DYUTVOBGA Chapter 44

“Brother Zhong, what are you looking at?”

A boy wearing a school uniform leaned his left hand on the table. He had a school bag slung over his shoulder, the zipper not fully closed, and a water bottle slanted in the side pocket.

His forehead was sweaty, and he was panting as he spoke, clearly having run all the way over. His body broke out in goosebumps from the 18°C air conditioning in the cafe, but a sweet, obedient smile appeared on his face as he bent down and looked at the computer screen on the table.

“…Huh? Isn’t this that really popular boy group survival show recently?”

Yu Yao blinked and grinned: “Brother Zhong, you follow this kind of program? Is there a new handsome gege you’ve taken a liking to?”

Zhong Qu took off his headphones and pressed pause: “Sit down first… Why are you on holiday suddenly?”

“Who knows, anyway it’s a vocational high school, studying or not doesn’t matter.”

Yu Yao squeezed in to sit next to Zhong Qu, shrugged his shoulders to throw his bag on the floor, and wrapped the other arm around Zhong Qu’s waist from behind: “But Brother Zhong, how come you suddenly have time today? You said before you were recording a program and wouldn’t be able to meet for two or three months?”

Hearing his answer, Zhong Qu guessed this kid had skipped school by climbing the wall again. He couldn’t be bothered to deal with it and replied perfunctorily: “I terminated my contract with the company and had to pay double the training fee. Now I’m unemployed.”

Yu Yao was stunned: “Terminated? With BKL? Why terminate so suddenly? And you had to pay money?”

“Of course I had to pay money. And double is not some small amount.”

Zhong Qu took out his phone to check the new messages pushed by the forum: “Just consider it as me taking a two-year dance class at BKL, paying a bit more tuition, it doesn’t matter.”

He didn’t want to talk about this now. He hadn’t even figured it out himself.

Zhong Qu believed he had hidden his online porn activities well. He did that stuff not for money, but purely as a personal hobby. He enjoyed the thrill of being admired and scrutinized by countless people, exposing his body in the public eye, and being coveted and sexually fantasized about.

He knew this kind of thing couldn’t be brought into the open, so none of the friends he made at the company knew he was secretly managing another account.

What made his feelings most complicated was that in the latest episode of “Next Stage” that was just broadcast, the program team actually didn’t delete his scenes or blur his face.

He still performed his A-ranked initial stage performance and consequently gained fans at an unprecedented rate.

But the faster he gained fans, the more annoyed and regretful he felt.

This feeling of annoyance and regret was even deeper than when he had just been terminated by the program and walked out of the filming base alone, with his suitcase.

It was only now that Zhong Qu understood he had missed a very rare, excellent opportunity to become very popular and make money.

So, how on earth did the “NS” director team find out about his private activities?!

Even if someone reported him, he couldn’t think of who could possibly have done it.

Zhong Qu had never exposed his real-life information on his “Zero Degree Combustible Ice” account. Including Yu Yao, only 5 people actually knew his name and appearance.

He hadn’t told Yu Yao and the others in advance about participating in the boy group survival show, but logically, even if they suddenly found out, they wouldn’t have been able to contact the director team to report him.

— There was no motive.

Wouldn’t it be a windfall for them if he successfully debuted through the survival show?

Their relationship was indeed quite messy, but they were all willing to sleep in the same bed after all. Whether it was for emotional reasons or coveting physical desires, it was mutually satisfying, otherwise the relationship wouldn’t have lasted this long.

Zhong Qu believed he was usually quite generous with Yu Yao and the others. After all, he was the only adult who had graduated high school, had previously signed with a company and could get a minimum wage of three thousand yuan per month, and as a somewhat famous online porn creator, he also got a share of advertising fees, which was enough to buy little gifts for his boyfriends.

So it made no sense. No matter how he tried to see it from their perspective, Zhong Qu didn’t think these five high school students would secretly report him. That would make him seem like such a failure at relationships.

After thinking it over and over, Zhong Qu didn’t come up with an answer. Moreover, compared to the matter of being reported and leaving the show, he cared more about the attitude of the training manager after he returned to the company.

Since the matter of secretly running an online porn account had reached the program team, it naturally couldn’t be hidden from BKL either.

He had signed the most basic trainee contract with BKL, which stipulated that trainees were prohibited from privately operating social media accounts during the contract period, and all commercial activities needed to be reported to the company.

Not only did he run an account, but he also privately took advertisements. No matter how you calculated it, it was a clear breach of contract. Only making him compensate double the training fee was already the most lenient outcome.

Of course, BKL’s training fees were no small amount. This contract termination wiped out all of his savings from the past few years at once, and he had to ask his parents for support to cover more than half.

But as Zhong Qu said, he just treated it as paying for two years of dance lessons. He was still young and had an online porn account with a hundred thousand followers.

Short-term living expenses could be supported by taking ads, and in the longer term, he could sign with another entertainment company or an MCN agency. It wasn’t like there were no options.

So why had he been so fixated on debuting through a boy group survival show back then?

On the day he was notified of his selection for the survival show, the training manager specifically called him into the office and, after a round of PUA talk, emphasized that he should take the initiative to create a story line that would grab the spotlight, and heavily hinted that he should seize the opportunity to hype cp with popular contestants.

The training manager promised that as long as he grabbed enough screen time, the marketing outside the program would be left to BKL, and the company would definitely do its best to get him debuted.

Zhong Qu had believed these words at the time, but now thinking carefully…why?

Why should the company go all out to help him debut? It should be putting all its efforts on Yan Qiao.

He couldn’t help but think back to the company’s internal selection of trainees to participate in “NS” . If for BKL, “NS” was a project worth investing in, how could the upper management only allow trainees below B-grade to participate in the selection.

Zhong Qu originally thought it was because BKL didn’t want to out put its own good prospects to Galaxy Entertainment due to its conflict with Youth TV.

He, Lu Kui, Wei Bowen, Dong Zeyu…they were not the best batch among the B-grade trainees, but not the worst either.

When the selected list was announced over a month ago, all the trainees, including him, were baffled and completely unable to understand the company’s selection criteria.

Putting aside Yan Qiao, who had inexplicably mixed in as a super A-grade, how were the other four people actually chosen? By drawing lots? Lu Kui had only signed with the company three months ago!

A few days ago, when Zhong Qu was notified to go to the company to terminate his contract, the training manager’s attitude while chatting with him was the same as usual. When the conversation turned to him being expelled from the program because of his account and dating five people at once, his expression was full of the regret and blame of frustration at someone’s failure to meet expectations, but there wasn’t a trace of surprise.

It was as if… he had already known about these things.

Zhong Qu was so startled by this sudden thought that his hand shook, and the phone in his hand clattered to the floor.

Yu Yao, who was sitting next to him, bent down to pick it up for him but didn’t return it immediately. Instead, he pouted and held the phone up high: “Wait, let me see, what are you looking at so intently? You probably didn’t listen to a word I said just now, did you? Brother Zhong, do you still love me? You don’t really have a new lover, do you?”

Zhong Qu sighed and held out his hand: “What nonsense… Give it here, I want to see if anyone sent me a message.”

Yu Yao refused and flipped through his phone right in front of Zhong Qu: “You were clearly on the forum, and you were browsing posts about that survival show… is your new lover a trainee from this show? I heard my classmates say last week that this show is full of ugly guys with AI fake faces, and that the real handsome guys can be counted on one hand… Tell me, who have you taken a liking to?”

Seeing that Yu Yao was just randomly looking through the posts pushed by the forum, Zhong Qu simply stopped asking for it. He smiled meaningfully and replied: “If I really took a liking to someone… shouldn’t you be the most excited?”

“…”

Yu Yao licked his lips, the hand around Zhong Qu’s waist sliding down from the small of his back. He narrowed his eyes slightly, his smile sweet as he drawled: “Brother Zhong knows me best…”

Then he abruptly changed his tone: “But I’m not just interested in any trash. I really don’t want to see Brother Zhong get fucked by some arrogant ugly guy.”

“You don’t trust my taste?”

Zhong Qu pointed at the screen: “Relax, there’s no new lover. Even if there were, they’d have to be at least half as handsome as him to qualify.”

Yu Yao looked where he was pointing.

The first hot post that refreshed in the forum contained a picture, seemingly a screenshot from the variety show.

In the picture were three boys standing shoulder to shoulder. Although Zhong Qu didn’t specify who, Yu Yao directly locked onto the boy in the middle.

He stared for a full five seconds before looking up, then slowly said: “If it’s him… I want in.”

Zhong Qu: “?”

Yu Yao repeated: “I want in. Yeah, I want to sleep with him too.”

“…Are you serious?”

The corner of Zhong Qu’s mouth twitched and his smile almost cracked: “What daydream are you having? Where would I get the skill to hook up with Quentin?”

“And how would you sleep with him? Don’t you call yourself the ever-erect 1? You want to become 0 for love?”

Yu Yao looked strange and immediately retorted: “Brother Zhong, you’re the one daydreaming! Of course I’d be the 1! He’s so good-looking, with such beautiful eyes, how could you think of him as a 1?”

“Heh.”

Zhong Qu snatched his phone back, smiling: “You? A little brat whose feathers haven’t even grown in yet, go wash up and sleep early. Friendly reminder, Quentin is mixed-race, what he pulls out is definitely bigger than you.”

“!!!” Yu Yao exploded, “Brother Zhong!! You’re lying!! How do you know who’s big! You definitely have a new lover! Call him out, let’s compare on the spot!!”

Zhong Qu: “…Heh.”

*

Topic: [Report! Good news from the front! Our QT is going viral overseas!!!]

Content: [As titled, location France. Remember the black suit QT wore for his initial stage? That was the finale piece from the CM 2021 show. Its designer, Linda, used to be the creative director at CM for a period before leaving to start her own independent luxury brand that now has an annual revenue exceeding hundreds of millions of euros. She’s a world-renowned fashion designer. You might not be familiar with the name Linda, but you’ve definitely heard of her luxury brand, it’s the original brand of the colorful ink-stained suits that were very popular earlier this year, “acacLinda”! Okay, here’s the main point! Just over an hour ago, the official acacLinda account reposted QT’s initial stage performance video on multiple overseas platforms! The caption was:[A suit is a romance confined in a society of order.] The brand founder and manager Linda commented under the official account:[Extremely charming!!!!!] Along with ten kissy-heart emojis. And,the CM official account liked and recommended all these posts!]

1L: [OMG!!! My pick is ascending behind my back again?!]

2L: [Holy crap, CM?? A true top luxury brand! I didn’t even recognize that Quentin was wearing CM. Is Quentin that rich?]

3L: [It was probably the program’s outfit. That purple floral shirt was Quentin’s own. But Quentin’s family background must be wealthy. People in the group have already dug up that this shirt is custom-made, the fabric and tailoring are very expensive, you can’t buy it on the market.]

4L: [Everyone, go check it out overseas!! What the OP said is too modest, those posts are full of praise! Our QT’s face can easily unify global aesthetics, ok?]

5L: [To be honest, Quentin’s initial stage outfit really matched acacLinda’s vibe.

The elegant, steady black suit paired with the unrestrained flamboyant purple rose shirt inside, the core meaning of the song performed is “freedom”, completely coinciding with acacLinda’s design philosophy.]

6L: [Isn’t the key point Quentin’s face and stage presence? Someone else wearing this set might not have the same effect.]

7L: [Is the person I’m stanning really an unsigned amateur trainee… My pick is making me so proud wuuu, so reassuring! Please! You must debut in the C position!]

8L: [I caught a blind spot! OP, OP! Your IP is in France, so you must speak French, right! What do you think of QT’s song!]

9L: [+1+1 I want to know too. If “La liberté” wasn’t a French song, it would definitely be even more popular, popular enough to go viral. Unlike now, it’s constantly being sarcastically slandered by certain rival fans…]

10L: [Exactly!! I’m so pissed!!! I just finished arguing with them [angry] I don’t know what kind of brains came up with those viewpoints.They actually said QT deliberately chose a French song to steal the spotlight!! And they said him choosing a French song for the initial stage was like applying for an unpopular major to get into a good university [eye roll] What a terrible analogy!If you’re not good at language arts you can just shut up! Are others not singing them because they don’t want to?!]

11L: [What are they thinking.. With Quentin’s original composition skills, if he sang a Chinese song he would have blown up long ago (actually singing a French song is already blowing up).]

12L: [that’s right! They also said Quentin took advantage of being mixed-race… QAQ sisters, how to clap back against this one?]

13L: [You can say “It’s such a shame your pick isn’t mixed-race, so sorry, I really sympathize that you can’t stan a mixed-race idol.”]

14L: [No no no, if you say that, send a pink mouse meme, then caption it “The~ad~van~tage~of~be~ing~mixed~race~”]

15L: [Hee hee, we’ll take advantage if we want, whose family’s vinegar jar tipped over, it stinks [pinching nose], I’ll piss you off nya nya nya~]

16L: [Ask them what advantage there is to being mixed-race [eye roll] If you’re jealous Quentin is good-looking,just say it! You really think just being white means you can look like Quentin! Did you get your head chopped off on Pinduoduo? Each one is more brainless than the last.]

17L: [There are plenty of ugly mixed-race people. QT’s face is a divine creation meticulously crafted by Nüwa after she went to the West for research!

A perfect fusion of Eastern and Western aesthetics, a top-tier Eastern skin Western bone, a super handsome guy with both excellent bone structure and facial features, ok?]

18L (OP): [Haha I’m here, replying to the 8th and 9th floors first. OP is just a miserable study abroad student in France, doesn’t know much about music, and doesn’t know how to evaluate whether the lyrics are good [sigh] But I can definitely say, QT’s French is better than mine [thumbs up]. As for how French people evaluate this song, I asked my roommate when “NS” first updated the first episode, she was super complimentary, and I even got her into the pit. Now she’s an overseas fan of QT~]

19L: [Wow [star-eyed] As expected of QT!]

20L: [Hasn’t Quentin’s initial stage already been reposted overseas? No one overseas evaluated the song?]

21L: [I feel like people following fashion brand accounts like acacLinda care more about face and clothes. Anyway, most comments are praising his face, and many people are asking about Quentin’s full look.]

22L: [Okay then…]

…

872L (OP): [Fuck, sisters, it looks like “La liberté” is about to explode overseas?]

873L (OP): [Ahem, wait, I’m a bit excited, that’s an exaggeration, it’s not at that level yet [scratches head] But the acacLinda post is already trending and attracting lots of passerby attention. I’ll repost some comments for you.]

874L: [! Putting a butt here]

875L: [Watching…]

…

911L (OP): [ok, sorry for the wait, I’m here [long screenshot.jpg]*3 I did a rough translation,everyone can refer to it~

“Are Chinese people so versatile? They can write French songs too?” –Likes 27k

“The lyrics are completely at a native speaker’s level!” –Likes 12k

“I heard this singer is Chinese-American mixed race.”

“Oh! Unbelievable! Are you sure he’s not Chinese-French mixed race?” –Likes 35k

“A perfect voice and emotion, it sang right into my heart.” –Likes 43k

“God, his eyes are so green and beautiful, I think I like him a bit. Can anyone introduce me to his other works?” –Likes 24k

“He looks so sweet, not even an adult yet? He is around the same age as my son, but much cuter than my son.” –Likes 8.4k

“A Chinese idol survival show? Sounds interesting. Are the other contestants as handsome as Quentin?” –Likes 3.8k

“I want to date a Chinese man.” –Likes 1.6k

“Why doesn’t he sing an English song too?” –Likes 45k

“I want to go to China.” –Likes 27k …]

912L: [Ahhhh OP is a great person [heart][heart][heart]]

913L: [And there’s translation, so thoughtful baby]

914L: [It’s over, I can’t control the corners of the mouth from rising, our QT…]

915L: [Great, saving the screenshots. Next time someone is sarcastic we’ll just 123 and post the pictures!]