Ch102 - Home Delivery

Before Lu Xu even had the chance to speak about the situation with Fan Zeng, Peng Hanfei’s tattletail phone call had already come.

That person originally thought he could use this opportunity to hurt Lu Xu, but had never thought the Bureau Head would instead give him a lecture.

“Xiunian was being watched by Lu Xu, so originally it had nothing to do with you. You should have used this time to improve your work skills. Look how much your work performance has slipped recently. Enough, I’m busy, hanging up.”

The Southwest Bureau’s performance had improved in this time, but it was still far behind Lu Xu’s skill level.

The Bureau Head disliked internal conflict. As long as it didn’t cross a bottom line, he usually shut an eye to everything else.

Lu Xu had listened to their entire phone conversation at the side, and couldn’t help asking, “Bureau Head, is Fan Zeng’s situation really okay?”

“It is still a life.” The Bureau Head waved his hands, and didn’t seem to express much care for it. “Every year, there are many who get away from death, and those medical workers steal many human lives away from us.”

Speaking of which, only medical personnel could steal a life from a grim reaper’s hands without facing any consequences.

Many times when a patient had already submerged into a state of death, they would ceaselessly try to revive them, and actually often succeed.

The underworld’s motto was “to save a person’s life is better than building a seven level stupa”. They could only brush off things like this.

For Ji Xiunian to be able to revive Fan Zeng meant that it wasn’t Fan Zeng’s fate to die yet.

The Bureau Head had already said it like this, so Lu xu relaxed his shoulders and didn’t overly chase after it.

“The letter of appointment has already been sent for approval. The transfer order will probably come very soon. Xiao Lu, see, because your eastern district is currently in the process of ‘changing personnel, I have arranged for Ji Xiunian to be under your command. Didn’t you say you wanted a blank slate before? This one is completely blank, you can take him around however you want. How good is that?”

Lu Xu hadn’t thought that although this was another task regarding Ji Xiunian, it would be of a completely different caliber.

Finally facing the Bureau Head’s keen gaze, Lu Xu finally nodded. “Okay.”

Since the Bureau Head had decreed it, it meant that the upper management had already long since decided this.

His client had suddenly become his colleague. Although Lu Xu wasn’t very used to this, he could still accept it.

Even though he had accepted this task, the Bureau Head still didn’t feel at ease, and couldn’t help dictating, “Xiunian is a new employee, you have to take more care of him.”

“Mhm, do I seem like the kind of person who bullies his underlings?” Lu Xu pursed his lips, feeling like the Bureau Head was taking care of Ji Xiunian like this because of his relationship with his mother. Even when Xie An had been freshly minted, he hadn’t heard the Bureau Head say this much, ah.

“Fine. When the order comes down, I will directly contact you. At that time, bring him over with you to report.”

“No problem.”

Lu Xu didn’t even turn back as he left the bureau, thinking of how he should pass on this news to Ji Xiunian.

On the other side, there was already news online about Fan Zeng’s medical emergency.

A poster said they had received information that Fan Zeng had collapsed in the early morning and had been sent to a hospital for treatment—

[@Little Capable Hand Eating Melons: New info! The director of the hit program ‘Birth of an Idol’ Fan Zeng was admitted to the hospital late at night. The details are not clear yet, but we hope he is okay.]

There were many netizens who had stayed up, along with many fans who were busy voting for their favorite contestants late into the night, only for them to swipe onto this explosive piece of news.

[@Love BTT The Most: No way, Director Fan is in the hospital?! There better not be anything, the show is only half-recorded, can we still see our geges performance next week? QAQ]

[@Xu Son Is My Little Prince: Is this real or false? If the director is in the hospital, can the show continue recording? Aaaaaaa, he has to be okay, I hope everything will be okay.]

[@Xu Lele’s Secret Girlfriend: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa no, now when people see things about the show ‘Birth of an Idol’, all they see is shocking news. The instructor they found last time had just overturned everything, and now the director is in the hospital. This is just my weak opinion, but this show has faced too much trouble.]

#Birth of an Idol #Topics Related to Fan Zeng were back on the hot searches list again. Everyone’s thoughts were almost the same after clicking on these—

This show really has faced too much trouble.

Many people were worried that if the director really met with something, the show wouldn’t continue recording.

No one wanted anything to happen to Fan Zeng, and the fans all thought the same.

From the fans’ perspectives, their favorite boys had participated in the show for the sake of their dreams. The purpose of artists was to perform on stage, while the purpose of fans was to vote for them offstage. This was their shared memory of youth and belonging.

The incident earlier on with Qu Dehui coming to be an instructor but exposing himself instead, was something that made people a little worried. Now that they didn’t even know how the recording was going on behind the scenes, they were afraid the show’s progress would be impacted if something had happened to its director.

Anyone would find it unbearable when thinking of the fact that the debut show for the trainees they supported, might be left stranded.

But no one knew exactly Fan Zeng’s current situation, and they could only wait at the side while praying that he was all right.

Ji Xiunian’s mood was chaotic as he waited for Lu Xu. As he scrolled through Weibo while hugging Ba Mei, he naturally noticed the fans’ worries.

There were many fans who had gone over to his Weibo to comment, inquiring after Fan Zeng’s health.

But the truth was, even Ji Xiunian himself didn’t know what Fan Zeng’s fate would turn out to be.

If he could, he really wanted Fan Zeng to be okay. Even if it wasn’t for the program, it was for his family. He also wished that nothing would happen to Fan Zeng.

As he thought of this, Ji Xiunian couldn’t help but feel a little worried for Lu Xu. He didn’t know what the situation on his side was like.

According to what Peng Hanfei said earlier, releasing an order was basically an immense mistake.

He didn’t want his friend of many years to meet with any incidents, but he also didn’t want Lu Xu to be stuck in a difficult position as a result of this.

Although Lu Xu had told him everything was fine, Ji Xiunian couldn’t resist spiraling in that direction.

Just as he thought his heart was about to burst from his nervousness, his window was suddenly knocked on from the outside again.

“Meow…” Ba Mei, who was originally dozing off, immediately sat up and stood in front of Ji Xiunian in what seemed to be a defensive stance.

The sound of taps on the glass became louder and louder, then paused for a while. Not long afterwards, they heard the sound of the window being pulled open.

“Meow!” Ba Mei acted as if it had encountered an enemy, the fur on its back exploding outwards.

Ji Xiunian suddenly remembered that when he had let Ba Mei in earlier, he seemed to have forgotten to lock the window…

Then had the evil spirit from earlier been lurking outside this entire time, looking for an opportunity?

As if to verify his thoughts, the curtains fluttered, and that mass of dark energy entered in with a gust of wind.

In Ji Xiunian’s eyes, it was just a shapeless mass of black mist. But although it looked like this, he could clearly feel the malice emitting out of it.

Compared to morning fog, the evil spirit’s mist was much more expansive.

It stared greedily at Ji Xiunian, but seemed wary of Ba Mei, and did not move for the time being.

Ba Mei had always acted lazily, but was unusually fierce tonight.

“Mreow…” It uttered a threatening growl from its throat, blocking Ji Xiunian’s front as it faced the evil spirit, pacing back and forth with its stout claws out.

The evil spirit’s entire attention was focused on Ji Xiunian, feeling very impatient.

It had originally been a very weak evil spirit, but ever since it had accidentally learned how to consume the death energy of other evil spirits, it had slowly become stronger.

Not long ago, it had just devoured an evil spirit whose power was around its own level. Devouring was not the same as eating a meal; the more it ate, the more appetite it had.

If it had been thinking of a long term plan earlier in the morning, it definitely could not wait one more second now.

The Ji Xiunian today was emitting a thick death energy from his body. This was the best food for evil spirits. If it could eat Ji Xiunian, it would have nothing to worry about in the future.

“Eat it up…”

“Eat it up…”

“Eat it up…”

Gurgles came out of the evil spirit’s throat. Only when Ji Xiunian listened carefully did he realise it was talking about eating people.

Ji Xiunian often had many nightmares, but this was his first time facing such a thing.

For a brief moment, he almost wanted to take his phone out and go on Baidu search to see what to do when one met with a ghost.

But the evil spirit clearly did not want to give him time to do this. It surrounded Ji Xiunian and began going in circles.

Its fangs were very long, and congealed into a physical body in front of their eyes.

Ji Xiunian could imagine that if he was bitten by this evil spirit with a mouth full of teeth, his head would probably fall off.

He stared warily at the evil spirit, fearing that it would suddenly attack.

Before the evil spirit had appeared, Ji Xiunian had thought that dying wouldn’t be a big matter.

But it wasn’t until the evil spirit had really come, that Ji Xiunian realised that he wanted to live.

He could only see Lu Xu if he were alive, he could only try out the things he hadn’t gotten around to yet if he were alive.

In this moment between life and death, Ji Xiunian suddenly burst out with a strong desire to survive.

He looked around at his surroundings, and picked up the table piece on the table. In truth, he had no idea if physical attacks were effective against evil spirits, but he could only find out if they were useful if he tried, right?

The evil spirit’s body became larger and larger, as if it didn’t even think Ji Xiunian was a threat.

It bypassed Ba Mei on one side, and thought of how it was going to attack on the other side.

Ba Mei’s body compressed, in an obvious offensive stance.

Suddenly, the evil spirit rushed towards them, its long fangs aimed at Ba Mei, evidently wanting to get rid of this interfering little kitty first.

When Ji Xiunian saw this, he didn’t even bother to think before scooping Ba Mei up and heavily hitting the evil spirit with his hand at the same time.

The huge momentum drove the evil spirit back outside the window. It hadn’t expected Ji Xiunian to have this capability.

Even Ji Xiunian himself hadn’t  thought that this would have been in the realm of possibility.

As an actor, Jiu Xiunian had learned martial arts for a drama before. Although he looked cold and graceful, his offensive power was not low, and he was actually rather strong.

Humans have always had an inexplicable fear of the unknown.

Just like how Ji Xiunian had been somewhat afraid of the evil spirit in the begining.

But once they realised their own abilities had exceeded his expectations, humans would become extraordinarily brave.

Ji Xiunian was like this too.

After seeing that physical attacks had an effect, his unease reduced greatly, and he focused on guarding off the evil spirit.

Taking advantage of the evil spirit taking time to recover, Ji Xiunian placed Ba Mei on the sofa and even rubbed its little head affectionately.

In his eyes, Ba Mei was a little cutie. There was no reason to hide behind a little kitty. He should be the one protecting this kitty instead.

“Eat it up…”

Perhaps due to his physical exertion, the death energy on Ji Xiunian’s body became even thicker than before.

The evil spirit could only feel that its stomach felt bitter. It violently plunged down to attack.

Ji Xiunian defended himself with the same method, pushing the evil spirit back into the corners several times.

But the evil spirit had an inkling of inspiration, and thought of another method after its futile attacks.

It still attacked Ji Xiunian, but then as it approached him, it violently stretched out its body and wrapped around him, slowly tightening in like a python.

Ji Xiunian’s lungs felt uncomfortable, and he was about to retaliate when he heard Lu Xu’s voice inside the room. “Wow, there are still those in this age who dare to send themselves to my door.”