Ch68 - Netherworld 101

Ji Xiunian’s current mood was complicated beyond utterance.

He hadn’t meant to eavesdrop on the F4’s discussion and had merely happened to pass by. But he hadn’t thought even in his wildest dreams that he would hear about Lan Gaojie’s death here.

“So, Lan Gaojie really died?”

The F4 looked at each other. The other three silently took a step back, leaving He Xinghua as the one closest to Ji Xiunian.

My geges have pitted me!

Although He Xinghua thought this, it wasn’t easy to avoid the conversation.

He turned back to look at the other three with a slightly wronged expression, then moved his mouth and said quietly, “This isn’t a classified secret so I should be able to tell the truth, right?”

“You should be able to. It’s not a false rumour.”

Although they said this, the other three refused to come forward and completely entrusted He Xinghua to explain to Ji Xiunian by himself.

Facing Ji Xiunian’s clear-sighted gaze, He Xinghua inexplicably felt a little guilty and immediately told everything he knew to Ji Xiunian. “He did die, that’s correct. Didn’t he faint after that public performance that day? He passed away not long after going home.”

“How did you guys find out ah, was it still because those ghost friends told you guys?”

“They really have met with Lan Gaojie in the underworld, but we already knew that he didn’t have much lifespan left even beforehand…”

“En?” Ji Xiunian couldn’t help being curious and couldn’t resist asking, “How did you guys find out?”

“We deciphered from the details.” When He Xinghua said this, he couldn’t resist straightening up and saying with a bit of pride, “I felt like there wasn’t something right about him from the first time I met him…”

“Yes yes, his entire body carried a kind of death energy.” When the other three heard this they immediately came forward, babbling to Ji Xiunian about their discoveries.

“Right, and he could also see us. It was just after the second week of recording that he started being able to see us.” Tao Yingbo entered with the main point. “What kind of people can see ghosts? Other than mediums, they’re all mostly people on the brink of death.”

“Nian ge, you actually don’t know, near the end he was followed by death energy; it looked so sinister from a distance…”

Ji Xiunian listened to them speak and only felt that he had opened up a world he had never crossed before.

When he heard death energy mentioned, he automatically thought of the black energy on Lan Gaojie before. After a few moments of conflict, Ji Xiunian still ended up asking, “Is the death energy you guys are talking about the kind that’s black and foggy?”

“It is. Wait a moment, Nian ge, how did you know that?”

Ji Xiunian didn’t speak, his emotions extremely complicated.

He hadn’t known before that the black-coloured fog surrounding Lan Gaojie had been death energy; he had even suspected that his own vision had issues. Even though he had had a vague premonition at that time, Ji Xiunian had been subconsciously denying it, telling himself that definitely nothing would happen.

But now that he had heard the F4 say this, Ji Xiunian could only feel afraid that his entire worldview needed to be reconstructed.

Thinking of everything the F4 had said, Ji Xiunian felt a bit complicated. “You guys said, only people who are about to die can see you guys?”

He Xinghua didn’t think there was anything wrong with that and merely nodded as he said, “Yes yes, a person living well and filled with yang energy cannot see us at all.”

Ji Xiunian felt like this was even harder to accept and followed up with a question, “Then what situation am I in, I can see you guys, does this mean I’ll die soon?”

He Xinghua didn’t have the time to think more. “Right right…”

He had only said a few words when he saw that Ji Xiunian’s expression wasn’t quite right and immediately, hurriedly backtracked, shaking his head. “Not right not right! , I didn’t really catch the words Nian ge said just now, you’re definitely the type who’ll live for a long time ah.”

The others at the side also hurriedly helped He Xinghua apologise. “Nian ge, don’t mind, Xinghua merely didn’t think before he spoke. It’s not like only people who are about to die can see ghosts. Maybe Nian ge, you were naturally born with strong spiritual energies, so being able to see us isn’t strange ah.”

As Ji Xiunian’s fan, Dai Zijin was also at the side to help explain. He was afraid that his idol would meet with some accident, so he hurriedly reminded Ji Xiunian, “Nian ge, if you’re afraid then you should retain a good relationship with Master Lu Xu. If he’s willing to protect you, you definitely won’t have anything happen to you.”

After having heard Lu Xu’s name, the corner of Ji Xiunian’s mouth uncontrollably formed into the hint of a smile. His mood also calmed down along with it. “He, ah, has already taken care of me a lot.”

When he thought of all the things Lu Xu had been doing while silently protecting him, Ji Xiunian felt that his heart was filled even more completely to the brim. He guessed that the F4 also knew Lu Xu’s identity of being a spirit communication master, so they wanted him to maintain good relations with Lu Xu.

But what they didn’t know was that Lu Xu had been very caring of him from the beginning. He didn’t need to put in extra efforts to do much else.

Seeing a gentle smile appear on Ji Xiunian’s face, the F4 were suddenly confused–– Being able to smile even after feeling the threat of death, as expected of the Film Emperor, his degree of thinking was really different.

Ji Xiunian didn’t worry over this problem for too long, and just wanted to confirm it one more time. “So, Lan Gaojie died not long after leaving the filming premises?”

He Xinghua nodded seriously, and said very confidently, “That’s right.”

Then that was strange.

According to them, Lan Gaojie had been dead for at least two days, but from whichever side, there really hadn’t been a single piece of news about it.

Just like how the production team simply thought that he had withdrawn from the competition, they didn’t know at all that he had died. And Lan Gaojie’s agency too. Such a big matter had happened but there wasn’t any information on it at all. No one knew if it was because they didn’t know, or if they were purposely hiding it.

It had to be said, if this matter concerning Lan Gaojie blew up, the production team might be affected.

The young person who had been happily filming for the competition suddenly disappeared. Normal people wouldn’t be able to accept this, let alone Lan Gaojie’s fans.

Ji Xiunian thought up to here, then immediately went to look for Fan Zeng, wanting to confirm again. “Fan ge, did the production team get in contact with Lan Gaojie afterwards?”

Fan Zeng didn’t understand why Ji Xiunian was so focused on Lan Gaojie, and just shook his head. “No. Never mind Lan Gaojie himself, even his agency is hiding and won’t accept our calls. I initially wanted to give him another chance, after all his ranking wasn’t low, but after continuously playing this hiding game, I have no choice but to discontinue working with this artist.”

Fan Zeng was enthused, preparing to close the voting for Lan Gaojie after tonight’s broadcast of the public performance, along with announcing the news of his withdrawal from the competition.

It seemed that Fan Zeng was still in the dark, he didn’t know at all that Lan Gaojie had already died.

Ji Xiunian hesitated again and again but didn’t tell him in the end. When searches concerning Lan Gaojie came up, not one of them mentioned his death.

The situation right now was that Lan Gaojie had already died, but for some reason, it was being covered up. Probably no one would know about it in the short term.

As for why news of his death was being hidden, there was probably an inescapable connection with Lan Gaojie.

Ji Xiunian thought like that, and could only hold it inside the depths of his heart for now, and take it step by step.

At 8 P.M., the third episode of “Birth of an Idol” was broadcasted.

Because it was the trainees’ first public performance, the fans were beyond excited, and were waiting early in front of the television, waiting for the broadcast to start.

The trainees were also the same, taking a break to watch their own performances.

The production team gave them time for a break in order for them to watch their own dance performances from another angle, so there weren’t any training schedules for tonight.

It wasn’t easy to have waited for the show’s broadcast, and everyone discovered that the production team had even done some editing.

Originally, Lu Xu’s “Little Effort Team” and Lan Gaojie’s “Ability Assault Force” was the first battle, but when the broadcast started, the first battle actually became other people.

The production team didn’t have to say it for them to know, it seemed that Lu Xu and Lan Gaojie’s battle would be put at the end for some suspense which was also a good decision.

Otherwise, the front part would be so exciting, then the teams at the end would be overshadowed quite a bit.

Ji Xiunian watched the show for a while, and felt that there were some things that he had to talk over with Lu Xu.

When he thought about that, he then sent Lu Xu a message, asking him what he was doing right now.

Lu Xu, who usually replied in seconds, didn’t immediately respond. In fact, he didn’t have the intention of looking at his phone right now.

Lu Xu had suddenly been told by the F4 that they didn’t want to wander in the mortal realm anymore and wanted to go to the underworld. His first reaction was that he thought they were dreaming.

“Why do you all suddenly want to go to the underworld, you really decided already?”

He Xinghua nodded. “Xu ge, we really do want to go to the underworld, anyway our dream is to debut. Now that Netherworld 101 is gathering competitors. Instead of staying in the human world and being greedy with your stage, why don’t we just go to the underworld for a big show!”

nao: hi guys! thanks for being patient while cael and i were on hiatus, we were super busy with school (and still are) – we will be posting a little less frequently while we suffer haha but will be back to posting regularly! sorry for the wait and please be patient with us while we post less frequently!