Chapter 59: CH 59

Chapter 59 – Casting The Bow Aside When All The Birds Are Gone


Giving you a reward

“Juexia, what’s wrong?”

From a few steps away, the assistant photographer who saw the scene asked, “Are you ok?”

Pei Tingsong held Fang Juexia and stood up. “It’s alright. He’s too tired. He hasn’t slept for a long time, and now he doesn’t even have the strength to go down the stairs.” Saying that, he turned his head back and looked at Fang Juexia. “Right?”

Fang Juexia quickly distanced himself from Pei Tingsong a bit and then followed along with his ready-built excuse, opening his mouth to agree, “En, I’m a little dizzy.”

Pei Tingsong let out a light laugh, and Fang Juexia knew that he had done this on purpose; perhaps early on he had been standing and watching at the side just for this, just waiting for him to take the bait. When he thought about it, he felt that he had been duped, and found that he simply couldn’t swallow this down. He then pretended he couldn’t see anything and stepped on Pei Tingsong’s foot.

Seeing the smiling face suddenly change into one of surprise, Fang Juexia finally felt the amusement behind teasing others.

“It’s a mistake, I miscalculated.”

Hearing Pei Tingsong’s inexplicable words, Fang Juexia looked up and asked, “What?”

Pei Tingsong pointed at his feet, with the corners of his mouth quirking up as he tried hard to look serious. “I should have worn AJs today, you stepped on me in vain.”

There were few boys who didn’t know the meme of [Can I step on your AJs and kiss you], and Fang Juexia was no exception. His face turned red again, and he could only pretend that he didn’t understand. “Crazy.”

“Yo, even cursing people out now.” Pei Tingsong laughed and teased, “This is you just blindly playing with me and tossing me away, you know.”

The photo assistant, who kindly brought them two hot mochas, overheard a few of their words, and asked with a smile, “What are you guys talking about?”

Fang Juexia took the coffee awkwardly and explained, “Nothing, Pei Tingsong hopes that our sales can be a little greater this time.”

“Yes,” Pei Tingsong added on quickly, “I hope there will be less fans playing around with us and more fans truly in love with us in this world.”

The assistant little Jiejie also nodded. “I’m a true fan, and keep waiting for your new album’s purchase link every day.”

The topic had gotten completely distorted. Fang Juexia lowered his head to drink the coffee and quietly quit this conversation where the people conversing were actually talking about two entirely different things. 

The toll continuous work took on the body was huge, but these six people were very professional and still maintained their expressiveness. Even the photographers who had been part of collaborations many times couldn’t help praising them in front of Cheng Qiang, “They have really improved a lot and become more and more professional.”

Cheng Qiang was overcome with emotion upon hearing this. “It’s too difficult for these ones in my family. Now, I’m not even asking for them to be wildly popular or successful, but I hope that things will go more smoothly for them in the future. “

“They will, there is no gold that does not shine.”

After the studio photoshoot finished, they were rushed to an outside location, so they slept for a bit in the car on the way, then got up and immediately went to get their hair and makeup done. 

The concept of this album was “war”, and the company’s original plan for the outside location shooting was to take everyone to Xinjiang for the shoot, but all their plans had been disrupted by the leaked song. Everything had been moved up, and there was no time to fly so far to get that particular view, so they could only find the nearest desert park.

This batch of major publicity pictures were different from the modern military uniform style photos that had been taken in the dark indoor studio. The stylists had taken inspiration from the warrior swordsmen of the past to design costumes with an archaic style. Everyone’s make-up and hair were fashioned to imitate an ancient style, and they were made to look like a team of swordsmen who had been ambushed and were forced to fight to survive. 

The wind was very strong at this outdoor shooting location. Fang Juexia had to borrow a white silk scarf from the stylist to cover his face, and then he ran to the monitor to watch Pei Tingsong’s shoot.

Pei Tingsong’s style looked very evil. He was dressed from head to toe in a very ominous black, even his forehead was wrapped with a cloth that was two fingers wide, and on his right cheek was a battle wound drawn on by the stylist.

He crouched on the yellow sand, a shining saber hoisted on his shoulder, and raised his chin, while holding a strand of straw at the corner of his mouth. His expression was restrained, but his ‘always looking down upon others’ eyes were, at present, full of emotion, ostentatiousness, along with radiating off a murderous aura.

“This white hair gives off a good feeling.” Ling Yi couldn’t help sighing, “Xiao Pei can go act in something, yi.”

Fang Juexia felt the same way in his heart, but if Pei Tingsong was really asked to go and act in something, he would definitely feel that doing that would be akin to ignoring his own proper occupation. After all, if you told this guy to go East, he would definitely head West. 

Ling Yi chattered and chattered on, then turned his head to look at Fang Juexia, and his eyes were full of surprise as he exclaimed, “Juexia, doing you up like that makes for a really good look! It goes so well with your white clothes.”

After completing Pei Tingsong’s photography session, the group of photographers turned around to see where the chattering sounds were coming from, and when they saw Fang Juexia, their eyes lit up. “This veil is worn well. We’ll have to take a few shots of it like that later too.”

“Ah?” Fang Juexia looked awkwardly at the stylist and explained, “This is Cindy Jie’s silk scarf, I’m just using it to block out the sand.”

“Juexia, don’t worry about it!” The stylist Cindy yelled from behind him. “It’s a great honor for this silk scarf to appear on camera draped on a celestial!”

“Celestial hahahahahaha, Cindy Jie is too funny.”

Pei Tingsong finished his part and came over. “This evil wind is blowing so hard that the sand is flying into my throat.” Saying that, he began to cough wildly.

He Ziyan started up his mocking mode. “A famed swordsman succumbs to tuberculosis.”

“Cough, cough, cough…cough, cough!” Pei Tingsong coughed while drawing closer to Fang Juexia, who thought that he was coming to lay his head on his shoulder, but didn’t expect Pei Tingsong to just stand in front of him and cough non-stop.

Fang Juexia wanted to say something, but he also thought it was a little funny. Pei Tingsong was behaving just like a child like this, a child pretending to be wronged and pitiful, standing right in front of an adult, begging for a hug. He was completely stunned; this guy really had no bottom line. He was very resourceful and flexible, and did not care about disgracing himself at all.

“Juexia, we’re starting!”

“Okay, heading over.” Fang Juexia answered, and then got ready to leave. As soon as he took a step forward, he caught sight of Pei Tingsong’s completely aggrieved face. He was too lazy to cough any more, and just kept looking at him.

Fang Juexia didn’t look back at him. His naturally cold face didn’t fluctuate too much, though a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. “Coming.”

He patted Pei Tingsong on the back twice quickly and lightly before he left.

Pei Tingsong froze for a moment, then turned around and looked at Fang Juexia’s figure walk away, with his white clothes fluttering, and suddenly felt like he had completely come back to life. 

Fang Juexia’s individual photography session featured him on a horse. Although he had never ridden a horse before, this horse was surprisingly easy to ride. He couldn’t even be described as gentle so much as having no temper at all. As long as he was fed some grass and his head was rubbed, he would become extremely obedient and would carry him motionlessly.

“Juexia, pull the bow string wider… a bit wider than that.”

This was the first time he had used a real bow and arrow, so he felt that something wasn’t quite right. “Like this?”

Pei Tingsong was squatting on the ground drinking soda water. However, upon seeing this scene through the monitor, he suddenly stood up, and put his soda water aside, while threatening Ling Yi not to drink it secretly. Then, clapping his hands, he went straight over to Fang Juexia, saying, “Mr. Jiang, wait a minute, I’ll teach him.”

Fang Juexia didn’t expect Pei Tingsong to also know archery. He thought that since he was already talking about teaching him, it must not be false, so he was ready to dismount the horse in order to let Pei Tingsong guide him. Unexpectedly, Pei Tingsong stopped him. “Don’t come down.”

With that, he stepped on the stirrup, flipped over, and sat firmly behind Fang Juexia. Fang Juexia was a little surprised and looked back at him, asking, “You can ride?”

“In my middle school, I even won second place in the youth equestrian club, in my whole school.” Pei Tingsong raised his eyebrows, encircled his arms around Fang Juexia from the back, then supported the hand that was on the bow. “And I was also the champion in the archery club.”

Upon suddenly being hugged by him from behind, Fang Juexia’s heart seemed to stop beating, his ears started buzzing, and all he could do was stare frozenly at the scene in front of him.

“Put this hand here and raise it a little bit more.” Pei Tingsong drew an arrow from the quiver behind him and rubbed the arrow. “The props group is pretty good ah.”

“Would you like to try shooting one?” Pei Tingsong’s voice was in a rare state of being very patient and gentle. He guided Fang Juexia’s hands personally as he fully drew the bow, aimed all around for a bit before finally locking onto his target— a big stone not too far away that had a strange shape.

His voice lingered in his ears as he instructed, “I’ll count three, two, one, and then you’ll let go, okay?”

Fang Juexia nodded. Pei Tingsong’s low voice as it counted down overlapped with the heartbeats in his chest, creating a very powerful emotional pulse resonance.

Just as his nerves were stretched taut, Fang Juexia released the string from his hand, and the arrow flew like the wind, accurately hitting the stone, and after the collision, fell to the ground.

A staff member clapped and said, “Powerful. Juexia is naturally talented at everything ah.”

“Why don’t you praise me?” The corners of Pei Tingsong’s mouth carried a smile, and he put his chin on Fang Juexia’s shoulder. “Teacher Fang, how did I teach?”

“Get down quickly.” Fang Juexia didn’t dare to even look back. “I have to get on with the photoshoot.”

“Ah, I’m just a tool man,” Pei Tingsong sighed. Since the order had been given, he couldn’t not follow it. “It’s really just like killing the donkey as soon as he leaves the millstone, or tearing down the bridge after crossing it, or casting the bow aside when all the birds are gone, or killing and stewing the hounds after the hares are caught….”

Flipping over and dismounting, Pei Tingsong patted his clothes. Suddenly, a pale hand stretched out in front of his eyes. As soon as he looked up, he saw Fang Juexia, who was slightly bent over. His face was veiled, but his eyes were smiling.

The thing he handed over to him was a fruit candy wrapped in cellophane. Pei Tingsong’s expression brightened, and he threw the candy up in the air before catching it firmly. “Where did you hide all of that ah?”

Fang Juexia pointed to his belt. “Just two, giving you one as a reward.”

“Okay, let’s start shooting the first batch!”

Pei Tingsong left the center of the picture, went back to the rest canopy set up beside the monitor, and sat down next to his other group members. He held the candy in his hand, reluctant to open it. The sunlight slanted into the canopy, making the candy wrapper glitter.

His mood at the moment was exuberant. When this word appeared in his mind, Pei Tingsong was once again impressed by the appropriateness and delicacy present in Chinese vocabulary.

It was completely true that his chest was now stuffed full with a hundred little skylarks, dancing and fluttering about.

“Xiao Pei, quickly look at what I just shot!” Ling Yi ran over to share his photographic masterpiece with him. On the screen of his cellphone was the shot of when Pei Tingsong had encircled Fang Juexia with his arms while they were riding on a horse and pulling a bow. “Didn’t I take a super beautiful picture?!”

Lu Yuan’s head also drew closer. “Wow, if this was posted online, there would definitely be a lot of CP fans writing Wuxia AU.”

Pei Tingsong asked suspiciously, “What’s an AU?”

“Come, let me give you a good talk as a senior fellow literary researcher.” Lu Yuan took him by the shoulder. “AU means that the setting I wrote is different from that of the original. For example, with you two ah, you’re actually idols, but if someone wrote a doujinshi about you two with a Wuxia background, featuring both of you as swordsmen, then that would be a Wuxia AU.”

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“Oh, I understand…” Ling Yi had now learned just enough to perform. “Then I want a rich AU!”

He Ziyan, who was resting on one side, was so amused by him that he started laughing. “Ge will write you a beggars’ group AU.”

“Hahahaha.”

Fang Juexia sat on the horse and focused on his photoshoot, completely unaware of what his bandmates were discussing.

The photographer stood on an elevated platform, and the camera lens captured the top to bottom view. Fang Juexia’s upper body was leaning back, nearly lying on the horse’s back. The white gauze was lifted by the wind, and his face appeared hazy. Only one eye directly faced the lens, and a wisp of long hair, that was lifted by the wind, fell right on the birthmark at the corner of his eye.

“This one could even be a cover shot for a big magazine.” The photographer was quite satisfied and took the camera over to his assistant. “Look, this one must be put inside the album.”

The several big boys waiting in the rest canopy were still horsing around, but Pei Tingsong’s gaze never left Fang Juexia from the beginning to the end.

He kept watching from a distance when after the shoot, Fang Juexia, who was lying on the horse’s back, pulled at the reins, raised his waist, and returned to a sitting position. His flexible waist was just like a soft whip, striking at Pei Tingsong’s heart in that moment.

After the publicity photos were all taken, the group rushed back to the dormitory to sleep. However, they could only sleep for four hours at most, before they were scheduled to take part in the recording of a singing program. Due to the leaked song, Kaleido could only compress their time as much as possible and desperately work, while at the same time, the disturbance about the leaked song online hadn’t even stopped for a day. 

After the lawyer’s notice was sent out on the first day of the incident, Star Chart had announced Kaleido’s early comeback date on their official platform, while also releasing the first wave of the advance publicity photos they had shot, which included six pictures with over-exposed close-ups of the six people’s eyes. The caption was as simple as the date—3.23.

The fans who had already been waiting for a long time excitedly left comments below the official Weibo post. Kaleido had not made a comeback for a year already, so as soon as this simple notice was released, the number of forwards for this post quickly flew past 100,000. 

[@siilu: AHHHHHHHHH MY LITTLE OBSCURE K HAS FINALLY STOPPED STAYING AT HOME AND PICKING AT THEIR TOENAILS!!!]

[@Is Kaleido making a comeback today: Making a comeback!!!!]

[@TingJue is real: Wuwuwuwu, these six eyes are so beautiful! Even with just the eyes, I can recognize them all clearly! I miss you guys so much!]

[@Heaven will not tolerate K not becoming popular: God, I nearly started crying when I saw this Weibo post.]

However, there seemed to be a problem. Some fans had gone to Cheng Qiang’s official Weibo and asked about the date of Kaleido’s comeback before. At that time, Cheng Qiang’s reply had stated early April. This screenshot soon spread and was seen by more and more fans, and their hearts ached sorely. 

[@Nearly cancelled K also has to be pasted well today: It’s really difficult for my K. Clearly, they were supposed to back their comeback in early April, now they’re forced to adjust it to March 23 because of the leaked song. I can’t imagine how the Geges have been living these days, I’m afraid they can’t even sleep every day. They waited a whole year to release an album and ran into such a bad situation.]

[@Fairies just spit out fragrance: The dog that leaked the song deserves de*th]

[@A tiny Domino: My heart is aching for all the Geges, this time we must all give them the best numbers!]

Kaleido’s sudden rise to popularity had already attracted the attention of many groups; if it had just been a sudden rise in popularity, then that would have been fine, but there was also a hot shot CP in this group, with its number of fans increasing every day. This kind of popularity power really made people’s eyes turn red with jealousy. The marketing accounts and anti-accounts from everywhere rained down upon them one after another, stirring things up, and everyone wanted to take advantage of the chaos to pull at their hind legs and make them stumble.

The fastest and darkest part of the drama was the anonymous area. Kaleido, this group that had appeared from a small company and had since grown ascendant, had the least voices in the forums. Plainly speaking, this new release date of their album going ahead of schedule would inevitably make them run into Seven Luminaries, and Fang Juexia, a key figure of the group, also shared a subtle relationship with Seven Luminaries. Several long threads were all discussing the result of the collision between the two groups.

[In this 7L vs. K big battle, who does everyone think is going to win? Confirm ah.]

[Is the owner of this thread kidding me? 7L has only released their album for a week, and the sales volume of their digital albums has already exceeded one million. The number of listens for the main song reached the number two rank in the 30-day listens list already, and the number one song on that list is one that was released in early March, so according to this trend, it will be toppled soon. Not to mention the number of hits on their MV, why don’t you go look at Bilibili? It only took three hours for it to reach the top of the music section. I won’t talk about the company, so as not to have people accuse me of bullying others. Even K’s song has been leaked, and don’t tell me that it doesn’t matter since the leaked song is a demo, it matters a whole lot. When the whole song comes out, it’ll be good if it’s able to get into the top ten listens within 30 days.]

[7L ba, I was originally looking forward to a fight between K and 7L this time, but now, the song has been leaked. Besides, 7L’s new album has been strategized really well this time, and they have achieved quite good numbers. Even though it’s not very special, but that doesn’t affect the fact that it’s just popular ah.]

[Is this kind of thread interesting? I really can’t understand why K is so desperate to get their comeback out now? Do they want to die early and reincarnate early? To tell you the truth, I haven’t seen any precedent of a song that was leaked becoming popular afterwards, the big guys’, whose songs leaked, all abandoned them directly. Maybe Star Chart can’t afford new music ba.]

[You’ve all bought 7L, to the point that I really want to not buy it…]

[These are the facts ba, it’s all been unfair from the beginning. The resources and publicity that big companies have are different, and they’re also willing to spend more. At the beginning, K definitely wanted to avoid 7L, so they chose to make their comeback in early April. Now, they have no backups, so they have to make their comeback ahead of time, just like an egg striking against a rock. K is always so unlucky, every time they think they can ascend, they end up kicking an iron plate.]

[FJX is just fated to never become super popular ba…]

Before the formal confrontation between these groups took place, the direction the wind was blowing online was almost all the same, with everyone declaring that Kaleido’s album this time would, for sure, fail. However, Star Chart’s public relations team was also guiding public opinion. Although Kaleido’s popularity had already improved, it still wasn’t as good as that of Seven Luminaries, so now that people had already tied them together, they simply took advantage and let them link the two groups together even further, in order to let more passers-by know that Kaleido was also going to release an album and fight against Seven Luminaries.

Despite the constant struggle happening on various social platforms, the company didn’t permit its members to look at them, so that they would devote themselves entirely to the new album.

After a few hours’ rest, they were called up to participate in the song performing program “Music Live House” on the CloudTV platform early in the morning. This would be the first live performance of their new album, and it was very important.

“Too snobbish.”

As he waited for the hairdresser to put in his hair extensions, Fang Juexia heard Cheng Qiang swearing, and was curious. “What’s the matter, Qiang Ge?”

Cheng Qiang put his cellphone in his pocket. “Back when they knew we were going to release a new album and found us for a collaboration event, they took the initiative themselves to offer to shoot a comeback backstage video of you guys and put it on both CloudTV and their Weibo. Now they’re great, telling us their staff has a scheduling problem, and that they can’t shoot it, so there will only be that one live performance.”

So it was like that.

Fang Juexia had known for a long time that relationships in this circle ran hot and cold. At the beginning, everyone had thought that he would definitely make his debut with Seven Luminaries, and that he would be officially promoted by the company, so everyone came to him and flattered him, as if everyone were his friends. But as soon as he left Astar, these “friends” disappeared overnight and became deathly silent characters resting in his contact list.

He said comfortingly, “It’s okay, didn’t we bring our ensemble show cameraman anyway? It’s all the same no matter who films it.”

“Yes ah, Qiang Ge.” Ling Yi also added, “Look at me. I’ll raise my voice and sing you a song for free.”

Cheng Qiang laughed. “Come on, you can sing on the stage in a bit ba, don’t break your voice singing for me.”

After listening to Cheng Qiang’s words, Fang Juexia kept feeling empty, as if he was missing something. He looked around the room through the mirror, and then realized they were missing Pei Tingsong. If he was here, he would definitely be full of fire, and maybe he would change the lyrics once they went on-stage again. 

Where did he go? 

Speak of the devil and he will come; a knock sounded from the rest area door, and Jiang Miao got up to open it. He saw Pei Tingsong coming in with a pile of things and saying, “Quickly help me with this.”

“What’s the matter with Xiao Pei recently?” Lu Yuan took the coffee from him as he questioned, “How can you be so sensible? Have you been possessed by some angel?”

As he looked into the mirror, Fang Juexia heard the stylist say, “Juexia, your hair extensions are good, go have a rest first, and I’ll do Ling Yi’s hair.”

“Okay, I’ve troubled you.”

He got up, and wrapped in his black military costume, went to the couch and sat down. Pei Tingsong distributed coffee and cake to everyone. “Okay, you guys take it ba. There’s sugar in that package ah, and if you want to add it, add it yourself.” After he finished distributing everything, he also came to sit down on the sofa next to Fang Juexia.

Fang Juexia didn’t get any coffee or cake, and he was empty-handed. He glanced at Pei Tingsong, who was sitting beside him. The other side looked at him and smiled at him. “What are you looking at me for?”

“Nothing.” Fang Juexia turned his head back.

Pei Tingsong stared at the ensemble show cameraman, and when he turned around to go film Ling Yi, he quietly took out a small dark green bag and put it in front of Fang Juexia. Inside this bag was a Venetian latte with milk and no sugar, a small, exquisite, and beautiful cake, and a small thermos cup.

Seeing him like this, Fang Juexia didn’t understand. He couldn’t get why Pei Tingsong hadn’t given it to him a moment ago, and why he had to hand it over to him secretly now.

“Eat it quickly ah.” Pei Tingsong opened the cake box for him, put a fork in it, and pushed it in front of him. “It’s super delicious, trust me.”

The little cake had well-organized layers, and looked delicate and beautiful. Fang Juexia had gotten up early in the morning and hadn’t eaten anything, so he was also a little hungry. In their group, it had always been tradition that everyone would eat the stuff, which someone had bought, together, so he had gotten used to that a long time ago. However, now that it was Pei Tingsong giving him cake, he actually felt a little bit unaccustomed to it, so he kept hesitating and not moving. 

“You’re 23 years old, it can’t be that you want me to feed you?”

As soon as he said this, Fang Juexia immediately moved and took a bite of the cake. He had always liked sweet food, and the cake was just right.

Seeing that his eyes had lit up, Pei Tingsong was very satisfied. “Delicious ba?”

“En.” Fang Juexia looked at him. “What kind of cake is this?”

“Tiramisu.” Pei Tingsong didn’t answer in Chinese, but in Italian.

Fang Juexia wasn’t too particular about desserts, but tiramisu was such a classic dessert that everyone knew about it, so as soon as Pei Tingsong mentioned it, of course he knew what it was. However, he just had to say its name in Italian, which made what he ate seem to be less of a cake and more of an ambiguous and warm heart.

He guiltily drank some coffee to cover up his expression, put down his fork, took out his cellphone, and sent Pei Tingsong a message. His tone was serious as he clattered away on the keyboard. 

[Just a pretty face and also pretty: You need to be a little more restrained.]

But just after sending that message, Fang Juexia thought again about whether he had been too fierce. He hesitantly typed out a few words with his fingers, then deleted them as he reconsidered the wording.

Before he could send it out, Pei Tingsong’s reply to his message had already arrived.

[Guide Dog: Understood, Teacher Fang.]

Seeing that he was being so obedient, Fang Juexia felt even more ashamed.

[Just a pretty face and also pretty: Thank you for your cake. Why did you give it to me secretly, like a thief?]

Pei Tingsong didn’t seem to see that he was still messaging. He was busy unscrewing the thermos cup and putting it in front of Fang Juexia. He glanced at it, and its contents seemed to consist of snow pear slices. They were cut into big and small pieces, and the sweet smell wafted up to his face.

Fang Juexia’s heart suddenly softened. He had never thought that Pei Tingsong would actually stew tongsui for him.

His cellphone vibrated. He picked it up and saw the latest message.

[Guide Dog: Because I only bought it for you; I picked it out very seriously. If the others knew, they would scold me to death.]

And then another message came right after—

[Guide Dog: Teacher Fang, I’m so good, you can take me away ba.]

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