CH 2

Stepping on one to promote another1 is the usual routine in the entertainment industry. Not to mention that Su Ge is also a popular traffic because he was born with deep facial features like a mixed-race child. When he was ranked in the preliminaries, he relied on a set of pictures to successfully stand out among the other contestants which resulted in him winning a lot of girlfriend fans. The list data grouped artists of the same generation and there was a hidden gesture of brushing the screen2. Similarly, the popularity of this elimination round was naturally high, even Xi Nian received a lot of attention.

It wasn’t that long when Xi Nian debuted so there has been no outstanding representative work yet. He only made a cameo appearance in a youth film as the male lead number two. Most of the fans are passers-by3, and their loyalty is generally not high. Even the fans who raised cards in the audience for this competition were hired by the company. The water army━seven or eight people━ sat sparsely in the corner, and they couldn’t be found without looking closely.

With the last minute of the game left, Xi Nian was waiting at the entrance, and Su Ge was surrounded by three or four assistants, arranging his clothes and makeup for him. Compared with the two, Xi Nian’s side seemed a little deserted.

Gan Xuyang, like Xi Nian, was also an artist under Sun Ming’s hands. It was inevitable that he felt a little bit troubled when he saw this. He leaned over with his eye-catching platinum hair and muttered in Xi Nian’s ear: “Speaking of how good-looking Su Ge is, are the fans blind? There are so many places on his face that he has moved the knife4, they just hadn’t seen it. What is this noble son’s persona that they set up for him? This one is about to vomit.”

You can say that the man was sour, or you can say that he was just jealous, but one has to say that this is true.

Xi Nian rarely paid attention to this kind of gossip. He raised his eyebrows slightly when he heard the words, said “Hmm”, but didn’t speak further.

Gan Xuyang didn’t seem to hear his perfunctory tone, he glanced out of the field, curled his lips and said, “Sun Ming is too picky. If he had to invite a few more water army5, would he die? No, I have to call my parents tomorrow, so it’s more lined up! ”

His ten or so fake water army fans were scattered around the audience, drowning in Su Ge’s blue sea of support, even more shabby compared to Xi Nian’s.

Xi Nian clasped his arms and glanced at him: “There’s no need.”

Gan Xuyang was confused: “Why?”

Xi Nian did not say anything, turned away to let him think for himself.

Today is the elimination round, Gan Xuyang, as the bottom three in the men’s group, against the third in ranking, Meng Shalin? If there is no accident, the former will be eliminated from the game in the afternoon, there is no need to pull his parents over, unless he can turn the tide against the wind━

But Xi Nian felt the likelihood was almost zero, just as the netizens didn’t think he could win against Su Ge.

When the match started, Xi Nian walked with Su Ge to the middle of the arena and stood in their respective positions, while the latter, for some reason, suddenly reversed his haughty appearance backstage to smile and pat Xi Nian’s shoulder in full view of everyone: “Go for it!”

Xi Nian not only has a vicious tongue, but also has a very bad temper. Otherwise, he would not have been famous for so long while his acting skills were poor. If Lu Xingzhe had not helped him pave the way, he would have been submerged in the crowd for the rest of his life.

Some things can’t be changed by rebirth.

Facing Su Ge’s pretense, Xi Nian didn’t even look at him, and just continued to lower his head to check his bow and arrow, without making any response.

The camera was aimed at it, just in time to capture this scene.

Half of the seats in the front row of the auditorium were privately distributed to major news media by the organizers. The reporters carried their professional video camera, searching around the arena with keen eyes. They did not miss any shots that created hot topics. One can already guess what news headlines will appear tomorrow.

#The eighteenth-tier male star had no one in his sight, even Su Ge’s encouragement before the game was ignored.#

#Su Ge’s strength is so formidable that his opponent is suspected of holding a grudge and his face is cold throughout the process.#

No matter what kind of title appears, Xi Nian will definitely be torn apart by Su Ge’s fans, but he doesn’t care.

No matter how serious it is, it will never be worse than the previous life.

Su Ge, who was ignored by him, had his face changed imperceptibly, but not knowing what came to mind, he smiled again with a warm face. He picked up his bow and arrow at the referee’s sign, and when that handsome face was put on the big screen, the field was filled with fans’ screams, once more overshadowing the commentators’ voices.

“Go Su Ge!!! Mommy loves you ahhhhhhhh!”

“Susu, you must bravely fly, we will always be with you!”

“You’re the best! Come back with the championship!”

For the elimination round, each person would shoot a total of twelve arrows, divided into four groups, three in each group, one-on-one alternating arrows, and then the winner advances to the next round of the competition. Su Ge is obviously familiar with the sport, separating his legs, he began to aim at the target with the bow. When the time was up to the twelfth second, he let go of his hand.━━

Whoosh!

The black arrow shaft flashed by and shot straight at the target in front of it. In the end, although it did not enter the ninth ring of the red circle, this was still undoubtedly a good start. There was thunderous applause all around and it came like a tidal wave, making people’s ears numb.

Su Ge looked at Xi Nian with a smile, a contempt flashed in his eyes that only he knew.

When it was Xi Nian’s turn, the applause gradually subsided, and the audience resounded with boos, obviously everyone still remembered his last disastrous performance. Facing such a situation, whoever it was would be very embarrassed. Anyone else but Xi Nian.

He stood on the starting line, set up the arrow and buckled the string, and then slowly pulled the bow, squinting at the target for a moment, his temperament suddenly had a radical change. Different from Su Ge’s youthful and warm image on the surface, Xi Nian had a more eye-catching feeling, but one cannot say exactly what it is━ like a cold ice wrapped in a wild fire, contradictory and complex.

When the side face of Xi Nian was put on the big screen, some people met his sharp gaze and breathed in unison for a moment.

Each arrow has thirty seconds of preparation time.

At the twentieth second, Xi Nian did not move, and the audience had already started to exchange words.

“What’s going on? He’s not firing yet.”

“Maybe he’s worried about missing the target.”

“I really don’t know what he’s arrogant about. Just now Su Ge gave him a greeting, but he even ignored it. He’s still jealous that Su Ge is stronger than him.”

At the 23rd second, Xi Nian finally made a move. He pushed the aiming point down slightly, and at the same time, the three fingers of the right hand that buckled the string were quickly released. The long arrow shot out in response, shooting forward with a slight air-breaking sound.━━

There was a muffled sound of whoosh, just as the thirty-second timer ended.

The audience who was sitting close looked along and saw that there was an extra arrow in the inner circle of the tenth ring in the center of the target, its tail was still trembling slightly.

Some people that were seated far away couldn’t see the target clearly, but they could hear when the commenters reported the target on the radio: “Number 9, Xi Nian, first arrow, ten.”

When everyone heard this, their first reaction was incredulity. Even if Xi Nian often aimed off-target, his results in the last ranking game were hovering between the fifth and sixth ring. How could it be possible to hit the tenth ring at once, and it was even still in the centermost of the inner circle.

At this time, there is only one reason to explain this matter, and that is that Xi Nian got lucky.

Su Ge obviously thought the same. He curled his mouth slightly in a place where the camera couldn’t see and started to shoot the second arrow under the referee’s signal. However, one doesn’t know if he was that impatient to win, the aiming point shifted too much that this time, he only narrowly missed the eighth ring.

Broadcast the target: “Number 3, Su Ge, second arrow, eight.”

When Su Ge heard this, the hand holding the bow slowly hung to his side, his expression was a little unnatural, although the fans still cheered with dignity.

When it was Xi Nian’s turn, there was a scattered applause all around, the number of people paying attention to him this time was obviously more than the previous game, but those eyes were more of a gaze wanting to see if his ten-ring shot just now was a blind cat that met a dead rat6.

Xi Nian was very strong in his bones7. Whether it is acting, something else, or a game that was used to make fun of him in his previous life—he always polished it to perfection little by little, so that people can’t pick out the slightest fault from him.

He probably didn’t expect that the archery he had specially learned in his last life because of his competitiveness would come in handy one day.

Xi Nian opened the bow and set the arrow. This time, it only took fifteen seconds. Under the gaze of countless pairs of eyes at the venue, the black-rod arrow with white tail feathers shot out with a swoosh, hitting the inner circle of the tenth ring impartially again. The aiming point offset was completely negligible compared to the first time.

The broadcast automatically reported the target: “Number 9, Xi Nian, second arrow, ten.”

“Wow—”

Before the words were finished, everyone looked at each other in dismay. For the first time, it could be said that it was good luck. For the second time, one can’t just rely on luck. What kind of panacea8 did Xi Nian take? It’s only been a few days since the last ranking game. Isn’t this progress too fast?!

There were still people who stubbornly leaned on the reason of luck in this matter.

“Tsk, he’s too lucky, both arrows were on the tenth ring.”

Some people don’t like Su Ge’s fans: “Why is it luck, can’t it be strength? Is it difficult to admit that others are better than Su Ge?”

“Oh, it’s so funny. There’s going to be a total of twelve arrows. Su Ge had only shot two arrows. They hadn’t even passed a quarter of the match yet, how can you say that Xi Nian is better than him? ”

The entertainment industry was torn up, and its power was not inferior to that of the smoky battlefield. Su Ge didn’t care about the discussion on the field and continued to pull the third arrow. Although his face was calm, he was faintly uneasy, and he was obviously puzzled by the level of Xi Nian’s rapid progress.

Su Ge was attentive and very serious this time. He waited until the twenty-seventh second before sending the arrow, and as if he had regained his feeling, he hit the tenth ring with a whoosh.

When the sound of the target rang out, he sighed in relief without a trace, while looking at Xi Nian. This time there was not only contempt in his eyes, but it was like a gaze of looking over a great enemy.

Su Ge’s fans did not notice the tension of their idol but felt that the tenth ring was like getting their home turf back for them. They continued to scream and applaud: “Come on Su Ge!!! The champion must be yours!!”

Compared to Su Ge’s sweat-drenched back, Xi Nian seemed too calm. He didn’t even change his expression from beginning to end, he just opened the bow and arrow under the referee’s signal. His body wrapped in his sportswear has made the smooth muscle lines faintly visible, and the real wide shoulders and narrow waist noticeable.

The fake water army fans who were sitting in the audience passively before were not sure when they became interested and sat up straight, vigorously shaking the light sign of the word [XI] in their hands, radiant and cheering with great dedication: “Xi Nian let’s go! One more tenth ring! Come on ahhhhhhh!”

The crowd soon drowned in the noise, Su Ge’s fans glanced at them sarcastically and almost laughed out loud, are they really thinking that Xi Nian would win like an Olympic champion?

Even Olympic champions don’t necessarily have to get tenth rings in their scores, so what kind of goods is Xi Nian?

However, before their thoughts could be expressed, the man on the field quickly issued his third arrow, with the momentum of breaking the bamboo. Su Ge’s fans had not yet seen the target clearly when the familiar radio announcement sounded in their ears.

“Number 9, Xi Nian, third arrow, ten.”

Pěng yī cǎi yī ━ Usual fan activity with the purpose of praising one’s idol by belittling or comparing other idols.

Yǐn yǒu shuā píng de jiàshì ━ Screen brushing can be observed in online forums, message boards, and other real-time chatting system. It is when a small group of IDs or the same user sends a large number of repeated content in a short period of time that would cover the whole screen, affecting the messages sent by others to be quickly brushed off. It could be either to deliberately bring trouble or to advertise something. In this case, it can be imagined that the water army was hired to mention key words such as Su Ge, causing the readers to take a look at this person.

Lùrén fěn ━ As the name suggests, their behavior is like a passerby. They may feel good for the celebrity but they cannot be counted as a real fan because they only stopped by to take a look.

Liǎn shàng nàme duō dìfāng dòngguò dāo dōu méi kàn chūlái ━ Moving knife is a term used to refer to having done plastic surgery. So basically, he’s saying that it was all fake, the fans just didn’t notice.

Shuǐ jūn ━ Also known as network gunners or network trolls, they are specially hired cyber trolls to masquerade as ordinary customers/consumers/fan to either bring down or praise something/someone. They are there to control the flow of the opinions of the public according to how they were hired. Internet water army, on the other hand, is a platoon of ghostwriters paid to post online comments with particular content.

Shì bùshì xiā māo pèng shàng sǐ hàozi ━ Accidental or fortuitous.

Gǔzilǐ hěn yàoqiáng ━ Cannot afford to lose, very competitive.

Something that will solve all problems/illnesses. Origin: Greek Goddess of universal remedy with the same name, Panacea. Panacea used to have a poultice or potion that she used to treat the ill. This gave rise to the notion of the panacea in medicine, which is a substance that is said to cure all ailments.