Free Web NovelChapter 777: Chapter 748: Gage Grant vs. Maeve [010]
Netizens have such short memories that they’ve completely forgotten they were part of the crowd criticizing Maeve for bringing her own funding to the set just half a month ago. Now, with Candice Chase performing even worse, they’ve begun to miss Maeve’s fresh and genuine style.
Candice won the ranking, but lost her reputation.
And at this moment, Maeve, who Candice thought was much worse than her, secured the endorsement and tour sponsorship from Langford Group.
...
After signing the sponsorship contract with Langford Group, Maeve’s team began to draft a tour plan, deciding the first show would be held on a Saturday night in mid-October at The Worker’s Stadium.
With only three months left before the concert, Maeve started working out and composing new songs for it. She was busy and fulfilled every day. Fans knew that the tour was finally happening, and they were all happy, discussing concert support activities in their chat groups daily during that period.
The Head Fan was also very busy, maintaining the daily activities of the fan group, keeping an eye on all unfavorable news about Maeve online, promoting Maeve in various ways, and assigning some people to follow Maeve to cities across the country. Whenever Maeve went to any city, they had to make arrangements with local fans to welcome her at the airport, and when Maeve returned to Jadeston, the Head Fan in the city had to lead other hardcore fans to the airport to welcome her.
On a weekend at the end of July, it was scorching hot in Jadeston. Gage Grant called Logan Lockwood and a bunch of friends to drive to another city to escape the heat. They were already on the highway when Gage suddenly received a call from the Head Fan, asking if he had bought a telephoto camera.
"I’ve long bought it. What’s up?" Gage was driving at the time and casually asked.
The Head Fan yelled, "A telephoto camera is, of course, for taking photos! What else?"
Gage realized they wanted him to take photos. He was about to pretend to have a bad signal to hang up, but before he could act, the Head Fan yelled on the other end, "Meet at the airport at three this afternoon! To welcome the goddess! Remember to bring your camera! If you don’t show up, you’ll be kicked out of the fan club!" Then he hung up with a slam.
Gage was stunned for a while, then turned the steering wheel to the right, smoothly parking the car in the highway’s shoulder.
Logan, slumped in the passenger seat, turned to look at him, "What are you doing? Motion sickness?"
"Damn! I have to go back!"
"Hey, wait," Logan sat up straight, panicking, "We’re already on the highway, and you’re going back?"
Gage didn’t reply, made a call to the friends traveling with them, asking them to wait at the next service area to pick up Logan, then hit the gas pedal again, merging the car back into the highway traffic.
Logan was bewildered, thinking something serious had happened. He quickly asked, "What happened that you’re so anxious? Did your grandpa fall ill?"
Gage didn’t dare to admit he had to go to the airport to be a fan, so he made up a random excuse to send Logan off.
.
At two in the scorching afternoon, the asphalt was hot enough to fry a steak. Gage woke from a nap, ready to take the camera to the airport. He almost got dumbstruck by the heat when he stepped out of the air-conditioned room, so he went back, changed his long pants for beach shorts, swapped his shirt for a short-sleeved T-shirt, slipped on some crocs, and drove out.
He got to the airport just in time for three. With the flight information sent by the Head Fan, Gage, with the camera strapped over his shoulder, made his way to the exit, spotting a group of young people in uniform gathered at the checkpoint from afar.
Seeing the embarrassingly ridiculous team uniform they were wearing, Gage cursed, "Damn! I forgot I was supposed to wear that thing."
The embarrassing fan outfit that caused him a scene at work last time, he threw it in the trash on the same day. All one hundred pieces he initially bought for meeting with the Head Fan were left in his apartment near the college area, as garbage. It wasn’t realistic to fetch any at this point.
He pushed his sunglasses up slightly and reluctantly approached the group.
The Head Fan was looking around. Spotting him, she ran over from afar, gave him a once-over, and asked, "Where’s your team uniform?"
"Wore it out," Gage fibbed, "The one you gave me, I wore every day for a whole month, and accidentally ruined it when washing it last night."
The Head Fan had been ready to scold him, but hearing this, she paused for a moment, her temper subsided, and she said, "Forget it, here, let me give you another one."
Gage: "..."
She even carries a spare with her, huh.
Gage followed the Head Fan to the larger group. The Head Fan took a crumpled team uniform from a young guy’s backpack and tossed it to Gage, instructing, "Don’t wear it out! This team uniform is only for events, not for fun! Even if you love the goddess, don’t ruin the clothes."
Gage smiled sheepishly, "Yeah, yeah."
Just then, the crowd suddenly stirred, a mob of skinny, listless fanboys charged toward the barriers on both sides of the gate, resembling the iconic scene of zombies running in the Korean movie "Train to Busan."
The Head Fan waved at Gage while running, "Keep up! Take photos! Quick, quick, quick!"
Gage shook his head speechlessly, "This is madness."
He got hold of his camera and started photographing half-heartedly.
In the long-focus lens, Maeve walked slowly out of the airport departure hall, dressed in a white shirt dress and carrying an acoustic guitar case. Her hair had grown longer, reaching her shoulders, with no makeup on, a slight smile on her fair and clean face.
Gage pressed the shutter.
His eyes squinted a little under the sunglasses.
This kid has turned into a woman, and he really wanted to smell her hair and fingers, to check if there was any smell of smoke...
Gage held the camera in a trance. The fans were a wave pouring toward the gate, nearly pulling him down. The crowd divided into layers, the back pushed the middle, and the middle pushed the front, surging toward the gate.
Gage, holding his camera, got swept closer to Maeve by the crowd.
Afraid Maeve would recognize him, would see him so humbly following a bunch of crazy fans just to meet her at the airport, he clutched his sunglasses tightly and attempted to retreat.
Just as the main group surged forward, he retreated, and a few shoves later, he was pushed down to the ground, laying there with all fours in the air.
His camera fell, his sunglasses fell, and someone even stepped over his hand!
Gage almost lost it. As he was about to stand up and start cursing, another wave of fans came rushing. Afraid they’d trample his head, he quickly shielded it with both arms.
"Damn it! Bunch of idiots!" When the crowd finally passed, he got up, cursing and swearing, intending to call out whoever had stepped on his hand. But when he turned, the main group had already moved far away with Maeve.
...
That day, Gage got his hand stomped on and had to see a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner for a week of massage and acupuncture before it healed. As soon as his hand was better, he immediately called the Head Fan, wanting to know after all this, when he could finally have dinner with Maeve!
As soon as the call connected, before he could speak, the Head Fan shouted on the other end, "The goddess got slandered again! Get online quickly and start fighting back!"
Gage: ???
He immediately opened Weibo, and before he could search for "Maeve," he saw the fifth trending topic title — "The fourth place in ’Original Voices’ relies on unspoken rules for endorsement!"
Gage’s head buzzed as he clicked on the trending topic.
A second later, the page loaded.
Floods of unclear and grainy photos showed Maeve with a middle-aged man, seemingly entering the frame simultaneously, suspiciously leaving a studio together, getting into the same car, and then driving away together...
