Love
Li Fei"s expression stiffened.
His eyes were astonished, as if he was seeing Jian Hua for the first time. He couldn"t help looking at the other person from head to toe.
Despite throwing out such shocking words, Jian Hua just flipped through the coffee shop menu as if nothing happened. In this conversation, Jian Hua had always been at a disadvantage against Li Fei. He played this card and reversed the situation.
Moreover—
Jian Hua narrowed his eyes slightly. He didn"t think he could hide.
In the morning when Jian Hua answered the phone, Li Fei didn"t mention his ident.i.ty yet but Jian Hua knew from his voice. Then after finding out that Li Fei also had an ability in his body, Jian Hua"s mind was shaken and he was attracted to the poster in the magazine.
He had already exposed too much…
Jian Hua ordered a cup of American coffee and returned the menu to the employee. He didn"t understand what was so good about drinking this bitter brown drink. Li Fei told him to order what he liked, but after finding out about this store, Jian Hua didn"t want to make Li Fei lose more money. This was probably regarded as a means of friendship.
Li Fei laughed when he saw Jian Hua order the cheapest thing. "You are really kind."
The Emperor had resumed his laughing appearance, but his forehead was slightly wrinkled like he was troubled.
In this warm and bright afternoon, they talked about Star Entertainment Media and about the movie. The atmosphere between the two people was pleasant and peaceful. The person who had been confessed to wasn"t uncomfortable and the person who uttered the impolite words was calm.
When a.s.sistant Lin arrived, he was amazed at the sight of the two people enjoying talking to each other.
“I"m sorry for being later. There was a traffic jam." a.s.sistant Lin wiped his sweat and pulled the contract doc.u.ments out of his briefcase.
a.s.sistant Lin had been by Li Fei"s side for three years, so how could he not know the other person? The actor Li Fei was well known to have a good temper, but this was only Li Fei"s "working state." The atmosphere right now was very good, but who knew what Li Fei was thinking?
Li Fei said that he opened this store, but in fact, there were other people who managed the store. Li Fei only funded it.
a.s.sistant Lin thought that he would only find Jian Hua here as he waited to sign the contract. Yet Li Fei continued to sit here and chat? There were crazy rumours online and there was the matter with Xiao Yaqin. The company was so anxious that they were ready to hold a press conference tomorrow to confirm that Li Fei was fine.
"This is my a.s.sistant, Lin Xiao."
"h.e.l.lo." a.s.sistant Lin felt a little bit of pain in his face. Before he came, he told the agent that Jian Hua wasn"t very good. He was too proud and one of the two types of people that Li Fei disliked. It was highly likely that Li Fei would change his mind after meeting Jian Hua.
The agent didn"t want to sign Jian Hua. Despite the obvious advantage of Jian Hua"s appearance, there were many people who could be the stand-in, so why choose someone so troublesome?
The result— It wasn"t worth mentioning, since Li Fei was the one with the final say.
a.s.sistant Lin used the fastest speed possible to go over the points of the contract again.
The exclusive stuntman wasn"t one of the company"s artist. He was privately employed by Li Fei but belonged to Star Entertainment in name. This meant that Jian Hua"s salary came from Li Fei, similar to the fitness instructor and a.s.sistant who were hired by the artist alone.
Jian Hua didn"t say anything as he read the contract, confirmed the terms again and signed his name.
Then he turned to Li Fei.
Normally the agent would act as the proxy to sign it, but the agent wasn"t present right now. Li Fei held out a hand and a.s.sistant Lin could only obediently hand over a pen.
The fine black pen moved smoothly on the white paper as he signed his name above Jian Hua"s.
The smell of coffee, the green wisteria leaves, the bright sunshine and the table with the contract in the middle of it— a.s.sistant Lin made a strange expression as he looked at the two people. He didn"t know why but he felt like this image was wrong.
"In 10 days, I have a movie that starts shooting in the North. You should go back and wait for the notice, then we will go there together." Li Fei spread open his hand, indicating his helplessness. "I have to show my face in the public to resolve the troubles."
The contract was signed in triplicate, with another one to be filed at the company.
a.s.sistant Lin stamped it, put away the doc.u.ments and said to Jian Hua. "At that time, we have to sign a confidentiality contract with the crew. Our side also added a person, so we should greet the crew."
Jian Hua naturally had no objections, so the three people stood up and said goodbye. Li Fei handed the entertainment magazine to Jian Hua and said meaningfully, "I"ll give this to you."
The way he handed over the magazine was very strange. His finger was on one of the pages and Jian Hua could see the desolate background of Crow in a corner of the magazine.
Jian Hua"s pupils contracted. However, he took the magazine without saying anything and turned away.
"This is…" a.s.sistant Lin was surprised. Under normal circ.u.mstances, the other person should follow them to their car and say some parting words, mainly flattery. Lin Xiao saw Li Fei"s gloomy eyes while speaking and suddenly swallowed back all his words.
Evening of the same day. Li Fei and his entourage set out to return to Haicheng. a.s.sistant Lin was sleeping while his bodyguard Geng Tian drove the car. Li Fei suddenly asked.
"Geng Tian, what if you have a good impression of a person, only to discover that person actually likes the role you played?"
"What?" Geng Tian made an astonished expression with his innocent north-east appearance. "Are you asking me?"
Li Fei looked at him and sincerely apologized. "I"m sorry, I asked the wrong person."
Geng Tian stayed quiet, but he rolled his eyes in the rearview mirror. The streetlights shining into the car showed Li Fei"s dark expression. Li Fei closed his eyes and recalled the plot of the movie Crow.
The protagonist, Gneral Wu, was a general stationed at a strategic garrison. He was uncommon and heroic, winning the love of the soldiers under his command.
The ruler of a va.s.sal state started a rebellion, and plotted to seize the city. But something unforeseen occurred in the middle of the plan. A plague suddenly spread in the city. This was a key strategic city that separated the Central Plains.
If this plan failed, the ruler of the va.s.sal state would have to suspend his plan for many years. Then his ambition would be exposed and he would be killed by the royal court.
A loyal subordinate of the va.s.sal state"s ruler grasped the civilian and military officers who wanted to rebel.
A friend of General Wu was a doctor and discovered that the plague had spread. But the gate was blocked due to the rebels. So along with the soldiers, General Wu guarded the people who were willing to escape and rushed out overnight.
Rebels occupied the city, blocking off the areas where the disease was prevalent and leaving the people. Then in order to cover up the fact that the city fell, they sent people to kill General Wu.
The civilian and military rebels said that General Wu kidnapped the people and defected to the northern desert steppe, perhaps to take refuge in the Huns.
Hunted by two parties, his armour became blood-stained. He desperately wanted to tell people about the plague, but no one believed him.
The surviving refugees found a hidden valley and settled down here.
This part of the movie was in flashback mode. Many years later, a group was listening to the story of the legendary border ghost, General Wu. It was said that he fought fiercely, killing 100 cavalry and thousands of soldiers. There were also rumours that General Wu found hidden treasures in the desert steppe after defecting. This group followed the clues, encountered a sandstorm, got lost and through a strange combination of circ.u.mstances, came across the hidden valley and were rescued by the people in it.
The result was no treasure, no bloodthirsty General Wu. They heard a very different story, a tragic past.
In the valley, there was an elderly leg-less elder who had been part of General Wu"s guard, and he asked about the situation outside.
The outsiders talked about what happened in the past few years. Half a month after General Wu fled the city, there was a sudden heavy rainfall and the plague couldn"t be controlled. The place became a dead city.This incident took place after General Wu"s "treason". The soldiers who chased after General Wu and managed to survive declared that this was a curse from General Wu. General Wu himself said, "It is an epidemic and all the people in the city will die."
The ruler of the va.s.sal state succeeded in usurping the throne and deliberately covered up this period of history, choosing another site for a new city.
For decades, the legend of the legendary ghost General Wu spread in the frontier. When people saw the dark crows on the tree branches, they hurriedly got rid of the crows. People believed that the crows were the embodiment of General Wu and would bring a plague on them.
***
"It was a day when a sandstorm occurred. The pursuing army caught up with us. General Wu and my remaining brothers sent the wounded soldiers first with the people. But after the sandstorm stopped and the sand shrouded everything.We searched over a hundred miles but never found the general"s remains… or maybe he had already been turned into bones."
Jian Hua could recite this line perfectly. He had seen the movie 10 times, where the old man on the screen shed tears of pain.
Then the camera lens would zoom out of the desert oasis valley, moving through sand and sky to reveal General Wu in broken armour and holding a halberd, covered in blood.
The sharp eyes suddenly softened as he smiled towards the valley. He stood lonely under the b.l.o.o.d.y sunset, with crows crying out on the dry poplar trees behind him.
Then the camera slowly darkened and the figure gradually became nothingness. The wind blew and he no longer existed. There was only the vast world.
Whenever the lights turned on and the credits appeared, someone could be heard crying in the cinema.
But when they walked out of the cinema, they broke away from the story. Jian Hua, from the moment he saw Li Fei standing in front of the cameras to film Crow, he didn"t come out of it.
Li Fei"s superb acting caused the other actors to bring out 200% of their ability, and even the crew felt pained at the story.
No one else could play General Wu better. However, Li Fei wasn"t the general. Every time the director shouted cut and Li Fei smiled with others, Jian Hua felt his heart fall, like he lost something important.
This was why he initially hesitated to sign with Li Fei. The emperor of movies was a good person, so why did he fall in love with the role that the actor was playing?
—No, the role that he had a chance to play with Li Fei.
He might not have a lot of appearances, but Jian Hua tried hard to act in every scene he stood in for. As Li Fei said, his facial control wasn"t good but Jian Hua had a good grasp of the character. It wasn"t for long, but Li Fei was still impressed by this stuntman.
Of course, who wouldn"t know everything about the "person" who occupied their heart?
Jian Hua tore the poster out of the magazine and attached it to his headboard, watching it for a long time.
Spider Silk
Lu Zhao smoked a cigarette as he browsed the bustling web page.
There was the wreckage of a pot plant on the ground. This was due to Lu Zhao"s fury. He had swept off everything on his table, including the pot plant placed beside his computer.
The room was filled with tobacco smoke and there were many cigarette b.u.t.ts in the ashtray.
Ly Zhao"s face was a bit distorted from the smoke, and he was too lazy to clean out the full ashtray. He threw the cigarette directly to the ground, grinding it heavily with his leather shoes, like he wanted to shatter it into pieces.
“Li Fei, Li Fei…"
Lu Zhao"s eyes were bloodshot from not being able to sleep last night.
The Abandoned World disappeared too fast so he didn"t gain an ability. There weren"t many dates of large-scale awakenings written down, so an opportunity was wasted.
He also saw the mysterious scene of the pillar of fire soaring into the sky at Pearl Hotel. At that time, Lu Zhao had a terrible thought. Such an amazing event of a high level ability awakening, it only happened a few times in the original book. Then was this Li Fei? But according to the book, Li Fei should be lying in hospital because of a car accident at this time. How could he come to Huai City?
Lu Zhao immediately ran home and searched the web pages.
The search "Haicheng"s viaduct collapsed" had no results. There were a few pieces of information for "Haicheng"s car accident explosion." Apparently a business vehicle spontaneously caught on fire and crashed into the railing.
"Wrong! It isn"t like this!" Lu Zhao pulled his hair and nervously muttered.
It should be a series of car accidents. Dozens of cars would be severely hit together, including Li Fei"s car. Li Fei"s agent and a.s.sistant died on the spot. The power of the explosion led to serious damage to the bridge and it collapsed. The survivors were buried and Li Fei was saved after 10 hours of excavation.
In the original story, Li Fei and his bodyguard Geng Tian might not have been able to survive this disaster if they hadn"t awakened their abilities at the critical junction.
The accident caused Geng Tian to have his face half burned and for Li Fei to fracture his right leg. He was a figure in the entertainment industry, so this incident was very loud. As a result, Li Fei rested for six months. When he emerged again, he couldn"t compete with his peers. His work wasn"t warmly received and his appearance rate was low. It was at this moment that Li Fei shifted his focus to the Black Abyss organization.
Jian Hua was the largest villain and final BOSS in the story. However, he was absolutely strong and didn"t need to conceal himself.
Li Fei was different. He was a person who could smile and send you to h.e.l.l with gentle words.
His supporting role in the original work proved this. Lu Zhao had been here for many years, but he never thought about trying to obtain Li Fei.
Before the start of the story, Li Fei was a screen idol with many fans. It was impossible for a normal person to build up a relationship with him.
Lu Zhao didn"t care because he was holding a strong card. He was Jian Hua"s childhood friend! He just needed to follow the BOSS and Li Fei"s danger was insignificant. But now—
Why did Li Fei come to Huai City? If two S-cla.s.s potentials were too close togehter, there would be a battle awakening!
Lu Zhao"s worry increased. He might not like Li Fei, but Li Fei was the strongest boss who appeared on the surface, instead of Jian Hua. He couldn"t be hostile to Jian Hua!
It must be the other book transmigrators!
Lu Zhao"s teeth ached. He had left the clinic for a reason. He was afraid that when the abilities awakened, they would attack without "distinguishing between enemy and friend." However, it would be a big problem if this setting divided Li Fei and Jian Hua.
Lu Zhao made a pinched expression as he searched the forums and weibo, then disgust filled him as he saw Xiao Yaqin"s name.
He found the weibo that had a picture of "the police around a body in the street." He instantly knew that the victim was the person who almost exposed the secret to Jian Hua.
“No brains."Lu Zhao grunted. Those who were careless about the book were the fastest to die. The original book wasn"t a fairy tale, it was full of danger and strife.
Lu Zhao logged into Penguin Trumpet, where the red digital display of 999 showed how lively the group was. The group was furious at the lunatics who blew up Pearl Hotel. Lu Zhao looked on with a bored expression and swiftly left the group.
There were few people who transmigrated here more than 20 years ago, like Lu Zhao.
The number of book transmigrators only gradually increased in recent years. He didn"t know when, but someone in the community left a hidden message about abilities as a way to recognize them. After entering the Penguin Group, they had to answer the questions of the group members before being allow to stay.
The one who set off the fireworks at Linjiang Bridge yesterday was the leader and administrator.
This was a group of young people who wanted to get abilities and happily involved themselves in the story. Lu Zhao felt that they were stupid and ridiculous, but he was worried about other transmigrators affecting the plot and wanted to grasp their movements. Therefore, Lu Zhao mixed in with the group, camouflaging himself as someone innocent and eager.
But it wasn"t necessary now. This Penguin Group was unsafe. If he continued to stay, he would expose himself.
***
"What little boy withdrew from the group at this time?"
At a fast hotel in Huaicheng City, the manager of the Penguin Group was angrily tapping on his keyboard when he suddenly heard a sound at the door.
"Who is it?" He snapped out.
The voices in the room faded and the door was forcibly opened. The people couldn"t react and just stared at the people wearing police uniforms—
The Penguin Group"s manager opened his mouth in shock as he was pushed down on the bed and his laptop was taken away as evidence.
"Reporting, it is him!" A man in the military uniformed looked at the screen before saluting to a man who entered the room. "He didn"t open the voice software so our silence can be lifted."
“Immediately export all of the group"s chat history, as well as the information about the members, regardless of whether it is true or false."
This man was in his 30s with the rank of major. He looked ordinary, but there were clear moles under the corner of his left eye.
"Zhang Yaojin?" The Penguin Group"s manager blurted out.
The police arresting the other people in the room and the military personnel collecting evidence all looked over here at the same tiem.
The handcuffed man was conscious of what he said wrong and curled up pitifully. He was looking at his hands when he realized!
A traitor! There were definitely a traitor who betrayed their secret! Otherwise, why would they be so cautious when dealing with a otaku?
If he had an ability then he would"ve looked for a chance to flee. However, Li Fei"s awakening last night caused the Abandoned World to disappear ahead of schedule. All the transmigrators didn"t have time to acquire abilities. Now guns were being pointed at him, so he couldn"t do anything.
"Blindfold and take him away!"
The major called Zhang Yaojin looked at the suspect but didn"t say anything aside from his orders.
The manager didn"t protest. It was because he knew the person in front of him.
Zhang Yaojin, the future team leader of the abilities intelligence team. He played a supporting role in the third book. It didn"t mentioned how he awakened his abilities, but he wasn"t someone who could be beaten, even if the manager had an ability.
"Reporting, no suspicious objects in his luggage were found."
Zhang Yaojin touched his chin. In order to find the culprit of the Pearl Hotel explosion as soon as possible, he didn"t sleep last night and there was residue at the corner of his eyes. He absentmindedly spoke while looking at the chat logs. "It seems that the person who stole dangerous chemicals at Huaicheng Univeristy isn"t him. This person just used a pseudonym to purchase a large amount of fireworks.Hrmm… these conversations are very interesting. It seems like there were two groups of people causing trouble in Huai City last night."
“Sir, this incident is so hard to explain…"
"I don"t care if it can be explained by science of not. These things will leave traces and we are responsible for tracking these traces." Zhang Yaojin frowned as he picked up an instrument and opened a map of Huai City.
"The victims who were hacked to death on the street, did you obtain the footage of all cameras in three kilometre area?"
"Yes! We a.n.a.lyzed it overnight and a total of eight suspicious elements are found!"
The screen immediately divided into eight grids, playing the respectively video surveillance. At first glance, it was a normal night scene with no problems.
"This person, over here in the pullover." The soldier in uniform pointed at the screen with a laser pointer then played the next frame of the video. It showed two people mixing in with the crowd at the zebra crossing. Their shadows were there originally, then in the next frame, they appeared in the middle of the road.
"Interesting." Zhang Yaojin"s eyes flashed dangerously.
"There is another person. He had anti-surveillance awareness and the cameras didn"t capture any abnormalities about him. However, after we asked the surrounding businesses during the investigation, the person you are looking at suddenly emerged in front of a store. It was empty s.p.a.ce, then he suddenly appeared out of nowhere, like he rose from the ground."
"Well done. Secretly arrest all the suspects found!"
Zhao Yaojin took off the gloves he used to see the evidence and asked. "What about Pearl Hotel?"
"There is no progress as there is serious damage to the scene."
"Then what about the Huan Yu Cinema case?" Zhang Yaojin suddenly asked.
His subordinates showed a small reaction. They were investigation the Pearl Hotel bombing, so why was a cinema brought up?
"The night before last, there was a couple who died strangely there.I have a premonition that it is also related to this matter. Therefore, obtain all footage of the cinema and carefully a.n.a.lyze it! Even if this is the work of ghosts, there will be marks left in the world and we can"t miss it!"
"Yes!"