After Being Reborn, He Became An Ace In A Boy Band Chapter 2
byLi Xun naturally didn’t want to answer the call.
Two years had passed, and it was no longer about resentment. Time could wear down all past events, good and bad; those insurmountable obstacles and things he thought would never change would fade and settle. The initial anger and sadness could still be recalled, but they failed to stir much emotion in Li Xun.
Yet, he didn’t know how to deal with this unfamiliar mother; his mind was too chaotic right now.
The phone rang persistently. Main Vocalist Wu Xingye’s gentle voice had already finished the first verse of the ringtone. Rong Xiao couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t you going to answer?”
Li Xun sighed inwardly and picked up the phone.
“Lanlan!” As soon as the call connected, the voice on the other end sounded close to tears. “Lanlan, you scared Mom to death…”
Li Xun didn’t respond. She quickly continued, asking, “Lanlan, are you uncomfortable anywhere? Did you hurt yourself when you fell?”
“…I’m fine.”
“What do you mean, ‘fine’? Your voice sounds wrong!” Her son’s answer only worried her more. In the past, if Jiang Yilan felt unwell, he would always act spoiled toward her, but today he was saying he was fine so calmly and indifferently.
“Lanlan, who is with you? Give the phone to them.”
Jiang Yilan looked up at Rong Xiao and handed the phone over.
Rong Xiao took it. “Hello, Director Wei, I’m Rong Xiao.”
“Xiao Rong, what exactly happened to Lanlan? Why does he sound so strange? Tell me the truth, don’t hide anything.”
“He’s fine, please don’t worry. He just woke up, so he might be a little low on energy, but his body is okay. The doctor is here too.”
“Good, good. I just got off the plane and I’m in the car now. I’ll be at the Hospital soon. Please take good care of him. Thank you for your trouble.”
“I will, please rest assured,” Rong Xiao comforted her.
The call ended. Rong Xiao looked at the silent, downcast Jiang Yilan. “Your mother will be at the Hospital soon.”
But Jiang Yilan was just staring at his open hands, as if studying something, or perhaps just spacing out.
The doctor left, and the three chatted casually for a few more minutes before the ward door was hurriedly pushed open. Jiang Yilan’s mother, Wei Qiyao, had arrived.
“Lanlan!”
When Wei Qiyao rushed over, Li Xun instinctively recoiled, pressing his entire back against the headboard.
His hand was grasped. Wei Qiyao relaxed only after seeing that he truly wasn’t injured.
Li Xun tried to pull his hand away, but Wei Qiyao held on tightly. Meeting her worried and distressed gaze, Li Xun couldn’t bear to insist.
Wei Qiyao raised a hand to touch his face, her heartache practically overflowing. “You’ve gotten so thin, do you know that?”
Her tone turned regretful: “I told you long ago not to be a celebrity. What do we not have at home that you need to go out and suffer like this? If something had happened to you today, what would Mom do?”
It was a kind of maternal worry and affection he had never experienced. Li Xun could only stiffly repeat, “I’m fine.”
Wei Qiyao looked even sadder. Li Xun knew his current behavior must be vastly different from the real Jiang Yilan. He didn’t know what Jiang Yilan was like in front of his mother, and even if he did, he couldn’t manage to act it out.
“Actually…” Li Xun began. It was better to bring up the excuse of amnesia sooner, before the inconsistencies piled up. “I don’t remember many things since I woke up.”
Wei Qiyao froze. “Don’t remember… what do you mean?”
“It means I only remember who I am and common knowledge. Other things… I don’t remember much.”
Wei Qiyao was completely stunned. Combining this with her son’s unfamiliar attitude toward her, she widened her eyes in disbelief, her mouth slightly opening and closing. After a few seconds, she asked in a trembling voice, “You… don’t even remember Mom?”
Li Xun nodded and hummed in confirmation.
“How could this… how could this be possible…” Wei Qiyao found it hard to believe such an absurd thing was happening to her. “Are you playing a joke on Mom?”
Li Xun didn’t answer. She turned back to look at the two people behind her, and from the faces of Rong Xiao and Xiao Cheng, she received the answer she didn’t want.
After a long silence, Wei Qiyao cried. Li Xun could only watch silently as this mother, who loved her son fiercely, wept in sorrow because her son had forgotten her.
He dared not imagine how devastated Wei Qiyao would be if she knew her real son had been swapped out.
“It will slowly recover, right?” But Wei Qiyao adjusted quickly. She wiped her tears and forced a smile at Li Xun.
“Perhaps.”
“Director Wei, please don’t worry. The doctor just said this is only temporary. Maybe after a good night’s sleep, Yilan will remember everything tomorrow,” Rong Xiao said from behind.
“Yes, yes, it’s only temporary.” Wei Qiyao quickly agreed, nodding several times as if to reassure herself. She turned back to Rong Xiao and Xiao Cheng. “Thank you for taking care of Lanlan. Please go back and rest. I’ll stay here.”
“Alright, Director Wei. If you need anything, just contact me. Xiao Cheng and I will head back now. Please talk with Yilan for a while.”
The two left, leaving only the mother and son in the ward. Wei Qiyao had also brought her assistant, Shu Lin, who was waiting outside the door. Wei Qiyao asked, “Lanlan, are you hungry? Is there anything you want to eat? I’ll ask Shu Lin to buy some… Oh, you don’t remember Shu Lin, do you? Shu Lin is my assistant, you know her too.”
Li Xun shook his head; he truly had no appetite.
“You can’t eat nothing. Shall I ask Shu Lin to buy something random, okay? Just eat a little, then rest early. We’ll go home tomorrow.” Wei Qiyao called her assistant outside.
She still found it hard to accept that her son had forgotten her. When she returned, she kept talking to Li Xun about things at home, trying to jog his memory.
But Li Xun’s mind was focused on his real family, his sister Li Mo.
He wondered if Li Mo had received the news of his death. A dull ache spread through Li Xun’s heart. How heartbroken must Li Mo be?
Moreover, Li Xun had gotten into the accident on his way back from visiting her. He and his sister hadn’t seen each other for two weeks. She had urged him several times to come to her school to try the new mala tang place in the cafeteria—it was cheap and delicious.
Li Mo would definitely blame herself, even though it wasn’t her fault at all.
Li Xun was lost in thought. Wei Qiyao called “Lanlan” several times before Li Xun realized she was talking to him.
“Hmm?”
Wei Qiyao’s eyes were full of disappointment, but she quickly masked it. She took Li Xun’s hand again, her voice very gentle. “I was saying, Aunt Zhou was just talking about how long it’s been since you came home yesterday. I told her, ‘Lanlan is busy with the Concert Tour.’ She doesn’t use the internet much, but she was looking for videos of your concert on her phone.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, she found lots of clips. They were all filmed by your fans, though, so they weren’t very clear.” Wei Qiyao smiled when she mentioned this. “Your father watched them too. He always pretends not to care, but he watches secretly. I know everything.”
“Your father is in the US right now. I haven’t told him yet, or he would definitely have come with me,” Wei Qiyao added.
They truly seemed like a very loving family, Li Xun thought.
The parents loved their child so much, to the point of spoiling him, and the family was wealthy, which was probably why Jiang Yilan had such an overbearing personality.
His soul was now attached to Jiang Yilan’s body, but what about Jiang Yilan? Had he simply vanished?
Perhaps when he woke up tomorrow, Jiang Yilan would be back, and his own soul would cease to exist along with the corpse, disappearing completely from this world.
“You should stay at a hotel tonight. You won’t rest well in the ward,” Li Xun told Wei Qiyao. “I’m fine.”
Wei Qiyao hesitated. “…Alright.” She clearly wanted to stay and accompany her son, but seeing Jiang Yilan’s slight resistance, she felt sad but could only comply with his wishes.
Later that evening, Wei Qiyao spoke with the doctor again before reluctantly leaving. Finally, he was alone in the room. Li Xun leaned against the headboard and spaced out for a while before opening his phone and browsing Weibo.
Jiang Yilan’s Weibo update frequency was quite stable, mostly posting selfies. The previous post was “The last show of the National Concert Tour,” accompanied by a selfie of him in full makeup, flashing a peace sign at the camera.
He scrolled through a few posts and noticed that Jiang Yilan rarely interacted with the other members of the group on Weibo.
Li Xun then opened WeChat, found the To5 group chat, and started reviewing the history.
There wasn’t much chat history in this group, only work-related matters, with Leader Rong Xiao being the most frequent speaker.
Li Xun scrolled to the bottom of his WeChat contacts and could only find a one-on-one chat with Rong Xiao. There were no individual chats with the other three members.
He had been awake for so long, yet none of the other members had reached out to ask about him.
Perhaps the relationship within their group was simply this distant, or perhaps Jiang Yilan didn’t get along with anyone else.
When he was a Trainee, Li Xun was only close to the people in his Company Dormitory. He wasn’t a very social person. He knew Rong Xiao—a famously good-natured person who got along well with everyone during their Trainee days. Main Vocalist Wu Xingye and Main Dancer Tang Ruining had undeniable professional skills. Wu Xingye was the most recognized singer among that batch of Trainees. Even if he wasn’t the best technically, his Musicality was definitely higher than the others; listening to him sing was very immersive, as he knew how to move people’s hearts.
As for Tang Ruining, he joined the Entertainment Agency a little earlier than Li Xun. The first time Li Xun watched other Trainees dance, it was him, watching with the intent to learn. Tang Ruining’s dancing skills were good enough to be half their teacher, but his personality was cold, and few Trainees sought his help. That time, after Tang Ruining finished dancing, the surrounding Trainees applauded, but he offered no response. He just grabbed a towel, wiped his sweat, and walked away without saying a word.
The youngest member of the group was Yuan Zhiyan, the Main Rapper. He had a very lively personality, calling everyone “Ge” (older brother), and was the last to join the agency. Li Xun’s deepest impression of him was one time in the cafeteria. He rushed in with a few others, shouting, “I’m starving!” He piled his plate high with food and ate with great relish. The others laughed, saying he was still growing, and he cheerfully replied that he still wasn’t full.
Although he wasn’t particularly close to them, Li Xun was happy when he found out he would be debuting with them back then.
He belatedly remembered to search online for news about the car accident. Sure enough, on a certain social media platform, many people had posted related threads: several partially censored photos, a car with a deformed front end, shattered glass, and a blood-stained doll.
[That’s terrifying. I was just across the street at the time and was about to cross. The red light saved me. My legs are still shaking…]
[Is the censored part a body? How many people?]
[Looks like just one. So tragic, blood everywhere.]
[Did the driver die?]
[Have the investigation results come out? Was it a deliberate act of revenge or did the car lose control?]
[Looks like another electric car accident. I told you so.]
[The person above is an idiot. Did an electric car run over your ancestor’s grave? That license plate is blue, are you blind?]
[Asking for the uncensored picture, I want to see.]
…
Before going to sleep, the doctor visited him again, mainly to calm his emotions and tell him that Temporary Amnesia could slowly recover.
Li Xun said okay and thanked the doctor. He figured it would be hard to fall asleep tonight. If he woke up tomorrow still in this body, the first thing he had to do was quickly find his sister and tell her he wasn’t dead.