Chapter Ninety: Hidden Rules

After splashing cold water on his face, Jiang Yihan tried hard to wake himself fully. In the mirror, the dark circles beneath his eyes had grown more pronounced; his complexion was pale, his lips were peeling, and the redness in his eyes had faded. Yet the brightness that once lived in those black eyes was gone. He shut his eyes hard, the heaviness of his eyelids making him feel drowsy. His thoughts spun in circles, and he shook his head to steady himself. Only after a deep breath did he leave the bathroom.

The show being filmed today was one of KBS’s lighter variety programs. Though he had once clashed with KBS and things had been unpleasant, his immense popularity had finally forced the production team to yield, and their cooperation now was proceeding fairly smoothly.

When he stepped into the shared waiting room, Jiang Yihan still felt somewhat light-headed. A man came striding toward him; Jiang Yihan tried to avoid him, but the other person simply slammed into him, making the already weak Jiang Yihan stagger back several steps. He was just about to apologize out of courtesy when the other man flared up first.

“How do you walk? Look at this—now I’m soaked!”

Jiang Yihan looked down at the other man’s clothes and saw that they were indeed splattered and wet. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying attention just now. I’m truly sorry.” He did not bother with whose fault it was first; he apologized for his own carelessness. After all, the other man’s clothes were already wet, so apologizing was the safest choice.

“A simple sorry is enough? Do you know where you are? Don’t think that because you’ve got a little popularity now, you can act like nobody else matters. In Korea, a senior is always a senior. You don’t get a turn to talk. Go on, get yourself changed.”

The other man kept pressing him relentlessly.

Jiang Yihan kept thinking the voice sounded familiar. When he looked up, he saw an old acquaintance: Lu Xianfeng. He had wanted to snap back immediately, but after a moment’s hesitation he held himself back and kept his head lowered, continuing to apologize.

“Well? Say something. Now that you’re famous, you can look down on people? A senior speaks to you and you don’t even answer?”

Jiang Yihan struggled to suppress his anger and told himself that at least Li Ran was not here. If Li Ran were to suddenly explode, it would be difficult to clean up the mess.

But two minutes passed, then five, then eight, and Lu Xianfeng was still venting his so-called anger, seeming to grow only more worked up. What was stranger still was that none of the directors or assistants nearby came forward to intervene. Last time, when Jiang Hu-dong had stepped in to help, why had KBS never handled it properly? By rights, the director and the assistants should have come to stop it.

Jiang Yihan could not understand it. What was there to be so angry about? He had not done it on purpose, and the matter did not even seem to be his fault—the other man had charged into him, and the result was not all that serious. Why was he refusing to let it go?

Then, all at once, it struck him: Lu Xianfeng was from MS Entertainment. He did not stand for himself alone. And as for KBS, there was no need to say more; Jiang Yihan had already experienced the hidden workings behind it once before. With that thought, the anger he had been accumulating could no longer be controlled.

“Senior Lu, as a junior, I admit my mistake. But why do you keep pursuing this? If you have any dissatisfaction, you can say it to me directly, and I will do my best to correct it.”

Jiang Yihan steadied himself and spoke. Even in anger, he used honorifics and maintained his respect.

“You brat, I give you a little face and you start acting big.”

Lu Xianfeng’s momentum only rose higher. “What right do you have to talk back? What right do you have to speak to me? I give you face and you don’t even know enough to take it.”

This time Jiang Yihan no longer lowered his head. Instead, he looked straight at Lu Xianfeng, meeting his gaze head-on and showing his anger.

Lu Xianfeng, stared at by Jiang Yihan’s eyes, felt a faint unease spread through him. He kept speaking a few more words, but Jiang Yihan’s gaze was too forceful, and his own arrogance began to sink. After another couple of sentences, he found he could not continue. With the unease in his heart mounting, Lu Xianfeng suddenly reached out and shoved Jiang Yihan hard.

Jiang Yihan had not been ready and stumbled backward several steps. The frustration he had been suppressing for days erupted all at once.

What have I done wrong? What have I done wrong?

That was all he could think. His usual composure vanished completely in the space of a single second. As if possessed by some unseen force, he rushed forward and pressed face to face with Lu Xianfeng, nose to nose, glaring at him so closely that he could even feel the other man’s equally frantic heartbeat. Lu Xianfeng again lost ground in the confrontation and shoved him once more. This time, Jiang Yihan was prepared. He did not falter; instead, he braced himself and used the other man’s own force against him. Caught off guard, Lu Xianfeng lost his footing and fell hard to the floor.

Jiang Yihan had not struck him, yet Lu Xianfeng had been sent sprawling. Humiliated and furious, he scrambled up and raised his hand to strike. But at that very moment, another hand shot out from the side and seized his wrist with precise force.

It was Li Ran.

Li Ran’s rage was no less fierce than Jiang Yihan’s. “Go on, then. Try to hit him. Since when is it your turn to lay a hand on our artist?”

The pressure of Jiang Yihan’s and Li Ran’s anger was almost tangible, radiating so strongly it made the people around them uneasy. Lu Xianfeng could not help but step back. “Y-you just wait. Hmph.” In the end, he could only throw out an empty threat and leave.

Jiang Yihan’s hand clenched so tightly into a fist that the joints turned white, his fingertips digging deeply into the flesh of his palm until a faint trace of red seeped out. His whole body trembled, and only when a wave of weakness surged up from the depths of his chest did he slowly loosen his hand. Looking at Li Ran, who had stood beside him all this time, he nodded to show that he was all right before sitting down in a chair.

“Cheng Shi, I just had a huge fight with Jiang Yihan. It was humiliating, and then I even fell over.” After meeting Cheng Shi, Lu Xianfeng began complaining at once.

“What? Tell me exactly what happened just now.” Cheng Shi sensed that something was off.

After Lu Xianfeng finished recounting everything, Cheng Shi’s eyes flickered a few times. “Come on. We’ll go back to KBS first.”

A few hours later, after making several phone calls, Cheng Shi and the other man came out again, vanishing back into the darkness.

Sudden upheaval had become the main theme of Jiang Yihan’s life lately—his grandmother, Li Yimei, and even today’s phone call.

The caller was Zhang Nian, a reporter from Begin. Because he had once stood firmly by Jiang Yihan’s side, he had become one of Korea’s top journalists. His first words carried apology. “Yihan, I’m truly sorry about your grandmother.”

“Brother Zhang, people are born and die; I know that. My grandmother was already very old, too. It’s just that she left too suddenly, and there were so many things I never had the chance to do for her. I regret that very much.” Though the bridge of his nose burned with bitterness as he spoke, Jiang Yihan still forced himself to finish in a calm tone.

“Yes. I think that when she knows how much you cared for her, how lovingly you protected her, and how hard you work, she’ll be smiling.” Zhang Nian tried to comfort him.

“Thank you, Brother Zhang.” Jiang Yihan smiled and nodded. “Brother Zhang, did you call me today because of something? You should know I’m not accepting interviews lately.”

“I know. I just have something I want to ask you.” Zhang Nian’s voice suddenly became tense. “Yihan, two days ago, did you have a conflict with Lu Xianfeng at KBS?”

“Two days ago? Yes. Why? But he started it.” At the memory of that day, Jiang Yihan still felt a surge of anger.

“Did you hit him?”

“No. No matter what, I would have held myself back. I only got very close to him. He came to bump into me, and I used the force to push back a little, and he fell over. I really didn’t hit him.” Jiang Yihan hurried to explain.

“So the two of you did have physical contact, then?” Zhang Nian said with concern. “That does make things difficult.”

“What’s wrong? Brother Zhang, did that guy do something else and pin it on me?” Jiang Yihan’s voice also tightened.

“Yes. He’s holding a press conference tomorrow and saying that you and he had a physical altercation, which led to his being hospitalized for treatment.” Zhang Nian sighed.

“He’s talking nonsense. He fell on his own, and now he’s claiming hospitalization? What a load of rubbish.” Jiang Yihan was already struggling to keep his temper in check, and still he could not help cursing.

“Yihan, don’t get worked up.” Zhang Nian softened his tone, trying to calm him first. “We don’t know what will happen at tomorrow’s press conference. But MS is a large company, and Lu Xianfeng is no small player. They’ve both seen enough to know better than to fight a battle they can’t win. I’m afraid something major really is being planned for tomorrow.”

“What can they say? They can’t possibly turn black into white, can they? I wasn’t at fault that day—how could it end like this?” Jiang Yihan felt helpless.

“Yihan, there are many unwritten rules in our world. What you’ve encountered may only be the tip of the iceberg. This circle is far darker than you imagine. So don’t underestimate their ability to twist truth and falsehood. Maybe tomorrow, black really will be made white.” Zhang Nian’s tone was deeply worried.

“I know about the unwritten rules. I’ve already encountered plenty of them, and there may be many more I still can’t understand. But if they really want to call black white, I don’t believe the truth will have no one brave enough to speak it. There were more than ten or eight people who saw what happened that day. I believe someone will give me justice.” Jiang Yihan was still young and hot-blooded, and his words carried a hint of defiance.

“Yes, Yihan, I understand.” Knowing the temper of the young, Zhang Nian said no more. “Don’t get angry yet. We still don’t know what will happen tomorrow, so let’s wait and see. We have to know exactly what’s going on before we can solve it. I believe you. You know I’ve always believed in you.”

“Thank you, Brother Zhang.” Jiang Yihan tried to make his voice sound calmer. Zhang Nian had always been good to him, and there was no need to take his anger out on him.

After hanging up, he looked over at Li Ran, who had just ended his own call as well. Presumably Li Ran had learned the news from the company, too. Jiang Yihan and Li Ran sat quietly on the sofa in the hall, waiting for something—perhaps tomorrow, perhaps good fortune, perhaps an outcome.

“Brother Cheng, do we really have to do this?” The disbelief on Lin Erxiang’s face betrayed his youth.

“Erxiang, in this circle, if you want true competitive strength, you need more than ability and luck. You need strategy.” Cheng Shi smiled coldly. “You should understand that Jiang Yihan’s popularity is now soaring. If we don’t check him, who knows how far he’ll go? So this is a great opportunity. We have to set a trap so thoroughly that he’ll never be able to get back up.”

Looking at Cheng Shi’s frightening smile, Lin Erxiang’s unease grew. He truly was not sure whether he should do this. Deep inside, he even felt resistant to such a method. It was true that he did not like Jiang Yihan; it was also true that he envied Jiang Yihan’s success. But that did not mean he wanted to achieve his goal by such means. He only wanted to prove himself through his own strength and earn success that way.

“Erxiang, one sentence. Do it or not?” Seeing the uncertainty on Lin Erxiang’s face, Cheng Shi quickly cut off his deeper thoughts and threw out the question. “A real man has to be bold enough to act. Make your decision quickly. Don’t be so wishy-washy.”

At that moment, Cheng Shi was like a demon holding a poppy blossom, using the tempting fruit in his hand to lure Lin Erxiang. Facing that temptation, Lin Erxiang seemed hypnotized, step by step walking toward the dark side of Cheng Shi.

KBS Television.

Producer Lee sat on a chair, restless and uneasy. He had taken plenty of money before, but only within the bounds of arranging airtime for artists and deciding how many camera shots they received—things still within his own reach. But if this plan succeeded, then on the bright side it would be done without a trace; on the dark side, it was outright crime. His heart wavered, and he even seemed to lose the ability to judge.

He took the envelope from his pocket. It was not thick, only a thin layer. When he pulled out the check inside and counted the digits, the first number was one, followed by zeros. It was a hundred million won, issued by MS Entertainment. Even he did not know whether what he was doing was worth that amount, but that amount still made his heart stir. Closing his eyes, Producer Lee remembered Li Ran’s attitude at the beginning, and he also remembered the company’s later punishment. He put the check back into the envelope and slipped it into his pocket.

At that moment, Cheng Shi was sitting with a group of middle school students. After finishing his conversation with Lin Erxiang, he had come to this small park again. If Li Ran and Jiang Yihan were here, they would surely know who these students were. Unfortunately, they were not on the scene.

Cheng Shi’s familiar voice rose again. After he had explained everything in that same carefully detailed way, the students began discussing it enthusiastically, laughter mixed into their chatter. It went on for half an hour before finally dying down.

The students gradually dispersed. After saying goodbye to Cheng Shi, they disappeared beneath the night.

The smile on Cheng Shi’s face made one feel a chill deep in the heart. He curled his lip, then dialed another number. “Hello, Aunt Yin? Yes, it’s me, Xiao Cheng. I have something I need your help with.”

After finishing a call with a middle-aged woman, Cheng Shi dialed the final number of the day. The number was very familiar, though no one knew what would happen next.