Chaos reigned again in the kitchen, and after a long bout of commotion, the dishes were finally ready.

Although… today's food had a slightly burnt taste to it.

Maybe it was because everyone was in such a good mood, but even so, Xiao Nainai and Xia Xiyao still ate with great appetite.

This made Gu Xingyi feel a little emotional. Sometimes, it really wasn't about how delicious the food was—it was about how happy the whole family felt together.

After the meal, the whole family sat on the sofa. Gu Xingyi finally pulled out his phone and sent a message to Su Ling on WeChat to ask about the children's song.

Not long after, the WeChat notification tone sounded.

    "Mr. Gu, you're the one who created the song~ We're only using it for the kindergarten welcome event. We won't use it anywhere else, so you can do whatever you want with it. No need to ask us!"

It was clear Su Ling was in a good mood too. Gu Xingyi chuckled—dealing with sweet people like this really was a blessing. No schemes, no mind games.

After receiving Su Ling's reply, Gu Xingyi told Xia Xiyao.

Even though it was a super embarrassing moment for him, at worst, he could just avoid looking at it himself—out of sight, out of mind!

But things didn't go the way Gu Xingyi hoped. Once Yun-jie received the message from Xia Xiyao, she and Tao Lele trimmed and polished the video, and uploaded it directly to Xia Xiyao's Weibo.

…

At that very moment, netizens were still passionately discussing the upcoming StarSong Gathering finals, completely unaware that a brand-new bombshell was about to drop.

Xiao Hong was a housewife. Her husband worked a 9-to-5 corporate job, so she had lots of free time every day. Just like now—she was lounging on the sofa, half-reclined, munching on half a watermelon and scrolling through her phone.

She had another identity—she was the group admin of the "Xia Xiyao♡Gu Xingyao♡Gu Xingyi Family Fan Chat"!

She had been a Xia Xiyao fan for a very long time. Her phone held loads of Xia Xiyao's songs—not just the ones written by Gu Xingyi since her comeback, but also songs from three years ago.

When Xia Xiyao left the industry three years ago, Xiao Hong had transformed from a young girl into someone's wife. And when Xia Xiyao returned, her love for her had remained unchanged.

Xiao Hong's finger slid across her screen. The fan group was full of recent talk about Xia Xiyao, but she had already seen all of it.

A little disappointed, Xiao Hong switched over to Weibo. Her eyes lit up at once—Xia Xiyao, who rarely updated her Weibo, had actually posted something new!

She quickly tapped on the post. It was a video, and there were already quite a few comments underneath it.

Smiling, Xiao Hong thought, Finally, this woman has posted something! Her finger moved swiftly and tapped on the video. But what greeted her was a bit of a letdown—it was Gu Xingyi in the video.

"Huh? Why is it him?"

She mumbled to herself but kept watching. After all, love for one extended to love for all—she now considered herself a fan of the whole Xia Xiyao family!

In the video, Gu Xingyi was doing silly motions, gesturing with both hands, and singing a children's song that felt refreshingly catchy.

His actions and singing made Xiao Hong burst out laughing. She truly hadn't expected that someone like Gu Xingyi—normally associated with mystery—could be this kind of person in daily life!

Childish, yet adorable! Xia Xiyao must be really happy living in a home like this.

Xiao Hong watched the video once, then replayed it again. The more she listened, the more addictive the song became.

Excited, she rushed to the fan group, typed a message, and sent it out.

   "Everyone, quick! Go check Xia Xiyao's Weibo! There's something awesome up!"

The group was quiet for a second—then exploded. Their normally silent group admin had spoken?

   "Something awesome? Is it a Xia Xiyao photobook? (lewd emoji)"

   "Get real! Since her debut, Xia Xiyao hasn't even posted a single casual selfie!"

   "Curious, curious! I'm going to check it out right now!"

   "What kind of treasure is it? The group admin really knows how to tease—making me go see it for myself!"

   "Only an idiot would still be chatting in the group at this point. Didn't you notice most people already went silent?"

   "??? Then what are you doing?"

While the group chat buzzed in one corner, the real explosion was just beginning online. Many eagle-eyed viewers had already spotted the video, and after watching it over and over, they were frantically recommending it to their friends and family.

   "Go look at Xia Xiyao's Weibo! That guy Gu Xingyi is online performing ‘Dig, dig, dig'! Holy crap, it's addictive!"

Like a single stone stirring up waves, by the end of the afternoon, everyone knew Xia Xiyao had posted on Weibo—a video featuring none other than Gu Xingyi!

A children's song! Another children's song!

Countless people flooded to Xia Xiyao's Weibo in excitement to witness the spectacle. That last children's song was still fresh in everyone's mind! "A Burst of Courage" was such a banger!

By 8 PM, Xia Xiyao's post had already climbed to the top of the trending list.

As everyone knows, the best part of dumbbird netizens is always the comment section! And under this Weibo post, the comments were even more entertaining than the video itself!

   "First listen: What the hell is this?

   Second listen: ‘In a tiny little garden, dig, dig, dig~'"

   "HAHAHAHA I'm dying—are you telling me this is Gu Xingyi?!"

   "The image is collapsing! Bro! I can't take it anymore! I'm dying laughing—I wanna plant flowers now!"

   "Plant huuuuuuge seeds, grow huuuuuuge flowers! (picture of Gu Xingyi dancing)"

   "In a tiny little office, crawl, crawl, crawl~ Earn a teeny tiny salary, and still don't dare to spend it!"

   "Help! My daughter's already singing along! Now I can't get ‘dig, dig, dig' out of my head!"

   Ahem ahem! "Not me, though! I'm a 500-month-old baby and I was vibing!"

   "See? Having kids really does bring joy that us single dogs just can't understand! As long as the kid isn't a little demon, that is."

   "Come on! Who the hell's still calling Gu Xingyi a violent guy? I'll fight you! Who's ever seen a violent man acting this cute? Dig, dig, dig?"

   "I can't hold it anymore! Let me laugh a bit longer! Y'all keep digging~"

What was clearly just a simple children's song had suddenly become a massive source of joy for the internet. By 9 p.m., the song had officially hit the number one spot on the trending chart.

Poor Gu Xingyi had no idea any of this was happening—he was still enjoying some happy family time.

Meanwhile, at that very moment in a luxury mansion in Modu, Yin Ping sat there pitifully sipping some booze while staring at the now-viral Weibo post.

He'd not only lost his job, but also got a thorough scolding from Cheng Di. And it wasn't just Cheng Di—even his jiejie, who was also Cheng Di's mother, had ripped into him like a storm.

Yin Ping still believed he wasn't wrong! Wasn't this how the entertainment industry always worked before? Why was it suddenly a problem now? Besides, wasn't he doing it for Cheng Di's own good?

The more he thought about it, the more frustrated he felt. All he could do was drown his sorrows in alcohol. That's when he saw Xia Xiyao's Weibo trending again.

"Damn it! It's all Wu Fan's fault!"

The more he looked, the angrier he got. Yin Ping smashed the bottle to the floor in a fit of rage, convinced that if Wu Fan had written a better song, none of this would've happened.

And to be fair, that wasn't entirely wrong—if Wu Fan had managed to write something that could compete with "Sea of Flowers," the mentors' votes wouldn't have been questioned, and this whole mess would've been avoided.

Yin Ping pushed all the blame onto Wu Fan, and without hesitation, picked up the phone and called him.

The call connected quickly, and before Wu Fan could even speak, Yin Ping exploded.

"Trash! This is all your fault! You dare call yourself the godfather of music?! You personally swore there'd be no issue with this song! You're just a decorative pillow—pretty on the outside, useless on the inside! Pah!"