CH 70

Chapter 70 – Born Interesting

Always have a preference towards

Pei Tingsong shrugged. “Growth is the process of one’s self-awareness continuously evolving. That’s why no one can escape flip-flopping sometimes.”

After hearing him say that, the fans below the stage found that they actually couldn’t refute it.

They didn’t know if he was flip-flopping for Fang Juexia, but everyone knew about his pickiness problem. 

It was a little cold in the venue, and a staff member brought Pei Tingsong a sweater to drape over himself. Unexpectedly, just then, the background music for the autograph event started to play their debut song ‘Kaleido’, and it was even the live recorded version. Just when the staff were ready to cut the song, all the fans below the stage began to sing along with the chorus. Ling Yi also picked up the microphone and said, “Don’t cut it, don’t cut it.”

Lu Yuan was in high spirits and moved his body with everyone’s voice. “The war song of our early days has come.”

“You guys sing too well ba.” Jiang Miao gave the audience below a thumbs-up.

The fans even sang He Ziyan’s rap accurately, which surprised all six of them. Fang Juexia, who was a bit surprised, even began to clap after a while to help them keep their rhythm. Unlike Ling Yi, who could sing funny songs anytime and anywhere, he seldom sang during informal occasions. However, being in this kind of environment also infected him.

Ling Yi held a microphone and sang the chorus along with everyone, “Fight! Fight! Fight! Enjoy falling in the wild wind. Fight! Fight! Fight! You will remember me after the storm—”

At the moment Pei Tingsong’s famous impromptu rap was about to commence, Fang Juexia, who was concealed in this warm atmosphere, kept following, going from singing the chorus to rapping.

Seeing Fang Juexia shake his head and sing his part, Pei Tingsong felt it was especially cute, so he put the microphone in his hand close to Fang Juexia’s mouth, and thus the cool lead singer’s rap debut was exposed to everyone.

“From this competitive auction show, haters aren’t qualified to raise their hands, yo…”

As soon as Fang Juexia’s voice reverberated throughout the venue, he was startled, and then retreated to just sitting and blinking like a frightened small animal.

“Woo!” He Ziyan was the first to egg him on, “Continue!”

Pei Tingsong raised his eyebrows at him, and all of the fans below were also screaming. The lead singer Fang Juexia could only follow the rhythm and force himself to rap, “….all my money rising tall. I am rich, oh I am fresh. Your little……” When getting to the ‘bitches’ part, Fang Juexia automatically switched it to, “angels love me so.”

When he heard the word ‘angels’, Pei Tingsong smiled and shook his head. 

Lu Yuan started to laugh. “Hahahaha, even bringing in your own clean-up!”

Jiang Miao said, “Improvisation is Kaleido’s family tradition.”

Fang Juexia grew more energetic as he kept singing. He pulled the microphone directly out of Pei Tingsong’s hand and finished the last few sentences with a very rare speed. “Fakers have all been kicked away by me. Please, when picking opponents your standards are too carefree.

Next stop is my universe, you have one second to escape and curse.”

“Wow, so strong!”

“Juexia is super good!”

Ling Yi maintained the dignity of a lead singer and didn’t miss a single word of his own part. When the song arrived at Fang Juexia’s part, he went for ‘an eye for an eye’ action and put the microphone in front of Pei Tingsong’s mouth, who was completely unprepared for such a thing. So Pei Tingsong, a rapper, then began to sing passively while wearing a very complicated expression, “The soul has been burning, scorching with desire, and at this moment, it bursts into flames roaring.”

After he sang this bit, Fang Juexia immediately took back the microphone and carried on rapping Pei Tingsong’s part. He also raised his eyebrows at him for a moment. “Say hello to my ego.”

This manner, together with this sentence, was quite provocative. However, Pei Tingsong liked it very much. He liked the lively Fang Juexia who could be both shy and childish, and who would also do things he had never done before under everyone’s encouragement. 

Ling Yi didn’t even stand up when he sang the last three high notes, just sitting there and laughing as he finished singing. This unexpected live debut song had been sung into a mess by them for its whole duration, but their fans were super satisfied.

He Ziyan joked, “Next time when Juexia solos, he can just rap ba. That would be a real ace.”

Fang Juexia was consistent in only realizing things after the fact. He had been very happy while singing, but he felt a little embarrassed afterwards, so he kept waving his hands. Jiang Miao also started teasing, “Which lead singer doesn’t dream of rapping?”

Ling Yi put both hands on his own face. “I don’t.”

Jiang Miao broke in that moment. “Yiyi, are you just in charge of cutting out the ground from under my feet?

“Hahahahaha!”

Pei Tingsong leaned against his chair and quietly looked at Fang Juexia. His cool shell had suddenly been taken off, and in fact, he was a boy who would feel at a loss when he was being joked about. When he got excited, he would sing the part that didn’t belong to him, and because he was too embarrassed to curse people out, he would change the lyrics from “bitch” to “angel.”

Fang Juexia didn’t notice Pei Tingsong’s gaze, but occasionally, when he turned his head, he saw something. Jiang Miao then suddenly cued him, so he turned back to continue talking with them, but as soon as that conversation finished, Fang Juexia turned around again, just like a dedicated little robot, and confirmed to himself that he had an unfinished task on his mind. So, he reached out and grabbed the drawstrings hanging on the hood of Pei Tingsong’s sweater with both hands. One was long while the other was short, and it was extremely asymmetric. 

“What are you doing?” Pei Tingsong looked at him. However, Fang Juexia, who had obsessive-compulsive disorder, didn’t have time to reply to him at all. Instead, he stared at the two little strings and pulled at them again and again, trying to get them to the same length.

Yet, the more the cords were pulled on, the longer they got, and Pei Tingsong could even feel the hoodie behind him start to close tightly. However, he couldn’t help it; if he didn’t satisfy Fang Juexia’s obsessive-compulsive disorder, there’d be more trouble.

So he indulged him until Fang Juexia pinched the two cords together and compared them accurately. He didn’t give up until they were about the same length. “Done.”

Seeing that he was satisfied, Pei Tingsong thanked him. He then turned his head to see his hood all shrunken up behind him. 

It didn’t seem to have had much of a beautification effect in the end.

Many of Fang Juexia’s small details and actions may not be regarded as bright points by others. To put it bluntly, they were just trivial actions driven by human character and emotions. However, Pei Tingsong thought these were cute.

In the past, he was used to standing in the position of having nothing in his heart, and so he idealized cutting out and judging other people’s desires, while believing that people who couldn’t balance the scales within their heart were just making a fuss over nothing. 

However, once he placed a person in his heart, Pei Tingsong finally realized that the perfect impartiality that people imagined was actually really difficult, very difficult, because now he had a preference for Fang Juexia all the time.

In the middle of the break, everyone ate, drank, and played some games. The relationship between Kaleido and their fans had always been very much like that between friends. They joked with each other and fought a bit with each other. These six people were all very principled people. Even if they had always been very obscure since their debut, they seldom held events where they had in-depth communication with a few fans. After all, they just wanted to make music.

At the end of their half-time break, Kaleido once again resumed signing autographs for the remaining half. The fans were all varied, which was quite eye-opening for them. The atmosphere remained happy all the way until the end, when Fang Juexia welcomed a somewhat special fan, who was also the last one in the line in front of him.

This was a girl in plain clothes, around 16 or 17 years old. She hadn’t brought anything, and she wasn’t as emotional or enthusiastic as the other fans. On the contrary, she seemed very reserved, even a little timid.

“Juexia Gege, troubling you to autograph this for me ba.” Her voice was also very low, very light, and it was immediately drowned out by the noisy venue. Fang Juexia excused himself, then drew closer and asked, “What’s your name, and what would you like me to sign?”

The girl lowered her head and replied, “Xiao Qi, the Qi with a wang radical beside it. Could you sign… ‘Good luck’, that’s enough.”

Her request was also very simple, but Fang Juexia saw that her mood wasn’t right, so he wrote a ‘Xiao Qi’ before he stopped writing. He wasn’t a person who often showed concern, but since she had appeared in front of him, Fang Juexia couldn’t just ignore her. 

“If you’re not in a hurry, can you chat with me a bit?” Fang Juexia smiled. “I feel like you’re a little down.”

He didn’t know what was going on with that girl, but suddenly, after hearing this, she burst into tears. One by one, transparent tears fell on the back of her hand on the table. Fang Juexia immediately drew out some tissues and handed them to her. He heard her say ‘thank you’, and then she said to him, “Juexia Gege, I’m so tired.” She sniffled. “Before I came here, I had a quarrel with my parents. They said… said I’m a freak, that I wear earphones every day and don’t say a word. They said that I’m like a mute, and not like other people’s children, who are cheerful and likeable. They always say this to me every day.”

Fang Juexia listened in silence and patted her on the arm. Pei Tingsong and Ling Yi, who had finished giving their autographs, also noticed this. Ling Yi gave her a box of milk that hadn’t been drunk yet and comforted her. Pei Tingsong wasn’t very good at comforting people, so he just asked, “Every day?”

The girl nodded. “En, because I’m introverted, and I don’t know how to get along with other people. Sometimes I also really want to talk as much as a cheerful child, but I can’t. Mama always disdains me and thinks I’m very shameful. Especially when there are many adults around us, they will scold me by saying that if they had given birth to a mute, at least that would be more likeable than me.”

She raised her hand to wipe at her tears. “I know I’m very unlikeable and very boring, but I’m just such a person ah. Aren’t they my closest people? Why are they still like this to me…”

Pei Tingsong immediately thought of Fang Juexia. His father was disabled and drunk when he was in middle school, and he would also let off steam like this and totally disparage Fang Juexia’s entire being. What Pei Tingsong didn’t know was that there were many such parents, and it was too easy for them to disparage a child. 

Fang Juexia was as calm as he ever was. He drew out another tissue and handed it to the girl. “Did you know? I also have a very quiet personality, so I’ve experienced pretty much what you experienced, with many people telling me that I’m unsociable and solitary. The stereotype in our society is that being cheerful is better than being introverted, so every child should be taught to have a lively personality.” He said softly, “But it’s not actually true. Many times, being an introvert is just what someone’s natural personality is, and they were born that way. For example, with you, listening to music gives you more comfort and security than communicating with others, right?”

The girl nodded. “Yes.”

“That’s right. Having a quiet personality is like a chip that solidified in your body when you were born, and it’s very hard to change. Since it’s very hard, then don’t try to change, just be an introvert. Don’t pay attention to other people’s disapproval, let alone disavow yourself because of others. There are all kinds of people in the world; no character should be completely denied, and being an introvert doesn’t mean that you’re boring.”

Pei Tingsong listened silently from the side and didn’t speak. It was undeniable that he had also once held such prejudices against Fang Juexia, who was too quiet. He had complained that he was like wood, never reacting to anything. It turned out that Fang Juexia thought this way; he was not forced to lose his voice, in fact, he was being himself. 

The girl didn’t continue to bow her head any more, but looked at Fang Juexia with tears in her eyes. There was still a trace of timidity in her eyes.

Fang Juexia wasn’t very good at encouraging others. He could only give logical examples from his familiar fields to the best of his ability. “Let me give you an example ba. Some mathematicians have tried to divide all natural numbers into interesting numbers and uninteresting numbers. Of course, the definition of ‘interesting’ is very subjective. For example, prime numbers are very interesting, and numbers with repeating digits are very interesting. In a word, as long as a number has a distinguishing trait, then it will be included in the set of interesting numbers. But later, the problem turned into a loose paradox — all natural numbers are interesting.”

The girl sank into this explanation, and asked a bit doubtfully, “Why ah?”

Ling Yi also felt curious. “Yeah, why? There must be some numbers that have no distinguishing characteristics ba.”

Fang Juexia laughed. “Let’s use the counter argument here for a bit. If there is a set of uninteresting natural numbers, then there must be a minimum uninteresting number within this set?”

Pei Tingsong immediately understood and laughed. “‘The smallest uninteresting number’, this already counts as being a special characteristic.”

Fang Juexia was a bit surprised. “Yes.” He looked at the girl again and said, “This leads to a contradiction: the smallest uninteresting number actually does have something interesting about it. So,” he continued, bowing his head and autographing next to the girl’s name, “don’t doubt whether you’re boring or likeable. You just need to be yourself.”

After he finished signing, Fang Juexia handed the album to her. “You have to maintain self-confidence, you understand?”

The girl was greatly encouraged. She nodded and revealed a smile. “Thank you, Juexia Gege, thank you.”

Fang Juexia shook his head and watched her leave.

Cheng Qiang picked up the microphone and said, “We’re very happy that everyone could come to Kaleido’s autograph event. It will be over soon, so please everyone, gather your things, make sure not to lose them.”

Everyone felt regretful about the ending, and the other group members were saying goodbye to their fans and making as much noise as possible. Only Fang Juexia waved to the fans standing below in silence, with a smile on his face.

Pei Tingsong found that his prejudices were constantly being reversed by Fang Juexia, which was a very interesting process. He had thought that he already understood this person well enough, but he didn’t. Fang Juexia seemed unsociable and reticent, but in fact, he was a person with a strong heart. Living with the disparagement of others since childhood, but still always continuing to believe in himself.

It was really cool.

“What did you sign for her?” Finally, Pei Tingsong couldn’t help asking.

Fang Juexia’s eyes were clear, and he laughed.

“Be like me, and be an interesting minimum uninteresting number ba.”

—

The author has something to say:

I hope everyone can get rid of self doubt~

(Some friends have questioned and said, would someone really talk like that to an idol during an autograph event? Yes, and many do. In fact, idols have strong moral encouragement for fans, and it’s normal for fans when seeing them to be cared for and for them to pour out their woes to them. If you guys go check, you will know that such things often happen. It’s not the so-called “unreasonable and deliberate”, there are many similar incidents.

Looking at the comments for this chapter, we can see that there are a lot of “stereotypes” about introverted personalities, so everyone all thinks that it’s okay to pour chicken soup on them or preach at them, because as long as we encourage people who need encouragement, nothing else matters. In addition, please don’t always pull my other book out for comparison. There is no comparability between different ideas.)