Little Pink Starfish

Shuibingyue: Wocao so handsome!
Binglan□□: Damn, who is this—totally Photoshopped, right?!
Laoshi Tianxia Diyi: How the hell did this dude get that face? If I had that face, I’d be scooping girls up by the handful!
Meinv Momo: LZ if you looked like that, even I, Momo, would be willing to offer myself up!
Huabing Niu’er’er: Am I the only one who still remembers what the OP said? Who’s this guy! The OP clearly said we know him, so he has to be someone we’re all familiar with! Damn it, who is he?! If this kind of stunning beauty was real, Niu Niu would’ve noticed him before, right?!
…
Passerby A: Handsome handsome handsome!
Passerby B: Handsome x1000! Who cares who he is, he’s just hot!
Passerby D: My mom asked me why I’m kneeling in front of the computer!
…
Passerby Meiyou Bing: Based on my expert eye, this screenshot is HD with almost no signs of PS, proving that this hot guy is really a hot guy. I still don’t know who he is, but—did no one notice? Next to that hot guy, there was someone who got cropped out, right? That’s why there are no PS marks! So here’s the question: who got cropped out? If we can find that person, wouldn’t we know who the hot guy is? Please! I need to know who this stunner is! OP, if you keep teasing us, I swear I’ll send you knife emojis!!

—

Weibo went nuts. This was basically “A Bloodbath Triggered by a Hot Guy.”
Everyone was guessing who the Weibo hottie really was. Since the pic was posted by someone from the set, he had to be from the entertainment circle, right?
Could he be a newly discovered actor?
But no way—the tone of the post didn’t match that at all.

The crowd grew larger and larger. Shares skyrocketed. Hashtag trends were flooding in wave after wave. That day’s Weibo trending topics 1, 2, and 3 were all this!

Everyone collectively declared:
—Who cares who the hottie is! He’s mine!
—That hottie belongs to all of us! No one gets to keep him alone!
—What’s the hottie’s identity? We really wanna know!
—WTF is this promo for? Doesn’t matter! We’re eating this hype up!

Of course, some people also became obsessed with the cropped-out figure. They figured that person was either a public figure or someone special. But once identified, wouldn’t that also lead them to the hottie?

↓
In truth, some just felt that cropping him out was a kindness.
Even if they found out who the other person was, it didn’t guarantee they’d find out who the hottie was either…

—That was the result of a “relationship” that hadn’t yet been made public ╮(╯▽╰)╭

At the same time, many actors, directors, and industry people blew up too.
The actors, mostly? Pure envy and jealousy.
Some with more tact? Licking their screens and begging for collabs.
Directors? All scrambling to cast him.
As for the other entertainment figures with ambiguous statuses… well, let’s keep this section “pure” and not go into detail.

Day after day passed, and still no one could figure out the peerless hottie’s identity. It was as if he’d appeared from thin air—completely untraceable!

And those who had seen Gu Bai were forced to shut up for various reasons, scratching their hearts in frustration.
They itched to “accidentally leak” it online a hundred times a day!
But still didn’t dare.
That pain—of having exclusive tea and not being able to spill it—who could understand?!
They wanted to quit their jobs and scream it out loud, okay!

The longer it went on, the stronger the crowd’s enthusiasm became.
This was the world of face-worshippers.
Because of that face, they were obsessed day after day. Refreshing again and again. Refreshing today, tomorrow, and the day after. REFRESH REFRESH REFRESH!

Photos were everywhere.
People started begging for more.
And that OP? Absolute legend. With a flick of the wrist, they dropped more screenshots: various angles, a full-range showcase of gege.

And this time, the pose was different!
He was sitting!
Still that damn handsome while sitting!

Then…

Someone suddenly asked:
“Guys, look… doesn’t his sitting posture seem a little off?”

Damn. One sentence stirred up a thousand waves!

So the fact-checker nerds jumped in for a round of “Find What’s Wrong!”

Scholar A: Based on my expert eye, this was definitely taken on a set. Our hottie was watching people film.
Scholar B: Based on my expert eye… look at the angle of his leg, his waist, his foot…
Scholar C: Screw the analysis! Who needs expert eyes! Isn’t it obvious?! There’s a huge gap between hottie and the chair! Unless he’s a circus performer levitating, something must be supporting him from beneath!
Scholar D (serious face): So here’s the real question: what exactly was between our hottie and the chair?

…Wocao wocao wocao wocao wocao!!!

!!

WHO THE HELL IS THE PIG THAT STOLE OUR HOT GUY?!
And the worst part!
It was obvious at a glance!
The person who stole the hottie wasn’t a girl cuddling a beauty—nope!

#ThisIsASadStory#

In that moment, all the watchers understood why the OP cropped out part of the image.

Because…

The sight of our hottie being “hogged” was just too much.
Unacceptable!
If a hottie like that existed in this world, WHY was he already hogged by a damn pig?!
We refuse to believe it!
Refuse to believe! Refuse to believe! REFUSE TO BELIEVE!!!

…the pain caused by the hottie being stolen far surpassed even the cruel reality that he was a gay man.

And what was the real-life hottie, Gu Bai, doing?

He was half-leaning on a sofa… in the pervert’s arms, flipping through a script.
Yup. A script.

Qiguan Rui had given it to him.
And Qiguan Rui had gotten it from the agent who was now undercover beside the greasy pony man.

The title of the script: Rogue Detective Chronicles
Production company: Leyang Entertainment

And the investor behind it was, apparently, the daughter of a certain government official… a full-on white rich beauty obsessed with detective dramas.

Just seeing this much, it was obvious:
After lying low for a while, the greasy pony man was at it again.

But this time, it was different from before.

There were two reasons:
First, still plagiarism—but now in script form instead of music.
Second, still plagiarism—but the changes were quite extensive.

Gu Bai flipped through it casually and immediately saw:
This was obviously a script version of the old Lu Xiaofeng Legend series.
Every single case plotline was nearly identical.
Only the form had changed—from prose to screenplay.

The main character Lu Xiaofeng? Renamed to Li Xiaoji.
Supporting characters like Hua Manlou and Ye Gucheng?
Became Hua Yingwu and Ye Dujian.
Even Ximen Chuixue? The character still needed to blow blood—so no changes there.
As for Sikong Zhaixing? Dropped the name, just called “Magic Hands Empty.” Who cares about Zhaixing? Can you eat it?

Characters like Jin Jiuling became Jin Taisui.
Ye Guhong turned into Ye Dushou.
Ouyang Qing became Murong Qingqing.
The Daoist Mu became Realman Niu…

In short—everyone got renamed.

Beyond that, place names, key scenes, and specific references were all changed.
The core plot remained intact, easily recognizable, but the surface-level “branches and leaves” were completely altered.

Even if someone pulled out the original work to compare, the plagiarist could just claim “I was inspired” or “great minds think alike.”
Hard to convict!
Even if you dug deep and picked it all apart, with the right backing, that bastard might not lose in court!

Super cost-effective!

Gu Bai massaged his temples.
That greasy pony man used all his IQ for this kind of garbage…

This time, they couldn’t just whip out the original to slap him in the face.
One, they’d already done that once—it would start to insult the audience’s intelligence.
Two, it wouldn’t be satisfying enough, and would only leave them full of rage.

Plus, their style had always been to settle things in one strike!
No endless arguing, thank you!

So this one… was tricky.

Especially because the greasy pony man was shameless enough to use “Gu Long” as his pen name. Like, seriously?

If they called him out, he’d just say he was being honest—it wasn’t plagiarism, he just really liked Gu Long’s stuff and wanted to borrow it.
If they didn’t call him out, and the script sold, he’d make a fortune…

This IP had once been super popular!
There had already been countless adaptations!
Even a knockoff, as long as the core was the same, those renamed characters would still carry loads of charisma.

Mega fan-attracting, okay.

Gu Bai: Unhappy.

Qiguan Rui leaned in gently: “Gege, don’t be upset. Right now that guy’s probably really anxious… let’s leave this one to Kongshan.”

Gu Bai nodded blankly.
Of course he trusted the pervert’s ability!
He could hammer the undead, ultimate cockroach pony man into submission—over and over!

—

Back at the greasy pony man’s house.

His agent, Li Renwang, suddenly burst out of the room holding a laptop.

“Yaowei! Look!”
“Some stranger just sent you a weird email!”
“So… how do you think we should deal with it?”

Yang Yaowei, with his stiff plastic-surgery face, looked at the email.

On the screen, it said:

“Dear Mr. Yang, If you would like your drama to proceed smoothly, please donate all profits to charity. Otherwise… Trust me, this production will be tied up in lawsuits indefinitely. Do you have the capital to burn?”

—Qiguan Rui: Having money is just that arrogant.