Chapter 73: CH 73

If someone had to pick which student had the easiest winter break in all of Qingyang High School, Ye JingMing would probably end up in the top three.

When the second semester of his senior year started, he wouldn’t return to class. Instead he’d switch over to the International Department of Qingyang High School.

The International Department of Qingyang High School was a place where people could burn money while they studied. Ye JingMing was only there to go through the motions. He’d already applied for the TOEFL. As soon as he passed, he’d begin applying to colleges.

Although Ye JingMing’s performance in other subjects wasn’t that great, his English was excellent. That was partly due to the fact that his father’s import/export business frequently dealt with foreigners.

Although the International Department and the general high school were built on the same site, the International Department was a world of its own. They didn’t even share a cafeteria. The dining hall of the International Department was a high-end restaurant where students could order from a menu. Their dormitory was a single room in a villa. Their school uniforms were London-style plaid skirts with a shirt, or a Western suit and tie with black leather shoes. It was worthy of the high tuition fees.

Given his situation, Ye JingMing didn’t have to face the pressure of the college entrance exam. He was spending his time at home playing games every day, completely carefree.

Of course, all the students knew Ye JingMing was headed to the international Department. His little brothers took great pains to organize a farewell party for him.

Young Master Ye had attended Qingyang School from kindergarten through high school. He’d been a school tyrant since junior high. During that time, he invited his classmates to dinner on weekends and paid bills costing tens of thousands with a generous hand. There were plenty of students willing to follow him.

Class 3 of senior three had decided to go to a bar during winter break to hang out, but when Ye JingMing sent a message to Zong Yan the previous day, the other party said he was in the United States and might not be able to make it.

“Weird, what’s he doing in the U.S.? That’s not a good place right now.”

Ye JingMing was lying on the sofa. The Filipina maid fixed him a glass of Coke with lemon and ice and set it on the coffee table. He turned on the TV while he played with his cell phone.

His family’s TV channel subscriptions were very much in line with the family business. They had all the international news channels.

A moment later, Ye JingMing spat out the Coke in his mouth.

There was no way he’d mistake the face on TV.

“That’s… Zong Yan?!”

It wasn’t just Ye JingMing. All over the world, wherever it was broadcast by the local media, everyone saw the video livestream from White House press conference.

The gray-haired man in a top hat elegantly lifted his black umbrella. The next moment, an army of shadows rose up from the ground and transformed into glittering black spikes that stabbed into the oncoming wave of ghouls. In seconds, their heads were separated from their bodies with surgical precision. Body parts rolled to the ground with fractured bones visible and green blood splattering from the wounds, but not a single drop stained the hem of the Night Watchman’s trench coat.

His posture was elegant and graceful, like he was attending a courtly dance in the ballroom of a historic castle, instead of slaughtering his way through a night-dark city, surrounded by submissive shadows. 

The first reaction of everyone, including the news media: “Did the White House just cut over to a Hollywood movie?”

The second reaction: “Ooh! That guy’s so good-looking. Where did Hollywood find such a fresh-faced young actor?”

A couple of minutes into the mix-up, the White House spokesman still hadn’t realized anything was wrong.

After all, he was standing in the front of the room. He couldn’t violate protocol and turn his back to the entire world just to look at the screen.

As for the personnel who’d set up the video link, their only responsibility was connecting the livestream from the fighter jet to the projection screen.

The fake broadcast was so classified that ninety percent of senior White House staff knew nothing about it, and the remainder had signed confidentiality agreements. Everyone knew the situation in New York was extremely damaging to the international image of the United States.

That was also why, when the video was first broadcast, no one in the entire U.S. hierarchy thought anything was wrong. They all assumed it was part of the setup.

The biggest names in American media, leaders from all over the world, and millions of ordinary people watched the live broadcast for nearly three minutes while the unknown person tore the creatures apart.

“Uh… Did you accidentally switch to the wrong feed?”

A few minutes later, a reporter in the audience cautiously asked a question that wasn’t in the script.

“Huh?”

By the time the high-level personnel finally reacted and scrambled to cut away from the livestream, people all over the world were already replaying the video over and over again.

Countless copies of the video were uploaded to YouTube. The hashtags on Instagram and Twitter began to trend, and the White House communications team suddenly had their hands full.

Of course, everyone assumed the White House had switched to the wrong channel.

But that scene just now was by far the greatest media accident of the year.

For ordinary people, their first thought on seeing such a video wasn’t that a superhuman being had appeared or that New York was under siege by aliens. The human worldview was too deeply rooted for that. Unless the occult world announced itself through national press and official news media, the average person’s assumptions wouldn’t change.

Except for military traffic, all forms of communication with New York City had been cut off. The city was closed down. Nothing could escape detection.

But those in the occult world, especially the MU investigators watching via an Internet feed to a projector screen in the conference room, understood what the video images meant.

“Didn’t the radicals lose the Spire Council vote?!”

An investigator exclaimed, “Quick, get in touch with the White House. What the hell are those people doing?”

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“Damn it! When the Spire Council decided to terminate the vote, we rolled back all our plans to expose the occult world to the public. We’re completely unprepared for this!”

It didn’t just stir up waves in the occult world. The communications team of the White House was frantic. The occult world tried to contact them, but so did dignitaries, prominent officials, and nobles in many other countries who were well aware of the existence of Awakened. Messages and telephones poured into the White House like snowflakes. The telephones of the Foreign Liaison Office kept ringing non-stop, and secure fax machines were transmitting documents one after the other.

“Damn it! Who was the idiot who connected to the wrong channel! The CIA, FBI, and NSA are calling too!” The head of the department was furious. “Idiots! Idiots! What a bunch of idiots!!! What are they saying online right now?”

The journalists at the press conference were all highly-trained. No matter how disorderly the situation, as soon as the press conference cut the video they immediately began trying to whitewash everything.

“Online they’re saying…”

Generally, when something like this happened, the authorities would approach the relevant social media companies and arrange to delete the posts and block them, ensuring no trace was left on the Internet.

What they didn’t expect was the response on Instagram and Twitter. It was beyond their imagination. Scores of melon-eating netizens were frantically retweeting and forwarding the clip, commenting wildly the entire time.

GUYI: Oh dear god! That guy in the video is so hot!

YEEEE: Did the White House accidentally show footage from a Hollywood blockbuster that hasn’t been released? Ummmmmm maybe the AV tech switched to a screening for the MPAA film ratings board by mistake? It doesn’t look like a clip from any movie that’s already aired. Based on the level of rendering, it probably hasn’t undergone much post-processing or had many special effects added.

KU: New face, total unknown. Hahahaha, this actor’s so lucky. His movie hasn’t even come out yet and it has worldwide attention. I bet the box office will explode

LShen: No idea what everyone else is talking about. Am I the only one who cares how cool that looked?? Just think about it, those aliens were so real! There’s only a handful of companies that can produce a movie like that, so—I hereby predict the Marvel Universe is about to add a new superhero!

TU: That’s just speculation… Neither DC nor Marvel has ever had a character like that in their comics. It’s probably from some other series like Terminator or Avatar

After seeing so many netizens guess that the White House accidentally cut to a movie, the person in charge felt slightly relieved.

“Divert attention, divert attention! Talk about the movie! Don’t bother with deletes and bans!”

As he roared in his office, a team of programmers began to quietly contact Twitter and Instagram executives to control online public opinion.

“Mr. Lawrence, the NSA just called. The identity of the person in the video is the tenth Monarch of the occult world. He’s a Chinese national, seventeen years old.”

“Damn it! A seventeen-year-old kid!” The person in charge pulled at his tie and shuddered as he thought of that teenager cutting up monsters like he was chopping vegetables. He couldn’t help feeling a little scared. “Does the NSA have a solution?”

Although it was a serious accident, the situation didn’t develop the way they would have expected. Online reactions were full of melon-eating netizens who were eagerly looking forward to the official release of the movie.

“What the NSA said was…” The department member covered the mouthpiece of his phone and hesitated before he spoke. “They said that since everyone thinks it’s a movie, we’d better release one on schedule.”

Sometimes, in order to cover up a lie, a lot more lies are needed.

But for an unexpected emergency, that was the best possible outcome.

“That’s right, the United States government will put together the best director, special effects team, and superstar supporting actors for him, and we will faithfully recreate the scenes in today’s leaked footage.” The man in charge mopped the sweat on his forehead. “This movie will be tailor-made for him. No matter what it costs the U.S. Treasury… This ‘New York City vs aliens’ war movie will be released on schedule.”

—

The Night Watchman was like a bow that skimmed gracefully over the strings of a violin, stepping lightly in the footsteps of death, disappearing silently into the shadows.

Zong Yan was oblivious to the fact that his figure had been seen by the world.

And he had no idea that he was about to be crowned as one of Hollywood’s hottest up-and-coming actors, featured in the biggest productions ever filmed in the history of world cinema.

Through the power of shadows, he’d already infiltrated the enormous black crevice the ghouls had opened in the intersection.

—

The author has something to say:

Zong Yan: The destined star of the silver screen, here I come!

—

TL Notes:

This needs another round of editing but I need to go lie down for a bit. mega headache rn

school tyrant – 校霸 – xiào bà – school bully, school oppressor – This isn’t the “learning tyrant” or “study tyrant” (学霸) that gets good grades, this is the kind of tyrant that beats you up or trips you in the hallway

young, fresh-faced – 小鲜肉 – little fresh meat – An internet buzzword in China used to describe handsome young males. It’s most commonly used for celebrities, particularly a rising star (Wikipedia)

melon-eating netizens – 吃瓜网友 – Melon-eating is a common way to describe people who are just enjoying the show. In English we might say they’re eating popcorn

GUYI, YEEEEE, KU, etc. – These netizen names are unchanged from the raw

MPAA film ratings board – 电影协会评级 – film association rating – The MPAA, now known as the MPA, is the organization which determines the rating for a movie in the U.S. and its territories. The MPA rating system is a voluntary scheme that is not enforced by law (Wikipedia)

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