Chapter 47 Huaning TV Station 7
After asking about the terms of exchange, Hu Yihang made the decision to have plastic surgery, and everything became quick and easy.
The plastic surgery took only more than twenty minutes. After the surgery, he saw a brand new self in the mirror.
He was originally a man of ordinary appearance. Long-term intensive study made his eyes myopic and dull. He looked gloomy when looking at people, which made him look even bleaker. Even though he had good grades, he rarely attracted much attention.
There was a boy in his high school who was like the protagonist of a novel, with good grades and handsome appearance. With this boy around, he could only stand behind him and in his shadow.
His first reaction when seeing himself in the mirror was that if he were to return to high school, he would definitely be the one that attracted the most attention. He would be the one discussed during breaks by his classmates, he would be the one giving speeches on behalf of the students, and he would be the one receiving many love letters.
His appearance finally matches his grades.
When he realized what his first reaction was, he suddenly realized that deep down in his heart, he had always been a little concerned about his appearance, so when he heard from the physiotherapy teacher that he could have plastic surgery, he was so concerned.
Zhong Zicang suggested that he watch it again. He knew that such a program that did not treat people as human beings must have bad intentions, and plastic surgery was not that simple. However, if they did not have plastic surgery, how could they survive in this cruel competition system without any skills?
Even in reality, there is no such thing as having only benefits without any sacrifice, and there is no such thing as a path without any risks, let alone in this horror game.
If this is the last game of his life, he doesn't want to lose because of his looks again.
Seeing himself in the mirror, he had an experience he had never had before, but also a vague sense of desolation and uneasiness. For a brief moment, the person he saw through these eyes was someone he didn't seem to recognize.
With excitement and a slight sense of uneasiness, he returned to the practice room. When Xia Bai touched his eyes, he regained a little sense of warmth and reality.
He actually doesn't object to being touched, and he feels at ease when he feels the warmth of others.
He slowly became just excited, especially when they looked at his face in amazement.
It's amazing, is this what it feels like to have a good-looking face?
Sometimes he would be a little slow to react, perhaps he needed to get used to this face, and sometimes he would be dazed and feel a sense of panic that didn't feel real.
This panic deepened when he was about to go to bed. Night is the time when people's various emotions begin to amplify. He kept his eyes open, and for some reason he subconsciously didn't want to close his eyelids until the lights in the dormitory were turned off.
He touched his eyes carefully, hesitated, and finally closed his eyes.
He didn't know how much time had passed before he saw his high school classmates and saw the surprised looks in their eyes when they saw him.
He was extremely excited, and waves of heat surged in his heart.
He stood on the podium, looking proudly at the faces below the stage that were looking up at him. Those faces were full of envy, admiration, fascination, and... horror?
He rolled his eyes and saw clearly that the audience was full of unfamiliar trainees in stage costumes, who were looking at him with sympathy and horror.
Stand on the stage yourself.
There are a lot of Fs in the barrage.
F.
F.
F.
F was the most terrifying denial in his life.
Where are his classmates?
Where are his classmates!
He looked around, horrified, for his high school classmate.
These trainees seem to be his classmates? What do his classmates look like?
Were the classmates he watched every day and all the time during his three years of high school these trainees?
In a crowded and depressing room, in order to pass that single-plank bridge, they repeat the same things day after day, fearing that they will be eliminated. Their facial features gradually become blurred and overlapping, and they gradually become the same people.
It’s not like that, it’s not like that, it’s not like that!
Hu Yihang sat up suddenly, sitting on the iron bed which was half dark and half dimly lit. He couldn't tell where he was for a moment. Was this the lower bunk of the bunk bed in the high school dormitory?
Until he saw Xia Bai's quiet eyes.
Quiet, natural and warm.
Normal eyes can speak. Even in such a pair of eyes that were so quiet and colorless, he saw Xia Bai asking him what he saw.
What did he see? What did he see again? Whose eyes were in his eye sockets?
In the fourth dormitory for top trainees, Liao Manni smiled and kissed the corner of the bald man's eyes, while the bald man pinched her chin and looked at her.
Liao Manni had just had plastic surgery last night, and was afraid that it was still unstable, so the bald man just observed it carefully without touching it.
After a day, her mouth seemed to have stabilized, with a seductive and sweet smile, making Liao Manni's face look charmingly beautiful under the light.
A mouth can make a person look so much more beautiful.
A strange new red lip.
The bald man became more and more excited as he watched. He sat at the end of the bed, pulled Liao Manni, who was standing on the ground, in front of him, and pressed her to squat.
"Hiss—why is it so cold?" The bald man shivered.
Liao Manni just smiled and looked up at him, unable to speak.
At around two o'clock in the morning, after the bald man fell asleep, Liao Manni touched her mouth with a confused look on her face.
She was the first one to have plastic surgery, and it took more than thirty hours, but she was still smiling.
After laughing for so long, her lips still haven't warmed up.
So what.
Liao Manni turned over and fell asleep without caring.
She was the first one to have plastic surgery, and she was the least worried. What was there to worry about? This was not her first time to have plastic surgery.
When those players and top students face plastic surgery, it's like they're facing a scourge or a beast. Their dilemmas are so ridiculous.
Ah, they are entangled because they have a choice. They don’t know that if people live purely by their faces and regard beauty as a god, they won’t be entangled. How can becoming beautiful be entangled? How can living be entangled?
They are different from her, a dancer who lives on her face. At this moment, they are even worse than her.
They should be getting there soon, and will soon know what it feels like to have to rely on their looks to survive.
Wait.
After the plastic surgery, Liao Manni regained her confidence and opened her eyes with a lot of confusion in them.
What does it smell like?
What is the smell that she hates the most and resists the most?
She just tasted it, but why can't she remember it?
It’s better not to remember.
She didn't want to think about it at all, and wished this feeling would disappear from her life.
Liao Manni turned over again and fell asleep easily.
Saturday at five.
All the trainees were woken up by the ringing of the bell, starting a new day, the last day of their solo performances.
Unlike the usual noisy and swearing, Xia Bai and his fellow trainee dormitory was very quiet.
After hearing what Hu Yihang said, Zhong Zicang's face became serious. "Are you saying that the eye you replaced has the consciousness of the original owner?"
"I don't know. I just saw a lot of people, people I had never seen before... probably people I had never seen before... some of the pictures and scenes, those scary people, no, they were a little familiar." After Hu Yihang woke up, he never closed his eyes again. There were a few red bloodshot eyes, his brain was in a mess, and his words were confusing.
Wang Ming was puzzled, "Is it strange or familiar? Are you dreaming? You must not be so calm after having plastic surgery. It is normal to have related dreams. Dreams are always so messy, with your own experiences and new things."
What he said made sense. Everyone else in the dormitory thought Hu Yihang was dreaming, a very common dreaming phenomenon.
Xia Bai said: "I saw that he opened his eyes, and his eyeballs kept moving."
Wang Ming: "His eyes kept moving around, and we couldn't see those people in our dormitory. Those people were just in his dream."
"Yeah, could it be that there are many ghosts in our dormitory that are both familiar and unfamiliar to him? Did Hu Yihang get a pair of yin-yang eyes and can see these ghosts? Hahahaha." Liu Xiangyang, who was on the lower bunk of Xia Bai, said jokingly.
Xia Bai: "Yin Yang Eyes?"
He seemed to mutter to himself, "Whose Yin-Yang Eyes are these? Who is willing to donate them to the program's material library?"
"Xia Bai, didn't you hear that I was joking?"
“I can hear it now.”
“…”
Zhong Zicang said: "Xia Bai reminded me, where did Hu Yihang's eyes come from? Not just his, but also Liao Manni's mouth and Feng Sheng's nose."
Hu Yihang said: "The physique teacher said that the essence of plastic surgery is to exchange and optimize and reorganize facial features. My eyes are used by the right person, and the eyes that are replaced on my face are also someone else's in the plastic surgery material library. That person may have also replaced his eyes with something else."
"Why do you sound so normal? Are the facial features also resources and structures that can be optimized and reorganized? I don't hear any reverence for the human body." Zhong Zicang frowned.
"It wasn't me who said that! It was the physiotherapy teacher. I was just repeating it. Also, what exactly do you want to ask?" Hu Yihang's voice was much louder. He was already anxious and didn't want to discuss the issue in depth at all.
"What I want to know is, if your eyes were also the original owner who used them to replace other facial features, then the original owner was probably also a trainee of the program team, is he still alive?" Zhong Zicang said: "According to what the producer said, he may not survive after being eliminated. Many of the plastic surgery materials you mentioned, will their original owners die?"
Zhong Zicang had a serious face and a stern voice: "If their original owners are dead, could the ghosts still be in the program group, or somewhere else nearby? Don't forget that our audience are all ghosts. This is a place where ghosts are common. If they are still here, would they feel resentment and use their facial features to invade you? Didn't you say that you saw strange people and scenes?"
The dormitory was quiet.
Hu Yihang touched his wide-open eyes and took a step back.
Zhong Zicang's voice softened a little, but his words were still sharp. "You don't want to delve into it. Some of you want to avoid it, and some of you want to get plastic surgery, right? Don't worry, don't worry, don't worry."
He repeated it three times, each time slower and lower than the last, "Hold steady, at least see if there will be any problems later."
"But, but, today is the last day, and the performance will start tomorrow." Yuan Ji, who was sleeping on the upper bunk of Hu Yihang, said, "It will be too late to watch later..."
Zhong Zicang: "Can't we pass the assessment without plastic surgery? Don't we all have programs? Don't compromise and take shortcuts right from the start."
Wang Ming: "It's not that we want to compromise. Everyone else is getting plastic surgery. If we don't, how can we survive? We are low-ranking trainees to begin with."
Zhong Zicang didn't say anything. Seeing that he didn't say anything, the other people hesitated for a moment and then left.
Xia Bai pulled him, and he said, "Xia Bai, you go up first, I'll think of a way."
Xia Bai said "Oh" and walked out of the dormitory.
They wasted some time discussing this matter, and the other trainees had already gone upstairs. Xia Bai thought that Ling Changye and Yang Mei had also gone upstairs. He closed the dormitory door and turned around to see Ling Changye and Yang Mei standing at the dark stairs waiting for him.
When Xia Bai saw them, his eyes lit up slightly and he trotted towards them. "You didn't go up."
Yang Mei: "The captain said you didn't come out, maybe something happened in your dormitory."
"Yes." Xia Bai briefly told them about last night's discovery and the discussion in the dormitory this morning as he walked. "The president has almost guessed our speculation. Is it possible that the ghosts he mentioned can invade the human body through the five senses? It seems that the ghosts here really want to occupy the human body."
"It's possible." Ling Changye said, "But it won't be that fast. It's unlikely that a facial feature can quickly take over a human body. Otherwise, the game would be too difficult."
Xia Bai nodded, "The president said he would find a way, I wonder what he would find."
"It may be too late." Ling Changye said, turning his head to look behind him, "You should know what he is thinking soon."
When Xia Bai turned around, he just heard Zhong Zicang shouting, "Captain Ling."
The three of them turned to look at him, and Zhong Zicang said, "I would like to gather everyone together and say a few words briefly."
"There's no problem with the Tourism Administration and volunteers, but you can try the Half Moon Group and the Holy Tourism Guild," Ling Changye said.
Zhong Zicang: "Okay, I'll go with you to the upper-class group practice room to find them."
Xia Bai followed them. The practice room of the top group was much larger than theirs. Each of the seven of them had a cubicle to use, and there was also a relatively private space.
Liu Qiang and Shi Danfeng were both there. Zhong Zicang greeted them and said, "I want to tell everyone something. Could you please help me tell everyone?"
"Hey, this student wants to organize people from our two clubs." The bald man said with a smile, looking at him with slanted eyes, as if he found it very funny. "I suggest you just take care of your group of elementary school students and don't ask for help from us."
Zhong Zicang's expression did not change. He pushed his glasses and said, "I don't mean to interfere in your business. Hu Yihang from our dormitory had plastic surgery yesterday. We have a new discovery and want to share it with everyone. It will only take a few minutes."
The bald man stared at him, his upper eyelids wrinkled in annoyance.
"It only takes a few minutes. There's no harm in going and listening." It was Shi Danfeng who spoke in a gentle voice. "I'll ask the Half Moon Group to go and listen later."
The bald man laughed and said, "Since the Half Moon Group is going, why don't we go and listen as well."
Since both of them said so, the others naturally had no objections, and soon all the players gathered in the lower group practice room.
Fortunately, the practice room was big enough so everyone stood and it wasn’t crowded.
Zhong Zicang stood at the front and didn't waste time before getting straight to the point. "Regarding plastic surgery, several people who had plastic surgery, I wonder if you have noticed anything abnormal in the parts that had been plastic surgery. Hu Yihang from our dormitory said that he saw people and images that he didn't know."
He first used the problems that would arise from plastic surgery to attract everyone's attention, and then he began to talk about his speculation, "The program team has a large library of plastic surgery materials. If you want to have a certain part of your body replaced, you have to use that part of your body to replace it. This is a talent show, and the parts that everyone gets for plastic surgery may very well be the parts that were replaced by previous trainees. Are they still alive?"
"The producer said that fallen petals are not heartless, which also means that they can turn into spring mud to protect flowers. It is very likely that all the trainees who did not debut died and became plastic surgery materials."
"Maybe when these facial features were transferred to the material library, the owner was undergoing plastic surgery and was not dead at that time. Maybe a large proportion of the trainees who didn't make it to the finals died in the program. In this game, people will become ghosts after death. Will the ghosts of these dead trainees affect us through the parts they transplanted to our bodies, or even invade our bodies?"
After he finished speaking, the players had different expressions, some were scared, some were horrified, some were calm, and some were angry.
The players looked at the people who had plastic surgery. Some of them unconsciously took a step away. The people who had plastic surgery were panicked and angry, and they all stared at Zhong Zicang.
The bald man glanced at Liao Manni's mouth with a strange expression and twisted the corner of his pants with his hand.
Zhong Zicang said: "All the players are here. I want to say that currently only six players have undergone plastic surgery. It is not too late for us to put an end to this dangerous and meaningless internal competition. The rest of us players should not undergo plastic surgery, block this terrible road, and pass the level by performance alone. This will be good for all of us."
"You said a lot, just because you don't want us to have plastic surgery."
"Then the six of them will definitely win, right? They have such a huge advantage."
Zhong Zicang: "Six people won't have that much impact on us, and this is a very dangerous road. They also have to take great risks, and we don't know what they will experience. It may not be an advantage in the later stages."
The bald man was very angry for some reason. "How do you know that the owners of the five sense organs they used are dead? This is just your guess. Do you want to cut off our way out based on a guess?"
Led by the bald man, more people stood up to oppose.
"You don't want us to not have plastic surgery and go by ourselves, do you?"
"It's so funny. You guys in the lower-class group have the most plastic surgery, and now you don't want us to have it?"
"What evidence do you have that the owners of these five senses are dead?"
"Listen to me." Zhong Zicang continued to explain, "I know everyone is very anxious now, everyone be quiet..."
"Say whatever you want, show me the evidence first!"
"You're still trying to fool us!"
"Who do you think you are? You're just a student. Why do you think you can do this?"
"He's dead. Not only that, but the facial features they replaced are from a dead person. They were transferred to the plastic surgery material library after his death." Xia Bai said blankly as he stood beside Zhong Zicang.
The practice room was already in an uproar and his voice was drowned out by the noise, but what he said was so terrifying that the people around him heard it.
"Don't talk nonsense! How do you know it's a dead person?" someone asked in surprise.
Slowly everyone's attention turned to him.
Xia Bai had a blank expression on his face, "It's a dead person."
He knew very well that Zhong Zicang had failed, and he understood what Ling Changye meant by it was too late. If no one had undergone plastic surgery yet, his method might still work, but six people had already succeeded, so it would never work again.
Even if they know there are risks, if others don't have plastic surgery, the benefits to the six people will far outweigh the risks.
This is not fair.
That's how people are.
They will feel psychologically unbalanced and go for plastic surgery. They will not consider the issue seriously until the benefits and risks are balanced and they feel that others have not made any money.
In fact, even if no one has plastic surgery, the method proposed by Zhong Zicang would be difficult to accomplish.
Xia Bai knew all of this, but when he saw Zhong Zicang being attacked by a group of people like that, he wanted to say something for him.
There must always be someone to support him so as not to dampen his passion.
"What evidence do you have that that was from a dead person?" The bald man took a deep breath, holding back something, and asked excitedly.
Xia Bai glanced at him and said, "Don't get excited. I have no evidence."
“…”
The bald man was very angry, "Don't talk nonsense if you don't have any evidence!"
Ling Changye: "You don't even have an opinion, but you still say a lot?"
"That's right." Yang Mei said, "I've tolerated you for a long time, Baldy! You're the only one who talks too much nonsense!"
"You!" The bald man pointed at Yang Mei, but put it down after only a second. He said angrily with a dark face, "Okay, I shouldn't have come here. You guys from the Tourism Bureau are just playing tricks on us, right? Let's go! They are talking nonsense here!"
The members of the Holy Travel Guild left, even several players from the lower group left.
You Mohan glanced at Zhong Zicang and Xia Bai, then left with the people from the Half Moon Group.
Ling Changye didn't say anything else and left with Yang Mei, who didn't want to leave.
Hu Yihang said: "President, what example are you using me to make? At least you should tell me in advance."
Zhong Zicang: "What I said is what you told us. It's not private. Can't I talk about it?"
Hu Yihang: "Then why didn't you tell me in advance? Did you see how they looked at me? What the hell? It's so annoying!"
Zhong Zicang took off his glasses, pinched the bridge of his nose, lowered his head and said, "Sorry."
Seeing him like this, Hu Yihang wanted to say something but then closed his mouth and walked to the window in silence.
Everyone around him walked away. Xia Bai looked at Zhong Zicang for a while. Zhong Zicang noticed Xia Bai's gaze and waved his hand to indicate that he was fine.
"Well, I was really happy when I was in the ambulance. We were about to go back to school." Zhong Zicang spoke in a low voice that sounded a little empty.
This was the first time he told Xia Bai about this, and how he felt. "I didn't expect that we would be dragged into this game. When I heard that player say he couldn't get out, I felt really heavy in my heart. I even thought, against professional ethics, that it would have been better if we hadn't come to the TV station to save people."
"I know they are all too scared. I haven't slept for two days. I have been thinking about how to help them complete the game and what good programs to show. I came up with some ideas and finally encouraged them. They thought we all had hope as long as we prepared the program well. Who knew that the production team would come out with a plastic surgery... Damn!" He smiled, sat on the floor leaning against the mirror, and said no more.
Xia Bai asked: "President, why are you doing this?"
Zhong Zicang answered as a matter of course, "I promised everyone that I would work hard to bring everyone back to school."
Xia Bai also sat next to him, "I mean, why do you want to bring everyone back to school? Even if you are the president of the student union, you don't have this obligation. Why do you have to take on so much? Why do you want to be the president of the Peace Medical College when you know the game is coming?"
The glasses that Zhong Zicang was holding on to with his fingers were shaking slightly. He looked out the window. There was no sunrise or greenery outside the window on the first floor below ground. He lowered his head again. The dim light from the practice room fell on his thin face. He stared at the glasses vaguely without saying a word.
Just when Xia Bai thought he would stop talking, he spoke, "Xia Bai, do you know why I can move to your dormitory?"
"Because you are the president and a player of the Game Management Bureau." Xia Bai answered seriously.
"Not entirely. You don't know how popular the beds in your dormitory are. These are not enough to let me in. I was able to get in because of the care the Tourism Administration provides to the families of the martyred players." Zhong Zicang said.
He smiled, a smile that was somewhat emotional, "Even when I entered your dormitory, he was taking care of me. I have always been taken care of by him, even after he died, even until now."
Xia Bai was slightly stunned, "Your family?"
Zhong Zicang nodded, "My brother."
Xia Bai: "Is he also a hero of the assault team?"
Why hasn’t he heard Ling Changye and Yang Mei mention it?
"He is not a highly-watched member of the assault team. He is just an unknown, my heroic brother," said Zhong Zicang.
Xia Bai squatted beside him, placed his hands on his bent knees, and looked at him with a slight arc. His eyes were focused, still free of clutter, as clean as when he was empty, like a child who had just come into contact with this world.
When Zhong Zicang first met him, he thought he was a person who wanted to be told secrets. He was right.
"It's impossible to let the members of the assault team complete all the difficult games that have not been completed. The Game Management Bureau will sometimes post bounty tasks in the player exchange center and find other players to complete the game."
"There was a particularly difficult map that got stuck in a fortress area. My brother and I went with him. I made it out alive because he took care of me, but he died in the game."
Zhong Zicang raised his head and squinted at the dark roof. "As for my family, my father was killed in a car accident when I was very young. The driver was powerful and got away with it. We spent all our money but couldn't get justice for my father. My mother suffered from depression, my grandmother was so angry that she became seriously ill and was bedridden, and my grandfather's health was also failing."
"In such a family environment, I grew up happily and carefree. Isn't it incredible? My brother took care of everything. He didn't know how much work he had to do to pay for grandma's medical expenses, how much emotion he had to spend accompanying mom, and how he found time to comfort grandpa. He also paid for my tuition and tutored me in my studies, allowing me to study all the way to Heping Medical College."
"He has no idea...how much he has suffered."
"He was smiling all the time, and I actually thought he wasn't that tired. Until in the game, when he blocked danger for me and died in front of me, he smiled happily and said he had been flying for a long time and could finally stop."
Just like he once said, a bird without feet must keep flying and flying, and the moment it stops, that is the moment of death.
Does anyone know if it longs for death?
"Maybe it's to experience the life he lived, or maybe it's to atone for my sins, or... Anyway, I can't stop."
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