Chapter 89

In the confined environment, everything seemed to be a bit more intense.

Breath, body temperature, even the gaze.

In this instrument storage room without clocks or signals, Qin Qingzhuo never thought it would become a place of indulgence one day.

Yet he had to admit that he was indeed happy, happier than any time he licked his wounds alone.

This kind of happiness even overshadowed the previous feelings of gloom and depression when he was alone in this place.

“Hungry or not?” Jiang Ji sat on a chair, one hand embracing Qin Qingzhuo who was straddling him, the other hand pinching his earlobe. “How about you stay here, and I’ll go out to buy some food.”

He stood up with Qin Qingzhuo in his arms, let Qin Qingzhuo sit on the workbench, then bent down to pick up the clothes on the ground.

“I’ll go with you,” Qin Qingzhuo said, “Get some fresh air outside.”

Jiang Ji, having put on his pants, looked at Qin Qingzhuo with a teasing glint in his eyes. “Still have the energy to go out, should I have let you endure a bit longer just now?”

Qin Qingzhuo suddenly felt a bit embarrassed. “I told you not to steal techniques.”

“This is called returning kindness with kindness, putting knowledge into practice,” Jiang Ji approached and kissed the corner of his lips. “Thanks to Teacher Qin for teaching so well.”

Qin Qingzhuo remained silent for a moment, then said, “… The clothes, bring them to me.”

He shifted the topic too abruptly. Jiang Ji chuckled, not immediately doing what he said, but first putting on his clothes.

Standing calmly in front of Qin Qingzhuo, he lowered his head and lightly licked the lower eyelid of Qin Qingzhuo. “Salty.”

“Even the eyelashes are wet,” he looked into Qin Qingzhuo’s eyes, lowering his voice, “Qin Qingzhuo, why were you crying so hard just now?”

Qin Qingzhuo said, “… Stop talking.”

But Jiang Ji refused to listen, continuing to speak:

“Even more intense than last time.”

“Is it because it was too stimulating?”

“Was it really that stimulating?”

He repeated the words Qin Qingzhuo had said in the morning verbatim, and now Qin Qingzhuo deeply understood the meaning of self-inflicted pain.

Jiang Ji held back a laugh as he glanced at Qin Qingzhuo’s expression for a moment, then walked over and helped him pick up the clothes.

Qin Qingzhuo reached out to take them, but Jiang Ji didn’t hand them to him. “Let me help you put them on.”

“Am I a child?” Qin Qingzhuo said, “Do I need you to dress me?”

“I want to help you.” Jiang Ji reached out and held Qin Qingzhuo’s ankle, but didn’t rush to help him put on the clothes. His fingers lingered on the scar on the side of Qin Qingzhuo’s calf, like a totem, gently rubbing it twice.

Following his gaze, Qin Qingzhuo looked at the scar. In fact, he had undergone many laser treatments to try to fade it, but the effect was minimal, and there was even slight hypertrophic scarring. So he had to give up and accept that scar as part of himself.

Qin Qingzhuo was very particular about appearances, a preference reflected in himself. He found this scar extremely ugly, so he never exposed his calves in front of others—last time, when he rolled up his pants leg to reveal the scar to Jiang Ji, it was the only exception in four years.

“Is it very ugly?” Qin Qingzhuo subconsciously wanted to put his leg down, “Stop looking.”

“Not ugly at all, I think it’s beautiful, like a very special tattoo.” Jiang Ji held his ankle, and the fingers of his other hand flicked the scar as if plucking guitar strings, “And if this scar were a guitar string, the melody it plays would be beautiful too.”

At his words, Qin Qingzhuo was briefly stunned. He had never thought that this hideous and ugly scar would be given such a beautiful meaning.

Jiang Ji seemed to have just made a casual remark and continued to help him put on his clothes, lifting him off the workbench, then touching his earlobe. “How are your ears these days? Still ringing?”

“No,” Qin Qingzhuo shook his head, “I haven’t had ringing in my ears these past two days.”

Jiang Ji thought for a moment about the cause of Qin Qingzhuo’s previous ringing in his ears. “Does bad mood cause the ringing?”

“Not entirely,” Qin Qingzhuo said, “But it’s indeed closely related to mood.”

“So, the lack of ringing these two days is related to me?”

“Otherwise?” Qin Qingzhuo chuckled.

Jiang Ji lowered his head and pecked his earlobe. “When are you going to the hospital again?”

“I’ve finished the course for this month, I’ll go next month.”

“Then next time, I’ll accompany you,” Jiang Ji said.

“Sure.”

They climbed the stairs, the rolling shutter opened, and the outside sky was already dark.

Qin Qingzhuo took out his phone and glanced at it. It was only a little past two in the afternoon when they arrived, and now it was almost nine in the evening. It seemed that time always flew by when he was with Jiang Ji.

Jiang Ji turned his head to look at Qin Qingzhuo. “What do you want to eat?”

Qin Qingzhuo put on a baseball cap, then reached out to help Jiang Ji pull up the hood of his jacket. “There’s a night market nearby with some snacks. Do you want to go and have a look?”

“Okay.” Jiang Ji took his hand and put it in his own pocket.

Qin Qingzhuo tried to pull away, “Be careful not to get photographed again.”

“Didn’t Li Zi say that as long as we don’t kiss in public, it’s fine?” Jiang Ji glanced at him with a hint of amusement in his eyes, “I can restrain myself.”

He raised his hand and adjusted the black mask on his nose, then pulled Qin Qingzhuo forward, “Besides, with us covered up like this, even if we do get caught, they won’t recognize us, no worries.”

This time Qin Qingzhuo didn’t comply, trying to withdraw his hand, but Jiang Ji held on tighter.

As they walked forward, they secretly competed in Jiang Ji’s pocket. Qin Qingzhuo felt like he hadn’t done such a childish thing since kindergarten.

Just as he thought that, Jiang Ji suddenly loosened his grip, raised his arm around his shoulder, and hugged him.

“Let’s walk like this.” Jiang Ji said, embracing his shoulder.

Qin Qingzhuo: “…”

The nearby night market was enclosed within a large tent.

As soon as they entered, the aroma of fried food filled their senses, and the smell of smoke hit them.

When Qin Qingzhuo initially chose the rehearsal room nearby, it wasn’t just because he liked the confined environment of the basement, but also because of this night market stall.

Whenever he felt upset, he would come here, take a deep breath, and seeing so many people living their lives earnestly, he would feel a bit better.

However, in the past, when he came here, he would just quickly browse around, buy some food, and leave. He had never had the patience to explore from beginning to end like today.

The two found a place to sit in a corner of a large stall. The snacks they bought were steaming hot, filling the entire table with grilled cold noodles, trotter soup, oden, cold pot skewers… Even Qin Qingzhuo was surprised at how today he seemed to want to buy everything, as if he had an appetite for everything, curious about the taste of each food.

“Bought so much,” Jiang Ji sat across from him, pulling his mask down below his chin, “Are you that hungry?”

“Yeah,” Qin Qingzhuo nodded seriously, “It’s just right for me to fill you up.”

“Do I need filling up?” Jiang Ji raised an eyebrow, “It’s you who needs it, Teacher Qin.”

“I didn’t say I don’t need it.” Qin Qingzhuo smiled and picked up a cold pot skewer, “I should fill up too.”

“Eat more,” Jiang Ji pushed the food on the table towards him, “Your waist is so thin, I’m afraid to apply too much force.”

The last few words “afraid I’ll poke through you” were spoken softly, but Qin Qingzhuo heard them loud and clear.

He was about to put the skewer dipped in spicy oil into his mouth to taste it when he heard the words and instantly choked.

Qin Qingzhuo couldn’t handle spicy food very well to begin with. Choking on this mouthful, the spicy oil went down his throat, causing him to cough violently, and a flush of blood instantly spread from the tip of his ears to his entire face.

“Is it too spicy?” Jiang Ji wanted to give him some water, but found they had just bought a bunch of stuff and conveniently forgot to buy water. He pushed the trotter soup and oden towards Qin Qingzhuo, “Have some soup first, I’ll go buy water.”

After saying that, he stood up and walked quickly to the water bar on the street side.

Qin Qingzhuo took a few sips of soup, and the spicy sensation in his throat eased, but the flush on his face remained.

In his mind, he recalled the feeling when Jiang Ji held his wrist and insisted on placing his palm on his abdomen in the basement.

Feeling the slight rise and fall of his belly, he felt incredulous. His face burned instantly at the memory, and he tried to move his hand away from his own abdomen, but Jiang Ji pressed down on his wrist, insisting that he look down…

Hearing the laughter of passersby nearby, Qin Qingzhuo despised himself for sitting in the corner of the night market and recalling these scenes. He raised his hand to lower the brim of his baseball cap.

His phone on the table vibrated, and Li Zi sent a message. Qin Qingzhuo picked it up and frowned slightly—

“Qingzhuo, there’s now a discussion online about Jiang Ji’s past, and public opinion is fermenting. Take a look.”

He clicked on the link Li Zi sent, scrolled through the page quickly, reading the discussion content.

It was a discussion post about Jiang Ji, titled “Can’t stand everyone swooning over Jiang Ji, let’s dig into the rotten things behind Jiang Ji.”

The person who posted claimed to be a fan of the show “Restless Bands” all the way, and because they liked the Asperatus band, they had been paying attention to the lead singer Jiang Ji for a while. However, the more they knew, the more they realized that Jiang Ji was not worthy of liking—

“Dropped out of high school in the 10th grade, used to frequently fight and skip classes at school, he’s just a thug. Heard from his classmates that he once sent someone to the hospital, and I don’t know what connections he used to settle the matter, otherwise he would’ve ended up in jail for a few years. So when the incident of him assaulting Urban Collapse came out, I wasn’t surprised at all, Jiang Ji has too many previous offenses.”

“His dad is even worse, owes a ton of debt, and their house has been seized by the court. The company went bankrupt and owed hundreds of employees their salaries. How many people lost their homes and lives because of this, I really don’t know how these people feel now seeing Jiang Ji becoming famous and so many people worshiping him…”

“As for the Jiang Shang Qing CP, I can only say that Jiang Ji really knows where his strengths lie and how to promote himself. He forcibly turned a patronage relationship into true love with the song ‘Light Peck’, causing so many people to swoon over it. With this final wave of promotion before the finals, it’s almost certain that Asperatus’ victory is guaranteed.”

There were also a few photos interspersed in the post, showing Jiang Ji smoking at the door of the Red Lure Bar.

After this post, Li Zi sent a screenshot of Weibo—”Jiang Ji Dark History” had already made it to the hot search, and quite a few marketing accounts were reposting related content with exaggerated tones.

Qin Qingzhuo browsed through the discussions in the topic, his brows furrowing tighter and tighter.

Although he had anticipated that as Jiang Ji gradually entered the public eye, the things that happened to him would eventually be exposed, after all, media chasing after heat wouldn’t let go of such a natural focal point. However, when this actually happened, Qin Qingzhuo still felt caught off guard.

He should have been more cautious that night, he thought again. How did those photos become the spark to ignite public opinion?

After pondering for a few seconds, he picked up his phone and sent a voice message to Li Zi: “Can this post be deleted? And those marketing accounts and hot searches, see if you can remove them. If it’s not possible, then let’s get a PR company involved. Even if we have to pay more for it to quickly quell the heat, it’s okay.”

After a moment, he felt it wasn’t quite right, so he sent another message: “Forget it, let’s not act rashly for now. Let me think about it and I’ll get back to you.”

Exiting the chat with Li Zi, he sent the driver an address to pick him up later. After sending the message, Qin Qingzhuo saw Jiang Ji walking over with some stuff not far away. He turned off the screen and put his phone aside.

TN:

THIS HAS SH*T YAO WRITTEN ALL OVER IT!