Ch4 - Imperial Capital Ruogu Star

Looking for a translation checker! (Must be fluent in Chinese and English)

Get to read chapters in advance! Just need to help me when I’m struggling with a line that I will leave on the doc! 

If interested please dm me on discord! (cocopops on the chrysanthemum garden discord)

Early in the morning, Bai Ruogu was woken up by a call from his agent.

“Ruogu.” From the other side of the call, the agent rubbed his hair in annoyance, his expression tired and helpless.

“Hmm?” 

“You’ve been blacklisted by the company.”

“What?” Bai Ruogu slightly frowned for a split second before the unfortunate encounter at the hotel crossed his mind, and he gradually calmed down.

If you think about it, there was no one to blame.

The agent took a sullen breath, an expression of disappointment could be seen on his face.

“You’re the best talent I’ve ever seen and the best the company has ever seen. When you first arrived we all had extremely high hopes for you. I didn’t even have the slightest doubt that you would be anything less than popular all over the stars. But I just didn’t expect ……”

The more the agent spoke, the more he felt that the situation was unreasonable. However, it had now become an obstacle for them, and they couldn’t get past it.

He squinted his eyes and took a deep breath, but the more he thought about it the more he couldn’t let it go. 

“Of course usually I would never let the artist know about these matters, but after all, we’ve been together for so long, forget about it. You should also know that in your current state, the company is powerless, you cannot even imagine how much the company has lost for you.”

“Terminate the contract.” Bai Ruogu said offhandedly.

“Huh? What do you mean?!” The agent was stunned, failing to understand. 

Bai Ruogu flipped through the virtual contract that was hovering in the air, glanced over it, and read out calmly.

“According to the contract, if I terminate now, it’s 5 million star coins plus the number of fans I have.”

He opened up another interface, a data platform called “Moonlight”.

Nowadays, there were many social platforms on the star network, and celebrities often had accounts on several platforms at the same time. But when it came to the number of fans, it was hard to decide which platform’s data to start with. 

It was unlike earlier years when only one party was the dominating one, now nearly ten platforms were dominating each other, and no one was ready to budge.

So, the Star Network launched a platform dedicated to statistics, “Moonlight”.

Moonlight would only count verified fans, and would filter out duplicate fans from each platform, only counting one.

Nowadays, there were more and more verified fans, and generally, the number of fans on moonlight were higher than on any other platform. It wasn’t impossible the opposite would occur, but if that were the case usually others would ridicule it, this was because then the situation would seem as though water armies had been brought for the other platforms. 

In addition, the data from other platforms would regularly be compared to the data on Moonlight. The final result showed that Moonlight was also the most impartial and convincing.

Bai Ruogu opened his Moonlight account, clicked on the homepage, and saw the fan column.

Number of fans: 4,644,369

In today’s era where the population of the interstellar had exploded, this data could not even compare to the average netizen. 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Djl Eebue’r fsfr vffqfcfv jcv tf mjrejiis rwlifv.

“Mbg atf alwf yflcu, kf’ii rfaaif bc wf tjnlcu 4.65 wliilbc ojcr. P rtbeiv qjs 9.65 wliilbc.”

Ktf qegmtjrlcu qbkfg bo j rajg mblc abvjs kjr jybea atf rjwf jr bcf vbiijg, jcv ajxlcu lcab jmmbeca atf qgfnlber vlrqeafr jcv qjsbear, Djl Eebue yjgfis wjvf jcs wbcfs.

The agent was caught a little off guard by Bai Ruogu. He knew that no artist would want to be blacklisted, but at that time Bai Ruogu had signed the highest level of an S-tier contract, and the penalty was simply huge. 

If the contract was really terminated, would Bai Ruogu even be able to afford it?

As he was worrying, a sound suddenly came from his smart brain.

[Your artist Bai Ruogu’s termination was successful, and the breach of contract fee has been paid into the company’s account.]

Nowadays, information was so advanced that when you signed a virtual contract, there was a cancellation option underneath, so you could cancel your contract at any time as long as you paid enough money. 

The agent was startled and caught a little off guard. However, the news had already been transmitted and could not be remedied.

Faced with the fact that this had become a foregone conclusion, the agent’s heart was a little complicated. There were some feelings of pity and reluctance, but it also felt like a mountain had been lifted off his chest and he could finally breathe.

Someone was targeting Bai Ruogu, anybody could see that. However, the opposition could directly remove a film’s broadcasting rights, making it clear that this kind of person was not someone they could afford to offend.

He didn’t know what Bai Ruogu’s background was, and the other party never mentioned it. 

In the past, Bai Ruogu was relatively frugal. Although he had an extraordinary temperament, he had a habit of saving money. This made the agent subconsciously think that Bai Ruogu was from an ordinary family.

Now looking at the contract that had been terminated, the agent’s heart was even more complicated.

Well, it seemed like there was more to the other party than he thought.

Only…… 

He didn’t know if Bai Ruogu would be able to solve this problem, and it wasn’t something at a level he could intervene. He had known the other party for a while, and just hoped he could be well.

Now, the two had officially dissolved their relationship as agent and artist. The agent had more matters to attend to, and there was no more time to gossip. The call ended with him wishing the other party a smooth journey and success.

Since then, the two had nothing to do with each other.

— 

Without any restrictions, Bai Ruogu became more relaxed.

Although there were still remnant memories of this world’s Bai Ruogu, now the consciousness of his past life dominated. And the Bai Ruogu who had been engaged in scientific research all his life could simply not accept that contract.

He put on his clothes, got out of bed, packed up his things and left the hotel. 

As soon as he went out, the bright light outside stimulated his senses and made him squint subconsciously.

It was his first time in this unfamiliar world, the majestic buildings made Bai Ruogu’s heart which was usually as quiet as a lake have subtle fluctuations.

High above the sky, the towering buildings plunged straight into the clouds. Countless people in flying aircrafts drove around the various buildings in the air.

A car grew wings and surprisingly, directly flew off the road….. 

People were laughing and felt relaxed in this new era.

Whilst watching this scene, there seemed to be a warm light shining on him, which caused his lips to move lightly and his eyes to bend with joy.

He murmured softly, “This era is really magical.”

It so happened that not so far away was a bookstore, Bai Ruogu’s eyes brightened up and he walked towards the bookstore. 

After having his smart brain scanned for information in order to register, he entered the bookstore.

From the outside, the bookstore didn’t look very big, but after entering, he realized that the real abode of the bookstore was underground.

Once downstairs, there was a sudden drop in temperature that made people feel comfortable.

There were many desks for reading at the front, and they were spaced apart so as not to interfere with each other. 

Each category of books had it’s own large area.

In the science category alone, there were probably nearly a hundred bookshelves.

Each bookshelf had seven levels, with four compartments on each level, and each compartment stored more than twenty books.

[TN: that’s around 560 books per bookshelf, damn ;-;] 

From the common natural phenomena of life to everything in the universe, there were detailed records.

Each historically famous scientist had a unique area of their own, and some even had whole bookshelves.

Take for example a familiar name–

Bai Ruogu. 

Bai Ruogu: …… Suddenly I don’t know what to say.

He looked at the densely packed bookshelf. Obviously, he had not produced any books during his lifetime. However, in these books that almost amounted to 500, the vast majority of signatures were his.

Bai Ruogu’s initial shock turned into a state of confusion, especially due to some of the book’s titles, which made him unconsciously put his hand on his heart.

It was true that he liked to be a little involved in every field, but that didn’t mean that just anything could be written. 

For example, these were…

《Bai Ruogu tells you that a real man has to be * * * *》

[TN: censored in the raws but you can use your imagination (⁄ ⁄>⁄ ▽ ⁄<⁄ ⁄) ]

Bai Ruogu: …… 

No, I didn’t tell you that. I didn’t even hold hands with my lover when I was dying.

《 The history of Bai Ruogu’s love: The woman who made me infatuated and unable to stop myself.》

[Translator Fun Fact: You know ‘Too hot to handle’ that show on Netflix? On Chinese Netflix, it’s actually called 欲罢不能 which was the idiom also used in this sentence! Basically means unable to help yourself etc]

Bai Ruogu: ??! 

He didn’t know why these inexplicable books appeared in the science section.

However, he would make sure to ask some questions on the bookstore’s feedback form later.

But what he didn’t see was that when he had just turned around there was a spot on his smart brain that suddenly flashed with a ghostly blue light that got brighter and brighter ……

At the same time, the data space began to calculate. The invisible lines were shuttling in the void at a fast speed, and countless amounts of information were being transferred to a police station. 

The space echoed with a mechanical voice-

“Injuring a person’s reputation is established as the crime of defamation, punishable by up to three years in prison. Slandering my lover and furthermore insulting the relationship between me and my lover will initiate automatic defence and punishment procedures. The offender has fled, the interstellar tracking system is now on, and all security information has been sent to all the major interstellar police departments……”

— 

There happened to be a set of empty tables and chairs near the living area. Bai Ruogu picked out a book called “The Star Knowledge” and a recent newspaper  “The Capital Star”, then sat by the window alone and opened the book.

He opened the book to the easiest subject for him to understand, the classifications of mecha.

The introduction at the top was about general knowledge that all those who were engaged in the mecha business must master……

[Mecha, the most powerful object in today’s era, which is connected to every aspect of today’s society] 

[Every profession has its own originator. Anyone engaged in the business of mecha must remember that whenever the founder is mentioned in this industry, it only refers to one person, Bai Ruogu.]

Bai Ruogu: ……

Although he expected it at first, it was a little embarrassing to suddenly see people refer to him in that way.

At first, everything seemed ordinary, however, the next page made Bai Ruogu gradually frown and become more and more confused. 

[As of the New Era 2568, the current president of the Mecha Association is Zhang Ruogu, with Sun Qian and Wang Ruogu being the vice presidents.]

Bai Ruogu:?

[Now the heir of the largest mecha family, the Li family, has been identified as the third young master of the Li family, Li Ruogu.]

Bai Ruogu: …… 

There seems to be something wrong?

Just then, he saw the headline of a newspaper from the corner of his eye.

[The 325th interstellar census shows that among all names, “Ruogu” still tops the list as the most commonly used name, which has remained unchanged for 2,000 years.

Goudan and Cuihua fell from the second and third place respectively which was maintained for a 100 years to the fourth and fifth today. Instead, Shidai and Xianfeng now take the second and third place, and compete with each other, often swapping positions.] 

Bai Ruogu: ! !

Is this world a fantasy?

[We are not surprised by this result, it is precisely because of the contributions the founder made to this era that future generations will always remember and pay homage to the founder in this way.]

Bai Ruogu: …… 

In the end, they didn’t forget to give Bai Ruogo another critical blow.

[This data is reported to you by reporter Ouyang Ruogu, Location: The Imperial Capital, Ruogu Star.]

Bai Ruogu: ……

Let me slow down, I’m a little breathless. 

The author has something to say:

This is why Su Miao knew the party was called Bai Ruogu but didn’t think anything of it.