MBFAAO 10: Who Is 0 and Who Is 1

Early the next morning, Lin Liekai woke up.

His temples ached dully, but he had had so many weird dreams at night, tossing him about enough that he surprisingly couldn’t fall back asleep. The velvet curtains of the private club suite blocked the light very well. He raised his wrist to check his watch, and it was only a little past seven in the morning.

Recalling last night’s crappy events, his anger came from nowhere. He picked up his phone and directly sent a voice message in a small WeChat group of his close friends.

“Where’s Da Jin? Hurry up and come out for me!”

The group was quiet. Jin Xun didn’t stay to fool around last night and went back to his own home. Shi Jun, on the other hand, had rented a room right in the private club with his arms around a little female star, battling fiercely all night. At this moment, he was burying his head in a sound sleep.

There were five people in total in the group, all childhood friends who grew up together and knew each other inside out. They all came from prominent family backgrounds. Out of the “Four Young Masters of Yancheng” jokingly rumored outside, this small WeChat group occupied fully two of the spots.

—The sole heir of the Lin family, whose family wealth ranked in the top dozens nationwide, Lin Liekai. The eldest grandson of the eldest branch of the Jin family, a securities magnate, Jin Xun.

The remaining Shi Jun couldn’t be ranked among the Four Young Masters of Yancheng, but his family also held a massive amount of shares in a multi-billion-yuan textile enterprise.

The other two people were abroad. One was currently pursuing his medical PhD at Harvard University in the U.S., named Wu Chaoqun. His name matched his character¹An idiom meaning someone lives up to their name. The character’s name, Wu Chaoqun (超群), literally translates to “surpassing the crowd” or “outstanding”—fitting for a Harvard MD/PhD student., and he was the only top student²Internet slang for an academic overachiever, someone who effortlessly dominates in school and gets top grades. in this playboy group.

The other was similarly a playboy, currently eagerly chasing a proud-tempered new-generation traffic flower³“Traffic” (流量) in Chinese entertainment refers to extreme internet popularity, trending power, and a massive fanbase. A “Little Flower” (小花) refers to young, pretty, and highly popular female actresses. Combined, it means a top-trending young actress., following the crew and visiting the set on location in Bali.

It was nighttime in the U.S., and Wu Chaoqun was online. Seeing no one was paying attention to him, he replied: “What are you doing?”

Wu Chaoqun was a few years older than the others, and Lin Liekai had respected him since childhood. He immediately complained with grief and indignation: “Lao Wu, I slept with an 18th-tier little singer last night and was almost stabbed by him instead!”

Wu Chaoqun was a cautious person, taking a long while before hesitantly typing a reply: “Stab you? A guy?”

“Nonsense—if it wasn’t a guy, would they dare stab me?” Lin Liekai’s chest full of anger had nowhere to vent. “It’s all that bastard Jin Xun. Not inheriting his family’s perfectly good financial business, insisting on coming to invest in the entertainment industry. What kind of 18th-tier did he find? I think sooner or later, he’s going to lose money to death!”

Wu Chaoqun was a man of few words, holding it in for a long time before squeezing out a sentence: “Didn’t you use to not fool around with these things?”

Lin Liekai’s face was entirely red. Fortunately, there was no one in the room, and he roared via voice message, “I now love to sleep around, is that not allowed?”

“Allowed.” Dr. Wu was actually quite open-minded. “As long as you take adequate protection, don’t catch a disease.”

After a while, he was a bit confused again: “You’re not weak, right… To be stabbed by him?”

How strong of a 1 must that be. He truly didn’t see before that Xiao Lin was into this.

Lin Liekai yelled resentfully, “That child played dirty! Look at this, he even made me see red⁴A euphemism for bleeding. While it can just mean shedding blood in a fight, it is very commonly used to describe a woman bleeding during her first time having sex, which makes the friends’ misunderstanding even worse!! D*mn it, it still hurts even now.”

Holding his phone, he click-clicked and took a few pictures of the bedsheets. He wanted to photograph the sole of his foot as well, but he felt pain as soon as he moved, so he only sent the bloodstained bedsheets to the group: “Look, how brutal that child is. He made me bleed so much!”

When picking out the glass shards last night, he really bled quite a lot—streaks upon streaks on the snow-white bedsheets, like a murder scene, shocking to see, looking extremely frightening.

As soon as Wu Chaoqun saw the photos, he was also startled, hurriedly typing: “How did it end up like this? Hurry up and go see a doctor.”

Lin Liekai said: “I’m not going to the hospital! I just feel suffocated inside. Hey, tell me, isn’t this bizarre? An 18th-tier little artist with a drake’s voice, wants to stab me, and actually injured me! Do you think Liang Jingru gave him the courage?”⁵A very famous Chinese internet meme. Liang Jingru is a Malaysian-Chinese pop singer whose most famous song is “Courage” (勇气). When someone does something incredibly bold or stupid, netizens will joke, “Did Liang Jingru give you the courage?”

Wu Chaoqun soothingly typed on one hand: “Calm down, go to the hospital to treat your wounds first.”

Meanwhile, he simultaneously said rapidly in another small group on the other hand: “You two stop being shocked. Shi Jun, you got a room next door to him right? Go persuade him—don’t be embarrassed, hurrying to the hospital is what’s real.”

“I’m not going, I’m afraid of being killed to be silence!” Shi Jun adamantly refused.

Wu Chaoqun urged: “Stop messing around. Injured like this, it can’t be intestinal friction injury—it’s a laceration. If not treated promptly, don’t catch HIV or an STD.”

This small group was created just five minutes ago. Jin Xun had an important negotiation to attend this morning, and had woken up early too. Having just clicked open the WeChat group, he heard Lin Liekai cursing him via voice message.

While he was completely confused, he looked again at the conversation and the bloody pictures. His jaw immediately dropped in shock.

He hurriedly made a phone call straight to Shi Jun, waking up the deeply sleeping Shi Jun. “Hey, hey, after we left last night, what happened to A-Lin?”

Shi Jun was groggy. The little female star beside him was also awake, clingingly wrapping around him. He pushed her away in one motion. “What? What could happen?”

“Look at WeChat! A-Lin was almost forced!”

Shi Jun instantly sobered up. He grabbed his phone, looked at the group, and similarly was so shocked he almost lost the ability to speak. He hurriedly waved his hand at the little female star. “Go quickly, go quickly, don’t dawdle.”

The little female star was so angry she almost cried, but didn’t dare offend him either. She swiftly snatched her clothes and bag, then left the room feeling aggrieved and sullen.

Seeing that she had left, Shi Jun finally yelled in the group: “What the huge f*ck! F*ck, f*ck, f*cl! Da Jin, what kind of badass did you find? Who could force Lin-ge!”

The three people online secretly and quickly created a smaller group. Jin Xun and Shi Jun both cowered, not daring to speak in the main group, only chatting fervently in the small group.

“To tell the truth, I’ve always known A-Lin likes men, but I truly couldn’t tell he’s a bottom!”

“Not necessarily. Look at how he’s injured like this, it’s obvious Lin-ge resisted—I’m just wondering how that little male duck⁶In Chinese slang, “chicken” (鸡) refers to female sex workers, and “duck” (鸭子) refers to male sex workers., facing a man a head taller than him, dared to forcibly be the top?”

Dr. Wu rigorously corrected: “In same-sex relationships, being a 1 or a 0⁷A “1” refers to the “top” (dominant/insertive partner), and a “0” refers to the “bottom” (receptive partner). has no direct correlation with height or appearance.”

“It’s simply unbelievable. A-Lin normally doesn’t like to sleep around, I even thought he was a bit of a neat freak. I now have a bold guess,” Jin Xun said.

“What guess, say it quickly!”

“Maybe he’s always been a 0, but he doesn’t self-identify with this role, so he’s been holding it in. Holding it in for so long, it’s inevitable he couldn’t hold it anymore…”

Shi Jun sent several terrified reaction memes in a row: “You’re right! As the saying goes, if you don’t turn bad in silence, you’ll turn perverted in silence.”

“Therefore, he was in a bad mood last night and just wanted to indulge a bit, but backed out when it came to the crunch.” Jin Xun brought out the meticulousness used for analyzing stock market K-lines: “However, the arrow was on the bowstring⁸An idiom meaning matters have reached a point where there is no turning back; the situation is fully primed and must proceed.—that little 1 couldn’t hold it back either, so he forced it and it resulted in this.”

Wu Chaoqun and Shi Jun were silent for a long time; one sent a thumbs up, the other sent a mental breakdown emoji.

It actually seemed to make a lot of sense.

Wu Chaoqun grasped another detail: “However, why was he in a bad mood?”

After a long while, Jin Xun finally threw out a news link: “I think, it’s because of this.”

While working on the data for his medical paper, Wu Chaoqun clicked open that link.

“Who could have thought, the person who died in the Star Two Channel fire, was actually him!” Blatant clickbait, yet vague and unclear, whetting people’s appetite, enough to pull up people’s curiosity.

“That youth who stood at the peak as a fleeting flash in the pan ten years ago, one wrong step, and every step became a quagmire. Who knows, that the staff member who died tragically in this fire, ignored by everyone, was also once the idol in the hearts of countless people, had also once possessed boundless glory, and stood in the clouds.”

The opening paragraph was even more sensational.

Wu Chaoqun silently finished reading the full text. He read the impassioned comments below for a while and returned to the WeChat group. After a long time, he finally sent a candle emoji.

The gossiping hearts of the few people all faded a bit. Shi Jun suddenly sent an angry emoji: “A-Lin is really foolish. Why be sad over a thing like that?”

Using drugs, brawling, getting disfigured by hooligans, career dropping a thousand zhang⁹An idiom meaning a sudden, disastrous decline (zhang is a Chinese unit of measurement). in one fall, reduced to doing odd jobs—he’s just mud in the entertainment industry that can’t be plastered onto a wall¹⁰A classic insult for someone who is completely useless, incompetent, and beyond help, no matter how much you try to support them., and it’s not like they are still at the foolish age of just experiencing youthful infatuation. Therefore, many years have passed and he could still sincerely be sad over this crap?

“A-Lin values old ties, so don’t talk about him like that.” Wu Chaoqun said: “It’s not like you guys don’t know about that incident he caused when he was a teenager.”

The small group went quiet for a moment, and the few of them all sighed a bit. Jin Xun sighed: “Shi Jun, stop nagging, go next door and check on him.”

Shi Jun adamantly disagreed: “I really don’t dare! How awkward would that be? Besides, are you sure he’s willing to go to the hospital to see a doctor for this kind of injury? He will probably call his family doctor to come over, right?”

Jin Xun was about to curse him out when his phone suddenly rang.

Looking at the number, he felt a burst of bad premonition in his heart—it was surprisingly the person who pulled strings for Yinxing Entertainment last night.

As soon as the call connected, the person on the other end cautiously said, carrying flattery, “Young Master Jin, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I heard the person I introduced last night didn’t know good from bad and caused a massive disaster. Young Master Jin, you are a great man with a great capacity to forgive, please be sure to help me apologize to Young Master Lin!”

Jin Xun frowned. “How do you know?”

The middleman cried bitterly in his heart. He had received a call from that little manager from Yinxing early in the morning, saying his subordinate had offended Young Master Lin, and the other party specifically demanded they pay thirty-eight thousand yuan in compensation. They didn’t dare be negligent, so they could only come begging to him.

“The thirty-eight thousand has already been transferred to my account—shall I transfer it to you now?” He flattered and apologized repeatedly, “They don’t know Young Master Lin’s account number, and beg you to please transfer it on their behalf.”

Even though Jin Xun was proficient in all kinds of calculations in the stock, bond, and futures markets, he was also shocked into speechlessness by this development, at this moment. He took a long while before dryly responding, “Transfer it over, I’ll transfer it for you.”

Hanging up the phone, he directly sent a shocked emoji in the WeChat group, and also took a screenshot of the bank transfer he just received, with a glaring 38,000 yuan on it.

“What is this?” Shi Jun questioned.

Jin Xun’s tone was both absent-minded and incredulous: “That, that little singer’s payment for prostitution.”

• 1
  An idiom meaning someone lives up to their name. The character’s name, Wu Chaoqun (超群), literally translates to “surpassing the crowd” or “outstanding”—fitting for a Harvard MD/PhD student.
• 2
  Internet slang for an academic overachiever, someone who effortlessly dominates in school and gets top grades.
• 3
  “Traffic” (流量) in Chinese entertainment refers to extreme internet popularity, trending power, and a massive fanbase. A “Little Flower” (小花) refers to young, pretty, and highly popular female actresses. Combined, it means a top-trending young actress.
• 4
  A euphemism for bleeding. While it can just mean shedding blood in a fight, it is very commonly used to describe a woman bleeding during her first time having sex, which makes the friends’ misunderstanding even worse!
• 5
  A very famous Chinese internet meme. Liang Jingru is a Malaysian-Chinese pop singer whose most famous song is “Courage” (勇气). When someone does something incredibly bold or stupid, netizens will joke, “Did Liang Jingru give you the courage?”
• 6
  In Chinese slang, “chicken” (鸡) refers to female sex workers, and “duck” (鸭子) refers to male sex workers.
• 7
  A “1” refers to the “top” (dominant/insertive partner), and a “0” refers to the “bottom” (receptive partner).
• 8
  An idiom meaning matters have reached a point where there is no turning back; the situation is fully primed and must proceed.
• 9
  An idiom meaning a sudden, disastrous decline (zhang is a Chinese unit of measurement).
• 10
  A classic insult for someone who is completely useless, incompetent, and beyond help, no matter how much you try to support them.