Watchers of the Entertainment Industry

The next day, at around eight in the evening.

On Muren Mountain, in the outskirts of Jiangrong.

The area was usually deserted and so quiet that not even birds could be heard.

Yet nobody would have guessed that a wooden cabin stood atop one of its magnificent, picturesque peaks.

At that moment, the three members of "Sky Curtain" were inside the cabin.

"Brother Mu, I've gotten more than ten jobs over the past two days. They're all asking us to investigate the person Feng Bingbing confessed to!"

"Brother Mu, I've got seven or eight jobs too. Sigh."

Fat Tiger and A Hen were reporting on their recent work to Lin Mu.

The cabin was Sky Curtain's secret base. The three often met there to discuss important matters, and it also concealed many secrets about celebrities.

Lin Mu had called Fat Tiger and A Hen over that evening to discuss an important matter: how to transform their work going forward.

But before they could get started, Fat Tiger and A Hen began venting their frustrations.

The two had received a lot of offers over the past few days to investigate "the person Feng Bingbing confessed to." Some had even offered astronomical sums.

They were both tempted. With Brother Mu's connection to Feng Bingbing, getting the information out of her should have been a piece of cake.

But Brother Mu had said they couldn't take the jobs, and even if they did, they wouldn't be able to find anything. So the two of them had been forced to turn down those lucrative offers that had practically fallen into their laps.

Zhang Hen refused to give up, and worried that other people in the business might get there first, so he investigated on his own for two days.

In the end, he really hadn't found a thing.

"A Hen, you're useless. If I'd gone, I might not have found the person himself, but I'd at least have come back with a lead."

Fat Tiger sat on a stool, his short, chubby legs propped on the table and a cigarette dangling from his mouth as he taunted Zhang Hen.

"What the hell do you know?"

Zhang Hen glared at Fat Tiger. Despite his handsome face, he wore a full beard. He said coldly,

"I checked the men in the industry who knew Feng Bingbing. I even looked into her university, middle school, primary school, and kindergarten classmates."

Fat Tiger waved a hand. "And what did you find?"

Zhang Hen deflated, then said glumly, "Not one of them met both conditions: being Feng Bingbing's childhood classmate and her university classmate."

Fat Tiger chuckled, took his legs off the table, and gave his heavyset body a shake.

"That's how I know you're an idiot. You only checked men. Did it never occur to you to look into women?"

Zhang Hen's eyes widened. "You mean the person Feng Bingbing confessed to is actually a woman?"

"Enough!" Lin Mu snapped.

Seeing their boss's displeased expression, Fat Tiger and Zhang Hen quickly shut their mouths.

They glanced at each other, both a little confused.

Why had Brother Mu suddenly gotten angry?

Lin Mu looked at the two idiots and felt a headache coming on.

He was a grown man. Who wouldn't get angry if someone called him a woman?

"Ahem." He cleared his throat, took two black bags from his own bag, and tossed one to each of them.

Fat Tiger and Zhang Hen caught them and took a look inside. They couldn't help looking up at Lin Mu. "Brother Mu, why are you suddenly giving us so much money?"

Each bag held twenty bundles of cash, with a hundred bills to a bundle. That meant each of them had two hundred thousand.

The day before, Liu Qiang had given Lin Mu six hundred thousand as a thank-you and hush payment. Today, Lin Mu had visited several banks and withdrawn all of it.

A paparazzo's professional rule: whenever possible, split the money in cash instead of transferring it, so no one can trace it.

Six hundred thousand, split twenty thousand apiece.

Zhang Hen asked in surprise, "Brother Mu, we haven't taken any big jobs lately."

Fat Tiger just grinned and reached for Zhang Hen's bag. "You don't want it? Give it to me."

Zhang Hen kicked at him, but the little fatty dodged nimbly.

Lin Mu coughed, and the two troublemakers stopped fooling around.

Lin Mu looked at them and said slowly, "Do you know where this money came from?"

The two obediently shook their heads.

Lin Mu continued, "Liu Qiang gave it to us."

"Liu Qiang? Wasn't he trying to pressure you into selling him songs cheap? Why would he give you so much money instead?"

Fat Tiger asked in surprise.

Lin Mu explained what had happened, then concluded, "Liu Qiang is grateful we helped save his family. So this six hundred thousand is what we earned for doing a good deed. Don't you feel at ease taking it? Doesn't it make you feel good?"

What had happened with Liu Qiang had given Lin Mu a lot to think about.

He'd originally planned to gradually shut down Sky Curtain, then take Fat Tiger and A Hen into the entertainment industry to clean up their image.

But after what happened with Liu Qiang, Lin Mu felt that Sky Curtain still had a real purpose.

They just needed to do things differently.

They couldn't keep acting recklessly, without any principles, and doing everything just for money.

That was making money at the expense of their conscience.

One day, they'd pay for it.

The fact that his original self had been replaced by someone from Earth was proof enough.

Sky Curtain was like a fearsome beast. If left to run wild, it would only hurt others and itself.

But if they reined the beast in and kept it under control with rules, they might earn a little less, but at least they wouldn't suffer a backlash in the future.

Besides, Lin Mu planned to make his way in the entertainment industry. If he ran into someone like Liu Qiang, who tried to use his status to bully people, Lin Mu wouldn't be powerless to fight back.

So Sky Curtain could continue to exist.

The condition was that they couldn't cross the moral line and should do their best to operate within the rules of society.

Then Lin Mu explained his intentions to the two of them in the simplest language he could manage.

More than ten minutes later, Lin Mu finally finished his important speech. He concluded,

"Comrades, times have changed. The old-school paparazzo playbook doesn't work anymore. We have to keep up with the times, go with the flow, and become righteous paparazzi for a new era!

"No—we're not paparazzi. We're the watchers of the entertainment industry. Our job is to keep an eye on performers who neglect their work and fail to uphold professional ethics,

"and, as a bonus, earn the rewards we deserve.

"That's the direction Sky Curtain is heading in!

"Come on, let's shine the light of justice on the screen!"

Clap, clap, clap!

He started applauding himself as soon as he'd finished.

Then silence fell over the cabin.

Fat Tiger was bewildered. He scratched his chubby face and asked, "Brother Mu, what does 'watchers of the entertainment industry' mean?"

A Hen frowned, pondering. "Righteous paparazzi for a new era?"

For the moment, Lin Mu couldn't explain it clearly to them.

The truth was, he himself had been in a state of confusion these past few days.

His original self had been beaten down by society and turned thoroughly evil. Lin Mu had been a top student at one of Earth's leading music conservatories.

Those two utterly different lives had merged into one body because of the same impossibly handsome face.

Even Lin Mu wasn't sure whether he was a paparazzo who'd lost all decency or the future star of the Central Conservatory of Music.

So maybe Sky Curtain was an opportunity for him to figure out who he was.

For now, he'd give it a try.

As long as no junior or female coworker confessed to him again.

Whether on Earth or in this world, there was only one kind of person who could really be the death of him—

Women!

"Don't overthink it. Just stick with me, and that's all you need to know!"

Lin Mu waved a hand at Fat Tiger and Zhang Hen.

"Sure. As long as I can keep following you, Brother Mu."

Zhang Hen nodded.

"Works for me. Heh, as long as there's money to be made."

Fat Tiger agreed with a grin.

Lin Mu breathed a small sigh of relief. With those two on board, a lot of things would be easier from now on.

"All right! To celebrate Sky Curtain's successful transformation in advance, I'm treating you both to skewers!"

"Great! After the skewers, let's hit a bar and pick up some girls!"

"Fatso, shut up!"

The three left the cabin, laughing and chatting, then drove down Muren Mountain. Fat Tiger chattered away about how gorgeous the girl he'd picked up last time had been, while A Hen silently watched the scenery pass outside the window.

Back in the city, they went to a barbecue stall they often visited. Fat Tiger ordered a hundred skewers of lamb kidney, a hundred skewers of lamb, and two cases of beer.

The three ate and drank to their hearts' content. Suddenly, Fat Tiger asked,

"Brother Mu, you're competing in the top hundred of Pure Voice next month. Jiangrong Satellite TV is keeping the judges' identities tightly under wraps this time.

"Should we find out in advance who the four judges are? If any of them has something incriminating in our hands, heh heh, we can make them help you win the championship!"

Thank you to reader "Rong Bai" for the 504-point tip. Please keep up with the latest chapters and leave more comments. Thank you!