“On this special day, we are gathered at the magnificent Longwan City Film and Television Memorial Hall for the 52nd Golden Dragon Awards Ceremony. And finally, amidst everyone’s anticipation, the ceremony has officially begun…”
The awards ceremony held immense prestige, featuring dazzling lights and numerous celebrities adorned in their finest attire. Bright spotlights beamed from above, intertwining to form intricate patterns and weaving together a luxurious scene.
The artists sat quietly amidst the blend of darkness and brilliance, forming rows upon rows that stretched into the distance. The first row sat revered veteran artists while the rising stars of newer generations occupied seats behind them.
They had no idea what could unfold in this ceremony that could potentially decide their career status.
……
It was a moment of uncertainty, a fleeting moment that determined whether they would end up empty-handed or reach the pinnacle of their career and bask in supreme glory.
“The competition for the Best Actor award this time is undoubtedly fierce. Several outstanding works are nominated, making it difficult to predict the newly crowned Best Male Lead – also known as the Film Emperor of this film festival. It’s a tough call, and I’m genuinely unsure about the outcome,” the elegantly dressed female host said with a smile, radiating confidence and composure. She shifted her gaze toward the man standing alongside her, her co-presenter for the award, and casually inquired, “Film Emperor Gu, any thoughts from your end?”
Sporting a sleek and neat hairstyle, the man donned a simple black suit that accentuated his well-groomed demeanor, almost looking too simple to complement his extraordinary aura.
Perhaps it’s because he did not want to steal the spotlight.
Despite his standard attire, he remained unfazed by the clever quip from the female host. He meticulously recited his lines with unwavering composure, refraining from any extraneous commentary.
And who is he?
He is Gu Yanzhou.
In the past, Gu Yanzhou won the Best Actor Award at the Golden Dragon Awards for an impressive three consecutive years. As a result, the judging panel had no choice but to change their selection criteria and award him a Lifetime Achievement Award, permanently exempting him from future nominations.
Alternatively, the hidden meaning was: “We awarded you the Lifetime Film Emperor, so you no longer need to participate in the competition. This way, we leave a chance for others… otherwise, this award would be meaningless, and nobody would care and feel any suspense anymore.
……
It sounds like he’s truly deserving of a good beating.
But there’s no denying he is the eternal Film Emperor, the indisputable legend of the entertainment industry.
Anyway, the award ceremony continues.
Female Host: “Film Emperor Gu, aren’t you curious who the new talent inheriting your mantle is?”
Gu Yanzhou took the microphone, and his striking features immediately captured the spotlight’s attention. With a calm smile, he gracefully curtailed any superfluous banter the female host attempted to initiate and stated, “I’m sure everyone is curious. So let’s watch the big screen.”
The cameraman finally shifted the lens away from Film Emperor Gu and directed it toward the big screen. A montage of Anti-Drug appeared on the screen, immediately catching everyone’s attention with its grand and captivating opening scene.
Anti-Drug is a classic masterpiece telling the story of a narcotics police officer that achieved both box office success and critical acclaim this year. The film avoids flashy fight scenes and instead depicts the daily lives of narcotics police officers and how they endure hardships to minimize causing harm to their families. The lead actor’s performance vividly portrays the honor and difficulties of these characters.
“I believe everyone already knew who the winner was as soon as Anti-Drug appeared,” the female host declared, heightening the atmosphere to the peak. With resounding enthusiasm, she exclaimed, “THE 52ND GOLDEN DRAGON AWARDS BEST ACTOR GOES TO… EVERYONE, LET’S ALL CALL OUT HIS NAME TOGETHER!”
The crowd erupted into cheers.
“——SHAO SI!”
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.
“SHAO SI!”
……
‘UC—’
Ol Xejcuhbcu kjamtfv tfiqifrris jr tlr ijqabq ijs ilofifrr bc tlr ijq, cb ibcufg wjxlcu jcs rbecv.
Aera j wbwfca jub, jc jgw ijhlis gfjmtfv ogbw yftlcv jcv geatifrris rijwwfv tlr ijqabq rtea klatbea jcs tfrlajalbc.
Djooifv, tf aegcfv jgbecv jcv fzmijlwfv, “Vtjb Vl, ktja jgf sbe vblcu?!”
Shao Si replied nonchalantly, “What am I doing? I was about to ask you what you were doing.”
Vtjb Vl kjr bglulcjiis megifv eq lc atf yjmxrfja bo atf cjccs njc, mbnfgfv klat j pjmxfa, agslcu ab ufa rbwf riffq. Pc atf qjra kffx, tf tjv jc jnfgjuf riffq alwf bo bcis atgff jcv j tjio tbegr. Dea pera ktfc tf olcjiis wjcjufv ab ojii jriffq, tlr wjcjufg rajgafv mtjaafglcu jcv rmgfjwlcu, lcafgwlaafcais jmmbwqjclfv ys rbwf mgffqs rbecvlcu jcv wjcljmji ijeutafg.
Even the most patient person couldn’t endure it, let alone Shao Si, whose temper was far from good.
“It’s been almost half a year since that happened. Why the hell are you still watching it?” Shao Si said while pushing aside the jacket covering his head and slowly lazily waking up. Perhaps he caught a slight cold, but his voice sounded a little hoarse. “Even if you want to watch it, could you please stop laughing like a pervert?”
Li Guangzong replied, “Alright, I’ll pay more attention… but what do you mean by ‘pervert’?”
Shao Si said, “I know I looked super handsome at the awards ceremony that day, and it’s normal that you kept thinking about it. But I’m right next to you everyday, so you can look as much as you want. So stop acting like an idiot and keep watching that video.”
If they weren’t in the car right now, Li Guangzong swore he would risk losing his job and start fighting with Shao Si.
Even though this young master was the biggest star he had ever managed and he couldn’t afford to offend him… he still wanted to fight!
How could there be such a shameless person in this world!
“Who was looking at you? I was looking at Film Emperor Gu!” Li Guangzong said, almost jumping in anger, “He’s my Male God Gu! The legend of the entertainment industry! Who kept thinking about you!”
Shao Si was very familiar with the title ‘Film Emperor Gu’ and he knew that he was a prominent figure in the entertainment circle. But he had face blindness and couldn’t recognize the faces of the actors he hadn’t worked with before, they were all like a blur for him.
So Shao Si rubbed his temples and squinted his eyes as he asked, “You said he was Gu… Gu…”
What was it again? Gu something?
“Gu Yanzhou.”
Having served this young master for so many years, Li Guangzong had already mastered the art of not easily getting frustrated.
Shao Si reached under his seat and took out a bottle of water. After unscrewing the cap with two or three twists, he tilted his head back and took a few sips. As he closed the cap, his manager expressionlessly reminded him, “He’s the one who presented you the award at the ceremony.”
Shao Si racked his brain and tried to think back and remember, but in the end he gave up and said, “Even if you say that, I still…”
Li Guangzong took a deep breath, opened his laptop again, and prepared to show him a picture of the face of his idol.
It’s really freaking important to make sure Shao Si recognizes him. Otherwise, if they encounter each other during work later and Shao Si puts on an arrogant air of ‘who are you,’ it would inevitably spread out and have a negative impact. It might also lead to rumors of him disrespecting seniors and looking down on others.
He was about to say, “take a good look, remember his face carefully, yes, that’s the one, make sure to remember it,” but before the words could come out of his mouth, he saw Shao Si tap twice on the touchpad. Suddenly, the image of Gu Yanzhou’s face on the screen flashed by, leaving only a faint afterimage. Then the progress bar jumped directly to a close-up shot where Shao Si was holding his trophy and giving his acceptance speech.
Shao Si looked at himself on the screen with satisfaction and said, “Handsome.”
Li Guangzong: “…”
Li Guangzong looked at Shao Si and thought, whatever, just let there be rumors, this dumbass not having any haters scolding him is not normal.
Laozi doesn’t care anymore.
Shao Si indulged in his own thoughts for a while and then tried to continue his sleep. However, as soon as he closed his eyes, he knew that his sleep was doomed to be restless.
[Yo, partner.]
[How have you been lately?]
The cold, machine-like voice lingered in his mind, and Shao Si couldn’t help but frown slightly but he still kept his eyes closed.
He knew that no one else could hear this voice; only he could talk to it. It still felt quite surreal, something like a system only exists in a dream, so could such a thing exist in real life?
[…Scram. I’ll have a sudden death if I don’t get some sleep soon. Don’t bother me.]
Shao Si replied, but the System giggled and said dismissively: [You won’t die, you still have two years left in your life span.]
[Are you very free today?] With the mention of his life span, Shao Si finally opened his eyes. [Is it very fun reminding a dying person they’re going to die everyday?]
[Young people shouldn’t be so angry. Calm down a little. I’m just reminding you not to forget about your tasks.] The System advised kindly, [Have you been watching Yang Yinyin? How has she been lately?]
[I’m very busy so I hired a private investigator to keep an eye on her. They said she hasn’t left her house recently.]
[Don’t you find it strange? A successful Golden Dragon Award winning film empress, turning down all jobs and staying at home for a whole month.] The System’s voice became more and more eerie, adding ghost story sound effects and creepy background music for himself. [Why?]
[……] Shao Si didn’t have energy to think about the why. [I’m going to sleep. I’m serious this time.]
His ill-fated relationship with this System probably started back in primary school.
Since he was young, he had a weak heart, and even the doctors always said that his life depended on fate. Back then, he was small and skinny, so he was often bullied by his classmates. Although the doctors advised him to stay at home due to his condition, Shao Si refused. He didn’t want to be alone in a big house, with only the nanny and private teachers coming in and out. He wanted to go to school, make friends, and play with kids his age.
His stubbornness soon led him into an accident.
Shao Si’s condition suddenly flared up one day, but he couldn’t find his medications anywhere. Perhaps his classmates in his class played a prank on him and hid his medicine, wanting to see the reaction of him panicking and searching for it everywhere.
As children, they had no idea what having a heart disease really meant.
They felt that everything was just a playful game, including that bottle of white pills.
Very quickly Shao Si felt like he couldn’t breathe, struggling weakly like a fish out of water, gasping for air but feeling like his airways were closed off…
Just at that moment, as he collapsed at the entrance of the stairwell, a voice from the depths of his unconscious asked him, “My friend, do you want to live?”
……
Later, he also read various web novels about systems, but the relationship between him and his system was somewhat different than what was written in those novels. They were not the typical system-host relationship. If he had to describe it, they were more like partners, which was why sometimes the system would jokingly call him ‘partner’.
As for why they had this relationship.
…it was because this system is a broken system.
Literally.
It’s like a half-broken system that was forced to be scrapped after it encountered issues.
[My job is to follow the data provided and control the life and death of humans to maintain ecological balance.]
Regarding the origin of this system, Shao Si only knows this much. He has also asked why it was forcibly scrapped, but the system only briefly answered that it violated the rules.
Shao Si secretly speculated that this broken system might have had a forbidden love affair with someone.
In any case, if they both want to stay alive, they have to be bound together.
Even though the system is partially paralyzed, it still has the ability to absorb energy and convert it into lifespan.
And Shao Si has to provide this energy for the system.
…After all, he ended up with a semi-damaged system.
Just as Shao Si was about to fall into a deep sleep, his phone in his pocket vibrated twice.
It was a text message.
The message succinctly stated: Yang Yinyin has gone out.
Shao Si squinted his eyes, everything appeared blurry before him, but he typed four words based on his intuition: Where did she go?
He even held his breath, until the other party also replied with four words:
— Market to buy groceries.
……
— Bought carrots, 2 yuan per catty.
— And also cauliflower, this one’s a bit expensive. So cauliflower is this expensive? It seems to be imported.
— Huh? There’s also shrimp!
— I wonder how the film empress’ cooking is.
Shao Si expressionlessly turned off his phone and started to consider whether to hire a different private investigator since this one seemed a little unreliable.
Hi guys! My name is Ella and I’m a new translator hoping to bring you quality translations. I’m very new at this so please be patient with me 😆 updates will be sporadic but I will try to get them out in a very timely manner. I’m reading as I’m translating so if you guys notice any typos or weird wordings, please comment down below and I will fix them!! I tried editing like the first half of this chapter but I got too lazy lol. Anyway, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING!!
Hello, Ella! Thank you for translating this story! It’s seems to be quite interesting 🙂 Looking foward to it ☺️🩷
Hello! And thank YOU for reading! I’m also looking forward to reading it myself 😂
Thank you for translating and satiating us hungry specimen 🙇
💝💝💝💝💝
Thanks for the chapter! This seems like an interesting start OuO
Who doesn’t love a broken system? Hahahahaha…ya, thanks for translating this story. 🤣❤️🤣❤️🤣
It’s already so exciting and this is only the first chapter… Ah, Shao Si, I can tell your life won’t be boring even for a second. Thank you for your hard work, Ella!
Hiii Ella!!!Thanks for the translation!! Its only the first chapter and sims pretty funny, I liked!!! Please keep with your good work!! <3
Hello Ella, thanks for translating this story!