CH 2

I’ll post 3 chapters for today, as this is a new series after all~

Jiang Xun’s interview was mainly about the World Championship that his team just won. He had led his team to overcome all obstacles, and won glory for the country by being the crowned champion.

Ever since they returned to China, interviews about the team have never stopped.

This magazine had always wanted to do an exclusive interview with Jiang Xun. They had to call in all favors at their disposal to successfully invite Jiang Xun.

“God Xun, do you have any plans now that the tournament is over?” asked the magazine reporter.

“Our team has a week-long vacation. We will go to a small town in Northern Europe to relax. After that, we will continue to train for the next tournament.” Jiang Xun took a glance at his watch. The time for the interview was almost up.

“Only for a week? Don’t you want to rest for longer?”

“No.” Jiang Xun answered with a smile, “you see, e-sports may look brilliant and simple on the surface. The audience may only see the brilliant skills and amazing outplays, but they don’t realize the work behind the scenes – the sweat and blood poured during many gruelling hours of training” 

The interview started to come to an end.

“Can I ask you one more personal question?” The magazine reporter glanced nervously at the interview task the editor-in-chief had just sent her, it was quite a daunting task.

“Tell me.” Jiang Xun motioned her to ask.

“We have heard a rumor that your family…” the reporter trailed off.

“It’s true.” Jiang Xun said openly, “it’s not a secret. The kid outside – the traffic star who is preparing for your magazine’s cover photoshoot, I mean the one with a bad temper, is my younger brother Jiang Ying. That is what you want me to confirm, right?”

Jiang Xun looked comfortable answering, meanwhile, the reporter was visibly excited by such news.  “Then I will put this in the interview as a little easter egg.”

“Sure, whatever you want.” Jiang Xun answered with a little smile, making the reporter girl blushed as a response.

Although he was an e-sports player, Jiang Xun’s appearance can be said to be impeccable. He was 1.87 meters tall, with perfect body proportions  and handsome facial features.

The magazine reporter was a little excited looking at her interview notes.

Jiang Xun was something like a legend. This was not limited to his status in the e-sports industry, but also because of his family background. His father was the renowned actor Jiang Zheng, and his mother was the famous screenwriter Song Jingxi.

Looking at his background, Jiang Xun was someone who was supposed to be a big hit in the entertainment circle. But instead, he chose a more difficult path and made a name for himself.

“Thank you for participating in our interview.” The little reporter thanked him with a flushed face.

“You’re welcome,” Jiang Xun said. After the interview was officially finished, he asked,, “why are there two people on the cover this time? Are you planning for a double-cover issue this time?”

“No.” The supervisor who overheard his question answered and explained, “Jiang Ying is going to be the cover for this issue. Gu Wei is for the next issue instead.”

When Jiang Xun got out of his interview, Gu Wei seemed to have left. Leaving only Jiang Ying who was still filming in the studio, so Jiang Xun waved goodbye at Jiang Ying, then left for home first.

Just as Gu Wei returned to the dormitory, he received a call from his manager.

“Zhao-jie, what’s the matter?” Gu Wei answered the call.

“The company spent money to take down the hot search for you.” Zhao-jie said with a businesslike attitude. “Remember to go to the airport early tomorrow. The recording of the fifth episode of “Wandering Together” is about to start, and the location has been abruptly changed to a small town in Northern Europe. If you perform better this time, you can turn it around. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a sense of variety show, but you can’t keep attracting all sorts of negative publicity this time.”

“Okay, I will make sure it won’t happen again,” Gu Wei listened carefully.

Sister Zhao added quickly, “well, you should pay more attention. If you get into hot search for another controversy, the company won’t help you remove it. You have to solve the problem yourself.”

“Understood, Zhao-jie,” Gu Wei promised, “I promise not to cause anymore trouble, and this issue will not be repeated.” 

The manager hung up the call, and Gu Wei could only hear the busy tone from the receiver. He was still a little worried about this morning’s hot search, so he opened Weibo to check it.

Sure enough, the hot search from the morning has been withdrawn, and the scolding has gradually subsided.

He carefully opened the Weibo of his nemesis Jiang Ying as well. Since the company gave him an endorsement that Jiang Ying wanted last year, Jiang Ying had always regarded him as his “archnemesis”.

Every time the two had anything to do with each other, their fans would definitely get into online discourse. This time, the magazine scheduled his photoshoot ahead of Jiang Ying, making Jiang Ying have to wait for a while. Gu Wei really wanted to see if Jiang Ying had any response about this, such as trying to incite another fandom war. 

However, there was nothing.

On the Weibo of this irascible brat, the latest one was a selfie Jiang Ying posted three days ago. All was calm and nothing happened.

His ill-tempered nemesis, the one and only, Jiang Ying, was actually let this matter go.

At the Jiang family’s villa in H City, Jiang Ying was complaining melodramatically to his mother.

“Mom, do you know what it means to have a nemesis?” Jiang Ying whined with belligerence. “It is a situation where there can only be one who is left standing alive. It is him or me. If he lives, then I die, and vice versa. We fight over fans, endorsement jobs, and resources. But more importantly, I can’t lose at all. It’s not that I’m stingy or petty and all of that, it’s not that I’m afraid of not being popular, it’s about a man’s dignity – my dignity.”

“But! Listen! In the end, my brother betrayed me, his precious little brother. He said that because Gu Wei is his fan, he had to protect my nemesis! He didn’t even let me post on Weibo!” Jiang Ying continued his rant with equal amount of vigor.

“You always have to post every little thing on Weibo. Just think how many people you offended after you became popular – who do you think has to remove all your controversial hot searches? Your pile of black material is all caused by your awful temper.” Jiang Xun said in a scolding tone, “don’t tell people that you are the son of the actor Jiang Zheng when you go out.”

Song Jingxi got a headache from all the bickering. “Auntie1not really blood-related aunt, more like household helper / housemaid of sort Zhang made buttered crab. It’s already on the dining table, go and eat it by yourself.” 

Jiang Ying ran away immediately, and the living room was finally quiet with only Jiang Xun and his mother Song Jingxi stayed behind.

“How have you been lately?” Song Jingxi began to ask about Jiang Xun’s recent situation.

“Very good.” Jiang Xun had heard this kind of question too much, and answered it smoothly as he usually did, “My team is on the rise, and we just won a world championship.”

“Who asked you about your game?” Song Jingxi had a headache hearing her son’s answer, “what about your relationship status? Have you found the right one?”

“No.” Jiang Xun spread his hands, “I’ve been staring at my team all day long, and none of them catch my eye. Besides, I have my hand full with my career, so where’s the time to look for the right one?”

“I just know what you were going to say.” Song Jingxi lamented, “I have found you a good kid! Not a bad person to spend your life with.”

“Don’t.” Jiang Xun hurriedly refused, “It’s not that you don’t know that I don’t…”

“Don’t like girls? What’s the problem?” Song Jingxi had been in the entertainment industry for a long time, and she had seen a lot of turmoil. “Your mother knows about this. I’ve heard that people belonging to the sexual minority should make plans earlier to settle down early.” 

“This boy I’m setting you up with is the son of a screenwriter I know. He is a very good child. I saw him once, and he is also good-looking. I heard from his father that his sexual orientation is the same as yours.”

“I… “Jiang Xun wanted to say that liking the same sex doesn’t mean that he’ll agree with just any guy. 

Song Jingxi interrupted his words again, “don’t refute it so quickly. I’ll give you the kid’s WeChat account. you can add him first and chat a bit. If you two are compatible, Mom will make an engagement for you first. There’s no rush to get married, but we can at least have an appointment and talk about the future.”

Jiang Ying hadn’t finished eating the crab yet, but Jiang Xun had already started to miss him.

Jiang Xun refused, but he was helpless against his mother’s insistence. So, he got the WeChat number of the “good boy” from his mother.

[Please Give Me Money If You Love Me], this name seems quite… special.

“Remember to actually add him.” Song Jingxi reminded, “His dad already told him about this, so he knows you will add him. Be sure you have a proper conversation.”

“Understood.” Jiang Xun felt a headache starting to grow.

“Ah, that’s right.” Song Jingxi remembered something, and said mysteriously, “Here, let me give you a photo of this kid first. Feast your eyes on this…”

Jiang Xun was speechless. “Am I already so desperate that looking at a photo is enough to…”

His words stopped abruptly because he clicked on the photo sent by Song Jingxi–

It was the youth he had met earlier today. It seemed to be Gu Wei, his fan.

What a coincidence.

In the photo, Gu Wei is dressed casually – he is wearing a white shirt at home, without makeup, looking clean and refreshed while bathing in the sunlight. This photo seems to be a candid shot. The look Gu Wei had showed a slight surprise, it seemed that this was taken a moment before the boy had time to escape.

Jiang Xun was silent.

Song Jingxi was right, Gu Wei in the photo was indeed very satisfying for his eyes.

Gu Wei, the lead dancer in the T.ATW group, was dragged by the group’s rapper Chi Yunkai to the toilet of the dormitory for a “secretive” conversation.

“What’s the matter?” Gu Wei asked, “you are acting so mysteriously.”

“I have this feeling like… we’ll get into another trouble.”

Gu Wei: “???”

How do you answer this kind of baffling statement?

“Don’t worry about the last hot search. I’m used to being scolded anyways, so I know how to handle it. You shouldn’t pay too much attention to it,” Gu Wei tried to reassure his groupmate.

“No, it’s not about that. Listen to me.” Chi Yunkai lowered his voice in a conspiratorial whisper, “It’s not a hot search issue. I… well, I want to tell you that I developed a new money-making business.”

“Didn’t your ‘benefactor’2the implication is that this ‘benefactor’ is more like… sugar daddy type of stuff. Or something about nepotism. Anyway, not the honest type of sponsor. give you money recently?” Gu Wei also answered in a whisper to match.

“Let’s not talk about any sponsor.” Chi Yunkai said, “I started an online shop on my own.”

Gu Wei asked, “what do you sell?”

“Selling services. Helping grinding to level-up characters3aka power leveling, doing daily tasks, or farming materials – stuff like that. A classmate of mine started a team for doing those tasks, and they asked me to help attract clients,” Chi Yunkai said, “come on, di, I will explain the details to you.” 

Before he spoke about the details however, Chi Yunkai was called by the manager on the phone and had to go back to work immediately. 

Just as Chi Yunkai was leaving, he told Gu Wei about a great and arduous task—

“I’m going to work now, but I arranged for a big client to come to contact you. Can you help me introduce the service to him?”

“A big client?”

Chi Yunkai replied, “yes, a primary school student – I think he is a fool with a lot of money. Both his profile picture and WeChat name are pretty childish, so I’m confident you can tell it is him at a glance.” The rapper then added, “be more polite to him. Put a better attitude when you’re talking to him, got it?”

“If he doesn’t understand something about our service package, please explain it to him. I’ll leave you all the itty-bitty details in this notebook, okay? He’ll be our first big client, so this is pretty important. I don’t mean to burden you, but our business’ popularity may hinge on this client.”

Gu Wei can only agree, “…okay, alright.”

They are all members of the same group, and good friends to boot. Although he didn’t know why this rapper suddenly had a side job as a power leveler, Gu Wei will still support and help him with this task.

After Chi Yunkai finally left, Gu Wei opened a choreography video while waiting for this supposed “client” to contact him. 

The waiting took ages. He got drowsy from all the waiting. Just after he finished washing up and took his medicine, his phone screen turned on with a notification.

[One Hundred Thousand Volts] has sent you a friend request.

The profile picture was a Pikachu, without any signature or extra message.

Gu Wei’s eyes lit up and he felt his previous drowsiness went away. Chi Yunkai was right, he could tell that this is the big client he was talking about at a glance. 

Foolish, rich, and childish.

T/N: let the clownery… begin.