Ch68 - Get older together

“Stupid Thing” exploded in popularity at the beginning of summer, and the momentum continued throughout the season.

As the group’s most popular member, Xie Zhuxing took the first step outside of group activities by venturing into acting. His teammates soon received opportunities for solo development as well.

Ji Jie loved rap, so the company decided to produce a solo rap song for him. A brand new reality show invited Yang Xiaomu, who never seems to react with anything other than “haha,” as their regular host. Cheng Yao, who studied musical theatre, was confirmed to participate in a famous musical director’s newest show. Even Gao Siyuan, the least popular member of the group, signed on for a role in a web drama.

Only their Captain had no official direction or update, making his fans very, very anxious.

At the end of October, a modern idol drama based on a popular web novel officially announced its casting. The actor for the male lead, the most anticipated decision, was confirmed to be ID’s Tomas Xie.

Captain’s fans were enraged. Every time this drama’s Weibo account mentioned the potential cast for the male protagonist, it’d hint at the Captain to attract his fan’s attention. In the end, not only was the role not Captain’s, but it ended up being his teammate, Xie White Lotus’?

Little Train’s fans were mad too. They couldn’t believe how somebody’s fans could be so audacious. This novel’s male lead is so loyal and dedicated to the female protagonist – casting the Stud King? That’d be humiliating to the character!

The comment section of the idol drama’s Weibo announcement was overwhelmed by the back-and-forth arguments between Captain’s and Little Train’s fans. The animosity lasted for several days.

Couple of days later, ID arrived in Shanghai for a commercial performance. Frontline fans, who’d been waiting at their destination airport beginning from midnight, sent back pictures of their arrival. Both the Captain and Little Train wore denim jackets, and even their hoodies were matching. Captain had his arm hooked over Little Train’s shoulder, but Little Train didn’t respond to him much and kept a cold, straight face.

…Even Ji Jie, who was by their side, cringed at their awkward dynamic.

Captain’s fans couldn’t bear it. Their idol is so naive! Couldn’t you see that White Lotus is giving you the cold shoulder? Please grow a spine!

Their spineless idol is, however, incredibly enthusiastic about gluing himself to the other man.

He was chatting with the American girl sitting next to him while on the plane. She was pretty: fair skin, a shapely nose, and a pair of deep-set eyes. Her Chinese wasn’t good, nor was his English. They had to gesture while chatting, but the conversation went surprisingly well. Besides gifting luxury bags, his flirting skills were very smooth too – even with a language barrier, he was able to make her laugh nonstop.

Xie Little Train, who had sat on the other side of him, had a scowl on his face the entire time. After they landed, Wang Chao caught up to him and tried to lighten the mood with jokes, but he didn’t respond to him.

Their performance is taking place tomorrow afternoon. They have rehearsal in the morning. Once they arrived at the hotel, Liu Congming told them to go to bed early and in particular, advised Xie and Wang to “not fight each other.”

Such is impossible.

During the rehearsal the next morning, their Captain couldn’t even raise his legs.

A few days after they returned from Shanghai, Xie Zhuxing started to attend a two-week-long acting lesson. This was his first time acting as the male lead, and he needs to be serious with prep.

The location of the class isn’t at their company. This is a private class hosted by a professor at a film school. It only seats a dozen students. Not only are there artists from Huixing, but there are those from other companies too. They are all popular young artists who lack professional training in acting.

Wang Chao was bored. One day, he suddenly got the idea to attend the class alongside Xie Zhuxing. But it didn’t take long before he dozed off and even began to snore. The teacher chased him out, and even he was too embarrassed to retort, so he complied and waited outside. After a while, he began to feel bored again. He decided to press his face against the window. Since the window was a blind spot, the teacher won’t be able to see him, and he was free to make funny faces to try to get a reaction out from Xie Zhuxing.

Sadly, Xie Zhuxing was very serious about the class and didn’t even glance at him.

He lost interest again and sat back down to fiddle with his phone instead.

“Leo, what are you doing here?”

He raised his head and said, “Zhao Zhengyi, what are you doing here?”

Zhao Zhengyi replied with a smile, “My new boss is here for class.”

He used to be Liang Xi’s manager. Once Bai Tu established his own studio, Liang Xi ended the contract with his old firm and announced that he was the first signed artist under Bai Tu’s studio. But everyone within the field knows Bai Tu doesn’t manage the studio. Instead, Liang Xi manages everything.

Zhao Zhengyi was employed by Liang Xi’s previous firm. After Liang Xi ended his contract, he remained, and the company arranged for him to be the assistant for some other artist.

Everyone attending class is a popular artist. Wang Chao asked, “Who is your artist?”

Zhao Zhengyi said, “Yuan Rui.”

Wang Chao recalled and smirked, “Haiya, I know him.”

Xie Zhuxing was dismissed early. Once he got out, they left right away and didn’t have a chance to catch their friend Yuan Rui.

It’s really late at night, and Xie Zhuxing is still working through his notes from the morning. Wang Chao’s mind had already skipped to their usual nightly “routine,” so he urged him, “Stop looking at it. It’s bad for your eyes too. And you can’t expect yourself to digest all the content in one go. Instead of doing that, you should be doing me instead.”

Xie Zhuxing put down his notebook and half-joked, half-chided him, “Nothing can stop your horniness, huh?”

Wang Chao grinned, “So what?”

Xie Zhuxing replied, “You ought to get..” But couldn’t finish the sentence. He struggles to talk dirty.

Wang Chao understood it and cooed, “I ought to get fucked, right? Then why don’t Xie baobao hurry up and come to me?”

Xie baobao really can’t hurry up.

Every time, Wang Chao would start by seducing him, but all of the dirty talks would turn into moans and tears by the end.

During a passionate moment, Xie Zhuxing bit his ear and called him, “Little slut.”

Wang Chao hummed a curse word back at him.

Xie Zhuxing whispered a roundabout confession, “I love you, little slut.”

Wang Chao was displeased, “When I get older and can’t act slutty anymore, you won’t love me anymore?”

Xie Zhuxing laughed, “We will only find out when we get older together.”

Wang Chao’s brain couldn’t process the message behind those words. After pondering over it for a while, he squeezed Xie Zhuxing’s hand tight.

Right, then let’s get older together.