Boss, He Is Chasing Stars Again Chapter 9

The new season of Starlight Training Camp wouldn’t be updated until next week. In the meantime, there were only occasional behind-the-scenes clips released by the production team, so even though Jian Xingzhi wanted to watch more, he had no choice but to wait.

Jian Xingzhi had already arranged the follow-up matters for the donation, and the feedback seemed quite positive.

Jian Xingzhi didn’t have any new work arrangements for the time being, so he quietly lurked in Shi Xingze’s fan group to watch the fans chat, collect pictures, and check the latest updates.

However, when Jian Xingzhi opened the fan group, the first thing that popped up was an administrator announcement, the general idea of which was to ask fans to remain rational and avoid mentioning other people’s names in the group.

Jian Xingzhi’s heart sank. He immediately scrolled up to read the 999+ messages above and became increasingly hesitant to speak up in the group.

Besides the messages filled with righteous indignation, calling on fellow fans to join in scolding the anti-fan efforts, some people were quietly asking in the group whether Shi Xingze was truly a “Royal” and how he suddenly gained so many votes.

Perhaps other fans were also angry, and the replies she received were varied and messy, which ultimately triggered the fan’s rebellious streak, causing her to leave the group in a fit of pique.

Before leaving, she didn’t say anything nice, directly posting a message in the group: “Go ahead and protect your idol. Maybe he’s just a little lover brought into the industry by some sugar daddy,” followed by a sarcastic smiling emoji before running off.

The administrator probably only saw the heated arguments in the group late at night, which was why they urgently issued that announcement.

“Sugar Daddy” Jian Xingzhi: Dared not speak.

Jian Xingzhi was somewhat glad that the voting screenshots he had previously shared in the group were only from his first vote. Originally, he had planned to divide the votes obtained from the charitable donation into batches, cast them for Shi Xingze, and then share the screenshots. Later, fearing that this would be too obvious, he gave up on the idea.

Now, the fan group was filled with a mix of love and hate for this mysterious big fan who was suspected to be a sugar daddy. Jian Xingzhi had no choice but to keep his mouth shut and hide the screenshots of his remaining votes. If he were discovered, he would surely be scolded.

However, Shi Xingze suddenly becoming the focus of fan attention wasn’t entirely a bad thing. At least the fan group had recently gained quite a few new members, all attracted by his performance. As the saying goes, being infamous is still fame, and Shi Xingze himself wasn’t exactly “infamous.”

While Jian Xingzhi was scrolling through the fan group messages, Tang Songhe’s call came through. As soon as he answered, he heard that same unrestrained voice: “How is it? The ticket I got you is pretty good, right? Front row center seat for the inner venue. I guarantee you can see the nostrils of the people on stage clearly.”

Jian Xingzhi was speechless. Why would he want to look at other people’s nostrils? “Speak properly. The seat is very close to the front. Thank you for handling this.”

Tang Songhe chuckled and said into the phone, “Since I helped you, why don’t you show some kindness and tell me who you’re chasing? You never hid things from me before. Are you too embarrassed this time? Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. I’ll just quietly make my own money.”

Tang Songhe had a reason for saying this. Although Jian Xingzhi was wealthy himself, Tang Songhe’s family ran an entertainment company, making many things easier for him to handle and giving him a better understanding of the intricacies of the entertainment industry. Therefore, Jian Xingzhi had never avoided telling Tang Songhe about his private celebrity chasing.

In the beginning, Tang Songhe thought that since Jian Xingzhi could manage a company the size of Chengtian so well, his judgment in selecting people couldn’t be bad. So, when Jian Xingzhi chased a celebrity, Tang Songhe would also invest some money in the minor star, thinking that even if he couldn’t eat the meat, he could at least drink some soup.

But later…

Tang Songhe even started to doubt if he was simply unlucky, wondering how he could lose money while clinging to a God of Wealth. He only slowly found peace after discovering that Jian Xingzhi was losing even more money than he was, confirming that this guy was simply unlucky.

So, the next time Jian Xingzhi was chasing a celebrity and asked him to get some tickets, Tang Songhe suddenly had a flash of inspiration: Since following Jian Xingzhi’s celebrity choices didn’t make him money, why not chase the opposite?

From then on, whenever a celebrity Jian Xingzhi was chasing appeared in a show or drama, Tang Songhe would not invest a single penny. This strategy had helped him avoid many pitfalls over the years.

Jian Xingzhi clearly knew about Tang Songhe’s secret maneuvers, but this time he truly couldn’t tell him. If the matter was exposed and reached Jian Lezhi, it would be bad. His Weibo avatar was “borrowed” from his sister, after all.

Jian Xingzhi refused to tell Tang Songhe who he was chasing, only offering a weak denial: “I won’t tell you. This one definitely won’t collapse.”

Tang Songhe immediately felt bored. “Fine, fine. By the way, Starlight Training Camp is about to record its first public performance. Do you want me to get you another inner venue ticket? I’m telling you, because there are so many people in Starlight Training Camp, if you wait for the platform to release it, it will probably be split into two parts over two weeks. I don’t believe you have the patience to wait that long.”

Jian Xingzhi hesitated. He wanted to go to the site, but the tickets Tang Songhe got were too far forward, making it very easy to be accidentally filmed by the camera capturing audience reactions. However, if he bought his own ticket, the location wouldn’t be as good, so he was conflicted.

Tang Songhe probably knew what he was struggling with, but someone on the other end of the line needed him. Tang Songhe casually said “Wait a moment” and quickly told Jian Xingzhi, “If you’re worried about being filmed, why not just sponsor Qi Xinci a little and go watch openly as a sponsor? I have something to do, gotta hang up!”

Unlike Jian Xingzhi, who was still a virgin, Tang Songhe needed to hurry up and attend to his new girlfriend before she got angry.

Jian Xingzhi heard Tang Songhe decisively hang up the phone, guessed that the other party had probably switched girlfriends again, and frowned as he put away his phone.

In the afternoon, Jian Xingzhi was in a meeting, but he was constantly distracted, his mind involuntarily recalling Tang Songhe’s suggestion. Should he go?

The more Jian Xingzhi thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. This way, he could attend not only the first public performance but also the second and third. He could also make his presence known to the production team and wouldn’t have to sneak around pretending to be a male college student.

Thinking this, Jian Xingzhi nodded internally. After the meeting, he immediately called his assistant and asked, “Has the endorsement for Chengtian’s mobile phone brand been finalized?”

Jian Xingzhi’s assistant, Yu Qin, thought for a moment and replied, “No, it was originally planned to cooperate with Tan Bin, but since Tan Bin’s incident, the contract termination matters were only recently completed. We haven’t approached anyone else yet.”

“I see. Go and invest a sponsorship in the Starlight Training Camp program in Chengtian’s name. You can also include the mobile phone brand endorsement, tentatively set for one year, and insert advertisements as well. This program has good popularity; try to recoup some losses.”

Yu Qin nodded. “Understood. I’ll handle it right away.”

“Wait a moment,” Jian Xingzhi called out to Yu Qin, who was about to turn back to work. He cleared his throat unnaturally. “I need to go to the site to inspect the first public performance of Starlight Training Camp… the next recording. Things like the endorser using drugs absolutely cannot happen again.”

Yu Qin was stunned. She hadn’t expected Jian Xingzhi to personally inspect the site for a mobile phone endorsement. Wasn’t this a bit of an overreaction?

But Jian Xingzhi was the boss, so despite her confusion, Yu Qin nodded and responded, “Understood. I will explain this when I interface with the production team and clear your schedule for that day.”

Jian Xingzhi nodded. “Thank you for your hard work.”

At the Starlight Training Camp production team.

Shi Xingze and Yue Lin put their heads together, struggling to adapt the song: “Yue Lin, if we divide the sections starting here, the artistic conception of the lyrics will be broken. How about starting from this line?”

Yue Lin also frowned. “But if we start from the previous line, everyone’s duration will be different, which will be even more troublesome later.”

“That’s true.” Shi Xingze sighed, put his pencil down on the floor, and scrolled through some adaptations of the song on Dili Dili, trying to find some inspiration.

As Shi Xingze scrolled, his eyes suddenly lit up. He handed his phone over, pointing to a section for Yue Lin to see: “Yue Lin, look, can we incorporate the instrumental breaks between the lyrics into the rehearsal? That way, we should be able to ensure everyone has the same allocated time!”

What Shi Xingze showed him was a fan-uploaded handwritten adaptation of the song, one point of which was to appropriately extend the instrumental breaks to intersperse scenes from the TV drama.

They didn’t need to copy the idea, but they could better integrate the dramatic performance of each person when rearranging the music.

Yue Lin grew more excited the more he looked, suddenly raising his head to Shi Xingze. “I have inspiration! Leave the arrangement part to me. I’ll have to trouble you to look over the dramatic performance aspect again!”

“Okay!”

Shi Xingze nodded heavily. If their ideas could be realized, he could ensure that everyone had a highlight moment in the dramatic performance, especially since the group that failed the first public performance would be entirely eliminated.

Director Qi hadn’t announced whether there would be a resurrection round, so they had to approach this performance with utmost seriousness.

Yue Lin focused on revising the arrangement, while Shi Xingze pulled up the edited scenes of the drama “Love Song in the Rain” and watched it again, writing things down on paper as he thought.

Not far away, the other six members of the group were practicing singing the song. Since they didn’t know which part they would ultimately sing, practicing the entire song was the safest approach.

Zhao Xian looked at Shi Xingze and Yue Lin over there and said seemingly unintentionally, “They are so serious; it seems our group has a great chance.”

A person next to him wiped the sweat from their face, glanced at Zhao Xian, and said, “We haven’t seen the material yet. Who knows?”

Zhao Xian nodded upon hearing this. “That’s also true. But they are the ones doing the arrangement, so they must be more familiar with the song than us, and perhaps their performance will be better.”

The expressions on the faces of the other contestants changed simultaneously when they heard Zhao Xian’s words. The few people with varying complexions sat in place, silent, but their minds were full of calculations.

As the arrangers, Shi Xingze and Yue Lin definitely knew where the highlight sections of the entire song were. What if they deliberately released false information, leading them to choose less impressive parts?

One impatient person couldn’t sit still first. Ignoring his aching body and dry throat, he stood up and walked toward the two of them, speaking without courtesy: “Since you two have been arranging for so long, why don’t you show us the results?”

Shi Xingze, whose inspiration was suddenly interrupted, didn’t show any impatience. He looked up and gently explained to the person, “Brother Sun Yi, it’s not that I don’t want to show you, but it’s still a little short of completion. It will be finished tomorrow morning.”

Zhao Xian hadn’t expected these contestants to be so impulsive. He only wanted to secretly rally others to exclude Shi Xingze, but Sun Yi had directly spoken out.

Sun Yi scoffed. “Zhao Xian was right. I want to see it now. Otherwise, who knows who you two are secretly giving the highlight parts to?”

Zhao Xian?

Yue Lin raised his head, somewhat annoyed, only to see Shi Xingze staring intently at Zhao Xian not far away.

Shi Xingze looked at Zhao Xian with a half-smile, but his words were directed at Sun Yi: “We agreed that Yue Lin and I would be responsible for the adaptation, and it’s not yet time for us to submit the finished product. Why are you in such a hurry?”

Yue Lin also slammed his rough draft onto the floor. “Adaptation is not easy. If you have any objections, you can do it yourselves, instead of doubting me and Xingze.”

The contempt on Sun Yi’s face grew stronger. “Xingze? Calling him so intimately. Who knows what agreement you two have reached in private? What’s wrong with us wanting to see it first?”

Shi Xingze looked at the others and asked calmly, “Do you all think so too?”

The other contestants avoided Shi Xingze’s gaze. One of them said awkwardly, “Actually, letting us see it won’t delay anything. You can still continue the adaptation.”

“Exactly.”

“What’s there to hide from us?”

Amidst the low-voiced complaints of the other contestants, Shi Xingze’s phone suddenly rang. He glanced at the screen—it was Brother Long calling—and avoided the others, turning to walk out of the training room to answer the phone.

After Shi Xingze left, the previously low-voiced complaints immediately grew louder, as if they were afraid Shi Xingze wouldn’t hear: “It’s just an adaptation. What’s there to hide? Is being number one in voting so great?”

“Who knows if there’s something fishy behind the votes. And a commoner? Does anyone really believe in commoners these days?”

Zhao Xian tried to mediate, but was actually adding fuel to the fire: “Don’t say that. Having fans vote is a skill in itself. If I had that face, maybe I’d get more votes too.”

Shi Xingze was flawless in appearance, with gentle eyes and a highly infectious smile. He wasn’t the same style as current celebrities, but more like a piece of jade hidden in a box.

Yue Lin couldn’t stand it and was about to stand up to say something when Shi Xingze returned from outside. Everyone’s eyes instinctively focused on Shi Xingze.

Shi Xingze pressed down on Yue Lin’s shoulder, shaking his head reassuringly, and picked up his manuscript, placing it among the contestants: “Since you think I might tamper with things, I’ll choose last. I have a temporary matter, so I won’t stay. I’ll continue to complete the remaining parts when you all have no objections to this semi-finished product. After all,”

Shi Xingze looked around at the group, his gaze finally settling on Zhao Xian, and said to them, “I don’t want my adaptation to be criticized and redone at the last minute after I finish it, do you agree? I have a temporary matter, so I won’t be accompanying you for now.”

Yue Lin thought Shi Xingze’s words made sense and immediately placed his own manuscript in front of them. “I’m the same as him.”

Zhao Xian saw that things were exceeding his expectations and didn’t bother to hide his intentions, saying to Shi Xingze, “It’s still practice time. Where are you going?”

Shi Xingze shook his phone and gave Zhao Xian a brilliant smile. “Of course, I’ve been invited by the production team to film an insert advertisement.”

After saying this, he looked at Zhao Xian’s ugly expression and didn’t forget to add: “Oh, and it’s for the mobile phone brand under the new sponsor, Chengtian. See you tomorrow.”

Author’s Note:

Shi Xingze: Who says I don’t hold grudges? I’ll make you mad!