The young man sat opposite Chen Ke. He wore a hat to cover his stubble, and his handsome features had a bright smile, but it also had a bit of awkwardness that seemed to have been drawn on.
The lights in the living room were bright, and the voices of the two people were swaying. Chen Ke lowered her head to eat rice, trying to reduce her presence. But the words between her mother and cousin were like the sound of insects that could penetrate everywhere, buzzing into her ears.
She lowered her head and looked at the dish of stir-fried pork and carrots that had not been touched by the chopsticks. On the other side of the stir-fried pork and carrots was the fish-flavored eggplant, which was picked up very cleanly by Xie Ziyu.
"Where does Xiaoyu work now?"
"Thanks to the company for not looking down on me. I can still do some of my old job again."
"God has eyes... Don't get involved in these troubles in the future. They are just trying to blackmail you, and they are angry out of shame..."
Xie Ziyu smiled with the corner of his mouth. Chen Ke felt uncomfortable all over.
After dinner, Xie Ziyu sat on the sofa in the living room. Chen Ke's mother pulled Chen Ke into the kitchen under the pretext of peeling fruit. As soon as the door was closed, her expression changed and she asked directly: "He is your cousin, how did you behave at the table?"
"Mom, Xie Zi?... My cousin, he is not..."
"Can you take things in the entertainment industry seriously? Your cousin was wronged. We watched him grow up, how could he do such a thing?"
"Mom, you are also a woman. What kind of girl would joke about such things..."
"You believe them, but not your family? We are the only relatives your cousin has." Chen Ke's mother was angry. "And that Yu Rongshi, the Yu Rongshi who testified in court, is not a good guy either! I think he is just jealous!"
"… "
Xie Ziyu had indeed grown up with her. When he was young, he was kind to the point of being cowardly. He had musical talent, but he was depressed. It was only a few years ago that his personality changed drastically after he entered the entertainment industry. Chen Ke was hesitant to speak. She knew that the entertainment industry was a big melting pot, but she couldn't figure out how her cousin had been dyed into a Transformer.
Chen Ke's mother sighed as she looked at her daughter. She combed her daughter's hair with her hands and said, "There are three siblings in our Gu family, and you two are the only ones left in this generation. Your little cousin passed away, leaving only Xiao Yu. Relatives must take care of each other, do you know?"
After hearing the word "little cousin", Chen Ke saw her mother's eyes dimmed. She knew that her mother, like everyone else, loved the little cousin who died young.
The cousin was handsome, good-natured, and had good grades. As a teenager, Xie Ziyu was outshined by him. Chen Ke was young at the time, and she knew nothing about him except that he and she had similar tastes, such as ice cream and soda. However, she had heard her aunt blame her son (Xie Ziyu) for not living up to her expectations several times, and she wished she could take the cousin who was left alone by her brother's family home to raise.
My aunt's family is the richest and they also want their son to become Jackie Chan the most.
She wondered if her older cousin had ever wished he was the younger cousin because of the blame from his parents.
After the younger cousin died, the older cousin had a fever for a week. After he recovered, his personality changed drastically and he became mature overnight. Chen Ke's mother said this with an admiring tone, saying that the older cousin was finally becoming more and more mature, more and more like the younger cousin, and could inherit the pride of the family.
Chen Ke felt inexplicably sad. After recovering from his illness, his elder cousin did try to learn to be as cheerful and good at socializing as his younger cousin, and indeed became very likable. But her mother's words always made her feel that no one liked her elder cousin in the past.
As long as a person becomes mature and meets expectations, his own characteristics are irrelevant. Relatives are like spectators, who only care about his attributes and his transformation from "cowardly" to "cheerful." It doesn't matter whether he likes carrots more than eggplants or white more than blue.
Just kids? Things they care about when playing with horoscopes or psychological tests.
But Chen Ke was once a child?, and she is still a child now?. So she will remember that her cousin bought her carrot ear clips. So she will remember that her cousin waited outside her school on her birthday?. The cousin carried a funny cello bag, rubbed his red hands from the cold, put the ear clips in his sister's hand, smiled embarrassedly, waved his hand and left.
That cousin is not a star, has no talent, and has no money.
But what happened to my cousin? How could he become like this
He is the cousin that the company wants, the cousin that the fans want, but not the cousin that she wants.
And she doesn't understand her mother, does she really not see
"... and." Her mother glanced at the living room and saw Xie Ziyu was still watching TV. She then whispered in Chen Ke's ear with confidence, "Do you know how much money a star can make in a year? Do you know how much savings your eldest cousin has? Those stars can make hundreds of thousands a day!"
"… ah."
"… Your eldest uncle passed away, and your aunt is in that kind of…" Chen Ke's mother avoided saying the word "mental hospital", "In the hospital. He has no wife, no children. Your eldest cousin only has us, these relatives."
Your eldest cousin only has us, his relatives.
This was a repetitive sentence, but it made Chen Ke dumbfounded. She looked at her mother in panic, as if she was looking at a wall that had been suddenly knocked down. Inside the wall was blood and a body was embedded there.
Chen Ke's mother moistened her throat and went out with the cut melon. She sat on the sofa and chatted with Xie Ziyu for a while, then went out again after receiving a call. Chen Ke knew that her mother often received such work calls during her break. She was the director of a certain bank, and Chen Ke's family had always been well-off. But she remembered that her mother's salary was "only" 300,000 yuan a year.
The annual salary of 300,000 is compared with the daily wage.
She stood there for a long time, picking up a piece of stir-fried pork and carrot with chopsticks for no reason. The rest of the dish was greasy and cold.
So naturally she felt a little nauseous.
The sudden arrival of the world made her steps a little dizzy. When she reached the sofa, she heard Xie Ziyu say, "Xiao Ke."
“…Hmm?…Ah.”
She uttered some meaningless syllables, and heard Xie Ziyu smiling at her and saying, "Xiao Ke, do you know how to put your TV back on?"
"Replay?"
"I saw you watching a TV series when I first came here tonight." Xie Ziyu said, "I really want to watch it."
Chen Ke took the remote control from Xie Ziyu. When his fingertips touched hers, Chen Ke felt a kind of numbness that she had never avoided. She pressed a few buttons skillfully, and the TV returned to the Mango Channel that was on a few hours ago.
"A fantasy TV series?"
She sat on the sofa, watching her cousin drag the progress bar. Neither the beautiful heroine nor the superb acting of Chi Jixia could make him stop.
The progress bar finally stopped at the scene where Yi Wan appeared.
Chen Ke's heart skipped a beat when she saw Yi Wan, as if a corner of the real world she loved had returned. She watched Yi Wan's stunning appearance and suddenly felt that today should have been a very ordinary and happy night.
Yes, ordinary but happy. She should go on Weibo and howl with her sisters in the super topic. She would take some high-definition pictures and secretly sell some Amway without her roommate's knowledge - of course, this must not be known to her roommate who is a Jiang Bei fan. Her roommate's mental state has been getting more and more crazy recently.
This is the weekend she should have as a local female college student. Yi Wan is not completely in this real world, but he is the link to this world. She thought of the video of Yi Wan playing the piano on her phone, and the group show of Iris5, where Yi Wan was squeezed in the middle of everyone, showing a smile that was trying hard, like a social animal in a busy world...
It was certainly not a smile that could inspire people, a smile that belonged to a super idol. But Chen Ke felt better at that moment, and had more energy to talk to her mother.
Maybe this is the blood recovery.
“… What’s the name of this actor? What’s his real name? I don’t remember seeing him before.” Xie Ziyu asked her.
“This actor…”
Chen Ke came back to her senses. For some reason, facing Xie Ziyu's dark eyes, she didn't want to mention Yi Wan's name. But her mother had already returned to the living room and said with a smile: "Chen Ke, isn't this your favorite male idol? You often show us his videos."
"His name is Yi Wan." Chen Ke said under Xie Ziyu's gaze, "Yi means easy, Wan means late. He is a trainee who debuted this year at the agency, in the boy group Iris5."
"His name is Yi... Wan."
When Xie Ziyu mentioned this word, the air was slightly stagnant. Chen Ke suddenly felt a little panicked. But Xie Ziyu's smile made people feel that the stagnation was just an illusion.
"Yi Wan's acting is pretty good." Chen Ke's mother liked all the stars her daughter liked. "Look, he looks like the male lead in that movie."
"yes."
Xie Ziyu's gaze moved from his collarbone, his neck, to his dark eyes, and then down.
"Yes," he said. "It's very beautiful."
The atmosphere was heated up. Chen Ke didn't know why she forgot the unpleasantness in this atmosphere. She took out her iPad and showed him the videos and photos she downloaded politely and distantly.
The photos were fine. As a fan, Chen Ke would always find photos of Yi Wan standing in the center, or Yi Wan being screenshotted in the center. She noticed that Xie Ziyu was looking at one of the photos with a serious expression, so she said to him, "This was taken when Yi Wan first joined AT, at that time..."
Ah, she remembered.
At that time, Xie Zi was put into police custody.
The atmosphere was a bit awkward, but Chen Ke asked him to watch the video again. Most of the videos she saved were clips of iris5-related group shows or activities. Yi Wan often sat at the corner of the wall playing with his phone. Xie Ziyu looked at these clips but didn't say anything.
"What? How do you view your teammates..."
The new video he clicked on was a video of several iris5 members evaluating each other. Xie Ziyu pointed at the first four people and looked at them one by one. When he saw An Yelin, he said, "The real young master of the An family."
As for Bo Jiang, he said, "Another gifted child of heaven."
He didn't seem to be very interested in people like Bo Jiang. When it was Chi Jixia's turn, he smiled: "Chi Jixia? I haven't seen you for many years. You seem to be quite fragile mentally..."
"Um?"
"Four or five years ago... I met him once." Xie Ziyu said, "In Beishan Hospital."
In Chen Ke's shocked eyes, he smiled and said, "His mother and my mother... were both there. Later I gave him a resource."
There was a bit of loneliness in that smile. Chen Ke thought of his aunt, and suddenly felt a little more sympathy for his cousin. It was really pitiful. His aunt had been competitive all her life, and finally her beloved son finally had "ability" like her little cousin Gu Ruchao whom she admired in the past, but she went crazy when her son was at the peak of his career.
It is said that my aunt went crazy for more than a while, and reached her peak on New Year's Eve one year. She cried and shouted that she wanted to drive Xie Ziyu out of the house, and even strangled him by the neck and wanted to push him off the balcony - after that, she was sent to Beishan Hospital.
Unexpectedly, Chi Jixia's mother was also there.
But four or five years ago?… She vaguely remembered that there seemed to be a big news at that time. The anticipated new star of the film and television industry, the young Chi Jixia, suddenly had a seizure on the set. His level dropped like a cliff, his acting was extremely bad, and he ruined a movie. Since then, he announced his retirement from the film industry.
So much so that when he later became a member of a boy band and came out to take on some shoddy idol dramas, he was mocked by many black fans as "sit-ups".
Xie Ziyu had no words for Ding Biehan. He looked at Ding Biehan as if he was looking at a dying man. But when he and Yi Wan appeared together, Xie Ziyu was stunned.
"Is this selling homosexuality?" he said.
decp fan Chen Ke: … … … …
Even though the house collapsed tonight, Xie Ziyu's words still aroused her fighting spirit. Chen Ke laughed and said, "You may not know, but they have a good relationship. They appear together in various variety shows, from the survival variety show at the beginning, to the Anjia banquet where he went to pick him up, and then Xiao Ding visited the crew of "Around the Sky". There are also various group variety show live broadcasts... Recently, they also participated in a variety show called "Battle of Metaphysics" together. It is said that the two of them have a very good relationship in the show. Hehe..."
"Not necessarily." Xie Ziyu said.
He lowered his eyes to look at Yi Wan, knowing very well that the expression on his face at the moment was definitely not one of intimacy.
Shen Zhong.
He chewed the name again in his mind.
Completely change my name, stay away from everything related to me, and enter the entertainment industry...
He thought to himself.
The four teammates mostly mentioned each other in their comments, but rarely mentioned Yi Wan. Only Yi Wan responded: "Everyone is very nice."
All very good
An Yelin, Bo Jiang, Chi Jixia, Ding Biehan... four gifted geniuses, and no one knows where AT found them from.
But Yi Wan was actually willing to mingle among them.
Chen Ke's Weibo was beeping. Xie Ziyu continued to watch the video, observing their interactions and performances in detail.
"They are just a group of teammates." Xie Ziyu said, "It's just that Ding Biehan... Tsk. God has a plan."
Chen Ke:
She didn’t quite understand what Xie Ziyu was talking about… until Weibo suddenly beeped a few times.
New news.
She lowered her head to reply to the new message, and in the blink of an eye she saw a new trending search.
"Not on the way."
Not on the way
Not On The Road was pushed to the top three at the fastest speed, and below it was the "Green Wind Museum" that had just caused her house to collapse... Chen Ke wanted to confirm whether the world was real, so she clicked on Not On The Road.
The first one is a marketing account.
The marketing account posted a video and a picture in the comment - it was that extremely ambiguous hug picture.
Just then she saw Xie Ziyu's face reflected on the phone screen - his face was ashen.