Editor: Elanor
Just as Xia Tian sat down on the sofa, a person immediately instructed him on how to sit, how to look cool, handsome, and harmless.
Xia Tian questioned why as a Killing Show contestant he had to act “harmless”. Huitian responded expressionlessly, “contrast cute“.
—Bai Jingan cut off the communication mercilessly as soon as she finished saying “Floating Gold Channel 2”. He had all sorts of opinions when it came to killing people, but he went silent and started to pretend that he didn’t exist when it came to interviews.
And in a while, dozens of people started milling around Xia Tian, and everyone was talking over one another.
A short-built man standing by the side, who seemed to be an assistant, quickly informed him that—the interviewer was from the news station of Floating Gold Channel 2 that broadcasted the ace program: Sky Viewpoint.
The person interviewing him was the ace host He Yu, and the man behind her who looked extremely annoyed was the ace planner Xu Changxin.
Xia Tian had been very popular lately, which was why there was such a tilt in the resources. “Sky Viewpoint” had hoped to show his fans his powerful, gentle, and protective side.
Miss He was elegant, beautiful, and imposing. She arrived in a hurry as if she was being chased by a big enemy. Next to her was a large group of people handing out juice, patting cushions, and taking interview outlines.
There was a crowd around Xia Tian as well, and he sat there dazed—the cameraman claimed that he was handsome enough to break hearts and anyone would fall in love with him at first sight—it felt like they were in the middle of fighting a war. Everyone was busy, shouting and doing something very important.
In the Floating City, entertainment was indeed the top priority. It usually involved the life and death of countless numbers of people.
Opposite him, Miss He became gentle and pure after a war. Xu Changxin, the planner of “Sky Viewpoint”, said to Xia Tian, “You and her met by chance at the banquet and decided to do an interview on the fly. This way the effect would be more realistic.”
Xia Tian didn’t have time to nod before Xu Changxin began to angrily rebuke the lighting technician, but his response didn’t matter anyway.
Fifteen minutes later, all the personnel were in their positions with serious expressions. Miss He sat opposite him, her expression was relaxed and casual as she engaged in small talk with him.
Miss He said, “It’s a shame I didn’t get to meet Dee Dee, she’s the sweetest child I’ve ever seen.”
“She’s at home sleeping. It’s long past bedtime,” Xia Tian said.
“I think you don’t like her coming to these kinds of occasions.”
Xia Tian flashed her a smile and didn’t say anything.
In the camera, he leaned back on the glossy, luxurious and slightly decadent sofa, looking both vibrant and radiant, but also sad and helpless.
“You want to protect her,” He Yu said, sighing, “but it’s never easy to protect your family. You’re from Zone N and should be deeply stirred by this kind of thing. There, countless people died in their hometowns.”
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.
Xia Tian didn’t speak, and subconsciously grabbed his right sleeve.
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Xia Tian was still thinking about the feeling of cutting that guy’s neck in the bathroom.
“Bai Lin? But he’s from District N7,” he said.
Seeing that He Yu still looked expectant, he explained, “I’m from District N21. Do you know how far these two areas are?”
He Yu’s eyebrows wrinkled, and the ace planner waved his hand in annoyance to put a stop to the interview and said to Xia Tian, “Didn’t you read the interview outline? You’re going to say you know him!”
“But I don’t,” Xia Tian said.
“Then just pretend!”
Xia Tian glared at him, and he glared back.
Xia Tian had a feeling that if he was an ordinary star, Xu Changxin would probably lose his temper, but he was a participant in the Killing Show, so people would naturally be more cautious when talking to him.
“Listen, the entertainment industry changes very quickly. One year is a generation gap and three years is an era. Once ideas and stars are outdated, they’re everywhere like crushed crumbs, without any significance whatsoever. The only exception is the Zone N Massacre,” Xu Changxin explained patiently, “This is an evergreen theme, and Bai Lin is the one standing at the top of the Upper City entertainment industry.”
Xia Tian looked at him. This man’s expression was unusually serious, he wasn’t joking.
“You’re from Zone N so you must have a relationship with him,” the other party continued, “Everyone here wants to have a relationship with the massacre. You’ve a natural advantage in this regard.”
Xia Tian listened in horror.
“‘Children of Darkness’ is just about to reach its big final climax, and there’s a Massacre-themed game ‘Confined District 7’ coming out in the near future,” the man continued to say to him, “You must have this.”
“What?” Xia Tian said.
“The halo of the Massacre!”
The people in “Sky Viewpoint” were afraid that Xia Tian couldn’t make up an encounter with Bai Lin and listed several ideas for him to use as reference.
Xia Tian took a look at them and immediately felt that this was like writing a story, a story which was even more ridiculous than “Children of Darkness”.
Then, he raised his head to look at the people sitting opposite him. The ace planner’s eyes were firm, and He Yu was racing against time to swipe through her phone. It seemed he had to have some kind of encounter with Bai Lin.
“I’ll make one up by myself,” he said dryly.
He returned the pile of materials, and the group of people prepared for another few minutes before starting the interview again.
He sat on the sofa, the lights bright enough to make people dizzy. Here, all the bloody and brutal things were transformed into a strong light, enveloping him.
“I had seen him once,” Xia Tian said in a low voice.
“And then?” she urged, as she leaned forward in anticipation when Xia Tian did not say anything for a while.
“I once helped someone make a delivery to District 7, and someone pointed out to me that the man was Bai Lin,” Xia Tian said, “He was far away, but he was famous in District 7…”
“What was he doing?” He Yu said.
“Playing billiards with a group of brothers,” Xia Tian said.
“What did he look like?”
“He looked…” Xia Tian thought for a moment, gazing across the cold light of the Upper World to the still-vibrant Lower City of a distant time.
He said, “He looked very happy.”
Xia Tian wasn’t sure why these people were boiling with excitement, like he had just told a superstar’s gossip.
He had indeed seen the legendary leader once from a distance—at that time, among the youngsters, Bai Lin was particularly the most active and energetic one—Xia Tian had just seen him from a distance and couldn’t get a good look.
Looking back now, the one who was very happy might have been himself.
Because of that girl who was always happy, and because of her smile, that was the longest time in his life when he was the happiest and the most carefree.
He knew that disasters would come sooner or later. This was the most important experience that life had taught him. Although he was still a child at that time, he didn’t need to grow up to understand these things.
But at that time, he still naively believed that everything would be fine and nothing bad would happen.
The people from “Sky Viewpoint” kept asking questions, digging out with ease the wounds and the decaying flesh and blood in them for display. Xia Tian felt that he should have acted aloof and not provided even a bit of amusement for these people—just like Bai Jingan. But he simply couldn’t.
The person across the table said, “It must be heartbreaking to have lost those happy times for good.”
Xia Tian looked down and saw the blood oozing from the edges of the cufflink, and he once again calmly pulled up the sleeves of the jacket.
He gave her an icy but extraordinarily brilliant smile and said, “Yeah.”
Under the spotlight piled up with money in the Upper City, his smile was like the brightest jewel in a crown of the entertainment world, and he was a dazzling newly born God of Killing in the Upper World.
Xia Tian left the banquet in an eye-catching manner, got into his luxury sports car, and returned home in the limelight.
The rough cut of his interview was quickly sent over, with a video of the massacre used as an opening, and Xia Tian turned it off in annoyance.
Bai Jingan had sneaked off just as the interview had begun, and when Xia Tian opened the door, he saw the man sitting on the stairs talking to Dee Dee.
Dee Dee had a brush and a cleaning agent by her side, and she was checking whether the bloodstain was removed from the carpet. Scrubbing everything in sight was a good habit she had picked up while living under someone else’s roof in the Lower City.
—Later Bai Jingan told him that when he got home, he saw Dee Dee cleaning the carpet, so he told her she didn’t have to do that. She gave him a long speech about how “When you live in someone else’s house, you’ve to help out with the work. Don’t say that friends shouldn’t be like this. Xia Tian said that ‘friend’ is a deceptive word” so on and so forth.
Xia Tian greeted them and then went to take a shower. The way they were sitting on the stairs looked…very safe. In his vague imagination, this was a sight he would be greeted with upon returning home.
Although Bai Jingan had grown up alone in a big house, he got along well with Dee Dee which Xia Tian himself couldn’t do. He was pretty sure she had mental problems and required special care.
He remembered that before he left the banquet, the planner Xu had smiled very brightly at him, saying that the interview received a very good response, and that the audience loved hearing about the Massacre-related matters, and that they would conduct a follow-up interview tomorrow and send him the outline in advance.
Xia Tian had felt nauseated, but couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason why. He had kept his expression gloomy all along but the group still chased him to shoot endlessly.
After taking a shower, he felt much better. He hadn’t understood before why Bai Jingan had tried to escape the banquet by every means possible. Now he understood a little.
He walked out of the bathroom wiping his hair and found Dee Dee sitting at the door waiting for him.
Seeing him come out, she immediately stood up straight and said to him solemnly, “I’ve formally handed you over to Bai Jingan, and he promised me to take good care of you.”
Xia Tian paused in the middle of wiping his hair, thinking about what she claimed. How did that conversation happen?
—After their elder sister’s death, Dee Dee seemed to think she should take over the burden of taking care of him and worrying about his future. Xia Tian wondered if she had revealed all the things he had done in Lower City to Bai Jingan, just like a parent entrusting a child who only created trouble, revealing all the embarrassing things in order to show sincerity.
“I like Bai Jingan very much,” Dee Dee said seriously, “so after some consideration, I think I can entrust you to him.”
“Thank you,” Xia Tian said.
“I told him that I wanted him to look after you,” Dee Dee continued, “You’re especially bad at taking care of yourself, and you don’t know how many times you’ve screwed things up. He said he’s not very good at taking care of people either and has screwed up just as many times.”
She shrugged, “I pondered about it for a while and felt that it was understandable. After all, times are tough.”
Xia Tian agreed, and then said that it was hard these days, so let’s not make things difficult for Bai Jingan.
Dee Dee said that she thought the same way, but probably because she looked worried, Bai Jingan assured her that in case of messing things up, it would be the two of them messing up together and he would never leave Xia Tian alone.
She agreed, thinking that it would be better for both of them to screw things up together than doing it alone.
Xia Tian thanked her again for her help and then sent her upstairs to sleep.
Thank you for the chapter!
Dee Dee is so adorable ♡
Taking care of her brother and even going as to drag Bei Jingan into this, truly an adorable kid.
Thank you for the update. Dee Dee feels like a parent giving their consent on the new BF(@future Husband). So terribly cute 🥰.
Can’t wait till we read about their first kiss, that’s gonna be fun
That comment (can’t help imagining it) just made my day! 😋
Oh god, they want a child to come to a Killing Show celebration banquet? Their brain could no longer be called a brain but a garbage dumping site.
Hai, Dee Dee is too cute when “entrusting” Xia Tian to Bai Jingan hahaha.
Thank you for the chapter!
Lol sweet sister 🤣
Awww that was adorable 🥰🥰🥰🥰 thanks for the chapter