Chapter 19: It’s good that it’s you. Maybe your soul has really been replaced by another one? …

The program was recorded smoothly even after the change of cast, but the news that Tang Ruining would participate had already been circulated on the Internet. After the show was broadcast, fans and others found that the reliable rumors were actually false, and they couldn't help but begin to wonder whether the news was wrong or the program team made a temporary adjustment.

Fans all told others not to spread rumors, but they couldn't help but feel that the program production team deliberately spread false news to attract traffic to the program. At this time, someone came out to reveal that Tang Ruining was indeed invited and he did go, but he broke the contract and left at the last minute, which made him look like a big shot.

Rumors always get more and more outrageous. Many people took the opportunity to fish in troubled waters, and rivals helped to buy articles. After several discussions, the rumor that Tang Ruining was a big shot has been confirmed. Some people even described the details clearly and made it sound like the truth. The company deleted several posts, but Tang Ruining's reputation had already been affected.

[It’s normal for him to do this, okay? He usually acts so arrogant and doesn’t care about anyone. Fans will only say that my brother is a true person and doesn’t know how to flatter or curry favor with others. I said he would fail sooner or later because of his cool image that he is out of touch with the world.]

[I clicked on it. All those who force their characters to be like this will fail. What do you mean by true character, cool guy, and husband? Aren’t they just rude and pretentious? [Laughing and crying]]

[Oh no, they started deleting posts. Some people's defenses were broken by what they said. Can they still maintain the aloof personality that they have maintained for so long? [smirk]]

Tang Ruining himself didn't really care about it, and he didn't elaborate when the company asked him what happened. Several members knew that Tang Ruining was a man who knew his limits. If he hadn't been really provoked, he wouldn't have left at this moment. Even if he himself was unwilling to explain too much, his own people would stand on his side and firmly believed that he was not at fault.

They also have to focus on formal professional preparation now, and don't have much time to deal with these.

The regular album release is scheduled for the summer, and the company plans to shoot the MV for the title song at the beach.

The photos were taken in advance, when the weather was not yet hot, and I felt a little cold even after getting wet at the beach. After filming a while, he sat down and took a rest wrapped in a big towel. When Tang Ruining walked over, Jiang Yilan was holding up his phone and watching a video. He sat down next to Jiang Yilan and heard the voice of Jiang Yilan's mother on the other end.

As soon as he sat down, Jiang Yilan turned around and said to Wei Qiyao on the other end, "It's Rui Ning."

Wei Qiyao also knew about the discord between Tang Ruining and her son. When she asked Jiang Yilan about it before, he didn't like to say too much. He just said that Tang Ruining was annoying and he didn't know why he was being so noble and was very annoying. But now Jiang Yilan would smile whenever he mentioned Tang Ruining, and it seemed like he had a very good relationship with him.

In fact, putting aside the conflicts between Jiang Yilan and him in the past, Wei Qiyao really likes Tang Ruining. He has watched To5's performances and variety shows, and has actually met him in person. He thinks he is a very down-to-earth guy, without so many tricks, and has outstanding business skills. In the past, she and Jiang Yilan were not on good terms, but it was just because the two kids had different personalities. Now, everything is fine and the two of them can get along harmoniously. Wei Qiyao is very happy.

"Oh, Ruining." Wei Qiyao's smiling voice came from the phone, "How about you guys come together for dinner after you're done?"

Wei Qiyao had suggested before that the five of them get together at her house, but of course Jiang Yilan disagreed at that time.

Jiang Yilan looked at Tang Ruining and asked for his opinion. Tang Ruining suddenly sat up straighter, like a parent, and said, "I'm fine with anything."

"Then let me know when you're free after filming, and I'll ask Aunt Fang to prepare the food."

"Okay, thank you for your hard work, Aunt Fang." said Li Xi.

"Hey, it's not hard. Aunt Fang has always wanted to meet your teammates. She will be very happy that you are here."

The MV director was calling someone on the other end. Li Xi and Wei Qiyao said goodbye, hung up the video, and went over with Tang Ruining. Tang Ruining followed him, and when he was almost there, he suddenly asked, "Did your mother ask all five of us to go?"

Li Xi didn't think about this question carefully, "Really?"

Tang Ruining nodded and said nothing.

Wei Qiyao and Rong Xiao are more familiar with each other, but the others are rarely seen. Wei Qiyao specifically told them in advance not to bring gifts when they came, but she still bought some fruits and flowers.

It was no different from going to the leader's house for dinner, everyone was a little reserved. Not to mention them, Li Xi couldn't change his habit of treating himself as a guest. After all, he had not stayed at home for very long since he became Jiang Yilan.

But as more people chatted for a while, the atmosphere became much more relaxed. Yuan Zhiyan kept praising Jiang Yilan and said that the mother and son looked alike and were both very good-looking. When Yuan Zhiyan praises people, it doesn't feel like flattery. One can feel that he is speaking from the heart, which makes Wei Qiyao very happy.

Tang Ruining found that there were a wide variety of dishes on the table, but there was not a single one that he disliked. He is a bit picky about food. Usually, at a dinner party with a lot of people, he will not eat at least half of the dishes.

Aunt Fang’s cooking skills are very good and everyone was very satisfied with the meal. After dinner, Wei Qiyao suggested that they stay here. There were enough rooms at home and everyone would have nothing to do tomorrow morning. But they all declined politely because they felt embarrassed.

Unexpectedly, Tang Ruining agreed.

Except for Li Wei, the other three looked at him as if they had seen a ghost.

"It's nothing anyway." Tang Ruining said.

There's really something wrong with Tang Ruining lately. Rong Xiao came to the conclusion, when did he start to like living in someone else's house?

The three of them looked at each other, without raising any objections, and left the Jiang family after saying goodbye to Wei Qiyao.

Wei Qiyao was in high spirits and asked Aunt Fang to cut a lot of fruit, while she kept chatting with the two of them. Tang Ruining is not a talkative person and is not very good at dealing with enthusiastic elders. Li Xi took advantage of a gap in the conversation and suggested that he and Tang Ruining go out for a walk after dinner to resolve the slightly awkward situation.

The villa area where the Jiang family lives is very quiet. The houses are far apart and there is ample space for walking. The landscaping was well done and the flowers nearby were blooming brightly. The two were walking slowly, admiring the flowers, when they suddenly heard a voice behind them.

"Jiang Yilan!" a female voice called him.

Li Xi turned around and saw a strange face, but they met him near their home. Was he someone Jiang Yilan knew before?

Li Xi didn't say anything, waiting for her to speak first.

But the confusion in his eyes seemed to anger the woman. She took a few steps forward and sneered, "Are you really going to pretend that you don't know me now?"

This tone instantly reminded Li Xi of the person who had sent him text messages these days.

In addition to that time, he later received text messages with similar content, and he never replied. Every now and then, this number would send him strange text messages.

How could we meet here? Did he know that I was going home today and came to find me?

Tang Ruining took a step forward, blocking half of his body, "Who are you?"

"Who am I? Ask him." The woman pointed at Jiang Yilan and shouted, "He suddenly deleted my WeChat and blocked me! I didn't delete the chat history. You contacted fans privately. Did you think I wouldn't be exposed?"

In fact, there is nothing wrong with the chat history. Jiang Yilan used to be very cautious in this regard and would not send messages even if someone added him on WeChat.

A fan I met at a book signing. She was very pretty. She knew she was his illegitimate fan but didn’t mind. She added his contact information. However, he found her annoying. She sent WeChat messages to him every day asking to meet up. She kept sending messages when he didn’t get a reply. It seemed that she thought he was Jiang Yilan’s girlfriend, so he deleted her and blocked her.

Tang Ruining looked back at Li Xi, who shook his head slightly to indicate that he didn't.

Tang Ruining also knew what was going on. He had now clearly separated his past with Jiang Yilan from the present Jiang Yilan, and secretly cursed the former Jiang Yilan in his heart.

The woman's mental state didn't look good, and her eyes looked very similar to the last time when she followed a car and rear-ended it, and then rushed up and wanted to hit people. Tang Ruining blocked Jiang Yilan more tightly and said, "Please leave, or I will call the police."

When the woman heard this, she first widened her eyes in disbelief, then burst into laughter.

"Call the police, you do it!"

"Calling the police to arrest the fans is really unacceptable."

Tang Ruining looked at her coldly and took out his cell phone from his pocket.

Li Wei held his hand and shook his head.

He walked to a position side by side with Tang Ruining and asked her, "Security is very strict here, how did you get in?"

She snorted and laughed, not understanding the point of Jiang Yilan asking this, "I have my own way."

"Don't come here again. I'll call security and you won't be able to come in again." Li Wei said, "You can post whatever you want on the Internet."

He called the security guard of the villa area to come over. The woman took a step back unconsciously and raised her voice: "Do you think I won't really send it?"

Li Xi shook her head and said calmly, "No, you really can post it. I can't interfere with you."

The woman glared at them with a look of extreme hatred, which circled around the two men's faces several times, muttering something. Soon, several flashlights shone over from a distance. The woman cursed inwardly, turned around and ran away.

This villa area is inhabited by wealthy families who pay high property fees. The security guard bowed to Li Xi to apologize, but Li Xi stopped him and said, "Don't apologize since it has already happened. Just be more careful next time."

The security guard praised him repeatedly and made a lot of promises to him before leaving.

"Why didn't you let me call the police?" Tang Ruining, who had been silent for a long time, asked, "If you don't learn a lesson, maybe she will suddenly appear in front of you next time. Will you be soft-hearted towards such a person?"

"I'm not being soft-hearted." Li Xi said, "You shouldn't get involved in this kind of thing again. Not long ago, you were accused of being a big shot. If it gets out that you called the police to arrest your fans, that won't be good."

"No matter if it's stalking or not, as long as you call the police and she posts it online, the rumors about you being a big shot will get worse."

Tang Ruining looked at him: "I don't care."

"I don't mind, okay?" Li Xi smiled helplessly, looked at his frowning brows, and gently pulled his arm, "Okay, let's just forget about it, don't be upset. There's a small garden over there, and many dogs raised by owners gather there every night, shall we go for a walk?"

There was a little Pomeranian who came over to rub Li Wei's legs when he saw him. Li Wei squatted down and touched its head, and introduced it to Tang Ruining: "Its name is Xiao Tangyuan."

The person walking it was a housewife from a certain household. She also knew Li Xi and greeted him, "You're home, Xiao Jiang."

Li Xi smiled: "Yes, I brought a friend with me."

The small glutinous rice dumpling looked like a furry snowball. Li Xi played with it for a while. When he turned around, he saw Tang Ruining taking pictures of the small glutinous rice dumpling with his mobile phone.

"It's cute, isn't it?" Li Wei picked up the dog and let Tang Ruining pet it.

In the distance, there was a German Shepherd sitting quietly. It didn't play with other dogs. It stood upright with a very serious expression.

"Look at that German Shepherd." Li Wei said to Tang Ruining, "You looked like it when you had a gloomy face just now."

Tang Ruining looked over, and the German Shepherd raised his head and met his eyes, its erect ears moving. The man and the dog observed each other for a few seconds, and Tang Ruining said, "I'm more handsome than it."

"That's true." Li Xi suppressed a smile, "You are the most handsome."

Although it was a joke, Tang Ruining turned around and looked at him seriously, "Really?"

Li Xi said affirmatively: "Really."

Tang Ruining thought for a moment and suddenly asked, "Who is more handsome, me or Huang Ming?"

Huang Ming is a member of another idol group Cherry Pit, which is a newly debuted boy band. One time when they were chatting about this group, Li Xi mentioned him and praised him for being very handsome, and he was also the main dancer of the group.

Li Xi didn't expect Tang Ruining's thoughts to jump so much, but he still answered him: "Of course, you are more handsome."

Tang Ruining seemed satisfied now. Li Xi couldn't help but find it funny. It turned out that Tang Ruining would care about this.

When they got home, one of the guest rooms had already been cleaned up, but Li Wei still took Tang Ruining to his own room to take a look. The first thing he saw was the huge painting. Tang Ruining still remembered which performance it was on.

Because he had an impression of this dress, Jiang Yilan was not satisfied with the dress backstage and wanted to change it temporarily. The assistant and Rong Xiao both coaxed and persuaded him, and Tang Ruining almost wanted to have a fit. Fortunately, Jiang Yilan still wore it.

He felt as if he was in another world. The person in the painting and the living Jiang Yilan standing in front of him now seemed not to be the same person.

"When you woke up and found that you couldn't remember anything from before, were you scared?" Tang Ruining asked him while looking at the painting.

No one had ever asked him this question. Li Xi was stunned for a moment and repeated in a low voice: "Are you scared..."

The situation was so chaotic and shocking at the time that I didn't seem to realize that I was afraid. The only thing in my mind was how to deal with the next situation. When he recalls it now, he is of course afraid. Even now, Li Xi often dreams of the day when he was hit by a car. In his dream, he can see his bloody corpse, hear someone's hysterical screams, and feel his body being crushed by the impact. I woke up in a cold sweat. The pain from the dream seemed to be spreading to my limbs, and my hands and feet were cold and numb.

"I'm scared." Li Wei answered him, "I don't know what happened. I'm very panicked."

Tang Ruining heard him exhale very lightly and asked himself: "Ruining, do you believe that people have souls?"

Tang Ruining said: "I don't believe it."

"I don't believe it either. When a person dies, they are dead. There is no way their soul will remain in the world." Li Xi said calmly to the painting, but it seemed that he was not looking at the person in the painting. "That's what I thought before."

"Before? Don't you think so now?"

"Now... now I'm not sure. Maybe supernatural things really exist." He looked at Tang Ruining with a smile, "For example, you all said that I'm like a completely different person. Maybe my soul really has changed?"

After a moment of silence, Tang Ruining said softly, as if talking to himself: "It's good that it's you."