CH 97

Chapter 97 – Turn Back The Storm

Translated by juurensha

Edited by Noks

Lots of Weibo comments, don’t like, don’t read

At this moment, Fang Juexia felt like his mother was sitting in that ever-familiar chair right in front of him.

And that door, which had never been locked, had collapsed in an instant.

With no sound coming from the other end of the call, Fang Juexia began to regret it. Maybe he shouldn’t have said everything so directly; he should have at least waited until he returned home and was beside her. He had just confessed everything, but how long would it take his mama to really accept everything, and how would she sleep tonight?

“Mom…” Fang Juexia called out again.

Finally, a sound came from the opposite side. It sounded like a sigh, a very weak one.

“I see.” Mama Fang was trying to put on a good face; after so many years, putting on a good face had become a part of her life. Even if they both, mother and son, had really been abandoned, and she knew she must raise her son by herself, she had still never shown any pain in front of Fang Juexia. She was always smiling.

But, at this moment, when she came to know the harm her own husband had inflicted on her son, her tears finally burst out. “It’s Mama who is wrong, Juexia. It’s Mama who is sorry to you.”

Hearing his mama cry, Fang Juexia grew even sadder. “No, Mom, you are the best mama in the world. You didn’t do anything wrong. I just didn’t want someone else telling you about this matter.”

“I know, don’t worry about me.” Mama Fang tried her best to stop her tears from flowing. “Mama knows now. You must remember, you are always Mama’s most important person. No matter what happens, you must protect yourself. Mama is old now, and no longer has the ability to continue protecting you.”

Fang Juexia gripped his cellphone and crouched down along the wall. He had never been a child who was good at expressing his love. Rather, he was like a wanderer who returned home after many years; the more he cared, the less easy it would be for him to say it.

Pei Tingsong also crouched down and touched his hair gently.

“I love you, Mama.

“You still have me.”

He finally said it out loud, while sobbing like a child.

“In the future…you can wait for me to come home, okay?”

As Pei Tingsong watched all this, he experienced and understood what it meant when people said that the love for the person also extended to everything related to him. He didn’t understand maternal love, nor did he understand paternal love; he had read many literary works praising this feeling, and had learned about the natural dependence human beings would form for their mother in the process of human growth. However, up until now, these were only recorded words and subjects for him to consider.

But after witnessing his most beloved Fang Juexia trying his best to protect his family—

He felt it deeper than any words.

After the meeting that lasted all night long, everyone started to move. This was a tough battle to fight; the stain left on him from his father was real, and the fact that he was also an addict was something that netizens would easily get most disgusted by. It was very easy for the narrative online to diverge from their plans, so everyone had to be 110% energetic when executing it. 

Fang Juexia even brought out the steel rod that he had specially preserved before as part of the evidence.

“But…” Cheng Qiang was a little worried, “Is this not enough evidence to show that his father had abandoned his wife and child?”

This was also what Fang Juexia was most worried about.

But what he didn’t expect was to receive a certain email from his mother at 5:30 that morning.

[Juexia, Mama thought about it a lot, and understands the seriousness of this matter. It’s true that Mama has been deceiving herself all these years, but you will always be the person Mama loves best and the child I want to protect no matter what. These are the medical records from when Mama went to the hospital to be treated after getting beaten, all the procedural forms and certificates I’ve filled out over the years when filing missing persons reports, the accounts I sorted out after he took everything away, and the injury photos taken at that time, including yours and mine. Originally, I wanted to wait for him to wake up and then would let him have a look at these, but now I’m afraid that day won’t come.

I don’t need you to be too strong. Mama just wants to wait for you to come home safely and happily.]

Fang Juexia sat in front of the laptop and one by one, opened the attachments sent by his mother. The memories these past bits and pieces encapsulated bubbled up in an instant, and he felt as if his entire being was in a state of dissociation. His body was in pain, but his soul was still analyzing these memories rationally.

He even pointed to a bloody wound in one of the photos and described it to Pei Tingsong, “Look at this. I remember I was only as tall as the table at the time, and I had hid in the corner. After he left, I pulled Mama up and wanted to take her to see a doctor.” His profile didn’t have a very pained expression, he was just staring blankly at the screen. “She covered her head with clothes, I led her, and we spent the night in the emergency room.

“The nurses and aunties in the emergency room started to recognize me later on.” Fang Juexia turned his face to look at Pei Tingsong and even laughed. “She said I was really handsome, the most beautiful boy she had ever seen.”

“Don’t look anymore.” Pei Tingsong closed the screen and said, “Let them go handle this.”

Fang Juexia nodded. “It’s alright, I already can peacefully remember all this now.”

He was far stronger than Pei Tingsong had imagined.

The PR team made the decision to not purposely suppress this news. In order to resolve these matters thoroughly, they didn’t delete the initial post that revealed the news, but they also didn’t let it develop. In the later stages of the initial post, they arranged for people to come out and point out that the mention of “AIDS” was strange. With one person saying it was suspicious, everyone started thinking that, suspecting that it was an action taken by anti-fans, so the direction of the thread began to tilt, and the focus of the debate went from guessing the disease to whether someone was maliciously slandering Fang Juexia.

At the same time, they arranged for a lot of accounts to publish some very poor and inconsistent smear-posts, then spread them online, with some of them even saying that Fang Juexia was terminally ill. Simultaneously, they bribed a few big verified accounts to leak the news ahead of time.

[@Are you gossiping: Guaranteed, top class F’s father has an extremely bad criminal record, and it should have already been dug up. When that happens, someone will definitely end up blackmailing him using this matter, so you guys just wait to eat the melons.]

[@Melon field manufacturing machine: There are some rumors that a high face value, top-class idol’s father abandoned his wife and son. Now that his son is popular, he has come back and is extorting him by demanding sky-high alimony. It’s another real dog blood drama in the world.]

These melons were quickly transported to other places, and there were rumors flying all over the place, especially amongst the many people in the fan circles; they all knew at least a little something about it. 

Although it wasn’t that different from the facts, the PR team deliberately blurred the truth about the drug addiction, in order to make Fang Juexia’s self disclosure more impactful. On the other hand, they still hadn’t discovered the dark hand manipulating this matter from behind yet. The unwritten rules of turmoil within the circle made it clear that one should not shove the other companies directly on the table, but first impressions were also very important, and therefore, Fang Juexia’s image as a victim had to first appear in public view. 

So, they put the father who caused this whole issue on the opposite side.

Fang Juexia struggled with this issue. If he was the only one who would be affected, maybe he would give up on using this PR strategy. But he wasn’t just Fang Juexia, he was also Kaleido’s Fang Juexia. Behind him were five bandmates who were sharing his hardships. 

He had too much to shoulder.

The team quickly arranged drafts that were to be published on the major official accounts and the marketing Weibos, all to ensure that they would be the ones with the subsequent initiative, and thereby control public opinion. Every draft was completed by a dedicated copywriter, while Fang Juexia’s clarification post was solely written by himself, and the team only helped in polishing and modifying it.

By the time the post was finalized, it was already 11:00 A.M. Fang Juexia, who had not slept all night, sat at his desk and copied out the clarification post onto a piece of paper by hand, then took a good photo of it and posted it to Weibo.

[@Kaleido Fang Juexia: shared pictures]

[I’m very sorry to take up a little bit of everyone’s time. Here, I have a few things to confess to all of you.

First of all, my father is a drug addict, and has been one for many years. When I was a child, my father’s future was ruined, and his temperament changed greatly. At first, he drank too much and often beat and cursed my mother and me. Later, he became addicted to drugs and changed completely. We suffered from domestic violence and his drug abuse for five years. On the eve of my 13th birthday, he took away the small amount of savings that we had to live on, along with all valuable things from our house, and left us.

Ten years later, not too long ago, he reappeared, followed me with a steel rod, and attempted to kidnap me. Fearing that he would do more harm to me and my family, we admitted him into a rehab center. His appearance was surprising, and it really frightened me. The drugs had already corroded his humanity away, and the encounter completely drained me. Not long ago, our company received a blackmail notice: if we didn’t agree to their terms, they would expose the fact that my biological father is actually a drug addict. But I thought, that was the truth anyway, and I don’t have to bother other people to speak for me, I’ll do it myself. He is him, and I am me. I appreciate that he has given me life, but ever since I came home ten years ago and saw that our house was nearly empty, there has been no father-son relationship between us.

Moreover, I would like to make public the so-called “unmentionable disease” circulating online. I have congenital night blindness, with low dark vision, and the possibility of it being cured is very low. My childhood dream was to be a dancer, but night blindness made me lose this possibility forever. The psychological trauma left by this incident made me passively conceal it, and since the stages for singers and idol groups contained both darkness and light, it gave me a sliver of hope. It was just that a person who has a great chance of becoming blind onstage is not qualified to make a debut in any entertainment company. So, I hid the fact of my night blindness, and used endless practice to try to ensure that no mistakes occur.

About the online rumors concerning other diseases, including the long-term “hidden rules” rumors, my company and I will take the corresponding legal measures to protect our reputation. It’s my disease, I don’t deny it. It’s the same as the birthmark on my face, it has been a part of me since I was born. But with regards to labels that don’t belong to me, please do not stick them on me. Otherwise, I will take these labels and send them back to you with legal summons.]

This handwritten letter didn’t contain any great emotional exaggeration, the tone was neither humble nor overbearing, and the handwriting was very strong. However, all the people who read all of it, whether they were fans who sincerely supported him or passers-by who were indifferent to him, were all shocked.

Who would have thought that today’s most popular male artist had been born into such a biological family. What was more unexpected was that he himself would stand up and make it all public.

In addition to the handwritten letter in the first picture, the pictures following it were those of all the relevant evidence. The second picture was an old picture of Fang Juexia, when he was still a little child. The corner of his eye had his birthmark, and the corner of his mouth was bleeding. The photos were objective and indifferent, showing all the dangers that a child belonging to a failed biological family would encounter, such as bloody toes, bruises on his arms and back, and the traces of stitches left on his mother’s head. Fang Juexia published all the certificates his mother had given him online, including the medical records from the doctor.

As long as it didn’t hurt the people beside him, Fang Juexia was willing to have everyone gather around and stare at him. 

He was willing to use his own wounds to meet everyone’s desire to pry.

Drug abuse, domestic violence, kidnapping, extortion, top class popularity…. These words, which were full of sharp contradictions, caught everyone’s attention in a very short time. #Fang Juexia’s handwritten letter# also exploded directly on the Hot Search list, attracting the attention of the entire Internet, sparking large discussions. 

[@Black sugar pearl milk tea: Shit… Stalking, kidnapping, domestic violence, are these things a fucking biological father would do?!]

[@90’s steamwave: I didn’t expect it to be this powerful when I clicked open the Hot Search topic….So FJX’s father is addicted to drugs, is a domestic abuser, abandons his wife and son, and now he comes back to blackmail his now successful son?! Why doesn’t he go die ah?! I’m so angry with this kind of scum father that I’m about to faint from across the screen!]

[@brokenheart: I didn’t expect it to be like this when I saw astar’s childhood photo on the Hot Search list. He’s so small and thin, I feel so sad when seeing his wounds….]

[@Garbage transfer station replying to @brokenheart: Who knows if this picture is real, maybe they just found a “little actor”, drew some red on him to imitate the birthmark, and then added some special makeup to create the wound. What does this even count as? He could be trying to whitewash himself. His own father takes drugs, how could the son still be a good person?]

[@I’m going to k*ll you, you pig replying to Garbage transfer station: Your name is Garbage transfer station. What kind of good garbage can you be?]

[@What time are you sleeping today replying to @Garbage transfer station: You’re going too far. One look and you can tell that this is FJX when he was small, how could there be a child who looks so much like him? It’s not a big problem to lack empathy for other people’s sufferings, but if you have to spit and maliciously slander when you see a tragic experience, then you really are heartless.]

[@The first sweetheart in the galaxy: Reading the part with “Not long ago, our company received a blackmail notice…” My hair really stood on end at that part. So some people who knew about this pain tried to use it to threaten a popular star. They’re all completely without conscience ba]

[@Beautiful baby Fine Jeweled Xerophyte: I’m so sad, everyone might not know, Fang Juexia never uses Weibo, but he made a post on his birthday a while ago. And, at the same time, he also forwarded a post about it being global anti-drug day. At that time, we didn’t know why. Now seeing all this…. I really can’t imagine how he grew up. It’s so hard.]

[@Domino never gives up: God, night blindness. Then during the many stage performances before, Gege pretty much couldn’t see anything, but he actually made no mistakes. How long did Gege have to practice to achieve this level ah? No wonder his hearing was so sensitive whenever he got on any blindfolded segment of a show, he was already used to it. God, thinking about it now, there are a lot of little details that match up. Juexia had it too hard.]

[@Keep kind: Before it was HZY revealing himself to be an orphan, now it’s FJX. K is really one of the most pitiful boy-bands in history. Is this circle really so rotten that they have to blow up their own privacy to prove their innocence?]

[@I’m going to read four books this month: I didn’t like FJX very much before, feeling that his personality was a little too quiet and not likeable. Now I feel very sorry. After seeing all this, I know how this kind of family leaves a great impact on its children. My father would lose his temper and beat others when he is drunk. Ah well, I may not hate him, but I hate myself who is similar to him.]

[@playplayplayy: That last sentence was very tough. He didn’t say anything about a legal notice, but directly pulled out a legal summons. With this, I also believe him. At least he’s taking the gloves off and starting to use real legal weapons. ]

[@Egg fried rice goes along with Yakult: The fan circle is pretty speechless about him hiding his night blindness, and then he also didn’t tell his company about his father’s drug addiction ba. It’s also irresponsible of him to conceal so much explosive news to make a debut nonetheless.]

[@XUZNWDH2 replying to @Egg fried rice goes along with Yakult: Although you know all the exceptions, you can’t just blindly use them. What, if a father is a drug addict, his son can’t be a normal person? What kind of unspeakable disease is night blindness? After entering the company, would it harm everyone? Gonna say something unpleasant, since he knew that he had night blindness and he still had to get onstage, even if he fell down, fell off the stage, or died from a fall, all this would only harm the person himself. And you are too naive, this kind of public company couldn’t not know about these things. As you know, he was born to be an idol and born belonging onstage, while you, with your arguing for the sake of arguing, were born to belong in a parking lot.]

While the debate continued, Star Chart’s official Weibo also announced that it would take measures to protect its artists, and that it had already sued several Weibo accounts who had spread such rumors. With the relevant legal documents posted, their tough attitude was already reflected.

All fans forwarded it, supporting the company in protecting its artists. Some online articles arranged by the PR team were also published one after another. The first one was an article written from an anti-fan’s point of view, which diverted attention to a contradictory issue in this mess— whether children should expose their fathers for their own sake. In the article, they tried their best to promote filial piety and paternity, beautified the “domestic violence” behavior, and ignored the drug abuse. Mentioning all these matters in this way was simply stepping on a mine that existed, that of “people’s will” on Weibo, and soon, it attracted many forwards from netizens, with almost all of them cursing it out. In the end, angry netizens even deleted this long Weibo article.

The appearance of this article dragged netizens who didn’t originally support Fang Juexia into the discussion, all because they disliked drug abuse, domestic abuse, and extreme patriarchy even more than Fang Juexia.

Later, the PR team continued to publish other articles through multiple big verified online accounts or on the public official account. Most of them took a more rational view in analyzing this event, publishing articles on biological families, referring to a popularized science account about the consequences of drug abuse, and digging up old information from the entertainment circle, by splicing together Fang Juexia’s past performances in variety shows and his performances on the dark stage. It was like a behind-the-scenes video, and it was full of stuff the audience loved to watch most. 

By evening, public opinion was also at its hottest, the netizens had already broken down the very shocking big contradiction into many small contradictions, dispersing into striking the hearts of different groups. Although everyone knew it was Fang Juexia’s melon, no matter from what angle, he was the real victim here. So there would be different people who sympathized with him from different angles.

At ten o’clock in the evening, Pei Tingsong posted on Weibo, but changed his old style of temper tantrums and only uttered one line.

[@Kaleido Pei Tingsong: There is no so-called domestic violence, only intentional injury. Crime is crime.]

This Weibo post was quickly posted on the Hot Search list, and was forwarded and supported by many netizens. Soon after, the several other members of Kaleido also forwarded Pei Tingsong and Fang Juexia’s posts. 

[@Give me some small dried fish: The best thing about K is that every time a member is in trouble, the rest of them will voice support like bros. It’s not embroidering flowers on brocade, it’s sending charcoal in a blizzard. I hope Juexia Gege can get through this.]

The appearance of his bandmates’ support also divided the center of public opinion. In addition to them, there were also some other stars, such as Zhai Ying, who Fang Juexia had supported before, their senior brothers, their friends who had cooperated with them, and even their Star Chart colleagues who didn’t really have that close a relationship with them now also supporting Fang Juexia.

Whether it was out of sincerity or enthusiasm, everyone stood up against domestic violence and drug abuse. This all reflected public opinion, and it also made things develop in a better direction.

Such supportive comments also began to boom in this scuffle of public opinion, and many opponents and anti-fans also entered the fray. They attributed his almost-debut experience in Astar to the ‘hidden rules’ rumors, and distorted facts by saying that the reason he left Astar was because he had been kicked out, because Astar knew his family situation and the big boss had abandoned him.

The PR team wrestled with the hidden rules theory. In order to solve this rumor more thoroughly, they found Fang Juexia and hoped that he could tell what had happened in Astar at that time. Fang Juexia hesitated again and again and finally gave a reply clarifying that the hidden rules situation was just a rumor, and that there was no need to replay the whole thing.

Up to now, he still didn’t want to publicize Liang Ruo’s past of being drugged and raped, and then having the entire situation buried, just in order to dissociate himself from this rumor. Even if he didn’t name names, it would be easy for everyone to pick it out.

It was too easy to destroy a person.

The PR team had no other way but to suppress such untrue statements as far as possible, but it was tough to use legal measures; the entire process took too long, and the damage to the stars would have already been done. However, if Fang Juexia was unwilling to talk about it, they couldn’t force him to, and at least on the matter of his biological father being addicted to drugs, they had controlled the public opinion to absolutely gain the upper hand.

The person in the center of the whirlpool, Fang Juexia, didn’t really care about the development of public opinion, and also couldn’t really sleep. He still worked according to the previous schedule in the daytime, and when night came, Pei Tingsong took him to his small workshop. On the lazyboy sofa, Pei Tingsong held him for two hours so that he would sleep. 

When he woke up, Pei Tingsong’s cellphone rang. Jiang Miao and the rest had come over with some food. The entire group would have to shoot an ad for a TV station later, so Fang Juexia also got up. They found an empty dance studio and all of them sat down on the floor to eat, just like what they did before their debut.

Fang Juexia’s whole person looked a little haggard, and he had sunken eyes. His eyelids were thin to the point they were nearly transparent, and they showed his blue blood vessels. The bags beneath his eyes also looked dark, filled with red blood vessels. 

Ling Yi took a bowl of porridge, stirred it with a spoon, and handed it to him. “Juexia, you eat some more. This shrimp porridge is very delicious, there’s lots of shrimp in it.”

Fang Juexia said ‘thank you’ in a soft voice and took a bite. “En, it’s delicious.”

His bandmates didn’t utter any words showing their deep concern, and they tacitly chose to stick to their usual mode of getting along with each other. Fang Juexia was very grateful to them; what he was most afraid of was sudden and overwhelming concern.

“Thank you.” He put the porridge down and looked at everyone. “I’m very sorry I kept it from you guys for so long.”

Lu Yuan put down his chopsticks and spoke straightforwardly, “What sorry, are we bros or not?”

“Juexia, you remember on your birthday, everyone said that we hoped that you would rely on us more in the future.” He Ziyan looked at him. “You should remember these words. These aren’t some polite words of just ‘I’ll support you’, we would only say these words because we’ve known for a long time that you’ve had a lot on your shoulders.”

Jiang Miao, who was sitting beside him, gave him a shrimp dumpling. “Yes ah, you forgot, last time you even told me that we are family.”

“Really! Did Juexia really say that?” Ling Yi put down his bowl and immediately hugged him. “Juexia, I really super-like you, the kind where I think of you as my own biological Gege. We’re family, right?” Ling Yi babbled away, and even started crying at his own words. 

Fang Juexia even had to wipe his tears away at this. “We are, don’t cry ah.”

Ling Yi sniffed hard. “En!”

“You’re sniffling so much, I can’t even eat my noodles,” Pei Tingsong complained.

“Juexia, you look at him!”

Jiang Miao brushed Fang Juexia’s bangs and murmured, “Your hair is long again, you’ll have to get it fixed by the stylist in a bit ba.”

Fang Juexia held his chopsticks tightly, his knuckles turning white. 

He once thought that he was full of misfortune, with every step of his heading towards the tragic end that was failure, so he tried his best to live properly. Even in the dark, he still wanted to live “correctly”.

For a long time, he thought that he would always be alone trapped in the darkness.

But that was his biggest mistake.

Everything in the world had to maintain a relative balance: love and hate, beauty and ugliness, success and failure, misfortune and luck. He really did have a tragic life; he had had to tear at his old wounds with his own hands, and every step of his was bloody. But he had gotten an even more precious treasure in return.

Looking up, Fang Juexia looked at his playful bandmates, and a smile appeared on his face.

They were the great fortune of his life.

—

The author has something to say:

The hidden rules rumors will be cleared up.

—

Juurensha: Found family!!!!! Kaleido Forever!

Noks: The catharsis this chapter brings… I love Kaleido!!!!