Ch73 - Ji Xu CP

Very quickly, Ji Xiunian gave Fan Zeng the news of ‘Instructor Tao’ agreeing to help compose the songs.

Fan Zeng was beside himself with joy and immediately asked for his account. “Xiunian, give me a way to contact Instructor Tao, I’ll discuss payment with him.

Uh…

Ji Xiunian did want Fan Zeng to meet Tao Yingbo, but both of them weren’t from the same realm. If Fan Zeng really met him, he’d be stupefied.

Ji Xiunian was the type of person who didn’t like lying, which made it difficult. He could only clear his throat and say, “I’m afraid this might be difficult…”

Ji Xiunian didn’t explain it clearly, but Fan Zeng had already been brainwashed by the image of a talented composer. “Does he even avoid all social media? Ai ai ai, fine, fine. Then should I have the finance department transfer him the money at the time or what? How about this, have Instructor Tao send me his account number first, I guarantee I’ll send him higher than the market price for his labor.”

“This…” Ji Xiunian was put in a somewhat difficult situation. It seemed to him that between account cash and paper money, Tao Yingbo needed paper money more. Transferring between accounts was also unrealistic, but he couldn’t make Fan Zeng burn it for him.

Ji Xiunian thought about it, and didn’t know what to do at the moment, so could only tell Fan Zeng, “Wait for me to ask him, and I’ll respond then, is that okay?”

“That’s fine, how could this not be fine?” Having invited his ideal composer, Fan Zeng was naturally extremely happy. When he remembered that there was a recording session the next day, he immediately urged Ji Xiunian to go rest. “Go to sleep earlier, make sure you have enough energy in order to work better ah.”

Ji Xiunian glanced at the time. Lu Xu had only left to go back to his dorm at 11 PM. He had only made two phone calls before he realised it was already past midnight.

Knowing that Fan Zeng only wanted him to rest, Ji Xiunian couldn’t help but respond, “Fan ge, what about you?”

Fan Zeng yawned, pinching the space between his brows and sighed. “I have to hurry and cut the content for the fourth episode. I feel like the pace for the elimination episode is too flat, so I need to discuss how to make the pace of the show more urgent in later episodes.”

“It’s already deep into the night, are you going to do this until tomorrow then?” Ji Xiunian couldn’t help rebutting, “Fan ge, I’m being serious, sleep is very important. You have to get some rest even if you’re too busy.”

“Enough, enough, I know!”  Fan Zeng casually dismissed it, not actually taking it to heart. For someone like him in the media industry, staying up all night to work overtime was the norm starting from internships.

It was common for artists to work at night, and even more so for these directors.

Fan Zeng was used to this, and he didn’t think much of it. Although he wasn’t as energetic as before at forty-something, he was still in his prime. Fan Zeng yawned again, then poured himself an iced Americano. The bitter coffee filled his mouth, refreshing his spirits. Fan Zeng woke himself up, and went to continue on consulting with the staff.

When the ratings came out the next day, all the members were beside themselves with excitement.

The ratings for ‘Birth of an Idol’ had been high since they began broadcasting. As the competition progressed and the audience’s recognition of the contestants grew, the ratings of the program also increased.

Especially during the last part, when Lu Xu’s group came out to sing ‘Monster’, the ratings shot up to 3.5, immediately setting the highest rating for Dongcheng TV in recent years.

The program was extremely popular. The ones who were happy were the TV station, the program staff, and also potential investors.

Advertisers like SK were the first to use their names to invest in their products, inviting A-rank members to film advertisements. When these first broadcasted, many fans bought the products in order to support the trainees they liked. The sales boomed , and it was a win-win situation.

They represented SK before even debuting. The netizens all noted that the trainees had such high starting points, they were bound to have promising futures.

Before they were even done being envious, the world-famous luxury brand DR official account posted a new Weibo tagging Ji Xiunian and Lu Xu, releasing a few of the commercial videos they had filmed.

@DRChinaOfficial V: Death is a rebirth, freedom from the constraints of the past, courageously embracing the new world. Welcome @Birth of an Idol Trainee Lu Xu V in joining our DR family. In the future, he will be collaborating with @Ji Xiunian V on the fragrance of death. Sing praises of death forever, if you are willing. [Photo]

The photo layout included posters of individual pictures of Lu Xu and Ji Xiunian, along with photos of the two of them together.

The thought hadn’t crossed anyone’s mind. Lu Xu hadn’t even debuted yet, so obtaining SK representation was already a great starting point, but he even actually brought out the identity of a DR collaborator. This was really a resource.

Netizens were already very envious of Lu Xu’s resources, but when they opened up the photos they lost their minds and almost licked their screens—

[@Road of Roma: Fuck fuck, are these people even real, they’re handsome to the point that it’s divine, I’m in love I’m in love, even as a guy I think the two of them are handsome.]

[@Sexy Big Footed Loli King: Aaa, I really love these nine pictures! I thought that no one can match up to the Film Emperor’s looks, but now I’ve discovered that Lu Xu can. The two of them look so good standing together, uuuuu, I suddenly want to ship a CP.]

[@Excess Meat Eaten by the Cat: The sister who wants to ship the CP, don’t go, take me with you okay? I just knew I wasn‘t the only one who thought that the two of them had a couple look. As expected, handsome people are the same, ugly people are odd and varying.]

[@One Jumping Candy: I used to never really understand shipping same sex CP, but now I suddenly understand. They’re really too good looking, I’ve already ordered the perfume, so where do I claim these brand reps?]

[@Ji Xiunian’s Little Wife: Uuu, somehow I want to agree with this Mysterious Speech. Of course we know that Nian ge and Little Xu’s relationship is very good, so please be satisfied with just a little bit, please don’t make such a big ruckus and cause trouble for your artists.]

…

No one would have thought that DR’s perfume advertisement would actually push out a new couple pairing.

It was really because Lu Xu and Ji Xiunian’s charisma in the pictures were very harmonious, and they were top tiers of handsome, that it moved people.

After seeing Lu X represent an international brand, his fans were beyond happy. Even so, despite there being shippers who expressed that they wanted to carry Lu Xu away, they didn’t have any notion of kidnapping Ji Xiunian.

Not everyone likes to ship pairings, other fans were the same.

Previously, some other artist had tried to take Ji Xiunian and had ended up being torn apart by the fan base, even bringing up some of their less than desirable history to light.

Never mind that Ji Xiunian looked very calm usually, his fans were really not to be messed with, their fighting capabilities were number one.

Lu Xu’s fans were careful, afraid that they were misunderstanding this trend.

Most of Ji Xiunian’s fans were logical, but there were also those who felt that this CP was a tactic created by Lu Xu’s team.

[@Actually Understand Nothing: How can there be so many people who ship this, it’s just luck that he got the DR ad, and then they pull this kind of marketing tactic, such a low move]

[@Is It Really Just Me: I always felt that it was luck for Lu Xu to have gotten this ad, no works of his own and no name for himself, he just relied on that face to become famous for that moment, there’s no way he can compare with Ji Xiunian. I can’t understand why those people keep muttering about Lu Xu and Ji Xiunian being equally handsome, and if they’re being serious, aren’t they afraid of embarrassing their artist?]

In their minds, those from talent shows and those from humble beginnings could not be compared to each other. For someone new like Lu Xu, who knew what he had relied on to get there.

But without letting them think too much on it, Ji Xiunian had already gone online and made a post to share DR’s ad, and even replied to a comment below—

[@Ji Xiunian V: The ending is the start, welcome, we’ll be reborn in death together @New Idol Lu XuV]

For Ji Xiunian, who had never really interacted with others before, to have gone online and specifically mention Lu Xu when sharing the news, it really made people feel like their relationship was very good.

[@Motorcycle Wheel’s Hope: Eh eh eh? Jian ge actually mentioned Lu Xu hahaha those who said Lu Xu is mooching off people’s fame, do your faces hurt?]

[@When Is God Coming to Give Sweets: Oh my god, people were shipping them as Ji Xu then Nian ge came out to mention Lu Xu. I don’t care anymore, they’re bonded for life and in death, this is equal to a confession hahaha]

[@Big Foot Loli Husky: I feel like Nian ge and Lu Xu are really good friends, so their chemistry was good in the ad. Someone talked about Lu Xu and Nian ge immediately came out to post and protect him, they’re best bros for sure!]

…

“Ji Xu CP?” After Ji Xiunian had finished posting, he scrolled through the comments and saw that term

Ji Xu Ji Xu…

It rolled off the tongue quite well.

He smiled unconsciously, and when he opened Wechat he saw that Jiang Aida had sent a group photo to him.

[Aida: Xiunian, this is one of the photos from the last filming, the team there wants to take advantage of the chatter to send this out now, I wanted to ask if you think it would be troublesome (Photo)]

The photo had been taken of the two of them when they were out at sea, Ji Xiunian was sitting in the water and Lu Xu was lying with his head on Ji Xiunian’s knees, looking towards the camera.

The two of them were wearing white shirts, the water had soaked their clothes, sticking close to their bodies such that their beautiful muscles could be seen through it.

Their handsome features were paired with their wet hair. Nothing was exposed but it gave off an extremely sexy feeling.

Based on this picture alone it was easy for people to think that the two of them had some kind of romantic relationship, and no wonder Jiang Aida wanted to ask for Ji Xiunian’s opinion.

“I think it’s OK.” It was just work, there was nothing to hide.

After replying to Jiang Aida, he saved the picture.

After all it was their first time working together, Ji Xiunian was quite sentimental. Not long after he had saved the photo, the people over on DR’s side had already posted the picture.

The netizens who thought that Ji Xiunian and Lu Xu had good chemistry became even more riled up, and each of them were screaming and saying they shipped it.

No one would have thought that from one set of ad photos, a new ship would have been born.

Even Ji Xiunian didn’t expect that he would have the opportunity to be grouped with another man for a CP, but he didn’t really hate the feeling.

Seeing the comments discussing this “Ji Xu ship” grow in number, Ji Xiunian couldn’t help but take a screenshot and send it to Lu Xu, wanting to look at the netizens’ essays with him.

However, Lu Xu who usually replied to him in seconds didn’t reply for a while, so Ji Xunian went to the practise studio but there was no one there either.

Just when he was wondering what was going on, a small voice came from the Tao Yingbo who was hiding in a corner of the wall. “Master Lu Xu took a phone call and went out, it seemed quite urgent…”