Chapter 29.1

Bonus ko-fi update brought to you by Lin, Lulith, con, and an anonymous reader!

Shi Qing really didn’t expect Jing Yuanqi to do something as heartless as this.

He was supposed to be a person of a certain stature, yet one word from Shi Qing was enough to provoke him into bullying children.

He poked the System: [Tong, take a look. How high is his animosity value?]

System: [Jing Yuanqi’s animosity value: 63]

System: [Host, I think the rate of decline has been very good so far. It’s only been a few days.]

Shi Qing: [I know right? This guy acts like life is one big game on the surface. I didn’t think he would be moved at all.]

But now it was all the way down to sixty-three.

Shi Qing: [Did he become the mask he was wearing?]

System: [Isn’t that a good thing? Then the animosity value can go down quickly.]

[You don’t get it.]

Shi Qing: [He probably still thinks that this is part of the game. When this little game is over, it’s going to rebound.]

The System was at a loss: [I don’t get it.]

Shi Qing gave it an example: [It’s like this. He has 63 animosity now, but he thinks he has 100. When we are apart from each other, the animosity value will be affected by his thoughts and go up. It’s definitely going to rise. Maybe not to 80 or 90, but to 70 at least.]

System: [……]

It realized the severity of the situation: [We can’t let that happen! If he relapses, we’re going to get kicked out by the World’s Consciousness!]

[Don’t worry. Since he’s so into this act of his, it’s made him malleable to suggestions.]

Now that he knew this blabbermouth of a vixen has already played himself, there was no need for Shi Qing to remain polite.

He looked away from Cui Yunqing’s eyebrows and turned to Gao Zhi: “They’re still not here?”

“They’ll be here soon. Very soon.”

The so-called a.s.sistant quickly added: “When I sent the text message, they said they were nearby. Shi-ge, I’ll go pick them up.”

“En.”

Gao Zhi left after hearing that.

There were only three people left in the room at the moment.

The cold and gloomy Film Emperor Shi, the bright and sunny Jing Yuanqi, and the cute but foolish Cui Yunqing.

As soon as Gao Zhi left, Shi Qing started browsing through Weibo on his phone. Jing Yuanqi looked at him inquisitively. Neither of them spoke. The atmosphere in the room became increasingly strange.

But Cui Yunqing didn’t realize it at all. He happily shuffled over to Shi Qing and asked him to look at his eyebrows again: “Shi-laoshi look, I just looked in the mirror and my eyebrows seem much better than before. They make me look spirited.”

Shi Qing didn’t even lift his eyelids. He made a careless sound of agreement, “En.”

Cui Yunqing completely missed the indifference of the film emperor. Seeing that Shi Qing seemed to be surfing Weibo on his phone, he leaned in even more with interest: “Shi-laoshi, what are you looking at? Is there anything in the news?”

But Shi Qing put away his phone and stood up as soon as he got close to him.

His voice was cold. He has never used this tone towards Cui Yunqing before: “I’ll be going first. Do as you like.”

Cui Yunqing finally realized that Shi Qing’s att.i.tude was strange.

He was dazed to see the film emperor go. Then he looked at Jing Yuanqi who was on the side: “Jing-ge, what happened to Shi-laoshi? We were just surfing through Weibo together yesterday.”

Jing Yuanqi was not happy to hear that hehe.

They even looked at Weibo together.

Were they little friends in kindergarten?

Of course, he was thrilled after his initial irritation.

As he expected, Cui Yunqing couldn’t beat him without the support of his eyebrows.

No matter what Jing Yuanqi thought, he appeared understanding on the surface: “Shi-laoshi didn’t sleep well last night so he’s a bit cranky. Just avoid him for now and you’ll be fine.”

“Little Cui, your new eyebrows are really something. Remember to keep it in this style in the future.”

Cui Yunqing was happy again after being praised. He nodded with a goofy smile: “Don’t worry Jing-ge! I’ll be sure to take good care of them. I’ll fix them again as soon as they grow out!”

Jing Yuanqi smiled like the wolf did to Little Red Riding Hood: ”Good. This kind of att.i.tude will make you very popular in the future.”

“Come on, the scouts are arriving. Let’s go out.”

Cui Yunqing went out happily.

He had no idea what he’d lost by being deceived into changing his eyebrows.

***

Jing Yuanqi was very happy to eliminate a rival.

When he was happy, he wanted to be next to Shi Qing and do things to him that would be censored on TV.

The person himself was very easy to find. Just look around for the overbearing dude surrounded by a group of bodyguards in black.

Jing Yuanqi stared at the well-protected Shi Qing from afar. He felt a sense of understanding in his heart.

A good-looking person like him should be protected to this degree.

This way he couldn’t be hit on by a stray cat or dog. No one was allowed to touch a hair on his body. It was all his territory after all.

Unfortunately, not everyone was as understanding as Jing Yuanqi.

The fans that came to visit today had complicated looks on their faces when they were greeted by this scene as they arrived.

Strictly speaking, none of them were interested in celebrities. They were all die hard fans of the novel.

They started from setting up a support group and managing other fans step by step to where they were now.

When the production crew invited them to come for a visit, the girls were very happy to oblige when they heard that it was like an all-expenses paid vacation. They even got to meet with hot stars.

When they arrived, the director very enthusiastically arranged for them to see the stars first. The trip would all be worth it if they got to meet some celebrities.

And this was the first thing they saw.

Since they hadn’t gone live yet, they began to complain quietly to each other without restraint.

Girl A: “Who’s this tryhard?”

Girl B: “That’s Shi Qing. I heard he might be a film emperor. I thought the rumours online about him being overbearing were exaggerating, but it looks like they were right.”

Girl C: “Is he usually like this on set? Surrounded by a group of bodyguards?”

Gao Zhi heard this sentence as he came over. He quickly explained: “No no. Shi-ge isn’t usually like this. He’s just a little eccentric and not used to being in contact with strangers.”

The girls’ expressions became even more complicated.

“Does he have OCD?”

“Er……” How was Gao Zhi supposed to know? He couldn’t make up an excuse because he might end up doing more harm than good. The only thing he could do was to remain vague: “It’s not my place to say haha. It must have been hard on beautiful girls like you to travel for so long. Do you guys want to go to the hotel to rest? I can take you there.”

“It’s okay, we just came from the hotel.”

Girl A quickly waved her hands. “We discussed beforehand to start streaming as soon as we arrived, so we’ll begin now.”

Gao Zhi: “Then should I find a room for everyone to sit in or something? The director just called everyone over so they’re all there right now.”

“No need, we’ll be taking it as it goes here. Got to get some natural footage, you know? By the way Mr. Handsome, you don’t mind showing your face on camera do you?”

“Not at all. Are you going to put me on your stream?”

“Yep. Naturally.”

She opened up the streaming app on her phone and started immediately. The camera was directly aimed at Gao Zhi: “Hey everyone. AA Rabbit here. I’m coming to you live from the set of ‘G.o.d’s Arrival’. This handsome fellow here has been very enthusiastic in answering our questions. Do you want to introduce yourself to the audience?”

Gao Zhi’s time as an a.s.sistant was neither long nor short. This was the first time that he was on a live broadcast. He suddenly had a dry coughing fit: “Um, my name is Gao Zhi. I’m the a.s.sistant of Shi Qing-laoshi. I’m usually in charge of running errands and other things. Um, beauty, maybe you shouldn’t put me on camera. I’m not good-looking enough.”

His words made the three girls laugh.

They obligingly walked past him with their phones out.

The screen was filled with more and more scrolling comments. The news spread like wildfire. The viewers were comprised of not only novel fans, but people whose idols were partic.i.p.ating in this project.

AA Rabbit walked all the way over like this.

As soon as the live broadcast came to where Shi Qing was, there were no comments scrolling on screen anymore.

[I knew before that he was overbearing, but I didn’t expect that he would act this way while fans were visiting too. Would it kill him to be a little more approachable?]

[I’ll telling you that Shi Qing is always like this. Last May, I went to North Guanghai City for a tour while he was having a photoshoot there. My G.o.d, he was surrounded by tall men in black. Three layers inside and three layers outside. I almost thought he was filming a movie about the mob.]

[I can’t understand how he got so popular. What do his fans see in him? He brought all these bodyguards when he knew that there would be a livestream today. Is he trying to show off how rich he is or something?]

Some of Shi Qing’s fans tried to defend their idol: [Shi-ge has always been like this. I heard that he came from a very prominent family, so maybe he’s afraid of being kidnapped.]

[Shi-ge is a public figure. What’s wrong with him protecting himself? Who decided that celebrities can’t have bodyguards?]

[Replying to the one who said artists can’t have bodyguards: They can if they want, but they should read the atmosphere and be more subtle. It doesn’t reflect well on him to bring so many.]

[His fans need to know when to admit defeat. Your idol isn’t someone worth getting worked up over. No one acts like him in the entire entertainment circle. He’s overreacting to a few girls live streaming.]

The System quietly withdrew the current it used to listen in on the live broadcast: [Host, many people are scolding you. What should we do ah.]

[All part of my plan. Just sit back and watch the show.]

Shi Qing sat at the table surrounded by a group of bodyguards. His gloomy appearance seemed to warn others against approaching him.

Cui Yunqing wanted to come over and talk to him, but he was too intimidated by the stocky bodyguards wearing sungla.s.ses.

Instead, it was Jing Yuanqi who patted the shoulder of the nearest bodyguard with a sunny smile: “Mind moving over a bit so I can squeeze in?”

The bodyguard glanced back at his unresponsive employer who was playing with his phone. He frowned and said in a deep voice, “I’m sorry, but Shi-laoshi doesn’t want to speak with anyone.”

Jing Yuanqi wasn’t angry. He was still smiling: “Can I ask about what exactly your task is?”

Shi Qing took these people everywhere he went.

They couldn’t just be a prop to show off his authority, right?

The bodyguard was silent for a few seconds.

To be honest, they too had no idea what they were doing until today.

After all, every time they were called, their employer only requested that they follow him around. It didn’t really matter where.

It was a good thing that their employer gave them more concrete instructions today.

So the bodyguard replied with a serious tone: “To protect Shi-laoshi from harm.”

Jing Yuanqi thought that that was a given. This guy might as well have said nothing at all.

He pushed past the bodyguard in his way and swaggered in.