Ch33 - Grandfather Lu Goes Fishing

‘Birth of an Idol’ hadn’t aired for longer than a week, but Lu Xu had already become the centre of everyone’s attention as the very first A-rank trainee.

From his participation in the competition to the first week of voting, Lu Xu had gone on the trending searches several times. Even if many people doubted him, most netizens thought he didn’t need to cheat his votes.

[@Foot Picking Loli Loves Liberty: When our little fan club votes we often all wait until midnight. This can be considered as routine practice.]

[@I Never Use An Oar To Row: Please send me a fan club, I want to join a group to vote with everyone for male god. All my movements will follow the club head; I also want to vote with everyone!]

[@Nationally Assigned Boyfriend: I understand, in the future I’ll also vote at midnight hehe~~]

…

When tapping on the #Lu Xu Vote Count# trending search, other than people’s suspicions and fan’s explanations, there were some strange Weibo posts.

[@Riding A Pig To Chase The Sun: I’m not a Lu Xu fan, but a friend came into my dreams and asked me to help vote. When I opened my eyes it happened to be midnight, and I just voted.]

This comment looked normal, but it very quickly got enough likes to send it to the trending spot on Weibo.

Below, a bunch of netizens came to find their comrades––

[@A Little Cutie: Fuck, OP, I’m the same as you, except it was my younger sister in my dreams.]

[@Barbeque Hai Di Lao: I feel like I’ve found a group. My grandfather came in the middle of the night yelling at me to wake up and vote QAQ]

[@Want To Fly To The Sky: After staying up all night, my ex-girlfriend suddenly appeared. I thought she came to yell at me to go down under and accompany her, but she made me vote and even told me to stay up less and live for a few more decades before meeting up. Ai, I regret not treasuring our time when we were together, I suddenly miss her]

…

The Weibo blogger looked at the comments in disbelief, not thinking that the things being said by others after opening the app would be even more ridiculous.

[@Blue Demon Enchantress Red Rose: Hehe, the comments section is a scene of large-scale superstition. It’s fine to just say that you’re a fan, you don’t have to say things about ghosts coming into your dreams. For so many ghosts to go online and help Lu Xu pull in votes, who do you think he is, the ghost realm mogul?]

[@No Brain: When I opened the comments I thought that it was quite terrifying, when I saw @Blue Demon Enchantress Red Rose’s comment I laughed until I cried. It’s not very possible to be a ghost realm mogul, maybe they want to create a supernatural persona?]

[@Yue Lao Is Online Cutting Red Thread: I stalked those netizens who posted about their dreams and I discovered that they’re all real accounts. It can’t be that so many people are lying online, right? So I think that maybe a lot of wandering souls really do like Lu Xu. As for the reason, it’s very simple. He’s handsome. Look at how many people became fans of him after the first episode. Ghosts are also a product of people after death, it’s normal for them to have similar preferences.]

…

“Xu ge, have you seen Weibo? I’m about to laugh myself to death. They even said ghosts went into dreams to collect votes for you and that you were the ghost realm mogul…”

Han Tianyu was a phone addict. Whether he had matters to attend to or not, he would intermittently open Weibo and refresh it.

After reading the dream theories online, he couldn’t resist telling Lu Xu about it when he saw him come in.

The prerequisite for ghosts to pull votes in was that there really were ghosts in this world.

However, as long as you believed in science you wouldn’t believe in that kind of thing.

Before, Xu Haoming was just like Han Tianyu, but after experiencing certain things, he felt that Lu Xu was not a simple person.

“Xu ge, is this an arrangement made by your agency?”

In order to boost their artists’ position rankings, many companies would deliberately set up a public persona for them, such as “Energetic Koi” or “Debut God” and so on.

With something like Lu Xu’s current popularity, the possibility of the company intentionally hyping him up could not be ruled out.

Just that tying it together with the idea of ghosts felt strange somehow, so Xu Haoming couldn’t be certain if this was the case or not.

“Maybe.” Lu Xu didn’t want to be trending because of this. He remembered that he still had a manager, so he immediately went out and gave him a call.

“Hello, Director Bai, it’s me.”

“Mn, did you look for me because of the matter with the dreams?”

“Yes.”

Bai Ze could pretty much guess why Lu Xu made this call. “If you want it to quiet down, I can help you.”

“Thanks!”

The best thing about talking to smart people was that you could rest easy. The other party could understand without too many words said.

Lu Xu didn’t blame the ghost fans for the support. It was just that the mortal realm and underworld had to keep their distance from each other.

On the other end, Bai Ze hung up the phone and arranged for Secretary Zhang to go to Public Relations.

Very quickly, any posts relating to #Lu Xu Dreams# disappeared. Even the blogger who had made the initial Weibo post deleted it.

This matter was like a small rock dropping into the water, creating a little splash and then instantly disappearing…

There was filming at nine in the morning. Lu Xu went back to the dorm and changed clothes, very naturally taking out the hanged ghost’s rope and putting it on the table.

Xu Haoming couldn’t help but ask when he saw it, “Xu ge, are you getting ready to jump rope?”

Lu Xu looked at the rope and laughed as he shook his head. “No, I just use it for fishing.”

“Fishing?” Never mind Xu Haoming, the other two in the dorm all thought he was joking when they heard it. “I’m not the one who said it, Xu ge, relative to a fishing line, this rope of yours is rough and short, and doesn’t even have a fishing hook. So you’re Grandfather Lu going fishing? Hahaha…”

Lu Xu quite liked the name “Grandfather Lu” and smiled deeply. “That’s right, I am Grandfather Lu going fishing––”

Hoping to catch ghosts.

That female ghost was obviously a stranded ghost. A small mistake had probably occurred when she died, so she could only wander around in the mortal realm.

Since they had met, she was now his order.

As long as he had the rope, he wouldn’t worry about her not coming to get it.

He had gotten a lot of new orders in a short time, so Lu Xu’s mood was naturally pretty good.

He kept the rope and put it in a drawer, preparing to use it tonight to fish for some ghosts.

“Ba Mei, a newly opened can is on the balcony. Remember to stroll around the dormitory twice after eating to walk off the food.”

Because Lan Gaojie had self-proclaimed to have cat allergies, while Lu Xu and the others went to film for the show, Ba Mei had to stay by itself in the dormitory.

Luckily, the little kitty’s heart was big and loved to eat, so as long as it had food it would be happy.

Lu Xu made sure Ba Mei was settled and went to the studio.

Yesterday’s selfie test was more or less finished. What was left was for the assistant director to take individual shots and to film how they felt after the second evaluation.

Lu Xu subconsciously looked for Ji Xiunian when he entered, and noticed that he wasn’t here.

He saw Xu Lele had also finished up his individual shoot, so Lu Xu smiled and waved at him.

“Xu ge!” Xu Lele sprinted over when he saw Lu Xu and didn’t forget to lament when he came closer, “Wow, Xu ge, it feels like your body is so cooling, totally like artificial cooling in the summer.”

Lu Xu’s body temperature was certainly cooler than the average person’s. In fact, if it wasn’t for the sake of blending in with the human world, Lu Xu wouldn’t even need warmth.

After a few simple greetings, Lu Xu seemingly looked around the recording studio casually, pursed his lips and said, “Fan ge didn’t come to the studio today, and it looks like Nian ge didn’t come either…”

“I think the two of them are in a meeting.”

“Meeting?”

“Mhm.” Xu Lele nodded, and looked around to make sure no one was nearby before saying quietly, “Nian ge looked a little off today…”

Lu Xu raised his brow when he heard those words. “In what way?”

“He brought your Ba Mei to the practise studio early in the morning, and then sat there alone, staring at the empty dance studio for a really long time…”

Even the dormitories had cameras, so the dance studio was no exception.

“The assistant saw the recording and then told Fan ge about it. Fan ge said to please not tell anyone about it, that he’d talk to Nian ge himself…”

“Not tell anyone?” Lu Xu raised his brows, the corners of his lips carrying a teasing smile. “It’s your groupmate again?”

“That’s right that’s right.” Xu Lele just realised what Lu Xu meant and then smiled, embarrassed. “That staff member is a relative of my groupmate and isn’t just ‘anyone’. I’m also tight-lipped, I haven’t told anyone other than you!”

“Mn, very good.” To have Xu Lele—who knew everything—around made things a lot easier for Lu Xu.

Ji Xiunian had been giving the F4 their evaluations in the morning, he just didn’t know how Fan Zeng would react on his end.

“Ah, Xiunian, have a look at this first.” Fan Zeng hadn’t slept for long enough, and the first thing when he opened his eyes was his assistant telling him about Ji Xiunian in the practise studio.

Anyone who saw this person sitting in a daze in the dance studio would think that it wasn’t normal.

If it weren’t for the crying sounds on the first day, Fan Zeng might have felt that this was just Ji Xiunian’s personality. After all, there were many actors who couldn’t make it in the entertainment industry that were even more dazed than Ji Xiunian.

But Fan Zeng had suspicions since early on, so when he saw Ji Xiunian act like that he immediately thought he had been possessed.

He had intentionally called Ji Xiunian over, wanting to openly and sincerely talk about this matter.

Today, Ji Xiunian was as cool and calm as usual, but it wasn’t difficult for Fan Zeng to associate this cool attitude with possession.

He thought about it over and over, but in the end, still decided to use the video instead of talking.

After pressing the play button, the image of Ji Xiunian alone in the empty dance studio this morning appeared.

He walked in and pulled out a chair to sit on, then simply watched for a very long period or put on the music a few times.

Whoever saw this would think that it was a little strange. Even Ji Xiunian himself thought so.

In his eyes, the F4 were right there. Their personalities were unique, they were careful about how they acted, and would also greet him politely.

In his eyes, the F4 existed.

But in the reality of the camera lens, it was empty. Nothing was there at all.

So it seemed that the dead’s existence would be wiped away by the real world…

When he thought about those four smiling faces, a strange emotion flashed through Ji Xiunian’s heart.

He was quiet for a long time after watching the video, and more or less understood this was what Fan Zeng wanted to talk to him about.

Life truly was a fickle thing. When he joined this show, he even said before filming started that he was a firm atheist. Now, his superstitious belief was even greater than that of Fan Zeng’s.

Ji Xiunian couldn’t help but laugh. He was thinking of how he was going to explain it to Fan Zeng, but in the end, a talisman was stuck onto his forehead.

Fan Zeng was also nervous. A master had bought the amulet for him. Apparently, it could be stuck onto unclean things. He didn’t want Ji Xiunian to be possessed by some malicious spirit, but what if?

Ji Xiunian was very exasperated and lifted his head to take the talisman off. He looked at it, and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Fan ge…”

“This is just in case!” Fan Zeng laughed awkwardly. He had called Ji Xiunian over and then suspected him of harbouring a ghost in his body, and felt that he was being quite strange.

But when he thought about it, he couldn’t help but ask, “Xiunian, tell your ge the truth, did you bump into any unclean things lately?”

Under his nervous and anticipating look, Ji Xiunian let out a long sigh and nodded his head in the end. “Yes, I have.”

Tofu: We stan supportive grandpas

nao: i wanted to call grandfather lu granddaddy lu but cael told me to stop translating everything as daddy