Ye Qingzhou froze for a moment.
His beautiful, peach-blossom eyes briefly lost focus before returning to normal. There was an unmistakable hint of amusement in his voice. "Someone used to compliment me like that, too..."
Chu Ci listened quietly.
"I actually didn't like smiling much before, but he always told me I looked good when I smiled. Over time, I couldn't help smiling whenever I saw him."
Ye Qingzhou lowered his eyes to look at Chu Ci before him, the tenderness in his peach-blossom eyes almost overflowing.
Chu Ci noticed nothing amiss. He nodded in agreement. "Then he had pretty good taste."
"He certainly did."
Ye Qingzhou's lips curved into a smile.
While they were talking, Ye Qingzhou had already brought Chu Ci to the entrance of the original owner's home.
"Thank you."
Chu Ci thanked him politely.
Ye Qingzhou shook his head and said he was welcome, then took out his phone and brought up his QR code. "Teacher Chu, let's exchange contact details. You can contact me directly if you have any problems."
Chu Ci: "?"
What did that mean?
For once, Chu Ci was somewhat at a loss. Just then, the familiar voice sounded in his mind again. "Master, open WeChat on your phone, then tap Scan."
With Lele's friendly assistance, Chu Ci successfully exchanged contact details with Ye Qingzhou.
Watching Ye Qingzhou's car disappear from view, Chu Ci couldn't help remarking, "He really is a good person."
[Master, haven't you noticed...]
Lele's voice sounded somewhat hesitant.
"...What?"
Chu Ci raised his brows slightly, his voice puzzled.
[It's nothing, really. I just feel that Ye Qingzhou isn't as simple as he seems...]
For some reason, Ye Qingzhou gave it a sense of familiarity.
"Maybe you're overthinking it."
Chu Ci yawned casually. He didn't take Lele's words to heart, instead looking up at the residential complex before him, his voice tinged with confusion. "Are you sure... this is where the original owner lived?"
How could he describe the place before him?
Dilapidated, desolate, bleak.
It was a run-down residential building with outdated facilities and no elevator. The stairs had a handrail, but its paint had long since rubbed off. A few freshly fallen leaves lay at the foot of the stairs, and there wasn't a single passerby in sight.
[I'm sure.]
Lele gave Chu Ci an affirmative answer.
As Chu Ci walked toward the stairs, he asked, "Didn't you say entertainers in this world make a lot of money? Why were the original owner's living conditions so poor?"
[There are different tiers of entertainers, too. The original owner was at the very bottom. He had to clout-chase just to gain a little recognition. His online reputation wasn't good, either. On top of that, his health was poor, so he had to spend a large sum on medicine every year and save up for his grandmother's retirement...]
Lele explained earnestly.
"What does clout-chasing mean?"
[Clout-chasing, as the name suggests, means deliberately attaching yourself to a person or event when they're popular, with the aim of gaining some traffic. For example, the original owner would deliberately tie himself to someone else as a CP, using that method to get casual onlookers to recognize him.]
After recording Let's Fall in Love, Chu Ci had specifically searched online for the meaning of "CP." Another way of putting "CP" was a couple or partners, so tying people together as a CP probably meant forcibly pairing them up as a couple.
"Wouldn't that put people off?"
Chu Ci's voice held a hint of confusion.
[It would. The original owner had a lot of anti-fans.]
"Then why did he still..."
Chu Ci didn't finish, but Lele had been with him for so many years that it immediately understood his question.
[Because without buzz, there's no discussion. Without discussion, he couldn't get scripts. Without scripts, he couldn't make money, and without money, he couldn't afford treatment or support his family. The original owner's family wasn't well-off, and the company he signed with didn't have much in the way of resources. He could only stay in the public eye this way.]
"So that's how it was."
Chu Ci understood at last.
If life hadn't left them struggling, who would want to do those attention-seeking things?
But a question soon occurred to Chu Ci. He and Lele should have arrived at the same time. He had even woken up before Lele; otherwise, Lele's voice wouldn't have been so weak.
So-
"How do you know so much?"
Chu Ci asked, puzzled.
First "clout-chasing," then "tying people together as a CP," and then an explanation of why the original owner had used "infamy" to gain fame. But Lele had come from the interstellar world just as he had, so how did Lele know even more than he did?
[I'm not really sure myself, but when I heard your questions, these definitions naturally appeared in my mind. It feels as though...]
Lele's voice faltered for a moment before it continued hesitantly.
[Someone programmed these concepts into me beforehand. That's why I know them so clearly.]
A breeze brushed through the short black hair over the young man's forehead. He looked up at the peeling walls around him, his expression thoughtful.
The original owner's home was on the second floor.
It was called a "home," but it was really just a cheap place the original owner had rented temporarily because he was short of money.
Chu Ci took a key from his pocket and opened the door. The furniture inside was secondhand, but the original owner's grandmother had kept it clean. There were even a few potted plants on the rooftop terrace, which she had also pruned beautifully.
Cozy.
That was Chu Ci's first reaction.
The original owner hadn't had much of a name in the entertainment industry to begin with. Part of his earnings had gone toward medicine, and part had gone to his grandmother.
In fact, none of that had been his biggest expense.
Over the years, the original owner had taken on a few television drama scripts and variety show scripts here and there. Although his earnings hadn't amounted to even a fraction of what an A-list celebrity made, they had still been considerable to someone from an ordinary family like him.
The reason the original owner hadn't saved that money was that he had a pair of difficult parents.
The original owner's parents had learned by chance that he had become a celebrity, so they would call him every few days to ask for money. Whenever he refused, they would curse him with phrases like "ungrateful little wretch," "heartless," and "unfilial son."
Out of consideration for their blood ties, the original owner had sent them money every time. But as their requests grew more frequent and the amounts grew larger, the money he had earned had run out.
Left with no other choice, the original owner had explained to his parents that he was short of money himself and would send them some once he had it. Who would have thought his parents would turn around and label him "unfilial"?
When the original owner refused to fall for that, they began playing the pity card. First, they tearfully recounted how hard their lives had been over the years, then began guilt-tripping him, saying they asked him for money in the hope of making things better for the family. They claimed they were working hard for his sake, and that all the money they earned in the future would be his anyway.