Reborn as a Substitute

At night, Ji Sheng lay comfortably on the brand new sofa bed, staring at the ceiling of the living room in a daze.

The living room connected the first and second floors, and on the ceiling seven metres above, crystal pendants of the extinguished lamp swayed gently with the air flow.

Ji Sheng’s thoughts also swayed with them.

He recalled tonight’s performance; the strength of the drumsticks still reverberated through his wrists, and the joy and pleasure brought about by muscle soreness were equally real.

In his previous life, the scar cut off the connection between him and the drums, but now that he had recovered, he enjoyed the pain.

Ji Sheng gently turned his wrist, and suddenly remembered Sheng Kongzhi’s shocked eyes full of real discomfort.

This kind of surprise that couldn’t be faked allowed Ji Sheng to get a little information—

Sheng Kongzhi had never seen Ji Hui; he was not the one who killed Ji Hui.

After reaching this conclusion, Ji Sheng was a little puzzled. He was surprised that before he was reborn, while Ji Hui followed Xie Xuanming, Xie Xuanming did not deliberately arrange for Ji Hui and Sheng Kongzhi to “meet by chance”.

After all, judging from Sheng Kongzhi’s reaction today, Ji Hui’s card had quite a significant impact on him.

It was a surprise that Xie Xuanming, a sworn enemy of Sheng Kongzhi, did not use Ji Hui to irritate him.

Could it be that Xie Xuanming really raised Ji Hui just to have a living puppet whose looks resembled the appearance of his first love?

Or to solve the sleep problem?

After all, Xie Xuanming’s insomnia was indeed very serious.

Ji Sheng sat by his bed for months. He had seen Xie Xuanming wake up from a nightmare many times. The deep ink-coloured pools would stare at him suspiciously, the pulsating darkness settling slowly in the stagnated time.

What was certain was that this insomnia had nothing to do with Xie Xuanming’s Schrödinger’s first love.

After all, in his previous life, Ji Sheng had never heard of Xie Xuanming having this malfunctioning problem.

Calculating the time Ji Hui spent by Xie Xuanming’s side, as well as taking into account Xie Xuanming’s ambiguous words in his memory…

His insomnia only started after Ji Sheng had a car accident.

Was he upset because the deceased had the same face as his first love?

Ji Sheng sneered softly, what a saintly lover.

With such a sensitive mind, it would have been nice if a little bit of that affection for his first love had been transferred to him while he was alive.

Ji Sheng turned over and stabilised the inexplicable state of his mind.

Forget about it. At that time when everyone was shouting and fighting, why should Xie Xuanming have been expected to help him risking his own career?

After all, it was not anyone’s fault he was too stupid.

Ji Sheng closed his eyes and expelled thousands of black posts, black hot searches and endless verbal abuse of the past from his mind.

It was all from the previous life, it was all over.

Thinking so, he fell asleep.

Probably the self-hypnosis before going to bed was too successful. Ji Sheng opened his eyes in the morning, groped for his mobile phone to turn it on and, after scanning the familiar-looking black hot search on Weibo, felt a little unreal for a while. He exited the app and glanced at the calendar to confirm that he was not dreaming.

The title of the black hot search really made him flashback to his previous life.

Ji Sheng clicked Weibo again and saw the bright hot topic hanging on the top.

#Ji Hui Fake Drumming#

The tag was too familiar; simply change the name from a certain black hot search in Ji Sheng’s previous life and throw it in again perfunctorily.

Ji Sheng moved, pulled out his stiff right hand from under his head, clenched and unclenched his fingers and made himself click on the hot search.

It was a video, the last part of the Double Twelve performance last night.

On the screen, Ji Hui’s eyes were focused as he was drumming and singing.

Ji Sheng moved his finger and went straight to the comments.

Obviously, with the black hot search title “fake drumming”, it was difficult to expect anything good in the comment area.

Netizens harshly accused the newcomer drummer of fake drumming as if he had committed some heinous crime.

Even though Ji Sheng was not fake drumming, the entertainment industry now was full of “fake drummers”…

The “black material”of Ji Hui was too forgettable.

[The most important thing a drummer needs is consistency. What kind of person can play the drums and even sing at the same time? This is bullshit. 】

[I’m not surprised that there is a problem with the pre-recording. It’s hard not to come up with conspiracy theories. 】

[I won’t be the first to guess there was a problem with pre-recording, right? 】

[The last one who played drums and sang has been whacked for faking it]

[Ji Sheng? Haha, this newcomer even looks a lot like him. 】

[Respect the dead, don’t pull Ji Sheng in, okay?】

[What’s the matter, isn’t it a fact that Ji Sheng was fake drumming and singing? Besides, it’s his own fault he died. Drunk driving during the day, harming others and harming himself. Who is to blame but him? 】

【……】

Swiping through the hot comments, Ji Sheng was a little suspicious of whether someone had actually bribed the organiser to deliberately mess up the pre-recording to have an opportunity to step on him.

After all, being in the entertainment industry for a few years, having been popular and having been hated by the whole Internet, Ji Sheng could naturally see the difference between passers-by and a water army.

For example, comments posted immediately under the hot search, a long text that seemed to take no time at all to think over or type, and the likes that appeared at once… At a glance, it was the sign of the water army.

It made sense to control the scene; Ji Sheng had seen a number of genuine passers-by turn from doubt to conviction amidst the overwhelming abuse.

That’s how the brainwashing package spread out.

If the black information was not cleared up in a timely and effective manner, in the not-too-distant future, “black material” would become “facts”.

Ji Sheng sighed and clicked on the boss’s WeChat.

Regardless of whether the little crappy company had public relations capabilities or not, let’s report it first.

He had just finished typing a message and was going to send it when he suddenly received a call.

Unknown caller.

Ji Sheng was startled for a moment, then picked it up he didn’t know why.

“Hello, it’s Sheng Kongzhi. We met last night.” Sheng Kongzhi’s soft voice came from the phone, and Ji Sheng sat up.

He paused for two seconds: “Hello, Senior, can I help you?”

“I want to apologise for my rudeness yesterday. I took you for the wrong person and caused you trouble. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“Also, I would like to ask, do you have any plans to sign up with a company? I watched your performance last night and think you have great potential. If you have the intention to further develop in the entertainment industry, my Qingchu company is willing to give a satisfactory contract.” Sheng Kongzhi’s tone was serious.

Qingchu company, a dark horse entertainment company that had developed in the past two years, was an unattainable ladder to fame for many newcomers.

It was also one of the culprits behind the downfall of Ji Sheng in his previous life.

Ji Sheng lowered his eyes and rubbed his fingers on the phone.

He was about to open his mouth when his mobile phone was suddenly grabbed and taken away.

Ji Sheng raised his head.

Xie Xuanming squeezed his mobile phone, glanced at the caller ID, sneered and hung up.

With a few random taps of his fingers, he put Sheng Kongzhi’s number into the blacklist in front of Ji Sheng.

After all this, Xie Xuanming had no intention of returning the phone, continuing to fiddle with it. The not-so-wide mobile phone was like a toy in his palm, seeming amazingly small.

Ji Sheng stretched out his hand: “Give it back.”

“So that you call back and continue fornicating with Sheng Kongzhi?” Xie Xuanming said coolly.

Ji Sheng thought, God damn, fornication, you really have a way with words.

He gritted his teeth: “Give it back, something’s wrong.”

“What’s the matter?”

“Something happened in a hot search, I want to contact the company.”

“Can you even get on a hot search?” Xie Xuanming’s tone was full of mockery.

Ji Sheng thought, yes, not only you top stars can occupy the hot search list, but I can also steal a place there. Are you surprised?

But instead of saying this, Ji Sheng chose to shut up.

Silently, he just reached his hand forward again.

Xie Xuanming confronted him for a while, sneered indifferently, threw the phone back to him and turned to go to the study.

Ji Sheng scrambled to catch the phone but was still struck by the blunt corner.

He grunted, rubbing his bruised wrist and grumbling in his mind.

What a temper, it stinks more than eggs soaked in sulphur springs.

Deserves to be a grass widow.

Xie Xuanming returned to his room, took out his mobile phone and clicked on Weibo.

There was an entry of #Ji Hui Fake Drumming# on the hot search list, and with just a few branches of comments it had already jumped from the middle to the top five.

Xie Xuanming glanced at the position of the hot search and didn’t even need to click on it to know that the hot search was bought by someone interested.

Ji Hui’s reputation was not that great. Whether it was blackening or praise, he was far from taking one of the top five golden positions in the hot search.

Although it was said to be the norm in the entertainment industry to use black heat to suppress a rival, or a possible future rival,

But Ji Hui had just started his rise. Some people really couldn’t sit still.

Xie Xuanming’s expression darkened.

Those people hated and feared Ji Sheng so much that they had to kill someone who looked similar to him.

He switched to WeChat and sent a message to his agent, asking him to check the source of funds behind the black hot search.

Celebrities like Xie Xuanming naturally didn’t have to look up at their agents like little idols at the bottom of the entertainment industry.

On the contrary, with him being the company’s brand and capital itself, the agent was like an employee he hired and their relationship was more similar to the relationship between a master and a subordinate.

As an employee of a top star, the agent naturally couldn’t survive without having some abilities.

He was extremely efficient.

Two minutes after Xie Xuanming sent the message, he called.

“I found it.” The agent said, “It is clearly the actions of Wang Li’s company.”

“Wang Li?” Xie Xuanming asked, “Ji Hui has a problem with it?”

“Wang Li’s artist Wang Pengpeng, who is also Wang Li’s heir apparent, and Mr. Ji Hui had a joint show last night.”

“Oh.” Xie Xuanming understood, tapping the table carelessly, “What about the shadow force?”

“Apart from Wang Li, there was another party that muddied the waters, but the opponent’s movements were very clean and the source could not be traced.”

“Oh.” Xie Xuanming said, “Can the organisers of the Moonlight Gala be contacted?”

“Yes.”

“Make them post a direct shot of Ji Hui’s show, the raw recorded unretouched sound kind.” Xie Xuanming sat up straighter, “The station sister you sent tickets to before, is there still a contact?”

“Yes.”

“She should also have some pics in her hands, urge her to put them on the Internet.”

“……”

“What?”

The agent was silent for two seconds, then said tactfully: “Brother Xie, the people who did the whole Ji Hui thing this time have very mixed backgrounds, so rashly taking sides and not giving them face may offend a lot of people.”

Xie Xuanming sneered: “How many people have I offended?”

“That’s true… but it’s better not to make enemies if you can…”

“Don’t worry, do as I say. “Xie Xuanming interrupted him, “Contact the organiser and the station sister. I want to see the clarification appear on the hot search before ten o’clock.” 

He raised his right hand that felt a little bit sore, changed the phone to his left hand, lowered his eyes and gently twisted his right wrist.

“There is no need to consider who will be offended. Those people should be thinking about whether they have offended me.”

The author has something to say：

Xiao Xie, for this day only, you are President Xie.