Male Sing and His Pet Owner: Chapter 65

“Gentle wind, or passionate wind.”

“Even if only, a light breeze, that belongs to me alone.”

“The smell of sunshine and earth, and the smell of rain.”

“Mixed together and whistling toward me, painful yet joyful, is this the taste of growing up?”

A soft beam of light spilled down. Zhang Wenqian slowly walked toward the very front of the T-shaped stage, gazing with deep emotion at the sea of fluorescent lights and posters below, singing with remarkably steady breath.

The screams below subsided slightly, then intermittent singalongs rose, countless glow sticks waving with the melody. At first glance it looked like a vast sea of stars, spectacularly grand.

“Wind blows through the dry desert, lightly brushes the damp seaside.”

“Wind dries the tears on my face and blows out a smile.”

Zhao Kaile sat below the stage, his eyes focused on following Zhang Wenqian’s footsteps, his head swaying back and forth with the music’s rhythm, his heart pounding. He felt the distance between his goddess and himself growing closer and closer…

Huh?

When the song reached its ending, Zhang Wenqian and the backup dancers behind her struck their final pose, standing right across from him not far away.

Zhao Kaile: “???”

The lights dimmed, and the music directly transitioned into the next song’s melody. Zhang Wenqian stepped down from the stage on the beat. The surrounding fans instantly went crazy, wanting to rush past the safety barriers to hug and shake hands with her. The security guards were squeezed miserably, loudly maintaining order, constantly stopping the extreme behavior of some frantic fans.

Zhang Wenqian made an inviting gesture toward Zhan Hang, her sweet voice resounding through the entire venue via microphone: “Next, I want to invite a good friend of mine to join me in bringing everyone a song, ‘Lovers Under Heaven’!” The spotlight roamed through the venue, then accurately landed on Zhang Wenqian and Zhan Hang. The latter rose gracefully like a gentleman, letting Zhang Wenqian place her hand on his arm, the two smiling as they walked on stage in sync, like a golden boy and jade girl, impossibly well matched no matter how you looked at them.

For a moment the audience below was stunned, then even more frenzied screams erupted: “Zhan Hang!!!” “Brother-in-law!!!” “Hang Qian Hang Qian! Eternal Love!” People filming videos, taking photos, posting to Weibo, WeChat, and Moments were everywhere. Laughter and cursing rose and fell in waves.

Zhao Kaile: “…”

Before he could come back to his senses, the two on stage had already entered their zone and began singing deeply to each other.

The moment Zhan Hang opened his mouth, Zhao Kaile was shocked. It was his first time hearing Zhan Hang sing live.

His singing voice was completely different from his usual speaking voice and his voice when reciting lines while filming. It was deep and magnetic. If Zhao Kaile didn’t know the inside story, he would have suspected Zhan Hang was lip syncing. And when Zhang Wenqian sang this song, she deliberately emphasized her breathy voice, making her vocal line extremely soft and beautiful, matching even better with Zhan Hang. Thus the entire venue above and below the stage instantly fell into a frenzied, joyful atmosphere of shipping the couple.

However, Zhao Kaile was clearly excluded from this atmosphere.

He stared blankly at Zhang Wenqian and Zhan Hang gazing deeply at each other, and his mind had already begun fantasizing about years later when he was still working as Zhan Hang’s assistant, doing laundry, cooking, and mopping for their children. And there was more than one child, one in his arms and one on his back, a boy and a girl. The two of them had become hands-off parents because of their busy careers, so the heavy responsibility of raising the children had entirely fallen on his own head…

Wait a minute…

No no no no.

He shook his head forcefully and snapped back to reality.

The music hummed. The male and female duet on stage ended. Zhan Hang and Zhang Wenqian looked at each other, smiled, then bent down to lightly hug, then said a few words of thanks and encouragement to her and the audience. Then the lights dimmed, and he made a successful exit.

Zhao Kaile sat below the stage waiting eagerly for a moment, but did not see Zhan Hang return. So he checked his phone and found a message from Zhan Hang: I’m waiting in the car. Don’t leave anything behind when you come back.

Zhao Kaile replied: Okay.

He looked again at Zhang Wenqian on stage, smiling sweetly and full of vitality. For some reason, he suddenly felt a bit off. He knew that after Zhan Hang made his appearance, he naturally couldn’t sit back in that seat. He should have left directly from backstage, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to get away.

But this situation always gave him a strange feeling of being abandoned for no reason.

His phone vibrated again. It was a message from Lu Jiayin: Lele, tell Brother Hang to leave quickly after singing, so he doesn’t get rushed by the antis who snuck in.

Zhao Kaile: ??

Zhao Kaile: Sister Jiayin, are you here too?

Lu Jiayin: No, this kind of guest appearance is no big deal. Having you there is enough.

Reading this, Zhao Kaile finally understood. This wasn’t Zhan Hang spontaneously taking him to see Zhang Wenqian’s concert. This was a schedule that all of them knew about, and only he had been pleasantly surprised.

Of course. How would a male celebrity waste time doing this kind of thing? During free time when not in a filming crew, every public appearance should come with massive traffic and exposure. Otherwise he wouldn’t waste effort doing useless work with no returns.

A moment later, Zhan Hang saw Zhao Kaile standing outside the car window.

“?” Zhan Hang was a bit surprised, checked the time and asked: “It’s not over yet, right? Why did you come out?”

Zhao Kaile looked listless: “A bit noisy.”

Zhan Hang said: “Then get in the car.”

Zhao Kaile blinked at him and asked: “Can I ask for a little time off?”

“Asking for time off again?” Zhan Hang looked at him suspiciously: “What are you going to do?”

Zhao Kaile didn’t know what he wanted to do either. He just felt inexplicably unhappy, and said vaguely to him: “Just walking around.”

Zhan Hang could see he was absent-minded and found it strange. He said: “Go then. Come back early.”

Zhao Kaile nodded, turned and left. His mind was buzzing, still echoing with the heavy drum beats from the venue. Zhan Hang sat in the car watching his retreating figure for a while. The driver asked: “Brother Hang, shall we go?”

Zhan Hang put on his hat and mask and said casually: “You head back first.” Then he nimbly got out of the car, leaving the driver alone in the vehicle utterly confused.

The sixth day of the New Year. Many shops had reopened for business. The red lanterns and festive couplets at every household hadn’t been taken down yet. The streets still overflowed with a joyful, celebratory atmosphere.

Zhao Kaile pulled out his phone to check Weibo. The trending topics were indeed moving in directions like #HangQianOfficialAnnouncement. The voices cursing Zhan Hang were still there, but much quieter than before. Within the heat of various keywords, one could faintly see Bai Li’s handiwork.

Why am I the only one who didn’t know… Is it because everyone thinks this kind of thing is perfectly ordinary? Something you can understand without being told? Then why did Brother Hang still act like he was specially taking me…

The sky was very dark now, and there was a trend of getting colder. Zhao Kaile put his hands back in his pockets, sighed, and thought to himself that he was being too petty. What was the big deal… Brother Hang needed to solidify his position, so of course he needed to maintain exposure. Maintaining exposure brought traffic. Traffic brought heat. Heat brought people asking him to film. People asking him to film brought opportunities to become famous. Becoming famous brought exposure… Then a virtuous cycle…

He wandered aimlessly for a while, felt a bit hungry, and prepared to find somewhere to eat. He had originally wanted to invite someone out, but gave up. Li Wenyao needed to accompany his girlfriend. Zhao Kaiming wanted to win over Jin Mengjie. The eldest and second brothers each had their own romantic destinies, so it wasn’t good to disturb them. He would eat alone.

This street was adjacent to a plaza. At this time there were quite a few elderly ladies dancing square dances inside, the music shaking the heavens. Several teenagers on flashy smooth skateboards whooshed past Zhao Kaile with arrogant expressions, their eyes full of disdain.

Zhao Kaile, huddled in his scarf and down jacket, trembling like a sieve: “…”

What is this!

Not far away, a tall man reached out to stop one of the teenagers, leaned down to negotiate with him for a few sentences, then handed him a package of something unknown, and actually temporarily succeeded in borrowing his skateboard.

Light and shadow flickered. Zhao Kaile couldn’t see his face clearly, but felt it was strangely familiar, so he stood in place and watched curiously for a while.

That man rode the skateboard over with a dashing air, stopping precisely in front of him. One foot on the ground, one foot pressing down, the other end of the skateboard tilted up, caught steadily in his hand.

Zhao Kaile: “?”

Zhan Hang’s voice said: “Well, fancy meeting you here.”

Zhao Kaile looked up at him, his eyes widening slightly, as if finding it utterly unbelievable.

A beam of silver light whooshed up into the sky, exploding with a bang, scattered fragments of light falling down in disarray.

Zhao Kaile saw Zhan Hang’s eyes curve slightly, full of smiling intent when looking at him, his dark pupils reflecting countless sparks of fire, then gradually returning to stillness one by one.

“Brother Hang.” He inexplicably felt a bit nervous, even stammering when he spoke: “You, how did you…”

“I’m also just walking around.” Zhan Hang pulled his mask down slightly, still with that paralyzed face expression, as if everything before had been Zhao Kaile’s illusion. He said without the slightest courtesy: “Check for yourself what time it is. How long were you planning to wander?”

Zhao Kaile hurriedly helped him pull his mask back up, speechless: “I got it!”

Zhan Hang asked: “Have you eaten?”

Zhao Kaile shook his head.

“Let’s go, my treat.” Zhan Hang said, then went on his own to return the skateboard to that boy.

Zhao Kaile put his hands back in his pockets, habitually following behind him, and asked: “What did you trade with him?”

Zhan Hang said: “A pack of cigarettes.”

Zhao Kaile: “!! How could you give cigarettes to a kid!”

“I didn’t bring anything else.” Zhan Hang answered casually, then went over to negotiate with those kids.

The boy who lent the skateboard was a bit surprised: “That fast? I haven’t even found anything to light it with.”

“Then don’t look.” Zhan Hang snatched the unopened pack of cigarettes back with a swift hand, warning: “Minors aren’t allowed to smoke.”

Teenager: “…”

Zhao Kaile: “…”

Before the few of them could react, Zhan Hang grabbed Zhao Kaile and ran quickly, leaving behind a stream of foul cursing.

Running against the wind for a while, Zhao Kaile felt both miserable and wanting to laugh, saying straight out that he couldn’t run anymore.

The two stopped at the entrance of a clothing store. Zhao Kaile leaned on his knees gasping wildly. Zhan Hang was like a person with nothing wrong at all. He looked back to confirm no one was chasing them, then reached out to support him: “Are you okay? This is barely any distance.”

Zhao Kaile gasped: “You… are too wicked… tricking even kids…”

Zhan Hang made a noncommittal sound, as if completely unashamed.

Zhao Kaile was choked by the cold air, coughed twice, and couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Zhan Hang moved his eyebrows: “What are you laughing at?”

“Nothing.” Zhao Kaile laughed haha: “I just think you’re very fun.”

“Laugh my ass.” Zhan Hang casually slapped the back of his head, saying coolly: “Let’s eat.”