Shen Zhiyi lived by two principles.
Regarding any undesirable riffraff involving Zhou Qi’an: I’ll take their lives.
When facing Zhou Qi’an himself: My life is yours.
This extremely arrogant and terrifying declaration was spoken in the most nonchalant tone, causing the security captain to not react in the first moment.
It wasn’t just him; the other security guards were the same.
Not far away, the trainees hadn’t heard the declaration of slaughter and were boarding a large bus with a banner on it one by one.
Shen Zhiyi immediately started to follow.
The security captain finally came to his senses. “Kill the boss? Are you looking for death!”
Crudely pulling out the electric baton from his waist, he brought it down directly on the man’s head. The movement was incredibly practiced; clearly, he had done his fair share of killing and maiming in the past.
But someone was even more skilled than him.
Shen Zhiyi continued walking forward without stopping, as if he didn’t feel the approaching danger at all.
Just as the baton was about to crash down, a sharply defined black shadow suddenly flashed before the security captain. Before he could react, his consciousness first fell into a brief state of chaos.
In just a few seconds, his arm twisted unnaturally half a circle on the spot. The electric baton that was about to hit Shen Zhiyi’s head actually came swinging towards his own.
Bang.
The sound of metal colliding with a skull was shocking, yet the speed at which the blood splattered was not as fast as Shen Zhiyi’s walking pace.
He still strode forward without looking back.
The bloody scene caused the trainees in the distance to scream repeatedly.
The security captain looked like he was self-harming, but the blood was already flowing to his heels. Shen Zhiyi walked over as if he were an uninvolved party, the entire scene making one’s heart tremble.
When he was truly about to reach the bus, all the trainees subconsciously took a step back.
Zhou Qi’an, who remained stationary, was instantly highlighted.
The distance between the two was now no more than four or five meters. Shen Zhiyi’s steps subconsciously began to slow.
A faint fragrance drifted through the air.
The makeup artist had sprayed some unknown base note of perfume, which smelled wonderfully fresh in the summer, a bit like a forest. It was a perfect match for Zhou Qi’an’s eyes, which were as clear as spring water.
Under the scorching sun, Shen Zhiyi’s breathing became a little hurried.
“…They seem to know each other.”
Among those who had backed away were the man and woman Zhou Qi’an had saved earlier.
As fellow players, their initial character identities were very friendly: they were production assistants, specializing in running errands and doing odd jobs. After their narrow escape, the two were told to take the sound system, microphones, and other equipment to assist the pre-debut artists with their street performance practice.
Seeing the approaching Shen Zhiyi, a thought suddenly sprouted in their minds: he seemed even more terrifying than that middle-aged fat man.
Skin with an eerie, cold whiteness, grayish-white eyes, and that strange light-colored hair…
Was he a human or a ghost?
The two, who had invisibly become the center of attention, boarded the bus one after the other.
Zhou Qi’an sat down directly in the nearest seat. Shen Zhiyi, without a doubt, sat down beside him, his gaze occasionally glancing at the small strawberry hair clip.
A dream come true.
Qi’an wearing it was, of course, the most suitable.
The overly scorching gaze was truly uncomfortable. Zhou Qi’an spoke to divert his attention, “Your character card is a security guard…”
“Personal bodyguard,” Shen Zhiyi fluently replied before the last word was even finished.
Zhou Qi’an’s eyelid twitched. This identity was probably as dubious as his academic record.
Shen Zhiyi used his eyes to ask about his identity.
Given Qi’an’s luck, the probability of getting a trainee as an initial character was not high.
“What you see is what you get.” Zhou Qi’an sat up straighter. “A big star.”
What he was didn’t matter. Shen Zhiyi’s expression softened as he said, “Being a star is too hard. I’ll kill the boss and let you be the boss.”
If the upper beam is not straight, the lower ones will be crooked. If the security captain casually beats and kills people, how good can the company’s boss be?
Qi’an was different. Qi’an was the main pillar.
“…” Mysteriously understanding his gaze, even Zhou Qi’an’s thick skin couldn’t handle it, and he let out a couple of dry coughs.
The two players who boarded later heard this sentence, and the speaker they were carrying accidentally bumped into a seat, almost causing them to twist their ankles.
The other trainees also boarded the bus one by one.
After everyone had taken their seats, the trainees’ initial fear of Shen Zhiyi quickly developed into hostility towards Zhou Qi’an.
When did the company get such a superior competitor?
Why had they never seen him before?
Amidst everyone’s confusion, the bus slowly started to move.
With a thud, a sound suddenly came from the roof of the bus, not too heavy, not too light, like a small stone hitting it.
Because they were in a hurry, the driver cursed but didn’t pay it any mind and continued driving forward.
Wang’s Entertainment Company was located in a very remote place, a long distance from the city center.
The unpaved dirt road along the way was very bumpy. Some people were almost thrown from their seats. Zhou Qi’an was also jostled up and down, and a few strands of hair slowly stuck up from the fluffy style the makeup artist had deliberately set.
Shen Zhiyi’s pupils almost turned into the shape of those few unruly strands of hair: !!!
The boss must be killed.
The stylist can live.
Fortunately, almost everyone on the bus was wearing headphones, practicing the songs they were about to perform. For this kind of street performance, as long as it was memorable, uploading a video online could accumulate some fans. With better luck, there was a chance it could become a viral hit.
The two players sat behind Zhou Qi’an.
The female player hesitated for a long time, then turned around and asked Zhou Qi’an, “Excuse me, did you go to see the boss?”
She had been doing odd jobs around the makeup room earlier and didn’t seem to have seen the young man go upstairs, even though he was supposed to.
Just standing up the boss like that, would there be trouble?
“No, I was in a hurry to perform, because…” Zhou Qi’an’s tone was very light. Due to his current makeup and styling, it gave off a feeling of detachment.
The two players were stunned.
Could it be that performing was more important than seeing the boss, that it was a death rule?
“I just love music.”
Don’t tell me to stop.
“???”
What’s a boss? Zhou Qi’an had already thought of his stage name. Since pet names like “treasure” were popular now, he would just call himself “Golden Voice Throat Lozenge.”
After the bus entered the city, the weather became even hotter.
This open-air performance had been approved long ago. Through the bus window, you could see the temporary stage set up in the distance.
As soon as they arrived at the destination, the driver immediately urged them to get off.
Zhou Qi’an seemed to sense something. As he got off the bus, he looked back and was momentarily stunned.
On the roof of the bus, Vikas was there, with an unfamiliar face next to him. Large beads of sweat rolled down their foreheads. The two of them looked like they had been fished out of water.
His expression was quite a sight for a moment. The sun was so strong, and the temperature of the metal roof was astonishingly high. The other party had followed them, crawling like a dog. Were they crazy?
Of course, Vikas wasn’t crazy, just overly cautious.
To this day, he still hadn’t figured out why he had come to a one-star instance. After thinking it over, the only possibility was that it was the kind of instance whose difficulty level increased over time.
After discovering that Zhou Qi’an had left the company, he immediately followed, preparing to observe.
Just in case, Vikas had also brought along a newly discovered player, who could be pushed out as a shield if they encountered any danger.
The two of them quietly slipped down from the roof of the bus and blended into the crowd.
The new player asked in a low voice, “The person who just looked at us, is he a player or an NPC?”
Just as Vikas was about to say something, a sharp burst of static came through.
The stagehands had begun to test the sound system.
He quickly moved to another spot with a bit more cover and secretly observed everything.
***
An advertising board stood at the entrance of the mall, announcing today’s performance. There were less than five minutes until the show started, but not many people had come out.
The weather was too hot; most customers preferred to stay in the cool mall.
Whoever performed first would be at a disadvantage.
The person who was originally supposed to go on first suddenly pretended to have a stomachache. The second person refused to switch the order. The host they had invited was trying hard to mediate.
“I’ll go first.”
Just as the host was feeling a headache coming on, someone unexpectedly volunteered.
He looked over gratefully and saw Zhou Qi’an, who had raised his hand.
Sweet.
Not only was he sweet-looking, but his actions were sweet too.
Click, click, click. The abrupt sounds were drowned out by the sound check. At this moment, everyone’s attention was on Zhou Qi’an. No one noticed the sinister black shadow that had appeared behind Shen Zhiyi.
This instance had issued mobile phones. The shadow was frantically taking pictures, capturing Zhou Qi’an’s every moment.
Doing two things at once, Shen Zhiyi was unwilling to watch Zhou Qi’an through a cold screen. The shadow was responsible for the commemorative photos, while he purely appreciated him with his own eyes.
The host gratefully took out the performance schedule and asked, “What was your original position in the lineup?”
Zhou Qi’an: “Zero-th position. I was temporarily squeezed in by the boss. Just transferred from janitor to star.”
The smile on the host’s face froze.
He didn’t understand.
But he understood the first half of the sentence. Being added in at the last minute meant that the accompaniment for the song he was going to sing had not been prepared in advance.
As if knowing his dilemma, Zhou Qi’an took the initiative to continue, “Just give me an electric guitar.”
As he spoke, he glanced at one of the trainees who had an electric guitar. “Yours. Give it to me.”
“On what grounds?” The person he pointed to subconsciously wanted to refuse.
Zhou Qi’an politely made way. “Otherwise, if you can do it, you go first.”
The trainee swallowed the rest of his words.
On second thought, it was just lending a guitar. As long as he could get this person on stage first while there wasn’t much of an audience, it was still a good deal.
A classic black and white panda-colored electric guitar. When it appeared in Zhou Qi’an’s hands, it added a touch of rock and roll.
He walked gracefully onto the stage. Shen Zhiyi’s eyes didn’t even blink.
The boss must be killed. The musical instrument must be kept.
Completely unaware of the maniacal thoughts of someone in the audience, Zhou Qi’an’s fingertips were a little rusty as he hadn’t played for a long time. He strummed it a couple of times and got the feel for it.
The first rule of work: never easily reveal your special talents. Although he could play more than twenty kinds of instruments, he had never played at the company’s annual party, even though he would occasionally go to the park and strum a few chords when the mood struck.
Taking a deep breath and clearing his throat, Zhou Qi’an prepared himself.
His fingertips moved smoothly over the strings, and an exciting, catchy melody instantly echoed through the square.
When Zhou Qi’an started singing into the microphone, the people below unconsciously began to nod along with the melody. A phantom glow stick even appeared in Shen Zhiyi’s hand.
Among everyone, the newcomer standing with Vikas was nodding his head the most enthusiastically.
Not understanding Zhou Qi’an’s true purpose was already annoying enough for Vikas. Turning to see a fool made him even more irritable.
His tone became sharp. “You don’t even know if he’s a player or an NPC. What are you bobbing your head for?”
Idiot.
“He’s a player!” The newcomer no longer had his previous confusion and found a moment to say, “Didn’t you hear him singing ‘Most Dazzling Ethnic Wind’?”
Just then, the passionate Zhou Qi’an on stage happened to sing, “You are the most beautiful cloud on my horizon, let me keep you with my heart…”
He pointed the microphone towards the audience.
Including the newcomer, the other two players also subconsciously joined in, “Stay!”
The corner of Vikas’s mouth twitched fiercely.
He gritted his teeth, took a deep breath, and reminded them in an icy tone, “This is an instance, not a playground.”
The newcomer finally came to his senses.
However, the super-high song had attracted several customers. Seeing the super-sweet man, they quickly spread the word. In a short while, the audience gradually grew.
This song was already catchy. People with even a little sense of music had already started humming along and clapping to the beat.
On stage, Zhou Qi’an was still performing with full energy. After his evolution, his body temperature was a bit low, so he didn’t sweat much even under the sun. The reindeer antler hair accessory on his head swayed along. “Filling the fine wine to make you stay…”
The audience, caught up in the mood, clapped precisely to the beat. The newcomer who had just come to his senses: “Stay!”
After singing, he shyly pursed his lips. It was just, his DNA had been activated.
As a rookie in his first instance, the current scene being a square under the scorching sun, his mood was naturally not so tense.
Vikas: “…”
Forcibly ignoring the dopamine cake on stage, his gaze fell on another figure.
Shen Zhiyi was standing in the front row, his cool temperament completely at odds with the glow stick he was waving.
“Strange.”
He had a deep impression of Shen Zhiyi, this ‘poor student’ who had once ranked last in an instance.
Vikas clearly remembered that the feeling the other person gave off back then was one of natural aloofness and hostility, completely different from the persona of someone currently engrossed in listening to a song.
After thinking it over, Vikas leaned towards one possibility: role-playing.
In order to complete the role-playing degree, he would put on such a blissful, contradictory appearance.
He had never been in a role-playing instance, so he analyzed based on the current data with a straight face: the degree of role-playing might affect the mission.
Zhou Qi’an put on makeup and started performing on stage, seemingly completing some kind of identity transformation. So, if he sang along, could he also achieve a leap from janitor to fan?
With this thought, Vikas also squeezed to the front row.
“You are the most beautiful cloud in my heart…”
After Zhou Qi’an sang the first two lines, he skillfully pointed the microphone towards the audience.
Vikas opened his mouth: “Stay!”
The newcomer next to him: …
After howling out the last note, Vikas suddenly felt a bone-chilling cold. Just a few meters away, Shen Zhiyi was still holding the glow stick, but his peripheral vision had shifted slightly. The corners of his mouth, which had been slightly raised a second ago, were now turned down, and a sharp murderous intent emerged in his eyes.
Sachs (Vikas) remembered him, and he also remembered Sachs.
Could it be that the other party was also immersed in Qi’an’s stage charm? Otherwise, why did he suddenly start singing along? And he was singing ‘Stay’, louder than anyone else.
The boss must be killed.
Sachs cannot be allowed to live.
In the weather that could bake one’s head dizzy, Vikas inexplicably shivered.
According to the company’s street performance schedule, everyone was only supposed to sing one or two songs, but Zhou Qi’an sang three in a row.
The host kept giving him looks, his eyelids almost cramping, when he finally came down.
Tap, tap, tap.
The soles of his shoes, made of some unknown material, made a crisp sound as they stepped on the stairs.
Zhou Qi’an walked down just like that. Because the crowd was too large, to avoid affecting the next performance, he was arranged to return to the bus.
A few minutes later.
“Ah, so comfortable~”
The air conditioning blew through his hair, making it feel refreshed. Zhou Qi’an enjoyed the summer coolness. Shen Zhiyi had specially bought a bottle of water, chilled it with his yin energy, and let him hold it to his face.
The two newcomers who were responsible for the site’s odd jobs also secretly got on the bus. Anyway, there wasn’t much for them to do at the scene, as someone else was responsible for playing the music.
The two of them had no experience. On the premise that they were 100% sure Zhou Qi’an was a player because of the song, the male player tried to probe somewhat clumsily, “Do you have any arrangements for the instance mission? We can also cooperate a bit.”
They really couldn’t find a direction to work towards.
After being caught by the boss trying to pick a lock earlier, they didn’t dare to do anything now.
“Singing, performing, DJing.”
Zhou Qi’an was playing on his phone and replied casually.
Shen Zhiyi watched him quietly from the side, thinking it was a great pity that this instance only had a three-day time limit. If it were three hundred and sixty-five days, they could even go on a world tour.
The two players looked at each other, at a bit of a loss.
Seeing this, Zhou Qi’an took out a stack of [Spirit Money]. “I need your help with something.”
Having something to do was better than running around like a headless chicken. The man and woman quickly listened carefully.
“Help me buy fans,” Zhou Qi’an said.
“…”
Zhou Qi’an was concise. After speaking, he half-closed his eyes, seemingly resting.
The newcomers were stunned, but seeing that there was no hint of joking in the other’s expression, his thin eyelids drooped, preventing others from discerning his thoughts.
“How many should we buy?” the female player finally asked, hesitantly taking the money.
Zhou Qi’an: “Buy as many as you have money for. Remember to hire some to come to the company entrance and cheer for me.”
The two players still hadn’t reacted. Shen Zhiyi, with a faint smile in his eyes, said, “You need to let the company know he has the potential to become popular.”
Zhou Qi’an let out a satisfied “mm.”
This “mm” dragged out a bit at the end, and Shen Zhiyi nearly melted again.
Anyway, the shadow representing his true will had melted first, looking like a dropped ice cream on the ground.
The female player had been keeping an eye on her surroundings. Catching a glimpse of the strange puddle, she was instantly frightened out of her wits.
She let out a loud “Ah!”
At the same time, the shadow, in its state of a puddle of mud, bravely stretched out two arms, holding a large bouquet of black mist roses condensed from yin energy, and presented it to Zhou Qi’an.
It had been too busy taking pictures in the audience just now and hadn’t had a chance to present the flowers on stage.
It even made a special emoji: [Flowers for a beauty.jpg].
“…”
