Don’t Be a Kept Man

Chapter 68: A Good Samaritan That is Chen Yi

As a perfectly acceptable true loyal fan, you cannot miss out on attending any events that contain your idol.
On the one hand, Fu Xiu Nian had someone get him a concert ticket, and on the other, he was publishing a few posts to try and gather up some fans to support Chen Yi at the concert hall.
But unfortunately more shade was thrown than those who responded at all.

>> I am Yi-Ge’s fan, but this notice is too sudden.
I can’t buy any tickets and I can’t get there in time as I’m not around that area.

>> There’s only those few fans of Chen Yi.
If you go, wouldn’t you all be embarrassed?

>> Hahaha I bet that no one will go.
If I were him, I would be embarrassed to death.

There were indeed too few fans of Chen Yi, but this could only be fixed by making a plan carefully later on to cultivate more. 

The concert started at 8, and before the doors opened at 7:30, attendees would need to go through an inspection before entering.
Fu Xiu Nian calculated the time and found that there was still enough time to make it.
He quickly made a group and started a private conversation without any of his elders and seniors, as well as shooting messages to his friend groups in order to gather more support for Chen Yi.

Fu Xiu Nian: @everyone Inviting you all to watch a concert.
If you’re nearby, come over to the World Trade Stadium at 8.
I better see you all there.
Make sure to cover yourselves up, as this is a high profile event.
All those who are familiar faces on gossip tabloids should wear a mask (I’m serious).

The moment he sent the message out, he added a location tag and already, someone was responding in the group chat.

>> World Trade Stadium? That’s not too far from me.
I must go! It’s too rare for the little president Fu to be the generous one! Go go go!

>> Fuck.
Why do I have to cover my face? Am I so ugly that I can’t be seen? Is it wrong that paparazzi like to take photos of me when I’m with my gf?

>> Out of the country, on vacation.
Just got off my private jet so I can’t go Xiu Xiu~ Next time! Mua~

Ah Ya’s concert did not only invite Chen Yi as her special guest; there were also a few of Global Entertainment’s C listers.
But none of them were very close with each other, and neither did they dare go up to talk to Chen Yi with his cold and scary aura.

The clothing that had been prepared for Chen Yi was a black and white combo, perfectly matching Chen Yi’s cold and cool look especially with the many silver chain decorations on the jacket.
Ling Dang gave him a very simple hairdo and makeup to match his outfit and took a few pictures of him after she was done.

Chen Yi had a cool skin tone, with his facial features quite symmetrical and his eyes sharp.
His handsomeness was 100% the aggressive, conquering type, which was only enhanced by his never ending scowling face.
Those C list female celebrities did not dare to breathe loudly in fear of disturbing him and when they spoke, they tried to avoid as much of him as they could, speaking as quietly as they could.

The concert started checking and letting people with tickets in at 7:30, and the stadium seats were filling fast as the stream of fans continuously flowed in.
Ah Ya was known to like the colour blue, and so all the fans’ light sticks and LED signs were shimmering in the dark, as if they were forming a sea on land.
However, these blue waves only made the VIP section’s silver LED signs more distinct.

Fans looked over, wondering who could be so powerful as to grab a whole section of VIP seats.
But then they realized that that was not the important question.
What dumbfounded them was discovering that the LED signs were actually all displaying Chen Yi’s name.
After their moment of shock, they collectively snorted and retracted their gazes back, continuing to scream their hearts and throats out for Ah Ya.

Motherfuckers! This is Ah Ya’s concert, can fans of Chen Yi roll off a cliff please!!!!!!!

Behind the ginormous LED signs was a group of whispering youngsters.
Jiang Yan cried out with a face that wanted nothing more than death right now, 

“My dear older cousin, I’m not Chen Yi’s fan.
Why did you drag me here? Wu wu wu.”

Fu Xiu Nian was wearing a mask and a baseball cap, confidently holding up his LED sign and using it to hide his body.
Hearing her say that, he reached out to push her sign back up as it had drooped down, 

“Hold it right.
You really think I would make you watch this concert for free, hmm?”

Another man who looked like a wealthy second generation and player puffed up his chest,

“And here I was fucking thinking why you were acting so nice.
It was all because you wanted me to work like a dog for you!! As a man, why do I have to support Chen Yi! My idol is Shi Min! Shi Min ah!!”

Shi Min was a certain member of a girl group.
Pretty, long legs, with a cutesy voice, but the most important fact, big breasts.

Fu Xiu Nian’s eyes narrowed sharply, like a hawk, at him, 

“It’s not that easy to get something out of me.
And also, wear your mask properly.
I don’t want to be on the cover of a tabloid with you tomorrow.”

And then scanned the others behind him, making sure none of them were slacking off.
Only after this scrutiny did he return his gaze to the special guest seating area.
Although Fu Xiu Nian recently debuted, his support was at the level of an A list celebrity.
It was only because he was normally very low-key that he wouldn’t bring as many people with him as he could have.

This time, not only did he bring along his cousins and friends, he also included his assistant, make up artist, photographer, stylist, driver and more, filling up the entire VIP section.

His assistant silently covered his face in the midst of all the yells around them, 

“Xiu Xiu, don’t you feel embarrassed? We don’t seem to be winning in numbers here.”

Jiang Yan let out a mocking snort, 

“Not enough? He’s already brought all the nannies and housekeepers from home already.”

Fu Xiu Nian calmly stated, 

“Her leg has been acting up, so I didn’t let the housekeeper come over.
It doesn’t matter if we have less numbers on our side; we value quality.”

And then he ruffled Jiang Yan’s hair, 

“Come on! Yell out with me.
The race car that uncle didn’t want to buy you, I’ll give it as a present to you.”

Jiang Yan was silent for a bit at that, and then……

“CHEN YI, LET’S GO! DO YOUR BEST! OH AH OH AH GOOOOOOO!!!!!!!”

The concert officially began with Ah Ya finally coming up on stage.
The atmosphere began to rock up to the top, hitting an energy, a hype, that only live concerts could create.
And at the same time, Chen Yi and the other small C listers headed to the special guest seating area.
After Ah Ya sang her first song, she smiled and introduced them to everyone, 

“I am very thankful to the heavens for arranging us to meet like this tonight.
Besides my fans, there are some really good friends of mine who have come here from far away.
Please welcome them with a round of applause.”

The camera was perfectly timed to pan over to the special guest seating area, and their faces were blasted onto the huge monitor up top of the stadium.
The few C lister girls smiled as they stood up to greet the audience, and Chen Yi came back to his senses then, slowly following them to stand up.
His height as he fully stood up almost created a hidden pressure.

In the midst of the sea of blue, the one area with his name lit up in silver LED lights was very eye catching, especially when they covered the span of the entire golden VIP section.
Although the voices were almost covered up by the yells of Ah Ya’s fans, Chen Yi could still hear someone energetically and enthusiastically yelling his name.

“CHEN YI!!! GO GO GO!!”

“CHEN YI!! WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”

He paused in his movements to sit down, looking over ever so slightly.
This one look seemed to have stripped away his guard and usual hardness, his eyes turning into the endless space of the night sky, and those silver signs falling upon them were like stars, shining unhindered.

 

Those who looked at the monitor felt their hearts constrict for a second, and all of them thought of one thing —

His soul was etched with love in this moment since a thousand years ago.1

Chen Yi retracted his gaze and sat back down again.
Only after seeing him do that did Fu Xiu Nian dare to poke out his head.
He drank some water to wet his hoarse throat, and in his peripheral vision he could see one of his best friends, Yan Yue, was staring like a shocked dog at him.

Yan Yue: “Are you crazy? Bipolar? Why are you yelling so damn loudly.”

Fu Xiu Nian: “You don’t understand.
You cannot be reserved when stanning a celebrity.”

Yan Yue said with a face full of doubt, 

“What does Chen Yi have? Can he sing or can he act?”

Fu Xiu Nian pushed up his sleeves, 

“His mouth is good at slaughtering others.”

When the concert started the interaction period between the celebrity and the fans at the stadium, the camera would occasionally pan over to the crowd.
Chen Yi couldn’t help but give attention to those few fans chanting for him.
But the more he looked, the more he found those holding up the LED signs for him weird.
Every time the camera would pan over, they would reflexively avoid it, and when they didn’t notice the camera, they were shown to be wearing masks and baseball caps.

Chen Yi slowly moved his gaze away, contemplating.

When the concert ended at 10 pm, the special guests were scheduled to take photos with Ah Ya on the stage.
And in these photos, Chen Yi should technically be standing in the center with Ah Ya, but who knew how the organizer planned it, as he was made to stand to the side.

That female celebrity who took his spot was floundering a bit because of this, but at this time, Ah Ya placed one of her arms on top of her shoulders, smiling as she said very intimately, close to her ears, 

“Come on, smile, say cheese.”

The moment the camera clicked, Ah Ya immediately let go of her and walked away to take a picture with a fan who won the lucky draw and got to meet her as the prize.
But when Ah Ya stepped away, the color suddenly drained from that female celebrity’s face, and her right hand was frozen, holding onto her shoulder.
She signalled with her life to her manager, but there was no indication that the message was being received.
With so many cameras on them, she could only slide slowly to the side, trying her best to be part of the background.

Chen Yi seemed to sense something, and his eyes panned over, discovering that the strap on her right shoulder had somehow been snapped.
Because the backside of her dress had a deep V shape design, anyone could see something more.
Those who were nearby and found out about this were all covering their mouths and laughing, but no one gave a helping hand.
Even the other female C listers on the same stage were purposefully blocking her path and forcing her into the middle of the stage.

Chen Yi’s footsteps paused, and his body moved forward to block her front.
The moment he did that, the female celebrity’s expression relaxed slightly, and she quickly used this time to find the other half of the strap behind her and tied the two broken sides together into a bow.
Then she hurriedly ran down the stage.

When the photography session was completed, Chen Yi did not stay long, directly leaving through the backstage exit, towards the car where Ling Dang parked.
When Chen Yi sat in the car, he did not immediately signal Ling Dang to return home and held his phone out as he thought for a bit.
After a while of deliberation, he sent a message.

Fu Xiu Nian had just walked out of the tunnel when the phone in his pocket vibrated.
He opened it and there was only one sentence that greeted him:

>> Do you recognize this idiot?

A photo was sent next, and it was a picture of Fu Xiu Nian hiding behind an LED sign, with only his eyes popping out from behind it.
Who knew how Chen Yi could have taken that photo secretly when the cameras were on him?

When Fu Xiu Nian saw that, he first was surprised, and then he immediately checked his appearance through the reflection of his phone.
He asked his little cousin, 

“Can you recognize me like this?”

Jiang Yan replied, 

“Don’t worry.
No one could recognize you.
Even if your mom stood in front of you, she might not even recognize you.”

So how did Chen Yi recognize him?

 

Fu Xiu Nian was just deciding on whether or not he should reply when his phone vibrated again.
Chen Yi had sent another message back, but this time, the other had not scolded him.

He had instead turned the picture into a sticker and added the caption of “Sneaky Doggie”.2

In response, Fu Xiu Nian returned a middle finger.

When the concert tour was completed to its last show, Ah Ya’s team started their marketing campaign, blowing out of control for her visuals and buying up ranks on the trending charts.
During the time that the marketing started, and the time where it was very silent and dark, with no pedestrians on the streets, Ling Dang drove Chen Yi home with the streetlamps shining as their only companion.

Chen Yi lived in a fairly middle class community, and the environment was quite nice and quiet as a result. 

Ling Dang said, 

“Xiao Yi Ge, there aren’t any other events scheduled for the next few days, so you can have a good bit of rest.
Go home and accompany Xiao Meng and if you need anything, call me on my cell.”

Chen Yi nodded his head and grabbed his luggage from the car, 

“Go back home early yourself.”

It was very close to 12am and besides the night owls, everyone would be pretty much asleep.
When Chen Yi rode up the elevator, he deliberately lightened his steps, but he found that the lights in the living room were still shining brightly when he opened the door.

“Brother, are you back?”

There was a faint female voice sounding out from inside a room, and then after some rustling, Chen Xiao Meng walked out on crutches.
Her aura was the complete opposite of Chen Yi, displaying a gentleness and graciousness about her, with her black inky hair lying peacefully and quietly on her shoulders.
She was a woman with an ethereal air, of someone otherworldly, someone who belonged with elegance.

Chen Yi didn’t know what to say.
He had never had a sister, and when he was small, he was always surrounded by ruffians, with rough and physical gruff brothers.
Even when he had not so easily gotten a junior-sister, she was more aggressive and bolder than any of the brothers, playing with her whip like no other.
She was even more manly than a man.

Chen Yi nodded his head and dragged his suitcase in, 

“Hmm.
Just came back.”

Chen Xiao Meng said, 

“Then are you hungry? I’ll cook you some noodles.”

“I already ate before I came back.
It’s pretty late, so you should go to sleep soon.” 

And then slightly panned his gaze over her legs, adding, 

“If you have any problems, call me.”

Chen Xiao Meng smiled as she nodded her head, 

“Don’t worry.
I’m almost healed.
It’s just that I can’t really walk for very long, but this will get better as I work on it.”

Their home had evidently been taken care of very meticulously.
There were even fresh flowers, giving off a “homey” kind of feeling.
Chen Yi took a shower, and his tightly wound consciousness relaxed slightly, and before long, he was asleep.

And with that, the living room was set back into darkness once again. 

At the same time, news about the concert was spreading faster and faster on weibo.
The morning after, Chen Yi’s phone was ringing nonstop.
Chen Yi took a look at the caller ID and saw that they were from Ling Dang.

The moment he accepted the call, he could hear her voice that was a bit numb, 

“Xiao Yi Ge, you’ve been flamed again for joining the concert yesterday.”

An attitude as if it was very normal.

Chen Yi raised his eyebrow, very impressed, 

“I sat there like a log and I can still be flamed?”

Ling Dang explained, 

“No, there was a bit of a problem with the positions when the photography session happened.
Some antis said you stole the spotlight from Tong Yue.”

Tong Yue, a singer artist like Ah Ya, was the girl who had her dress straps snap off yesterday. 

Yesterday night, an anonymous user had uploaded a short video and in it, Chen Yi was standing near the right side, but for some reason he had stepped forward randomly, for no reason, blocking Tong Yue. 

In that moment, because Tong Yue had been in a state of such hurry to fix her dress, she had used that chance to step back.
But with the timing, it looked like she was forcefully pushed away in the video.
And because she was freezing up from her situation, her expression did not look right, with her eyes reddened as she ran down the stage after.
And through an entire night, this video moved up the ranks to number six on the charts.

The video had evidently been maliciously edited, cutting away the section of Tong Yue’s straps snapping.

Chen Yi was unconcerned and said, 

“Oh.
Whatever.
You don’t have to call specifically for this in the future.”

And then he hung up the phone and flipped around to continue sleeping.

It was very quiet and calm on Chen Yi’s side, but the situation online was building into a storm of blood.
There was even someone who had stated in a group all the notorious things Chen Yi has done since he debuted.
There were many detailed discussions studying why such a stingy and narrow eyed man of this degree was walking on this earth, bullying even girls.
When morning came, this particular post was already seen by thousands and thousands of viewers.

 

# Chen Yi and a New Idol Fighting for the Spotlight on the Same Stage, Female Celebrity Gets Mad and Cries Off Stage #

Fu Xiu Nian had only seen the trending hashtags this morning.
Although he was quite far away yesterday so he had not seen it in detail, but as long as he had a brain, he knew that Chen Yi could not do such a thing so thoughtlessly.
Multitasking, he began to check up on the details of the situation, all the while he phoned around to try and fix the video, and scrolled through the pages to report each and every hate comment.

>> Tong Yue didn’t do anything wrong to him right? Why is he stealing the spotlight from newbies? What a mannerless gentleman.

>> Ah, why did Chen Yi go steal the spotlight from newbies? He’s someone who’s on the charts everyday, UGH!

>> How did God create such a crazy miraculous man

>> Didn’t happen like this.
I was there in person at the concert yesterday and Tong Yue seemed to have a problem with her clothes so she had to leave the stage.
If you look closer at the video, she’s been holding onto her shoulder the entire time.

When Fu Xiu Nian saw that comment, his brain suddenly grasped at something and he quickly put on his armor to head into the battlefield himself.

Xiu Nian: Why doesn’t the uploader give us the entire version? Just a few seconds of the camera, it’s not even clear what happened before or after.
This is obviously malicious editing.

Someone with the account name Dream quickly followed along: There are so many truths and lies in the entertainment industry so who could say it clearly? We don’t know what the truth is, and without knowing everything first, who has the authority to toss out blame so carelessly?

Antis who saw these comments immediately came crazily to tear them apart, even dragging along the one who just came to the defense of Chen Yi.
Antis swore and cursed at them, saying that they were part of a troll bot army, being bought out with money, causing the other to immediately fight back in anger.

>> Bot Army, your mother fucking bot army! I was the fan who won the lucky draw yesterday and even took a picture with Ah Ya.
I have kept that video I took yesterday, and I’m going to find that and release it.
Antis, you can go kill yourself ok?

And then they immediately uploaded a video.
Because it was filmed with a phone, the camera was a bit shaky and the quality wasn’t that clear.
The video was concentrated on Ah Ya, but one could still see Tong Yue and Chen Yi on the side.

In the video, after Ah Ya had stepped away, everyone could see very clearly that the dress strap on the right shoulder of Tong Yue had suddenly snapped off.
She was so shocked and had quickly held her dress up with her hand, looking around left and right frantically.
She had seemed to want to hide but she was being pushed towards the center by some other unknown celebrity.
Just looking at her made others worried and pained for her.

And it was at this time that Chen Yi seemed to glance in her direction, and seeing the situation had quickly retracted his gaze and directly stepped in front of her to block the cameras.

 

Notes:

 

*1 So this phrase is a bit tricky, in that it’s a 4 word idiom which can constitute an entire story, but this one was apparently never from a story (well a song which is varied on which one it based on…) and kind of passed by mouth? To kind of condense the very vague meaning that I don’t really think I have the right words for, it’s a phrase that literally means to glance with eyes and see through a thousand years, and there’s a lot of connotations to that with not a lot of one coherent meaning (lots of people have their own interpretations).

But take it as if someone has seen with their eyes a thousand years or something that they saw makes it seem like a thousand years has passed.
Usually related to matters of love and all that, but as a meaning, it’s to say something was very memorable, one that could be etched into your soul kind of memorable.
In particular, it can be taken to mean like I knew you were there, but now that I see you, I am moved and mesmerized by you, as if we have known each other for a thousand years, as we were fated to always be led back together.
Perhaps another way to say it would be how it’s almost like love at first sight, but with a bit more of a weighty implication, rather than a glance of infatuation

*2 Sneaky Doggie: A meme/sticker that came from a husky being “sneaky” (or a better phrase maybe, “up to no good”), but the phrasing is taken from (or based on)another saying/proverb that means sneaky as a ghost/doing something bad.
There are quite a few variants which are all pretty cute like putting a dress on the dog or changing it to a cat being up to no good, and you can search it up (and narrowed down) by “狗狗祟祟表情包” where the first four characters are of the action, the dog being sneaky/up to no good and the last 3 characters are like to mean stickers (or expression package).

>>  As I’m currently a bit swamped, and you might have seen with Plum helping me upload for a while now, I am usually only able to fix somethings/wordings/phrases/footnotes/notes after it has been posted.
If you have noticed some disrepancies or how something might have been changed, that’s probably the reason why  Thank you for all your patience (and I swear I will wrangle all these formatting issues/typos to nonexistence one day… ) Hope you all are having a great start to the week, and see you Galactic Judges on Wednesday!