Chapter 23 Love Letters: Pretty Girls Are in High Demand on Weekends
Back in the dressing room, Chen Jingchi pulled a swivel chair over with one hand and sat down, saying to the makeup artist, "Let's see how the makeup is done."
The makeup artist leaned closer and asked, "Did you just eat something? Why is your lipstick gone?"
Male celebrities usually use understated nude lipsticks. Chen Jingchi's natural lip color is light, so when the lipstick is rubbed off, the original base color is revealed, which is quite noticeable on his lips.
"It brushed against me."
Chen Jingchi looked up at the makeup mirror, and the scent of the girl's hand still lingered on his nose, warm and faintly fragrant.
He saw the panicked expression on her face again, just as he had hoped. Once was a coincidence, twice was a low-probability event, but Chen Jingchi really wanted to know if there would be a third or fourth time.
During their time together, Chen Jingchi gleaned several fragments of her emotions, believing that the more fragments he collected, the more complete a picture of her could be pieced together.
He was looking forward to seeing the results of his work.
When Du Heng came back from the bathroom, he saw him touching up his makeup and asked, "Are you done? Let's go say hello next door."
The artists who came tonight are all senior figures in the music industry to Chen Jingchi. When he first arrived, Du Heng told him that this was a good opportunity to make connections and that he should be enthusiastic when meeting people.
After reapplying his lipstick, Chen Jingchi stood up and asked, "Did they come together?"
It took Du Heng a couple of seconds to realize who he meant by "they," and he replied, "Yes, you took leave. They still have to go to class this afternoon."
Chen Jingchi nodded and remained silent.
*
The lounge was packed with people, and Zhou Yu tried to keep his head down and find a corner to minimize his presence.
Although she has become much stronger mentally, she still habitually feels uncomfortable in crowded places, always feeling that countless eyes are watching her intentionally or unintentionally.
When Zhou Yu was unpacking the disposable chopsticks, he noticed a faint lipstick mark on the palm of his right hand, almost imperceptible.
Thinking about how I left it behind, my ears started to burn again.
No matter how strong a person's personality or temper is, their lips are soft.
The thought suddenly popped into Zhou Yu's head, and he screamed silently, wondering if he had been bewitched.
Chen Jingchi is acting strangely, and so is she.
She took a tissue and gently wiped the lipstick stain off her palm, but then she couldn't help but think of those smiling eyes and the tingling sensation of his warm breath on her palm.
After quickly finishing her lunch, Zhou Yu escaped the lounge and returned to the audience seats. Seeing her return, Xu Yue looked up from his phone and asked, "Where did you go?"
He came back to life.
Zhou Yu felt no pressure when talking to Xu Yue; this was the normal way to communicate. She breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Let's go eat."
"Oh, a celebrity restaurant," Xu Yue said with a smile. "Is it bad? I heard it's all low in oil and salt, and doesn't have much flavor."
"It's alright." That's what she said, but in reality, Zhou Yu was preoccupied with her own thoughts, and she ate in a hurry, not tasting anything at all.
Xu Yue took a bottle of mineral water from the side, unscrewed it, and handed it to her: "I haven't drunk from this before."
"Thank you." Zhou Yu took the bottle and drank about half of it.
"Did you see him?" Xu Yue asked casually.
Zhou Yu almost choked on his water, tightened the cap, and stopped drinking: "I saw it."
"He's really cool, isn't he?" Xu Yue looked towards the stage, then changed the subject, "He's been waiting for this opportunity for a long time."
Zhou Yu turned to look at him and heard him continue, "Singing his own works on stage is of great significance to him."
Chen Jingchi sang several covers on variety shows. Even after withdrawing from the competition and releasing the single "By My Own Choice," he didn't have a formal stage performance. Zhou Yu guessed that the song's message was too extreme and not suitable for public performance.
"Didn't you write any songs when you were in a band?" Zhou Yu asked.
“I wrote it before I formed a band,” Xu Yue said. “But singing my own songs wasn’t as lively as singing well-known pop songs, so I compromised.”
Zhou Yu thought about the stage performance of "Run Away," where when Chen Jingchi sang it, more than half the audience could sing along. Ultimately, it's because the band's influence is too small; even with original songs, their low popularity means they can't make a splash.
It's no wonder that at the New Year's Eve party and the final graduation party for senior high school students, Echo of the Tide had already disbanded, and Chen Jingchi performed solo, still singing popular songs.
He had already written the song, but he didn't release it.
Zhou Yu gradually began to understand Chen Jingchi's past. She thought, fortunately, Xu Yue was a talkative person who could share his past with her without reservation.
“He should be quite grateful to you.” Xu Yue smiled at her. “This is the first time I’ve heard him praise someone for being talented.”
Zhou Yu was a beat slow: "Me?"
“Yes,” Xu Yue added, “words to praise you.”
Hearing Chen Jingchi's evaluation of her from others, Zhou Yu was at a loss for how to react. It was only after a long time, until the live broadcast officially started, that she realized that all her trial-and-error attempts had inadvertently hit the mark with Chen Jingchi. She was quite lucky.
Chen Jingchi took the stage at 9:05.
All the lights were focused on him, and the silver glitter on his suit sparkled. He walked slowly and calmly onto the center stage, accepting the audience's gaze.
When the host announced that the next song would be the debut of a new song, Zhou Yu heard enthusiastic cheers from the audience behind her. She turned around and was surprised to see some people holding up light boards with Chen Jingchi's name on them, which were very conspicuous among the light boards of other celebrities.
When Chen Jingchi posted on Weibo at noon today, she clicked into his homepage and found that his number of followers had increased significantly in a short period of time after the release of his new album, and was now close to four million.
The numbers alone don't tell you anything. It wasn't until she heard the audience singing along at the concert, and even fans of other celebrities were singing along, that she truly felt the immense popularity of Chen Jingchi's new album.
In front of the camera, Chen Jingchi remained aloof and didn't try to please the audience. His interactions consisted of only a simple greeting and a couple of sentences. Zhou Yu listened attentively to the three songs, which lasted for more than ten minutes, without losing focus for even a second.
The variety show "Hear Your Voice" only broadcasts songs that have been edited; Chen Jingchi let her listen to the unedited album demo version in the recording studio, but that was ultimately a perfect product of recording line by line and piecing together the best of each line. Only by listening to the sound system live can you truly appreciate the singer's strength.
Even someone like Zhou Yu, who doesn't know much about music, could tell that many of the singers in the lead were lip-syncing or had their backing vocals turned up very high.
Chen Jingchi sang live with his microphone on, and his voice didn't have much reverb, making it sound dry. He relied entirely on his vocal technique to carry the performance.
A month ago, at the New Year's Eve party at the end of September, Chen Jingchi sang his first released original song in front of an audience of less than a thousand people in the auditorium.
Tonight, on this stage filled with anticipation, Chen Jingchi sang with unbridled passion, presenting a visual and auditory feast to everyone online and offline with the utmost sincerity.
After the performance, he bowed deeply to the audience and remained seated for a long time. Only when the lights dimmed and his name was called out repeatedly in the studio did Chen Jingchi finally leave the stage from the side.
Zhou Yu was still immersed in the singing she had just heard when the host came on stage to give his introduction, and she hadn't come to her senses yet.
"Zhou Yu?" Xu Yue waved his hand in front of her eyes and said, "Are you still going to watch? You need to be back in the dorm before ten o'clock."
She blinked and asked, "Shall we leave now?"
"There's nothing much to see beyond this." Xu Yue stood up. "Let's go."
Zhou Yu followed him out of his seat and into the backstage area. The stars who had performed earlier had already left, and the once crowded dressing room was finally empty.
As they emerged from backstage, Du Heng's car was parked at the back entrance. Zhou Yu saw Xu Yue get into the passenger seat first, so she could only follow Chen Jingchi into the back seat.
As the car started, Zhou took out his work badge, which he had been keeping in his pocket, and handed it to Chen Jingchi.
He glanced down at it, caught it, and tossed it to Du Heng in the front seat.
For a brief second or two, their fingers touched, and the other's body temperature was transmitted from their fingertips. Zhou Yu withdrew her hand somewhat awkwardly. Fortunately, the car was dark and no one could see her face clearly.
Du Heng put the employee ID card in the storage box and said to her, "Xiao Zhou, let me take you back to school first, it's getting late."
Zhou wanted to thank him.
Du Heng then turned to Chen Jingchi and said, "I'll send you the photos later. Remember to post them on Weibo and write a few words of thanks to your fans. There are quite a few people who like you in the audience today."
Chen Jingchi simply hummed in response.
Xu Yue suddenly remembered something and said, "Why didn't they say we could bring light boards? We should have held one up in the front row too."
“Those were all smuggled in,” Du Heng laughed. “Security regulations prohibit bringing them in, but those little girls have plenty of ways to hide them.”
Xu Yue laughed, "We don't need to go through security checks."
Du Heng chimed in, "I'll order one for you next time."
Xu Yue turned his head and asked, "Will Zhou Yu come again next time?"
When his name was called, Zhou Yu subconsciously looked in Chen Jingchi's direction, but unexpectedly met his gaze. Chen Jingchi chuckled: "Why are you looking at me? He's asking you."
His words exposed her little trick, making Zhou Yu feel a little uncomfortable. She replied in a low voice, "I don't know."
This was clearly said to Chen Jingchi, not Xu Yue.
When Xu Yue turned around, he and Du Heng exchanged a glance, both suppressing their laughter and remaining silent.
A short while later, the car stopped at the school gate. Du Heng unlocked the car and said to her, "Be careful on the road."
Xu Yue turned to look at her: "Bye-bye."
Zhou paused as she was about to close the car door, and replied with a "Bye-bye."
A few minutes after Zhou Yu left, Du Heng turned around and drove off, deliberately coughing twice, saying without naming names, "Why are you treating people colder than you treat your fans?"
Xu Yue said with a smile, "It's not that we're being cold. We're just worried people will go hungry, so we're calling them to eat."
Chen Jingchi replied ambiguously, "You know that too."
Xu Yue found his reaction amusing, as it was the first time he had ever seen it, and deliberately said, "Who told you to give me her WeChat?"
"That's not being reasonable. Do you expect me to relay messages between you two?" Du Heng said, then found it amusing and asked, "What were you talking about?"
"We didn't chat for long," Xu Yue said. "I didn't dare to talk much more."
Chen Jingchi wasn't stupid; he understood what they meant. He leaned against the window with his left hand and said nonchalantly, "It's nothing."
"Hmm." Xu Yue, barely able to contain himself, asked, "Should we invite her on Saturday?"
Du Heng secretly glanced at him in the rearview mirror.
Chen Jingchi looked out the window and said after a few seconds, "We'll talk about it later."
"What if they have other plans by then?" Du Heng said. "Pretty girls are in high demand on weekends, aren't they?"
Chen Jingchi didn't respond.
*
Just as Zhou Yu arrived at the dormitory building, his phone rang. It was a message from Chen Jingchi.
Chen: Are you free on Saturday?
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Author's note: Thank you, everyone, for the nutrient solution!!!
Reader "Eggplant Shrimp" added 14 units of nutrient solution to the water.
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Reader "Qiqiqiqi" watered the plant with nutrient solution +1
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