CH 94

Chapter 94 – Eventful Times

Suddenly, Fang Juexia heard the ‘Happy Birthday’ song being sung out loud, and turned his head to see Pei Tingsong standing behind him with a tray in his hand, with his right hand blocking the wind from blowing out the candle on the tray.

Even though Fang Juexia laughed at this sight, it was clear that his eyes were still filled with tears. He felt that this scene was too comical and was at a loss on what was going on; clearly, he hadn’t liked to cry before. 

As Pei Tingsong sang the last verse of the song, he put the tray on the table, and its contents were revealed—there were longevity noodles and a small cupcake with red velvet strawberry cream, which had a small candle stuck into it, its slender flame fluttering in the wind.

“I baked this cupcake. It was my first time making it, and the big chiffon cake really drove me crazy, so I could only make cupcakes. However, having just one on a big tray looks better, so don’t dislike it.” After that, Pei Tingsong pointed to the bowl of noodles. “These noodles were also made by me. You can eat them however you want, anyway, it’s just to make things happy.”

Fang Juexia couldn’t help but laugh. 

These words didn’t sound at all like someone who studied philosophy. 

When did he make these noodles? It couldn’t have been made just during the time he entered his room?

Pei Tingsong had really gone to great lengths. 

“Quickly eat it, if it sticks together after a bit, it will become harder to eat.” Pei Tingsong picked up the chopsticks and handed them to Fang Juexia, but unexpectedly, Fang Juexia hugged him instead. 

“Thank you.” He heard Fang Juexia say softly.

It was cool around his neck, maybe because his tears were falling down. Pei Tingsong’s heart creased a bit, seeming as if it had been grasped by something. 

Clearly, he wasn’t a gentle person, but after meeting Fang Juexia, he hated that he couldn’t offer up the entire world to him. Even if he knew that he was crying because he was happy, he was still reluctant to see those tears. 

“In front of me, you don’t need to do any emotional management at all. You can cry if you want, and laugh if you want.” Pei Tingsong patted him on the back. “But when you cry, I still feel a little sad.”

Fang Juexia nodded, sniffled, and said thank you again.

“Don’t say thank you to me,” Pei Tingsong replied.

So Fang Juexia, with his head buried in the side of Pei Tingsong’s neck, kissed the side of his neck again. “I love you.”

He could do nothing else but this.

It was true that his cake had been baked so-so, and his noodles were tasteless, but Fang Juexia still found it all delicious.

Listening to him complain about his sore waist, Pei Tingsong reached out and rubbed his waist while watching him eat. “You’re so hungry ah, I still have a pile of cupcakes over there. I’ll get you two more?”

Fang Juexia said, “It’s the first time I’ve eaten such a small birthday cake. I can finish it in one bite.”

Pei Tingsong increasingly felt that he had spoiled Fang Juexia into developing a temper. “You’re still not satisfied ba, if you’re still not satisfied, next time I’ll…”

Fang Juexia blinked and asked, “Do what next time? Never make it for me again?”

Pei Tingsong began to smile, reached out with a hand and wiped the icing at the corner of his mouth. “Next time, I’ll make a big, super big one, okay ba, Gege.”

Fang Juexia nodded contentedly, and then taking advantage of the fact that their bandmates were still not back, furtively kissed him again. 

They watched the video again, and Fang Juexia kept pausing it. He kept asking after every picture—where was this, who took it, what happened at that time, and why was he so happy. He never tired of asking questions like this, and Pei Tingsong never tired of answering them.

With this, it was almost like Fang Juexia had really participated in Pei Tingsong’s past.

This was the best gift he had ever received.

After getting together with Pei Tingsong, he felt that he had returned to his childhood, to those days when he was very small and very easily satisfied. Life, at that time, hadn’t been filled with the pressure of running after something and the fear of being alone, or the mechanical practice day after day, or the avoidance of risks and mistakes.

He was no longer the person who would clench his teeth and keep moving forward in the darkness. Now, there was someone holding his hand, so he could enjoy the moment instead of being forced by time to keep moving forward.

People were not born unfeeling stalks of grass or trees. 

Fang Juexia was also not a dead branch.

After all, he now wanted to revive and bloom for the sake of spring.

July was green, and the biggest winner in the whole of July was also the drama “Green Waves.” Both of the two leading actors gained a super large amount of popularity because of their roles in the drama, and the hashtag #Green Waves Finale# exploded directly on the Hot Search list.

In the last episode, when the female lead found the diary buried under the jacaranda tree, she realized that she herself was the “perfect friend” that she had created after her mental breakdown. As her memory rushed back, her silent and deep love for the male lead drowned her completely, like waves rushing over her head. When she woke up again, she found herself lying on the hospital bed, and she had been reborn to the time before her suicide. Originally, she thought that everything since then had been just a dream, but then the male lead came to visit her with a jacaranda flower in his hand. The name he called out was the name of the girl from the illusion, not the original name of the her who had committed suicide. The female lead finally shed tears.

Everything they had gone through hadn’t been forgotten, and the series finale ended abruptly.

At both the two climaxes in the last episode, the BGM “Night Trip” was played, especially so when they met in the ward at the end. With the superb acting skills of the lead actors, the effect was extraordinary.

After the finale, a lot of hot discussion appeared online, and “Night Trip” once again found itself on the Hot Search list, this time being praised as a divine song.

[@weareyoung: As soon as the prelude of ‘Night Trip’ appeared during the finale, my tears started pouring out directly. This wasn’t a dream ah, everything you guys have experienced was real.]

[@Oranges and Bananas: I broke out with goosebumps at the part with the diary, it’s too strong. ‘Night Trip’ appearing at that moment must always remain a famous scene, it’s really amazing.]

[@Real name Amwaying Green Waves: FJX’s cold voice is so infectious, full of youthful regret ah. After hearing the lyrics of “summer is so long and a delight” with the male lead finally saying, “You said before that you would accompany me again before the end of the summer to see the sea, do you still want to go?”, my tears directly started falling down.]

When the crew of “Green Waves” went on a variety show, they specially invited Fang Juexia as well. However, Fang Juexia couldn’t attend the show because of a scheduling conflict, so he recorded a video with Pei Tingsong, the other creator of the song. During the recording of the program, the staff played that video on the big screen.

When these two people appeared in the same frame, it almost detonated the scene, with the audience screams almost covering up the voice of the host, thus being a panoramic view of the popularity these boys now had.

However, only after watching this program did Fang Juexia realize that the original screenwriter for “Green Waves” was Editor Xu from ‘Escape,’ which came as a real surprise to him.

With a divine song such as “Night Trip”, Fang Juexia and Pei Tingsong had successfully become new stars in the field of music creation. They were the two aces of a popular boyband, and they had also joined the popular variety show “Escape For Your Life”, so their popularity now ranked at the top amongst young male artists, and there were numerous brands extending olive branches to them, while many music programs were also extending invitations to them. 

However, Fang Juexia had always believed that most of his success this time was due to luck, so he refused a lot of such business activities and devoted himself to studying composition. He also went to the United States several times with Pei Tingsong to study.

Although Kaleido’s summer album “Last Summer” hadn’t participated in the filmed promotional performances category, it still won first place seven times whenever a live vote wasn’t happening at the scene, all because of its growing ranking and high album sales. For a boyband to have produced two big hit albums within half a year, it was pretty much a miracle.

He Ziyan joined the drama group, Ling Yi took part in a new music competition program, and Lu Yuan had been a mentor on a hip-hop program the entire time. Each Kaleido member’s personal activities were in full swing, and the dormitories that used to be crowded were now empty.

For Kaleido, this summer was pretty much a good harvest season. Perhaps because of this, time passed faster for them. Busy people often don’t feel the passage of time, and one day, they realized that the summer heat had disappeared, and the air that drifted by their arms carried a hint of coolness. Only then did they realize that autumn was already here.

After studying composition in a systematic manner, Fang Juexia had made rapid progress, and he had gathered a lot of good demos on hand. He was getting more and more comfortable with creating music, and had started to enjoy playing around with music. Sometimes, he and Pei Tingsong could spend a whole day in his small workshop.

Originally, everything was going for the better, but that soon proved itself to be just a dream. Zhai Ying, who was filming “Escape For Your Life” with them, found herself mired up to her chin in negative news. First, rumors about her being an airborne member due to her background circulated around, and then, rumors about her sexual orientation made their rounds. The girl group she was a part of had been unable to make a comeback for a long time, and with news of their comeback being put out repeatedly, only to be proved false again and again was not good for her. The fans had already had a lot of speculation, and now, the appearance of this negative news affected the impression of passers-by online.

But with so many episodes having been filmed, they had already become very good friends, and Fang Juexia couldn’t be more clear about Zhai Ying’s personality. It was just that there were few onlookers online who thought independently; most of them were just there to eat melons, and followed suit in yelling and attacking. It didn’t matter whether things were really like this; as long as they were able to vent their emotions, they would consciously benefit.

After a few days, the rumors had developed to the point of “Zhai Ying quits ‘Escape For Your Life.’” Even after such a long time experiencing rumors flying around, Zhai Ying had never made a sound, but this time, she posted a photo on Weibo. It was a photo of her with the door of the final exit taken after filming the first episode. Many people guessed that it meant that she wouldn’t quit the show.

Pei Tingsong was the one who told Fang Juexia about this Weibo post.

At that moment, Fang Juexia didn’t know whether it was out of his friendship with Zhai Ying, or whether he remembered Li Luo’s kindness to him in the beginning days when he was at Astar, but he unexpectedly got the idea to stand up for Zhai Ying. This may not be much for many people, but for Fang Juexia, who had always stayed away from the Internet due to the cyber-violence he had experienced before, this was something he would have hardly done in the past.

But he still did it this time.

Fang Juexia actively logged into his account and forwarded Zhai Ying’s Weibo post.

[@Kaleido Fang Juexia: The scariest thing in the world – Escape’s main door. (Next episode, please also take me along for the group photo)]

He was the first person in the circle to forward Zhai Ying’s Weibo post, and he didn’t even tell her about it in advance. Following him, Pei Tingsong also forwarded Fang Juexia’s Weibo post.

[@Kaleido Pei Tingsong: And there’s also me, who by the way, is refuting the person on the right. The scariest thing is the “mental arithmetic brute force cracker” on the right / / @Kaleido Fang Juexia: The scariest thing in the world – Escape’s main door. (Next episode, please also take me along for the group photo)]

After discovering that her Weibo post had been forwarded, Zhai Ying immediately sent Fang Juexia a WeChat message, saying that he plainly should not have gotten involved in this. 

Fang Juexia just replied with the line— ‘it was necessary’.

Following them, the whole crew forwarded Zhai Ying’s Weibo post one by one, until finally, even the screenwriter Xu Qichen appeared.

[@Xu Qichen: Happy, it turns out that the scariest thing in your mind isn’t me ah.]

In this way, the rumor about Zhai Ying leaving the show collapsed in on itself, and the group spirit displayed by the “Escape For Your Life” program group was praised by many people.

When their bandmates learned about this matter, they even started joking that Fang Juexia was becoming more and more like Pei Tingsong.

However, Pei Tingsong knew that Fang Juexia must have had other considerations when he did this. After all, he wasn’t an impulsive person.

There was nothing new under the sun, and there were too many melons to eat and too many scandals to expose in the entertainment circle every day, but what Fang Juexia hadn’t expected was that this time, the rumors would fall on his own family’s bandmate, He Ziyan. The news released the same day He Ziyan returned to Beijing after wrapping up filming.

They were just celebrating He Ziyan wrapping up filming in the restaurant, with all of them eating happily, when Cheng Qiang went out to answer the phone. It was only after that that everyone came to know what had happened online. 

There was an Internet rumor about He Ziyan’s family that had spread from the anonymous forums to the more formal forums, the source of which could not be verified. It was revealed that his mother was a public servant who had embezzled money, and she was in the public security division, so the netizens from before couldn’t reveal his past, because there were people backing him.

The exposé was very descriptive, saying that he had a bad relationship with his family, and that when he was young, he was very rebellious, always fighting and making trouble. He even dropped out of school because he couldn’t get along with his family, and ran away from home to come to the entertainment industry.

He Ziyan’s tainted family was constantly emphasized between the lines in this piece, with there being vague statements and certain nodding and winking. The water army that had been bought also magnified the corruption, arousing the malice of public opinion even further.

“What trash has all been written here? It’s groundless.” Lu Yuan was so angry that he broke his chopsticks. “People even believe this kind of thing that doesn’t even come with a picture. Just saying that I know someone’s someone’s someone’s friend, that counts as an exposé?”

After reading the piece, Pei Tingsong also thought it was ridiculous. “As soon as someone opens their mouth, someone will believe whatever they say.”

Fang Juexia felt that the other party was being especially malicious; they didn’t make up this rumor sooner or later, but made it blow up right after He Ziyan had finished filming.

Ling Yi was beside himself with anger. “It can’t be Astar again ba.”

With the previous incident concerning the leaked song, coupled with several altercations after, Astar was the foe that they dreaded the most. 

Fang Juexia, who had an old feud with Astar, shook his head. “I don’t think so, this timing is very strange. Ziyan’s recent popularity is high, but the highest peak should have been when the official publicity for the drama started. They didn’t release any rumors at that time, and they also didn’t release any rumors when the drama was about to start filming. Instead, they deliberately waited until the drama finished filming to release the rumors….”

As he said this, he looked at He Ziyan. “The purpose I can come up with is that they probably want to stigmatize the actors. After all, the rumor created this time is very sensitive and special; it’s very easy for it to go out of the circle, and it’s very likely that netizens who don’t know the truth will follow suit and boycott the drama. If it really got to that point, if the filming side wants to protect the drama, it may replace Ziyan, but public opinion will still greatly hurt the audience numbers for this drama. If they still keep Ziyan, the drama will basically gain an abandoned status.”

Pei Tingsong nodded. “Once the accusation is really established, no matter what they do, it’s both the actor and cast who will be getting harmed. So the source of rumor, in my opinion, is probably the financiers who have a competitive relationship with the drama team.”

This analysis was chilling.

Cheng Qiang’s brain was spinning fast, and he contacted several reliable people well-versed in public relations in his circle. However, he also felt very uncomfortable; in order to avoid rumors to this extent, they had to actually call in the public relations department. 

At the dining table, He Ziyan, who hadn’t spoken from start to finish, suddenly laughed. “This move is really cruel.”

He was right, it was really cruel. Fang Juexia thought corruption wasn’t a matter that ordinary netizens could investigate and figure out the truth behind. The sensitivity of this kind of incident provided too much convenience for Internet rumors; if they couldn’t figure out the truth, the words ‘sensitive matter’ could always be pushed out in justification. 

In addition, many people were curious about He Ziyan’s private life. He had never mentioned his parents, and he had experienced many things. It was mysterious before, but now that the card of ‘mother’ had been shuffled forward as his big background and everything had been exposed, it made everything seem logical. These coincidences were particularly applicable in this play, which this rumor-maker had deliberately created.

In fact, the group members also didn’t know about He Ziyan’s family. Although they had a close relationship, each of them had left enough boundaries for each other. Everyone had the right to keep secrets, but sometimes asking was also a kind of concern.

But, at this time, Fang Juexia couldn’t help thinking that no matter what kind of family environment He Ziyan had come from, unless he possessed a background like Pei Tingsong’s, there was no possibility of peacefully handling such rumors.

This was because even if you simply reveal your own family, and then involve your parents as well, there will still be people who wouldn’t believe it.

“But with this issue, they could also count as having a flaw in their plan.”

He Ziyan suddenly opened his mouth, and his words confused everyone.

Fang Juexia looked up at him to see that he picked up the cup, and was tilting his head back to take a gulp of alcohol. He then smiled broadly. “Don’t worry, everyone. I have a way to clarify this.”

He said this in such a sure manner, but Fang Juexia felt it even more strange. Although he didn’t know He Ziyan’s family, after being together so long, he had pretty much felt He Ziyan’s indifference towards this matter. Maybe it was because he was the same as himself, or maybe he was the same as Pei Tingsong, and he maintained almost no contact with his family.

Fang Juexia couldn’t help saying, “Ziyan, wait a minute. If it’s all made clear, the people in your family…”

“I have no family.” He Ziyan said with a smile, “I am an orphan.”

This sentence stunned everyone in the private room.

He had kept silent about the subject of family to his bandmates, and saying that they didn’t secretly guess at his situation was impossible, but no one had ever thought that the truth was like this.

He had said that he had no family to help him choose as if he had been talking about the weather. It wasn’t that he was indifferent to his family, but that he really had no family.

Generally speaking, they were similar, and Jiang Miao, whose parents had died early, gave him a complicated look.

Ling Yi couldn’t help but say, “Fire Ge, then back then you…”

He Ziyan’s face looked as relaxed as usual, as if he was talking about something not related to himself. “Back then, I grew up in a welfare home; in fact, it was an orphanage. I had been there for as long as I can remember, and I had no father or mother, only the auntie and the dean of the welfare home. In fact, it was very good in the beginning. We could still attend school in the welfare home, there were young volunteers who helped teach us, and you could leave if someone adopted you. But I couldn’t bear to leave the dean, so I never left. 

“Later, when the dean fell ill, the welfare home couldn’t manage its finances and collapsed. I was 14 years old then, and I was adopted by a family. But because the father of that family often beat me, I ran away.”

Fang Juexia couldn’t imagine He Ziyan’s life at that time. He had no father or mother, the welfare home in which he had lived disappeared, and he was abused by his adoptive father. Finally, he had to run away and start living on his own that early on in life.

Lu Yuan, who was sitting beside He Ziyan, simply grabbed his shoulder, without saying anything.

He Ziyan’s fingers gently and slowly drew circles on the table, and with his eyes still lowered, he spoke in a voice that was still very calm, “Later, I went to work secretly; restaurants, bars, I did a lot of jobs. I liked music, so I earned money every day to save money, so that I could buy the musical instruments I wanted to buy. Sometimes I would sing in the bar for a whole week, singing all night long.”

Then he looked up and laughed. “It’s been a long time. Now when you want me to recall it, I can’t remember many things.”

Seeing the smile on his face, Fang Juexia heart stung a bit. He Ziyan, who always clowned around, could actually smile like this. 

“It’s all in the past.” Cheng Qiang remembered that when he was recruited into the company, He Ziyan didn’t ask if he would be able to make a debut. He had just asked him if the company would arrange courses in vocal music and composition for him?

When Cheng Qiang replied yes, he came.

“Yeah, it’s all stuff that happened a long time ago, you guys shouldn’t worry about it.” He Ziyan raised his eyebrows and said, “Fortunately, at that time, because I was reluctant to give it up, I kept the certificates from the welfare home. Those can be used as proof for clarification. Yes, they made use of something that was difficult to clarify to deal with me, because they felt that no matter what family I was from, as long as I didn’t have a powerful background, it would be very difficult for me to get out of this mess, but I’m really sorry.”

He Ziyan smiled. “I really don’t have a family.”