Guo Xiaoli hurriedly arrived after the press conference ended, and Qi Lu was waiting for her at the entrance of the meeting room. Guo Xiaoli breathed a sigh of relief upon learning that, aside from being late, Tang Zhen had performed reasonably well on stage. “Where is Wen Xin?” she asked. Qi Lu gestured towards the meeting room.
As journalists poured out of the room, they were engaged in various discussions.
“They didn’t even allow questions. I prepared so many.”
“Can’t you see it’s only been a few days since his suicide attempt? And you still want to ask questions.”
“I feel like Tang Zhen is hanging by a thread. He looks so distant and detached. It’s too early for him to show up in public.”
“What can he do? The suicide incident caused a huge uproar. If he doesn’t appear, it will only escalate further. If it gets settled in a bad way, he won’t even have any endorsements left. Mattias still has a bunch of them. He’s an idol, not someone who relies on negative news to make a living.”
“In my opinion, if someone really wants to commit suicide, they should go all the way. Surviving would be too awkward. Even sitting inside just now, I felt restless.”
“Tang Zhen doesn’t seem awkward at all, why are you feeling awkward?”
“I feel awkward too. He has to apologize. But Yun Laoban is quite loyal, being so busy and still finding time to accompany him… Why are you all laughing?”
“Don’t you see the level of media that came today? Such a big scene, what kind of topic is this? What does he lose?”
“This is only for this time. Right now, the suicide incident is still fresh. I bet next time, he should satisfied if half the people show up.”
Guo Xiaoli glanced down and noticed that they were carrying paper bags, and some had red wine tucked in their bags. Qi Lu squeezed from the reporters and went inside the room, while Tang Zhen was walking towards the stage. Qi Lu went to assist him. Wen Xin spotted Guo Xiaoli and hurriedly walked over, about to wave and greet her.
“Where did these gifts come from?” Guo Xiaoli asked directly.
Wen Xin hesitated for a moment and then said, “Oh, um… well…”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Xeb Wljbil ujnf tfg j rafgc ibbx, jcv Qfc Wlc lwwfvljafis rqliifv atf yfjcr, “Pa’r cba… wjlcis yfmjerf kf kfgf ijaf obg rb ibcu, jcv Kjcu Itfc Ojbrtl kjr ralii gfmbnfglcu. P kjr jogjlv atja lo rbwfatlcu kfca kgbcu veglcu tlr olgra jqqfjgjcmf, remt jc lwqbgajca fnfca, jcv lo atf wfvlj mglalmlhfv tlw tjgrtis jujlc, atfc ktja kbeiv tjqqfc lc atf oeaegf…”
“Just tell me, where did they come from?”
“I… I just felt that the gifts we prepared earlier wouldn’t be enough to silence the media. And then Zhou Zike was there, so I told him, and he took Qi Lu in the car to the gift department of Lan Zhuang Hotel, and… and got them…”
Guo Xiaoli said, “Am I an idiot? Do you think I wouldn’t know that Lan Zhuang’s paper bag has something to do with Zhou Zike?”
“Well, now that you know, what else do you want to ask me?”
“Why was he ‘coincidentally’ at A-zhen’s house, and why did he use your phone to talk to me?”
Wen Xin pouted and was on the verge of tears. “I… he… he told me before that if I encounter something I can’t solve, I should call him, and he would help me… Tang Zhen Laoshi was still unconscious at the time, and I panicked…”
Guo Xiaoli laughed in anger and poked Wen Xin’s forehead hard with her finger, causing her to tilt her head back. “Wen Xin, oh Wen Xin… Zhou Zike? Helping you? It’s amazing how you came up with that.”
Wen Xin had a mournful expression on her face and was a little annoyed. “Why not? Can’t he do it?”
Guo Xiaoli said, “What does he really want to do? Is he finding excuses again to avoid working and apologizing to the public?”
Wen Xin immediately waved her hands. “He did it. You’ve already said those things about him. How could he not do?”
Guo Xiaoli glared at Wen Xin and immediately dialed Xiao Yang’s number on her phone. Just an hour ago, Wen Xin had been crying to Guo Xiaoli over the phone, saying that Tang Zhen Laoshi still hadn’t woken up, and she didn’t know what to do. She wondered if they should forcefully bring him to the press conference and let the reporters capture his unconscious state. Before Guo Xiaoli could say anything, a cold and indifferent voice came from the other end of the phone, saying, “Tang Zhen can’t make it today, cancel the press conference.”
His tone sounded more like an announcement or command to Guo Xiaoli, rather than a discussion. Guo Xiaoli realized who was on the other end and was at a loss for words, a mix of laughter and anger. She glanced at the time and saw that it was already past 3:30 PM. “You have work at 4 PM, why aren’t you going?”
Zhou Zike hesitated, “I…”
“Zhou Zike, if you have any sense of responsibility as a man, you will go to work right now and apologize! The company can handle everything else, you don’t need to worry about it!”
Xiao Yang didn’t answer the phone. Guo Xiaoli glared at Wen Xin once again and called the person in charge of the radio station. The person on the other end picked up the call and burst into laughter, saying, “Hey, Guo-jie, yes, yes, we’re here. Zhou Zike and the others are recording, and it’s going really well. Thank you so much for this.”
As they reached the reading of the letters segment, all the letters today were related to guest Zhou Zike. In fact, starting from last night, the official Weibo account @Midnight Train suddenly announced that KAIser’s Captain Zhou Zike would be a guest on this episode of Midnight Train and would apologize for the awards ceremony incident. After the announcement, the show’s email inbox was flooded with letters. It took a lot of effort for the production team just to select the letters to be read on the show.
Xiao Yang’s expression twisted as he read these letters.
As the host, it was customary for him to read the audience’s letters. Usually, when there was a guest present, the content of the fan letters didn’t vary much. They were either long confessions, lengthy questions, or lengthy expressions of emotions. Xiao Yang had read many letters before, but for some reason, he felt that Zhou Zike’s fans were particularly nauseating. The confessions they wrote were so sappy that he couldn’t help but raise his head and glance at Zhou Zike. Zhou Zike, on the other hand, showed no reaction, leaning against the backrest and listening expressionlessly. Xiao Yang, however, couldn’t handle it. He read sentences like “Zike, I love your eyebrows and eyes, I love your smiling face,” and he wondered what kind of smiling face they were talking about and why he had never seen it. When he read, “You were born in this world as a gift from heaven, so that we can spend our lives loving you,” Xiao Yang’s stomach churned, and he almost vomited his lunch. He felt that Zhou Zike’s birth in this world and joining the same group as him was a test from the heavens, deliberately making his life difficult.
The question and answer segment would be better. Xiao Yang had a question in mind, “Zike, why don’t you sing solo songs? It’s not that you can’t sing, you even sang a short part publicly on Roman Online, and I’ve listened to that segment countless times. I want to hear you sing other songs.”
After Xiao Yang asked the question, he looked up and signaled Zhou Zike. Zhou Zike replied, “I can’t sing other songs.”
Xiao Yang raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.
“The next question. Mr. Zhou Zike, I have something to ask you. I’m Wen…” Xiao Yang paused in the middle of reading the letter and without looking up, he handed the printed email to Zhou Zike. He said into the microphone, “There seems to be a problem with this letter. The text at the end is unclear. Let’s move on to the next one.”
Zhou Zike glanced at the paper and understood it with just a few keywords.
Wenjun, a man surnamed Zhou, scumbag, unfaithful, truth.
Xiao Yang watched as Zhou Zike crumpled the paper and tossed it aside.
Towards the end of the show, during the usual casual chat segment, it was time to greet the audience, bid them good night, and wrap up the last few minutes. Xiao Yang turned off his microphone, signaling Zhou Zike to say a few kind words to bring the show to a close. Zhou Zike stared at the microphone for a moment and said softly, “This time, my immature behavior at the Asian Music Awards brought some consequences to KAIser—”
Xiao Yang was stunned and looked up at Zhou Zike’s face as if he had seen a ghost.
“…to the company and other members, I apologize,” Zhou Zike continued, his gaze lowered. “I also apologize to the fans for disappointing you.”
Guo Xiaoli called Xiao Yang, and the latter shouted, “What the hell is going on? I didn’t even leave a segment for him to apologize! Guo-jie, what did you do? Did you drug him? Is he on the wrong medication?”
At the end of work, it happened to be mealtime. When Zhou Zike was about to leave, Xiao Yang called him and asked why he came alone and where Qi Xing was.
Zhou Zike took out his phone and checked. Qi Xing hadn’t called him since he returned to China. Zhou Zike used to want to keep Qi Xing far away every day, so he didn’t pay attention to Qi Xing’s absence these past few days. It was Xiao Yang who noticed it first.
“I don’t know,” Zhou Zike said.
Xiao Yang said, “Yesterday, I went to see Tang Zhen Laoshi.”
Zhou Zike paused and turned to look at him.
“I told him, ‘Tang Zhen Laoshi, when you came to the company in the middle of the night looking for Zhou Zike, you really scared me,'” Xiao Yang said.
Zhou Zike stared at Xiao Yang’s face.
“Tang Zhen apologized to me and asked me not to tell Guo-jie, to keep it a secret for him,” Xiao Yang said, smiling and spreading his hands, as if to say, “See, I didn’t lie to you.”
Author’s Note:
Although this involves spoilers… Xu Wenjun is a comedian who loves to spend her time online after work, replacing names and creating jokes. While Xiao Zhou did break up with her, he’s not really that bad of a person.
