Author: 反舌鸟 / Mockingbird
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 21
Long Xingyu was attending a commercial event. His group somehow got lucky and received a snack brand’s promotion contract. The brand was somewhat well-known, but in today’s world, brand owners wanted to exploit and yet were unwilling to give spokesperson titles, inventing various other titles instead. For example, each member of their group was made a “delicious ambassador” for a specific snack. Still, they had to pretend to be satisfied, and it was mentioned several times that if the promotion went well, there could be “further cooperation”.
During this period, Long Xingyu had been filming. The person with the new core habits didn’t even bother to post on Weibo for publicity anymore. The once rock-solid popularity he enjoyed was showing a downward trend. This wasn’t something he noticed himself but was reminded by others. The brand created a real-time sales ranking, and that teammate, who always felt somewhat competitive with him, immediately posted a screenshot on Weibo to express gratitude to his fans when his sales surpassed Long Xingyu’s. However, Long Xingyu’s sales surpassed his again the very next minute.
Long Xingyu almost fainted. He realized that he no longer had the mood for comparisons and only felt how lowly it was, questioning why he had to be forced into this kind of competition. What’s the point? To get elementary school students to eat a few more boxes of spicy sticks?
People also asked about the recent rumors about Long Xingyu. A teammate replied with, “Don’t say that. He’s not that kind of person. I believe in him.” Because the blogger himself replied, this comment immediately became the top comment, and everyone who clicked in could see it.
“I heard Long Xingyu hooked up with the Film Emperor as soon as he joined the crew and is now about to leave the group.”
If it was just Long Xingyu’s name, it wouldn’t have much buzz. But linking it to Yu Ruoyun was different. Yu Ruoyun had fans, but not many would patrol the search entries and control the comments for him. One could find all sorts of things if one searched.
A teammate was still listening to music when Long Xingyu walked over and yanked his earphones out.
“What are you doing!” the teammate shouted, but he seemed somewhat guilty and didn’t dare to look Long Xingyu in the eye.
“Nothing,” Long Xingyu said. “Just asking you. You play word games, and I can’t understand them because I’m not cultured. You believe I’m not that kind of person. What kind of person? Someone who wouldn’t climb into a Film Emperor’s bed or someone who wouldn’t leave the group?”
The teammate, just over twenty and not yet skilled in scheming, was left speechless by Long Xingyu’s imposing manner.
“First of all, I haven’t climbed into Yu Ruoyun’s bed, yet. Second…” Long Xingyu laughed sarcastically. “Give up. Even if you leave, I won’t.”
These words weren’t spoken on impulse. Before coming to the practice room, he had talked about his contract and said the same thing. The contracts for promoting film and TV were given to a company run by Yu Ruoyun’s friend, but the group contract remained unchanged. He still fulfilled his contract and didn’t leave the group.
It wasn’t necessary—even the agent was surprised. After all, this kind of behavior, running away halfway and lingering at the door, was quite baffling.
“I remember last time I told you I didn’t want to take that micro-business endorsement, and you told me it wasn’t up to me.” Long Xingyu suddenly brought it up, making the agent somewhat embarrassed.
Long Xingyu said, “There’s no other meaning. You were right. Without Yu Ruoyun, who knows where I’d be cooling my heels, let alone having the chance to change the contract so quickly. Damn, why is living off someone so enjoyable? I should’ve figured it out sooner.”
Actually, it wasn’t true. Long Xingyu understood in his heart that people get jealous when the neighbor buys a new car, but they don’t hate themselves for not being as rich as Bill Gates. The gap was too big, and he felt at ease, treating it as if Yu Ruoyun was donating to the poor, and he would send a banner to Yu Ruoyun after poverty alleviation.
“But don’t take their contracts,” Long Xingyu finally said. “Starting too low makes others look down on you and think there’s no future for this group. Even though I also think there’s no future, a dead fish has to struggle a bit, right?”
He never understood what being an idol was, and after knowing it, he still didn’t get its meaning. Especially in recent years, with the proliferation of domestic idols and the unique Chinese characteristics combined, it seemed even more absurd to him. The once noble print media had gradually declined over the years. The high threshold was no longer unreachable. If you had sales, you had hope of getting on. It wasn’t the young people’s fault. Times were rapidly changing, and everything was no longer necessary.
During this time, he had to practice dancing. The best way was to find Long Xingyu’s previous dance practice videos and practice accordingly. Long Xingyu would record his practice videos with his phone every now and then, storing them on a hard drive. He found one to watch, and at the end of the video, Long Xingyu hadn’t stopped the recording, leaning against the wall with his clothes soaked in sweat, not getting up to turn it off. He was about to close it when he heard the video’s Long Xingyu asking, “When can I perform on stage?”
No matter how times changed, some things remained the same. The desire to be noticed, to hear cheers and applause, practicing day after day, waiting for that damn luck to come. Because of this, he couldn’t bear to take away the last bit of what Long Xingyu had. So he decided to stay a bit longer, holding on a bit more. Who knows, maybe this lousy company will go bankrupt tomorrow.
“Zhong Mo, right?” Long Xingyu finally remembered the teammate’s name. “I don’t mind you stabbing me. I’m just reminding you not to stab yourself to death.”
He thought he was very kind, but it was a pity. Zhong Mo seemed just scared, not even saying thank you, and awkwardly went back to playing on his phone.
Someone walked over, and Long Xingyu glanced out of the corner of his eye. Here came Lu Zheming, the team captain, to smooth things over again.
“Why such a big fire?” Lu Zheming said. “Just have him delete it.”
“Meaningless.” Long Xingyu sighed. “I just feel all this is meaningless.”
Competing in snack sales was meaningless, and so was winning trophies.
“What do you want to achieve?” Long Xingyu asked Lu Zheming. “Chasing dreams should bring something in return, right? Otherwise, it’s just wasting time.”
Lu Zheming replied, “Not necessarily. Isn’t pursuing the dream itself enough? I’ve long realized not everyone can succeed, but many people never even had dreams.”
“I don’t think I can,” Long Xingyu said. “I used to think fame, money, and status were very important. Now… they’re still very important. I can’t get rid of my vanity.”
But Yu Ruoyun seemed to be part of his vanity too.
Loving someone, like a dream, was a lottery win. People’s pure imagination of love was often supplemented by entertainment and works related to love, rarely truly fulfilling in reality. Career and wealth, he once wanted to have again, but now he felt it was meaningless. Even if he achieved something again, wouldn’t he eventually be forgotten?
But some people wouldn’t forget—Yu Ruoyun wouldn’t forget him. Despite damaging his brain, he still wanted to recover memories about Jiang Yu.
In the Bible, Jesus was crucified and resurrected because he was the Son of God, destined to save humanity.
What important thing did he have to do? This world seemed not to need his salvation.
“I’m leaving,” Long Xingyu suddenly said. “Tell the teacher I had something urgent.”
He carelessly pushed the door open and left, abandoning his teammates without a shred of responsibility.
In fact, Yu Ruoyun hadn’t even returned. He took that key, just wanting to confirm some things.
Maybe this time, only Yu Ruoyun needed his salvation.
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