CH 4

The system has said such words not ten times but still a notable number of eight times, yet Xi Nian obviously didn’t take it to heart. He turned a deaf ear to this, avoided the flocking reporters, went back to the backstage to change his clothes, getting ready to leave.

Sun Ming followed him all the way, and when he saw this, he hurriedly blocked his way: “Hey, hey, hey, what are you planning to do? There’s so many reporters outside that are waiting for you, at least go out and show your face.”

Xi Nian was now dressed in a black sportswear, carrying a travel bag on his left shoulder. He reached out and pulled the zipper to his chin, covering most of his face. He was without the slightest intention to be interviewed: “I won’t go.”

With both hands in his trouser pockets, where no one can see it, his fingertips began to twitch uncontrollably. He clenched his fists to suppress it.

Sun Ming sniffed and held up his glasses, his brow furrowed. He reminded Xi Nian, his voice with some irritation: “You stole the limelight this time from Su Ge and things didn’t end so well. His contract period with the company has arrived, and I tell you, the senior management is trying to get him to renew his contract. In case he hates you and uses this matter as blackmail, think about the consequences for yourself!”

There is a mutually beneficial relationship between the agent and the artist. One can prosper but one can also lose. It was a good thing for Sun Ming that Xi Nian can show off, but this kind of “limelight” was obviously not what the company’s top executives want to see.

A long-established idol and a newcomer with an unknown future, any fool knows how to choose.

But Xi Nian only said three words: “Let them be.”

Shanxing Entertainment was obviously not a desirable choice, because the contract regulations are too harsh and many of its artists are fighting lawsuits making its reputation get worse and worse. The company’s strength is also declining and thus, he does not have the intention of signing a long-term contract.

Sun Ming still didn’t know what he was thinking at this time: “Did your brain get squeezed by a door1? It’s just a small competition, losing to Su Ge is nothing! There are many opportunities in the future, if you overpower him now, tomorrow your Weibo will be butchered by his fans, you simply do not know what you should do!”

He couldn’t stand Xi Nian’s indolent hob-meat2 appearance, his chest was undulating, and he sneered after speaking, turning to leave angrily.

It was impossible for Xi Nian to chase him. He just lowered his eyes and glanced at his right hand. The wrist bone was swollen to the naked eye. He pulled down his sleeve without a trace of expression on his face; he was about to go to the hospital to have a checkup when he suddenly remembered that his phone had been left in the lounge. He went back again.

The lounge was empty.

Xi Nian took out the phone from the cabinet, the time was clearly displayed on it, and the screen flashed with a faint fluorescence, but it went out again not long after.

The 26th.

He vaguely remembered that at this time in his previous life, the Weibo headlines in the early morning of the next day were firmly dominated by the cheating news of a well-known male star, and there was a lot of turmoil━ the person behind it was Lu Xingzhe.

He roughly calculated, the leg of that stinky paparazzi was probably going to be injured tonight?

Xi Nian held the cabinet door with one hand, one cannot know what he was thinking. After a while, he curled his lips. System 009 was observing in secret, always feeling that the other was gloating, but it didn’t look like it when he looked closely.

“Congratulations, first place.”

Just when Xi Nian was lost in thought, a shady voice suddenly sounded behind him. He turned around and found that it was Su Ge, his eyebrows raised slightly, knowing that the other party was here to look for trouble.

Su Ge was besieged by those reporters and questioned for a long time just now. How ugly his face was right now after being subjected to the press, one can imagine. He walked to the drinking fountain to pick up a glass of water, and his anger surged up for a while. Seeing Xi Nian Ai’s look of ignoring him, he asked coldly: “Are you very proud?”

Xi Nian had been in the entertainment industry for many years in his previous life. Su Ge’s verbal provocation was like a child’s play to him, so he didn’t even have the mood to be perfunctory. When he heard the words, he avoided him sideways and walked straight outside.

No vicious words will be more excessive than this indifference.

Su Ge was already furious because of losing face in the public. He could have reached the final, but he was kicked out directly in the elimination round. He lost a lot of exposure opportunities. Seeing this, he stepped forward to block Xi Nian’s way: “What time do you plan to leave? Don’t you want to stay to watch the next game?”

He was holding a cup full of boiling water, when he spoke. One does not know if it was intentional or not, but he suddenly seemed to have tripped and fallen, his body tilted and fell straight towards Xi Nian, while deliberately exclaiming━

“Watch out!”

The hot water instantly poured down, Xi Nian reacted and backed up quickly, Su Ge saw the dark awning in his eyes and deliberately clutched his arm to prevent it from moving, then as he wished, Xi Nian’s sleeves were instantly drenched, hot water dripped down his wrist and meandered on the tile floor.━

The back of Xi Nian’s exposed scalded hand was visible to the naked eye, it began to turn red, even blisters.

Seeing this, Su Ge secretly hooked his lips, stood up straight, and finally released him. He looked at the empty paper cup in his hand, and shrugged with no sincerity: “I’m sorry, I didn’t stand firm just now.”

After speaking, he squeezed the empty paper cup in his hand into a ball and threw it into the trash can. He said sarcastically: “Don’t forget the game the day after tomorrow, but you must come back with the first place.”

When this kind of feud happens, the parties concerned either choose to forgive or make it public. It was a pity that Xi Nian couldn’t do the former, and no one would believe it if he decided on the latter.

The door of the lounge was half-closed, and Su Ge was about to leave when a strong force suddenly came from behind him, then he was kicked on the ground. He didn’t get up for a long time, and the door closed with a click because of the force that came with him.

Xi Nian stood behind him, pulled down the zipper expressionlessly, took off his jacket soaked in hot water and threw it on the bench. He then leaned over and grabbed Su Ge’s collar, pulled the man off the ground, and said in a low voice : “Actually, it doesn’t matter if it’s a competition or not. Friendship comes first and competition comes second3.”

When he said this, the smile on the corners of his lips became more and more wider. It was supposed to be dazzling from his person but when Su Ge looked at it, it only made him feel chilled. Xi Nian ignored the burning ache on his injured right hand, he restrained Suge’s neck with force and dragged the person to the drinking fountain like he was a dead dog. He looked at the green light above it and said, “Tsk, to think that there is still hot water.”

Su Ge was not as strong as he, his struggling face reddened, hearing those words made him perceive what Xi Nian is planning to do, His pupils dilated instantly, and he kicked his legs desperately: “You are crazy! Hurry up and let me go!”

The sun in June and July was hot, and the sun rays were spreading freely through the glass, but it couldn’t hide the haze of Xi Nian’s body. The blob figure of the system appeared at the right time with a ding.

【Warning! Warning! It is detected that the host has committed a dangerous behavior and is currently executing an action that would violate the reformation regulations. Please stop immediately!】

Xi Nian turned a deaf ear to the system’s warning. He freed one hand from restraining Su Ge and took out a cup with one hand to fill it up with hot water. It seemed that he was going to pour out the boiling water on his head causing Su Ge to be frightened out of his wits when he saw this. He changed from the initial cry for help to begging for mercy, blubbering bitterly: “Xi Nian! I was wrong, I was wrong, I beg you, please let me go!”

Seeing that Xi Nian’s actions had not slowed down in the slightest, the system can’t help but increase the force of the warning. The blue light on the floating ball has turned into a red light, and it keeps flashing non-stop: 【Please stop the current behavior of the host, otherwise this image will be uploaded to the Interstellar Headquarters. If it is judged to be in violation, the host will lose the opportunity to be reborn.】

After the system finished speaking, everything around suddenly came to a standstill, as if someone pressed the pause button, abruptly frozen in place, and then the time quickly retreated, and the coat on the bench was suddenly put on Xi Nian again. The paper cup in the trash was also pulled by an unknown force and returned to Su Ge.

They went back to when they had just fought a minute ago.

There was a meandering puddle of water on the ground, still faintly steaming.

Xi Nian’s body seemed to be fixed, unable to move, his right sleeve dripping water down, burning hot.

He saw Su Ge standing in front of him, crumpling the paper cup in his hand into a ball and throwing it into the trash can at will. His movements were the same as a minute ago, and his tone hadn’t even changed. Su Ge sneered coldly: “Don’t forget the game the day after tomorrow, but you must come back with the first place.”

After speaking, he patted the dust on his cuffs and turned to leave.

Xi Nian’s eyes were cold, he still wanted to blow that dog’s head, but his limbs were stiff, and all his strength was like a mud ox thrown into the sea4. He couldn’t even take a step.

Knowing that it was the specter of the system, Xi Nian could only give up the struggle. He stared at the blue ball of light floating in the air and squinted his eyes. He didn’t know whether to praise it or ridicule it: “You really know how to come at the right time.”

The jelly-like blue body of the system trembled, looking extremely soft, and the voice was intermittent, with a piercing electric sound it said: 【Host, don’t take the wrong way…..】

In this life, the host cannot go the wrong way.

There is no impermeable wall under the heavens5, and paper cannot cover a fire6. The detours and mistakes that have been made will one day be known to everyone.

Surveillance was installed in the lounge. Xi Nian clearly had countless more secure countermeasures, but he chose the most extreme one. While punishing the perpetrator, he also pulled himself out of the quagmire.

Xi Nian didn’t appreciate it. He wasn’t a good person after all, so he just said a phrase word by word, “Mind your own business.”

After he finished, he went to the sink and used cold water to rinse the back of his hand which was burned red before leaving the stadium with his bag and driving to the hospital.

The profession of paparazzi is always despicable and contemptible. Coupled with the short duration of scandals, once the target person appears, they will swarm like a maned dog smelling blood, and Lu Xingzhe is undoubtedly one of the “most outstanding”.

At twelve o’clock in the evening, the city had fallen into silence. Linglong Bay is a high-end residential area with a quiet environment. At this point even pedestrians cannot be seen, only the occasional few cars whizzing past and finally re-entering the darkness was observable.

Lu Xingzhe had been squatting in the shade of the tree for eight hours. The camera in his hand was aimed at the gate of the community, not letting go of any clues, patiently waiting for the target person to appear, but the employer on the other end seems a little impatient, and the calls are made one after another, constantly urging him to hurry.

The voice on the other side of the microphone was a woman. After a while of noise, she suddenly calmed down: “When can you hand in what I want? He will fly to the United States to film a movie tomorrow, the next time you could shoot him and that vixen privately meeting will not be so easy.”

Lu Xingzhe was chewing gum in his mouth, the shadow of the tree whirled, and a dark color fell on his shoulders. He raised his hand and pressed the brim of his hat. His voice was like an ice cube colliding with the rim of a cup, leaching out a cool meaning: “Mrs. Jane, what is the hurry?”

The woman called Mrs. Jane was irritated: “He’s going to divorce me next week, how can I not be anxious?

The smile in Lu Xingzhe’s eyes remained unchanged: “You can either wait now or find someone else.”

“You━”

The woman choked on her words, her belly full of complaints but was immediately blocked back by these words.

Although Lu Xingzhe has a bad reputation, there are nine out of ten explosive materials in his hands, his news network is also the most extensive, but he never shows up. Few people know what he looks like. She made a lot of effort just to contact Lu Xingzhe this time.

Mrs. Jane clenched the microphone unconsciously, and endured it in the end. She tried her best to ease her tone while gritting her teeth: “At eight o’clock tomorrow at the latest, I want evidence of his cheating.”

Lu Xingzhe only said three words: “Wait for the news.”

Then the call was cut off.

The time passed little by little, in the hazy night, a pair of intimate men and women suddenly appeared at the gate of the community behaving intimately like a couple. The man was tall and long, wrapped tightly, and one couldn’t even see his face. He was holding a graceful long-haired woman in his arms and walking towards the black sports car parked on the roadside.

The corner in the shade of the tree could not capture the man’s face. Lu Xingzhe adjusted the angle of his camera but still could only capture a blurred back. He moved his stiff legs and said in his heart that Jian Yihong who was usually an honest looking husband on TV turned out to be an old fox secretly; he even came out in the middle of the night fully covered.

Lu Xingzhe glanced around, and simply hid the camera in the shoulder bag he carried with him, then lowered the brim of his hat. He walked out, bowed his head and pretended to be playing with his mobile phone. At first glance, one can only deem him as an ordinary passerby.

As he got closer, Lu Xingzhe could finally hear the faint voices of the man and woman.

“When would you divorce that yellow-faced woman7?”

“Soon, I promise. Come on, be good. I will fly to the United States to film tomorrow. It may take a few months before I can come back. Take care of yourself.”

“I can go to see you……”

“It’s best not to. It may be photographed by reporters……”

Seeing them getting in the car, Lu Xingzhe took a few steps back, hiding his figure in the shadow, and then raised his camera to point at the inseparable pair of men and women in the car before clicking the shutter. Under the light of the street lamp, a touch of white light flashed imperceptibly.

Most artists are sensitive to the camera, not to mention someone who’s doing bad things. Jian Yihong has been in the entertainment industry for so long. Leaving aside his old cadre persona, he is undoubtedly shrewd. The corners of his eyes are keen to capture the white light of the camera, and he subconsciously looks out of the car window causing his face to be exposed.—

Seeing the opportunity, Lu Xingzhe didn’t care to hide his traces, he directly raised the camera for a burst of continuous shooting, Jian Yihong immediately realized that something was wrong. His conditioned reflex was to push the woman in his arms away, and then snarled, “There are reporters!”

He immediately used his collar to cover his face and stepped on the gas pedal to leave, in a hurry to speed up to the fastest, but because he couldn’t see the direction in the dark, he actually crashed in the direction of Lu Xingzhe.

“Bang━━━”

Seeing the vehicle coming, Lu Xingzhe’s pupils shrank slightly, and he immediately dodged sideways. Who knew that he was still a step slower. His left leg was violently hit by the front of the car, and the whole person rolled directly to the side of the road because of the force, and Jian Yihong saw that, but he didn’t stop at all, it even urged him to get out of the scene quickly so stepped on the gas and fled.

With the sound of the engine faded away, the surrounding roads fell silent again.

Lu Xingzhe was knocked into a daze, and it took a long time for him to regain his senses. He struggled to get up from the ground, ignoring the severe pain in his left leg. The first thing he did was check the camera in his hand to make sure that the photo just now was not missing before he put his mind at ease.

This line business of being a paparazzi is not easy to do, bruises and wounds are common. Lu Xingzhe glanced at the direction of where Jian Yihong departed, and then he stuffed the camera into his backpack. Holding the trunk of the tree, he staggered up against it, gasping for breath to ease the pain all over his body. After a long while, he actually smiled.

Forget it, he doesn’t like to care about people who would be dying the most.……

He hopes that the other party can continue to rampage like this tomorrow.

He used the only battery left on his mobile phone to send a message to his employer, then picked up the baseball cap on the ground and patted the crud. Limping and wanting to leave, who would have thought that just after taking a step, there would be a sharp pain in his knee, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground.

“Well……”

Lu Xingzhe was used to being able to endure it, but at this moment he groaned with a paleface. It was extremely painful, he hugged his legs and couldn’t get up from the ground for a long time. His back was gradually wet with cold sweat.

Damn it.

Lu Xingzhe closed his eyes and cursed out, he could not help but gasp. He fumbled and touched his knees; his palms were wet and sticky, like blood. Unfortunately, the night was too dark making it very difficult to distinguish the color of the liquid.

Not far from the roadside was a white car parked quietly. Xi Nian was sitting in the driver’s seat, holding his arms in both hands, leaning against the back of the chair and closing his eyes faintly. Through the windshield, which was faintly illuminated by the streetlight, Lu Xingzhe could be vaguely seen getting up from the ground, and then limping forward.

Only taking two steps, his figure paused with difficulty.

A few more steps, he lost his balance again and fell to the ground heavily.

In just ten meters, the man walked for a full five minutes, and one couldn’t count how many times he fell.

Xi Nian sat in the car and didn’t move. He might want to see how Lu Xingzhe went back, or he might want to see the other party’s suffering as a joke. There were several times the system thought Xi Nian would get off to help, but Xi Nian just adjusted his sitting position, and then continued to observe the other side of the situation.

He was like a cinema spectator, using the windshield as a screen, comfortable watching the show in a calm manner, while Lu Xingzhe was the person acting on the TV.

Stars are rarely seen at night in big cities. There is only a bleak moon. Lu Xingzhe was in a cold sweat. As soon as the wind blows, the exposed skin was soaked with chill. He walked intermittently for a while, but finally couldn’t support it, then fell to the ground with a poor face complexion.

This time he failed to get up.

His body was covered in grime, his trouser legs were stained with blood, and he looked embarrassed.

Lu Xingzhe told Xi Nian before that when he was hit by a car, it didn’t hurt much, so he went to his employer and sold the photos he took at a high price before going to the hospital, but by then, he had already missed the best time for treatment.

“Just a bad luck, then I became lame. “Lu Xingzhe narrated this in a stride.

But obviously, he lied.

It’s not that he wasn’t in pain.

It was just that there was no one to save him.

Lu Xingzhe grew up in an orphanage since he was a child. He was a wild kid with no father or mother. He didn’t necessarily have many friends and Xi Nian didn’t know if it was because the profession of paparazzi was too galling but if a person like him was hit by a car, people would only feel pity for them but at the same time, think that they deserve it.

At least that’s what Xi Nian thought.

His gaze passed through the car window glass, and finally fixed on Lu Xingzhe’s left leg. There was a dry dark color on the paparazzi’s knee, which was a sign of blood clotting.

The time was approaching the early hours of the morning, and no more vehicles would pass by nearby.

Xi Nian moved slightly, just when the system thought he was just adjusting his sitting posture because of numbness again, the man pulled out a black mask from the compartment and put it on. Xi Nian then opened the car door and got out of the car, walking straight towards Lu Xingzhe.

The author has something to say: 

Xi Nian: I am good at scalding a head using boiling water.

Reformation System: Oh, oh! I am good at electric current attack.

Xi Nian: ……

Nǐ nǎozi ràng mén jiāle ━ Your brain get caught in the door. Derogatory. Used to scold others for having problems with their brains and not thinking about the issue thoughtfully. Simply put, it describes someone who manifests immaturity and narrow-mindedness. Its origin was from a folk proverb wherein they say that a person who does something unreasonable probably injured his brain, resulting in having problems with his IQ.

Gǔn dāo ròu ━ Hob meat is an inferior meat that cannot be cut, cooked, or chewed. Since it was hard to cut, it cannot easily be cut into convenient bites. As a slang, it refers to people who are difficult to get along with, someone who does not listen, and unreasonable.

Yǒuyì dì yī, bǐsài dì èr ━ Mao Zedong once visited a basketball match and became displeased seeing the fierce competition between the local guard unit and guard regiment soldiers in Hubai. The purpose of the match is not the ranking but rather to enhance friendship and deepen understanding. His words were later conveyed to the players which then became embedded in the hearts of the soldiers. This has then become the most well-known slogan for non-competitive sports activities.

Níniúrùhǎi ━ The metaphor means it was gone and would never come back. Origin: Jingde Chuan Lantern Records Volume 8. So, for the sentence, it just means that Xi Nian can’t feel any strength and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to return any time soon.

Tiān dǐxia méiyǒu bù tòufēng de qiáng ━ If one does not want others to know what they had done, they should not do it because there is no secret that can eternally be secured as a secret.

Zhǐ yě bāo bù zhù huǒ ━ The paper wrapper cannot cover fire as the fire would burn the paper, making it impossible to wrap it up. It simply means that facts cannot be concealed, it may as well mean that a situation is unstoppable. Origin: The Tenth Bullet Hole by Wei Xi.

Gè huáng liǎn pó lí ━ Generally used to describe the old faces of women as well as a woman who has a bad appearance. The origin of this term comes from the reason that the cosmetics used in Ancient China are toxic, the long-term use of it will cause a lady’s face to turn yellow.