Thriller Paradise

8th June, an afternoon of a Sunday inside the recording studio of a certain television show. Feng Bujue sat inside a waiting room, waiting for the recording for "I am a Writer-the Return Special" to start. A few minutes ago, the make-up artists of the show came to help with his appearance and fixed his hair slightly and then left; at that moment, only a cameraman was left in the room. Due to the need of the footage, unless Brother Jue had to use the toilet, or else the cameraman basically had to stick to him. This was a rather overused cinematography that had gotten popular recently, it was to combine both reality television and variety tv, and by contrasting the footage of both 'onstage and offstage' to create a sense of authenticity.

But never be fooled… those footage which needed to be edited out would still be edited out…

Dong dong—

Suddenly a knocking on the door.

"Come in." Feng Bujue said casually. It was impossible for him to stop people from coming in anyway since the door was not even locked…

"Hey, Bujue, are you ready?" a middle-aged man wearing a cap walked into the room. He was wearing an incredibly ugly working outfit and held a laptop in his hands, a toolbelt was strapped across his waist. Those who did not know him would most likely mistake him as the stage manager but in reality… this unassuming uncle was the main director of the show—Fei Ran.

"Actually… there is nothing for me to get ready, is there…" Feng Bujue slumped into the couch and stared at the director weakly before saying, "if we can get this over with the faster the better."

"ha ha…" Fei Ran laughed. He patted the cameraman on his shoulder and made a signal for him to switch off the camera. The latter nodded and stopped the recording.

"It is not that I want to lecture you…" Fei Ran took several steps forward before planting himself down next to Brother Jue. "I've asked you to come for a show recording, not to have you sit on an electric chair…" he said as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes. "You don't mind if you smoke, right?"

"Go ahead." Feng Bujue nodded.

Pei Ran lit the cigarette, took a puff. "By the way, have you checked the result of this time's internet voting?"

"No." Feng Bujue answered easily.

"He ha ha…" Pei Ran laughed as the smoke escaped from his mouth. "Fine… then let me have the honor of revealing to you the results, your popularity ranking is the second place."

"that does not sound good at all…" Feng Bujue grumbled.

"There is something 'worse'." Pei Ran said half-jokingly, "Actually during this voting, the votes for the first place are already fixed…"

"Ha?" Feng Bujue narrowed his eyes to look at the director. "But I am one of the contestants… are you sure… it is fine to reveal insider secret like that to me?"

"Haiz… That is already an open secret, probably only you don't know anything about it." Pei Ran took another puff of smoke before turning his head to ask the cameraman who was playing on his phone, "Eh, Xiao Wu, you know about this too, right?"

Xiao Wu shrugged, "Of course~ That person's fans have been getting into arguments with other people's fans for half a month already, if you open the internet search, you'll be able to see hundreds of posts about it."

"See." Pei Ran turned back to Brother Jue and said, "Bujue, now listen to me… I know you do not care that much about this show. If I didn't give you a call, you probably would not have found out you have made it to the return special, do you?"

"Indeed… But I have been silently praying that my name will not appear in the final voting result." Feng Bujue answered honestly.

"Ha ha…Fine." Pei Ran added. "In any case, now that I have clued you in about the situation, you better make some preparation."

"Hmm?" Feng Bujue looked confused, "What kind of preparation?"

"Think about this…" Pei Ran said, "With such a high popularity like yours but you do not wish to win yourself, then shouldn't you do something about it?"

"Oh… that's right, so in a way, you want me to perform as bad as I can possibly be?" Feng Bujue prompted.

"Yes, but do not make a mess like last time." Pei Ran said, "I have already told you last time, the best way to get eliminated… is to be as normal and unassuming as possible."

"Oh…" Feng Bujue answered, thought for a few seconds and said, "Let me first confirm something with you…" He turned to look at Pei Ran, "Actually the victor of this return special… has already been fixed as well, right…"

Hearing that, Pei Ran was shocked for a while. He took a few puffs of smoke and then answered several seconds later, "Why would you ask that?"

"The process of analysis is not that complicated…" Feng Bujue cushioned his hands behind his head and said, "Since your people already know there is probably with the internet voting but you have allowed it to happen… then it can be construed that you guys wish for that result as well. Other than that… this show is supposed to be broadcasted at the end of June so theoretically speaking it should be recorded at the mid of June but the recording suddenly has been moved ahead by a week… that probably is a method to counter the festering of the online rumors of 'internal fixing' that I believe is going on online, right?" He looked calmly at Pei Ran and continued, "Therefore, from that, I deduce… the victor of this special has already been decided before the show even started. And the director you… personally came to tell me all these is because you believe… I might ruin the show's plan and the winner's placement."

Once Brother Jue said that, Pei Ran's expression darkened and the next 30 seconds, the resting room sunk into silence…

Half a minute later, Pei Ran took a deep draught of the smoke and squished it out. He lifted his head to order, "Xiao Wu, do you mind leaving the room for now?"

The cameraman left astutely without saying another word, he even closed the door after he left.

"Bujue…" Pei Ran turned to Brother Jue and said heavily, "You are a clever person so I will tell you some information here that I hope won't leave this room."

"Okay, you have my word." Feng Bujue crossed his legs and continued easily. Pei Ran took another look at Brother Jue and lowered his voice to say, "Your guess is not wrong, the result of this special has long ago been fixed and the winner will be 'Fire in the Night' who got the first place on the online voting pole'." He pointed above him. "Ultimately even entertainment business is still a business… certain things even I have no control over and I am just an employee following my boss' order… do you understand?"

"Hmph… Of course." Feng Bujue curled his lips into a smile. At that moment, his eyes had a shade of condescension but he still said politely, "I can understand your difficulty fully, it must have been difficult for you as well, director."

Pei Ran laughed bitterly. "hah… it's not so bad." He shook his head. "To be honest… the way the show has turned out has completely strayed from why I have created this show in the first place but…" He hesitated with helplessness on his face. "if everyone is like you, then perhaps many things in this world will be more easily solved."

"if everyone is like this, this world will be over soon." Feng Bujue laughed but he soon changed the subject, "Okay… I have understood everything now, Director Pei, don't worry." He patted his chest. "Trust me, I will make sure I'll get eliminated 'naturally' without any show and flare…"

Pei Ran stared at Brother Jue for two seconds. "Hmm… with regards to him, allow me to have my suspicion…"