CH 79

Chapter 79 – Two Way Protection

Just like a debater.

Hearing this, Pei Tingsong was stunned. By the time he returned to his senses, Fang Juexia had already rejoined everyone else, leaving him behind.

What did that sentence mean?

He felt as if he had been hit dizzy by a piece of candy, but before he could even peel it open and taste it carefully, the candy disappeared.

He hurried to catch up, and the entire way back to the hotel, Pei Tingsong kept asking Fang Juexia about that sentence’s meaning. However, Fang Juexia was being purposefully mysterious, for he just kept smiling without talking.

Pei Tingsong didn’t give up the entire way back to the hotel. He sent out one WeChat message after another, and Fang Juexia’s cellphone sounded like a broken alarm clock, ringing nonstop. 

Under this repeated bombardment, Fang Juexia surrendered and sent him a message. 

[Moonlight: It just means ‘I like you.’]

He said it again.

Pretty much only a second passed before the other side replied.

[A Constant Truth: Really?! [CoveringMyChest.JPG]]

[A Constant Truth: [LaunchingHearts.JPG]  [LaunchingHearts.JPG] [LaunchingHearts.JPG]]

[A Constant Truth: Then what did the thing at the start, that sounded like ‘b’ mean?]

[A Constant Truth: Begging you Ge, tell me quickly ba]

Seeing this, Fang Juexia wanted to laugh. In Cantonese context, the word ‘bb’ was too intimate. He didn’t want to just touch on it lightly when explaining it to him, so he found a popular video of a Guangdong girl coaxing her two-year-old little brother online and forwarded it to Pei Tingsong.

After sending the video, Fang Juexia fell on the bed, his head suddenly filled with thoughts of that famous poet Pei Tingsong had talked about before, who had said that—’love and happiness make me lose my mind and focus.’ He felt that he deeply felt the true meaning of this sentence; love had not only sapped his focus, but had also pretty much changed his person.

In the past, he had been so emotionally withered that he was like a dehydrated vegetable. Even if he was immersed in an environment full of friendship and love, he couldn’t be filled with a fresh and lively appearance. He was just a damp, swollen but lifeless, instant vegetable.

But Pei Tingsong had completely brought him back to life, and had made him willing to express himself, express his love for another person.

So it turned out that in love, there were no matters that were hard to speak of. 

His cellphone vibrated again.

[A Constant Truth: bb means little baby?!]

[A Constant Truth: Baby? babe？？]

Seeing his question marks, Fang Juexia could almost imagine Pei Tingsong’s current expression. He added fuel to the fire and replied with—

[Moonlight: It could be understood that way.]

There was no reply from the other party after that. Fang Juexia didn’t think much about it at the beginning. During his bath though, he suddenly wondered whether a boy would feel frustrated at being called bb, and whether that made it seem like he was treating him too much like a child. 

His cellphone vibrated again just as he stepped out of the bathroom.

[A Constant Truth: Since you called me bb, then Gege should care more deeply for me in the future.]

“Really shameless,” Fang Juexia whispered to himself as he faced the screen.

He had taken advantage this one time, and Pei Tingsong actually just wrestled that advantage back. 

Staring at this line of words, and especially at the second half of the sentence, Fang Juexia’s heart couldn’t help but beat faster. He just couldn’t think too deeply into Pei Tingsong’s words, they were just so thinly veiled that they weren’t even really thinly veiled implications anymore. 

His heart felt itchy, and it was as if a bud was breaking through the ground. 

Spring made people restless.

It was raining when they flew back to Beijing. A damp Beijing was very rare, and since spring was almost over, it had finally rained. Driving back to the Third Ring Road from the airport, they were again chased by stalker fans. There were many cars on the road, it was raining, and the big van was ferrying eight people, which was very dangerous in itself. The stalker fans had also bribed the taxi-driver to drive right behind their van, which resulted in them nearly running into them several times.

In the end, Cheng Qiang couldn’t bear it anymore. After entering the city, he found a suitable spot on the side of the road and got the driver to park the car, and the stalker fans chasing after them also stopped the car behind theirs.

He knew that stalker fans weren’t easy to provoke, and there was no lack of people inflamed with passion among them. If he was careless, this incident could even be published with a false account of the true facts, so he just stood on the side of the road and gave them good advice.

“You guys are all very young, and you’re also young girls, so don’t do such dangerous things. You even dare to follow the van on the airport expressway, aren’t you afraid of causing an accident?”

However, the stalker fans inside the taxi completely ignored his words. “We just want to see them!”

“You already saw them ah, they didn’t take the VIP route. Didn’t you already see them at the airport meetup? Let’s not talk about anything else, but it’s really dangerous to chase a car. We have a car full of people, and so do you guys, and it’s raining. Do you really want to have a traffic accident?”

Then Cheng Qiang patted on the driver’s window as he requested, “Please roll down the window.”

The driver didn’t move at all.

Cheng Qiang lowered his head and used his cellphone to record the taxi’s information. “I’ve already noted down your license plate number. If you continue to chase this car, we can only call the police.”

Even after saying all that, as soon as Cheng Qiang turned his head, he heard the several girls in the car curse behind him, which was quite ugly. He didn’t care about it and simply went back to the passenger seat, telling the driver to drive.

Being popular was troublesome, all sorts of evil spirits would appear. 

Ling Yi looked in the rearview mirror, and saw that that car was still in the same place. As they pulled farther and farther away, he felt a little relieved, and then he thought of something else and couldn’t help saying, “Did you guys know? Recently, Seven Luminaries’ third oldest member found that he had a tracker installed on him.”

“Holy crap, really?” Lu Yuan heard it, and his hair stood on end.

Fang Juexia couldn’t help asking, “Where did they hide it?” He thought about the things that people can carry. The cellphone wasn’t likely, so it had to be… “It couldn’t be his watch?”

“You really guessed it.” Ling Yi sighed. “He received gifts from fans for his birthday before, and there was a watch in them, and it had actually been modified.”

Cheng Qiang shook his head. “We can’t accept any more presents; we won’t accept any more presents from the fan stations anymore. The company has discussed this matter several times in the past two days, and more and more people are also waiting to chase after your car, so if it keeps going on like this, we won’t be able to manage it anymore.”

“Ugh, what is all this ah?”

“When you get popular, it’s just like this, nothing we can do.”

As soon as they got back, the members started their own work. Fang Juexia and Pei Tingsong signed a brand contract, agreed on a time to shoot the advertisement, and then went to record “Escape For Your Life”.

Apart from their staggered-out events, Kaleido’s promotional singing performances lasted only two weeks. Singing shows could certainly make songs more popular, but they really consumed too much of the artists’ energy. They had to get up at three or four o’clock in the morning every day, line up to get their makeup and hair done, rush to the filming site, wait for the filming to start, and once they were done with the hectic filming, half the day would have already passed. Adding on their other events to all this, they didn’t even have time to sleep.

Star Chart wasn’t a company that pressured its artists, so it didn’t extend the promotional performance time because of the popularity of ‘Break Through’. As Boss Chen Zhengyun said, as long as every performance was wonderful enough, the numbers weren’t so important.

It was a massively great thing for the six Kaleido members when the promotional performances ended. During their last performance, their happiness was written on their faces, and they were also teased by the fans, who said, “Whatever you do, you shirk, but you’re number one when it comes to getting out of work.” What was better than ending their promotional performances was that since ‘Break Through’ had won first place at MLH, they had gone on to win nine consecutive titles in one fell swoop, having already broken their own record. What’s more, this result was obtained after clashing with Seven Luminaries’ comeback.

In this competition, which was unfair from the beginning, Kaleido had still turned the tables using their own abilities, while also loudly slapping those super anti-fans who had mocked them before. The upsurge in their new album’s popularity not only made K go from being a small, obscure group to a famous boy-band, but also doubled the popularity of Kaleido’s ensemble show. The number of hits on each episode was constantly rising, and the numbers themselves were making actual records. 

Beauty was just a stepping stone; ability was the only thing that would make people confident enough to become their fans. 

On the day of Pei Tingsong’s follow-up visit with the doctor, Cheng Qiang came to the dormitory early in the morning and ran into Fang Juexia, who had just finished his jog, in the elevator.

“There are no events today, what are you planning to do?”

Hearing Cheng Qiang’s question, Fang Juexia didn’t think much about it. “Going to the company to practice. I haven’t danced for a long time. Then I’ll have another vocal class ba.”

“You work too hard. Young people also need to relax occasionally. When artists are under such great pressure, they often meet up with their friends when they have nothing to do, making plans to go sing and go shopping.” Cheng Qiang advised, but he also knew that Fang Juexia wasn’t the kind of character who would integrate into a group. “At least, you can sleep at home and watch some movies. Don’t be so tense, how tiring is that ah.”

Fang Juexia smiled. “It’s alright, Qiang Ge. I’ll come back to have a rest after practicing for a while.”

Cheng Qiang just nodded. He didn’t know if it was his delusion, but he felt that Fang Juexia’s expressions had been more abundant recently. “Alright. Hey, by the way, Xiao Pei hasn’t got up yet ba?”

Fang Juexia shook his head. “No, he fell asleep late last night.”

Hearing this, Cheng Qiang didn’t think anything of it at first, but when he looked back and reviewed the sentence again, it felt a bit strange. No ah, it’s not like they were roommates.

“How did you know he fell asleep late last night?”

Fang Juexia was immediately stumped by this question. Of course, he couldn’t say that Pei Tingsong was still sending him messages at 1 a.m. last night.

The elevator doors opened, and Fang Juexia pulled out an excuse, “I guessed it, he said he would stay up late studying, it’s almost midterms.”

Only then did Cheng Qiang let out an “oh”, following with, “You don’t say. Although Xiao Pei has a bad temper, a strange personality, and comes with a heap of small problems, like liking to be arrogant, or saying he won’t do this or that everyday, he actually studies very seriously.”

Fang Juexia thought that there were too many things after the “although.” 

Sure enough, when Cheng Qiang burst in, Pei Tingsong still had his head buried in the pillows as he slept. Fang Juexia made them each a cup of coffee and put them on the table, listening to Cheng Qiang’s voice from inside the room urging Pei Tingsong to get up.

Pei Tingsong came out with his head full of resentment. After washing up, he spiritlessly sat down at the table and was about to drink the coffee Fang Juexia had poured. However, Fang Juexia, who was standing by the table, kicked his stool, and told him with his eyes to eat the bread first. 

“Eat quickly, we’ll go to the hospital after eating. We’ve already made an appointment with the doctor, and if you don’t hurry up and get there, they’ll say you’re playing at being some big-name.”

Pei Tingsong chewed on the bread as he replied, “Say it bei, after removing the cast, I’m not just playing at being a big-name, I’m going to be playing with a big knife.”

Fang Juexia laughed out loud.

Just as Cheng Qiang had gotten everything ready and was about to leave, his phone rang. After he picked it up, he listened to the other side for a long time before saying, “Okay, alright, then I’ll see if I can hurry over there.”

Seeing his imposing look, Fang Juexia asked what had happened. Cheng Qiang said, “Jiang Miao passed his audition, and now the producer wants to make an appointment to talk things over with him.”

Pei Tingsong slapped the table, exclaiming, “He passed? That’s so great, we can’t do without an agent at this time ah! My Miao Ge can’t be thrown in a pit, go quickly, A-Strong.” Saying that, he hugged Fang Juexia’s waist and said, “Juexia Ge will accompany me to the follow-up visit.”

“Ah?” Fang Juexia wanted to push him away, but he couldn’t even budge him. As soon as he raised his eyes, he saw Cheng Qiang’s pleading look. “Juexia, are you okay with that? I’ll call Xiao Wen later and ask him to drive you, he can do the errand work.”

“…alright.”

He actually really wanted to go with Pei Tingsong, but he still had to put on an expression of reluctance right now.

Pei Tingsong, whose attitude was full of a refusal to cooperate, changed into joy as soon as he switched people, and he even sent Cheng Qiang away with a smile. Fang changed clothes, came out, and helped Pei Tingsong put on his coat. “I hope the bone inside has fixed itself now.”

Pei Tingsong suddenly changed his attitude. “Why? What are your intentions towards me?”

“I have no intentions towards children.” Pulling up his coat’s zipper, Fang Juexia patted his forehead.

Although there was Xiao Wen, this third wheel, tagging along with them, Pei Tingsong was still in a good mood. They went to the hospital, got an X-Ray taken, and met the attending doctor from before, who did a careful examination.

“The bones are healing well.” The doctor pushed his glasses up. “There may be a little pain after the removal of the cast, which is normal. There will be some symptoms similar to soft tissue contracture after the muscles being fixated for such a long time. After this, still be careful, don’t overuse your arm or carry heavy objects.”

Fang Juexia was still worried. He asked a lot of questions and took note of all the dos and don’ts in his mind. When they came out of the hospital, Xiao Wen couldn’t help praising, “Juexia, you’re too attentive. There’s nothing for me to do, you asked and clarified everything so clearly.”

“That’s true.” Pei Tingsong gripped Fang Juexia’s shoulder with his newly freed left hand. “Juexia, care about me more ah.”

“You be careful.”

Xiao Wen took the initiative to go to the driver’s seat. “Back to the dormitory?”

Pei Tingsong immediately said, “No, make a trip to the school first. I have some forms I need to get stamped, and I have to go myself.”

“Alright.”

Their drive to the school took a while, for the road was jammed for half an hour. Pei Tingsong hadn’t slept enough, so he fell asleep on Fang Juexia’s shoulder. Fang Juexia noticed Xiao Wen staring continuously at the rearview mirror, and that made him a little suspicious. After all, there had been too many such similar incidents recently.

“Xiao Wen, what are you looking at?”

Xiao Wen frowned. “I don’t know if it’s me being too paranoid, but I keep feeling that there’s a car following us.” However, he felt that that conjecture was strange again. “But reasonably speaking, that shouldn’t be the case ah. How could they have known the time for Xiao Pei’s follow-up visit? And we came in so early, so how would they know that?”

The sound of the car horn outside almost woke Pei Tingsong up, and he rubbed his head against Fang Juexia’s shoulder. While Xiao Wen wasn’t paying attention to the rearview mirror, Fang Juexia quietly pinched his fingertips in a little soothing gesture.

He also thought it strange; it couldn’t be that there was a stalker fan squatting at the entrance of their dormitory?

The traffic finally turned smooth, and Xiao Wen continued to drive forward. After another intersection, he saw the suspicious vehicle still behind them. “They must be following us.”

“It may be that there’s a stalker fan squatting outside our dormitory. I heard Ling Yi mention before that some stalker fans can crouch outside the community for a whole night, and that they even install cameras at the door of the dormitory.”

“Too scary.” Xiao Wen got goosebumps when he heard that. “When we get back, I’ll tell Qiang Ge to check the elevator outside the dormitory. Although it’s the entrance elevator, and the security of the community is tight, it’s not airtight. We can’t ensure that some pervert won’t get in and do something bad.”

When the car finally stopped at the school gate, Fang Juexia woke Pei Tingsong up and handed him a hat and a mask. Sure enough, just as he was ready to get out of the car, a group of strange stalker fans encircled it, and they kept yelling ‘Pei Tingsong!’ over and over, as if afraid that people around wouldn’t recognize him.

Pei Tingsong frowned and was too lazy to care about them. He took his bag from the car and prepared to leave. Fang Juexia was a little worried and looked out of the car window.

“They’re really so annoying, do they just have nothing else to do all day?” Xiao Wen complained, “Originally I said to bring bodyguards, but then I thought that it would be a bit exaggerated. I would have called several people over if I had known earlier.”

“If we bring bodyguards into the school, we’ll get scolded.” Fang Juexia saw that they were surrounding Pei Tingsong more and more closely, and he was also getting a bit irritated. “They shouldn’t be able to enter ba.”

“I don’t know. Based on the previous situation, they can get in. They’ve gotten some documents, and they have already entered several times. Even Xiao Pei’s classmates have been harassed.”

Looking at Pei Tingsong surrounded by them, Fang Juexia was a little worried. Pei Tingsong had a straight-forward temper, and it was very hard for him to restrain it. Fang Juexia wasn’t at ease with him by himself. 

He glanced at Xiao Wen and gave up his little thought. Even Qiang Ge couldn’t hold Pei Tingsong back, let alone Xiao Wen.

Without thinking any more, Fang Juexia opened the door, put on his baseball cap, and went out.

“Hey! Juexia, you…”

“Wait for me in the car.”

From across the windshield, Xiao Wen stared at Fang Juexia’s back in surprise. Clearly speaking, if he had encountered stalker fans before, he would avoid them if he could, so how come he was being so bold right now? 

Pei Tingsong, who was annoyed by this group of stalker fans, was about to start cursing up a storm. Unexpectedly, someone pulled on him. He was about to turn around and start cursing them out when he saw Fang Juexia’s face.

“I’ll go with you.”

Fang Juexia blocked him out from the left. These stalker fans seemed to be chasing only Pei Tingsong, and they were very dissatisfied with Fang Juexia’s sudden appearance. One of them even cursed him out directly, saying that he stuck himself to Pei Tingsong as a publicity stunt and that he was only doing this to cook up some popularity. 

Fang Juexia said nothing, but his eyes were very cold. Pei Tingsong was so angry that he wanted to flame back, but Fang Juexia stopped him.

“Don’t talk.”

After Fang Juexia pulled Pei Tingsong to quickly walk to the school and showed his ID to the security guard, Pei Tingsong said directly to the security guard, “Please stop the people behind me. They are not students here, they are people following me. You can check their IDs.”

So the stalker fans behind them were stopped by the security, and without any scruples, they unleashed a torrent of abuse right outside the school gates.

Pei Tingsong pulled Fang Juexia to enter while raising his right hand high, his middle finger sticking out to the group of madmen behind him.

Fang Juexia pulled his hand down. “I was just afraid that if you were by yourself, you’d get inflamed with emotion while dealing with them, and that’s why I came with you.”

Pei Tingsong lowered his head, directly unlocked his cellphone, opened up Weibo, and talked with him while typing up a post. Without looking at it again, he directly posted it.

[@Kaleido Pei Tingsong: Today Pei Tingsong is also abusing stalker fans. [MiddleFinger.JPG]]

After posting it, he felt great. He threw his cellphone into his pocket. “It doesn’t matter. Every time I come to school, I get into a mutual cursing session with them. Whatever, they can follow me in, I’m not weak.”

“Then how was it that you so kindly let the security guard stop them this time?”

Pei Tingsong directed him towards a path with relatively few people. “It’s fine when it’s just me, but I can’t bear to hear you being cursed out.”

Fang Juexia laughed.

They really were the same people.

“What does this count as?” Fang Juexia glanced at him and teased him deliberately, “When I was getting cursed out the most fiercely, you were still an eternally single person.”

“Fang Juexia, your mouth is really getting more and more powerful.” Pei Tingsong applauded him. “Just like a debater.”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

As he followed Pei Tingsong in to finish up his paperwork, Fang Juexia felt a little listless. Regretting that he hadn’t made a cup of coffee for himself in the morning, he then bought himself a cup of American style coffee from the coffee vending machine on the first floor of the office building.

The girl in line behind him seemed to recognize him, but she hesitated and didn’t dare to speak. Finally, when Fang Juexia couldn’t locate the dispenser for the cup lid, she bravely stood out and pointed to the side. “Juexia Gege, it’s over there.”

“Ah, thank you.” Only then did Fang Juexia realize that he had already been recognized. He was a little embarrassed and thanked her again.

“You’re welcome! I just saw Pei Tingsong’s Weibo post, and I was so angry, but now I’m happy seeing you!”

“Weibo post?” Fang Juexia didn’t understand. He saw Pei Tingsong heading towards him after finishing up the paperwork. 

“Yes ah, he’s on the Hot Search list. Flaming stalker fans, super cool.”

—

The author has something to say:

The world’s middle finger, Pei Tingsong

Pei Tingsong has more fierce Weibo posts. 

I’ll write out the complete Pei Tingsong’s tiger-like incident log later ba.