Chapter 84
Supermodel Compet.i.tion (Arc 7.5)
The ad Jing Yang shot attracted a lot of attention, and what the netizens were most curious about was how in the end he was able to change his body so much in just little more than a month.
In this world, in order to prevent criminals from changing their appearances or physiques to escape capture, all private cosmetic surgery or surgical changes to the body were cla.s.sified as criminal offenses. And now with the advanced technology, testing whether or not he had surgery on his face or body would be very easy.
In this era that revered beautiful physiques and health, everyone hoped that they could have a good body, so models became so popular. Because of the fast pace of life, everyone was also used to a fast and efficient lifestyle. But wanting to have a good body required shaping and maintenance over a long time.
And now there was someone who could use only a month of time to raise their own body to the perfect level. How could they not be curious, and how could they not want to know.
So on Arthur"s profile, even though there were still a lot of people scolding him, he was soon overwhelmed by messages asking how he had achieved it.
Jing Yang posted a dynamic of himself working out, and added a caption: there is no overnight perfection. I am myself, the fake me can never become the real me.
The netizens only half-understood his words. No overnight perfection was very easy to understand, but what did this "fake me can never become the real me" mean?
Jing Yang anonymously sent some things that he had investigated to a certain media company. This media company was compet.i.tors with the company that had previously published the news of Arthur being photographed on the street, or it could be said they were nemeses.
After receiving the information from Jing Yang, that media company was extremely excited, and immediately launched an investigation into the matter.
Two days later, the New Era Media broadcast a rather explosive news story, and invited five well-known news commentators to commentate live.
The theme of the news broadcast was: media fraud, framing peers.
The main content of the news broadcast was: over a month ago, a reporter on the street photographed Arthur Yang"s deformed figure, but it was actually fake. The person photographed was not the real Arthur Yang.
The news anchor spoke to the camera, "Just two days ago, we received a report that the Arthur Yang photographed a month ago on the street with a changed body was actually not the real Arthur Yang. We immediately investigated this matter and verified the truth of the situation. We also found the fake Arthur Yang who had been photographed, let"s see what he said.”
The footage transitioned to a scene outside the live set, where a reporter said to a man in his 30s to 40s, "Excuse me, what"s your name?”
"I, I am…" The man didn"t expect that a reporter would suddenly come and interview him, and looked slightly frantically into the camera, "I am Andrew.”
"Next I have a question, and I hope that Mr. Andrew can answer truthfully. After all, lying in front of the entire world is a very serious matter." The reporter asked, "Mr. Andrew, more than a month ago, the Arthur Yang who had been photographed on the street was actually you, right?”
"…Yes, it was me." Andrew didn"t have the guts to lie to the camera. He was afraid that if his lies were seen through, he would become the public enemy of the netizens.
"But why would that photograph of you on the street be said to be Arthur Yang? Can I ask you to clarify this situation?”
"I, I also don"t know ah." Andrew denied in a somewhat panicked manner. "I really am not clear about what was going on. It"s just that one day someone came to find me and said that as long as I took a picture on the street and then went on the news, they could give me some money. They said that it was just some normal news, and I was just a pa.s.serby, so it wouldn"t have a big impact on me, so I just agreed. I also didn"t think that they would take my picture and say that it was Arthur Yang. I also don"t know what in the end was going on!”
"You mean that someone found you and gave you money to take a picture?" The reporter asked.
"Yes, yes, but I really didn"t know that they would use it to pretend that I was Arthur Yang. I am entirely different from him, I also don"t know why they would do this." Andrew was anxious to clear himself of fault, and suddenly thought of something. "That"s right! Later they called me again and said that as long as I didn"t do anything, they would give me another sum of money. I have the recording and they also left a number, I can find it for you.”
Andrew found the recording and played it. Indeed, as he said, someone did ask him to not do anything and not say anything, and then they would give him some more money.
The reporter then let the photographer shoot Andrew from several different angles. He was exactly the same as the person who had been photographed on the street before, but compared with the current Arthur Yang, only the contours of their profile were slightly similar, and their skin, body, and features were completely different.
The camera then cut back to the live set, where the host asked several news commentators to express their views on the matter.
The commentators all agreed that this was very likely deliberately orchestrated by another model, while another media outlet reported fake news without trying to find out the truth. It may also be possible that they did know the truth of the matter but deliberately created fake news. Such acts should not only be condemned but should also be held accountable. News fraud was a fraud against all of mankind.
Immediately after the news broadcast ended, it caused ma.s.s outrage on the internet. Media fraud is quite a serious matter. Once it is found that there is media fraud, anyone can go report that media outlet, and that company could simply collapse.
Right now this media company was already in a desperate mess, they also didn"t know that this story was fake. They just published it without confirmation because the company"s top leadership had directly let them publish it, so they did.
This media company"s top leader was together with Dilumo. Whenever he finished being comfortable with Dilumo in bed, after a bit of pillow talk, he would do whatever he was asked, and completely did not expect to cause such consequences. Even if now he was filled with regret, it still did not extinguish the anger of the people. The main reason the public was angry was not because Arthur Yang was framed, but because of the media fraud itself.
Now the netizens finally understood the meaning of Jing Yang"s sentence "I am myself, and the fake me will never become the real me", and also understood the true meaning of no overnight perfection. Because the person who was photographed before wasn"t him at all, so there was simply no situation of shaping a perfect body in a month.
This media company who published fake news had previously reported a lot of news about Dilumo and Arthur Yang, and the content was always full of praise for Dilumo while disparaging Arthur Yang. So who the peer framing that the news commentators were talking about was referring to, the answer was already very obvious.
So another war of words rose on the internet. Some people said that Dilumo loved hypocritically pretending to be pitiful, stepping on others while deliberately smearing them.
Dilumo"s fans were unconvinced, arguing that there was simply no real evidence that Dilumo had done these things. Their own model did these things to gain attention, how could they just blame them on Dilumo? And Arthur Yang"s character had never been good, previously he also intended to vilify Dilumo and Conley. Who knew whether or not these things were self-directed.
"Okay, I know, I will transfer the money to you later." Dilumo"s expression was extremely ugly, and after he hung up the phone, he threw it against the wall, smashing all the cups on the table in anger.
Conley avoided the flying debris, and after Dilumo finished breaking all the cups, he asked, "What did he say? Did he ask you to give him money?”
"What else could he ask for besides money?" Dilumo"s breathing was unsteady from fury. "His company has already closed down, he told me I had to transfer money to him every once in a while, or else he would expose the truth of all the things I told him to do from before to now.”
"So he"s biting onto you?" Conley"s face was also unpleasant.
"Not just biting onto me, I"m afraid he wants to swallow me whole to make up for his loss!" Once Dilumo thought of his own hard-earned money now being used to fill up a bottomless hole, his heart bled until he trembled. He had slept with that man so many times in order to get him to help him publish news, but now it had changed into a handle that he held in his hands to threaten him. But he actually could not resist, and could only obediently follow him, or else his life would go up in flames.
"It"s really a slippery slope of mistakes!" The anger in Conley"s heart was no less than Dilumo"s, because now he was also implicated in the matter. And he also needed to rely on Dilumo to make money, if Dilumo"s money was gone, that was equivalent to his money also being gone. "You should not have believed what those people had said in the first place. If it weren"t for them saying that Arthur Yang"s body had changed, these things would not have happened.”
"Are you blaming me now?" Dilumo furiously glared at Conley. "If you have so much skill, you go fix things for me!”
Conley leaned his head away slightly. "That"s not what I mean.”
After he calmed down slightly, Dilumo transferred the money over, and looking at the disappearance of a large amount, it was as if his flesh was being cut from his bones. But now he had no other way, he could only use money to calm the man down, and then take it one step at a time. He would definitely be able to completely solve this matter.
~
Jing Yang was driving down the road by the sea to relax. He started the auto-driving function and lay his arm along the window, looking at the scenery outside. He was thinking about how to help avenge Arthur and deal with Conley and Dilumo, and also thinking about when he would finally meet his lover in this world.
When he saw a black car following behind him on the screen, he didn"t really pay attention at first. But after his car automatically moved to let them pa.s.s and that car still followed behind him, he had to be alert. Conley and Dilumo these two people were people who were willing to do anything, and sending someone to follow him and then create a car accident was completely in line with their style of action.
Jing Yang cancelled the self-driving and started driving himself. Once he sped up, the car behind him also sped up. Two cars were speeding down the road, as if they were racing.
Jing Yang raced with this other car for a while, and found that while this car was always following him, it seemed like it wasn"t being malicious at all. So he wondered, could it be that he had guessed wrong? The people on this car were actually not sent by Dilumo, or else how could they seem like they only wanted to race with him.
Jing Yang tapped on the screen to zoom in, and then patted himself on the forehead after seeing what brand of car it was. He had just been too distracted and actually forgot to take a good look at the car. There were only five of this kind of car in the world, and the price was horrifyingly expensive. Don"t say that Dilumo and them couldn"t afford it, but even if they could they wouldn"t use it to create a big accident.
He parked his car on the side of the road, and sure enough that car also stopped. He was still somewhat wary in his heart, so he did not get out of the car. Seeing that the other side also showed no intention to get off, he simply leaned his seat back and closed his eyes to rest.
Translator Notes:
[1] dynamic – 动态图, I don"t quite remember what I translated this to in a previous chapter, but i"m a.s.suming this is basically a gif
[2] overnight – 一蹴而就, idiom, means to get there in one stop, success in a single move
[3] New Era Media – 新时空媒体, means more like s.p.a.ce-time but that sounds weird as a name
[4] desperate mess – 焦头烂额, idiom, means hard-pressed, under heavy pressure
[5] biting onto – 咬上, i think like a dog, blackmailing him
Random Notes:
About one hour: 10:30 am – 11:30 am, for 3.5k characters to 2.3k words.