Ch51 - Temporary separation

They are filming for a local television channel’s flagship variety show today.

Cheng Yao is native to this area. He has recommended this show to people a long time ago. Therefore, his teammates had more or less seen this nonmainstream show. They felt familiar and comfortable with the host and the environment; even receiving the opportunity to participate in the program excited them.

Less than halfway through the filming, an unexpected problem occurred. Another guest – a male actor surnamed Chen, around thirty years old – was present during the filming. He’s a late bloomer who only gained fame after a nationalist movie exploded in popularity. Given that this was their first encounter with him, ID’s members politely called him “Mr. Chen.”

The filming had gone smoothly at first. Halfway through the filming, the host mentioned a New Year’s tradition celebrated within the country’s central region. Since this program was going to air during the weekend before the New Year, their discussion was quite fitting. This “Mr. Chen” also chimed in, yet his comment abruptly steered the discourse toward the opposite direction: “The central region should have been a sanctuary with deep cultural significance, but people from the Henan province have destroyed it. Henan people simply have poor manners.”

ID’s members spontaneously glanced at Xie Zhuxing who was from Luoyang, Henan. He returned a helpless smile; he left his hometown to pursue advanced studies for many years. While in Beijing, he’s met too many people and seen too many things. He’s used to region-based discrimination, so there’s not much for him to be angry about.

Their Captain had anger written all over his face.

Such comments are clearly inappropriate for the cameras. The host did not resume the conversation but instead diverted to another topic: “The new years is the most celebrated traditional holiday, there are many regional traditions in our country…”

“So Mr. Chen, where are you from?” Aside, Leo Wang swatted off his teammates’ restraining hand and walked half a step forward. Ignoring the few people between them, he asked him across from the room in quite a provocative tone.

That Mr. Chen replied: “I’m from the Dongbei region.”

Wang Chao had long discerned his Dongbei accent and said: “I heard that Dongbei people have poor manners, nor are they particularly great at anything, the only outstanding trait of theirs is the ability to gossip.”

Actor Chen also discerned his accent and was stunned for a moment, not quite understanding what his fellow Dongbei-er meant.

Pretending to be deaf, the host continued: “Let’s see a video on how people across our country celebrate the Spring Festival.”

The guests stood apart at the edge of the stage to not block the audience’s view.

Prerecorded videos of regional Spring Festival celebrations began to play on the center screen.

The program director turned off the guest mic while the videos played.

The audience could only see the angry Leo Wang and the impatient Tomas Xie engaging in a conversation but not hear anything about the conversation itself.

Wang Chao was displeased: “Why did you try to stop me just now?”

Xie Zhuxing tried to persuade him: “Stop making a scene, there are so many people here.”

Wang Chao countered: “Had there not been this many people, I would have fought him on stage! What does he mean – Henan people have poor manners – Dongbei people have the worst fucking manners!”

Xie Zhuxing: “…”

Wang Chao mumbled: “This guy dared to play the role of a communist spy? What a disgrace to our party.”

Seeing that the video was nearing an end, Xie Zhuxing whispered: “Enough, stop speaking.”

Wang Chao was about to complain some more, but after the video ended, Xie Zhuxing began to shove him toward the center of the stage. There happened to be an equipment wire on the ground that neither had spotted. Wang Chao tripped and stumbled on it, nearly falling on his head. After propping himself on Ji Jie’s shoulders for stability, he turned and glared at Xie Zhuxing.

Their interactions were captured by a fanmade clip that was later uploaded online. Each using their respective imagination to complete the scenes, the fans of Xie and Wang began to argue with each other.

The Stud King insulted Little Train in public! If it wasn’t for our Xie Zhuxing’s good temperament!

The Xie Lotus shoved Captain on purpose! He’s as big of a White Lotus Flower as people say!

During the second half of the filming, none of the ID members interacted with that Actor Chen again.

This actor seemed to have detected that something had gone wrong and searched the members’ profiles during the break.

Once the filming was done, when everyone was about to head out, he came over on purpose to apologize to Xie Zhuxing. His attitude was sincere.

This wasn’t anything major anyways, and so they moved on.

Actor Chen asked Wang Chao: “You are from the Dongbei region too, right?”

Since he had apologized, and his attitude toward Xie Zhuxing was friendly, Wang Chao replied: “Yeah, my manner is actually poor. Don’t stoop yourself to my level.”

Probably amused by his reply, Actor Chen even smiled and said they should meet for dinner in the future before he bid them goodbye and left. Since their flight back to Beijing was at night, as soon as they left the tv station, they left for the airport.

Before boarding the flight, Xie Zhuxing took out a down jacket from the suitcase. Since their destination – Beijing – would be cold by the time they landed, his teammates didn’t think much of it.

After the plane reached the cruising height, Xie Zhuxing whispered to Wang Chao before the latter unbuckled his seatbelts and stood up a bit. Xie Zhuxing folded the down jacket and pad the latter’s seat before he sat down again. They exchanged a smile.

Their teammates, who sat beside them, pretended to flip through the in-flight magazines and swallowed the “dog food” in silence.

Once the New Year’s has passed, ID welcomed the most relaxing period during these months for them. Since it was almost the Spring Festival, there weren’t as many events as before. Their company arranged different lessons for them to uplevel their skills in preparation for their second album in the upcoming year.

The only member who was still busy for a while was Xie Zhuxing. Despite his minor role in the holiday movie, since it doesn’t feature any major actors, and his popularity exploded this year, ever since the movie announced his participation, his fans had become the major promotional forces behind this movie. Based on the principle of making use of what you have, though they couldn’t add any more scenes for him, there are other ways to make up for it. The movie arranged an interlude song for him to sing. They also asked for his availability to attend some variety shows close to the end of the year to promote the movie.

His teammates are either in class or on break, only he had to run to a number more events than others during the final month before the Spring Festival. He’s already the most popular member within id; after this movie, his popularity soared even further ahead of everyone else as if he had ridden on a rocket. Not to mention anything else, only in terms of Weibo fans, his fans have increased to over 400k. Gao Siyuan has the least number of fans among the team, only 70k.

He still treats everyone well, grabbing the bill every time they go out for food. As before, he’s still the eldest brother of their team and would take the initiative to help every younger brother. Regardless of difficulties or worries, he’s willing to help and listen.

Their group gets along quite well. Except for a conflict between Wang Chao and Ji Jie during the group training, they’ve gotten along quite well ever since. The Gao Siyuan that constantly jabbed at others out of jealousy has matured too. At least he won’t display his snobbishness or jealousy on his face.

But their apparent peace cannot stop the undercurrents below.

Xie Zhuxing understood that quite clearly, and that their group would disband sooner or later. Given the current environment for idols, not many would be willing to be stuck in a single team.

Wang Chao is different. He’s unable to think ahead for too long – he could only pay attention to what’s right ahead.

The more popular Xie Zhuxing becomes, the more boastful he becomes – this is my partner, isn’t he awesome?

Whenever Xie Zhuxing posts a promotional Weibo for his movie, he’d share it and spare no effort to tout how amazing this movie is.

But words are strange things. Even though he thought that he was helping Xie Zhuxing promote his movie, all of his fans thought that his Weibo posts were ironic. After all, Xie Zhuxing got the opportunity to be in this movie from him. One by one, they dissed White Lotus Xie, refusing to watch a shitty movie.

He’s mad too. What kind of fans does he have!

Spring Festival arrived amongst the busyness.

As usual, Wang Chao’s parents will come to Beijing to spend the holiday with their sons.

Xie Zhuxing also needs to return to Luoyang. Ever since he had debuted, he had never once gone home.

The day before he returned home, they went out for a meal together. They watched the screening for that holiday movie and went to the Versace store in Shin Kong Place to pick up their preordered jackets. The jackets were of the same series, and both were military green. Wang Chao preordered a short one for himself and a mid-length one for Xie Zhuxing.

While picking up their clothes, Wang Chao teased the salesgirl for a bit. She was gorgeous. Xie Zhuxing pulled a long face and stopped speaking. He didn’t even try on the clothes.

Noticing that, Wang Chao teased the girl. He even began to compliment her skin and physique so much that she blushed.

They went back home after picking up their clothes. Soon as they entered the door, they began to bicker. Then, after a couple of back-and-forths, they began to fight. Wang Chao couldn’t win against Xie Zhuxing; he got pinned on the other’s legs and was spanked. He pretended to shed some tears to not grin out of joy.

Once the spanking was done, it was time for sex. One round after another, by the time they wrapped up, it was midnight. They didn’t sleep afterward. Instead, they huddled together and chatted.

Wang Chao was the only one chatting. Xie Zhuxing listened quietly. His mom’s sauerkraut dumplings are delicious. His eldest brother could eat two bowls of them, his dad one and a half, himself one, and his second eldest brother eat the least: only a dozen. His second eldest brother is health-conscious and doesn’t eat nor drink excessively. He finds outside food too greasy, yet he couldn’t cook anything himself. Therefore, he relies on his face to charm the hospital canteen’s chef into making special dishes only for him every day, how shameless is that?

Tale after tale, he chatted until dawn arrived.

.

Through a gap between the curtains came grayish rays of winter morning light.

He’s got a ten o’clock flight to catch. Xie Zhuxing said: “I have to go, you should sleep.”

Before, Wang Chao loved celebrating the New Year, but not this year. He sighed and said: “Why do we celebrate New Years? It’s so fucking annoying.”

Xie Zhuxing was also a bit reluctant to leave. He smiled and said: “Calm down, I will be back on the seventh.”

Wang Chao mumbled: “Ok.”

They exchanged a long kiss.

After the kiss, Wang Chao grinned and slid under the blanket.

Xie Zhuxing: “!!!”

They got their haircuts together a couple of days ago. The hair on the back of Wang Chao’s head was cut very short. Xie Zhuxing pressed his hand on it – it tickled his palm.

Almost missed his flight.

Wang Chao didn’t see him off. Before turning his phone off to board the plane, Xie Zhuxing received a message from him: “Waiting for you to be back. I will be ready for you.”