Asteroid

Chapter 9 Begging for a follow

 

After the dust regarding the program announcement settled down, Huang Qian anxiously arranged classes for Xu Tangzhou.

 

“Each artist has their own office, however, everyone is very busy and they can’t come often, so the offices are only under their names.
The trainees don’t have an office, as they’ll go to different classrooms to take classes every day.
You’re different from them.
They want to debut in a boy group, while the company wants you to develop as an actor.
However, you’ll be taking the public relations and image management classes with them.”

Huang Qian brought him to the classroom, introduced him to the teacher, and he also met several other small artists signed under Huang Qian.

 

“What’s over there?” Xu Tangzhou pointed to a nearby hallway.

 

In contrast to the clamor elsewhere, the hallway seemed much quieter.
There was no nameplate on the door, so he didn’t know what it was for.

 

“It’s Ling Che’s personal space.” Huang Qian said, “He also doesn’t come here often, but the instruments and equipment inside are a complete set.
There’s even a recording studio inside in case he wants to use it.
I think he only uses it once or twice a year.”

 

Xu Tangzhou was speechless.

He knew that Ling Che wasn’t the type of person to follow a 9 to 5 working schedule, but only coming to the office once or twice a year when the company specifically gave him such incredibly good arrangements, plainly showed how much importance they attached to him.

 

“No need to be envious, not that you could be.” Huang Qian smiled and said, “It could be said that Xing Jing started the music department just for him.
He only has a management contract with the company, and he has his own studio and team to work on his pieces.
He usually writes his songs at his studio and at home.
Only when Ya jie or his assistant personally found him, he would move.”

 

Xu Tangzhou let out a sigh of relief.
He probably wouldn’t see Ling Che at the company today.

 

Huang Qian asked: “Do you want to take a look? The door isn’t locked.”

Xu Tangzhou: “Could I?”

Huang Qian said: “Sure, there’s no harm in taking a peek, and others often look inside too.
Not to mention, if you don’t say anything, I won’t say anything, and he wouldn’t know.”

 

Xu Tangzhou twisted the door handle and curiously glanced inside.

 

He could only see instruments and wires placed haphazardly within the huge space, and a few haven’t even been opened yet.
It was completely different from the glamorous impression he had.
There were a few autographed posters piled on the table.
It seemed the person signing tossed the pen away before finishing.

 

The back of the sofa faced the door, and a tall pile of clothes was placed on it.
The clothes were of all different styles and colors, and they didn’t seem to be typically worn.

There were a few flashy skateboards and tennis rackets tossed on the ground, showing off the various hobbies of their owner.

 

Xu Tangzhou: “……”

Was this really not a storage room?

 

Huang Qian said: “Ling Che is about to hold a concert and all the items inside are what he needs to use.
He only has time to clean up after recording the show.
Recently, he had been rehearsing at the studio.
His time is tight, so he had no time to clean here recently.”

 

It was difficult to obtain a ticket for Ling Che’s concert.
It’s not as if Xu Tangzhou hadn’t heard about news of scalpers violently fighting each other to obtain a ticket.
Once, he also wanted to go with his classmates to see one of Ling Che’s concerts, but he had to cancel because he couldn’t get a ticket.

It seemed the more successful a person was, the more hard work they put in behind the scenes.
Although Ling Che was talented, his talents didn’t appear out of thin air.

 

The brilliance on stage was made up of countless hours of sweat.

 

Xu Tangzhou's morale was inexplicably boosted.

If he became famous one day in the future… he didn’t want people to believe that he only became famous because he coincidentally partnered with Ling Che.

If he obtained respect from his hard work, then he wanted the respect of others, and he also wanted the respect of Ling Che.

 

*

 

Half a month later, [Our Perfect Trip] officially began and they announced the first set of guests.

 

The first group of guests was a pair of popular Beta sisters who were at the center of attention.

These sisters were only two years apart, and they’ve fallen in love with the same boy multiple times in a row.
They’ve also openly aired each other’s dirty laundry online.
Every time netizens thought that they would break apart, they would coincidentally cry and say that the other was the most precious person in their life.

In a nutshell, their melons* came unceasingly, one after the other.

*TN: In case you didn’t know, “eating melons” means to consume gossip.
I plan on keeping it as melons, but I’ll occasionally have the TN as reminders.

 

The enthusiasm of the netizens was ignited by the first set of guests.

 

The show only used the method of announcing a new group of guests every day.
On one hand, they insulted the netizens with 5 yuan, on the other hand, they kept everyone on the edge of their seats.

The second group of guests was an AB actor couple.
An Alpha and a Beta pairing weren’t that uncommon in this era, but it was somewhat frowned upon, since an Alpha couldn’t mark a Beta, making Betas feel insecure.

Their fans stared at their displays of affection every day.
The moment anything happened, their fans would begin to wage war for their idols.

 

It was already very interesting.

On the night of the third day, the netizens awaited the final announcement of the last set of guests.

[I’m guessing it’s a father and son pair! There was a father and son pair last year!]

[Then could it be Wei Ruyu?! Ahhh I’m so lucky to be able to see my husband and my father-in-law on the show at the same time!]

[Wei Ruyu is only 17, please wake up! Giving out a warning.]

[You’re all too naive.
Please look at the lineup: a Beta and Beta pair, an Alpha and Beta pair.
What are we missing? The last group is obviously an Alpha and an Omega!]

[Respect! Trustworthy, reasonable, and convincing!]

 

At 8 pm, the announcement of the final group finally arrived.

 

[Our Perfect Trip] Official V: Revolving around a galaxy, our promise holds for millions of years.
The asteroid cuts through all obstacles for you.
@LingChe45361V @XuTangzhouzzV Friendship is invincible!

[!!!!!! WHAT?!!!!!!]

[WHAT DID YOU SAY!!!!!! MOM, I CAN’T READ ANYMORE!!!!]

[AHHHHHHHHH]

[AHHHHHHHHH]

 

A few minutes later, Flow’s server was on the verge of crashing.

 

Xu Tangzhou managed to open Flow, but he wasn’t in a rush to read his own comments since Flow was already overwhelmed with comments about “Ling Che going on a variety show”.

He only had one doubt: “Doesn’t Ling Che not have a Flow account? Who did the official post mention?”

 

LingChe45361.

 

No matter how you looked at it, this username looked fake.

 

Huang Qian was busy looking at the itinerary and spoke without looking up: “Oh, the company asked him to open one, but his name and its various permutations were already taken, so he just picked the one randomly generated by the system.
The mention was to the person himself.
Don’t forget to follow him to prevent others from thinking you two aren’t familiar with each other.”

 

Xu Tangzhou replied with an “Oh”.

The number of new fans notifications he received became 9999+ in a short period of time, causing his screen to continuously freeze before he could click on the Flow homepage for “LingChe45361”.

 

The account still didn’t upload a profile picture, using only the default blue figure.
Only the bio confirmed his identity: Artist from Xing Jing, Singer.

There was only one post, which was the one automatically generated by the system upon signing up.

 

Ling Che 45361V: Hi~ I opened a Flow account.
You can follow and learn about my life! Come and play with me.

 

In the short 10 minutes between the time the program team announced Ling Che’s Flow account until the moment Xu Tangzhou clicked on the homepage, the message automatically sent by the system on Ling Che’s homepage already reached over 30,000 comments.

[On the brink of death wuwuwu* I’m dead, I’m really dead]

TN: Sounds of crying

[Our gege finally realized that his phone could go online]

[OMG*!!! Today! Who dares to say that anything is impossible in this world!!!]

*TN: Oof, this one was a pun that doesn’t translate well into English… TLDR: It means awsl = I’m dead (from excitement/cuteness/etc)

[Ahhhhhh My Che has an account now! Ahhhhhh]

……

The number of comments was growing at a terrifying rate.

However, Ling Che didn’t make any additional moves.
He didn’t forward the show’s official announcement, didn’t input any personal information, and even the number of users he was following was 0.
It seemed the purpose of registering this account was just to allow the program team to mention him.

 

Xu Tangzhou was different from him, obediently following Huang Qiang’s request to forward the show’s announcement and he even wrote a message.

XuTangzhouzzV: I heard that this show is very fun.
Looking forward to meeting with everyone [cute].

 

The atmosphere in his comment section was vastly different.
Aside from the few fans who knew and liked him, the comments made by the other passerby were the same as the comments under the official show announcement.

 

[??? Hello? Can anyone tell me who this is?]

[So it’s true that Ling Che is going on a variety show?!! It feels like he’s purposely lowering himself, he’s even going with an Omega]

[I knew that it was only hype.
How could Ling Che have an Omega friend! Heh.]

[Straight A cancers should scram!!! Protect our Omega!]

[He’ll definitely show his true form on the show.
I don’t believe that Ling Che could wash himself clean.]

 

In contrast to the relatively mild public opinion from before, Xu Tangzhou now received an unprecedented amount of attention and faced much more doubts and criticisms.
Unexpectedly, most of the commenters of his Flow seemed to be Omegas, causing the comments section to become a battlefield between Alphas and Omegas.

 

Xu Tangzhou: “……”

 

The week-long recording was about to begin.
The location this time had already been guessed by the netizens, it was indeed Surilan Island.

Xu Tangzhou needed to watch the previous shows, prepare his suitcase, and listen to precautions from Huang Qian.
He also received a Dingxun message* from the show’s assistant who would follow him.

TN: For once, I say “thank you simplified ver.
for clarifying…” It's a made-up messaging app, like whatsapp or wechat

 

Assistant Momo: Dear Zhouzhou, reminder that everyone will be meeting with everyone at the show’s departure point tomorrow morning.
The following items are not allowed to be brought in your luggage.
If you brought them, we will toss them out on the spot [cute].

 

Attached was a list:

No food.

No drinks (including water).

No cash or cards from any country.

No electronic communication equipment.

No daily necessities (except skincare products).

No disposable items.

No items that could aid in comfort (including sleeping bags and pillows)

 

Xu Tangzhou: “???”

He read the list several times and confirmed that these items weren’t allowed.
He couldn’t help but sink into his thoughts.
Then what else could he bring?

 

In the midst of Xu Tangzhou’s pondering, he didn’t know that Ying Chen posted a Flow, whipping up another storm on the internet.

 

Ying ChenV: @LingChe45361 Gege, Begging for a follow.
Let me become the first cutie you follow [pleading] [pleading]

 

After he sent the post, the marketing accounts and fans all went online.
At night, Ling Che finally made a move.

The asteroids staring at his Flow watched the number of people Ling Che followed change from 0 to 1.

 

Half a minute later.

 

[Hahaha Asking how deep Ying Chen’s trauma is]

[Hahaha They’re only drinking buddies, maybe consider breaking it off with him]

[Hahahaha Ying Chen deleted that post.
Sisters, go and see!!!]

[Guess who Ling Che followed!!! What a wonderful world I live in!]

 

 

–End of Arc 1: Tears–

TN: Chinese terms as pinyin in this chapter

“ge/gege” (older brother, could be used as a respectful address for acquaintances)

“jie” (older sister, could be used as a respectful address for acquaintances as well)