Death Progress Bar

couldn’t bear looking at you.
Your foolish appearance while eating affected my appetite.”

“…”

Shi Jin gnashed his teeth but had to admit his way of eating wasn’t the most dignified, so he conceded the point for the sake of the general interest: “Fine, from now on I’ll try to eat more elegantly.”

Lian Jun turned his head slightly and ignored him.
However, that day, he ate half a bowl of rice more and drank a few mouthfuls of soup.

Shi Jin’s face radiated with joy and pride.
He watched Lian Jun with an expression of an aged father gratified his disobedient child finally behaved himself.

A few days later, Xu Tianhua, former deputy director of Ruixing, was tricked by the police into returning to China.
He was secretly arrested at the airport and incarcerated in a room next to Xu Chuan.

Faced with Xu Chuan’s allegations of ordering Shi Jin’s kidnapping and death, Xu Tianhua dug his heels in and refused to admit anything.
However, as if a dam had broken, Xu Chuan abandoned his previous silence and started to speak.
He knew a large amount of incriminating information about Xu Tianhua’s actions and revealed it all—from his petty tricks in Ruixing to the evil deeds committed outside.
He also provided the account number Xu Tianhua paid the deposit to for the kidnapping case.

Xu Tianhua lost it.
After being betrayed, he decided he might as well be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb and Xu Chuan had to go down with him.
He announced the lawyer was selling Shi Xingrui’s secrets to himself and provided evidence.

After the two dogs tore into each other, both were convicted and received a pair of “silver bracelets.” With the number of charges against them, they were expected to spend the rest of their lives in prison.

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When Shi Jin got the confessions from Xu Tianhua and Xu Chuan, his mood was complicated.
He had assumed Xu Chuan was lying in order to deceive him and the person behind him was not Xu Tianhua, but someone else.
Unexpectedly, not only were the two men really working hand in glove, but this cooperation began many years ago.

He watched his progress bar decrease directly to 600 after Xu Tianhua’s arrest, not knowing what to say.

Judging from the two declines in the progress bar, Xu Chuan and Xu Tianhua must’ve wanted to kill the original ‘Shi Jin’ and took steps to actively implement their plans.
However, they didn’t appear to be the most dangerous lethal factors because although the bar had fallen to the safety line, it was hardly close to emptying.

“The culprits behind the kidnapping and the car accident weren’t the same people?” Shi Jin sprawled listlessly on the sofa, going over the movements of his progress bar.
He raised a hand to rub his forehead.
“It seems plausible that most of the fluctuations in my bar should be due to Xu Tianhua and Xu Chuan.
For example, the rise when I first met my three brothers after arriving in B City was because according to Xu Chuan’s confession, Xu Tianhua sent people to watch Shi Weichong’s every move.
Xu Tianhua wasn’t willing to take being forced out of Ruixing lying down.
He was trying to discover my whereabouts and use me to contest with Shi Weichong, so when Shi Weichong found me, it didn’t escape Xu Tianhua’s notice.
Let’s not forget, Xu Tianhua also had a lot of influence in B City…”

Xiao Si was doing its best to analyze too:

“So, it could be determined Xu Tianhua had nothing to do with the car accident because he had no motive,” Shi Jin agreed with Xiao Si’s hypothesis, then thumbed through Xu Tianhua and Xu Chuan’s confessions again.
The more he examined it, the worse his headache became; he just couldn’t grasp any clue.
“It wasn’t Shi Weichong, it wasn’t Xu Tianhua either, so who the hell was the culprit behind the car accident? Was somebody fishing in troubled waters?”

Xiao Si pondered so hard it almost ended up crashing.

Shi Jin let out a deep sigh and emptied his brain, letting his thoughts drift aimlessly for a while.
In the end, he chose to give up for the moment.
He got up, put away the confessions, then left the room, deciding to accompany Lian Jun for a meal first.

As the end of the year was approaching, the club finally gained a bit of the festive atmosphere.
All kinds of New Year’s goods and ornaments were slowly being purchased; Fú characters could be seen hanging here and there, and the dumplings frequently appeared on the dining table.
Fried dumplings, steamed dumplings and dumpling soup—Shi Jin loved eating all kinds of dumplings.

Slipping the last Sam Sun dumpling onto Lian Jun’s plate, he found a topic to talk about: “How is Chen Qing’s situation? Was there any progress?”

After deciding to take the conservative approach to saving Chen Qing, Lian Jun kept quiet and bid his time.
He gambled that after failing the first assassination attempt, Black Rose’s boss would definitely find an opportunity to try again.

Even though half a month had passed, there was no follow-up news about Chen Qing.
Fortunately, his two children were still safe and sound, which let them know Black Rose didn’t regard Chen Qing as a throw-away chess piece yet.

Lian Jun eyed the plump, white dumpling on his plate.
Eventually, he picked up his chopsticks again and ate it.
Dabbing his mouth with a napkin, he said, “The leader of Black Rose is not a rash man.
He will plan his next action only after making sure the last failed attempt didn’t arouse my suspicion.
He will act sooner or later, we simply have to wait.”

Shi Jin nodded his understanding, then requested cautiously, “Can you take me with you the next time Chen Qing invites you out?”

Lian Jun glanced at him and shook his head without any hesitation.
“No.
Next time we meet, it won’t be a simple dinner, it would also involve Chen Qing’s rescue.
It’s highly likely we will end up in a firefight with Black Rose.
You lack practical experience, I can’t take you with me.”

Shi Jin refused to give up.
“I can hide, I won’t get in your way.”

“There’s no need to bring you.
You’re going to stay in the club.” Lian Jun’s tone brooked no argument.

Shi Jin still wanted to speak.
Lian Jun immediately reached for the fruit platter, grabbed a piece of honeydew melon, and stuffed it into the younger man’s mouth.
Then he turned his wheelchair and left without a back glance.

Crunch, crunch.

Shi Jin shut up and munched on the melon.
His eyebrows wrinkled, then he took the remaining slices of melon from the platter, mumbling, “Hey, this melon is quite sweet…”

Xiao Si:

Two days later, Shi Weichong began to call Shi Jin every day to ask him about his New Year’s arrangements.
After thinking it over, Shi Jin declined Shi Weichong’s invitation to take him home for the Spring Festival, saying he wanted to stay in the club with Lian Jun.

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This made Shi Weichong vexed enough to come over.

Shi Jin remained unmoved despite his brother’s face-to-face exhortation.
He explained reasonably, “My being who I am, how can I accompany you home for the New Year? In the past few years, father forced you to go abroad and spend the New Year with us.
You never celebrated with your mom and her family.
This year, you can finally accompany her.
If I go with you, how would she feel? I won’t go unless you break my legs and drag me there.”

Shi Weichong was at a loss for words.
He really wanted to accompany his mother but was unwilling to abandon Shi Jin.
He still had relatives to spend the New Year with, but both of his younger brother’s parents were dead, leaving him all alone.

Seeing he wasn’t relenting, Shi Jin’s voice softened and he admonished gently, “Big Brother, I know you’re worried about me, but it’s all right.
I have a lot of people to accompany me, I won’t be alone.
You should take care of your family.
I’ll send you the New Year’s blessings, so remember to give me a red envelope in return.” He grinned at his brother, looking nonchalant.

The wider he smiled, the deeper was Shi Weichong’s frown.
Finally, he couldn’t help but reach and pinch the teenager’s cheeks.
“Don’t smile… I definitely won’t forget about your red envelope, so take care of your health.
I’ll come to visit you later.”

“Oh, don’t worry about me.
It’s not called celebrating the Spring Festival if you don’t put on a few pounds,” Shi Jin said, a little unintelligibly because his cheeks were pulled.
He dragged Shi Weichong’s hands away, then gave him a hug.
“Happy New Year, Big Brother, may you have peace year after year.”

Shi Weichong patted him on the back, sighing inwardly.

In the next few days, Shi Jin received messages from Xiang Aoting and Rong Zhouzhong.
Like Shi Weichong, Xiang Aoting wanted to invite Shi Jin to celebrate the New Year together, but Shi Jin refused him too.
Rong Zhouzhong only sent a text message with a time and name of a TV station, indicating he’s taking part in this station’s live broadcast of the New Year’s Gala and Shi Jin could watch it on TV.

Shi Jin cheerfully texted back: [Sure, I’ll set an alarm to watch the monkey show on time.]

Rong Zhouzhong’s reply was brief: [Scram.]

Shi Jin threw himself down on the sofa, still holding the phone.
It was too early to be happy: he hadn’t gotten any phone calls from the two brothers he hadn’t met yet.
After thinking for a moment, he sent them a text message with New Year’s blessings.

In the novel, the second brother Fei Yujing and the fifth brother Li Jiuzheng’s attitude towards the original ‘Shi Jin’ was interesting.

Fei Yujing was an extremely busy man.
Before Shi Xingrui’s death, although he was flying all over the world, he would try to find time to visit ‘Shi Jin.’ He would usually bring him some interesting souvenirs and photos, and also sent him local specialties from time to time, which greatly satisfied the original ‘Shi Jin’s’ hidden desire to travel and have adventures around the world.
He played the role of a good brother who “was busy, but still concerned about his youngest sibling.”

After Shi Xingrui’s death, though, Fei Yujing quickly disappeared from ‘Shi Jin’s’ life.
He stopped answering his calls, didn’t return his text messages, and didn’t visit him.
He came back several times because of the original ‘Shi Jin’s’ accident, but he kept away from him.
Even when ‘Shi Jin’ took the initiative to talk with him, he was always given the cold shoulder.
The expression in Fei Yujing’s eyes was like watching a stranger, and a stranger he rather disliked at that.

He had never displayed either a strong love or hatred for the original ‘Shi Jin.’ When he played a good brother and showed care, it was always very reserved, and later, he quickly distanced himself.
While he seemed not to care about ‘Shi Jin’ one way or another, he occasionally showed the “if only this person had never existed” attitude.

In his eyes, ‘Shi Jin’ was probably like an ink dot put in a wrong place on the document—not particularly annoying, but still something he wanted to erase.
Unfortunately, this ink dot couldn’t be erased, so he tried to ignore it as best as he could.

 

Translator’s Notes:
“Red envelopes” [红包, hóng bāo] – given to family and friends during Lunar New Year.
Also called red packets or pockets, they include money, which is supposed to help transfer fortune from the elders to the children.
They can also be given between bosses and employees, or between co-workers.
(Source 1, Source 2)
“May you have peace year after year” [岁岁平安, suì suì píng ān] – One of the traditional New Year’s greetings.