CH 24

Chapter 24 – Loosened Shell

This world needed different methods to arrive at solutions

For a moment, and for the very first time, Fang Juexia felt that they were similar.

This was very strange because, when considering either their outward appearances or inner logic, they were like two arrows travelling in opposite directions, but they still resonated together in some subtle way. 

Facing Pei Tingsong’s question, Fang Juexia nodded. In fact, he knew that he didn’t have to explain anymore, but he still wanted to say something. 

“Yes. Maybe everyone has different definitions for social relationships. Perhaps, in the eyes of many people, harmonious social relationships are those where people communicate and get along well without there being any dispute or friction between them. In fact, this kind of a social relationship is very likely to be an illusion of harmony created and maintained by both sides. People are inherently different from each other, so no matter if they are very similar or close to each other, they will always have different views.”

Pei Tingsong was a bit surprised. Originally, he had just given free play to his words in order to diffuse the idea that they didn’t get along. He hadn’t expected Fang Juexia to be able to add on some orderly logic to his explanation so quickly. He couldn’t help thinking that maybe Fang Juexia was not nearly as unsociable as everyone thought he was.

He was just very precise in picking, choosing, and managing his social relations. 

Fang Juexia continued, “We are able to stick to our own points of view and yet, at the same time, are at ease when boldly colliding against the other person’s ideas. We express our own opinions and defend our own held truths, but at the end of the day, we will not be estranged by this fierce debate, but in fact, we will know each other better. This is what I think makes for a good social relationship.

“To put it simply, it’s like a math homework problem: you have your method, and I have my method, but we are all pursuing the goal of getting the right answer. During class, math teachers also encourage everyone to try to obtain the solution by using various different methods, and that’s because this world needs all kinds of voices and needs all kinds of people. I won’t submit to your method just because I’m afraid of destroying my friendship with you; instead, I’m going to take out my method to discuss it with you. Having this kind of confidence speaks to deeper feelings, doesn’t it?”

Having said this, Fang Juexia started to laugh and then added, “So us getting along in this way doesn’t mean that we’re not amicable. We are just affirming our own thoughts and respecting each other’s freedom of self-expression.”

As soon as his words landed, Pei Tingsong actually started clapping. Fang Juexia turned his face to look at him, just in time to see Pei Tingsong use his right hand, that was holding a plushie, to give him a thumb’s up. 

Fang Juexia quickly turned his head away, with the corners of his mouth quirking up. 

The editor-in-chief, who was listening to the interview from behind the scenes, continuously nodded. The thoughts these two young boys had displayed previously had already made him re-evaluate them, for they had gone beyond the concept he held of idols, but after listening to their interview, he couldn’t help thinking—Why did he think that idols weren’t able to say such things?

Just as Fang Juexia said, this world needed different methods to arrive at solutions, so the issue regarding idols also required different kinds of methods. 

There was not only one formula through which these young people could shine on the stage.

The host nodded repeatedly. If it wasn’t for professional ethics, she would have exclaimed loudly, but she still managed to hold herself back when she spoke, “You put that across really well. I have also reaped a lot from today’s interview, which is also the meaning of my job.”

“Thank you.” After answering that question, Fang Juexia took a sip of water from the cup on the table. When he put the cup back, he realized that Pei Tingsong’s cup was placed very haphazardly, so he quietly moved the two cups to stand on the same horizontal line. He seemed to have transformed back into the little idol with the cold appearance. 

Seeing his series of movements, Pei Tingsong was amused. He rubbed the head of the small dinosaur plushie in his hand, and the more he thought about it, the funnier it seemed to him, so he ended up bowing his head and started laughing.

The host flipped through some cue cards and continued, “We went really deep into the last few questions, so let’s tackle a more relaxed subject for our last question ba. We used a lot of flowers and plants in the photoshoot today, and even our modelling set was like a botanical garden, so I’ll ask about a more interesting topic— If you were asked to choose a plant to represent each other, which one would you choose?”

Fang Juexia asked, “You’re saying the plant most like him? We’re not picking for ourselves?”

“Yes, a plant that you think is very similar to the other person, or a plant that could represent them best.”

Fang Juexia glanced at Pei Tingsong, who also tilted his head to look at him. Fang Juexia’s brain soon came up with a plant. “Um…. Although Pei Tingsong has the nickname ‘Pinot Tree Supreme’…” After saying this, he couldn’t help but start laughing. 

The host was a bit doubtful. “Pinot Tree Supreme?”

Fang Juexia chuckled. “Because the initials of Pei Tingsong’s name in pinyin is PTS, and the word that would frequently appear through auto-complete when typing is ‘Pinot Tree Supreme’, so everyone calls him that.”

Pei Tingsong immediately faced the camera. “See that? We all know what you guys usually say. Don’t speak ill of me, or else I’ll follow the wires back to your house and unplug your Wifi.”

His joking around like that made Fang Juexia want to laugh even more, but he still remembered that he hadn’t answered the question, so he tried to turn serious. “En, if I’m supposed to pick a plant to represent him, I think he is more like a cactus.”

Hearing that, Pei Tingsong picked up the small dinosaur plushie by its tail and started to swing it around at him. Fang Juexia immediately pointed at Pei Tingsong and said, “Just like right now, they’re very alike ba.”

The host laughed. “So Juexia feels that Tingsong is a lot like a cactus because he’s very prickly, is that right?”

Fang Juexia ignored Pei Tingsong’s tail attack and nodded. “En.”

“You’re even ‘en’ing?” Pei Tingsong was pretending to be fierce, but his voice was quite small.

“But,” Fang Juexia grabbed the dinosaur’s little tail and looked frank and serious as he explained, “Cactuses look like they have a lot of hard thorns on the outside, but in fact, they are very soft on the inside. Can you imagine, the water content in a cactus is 85% to 90%. Because of its harsh environment, it is always absorbing and saving water; it’s a plant that is very seriously working hard to try and survive.”

Hearing this, Pei Tingsong’s hand froze, and he forgot to pull the toy’s tail back.

“He’s a lot like that too.” Fang Juexia released his hand and smiled at the camera.

“So it turns out that it has such a deep meaning ah.” The host laughed and looked at Pei Tingsong as she asked, “Then what kind of plant does Tingsong think Juexia is like?”

Pei Tingsong leaned back against the sofa and began to pull at the spikes on the dinosaur’s back. “I used to think he was more like a cherry blossom or something. You know,” He looked sideways at Fang Juexia, and even put his hands beside his own face in order to create some shadows for contrast as he continued, “this face is very beautiful, isn’t it?”

Fang Juexia was a little embarrassed. He let go of the hand that was holding the dinosaur’s little tail and tilted his head away from Pei Tingsong.

The host nodded, unable to hide the smile that crept onto her face. “There is a bit of that cherry blossom feeling.”

“But now I don’t think so.” Pei Tingsong began to toss the little dinosaur’s tail around again. “I think he’s a white eustoma.”

Since he was being so specific, Fang Juexia became very curious and asked, “Why?”

Pei Tingsong flicked the little dinosaur tail at him one last time, then raised his eyebrows. “Not telling you.”

Fang Juexia nodded, and then began to clap slowly. Pei Tingsong was amused by this and also started to clap with him. He clapped and clapped, then abruptly switched to banging on the table. “Okay, that was the last question, we’re done!”

“Hard work, everyone.” Fang Juexia stood up and bowed to the staff.

After the end of the interview, they changed out of the outfits they had worn for the photoshoot and got ready to leave.

In the dressing room, as Fang Juexia took off the sweater, static from the yarn crackled all around him. He then recalled something, reached into his shirt pocket, took out the piece of paper with the poem written on it, hesitated for a bit, then didn’t look at it again before folding it and placing it into the pocket of his down jacket. 

After leaving the location of the photoshoot, they headed for the company. On the way, Cheng Qiang praised and extolled their performance until Fang Juexia felt embarrassed and stopped talking again. He just listened to Pei Tingsong chat with Cheng Qiang, replying in a desultory fashion every once in a while. 

“If the sales of the magazine go up this time, more job opportunities in the fashion world will open up for you guys in the future.” Cheng Qiang’s face was filled with a smile. “Yesterday, Xiao Miao and Ling Yi’s variety show ratings also went up, while at the same time, Lu Yuan received an invitation from the dance variety show that he wanted the most, and Ziyan was also invited to collaborate on a feature track, which is still being discussed right now. Step-by-step, everyone is on the right track now ah.”

“Strong Ge’s old mother’s heart has finally paid off.” Pei Tingsong laughed and complained, “Except for the two of us, everything is going well.”

Fang Juexia also laughed with him, but Cheng Qiang said, “You two? Don’t even mention it, all the jobs are looking for the two of you now, there’s a giant heap of them, all of them requiring both of you to participate together.”

These two people looked at each other at the same time, but because of this tacit understanding, they felt some embarrassment and so looked away at the same time. Clearly, when shooting for the magazine, they seemed to have gotten much closer, but after leaving that situation, they still couldn’t interact naturally like ordinary bandmates.

Pei Tingsong’s childishness rose up again. “If it’s not something with hip-hop, I’m not going.”

“There aren’t any hip-hop jobs for the time being.” Cheng Qiang turned the steering wheel. “We’ve gone through all of them, and there’s nothing particularly good right now, so we can wait some more. When we get back, you guys also have a look at them. If you want to do something, you should do something that is suitable for both of you and is a high-quality program with an equally high-quality team behind it. Otherwise, it’ll be too much of a waste if you guys work hard and don’t get commensurate returns in the end.”

Cheng Qiang was a good agent who was focused and cared a lot about his artists, and Fang Juexia had been clear on this for a long time. In fact, he didn’t have much expectations for variety shows and reality shows; to begin with, he didn’t even like them very much. In addition, he had a quiet personality, so he wasn’t the kind of talent that reality shows needed to bring in to create obstacles or comedic moments. What’s more, he also didn’t like the exaggerated methods used by reality shows to attract attention.

But he was also aware of the fact that variety shows were an essential factor for maintaining exposure and improving their national popularity.

Cheng Qiang concentrated on driving and didn’t speak any further. Fang Juexia took out his cellphone to deal with his unread messages, and suddenly, remembered the last question from the interview just now. So, he opened up a search engine to look up ‘eustoma’.

Wasn’t this the white flower that Pei Tingsong was holding during the photoshoot?

Once he made this connection, the strange emotions during the photoshoot started to flow through him again.

Pei Tingsong had just put his earphones on when his cellphone vibrated. Unlocking it, he found that it was actually a message from Fang Juexia, who had never taken the initiative to send him messages before.

[Just a pretty face: Why a eustoma?]

He was also strangely persistent. 

The corner of Pei Tingsong’s mouth involuntarily quirked up. Clearly, he and Fang Juexia were sitting right next to each other, but Pei Tingsong still turned over and typed his reply with his back facing him. A big and tall 1.8m guy sitting sideways in a car made for both a strange and funny scene. 

Fang Juexia also felt puzzled, but he was quickly getting used to Pei Tingsong’s confusing behavior. As usual, he gazed at the nighttime scenery through the car window, while the little clock in his heart ticked away. After 4 minutes and 50 seconds had passed, his phone vibrated.

[Kaleido Pei Tingsong: [Cactus emoticon]]

Pfft.

After holding back for such a long time, how is it that you’re just sending this?.

But before long, another message popped up—

[Kaleido Pei Tingsong: In fact, there is another name for the eustoma, it is also called the prairie gentian; its native environment is limestone. Don’t you think it’s very wonderful? It is a flower that looks very delicate and very fragile, but in fact, contains the courage of a dragon and grows amongst the rocks.]

After that, he also sent a small dinosaur emotion.

The courage of dragons.

Flowers blooming amongst the rocks.

The top of the chatbox showed that he was still typing, but after a while, the “typing” notice disappeared, and then appeared again.

Fang Juexia’s eyes couldn’t help but stare at this notice that kept changing, all the way until new content popped into the chatbox once again.

[Kaleido Pei Tingsong: Anyway, it’s a bit like you.]

[Kaleido Pei Tingsong: If you don’t feel like it is, then forget about it, I’m just talking nonsense.]

“We’re here!” Cheng Qiang backed up the car and told them, “Get dressed and get out of the car, hurry up, hurry up.” He casually glanced into the rearview mirror. “Yi? You two didn’t sleep ah.”

Fang Juexia’s train of thought was suddenly interrupted. He held his cellphone tightly and said, “No…”

“Then get out of the car quickly ba, and wait for us.”

Under Cheng Qiang’s urgings, Fang Juexia could only quickly put on his coat, open the door, and get out of the car. 

Seeing his rapid movements, Pei Tingsong actually felt a little uncomfortable.

He finally glanced at the words he had just sent out, threw his cellphone into his pocket, closed the car door with a black expression, then slouched around at the very back as he even started complaining about Cheng Qiang, “What’s the hurry? You’re rushing as if you have to give birth to triplets ah.”

Once they were back at the company, before they could get any time to rest, they were called in to participate in the screening of the first round for the demo music with the other members. As soon as everyone got together, the atmosphere turned noisy, with Ling Yi pulling Fang Juexia over to eat some new snacks he had bought. 

Even with all this, Fang Juexia’s feelings kept returning to that moment in the car, when he was still holding his cellphone, reading the message Pei Tingsong had sent him. 

Eustoma.

He couldn’t describe the kind of mood he was in now. Maybe it was because the Pei Tingsong in his impression had always faced him with a hostile attitude, so he subconsciously avoided him.

But now he had begun to praise him—right ba, that should be regarded as praise?

This change made Fang Juexia feel very unused to it; this person Pei Tingsong had no rules, so he just wasn’t able to discover a way to deal with him.

But there was also a slight pleasant feeling that lingered in his heart. Fang Juexia wasn’t the kind of person desperate to be praised by others; on the contrary, most of the external evaluations of him couldn’t affect his judgment of himself. He knew clearly what kind of person he was and what he needed to do. His inner world was stable and consistent.

So when his mood became affected by Pei Tingsong’s simple words, Fang Juexia felt that this was inconceivable. 

“Everyone is here ba?” Chen Zhengyun sat down. “Then let’s start ba.”

In addition to the demo provided by He Ziyan, this first round of songs also included some songs the company had bought, and they screened them all together. There were many aspects to consider when selecting songs for an album: how well they matched with the concept of the album, the diversity and consistency of the song styles, the balance between dance music and ballads, etc.

Fang Juexia was hesitating a bit. He had a ballad he had composed himself, but he wasn’t sure whether it fit in line with their new album’s concept. After all, this was his first attempt at composing music. Unlike when it came to matters about his strong points of singing and dancing, he wasn’t 100% sure about this. Ever since he created the demo for it, he has been carrying it in a USB flash drive with him the entire time, for he had wanted to discuss it with the boss or a composer in private and listen to their suggestions. However, he hadn’t expected that there would be so many new jobs for them. His plan was disrupted, and in a blink of an eye, the company had already started to pick songs. 

The meeting lasted for three hours, because all the group members had gotten together, and their current momentum was akin to wheels and axles rotating and working smoothly with each other to move forward. Although it was hard, they all enjoyed this process, for it was for the sake of the new album. This was the first album that they had all been involved in the production process for, and it was very meaningful.

Pei Tingsong had made up for some of his lost sleep during the freetimes during the photoshoot, so he still counted as being pretty awake during the meeting. He glanced at Fang Juexia, only to find that this person was distracted. This was very abnormal; based on normal circumstances, Fang Juexia should be the most serious one here.

Strange.

The stranger he was, the more Pei Tingsong wanted to observe.

The boss, who had heard several songs, commented, “These songs are all pretty good, but there are no bright spots in the compositions of the second and third demo songs, though it’s probably very difficult to save that. Pass them first, and the rest will be decided pending the second round. This time, we’ll also do our best to promote the non-title songs, so everyone can rest assured. Is there anything else, Xiao Cheng?”

“There’s another song for the first round of song selections.”

“What style?”

“R&B ballad.” Cheng Qiang said, “This composer is very good, he has written several hot OST songs.”

Pei Tingsong discovered that Fang Juexia’s fingers seemed to be holding onto a small square metal item. He was also leaning forward, which was a very clear sign of him wanting to take action. 

“This album is focusing on electronic and dance music, so ballads should be limited to just one or two. We can’t have too many.”

Fang Juexia clenched his hand and pulled it back.

Pei Tingsong keenly captured this movement. He spun the pen in his hand, and his eyes fell on Fang Juexia once again.

The meeting didn’t end until 1 in the morning, and by then, everyone’s energy had reached their limits. They got into the van to return to the dormitory to rest. The one who was usually the most energetic, Ling Yi, also managed to ask only two questions about what had happened when they were doing the magazine photoshoot before falling asleep. Ever since Fang Juexia and Pei Tingsong began to sell their CP, they even had to sit next to each other in the van to ensure that they appeared together in the daily livestream. 

Once he finally reached the dormitory, Cheng Qiang woke the sleeping members up one by one, just like he was waking up a litter of puppies. Of course, there was a wolf cub mixed in with them. 

“……we’re here?”

“So fast ah~”

“Ah, I slept in a weird position, and my neck hurts…”

“Where am I? Where is this…”

Everyone got out of the car one after another. Fang Juexia, who had woken up first, got out of the car with his coat gathered in his hands. Pei Tingsong was also getting ready to get out when he inadvertently spotted a metal USB left on the seat beside him.

There were only two bathrooms in their collective accommodations, which was not very convenient. Fang Juexia took a bath as quickly as possible, and when he came out, he found Pei Tingsong sitting alone in the living room.

Did he want to take a bath?

Fang Juexia thought about it for a moment, but finally he didn’t actually ask the question. He wiped his hair with a towel and prepared to go back to his room. However, as soon as he put his hand on the door handle, he saw a palm press against his door. Only when Fang Juexia turned around did he discover that Pei Tingsong had already surrounded him from behind.

“What’s the matter?” His tone was flat.

Pei Tingsong stretched out his right hand, from which a USB swayed and dangled in front of his eyes, and said, “You dropped something.”

Fang Juexia’s eyes changed slightly. He hastily thanked him and wanted to grab it, but Pei Tingsong was faster and clutched the USB back into his palm, before laughing and saying, “You want it? Beg me.”

They had already crossed the safe distance between them. 

Fang Juexia looked up at him with his damp hair, and that familiar look appeared in his eyes again. “Don’t want it, so you take it ba.”

Sure enough, Pei Tingsong was still that devil who craved to see the world plunged into chaos. It was he who had thought too much and had become captivated by his clever words during the interview.

Pei Tingsong suddenly felt excited, because this was the first time that Fang Juexia had shown an outwardly strong but inwardly weak side in front of him. Right now, he was acting brave and trying to speak angrily. 

“What are you afraid of?” The corners of Pei Tingsong’s mouth hooked up, and he deliberately lowered the voice as he said, “Isn’t it just a song?” As he spoke, the fragrance of Fang Juexia’s shower gel filled the space between them; it was a very clean smell.

Fang Juexia frowned. “How do you know?”

“It’s not hard to guess ah. You held onto it without letting go of it during the meeting, and then hesitated for so long.” Pei Tingsong continued to guess, “It’s not just any demo, I’m guessing it’s a ballad.”

Fang Juexia felt both angry and amused. What kind of an evil fate was this—every time he had no confidence, he would fall straight into Pei Tingsong’s hands. Sure enough, he couldn’t deal with this guy, Pei Tingsong.

While they were confronting each other, Ling Yi’s voice sounded out from the main bathroom as he yelled, “Juexia! I forgot to bring in my pajamas. They’re just on my bed, help me get them ba!”

“I just wrote it casually. If you want to listen to it, then fine; give it back to me when you’re done.” Fang Juexia turned to open the bedroom door and did not continue to tangle with him. In any case, all that would happen was that Pei Tingsong would just listen to it, then ridicule him a bit; it wasn’t some big loss. 

Bang. Just like that, Pei Tingsong had the door slammed in his face. Originally, he had thought that as soon as Fang Juexia said a soft word, he would return the USB to him. Who had known that it would turn out like this? Staring at the door, Pei Tingsong felt bewildered with this unexpected event. 

This was really a very hard branch.

This was not a eustoma, but a solid prairie gentian.

No, a glacier gentian.

Even after gaining the combat experience of repeatedly running into a stone wall, Pei Tingsong still didn’t give up his confidence in continuing to face this kind of confrontation. Instead, even more than ever, he now wanted to understand what kind of temper Fang Juexia had.

His curiosity was growing as their relationship grew ever closer. 

After helping Ling Yi, Fang Juexia sat at his desk and opened his Sudoku book. He did two puzzles in a row, but his mood didn’t calm down as fast as he thought it would. Fang Juexia seldom had times when he couldn’t restore his own emotions to their original state, and he didn’t even know what he was angry at right now, or why he was unable to calm down even after this long. 

He sensed that he had changed. It was like his state of equilibrium had been broken, with his entropy increasing, and things were now starting to incline towards randomness. Fang Juexia didn’t like this at all. He didn’t like randomness, he liked his state when at equilibrium. 

He considered the possible reasons for this, investigating them one by one, until he was left with only the last one option—he had mistakenly thought that the ice had already been broken in the relationship between him and Pei Tingsong, when that wasn’t actually the case.

As he was immersed in his thoughts, the tip of his pen seeped ink into the space where a number should have been filled in. Black ink continued to spread and stretch along the trails of the paper fiber until a WeChat prompt sounded. 

[Kaleido Pei Tingsong: Shared a video.]

Fang Juexia felt that this was strange and clicked it, only to realize that it was actually a video of him shot during the outdoor photoshoot during the day. It was just that this was something that had obviously been taken by a cellphone, and was not from the official shooting angle. 

In the video, he was lying quietly on the snow for a close-up shot. When Lin Mo called out “OK” and pulled the camera’s focus away from him, he immediately sat up and shook off the snow on his head. Snowflakes fluttered down from his fluffy hair. In the video, the tip of his nose was red, his hands were held in front of him to warm himself, and he laughed resplendently. 

The Fang Juexia watching the video currently thought he heard something, but it wasn’t very clear, so he put his ear closer to his phone. 

“Frozen silly ba.”

It was Pei Tingsong’s voice. It was very light, and it was something that he said to himself as he was filming this video. 

“…Laughing like this.”

Fang Juexia shut the video and quit WeChat, cleared out all the running apps on his phone, quickly turned off the desk lamp, and went to bed.

Ten minutes later, yes, the little clock in his heart told him very accurately that it was ten minutes, Fang Juexia opened up his cellphone again. 

A burst of cold white light quietly cut through this dark space, and his chest also opened a small crack, revealing his lively heart beating inside.

Across the wall, Pei Tingsong was lying on his bed tossing and turning as he waited and waited ah, waiting until even his favorite book had become boring. He was waiting for a message. 

[Just a pretty face: Please give me some advice after listening to it.]

He couldn’t help laughing, and then even read these nine words from the little ice cube out loud again.  

How could this person be so frozen? He could even imagine the expression on Fang Juexia’s face while he was typing these words. 

He was just getting ready to reply when another message came from the other end—

[Just a pretty face: Don’t film me again.]

With a thump, Pei Tingsong closed the book that he just couldn’t get through, and then lay on the bed with his head propped up. He opened the video he had sent through the chatbox again, rewatched it for the nth time, and soon replied with a smile—

[Kaleido Pei Tingsong: [Cactus emoticon]]