The Exiled Passerby E

Yi Wan stood outside the office of A.T. Entertainment's CEO. The moment he'd entered this corridor, he'd seen four posters.

Four enormous posters plastered across the hallway.

The four posters belonged to four different people. Every one of them had a slender waist, long legs, and a face so stunning it was almost unfair. Last year, the moment the official website had dropped even a sliver of a teaser about their debut next year, rabid fans had already built forums and super-topics for them.

"Four born-this-way visuals!"

"Everyone a center?!"

"I must have saved the world in my past life to get to meet these four brothers."

There was one less harmonious comment, too.

"Is A.T. getting squeezed so hard by Blue Light that they're desperate enough to roll out their four best-kept trainees all at once just to stack the hype?"

A.T. Entertainment was a top-tier agency in the industry, the one that had produced the nationally beloved group Immortal Squad and the wildly popular Team X. Immortal Squad was a generation's memory of youth. Team X, meanwhile, had swept every major award within two years of debut—an undisputed former top act.

But these past few years, A.T.'s momentum had faded considerably. Two years ago, Blue Light Entertainment had launched its first milestone idol group, Blue Crystal, and their debut had crushed Team X's comeback album—an album Team X had thrown every available resource behind—leaving it with no way to fight back. From then on, A.T. and Blue Light had waged a silent war. That war's final verdict came a year ago, when Blue Light debuted its wildly popular group, SEAL. The same year, Team X's leader was exposed for bullying within the group, issued a public apology, and quit.

Despite the devastating blow, A.T. was still an old, veteran agency with decades of excellent track record in the industry. The near-mystical rule that A.T. "forges a new god every five years" had fans anticipating this year's new miracle long in advance.

Clearly, the four young men on these posters hadn't disappointed the fangirls' expectations. One could even say this was the generation "chosen to save the company's stock price." Every one of them had already amassed enormous popularity before even debuting.

Compared to the other trainees, it was like comparing heaven to earth.

And Yi Wan... he was in the earth's core.

"Wait here for now," said the manager who'd brought him over. "Though I'd advise you to prepare yourself mentally. Your reputation online lately..."

As he spoke, he looked Yi Wan over with an extremely critical eye. Yi Wan, however, had drifted off into his own world the entire time—seemingly not the least bit humiliated by the man's attitude, which only deepened the manager's displeasure.

Even so, he had to admit Yi Wan really was good-looking.

Yi Wan's face was the kind even the pickiest person couldn't find fault with.

"Delicate and refined" was, for most people, a polite compliment. But Yi Wan pushed that phrase to its absolute extreme. His features were exquisitely elegant, carrying the translucent clarity of mountains and rivers after rain. His skin, especially, looked as though it had been raised on snow—press a finger to it, and it would leave a mark.

And yet a person like this was fated to flop. Three years of training, three audition shows, three failures. In the first, the investors fled before it even got going. In the second, a fire shut the whole thing down. And in the last, he'd offended an associate director who'd tried to use his position to coerce him into sex for a role—so he was cut from the competition and every frame of his footage was edited out entirely.

If being a flop were all, it would've been bearable—at least there'd be no infamy attached. But six months ago, the teammate who'd originally been slated to debut as a duo with him had secretly signed up for a different audition behind his back, broken contract, and jumped ship to another company. That teammate had debuted as part of a new group with a lively "little angel" image and shot to instant fame—the picture of pure, innocent sweetness in countless people's hearts.

But on a variety show just a few days ago, Yi Wan's former teammate had been asked why he'd switched companies. The scandal-plagued little angel had suddenly teared up and, through implication after implication, pointed to having been bullied by a reserve teammate back during training.

— It wasn't about chasing money and abandoning the poor. Being bullied was the real reason he'd jumped ship.

The angel cried once, and the fandom's loyalty purified itself; the "mom fans" raged. The associate director who'd tried to pressure Yi Wan also posted a few sarcastic, pointed remarks online. And just like that, people quickly dug up the identity of the reserve teammate—Yi Wan. Furious fans who had no idea what had actually happened crashed every one of his social media accounts.

The handful of fans Yi Wan had left all expressed their disappointment, too. Some went further, questioning whether A.T. Entertainment had always been lenient about bullying—hadn't they already learned their lesson from Team X's leader bullying scandal?

His former teammate chose that exact moment to announce new news: he'd be starring in a movie.

The subject matter: school bullying.

The little angel had profited in both fame and fortune off a slander that "purified" his fanbase. As for Yi Wan—no backing, no connections, and no resources despite his looks—all he'd gotten out of being used and slandered was a stain on his record and the promise of being forgotten.

So the manager found himself circling back to yesterday's proposal. Yi Wan was under his management, and Yi Wan's "development" was tied directly to his own commission. He clapped Yi Wan on the shoulder and said, with more than a little passive-aggression, "Little Yi, about that thing with Director Chen the other day—think it over properly, okay?"

Yi Wan: "Mm."

The manager said, "Look at the state you're in right now. Just getting a show willing to take you at all is already lucky. You need to be more open-minded about this. In this industry, you have to give something up to get something back. Don't you think?"

What he meant was a web variety show built around a scandal-and-drama theme. The production team wanted to ride the heat, and they wanted Yi Wan to play the villain. But Yi Wan would have to pay a little price for the role.

Director Chen liked pretty young boys, and had some rather unsavory kinks.

Yi Wan: "Mm."

The manager: "...Are you even listening to me?"

Yi Wan: "Huh?"

...The manager's teeth itched again.

There it was again—that look of someone who'd just woken up from sleepwalking.

Daydream Sleepwalker: Yi Wan.

Seeing the manager's expression darken, Yi Wan seemed a little troubled, and said apologetically, "Um, is the CEO going to get impatient waiting...?"

"You should be thinking harder about your own future, Little Yi. Don't rate yourself too highly—in this business, everyone's just a cabbage waiting to be picked over." The manager went on, "Get some sense into you. And don't go acting all wronged about it either—why does it have to be you this keeps happening to, and not someone else?"

Yi Wan: "Mm."

The manager: ...

That textbook, Level-10 "Art of Stonewalling" was enough to set anyone's teeth on edge.

"Don't just stall me, do something about it, Little Yi. Just because you're sick doesn't mean you get to let it all rot." The manager's smile didn't reach his eyes.

Almost forgot—Yi Wan really was a little sick.

If he had any sense at all, he'd message Director Chen himself.

The manager snorted coldly and swept off down the hall, leaving Yi Wan alone in the corridor. Deep down the hallway, the CEO's office seemed to be holding some kind of meeting; faint voices carried out. Yi Wan stood there for a long while, and decided to take some action.

He pulled out his phone and searched "difficulty of the civil service exam," "opening a bubble tea franchise," and pulled up the GRE vocabulary list saved on his phone.

This time he made it from "abandon" to the C's, all under the gaze of the four handsome faces plastered above his head. In the corner of the posters was the name of this soon-to-debut new group.

Iris5.

A rainbow-colored boy group of five.

But beside the four high-resolution posters, where a fifth poster should have gone, there was only blank space. The workers had handled it carefully, but Yi Wan could still make out the faint traces left behind—the marks of three different posters having been pasted up there, three separate times.

The traces of three people who had once, "unfortunately," been forced to withdraw as the fifth member.

...Yes. Within a single month, the third person chosen as Iris5's fifth member had also left A.T. Entertainment—in an ambulance.

The noise from inside the CEO's office grew unusually lively; Yi Wan could faintly make out his manager's voice crying out in shock. He calmly put his phone away and turned to face the four posters with a perfectly upright, dignified posture.

An Yelin, Bo Jiang, Chi Jixia, Ding Biehan—Iris5's four current members. Interestingly enough, the first letters of their names happened to be A, B, C, and D, respectively.

An Yelin carried a proud, youthful air, with a single mole beneath his eye like a drop of blood-red tears; some said a face like that was most prone to tangled fates and old grudges carried over from past lives.

Bo Jiang was gentle and cool, with phoenix eyes whose long outer corners carried the antique elegance of a noble young scholar—like a figure stepped straight out of an ancient painting.

Chi Jixia was sunny and bright, with a pair of flirtatious peach-blossom eyes that nonetheless held something unpredictable and shifting underneath, like a fox that could change its shape a thousand times.

Ding Biehan was mixed-race, with unusually pale eyes and an extremely dangerous chill about him, as though something ghostly clung to his body.

Just as Yi Wan finished studying all four faces and had begun drifting off again, the door to the CEO's office opened. Out came his manager, his expression none too good, who forced the corners of his mouth up the moment he spotted Yi Wan.

For a man whose face had long since settled into permanent sharpness, that expression was practically unprecedented. Yi Wan blinked despite himself. The manager said, "You... go on in. The CEO's asking for you. Try to make a good impression."

Yi Wan said, "Brother Ji, you should compose yourself too. We both need to leave the CEO a good impression."

The manager: ...

This Yi Wan spent ninety percent of every day drifting off somewhere else, and used the remaining ten percent to say things precisely when the manager couldn't afford to curse him out for them.

It infuriated him to the point of nearly keeling over.

No wonder the kid was sick.

When Yi Wan followed him in, the CEO of A.T. Entertainment was already seated inside. What surprised Yi Wan, though, was that two other people were seated in the office as well.

Two of the four he'd just seen on the posters.

Both had stunning faces, utterly out of step with everyone else in the room. Looking at them, Yi Wan felt as though he were gazing at two glittering jade cabbages.

The two cabbages wore different expressions.

The fox-like Chi Jixia, seeing him come in, let out a whistle, his peach-blossom eyes brimming with charm. He was even more handsome in person than on the poster—when he focused his gaze on someone, it felt like he was looking at his entire world.

But Yi Wan noticed his lips move strangely, as if he were speaking to some presence that no one else could see.

The other one looked over at him too, expression indifferent, clearly distracted. That was Bo Jiang, with his classical bearing.

The agency's CEO spoke first. "Little Yi, have a seat."

"The CEO's telling you to sit," the manager said, pinching him.

Yi Wan sat down. The office was playing Moonlight Sonata. For some reason, he felt as though this place were the set of some murder-mystery game, full of hidden currents beneath the surface.

The murderer definitely wouldn't be the manager standing right beside him.

A knock sounded at the door. The CEO said, "Perfect timing—Biehan's finished his business, and he's here too."

Another member of Iris5.

The moment that person entered, the temperature in the room seemed to drop two full degrees. The newcomer's eyes were half-lowered, radiating a coldness that shut out the entire world. Yet the manager immediately stood up, greeting him with an obsequious posture.

"Biehan, hey..."

The man's eyes suddenly snapped open, and he shot the manager a single glance!

In that instant, a wave of icy killing intent froze the manager solid. The killing intent felt like it had crawled straight up from hell, carrying the chill of fresh blood. His lips trembled, his entire body locked rigid. Ding Biehan, realizing he'd lost his composure, lowered his gaze and walked briskly to his seat.

The manager clutched his chest, shaken and uncertain. He glanced over at Yi Wan, seated beside him...

No reaction whatsoever.

Yi Wan seemed to have drifted off again just now.

Absolutely infuriating.

The three strikingly distinct beauties sat down together. But it was obvious at a glance that their relationships with one another weren't great. Chi Jixia shifted slightly away when Ding Biehan sat down. Bo Jiang kept his eyes fixed on the tabletop, treating the teammate beside him as if he didn't exist.

"Alright, all three members who had time today are here now," the CEO said, smiling as though he hadn't noticed any of it. "Little Yi, how have you been feeling at the agency?"

"Mm."

As the sonata swelled, the CEO's smile made Yi Wan feel like he was about to be used as fertilizer for the other three cabbages: "You've trained here at the company for two years. In every evaluation, your scores have been solid—you never placed first, but you've worked hard... so, after discussion, we've decided... to make you the fifth member of Iris5. Little Yi, this is a genuinely excellent opportunity."

Fuck.

The manager felt the sky collapse and the earth crack open, utterly unable to believe it. It took him a long while before he managed to turn and look at Yi Wan. He heard the CEO say, "Little Yi really is impressive—Mount Tai could crumble right in front of him and his expression wouldn't even change."

The manager: ?

The CEO must be overthinking it... Yi Wan was definitely just drifting off again.

But a minute later, Yi Wan's reaction convinced the manager he must have lost his mind.

Yi Wan: "Do I... have to join?"

A pie this massive had just fallen out of the sky and smacked him in the face, and he was talking about refusing it?

"Would you look at this kid, so happy he's talking nonsense," the manager instantly leapt in to deflect Yi Wan's refusal. "Quick, say thank you to the CEO. Although, CEO—"

He suddenly remembered something. "Yi Wan does have high-functioning autism... though it's a mild case."

Don't fail to catch the pie, only to get smacked in the face by it yourself. If Yi Wan caused an incident, it was his own performance review that would take the hit.

The CEO said, "Ha, well, that's its own kind of character too, isn't it? Five people, five colors."

The manager immediately said, "Yi Wan, hurry up and thank the CEO."

Thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart—wait, what?

The CEO said, "Then welcome, Yi Wan, to our Iris5."

Clap, clap, clap.

The three future teammates applauded with remarkably little sincerity.

The CEO said, "Don't just clap—how about shaking Little Yi's hand?"

Only then did the three of them slowly, reluctantly rise to their feet, one after another.

...Could a group with relationships already this bad even make it to debut?

Bo Jiang shook Yi Wan's hand first; his fingers were ice-cold, like a corpse's. Second was Chi Jixia, who—compared to Bo Jiang—at least managed to say one sentence that sounded human: "Welcome to Iris5. Looking forward to working with you."

Then he added one sentence that sounded distinctly inhuman: "Though your name does ring a bell, now that I think about it. That bullying scandal with a teammate a few days back—were you the lead in that?"

The CEO cleared his throat. Chi Jixia said, "Kidding, kidding, don't be mad," waved his hand, and stepped back.

But anyone could see that this carefree, couldn't-care-less attitude of his meant he genuinely didn't care about Yi Wan's feelings at all. He kept talking as he walked away: "Ding Biehan, aren't you going to shake our new member's hand? Don't let Little Yi get the wrong idea and think you don't like him."

Ding Biehan, standing behind everyone else, shot him a cold glance; Chi Jixia wiggled his eyebrows right back at him. Finally, Ding Biehan walked over toward Yi Wan.

The atmosphere was unbearably awkward. Yi Wan was pressured into forcing out a sentence: "Nice to meet you...?"

He extended his hand to Ding Biehan. The other man pressed his lips together, and only after a long pause did he coldly extend his own hand in return.

...This one was hard to get along with too. Even a handshake had to come with being left hanging for ages.

Ding Biehan's hand was very cold, with something icy and faintly sticky between the fingers—strange, unsettling.

Like blood.

— Ding Biehan's eyes were fixed intently on him. Yi Wan quickly withdrew his hand and said to him, "Looking forward... to working with you too?"

Ding Biehan: "Mm."

Amber eyes were supposed to look soft and gentle. But Ding Biehan's eyes made Yi Wan think of a large carnivorous predator.

The handshake ceremony was complete. The CEO's expression relaxed into a gratified smile: "Iris5 is going to be a remarkable group. Little Ji, help Little Yi pack up his things—starting today, he'll be moving into Iris5's dorm. A fifth member isn't easy to find, so everyone needs to work on building a good relationship, get along well, and stay safe."

"Stay safe."

Loaded with meaning.

The group filed out of the CEO's office, with no exchange between any of them.

As they passed each other, it was Chi Jixia who left behind a parting line.

"Hey, Yi Wan," Chi Jixia said. "No need to look so serious. I don't actually care whether you've bullied anyone or not."

He lowered his voice, tone carrying something not entirely well-meant: "Even if you did bully someone, it wouldn't matter anyway. The company will wipe our asses clean for us no matter what."

Yi Wan looked over at him. Chi Jixia laughed and walked off.

...Every single member of this Iris5 was strange in their own uniquely remarkable way.

"You'd better not get on Chi Jixia's bad side. He's got a lot of connections in this industry." The manager scolded him at once, clearly anxious.

He was only worried that Yi Wan would drag him down with it. Why did it have to be Yi Wan of all people, and not someone else under his management? He and Yi Wan were practically at the point of open hostility by now.

What could Yi Wan possibly have that was special, compared to the other trainees? Surely it wasn't just because Yi Wan had autism.

"Who exactly was it that suggested bringing you in?" the manager asked, a little stifled.

Yi Wan: "No idea... I didn't even want to join."

The manager: "Are you humblebragging right now? Go pack your bags."

What was there even to perform about.

Still, this counted as good news. Yi Wan was still under his management for now, which meant he had work, which meant the manager had a commission coming his way.

"Brother Ji," Yi Wan said, "don't overthink this. I just want a job that can cover my mortgage payments, and to live an ordinary life in this industry. That's all I need. I don't want to cause trouble, and I don't want trouble coming to find me either."

His tone was perfectly calm.

It was only that last sentence that came out a little too cold.

The manager told himself it must just be his own imagination—he knew exactly what kind of person Yi Wan was. The agency's files even showed that Yi Wan had mild high-functioning autism.

He said, "Don't talk too big. Looks to me like those three new teammates of yours don't like you much at all."

The manager left.

The hallway was left empty except for Yi Wan. He stood in the corridor, his shadow stretched by the setting sun into a long, lonely human silhouette.

The silhouette raised its hand.

He should go to the restroom, he thought.

The restroom was empty—a stroke of luck. Yi Wan turned on the faucet and began washing his hands. He scrubbed between every finger with soap, washing away whatever had been hiding in the creases of his skin...

A scarlet red, like dried blood.

The faucet dripped, tick, tick. Yi Wan was just about to leave when the restroom door behind him opened.

The person who walked out was Ding Biehan.

The mixed-race handsome man looked down at him from above. Ding Biehan really was good-looking, and tall besides—when he looked down at him like this, it felt like a glacier pouring down from above, carrying an oppressive weight.

"Uh... you're here too?" Yi Wan said.

His words didn't seem to accomplish anything, because Ding Biehan had already seized his wrist.

Yi Wan flinched, trying to pull free.

"I've seen you before," Ding Biehan said in a low voice.

Ding Biehan's hand was very cold, and Yi Wan's wrist was very slender. When he gripped it, there was a sensation like cold shackles—icy, inescapable. Ding Biehan's hand slid upward, forcibly prying apart each of Yi Wan's fingers, his long eyelashes lowered.

Besides the dripping faucet, the only other sound in the restroom was their breathing.

"What did you see, the day before yesterday?" Ding Biehan said.

"What?" Yi Wan said.

"The day before yesterday. In the fifth-floor restroom," he said.

Ding Biehan stared fixedly into Yi Wan's eyes. In the glow of the setting sun, his amber eyes looked like some kind of nocturnal predator, and pale, delicate Yi Wan looked like his prey.

Yi Wan looked back at him, seeming somewhat uncomfortable. Ding Biehan said, "Were you just washing your hands?"

Yi Wan: ...

"Actually..." Ding Biehan heard Yi Wan's voice say, "I'm not disgusted by you..."

"What."

His voice was still cold.

"Constipation—I understand how that goes," Yi Wan said earnestly. "You don't need to feel nervous about it."

"..."

Yi Wan thought it over, then held up his own hand to show him, and added, "Bleeding hemorrhoids too."

Author's Note:

New book! To celebrate the launch, the first 500 comments on chapter one all get red envelopes~

I hope this story lives up to everyone's expectations!

Also, every character's name is arranged by first initial.

An Yelin: A, representative color red

Bo Jiang: B, representative color green

Chi Jixia: C, representative color yellow

Ding Biehan: D, representative color blue

Yi Wan: E, representative color purple

The group's name is Iris5—Iris carries the meaning of a rainbow, and 5 stands for the five members.