Free Web NovelChapter 149: Chapter 140: Crime Scene
Meanwhile, Yang Xiao found the stone that had broken the window. It was still a goose egg stone, only differently shaped, with one side showing signs of having been smoothed.
"How’s everyone, no one’s hurt? Damn scoundrels!"
After being attacked several times in a row, Director Ding couldn’t contain his anger. However, it was still raining outside, and the dark environment made it difficult to see, so he didn’t dare to chase after the assailant. His only option was to hop around the room, cursing furiously.
"Don’t think this will disrupt our filming. They know what they’ve done, those bastards, I’ll make sure their deeds are exposed!!"
After cursing his fill, Director Ding finally remembered Nie Hexiang, who at that moment was shivering all over, her lips deathly pale, "Nie Hexiang, did you see who it was?"
Nie Hexiang’s eyes were vacant, as if her soul had been seized. If it weren’t for Xia Xiuyan supporting her, she would have collapsed to the ground like a pile of mud.
Seeing that Nie Hexiang had zero response, Director Ding’s rage boiled over, "Nie Hexiang, I’m talking to you?! Don’t think just because Ms. Shengnan brought you in I’ll be indulgent with you!"
It was Xia Xiuyan who stepped in to defuse the situation, "Director Ding, don’t be angry. Nie’s just been scared, let me take her next door to calm down."
With all this commotion, there was no way to continue filming. The crew started to clean up the room, and the actors came out to help.
Yang Xiao, who was helping to move a table, got called over, "Chu Xi, come here," Director Ding waved him over.
Taking Yang Xiao out of the room, the two of them walked outside to a concrete eaves beside the dormitory to shelter from the rain. The sky looked oppressively grey, with a sense of unease floating in the air.
Director Ding turned his head and glared nastily at the dirt slope behind the dormitory, spitting on the ground, "Cowardly things, only daring to skulk around."
"Director Ding, I have a feeling something’s strange about this. Why is there always someone disrupting our shoot?" Yang Xiao took the opportunity to ask.
"Chu Xi, you’re a smart man, and I won’t hide it from you. Our film is adapted from a real event, and this school was once the site of a horrific incident," Director Ding took out a cigarette and lit it for himself, pointing to the ground beneath his feet.
"So... this dormitory..." Yang Xiao looked somewhat panicked, glancing at the dormitory beside him.
Director Ding gave a cold laugh, seemingly pleased with Yang Xiao’s reaction, "Exactly, this was once the residence of that beastly teacher. Filming a movie at the actual site of the crime, isn’t that a great hook to draw people’s attention?"
"Heh, besides, our movie hits a sore spot in modern society, with the so-called gender conflicts running rampant, the debate continues to heat up. The two factions are already at loggerheads, and we’re just adding fuel to the fire. With that, how could it not become popular? The topics are sure to be maxed out."
Yang Xiao roughly understood, these people intended to capitalize on this wave of ’blood-soaked steamed buns’, continuing to provoke the antagonism between men and women. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
"But, will Ms. Shengnan agree with this approach?" Yang Xiao played timid, probing further.
"Would I dare to shoot like this without the investors’ consent?" Director Ding rolled his eyes, "To tell you the truth, those lines you said earlier were written by Ms Shengnan herself."
Tossing the cigarette butt away and stamping it out, Director Ding changed the subject, "Chu Xi, I’m very optimistic about you and plan to groom you extensively. The role you’re playing is highly topical, and your acting skills are generally up to scratch. Now, let me help you correct some details."
"First of all, the character you play, the Beast Master of the Mountain Village, has some peculiar habits. I have decided that whenever your character is contemplating how to prey on the female students, he will rub his fingers."
"Also, the Beast Master has an injury on his left leg, resulting in a limp walk. This will be part of a later scene we’ll shoot. The reason is that he once chased a female student on a muddy mountain path, lost his footing, and twisted his ankle."
Upon hearing this, Yang Xiao was taken aback. He suddenly remembered the scene from the second surveillance video, where "Luo Zhaoqing" was limping, with his left leg appearing to be injured.
"Oh, and one more thing," Director Ding took out a cigarette pack and shook it, "He hates the smell of smoke, and as for the reason..."
Moments later, as Director Ding pondered, he suddenly slapped his thigh, "Got it, it has to do with his family background. Such a beast must have grown up in a twisted household. His father was addicted to domestic abuse and smoked. When he was young, his mother fled the family, and he and his younger sister became the scapegoats for his father’s violence."
"Unlike his father’s outright brutality, he was meek in character, but very cunning, and only dared to torture innocent animals. But eventually, he could no longer suppress the twisted desires within him, and he abused and killed his own sister."
"That’s also when he started to revel in the feeling. He studied hard, got into a teacher’s college, and insisted on coming to a backward countryside, all for this reason! He had been preparing for this day all along!"
"Hmm... do we really have to tie it to the gender conflict?" Yang Xiao thought Director Ding, and the Ms. Shengnan behind him, were insane.
"Of course! Without opposition, how do we create topical interest? Without-topic interest, how do we get traffic? Without traffic, how do we make money?" Perhaps in an effort to reassure Yang Xiao, Director Ding’s voice grew softer, "You’re young, don’t worry about it too much. This is beyond our ideals; we just need to use it to make money."
"To tell you the truth, there aren’t so many people idle enough to create such nonsense oppositions; it’s all business. In fact, we are a bit late to the game; those internet celebrities who started operating on the basis of oppositional personas have already made a fortune."
"Right, they’re not called internet celebrities anymore; they’re all called ’teachers,’" Director Ding consoled him in a tone of someone who’s been around, "Cheer up, it’s just about making money, nothing shameful!"
Before Yang Xiao could respond, they were drawn by a burst of argumentative voices not far away.
"What are you doing?!"
"Why are you following us?!"
Director Ding and Yang Xiao hurried over and broke through the crowd, only to see Xia Xiuyan standing with her hands on her hips, fuming, confronting Yu Mi and Xiang Xiaolin.
"What’s going on?" Director Ding asked.
"These two were stalking us, eavesdropping on our conversation!" Xia Xiuyan was the first to complain.
"No, we weren’t!" Yu Mi was almost in tears, her recent experiences had left her very emotionally unstable, and she kept glancing at Xiang Xiaolin as if she had some unspeakable secret.
"If not for eavesdropping, why follow us? We came to this remote place to discuss the script, what are you doing here?" Xia Xiuyan was relentless.
In the end, it was Xiang Xiaolin who stepped forward, gently pulling up her pant leg to reveal a crudely bandaged leg with numerous blood stains. "I got injured and thought to find a secluded place for Yu Mi to help me bandage it. We didn’t realize you were here."
Seeing the blood, Director Ding’s face immediately grew grim. One person missing was bad enough, now another injured. This film had started under an ominous sign.
"It’s no big deal, just that a glass was smashed, and a shard cut my leg." Xiang Xiaolin looked indifferent, but the blood on her wound couldn’t fool anyone. A crew member carefully unraveled the bandage, revealing a deep wound, from which blood was still flowing.
"Even in this state you’re trying to be tough, quick, call the hospital, have them send a vehicle!"
About 15 minutes later, an ambulance, its lights flashing, pierced the curtain of rain, driving towards them from the direction of the school entrance. The driver jumped out, helped everyone load the injured into the vehicle.
"Director Ding, I think we should stop the night shoot here. I’ll accompany Xiang Xiaolin to the hospital. After her wounds are treated, we’ll go back to the hotel to rest." Yang Xiao feigned concern for Xiang Xiaolin’s injury, but in reality, he was calculating how to get closer to her and probe for information.
It was obvious to anyone with eyes that Xia Xiuyan’s reaction was excessively intense. The only explanation was that she had just been discussing something important with Nie Hexiang, and if others found out, there would be trouble.
Yang Xiao didn’t believe such coincidence; he suspected that Xiang Xiaolin had approached them deliberately and that she might have already heard some critical information.
"Chu Xi is right, I’m going too," Song Yan, always the image of a gentleman, jumped in. Together, the two shared the same unspoken plan.
"I... I want to go too, I can take care of her," Yu Mi insisted, highlighting the fact that she and Xiang Xiaolin were roommates, sharing the same room.
Seeing that the heavy rain showed no sign of stopping and, more crucially, worried about another strange attack in the middle of the night, Director Ding agreed.
He had someone give Song Yan a mobile phone with a few numbers saved in it for easy contact, and instructed them to hurry back for filming as soon as the injury was stable.
Song Yan and Yu Mi accompanied Xiang Xiaolin in the back of the ambulance, while Yang Xiao got into the vehicle, sitting in the passenger seat, "Seatbelt," the driver, dressed in a white coat, reminded him.
Yang Xiao was good at taking advice.
Soon, the ambulance sped into the night, disappearing into the vast darkness. Director Ding ordered someone to drive over the white van, and the rest of the people began to tidy up the scene.
They found some plastic sheets in the old dormitory and rigged a makeshift rain shield so the rain wouldn’t blow in through the broken windows, since, according to Director Ding, they had to continue filming the next day.
About 10 minutes later, a piercing alarm tore through the rainy night, approaching from a distance. Everyone curiously stepped out of the dormitory to see the flashing ambulance had turned around and come back.
Once the vehicle had stopped, the back opened, and three medical personnel in white coats hurriedly jumped out with a stretcher.
"Who called for emergency services, and where’s the patient?" the disheveled driver, holding a small notebook in his hands, asked.
