Heart has Ling Xi

 Chapter Two The Sinner

In order to go to the toilet, Brother Sunglasses had already taken off his sunglasses, leaving only a large disposable mask to cover the lower half of his face. Although only the forehead, the eyebrows, and a pair of eyes were exposed, Ling Xi, who was keen to read entertainment gossip magazines, recognized the identity of Brother Sunglasses with just one glance--

Yo, wasn’t this An Ruifeng? The currently popular idol actor, who was in the limelight for the last two years?

An Ruifeng's facial features had very obvious mixed-race characteristics, especially those dark gray eyes that won him the hearts of many female fans. Ling Xi had watched his female fans fight several times. The fan fights of all other celebrities were unanimously external. They fought with rumored girlfriends, and fought with unscrupulous paparazzi. An Ruifeng's fans on the other hand fought internally--A boring post like “An Ruifeng’s best feature: his eyes or his lips?” could get more than 10,000 comments.

And now, those beautiful eyes struck at Ling Xi and Xiao Ling Xi[a] in amazement. Ling Xi swore that he heard An Ruifeng gasp, then take a step back. He took the sunglasses out of his pocket again and placed them on the bridge of his nose.

Ling Xi thought: It’s too late! It's useless to wear sunglasses. I have already discovered your true identity. When I go back, I will login to my alternate account and post this latest news--'An Ruifeng disregards health in order to lose weight! Dark circles reach the chin!'

Ling Xi was busy staring at An Ruifeng's face intently. At this time, An Ruifeng's agent, Brother Xu, rushed up and held him behind his back to protect him, and said in a tone that was polite and alienated: "Sorry, we didn't know the bathroom was occupied. You can continue to use it, we will wait."

"Oh...oh, it's okay, it's okay, I've finished anyway." Ling Xi hurriedly pulled up his pants: "You use it, you use it." Ling Xi cleaned himself up and quickly opened the toilet door. Just as he passed them by, Brother Xu suddenly stopped him.

"Please wait a moment," Brother Xu said: "I didn't notice due to the bad light just now. Are you Ling Xi? The one who sang ‘Heart has Ling Xi’?"

Ling Xi was about to applaud him. Brother Xu’s full name was Xu Zhiqiang. He was a well-known gold medal agent in the circle, with rich experience and insight. He had already raised a movie emperor and two little huadan[b]. He was sleek but not sophisticated. Look, on the entire plane, only Xu Zhiqiang could name him.

... But at this time Ling Xi wished Xu Zhiqiang hadn’t recognized him.

"Yes." Ling Xi said dryly.

"Nice to meet you. You are also joining the crew of ‘Jian Jue Tianxia’, right?" Xu Zhiqiang continued to exchange conventional greetings with him: "I heard the director say that you had been invited to sing the end credits song, and you will also play one of the roles. Our Ruifeng has a guest appearance as the master of the male protagonist in the drama. We will be part of the same crew in the future. There will be opportunities for everyone to get together.” The agent of the big star was so good at talking, without mentioning the embarrassing encounter, he jumped directly to work, saving the face[c] of both parties.

While talking, Xu Zhiqiang stretched out his hand to him, and Ling Xi hurriedly passed his hand over. Their handshake was neither light nor heavy. They shook their hands a few times and Ling Xi was the first to withdraw his.

"It turns out that you are Ling Xi. Nice to meet you." An Ruifeng nodded at him politely, and even made a friendly joke: "Why are you so nervous? Oh, that's right, I remember the cast say that your guest role is the lead actor's shidi[d]. So, we have a sect fellowship--Disciple, you won't get into character now, and start to be afraid of me, right?" With that, An Ruifeng also extended a hand to him.

Ling Xi stared at his palm, his face full of sweat[e], wiped his right hand on the seam of his trousers a few times, and asked very carefully: "Master, but I did not wash my hands after pooping. Are you sure you want to shake hands with me?"

An Ruifeng: "..."

Xu Zhiqiang, who had just finished shaking hands with Ling Xi, suddenly had a nauseated expression on his face.

    ※※※

Ling Xi dejectedly went back to his seat in the last row of the economy class, sat down and sighed.

Wu Youpeng was about to fall asleep waiting for him. The moment he returned, Youpeng fired away at him, "Where did you go looking for the bathroom? Why did it take you half an hour to come back?"

Ling Xi said, "The front and rear toilets were full, so the stewardess led me to the business class toilet."

"Oh! That shouldn’t take so much time."

Ling Xi sighed, “Well, I met someone who recognized me in the business cabin. We talked for a while."

"Oh, that's good." Wu Youpeng was very happy: "Earlier, I did a fan survey for you. The results showed that your fans are mostly concentrated in third-tier cities with an average monthly income of less than 3,000. I didn't expect that now there are fans who can afford the business class! Tell me quickly, did you take a photo with them and sign an autograph?"

"They don't need my autograph..." Ling Xi raised his eyes and glanced at him: "The one who recognized me was Xu Zhiqiang, An Ruifeng's agent."

Wu Youpeng opened his mouth wide, and exhaled heavily: "...Are you stupid? At this time when people ask you if you are Ling Xi, you just say you are not!" He thumped his chest and said, "You are also a celebrity on a trip. Other people have booked the entire business class cabin, but the two of us are squeezed in the economy class. If it were me, I would be embarrassed to greet Xu Zhiqiang."

Ling Xi silently cursed: At that time, my little brother was seen by them. How could I still pretend to be a stranger? However, in order not to explain to Wu Youpeng why his little brother was seen, he wisely shut up, determined to let the secret rot in his stomach.

Half an hour later, the plane landed in N City on time.

Ling Xi and the others were sitting in the last row, waiting for all the people to disembark, before they dragged their hand luggage off the plane. When they walked to the carousel to claim their luggage, a group of people had gathered around the conveyor belt pointing at something. Many people took out their mobile phones and took pictures of the conveyor belt.

Ling Xi stopped someone and asked him what he was filming.

The humanitarian: "Hey, I don’t know which idiot remodeled his suitcase to look like sushi. The caviar on the lid is so stereoscopic, remarkably true to life! The suitcase has been spinning on the conveyor belt for a long time, just like a revolving belt sushi restaurant. I have to take a few more photos and share them with my friends before that idiot takes away the suitcase!"

Right at that moment, the fake giant caviar sushi slowly revolved to Ling Xi, and Ling Xi reached for it. After retrieving the luggage, he walked away from the dumbfounded man.

Wu Youpeng kneaded his forehead: "I have tried to convince you. You play this prank with the luggage everytime. Is it interesting?"

"Interesting." Ling Xi nodded, feeling that he had finally recovered a little bit from the spiritual damage he suffered on the plane. The suitcase in his hand was assembled and remodeled by himself, and it became a beautiful scenery of the airport every time. He had the notion that if he really couldn't get along in this circle, he could open a Taobao[f] store to sell handmade suitcases. This was the only high-end customization in the world. He reckoned that the earnings from their sales would be no less than his album sales.

The two of them talked as they walked towards the exit. From a distance, they heard the loud voices at the doorway. As soon as they walked out of the exit, they saw the guardrails on both sides of the aisle crowded with countless young girls, holding flowers in their hands and hanging cameras on their necks. They screamed loudly at Ling Xi—"Ah! I love you!!!" "Look here!!!"

The airport security personnel leaned back against the guardrails and pushed hard against them. If it wasn’t for them, those crazy female fans would have broken through the guardrails.

Ling Xi was pleasantly surprised. He waved his arms at these enthusiastic fans, and put on several pompous poses in succession. He was deeply moved.

"Big Brother, you are so kind to me. From where did you hire the fans this time? They are really good at creating momentum." He was about to cry with happiness: "I didn’t expect that you would always laugh at me, but at the critical moments, you would always support me."

“......Wait a minute!” Wu Youpeng had a headache: “I haven’t publicised this trip to N City at all. These fans were not hired by me.”

Ling Xi was struck dumb: “What?”

Like echoing Wu Youpeng's words, the fans crowding the guardrails called out their idol's name in unison--"An Ruifeng!" "Ruifeng!" "Prince Ruifeng!"

Then, a compelling smell of cologne swept from behind Ling Xi. Ling Xi turned his head subconsciously and saw the celebrity who had seen his little brother and butt on the plane. Step by step, he walked towards Ling Xi confidently and at ease, like walking the runway.

An Ruifeng's sunglasses and mask had been taken off, and a layer of foundation had been applied on his face to cover his scary dark circles. An Ruifeng was nearly half a head taller than Ling Xi. Looking over from Ling Xi’s angle, his eyes just fell on those smiling lips. Lips which were thin and sexy, with the corners of his mouth slightly curved upwards, which made people want to take a bite at them. Ling Xi swallowed and mused, after a while, he would login to his alternate account and vote on the post “An Ruifeng’s best feature: his eyes or his lips?”

Seeing Ling Xi looking up at him blankly, An Ruifeng smiled lightly at him. Just now Ling Xi freeloaded the publicity from his fans and the flashlights that should belong to him. If it was some other star with a big temper, the two of them would have gotten in a feud. Luckily, An Ruifeng  was magnanimous and never cared about these trivial things. He also made fun of Ling Xi.

"Disciple," he said: "You are blocking master."

Footnotes:

[a]His dick.

[b]role of vivacious young female in Chinese opera

[c]dignity

[d]junior male disciple (of the same master)

[e]to be speechless (out of helplessness or embarrassment).

[f]Taobao is a Chinese online shopping website, headquartered in Hangzhou, and owned by Alibaba.