Xiao Pei, Xiao Pei, of the whole group, the most tired today
--
Fang Juexia froze right where he was standing.
He stared fixedly at Pei Tingsong, a faint light shimmering in his pupils.
All of his senses and thinking processes were running delayed at this moment. It was as if he was stuck in slow-mo, stopping at Pei Tingsong's last sentence repeatedly, echoing that scene again and again.
Pei Tingsong woke up, and it seemed inconceivable that he had just blurted out such words. Exactly how possessed had he been to say something like that to Fang Juexia? He had completely lost his head.
He couldn't figure out his motive for saying something like this at all.
"What are you guys doing?" Cheng Qiang asked as he ran over to them, then bent and panted for breath.
Fang Juexia lowered his head immediately and took a deep breath. Pei Tingsong opened his mouth and explained, "He just sprained his foot when coming off the platform, and I helped him in walking over here."
"Are you alright?" Cheng Qiang asked him in a hurried tone, "Is it serious? There's a doctor backstage, I'll take you there to get it looked at."
Fang Juexia shook his head. "No need…"
"What's the matter with you?" Seeing that the base of his ears were completely red, Cheng Qiang felt something was wrong, so he asked, "How did you suddenly trip? Did you catch a cold during the photoshoot a few days ago, do you have a fever?" He was about to stretch out his hand, but Fang Juexia avoided it. "It's really okay. No injuries, and no cold."
Saying that, he walked towards the elevator located in the underground lobby, leaving Pei Tingsong and Cheng Qiang to look at each other.
"What's going on here?" Cheng Qiang looked back at Pei Tingsong and asked, "Kid, are you bullying Juexia again?"
Pei Tingsong felt wronged to death, but couldn't explain things clearly, so he just complained, "Why is it that I'm the one bullying him? You are so unjust. Be careful, or else I'll quit and not do this anymore." Saying that, he also ran away.
The underground lobby also didn't have good lighting, and he was still a bit worried about Fang Juexia, so he pretended to get angry and then chase after him.
"Hey, it's not that, you…" Cheng Qiang, who was left behind, wiped off a full forehead's worth of sweat and kept repeating to himself, "Holy crap, my job here isn't easy. I have to provide for six Buddhas all at once."
Fang Juexia walked forward step-by-step. Ever since he was little, his steps seemed to be measured, and each step was very accurate. He was a person with rules in his heart, and he had a very low error acceptance rate.
But, at this moment, he felt something disturbing his emotions, something that made his heart quake and caused his steps to become flustered.
His gaze fell on the long shadow on the ground that was getting closer and closer to himself.
He pressed the up button to call for the elevator and stared at the glowing floor numbers.
"Hey, are you alright?" His voice was very close by.
Fang Juexia didn't open his mouth until he felt Pei Tingsong come to a stop right next to him. He didn't look sideways, just kept staring straight ahead.
"Among all the people you know, there is no one else."
Pei Tingsong was a bit distracted, and it took him a few seconds to understand what was being said. Fang Juexia had actually given him the answer to the first question that he had taken back, which Pei Tingsong had never imagined he would do.
With a ding, the elevator door opened. Fang Juexia walked in first and then turned to face Pei Tingsong and looked up at him. His eyes were still clear and smooth.
Pei Tingsong's throat rolled up and down, and he asked somewhat doubtfully, "What about Ling Yi? And Qiang Ge, do they know?"
It wasn't that he didn't believe Fang Juexia's words, but that he thought it wasn't quite possible. He was the only one? How?
The second hand of his internal clock ticked forward, leaping forward into the abyss under the tightrope stretched out over it. Fang Juexia's eyes went across the lines of his shoulder and caught sight of Cheng Qiang, who was about to be upon them. His voice was calm and firm as he asserted—
"There's only you."
A subtle feeling would appear once a person had been designated as "one of a few."
Pei Tingsong was holding a secret in his hand.
Or maybe, he was caught in the grip of a beautiful secret.
A hand landed on the dazed Pei Tingsong's shoulder, and a voice spoke up, "Go in ah, why are you frozen here ma?" The huge stage elevator was very empty, while Cheng Qiang chattered on, "Go up now, hurry up and change your clothes and take off your makeup. They should be nearly done."
Fang Juexia raised his eyes with his head half-lowered, catching sight of Pei Tingsong's face being reflected in the mirrored wall of the elevator. He was also staring back at him. In fact, Fang Juexia was also slightly regretting just going ahead and answering the question Pei Tingsong had already taken back, but he had just wanted to do so at that moment.
Sure enough, under the catalysis of a tense atmosphere, people would take unexpected actions.
He saw the red birthmark at the corner of his eye being reflected in the mirrored doors, and irresistibly recalled Pei Tingsong's "last sentence."
The frequency of his heartbeat once again exceeded its normal range, and Fang Juexia had to take a deep breath to try and correct this physical error.
Everyone had their own set of rules of conduct.
Fang Juexia's rules were a two-way chain: On the basis of a specific paradigm unique to him, he would try to avoid mistakes that could possibly take place and would head towards his established goal step-by-step; every time there was any mistake encountered on this path, he would reverse-trace his steps, to track where the mistake happened. It was just like discovering that the result was wrong after solving a math problem, he would then start deriving the solution backwards, going step-by-step, until he figured out the key step in which the mistake had occurred. This was his method of self-reflection.
The elevator stopped. Fang Juexia looked up and caught sight of the other person reflected in the mirror.
Since the start of the fanservice, every time he tacked back and derived which key step the issue had occurred at, it always ended up being Pei Tingsong.
This person did as he pleased, which made Fang Juexia feel completely uncertain about him, and so, every move of his thus became a trigger for error.
"Go ba, go and clean up."
They would take part in activities in Shanghai the following day, and the charity party would also be held in Shanghai. After the concert, they flew over to Shanghai with their senior brothers and stayed in a hotel. In the past, whenever they stayed in a hotel, they would divide the rooms between themselves quite casually, with the only principle being that Pei Tingsong and Fang Juexia had to be kept separated.
But this time, Cheng Qiang just started handing out the key cards while in the hotel elevator.
"Everyone is on the same floor, and so are your senior brothers. Here, this is Ziyan and Ling Yi." He gave the room card to He Ziyan, and then turned to Jiang Miao and said, "Miaomiao and Lu Yuan are also in one."
The last room card was naturally handed over to Fang Juexia.
"Take it, yours and Xiao Pei's."
Fang Juexia took the room card. Although the expression on his face remained unchanged, he felt a little flustered inside. After all, they had never stayed in the same room in the course of the past two years. In addition, he hadn't even uttered a word about the episode after leaving the performance to Pei Tingsong while they were on the plane.
But now, they were going to spend the night together in the same room.
Their other group members had already started to quip and joke around, with Lu Yuan knocking his shoulder into Pei Tingsong's, who was still listening to music and was completely unaware about what was happening. "Aiya, what a joyful day today is."
Pei Tingsong took off his earphones with a completely confused expression. "What?"
Ling Yi began to swing his arms around and complained teasingly, "I'm not okay with this, I want to sleep with Juexia!"
He Ziyan fished Ling Yi over and rubbed his hair. "Fire Ge doesn't smell good? Huh?"
Jiang Miao explained the entire situation to their youngest, who was still muddled. "Qiang Ge said you and Fang Juexia will sleep in the same room tonight."
"What?!" Pei Tingsong had a completely shocked expression on his face now, and he stared at Cheng Qiang as if asking him if he made a mistake.
Cheng Qiang glanced at him and asked, "What's the matter, you're even being reluctant ah? Juexia is even the one who is the most well-behaved and quiet when sleeping out of all of you. It's a good deal for you, kid. Listen to me. I have the final say."
When the elevator door opened, everyone pushed and shoved to get out, pushing Pei Tingsong and Fang Juexia together. Pei Tingsong subconsciously held onto him, before the two of them quickly separated.
"I'm so tired! I want to take a bath first!"
"No one's fighting you for it."
"Strong Ge, when the company makes money, can I stay in the presidential suite once?"
"If the company makes money, it's me, Strong Ge, who will be staying in the presidential suite first."
Everyone entered their own rooms one by one, leaving only Pei Tingsong and Fang Juexia behind, for their room was the furthest into the corridor.
The atmosphere in the corridor suddenly quieted down, and it seemed as if the silent air was compressing and squeezing them together. Even their breaths would accidentally bump into each other, so both of them were taking the greatest amount of care in keeping a distance.
Fang Juexia took the room card and opened the door. The room was no different from the many hotel rooms he had stayed in before, with floor to ceiling windows and two large beds.
Logically speaking, there was nothing different, but Fang Juexia's palms still began to sweat. "Which side do you want to sleep on?"
"Either is fine." Pei Tingsong looked at where the bathroom was located and pushed his suitcase over to the bed by the window as he stated, "I'll sleep here ba."
The bed he had left free was also on the side Fang Juexia preferred to sleep in. Fang Juexia let out a soft "okay" while putting his luggage in its place.
"Do you want to wash first or…" / "Would you like to take a bath first?"
The two people tacitly started talking at the same time, and also went quiet at the same time.
Pei Tingsong had never experienced such an awkward moment before; he was clearly not such a courteous person, and ordinarily, he should be saying and doing whatever he felt like, but right now, it really felt like someone had some kind of hold over him.
It was too strange when it was obvious that the opposite of this was true.
He scratched his head. "You go first ba. I'll look for my clothes." With that, Pei Tingsong sat cross legged on the carpet, his back facing Fang Juexia as he opened his suitcase. Fang Juexia accepted his proposal and went into the bathroom on his own. However, only after he began to wash did he realize that the bathroom was translucent, covered by frosted glass on all sides, through which the people inside could be seen faintly.
He finally knew why Pei Tingsong had turned his back to the bathroom earlier, even before he had entered it.
The temperature in the bathroom was too high, and the sweltering steam that billowed out made Fang Juexia feel dizzy. The water splashed over his head, and he lowered his head while supporting himself with his hands against the wall. His mind was currently filled with that scene that took place under the platform. He tried very hard not to think about it, but his brain seemed to be going firmly against him.
He had said he needed to sort out his clothes, but Pei Tingsong actually hadn't brought much clothing. His back was to the bathroom, but the small glass bathroom was being reflected on the glass of the floor-to-ceiling windows. Such a scene, when reflected on top of Shanghai's bustling nightlife, was like Pandora's Box.
A door suddenly opened in the corridor, and then came loud knocks on their room door. Pei Tingsong yelled, "Who is it?"
"Xiao Pei, quickly open the door!"
Only upon hearing Ling Yi's voice did Pei Tingsong get up and rush to the door. Him catching sight of a tall and thin figure, made indistinct by the frosted glass and curling steam, was inevitable.
"Why?" Pei Tingsong asked through the door.
He heard Lu Yuan's voice next. "Something's come up, quickly open up."
Exactly how many of them had come over? Pei Tingsong opened the door, and all of them tried to clatter their way inside, looking just like a bunch of puppies scrambling after dog food was laid out. He immediately leaned against the door, his arm blocking them from going further, and asked, "What's going on ma?" He then noticed Ling Yi's cellphone in his hand currently filming him. "Yi Ge, what's up with you this time?"
"I'm livestreaming ah." Saying that, Ling Yi changed the camera view to selfie mode, turned around and after getting everyone into the camera lens, said, "Xiao Pei, quickly say hi to everyone!"
"Eh, it seems it's a little stuck."
"The network here isn't good ba, it froze."
Livestreaming???
Fang Juexia was still taking a bath inside; if he really let them in to film the bathroom, how terrible would that be?
Pei Tingsong didn't even say anything before preparing to close the door, but He Ziyan and Lu Yuan seized his arm. "What's the matter with you? Being all sneaky and furtive."
"Who's being sneaky and furtive?!" He deliberately replied in a very loud voice, hoping that Fang Juexia would hear a little bit from inside the bathroom, "It's the middle of the night; even if you guys aren't sleeping, I want to go sleep."
"There's definitely something fishy going on." Lu Yuan and He Ziyan geared up to break through the door and were already rushing up towards Pei Tingsong, who was still providing some last ditch defense, until suddenly, a cold voice appeared from behind him.
"You guys….What are you doing?"
Pei Tingsong abruptly turned his head around.
He actually came out?!
"Cough." Pei Tingsong guiltily cleared his throat, and loosened his arm that had been defending him. "Nothing, they want to livestream."
"It's still stuck." Ling Yi couldn't stand the Internet speed and simply closed the livestream. "Yo, now you're actually letting us in. So weird, Pei Little Six."
Fang Juexia still had a towel on his head. He had changed into a pair of comfortable and spacious pajamas, and he was still steaming slightly, with his skin glowing red.
He Ziyan opened his mouth and asked, "Sansan said that we can go over to his room to have fun, are you coming or not?"
Sansan was their senior brother, Shang Sirui. He was also, previously, the most popular artist in Star Chart, and after he had appeared on the show 'Escape For Your Life', he had become even more popular. When Fang Juexia was still a trainee, Shang Sirui had often helped him, and he was a very lively and optimistic person.
"En." Fang Juexia nodded with a smile. After wiping his hair, he placed the towel back in the bathroom and followed everyone to Shang Sirui's room.
Shang Sirui's door was half-closed, and he was just staying there alone. As soon as he heard the sound of footsteps, he immediately ran over and stuck his head out to take a look. Upon seeing his Didis, he opened the door immediately and greeted, "You guys came." He specially pulled on Fang Juexia's arm. "I thought you weren't coming, but it turns out you were taking a bath. You move so fast?"
"En, took a bath as soon as I got to the room." Fang Juexia naturally followed Shang Sirui into the room, with a smile on his face.
Maybe it was because Fang Juexia was too good-looking when he smiled, but Pei Tingsong, who was following behind him, actually started to feel uncomfortable.
He had done so much for him. He had concealed secrets for him, had come up with ridiculous excuses for him, and had held off these whelps for him, but Fang Juexia was doing just great, grinning happily at someone else.
There was a heap of food laid out on the carpet behind Shang Sirui's bed. "I'm telling you guys, this was all secretly ordered by Gege here. Definitely don't tell Qiang Ge, or he'll say again that I've led you all astray."
Ling Yi shrieked, "Ah, there's maocai! I love maocai!"
"There's even double cooked pork!" Lu Yuan also grew excited and exclaimed, "Let's start eating!"
"I know Juexia can't eat spicy food." Shang Sirui took out several other lunch boxes and said, "Look, I ordered a lot of dim sum, and there's the Japanese food Miaomiao likes to eat, and Ziyan's favorite barbecue, it's all here."
Fang Juexia smiled at him again. "Thank you."
Pei Tingsong's eyes were entirely pinned on Fang Juexia, not even seeing the chopsticks Jiang Miao held out towards him. His gaze remained focused until Shang Sirui handed him a lunch box. "Xiao Pei? I ordered pizza for you, you should love eating it!"
"Ah, thank you, shixiong." With complicated emotions, he took the pizza, feeling a little ashamed for the direction his stray thoughts had wandered to.
"You've all been working hard, practicing so long for our concert." Shang Sirui divided up the food between everyone and then ran to lock the door. "Originally, the other members were also coming, but they started playing video games, and they've gotten into it in full swing over there, so let us all eat first. They have been busy with concerts recently, so it's been a long time since they got time to play a few matches."
Fang Juexia took a shrimp dumpling and stuffed it into his mouth. When he looked up, he caught sight of Pei Tingsong, who now had some sauce on his mouth.
Every time he stared at Pei Tingsong, the other party would immediately stare back at him. Fang Juexia pointed to the corner of his own mouth with his finger, but Pei Tingsong didn't know what was going on. "What's wrong with your mouth?"
He helplessly lowered his head and pulled out a napkin. "You have sauce on your mouth."
"Aiya, you wipe it for your Didi ma." With the door locked, Shang Sirui had once again taken a seat next to Fang Juexia, and now he grabbed Fang Juexia's arm, and pulled his hand directly up to Pei Tingsong's mouth, wiping away that bit of sauce.
"Now that's right. Band members have to be deeply attached to each other, understood?" Shang Sirui put on the appearance of being an old Da Ge as he took out a bottle of alcohol from beneath the bed. "This came with the Japanese food, let's each take a sip."
He Ziyan said with a smile, "You really deserve to be called drunkard Sansan; I was just saying that something was missing."
"Don't drink too much," Jiang Miao said, "We still have activities to do tomorrow morning."
Lu Yuan chimed in, "It's fine, everyone's drinking capacity is pretty good, so such a tiny amount won't be a problem. Also, even Xiao Pei is an adult now."
"I've been an adult for a long time," Pei Tingsong hurried to clear his name as he declared, "I just had another birthday, so I'm already 20 now."
"20 ah, that's great." Shang Sirui poured out the alcohol and began to clap. "You'll never be an age starting with 1 anymore."
Fang Juexia couldn't help laughing and accidentally grew distracted. He automatically took the alcohol that Shang Sirui offered to him and drank it all in one gulp.
He hardly drank alcohol. In the past, whenever he went out to dinner with everyone, there would often be underage trainees who would also avoid drinking, so he didn't really know what his capacity for alcohol was. Upon taking a gulp like that, he started choking and coughing.
Jiang Miao handed him a napkin and advised, "Slow down, no need to choke, eat something and suppress it."
Lu Yuan took hold of his shoulder and said, "Juexia is pretty capable ah, gulping it down like that, he's worthy of being half a Shandong man."
Fang Juexia stuffed a custard bun into his mouth, trying to suppress the pungent fumes of the alcohol. He had just stuffed his cheeks to the brim when he looked up and saw Pei Tingsong suppressing a smile. He finally understood why Pei Tingsong would ask him what he was laughing at every time; if it wasn't for the fact that he couldn't open his mouth right now, he would ask that question too.
Chewing the custard bun in his mouth, Fang Juexia quietly listened to everyone chatting away. Shang Sirui had a high drinking capacity, and he drank most of the bottle by himself without any trouble.
Ling Yi thought of something. "Hey, Sansan, are you going to start filming the program soon? When will the second season of 'Escape For Your Life' come out ah?"
Shang Sirui waved his hand and answered, "Don't mention it. They said we were going to start filming, but last season, there was a girl, you guys remember ba, she got married in a flash, and now she's on an international honeymoon, and so we can't film."
Jiang Miao nodded. "Ah, it's hard to do that when missing a person."
"It's not just one." Shang Sirui explained further, "The program group is changing, and they might add some more people. It's not easy to invite guests in the first place, and you guys know the difficulty level of this program." He coughed and whispered, "Don't tell other people ah, but there is a pretty popular celebrity, and their group contacted the program group. Of course, the program group didn't refuse them, but this celebrity group also made a request."
Pei Tingsong, who was listening to all this, guessed the rest, "He was asking them to reduce the difficulty ba."
"That's right." Shang Sirui nodded repeatedly and continued, "Moreover, he also asked for his script to be given to him beforehand, and put forth the condition that they give him the role of the killer. The screenwriter wouldn't agree no matter what, saying that if they did so, he just wouldn't write the script anymore. Naturally, the program team didn't want to lose the entire public reputation they have built up over one distinguished guest, so this matter just blew over."
Fang Juexia found it interesting. He had been forced to participate in an unsuitable reality show in the beginning, and had turned into a spray of wallflowers being menaced by the deputy director. However, this person took the initiative to go on programs unsuitable for him, and he even used his popularity as a bargaining chip.
Everyone was doing things that weren't suitable for them. The world was like a staggered gear, with people always running into problems when it rotated to a certain point.
"Which celebrity?" Lu Yuan's face carried the standard expression of eating melons. "Do we know them?"
Shang Sirui was a bit more free with his words after drinking, he didn't have many scruples in the first place, and they were all close to each other. "You do. Not only do you know them, but there's a bit of a grudge there." Having said that, he looked at Fang Juexia.
Fang Juexia immediately realized what was going on, and it was not only him, but the others in his group also came to the same realization.
Pei Tingsong and Fang Juexia weren't so familiar with each other before, but looking at the way everyone's facial expressions changed, he could also hazard a general guess. Whoever had a grudge against Fang Juexia—there was an 80% chance that it had to be someone from Astar. Most probably, it was a member of Seven Luminaries, the group that Fang Juexia hadn't debuted with.
The most popular member of Seven Luminaries… Pei Tingsong thought for a bit, and remembered that it was that artist who was officially promoted by the company and often stood in the C position?
By the time he returned to his senses, everyone else had already changed the topic. Fang Juexia looked unperturbed, not seeming to have any emotions about that so-called "grudge" that had been mentioned just now. Everyone began to play drinking games, but they avoided the multiples of seven game, the one game Fang Juexia was best at. As a result, Fang Juexia kept losing and kept drinking until there was no alcohol left, and his words grew rarer and rarer.
Pei Tingsong's eyes never really left him. After watching him drink cup after cup, he appeared to be fine; his face wasn't red, and he wasn't breathless, but Pei Tingsong kept feeling that something was off.
Fang Juexia bit open a custard bun, then turned his head and suddenly started smiling at Pei Tingsong.
It wasn't a normal smile, but a silly and sweet smile.
There was definitely something wrong.
Shang Sirui's cellphone suddenly vibrated. He picked it up and looked at it before exclaiming, "Holy shit, holy shit, Yang Ge is about to come up and find me."
Yang Ge was his agent. As soon as the Kaleido members heard that, they immediately stood up and said, one after the other— "Then-then let's go back first."
"Holy crap, I'm most afraid of Yang Ge."
"Quickly grab your clothes!"
"Put these away quickly."
"Wtf, why is he coming all of a sudden?" Shang Sirui quickly cleaned up the food on the ground and stopped all of them from trying to help him. "You guys go back now. If you're late, he'll give you guys a lecture. I can do it on my own."
In this way, the friendly and harmonious late night party of bros ended in such a mess. Pei Tingsong watched with his own eyes as Fang Juexia supported himself and stood upright using the bed, coming to a steady stance.
But as soon as he walked, he'd be exposed, for he was moving his hands and feet at the same time.
Everyone fled in panic, with no one having the time to mind Fang Juexia, who was behaving strangely. Pei Tingsong, as his temporary roommate, had to shoulder the arduous task of taking his arm and running out with him.
Finally, they fled back to their room, and once the alarm was temporarily off, Pei Tingsong let out a sigh of relief. He closed the door and inserted the room card, but before he could turn on the lights, he heard a thump.
"It hurts…"
When he turned on the lights, he found Fang Juexia crouched at his feet with his head buried in his arms, facing the wall, whining and crying out in pain.
Pei Tingsong wanted to pull him up, but this guy was like a little ostrich; not only was his head in his arms, but his two arms were also wrapped around his knees and buried under his head. His whole person looked almost like a closed ball.
"You're a ridiculously terrible drinker. Do you not know how much you can drink? Just drinking whatever is handed to you." Pei Tingsong complained as he tried to pull apart this small ball before pulling him upright by his arms. However, Fang Juexia was still strong even though he was drunk, and he wasn't able to break his grip no matter what.
It was too comical; Pei Tingsong felt like he was that huffing and puffing dumb rabbit in that song.
He had met a stubborn and delicate white turnip that he couldn't pull out no matter how hard he tried.