6.10

The movie, "Jiu Zhong Tian", had a very high profile opening ceremony to begin filming. Various media reported on it. The photos of the actors in full costume and makeup were posted on the official website. This caused a heated discussion as people became very excited. Most of them flocked online threads to express their big expectations for the upcoming film.

The photos with Qiao Chen showed him dressed in a large wide sleeved robe with black and gold embroidered patterns. The costume complimented his entire person and accentuated his beauty. He exuded a charming style in the robe too. Qiao Chen seemed to smiling, but there was also a sense of evil lurking beneath the charm. He exuded an aura of both an upright, yet demonic individual. This set the precedence for the audience's first impressions on the character's temperament.

Qiao Chen's character was Zhu Hua. Zhu Hua was a descendant of the Phoenix family. This meant that all the costumes he was supposed to wear were all red. However, not everything would be the same red robes over and over again. Zhu Hua had a variety of red outfits to math the scene and the plot points as the movie progressed.

Xu Jieming played the character Ao Jing. Ao Jing was a descendant of the Dragon clan. He wore gold armor and held a long, silver pike. Xu Jieming's photos gave the sense that something was still missing, even though he looked very handsome and elegant. People felt that the arrogance and dignity of a supposed war god was lacking. Someone commented that Du Jingnan would have been more suitable for the role on the online discussions. A lot of the other netizens agreed and piled on comments about how they approved. However, this comment thread quickly disappeared. The comments that stayed were only those that were full of praises.

Liu Yi was sitting in the dressing room. From the mirror, he saw Qiao Chen enter in the red robe as he was surrounded by others. The jealousy in his eyes burned brightly. He should have been the one to play the role of Zhu Hua. However, Qiao Chen was both the investor and the producer, so Liu Yi didn't have any power to oppose him getting the role.

Liu Yi had visited Qiao Chen before filming started in hopes of convincing him to give him the role. However, Qiao Chen's attitude at the time had embarrassed him greatly. He clearly felt that Shu Qichen was not the same person like before. Shu Qichen was no longer the person who accepted whatever roles the company had given him. What made things even worse for Liu Yi was that Shu Qichen became a very well-spoken and witty individual.

Liu Yi controlled his emotions and put his face back on. Then he stood up and walked over to Qiao Chen with a gentle smile. "I never would have expected you to be able to wear red so well. It's obvious that's why you should play Zhu Hua instead of me."

Liu Yi was particularly good at insincere flattery. He had to go back to just like how it was before. He would flatter and please Shu Qichen with a sincere face no matter how jealous and disgusted he was with Shu Qichen.

"Thank you, but I don't think it's like that. I actually think this role was tailor made for me." Qiao Chen replied very politely. Then he looked Liu Yi up and down from the mirror and commented, "But I don't think you are suitable for Wen Liu. I mean, Wen Liu is supposed have the purest heart and is most genuine and upright character in this the entire movie. You don't really have the forthright and chaste temperament like he does."

"Let me go talk to the director right now. We should take advantage of the fact that we've only started filming today. You can have the role of yannu*. You can definitely portray it realistically." Qiao Chen looked at Liu Yi through the mirror and said.

Liu Yi's hands were hidden under his sleeves. They clenched tightly. The makeup couldn't cover how ugly his face turned. He tried to suppress the anger, so that he wouldn't express it on his face. His intuition told him that Shu Qichen wasn't the same gullible and easy-to-please person as before. This wasn't the Shu Qichen who had given up on life when he was regulated to background work. The Shu Qichen of today was someone Liu Yi knew he couldn't afford to offend.

Liu Yi's assistant came over and told Liu Yi that his scene was coming up just as Liu Yi was about to return to his seat. The director asked him to go to the set to prepare for the scene. Liu Yi looked at Qiao Chen and then left the dressing room.

Qiao Chen had just finished removing his make-up when Xu Jieming entered the dressing room after finishing his scene. He sat down beside Qiao Chen and said, "Let's have a meal together tonight. I want to discuss the script with you."

"No time. I have an appointment tonight." Qiao Chen simply refused.

"Then how about tomorrow?" Xu Jieming's intent and desire to please Qiao Chen was very obvious.

"Let's talk tomorrow." Qiao Chen replied. Then he stood up and went to the changing room to change out of the costume.

Special effects were needed for many of the scenes in the film. This meant that most of the filming had to be done in a studio. Once all the green screen filming was done, the crew would move on to filming on location. For the lead actors like Qiao Chen, their schedules were quite free. They only needed to arrive on time and not delay the shooting schedule. They were given the freedom to arrange the rest of their schedules on their own. They didn't need to return to their hotel room to spend the rest of their time.

"You promise me that filming wouldn't take too long. Don't forget that." Du Jingnan originally disagreed with Qiao Chen's choice to make this movie. Qiao Chen and Xu Jieming had too many scenes together since their characters were rivals. There were also too many ambiguous and emotional scenes with physical contact that made Du Jingnan uncomfortable.

"Didn't we just begin shooting? Why are you in such a hurry?" Qiao Chen rolled his eyes and said. His man's possessiveness nearly made him speechless. He had to have a lot of conversations with Du Jingnan to get him to compromise.

"Why do you think I'm in a hurry?" Du Jingnan glances at him and said.

"I won't let him take advantage of me. You can be at ease." Qiao Chen said helplessly.

In order to prove how worried he felt, Du Jingnan tossed Qiao Chen into bed for the rest of the night. Qiao Chen was thankful that his next scene was supposed to be filmed in the afternoon. He would be able to sleep in a bit more in the morning. If he couldn't sleep in, then he had no choice but to film with his eyes closed.

...…..

Qiao Chen's scene on day two was with Liu Yi.

Qiao Chen looked at the script in his hand while he stood in front of the green screen. The staff was helping him put on the harness for wire work. Liu Yi wore a white, wide-sleeved robe. He sat on a white horse and looked at Qiao Chen.

The director had really gone to Liu Yi the night before to discuss the matter of changing his role in the film. The director told Liu Yi that he would respect his choices and wouldn't force Liu Yi into that role if he didn't want to. However, Liu Yi still felt angry and humiliated. He quickly ran to Xu Jieming to complain. Unfortunately for Liu Yi, Xu Jieming told him that he couldn't object to it if Shu Qichen really wanted to force him to switch roles. In the end, Liu Yi was left to stew his anger in solitude.

By the next day, he still hadn't calmed down. The more Liu Yi thought about it, the angrier he got. Not only did Shu Qichen steal the very role he was supposed to play, but he even humiliated him time and time again. Now Shu Qichen didn't even want to leave him alone with this supporting role. How much more can Shu Qichen keep pushing and pushing me?

Liu Yi pricked the horse with a needle hidden in his sleeves. The white horse immediately cried out and raised his two front legs.

"Be careful! Get out of the way!" Liu Yi yelled. He looked like he was in deep distress as he panicked, but his eyes were flushed with malice and excitement.

The horse ran to where Qiao Chen stood. The other staff members immediately and reflexively jumped out of the way. Qiao Chen, however, couldn't escape because he had been wired up. Just as the horse was about to hit him, a staff member Qiao Chen had arranged beforehand quickly pressed the wires' remote and pulled him up into the air. Qiao Chen was pulled high enough to avoid being trampled or hit by the horse.

Liu Yi realized he wasn't able to hit Qiao Chen. However, his mind suddenly went black. Liu Yi's grip on the horse slackened. He slipped off from the horse as it was going out of control. The horse jumped up and its hind legs stepped directly on Lui Yi.

"Ahh!" Liu Yi cried out in agony. He was sprawled across the floor and didn't want to move too much. The horse had stomped on his lower back.

Several horse trainers ran over to calm and subdue the frightened horse. The staff came to check on Liu Yi's situation, but found that he had passed out. They didn't want to move him around too much because they didn't know where he had been injured. They were only able to call for an ambulance.

The crew had to follow the protocol and suspend filming due to the accident occurring on set. A reporter caught wind of the accident and published a story. The crew wanted to suppress the bad press, but it was already too late.

As soon as Liu Yi's accident was reported, his fans were wrought with worry and nerves. Fortunately for the crew, Liu Yi wasn't playing the leading role. His accident and absence wouldn't impact the filming schedule that much. It wasn't too big of a deal for them to break the contract, pay the fees, and hire a different actor to play the role.

Liu Yi woke up from the hospital. He learned that he suffered a serious injury to his spinal cord. The medical staff determined that he would likely be paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life. He had little hope for recovery and would not be able to return to his life as an able bodied person. Liu Yi was on the verge of collapse.

He knew that it would be impossible for him to return and work on "Jiu Zhong Tian". Since his body couldn't recover to as well as before, he decided to make a huge fuss online. He denounced Qiao Chen for using his power as the investor to steal his role. He claimed that Qiao Chen constantly and consistently targeted and bullied him. Finally, Liu Yi posted a thread about how he thought that his injury was not caused by an accident- that it was intentional.

There was a huge public outcry as soon as Liu Yi published his remarks. All sorts of reporters from every single station camped outside the studio. They wanted to interview crew members, important actors, and the director's team. Everyone wanted to see their responses to Liu Yi remarks. They wanted to interview Qiao Chen the most. However, he wasn't there at that time.

Xu Jieming went to the hospital to comfort Liu Yi. He told him that he would personally arrange the best treatment possible. Then he promised Liu Yi that he would definitely make a full recovery. Xu Jieming also promised that the company would arrange a leading role or central character for him to play once he could stand and walk. The only thing Liu Yi needed to do was retracts his statement and publicly state that he had typed up those words in a fit of anger because of his injury. Xu Jieming threw in an implied threat that he wouldn't drop the issue if Liu Yi caused the movie to cease or halt production.

Liu Yi finally made a public statement, under Xu Jieming's half pacifying half threatening coaxing, that he had spoken nonsense and lashed out because he was over stimulated by the news that he would become paralyzed.

Everything had begun to calm down. Just as everyone was ready to forgive and forget, there were several photos and video of Liu Yi and other prominent figures in bed. Some of those figures were very famous directors. Some of them were CEOs of big companies. These people were usually well dressed and seemed like gentlemen in the public eye. Those same men were in these images, but they looked completely different. They looked vulgar and indecent.

Public opinion on the entertainment industry had exploded, like pouring water on a hot pan, once these photos and videos were leaked online.

Liu Yi completely broke down this time. He knew that everything was over. He would never be given the chance to turn a new leaf in the entertainment industry. Liu Yi rolled around the hospital bed until he hit the floor. Then he started throwing and smashing everything he could get his hands on in the hospital ward. He had gone insane and attached everyone who approached him. His mental state had already crumbled.

The doctors and nurses weren't able to suppress him, so they sedated him. Then they sent him to the psychiatric department. If he couldn't recover his mental state after their initial treatments, then they had no choice but to send him to a psychiatric hospital that was equipped to properly handle and help Liu Yi.

The netizens discussed Liu Yi's photo and video leak. Some of them raised the question about who leaked these things. Liu Yi did make them feel ashamed for stanning him and disgusted with his behavior, they all agreed that the person who leaked the images was also a terrible person. A leak this big and public would drive Liu Yi to suicide.

As a result, a lot of hackers checked out the data on the uploaded files and found out that the images were uploaded from within Weidian Entertainment. This made everyone think that they were watching a suspenseful movie. They didn't understand why Weidian would do something like that to their own talent.

While everyone was still wondering about Liu Yi's situation, another wave of files was uploaded online. This time, the images were Xu Jieming in bed with different male and female stars, including Liu Yi. There were even files that showed evidence Xu Jieming's illegal trading.

This made the entertainment industry quake. People unleashed waves of outcry and scolding online. Weidian's shares dropped in prices. The netizens all commented that they were disappointed with the current entertainment industry. They also said that they seriously doubted that there was even a single person in the entertainment industry who hadn't stayed clean.

Everyone in the entertainment industry felt a looming sense of danger. They didn't want to be implicated or involved with Liu Yi and Xu Jieming's mess. The stars who had been exposed for involving themselves with the two were busy trying to garner sympathy by apologizing and crying about their actions. They all claimed that they had made a mistake.

"You've dealt a heavy hand this time. Aren't you afraid of implicating yourself?" Du Jingnan hugged Qiao Chen and read the web page with him. He'd kiss Qiao Chen's forehead and cheek from time to time.

"I'm not afraid of anything. I haven't taken apart of any of the unspoken rules."Qiao Chen said. "The darker and dirtier it is, the more it should be exposed. The sun will eradicate the damp, dirty mold hiding under the shadows. If we just keep ignoring the problem or sweeping it under the rug, then the problem will keep rotting and festering until it even affects the ones who are clean. It'll harm many people if we leave it be." Qiao Chen was deeply affected by this poison in the entertainment industry in his past life, so he was even more passionate about destroying it.