Qiong Ren had read The Peach Blossom Fan a few years earlier, but because he had never been in a good financial situation, he had bought the unillustrated e-book version for a mere one yuan ninety-nine cents.
The reason he was been so poor all these years wasn’t just because his income was really, really low, but because he was been making payments to his foster mom on time. Although his adoptive mother had little enthusiasm for children, she hadn’t missed out on hiring a teacher for Qiong Ren during the years he was adopted.
Because Qiong Ren loved to dance, his adoptive mother invited the most famous dance studio teacher at that time to his home to teach him personally. Qiong Ren felt that his ability to be able to do what he was doing now had a very important relationship with his adoptive mother’s willingness to spend money.
Qiong Ren roughly calculated the cost of the four years he was adopted, so he set a repayment plan according to his monthly income.
The two hadn’t communicated over the years, and Qiong Ren had made regular monthly payments to her bank card. But now that he was making more money, he had almost finished paying it off.
When he bought books in the future, he wouldn’t have to be stingy to buy unillustrated electronic versions, he could buy hardcover editions for his collection.
This was the first time he had seen the looks of the archetypal characters. The two overly familiar faces gave him a sense of traveling through a trance.
Both Emperor Song and Secretary Jin were wearing suits and it looked like they were taking wedding photos at first glance. Except for Secretary Jin, it seemed like no secretary would dare to be with a King. However, the two weren’t as close as a real couple, but they were just superior and subordinate with some subtle differences.
According to the information, Jin Xuecheng’s acting career was very difficult and he didn’t become famous until his death. Otherwise, Qiong Ren wouldn’t have been unaware that Secretary Jin was Jin Xuecheng.
It was said that the relationship between Xu Li and Jin Xuecheng was very bumpy, apart from the restrictions of the times and other reasons, it was also because Xu Li had a very high status in the Pearly Gates Troupe, while Jin Xuecheng was never popular.
The relatively closed environment of the troupe at the time was at odds with the singing world, which was being impacted by pop culture.
After Jin Xuesheng’s accidental death, Xu Li was so grief-stricken that his voice completely collapsed and had since withdrawn from the Li Xue Theater Troupe he founded.
Although there was no good ending in the information and novels, Emperor Song was, after all, one of the Ten Temple’s Kings, and to be able to keep his lover by his side even after his death was already a blessing that was hard for others to reach.
He just didn’t know if this identity of Xu Li was an incarnation of Emperor Song or a reincarnation.
But not everything in the information was necessarily true.
He closed the pages of the book and sent a WeChat to Secretary Jin.
[Work hard to get rich: If a movie is made based on you and Emperor Song, do you mind?]
[Secretary Jin: “Peach Blossom Fan”? That was written by Emperor Song, I don’t have any relationship with him beyond work. Who is going to make it, I’ll send a dream to terrorize the investors, these people are more superstitious than one another anyway.]
[Work hard to get rich: ah …… I took a role in it.]
[Secretary Jin: Baby, go for it! I’ll pack a hundred theaters to support it after it’s released!]
The message was immediately withdrawn.
[Secretary Jin: Do you need me to send a dream for them to give you a raise?]
[Work hard to get rich: No need ……]
Just now, he seemed, to see Secretary Jin’s persona fall apart ……
But Secretary Jin didn’t mind him being in Peach Blossom Fan, happy. Consent of the parties +1.
He texted Emperor Song too.
[Work hard to get rich: I’ll be acting as Ming Chen in Peach Blossom Fan.]
[Emperor Song: Cub is great, I’m very happy that you’re starring in this production. Whispering, the original was written by Secretary Jin, he’s very shy, so don’t reveal that you know about it. He and I are just purely superior and subordinate. When it’s released, I’ll be sure to organize a viewing for all Third Temple employees.]
[Emperor Song: Do you need me to send a dream for them to raise your paycheck? That group of people in show business are more superstitious than one another.]
Qiong Ren: “……”
You two should get married for heaven’s sake.
In a flash, it was the filming day of “The Book of Torture Devices”.
HBL2003 drove to pick him up. Qiong Ren looked at the empty driver’s seat and lost his breath for a moment.
“Isn’t this not very …… good,” said Qiong Ren, “If you drive on the road like this, will you scare the drivers on the road and cause traffic accidents?”
A mechanical electronic voice came out from the car compartment, “There is a patented anti-peeping technology from the underworld on the car, living people won’t notice this car at all, the owner of the owner, please don’t worry.”
“It’s very much like cheating on your word count when you call me that.”
HBL2003: “Then I’ll call you Boss Qiong.”
Qiong Ren: “Just boss, don’t add that word!”
[TN: Qiong means poor ]
On the way to the underworld, Qiong Ren couldn’t help but sigh, this was what was called autopilot, AI was nothing, the computer-adulted central control system was the real hardcore.
The shooting location was in the magazine’s torture equipment warehouse, once Qiong Ren entered, he saw countless various kinds of torture equipment, some of which he had seen on TV, such as wolfsbane rods, iron virgins, whips, knives and saws, and some of which he had absolutely no idea what they were used for.
Wan Man greeted him warmly and took the initiative to introduce him to the various types of torture instruments. The Complete Book of Torture Devices had been revamped to be more like a general fashion magazine, but the torture instrument column still occupied a large number of pages.
As the editor-in-chief, she knew a lot about torture devices.
For example, the small pieces of iron that he couldn’t understand at all, Wan Man said that they were the iron rain at the Knife Wheel of Equal Living Underworld.
Those who killed others with knives because of greed would be punished in the Underworld of Waiting after death. These small pieces of iron were condensed after the iron rain from the sky cooled down.
As they walked along and were introduced, they came to a nail rake.
Qiong Ren: “Isn’t this the weapon of the second elder brother, is this also a torture device?”
Wan Man stifled a cold laugh, “This was specially customized by me and has only been used to punish one person.”
Qiong Ren: “Who? Wu Chengen?”
The Jade-faced Princess in Journey to the West was killed by Zhu Baije’s rake.
Wan Man revealed her short pointed fangs in a flash: “Wu! Cheng! En!”
Qiong Ren: “……”
Wan Man lightly twisted the huge nail rake, turned it around in her hand a few times, and viciously nailed it to the pillar, the nine iron teeth instantly nailing the pillar through.
“Dramas aren’t nonsense, adaptations aren’t nonsense, this truth, the living just don’t understand.”
It turns out that Wan Yucheng’s self-proclaimed Jade Face King title wasn’t a coincidence, Wan Man was the prototype of the Jade Face Princess in Journey to the West.
She was a young female fox at that time and hadn’t yet transformed into a human form, she liked to listen to stories.
Once, she accidentally got a few chapters about Journey to the West, and became ecstatic. She woke up and stopped dreaming that she’d be the number one saint in the world, leaving behind her cultivation. She was only thinking about the author’s quick updates, but there were too few to read. Could the author write ten thousand words today? Could he continue to work hard as an author?
She was afraid that the author couldn’t eat well and couldn’t sleep, which would affect the creation of the author, from time to time she quietly sent him some ginseng, wormwood and old mountain chicken.
Once, unfortunately, she was caught by Wu Chengen. She was clearly going to deliver newly picked plums, but Wu Chengen saw her as a fox stealing food.
Wan Man hadn’t yet transformed into a human form at that time, and was unable to defend herself against the misunderstanding. Her maiden fox heart suffered a great blow, and from then on, she practiced seriously, and never read any more novels.
By the time she took human form, Wu Chengen had already died, and Journey to the West had become a bestseller. She was successful in her cultivation at that time, her mind was calm, and she was no longer angry with Wu Chengen, and she was thinking about whether the Monkey King had dumped the Tang Monk to go solo, so she went to buy a copy of Journey to the West to read it.
“I never thought that this person’s heart was malicious to that extent. Slandering me for stealing, that’s fine, it can barely be said to be a misunderstanding. But he actually smeared me in the book, saying that I was a concubine of Bull Demon King, and still ended up being killed by Piggy. Zhu Bajie! What I hate the most is Pigsy!”
Green light flashed in Wan Man’s eyes, a layer of short hairs floated on her face, just like her original form: “After watching the Journey to the West I was furious and personally made this nail rake, it was used on him for three months in the underworld.”
Qiong Ren: “Then, then what?”
Wan Man said resentfully, “He quickly reincarnated. Count on him running fast.”
Wan Man’s father was the Hail Fox King, and her title was originally Princess Jade Face. But because Journey to the West was so popular, she didn’t dare to use this title at all, otherwise everyone else’s first reaction would be: ah, King Bull Demon’s mistress.
So Fruit Fox aka Jade Face Fox, Jade Face Princess was as the same as Fruit Fox Princess in Wan Man’s eyes. But there was still a big difference between not wanting to use it and being forced to not be able to use it.
Qiong Ren felt that Wan Man was indeed innocent, but it seemed that Wu Chengen couldn’t be completely blamed, after all, even if the author wrote about spirits and gods, it didn’t mean that he himself believed that these demons, ghosts and gods did exist.
It was estimated that Wu Chengen had heard of the legend of the Jade-faced Princess, so he wrote it into the novel as material in passing.
After a series of bloody and horrifying torture devices, Qiong Ren suddenly saw a wifi router, and he thought his eyes were blurry.
“This is also a torture device?”
Wan Man: “Of course. Times are evolving, and the punishments in the underworld are always being updated. If one has ever harmed others by indulging in the internet in their lifetime, but the circumstances are not serious, they have to be punished by this torture device.”
“The maximum internet speed of this wifi is 1kb/s, and it takes ten minutes to load a plain text webpage. The computers and cell phones used for the prisoners do not provide a download function, and the cache is automatically cleared in ten minutes. The ultra-low internet speed router can make the sinner’s mind suffer for a long time, the online world he longs for is right in front of him, but he can only see the door, but can’t take a step in.”
Qiong Ren thought that this torture device must have been specially sponsored by Thousand Degrees Internet Router ……
It was so good at torturing people with internet speed.
After the cursory tour, Qiong Ren went to do his makeup and hair. The makeup artist was an octopus, he waved his eight tentacles, up and down, left and right in unison, and within ten minutes the makeup and hair were finished together.
It was just amazing, there was really a lot of talents in the underworld.
The octopus looked at his work and marveled, his tentacles flying all over the sky, almost breaking the mirror.
Qiong Ren looked at his tentacles and silently thought to himself, grilled octopus seemed delicious.
The octopus followed his line of sight to look at his own tentacles, and not only did he not get angry, he instead enthusiastically introduced himself, “Want to eat? My tentacles smell especially good when roasted.”
Qiong Ren sucked in his saliva for a moment, “That’s not very good.”
“It’s okay, it’ll grow back anyway.” Octopus said, “After Wan Man settled on a theme, my nine brains started fighting, each thinking differently. It was only when I saw you just now that I completely settled on it. Now I’m very happy with it and I think it’s probably the best makeup I’ve done in recent memory.”
“Styles and people always fulfill each other, so you’re entitled to my grilled tentacles.”
As much as the octopus said it with affection, and as much as it sounded and smelled really good, eating intelligent creatures was just so anti-human! Qiong Ren believed that he had not yet reached this level of insanity.
For this shooting, Qiong Ren had been silently anticipating one thing.
That was whether or not his neighbor would voluntarily drop his disguise or not.
Today’s shoot was the cover, and it would be the first time King Yan appeared in a photo, so he couldn’t still be shooting with a high-fuzzy face. Even if he didn’t drop his vest on the spot, Qiong Ren could still buy the magazine and read it. He shouldn’t be so bad as to specialize in a spell that only made him unable to see his face ……
Qiong Ren did his makeup and hair, changed his clothes, and followed the guide to the door of the torture equipment warehouse.
The first set of covers were shot at the torture equipment warehouse.
Qiong Ren’s outfit today was somewhat similar to the statue at home. His eyebrows were outlined with a red line, his long eyebrows were slanted, and the end of his eyebrows were pulled out in a little arc. The corners of his eyes were haloed in a light red color, and his eyeliner was also outlined in vermilion.
His lips were traced along the original line, pressing his rosy lip color down slightly.
His hair was knotted into pigtails and gathered to the top of his head, secured with gold rings.
He was topless, with arm bands clasped around his arms. Delicate and intricately crafted necklaces dangled down the line of his beautiful neck, layered in a way that barely covered his chest a bit, and his abs were clearly defined on his powerfully lean waist.
Underneath, he wore lanternza pants and jeweled anklets around his ankles.
He originally had honey-colored skin, these gorgeous and grand colors on him not only did not feel old and heavy, but instead lined his bright eyes like stars, just standing there, there was a gorgeous and majestic feeling that made people not dare to look.
It was as if to be moved by his current appearance would itself be blasphemy to this heavenly god-like youth.
Wan Man looked thrilled, this was the look she wanted.
“King Yan is here.”
A whisper resounded intensely, spoken by a vine moonflower, its branches reached in through the window and hung carelessly from different instruments of torture.
Each flower spoke, softly.
Qiong Ren looked around in all directions, where was he ……
Even if he refused to show his face, his figure was already familiar to Qiong Ren, and as long as he came, there was no way he wouldn’t be able to recognize him.
“Go this way.”
Wan Man took him to the set up shooting location, which was on the inside of the torture vault, which was large and required a bit of a walk.
The further in it went, the colder it got, and it seemed to smell faintly of blood.
Qiong Ren wondered if perhaps the torture devices weren’t samples.
He passed by a forest of green leaves, and was wondering why there were actually woods interspersed with the torture instruments. When he walked next to it, Wan Man reminded him to be careful not to cut himself, and only then did he realize that it wasn’t really a leaf, but a knife with a sharp edge on both sides.
Qiong Ren turned away from the forest of blades and leaves, and finally arrived at the shooting site, where the torture instruments were obviously specially selected, each of which was hideous and terrifying, glowing with a ghostly cold light.
In the midst of all these hideous and cold torture tools, there was a red lotus flower with a startling color.
This lotus flower was very big, taller than Qiong Ren, rhizomes rooted in the shallow pool of black rock as the bottom, it looked particularly unreasonable, but also inexplicably shocking.
The moment he saw it, Qiong Ren was robbed of his breath by this red lotus.
Before this, he could never have believed that there could be such a perfect creation in the world.
It seemed as if even the curvature of its petals curved contained the supreme truth.
He froze for a long time.
The camera assistant tried to get his attention, but was stopped by the photographer, Tong Wenbai.
Tong Wenbai was excited and whispered, “Although it was unplanned, this image is great.”
As if compelled by the red lotus, the beautiful youth stepped one foot into the shallow pool, which moistened his ankles. The pale gold veil was semi-translucent against his calves, and those ankles were slender without looking weak.
His hand reached for the lotus petals, and his body followed, extending a beautiful curve as if it were a prelude to a painting.
The youth tilted his head and lowered his eyes, his face slowly leaning over, as if an invisible force was pulling him closer to the red lotus.
The photographer subconsciously stopped breathing. Even though he didn’t need to breathe in the first place. But he had gotten used to using the rhythm of breathing to control the camera. He should have captured this most beautiful scene, but he forgot.
With his lips and the lotus petals already extremely close but still not touching, the youth slowly opened his eyes and smiled, “You are the most perfect of all the things I have seen.”
TN:
Doneeee.
See ya tomorrow ✌️
I can’t stop laughing about the torture devices, who would have thought that even the internet would be used as a torture device 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Aaaahhh the lotus scene is really gorgeous 😍😍😍😍