At 3:30 in the afternoon, S City TV’s hit variety show ‘Hello Holiday’ ended the first half of its recording and entered the intermission.
Hu Biao, the agent of the IUD boy group, smiled and nodded in greeting to the passing staff as he quickly walked into the guest lounge.
In the lounge, the makeup artist and assistant were touching up the makeup of the group members. Hu Biao saw there were no outsiders in the room and immediately removed his expression. He looked at the only member in the corner who wasn’t surrounded by an assistant and makeup artist and lowered his voice, speaking angrily, “What were you doing just now when you didn’t cooperate? The host gave you a chance and you didn’t answer a single word. He asked you to cooperate in the game and you sleepwalked the whole way. You also showed a dead face without any expression. What do you want to do? Rebel?”
The captain Mo Bin got up and persuaded him, “Brother Biao, don’t be angry. Yang Yang is still young. You gave his audition opportunity to Ah Lan yesterday so it is normal for him to have a bit of a temper today.”
Mo Bin’s persuasion wasn’t good and just made Hu Biao angrier.
“Is that an opportunity? With his acting skills, letting him go to the audition is just asking him to to blackened. I—”
There was a knock on the door of the lounge. The staff came in to invite the guests to the stage to record the second half of the show.
Hu Biao stopped talking. He adjusted his expression before opening the door and speaking a few words to the staff. Then he closed the door again and suppressed his anger as he spoke, “Xie Yang, stay here. The others will continue to record the problem. Later, I’ll let Ah Wen come to pick up Xie Yang to go to the hospital. Remember to say that Xie Yang’s sullen face was due to a sudden emergency and he insisted on continuing to work despite his illness, understood?”
Everyone didn’t dare touch Hu Biao and expressed their understanding. Only Xie Yang remained silent.
Hu Biao’s chest was filled with anger. He wanted to scold Xie Yang but the occasion wasn’t right. He simply didn’t want to look at this person and left two assistants behind to watch Xie Yang before leaving the lounge with the others.
In less than two minutes, Ah Wen came in and took Xie Yang to the hospital. After getting in the car, Ah Wen saw that Xie Yang kept turning his head and looking out the window. Ah Wen thought this person was feeling wronged and persuaded him, “Yang Yang, don’t think about it. You are all children in the same team and you are all of equal importance. This time, Brother Biao gave your chance to Ke Lan but he will surely find one for you in another place.”
Xie Yang didn’t speak and kept looking out the window.
“In fact, Brother Biao did this for your own good. Your acting skills aren’t great and you have to learn more and work harder. Ke Lang is specifically trained so this time he…”
Ah Wen rambled nonstop and Xie Yang didn’t hear a single word. He stared at the bustling cards outside the window before closing his eyes like it was a dream. Was this an… illusion? He should be dead…
The driver suddenly slowed down. Ah Wen stopped talking and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“It looks like there was a car accident ahead.”
“Can you go around?”
“I’ll try.”
The driver started to change lanes and as they passed by the accident site, Ah Wen looked over.
A black car with a license plate that was a string of 9 was parked diagonally on the side of the road. The front of the car that was hit had a dent in it. On the opposite side, a white car with a license plate ending in 566 was damaged.“Huh? 566?” Ah Wen signalled for the driver to drive slower and looked over with surprise. “Isn’t this Mu Zhouyi’s car?”
Xie Yang’s ears caught the name ‘Mu Zhouyi’. It was a slightly familiar name that wasn’t very common An inexplicable feeling seized his heart and he straightened to look at the scene of the accident.
A crowd had surrounded the scene of the accident. In the distance, a slender figure wearing a backless fishtail dress got down from the white car and ran toward the black car.
Mu Zhouyi, a white fishtail dress, a car accident… Wasn’t this the beginning of the simple and superficial entertainment circle novel that he picked up at a temporary hiding house a few days ago? On the way to an important dinner party, Mu Zhouyi, the female lead, collided with the male lead Feng Qingli’s car. The female protagonist was okay but the male protagonist hurt his head and was unconscious. The female protagonist insisted on sending the male protagonist to the hospital in person. In the process, she dirtied the high-end white fishtail dress she borrowed and this caused a series of problems…
“It seems like it really is Mu Zhouyi.” Ah Wen retracted his gaze and took out his phone to call Hu Biao.
The car turned and the scene of the accident could no longer be seen. Xie Yang retracted his gaze and frowned as he listened to Ah Wen and Hu Biao’s phone call. What exactly was going on? He gazed at his hands that were too young and delicate. If everything he saw was just an illusion before he died, it was too real.
Half an hour later, the car arrived at a private hospital.
Ah Wen got off with Xie Yang and was very skilled in finding a doctor to arrange a few routine small examinations for Xie Yang. Then he took a photo of Xie Yang’s examination and sent it to Hu Biao.
“Later, the company will find someone to release an article about your emergency admission. You stay in the hospital for two days and don’t run away. I will let Li Li come and take care of you.”
Xie Yang touched the pinprick left from his blood being drawn from his arm and his eyes fell on the TV in the ward without speaking.
Ah Wen glanced at the door of the ward and whispered, “Yang Yang, don’t waste time on this insignificant problem. After all, you joined the group later and you are someone who is enjoying the popularity of the other members. Based on your current position, suffering losses is a blessing, you know?”
When it came to Xie Yang’s principle of handling, ‘suffering losses is a blessing’ was the biggest lie. He looked at Ah Wen, finger pressed against the pinprick on his arm and nodded.
Ah Wen thought he listened and nodded in a pleased manner before ordered, “Also, you should act like you didn’t see Mu Zhouyi’s car accident. She is a bit evil and it is better to be less involved with her, understood?”
Evil?
Xie Yang raised his finger and nodded again. Ah Wen was satisfied and went outside to call Li Li.
He was finally able to be alone. Xie Yang’s tense body slightly relaxed and he found the TV remote control to turn up the sound.
“…The chairman of the Rongding Group, Qiu Xing was discharged from the hospital this morning. This is the third time this year that he has fallen ill at work and his condition might’ve deteriorated again. It is reported that Qiu Xing is considering handing over management of Rongding to act behind the scenes and recuperate in peace…”
Qiu Xing, it was another name he had seen in the novel. Xie Yang had a guess in his heart as he turned off the TV and searched his body, eventually finding an old fruit-brand mobile phone.
In the apocalypse, the magnetic field was chaotic and communication was ineffective. Xie Yang hadn’t touched a mobile phone in many years and many operation methods had been forgotten. He unlocked his phone with his fingerprint in an unfamiliar manner and found the Weibo app to open it.
An account named ‘Small Account 1111’ was automatically logged it. It had 0 fans, 1 following and 0 posts. That 1 was too eye-catching so Xie Yang clicked on it with a frown. The page changed and the words ‘Mu Zhouyi’ appeared on the interface.
“……”It was fortunate. He didn’t need to search for it. He entered Mu Zhouyi’s Weibo and scanned Mu Zhouyi’s last posts. After seeing the names of several characters in the novel, he locked his phone and threw it aside.
Before the apocalypse occurred, Xie Yang had read several popular online novels and knew the theme of transmigrating into a book. Judging by the current situation, there was a high chance that he had transmigrated. Regardless of whether it was scientific or not, it was undoubtedly a good thing to transmigrate from a world of death to a safe book world.
However, it wasn’t so beautiful to cross into the body of a cannon fodder destined to die in the book.
The end of the world was difficult to survive. The reason why Xie Yang spent the time to read a novel he picked up when the situation wasn’t so good was because there was a cannon fodder in the book with the exact same name as him.
The cannon fodder was very young. He had just turned 20 when he appeared in the book. His identity was a tool sold by his father to the terminally ill villain. His main function was to use his cowardice and fear of the villain to be a foil to the female protagonist’s tenacity and care for the villain. He provoked the relationship between the female protagonist and the villain, promoted their emotional development, adding fuel to the villain and male protagonist fighting over the female protagonist, adding fuel to the fire and becoming a breakthrough point for the male protagonist to take away the villain’s company.
Such a cannon fodder was bound to have a bad fate.
At the end of the novel, the villain died. Everything that belonged to the villain was taken by the male protagonist. As the person who helped the make protagonist succeed, the cannon fodder didn’t get the relief he expected and was killed by someone. He was only 23 years old and the worst part was that the author didn’t explain who was behind the death of the cannon fodder to the very end.
Xie Yang picked up the phone that had been thrown to one side and turned on the camera. He looked at the screen and it was 80-90% similar to his original appearance.
“Are you the cannon fodder ‘Xie Yang’? Or just another person with the same name?”
Ah Wen came in at this time and asked, “Yang Yang, what did you say?”
Xie Yang locked the phone and shook his head.
“If there’s no problem then I’ll go first. The TV show is almost finished and I have to pick the others up. Li Li will come in a while to bring you dinner. Don’t run around.”
Xie Yang nodded.
Ah Wen left with the driver. Xie Yang went to the window and watched their car drive away from the hospital. Then he picked up the backpack belonging to the original owner of the body and directly left the ward.
It was the evening peak hour and the streets were packed with people leaving work and school. Xie Yang put on his coat and hood and walked slowly along the street with his hands in his pocket. As he passed by a kindergarten, a grandmother picking up a child accidentally bumped into him. Xie Yang instinctively tensed and moved away, his fingers taking the claw shape as he mobilized his ability to fight back.
After changing his body, his energy core had naturally disappeared. His palms were empty and he paused as he slowly clenched his hands.
“Brother, why aren’t you going? Are you weak from hunger?”
His clothes were pulled. Xie Yang stiffened and looked down to see a little girl looking up. The girl was at least four years old and was wearing a red dress. She was chubby and cute.
Xie Yang didn’t speak and the little girl released her hand. She bowed her head and took out a packet of biscuits with cartoon packaging from her pocket. She handed it over and said, “Brother, this is for you to eat. Go home quickly and I will also go home.”
Xie Yang was stunned.
“Brother?”
Xie Yang’s mind returned. He moved his stiff body as he relaxed his tightly clenched fists in his pocket. He slowly pulled out a hand, bent down and placed his hand under the girl’s palm. The biscuits fell onto Xie Yang’s palm and the little girl waved at him with a smile. “Bye, Brother.” She ran back to a man shopping at a roadside stall and held the man’s hand.
The palm of his hand was a bit itchy and Xie Yang clenched them again. His numb sense of smell was instantly activated and he smelled the multitude of flavours transmitted from this world. They seemed to be saying: Welcome to peace and prosperity.
Then his stomach growled. He placed his hands back in his pocket and straightened to take in a lot of the city air.
So hungry.
The mobile phone in his backpack kept ringing. He ignored it and re-entered the crowd, following a scent into a noodle restaurant.