Continuation from last post…
Li Guangzong stared blankly at what he had been balancing on his lap…… A laptop that was no longer making any sound.
Because just now, someone behind him had reached out a limb lazily, and mercilessly shut off the laptop.
Incredulous, he whipped his head around, “Shao Si, what are you doing?!”
“what am I doing, I should be asking what you’re doing.”
Shao Si was initially curled up in the back seat of the van, sleeping under the warmth of his coat. This past week he had only been getting around 3.5 hours of sleep a night. Now that he finally had an opportunity to get some shuteye, he was being kept awake by his manager’s chattering and squeals, intermittently paired with a crazed fanboy smile.
Even the most well-tempered person wouldn’t be able to put up with it, let alone Shao Si, who didn’t really have a good temper to begin with.
“That’s from almost half a year ago and you’re still watching it, what’s left to get excited over,” only now was Shao Si able to swipe off the coat covering his face, waking up lazily and groggy. Perhaps because of a slight cold, his voice was slightly hoarse, “and even if you have to watch, can you please refrain from laughing like a psycho? “
Li Guangzong: “OK fine, I’ll keep that in mind… But what psycho, what do you mean??”
Shao Si: “I know I was too handsome at the award show, it’s only normal that you’re unable to get over it. Be a good child, I’m in front of you everyday, you can stare however much you want, let’s not be like an idiot getting caught up over a video.”
If it weren’t for them being in a car right now, Li Guangzong swore that he would put his job at risk to fight Shao Si.
Even though this master* of his was the most popular actor he had managed, even if he couldn’t afford to offend him…… He still had to fight!
*literal translations: grandfather, lord, master. In a way, he’s given Shao Si “higher position of respect/power” in the relationship. It’s an affectionate title, the nuance of it is that it also serves as throwing playful shade at him for being hard to please sometimes/troublesome.
How could there be such a thick-skinned and shameless person in this world!
“Who was looking at you, I was looking at Gu film emperor!” Li Guangzong almost jumped out of his seat, “he’s my Gu Prince Charming*! The legend of the entertainment circle ! Who would be hung up on you!
*literal translation: male god/deity, used to refer to a dream guy or idol. I’ll be using idol, god, and prince charming interchangeably depending on what sounds nicer.
Shao Si had heard of Gu Film Emperor many times, and knew of this legendary figure in the entertainment circle, but he was face blind, so other than the colleagues he had worked with, everyone else was just a bunch of blurred mosaic images.
And so he rubbed his temples, squinted his eyes as he asked, “You said Gu… Gu…”
Gu what’s his face.
“Gu Yanzhou.”
By now, Li Guangzong had calmed down. After so many years of serving this master, he had long developed the magical ability of not exploding in anger, no matter the situation.
Shao Si felt out a bottle of water from under the seat and opened it in a few quick motions and took a few gulps of water. While closing the bottle, he looked at his manager, who reminded him expressionlessly, “The one that gave you your award at the award ceremony.”
Shao Si racked his brain mulling, and finally gave up: “Even though you say that, I still…”
Li Guangzong took two deep breaths and turned on the laptop again, preparing to show him the face of his idol.
It would certainly be good for him to recognize this face, otherwise if they ever meet during work, and Shao Si puts on a big boss attitude like “who are you”, and word gets out about it, it’d be bad for his reputation. It might even end up becoming a lasting narrative that he’s haughty and disrespectful to his industry seniors.
He was about to say, “Look carefully, and remember his appearance. Yes, this is the face. Please remember it well.” But before the words even came out of his mouth, he saw Shao Si tapping twice on the touchpad. On the laptop screen, King Gu’s face flashed by, leaving only an afterimage. The progress bar jumped directly to the part with a close-up shot of Shao Si holding the trophy and giving his acceptance speech.
Shao Si stared at the video of himself in satisfaction, “handsome.”
Li Guangzong: “……”
Li Guangzong stared at Shao Si, thinking, if people get black material* on him then so be it, it’d be weird if this idiot didn’t get slandered.
Whatever, I don’t care anymore.
*AKA dirt, bad news/narratives about an individual that would damage their reputation/make them look bad
Shao Si continued being narcissistic and self-absorbed for a bit, then curled back into the back seat to get more sleep. But just as he closed his eyes, he knew that he was meant to not get any sleep.
[Hey, partner]
[How’s life been going?]
A cold and mechanical voice, one that never went away, rang out inside his head. Shao Si didn’t open his eyes, and only frowned slightly.
He knew that no one else could hear this voice, only he could talk to it. No matter how used to it he was, it still felt quite bizarre that things like systems, which seem to only live in dreams, could be encountered in reality.
[…Go away, I’m gonna drop dead soon from lack of sleep, don’t bother me. ] Shao Si replied. The system giggled, disagreeing: [You won’t die, you’ve still got two years of life left. ]
[Do you have nothing better to do today?] At the mention of his lifespan, Shao Si opened his eyes. [Does it feel good to remind a dying person every day that they’re dying? ]
[Don’t get so fired up young man, simmer down, I just wanted to remind you not to forget about the mission task.] The system asked coaxingly, [that Yang Yinyin, anything come out of watching her?]
[I’ve been really busy, hired a private investigator to keep track of her, they say she hasn’t been leaving her house lately]
[Don’t you think that’s strange? A Golden Dragon Award Film Queen at the peak of her career, somehow turning down all her work and staying at home for a full month.] the system’s voice got more and more strange sounding, giving itself a ghost story sound effects and BGM [Why?]
[……]Shao Si didn’t have the time to think about why [Seriously, I need to sleep.]
His ill-fated relationship with this system started off when he was in elementary school.
He had heart problems since he was a child. In the words of the doctor, how long he lasted depended on God’s will. He used to be thin and small, and often got picked on by his classmates. But though the doctor advised him to stay and rest at home, Shao Si refused. He didn’t want to be all alone in a big house, with only the nanny and private tutor coming and going every day. He wanted to go to school, make friends, and play with people his age.
That willfulness quickly led to an accident. One day, Shao Si got sick all of a sudden, but his meds stored in the drawer were missing. Maybe some classmate decided to play a trick on him and hid his pills, wanting to see him getting all anxious searching around for them.
The kids didn’t know any better or what heart disease was, only thinking that they could joke and play around with anything, including that white bottle of pills.
Shao Si soon felt that he couldn’t breathe, like a fish out of water, struggling feebly on the shore, even with huge gasps, it was useless. It was like his entire respiratory tract was closed off
…
It was precisely at that time, as he fell down head first at the hallway entrance, when somewhere a voice rang out asking him “Friend*, do you desire life?”
*The system used a cute sounding way of calling friend UwU
Later on, he read a bunch of popular web novels about systems, but the relationship he had with his system wasn’t quite the same as those in the novels. The two of them weren’t in a system and host relationship. If it had to be defined, they were more like partnership, and so sometimes the system would jokingly call him ‘partner’.
As to why it was more like a partnership.
……well, because the system is a broken system.
Literally.
It was a slightly defective system that was forcibly scrapped after a problem occurred.
[my job is to control the life and death of humans in accordance with the data released by high-ups to maintain ecological balance.]
This was all Shao Si knew about the system’s origin. He had asked the system why it got force-scrapped, but the system only replied half-heartedly that it had violated some rules.
Shao Si’s shot in the dark was that maybe the broken system had been in a taboo relationship of some sort…
But anyway, in order to survive, they had to be tied together.
Though the system was faulty, it still had the ability to absorb power and transform it into life.
And what Shao Si had to do was to provide the system with this power.
… afterall it was a semi-disabled system he worked with.
Just as Shao Si was about to drowsily drift off into a state of deep sleep, the phone in his pocket vibrated twice.
It was a text message.
All it said was: Yang Yinyin left her house.
Shao Si squinted his eyes, his vision blurry, relying entirely on feel and habit to type four words: where did she go?
He even started to hold his breath in anticipation, that is, until the other also just replied with four words
—— market to buy groceries.
……
—— Bought carrots, was two bucks a pound.
—— And cauliflower, this one is a bit expensive, so it turns out that cauliflower is actually this expensive? Looks like it’s imported.
—— Oh hey, mantis shrimp!
—— Wonder what the Film Queen’s cooking is like.
With a deadpan face, Shao Si shut off his phone, and started to consider changing private investigators. By the look of things, this one seemed sort of unreliable.
TL’s note:
Who else gets short-tempered without enough sleep like Shao Si? I’m guilty XD.
I also get angry a lot more easily when I haven’t had enough water [or ice cream]
Counting Aries Translations 
There’s that rule for not letting sleep and food affect your moods too much: If you hate the world, have a snack. If the world hates you, go to bed.
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