Don’t Pick Up Boyfriends From the Trash Bin

translator: baumkuchen  (unedited)

The three late stragglers weren’t a small target, so those task takers also noticed them in turn. 

A man with his hair tied back in a ponytail looked at the sunglasses-clad Song Chunyang.

He had seen this person when they’d gathered earlier, but the man and woman were complete strangers.

He frowned. “You’re also task-takers?” 

Gan Yu nodded. “En.”

“Why didn’t we see you earlier?”

Gan Yu explained the reason he’d told Chi Xiaochi once again.

Chi Xiaochi was in charge of staying behind them and acting cowardly and weak, while continuing to look for the figure of the beautiful woman. 

Gan Tang spoke to him in a soft, quiet voice, “My brother’s personality isn’t very good, don’t mind him.”

Chi Xiaochi said, “It’s alright.”

But the moment he said that, a dispute started on Gan Yu’s side, with the ponytailed man.

He pointed at Gan Yu’s face and asked, doubtfully, “How is that possible? How could the system give you this kind of identity?” 

Gan Yu shrugged, polite to the point of heartlessness, “But that’s just how it is. If you have any questions, why not ask your own system?”

Gan Tang and Chi Xiaochi quickly exchanged glances. The former began to help Chi Xiaochi walk up to them.

It had to be said, Chi Xiaochi was a natural-born actor. He could perform a perfect portrayal of a blind person just by taking a step forward, his posture as he took a tentative, testing step forward was as practiced as a true blind man’s.

As if a little unsettled by the dispute, he asked slightly nervously, “What’s wrong, what’s wrong?” 

Gan Yu said gently, “Nothing’s wrong.”

The ponytailed man’s expression was very ugly, while those of the people surrounding him were simultaneously shocked, envious, and hatefully jealous. “How the hell are those two not actors?! How are they crew members?”

Chi Xiaochi quickly absorbed this information, but his face was still filled with pure shock. “Are you all actors?”

As he said this, as if to prove his identity, he patted his chest. “I’m Song Chunyang, acting as guy no. 2, the male lead’s little lackey.” 

The ponytailed man’s expression was indignant. “Other than those two, we’re all actors. By the time we got the notice to hurry over here, they’d already decided to give up on filming. Now, some people have already gone off to check on the inside of the villa……”

He pointed at Gan Tang once again. “But they’re not actors, how can they ‘go out of character’?! This isn’t fair!”

“Why isn’t it?” Gan Yu often had an indifferent air that was neither servile nor overbearing when dealing with other people. He forcefully pushed down the hand the ponytailed man was using to point at Gan Tang with. “Can’t you see his eyesight isn’t good?

The ponytailed man was at a loss for words for a moment. 

Just now, when they’d met in the living room, they’d  all been sitting, so he’d only felt that this young man who was still wearing sunglasses even when they were indoors was a little strange. Now, just from looking at how he moved, was he actually blind?

It wasn’t that he was thoughtless for not thinking of this, who would have thought that a blind person could stick it out until the eighth task world?

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Then he looked up and looked around at them, his voice extremely calm. “Otherwise, do any of you want to switch with us?”

Naturally, no one said anything.

If they had to bring a blind person along with them, when they ran into danger, he would even have trouble running away. Bringing him along could essentially be considered having to bring along a human shaped oil bottle. 

Thinking of this, those people who had just been full of resentment even felt a trace of respect towards the siblings Gan Yu and Gan Tang.

How could this be considered an alliance, this was basically like doing charity for the poor.

After getting a rough idea of their respective roles, Chi Xiaochi and his group decided to explore the castle before filming officially started. 

Keeping up the maintenance of such a large castle required not a small amount of expenses, and clearly, the owner of this place was a meticulous person. Everything was clean and brightly lit. The wood floors were coated in wax specifically used for red wood, and let off the perfect amount of the faint smell of wood. It could be seen that the castle’s owner’s taste wasn’t bad.

From how he acted, it seemed like Gan Yu really had already explored the castle. He gave him the rundown of the place, “Tang Tang and I took a look around, it’s a Gothic style castle, covering an area of more than ten thousand square metres including the woods behind it. All the crew and cast members’ rooms are concentrated on the third floor, while the props, equipment and make-up are all on the west side of the second floor. The main filming area is the whole first floor, the east corridors and rooms of the second floor, and the forest behind the castle. There are about seventy cast and crew members. The main ones are all staying in the castle, while the rest are staying in tents outside the castle.”

As Chi Xiaochi was taking in this information, his gaze had remained on the walls on both sides of them, never once leaving them. 

Noticing the direction of Chi Xiaochi’s fixed gaze, Gan Tang said, a little helplessly, “I was also shocked when I first saw them.”

The walls on both sides of the corridor were filled with gold frames of all shapes and sizes, in which there were some expensive-looking ancient paintings, but even more of them were photography works with people as their main subject.

Chi Xiaochi touched the frame of one of the photos, and found that it was made of iron.

The iron frame had been seriously affected by the moisture, covered in irregular copper-green spots, but the picture inside was protected by a double-layer of glass. 

It was of a baby lying in a crib, curled up, both eyes closed as it slept soundly.

Below it was hung a little note, which could be considered the name of this photograph.

“‘Andy or Jenny?’”

Gan Yu asked, “Do you see anything?” 

Chi Xiaochi shook his head.

In his point of view, there was nothing strange about the photograph, it was just an ordinary photo.

But to be on the safe side, he asked Gan Tang, who was standing next to him, “Does the baby in the picture have their eyes open or closed.”

Gan Tang replied, “Closed.” 

Chi Xiaochi’s expression relaxed slightly. This proved that the photo in his eyes looked the same as it did in others’.

Gan Yu sensed some strangeness in Chi Xiaochi’s expression. “What’s wrong?”

Chi Xiaochi took two steps back, examining the picture. “It’s a little strange. But I can’t say how.”

He felt like all the pictures on this wall had a hint of a cold, threatening air, but he couldn’t see anything strange about the contents themselves. 

They searched the first floor. Finding that it was mostly just empty rooms, they went upstairs.

Chi Xiaochi specially made the trip to his dressing room to get his script. He held it to his chest, deciding to wait till he went to his room at night to study it more.

In this world, their names were their actual names. Chi Xiaochi soon found a room with a nametag with his name on it on the third floor. 

After pushing open the door, Chi Xiaochi stared inside his room for three seconds before stepping back out, closing the door with a slam.

Gan Yu, “What’s wrong?”

Chi Xiaochi’s teeth were chattering. “N-n-nothing.”

Gan Yu was on alert. “Is there a ghost?” 

Chi Xiaochi took a deep breath, turned, and pressed his back to the door, his hand tight on the doorknob.”Not right now.”

Gan Yu, “……?”

Chi Xiaochi had seen it clearly just now. 

In his room was hung an extremely colourful and gorgeous photograph.

The photo was filled with free-flying balloons of all colours. The foreground also contained the person who was letting them go, but the woman’s body was blocked by the balloons, leaving only a beautiful head visible.

……The woman’s face, was exactly the same as the one that had appeared outside the door to his dressing room just now. 

And glass covering the picture was shattered all over the floor, as if something had floated out from inside like a balloon, and then floated  back in. 

Just now, looking over, Chi Xiaochi found that the photo had already gone back to normal, just exuding the same ominous air as the paintings in the corridor.

But even so, he still had to rest his nerves for a very long time, until a cold, heartless Xi Lou said in a voice like a cold breeze, “The one who doesn’t move is a tortoise”. Only then did he, with a heart missing 061, push open the door to his bedroom once more.  

Chi Xiaochi mustered up his courage and walked inside, and confirmed the safety of the photograph once more.

The photograph was called 《Balloons Pulled Her Away》.

It might be safe now, but that photograph was facing his bed. Chi Xiaochi really didn’t have the courage to fall asleep under this head’s gaze.

He expressed, “I’ll have to move to another room to sleep.” 

Gan Yu said, “There’s no rush. Let’s take a look at all the rooms first.”

Currently, none of the crew members had yet to come to the third floor to rest, so none of the bedrooms were locked. Chi Xiaochi looked at the rooms one by one, and found that there was a photograph hanging in every room, and every photograph gave off a slight uneasy feeling. 

However, upon entering a certain room, Chi Xiaochi completely froze up with fear. 

Once his gaze was fixed onto a photograph on the wall, he could no longer look away.

It was countless times more horrifying than any of the ordinary photos. Moving closer and taking a sniff, it was even exuding a light, elegant fragrance of a woman’s perfume.

The photograph was called 《Person Returning on a Snowy Night》, and was of a boundless snow field.

……The snow was very beautiful, but the person returning in the night couldn’t be seen. 

He couldn’t help but ask, “Whose room is this?”

Gan Tang went out to confirm it, then answered, “It’s someone called…… Guan Qiaoqiao.”

Chi Xiaochi, “……Oh. Then it’s fine.”

He walked out of the room, and was just planning on continuing to look around with the Gan siblings, when he saw Yuan Benshan walk out of a room at the end of the third floor. He was just about to wave to him, but seeing the two people by his side, he couldn’t help but be given a shock. His jaw clenched tightly, but it wasn’t clear if it was out of dissatisfaction or nervousness.

But Chi Xiaochi had quickly entered the role of Song Chunyang, and was happily running over. “Old Yuan!”

Yuan Benshan asked in a low voice, “Who are they?”

Chi Xiaochi replied, “He’s Doctor Gan from my hospital. He’s a very promising doctor, I don’t know how he was dragged in here too.” His voice sounded both regretful and familiar, as if he had known this Doctor Gan for more than eight lifetimes. 

Without waiting for Yuan Benshan to give his opinion on this, he looked around, letting out a slightly nervous expression. “Old Yuan, do you know where Qiaoqiao is?”

Yuan Benshan of course knew that Guan Qiaoqiao was in the room behind him. 

However, seeing something off about Song Chunyang’s expression, he denied flatly, “The two of us split up to look around, what’s wrong?”

“As long as she’s not here……” Chi Xiaochi mumbled to himself in a small voice, letting out a rather troubled expression. Then, like he’d made a huge decision, he lowered his voice even further, making sure that only he and Yuan Benshan would be able to hear him. “Old Yuan, I want to talk to you about something.” 

Yuan Benshan was clenching his palms so tightly they were sweating. He forced himself to stay calm. “Go ahead.”

Chi Xiaochi, “Do you know how to exchange Yin-Yang Eyes with someone?”

Yuan Benshan, “……”