CH 8

The entrance of the gymnasium opens at eight o’clock every day. The following morning, it can be witnessed the outside being crowded with people in a long queue. Xi Nian parked his car on the side of the road then he took off his sunglasses to take a glance at the huge amount of people. As he went towards the contestants’ passage, he noted that most of them were Su Ge’s fans.  

The tickets for the second round of the elimination were almost sold out by them from the beginning of the pre-sale. If it weren’t for the organizers to distribute some internal tickets privately, it was estimated that other fans would not be able to squeeze in.

The eliminated players have the right to watch the game. Although Su Ge has been out of the game, he can still sit in the viewing area reserved by the organizers for artists and continue to watch the game. After all, ocassionally rubbing a shot was also a steady profit with no loss. In other words, Xi Nian will see him again today.

The morning sky was leaden gray, and the clouds were gathering overhead, as if any time now, it was going to rain. In order to meet their idols, some fans deliberately waited in the special passages. Here, a girl with a double ponytail was accidentally pushed to the back by the crowd. Uniformed security guards were busy maintaining order that it was inevitable for there to be pulling and shoving. The girl pushed by someone was not prepared for the inertia of that force that she screamed and fell back, when she was about to plunge towards the road, a strong pull grabbed her arm to pull her back.

“Ah!” 

Li Xixi hasn’t recovered from the shock immediately. When she realized that she was being held by someone, she hurriedly took advantage of the strength of the other person to fix her balance. Before she could see the appearance of the bearer, she hastily apologized: “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t stand firm just now, thank you……”

Before she finished speaking, her voice stopped abruptly when she saw the man wearing sunglasses in front of her. 

As a qualified star-chasing girl, she not only needs to know everything about her idol like the back of her hand, but also look at the four ways and listen to the eight directions1. As the main force of Su Ge’s fan support group, Li Xixi takes this expertise to the extreme. Even when Xi Nian wore sunglasses, she recognized him with her amazing recognition ability at a glance.

It was very normal, after all, she just tore him yesterday.   

Li Xi Xi can’t wait to explode on the spot, damn, this is so embarrassing!

Xi Nian didn’t like Su Ge nor his fans. He looked at his wrist, which was tightly gripped by the girl, frowned slightly, and said with a low voice: “Release me.”

“Ah? Oh oh oh.” 

Li Xixi who heard his words, bowed her head, only to find that she was still holding Xi Nian’s arm. She reacted quickly, retracting her hands as if hit by an electric shock. Her whole person was so embarrassed beyond compare, her face was red with shame, completely in a state of shock but before she could think of what to say, the man had already turned around and walked straight towards the contestants’ passage on the side. His back quickly disappeared behind the revolving door, with his figuring giving off indifference, he seemed somewhat inhuman.

Li Xixi was stunned for a moment, and unconsciously sniffed but smelt a faint medicinal smell in the air.

Not far away, her companion was waving at her from a distance through the crowd: “Xi Xi! Hurry up and come over, it’s time to check the tickets!”

“What? Ah! I’ll be right there!”

When Li Xixi heard the words, she hurriedly responded, bent over and picked up the blue paper bag that had accidentally fallen to the ground just now, patted the dust on it distressed, and then trotted back to squeeze back into the line.

Her companion gave her a look: “What did you do just now? I had been looking for you for quite some time.”

Li Xi vaguely said, “I was pushed out just now, almost fell like a dog eating shit2. Fortunately, the gift box for Su Ge was not broken.”

The companion nudged her with a smile: “This time our seats are in the front row, so we might be able to give him the gift ourselves.”

“Hehe, I hope so too.”

……

Although it was still early, some people had already arrived in the backstage lounge. Several third- and fourth-tier artists were sitting scattered in their respective positions, waiting for the makeup artist to help them style. When Xi Nian entered carrying his bag on his back, they all subconsciously looked over. All kinds of meaningful glances were exchanged with each other, making people feel like the man had a target on his back.

Xi Nian turned a blind eye to this. He casually pulled a chair and sat down. The way he held his arms in his hands didn’t look like it was a good thing. Besides, not all male artists were as talkative and fussy as Su Ge, so the atmosphere was relatively peaceful.

The makeup artist, Sister Jian, saw him and came over with her makeup box: “You are in the morning session, let’s do your makeup first.”

Sister Jian was a make-up artist hired by the company, so Xi Nian and her can be considered acquaintances. Usually, they can talk to each other occasionally but they are not that familiar. Hearing her say that, he paused the action of swiping the video on the mobile screen, and said: “Thank you.”

Sister Jian smiled and sighed, “Why are you being so polite? I just went out training for a few days and when I came back, you learned to be set up by others, you little kid.”

Her eldest son was about to start a family while Xi Nian was only in his early twenties, so to her, he was just a kid. 

Sister Jian added, “Play well in today’s competition and let them say whatever they want outside. The old-timers who are popular in the entertainment industry now, who haven’t been torn apart when they were young? Didn’t they all get through it step by step?”

Xi Nian was looking at the list of competitions, and only when he heard her advice did he respond vaguely. The player he was going to play against this time was Chen Sihao, who was in 16th place. The opponent took the typical creamy little student route3, with thin arms and legs, and a weak body. The risk factor is completely negligible.

Artists are not professional players in the first place, their overall level cannot be said to be high. The hosting of the star games are held more to win the attention of the audience. Whether it is archery or swimming, they are actually like just children playing at home. That’s why it is false to say that the difficulty is high. 

But this time many people were waiting to see Xi Nian as a joke, expecting him to lose. 

At ten o’clock in the morning, when the game was about to start, Sun Ming yawned and arrived late. Seeing that Xi Nian’s face didn’t look friendly, he adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose and reminded him, “Today, the organizer is going to record a promotional video for you, and no one can be absent which means that you are not allowed to slip ahead of time after the game. The contract says in black and white that you must cooperate with the work given to you. If something goes wrong, you can solve it yourself.”

He was vague and didn’t say what time they were going to start recording, it was clear that he was secretly plotting against him, keeping mum about the discovery. Xi Nian always took Sun Ming’s words as farts4 so he just ignored the former’s small speech, picked up his jacket from the bench and put it on before making his way straight to the center of the field. 

The host of the East Zone was warming up the stage, his lush voice reached everyone’s ears through the microphone, and the camera panned over all the sponsors and coaches in turn, before finally landing on the contestants. 

“… The last competition was extremely exciting, and I believe this one will be even better. Here, I wish all the players good results. Let’s wait and see, let the games officially begin!” 

Chen Sihao was about 5’6 feet5 tall, he was a bit inferior to Xi Nian in terms of height, and not to mention the other’s imposing aura, he had learned his lesson about Xi Nian giving Su Ge a cold shoulder in the previous match so he didn’t approach him and just faced him with a polite and distant smile. 

Xi Nian removed the gauze on his hand when he was in the backstage and replaced it with a pair of black half-finger gloves, covering the injury tightly. From the system’s point of view, he was quite a paradoxical person━ ambitious but self-respecting; while he pulls off all kinds of machinations in order to climb up the ladder, he doesn’t like others to pity him. 

The front row of the stadium was the player viewing area, each station sister are carrying a camera prepared, in order to seize the powerful terrain to squeeze forward, Lu Xingzhe just sneaked out of the hospital today, the leg is still wrapped in gauze, he found a relationship to get a staff card, directly occupy the best view of the middle position.

The position in the front row was the player viewing area, and all the standing station sisters6 came with their cameras on their backs. In order to squeeze forward and seize the dominant terrain, Lu Xingzhe sneaked out of the hospital today, with gauze still wrapped around his legs. He used his connections to get a staff card and directly occupied the middle position with undoubtedly having the best view in the stadium.

Most of the star-chasers are usually females so when the man suddenly comes in, it looks a bit strange. 

A girl next to him saw the professional camera in Lu Xingzhe’s hand and saw that he had injuries on his leg, so she couldn’t help but ask in a whisper, “Are you also here to chase the stars?”

Lu Xingzhe was originally looking for an angle to shoot Xi Nian, heard the words and raised his head to glance at the girl who spoke, then retracted his eyes and gave a perfunctory mmm. 

The girl said with emotion: “You are injured yet still chasing stars. This is too inspirational, that’s right, it is really so joyful when you are with the idol you love.”

Lu Xingzhe: “……”

It’s fine if she didn’t say it but as soon as she mentioned it, Lu Xingzhe also reacted. That’s right, he was still injured, why does he have to run all the way here just to see Xi Nian? It was puzzling.

With this thought, he unconsciously put down his camera and prepared to sit back in his place. 

The host on the field is explaining: “… The number 9 player, Xi Nian. is like a dark horse fighting its way out. He successfully won the qualifying position in the last issue. I wonder if he can continue to maintain his level in the competition……”

Lu Xingzhe heard the girl next to her whispering with her companion. 

“Che, what level would he maintain? Isn’t it that he beat Su Ge once with dumb luck? What’s the big deal?” 

“He hasn’t won the championship yet his tail is about to go up in the sky7. Let’s see how he can fish in troubled waters8 this time.”

Afterwards, she suddenly noticed that Lu Xingzhe seemed to be leaving. Her eyes lit up and rushed forward to ask: “You won’t film anymore? Can the spot be given to me?”

Hearing this, Lu Xingzhe gave her a look, then unexpectedly turned around and walked back to the middle position. He raised his camera and pointed it at the center of the field. He refused without looking back, “No.”

“……”

Xi Nian and Chen Sihao were ready, and under the instructions of the referee, they walked to their respective target positions. They still shot a total of twelve arrows each, divided into four rounds.

Su Ge was sitting in the viewing area, it was not known whether it was intentional or not but the camera deliberately cut over to give him a close-up, when that handsome face with a smile appeared on the big screen, the surrounding screams came one after another, and the sound wave almost seemed able to overturn the top of the viewing stands.

“Su Ge! Su Ge! You will always be the best!”

“We will always support you!!!”

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

The fans only felt that Suge had been wronged by losing the game due to an accidental injury, so they deliberately raised their voice and desperately shook the support banners in their hands to support him. The shouts continued one after another, and it took a long time to stop.

Chen Sihao, was just a small unknown third or fourth-tier player, so he was counting on this game to finally earn a few shots. When he saw this, his smile turned stiff and in his heart he muttered, “Fuck, Su Ge has already been eliminated but he’s still here steal the limelight? He’s so disgusting.”

Xi Nian’s hands were no longer suitable for strenuous exercise. He had damaged his ligaments, in addition, he was also burned by Su Ge, that insidious villain bastard. Just now, he only moved his wrist tentatively, but the sharp stabbing pain came at once, like a needle. 

His expression was faint, but he frowned unconsciously. 

It was not known when a handful of people gathered in the stands, not many, only a dozen. They didn’t have uniform clothing for support, the lights in their hands were colorful, yet even so, they tried their best to shout for him across a long distance.

“Go Xi Nian! Go Xi Nian! We’re all rooting for you!!!”

“You will definitely win this time!!!”

“We will always support you, come on!!!” 

Compared to Su Ge’s huge fan base, their presence was so weak that even their voices had to be carefully distinguished before they could be heard, and Xi Nian, seemingly aware of this, glanced back. 

In the midst of the noise, his gaze passed through the layers of obstruction and finally landed on them accurately.

The fans were even happier when they saw this, and put their hands to their mouths and cheered loudly, “Xi Nian! Come on!Whether you lose or win, you are the best!!!”

Fans of Xi Nian were few and weak, and looked really shabby. The fans of Meng Shalin and Yu Fan were right next door, and they sighed with pity at the situation. Su Ge’s fans were famous for being like mad dogs for tearing apart other entertainment industry’s top  families. 

Meng Qianlin and Yu Fan are both popular idols with huge fan bases. Even if they are torn up, they will still have the power to fight but in this case, Xi Nian was still little transparent, he and his fans might not be strong enough to persist. If today he lose and gets eliminated, it would not be a distant future to be bashed out of the circle.

The game had already begun. The moment the second counter started timing, Xi Nian drawed his bow neatly to take the arrow, and then pulled the bowstring. However, just as he exerted his strength, a sharp pain in his wrist hit, causing the arrow tip to shift slightly and imperceptibly by a few millimeters. 

Xi Nian’s hand trembled uncontrollably, but he forced it down again. It just happened that the big screen was aimed at him and sharp-eyed people had discovered this detail, whispering in succession.

“Why is Xi Nian’s hand shaking? Did I discern it wrong?”

“You’re not wrong, it did tremble just now, his bowstring wasn’t even fully drawn.”

“Was he too nervous? Or was he scared?”

Others don’t know the reason, but Lu Xingzhe knew and this made him stare at the man in the center of the venue with a complicated expression, his gaze moved down, and finally fell on the other’s hand covered with a black gloves. 

The few fans of Xi Nian who saw the situation looked worried and a little anxious, wanting to cheer for him, but afraid of disturbing him, Meng Qianlin’s fans sighed and whispered: “Alas, Xi Nian has the probability of 80% being eliminated.”

“It’s pitiful, the fans of the Su Ge’s family will probably take advantage and use the topic to tear him apart again.”

“Who wouldn’t?”

“……”

Ignoring the buzz around him, Xi Nian caught his breath and closed his eyes. He held his right hand for a short time for two seconds, then raised his hand to pull the bowstring, realigned it with the target, and was more concentrated than before. Because of this action, even the breath of everyone was held.——

Whoosh! 

The white tail feathers were still trembling slightly, but before everyone could fix their eyes on the ring count, the announcement sounded first. 

“Number 9, Xi Nian, the first arrow of the first category, ten points.”

The author has something to say.

Xi Nian: handicapped.

Lu Xingzhe: crippled leg.

#The physically disabled but the mentally strong duo#

Yǎn guān sì lù ěr tīng bāfāng ━ Describes people as intelligently resourceful, flexible, good at being able to observe and analyze multiple things simultaneously. The eye can observe the four directions up and down, left and right at the same time; the ears can manage to hear all aspects of sound at the same time. Origin: Qing Wenkang’s Biography of the New Children’s Heroes.

Chàdiǎn shuāi gè gǒuchīshǐ ━ An exaggerated humorous way of describing a miserable fall in ordinary circumstances(Imagine a body falling forward with face to the ground with lots of dusts on it. This image was like a dog lying on the ground eating shit). According to the context of which it was used in a conversation, it could either mean intimate or malicious mocking.

De/Nǎiyóu xiǎoshēng lùxiàn ━ Buttermilk/Creamy Route, pretty face much like a vase artist. Relying on the appearance of a pretty boy(slender and effeminate young handsome man) to gain traffic.

Pì fàngle — or simply “fart”. It is used to scold a person or dismiss what they do or are saying. It may also mean they despise or don’t respect the person they were directing it to. In this case, Xi Nian was both dismissing him and not respecting him, taking his words as a grain of salt.

About 1.68 meters tall in the raws.

Zhàn jiě — female fansite admin; woman who follows her idol around to take HD photos for her other fellow fans.

wěibā dōu yào qiào shàngtiānle — Proud, arrogant and self-righteous. Origin: Chang Ping et. al.’s Three Invitations to Skin Tiger.

kàn tā zhè cì zěnme húnshuǐmōyú — Fishing in muddy waters was an allusion wherein one takes advantage of the chaos within a situation or person to gain benefits. The original refers to a parable that made the water in the pool muddy so that the fishes would be muddled in the murky water, enabling the person to take the opportunity to catch the fish without using much effort.