Chapter 33

He turned to the camera and said,

"Still Gu Zhijing."

Author's note: What a familiar scene!

Jiang Yu & Xu Linyuan: All the love and time we've given over the years was wasted after all. (crossed out)

Thanks to the little angel who threw land mines: T#T*^O^*, 2.

Thanks to the little angels who irrigated with nutrient solution: Chang'an Yijiu, 16 bottles; Meitian Dou Bei Ziji Kun Xing, 10 bottles; Xj, 3 bottles; Heng╯^╰, 2 bottles; Tangcuyu and T#T*^O^*, 1 bottle each.

Smooches to all my darlings!

Chapter 34

Gu Zhijing was momentarily dazed.

Time seemed to suddenly rewind to the moment after their first fight and cold war, when he had been hiding outside Fei Yue's office, trying to figure out how to apologize, and had heard Sheng Chi say those words.

"Wang Jue or He Yangming, who would you choose?"

"I choose Gu Zhijing."

Then it returned to the present.

"Jiang Yu or Xu Linyuan, who would you choose?"

"Still Gu Zhijing."

That made twice.

Whatever the choice, Sheng Chi's first and only choice seemed to be him.

Gu Zhijing's ears immediately grew a little hot, but then he heard Jiang Yu exclaim, "You're too clever, Captain! So you didn't want to offend either of us, and you made little Gu Jing take the blame?"

Sheng Chi chuckled without confirming or denying it.

Gu Zhijing was startled, then quickly came to his senses.

Indeed, Sheng Chi's answer was a clever way out.

The production team had clearly been trying to trap him with that question.

But if he answered Gu Zhijing for all three, the deadly question would turn into a joke they could tease him about, and the other members presumably wouldn't mind.

He looked at Sheng Chi.

Sheng Chi's expression remained calm, with the faint professional smile he had to wear during interviews. There was no telling whether he was joking or speaking from the heart.

Fortunately, after that question, the staff didn't give them a hard time with any more strange questions and simply finished the rest of the interview.

A little over ten minutes later, the interview was over.

The van was already waiting for them outside.

After removing their makeup, Color4 put on masks and down jackets and left the studio. They passed the fans who had stayed up late waiting outside, waved hello, and got into the van.

Jiang Yu and Xu Linyuan took the single seats in front, while Gu Zhijing and Sheng Chi once again occupied the entire back row.

The four of them listened as Yu Wenwen read out their schedule for the coming week.

Their year-end schedule was tight, packed, and exhausting. Several events would require them to stay up all night.

As Gu Zhijing listened, he made detailed notes of the coming week's schedule on his phone. After rubbing his temples, he poked Jiang Yu in the row ahead.

He lowered his voice. "Do you have Chen Bei's contact information?"

Jiang Yu had been getting ready to take a nap, but the question woke him right up. "I can ask around for you. What's wrong?"

Gu Zhijing answered vaguely, "There's something I want to talk to him about."

He had lowered his voice because he didn't want Sheng Chi to hear, but Sheng Chi's hearing was sharper than he expected, and he immediately sat up straight.

He stared at Gu Zhijing and narrowed his eyes dangerously. "You're going to talk to Chen Bei again?"

At the mere mention of Chen Bei's name, the murderous aura around him seemed impossible to contain.

Gu Zhijing: "..."

He deeply suspected that the two of them had some old grudge.

He shook his head. "No, there's something... I want to settle. Once I've said my piece, that'll be the end of it. I promise."

Sheng Chi said, "Can't you say it in person?"

Gu Zhijing fell silent, his fingers curling slightly.

To be honest, he really didn't want to meet Chen Bei alone again.

Talking through a screen was better than being alone with him again.

He was just about to make up an excuse to fob Sheng Chi off when he heard him say, "All right, then delete him as soon as you're done talking. Don't give him another chance to contact you."

Gu Zhijing: "..."

Now he was certain those two must have some old grudge.

Jiang Yu had a broad network of contacts among trainees and knew a lot of people. After asking around through a few intermediaries, he got Chen Bei's contact information and forwarded his WeChat profile to Gu Zhijing.

Gu Zhijing tapped the button to send a friend request.

He had to admit, Chen Bei was a little narcissistic. Even his profile picture was a selfie of his own side profile.

Chen Bei was probably looking at his phone at that moment, because he accepted the request very quickly.

As soon as they became contacts, Chen Bei sent him a message.

[Made up your mind?]

Gu Zhijing glanced at Sheng Chi beside him.

He was looking out the window and didn't seem to have noticed what Gu Zhijing was doing.

Gu Zhijing quickly tapped out a message.

[Sorry, Senior, there's someone I like.]

On second thought, he worried it might cause trouble later, so he deleted it.

[Sorry, Senior, you misunderstood. I don't like men.]

On second thought, he worried that might make things awkward, so he deleted it too.

Gu Zhijing was at a loss.

They were in the same industry, after all, and still had several episodes to film together. They were bound to keep running into each other, so it wouldn't be good to be too blunt now.

It wasn't as though no one had ever pursued him before, but most had been girls he didn't know very well, and a polite rejection had been enough.

Rejecting a man, and a senior in the same industry at that.

Honestly, this was a first.

After hesitating for a long time, Gu Zhijing finally typed a sentence.

[Senior, in our line of work, idols get their heads chopped off for dating. I don't want to die just yet, sorry.]

He tapped send.

Chen Bei, receiving the message on the other end: "...?"

Meanwhile, Gu Zhijing felt as though he had dealt with a major worry. He put down his phone and stretched comfortably.

He felt around in his down jacket pocket, intending to find a snack to relieve some of the fatigue from working late, but came up empty.

Gu Zhijing belatedly remembered.

He had already eaten it that afternoon while waiting for rehearsal.

He sighed and turned off the light in the van. Just as he was about to close his eyes and get some sleep, someone beside him handed him a packet of something.

Gu Zhijing felt it.

Judging by the shape, it seemed to be chocolate.

And judging by the feel of the plastic wrapper, it was his favorite brand.

He paused and looked at Sheng Chi.

Their teammates in front had already settled down to rest.

Apparently afraid of waking them, Sheng Chi ruffled his hair and whispered, as though coaxing a child, "Now that you're done talking, get some rest. Don't look at your messages anymore."

Gu Zhijing hesitantly accepted the chocolate.

Sheng Chi didn't eat snacks himself.

So he had clearly prepared this chocolate for him.

Gu Zhijing lowered his lashes, then smiled politely. "Okay."

A thought lingered in his mind for a while, but in the end he swallowed it.

Could you stop being so good to me, Brother Chi?

I might really take it seriously.

Color4's schedule was especially packed that week.

The following Friday, they would go to Starlight Show to film the third episode, and their stage collaboration partners would be confirmed then.

But a collaboration between two groups would undoubtedly require them to rehearse a new stage.

So they would have to keep basically that entire week free.

To make time, they could only squeeze everything into this week, going from one music show stage to another, shooting magazines, and giving interviews about their first album.

Of course, Fei Yue still held a bit of a grudge over how New Direction had looked down on them.

So he had deliberately scheduled New Direction as their last music show stage of the week.

But once they arrived, Gu Zhijing had to admit that New Direction had had some reason to reject them.

As the biggest music show stage in the country at present, its stage, set design, and music equipment were indeed several levels above Music Show's, and the staff were noticeably more professional too.

No wonder they had been confident enough to look down on a little flop group like theirs, newly debuted and unknown.

All their music show performances this time were the same: the title track of their first album, "Set off," with only slight differences in costumes and details.

Once everything had been adjusted, the music began.

Onstage, warm-toned lights and shadows spread out over a wide area in an instant, dazzling the eyes.

New Direction's stage liked to emphasize atmosphere and switch between showy camera angles. Although fans sometimes criticized it as flashy and overdone, most of the time it satisfied the little idols' desire to enjoy themselves onstage.

The song's themes were youth, struggle, and dreams, expressing the spirit of boys of eighteen or nineteen.

The choreography wasn't very difficult overall and mainly emphasized synchronization, so Sheng Chi had carefully worked through both the verses and the chorus with his teammates.

The only killing part began during a gap in the chorus, with a beam of golden light that split the darkness and fell on the center of the stage.

The other three members knelt on one knee at the side of the stage.

Sheng Chi stood in the center of that light.

Sheng Chi's features and face shape were of the sharp, striking kind. With the makeup and layers of stage lighting, he had a commanding presence, and even the fine sweat on the tips of his hair looked incredibly sexy and alluring.

He turned his head, looking into the camera with a fervent emotion that intertwined, flowed from his eyes toward the lens, and captured the gazes of the audience before it.

On the beat, he ran forward.

The light chased after him.

They had danced to this title track countless times that week.

Gu Zhijing knew with his eyes closed that Sheng Chi would next perform a horizontal spin in the air, followed by two consecutive front walkovers.

It was a difficult display of skill.

It was also the climax and soul of the entire song.

Listening to the music with his eyes lowered, Gu Zhijing couldn't help remembering the first time he had seen Sheng Chi onstage.

That had been at the July assessment.

With an exhilarating display of skill, he had demonstrated his strength, crushed Qi Wang, and ignited the spark of a dream in Gu Zhijing's heart that had yet to catch fire.

That was the kind of person Sheng Chi was.

Offstage, he was cool and rational, but onstage it was as if another soul had been implanted in him. He was passionate and uninhibited, eager to lay bare all his expressiveness and give it to the audience.

His performance was the stage's most perfect work of art.

And he himself was the most perfect artist on that stage.

As Gu Zhijing listened to the beat of the music, his heart pounded along with it.

He looked at the person in the beam of light onstage.

If he had to define his current feelings for Sheng Chi,

Sheng Chi was the starting point of his dream of becoming an idol.

To the rapid beat of the drums, Sheng Chi performed two crisp front walkovers without the slightest hesitation, then landed steadily.

Sparks flared at the edge of the stage.

Yet no one noticed that Sheng Chi's lips had gone slightly pale, or that his left hand was trembling where it supported him against the floor.

Finally, when the song was over, the music had stopped, and the cameras had been switched off,

he fell with a thud onto the cold floor at the edge of the stage.

Author's note: A front walkover is a dance move, roughly similar to a front flip.

Thanks to the little angels who threw land mines: Future Huakai, 9; Qi Zui, 4; Tangcuyu, 1.

Thanks to the little angels who irrigated with nutrient solution: Youran, 30 bottles; Tangcuyu and Songjing Zhengyun, 1 bottle each.

Thank you, everyone! Smooches!

Chapter 35

"...Yes, it was exhaustion caused by staying up late for several days in a row."

"Oh, there's nothing seriously wrong with him overall. But he has an old lower back injury, and this time it all flared up because of excessive fatigue. He needs plenty of rest and shouldn't do any more difficult moves for the time being."

"...You young people really should pay attention to your health. Don't risk your lives like this."

Sheng Chi opened his eyes in a daze.

The white ceiling of a hospital room came into view.

He still had an IV in his left hand. When he woke, he tugged it and winced in pain before slowly sitting up.

Fei Yue had just politely seen the doctor out when he heard the youngsters in the room all start howling at once.

"Captain!"

"Brother Chi!"

"You're awake! Are you okay? Do you know you almost scared us-"