I've Transmigrated Into This Movie Before Chapter 7

Chapter 7 is up, enjoy~

To the members of the circus, this performance was an opportunity, an opportunity for them to escape from the abyss of suffering.

Another name: The abyss of suffering was also called 'Boss Qu'.

This sinister, cunning, and vicious fellow without a shred of humanity in him, would only drape a piece of outer skin, known as 'loving father,' over himself  in front of his daughter - turning from a beast to a clothed beast*.

"It's impossible to completely escape from the abyss of suffering." A young man who had just returned from his performance sighed. "But within the scope of Miss's vision, will be a piece of pure land."

And then, the competition began, and Chen Junyan who had an advantage over the others due to his looks, became the first victim.

That night, Chen Junyan was suddenly attacked by someone who muffled him with a blanket  while he was deep asleep, then proceeded to shower him with waves of hits. These hits were aimed specifically at his face. The next day, he turned up to morning assembly with one half of his face swollen. Boss Qu slowly strolled along the front of the formation while tapping his whip against his palm with a steady beat. His footsteps stopped abruptly when he passed by Chen Junyan. He slightly lifted up Chen Junyan's chin then asked indifferently, "You guys did this?"

Everyone immediately grew uneasy, is Boss Qu going to stand up for him?

Boss Qu scanned everyone's faces, then let out a cold snort, "Your unswollen faces, can't even compare to his swollen face."

Nighttime, Chen Junyan was met with another round of attack. This time, everyone had learned from their previous failure and hit him evenly so that he became swollen on both sides, making sure his attractiveness was pulled down to less than average.

The next day, Boss Qu let out a satisfied laugh, then pointed at him with the whip. "You'll do, come with me."

We've been tricked!! Everyone howled in grief internally, So he's intentionally choosing an ugly duckling* to bring to Miss in order for him to accentuate his own handsomeness and tall stature??

"What's wrong with your face?" Inside the courtyard, Ning Ning asked curiously.

Chen Junyan glanced over at Boss Qu who stood beside her, and answered with a lowered head, "I fell down due to my carelessness last night."

Ning Ning got up from the chair and walked to stand before him. Then, leisurely walking round him in a circle, she held out a hand to lift his chin up to make him turn his head to look at her as she stood at his side. "Your injury doesn't look like it's from a fall."

Boss Qu gave a loud cough. Ning Ning nonchalantly withdrew her hand, then she heard Boss Qu speak coldly, "Since you're injured, go back first to take a rest."

…As if this is a pure land, it's clearly the ocean's abyss of suffering that has neither shore nor boat!

Chen Junyan was unwilling to leave when he had just come, for he had no idea when he would get another chance to come here. No, to be more accurate, with Miss's show of intimacy towards him today, he supposed there wouldn't be another chance for him to appear before her in his lifetime.

I must get into Miss's good graces, must get rid of Boss Qu's suspicions.

Both must be executed at the same time! That's what I should do!

"Aren't you leaving!" Boss Qu gave him an unfriendly look.

…Forget it, I can only have a future if I'm still alive, thus let me leave for now. This matter has to be carefully planned.

Chen Junyan returned back dejectedly to the circus. Just as he thought, he was never again picked by Boss Qu, and could only look on helplessly as other people from the same dorm were chosen one after the other. When they came back, they would gather together in either a large group, or small ones, to talk about the Miss.

"Miss truly is kind-hearted. Not only did she ask me if I was tired, she also offered me pastries."

"She doesn't resemble master at all…They must not be related!"

"Amitabha, please let me be chosen tomorrow, and please don't let the pastry tomorrow be durian flavoured."

Chen Junyan grieved for them who had been bribed with just a few pieces of pastries- forgetting just who they had to owe for their current predicament, and forgetting what lay in wait for them in their future.

After he listened to a few more lines, Chen Junyan could take it no more. He lifted his blanket and sat up, sneering at everyone. "Have you all forgotten about the incident regarding Li Xiulan?"

Instantly, the room grew so quiet that a pin drop could be heard. Everyone stopped their conversations and turned to look at him.

"Don't forget about her outcome."Chen Junyan spoke in a heavy tone. "Her current outcome will be our future outcome."

When everyone thought of the pitiful state Li Xiulan was currently in, they couldn't help feeling the fear lingering in their hearts.

There were in total eight people here in the circus, and when adding Li Xiulan and another girl, there would be ten people. All of them were reserves for the circus. However, different from other circus' reserves, who wanted to get a spot on stage using every means possible, none of them wanted to become a 'big star' of this circus.

"Also, don't forget that once we too had a home before we were kidnapped and brought here."Chen Junyan looked around at everyone, his gaze stopping on a young man. "I remember you said your family runs a sea shipping business and is quite rich. You've always been able to eat bird's nest and sharks fin whenever you've wanted to since you were young. But now? A few pieces of pastries and you've already forgotten who you are?"

Those words reached right into that young man's heart. He lowered his head down, sniff, sniff, and started crying.

The others weren't feeling any better; none of them present had joined the circus willingly for they had all been kidnapped and brought here.

"…What's the point of thinking so much?" Another young man who couldn't stand the depressing mood, spoke up in a low voice, "We can't go back anyways, so living to see another day is a day. If y'all want to make trouble, you can go ahead without me. I don't want to end up like Li Xiulan. I'm going to try Miss's path; even if I can't be a person, being a lowly pet under Miss is fine as well."

Thus, the depressing mood was swept clean as everyone looked at each other with twinkling eyes, seeming to share the same thought.

Life wasn't easy, especially for people like them with such a bitter fate. Hence, even if it was a spider's thread that had dropped above their heads, they would still grab it at all costs. Hoping that following it would help them climb out of the abyss.

Henceforth, everyone once again began discussing 'Getting Close to Miss' 101': from "speculating about Miss's preference due to the daily pastries rewards" to "the type of boy Miss likes"…As for the latter, everyone thought Miss liked their type.

As per usual, Chen Junyan didn't take part in their discussion because he had already found the person he was looking for.

A young man with a freckled face sat in the midst of the crowd. He made a few attempts to join the discussions but was always overlooked by the others, leaving him with no  choice but to stay silent and listen in.

Little Freckle. As for his real name, nobody remembered. Boss Qu called him by Little Freckle, hence everyone called him that too.

During dinnertime, Chen Junyan brought his bowl over to sit beside Little Freckle. Little Freckle glanced over at him, then lowered his head to resume eating.

"How's it going?" Chen Junyan shoved rice into his mouth, asking as he chewed, "Does Miss like your ball balancing show?"

Right before Chen Junyan had asked the question, he had already known the answer. Because Little Freckle was the least skilled amongst them, as well as the ugliest, everyone had assumed that he would be the first one leaving the reserves to join the circus to be a 'big star' - even he himself thought so.

Sure enough, Little Freckle's face turned white as sheet before he put down his chopsticks and lowered his head. "Not too fond…"

"Is Miss not too fond of you or your show?" Chen Junyan asked.

"Not too fond of my ball balancing show, no, not too fond of me…" Little Freckle lowered down his head and choked up with emotion. "She doesn't like my show or me."

He had always pitied himself and thought everyone hated him. In actual fact, most people didn't hate him, but instead, completely ignored his existence.

Chen Junyan wasn't his enemy or his friend; approaching Little Freckle was purely for the purpose of his plan. Thus, Chen Junyan sighed. "What'll you do? I heard someone in the circus was injured and doesn't seem to be recovering even after treatment, so master will soon choose one of us to replace them."

"What?" Little Freckle let out a cry of alarm. "Hasn't Li Xiulan been requested already?"

"Shh!" Chen Junyan put a finger to his lips and looked around warily, before speaking in a lowered voice, "Li Xiulan went there to receive punishment, while choosing us is the normal replacing of old with new. How's it the same?"

Little Freckle believed his words and immediately paled. He asked with trembling lips, "Th-then do you know, who master has decided on?"

"How would I know?" Chen Junyan turned his attention back to his bowl of rice. "Eat up, the rice is turning cold."

How could Little Freckle have any appetite left. He sat crestfallen beside Chen Junyan while playing with his rice.

Chen Junyan quietly finished the rice and sides in his bowl, then washed up and returned to his room. And that night, Little Freckle tossed and turned relentlessly in bed behind him. Chen Junyan slightly opened his eyes and then quietly shut them.

The days passed by, but nobody realized the abnormalities with Little Freckle except Chen Junyan.

Firstly, because he didn't have much of a presence. Secondly, he didn't have any friends. Last but most importantly, everyone's attention had been drawn away by Miss; compared to Little Freckle, everyone was more concerned about who Miss would call to come over the next day.

Thus, under everyone's indifference, Little Freckle slowly crumbled apart.

Chen Junyan spotted it and wanted to say something a few times, only to restrain himself from doing so at the very last moment. He knew that Little Freckle was someone who was easily contented, so much so that he didn't need to say anything except to just give Little Freckle a pat on the back or give him a single stalk of vegetable from his bowl when eating. Thus, it would be as if he had grasped onto a spider's thread that hung down from the hole entrance - holding on tightly to this gleam of hope.

But I can't do that, Chen Junyan thought whilst looking at the back view with hunched shoulders of the other party.

The next day, as per usual, only one person was called over to perform for Miss.

"Little Freckle!" Boss Qu called out, "It's your turn today!"

In the midst of the crowd, Little Freckle's body trembled as a sparkle lit up in his eyes. However, it was drowned out by Boss Qu's next words. "This is probably the last time, so go and prepare quickly."

Chen Junyan looked at Little Freckle and could vaguely see the spider's thread on him snap.

A person can persevere on when they have a gleam of hope, but what if there isn't even a shred of hope?

They will take a risk out of desperation.

Sorry, I have no ill feelings towards you, but this is something I must do, Chen Junyan thought as he looked at Little Freckle's slowly disappearing figure.

He shut his eyes, then opened them. He walked passed the stream of people and headed straight toward where Boss Qu stood.

The Circus was currently on a performance tour, hence there were many administrative matters to settle and Boss Qu would deal with those tasks first before going back home to accompany Ning Ning to watch the tricks. That said, the performers weren't given any chance to leave alone as someone would follow them on their path to Miss, and won't leave even after they had reached her, guards would keep watch until Boss Qu returned.

From his daily eavesdropping on other people's conversation, Chen Junyan gradually discovered an important piece of information.

That guard…has a small bladder. He could hold it in for at most an hour before he would need to relieve himself, and the journey to and from the toilet was approximately a minute. Chen Junyan had already leaked this piece of information as well as another one that was even more significant to Little Freckle in a roundabout way.

Finally, he approached Boss Qu and said in a submissive manner, "Master, Miss is in danger."

Uncommon terms:

Clothed beast- 衣冠禽兽(yī guān qín shòu) is used to describe a beast dressed/concealed in human clothing. Sometimes used jokingly to describe a well-mannered man that's a beast in bed.(this is not the case here, as clothed beast here is used to describe an immoral and despicable person).

Abyss of suffering- (a buddhist term)

Pure land-(buddhism) refers to Amitabha Buddha's pure land of ultimate bliss.

Ugly duckling- the original text translates to ugly cunt which I felt was too barbaric hence ugly duckling.

Translated by: Ruisi

Edited by: Ely

Thanks for reading~

Chapter end