MBFAAO 1: M*rdered

The lights went out, and the silhouettes of people became sparse.

At Star Two Channel’s Voice and Visual Idol program pre-recorded broadcast site, the rehearsal had already ended. The busy staff members were doing the final wrap-up.

“You there, come come, lend a hand!” The sound engineer sat at the main mixing console, casually pointing at a person nearby. “Move this set of K-array¹A real-world Italian manufacturer of high-end, innovative audio technology, known for their sleek, powerful speakers used in professional stage setups. center speakers.”

A man was burying his head cleaning up the cables on the ground. Hearing that, he quickly stood up and dragged the heavy speaker as requested.

This man was using his left hand; his fingers were long, slender, and pale. Looking closely, his right hand appeared somewhat powerless, two fingers that should have been equally long and slender were drooping unnaturally.

“Is this okay?” He tilted his head and asked.

The lights on the stage were almost completely extinguished. On the side, a solitary spotlight was lit, shining directly on half of his face.

That was a face whose age could not be told at a glance.

A deep scar slashed down from the forehead on the side of his face. Probably because it had been a long time, the scar was no longer curled up, but it was still uneven, appearing hideous under the bright spotlight.

The sound engineer hadn’t seen him before, and caught off guard, shrank back in fright.

Where did this ugly freak come from, scaring people to death in the middle of the night!

A script supervisor ran over, then waved at the man. “Xiao Chen, a backup dancer for tomorrow’s live broadcast is sick, you come and fill in.”

The man immediately straightened his back. His silhouette under the light was tall and straight, with a narrow waist and long legs. His tone carried pleasant surprise and apprehension. “Can I do it?”

“Tomorrow’s backup dancers all wear masks—don’t I know your situation?” The script supervisor casually instructed, “Come a bit early, and spend ten minutes familiarizing yourself with the dance steps.”

The man seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. “No problem, I will definitely arrive early.”

His voice was a bit hoarse but soft, and his articulation was clear. When he raised his head to look at someone attentively like this, the scarred face made people afraid to look directly at it, but there was a sense of incongruity in his pair of eyes.

The sound engineer couldn’t help but glance at him again, finally understanding where this sense of incongruity came from.

Such an ugly face, such menial work, but there was no common inferiority and numbness in his eyes. Instead, they seemed to be faintly shimmering with starlight.

It couldn’t be considered the flamboyant spirit of youth, but there was still a bit of boyishness, carrying a slightly warm, bright gleam.

Looking at it this way, he didn’t seem so terrifying anymore.

After all, his figure was excellent and his standing posture was upright. Compared to those little fresh meats in this program, his demeanor was much more relaxed and poised.

Watching the man leave, he casually asked, “Who is that? With this kind of face, he can still mingle in this industry?”

The script supervisor leaned over, acting mysterious. “Teacher Li doesn’t know? He debuted in a group many years ago, became extremely popular, and then quickly vanished without a trace. Tsk tsk, he’s also miserable now.”

The sound engineer concentrated and recalled for a moment, and exclaimed, “Ouch, it couldn’t be Chen Yan from Dazzling Realm, right?! How did he end up like this?”

Having been in the industry for many years, he somewhat remembered these ups and downs. In his impression, Dazzling Realm was an idol group that swept all the newcomer awards back then, making a stunning debut.

Among them, the youth named Chen Yan was even better, excelling at both singing and dancing, looking youthful and handsome. Speaking of that kind of explosive popularity, even placed in today’s internet era with magnified traffic, it could still be called astonishing.

Compared to that down-and-out, ugly man just now, how was there even the slightest resemblance?!

“He got carried away just a year or two after getting popular. Drugs, fighting with hooligans in a nightclub over a hostess, getting his fingers chopped off, and his face slashed.” The script supervisor said with certainty, “His face is ruined and his hands can’t play instruments anymore, so he was reduced to this.”

The sound engineer suddenly understood: there are plenty of flash-in-the-pan²An idiom referring to the broad-leaved epiphyllum flower, which only blooms for a very short time at night before withering. It is used to describe things or people that are briefly glorious but quickly disappear. traffic artists. Once they hit rock bottom, it’s hard to turn things around. Doing drugs means they deserve it even more; even God can’t save them.

That face isn’t suitable for the stage anymore. Being a backup dancer means he can’t show his face, and singing harmony means standing in the furthest corner, without getting any screen time.

“Why is he still mingling in this industry then? If you ask me, he’d be better off going back to his hometown and opening a small shop.” The sound engineer casually evaluated.

The script supervisor’s expression was indescribably either pity or disdain. “I advised him exactly the same way last time. Guess what he said?”

“Said what?”

“He said, he likes it here, he likes the stage.”

Both of them looked at each other and laughed.

In this industry, there are too many people dreaming of exploding in popularity every day. However, being ruined to that extent and still yearning for the stage and all that, it’s inevitably a bit too obsessed.

…

It wasn’t until past midnight that Chen Yan finished his work backstage. Some musical equipment had to be returned to their places, and the entire stage site had to be cleaned.

There was no one around anymore. His lonely silhouette was split in half by the light at the corner of the fire escape stairs. Suddenly, as he lifted his head, he saw a woman standing in the corner.

Chen Yan quickly turned his head slightly, afraid that his face would scare someone in the middle of the night. At the instant they brushed past each other, he heard the woman call out in a trembling voice, “Are… Are you Chen Yan?”

Chen Yan was startled, and turned his head. “You are?”

The woman was wearing a dull floral dress. She was about thirty years old, with obvious haggardness and gloom on her face.

She stared intently at the scar on Chen Yan’s face. She suddenly covered her mouth fiercely and large drops of tears spilled out.

“Do you remember me… I am that one in the bar ten years ago, that hostess from the bar who asked you for help.” She choked out. “All these years I haven’t dared to look for you, I… I am sorry to you.”

It was as if an earth-shattering thunderbolt³An idiom used to describe a sudden, shocking event or piece of news that strikes like a bolt out of the blue. exploded in front of Chen Yan’s eyes. His eyes suddenly widened.

No wonder there was a slight, vague sense of familiarity!

“Where… Where did you go that night?” The impact was too great, making his heart churn like an overturning sea⁴It is used to describe an overwhelming surge of powerful, turbulent emotions inside someone’s heart/mind.. “Why did you disappear after the police arrived? I…”

The woman shed tears, speaking a bit incoherently. “I-I’m about to die… If I don’t find you, I won’t be able to rest in peace even if I die.”

She suddenly grabbed Chen Yan’s arm, her voice urgent. “The ecstasy⁵Literally “head-shaking pills,” a common Chinese colloquial term for MDMA/ecstasy, owing to the clubbing environment where it is often used. in your pocket—it was secretly put there by me, but it wasn’t me who’s trying to harm you. Someone else who wanted to harm you!…”

Before she finished speaking, a person suddenly appeared at the corner of the stairs.

Wearing a mask, he raised a steel knife, rushing over crazily, stabbing fiercely towards the woman’s back!

Everything happened in a flash of lightning and a spark of fire. Chen Yan was facing him directly; seeing that steel knife at a glance, his pupils shrank violently.

Almost without thinking, he took the woman and turned around fiercely. The steel knife stabbed off-target, hitting right in the woman’s arm, blood flowing like a stream.

The woman screamed, the pain uncontrollable. Chen Yan swiftly pushed her to the side, roaring, “You leave quickly! Run!”

The woman covered her blood-dripping wound, retreating again and again, finally taking to her heels and running away in fear.

That man wanted to chase, but Chen Yan hugged him from behind, fists smashing down like raindrops. That person suffered the pain and struggled with all his might to break free. He turned his head and swung the knife fiercely at Chen Yan.

Chen Yan desperately retreated to dodge it, and turned around wanting to run, but having just taken a few steps, he was suddenly tripped by the debris on the ground at the corner. Just as his body tilted, the back of his head took a heavy blow!

With a “thump,” he fell weakly to his knees on the ground, the back of his head in severe pain, a bout of dizziness before his eyes.

The man kicked him away, starting to make a phone call in a low voice in a panic. “Hello hello, I didn’t kill that woman, b-but I accidentally knocked out Chen Yan!”

Chen Yan faintly heard in his ears someone roaring in exasperation on the other end of the phone, but what was said could not be distinguished.

…Who was he calling? Why did he know his name?

The next moment, the man hung up the phone and turned around. Casually taking down the fire extinguisher on the wall, he fiercely smashed it onto Chen Yan’s head again!

“Don’t blame me—I also just received money to help people get things done.” The man’s voice was fierce and stern. A pair of sinister eyes blinked rapidly, with a small black mole faintly visible at the tip of his eyebrow.

Severe pain spread from the top of his head to his entire body. Chen Yan silently opened his mouth, and his consciousness dimmed.

It seemed he was carried on someone’s shoulder, swaying back and forth, not knowing for how long. His nose then caught a burst of a burnt smell.

In the dressing room behind the stage, roaring flames were burning up, emitting ominous black smoke in this deep night.

With a “thump,” he was forcefully pushed into the sea of fire. The door outside was latched shut.

The flames approached. Chen Yan dazedly opened his eyes. In his field of vision, he discovered in astonishment that there was another person on a chair in the dressing room!

He lay limply on the chair without any vitality, and by his hand was half a bottle of scattered sleeping pills.

The beautiful face carried a numbness, eyes tightly closed. The person was already dead.

The air made one suffocate, the roaring flames burned up, rapidly approaching him.

…

A week later.

In a private hospital with good conditions, deep in the night when all is quiet.

On the single bed in Ward 309, a youth was lying quietly.

…Flames—there were flames everywhere!

His whole body ached. It was as if his bones were being scraped by a knife, but his throat felt like it was stuck by something, the suffocating pain growing greater and greater.

In the end, he roared out a sound from the depths of his throat, “No!…”

Turning over and suddenly sitting up from the hospital bed, he raised his hand, wiping his sweat wretchedly with the sleeve of the hospital gown.

The pain and burning sensation in the dream had completely disappeared, and there was no abnormality anywhere on his body.

He suddenly stared at his own hands, raising them tremblingly to his eyes, his eyes filled with disbelief.

Smooth, slender, the carpal bones of the wrist beautifully shaped—the crippled fingers that had followed him for many years had disappeared. What replaced them were ten long and slender fingers; long, slender, pale, and completely flawless.

He suddenly jumped out of bed, and dashed barefoot towards the single washroom outside.

In the mirror in front of the sink, an extremely beautiful face was reflected.

The skin color was fair and clean, the eyebrows and eyes delicate, a head of medium-length hair was smooth, black, and shiny. Separated by that layer of mercury in the mirror, a pair of dark, profound eyes had an extremely clear base color, beautiful as if they were black glazed glass.

This face was as smooth as a newly peeled egg, possessing the youthful firmness of an eighteen or nineteen-year-old youth—but this was completely not his face!

• 1
  A real-world Italian manufacturer of high-end, innovative audio technology, known for their sleek, powerful speakers used in professional stage setups.
• 2
  An idiom referring to the broad-leaved epiphyllum flower, which only blooms for a very short time at night before withering. It is used to describe things or people that are briefly glorious but quickly disappear.
• 3
  An idiom used to describe a sudden, shocking event or piece of news that strikes like a bolt out of the blue.
• 4
  It is used to describe an overwhelming surge of powerful, turbulent emotions inside someone’s heart/mind.
• 5
  Literally “head-shaking pills,” a common Chinese colloquial term for MDMA/ecstasy, owing to the clubbing environment where it is often used.