Chapter 07#
Fishing for Fame#
Everything after this was like contaminated poor-quality film footage.
Frame skipping, stuttering, and full of damage.
The world in Li Xingyun’s eyes became like this. Severe tinnitus drowned out all the noise. He couldn’t hear the shrill screams of bleeding. He struggled to fall off the stretcher, crawling and rolling, desperately trying to return to that ruin.
Ji Ran arrived in a panic. This matter was related to him. The extreme fans kept calling him “Ranran”, and the police asked him to assist in the investigation.
Ji Ran only had time to grab Li Xingyun: “A-Yun, don’t be impulsive, nothing will happen, they are rescuing, you go to the hospital first…”
The voice was suddenly cut off by the gaze.
Ji Ran was uneasy and froze in place. The way Li Xingyun looked at him made him afraid.
“Nothing… will happen.”
Ji Ran said Ji Landong would be fine. In Ji Ran’s description, his half-brother was arrogant, cold, and indestructible, and would not be affected by anyone or anything.
“And then… I believed it.
Li Xingyun’s voice was completely hoarse. He coughed up another mouthful of blood. He looked crazy and hideous: “You always say that, Ji Ran, and I actually believed it.”
Li Xingyun asked him: “Do you think I deserve to die?”
The answer was, of course, yes.
Li Xingyun thought back countless times, was he crazy not to believe in such a good Ji Landong.
Instead, he believed in Ji Ran.
Just because Ji Ran looked pitiful, suffered from depression and was in a life-and-death struggle, would feel wronged, and would cry?
Because Ji Ran was a cowardly waste?
It was too ridiculous and too absurd. Li Xingyun was forcibly controlled by the rescue personnel, sedated, and tied to a stretcher for emergency hemostasis. He couldn’t do anything. Despair bit his marrow. At the end of his blurred vision, he seemed to see Ji Landong’s hand.
A pale, long, and beautiful hand, loosely holding a cigarette, lying on the ruins that swallowed everything.
“Ji Ran.” Li Xingyun spoke in a low voice. He tried his best to resist the grogginess, staring at Ji Ran who was trembling and holding the stretcher, “If one day, I plan to commit suicide, I will definitely take you with me.”
Ji Ran was startled, hurriedly let go and stepped back, looking at him in fear.
Li Xingyun laughed, his body convulsed, and blood gushed from his throat as if it cost nothing.
He regretted it so much.
Li Xingyun moved his eyes, blankly looking for Ji Landong’s hand.
During the motorcycle race back then, he crashed. Ji Landong was the first to arrive, holding his injured cervical spine with his hands throughout. The hem of his trench coat was covered in machine oil and blood without care.
Now Li Xingyun no longer prayed for this. He begged that hand to move slightly, responding to the urgent and continuous inquiries of the rescue personnel.
He begged Ji Landong not to die, and he would pay anything. It was okay to let him die. He was the one who was guilty and deserved to die.
If someone had to be implicated, why couldn’t it be Ji Ran? Like for like, let him take this abscess and burden to die together. Why implicate Ji Landong?
Li Xingyun opened his mouth with difficulty: “Ge.”
His voice was drowned in blood.
The ambulance’s siren wailed through the night. This night was extremely chaotic, with the police, hospitals, and rescue teams. The second wave that emerged were sneaky lenses and paparazzi.
The spider silk spreading through virtual and reality pulled out one round after another of hot searches labeled “Explosive”. Extreme fans were praised as heroes punishing evil and promoting good. Large numbers of fanatical comments bombarded and suppressed the shocked questions of unrelated people: They deserve it.
They deserve it. Ji Landong deserves to die, deserves to die, deserves to die. Li Xingyun dared to help the bullying, violent murderer, betray Ji Ran, and he also deserves to die.
In the midst of the pitch-black madness, some people were shocked: What are you doing?
This is murder, intentional murder!
Even if Ji Landong is really guilty, the one who should judge him is the law, not lynching.
What’s more, what exactly did Ji Landong do, what is the truth of the past, what is the “murderer” about, why did Fan Yinghua want to kill her own son… No one really knows these things until now.
“Have you ever thought about it?”
Someone left a message, truly confused and puzzled: “What if, just what if, in that video, Ji Ran really lied?”
…
These chaos had nothing to do with the system.
The system was busy for more than half a month.
Ji Landong’s death application was not approved. When the system delivered the receipt to him, it even dazed for a few seconds before remembering its position as the “Villain Redemption System”.
This was the first time it applied to the headquarters on behalf of the villain, asking if it could just end like this… forget about the redemption points and the remaining plot.
Unfortunately, it was not possible.
Ji Landong did not successfully die under the scaffolding. The collapsed steel frame just happened to support a small triangular space.
This was the irresistible force of the plot. Four hours after Li Xingyun was sent to the hospital for emergency treatment, Ji Landong was also rescued. He was not seriously injured, but was kept under observation in the psychiatric department.
Because past medical records showed that Ji Landong had a psychiatric history, severe hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, and disordered thinking. He was already very dangerous and had the potential to harm others.
If Li Xingyun were there, Ji Landong could certainly be discharged. But now Li Xingyun was seriously injured and lying in the ICU, so Ji Landong had to be supervised as a high-risk mental patient, sitting in the ward and chatting with the mushroom.
Ji Landong had a pretty good mentality and invited the system mushroom: “Do you take medicine?”
System: “…No thanks.”
The system was a bit worried: “Ji Landong, are you okay?”
“They don’t allow you to die because they found out you are a good person, not a villain. Good people shouldn’t die.”
The system tried its best to explain: “Believe me, Ji Landong, I am a system and I don’t lie.”
“Oh my God.” Movie King Ji cooperated and read the lines in a routine tone, “Really?”
System: “…” Fake.
The reason Ji Landong couldn’t die was because if he died now, Ji Ran’s character setting as the protagonist would collapse and he would truly become a cowardly abscess and waste. When Li Xingyun came out of the ICU, the remaining plot lines would be ruined.
“Let’s not talk about that.” The system awkwardly changed the subject, “Ji Landong, do something happy, spend money, spend money recklessly.”
Anyway, it’s Li Xingyun’s money.
Li Xingyun has plenty of money.
Ji Landong has already worked hard to spend it: “I just had a 30,000-yuan seafood rice.”
Ordered takeaway.
He thought it would be a lunch box, but it turned out to be live seafood and a chef.
Fortunately, this is a private hospital of high grade, and there is a helipad for the chef to perform stir-frying Australian lobsters.
System: “That’s because your anorexia has become serious. You vomit whatever you eat, and you wanted to try something expensive. That’s not called spending money recklessly.”
Ji Landong also bought a bunch of high-end clothes online.
System: “You are in this industry. So many people are trying to sneak in and take pictures. What’s wrong with dressing better? It’s not called spending money recklessly.”
Ji Landong also ordered a 500,000-yuan watch.
System: “That’s because… because only this one looks good.” It just happens to cover the scar on the wrist.
Ji Landong also bought a supercar, very cool, to be picked up in a few days.
The system gave its all: “Because you encountered an outrageous and crazy car accident, which will cause you to suffer from PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. You decided to protect yourself and hold the steering wheel in your own hands…”
Ji Landong chuckled softly.
The system froze.
The system rarely saw him smile like this, lazy and a bit casual. When those eyes slightly curved, they revealed a charming tenderness.
Ji Landong gave the mushroom a new name: “Villain Doting System”.
System: “…”
Whatever.
Ji Landong has made great progress. At least when communicating with it, he has learned to use his mobile phone to make video calls as a cover, and no longer talks to himself in the air to scare people.
The system tried its best to chat with him: “Ji Landong, I watched your movies.”
Ji Landong is a villain. Villains have strong vanity and are good at taking praise: “Handsome, right?”
System: “…”
The system sighed: “Handsome.”
This statement was not against its heart.
The system had watched many of Ji Landong’s movies and interviews these days.
Many previously unknown details were filled into the database.
Ji Landong has the talent to play any role convincingly. When he plays a good person, he looks like a good person.
Playing a single father with a serious illness, he held a three-year-old actor who was being scolded by his parents for not getting into the role in his arms, coaxing and teasing him, and braiding his head with small pigtails.
The little girl, who was used as a money-making tool by her parents, pursed her lips and clung to him, and no one could pull her away. She held him tightly and burst into tears.
This movie was filmed five years ago.
The system checked again and found some follow-up news.
Ji Landong signed the collaborating child actor to his studio.
Ji Landong was mocked by the public and suspected of having bad intentions. Ji Ran’s fans charged at the front, listing numerous past misdeeds.
The couple burst into tears in public and begged Ji Landong to return their daughter.
Ji Ran posted “Don’t let the tragedy repeat”, suspected of implying Ji Landong’s past molestation suspicion.
Ji Landong disbanded the studio.
The child star appeared in many movies and TV series and became popular in many variety shows.
The child star’s acute leukemia relapsed and she died after failed rescue.
…
These old news items were submerged in countless entertainment news items, without even a ripple left.
The system didn’t know if they had any impact on Ji Landong, but only felt that those eyes could not be seen through.
Ji Landong always seemed like this, calm and indifferent. Occasionally, one could see the dead black waves under the cliffs, but most of the time… Ji Landong didn’t seem to care.
“Fishing for fame.” Seeing the records of the system searching randomly with a mobile phone, Ji Landong thought for a while and explained the motive at that time, “I wanted to pretend to be a savior, but I didn’t succeed.”
The system was silent for a few minutes.
It played Mushroom vs. Zombie with Ji Landong. Looking at the chewed mushroom wall, it still couldn’t help it: “You took Ji Ran to see a psychiatrist?”
“Was that also to pretend to be a savior?”
Ji Landong missed a zombie and was unfortunately defeated: “Yes.”
He gave an example and analysis for the system: “If I were a good person, I should help Ji Ran now.”
Not everyone in this world is a fan.
When Ji Ran’s extreme fans did such a thing, Ji Ran’s reputation plummeted. Unfortunately, Li Xingyun’s serious injury led to the paralysis of Liyang Media, and there was no one in charge.
Ji Ran himself was indecisive, cowardly and reluctant to cut ties. He hesitated all night before issuing a statement, and the situation had been dragged out of control. Therefore, Ji Ran’s current situation urgently needs Ji Landong to come forward, and urgently needs some fraternal whitewashing.
Fans will spontaneously whitewash and think that he was forced by capital, and passers-by can also slightly change their perception, suppressing a social incident of extremely bad nature into the scope of family affairs.
Ji Ran’s manager was in a mess and came to find Ji Landong several times. He was asked by the mysterious Movie King Ji in a low voice if he heard a little girl crying, and was completely scared senseless, and scrambled out of the mental hospital for miles.
Ji Landong lay by the window and laughed until he coughed.
The system was stunned for a long time.
Looking at the mottled scars on Ji Landong’s arms, it fell into a bit of confusion. It didn’t know if what Ji Landong said was true or false: “Then, Ji Landong, are you okay now?”
“Very good.” Ji Landong looked at his redemption points. They were indeed not very high, but they were also slowly progressing. Today’s was 0.1 higher than yesterday’s.
Ji Landong comforted the mushroom: “Don’t lose heart. I’ll work hard to let you go back and finish the job earlier.”
The system said “Oh”. Seeing Ji Landong finish his medicine and lie down, it tried to access Ji Landong’s sensory system, and was quickly swallowed by a sharp, wrenching pain as if a knife were being gouged into his temples. The speaker was filled with noise, all people, all talking.
There was crazy abuse, trembling accusations, hysterical hatred, breakups, the sound of things being smashed, and a little girl crying, softly and weakly begging to save her.
…The system was going crazy.
Reasonably, it shouldn’t do this. Everyone has their own fate, and the system shouldn’t interfere.
But Ji Landong seemed to have fallen out of everyone’s fate line.
Ji Landong lay on the thin silk of the spider web, his eyes slightly open, calm and indifferent.
The data fluctuated quietly for a moment.
The system turned on its authority in this world to the maximum. After a moment, a figure slowly emerged.
It could only use images existing in Ji Landong’s mind. Because of Li Xingyun’s interference, a figure had been very clear recently.
The data is complete.
It can be called.
Ji Ran, who came to beg Ji Landong to soften his heart, froze at the door of the ward.
He looked at the red-haired young man in front of him with almost horror. The latter lowered his eyes, his expression had a mechanical indifference, and his tone was the same: “Ji Landong wants to sleep.”
The system closed the door in Ji Ran’s face.
It went back, covered Ji Landong with a quilt, and after hesitating for a long time, it still cherished this opportunity to speak human words. It went back to the door and poked its head out to curse Ji Ran: “Get the hell out of here.”