Ch1 - BB machine

T/N: BB machine is someone who talks a lot lolol.

Summer, 2014.

Xie Zhuxing pulled on the collar of his training clothes and shook it. The drenched cloth stuck to his body after two hours of dancing. The sound of the music masked the ringing of his phone. Now that he closed the music, he finally saw that there were several missed calls and a message from his girlfriend. She told him to get home early because something had come up.

He took a quick shower and changed his clothes, then left the dancing studio. As he was walking in the corridor, he passed by his colleagues who were also here to practice. They said to him, “Why are you still here? The director is looking for you, he wants you in his office.”

He shook his bangs that were still drenched with water as he asked, “Did he say what it was for?”

The colleague said, “I don’t know, but he’s been meeting with a lot of people today.”

Xie Zhuxing was originally going to go home, but now he could only head upstairs to the director’s office and knock on the door as it swung open.

Aside from the director, there were two other people in the room as well. One was a modest male who wore glasses, he sat across from the director. The other male was wearing sunglasses as he sat with his legs crossed on the sofa. One of his feet was even resting on the edge of the glass table, he was wearing a sleeveless black T-shirt, revealing his two tattooed arms.

“Yang-ge? Do you have guests?” Xie Zhuxing asked, “I’ll come back in a bit—”

Director Yang said, “Don’t go, come in come in. Close the door.”

Xie Zhuxing walked in puzzledly.

The director introduced him to the two guests, “This is Xiao Xie, he signed with our studio in the beginning of the year. He specializes in dancing, he even danced with Liu Tianwang back in March. Ah, Xiao Xie, how old are you again? Twenty something?”

Xie Zhuxing replied, “Twenty-two.”

The director nodded and continued, “Xiao Xie’s a pretty good person, he’s just not a fan of talking. I have all of his solo and accompanying dance videos here, if you need it, I’ll take it out right away.”

The male with glasses didn’t speak as he looked Xie Zhuxing up and down. He turned to look at the male with tattooed arms, “What do you think?”

The tattooed male put down his legs and said in a hooligan tone, “His looks pass. Turn around, let me see your physique.”

Xie Zhuxing stood there, not moving.

The director urged him, “Xiao Xie! Turn around.”

Xie Zhuxing finally turned around.

The tattooed male examined him carefully with a slanted head, then asked, “How tall are you?”

“183cm.”

“He’s fine. His legs are long and his waist is slim, his ass is pretty perky too. He’s alright.”

Xie Zhuxing was speechless. Is this some middle-aged old mama-san who’s planning to run a brothel?

The male with glasses said, “Then should we leave our contact information?”

The tattooed male put his legs up again. “Leave it, out of all the ones we looked at today, he’s the only one that actually looks like something. What the hell were those other ones? Pains my eyes just looking at them,” he said indifferently.

The male with glasses shook his head as he laughed.

The director was grinning from ear to ear. “Xiao Xie, go do what you need to do now.”

This was too hasty for an audition for an advertisement or movie. But this would also be too troublesome if they were looking for a singer’s back up dancer. It was probably for a survival competition of some TV station.

After graduating, Xie Zhuxing has been floating around Beijing for about 2 years by now. From running around in a wild field to dancing at a concert, he finally signed with a serious agency this year. Although all he got was to practice in a dance studio, it was still affiliated with a big company. He originally thought that it would be an opportunity to make his debut, but he ended up sitting on the side benches for over half a year. His job was still being backup dancers and running around in venues. There were other directors from the TV station that had invited him to participate in survival shows, but at that time he was still an ignorant calf as he looked down on the survival show. But now, if that was really an audition for a survival show, then he wouldn’t even have the confidence to refuse at all.

Not only was he poor with low ambitions, his age was also tight. After two more years, he wouldn’t even be given the chance to audition anymore.

The dance studio was pretty close to his apartment. It was six stops by subway and only a few minutes away after exiting the station.

He didn’t see anyone as he walked through the door. He called out to his girlfriend twice, “Jiajia? Yan Jiajia!”

A voice came from the bathroom to answer. The door’s paint was chipping off. “I’m here!”

“Why did you call me back in such a hurry?”

The sound of water came from inside, Yan Jiajia asked him, “Do you still have money?”

“Didn’t I just give you ten thousand last week?”

“It’s been gone since the trip to Hangzhou.”

Didn’t she go to Hangzhou for a performance? Why did she only use money and not make any?

But he didn’t let those questions surface and just asked, “How much?”

Yan Jiajia said, “Five thousand.”

Xie Zhuxing was stunned for a bit. “Next week. I just sent my mom money yesterday, my dad needs to undergo a surgery. I have a performance this weekend, I’ll give you the money after, is that ok?”

Yan Jiajia gave him a glance then said, “Even if I said it’s not ok, will that be any use?”

Xie Zhuxing didn’t reply.

Yan Jiajia didn’t say anything else either as she grabbed her purse to leave.

“Where are you going?” Xie Zhuxing questioned.

“I’m going to go eat with the girls.”

That “meal” lasted for several days. During that time, she didn’t come home, she didn’t pick up her phone, and all of his messages read “delivered”, but there was no response.

This wasn’t the first time she’s done this. Last time she said her phone broke, the other time she said her signal wasn’t good.

If a person changed, then they’ve changed. There was nothing else one could do.

During the weekend, Xie Zhuxing went to work. The location was a high-end club that had just opened, they invited a very famous Taiwanese singer who has already passed the prime of his career to perform during the opening ceremony. The pay wasn’t much, it wasn’t worthwhile for the singer to bring backup dancers from Taiwan, so they hired dancers from their studio located in Beijing.

After the performance, everyone proposed to go eat some midnight snacks as they were removing their makeup. “Xiao Xie, come with us. You haven’t come with us for a while now.”

He found an excuse and said, “I still have something to do, next time.”

Everyone else jeered and said, “Whatever, he’s probably going back to accompany his girlfriend!”

He could only smile silently, agreeing.

After everyone left, he finished packing up his things and walked out with his backpack. There was a lot of noise within the hall of the club, the owner had thrown a party for the opening of the club. The flashing lights were like that of a nightclub, there was a lot of noise and chaos. It was very unsightly. He asked the waiter, then found the bathroom on the side.

When he entered the bathroom, there was no one inside. But just as he stood on the side of the urial, someone came in.

A young male came in as he cursed into his phone, “You fucking idiot, do you think just because there was blood that means they were a virgin?! You think there’s that many virgins in the world waiting to be slept by you? Not even a Chao Yang stallion like me has fucked a virgin yet! Besides, what virgin would want to get a room with you on their period? Whatever, I have to piss!”

He hung up and then stuffed his phone into his back pocket.

Xie Zhuxing looked at him from the corner of his eye and saw his tattooed arms.

Oh? Isn’t this the brothel mama-san?

The tattooed arm finished peeing and zipped up his fly. Then, someone called him again. He took a glance at the contact before picking it up, however, his tone was entirely different from the call before. There was a faint spoiled tone to his voice as he said, “Ha Zhi! …I didn’t do anything, I’m just playing outside. I just came out, I didn’t drink one drop of alcohol….whaaaat, who told you that? I didn’t do any drugs!…You’re back in Beijing? You just got home? …Of course I miss you~! How can I not miss you? …I’ll get home right away, be there in about half an hour.”

Xie Zhuxing finished washing his hands, then tore off a piece of tissue to dry his hands.

The tattooed arm walked up to the sink as well and put his entire arm under the faucet, getting the area wet. Then he faced the mirror as he rubbed his arm harshly, trying to rub off his tattoo…sticker. His entire arm had been rubbed red, but he didn’t get much off.

Xie Zhuxing looked at him.

The tattooed arm noticed from the mirror, and was probably embarrassed as he said ferociously, “The fuck are you looking at?! Scram if you’re done pissing!”

Xie Zhuxing threw the tissue away and took out a makeup remover from his bag. “Wanna use this?”

“……Yes.”

It was rather hard for him to cleanly wipe off the tattoos that covered his whole two arms. Xie Zhuxing used a napkin to help him wipe off the areas he couldn’t reach, revealing two smooth and tender white arms. One look and you could tell he had been pampered and spoiled his whole life.

The makeup remover that was half full was now almost empty. By a close estimate, it could probably be used two or three more times. Before Xie Zhuxing could put the bottle away , the male threw the bottle into the trash carelessly like he was shooting a basketball shot. “How much is that thing? I’ll pay you back.”

Xie Zhuxing said, “It’s fine, it’s not worth much.”

The other looked at him closely, then said, “Huh? Have I met you before?”

Xie Zhuxing acted dumb as he said, “Probably not, I have a very common face.”

The young male rubbed the back of his head and said, “Nah, you’re pretty handsome.”

“…Not as handsome as you.”

He wasn’t trying to flatter the other either, because despite how much of a rascal he acted like, he had a very attractive face with delicate features.

But this guy wasn’t attractive for more then three seconds as he revealed a mischievous smile that was practically asking to be beat. He said joyfully, “Of course, I’m Chao Yang’s Jin Chengwu. Xie Zhuxing didn’t want to continue. “Then I’ll go fir…”

Chao Yang’s Jin Chengwu turned on the faucet to wash off the remaining makeup remover on his arm. Maybe the sound of water was too loud so he didn’t hear anything Xie Zhuxing was saying. He started rambling on, “Our Ha Zhi suddenly returned to Beijing. She doesn’t like me sticking all this nonsense on my body , I’m scared that she’d be upset if she sees it, so I have to get rid of them quickly.”

Talking too much was a disease, who was going to cure him? Xie Zhuxing said, “Her surname is Ha? That’s pretty uncommon, is that an ethinic minority?”

The young male laughed, “Harbin’s Cecline Cheung! My mom!”

Xie Zhuxing was speechless.

The male washed his arm clean and then wiped it with a tissue messily. “I don’t know who’s been chattering in front of her, making up the story of me doing drugs. If I find out which idiot it was, I’m beating him to death.”

Xie Zhuxing silently thought, This isn’t normal chattering, this is a BB machine ah.

The BB machine continued, “I have to go home quickly and explain myself, or else if the word gets to my big brother, he’s gonna beat me without giving me a chance to explain myself first.”

Xie Zhuxing said, “I have to go too.”

The BB machine leaned on his shoulder like they were already friends, his face beaming as he said, “Hey, lemme tell you, my big brother used to do Sanda! He’s really cool!”

Xie Zhuxing could only sense his head hurting.

Fortunately, when he exited the bathroom, the sound from the party was so loud that the BB machine could no longer be heard.

As the two cut through the crowd, they met many girls with pretty influencer faces who threw themselves into his arms, and some of his scoundrel friends who greeted him frivolously.

It was obvious that the BB machine was the type to always show up in these types of places, there were people he knew everywhere.

Xie Zhuxing heard them calling him “Wang Chao”.

….Simple beyond imagination.

Hello everyone~ I’m super excited to be working on this novel. I love Wang Chao! Although he may seem super annoying right now, he’ll grow on you I promise :). I hope you enjoy this novel as much as I do!