WAM CH16

Gu Yanzhou sat down next to him, unbuttoned his coat, flipped through the script, and looked at him with a mix of seriousness and inquiry in his eyes. “Xiao Si, I just want to have a good talk with you.”

Once he spoke, Shao Si realized that their true “script” right now was following the strategy laid out by the police.

That day in the breakroom, Officer Wang had detailed their mission this time. It actually wasn’t complicated, but to say it was simple would definitely not be true.

When Yang Yinyin died, she left absolutely nothing behind. But now, the police wanted them to fabricate an illusion—an illusion that Yang Yinyin had left something behind.

“To tell you the truth, ever since Yang Yinyin’s incident, we’ve been keeping a close eye on them. But sitting at the crest of the storm, they’ve been too quiet.” This was how Officer Wang had explained it in the breakroom that day. “The police are under immense pressure. For every day we delay in finding evidence and solving the case, another batch of victims is created.”

In this operational strategy, the part Gu Yanzhou and Shao Si were involved in was only the tip of the iceberg; the police were also making preparations on other fronts.

It was like a spider weaving a massive web.

Like a piece of precision machinery with interlocked internal gears.

After a while, Captain Wang reiterated the precautions to them over the communicator, his pronunciation crisp and standard. “Don’t forget, you can’t drop the ball at the critical moment. Execute the strategy strictly; you cannot deviate by a single step. You two need to leak the police’s smokescreen information to him, making Lu Jiahui believe—he has something held against him by Yang Yinyin.”

…

Honestly, the Major Crimes Unit had quite a vivid imagination.

They had great potential to become screenwriters.

Returning to the main topic, Shao Si’s character setting right now was an infatuated stalker pining for the Best Actress to no avail, and having a very tense relationship with Gu Yanzhou.

In summary, it was a love triangle.

Actually, this was very similar to their current situation. After all, in the eyes of the police, Shao Si truly did like Yang Yinyin, while Yang Yinyin was Gu Yanzhou’s rumored romantic interest, and there was even a mysterious phone call before she died.

Therefore, the police were completely doing a sequel adaptation based on the ‘original work’.

The moment Shao Si forcefully smashed his water bottle with a bang, it startled everyone terribly.

The crowd only saw him stand up from his resting spot without saying a word, merely looking at Gu Yanzhou. His expression was a bit cold, carrying a deeply suppressed emotion.

Shao Si said, “I have nothing to talk about with you.”

The two remained in a standoff for a moment, then Gu Yanzhou put down his script, stood up, and left.

At this moment, Li Guangzong, entirely following the police’s arrangement, was sitting next to the assistant director smoking. Smoking with them was Lu Jiahui.

The cigarette pinched between the assistant director’s fingers trembled, shedding ash. “What’s going on with them…?”

Li Guangzong recalled what Officer Wang had said about expressing his stance ambiguously.

He pondered the word ‘ambiguous’ for a bit, and finally chose to say two words with unclear meaning: “…Hehe.”

Assistant Director: “…”

Lu Jiahui was a heavy smoker. He took a few deep drags and slowly exhaled before saying, “I really couldn’t tell, your Shao Si actually has a grudge against Best Actor Gu.”

This time, Li Guangzong handled the ‘ambiguity’ a bit more proficiently. He stated frankly, “It’s a long story, a long story. It’s not what you think.”

Twenty minutes later, the cast and crew were ready and entered the scenes featuring Gu Yanzhou’s cameo.

It was essentially just a walk-on role with no more than three minutes of screen time.

When Shao Si acted opposite Gu Yanzhou, he was very professional and didn’t bring his personal emotions into the work.

A large crowd gathered to watch this scene.

Aside from the staff, the extras also swarmed over to look, constantly whispering: “Best Actor Gu… so handsome, he looks even better in person than on TV. For the first time, I hope the shoot has a few more NGs so I can look at him a few more times.”

However, the shooting went very smoothly.

Gu Yanzhou was making a cameo as an English teacher from the next class over. Seeing Shao Si bullying Liu Qi, he stepped forward to intervene.

Shao Si got into character very quickly. From the moment the camera focused on him, he became serious. Hanging a vicious and mocking smile on the corner of his lips, he advanced on Liu Qi, forcing her straight into a corner. “This Young Master hates women like you the most—those who think they are so kind. Do you think you’re the only one in the whole world who emerges unstained from the mud? Who are you putting on this act for? Do you think you can seduce me like this? Let me tell you, I’ve seen more white lotuses than you’ve eaten meals.”

Liu Qi trembled, her eyes wide as she continuously shook her head. “No, I didn’t…”

The director held a small megaphone, feeling delighted: “Very good, very good, Qiqi has made a lot of progress today. Camera, prepare to move the position, shift over to Best Actor Gu.”

Gu Yanzhou walked over gracefully from the other side of the corridor right on cue.

He held an English teaching material in his hand and wore a pair of glasses on the bridge of his nose.

Gold-rimmed—obviously a very gentle and refined style, yet worn on his face, it didn’t look weak in the slightest.

“What are you doing?”

The subsequent plot was a bit brain-dead. Who knew what error the screenwriter’s understanding of the word ‘romance’ had suffered, but the male lead grabbed Huang Xiaocao’s hand and ran, even covering her face for her as they ran to prevent the neighboring teacher from recognizing her.

The male lead said, both coldly and with a hint of deep affection, “Woman, I am not helping you, I just don’t want others to misunderstand that there is any relationship between you and me.”

The wind machine blew Huang Xiaocao’s dress as they ran from the corridor all the way into the small woods.

After the director called ‘cut’, Liu Qi was still firmly gripping Shao Si’s hand, refusing to let go. She laughed and panted, clearly possessing the same IQ as the screenwriter: “So romantic, it feels like going back to my youth.”

Shao Si: “…” Are you brain-dead.

At this moment, Captain Wang issued another command: “Yanzhou, go wait in the makeup room in a moment. In about an hour, Lu Jiahui will return to the makeup room to fetch something for Liu Qi… Shao Si, find an opportunity to go over as well later.”

After Captain Wang finished, Shao Si and Gu Yanzhou’s eyes met in the air for a second.

Then Shao Si lowered his head, looked at the hand Liu Qi was still holding tightly onto him with, and reminded her: “Could you let go now?”

Blushing, Liu Qi hurriedly let go.

After so many days, Shao Si had noticed that this Liu Qi was actually quite naive. He could tell from her undisguised smugness on the first day of shooting—she had no shrewdness.

But the blow of frequent NGs afterward gradually made her realize her shortcomings, and that smugness and complacency dissipated.

Perhaps this was also Lu Jiahui’s criteria for picking people; after all, naive people were easier to control.

Shao Si thought about it and proactively exchanged numbers with her: “You… if you need anything in the future, you can call me.”

This sentence, along with the patch of warm skin she accidentally touched when Shao Si handed her phone back, caused the blush on Liu Qi’s face to linger for a long time.

After finishing his cameo, Gu Yanzhou sat on the sidelines for a while before quietly standing up and saying goodbye to everyone.

Over twenty minutes later, Shao Si also stood up.

The next two scenes were both scenes between the second male lead and the female lead, having nothing to do with Shao Si. Therefore, no one reacted to him leaving early, except Li Guangzong, who nagged him to come back early after going to the bathroom.

Everything went very smoothly.

Before walking toward the makeup room, Shao Si looked back at Lu Jiahui and saw him looking down at his phone.

“Captain Wang, will you guys be able to lure him over later?” Shao Si picked a deserted spot, stopped, and asked, “I still have a scene in a bit. If the timing is off, this setup is done for.”

“We can,” Officer Wang said. “Rest assured, luring him over is just a small matter. The key depends entirely on you two.”

Before long, Lu Jiahui indeed walked toward the makeup room under heavy inducement, seemingly having left something there.

His pace was leisurely, walking while looking at his phone, whistling intermittently.

From the moment the faint sound of whistling could be heard, Shao Si and Gu Yanzhou both entered a state of combat readiness, one sitting and one standing.

Shao Si glared at Gu Yanzhou with the eyes he had just vigorously rubbed red, truly looking like he was red-eyed with rage.

His entire body was tense, his hands clenched fiercely into fists.

Sitting on the sofa chair, Gu Yanzhou watched Shao Si’s posture, feeling a sense of ‘a lazy little wild cat suddenly transforming into a wolf’.

When Shao Si acted, there was truly a lot of tension.

That kind of tension radiated out even when he himself hadn’t realized it.

The whistling drew closer and closer.

Even the footsteps became clear.

Captain Wang counted down: “Three, two, one.”

Before the trailing sound of ‘one’ had faded, Gu Yanzhou spoke, sternly questioning, “Shao Si, what exactly are you trying to do?!”

Although he was sitting, his aura didn’t lose to Shao Si’s in the slightest.

As he spoke, his eyes narrowed slightly, looking especially profound and showing signs of impatience.

The footsteps at the door paused, and the whistling abruptly stopped.

“What am I trying to do? You still have the face to ask what I’m trying to do.” Shao Si laughed out of anger. He took two steps forward and grabbed Gu Yanzhou’s collar. “Do you think I don’t know—you, the murderer who killed Yinyin.”

Shao Si continued speaking, but his words were clearly a bit manic and somewhat incoherent, his pitch fluctuating: “She called you before she died, she called you… You’re the one who killed her! She didn’t even hang up the phone when she jumped! What did you say to her, you murderer!”

Gu Yanzhou raised his hand to cover his, trying to pull his hands down. “Be reasonable. I know you liked her, but calm down first.”

Shao Si roared in a low voice from his throat: “—I can’t calm down! The woman I loved for so many years is dead, how can I be calm!”

This was a hoarse and resolute sentence. Despite the cold timbre, it sounded full of deeply restrained affection.

In a true sense, Gu Yanzhou had never worked with Shao Si before.

He couldn’t help but recall what Director Wang had said to him that day: This is a good seedling.

He was indeed a good seedling.

Shao Si was overly agitated, eventually directly straddling Gu Yanzhou, his hands strangling his neck, staring at him deadly: “…What exactly did you say to her? Why did she jump? Tell me, speak!”

The plot finally reached its climax.

Gu Yanzhou allowed the person on him to choke his neck without resisting. His voice was low and slow: “Whether you believe it or not, I truly don’t know anything.”

“She did call me, and she seemed to say something to me… saying there was something in the safe, but the wind was too strong, I didn’t hear clearly.”

“She is already dead, look forward. Xiao Si, you can’t stay immersed in the past like this.”