Editor: Elanor
Sitting on a chair with screens floating around him, and empty wine bottles at his feet, Jakowski felt that he was a new age sweatshop worker.
The celebration banquet was in full swing, and the office building was almost empty, and he sat there alone, taking out another bottle of wine.
He was in a location where he could see the brightly lit banquet area. The planners liked to meet their stars, as if they were going to meet their creations, to please them and to be pleased in return, but Jakowski never did that.
Well, one shouldn’t say never, but people always learned from past mistakes.
It was okay at the beginning, when everything was like a game, when everything was “cool”… but then it turned into a nightmare.
When that person had died, he had been dead drunk for probably a month. He didn’t know what he was doing, and had almost got fired by the TV station—not the kind that would let you go home and live a normal life.
Jakowski had struggled to pull himself together, and this kind of retrieval had made him despise himself even more. Since then he had avoided meeting with any managed players as much as possible. During the inevitable run-ins that happened because of working in the same company, he would just pretend to be someone else.
One time a star had recognized him, and he had insisted that he was a janitor and started cleaning up before sending him away.
He didn’t know if the other guy thought he had mistaken him for someone else, or if he thought he was mentally ill. In any case, he didn’t care.
He couldn’t talk to them, pretending that he was like them. He would rather pretend that all these people didn’t exist, weren’t alive, had no relatives and friends, had no love and hatred, and wouldn’t have any dealings with him.
In this business, there would be countless faces coming and going in front of you, but if you knew them, then some of them would end up lurking in your nightmare forever and never leave again.
He didn’t need to increase the number any further.
Jakowski recalled the two young men—they were safe only in his memory.
When Xia Tian had run into that rat, Xia Tian’s grand finale had already been set up.
Jakowski didn’t like it at all. He felt that it was overrated. He felt that it was like a third-rate horror movie. He especially hated the guy who had submitted the plot arrangement. The man was called Qi Xiashang, who was drawn from the “Abnormal Lab”. When the team competition started, all resources would be concentrated in the competition.
As a result, the guy actually called Qiao Ge directly. This new chief planner couldn’t wait for the arena to be full of explosions so the proposal got passed immediately.
From a certain point of view, it was indeed fitting. A dark fable, a story about how you couldn’t escape from the world you belonged in; it made people feel creepy even if they were in a warm room.
But… as he watched the final attack on the screen, he noticed Bai Jingan’s anger when Xia Tian distanced himself from Bai Jingan after realizing it was him the creature was after.
He had never thought Bai Jingan would lose control. The medical information stated that he had irreversible brain damage. He only found this out after Bai Jingan became popular—the last hit had garnered him a lot of fans.
Bai Jingan didn’t seem to have this problem. He was calmer and colder than most normal people, and he knew what he was facing.
But even if you did your best, you couldn’t avoid the meltdown.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Jakowski took close-ups of all these tender moments and slowed down the video. In these frames, the dark theme disappeared, and a warm light burned on this young man who had a tragic fate.
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When he arrived in the lobby, apart from the other Killing Show stars who were gathered there for medical checkups or to receive treatment, there were also reporters lying in wait here and there surrounded by billboards for interviews. Some people, like him, were there to pick up their teammates.
Their image planner didn’t come, saying that she would arrive later. After three days of testing, she was very confident in his ability to give interviews.
Bai Jingan was interviewed twice in the lobby—it was the contract minimum—and all the questions were related to Xia Tian. These people knew every word he had said to him, every smile, every little gesture, and then took pains to ask what they represented.
He was surprised that in such a short period of time, these people had learned so much about his once unknown teammate, most of which even he didn’t know.
Xia Tian’s fans thought he was a hero who wanted to protect his beloved, but was lost in the dark. Huitian bluntly informed Bai Jingan that Xia Tian had just shown the most wretched and desperate moment in front of the camera and such moments held power.
Xia Tian was very strong, but he was fragile and vulnerable in such a world. But he returned to the world once again for the sake of the people he wanted to protect.
The TV station was very clear about the direction of his shaping and growth. Now the planning team was looking around for relevant material that they could use that would work, and if not, they could still make it up.
“Xia Tian who was lost in the dark and had died once” was about to wake up, so related websites and TV stations had made a special feature. It was almost like a celebration.
The hero left the battlefield alive and returned to the world of living where countless billboards were lit up, and planners, reporters, or technicians from the Upper City were fighting day and night to shape the hero’s image.
Bai Jingan intellectually knew that this was all a part of a huge star-making machine, but when he saw the actual details, he was still amazed by the powerful force it exerted on human emotions. This kind of fame, no matter how much preparation had been done before, still caught people off guard when it happened. It was so powerful that it was absurd.
He tried to think about what would happen when Xia Tian left the treatment cabin and stepped into the world. The man had always fantasized about achieving fame, and now that he had gotten it, Bai Jingan didn’t know how he would react.
When Bai Jingan walked into the room, Xia Tian had already come out of the medical cabin. He had just taken a shower, and put on clothes worn by patients.
He was wrapped in a thick blanket with the medical center’s logo on it. It was quite warm there, but he had still wrapped himself tightly.
He had a full mug of hot chocolate in front of him, and a box of marshmallows in his hand, half of which had been eaten. It took him a while to notice Bai Jingan, and his reaction was slower than usual.
He looked up at him with a slightly bewildered expression. His hair was tied up casually, looking rather sloppy.
“Xia Tian?” Bai Jingan called.
The man didn’t respond for a while. The doctor beside him smiled like a spring breeze, and told Bai Jingan that Xia Tian might have some problems in reactions and emotions. This was normal. When he had arrived at the treatment cabin, his breathing and heartbeat had stopped. It was inevitable that there would be problems after a person had died once. All kinds of problems.
Bai Jingan approached Xia Tian and noticed that he was shaking a little.
“Xia Tian?” He called again.
Xia Tian looked at him for a while and finally said: “Bai Jingan?”
“Yes,” Bai Jingan said, “How many things do you remember?”
That familiar face looked at him for two more seconds before revealing a smile that, for all its brilliance, didn’t look at all like someone who had died once.
“I remember everything,” Xia Tian said, “I remember a little bit about dying too. It was too fucking cold.”
Bai Jingan also smiled at him. Xia Tian put down the marshmallows and the blanket. Inside the medical center, the white hospital gown he wore was like some kind of cool fashion.
Bai Jingan wanted to say something more, but the other man stepped forward and gave him a big hug.
His thought at that moment was: Don’t hug me, there are cameras all around. Even the medical staff had a relieved expression as they watched the family drama reunion… But the hug still comforted him. The teammate’s hug was very strong, and the body was warm. It was a hug after escaping from death, a hug of a living person.
So he lifted his hand and patted Xia Tian’s back.
The other man parted from the hug, took him by the shoulders in high spirits and said, “I knew that we’ll be fine for sure!”
“You’re the one who doesn’t know,” Bai Jingan said.
Xia Tian’s movements stopped for a while and he looked around strangely. There were a bunch of people in the room who were smiling and staring at them but they didn’t dare to lean over.
Bai Jingan patted him on the shoulder and said, “You’re already a big star, now go and change your clothes.”
When Xia Tian went to change clothes, Bai Jingan followed him in and casually closed the door.
Xia Tian nonchalantly took off his hospital gown. Bai Jingan knew that the media would make a fuss because he had come straight in like this, but he was in a hurry, and this was the only place he had a chance to talk alone with Xia Tian.
He picked up the clothes prepared by the sponsor next to him, handed it to Xia Tian, and said, “Listen, you’re a star now.”
“You already said that,” Xia Tian said as he put on trousers.
“There’ll be an image planner coming over later, sent by the company to manage us and deal with the trouble.”
“Beautiful?”
“You just woke up, don’t think about it,” Bai Jingan said, “Also, they know about your sister.”
Xia Tian’s movements stopped for a moment, and Bai Jingan continued, “They filmed the segment after the funeral.”
Xia Tian’s expression went cold. When a murderous Killing Show star made this expression, the temperature in the room went down by two degrees.
Bai Jingan said: “You’ll face questions regarding your sister when you go out. Be calm when answering. Since there’s wiretapping, you can’t call her from the medical center. We’ll plan how to pick her up when we go back. It is impossible to keep it a secret. There’ll be a bunch of reporters following. You’ve to…”
The door was opened, and a woman with exaggerated hair stood there and said coldly: “Are you guys doing it in there or what?”
“This is our image planner,” Bai Jingan said, “She’ll give you some guidance in answering reporters’ questions.”
The other party introduced herself, and Xia Tian smiled at her. Bai Jingan was a little surprised at how quickly his face changed. The coldness and anger instantly disappeared, turning to a smile that was warm and cheerful, pure and friendly.
“I just said, it must be a beautiful lady,” he said as he shaked her hands.
Then he picked up the shirt next to him and put it on. He looked very handsome. Bai Jingan smiled faintly at Huitian—that was what they called her for now—and closed the door again.
After only the two of them were left in the fitting room again, Xia Tian said: “What else?”
“They haven’t finished your house yet, so you have to stay at my place for a while,” Bai Jingan said.
“Wasn’t it advertised that as long as you survived the third round, you can choose any house in Jiguang District?”
“Yes, but they’re just pretending that it’s unavailable, so that you can live with me,” Bai Jingan said, “saying that you aren’t well enough to go back to an empty house after such an incident. Me picking you up ‘back home’ will be a warm topic.”
Xia Tian gave him a weird look, and in the end didn’t think of anything to say, so he said: “What about the apartment I rented at Starry Sky Apartments?”
“Returned.”
“What about the penalty for the breach of contract?!”
“They paid.”
“They still have a bit of conscience.”
“They’ll ask you about my past…” Bai Jingan said, hesitating for a moment, “You can just say that you don’t know. Of course, you really don’t know, but I just wanted to tell you.”
“What’s the matter?” Xia Tian asked.
“Look it up on the internet when you get home, it’s everywhere,” Bai Jingan said mockingly. He looked at the time, “And don’t touch me after going out.”
Xia Tian looked at him oddly and he explained, “We’ve been too topical lately. I don’t like being in the limelight so much.”
“I like topicality. Whatever you’re talking about not liking it, I think it’ll be good,” Xia Tian said while touching his hair, and Bai Jingan swatted his hand away. How could he forget how annoying this guy was.
“Okay, I won’t touch you.” Xia Tian chuckled. “So now that I have to live in your house, you still won’t let me touch you?”
“It’s not funny,” Bai Jingan said as he handed him the suit jacket.
Xia Tian neatly put on the new formal suit from one of the Upper City’s top luxury brands which perfectly complimented his slender frame. He had a typical fighter’s figure, and the expensive suit jacket couldn’t hide the danger and explosive power in his demeanor, but he added a deadly charm to it, perfectly meeting the expectations of his sponsors.
Xia Tian didn’t notice it at all, just like how he didn’t notice his own nakedness when he was in the arena. He didn’t button up so the fancy suit gave him a gangly look of a dangerous person. He turned his head and said to Bai Jingan, “When I get to your house, can I touch the house as much as I want?”
Bai Jingan distractedly buttoned him up and said, “Yes, the floor and the bed are fine. Now, keep a low profile.”
He pushed open the door, and Xia Tian followed him discontentedly, saying, “You’re no longer easy to bully.”
The words from the synopsis come true
Thank you very much for the translation
Just found this story. It’s intriguing, but such a miserable world. Is there anyone who’s truly happy in that world? (And not psycho happy…)
PROGRESS YESSSS THE SHIPPP
Oh finally another progress! Bai Jingan subconsciously buttoning up Xia Tian’s jacket was so cute!! And Xia Tian’s sister was mentioned. Some drama seems to be up next…
Thanks for the chapter 🧡🧡🧡
🤣 Thanks for the chapter