Chapter 24#
Scalding Galaxy#
He looked at the staff member and, rarely, took the initiative to speak: “Why was it chosen to be held at the square?”
The square was almost the furthest place from the hotel; going back and forth would take a long walk and a lot of time.
“The crew originally planned for the instrument shop, but the number of fans who came to support Teacher Luo and the others was more than previously estimated, so it was changed to the square, which can accommodate more people.”
The staff member was also somewhat helpless.
The crew was stingy to the extreme, not renting many cars, and the rented cars were all used to load equipment. Whether it was guests or staff, the only means of travel was a pair of legs.
They didn’t want to walk more, but they had no choice.
There were even fans coming?
Du Minsheng glanced at Mo Xuzhi.
The eyelids of the person beside him were slightly drooped, yet his back remained as straight as a pole.
He didn’t speak anymore.
The staff member led the two to the square.
The appearance of the square was very different from what they saw when they came by bus.
Half of the area of the originally empty square was partitioned off, and it was crowded with people. It was very noisy, and there were occasional screams.
The other half was where the staff were located. Mo Xuzhi saw that several other guests were here.
Seeing the staff member lead the two over, there was another burst of noise outside the field, and it was very easy to hear someone shouting Du Minsheng’s name.
No one shouted Mo Xuzhi’s name.
Du Minsheng also heard someone calling him; he didn’t move, still following Mo Xuzhi forward with his head down.
Mo Xuzhi, however, stopped. He turned his head and said, “Since you heard them, go say hello.”
He knew Du Minsheng was being considerate of his feelings.
He actually didn’t care.
This situation indeed had a huge gap compared to before, but he could accept it.
What he truly cared about wasn’t these things.
Du Minsheng paused, then gave a small wave toward where the fans were.
Another wave of screams followed.
Du Minsheng saw Mo Xuzhi smile slightly; the arc was very shallow and quickly faded.
“Temporary small task—help arrange the scene. Please get in position quickly, guests!”
Just as Mo Xuzhi and Du Minsheng got closer, a staff member from the crew spotted the two and quickly ran over, stuffing a small card into Mo Xuzhi’s hand without a word.
The two looked at the card and then at the staff member.
Du Minsheng asked, “Can it be just me?”
“Ah?” The staff member reacted for a moment, looked at Mo Xuzhi, only then discovering he seemed a bit tired, and nodded again, “Sure…”
They were only short of one person anyway; two more guests weren’t many, and one fewer guest wasn’t few.
“Thump—”
The sound of a heavy object hitting the ground suddenly rang out behind them.
Followed by coughing.
The staff member turned his head and saw Shen Le crouching on the ground and coughing incessantly, with Luo Wenyun standing on the side. Beside the two was a piano covered with a cloth.
“What’s wrong?”
Shen Le shook his head while coughing and raised his eyes slightly, his eyes brimming with tears.
“Stop moving it for now, let him go to the infirmary to have a look,” the staff member was also a bit worried, then looked down and asked Shen Le, “Do you know where the infirmary is?”
Shen Le remained silent, continuing to shake his head.
Du Minsheng opened his mouth and said, “Luo Wenyun and I will continue moving it, you accompany him to the infirmary.”
“I can’t leave here either. How about I point you in a direction, and you follow this road and ask the villagers for directions?”
They were too busy today, and everyone could not leave. If it weren’t for this, they wouldn’t have been so insane as to ask the guests for help.
Shen Le gripped his sleeve and didn’t answer the staff member, only looking at Luo Wenyun.
Everyone present understood his meaning.
The staff member was suddenly in a bit of a dilemma: “Teacher Mo’s health is also a bit…”
Luo Wenyun’s gaze swept over the several people, saw Shen Le’s reddened eyes, and also saw the deep weariness under Mo Xuzhi’s eyes.
“I’ll accompany him to the infirmary.”
He ultimately chose to accompany Shen Le to the infirmary.
Mo Xuzhi wasn’t surprised by this result.
This was a plot that originally existed in the book and was quite important.
Luo Wenyun accompanies Shen Le to the infirmary, the two reminisce, and their feelings begin to heat up.
Plus, he wasn’t that fragile.
Meeting the gazes of the cameraman and other staff members, Mo Xuzhi brushed back the stray hairs on his forehead, pointed to the piano, and asked, “Where to move this?”
Seeing him seemingly trying to lift the piano alone, Du Minsheng’s heart jumped, and he immediately went over to lift the other side.
Mo Xuzhi smiled: “Don’t panic, I just want to find the leverage points.”
“…Over there, just put it next to the ladder.”
The staff member’s expression was a bit complicated, “Hard work, Teacher Mo, Teacher Du.”
He finally knew why every time after Mo Xuzhi finished a variety show before, there was a wave of scolding online, yet none of the crew staff had ever complained about him.
Luo Wenyun and Shen Le hadn’t gone far yet.
“It seems like every time before going to the infirmary, it was Brother Yun accompanying me. If Brother Yun has someone he likes in the future, no one will accompany me to the infirmary anymore.”
Shen Le appeared to have gotten much better. He wiped his physiological tears, wanting to talk while crying, then smiled, his smile soft and pitiful.
“Mm.”
The only response to Shen Le was a cold and emotionless short sound.
Mm?
Shen Le’s smile froze: “?”
Luo Wenyun hadn’t heard what Shen Le said at all; he answered casually and looked back.
He could see Mo Xuzhi’s somewhat excessively thin back.
Du Minsheng noticed his gaze.
He saw Du Minsheng smile.
The smile was full of mockery, with a contempt unique to a loser.
Luo Wenyun turned his head back again, and a gloom appeared in his eyes.
After busy working for several hours, several crew floor managers finally got free time, sitting in front of the large fans and blowing without any image.
“Hey, where did this milk tea come from? Why are you the only one who has it?”
As soon as they relaxed, several other people instantly noticed something was wrong.
They were miserably blowing in the wind, yet someone here had milk tea to drink.
And it was a large cup!
“Oh don’t, this was just given by someone,” the staff member happily drinking the milk tea took a comfortable breath, then continued, “Someone asked me when Mo Xuzhi would come before, and I casually estimated a time, and she stuffed a cup of milk tea into my hand.”
Others were a bit surprised: “There are actually Mo Xuzhi fans coming here today?”
As everyone knows, Mo Xuzhi has millions of Weibo fans, half of whom are anti-fans. The remaining small portion are either marketing accounts or face fans. Face fans are also extremely Buddhist, only liking the face but not the person, and haven’t reached the point of specifically coming to a small town just to see Mo Xuzhi.
Mo Xuzhi, sitting not far away with Du Minsheng resting, looked over.
“Keep your voice down,” the staff member drinking milk tea waved his hand, and after seeing Mo Xuzhi just give a casual glance and withdraw his gaze, he breathed a sigh of relief and said, “No, it’s an anti-fan.”
“??”
“She said she listed all kinds of outrageous and stupid things Mo Xuzhi has done since entering the entertainment industry, and is just waiting for today to let Mo Xuzhi see for himself, so he can clearly recognize himself.”
“??”
Coming all this way just for this?
Just this?
The staff member took a sip of milk tea and sighed: “Maybe this is the hobby of a young lady from a wealthy family.”
Others also shook their heads one after another, incidentally denounced capitalism a bit, and then restarted work.
By the time the stage was set, it was already night.
At this time, it got dark early. By eight o’clock, the sky was completely dark. The crew and local government found several extra-large searchlights to brighten the surroundings.
The fans, who were originally agreed to take the last bus to the hub and then go home after seeing the guests today at six o’clock, didn’t want to leave once they saw their idols, and stayed until now.
The result was that the originally envisioned few old men and women sitting in rows became a crowded concert scene.
To avoid recording, all the phones of those who came had already been agreed with the crew to be kept by the crew during their stay in Wanwan Town. They had nothing to light their hands with. Someone had somehow gotten glow sticks. Below the stage, the sea of stars rose and fell, more like a concert than a concert.
“Why are there so many people.”
Several guests stood backstage looking at the scene in front of the stage. The Movie Queen Li Jing looked a bit nervous and unconsciously grabbed the arm of the Movie King beside her.
The Movie King didn’t take her hand away.
The two looked at each other.
“Group A prepare, you’re going on stage! Go through passage two, be in position in three minutes.”
a staff member pushed open the door and notified with a loud voice, then left hurriedly.
Li Jing’s group of four was Group A.
After hearing the staff member’s voice, they didn’t dally and left the room to prepare at the front.
Although it was just a small competition where winning or losing didn’t matter, and all four of them had experienced great waves, after seriously preparing for a day and even being busy with stage arrangement for an afternoon, they couldn’t help but be a bit nervous. Mo Xuzhi and the others, on the contrary, were different.
Except for Shen Le who looked very nervous, the other three were all very calm… and even looked a bit bored.
Mo Xuzhi’s eyes were full of weariness, almost with “life is meaningless” written on his face.
They watched the four members of Group A go on stage.
Although the temporary stage was very simple, the surging cheers below the stage were enough to make people temporarily forget these things.
Singing alone, especially live, is easy to mess up, so the four of them cleverly chose to sing together, one microphone each, and violin accompaniment.
They still hadn’t stepped out of Du Minsheng’s “Whale.”
The moment the music came out, Mo Xuzhi had already heard it.
What they sang was a low-end version of “Whale,” and the melody could not be called original at all.
Mo Xuzhi lost interest, looked down, took out his phone, and casually replied to a text message.
When he looked up again, a staff member said it was time for them to prepare.
Mo Xuzhi didn’t move, and even Luo Wenyun and Du Minsheng didn’t move.
Shen Le had always been responsible for the song rearrangement, and the performance should also be his.
They did nothing and it wasn’t good to go up and steal the limelight.
As it turned out, the staff member came and went in a hurry, stuffed a microphone into each of their hands, and left immediately. Before leaving, he emphasized once more that everyone must go on stage.
Mo Xuzhi glanced at his pant legs, which were still stained with a mixture of mud and dust, remembered that no one came to see him anyway, patted them casually, and considered himself ready.
He didn’t care much himself, but he tidied up for Du Minsheng. Du Minsheng’s buzz cut didn’t need anything, just pulling the clothes straight was considered a complete success.
The show was truly simple; there wasn’t even makeup before going on stage, all depending on the guests’ own performance.
Mo Xuzhi wanted to straighten his collar, and Du Minsheng bent down slightly, bowing his head to facilitate Mo Xuzhi’s movement.
He could still smell the pleasant scent on the other person.
“Mo Xuzhi, after the competition, I have to go up and sing another song.”
Du Minsheng didn’t dare to look up at Mo Xuzhi, his body a bit stiff. He paused for a bit, then said,
“Can you accompany me?”
“The crew arranged someone to accompany, but I…”
“Sure.”
Easily, Mo Xuzhi agreed.
His attitude was lazy and casual, but he did agree.
Du Minsheng suddenly looked up.
The youth was also looking down at him, his light-colored eyes as clear as ever.