When the time came, the comment section, which had been in a constant flame war, finally quieted down. The vast majority of netizens turned their attention to the television. The organizers liked to edit the more interesting parts into the middle segment. They patiently waited for the host to finish reciting the long list of thanks to the sponsors, and after watching the women's group competition, the men's group event finally began.

Su Ge, as the main vocalist of the TR boy band, besides having decent singing skills, owed his biggest fan-attracting factor to his face. It was delicate and handsome, with fair skin. At first glance, it was stunning, but a second look would reveal it to be overly artificial.

However, his fans didn't think so. When Su Ge's figure appeared on the screen, several of the top fans in the comment section had already started spamming flowers. A uniform flood of comments shouted, "Brother, you're so handsome!", and especially when his opening arrow hit a nine-point ring, the rainbow farts reached the heavens.

[I said Su Ge was the most likely to win the championship. If it weren't for being eliminated due to injury, it's still unknown who would have won.]

[Are Su Ge's fans all elementary school students? He's been in the industry for so many years, how can you all still have this stinking habit of blindly hyping him up? Meng Qianlin had a high chance of winning too, okay?]

[Excuse me, sorry to interrupt, Su Ge was eliminated, Meng Qianlin got third place. Where does that leave the second-place winner, Yu Fan?]

Several factions were engaged in a chaotic battle in the comment section, arguing about who the champion should have been, yet no one mentioned Xi Nian's name. His fanbase had just started to form and lacked stickiness. Even if they popped up to speak, they were quickly suppressed.

As everyone was arguing, the camera on the screen suddenly turned to a man, and they all stopped in unison.

The name Xi Nian was not unfamiliar to netizens. Because of his connection with Su Ge, his identity information had been almost completely dug up. However, because he was too obscure, his Baidu information page only had a pitifully small number of print photos, and then there was his guest role as a minor male character in some youth film from when he first debuted. His features were unrefined, his acting was immature, and it was truly difficult to leave any kind of impression.

The only recent photo of him that circulated frequently was probably the blurry animated GIF, widely spread online, of Xi Nian giving Su Ge the cold shoulder.

This was the first time they had truly gotten to know Xi Nian in a real sense.

The high-definition camera focused on his whole body, then slowly zoomed in for a close-up. The man's facial features were handsome and smooth, like a meticulous gongbi painting sketched on paper, yet also exceedingly cold and stern. The moment he lifted his eyes, his indifferent and untamable gaze captivated one's soul.

With a face like that, no one doubted the authenticity of the incident where he gave Su Ge the cold shoulder. And yet, it didn't make people dislike him.

The comment section was unusually quiet for a few seconds, then instantly erupted into a frenzy.

[Ahhhhh screaming like a groundhog!!!! Quick quick quick! I want all the information on this man in three seconds!!!!]

[!!!!! (So handsome I'm speechless) Why did no one tell me Xi Nian was this handsome]

[Damn! So cold and so handsome, he's hitting all my aesthetic points.]

[I feel like he's a hundred times, a hundred times better looking in person than in photos! Was I blind? I've watched so many episodes of the Star Games and never noticed there was a peerless hottie!!]

Su Ge's fans angrily flipped tables: Fucking wake up, will you! This is Xi Nian!!

The commentator's voice on the field hadn't stopped: "...Now it's contestant number nine, Xi Nian's turn to shoot. His performance in the last ranking match wasn't ideal. We don't know if he can turn the tables against the wind in this round. It really makes you sweat for him..."

On the screen, Xi Nian's expression was indifferent, without the slightest change. It wasn't until he nocked an arrow and drew his bow that his aura suddenly underwent an earth-shattering transformation, like a longsword being unsheathed, its sharp edge revealed. The audience only saw a black shadow flash before their eyes, accompanied by the sound of something cutting through the air, and an arrow appeared on the distant target.

Its tail was still trembling slightly, but it was dead center in the bullseye.

"Number nine, Xi Nian. First group, first arrow, ten points."

His movements were clean, his aim precise. This made those who previously suspected he was just a blind cat who'd stumbled upon a dead mouse feel as if something was stuck in their throats, unable to say a word.

For no other reason than that Xi Nian was simply too confident and calm; there was not a hint of it being a fluke.

A few passersby were turned into fans by those brief few seconds of footage, and they all clutched their hearts, feeling breathless.

[Oh my god, long legs, narrow waist, his figure is great, but his face is also this good-looking. This type of mature handsome man is a rare find. Compared to Xi Nian, Su Ge is completely like a little brat who just graduated.]

[You can tell just by looking that the force of Xi Nian's pull on the bow is stronger than Su Ge's, and he hit a ten. Why would anyone say he only won by luck? (Confused Black Man face)]

[Requesting Xi Nian's fan support group!]

This was when the masterful methods of Su Ge's management team became apparent. The previous post on their official Weibo revealing his injury had practically become an imperial sword, effective every time. No matter who criticized Su Ge's skills, the fans would shut them down with a single sentence: Su Ge only lost because his hand was injured. What's so great about hitting a ten? If Su Ge weren't injured, he could hit a ten too!

Others knew they were exaggerating, but they couldn't find the words to argue back. They could only comfort themselves in their hearts, telling themselves not to argue with brain-dead fans.

Currently, Su Ge's fans were still controlling the comments section. No matter what others said, they always had a thousand and one reasons. However, as the competition progressed, everyone looked at Xi Nian's score column and fell into a state of shock.

Ten points.

Ten points.

Still ten points.

Seven arrows in a row, he hit the yellow inner circle of the target almost flawlessly every time, and in succession too. Before this, although netizens knew that Xi Nian had beaten Su Ge, they would never have imagined it was such a near-crushing victory.

Now, forget about Su Ge being injured; even if he weren't, his chances of winning would have been practically nil.

After all, there were sharp-eyed people among the netizens, not to mention plenty who couldn't stand Su Ge. For a time, the direction of public opinion quickly reversed, and they began to scrutinize the "eliminated due to injury" incident from a while back.

[Pardon my bluntness, but was Su Ge really eliminated because of an injury? (dog head to save my life) With Xi Nian's level of skill, I feel like even Su Ge at his peak would have had a hard time against him.]

[Be more confident. Drop the 'a hard time'.]

[Damn, I thought Xi Nian only won by a fluke, but the result... fucking all tens. How do the Gezi Fans have the face to go around saying he got lucky?]

[Where's their face now?]

For a moment, public opinion was divided, and even with Su Ge's huge fan traffic, it was a bit difficult to control the comments.

Lu Xingzhe had been sitting in front of the computer watching the competition. When it reached the final group, he keenly noticed that the footage of Sun Ming giving hand signals to Xi Nian from off-field had been cut. Thus, when Su Ge hit a seven-point ring and Xi Nian was forced to lower his skill to hit an eight-point ring, Su Ge's fans jumped out again.

[Who was it just now that said Xi Nian hit nothing but tens? Please come out.]

There were even fake fans trying to stir up hate: [No way, no way, I thought Xi Nian was so amazing, that he could hit a ten every time.]

[Uh... that drop in skill was so sudden. Don't tell me the tens from before were really just dumb luck.]

Niangao directly retorted: [So what if he didn't hit a ten?! Take a look at the seven points your turtle bastard thing got before you talk!]

Perhaps because Xi Nian's accuracy was too high earlier, everyone had overly high expectations for his later performance. When he suddenly hit an eight, they all felt a bit disillusioned. And those who had been hoping he would viciously slap Su Ge's face were even more regretful.

But Xi Nian's expression showed no ripples. It seemed that hitting a ten or an eight made no difference to him. The only thing that changed was his aiming time, which got shorter and shorter, until finally, it gave people a feeling of him being almost perfunctory.

Su Ge hit a six, he hit a seven.

Su Ge hit a seven, he hit an eight.

Given the same thirty seconds of aiming time, Su Ge took nearly twenty-plus seconds. Xi Nian, from nocking the arrow to drawing the bow, used less than five seconds.

Gradually, someone finally saw what was going on.

[Is it my imagination, or do I feel like Xi Nian is intentionally letting Su Ge win? The look on his face is so perfunctory, hahaha.]

[Letting him score with zero acting skills, that's amazing. Brother is so cool, I love it.]

[Xi Nian is controlling his score, right? Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence that he beats Su Ge by a little bit every time? But I don't get why. Are all handsome guys this unconventional?]

[Controlling the score, plus one. I thought I was the only one who noticed.]

[Controlling the score +2]

…

Is there anything in the world more humiliating than your opponent intentionally going easy on you? Obviously not. Xi Nian's skill was so overwhelmingly superior that Su Ge's fans felt a little uneasy, but because their idol filter was too thick, they habitually made excuses for him.

If Xi Nian was really that skilled, why were there so few tens later on? Besides, why would he go easy on Su Ge for no reason? He's clearly just being deliberately mysterious.

Why would Xi Nian go easy on Su Ge?

No one could answer this question, so the direction of the comments section gradually started to get led astray, until a viewer who had been to the competition venue posted a comment.

[Xi Nian didn't hit tens later on. My personal guess is it's because he was injured. I was lucky enough to go to the second elimination round, and it seemed like something was wrong with his hand. I thought it was just an accident, but watching the show just now, it turns out his hand was already in a bad way at this point.]

There were quite a few people who had been watching the competition intently. Surrounded by high-definition cameras, Xi Nian's private action of rubbing his wrist was completely exposed. In addition, his movements when drawing the bow seemed a bit sluggish a few times. A discerning person could spot the problem with a careful look.

[Xi Nian is injured too? For real? It can't be such a coincidence, right?]

[It might be true. I just watched him put force into his arm, and it looked a little off.]

[Oh my god, Xi Nian is actually injured.]

[My heavens, he can still hit so many tens while injured. That's so much better than a certain someone's fans crying pitifully everywhere (dog head).]

Su Ge's fans were so angry their faces turned blue. They instinctively felt that Xi Nian was just trying to step on Su Ge to climb up. To suddenly reveal an injury now, he must have hired a water army behind the scenes. Although some of the more rational top fans were warning others not to start fights, some brain-dead solo stans directly declared war.

[Injured? That's hilarious. When's the funeral?]

[Su Ge competes, you compete. Su Ge does archery, you do archery. Su Ge gets injured, you get injured. Can a certain someone have any shame? Do you really think you can get famous by imitating Su Ge? Popularity isn't that easy to leech off of!]

Seeing them curse Xi Nian so horribly, the Niangao were all furious, transforming into keyboard warriors to fire back. Unfortunately, because their numbers were too small and they weren't as battle-hardened as Su Ge's fans, there was no way they could win a flame war.

Now the comment section was being overwhelmingly controlled, all saying that Xi Nian was leeching off the popularity.

Seeing this, Lu Xingzhe let out a soft chuckle, logged into his alternate account, and typed out a line in reply with a clatter of keys—

What's wrong with leeching popularity? We'll just rub against it a little; we won't go inside.