Transmigrated into the Film Emperor’s Death-Seeking Fiance

This chapter was translated by Daed and edited by lynn to be hosted on Foxaholic.com only. Thank you.

A belated thank you to all of you who have ever supported me on kofi for this novel: Teabiscuit, Mo, LurkingReader, MlleAdler, MCJohnston,  Beverly, and some anonymous supporters (you know who you are). I really appreciate your support.

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Last edited 7/8/21.

Yan Qing Chi would never have thought that within half an hour, things had actually developed to Jiang Mo Chen and him treating Liao Si Bo to a meal.

He followed Jiang Mo Chen off the filming site with only one question on his mind the whole way: “Why should I treat him to a meal? According to the plot last time, shouldn’t he be the one to treat me to a meal?”

Alas, up until he got off the car and entered the restaurant, he still hadn’t figured out the reason. He could only reassure himself, ‘If it’s already like this, then I might as well accept it. Since Jiang Mo Chen has said that we’ll treat him (LSB) to a meal, then we’ll treat him to a meal.’

Yan Qing Chi took a seat beside Jiang Mo Chen and watched as the other man placed his orders. The server retreated from the room. Bored, Yan Qing Chi picked up his phone to ask Jiang Mo Chen what was going on; but before he finished composing his message, he heard a “skrr”1 sound——the sound of a chair scraping against the floor. He reflexively looked up, only to see Liao Si Bo standing up with a cup of tea in his hand. What’s this…?

Just as this thought crossed his mind, Liao Si Bo spoke, “Last time…I was in the wrong. I shouldn’t have done what I did. I didn’t have a good attitude. Today, I use this cup of tea in place of alcohol and apologize to you. I hope you can forgive me.”

Yan Qing Chi was somewhat bewildered. What is happening? In the half-hour conversation they had, Jiang Mo Chen finally displayed his “Protagonist Halo” and used love and justice to reform Liao Si Bo, causing the latter to kneel down and sing 《Conquer》2? On top of that, he (LSB) can now clearly see the wrongs he had committed last time?

Yan Qing Chi picked up the teacup in front of him, rose to his feet, and bumped his cup with Liao Si Bo’s briefly, “I told you last time. Since you are Jiang Mo Chen’s friend, I will forgive you.”

“Thank you.” Liao Si Bo said and then he downed the whole cup of tea. He even showed the other man the clean bottom of the cup.

Seeing this, Yan Qing Chi also drank all the tea in his cup and told him, “Don’t mention it.”

After he said this, he sat back down.

Liao Si Bo followed suit, settling back into his seat.

For a moment, the room was somewhat quiet. Fortunately, the servers soon began bringing in the dishes one by one. Jiang Mo Chen also brought up a new topic; thus, the atmosphere didn’t turn awkward.

Yan Qing Chi sat quietly at the side. He listened to the two of them chat. When he was interested, he would chime in; if he wasn’t, he would focus on eating his food. It could be considered a pretty harmonious time spent eating a meal together for both parties.

After they finished eating, Liao Si Bo said goodbye to the two other men and drove away in his car.

When he was gone, Yan Qing Chi finally asked Jiang Mo Chen, “Now can you explain to me what all this was about?”

“Liao Si Bo came looking for me for something. The two of us chatted for a while. He felt apologetic for his behavior last time and wanted to apologize to you. So, I suggested treating him to a meal. And then it became like this.”

“But you told me that it was us two treating him to a meal?”

“Yeah.” Jiang Mo Chen looked at him, “The two of us are a family. If it’s my treat, isn’t it the same as you treating him with me?”

Yan Qing Chi laughed. He thought that there was indeed some logic in this crooked reasoning of his (JMC).

When they returned once more to the set, Jiang Mo Chen had just finished changing into his movie costume when he received Yuan Ming Xu’s WeChat message.

【I’ll be arriving (in the country) tomorrow. Can you come pick me up?】

Jiang Mo Chen replied:【I’ll be in the middle of filming. I won’t be able to leave. Liao Si Bo said that he’ll go pick you up.】

Yuan Ming Xiu stared blankly at his phone. After a long time, he answered:【Okay, good luck then.】

Jiang Mo Chen stopped replying and placed the phone back in his pocket.

Yan Qing Chi watched as Jiang Mo Chen changed into his movie costume and began to act with Zhao Qiang. He (YQC) supported his cheek rather helplessly3. The usual and frequently used filming locations for this movie’s exterior scenes were the school where Zhou Fang worked, and Meng Luo’s neighborhood4.

Meng Luo lived in a little old apartment building. It only had seven floors. There was no elevator, and the stairs were quite narrow. The majority of the apartment’s residents were people getting on in years. They lived here during their adult years and in their old age. Only their sons and daughters moved out to live in multi-story buildings that looked even taller and more fashionable.

This apartment complex’s greenery was pretty nice. Many apartment residents even grew flowers and plants on their window sills. It made the apartment complex look extremely lively.

These two days, the film crew gathered to film the scenes in Meng Luo’s neighborhood.

However, this had nothing to do with Yan Qing Chi. Even though he was Meng Luo himself, he only had one scene in the neighborhood. And this scene was filmed in one take with Jiang Mo Chen several days ago.

Yan Qing Chi heaved a long sigh with his hand on his chest. He felt that the screenwriter had seriously taken a lot of trouble in the early stages of the movie just to hide Meng Luo, who was the plot twist5. If he didn’t already know the ending, he probably would never have guessed that someone who had such a weak presence6 in the movie would turn out to be one of the murderers and the mastermind behind the scenes.

He looked at Jiang Mo Chen who was standing in front of the residential building, speaking to Zhao Qiang. The sun was shining down on his gentle yet handsome face. His expression was very serious but his tone was extremely agreeable. It made people feel that he was trustworthy at the same time that they felt close with him7.

Zhao Qiang stood opposite him, listening to him in a gentle yet elegant manner. She nodded from time to time, affirming his analysis, “You’re right.”

Everything seemed so peaceful and picturesque; alas, an unforeseen incident took place at this very moment.

Yan Qing Chi was the first person to react. He yelled out, “Jiang Mo Chen”, when he saw the flowerpot fall. While everyone else still hadn’t reacted, he instinctively sprinted over and tackled Jiang Mo Chen down onto the ground.

There was a “Bang!” as a flowerpot that wasn’t big fell and shattered not far from them. The flowerpot broke into pieces. Only the dilapidated planted flowers fell upon the pavement, so red that it was a piercing sight.

Yan Qing Chi’s gaze followed the direction that the flowerpot had fallen from and he caught a glimpse of the curtains of one of the apartment units moving. He instantly got to his feet and—without saying much—sought the stairs, dashing up to the corresponding floor of that apartment unit.

Yan Qing Chi reached the sixth floor, recalled the position of that apartment unit he had taken note of, and then turned to knock on the door of the apartment unit facing the east. He knocked very urgently and harshly. Yet even though he knocked incessantly for so long, no one came to open the door.

Yan Qing Chi was angry, so he simply fished out the key that he had been carrying from his pocket. An iron wire hung on the keyring. This was the habit that Yan Qing Chi had developed before his transmigration——when he had been 14, he used an iron wire to open the door that had been maliciously closed and saved the girl who had been trapped inside due to off-campus bullying.

From then on, he habitually hung an iron wire on his keyring. It wasn’t to commemorate how he had helped someone; rather, it was a preventative measure——he was afraid that one day, he would be the one trapped inside. And he would be unable to do anything about it. He would be utterly helpless, without anything at hand—not even a mere iron wire.

Yet he hadn’t expected that before he had the chance to use this iron wire for himself, Jiang Mo Chen would need it.

Yan Qing Chi had just inserted the iron wire into the lock when Jiang Mo Chen arrived. He had been tackled down to the ground by Yan Qing Chi before he could react, and then he heard the sound of a flowerpot meeting the ground. Just as he was about to open his mouth, Yan Qing Chi shot off like a bullet, climbing up the nearby stairs two to three steps at a time. Jiang Mo Chen immediately followed him. Yet just as he reached the sixth floor—he didn’t even have enough time to marvel at Yan Qing Chi’s freakish speed; this rapid speed was like the other man had trained before—he saw Yan Qing Chi picking the lock to the east apartment unit’s door.

“You—”

Before he could utter another word, Yan Qing Chi had already unlocked the door. He opened it and walked straight in. Jiang Mo Chen hastily followed him in. By the time that the other staff members of the film crew made their way up the stairs, they were welcomed with a “Bang!” The old-fashioned security door shut them firmly outside.

Yan Qing Chi entered the apartment. Seeing that there was no one in the living room, he directly crossed through the living room and headed deeper inside. Before he could enter the bedroom, however, there was the sound of footsteps.

A young woman in pajamas and her hair tied up appeared before them. With a frantic expression, she questioned, “Who are you? How did you come in? What are you doing? Get out!”

“You were the one who pushed the flowerpot.” Yan Qing Chi stated emotionlessly.

“What flowerpot? I don’t know anything. Get out.”

Yan Qing Chi directly walked around her. He scanned the area and walked towards the bedroom——that was the direction that the flowerpot had fallen from.

Seeing this, the woman hastily tried to hold him back. Yet before she could get near his body, Yan Qing Chi had already caught her hand and twisted it behind her back.

The woman cried out in pain.

Yan Qing Chi pushed her aside and entered the bedroom in front of him. The bedroom was very messy. Undergarments, skirts, dresses, and socks were piled up on the bed; some unfinished chips and a drink rested on the nightstand. On the other side of the room, a computer was sitting on the table. There were several magazines beside the computer. On the wall behind the computer was a poster of a male celebrity.

Yan Qing Chi headed straight to the window and drew open the curtains. He looked at the window sill and then further outwards. As he had thought, not far away directly below this window sill was that shattered pot of flowers.

Yan Qing Chi turned his head. Pointing at the lingering imprint of the bottom of the flowerpot on the window sill, he opened his mouth very calmly and coldly, “What is this? There are still water marks on the window sill. You were just watering the flowers, weren’t you? Where’re the flowers?”

The woman stood outside the door, slightly trembling, “The flowers were dead, so I threw it out.”

“Where’d you throw it?”

“What are you asking these questions for! What does it have to do with you! This is my house. Get out!”

“You threw it downstairs, didn’t you?” Yan Qing Chi calmly stated, “You wanted to kill Jiang Mo Chen, didn’t you?”

Jiang Mo Chen unwittingly looked towards the woman beside him. She started to tremble even more violently, her eyes quite red. She shrieked at Yan Qing Chi, “Get out! This is my house. If you don’t get out, I will call the police.”

“Perfect. I also plan to call the police.” After he uttered those words, Yan Qing Chi pulled out his phone and prepared to call 110.

Seeing him do so, the woman’s eyes instantly widened. She promptly charged over, intending to snatch his phone.

Before Yan Qing Chi could make his move, Jiang Mo Chen restrained her from behind.

He looked at the person before him who was struggling to break free. Up till this moment, he still could not understand, “Why did you want to kill me?”

He had thought that it was an unintentional incident. She inadvertently bumped the flowerpot over, inadvertently almost injured him; yet in the end, it had been premeditated.

The woman, whom he detained, whipped her head around to glare at him fiercely. Her eyes were bloodshot and filled with tears. She incessantly tried to break free, yelling, “Let go!”

Yan Qing Chi took this opportunity to call 110. When the woman heard him say “Hello?”, she practically struggled even harder and more crazily. She yelled, “You can’t do this. You will ruin me. I don’t want to go to jail. You can’t do this!”

Unperturbed, Yan Qing Chi relayed the situation and then hung up.

“You called the police. You called the police.” The woman said in a daze.

“Yes, I called the police.”

“Scoundrels; you are all scoundrels! How could you do this! How could you call the police!” She screamed in distress.

“You tried to kill him; why can’t I call the police?”

“It’s not like I wanted to kill him; I just wanted to teach him a little lesson. I just wanted to see him experience some setbacks and suffer. What’s wrong with that?”

Yan Qing Chi laughed coldly, “Are you God?”

“I’m not, but is he? Why does he get to have such a smooth sailing career? Why does he get to have whatever he wants? He’s already so popular; is it not enough to be popular?! Why did he have to get the award too! Lin Ke doesn’t have anything—no popularity and no schedules. Receiving the award is his only hope. If he received the award, then he would have more schedules. It’s all his fault! It’s all his fault! It’s because Lin Ke didn’t win the Golden Gui Award8 that he didn’t have any schedules at all in this half year! Everyone is struggling to live in this world, so why does everything go his way? Shouldn’t he experience some setbacks?!”

Jiang Mo Chen was stunned. He unwittingly turned his head and saw an opened post on the still lit-up computer screen. In the section to compose one’s message, there was a draft with the following words:

——Did Jiang Mo Chen die today? He didn’t! Did the Little Lunatics9 go mad today? They did! Are the Little Lunatics really unaware what kind of person their idol is like? Two hands are not enough to count the number of male and female celebrities that he’s slept with. He baits fans and f*cks them. He’s been fed resources since he debuted; what is he if not a ‘resources celebrity’? I wonder which financial backer is so willing to spend the money on him. I’m sincerely envious!

He looked at the woman before him who was still struggling to break free while hurling verbal insults. For some reason, a feeling of resigned desolation formed in his heart.

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Footnotes

In the raws, this was “刺啦” (cīlā). It seems to be “(onomatopoeia) a sound produced by a quick-sliding action”. I think this is supposed to be the sound of a chair being pushed back as LSB stands up. I substituted the “cila” with “skrr” (yes, I know). Anyways, it probably sounded like this (0:24) or this (~0:36).So I think this is a pop culture reference (“让他跪下唱征服”). I translated a Baidu user’s explanation to a question about this phrase: “Singing 《Conquer》 means ‘I am extremely formidable,[sic] the opponent has already been impressed by my ability’. Na Ying’s song 《征服》(Conquer) has this line: ‘And so I was conquered by you like this’. In online games, a name such as ‘xx kneels down and sings Conquer’ was created.” Here is the official MV for the song (warning: gets sexual) and here is a live performance.Visual example: Jackson Yee (Chinese: 易烊千玺; pinyin: Yì Yángqiānxǐ) from TFboys

孟落家小区.This means something like the community that Meng Luo’s house was in or the neighborhood. It appears again in later sentences/paragraphs like “孟落住的是一个老小区”. After this sentence, I translate “小区” as apartment building or apartment complex—whichever would make more sense in the context that we have. 编剧前期为了隐藏孟落这个反转，真是很煞费苦心了The raw had “打酱油” which is literally translated as “hit soy sauce”. It means to buy soy sauce or to say that something is none of your business (e.g., “I’m just here to buy some soy sauce”). It could also be used to describe the age of children, in the sense of people having children who were “old enough to buy soy sauce” (meaning that they are old enough to shop on their own). In this context, it’s mainly saying that Meng Luo seemed like a low-ranking side character. He didn’t seem super important.“在让人觉得可靠的同时也心生亲近” – meaning that he made people think that he was reliable/trustworthy. At the same time, they develop feelings of closeness/intimacy with him. What I mean is that they have a favorable impression of him and think that he is a righteous figure.”金桂奖” (jīnguìjiǎng) – No idea what this is. It seems that it is a real thing according to Baidu and such, but I’m not really sure. It could also just be a made-up name. Another possibility (as Lynn suggests because of the phonetics) is that it is supposed to be something like the Golden Guild Awards, which are awards for the “best of actors, actresses and production of the season”. The only difference between the names is that there is a “gui” instead of a “globe”.This is a negative nickname for JMC’s fans (Little Houses/小房子
xiaofángzi). The raw was “小疯子” (xiaofēngzi) which I translated as “Little Lunatics”. The “fang” and “feng” sounds are similar, but they mean different things.