CH 25

“Ihave eaten.” Ou Shaowen’s spirits were not very high. He leaned to Ou Renjin’s ear and explained to him in a low voice, “Just now, the cameraman even followed me to the kitchen and filmed for a long time. Aunt Zhou felt embarrassed and hid in her room after eating.”

“Then do you feel embarrassed too?”Ou Renjin took his hand and sat down on the sofa, lowering his voice, “It’s okay, just speak quietly when we talk, so he doesn’t hear us.”

“Can you stop letting him film, it’s so late, let him go home.” Ou Shaowen hadn’t seen Ou Renjin for a few days and thought he could talk to him more tonight, “I learned to sing today, do you want to hear it?”

Although they lowered their voices when they talked, the room was so quiet, and the camera was not far away from them. How could they not be filmed? The cameraman stood diagonally in front of them, and the camera was steadily aimed at them. The cameraman felt that the two of them were so sweet and affectionate that he was tired of it.

Meanwhile, Ou Shaowen was humming the song he had just learned in a low voice.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to be shy with me, maybe I simply like being ruined by you. Even if I try to fall in love with someone again, in the end, it will be in vain. It’s better to be happy spending forever together with you, right?” His voice was like fine gravel rolling on your eardrums, with his unique unhurried delivery, no deviation in pitch. Although not much of a stunning vocal performance, with his serious profile, it looked particularly moving.

Ou Renjin returned to his senses and smiled slightly, “It’s good to listen to, it’s just that you haven’t figured out the emotion the song represents, so you can’t pull others into your world yet.”

Ou Shaowen lowered his eyes, “That’s what my teacher said to me too.” He paused, “I understand the emotion the song represents, the lyrics are so obvious, how can I not understand it?”

It was about a long unrequited love that didn’t end, and someone who was stubborn, senseless and stupid.

When his teacher taught him, he made a point of explaining it to him too. At that time, he asked him, “Do you have anything you like now and think you will like for the rest of your life? 

“Imagine that no matter how persistently you chase it, you will still never get it. But what you want to tell everyone is not how tired and painful you are, but how calm you are and how content you feel. You can’t give it up, and you will keep chasing.”

He thought about the teacher’s words for a long time on the road. He felt that he might have had something he would like for the rest of his life, but it didn’t seem possible to have something he would chase for the rest of his life. He had always believed in not being too attached to what he couldn’t have, and it was probably because of this that he could understand the feeling the song represented, but couldn’t express it accurately.

“Okay, you understand, you understand it all.” Ou Shaowen’s tone was really like that of a child who was trying to show off and looking forward to being praised. Ou Renjin habitually approved, “Why is this kid so good? He can do everything so well.”

Along with Ou Renjin’s hand pressing on the top of his head, Ou Shaowen instantly forgot about all those questions of chasing and not getting it. He raised his face and felt so happy, “Let’s go upstairs, okay?”

Ou Renjin glanced at the time on his watch and glanced at the cameraman again, “Let’s hold on for a little while longer and let the cameraman shoot enough material at once and never come to this house again after that, okay?”

“That’s fine.” Ou Shaowen considered for a moment and nodded in agreement.

Ou Renjin thought for a moment about the qualities in Ou Shaowen that could attract fans and proposed, “Then teach me how to play games, aren’t you good at it?”

“Don’t you know how to play games?” Ou Shaowen looked at him with some surprise, as if he had to know everything.

“It’s not that I don’t know how to but I’m just quite a novice, I need a guru to lead me to win, ah.”

They laughed and giggled and played two games before Ou Renjin waved his hand and let the cameraman leave.

These materials were compressed into the first issue of the vlog and released on Weibo and B-site (Bilibili).

The video was not too long. The first half of the video was Ou Shaowen’s high-level training routine. He didn’t talk much, but when he danced expressionlessly, it was simply a visual treat, his steps precise and comfortable. It was a feast of beauty combined with an explosion of hormones. In the second half, when he returned home, he seemed to have become a cute and well-behaved little sweet pea again.

He would go into the kitchen to help the cook auntie, cut vegetables in a skillful and handsome manner, and chat about topics such as how much a catty of potatoes was today.

By the time it got to this point, everyone was just drooling over Ou Shaowen’s extraordinarily pleasing face no matter what he was doing, until – Ou Renin came home.

The barrage began to party in an instant.

“Damn it! So the filming location of this vlog is really the legendary villa?”

“Oh my god, Ou Renjin, this big pig hoof (cheater) is so good, the tone of his voice makes me get goose bumps.”

“Good… so sweet.”

“President Ou: although I am not good at games, but I will take the bullet for my little boyfriend!”

“Oh my god, so pampering. I can understand why Fourth Aunt said that he had been loved before. With this doting, anyone will have such an illusion.”

“That’s why I said everyone was misunderstanding Ou Renjin. He is always seriously in love, okay? It’s not his fault that it doesn’t work out.”

“Hehe, then if you are serious about falling in love, will you take your current boyfriend to the house where your exes lived again and again? I don’t believe this is the only house under President Ou’s name. No one can be more blatantly evil.”

“Oh fuck fuck fuck, Ou Shaowen, this contrast is too cute, isn’t it? He’s just a little puppy, hey. Some people who are cute need to learn how to be cute. What is natural cute is natural cute.”

“It’s good singing, this singing technique and this dance can sweep a large area of the idol circle.”

“The new wall fan (the type of fan who doesn’t chase a specific star but basically everyone who looks good and new) is coming, ah. Mom wants to spend money for you.”

Needless to say, everyone has voyeuristic tendencies; so these kinds of everyday things will always attract more fans than a set of photos or an interview. Just one instalment of less than thirty minutes of vlogging had brought Ou Shaowen another wave of fans comparable to the power of “Desperate Escape”.

Ou Renjin took advantage of the heat and won the endorsement of a popular drink brand for Ou Shaowen. The endorsement fee was secondary. For an artist like Ou Shaowen, whose popularity was still limited to the Internet, this kind of advertising that was everywhere online and offline, with the goods seen everywhere in large and small supermarkets and convenience stores, the brand endorsement was an extremely effective way to increase awareness.

Having a job was originally considered a happy thing for Ou Shaowen, but because this sports drink focused on rejuvenating energy, the shooting plan of the advertisement was to let a group of adventurous young people go hiking in the mountains together. After the original exhaustion they would be restored to vitality after drinking the drink, youthful and ready to challenge themselves. So not only did they have to go deep into the mountains to film, but they also had to work late into the night to finish the shoot because of the night scenes.

“Hey, I’m meeting Shaowen again, we are so destined.” As soon as he got out of the car, Dong Qiao, who was in the crowd, greeted him in surprise. He leaned over and handed Ou Shaowen a bottle of water, “As an actor, I finally got a small group role. Let me stand next to you later and rub a couple more shots.” 

Since Dong Qiao entered the villa for a drink last time, he had only met Ou Shaowen twice in the dance class. He always looked like they were naturally familiar while Ou Shaowen looked like he was too lazy to answer. Since the two occasionally talked together, outsiders seemed to think they were pretty close.

“Thank you.” Ou Shaowen took the water handed over by Dong Qiao, opened it and took a sip, “But who will stand next to me later is a matter for the director’s team to decide, and I can’t promise you.”

The smile on Dong Qiao’s face stiffened a little, “Hey, I just said that casually, forget about it, it’s fine. By the way, how did you get here? Did you come in Qimeng’s car? The roads in the mountains are not good, I was going to ask the company to send a car to drive me here, but imagine that, they said that the company’s cars were all used by seniors, and told me to just squeeze in with the crew.” He grumbled as he shivered and wrapped his down jacket tighter around his body.

“I came in the crew’s car too.” Qimeng wouldn’t be short of cars. Qi Yue originally wanted to take him here but Ou Shaowen heard that the crew had a pick-up service and felt that there was no need to bother him to drive back and forth for a few hours on the mountain road, so he came together with the crew.

“Well, I originally thought I could share your car.” Dong Qiao shrugged regretfully and changed the subject, “Why are you wearing so little? It’s very cold in the mountains at night. Be careful not to get sick.”

“Thank you.” Compared with other people, Ou Shaowen did wear a little less, but he had rarely been sick since he was a child, so he didn’t pay much attention to this.

After he was dragged by Dong Qiao to chat for a while, the filming crew officially started shooting. Together with six or seven group actors, Ou Shaowen changed into a handsome but thin hiking suit, wore a miner’s hat that could be lit up and began filming hiking shots on a seemingly steep, but fairly well-travelled slope.

Taking advantage of the fact that they had just started and had sufficient physical strength, the director asked them to show their state of walking like flying after drinking the drink. There was no Dong Qiao among the two young men who were selected to stand behind Ou Shaowen and have a close-up shot of drinking with him. Dong Qiao stood in the back and looked at Ou Shaowen, who was like a star in front of him. The disturbed, unwilling sourness surged uncontrollably in him. He clenched his fists lightly, a little unusually quiet.

A very simple shot, but they also had to climb the hillside six or seven times before it was a pass.

After taking a close-up of them drinking the drink, the director let them take a break for a while.

Ou Shaowen took his mobile phone and looked at the time. It was now 8.30 pm, and it would be 9 pm when they finished filming, so it would be 11 or 12 pm when they got back. It was impossible to catch up with Ou Renjin in time to sleep. He felt so sorry for himself that he couldn’t help but call Ou Renjin.

“Hello.”

“When are you coming back?” Ou Renjin’s voice was very soft, so gentle that it tickled his ears, “I heard Qi Yue say you went there alone, are you afraid?”

“No.” Ou Shaowen looked at the noisy shooting scene, “There are a lot of people here, the director is also very nice, and the snacks prepared are also delicious. I can’t sleep with you today, I will miss you.”