Ch27 - To Fall Into Enemy Hands

Ba Mei wasn’t a kitty who would get close to just anyone. For it to have relaxed in Ji Xiunian’s embrace meant that it really liked him—

Like the three who had been sent by the Grim Reaper Bureau before, they had been won over by the enemy as if they had no principles.

However, the sentence ‘Looks like it likes you too’ held another layer of meaning to the others who heard it.

“As expected, the cat follows its master. You like Nian ge, so Ba Mei also follows and likes Nian ge.” Shen Chengyu was the closest to them, and heard the “too”, so he couldn’t help but come up with his own explanation.

Lu Xu didn’t elaborate, he only curved his lips in a smile. “Ba Mei is quite heavy. Nian ge, you don’t need to keep holding it.”

Ji Xiunian looked at Ba Mei when he heard those words and only felt that this round little fellow was really cute. He shook his head at Lu Xu, having no intention of putting Ba Mei down. “Ba Mei isn’t heavy.”

“Meow…” Ba Mei rubbed its head against Ji Xiunian’s neck when it heard those words, purring extremely happily.

Lu Xu laughed helplessly at this situation. Just as he was about to take Ba Mei back into his arms, he heard someone say very impatiently, “Why are there things like a cat in the studio? This makes me very uncomfortable…”

Following the sound led to Lan Gaojie standing in the doorway of the recording studio, unwilling to even step inside, just pointing at Ba Mei while speaking to the staff.

Although Ba Mei was a cat, it was very obvious that Ba Mei was very smart and had not given anyone any trouble.

The staff were trying to explain that it was Lu Xu’s cat, patiently saying that Ba Mei was very gentle. “It’s very smart, it won’t affect the filming.”

Proving their point, Ba Mei entered the recording studio and sat in the audience seats to nap. Only when Lu Xu was free during dress rehearsal would Ba Mei go up to look for him. The rest of the time, Ba Mei would quietly sit in wait. If it weren’t for everyone wanting to gather around the cat to pet it, Ba Mei wouldn’t be disturbing anything at all.

However, Lan Gaojie didn’t even bother listening to the explanations the staff gave, he only objected impatiently, “What show allows animals into the recording studio? I’m allergic to cats. I won’t be able to film like this at all.”

It was common to have allergies to cats. Lan Gaojie wasn’t an exception.

Taking into consideration the health of the trainees, the staff ended up going up to Lu Xu to talk to him about taking Ba Mei away.

“Xu ge, all of us really like Ba Mei, but we have to ensure the safety of the trainees. Allergies are no small matter, we hope you will understand…”

When confronting Lu Xu, the staff also used a very gentle tone of voice, not wanting to make this good-looking young boy feel bad.

Lu Xu glanced at Ba Mei who was in Ji Xiunian’s embrace, then at the frowning Lan Gaojie standing over there, and smiled very frankly, “Of course we understand.” When he finished speaking, he turned around and pursed his lips at Ba Mei. “Okay, Ba Mei. Go back to the dorm and sleep. When you wake up, I’ll open a can of food for you.”

“Meow.” Hearing the words “can of food”, Ba Mei immediately jumped down from Ji Xiunian’s arms.

It didn’t need any of the staff to carry it either. It used its own elegant little steps to slowly walk towards the door.

Seeing Ba Mei get closer and closer, the hairs on Lan Gaojie’s body stood on end, and he immediately took a couple of steps back.

“Wah!!” When Ba Mei reached the doorway, it suddenly turned its head to look at him, pressing its body to the ground, its tail swishing, letting out a growl from its throat as a warning.

Lan Gaojie felt his legs go soft and unconsciously used the chair beside him for support, afraid that Ba Mei would suddenly attack.

The person and the cat stared at each other for a moment, as though they were frozen.

Just when Lan Gaojie felt that some artery in his heart was about to collapse, Ba Mei suddenly turned its head away and walked out of the studio, clearly too lazy to be bothered with him anymore.

In just those few seconds of eye contact, Lan Gaojie was already covered in sweat by the time he regained his senses.

The staff members on the side immediately called for the makeup artist to touch up his makeup, thinking in their hearts, with a reaction that big, he really must have been afraid of cats.

Lu Xu had seen everything. He had seen the black aura around Lan Gaojie’s body become more intense. Lan Gaojie must really be ready to not look back.

Seeing Ba Mei getting sent away, a lot of people wanted to know why. When they found out that it was because Lan Gaojie was allergic to cats, Xu Lele immediately took out his phone and opened Weibo, scrolling through it, then frowned.

He had always been a heavy user of his phone, and liked to collect information about other people’s likes, treating it as a pastime.

He had scrolled through Lan Gaojie’s Weibo page not too long ago, clicking through it now, his only thought was that this person was lying.

He pursed his lips and took his phone to show Lu Xu, saying indignantly. “Lan Gaojie is lying. Look at his previous photos on his Weibo, there are so many pictures of him with cats.”

Lu Xu looked down and saw photos of Lan Gaojie kissing and hugging cats with a pleasant smile on his face.

These photos were from two years ago, and at that time he had still looked a little bit shy. Although his looks were not outstanding, at least his soul had been clean.

Lu Xu wasn’t in the mood to care about what had happened to Lan Gaojie over the past two years. He just patted Xu Lele on the shoulder, gesturing to him that he shouldn’t be angry over such a small thing.

Prior to the filming of the MV, the trainees all received their uniforms.

It could be said that this show really liked the youthful vibe. The lavender clothes, when worn, made them look like campus seniors. All of them had delicate facial features and long legs.

Just one sweeping glance was pleasing to the eye.

Before the filming officially began, the production team asked the trainees to stand in their respective positions.

As the center, Lu Xu would naturally be standing in the middle of the stage with the other A-rank trainees behind him, basically in the center of the stage.

The trainees from the other ranks were distributed among the different corners of the stage. Occasionally, the spotlight would also shine across them.

The MV filming was no more relaxing than the competition itself. Not only did the dance have to be good, but their expressions also had to be on point as well.

“No matter what style you usually go for, give me real positive energy in the MV.” Fan Zeng stood by the monitors, holding a mic, stating his standards ahead of time.

There were 20 cameras in the entire studio, demonstrating how much importance the TV station placed on this show.

Fan Zeng had high standards, giving nearly every trainee screen time. To have more time of their face being shown on screen meant a lot to the trainees who were behind in the rankings, it was a very fortunate thing.

Despite Fan Zeng requiring them to reshoot several times, it was because of this extra screen time that no one said they were tired or anything along those lines.

On the whole, the MV filming went quite smoothly. As for how it turned out, they would have to wait until post-production to see it.

“Everyone has worked hard. Go back and rest early today. We’ll be entering the filming of the third episode of the show very soon.”

“Ah, so quickly?”

“Next week is probably eliminations. Better treasure the opportunity to interact with me. I feel that after the next episode is filmed, I’ll be eliminated.”

“Let’s shake hands, brothers. I also feel that I won’t be able to survive next week.”

…

Everyone had their own thoughts about the upcoming competition.

They waited for Fan Zeng and the others to leave, then immediately went on the internet to see the online voting, wanting to see the results in real-time.

As always, the one in first place was BTT’s leader Song Zhe, but the one who was rising up the quickest was Lu Xu. Yesterday, he had been just outside top twenty, now he had climbed all the way up to fifth place.

A few people lamented over Lu Xu’s good fortune. After all, he had been contracted by Yao Guai Entertainment. It was probably also because of this that Su Mubai and Yu Manman had helped with promoting him for votes.

His physical qualities were good, outside support was powerful, it could be said that Lu Xu was pretty much guaranteed to be in the top three.

“Master Lu Xu!” After deciding to look to Ji Xiunian for evaluation, the members of the F4 were working even harder than before. He Xinghua looked at Lu Xu who was standing in the centre of the stage, and could only feel that this boy was full of spirit and brilliance.

Lu Xu turned his head to smile at them, which could be considered a greeting.

Seeing that the instructors had left the studio, only now did the F4 float up to Lu Xu to discuss the events of the day.

“Ji Xiunian agreed to meet you guys tonight?”

He Xinghua nodded. “Yes yes, he said tonight at 9 P.M.”

Tao Yingbo tended to overthink and couldn’t help asking, “What if this is a Hongmen Banquet?”

The others stared at him, perplexed. He Xinghua asked directly, “What Hongmen Banquet?”

Seeing Lu Xu stand there with a faint smile on his face, Tao Yingbo couldn’t help but lower his voice. “It’s walking into danger, ah. Think about it. Ji Xiunian started off not even believing he could see ghosts, and he doesn’t seem like he’s completely at ease. If he thinks we’re strange things, what will we do if he goes and finds some exorcist master to deal with us?”

Sending them off was a small matter; if he directly exorcised them, their lives as ghosts would leave too many regrets.

“You’re overthinking.” Lu Xu immediately opened his mouth to shut down their increasingly weird thoughts. “You’re all registered ghosts with identification. How could you casually just fade away? Anyways, you’re all my contracted clients. Others who want to send you off can’t send you off.”

“That seems to make sense!” Tao Yingbo nodded, feeling that Lu Xu’s words had no issues.

To think of it, as ghosts who had been marked by grim reapers, no matter what other things wanted to steal this order, they had to get past Lu Xu’s protection at the very least.

Thinking of this, they suddenly felt a sense of security.

He Xinghu kept nodding as he listened at the side with his colleagues. He couldn’t help adding, “No matter what reasons the Film Emperor has for meeting with us, we’ll find out when we go tonight.”

He Xinghua really longed to perform on stage and for an evaluation. Even if Ji Xiunian really was hiding something dangerous, he still wanted to try it out.

Thinking of the person’s expression when he held Ba Mei, Lu Xu only thought that he wouldn’t do anything out of the ordinary.

Before he could open his mouth to comfort the F4, Lan Gaojie walked over.

He had been observing Lu Xu since earlier, and naturally saw the four ghosts beside him.

“You’ll eventually have to return what you stole…”

The words Lu Xu had spoken were still haunting him. Seeing what he saw now, it seemed that Lu Xu wasn’t that much different from himself.

“You invited them here, right?”

Lan Gaojie lowered his voice to say words normal people would completely not be able to understand.

The four ghosts looked at each other, then looked at Lu Xu, not knowing how to deal with this kind of situation.

“No, they’re the same as the one on your body. I happened to meet them.” In the face of Lan Gaojie’s suspicions, Lu Xu acted very indifferently. He crossed his arms and smiled at Lan Gaojie. The warm lamplight shone on his face, revealing a hint of compassion.

Lan Gaojie only felt that Lu Xu was a somewhat dangerous person who also had a strange temperament about him.

He watched Lu Xu, hesitating a little. “Are you holding me in contempt? Do you think I’m using other means?”

To his surprise, instead of revealing any disdain, Lu Xu’s smile became even brighter. “No, I’m just waiting for that day to come.”

Exchanging lifespan for fame and wealth; some people would think it was stupid, but others would be very willing.

The day his lifespan ran out would be the day he became an official client.

And currently in Lu Xu’s eyes, Lan Gaojie was just a performance quota. Who would care what the original nature of a performance quota was?

Lan Gaojie only felt that Lu Xu’s words held another meaning to them, but he didn’t know what it was.

He became even more nervous, and couldn’t resist saying “How strange” before getting the hell out of there.

“He smells more and more like us ai!” He Xinghua stared at Lan Gaojie’s retreating back and couldn’t help muttering this.

Lu Xu nodded, adding casually, “He’ll be like you guys soon.”

What did ‘be like you guys’ mean?

Could it be…

The F4 looked amongst themselves, feeling like this Lan Gaojie was doomed. After being ghosts for so many years, they couldn’t help sighing at the thought of a living person being marked with death.

But speaking of this, one had to choose their own path in life. Others could not help.

Lu Xu didn’t hang around for too long; he was in a bit of a hurry to go back and feed Ba Mei.

He thought Ba Mei was extremely tired after sleeping for so long in the dorm. But when he entered the room he couldn’t help but be stunned—was this still their dorm?