CH 5

Chapter 5 – Anonymous Post

If fjx hadn’t been kicked out of AS, he would have been at the top of the most influential idol groups now

Ever since they had made it onto the Hot Search list because of the airport video, the conversation about them online had never stopped. Cheng Qiang found Fang Juexia and asked him to promote things on his own Weibo as well. 

In fact, everyone in Kaleido had started doing things like promoting on Weibo from the time they had debuted. With the popularity Fang Juexia had already garnered and the support of their senior brother idol group, the initial response hadn’t been bad. Just when everyone thought that they could just coast on the favorable east wind created by their senior brother idol group, an anonymous post had suddenly appeared in the forums, titled— [If fjx hadn’t been kicked out of AS, he would have been at the top of the most influential idol groups now ba, it’s really true that scandals can hurt you].

The author of the post claimed to be a former AStar trainee, and he told the whole story in vivid detail.

[fjx entered AS as a dancer. Let alone his ability, just his face completely outstripped that of others. A high-leveled person (but not a top boss) took a liking to him, and he was kept by that person for a while. However, I don’t know why, but later on, he had a public quarrel with that person, slammed the door, and left (many trainees know about this matter), and then he was expelled from the company the next day. At that time, there had been less than half a year left before the debut of 7L. On the surface, he had even been slated for the center position in the group, the teaser had already been filmed, and the debut song had already been recorded. I don’t know why he went to look for trouble. Now that he has debuted, isn’t he still fighting with 7L? Oh, no, such a disgrace, he just doesn’t fit with that muddled K group.]

7L was the nickname for “Seven Luminaries“, AStar’s seven-man boyband. Because it was a seeded group created by a large company, many people paid close attention to it even in its early stages of formation. It had a smooth sailing debut, exploding in popularity and gaining numerous fans very quickly. Seven Luminaries launched a year earlier than Kaleido, but because of the circumstances surrounding Fang Juexia’s special training experience, the two groups that had completely different starting lines were now linked together, and so they started being compared against each other.

[Was fjx that high-handed? Even a predetermined center position can get kicked out, that’s going pretty far ah.]

[To tell you the truth, comparing K to 7L is like comparing the moon to porcelain. 7L is a top idol group created by a legitimate major corporation, where everyone keeps striving for the top. How can a pheasant-like group from a small company even have the gall to compare themselves to 7L?]

[Like a cooked duck flying. But to tell the truth, his face really can play, his appearance level as an idol reaches all the way up to the ceiling. If I were a golden boss, I would also take him as a sugar baby. The face of 7L right now is really just like the faces of passers-by. What’s more, fjx’s pink birthmark is really too seductive. An abstinent, beautiful drama queen would also be quite delicious, but unfortunately. they went with some kind of abstinent iceberg-faced character for his debut. It’s boring.]

[Reasonably guessing, it may be that fjx opened his mouth like a lion and pissed off the high-leveled person so much that he told him to scram. How many true loves are there really ah, men are all the same, they get tired of someone once they have them. Even if they had gotten an immortal, it would be of no use.]

[The group is really chaotic. Having one member being an airborne is fine, but now, even the only member who had the background of being a genuine trainee has now been exposed in a sex scandal. Unpopular K really will never be able to make a turn-around like this.]

[Hahahaha, how everyone here has silently agreed that it was a male high-level executive who was keeping fjx ah hhhhh]

[About to die from laughter, fjx, this kind of hype about yourself is pretty good ah. In the future, you can bind yourself to 7L and happily suck on their blood for a lifetime.]

[Will an explosive video get leaked soon ah? I feel like this matter has someone big moving behind it]

….

This explosive post was pinned to the front page, and hung there for several days. Other social networks also spread it around while chattering about it endlessly, and other media-related marketing account Weibos tirelessly forwarded it around as well. 

On the third day after this post was published, even part of an audio recording that Fang Juexia had done for the Seven Luminaries debut before he had left AS was leaked. His voice was so special that no one could mistake it for being anyone else’s. This leaked recording directly confirmed the fact that the author of the post had once been a reserve member for the Seven Luminaries’ debut, which made this discussion about “hidden rules” turn more and more intense. 

Even when Star Chart later issued a legal notice and published an announcement trying to clarify this so-called “hidden rules” scoop, it didn’t help. 

The cost for spreading rumors online was terrifyingly low—the speaker only needed to move a finger, and the listener would only believe what he or she was willing to believe. Everyone loves dogblood gossip and tends to be hooked by news of beautiful wastes of skin getting involved in dirty deals. No one cared about any truth that was being revealed by a person new to the fray. 

Kaleido lost several endorsements back then, and their performances were also canceled. Many “passers-by” summed up this situation as both a success and failure for Fang Juexia. 

He originally hadn’t been afraid of anything, but this sentence had stabbed him hard. 

But at that time, his teammates and the company didn’t give up on him, and he also didn’t want to give up. This kind of scandal was very personal, and not many people would take the initiative to confirm the exact details of what had happened with him. However, his group members tried very considerately to avoid this topic. They didn’t seem to care whether the post was true or not, but just wanted to keep safeguarding the group. So, Fang Juexia had just distanced himself from all social networks and had given the company full responsibility over his accounts. 

It was kind of funny now; Fang Juexia, who didn’t even have any Weibo side accounts at that time, had by now pretty much given up on all social networks, and contacted everyone either through text messages or phone calls. Ling Yi often complained that he was like a village devoid of the Internet, always lagging behind on the latest news. 

Although this method was clumsy and dumb, it also allowed Fang Juexia to slowly come around. His thought process was very simple, which was that he would keep proceeding forward on the path he had chosen, no matter the cost he had to pay while traversing it. He was just like a tree whose only goal was to grow higher. Even if his branches and leaves were pruned, or his branches were cut off, as long as he kept striving for the high skies, everything would be fine. 

However, it really wasn’t an easy matter to persuade Fang Juexia to return to social networks now.

“Can’t Xiao Wen help me promote things?”

Xiao Wen was the group’s assistant. He was usually the one who took Cheng Qiang’s place and helped to smooth certain relationships out, across the various levels of staff they worked with, using money. However, he had recently taken a vacation and gone home.

“You can’t always let Xiao Wen take your place. How’s this, you download Weibo first, login into your account, and then read the fan’s messages ah.” At the other end of the call, it seemed as if Cheng Qiang had been called over by someone else again. “Hey, I can’t talk any longer, I have to go to work.”

He hung up the call. Fang Juexia sat in front of the mirror in the training room, and held the cellphone for a long time, before finally downloading Weibo again.

At this time, the door of the training room was pushed open, and Ling Yi darted in, actually holding an ice-cream cone in his hand and calling out, “Juexia!” 

Fang Juexia’s natural disposition was to be a bit slow, so before he could react, Ling Yi had already caught sight of his cellphone screen.

“You’re going back onto Weibo!”

As a result, Fang Juexia, who had planned to do some psychological preparation for a while before jumping back into Weibo, was half-forced into logging onto his account again just like that, with everyone egging him on. 

To be honest, his heart was beating obviously fast; it seemed that even after this long, he could still get nervous. He could almost clearly recall that period— whenever he went online, he would be bombarded by the curses ringing out everywhere, and the words in the various comments would jitter before his eyes, just like a swarm of wildly dancing bees.

“Eh, it froze.” Ling Yi’s voice brought him back to reality.

Jiang Miao once again tapped on the Weibo icon to open up the app which had crashed and thus had exited out of that account on its own. “Maybe there are too many notifications in the cache?”

The Weibo interface opened again, and sure enough, proved their captain’s conjecture right. The notification interface was a sea of red, and there were countless comments and unsolicited private messages piled up into a heap.

He Ziyan said with a laugh, “Xiao Wen only took three days off, and the notifications are already about to explode. It seems that the popularity gained from Juexia Ge’s Hot Search is truly real.”

“Quickly check and see what they have written.” Lu Yuan’s head directly propped itself right in front of Fang Juexia, crowding into that space in such a way that Ling Yi had no space anymore. 

“Hey, hey, hey, buddy, you’re rubbing off some of my ice cream!”

Holding his small cellphone, Fang Juexia took a deep breath and clicked open the comments section.

[AHHHHHHHH JUEXIA GEGE I’M HERE!!! I’m sorry I’m late! The Hot Search made me so happy! It let me find this immortal little Gege!]

[Watched your dance clip at station B! It’s really intense! It’s been a long time since I’ve become a fan of an idol group!]

[Why are you so good-looking, even your birthmark is a huge plus! Goddess Nuwa carved you out meticulously, while I’m just a little pile of mud 55555]

[I want to see a fresh selfie of you! Begging you, save us children ba!]

[Adding my ID number to wanting to see selfies! I feel like Gege’s Weibo is full of advertisements, and contains nothing about his daily life. I want to see regular life updates!]

[Ge, do you know how special your voice is? It’s been a long time since I’ve run into and admired such a cool young voice that isn’t greasy or artificial at all, one that also carries its own reverberation and an ethereal feel to it. It’s so great, wuwuwu voice fan is crying like crazy!! You are the true voice rogue! Can you go to more singing programs in the future ah, live singing is also okay!]

[jxgg, I just started liking you recently, because I thought you looked pretty good when I saw you on the Hot Search list, and when I searched some more, I ended up entering your fan circle. Seeing your previous performances and variety shows, it’s like I’ve really discovered a treasure! I feel like I came in too late wuwuwu, sorry Gege!]

[When will you return ya, I miss Gege! Our K group has to do well ah!]

[It’s nearly New Year’s. I wish that Juexia Gege will be safe and healthy this year and will have his own stage.]

Upon seeing this sentence, Fang Juexia’s heart couldn’t help but tremble.

There were endless comments, countless words containing praise and encouragement, as well as reams and reams of private messages. These little girls, who were total strangers, were like skylarks that had come out of nowhere, chirping cutely towards him as they flew over and drowned him in soft pleasure.

“Let’s take a picture together ba!” Ling Yi proposed.

Fang Juexia immediately supported this proposal but soon realized that they were missing one person, and so subconsciously raised his head and looked around. Jiang Miao quickly realized the meaning behind his subtle movements, and then said with a smile, “I have a backstage group photo of us from when we participated in that Hor D’oeuvres concert. Xiao Wen took a pretty good picture. Should I send it to you?”

A little surprised at Jiang Miao’s understanding and his subtle thoughts, Fang Juexia nodded.

At this time, if he posted a selfie containing only the five of them, it would definitely create a line of discussion divergent to their narrative, even if the simple truth behind the matter was that that specific person just happened to not be present at that time with the rest of them. 

“You download WeChat again ba.” He Ziyan said, “Or the captain will have to send you an email.”

“Yes!”

Thus, under Ling Yi’s instigation, Fang Juexia once again downloaded all the social platform apps he had previously deleted one by one. He logged into WeChat and saved the photo Jiang Miao had sent into his phone. 

The six of them were dressed in costumes of the same color, and had gathered backstage for a touch-up. His face just happened to be facing the camera, and Pei Tingsong could be seen behind him. His face was turned to the side, and he was letting the stylist tidy up his coat, a rare occurrence of him looking smartly well-behaved. 

After pondering for a while, he couldn’t think of any good captions to post along with the picture. He was really unfamiliar with this kind of thing, so Fang Juexia just uploaded the photo by itself in the end.

This photo took on the form of a newly opened window for Fang Juexia. The spring breeze blew in, and he was once again knocked down and submerged into a sea of small skylarks that blotted out the sky.

Cute things really did engender cheer in people. 

“Wow, it’s only been a few minutes and it’s already broken through 10,000 forwards.” Ling Yi was a little surprised; none of their posts had ever achieved such a  level this quick before. “You’ve really become a trending person, Juexia.”

He was just about to deny it when Lu Yuan interceded, “You didn’t see the reaction to Xiao Pei’s last Weibo post. There were so many comments there, and it got popular to the point that even the rest of us got more followers.”

He Ziyan held Ling Yi’s shoulder and said, “Whether or not it’s trending, put that aside for now. You have to record the demo with me first.” Then he looked at the group leader. “Miao Ge, you bring the qin ba.”

Jiang Miao nodded and told Lu Yuan, “Qiang Ge just informed me that your dance teacher will be arriving soon. Go to the 10th floor and wait for him ba.”

“Oh.” Lu Yuan grabbed his clothes and shook them out. “Work has started la.”

Looking at everyone getting busy with impending work, Fang Juexia asked, half a beat too slow, “What about me? Am I going to record with Ziyan, or am I going with Yuan Ge?”

But both of them refused him because they didn’t need him at the moment. 

“There’s a place that actually really needs your presence.” The droop to Jiang Miao’s eyes became more obvious as he smiled and said, “You have to go back to the dormitory. They told us that the production team is going to come over to install cameras, so help everyone by taking a look ba.”

Thus, in the end, Fang Juexia was allotted the most leisurely job and went home to take a rest.

After a bath, he changed into pajamas and pulled his slightly long hair into a short ponytail, one which looked a bit like an apple stalk. After returning to the room and taking his daily dose of vitamins, Fang Juexia took out a thick Sudoku book, turned to a page that he hadn’t done yet, sat down at the desk with a pen in his hand, and thought carefully.

Just after Fang Juexia had finished three Sudoku puzzles in a row and was feeling extremely tranquil, he suddenly heard the doorbell to the dorm ring.

Oh, no, the production team was here.

Conscious that he was being negligent of his duties, Fang Juexia immediately put down the Sudoku book and stepped into his slippers, quickly hurrying to go open the door. Every time he played Sudoku, he would get immersed in his own little world. Hearing the doorbell ring persistently now, he could wager a good guess at the amount of time the other party had been pressing the button for. 

Without looking at the monitoring screen of the security camera installed at the door, Fang Juexia anxiously ran out onto the porch and opened the door. He was too busy apologizing to notice anything. “My…”

However, there was no production group on the other side of the door, and instead, standing there was Pei Tingsong, wearing a black down jacket and a black facemask, with his hand raised in the air, as if he was about to press the doorbell button again.

The “my apologies” that he had just been about to say was swallowed back down into his stomach. 

“My what?” Pei Tingsong unconsciously raised his eyebrows, one hand pulling off his mask and stuffing it into his pocket as he asked, “My who?”