Reborn as a Substitute

There are no airtight walls in this world.

After the initial confusion, KUZI stubbornly refused to cooperate with the police investigation.

This action immediately sparked outrage. As the police began to put pressure on the show, the internal staff members who had collected evidence also took it to the internet to let the cat out of the bag.

In the middle of the night, a few melon eaters went online to see the breaking news that engineering quality problems of “Music First 2” had caused the roof to collapse, resulting in injuries, including a certain contestant.

The news broke in the early hours of the morning and climbed into the hot search, attracting the attention of a large number of night owl netizens. The content was so appalling that it didn’t take long for the story to reach the top of the hot search.

People woke up early in the morning to see.

#Music First 2 collapse# [explodes]

#Contestant injured# [burst]

#KUZI refuses investigation# [hot]

Netizens blinked their sleepy eyes and were completely awake.

After a good night’s sleep the program team was up too. The PR department looked at the heat, and after calling for an emergency meeting, finally decided to apologise on the official blog and accept a police investigation.

After all, a malicious person injuring people was much better than an engineering quality issue.

While KUZI was sliding down on its knees, there were others who were also looking at the hot search in a cold sweat.

In the office of Qingchu, Li Tan stared at the number one hot search with his face frozen.

“Mr. Li? The meeting I told you about…” The secretary called him several times, getting no response, and had to raise her voice.

“Ah! The meeting… postpone it for fifteen minutes, I’ll make a phone call.” Li Tan finally regained his senses. He wiped a cold sweat, rubbed his palms and waved his shaking hand, “You go out first.”

The secretary went out, and Li Tan opened the bookcase, took out a small booklet inside, flipped through it to find a number, his hands trembling, and dialled it.

It rang several times until it was picked up.

“That “Music First” accident, did you do it?” As soon as the call was answered, Li Tan questioned fiercely.

After receiving the person’s casual confirmation, Li Tan was furious: “Are you crazy? You want to drag everyone down with you, don’t you?”

“What are you so angry about?” The other side was no easy target either, answering Li Tan’s anger with agression. “Did you tell me about the itinerary you gave Sheng Kongzhi? Since you let him go there, you had to expect the consequences.”

Li Tan was so angry that he slapped his hand on the table and shouted, “What does it matter to you what itinerary our artists take?

“Ha! Then I have to remind you how your company managed to rise. Needing me when it developed and trying to kick me out now, thinking that I’m useless? I’m telling you, Li Tan, no way!”

Li Tan’s fists clenched and his breathing became ragged.

His jaws were clenched to the point of his gums almost bleeding, but he couldn’t say anything.

The other end of the phone waited for his answer for a while, sneered when hearing no sound and continued, “Besides, you know, I can’t help it. That horrible face, bright and shiny on the screen. If you can stand it, I fucking can’t!”

The fire that had been suppressed by Li Tan’s guilty consciousness came back and he shouted almost uncontrollably: 

“What do you mean you can’t stand it? What do you mean you can’t help it? How long has it been since the Ji Sheng incident? How much pressure was there on our side? It’s finally over, and now you’re out making trouble again! Aren’t you afraid that people will come to your door to check?”

“What are you yelling about? Wasn’t the matter of Ji Sheng settled long ago? Don’t worry, this time, just like last time, it will be solved perfectly. It won’t even involve you, Boss Li!”

Li Tan gripped the phone tightly, his eyes gloomy and uncertain. He finally said angrily:

“You’d better be able to solve it.”

While Li Tan was fuming, Xie Xuanming, who rushed to another city in a hurry, opened the door of a ward and asked, “Where is she?”

“The patient went out at night.” Xiao Hong got up from her chair at once and said timidly.

“Where did she go?” Xie Xuanming’s face changed instantly, “She’s still not back at this hour?”

“Yes…” Xiao Hong was a little scared, “She said she’d go out for a walk… The doctor also said she needed to move around more if she could, and the patient didn’t let anyone accompany her…”

Xiao Hong knew she was in trouble. The person who had been in a coma for two years suddenly woke up and ran out of the hospital without saying a word. She disappeared without any way to know whether her physical condition was stable…

Thinking of this, Xiao Hong felt so guilty that she was close to tears. She opened her mouth to apologise, but Xie Xuanming raised his hand to stop her, rubbing his temples, his face showing some fatigue: “Did she say anything when she woke up?”

“Yes.” After swallowing her apology, Xiao Hong racked her brain to remember and said carefully, “She asked ‘where is my son’.”

Xie Xuanming’s right eye twitched and his pale face became a little ugly.

Ji Yueming walked to the door of a building with a large bag on her back, and looked up.

The sunlight reflected off the glass stinging her eyes and she squinted, unable to see the logo on the top.

Ji Yueming looked at it for a while, then gave up. She glanced around twice, moved a few steps to the side and grabbed two girls who were talking there: “Girls, is this the building of Qingchu Company? ”

“Yes.” The girl who was pulled back turned around and replied, while the other girl also looked at Ji Yueming curiously for a few moments. Her eyes fixed on Ji Yueming’s outstretched arm and lit up, “Sister, your tattoos are so cool!”

“Thanks.” Ji Yueming chuckled, “Call me auntie, my son is probably almost as old as you are.”

“But you look very young, eh.” The other girl pointed down at her wrist, “What’s that tattoo? It’s so pretty, I’m tempted to get a similar one.”

“It’s the names of my lovers.” Ji Yueming squinted her eyes and smiled at them. Fatigue and wrinkles couldn’t hide the superior structure of her bones. When she was young, she was a great beauty and her suitors could be lined up three blocks away from the stage. She smiled and said, “Don’t tattoo indiscriminately.”

Ji Yueming was unrestrained and fell in love easily. One by one, her boyfriends’ names were engraved on her body. At first she would erase them after breaking up, but later she would simply leave them there and after breaking up, she would draw a flower or a bird over their names. Her arm would be like a record board, filled with the stories of the past.

The men scolded her behind her back but she did not care. She continued to spend time drinking, playing the drums and playing the keyboard, flirting with people who hit on her. When she saw the right one, she got along with him for a while, and when he stopped being the right one, she split…

This life continued until Ji Sheng arrived.

“What about this one?” In contrast to the fancy left arm, the right arm was clean and simple, with only a moon few inches large on the wrist, with an artistic “升” (sheng/rise) tattooed inside the curved moon.

The girl wondered, “Is this also the name of a lover?”

“Past life lover.” Ji Yueming smiled a little more gently, and the fine wrinkles at the corners of her eyes softened, “It’s my son, he’s having his birthday today.”

“Oh ah! In that case, happy birthday to your son!”

“Thank you.” After Ji Yueming thanked them, she noticed that the two girls were carrying a black screen half a human height in size in a small cart behind them, and asked curiously, “What is this?”

“It’s a rights screen!” When it came to this, the girl waved her hand excitedly, “If a dog company doesn’t behave like a human being, one can only rely on this kind of thing to protest.”

“How does this thing work?”

“It’s easy, just connect your phone and type the words you want to type into the program.”

“That sounds good.” Ji Yueming nodded thoughtfully and said, “Girl, can I borrow this thing for a while?”

When Li Tan returned from the meeting, the sound of a loudspeaker came from downstairs. Li Tan took a few steps to the window, pulled the curtains shut in annoyance and sat back in his office chair.

Defend rights and defend rights, all day long.

What did Qingchu do wrong to its little brothers and sisters? The idols themselves were so confused that they couldn’t get resources and endorsements, but they blamed the company for not doing anything.

After all, Qingchu was still a half-way up, developing fast and not having such a well-established system as the big regular companies. From time to time there were some confusing operations that made fans jump to their feet in anger. You could say that the banners defending someone’s rights were present downstairs at Qingchu 365 days a year without a break. Li Tan was used to it and didn’t bother.

But something seemed different today.

The secretary rushed in in a panic: “Mr. Li!”

Startled, Li Tan sat upright, saying, “What’s the matter with you? You don’t even knock on the door!”

The secretary still had a bad look on her face: “Look downstairs, today the right defender…”

“Is there a day when no one defends their rights? Don’t bother me with such trivial matters.” Li Tan impatiently waved his hand to drive the secretary away.

Before he leaned back in the chair again, he heard the secretary say anxiously:

“Ji Sheng’s mother is here to defend her rights!”

Li Tan’s spine stiffened and his hand shook twice in the air before he finally clenched his fist and punched the desk heavily.

The secretary was stunned and hesitantly said, “Mr. Li…”

“What are you doing, standing in a daze like this? Hurry up and contact someone to take her away!” Li Tan’s cheeks trembled as he yelled fiercely.

Ji Sheng lay bored on the bed of the guest room, swiping his mobile phone.

The hot search [explosion] was still up, but nothing changed there for a long time, and Xie Xuanming, who said he would let him know when he had news, never contacted him again.

Ji Sheng slept, then woke up, asked Lu Haoren about his injuries, went back to bed and was now a bit sleepy again.

Bored, he turned over, muttering something to himself.

He had just looked at the calendar and realised that today was his birthday in his previous life.

Xie Xuanming hadn’t run out in such a hurry to celebrate his birthday, right?

The image of Xie Xuanming standing in front of his tomb with a cold expression on his face and holding a cake quickly came to Ji Sheng’s mind and he couldn’t help but get goosebumps.

Too postmodernism.

Also very much Xie Xuanming.

Ji Sheng yawned at the thought, and suddenly found that someone had sent a video to him in a private message on Weibo.

Sheng Kongzhi.

He froze in a half-yawn.

Why did Sheng Kongzhi switch to private messages on Weibo?

Oh yes, WeChat was blacked out by Xie Xuanming.

It took Ji Sheng a while to remember it; then he slowly clicked on the video that Sheng Kongzhi had sent.

The video showed a location in front of a building. The camera looked up and down twice, capturing the word “Qingchu”.

What was Sheng Kongzhi doing sending a video of his office entrance to him?

Ji Sheng wondered.

And taking into account the perspective, it didn’t look like he had filmed it himself, either.

However, when he clicked on the video, he didn’t care to think about it anymore.

The camera moved down to the open space in front of the company’s building, where an old drum kit was placed all of a sudden. The camera moved to the right, focusing on a thin woman struggling to move the floor drum and the chair.

She slowly assembled a basically perfect drum set, sat down and moved her chair closer.

Ji Sheng lost his ability to blink and stared at the video motionlessly.

The woman raised her head and with her many years of stage performance experience found the photographer easily, smiling indifferently at him.

The camera captured her face clearly, a face that was somewhat similar to Ji Sheng’s face.

She turned her head and pressed twice on a black electronic screen propped up behind her. Large red letters began to scroll across the black background.

[Trash company, give my son back his life]

After setting the font, the woman nodded in satisfaction, and patted the old stereo by her side.

The stereo creaked, releasing a piece of music. When the people listened to it, they were dumbfounded.

It was “The Injustice to Dou E”(1). 

The red letters swirled above your head, the grievances of Dou E squealed in your ears and your body hummed with the drumbeat.

The woman didn’t seem to care how bizarre this combination was. With her cuffs pulled up to reveal her splendidly tattooed arms, she held the drumsticks, playing a manic heavy metal beat under the accompaniment of the opera.

A combination of tradition and rock, a cross between injustice and wit.

The onlookers had different expressions, wanting to laugh but not knowing whether to laugh or not at this peculiar picture.

Watching the video, Ji Sheng couldn’t laugh. He was frozen like a statue; his eyes were sore and he didn’t blink until the end of the video.

He didn’t know how long it took, but the screen went black and then lit up again.

Ji Sheng’s lips moved slightly and he said inaudibly, “Mom.”