Chapter 37

Chapter 37

After speaking, Su Jianglou brushed off his eldest brother's hand and continued walking.

He heard his eldest brother's voice again, "Jiang Lou, calm down."

Calm down from what?

He was perfectly calm.

His eldest brother said he would scare Xiao Mu, so he had decided not to go in.

Wait, Xiao Mu... no, it's Xi Bao.

Xiao Mu...

Xi Bao...

Xiao Mu...

Xi Bao...

Just as his body soared into the air, about to reach the third-floor window, Su Jianglou's body suddenly lost all support and plummeted.

He was caught by Su Juzi, who was waiting below.

Su Xuanxiao looked at his younger brother, who had once again completely lost consciousness, and pondered, "Juzi, do you think Jiang Lou is like this because you were too rough, or for some other reason?"

He hadn't failed to notice the fight between his two younger brothers at sea.

Including how Juzi, to stop Jiang Lou from going berserk, chose to collide with him, directly knocking Jiang Lou into the sea.

Su Juzi set Su Jianglou down on the lawn, deflecting blame. "I think it's for some other reason."

Su Xuanxiao nodded, accepting his younger brother's conclusion, and continued analyzing, "He does have some problems."

When they became anomalies, Jiang Lou was still a child of about ten.

Compared to Xiao Xi, he was considered a big kid.

But compared to the powerful anomalous world, at that age, managing to hold onto his final thoughts and fixations instead of being assimilated into a lower-level anomaly without self-awareness took all his effort.

Later, as the world they were born from fused with the anomalous world, they were trapped in the chaotic rifts between worlds. The time there, sometimes blurry and sometimes clear, was enough to drive anyone mad.

For Su Xuanxiao, who was the most mature at the time, he had many reasons to convince himself not to succumb to that chaotic gray fog.

For example: he didn’t want to become a mass of 'flesh' again. He wanted to become a 'person.'

Also: it seemed he had lost a younger brother.

Or: as the eldest brother, if he were the first to break, it would be far too embarrassing.

But for Su Jianglou, he didn’t have that many thoughts. He just instinctively felt that letting the gray fog completely invade his mind would be a terrible thing.

Yet that gray fog was truly tempting. If he let his guard down even slightly, it would consume those painful memories in his mind until not even a trace remained.

He couldn’t help but want to give in to the gray fog. As his thoughts wavered, he could only cling to the only bright spot in his memory like a lifeline.

Thinking about it over and over, again and again.

By the time they had the power to leave that place, he at one point only remembered that he wanted a younger brother.

"All these years, I’ve always suspected he has some psychological issues. What’s happening now should be a stress response—his mind can’t handle it, so he’s temporarily lost consciousness," Su Xuanxiao concluded. "But finding a reliable psychologist here is really quite difficult."

After saying this, he suggested, "Juzi, why not put him in your instance?"

Su Juzi refused. "Do you want to actually drive him insane?"

Turning 'I’ve always suspected he has some psychological issues' into 'He definitely has some psychological issues.'

If you’re not a professional, don’t throw out random ideas.

Su Xuanxiao shrugged. "Then what should we do?"

We can’t keep Jiang Lou from seeing Xiao Xi forever.

Jiang Lou wouldn’t agree to it himself once he snapped out of it.

Finally, without waiting for his younger brother’s response, he made the decision himself. "We can only desensitize him."

***

Waking up another morning, Su Ximu leisurely stretched and then reached out to pick up the calendar on the table.

This was one of the staff perks the assistant director had given out to celebrate the good ratings on the show’s premiere day.

Placing the calendar in front of himself, he counted off on his fingers.

There were only three days left until the circled date.

Three days later would be the trainees' first elimination performance.

At that time, the trainees would leave the island together and be transported to the largest outdoor stadium in Tanzhong City.

The venue had already been booked by the production team, with voting devices installed in the audience seats in advance, serving as the performance stage for the trainees.

It was harsh—on the same day as the performance, right on the stage of the outdoor stadium, out of the 91 trainees, 51 would be eliminated on the spot.

More than half.

As the Dormitory Selection Officer responsible for the trainees' daily dorm life, all Su Ximu could do during these few days was pay extra attention to taking care of the trainees' health.

For example, monitoring them to maintain healthy schedules.

For example, keeping a medical kit handy in the dorm.

For example, helping them fetch special stage props when they were too busy and had no time.

According to Mentor Bai Bai, each trainee might want different tools. They could go to the warehouse to pick them up themselves.

Su Ximu thought that Mentor Bai might have accidentally mixed in some regional dialect while speaking Mandarin, accidentally saying "tools" instead of "props."

Incidentally, as a crew member, he also received several complimentary tickets to the performance.

After finishing his morning routine, Su Ximu looked at the five tickets in front of him and sat down on a small stool to send a message to 'Eldest Brother.'

"Eldest Brother, the production team gave me a few staff tickets. Three days from now at 8 PM, 'Tonight's Big Star' will have a performance at the central stadium. Would you like to come watch the show?"

"If you don’t have time, Eldest Brother, you can also give the tickets to the children of your partners. They’re very front-row seats. I heard from the assistant director in the work chat group that the first episode of the show had great ratings, and the performance tickets sold like hotcakes. There are none left now."

After sending these two messages, he thought about it and added, "Also, is Third Brother done with his work? I... maybe I’ll go ask if Third Brother would like to come watch the performance."

You could feel the anxiety through the screen.

Fortunately, Eldest Brother quickly replied.

"Eldest Brother: Okay, Jiang Lou and I will go. I told him about you resigning. Don’t worry, he’s not angry."

Wait, what?

Does 'Third Brother' know?

"Xiao Xi: Then I’ll call Third Brother~"

Su Xuanxiao looked at the message and replied, "He can’t take calls right now. He’s busy."

Su Ximu immediately understood—people grinding away at their careers are indeed always busy.

"Eldest Brother: That’s right. He’s busy adding bricks and tiles to urban construction."

Adding bricks and tiles?

Su Ximu’s thoughts drifted, and he couldn’t help but ponder the necessary connection between tour groups and urban development.

At the edge of Tannan City:

Contrary to Su Ximu’s common-sense impression of suburbs—having never traveled beyond the city since arriving in this world—the outskirts of Tannan City had no highways or railway tracks. Instead, there were only homeless wild ghosts, like vengeful spirits haunting a mass grave.

Any scenario from a human-world horror film could find a similar reflection here.

Further ahead, even those wild ghosts dared not venture—a region shrouded in gray mist, its end unknown.

At this moment, Su Jianglou sat at the boundary between the gray mist and the "mass grave," breathing in the familiar air and thinking about a few things.

First, Xiao Mu is Xi Bao. Is that right? Yes.

No wonder he never wanted to harm him.

Wait… What was he just thinking about?

Oh, Xiao Mu is Xi Bao.

Wait again, who is Xiao Mu?

Hiss…

Xiao Mu is the puppet doll he'd found!

So, Xi Bao = puppet doll?

Su Jianglou raised his index finger, and wisps of black mist surged from his fingertip, sketching out a simple drawing in front of him.

A younger version of himself, holding the hand of a younger Xi Bao.

Xi Bao has grown up now—how could he forget? Xi Bao all grown up still looks very much like the child version. Yet, he had only thought himself lucky to find a puppet doll resembling Xi Bao.

"Will Xi Bao blame me?!" Su Jianglou abruptly stood up, suddenly understanding his Eldest and Second Brothers, who had strongly opposed his plan to create a new instance.

Emotions surging, his power surged along, pushing the gray mist back by force by half a meter.

If such destructive force were unleashed on Guiyi Island, it would probably sink the whole island.

At the boundary of the gray mist, the concept of time was vague. Su Jianglou used to despise this place, but over time, he grew accustomed to it—it even helped him calm down a little.

By the time Su Xuanxiao arrived to pull him out, three days had already passed.

The show was set to begin at 8 p.m., but both the trainees and the production crew arrived at the main stadium as early as dawn.

***

Backstage was hectic. With nothing urgent to do for the moment, Su Ximu helped out, helping the trainees take inventory of the props.

FX makeup, scar wax, ball-jointed puppets…

These were items he had taken time to get from storage for the trainees who had asked for his help.

The warehouse manager was very responsible, going over the list with him carefully before checking with the AD. Once the AD approved releasing the props, the manager not only quickly found them but also used a trolley to transport them to the dormitory building.

Backstage, not only was Su Ximu meticulously checking the props, but the trainees also couldn't take their eyes off the pile, no matter what they were doing.

They hadn’t used these props during rehearsals, only practicing with them on the sly in their dorms.

They were afraid the eerie mentors might come up with new tricks if they saw the props.

Analyzing the five dances for tonight’s performance from a special effects makeup perspective:

The ballet dancer bleeding from her feet could be seen as having hidden blood packs in her shoes beforehand.

The puppet with pierced joints could use strong glue to attach strings to the joints, creating the illusion of strings passing through.

The bending clown and the articulated puppet came in handy. The trainees only needed to bind the puppet to themselves, cover it with clothing, and retract their arms into the sleeves during key movements, letting the puppet act instead.

The broken-winged swan and the boy turning 360 degrees were simpler. One hid their arms throughout, while the other used special effects makeup to create a neck-twisting effect like wringing a towel.

Everything fell into place.

Moreover, under the strong enforcement of Rao Fei, who had recently become the group bully, the competitive urge stirred up by the mentors among the trainees was ruthlessly extinguished.

This ensured no trainee would obediently stick to special effects only to have a rebel suddenly perform realistically—achieving 30% faithful reproduction without serious self-injury, yet scoring high enough to secure a spot.

Everyone started on a level playing field. The rest…

Was a gamble!

While taking inventory, Su Ximu suddenly felt an intense, hard-to-ignore stare fixed on him from a corner of the backstage.

He instinctively turned but found nothing.

Thinking it might be his imagination, he felt the intense gaze again a few minutes later.

This time, he didn’t turn around. Instead, he quietly made his way to a makeup table and used the mirror to observe behind him.

A fuzzy dark shape flashed past again.

A likely possibility crossed Su Ximu’s mind. He stood up, hurried over to Group Leader Lan242, who he trusted, and whispered, "Group Leader Lan242, we need to tell the AD—it seems like a... a pervert has snuck into the backstage?"

He initially meant to say "stalker fan," but lacking prior exposure to the entertainment industry, the term eluded him. He settled for something similar: "You know, the kind that might steal the trainees’ personal clothing..."

"Though he moved fast, I clearly saw it—the black clothing covering his face was Wang Xingxing’s performance costume!"

Blue 242 glanced back and said calmly, "A pervert, huh..."