pappabearbooks Chapter 591: Villains at Work, Ruthless Tactics
Chapter 591: Villains at Work, Ruthless Tactics
In the video conference, Liu Rulan listened to Xiao Chen’s account, took a deep breath, and folded her hands on the table.“Well done.”
“The production team just went through Jiang Junjie’s incident, so tensions are at their highest right now. No matter what happens, it’s not the time to cause a stir.”
“Whoever orchestrated this plan has a vicious mind.”
Xiao Chen patted his chest in lingering fear: “I almost charged in right then. Lucky Bro Xiao stopped me in time. Looks like I need to watch my words and actions from now on—can’t afford to drag Bro Xiao into trouble.”
Liu Rulan gave a slight nod, not blaming Xiao Chen, and turned her gaze to Xiao He: “Do you have any suspects in mind?”
Jiang Junjie had just been taken out, and now someone was deliberately sending a provocateur to get a rise out of Xiao He—they wanted to take down two birds with one stone!
Jiang Junjie went without saying—his personal life was a mess, easy to get a handle on. But Xiao He was airtight. The person behind the scenes couldn’t dig up any dirt on him, so they had to resort to indirect means, trying to goad Xiao He into causing trouble and incurring Director Yang Li and the producer’s displeasure.
And why make the director and producer unhappy? The reasons were plentiful.
Stealing resources, stealing roles, stepping on others to climb higher, vicious competition—it was all there.
Those people hadn’t bothered before because Xiao He wasn’t worth it.
Now they were desperate because Xiao He was in the way.
That was their ridiculous logic.
Xiao He thought for a moment, then gave a slight nod: “There are only a few people in the production team who could compete with me. I have a rough idea of who it might be, but I’m not certain.”
Snow Ridge Red Journey had quite a few young actors, but at Xiao He’s current resource level, only two could really compete with him.
As luck would have it, those two had been his roommates last night: Yun Ziqi and Ding Cheng—actually, it might have been three originally, but Jiang Junjie was already out.
Liu Rulan understood and spoke unhurriedly: “Then let me start with what I know.”
“A while back, news leaked that the higher-ups were planning to back a new historical drama. I’ve already looked into it. The main responsible party is indeed Jingyou Entertainment, but the director and executive producer have been appointed by others—people who have nothing to do with Jingyou. It seems they were deliberately brought in to counterbalance them.”
After all, if one company had total control of a project, it would likely end up as their own self-produced show, which clearly wasn’t what the higher-ups wanted.
Besides, if all the actors came from the same company, there would be no motivation to compete, and the quality of the work would suffer badly.
So the authorities above had specially arranged for someone to take charge and oversee the project, leaving Jingyou Entertainment unable to freely arrange their own people. Especially the lead and major supporting roles—they were no longer Jingyou’s to decide.
But Jingyou still had the advantage. Even with official selection, recommendation slots were required; open auditions weren’t actually possible. And getting those recommendation slots was extremely difficult. Jingyou’s artists, however, could go through internal high-level recommendations and directly participate in the final actor auditions.
That was why Jiang Junjie, Ding Cheng, and Yun Ziqi were all from the same company, yet Jiang Junjie still ended up in the hands of his own people—because internally, they were already at each other’s throats.
Xiao He found it amusing: “Let me guess—the appointed director has some connection to Director Yang Li, right? I imagine Director Yang has recommendation slots too. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have gone to so much trouble in the Snow Ridge Red Journey production team.”
No, it might have started even earlier—when he won the Golden Flower Award, they were already setting traps for him.
Damn it!
Xiao He let out a cold laugh.
“You guessed right,” Liu Rulan said. “The director taking over this script project is Qiu Zhenlong. He was Director Yang’s classmate. In the early days, he directed works like The Qing Emperor and Songwen Ceremony, but he hasn’t taken on any directing jobs in the last ten years. The higher-ups managed to pull him out of retirement—they must have high hopes for this script.”
Qiu Zhenlong had already stepped away from the industry, comfortably sitting in an office. He didn’t need to wade back into the muddy waters of the entertainment world.
Yet here he was.
“So this Snow Ridge Red Journey project is a stepping stone for many.”
Liu Rulan added with a hint of mockery, “No wonder Jiang Junjie ended his work on the production team in such an absurd way.”
Was Jiang Junjie wronged? Yes, he really was. Was he not wronged? Also true—who told him to climb out of bed in the middle of the night to cut his bedsheet?
Xiao He could somewhat understand Jiang Junjie’s thought process now. He probably genuinely thought he was trying not to leave any evidence, sneaking around to cut the bedsheet at night so no one would find anything suspicious in the morning and use it to spread rumors about him.
He just hadn’t expected Xiao He to wake up and interfere.
It was like having mud on your pants—you know you’re innocent, so you try to secretly change them, but someone catches you in the middle of swapping them out.
Then that mud wasn’t shit, but it might as well be.
Jiang Junjie had it coming.
“Jiang Junjie’s incident was likely orchestrated by someone behind the scenes, and it’s probably one of those two.”
Xiao He recalled, “He said his acne inexplicably burst open and bled a lot. Can I boldly guess that someone tampered with him that night?”
The original plan was probably simple: in the morning, everyone would see the blood on Jiang Junjie’s bedsheet, question him about the acne on his back, and achieve the same result.
But Jiang Junjie woke up in the middle of the night, discovered the blood, and woke Xiao He while washing the wound. So this whole series of events ended up twisting into what it was now… the same result through a different path.
Xiao He had inadvertently helped.
But why did it feel so damn annoying?
“So who do you lean toward?”
Liu Rulan asked.
Xiao He thought for a while longer, then gave an unexpected answer: “Yun Ziqi.”
Liu Rulan was surprised: “I thought you’d pick Ding Cheng.”
After all, Ding Cheng had slept next to Jiang Junjie. He would have had the easiest time pulling something off at night. He was also the one who first questioned Jiang Junjie about having a contagious disease and escalated the whole situation.
On the surface, it looked like he orchestrated everything.
“Maybe because I avoided Jiang Junjie, and he also avoided Jiang Junjie,” Xiao He said. “He actively switched beds with Ding Cheng, but he was a beat slow when moving the bedding, so Ding Cheng grabbed the other side first, and his original spot went to Jiang Junjie.”
“When we were sleeping, I didn’t notice him getting up, so he must have planted something on the bed then, causing Jiang Junjie’s back acne to burst while he slept.”
“And he talks way too much.”
Xiao He curled his lip, a sarcastic smile crossing his face.
“He first used Teacher Zhuo and Teacher Gao to build a connection with me, making it feel like we were on the same side. Then he hinted that Ding Cheng was the problem, deliberately stirring things up to embarrass Jiang Junjie—of course, Ding Cheng’s actions did show that intention, but that was clearly riding the wave. Unfortunately, that idiot Jiang Junjie didn’t see it and went straight for a ‘dog-eat-dog’ showdown with Ding Cheng.”
“But that’s not important. Ding Cheng was just a tool being used. Yun Ziqi set Ding Cheng up as my imaginary rival, then stepped back and kept his hands clean. The meaning is clear enough.”
Jiang Junjie was eliminated outright. Ding Cheng, after all that fuss, had soiled his own hands. If Xiao He had also caused trouble right after, his first suspect would probably have been Ding Cheng too.
All in a single night, using the blizzard isolation as an opportunity to cobble together a plan.
This guy was bold and meticulous, with a knack for seizing the moment and ruthless methods.
Even if nothing had happened that night and Jiang Junjie hadn’t been stabbed by whatever was left on the bed, he would have been kicked out sooner or later.
That fool was no match for this guy at all.