When the Stars Tremble

The Twenty-Eighth Star

After reading the postcard, Zong Ye didn’t immediately return to his room or knock on her door again.

He felt that his current expression might look a bit wretched.

Zong Ye put on the hood of his cotton jacket, zipped it up to the top, covering half his face. Taking the elevator downstairs, he went to the 24-hour convenience store across from the hotel and bought a pack of cigarettes. Afterwards, he walked aimlessly along the roadside.

There might be paparazzi staking out around, and they might photograph him. In a couple of days, a few headlines might burst out with negative news like “Zong Ye smoking on the street late at night.”

But Zong Ye didn’t care at all.

Right now, he only needed the bone-chilling cold wind and nicotine to slowly calm himself down.

Then, he suppressed some excessive thoughts in his heart. Once his emotions fully cooled, he could avoid excessively disturbing her.

…

…

A beeping sound of a keycard being swiped came from the door. Wang Tan looked up.

He first glanced at the bag in Zong Ye’s hand, then at his pale face, asking, “Bro, do you know what time it is?”

“No idea.”

Wang Tan held up his phone to tell him, “You left at ten past one, and now it’s already past three. Weren’t you just getting a gift? It took you two hours?”

Zong Ye gave a perfunctory grunt.

When the person walked over, Wang Tan smelled a faint scent of tobacco and couldn’t help clicking his tongue. “Your smoking addiction has been quite strong lately.”

“Has it?” Zong Ye asked indifferently.

“I remember you didn’t smoke much. What, work pressure too high?”

“It’s alright.”

“Forget it, can’t talk with you.”

Zong Ye smiled and took off his black jacket. “Aren’t you going to sleep for a bit?”

In two hours, they would set off for Macau to attend a brand launch event.

Wang Tan changed his posture and lay horizontally on the sofa. “Not sleeping anymore. I’ll sleep on the way later.”

After playing a few rounds of games, drowsiness hit. Wang Tan squinted his sore eyes and napped for a while. Not knowing how much time had passed, he felt a bit thirsty. Just as he was about to get up to find water, he discovered Zong Ye still sitting there.

In the same posture as before.

“What the heck are you looking at?”

Noticing him leaning over, Zong Ye put away the postcard in his hand.

Wang Tan ruffled his messy hair, utterly puzzled. “Why are you looking at this crappy card over and over? A fan sent it? Or is it a love letter from Teacher Jiang? It’s worth staring at for so long?”

“No.”

“Then, is it from Teacher Jiang?” He pursued.

“Mm.”

Wang Tan wanted to say something but ultimately shut his mouth and sat back.

He twisted open a bottle of water and took a few big gulps before speaking again. “I heard from Sister Yin the other day that last month, you had her reject all the endorsement contracts up for renewal next year. What’s that about? Planning to terminate your contract with IM?”

“What?”

Wang Tan was impatient. “Don’t play dumb with me.”

“Not necessarily.” Zong Ye thought for a moment and said softly, “We’ll see when the time comes.”

“Last month…” Wang Tan scoffed. “Wasn’t that right when you met Teacher Jiang? Do you have to be in such a hurry?”

“I’m not in a hurry.” Zong Ye put away the postcard. “Just making some plans in advance.”

“No.” Wang Tan couldn’t hold back anymore. “You call this making ‘some’ plans? You’re fucking ready to go all out with IM to pursue Jiang Chuyi. Dating isn’t such a big deal. You two keep a low profile and don’t get found out. If it really doesn’t work, the company will still cover for you. Wait a few years until it’s stable before going public. Besides, maybe you’ll find it boring after dating for a while and break up. Why put so much pressure on yourself?”

“If I find it boring, we’ll break up…?” Zong Ye repeated this sentence and told him, “I’m not worried about that.”

After a long silence, Wang Tan spoke, “Then what are you worried about?”

Zong Ye didn’t answer.

Wang Tan guessed based on his words, “Worried you can’t pursue her.”

“Or, if you do, you’re worried she’ll find it boring and dump you.”

Zong Ye remained silent.

Wang Tan: “…”

He choked for a moment. “Okay, that’s not impossible, although the possibility is rather small. But Teacher Jiang seems quite kind-hearted. If it really doesn’t work out, you can try some moral blackmail or something. Maybe she’ll soften.”

After listening to his long, sarcastic speech, Zong Ye’s mood seemed quite good. He laughed faintly. “That’s a good idea.”

Wang Tan fell completely silent.

…

…

Although Jiang Chuyi had always been part of the entertainment circle, her presence had been quite low-key in recent years.

The first time Wang Tan learned of her was at a Scream Night event held by a certain platform. They went together to attend the awards ceremony.

At that time, BloodxGentle had just debuted not long ago and already had considerable fame in China. As soon as they got out of the car, they received the favor of nearly all the media present.

They were held up by the host on the red carpet for a few minutes before the guiding etiquette staff led them inside.

Entering the hall, when they reached a certain spot, Zong Ye suddenly stopped, not knowing what he saw.

Seeing him not moving, the etiquette staff kindly reminded, “Your seats are still up ahead. This is the unseated area with no name tags.”

A few seconds later, Zong Ye snapped out of it and continued walking forward.

Their seats were on a semi-circular sofa.

Zong Ye walked inward and chose a spot near the inside to sit down.

Throughout the entire awards ceremony, his mind wandered. His gaze almost always lingered in the backstage area near the fan zone.

Even when it was time to go on stage to receive an award, he had to be reminded by others before remembering to stand up.

At the banquet after the awards ceremony.

BloodxGentle had just debuted and skyrocketed in popularity, they were considered a few newcomers who appeared out of nowhere. Most people still couldn’t bring themselves to ingratiate themselves with them, so the banquet was quite peaceful.

However, Zong Ye remained on the outskirts of the crowd the entire time. Occasionally, some actresses would come over to chat with him for a few sentences, but he had lost his usual charm, his absentmindedness very apparent. It made those few actresses very embarrassed, and they quickly left.

Wang Tan followed his line of sight and finally couldn’t hold back anymore. “Who is that? Your ex-girlfriend?”

“No.”

As he said this, Zong Ye’s gaze remained fixed on two people laughing and talking three steps away.

One man and one woman, both unfamiliar to Wang Tan.

The man had slightly dark skin, but his voice was quite loud. The woman mostly listened, smiling gently. She had a rather refined and gentle appearance. Neither of them was particularly remarkable.

“Not your ex-girlfriend, but you keep staring at her?” Wang Tan felt it was embarrassing. “You’re like a peeping Tom.”

“I know her.” Zong Ye picked up his glass and took a sip of alcohol.

“Then why not go over and say hello?”

“She doesn’t know me.” That was what Zong Ye said.

“Are those two a couple?”

“Not sure.”

Just then, a female voice sounded: “—Chuyi!”

The refined-looking girl paused and glanced in their direction.

Almost immediately, Zong Ye’s action of swallowing his drink froze.

The girl said something to the person beside her and soon walked towards them.

Zong Ye remained motionless, staring straight at her.

She was only a few meters away from them, and she still hadn’t noticed the two men standing by the table. As she passed by, Wang Tan heard her laugh and call out in a very gentle voice, “Little Yi.”

Their conversation drifted over faintly.

“Have you written the paper due tomorrow?”

“I have, but Zhao Guangyu hasn’t.”

“Fuck, you’re the only diligent one. Who are you trying to impress?”

“Don’t worry. We’ll go to Zhao Guangyu’s house for dinner later, and I’ll write it for both of you.”

Zong Ye set his glass on the table.

Wang Tan thought, although Zong Ye wouldn’t admit it, he must have had a past with this woman.

Even though he didn’t act too eager, he probably didn’t realize that in the few minutes this woman walked over to talk, the smile on his face lasted too long, already appearing a bit deliberate and stiff.

Wang Tan muttered to himself, “Chuyi? What kind of name is that?”

“Her name is…”

Zong Ye fell silent for a moment before softly saying, “Jiang Chuyi.”

*

The next day, Jiang Chuyi was woken up by Little Zhong.

She said that when she went out to buy breakfast in the morning, she found a bag hanging on the door.

“It seems to be for you. I didn’t open it.” Little Zhong handed it to her.

Jiang Chuyi sat on the bed in a daze, taking the item handed to her.

Inside were a few Polaroid photos, a red box, and a can of cookies.

Seeing that the photos were the wrap-up shots of Zong Ye and her together, Little Zhong carefully asked, “Is this from Mr. Zong?”

“Probably.”

Jiang Chuyi removed the packaging from the box and took out a ceramic rabbit with red eyes and droopy ears.

Touching the cool rabbit ears, Jiang Chuyi glanced at her phone. It was already 10:30.

Just as she was about to send Zong Ye a WeChat message, she discovered he had left her a message at 5 AM.

“Thank you for the music box and postcard. I really like them. Yesterday, while shooting in Suzhou, I saw a rabbit and had my assistant buy it. I was in too much of a rush yesterday and forgot to give it to you. I hung the items on your door handle. See you next time.”

Jiang Chuyi pondered for a moment and replied, “Got them. The rabbit is very cute. Wishing you smooth work.”

…

…

Back in Shanghai, it was one rainy day after another.

With the Spring Festival approaching, Jiang Chuyi wasn’t as busy as others. She accompanied Chen Yi to see an exhibition, and the remaining work plan was to wait to start filming.

She called Gao Ning and asked if she had anything scheduled on January 13th.

Gao Ning: “Why?”

“I might have something that day.”

“What thing? Are you going to see BloodxGentle’s concert?”

Jiang Chuyi felt a bit guilty. “How did you know?”

“You think I’m blind? The hot searches have been going crazy these past few days.” Gao Ning was speechless. “If you want to go, just go.”

She didn’t dwell on this topic and brought up business with Jiang Chuyi. “By the way, I asked around about the reality show I mentioned before. They plan to start filming after BloodxGentle’s tour ends, around June or July, just when you finish filming your new drama.”

“Huh?”

“Two sponsors are quite interested in you.”

“Interested in me?” Jiang Chuyi was puzzled. “Why?”

“You’re asking why? Of course it’s because of Zong Ye.”

Jiang Chuyi: “Because of him?”

“You don’t know? Your CP popularity with Zong Ye is really high right now.”

Jiang Chuyi: “…”

After ending the call, Jiang Chuyi went on Weibo to search for the CP supertopic named “Yi Jian Zong Qing.”

Not knowing what had happened, she was surprised to find that the activity ranking of this supertopic was actually in the top ten.

She clicked in and browsed a bit. They were mainly discussing the recent movie wrap-up.

Yesterday at noon, the studios and personal Weibo accounts of several leads from “Catching Stars” posted wrap-up photos and short essays to bid farewell to the movie.

Zong Ye didn’t post anything extra. On Weibo, he shared three sets of long, collaged images with a snowflake emoji as the caption.

In these sets of images, Zong Ye posted photos with many people, including extras, Xin He, the director, crew members… and Jiang Chuyi.

What stirred up the heat in this CP supertopic was precisely that photo of him with his hand on Jiang Chuyi’s shoulder.

[This is on set, right? Why is it that among so many photos, only theirs has no one else in the background? Were the others deliberately cropped out?]

[I wonder if anyone noticed that among the four BloodxGentle members, only Zong Ye took photos with so many people from the crew. Is there a possibility that the reason he took photos with so many crew members was just so he could openly walk up to her?]

[This Weibo post was also timed at 11:11. It was previously revealed through an official announcement that he has a habit of posting at specific times. Zong Ye isn’t even avoiding suspicion? Pressing CP fans’ heads and making us ship, right? 11, one-one, Yiyi, Mr. Zong, I beg you, don’t love too hard!]

Besides these, the supertopic also saw an influx of new posts about astrology, constellations, tarot cards, and other mystical topics.

Jiang Chuyi didn’t believe in the supernatural, so after skimming a few, she quickly exited the supertopic.

Because of this, she missed a popular, long post with thousands of replies.

The comments under this long post kept surging:

“The Disastrous Relationship of the Stars” —

“Know why among Zong Ye’s many scandals, I only feel the one with Jiang Chuyi is the most real? Because during that live broadcast where they appeared together, I had a strong intuition that Jiang Chuyi has an extremely, extremely strong sexual attraction to Zong Ye. So I did some reading and calculated that they really have a disastrous star relationship!! With the man being the disaster and the woman the peace!!

Many sisters don’t know what it means for the man to be the disaster and the woman the peace, so let me give you a crash course. In astrology, the disaster-peace relationship has the strongest tension and sense of soul connection. Basically, those high-profile, entangled relationships lasting over a decade that you know of in Western, Chinese, or Hong Kong entertainment circles—the leads are basically all disaster-peace pairs.

And Jiang Chuyi and Zong Ye are even the ultimate among disaster-peace relationships, with the man being the disaster and the woman the peace.

You should know, the attraction of ‘peace’ to ‘disaster’ is almost destructive, to the point of destroying one’s character. It’s fine if they don’t meet, but once there’s contact, the ‘disaster’ must have the ‘peace,’ or else they can’t close their eyes even in death. Especially in terms of sex, it’s the kind where they absolutely can’t leave each other after sleeping together.

The ‘disaster’s’ love is too intense, unforgettable, and extremely lacking in security, which may even make the ‘peace’ unable to bear it and run away. At this time, the ‘disaster’ becomes twisted, with possessiveness and destructiveness coexisting.

Jiang Chuyi is the ‘peace,’ so she’s relatively rational and gentle in this relationship. While the ‘disaster’ is the one thoroughly attracted in the early stages. Just think, for a restrained style ‘disaster’ like Zong Ye, how much of a contrast and how delicious would it be for him to go crazy for love?

After I calculated that they have a disaster-peace relationship, I feel it doesn’t matter if they’re dating or not now. I’m just putting this out there. Zong Ye will definitely pursue Jiang Chuyi. To have ‘peace,’ the ‘disaster’ can give up anything. In the whole world, there’s only her. He will become the ultimate crazy love-brained person.

Applause if you understood.”

*

At the same time, in the van.

Wang Tan was scrolling through the comments on Zong Ye’s Weibo. Aside from the fans’ daily control and assessment, he found an interesting one and couldn’t help reading it out loud. “Your secret, hidden in this heavy snow, unspeakable, silently grand.”

Ji Kai looked at him strangely. “Why are you suddenly having a poetic outburst? It’s scary.”

“This is from Zong Ye’s comment section.” Wang Tan turned his head, quite interested in asking Zong Ye, “Did you see it?”

Zong Ye lay in his seat with his eyes closed, lazily grunting in affirmation.

“No thoughts?”

“The netizen is quite right.” Zong Ye said indifferently, “My secret indeed can’t be told.”

Ji Kai wanted to join in the fun but was confused by their cryptic exchange. “What are you talking about? What’s unspeakable?”

No one answered him.

As they got out of the car, Wang Tan put his arm around Zong Ye’s shoulder and whispered to him, “Do you still remember what you told me a few years ago when we got drunk?”

“When?”

Wang Tan reminded him, “That time, when we won that newcomer award, didn’t you run into Teacher Jiang?”

…

…

That time at the awards ceremony when he ran into Jiang Chuyi, Zong Ye never went up to say hello, even after the three of them left.

In the few years Wang Tan had known Zong Ye, he rarely saw him lose control.

When they were trainees, everyone was in their teens. Before debut, with the company’s management being loose, they all had girlfriends.

Only Zong Ye remained single the whole time, never indulging himself. Forget girlfriends, he rarely even had any leisure activities.

Among the people Wang Tan knew, Zong Ye was the type with extremely strong self-control.

However, after that banquet ended, Zong Ye unprecedentedly went drinking with Wang Tan.

In the noisy bar, Zong Ye downed one glass after another. His alcohol tolerance wasn’t good, and after a few glasses, his speech became incoherent.

He intermittently told Wang Tan about some past events.

He said the reason he entered the entertainment industry was for someone.

Zong Ye’s original family wasn’t well-off. Entering the entertainment industry was like crossing into a different social class for him, extremely difficult.

At that time, Wang Tan couldn’t quite understand Zong Ye. He had always had a smooth sailing life, only having things he didn’t want, never anything he couldn’t get. So he had never felt a strong desire for something. He also didn’t understand Zong Ye’s drive to desperately squeeze into another circle.

Zong Ye gripped the beer can in his hand and told Wang Tan, “I want to work a bit harder to become an outstanding person.”

“You’re already working really hard.” Wang Tan was nonchalant. “In a few more years, we’ll be the most popular. Actually, there’s no need to wait a few years. There aren’t many more popular than us right now.”

“It’s not enough.”

“Then what do you want to do?”

Zong Ye tilted his head back and chugged half a bottle of beer.

He wiped the alcohol stains from the corners of his mouth. A hint of shadow flitted across his face, his expression suddenly becoming very calm. “I want to meet her again.”

Both of them were already drunk. Wang Tan’s eyes couldn’t focus. He casually responded, “Meet her, and then what?”

“There’s no ‘and then.'”

“Don’t you want anything else?”

“I want her to always remember me.” As he said this, Zong Ye laughed. As if feeling he was being greedy, he added, “Remembering me vaguely is fine too.”