Death Progress Bar

Chapter 14: Dancing

‘Dreamy Night’ did justice to its name because it really looked dreamy—the drink had a brilliant ice-blue color and was served in a triangular cocktail glass with a maraschino cherry floating in it. Pale blue contrasting with bright cherry red made a truly beautiful picture.

Unfortunately, this cocktail could only be admired and not drunk, and so it was used merely as a prop to increase Shi Jin’s appeal.

“Remember to discreetly spill a little from time to time while pretending to sip it, but don’t let anyone notice what you’re doing,” reminded him Gua Two.

Shi Jin raised the glass in a playful toast, using this move to slightly turn his body and make an unnoticeable ‘OK’ sign.

They kept flirting and drinking at the bar counter, calmly waiting for the big fish to bite. After three rounds of drinks, one of the targets arrived—tonight’s birthday boy appeared in the entrance with a group of friends.

Gua Two gave Shi Jin a meaningful glance, mouthing “go act sexy”.

Shi Jin suppressed the urge to show him a middle finger, put his glass down and went to the dance floor as they’ve planned earlier.

As an ordinary police officer whose only hobby was mahjong, he naturally didn’t know how to dance, but so what? Xiao Si gave him a buff that not only made him a good dancer, but it also made his dance especially dazzling and provocative!

<Wow, JinJin, you dance so well, everybody is watching you!> Xiao Si was excited and cheered in his mind, looking proud of him.

Shi Jin felt like vomiting blood. He hypnotized himself into thinking the people around him were a bunch of turnips and cabbages and just moved his body in a way the instinct given to him by Xiao Si dictated, from time to time tossing his hair and pulling at his collar.

{Little JinJin, I really haven’t expected you could dance so well,} Gua Two’s voice came from the diamond stud in his ear. Shi Jin rolled his eyes hard and ignored him.

Gua Two wasn’t planning to let him off and began to give him a detailed real-time narration of what was happening, in an irritating voice: {The birthday boy lead his friends to a booth next to the dance floor, they appear to be waiting for somebody… They saw you… Birthday boy took your picture with his phone, it seems he’s sending it to someone… Oh, why didn’t I think of it, Little JinJin’s dance is so good I must let Jun-shao have a look.} After that, the camera shutter sound could be heard.

Shi Jin finally couldn’t stop himself. He turned his back to the target and his friends, and forced out through clenched teeth: “Gua, Two!”

{What gua two gua three, I’m Chen Er now. You have to call me Brother Er, don’t forget it again.} Gua Two tone was still as annoying as earlier, but the sound of the shutter stopped. After enduring his real-time narration for a while longer, Shi Jin finally heard the thing he was waiting for. {Xu Huai is here, dance for another five minutes, then come back to me.}

Shi Jin breathed a sigh of relief and confirmed he understood. He continued to dance while avoiding countless people who wanted to dance with him, then revealed a tired look, jumped off the dance floor and returned to Gua Two’s side.

Gua Two greeted him with a sleazy ‘baby, how can you be so attractive, I can’t stand it’ smile, put an arm around Shi Jin’s back and hugged him, rubbing his face in his curls.

“Does my sweaty hair smell good?” Shi Jin put on a fake smile.

“Not bad, it smells like hair dye,” answered Gua Two, still with the sleazy smile. He handed Shi Jin his glass and lowered his voice, “Xu Huai is looking this way, do something seductive.”

Shi Jin took the glass, bowed his head, bit the cherry stalk that stretched out of the cocktail and took the cherry into his mouth, swirled it inside for a moment, then spat it out again. Looking up at Gua Two, he also lowered his voice and asked maliciously, “Is this seductive enough for you? Here, have a cherry.”

Gua Two, being a man as straight as a steel arrow, had not been moved by Shi Jin’s suggestive actions. He glanced at the suspicious-looking saliva on the cherry and in the end, could not manage to put it into his mouth. For a second his expression distorted. “You are too vicious.”

“Takes one to know one.” Satisfied, Shi Jin pouted theatrically and put his head on Gua Two shoulder, flirted with him again, and ate the cherry by himself. After he finished eating and got ready to draw back, his eyes accidentally met the eyes of a man sitting in the corner.

The man looked familiar, as if Shi Jin has seen him somewhere before.

Xiao Si cried out in alarm, <JinJin, why has your progress bar suddenly risen to 760?>

Shi Jin immediately looked away from the man. Having an increasingly bad feeling, he quickly said in his mind, “I don’t know either. Xiao Si, check the man sitting in the corner opposite me, the one in the dark blue jacket. For some reason, he looks familiar.”

Hearing these words, Xiao Si hurried up and got the result very quickly: <The information on his bar tab says he’s called Long Shi and works for the entertainment company… Aaah, JinJin, he’s the agent of your third brother Rong Zhouzhong! And he has a great relationship with him!>

Fuck! As soon as I felt he looked familiar, I should’ve known nothing good will come out of it!

Shi Jin felt himself breaking into a cold sweat and hastily retreated behind Gua Two, using him to shield himself from sight.

However, it was already too late, as the man actually got up and walked over. He politely stopped at the distance of two steps and said genially: “Hello, my name is Long Shi and I’m in charge of the artists’ department in the Zhongjia Movie Company. As it happens, I just saw this little gentleman’s dance and I think he is very suitable for the entertainment industry. Young man, are you interested in becoming a star? Don’t worry, I’m not a liar. Here’s my business card.” Then he really took out a business card and handed it to Shi Jin with both hands.

Gua Two kept listening stupefied. When he understood what Long Shi meant he almost laughed out loud but managed to mask it with a cough. Seeing Shi Jin was just looking at the business card without moving, he thought he also was stunned, so reached out and took it from Long Shi’s hand. “I’m sorry, my friend and I need to think about it, you—”

“We don’t need to think about it!” Shi Jin came back to himself and grabbed the business card from Gua Two, stuffing it back into Long Shi’s hands. He forced out an insipid smile and straightforwardly refused: “I’m not interested in becoming a star at all. Thank you for your praise, goodbye!” After that, he grabbed Gua Two and tried to leave.

It was Long Shi’s turn to be stunned. He had seen Shi Jin’s eye-catching dance which made him a focus of all people present and had thought he was the kind of young man who liked to be in the limelight, so he hadn’t expected to be refused so directly.

He hesitated for a few seconds, but couldn’t bear to let such a good seedling slip away. He caught up with Shi Jin and said, “Young man, I’m really not a liar. If you don’t believe me, I can ask my artist Rong Zhouzhong to give you a call and confirm my identity. You should be able to recognize him—”

“I don’t know him!” Shi Jin was ready to start tearing his hair out. He realized Long Shi was not going to let him get away so easily and might really make Rong Zhouzhong come over, so he turned back to him and said earnestly, “Mr. Long, please don’t follow me, I really don’t want to be a star, because it’s extremely exhausting and I’d lose my privacy. For me, that kind of life would be really bitter. Rather than being a star, I prefer to be a toy boy, I just have to lie down and I would get money. Do you see my owner? He’s super-rich, I’m very happy to be with him.” Saying this, he tugged at Gua Two standing by his side.

It took Gua Two but a second to understand Shi Jin’s meaning, and he played along by hugging his shoulder and saying, “Of course, baby, you’re my favorite and I’ll give you whatever you want. Being my lover is much more comfortable than being a star.”

“Yes, what’s so good about being a star? Rong Zhouzhong, you say? What’s so great about him? He’s nothing more than a handsome face, his mother just slept with the right people,” a slightly hoarse voice interjected in their conversation, making the atmosphere volatile in an instant.

Long Shi’s expression sank, and he turned to look at the speaker.

Gua Two and Shi Jin also glanced at him and found out that unexpectedly, the man who spoke was none other than their ultimate target tonight, Xu Huai.

“Be careful of what you say.” Long Shi’s tone was chilly.

Xu Huai gave Shi Jin a ‘big brother will help you to solve this small problem’ look. Taking advantage of his well-built body, he walked up to Long Shi and loomed over him in a threatening manner, saying scornfully, “You dare to be so arrogant on my turf? Get lost or you will have to be carried out.”

Long Shi has been working in the entertainment industry for many years already and he thought it made him rather even-tempered, but in this situation, he couldn’t help getting angry. He looked at Xu Huai deeply and asked, “What is your name?”

“Tch, why are you asking, are you going to find me later? Then you have to remember this granddad’s name clearly—Xu Huai, this master is called Xu Huai. I’ll wait for you to come and settle accounts with me.” Xu Huai slapped Long Shi on the chest hard, making him take a step back.

Long Shi’s expression turned even more unsightly. He patted his chest and said, “Xu Huai, I will remember you.” After giving Shi Jin a regretful and disappointed glance he walked away with an angry look on his face.

Shi Jin watched him leave and silently lit a candle for Xu Huai in his heart. Offending Long Shi was the same as offending Rong Zhouzhong, and Rong Zhouzhong was not called ‘the demon king of the showbiz world’ for nothing. With his style of ‘seeking revenge for the smallest grievance’, the transgressor will feel as if he had fallen into hell. Xu Huai will most likely come to deeply regret this moment.

Xiao Si was on the verge of tears: <JinJin, your progress bar has risen to 770 after that last look Long Shi gave you.>

Hearing these words, Shi Jin also wanted to cry.

You can make a thousand plans and be prepared for every contingency, but a stupid teammate would ruin everything! Xu Huai, better watch yourself!

Although the things did not go according to the plan at all, Gua Two’s mission tonight has finally been accomplished. Thanks to the ‘hero saves the beauty’ scene, they successfully attracted Xu Huai’s attention and were invited to follow him to the private room his friends reserved.

Shi Jin was full of self-pity and his feeling that peacefully staying by Lian Jun’s side was great was getting stronger. After Xu Huai kept intentionally or unintentionally filling his glass with alcohol, he finally lost his patience, asked Xiao Si to give him a ‘still sober after a thousand glasses’ buff and let loose.

Xu Huai has never met anyone like Shi Jin, who had a handsome but delicate appearance, yet could dance in such a provocative way and had a bold and straightforward personality, not even trying to hide his worship of money. However, these contradictions did not make him obnoxious but intriguing, causing people to not want to take their eyes off him.

The longer Xu Huai chatted with Shi Jin, the more he was fascinated by him, practically forgetting about his ‘owner’, Gua Two. Xu Huai’s seat was moved from opposite Gua Two to opposite Shi Jin, and from opposite Shi Jin to next to Shi Jin, and he kept devouring him with his eyes.

Gua Two hadn’t expected Shi Jin to be so out of control after entering the private room, but it was just as well. He simply let the things develop as they were and reduced his sense of existence—today’s task was just to meet with Xu Huai in order to establish deeper contact in the future. Now that the mission has been completed, Shi Jin wasn’t required to follow the script any longer. Even though Shi Jin kept drinking as if he wanted to make the bar go out of business, it was fine, he was going to watch over him.

Translator’s Notes:

“A stupid teammate” – 猪队友, perhaps more known as a “pig teammate”, is someone who can be used to illustrate the saying ‘With friends like that, who needs enemies?’ They usually have good intentions though.

I just love Shi Jin, he has so much spunk! No shrinking violet, that one. ٩(♡ε♡)۶