Chapter 12#
You Should Have Been Angry#
Acute gastric bleeding. Ji Landong was sent to the emergency room.
This time he stayed in the ICU for a longer period of time.
Few people are willing to stay in the intensive care unit for long, not only because the treatment costs are sky-high and people suffer, but also because there is almost no living presence inside.
Ji Landong lay on the hospital bed.
He was awake and his consciousness level was clear, but he was on a ventilator and couldn’t speak.
Seeing Li Heng, who had changed into sterile clothes to visit, those eyes curved slightly.
It’s an arc that can be defined as a “smile.” But this determination is meaningless. Ji Landong’s title as Movie King is well-deserved. Even those who hate Ji Landong the most and wish him dead cannot criticize his acting skills.
Li Heng believed he had brought some good news: “A group of people who insulted and slandered you have been prosecuted.”
Li Xingyun wanted to do this like crazy, but it wasn’t his turn. Now this matter involved the reputation of Li Heng and even the entire Investigation Bureau—as for those who hid behind the network lines and frantically tapped on keyboards, when the fire really burned them, the speed of turning cowardly was also really fast.
“Do you want to hear the apology statements they issued?” Li Heng looked at Ji Landong’s reaction, “No? There’s also Ji Ran’s.”
Ji Ran is an interesting person.
In the eyes of Li Heng, the leader of this investigation team, Ji Ran has two stories.
In one version of the story, Ji Ran is a resilient protagonist who suffered from bullying and resolutely saved himself. Although cowardly, this seems to have become a kind of pitiable fashion trait, combined with his tragic life story, which allowed him to be assisted by “benefactors” and protected by fans all the way.
Thus, intentionally or unintentionally, such a huge volume of voice eliminated all the nonsensical parts of the story, leaving only endless repetitions of one thing: “Do you know how pitiful he is?!”
“Even—even if he lied when he was fourteen, can that be blamed on him? He is clearly the most painful and fearful victim!”
“If you ask me, Aran is just too kind. He couldn’t bear us bashing Ji Landong like this, so he changed his words. As for what the facts are, no one knows at all.”
“How could Aran help the villain? If you ask me, he was threatened. Maybe Li Xingyun was behind it.”
“We should continue to fight!”
“Report until the Investigation Bureau is willing to investigate thoroughly! I don’t believe Ji Landong can hide so well without any trickery…”
At a fan meeting, under the cameras excitedly raised by paparazzi, the hardcore fans holding signs with passion to madness finally drove Ji Ran crazy.
Ji Ran broke free from the manager’s restraint, and forcefully pushed away a fan who was about to come up for a hug. He panted heavily, his eyes floating in despair, and shouted hoarsely: “Are you going to drive me to death?!”
A basin of ice water was poured onto the sizzling molten steel.
A group of people froze.
Confusion, shock, blankness.
“Ji Ran!” The manager regained his senses and shouted sternly while pulling him towards the backstage, and smirked at the crowd of fans, “Thank you all for your concern. Aran has been under too much pressure these days and is in a bad state, bad state…”
“I’m not crazy! They’re the ones who are crazy!” Ji Ran struggled and shouted, his emotions having completely collapsed, “Are you trying to support me or harm me? Holding me in the front to satisfy yourselves, how long are you going to cause trouble?!”
“Isn’t it just to cause trouble? To cause trouble, to investigate, to investigate until I’m driven to death, right? I admitted to lying, what else do you want from me? Ji Landong didn’t harm me, so the story isn’t exciting anymore, and you’re not satisfied, right?”
“You’re the ones harming me! You’re the ones pushing me to death!”
“I don’t need this kind of crazy ‘protection’ from you at all. What about you? Are you doing it for me?”
“Or for your own satisfaction?!”
These words made the paparazzi crazy with excitement, and even the cameras taking sneak photos had the hurried breathing of someone eating a big melon.
But the fans, who were originally lively, gradually became dead silent because of these rapid-fire questions. Most people’s faces were pale and disbelieving, but some had already frowned, with displeasure showing on their faces.
The manager’s face turned gray, and his legs went soft and he sat paralyzed on the side.
This video, which caused a sensation on the entire network and has easily reached over 100 million views, ended in this scene.
…
Li Heng put away the tablet playing the video.
He asked Ji Landong: “Are you feeling better?”
Driving Ji Ran crazy, the Investigation Bureau naturally contributed a lot, even somewhat using methods that slightly crossed the line, making Ji Ran drink some “low-alcohol fruit wine” that day.
However, if you don’t do anything wrong, you’re not afraid of ghosts knocking at the door.
The reason Ji Ran had a mental breakdown was clearly because of a guilty conscience. Li Heng had the intention of being lazy and directly asked the person involved: “Is the person who released your black material related to Ji Ran?”
It wasn’t that Ji Landong killed someone on a whim.
The old affairs of twelve years ago were suddenly exposed on a large scale in an organized manner, then exaggerated and frantically incited, with a very clear purpose: to destroy Ji Landong.
“I found many targets related to him.” Li Heng flipped through his notebook, “A rich second-generation young master, a paparazzi leader, and a leader of gray forces…”
The rich second-generation Young Master Li was locked up in the Li family. Knowing that Ji Landong was critically ill and hospitalized, his eyes were red and he wanted to rush out like crazy, causing his head to bleed.
Unfortunately, this time no one went to pick him up as in the past.
When Li Heng said this, he raised his hand and waved it in front of Ji Landong’s eyes.
These eyes curved slightly, as if by some kind of conditioned reflex, and then his vision converged slightly and landed on his face.
“…Ji Landong.”
Li Heng slowed down his speech this time: “Do you want to go out and bask in the sun?”
Even in an interrogation, one must have relaxation and control.
Must try to close the gap.
Ji Landong didn’t have to stay in the ICU. To some extent, it was the hospital being scared into a daze, for fear of letting him out for two days and then having to urgently send him back for cardiopulmonary resuscitation because of some new condition.
This question was probably asked correctly. Li Heng propped himself up, asked for a wheelchair and waited at the door, returned to the bedside and made a gesture: “Do you mind?”
Ji Landong heard the sound, slightly turned his head to look out the window, and was again in a daze.
Taking it as he didn’t mind, Li Heng signaled the doctor to remove the pipelines, pull out the useless IV needles, and removing the ventilator was usually tricky, but the patient cooperated too much and didn’t even frown.
Li Heng carried the person out of the ward.
Ji Landong was very thin. Although he was tall, there was almost no flesh on his body. In the wheelchair, several oxygen pillows had to be stuffed in to barely lean steadily.
“Are you lighter than when you were fifteen?” Li Heng asked casually.
Ji Landong was drifting off so much that he turned his head when he heard the voice: “Mhm?”
Li Heng waved his hand, it wasn’t an important question. He looked in the direction Ji Landong was always looking and found it was a lawn with several children playing and frolicking on it.
Li Heng pushed the wheelchair over and stopped in front of the steps.
The weather today was good, very clear, with a slight wind.
Twelve years later, he again looked carefully at Ji Landong—the adult Ji Landong was probably the type whose face would still be quite good-looking even at the moment before entering the crematorium after death.
Even if the patient’s gown was empty, there were countless scars inside that were cut open and then healed.
Ji Landong was encouraging a patch of air to play on the lawn.
Li Heng asked: “Who are you talking to?”
Ji Landong was not sensitive to his voice.
Or rather, Ji Landong was not sensitive to any outside voices. Meeting those slightly apologetic eyes, Li Heng repeated his question.
“Mhm.” Ji Landong thought for a while, “A friend.”
—This was a strange discovery.
Li Heng found that Ji Landong was a dignified Movie King after all, and had lived for twenty-seven years, but when he said the word “friend,” he still seemed very unfamiliar and unpracticed.
Li Heng squatted down to look at his empty palm.
He asked Ji Landong: “Is this your friend?”
Ji Landong smiled, not at him, but at that patch of air. His gesture seemed to stop a patch of air from jumping up to bite him.
Li Heng already knew about Ji Landong’s illness and didn’t take it seriously, but just continued to observe this person in this posture and angle.
The twenty-seven-year-old Ji Landong had changed a lot from the fifteen-year-old. Not only were there more indelible scars, but there was also some snow on the eaves above their heads. Sitting in the sunlight that could melt winter snow was a person so pale that he seemed to silently melt away.
Ji Landong was still very patiently persuading the system to go and play.
The system had something on its mind recently: “I’m not going, Ji Landong, don’t drive me away.”
It began to think about what a protagonist is and what a villain is. Ji Landong’s identity is a villain, is it just because in the “story with Ji Ran as the protagonist,” he is the one who makes Ji Ran unhappy.
But why should the story be defined by the protagonist’s perspective.
Why can what the protagonist doesn’t see or doesn’t want to see be easily glossed over and erased in the plot.
“It’s too profound.” Ji Landong is a patient and shouldn’t think about such complicated problems, “Do you take medicine?”
System: “…”
The system decided to take medicine.
One person and one mushroom took medicine together, drank water together, and basked in the sun together.
A colorful shuttlecock flew over, and a round little child chased after it. Ji Landong caught the shuttlecock and threw it back, which made Li Heng, who originally wanted to protect him, stunned for a moment.
Li Heng asked: “Do you like children?”
“Mhm?” Ji Landong hadn’t considered it, but since Li Heng asked, he thought about it, “I don’t know.”
He didn’t know, but this topic was sensitive. Five years ago he had acted with a child star and tried to sign her to his studio.
Under the interference of Ji Ran’s trouble-making, it somehow became a molestation suspicion. But it wasn’t that complicated. The little girl was only three years old. Ji Landong just felt that her parents were too greedy and used the child as a money-making tool, wishing they could squeeze her dry in one go.
Those parents had fallen into the trap of money and even wanted to sell their daughter to a rich person in the Middle East. Who they sold her to was just selling.
Movie King Ji bullied others with his power and snatched the child.
“Not well done.” Li Heng couldn’t help but comment, “You should have contacted child protection agencies.”
Ji Landong: “Mhm.”
Ji Landong was silent again.
Li Heng shut up. He was here to investigate the case and had to find a way to lead Ji Landong to talk: “I won’t interrupt anymore, go ahead.”
But he was stunned for a moment, because Ji Landong just very politely raised his head and explained: “I’ve finished speaking.”
Li Heng: “Finished speaking?”
Ji Landong nodded.
That year he was twenty-two years old, won the youngest triple-crown Movie King, and had a promising future. That movie made him meet Li Xingyun, and the two soon got together. He also rescued a little girl who held onto him and wouldn’t let go.
The benevolent illusion of fate at that time made him misjudge the situation, thinking he was on a completely different path and was soon to become the happiest person in the world.
Li Heng took a patch of air handed over by Ji Landong.
He frowned: “Ji Landong?”
“Can you help me take care of my friend?” Ji Landong asked. His current speed and expression had a clear difference from his state during this period, “I’m very angry.”
When these few words were said very formally and precisely, it was difficult to take them seriously, let alone Ji Landong’s expression having no persuasiveness at all.
…But those eyes.
Those eyes were surprisingly black, very deep, cold and distant, as if the fifteen-year-old Ji Landong had suddenly woken up from this body.
“You should have been angry long ago.” Li Heng grabbed Ji Landong’s trembling wrist. He didn’t take this as a joke, “Speak up, what do you want to do? I’ll take you to vent properly, just don’t tell me you want to kill two people.”
This was a hell of a joke. The cold eyes smiled a little, very laboriously. Ji Landong slowly lowered his head, his bangs covering his eyebrows. His expression seemed to have returned to that night.
—A flash of ominous lightning suddenly crossed Li Heng’s heart.
Ji Landong’s anger was too deep and heavy, mixed with unresolvable self-guilt.
The result of that farce was that Ji Landong disbanded the studio and the child star returned to her parents. In the perspective of Ji Ran and his fans, this was a great victory of acting bravely for a just cause.
And Li Xingyun at that time said he believed Ji Landong, but later brought up the old matter when they fell out: “So… that matter was actually also true, you have been lying to me.”
“Ji Landong, right?”
Right?
Is it?!?
The system struggled to go back to find Ji Landong. To hell with the redemption points, I don’t care anymore. The system finally saw the hallucination in Ji Landong’s eyes and understood the crying of the little girl in his ears—that child died.
Because Ji Landong was annoyed by Ji Ran’s trouble-making and disbanded the studio and ignored it. Ji Landong was only selfish this once, he couldn’t handle it and didn’t want to handle it anymore.
The little girl who stuck to him like a small pendant and held his hand returned to her parents under the powerful pressure of the turbulent public opinion.
Within four or five years, she was overworked and her acute leukemia relapsed.
She died of illness.
…
Ji Landong stated what he knew to Li Heng.
People related to Ji Ran, and people who might have had a hand in this matter.
Movie King Ji being “domineering,” “bullying others with power,” and “using any means to suppress Ji Ran” started from then, thus annoying many people who protected Ji Ran, and revenge followed.
Ji Landong looked at the mushroom in Li Heng’s hand.
He was like the cold embers of a final patch of blue fire, and when he finished saying all these, his residual heat was exhausted: “My… friend.”
“It likes puppies.” Ji Landong said, “Leader Li, please take it to see puppies.”
Li Heng frowned deeply. He held Ji Landong’s shoulder and shook it gently: “Anger must be vented, Ji Landong. If you really want to kill someone, that’s fine too.”
…Coax the person first.
He saw these eyes weakly and extremely laboriously cooperate to appreciate this boring cold joke.
Li Heng raised his hand and touched his hair unfamiliarily.
Ji Landong slowly closed his eyes.