Every day since her return to the movie set, Tang Yue had been moving around the set on her wheelchair. She didn’t have much to do. Other than a few close-up shots which required her face, the rest of her scenes were handled by a double. Whatever Tang Yue did, she made sure to steer clear of Ah Sha at all times. Perhaps she feared that Ah Sha might pay her back for what she did during the accident.
Today’s scene involved a helicopter. To be exact, Ah Sha and Depp had to film a fight scene inside a helicopter.
“Ah Sha!” For the past few days, Depp had been b.i.t.c.hing non-stop about how he’d been treated last time after he sent Ah Sha to the hospital. As it turned out, Depp had been chased away from the hospital by Wan Qingsi. Then, when Ah Sha had gone home to recuperate, Wan Qingsi had even refused to let Depp visit her at the house.
Seeing the look of resentment on Depp’s face, Ah Sha thought he was about to start b.i.t.c.hing again. She was wrong. “I hate flying,” Depp said instead.
“Then how did you even come back from the United States?”
“I slept through the entire flight. I feel like I’m going to go nuts if I keep my eyes open during a flight,” Depp grumbled. “F*cking Ken. You know what he told me? He told me that there wouldn’t be any flying involved in this scene. He said that the helicopter would be added in with special effects!”
Ah Sha patted Depp’s shoulder comfortingly. “Aren’t you his friend?” she asked. “I thought you knew him well.”
“d.a.m.n right!” Depp growled. “Nothing that comes out of Ken’s mouth could be trusted.”
The scene would begin with Ah Sha and Depp engaging in combat on the ground. Then, Ah Sha’s character would climb into a helicopter and use it to escape. But Depp’s character was relentless and he followed her into the helicopter. After that, the crew only had to film the helicopter’s take-off and then, finally, a brief fight scene inside the helicopter’s cabin.
What ended up happening was beyond any of their expectations. The director yelled “cut” immediately after the chopper left the ground; because there was no scene to be filmed, not when the helicopter carrying the actors was flying further and further away from the movie set.
A brief silence ensued. Zhou Na was the first person who reacted. “The h.e.l.l? Who’s piloting that thing? Contact the pilot now!” Zhou Na yelled. Then, she pulled out her phone and dialed Wan Qingsi’s number.
Moments later, two crew members returned, supporting a half-conscious man on each side. “Director, we found this man unconscious outside the bathroom.”
“Hey, that’s the pilot!” someone yelled.
“Then who’s the one piloting the helicopter now?”
Wan Qingsi rushed to the set after receiving Zhou Na’s call. He drove off again after getting a sitrep from the crew members. He was now sure that Ah Sha had been kidnapped.
Lin Musheng had finished a shower and was walking out of his bathroom when he heard the commotion outside his door.
“Hey! What’s going on!” Lin Musheng asked. Before he could receive an answer, Wan Qingsi charged in. “Lin Musheng! Was it you? Did you do it?”
Lin Musheng kept drying his hair with his towel. “I’ve done a lot of things,” he said coldly. “Which one are you referring to?”
A murderous aura radiated from Wan Qingsi’s body in spades. He balled his fist and gave Lin Musheng a death stare. “Did you arrange for someone to hijack the helicopter that Mei Jing was in?”
“That has nothing to do with me,” Lin Musheng said, pausing in thought. “Who else did your woman manage to p.i.s.s off?”
“You better not be lying to me,” Wan Qingsi said. “Or else, I won’t be showing the Lin family any mercy.”
“The Lin family doesn’t need your mercy.” Lin Musheng frowned. “I’ve already given you my word that I wouldn’t pursue the matter any further. I’m not the type of guy who goes back on his words. I have nothing to do with her kidnapping.”
Wan Qingsi turned around to leave. At the door, something struck Wan Qingsi as odd. The henchman at the door, the one who was holding the door open for him, had a strange look on his face. Wan Qingsi glanced at the henchman briefly. Then, he hurried away with a frown.
Wan Qingsi pulled out his phone once he exited the hotel.
“Ah Sha might have been kidnapped.”
“What?!” Ying Qingcang’s roar blared out from the speaker.
Wan Qingsi gave Ying Qingcang a brief rundown of the situation.
“I’ll send a few choppers to search the area around the movie set,” Ying Qingcang said. Before ending the call, Ying Qingcang gave Wan Qingsi a final reminder. “Come up with a list of suspects. Narrow it down.”
All of a sudden, the car that Wan Qingsi was driving did an about-turn. There was only one person he could think of as the most likely suspect.
Lin Musheng had spent a long time pondering over Wan Qingsi’s visit. He was just about to order his henchmen to find out more about the situation when Wan Qingsi barged in through the door. This time, Wan Qingsi didn’t come alone; he was dragging An Ru into the room by her hair.
Wan Qingsi flung An Ru to the floor and then pressed the muzzle of a gun against her head. “Brother!” An Ru yelled.
“Wan Qingsi! What the h.e.l.l do you think you’re doing?” Lin Musheng was riled up. It had been a while since another person had tried to threaten him.
Wan Qingsi kicked An Ru. “Regardless of whether you were in on it, I am certain that An Ru is behind the kidnapping,” Wan Qingsi said. “So. Here’s how this is going to work. Either I kill her right now, or you force her to give me the location of the helicopter.”
“An Ru, did you do it?” Lin Musheng asked.
“I didn’t!” An Ru cried. “I don’t know anything!” Then, she looked at Wan Qingsi. “Qingsi! How could you? How could you do this to me?”
“Shut up,” Wan Qingsi said, stepping on An Ru’s head. “Don’t disgust me. Now. If you don’t start telling me the truth, I swear to G.o.d I’ll blow a f*cking hole on your face.”
A murderous glint flashed across Lin Musheng’s eyes. With a wave of his hand, several members of the Triad drew their guns and pointed them at Wan Qingsi.
“I’m warning you, Wan Qingsi,” Lin Musheng said. “Don’t take things too far. Let her go, now!”
Wan Qingsi jabbed An Ru’s temple with the muzzle of his gun. “Tell me the location of the helicopter,” Wan Qingsi growled. “I’ll count to three. If you still don’t tell me by the end of the count, I’ll blow your f*cking brains out.”
“One.”
Lin Musheng’s eyes turned cold as he took two steps forward. “Wan Qingsi, you really don’t fear death?”
“Two.”
“Boss!” Ding Quan shouted anxiously. “Just say the word! I’ll shoot him!”
“Three.”
Three things happened at the same time: Wan Qingsi pulled the trigger; An Ru screamed; Ding Nu tackled Wan Qingsi to the side.
“Bang!” The bullet grazed the tip of An Ru’s nose and blasted into the floor. In just a matter of seconds, An Ru’s nose turned into a b.l.o.o.d.y mess.
Before anyone could react to the gunshot, Wan Qingsi performed a kip-up and was immediately back on his feet. He moved swiftly across the room and was right beside An Ru in an instant. Once again, he shoved the muzzle of his gun against her skull.
An Ru burst into tears. “I’ll talk! I’ll talk…”
All of a sudden, Ding Quan dropped to his knees before Lin Musheng. “Boss,” Ding Quan said, “it wasn’t the young miss. It was me.”
After noticing that something was amiss, Ah Sha immediately grabbed a pair of parachutes from the parachutes’ compartment. She secured the parachute on herself first before helping Depp into the other one. While doing both, she was already working on ways to force the cabin door open.
The pilot was shocked when Ah Sha entered the c.o.c.kpit. Before he could reach his phone, his hand was subdued by Ah Sha. The man fought back and the two of them twisted around in the c.o.c.kpit, struggling to reach for the phone. The phone ended up falling out of the c.o.c.kpit’s window.
“Turn this thing around!” Ah Sha yelled, holding the man in a choke hold. He struggled to free himself against her hold and managed to press a b.u.t.ton on the flight panel. The door of the c.o.c.kpit flew open and he leaped down.
Ah Sha had wanted to stop the man from jumping out but she was too late. Still, she had much bigger problems to worry about right now: the helicopter was about to crash into the mountain. She rushed out of the c.o.c.kpit to look for Depp. She found him curled up in a corner of the cabin. She ran over a pulled him to his feet. At the chopper’s exit, she hugged him close to her own body and jumped.
While they were airborne, Depp was screaming his head off. Once they had reached the right alt.i.tude, Ah Sha deployed Depp’s parachute first before she opened her own. Gliding though the air, Ah Sha began to observe the ground below them. When she saw that it was a jungle below them, she couldn’t help but sighed in relief.
“Well, at least it’s better than the ocean…”
Ah Sha’s feet touched the crown of a tree. Her chute jerked a few times as it got dragged through layers of foliage and twigs. Moments later, Ah Sha crashed into the ground under the tree. She quickly got up and bounced on her feet a few times. “No broken bones, thank G.o.d.” Her only injuries were the sc.r.a.pes on her arms courtesy of the tree branches.
“Depp!” Ah Sha yelled.
A weak moan sounded nearby. Ah Sha ran over and found Depp hanging from another tree; his parachute hadn’t fallen through the branches completely.
“Pfft!” Ah Sha laughed. “You really look like a corpse.”
Being hung upside down from a d.a.m.n tree wasn’t exactly Depp’s idea of fun. In fact, he thought he was about to throw up if he didn’t get down soon. After hearing Ah Sha’s comment, he started struggling to free himself. Ah Sha was just about to tell him to stop moving she heard a clear ripping sound; the parachute tore in half. Depp fell, smashing into the ground moments later.
Ah Sha quickly helped him to his feet. “Hey, are you alright?” Ah Sha asked. “Try moving a bit. See if anything’s broken.”
Depp moved his limbs stiffly. “Yup. I think I’m good…” Depp said. “But where the h.e.l.l are we?”
“In the middle of some old-growth forest, I guess,” Ah Sha said, glancing around. “These tress have got to be several hundred years old. We’re definitely in one of the deepest parts of the forest.”
“F*cking h.e.l.l!” Depp ma.s.saged his neck. “I’ll f*cking kill the person who did this.”
Ah Sha rolled up their parachutes and tied them around Depp’s waist.
“What are you doing?” Depp asked.
“It’s going to be dark soon,” Ah Sha said. “We’ll definitely be spending the night here. Right now, we don’t have anything other than these two pieces of torn fabric.” Ah Sha sighed. If this were part of her usual wilderness survival course, she wouldn’t be intimidated. But she had nothing; no food, no water, no means of communication.
“F*ck!” Apparently, Depp had realized the problem too. They’d been filming on the helicopter, so they were still dressed in their costumes. They didn’t even have their phones with them.
Ah Sha stood akimbo and took in their surroundings. After a while, she seemed to have come to a decision. “Come on,” she said. “This way. We have to move leeward.”
It turned out that they were both lucky. Well, relatively speaking, of course. They didn’t have to walk too far before they discovered a cave.
“Hey, do you think there are wild beasts hiding in there?” Depp cowered behind Ah Sha like some damsel.
Ah Sha nodded. “Yup. Which is why you should go in first to check that it’s safe.”
“No way!” Depp shrieked.
Ah Sha glanced at him briefly, raising her feet to enter the cave.
Depp held her back. “Don’t even think about it,” he said. “How the h.e.l.l am I supposed to answer to Ken if anything happens to you?” Then, like some kind of brave warrior, he pushed Ah Sha aside. “I’ll do it!”
“By all means!” Ah Sha gave him the go-ahead gesture. Depp closed his eyes, steeled himself for what could potentially be the final few moments on this earth. Before Depp could even open his eyes, Ah Sha gave him a light smack. “It’s fine,” Ah Sha said. “It’s been a while since this cave was inhabited.”
Depp opened his eyes and stared at the cave which had enough room to fit five or six people. “How do you figure?”
“Just look at the shrubs near the entrance,” Ah Sha said, untying the parachutes from his waist. “The shrubs had grown evenly. It didn’t look like anything had trampled all over them for quite some time.”
It was only then that Depp realized something: Ah Sha had kept her cool from the moment they got in trouble. Her behavior now was a far cry from her usual childish self. Why wasn’t she scared? And how did she know so much about wilderness survival?
Before he could ask any further, Ah Sha was giving out orders again. “Go look for some firewood in the area. Make sure they’re dry. We need to start a fire. In the meantime, I’m going to find some food for us.”
Depp dared not venture out too far from the cave. After collecting enough firewood, he went back to the cave. Ah Sha had yet to return, so he went out again to collect more firewood. At the end of his third trip, Ah Sha came back. She had ingeniously inverted her cap and used it as some kind of pouch. Wild fruits and berries filled the inside of the cap.
“There’s nothing much in this forest,” Ah Sha said. “These wild berries are all I could find.”
“These aren’t poisonous, right?” Depp picked up a red one and sniffed it.
Ah Sha had already begun piling up the firewood. “No, those aren’t poisonous. Eat them sparingly, okay? I’m not sure I can find anything else for us to eat if we’re still stuck here tomorrow.”
Depp dared not touch the berries again after that. He wasn’t hungry anyway.
“Bring me a bigger piece of wood from the cave’s entrance.” Ah Sha was ordering him around again. Without ado, Depp ran out of the cave and did as he was told.
Outside, the sky was darkening rapidly. Other than the occasional cooing of birds and the sound of rustling leaves due to the wind, the night was quiet.
Using the extra pieces of firewood, Ah Sha had put together a board-like structure, which she used to seal the entrance of the cave; that should be enough to shelter them from the wind and keep them warm through the night. Once everything was set up, the two of them sat around the fire. Ah Sha was eating the berries she had picked earlier while Depp was fumbling around with a stick, trying to start a fire with the hand drill technique.
The hand drill technique. That was exact technique that Ah Sha had used to start a fire half and hour ago. Depp was stunned at Ah Sha’s efficiency in performing the technique.
After a while, Depp gave up and tossed the stick aside. “Ah Sha, you be honest with me now,” Depp said. “What is it that you actually do?”
No ordinary person could so these things!
Ah Sha yawned. “I joined a few survival training camps,” she said. “This is actually nothing. You’re just so used to a comfortable and wealthy life, that’s all!”
“But that’s not how you’re usually like! Usually, you were so delicate, like a damsel, ” Depp said in disbelief. “Now, it’s like you’ve transformed into a complete different person. n.o.body’s that good.”
Ah Sha looked at him briefly. “Xunxun and I joined the camp together,” Ah Sha said. “He knows all these too. You can ask him later if you don’t believe me.”
Meanwhile, Wan Qingsi was in another part of the forest…