Ch6 - There’s a script

The sky was gloomy, from the ground all the way up to the sky there were no signs of life.

The rain hit the pines and cypresses and washed the land. A depressing mood weighed in the air, heavy and lifeless. 

In the misty rain, Bai Ruogu walked through the winding path towards the cemetery.

Although thousands of years had passed, cemeteries had not changed much. Urns were still buried like before, entire tombs taking up small pieces of land.

Headstones were aligned horizontally and vertically, forming a pattern, with no end in sight.

This was a place with tight security and extraordinary service, plus the rare good feng shui made the land very expensive and it had become a well-known aristocratic cemetery throughout the galaxy. 

After finding his mother’s tombstone, Bai Ruogu placed a bunch of carnations in front of it, and then cleaned the tombstone and its surroundings.

After doing all this he found a random place to sit and started chatting with his mother.

He didn’t know what he was talking about, but after all these years his mother must have been bored here all alone, so he spoke about anything and everything.

He chatted from noon to late afternoon, when he saw that the rain getting heavier, he stood up with his umbrella in hand and said goodbye to his mother.

“Shua…… Shua ……” It was the sound of the rain hitting the umbrella. He returned the way he came, thinking along the way about what kind of script he would write.

His feet stepped on the wet ground, creating tiny splashes of water, whilst at the same time, a burst of thunder erupted from the sky causing it to become more gloomy.

Bai Ruogu quickened his pace when he suddenly heard the sound of a bottle shattering ……

“Pa—–” an empty wine bottle smashed to the ground, the sound mixed with the sound of the rain. 

A man with short, medium-dark brown hair lay drunk on a gravestone. His clothes were loose and saggy, soaked with rain.

He was soaked to the bone, and hair clung to his face, making him cut a sorry figure.

It seemed as if he didn’t know what he was talking about, both crying and laughing. His face was wet and one couldn’t tell whether it was only the rain or mixed with tears.

His head was lowered, and his chin had a thin layer of stubble on it. It looked like he was in his early thirties, but there was an indescribable decadence and vicissitudes. 

Just when the man was fatigued, his brain blurred, and a shadow suddenly fell on his eyelids, followed by the disappearance of the ice-cold shocks and his body gradually warming up.

He slightly opened his eyes in a daze, only to see a delicate-looking youth looking down at him from above.

And in the youth’s hand …… was an opened umbrella in the sky covering the two of them.

The rain was still falling, and in this dark, grey and empty world, an umbrella separated it all…… 

The drunken man’s eyes were very cloudy, which made it unable to see his mood, he kept looking up at Bai Ruogu.

Even though the man’s appearance was very wretched at the moment, after he opened his eyes, his pair of azure-coloured eyes made people feel, for a moment, as if they had fallen into a vast ocean, deep and fascinating, yet inconceivable.

After some time, the man closed his eyes again and laughed bitterly. As if he had lost all his strength he laid down directly on the tombstone, not willing to move.

Bai Ruogu watched for a long time, frowning and half-squinting his eyes. 

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.

Just as the man thought that the unknown person would soon leave, suddenly a shadow appeared beside him.

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Ktf wjc’r fsfilvr wbnfv, tlr tjcvr mifcmtfv, yea tf mbcalcefv ab ilf bc atf abwyrabcf jr lo tf kjr lwwfgrfv lc rbwfatlcu.

Djl Eebue jirb vlv cba rqfjx yea lcrafjv atgfk atf ewygfiij jrlvf, jcv atf akb abufatfg kfgf rbjxfv lc gjlc lc atlr vlw kfjatfg. 

He did not lean back against the tombstone but instead just sat there quietly, his eyes looked at the trees ahead, at the road and the sky that was being washed by rain ……

Two people stayed together in this silent environment, it was unknown how long it took until the rain gradually lessened and the man slowly opened his eyes.

“What are you thinking about?” The man asked in a low voice, his voice clear and steady.

Bai Ruogu used his hand to wipe away the rain on his eyelids and said without any hesitation, “Looking for some inspiration.” 

“What inspiration?”

“A script.”

The man paused, his eyes shook lightly and the corners of his mouth slightly moved but produced no words.

He shifted his whole body onto the tombstone, looked up at the vast sky in the distance and asked softly, “Are you a screenwriter or a director?” 

“Actor.”

“Oh?” The man smiled, “So you should be looking for inspiration for a role?”

Bai Ruogu shook his head and looked into the distance as well, “There is no role, I want to think of my own script, and then I’ll play a role in the script when the time comes.”

The man turned his head and looked him up and down, raised his eyebrows and asked, “A rich kid? Want to find a random script for fun?” 

“How?” Bai Ruogu sighed lightly but smiled as if he did not take it to heart.

“I really can’t find a role, no one dares to let me star in their films, they’re afraid of not being able to broadcast them.”

There was some surprise in the other party’s eyes, however, it was soon hidden as if it was a small matter not worth showing.

The man patted his sleeve, put his clothes in order and at the same time instantly guessed his identity. 

“So ……” the man looked at him, his azure eyes deep and impenetrable.

“Are you the one rumoured in the circle to be the poison of the film world, Bai Ruogu?”

Bai Ruogu: ……

He laughed out loud, “It’s true that good things don't come out of the gate, but bad things spread a thousand miles.” 

Bai Ruogu stretched his back and heard the man ask, “How are your acting skills?”

“I also don’t know.”

The man didn’t put his mind on it for very long but instead pressed something on the tombstone, causing a small hole to appear on it immediately afterwards.

While Bai Ruogu was stuck in a dumbstruck state, the man took a cigarette out of it, then a lighter and proceeded to light the cigarette. 

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Bai Ruogu’s expression and smiled, “Don’t think too much, this tomb is empty.”

Bai Ruogu: ?

The man inhaled the cigarette and breathed out a puff of smoke.

His hair fell down his cheeks, his beard was prickly and his voice itself was low and husky. How to look like a decadent uncle? 

The man continued to ask, “Then you’ve been thinking for so long, what inspiration have you gained?”

Bai Ruogu touched his head, frowned and said, “I didn’t think of any ideas for a script, but instead came up with several designs for a mech.”

The Man: ……

He smoked his cigarette and looked at Bai Ruogu from head to toe. He took a sharp breath before he spat out a word. 

“Talent.”

“If you don’t enter the Imperial Research Institute, it’s really a waste of your ability, a good seedling.”

Bai Ruogu casually smiled, “The key point is that I’m not interested in mechs, even if I get in, it’s useless.”

“Not interested?” The man gave him a deep look and shook his head, not continuing but moving on to another topic. 

He leaned his whole body on the tombstone, smoking a cigarette and looking at the sky.

Bai Ruogu followed the man’s gaze and found that there were no clouds in the sky, nothing.

However, for some reason, he always felt that the man seemed to be looking at something.

After a while, the man’s tone changed, and it seemed to be mixed with deep unknown emotion. 

The cigarette quickly burned out and was crushed into the rain, instantly extinguished, at the same time a question came out from the man’s mouth.

“Answer, what is a light year?” The man’s voice was very slow and trembled at the end, however, he continued to smile at the last few words.

Before Bai Ruogu could open his mouth, he saw the man wipe the rain off his face and answer his own question immediately after.

“This is a question every child knows. Isn’t a light year a unit of distance? Right? It represents distance……” 

However, Bai Ruogu didn’t agree.

Bai Ruogu also looked in the direction the man was looking in but didn’t know what he was seeing. Thousands of scenes passed through his mind as he whispered softly.

“Light years are not only distance but also time ……”

The man instantly sat up after hearing a “bang”, there seemed to be some confusion in his eyes, which increased, until finally, his eyes turned pitch black, without any hint of light. 

He was sitting in the rain, and his clothes had long been soiled by the muddy water. There was a constant “buzzing” in his ears as if the whole world had lost its voice.

Bai Ruogu leaned on the tombstone and watched him quietly, his lips opened halfway and gradually closed, and thousands of thoughts crossed his mind before merging together again.

For a moment, the man’s voice became hoarse, his voice went from slow to fast, and his eyes became dazed.

“I have a script here, do you want to read it?” 

Bai Ruogu also sat up at once. He had a hunch that it was going to be something extraordinary, so he nodded and said calmly, “I’ll be troubling you.”

The tombstone was knocked open again, the man took out a thick stack of script pages, carefully held them up and handed them to Bai Ruogu.

There were some subtle changes in Bai Ruogu’s eyes, and he also cautiously took the script.

He gently turned the script over and began to read the contents …… 

In recent years, all information was recorded on a smart brain. Except for the bookstores and libraries, it was hard to see paper content, let alone a script.

In his other half’s memory, all the scripts he had come into contact with over the years were electronic.

However, the script in front of him stirred up some emotions within him. The content on it was all handwritten, in a proper, serious and meticulous font and it was very clear to see what was on it.

When he came across the story, he was instantly aroused by curiosity. 

It could be described as a story about love, but also a personal legend.

Bai Ruogu turned over the pages one by one, and the man beside him kept quiet, watching the script while observing Bai Ruogu’s reactions.

Whether it was the rhythm of the plot, the cutting point of each scene, etc. In Bai Ruogu’s view, it was almost perfect.

Of course, what attracted him the most was the story. 

When Bai Ruogu turned to the last page, thinking that the two main characters were about to get together, he suddenly stopped in place.

He stared at the last few lines of words and gently stroked them with his fingers.

Unconsciously his eyes became sour, and his heart felt an unspeakable pain.

Those very lines were so abrupt, but though sudden they connected the entire script, corresponding from the beginning to the end. 

They were not abrupt, but very natural. It was the vital finishing touch that lit everything up and made one understand, but it was difficult to accept this reality.

Bai Ruogu slowed down for a long time, and finally returned to normal.

He closed the script and looked at the man in front of him with a complicated expression.

“It’s a very sci-fi-like story. The content is very unexplored, and although it’s fantastical, it’s not impossible. But ah, your knife is really sharp.”