Delivering the Golden Finger

If anyone else had been there, they would have been scared out of their wits by Chi Jixia's current state.

He looked thoroughly possessed by a night terror, his teeth grinding together with a grim clatter even in his sleep. "Lu Zi'ang, you're the reason I broke my leg. I'm going to kill you. Eat your flesh, gnaw your bones, heh heh..."

Under the lamplight, his profile was almost unbearably sinister. His originally handsome features had warped with his expression—the corners of his brows and eyes carried a startling, icy allure, paired with a bone-chilling dread, as if he might kill whoever was watching in the very next instant.

Yi Wan looked at Chi Jixia, curled up on the bed with what seemed like a black, ghostly shadow rising from his back, thought it over for a moment, and opened Baidu.

The difference between a side character in a novel and a passerby was that the passerby knew how to use a phone and a search engine. What he searched for was the weekly drama Chi Jixia was scheduled to film the next day, according to his itinerary.

After searching, Yi Wan learned that the line Chi Jixia had been muttering belonged to Leng Qiu, the wildly popular guest villain Chi Jixia had taken on as a favor in that very drama.

He hadn't expected Chi Jixia to be so dedicated to his craft that he practiced his role even in his dreams.

Chi Jixia's eyelids twitched... he was probably about to wake up. Yi Wan decided to smile at him and crack a joke.

Much the way Chi Jixia had once welcomed his arrival with one of his own.

And went back to reading the novel Rao Tian Chou.

Finally, on the other side of the room, Chi Jixia stopped moving.

Chi Jixia pulled himself out of the quick-transmigration world. The System announced, as it always did: "Thank you for using the 'Dream the Script' System again. Progress on 'Rao Tian Chou' has been paused for you. The next time you enter a dream, you may continue the transmigration."

"In addition to the performance script, you may also select from Classic Film Rehearsal Mode, Audience Simulation Mode, and Co-Star Mode. In Audience Simulation Mode, you may select a real-world viewer to watch. We wish you a speedy path to your ultimate goal: conquering the entertainment industry and becoming a Best Actor who sweeps every award on offer!"

"Can't you turn off this little speech? And what's this about Co-Star Mode." Chi Jixia lounged on the sofa in the System's space, fingers combing idly through his hair. "Co-Star Mode isn't happening. Not in this lifetime."

Who in their right mind would go and share their own golden finger with someone else?

Chi Jixia had a secret.

He had a System.

When he dreamed, he could quick-transmigrate into the world of whatever film or show he was about to act in, and live out that life in the role's own skin.

The only side effect was that every time he woke up, his heart would be flooded with the skills and feelings tied to that role—to the point where he couldn't always tell whether he was Chi Jixia or the character.

During a quick transmigration, he would also talk in his sleep as a result, and act out things in his dreams that terrified anyone awake to witness them.

The fifth teammate originally slated to join had been scared off by exactly this. Another had stumbled on Ding Biehan using the bathroom.

Chi Jixia didn't take life too seriously. But he was careful to guard the secret of his quick transmigration, lest he be dragged off and studied.

Then again, who could possibly see through his secret?

Chi Jixia opened his eyes and dimly made out a figure sitting in the light—or rather, sitting on the next bed over.

The figure sat bathed in light, wrapped head to toe in something like an angelic glow. It hadn't screamed at his eerie behavior in his sleep, nor shown any confusion or fear at the sudden, venomous look on his face the moment he woke. If anything, there was an uncanny smile on its face.

"You're awake, Leng Qiu."

......?

......??

??!!

"Wasn't it over? Didn't I transmigrate back yet??" Chi Jixia demanded of the System.

After all, in plenty of novels, a quick-transmigrator who failed to return was in for a very bad time, and more often than not got left behind by the long-suffering victim to be......

He bolted upright off the bed. Leng Qiu, mind you, was supposed to be impotent—if it weren't for the director owing him a favor, Chi Jixia never would have taken a cameo in that role or transmigrated into Leng Qiu's world...

He reached down and felt himself.

Wait.

Chi Jixia froze stiff in that exact position and turned his head.

The instant he got a clear look at the person beside him, quick-transmigration actor Chi Jixia felt the touch of death.

"Yi—Yi Wan?" He said the name out loud, then swore. "F—it's you!"

The way fox-faced Chi Jixia's expression kept collapsing in on itself struck Yi Wan as a little strange. He still hadn't realized that he'd gotten Chi Jixia's name wrong a moment ago because he'd been absorbed in his novel. "Brother Chi, what's wrong?"

Chi Jixia stared at his face in shock, then was suddenly struck by a bad feeling. "You... when did you get here?"

"Half an hour ago."

"You... did you see me talking in my sleep? See how I was acting?" Chi Jixia narrowed his eyes at him, fishing for information. "What do you think, exactly?"

Yi Wan's reaction was downright abnormal. Chi Jixia himself wasn't a normal person, but compared to the other trainees who'd fled in terror from him, Yi Wan seemed even less normal.

Yi Wan looked at the visibly wary Chi Jixia and decided to make his own eyes gentle and encouraging. After a moment's thought, he said, "You're Leng Qiu."

To him, this was the highest praise he could offer someone devoted to studying the craft of acting.

Chi Jixia: ...

His eyes went wide. In that moment, under Yi Wan's sincere, wise-seeming gaze—which felt layered with some kind of unreadable formula (in truth, it was simply a gaze that had wandered off somewhere else entirely)—he felt as though there was nowhere left to hide.

Just as the sky seemed to be falling on Chi Jixia, he heard a camera shutter click from outside.

"Good, good, this is a good clip, save it—we can use it in the group's behind-the-scenes reel later." A man's voice rang out. "Don't see little Chi this bleary-eyed and half-asleep very often."

"Huh? Brother Liu." Chi Jixia startled, a touch panicked. "Delete that, it'll wreck my image!"

Yi Wan followed Chi Jixia's gaze. Standing in the doorway was a man who looked like a manager, with an assistant holding a camera beside him. The manager, addressed as Brother Liu, greeted him. "Hey there, Yi Wan. I'm the manager in charge of Iris5. Chi Jixia, get yourself together and come on out—Bo Jiang's back, An Yelin's on his way, let's get a meeting going while we have the time."

Yi Wan nodded and obediently went out. Just before he left, he felt Chi Jixia's gaze pinned to his back, and turned around in some confusion.

Fox-faced Chi Jixia looked as if he'd only just recovered, and was watching him now with narrowed eyes and a somewhat gloomy expression.

Chi Jixia's expression reminded him, he thought, a little of the expression Ding Biehan had worn while gripping his wrist in the bathroom.

'That similar expression, that similar vibe—could that count as Iris5's team spirit...? What was team spirit again, anyway?' Yi Wan wondered.

Yi Wan's mind began drifting again.

The living room already held a chilly-looking Ding Biehan and the cool beauty Bo Jiang. Bo Jiang still had his head down over a book, and when Yi Wan arrived, offered only a flat greeting.

Yi Wan carefully sat down on a beanbag chair. Chi Jixia had a face full of black air, fingers laced together, lounging on the other side with no regard for posture at all.

......Nobody paid anyone else any mind—the vibe in this group was genuinely bad. Even Brother Liu, standing off to the side, frowned at the sight of them.

The atmosphere really was freezing.

"Bang!"

The door was flung open. A streak of red leapt into the cold room.

Brother Liu frowned. "Late again, huh."

The person reached up to adjust the single silver earring at his ear—the rose tattoo on the inside of his wrist was also red—and said, somewhat irritated, "Family stuff."

The answer was curt, though the voice behind it sounded distinctly young.

The refusal to elaborate came off as fairly arrogant.

Brother Liu said, "Your family sure has a lot going on."

Apparently this wasn't the first time.

Once the young man walked in, Yi Wan got a proper look at him. The boy's black hair had a few streaks dyed red, and there was a single red beauty mark beneath his eye.

His expression was deeply displeased.

As if he'd brought a whole body's worth of emotional baggage back from some tangled grudge (courtesy of a groveling-after-loss trope).

So this was An Yelin. An Yelin said, "If I had a choice, I wouldn't want to deal with the An family's mess either."

Brother Liu said, "Well then, you should've handled your business sooner. The new member came in today and you skipped the meeting, didn't you?"

"If I could've handled it, I already would have..." An Yelin, suppressing his irritation, turned his gaze back around.

The moment he saw Yi Wan sitting in the corner, he froze.

The irritation in his eyes gave way to delight and tenderness, every trace of his expression suddenly careful, as if he'd spotted a treasure that had no business being here at this moment. Before anyone else could introduce them, he softly spoke the name: "Yi... Wan?"

Yi Wan looked at him, a little puzzled.

He shouldn't have ever met An Yelin, Iris5's designated "A," yet An Yelin looked at him as though reuniting with an old friend after years apart.

Sensing Yi Wan's confusion, An Yelin dimmed slightly.

In this life, at this point in time... he hadn't yet gotten to know Yi Wan.

And Yi Wan didn't know him either.

Still, he smiled at Yi Wan anyway—a smile that even made Brother Liu flinch a little. "It's great to meet you, Yi Wan."

Great to see you again, Yi Wan.

The last friend I made before my past life fell into ruin.

Manager Brother Liu's frown eased, touched with relief. Of all of them, the notoriously untamable An Yelin's attitude toward Yi Wan was actually decent, which had cured about one percent of his mental exhaustion.

The agency, so focused on stacking buffs onto each member, had never once considered whether these five people were even compatible enough to form a group... Brother Liu sighed, privately not holding out much hope, and nonetheless went through the standard rundown of post-debut precautions with practiced ease.

Nothing but the usual talking points—emphasizing everyone's safety concerns, the planned debut stage, the first single, and the scheduled release date for the first album.

Brother Liu said, "Who wants to be team leader?"

......

No one raised a hand.

An Yelin had too much going on, Chi Jixia thrived on chaos, Ding Biehan was aloof, and Yi Wan, having joined last, had the least seniority and no real pull... After much deliberation, with no one else to pick, Brother Liu said, "Bo Jiang, you're team leader."

At least he was the academic type.

Bo Jiang frowned slightly, then finally said, "Fine."

......Brother Liu felt this group looked powerful on paper but was, in practice, genuinely doomed. What kind of group couldn't even pick a leader on its own?

What on earth was upper management thinking.jpg

For a group, individual brilliance wasn't the most important thing—team cohesion was! These five had had zero overlap with each other before this, so what kind of plastic team bond was this supposed to be?

Brother Liu could only add, "Given the last few incidents, we're already running short on time. We're planning to release the first wave of member info in a week. As for Yi Wan—the conflict between you and Jiang Bei, the agency will handle that."

Yi Wan nodded. The manager went on, "Spend this time getting to know each other. And Biehan, come out here with me for a minute."

Before leaving, Ding Biehan glanced at Yi Wan, his eyes narrowing slightly at the strange atmosphere between Yi Wan and Chi Jixia.

That left only the other four in the room. Chi Jixia hugged a throw pillow, staring at Yi Wan with open, unblinking curiosity, clearly testing the waters.

An Yelin watched Yi Wan quietly as well.

The whole day's entanglements with the An family, with President Fu, and with the Fang family's young heir had already left him utterly drained. As someone who'd been handed the "real young master" role in a fake-versus-real young master script and reincarnated with it, An Yelin looked at these people who, in his last life, had driven him to his end, and felt nothing but exhaustion toward them.

He wouldn't forget how they'd treated him for the sake of the fake young master in his last life. Even if, in this life, their eyes went red and they went half-mad, choking back sobs as they begged him to come back, he would never forgive them.

Thankfully, on this, the worst day, in the boy band he'd only just joined in this lifetime, he'd seen Yi Wan.

Of all people, Yi Wan turned out to be the group's fifth member.

An Yelin looked at the friend from his past life. Sitting among these other teammates who stirred some vague, inexplicable wariness in him, Yi Wan looked so pure, so small, so helpless... it stirred something like sorrow in him.

Still, he wouldn't approach Yi Wan rashly. Not until he'd dealt with the mountain of trouble clinging to him... he wouldn't let those flames reach Yi Wan.

Ding Biehan returned to the living room not long after. Chi Jixia asked him, "What did Brother Liu want?"

"A show. Live broadcast." Ding Biehan said flatly. "Filming this weekend. The production specifically asked for me."

"No other details?" Chi Jixia was curious.

"No." Ding Biehan frowned slightly. "Just that it's outdoors—everything else is confidential. Why are you asking so much?"

Ding Biehan wasn't exactly polite about it. When he'd first arrived, Chi Jixia had barged through his door without knocking and nearly blown his infinite-flow secret wide open in the bathroom. His opinion of Chi Jixia was not good.

"Fine, don't tell me, then. No need to be so serious about it, little Ding." Chi Jixia shrugged, not bothered.

Yi Wan was just about to head back to his room when Brother Liu stopped him. Brother Liu, in a corner outside the room, said to Yi Wan, "You've seen how things stand with the group. Yi Wan, as the fifth member, there's a real gap in skill between you and the others. So I've got another expectation for you."

"Go ahead."

Brother Liu said, "I want you to be the glue holding this team together. Spend extra time smoothing over everyone's relationships, building up the team spirit. Understand?"

This was, essentially, deciding that Yi Wan wasn't talented enough and assigning him some other use for his extra time instead.

As for everyone else's precious time, of course that had to go toward improving themselves.

Brother Liu didn't think much of this last member. In his eyes, Yi Wan was just a barely-qualified substitute, one still tangled up in a lawsuit besides. He waved a hand, dismissing Yi Wan to go back to his room.

But I think everyone here has plenty of team spirit, Yi Wan thought.

It wasn't late yet, and everyone went back to their own rooms. Only An Yelin stepped out onto the balcony to make a call. Seeing Yi Wan head back as well, Chi Jixia found himself hesitant to return to his own room, and sat alone in the living room instead, turning over his next move.

Yi Wan sat down at his desk. It was deep into the night by now, and the flowers on the potted plant beside him glowed faintly. Head lowered, he was mulling over Brother Liu's words when his phone lit up with a few messages from trainees he knew.

Those trainees were only passing acquaintances of Yi Wan's, yet now they were all swarming in to fish for information about his joining Iris5. Yi Wan sent each of them a single "mm," then opened up his Weibo.

He skimmed the comments on his most recent post.

"You've still got the mood to water your plants? Do you have any idea how much pain Beibei is in?"

"#YiWanBullyingShameless#"

"Not planning to just play dead and ride this out, are you?"

Jiang Bei's "bullied, playing the victim, milking sympathy from his fans" affair had happened over a week ago now. Since Yi Wan was pretty obscure, once the fervor died down, the number of Jiang Bei fans swarming to insult him under his new posts had dropped off too—just a few dozen hostile comments left. Even so, Yi Wan did spot one rather odd comment in the mix.

"Excuse me, is this pot of Fiend Orchid for sale? Willing to pay a high price, please contact me at 139xxxxxxxx."

My Weibo's gotten so dead that even scammers are fishing here now, Yi Wan thought.

He ignored the comment. He'd picked up this potted plant off the street, so it probably wasn't anything special.

Still, scrolling through the list of people who'd liked the photo post, he noticed a rather odd ID.

The ID was called polestar_leon.

Polestar meant "North Star," which was also what Jiang Bei's fans called themselves. Not strange on its own.

But Leon was the English name Jiang Bei had used back when he was still Yi Wan's roommate. After the two of them formed a group together, Jiang Bei's manager found that the name clashed with another, more senior idol already active in the industry, and made him switch to a different English name.

What was odd about this ID was that the like seemed to have landed the very instant Yi Wan posted.

Yi Wan clicked through to its profile to take a look, only to find he'd been blocked—he couldn't see its page at all.

Yi Wan was about to close Weibo when he spotted a new trending topic.

"Ding Biehan Bathroom"

Yi Wan: ?

Yi Wan had no idea that a certain entertainment forum had already erupted into chaos, stacking up skyscraper-tall comment threads.

#Has anyone seen that trending photo of Ding Biehan?

0F: Said it was leaked by someone inside A.T.

1F: You sure it's really Ding Biehan?

2F: Replying to above, the face shape and mole both match.

3F: What are they doing in a bathroom, anyway? Pressed up against the wall kissing again?

4F: Looks like bullying in a bathroom to me.

5F: Didn't A.T. have a connection-made nobody bullying Jiang Bei a few days ago too? No wonder he jumped ship, A.T.'s basically bullying headquarters, pfft.

6F: The person above reeks of Polestar, tone it down, you know you're showing, right?

7F: Lane-hopping, focusing on Ding Biehan.

8F: Sorry to say this first, but does this one photo look kind of hot to anyone else? One of them held tight in the other's arms, that slender wrist caught in his grip. Sunset hitting the wrist, the two of them pressed close in the shadow where the light doesn't reach. You can practically imagine the trembling breath, the nervous flinching away...

9F: Damn, me too, sorry in advance as well... and that hand is so pretty, prettiest I've seen all year.

10F: Wasn't even here to ship, but might as well drink the sugar while it's fresh!

11F: The sexual tension is genuinely unmatched.

12F: Has anyone dug up who the other person is?

13F: Dug through a dozen floors of comments and still nothing, probably some connection-made nobody.

......

801F: Honestly, this blew up on the trending list way too fast with this kind of negative tag attached—there's definitely a rival company stirring this up behind the scenes.

802F: Isn't it obviously the Sports Bureau's real star power? Impressing them enough to get an official invitation lol

803F: But why bathroom bullying specifically—bathroom hookups, bathroom wall kisses, those aren't impossible either. "Pressed against the wall kissing" is practically a recurring feature of domestic showbiz at this point, happens a dozen times a year lmao, plus a dozen couples doing the groveling-after-loss routine. Buy one giant screen apology after another, the big screens in this country are running out of space—remember that one couple who bought up a Times Square screen to say "my life is yours"?

On an otherwise entertainment-starved night, thanks to Ding Biehan's fame, the story quickly made waves across every major forum. People accusing rival companies of sabotage, people muddying the waters to drag Ding Biehan through the mud, people trying to dig up who the other red-string hand belonged to, people praising the hand's beauty, people just straight-up shipping the photo... thread after thread kept piling up.

In the end, though, nobody managed to figure out that it was Yi Wan, simply because Yi Wan was too obscure. One comment did mention that "that hand looks kind of familiar," but it got buried under the flood of fan wars and hate comments.

Yi Wan knew nothing about the forum. He only checked the comments under the trending topic. After reading for a bit, he remembered Ding Biehan had told him to message him on WeChat, so he forwarded the trending post over.

The comments under the Weibo post were mostly calling for everyone to wait for the truth and not rush to assign blame. Out on the public timeline, though, opinions ran the gamut—some thought it was just horsing around, some gushed over the chemistry, some were hate-reading just to muddy the waters. But there was really only one topic that mattered most.

And that was—who did that beautiful hand belong to?

There were even a few excited girls wondering if the owner of the hand was good-looking, saying that if it was a pretty trainee or idol, they'd be happy to pick him up during their current dry spell.

Still, no one ever figured it out.

"How is anyone supposed to recognize the owner of a hand from something this blurry!" someone wailed.

While Yi Wan waited for Ding Biehan to reply, a direct message from a stranger popped up on Weibo.

"Getting all handsy with Ding Biehan, getting that cozy in a bathroom, and that's fine? You've got no shame, do you."

Yi Wan happened to be scrolling Weibo right then and caught it the moment it arrived.

The sender was, once again, that same polestar_leon.

But by the time Yi Wan had read the message clearly, it had already been retracted.

Yi Wan scrolled back through their message history and found that this avatar-less burner account had sent several other messages before.

One after another, all sent, then retracted.

......

Jiang Bei sat in the lounge, staring at his phone with a gloomy look on his face. He stared hard at post after post, then finally tucked the purple phone he used for his burner account back into his pocket.

"Jiang Bei," his manager said, coming in to find him. "Good work on the recording today."

"Good work to you too, Sister Lu." Jiang Bei looked up with the same soft, sweet smile as always.

As if the person who'd just been using a burner account to stalk his former teammate's Weibo wasn't him at all.

Jiang Bei's manager found his smile reassuring, too. She said, "Get some rest early tonight. There's a show on Sunday."

"What show? I don't think I remember." Jiang Bei put on a somewhat troubled look, like a sweet little airhead.

"A survival reality show, live broadcast. Put in a good showing." The manager said. "Oh, and besides you, they've also invited Ding Biehan."

Jiang Bei's soft, sweet expression stiffened for just a moment. A beat later, he smiled. "Sounds good."

"I'll prepare well for it."

......

Not long after, as Ding Biehan was just looking at the trending list himself, he got a call from Brother Liu, the Iris5 team's manager.

"Tell me straight, who's the person you had pinned against the bathroom wall?" Brother Liu said. "Fake dating rumors before debut, fine. But don't you dare give me a real relationship scandal."

This group genuinely wasn't settling down. You'd think—they'd just found their fifth member, and already the drama was starting up.

Ding Biehan: "......You met him today."

Brother Liu: "Who? I'm warning you right now, it better not be An Yelin—he's got a whole pile of fir-and-cedar-scented CEOs tangled up behind him, don't you go getting mixed up in their mess."

Ding Biehan: "......It's Yi Wan."

Brother Liu: "Oh, Yi Wan... Yi Wan? What happened?"

Brother Liu genuinely couldn't fathom how Yi Wan, who'd only just joined the group, had already managed to cause this much trouble.

And there was that bullying rumor on top of it... Brother Liu frowned. Though, looking at Yi Wan today, he didn't seem to match the rumors at all.

Very quiet. Very well-behaved.

If it wasn't a physical altercation, then what could it possibly be?

"A little misunderstanding," Ding Biehan said. "It's resolved."

"There aren't any more... photos, are there?" Brother Liu hedged on the phone. "Is that the whole story?"

Ding Biehan frowned. "What else could there be? I didn't hit him."

Something occurred to Brother Liu. "Pinned him to the wall and kissed him, that kind of thing."

Ding Biehan: ...

The chill radiating off Ding Biehan felt murderous. Brother Liu said, "Good, as long as there's nothing like that. Still, the misunderstanding needs clearing up eventually. Oh, right—there's still an open slot with the survival show's production team. I already cleared it with your personal manager—bring Yi Wan along too."

"Bring him?"

"Perfect chance to show off some team bonding, announce Iris5's fifth member, and clear up the misunderstanding between you two—and Jiang Bei's going too. I worked it out with his manager, you two can act out a little reconciliation scene while you're there." Brother Liu said breezily. "It'll even tie in nicely with today's trending topic."

"Jiang Bei? Did you ask Yi Wan about this?" Hearing the casual, already-decided tone in Brother Liu's voice, Ding Biehan suddenly felt a flicker of something... unpleasant in his chest.

Maybe it was because Yi Wan really was too clueless a passerby for his own good.

"Ask what? As long as the misunderstanding's cleared up, we're good. The script's already more or less worked out. Not bullying, just a personality clash—one's a strict perfectionist, one's easygoing and playful, a little misunderstanding, that's all." Brother Liu said. "Yi Wan won't say no even if he knows about it. Besides, his personal manager doesn't really look after him anyway. Tell him I'm busy right now."

"But more than him—focus on your own performance. I'm counting on you to be the show's 'center.' Bring out some showcase moments, show off your skills. Honestly, I think Yi Wan's going to be dead weight for you on this show. Team bonding matters, sure, but don't forget your own performance."

With that, he hung up the phone.

Ding Biehan held his phone, momentarily at a loss for words. After a pause, he gave up trying to search online for the full history between Yi Wan and Jiang Bei, and headed straight for Yi Wan's room, expression cold.

Yi Wan had nothing to do with any of this.

Before he knocked on Yi Wan's door, he saw Chi Jixia sitting alone in the living room, staring at his own fingers, lost in thought.

Ding Biehan knocked on Yi Wan's door.

Yi Wan wasn't asleep yet, dressed in white pajamas that made him look soft and fuzzy all over. Ding Biehan thought of the misunderstanding again, and a faint negative feeling stirred in his chest.

And whether Yi Wan would end up being dead weight on the show... all just to clear up some misunderstanding, and what if he ended up pulled into a temporary infinite-flow dungeon on top of it. The thought only made the power-worshipping infinite-flow male lead Ding Biehan more irritated.

He looked at him, face blank. "Brother Liu says you and I should—"

As his gaze passed over Yi Wan and landed on the pot of white orchid grass behind him, Ding Biehan's pupils abruptly contracted!

And at that very moment, in the living room, quick-transmigration male lead Chi Jixia had finally finished hashing out a plan with the System.

"Use Co-Star Mode. Once he's asleep, pull him in." Chi Jixia waggled his eyebrows. "Find him a script with a bit more danger, put him in a role facing a precarious situation, break down his willpower, make him depend on me, grill him for answers. Have a little fun with my new teammate, and once he wakes up, just wipe his memory. Problem solved, isn't it?"

"Sounds good. So which script are you thinking of pulling him into?" Chi Jixia's System asked.

"Wilderness Survival, obviously!!" Chi Jixia said, brimming with confidence.

Author's Note:

Chi Jixia: I'm going to grill him for answers!!

The real consequence: delivering the golden finger

Ding Biehan, on the show: !! How can this be, Yi Wan is terrifyingly amazing!!

Not a team-favorite setup, by the way, more of a team-terror setup (lol). Terrifyingly amazing in the eyes of everyone on the team—except for An Yelin (A), who's living a reborn-groveling-after-loss story, whose perspective is different. In An Yelin's eyes, his own starting status: a hot-tempered reborn protagonist clawing his way back to strength.

Yi Wan's starting status: a weak, pitiful, helpless best friend from a past life.