I’m Afraid I’m Now a Salted Fish Chapter 23

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Chapter 23: Business Exchange

　　After hearing the news, Bai Shaoding’s fans flocked to him, immediately taking up a hot discussion spot, and cursed Chi Song extremely heavily.
　　However, the way the online situation was currently developing was quite unfavorable for Bai Shaoding. Although the fans seemed to have a huge momentum, passersby who came to watch the drama were always in the majority online.
　　Soon, the positive comments gained the upper hand.
　　Chi Song, who watched the screen through his side account, summed it up. In total, there were three common viewpoints. In order, they were “Bai Shaoding’s fans were forced to take the heat for Bai Shaoding,” “Chi Song’s picture is pretty good,” and “Hahahahahaha.”
　　
　　Bai Shaoding’s fans were shocked enough to vomit blood. First, they flocked over to Chi Song’s Weibo to scold him for a round. Then, they ran to “Stylish’s” official Weibo, seeking a grand death.
　　Just by looking at the hundreds of different curses that the fans used, one would think that Bai Shaoding had suffered a great injustice at “Stylish’s” hands or something. Chi Song was very shocked.
　　He still remembered an incident from just half a year ago, when a newly popular all-rounder celebrity got on the cover of a top-notch magazine. When the issue came out, the fans unexpectedly all seemed to feel that the cover’s style was very lacking It was unknown how their twisted brain circuits were wired, since they actually went so far as to believe that the editor of the magazine was a fan of their idol’s competitor and deliberately made their idol look bad. So, they found that editor in chief and made a lot of personal attacks against him.
　　What they absolutely didn’t expect was that they had actually started to tear into a fashion bigshot.
　　Well-known magazines like “Stylish” had deep roots and were closely related to various fashion resources. No celebrity would dare to offend them easily. Most of the time, it was the magazines choosing celebrities. It would never be the celebrity’s place to be picky and order them around.
　　These fans were currently touting the title of Bai Shaoding’s fan to go around and scold the magazine. Chi Song felt that in a certain sense, these fans seemed to have an irreconcilable hatred with Bai Shaoding.
　　
　　Sure enough, the official Weibo of “Stylish” also wasn’t so easy to deal with.
　　After being scolded by Bai Shaoding’s fans for almost an hour, they released some interesting news tidbits about Chi Song’s photoshoot.
　　… It could be said to have deeply pricked the fans’ hearts.
　　
　　This news seemed to be very official. It was split into two parts.
　　Chi Song secretly opened up the first video. He watched a minute of it and became shocked at the editor’s level.
　　The black and white tones made the Chi Song in the video look particularly lusty. When he picked up a cup and drank a mouthful of water, the water droplets rolled down from his lips into his sweater, leaving a vague, seductive water stain on his neck.
　　The camera had also specially given a close-up to Chi Song’s slender and beautiful neck.
　　Next, Chi Song read Yeats’ poem again with a British accent. His expression was very absent-minded, but his voice was incredibly beautiful.
　　Then, there were some scenes of the formal photoshoot. The editor deliberately selected a few provocative and sexy actions, including a close-up of his waist as he took off his sweater.
　　This five-minute tidbit, coupled with the hoarse and rough English BGM, built up an image of Chi Song that was remarkably similar to that of a fashion male god.
　　
　　Chi Song trembled with fear, wondering… Who is this?
　　
　　But when he clicked into the second video, Chi Song relaxed.
　　If the first tidbit made people want to lick the screen, the second tidbit just made him out to be more like a silly but amusing person.
　　In the video, Chi Song took a sip of water. Then, the water dripped into his clothes. He immediately pulled at the collar in a panic and asked the female photographer, “I got it wet! Do I have to pay compensation?”
　　After reading aloud, he turned to the staff worker next to him with puppy-dog eyes, as if asking for praise. “Did what I read sound good?”
　　As for the tidbits of the actual photoshoot, there were even more funny parts. Chi Song had to strike a pose while sitting on a yoga ball. Then, he accidentally fell butt-first onto the ground, grimacing in pain.
　　And when he was shooting that very compelling cover, he accidentally dropped the pen with his mouth. Then, he started to look for it everywhere with his butt stuck up in the air.
　　
　　… Chi Song finally found his true self in this video.
　　
　　These past few days, Chi Song’s fans had been attacked by Bai Shaoding’s fans to the point that they didn’t even dare to make a sound. Now, a big pie had suddenly fallen from the sky, and it had even smashed straight into Chi Song’s mouth. The fans felt that this happiness had really come too suddenly.
　　After being dizzy for a while, they frenziedly threw themselves into calling Chi Song in waves.
　　
　　And the current Chi Song still didn’t know what this would mean in the future.
　　He was even rejoicing that he was just a salted fish, flipped over on his belly as he floated in the water, watching the show elatedly.
　　
　　About three hours later, the cast and crew of “Kongming Lock” released the trailer of the suspense web drama “Kongming Lock.” They also pinged Chi Song as the lead actor.
　　
　　Song Zhihuai had watched this trailer even before Chi Song.
　　He had long already followed the official Weibo for “Kongming Lock.” While he was in a meeting, he received a Weibo push notification.
　　As the boss, he shamelessly exploited his authority to create a ten minute break. Then, he put in his earbuds and took his phone with him to the bathroom, leaning against the stall door as he tapped into the trailer.
　　
　　In order to film this drama, Chi Song had lost all the weight he’d gained after the first season of “Brilliant Starlight” ended. Then, he’d been gloomy for quite a while after. But, he didn’t tell Song Zhihuai what exactly he had been filming, so Song Zhihuai also couldn’t ask.
　　Song Zhihuai really wanted to know just what kind of story was portrayed in this show filmed by Chi Song.
　　
　　The trailer was about three minutes long.
　　In this drama, Chi Song played a mortician. He was both gentle and polite, with a penetrating temperament and an outstanding mind. He had many friends, including a young female forensic doctor, a young policeman who had just started on the job, a lawyer with a deep sense of justice, a psychiatrist, and a motorcyclist.
　　Chi Song had wholeheartedly wanted to pass his days smoothly and steadily, but became drawn into strange murder cases one after another. These incidents also unfolded around his friends. Either someone close to his friend had been killed, or his friend was the murder suspect.
　　Chi Song helped his friends resolve the crisis time and time again, but he gradually discovered that there seemed to be someone quietly directing these cases from behind the scenes.
　　After thinking back, Chi Song found that several people’s first meeting was also due to a strange group trip.
　　Everyone around Chi Song had hidden secrets in their hearts. These cases revealed those secrets one by one.
　　And clearly, Chi Song was the one who had the biggest secret among them.
　　
　　At the end of the trailer, Chi Song’s body was full of wounds. Then, he suddenly looked back.
　　A humanoid silhouette reached out a hand towards him from amid the raging flames.
　　At this time, the screen went black.
　　
　　The company that made this web drama was a small company. This was their first drama. Judging from the trailer alone, it was done with great care, both fiery and tyrannical. The suspenseful atmosphere was incredibly well laid out.
　　Song Zhihuai also noticed that except for Chi Song, the rest were all fresh faces that seemed to be made out of the same mold. Fortunately, their temperaments all suited the plot pretty well. From this, it can be seen that the director at least put some thought into selecting the actors.
　　But these years, there was no shortage of TV dramas with “wonderful trailers, but horrible actual content.” Even if this had been filmed by his own family’s wife, Song Zhihuai still didn’t dare to hold high hopes for it.
　　
　　After he left the bathroom, he continued the meeting. Then, while pretending to have accepted some advertisements, he checked whether the few hundred copies of “Stylish’s” magazine he’d ordered had been delivered yet along the way.
　　
　　On the other side, Chi Song also finished watching the trailer of “Kongming Lock”.
　　He had liked it from the first time he saw the script. He had spent an entire night to take in the first ten episodes before he contacted Zhou Yaming and finalized his decision to join.
　　The screenwriter and director of this drama were the same person, Lu Yuan. He was a rookie in the screenwriting world. Because this was his first drama, he wasn’t very well-known. He was very serious and would very patiently discuss the scenes with each and every actor. He especially loved to chat at night with Chi Song.
　　It wasn’t until the day before they started filming that Lu Yuan gave the second day’s script to the actors, so that the actors wouldn’t even be able to guess how the plot would develop next. That way, their acting would be very good, infinitesimally close to the real thing.
　　
　　Chi Song had already observed the director’s intentions, so he also completely threw himself into this drama.
　　He logged into his own main account and forwarded this Weibo.
　　
　　“Chi Song V: Director Lu Yuan has been especially diligent when filming “Kongming Lock.” This is a great drama worth looking forward to. We welcome everyone to come and watch it.”
　　Not long after, Lu Yuan replied to him.”
　　“Lu Yuan V: You were also very diligent, mwuah.”
　　
　　Chi Song: “…”
　　
　　Lu Yuan was a gay.
　　The second day after Chi Song joined the production group, he had chatted with Lu Yuan about the script late into the night, all the way until three in the morning. The next day, he had been stared at by the handsome little cameraman brother for the whole day. Only after he realized did he realize this fact.
　　At first, Chi Song thought that it was because he didn’t walk with the camera and the cameraman was trying to express that he was lacking. It wasn’t until he saw with his own eyes Lu Yuan walking past and hooking an arm around that cultured little brother’s neck with high spirits and saying, “How come you didn’t come eat breakfast with me this morning?”
　　Lu Yuan had always been very lively, and reflected affectionately, but distantly, in his eyes was the cold face of the little cameraman brother.
　　He was very succinct, as if each word was worth gold, “I was adjusting the camera.”
　　Lu Yuan laughed with a heehee, “Goodness, adjusting what camera. It’s not as good as adjusting me.”
　　Chi Song: “⊙▽⊙！！！”
　　The little brother glanced at Chi Song before looking back at Lu Yuan. Then, with a cold tone, he said, “… Just you wait for me.”
　　His tone was very cold, and after speaking, he forcefully adjusted the camera’s jib¹, as if he was planning that thick and long jib to make Lu Yuan “wait” well.
　　But Chi Song clearly saw that little brother trying to suppress the corners of his lips from curling up with all his might. His expression seemed just like someone who was outwardly cold but passionate on the inside.
　　
　　Chi Song’s popularity remained high due to the cover page incident, and his new drama had also been publicized today. In addition to Lu Yuan’s gayish reply, Chi Song’s fans were as happy as if they were celebrating Chinese New Year.
　　“Hahaha, this is a mutual business exchange, isn’t it?”
　　“Nonsense, this is clearly a mutual PY exchange.”
　　“This is a director? Is this for real?”
　　“I flipped through Director@Lu Yuan’s photo albums and Weibo. I declare that from now on, there will be an extra casual fan².”
　　“Ah ah ah the director is so adorable! A low-profile Takashi Kashiwahara! Imagine the director and Chi Song standing together! Song Song would become more like a gong!”
　　
　　Soon, Lu Yuan targeted that “low-profile Takashi Kashiwahara” and replied with a “Heiheihei.”
　　Chi Song: “…”
　　His hairs all stood on end because of Lu Yuan’s laugh.
　　Clearly, he was just a friendly gay confidant buddy. Why did they have to mutually harm each other?
　　
　　However, there were also people who raised objections towards this.
　　“I’ll say, doesn’t anyone feel that this matter was hyped up by Chi Song?”
　　“That’s right. The cover page of “Stylish” and the web series’ release coincide. Isn’t that just too coincidental?”
　　
　　Chi Song had also swiped through quite a few comments of the same nature. But at this time, Zhou Yaming had long organized the public relations team and started to make a move.
　　
　　Bai Shaoding’s dark history went online the second day with the force of a smashing hammer. The rumors of him being played around with by bigshots and videos of him spilling fruit juice on his assistant all exploded.
　　Immediately afterwards, an entertainment reporter accused Bai Shaoding of not caring about the fans, throwing away the gifts that fans had given him and only keeping the expensive goods.
　　To prove this, he uploaded a picture of some trash cans, even writing “the gifts given to Ding Ding” on it. Inside was a towel, a collectible CD, and a little cake that seemed to be handmade.
　　At the end of this Weibo message, the reporter steadily and ruthlessly said, “Towards the unshakeable fans than insist on defending Bai Shaoding right now, please take a look inside these trash cans and see if there’s any gifts that you have once given inside.”

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Translator’s Note: Wow hohoho so ruthless. And okay everyone~ BIG news! So… actually, I have been having some doubts about my accuracy in translation (and I was informed my word choice was wrong and sometimes I’m too literal)… so I got a TLC-er (translation checker), yanyan! Yay! yanyan also translates The Star Light Shines When He Came (BG QT), When Two Alphas Meet, One’s an Omega (BL) and Befriending the Most Powerful Person (BL QT), so totally check those works out too if you’re interested! Okay, so this chapter has not been TLC-ed (or edited, or proofread). Mainly because I didn’t finish it until 10 minutes ago. So. But I hope future chapters will be TLC-ed! We’re still working out the schedule thing since she’s also pretty busy. And I’m also planning on have the previous chapters TLC-ed… but yes. Well, hopefully, there will be better quality chapters coming out! And I also have an editor planned, but TLC comes before that so… I think. You guys will know when a chapter’s TLC-ed because yanyan’s name will be at the top (I think I’ll put credits at the top). And when’s it’s truly done and final (honestly, most people publish it only after it’s final so I think I’ve got it backwards. I read as I go along, so if I find out anything new… welcome sneaky backtracking and editing… which I also think should not be happening.), I’ll remove the translators note. Anyway, sorry for the slightly late chapter (not late in my timezone; Eastern Time, it’s still 10:13 pm- still Wednesday) and welcome yanyan!

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Footnotes:

[1]: camera jib (摇臂, yáo bì)- See picture below. I think a camera’s mounted on it? ↩

[2]: casual fan (墙头, qiáng tóu)- So basically a fan who likes everything- they think, oh, this star is good. Oh, that star is good. They don’t have any particular favorites. They’re easily swayed when it comes to who they chase after. It’s lit. “wall head”- they’re “on the wall” or like a “wall made of grass” since grass is easily swayed. I chose casual fan since it makes more sense. ↩