Chapter 21
Editor: SleepyMango123
Proofreader: Lore
When Xia Rong heard Yu Chengchang’s question, he almost immediately thought of how Su Chi kept shifting into a cat, while the closely followed second thought was: Could this Yu Lao really have some spiritual ability? Otherwise, in this room full of people, why would he ignore everyone else and directly find him?
However, thinking about it was one thing, whether or not to say it was another . Su Chi’s frequent transformations between cat and human… They shouldn’t be an omen of those spiritualizing after the foundation of the republic1, right? And it couldn’t be that Su Chi had sent out a demonic aura as he changed back and forth, so this Yu Lao came here specifically to catch a demon, right?
Although it was not impossible that this old man could help Su Chi… On the one hand, he felt that Su Chi had never lied to him and he believed in his own intuition . While on the other hand, he had watched the story of Madame White since he was a child; so how could he be sure that once he gave Su Chi away, Yu Lao wouldn’t become like Fahai and mercilessly destroy the cat? For Su Chi, the risk was too big; in any case, Xia Rong shouldn’t be the one to make the decision for him .
He completely didn’t realize that he naturally assumed for himself the role of Xu Xian . Xia Rong, who was reluctant to give up the ‘little snail cat2’, put on a smile for Yu Lao and blinked, “Hic-, I don’t know what you’re talking about…”
Sure enough, it was still the ‘delay’ tactic . First, slowly plan things out, and then a decision could be made after consulting with Su Chi! Besides, Su Chi was just in the dressing room next door . Instead of looking for the other man, Yu Lao came to find himself, which obviously showed that his spiritual ability might not be that strong .
As Xia Rong continued this thought, Yu Lao watched as his eyes glanced back and forth but still didn’t speak out . Yu Lao sighed faintly, “I just felt that you have an unnatural spirit aura about you . You should have been in contact with demons or something of that sort recently . ” His words paused, then solemnly said, “And it should have been more than once . ”
As soon as this sentence came out, all the staff on the scene took a breath of cold air, and their eyes all focused on Xia Rong, who was standing in the middle of the room .
With great difficulty, Xia Rong was able to control his expression and didn’t reveal a surprised face . But… He was right again! Although he didn’t feel that Su Chi was a ‘demon’, if one considered it from Yu Chengchang’s point of view, his explanation was truly quite close to the reality of the situation .
He hesitated for a moment, but still chose not to rashly disclose the truth . He just pretended to be surprised and vaguely said, “Is that so? There really were several times recently when I felt that things weren’t right, but it passed very quickly, so I didn’t pay attention to it . I’m not sure what you mean specifically . ”
Yu Lao looked at him steadily for a moment . Seeing that he was still ‘incorrigibly obstinate’, Yu Lao only shook his head and heaved a sigh, “No matter then . Younger generations have a thicker yang aura and a stronger body, so there are indeed some who don’t pay attention to these things . However, since I have come across you, it means that we have some fate between us, so I can’t sit by and just watch you be entangled by evil spirits . I have here… “ He tremblingly took a trinket out from his bosom and placed it in Xia Rong’s hand . “…This jade pendant, I’ll give it to you . It can drive away the supernatural and counteract evil spirits, help you avoid disasters, and defend yourself . If you don’t detest it, it’s best if you can wear it all the time . Then at a critical moment, perhaps it can keep you safe…”
While this old man wasn’t very tall, his strength wasn’t weak, so Xia Rong was forced to accept the jade pendant that Yu Lao ‘gifted’ into his hand . Looking down, he found its color was an alluring lustrous blue-green and felt cool when it touched skin . But when placed on the palm of his hand, there really did seem to be an extraordinary feeling that flowed over his body, which gave Xia Rong a start in this early summer weather .
The others all gathered to look over; moreover, some also started to exclaim, “This jade’s color quality is really not bad!” “Yu Lao is truly generous!” “Begging Yu Lao to take a look at my fortune! I don’t know why, but I’m just so unlucky lately…”
The makeup artist in charge of Xia Rong didn’t go along with them but, instead, took a look at the jade pendant and sized up Xia Rong’s current getup, then said with a smile, “This jade pendant that Yu Lao gifted you just happens to match your role today . How can a beautiful, elegant gentleman not have a good jade pendant? The one on your waist right now was a plastic prop borrowed from the crew . Now that there is a better choice, I’ll help you exchange it . ”
Xia Rong opened his arm to allow the makeup artist to change the jade pendant . On the other side, after giving away the jade pendant, Yu Lao didn’t continue to linger . Despite the urges for him to stay, he ‘tuk-tuked’ away with his walking cane .
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By the time Xia Rong walked out of the dressing room, the other members had also finished changing into their costumes and gathered in front of the venue reserved by the program group . The six people were focused on by more than a dozen cameras – there was one fixed camera that followed each of the guests, as well as a panoramic camera, a left-right split scene camera, and close-up cameras . There were also two portable cameras respectively on the two sides of the guests, which could be said to be omnidirectional, multi-angle, and ‘leaving no details out’ . 3
As little traffic gods, these six friends have long been used to this kind of set up . While waiting for the director to announce for the competition to start, they each calmly arranged themselves to pose then covertly POSED, all to ensure they displayed the most handsome side of themselves to the camera .
All of them were dressed in ancient attire, but each costume had its own distinct attribute: Ye Mang’s ‘Ximen Chuixue’ was whiter than snow, which was cold and aloof . Gao Jun’s famous ‘Guo Jing’ was in a plain-colored duanda4, appearing competent but simple . Zhang Xin’s ‘Jin Shiyi’ was in a cloth duanda, handsome and unrestrained . Kang Yifan’s ‘Yang Guo’ was dressed in black with a frosty face, which felt like the Yang Guo from the later stages of 《Condor Heroes》 after he had grown up . As for Su Chi, his appearance changed the most since ‘Lu Xiaofeng’ was known to have ‘four eyebrows’ . In fact, it was two eyebrows and a moustache5; therefore, the makeup artist specially glued a small moustache on him .
The addition of the moustache immediately changed Su Chi’s whole temperament . Originally, he was a beautifully handsome young man, and although he had appeared in quite a number of films in recent years, he still carried a bit of greenness because he was just too young . Now with this neat and beautiful moustache, the greenness was immediately swept away . His aura was now calmer . With eyes that were ‘like a smile yet not a smile’, not only was there now the flavor of a mature man, but also… There was also… Hmm, how to describe it?
Xia Rong racked his brains for a long time, but he still didn’t manage to come up with that appropriate adjective . As a result of being too focused on his ponderings, he hadn’t been aware of just how long his eyes had been fixed on Su Chi .
Su Chi didn’t mind . He just stood there and graciously allowed Xia Rong to stare . Then Kang Yifan, who was next to Xia Rong, couldn’t help but embarrass him, “Is Su Chi particularly handsome today? You’ve been staring at him completely fascinated . ”
Xia Rong was thus teased by him before he finally reacted . He hastily coughed twice, tapped the folding fan in hand against his palm once and said, “I only just found that he has a moustache now, so I couldn’t help taking another glance at it . If you want to talk about ‘handsome’… Of course… That would be me!”
There was no one there that wasn’t narcissistic . Besides, Kang Yifan also wouldn’t really think that there was something between Xia Rong and Su Chi . So after a few jokes, he walked away . Xia Rong didn’t know why he felt relieved, but he didn’t let himself think too deeply into it, because as soon as Kang Yifan left, Su Chi took the initiative and came over, “Xia Rong . ”
Speaking of the devil, Xia Rong was almost taken aback by him . He then said after a pause, “…What?”
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Unexpectedly, Su Chi was there for serious matters . He lowered his voice and asked, “Where did you get that jade pendant from?”
Xia Rong looked at his grim face and wondered in his heart, ‘Is this jade pendant really just like the realgar wine given by Fahai, and there will be immediate results6?’
“Just now, Yu Chengchang, Yu Lao came to visit the production and gifted it to me,” Xia Rong also lowered his voice and said, “Is there a problem? You can feel something from it?”
“Yu Chengchang?” Su Chi seemed to have paused for a moment before remembering the name, “Yes . There’s an obvious feeling when I’m near it . When I get close to you, there’s an intense burning sensation . ”
His description immediately made Xia Rong terrified . When Yu Chengchang gave him the jade pendant, because he(YC) had said it was for self-defense and protection, he(XR) didn’t think much about it and just had the makeup artist put it on for him . Now that he thought about it… What if the old man’s target was Su Chi from the start and just took a circuitous path? First confirming the demon, then directly making Madame White revert back to her original form, what then?
He was a little panicked . As he stretched out a hand to remove the jade penchant, he explained, “I think he probably really does have some spiritual abilities . As soon as he saw me, he said that I had some demonic energy around me and had also been in contact with it more than once . ” He couldn’t understand or remember the terminology that Yu Chengchang had used, so he simply just replaced it with the simple and crude ‘have demonic energy’ in the explanation . “As he gifted this to me, he said it was for self-protection . It shouldn’t be that it was actually to get rid of you, right?! Then I have to throw it away—”
“No need to throw it away . Just find someone to put it away later . Afterward, we can ask . Perhaps we might be able to find the reason for my…” In the presence of the countless cameras and eyes, even if the filming hasn’t started yet, Su Chi was still cautious and lowered his voice to the point where the words ‘cat transformation’ was almost inaudible .
Even if he couldn’t hear it, it didn’t prevent Xia Rong from understanding his meaning . He had just replied, “That’s good,” when Kang Yifan jumped over and draped over their shoulders like a monkey . “What are you two whispering in each other’s ear? We’re about to start filming!”
The two quickly took a step back and, almost at the same time, exchanged a glance . Xia Rong tightly clenched the jade pendant that he had just pulled off in his hand and planned to slip out in a little bit to give it to Xiao Zhou for safekeeping .
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After the filming resumed, the director announced the teams for this episode . As everyone expected, it was based on the role cards: ‘Duan Yu’, ‘Guo Jing’, and ‘Yang Guo’ were one team, while ‘Lu Xiaofeng’, ‘Ximen Chuixue’ and ‘Jin Shiyi’ were the other team .
After the grouping result came out, Gao Junming turned around and hugged Zhang Xin, then said with a smile to Xia Rong, “Rong-ge, we are in the same team again!”
Although this ‘Rong-ge’ still made Xia Rong feel a little embarrassed, Gao Junming’s physical strength was pretty good and he was serious when competing in the games, so he was a good teammate candidate . Along with the newly arrived ‘Yang Guo’, Kang Yifan, the three hugged each other and encouraged each other, “Come on! Let’s do this!”
Seeing that the time was nearly noon, the mission of the first round’s game was finally revealed: in this first round, the two teams would each send out a member to form two-person groups and set out separately in these new groups . The two members of each group would compete with each other and strive to pass the various checkpoints set up in the old city . The winning member of each checkpoint would win a secret martial arts manual for his team, which was equivalent to earning one point . This would go on until the members would arrive at the top of the ancient city tower according to their tasks; at that time, the number of martial arts manuals obtained by the two teams would be calculated and the team with the higher score would get a hint regarding the clearing of the next round along with a sumptuous lunch .
From the look of the rewards, the production team seemed to have listened to the complaints of the guests about the previous episode and began to take into account the members’ problems towards meals . However, this one-versus-one style of competing still made the ‘Romeo’ team, which had just embraced and encouraged each other, a little embarrassed . If they had known that they were going to be separated, then why love so deeply in the first place~
“Director, is the division of one-on-one groups predetermined as well?” Fortunately, it didn’t seem like too many people noticed their embarrassment . At least, Su Chi raised his hand with a magnanimous face and seriously asked a question regarding the arrangements of the game .
The director replied with a smile: “There isn’t . In order to let the players create more surprises and collide to make even more sparks, the groupings of the one-to-one competition can be freely selected and formed by the members . ”
That’s right, these artists here were all public figures who could generate hot topics . On these matters of who was chosen, who was not chosen, he chose him, but another also chose him, why someone wanted to choose him… All could easily be edited into a big drama of ‘was there or not’ . And so there would be no need to worry about the hot topics of this episode, the director’s heart was simply filled with joy!
“That’s good . ” Su Chi then frankly continued, “I want to apply for Xia Rong to be my competitor . ”
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