Once the overall styles are done, the team took advantage of the momentum to get the promotional pictures done in the afternoon.
Single photos are fine. Yet, when it comes to group photos, to ensure the balance of colors, the photographer had to ask Xie and Wang to stand apart from each other with Cheng Yao separating them.
Wang Chao refused and insisted on standing right next to Xie Zhuxing.
Cheng Yao didn’t want to stand between them either, seemingly distressed by the request.
Liu Congming, who tracked the progress this entire time, spoke up, “Let them stand together then. Give Leo a hat, make the colors pop more.”
The photographer asked their assistant to fetch a yellow baseball cap.
Wang Chao didn’t like it but forced himself to wear it and show it to Xie Zhuxing.
His skin tone is fair. Vibrant colors rather suit him. Xie Zhuxing said, “Looks great.”
Wang Chao let the cap stay on.
Once the promotional pictures are done, the night has fallen. Since it was a group appointment, Wang Chao didn’t drive his own car. He and Xie Zhuxing, along with their teammates, all entered the company van. The company van would take them home.
Xie Zhuxing, who entered last, was about to shut the door when Liu Congming ran over, saying that he wanted to carpool with them since his personal car needed some repairs.
The engine started. Everyone remained silent. No one seemed to want to communicate with their new agent.
Liu Congming took the initiative to ask, “Where do you all live?”
Except for the Captain, who was engrossed in his mobile games, everyone answered.
Xie Zhuxing said, “I live in Ganlan Cheng. Captain lives in Wangjing Xiyuan.”
He sat next to Wang Chao in the row behind Liu Congming.
Liu Congming turned around and smiled, “You live in Ganlan Cheng? Such a coincidence, a cousin of mine lives there.”
Xiu Zhuxing replied politely, “Interesting.”
Liu Congming continued, “My cousin is in the field too. He’s a personal assistant. Perhaps you two have met.”
Xie Zhuxing had an idea, “It’s not Zhao Zhengyi, is it?” Their names sound like they'd be related.
Liu Congming replied in exaggerated surprise, “Hold on, you know each other?”
Xie Zhuxing had to pretend the surprise was genuine, “Xiao Zhao and I are roommates.”
Liu Congming naturally replied, “This is great then. I will exit when you do and stop by to say hi to my cousin. I haven’t seen him in a while.”
He knows that the group’s central figure is Xie Zhuxing. This is an intentional attempt to get to know him as soon as possible.
But Xie Zhuxing wasn’t planning on returning to Ganlan Cheng. He hadn’t been there in a while. He beat around the bush when he replied, “I don’t often stay in Ganlan Cheng now.”
Liu Congming had heard Zhao Zhengyi talk about this. The latter even gossiped that “Xiao Xie probably has a girlfriend.” He replied, “In a relationship? Don’t worry, our company doesn’t have any rules against being in a relationship. I’m not a stick-in-the-mud after all.”
There was a delicate silence in the van.
The members exchanged eye contact with each other.
Since Liu Congming will become their agent, Captain and Xie Zhuxing’s relationship cannot remain hidden for long. Instead of being caught, they should probably take the initiative and tell this baby-face the truth now.
Liu Congming noticed that something was going on and became suspicious. “Did Duan Yikun know about this before he left the company?”
Xie Zhuxing knows that he’s referring to his relationship and said, “Kun Ge does.”
Liu Congming felt more assured. He didn’t try to break them up, so their relationship is probably not troublesome. He then asked casually, “Not in our field, right?”
Yet, Xie Zhuxing said, “In our field.”
Liu Congming furrowed his brows, “An entertainer?”
Ji Jie added, “A singer.”
Cheng Yao too, “Belongs to an idol group too.”
Liu Congming, “…Not from Huixing, right?”
Gao Siyuan and Yang Xiaomu replied simultaneously, “From Huixing.”
Liu Congming quickly recalled each member of the girls’ group under Huixing before admitting defeat, “Who is it?”
Wang Chao, who has been sitting behind him playing a mobile game, suddenly patted him on the shoulder.
He turned around, “???”
Wang Chao gloated, “It’s me.”
Liu Congming, “…Oh.”
He exited the car by himself at Ganlan Cheng, headed straight to his cousin’s place, and then scolded his dense brother.
Zhao Zhengyi was shocked. Recalling everything he heard while eavesdropping on his roommate – what were they doing in their room? They for sure weren’t fighting!
Liu Congming is not an ordinary agent. He quickly accepted the fact that there were a couple within his group.
Although the members had their doubts about him at first, the subsequent shooting and production of the music video changed their minds. Bit by bit, they accepted the fact that he’s a qualified agent. He’s decisive and proactive, very experienced in dealing with other staff. Even though he did lack authority compared to Duan Yikun – due to his age and tenure – Duan Yikun’s shrewdness required the members to be on constant alert while interacting with him alone, while they could be more relaxed and authentic while working with Liu Congming.
Before Duan Yikun left his job, most of the prep work for the group’s second album had been completed. Everyone knows Liu Congming is picking up the slack at a very opportune moment. ID had accumulated significant popularity. If its second album struggles, Liu Congming would become a target of public criticism. If its second album breaks records, everyone would think that the credit belongs to Duan Yikun.
But Liu Congming himself doesn’t seem to mind. He’s quite cheerful every day as if he has no pressure in life.
April 30th, 2014. The trailer for the music video of the ID’s second album’s lead single, “What the hell is this stupid thing called love?”, released. The trailer was only around ten seconds, but the unusual outfits of the members and the abrupt change of music genre caused a great sensation among fans. Since the fans were biased, they praised them endlessly; but the extreme rocker style of their outfits isn’t acceptable to everyone. Some ridiculed them as cringeworthy and unfashionable, which then irked the fans. Yet, afraid that online arguments would stain their idols’ reputation, they had to stomach their anger and resort to upvoting and praising each other’s positive posts. Even under the occasional criticism, they would swarm their comment section with “these boys work so hard, thank you so much for noticing them.” Their silent endurance of criticism and unaffected gestures of love could move heaven and earth. Group fans, individual fans, cp fans, everyone was ready for the second album. Fan forums collaborated to publish a tutorial on how to, in an organized manner, boost the chart rankings for the album.
Captain Leo’s desire to attract some cp fans was not reciprocated amongst the fans. His fans and Xie Zhuxing’s fans even fought amongst themselves – albeit on a smaller scale – about who sported the white hair better. They all thought their bias sported it better and ridiculed the other as the inferior one. But the fight didn’t last long, because there wasn’t enough time.
May 10th, “What the hell is this stupid thing called love?” officially released.
On the first day of its release, the song received much criticism. Besides the controversy surrounding their styles, the song’s lyrics were criticized to be too nonsensical.
On the second day of the release, the general consensus began to shift. Many people said that the song was “toxic,” and that they couldn’t stop themselves from humming its lyrics after listening to it once.
On the third day of the release, famous music bloggers began to react to the song with mixed results. On the same day, four out of the ten topmost trending topics were about the song. Subsequently, the song exploded in popularity.
One week later. “What the hell is this stupid thing called love?” topped every major chart.
The stage for the song’s premiere was set to be the award ceremony of the Beijing College Student Film Festival. Xie Zhuxing’s holiday movie was shortlisted for the “Most Popular Comedy” award, and he was nominated for “Best New Artist.”
He obviously didn’t win the award. If he had won, this film festival would’ve lost all of its credit.
But ID was still the biggest highlight of this festival. The five minutes that they performed on stage were the five minutes with the most online viewers during the webcast of the awards ceremony. During the half-hour before and after the performance, the scrolling comments were all “Stupid Thing”; those uninformed even thought that the film festival had been hacked.
More than a month after the release of “Stupid Thing,” its leading single is still topping the charts. ID’s popularity skyrocketed, and invitations for them to be in advertisements and events poured in.
After they accepted an invitation to endorse a famous e-commerce app, their faces began to dominate the available spaces on major websites and metro and bus billboards. They could be recognized by neighborhood aunties even when they only went out to toss the garbage.
The members had thought they were already popular. Yet, it wasn’t until this moment that they realized what actual popularity is – to test if a young idol is actually popular, whether they constantly dominate trending searches and topics is not a reliable measure, but asking your mom whether she recognizes their faces is.
With their white-hot popularity, summer arrived again.
Xie Zhuxing stopped renting with Zhao Zhengyi. He lived with Wang Chao.
He didn’t bring up moving somewhere else. Wang Chao certainly didn’t.
Occasionally, Wang Chao thought: Didn’t Xiao Xie talk about buying a house for them to live together? When will he? But he’s too lazy to ask. They’re fine the way they are – working together, sleeping together, and the occasional quarrels and fights are always resolved in the end after sex. What’s the point of bringing up those things? He’d be looking for trouble.
They came to the company together again today. Xie Zhuxing went to the dance room to practice choreography. He headed upstairs to hang out with the songwriter, fiddling with the melody while learning formal composition.
These days, to him, have been the most meaningful days in recent years. He has his love. He has his passion. And they are both wonderful.
He and the songwriter have written a short chord. Just when he started to play it to hear its effect, someone pushed the door open from outside. He lowered his head to fidget with the machine and didn’t turn around to check. He only heard the songwriter ask, “Who are you looking for? Why didn’t you knock?”
That person said, “I’m looking for him.”
Wang Chao recognized the voice. He turned and frowned, “What for?”
His keyboard player classmate stood there and said with a straight face, “I have something to talk to you about.”
Wang Chao didn’t want to hear it and replied, “I’m busy, don’t have time to a conversation.”
The keyboard player said, “This isn’t about our relationship. This is about your album.”
Wang Chao was surprised, “With you? What’s there to discuss with you about our album?”
The keyboard player said, “I wrote that song.”
Wang Chao, “…What did you say?”
The songwriter noticed the tension and said, “I have to go now, you two continue.”
Only Wang Chao and the keyboard player remained.
Wang Chao questioned him, “What do you mean, you wrote it? I’ve seen its songwriter.”
The keyboard player said, “He’s a senior in our studio. He offered to help me refine the score and I had thought that he meant well.”
He took out a pile of paper from his backpack and gestured, “This is my original manuscript.”
Wang Chao took it and looked at it. He pursed his lips and his expression became grim.
The keyboard player said, “I didn’t want to look for you at first. You blocked me and I know you don’t want to see me. I talked to our studio’s manager about this and he advised me not to make any trouble. He said that this sort of thing is very common within the field. I’m not famous, so unless the score had someone else’s name, it would never get the chance to have a demo recorded, no chance it’d end up in your selections, and even less chance to be sung by you. He told me to write a couple more songs and said that if you want to write songs, being someone else’s ghostwriter is a prerequisite.”
Wang Chao, “…Fuck.”
Xie Zhuxing finished practicing. He showered, changed, and blow-dried his hair in front of the mirror.
Once the initial promotional period passed, they all dyed their hair back to darker colors. As he didn’t receive the cp fans as he had expected, Wang Chao didn’t want to give up. He insisted on dying his hair to the same dark gray that he had chosen.
Wang Chao has more delicate features than he has. He looks better in this color, and with white. This little idiot seems to be good-looking no matter what.
He packed his belongings and headed upstairs to find Wang Chao. As soon as he exited the elevator, he noticed the songwriter about to enter the break room. He greeted them and asked, “Where’s Leo?”
The songwriter pointed to the composition room and said, “He’s discussing something with someone.”
Xie Zhuxing was surprised, “Who?”
The songwriter said, “Seems to be a songwriter too. A boy. With long hair.”
A songwriter. Long hair. A boy.
The songwriter entered the break room.
Xie Zhuxing strode toward the composition room, and without even knocking, slapped the door open.
Wang Chao was alone in the room. He sat there with a pencil in his mouth, seemingly preoccupied with his thoughts.
“…What are you doing?” He took out the pencil and complained, “You didn’t even knock. Scared the shit out of me.”
Xie Zhuxing said, “Did someone look for you just now?”
Wang Chao put the pencil back into his mouth and said, “No.”
His eyes were shifting back and forth but never dared to look straight at Xie Zhuxing.
Xie Zhuxing, “…Let’s go eat.”
They didn’t go to the company cafeteria. Wang Chao said he wanted shrimp dumplings so they went to a nearby Cantonese restaurant. They chose a booth and pulled the curtain close. Both had taken off their sunglasses but the baseball caps remained on.
Xie Zhuxing didn’t talk to Wang Chao. He lowered his head and played on his phone.
Wang Chao was unhappy, “Why are you on your phone while eating?”
He wanted to throw a tantrum but there was something he was hiding too. Therefore, he forced himself to tolerate it and took out his phone too to play mobile games. But he couldn’t concentrate on it past two rounds.
The waiter came with their food and when they left, pulled the curtain closed for them again.
After a while, Xie Zhuxing put down his phone and said, “Did you say you wanted shrimp dumplings? Now they are here and you won’t eat them.”
Wang Chao huffed and puffed, “The phone’s really interesting, how about you keep looking at it.”
Xie Zhuxing took a pair of chopsticks and shoved it in his hand, “Eat, and afterwards I will take you somewhere.”
Wang Chao was no longer angry and asked, “Where to?”
Xie Zhuxing said, “Once you get there you’ll know.”
Wang Chao said, “Why so secretive? How annoying.”
Xie Zhuxing said, “Are you going or not?”
Wang Chao most definitely wanted to go. He pretended to be hesitant and said, “Sure then, I’ll go. I don’t have anything planned anyways.
He took a few bites of the shrimp dumplings and drank a small bowl of conpoy soup before urging the other man, “I’m full. Hurry up or else I won’t go.”
Xie Zhuxing didn’t bother to respond and took his time eating.
Wang Chao kept on urging and even yelled a couple of times, “I seriously won’t go!” But he didn’t leave either.
He couldn’t guess where Xiao Xie was about to bring him but he was sure that it’d be somewhere good. Everywhere he’s been to with Xiao Xie has been somewhere good.
When they finally arrived at the place, he was so shocked that his calves began to cramp.
He followed Xie Zhuxing upstairs as if he was sleepwalking. Then he watched Xie Zhuxing as he took the keys out to open the door.
He stood outside, not daring to enter.
Xie Zhuxing called to him from inside, “You aren’t going to come in and check it out?”
He yelled from outside, “You tell me first, what is this place?”
Xie Zhuxing, “…Are you coming in or not? If not I will close the door.”
Xie Zhuxing didn’t close the door either.
They stared at each other for a while.
Xie Zhuxing cleared his throat and explained, “This is the house that I had just bought. I haven’t furnished it, but thought you should check it out.”
Wang Chao grinned, “It’s your house, why do you want me to check it out?”
Xie Zhuxing had one hand on the door frame and reached to him with the other hand, “Stop wasting your damn words, hurry up and come in.”
Wang Chao put his hand in his and with a slight tug, Wang Chao hopped inside. “What’s there to see?” He said as he craned his neck and scanned around.
The house is empty and small, with no furniture nor furnishing, and mottled white walls. The protective membranes on the window frames have not been removed and the plumbing in the bathroom and the kitchen are still exposed.
After scanning around, Wang Chao said truthfully, “I’ve never seen such a shabby house.”
Xie Zhuxing turned away from him, a vein popping out of his neck.
Wang Chao continued, “Are you trying to satisfy your promise with this house?”
Xie Zhuxing said, “What’s wrong with that?”
Wang Chao whined, “Didn’t you say you wanted to live with me forever? You think this house will be enough for a lifetime? Two days here and I’ll be bored.”
Xie Zhuxing turned his back on him, “Who said I will let you live here.”
Wang Chao’s eyes widened, “If you don’t let me live here then why do you want me to check the place out?”
Xie Zhuxing ground his teeth, “Didn’t you say you’ve never seen a house this shabby? I’m here to broaden your horizon.”
Wang Chao had the guts to act as if he was wronged, “Why are you angry again?”
Xie Zhuxing didn’t want to talk to him and said, “We’re done here. Let’s go.”
Wang Chao was displeased, “Why are you in such a hurry? I haven’t even checked the inside out. Let me take a look again.”
He clasped his hands behind his back and entered the room. Once he thought Xie Zhuxing could no longer see him, he forcefully inhaled a couple of times, and the tears he had been trying to stifle suddenly spilled from his eyes. He hurriedly wiped them.
Dad, mom, brothers, he’s really going to be Xiao Xie’s wife.