Chapter 7: How’s My Back Muscles Looking?

The stage image finally froze on the dance track’s ending pose, and the lights gradually came up.

As the team leader, Duan Qiong took the microphone first. His gaze swept lightly over the clamoring audience, and he bent slightly at the waist, speaking: “On behalf of all members of Solaron-X, I would like to express our most profound gratitude to every Solaron-X fan. The reason we can stand here today is because of all of you—out in the audience and beyond the screens—who have always supported Solaron-X…”

As golden rain printed with the Solaron-X logo fluttered down, Duan Qiong’s speech reached its conclusion: “Debut is not an end, but a more rigorous beginning. Solaron-X will carry the trust and love of our fans as we sail toward an even bigger stage.”

The thunderous applause and impassioned cries from below served as the perfect period to Solaron-X’s Debut Night.

Backstage.

The Solaron-X team was monitoring online sentiment in real time. Although the internet was mostly full of praise for Solaron-X’s Debut Night stage, with the occasional discordant voice quickly swept away, they didn’t let their guard down.

Sister Chen looked very satisfied with the four’s performance. She curved her eyes and, standing nearest, squeezed Yu Huaili’s shoulder. “Good work, kids. You did great. I know you’re all exhausted, but there’s one more schedule ahead—a very well-known media outlet has invited you for an interview.”

“Although we’ve already communicated with them in advance…” She paused for two seconds, narrowed her eyes, and used the opportunity to give them another warning: “But during these interviews, you need to weigh carefully what to say and what not to say. Think thrice before it leaves your mouth.”

A full night of high-intensity singing and dancing had left the four too tired to even speak, and they all agreed in a scattered murmur.

Sister Chen checked the time. “Alright, rest for about twenty minutes. The makeup artist will touch you up, and then you’ll do the interview. I’ll step out for a bit.”

The lounge door was gently closed, and the air fell abruptly still.

Yu Huaili lowered his gaze, plucking off a golden ribbon that had landed on his collarbone, and sank deep into the soft sofa.

Then, the seats on either side of him sank slightly as well.

The small sofa could clearly only fit three adult men. Jiang Qing let out a hiss, turned around, and sat himself down on the single armchair instead.

Propping his chin on his hand, he unlocked his phone. Glancing at the top of the hot search list, his face immediately fell—but quickly returned to normal.

Jiang Qing raised his eyes to the three people each absorbed in their own phones and laughed twice. “Have you seen the hot searches? They’re all about our Solaron-X Debut Night. Hey… Yu Huaili, you and the team leader are number two on the hot search right now.”

Mm, why did this guy sound kind of passive-aggressive?

Yu Huaili raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Hm?”

“Here, this photo went viral.”

As he spoke, Jiang Qing turned his phone toward Yu Huaili. The three on the sofa could all see the photo on the screen at once.

In the photo, as the stage lights dimmed, Duan Qiong had lightly hooked Yu Huaili’s pinky, and Yu Huaili had turned around, looking down at Duan Qiong from above.

Actually, the two hadn’t had any overly intimate interaction at the time. The so-called finger hook was only a touch that lasted a second.

But the photo captured something very suggestive—their fingertips touching, as if they’d seized the moment while the stage went dark to hold hands, then separated when the lights came back.

The blogger had even set it to a song called “Heavy Fog.”

[When the heavy fog rises, when the fog clears #Yu Huaili# #Duan Qiong# #Solaron-X Debut Night# #Yu-Duan Appreciation# #Solaron-X# #Yu Huaili World’s Most Handsome# #Duan Qiong World’s Most Handsome#]

[Yu-Duan sisters producing godly photos is as easy as eating and drinking (laughing)]

[Huh? Can’t even help but hold Bad Pear’s hand on Debut Night, Brother Duan? (snicker)]

[The two of them are like a married couple already.]

[Actually, the brothers offstage right now are already going at it, lost in the pleasure.]

[Little Pear is too mesmerizing tonight. If I were Brother Duan, I couldn’t resist either.]

[I feel like Brother Duan really held back by only holding his hand. Can’t flame Brother Duan, he’s a real man.]

[Are Yu-Duan fans making up rumors again? Who said I wasn’t at the venue? I recorded this video too, okay? Duan Qiong just accidentally brushed against Bad Pear, and Bad Pear turned to ask Duan Qiong what was wrong. Can’t you read lips? (web link)]

[Yu-Duan fans slapping solo tags on this post must be spending holidays alone at home. Must be so lonely.]

[The bias in this comment section is crazy, 666]

[Here come the noble solo fans again. What can you do? No matter how much you hate Yu-Duan, the two of them are still close. ♥]

[Hehe, stop fighting. Instead, guess whether Brother Duan’s drink tonight will be pear juice? qaq]

[Guaranteed, bro. Guaranteed.]

…

After glancing at the two-sided battle in the comments, Yu Huaili returned the phone to Jiang Qing.

So even this counted…

He really was a queerbaiting genius after all, wasn’t he?!

“Bro, what do you think?” Yu Huaili tilted his head slightly and let it drop heavily onto Duan Qiong’s shoulder.

Feeling the sudden weight on his shoulder, Duan Qiong seemed to have already grown accustomed to Yu Huaili’s frequent closeness. He didn’t react much.

Duan Qiong said flatly, “I don’t have any thoughts.”

Netizens loved shipping CPs. In the previous life, he and Yu Huaili weren’t close. But now they had a good relationship, so having CP fans was normal.

And what CP to ship was the netizens’ freedom. Duan Qiong didn’t care about these things.

He lowered his gaze, only feeling his neck tickled by Yu Huaili’s hair.

“So, Bad Pear, what do you think?” Xi Xingheng put down his phone, propped his chin on his hand, and looked at Yu Huaili. “Do you have any opinions on hyping up a CP?”

As he spoke, Xi Xingheng’s body leaned slightly toward him—a listening posture. So Yu Huaili straightened up.

The weight on his shoulder suddenly vanished. Duan Qiong glanced at Yu Huaili’s ear, red from the pressure, then looked up at Xi Xingheng, who was acting all warm and gentle. He coldly looked away.

Yu Huaili rubbed the back of his neck and smiled with curved eyes. “Me? I don’t have any opinions.”

Even in the plot, he’d thought queerbaiting and CP hype were essential methods for blowing up.

And in the plot, he could barely count as a queerbaiting genius with solid theoretical knowledge—it was just that no one ever cooperated with him, and so a genius of a generation fell.

Xi Xingheng narrowed his eyes. “Ah, is that so? Then…”

He seemed about to say something more, but Duan Qiong lightly touched Yu Huaili’s neck, flatly interrupting him. “It’s red here.”

Duan Qiong’s palm was very cool. Yu Huaili couldn’t help but shiver, then touched the back of his own neck.

Ever since changing into this outfit, Yu Huaili had felt something prickly at the back of his neck. When he got off stage, he’d wanted to take it off, but Sister Chen had said there was still an interview coming up. So, not wanting to cause trouble, he’d left it for now.

Yu Huaili blinked, drawing out his words like a child whining: “I know. It’s this outfit’s fault. There are two buttons in the back that keep poking me.”

Duan Qiong said, “Let me take a look.”

“Alright. Thanks, bro.”

Duan Qiong undid those two buttons, discovering they were sewn onto the clothes and had a length of stiff loose thread sticking out of them.

Duan Qiong frowned. “Can’t unbutton them. I’ll cut them off.”

“Are you crazy, Brother Duan Qiong?” Yu Huaili said. “This is the brand sponsor’s outfit.”

Duan Qiong looked at the red, chafed skin on the back of Yu Huaili’s neck again and said, “Then change into something else?”

Since the makeup artist hadn’t arrived yet, Yu Huaili nodded and got up to go to the changing room.

Watching Duan Qiong sit on the sofa for half a minute before following Yu Huaili to the changing room, Jiang Qing’s expression turned somewhat strange.

“Can you believe it?” Jiang Qing, feeling the blatant double standards, let out a snort. “Duan Qiong, that bastard, actually has germophobia. He can’t stand people touching him or his things. Yesterday I accidentally touched his cup in the disinfection cabinet, and he threw the cup straight into the trash.”

Xi Xingheng, who hadn’t planned to acknowledge this kidney-deficient-looking guy, raised an eyebrow with a faint smile. “His germophobia is that bad? I really can’t tell at all.”

Seeing that Xi Xingheng actually responded to him, Jiang Qing perked up. He curled his lip and exaggerated: “Definitely. At first I didn’t know, so I touched Duan Qiong’s arm—and he ignored me for half a year.”

But Jiang Qing knew very well that even if he hadn’t touched Duan Qiong, Duan Qiong still wouldn’t have paid him any attention.

Tsk. Who knew what this guy was pretending to be.

Hearing this, Xi Xingheng smiled.

Germophobia? Can’t stand being touched?

But when that poser Duan Qiong got along with Yu Huaili, their physical contact was plenty, plenty frequent.

And these past few days, he’d noticed that the poser was always inexplicably interrupting his conversations with Yu Huaili.

Xi Xingheng didn’t think it was his imagination.

He narrowed his eyes, thinking: was Duan Qiong afraid that if he and Yu Huaili hyped a CP together, their popularity would overtake his and Yu Huaili’s? Or did Duan Qiong have feelings of possessiveness toward Yu Huaili, afraid of losing his friend?

Whichever it was, Xi Xingheng found it quite interesting.

In the changing room, Yu Huaili didn’t bother to be modest. He stripped off the irritating stage outfit and handed it to Duan Qiong.

“Bro, hold this for me. Don’t get it dirty.”

Duan Qiong took it. But when he raised his eyes, they caught the sight of Yu Huaili’s long, slender neck; caught the faint outline of his back muscles; caught his lean waist and the deep dimples of his lower back…

He froze for two seconds, then lowered his gaze, thinking: keep your eyes off what shouldn’t be seen.

If Yu Huaili knew what the protagonist top was thinking, he’d probably be speechless.

He’d followed him into the changing room without a word—and now he was just now thinking about keeping his eyes off what shouldn’t be seen?

“Brother Duan Qiong?”

After calling Duan Qiong twice with no response, Yu Huaili frowned and turned around. Looking at Duan Qiong, who was practically standing in the corner like he was being punished, he raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing?”

Duan Qiong looked up, acting calm. “What? I wasn’t looking.”

Yu Huaili: …

That was a confession with no prompting, wasn’t it? And who even asked about that?

“Huh? What were you looking at? We’re both guys, even if you looked, so what?” Yu Huaili urged, looking exasperated. “Give me my clothes.”

Duan Qiong: …

Two men really was nothing. But Duan Qiong knew perfectly well that Yu Huaili was gay.

The fun-loving kind.

Would a fun-loving gay man abandon friends for a pretty face, ditch his friends for a boyfriend…?

Duan Qiong thought: of course, he didn’t care whether Yu Huaili had a boyfriend or other friends. Everyone was an independent individual, including himself and Yu Huaili.

He would even support Yu Huaili making more friends. Because now that he’d become friends with Yu Huaili, Duan Qiong felt that having a friend wasn’t a bad thing.

…But a fun-loving gay man shouldn’t really abandon his friends for a boyfriend, right?

Yu Huaili had just finished getting dressed when he heard Sister Chen calling them from outside.

He glanced at Duan Qiong, who seemed lost in thought, stretched his arms, and walked out, casually asking: “Bro, how’s my back muscles looking?”

Duan Qiong was still analyzing the probability of a gay man abandoning his friends for lust, and answered instinctively: “Looks good.”

Yu Huaili: …

Duan Qiong: …

Damn mouth.