Chapter 55: Slapped
The sun shone through the clouds, and its golden rays illuminated the entire earth.
A single crystal clear water droplet hung from the tip of a tree branch outside the window, which was almost bare of leaves. Chi Xiasheng opened the window with a little too much force, and the water droplet fell.
Little Black stood up from the ground, shook his dizzy head, and leaped onto the windowsill, watching the scenery outside with him.
Chi Xiasheng, who was in an extremely good mood, rubbed Little Black’s head, woke up the snoring Wen Nian, who was sleeping on his back, and went down to eat together.
Wen Nian was still dizzy and swaying. If it weren’t for Chi Xiasheng saying that there was his favorite pumpkin and corn porridge for breakfast, he would have probably slept until noon.
Pei Zhixuan had left early in the morning. Chi Xiasheng served the food and placed it in front of Wen Nian and Wen Shu.
Wen Shu also looked a little sleepy. She yawned gracefully and rested her chin on her hand, her brow slightly furrowed.
“Auntie Wen? You seem to be in a bad mood?”
Chi Xiasheng saw her frowning in thought and sat down to look back at her.
Wen Shu sighed. “Yes. It’s not that… sigh, forget it. It’s just going to ruin my whole day to talk about him.”
Chi Xiasheng was drinking his porridge. For some reason, he thought of Su Chengjian, whom he had seen at the door yesterday.
Could it be that Su Chengjian and Wen Shu really had some conflict before?
He wanted to say something more, but he felt that it was not appropriate for him to interfere in the affairs of his elders, so he temporarily closed his mouth.
After resting at home for a day, the next morning, Chi Xiasheng took Li Ge’s car to the studio of Shengshi Group’s entertainment department to shoot the endorsement.
Just as the car turned into Shengshi Group, he saw the familiar Secretary Liu.
Secretary Liu respectfully led him to the studio. After contacting Sun Zong from the entertainment department, he officially started shooting.
Seeing that Secretary Liu had temporarily left, Sun Zong gently wiped the sweat from his face and let out a long breath.
That was scary. I thought it was just a small celebrity coming to shoot, but it turned out to be Secretary Liu personally bringing him!
Everyone who worked at Shengshi Group knew how important Secretary Liu was in the company. His appearance was almost as effective as Sheng Sheng’s.
After all, since the company was founded, Sheng Sheng had hardly ever shown his face in the media. All business dealings were decided by Secretary Liu alone.
Some people even had conspiracy theories that Secretary Liu had already usurped Sheng Sheng, but occasionally when Sheng Sheng appeared, Secretary Liu was more terrified and respectful than anyone else.
Those who didn’t know would think that Sheng Sheng was some kind of man-eating demon.
Liu Secretary saw that some young employees were gossiping behind his back again and shook his head lightly.
Foolish humans. Sheng Sheng is a thousand-year-old demon who holds his life and death in his hands!
To be able to follow such a great demon, Liu Secretary would not have dared to even think about it before he had transformed. So, he was naturally more diligent and hardworking.
With Liu Secretary’s deterrence, Chi Xiasheng’s endorsement shoot went extremely smoothly. It was a green light all the way, and they were almost done before afternoon.
After lunch, the staff, after consulting with his team, decided to go all out and shoot the outdoor scenes in the afternoon as well.
The outdoor scenes required a small beach. After making arrangements, the staff and photographers all rushed to the rented beach for half a day and started working with great enthusiasm.
After all, if the work went smoothly, they wouldn’t have to work overtime until night.
In this day and age, no one wanted to work late without overtime pay.
Just as Chi Xiasheng was wearing the diamond bracelet he was endorsing and was about to start shooting, another team of people in black vests appeared out of nowhere and shouted, waving their hands, “What are you doing?! Go away, go away!”
The director in charge of the shoot heard this and touched his bald head, stood up, and explained to them, “We’ve rented this beach for half a day. I’m sorry, but if you want to come to the beach for a tour, please come back another day.”
This beach was actually private property, bought by a wealthy businessman named Wu. Because the scenery was not good, many film crews liked to borrow the scenery here.
That wealthy businessman named Wu was also easy to talk to. As long as the money was paid, the beach could be rented out.
But hearing the director say this, the few guys in black vests didn’t leave. Instead, they frowned and said, “What are you talking about! We’ve been filming here all along. We just had lunch, how did it become your place?!”
Chi Xiasheng, who was watching the farce on the side, also couldn’t help but frown.
Because it was Secretary Liu who had brought him, the crew members did not dare to be negligent at all. They had rented the beach through Sheng Sheng’s connections, and the process was extremely fast and smooth.
The director had even personally called the wealthy businessman Wu’s assistant. The other party had agreed very readily and had guaranteed that they would be the only ones filming on this beach today.
Now the director had to stand up from behind the camera and, looking at those guys in black, he explained with a relatively good temper, “We called today. The rental fee has already been paid. If you don’t believe me, you can check with CEO Wu.”
The few guys in black vests snorted coldly. Seeing that the director’s side only had a few people, they had no intention of confirming it at all. Instead, they said with a mocking expression, “You, this small, shabby film crew, can actually get in touch with CEO Wu? Don’t tell me you were scammed by some online phone number! That’s all fake, you idiot.”
These guys in black vests were very good at looking down on people.
Because Chi Xiasheng was only shooting a commercial endorsement, the scale was naturally much smaller than a regular film crew. Including the set staff, there were only about a dozen people in total.
Hearing this, the director’s anger flared up. “Are you sick? What’s wrong with us having few people? You can bully people just because you have more people?!”
The guys in black vests instantly surrounded them. Seven or eight strong men stood together, looking very intimidating.
“That’s right, we’re just bullying you because we have more people. What kind of small, shabby artist are you, coming here to film without even an assistant or a bodyguard? With such a shabby film crew, how can you afford to rent this beach? Don’t you know how much it costs to rent this beach for a day?”
Chi Xiasheng was originally just standing on the side, watching. As an artist, when he encountered such a thing, he could only wait for the staff to deal with it first. He couldn’t go up himself, otherwise it would be easy to get into trouble.
But seeing those people being so arrogant, cursing at the film crew and the artist, as if this beach were theirs, he really couldn’t stand it anymore.
He frowned and walked over. Just as the guys in black and the director were about to fight, he walked over and supported the director, who had been pushed.
“Stop it.”
Just three short words, but when they came from his mouth, they inexplicably carried a bit of power, making people unable to refuse and stop what they were about to do.
The few guys in black looked at their drooping hands and looked at each other with some confusion, completely unable to understand why they would listen to the person opposite them.
“Don’t cause trouble. You go and call the person in charge and have him come and verify the right to use the beach.”
The guys in black didn’t want to listen at all. Their task was to ensure that there were no idle people on the beach so as not to affect the filming progress of the film crew.
But when they saw Chi Xiasheng’s clear eyes, the deep blue under his pitch-black pupils seemed to have captured their souls. In an instant, they felt that what he said was very reasonable and obediently went to call someone over.
Seeing the few guys in black disperse, the director also patted his chest with lingering fear and even spat in the direction they had gone. “What kind of people are they! I was discussing it with them in a good voice, but they were good, they wanted to drive us away without distinguishing between right and wrong!”
After helping the director up, Chi Xiasheng let go of his hand. His frowning brow still hadn’t relaxed as he asked, “Director, are you sure we’ve settled the matter of the beach with CEO Wu?”
The director nodded affirmatively. “Don’t worry, I went through the connections of the Shengshi president. CEO Wu’s side agreed as soon as they heard… What do you mean, do you think CEO Wu’s side is trying to trick us? They didn’t actually rent the beach to us?”
Thinking of this, the director touched his round head and muttered, “That’s impossible. CEO Wu is an old businessman. How could he dare to offend Shengshi?”
The director made another call to confirm with CEO Wu’s side and then hung up, his expression complicated. “I probably know what’s going on…”
Before he could finish, a group of people walked over from the far side of the beach, carrying cameras, holding light reflectors, and moving small stools… and so on. From a distance, there were more than dozens of people.
“This is… what film crew?”
The bald director sighed. “It’s the film crew of Covering the Sky. Your younger brother, oh no, that Su Chimian is also in it.”
Everyone in and out of the circle knew that Chi Xiasheng had completely severed ties with the Su family on Weibo, so the director quickly corrected himself.
Now Chi Xiasheng’s brow furrowed even more. He stared at the dozen or so people walking at the front, and the one surrounded in the middle was the Su Chimian he hadn’t seen in many days.
Su Chimian had not been having a good time recently. Since the incident on Weibo, although the Su family had stood by his side and supported him, there were still many people in the circle who were cursing him behind his back for being a scheming white lotus.
Putting aside the matter of who was real and who was fake, which had not yet been settled, his past actions of pretending to be good to Chi Xiasheng while actually stepping on him had been crazily cursed by many netizens.
The cyberbullying that Chi Xiasheng had once suffered was now happening to him, and the taste was simply unforgettable.
He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep for several days in a row. His eyes were red and swollen. When he saw Chi Xiasheng standing on the beach, for a moment, a fierce look flashed in his eyes.
Why is it him again?!
Why do I have to run into him wherever I go?! Can’t he just disappear from my world?!
Su Chimian’s eyes darkened, and he clenched his fists tightly, his eyes meeting with Chi Xiasheng’s.
“What a coincidence,” Chi Xiasheng said first, a faint smile on his lips. “You don’t look very well. I’m relieved now.”
Su Chimian had never been as good at infuriating people as Chi Xiasheng. Hearing this, he just snorted coldly. “No matter how bad I am, I’m still better than you. To be reduced to this shabby film crew, even having to sneak around to use a beach, it’s really ridiculous.”
The smile on Chi Xiasheng’s lips condensed into thin ice. His eyes narrowed slightly, and he was about to say something more when he heard the director sigh behind him. “What are you talking about? We went through the proper channels to book this. On the contrary, you’re occupying the beach and not returning it. What, you want to snatch it away?”
Chi Xiasheng turned his head and saw the director’s determined expression. He knew that this was probably a problem on Su Chimian’s side. Hearing this, he also let out a light laugh. “Su Chimian, besides being a scheming white lotus, you’re about to get another bad reputation for bullying people with your power.”
Su Chimian now hated it when people talked to him about online matters. The good image he had painstakingly built was completely ruined, and it was all thanks to Chi Xiasheng!
If it weren’t for him, he would still be that kind and simple young master from a wealthy family. How could he have fallen to this point, being mocked by the audience even when he was filming a drama!
And because he had not been in a good state recently, the film crew had already started to cut his scenes. This was something the once proud Su Chimian could not accept at all.
It was as if he had been trampled underfoot, and anyone could bully him!
He looked at Chi Xiasheng’s exquisite face, and the anger in his heart flared up. His already not-so-good mental state collapsed to a critical point. He raised his hand and slapped him.
A crisp slap sounded. Not only Chi Xiasheng, but everyone else was also surprised that Su Chimian would directly hit someone.
After all, with so many people watching, and both of them being public figures, at most they would just exchange a few words and taunt each other.
Su Chimian looked at his hand, and his eyes also became shocked and stunned.
The beach instantly became a chaotic mess.
When Wen Shu received the call from Chi Xiasheng’s agent, she was practicing breathing techniques in her room. Just as she had gathered her qi in her body, she heard the agent’s panicked voice on the phone. “Miss Wen, do you want to come over? Xiaxia was hit by someone.”
The qi in Wen Shu’s body immediately dispersed. She opened her eyes, and they became extremely cold.
Daring to hit my little merman. Wen Shu thought, Perhaps I should let him see my strength when I beat up sharks back then!
