It snowed heavily in Beijing at three o 'clock in the morning. After the program recording, Fang Juexia got into his agent's car and went back to the dormitory. He looked out of the window in a daze. The concrete forest was silent after the snow, and he felt like a stiff limb that was finally covered with a quilt and waiting for its rest.
The program had been recording for too long, and the indoor game exhausted Fang Juexia. He was not good at socializing, but he had to compromise with the exposure.
"Juexia, are you tired? How long did it take? This time, it's really … "Agent Cheng Qiang glanced at the rearview mirror. In the lens, he was covered by a large and fluffy black down jacket, and his pale face was almost sunk into the darkness. It was like a beautiful shadow, sealed in the mirror.
Fang Juexia's face was half-turned, and the light red birthmark outside the corner of his left eye peeked out from his forehead. He vaguely caught a glimpse of a faded maple leaf buried in the snow outside the window. Wan Qiu, who fled in a hurry, forgot about it, leaving a touch of red in the snow.
Or maybe he was wrong.
"Eight hours and forty-two minutes," he said precisely and softly. Then he answered the first question, "Fortunately, I'm not tired."
"Sleep more before the next recording, don't go to the practice room." Cheng Qiang turned the steering wheel and changed the topic. "But you almost didn't say anything after that, so this won't do. The TV station didn't give you much screen time, and if you don't say anything, it will be cut out. You're someone who can attract a lot of fans with your face, so as long as you have screen time, it's a victory. "
Fang Juexia knew that Cheng Qiang was thinking for him, so he forced a smile and said in a gentle tone, "Okay, I'll definitely do it next time."
Hearing this, Cheng Qiang couldn't say anything else. Fang Juexia was a member of the six-member boy group Kaleido, which was a treasure that their company picked up. After all, he used to be a trainee in the top domestic entertainment company, Astar. He had a fan club before he debuted, and it was rumored that he would debut as the center of the company's new boy group. However, something unexpected happened. Fang Juexia actually left his original company on the eve of forming the group and came to Star Map. After practicing for two years, he debuted from Kaleido as the main dancer and the second lead singer. He was the soul of the group.
At the beginning of his debut, there was quite a stir. After all, Fang Juexia's popularity as the strongest trainee had yet to fade. There were also loyal fans who had been waiting for him. Cheng Qiang, who had just taken over this group, was also full of enthusiasm and anticipation. After all, these children were good-looking and capable. It was just that he hadn't expected what happened next.
It did not feel good to die prematurely.
Cheng Qiang suddenly remembered something. "Oh, by the way, I was supposed to shoot the inner pages of the magazine tomorrow …" He still felt angry when he thought about it, but he didn't want to affect Fang Juexia's mood, so he said in a relaxed tone, "You don't have to go. They have other arrangements."
Fang Juexia actually found out about it in the afternoon. During the break, he heard his assistant, Xiao Wen, making a phone call. She was cursing, "What's so great about the five major magazines? What's so great about the traffic?" She seemed very angry. Later, he found out that the inner pages shoot and interview that had been finalized earlier had been intercepted by an actor who had recently become popular because of a popular web drama. Losing the opportunity to work should have been a discouraging thing, but Fang Juexia was relieved.
"It's okay. There will be opportunities in the future. That magazine now owes us a favor." Cheng Qiang comforted him. "It's fine now. You don't have work tomorrow morning. You can sleep in and eat something good. You've lost weight recently. Oh right, go back and tell Ling Yi that if he orders takeout in the middle of the night again, I'll force him to lose weight. He doesn't have any self-awareness as an idol. His face is all meat. Is he trying to become a comedian … "
Listening to his agent's long-winded speech, Fang Juexia's phone suddenly vibrated. He took out his phone and glanced at it. The words [Assistant Director Yang] flashed on the screen. Two seconds later, he pressed the side button to turn off the screen and pretended not to see it.
But less than a minute later, the phone vibrated again. This time, it was a text message.
[Why aren't you answering the phone?]
[What about the thing I asked you to consider last time?]
[Call me back, hurry up!]
[Don't worry, I won't treat you badly.]
The text messages poured out one by one, like snakes slithering out of a hole in the dark.
His fingers were frozen stiff, and his typing was slow.
[I already rejected the thing you asked me to do last time.]
Less than two seconds after sending it out, the phone rang again. Fang Juexia had to answer it. The middle-aged man on the other end said angrily, "I'll give you one more chance. This won't do you any harm! If you still want to participate in the show, you'd better listen to me. "
"I'm sorry." Fang Juexia's calmness seemed out of place at this moment. Cheng Qiang saw that something was wrong and glanced at him again. "Who is it?"
After half a month of coercion and bribery, Assistant Director Yang had lost his patience at this moment. He spat out all kinds of unpleasant words. "Do you know how many losers are following me around? Do you think you're a clean piece of work? "
Here it comes again.
"I let you follow me because I think highly of you and your face. Do you think I'll follow you around? Bah, bitch, you don't have to show up in the future! Pack up and get the hell out of here. You're so shameless! "
Fang Juexia quietly listened to him scolding and didn't say a word. When the other side hung up the phone in exasperation, his heart finally calmed down.
"What's wrong? Who was it? "
"Assistant Director Yang." Fang Juexia announced the result as if nothing had happened. "He asked me to get off this show."
"What?!" Cheng Qiang suddenly stopped the car and turned his head. "No, what, what's going on?"
Fang Juexia licked his dry lips and simplified the process as much as possible. "He's always wanted me to follow him. I didn't agree and now he wants to kick me out. "
The word "follow" was said calmly, but Cheng Qiang's expression changed and he was speechless for a moment.
"This isn't a joke. We signed a contract for six episodes and only recorded three times! It's a violation of the contract. "
Fang Juexia's tone was flat. "This isn't the first time they've done this. There's no point in talking about the spirit of the contract with a scoundrel."
Indeed. Cheng Qiang rolled down the car window and lit a cigarette. The cold wind suddenly blew in and hurt his face. "When the time comes, they'll probably blame you. They'll have to come up with a reason to get off the show … No, I have to contact the TV station. I can't let him do as he pleases."
Hearing this, Fang Juexia's indifference was broken. Sometimes, he wished he wasn't a member of the group. That way, he could take responsibility for everything and didn't have to implicate anyone.
"Sorry to trouble you, Chang Ge." He finally sighed and broke the calm of an outsider.
Cheng Qiang's hands clenched the steering wheel and he muttered something under his breath. His brows furrowed and then loosened. He nimbly put out the unfinished cigarette, rolled up the car window, and started the car again. "It's okay. This isn't the first time this lousy show has done this to us. Last time, nothing happened."
Last time …
A tall figure walked by the side of the road. Fang Juexia, who was in a daze, mistook her for someone else. He raised his hand to wipe away the white fog. The person also turned around. She wasn't the one he thought she was. His mood calmed down.
Of course, nothing would happen. Who would dare to provoke a little devil with power and influence?
After a while, Cheng Qiang heard an apology from behind. This made him feel even more powerless. Outside the windshield, the night scene of the city continued to move backward. The circle of light cast by the street lights separated the view. Suddenly, the scene of Fang Juexia's first visit to the company popped up in front of him. At that time, he was stopped by a female colleague who gossiped that there was a super awesome trainee in the company who was simply too good-looking.
He wanted to know how exaggerated it was, so he put down the work in his hand and ran over to take a look.
He was really very good-looking. He was so good-looking that he could be put on the company's annual commendation list.
At that time, Fang Juexia was only 18 years old and was wearing a black hoodie. At that time, he even thought that this hoodie without any sense of design looked good. The teenager's bare skin had a sense of transparency. At the corner of his left eye near his temple, there was a pinkish birthmark the size of a thumb. It was very special.
In this circle, there was always an oversupply of good-looking people. They were delicate and full of affinity, attracting you and inducing you to fantasize.
Fang Juexia's uniqueness was that he was beautiful and had a sense of distance.
He naturally had a temperament that kept people thousands of miles away, like a low-saturation, cold and silent work of art.
Cheng Qiang sent him back to the dormitory. Although Fang Juexia was tired, his mind was restless. After taking a shower, he sat at the desk and silently opened the word Sudoku book. He held a pen and quietly calculated, filling in the blanks one by one. His heart gradually calmed down. After finishing the Sudoku game, Fang Juexia went to bed and covered himself with the quilt. Drowsiness hit him like a tide and drowned him in an instant. He didn't know how long he had slept, but he vaguely heard a familiar voice.
"Juexia? Jue — Xia — "
He opened his eyes with difficulty. A face with a mask on was in front of him. Fang Juexia blinked twice as if a lens was in focus. Then he crawled under the quilt again and said vaguely, "What time is it?"
Ling Yi pulled off his mask. "It's almost time for afternoon tea!" As the lead singer and soprano, he shouted loudly. His cold hand reached into the quilt and pulled Fang Juexia out. "Don't sleep, my brother. Something big happened!"
The word "something big" stabbed Fang Juexia. He woke up, wiped his face, and got out of bed. "I'm going to wash up."
"Why is my brother always so calm …" Ling Yi sat up from the bed and ran to the living room. Two young men sat side by side on the sofa in the living room. They were Kaleido's lead dancer, Lu Yuan, and its co-rapper, He Ziyan. The two of them were staring at the laptop screen with great interest.
"You're up?" Captain Jiang Miao was holding a soft cloth in her hand. She had just finished wiping the zither in the corner of the living room. "I'm going to heat up the soup for him. He didn't eat anything after sleeping for so long."
Ling Yi nodded quickly. His eyes followed Jiang Miao as she walked to the kitchen. "Miao Ge, I want a bowl too!"
Lu Yuan exclaimed, "These girls are really good! How can they talk so much! "
He Ziyan, who was next to him, teased, "Dalian City Beauty, please speak Mandarin."
Lu Yuan: "I'm speaking Mandarin!"
Ling Yi squeezed over with a smile and imitated his accent. "Of course, it's perfect!"
"F * ck off!"
As they were shouting, Fang Juexia walked out. The three people on the sofa looked up at him with subtle expressions.
Fang Juexia knew what was going on. Before anyone could say anything, he apologized. "Sorry for implicating you guys again."
The three people on the sofa looked at each other, then looked at Fang Juexia. Their faces were full of question marks.
"No, shouldn't we be the ones thanking you?" He Ziyan said with a smile. "I didn't expect us to come out of the circle in such a way."
Thank you?
Fang Juexia vaguely realized that everything seemed to be different from what he had expected. "What's the big deal you guys were talking about?"
Ling Yi turned the laptop around and faced Fang Juexia. "The video of you and Xiao Pei having dinner at the airport is trending! Look, it's already been forwarded 30,000 times! "
With Pei Tingsong?
Fang Juexia narrowed his eyes and looked at the video playing on the screen. It was a video of him and Pei Tingsong waiting at the airport the day before yesterday.
In the video, Pei Tingsong, who was wearing a black coat and sunglasses, walked step by step towards Fang Juexia, who was looking down at the plane ticket. He forced Fang Juexia to lean against the wall. His height of nearly 1.9 meters was very oppressive. He casually took the plane ticket from Fang Juexia's hand and smiled at him. He seemed to be saying something. He raised his hand and gently patted Fang Juexia's cheeks with the plane ticket.
The plane ticket slid across his fair cheeks. The paper bumped against each other unscrupulously, hitting each other's bottom lines.
It was Pei Tingsong's usual bad style.
But no one expected this scene to be recorded.
Fang Juexia raised his head slightly on the screen and stared at Pei Tingsong, only to see the smile on his face become more and more arrogant. He remembered the atmosphere at that time. He also remembered that Pei Tingsong was actually forcing him to change seats. At that time, he adhered to the rules of getting along with Pei Tingsong — if he could hide, he would hide, and he would not cause trouble. So he took the plane ticket back and held it by his mouth. He tidied his lapel with both hands, then raised his head and smiled soullessly at the team's youngest member, who was also the devil's incarnate.
Ling Yi, who was lying on Fang Juexia's shoulder, silently stared at him as he carefully watched the video. She saw that this living Bodhisattva had a dignified expression and was silent for a while before he spoke.
"Are the netizens saying that Pei Tingsong is bullying me in the team? Has the company done PR? "
His teammates were speechless.
"Juexia, wake up!" Ling Yi shook his shoulder vigorously. "They are saying that you and Pei Tingsong are a couple!"
"What …" Fang Juexia was stunned.
How could there be people in the world who would say that the person with the worst relationship in the team would be a couple?
Dalian City's Grass Lu Yuan bravely grabbed the mouse and clicked on the comments. "Damn, you didn't see what the netizens were saying. Come, come, come, let me show you. It's very exciting."
[Arctic Circle Licker: Ahhhhhhh, the screen is overflowing with pheromones!!! (Quietly BB) Is the beautiful guy wearing the white woolen hat injured or has a birthmark at the corner of his eye? PLGG, it's so beautiful!]
Just by seeing the first comment, Fang Juexia could feel the meaning of the higher-ups.
[Roasted Duck Association Level One Member: How can a plane ticket be played by the two of them so intimately?]
[77 77 77: My God, the guy in the black coat is so tall and handsome! Who is it!?]
[Player 12: I'm shocked. The black coat is too aggressive. The plane ticket's face is amazing …]
[Kaledo Is Back Today: FJX is indeed the only cold face among active male idols. With the plane ticket in his mouth, he is cold and lustful. It's a beautiful scene.]
[Putuo Temple Maiden: It's our little dummy Kaleido's 19 year old busy rap Pei Tingsong! Dream Chaser N generation Putuo Temple to learn more! Xiao Pei, Xiao Pei, you won't lose money if you invest!]
[Handsome Guy Appreciation Professional Scholar: Putuo Temple's scenery hahahaha, the team's secret code is too lame!]
[I'm Fang Juexia's Beautiful Birthmark: Natural Idol Fang Juexia, learn more! The team's lead dancer and lead singer is an all-rounded ace!]
[Always Love Me Card: Is our card finally going to make a name for himself? (Tears in my eyes). But a double ace is really not an official match. It should be the coldest couple in the team … a team that debuted right away.]
[I Hate the Pythagorean Theorem the Most: WOC is so compatible, but they debuted right away?]
[Little Smarty Is Me: Passerby Fangang, there have been rumors that they don't get along since their debut. They don't even stay in the team's dormitory. Some say that it's because Pei Tingsong went to school and stayed outside. Anyway, it's true that their family is rich. It seems that they went to America when they were very young and only came back recently. They probably debuted just for fun, so they don't really care.
[Beautiful Scenery: Isn't it because someone came out of nowhere?]
[Rich Can Do Whatever They Want: You don't accept that someone has the ability to come out of nowhere? Don't you know how to brag? Go and sing rap. If you don't accept it, you can suck up to the higher-ups and kick the young master out.]
[Blacklist Very Good: Where did this 38th-tier little transparent guy come from? I'm speechless.]
[Flying on the Wall: Is my Arctic Circle Aural CP finally going to be popular? U1S1, this pair is really amazing once you get it. Demon of Chaos Ruffian Handsome X Cold Beautiful Abstinence, doesn't it taste good?]
[Who Says It Isn't: Is the person wearing the hat the face of the team? Although I'm a passerby, I already thought that the face was beautiful! Especially the birthmark! It's simply amazing!]
[Little Expert Melon Eater: I vaguely heard that the face of the team was taken advantage of by the company's higher-ups. Is that true?]