Editor: Ghost
Before sleeping that night, Xie Zhuxing took another look at the comments under the official post of the company.
Wang Chao was upset because of those negative comments, but he himself wasn’t angry at all. Xie Zhuxing was different from his group mates. As someone who had been running around in this industry for two years, he had already mentally prepared himself for the criticism he would be met with once he debuted.
Wang Chao was only wearing his underwear as he laid on the side playing on his phone as he cussed. After playing for a while, he fell asleep with his phone in his hands.
Xie Zhuxing amusingly covered him with a summer quilt. He basically slept like this everyday, be it playing on his phone or talking, he would suddenly fall asleep with his head tilted to the side. If you didn’t know he was sleeping, you would guess he had fainted.
After he turned off the lights, Xie Zhuxing lied down and prepared to sleep when suddenly, the phone by his pillow lit up.
Yan Jiajia had sent him a message: Congratulations, Tomas.
He thought about it, and then replied: Thank you.
These two worlds were very polite, yet it was also very cold, especially for a girl who he had once considered marrying.
But other than that, he didn’t know what else he could say.
The two were once classmates and had a good relationship with each other at school. She had confessed to him before their graduation, and then they got together. Yan Jiajia at that time was still a very simple girl; if you gave her some flowers and chocolate for Valentine’s Day, she would jump up and down with joy. Afterwards, she received a chance to go to Shanghai for a chance at development. She didn’t want to be separated from Xie Zhuxing, so she gave up. When she ended up telling him about the news, she smiled as she said, “Who told my boyfriend to be so handsome? I can’t fight off those pesky goblins if I’m so far away.” And then she turned around and went to the bathroom to weep quietly. At that instant, he thought, he had to be extra caring towards Yan Jiajia in the future because he was sure that if he were to be met with such an important choice, he would not choose her. He knew that in reality, he didn’t love her that much.
Now it’s been more than a month since they’ve broken up even though it feels as if they had been separated for a few decades. When he thinks of her, there’s practically no emotion inside. The resentment he had felt about the cheating before breaking up had also disappeared without a trace – just like this busy month.
He was still willing to remember the goods of Yan Jiajia: he remembered her shyness as she confessed to him at the graduation banquet, he remembered how she confidently ate with him at the street stalls, and he remembered that she had once lived with him in a basement without heating. She had once given up a rare, once in a lifetime opportunity for him. He remembered that she really did love him once.
But he wouldn’t go and mend this broken relationship. When Yan Jiajia suggested the breakup, he had already given up. He has his own road to walk now: it was a one-way street and he wouldn’t look back.
The recording was successfully completed on Tuesday.
That night, Gao Siyuan’s personal poster was sent out. There was another wave of negative comments. There were anti-fans who knew about his dark past and purposely came out to slander him. He was ridiculed heavily. However, without Liang Xi’s sharing, the amount of sharing and comments were far less than Xie Zhuxing’s post from yesterday.
In addition, Liang Xi’s sharing had side effects too, too. Because he seldom shared posts from within the entertainment circle—even more so that IceDream wasn’t from his company—his fans felt very surprised when he shared the post yesterday. So they started to develop a very strong interest in Xie Zhuxing, even starting speculations about their relationship. Their minds somehow created a story about the “big entertainment god falling in love with a newbie”. Xie Zhuxing’s promotional poster comment section immediately turned into a boy’s love discussion section.
Because Liang Xi had called Tomas a “little train” in the shared post, the pair’s ship name was established as "Xi Che".
Gao Siyuan couldn’t hide his green face  of envy as he compared the popularity of the two posts.
Ji Jie and Cheng Yao had opened the door to a whole new world with these comments as they bantered to each other quietly.
Yang Xiaomu could only “hahaha”, continuously hahaha-ing.
Xie Zhuxing felt a bit embarrassed, but he didn’t say anything either.
Only Wang Chao sat there with a weird expression as he read the comments with everyone else. Suddenly, he stood up and walked out.
He dialed Liang Xi’s number, only to be cursed at the moment the other party picked up, “Do you want me to share another post again? I don’t give a shit!”
“I don’t need you to share anything else. I just wanna tell you something,” Wang Chao said.
Liang Xi replied, clearly annoyed, “Hurry up, I’m busy.”
“What are you busy with? I’m telling you right now: Xiao Xie likes girls. Whatever you do, don’t fancy him.”
Liang Xi only cursed in return, “Fuck off!” then hung up.
Wang Chao didn’t understand what his Liang-ge meant by “fuck off”. So does he like Xiao Xie or not?
He knows that Liang Xi likes guys, and he also knows that he’s been in an unrequited love with someone for a long time. But Xiao Xie’s looks were on par with that person. What if Liang Xi takes a look at the stuff in the comments and then really starts liking Xiao Xie?
Those fans really were interesting, spewing some bullshit about some washing car CP (couple). Go wash your granny’s fucking legs.
On Wednesday, they had to shoot the music video.
It was a hot summer day, very fitting for their group’s name. The selected music video’s location was in an ice cream shop and a swimming pool; the two clips would be edited together later.
For the clips in the dessert store, the camera angle was shot from the perspective of the audience. As the camera enters the store to buy some ice cream, there will be six handsome waiters. The members all had their own individual plot and background concepts. Xie Zhuxing was the kind receptionist, Gao Siyuan was the cool waiter, Ji Jie and Cheng Yao were the two sweet bakers. Yang Xiaomu was the playful cashier and Wang Chao was the elegant pianist. Although Wang Chao was in the background, he actually had the most screen time.
The music video didn’t require much skill. The members simply needed to play it cool and maintain their handsome aura in front of the camera. The shooting process went very smoothly. After they finished shooting at the ice cream location around 2 in the afternoon, they changed the venue to the swimming pool.
The main target audience for these new fresh meat groups were young girls. Even though they were at the pool, they didn’t show any muscle or aim for any sexual appeal. Their outfits consisted of tropical floral shirts, beach pants, and barefoot.
The content for this portion of the music video was much more casual. It was basically just a few people fooling around the pool, jumping into the water, splashing around and having a water fight. The ice cream shop portion was calm and beautiful, so they should express their enthusiasm in this section.
In the beginning, the members were still a bit reserved. They were all busy training, singing, and dancing before so they’ve never really fooled around together. It took them a while to get into a playful mood. No one knows who did it first, but someone pushed Wang Chao into the pool.
Wang Chao was completely unprepared and almost choked on the water. He pushed back his wet hair and stood up in the pool, cursing, “Who the fuck did that?! Who fucking pushed me into the pool?!”
Everybody suddenly turned quiet in an instant – even the director was shocked.
Xie Zhuxing picked up a water gun and pointed it at him, spurting water on his face. “It was me. What are you gonna do?” he asked.
Seeing that it was him, Wang Chao’s anger dissipated in an instant. He turned to the prop manager and said, “Quick, quick, quick. Give me a water gun! I’m gonna shoot him to death!”
The prop manager threw him a gun while Xie Zhuxing shot him again before he even had the chance to fill his water gun up with water.
He cursed as he filled up his tank. “Xiao Xie, it’s over for you! Over! Just wait till I finish filling this up – you’re fucking done!”
Xie Zhuxing looked at his team members and said lowly, “What are you guys standing there for? You think you’d have the chance to target him normally?”
Everyone was silent. Xiao Xie-ge was right!
And so everybody joined in and clammered together. Now they were truly happily fooling around.
The director let out a sigh of relief as he also happily went back to shooting the MV.
They kept on shooting all the way till the sun set, then, they prepared to pack up the scene.
Xie Zhuxing and a bunch of other members thanked the director and other workers while Wang Chao was still sitting in the pool. He was lying on the edge of the pool as he shouted, “Don’t be in a hurry to leave! I’ll treat you guys to a barbeque tonight!”
Those present at the scene didn’t know what his background was, but when they saw that he drove here with a Ferrari, everyone took him up on his offer.
The workers were busy packing everything up and the members went back to change. Xie Zhuxing called out to Wang Chao, “Stop hugging that. Go and change.”
“It’s hot outside. It’s more comfortable in the water. Let me rest for a bit more. Go wait for me,” Wang Chao said.
Xie Zhuxing turned to Ji Jie and the rest. “You guys go first.”
When the members left, he walked over and sat by the pool with his calves and feet in the water.
Wang Chao closed his eyes and pretended to sleep, then, he put a hand on Xie Zhuxing’s thigh and mumbled, “Don’t try to sneak away by yourself.”
Xie Zhuxing agreed silently, all of his attention focused on the hand  placed on this thigh.
He didn’t know if it had something to do with the fact that he used to play piano as a child, but Wang Chao’s hands were very beautiful. His fingers were long and his knuckles were thin, even his nails were full. After being in the water for a whole afternoon, his hands had become white and tender; it seemingly resembled a girl’s hand, only it was a little bit bigger.
Xie Zhuxing looked up and looked into the distance. The setting sun resting in the sky looked as red as fire. The afterglow stained the water surface and the orange ripples were being blown gently by the evening summer breeze.
He moved the hand on his thigh away.
Wang Chao opened his eyes.
“Let’s go. Didn’t you say that you were going to treat everyone to barbeque? They’re all waiting for you,” Xie Zhuxing said.
Wang Chao stretched his neck as he used both arms to support himself out of the pool. He got out with a splash. The flowery shirt sticking to his shirt was very uncomfortable, without even unbuttoning it, he pulled the back collar and took the whole thing off directly. He cursed as he squeezed the water out, “It’s almost September. How is it still so hot?”
Xie Zhuxing took a glance at his exposed chest and thought that it really was somewhat hot.