Chapter 096: Reversal

If the director had really been killed, then what the hell were they still playing for?

Zheng Fang froze for a second, then reacted at once. “I have to find the others immediately and tell them the killer is Wu Jin!”

What he did not know was that, just as he found the clue, the person he trusted most, Song Wan, received a text message.

Player Zheng Fang has found a clue. Clue keywords: idol, made ugly.

Song Wan arched a brow. “Brother Zheng has always had a sharp eye. Sure enough, he found the clue note very quickly.” She gave a soft laugh, her gaze playful yet carrying a chilling, bloodthirsty edge. “But there’s no rush.”

With that, she put away her phone and continued searching for more clues.

In her hands, however, she already held several different clue notes.

She glanced at the notes, then walked into the restroom with a smile and dropped them without hesitation into the toilet.

Whoosh—

The notes vanished in an instant.

No one would ever find those clue notes again, and no one would ever learn the killer’s identity from the information on them.

She turned back toward the camera, raised one finger to her lips, and gave it a teasing, electrifying look. “Shh.”

“Do not tell them. I am the mastermind behind it all.”

...

The camera then cut back to earlier that morning, before filming began.

Song Wan had been joking with her agent when the little boy who had mistaken her for an alien clung to her. Helpless, Song Wan could only soothe him.

Who would have thought that, when no one else was paying attention, the boy would slip a note into her hand—

Song Wan, I am the director of Rise Up, Stars. In the final episode, to decide the strongest among you, we will hold a name-tag ripping battle in the last segment. But because women are naturally at a disadvantage in physical strength, we have found you an assistant. That would not be fair to the others, so before the final moment arrives, you must tear off everyone else’s name tags under the interference of the production team. Only then will you win the chance to have that assistant fight for you.

The final battleground is the X X Shopping Mall. Before the final moment arrives, you need to tear off everyone’s name tags there. Your assistant will also help you eliminate the other MCs.

The director will create the illusion of going missing, and you can use that chance to tear off the others’ name tags.

Song Wan looked up and smiled faintly. “Amazing screenwriter, here is a loving little kiss for you!”

-

Another ten minutes passed. The others also found one or two clues one after another, but unfortunately, many of them were not very pointed—

Most of them were along the lines of “Idol, you sing so beautifully,” “Idol, you act so beautifully,” or “Idol, you are too funny.”

At first glance, these might seem enough to lock onto the killer’s identity at once. For example, with the first clue, everyone would immediately think of the singing king Qin Hui; the second sounded like it referred to movie emperor Li Fan; and the third, of course, had to be Zheng Fang.

But when you thought about it carefully, none of it was useful.

First of all, fans are naturally biased toward their idols. As long as an idol has done even one thing well, in their eyes he is unmatched and flawless, unless his singing is so off-key it defies heaven’s law or his acting is so wooden it is unbearable...

However, there was also a kind of fan known as a delusional superfan.

And if someone was capable of kidnapping the director, could one really expect that fan to have a normal mind?

So after finally finding these clues, all they could conclude was that the killer might have sung before, acted before, and perhaps had a rather humorous personality...

But everyone on site fit that description!

Every person who found a clue had not even had time to be happy before, after thinking it through, they could only toss the note away—

It was useless. These clues could not pin the killer on any single person.

Zheng Fang did have one clue note, but because of the turmoil before the show began, everyone ran the moment they saw him and did not dare get too close.

Zheng Fang: “...Who exactly have I offended? Is it my fault that my brain is too smart and my imagination too wild?”

-

About ten minutes later, Wu Jin stuck half his body out from the stairs on the third floor of the mall and shouted, “I found the little room for voting—it’s on the third floor! Everyone come over!”

Everyone quickly gathered at the voting room on the third floor. The room was large, with seven identical cubicles inside.

At this point, there were less than five minutes left before the final voting time.

No one hesitated any longer. They each chose a small room and stepped inside to vote.

But just as the others were still hesitating, the broadcast suddenly rang out—

“Qin Hui, out!”

The others came out of the small rooms just in time to see Qin Hui being hauled away by two men in black, one hand clamped over his mouth. They were all stunned. “Why was Qin Hui eliminated?”

Qing He turned to look at Zheng Fang. “Was it you who eliminated Qin Hui?”

Zheng Fang’s eyes went wide, and he jumped up dramatically. “How could it possibly be me? I didn’t do anything!”

The others looked at Zheng Fang suspiciously, retreating in unison and isolating him once again.

Zheng Fang was near tears. “It really wasn’t me who eliminated Qin Hui! We entered the voting room together. In such a short time, how could I possibly have done anything?”

But no one believed him.

Song Wan hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward. “The room I was in was next to Zheng Fang’s. I didn’t hear him come out.”

Qing He, who had been next to Qin Hui’s room, frowned. “But I did hear the sound of Qin Hui’s name tag being torn off.”

Everyone’s eyes widened, and they dispersed warily.

Song Wan looked at the others, then pressed her lips together and looked at Zheng Fang. “Brother Zheng, you really aren’t the killer?”

Zheng Fang was almost jumping out of his skin, but he quickly pulled out a note. “I found a clue note that can prove I’m not the killer!”

Yet no one reached for it at all.

The others looked at him half-believing, half-doubting. In the end, Song Wan spoke up. “What note? Can you read it out loud for us?”

Since no one knew who had actually torn off Qin Hui’s name tag, everyone was being extremely cautious and dared not approach anyone at random.

What if they got their own name tag ripped off in the meantime?

Zheng Fang had no choice but to read the note aloud: “Director, you are truly despicable! Why did you make my idol look so ugly?”

The others exchanged looks.

Song Wan was the first to speak. “The key point in this sentence is that the director made this fan’s idol ugly? But all of us have been made ugly to the point our own parents wouldn’t recognize us before.”

To boost ratings, the production team of Rise Up, Stars had really done everything imaginable—mud pit battles, deliberate ugly makeup, gender-swapping... they had tried it all. So being made ugly was not exactly special.

After hearing Song Wan say that, the others felt that it did make sense.

Zheng Fang grew anxious. “The key point in this sentence is idol, and made ugly! Idol is how young people refer to the stars they like, right? Nobody would call us idols otherwise? And as for being made ugly, an entertainer like me is always acting goofy and making myself look ridiculous. My fans would never care whether I got uglier or not!”

The others immediately came to their senses. Qing He, the only host among them, narrowed his eyes. “If that’s how you put it, then aren’t the only suspects Wu Jin and Song Wan?”

Wu Jin panicked too. He never expected the fire to suddenly spread to him.

“But although idol is mostly what young people call the entertainers they like, there are also plenty of stylish older fans who call them that too, right? My mother has always said Brother Zheng is her idol!”

No one there was easy to deal with, and Wu Jin shoved the flames right back at Zheng Fang.

Li Fan thought it over and said, “I have a lot of young fans, and they all say I’m their idol.”

Guo Feng blinked and added another knife to Zheng Fang’s wound. “Zheng Fang, my fans include men and women, young and old, and they all say I’m their idol...”

An Olympic champion...

Of course he would be an idol...

And not just any idol, but the idol of the entire continent...

Zheng Fang: I am speechless.

Then he remembered that many of his own fans were young people too, and they also called him their idol...

Damn it. So this really could not be explained away, could it?

“But my fans definitely wouldn’t care whether I got uglier!” Zheng Fang clung to this point as though it were a life rope.

Everyone exchanged looks and had to admit it.

As a comedian, it was perfectly normal to act goofy and make himself look ridiculous, so his fans really might not care whether he became uglier. They might even think the production team had done a great job and burst out laughing.