After accepting Wen Zheng’s friend request, Yu Huaili replied, “Boss, it’s already been resolved.”
He reached out and ruffled the system, which was lying on his lap reading the letters with him: [System, what do you think Wen Zheng is up to?]
Rarely asked for its opinion in such a tone, the system immediately perked up and said: [Bad Pear, don’t rush. Let me flip through the notes from the teacher’s lecture on capture mission knowledge points.]
Looking at the system’s high spirits, Yu Huaili was a little surprised, then broke into a gentle smile.
So the system had actually developed the awareness to take notes in class now?
Ah… it was growing up.
After a moment, the system let out two awkward giggles and said: [Bad Pear, I didn’t take notes on this particular knowledge point, hehe… But let me speculate: Wen Zheng should be influenced by the plotline, showing signs of intending to keep you.]
As it spoke, the system became more and more convinced of its own speculation: [Otherwise, how did that glass of wine splash so precisely onto you?]
[I see.] Yu Huaili curved his eyes again in a smile. [Alright. Seems the class wasn’t a total waste.]
The system’s speculation was about fifty percent likely to be correct. In the small worlds of capture missions, the plot outline had a significant influence on the actions of plot characters.
For example, Yu Huaili could sense that Duan Qiong’s feelings toward him were currently very complicated, occasionally mixed with subtle hints of ambiguity.
But Duan Qiong was still a straight man in the plot right now. So no matter how chaotic his thoughts were, on a subconscious level, he still viewed the relationship between the two of them normally.
The only question was whether the trigger for Duan Qiong’s realization would still be Xi Xingheng…
His thoughts circled in his mind. Yu Huaili lowered his gaze to the phone that vibrated twice.
“Little Li.” Sister Chen put down her phone and glanced at Yu Huaili through the rearview mirror. “The Chairman’s assistant just asked for your contact info. He probably wants to ask if this matter has been resolved. Just answer truthfully.”
“I know, Sister Chen.” As he spoke, Yu Huaili glanced down at his phone screen.
The vibrations just now were messages from Wen Zheng.
[victory: That’s good.]
[victory: If this matter hadn’t been properly handled on your end, I would have felt uneasy.]
[victory: Oh, right, Little Li. Speaking of which.]
Yu Huaili: …
Why did Wen Zheng talk so weirdly?
His tone felt like he was about to start hitting on him any second.
[Fresh Little Pear: Huh? What’s the matter, Boss?]
[victory: At today’s banquet, a director from a national variety show took an interest in Solaron-X. He contacted me, saying he wanted his show to be Solaron-X’s variety show debut.]
[Fresh Little Pear: Mm-hmm [puppies sitting in a row jpg.]]
[victory: But, you see, this director only needs one member of Solaron-X. As compensation for today, I recommended you.]
[victory: From the looks of it, he’s very satisfied with you as well. Are you interested in taking it?]
Looking at the messages Wen Zheng had sent, Yu Huaili couldn’t help but frown.
This national variety show was indeed Solaron-X’s variety debut. But in the plot, they only recorded two episodes, and the director had signed all of Solaron-X as specified.
Although in the next season after these episodes, the director did sign Duan Qiong as a regular cast member, and a competing variety show signed Xi Xingheng.
And the character he played could only scrounge up a special guest spot on lukewarm shows, with his screen time either pitifully sparse or maliciously edited.
Ah… “maliciously edited” might be overstating it. The character really had no variety sense, and his snobbish attitude was plain to see—he only played with whoever was popular.
Anyway, off track.
So was Wen Zheng testing him by saying this now?
But why test him?
Yu Huaili let out a soft tsk. He’d only just said this morning that Wen Zheng barely qualified as a decent person, and now he was already trying to trick such an innocent, kind-hearted young boy.
[Fresh Little Pear: But you’ve already given me two suits of clothes [petting jpg.]]
[Fresh Little Pear: Boss, I know you mean well. To be honest, I really do want to take this gig.]
[Fresh Little Pear: But I only just debuted. If I take a solo schedule and abandon the members of Solaron-X, I’ll get branded as a Solaron-X splitter.]
[Fresh Little Pear: I don’t want the fans who like me to think their idol is an ungrateful, morally bankrupt person.]
[victory: ^ ^]
[victory: Ah… so that’s what you’re thinking?]
[victory: I didn’t consider that carefully. I’ll send someone to discuss it with Sister Chen.]
Yu Huaili: …
This old man. His mind had more holes than a honeycomb coal briquette.
Yu Huaili sent a couple more replies, and just as he turned off his phone screen, he heard Duan Qiong, whose thigh was pressed against his own, ask, “Who made you angry.”
It was even a statement, not a question.
“What?” Yu Huaili tucked the fans’ letters into their envelopes, raising an eyebrow in confusion. “Bro, are you talking to me?”
Duan Qiong hummed in affirmation. “Of course. I only talk to you.”
Yu Huaili smiled. “Ah… but I’m not angry.”
Duan Qiong’s lips moved. He wanted to say: but just now, when you were typing on your phone, your brow was clearly furrowed, and the smile at your lips faded.
If you’re not angry, is it because whoever was on the other end said something that made you unhappy, or something you disagreed with?
But Duan Qiong at least knew that sentence sounded a bit obsessive. It reached the tip of his tongue, and he swallowed it back down.
It seemed Duan Qiong hadn’t noticed that his gaze was lingering on Yu Huaili for longer and longer.
In the past, he never paid attention to the emotions others conveyed—whether extreme or faint.
But now, Duan Qiong could capture every subtle shift in Yu Huaili’s expression without missing a beat.
Then he would subconsciously speculate about why Yu Huaili had made that expression.
Perhaps Duan Qiong was vaguely aware of his own state, but there was always a voice in his heart making excuses for his behavior:
Yu Huaili is your only friend. If you don’t keep your eyes on your friend, are you supposed to keep them on random strangers?
You’re here to save Yu Huaili.
Only you, who knows the future, can pull Yu Huaili out of the mire, can keep him from going down the wrong path again.
After running this rhetoric through his mind and heart a few times, Duan Qiong became more and more at ease with the fact that he was increasingly attentive to Yu Huaili.
Fortunately, Yu Huaili had long become immune to scorching, sticky, ever-present gazes.
“Your Weibo usernames and passwords have been sent to you. Run anything you want to post past the team for review first. Anything you can’t post—don’t post.”
Seeing the car stop in front of the apartment building, Sister Chen added: “Rest well when you get back. We still have several schedules to run in the coming days.”
After a pause, she glanced at Yu Huaili and gave him a moderate warning: “Duan Qiong, stop spoiling Yu Huaili, alright? The posture coach who used to measure your stats told me that Yu Huaili used to eat with your meal card all the time… Eat less heavy, greasy, and salty food for breakfast.”
Looking at Yu Huaili, who was rubbing his nose, then his hair, not knowing what to do with himself, Duan Qiong smiled. “It’s fine. I’ll make sure he exercises.”
“I don’t need supervision.” Yu Huaili gave Duan Qiong’s waist a solid thump. “Whenever I overeat, I always add extra training on my own, okay?”
“Alright, alright.”
The smile in Duan Qiong’s eyes grew more pronounced. He subconsciously reached out and caught Yu Huaili’s misbehaving hand, but under Sister Chen’s laser-like gaze, he coughed lightly and let go.
Back at the dorm, Duan Qiong, living up to his promise to Sister Chen to supervise Yu Huaili, fried him a plate of egg-fried rice with nothing but oil.
Yu Huaili took a couple of bites, then glanced at the Solaron-X account. Under the Weibo post tagging the members’ accounts, his fans had left over a hundred thousand comments fighting for his rights.
[I really need to exorcise you, Solaron-X. Are you trying to die? Relying on a single promotional image for my bro is one thing, but this one too—if you don’t click into the post, you can’t even see that my bro’s been tagged.]
[Delete a couple of lines from your long-winded caption and let Yu Huaili’s account see the light of day. What would it cost you?]
[Solaron-X and Morning Star obviously want to push their true heartthrob and true crown prince. But they didn’t expect Yu Huaili to get famous, so now they’re playing the suppression game.]
[Please treat Yu Huaili equally, Solaron-X. Give him the treatment he deserves.]
[I don’t care. Who the real TOP of SX is, everyone can see (heart) (heart)]
[Forcibly pushing a useless company favorite will bring divine punishment.]
[Who gained two million followers within half an hour of opening their Weibo? Oh, it’s my husband.]
…
[It took them a whole hour after posting to finally realize they should fix it. Can the person running this Solaron-X account even do the job? If not, get lost, okay?]
[@Yu Huaili Bad Pear posted! It really is a nine-grid! AHHH.]
[Got stunned unconscious by his beauty the moment I saw it. Just woke up.]
[@Yu Huaili Bro, so handsome.]
[Aigoo, stop tagging Bad Pear when you’re fighting, okay? I’m scared he’ll see this and be sad.]
[Actually, Bad Pear saw that we were upset, so he specially posted to comfort us. Because the other three didn’t post at all.]
[Being spoiled like this by my little husband…]
…
Duan Qiong naturally saw the Weibo Yu Huaili had just posted too.
[Yu Huaili: Nice to meet you ^ ^]
He opened the photos Yu Huaili had posted, examining each one carefully.
“These photos—were they all taken during the trainee period?” Duan Qiong looked up, handing Yu Huaili a glass of water.
Yu Huaili hummed in affirmation.
Duan Qiong asked again, “…Who took them? A photographer?”
“A friend.” Yu Huaili stopped after two more bites of egg-fried rice, reminding him: “Bro, we trainees didn’t have any official photographers.”
Duan Qiong wanted to ask: which friend? Was he closer to them than to me? What’s his name? What’s he like? Is he your type? Is he also gay?
But in the end, Duan Qiong just finished the rest of Yu Huaili’s egg-fried rice and said flatly, “I can take them for you in the future.”
Yu Huaili curved his eyes. “Sure.”
Xi Xingheng lived in a big villa in the suburbs. After dropping off the other three, only Sister Chen, the assistant, and Xi Xingheng remained in the car.
Xi Xingheng had a decent relationship with Sister Chen, so his tone was more casual.
Propping his head on his hand, he said lazily, “Sister Chen, do you think the CP you’re having me hype with Yu Huaili is working?”
“Isn’t it?”
Sister Chen was coordinating with tomorrow’s team. At his words, she raised an eyebrow. “Since opening your Weibo account, your followers have grown very fast. As of right now, your follower growth is just shy of Yu Huaili’s, but it’s about on par with Duan Qiong’s. And Duan Qiong was already a popular trainee with a pre-existing fanbase before debut.”
Xi Xingheng smiled. “Ah… that’s true.”
Sister Chen thought of something and frowned. “And there’s another reason I’m having you pair with Yu Huaili.”
Xi Xingheng smiled brightly: “I know.”
Sister Chen turned back: “You know?”
“Because Duan Qiong has feelings for Yu Huaili. I mean, that kind of man-and-woman, romantic feelings.”
Xi Xingheng made a vague “Mm.” “The player can’t see the board as clearly as the spectator. Although Duan Qiong hasn’t realized it himself yet, his actions are always quite… swift and honest.”
Even a rock-straight man like Xi Xingheng could see it, leaving Sister Chen with nothing to say.
She pressed her temple. “That is indeed part of the reason. So put down your young master’s pride and cooperate more.”
“I understand.”
Xi Xingheng found it rather amusing every time he interacted with Yu Huaili in front of the cameras—watching that poser’s constipated expression.
And Yu Huaili was a good guy. Anyone with eyes could see that his interactions with Xi Xingheng were essentially funneling traffic his way, yet Yu Huaili worked even harder than Xi Xingheng did when the cameras were on.
After a pause, Xi Xingheng said, “Once I’m done with this busy stretch, I’ll move back into the dorm. Saves the driver from having to shuttle back and forth every time.”
Sister Chen had no objections. “Just don’t get into conflicts with them.”
“How could I?” Xi Xingheng narrowed his eyes, his expression somewhat disdainful. “Even talking to them bores me to death.”
Especially Jiang Qing.
Xi Xingheng felt like the man exuded some kind of murky aura. Whenever Jiang Qing got close, Xi Xingheng wanted to tell him to back off.
And Duan Qiong.
Xi Xingheng didn’t like posers either.
Tsk…
Xi Xingheng thought: the only two normal people in Solaron-X were Yu Huaili and himself.
