Chapter 50

They cried on the spot and danced their way into all kinds of memes.

#ShiningFruitJam

#MiracleFruitJam

#FruitJamTravelsTheWorld

All in all, the atmosphere at the event was pretty good.

Gu Zhijing finished signing for her and was about to move on to the next fan when he heard a quiet chuckle beside him.

He didn't need to look to know who it was. His expression stayed the same, but under the table, he gently nudged Sheng Chi's leg with his knee. "What are you laughing at?" Holding back a smile, he glanced at Sheng Chi. "You're not much better yourself, you know."

A fearless young girl had just come over and asked Sheng Chi to wear a headband she'd brought.

Judging by the style of the headband, Sheng Chi would never have agreed under normal circumstances.

But a signing event was an in-person event meant to give fans a treat.

So after giving it some thought, he steeled himself and agreed.

And that was why he now had a pair of little pink cat ears on his head-the kind that moved when you pulled them.

They made quite a contrast with his face.

Gu Zhijing was gloating when he heard Sheng Chi say, "I'm not."

Sheng Chi was listening to the fan in front of him. He gave her a slightly formal smile before taking a moment to answer Gu Zhijing. "It's very cute."

Gu Zhijing fell silent at once, his ears turning slightly pink.

Sheng Chi really did think it was cute.

Like a soft, fluffy little sprite freshly hatched from a marshmallow.

Wearing a beautiful veil as he walked toward him, rising on tiptoe, his eyes moist and bright as he called him "gege."

Sheng Chi's gaze suddenly darkened, and he nearly messed up the signature he was writing.

He lowered his lashes for a moment, pushed the album back to the fan in front of him, and resumed his formal professional manner. "Thank you."

After signing for around seventy or eighty people, Gu Zhijing finally started to feel a little tired.

As he rubbed his wrist, a girl hurried up with an album.

Gu Zhijing was about to reach out and take it, but the girl didn't even look at him. Without a backward glance, she passed him by and headed straight for Sheng Chi's seat beside him.

Gu Zhijing froze, his hand still suspended in midair.

For a moment, he was a little bewildered. His mind went blank, and he didn't even immediately process what had happened-

She had skipped his signature.

While he was still dazed, the girl had already reached Sheng Chi.

She pushed the album in her hands toward Sheng Chi. Her voice was soft and gentle, but the affection she expressed for him was quite direct.

"Hi, gege. Do you remember me?"

"We met at the airport last time. I even asked if you weren't feeling well that day. I've liked you for such a long time. I've followed every one of your performances..."

She was probably a solo fan who only liked Sheng Chi.

Most likely a girlfriend fan, too.

Gu Zhijing glanced in her direction, withdrew his hand, and then gave a quiet laugh.

As if nothing had happened, he beckoned to the next girl, who was staring in shock, and smiled, his eyes curving. "Jiejie, can you really bear to leave me waiting here all alone? Come on over."

As he spoke, he tried spinning the pen in his hand again.

This pen was really difficult to spin. Once again, he failed to get it going, and it slipped from his fingers and clattered straight to the floor.

Gu Zhijing: "..."

Hundreds of pairs of eyes, both on and off the stage, turned toward him at once.

Gu Zhijing felt a little embarrassed. He sighed inwardly and was about to bend down to pick it up.

Then a hand beat him to it and picked up the pen.

Gu Zhijing froze.

He looked up and met Sheng Chi's gaze.

Sheng Chi's eyes were perfectly calm. He simply handed the pen back to him, then turned to look at the girl in front of him, who had been chattering nonstop and had only paused in surprise when he picked up the pen.

Sheng Chi finally looked her in the eye, but there was almost no warmth in his gaze.

"You've liked me for a long time?" he asked.

The girl nodded and hurriedly said, "Yes, a really long time. Ever since you first debuted-"

"Then you should know one thing."

"I really dislike people who disrespect my teammates," Sheng Chi said.

The girl was dumbfounded.

"Maybe the company didn't tell you the rules of the signing event. That's all right. I'll tell you."

"This is a group signing event. Skipping a signature-skipping anyone's signature-is disrespectful to my teammates."

Speaking slowly and distinctly, Sheng Chi said in an icy voice, "I'm speaking only for myself. I won't sign for you. You can leave."

The signing event ended smoothly within the scheduled three hours.

In the temporary break room after the event, Gu Zhijing scrolled through Weibo while massaging his wrist.

Within the fandom, Sheng Chi's refusal to sign for the fan who had skipped a member had already caused an uproar, and major entertainment forums and marketing accounts had reposted the story. Fortunately, the company didn't consider it positive publicity and kept it off the trending searches.

Public opinion was divided over what Sheng Chi had done.

Some felt that skipping a member's signature deserved a harsh response, and that only by having her own idol slap her in the face would she realize she was wrong.

Others believed that, no matter what, the fan had come for him and spent money. Her choice to disrespect his teammate was her own, but as an idol, he shouldn't hurt a fan's feelings.

Gu Zhijing quietly liked every comment praising Sheng Chi, then let out a small sigh.

"Still unhappy?"

Sheng Chi sat down beside him and removed the cat hair clip the last fan had put on his head.

Come to think of it, Gu Zhijing had worn all sorts of strange things throughout the day, sometimes several at once, but they hadn't looked out of place. They'd even been a little cute.

Sheng Chi rubbed his head. "I already stood up for you."

"Ah, no."

Gu Zhijing shook his head, his eyes curving. "I'm really not."

He hadn't even processed it when the girl skipped his signature, and he couldn't say he had been all that upset.

On the contrary, after Sheng Chi refused to sign for her, he became a little worried about the girl.

What had originally been a minor incident had been blown up by Sheng Chi.

Although the girl hadn't cried, she had been extremely embarrassed when she left.

He didn't know whether anyone there had taken her picture and would use it to track down her Weibo ID, leaving her socially dead in the fandom for a while.

Before this, Gu Zhijing had never expected anyone to skip his signature.

Perhaps the harmony in Color4's fandom had given him that illusion.

At least among his friends, there was hardly any arguing or trouble.

Since he didn't see it online, he had taken it for granted that nothing so awkward would happen offline either.

"I'm not unhappy. I'm worried about you."

Gu Zhijing sighed again. "Aren't you worried your fans will leave you?"

A very high proportion of Sheng Chi's fans were girlfriend fans.

Girlfriend fans were usually attracted to both looks and strength. They were easily fired up and easily driven to extremes, and their possessiveness and desire for control tended to be strong as well. They were also the kind of fans most likely to turn into toxic solo fans.

Although Gu Zhijing wasn't the strongest idol in terms of skill, he was the most popular member of the group, and both the CP fans and the doting mom fans portrayed him as someone everyone loved.

No wonder Sheng Chi's solo fans disliked him.

"I'm not worried."

"Some people will like you, and some people won't."

"That's perfectly normal."

Sheng Chi looked at him and said, "You need to know that too."

Gu Zhijing couldn't help laughing. "Of course I understand that."

"And."

Sheng Chi said softly, "Even if the whole world stopped liking you, I would still-"

He paused, as if changing the words he was about to say. "I'd still be your captain."

"At least you'd still have me. I'd like you."

His tone was light, but Gu Zhijing's heart immediately began pounding like thunder.

His fingertips curled.

Why was it so painful for a gay man to love a straight man? Why was it impossible to resist?

Because you never knew what a straight man might say in the next second to tug at your heartstrings.

Don't talk like that.

I really will take you seriously.

But Gu Zhijing merely lowered his eyes for a moment before smiling, his peach blossom eyes as well-behaved as ever.

He heard himself say, "Mm, thank you, Brother Chi."

Author's note: Two masters of push and pull in love (not).

-

I happened to think about this a few days ago. There aren't many signing events in the domestic entertainment industry to begin with, so a lot of fans who only follow idols through a screen might think skipping a signature is no big deal.

But to me, skipping a signature is actually a very nasty and disrespectful thing to do. Some companies have even made rules saying that skipping signatures at a signing event will get you blacklisted, so if any of you youngsters are lucky enough to attend one in the future, no matter how much you dislike a teammate, skipping their signature is not acceptable.

I went to get fillings today, sob sob. I had eight teeth filled in one go. It was so scary. I hope everyone takes good care of their teeth, sob sob.

-

Thanks to the little angel who threw a landmine: Zhengtian Luankecp, 1;

Thanks to the little angels who supplied nutrient solution: Qiushui Lan Xinghe., 10 bottles; Pi Zai Yang, 3 bottles;

Thanks, everyone w

Chapter 52

Inside an office at Leap Entertainment.

"Well done, Sheng Chi."

"After all those years in South Korea, is this the professionalism you learned as an idol? Embarrassing your own fan in public?"

Fei Yue slapped what he was holding onto the desk, looking as if he was genuinely furious. "Take a look at what people are saying. Feel good?"

"Even if she was wrong to skip a signature, the company should have dealt with it. You shouldn't have personally gone after her."

As Color4's direct superior and manager, Fei Yue usually acted more like a kind, approachable older brother. He rarely spoke to them so harshly.

He took a sip of water and paused, his expression easing slightly before he got to the point. "What if the girl you refused to sign for gets cyberbullied by fans next? Did you think about that? If this blows up, can you take responsibility for the social consequences?"

Skipping a signature was wrong.

But as an idol, publicly putting your own fan in an awkward position was also quite dangerous.

Fortunately, the matter hadn't blown up for the time being.

But what if, after going home, extreme fans doxxed the person who had skipped the signature?

Once word spread, would people then say that an idol had led the cyberbullying of an ordinary person?

Standards for idols were already excessively strict these days. Treat fans a little better and people would accuse you of pandering to them; intervene in a fan dispute and they'd say it was too low to get personally involved; reply to an ordinary person's comment to clear something up and they'd say you were directing fans to cyberbully them.

When an idol confronted a fan at a signing event, if public opinion wasn't handled properly, even if the fan came to no harm, the idol would be condemned for disrespecting fans and told that if they were so capable, they shouldn't rely on fans for a living and deserved to stay a flop forever.

In many people's eyes, idols were best kept on a pedestal forever: no secret accounts, no looking at fandom updates, no interacting with fans, and no replying to malicious comments.

They should just be emotionless promotional machines.

Sheng Chi stood there silently, taking the scolding.

The other three stood beside him as punishment too.

Jiang Yu held back again and again, but finally couldn't resist saying in a low voice, "I don't think the captain did anything wrong."

"It's international practice that you don't skip signatures at group signing events. Even if you run into a rival, at worst you can get the signature, tear out the page and sell it on Xianyu. Skipping someone to their face is just wrong."

Not everyone who went to a group signing event was a fan of the whole group.

But generally, anyone with a little tact and manners could simply resell the signature afterward, even if they didn't like the member.

Skipping a signature in public was almost the same as telling someone to their face, "I hate you."

Fei Yue slapped the desk. "Still arguing?"

Jiang Yu immediately fell silent and lowered his head, saying nothing more.

Fei Yue rubbed his temples, trying to calm himself. "Forget it. The company will handle this incident. For now, it looks like we can still keep it under control."

"But Sheng Chi, at the end of the day, you confronted a fan for your teammate's sake. Be prepared to lose fans."

"I don't care."

Sheng Chi said expressionlessly, "Anyone who leaves because of this had better never like me at all."

His teammates beside him were stunned by those words.

Sure enough, Fei Yue was angry again. "What?!"

Sheng Chi continued, "This kind of bad behavior needs to be stamped out."

As the saying went, a fan's love was a double-edged sword.