With a “ding”, the elevator arrived.

Bo Ye shot a glance at Qi Xingchen and turned to enter the elevator car.

Qi Xingchen acted as if he did not just make a shocking remark, and very brazenly dragged Han Qing, who was still questioning life, in as well.

It was commonplace in the entertainment circle for Star A to be a fan of Star B, and there were even the winners in life who chased their idols onto their hukou.

Especially with Bo Ye’s current popularity, many acting veterans and old seniors have said they like him, hence QI Xingchen did not feel that this statement would arouse Bo Ye’s suspicion.

He said that in order to get closer to Bo Ye. He was originally prepared to plan slowly, who knew that the plot event would be brought forward this much. He could only speed up If he did not wish to die.

Furthermore, he must grasp the position in《Let’s Budget Travel!》 and must certainly not let Zhou Yu and the female protagonist meet. He needed to get closer to observe the male and female protagonists’ movements, such that he could save himself the moment anything happened.

During the elevator’s ascent, Bo Ye did not show any indication. From the reflection of the walls of the elevator, Qi Xingchen could make out faintly that he kept looking straight ahead, and was unable to guess what he was thinking.

The dance practice room was on the sixth floor. After getting off the elevator, Han Qing patted his chest, “Holy crap, that was f*cking suffocating! Since when did you like Bo Ye? Why don’t I know about it?”

Qi Xingchen felt that this statement was ambiguous, “Not that kind of ‘like’, it’s the like fans have for their idols.”

“I didn’t even say it was the other kind of like…… Wasn’t your idol James1?”

“It changed,” Qi Xingchen came up with a random excuse, “Yesterday night after you left, Senior Bo Ye just happened to walk past the practice room and gave a few pointers when he saw I was dancing incorrectly. I thought he was good-looking, had a lot of strengths, and was also caring towards his juniors, so I was immediately converted into a fan.”

""

“……” Han Qing felt so frustrated that he could cry. He badly regretted not staying behind yesterday night as he could have been given pointers by Bo Ye at close range.

Especially when he saw that Qi Xingchen improved by leaps and bounds, he could not stop grumbling under his breath.

“Growth has always been a lonely path. Reflection and practice are much more important compared to some pointers,” Qi Xingchen rolled up the trouser legs of his sweatpants to reveal his white slender ankles, while interrupting him, “Little Qing, play the music and dance with me 10 times first.”

Han Qing: “……” Mom, I’m going to die la!

The boys at this age are like this: if he practised by himself, his willpower would be weak and would end up slacking off easily. However, if there was someone else pulling him to do it together, he would endure it to the end just for his pride.

They danced till Han Qing felt like his soul had left his body. He could see that even though Qi Xingchen was already very proficient, he still spared no effort finding the correct angles or pinpointing positions of his arms again and again. He did not wish to admit defeat at this point either.

When the 10 rounds ended, Han Qing laid like a beached starfish on the floor: “Xingxing, were you possessed by some demon or ghost? You’re suddenly so hardworking.”

“If we don’t work hard, how will we be able to practice till proficiency?” Qi Xingchen threw a bottle of sports drink at Han Qing, “Get up, let’s do it 5 more times.”

Han Qing: “……F*ck.”

A small artiste with no activities has way too much time. For the entire afternoon, Qi Xingchen dragged Han Qing and ended up spending several hours in the piano room.

Near dinner time, Han Qing ran out to take a call. When he came back, his entire being looked radiant. He waved his handphone at Qi Xingchen: “Xingxing, after 2 months, my manager finally remembered about me la!”

“There’s an announcement?”

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“Nope, it’s about the selection for 《Let’s Budget Travel!》,” Han Qing gave a sly smile, “He said that he sent my information to the producer. If I get chosen this time around, we’ll be steady from now on.”

As a matter of fact, Han Qing’s attributes2 are not bad;  his features can be considered as cute, and his singing capabilities are above average. He was only lacking an opportunity, if not, it would have been no problem for him to become a B or C-lister.

After Han Qing was done being happy, he asked Qi Xingchen: “Xingxing, did you receive any news?”

Qi Xingchen shook his head.

“If I can go for the selection, you definitely can go for it too. Wait for a bit longer ba.”

Unfortunately, Qi Xingchen continued to wait until 9 pm and still did not receive any kind of notice.

Unwilling to sit and wait, he dialled the original owner’s manager, Du Lanxin, directly.

No one answered the first time. When the second call was going to hang up automatically, Du Lanxin’s voice droned from the speaker, “Speak quickly, don’t delay my meal.”

“……Xin-jie3,” Qi Xingchen went straight to the point, “I wish to participate in the selection for 《Let’s Budget Travel!》.”

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. “Are you Qi Xingchen?”

“Yes.”

“Then what are you dreaming for? Weight how much you are worth yourself first.”

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Once she finished speaking, Du Lanxin seemed to feel that her words were too rude, “Qi Xingchen, don’t blame me for speaking offensively. Maimang TV’s4 hottest variety show is not something that you can join as you please, you know that right?”

“I know.” Qi Xingchen answered.

(CW: Some mentions of how the entertainment circle works. The very morally dubious methods.)

“Then I will also tell you frankly that the first time I spotted you at your school, your appearance had already caught my attention. At first, I genuinely wanted to groom you well, but who would have thought that you were this uncomprehending of the rules.”

She paused: “If a newcomer wishes to climb up the ranks, paying some price is a must — For example, the gathering that I brought you to last year was full of rich older women5. Casually latching onto any one of them would have given you resources, yet you made excuses to run away.”

“You don’t have the life of a prince, yet you have prince syndrome6,” Du Lanxin sneered, “Based on your background, the most expensive thing your entire being has is your face. Who are you pretending to be noble and virtuous for? At the very end, aren’t you the only one suffering?”

“Furthermore, you aren’t losing anything as a man if you attend to those rich women. Jiejie7 cares a lot about you and thus didn’t send you to perverted gays. But look at you, completely getting me wrong instead.”

“Ai, wasted all of my painstaking efforts.”

Du Lanxin then sighed pretentiously, while Qi Xingchen’s eyes darkened further and further.

Compared to the original owner who had a wealthy family background and could be rebellious enough to decide he must make a living for himself, this Qi Xingchen who had to go through all kinds of difficulties8 as a child to grow up actually understood the “grown-up rules” that Du Lanxin mentioned very well.

But—

“Xin-jie,” Qi Xingchen fought hard to suppress his anger and tried his best to let his voice sound calm, “It is not a sin to be poor, nor is it a reason to sell my body or soul. To succeed, there isn’t only this shortcut of climbing into others beds.”

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Hearing the youth’s words, Du Lanxin could not help but think back to the Qi Xingchen who had called and cursed at her with “nasty b*tch”, “dead old pimp9“, “I hope you get hit by a car and die” after escaping from the banquet. She was highly sceptical and wondered if this call was made by someone else.

She smacked her lips together and taunted him: “Then what other path do you have?”

“As long as you help me sign up,” Qi Xingchen pretended to accommodate her in order to preserve himself, “I won’t keep a single cent of the money earned from variety shows10 this year. All of it will be given to you11. Would this work for you12?”

Give all of it?

One does not reject free cash. Besides, it is just sending the material to the producer’s mailbox with a flick of her hand. Du Lanxin’s mood became lively in an instant and readily agreed.

.

 

Once the deal was successful, Du Lanxin was the first to hang up. Qi Xingchen transferred out the recording of the call and played it back. After confirming that he did not record wrongly or leave out anything, he slumped back heavily onto the chair.

A manager who procures their artistes was so despicable, so disgusting that he came close to smashing his phone. As the opportunity in front of him could only be given by Du Lanxin, he could only endure it until now.

He drank a mouthful of water to calm down, then opened Weibo, logged on to the Weibo account he registered two days ago and followed1 Bo Ye and Bo Ye’s super topic2.

He then very smoothly collected the daily sign-in bonus3 of the super topic, sharing comments and completed other such popularity tasks, and finally sent his very first Weibo post.

—Yearning through the entire night: 【I fell in love with a fairy that fell into the mortal realm.】

5 minutes later, his second:

—Yearning through the entire night: 【I heard from a friend that Ye-ge4is going to be on this season’s 《Let’s Budget Travel!》. Very excited for it [cute] [cute]5】

Soon there were replies from fans who were browsing through the super topic:

【Is this true?】

【So obvious that your friend is fake6, get out rumourmonger 】

【Sister’s ID is from “Lovers resent the long nights, and yearn for one another through the night”7 right? How romantic!】

【Oh, a certain TV is here to rub off the heat again. Please, spend some more money next time and buy some water troops8 as followers, ok9 or not? 】

Qi Xingchen: “……”

Looking at his data of ” Following 1, Followers 0″, he really had overlooked this.

He opened Taobao10. Using the original owner’s bank card, he gallantly bought 30 thousand live followers, immediately switching back to Weibo to search up his name.

The first account that jumped out was his main account, verified as Noah Entertainment’s artiste.

Follower count: 23k.

Qi Xingchen sunk into deep thought — the number of followers from his main account was not even larger than his side account with the purchased followers. How did the original owner mess it up this badly?

He poked into his main page again……it was clean and empty with very few Weibo posts. The last post was published more than half a year ago.

Afraid that newcomers do not know how to navigate their speech well11, the original owner’s Weibo had always been operated by his manager. From the looks of it now, ever since the original owner offended Du Lanxin, Du Lanxin has not helped him with his business.

If his manager did not want to help, he would just have to do it himself. Fortunately, the phone number the Weibo account was linked to was the original owner’s, and he was able to change the password very easily.

Next, he found an angle that he felt was not bad and took a selfie, edited it on Weibo, then sent it out.

—Qi Xingchen: 【Heh, Starlights12, long time no see.】

.

For the money, Du Lanxin was very efficient. He received the selection notice at daybreak, and he prepared for it at home the entire morning.

Because they would only select from those in Noah, there was no pomp from the variety show producers. Together with the general director, a group of people gathered in force at Noah.

At 14:00, outside the top floor conference room were 10+ small artistes either stretching their muscles or memorising scripts. Han Qing lugged Qi Xingchen along while babbling, but Qi Xingchen let the words go into one ear and out the other, keeping a watchful eye on Zhou Yu’s movements.

Zhou Yu hummed a song for a bit, eyes sweeping around shiftily, then walked to the window at the end of the corridor and took out his phone.

“Hey, Yuji, did you miss me?”

“Do your nails less13, it’s not good for your health. What am I doing? The show《Let’s Budget Travel!》 came to Noah to select people, I’m currently waiting for my selection interview.”

“Yeah, of course, I would really like to be on this show. Since I didn’t manage to go for fashion week this time around, if I get chosen, I will charter a flight to bring you to the North Pole to see the Northern Lights.”

“You know the producer? That’s really—”

“Yu-ge, you’re also here for the interview?”

Before he could finish speaking, a voice interrupted him.

Zhou Yu heard who it was, and his anger immediately flared up, “Qi Xingchen, can’t you see that I’m on the phone?”

“Sorry Yu-ge, I couldn’t see it from behind,” Qi Xingchen said weakly, “It’s my fault, don’t be mad.”

Once he was done, Qi XIngchen left quietly. Qi Yuji, who was on the other end of the call, heard that someone dared to shout at her dearest14 didi and was so pissed that she immediately hung up!

The Qi family is involved in a wide variety of industries, including investments in the entertainment industry, and they are thus well-connected to others. The reason behind Zhou Yu scheming to get close to Qi Yuji was to get these resources.

He was dumbfounded and tried to call her back a few times, but the calls were all rejected.

The duck that was right by his mouth flew away. What was more loathsome was that he did not even know why it flew away. Zhou Yu was cursing in his heart that women were so problematic while he was shoved with gritted teeth into the conference room by his manager.

Very obviously, his expression was not good when he came out.

The next person was Han Qing, and when he came out, he looked like it went well. He went to Qi Xingchen’s side to cheer him on: “Xingxing, it was not difficult at all. Don’t be nervous when you go in, your idol will be in there looking at you!”

“Bo Ye is also present?”

“En, after all, he is the main cast in this season,” Han Qing winked, “I wish you success in chasing your star!”

It did not matter if he succeeded or now, he only wanted to be “chased” into the show. When it was down to the last few people for interviewing, the assistant director came out to call his name.

Qi Xingchen carried a bag in. The first row in the conference room was almost completely filled, with Bo Ye and two middle-aged men sitting right in the middle.

Today, Bo Ye wore a dark coloured jacket with jeans and did not get his makeup or hair done. But after putting on a cap and a mask, he was still so dazzling that it was impossible to look at him directly.

He raised his head to look at Qi Xingchen. Thoughts of the hand placed on his waist two days ago inexplicably arose in Qi Xingchen’s head, and he lowered his head to rub the tip of his nose.

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“You are Qi Xingchen right?” The director was very pleased with his outer appearance, his stern face finally revealing a smile, “Relax a bit. Showcase for us a bit of yourself.”

All the people before had showcased nothing more than: Hello director, I am xxx and my strengths are in singing, dancing, performing…… The director did not hold any expectations for this part15.

“Okay,” Qi Xingchen responded with a clear and bright voice unique to youths. He then placed his backpack down and took out a stack of bowls from within.

“Then I will perform a Pagoda of Bowls16 for everyone ba.”

The director: “……”

What did you17 say???

The author has something to say18:

Qi Xingchen: Hello everyone, I am all-rounded.