CH 3

Hold up. Qi Xingchen sobered in the next second, and chastised himself:

Do you wish to die? Do you wish to die? Do you wish to die?

If you don’t wish to die, then what are you doing revelling in a 2D character?

He is only a Mary Sue fiction novel’s male protagonist! Not the real Bo Ye!

How are you worthy of your real idol?!

To avoid the media outside, the bodyguard protecting Bo Ye speed-walked and was already almost out of their line of sight. Qi Xingchen secretly clenched his fists at the statuesque back view.

There was still a very long road ahead. With the ability to confuse him, this male protagonist was not easy to deal with ah.

.

The main perspective in 《Peach in the Night》 was that of the female protagonist, the novel largely describing anything that happens to her. Only when the plot requires it, the scenes would then shift to the other characters.

Thus the book did not mention this part about Bo Ye returning to the company. Qi Xingchen did not know what he came back for and just followed Han Qing to the dance studio.

He stretched for half an hour, trying to bend backwards and do splits. The original owner had learnt the foundation of music and dance, just that he did not train for long enough. He was pampered since young and thus could not bear much hardship, hence his basics were not that solid.

However, his flexibility was pretty good. After training for a few more days, he could pick up the majority of the acrobatics he did in real life.

“Wah!” Qi Xingchen was practising when Han Ying, who brought water back, opened his mouth wide in shock, “Xingxing, are you trying to scare me? You were almost going to fold yourself into half!”

“……” Qi XIngchen, who had never heard anyone describing it as such before, gave a perfunctory reply, “I haven’t practised for a long time, so I’m just stretching my muscles.”

“Stretching? What are you stretching like this for? I thought you wanted to go down the actor’s route.”

Han Qing muttered this, then snuck over to him, “Xingxing, guess what I just heard.”

“Something to do with the meeting?”

“That’s right! I heard that the company picked up a hot variety show for Bo Ye.”

Qi Xingchen asked: “As a temporary special guest?”

“Nope. A permanent guest,” Han Qing paused for a bit, “You know too that with Bo Ye’s level in showbiz, it is very difficult to invite him to attend a variety show. I’m guessing that the company managed to stuff someone else in the contract.”

No matter if it was the real-life or the novel Bo Ye, they both would usually not touch any other variety shows apart from those from CCTV1.

Even if he accepted it, he would only be a temporary guest at most. To Bo Ye, his current traffic status and fame were more than enough, and he had no need to rely on variety shows to elevate himself.

The stuffing of people as said by Han Qing was a common practice by the entertainment company — Did you not want to invite my company’s major star2? Then not only must the remuneration be satisfactory, but you would also have to include another one of our company’s artistes in the contract.

In the crude way of speaking, it was a buy-one-get-one-free, letting the latter attend the show to gain some fame. This kind of opportunity would usually be given to newcomers who had high potential but were not yet famous.

Qi Xingchen felt that there was something off. According to the plotline of 《Peach in the Night》, Bo Ye should be having a period of rest now, and even had a chance encounter with the female protagonist at a restaurant. How could he be on a variety show?

“We’ll just follow the company’s plan then,” Qi Xingchen shook his head, opening the dance practice video, “Little Qing, can you help me with this part?”

.

This practice ended up lasting most of the afternoon. Han Qing, who lived far from the company, went to change at the changing room and had to first say goodbye to Qi Xingchen: “I have to catch the last bus. Xingxing you should also go back soon.”

“Okay,” Qi Xingchen responded, “See you tomorrow.”

Han Qing persuaded him for a bit more before leaving. After Qi Xingchen finally dealt with him, he sat leaning against the wall, shaking away the sweat on his head.

In the end, because of his weak basics, he could not even get the chorus part right after trying for so long. If he wanted to get closer to the male and female protagonist, this level of capability was definitely not enough.

Qi Xingchen glanced at the time, seeing that it was 9 plus at night, gulped down half a bottle of water and prepared to practice for a while more.

If he could not dance proficiently to the chorus by today, he would not leave.

“1, 2, 3, 4……”

Qi Xingchen continued practising while facing the mirror. At 10 plus, the last artiste left from the piano room, and the entire vocal training area darkened.

At 11, all the artistes from the dance studio also headed home. The security guard came by to check and switched off the lights of the rest of the practice rooms, leaving only his light on.

Qi Xingchen left the practice room door slightly ajar for some airflow. The stream of light that poured out from the crack and the sounds of counting the beats was pronounced along the dark and quiet corridor.

As soon as Bo Ye left his personal instrument room, he noticed the unusual activity. He followed the sounds over and stopped in front of the door crack.

20 minutes passed, half an hour passed……

It was as if Qi Xingchen was tireless. Until a male voice suddenly disrupted his train of thought: “You can’t practice like this.”

There was a trace of a drawl in the low magnetic voice, and Qi Xingchen’s head almost exploded as soon as he heard it!

This damned3 …… isn’t this the damned voice of his idol?!

He froze in place for a few seconds and turned around stiffly. The first thing that entered his field of vision was a pair of straight long legs. After that, his gaze shifted up to Bo Ye, who had his baseball cap pulled down low and was clasping his arms while slouching against the door.

“The dynamics4 are wrong, so it would be useless no matter how much you practice,” Bo Ye jutted his chin, “Stop looking at me already. Replay the music, start afresh from the top.”

Qi Xingchen turned back stiffly again, his head blank.

He bowed his head and patted his face, blinking vigorously — This was the first time in his entire life seeing his idol alone. Even if he was fake, it still caught him off-guard.

There were mirrors on both sides of the practice room, and all these small movements became conspicuous; Bo Ye raised his eyebrows at them. Fortunately, he did not have to wait for long before Qi Xingchen finally snapped back to reality and started to dance.

With the idol supervising, in the first half Qi Xingchen danced as if he was a primary school student who was being watched like a hawk by his form teacher from the back of the classroom — you cannot say it was bad, but it was over conscious5, and you cannot say it was good either.

""

Bo Ye found out where the problem was during the second half and walked over beside him while still clasping his arms. The performance script was rolled up, then used to whack his waist once.

“Your waist movement6 is not right.”

When Qi Xingchen did a leg move, Bo Ye whacked7 his outer thigh, “The movement of your leg is wrong, the thigh should drive the movement of the calf.”

Qi Xingchen could only grit his teeth and bear with it since it was his idol who was whacking him.

By the end of one dance, apart from anything above his neck, Qi Xingchen was pretty much hit all over.

Bo Ye looked at Qi Xingchen who was standing as straight as a ramrod in front of him, but had drooping eyelids, “……Do you remember whatever I said just now?”

“……En.”

“Do the movement of 4234.”

Qi Xingchen tried to follow according to the type of dynamic that Bo Ye had instructed and was not whacked this time round. However, he could see from the corner of his eyes that Bo Ye was not satisfied.

Acrobatics and dance have different dynamics. Qi Xingchen had been learning acrobatics since he was five, and it would be extremely difficult to change something he had trained to the bone before. 

He knew about his shortcomings and did not blame Bo Ye for being dissatisfied. He slicked his sweat-soaked bangs back with a hand.

“Is this correct?” And he did it again very slowly.

Bo Ye’s strength was not in teaching others and was just thinking about how to translate his thoughts. Unexpectedly, this person broke the movement down into parts; moreover, the results were better than the previous time, showing that he was really thinking hard.

He finally took a closer look at the other — after the youth had slicked back his hair, his entire face became unobstructed, revealing it to be not much bigger than a hand1.

With single eyelids, a high nose bridge and a small chin, he appeared exceedingly clean and refreshing. His skin was clear and delicate, with no pores visible; it was a natural aspect2 for becoming a star.

The kind of star that was endowed by the heavens3.

With this kind of look, even if he went into acting as only a flower vase4, he would still attract people’s attention. Why would he bother crossing the single-log bridge5 of an entertainer who sings and dances? Bo Ye did not ask, as he was not a nosy person.

“Almost there, come,” Bo Ye then placed his hand on Qi Xingchen’s waist, “Follow my hand and slowly twist your waist.”

Qi Xingchen only felt the blood from his whole body rush to the area where both of them were in contact, and it was boiling.

Especially when Bo Ye moved even closer, a refreshing fragrance attacked his sense of smell, causing him to be unable to focus.

He took in a deep breath, forcing his heart to calm down. According to the pressure from Bo Ye’s palm, he figured out the dynamics bit by bit.

The results were quite remarkable. After two tries, Qi Xingchen was already very close to the original dance.

“Is it the same for the legs?” Qi Xingchen did a round of the leg movements with counts.

“Your comprehension is not bad.” Bo Ye unexpectedly nodded his head.

Originally, it was as if he was pulled by something earlier, unconsciously walking into the practice room. But now, he felt that this trip was not for nothing.

.

With Bo Ye’s guidance, Qi Xingchen very quickly learned this dance. When he arrived home with completely sweat-soaked clothes, the hour hand had already passed 2 am.

He initially thought that the Qi family members would all be asleep, but he found that the living room was still lit.

Qi Yunxiao, the original owner’s big brother, the “Chairman Qi” he saw when he woke up, was sitting in the living room reading documents.

The reasons why Qi Xingchen chose to come home so late was first, dance practice, and second, to reduce contact with the Qi family members.

He, who never had any relatives since young, was very not used to the sudden appearance of a bunch of people who treated him well.

Hearing the door open, Qi Yunxiao placed his documents down, revealing the chiselled facial features that displayed his maturity, “Xingxing, you’re back. Hurry go to wash up and sleep ba.”

Qi Xingchen bit the bullet and made a noise of agreement, “Are you still going to be awake for a bit?”

“Seeing that you’re back safely, I’m going to sleep too.” Qi Yunxiao massaged between his brows.

The original owner once told his family that they were not allowed to appear near Noah to prevent his identity from leaking. He reckoned it was because of this, that Qi Yunxiao did not dare to rush to Noah to fetch him and could only wait at home.

Moreover, Qi Yunxiao did not ask about his whereabouts, or what he did, unlike the usual controlling family members. It was apparent that he respected his younger brother very much.

With mixed emotions in his heart, Qi Xingchen whispered a “goodnight” and went upstairs to his room.

Following a day of sweating like the rain in the practice room, he slept very well that night. The next day, he happened to bump into Han Qing at the entrance of the company.

There were a lot of people squatting at both sides of Noah’s revolving doors, no matter male or female. Holding all sorts of cameras6, with dark circles under their eyes, you could tell with one look that they were the fansite masters7 and paparazzi.

Han Qing had participated in a television talent show much earlier before, but was disqualified after the first round and did not have many fans, no different from a trainee. The original owner had shown his face in a web drama, but never got another drama again afterwards, and thus also had a “No such person found” status.

It goes without saying who these people were squatting for.

Han Qing tsked, “Xingxing, when do you think I can become like Senior Bo Ye and have this many fans waiting for me?”

“Having that many fans isn’t necessarily a good thing. With the camera heads constantly shoved into your face, maybe it would still be tolerable for one or two days, but you’ll get annoyed after a while.”

“Yep!” Han Qing agreed enthusiastically, “Xingxing, let’s say if you become really famous in the future, what would you do when faced with this sort of situation?”

The exact same question was posted to Bo Ye by the media before. Qi Xingchen was reminded of his idol, and his eyes crinkled: “Since I can enjoy the benefits of the traffic, then I must also be able to bear the troubles that it brings.”

Han Qing glanced at Qi Xingchen, astonished. The two walked over to the elevators, but all three elevators were in use.

During the boring wait for the elevator, Han Qing whispered: “Xingxing, do you still remember what I told you about yesterday?”

“Yeah, why?”

“From a reliable news source, the variety show taken up was 《Let’s Budget Travel!》8, and the guest lineup will be announced in a few days.”

What? Let’s Budget Travel?

Qi Xingchen’s heart jolted —

The male and female protagonists got acquainted in this very variety show!

At the same time, under Qi Yuji’s influence, Zhou Yu received the opportunity brought by Bo Ye. He then fell in love with the female protagonist during the filming of the show, letting Qi Yuji’s character completely blacken.

…… But according to the original work, the variety show was announced in half a month’s time. Why was it brought forward ah?

If the news was true, it was akin to the “fast forward” button of his death progression being pressed. Sooner rather than later, his name would be printed on a tombstone!

“Xingxing, quick, stand properly, Senior Bo Ye is here.”

In an unbelievably short amount of time, Han Qing’s single elbow dragged him back from his thoughts. Qi Xingchen sucked in a deep breath and started strategizing countermeasures.

From a distance, you could see Bo Ye fighting the same battle as yesterday: escaping the clutches of the crowd of fans and paparazzi at the door, then proceeding to stride towards the elevators.

“The more you look at Senior Bo Ye, the more handsome he looks. If you shoot a variety show together with him, all the other people would only serve as foils……” Han Qing said, “Xingxing, the other placement would definitely be fought tooth and nail over9. Who do you think would get it in the end?”

Qi Xingchen said: “I can’t guess who, but I would like to give it a try.”

“……Really?” Han Qing was bewildered, “I thought you were not interested in variety shows?”

“Really.”

Qi Xingchen was quick-witted. Calculating the amount of time needed for Bo Ye to walk over, he whispered in a tone that was three parts melancholic and seven parts wistful: “Because I am a fan of Senior Bo Ye ah.”

“……” Han Qing was completely floored.

Bo Ye who was about to walk to the elevator entrance and just so happened to overhear that sentence: “???”