"Don't panic, tell me slowly." Tao Mu frowned and calmed the other patiently.
Da Luo on the other end of the phone seemed to be at a complete loss. A grown man, squatting in the hospital corridor, crying and sniffling: "Brother Gou had an accident while hanging on the wires. He fell and broke his waist. The doctor said that he must have an operation immediately. But Yu Mei, that stinkin' bitch, actually ran away with the money…..And the hospital won't do the operation without the money, brother Gou's mother is also nearly sick with panic…..Tao Mu, what can we do….."
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Da Luo was crying on the phone, and his speech was also not very clear. Tao Mu listened for a long time. During this period, he kept interrupting Da Luo's crying to chase the key point. It took more than half an hour to finally make sense of it all.
—Similar to Tao Mu's memory in his previous life, Gou Rixin really had an accident while hanging on the wires. He fell from a height of more than six meters and broke his waist directly. Because the injured place was too close to the lumbar vertebra, the doctor said that even if the general operation was successfully completed, it was very likely to become high paraplegia. Unless he went under an operation with a particularly complicated name, if the postoperative recovery was good, he might recover into a normal person again. However, this kind of surgery alone cost more than 500,000 yuan for the initial surgery, plus various postoperative rehabilitation treatments, so based on a conservative estimate, the total cost would be about 1.2 million yuan.
Because Tao Mu had bought accident insurance for Gou Rixin before, he could afford the one million yuan. Coupled with the fact that Gou Rixin had some savings as a martial artist extra for so many years, he did have the money for the operation. Da Luo and the whole gang of brothers felt very fortunate and so they quickly called Gou Rixin's family. Gou Rixin only had his mother left, and mother Gou rushed over as soon as she received news. The claims settlement also went very smoothly, and the group of brothers thought that there would be no problem.
"I accompanied brother Gou's mother to the insurance company that day to settle the compensation. But Yu Mei also insisted on following. Since brother Gou had the accident, this woman had been busy waiting on and taking care of all of his needs. Helping with sanitation, feeding him meals and wiping his body clean. Everyone thought she had changed her ways and was really ready to spend the days with brother Gou. We were all quite happy for brother Gou."
"After finishing settling the insurance, I wanted to send mother Gou and Yu Mei back to the hospital to pay the operation money. But I got a call halfway through, saying that something happened to our crew and insisting that I had to let go back. Yu Mei said to give the money to her and she'll take mother Gou back to the hospital to make the payment."
At that time, Da Luo didn't think anything about it, so he directly handed over the bank card to Yu Mei. As a result, when Yu Mei arrived at the hospital, she left mother Gou in the ward, saying that she would go through the payment procedure while mother Gou took care of Gou Rixin.
Mother Gou waited in the ward all afternoon, but
Yu Mei still did not return. Feeling something was wrong, she went down to investigate and found that Yu Mei didn't go to make the payment at all. She actually ran away with the bank card.
Mother Gou panicked. She didn't know how to use the phone, nor was she familiar with Gou Rixin's friends. In the end, she begged the nurse at the nurse station to call with the contact information that the nurse found. Only then did Da Luo and the rest learn that Yu Mei actually took the money and ran away: "…..You say, isn't she too cruel? Brother Gou has been so good to her for so many years. Before the accident, he even wanted to marry her. You say, how could she do this kind of cruel thing? She is basically forcing brother Gou to die!"
"It's my fault too." Da Luo cried on the phone, slapping himself with his other hand: "I shouldn't have gone back to the crew. How could that mess be as important as brother Gou? Tao Mu, you say, what can we do now?"
"It's alright." Tao Mu had a headache from Da Luo's crying, he soothed the other while saying, "I'll make a call first and see if I can transfer brother Gou to Beijing's hospital. After all, Beijing's medical level is definitely better than H Town's. Even if he needs to go under surgery, there is more guarantee about doing the operation in Beijing than in H Town. As for the money, you don't have to worry about it."
Tao Mu asked again: "Has Yu Mei's matter been reported to the police?"
"Huh?" Da Luo was stunned for a moment, and then said with some embarrassment: "Would brother Gou let us?" His woman ran away while he was sick. Such a shameful thing, with Gou Rixin's temperament, he would want nothing more than to cover it up, so how could he have someone call the police?
"Who cares if he is embarrassed or not at this point. This is a crime." Tao Mu was so angry he wanted to crawl over the phone line and beat Da Luo up: "In short, call the police first. Wait for the police to file a case and catch the person. "
After a pause, Tao Mu asked again: "The incident involving the wire accident….."
"What?" Don't know why but despite Tao Mu being so much younger than them, after this large group of older brothers listened to Tao Mu's instructions, they all seemed to have found their pillar of support immediately. Da Luo held the phone and listened with great focus. When Tao Mu suddenly stopped talking, he couldn't help asking: "What's the matter? Tao Mu, what do you want to ask?"
"Nothing." Tao Mu originally wanted to ask whether Gou Rixin's wire accident was man-made or a real accident. However, considering the IQ of Da Luo and the rest, he probably wouldn't know even if he asked: "Let's talk about it when we meet."
Gou Rixin's injury was the most urgent thing at the moment.
After putting down the phone, Tao Mu immediately found Yun Xingjian's contact information.
As the director of the Beijing No. 1 People's Hospital, Yun Xingjian had a clear grasp of the internal situation of the Beijing medical system. For example, for the operation of Gou Rixin, which hospital's relevant department was the most authoritative, which chief surgeon was the most skilled, and which chief surgeon was best at rehabilitation…..
Gou Rixin was also one of Yun Duo's life-saving benefactors. After receiving Tao Mu's call for help, Yun Xingjian immediately prepared the procedures for the transfer to Beijing's hospital without saying a word. He also personally called the H Town hospital to learn about Gou Rixin's situation and coordinate the transfer.
On this side, Tao Mu had to ask for leave from the school. He really didn't feel at ease about leaving Da Luo and the rest to their own devices, and planned to go to H Town to personally handle the transfer of Gou Rixin as well as Yu Mei's case.
Asking for leave at the beginning of the semester would inevitably leave a bad impression on the school. However, Tao Mu had a credible reason, and his creation of FlyNews also gave him a lot of impression points. The school didn't make it difficult for him, and gave him leave happily.
Tao Mu took the plane that night and arrived in H Town early the next morning. Qin Miaoru, who had long received the news, drove their inn's van to pick him up and send him to the hospital as soon as possible.
Gou Rixin's gang of martial arts brothers were all in the hospital, and there was also an old lady in her sixties in the ward, her face full of tears, eyes so swollen from crying they almost went blind. She was also continuously blaming herself.
"It's all my fault, I should have followed that girl. If only I had kept an eye on her….."
Gou Rixin was lying on the hospital bed. He was originally a burly person but in just a few days, he lost a shocking amount of weight. His complexion was also very pale and looked very bad: "Mom, don't cry. It's not your fault. "
"Mom, I don't feel good. Don't cry—"
Before he finished speaking, Qin Miaoru's excited voice interrupted: "Tao Mu is here!"
"Tao Mu?"
"Taozi is here, that's great! You tell us quickly, what should we do now?"
"In the afternoon the hospital told us that they would be transferring brother Gou to the Beijing No. 1 People's Hospital. Did you help with this matter?"
"We have already called the police for Yu Mei's matter. The police have also filed the case. The officer in charge of this case is the officer Yao from before. He has been promoted. He also said that he will try his best to help us catch Yu Mei."
The arrival of Tao Mu turned the panicked ward into a noisy ward. The martial arts brothers headed by Da Luo rushed forward and surrounded Tao Mu. It was so noisy that Tao Mu had a headache.
He frowned and walked over to the hospital bed. He first greeted Gou Rixin's mother, introduced himself, and then said to Gou Rixin, "Don't worry, I'm here."
With just a few words, Gou Rixin, a tough northeastern guy who was more than 1.8 meters tall, bursted into tears.
Gou Rixin held Tao Mu's hand tightly. He had suffered too much these days. From being valued by the Hong Kong director and being able to audition for the second male lead, as well as about to prepare for marriage with Yu Mei, to the possibility of being paralyzed for the rest of his life when the wire snapped and he accidentally broke his waist, as well as learning that his fiance ran away with all the money. The ups and downs during the past few days had directly crushed this upright man.
His mother was in her sixties, sitting in front of his hospital bed all day long and crying, blaming herself; his brothers were also panicked and ran around everywhere to raise money. But this large group of martial arts brothers who only knew to enjoy the moment when they had any money in their hands, and from time to time even having to rely on his help. It was impossible for them to have much savings on hand. After running around for a long time, in the end it was Qin Miaoru who finally helped raise 300,000 yuan. But this was already the limit.
Gou Rixin was usually the big brother and leader in front of his brothers. So even if he had frustrations and sorrow deep in his heart, it was not easy to talk about it with his brothers, so he could only suffer it on his own. After holding back these few days he had nearly gone crazy. So now seeing Tao Mu—even though this kid was only eighteen this year, a decade younger than him, Gou Rixin felt that Tao Mu could hold up against anything and understand him.
Tao Mu looked at Gou Rixin who could barely breathe from crying so hard, stretched out his other hand and patted him on the shoulder. Without saying any comforting words, he simply explained what he had done during this time. "…..I have already contacted director Yun Xingjian who will help to complete the operation procedures. The best expert in the country was invited to perform surgery for you. Follow-up rehabilitation treatment has also been arranged. When we fly over there, you will be hospitalized for observation for two days, and if there is no issue the surgery will directly be performed."
"Don't worry about the money issue. Just take it as me lending it to you. Don't think too much, just take care of your health. When the time comes you can make money from filming, so you will soon be able to pay me back—I will give you an interest rate that is the same as the bank's. So you don't have to worry about rushing to repay the money."
Before his words even finished, Gou Rixin's mother had already grabbed Tao Mu's arm in excitement and was about to kneel. Tao Mu quickly grabbed onto her: "Auntie, what are you doing? I am friends with brother Gou, and this is just something that I should do. Brother Gou also helped me a lot before."
"Young man, I thank you very much. If not for you, our family would be completely finished. You say, I only have one son, Xiao Xin, my entire life. If he…..how would I explain to his father?"
Tao Mu had no parents himself, so he felt especially emotional when he saw other people's parents caring about their children. He quickly soothed and said: "Auntie, don't worry. It's going to be alright. As soon as director Yun heard about brother Gou, he immediately called the best expert in the country to take care of brother Gou. You don't know, this director Yun's daughter once came to H Town and was deceived by some bad guys. It was brother Gou who helped rescue her. So brother Gou is a good person who will definitely be fine."
Gou Rixin's mother cried silently, continuing to hold onto Tao Mu by the arm. Tao Mu patiently comforted mother Gou. Gou Rixin also cried and looked at Tao Mu with tears and snot. Tao Mu pulled a piece of tissue and handed it to him in some disgust.
Gou Rixin blew his nose loudly, and only then did his emotions finally calm down: "Tao Mu, thank you. If not for you, I really don't know what to do."
Seeing that Gou Rixin and his mother's emotions finally stabilized. Tao Mu then went to see Gou Rixin's attending doctor, wanting to understand Gou Rixin's condition in detail.
The hospital where Gou Rixin stayed at was the hospital that received Yun Duo and the other human trafficking victims. The doctors and nurses here still remembered Gou Rixin and Tao Mu, and of course they also had a very good impression of them. So even if Gou Rixin had no money for surgery, his medication was still the best. The hospital also wanted to maintain Gou Rixin's physical condition and increase the success rate of Gou Rixin's surgery in Beijing.
After Tao Mu learned about Gou Rixin's condition in detail, he went to the local police station to consult on Yu Mei's situation. He was received by officer Yao, the officer who had helped them on Yun Duo's case the last time.
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Officer Yao explained to Tao Mu that the police had just opened the case and were investigating the whereabouts of the suspect in all aspects. According to the surveillance of the hospital, they had tracked Yu Mei getting into a taxi. Knowing the license plate number of this taxi, someone had already been sent to investigate further. There was no news yet.
While talking, they saw Qin Miaoru rushing into the police station with her group of brothers. She said breathlessly: "I, I want to report! I have some clues!"
Qin Miaoru was still decked in a non-mainstream outfit. Her gang of brothers were still the same bald-headed, covered in tattoos and had gold chains around their necks. Their appearance in the police station looked more like they were there to give themselves up to the authorities than report on a crime.
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However, the policemen at the police station in H Town still remember that Qin Miaoru and her gang assisted the police in cracking the MLM abduction case, and they knew that they were good people who just happened to have a non-mainstream sense of fashion.
Qin Miaoru rushed over Tao Mu and officer Yao, her gang of brothers in tow. She didn't directly elaborate on the clues she found, but looked at Tao Mu and asked strangely: "Why is your phone turned off?"
"Huh?" Tao Mu took his phone out and saw that it was out of battery.
From the time he received the call from Da Luo, he contacted director Yun, asked for leave from the school, took a plane to H Town, went to the hospital to see brother Gou, and then finally came to the police station to ask about the situation. It took more than ten hours of barely non stop tossing around. The battery of smartphones was inherently worse than other phones. Fortunately, Tao Mu carried a charger with him.
"I'll charge it for you." Officer Yao took the initiative to take over the phone to help Tao Mu find power. As soon as it was turned on, "ding ding dong dong" sounded, displaying several missed calls. Among them, Qin Miaoru called the most, as well as Da Mao and Xiao Pang, and brother Meng Qi. The last call was from Li Xiaoheng.
Thinking of his agreement with Li Xiaoheng, Tao Mu quickly dialed back.
It was four o'clock in the afternoon here, and the time in country M was four o'clock in the morning. As soon as Tao Mu dialed back, he realized the time difference and was afraid that Li Xiaoheng might still be sleeping. Before he could hang up the call, Li Xiaoheng's voice sounded from the receiver.
"Xiao Mu?"
"…..You haven't slept yet?" After Li Xiaoheng answered the phone, Tao Mu immediately apologized: "Sorry, I didn't notice the time difference. Did it bother your sleep?"
"I haven't slept yet." On the other side, Li Xiaoheng's voice sounded wide awake with a trace of a smile: "Where are you? Was your phone out of battery?"
Tao Mu let out an "en" and explained very briefly: "My friend got in an accident. I am in H Town now."
"I knew it. If it weren't for an unexpected situation, you would definitely have answered my call." Li Xiaoheng said confidently.
Tao Mu didn't pick up on Li Xiaoheng changing the meaning of his words. In any case, in his thinking, "the phone being turned off" and "not picking up Li Xiaoheng's calls" meant the same thing.
"Do you need my help?" Li Xiaoheng asked particularly enthusiastically on the phone.
Tao Mu knew of Li Xiaoheng's abilities and also knew that the Li family had great status in China. If a friend around him really needed help, even if asking Li Xiaoheng for a favor would affect his weight in the eyes of his business partner, Tao Mu would still speak out. After all, there were times when asking for help could deepen the relationship between two people.
But Tao Mu felt that he could solve Gou Rixin's problem and he didn't want to waste this connection that Li Xiaoheng provided. So Tao Mu thanked Li Xiaoheng for his kindness very sincerely. He also explained Gou Rixin's situation concisely. Of course, he also left himself some leeway: "When it's confirmed that brother Gou can be transferred to Beijing's hospital, and the surgery is finalized, if the money is not enough, I will definitely let you know."
Most of Tao Mu's money was in the international crude oil market, and Li Xiaoheng knew of this matter clearer than anyone else. And based on the two people's cooperation scale which amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars, borrowing a few hundred thousand yuan was not considered borrowing at all.
On the other end of the call, Li Xiaoheng could naturally pick up on the social niceties under his words of gratitude. He was a little bit disappointed but immediately cheered himself up, saying: "I also knew some medical students and professors when I was studying at Stanford. If you have a need regarding this, I can help to introduce some international experts to help with your friend's operation."
Tao Mu expressed his gratitude again, and immediately asked Li Xiaoheng why he had called earlier: "Is there something wrong with the international oil futures?"
"No." Li Xiaoheng explained with a smile: "Because our cooperation has just started, so I just wanted to make a routine call and communicate with you."
Tao Mu recalled that the time when Li Xiaoheng called him was around ten o'clock in the evening, which would have been around ten o'clock in the morning when converted to country M's time difference. At that point in time, it was likely that Li Xiaoheng had just gotten off the plane, and shouldn't have met with any issue yet.
Indeed, Li Xiaoheng really didn't have any problem. He had just gotten off the plane and habitually called Tao Mu to report his safe arrival. But Tao Mu's phone was turned off automatically because of no battery. It caused Li Xiaoheng to be a little worried, not knowing what happened to Tao Mu for him not to pick up his phone. Fortunately, this was the year 2008 when the smartphone was just launched. If this happened ten years later, it was likely that with Li Xiaoheng's rich imagination he would have called the police already.
Tao Mu smiled and said, "It's good that nothing is wrong. You can call me whenever you have to. When I return to Beijing, I will buy a new phone and make sure my phone is open 24 hours a day. Today's situation will absolutely not appear again."
Although Li Xiaoheng had already stated that he had nothing important to discuss with Tao Mu. But as a competent partner, Tao Mu must review the mistakes he exposed in this matter. He should be grateful that Li Xiaoheng had nothing important that needed discussing with him this time. If there was anything important but he was unable to be found due to his phone being turned off at the critical moment, then he was definitely a failure as a business partner.
This was a low-level mistake that would never be tolerated in the workplace.
Tao Mu did not hide anything, and straightforwardly admitted to his negligence and also promised to never commit it again in the future. The attitude was very sincere and humble, but it only made Li Xiaoheng feel very depressed instead.
From the perspective of a business partner, of course Li Xiaoheng appreciated Tao Mu's work ethic very much. In fact, Li Xiaoheng was a very strict person when it came to business. If this situation happened with any employee of Xiaoheng Capital, while Li Xiaoheng would not dismiss the other immediately, he at least would have asked the other to conduct a public review at the morning meeting, as well as deduct a month's salary in order to make an example.
But when changed to Tao Mu, Li Xiaoheng felt that Tao Mu's attitude was a bit distant. Although the two of them were business partners, it was not like they were superior and subordinate after all. Tao Mu had no need to apologize to him for such a small matter. Besides being business partners, they were also friends.
There were no friends who would seriously review and reflect on mistakes because of such a trivial matter.
"You being like this, I won't dare to call you casually in the future." Li Xiaoheng said with a smile on the other end of the phone: "I feel very guilty. It's not like you could help it. Because your friend had an accident and so you needed to catch a plane. And on the plane, it's not allowed to have the phone turned on."
"Call whenever, call whenever."
Tao Mu didn't realize at all that his relationship with Li Xiaoheng went from a "routine work reporting relationship" to a "friend who could call casually" in just a few words. He was still immersed in the atmosphere created by Li Xiaoheng, and tried his best to appease the other: "It was originally my fault. Before I get on the plane, I should have told you in advance. Lest you can't find me when you call."
"I was also on the plane at that time. I wouldn't be able to answer your call anyway." Li Xiaoheng took the blame back onto himself in a particularly confident and justified manner. The speed and efficiency caused even Tao Mu to be speechless.
The layout of the H Town police station was similar to that of the Beijing police station. Officer Yao put Tao Mu's mobile phone on the power strip next to his desk to charge it.
Tao Mu squatted under officer Yao's desk and chatted with Li Xiaoheng for twenty minutes. When he finally hung up, everyone, including Qin Miaoru and officer Yao, felt a little bit full inexplicably. (TN: full of dog food. To feed others dog food is slang for showing off your lovey dovey relationship with your other half)
Taking advantage of this time, among the gang of brothers who came with Qin Miaoru, a certain brother with a shaved head, a dragon tattoo on his back and a large gold chain on his neck also elaborated on the clues he knew in detail several times.
"You mean, you accidentally discovered that Yu Mei appeared near Da Xiong's rental house. Who is this Da Xiong?"
"I don't know what this Da Xiong's birth name is. Everyone calls him that. He is also one of the group extra leaders of H Town Studios. Similar to Gou Rixin, they are all martial arts extras. And I heard that this Da Xiong and Gou Rixin originally had conflict between them. It seems that the two groups of people often fight over film scenes."
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After saying this, one thing suddenly came to mind: "By the way, I heard from that group of extras. It seems that after Gou Rixin's accident, the role of the male number two lead was replaced with Da Xiong."
As soon as these words came out, the entire police station suddenly fell silent. Especially those veteran policemen who had rich experience in handling cases. They all seemed to smell a trace of crime.
Of course, this kind of thing was useless just by guessing. So the police immediately dispatched police forces, and based on the clues provided by the dragon tattoo brother, they planned to immediately arrest Yu Mei, who had absconded with a huge amount of money.
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Because of the clues provided, dragon tattoo brother, who once again became an informant, also got in the police car, being responsible for showing everyone the way. Before getting in the car, dragon tattoo brother said proudly in the police station: "Comrade police, don't worry. When I came, I already left people behind to keep watch downstairs. That little lady will definitely not be able to run."
The police were amused: "You actually know about tailing?"
"Of course." Dragon tattoo brother patted his chest: "We have a previous experience of catching bad guys before after all."
Tao Mu looked at the dragon tattoo brother and found that this person was the one who was impressed by his cooking skills at the dinner table and wanted to recognize their old man Song as godfather. Tao Mu remembered that the last time they went to the Longmen Inn to inquire about Yun Duo's case, it was also this brother who found the first clues. The police were taken to a courtyard residence outside the city where the traffickers were caught in time.
Tao Mu discovered that this person was quite talented! But how could such a talented person be a cook! It would be a waste! He should just devote himself to the great cause of entertainment media!
Tao Mu thought of his FlyNews website, and in the future he would definitely establish a FlyNews Entertainment Department. When he looked at the dragon tattoo brother again, his eyes took on the light of a connoisseur.
Because the intensity of the arrest was different from the previous one, Tao Mu and other idlers did not need to follow. They only needed to stay at the police station and wait for news. During this period Tao Mu asked Qin Miaoru about dragon tattoo brother. Qin Miaoru was always eager to answer any of Tao Mu's questions, and immediately said, "You mean Da Fei! I heard that when he was a child, his mother often sent him to follow after his dad secretly to see which friend's house his dad went to gamble money at, and which woman he was fooling around with. After so many years, he has accumulated a lot of experience. He has also been a bodyguard before. But because he can't keep his mouth shut, always willing to talk about the boss's gossip, he was eventually fired."
But then again, Zhang Fei also wanted to leave himself. So he deliberately found something to make the boss fire him. In his words, the previous boss was not a very good person, and he was unwilling to help a villain do evil—out of sight, out of mind.
When Tao Mu heard Zhang Fei's name he was once again delighted, and felt that not only was this person interesting, but his name was also interesting.
Tao Mu was thinking about Zhang Fei while waiting for officer Yao and the others to come back. But before the police had yet to come back, another person came in to make a report.
After the person reported his name, everyone was stunned to discover that this person turned out to be the "Da Xiong" Zhang Fei mentioned before!
What was this situation?
The group of people looked at each other, instantly bewildered.
It was Tao Mu and a few experienced old policemen who vaguely guessed Da Xiong's intentions.
A police uncle expertly picked up a notebook to record his statement.
Da Xiong's real name was Xiong Zheng. Like Gou Rixin, he was a martial arts extra and because he had spent a long time in the H Town Studio City, he had made a wide range of contacts, and was now a small group extra leader.
According to his own account, he and Yu Mei met in the summer two years ago. At that time, they both had gone to participate in a dinner party organized by the assistant director of a crew.
"…..It's called a dinner party, but in fact everyone knows the truth. This kind of gathering involves that kind of relationship. The assistant director relies on his own power in the crew to obtain sexual favors from actresses. There are also a few lighting techs and videographers. Some beautiful actresses were also willing and wanted to suck up to the assistant director so as to add a few more lines to their parts or when filming, have the cameraman capture them in a more flattering angle. It's all done willingly. Yu Mei often goes to that kind of party."
Xiong Zheng confessed, while blackening Yu Mei's person from inside to outside: "…..She can drink and have fun with everyone. So after a few times we got together. After that, I would often introduce her to some acting roles which were all roles with lines."
"Then do you know about Yu Mei and Gou Rixin being together?" The police comrade suddenly interrupted Xiong Zheng when he heard this.
"I know." Xiong Zheng was hanging his head. He raised it again and stared at the police scorchingly: "But it's not illegal, right? The two of us are unmarried. Besides, it was Yu Mei who took the initiative to hook up with me."
The police nodded, without commenting on the incident, and said in a deep voice, "Continue."
Xiong Zheng looked at the police comrade with some anxiety. But the police comrade did not say a word, nor did he show any expressions. Xiong Zheng felt even more nervous.
He confessed honestly: "In fact, people in our circle are almost like this. Yu Mei and I dated on and off several times in the past two years…..Her man keeps a tight hold on her and doesn't like her to go out. Yu Mei also always complains to me that her man has no ability and yet likes to boss her around. She wants to break up with her man and stay with me. Of course I don't care. After all, Yu Mei is pretty. With such a girlfriend, I don't lose out. But later, she suddenly stopped talking about breaking up, and said that she would not see me any longer in the future, that she plans to marry her man. It didn't matter to me. But I really didn't expect what happened next. She suddenly came to me yesterday afternoon with a big bag full of a million yuan in cash. This really frightened me. I asked her what's going on….."
"She said that the money was paid by the insurance company for her man's accident. She also said that her man would not survive this time. The doctor said that even if the operation is successful, it is most likely that he would still have high-level paraplegia. She said that she wants to break up with her man and that this one million yuan was compensation for her loss of youth during the many years she had been with him. It was her break-up fee. But I thought, this is a scam! Her man is still lying in the hospital bed….."
Xiong Zheng flushed down to his neck in his excitement, looking very honest and dutiful: "I was terrified and felt that this was wrong. So I came here. I say, comrade police, you must believe me. I know that intervening in their relationship is not good of me. But I am definitely a law-abiding citizen. I don't do anything illegal. Yu Mei is too ruthless. You say, she was with her man for so many years, same as husband and wife. But she actually ran away with the money needed to pay for her man's medical treatment at this critical juncture. Isn't this the same as forcing Gou Rixin to die!"
It was probably because Xiong Zheng appeared too sincere and eager, so including Qin Miaoru and the others, everyone felt that this matter might really have nothing to do with Xiong Zheng. Although his moral quality was not very good, casually intervening and messing up the couple relationship of others. But he really didn't look like he could do something illegal.
But when Tao Mu observed Xiong Zheng's expression, he couldn't help but feel that something was wrong.
The policeman responsible for recording the confession did not look up, and continued to ask: "Do you know Gou Rixin?"
Xiong Zheng bowed his head and nodded dejectedly: "I know. H Town is only so big of a place, and we are all martial arts extras. How can we not know each other? It's just that we don't have a close friendship or anything like that."
The experienced old policemen looked at each other and smiled. Xiong Zheng's words sounded nothing wrong at first. But there was no mention of the fact that Gou Rixin was Yu Mei's boyfriend. As a male adulterer who intervened in the relationship of a couple, it was impossible for Xiong Zheng to not know the identity of Gou Rixin. But when recording his confession, he subconsciously wanted to distance the relationship between him and Gou Rixin.
Therefore, the police comrades could not help but to be curious. Xiong Zheng came to the police station to report Yu Mei. And even kept expressing sympathy for Gou Rixin. So why did he subconsciously want to distance himself from Gou Rixin?
"As far as we know, there have been some conflicts between you and Gou Rixin. And this time after Gou Rixin's accident, his role was replaced by you."
Da Xiong's expression changed: "Comrade, comrade police, what do you mean by this? Are you suspecting that I did anything? That would be too unjust. I say, comrade police, you have to pay attention to evidence when handling a case. How can you suspect me without evidence?"
"Please calm down. Who suspects you." The police comrade in charge of recording the confession tapped the notebook with a ballpoint pen, and continued to remain expressionless: "I just stated an established fact. Why are you so excited?"
Da Xiong looked like he had choked on air and he quickly explained: "No. The point is that I am afraid."
"You haven't done anything wrong, what are you afraid of?" The police comrade said with a very serious face: "Don't worry. Us police will definitely handle the case based on evidence, and will not wrong a good person or let a bad person go."
Xiong Zheng appeared sheepish, and nodded in agreement: "Yes, yes, I believe the police will not wrong me. By the way, Yu Mei is at my house now. Go and arrest her. Don't let her run away."
The police comrade continued to ask without expression: "Since Yu Mei came to you yesterday, why didn't you call the police yesterday? Afnd instead calling the police after a day's delay?"
"In the beginning, I didn't know what was going on. It took a long time for Yu Mei to tell me the truth. It was already late at the time, and then I had to keep her steady. I couldn't let her find out that I called the police and let her run off. If that was the case wouldn't I be unable to explain myself?" Xiong Zheng replied smoothly, as if he had rehearsed several times in advance.
The police comrade raised his eyelids and glanced at Xiong Zheng. He didn't say anything. Suddenly they heard a loud noise coming from outside, which included the shrill screams and crying of a woman.
—It was officer Yao and the rest who had managed to arrest Yu Mei.
Yu Mei, who had always had heavy make-up on and dressed exquisitely, now appeared with dishevelled hair, sandwiched between two policemen. Following behind them was Zhang Fei and a policeman carrying a bag.
Seeing Xiong Zheng in the police station, Yu Mei, who was crying, was suddenly taken aback. She immediately understood and began to struggle to break free from the restraint of the police comrades. Instantly a high-pitched scream sounded: "Xiong Zheng you bastard, you are a man without balls. You actually betrayed me."
"Comrade police, I also want to report." Yu Mei broke away from the police like a crazy person, and rushed to scratch at Xiong Zheng's face with her long nails. Xiong Zheng slapped her away, the momentum causing her to fall on the desk and nearly hitting her forehead.
She covered her forehead with a hostile face: "I want to report Xiong Zheng, it must be him who fiddled with the wires and caused Gou Rixin to have the accident. He did this to take over Gou Rixin's role. I report! I report!"
Yu Mei threw herself at the police like a lunatic, viciously accusing Xiong Zheng, appearing as if she wanted to drag him to death with her.
Compared to Yu Mei's reaction, Xiong Zheng was much calmer: "I say, Yu Mei, don't wrongly accuse others. Gou Rixin's incident was an accident. Didn't the insurance companies all determine that it was an accident? Otherwise, how could Gou Rixin claim compensation?"
"No!" The shrill voice seemed to want nothing more than to shatter all the glass in the police station, and Yu Mei pointed at Xiong Zheng with crimson eyes and snarling lips: "You did it. You must have done it. Otherwise, how could it be so coincidental, I just told you Gou Rixin was going to audition, and then he had an accident within half a month. And it coincidentally happened when he was in the same crew as you. If not you then who else?"
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"Don't be fooling around, okay? The police only deal with evidence." Xiong Zheng said, and looked at the police confidently: "Comrade police, if you don't believe me, you can investigate. Gou Rixin's accident really has nothing to do with me. It's his own bad luck. When filming the movie, he happened to encounter the breakage of an old wire. Although this kind of thing is not common. But it is not uncommon in our martial arts body double business. Originally, being a martial arts body double is a high-risk job and accidents happen quite often. Especially for stuntmen."
"If you don't believe me, you can go ahead and investigate!"
Xiong Zheng's attitude was too confident. Tao Mu felt that even if Xiong Zheng was the one responsible, he was probably very confident in himself, believing that he cleaned up any evidence thoroughly and would not let anyone find any traces.
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The police comrade probably thought so too. So he put aside Xiong Zheng for the moment and began to interrogate Yu Mei.
Yu Mei was very emotional. While recording her confession, she kept biting back at Xiong Zheng, saying: "Comrade police, you must believe me. Gou Rixin's accident must have something to do with him. Ever since he learned from my mouth that Gou Rixin was going to audition for that Hongkong director's male second lead role, he became particularly interested about this matter and kept asking about it. I heard people say that he even went around inquiring about this matter, and eventually joined the same crew as Gou Rixin. The night before Gou Rixin's accident, he called Gou Rixin out for a drink. As a result, Gou Rixin had an accident the next day. He must have planned it all."
It was officer Yao who was responsible for recording Yu Mei's confession. Because of the MLM abduction case uncovered before, officer Yao had a very good impression of Gou Rixin. So he was also very concerned about this case.
"You are saying Xiong Zheng deliberately created Gou Rixin's accident. Is there any evidence?"
Yu Mei choked upon hearing this. She said that and suspected this, but to speak of evidence, she really didn't have any.
But she was unwilling to be played by Xiong Zheng. Had it not been for Xiong Zheng always speaking in her ears, she and Gou Rixin might not have fallen into the state where they were today. Now that she had been caught by the police, what right did Xiong Zheng have to remain completely fine and even replace Gou Rixin's role.
Yu Mei was full of resentment, wanting nothing more than to pull the bastard Xiong Zheng into the water with her.
"I remember." Yu Mei's eyes suddenly lit up. She straightened up and said, "I remember that on the day Gou Rixin had an accident, Da Luo and the others were not on the set. It was because Xiong Zheng got them drunk the night before so they couldn't get up the next day. Xiong Zheng doing this must definitely be so that Gou Rixin's brothers would be away so that he could do his tricks. Maybe he bribed the prop master who checked the wires that day."
However, the insurance company had already confirmed the accident during the inspection. Gou Rixin's wire incident was a true accident caused by the wire being too worn and old, and there was no sign of any man-made cause.
"That might be Xiong Zheng's work. Xiong Zheng could bribe the props master and deliberately ask the prop master to give Gou Rixin an old wire." Yu Mei's thoughts turned, twisting the words and forcing logic.
However, the people from the insurance company also said that the wire model rented by the crew were all similar. They were purchased in the same batch. Unless Xiong Zheng could see the future and know that something would happen to the wire suit that day, there was no way to explain the matter.
Officer Yao was not prepared to remain conflicted on this kind of thing, and asked Yu Mei: "How did you take out the entire one million yuan in just one day? As far as we know, you didn't make an advance appointment with the bank. But you took away the entire one million yuan that day."
Yu Mei sat up straight: "I know the assistant manager of the bank. I notified him the day Gou Rixin had the accident. At that time, Da Luo called Gou Rixin's mother to come over from the northeast. I knew they were not trusting of me so they wanted to call the old lady over to take care of Gou Rixin and also keep a look on me. I was not convinced, and I was afraid that the old lady would calculate the money with me. So I wanted to get a hold on the money first. I didn't really think so much at the time—"
Yu Mei snorted and looked at officer Yao with tears: "Comrade police, you must believe me. I don't know what's going on, at that time my brain just short-circuited. It's all that Xiong Zheng's fault, he nagged me every day to break up with Gou Rixin and be with him. He also said that he would support me. Only then did I commit a mistake. Comrade police, I haven't touched a single coin of this one million yuan. Can you look at this matter and spare me?"
The female police officer who recorded the confession with officer Yao couldn't bear it anymore: "How can you say you haven't touched a single coin? The way I see it, you just didn't have a chance to do it. Let me tell you, your criminal act of absconding with a huge amount of money is already an established fact. Don't entertain any illusions, confess honestly and strive for lenient treatment."
"Okay, okay, okay, I will definitely strive for it." Yu Mei's crying had already blurred her eye makeup, and she nodded her head again and again: "What do you want to ask, I will definitely be forthcoming."
Outside the interrogation room, Tao Mu first called Da Luo and asked him to come over and take the money. The police had already helped sort out the money in that big bag. There was an entire 1.26 million yuan. In addition to Gou Rixin's insurance money, there were also a few hundred thousands that Yu Mei had accumulated by herself. She really was prepared to take the money and run away. Because she believed Xiong Zheng's sweet words, she was also ready to let Xiong Zheng run with her.
But she didn't expect Xiong Zheng to have just replaced Gou Rixin in the role of the second male lead, and he still dreamed that he could become famous overnight with this movie. So how could he possibly be willing to live like a fugitive with a woman like Yu Mei just for this mere one million yuan?
Therefore, Xiong Zheng made sweet promises on the surface, and then reported her when her back was turned.
"Like they say, good people will always be rewarded!" An old policeman said with emotion: "It's a good thing this was discovered early and Yu Mei hadn't had time to run out of H Town. If she really ran away with the money, even if we could catch her in the end, we likely wouldn't be able to recover all of the money at that time."
This kind of thing was actually very common. The criminal ran away with the money, and the victim hurriedly came to call the police. In the end, the criminals were caught, but the money was still gone. If such a thing happened, even the police couldn't do anything about it.
Tao Mu and others nodded along. They also believe in the saying that good people would be rewarded—if Gou Rixin hadn't helped track down the case of Yun Duo and the others being abducted, they would have never known Qin Miaoru. Without knowing these people, when Yu Mei absconded with the money, even if Zhang Fei saw Yu Mei by mistake, he would not have told Gou Rixin. So in the final analysis, good people would always be rewarded in the end.
Xiong Zheng, who was sitting on one side and being interrogated, asked for credit with a shameless face: "Comrade police, is this also my credit for reporting in time?"
"You?" The police comrade sneered, disapproving: "We received the report before you came. The police went directly to arrest Yu Mei. When you came, our police force had already arrived at your house. You are at most surrendering to the authorities."
Xiong Zheng was frightened into a tremble: "Comrade police, don't say that. I'm not the same as that woman. I didn't break the law."
"Then why didn't she go anywhere else with that million yuan?" The policeman responsible for recording Xiong Zheng's confession tapped the transcript: "Also, Yu Mei confessed that you invited Gou Rixin and his brothers to a drink the night before Gou Rixin's accident. And even getting Gou Rixin's friends drunk. Didn't you say that your relationship is not good?"
Xiong Zheng smiled shamelessly: "I heard that Gou Rixin got a film role from a big director, and he will soon become successful. So I wondered if I could find an opportunity to warm up our relationship."
"Then you have a big heart. You slept with his girlfriend and you still want to erase all past hatred with just a drink?" The police comrades were unbelieving no matter what!
Xiong Zheng chuckled, and said with a shameless expression: "Comrade police, you don't know. It's common in the entertainment industry to mess around with relationships. Maybe Gou Rixin doesn't care."
The comrade police flipped to the previous transcript: "You didn't say that before." When Xiong was recording his confession earlier, he personally admitted that Gou Rixin was very concerned about Yu Mei's fooling around with outsiders.
Xiong Zheng had nothing to say so he started to act dumb: "Then treat it as me wanting to please Gou Rixin so that he won't make it difficult for me in the future. Besides, Gou Rixin doesn't know about me and Yu Mei. We hid it quite well."
What logic was this?
The comrade police frowned. He clearly knew that Xiong Zheng was not right, however, they had no evidence. Just as Xiong Zheng said, whether it was to invite Gou Rixin and his friends to drink, or to inquire about Gou Rixin's audition, or even joining the same crew as Gou Rixin, these actions were not illegal.
Even if Xiong Zheng really did something, they lacked a key link of evidence.
Besides, Xiong Zheng also actively reported Yu Mei who absconded with the money. And from Yu Mei's confession, it could be known that Xiong Zheng had nothing to do with Yu Mei absconding with the money.
The Xiong Zheng in front of him sat in the chair confidently with a clear conscience.
Tao Mu subtly glanced at the other, still feeling that something was wrong.
Tao Mu thought for a while, and moved to Zhang Fei's side: "Didn't you send someone to keep a look on Yu Mei? Was that person discovered?"
Zhang Fei said with a grin: "So what if he was discovered? Anyway, this little lady and the money will definitely not be able to run away."
Tao Mu frowned in pondering. After receiving the news, Da Luo supported Go Rixin's mother and hurried over, holding the policeman's hand tightly in gratitude: "Thank you so much. If it weren't for your help, the money would definitely not be recovered."
Gou Rixin's mother walked tearfully and unsteadily over to the police and was about to kneel again, but was supported by the police comrades: "Auntie, please don't do this. This is our duty."
The police waved their hands and patiently persuaded: "You should take the money back quickly. Don't delay your son's treatment."
"Ai! Ai!" Gou Rixin's mother wiped her tears with the palm of her hand and kept muttering: "Thank you. Thank you."
Da Luo knew that Yu Mei had been caught, and it was at Xiong Zheng's rental house. When he saw Xiong Zheng, he didn't have a good face. He directly reached out and grabbed Xiong Zheng's collar to lift him up, and almost punched him in the face but was stopped by the police.
Xiong Zheng hid behind the police in fright and kept shouting that someone was fighting at the police station, acvusing Da Luo with assaulting the police. Tao Mu was afraid that Da Luo would cause trouble if he stayed in the police station, so he quickly had him take mother Gou and the money back to the hospital. Although Tao Mu was young, he had been a great help in this matter. Da Luo and the others admired him very much. Hearing this, they all left sheepishly.
For fear of another accident midway, the police also decided to send two police officers to accompany Gou Rixin's mother to send the money back to the bank, and then take the card back to the hospital.
Afterwards, Yu Mei was formally detained. She had absconded with a huge sum of money which violated the law. Now that she had been arrested and brought to justice, she would naturally face severe punishment by the law in the future. On Xiong Zheng's side, even though Yu Mei kept reporting that Xiong Zheng was related to Gou Rixin's wire accident. But Yu Mei did not provide critical evidence so the police could only let him leave.
However, based on the clues provided by Yu Mei, the police still went to find Gou Rixin's crew and the staff of the insurance company and inquired in detail about the details of Gou Rixin's accident. After retrieving the relevant records, including the wire suit that Gou Rixin wore when the accident occurred, and the prop master who brought the wire suit to Gou Rixin, they re-examined each link.
In the end, nothing was gained.
It was classmate Zhang Fei who asked his friends to inquire around. In the end, he got a piece of news that was not considered evidence—the set of wire suits rented by the crew where Gou Rixin's accident occurred were also used by the crew that Xiong Zheng had been with before. After the crew finished filming, these props were rented by the latter crew.
Xiong Zheng, as a martial arts body double hired by the previous crew, had plenty of time and opportunity to make contact with these wire suits. It was possible that he was aware of a certain wire suit being too old and worn down.
But even so, there was no evidence to prove that Xiong Zheng knew that one of this batch of wire suits would definitely result in an accident. There was no evidence that Xiong Zheng bribed the prop master to deliberately give Go Rixin this wire suit.
After investigating up to here, the police were unable to do anything more. After all, the police need to use evidence to speak, and they couldn't arrest Xiong Zheng based on suspicion.
Xiong Zheng seemed to also understand this. During the police investigation, he was unusually calm and cooperative. It was Da Luo and the gang who were too upset about the matter of Yu Mei sleeping with him, so they found an opportunity to pull a sackcloth over his head in an alley and beat him up.
On the second day, the Hong Kong director kicked Xiong Zheng out of the crew on the grounds that Xiong Zheng suffered a facial injury and was unable to film.
After that, Tao Mu called director Rong to express his thanks.
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"It's nothing." Director Rong was the Hong Kong director who was optimistic about Gou Rixin and prepared to make Gou Rixin the second male lead in his new film: "I have worked with Da Gou several times and appreciate his personality. This time Da Gou had a wire accident, no matter whether the accident was accidental or man-made. Just based on the fact that Xiong Zheng was involved with Da Gou's girlfriend before, and now that I know about it, I won't use this person again. I also don't want any scandal leaking during the filming that would distract the audience."
"As for the cooperation plan you mentioned before," Director Rong said, shifting the subject: "I am personally very interested. Why don't we find time to talk about it?"
Tao Mu's cooperation plan referred to the cooperation plan between director Rong's new movie "Gun King" and his FlyNews website.
Although FlyNews was still a completely new thing in the eyes of the public, since it had been launched online it had spread very rapidly among the college students in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and China's first- and second-tier cities in the past half month.
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Tao Mu actually didn't know this director Rong, and he didn't have any opportunity to cooperate with him in his previous life either. So finding director Rong this time was just to help Gou Rixin vent any negative feelings—whether or not Gou Rixin's wire accident was caused by Xiong Zheng, Yu Mei cheating on him with Xiong Zheng was an indisputable fact.
Tao Mu didn't want to see this guy, who not only took his brother's woman but also took his brother's role, gain fame and success. While Xiong Zheng took Gou Rixin's role as the second male lead in "Gun King" in his last life, in the end he didn't get any waves. However, things couldn't be calculated like that.
So Tao Mu wrote a draft plan overnight, and directly found and paid a visit to the hotel room booked by director Rong in H Town. In a forceful but polite manner, he analyzed in detail with director Rong that if "Gun King" used Xiong Zheng, who was involved with the former male second lead's girlfriend as well as also possibly being responsible for deliberately creating a wire accident to take away the male second lead from the former actor, what kind of crises and risks would be brought to the reputation of the crew?
Unless deliberately creating hype, no crew would want trouble during filming. This would distract the actors and staff, and no one could guarantee the quality of the shooting. Moreover, if the audience paid too much attention to the media gossip of a film crew, it would inevitably affect the impression of some fans of the film.
What was more, the taint that Xiong Zheng might be carrying on his person was not just as simple as media gossip.
With director Rong's status in the film industry today, if he wanted to create hype, the best way was naturally to hype up gossip that would not lead to a scandal, such as the male lead and female lead developing a romantic relationship outside the film. Of course, creating hype of the male number one lead and the male number two lead not getting along and often fighting with each other on the set was also very in line with the main selling point of Hong Kong media gossip. However, this kind of hype required them to have the same status in the entertainment circle. If the difference was too great, the crew would be too lazy to create hype and even the actors themselves would not agree.
All in all, no matter what kind of hype, it obviously had nothing to do with Xiong Zheng, who had never appeared in a serious role apart from acting as another's martial arts body double.
Director Rong cherished his reputation and naturally would not allow a stain on the reputation of the crew because of a mere martial arts body double. However, he would also not have any good impression of Tao Mu approaching and threatening him like this.
So next, Tao Mu took out the publicity plan he designed overnight, and explained to director Rong what kind of publicity effect would be obtained if "Gun King" cooperated with FlyNews during filming.
"In fact, college students as an age group can be regarded as the main audience of China's movies. Because they have time, money, and the need to watch movies. So if the film "Gun King" can be known among the college students in China, director Rong can imagine that even if only one-fifth of the students enter the movie theater, "Gun King" will definitely get a box office result just with these students. What's more, the registered users of FlyNews are not only college students, but also many netizens in the age group of 18 to 35. Director Rong should know how much purchasing power is represented by consumer groups between 18 and 35 who have internet access in China currently."
Towards Tao Mu's bait, director Rong was, in truth, very excited. However, like all old-fashioned people, he also had doubts about new things like FlyNews. So he didn't quite believe in the effect that Tao Mu depicted. This was also the reason why he wanted to discuss this again with Tao Mu after he kicked Xiong Zheng out of the crew.
This time Tao Mu presented not just a draft but a relatively detailed plan. From the early stage to the later stage of the publicity plan, it described the progress layer by layer until the climax.
Tao Mu had lived ten years in the future. In these ten years, he could be said to have completely gone through all stages of China's media development from newspaper-based television media to online self-media. And he himself had fully enjoyed all the effects that the Internet self-media could exert when it focused on staining a person's reputation.
It could be said that being reborn ten years ago, including on a global scale, no one should be more familiar with how to use online media to create hype than Tao Mu. So now he easily painted a very desirable picture for director Rong. He didn't even need to include any of the previous hype cases that had been regarded as classics by the industry people. Just the simplest, most common and crude publicity routine was sufficient to deal with someone like director Rong who had "no knowledge and experience".
Sure enough, after listening to Tao Mu's publicity plan, director Rong immediately became enlightened. Publicity routines were like a hole pricked in a paper window of a dark room. If no one spoke or did anything, then everyone was blinded in darkness. But so long as one person pierced a hole in the window, everyone would be able to see the light leaking in from the hole.
Especially in the Hong Kong entertainment circle full of gossip and paparazzi reporters who talked with pictures every day. Therefore, director Rong had a very high acceptance of these plans mentioned by Tao Mu. What was more, Tao Mu didn't actually come up with anything new—it was not his own film, so there was no need to waste too much energy on it. So he decided to be lazy and used the existing methods of those Hong Kong paparazzi to compile a qualified serial plot, which must have a climax, a reversal, and a face slap. Finally, it must also forcibly sublimate the theme—drawing all public discussion and publicity to the film "Gun King".
The method was rather overused, but the most important thing was the publicity platform of FlyNews. Tao Mu directly dumped the data on current registered users and daily visits to FlyNews in front of director Rong, telling him in the most scientific way, even if only one-fifth of the users were attracted by this operation and walked into the movie theater, just how much box office they could get.
Many thanks to this simple era that had not yet been tampered with false data and flooded by water army traffic. In short, as soon as director Rong saw the data thrown by Tao Mu, he felt that the cooperation with FlyNews to promote his film was particularly reliable and attractive.
As everyone knows, the efficiency of the Hong Kong entertainment circle has always been relatively high. Finishing an entire movie in half a month seemed an incredible thing in later generations, but it was a common thing in the Hong Kong entertainment industry. Director Rong was a typical Hong Kong person, and his efficiency was naturally very high. He instantly called the male and female lead of the movie and asked them to come to his room to discuss creating hype.
Although Tao Mu's publicity plan was rather cliché, looking at it together with the background data of the new platform of FlyNews, if it worked properly, the publicity would not be bad at all. The male and female leads discussed with their respective agents, and finally agreed to cooperate with the promotion—after all, when they signed the contract to join the crew, the contract had stipulated that they must cooperate with the crew on promoting the movie. Moreover, towards this hype routine of faking a romantic relationship between the male and female leads, they could not have been any more familiar.
Even their agents were very optimistic about this publicity model, and even wanted to discuss with Tao Mu about a long-term cooperation between FlyNews and their management companies. However, the specific cooperation model and publicity costs depended on what effect this publicity could achieve.
So the two sides hit it off. Tao Mu, while venting his anger for a good brother, also managed to attract the first paying project for FlyNews!
But after all, no matter how sharp the tongue wss, it could not represent actual action. So the first thing Tao Mu did when he left the hotel room of director Rong, was to call his brother Xiao Qi, who was far away in Beijing, and announce the establishment of FlyNews Entertainment. As for the first project after the establishment of the FlyNews Entertainment Department, it was to create hype for the movie "Gun King".
Regardless of his past and present life, Tao Mu was a person with a very strong executive action. He announced the establishment of FlyNews Entertainment in the last second, and immediately dug up talents in the next second. The well-connected brother Xiao Qi recruited two paparazzi reporters who were almost unable to find any work in Beijing and sent them directly to H Town. As for H Town, Tao Mu also successfully recruited Mr. Zhang Fei, the dragon tattoo fellow who was particularly gifted in such things as tracking and stalking people. After a day of hasty training, he let them loose to "candidly photograph" the male and female leads of "Gun King" at a private meeting in the hotel and then posted them to the FlyNews Entertainment account—
That's right, Tao Mu not only established the entertainment department of FlyNews in just one day, but also registered an official account for FlyNews Entertainment on his site. As soon as the thread was posted to the top, it immediately attracted the attention of many netizens.
After more than half a month of fermentation, the competition for school beauty and hunk had now entered a white-hot stage. Many netizens spending their free time on the Internet now constantly canvassed for votes from their relatives, friends, or lovers. Suddenly there was news that had nothing to do with the competition. Of course, everyone was even more curious.
After clicking in and taking a look, aiyo, it was actually the gossip news of Hong Kong's A-list stars. In an instant, the mentality of melon eating possessed by all netizens was immediately stoked. With the help of certain behind the scenes people, the gossip spread quickly across the Internet. Even the print media and TV media followed up and entered the crew to interview the male and female leads about the truth of the news.
According to the agreement, of course the male and female leads refuted the rumors, righteously saying that they were just ordinary good friends, and there was no ambiguity at all. That day they entered the hotel room together, it was just to practice lines, and there were not only the two of them in the hotel room, but also director Rong and the two screenwriters. It was completely not like what the paparazzi reported. Director Rong and the two screenwriters also refuted the rumors for the male and female leads and strongly condemned the paparazzi for taking sneak shots regardless of the celebrity's privacy. And by the way, they also stated that the male and female leads were both unmarried and unattached young people, even if they had some good feelings towards each other because of filming, it was completely normal.
So a few days later, FlyNews Entertainment captured the intimate behavior of the male and female leads chatting and laughing on the set, and even feeding each other from their lunch boxes. As usual, the male and female leads clarified that they were just filming, though they could not deny that the other was a very attractive person…..
All in all, after a lot of speculation, the existence of "Gun King" and the male and female leads were soon publicized throughout the Internet. Director Rong and the two leads were very satisfied with the effect of this promotion, and they only had to wait for the film to be released to see how much box office this attention could be converted into.
Tao Mu had also successfully obtained the first fee for FlyNews since its establishment.
Expectedly, seeing that despite FlyNews just going online, it had now already become a hot topic, the Weibo platform, which was also regarded as a big dog among the Internet platforms, couldn't sit still any longer. Although their publicity planners did not have Tao Mu's brain and ten years of experience, they could still learn.
From plagiarizing the school beauty and hunk selection activities, to now also immediately establishing Weibo Entertainment. They then copied FlyNews' hype model for "Gun King" by also choosing a crew for publicity.
With "Gun King" as an example, other crews were also very jealous of the discussion and attention that "Gun King" had received on the Internet and in real life. Some people directly contacted FlyNews for cooperation, while some people preferred the Weibo platform—although the two major social platforms were new things, and it seemed that FlyNews had more tricks up its sleeve at the moment. But after all, Weibo was launched half a year earlier than FlyNews and was also backed by capital, so its strength seemed stronger than that of FlyNews.
Just like the publicity model adopted by FlyNews, Weibo could not only publicize on their network platform, but also contact TV stations for broadcast. This interlocking mode immediately attracted many crews to cooperate.
So after FlyNews promoted "Gun King", Weibo immediately promoted the crew "Fires of War".
As a competitor, though Tao Mu did not think that the publicity methods of Weibo Entertainment at this time would be more superb than his, he still paid attention to their movements.
However, what he did not expect was that an issue soon made itself known to his eyes.
As an important project for Weibo to fully copy FlyNews, "Fires of War" was similar to that of "Gun King", as they both were of gunfight themes. Because the main publicity hotspot of "Gun King" was that of the male and female leads dating each other outside filming, when Weibo promoted "Fires of War", the publicity focused instead on the fighting scenes and the professionalism of the actors.
So in an interview with a reporter from Weibo Entertainment, the male second lead Hong Kong actor said seriously: "In fact, when we made this film, it was really hard work. Because the director required us actors to personally perform the fight scenes as much as possible when shooting. So in many shots it was us personally performing instead of body doubles. I remember that once we were going to shoot an explosion scene, and we had to jump down from the top of a building which was more than six meters high. Of course, I didn't need to perform this myself and used a stand-in instead. But did you know that the fastening of a wire suit actually had some problem? Fortunately, the props team discovered it in time, otherwise it would have gone very wrong. The one who was my stand-in at the time, I still remember his name was Da Xiong or something, his face turned really pale. Really, if you think about it, falling from a height of more than six meters…..it's too dangerous. It's really hard work."
In the hospital of H Town, because the doctor said that Gou Rixin's current situation was basically stable and he could be transferred safely. Tao Mu, Gou Rixin's mother, and the martial arts brothers were gathered in front of Gou Rixin's hospital bed, watching TV while packing up the things.
As a result, they saw such an unexpected plot twist!
Da Luo, who had always been more impatient, couldn't sit still immediately: "Tao Mu, the Da Xiong he mentioned, isn't that Xiong Zheng?"
Tao Mu frowned. Before he could speak, his phone suddenly rang. Tao Mu took out his cell phone and saw that Zhang Fei called.
"Brother Mu, guess what I found?" On the other end of the phone, Zhang Fei said excitedly: "It turns out that Xiong Zheng, that bastard, and the props master in charge of Da Gou's wire suit know each other. My friend told me that the reason why Xiong Zheng was able to enter the crew was because the props master introduced him to the casting director. These two bastards lied to us and deceived us!"
"Not bad." Tao Mu held the phone and looked at the TV with scorching eyes: "Maybe we can call officer Yao and have him look into it again. Find the props master for another chat."
With the situation having reached this point, there was really nothing left to talk about.
When the props master saw that the police came to his door again, he knew that he couldn't hide it anymore. Dejected, he frankly confessed: "Before the incident, Xiong Zheng bought me a drink, gave me 20,000 yuan, and asked me to be in charge of Gou Rixin's wire inspection. I felt a little strange at the time because us martial arts body doubles and stuntmen have our own rules. Except for those who play alone, all wire suits are checked by their own team. Gou Rixin's team already has so many people, and his wire suits are usually inspected by Da Luo. There was no need for me at all. But on the next day, it turned out that Gou Rixin's brothers were all still drunk and did not come over, so as promised I took the initiative to take charge of Gou Rixin's wire inspection."
"I also don't know what's going on. When I checked, the wire suit was obviously no problem. But when it was on Gou Rixin's body, it actually slipped. I was very scared at the time, so I found Xiong Zheng and asked him what was going on, if he did anything."
"Xiong Zheng told me that I don't need to care. It's Gou Rixin who was just unlucky. He also told me that I must not talk nonsense outside. He said that Da Luo and the others are very domineering, and they were originally angry because of this. If I let them know it was because of my negligence, then there would be no way for me to survive."
Officer Yao and another policeman on the scene looked at each other and asked, "What did Xiong Zheng do to the wire suit?"
"I don't know either." The props master was also particularly puzzled: "When I checked, everything was fine. There obviously was no problem. Who knew that something would happen?"
On the other side, Xiong Zheng was also watching the interview with the crew of "Fires of War" on TV, and he knew it was not good. Who could have imagined that after FlyNews launched such a huge publicity plan in order to appease director Rong, Weibo also followed suit. And fine, if they wanted to follow the trend then just follow the trend, but just why did they have to interview the crew of "Fires of War"?! What's more, the interview just had to focus on this thing!
Xiong Zheng had originally thought that he had concealed everything, but now, all the dirty tricks he played were now spread out under the sun.
Xiong Zheng didn't know why he was so unlucky. It should have been something that had gone completely unnoticed. But now, everyone and their mother knew about this. Xiong Zheng guessed that even if the police had no evidence to arrest him, Gou Rixin's brothers would still not let him off. And this time, it definitely wouldn't just end with a beating. So he hurriedly packed his luggage, planning to temporarily leave H Town to avoid the wind.
In fact, Xiong Zheng really was unlucky. In the last life, he learned from Yu Mei that Gou Rixin was valued by a Hong Kong director who wanted him to be the second male lead. He was very unhappy at that time. So he planned secretly and finally came up with such a trick, which would not only directly kick Gou Rixin out of the game, but also paralyze Gou Rixin.
At that time, he also ran to director Rong and recommended himself. Although director Rong was not satisfied with Xiong Zheng's appearance, he didn't have any criticism for Xiong Zheng's martial arts skills. The role of the male second lead required absolute martial arts skills, so the usual filming method of letting the actor pose in front of the camera while the body double performed the actual combat scenes simply could not work—moreover the crew had already started filming at that time, and temporarily recruiting someone to join the crew was not realistic. After all, there were few martial arts stars in the circle. Either the image did not meet the requirements, or the aura did not meet the requirements, or the scheduling did not work, or the salary could not be agreed upon.
So in the end, director Rong had no choice but to use Xiong Zheng. At that time, Yu Mei and Xiong Zheng had hooked up as well so she wanted to break up with Gou Rixin. In addition, seeing that Gou Rixin would never stand up again in this life, she immediately packed up her luggage and went to Xiong Zheng without hesitation.
Because no one had insured Gou Rixin in the previous life, there was no incident of Yu Mei absconding with the money. And with the IQ of Gou Rixin and his brothers, they also couldn't have guessed that Xiong Zheng was responsible for this matter. After all, Xiong Zheng had carried out the scheme in a very concealed manner. By the time the "Fires of War" crew finished the post-editing and began to promote the film, it was almost a year since the incident. The disabled Gou Rixin had already followed his mother back to his hometown a long time ago, and his gang of brothers had broken up and scattered. Even if there were some suspicion, after that moment had passed, no one would pursue the matter any longer.
Only Da Lu could not swallow this down, running into the film crew where Xiong Zheng was filming, and beating Xiong Zheng up when he got off after a night scene, directly shattering Xiong Zheng's knee. Although he avenged his brother, Xiong Zheng also called the police and arrested him for this incident, and Da Luo had to spend more than three years in jail.
And Yu Mei, this woman, had long been dumped by Xiong Zheng. It could be said that everyone had no good ending in the previous life.
In this life, Xiong Zheng had calculated everything, but he had not calculated the variable that was Tao Mu. Not to mention the series of changes brought about by the rise of FlyNews. In the end, all his schemes and calculations fell short.
Back to Tao Mu's side, after learning that Xiong Zheng did indeed do something to the wire suit, in addition to the confession given by the props master, he concluded that Xiong Zheng must have been in contact with the wire suit. So he suggested to officer Yao to take the wire suit as evidence to extract fingerprints.
Because of the previous reports given by insurance companies and the conclusions given by people in the industry, no one doubted that there were any unnatural problems with the wire suit so they did not think to verify if the wire suit itself had any issues—after all, Gou Rixin's case had been defined as a civil case this whole time, ao it was not as if they could use the same means that would be used to investigate a criminal case.
As a result, all kinds of confessions obtained from various sources could now prove that Xiong Zheng had something to do with this matter. Officer Yao immediately reported to his superiors and took the wire suit to the forensic department for inspection.
You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e ir on tr ee bl oo ms. c o m )
Finally, Xiong Zheng's fingerprints were extracted at the link where the wire suit was loosened. Because Xiong Zheng's fingerprints were extracted during the test done on the fastening links of the wire suit, the report from the forensic department positively verified everyone's speculation. Xiong Zheng was indeed suspected of committing the crime.
From a civil case to a criminal case, officer Yao immediately applied for the arrest of Xiong Zheng. In the end, the police caught Xiong Zheng who was just about to escape from H Town at the train station.