I Ran Away with the Scumbag's White Moonlight Chapter 64

However, Shi Jingxian couldn't recall where this sense of familiarity came from. He looked down at Chu Wanhong on the sofa, who was still unconscious. Holding Shi Jingxian's wrist seemed to be an instinctive action to get closer to a heat source.

Lu Lan mentioned that the butler had helped Chu Wanhong change clothes, and his hair had been dried. His fluffy brown hair looked soft and inviting to touch, just like his long, curled eyelashes.

Shi Jingxian had to look away to focus on the inexplicable sense of familiarity that had just appeared. Rational analysis suggested that this feeling was most likely a task aftereffect. After all, the time Shi Jingxian spent on his home planet was less than one percent of the time he spent on task planets.

During tasks, such illusions were not uncommon. Experiencing and repairing others' emotions in so many tasks, even if the task was completed successfully, the restorer had to consider the issue of empathy. This empathy referred not only to the emotional connection between the restorer and the task protagonist but also to the emotional overlap between different tasks.

When the task background and storyline were too similar, the restorer had to face this chaotic illusion. However, if this situation were considered for Shi Jingxian, the possibility was significantly reduced. Since his memory was wiped after a failed task, Shi Jingxian had become particularly aware of such situations due to his previous emotional disorder.

Therefore, from the start of his debt-ridden tasks, Shi Jingxian developed the habit of saving data for post-task analysis. Through post-task reviews and benefit analysis of each action, Shi Jingxian could say goodbye in his own way, completely separating his emotions.

As a result, Shi Jingxian's emotional fluctuation level gradually stabilized at zero, and he no longer experienced emotional confusion in different tasks. The reviews also deepened Shi Jingxian's memory of previous tasks. He roughly recalled the nearly hundred tasks he had completed but couldn't find any memory that could cause this inexplicable sense of familiarity.

Shi Jingxian withdrew his wrist from Chu Wanhong's grasp. So, where did this person give him a sense of familiarity? Looking at the sleeping person, he couldn't help but frown. Could it be something from before his memory was wiped?

Honestly, if Shi Jingxian had encountered someone who inexplicably felt familiar in the first few tasks after his memory was wiped, he might have immediately investigated the person's identity, recent anomalies, and even considered a 7x24 full-time follow-up.

But Chu Wanhong came too late. Expectations and recklessness had been worn down by long task experiences. Shi Jingxian now only used a calm, almost cold rationality to think about this issue—why did he have a reaction now, so long after he had tried everything to find the erased memory without any progress?

The possibility of Chu Wanhong being related to his memory was too small, so small that Shi Jingxian couldn't abandon Gu Yemei's repair plan to verify this possibility. Instead, he began to consider another reason—could this be Gu Yemei's own physical reaction?

With the experience of Ling Yao in Ω2, the credibility of this reason significantly increased. Shi Jingxian adjusted his glasses with a single finger and bent down. Upon closer inspection, the flawless handsome face was even more astonishing. Every contour seemed to be crafted with the utmost care by the creator.

Shi Jingxian stared at Chu Wanhong's face for a while. Due to the bandaging of wounds and anti-inflammatory infusion, Chu Wanhong's condition was much better than when they first met in the evening. However, probably because the fever hadn't subsided, his eyes and ears were still slightly red, and his breathing was a bit heavy.

Seeing the person sleeping so soundly, Shi Jingxian pulled up a photo of Aten from the task storyline in the system. After all, in the main storyline, there was only one mixed-race person with a presence. He carefully compared Aten's face with Chu Wanhong's sleeping face on the sofa.

Then he discovered—hmm... Shi Jingxian couldn't help but rub his nose. He found that he couldn't distinguish between the two faces. Aten was a well-known artist, and the task storyline almost had photos of him from every angle. Comparing these photos with a living person shouldn't be difficult.

But Shi Jingxian really couldn't tell them apart. Because Gu Yemei had a facial recognition disorder, and Shi Jingxian's perception of this task planet was based on Gu Yemei's foundation. As a result, he couldn't distinguish the differences between these two exotic faces.

With no other choice, Shi Jingxian put away Aten's photo. He planned to find time to investigate the people around Cha Nan to see if he could find this mixed-race artist who was about to be promoted. Other than Aten, Shi Jingxian, who had only seen the task storyline, couldn't verify the possibility of other mixed-race acquaintances.

Standing up from the sofa, Shi Jingxian called Gu Baba. At this time, Gu Baba should still be awake. The call was quickly connected. Glancing at the sleeping Chu Wanhong, Shi Jingxian lowered his voice and walked to the balcony, where he wouldn't disturb anyone.

Once his voice was blocked by the door he closed, the living room returned to silence. Only then did the sleeping Chu Wanhong open his eyes. He rubbed his forehead and let out a low sigh of relief. Fortunately, the other party didn't notice... Being so close was really overwhelming.

Chu Wanhong looked down. It seemed that having a young body could also cause trouble. Although the recovery speed could be adjusted to the fastest without arousing suspicion, the youthful vigor... seemed a bit too strong.

Chu Wanhong raised his hand, gently touching his dry lips with the fingertips that still retained Shi Jingxian's warmth. His emerald green eyes, hidden by long eyelashes, concealed the light in his eyes. It seemed that his planned cohabitation and long-term stay plan needed to include a countermeasure for this situation.

That night, both had their own thoughts. But they weren't the only ones with concerns. That night, news of a car accident and subsequent fire at Cha's studio spread. The entire accident resulted in two deaths, including the drunk driver and a props assistant, with three others seriously injured and nearly ten lightly injured. Due to the dry winter and the studio's accumulation of complex wiring and lighting, the fire area was large, and the flames were not completely extinguished until an hour later.

Once lives were involved, the severity of the accident escalated. Cha's apparent property loss was already a certainty, and in the entertainment industry, many believed in feng shui and fate, so such an incident would inevitably lead to people feeling unlucky and ominous.

To calculate losses and handle the aftermath, Cha's company was in chaos. However, the situation didn't end there. Among the three seriously injured, one was the car's front passenger, another was a field worker, and the third was Zhang Dui, the leader of the idol boy group "Tomorrow Group."

Tomorrow Group is a singing and dancing idol group with four members, all under the age of twenty-five. Due to the recent airing of several variety shows they participated in and the success of their album released in the second half of the year, Tomorrow Group's popularity had been rising, attracting many active fans.

Therefore, when news of the leader's serious injury spread, it immediately became a hot topic on major social platforms. Clicking in, it was all fans praying for blessings. Prayers couldn't completely alleviate the fans' anxious emotions, and Tomorrow Group's company, Cha's, quickly became the target of fans' complaints.

Moreover, the accident occurred at Cha's studio, and fans, both online and offline, organized to hold Cha's accountable. If idols were like fans' dear brothers, then the idols' management company was like the stepmother they tagged three times a day to scold. However, this time, Cha's statement was released quickly and was relatively objective. Considering Zhang Dui's treatment, rational fans began to step in and call for calm.

The fans' agitation was temporarily suppressed, and they anxiously awaited the accident's cause and injury report. It was during this brief silence after the explosive news that some information suddenly spread like wildfire.

According to an anonymous on-site staff member, all four members of Tomorrow Group were present in the studio at the time. However, the person originally closest to the accident vehicle was not the most seriously injured Zhang Dui, but another member of the group, Guo Bei.

The staff member stated that it was because Zhang Dui shielded Guo Bei from the impact that Zhang Dui ended up seriously injured while Guo Bei only had minor scratches. When this news spread, the fans of both Zhang Dui and Guo Bei exploded.

Like other idol groups in the country, Tomorrow Group was a typical case where group fans couldn't compete with individual fans. Among the four members, Zhang Dui's individual fans were the most powerful, followed closely by the youngest member Yi Ren's fans, with the other two's individual fans evenly matched.

Upon hearing that Zhang Dui was injured because of Guo Bei, Zhang Dui's fans flooded the comments section of Guo Bei's retweet of the company's statement. Their concern for their idol quickly turned into anger and hatred towards the teammate.

In addition to individual fans and group fans, Tomorrow Group also had another type of fan that couldn't be ignored—CP fans. Before the incident, the CP fans of Zhang Dui x Yi Ren and Zhang Dui x Guo Bei were the most numerous. After the fire incident, besides Guo Bei, who "accidentally caused Zhang Dui's serious injury," what infuriated Zhang Dui's fans the most were the CP fans who usually thrived on drama and blood-sucking—Zhang Dui x Guo Bei's CP fans even saw this accident as proof of Zhang Dui's care for Guo Bei.

This behavior of finding sweetness in blood completely enraged Zhang Dui's individual fans, and for a while, the hottest focus of public opinion was on the fan wars. Zhang Dui and Guo Bei were pushed to the forefront of public opinion, and the truth of the accident was overshadowed by the escalating fan wars. Yi Ren, who was initially involved due to a stalker following the car, was not implicated.

Just as Zhang Guo CP fans were being mass-reported and banned, the local authorities finally released an official accident statement with a blue background and white text.

"On xx day at xx time, a car accident occurred at xx number, Qiming Road, Buxiang District, in our city, which subsequently led to a fire accident..."

The statement was concise, with the most informative part being a sentence in the middle—

"To fulfill the passenger's tracking and filming requirements, the driver of the white car agreed to drive under the influence."

The first hot comment after the statement was—

"Oh my... was this a car accident caused by a stalker chasing the car while drunk driving?"

At the same time, a simulation video of the accident scene was publicly released. The video showed that the person closest to the point of impact was an artist holding a bass. Only Zhang Dui played the bass in the group, meaning the news that Zhang Dui was seriously injured because of Guo Bei was not true.

After the statement was released, Guo Bei's fans quickly prepared a long clarification post overnight, with a prize draw amounting to over ten thousand, and within twenty-four hours, the repost count exceeded fifty thousand. The topic "Guo Bei was innocently slandered" was also pushed to the trending list.

On the other hand, the identity of the stalker fan who chased the car was also exposed, but her Weibo seemed to only show group fan attributes, with much of the original content deleted.

Meanwhile, Zhang Dui's injury report was released, showing moderate burns all over his body, with no short-term recovery possible. Guo Bei's fans had planned to start a topic on "Guo Bei being cyberbullied," but due to Zhang Dui's injuries, they ultimately withdrew the tag.

The situation seemed to be ending with both sides' fans suffering losses, and the accident news gradually being overshadowed by other news. Until a video, suspected to be shot on-site, circulated on a short video platform.

The video was blurry, with everything except the distant firelight shrouded in darkness. However, the on-site voices were clear enough to be recognized.

"I-I didn't mean to... I wasn't driving the car, I just wanted to take some photos of Yi Ren ge, sob... my leg hurts so much... where's the ambulance, why hasn't it arrived yet..."

Yi Ren's individual fans reacted quickly, immediately starting to identify post-production in the video, trying to find evidence that the names of the other members were cut out, leaving only Yi Ren to take the blame.

But before they could prove their innocence, Zhang Dui's fans had already identified the stalker fan's personal account on the short video platform through voice recognition. The account's attributes were very clear—the name directly included Yi Ren's fan name, and most of the content published was about Yi Ren alone, even including a self-shot short video the stalker fan posted that night, announcing her plan to secretly film.

With solid evidence, the long-suppressed Zhang Dui and Guo Bei fans collectively turned their firepower towards Yi Ren. Yi Ren's public relations were faster than expected, with topics like "Stalker fan is not a fan," "Fan behavior doesn't represent the idol," and "Yi Ren won't take the blame" alternately pushed to the trending list. The stalker fan's car chase that overturned the studio left Yi Ren still a clean and good idol.

The situation had its twists and turns, and even fans could get tired, not to mention the passersby who were already fed up with the drama. The news that the stalker fan was Yi Ren's individual fan didn't have a significant negative impact on Yi Ren, as in the eyes of passersby who didn't care about fan circles, the fan's mistake wasn't taught by Yi Ren.

Yi Ren's fans seized this point and pushed hard, almost turning Yi Ren into another example against cyberbullying, following Guo Bei. The final solid evidence returned to the main battlefield of the topic list, Weibo.

An account claiming to be a fan-turned-passerby posted a long essay and attached images as evidence—this former fan who had left the fandom provided evidence of the stalker fan's private contact with Yi Ren. Before the group's formation, Cha's selected the group members through a voting and ranking system, with real money and silver used by fans to vote. It was during this time that the stalker fan spent heavily to vote for Yi Ren and obtained the contact information of Yi Ren, who was then just a trainee.

In the three years since Yi Ren officially debuted, the stalker fan had long been secretly filming Yi Ren multiple times, even boasting about being the only one who could follow Yi Ren, acting as a fan leader for a long time, attracting many young Yi Ren fans, and then rebranding after being banned.

The stalker fan's original account was a big fan with hundreds of thousands of followers, and this account had even posted special autographs from Yi Ren, leaving Yi Ren with no chance to defend himself. An idol privately contacting fans is a serious misconduct and a taboo in fan circles. After the solid evidence was released, even the big fans who had been writing long essays to comfort fans fell silent.

Guo Bei's fans also realized—our brother clearly took the hit for Yi Ren. The accumulated resentment from previous false information was all vented on Yi Ren, and for a while, various prize draws, long essays, and Weibo posts were flying everywhere, and the fans of Tomorrow Group were completely in chaos.

Zhang Dui's individual fans, Guo Bei's individual fans, and Zhang Guo CP fans jointly denounced Yi Ren, and even Zhang Dui x Yi Ren's CP fans massively left the fandom and turned against him. Yi Ren's rational fans mostly left the fandom, and some fans couldn't bear the daily insults to their idol and temporarily left the circle.

Although the fan leaders were still calling for support, with the addition of a large number of zombie fans, Yi Ren's fan count still dropped by a full twenty thousand in a short time. With Weibo's mechanism, the increase was likely zombie fans, but the decrease was all active fans.

In the end, Yi Ren, who was originally scheduled to represent the group at a press conference, canceled the plan and disappeared from the public eye. The situation had evolved beyond just fan wars. Cha's entire company was busy, and internal power struggles gradually surfaced.

According to information from company insiders, after the accident, apart from visiting Zhang Dui together the next day, Guo Bei and Yi Ren hadn't met since. When Shi Jingxian received this information, he was taking a break to eat a sandwich, and Zhou Shan's words on the phone were concise—

"Yi Ren's public relations expenses exceeded the budget by five times, and now it's all gone, the water army has already started to retreat."

At the same time, the system prompt sounded in his ear.

"Ding—Task repair progress, 15%."

Shi Jingxian turned the sandwich in his hand and took a bite from another corner. "What's Yi Ren's sponsor's attitude?"

"He went three times yesterday, didn't see him in person, and the call duration didn't exceed ten seconds."

Shi Jingxian took a third bite and smiled. "Thank you, A Shan."

Busy dealing with Tomorrow Group's affairs, Cha Nan was overwhelmed and hadn't had time to bother Gu Yemei again. However, his online messages hadn't stopped, still expressing his desire to reconcile, clearly not giving up.

Shi Jingxian ignored him and directly blocked him. Once Yi Ren was dealt with, it would be time to settle accounts with Cha Nan. Although he had already told Gu Baba about the breakup, Shi Jingxian planned to find another time to explain the situation to his family in detail, to prevent them from being affected by Cha Nan's apologies.

However, before he could call his family, Gu Baba took the initiative to call him. "A Mei, about what you asked me before, the matter with Xiao Chu, your mom told me she found some information."

"Hmm?" Shi Jingxian thought for a moment before realizing it was about whether Chu Wanhong and Gu Yemei had met in the past. He only felt that Chu Wanhong was inexplicably familiar but couldn't find the reason, so he asked Gu Baba to inquire.

"You were right, you did meet when you were kids," Gu Baba said. "But Xiao Chu was only three or four years old at the time. Not to mention you, even I didn't recognize him when I saw him that day."

Shi Jingxian tried to recall but ultimately chose to give up. The task storyline fast-forwarded through the protagonist's childhood experiences, and some information unrelated to the collapse was even directly omitted. No matter how good Shi Jingxian's memory was, he couldn't find any information related to Chu Wanhong.

He directly asked, "Dad, how did we know each other back then?" The person on the other end of the line changed. "A Mei?"

"Mom, I'm listening." Gu Mama sighed before saying, "A Mei, do you remember Aunt Chu from when you were little? The one who always liked to wear red dresses. She was my college classmate and later collaborated with Yangfan until she immigrated and married a British man over a decade ago, and we lost touch."

Yangfan was Gu Mama's company. Shi Jingxian frowned, "Chu Wanhong is Aunt Chu's son?"

"Yes, your Aunt Chu just returned to the country this year, and Xiao Chu came with her. But it seems they had some disagreements before, and Xiao Chu ran away from home in a fit of anger and hasn't returned for over a month, which has worried your Aunt Chu a lot."

Perhaps because she was also a mother, Gu Mama couldn't help but sigh as she spoke. Aunt Chu happened to be discussing a project with Gu Mama these days, and when Shi Jingxian asked about the nineteen-year-old mixed-race child, Gu Mama remembered that they had met before and tentatively asked Aunt Chu, and the information matched.

Shi Jingxian thought for a moment, "I haven't seen him in the past few days, but he mentioned his address to me before. Mom, why don't you give the address to Aunt Chu and let her pick him up?"

"No, no," Gu Mama quickly said, "Xiao Chu seems to still be angry with the family. Your Aunt Chu found him several times before, but the child ran away again. So your Aunt Chu repeatedly asked us not to tell Xiao Chu about her."

Shi Jingxian raised an eyebrow. He hadn't noticed that the seemingly obedient Chu Wanhong in front of him could do something so willful. "Sigh, Qianqian is a strong woman, decisive and successful in her career, but she can't handle matters with her child," Gu Mama sighed. "She doesn't know how much effort she's put into Xiao Chu."

Shi Jingxian thought for a moment and didn't mention Chu Wanhong's injury. Since the mother and son couldn't meet, saying it would only add to the worry. He could apologize after their conflict was resolved. He asked, "So what should we do about Chu Wanhong?"

Gu Mama didn't answer directly but instead said, "Speaking of which, A Mei, you met when you were little. You were only thirteen or fourteen at the time, and Xiao Chu was sick and didn't want an injection, crying. In the end, you held him for the injection..."

Shi Jingxian was thoughtful. So that inexplicable sense of familiarity did indeed come from Gu Yemei's memory? As he was thinking, he heard Gu Mama ask, "A Mei, I heard from your dad that you and Xiao Chu get along well... Are you busy lately? Can Xiao Chu stay with you for a while?"