Mr. Yuan is Always Unhappy - Chap 74
CH74 – THE GREAT DETECTIVE
Yuan Rui felt too embarrassed asking Zheng QiuYang about this. However, after Zheng QiuYang finished helping his mom move, he took the initiative to tell Yuan Rui about it when he returned: “My mom moved into her own house. It’s the one that she wanted us to move into last fall, which just so happens to be cleaned and tidied back then. Everything’s ready and prepared. Today, I strolled around the area for a look. The surrounding environment is actually slightly better than where she lived previously.”
Hesitating briefly, Yuan Rui said: “En, that’s good.”
Zheng QiuYang said: “What’s the matter? If you have something to say, then be direct about it.”
Yuan Rui hesitated for a moment and asked: “Did you ask her, if she wants to live together with you?”
Zheng QiuYang: “……”
Yuan Rui said worriedly: “Although she successfully got her revenge, she must still be feeling unhappy. She loved your dad so much. Even if they didn’t live together everyday, he still visited her every other day. She had something to look forward to at least. Now she’s all by herself.”
Zheng QiuYang couldn’t help but ask: “Then if she wanted me to go accompany her, what am I going to do with you?”
Yuan Rui already thought about this question. Naturally, he didn’t want to become separated from Zheng QiuYang. However, he was also afraid to cause trouble for Zheng QiuYang. Forcing himself to feign nonchalance, he said: “It’s not like I’m out of style. In the future, I’ll be very busy with work. When I get time off, you can request a break from Aunty and come back.”
Zheng QiuYang: “……”
He knew Yuan Rui wasn’t pretending. It’s because he’s not fake, that Zheng QiuYang thought he was both dumb yet precious.
Zheng QiuYang said: “I asked her. She said she doesn’t want to live together with me. I look too much like my dad. To force her to see me everyday, she’d get annoyed.”
Yuan Rui opened his eyes wide, a little happy, yet not daring to show it too obviously. He carefully verified: “Really?”
Zheng QiuYang nodded, saying: “Of course it’s real. Right now, she detests my dad to the bones.”
Yuan Rui took these words to be true and secretly let out a breath of relief: “Then, then, we can go see her every few days.”
Zheng QiuYang reached out and ruffled his head.
When he helped Mama Zheng move, Zheng QiuYang had casually asked if she wanted to move in together with them. Actually, he already knew that it’s not very likely for his mom to agree. However, he never imagined she’d flip out just because of this question and insult Yuan Rui viciously, calling Yuan Rui a little bitch who just wanted to laugh at her predicament; that there’s no way she’d let him prevail. The more she talked, the more offensive she became. She said she has always thought that Yuan Rui only pretended to be dumb everyday, but was actually more scheming than anyone; perhaps that video of the passionate kiss was something he had someone to film, just to hype himself up; that he had a pair of sharp eyes and loved to hug big thighs the most, hanging around whoever’s the most popular at the time. She also said that the fashion model’s circle was extremely filthy; how could a C-list model perform in a reality show together with a big brand A-list, isn’t because he’s done all sorts of dirty things; That’s what scoops on TianYa all say. The program that he will record soon, which was brought over from America, was also because he had hugged Liang Xi’s big thighs. On TianYa, Liang Xi always had the image of a playboy who was interested in both men and women. As for why Yuan Rui was able to hug his big thighs— She said: “You should think it over carefully!”
What could Zheng QiuYang possibly think about? Tossing down a ‘you can keep thinking about it on your own’, he didn’t say anything else after the move and swiftly returned home.
He was actually pretty angry. His mom browsed TianYa all year round. It’s impossible for her to believe this kind of anti slander. Speaking frankly, she was just deliberately making a fuss because she herself wasn’t happy; thus she was using Yuan Rui to vent her anger. But starting an argument with his own mom was no point. No matter how much she didn’t favor Yuan Rui, as long as Zheng QiuYang thought he was fine, then all’s well.
On the recording day for the first season of <>, Yuan Rui was finally able to leave the house.
He got up at 6am and dressed himself in front of the mirror exuberantly. Because it was still early, Zheng QiuYang was in no hurry to get up. Laying there, he watched Yuan Rui change clothes, then spray hair gel, and fuss around for quite a while. Feeling that this happy energy was especially cute, he said: “Why don’t I drive you? You haven’t left the house in so long, there’s probably no one following you with a camera.”
“No need. I need to leave exactly at 7am. Xiao Zhao is already on his way here.” Yuan Rui checked himself out in front of the mirror, front and back, and then turned his head around to look at Zheng QiuYang with a smile, saying: “After I leave, you can sleep for a half an hour more.”
Hearing that Zhao ZhengYi was almost here, Zheng QiuYang could only give up. Actually, he wasn’t very drowsy, but just wanted to laze around in bed without moving.
Yuan Rui then said: “It’s my first time collaborating with the honored guests that I have to see today, and the program team. I have to leave a good impression. Look here, do I look good like this?”
Zheng QiuYang theatrically examined him and said: “Come a bit closer.”
Yuan Rui walked towards the bed.
Zheng QiuYang said: “A little more.”
Yuan Rui walked a little closer and stood next to the bed, saying in bewilderment: “Have you been working too hard designing lately? Did your eyesight get worse?”
Zheng QiuYang extended his arms from under the blanket and spread them open, saying: “Baby wants huggie.”
Yuan Rui: “….. hahaha.”
He leaned forward and hugged Zheng QiuYang over the blankets. Originally, he only planned to hug briefly, however, Zheng QiuYang refused to let go and said, whining and moaning: “And kissies for baby.”
Yuan Rui then gave him a smooch.
Zheng QiuYang went for the mile and said: “Also touchies to baby’s big peepee.”
Yuan Rui: “…..”
Zheng QiuYang kicked the blanket twice and said, throwing a temper: “Baby going to cry if no touchie.”
Yuan Rui collapsed over him, laughing so hard he trembled all over.
It’s not like Zheng QiuYang really wanted Yuan Rui to help him masturbate. He was just verbally vulgar and playing around. Seeing Yuan Rui laughing because of him, he also started laughing.
After Yuan Rui laughed enough, he raised his head and evaluated: “QiuYang, when you try to act cute……”
Zheng QiuYang was slightly expectant. How was Yuan Rui going to praise him?
Yuan Rui said sincerely: “It’s too disgusting.”
Zheng QiuYang: “……”
Yuan Rui: “Hahaha.”
Zheng QiuYang lifted the blankets in fury and dragged Yuan Rui completely inside. In the end, Yuan Rui ended up touching baby’s big peepee after all.
Zhao ZhengYi had to wait downstairs for over ten minutes before finally receiving the person he was here to pick up. However, Yuan Rui was often ‘sooner the better’, not ‘rushing to avoid being late’. There was still enough time.
Yuan Rui stayed at home for half a month. Other than Zheng QiuYang and Fang ShiQing, he didn’t even see anyone else. Seeing Zhao ZhengYi now, he was very excited.
Zhao ZhengYi, however, couldn’t read his thoughts. Being stared at so enthusiastically by Yuan Rui, he pleaded for forgiveness instead: “Yuan-ge, I was wrong. I’ll return the $233 to you immediately.”
Yuan Rui thought, that wasn’t what he meant at all! However, he had mulled over how to ask Zhao ZhengYi for the money several times without finding a good excuse. He didn’t even buy the steering wheel cover that he promised to get Zheng QiuYang. Now Zhao ZhengYi was offering to give him money, that’s really great!
Yuan Rui said delightfully: “Sure sure. My alipay account is also my phone number.”
Zhao ZhengYi thought to himself, can’t you be a bit more modest? So stingy!
Half an hour later, they arrived at the filming location. Zhao ZhengYi drank the coffee and sandwich that Yuan Rui bought for him and felt his Yuan-ge was really a great person.
<> was an imported product. In order to adapt to national standards and pass the censorship evaluation, the program made many adjustments to the original version of the show. First of all, the lineup was changed from ordinary people to an all-celebrity cast. There were 13 esteemed guests. Liang Xi was the top star of reality shows in mainland China. Yuan Rui had occupied the hot topic of discussions for several months in a row. The other people were either popular newcomers within the last two years, or old idols that have been famous for a long time. Even if their level of fame didn’t match Liang Xi, and their degree of discussion didn’t match Yuan Rui, they still had huge quantities of loyal, devoted fans. With this set up, the viewer rating already had a basic guarantee.
The second was the scene restrictions. One of the biggest selling point of the original version was that the murders looked extremely realistic. The makeup special effects and stage prop rendering were extremely powerful, making the scenes look slightly gruesome. However, the mainland has not reached this level yet. Online programs also needed to consider younger audiences. Therefore, this part has been modified to use blurred footages or background narrations to suggest that the murderer has committed the crime.
This program has a total of 9 episodes. With the exception of the first episode, where an extra actor from the production team plays the role of ‘the victim’, in each subsequent episode, ‘the victim’ and the ‘culprit’ will be entirely amongst the 13 guests. Every episode takes three days to record. The first day recording involves the crime scene and crime investigation. Everyone must do their best to search for as many useful clues as they can at the scene of the crime and the ‘morgue’. The second day recording involves a challenge mission. The program team will provide decoding puzzles that’s connected to the case. The guests must race against the time and compete amongst each other. The first guest to solve the puzzle will receive a clue from the program team. On the 3rd day, everyone enters a separate room to be interviewed by the program team. They talk about their speculations regarding the entire case, as well as the person they suspect. Afterwards, the program team will give each person a cumulative score according to their performance within these three days. The person with the highest score will receive the honor of being the Great Detective of this episode. The person with the lowest score will be eliminated because of their poor performance, and the elimination method is to be ‘murdered’ at the end of this first episode to become the next episode’s ‘victim’.
These rules were already announced clearly within the contract. Because it wasn’t convenient for Yuan Rui to leave the house, after verifying his appearance on the show, the production team contacted him via Weibo. Now that he has arrived at the designated location, it was also the director, who’s been in contact with him, that arrived to welcome him.
This director said cordially: “Liang Xi arrived bright and early and is inside. You can also go wait inside.”
That director guided him to the door and left. As soon as Yuan Rui entered, he saw Liang Xi alone inside playing on his phone.
It’s been awhile since Yuan Rui saw him. He knew that he was able to obtain a spot in this program all thanks to Liang Xi. Therefore, he hastily greeted the other respectfully: “Liang-ge hello. I never got the chance to thank you.”
Liang Xi looked at him and put on a show of ‘big brother will teach you how to survive’, saying; “I paved the road for you, but how long you can survive depends on your own good fortune. Don’t be stupid in the crucial moments. If you embarrass me, you’re done.”
Yuan Rui was a bit afraid of him and said quietly: “Liang-ge, don’t worry. I watch Conan everyday. I can definitely survive for a very long time.”
Liang Xi scoffed, extremely disdainful.
“Is there really no script?” Zhao ZhengYi was chatting outside with that director. He asked curiously: “You guys also don’t know who’d be ‘killed’ in which episode?”
This director said extremely firmly: “Really. The program team has no control. The judges scoring the guests aren’t part of the production team. They’re criminal investigation experts and mystery novel authors who were invited here specifically. We can’t control how they want to score people. This was already explained on the contract. The number of episodes you survive, is the amount of salary you get paid.”
Zhao ZhengYi still didn’t quite believe it and said: “It’s not completely out of your control right? If Liang-ge drops out on the first episode, do you guys dare to let him ‘die’?”
The director: “……Bro, can you not jinx us?”
On the evening of the 3rd day, the judges reported the cumulative scores for the three days. The person with the lowest score was Liang Xi, who was killed at the end of the first episode.
The first “Great Detective” medal was pinned to Yuan Rui’s chest.
