Editor: Elanor
Xia Tian clearly felt the change in his status.
Not only the various arrangements and the level of the program he was involved in had improved, but everyone’s attitude towards him had changed as well. It had become more and more respectful, as if he were a God walking on Earth. The sponsors had also provided him with another villa, but due to the need for an extravagant renovation to match his status, he still had to live in Bai Jingan’s house.
That day when Xia Tian was looking through the packed refrigerator, pondering about what lunch to make, Huitian came to visit.
She came directly to the house without making a phone call; threw an invitation on the table, and said, “A party invitation. You must go.”
Xia Tian looked at the invitation suspiciously. Huitian’s behavior showed that the invitation couldn’t be refused.
He said, “The kind where you can go in clothes?”
“Birthday party!” Huitian exclaimed. “Mr. Minkov Sr.’s son’s, a very powerful man in the Upper City.”
Xia Tian had never heard of this name before, but now he learned that his family owned half of the Upper World and fifteen of the most profitable channels on Floating Gold TV. If anything really happened here, Minkov was the kind of person whose words actually counted for something.
In the Upper World, you would get this type of invitation only when you entered a specific circle. An invitation like that was like dazzling lights. People would start to talk about it a few months before the actual event. Being able to receive such an invitation was a major proof of high status.
This invitation was for Mr. Minkov Jr.’s sixteenth birthday celebration. He was the only son, his father’s precious child. So precious that everything in the party had to be of the highest specification. And Xia Tian and Bai Jingan, the two Killing Show stars who were in the limelight recently, were obviously a part of the specs of the top elite.
Xia Tian picked up the invitation. The words on the letter were well-knit and courteous. A firebird logo was printed on the right corner. The material of the paper gave the impression that it was quietly burning. It was said that the entire piece of paper would be burned by the next day. It would burn without any open flame and it would not ignite anything. It would leave behind only a faint fragrance.
Bai Jingan looked at the invitation letter held in Xia Tian’s hands, and Huitian repeated: “You must go.”
“As if we have a choice,” Xia Tian said.
Mr. Minkov Sr.’s mansion was located on an independent floating city that was suspended above the current floating city. Xia Tian felt that these people would add another layer sooner or later and cover the sky as well.
They arrived late to the party because Bai Jingan had gone to do a show in the morning. When he came back, a bunch of carnivorous dinosaurs popped up in the neighbourhood—there were also herbivorous species from the TV, but once a species entered the Floating Gold TV’s genetic research lab, everything turned carnivorous.
According to reports, dinosaurs from a reality show on Floating Gold Seven had escaped, but the TV station was not in a hurry to recapture them at all. The station first allowed the monsters to create a lot of gory scenes before slowly starting the rescue.
Bai Jingan was trapped in a supermarket and was delayed half the morning. When he came back, he was a mess. He complained to Xia Tian that instead of being on guard against dinosaurs killing them, he had to prevent people from killing themselves before they even encountered the dinosaurs. Everyone in the group was armed. They didn’t appear as if they were there to do their grocery shopping; rather, it looked as if they were planning to destroy the world. They were panicked, extremely opinionated, and unorganized.
Bai Jingan had been busy being the leader of the Youth Army all morning.
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.
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As they spoke, they were heading to the party riding a luxurious anti-gravity shuttle, and they could see the building that was perched high above the clouds even from a distance.
The building appeared to be made of light and clouds, and when the sun shone on it, it looked divine and translucent. Xia Tian had been in and out of many mansions, and this one was still the most expensive one, with an incalculable price tag that he had ever seen.
When they arrived at the mansion, the party had already started.
Although the mansion resembled a fairyland and the invitation was very serious, what was happening inside was a lavish but tasteless revelry of young people.
Everyone was drinking, dancing, eating, and having sex with people. As per Huitian, Mr. Minkov Sr. had decided that the party would be whatever his son wanted it to be, and the party ended up like this. Apparently, Minkov Jr. had said that he “wanted to have a good time.”
From Xia Tian’s point of view, Minkov Jr. obviously didn’t care about the party. This was what parties would turn into when one didn’t care.
The hall was packed with people. The stones used to build the mansion were all-natural, showing no traces of being printed according to templates, and the light was clear. All of the fabrics were handmade.
The wall decorations and wood-panelled fireplaces were made of naturally grown wood. The handicrafts were made by masters that were absurdly exorbitantly priced. Now, these things were piled up everywhere, and one would be broken every now and then.
The food was even fancier, but also all-natural.
After tasting a piece of snack, Xia Tian immediately decided to take everything on that plate away. Bai Jingan brought a few plates as well, showing his appreciation for the food at the party.
This was the ideal perfect party, one that would cost an astronomical amount of money, but would not be ingeniously torturous and would guarantee that all the guests were satisfied with their food. This is what true hospitality looks like, Xia Tian thought.
But it was almost impossible to just “enjoy eating good food” at a party in the Upper City. Within a minute of entering the party, already three people had made an appointment with Xia Tian, so he and Bai Jingan decided to find a room to have some peace and quiet so they could have a good meal.
Xia Tian opened several doors and all of the rooms had people “doing things”, and the air in these rooms smelled strongly of psychedelic drugs. When a guy saw him, he invited him to join in too in a lordly manner. Xia Tian directly slammed the door shut.
Finally, they found a corner of the balcony. The few rooms after that were unoccupied and hidden from the sun. Xia Tian pulled open the door, and this time it was finally quiet.
All of the curtains were tightly drawn, making the room incredibly dark. The moment the two of them walked in, they noticed that the room was a complete mess, with trash remnants strewn around everywhere as if there had been a large explosion that had occurred there recently.
Then they saw the boy.
He was sitting cross-legged on a woollen rug with his back facing them. Like many young people, he was surrounded by numerous joint terminals, remains of snacks, and a few guns—guns that were not permitted at this kind of party, but it was obviously not an issue for the children of the rich and powerful.
He was wearing a white shirt. He had a small build and looked very young from the back. Medium-length hair spread across his shoulders, and his body was very taut.
Later when Xia Tian thought back, he had realized something was wrong at that time. The boy sitting among the pile of rubbish looked like another piece of debris from the explosion that might detonate at any moment.
Xia Tian always had a keen sense of intuition when it came to death.
At that moment, the kid raised his hand and picked up a gun. It was a .45 calibre, a vintage musket with a blast boost.
He skillfully pulled the safety before pointing the gun at his own head.
Xia Tian gave a start. He threw his plate towards Bai Jingan before rushing over and grabbing the boy’s wrist. In the same instant, the boy pulled the trigger, and Xia Tian felt the violent recoil of the gun. The bullet hit the ceiling, leaving a large mark. The noise was ear defeaning, making his ears ring.
If you got hit in the head by this kind of gun, nothing would be left of your entire head, and even the best medical equipment would not be able to save you.
The debris from the ceiling rustled down. Xia Tian could barely make out a burst of cheers coming from downstairs as if the sound of the gunshot was a kind of dance rhythm.
And if it hadn’t been for Xia Tian grabbing the kid’s wrist, and deflecting the muzzle so much, the boy would have become a headless corpse.
The sound of gunfire rung in their eardrums for a long time. No one in the room spoke, and after a while, the boy turned his head to look at him.
He was at most fifteen years old, at an age where people would be crazy, fearless and extremely vulnerable. His skin was pale, and he appeared childish, naive and innocent. Light-coloured hair scattered over his shoulders. He didn’t have tattoos and was dressed like a good boy from a typical good family.
But he definitely was not.
The instant he saw his eyes, Xia Tian knew that this was a trapped and dying animal. And nothing was more dangerous or reckless than this type of animal.
He must have experienced something. No one was aware but something was fermenting inside his body. This gave him something that would only be seen in an extremely dangerous person—the unbearable agitation in his blood, the gloomy fire in his eyes, and the way his fingers trembled. It appeared as though everything around him—light, stones, laughter, fabric—was made of gasoline and that a towering fire might break out at any moment.
Regardless of how nicely clothed the boy was, Xia Tian could identify that particular smell—the smell of destruction.
The boy stared at him as if he had done something sinful, but then he looked at Bai Jingan and suddenly showed a smile.
The smell of destruction disappeared without a trace, and he became a polite, smiling young man from a powerful family.
“Just arrived?” the boy said, as he skillfully and nonchalantly slipped the gun into his waistband before covering it with his clothes.
The air was filled with the smell of gunpowder smoke, but he stood up from the carpet as if nothing had happened.
Bai Jingan remained silent. Xia Tian also kept his mouth honestly shut. It was wise to act as though you didn’t see this kind of thing about the bigwigs of the Upper City.
The boy patted the remnants of gunpowder on his shirt. Some remained in his hair, but he didn’t care. He took it for granted that people around him would turn a blind eye to it, otherwise it would be too rude.
He gave his two guests an absent-minded smile, the dark gloominess already buried deep beneath it.
“I like new people,” he said, “they always bring something new.”
He turned and left. No one stopped him. Xia Tian hoped that he would never see this kid again. He was all too familiar with the breath of this type of dangerous people.
As soon as he saw the child leave, he immediately turned to check the food he had shoved onto Bai Jingan; amazingly, not even a plate had spilt, such nimbleness.
As the kid walked down the hallway, Xia Tian overheard someone joke with him from afar.
He didn’t hear what it was, but he heard the boy laugh briskly.
“Of course, I hope everyone I don’t know coming to my birthday party can have fun,” the boy said, “They should enjoy it as if it was like the end of the world.”
It was then that Xia Tian realized who this boy was. He was the sole heir of Mr. Minkov Sr., the host of today’s party.
The future top bigshot in the Upper City.
Xia Tian took a particularly delicious cake from Bai Jingan’s hand and while he ate it, he picked up one of the guns that Minkov Jr. had thrown on the debris on the floor and checked the model.
No wonder he gathered this pile of dangerous objects, but no one seemed to care. He could blow up the house as much as he liked.
This model was often used by Bai Jingan, so Xia Tian gave it to him before getting another one for himself. “As the future boss of a company,” he said to Bai Jingan, “he looks like he wants to destroy the world.”
“Yeah,” Bai Jingan, who was in the middle of trying to take aim, said.
“But at this age, what he wants to destroy is only himself.”
They took the guns and sat on the sofa in the corner and shared snacks. Bai Jingan shared half a plate of particularly tasty mixed nut pastries with Xia Tian.
Xia Tian couldn’t understand the reason for the suicide attempt. God knew how much money it had cost to raise the boy, how much money he would have when he grew up, and what kind of power he would possess.
But he understood the bone-crushing rage, the inexplicable despair, and the urgent desire to destroy something.
Minkov Jr. would be an absolute good seed if he went into the Killing Show or became a mercenary, but unfortunately, he was born into a family of the top elites in the Upper City, which sounded like a nightmare.
Someone else’s nightmare.
Thank you for the chapter 🙂❤️
Thank you for the chapter ❤️
Thanks for the chapter
I really love this novel. 🥳
Thanks for the chapter. 😁