APCF – Chapter 124 Farewell to Love

The moment he heard the news, Qi Xingchen wanted to just socially die on the spot. He wished everyone could forget the existence of someone named “Qi Xingchen,” wished he could be erased from the edge of the world.

Wait—he shook his head—could it be that Bo Ye was messing with him?

Bo Ye did love pulling pranks on him from time to time.

Clinging to a final sliver of hope, Qi Xingchen’s hand trembled as he tapped the big red-yellow app with the wide-eyed mascot icon.

…The homepage that popped up was his alt account.

Still holding onto a last-last shred of hope, he scrolled down.

—— @JingxiQiXiangsi: [heart][heart][heart]

[Image]

The image was of two hands tightly clasped—his and Bo Ye’s—and the shadows of their bodies leaning against each other.

Qi Xingchen: “……”

It’s over. Everything’s over.

Ignoring whatever Bo Ye might think, he flopped onto the bed like a pancake, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. Farewell floats away like a melancholy flute; silence is the soundtrack of tonight’s alt account.

After lying in despair for a bit, a sudden lightbulb moment hit him—

That photo didn’t show any faces—just hands and shadows! He could totally deny it was them!

Grabbing onto that glimmer of hope, he jumped back up and started frantically typing on his phone like a tiger on caffeine.

—— @JingxiQiXiangsi: I think maybe following celebrities with you all made people misunderstand my gender. I’m a male fan of Bo Ye, and I have my own partner. I’m really sorry for the unnecessary confusion caused by that last photo. No need to pay attention to my personal life—just remember I’m part of the “Night Sky” and keep supporting Bo Ye. Thank you.

Bo Ye had been watching his dramatic solo act from the side this whole time. Seeing him suddenly spring back to life, he raised an eyebrow: “What are you doing?”

“Sent!” Qi Xingchen said proudly. “That photo is genius. Even if our builds match, I can just say it’s another gay couple!”

Bo Ye said calmly, “But the ring I’m wearing in that photo is the brand’s new summer model. It hasn’t even been released yet.”

“No big deal,” Qi Xingchen waved him off, “Nowadays influencers get unreleased stuff all the time. Easy to explain.”

Bo Ye: “Some people recognized us at the night market.”

“You mean those three girl students? Don’t worry, they’re not fans. They won’t care about this kind of news.”

Bo Ye shrugged: “They’ve already posted the selfies.”

Qi Xingchen: “……”

Forget social death—just call that one Black bro from TikTok to carry his coffin already. QAQ

Luckily, not much time had passed since he posted the denial. He could still delete it! Cue another flurry of tiger-like keystrokes. But after deleting it, what happened was…

Originally, hashtags like #QiXingchenAltExposed and #QiXingchenIsBoYeStan were trending. But now…

Thanks to #QiXingchenAltDeletedInSeconds, all of them shot straight to the top of the hot search rankings.

Qi Xingchen, whose efforts had completely backfired, opened the trending thread with shaking hands:

[@QiXingchen, come out and claim your fan club ID!]

[That alt account @JingxiQiXiangsi was created on April 3rd last year, before filming on Budget Travels even began. So Qi Xingchen started stanning Bo Ye before that?!]

[Judging by his supertopic level and how hard he was voting, no way he’s a new fan. Gotta be an old-school Night Sky member.]

[Tsk tsk tsk, look what I found [screenshot]]

Qi Xingchen opened the screenshot.

—— @JingxiQiXiangsi: AAAAAAHHHH HUBBY’S NEW LOOK IS TOO DAMN HOT!! I CAN’T—I’M DEAD—I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!!!

Qi Xingchen: @￥#&%%￥

That wasn’t him. Absolutely NOT!!!

Seeing this sister uncover buried treasure, all the other gossip-hungry folks who had just entered the melon field (aka the drama) quickly rushed to the alt account’s homepage, eager to dig up some juicy gossip.

After scrolling up and down a bit, delighted grins appeared on their faces.

Damn, the whole damn field is full of melons!

[“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The world was formless and empty. Then God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and so He created you.” OMG what kind of god-tier rainbow fanning is this? Little 7 is basically the living embodiment of a rainbow fart, LOL!!]

[“If beauty could kill, then Bo Ye is guilty as hell.” 2333 It’s obvious Xingxing is totally obsessed with his boyfriend’s face!]

[He actually did five hours straight of anti-hate posting without a break? Isn’t he exhausted??]

[Whoa, check out the stuff he’s liked—there’s a surprise!]

Likes? What kind of surprise could there be? Everyone anxiously clicked on @JingxiQiXiangsi’s likes.

• [Ancient-style fan edit] Night Is the Star’s Night (angsty—viewer discretion advised)
• Noble Bloodline by DefiantSeal (BL / Western Fantasy / Zuò Yè Xīngchén CP / high-sugar, clean romance)
• [Zuò Yè Xīngchén rec post] Best of the second half of 2019
• Everything I Like, You Have by Chi Ling (Urban / Power Couple / Zuò Yè Xīngchén CP / light smut)

Starlight, Night Sky, and onlookers: WTF—!!!

He’s not just shipping his own CP, he’s doing it with so much joy?!?

Then a CP fan chimed in: [He didn’t just like those posts—I and two others were actually asked by him for fanfics.]

Other CP fans: [Damn, dude really knows how to hunt for content.]

[Don’t be surprised. Did you see what he posted earlier before deleting it? I didn’t catch it in time.]

[I saw it hahahahahaha… Sorry, I know I shouldn’t laugh but I seriously can’t help it. He actually tried to deny it just now.]

[LMAO hahahahaha]

The comment section was instantly flooded with gleeful laughter. Qi Xingchen felt like his IQ had been deeply insulted. He wore a deadpan expression as he glanced at the comments one last time.

[Hey, did you guys notice—when he was denying it, he told everyone to keep supporting Bo Ye, not Zuò Yè Xīngchén (the couple)?]

[Yeah! And every pic he reposted was solo shots of Bo Ye. He never even mentioned himself once.]

[When the relationship was made public, that account vanished like it never existed. It’s obvious—he’s not pretending not to ride Bo Ye’s popularity. He genuinely doesn’t want to.]

[He must really love Bo Ye.]

Putting his phone away, Qi Xingchen curled up in the corner of the bed, looking lonely, cold, and desolate.

Bo Ye could tell he’d shut down, so he gently pinched his cheek and tried to comfort him: “There’s nothing embarrassing in your alt account. It’s fine if people found it.”

“How do you know there’s nothing embarrassing in it?”

It’s full of nothing but rainbow fanning and wild fangirling. Super humiliating.

“Of course I know,” Bo Ye said, “I read your alt’s posts.”

Qi Xingchen: “……”

AHHHHH BRO DON’T YOU HAVE A LIFE WHY DO YOU HAVE TIME TO READ THAT STUFF AHHHH!!

Qi Xingchen felt his dignity fly far, far away, and sat there numb. But Bo Ye refused to let it go and kept poking: “So you used to call me ‘hubby’ way back. Why is it so hard for you to say it now?”

Qi Xingchen: “……I only called you that back then because I was pretending to be a girl to infiltrate your fanbase. I didn’t mean it!”

“Oh…” Bo Ye nodded, looking even more puzzled. “Why did you want to infiltrate my fanbase?”

Qi Xingchen paused, then recalled a tragic backstory.

“To be honest,” he said awkwardly, “when I first got transmigrated into this world, I thought you were the male lead. So I wanted to infiltrate your fanbase to gather dirt on you, expose your scandals or whatever… I even made a vow back then.”

Bo Ye, curious: “What kind of vow?”

Qi Xingchen looked mortified: “If I couldn’t beat you… I swore I’d take your last name.”

In the end, not only had he failed to take Bo Ye down, he’d been completely taken by him instead.

A tragic story had now become an even more tragic one.

The fact that a little fanboy once made such a vow was just too much—Bo Ye couldn’t hold it in and let out a laugh. Qi Xingchen stared at him in despair, his eyes full of hopelessness.

Seeing his lover’s pitiful little expression, Bo Ye tried his best to suppress his laughter, but the amusement still laced his voice. “Got it. I’ll make it happen soon.”

“…Make what happen soon?” Qi Xingchen asked, utterly confused.

Bo Ye lifted his hand and planted a few kisses on the back of it. “Make your wish of taking my last name come true.”

To comfort the little fanboy whose pride had been utterly shattered, Bo Ye—who had originally only planned to stay one day—ended up staying an extra day.

But the outing of the alt account ended up working in their favor. Thanks to this incident, Qi Xingchen gained a wave of new followers. Even many “Night Sky” fans (Bo Ye’s fanbase) who had previously been opposed or neutral about their relationship began to reevaluate his and Bo Ye’s intentions.

To be blunt, most of the Night Sky fans had believed that Qi Xingchen was dating Bo Ye despite the same-sex pairing only to gain access to his resources and popularity. But now, their opinion had changed. An alt account reveals true character, and Qi Xingchen had clearly never tried to ride Bo Ye’s coattails—not even a little.

After seeing Bo Ye off, exactly forty-eight hours had passed since Qi Xingchen last met with Director Li. Figuring the man must be on the verge of cracking by now, Qi Xingchen dialed Qi Yunxiao’s number:

“Brother, can you do something for me when you’re free today?”

Qi Yunxiao never hesitated when it came to his younger brother’s requests. “Tell me, I’ll arrange it this afternoon.”

“Can you go to the municipal bureau again and ask Director Li one more time—who was the mastermind behind his embezzlement and escape? If he’s willing to confess the truth, I can help transfer his children to new schools, cover all their tuition and living expenses, and even publicly claim they’re distant relatives of the Qi family.”

After he spoke, Qi Yunxiao thought for a moment, quickly understanding the key move behind the plan. He silently praised his brother’s cleverness. “Xingxing, you’ve really grown a lot this past year.”

His younger brother wouldn’t have thought of this a year ago—and honestly, neither had he, since he had been swamped with too much at the time.

“It’s not that I’ve grown fast,” Qi Xingchen took a deep breath. “It’s that… something went wrong. I’ll tell you all about it one day.”

“What went wrong? You haven’t been mistreated, have you?”

“No, Brother, don’t worry.”

After reassuring Qi Yunxiao that he was indeed okay, Qi Xingchen returned to the set to continue filming. At 4 p.m., right on schedule, he received a reply from Qi Yunxiao.

As expected, Director Li had finally cracked. He confessed that he had been coerced into embezzling the funds and fleeing—by someone named Xu Changlin.

When Qi Xingchen heard that name, it rang a loud bell. He was sure he’d heard it somewhere before.

After thinking it over for a bit, he remembered: two days ago, Director Jiang had asked if he had sent someone to investigate the Xu Sheng case.

Qi Xingchen had denied it, and Jiang had guessed that maybe Xu Sheng’s father was behind it—and even mentioned a name.

That name was probably… Xu Changlin.

Being right in the middle of things, Qi Xingchen knew his grudge with Xu Sheng ran deep. Was Xu Changlin trying to take revenge on him—by targeting the Qi family?

Was the fire at the Chengcheng Mall that day also Xu Changlin’s doing? But it had been nearly a year since the Xu Sheng incident—if he’d wanted revenge, wouldn’t he have done it earlier? Why wait until now?

The more he thought about it, the more confused he became. In the end, he decided to have someone locate Xu Changlin so he could question him face-to-face. If this was about revenge, then let it be against him alone—don’t drag the Qi family into it.

And if it wasn’t purely about revenge, then it was all the more important to extract valuable information from him.

Qi Xingchen didn’t personally know Xu Changlin, and as far as he knew, his big brother didn’t either. So he had no choice but to turn to Director Jiang. Worried that Xu Changlin might avoid him, he specifically told Jiang to come up with a reason to summon Xu Changlin to the police station—without revealing his (Qi Xingchen’s) involvement. Jiang agreed without hesitation.

Being able to trace the thread back to Xu Changlin was a good thing—it meant they’d finally found a breakthrough and no longer had to blindly worry. Qi Xingchen let out a small breath of relief.

That night, while waiting for news from Director Jiang, Qi Xingchen lay on the bed with his legs kicked up, video chatting with Bo Ye.

After chatting for a while, Bo Ye leaned close to the camera to study his face. “You’ve been smiling ever since the call started. What happened—something good after I left?”

Something had happened. Qi Xingchen thought to himself: things at home were finally progressing, of course he was happy.

But he couldn’t say that outright. Bo Ye was already busy enough—he didn’t want him worrying about his family’s affairs too. So he made up an excuse. “Filming went super smoothly today. Most scenes were done in two or three takes. Yay.”

“Ah, that’s why,” Bo Ye chuckled. “I thought it was because the buzz over your alt account exposure finally died down, and you were starting to recover.”

Qi Xingchen: “……”

Why bring up that of all things?! He had just about managed to forget it, argh!!

Seeing that he didn’t respond, Bo Ye finally asked the question he’d been holding in for two days. “Baby, when you were a fan of mine in real life… did you shower me with that many flowery compliments too?”

“…No,” Qi Xingchen shook his head. “Back then, my life and school were both insanely busy. I barely had time to browse online. I’d check Weibo every couple of days to see if you had any new posts or photos, but I rarely commented. You could say I was a very chill fan.”

“Then how come you’re so good at flattery now? Self-taught?”

“Nope,” Qi Xingchen said matter-of-factly. “I just say what I feel. Whatever comes to mind, I say it—it’s really simple.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized—crap, that might not have been the best way to phrase it. He quickly tried to change the subject.

But Bo Ye didn’t intend to let it go. “So all those sweet compliments… they were what you actually thought?”

“…” Qi Xingchen snapped, “Yeah, and what about it?!”

“Nothing,” Bo Ye said with a tsk. “Just surprised at how hard you were crushing on me. Didn’t realize it ran that deep.”

“…Isn’t that the whole point of idols? To be adored by fans? I’m not allowed to fall for you? Not even a little hard?”

“You are. As hard as you want.” Bo Ye couldn’t help but laugh at his twisted logic and quickly tried to soothe his feisty lover.

Thanks to Bo Ye’s good attitude, the bristling little kitten calmed down a bit. They chatted some more until it was time, then hung up to shower.

Before bed, they always called again to say goodnight. To sync up their sleep schedules, they often showered and did laundry at the same time. Over time, it became one of their little rituals.

Right before heading into the bathroom, Qi Xingchen glanced at his phone. Still no word from Director Jiang—but he did spot a freshly posted update from Bo Ye.

—Bo Ye: “While you were deeply infatuated with me, I was equally head over heels for you.”

Qi Xingchen’s smile rose uncontrollably.

He knew exactly who the “you” in that post was referring to.

No aliases, no substitutions—he, Qi Xingchen, was that person. No doubt about it.

Hehehe.

Rubbing his cheeks that had cramped from smiling, he grabbed his clothes and headed into the bathroom. Halfway through the shower, his phone suddenly rang. Thinking it might be Director Jiang, he grabbed a towel and dashed out dripping wet.

But it still wasn’t the person he was waiting for—it was his sister, Qi Yujie.

His usually gentle sister sounded flustered this time. “Xingxing, can you come home? Dad… was just taken in by the CSRC (China Securities Regulatory Commission) for a talk.”

_{We’ll wrap up the main story in under ten chapters. And no, I’m not saying this so you can wait for the full release before binging—keep reading as it updates! I need your comments for motivation!!!}