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Thank you for the patience! As promised, I’ll do a three chapters update for today~
Jian Xingsui has never thought that life could be so dreamy.
He was lying on the hospital bed, recalling in his mind the conversation with Actor Fu not long ago during his stay in the hospital. After Jian Xingsui nodded, Actor Fu was silent for a while. The silence suffocated the youth in suspense, and just as he was thinking about clarifying his answer, Fu Jinxiao instead asked him:
“When will your contract with the agency expire?”
Jian Xingsui was dumbfounded: “Huh?”
After that, Actor Fu left, but before leaving him with one sentence, “If your contract expires, or if you want to terminate it in advance, come and discuss it with me.”
Again, Jian Xingsui was left dumbfounded. This time, he was finally alone.
He was still riddled with fever, so he couldn’t think clearly. After muddling drowsily on his bed for a while, he gave up trying to parse through Fu Jinxiao’s cryptic words and fell asleep once again thanks to his medication.
When he woke up after that, a staff member of the program team called Xiao Mi1it should be “Little Mi” but it looked awkward as a name…, took care of him and said, “Fu-ge has something to do at the moment, he is busy with other jobs, and he flew overnight last night, so I will take care of you in his stead.”
Jian Xingsui was very grateful: “Thank you, I have troubled you.”
Xiao Mi sighed and said: “No need to thank me. Anyway, we are friends who have worked together or… since you are popular now, I guess we aren’t friends anymore…”
Jian Xingsui shook his head quickly: “No, no, it’s not.”
Xiao Mi was his partner Jian Xingsui had worked with during his stunt as a temporary helper for this show. During that time, he needed to work to make a living, plus he really didn’t want to live in the Zhang family’s house.
“But…” Jian Xingsui hesitated, “Am I really popular?”
When Xiao Mi heard that, he was delighted to tell Jian Xingsui the truth, “You are so popular, especially yesterday, you were the most popular person voted by the audience. You know who fickle they are, and yet, you still won the ‘Popularity King’ vote against everyone!”
Jian Xingsui was still doubtful, “True or not.”
Xiao Mi pinched his waist and said, “What would I lie to you about this?”
But then, Xiao Mi remembered about the show’s rule about not allowing the trainees access to their mobile phones, and so he understood Jian Xingsui’s line of thought. There’s no camera in the hospital, so he dared to sneakily give the youth his mobile phone. He opened the Weibo app as he whispered conspiratorially, “I gave it to you because we are friends, so don’t tell others.”
Jian Xingsui looked at the mobile phone, a little excited: “I know, thank you Xiao Mi.”
Xiaomi smiled and went out to let Jian Xingsui watch it by himself.
As he laid on the hospital bed, he scrolled down lazily. He tentatively searched for his name, and found that there were several hot discussions currently trending. The most popular discussion was about “Shimmer”, thanks to a hot recommended video of yesterday’s performance. Under his solo-cam2a video where the cameraman solely focused on him (other members wasn’t on focus at all) during the performance. video, there were many enthusiastic comments from fans:
[Hurry hurry hurry! Put “Shimmer” on online music platforms already! Let me put the song on repeat!!]
[Hey it seems that I broke the replay button :3c]
[When can I buy buy buy3the repeat isn’t a typo btw. this music already?? I wanna buy the album!]
There were also analysis comments on Weibo, such as:
[Before, Instructor Tuya and others said that Suisui’s singing style is very emotional, but I never liked it. I always thought that so long his technique is sub-par, he shouldn’t be praised to that extent. However, now I understand the praise. Yesterday, when I heard his “Shimmer” performance, I felt like he personally spoke to me. It was heartrending, especially the ‘maybe I am just a shimmering light, but I want to shine it on you.’ part. Thank you, Suisui, for being the one who illuminates me that day, and now, I want to be the shimmering light that shines the spotlight you deserve.]
In reality, most people in this world were ordinary citizens. That’s why, they really liked it when Jian Xingsui said that these ordinary shimmer of light could illuminate others too.
You didn’t need to be a “special” existence to mean something.
On top of that, his singing voice was very emotionally infectious.
When normal people sing about how cool and sunny they are, the listener could only nod along. However, when the singer was Jian Xingsui instead, he could make the listener feel like Jian Xingsui was the one who brought the sunshine to them.
It was so easy to be moved by such quality.
Under that Weibo, there were many comments agreeing with the OP:
[Finally, someone who speaks out my heart!]
[This little cutie really gripped my heart.]
[I hope he can make his debut.]
[Suisui must win!]
Jian Xingsui saw a lot of support for him from so many people. It warmed up his heart. He still couldn’t believe he got the third ranking, and he was under a lot of pressure recently. It made him very afraid he would disappoint his loyal supporters. After all, the higher the expectation, the higher the fall – the moment he let his fans down, he would instantly become his staunch anti-fans.
Slowly, Jian Xingsui scrolled through, and suddenly came across a different hot topic, who was called #TeacherStudent. Under the topic, it was filled with screenshots and videos about Fu Jinxiao and Jian Xingsui. There was a video where Fu Jinxiao patiently guided him in the practice room, there were photos of the two of them during the battle royale game, and even daily eye contacts between the two of them.
He never thought that someone took screenshots of those kind of interaction…
Thanks to the framing of the posts, it looked like there were invisible pink bubbles of love between the two men. It was dyed with the color of affection, and it looked like a sweet romance story.
The following comments were also filled with screamings:
[Teacher and student!! Teacher and student!!!]
[The little white rabbit wanders around behind the big bad wolf~]
[Every move is so sweet.]
[Teacher Fu and Student Jian S! Z! D!4szd = it is real]
Jian Xingsui read the comments, and his eyes stained with mirth, lips curling into a smile,  “Really…”
Looking at these photos on the phone screen, he couldn’t put it down. As he was looking at it, Xiao Mi from outside came back, bringing a doctor alongside him, “Suisui, it’s time to change your saline drip.”
Jian Xingsui was startled, and the phone almost dropped.
Seeing that, Xiao Mi hurried over to his side. Then, he saw the photos on the phone.
Now that Xiao Mi had seen what Jian Xingsui had stared, he was ashamed. He wanted to be buried inside the crust of the Earth. But Xiao Mi only showed a very understanding smile to him, and waited for the doctor to leave before saying: “I understand, I know everything.”
Jian Xingsui’s earlobe slowly turned red: “What do you know?”
“Who would be unhappy to catch up with Fu-ge‘s popularity?” Xiao Mi said with a smile: “If I did that, I too, would look at it with a loving gaze.”
Jian Xingsui’s fierce heart slowly sank.
Under Xiao Mi’s puzzled eyes, Jian Xingsui said softly: “It’s not because of that…”
Xiao Mi didn’t hear clearly: “What did you say?”
Jian Xingsui shook his head slowly: “No. Nothing”
That messy thought… well, it’s best to let it rot inside his stomach for the rest of his life. Nobody should ever know. In fact, this was already very good – this might be the best ending possible between them.
The next day—
Jian Xingsui recovered from his illness and returned to the show.
After the end of the second stage, the program team also let the contestants rest for a while. After Jian Xingsui came back, he also heard some rumors that for this voting, the show would eliminate half of the remaining people this time – so, only top 24 ranking would remain. And for the third stage, there were only 3 groups that would fight each other. And this time, there would be guest celebrity to help out in the performance.
Among them is Anran’s second brother, Jian Zhi.
Shen Xingchen complained to him, “I heard that Jian Zhi will come here early today. He said it’s for… uh…. I think it’s for celebrating Anran’s birthday!”
Jian Xingsui’s body froze.
Shen Xingchen didn’t notice that, and impatiently continued his rant, “It’s really hypocritical, and the program team even planned a special event for that! Because of the brotherly relationship between Jian Zhi and Anran, we need to give Anran more shots to please the Jian Royal Family5this was 100% sarcastic, especially since Mr. Jian invested a lot of money to shoot this episode of the program. And then, because of Jian Family’s request, they will hold a special birthday party, and all contestants need to participate… ugh, so disgusting.”
Feeling refreshed after ranting his heart out, he then realized the person beside him was eerily quiet. He then turned around and asked, “Suisui?”
Jian Xingsui’s face was a little ugly. After being asked like this, he pulled his face away and smiled, slowly shook his head and said, “It’s nothing.”
If Shen Xingchen hadn’t said this, he would have already forgotten that it will be his birthday in a few days. The same exact day as Anran’s birthday.
It has been several years since he celebrated his birthday. Usually, the Jian Family would be too busy to give it a proper celebration. His father would say he was busy with the company or there was a business trip. His eldest brother would say he had a meeting with clients and couldn’t come back. His second brother would say he had a gig scheduled and would only send a birthday message to him.
Everyone was… always busy.
At some point, his family just… stopped celebrating his birthday altogether. In the past, he thought that there was genuinely no time for a celebration. But now… it seemed… his family just… didn’t want to celebrate his birthdays.
If they really loved him, they would specially carved a time despite their busy schedule. After all, birthdays are fixed on a date each year – it’s not hard to allocate this time and clear their schedule if they just tried.
Maybe the sadness in his eyes was too obvious; Shen Xingchen softly asked him, “You don’t like the program group’s promotion of the royal family, do you?
Jian Xingsui froze, came back to his senses and nodded haphazardly.
“Ah…” Shen Xingchen patted him on the shoulder with an air of contentment: “Well, there’s no other way, the world is unfair like that. Not everyone can be like me, powerful and rich!”
“…”
Jian Xingsui was shocked by his buddy’s self-confidence.
1it should be “Little Mi” but it looked awkward as a name…2a video where the cameraman solely focused on him (other members wasn’t on focus at all) during the performance.3the repeat isn’t a typo btw.4szd = it is real5this was 100% sarcastic