APCF -Chapter 3 (1)

Hold up. Qi Xingchen sobered in the next second, and chastised himself:

Do you wish to die? Do you wish to die? Do you wish to die?

If you don’t wish to die, then what are you doing revelling in a 2D character?

He is only a Mary Sue fiction novel’s male protagonist! Not the real Bo Ye!

How are you worthy of your real idol?!

To avoid the media outside, the bodyguard protecting Bo Ye speed-walked and was already almost out of their line of sight. Qi Xingchen secretly clenched his fists at the statuesque back view.

There was still a very long road ahead. With the ability to confuse him, this male protagonist was not easy to deal with ah.

The main perspective in 《Peach in the Night》 was that of the female protagonist, the novel largely describing anything that happens to her. Only when the plot requires it, the scenes would then shift to the other characters.

Thus the book did not mention this part about Bo Ye returning to the company. Qi Xingchen did not know what he came back for and just followed Han Qing to the dance studio.

He stretched for half an hour, trying to bend backwards and do splits. The original owner had learnt the foundation of music and dance, just that he did not train for long enough. He was pampered since young and thus could not bear much hardship, hence his basics were not that solid.

However, his flexibility was pretty good. After training for a few more days, he could pick up the majority of the acrobatics he did in real life.

“Wah!” Qi Xingchen was practising when Han Ying, who brought water back, opened his mouth wide in shock, “Xingxing, are you trying to scare me? You were almost going to fold yourself into half!”

“……” Qi XIngchen, who had never heard anyone describing it as such before, gave a perfunctory reply, “I haven’t practised for a long time, so I’m just stretching my muscles.”

“Stretching? What are you stretching like this for? I thought you wanted to go down the actor’s route.”

Han Qing muttered this, then snuck over to him, “Xingxing, guess what I just heard.”

“Something to do with the meeting?”

“That’s right! I heard that the company picked up a hot variety show for Bo Ye.”

Qi Xingchen asked: “As a temporary special guest?”

“Nope. A permanent guest,” Han Qing paused for a bit, “You know too that with Bo Ye’s level in showbiz, it is very difficult to invite him to attend a variety show. I’m guessing that the company managed to stuff someone else in the contract.”

No matter if it was the real-life or the novel Bo Ye, they both would usually not touch any other variety shows apart from those from CCTV.

Even if he accepted it, he would only be a temporary guest at most. To Bo Ye, his current traffic status and fame were more than enough, and he had no need to rely on variety shows to elevate himself.

The stuffing of people as said by Han Qing was a common practice by the entertainment company — Did you not want to invite my company’s major star? Then not only must the remuneration be satisfactory, but you would also have to include another one of our company’s artistes in the contract.

In the crude way of speaking, it was a buy-one-get-one-free, letting the latter attend the show to gain some fame. This kind of opportunity would usually be given to newcomers who had high potential but were not yet famous.

Qi Xingchen felt that there was something off. According to the plotline of 《Peach in the Night》, Bo Ye should be having a period of rest now, and even had a chance encounter with the female protagonist at a restaurant. How could he be on a variety show?

“We’ll just follow the company’s plan then,” Qi Xingchen shook his head, opening the dance practice video, “Little Qing, can you help me with this part?”

.

This practice ended up lasting most of the afternoon. Han Qing, who lived far from the company, went to change at the changing room and had to first say goodbye to Qi Xingchen: “I have to catch the last bus. Xingxing you should also go back soon.”

“Okay,” Qi Xingchen responded, “See you tomorrow.”

Han Qing persuaded him for a bit more before leaving. After Qi Xingchen finally dealt with him, he sat leaning against the wall, shaking away the sweat on his head.

In the end, because of his weak basics, he could not even get the chorus part right after trying for so long. If he wanted to get closer to the male and female protagonist, this level of capability was definitely not enough.

Qi Xingchen glanced at the time, seeing that it was 9 plus at night, gulped down half a bottle of water and prepared to practice for a while more.

If he could not dance proficiently to the chorus by today, he would not leave.

“1, 2, 3, 4……”

Qi Xingchen continued practising while facing the mirror. At 10 plus, the last artiste left from the piano room, and the entire vocal training area darkened.

At 11, all the artistes from the dance studio also headed home. The security guard came by to check and switched off the lights of the rest of the practice rooms, leaving only his light on.

Qi Xingchen left the practice room door slightly ajar for some airflow. The stream of light that poured out from the crack and the sounds of counting the beats was pronounced along the dark and quiet corridor.

As soon as Bo Ye left his personal instrument room, he noticed the unusual activity. He followed the sounds over and stopped in front of the door crack.

20 minutes passed, half an hour passed……

It was as if Qi Xingchen was tireless. Until a male voice suddenly disrupted his train of thought: “You can’t practice like this.”

There was a trace of a drawl in the low magnetic voice, and Qi Xingchen’s head almost exploded as soon as he heard it!

This damned …… isn’t this the damned voice of his idol?!

He froze in place for a few seconds and turned around stiffly. The first thing that entered his field of vision was a pair of straight long legs. After that, his gaze shifted up to Bo Ye, who had his baseball cap pulled down low and was clasping his arms while slouching against the door.

“The dynamics are wrong, so it would be useless no matter how much you practice,” Bo Ye jutted his chin, “Stop looking at me already. Replay the music, start afresh from the top.”

Qi Xingchen turned back stiffly again, his head blank.

He bowed his head and patted his face, blinking vigorously — This was the first time in his entire life seeing his idol alone. Even if he was fake, it still caught him off-guard.

There were mirrors on both sides of the practice room, and all these small movements became conspicuous; Bo Ye raised his eyebrows at them. Fortunately, he did not have to wait for long before Qi Xingchen finally snapped back to reality and started to dance.

With the idol supervising, in the first half Qi Xingchen danced as if he was a primary school student who was being watched like a hawk by his form teacher from the back of the classroom — you cannot say it was bad, but it was over conscious, and you cannot say it was good either.

Bo Ye found out where the problem was during the second half and walked over beside him while still clasping his arms. The performance script was rolled up, then used to whack his waist once.

“Your waist movement is not right.”

When Qi Xingchen did a leg move, Bo Ye whacked his outer thigh, “The movement of your leg is wrong, the thigh should drive the movement of the calf.”

Qi Xingchen could only grit his teeth and bear with it since it was his idol who was whacking him.

By the end of one dance, apart from anything above his neck, Qi Xingchen was pretty much hit all over.

Bo Ye looked at Qi Xingchen who was standing as straight as a ramrod in front of him, but had drooping eyelids, “……Do you remember whatever I said just now?”

“……En.”