Mr. Zhou Doesn’t Want to Work Hard Anymore!

Mr. Zhou Doesn’t Want to Work Hard Anymore

 Chapter 1.1

2 p.m

 

At the backstage of《I’m the Real Actor》 variety show.

 

Tian Wang Entertainment’s manager, Zhi Qi hurriedly led several medical staff towards the backstage lounge: “Please trouble you guys, my artist just fell off the stage. Can you help to check whether he needs to be taken to the hospital or not?”

 

The door to the lounge was pushed open and a young man with light flaxen color hair, approximately in his mid-twenties, was sitting on the sofa, frowning and holding his forehead.

 

Zhi Qi walked over, deeply concerned and asked, “Chenxi, how do you feel?”

 

Zhou Chenxi raised his head, at a loss and blinked his eyes. 

 

——How come he came back to life?

 

Hadn’t he fallen to his death on the side of the road after he missed his step before?

 

Zhou Chenxi began to remember what had happened before.

 

He was walking along the road and suddenly he stepped on the manhole of the sewer that was not being covered well, he lost his footing, after that when he fell down he lost his consciousness. 

    

He didn’t know how long it had been passed, his consciousness gradually returned, and then a book appeared before his eyes.

 

The book was called《The Koi Conquers the Entertainment Circle》.

 

Zhou Chenxi opened it and looked at it, only to realize that the world he lived in was inside the book.

 

Just by looking at the title, one could tell that the book was the story about how the protagonist conquered the entertainment circle by relying on his Koi luck. 

 

Zhou Chenxi was very unlucky, of course he wouldn’t be the main character of this book.

 

The main character’s name was Luo Xinghe.

 

In contrast to the protagonist who had a Koi life, Zhou Chenxi relied on his excellent bad luck, all the way to the end he was unlucky, setting off how awesome the protagonist was. He then fell to his death on the side of the road when the protagonist’s career was becoming more prosperous with the passing day.

 

This was not the worst of it, Zhou Chenxi’s biological elder brother named Zhou Mingxuan was the president of the Zhou family business, the Zhou Xin Group.

 

Because Zhou Chenxi’s parents did not support Zhou Chenxi joined the entertainment circle, they called the profession the opera actor (戏子 : actor / opera actor but it has derogative meaning), so for his dream job Zhou Chenxi had a big fight with his parents and ran away from home. In between, his brother had been secretly paying attention to him. After learning about the news of his death, Zhou Mingxuan directly suspected that it was the work of Luo Xinghe, who had always been at odds with Zhou Chenxi. He secretly investigated Luo Xinghe and worked against him, but of course no one who opposed the protagonist would end up well. 

 

Luo Xinghe, besides his career line, there were also several relationship lines. The book《The Koi》was a feel-good online novel whose antagonist succeeded in everything miraculously (爽文1[爽文（shuǎngwén）: “爽” means “very pleasurable,” and “文” means “text.” This term, coined by Chinese netizens, refers to a kind of online novel with antagonists, often born into low-class families, who climb up the social ladder or suddenly become endowed with magical power either in kung fu fighting or other aspects, either helped by others or out of sheer luck, and then live happily ever after. Some netizens identify with the antagonists and feel good after reading these novels, therefore giving the genre its nickname.]). It was impossible to have a 1V1 relationship line. One of Luo Xinghe’s harem was Lu Ji, the CEO of Lu’s Group. He was evenly matched2旗鼓相当/ qí gǔ xiāng dāng : lit. two armies have equivalent banners and drums (idiom); fig. evenly matched / roughly comparable (opponents)] with Zhou Mingxuan in terms of strength so he didn’t wait for Luo Xinghe to ask and took the initiative to help Luo Xinghe purge the Zhou family.

 

 

 

Just like that, the Zhou family was caught off-guard and sadly left the field as cannon fodder for the book《The Koi》.

 

At the time when Zhou Chenxi was reading the book, he was so angry that he almost tore up the whole book.

        

It turned out that all his life he had been working for others 3[作嫁衣裳 lit. Make wedding clothes for rich ladies, which means working for others in vain, but gaining nothing.]and all his efforts he had made were nothing more than stepping stones on the way to success for Luo Xinghe, the koi.

 

Zhou Chenxi couldn’t help but clench his fist and let out a salty fish’s lament, “I don’t want to work hard anymore!”

        

Zhi Qi who was communicating with the medical staff heard his voice, turned his head back and scolded, “What the hell are you saying, Zhou Chenxi?! Do you know that this acting variety show is sponsored by the Lu Group, and even the big director in the circle, Zheng Hua, is watching it! If you can get a ranking, you’ll have a chance to take a role in director Zheng’s new movie. When the time comes, are you still afraid that you won’t be popular?”

 

Zhou Chenxi knew that in the end this opportunity was reserved for the protagonist and even because of this incident, Zhou Chenxi had angrily posted an angry comment on his little and zero follower Weibo account after the show was released, lamenting why he had lost to the protagonist. It was because of this Weibo post that was later seen by Zhou Mingxuan, so Zhou Mingxuan suspected that he and Luo Xinghe did not get along, indirectly becoming the trigger for the Zhou family’s death.

 

In this life, Zhou Chenxi would never be so foolish again. Since he knew that he couldn’t afford to provoke the protagonist but could he still be unavoidable for him? 

   

“I don’t want to take part in this show anymore,” Zhou Chenxi was lying on the arm of the sofa, holding his head and said, “I can’t win with Luo Xinghe around anyway. Brother Qi (Qi Ge) , I’m going to quit the circle. I’ll prepare an application for termination of contract and send it to you together with the application for withdrawal from the show.”

 

Translator’s note:

Here the poem using this idiom 作嫁衣裳 ( lit. Make wedding clothes for rich ladies) ,  Only if you are interested in reading it, if not just skip it :

 

 

貧女

 

秦韜玉

 

蓬門未識綺羅香

擬託良媒益自傷

誰愛風流高格調

共憐時世儉梳妝

敢將十指誇鍼巧

不把雙眉鬥畫長

苦恨年年壓金線

為他人作嫁衣裳

 

A Poor Girl

 

by Qin Taoyu

translated by E. Chang

 

A girl from a poor family has never worn a fragrant silk dress.

To arrange a marriage would induce her own self-pity.

Who would appreciate an elegant style and noble taste?

With whom could she face hard times in simple dress?

Without doubt, her sewing skill is beyond compare.

She vies with no one for the length of painted eyebrows.

With bitterness, she keeps embroidering year after year.

For other people’s wedding gowns she must continue to sew.

1[爽文（shuǎngwén）: “爽” means “very pleasurable,” and “文” means “text.” This term, coined by Chinese netizens, refers to a kind of online novel with antagonists, often born into low-class families, who climb up the social ladder or suddenly become endowed with magical power either in kung fu fighting or other aspects, either helped by others or out of sheer luck, and then live happily ever after. Some netizens identify with the antagonists and feel good after reading these novels, therefore giving the genre its nickname.]2旗鼓相当/ qí gǔ xiāng dāng : lit. two armies have equivalent banners and drums (idiom); fig. evenly matched / roughly comparable (opponents)]3[作嫁衣裳 lit. Make wedding clothes for rich ladies, which means working for others in vain, but gaining nothing.]