Qi Cong felt a little remorseful and embarrassed. He wasn’t influenced by public opinion on the Internet, but was disturbed by his previous wishful thinking about Gu Xun.

He tried to focus on recording the song, but his helpless emotions were out of control. The more he tried to restrain himself, the more tense his emotions became, making his singing become very dry.

He took a sip of water and said apologetically to Zhao Zhenxun, “I’ll try to adjust.”

“You don’t have to push yourself too hard.” Zhao Zhenxun looked at the time. “I will give you three hours to rest. In these three hours I want you to do three things: one, find out what is affecting your state. Two, try to understand why this is  affecting your state. Third, call the people you miss and talk with them. When you’ve done those three things, we’ll come back and continue recording the song.”

Qi Cong nodded. “Okay.”

Zhao Zhenxun cleared the recording room and practice room, leaving only the cameraman to follow Qi Cong. As the last staff member disappeared out of the door, he squeezed the bottle of mineral water in his hand and turned around, going back to the practice room. Then he took out his mobile phone from his backpack and unlocked it.

Gu Xun hadn’t replied.

It’s been the whole morning.

Qi Cong leaned against the armrest of the sofa, his fingers constantly refreshing the chat box in a trance.

Why hasn’t he sent a reply? Was he trying to sleep and didn’t see it? Or was he filming and wasn’t available? Or…was he not sure how to reply?

Qi Cong’s mind was in turmoil. He was thinking a lot, but still felt like his mind was blank.

He didn’t know how much it took, but Qi Cong suddenly returned to his senses. He looked at the chat box where there was still no reply and locked the screen. Then he got up and went to the practice room window and reached out to open the closed curtains.

The bright midday sun shone directly on him through the glass. He squinted, getting used to the light and looked at the reporters downstairs that were still waiting.

The media soon noticed him and moved, raising their cameras to take photos of him.

Qi Cong looked at them.

Was this the kind of life artists led? You have to face the camera at all times, and you don’t know where there were eyes observing you?

The reporters were shouting something as Qi Cong pulled open the window.

“Qi Cong! What is your relationship with Gu Xun?”

“When did you meet?”

“What do you think of some Gu Xun fans who are taking off  their fan hats and stepping on them? They are saying that they want to boycott “Heaven Asked?” Are you and Gu Xun already together? Do you want to go public?”

The recording studio was  a five-story building and the practice room was on the third floor. The reporters’ words were clearly heard by Qi Cong’s ears through the barrier of glass.

Taking off their fan hats and stepping on them? Boycotting “Heaven Asked?”?

Qi Cong frowned, reached out and closed the window. Then he closed the curtains again, opened his cell phone and clicked into Gu Xun’s home page.

The post in which Gu Xun said that he looked up to him was still at the top, and there were close to 100,000 comments below it. He reached out and clicked on it.

The first few hot comments were all melon eaters’ comments, so he quickly swept through them before his eyes settled on more backward comments.

Gu Gu’s Little Tail: Brother Gu, I’ve always admired your style of dealing with things and always thought that you are different from other people in the entertainment industry, but this time you’ve let me down. I don’t care what kind of person Qi Cong is, I don’t care if he did those messy things but what I care the most about is your attitude. Have you ever thought about how we fans feel when you speak and stand up for him like that? People are working so hard to promote your new movie, but you are posting 10 tweets for someone who just came out of nowhere. Do you still have heart? Maybe I’m being pretentious, but I really think you’ve changed. This is it, I returned the tickets I had reserved for“Heaven Asked?”. I still wish you well but I don’t want you to be with Qi Cong in the future. Even poor people need to hate something, so I wish Qi Cong a black life.

Qi Cong’s brain was so confused that even if he had seen someone scold him before, he never felt like this… His heart beat faster and his palms grew cold. He quickly clicked on the reply below this comment, and then a large-scale scene of removing fan hats unfolded in front of him.

There were many people who echoed this comment, condemning Gu Xun’s behavior and attitude. There were also fans who supported Gu Xun and came out to help GU Xun speak. They were saying that Gu Xun clearly posted this Weibo to condemn those who pry into his life and use him to hurt others. He also reminded fans to prevent them from getting used, so how come he has no heart? Gu Xun has clearly not changed.  He was always like this, saying whatever he wanted and advising everyone to calm down.  But the disappointed group of fans wouldn’t listen to the explanation, insisting that Gu Xun has changed, and that the change started after he got involved with Qi Cong.

The comments were so noisy that, the more Qi Cong looked, the more his heart sank.

However,  his hand kept uncontrollably sliding down. After reading through the comments, Qi Cong clicked on Gu Xun’s super fans.

A Weibo post of a big fan of Gu Xun refreshed at the top.

Looking Back on the Warm Spring: Although I knew that some would take off their fan hats after Gu Gu showed his first sign of love, I didn’t think this day would come so quickly. This Qi Cong doesn’t seem as bad as has been rumored, but many people can no longer see him sensibly. I am now more worried about another problem – will someone take advantage of this opportunity to bring a rhythm to suppress “Heaven Asked?”? Gu Gu was really too impulsive this time and could have used a softer approach to help Qi Cong speak. On top of that…ugh, he probably really cared about it.

Qi Cong eyebrows knitted as he went through the reactions of other super fans. He found that a large number of fans were worried about “Heaven Asked?” While their attitude toward him has generally improved, they still didn’t really like him.

Would it affect “Heaven Asked?”?

Qi Cong’s emotions began to flutter.

He had clearly instructed Gu Xun not to speak up for him because he was afraid that such a situation as this would arise. If it was really because…

His phone suddenly shook and a message appeared in his alert bar.

Gu Xun: Had a morning meeting and just finished.

Qi Cong’s train of thought broke as he hurriedly clicked on the message.

Gu Xun: My past photos are on my home computer, I’ll send them to you when I get home next time.

Gu Xun: Have you had lunch yet? How did the song recording go?

Qi Cong remembered what he just saw and couldn’t help typing: You’re too impulsive.

Gu Xun: Hmm?

Qi Cong continued typing: “Heaven Asked?” is about to be released. You helping me out like this might not be accepted by your fans. I have seen that many people have taken off their fan hats.

Qi Cong: They-

A video call came in, interrupting Qi Cong from typing. Qi Cong stopped typing and looked at the video request from Gu Xun, and connected.

Gu Xun’s face appeared on the screen. He was sitting in a parlor-like place, with a relaxed posture and a slightly tired face.

“Cong, I didn’t go to bed until four in the morning, and after less than three hours of sleep I was called by my agent and team for a meeting. They were scolding me all morning.” Gu Xun looked at Qi Cong and sighed softly. “Are you going to scold me too?”

Qi Cong’s heart immediately softened as he shook his head. “I’m not going to scold you, I’m just worried.”

“It’s okay.” Gu Xun came closer to the screen and smiled at Qi Cong. “I am sorry that some of my fans left but I can’t cheat them just because I’m afraid they’ll leave. Cong, I do look up to you, and I really can’t stand people using me to hurt you. I will be with you sooner or later. Instead of deceiving them and letting them continue to misunderstand that what I feel for you is friendship and only letting them see my feelings for you after contributing to my box office, it would be better for them to recognize the situation earlier and stop the damage in time.”

This seems to make sense, but there was something that didn’t feel right.

“Cong.”

Qi Cong looked at Gu Xun across the screen.

“If it wasn’t for the idea that no matter where you live in the world or who you live with, you wouldn’t be able to get rid of my shadow, I wouldn’t have become an actor in the first place.”

Qi Cong was stunned.

“I will be responsible for my choices and actions, and will give an account to those who need it. “Heaven Asked?”is not a movie that relies on fan support to get results. Its main audience is thousands of ordinary people who love movies. For me, being an actor is just a job and fans are the customers that I need to serve properly with my work, and you are my private life.” Gu Xun smiled again, “Did you see that? Many people are praising you and people’s misunderstandings about you are slowly decreasing as they are getting to know the real you. I’m happy because I know you’re one step closer to me, and one day closer to the day you will nod your head to me.”

“Cong, I will organize everything around me and wait for you to come. If there’s anything I can do to help you walk faster, I’ll do it.”

After ending the call with Gu Xun, Qi Cong fumed for a long time. He didn’t know how long it took him but he finally took a deep breath and raised his hand to wipe his face. Then he picked up his phone and opened the trending page on Weibo.

The public opinion in the early morning had almost fermented by the afternoon, so there were a lot of discussions about matters on the trending topics. The fake materials put pressure and added drama. The split personality matter had long been cleared up and the hot topic of discussion on the internet at this time was “Qi Cong is unexpectedly such aQi Cong” and “Who on earth tried to smear Qi Cong?”

The reports and photos sent by Gu Xun were forwarded by many people, and the videos of him participating in various competitions and activities in the past were dug up one after another. Remarks such as “Oh, my God,” and “Qi Cong used to be so powerful” were abound.

His bad reputation was quietly improving.

But in order to facilitate it, Gu Xun lost some of his fans.

There was also a Weibo message posted by Shen Jia that morning. Probably because of Zhao Zhenxun’s instruction, Shen Jia didn’t dare post anything too emotional and only posted a slightly restrained sentence: If he hadn’t been sick, Brother Cong would be a graduate student at Haiwen University by now. If only I could have worked a little harder, then I would have also taken the exam and stayed in Haicheng attending Haiwen University together with Brother Cong.

Haiwen University was the best university in Haicheng and one of the top five universities in China. Shen Jia studied in a university in Beishi, which was not bad, but it was still worse than Haiwen University.

Qi Cong could almost feel Shen Jia’s grievance for him when he typed this Weibo, wanting to speak for him but he didn’t know what to say.

His phone shook and a Wechat message popped up.

Mom: Cong are you alright? Call your mother back when you’re done.

A sour emotion came out of nowhere. Qi Cong avoided the cameraman in the corner who was pointing his camera at him, straightened up and reopened the curtains, allowing the sunlight to envelop him.

The media was no longer downstairs. They were probably cleared out by the security guards.

Qi Cong took a deep breath and dialed Qi Yin’s phone number.

Everyone was supporting him in a good direction, and some people were even willing to lose their own interests for this. He couldn’t fail them, absolutely couldn’t.

 

……

 

Three hours passed in a flash and all staff members returned to their position. Everyone noticed that the aura around Qi Cong had changed.

Zhao Zhenxun looked Qi Cong up and down and asked, “Ready?”

Qi Cong nodded. “Yes, sorry for keeping everyone waiting.”

“Then let’s start straight away.”

Everyone took their places. Just as the recording was about to start, the door of the recording room was suddenly pushed open and Cao Dewen stepped in. He took a look at the room and smiled as he raised a copy of the lyrics in his hand. “Looks like I am just in time? Little Cong, I’ve changed the lyrics slightly, come and take a look.”

Qi Cong was surprised, but he quickly put down his headphones and walked over to take the new lyrics from Cao Dewen’s hands.

Two minutes later, he raised his eyes to look at Cao Dewen.

Cao Devon asked, “How is it?”

“Thanks…” Qi Cong slowed down a bit and smiled at Cao Dewen. “Thank you Mr. Cao, this version of the lyrics…is great.”

…….

 

The recording officially began. Qi  Cong put on headphones and looked at the newly changed lyrics on the table. He thought of Gu Xun’s Weibo and Shen Jia’s help during this period of time as well as of Qi Yin and Lin Hui’s relief on the phone just now and his own emotions settled little by little.  He closed his eyes and opened his lips when reaching his cue in the song.

All in one go.

When leaving the studio, Cao Dewen gave Qi Cong a business card and said, “Practice more, learn more, relax your mind, and don’t put too much pressure on yourself. I look forward to our next collaboration.”

Qi Cong solemnly put away his business card and bowed to Cao Dewen. “Thank you, Mr. Cao.”

Cao Dewen supported him and then patted Qi Cong on the arm with a smile.

 

Edited by: Antiope1

 

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