Transmigrated into the Film Emperor’s Death-Seeking Fiance

This chapter was translated by Daed and edited by Lynn to be hosted on Foxaholic only.
Thank you.

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I want to tell you that this chapter would be posted earlier if not for how annoyed I got with YMX the long paragraphs and the desire to find the best word or way to phrase terms which are explained in the longer-than-usual footnotes.

Last edited 9/10/21.

Jiang Mo Chen arrived right on the dot.
He sat down opposite him and said, “There was some traffic congestion.”

Yuan Ming Xu nodded and asked, “What do you want to drink?”

“Green tea is fine.”

Yuan Ming Xu sent a WeChat message telling his friend to make a cup of green tea and send it over.
Then he set his phone down on the table.

“Long time no see.”

“It certainly has been a long time since we last saw each other.”

“Well, it probably wasn’t that long,” Yuan Ming Xu smiled.
He was very good-looking when he smiled, carrying a sense of reserved innocence, “It’s only been two months or so.”

Jiang Mo Chen was somewhat surprised.
So it had only been two or so months.
He had thought that a very long time had passed.
He looked at the person in front of him, suddenly realizing vaguely that that wasn’t the case.  

“I came intending to visit you at work.
This way, you won’t need to request a leave of absence.
But, considering how your spouse will also be there, I was afraid that it would be awkward.
So I didn’t go.” 

Jiang Mo Chen replied with a “Mn”.

Yuan Ming Xu continued, “Is he also someone in the entertainment circle? I’ve never heard of him before.”

“He graduated recently.
He didn’t really act in any films.”

“Oh, then he must be very happy with you looking after him now.
In the first movie he’s in, he is Director Wang’s third male lead.
I heard his role is also quite compelling.
Ji Si Xing has been on the scene for so long and he’s (JSX) merely a second male lead.
He (YQC) is truly much more fortunate.”

Jiang Mo Chen didn’t really like what he was hearing.
It was as if Yan Qing Chi was only able to be cast in this role because he knew him (JMC) in addition to sheer luck.
So he opened his mouth to say, “He is indeed lucky.
It just so happened that this role was vacant1.
However, I merely recommended him to audition.
I didn’t do anything else.
There were two other people who auditioned with him, including Wei Lan.
For him to be able to secure this role, he himself has some skill.”

Yuan Ming Xu hadn’t expected Jiang Mo Chen to explain so thoroughly to him just because of an insignificant remark.
For a while, he didn’t speak; he only stared at the other man, dumbfounded.

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Luckily, the green tea that Jiang Mo Chen had ordered came at this time.
The shop owner set the green tea down before him and then quietly left.

Jiang Mo Chen took a sip, “Not bad.”

Yuan Ming Xu smiled, “The drinks here are all very delicious.
If you like it, you can drop by more often.”

Jiang Mo Chen also smiled, but didn’t make any comment.

“You two seem to have a good relationship.”

“Well, we live together under the same roof.
Neither of us are that hard to get along with, so we naturally have a good relationship.”

“Is that so? Then that’s good.” Yuan Ming Xu looked down at the glass in his hands, “It’s good that you two are getting along well.
I was worried that the two of you would have trouble getting along since there wasn’t a foundation of any romantic feelings, not to mention how young he is.” 

“Not at all.” Jiang Mo Chen replied.

Yuan Ming Xu suddenly felt quite miserable.
He stared at the lemon slice in his glass, and felt that he was like the lemon2.
“But, I still don’t get it.
How could you get married so suddenly and so quickly? You didn’t have any such intentions before.”

Jiang Mo Chen thought for a moment before simply saying3, “It just so happened that we already had a childhood engagement; and as it happened4, their family had moved back; coincidentally, I had also wanted to settle down; and by chance, we both liked men.
And so, we got married.”

“That’s quite coincidental.”

“Yeah.”

The topic ended there.5

Yuan Ming Xu looked up at Jiang Mo Chen.
The corner of his eyes were slightly angled downwards, making him appear innocent and pitiful.
“You’ve gotten married.
Are we still friends?” he asked.

Jiang Mo Chen hadn’t expected for him to ask this question.
He didn’t quite know how he should respond.
Friends? The help he had provided Yuan Ming Xu in the beginning, and the friendliness he had shown the other man, were not because he had wanted to be “friends”.
It was simply because Yuan Ming Xu had stubbornly defined their relationship as friends6, so he had acquiesced and became his “friend”.
But now, was there still a need for them to be friends?

Yuan Ming Xu, not receiving his reply, felt uneasy.
“Even if you’ve gotten married, you still have your usual social connections.
Even if he minded and kept you on a short leash7, he can’t stop you from interacting with your friends.
You don’t have to go so far as to break off the camaraderie between the two of us for him.”

“He’s not ‘keeping me on a short leash’.” Jiang Mo Chen refuted.
“He doesn’t even know the relationship between us.
He only knows that you exist.
He doesn’t know the specifics about what happened between us.
This is between the two of us, it has nothing to do with him.”

“Then why have you changed so much after you got married?”

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“Yuan Ming Xu, do you really not understand?” Jiang Mo Chen said quietly, “From the first time I came in contact with you, I didn’t want to be your friend.
It was only because you wanted us to stay friends that I became your friend.
However, now, I am married.
Naturally, the manner in which we interact with one another will change.
I cannot continue to pay attention to you at every moment or help you whenever you need it because if I do so, it will cause unnecessary issues for my marriage.
From a legal standpoint, I bear duty and responsibility to my other half (in marriage).
From a household standpoint, I need to avoid needless conflict as much as possible.
Moreover, regarding feelings, no one would want their other half to have an overly intimate friend.
That’s why I intentionally decreased my contact with you.
If you are in serious danger and you need help, of course I will help you.
But if it’s not anything gravely serious, I will keep my distance from you.8 By the same token, you shouldn’t keep seeking me out.
Do you understand?” 

Of course Yuan Ming Xu understood.
This was reasonable; anyone could understand.
It was just that when it happened to him, he would also react like most people and be unable to accept it.

He had thought that since Jiang Mo Chen’s marriage was not founded upon love, even if the two of them (JMC & YQC) lived together, they wouldn’t actually get along.
They would argue, would pick faults with one another—it would be no different from before they got married.
All that changed was the addition of another person and a legal certificate.
Yet Jiang Mo Chen told him ‘no, he had never been a reckless person’.
To him, every decision he made was the result of much consideration.
Perhaps he would be impulsive, but he was also able to bear the responsibility for his impulsiveness.
Just like now, he had chosen to bear the responsibility of matrimony. 

Yuan Ming Xu felt that the current him was somewhat awkward.
For Jiang Mo Chen, he came back to the country.
He didn’t go home; instead, he came to this city.
He was so eager to meet him (JMC), to return to the way they had interacted with one another before he left.
Yet Jiang Mo Chen sat across from him calmly, and calmly told him that they weren’t able to return (to that time) anymore.

He felt both chagrined and embarrassed. 

He stretched his hand out, handing over the present that he had prepared beforehand, “This is the grape wine that I personally brewed.
It’s a present for you.
Take it.”

Jiang Mo Chen did not move.

Yuan Ming Xu felt even more chagrined, “Don’t tell me that you won’t even accept my present.” he said wryly, the corners of his eyes slightly reddening.

Jiang Mo Chen sighed helplessly.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“I already shouldn’t have come to meet you without letting him know.
If, on top of that, I accepted your gift, then I truly would have gone too far.” 

Yuan Ming Xu could hardly believe it.
“It’s just a present between friends.
I brewed it myself.
It’s not anything valuable.”

“I’m sorry.” Jiang Mo Chen repeated.

Yuan Ming Xu stared at him, stunned.
He slowly drew his hand back, somewhat awkwardly setting the item down.
He lowered his head and cradled his glass.

With the other party not speaking, Jiang Mo Chen also didn’t know what to say.
Perhaps nothing he could say mattered.
Hence, he said, “Then I’ll take my leave first.”

“Now you’re not even willing to be in the same space as me.” Yuan Ming Xu muttered.

“I still have matters to attend to.
I have scenes to film in the afternoon.”

Yuan Ming Xu let out a light, derisive laugh and didn’t utter a word.

Jiang Mo Chen got to his feet.
Seeing the other man continue to hang his head down, he unconsciously felt irritated.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, yet having nothing to say.
In the end, he merely uttered, “Goodbye.” 

Yuan Ming Xu nodded, quietly staring at the glass in his hands.

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Up until he exited the store and boarded his nanny van9, Jiang Mo Chen felt irritable.
The sight of Yuan Ming Xu with his head down lingered in his mind——rather pitiful-looking; innocent yet aggrieved; like a small, wounded animal.
Just like when they (JMC & YMX) first met.
In the past, when he saw him (YMX) like this, he would take pity on him, would want to protect him.
Yet now, when he saw this expression of his (YMX), he felt kind of exasperated.
He couldn’t understand; Yuan Ming Xu was the one who liked someone else.
Why would he (YMX) make this kind of expression, like he (YMX) had feelings for him (JMC)? Like he (JMC) had turned his back on him? Wasn’t he (JMC) the one who had been abandoned by him (YMX)?

Seeing him in an apparent bad mood ever since he got in the van, Little Liu asked, “Chen-ge, shall we go?” 

“Let’s go.” Jiang Mo Chen said.

He leaned against the cushion and massaged his forehead, barely restraining his irritation.

Yan Qing Chi was chatting with Liu Meng about the changes to the film’s script.
He pulled out his phone to find that Wei Lan had unexpectedly sent him several WeChat messages. 

Puzzled, he tapped it open to see Wei Lan had sent: 【Quick, look at the trending searches.】 

Most likely since he (YQC) hadn’t replied, he (WL) asked: 【You there? Did you die from anger?】

Immediately following that text was an emote of a small person sighing.

Then he asked him: 【Yan Qing Chi, should I call you Lu (Green)10 Qing Chi now?】

Yan Qing Chi was baffled.
He opened up Weibo to check, only to see that the trending search was: 【Jiang Mo Chen,Yuan Ming Xu】

When he tapped it, there was the marketing account’s words-and-picture combo: The sunshine, air, and you; there is a kind of friendship called Jiang Mo Chen and Yuan Ming Xu.

Below it was a nine-framed square11 of the two of them having a pleasant chat with smiles on their faces.

Yan Qing Chi thought that this post was very pretentious.
As soon as he opened the comment section, he saw both parties’ fans’ enthusiastic comments controlling the scene12.

As always, the Little Houses remarked that today’s gege was as gorgeous and gentle as ever; they loved their gege for a lifetime. 

Yuan Ming Xu’s fans’ reactions were as so——Was the ‘sunshine’ part talking about how gege has finally come back to the country? Wahhh, we’ve missed gege so much.

Yan Qing Chi tapped into the reblog section and found that it was clearly not as ‘harmonious’ as the comments had been.13

@arghh14: Is Yuan Ming Xu at it again with his unwanted affections 15 today? He did? When will the giant baby learn to walk upright? Taking advantage of your Daddy Jiang’s popularity every day, have you paid your daddy? //@a red-crowned crane: Public reblogs16 count as ‘fangirling among yourselves’? ‘Sunshine’-jiejie is truly amazing.
//@Momomo: we cp fans are fangirling among ourselves17, can the solo fan18–jiejie be quiet? //@did the sunshine-jiejie forcefully pull a ship today19: pulled! //@did moming distribute candy today20: (candy) distributed! //@Sunshine Baby: The sudden mouthful of candy, eaten!//@baffling: Oh my god!!! What kind of great day is it!! Ming Xu’s returned to the country! And he met CEO Jiang! My cp is real!21 [picture]

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Yan Qing Chi followed their @s and opened Yuan Ming Xu’s Weibo to see that the latter had posted:
——Familiar air, familiar sunshine, familiar you.
@Jiang Mo Chen

The accompanying picture in his Weibo post was the same as the one in the marketing account’s post.

Even as Yan Qing Chi did not understand the game rules of the entertainment industry, he more or less understood that this was a promotion started by Yuan Ming Xu’s side.
The purpose was the same as his (YQC) had been: to bring attention to him (YMX).
After all, it had been two or so months since Yuan Ming Xu last appeared in the public eye.
Though, Yan Qing Chi looked at Jiang Mo Chen’s name on the trending search, Jiang Mo Chen most likely gave tacit permission.
 

The author has something to say:

Jiang Mo Chen: “I didn’t! I did nothing of the sort! Don’t spout nonsense! Argh, I’m so angry!”
Next chapter: Jiang Mo Chen dispels the trending search in fury, and angrily rebukes Yuan Ming Xu!

Chapters: 4/14.
Thank you for the kofi and for your patience!

Thank you for reading my translation! If you like it, please consider supporting me by turning off your adblock or by supporting me through kofi!

Footnotes

The actor had been fired because he accepted the offer to be a male lead in another drama/film and didn’t want to give it up even though it was well-known that Director Wang—the director of JMC’s movie—hated it when actors had multiple movies/dramas to film for at the same time.
This happened near the end of Chapter 26.He felt jealous.
The comparison to a lemon is due to lemons being sour, which is how people supposedly feel when they are jealous/envious of others.
Here’s a link if you want to learn more about it.So the raw for this is “轻描淡写” (qīngmiáodànxiě) which literally means “to sketch in light shades” and basically means he played it down/de-emphasized it (MDBG).
I was like “okay, I know what it means, but what is the right English word??” So according to Google, I can use “touch on the subject lightly” or else I’ll be saying it was an understatement.
I chose not to use “understatement” though since to me, that feels more personal? It is not as objective as I would like it to be; it still carries some personal emotions that JMC’s statement is an understatement.
But I think the focus is more on his attitude when he says it.
I wanted it to have the feeling of ‘Yeah, so it just so happened we had a childhood engagement and conveniently enough, his family moved back just when I was thinking of settling down.
And well, it turned out we both like men, so all in all, it worked out pretty nicely.’ Like a TL;DR or a summary, if you will.
By the way, he said ‘刚好’ (gānghǎo) aka ‘it just so happened’ in each phrase (“刚好以前定过娃娃亲，刚好他们家回来了，刚好我也想安定下来，刚好我们俩都喜欢男生，就结婚了。”) which I liked since it’s demonstrating how coincidental the whole thing was.
Here’s a link for “as it happens”.I took some liberty with this sentence.
The raw is this: 两个人说，就都没有再说话了 (liǎnggèrénshuō, jiùdōuméiyǒuzàishuōhuàle)。I would translate it like this: “The two of them said (about the timing of the whole thing), and then they didn’t say anything else.” But I decided to sum it up with ‘The conversation/topic ended there’ and give you the raw with its translation here if you were wondering about it.
Do people even care? Does anyone even read these footnotes?Yes, JMC got friend-zoned.“他管你管的严” (tāguǎnnǐguǎndíyán) – literally something along the lines of “he truly manages you strictly”.
I decided to use an English equivalent “keep you on a short/tight leash” which is an idiom meaning to “tightly control someone or something, to restrict someone’s freedom, to curtail someone’s independence” (Grammarist).
The raw said “…所以，我才会有意减少和你的接触，如果你遇到什么大的危险，需要帮助，我自然会帮你，可是如果只是日常的一些事情，我是不应该和你走的太近的，同样，你也是不应该总是来找我的，你明白吗?” I want to talk about the ‘可是如果只是日常的一些事情，我是不应该和你走的太近的’ part.
To translate it roughly, it’s something along the lines of “But if it’s just some day-to-day things, I won’t be too close to you”.
I interpreted it as JMC saying that if YMX sought him out for something like their meeting now or to hang out, he wouldn’t go.
He will keep his distance from YMX and avoid making any suggestive moves; he won’t cross the line.
He won’t offer any help or anything beyond what a normal friend or even acquaintance would offer.
I wanted to be transparent with you that I took some liberty in translating that part based upon my interpretation of it.The car that celebrities ride in to travel from schedule to schedule.
Usually they would be accompanied with other members (if they are in a group) or with their manager.Green as in ‘Green hat’.
Wei Lan is implying that Yan Qing Chi was cheated on, which is when someone would wear a ‘green hat’.
Here’s a website if you want to read more about it.
Anyways, ‘to wear a green hat’ means that you were ‘cuckolded’ or at least cheated on, so it’s a cultural faux pas and the color that Chinese people usually avoid for headwear.”九宫格” which means that there were 9 pictures in a format like this:

So a picture in each grid, basically, for a total of 9 pictures.
I translated ‘控评’ (kòngpíng) as ‘enthusiastic comments controlling the scene’ because interestingly enough, “控” (kòng) can mean both “control” and “enthusiast” (MDBG).
But it’s actually an online term referring to netizens—or in most cases, fans—commenting or reacting to control the direction of online posts or news.
You can read more here.
So basically the fans are intentionally controlling the direction/reception of the celebrity’s news.
JMC and YMX’s fans are deliberately focusing on praising either JMC or YMX, depending on who they are a fan of.
They are not fighting or hating on the celebrities involved.Order of this thread:

@arghh (most recent reblog, I think they’re replying to @a red-crowned crane‘s reblog) –> @a red-crowned crane –> @Momomo –> @did the sunshine-jiejie forcefully pull a ship today –> @did moming distribute candy today –> @Sunshine Baby  –> @baffling (first post with the picture attached)This is actually “annoyingannoyingannoying”.
I decided to change it though since I felt like the frustrated “arghh” might convey the sentiments better.So the word was “倒贴” (dàotiē) which basically means that you are in a lose-win situation where you are paying/losing money instead of earning it.
For example, someone owes you money but instead, you are the one paying them money.
It’s a bit difficult to translate this term for this specific context but it’s a similar meaning.
For example, a woman is extremely interested in a man.
Instead of being chased/pursued/courted/wooed by the man, she is the one chasing/pursuing/courting/wooing him all the while knowing that he isn’t interested in her.
This is an instance where daotie would be used to refer to what the woman was doing.
It’s similar to being a simp, but definitely not the same.I interpreted it as them reblogging the official post publicly instead of sharing it among themselves in a group chat or something.
Or reblogging with the post set to “everyone can see”.
’fangirling among ourselves’ = cp粉圈地自萌 (cp fěnquāndìzìméng).
cp=couple=ship/pairing.
粉 (fěn) = fan (in the entertainment industry).
圈地 (quāndì) – enclosure.
自
(zì) – oneself, self.
萌 (méng) – adorable, moe, have a strong affection for.唯粉 (wéifěn)- fan who only likes one particular member of a pop idol band or are only fans of a celebrity (not fans of any pairings they are in/have).
Edit: used “solo fan” instead of “stan” thanks to a suggestion in the comments!The username was “@阳光姐姐今天拉郎了吗” (yángguāngjiějiejīntiānlālánglema) which I already translated, but I wanted to comment on the “拉郎” part.
Literally, it’s “pulling the youth”.
It’s talking about forcefully pulling two unrelated figures (in the sense that they don’t have a relationship or anything that could develop into anything further) into a ship/pairing.
“郎” (láng) is “youth” (as in a young man) but it’s also the same láng in 新郎 (xīnláng) aka “bridegroom/groom”.
Anyways, it means something along the lines of “Did these fans set their idol up with someone (namely, JMC) again?” moming (墨明 mòmíng)= Mo x Ming aka the M in JMC and the M in YMX.
The ‘candy’ is referring to “喜糖” (xǐtáng), which are sweets given on a happy occasion (esp.
wedding).
It’s also called “happiness candy” or “wedding candy” since it’s usually distributed when people get married or when they get together.
In this case, there is no official candy distributed, but cp fans consider it to be a sweet interaction between the individuals in the cp they support.
So both this part ‘My cp is real!’ and the previous ‘The sudden mouthful of candy, eaten!’ were slightly tweaked because I couldn’t figure out what a good translation for 磕 (kē) would be.
One of the ways it would be translated is as “knock”.
The raws for those two were “我磕的cp是真的!” (“The cp that I kē is real!”) and “突然而来的一口糖，磕了!” (“The sudden mouthful of candy, I’ve kē’d it!”) respectively.
The following is copied MTL from Baidu: “It means ‘I saw the super sweet and super cute interaction of my CP! My CP is real!’ “磕 (kē)” is commonly used by CP fans, which means a verb used when ‘chasing a certain cp’”.