Ch69 - Testing The Waters

Ye Li was full of motivation. In just a couple of days, he’d already picked out a villa that was on sale and bought it shortly afterwards. He didn’t feel any psychological burden about the money he was putting down. He simply treated it as an investment. There was still a little more paperwork that needed to be completed. However, Gu Qingchi could go ahead and move in.

The villa wasn’t located in the city. Rather, it was located in the suburbs. It was a fraction of the price for a villa of the same size located within the city. Real estate within the city was just that expensive. 

The villa’s strong points were in its environment and property management. Ye Li took a fancy to the tight security and relaxing environment. The villa had two stories. It also came with a garden and a huge lawn. Each property was separated by a few hundred meters. Security regularly patrolled through the community, and they were always on call.

The original owner had moved out of the country and was selling off his properties. This villa hadn’t really been lived in before. It hadn’t been decorated or refurbished either. The interior decoration was simple in style. It would be easy to redecorate in the future. It was also equipped with basic household appliances. Ye Li added a dishwasher and a robotic vacuum, so the villa was pretty much complete.

As soon as Ye Li got the key, he handed it over to Gu Qingchi. He wanted Gu Qingchi to move in as soon as possible. Gu Qingchi’s address had already been leaked, so the sooner he moved, the better.

On moving day, Ye Li went out of his way and borrowed a van from the company. The van was large and could fit a lot of things inside. Gu Qingchi, however, had only packed a suitcase and a few small cardboard boxes. 

“Is that all of it? I know you didn’t have much stuff last time either, but this is way too little. There should be a couple more boxes at the least.”

Back when Gu Qingchi was moving into this apartment, Ye Li had been the one to help him move. Ye Li knew better than anyone what was in Gu Qingchi’s house. It wasn’t much, but it should still add up to be quite a bit.

Gu Qingchi stacked the two boxes on top of each other and picked them up. As he was doing so, he answered Ye Li’s question.

“I threw out everything that I didn’t need.”

“I guess that makes sense. Throwing away the stuff you don’t need saves a lot of time and energy. That’s not a bad habit.”

Ye Li picked up two of the boxes as well. They would probably be able to move everything in just one or two trips. Helping Gu Qingchi move was almost a little too easy.

Once the two of them got downstairs, Gu Qingchi placed the boxes on the ground. Ye Li opened up the van doors to put them inside.

The cat had already been placed inside the van. It didn’t run around when the van door opened. Instead, the cat ran up to Ye Li and started meowing away at him nonstop. Ye Li found himself tangled up with the cat for a while. 

“Are you hungry? I’ll open a can of food for you…”

Gu Qingchi didn’t fall for the cat’s little tricks. He put the boxes in the van. Then, he turned his head and went back upstairs.

When he arrived at his apartment, he found that the door to the apartment across the hall had been opened. Xie Luyu’s hand was still resting on the doorknob. He had a mug in his hand and cotton slippers on his feet.

He was blankly staring at the open door to Gu Qingchi’s apartment. The inside of the apartment was now empty. There were several boxes and a suitcase sitting by the door. 

Gu Qingchi’s footsteps didn’t pause in the slightest. He simply did what he needed to do and picked up two more boxes.

Xie Luyu couldn’t help but call out to him.

“Are you … moving out?”

Gu Qingchi was wearing a hoodie. His soft hair was sweeping down his neck. He almost looked kind of student-like. He turned his head when he heard the words, glanced at Xie Luyu, said nothing, and went on to do his own thing. 

Xie Luyu was really panicking now. He spoke quickly.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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Gu Qingchi picked the boxes up. Then, he interrupted Xie Luyu. His tone was light. Xie Luyu couldn’t tell what he was thinking at all.

“Just throw it all away.”

Xie Luyu’s pupils shrank. He just stood there. He stood there for a very long time. He felt dazed and a little out of sorts. Nothing felt real.

Gu Qingchi had asked to break up just a few days ago. 

For some reason, Xie Luyu always felt that this was only temporary.

During this period of time, Xie Luyu might’ve felt a little restless, but he wasn’t panicked. After all, Gu Qingchi was right next to him. All that was separating them was a wall. It was a distance of a little more than ten meters. Traces of Gu Qingchi could still be found in his apartment.

Gu Qingchi’s things were still there. Once Gu Qingchi was used to using something, he wasn’t likely to change.

Xie Luyu had even felt that this fight was a good thing for them. It was a good thing they got it out of the way earlier rather than later. They just needed to solve the conflict between them, and everything would be fine. 

After all, he knew Gu Qingchi. He could tell when Gu Qingchi was happy and when Gu Qingchi was sad. Xie Luyu felt that everything was within his control.

Now, however, Gu Qingchi was telling him to just throw it all away. After that, he left without a second thought.

Gu Qingchi did like to use things that he was used to, but it was just as easy for him to throw them away.

Xie Luyu was truly panicking. 

Only at this moment did he realize just how simple it was for a person to stay away from another person.

He didn’t know Gu Qingchi’s new address nor did he know Gu Qingchi’s current schedule. The two of their lives would be completely separate.

He had Gu Qingchi’s WeChat. However, every time he opened up the app, he always ended up closing out of it without sending anything. By the time he gathered courage to send him a message, he discovered that he’d been removed from his friend list.

Gu Qingchi did exactly as he said. He really did make a clean break. 

The few times they met at the company were quick brushes of the shoulder.

Xie Luyu had even started to think about what if he hadn’t said anything at the time, what if they had stayed the way that they were. Wouldn’t that have been nice?

Why did the two of them come to this point?

Recently, Ye Li had arranged a lot of activities for Gu Qingchi. They were all pretty simple in nature, just photoshoots and the like. These jobs were for one purpose and one purpose only—to make money. 

Gu Qingchi really had no money left at all, especially after moving into the new house. In fact, he almost couldn’t afford the property management fee. After this little incident, Ye Li had a bit more of an understanding about his economic situation.

Celebrities earned a lot more, but they spent a lot more as well. Due to the nature of his career path, Gu Qingchi didn’t make a whole lot of public appearances, so he didn’t need to spend as much. Even so, however, he still had to spend quite a lot on clothing, not to mention everything else.

Besides, Ye Li wasn’t the only one working for Gu Qingchi.

Before, all he’d had was his agent, Ye Li. Now, however, he had a team behind him. Ye Li had created this team specifically for him, and they worked for him only. The team wasn’t very big. However, they were all elites of their respective fields, so their wages were pretty high. 

Starlight released a new program recently. It shot up in popularity as soon as it was released. It was called Senior And Junior. All of the artists that participated in the show were from Starlight Entertainment. Debuted artists and trainees would be appearing together.

The trainees would be competing for a chance to debut. Meanwhile, the artists that had already debuted would be their mentors, serving as a leader of sorts.

Afterwards, trainees would be selected for debut depending on their performances on stage and the number of votes they received.

Bluntly speaking, it was basically using the fame of the artists who had already debuted to bring more exposure to the trainees who had not debuted. 

Originally, this blood-sucking move would’ve been furiously trashed online by fans of the artists who had already debuted. However, Starlight Entertainment did really well in balancing the on-screen appearance rates of both artists and trainees, as well as paying the artists very generously.

In the previous seasons, the program debuted a singer and a girl group.

It also brought a lot of popularity to one of the artists serving as a mentor. She was a very talented singer, but she’d gone undiscovered for a really long time.

Originally, the company had just been testing the waters, but the responses were surprisingly good on both sides. After getting a taste of success, they decided to keep pushing forward. 

They didn’t force any of their artists to participate either. Whoever wanted to participate could participate. It was also fine if the artist had a last minute schedule and couldn’t make it.

It was precisely because of this that it was impossible to know who would be appearing on the show ahead of time. A celebrity might not be listed on the program’s guest list. However, they’d suddenly show up on the day of filming.

Ye Li thought that this show was pretty good. The time frame was short, the job was easy, and the pay was high. There was also the added bonus of earning new fans. Gu Qingchi really had not been in very many variety shows, so he accepted the job for Gu Qingchi.

The program was live streamed online, and an edited version would later be broadcasted on TV. Starlight was advertising the show for its total transparency. 

Gu Qingchi was currently getting ready backstage. The makeup artist was applying his makeup. She truly went all out—lipstick, red eye shadow, glitter. She even added some tiny star-shaped sequins under his eyes.

The program provided the same clothing for all of the mentors—black jacket, cargo pants, and a pair of fingerless gloves. They looked like a group of secret service agents.

There was already a cameraman following Gu Qingchi.

Once the makeup artist placed the last sequin on him, Gu Qingchi blinked. 

Gu Qingchi’s eyes seemed to be a little bit uncomfortable because of the sequins. He kept blinking over and over. He even tried to touch the sequins. As soon as Gu Qingchi lifted his hand, Xiao Ke quickly stopped him. Gu Qingchi subconsciously turned his head to look at Xiao Ke.

Xiao Ke spoke concisely.

“Look at the camera.”

Gu Qingchi obediently turned his head to look at the camera, his expression still a little blank. 

Gu Qingchi’s stream had an extremely high viewer count from the very beginning. Almost all of them were face-cons. The comments started zooming past the screen.

[Ahhh! I’m dying! Critical hit!]

[I got screenshots! Look at his dazed and aggrieved expression! He’s so cute!]

[Hahaha, Ke Ke’s so strict! Even though she hasn’t shown her face, I can already imagine what she must look like!] 

Someone next to Gu Qingchi was asking a scripted set of questions. He didn’t appear in-frame. It was just his voice.

“Gu Qingchi, it’s the age-old question. Why did you decide to join the show?”

After being reminded by Xiao Ke, Gu Qingchi sat up straight and faced the camera. His attitude when answering questions was very upright and proper.

“Well, I’m flat broke. I need to make money.” 

Xiao Ke was so shocked she dropped her water bottle.

[Hahaha, this is way too honest. He’s just like Xie Luyu. Do you guys remember what he said when someone asked whether the company forced him to be a judge for the show?]

[I know! I know! “Don’t think too much about it. Aren’t you guys tired of your conspiracy theories? I’m here because I’m one of the company’s shareholders.”]

[Why do I get the feeling that he’s being serious? Gege, you’re way too low-key! Even if I wanted to spend money on you, I wouldn’t know how.] 

[Sell photocards! Go live! I’ll buy you gifted subs!]

After a few more questions, Gu Qingchi went up on stage. He walked through a passageway and arrived behind a curtain. Once he was picked by a trainee, the curtain would be lifted up.

Gu Qingchi was also assigned a number—five.

At the moment, the only thing that could be seen of him onstage was his shadow. 

He could hear the host’s voice as he began introducing him.

“No. 5 is an actor. He has two representative works. And that’s it. Gosh, this is such a short introduction.”

Gu Qingchi had written his introduction himself. He had only filled in the required fields.

The host made a joke. 

“It looks like another fan of Xie Luyu’s has arrived.”

It was a pretty harmless joke. Out of all the actors that had shown up so far, every single one had paid their respects to Xie Luyu.