Pretending To Have A Certain Persona Can Be Tiring - Chapter 9

Ji Ting switched off his phone screen and walked alone along the campus sidewalk. Fatigue spread through his limbs. The fragmented lights from the teaching buildings scattered into pools of light, and the surroundings were so quiet that only the light rustle of his footsteps on fallen leaves could be heard.

He felt exhausted, as if a stone were pressing on his heart. His steps felt weightless and uncertain. After a while, he felt a strange impulse; he lifted his phone, opened the WeChat group, and suddenly wanted to find someone to tease.

t: @Song Yang, come to me tomorrow to pick up the recruitment letters for your department’s staff. Take them to A402 in the office building for signatures.

Song Yang: You are amazing, you are so high and mighty, and you just insist on picking on me!

[Song Yang retracted a message.]

Song Yang: Back to Your Majesty, where should this servant find you tomorrow? [Smile]

Ji Ting unconsciously curled his lips. Stepping on the withered yellow leaves, his pace seemed to lighten. A moment later, he muttered to himself, “Both arrogant and timid.”

This kind of naturally rebellious nature should be tempered properly.

The next morning.

The distance from the Ninth Teaching Building, where Ji Ting was, to Office Building A spanned across the north and south ends of the campus. After Song Yang got the documents from him, he waited ten minutes for the campus shuttle but could not catch one, so he simply walked to the office building.

When he arrived at the office Ji Ting had mentioned, he found the doors closed. He took out his phone and messaged Ji Ting.

song: Senior, 402 is not open.

Ji Ting did not reply. Song Yang could not wait any longer, so he went to a neighboring assistant’s office to inquire, only to learn that the leader in 402 had a meeting today and should still be in session.

He thanked the assistant and returned to the hallway, hurriedly typing:

song: The leader is in a meeting. Does this stuff have to be signed today?

There was still no movement from the other side. He paced back and forth in the hallway out of boredom and finally received a reply:

His Majesty the Emperor of the Student Union: Sign it today. It needs to be submitted to the school. After signing, hand it to me.

song: What should I do if he is not there? I have classes in the afternoon and will not have time to come.

His Majesty the Emperor of the Student Union: Find someone else to help.

Bastard. Song Yang resisted the urge to smash his fist into the phone screen, gritted his teeth, and began searching his contact list for someone who could help.

Just then, the assistant from earlier poked her head out of the door frame: “Student, Teacher Zhang’s meeting in 402 will end at 10:30. It is less than twenty minutes away. If you are in a rush to see him, you can wait here.”

Song Yang nodded: “Okay, thank you!”

Being exploited by those above is the fate of a working person. Song Yang accepted this fact, sat down on a chair in the hallway, and began playing with his phone, feeling bored. After scrolling through videos for a while and finding them uninteresting, he clicked into his streaming app.

As soon as he entered the app interface, the notification bar suddenly displayed an eye-catching “99+.” He froze, his heart skipping a beat in terror.

Am I being cyberbullied again?

His fingertips trembled as he clicked into it. Just as he suspected, the message interface was filled with various kinds of abusive language, all stemming from his latest update—the photos of Xiaodai’s figurine he had posted a few days ago.

Song Yang took a cursory glance at the new comments and concluded the answer: they were scolding him for leeching off her popularity again.

He furrowed his brows, completely confused. Hadn’t the fire settled down last time? What was this? A limited-time return? A second loop?

No, are these fans jumping off walls to lose weight again? Are they that bored?

He flipped through the comments, trying to find the reason, and finally found one:

What is going on? Why are they scolding him again?

Reply: This failure followed an anti-fan of Xiaodai and even liked a video where that anti-fan slandered Darling. He canceled it ten minutes later, but it had already been screenshotted!

Reply: My head is spinning. I do not even believe it was a slip of the hand. It is too obvious that he is leeching off popularity. Do they think we are easy to bully?

Reply: This time it is definitely him leeching off popularity. Darling is angry and has already unfollowed him.

Reply: Damn, he is such a dog. After using someone, he has to kick them while they are down. He is truly evil. It is a pity that my Darling defended him before! I am going to call people in the group to start a war; I will scold him to death!

Song Yang: ???

Am I missing a segment of memory compared to everyone else?

Song Yang’s face was full of question marks. He carefully looked at their so-called screenshot, and it was indeed his account that had liked an anti-fan’s video at around 9:30 this morning.

At this moment, he wanted to kneel in the office building hallway and shout at the heavens, My conscience is clear, I am more wronged than Dou E! Photoshop, it must be malicious Photoshop! At 9:30, I was still on my way to find the King of Pretension; I did not even touch my phone. Although I, Song Yang, do not have great character and love to talk trash, this kind of thing like backstabbing a friend…

Wait!

Song Yang suddenly realized something. A burst of anger surged through him instantly; the veins on his fists bulged, and he stood up with a start, opened his contact list, and called Xu Man.

She answered quickly, and Song Yang heard her lazy voice: “Hey, what is it?”

He tried hard to restrain his anger and spoke through gritted teeth: “Was this you?”

“Did what?”

“Don’t play dumb with me. You asked me to leech off popularity before, and I did not cooperate, so you heartless people logged into my account to play this kind of sleazy trick!” Song Yang could not hold back and started shouting. Realizing this was an office area, he hurriedly went downstairs and outdoors.

Xu Man replied calmly: “I was wondering what the big deal was. This is a marketing strategy. Don’t you understand?”

“I do not understand. I only know that you do not respect me at all. After I clearly refused, you still pulled this kind of malicious stunt. You hurt others and ruined my reputation. Now the comment section is full of people scolding me; are you satisfied? There is no point in broadcasting anymore; I am on strike!”

Xu Man said: “Can you stop being so excited? We have already planned it out for you. You do a clarification livestream tonight, act pitiful, and push the blame onto the company, saying it was our decision to have you go the ‘controversy-driven fame’ route and we logged into your account without authorization. Lead the scolding toward us.”

Song Yang gave a sarcastic laugh: “What do you mean ‘push the blame’? It is your fault in the first place!”

“Calm down. I am telling you, the internet livestreaming industry is too developed now. So many people are breaking their heads trying to squeeze in; if you do not use some methods, who will notice you? How will you stand out? Many entertainment stars use this controversy strategy, and aren’t they doing very well? It will not affect your future development at all.”

Hearing her sophistry, Song Yang became even angrier: “The worst decision Song Yang ever made in his life was to sign with your crappy company, which fails at everything, succeeds at nothing, and is run by executives with porridge for brains!”

“Hey, Song Yang, clean up your mouth. Aren’t we doing this for your own good?” Xu Man’s voice hardened. “Anyway, it has come to this. Whether you are willing or not, you have to do the clarification livestream tonight.”

Song Yang stomped his feet in anger: “Phooey! I am not doing it. I quit. Find whoever you want!”

“Not doing it, huh? There is a breach of contract penalty.”

“A penalty is a penalty. Do you think I cannot afford it? I would rather sell my body to some rich lady than take this kind of crap from you guys again!”

Xu Man was silent for a few seconds, and the atmosphere grew tense. A moment later, she spoke again: “If you do not clarify tonight, Xiaodai will keep misunderstanding you. Aren’t you a person who values affection and righteousness? Suit yourself.”

“You!”

Before he could finish, she hung up the phone. Song Yang gripped his phone tightly. His blood suddenly boiled, and a fierce rage burned in his mind.

The affection he valued was worthless in their eyes and was even used as a weapon against him. Despicable, despicable! Evil capitalists! They will go bankrupt sooner or later!

He was so angry he felt dizzy. He squatted on the spot for a while before recovering. He realized how helpless he was in the face of such things. In the end, he blamed himself for being too weak; there is truth to the saying that the weak get beaten.

I have to clarify. I am upright and innocent; why should I take the blame for this?

After carefully weighing the pros and cons, he finally clicked into the app and updated his feed:

[I want to say sorry to everyone first. I will hold a livestream at seven o’clock tonight to clarify today’s events.]

He sent a private message to Xiaodai to explain, then exited the software, turned on “Do Not Disturb,” and returned to the office building full of resentment. The leader in 402 had not returned yet, so he continued sitting in the chair waiting.

Song Yang was a mess of thoughts, struggling with how to explain things tonight. He suddenly had the feeling of walking to the execution ground; he wondered if he could handle the coming hail of bullets alone.

What a huge, unprovoked trouble! He angrily pounded the chair, the cold iron surface bruising his knuckles. He realized that this kind of helpless rage would not solve the problem. He tried to stabilize his emotions, opened his notes, and began editing his script for the evening.

Halfway through writing, Song Yang checked the time. It was almost eleven o’clock. The meeting should have ended long ago. He looked up at the door of 402, which remained closed.

He got up and knocked on the assistant’s office door: “Hello, may I ask why Teacher Zhang still hasn’t returned? Does he have other arrangements after the meeting?”

“I do not know that. I’m sorry.”

“Tch, I have classes later.” Seeing time running out, Song Yang felt anxious. “Then could you please do me a favor? I will leave my phone number, and could you please contact me when Teacher Zhang returns?”

“Okay.”

At dinner time, the art studio was very empty. Ji Ting sat among a pile of messy art supplies, staring at his drawing paper with focused eyes, his pencil scratching on the page.

A few sycamore leaves fell outside the window, and the light dimmed. Before he could turn on the lights, the figures in the painting were shrouded in shadows. He was immersed in the dusk, as if covered by a late autumn filter.

Just then, the art studio door was pushed open violently, the edge hitting the wall with a loud thud, breaking the peace. Then, Ji Ting heard hurried footsteps approaching him. He finished drawing the details before looking up slowly, meeting Song Yang’s slightly red eyes.

Ji Ting’s expression was steady, and he looked at him without speaking, seemingly waiting for him to speak first.

Song Yang’s face was as gloomy as if dark clouds were pressing down. He took a few deep breaths, his hand holding a stack of materials trembling.

“Did you eat gunpowder?” Ji Ting glanced at the materials in his hand, then looked up at Song Yang.

Song Yang glared fiercely: “You did that on purpose, right?”

“What on purpose?”

“In order to get this lousy signature, I waited for over an hour at A402 in the office building and did not find anyone. I came to find him again after class this afternoon, but he told me he isn’t in charge of this; the previous leader already moved to the First Teaching Building. Thinking he was about to get off work, I ran hungry from the office building to the First Teaching Building and searched for half an hour before finding him. Do you think I am a beast of burden? Even beasts of burden get grass to eat after working, but I just get a stomach full of anger!”

Ji Ting frowned, not understanding his point: “What?”

“The place to sign was never A402 in the office building. I know I wasn’t very respectful to you before, and I endured it when you ordered me around. But did you have fun fooling me and sending me running around in circles, Your Majesty? Is this servant’s time worthless?”

Ji Ting’s tone softened a little: “I did not know about this. I thought it was at 402. He did not inform us when he moved his office. Wouldn’t it have been fine if you just signed it at the First Teaching Building?”

“Easier said than done. Do you know how many hours I wasted today?” Song Yang pulled at the corners of his mouth in self-deprecation and threw the materials onto the square table in a fit of pique. “No more nonsense with you; I still have to hurry back to be scolded. The signature is there; you take it. Those are my blood and tears. I, Song Yang, am just a cheap life; I was born to be stepped on by you!”

Hearing his exaggeration, Ji Ting felt a little helpless. He looked down, saw that every page had been signed, and then looked back up at him: “What are you talking about?”

Song Yang’s eyes were reddened, looking pitiful. He suppressed his ragged breathing, turned around, and was about to leave.

Ji Ting knew he was full of resentment right now and was exhausted from running around, so he was inevitably a little agitated. He was silent for a moment and spoke to Song Yang’s departing back: “This was my fault. I’m sorry.”

Song Yang paused for a long time, looked back, his eyes showing a bit of surprise and astonishment.

Somehow, his anger subsided a lot. He fluttered his eyelids and mumbled: “Did I hear that right? You can also say ‘sorry’?”

“Thank you for your hard work today. I did not get the facts straight in advance, and this will not happen again.” Ji Ting’s deep voice came across, steady and clear, his tone devoid of ripples.

As his voice fell, the air suddenly became silent.

Song Yang was stunned. The wind blew, causing the drawing paper to rustle. He saw Ji Ting’s face fade into the deepening evening fog. In the fading light, those sharp eyes remained vivid.

The words “I’m sorry” sounded out of place coming from Ji Ting. He had assumed a strong-willed person like Ji Ting would not easily admit mistakes, but he had not expected the apology to be so straightforward.

I woke up too fast. This is the first time I have heard an emperor apologize to his servant.