Chapter 28: Xiang Ge Loses His Composure

Wei Rui had been in the venue the whole time, watching Ye Qinghe answer every single question with effortless ease. He knew that even if he chose to challenge, there would only be one outcome.

Defeat!

So if that was the case, why bother challenging at all?

That way, he wouldn't have lost!

Not losing was the same as winning!

Besides, if anyone ever brought it up, he hadn't lost to Ye Qinghe — he simply hadn't wanted to compete with a fully paralysed person for a 200,000-yuan annual salary position. He was doing a good deed!

Right!

Exactly!

He had chosen not to challenge because he felt the other person needed it more. It wasn't because he was afraid of losing, and it certainly wasn't because he couldn't measure up!

Wei Rui thought he was absolutely brilliant!

He'd won!

Won by a landslide!

Even if Ye Qinghe went on to defend the podium for three episodes — or even six — as far as Wei Rui was concerned, Ye Qinghe had never beaten him!

So when he gave up his challenge, Wei Rui smiled the most radiant smile imaginable.

But his radiant smile meant no one else could smile at all.

Backstage, Zhao Qingyang erupted.

"What is wrong with this Wei Rui?! Can't he see what's staring him right in the face? Did nobody go and tell him to challenge? The audience was expecting him to go head-to-head with Ye Qinghe, to get Ye Qinghe back on stage — and now he pulls this stunt? How are we supposed to boost the ratings?! How the hell is the show supposed to blow up?!"

Zhao Qingyang was practically jumping out of his skin. During the break earlier, he had specifically told the staff to go and have a word with Wei Rui — and now this was the result?

"We did! We told him! He didn't say no at the time — he just nodded. We assumed he'd agreed! How were we supposed to know he'd back out at the last second?!"

The staff member looked equally disgruntled. Was Wei Rui seriously playing games with them?

"What do we do now? Plenty of people in the livestream were still hoping to see a challenge, and now that he's done this, the comments are absolutely going off!"

Zhao Qingyang was seething. If this had been a pre-recorded broadcast, it would have been manageable — he could have forced Wei Rui onto the stage, or at worst swapped in a few other people and edited around it so Wei Rui never appeared at all.

But this was a live broadcast!

Everything was being watched by the audience in real time. There was nothing he could do to intervene.

Damn it all to hell!!!

Who on earth had come up with the idea of doing a live broadcast in the first place?!

He'd forgotten — that format had been his own brainchild.

"Alright, don't cut the livestream. We'll pull Ye Qinghe in for another interview — call it a bonus behind-the-scenes segment!"

With no challenge to fill the time, Zhao Qingyang had no choice but to put Ye Qinghe back on. They'd already covered a lot of ground earlier, so now they'd have to dig into questions they hadn't gotten to yet.

Ye Qinghe had assumed the recording was finished. He'd just wrapped up his personal care routine and a massage in the green room when there was a knock at the door.

"Hope I'm not interrupting?"

Xiang Ge looked a little sheepish. This was the director's orders, and even though it felt a bit awkward, he'd come anyway.

"Not at all. What's up, Xiang Ge?"

Ye Qinghe shook his head. He had already been getting ready to leave with Ye Dali.

"Here's the thing — you didn't get much screen time this episode, and the viewers aren't happy about it. The director wants me to come chat with you for a bit longer. What do you think?"

Xiang Ge phrased it diplomatically.

But Ye Qinghe understood that this wasn't something he could refuse. After all, he still had his eye on that 200,000-yuan — or even 400,000-yuan — annual salary from the show. If he turned down a simple request like this, that salary would be in jeopardy.

"Of course, no problem!"

Ye Qinghe nodded.

"Thank you for understanding!"

Xiang Ge thanked Ye Qinghe and opened the door. The livestream crew filed in with their cameras.

Well.

If he'd refused, people would probably have said he was being a diva.

"Our viewers still have a lot of questions for Ye Qinghe, so we're going to have another brief chat with him right now."

Once everything was set up, Xiang Ge sat down beside Ye Qinghe, smiled at the camera, and said:

"We'll pick out some of the questions viewers are asking and have Ye Qinghe answer them."

"This next one is a bit pointed — I need to check with Qinghe first whether he's comfortable answering it."

Xiang Ge spotted the most-liked comment and hesitated for a moment.

"What question?"

Ye Qinghe was sitting a little too far away, and since he couldn't move on his own, he couldn't make out the exact wording.

"Well, a number of our viewers are curious — given that you're fully paralysed, how exactly are you able to sit in that wheelchair the way you do?"

Xiang Ge's expression shifted slightly. The question was admittedly a bit impolite, but with so many people asking it, he had no choice but to read it aloud.

"Right, how has he been sitting so steadily throughout this whole long recording? He's paralysed, after all."

"I'm curious about that too!"

"By my understanding, it shouldn't really be possible for someone who's paralysed to sit like that."

"Exactly — I'd really like to know the answer to that."

The question prompted a flood of responses in the bullet comments, with many viewers expressing the same curiosity. Especially after hearing earlier in the interview that Ye Qinghe had taken the high-speed rail to get there, they were wondering what the journey had been like for him.

"It's actually not complicated at all. I just didn't think it was the kind of thing worth bringing up in front of everyone. But since people want to know, that's perfectly fine."

Ye Qinghe heard the question, smiled calmly, and replied in an unhurried tone.

"Dad, could you lift the blanket off me?"

From the moment Ye Qinghe had appeared on camera, he had always had a blanket draped over him — covering him completely from his shoulders down to his ankles, with not a single part of his body visible.

Throughout his time on camera, Ye Qinghe had sat remarkably upright and straight, showing no sign of the limpness one might expect from someone paralysed. That was the main reason so many people were curious.

Hearing Ye Qinghe's words, Ye Dali hesitated for a moment, then slowly began to peel back the blanket, little by little.

As the blanket was lifted even slightly, Xiang Ge — who saw it before the viewers did — immediately clapped a hand over his mouth. His eyes went wide with disbelief, and he quickly turned away, wiping at his eyes.

This left every viewer desperate to know what he had seen.

What on earth could have made the usually composed Xiang Ge lose his composure like this?

"No — Qinghe, I didn't know... I didn't know it was like this. I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry!"

Xiang Ge turned back around after wiping his tears, reached out, and gently pressed down on Ye Dali's hand — the one that had been lifting the blanket — stopping him. The tears in his eyes were clearly visible to every viewer watching the livestream.

Xiang Ge's face was filled with guilt. He genuinely hadn't known. If he had, he never would have read that question aloud.

"It's alright, Xiang Ge!"