looking forward to it, hoping those who stood behind the obstacles would be clever enough to make the game interesting.

In the parking lot of Hai City’s Ten-Thousand Stadium, Chu Hao sat impatiently in the car, staring at the one arriving late.

“You really take ages!”

A young man with a trucker cap and mask wrapped around his face opened the door and plopped into the passenger seat without asking.

“Say that again when it wasn’t your U-disk I wanted! I would have left long ago. I was nearly recognized by a few fans and spent ages hiding before I dared come out.”

The young man’s clear, pleasant voice echoed through the quiet lot.
Chu Hao shot him a glance, let out a low approving snort, and started the car.

“So—you gave my U-disk to Ji Fangxing, right?”
I’m telling you, only to her. If it were anyone else, I’d rather die than show it. This is material I’ve collected for ages, and it’s a one-of-a-kind compilation in the whole of Dragon Country.

The finale of All-Round Song King was brilliant all the way through, relentless and riveting. As an audience member, Lu Tianyu’s mind was still buzzing with excitement.

Facing someone close to him, the top idol lost all restraint and slipped into storytelling mode, half proudly, half boastfully, as he continued:

“Haohao, your program is finally over! Ha! I’ll contact Fangxing tomorrow and get her to write me a song.
After watching today’s matches, I’ve already decided—the lead track on my next album is going to be her’s.
See? Your brother was smart—I reserved her songs first.”

“Shut up already!”

After a quick internal reminder that the man at his side was his cousin and not to be thrown around in anger, Chu Hao pressed the accelerator and drove out of the lot.

After Chu Hao and Lu Tianyu had left, a gaunt middle-aged man who had been dozing in the driver’s seat of a sedan beside them lifted his fallen shoulders slowly.

He remembered Ji Fangxing blazing across the internet and smiled with a deeply sly expression.

By early next morning, before netizens had even settled on how formidable a talent Ji Fangxing was in the show, a bombshell had already gone trending.

#Lu Tianyu Publicly Praises Ji Fangxing and Vigorously Supports Her on All-Round Song King#
#The Number-One Top Idol of Dragon Country, Lu Tianyu, Announces the Lead Track of His Next Album Will Be Produced by Ji Fangxing#

The entire web went wild, fans exploding with reaction:

#What?! Who is Ji Fangxing anyway? She wrote the title track for my brother?!#
#No way—are you kidding? Every song our brother puts out is production on the same level as Fang Zhijing! How can a talent-show girl match that?!#
#Even in entertainment there are levels, okay? Someone just debuting from a talent show is barely above the lowest tier. Even with huge backing, they can’t step into top-star status overnight!#
#Damn it! Right after the competition, she piggybacks on my brother’s momentum! Where did that audacity come from?##