Chapter 35: The Rival Always Wants to Taste Him Again [35]

Chapter 35: The Rival Always Wants to Taste Him Again "35"

The thought of soon no longer being able to eat such delicious food and desserts, and not knowing how long it would be before he encountered someone else who suited his taste, made Shi Mo feel somewhat uneasy.

After all, for incubi like him, what truly filled them was the unique "fortune" carried by humans.

And he was especially picky—he had never met a single person in the main world who suited his taste.

But eating those things never filled him up, and he couldn't afford to starve himself, so he joined the Bureau as a mission agent.

By completing tasks, he could earn points and exchange them for fortune as his food.

That was Shi Mo's original plan. But he never expected that after passing through so many worlds and transferring to a new department, he would actually take a liking to someone from a small world.

And that person was the male lead of this world.

Ye Qi—from his physique to his looks, even his abundant energy—suited Shi Mo's taste perfectly and left him completely satisfied. Even his cooking was delicious.

This person was practically tailor-made to Shi Mo's preferences.

It seemed a shame to just give up on him like this.

Shi Mo stared at Ye Qi's back, a plan already forming in his mind.

A glint of calculation flashed through his eyes, but it was quickly concealed, replaced by a deeper smile curling at the corners of his lips.

Ye Qi soon finished cooking the meal, and Shi Mo finished the little cake as well.

When they sat down to eat together, there was an unusual silence, as both kept their eyes glued to their phones.

Shi Mo knew Ye Qi was probably handling some business, so he didn't disturb him.

After all, since they spent every day together, Ye Qi had to squeeze out time to handle his many responsibilities, making every moment count.

He was also scrolling through the comments online.

Although the Lin family had stepped in to pull down the trending topics in time, what Lin Ran had done at the restaurant that day was still witnessed by quite a few people.

Lin Ran was eventually taken away by ambulance and brought directly to the Lin family's private hospital for a full check-up.

But how could they possibly detect the medicine produced by the system mall?

So when the final results showed no issues, someone tactfully suggested that Lin's father have Lin Ran's head examined.

It wasn't just them—people online were also speculating whether Lin Ran had a mental problem.

Those who had previously questioned Lin Ran and been scolded also came forward to mock him. They said Lin Ran was clearly mentally unstable, maybe even suffering from dissociative identity disorder.

Otherwise, how could he have simultaneously created so many works of different, even completely contradictory, styles?

Shi Mo's fingers curled slightly as he tapped the table idly, scrolling through the comments.

The Lin family had gone to great lengths to smooth things over.

But the perfect persona Lin Ran had built online had already started to crack.

Over the next month or so, Lin Ran was confined at home. His father wouldn't let him go out or contact anyone.

Shi Mo, on the other hand, finally got some peace and quiet.

With the Lin family pulling strings, scandals involving several celebrities were exposed, completely drowning out the previous incident.

The internet doesn't forget, but with new gossip to feast on, the old story with no follow-up naturally faded from people's minds. Even if it came up, no one cared.

Additionally, the drama Lin Ran had rushed to film earlier was officially announced and given a release date.

The Lin family hired a swarm of paid trolls to blindly praise it, managing to salvage some of his former reputation.

Finally, the day arrived. Shi Mo logged into his alt account and sent a single message in the group chat: "You can start now."

That drama—the one they had already finished filming and arranged everything for—was just waiting for the right time to air.

The two dramas were scheduled to air only three days apart.

Lin's father had already sensed that something was off during this period.

Many of the contracts the Lin Corporation had secured were turning out to be problematic.

But those weren't major contracts, so they hadn't paid attention at first, nor had they taken them seriously.

Now, Lin's father finally realized someone was targeting them, but by then, their cash flow was already in trouble.

Even if he had discovered it, there was little he could do right away—he could only try to patch up the funding problems first.

He wanted to use Lin Ran to rake in money and also use this drama to turn a profit.

So during the early promotional phase, he cared more than anyone, pouring massive effort into promotion.

But unexpectedly, another drama had premiered before theirs! And the plot similarity between the two was as high as 85%!

Yet *The Phoenix*, which aired three days earlier, had zero prior promotion, but within three days of its release, its popularity directly overshadowed their *Song of the Phoenix*.

At first, many people thought *The Phoenix* was the one Lin Ran had invested in, given how similar the plots were.

But they quickly realized that neither the actors nor the director matched those of the heavily promoted *Song of the Phoenix*.

For a moment, the whole internet was buzzing with gossip and eagerly anticipating *Song of the Phoenix*.

They even deliberately tagged *Song of the Phoenix*'s official account in *The Phoenix*'s posts, hoping to stir up a fight between the two sides.

After watching *The Phoenix*, they got even more hyped for *Song of the Phoenix*.

So on the day *Song of the Phoenix* premiered, the viewership numbers went through the roof!

When Lin Ran first found out about this, he got nervous.

After all, in his memory, *The Phoenix* wasn't supposed to come out for another two years—how could it have been released so early?

Lin's father didn't need to ask to know what kind of person he was. He tore into him and started figuring out how to fix the problem.

But when they discovered that *Song of the Phoenix* had even higher viewership than *The Phoenix*, they all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

After all, in this day and age, popularity was what mattered most.

As long as their hype was high enough, they could twist the truth, even flip the script and accuse *The Phoenix* of being the plagiarist.

But soon, they couldn't laugh anymore.

Netizens, driven by curiosity and anticipation, went to watch *Fengming Tianxia*, which had been heavily promoted in advance.

So the first episode of *Fengming Tianxia* hit unprecedented viewership numbers, but from the second episode onward, it plummeted to rock bottom.

Even the comments on the second episode, aside from a sparse handful of paid shills, were all filled with criticism.

Haoleiya: "Hahaha, damn it, I shouldn't have been curious about what other ridiculous nonsense he could come up with! I wish I could unsee this."

Jintianyebuxiangmazi: "Wow, the plot is so similar to the other show, but why is the other one so good? This one's like force-feeding people a pile of crap?"

Buxiangmazi: "Tsk, maybe because the writer is a psycho."

Danhuashuohuilai: "LOL, I'm dead. The female general and the little princess went their separate ways because they stood on opposite sides, but this idiot actually says they fell out over a man!"

HaiMeiChiYexiao: "They're crediting the male lead with lines the princess actually said? How did they not notice how weird that was during filming?"

DianGeWaimaiBa: "Count your blessings. Watch one more episode and you'll see our badass general, who can knock out ten scumbags with one punch, chasing after the male lead, becoming his fangirl, and stashing his picture away."

XiangChiZhajile: "Stop, I'm gonna puke."

LaiYiPingKuaileShui: "Don't drag *Fengming* into this. Don't drag my gorgeous general into this—we're not interested."

ShijianBuZaoLe: "No respect, no blessings, but I hope they lock that writer away."

ChiWanYexiao: "I'm really going crazy, wasting my time here watching this crap."

JiuShuijiaoLe: "Can *Huang* release 30 episodes a day? If not, I'm heading over to watch that lousy pheasant show next door."

MingtianYeShi: "You're asking the wrong place, this is *Fengming*, not *Huang*. But I can tell you're really desperate, eating anything will only hurt you."

BuXiangMaziDeYiTian: "Honestly, with this plot, these lines, and these costumes, I think no analysis is needed to tell who's original and who's the copycat."

WeiShenMeWoDe: "Wait, how does *Fengming* have the nerve to claim *Huang* copied them? They're the original ones?"

JianPan: "Is it that if you don't get angry, you think we're all fools?"

BuNengZiJiMaZi: "Even setting that aside, doesn't anyone want to hang that lunatic Lin Ran from the door?"

WeiShenMeWoDe: "Count me in, I've wanted to do that for ages."

BaoBaoMen: "I'll go get the sack."

HaiMeiYou: "I'll get the rope."

GeiWoWuXingHaoPing: "I'll go make up the five-star reviews I owe to *Huang* next door."