Chapter 93
Supermodel Competition (Arc 7.15)
Dilumo didn't pay attention to the reporters surrounding Conley's house, directly rushing inside.
"Did you do it?! Was it you?! You gave those videos to the media, didn't you?!" Dilumo shook Conley's collar, his face twisted with anger.
"It wasn't me!" Conley forcefully pushed Dilumo away, loudly saying, "How could I have given those videos to the media! I'm already like this now, what benefit would I get from ruining you?!”
"Then you say, how did those media find out about those videos? You say!" Dilumo roared.
"My phone has been missing for several days, it probably fell when I was pushed by a reporter backstage in the studio that day, and then someone picked it up." Conley explained, his face full of tiredness.
"You're lying!" Dilumo viciously stared at him, not believing anything he said. "Even if your phone was picked up, how could someone open your phone so easily? Also, why would you secretly film those videos? Were you prepared early on to deal with me?!”
"I just wanted to leave myself a way out." Conley sat down on the sofa lifelessly, wiping his face. "I rely on you to make money, so I can only rest assured when I hold a handle of yours in my hand. Otherwise, if you dumped me one day, wouldn't I just lose everything? I really didn't expect this to happen, I didn't want it!”
"You didn't want?" Dilumo's face turned pale from anger. "If you didn't want it would you have secretly taken those videos? If you didn't want to, would you have allowed them to expose those videos?! Are you satisfied now?! Just tell me straight up, are you colluding with Arthur Yang to make me suffer?!”
"Don't speak nonsense!" Conley argued. "I can't even leave the door now, how could I collude with him? Do you think he would still forgive me? And would cooperate with me?”
"So you had this thought early on in your heart, but you never got the chance to put it into action, because your phone was taken away, and then even you were exposed, right?!" Dilumo looked at him and asked.
Conley couldn't refute, so he just stayed silent.
"Sure enough!" Dilumo smiled bitterly. "Someone like you, not only do you not have any ability or courage, but you completely rely on betrayal to achieve your goals. Even the people who were used by you might even get counterattacked by you!”
Dilumo furiously picked up a teacup and threw it at Conley. "You piece of sh*t! You son of a b*tch! Are you satisfied now?! Are you satisfied?! I'm done for now, and you can give up on wanting to live well!”
Conley raised his arm to block, but the teacup just happened to hit his arm so that his arm throbbed with pain. He finally couldn't help but stand up and shout, "Have you yelled enough?! If I hadn't betrayed Arthur, could you have enjoyed all that fame later? All the money that I gave you to open that studio was all money I transferred from Arthur's studio. You're saying I have no ability or courage, if it weren't for me, right now you might still just be a small model! I've at least let you live quite a good life for several years!”
Dilumo glared at him in fury. "And now? My ending is very likely to not even be as good as even a little model!”
"What's the use of saying that now?" Conley took some deep breaths, working hard to calm his mood. "Now we should hurry to do some crisis PR, and find a way to save the situation.”
"You don't need to worry about it." Dilumo was a little calmer after venting his anger. He looked blankly at Conley and said, "I will do the rest by myself, from now on, I will make a clean break with you. Don't even think about relying on me to earn money, I will never have any more connection with you. We can be considered to be completely settled.”
Dilumo turned and walked out of Conley's house. When he had arrived, because he was rushing, the unprepared reporters hadn't been able to stop him. But now that he was leaving, the reporters immediately surrounded him for an interview.
"Mr. Dilumo, do you have anything to say about the video incident?”
"Do you have any response to you having sex with Chenilu in exchange for news coverage?”
"Do you have anything to clarify about the matter of you insulting your fans?”
Dilumo had gone faint from anger, so he had forgotten that there were a lot of reporters waiting for him outside. Right now that he was being surrounded by reporters, he was stuck in a difficult position.
"In three days I will hold a press conference, please come back to ask me again then. I have nothing to say now!" Dilumo wanted to squeeze out of the crowd surrounding him, but with his own strength, it was impossible.
"Dilumo! You bastard! You liar! Pity for all of us who liked you! Since you think we're disgusting, don't make us support you!”
Some fans who had heard the news emotionally rushed toward Dilumo, grabbing his hair and yanking at it.
"You are cruel and shameless! You even say we're disgusting, there's no one more disgusting than you!”
"You say that we're ugly, how good do you think you look! We sacrificed our conscience to support you, only in exchange for this kind of return?!”
"I've spent so much money on you, I've given you so many gifts, and in your eyes, we're all just idiots that you can use at will! Give us our money back! Give us back all of our gifts!”
Dilumo was attacked by all of these people who had been his fans, and surrounded by reporters filming this occurrence. The scene was very chaotic. His hair was grabbed, his clothes were torn, and his forehead had been hit by something who knows when. After some severe pain, blood flowed from his forehead.
Someone accidentally fell during all of the pushing and shoving, resulting in a very serious stampede. Finally the police came to take everyone away, and the entire farce ended.
~
Jing Yang now lived in Regulus's house. This morning he got up early and sat down in the audiovisual room, waiting to watch the news.
Jing Yang hugged a bowl of fruit and watched the news on TV. When he saw Dilumo being hit with blood flowing from his head, Regulus just happened to open the door and walk in.
Regulus just glanced at the TV and sat down beside Jing Yang, hugging him and kissing him. Until Jing Yang was breathless, he finally said, "I found the man you wanted to find, do you want to see him?”
Jing Yang was kissed a little senseless by him, he stared for a moment before remembering who he was talking about. "Yes! Of course I want to see him.”
Regulus's house occupied half a hill, it was so large that sometimes you would need to drive to get somewhere in the estate.
After getting off the car, Regulus brought Jing Yang to a relatively remote building, where bodyguards were keeping watch.
When he entered the room, Jing Yang saw an abnormally haggard man lying on the ground, his two eyes lifeless.
Regulus sat down on the sofa with his arm around Jing Yang, and motioned for the bodyguards to pick up the man on the ground.
Kirby was grabbed by the bodyguards and forced to lift his head. He blinked his blurry eyes, wanting to see who was in front of him.
Jing Yang looked him over and found that this person seemed to have something unusual going on. He asked Regulus doubtfully, "What's wrong with him? Where did your men find him?”
"To avoid gambling debts, and because he possessed stolen goods, he hid in an almost deserted place." Regulus said. "When my men found him, he seemed to be very energetic. For such a person to actually be living so well, I felt very uncomfortable, so I invited him to one of my small islands as a guest for a few days. My men provided him very enthusiastic hospitality.”
Jing Yang immediately understood what Regulus meant. Even though Kirby looked like he didn't have any external wounds, mental torture would often be much more painful than physical torture. Even though he didn't know what he had been through on the island, from his present appearance, it must have been several days of life worse than death.
Kirby seemed to have finally seen clearly who the person was in front of him, and he suddenly very excitedly wanted to pounce forward. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I was wrong, I was really wrong! I shouldn't have threatened you! Please let me go! Let me go!”
The bodyguards pushed him to the ground, one man stepping on his head and two pressing down his body, making him unable to move.
"Kill me! Kill me!" Kirby said, his consciousness unclear. "I beg you, please give me relief, let me go!”
Regulus frowned, he didn't really want Jing Yang to see this kind of scene. He said to his bodyguard somewhat unhappily, "Didn't I tell you to make him wake up a little? What happened?”
"Sorry Boss, we may have miscalculated slightly on the new drug's effect." The leading bodyguard immediately bowed his head to apologize.
Regulus glanced at that bodyguard. Immediately another bodyguard came over with a box, and the lead bodyguard opened the box, took out a tube of medicine, and poured it into Kirby's mouth.
After a few minutes, Kirby's eyes cleared up somewhat, and his spirit wasn't in such a trance. He looked at Regulus and Jing Yang with fear.
Jing Yang turned to ask Regulus, "Can he talk to me normally now?”
"Try it out, there shouldn't be a problem." Regulus responded.
"Kirby, do you remember me?" Jing Yang asked.
Kirby swallowed and nodded nervously.
"Then you still remember the matter about when you took pictures of me catching Conley and Dilumo, and then threatened me to sleep with you once?" Jing Yang continued to ask.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Kirby kneeled down in panic, bowing down while saying, "I know I was wrong, I really know my wrong, as long as you let me go, you can do anything! I am willing to turn myself in, I am willing to confess everything to the media!”
"Have you kept the evidence?" Jing Yang didn't believe that he would really give all of the evidence to Conley. He definitely left himself a hand, wanting to wait until a critical moment to use it.
"Yes! Yes!" Kirby hurriedly nodded, pointing to the bodyguard next to him. "I already confessed everything to this gentleman, and given him all of the evidence.”
"You already arranged everything?" Jing Yang asked Regulus.
"Yes." Regulus ruffled his hair.
In fact, Jing Yang also just wanted to see Kirby this person, to see what state he was in now. Since he was already this miserable, Arthur Yang should also feel relieved. And he believed that Regulus would have even more means than him, and would not let him live better.
"Then that's it." Jing Yang said. "Let him expose the true face of Dilumo and Conley, and clear up my name. Then I don't ever want to see this person in my sight again.”
Regulus motioned to the bodyguards to take him away. He saw that Jing Yang's expression wasn't very good, and hugged him and asked, "What's the matter? Not happy?”
"It's nothing." Jing Yang leaned into his arms. "I just feel like revenge is not some happy matter, because no matter how miserable their result is, they still can't change the suffering we experienced earlier. But at least it really makes me feel relieved. If you do something bad, you should be punished, this is something fated and natural. And Conley and Dilumo those two people, once I think of the things they did before, even though they have already been punished, I still feel angry.”
"Don't worry." Regulus reassured him. "The punishment they will receive will definitely not stop here. It has only just started. Not only will I make them regret what they have done to you, but I will also let them properly experience how it feels to be spurned and ostracized by the world. I will make them suffer twice as much pain as you suffered before.”
As long as Regulus even thought about the suffering this person he treasured experienced before, he couldn't help but feel piercing heartache. So, for the people who made his heart ache, he would not let them live well.
"Let's go." Regulus stood up with his arm around Jing Yang. "Didn't you say yesterday that you wanted to go out to sea to play? I will take you there today.”
Translator Notes:
[1] lose everything – 血本无归, idiom, means to lose everything you invested
[2] make a clean break – 一刀两断, idiom, literally means break into two segments with a single cut
[3] completely settled – 两清, basically like a business relationship that ended, usually to the satisfaction of both parties
[4] pity – 亏, this is really hard to translate, it's often used ironically to say fancy that…, but basically means it was really not worth it, it was a pity
[5] Kirby – 克比, pinyin ke bi
Random Notes:
About an hour: 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm, for 3.7k characters to 2.3k words.