TANW Chapter 68

Chapter 68 – A Painstaking Investigation for the Truth　　　　
　　
Wild Wolf Empire Community Masters Section

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(T/N: LeiFeng – 雷锋 is a Communist legend characterised as being modest and selfless.)

Walking behind HuLi was a big and tall guy, he was the drummer of the band. Just now during the performance he was in the corner, as the lighting was poor and LingYang had essentially ignored the stage, he did not notice him at all.

That person had a guitar amplifier in his left hand held together with a pair of drumsticks, and his right hand was empty. YeLang could roughly see a tattoo on the back of his hand, but it was not very clear.
　　
A cigarette hanging from his lips, he stopped to look at LingYang, and suddenly a shark-like grin appeared on his face. YeLang could feel LingYang’s body stiffened next to him, his hand that was gripping him tightened even more, just like how he held on to him in terror when they were in the pool.
The drummer flicked his cigarette butt onto the floor, crushing it under his left foot, grinding it into the ground. YeLang noticed that he was wearing a pair of American-styled military boots, this type of military boots would have heavy steel plates embedded in their soles to prevent punctures.

When the band left, YeLang pulled LingYang into his arms. He felt LingYang trembling like a leaf in the wind, and it took him a long while before he recovered.
“It’s fine, I’m feeling better now,” LingYang’s voice still sounded somewhat feeble, his eyes evasive, as though unwilling to talk about what just happened.
Although YeLang was worried, but looking at LingYang, he was afraid of agitating him further and so did not question him, only deciding on something privately.
　　
　　※
　　
There was still half a month before school would start, the both of them returned to their daily schedule of YeLang doing his internship and LingYang playing computer games. Most of the time, LingYang would be competing in the arena with QiFeng and XiaoGe, their rank already reaching 2200+. There were few teams at this level, and as such it took longer for them to be matched with an opponent, and their opponents were becoming tougher as well.
Today the game client went offline for a patch update. Bored with nothing to do, LingYang pestered YeLang to bring him to the office where he was doing his internship.
　　
On the way to work, YeLang stopped at a records store and bought a bunch of CDs. LingYang had not listened to any CDs in ages, after all it was the era of MP3s now, a song only had to be downloaded, and he did not know why would people still purchase physical copies.
LingYang only realised how big the company was when they reached YeLang’s workplace. If he was there alone, he would definitely lose his way. Also, as an intern, YeLang actually had an office?
　　
“What are you doing?” LingYang splayed himself across YeLang’s desk, watching him listen to the CDs one by one.
“Market research.”
“Eh——?” LingYang dragged the sound on purpose, “A young master would actually need to write reports? I thought you’ll only have to comment on them.”
“What nonsense, I’m only an intern.”
“An intern with his private office, your company is sure generous.”
“I don’t come here often, I’ll usually go to whichever department I’m training at. But if I bring you there, you’ll be stared at like an animal in a zoo.”
　　
LingYang stuck his tongue out, “Why does it sound like you have to go through many departments?”
“It’s our family rules, before officially joining the company we’ll need to train in all departments, it’s the same for everyone.”
“Ah, it sounds tiring just by hearing about it,” LingYang flipped through the CDs on the table. “What are you researching on?”
YeLang divided the CDs on the table into two piles, “This pile consists of idol singers who just debuted in the last year, and that pile consists of bands. If it’s a solo artist, both their style and image can be very flexible, and adapt quickly to the market. However, for bands, they’re limited in the sense of their styles, usually insisting on being original and maintaining their individuality, as well as focusing only on a certain genre. This results in very few bands who actually manages to become popular and recognised.”　　

LingYang did not understand, “Isn’t it good to be individualistic?”
“Insisting on individualism means that you would give up a large part of the market. To get into the popular market, if you can’t pioneer the popularity wave, you will need to be able to follow it, or else you’ll just be fighting against the currents. Especially for such bands where only the lead singer is very popular, by himself he can become very successful, but in a group, instead of helping him to shine, they might even become his burden.”
YeLang picked up a solo artist’s CD with his left hand. “The company has been eyeing a new artist recently, and he’s very interested in working with us, but his condition is,” He picked up a band’s CD with his right hand. “He wants his entire band to be signed with him. There are many school bands who list this condition. As students, they can work together without any conflict of interests, but once they officially enter the industry, there would bound to be some friction and disputes. Most of the time even before they manage to achieve anything, they would have disbanded because of internal conflicts, wasting both the company’s manpower and capital.”
　　
YeLang was very serious when it came to talking about his work. LingYang had never seen him talk so much at once before. “But I do feel that hoping to maintain their youthful dreams and unwillingness to abandon their friends is very good of them?”
“That depends on what you’re hoping for. To become a successful singer, there may not be a glorious path, they might have to struggle in obscurity for many years, facing all sorts of barriers, and finally giving up their ideals. They would either hate and leave the industry, or bow down to reality, but by then they would no longer have the image of a youthful idol anymore.”
LingYang considered YeLang’s words, although he felt that it was too cold-blooded and practical, but he could not think of any rebuttals. “Wow, you’re really a professional at destroying dreams.”
YeLang tossed the CDs onto the table, “I’m only being frank.”
　　
LingYang looked towards the ceiling, “Hold on, the new artist you mentioned, is it HuLi?”
“Yes, it’s him.”
LingYang’s favourable impression towards the new artist disappeared in an instant, “I really can’t imagine that he’s actually such a loyal person.”
　　
Watching YeLang concentrating on his report, LingYang did not dare to disturb him. However, feeling bored, he left the office to explore the company.
The nameplate outside YeLang’s office stated just YeLang, with no title. The next few rooms were the same as well, the nameplates showing YeKai, YeWen… Their last names were all Ye. LingYang wondered if they were all interns who had yet to enter the company officially. Such strange family rules.
Only after that long corridor did the nameplates started looking like ordinary ones, General Manager’s office, Executive’s office… They actually looked like they belonged to a proper company, as people were able to tell what their positions were.
　　
LingYang came to another long corridor. There were many large framed photos were hung on the wall here, displaying images of superstars. LingYang was not interested in such stars, although he found most of them familiar looking, but he could not recall their names. Looking through them one by one, when he finally saw someone he recognised, he became very excited. It was Wu GuanFeng!
In the photo, Wu GuanFeng was dressed in a Thai police uniform, it was grey-black in colour with brown accents, a dark red shoulder cord, emblems on both sides of the chest, a leather belt around the waist. The biggest highlight of a Thai police uniform was its tightness, a person wearing it would have his body frame delineated in the uniform, amongst all other uniforms it was famous for being sexy.
　　
Wu GuanFeng’s head was slightly lowered, his right hand wearing a leather glove holding onto his police cap and tilting it down on his head, covering half his face, a faintly wicked smile upon his lips. His two legs were spread slightly apart, with a pair of shiny black high cut boots that stole LingYang’s breath. He stared at them, imagining how YeLang would look like in them.
Gazing at the photo, LingYang was lost in his fantasies. Suddenly hearing footsteps heading towards him, he turned his head slightly and his eyes fell onto a pair of male leather shoes.
　　
LingYang did not have any special interests in leather shoes, but as the leather shoes section in Empire was just next to the boots section, he would also browse it occasionally, and knew what the styles they preferred.
There was a popular saying in that circle, a woman’s degree of sadism was proportional to the height of her heels, while the degree of sadism of a man was proportional to the pointedness of the toes of his shoes. According to this rule, the owner of this pair of shoes would definitely be a super sadist. His leather shoes had pointed toes, just by looking they felt painful. LingYang had seen many owners of leather shoes on WeiBo wearing this style of shoes.
　　
As the person moved closer, LingYang’s eyes remained on his feet, and did not pay any attention to his face.
His feet suddenly stopped, shifting slightly towards LingYang. Only then did LingYang react, lifting his head hurriedly. Their eyes met, and LingYang got worried.
LingYang knew many experienced masters were good at reading people, their radars very accurate, immediately picking out people within their circle. The other person definitely had misunderstood his behaviour, as expected, there was a glint of interest in the other person’s eyes when he looked at LingYang.
　　
A person like this who had been in the circle for very long, they were usually very good at concealing their inner desire. However, when luring people in, they would exude a very powerful and undeniable aura, leaving people like LingYang in fear. After that bout of eye contact, LingYang hurried looked down.
That person looked at the photo on the wall, then looked at LingYang again. The amusement curling around his mouth deepened, but too bad that he currently had something to attend to, and could not tease this little friend over here.
　　
“Do you know where is YeLang’s office?” Having guessed his orientation, the stranger did not bother with pleasantries. He had also never met YeLang before. He came here on business, and the front desk had told him YeLang would be in the big workspace on the second floor. Reaching there, someone then told him that YeLang was in his personal office upstairs. In such a huge company, he was starting to get frustrated searching through it.
So this person was looking for YeLang? LingYang was a little doubtful, but he still gave him the directions. The person gave a nod and left without a single word of thanks, almost as if he expected LingYang to give him a kowtow.
　　
Watching that person’s back disappear from his sight, LingYang still had some lingering fears. No matter how alluring Wu GuanFeng’s police boots were, he could not continue staring at them anymore, it was time to leave. He ran downstairs to where there were more people, everyone seemed very busy, some on the phones, some carrying folders, and others recording notes while walking.
LingYang took a look around, only the front desk on the first floor seemed idle, so he went there with an excuse to accost the ladies there, quickly amusing them and managing to get a fair bit of gossip about YeLang.
　　
LingYang felt thirsty after all the chatting. There was a water dispenser available for guests in the hall, LingYang poured himself a cup and again met that person he previously saw in the corridor. He nearly tossed his cup away in fear.
Afraid that the person would expose him, he hurriedly clarified, “Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not like that.”
It was as though that person had heard something funny, “Your expression is so obvious, with a glance I can tell you’re from our circle.”
“I am from that circle, but I’m no…” LingYang also did not know how to explain.
That person tapped on his phone, “Antelope Cannot Fly.” Then he scrolled down to the details, “So it’s like this.”
In his head, LingYang rolled his eyes. So you just used the location function of M2.
　　
That person was about to continue, but then heard YeLang’s voice behind him. LingYang’s first thought was that he was rescued, then his second thought was oh no, did YeLang hear their conversation just now?
Noticing the presence of someone else, that person’s dominating aura dissipated. LingYang gave a sigh of relief, quickly going over to YeLang, as though running back to his safe zone, relaxing.
　　
That person greeted YeLang, his attitude just like an ordinary person, although there was no change in his appearance, but his aura was completely different.
“You know each other?” Seeing the two of them together, YeLang was curious.
That person studied YeLang and LingYang, gaining a slight comprehension, “He’s yours?”
LingYang knew the other person had misunderstood again, he quickly clarified again, “We’re friends.”
He nodded distractedly, leaving after saying goodbye. YeLang still had something on, after giving LingYang a few warnings, he left as well. When both people left LingYang immediately went onto M2, Old Gun?
LingYang tilted his head in thought, why was this name so familiar, did he see it somewhere before?
　　
YeLang walked into the reception room, there was already someone waiting there for him. It was no other than the drummer of HuLi’s band, ShenMa.
ShenMa felt that it was very strange for the company to just invite him alone, but as the person who called him said that all members were to be interviewed separately, he did not have any further doubts.
ShenMa felt YeLang was very familiar, taking awhile before he realised he was that person with LingYang that night.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, please take a seat.” YeLang gestured at the sofa.
ShenMa was somewhat perplexed, he had never expected the company representative to be so young.
“I’m not the decision-maker, I’m only in charge of doing the preliminary research,” YeLang noticed his doubts, and took the initiative to explain. “I believe you know it as well, HuLi insists on signing as a group, so I would like to understand the opinions of the members.”
　　
One hour later.

Although YeLang was not good with small talk, but towards this sort of purposeful conversation, he was quite accomplished at it.
ShenMa was engrossed in the conversation, and so he completely put down his wariness. When they were done talking about business, he even started gossiping.
“You’re Little Antelope’s man?” ShenMa grinned, speaking casually as though he was good friends with YeLang.
“You know him?”
“Of course, that fellow is very sly,” He sneered. “Don’t get deceived by him.”
“Oh? Is that it?” YeLang asked without a change in his expression. “Which part of him exactly?”
“His character,” ShenMa gave a thumbs down. “Very terrible.”
　　
“What do you mean?”
ShenMa showed signs of reluctance, “It’s not very nice to say this, but he was once a third party before, seducing an attached guy, it’s really…”
“How did you know about this?”
“How did I know? Because the one he seduced was my cousin’s boyfriend. The couple had a good relationship, then thinking that they were brothers, he tried his luck with him, but in the end he was rejected.” Recalling it, ShenMa gloated, “He still thought no one knew about it, too bad, the wicked would always get punished. At that time HuLi happened to be sitting next to them, and recorded their conversation, he then informed my cousin about it.”
　　
YeLang stared at that triumphant face, suppressing his furious urge to punch him in the face.
ShenMa saw his expression and thought that he did not believe him, “If you don’t believe me, you can ask HuLi. He still has the recording, it’s in that recording pen he uses often.”
ShenMa suddenly leaned forward, his elbows on the table, his voice lowered, speaking secretively, “Little Antelope also has another secret that you probably don’t know. He’s actually a pervert.” He licked the corner of his mouth, “He’s in that circle.”　
　　
　　
The author has something to say:
　　
The author has finally got a chapter locked!
The author has said that she hates this, so she was forced to find an alternative, but there were still people reporting it!
People who read chapter 67 would know that the censored chapter has nothing, even if there were a couple of words, but that was to describe LingYang’s inner world, there was nothing sexual about it!
Don’t know what’s the mentality of the person who submitted the report, seeing how chapter 67 has now been edited into that shattered mess, really want to make you kneel at my feet!
　　
Recently been preparing for Brother Lang’s entrance to that circle, Little Antelope’s past will also be slowly revealed, the truth is usually both cliche and dogblood, please prepare your umbrellas and washbasin.
　　
The plan was originally to let Wu GuanFeng dress in leather, but after seeing two people on WeiBo dressed in Thai police uniform on two consecutive days, I thought it was really great, and so changed my mind.

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