Chapter 49 - 1#
The crew’s parking lot was open-air.
At that moment, the only entrance and exit was crowded with fans lying in wait.
The moment Jing Shun appeared in his wheelchair, exclamations rose from the crowd: “Oh my god, it’s Jing Shun!”
In an instant, everyone raised their phones and cameras, and there were even low murmurs of discussion:
“Is Teacher Xiao Jing here for a visit?”
“Haven’t you seen today’s leaked call sheet? It listed actor Jing Shun—probably a new role joining the cast, not officially announced yet.”
Yu Zhen saw the crowd surging in from both sides and immediately grabbed the back handles of his friend’s wheelchair, taking the initiative to push.
Yu Xiuzhu quickly stepped forward to clear the path for Jing Shun. “Please make way, everyone. Be careful not to fall.”
Fortunately, the fans lying in wait were fairly cooperative, only recording with their devices.
Yu Xiuzhu’s peripheral vision caught sight of the black car parked in the corner. He remembered that Chi Gui was waiting inside the car and was just wondering how to get Jing Shun into the vehicle without drawing attention—
The next second, cheers and screams erupted even more intensely from the fans on both sides.
“Lin Lin!”
“Brother Lin is here!”
“Brother, you’ve worked hard!”
One of the main actors, Jin Yulin, had also finished his scenes for the day.
Seeing that the crowd’s attention had shifted to Jin Yulin, Yu Zhen immediately quickened his pace and led Jing Shun out of the heavy encirclement.
Bang!
The car door closed.
Yu Xiuzhu and Yu Zhen, sitting in the back row, let out a synchronized sigh of relief.
Jing Shun noticed their identical reactions and said with a smile, “Brother Yu, these fans are all here for Jin Yulin; they won’t mob me. You guys were too tense just now.”
Jing Shun was well aware of his own popularity.
Without any prior promotion, it was only the first day of joining the cast, so there was no way fans would rush to see him come or go.
Chi Gui, sitting in the same row, spoke up, “The crew letting so many fans hang around the parking lot entrance like this can easily lead to dangerous accidents.”
When he had arrived earlier, the number of fans lying in wait wasn’t that large; later, word must have gotten out that the actors in the studio were wrapping up for the day—
Within half an hour, the number of fans had surged dramatically.
Driver Lao Zhang started the car, carefully navigating around the clustered crowd as they left the parking lot.
The car windows were covered with privacy film, but seeing out from inside was perfectly clear.
Yu Zhen watched Jin Yulin, surrounded by fans, and asked, “How did they know the actors’ wrap time?”
Normally, the daily shooting schedule could vary depending on the actors’ states.
Yu Zhen continued, “I think I also heard someone managed to get a copy of the crew’s call sheet?”
Yu Xiuzhu explained, “It was leaked from inside the crew. Impossible to fully prevent.”
For many scalpers and peddlers, everything in the entertainment industry is profitable.
They could sell all kinds of tickets at high prices, take and sell actors’ daily candid photos, and sell the crew’s daily call sheets and actor schedules.
In more severe cases, even the actors’ personal information could be leaked—from airport flight pickups and boarding followings, all the way to obtaining actors’ private phone numbers and harassing them day and night.
Such instances are countless and endless.
For celebrities, behind their rise to fame may lie countless troubles. Love and transgression are separated by only a single step.
Even though the crew of Traces repeatedly issued statements requesting restraint, they still couldn’t dampen some fans’ determination to see their idol in person.
Chi Gui wasn’t interested in fandom culture. He merely signaled with his eyes toward the insulated cup in the car’s storage compartment.
Jing Shun picked it up, opened it, and found jasmine tea brewed to perfection.
Immediately, a smile lifted the corners of his mouth, and he took a light sip.
Sitting in the back, Yu Xiuzhu saw this and suddenly questioned his own memories from the past few days—
Did Chi Gui have someone else in his heart?
Were he and Jing Shun just in an agreement, not actually in a relationship?
Yu Xiuzhu let out an almost imperceptible sigh and dismissed those sudden doubts.
He spoke based on the actual situation, “Given Xiao Jing’s current popularity, it’s true there won’t be a massive crowd of fans surrounding him yet, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any fans showing up to stake out later.”
Once news of Jing Shun joining the cast spread, fans who liked him would inevitably become curious and come around.
“Mr. Chi, I think you’d better stop making these ‘convenient’ visits in the future,” Yu Xiuzhu said from the perspective of an agent. “If someone with bad intentions finds out and uncovers your identity, it will definitely cause trouble for Xiao Jing.”
“…”
Chi Gui didn’t reply for a moment.
Jing Shun tightened his grip on the insulated cup. “Would it be that serious?”
Yu Xiuzhu, having seen all kinds of behind-the-scenes tactics in the entertainment industry, was taking preventive measures. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“If your popularity threatens other actors in the future, you could be set up with scandals, rumors, and slander. Other people don’t know the real nature of your relationship with Chi Gui, so they’ll just make wild guesses.”
“Have you forgotten what happened with Dong Qihao?”
Of course, exactly what the actual impact would be was hard to say.
Chi Gui understood Yu Xiuzhu’s concerns and didn’t want his own carelessness to become a stumbling block in Jing Shun’s career.
So he responded, “Mm, I’ll have Lao Zhang wait for you to finish work from now on.”
“…”
Jing Shun fell silent, momentarily not knowing what to say.
If he and Chi Gui were truly in a romantic relationship, he would be bold enough to go public. But the fact was, they weren’t a couple right now.
Jing Shun took another sip of jasmine tea and looked down at his legs—
If only his rehabilitation could go a little more smoothly.
Once he could regain normal mobility and shed this physical “defect,” he would definitely take that bold step toward Chi Gui.
Chi Gui noticed the silence from the person beside him and asked, “Did filming go smoothly today?”
Jing Shun snapped back to reality. “Smoothly.”
Yu Zhen in the back chimed in, “Chairman Chi, if only you’d seen how amazing Jing Shun’s acting was today! Several shots were perfect on the first take. By the end, even Director Zheng was praising him in front of everyone.”
Chi Gui caught the key name. “Zheng Chun’an?”
“Yeah.” Jing Shun was a bit surprised to hear Chi Gui say Zheng Chun’an’s full name. “I thought you didn’t know much about the main creative team of this drama.”
Chi Gui’s eyes flickered slightly, but he only said, “Basic crew info is available online. I’ve seen a bit.”
Yu Zhen added, “But online there’s no script content, and you can’t watch Jing Shun acting on set in person. Thinking about it, being his assistant this time is totally worth it.”
Jing Shun turned his head and joked with him, “Guess I won’t be paying you a salary then~”
“I’m here voluntarily, I don’t want any salary.” Yu Zhen leaned up to the back of the front seat, eyes sparkling with curiosity. “Jing Shun~”
“Hmm?”
“Can you give me a little spoiler in advance? I really, really want to know why the Swallow Sutra kills people, how he kills them, and how the police figure it out.”
God knows, while he was on set today, he was itching with curiosity and nearly grabbed the script from the assistant director’s hands to devour it!
Yu Xiuzhu hadn’t read the full unit script either.
However, the first broadcast of Traces online had received good buzz. Netizens were saying the script’s pacing was spot on, and based on the current weekly release of four episodes, Jing Shun’s scenes wouldn’t air for another two months.
Since there were no outsiders in the car, there was no risk of the script leaking.
Jing Shun took advantage of the ride home to satisfy his friend’s curiosity. “Alright, but there’s a lot of content in the script. Where should I start?”
“Why did the Swallow Sutra become disabled?” Chi Gui suddenly spoke up, also showing interest in the script’s character.
Although in reality, the change had been made by the screenwriter to accommodate Jing Shun’s acting, for a villain character to be sufficiently rich and three-dimensional, there needed to be an appropriate backstory for those legs.
Jing Shun hadn’t expected Chi Gui to hit the crucial point right away and was momentarily stunned.
But this kind of “hitting the nail on the head” and “thoroughly rigorous” discussion style inexplicably reminded him of someone else.
Song Yu?
Jing Shun only spaced out for two seconds before giving the explanation. “Domestic violence.”
“…”
“…”
Yu Xiuzhu and Yu Zhen in the back row were both taken aback.
Jing Shun met Chi Gui’s gaze and truthfully relayed the content from the unit script—
Swallow Sutra’s father, Yan Xiangnan, was the only person from their village in that era to get into college. From studying to graduating to working, Yan Xiangnan always maintained a gentle and refined image in public.
It was precisely this image that earned him the affection of a company executive’s daughter. They naturally fell in love, got married, and had a healthy, handsome son after the wedding.
But as the saying goes?
A man often keeps up the act until you have children.
Because of his humble origins and poverty, Yan Xiangnan never gained the approval of his wife’s parents—the company executives—before the marriage.
Although he never showed it outwardly, murmuring sweet nothings about how he would work hard to improve, inside his discontent and resentment had accumulated to a significant degree.
In the third year of marriage, the wife’s family company faced bankruptcy, and her father, the company executive, died unexpectedly in an accident. This string of misfortunes actually fueled Yan Xiangnan’s arrogance.
From that day on, Yan Xiangnan revealed his true colors—
Starting with verbal put-downs and psychological manipulation aimed at the wife who stayed home for the children, to slapping her when he came home drunk and dissatisfied with her nagging, to, in the later stages, escalating to beatings at the slightest displeasure.
The deep-rooted flaws nurtured by his upbringing and the inferiority buried in his bones became fully exposed.
With increasingly violent methods, Yan Xiangnan took out all his frustrations on his wife and son. Yet after every episode of domestic violence came even more hypocritical crocodile tears.
“The character setting in the script says that Swallow Sutra has lived under his father’s violence for as long as he can remember.”
His mother tried to resist, run away, call the police, and escape, but in the end, she could never get away from his ever-present threats.
When Swallow Sutra was ten years old, he came home from school and heard the familiar sounds of beating and crying.
He opened the door. The living room was in complete disarray.
A violent, out-of-control Yan Xiangnan picked up a chair and was about to smash it down on his wife, who was already barely breathing—
The boy rushed over and shielded his mother, but that very blow directly destroyed the rest of his life.
“Swallow Sutra’s legs lost all mobility. Yan Xiangnan was finally arrested by the police and sent to prison because of this violent act.”
Yu Zhen listened with a furrowed brow. “Although that scumbag getting locked up is what he deserves, I still feel it’s too good for him. Ruining his wife and son’s lives like that—pfft.”
“Yeah, if it were only that—”
Familiar with the plot, Jing Shun picked up the thread and instinctively threw out a plot hook to Chi Gui. “It really would be too easy for that scumbag.”
He hadn’t expected the other to catch on, but surprisingly, not only did Chi Gui understand, he even guessed the next part of the story.
“Since Swallow Sutra is the villain and murderer, then for the character’s dramatic tension, his first kill should be Yan Xiangnan?”
To become a true “demon,” one must first draw blood from those closest to them.
Chi Gui could even guess the script’s shooting arrangement. “Moreover, this part of the plot must be revealed at the very end to maximize the character’s twist.”
Jing Shun’s eyes lit up. “Exactly!”
Hearing this, the two in the back seat got goosebumps.
Yu Zhen adjusted the air conditioning on his side. “You two, stop that back-and-forth. It’s giving me chills.”
Jing Shun smiled and adjusted his tone of voice. “After six years, Yan Xiangnan was released from prison. Bearing a grudge, he sought out Swallow Sutra, who had already settled into a peaceful life.”
Facing his own son, whom he had crippled, there was not a shred of remorse. Instead, he threatened to demand money.
The unfortunate experiences of childhood, along with the ostracization he had suffered all these years because of his legs, had already twisted Swallow Sutra’s psyche in subtle ways.