Don’t Be a Kept Man

Chapter 64: My Family is Also Poor

Fu Xiu Nian: “……”

Perhaps it was a mistake, but whenever he met Chen Yi’s gaze, he always felt like there was no difference between Chen Yi looking at him and looking at a braindead idiot.

“…… I should head back into the water to catch fish.”

As if he had just suffered some sort of reality shock, Fu Xiu Nian suddenly puffed up and became confident, heading directly into the deep water area. Chen Yi crouched by the shore once more, absorbing the sun in the midst of the other hardworking humans. At Fu Xiu Nian’s movements however, he began to narrow his eyes and said with cynicism, 

“Don’t go any further. You aren’t even grown as high as the green onions I have at home. What if you drown?”

The commenters instantly got slammed with laughter, and before long, the screen was full of lols and rofls. Zhao Ye Ki was almost dying of laughter herself, and she would have gone for a swim in the water if she wasn’t holding onto Ah Qi’s hand, but even that was debatable. Weirdly enough, Li Su Li felt her heart calming down a bit, so it wasn’t just her that had to suffer under Chen Yi’s poisonous tongue.

Fu Xiu Nian slightly raised up his eyebrow and turned his head back, where the sight of Chen Yi playing by the shore with a foxtail greeted him. So happy to be by himself and his eyes showed a reckless freedom that hasn’t been seen before.

It was said online that Fu Xiu Nian had a good temperament, that he had never gotten mad, not showing an ounce of anger towards Li Su Li whenever she was taking advantage of him. And yes, his temperament was not faked, as it was naturally a part of his personality, but he was not a saint. How could he not have a temper at all?

Fu Xiu Nian only believed that there were some people, some things that did not deserve him to nitpick at, like Li Su Li. Besides bullying new people on the scene for some trend of a topic and for some gain to her notoriety, what more did she have? He didn’t need to do anything and her time in the entertainment industry would not be long either way.

Li Su Li couldn’t rile up Fu Xiu Nian, but Chen Yi……

Fu Xiu Nian thought this man’s mouth must have been lined with arsenic, as otherwise how could it be so poisonous?

Chen Yi did not only have a poisonous mouth, his eyes were also sharp. He could guess that Fu Xiu Nian could not catch anything, and indeed it turned out that Fu Xiu Nian could not catch anything. 

Two hours quickly passed and even Ah Qi had caught about half a basket already. Zhao Ke Yi blindly moving her hands around could still catch two. Li Su Li on the other hand had started to play hooky but pretended otherwise. She, however, was cunning, and so when Ah Qi was concentrating on his fish, she went to secretly slip one out. 

So now her basket contained one not so big and not so small wiggling fish. In comparison to the other three, only Fu Xiu Nian was empty-handed. His basket, on the other hand, was full to the brim, but unfortunately they were all caught by Chen Yi.

The time limit was up, and everyone was so tired their waists almost couldn’t straighten up. But they still focused back to check on the results, interested to see who would be in last place. The filming crew found an electric scale to weigh their baskets, and when it came time for Fu Xiu Nian’s turn, the producer glanced at Chen Yi and said, 

“This basket of fish……”

Chen Yi kicked the rock by his feet, uncaringly saying, 

“Count it for Fu Xiu Nian.”

His voice just dropped and before even Fu Xiu Nian could say a word, Li Su Li exploded first. Her fish weighed less than Zhao Ke Yi, and if this basket of fish counted for Fu Xiu Nian, she would be the loser. So no matter what, she would not and could not agree to this. With a fake smile, she said, 

“These were obviously caught by you, so how could it be counted for Fu Xiu Nian? Chen Yi, you really shouldn’t be like this.”

Chen Yi lazily stuffed his hands in his pant pockets, 

“Didn’t you steal your fish from Ah Qi’s basket anyway? I saw it all.”

And then even conceitedly stuck out two fingers and pointed at his eyes, signalling that his eyes were omniscient.

[ Puh hahahaha what a great way for Chen Yi to teach a lesson. This is absolutely my happiness trove for today ]

[ How despicable lol, but I like it ]

[ I just saw Li Su Li steal from Ah Qi’s basket too. What a bitch ]

[ Hu! No matter what, I must thank Chen Yi. I never thought that he would give the fish to our Xiu Xiu ]

[ Suddenly found that he’s not so bad, not that rotten to the core after all ]

[ Hu hu hu, there are some people who are too overly emotional. Rome wasn’t built on a day, so how could a person’s personality change like that? Have you never heard of that saying? ]

[ Oh there’s also that saying you can’t change someone’s way of eating no ]

The air was suddenly drenched in ice, and the filming crew was also put into a bit of a difficult position. Seeing this, Li Su Li sighed daintily and rubbed her wrists, 

“I twisted my wrist when I was trying to catch the fish. Even if it is to be a volunteer to do some chores, that’s just helping an old granny with her household chores. Besides, everyone’s quite tired. Chen Yi, even if you are ill, two hours of rest should be enough right? How about this, we all go back to make dinner and you go to the entrance of the village to help the old granny with her chores?”

And then turned towards the producer, pitching up her tone to sweetly beg, 

“Director, what do you think of my reasonable suggestion?”

Reasonable your fucking mother.

Chen Yi lifted his eyes, about to quip back again, but Fu Xiu Nian suddenly opened his mouth to say, 

“How about this? I don’t count Chen Yi’s as my own, you don’t count Ah Qi’s fish as your own. The both of us will be the bottom two and we can both be volunteers, splitting the share of the work. That way, it should be done fairly fast.”

It was the first time that his attitude was so strong that it made even Zhao Ke Yi look over strangely.

Li Su Li obviously would not want to agree, and she glanced condescendingly at Fu Xiu Nian and didn’t reply.

Ah Qi was fairly respected for his celebrity status and his years in the entertainment industry. So it was not unexpected that he would be the backbone of them all, chosen as their leader. Hearing them argue like this, he stepped up to warm the atmosphere back up, 

“To help others is a good thing, so let’s not fight about it. We can all go together. The more the better, the more the faster. And the faster we finish, the faster we can eat dinner.”

Zhao Ke Yi also spoke up to help bring down the stiffness, 

“Yeah, yeah, we are a team. We should be putting our heads and hands together.”

No one else spoke up after this, as if in agreement, and so the director himself followed along and accepted their proposal.

And so everyone started to walk towards the village entrance. Chen Yi threw his jacket on his shoulders and with both of his hands in the pockets, he walked lazily and slouched, the exact picture of a hooligan, the complete opposite of a composed gentleman. Fu Xiu Nian avoided the cameras and discreetly walked close to him. He said with a very soft and small voice, 

“Chen Yi, thank you.”

Chen Yi gave him a quick glance and seeing Fu Xiu Nian smiling with his eyes like twinkling stars, he emotionlessly retracted his gaze and ignored him.

But Fu Xiu Nian continued to follow him, like a little duckling, and the smile on his face was so big, it was curving up his eyes, 

“I think you are a very, especially, good person.”

Not just very good, but very, especially, good.

Chen Yi scoffed, face very unhappy, 

“Don’t pass me the nice person card. Give something more substantial.”

Fu Xiu Nian thought about it, 

“It’s your turn tomorrow to cook, so how about I help you?”

The jacket moved with him as he shrugged, 

“Even if it’s my turn tomorrow, I wouldn’t do anything,” 

And then said, 

“Do whatever you want.”

The village entrance was at the complete opposite end of where they stayed at, and so there was quite a bit of distance to walk. When they got to the granny’s house, the group helped her pull up all the weeds in her land, sweep the courtyard, feed the chickens, only finishing up when it was very late in the afternoon. But before they left, the old grandma gave them a lot of fruit and food, so it could be considered an unexpected haul.

At the height of summer, the air was filled with the sounds of insects. Bugs, like crickets, were going mad with their sounds. The air was also humid and hot, with many flies and mosquitoes flying about in the countryside. They were all bunched up, making clouds on the roads, and the sight of it only made all the hair of those who looked upon them rise up in fear. 

Fu Xiu Nian had never seen such a scene and he was twisting his waist, avoiding there and here, but even still, there was a cloud of them heading straight at his face. Out of fear he jumped back, but he didn’t expect that he would step on something, and in the end, trip downwards clumsily.

A hand reached out in a blink of an eye and he was dragged back up by his collar. Chen Yi furrowed his eyebrows and stared emotionlessly at him, 

“Did a machine gun attack you? Can you not walk straight with your feet?”

He held onto Fu Xiu Nian easily, as if he was dangling a little duckling. Fu Xiu Nian ducked down to look at Chen Yi’s shoes and discovered that he had left a footprint with his stumbling steps. He immediately apologized very sincerely, 

“Sorry, that was my fault.”

Chen Yi let go of him, 

“These words, you should tell them to my shoes.”

And threw the jacket lying on his shoulders onto Fu Xiu Nian’s head, walking past him.

The comments start flushing in again at this:

[ What the fuck. It’s just stepping on your shoes, why did you have to be so mean ]

[ Chen Yi’s eyes are too vicious. These kinds of people from the point of view of Physiognomy are not considered good people ]

[ Chen Yi just has sanpaku eyes1, so he looks cold blooded and ferocious. I feel like he’s ok. Besides his mouth needing a beating, every other fault is rather ok (but the main point is that I simp for his face. Not taking any arguments, don’t point your pitchforks at me) ]

[ To be honest, just speaking of his face, he is really hot. His handsomeness can blind my eyes ]

[ Excuse me, his personality? Handsome means he doesn’t need a good personality?2 ]

Fu Xiu Nian pulled the jacket down and his black inky eyes darkened. He thought Chen Yi was angry, and it was with this perfect timing that Li Su Li came up from behind, her voice cracking, 

“Why are there so many bugs here? Ack ah, I’m about to go crazy. Fu Xiu Nian, are you going to wear the jacket in your hand? If you aren’t, let me borrow it to hide from the bugs.”

Fu Xiu Nian slightly tightened his grip on the jacket, as if he just realized something. His head snapped towards the shadow of Chen Yi’s back as Zhao Ke Yi lethargically said, 

“Ah, there’s only a few more steps before the house. Su Li, we should just hurry back. I’m so tired and thirsty.”

Li Su Li frowned, not willing to give up, but when she turned her head back, Fu Xiu Nian had already left them in the dust. She could only hustle forward to follow.

When the group of them went back, they were all out of energy. Each one of them lay on the chairs, pretending to be corpses. Seeing them like this, the filming crew immediately took the chance to announce the winner, picking Fu Xiu Nian as the one chosen for the chance to head into the “convenience shop”. He asked the others if there was anything they needed before he left, and Ah Qi and Zhao Ke Yi both said no, while Li Su Li had no response as she was still in the washroom. That left Chen Yi.

“You got cigarettes?” 

He sat with his legs crossed and his words were much like Fu Xiu Nian’s, never giving up until they broke the jaws of everyone, 

“If there’s cigarettes, bring a pack back.”

Fu Xiu Nian has never seen such a celebrity who did not care about their image. If Chen Yi really was to start smoking on the program, he would no doubt be cursed and swore at to death by the anti-fans. And so he lightly shook his head and said, 

“I don’t think there would be cigarettes.”

And then he didn’t ask Chen Yi again, afraid of him saying something else even weirder, but the screen was already, once again, filled with hate comments.

[ Smoking? Did my ears fail me? He wants to smoke? Does he not have any self-awareness as a public figure? Even if he is rotten to the core, he couldn’t be this rotten to death could he? ]

[ Motherfucking piece of shit. Smoking means that he’s rotten to the core? Your grandfather, your father, who doesn’t smoke? Celebrities are human too ]

[ He’s going to give a bad image to kids ……. ]

[ Give fucking what. When I was just born, my dad was right next to me, smoking the hell away. If the kid turns out bad, that’s not the fault of the celebrities. That’s the fault of their family upbringing ]

[ No matter what, public figures should take notice of themselves. But whatever, Chen Yi has so much shit on him, what does it matter if he smokes ]

[ Idols need to give his fans a good image though ]

[ Chen Yi has no fans. They’re all antis. When I go rag on him, who fights me back? To be honest, even if he puts himself as a saint, you all will just think he’s pretending. So what’s the point ]

[ None of you have ever helped him, nor have any of you supported him before, so why put him on such a high pedestal? What do you have that allows you to point and wiggle your fingers at him? There was another outdoor variety program that had a few award winning male actors smoking in a pile, and all of you said that it was interesting. Here you say Chen Yi is a bad role model for kids. Not to say that he didn’t smoke yet, even if he did, how is that any of your fucking business ]

[ What, on what grounds does he, Chen Yi, have to be compared to those award winning actors? Who is he? ]

[ Chen Yi’s at least better than you. Who are you? ]

Twilight was fast approaching and Chen Yi’s eyes were sharp. He could very clearly see that instead of going to the washrooms as she had proclaimed, Li Su Li was talking with her manager by the small trail in the forest. The two of them seemed to be in a heated argument with Li Su Li’s face full of impatience and her manager chatting her ears off. And only after a long while did her manager let her leave.

Zhou Ming, that clingy annoyance, seemed to also want to speak privately with Chen Yi, but Chen Yi pretended he didn’t even see him, whistling away. Looking up and down, never looking at him, making Zhou Ming angry enough to blow his head off.

It did not take long for Fu Xiu Nian to come back with many different flavours of instant noodles in his arms. Ah Qi was extremely excited, so much so that he jumped up from his chair, 

“Bless your soul! You’re too smart!”

The few of them were so garbage at cooking that even eating instant noodles was heaven. Zhao Ke Yi came closer to help him hold some, and she was also excited to the point of screaming, 

“There’s my favourite spicy flavour with my favourite pepper! AHHHHHHHHHHH! Fu Xiu Nian I love you to death!!!”

Fu Xiu Nian also slipped out some ham sausages and jerky3 out of his pockets, 

“We can add this into the noodles after.”

It was at this time that Li Su Li walked over and looked at the table. Evidently, she had no interest and said, 

“I’m already sick of eating instant noodles. Are there no snacks? Fu Xiu Nian, did you bring back some chips or shrimp fries?”

Chen Yi walked closer and elongated his syllables saying, 

“Yes, there is. You can be the winner next time and you will be able to have your pick. Whatever you want to eat you can take whatever.”

And then randomly picked a bag of instant noodles and threw it at Fu Xiu Nian, matter of factly saying, 

“I’m hungry. Cook me up a bowl.”

Fu Xiu Nian clumsily caught it, and he was not only not angry, but he was also very happy, smiling like a Maneki-neko,4

“Ok, wait a bit ok? I’ll go make you a bowl right now.”

And then headed straight to the kitchen to boil some water.

Li Su Li looked at Chen Yi, hiding some hostility in her eyes. She crossed her arms as she said, 

“It’s your turn to cook tomorrow. You wouldn’t be thinking of pushing that on to Fu Xiu Nian, would you?”

Chen Yi was like a dead pig who was not scared of boiling hot water5, unabashedly and mockingly said, 

“I can’t cook.”

Li Su Li sneered out, saying some words that made Zhao Ke Yi and the others frown, 

“It’s said that children from poor families mature at a young age, so how can you not know how to cook?”

A human needs their dignity, their “face”, as like a tree has their bark. Being like this in front of the cameras, opening up the conversation on Chen Yi’s family status, it was too hurtful to one’s self-esteem. Not only did it make Zhao Ye Ki and Ah Qi furrow their eyebrows, it made even Fu Xiu Nian in the kitchen pause in his movements.

The air was turning frosty and the atmosphere had a weird tension. Ah Qi was also a bit afraid that Chen Yi would turn his embarrassment or shame into anger, and he was even prepared to have to break up a fight when……

“Oh, because we were so poor we didn’t have anything to eat.”

So poor they didn’t have anything to eat, so he naturally would not know how to cook. Do you understand now?

Zhao Ke Yi was just drinking water and did not expect Chen Yi to answer back like this. So when he said that, she spit out her water in shock, and then started to laugh until she choked. Ah Qi also shook his head, lost in his own laughter, and the viewers themselves were also choking up in laughter.

[ HAHAHAHAHA, Sorry how could Chen Yi be so funny. What a guy, what a guy ]

[ PUH HAHAHAHAHAHAHA my face mask is almost torn apart from how much I laughed. What a comeback he gave. What is this? I almost want to turn into his fan ]

[ I almost dropped and broke my phone from my sudden laughter. The people on the metro must think I am crazy hahahahaha ]

[ What a piece of mouth that Li Su Li has on her. What’s wrong with being poor? She’s not a princess with a golden spoon herself, having come into the entertainment industry as an unknown lowly model ]

[ My stomach’s gonna split from my laughter. This guy is so bad, so dirty, so shitty, I love him ]

When Chen Yi and Li Su Li were fighting each other, there would basically be no comments on the screen yelling at him. Fu Xiu Nian finished cooking the noodles and came out of the kitchen holding a bowl. He calmly said, 

“My family’s poor too, but I also don’t know how to cook.”

Chen Yi took the bowl from his hands, 

“Are you quite proud that you can’t cook?”

He mixed his noodles and found that there were two marinated eggs hidden in the bottom of the bowl. Chen Yi paused in his movements, but he did not say anything. He just started to eat and kept to his space. Seeing the others head into the kitchen to cook their own bowl of noodles, Fu Xiu Nian crouched by Chen Yi to whisper, 

“There were some packs of cigarettes inside, but I didn’t take any.”

Chen Yi lifted his eyes, 

“You dare to say that to me, right to my face, when you didn’t bring any back. Are you looking to get scolded?”

Fu Xiu Nian smiled with his eyes curved up and shook his head. He then took out two handfuls of lollipops out of his pant pockets and with some rustling, he held them in his hands like a bouquet of multicolored flowers, 

“But I brought back a lot of candy for you. There’s orange flavoured, lemon, strawberry, grape, whatever kind you want I have.”

The night was descending and there was a slight cold breeze wafting by. Fu Xiu Nian’s eyes were like the quiet night, twinkling. Chen Yi gave him a glance but he didn’t know what to say, and so he continued to eat his bowl of noodles.

Fu Xiu Nian was not hungry and moved a small chair to sit in the courtyard with him.

“The Yi in your name, Chen Yi, is it the Yi from memory?”

“No, it’s Yi from a billion million of wealth.”6

Click here to bypass all the footnotes!

Notes:

*1 Sanpaku eyes: a term from (chinese) physiognomy where there’s more sclera than the pupil as the pupil is leaning more towards the top or the bottom, said to look very cold hearted and no emotions in their heart. This is more specifically on the chinese side, as I’m not too sure about if there are differences between japan and china (even though I am taking the japanese term as what it’s more known as), but there are a lot of different “sanpaku”, separating into upper or lower, “one word”, “triangle”, “round shaped”, “faint sleepy”, and so forth. Here are some examples from anime to show  But you can search “三白眼明星” (tagging just celebrities at the end of sanpaku there) for real life examples!

*2 Handsome means he doesn’t need a good personality: Here they are pointing at “a good personality” to mean three things, of which are more philosophical based (kind of like how they view themselves, things and the world. And based on that philosophical thinking, the individual themselves form a basis of their own sense of reality, of common sense, of their baseline, of what they perceive to be right or wrong, of how they would perceive different situations, assess how they see people, etc. Like your mentality to everything but also how you react to your mentality (or your actions based on your mentality). As a very very brief overview as it is quite philosophical and encompasses a lot more theory, but in this particular phrasing, “a good personality” is pointed at or what it would constitute is separated into 3 categories:

1) towards humans or others: for example, would you be happy for a friend who got promoted? Or would you be jealous or demean that promotion as not even good enough?

2) towards the world: do you see a glass half full or half empty? Do you think that a woman always needs to be a housewife and takes care of the children (or need to have children)? Or on the opposite side of that, do you think a man always needs to work, and be the breadwinner of the household?

3) of the value towards everything: What do you see in the value of jewelry? Of handmade knits? And do you think one is better than the other? Something more expensive is better? Or handmade is better? Do you think that a vegetable is better because it looks great or because it has a great price tag behind it? Onto less monetary value, do you think someone who is dressed up with very little clothes is slutty? Do you think someone who dressed up, never showing a bit of skin is a bit uppity tighty?

And from these three categories, you form your “personality” to say, in who you are and how you react to things. Having a good personality means then to have a good mentality in the way you view the world and the others and of value (and how you act on it)

*3 Marinated jerky is a bit different than your normal western experience. It’s usually a bit more soft than your normal pepporoni jerky and more square like the picture below on the left, and has a lot more flavours that can be explored, such as salt and pepper, teriyaki, sweet bqq, etc. etc (but usually more savory than salty and brine-y as of western jerky I find). Some are usually packaged in strips or like rectangles/squares, which makes it a very easy snack and you can find them in separated packaging or in one big bag.

Ham sausages are basically what you think they are, but they are packaged in little tubes, sold in packs that are about the size of your hand, just wrapped around with tape, like the one on the right, not usually refrigerated, and they have those annoying metal things at the end… Sometimes I have heard it referred to as a pack of thin slices too.

jerky/鹵肉乾 (left) & ham sausage/火腿腸 (right)

*4 Maneki-neko: So apparently, there are two originating points according to baidu, one from china and one, as most of you may have thought, japan. But they are basically cats with their paws raised (which has quick a few interpretations for if the left or right paw is raised such as right as for money/happiness, left for customers/luck) for superstitious beliefs. There are multiple faces you may have seen on maneki-neko, but Fu Xiu Nian is likely to be showing ones below:

*5 dead pig who was not scared of boiling hot water: This is a saying that is like the proverb, a dead mouse feels no cold, where no matter what happens, no matter what difficulty you may encounter, you are either strong enough to endure it and not affect you or you just don’t care enough, like whatever happens, whatever happens. It’s usually said mockingly and is directed to another or to one’s self (scoffing others or self-deprecating).

*6 billion million of wealth: Fu Xiu Nian is mentioning “yi” as in memories/recollections “回憶” whereas Chen Yi is saying no it means money/wealth, the “yi” is “憶”, for money/billion, and the phrase he uses can be translated as billionaire or just someone with lots of money.