Fan Support

Gu Wenjun was Qu An's childhood friend and one of his few close friends. Ever since learning that Chen Anle was working as Qu An's assistant, he had kept asking Qu An to look after Chen Anle.

Gu Wenjun had been pursuing Chen Anle for a while, but because he was always full of nonsense, Chen Anle had never agreed.

Gu Wenjun was clearly a doctor who saved lives, yet he spent all day grinning and fooling around. If Qu An hadn't known what he was really like and seen him work seriously before, he would have been ready to bail his childhood friend out at any moment. Judging by what happened last night and Gu Wenjun's performance, it seemed he had finally succeeded.

[Qu An: Say one more word, and I'll fire him.]

[Gu Wenjun: You evil capitalist, no humanity at all. Our Xiao Le has worked for you for two years and cooked so much for you, yet this is how you treat him? I haven't even gotten to eat more than a few meals he made.]

[Qu An: ...]

[Qu An: In the past two years, he only cooked when he first became my assistant and during the typhoon. I never shortchanged him on snacks or games, either. If we're calculating it that way, he should be paying me back. As his family, shouldn't you settle the bill?]

[Gu Wenjun: Ah, what kind of nonsense is that? Don't listen to me talking rubbish. You're a generous man. Xiao Le really does like being your assistant.]

[Gu Wenjun: You can't just bully our Xiao Le however you want because you're single and don't have a partner. I'll fight you to the death if you do.]

[Qu An: Say a few more words, and you can forget about contacting him for the next three months.]

[Gu Wenjun: Don't, don't. By the way, does that mean you've got another new drama to film?]

[Qu An: Mm.]

Qu An was only exaggerating. Chen Anle usually handled most of the scheduling and other arrangements.

He didn't chat with Gu Wenjun any longer, only had someone come pick him up.

Before they boarded the plane, Chen Anle was picked up by Gu Wenjun. Seeing the look on Chen Anle's face that practically screamed "Save me," Xiao Ming found it baffling and amusing. He couldn't tell what their relationship was and assumed they were relatives or something, so he didn't ask.

Xiao Ming and Qu An had bought their tickets together. They were on the same flight and in the same row, separated only by the aisle.

When the flight attendant came over to ask if they needed anything, Xiao Ming sensed a restrained excitement from her. Only then did he realize Qu An was sitting beside him. After spending so much time together these past few days, he had almost forgotten that Qu An was the wildly popular new Best Actor.

He turned to look at Qu An, only for their eyes to meet.

Because the weather had delayed filming for quite some time, they would be recording two episodes over two consecutive days this time, much like the first round.

Filming wouldn't begin until tomorrow afternoon. The weather had mostly been cloudy lately, so they didn't have to worry about the sun.

Since Xiao Ming didn't have an assistant himself, he didn't think much of Qu An not bringing one.

They didn't arrive particularly early, and it was already time to rest.

Filming wouldn't start until two in the afternoon the next day, so many people only headed for Yellow City that morning.

However, Qu An and Xiao Ming needed to record an interview for the show, so they arrived the night before.

Their interview this time was mainly because the impact caused by Yuan Yangming had yet to completely fade. The production team planned to release more behind-the-scenes footage and similar material.

The others had already recorded quite a bit during the typhoon because they hadn't been in the affected area. The remaining few had also arrived in Yellow City early.

The interviews were held in a hotel room, and the guests were called in one after another. Several people came between Xiao Ming and Qu An. Xiao Ming was among the first batch to be interviewed, so he had to get up quite early.

He had to get his makeup done first after waking up. The production team had arranged a makeup artist for him, though they didn't spend long fussing over him. Today, they had paired him with a yellow graffiti T-shirt. Though he still wore that expressionless face, he looked much more energetic.

The interview questions were simple: how he felt about his experience on the show, what thoughts he had, and who he thought had performed the best.

Xiao Ming's answers about his experience and thoughts were all very official, almost entirely modeled after the format Qu An had used in previous interviews. But when asked who had performed the best, he couldn't help saying a little more.

"I think Teacher Qu performed the best. He was basically always at the front when doing missions, and he did every mission very well. He runs really fast, too." Other than when he was in front of Qu An or on the show, Xiao Ming always called him Teacher Qu when speaking to others.

When Xiao Ming returned to his room after the interview, he ran into Lin Shange. She looked about the same as last time, though her complexion seemed somewhat better.

After Qu An rejected her proposal to stir up a CP pairing, she seemed to have gone looking for Guan Jun, because Xiao Ming had seen trending searches about the two of them.

The two weren't blatantly obvious about it. They understood that fans liked that vague, almost-but-not-quite feeling, letting them dig for little moments to obsess over themselves.

However, both Guan Jun and Lin Shange had debuted as idols, and they each had plenty of girlfriend fans and boyfriend fans. After they started promoting a CP pairing, they were basically cursed out by each other's fans. Still, negative popularity was popularity.

Lin Shange wasn't particularly surprised to see Xiao Ming. The production team had probably told the other guests as well. The two merely nodded to each other as a greeting.

The production team had ordered their lunch for them. The hotel restaurant prepared it and delivered it to their rooms, then they would take the production team's car together to the filming location that afternoon.

Only five guests needed to make up their interviews, so each person had been assigned a car. But halfway there, Qu An's car suddenly broke down. Xiao Ming's car was right behind his, and theirs were the last two to leave, so Qu An simply got into Xiao Ming's car.

"Not a great start, Brother Qu," Xiao Ming teased.

The driver in the front seat kept his eyes on the road and his mouth shut, pretending not to hear their intimacy. He had to have that kind of awareness.

Since neither of them had brought an assistant, the only people in the car besides the driver were the two of them.

The corners of Qu An's lips curled up as he replied, "Then I'll have to trouble Teacher Xiao to lead me along today." Seeing Xiao Ming purse his lips as he secretly laughed put him in an excellent mood, and he teased him further. "Can you help me win Acceleration King today?"

"Mhm." The last time he joined the show, it had only been to complete a mission. Now, he wanted to be on the show himself. Of course he wanted to have fun with it, and he also wanted to fight for Acceleration King.

When they arrived, Xiao Ming discovered that the entire outer area was packed with people, nearly all of them holding support signs for someone.

He had only glanced over them before intending to look away, but amid the sea of people, he spotted several signs held high with the large characters "Xiao Ming" written on them.

Fans had actually come to support him?

He was both flattered and overwhelmed. A strange feeling churned within him, like a parched field that had long given up saving itself suddenly receiving a nourishing downpour.

Fortunately, the fans were all outside the perimeter and didn't block their way.

As the car drew closer, Xiao Ming saw several girls gathered in a small group, holding up a support sign with his name on it and a cartoon portrait drawn beside it.

There were even more fans of Qu An and the others nearby, but just looking at those few people made Xiao Ming's lips unconsciously curve upward.

Because the fans crowding around during the commercial shoot last time had caused a very bad impact, Qu An later had Zhu Fei contact the fan club.

After Qu An's fan club took charge, situations like this had become much rarer. Therefore, only a small group of individual fans had come to see Qu An, and there weren't many of them.

Qu An naturally saw those fans as well. Noticing Xiao Ming's state, he told him, "You can have the staff buy some water and send it over to the fans. Remember to give them some proof."

Xiao Ming nodded, then estimated the number of Qu An's fans he had just seen. After getting out of the car, he found a staff member to help. He always carried two phones when going out now, and the one he used to contact staff was treated as his work phone.

When the staff delivered fruit tea and milk tea to the fans, it caused quite a stir. Xiao Ming had them send water to both groups of fans under his and Qu An's names respectively.

His thinking was simple: one group was his own fans, while the other was his idol's fans. He couldn't favor one over the other.

What Xiao Ming hadn't expected was that Qu An had also arranged for someone to do the same for him. As a result, both Qu An's and Xiao Ming's fans received two drinks each, and the fan communities erupted in celebration.

Fans like these were usually organized in groups. If Xiao Le had been there, he would have recognized the person leading Xiao Ming's side.

Ever since Yang Yiyi went back and watched the first episode of Full Speed Ahead!, she had proudly become a member of Xiao Ming's fan club.

Miss Yang declared that she had been far too loud before, and her eyesight must have been terrible. How had she dared buy negative trending searches about Xiao Ming? Out of guilt, Yang Yiyi liked Xiao Ming even more now.

And because of her outrageous wealth—she had funded the support event for Xiao Ming's schedule after news of this appearance was released—she had become one of the vice presidents. Xiao Ming's fan club currently had one president and two vice presidents, and Yang Yiyi had mainly paid for their accommodations, support signs, and other expenses this time.

However, there was one very awkward matter: Yang Yiyi had come this time as a fan of Xiao Ming, but she was also a fan of Qu An. Quite a few fans knew her because she was rich.

"Yiyi, aren't you Anbao's fan? Why did you go over there?"

No one knew which fan spoke first, but a whole group immediately began chattering at once.

"Exactly, exactly. Didn't you say before that other than Anbao, no other celebrity was worth being a fan of?"

"Yiyi, what does this mean? Have you quit being a fan?"

Yang Yiyi's face darkened. In the end, she had to shout for silence before the area quieted down.

"Being Qu An's fan doesn't stop me from also being Xiao Ming's fan. Didn't you see them get out of the same car? Their relationship is obviously very good. They're good friends."

Halfway through speaking, she adjusted the sunglasses on her face and took a sip of fruit tea. After drinking it, she subconsciously looked at the cup in her hand.

This mixture of coloring and sugar water was surprisingly tasty.

Then she looked back up at the fans and said,