Ch 1: The Cannon Fodder Won’t Play Along Anymore [QT]

WARNING: NO CP! NO CP! NO CP! Due to MC’s “true nature,” there will be no CP and no romance.

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Translator has something to say: I only found out after uploading on NU that another translator had already started working on this project—so sorry about that! I truly didn’t mean to overlap. Much love and respect to the other translator for their hard work 💖 Our wonderful readers are free to enjoy the story from whichever site they prefer ☺️

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ARC 1: After Leaving the Entertainment Industry and Returning Home to Farm, I Became Popular

“A perfectly fine performance, and you had to be the one to drag us down! Something this simple—you’ve practiced it so many times and still can’t do it? Did I sign a pig?”

Mu Xing had just regained consciousness when he was met head-on with a fierce scolding:

“I must have been blind back then to go to all that trouble to sign you.”

‘Trading ten brains for one face’—that’s you, isn’t it?”

“Do you think you’re worthy of the fans who like you? Worthy of all the hard work I put in to get you resources?”

“…”

Agent Li Xin was venting his pent-up anger, when suddenly, the person who had been keeping his head down and listening quietly raised his head. His black-and-white eyes stared straight at him.

Mu Xing had always been the type to accept whatever came his way. Li Xin was used to venting his emotions on him, used to seeing him with lowered eyes and a meek expression. Being stared at like this all of a sudden startled him.

“What are you doing? Not convinced?” Still smoldering, he snapped angrily.

Mu Xing pointed toward the space behind him. “Someone’s eavesdropping at the door.”

Startled, Li Xin quickly turned his head. The tightly shut dressing room door was now ajar, and at the doorway, two girls wearing masks were peeking inside, their phones pointed in this direction as if recording video.

Li Xin forgot all about Mu Xing and rushed over in a hurry.

With a bang, the door slammed shut. The agent must have gone out to talk to the two girls, leaving the man in the room frowning slightly.

He slowly and curiously looked around the room, then walked to the restroom on instinct.

In the mirror appeared the face of a young man—excellent bone structure, handsome features, all perfectly proportioned.

It should have been a clean, refined look, but the face in the mirror was covered in makeup so heavy it bordered on gaudy. Instead of achieving the intended effect, it looked awkward and mismatched.

The instant he saw that face, it was as if some long-buried thing rushed forth into Mu Xing’s mind.

They were the memories belonging to “Mu Xing.”

The owner of this body was also called Mu Xing, currently a member of the idol boy group “MRC.”

MRC’s agency, Star Entertainment, had once ridden the wave of talent shows to great success, standing as an industry leader. In recent years, though, they’d fallen behind the market and were in decline. In a desperate bid to turn things around, they poured resources into creating this boy group called MRC (aka Miracle).

Compared to the other members—most of whom had either trained overseas or graduated from professional academies—Mu Xing stood out awkwardly.

Before being signed by Star Entertainment, he had never had any contact with the entertainment industry, and knew even less about it than most young people.

The public first came to know him from a video uploaded online.

In it, a young man in a plain T-shirt, barefoot, stood in a creek. With no makeup, he was clean and beautiful, like an elf walking out of the forest—like a summer breeze that brightened viewers’ eyes.

He became an overnight sensation.

#TenMinutesToFindOutEverythingAboutTheGuyInTheVideo# shot to the top of the trending topics list.

Li Xin, then desperately searching for boy group members, immediately found his target. He didn’t care about skills—this face alone was enough to guarantee traffic.

He used every resource he had to get information on Mu Xing before anyone else, and personally drove to the remote mountain village where he found Mu Xing struggling to push home a big white goose that refused to go back.

What followed was all kinds of persuasion.

At first he tried tempting him with fame and fortune, but Mu Xing, who had grown up in the mountains and loved the life there, had no ambition to become a star. When profit failed to sway him, Li Xin turned to emotional appeals—saying that so many people liked Mu Xing, and if they couldn’t see him, they’d be very sad.

Anyone else might not have fallen for it, but Mu Xing had lost his parents young and grown up deep in the mountains, raised with help from the neighbors. He’d gone to school in the same tiny, enclosed village from kindergarten to high school graduation, with the same classmates all the way, meeting few outsiders. His personality could almost be called “naïve.”

Half-coaxed and half-tricked, he left the mountains and signed a two-year contract. Li Xin had wanted a longer one, but Mu Xing, surprisingly, had been firm on this—two years already felt like a long time to him, and he refused to sign for more in a completely unfamiliar place.

Li Xin happily brought him into Star Entertainment and invested heavily in marketing and publicity, making a grand announcement of Mu Xing’s joining the company.

His arrival indeed brought MRC huge popularity. Li Xin thought he’d struck gold, looking at Mu Xing as if at a golden money tree.

But soon he realized that Mu Xing hadn’t been lying when he’d said he knew nothing about the big city or skills like singing and dancing.

Li Xin’s plan had been simple—he didn’t expect stellar skills, just enough to scrape by, as long as Mu Xing could serve as the group’s visual centerpiece, a “flower vase” role.

But this was exactly where things got stuck.

Mu Xing was stiff on stage.

In his eighteen years, he had never received any relevant training, and had rarely been in front of large crowds. He wasn’t used to it—and in fact, he was afraid of it.

MRC’s first public appearance was not a success.

When he was standing on stage, countless eyes fell on him. Mu Xing only felt that those gazes carried the weight of a thousand catties, pressing heavily on him until he couldn’t breathe. The movements he had practiced to perfection instantly became stiff and unnatural.

On stage, even the smallest mistake could be magnified countless times—let alone such an obvious lack of presence?

…

Mu Xing’s memories were not complicated.

The first eighteen years were simple—an ordinary rural life, plain but vivid.

The following year or so seemed much more colorful, but most of the scenes were in shades of gray: endless practice, fear of the stage, his agent’s anger, and the sadness of opening social media to see strings of insults and mockery.

Mu Xing came back to himself and looked at the young man in the mirror, whose gaze was dull and lifeless. He frowned again in puzzlement.

He suddenly raised his hands, rubbed both cheeks hard twice, but still felt something was off.

He was certain that he was also called Mu Xing, but he was not this “Mu Xing” in front of him. When he viewed Mu Xing’s memories, he was purely an observer—without the slightest trace of shared feelings.

But apart from a name and the memories of this “Mu Xing,” his mind was a complete blank.

Who was he, and what was his connection to this Mu Xing?

Mu Xing thought in confusion for a while. When he couldn’t figure it out, he simply stopped thinking about it.

He seemed to have a naturally strong ability to adapt. After examining the person in the mirror for a moment, he decided that this Mu Xing was quite good-looking—he hadn’t lost out—just the makeup was a bit ugly.

He remembered that MRC had just finished a performance at a gala; this was the backstage area.

Mu Xing’s performance, as expected, was unsatisfactory. Li Xin couldn’t even wait to get back before starting to scold him right in the backstage dressing room. The two girls at the door earlier were probably fans who had snuck in.

The dressing room was well-equipped. Mu Xing found some makeup remover and happily washed his face clean.

Just after he finished and stepped out, the dressing room door opened, and Li Xin stormed in.

Seeing Mu Xing’s bare face, he paused for a moment, then immediately snapped, “You still have the mind to remove makeup here? Tonight you dragged the team down—don’t you feel ashamed? Don’t you have any sense of shame?”

These words were very familiar to Mu Xing.

In the original Mu Xing’s memories, this was one of the lines Agent Li Xin most often said to him.

From the start, it had been like brainwashing—repeating over and over: “The company has spent so much money and so many resources on you. You should remember the company’s kindness and work hard,” “I’ve never cared so much about any artist as I do you,” “The fans like you so much, you can’t rest—you have to train hard and never disappoint them.”

Later, when Li Xin finally realized he was a piece of rotten wood and stopped expecting anything, and when Mu Xing’s popularity plummeted—with haters outnumbering fans—Li Xin’s attitude took a drastic turn. His words became pure reprimand:

“Mu Xing, do you have some kind of health problem?”

“You’ve dragged the team down again—don’t you feel ashamed?”

“I can’t stand that dead-pig-not-afraid-of-boiling-water look of yours!”

“Do you know how much money the company has lost on you? Signing you was the worst luck of my life!”

Mu Xing’s personality was simple and sensitive. Under this day-after-day brainwashing, his guilt grew heavier and heavier.

He felt he had failed the company, failed the fans, failed the agent—forcing himself to practice singing until his throat was congested with blood, and to practice dancing until he collapsed from exhaustion in the practice room.

But the harder he pushed himself, the more afraid he became of disappointing others, the more cautious he became on stage, and the more mistakes he made.

Li Xin was not entirely wrong—Mu Xing was indeed sick, suffering from serious psychological problems.

But he himself didn’t realize it, and Li Xin had no patience to deal with him anymore, only thinking about how to squeeze the most out of him before the contract expired.

If it were the original Mu Xing, facing Li Xin’s scolding now, he would have simply lowered his head, meeting it with the usual guilt and silence.

But the Mu Xing now had a different soul inside.

He could very clearly sense the malice of the middle-aged man before him.

He quickly understood the reason and suddenly realized, “Those two girls just now—you didn’t manage to deal with them?”

This was Li Xin’s nature—he liked to bully the weak. If he was this angry now, something must have happened that displeased him. Thinking back to what had just happened, the reason was obvious.

Without thinking, Li Xin cursed, “It’s all trouble you, this useless thing, caused! Those two fans ran off! We still don’t know whose they are. If that video gets out, the company’s reputation will suffer again!”

Li Xin liked to pass the blame. Whenever things didn’t go his way, he’d vent on those around him—and unpopular, meek Mu Xing was naturally the perfect target.

Hearing him say this, Mu Xing was neither surprised nor angry.

But he completely disagreed: “That’s not true.”

“What did you say?” Li Xin glared at him impatiently.

Mu Xing counted it off for him: “First, the rude one shouting insults just now was you—this is clearly trouble you caused yourself.

“Second, you know this place well and always brag about knowing lots of people, but you couldn’t even catch two ordinary female fans who don’t know the area.” He shook his head, looking innocent. “If this gets out, it has nothing to do with me—it just means you’re useless.”

“This pot, I’m not carrying!”

❣╰(⸝⸝⸝꒳⸝⸝⸝)╯❣

Sandy: Wooooo first novel after a long hiatus. Hope you guys love it as much as I do 😘