CH 9

As soon as the announcer’s call of “ten points” came out, the entire audience became silent. It took two seconds for the audience to unfreeze and react, the first arrow of Xi Nian won the opening shot. The applause around him suddenly resounded like thunder, the happiest of them were the few fans of Xi Nian who were so exhilarated that their faces were flushed red with excitement.

He won and they were so proud. 

As if they were emboldened with strength to do so, their backs straightened up a little bit.

Lu Xingzhe pressed the camera shutter and observed the viewing area again. His line of sight revealed Su Ge still smiling when the camera panned to his figure, the latter even applauded with everyone else. He wondered who said that Su Ge’s acting skills were bad, look at him, isn’t he pretending to be in a good mood?

Although Chen Sihao didn’t expect to win from the beginning, he didn’t want to lose badly but then Xi Nian’s early result brought him a lot of pressure. Under the instructions of the referee, he aimed the arrow and released the string, only getting six points from the shot.

Whoosh!

There were boos sonorous from the stadium.

The referee signaled Xi Nian to prepare.

No one knew how hard it was for Xi Nian to shoot the arrow just now. When it was his turn to shoot the arrow again, this time it took five seconds for the timer to elapse before he was able to gather up his strength to lift the bow and pull the string. He squinted and started to aim at the target.

This time, his right hand was shaking more severely than the last time. The bowstring was only three quarters drawn, it was difficult to use even half of his strength.

Finally some people in the audience found something was amiss, they lowered their heads and began to broach the observation in whispers.

“Is Xi Nian not feeling well? I can see that even the back part of his clothes are all sweaty.”

“More than that, the blue veins stood out on his head just now when the camera was cut close-up.”

“I think so too, his hold on the bow has been shaking. He shouldn’t be hurt, right?”

When Su Ge’s fans heard this, they muttered amongst themselves: “If he can’t win, he can’t win. Why is he looking for an excuse? He probably saw Su Ge injured in a hot search, and decided he also wanted to make the viewers sympathize with him and show respect for his enthusiasm.”

Li Xixi was also standing in the crowd. She heard the sisters beside her talking in succession, and she budged in their discussion hesitantly, “What if Xi Nian is really injured? I think his scores are quite good already, so there is no need to find an excuse…”

Her companion pulled her: “Aiya, even if Xi Nian got injured, don’t forget the fact that he stepped on Su Ge. You should not speak for him.”

Due to the many marketing accounts that were blowing farts about Xi Nian in the previous game while at the same time, unpleasantly humiliating Su Ge’s performance, many fans of Su Ge were taken into a rhythm and mistakenly thought that Xi Nian wanted to be popular that he was the one who deliberately bought the water armies. This belief caused Xi Nian to be targeted with more hostility compared to before.

Lin Xixi also thought this at first but she inexplicably felt that Xi Nian did not seem to be that kind of person: “But……”

Interrupting her by prodding, her companion urged her: “Oh forget it, come on, let’s just watch the game.”

Xi Nian is a human being, not a god. No matter how much he could endure, he could not do anything that exceeded the limit of his body. The slight shaking of the arrow makes him unable to aim at the target, aware of the timer getting past 20 seconds, many people started to secretly get worried.

Snap!

A bean-sized bead of sweat rolled down from Xi Nian’s face and then quietly disappeared into the green lawn beneath his feet.

Xi Nian’s hold tightened and loosened several times but he never let go. Seeing this, System 009 finally couldn’t help it and fluttered his wings to fly in front of him. 【Ding~ Dear host, there will be many more competitions in the future, don’t worry about the gains and losses for this time.】

Twenty-three seconds.

Twenty-four seconds.

Xi Nian’s vision was blurred for a moment because of sweat. He did not answer the system, he just endured the pain, gritted his teeth and slowly drew the bowstring, his gaze carried ruthlessness that should not have been there at this age.

Whoosh!

The long-awaited arrow finally shot out, accompanied by a slight cracking sound.  Its sharp arrow was planted not far from the yellow inner circle on the target position, the distance error from the previous arrow was only just a few millimeters.

It was still ten points.

“Beautiful!” The people who watched this couldn’t help applauding.

The referee judged that Xi Nian was not in a very good shape so he came over to ask him in a low voice if he needed to see a doctor, only to have Xi Nian shake his head and refuse.

Lu Xingzhe tapped his fingers briskly on the camera thinking that the other was just trying to be tough. With the twittering of several star chasers beside him, he turned around and limped towards Area C which happened to be where the few fans of Xi Nian extemporaneously decided to be stationed.

Su Ge has been sitting quietly in the spectator area but his agent was frowning and worriedly lowered his voice: “If Xi Nian wins this game, it will be difficult for us to explain to the public.”

Adjusting his sitting position, Su Ge sniffed and sneered showing his disdain: “He may not be able to last until the end.”

The agent asked, “What do you mean?” 

The idol artists in the rising stage of their career must always go through the company’s approval no matter what they do, Su Ge burned Xi Nian that day purely on impulse, he regretted it afterwards and did not dare to tell it to his agent, so he could only vaguely shake his head: “Nothing.”

Chen Sihao was now in the state of breaking a jar1. He glanced at Xi Nian, then pulled his bow and shot arrows disheartened, only to hear a muffled whoosh, and he accidentally hit the middle of the ninth circle by luck.

The commentator announced: “Number 15, Chen Sihao, second arrow of the first category, nine points!” 

Seeing the opportunity, the commentator started to stimulate the audience’s emotion by gathering their focus on the scene: “It seems that the number 15 has regained his footing, I don’t know if he can catch up with Xi Nian in the later stage but we can expect that there will definitely be a wonderful contest between the two……”

The roof of the house seemed to be leaking and it happened to be raining all night2, this was how one can describe Xi Nian’s current state. When he tried to raise his arm to draw the bowstring again, his right hand was no longer obedient to his wishes. Half of his shoulders were in a state of numbness so he was not able to move for a long time.

A few fans looked worried when they saw this and stomped their feet anxiously: “What should we do, he must be feeling under the weather.”

There was all kinds of gossip around: “It seems that the number 9 is sure to lose.”

The referee was quite experienced in this matter, and he guessed the probable reason when he saw the appearance of Xi Nian. He stepped forward and said, “How about it? Can you still hold on? If you are unwell, you must speak out.”

The back of Xi Nian was covered in cold sweat, and when the wind blew rustling cold, he slowly calmed his breathing, but how can he say these three words: I will withdraw. Xi Nian nodded slightly to the referee: “I can continue. ”

When the timer started to count, the 009 system flapped its wings. Noticing Xi Nian’s pale face as the latter reloaded an arrow again, it circled around him in distress before it finally decided to fly towards Xi Nian’s hurt wrist.【Forget it, you’re number 9, and I’m also number 9. For sake of everyone, they’re also number 9, I’ll make an exception to help you once ba. 】

As it said this, its chubby body supported Xi Nian’s arm from below. The touch felt icy cold; after a burst of blue light flashed, the original pain miraculously dissipated.

Xi Nian’s pupils shrank and his heart was quite surprised, but because there was not much time left, he hurriedly pulled the string again and aimed the arrow at the target. He set his mind and tried to focus on the target position. 

With little time left, the arrows skimmed the outer ring one by one and settled on the yellow ten-ring position before Xi Nian’s fingertips loosened slightly and finally shot the arrow at the 28th second.

The crowd could only see a shadow of an arrow flashing before their eyes, with the momentum of a broken bamboo, and a muffled sound when it entered the target, the force was obviously much stronger than the previous two times.

The male commentator, who could be regarded as a passerby fan of Xi Nian, had been paying attention to his developments and when he sighted this, he took a closer look before almost striking the table due to his excitement: “Beautiful! Player Number 9 shot another ten points! Another ten points were shot!”

The system shook its body triumphantly when it heard the words, and its little wings flapped more cheerfully. 

Xi lowered his eyes and turned his right wrist, only to find that he felt no pain at all. He remained silent for a moment, then looked at the chubby blue ball beside him: “…… What did you do?” 

The system got carried away, and at this point, it shrugged off the standard polite language comparable to X Bao3 customer service, the tone carrying a tone of a tsundere:【Ding! The pain was eliminated, just this once! It won’t happen again.】

Xi Nian guessed in his heart that the system was helping, but he was so used to tit-for-tat with the other party that he was silent for a long time and didn’t say anything.

No one knows Xi Nian’s injury better than Su Ge, so he has been waiting for the time when the other party can’t hold it. However, as time goes by, Xi Nian not only did not miss the target as he expected, but became more and more stable——

Ten points!

Ten points!

After ten points were also multiple more ten points.

When Xi Nian’s last arrow hit the bullseye, Su Ge’s face lost color, and it was difficult to even tug the corners of his mouth to make a fake smile in front of the camera.

Sporting events are inherently easy to inspire people. When the commentator announced the success of Xi Nian’s promotion to the next round, the cheers from the audience overturned the stands several times, causing people’s ears to turn numb: “Good Job, Xi Nian! Fight on! Fight on!”

At this moment, he really responded to that sentence with his performance that he was really a dark horse who came through in the middle. Obviously, his performance in qualifying was mediocre, or even terrible, but he shone brilliantly in the later rounds of the game, which was really unexpected. 

“He is too powerful. I have never seen such a high ten-ring rate.”

“There are people online who say he is just a vase. It seems that rumors are really not credible.”

“But I heard that Xi Nian seems arrogant.”

“That’s strength, if I possess the same level as him, I would also be proud.”

Today’s sun was not harsh, but the air was slightly manic, mixed with the smell of lawn soil. Xi Nian turned his head and glanced at the audience area.

His fans were gathered in that place, there were a bunch of girls that could be seen applauding and happily hugging each other but among this group, a man appeared out of nowhere wearing a black t-shirt and black baseball cap while holding a camera in his hand, and a shoulder bag on his back.

These simple adjectives can be easily pieced together into three characters.

Lu Xingzhe.

Xi Nian retracted his gaze. He took the water bottle handed by the staff, unscrewed it and took a sip, then turned to walk towards the backstage.

In order to increase exposure, the players generally choose to sit in the spectator area waiting for the game and few people will go directly back to the lounge, but because of the long game, Xi Nian’s hand arm guard had been soaked with sweat, and the wound stuck together. He took out the medicine box and cotton swabs from the locker, found a place to sit down, and frowned as he took off the arm guard a little.

The scalded area was already bright red, as a result of the forceful tearing, tissue fluid and blood began to ooze out of the scab. He didn’t know if it was because of the system but there was no pain at all.

His way of treating the wound was quite simple and rough. He opened the medicine bag with his teeth, poured the medicine powder three or two times, and was about to find gauze to wrap up the wound, when the door of the lounge suddenly opened with a click.

Xi Nian looked up, but saw that it was Suge.

“Why are you so pathetically hiding here alone to secretly apply some medicine?” Su Ge stood at the door, peered at the back of Xi Nian’s hand, and then frowned in contempt, sneering: “Your hand is all injured like this but you still managed to hit the tenth ring in a row. Should I praise you for your strength, or praise you for being too tolerant?”

Su Ge only felt that Xi Nian was a timid loser and afraid of things that the latter didn’t dare say a word even after being burned by him last time. If he retained his memory of Xi Nian almost scalding his head with boiling water before time was rewinded, he wouldn’t have the guts to come to his door let alone try and provoke him. 

Xi Nian didn’t speak. He wrapped his hand with the gauze two or three times before he stood up and looked around for a weapon he could conveniently use for hitting people, so that he could beat the shit out of this son of a bitch.

The system sensed his thoughts and popped out like a cannonball: 【Dear host, you must calm down, violence cannot solve the problem.】

Xi Nian was not interested in solving the problem, he just wanted to deal with Su Ge, but as soon as the system made a sound, he remembered the last time he was immobilized in place, and as if he had been suddenly poured with cold water, his mind suddenly calmed down.

Seeing that Xi Nian did not make a sound, Su Ge kicked the chair that the bottom end rubbed the ground with an ear-piercing sound. He lowered his voice and dropped down a menacing threat, “Don’t think that you winning is great. Last time it was hot, next time I do not know what it’s going to be. Let’s see how long you can still hold out.”

When the system heard these words, it couldn’t resist flying to the back of Su Ge’s head. Its transparent body kicked him twice in the head: 【What a nuisance! Really so annoying!】

How can there be such an annoying human!

It really want to beat him!

It was rare for Xi Nian not to go against the system. He couldn’t stay in the lounge any longer; hence, he threw the medicine box into the locker and was about to leave. When passing by Su Ge, he put one hand in his pocket and said something with a smile that was not a smile: “When you had a facelift, you should have asked the doctor to fix your brain too.”

Xi rarely went against the system, and the lounge couldn’t stay any longer. He dumped the medicine box into the locker and was ready to leave. When he passed  by Su Ge, he inserted his hand on his pocket and said a word with a half smile: “When you had your face fixed, you should have asked the doctor to fix your brain as well.”

Su Ge was stunned for a second when he heard the words, and then he realized that Xi Nian was scolding him, and immediately became furious: “You—!”

Xi Nian ignored him and left straight away. Where he couldn’t see, a figure flashed across the corner of the corridor.

When Lu Xingzhe decided to follow backstage, he did not expect that his curiosity would enable him an opportunity to overhear such explosive news. Lu Xingzhe surveyed Xi Nian’s back until it disappeared in front of him, and then looked at the lounge door with a subtle expression, he stuffed the camera into his backpack, and then limped out of the backstage.

There are basically no vacancies in the front rows of the viewing area and Xi Nian doesn’t like to sit with people he doesn’t know well so he took three steps and made two steps directly4. He crossed the front row and sat at the back. At this time, the weather is gloomy and it looks like it’s going to rain. Just in case, other assistants were distributing raincoats to the artists they were handling, but Sun Ming ran so fast that one couldn’t even see his figure.

Xi Nian did not sleep well last night, he buckled his hat and sat down to take a nap; however, before he could fall asleep, someone behind him was calling his name: “Xi Nian, Xi Nian!”

“Here here! ”

Xi Nian raised the brim of his hat, sat up straight and turned his head back, only to see that several fans were waving to him through the guardrail, with pens and photos in their hands. One requested in a nervous whisper, “Xi Nian, we are all your fans. Can you sign your name?”

Xi Nian devoted all his energy to filming and competing in his previous life. Even his account has been taken care of by the agent so he really didn’t spend much time with his fans. He paused when he heard this, then got up from his position and walked to the separated guardrail.

When the fans saw that he was willing to come over, they got red in the face with excitement, and handed their pens forward. Xi Nian took the photos and signed their names one by one.

There was a female fan who didn’t bring a photo and sweated on her head in a hurry. Finally, she realized that she was wearing white clothes, her eyes lit up, and she pointed to the clothes and said, “Xi Nian, can you sign it on the clothes?”

She was wearing a short navel-less dress and had a sexy figure, so it would be more or less awkward. Xi Nian had nowhere to put his pen, and finally instructed her to turn sideways, and then signed his name on the edge of the left cuff.

This time he signed his name in a flowery manner, which doesn’t look like a signature, but rather a decoration, which complemented the white dress.

The female fan noticed his gentleman’s behavior, and then she realized something. She secretly stuck out her tongue, took out a bag from the backpack at her feet, and handed it to him with some embarrassment. “We just heard from Yu Fan’s agent that the artists had to record a promo in the afternoon, and it might take a long time. Here are some snacks and drinks, which you can eat when you are bored.”

For the sake of the safety of artists, these things are generally collected by the agents. Xi Nian paused, reached out and took the snack bag. For the first time, he talked to fans at a distance in this situation: “Thank you……”

The happiness of the fan bubbled: “Don’t mention it! You must take care of yourself, we will always support you!”

Xi Nian nodded, then turned around and returned to his seat. In addition to snacks, he also had an extra cup of pearl milk tea temporarily fed in his hand. He didn’t want to waste it, so he just inserted a straw to drink it.

Lu Xingzhe’s leg was injured and he came back to the audience late. However, before he could speak, a few fans on the side beat their chests and asked him, “What did you do just now?”

Lu Xingzhe raised his eyebrows: “I went to the toilet, what’s wrong?”

The fan had a ‘you missed a hundred million’5 written on her face: “Xi Nian came by just now and signed for each of us. It’s a pity that you’re not here!”

Lu Xingzhe subconsciously looked at the spectator’s area when he heard this, only to find that Xi Nian had sat over just a few meters away from them at some point. He stroked his chin with unknown meaning: “Well, that’s really a pity.”

There were still several games in the afternoon, but in the middle of the game, some cold raindrops suddenly fell from the sky. Someone touched her head and exclaimed: “Aiya! It’s raining!”

“It’s really raining!”

“What the hell? The weather forecast told me that it’s going to be sunny today, so I didn’t even bring an umbrella.”

“The staff said it was light rain, and it might stop in ten minutes. ”

The stadium has a semi-open-air form and the rain falls diagonally so it directly goes towards the direction of the audience. The artists have already been given a raincoat by the assistants in advance, plus their spectator’s area has a roof, hence, the problem was not big. Xi Nian was sitting on the edge and the rain drifted in and fell on his body, but he was indifferent and continued to close his eyes.

Lu Xingzhe has been standing all morning, his legs are stiff; half of his body was already leaning against the guardrail, so as to reduce the pressure on the legs. At some point, he realized that Xi Nian didn’t have an assistant who sent him a raincoat. He looked behind for a long time, then pulled out a disposable raincoat from his backpack, leaned over and threw it to him.

There was a soft clatter, and something fell into the man’s arms.

Xi Nian frowned and opened his eyes. He looked down, but saw that it was a plastic raincoat. He turned his head subconsciously and saw someone leaning over the guardrail to look at him, the other’s eyebrows were raised proudly, and was smiling like a fox.

Lu Xingzhe?

Xi Nian’s eyelids jumped, anyway, in his thinking, Lu Xingzhe probably didn’t know him now, his brain was spinning a few times, he couldn’t figure out what the other party meant, so he just gave up.

Xi Nian avoided the camera and got up, walked under the guardrail to hand back the raincoat to him. Because he didn’t want to be recognized, he deliberately lowered his voice: “Your raincoat fell off.”

Lu Xingzhe did not take it, thanks to the high terrain of the bleachers, he could look at Xi Nian from above, with a smile hidden in the corner of his eyes, he corrected: “It did not fall, it’s for you.”

The slanting raindrops fell from the sky and were blown along by the wind, half of Lu Xingzhe’s shoulders were wet— against the background of the chaos and noise around him, his voice was a little unclear.

Xi Nian didn’t think Lu Xingzhe would be so kind: “We don’t seem to know each other. ”

Until now, he didn’t intend to reveal his identity, after all, it was troublesome to be stuck with a dog skin plaster.

Lu Xingzhe silently looked at Xi Nian’s eyebrows, becoming more and more sure that he was the one who saved him that day. His fingertips tapped regularly on the guardrail, and he said half-truth and half-falsehood: “I’m your fan, so just take it.”

Xi Nian didn’t believe it. He only felt that Lu Xingzhe was up to no good. Maybe this scribbling paparazzi regarded himself as the subject of his next article issue. He glanced at the raincoat in his hand and accepted it anyway: “Thank you.”

When Lu Xingzhe heard the words, the smile in his eyes became more and more prosperous. His lips were naturally red and when they were slightly raised, they were more confusing than girls: “You’re welcome, just sign for me next time.” 

Xi Nian pretended not to hear and sat back down.

The staff has been reassuring the audience that it will stop raining in a while, and the fans are reluctant to leave to watch the bean competition, and they are looking for ways to buy rain gear from scalpers, and the mobile vendors outside have directly mentioned the disposable raincoats at sixty dollars a piece.

It didn’t take long for the rain to get heavier, and the temperature dropped. The staff kept comforting the audience, saying that it would stop raining soon and in addition, fans were seldom able to watch the artists’ game, so they were reluctant to leave. They tried to find scalpers to buy rain gear. Outside vendors directly marketed that disposable raincoats costs 60 yuan a piece.

“How black-hearted! This broken plastic raincoat that costs more than five yuan is too much!”

“Let’s buy it quickly. It’s all going to be sold out in a while. I especially came from out of town to watch the game, it’s not worthwhile to catch a cold.”

In order to take shelter from the rain, some people are hiding under the ceiling. Lu Xingzhe was too lazy to buy an umbrella with a sore leg. Besides, he has a hat, so he just leaned against the guardrail and doesn’t move away from his nest.

Xi Nian looked back and saw that the girls who gave him snacks did not have umbrellas, and the round-faced pretty girl could not even care about her image, and just directly put a plastic bag over her head, so the people who saw it could not help but stifle their laughter.

Xi Nian withdrew his gaze, one can only wonder what he remembered as he got up and left the viewing area. When he came back, he was carrying a bag in his hand. The fans saw him jumped up to the stand in three steps and two steps, and then handed over the things.

Fans were excited and happy when they saw him: “Xi Nian, why are you here? It’s raining heavily here, hurry up and sit back… What is this?”

Xi Nian opened the plastic bag, and inside were a few raincoats and umbrellas that he asked from the staffs: “Divide them, don’t get wet.”

The fan was stunned for a few seconds before she realized what he was saying. She was flattered and asked, “Is it for us?”

Xi Nian does not have a Lei Feng6-style character. He was still feeling a little weirded out in his heart when he did this kind of thing for the first time. Facing the delighted gaze of the fans, he nodded slightly imperceptibly.

“Really? Great!”

“Xi Nian, you are so kind! ”

The girls were so happy that they could die in that place right then. Facing the envious gaze of other fans, the giddiness in their hearts was bubbling. Where can they find such a good idol these days? Fans of Su Ge had been standing there in the rain for a long time, and they haven’t even seen Su Ge come over and exchange a sentence or two.

Lu Xingzhe was taking pictures of the stadium just now. When he heard the noise, he turned his head and looked back, but saw Xi Nian giving raincoats to fans. He habitually pinched his earlobes.

Tsk, he didn’t expect it, this big iceberg was quite human.

Lu Xingzhe was wearing short-sleeved sleeves today, and his exposed arms were freezing cold. Seeing that the camera was blurred by the rain, he sighed casually, lowered his head and wiped the camera with the hem of his clothes, but before he could lift it up, he was covered with a blue and white coat with body temperature on his shoulders.

Lu Xingzhe stood still, and at the same time a familiar male voice sounded above his head: “The number of the raincoats is not enough, use my coat first to block it.”

When Xi Nian took off his coat, he was left with only a short sleeve left on his body. After speaking, he turned and left and returned to the viewing area.

Lu Xingzhe, however, wore the coat with the remaining warm temperature. He blinked slowly, and there was a momentary confusion on his face.

Xiànzài chǔyú yī zhǒng pò guànzi pò shuāi de zhuàngtài —  Feeling helpless after failing so many times to the point that he thinks he’s incompetent.

Wū lòu piān féng liányè yǔ — The situation is already unfortunate but it just so happened that there was a bigger blow to the fire. An analogy for this is that you stepped on a banana peel and slipped then also landed on a poop. Xi Nian was already injured and having a hard time to compete but then Chen Sihao was able to get a point near his performance? Origin: Feng Menglong’s “Awakening to the World”

X bǎo — Tao Bao, a famous Chinese Online Store.

Zhíjiē sān bù bìng zuò liǎng bù— Used to describe what it looks like to walk forward at a fast pace.

Nǐ cuò yì— This is an exaggerated/humorous expression of regret about what was missed. Originally a 2016 Internet buzzword pertaining to someone who missed a red packet in the group chat.

Léifēng — Lei Feng was someone who served the people wholeheartedly and selflessly dedicate himself for the cause of the people. Lei Feng spirit was named after him. The mentioned Lei Fei style character is someone who embodies his virtues.