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ntranslator: baumkuchen editors: glitterypanda, serefina

nAfter reminding him to “pay attention to the rating”, Chi Xiaochi went back to watching his literary film.

nThe video he’d saved of the old man’s fancy play really burnt the eyes. Just listening to it made 061’s face heat up, but the task Chi Xiaochi had given to him needed to be done, so he just had to force down his embarrassment and turn on mute and the automatic mosaic function. Amongst the heaps and heaps of different mosaics, he carefully picked out a segment where the male protagonist, Zhou Kai, had his face visible to the camera from start to finish to make clear in high-definition.

nAs for the lover’s face and body, it was then all covered by 061 with heaps of mosaics.

nBy the time he was done and successfully uploaded it to the internet, there had been no sound from Chi Xiaochi for a while, just the voices of the male and female protagonists from his film confiding to each other.

n061: “……Xiaochi?”

nChi Xiaochi’s eyes were closed. He remained silent.

n061 turned off the film.

nBut when the sound was cut off, Chi Xiaochi woke up instantly, “En? I was still watching.”

n061 laughed, “How were you still watching?”

nChi Xiaochi refused to give in, “I just saw them kiss just now.”

n061 had the urge to poke his forehead. He simply said, “I’m turning off the lights, sleep.”

nAfter that, the little nightlight in the room went out, the warm, dry and soft blanket pulling up on its own and wrapping Chi Xiaochi’s entire person.

nChi Xiaochi, lying on the bed, was still unwilling to give in. “I haven’t finished watching. Did the male protagonist die in the end?”

n061 pressed his fingers to his temple, and sped through the film at x24 speed. He answered, “He enlisted in the army and ended up winning the war. He came back in a tank and ran into the female protagonist in the street, jumped out of the tank, took the female protagonist in his arms and carried her up onto the tank turret.”

nIn truth, the male protagonist had died in the war, dying on a cold mat in a foreign country.

nChi Xiaochi let out a reassured expression and burrowed into the blanket, “That’s good.”

n“Sleep,” 061 took out the collection of poems, “Yesterday we read up to page 65……”

n……In truth, that film also existed in his world. He had seen it before.

nBut Chi Xiaochi liked the ending 061 had come up with, just like how he liked the fake ending Lou Ying had come up with for Sirius.

nThat night, Yi Song had forgotten to close the bedroom curtains.

nOutside the window was the good weather of early autumn. Despite the darkness of the night, the thick, soft and fluffy clouds were still visible to the naked eye, looking like a high quality quilt. Chi Xiaochi imagined them covering his own body while 061’s voice floated over out of the distant, indistinct clouds.

nHe thought, when the task was over and when he went back, he wouldn’t be able to hear this voice anymore.

nHe then thought, no matter, he would eventually get used to not having it. And if that didn’t work, there were always sleeping pills.

nAs he thought this, Chi Xiaochi drifted off to sleep.

nA few blocks away, Zhou Kai had yet to find out about what was about to happen to him.

nAfter he recovered some of his energy, he opened up the two bottles of red wine he’d used as props earlier and had a romantic candlelit dinner with his lover.

nAfter drinking till their ears were red, they went to sleep in each other’s arms.

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nAt 6:30 the next morning, he woke up as usual and, in a good mood, kissed the person in his arms. The person in his arms reciprocated the kiss and got up to prepare breakfast. Meanwhile, he dressed himself and washed up, preparing to go to the company.

nOnly when two golden-brown slices of toast popped out of the toaster, did the freshly-shaven Zhou Kai remember to turn on his cell phone to see if there were any urgent matters that needed to be dealt with.

nBut as soon as his cell phone was turned on, it was promptly crashed by a sea of emails, text messages and unanswered calls.

n“……What the hell?”

nZhou Kai casually clicked on an email. It had been sent two minutes ago by Secretary Frank. Its tone was strange, asking him, after he’d gotten up and seen this email, to absolutely not go to the company.

nHe then inspected the subject titles of the other unread emails one by one and found that the senders were all different. Some were department managers, some were former business partners and some were familiar names. Thinking about it, they seemed to be from models under his company, including the currently really popular black model, Fiona.

n……What was going on with all of them?

nBefore Zhou Kai could click on any of the emails to see what exactly had happened, Sam called.

nZhou Kai, confused, picked up. “What’s going on?”

nSam was currently on the road to Zhou Kai’s house, about to go crazy with panic. He hadn’t even had the time to comb his golden hair, so it was piled messily atop his head.

nUp hearing Zhou Kai’s voice, he nearly choked with emotion as he started to speak, “Mister Zhou, you finally picked up. Please don’t come over to the company. The reporters have already surrounded the company. Frank and consultants from the legal department are currently dealing with it. I’m already almost at your house, let’s continue this in a moment.”

nZhou Kai was utterly baffled, “What happened?”

nSam tried his best to reign in his emotions, “&#k2026;&#k2026;If you just look at your email, you’ll know everything.”

nAfter that, he hung up.

nZhou Kai was both suspicious and shocked.

n&#k2026;&#k2026;He dared hang up on him?

n&#k2026;&#k2026;What in the world happened?

nIn his momentary puzzlement, he actually forgot that he wasn’t at home.

nOn the other end, Chi Xiaochi had also woken up.

nHowever, because of his fractured ribs, he had been allotted an extra hour of sleep. Since Yi Song hadn’t called for him, he just laid in bed like a corpse.

nAfter uploading the video to YouTube, 061 had taken a look at it when it had only about 15, 16 hits, and then just left it to ferment on its own, not paying it any more attention.

nHe spent the night scrolling through interviews of Chi Xiaochi, and even supplemented that with historical videos of his past as a model. In a blink of an eye, it was already morning.

nAfter Chi Xiaochi woke up, he helpfully switched tabs to take a look at the video.

nUpon seeing the number of views and comments, 061 was rendered speechless for a long time. He dragged out his voice in a sigh, “……Ah.”

nChi Xiaochi, his arms wrapped indolently around his pillow, asked, “Are you planning on reciting a poem?”

n061, “……Look.”

nHe turned the screen to face Chi Xiaochi.

nChi Xiaochi placed a hand on his chin as he gave it an indifferent glance, “This isn’t anything. Just wait and see, his good days are behind him.”

nAfter that, he then turned his attention to the video itself with great interest, “Which section of the video did you pick, let me see.”

nAt the same time, Zhou Kai had also clicked on the URL sent over in his emails, and, with a mix of fear and fury, clicked play.

nThe video started off as a black screen, indicating in a standard format that this video was rated adult, youths under the age of 18 were by no means allowed to watch the following content.

nAnd following that, Zhou Kai’s own big face appeared, giving Zhou Kai himself a shock.

nIn his hands was the dildo he often used, smiling as he approached a lump of mosaic on the bed which one could tell was female.

nZhou Kai immediately closed the video, face flushed and ears scarlet, panting roughly like a buffalo.

nHe didn’t even want to see what the other video was.

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nHe paced anxiously around the room a few times before picking up his phone, and trying to contact his department head of the public relations department.

nBut the phone showed “line busy”. When he called again, it was still occupied.

nZhou Kai dialled the vice department head. This time, it went through.

nHe opened his mouth and said immediately, “Simon, tell them to delete that damn thing from the video platform for me! Issue a statement, this is a violation of my personal privacy, I——”

nSimon, on the other end of the line, cut him off.

nSimon, who in Zhou Kai’s memories, had always been gentle to others, sneered, saying, “I’m black. Go ** yourself.”

nThe call was hung up.

nZhou Kai, phone in his hands, was left stunned.

nA few seconds later, he finally guessed what terrible thing might have happened.

nHe lunged straight at the computer, scrambling to play the second video.

nThe number of views for this video was clearly less than that of the steamy video, but the comments below were more than double in number.

nAfter watching the video, Chi Xiaochi gave his conclusion, “The deceased Mister Zhou was a dignified man before he died. Everyone should honour him with a spit before leaving.”

n061 pursed his lips in a laugh.

nAfter that, Chi Xiaochi then gave a professional comment, “Everything else notwithstanding, his technique is very professional. At a glance I can tell he has practice.”

n061, “……How can you tell.”

nChi Xiaochi said, “It’s really simple. I’ve played around like this too.”

n061 was shocked.

nChi Xiaochi raised an eyebrow at 061’s response, “……What, do I look in any way like a Boy Scout? Or like a monk who practices asceticism all year round?”

n061, “……” Indeed, you really don’t.

n“But they were all things I bought myself and used on myself. If you want something done right, do it yourself.” Proletarian Chi Xiaochi gave Zhou Kai his disdain, “Not like the bourgeoisie, who only know how to exploit the labourers. If you have the ability, just go ** yourself.”

nThat mouth of Chi Xiaochi’s really made 061’s head hurt.

nNot long after his words fell, the person and the system both heard the sound of a car from outside.

n061, “Zhou Kai’s back?”

nJust as he said that, the original silence from outside exploded into noise. Waves and waves of camera shutter clicks overlapped with each other in a never-ending stream of sound.

nBy the sound of it, there was at least a row of reporters crouching outside.

nThe faint sound of Sam’s voice drifted in from outside, “I’m not…… No comment…… Please make way, make way!!”

nChi Xiaochi said, “Pull up a few cat videos for me to watch. It’ll take him at least ten minutes to get out of that entanglement and come inside.”

nSure enough, nearly a quarter of an hour later, Sam, all his energy spent, managed to squeeze his way into the villa.

nYi Song, who let him in, had a face full of confusion, totally unaware of what had happened. He asked Sam a few questions in Spanish, but Sam was in no mood to answer them.

nHe asked, “Where is Mister Zhou?”

nJust as Yi Song was about to respond, the door to the bedroom upstairs opened with a click.

nShen Changqing, a brace around his chest, leaned over the handrail of the second-floor staircase, looking over at him, his gaze at a loss yet gentle and soft, “Mister Sam?”

nSam, seeing the brace around his chest, was given a sudden start.

nHe had heard from Zhou Kai’s own mouth that Shen Changqing had caught a serious cold, so he wouldn’t see him around the company for this period of time. But seeing how Sheng Changqing looked, it was clearly……

nYi Song’s expression twisted, “Mister Shen, go back inside now.”

nShen Changqing pointed at the clock, a face full of innocence, “It’s already time to get up.”

nSam quickly came back from his shock. He bowed to Shen Changqing, “Mister Shen, is Mister Zhou home?”

nShen Changqing shook his head. “He’s not here. Yesterday he worked overtime and didn’t come back for the entire night,”

nSam immediately thought of that unbearable video, as well as that woman who’d been dragged into the storm along with Zhou Kai.

nHe originally felt some sympathy for the man before him, but after noticing that brace, a terrible suspicion slowly started growing in his mind.

nHowever, Shen Changqing had an unconcerned look on his face. The smile on his face hadn’t faltered in the slightest, “Is he not at the company?”

nSam looked into his eyes, “I haven’t yet been to the company.”

nShen Changqing said, “Is there any urgent matter? Does it have something to do with the company?”

nSam, “It’s nothing all that urgent, you don’t need to worry.”

nShen Changqing said, “That’s fine, then.”

nThat rather strange-sounding “fine” unexpectedly made Sam break out into goosebumps.

nJust as Shen Changqing was about to head back into his room, he paused as if having suddenly thought of something and said to Yi Song downstairs, “I want to eat pudding.”

nYi Song replied as per protocol, “Now isn’t time for dessert, you……”

nShen Changqing directly cut him off. A pair of dark, serene eyes bored straight into him, “Or else, you can make a phone call, and ask Mister Zhou?”

n……Ask him, if he still has any time to care about this kind of thing right now.

nThis time, unlike the incident where Zhou Kai took a nap during the runway show, the situation directly became an earthquake, not to mention that the heat from the former incident had yet to dissipate. The netizens pulled out pictures of the runway show and examined them one by one, only to find that in this runway show, there were quite a few black models who had participated.

nNetizens from all over the world all shared a particular characteristic, that is, their strong ability to jump to conclusions very quickly. Many people directly asserted that Zhou Kai sleeping during the runway show was definitely him indirectly expressing his dislike of black people.

nThere were also cautious people who raised their doubts, since the people in the audio hadn’t shown their faces, how could they confirm that the person expressing his racist views was Zhou Kai.

nImmediately, there were professionals who jumped in. They did a rigorous comparison of the audio tracks in the video and the audio recording, and high degree of matching frequencies helped verify that it was indeed Zhou Kai.

nThe public opinion on social media exploded.

nBlack people were solemnly protesting; white people were watching the fuss, claiming that this racial discrimination against black people was by an Asian and had nothing to do with white people; while the Asians were firmly denying Zhou Kai’s identity as one of them, asserting that since he had been granted Canadian citizenship for more than twenty years, he was a stock-standard example of a banana, with yellow skin and a white core, they refused to accept this kind of scum.

nBut the only thing that was rather harmonious was that all three sides agreed that Zhou Kai was a big **ing idiot.

nAt around 7 in the morning, the model Fiona posted her response on her Instagram: “I made it to where I am today on my own two legs, not through stealing.” This pushed public opinion to its climax.

nThe moment the stock market opened in the morning, Zhou Kai’s company’s share price fell all the way down to the bottom. Its market value continuously evaporated, directly making Zhou Kai’s eyes turn red.

nHe didn’t dare go to the company, or even leave his lover’s villa.

nAfter all, the power of the Internet was infinite. Almost immediately after the video was released, there were some people who managed to recognise the voice of the female lead who had been turned into a lump of mosaics. Her voice sounded a lot like the female model Lily, who was from the same agency as Fiona and had recently devoted herself to charity.

nZhou Kai paced around Lily’s villa like a caged beast. He was unable to imagine just how many hidden cameras were right outside this villa.

nMeanwhile, inside the house, Lily was weeping in silence intermittently.

nZhou Kai was incredibly irritated by her crying and roared out, “What the ** are you crying about?”

nLily, who had been beaten until one of her eyes swelled up, immediately choked back her tears and stopped crying.

nThis was the first time she’d had to face and endure Zhou Kai’s wrath and she was already close to collapsing. She dared not even imagine what Shen Changqing had endured for all these years.

nAnother call from Sam came. Zhou Kai snatched up the phone, forced back the gritty anger that was rising from the back of his throat, and answered in a hoarse voice, “……Hello.”

nSam’s voice sounded utterly exhausted, “Mister Zhou, please stay where you are. I just left your house. Mister Shen and the rest don’t seem to know about this yet……”

nWhere did Zhou Kai still have the mind to care about Shen Changqing? He raged, “Who is it?! Who’s trying to mess with me?”

nHe had forced down his agitation and watched the entire video.

nThe audio had clearly been recorded from last night, but the video hadn’t been. It was from more than a week ago.

nHow could he not tell that this was a deliberately planned plot!

nHe’d been put under surveillance!

nBut he’d searched the villa’s bedroom, and hadn’t found this supposed listening device or hidden camera. This had upset him, and resulted in the entire bedroom being smashed into unrecognisable pieces by him.

nSam said, “I asked the technology department to check. The same person uploaded the audio and the video, but their IP address apparently doesn’t exist……”

nAs he spoke, Sam thought of that strange email he’d received whose sender he couldn’t find the IP address of. His heart skipped a beat.

nZhou Kai raged, “Contact the public relations department, no matter how much money it takes, have those two things deleted!”

n“Negotiations are already underway.” Sam pulled at his wrinkled tie, “But I’m afraid that after we delete one, ten more might pop up. The video contains disturbing content so there’s reason to delete it, but that audio recording……”

nZhou Kai stuck out his neck and roared, “What about that?! That’s my freedom of speech!”

nAt the same time, Chi Xiaochi was still listening and watching Zhou Kai’s every move.

nHolding a pudding, he heard this and sneered.

nTo this day, a lot of people all thought free speech was absolutely free, it was their right to blindly force their views on others and others were absolutely not allowed to refute them.

nAs 061 looked at the regret level that still remained at “0”, he heaved a sigh, “Could it be he still doesn’t know he’s wrong?”

nChi Xiaochi said, “Of course he doesn’t know. For someone as obstinate and opinionated as him, even if he has as many handles as a sieve, he would definitely think that everything was someone else’s fault.”

nHe scooped out a spoonful of pudding, then said, “……I said it before, this is just the beginning for him.”

nThe author has something to say,

nDriver Chi who casually starts the car is actually just at driving school level, he has no real road experience whatsoever spreads hands

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nsere: as a breather from this terrible man i recommend this short story its really cute: The Aphrodisiac-carrying Man

nbaum: or you guys could check out the other novel I’m translating, Fantasy Farm (#shameless shill)

njkjk for another, short, cute, story, I recommend the short story xiin picked up: Knight, the Dragon Snatched a Princess Again!

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