C7 Part1

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Chapter 7: The Battle Horn Sounds (Part 1)

Tanuki didn’t give Qiu Ying as high of a signing bonus as Youxing and her hourly salary was based on her audience numbers. Because she was starting over as a new person, her newly-started streaming room was desolate. At times, the income from an entire busy night was not even enough for a day’s food money.

“Dear user, your broadband payment is overdue.”

When she opened the browser, a few lines of large characters appeared. Qiu Ying was speechless.

After paying the network fee and her monthly bills, she zoned out. She was so poor that she estimated that she would spend the next half month depending on egg bibimbap and the miserable northwestern wind1 for sustenance.

To make matters worse, the landlady seemed to have recently lost a lot of money playing mahjong, so she had furiously raised the rent by quite a lot. Qiu Ying pleaded bitterly with her, practically crying, but unfortunately the other party didn’t move at all, rolling her eyes and throwing out the words, “This place is so good and there are a lot of people who want to move in. If you want to live here, then live here; if not, get out!”

The landlady was telling the truth. In this city where house prices were skyrocketing, she would probably be able to live in a group house if she moved to another place. In that case, streaming would be too inconvenient.

Qiu Ying was unable to think of a solution when someone suddenly messaged her on QQ. When she opened the window, she discovered it was her deathly-loyal fan, the esports reporter she’d gotten to know during the previous Global Finals celebration, Lu Yiyi. Lu Yiyi’s friend was recently in charge of a “Civilian Goddess” reality show, which needed some high-quality guests for their open audition. The pay was not bad. Lu Yiyi wanted to recommend Qiu Ying and asked if she was fine with it.

Ever since she left Youxing, Qiu Ying hadn’t had any opportunities to receive any good announcements. Now she was broke and had low exposure. Lu Yiyi’s action was a true lifesaving hand. Qiu Ying nodded over and over, sending over a series of blowing kisses emoticons, hating that she couldn’t climb along the internet cable to hug her thigh and call her “daddy.”

With Lu Yiyi’s recommendation and Qiu Ying’s earnestness, Qiu Ying smoothly made it through the open audition. The reality show was recorded in an amusement park, consisting of a series of different segments: talent show, quiz time, and various types of wonderful challenges, such as an eating competition, defeating the rollercoaster, catching pigs in the mud… the activities were all broadcast on a livestream platform. The audience could supply the players with different props through their engagement to help them take the lead, and at the end the program would use the chat, rewards, and gifts to judge the players’ popularity.

All throughout the program, shed jumped up and down, overcame all the difficulties in her way, and was arduously promoted up to the top ten. After finishing changing clothes and organizing herself in the lounge, Qiu Ying’s entire body was nearly falling apart. But just as she went out the door, she was pulled aside by a staff member. “You’re too noticeable, change your clothes.” He looked her up and down and added, “Also, wipe off some of your makeup, be plainer.”

Qiu Ying was confused as to why. They were about to start the final segment, so what reason was there to deliberately pretend to be ugly? It was only until she saw the figure surrounded by people that she was instantly petrified — Qiao Xin was the special guest!

She was told, this reality show was broadcast by Youxing. Youxing supported Qiao Xin and had previously hinted to the program staff: In the final segment, everyone needs to serve as Qiao Xin’s foil.

The petrified Qiu Ying felt like her own body was being crushed, bit by bit, then randomly being swept into a pile. The wind blew, the pile disappeared in an instant…

The following plot was extremely embarrassing. Qiao Xin debuted among flowers and applause; the players who had advanced to the final level were placed one by one to take turns welcoming her!

“Qiao Xin goddess, I’m your fan! Why is it that you’re so beautiful and even so good at games?”

“Qiao Xin goddess’s voice is so sweet! So gentle!”

When the microphone was handed to Qiu Ying, she braked, controlled her eyes that were about to roll out of their sockets, and gave the camera a constipated smile.

After they gave Qiao Xin this type of artificial support, the program entered the “random dance” section, where the players had to remember the dances of eight songs within a short period of time. After the round started, the system would randomly play a song and the player had to promptly perform its corresponding dance. Every round, the first person to dance wrongly would receive a punishment.

Qiu Ying had danced from elementary school. This segment was a breeze for her, but the program team instructed them to take turns to make mistakes. In the end, only Qiao Xin won without any errors. Qiu Ying jumped up angrily, but the other party blackmailed her with the compensation money. If she did not cooperate, they could just find a random reason to eliminate her. Qiu Ying was poor, so she could only grit her teeth and swallow it.

When it was Qiu Ying’s turn to pretend to make a mistake, there were only two people left on stage, her and Qiao Xin. The punishment was determined by the winner. Qiao Xin delicately expressed that she wasn’t willing to hurt other people, hemming and hawing, “If there has to be a punishment… then a slap on the back, I mean lightly.”

Qiu Ying was forced to lean down obediently and the palm came from behind instantly. She almost spit out a mouthful of blood—what “I mean lightly,” or is your palm made of iron!

The show neared its end. Because the voting data was counted by taking from the livestream platform statistics, Youxing seemed to be meddling. Qiu Ying, for whom the audience had cheered loudly at the time, didn’t even get a participation award. The program staff arbitrarily sent her off with a transportation fee. Before she left, Qiu Ying, starving, got a dinner from the organizer. Suddenly, someone hit her hard and almost overturned her bento box.

Qiao Xin covered her mouth with one hand and exaggeratedly pitched her voice up. “Aiya, this program staff treats their performers so bad? You worked so hard today and didn’t get any credit for it. In a bit, I’ll go scold them!”

Qiu Ying ignored her and exhaustedly packed up her bag to go home. In the mirror in the lounge, she saw her own face — so white it would scare people. On the way out, she passed several staff members who looked at her with expressions full of compassion and pity: “She used to be a female entertainer of Youxing too, but now she’s really miserable. For such little money, she was completely embarrassed.”

As she walked around the corner, Qiu Ying was suddenly hooked around her neck. “Are you okay?” Lu Yiyi was angry and annoyed. “If I knew earlier that the show would be so fake, I wouldn’t have recommended you to come on!”

Without financial resources, without any shoulder to rely on, Qiu Ying’s life was like a dilapidated airplane, constantly plunging down. She put on a strong face and laughed alone, holding on for so long; in the face of cynicism and attacks during her lowest point she pretended not to care. But one look at the concern in Lu Yiyi’s drawn brows, it was like a tight string had been cut without warning, and her eyes instantly grew red.

“Goodness, you’re completely injured!” Lu Yiyi looked at her up and down in distress.

During the water adventure, Qiu Ying had worked too hard, and now her arms and legs were green.

“It’s not that bad.” Qiu Ying breathed in through her nose and softened her expression. “At least I won Firework’s album.”

Miya’s autograph on an out-of-print collector’s album. Ji Xiangkong, that star-chasing guy, would naturally dream about getting it…

After Qiu Ying returned home, she became seriously ill and rested for several days before finally recovering. In the evening, she had just started the livestream when Qiao Xin’s fans attacked her. As it turned out, Youxing had edited the reality show clips into a variety show and put it on their homepage. In it, was not her serving as a background character for Qiao Xin, but her most ugly and most embarrassing appearances.

“Before, I was unhappy that Youxing listed you as a female entertainer on the same level as Qiao Xin. Your gaming isn’t as good as Qiao Xin’s and now even your dancing isn’t as good. You still want to be a professional commentator? Wake up!”

“Qiao Xin can get Pei Xi god, who doesn’t let women close to him, to escort2 her. And you can only find Ji Xiangkong, who doesn’t refuse anyone. You’re so pitiful!”

Qiu Ying automatically banned them and played Firework’s new song as the background music of her stream.

After streaming, Qiu Ying turned to look at the Firework out-of-print collector’s album that she’d put high up. A touch of awkwardness floated up within her heart. She didn’t know when they would see each other again and she could be able to personally give this laboriously-obtained gift to Ji Xiangkong.

That day, during the intermission, the program team began a segment in the water park and invited passerbys to participate in the water adventure with them. Qiu Ying was most recently at rock bottom with issues with food and clothing, so from beginning to end her spirit was a little exhausted. She originally only wanted to participate in the event in order to receive the compensation, but she sprung up when she heard Lu Yiyi reveal the segment’s prize.

“The prize is Firework’s out-of-print collector’s album! Autographed by Miya!”

Miya… Ji Xiangkong’s favorite girl group idol…

Qiu Ying decisively signed up. The challenge consisted of passing through many checkpoints on the water. The first person to successfully reach the finish line was the winner. In order to win the prize, Qiu Ying did her absolute best to fight through the group of old and young people. Unfortunately, the round started unfavorably. While running across the conveyor belt, she slipped and fell. Seeing that she was about to be pushed into the water, she ignored her image and windmilled her arms, like a hen flapping its wings, and used extremely distorted posture to control her balance. Then she went forward once more.

Qiu Ying’s desperate appearance, without fear of death, frightened everyone. The host couldn’t help but frequently zoom in the camera on her.

“She’s going to fall, wow! She’s up again!”

“Hahahaha, her head hit the bumper!”

“Hey hey! She’s going to fall again!”

“So pitiful! She still hasn’t given up! She’s even using her face! Like a tenacious worm!”

Passing through the conveyer belt, crossing the floating bridge, hanging on the swing and jumping on the trampoline, crawling on her hands and feet across the roulette, using her last bit of strength to climb the rope up the cliff, and the big icon marking the end finally came into view…

“I will succeed in this challenge!”

Qiu Ying panted, flushed. The moment she grasped the prize, she fell to the ground and twisted her foot.

Even until now, her ankle was still faintly sore.

But—

Qiu Ying took down the album and wistfully touched the cover.

She wasn’t willing to be like the people who shouted empty cheers from a distant place. The current her did not have much, but as long as it was within her power, she wanted to send the things that could make him happy, no matter how trivial, into his hands.

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Footnotes:

1 This is an idiom for starvation. I really couldn’t think of a way to translate it well, but it’s like she’s literally so poor the only thing she can eat is “starvation.”

2 A verb that is used in the context of an emperor escorting his concubine.

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