Chapter 34

"That scared me to death!"

"Is there anything you want to eat? I'll go buy it for you now."

"If we can't buy it, we can make it for you ourselves!"

It was the middle of the night, but they were making enough noise to blow up the ward.

Sheng Chi: "..."

His senses slowly returned. He looked at his teary-eyed teammates, the corner of his mouth twitching. "I'm fine. I don't want to eat."

"And you say you're fine."

Fei Yue closed the exceptionally soundproof door behind him before coming in, his concern plain on his face. "You need to take better care of yourself! Do you know how badly you scared the New Direction staff when you fell? They rushed you to the hospital and called me."

The New Direction staff really had been scared.

As soon as filming ended, they heard a thud. At first, they thought he had slipped and fallen, but he had actually passed out.

If anything had really happened to Sheng Chi during filming, they might as well have canceled the show.

"Luckily, the doctor said there's nothing seriously wrong with you. You'll be fine after some rest."

Fei Yue looked down at the schedule for the rest of the week. "Tomorrow's just filming for your self-produced group variety show anyway. There's no rush; we can put it off for a while. Get a good day's rest, and as for the activities after that..."

He hesitated. Mindful of Sheng Chi's temperament, he ultimately left room for discussion. "We'll decide when the time comes."

Sheng Chi was still a little dazed. He nodded without objection. "Okay."

He glanced at the IV bag, showing no awareness that he was a patient. "Then when can I leave the hospital?"

"The doctor said you can go home once you've finished these two bags."

As he spoke, Fei Yue glanced at them, feeling a little troubled.

The two bags would probably take another hour or two. It wasn't especially long, but it wasn't short either. It would be best to find someone to stay with him.

But the company was busy at the end of the year, and it would be a great hassle to find someone at short notice in the middle of the night. He also had to go deal with the handover with New Direction immediately and couldn't wait long.

The other little brats from Color4 needed to be sent back right away too.

They had been working nonstop until now and were nearly at their physical limits, their eyes almost red from staying up.

Fei Yue thought for a moment. "I'll get a hospital attendant to stay with him. The rest of you are coming back with me."

"No need."

Gu Zhijing immediately said, "I'll stay with Brother Chi and leave with him later."

Fei Yue was taken aback. Then Jiang Yu chimed in with a request of his own. "You can't do a good deed alone! How about we all stay with the captain and leave together later?"

Xu Linyuan nodded too. "Right, we'll all stay."

"No."

Fei Yue's expression turned stern at once. "Sheng Chi collapsed because he was exhausted. Do you all want to end up like him? Every one of you is going back!"

Jiang Yu hung his head dejectedly.

Gu Zhijing, however, stubbornly insisted, "I haven't stayed up late these past few days. I can handle it."

He paused, lowered his peach-blossom eyes, and reminded him quietly, "Besides, it's best not to let too many people know about something like this."

It would be disastrous if someone with an agenda leaked it.

New Direction would be caught in an undeserved disaster, and Leap Entertainment would also be branded as a company that mistreated its artists.

While Fei Yue hesitated, Gu Zhijing smiled again. "The ward can't hold that many people, and the IV won't take long."

"I'll stay with Brother Chi. You guys go on ahead."

After seeing off his reluctant teammates and the worried Brother Fei, Sheng Chi found the private ward suddenly quiet.

He watched the liquid drip through the IV tube and began trying to recall what had happened.

As he remembered it, he had already felt himself running out of strength after completing two front handsprings.

When the cameraman called for a stop, his physical exertion had finally reached its limit. Unable to hold on, he had fallen.

Because of their schedule, they generally left early and came back late during music show promotions. Staying up late was practically routine.

As Color4's captain, he had scarcely had any time off these past few weeks. He had run through the rehearsals and blocking for every different stage many more times than his teammates.

He had anticipated that the promotion period would be grueling.

So he had made some adjustments to the choreography.

Sheng Chi had originally planned an aerial front handspring for the killing part.

But an aerial front handspring put strain on both the back and the knees, and it might aggravate his old injury.

After thinking it over for a long time, he had replaced it with an ordinary front handspring.

He might not have made that choice a few years ago.

Back then, he had been excessively young, and his drive to climb higher and be seen had outweighed everything else.

But now, he wanted to keep dancing onstage for a few more years.

He hadn't expected that even so, he still wouldn't be able to hold out.

Gu Zhijing brought over a chair and sat beside his bed. "Are you sleepy, Brother Chi?" he asked gently. "If you are, get some more sleep. I'll wake you when the IV's done."

Sheng Chi said, "I'm okay."

He glanced at Gu Zhijing. The warm yellow bedside light fell hazily over him, lending him an unusual, exceptional softness.

He looked reasonably alert on the surface, but his eyes were bloodshot, and their corners were red.

A small part of Sheng Chi's heart suddenly softened.

The light dazzled him, and he closed his eyes for a moment. In a hoarse voice, he asked, "Why didn't you go back?"

Gu Zhijing froze for a moment, then smiled. "What's wrong, Brother Chi? Do you really not want to see me that much?"

He leaned back in his chair and took out his phone, his peach-blossom eyes curving.

He concealed his personal feelings for Sheng Chi well, saying only, "After something this serious, I wouldn't be able to sleep even if I went back, so I might as well keep you company for a while."

"You don't know how scared we all were when you fell onstage."

In that instant, his whole body had gone cold. He had truly been afraid something would happen to Sheng Chi, and his head had been spinning.

Only after they arrived at the hospital and heard the doctor say it was nothing serious did he come to his senses a little, realizing that his back was drenched in cold sweat.

As he spoke, he lowered his head and checked off the activities in his notes one by one.

"It won't be a problem to take tomorrow's group variety show off."

"But what about Starlight Show the day after tomorrow?"

Gu Zhijing looked up and asked him, "Are you still going?"

The third episode of Starlight Show wouldn't feature any stage performances. It would only announce the results of the previous competition, bid farewell to the eliminated teams, and show the segment in which the winning teams selected teammates.

Before Sheng Chi woke up, Fei Yue had told them that he wanted Sheng Chi to take the next episode off and get some rest.

Unexpectedly, Sheng Chi answered without thinking, "I have to go."

If he didn't, what would people think?

Would they speculate that Color4's captain was sick because Leap Entertainment had worked him too hard, or that the captain was at odds with his teammates and wanted to run away?

After all, netizens in certain gossip circles could come up with a hundred possibilities from one person's single absence.

Gu Zhijing's fingertips pressed against his phone.

He looked at Sheng Chi, hesitated, and finally said softly, "Do you have a death wish?"

The third episode did indeed have no performances to film.

But from makeup, preparations, rehearsal, and blocking to the actual recording and its conclusion, it would still mean at least five or six hours of nonstop, high-pressure work.

The doctor had recommended that Sheng Chi rest properly for at least three days before returning to work.

Sheng Chi was silent for a while before suddenly saying, "Jiang Yu has a knee injury, and Xu Linyuan doesn't sleep well."

He looked at the young man before him. "And don't you have low blood sugar too?"

Gu Zhijing was slightly taken aback.

Sheng Chi had noticed Gu Zhijing's habit of eating snacks a long time ago.

At first, he had thought Gu Zhijing simply liked them, but later he realized that wasn't entirely the case.

Gu Zhijing had a bad stomach and ate little at meals. With work and the late nights lately, he would probably have found it difficult to keep going without some high-calorie food to supplement his diet.

That was why, after noticing this, Sheng Chi had made a habit of keeping Gu Zhijing's favorite chocolate in his pocket.

Sheng Chi paused, then looked up at the IV bag above him. "When I was in South Korea, I once heard a senior say something in jest."

"An idol who hasn't been to the hospital a few times isn't qualified."

"At our company, there really was a senior who once fainted onstage during a live broadcast and was taken to the hospital."

He spoke of these alarming things as though they were nothing. "In our line of work, it's all normal."

Being an idol was a rather cruel profession.

If you wanted to chase your dreams and reach the top, you had to give something up in exchange.

Who didn't have some ailment?

But who dared to take a break lightly?

Some idols took time off to recover from a back injury, only to return six months later to a world where no one loved them anymore.

For Sheng Chi,

resting properly simply wasn't an option.

Gu Zhijing held his phone and said nothing for a long time.

He still looked very much opposed, but he didn't want to interfere with Sheng Chi's decision.

"Fortunately, we've finished recording all the music show performances now."

Sheng Chi said, "The more difficult part is the upcoming collaboration stage."

His voice was soft, almost a sigh. "I don't know how much I can do in my current condition."

Once the collaboration stage was decided, they would spend the next week training to get in sync with the other team.

For them, it was a new stage.

The pressure was scarcely less than completing an original work in seven days.

Gu Zhijing frowned too.

Sheng Chi was the backbone of the group.

Although Color4 didn't have a fixed center, Sheng Chi's stage skills were so far ahead of everyone else's that they all took it for granted he would handle the difficult killing parts.

If they wanted to lighten his burden, it meant the others would have to help shoulder that part.

...But why couldn't they?

Gu Zhijing suddenly raised his face.

"You don't need to worry about the collaboration stage. A song is only three or four minutes long, and more people means each person's part will have to be shorter. It won't be too complicated."

"Jiang Yu, Linyuan, and I will find a way to keep the pressure on you to a minimum while still putting on a great performance."

Gu Zhijing paused, an ache in his heart, and said quietly, "You've carried so much on your own."

"It's time you trusted us for once."

He knew Sheng Chi too well.

Sheng Chi was the kind of person who kept everything to himself, quietly remembering and thinking through every little detail so his teammates wouldn't have to worry.

He was the pillar that kept the group steady.

But now that pillar had run into trouble.

Color4 still wouldn't fall apart.

The others would help keep him steady together.

Sheng Chi gazed at him and suddenly smiled.

He nodded. "Okay."

With that, he ruffled Gu Zhijing's hair again. "I'll listen to our little Gu Zhijing."

Once the IV was finished, a car arranged by Fei Yue soon picked Sheng Chi and Gu Zhijing up and took them back.

After managing to rest for another day at the dorm, Sheng Chi returned to work despite the objections of both his teammates and Brother Fei.

A sea of people filled the area outside the Starlight Show recording hall.

Wearing masks, Color4 greeted the fans holding up their light signs and hurried inside.

After makeup, styling, rehearsal, and a series of other preparations, the official recording finally began.

The stage spotlights came on.

All the idol groups stood onstage, waiting together for the voting results from the previous episode.

While the host was still reading the advertisement, Gu Zhijing quietly asked Sheng Chi, "Are you holding up?"

Sheng Chi watched the camera ahead, unruffled. "It's okay. I can manage."

"Judging by the live vote count earlier, we'll probably win."

Gu Zhijing carefully glanced at the other groups around them. "So have you decided who you want to collaborate with?"

"I have two or three options."

Sheng Chi glanced at the results appearing row by row on the big screen and paused. "But judging by our vote count, we'll probably have to wait until the other teams have picked before we get to choose."

Sure enough, because their opponents last time had not been very popular, the fans had not been as enthusiastic about voting as before.

As a result, their vote count wasn't particularly high. They ended up with just over eighty thousand votes, placing third among the four winning teams.

Next, the eliminated teams gave their farewell speeches one by one.

Almost all the groups leaving were relatively unknown.

The captain of one girl group even cried as she left, as though she regretted not having properly