The livestream showed nothing but a black screen, but viewers who'd gotten their fill of entertainment weren't ready to leave. The comment section buzzed with heated discussions.
[The moment I saw that ambulance pull up, I completely lost it.]
[LMAO, A-listers getting their stomachs pumped as a group - now that's what I call a legendary moment nobody saw coming!]
[This episode is literally the peak of domestic variety show entertainment!]
[Peak? More like straight-up legendary status!]
[They should put this in the history books so future variety show guests can worship the greatness of their predecessors!]
[If all domestic variety shows had this kind of explosive content, the industry would be unstoppable!]
[Thing is, normal people can't pull this off. If everyone played it this way, guests would need to be ready for career suicide while keeping heart medication handy - because ruining your reputation is one thing, but accidentally dying? That's a whole different level of problem!]
[The domestic variety scene spent ten years trying to create viral moments, and Hu Ming just speedran the entire industry's decade-long journey in one day!]
[Now that's what you call talent!]
[Qian and Feng survived Teacher Huang's cooking but got taken down by a fellow guest, then got chased around with a pot of... that stuff. Where's the justice in that?]
[I can't even!]
[Real talk though - Teacher Huang's cooking might kill your appetite, but Hu Ming's could literally kill you!]
[Never in a million years did I think Teacher Huang would clear his name this way.]
[Clear his name? Dream on. After today, these two are probably gonna split the entertainment industry between them.]
[Eastern Heretic Huang the Pharmacist, Western Poison Ouyang Ming.]
[I've got a wild idea - what if Teacher Huang invested in Mushroom House 2.0, with him as head chef and Hu Ming as sous chef, hosting dinner parties for various celebrities? The chaos would be even more explosive than today!]
[Grim Reaper: You're taking over my job tomorrow!]
[...]
While the atmosphere was heating up, people remembered the victim of the #Poisonous Green Bean Incident# and flocked to Teacher Dan's Weibo to stir up trouble:
[Teacher Dan, the old saying about suffering being a blessing really holds true!]
[The blessing may not have arrived, but disaster has definitely stayed away.]
[Compared to Hu Ming's masterpiece today, the #Poisonous Green Bean Incident# was child's play!]
[Teacher Dan, check out Mushroom House! The Teacher Huang who poisoned you and got mocked by the entire industry is finally getting his comeuppance!]
[Sometimes it takes evil to defeat evil - Teacher Huang got poisoned by Hu Ming and ended up in the hospital getting his stomach pumped.]
[You should be grateful you weren't on this episode, or it wouldn't just be stomach pumping - your entire reputation would've been shot.]
Teacher Dan had just finished recording a variety show and was about to browse the internet when she noticed tons of private messages flooding in. Her follower count, which had been stagnant for ages, suddenly jumped by over a hundred thousand!
She opened her inbox and saw netizens mentioning the #Poisonous Green Bean Incident# while expressing relief about her past ordeal. Her good mood from clocking out evaporated, but when she read the follow-up content, Teacher Dan got excited!
Getting her stomach pumped over poisonous green beans was the pain of her lifetime!
Even though Teacher Huang was part of the Beijing circle, they'd completely cut contact after that incident. Even when they ran into each other at public events, Teacher Dan pretended not to see him. She'd already shown incredible grace by not holding grudges - why would she give him any friendly looks?
Now hearing that the old bastard who nearly ruined her reputation was getting his just desserts, Teacher Dan's curiosity and desire for gossip kicked into overdrive.
Within ten minutes, she'd gotten the full story. When she saw Lu Ming chasing a bunch of pop idols around the courtyard with a giant pot of soup, Teacher Dan felt like her years of high blood pressure had been instantly cured!
Pure bliss!
Absolute bliss!
"Good kid, what a good kid!" Teacher Dan looked at the handsome Lu Ming with nothing but praise.
She immediately got to work, crafting a post to greet an old friend:
[@Teacher Huang]
[Old friend, greetings. I heard you're feeling unwell due to work-related mishaps, so Dan has come to express concern for your condition. Due to my busy schedule, I can't visit in person - please forgive me.]
[I have many friends who are gastroenterology experts. If you need anything, just ask!]
After posting this Weibo, Teacher Dan felt better than she had in years. The burden she'd carried all these years seemed to lift completely with this single post.
Teacher Huang, currently waiting in line for stomach pumping at the hospital, saw a mutual friend had tagged him. When he clicked to read it, his already gloomy mood plummeted even further.
"Fuck!"
"Even she's here to laugh at me..."
"Damn that washed-up celebrity, you better not fall into my hands, or I'll fucking destroy you!"
Seeing the trending topics #Eastern Heretic Huang the Pharmacist# and #Western Poison Ouyang Ming#, Teacher Huang's chest heaved with rage as he cursed this generation of netizens for having serious problems.
"My cooking is clearly master-level! Everyone in the industry praises it when they eat my food! Just because of one batch of green beans, everyone's got this huge prejudice against me. Are they really planning to drag me for this for the rest of my life?"
"Teacher He, be honest - is my cooking good or not?"
Teacher He looked at his partner's desperate need for validation, hesitated, then went against his conscience: "I know your cooking skills better than anyone. All that online stuff is just prejudice against you. Don't look at it!"
Teacher Huang felt satisfied hearing this.
"Once I'm done getting my stomach pumped, I'm gonna write a manifesto and pay back double the damage that damn bastard caused me!" Teacher Huang's resentment ran deep.
Teacher He: "..."
That night, Weibo's trending list was completely dominated by Mushroom House topics.
#Nine-Turn Large Intestine Incident!#
#Another Legendary Moment in Domestic Variety History!#
#Wu Qian's Done For, Totally Ruined!#
#Li Changfeng's Idol Image Shattered, Massive Fan Exodus!#
#Pop Idols Eating Shit on Live Stream, Fans Literally Nauseated!#
#Behind Two Rising Stars' Overnight Career Destruction: Human Nature's Corruption or Moral Decay?#
#Former Top Star Lu Ming Goes Completely Insane After Career Collapse!#
#That Damn Washed-Up Celebrity Destroyed Mushroom House!#
#What Can Hu Ming Use to Repay What He Owes the Doves?!#
#...#
The explosive popularity of these trending topics even overshadowed #Zheng Ming Breakup#, which had been the hottest gossip recently.
Fans from all sides temporarily set aside the breakup drama to feast on this bigger, more explosive story.
As the Mushroom House incident gained momentum, by late night even short-video social platforms were flooded with reposts and livestream clips.
Gossip lovers were rolling on the floor laughing.
People swore this was the most emotionally satisfying drama they'd consumed all year!
The two "doves'" fans, however, were having complete meltdowns!
While passersby saw entertainment, their idols had suffered real physical and psychological trauma. Watching their beloved stars become jokes in comment sections, getting mocked and criticized everywhere, the fans felt like they were about to explode from rage. How could they possibly sleep?
"Bees" and "Megnies" angrily stepped forward to argue with netizens, trying to turn around the negative reviews for their idols.
Unfortunately, the voices of passersby and rival fandoms far outweighed theirs.
Comments like "Your dove ate shit," "Your dove is so talented," and "Shit-eating idol" hit like critical damage to the two fanbases' souls, completely igniting the flames of war!
As fierce arguments erupted across comment sections, the entire internet descended into chaos.
Just as both sides started cordially greeting each other's family members, a passerby gave the passionately arguing "Bees" and "Megnies" a unique and memorable nickname.
"Shit Girls"
The competition was utterly destroyed. Fans of both idols felt their stars had made them lose face across the entire internet.
Thus began a massive unfollowing ceremony!
...
Midnight.
In an ultra-luxurious mansion in Shanghai, a manager burst through the door shouting excitedly: "This is bad, really bad! Sis, your ex-boyfriend has lost his mind!"
"What do I care if he's crazy?" Sister Zheng was dismissive. "Does he think this kind of stunt will make me change my mind?"
"Pathetic!"
Sister Zheng had delicate skin, a slender figure, and pretty features with a signature oval face. She wore a loose nightgown that revealed plenty of skin. Just looking at her body and face, she was undeniably gorgeous - a perfect innocent flower. But the mean expression on her face was rather unsightly.
This kind of beauty was unquestionably goddess-level to the general public, but in the entertainment industry where looks were just the baseline, she couldn't compete with the rising young starlets.
Her current fame came from the less developed early entertainment industry, where she'd caught the wave of success from one breakout role and ridden that momentum to her current status.
With the new "Four Little Flowers" selection approaching, her career had hit a bottleneck. She'd released two carefully planned modern romance dramas in the first half of the year specifically to compete for that title, but the shows underperformed. While not complete flops, they definitely weren't hits and were quickly forgotten after airing.
Without good projects and with the recent breakup scandal affecting her reputation, her chances of being selected as one of the Four Little Flowers had significantly decreased. This was why she'd been wearing a sour expression lately.
"No, it's not about you - something happened at Mushroom House!" the manager explained.
Sister Zheng froze: "Mushroom House?"
She really didn't know much about Lu Ming's recent situation. She had no interest in following such a worthless pretty boy.
"The company wanted to capitalize on the buzz we created to squeeze out his remaining commercial value while the heat was at its peak, so they booked him for over a dozen variety shows. The first one was Mushroom House. Given his current status in the industry, there was no need for scripts - he'd just go get lectured and ridiculed while generating some traffic..."
"Why don't you start from when Emperor Qin unified China?" Sister Zheng's expression was cold.
The manager shrank back and simply pulled out her phone: "Sis, you should just look for yourself. This is getting huge attention - it's even pushing down all those promotional articles we bought."
Sister Zheng was stunned when she saw the wall of trending topics.
She hadn't been online at all today.
Ten minutes later, Sister Zheng's mouth dropped open in shock:
"Has this guy lost his mind? Did getting dumped by me traumatize him that badly? If he keeps acting crazy like this, who knows if he'll slit his wrists one day?"
"Most importantly, he couldn't act crazy earlier or later - he had to pick this exact moment."
"Isn't he just dragging me down with him?"
Others might not know, but as one of Huayue's cash cows, she understood the industry's undercurrents perfectly. Teacher Huang was one thing - his fans didn't even go online, and those who did were basically haters who'd mock him rather than defend him.
Li Changfeng had been hyped a lot lately, with fans claiming he was gunning for the next Four Top Young Actors position.
But she knew Li Changfeng wouldn't make it.
The guy had bad habits that plenty of A-listers knew about. If rival companies leaked anything, he'd be caught in scandal, and organizers definitely wouldn't promote a ticking time bomb.
Wu Qian was the entertainment industry's future super-resource star!
Huayue's rival Tianyu Entertainment had already paved the way for Wu Qian in the domestic market before he even returned to China. Before he came back, a bunch of top-tier resources were already prepared, and the agency had even laid groundwork for his film career.
Tianyu Entertainment wanted to push Wu Qian to superstar status in record time, but now this mess had happened. The big shots behind that company wouldn't let Lu Ming off the hook after such massive losses.
Realizing this, Sister Zheng immediately knew what to do.
"Release all those chat records we prepared before, everything at once. We need to grab the spotlight back before Tianyu makes their move. Also, get ghostwriters to draft me an essay - I want to completely distance myself from that idiot."
"If he wants to go down, his blood better not splash on me!"
The manager rushed to comply. She didn't want this incident affecting the upcoming Four Little Flowers competition either.
...
The next day.
Lu Ming was woken by urgent phone ringing.
He groggily answered, only to hear roaring from the other end:
"Fuck, you damn washed-up celebrity finally picked up! I take my eyes off you for one day and you cause this much trouble! Do you know who you've pissed off? You're finished, your career is completely over!"
"You offended so many big names and still had the nerve to sleep peacefully until noon before taking my call?"
"Are you really not afraid of dying?"
Lu Ming became more alert: "Why are you yelling so loud? What's wrong with you?"
"Acting like my career would be bright and shiny if I just didn't offend anyone."
Song Zhe: "..."
This kid's attitude seemed... off!
Yesterday's shocking behavior could be explained as drunken antics, but he should be sober by now, right?
Lu Ming found himself in his familiar apartment. As he got up and dressed, he said: "Is there anything else? If not, I'm hanging up."
"What kind of attitude is that? Even Baoqiang wouldn't dare talk to me like this!"
Wang Baoqiang, a grassroots success story, was the spiritual leader of countless dreamers and one of Huayue's biggest moneymakers. Unlike Sister Zheng, Wang Baoqiang had been established in the film industry for years, with earning power several times stronger than TV stars of the same tier.
He used to be one of Lu Ming's idols too.
"So how should I talk to you?"
"You fucking... Song Zhe! You motherfucker, I'm your father!"
"Fuck you, you piece of shit! What the hell are you trying to pull with me?"
Song Zhe: "???"
The middle-aged man on the other end couldn't believe what he was hearing. Listening to that string of colorful language, his brain short-circuited for a moment.
Where the hell did he get the balls?