Chapter 1113: Chapter 568: A Predestined, Wondrous Bond

At one in the morning, the night life of netizens was just getting started.

And tonight’s netizens, watching the endless stream of explosive gossip on the hot search, felt it was even more satisfying than chasing some dog-blood novel.

Rong Xianning, this newly risen top idol of the entertainment industry, had the perfect beautiful-miserable-strong life arc. His original family, rotten to the level of a malignant tumor, was condemned by the public, yet had also become his best fan-attracting weapon.

Not long ago his money-grubbing mom put his personal belongings up for sale on a second-hand marketplace, cashing in on her celebrity son’s privacy for huge profits, and once again pushing Rong Xianning to the eye of the storm.

But this time, the public generally sympathized with him.

There were even industry insiders who revealed that the apartment rented for him by his company had been taken over by his parents, and Rong Xianning was forced to crash in the recording studio.

Getting his birth mom to cause a scene on his ad shoot, carrying ten years’ worth of gambling debts for his useless dad...

One thing after another—what big star could be more miserable than him?

The sympathy of the masses is just a gust of wind. In reality, if Rong Xianning kept leaving the public with this impression, it would be very bad for his future development.

Even though he had a massive fanbase and was invincible in the online world, when faced with such unscrupulous parents, his fans were helpless too. While feeling sorry for their idol, they were also abused to death: gege is too tragic, he only has us now...

And once you lean too hard into the tragic backstory marketing, it easily triggers a public backlash. At this point there was already a narrative forming against Rong Xianning, saying he was too cowardly, unable to cut ties with his original family, and that if he got sucked dry and exploited his whole life, he deserved it; that his behavior was, in a way, helping the villains.

And that every cent he earned was just adding fuel to the gambling fire, which would have a bad influence on teenagers. People like Rong Xianning, they said, should just be banned.

When those voices had shadowy hands fanning the flames from behind, the invisible impact on Rong Xianning became impossible to quantify—especially since he still didn’t have any real works to his name, and his so-called musical talent had yet to be tested by the market. For all his traffic, it was just a bubble in the end, and wouldn’t last long.

Quite a few professionals in the industry had analyzed that given Rong Xianning’s current situation, his parents were a constant ticking time bomb; his prospects were worrying.

Even if Rong Xianning left showbiz, with his intelligence he could easily become a straight-A top student, but without any family background to support him, and with a pair of bloodsucking parents eyeing him like tigers, his road ahead would still be full of potholes.

Offline, when the Lemons gathered for support events, they would just hug each other and cry, feeling heartbroken for their idol and then cursing that pair of vile parents without holding back.

It was like a dark cloud hovered permanently over their heads, and a heavy rock pressed on their hearts.

This sense of helplessness over seeing no way forward deeply filled the heart of every single Lemon.

So they could only pin their hopes on Rong Xianning’s agency. Ding Meng, this woman they used to hate the most, was also the one who dragged Rong Xianning out of that festering, stinking swamp and gave him a sliver of hope.

So the Lemons organized to flood the official Weibo accounts of Ding Meng and the agency, begging them to protect Rong Xianning no matter what. Some Lemons pitifully pleaded over and over, while others put on a fierce front and hurled harsh threats despite being guilty and timid inside.

A bunch of naive little girls were thus worrying themselves sick over their idol—ridiculous, but also kind of hot-blooded.

Until one night, a huge piece of gossip broke online. It started with some gossip forum dropping a blind item: saying that a certain top star known for selling his tragic backstory was actually the real young master of a rich family who’d been maliciously switched by a nanny—just like those fake/real young mistress novels everyone had read. And that this rich family was seriously powerful, with a surname that could scare half the city unconscious once mentioned.

Most people in the comments didn’t buy it at all, insisting it was fake tea, and cursing the OP for posting fake gossip, wishing him ten sons.

One comment guessed it was Rong Xianning, since you saw his tragic-selling press releases every day, but this was way too dog-blood. They suspected it was his agency putting it out there to hype him.

—Rong Xianning is the real young master of a rich family who got maliciously switched by a nanny? Did the OP not crack up typing these words out?

—Hahahahaha looks like some fan got driven insane by their idol’s original family and started spouting nonsense.

—I suspect this is Rong Xianning’s fantasy before bed every night, because every night before I sleep I also imagine I’m a lost eldest daughter of some rich clan. This kid really has it rough, everyone please go easy on him.

—Has his agency lost its mind, buying this kind of marketing? Don’t the fans feel secondhand embarrassment? My toes have already clawed out a three-bed-one-living-room apartment from sheer cringe.

—Holy shit this is too funny, I can’t, my stomach hurts from laughing. I have to post this to my classmates’ group chat and my family group, I’m determined to let everyone I know see this joke.