The sunlight softly poured down on the crowded and redundant high-rise buildings of the metropolis on a leisurely afternoon, the glass surfaces reflecting a blinding light.
One of them was an ornate, old-fashioned house standing in the midst of many modern buildings, appearing a bit out of place, with the traces of age darkening the ivory-white facade and adding a bit of heft to it.
This was an opera house.
In this planet that chased music, opera houses could be found everywhere, and people liked to enjoy beautiful music quietly in the theater, as a way to relieve the urgency of modern society.
And this was nothing more than a small, unassuming theater in the city.
At the moment, the theater was closed, and it hadn’t yet reached the evening business hours, so it looked a little bit bleak.
Inside the theater, opera singers were putting on their make-up for the evening performance.
The stage was also crowded with theater workers who were preparing the sets and props.
Due to the large number of opera sets to be performed tonight, the theater workers were extremely busy.
Especially the heavy stage equipment, two or three people lifted it with their hands until they were red in the face.
The only exception was a man named You Xin.
He was dressed in a simple uniform, surprisingly tall, at least a head taller than the theater workers beside him, but the proportion of his limbs wasn’t exaggerated, but just right.
Flat and broad shoulders connected to a muscular and powerful torso, and the inverted triangle of the human body ratio made him seem like an upright brown bear from a distance, with a heavy sense of oppression.
When he lifted the heavy equipment in silence, his breathing wasn’t even the slightest bit unruffled, and only the lines of his arm muscles tightened slightly, as if he was only lifting an insignificant thing.
Looking at the man’s relaxed posture, the tired gasping for air theater workers looked coldly, the corner of their mouth disdainfully curved, obviously not very friendly to this colleague.
You Xin didn’t seem to notice the antipathy of his colleagues, and was quietly arranging flowers and props.
His long, pale hands were slightly rough from doing heavy work from time to time, but they were surprisingly light.
As if he was obsessive-compulsive, he arranged each bouquet of paper flowers neatly, making sure that the audience seated below the stage could appreciate the flowers’ extremely beautiful gestures from any angle.
And just as the workers were arranging the props, the actors who had finished dressing backstage slowly came on stage.
They were both male and female, all dressed in exquisite and beautiful costumes, talking and laughing as they prepared for the rehearsal.
Among them, a woman in a long white dress stood out.
She was the future pillar of this theater, Ai Li.
Sweet-looking, slender, and as beautiful as a bouquet of lilies, she was the center of attention in the crowd and the leading lady of tonight’s opera performance.
At this moment, she was talking about something with her bosom friend Xiao Mei, her cheeks slightly red.
Her best friend Xiao Mei was even holding her face, full of longing.
On the noisy stage, the whispers between the girls were almost drowned out, and no one seemed to be able to hear or care.
The set on the stage was nearing its end, and the theater manager urged the workers to hurry up and leave and not get in the way of the rehearsal.
No one noticed that among the theater workers walking off the stage, the tall man, You Xin, turned his head back, his cold, hard jawline slightly taut, vaguely showing a bit of indifference.
The figure of the woman in the white dress was reflected in his dark, lightless pupils, the stage lights hit the top of his hair and cast a shadow over his face.
Only when he looked up could you see that the man had a deep scar on his face, slanting across most of his face, just a hair’s breadth away from completely destroying his left eye.
The hideous scar destroyed this face that was originally considered to be decent and handsome, it now appeared to be vicious and horrible, making people fearful even if they looked at it one more time.
At this moment, the tips of his ears trembled, and some unknown emotions seemed to settle in his eyes as he stared at the woman.
Because he heard it.
He heard the woman named Ai Li saying shyly, “I like him too! Never thought I’d like a singer so much!”
“I’m simply in love with him!”
Her best friend Xiao Mei echoed softly, in a tone of suppressed excitement, “I heard he’s going to release an album recently! Goodness gracious! I must buy a hundred copies!”
“Me too ……”
The girls’ voices faded away, and You Xin followed the playwrights out of the stage hall in silence.
People were grouped in twos and threes, dividing You Xin at the end of the crowd.
He didn’t seem to care about being ostracized by his colleagues, he just lowered his head and covered his ugly face with shadows, his eyes were as wooden as ever.
Only his fingertips slowly clenched the uncollected paper flowers in his palm.
The girl he liked seemed to be in love with someone else.
Just now, You Xin heard that unfamiliar name, but didn’t know who he was.
“Speaking of which, do you guys know about that new singer who debuted recently?”
“Is it Jiu Shu? I heard that he seems to be very controversial, those who like him are super fond of him, and those who don’t, hate him to death!”
“Liar, he sings such good songs, are there still people who don’t like him?”
In the distance, the workers seemed to be talking about something as well, and You Xin once again heard that name.
He raised his head and saw that his colleagues who had already walked away were talking and laughing, bumping into each other, “Who knows, there are a lot of freaks in this world hahaha! Isn’t there one behind us?”
They suddenly laughed derisively.
They also thought that they had glanced at You Xin behind them without a trace, and seemed to think that he couldn’t hear them from such a distance, so they intensified their mockery, and their words were harsh and unpleasant to the ears.
The new theater worker didn’t know why, he didn’t understand what was funny and had a puzzled expression.
Seeing this, the other workers began to pour out their grievances, advising the newcomer never to go near the tall, ugly man in the back.
“That’s a psychopath, rumored to kill without blinking an eye, he watched his own mother hang herself without saying a word, if you’re not afraid to die you can go!”
The theater workers began to use extremely exaggerated rhetoric to describe a report from many years ago.
It was a time when the Metropolis was not so developed, and this theater was not so old, being the famous opera house of the whole city.
It was in this theater that a horrible tragedy took place.
A popular opera singer hung herself in the lobby of the theater while her teenage son watched his mother die.
When the body was found, the boy was expressionless and hadn’t shed a tear.
It was said that there were still staff in the theater when the actress hung herself, and that all they had to do was to yell out and they would have come to her rescue.
But the boy just kept his eyes open, didn’t say a word, and let his tall, slender mother hang on the stage like a dead tree branch struggling until she died.
Everyone said it was the boy who resented his mother for cutting his face, and was shocked by the coldness of his nature.
And later, the boy was sent to a mental hospital for hurting someone for no reason, and only recently was he released.
The theater owner kindly took him in and made him a props master in the theater.
Although his skill in making props was really good, everyone was well aware that the man was mentally ill and could kill anyone at any time, so they were unusually opposed to his joining the theater.
However, the brainy boss seemed to think that hiring You Xin was a money saver and was very adamant about his decision.
This resulted in them only being able to ostracize You Xin behind his back, not daring to oppose him openly.
As a matter of fact, if it wasn’t for the fact that You Xin was so tall and strong, they would have secretly made a move to drive him away.
Such a dangerous person stayed in the theater, it made all the employees feel like a fish bone was stuck in their throat, they wished that he had the sense to disappear immediately.
But this psychopath just wouldn’t leave, and stared at people with a grim face all day long, never looking good, as if he would kill at any time.
It made people’s hearts cold and more and more repulsed.
“Just a social trash, an ugly one, him living is a waste of resources!”
The workers even maliciously speculated about the death of the actress in the first place, thinking that the tragic death was very strange.
They couldn’t say that it was a suic.ide, but rather, she was killed by that naturally evil bastard, You Xin.
The workers said, making hangman-like poses and spitting out their bright red tongues to mimic the actress when she died, frightening the new employee’s face to a white color.
He was so frightened that he subconsciously looked behind him.
Only to see the tall man that his colleagues said was still standing in the same place, his size was dauntingly large compared to normal people, and his gaze also happened to look over.
He didn’t know if it was because he had noticed the unfriendly attitude of his colleagues, but the man’s black eyes looked dead in the evening light, and his expression was so flat that it was almost mute.
Those wave-less eyes were like the eyes of a murderer that he had once seen on TV.
The eyes that looked at others were numb and cruel.
It was as if they weren’t his kind, just a pile of walking meat, and he was the butcher with the butcher’s knife.
The new employee shuddered at the look in You Xin’s eyes, hastily averting his gaze and not daring to look at it again, and in his heart he instantly understood his seniors’ distaste for this strange man.
Anyone who was stared at by such eyes would feel ten thousand times more abhorrent.
Even he, who was seeing him for the first time, felt extremely uncomfortable and couldn’t wait to get as far away from this person as possible.
After a while, when the new employee gathered the courage to raise his head again, the tall figure in the distance had already disappeared.
Seeing this, he breathed a sigh of relief and at the same time frowned in disgust just like the seniors around him.
He thought to himself, sure enough, it wasn’t without reason that some people were hated by everyone.
There were just people in this world who had bad natures and didn’t deserve to be human.
Thinking like this, the new employee followed the seniors to the staff lounge, forgetting about that gloomy coworker.
As the afternoon daylight faded, the warm haze of the evening reflected the entire theater in a golden splendor, while You Xin walked in the opposite direction of his colleagues and entered a hidden basement.
This basement, piled with props and sundries, was his staff quarters.
Located directly below the theater’s lobby, you could hear the opera singers singing from the stage overhead as you entered the room.
As usual, You Xin sat at the table facing the stage, waiting for the song of his favorite girl to begin.
It had become a habit for him.
Only this time it was a little different from usual.
His expressionless face drooped slightly as he looked at a newspaper on the table.
It was the evening newspaper that he used to read in the hospital, but now, on the newspaper that was supposed to be all about words, there was an extra black and white photo that took up most of the page.
On the photo was the smiling face of a young man.
His slightly curly short hair covered his forehead, only a pair of bright eyes leaked out from the gaps in his hair, his full lips were glistening with a surfeit of luster, and even the black and white tones couldn’t hide the youth’s mesmerizing beauty.
A capitalized and bolded name was printed right next to the photo, with the headline “New Album Coming Soon”, and two consecutive exclamation points at the beginning of the photo made people instantly feel the excitement of the writer.
Due to his busy work schedule, You Xin hadn’t read the newspaper for more than a month.
At this moment, he looked at the newspaper that had inexplicably appeared on his desk, his dark eyes fixed on the name for a long time.
Jiu Shu.
This unfamiliar and familiar name appeared in the mouths of Ai Li and his colleagues one after another, making it somewhat incomprehensible.
When did this person appear, he knew nothing about it, as if everyone knew this stranger overnight, except him.
You Xin looked at the picture on the newspaper, for some reason, and didn’t move his eyes away for a long time.
He seemed to be thinking, or simply lingering on the unusually eye-catching photo that had been taken.
[He’s pretty, isn’t it!]
An excited voice appeared in his ear, and he recognized it as his sister, You Xin, but found it strange.
It was because her voice was very different from the past.
Usually, You Xin would always voice out sarcastic comments at various inappropriate times, cursing him shrilly for his obsession and actually wanting to be happy.
[Scum like you only deserve to go to hell! How dare you think you can get love! It’s ridiculous!]
[Why don’t you go and die! Go die die die die!!]
[Why are you the only one who survived? Trapped me in this disgusting body!]
[Why don’t you just die like mom said? Let’s go down and be together, you disgusting ghost!]
Those spiteful curses seemed to still echo in the ears, overlapping with the voice of You Xin at that moment.
[Brother, I’m beginning to understand you, because I’ve fallen in love with someone too!]
The hand holding the newspaper tightened slightly as You Xin stared at the beautiful young face on the paper, almost anticipating the name his sister was going to say next.
[His name is Jiu Shu, a lovely name, isn’t it?]
You Xin’s voice was so soft that it seemed to be dripping honey.
‘She’ described the first time she met him.
By chance, she had seen a highly clicked video on her computer of a young man sitting on a stage holding a guitar and singing quietly, his eyes downcast as he looked at the strings, his long, slender eyelashes trembled gently like feathers, his black hair fell down around his ears, he was a kind of heart-stopping beauty.
The small arms exposed outside the sleeves were delicate and fair under the stage light, and his slender and symmetrical legs were wrapped in jeans, hanging down the high stool and lightly tapping to the rhythm.
As he raised his eyes to the camera, You Xin fell.
‘She’ couldn’t help herself from falling in love with this youth who was incredibly beautiful in ‘her’ eyes.
From the youth’s strangely melodic, stirring vocals, the slender fingertips that snapped the strings of the guitar, to his pale cheeks and rosy, full lips.
The cute smile, the short fluffy hair and the eclectic outfit.
You Xin loved everything about him.
She kept speaking of her love like she was in a trance.
At this moment, ‘she’ was like a perfectly normal flower girl, shy and coy, full of the ambiguity and anticipation of a young girl in spring.
The hysteria that she had before in front of You Xin was completely gone.
As she spoke, ‘she’ began to become excited, and kept praising her sweetheart to You Xin [You don’t know how good he is! How lovely!]
[He used to be miserable and had a hard life after coming to Metropolis, but he never gave up and was finally seen ……]
You Xin remained silent.
He listened to his sister, and the infatuated tone made him think that at this moment, You Xin was like the fanatical fans often mentioned in entertainment magazines.
After falling in love with a star they completely lost their minds and were filled with star chasing.
And from ‘her’ topsy-turvy narration, he finally knew the origin of this person named Jiu Shu.
A young man from the countryside who came to the metropolis with a dream in his heart, he participated in many music programs all of which he was eliminated from due to shady practices.
It wasn’t until he finally exhausted his efforts and wrote a song that he finally became a hit and realized his musical dream.
And it was with an incredible speed that he became popular throughout the entire country and even the world.
In just over a month’s time, his live video on the music program broke two billion views, becoming the hottest star of the moment.
However, the public’s evaluation of Jiu Shu, the newly debuted singer, was mixed.
Those who loved him were enamored with his unique style and beautiful voice, and saw him as the brightest star of the new era that would usher in a new era in the history of music.
Even his unkempt, slouchy look had become a fashion statement that people were clamoring to emulate.
At the same time, however, there were many stubborn people who thought that Jiu Shu’s songs, which were full of shrill tones and flippant, upbeat tunes, were sacrilegious to music and went astray.
The only reason it was good was because the singer’s voice was so well-conditioned.
They only recognized that Jiu Shu had a good voice that was rewarded by God, as mesmerizing as the mythical Sirens, with a unique sense of compulsion.
Originally, such a critique, although slightly strict, was quite normal for a singer.
After all, Jiu Shu’s maverick, almost rebellious style was the polar opposite of the classical and soft music scene of today’s era.
It wasn’t unusual for many people to overreact when they couldn’t accept it for a while.
Yet for some reason, his songs seemed to be extraordinarily appealing to those with radical personalities, which had led to a large portion of his fan base being completely intolerant of such criticism.
They were beyond extreme, more arrogant and more powerful than fans of other artists.
They praised everything about Jiu Shu like crazy, paying money to describe him in all sorts of mushy terms in all sorts of newspapers and magazines, or on online platforms.
They believed that Jiu Shu’s songs were the most perfect works in the world, full of the warm breath of life, changing the originally stagnant and decaying music industry.
With no room in their eyes for a drop of sand, they fought with the naysayers and started a long-lasting war of words.
You Xin was one of them.
‘She’ was paranoid that Jiu Shu was the best singer in the world, had gone through a lot of suffering to get to where he was today, and shouldn’t be criticized at all, and frantically cursed in You Xin’s ear at the old, unhealthy music critics who dared to criticize him.
Sitting at the table, You Xin seemed to be listening, but was lost in thought.
His eyes were sunken, and he looked silently at the paper in his hand.
There was not the slightest shade on his smiling youthful countenance, and it was utterly impossible to connect him with the confused strife between these fans.
He had appeared within the public eye a month ago.
And at that time, not long after You Xin had left the asylum, he was too busy adapting to this familiar yet unfamiliar theater, working and living by the book, to notice the changes in the outside world.
Nor did he want to pay attention to the entertainment news.
You Xin’s perception of himself was very clear, he was just an ordinary person struggling to survive at the bottom of society, the glamorous upper class had nothing to do with him.
He preferred a calm life that remained unchanged, and any factor that would trigger a change would make him uneasy and irritable.
But now, it seemed that his peaceful life was about to be shattered by this high and mighty fellow.
His sister and the girl he loved were both in love with this star called Jiu Shu, someone who seemed to be two worlds away from him.
Looking at the picture on the newspaper and meeting those black and white eyes for a moment, he suddenly felt annoyed like never before.
He hated things that would ruin his peaceful life.
He hated the man named You Xin.
With that thought, his eyebrows furrowed in a rare frown.
Since being discharged from the hospital, his moods had rarely fluctuated this much.
In fact, even during his hospitalization, when he was at his most mentally unstable, the expression on his face was mostly one of numb indifference.
Unable to empathize with others since he was a child, he wasn’t good at making any expressions that expressed strong emotions, something even the doctors couldn’t do anything about.
But now, his face actually showed obvious annoyance, an expression that was not very common for You Xin.
Not noticing his resistance, You Xin continued to speak of her beloved boy.
It seemed that she had been holding it in for a long time, and now that she was finally able to voice the love that was surging through her heart, it was difficult to control her mouth.
In the end, even the dark thoughts in her heart were hard to hide [I really want to hide him in a place where no one knows, where it’s just me and him together, staying in one place every moment, or locked together forever with the strongest chains ……]
You Xin’s voice was shy and hopeful.
Fascinated to the point of being unable to help herself, ‘she’ actually broke through the limitations of her master personality, controlling her body’s fingers to gently touch the photo on the newspaper, as if this would bring her closer to her beloved in the photo.
And at that moment, You Xin’s emotions also reached the threshold.
He forcefully withdrew control of his body, his eyes coldly gripping the newspaper in his hand as if he was disgusted with it to the extreme.
With a slight force from his fingers, the newspaper tore from the center, splitting into two halves along with the youth’s beautiful smile.
When he wanted to tear it even more, You Xin looked at the youth’s broken smile and stopped for some reason.
In the end, he simply folded it up neatly and threw it into the trash can at his side.
[No, he’s not cute.]
[It’s not a cute name.]
You Xin replied to his sister’s first question.
And in response he was met with his sister’s hysterical screams [Ahhhhhhh! What are you doing you son of a bitch!!!]
[That’s a newspaper I bought specially for my collection, damn it! Why don’t you fucking die! Fucking dead pig!]
[Bastard Bastard Bastard!!!]
TN:
we shall meet in the ‘morrow, farewell ✌️[see ya tomorrow]
The sunlight softly poured down on the crowded and redundant high-rise buildings of the metropolis on a leisurely afternoon, the glass surfaces reflecting a blinding light.
One of them was an ornate, old-fashioned house standing in the midst of many modern buildings, appearing a bit out of place, with the traces of age darkening the ivory-white facade and adding a bit of heft to it.
This was an opera house.
In this planet that chased music, opera houses could be found everywhere, and people liked to enjoy beautiful music quietly in the theater, as a way to relieve the urgency of modern society.
And this was nothing more than a small, unassuming theater in the city.
At the moment, the theater was closed, and it hadn’t yet reached the evening business hours, so it looked a little bit bleak.
Inside the theater, opera singers were putting on their make-up for the evening performance.
The stage was also crowded with theater workers who were preparing the sets and props.
Due to the large number of opera sets to be performed tonight, the theater workers were extremely busy.
Especially the heavy stage equipment, two or three people lifted it with their hands until they were red in the face.
The only exception was a man named You Xin.
He was dressed in a simple uniform, surprisingly tall, at least a head taller than the theater workers beside him, but the proportion of his limbs wasn’t exaggerated, but just right.
Flat and broad shoulders connected to a muscular and powerful torso, and the inverted triangle of the human body ratio made him seem like an upright brown bear from a distance, with a heavy sense of oppression.
When he lifted the heavy equipment in silence, his breathing wasn’t even the slightest bit unruffled, and only the lines of his arm muscles tightened slightly, as if he was only lifting an insignificant thing.
Looking at the man’s relaxed posture, the tired gasping for air theater workers looked coldly, the corner of their mouth disdainfully curved, obviously not very friendly to this colleague.
You Xin didn’t seem to notice the antipathy of his colleagues, and was quietly arranging flowers and props.
His long, pale hands were slightly rough from doing heavy work from time to time, but they were surprisingly light.
As if he was obsessive-compulsive, he arranged each bouquet of paper flowers neatly, making sure that the audience seated below the stage could appreciate the flowers’ extremely beautiful gestures from any angle.
And just as the workers were arranging the props, the actors who had finished dressing backstage slowly came on stage.
They were both male and female, all dressed in exquisite and beautiful costumes, talking and laughing as they prepared for the rehearsal.
Among them, a woman in a long white dress stood out.
She was the future pillar of this theater, Ai Li.
Sweet-looking, slender, and as beautiful as a bouquet of lilies, she was the center of attention in the crowd and the leading lady of tonight’s opera performance.
At this moment, she was talking about something with her bosom friend Xiao Mei, her cheeks slightly red.
Her best friend Xiao Mei was even holding her face, full of longing.
On the noisy stage, the whispers between the girls were almost drowned out, and no one seemed to be able to hear or care.
The set on the stage was nearing its end, and the theater manager urged the workers to hurry up and leave and not get in the way of the rehearsal.
No one noticed that among the theater workers walking off the stage, the tall man, You Xin, turned his head back, his cold, hard jawline slightly taut, vaguely showing a bit of indifference.
The figure of the woman in the white dress was reflected in his dark, lightless pupils, the stage lights hit the top of his hair and cast a shadow over his face.
Only when he looked up could you see that the man had a deep scar on his face, slanting across most of his face, just a hair’s breadth away from completely destroying his left eye.
The hideous scar destroyed this face that was originally considered to be decent and handsome, it now appeared to be vicious and horrible, making people fearful even if they looked at it one more time.
At this moment, the tips of his ears trembled, and some unknown emotions seemed to settle in his eyes as he stared at the woman.
Because he heard it.
He heard the woman named Ai Li saying shyly, “I like him too! Never thought I’d like a singer so much!”
“I’m simply in love with him!”
Her best friend Xiao Mei echoed softly, in a tone of suppressed excitement, “I heard he’s going to release an album recently! Goodness gracious! I must buy a hundred copies!”
“Me too ……”
The girls’ voices faded away, and You Xin followed the playwrights out of the stage hall in silence.
People were grouped in twos and threes, dividing You Xin at the end of the crowd.
He didn’t seem to care about being ostracized by his colleagues, he just lowered his head and covered his ugly face with shadows, his eyes were as wooden as ever.
Only his fingertips slowly clenched the uncollected paper flowers in his palm.
The girl he liked seemed to be in love with someone else.
Just now, You Xin heard that unfamiliar name, but didn’t know who he was.
“Speaking of which, do you guys know about that new singer who debuted recently?”
“Is it Jiu Shu? I heard that he seems to be very controversial, those who like him are super fond of him, and those who don’t, hate him to death!”
“Liar, he sings such good songs, are there still people who don’t like him?”
In the distance, the workers seemed to be talking about something as well, and You Xin once again heard that name.
He raised his head and saw that his colleagues who had already walked away were talking and laughing, bumping into each other, “Who knows, there are a lot of freaks in this world hahaha! Isn’t there one behind us?”
They suddenly laughed derisively.
They also thought that they had glanced at You Xin behind them without a trace, and seemed to think that he couldn’t hear them from such a distance, so they intensified their mockery, and their words were harsh and unpleasant to the ears.
The new theater worker didn’t know why, he didn’t understand what was funny and had a puzzled expression.
Seeing this, the other workers began to pour out their grievances, advising the newcomer never to go near the tall, ugly man in the back.
“That’s a psychopath, rumored to kill without blinking an eye, he watched his own mother hang herself without saying a word, if you’re not afraid to die you can go!”
The theater workers began to use extremely exaggerated rhetoric to describe a report from many years ago.
It was a time when the Metropolis was not so developed, and this theater was not so old, being the famous opera house of the whole city.
It was in this theater that a horrible tragedy took place.
A popular opera singer hung herself in the lobby of the theater while her teenage son watched his mother die.
When the body was found, the boy was expressionless and hadn’t shed a tear.
It was said that there were still staff in the theater when the actress hung herself, and that all they had to do was to yell out and they would have come to her rescue.
But the boy just kept his eyes open, didn’t say a word, and let his tall, slender mother hang on the stage like a dead tree branch struggling until she died.
Everyone said it was the boy who resented his mother for cutting his face, and was shocked by the coldness of his nature.
And later, the boy was sent to a mental hospital for hurting someone for no reason, and only recently was he released.
The theater owner kindly took him in and made him a props master in the theater.
Although his skill in making props was really good, everyone was well aware that the man was mentally ill and could kill anyone at any time, so they were unusually opposed to his joining the theater.
However, the brainy boss seemed to think that hiring You Xin was a money saver and was very adamant about his decision.
This resulted in them only being able to ostracize You Xin behind his back, not daring to oppose him openly.
As a matter of fact, if it wasn’t for the fact that You Xin was so tall and strong, they would have secretly made a move to drive him away.
Such a dangerous person stayed in the theater, it made all the employees feel like a fish bone was stuck in their throat, they wished that he had the sense to disappear immediately.
But this psychopath just wouldn’t leave, and stared at people with a grim face all day long, never looking good, as if he would kill at any time.
It made people’s hearts cold and more and more repulsed.
“Just a social trash, an ugly one, him living is a waste of resources!”
The workers even maliciously speculated about the death of the actress in the first place, thinking that the tragic death was very strange.
They couldn’t say that it was a suic.ide, but rather, she was killed by that naturally evil bastard, You Xin.
The workers said, making hangman-like poses and spitting out their bright red tongues to mimic the actress when she died, frightening the new employee’s face to a white color.
He was so frightened that he subconsciously looked behind him.
Only to see the tall man that his colleagues said was still standing in the same place, his size was dauntingly large compared to normal people, and his gaze also happened to look over.
He didn’t know if it was because he had noticed the unfriendly attitude of his colleagues, but the man’s black eyes looked dead in the evening light, and his expression was so flat that it was almost mute.
Those wave-less eyes were like the eyes of a murderer that he had once seen on TV.
The eyes that looked at others were numb and cruel.
It was as if they weren’t his kind, just a pile of walking meat, and he was the butcher with the butcher’s knife.
The new employee shuddered at the look in You Xin’s eyes, hastily averting his gaze and not daring to look at it again, and in his heart he instantly understood his seniors’ distaste for this strange man.
Anyone who was stared at by such eyes would feel ten thousand times more abhorrent.
Even he, who was seeing him for the first time, felt extremely uncomfortable and couldn’t wait to get as far away from this person as possible.
After a while, when the new employee gathered the courage to raise his head again, the tall figure in the distance had already disappeared.
Seeing this, he breathed a sigh of relief and at the same time frowned in disgust just like the seniors around him.
He thought to himself, sure enough, it wasn’t without reason that some people were hated by everyone.
There were just people in this world who had bad natures and didn’t deserve to be human.
Thinking like this, the new employee followed the seniors to the staff lounge, forgetting about that gloomy coworker.
As the afternoon daylight faded, the warm haze of the evening reflected the entire theater in a golden splendor, while You Xin walked in the opposite direction of his colleagues and entered a hidden basement.
This basement, piled with props and sundries, was his staff quarters.
Located directly below the theater’s lobby, you could hear the opera singers singing from the stage overhead as you entered the room.
As usual, You Xin sat at the table facing the stage, waiting for the song of his favorite girl to begin.
It had become a habit for him.
Only this time it was a little different from usual.
His expressionless face drooped slightly as he looked at a newspaper on the table.
It was the evening newspaper that he used to read in the hospital, but now, on the newspaper that was supposed to be all about words, there was an extra black and white photo that took up most of the page.
On the photo was the smiling face of a young man.
His slightly curly short hair covered his forehead, only a pair of bright eyes leaked out from the gaps in his hair, his full lips were glistening with a surfeit of luster, and even the black and white tones couldn’t hide the youth’s mesmerizing beauty.
A capitalized and bolded name was printed right next to the photo, with the headline “New Album Coming Soon”, and two consecutive exclamation points at the beginning of the photo made people instantly feel the excitement of the writer.
Due to his busy work schedule, You Xin hadn’t read the newspaper for more than a month.
At this moment, he looked at the newspaper that had inexplicably appeared on his desk, his dark eyes fixed on the name for a long time.
Jiu Shu.
This unfamiliar and familiar name appeared in the mouths of Ai Li and his colleagues one after another, making it somewhat incomprehensible.
When did this person appear, he knew nothing about it, as if everyone knew this stranger overnight, except him.
You Xin looked at the picture on the newspaper, for some reason, and didn’t move his eyes away for a long time.
He seemed to be thinking, or simply lingering on the unusually eye-catching photo that had been taken.
[He’s pretty, isn’t it!]
An excited voice appeared in his ear, and he recognized it as his sister, You Xin, but found it strange.
It was because her voice was very different from the past.
Usually, You Xin would always voice out sarcastic comments at various inappropriate times, cursing him shrilly for his obsession and actually wanting to be happy.
[Scum like you only deserve to go to hell! How dare you think you can get love! It’s ridiculous!]
[Why don’t you go and die! Go die die die die!!]
[Why are you the only one who survived? Trapped me in this disgusting body!]
[Why don’t you just die like mom said? Let’s go down and be together, you disgusting ghost!]
Those spiteful curses seemed to still echo in the ears, overlapping with the voice of You Xin at that moment.
[Brother, I’m beginning to understand you, because I’ve fallen in love with someone too!]
The hand holding the newspaper tightened slightly as You Xin stared at the beautiful young face on the paper, almost anticipating the name his sister was going to say next.
[His name is Jiu Shu, a lovely name, isn’t it?]
You Xin’s voice was so soft that it seemed to be dripping honey.
‘She’ described the first time she met him.
By chance, she had seen a highly clicked video on her computer of a young man sitting on a stage holding a guitar and singing quietly, his eyes downcast as he looked at the strings, his long, slender eyelashes trembled gently like feathers, his black hair fell down around his ears, he was a kind of heart-stopping beauty.
The small arms exposed outside the sleeves were delicate and fair under the stage light, and his slender and symmetrical legs were wrapped in jeans, hanging down the high stool and lightly tapping to the rhythm.
As he raised his eyes to the camera, You Xin fell.
‘She’ couldn’t help herself from falling in love with this youth who was incredibly beautiful in ‘her’ eyes.
From the youth’s strangely melodic, stirring vocals, the slender fingertips that snapped the strings of the guitar, to his pale cheeks and rosy, full lips.
The cute smile, the short fluffy hair and the eclectic outfit.
You Xin loved everything about him.
She kept speaking of her love like she was in a trance.
At this moment, ‘she’ was like a perfectly normal flower girl, shy and coy, full of the ambiguity and anticipation of a young girl in spring.
The hysteria that she had before in front of You Xin was completely gone.
As she spoke, ‘she’ began to become excited, and kept praising her sweetheart to You Xin [You don’t know how good he is! How lovely!]
[He used to be miserable and had a hard life after coming to Metropolis, but he never gave up and was finally seen ……]
You Xin remained silent.
He listened to his sister, and the infatuated tone made him think that at this moment, You Xin was like the fanatical fans often mentioned in entertainment magazines.
After falling in love with a star they completely lost their minds and were filled with star chasing.
And from ‘her’ topsy-turvy narration, he finally knew the origin of this person named Jiu Shu.
A young man from the countryside who came to the metropolis with a dream in his heart, he participated in many music programs all of which he was eliminated from due to shady practices.
It wasn’t until he finally exhausted his efforts and wrote a song that he finally became a hit and realized his musical dream.
And it was with an incredible speed that he became popular throughout the entire country and even the world.
In just over a month’s time, his live video on the music program broke two billion views, becoming the hottest star of the moment.
However, the public’s evaluation of Jiu Shu, the newly debuted singer, was mixed.
Those who loved him were enamored with his unique style and beautiful voice, and saw him as the brightest star of the new era that would usher in a new era in the history of music.
Even his unkempt, slouchy look had become a fashion statement that people were clamoring to emulate.
At the same time, however, there were many stubborn people who thought that Jiu Shu’s songs, which were full of shrill tones and flippant, upbeat tunes, were sacrilegious to music and went astray.
The only reason it was good was because the singer’s voice was so well-conditioned.
They only recognized that Jiu Shu had a good voice that was rewarded by God, as mesmerizing as the mythical Sirens, with a unique sense of compulsion.
Originally, such a critique, although slightly strict, was quite normal for a singer.
After all, Jiu Shu’s maverick, almost rebellious style was the polar opposite of the classical and soft music scene of today’s era.
It wasn’t unusual for many people to overreact when they couldn’t accept it for a while.
Yet for some reason, his songs seemed to be extraordinarily appealing to those with radical personalities, which had led to a large portion of his fan base being completely intolerant of such criticism.
They were beyond extreme, more arrogant and more powerful than fans of other artists.
They praised everything about Jiu Shu like crazy, paying money to describe him in all sorts of mushy terms in all sorts of newspapers and magazines, or on online platforms.
They believed that Jiu Shu’s songs were the most perfect works in the world, full of the warm breath of life, changing the originally stagnant and decaying music industry.
With no room in their eyes for a drop of sand, they fought with the naysayers and started a long-lasting war of words.
You Xin was one of them.
‘She’ was paranoid that Jiu Shu was the best singer in the world, had gone through a lot of suffering to get to where he was today, and shouldn’t be criticized at all, and frantically cursed in You Xin’s ear at the old, unhealthy music critics who dared to criticize him.
Sitting at the table, You Xin seemed to be listening, but was lost in thought.
His eyes were sunken, and he looked silently at the paper in his hand.
There was not the slightest shade on his smiling youthful countenance, and it was utterly impossible to connect him with the confused strife between these fans.
He had appeared within the public eye a month ago.
And at that time, not long after You Xin had left the asylum, he was too busy adapting to this familiar yet unfamiliar theater, working and living by the book, to notice the changes in the outside world.
Nor did he want to pay attention to the entertainment news.
You Xin’s perception of himself was very clear, he was just an ordinary person struggling to survive at the bottom of society, the glamorous upper class had nothing to do with him.
He preferred a calm life that remained unchanged, and any factor that would trigger a change would make him uneasy and irritable.
But now, it seemed that his peaceful life was about to be shattered by this high and mighty fellow.
His sister and the girl he loved were both in love with this star called Jiu Shu, someone who seemed to be two worlds away from him.
Looking at the picture on the newspaper and meeting those black and white eyes for a moment, he suddenly felt annoyed like never before.
He hated things that would ruin his peaceful life.
He hated the man named You Xin.
With that thought, his eyebrows furrowed in a rare frown.
Since being discharged from the hospital, his moods had rarely fluctuated this much.
In fact, even during his hospitalization, when he was at his most mentally unstable, the expression on his face was mostly one of numb indifference.
Unable to empathize with others since he was a child, he wasn’t good at making any expressions that expressed strong emotions, something even the doctors couldn’t do anything about.
But now, his face actually showed obvious annoyance, an expression that was not very common for You Xin.
Not noticing his resistance, You Xin continued to speak of her beloved boy.
It seemed that she had been holding it in for a long time, and now that she was finally able to voice the love that was surging through her heart, it was difficult to control her mouth.
In the end, even the dark thoughts in her heart were hard to hide [I really want to hide him in a place where no one knows, where it’s just me and him together, staying in one place every moment, or locked together forever with the strongest chains ……]
You Xin’s voice was shy and hopeful.
Fascinated to the point of being unable to help herself, ‘she’ actually broke through the limitations of her master personality, controlling her body’s fingers to gently touch the photo on the newspaper, as if this would bring her closer to her beloved in the photo.
And at that moment, You Xin’s emotions also reached the threshold.
He forcefully withdrew control of his body, his eyes coldly gripping the newspaper in his hand as if he was disgusted with it to the extreme.
With a slight force from his fingers, the newspaper tore from the center, splitting into two halves along with the youth’s beautiful smile.
When he wanted to tear it even more, You Xin looked at the youth’s broken smile and stopped for some reason.
In the end, he simply folded it up neatly and threw it into the trash can at his side.
[No, he’s not cute.]
[It’s not a cute name.]
You Xin replied to his sister’s first question.
And in response he was met with his sister’s hysterical screams [Ahhhhhhh! What are you doing you son of a bitch!!!]
[That’s a newspaper I bought specially for my collection, damn it! Why don’t you fucking die! Fucking dead pig!]
[Bastard Bastard Bastard!!!]
TN:
we shall meet in the ‘morrow, farewell ✌️[see ya tomorrow]
Thank you for the translation and update!
Just for information, it seem like the chapter text is repeated
Hiya, I’ll go through it in a bit, ty for pointing it out
Sister you xin is so real for that if my brother tore up a photocard/print of my husbando or waifus I would do worse than beat him up XD
Haha I remember reading this chapter back then and sensing how this Arc would play out… Good times, good times 😀