HTI: Chapter 164

This guess might be tempting but Xie Yang wasn’t so anxious.

In view of the fact that the last fragment was different from the other fragments in terms of power, Xie Yang was more careful when eating it. He first protected his brain with his ability and greatly reduced the contact between the fragment and his ability. He used the method of ‘small bites’ to try and decompose it.

This was very effective. The symptoms of severe dizziness from his first two attempts were greatly reduced and his brain could more clearly receive and digest the information transmitted by the debris.

In the midst of the slight dizziness, countless messy data and strange energy fluctuations emerged one after another. Xie Yang carefully distinguished it and found that all of the data was written in an unfamiliar language that he couldn’t understand.

Since he couldn’t understand it, he simply gave up. He just concentrated on recording the strange energy fluctuations that followed the data and tried to simulate it.

***

A night passed. Xie Yang woke up and found that the sun was already high in the sky. Not only did he have some messy and strange data in his mind, he had also stored several energy fluctuation templates in his ability core.

The so-called templates were energy units that operated according to a fixed law. Xie Yang tried to touch them and found that the template he touched immediately started to work, absorbing the ability around it to expand the range and slowly forming a small energy group.

At the same time, fuzzy and intermittent sounds were heard in his brain.

[Detecting love value… the data is too large, the calculation… the calculation failed… do… do you want to open the love value exchanged… do you…]

Xie Yang immediately stopped touching the energy fluctuation template. The template didn’t have enough power to continue and it slowly stopped running. It retracted to its original size and the prompts in his mind also disappeared.

Xie Yang carefully pondered the situation just now. Then he raised his eyebrow and smiled. In other words… he grabbed the power of the system after breaking it down?

He hurriedly tried the other energy templates one by one. He found that two of them were incomplete and couldn’t run smoothly. The rest of the templates were just detection and basic functions. It seemed the system data he ate yesterday was just the peripheral files.

Xie Yang stopped the experiment and sensed the size of the fragment in his ability core. He found that it was only a bit smaller than yesterday. Xie Yang guessed that he would have to get to almost the center before getting the core function of positioning and binding people. In three or four days at the earliest or a fortnight at the latest, he would definitely be able to find the data related to Mu Zhouyi’s positioning.

He felt at ease and couldn’t help his mouth curving up.

“Why are you smiling?”

Xie Yang’s mind returned and he glanced at the door.

Qiu Xing stepped through the door and approached the bed. He reached out to touch Xie Yang’s forehead and retracted his hand before staring at Xie Yang in a condescending and questioning posture. “Still posting Weibo in the early morning?”

“……” Xie Yang lied. “That was actually a timed post that was edited in advance—”

Qiu Xing stared at him. “Think clearly.”

“…I haven’t released a new song in a long time and I was a bit excited. It was midnight so I turned it on to check the reception to the new song. I also sent a post and went to bed immediately.”

“So you slept at 1 o’clock and didn’t wake up until 11 o’clock?”

11 o’clock? Xie Yang turned his head and looked at the clock on the bedside table. It was 11:08. It was actually 11 o’clock. So he slept for almost 10 hours? He understood why Qiu Xing was like this. The mouse was frightened. His fever and long sleep had become a psychological shadow for his mouse and Xie Yang accidentally stepped on it.

Xie Yang saw Qiu Xing’s anxious eyes and reached out to hold his hand. Xie Yang chose to lie again, saying softly, “In fact, I played with my mobile phone until almost 3 o’clock last night. I’m sorry.”

Qiu Xing’s unmoved hand immediately moved when Xie Yang said ‘3 o’clock’. He gripped the hand and raised his other one to press firmly against Xie Yang’s head. “I knew it was like this. Don’t stay up late. It isn’t good for your health!”

Xie Yang obediently listened to the lecture while secretly playing with the palm of Qiu Xing’s hand.

“…Flattering me is useless!” Qiu Xing pinched Xie Yang’s hand and his tone slightly slowed. “Get up to wash and eat lunch. Don’t go out today. You can sleep in the afternoon. Don’t worry about your new song. I saw it for you and the fans responded very well.”

So sweet.

Xie Yang hugged Qiu Xing’s waist and stuffed a sugar ball. “I will listen to you, my fiance.”

“……”

Qiu Xing rubbed his hair again. “I know that you are being perfunctory… get up quickly.”

***

During lunch, Qiu Xing told him, “Qinglin and I have discussed a plan on how to mislead Tao Yang. When performing a craniotomy to remove a tumor in the brain, it is often the case that the first removal isn’t clean and a second operation is needed.”

Xie Yang understood. “You want to deceive Tao Yang into believing you aren’t actually cured?”

“Yes.” Qiu Xing handed over a bowl of soup. “My illness is a stimulus for Tao Yang that forced him to lose his mind. The reason he took the risk and hired people to hurt others was because he didn’t want me to have a successful operation. If he knew that I’m not completely better…”

“He will calm down and wait until your condition worsens. He won’t stare at me for the moment, is that right?”

Qiu Xing paused and added, “We can use the time when Tao Yang is calm to dig out Mu Zhouyi first.”

Xie Yang nodded. “Then you are responsible for misleading Tao Yang. I am responsible for digging out Mu Zhouyi. Tao Yang is mainly looking at you while Mu Zhouyi is mainly looking at me. It is just right for us to be in charge of one, don’t you think?”

Yesterday, the two of them had finished discussing the matter of Mu Zhouyi. Qiu Xing didn’t object this time and nodded. “Pay attention to your safety.”

Xie Yang smiled. “I will.”

***

As ‘Love Value’ started to slaughter the music charts, some black materials about before Mu Zhouyi’s debut and early in her debut started to appear on the Internet.

The black material came from an anonymous forum post. The poster claimed to be someone who was very familiar with Mu Zhouyi. The poster described in detail about when Mu Zhouyi decided to enter the entertainment circle and what she did to enter it. How many family members and ex-boyfriends did she pit to do so? How many resources before and after her debut did she grab? How many artists she pitted… the details were very true like the person had seen Mu Zhouyi doing these things with their own eyes.

Not many people read the post at first and not many people believed it. Mu Zhouyi might be a mess but the manner in which she quit the entertainment circle was too embarrassing. Therefore, the public had a kinder and more tolerant attitude toward her. They didn’t want to eat this rotten melon that was like a lie.

However, more explosive details and real events were revealed. The things that the poster wrote were too ruining. It diluted the kindness and tolerance of the public toward Mu Zhouyi. Gradually, this post became popular and the number of people who viewed it started to increase.

Among them, the poster had revealed several things about Mu Zhouyi that the netizens couldn’t accept the most.

This first thing was that Mu Zhouyi’s education and past was a lie.

Mu Zhouyi, formerly known as Mu Juan, wasn’t a graduate of XX University. She hadn’t even graduated from high school. Her father didn’t die prematurely and she didn’t grow up with her biological mother who died when she was 18 years old. Instead, her father was a worker of a fruit factory and she had a stepmother and stepsister. The stepmother was the factor cashier and her stepsister was one year younger than her. Her stepsister had excellent grades and took her mother’s surname. Her full name was Zhou Yi.

The second year after Mu Zhouyi dropped out of high school, her stepsister Zhou Yi was admitted to a good university. At that time, Mu Zhouyi wanted to enter the entertainment industry and stole all of her family’s savings, including the tuition fee prepared for her stepsister and the factor money that her stepmother was keeping at home temporarily.

This incident led Father Mu to sell the house to fill up the missing money for the factory. In the end, the stepmother took the stepsister, divorcing Father Mu and moving away. Father Mu returned to the countryside and the family fell apart.

In the second case, Mu Zhouyi slandered her ex-boyfriend for beating her and forcing her to have s*x.

She had dumped her boyfriend the moment she made up her mind to enter the entertainment industry.

Mu Zhouyi and her boyfriend were high school classmates. For Mu Zhouyi, her boyfriend didn’t go take the university entrance examination and instead went to work in the fruit factory where Mu Zhouyi’s father worked. The relationship between the two of them had been recognized by their families and the wedding ceremony would take place when they both came of age.

Mu Zhouyi suggested to break up while her boyfriend tried to keep her. In order to break up neatly, Mu Zhouyi slandered her boyfriend, saying he beat her up and forced her into a relationship. This matter caused a lot of trouble. Although the police proved her boyfriend hadn’t done such things, it wasn’t good for her boyfriend. The rumors had already spread. Her boyfriend gave up completely and his family moved away.

In the third case, Mu Zhouyi hit a child before her debut.

The child belonged to the boyfriend Mu Zhouyi had thrown away. This was one of the reasons why he struggled to keep Mu Zhouyi at the time.

The moment the posts revealed these things, they included some past news to support the facts. For example, Father Mu selling his house to fill the factory deficit and the boyfriend being slandered were all reported by the local news at the time.

This post completely exploded and was moved from the forum to Weibo, where it spread to countless social platforms.

Mu Zhouyi was on the hot search for a long time. Numerous marketing accounts and netizens started to dig deeply into Mu Zhouyi’s past based on the poster’s revelation. Later, Mu Zhouyi’s high school classmates appeared. They were shocked and said they hadn’t expected Mu Zhouyi to be Mu Juan. After all, her appearance was too bad…

***

On the third day after the post update, Xie Yang went to the first rehearsal for the Spring Festival Gala. After the rehearsal, Xie Yang took Qin Cheng’s car back to Yang Xing in a low-key manner while Wu Shui drove home in the car Xie Yang often took.

The moment Xie Yang arrived at Yang Xing, he received a call from Wu Shui.

“There are some obsessive fans chasing the car. They were so crazy that I found an open space to park the car as you ordered and then called the police.”

She finally couldn’t help it.

Xie Yang replied, “Well done. Pay attention to safety.”

“Yes.”

That night, Xie Yang sent another post.

[Xie Yang: Will you one by one lose everything you’ve exchanged for the love value? I know everything about you.]

The Xie fans thought Xie Yang was once again promoting the new song and they enthusiastically commented. All types of witty words and exaggerated praises flooded the comments area. Xie Yang read through the cute comments of the fans before smiling and turning off Weibo. Then he made a call.

That evening, some media reporters went to Mu Zhouyi’s hometown to conduct an on-site interview. Many old workers in the fruit factory couldn’t believe the glorious Mu Zhouyi they saw on TV was Mu Juan. They spoke a lot about Mu Juan’s childhood.

There were still some people who didn’t believe that Mu Juan was Mu Zhouyi. It was because Mu Juan in the old photos was a rustic looking girl. She didn’t match the exquisite and beautiful Mu Zhouyi at all.

Soon, a photo of Mu Zhouyi at the sanatorium abroad was released and ruthlessly shattered the persistence of these people. In the current photo, Mu Zhouyi was yellow and thin with rough skin and dim facial features. It was almost the same as the girl in the old photo, just a bit more mature.

The melon eating netizens were stunned. Then they sighed emotionally that the makeup artist for Mu Zhouyi must have magical hands.

On the fifth day after the post update, ‘I See Xuanyuan’ released character makeup photos and the first promotional poster. Xie Yang in the costume poked at the Xie fans. The topic #Xie Yang Su Jingmo# quickly became a hot search.

On the same day, Xie Yang encountered some obsessive fans outside the Yang Xing building but there were bodyguards. The obsessive fans were stopped by the bodyguards that emerged from various places. They blocked a five meter range around Xie Yang and he entered the building smoothly and safely. Not a single piece of clothing was touched by the obsessive fans.

The same evening, Father Mu accepted an interview with the media. He said that he had indeed wondered if Mu Zhouyi was his daughter Mu Juan and wrote letters to Mu Zhouyi and her company. However, Mu Zhouyi sent him a lawyer’s letter warning him. He was very scared at the time. He thought about her attitude and how she was so much more beautiful than his daughter. Therefore, he dispelled his suspicion.

Once this interview was released, there was an uproar of public opinion. Mu Zhouyi was directly scolded on the hot search.

On the sixth day after the post update, Xie Yang woke up and saw an extra energy template in his ability core. He immediately tried it out. The template rotated and a strange spreading sensation was felt. Then there were intermittent prompts.

[Locating the previous host… locating the previous host… system… damaged… out of range, unable to… unable to locate…]

Here it came!

Xie Yang broke away from the template and took out his mobile phone to call Qin Cheng. “I want to hold a fan meeting to contribute to the promotion of the movie.”

The call finished and Xie Yang got up to find Qiu Xing, who was washing in the bathroom. He reached out to touch the hair growing on Qiu Xing’s head and asked with a smile, “How is it going with misleading Tao Yang?”

“It’s going well.” Qiu Xing wiped off the drops of water on his face. He hugged Xie Yang’s waist and brought this person in front of him. He looked down at Xie Yang’s expression and wondered, “What bad idea did you come up with?”

“I just had a dream.” Xie Yang hugged Qiu Xing’s waist back and smiled very comfortably. “I dreamed that Mu Zhouyi lost her mind due to the news on the Internet and wanted to continue attacking me. However, Tao Yang was misled by your information and wanted to go dormant temporarily. The two argued fiercely and separated.”

Qiu Xing stared into Xie Yang’s eyes and rubbed his waist. Then he hugged Xie Yang. “Go to the company later today.”

Xie Yang hurriedly placed his hands on Qiu Xing’s shoulder while wondering, “Why?”

Qiu Xing didn’t speak. He walked out of the bathroom holding Xie Yang and pressed him down on the bed. Qiu Xing touched Xie Yang’s eyes that had just been smiling and lowered his head.

***

“In the future, you aren’t allowed to smile outside like you did just now.”

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Proofreader: Paranoid Kitten