On the other hand, inside the car Qi Cong knew that he probably saw incorrectly and still couldn’t help but look towards the rearview mirror.

They were really similar–that shoulder outline and height.

“Thirty-two!” Shen Jia suddenly jumped over excitedly, leaning over Qi Cong and excitedly gesturing with his fingers. “I counted, the number should be thirty-two! I only counted the ones who brought signs and held up cameras. There might also be some people who followed us with their cell phones, but I wasn’t sure If they were fans or passersby who were attracted by the commotion so I didn’t count them. Anyway the number might be higher than what I counted!”

Qi Cong returned to his senses, unable to keep up with what Shen Jia was thinking. He asked, “What?”

“I said the total number of fans who picked you up this time is 32! When I first started out, not many people knew me, not to mention any fans picking me at the airport. By the way, your fans also made a lot of cheering videos for you, have you seen them?”

Cheer videos?

Qi Cong shook his head. “No.”

“I’ve collected them all, I’ll show them to you!” Shen Jia took out his cell phone and quickly opened Le Play. Selecting one of the most liked videos from his favorites, he clicked play and gave his phone to Qi Cong.

The intro of “A New Life” played in the car, with a large amount of pop-up comments spreading out in front of Qi Cong’s eyes without warning.

“Go for it!” “I misunderstood you before, sorry, please cheer up in the future!” “Thank you for not being beaten down, I’m happy to really know you like this.” “Congratulations to the newcomer!”, “Qi Cong, nice to meet you. Please give us some advice in the future.” , “This video isn’t good at all I only watched it more than 300 times and cried more than 100 times.”

The text was dense and overlapping, covering the screen tightly so Qi Cong could only vaguely see some pop-up in gaps and some white hand-drawn animation lines.

“The title of this video is ‘Qi Cong, I am sorry that I once called you a coward.’ The video clip was made by a big account that once called you a hateful person who should be hated.”  Shen Jia pointed at his cell phone and said, “Brother Cong, look.”

Qi Cong  looked at Shen Jia, who was constantly urging, rubbed his fingers against the temperature that belonged to Shen Jia on the phone case and bowed his head to carefully look at the video.

The comment section became slightly less covered in words, revealing the video picture, and a person appeared on the screen using a black-and-white filter.

A line of lyrics from Qi Cong’s song sounded, “but it feels like ink, it’s difficult to polish them as you carry them through time and space.” The person in the picture wandered ignorantly in the bustling world and suddenly bumped into another short man wearing a crown necklace. Then they walked forward with each other.

The pop-up screen was once again buzzing with activity.

“Jia Jia is coming out!”

“Hahaha, Jia Jia’s miniature is so cute!”

Qi Cong couldn’t help but look at Shen Jia next to him. Shen Jia looked a little embarrassed as he urged him, “Look quickly! Look, this mini is really well drawn.”

Qi Cong then withdrew his eyes again.

The video wasn’t long, only the length of the song “A New Life”. The content of the video was actually very  similar to that of the “A New Life” MV, except that all the characters changed from birds to black and white mini characters. The metaphorical fog used in the MV turned into the image of a group of evil demons.

What distinguishes this video from the MV was that the bad things Qi Cong experienced in the past three years, which were blurred in the MV of “A New Life,” were shown clearly in this video.

The short man in the video was picked up by the devil after being sick and his true self was erased. He was then taken away from his parents, separated from his friends and was bullied in various ways. Unknowingly, the second chorus ended and the man in the video died and came back to life, finally leaving the devil and returning to his family and friends. After recovering from the illness, the ignorant man with amnesia was immersed in wind and rain again without any warning.

He tried to take a new step forward and set off, but was knocked to the ground again and again by the accusations of the Jiang family, smears and various media’s explosive gossip, the biased attacks of public opinion and the huge network boycott. Again and again, as the man stood up, he was knocked down again. This made his road to a new life very difficult, and he gradually became bruised and battered, his figure getting lighter and lighter, almost dissipating before he could reach the starting point of his new life.

Finally, the last chorus came. The person in a crown necklace and people representing his parents, as well as an unmarked person suddenly appeared as they together supported and protected the bruised and battered man as they ran together towards the glowing new life line.

At the end of the video, the small man wore the crown necklace given by his friend and armor given by his parents as he rushed past the glowing starting point.

A dazzling white light filled the screen, making color completely reappear in a once black and white video. The low, emotional singing fell back,  and the small man in the armor slowly turned into Qi Cong, sitting in the interview room and introduced himself seriously towards the camera. “Hello, I am Qi Cong.”

At the end of the video, there was a lot of crying  and Shen Jia who was watching the video with Qi Cong also sniffled. He reached out for his phone and said, “There are more. You should check them out Brother Cong.”

Another video began to play. The title of the video was “You have a nice smile”. The atmosphere of this video was relatively warm. The video began with Qi Cong sitting in the interview room making the host smile with his words.

The pop-up screen was full of licking the screen comments and rainbow farts. Qi Cong glanced at the video and then concentrated on Shen Jia.

Shen Jia leaned over, looking intently at the phone screen, his eyes a little red. Yet his tone was excited as he explained, “Brother Cong, your interview video and live from that day were watched countless times by your fans. They even made a smile compilation from it and each play count is super high. It looks like they really like the way you smile. Look Brother Cong, your fans really like you!”

Qi Cong moved his eyes back to the phone screen. He watched as his own smiling face flashed on the screen. The pop-up comments were filled with confessions and rainbow farts and he finally understood Shen Jia’s purpose for making him watch it.

His best friend was a bit dumb and not very good at talking, so he will always use somewhat silly, but cute ways to comfort him.

He was such a good friend.

After another video ended, Shen Jia hurriedly clicked the next one. Qi Cong saw that Shen Jia’s trumpet account was full of videos about him and he tightened his grip on the mobile phone.

For such a good friend, he should make arrangements that never let the other party be hurt by him again.

Edited by: Antiope1

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