He knew that what happened today was nothing, but the video of Chen Fu forcefully pulling him might attract insults from netizens. After all, Jiang Qing had saved Chen Fu's life, and even if it was just filming, how could Chen Fu treat her savior so rudely?
But he hated Chen Fu's expression.
Cold, dull, and chilling.
A sense of unease gradually crept over Jiang Qing, and he drank two glasses of wine in silence. The wrap party was fast approaching, and he listlessly searched for his assistant in his seat.
That idiot, who knows where he's run off to again.
Just then, a handsome young man appeared before Jiang Qing.
"Brother Jiang, I'm sorry, Brother Chen ate something bad and went to the toilet. He asked me to come find you. The makeup artist is all ready and waiting to do your look tonight."
The boy looked no more than eighteen or nineteen years old, with a pair of upturned fox-like eyes that gave him a somewhat alluring appearance.
Jiang Qing pulled the name tag off the boy's chest, glanced at it, and snorted coldly, indicating that he had heard her.
He followed behind the boy, but due to his drunkenness, his vision gradually became blurry, and even the familiar road seemed unfamiliar. Jiang Qing grabbed the boy's arm, displeased, signaling him to slow down.
The boy eventually led him to the dressing room and gestured for him to enter.
The smell of alcohol made him feel dizzy. After a while, Jiang Qing took a step inside.
But the moment she entered, she heard a bang; the door had been locked from the outside. The sudden turn of events left Jiang Qing stunned.
The scene before her gradually became clearer, and the falling dust made Jiang Qing cough incessantly.
He looked around blankly. The room was dark and the lights were off. By the faint moonlight, he could see various props laid out on the floor.
This isn't a dressing room at all; it's clearly a storage room for props.
Han Xiao's staff tampered with the explosive devices here.
A strange emotion welled up inside Jiang Qing, and she angrily pounded on the iron gate.
Damn it, how did I end up here?
After dozens of knocks went unanswered, Jiang Qing began to feel a growing sense of panic. He was now mostly sober, so he yelled angrily and pulled out his phone to call his assistant.
But the moment the call connected, a loud bang suddenly came from the storage room. The sound was so loud that it was exactly like the sound of explosives detonating, which startled Jiang Qing so much that she threw her phone away.
Jiang Qing cursed angrily and squatted down to pick up her phone.
Immediately afterward, flames swept over his head, followed by the sounds of a second and third explosion. The intense heat made Jiang Qing scream.
"What is that?!"
The increasingly fantastical encounter forced him to calm down. Jiang Qing swallowed hard. The explosions continued, as if they were pointing to something, and there were a total of six explosions.
Someone is playing tricks.
He's been in the industry for so long, he's seen it all, how could he be scared by such a small trick?
Jiang Qing forced himself to stand up. The storage room window was unlocked, and he tried to climb out through it.
But then, he saw a person in the churning firelight.
Han Xiao looked like rotten flesh, his face contorted in a grotesque grimace.
*
"Dear media friends, please don't be in a hurry."
Dozens of reporters, ready to conduct interviews, surrounded Lu Xiaomi outside the storage room.
"I'm so sorry, Jiang Qing just went to the storage room to get props with the stage manager."
Clips of celebrities working can also be edited into promotional videos, and some media outlets immediately requested to film inside them.
Seeing that her attempts to dissuade her were ineffective, Lu Xiaomi had no choice but to press the doorknob.
Chapter 28 CP28
Han Xiao, emerging from the firelight, resembled a withered skeleton. Even with Jiang Qing's resolute character, seeing an "old friend" in such a bizarre scene couldn't help but cause her to panic.
"It was Chen Fu who caused you to this state. The wronged should be held accountable, Han Xiao, don't come to the wrong person."
As Han Xiao approached step by step, Jiang Qing hurriedly retreated. In the chaos, his left hand brushed against the flame, and he immediately felt a sharp pain.
A series of hideous scars appeared on Jiang Qing's skin. Jiang Qing screamed and abruptly pulled her arm back. But as if it had a life of its own, the scars crawled upwards like worms. In no time, Jiang Qing's entire left arm was covered with ugly burn scars.
The sudden turn of events caused Jiang Qing to completely lose his mind. Moreover, as the scars continued to spread, the pain in his body became even more intense. In his struggle, he shrank into a cramped corner, and the dust piled up in the corner poured down on his head. Jiang Qing coughed violently.
Disarray, anger, panic, and fear intertwined, and the complex emotions caused Jiang Qing to lose control of his expression. His whole body trembled unnaturally. Jiang Qing hid in a corner and cursed viciously, cursing everything he could think of.
"You dare say you didn't harm me?"
Han Xiao, burned to a crisp, turned into a pool of writhing liquid on the floor. His face, aged beyond recognition due to drug overdose, was now gaunt. Han Xiao said, "The drugs you gave me are highly addictive and hallucinogenic, several times stronger than those circulating on the black market. Jiang Qing, you're not trying to make a deal with me; you're clearly trying to kill me to silence me."
Those withered hands suddenly gripped Jiang Qing's neck. The hands were as cold as a dead man's, yet stronger than iron clamps. Overwhelmed by fear, Jiang Qing's body convulsed. Amidst the swirling dust, he felt as if he were about to be strangled to death.
He mumbled incoherently, saying he didn't mean to kill her, that the medicine he gave her had no side effects, but his feeble explanations clearly failed to sway Han Xiao. Just when he thought he was about to be strangled to death, the storage room door suddenly opened a crack—
As if unable to withstand the light, Han Xiao, resembling a ghost, screamed and quickly released Jiang Qing's grip, fleeing swiftly. With Han Xiao's departure, the illusory yet real flames gradually subsided.
Jiang Qing, freed from his restraints, scrambled out of the storage room. His legs were weak and his body trembled, so he could only crawl on his hands and knees like a dog. A surge of joy at being rescued overwhelmed him; he frantically thought that as long as he escaped, everything would be alright. However, the extreme fright he had experienced in the storage room still left a lasting impression. Jiang Qing couldn't help but scream, "There's a ghost!" while muttering incoherently, "Han Xiao, I really didn't hurt you. The medicine I gave you was from the company; there won't be any problems."
Jiang Qing breathed a sigh of relief the moment her body was illuminated by the light.
However, what greeted Jiang Qing immediately afterward was not the joy of escaping, but a dozen cameras pointed at him and a group of dumbfounded media reporters.
Moreover, several media outlets specifically launched live online broadcasts in order to be the first to send out their footage.
"Jiang Qing, what's wrong?!"
Mr. Lu, who was in charge of planning and interviewing for the wrap party, was shocked.
*
The chaotic situation plunged the atmosphere into an eerie silence. Several bodyguards following Ye Xin rushed forward to confiscate the reporters' equipment, and the live stream that was being filmed was forcibly shut down. Everyone stared at Jiang Qing in astonishment.
The man before him was filthy and utterly disheveled, crawling on the ground like a dog, his expression contorted with extreme fear. Jiang Qing wore a foolish grin, his entire body covered in dust and grime. His meticulously styled hair was adorned with confetti from small fireworks bursts, and even his once handsome features appeared comical due to his panic.
He lay on the ground, looking at the countless cameras pointed at him, and frantically covered his face with his hands.
"Stop fucking filming!"
Ye Xin squeezed through the dense crowd. For today's wrap party, she had specially changed into a white suit to match. Ye Xin's delicate makeup was mostly ruined because she was in a hurry. She grabbed a black trench coat and draped it over Jiang Qing's shoulders.
"Make way, everyone! The artists need a rest!"
Dozens of bodyguards quickly began clearing the scene. Reporters blocking the entrance were pushed and shoved, being asked to leave. Amid the chaos, Jiang Qing suddenly grabbed Ye Xin's sleeve.
"Sister Ye, I didn't kill Han Xiao. The drugs I gave him were all from the company. You gave them to him. Tell me, Sister Ye, there's nothing wrong with our drugs. They're just addictive, but they don't have any side effects."
Ye Xin's brand-new white suit was ripped open with a dirty handprint by him. Jiang Qing's words were like a thunderclap. Reporters who smelled the big news refused to leave. In the chaos, someone secretly turned on the recording pen they were carrying.
Drugs, addiction, side effects.
These few words are enough to give Ye Xin and Jiang Qing a hard time.
The scene descended into chaos once again, and amidst the noise, Chen Fu frowned.
This unexpected turn of events brought many crew members to the scene, and Chen Fu also arrived accompanied by Xiao Lingdang.
What's wrong with him?
Seeing Lu Yu standing calmly to the side, Chen Fu asked a question.
Nothing much, just a dogfight with Ye Xin.
She didn't want Chen Fu to see these dirty things, so as if to protect her, Lu Xiaomi put her arm around Chen Fu's shoulder.
Chen Fu was wearing an off-the-shoulder evening gown, and her exposed skin was pale and bluish-white from the cold, which made Lu Xiaomi frown.
She took off her coat and draped it over Chen Fu, carefully tidying it up for her.
"nothing."
"The wrap party that was scheduled for a short while might not be able to take place."
In the chaos, a little white fox ran out of the dark storage room, and Lu Xiaomi squatted down and hugged 0413.
"Why don't you change your clothes and I'll take you out to eat?"
*
Jiang Qing's wrap party was canceled amidst the chaos.
Ye Xin paid a large sum of hush money to the media who came to film, half threatening and half negotiating, demanding that they delete the video. However, because of the live broadcast, the video of Jiang Qing just crawling out of the storage room was still uploaded to the internet.
In the video, Jiang Qing appeared terrified and disheveled, a stark contrast to his recent public image. Many casual fans expressed disbelief, finding the difference too great to accept.
Moreover, in order to find out what Jiang Qing actually said, meticulous netizens compared the lip movements of dozens of Chinese characters and finally determined that the most frequently occurring words in this nonsense were Han Xiao, medicine, and addiction.
This discovery quickly caused a huge uproar online, and netizens also quickly dug up the news that Han Xiao had gone abroad under the pretense of illness. It was hard not to speculate when these two things were linked together. So some people spread rumors that Jiang Qing had done something wrong and encountered something unclean, while some "industry insiders" came out to refute the rumors, saying that Jiang Qing had indeed done something wrong, but it was unlikely that she had encountered something unclean.
"The accident site was quickly cleaned up by the site staff. There was nothing in the storage room except for six small, burnt fireworks."
As the rumors intensified, Xihe's public relations department issued a statement overnight, saying that their artist Jiang Qing had suffered a recurrence of a pre-existing illness due to illness, which caused her erratic behavior. Jiang Qing has now recovered and her emotions have stabilized.
However, all his subsequent work will be temporarily suspended.
Even the New Year's Eve party that Xihe had carefully prepared could not be attended by Jiang Qing.
*
Lu Xiaomi was in charge of the New Year's Eve party. Her major in college was related to this, so she was quite good at it.
To ensure a comfortable experience for every guest, Lu Xiaomi specifically instructed the staff to arrange related guests in the same area when assigning seating. The cast and crew of "Cultivation" were naturally given the most spacious and central seats in the entire venue, as Xihe's only SSS+ project this year.
However, due to the two previous unforeseen events, neither the male lead nor the second male lead could attend. As a result, during the rehearsal, only Chen Fu and another actress sat in the large seat, with Yan Shan holding a wine glass and sitting between the two with a smile.
Yanshan waved to Lu Xiaomi after seeing her.
"Mr. Lu, what are you doing standing there? Come sit down with me."
As if that wasn't eerie enough, Yanshan patted the spacious leather sofa, indicating that he had plenty of room there.
Lu Xiaomi quickly shook her head, indicating that it wasn't necessary.
*
Because of Jiang Qing's absence, Chen Fu and Jiang Qing's duet was eventually changed to a solo.