Transmigrated into the Film Emperor’s Death-Seeking Fiance

 Chapter 58 - Yan Qingchi Consecutively Snatched Wooden Tablets, Jiang Mochen Forcibly Appeared On Camera

I forgot to include the “The Author Has Something to Say” for the previous chapter so here it is: 

“Hahaha, are you a little surprised? It’s not the Little White Lotus, but that Song Li who had previously been mentioned but hadn’t made an official appearance yet. Does anyone remember him? The top dog of the Original Owner’s managerial company, the boss’s little darling, the one who intercepted the Original Owner’s gig. But the gig he intercepted wasn’t this show. It was the supporting character of a television drama. As for this show, with the status that Song Li has, he could only ‘enter the program carrying goods’ (get in through the backdoor or other means). As for why Yan Qingchi is so incredible, as previously said, he had been adopted by a big-wig before he had transmigrated. So he had undergone a lot of training since young. It really is a breeze for him to go up against normal people. None of them could stand a chance.” 

Now on to our normal programming. Also, finals are horrible.

After Yan Qingchi left, Dai Hongzhuo soon came back to his senses. He retied the wooden tablet again and went elsewhere. When Song Li called out to him, he simply waved his hand and said that he was going to check out another classroom first.

However, the moment he turned his head, Dai Hongzhuo’s expression turned cold. When he first saw Song Li fall, he really had thought thatYan Qingchi had pushed him. He felt that this little nobody who had suddenly joined really didn’t understand the rules. For screen time, he even dared to push his senior–his (YQC) desire to win was really too strong. But after the series of events that followed, especially how Yan Qingchi took the wooden plaques from Song Li’s and his wrists without any effort, the balance in Dai Hongzhuo’s heart began to tilt towards Yan Qingchi.

He wasn’t stupid, and Yan Qingchi was even less stupid. He already had this kind of ability; would he still pull Song Li just to snatch a wooden tablet? Because he felt that his motions were too brilliant and was afraid that if he showed off, it would make them and the audience in front of the TV feel inferior? Who was he kidding? Variety shows are like the Eight Immortals crossing the sea and showing their respective talents.1 If he had this kind of skill and didn’t show it off right now, did he plan to keep it to ‘celebrate the new year’?

Then, if it wasn’t a problem on Yan Qingchi’s side, it was a problem with Song Li himself. Dai Hongzhuo felt that Song Li was truly ridiculous. It’s Yan Qingchi’s first episode and he (SL) is already so eager to intimidate him. What’s the point of doing so? Now he (SL) had reaped what he sowed. What he had thought to be a lump of dough that could be flattened or rolled into a ball turned out to be an iron plate2. Not only did Song Li fail to intimidate Yan Qingchi, his fault was also pointed out by the latter. Dai Hongzhuo didn’t know if Yan Qingchi had a sugar daddy or not, but he had seen Song Li’s expression when Yan Qingchi had mentioned Boss Li.  

He instantly understood why Song Li was so unable to wait to target Yan Qingchi and why he (SL) wanted to do so in front of him. So it’s because his (SL) “pigtail”3 was in his (YQC) grasp.   

 

Dai Hongzhuo snorted coldly. He didn’t want to get involved in Yan Qingchi and Song Li’s matters4. It was all fine and good if Song Li was going up against Yan Qingchi by himself; but he just had to drag him (DHZ) into the “water”. Now that was not so fine and dandy.

Just as Dai Hongzhuo was thinking this, he saw that Yan Qingchi seemed to have run in a circle, so he (YQC) was running over in his direction from the other end of a corridor. When Yan Qingchi saw him, he (YQC) was taken aback for a moment. Then he slowed down. 

Dai Hongzhuo instinctively felt that he was in a bad situation, and he instantly ran up the stairs. Yan Qingchi hastily chased after Dai Hongzhuo, pushing his speed and finally catching up to the latter after going up the stairs.5 He set his sights on the wooden tablet on Dai Hongzhuo’s wrist. Then he instantly struck, tearing it off without even touching Dai Hongzhuo’s body. 

“Thanks, Dai-ge.” Yan Qingchi hollered as he hastily ran to the other side.

Dai Hongzhuo—out.

Dai Hongzhuo watched as he ran far away. He turned to look at the camera before him, attempting to create the last memorable point for himself in this episode, “I had always thought that, in this era, the secret manuals of martial arts have already been lost. Who would have thought that not only did they exist, someone has secretly practiced them! This figure, this speed—is this a human?! This is practically Lingbo Footwork6, ‘not leaving a single footprint in the snow’7. If I were to win, then I’d be his older brother Xiao Feng.” 8 

After snatching Dai Hongzhuo’s wooden tablet, Yan Qingchi stored it in his pocket. By now he had understood that as opposed to continuing to yield to others, giving them the impression that he was an easy target, it would be better to take preemptive action and intimidate the others. It would also save some people from harboring thoughts they shouldn’t have.  

Ever since he had been adopted when he was a child, he had learnt from his adoptive father. His adoptive father was an extremely powerful figure in the underworld. In fact, he was so powerful that even after he had whitewashed himself and ‘climbed ashore’, becoming an outstanding entrepreneur, both the underworld and the government watched him like a hawk and feared his existence. Yan Qingchi learnt a lot from his adoptive father, whether it was his dexterity9, skills, or the beliefs he held about how to conduct himself and handle matters. So, ever since young, he knew that any little tricks would only look ridiculous in the face of absolute strength.10  

He found Classroom 2305. He was about to go to the opposite 2306; but, before he entered the classroom, he sensed someone attacking him from behind. Yan Qingchi dodged to the side. It was Li Yuanqing.

When Li Yuanqing saw Yan Qingchi, he felt that he was kind of lucky. After all, it was his first time on the show, and he (LYQ) still didn’t really know how to play yet. If he were to meet the regular members who had lots of experience at this time, he would probably be eliminated. But Yan Qingchi was different. Although he was a regular member, he had just come on the show as a temporary substitute. He (YQC) also appeared to be very polite, not like a very incredible kind of person. Li Yuanqing felt that his odds of winning against Yan Qingchi were pretty good.  

Looking at Yan Qingchi, he smiled and said, “Sorry for this.” Then he lunged at Yan Qingchi once more. Yan Qingchi dodged in the same direction as he had lunged. He targeted Li Yuanqing’s wrist, reached out his hand, and grabbed the other man’s wooden tablet from his wrist. 

“Sorry for this.” Yan Qingchi returned Li Yuanqing’s words to him with a smile. Then he put the wooden tablet into his pocket and ran to the other side. 

Li Yuanqing—out.

Li Yuanqing looked at the camera, both helpless and still not having completely processed what had happened, “So that’s it for me?” He sighed, “I had thought that the other party was a ‘Bronze’ like I am. Who would have thought that he was actually a secret ‘King’?11 He couldn’t be the weapon of mass destruction that the production team purposefully hid, could he?” Li Yuanqing cleared his throat, “Although I’ve unfortunately been eliminated, I still want to use my last screentime to promote our film Pursuit that is about to be released in theaters. You might not believe it, but I’m actually also a ‘King’ in Pursuit.”

Yan Qingchi quickly finished searching the second floor. He was about to go up to the third floor to continue looking, but when he arrived at (the bottom of) the stairs, he met Sun Xun.

""

“There’re no keys up there. Go to the building.” Sun Xun said while asking, “Did you hear that Dai Hongzhuo and Li Yuanqing were eliminated?” 

Yan Qingchi nodded and took out the two wooden tablets in his pocket to show Sun Xun. With an indifferent expression, he said, “It was my doing.”

Sun Xun was momentarily stunned. He was quite surprised by how Yan Qingchi said ‘It was my doing’ as if he was saying that the weather today wasn’t bad. In the next second, Sun Xun reached out his right hand and patted Yan Qingchi’s shoulder, laughing, “That’s incredible. And here I had been worried that you would be at a disadvantage against the Blue Team. In the end, you eliminated two people without saying anything.” 

Yan Qingchi smiled and handed him the wooden tablets. “You hold onto them, Captain.”

“No, you hold onto them. At the end, the production team will count the number of wooden tablets we have. At that time, whoever has the most wooden tablets is the mvp and gets a reward.”

“What reward?”

“It’s hard to say. You have to pick it from the reward box. It’s fine. You’ll know when the time comes.”

“Alright.” Yan Qingchi nodded. “Then hopefully I can pick a good one (reward).”

“You will.” Sun Xun answered.

The two of them exited the Shaw Building and entered the Yuzhang Building. The three areas that the production team had circled out were the Shaw Building, the Yuzhang Building, and the cafeteria.

Considering how the area of the cafeteria was the smallest, which meant that it had the least number of places to hide the keys, the two teams both placed their focus on the two lecture buildings. Just when Sun Xun and Yan Qingchi had entered the building, they heard the broadcast announcement that Ruan Wenxuan had been eliminated. The two men shared a look and deduced that there was definitely someone from the Blue Team here—they just didn’t know who.

“Let’s search together.” Sun Xun said.

Naturally, Yan Qingchi agreed.

While they were searching, the broadcast consecutively announced that Li Meng and Jiang Han were eliminated. Sun Xun counted: now there was only Chen Xuanlang, Song Li, and Yang Xiaoxiao on the Blue Team. 

Just as he was searching, Yan Qingchi suddenly laughed.

“What’s up?”

“Come look at this.” Yan Qingchi beckoned him over.

Sun Xun walked over to see that, on the desk before Yan Qingchi, a paragraph was written with a ballpoint pen:

“The sound of one sigh after another,
As Little Jing studies facing the door.
No sound of writing,
Only that of the girl sighing.
Ask her of whom she thinks,
Ask her for whom she longs.
(Little Jing replies)
‘There is no one I think of,
There is no one I long for.
Last night I was watching television,
CEO Jiang was handsome and cool.
He was on the television for forty minutes,
Each frame was screenshot material.
Older Brother has no girlfriend,
And Little Jing has no boyfriend.
I’m willing to be Older Brother’s wife,
And live henceforth happily ever after.’”12

Yet, below this paragraph, there were multiple handwritings in gel ink pen, ballpoint pen, and fountain pen that wrote: “Dream on!” 

Someone even wrote: “Little Jing, wake up from your dreams. It’s time for the exam!”

Sun Xun burst into laughter. He found a pen in the classroom. Underneath the writing, he wrote the words: “Study well and pay attention in class.”

“We should let Mochen come and write ‘Anyone who does not properly attend class and fails the course will be expelled from the fan registry.’”

Yan Qingchi refuted, “Chen-ge wouldn’t do that. Chen-ge is very good to his fans. If his fans failed a course, he would definitely encourage them, not expel them from the fan registry.”

Sun Xun scoffed, “Am I your team captain or is he (your team captain)? Who are you going to listen to?”

""

Yan Qingchi very cooperatively answered, “I listen to my team captain’s words.” Then he added, “But I also listen to Chen-ge. He is my half-mentor. He gave me pointers when we had been working together.”

Sun Xun smiled, purposefully saying, “Why did you react so seriously? Alright, I won’t tease you anymore. Let’s go.” 

Through their back-and-forth conversation, Sun Xun and Yang Qingchi had cued Jiang Mochen, forcefully making his name appear on camera. With that, they were satisfied and headed to another classroom to continue looking for keys.

When Yang Xiaoxiao and Chen Xuanlang came in, Sun Xun and Yan Qingchi were opening a box they had just found. When they saw the two enter, Sun Xun immediately put the box away.

 “Xun-ge, you guys have already found a key?” Chen Xuanlang asked.

 “Nope. We just found this box, but it feels like it’s empty.”

 “Then just open it and have a look-see.”

 “Don’t just stare at what I have in my hands. What about you? Have you found any keys yet?”

 “If I’d found a key, I would have already stopped time.”

Sun Xun smiled, “That’s not for sure. Your team currently has three people left. Our team has four. If you stopped time now, doesn’t that mean we’re about to win?”

Chen Xuanlang smiled slightly and did not speak.

Eyeing him, Sun Xun braced himself to attack.

In an instant, the two of them were fighting over the box. Yan Qingchi saw that Sun Xun and Chen Xuanlang were entangled together and wanted to come forward to help Sun Xun. Yet, as soon as he moved, Yang Xiaoxiao moved in front of him and blocked his way.

Yang Xiaoxiao appeared like her name: she looked sweet and loved to smile. She looked at Yan Qingchi, both hands behind her back.

Yan Qingchi looked at her, but he wasn’t in a hurry. After experiencing what he had with Song Li, he didn’t want to make any physical contact with anyone when he snatched their wooden tablets. So he needed to wait. He needed to wait for Yang Xiaoxiao to reveal her wrist first; that moment would be the opportune time for him to snatch her wooden tablet.

Yang Qingchi didn’t wait for too long. Sun Xun and Chen Xuanlang were entangled for a while, equally matched. Sun Xun remembered that there was a door behind him, so he simply pushed Chen Xuanlang away and yelled, “Qingchi, let’s go.” 

Then he ran out first.

Yan Qingchi picked up the box. When he was about to leave, Yang Xiaoxiao reached out a hand to guard against him. Seeing her stretch out her hand, Yan Qingchi directly leaned over and, with one hand holding the box, he pulled her wooden tablet with the other (hand). Yang Xiaoxiao hadn’t expected to be eliminated so quickly, and she was stunned on the spot. Chen Xuanlang, on the other hand, reacted quickly; he took a big stride forward to block Yan Qingchi’s way. 

Thank you for reading my translation! 

Footnotes

Eight Immortals crossing the sea and showing their respective talents= 八仙过海各显通 (bā xiān guò hǎi，gè xiǎn shén tōng). Baidu answers here. Baidu here. It means “each person is trying their best, for all one’s worth” (source).Essentially, the person he thought would be an easy target to deal with and do whatever to ended up being a difficult person to deal with.(fig.) a shortcoming or evidence of wrongdoing that can be seized upon by others趟浑水 (tānghúnshuǐ) -(fig.) to get involved in an unsavory enterprise  戴鸿卓直觉不好，立马就往楼梯上跑，燕清池连忙追了上去，压着速度在上了楼梯后才追上。凌波微步 (língbōwēibù), the qinggong technique of Duan Yu (段譽; Duàn Yù), one of the three male protagonists of Jin Yong’s (金庸; pen name of Louis Cha Leung-yung) wuxia novel, Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (Original title: 天龍八部 Tiānlóng Bā Bù; alternative English translation: Eight Books of the Heavenly Dragon). Here is the Baidu page. You can check out these sites to learn more about the novel: Wikipedia and Baidu. There have also been TV and screen adaptations. More information on Duan Yu here. Fun fact: the same characters for “Lingbo Footwork” (凌波微步) is also used as a description for females walking gracefully/ walking with dainty steps. This phrase appeared in Chinese poet and prince Cao Zhi’s (曹植) Ode to the Nymph of the Luo River (洛神赋; Luò shén fù), a handscroll on which a poem is written. It was composed during the Three Kingdoms Period. Baidu here.踏雪无痕 (tàxuěwúhén) – lit. walk/step on snow without a trace. It means that someone or something disappears without a trace and cannot be tracked. In the past, it was used to describe someone’s skill in martial arts being high-level.萧峰 (Xiāo Fēng). Also known as “Qiao Feng” (乔峰; Qiáo Fēng), he is the sworn older brother and brother-in-law of Duan Yu. He is one of the three male protagonists of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils. More information on him here.not quite it in terms of how I interpreted 身手 but I guess this works所以，他从小就知道，在绝对的实力面前，一切的小心思，都只会显得可笑罢了。In the raw, LYQ had said this: ““唉，以为对方和我一样只是个青铜，没想到是个暗藏不露的王者啊…” 青铜 (qīngtóng) = Bronze. 王者 (wángzhě) = King. I took inspiration from the rankings from the MOBA game Honor of Kings (Wikipedia here). The lowest ranking is the “Tough Bronze’ (倔强青铜) and the highest ranking is the ‘King of Glory’ (荣耀王者). Based on my research into the saying “本以为是青铜没想到是王者” (“I had thought they were a Bronze. Who would have thought that they were a King?”) that LYQ seems to be referencing, this saying was based on Honor of Kings’s ranking system and the game character Lu Bu (based on the character in Romance of the Three Kingdoms). Essentially, someone who the speaker had thought to be weak ended up being the strongest person ever.This is a parody of The Ballad of Mulan (木蘭辭; Mùláncí), also known as the Ode of Mulan. Baidu page here. English translations of the original text here or here. English paraphrase here. If you would like to listen to it in various forms or check out other Mulan-related content…Performance (it’s the bit that is spoken by the little girl) on the CCTV program Everlasting Classics (《经典咏流传》) here. The ballad sung in song (though not really in the rhythm one usually reads the ode) here. Or you can hear the poem read (with drawings and English subtitles) here. Less related to the poem, you can check out this Marblue cover of a song based on the ballad. And there is a webnovel that is being translated on Foxaholic called Mulan Has No Elder Brother (a line from the poem!). It is a historical novel where the MC had transmigrated into a Hua Mulan who has returned home.