WAM CH50

Li Guangzong noticed that after Shao Si finished filming that morning scene, he seemed a bit out of it. After zoning out for a while, he simply started playing mobile games.

Shao Si finally had some rare free time today with very few scenes to shoot. Li Guangzong had originally wanted to have a proper talk with him, since there was something that had been weighing on his mind for a long time.

“Dad, I want to discuss something with you. If, and I’m just saying if,” Li Guangzong pulled over a small stool, sat down beside Shao Si, and chose his words carefully, “if one day I’m no longer your manager, what will you do?”

Shao Si had his legs crossed with his phone resting on his thigh. A match ended and an ad page popped up. Turning his head to the side, Shao Si tapped the page away without even looking: “Why don’t you ask me who I’d save first if you and my mom fell into the water?”

Li Guangzong was speechless for two seconds: “Are those two questions the same?”

Shao Si: “Equally pointless.”

Li Guangzong: “…”

After teasing him, Shao Si added, “Then let me ask you: if one day I quit this industry, what will you do?”

Li Guangzong lowered his head, a sudden wave of dejection washing over him: “I know. All good things must come to an end; nobody is truly indispensable to anyone else.”

“What kind of nonsense are you thinking about all day?” Shao Si furrowed his brows.

Li Guangzong didn’t say anything.

Shao Si: “Are you planning to resign? Going home to retire?”

Li Guangzong: “…No.”

“Then do more work and less daydreaming.”

“Let’s change the subject,” Li Guangzong shifted gears and said, “Do you ever resent me for not getting you any good resources…”

Almost all the roles Shao Si took were ones he found himself, or else negotiated directly through the company. You wouldn’t even need ten fingers to count all the investors Li Guangzong knew. As a manager, he wasn’t really qualified; landing an A-list star as wildly popular as Shao Si in this lifetime was pure dumb luck.

“What do you mean by good resources? Finding sugar daddies for your artists like Qi Ming does?” Shao Si said without even lifting his head. “If you did that, you’d be the first one I’d kill.”

At the mention of this, Li Guangzong suddenly remembered something: “Hey, let me tell you. Speaking of that, the last time I went back to the company, I overheard Yang Ze arguing with Qi Ming. Yang Ze was saying something about not wanting to be with that Boss Wang, and even cursed him out as a pervert.”

Shao Si immediately sat up straight: “Be more specific.”

If he remembered correctly, the person Yang Ze was currently entangled with was Wang Shan.

He wasn’t very familiar with Yang Ze, but from their few interactions, he could tell Yang Ze was someone who would stop at nothing to get famous. Now even he couldn’t stand Wang Shan… Could it be that he knew something?

“I couldn’t hear the exact details clearly. I was just passing by, though they were arguing pretty loudly and the door wasn’t closed,” Li Guangzong recalled. “Qi Ming was pretty angry at the time too, saying things have already come to this, so it’s not up to you anymore.”

Shao Si pondered for a moment, feeling it was necessary to invite Yang Ze out for tea in the next few days. Then, when he snapped back to attention, he discovered his phone screen was resting on his Weibo page:

“King of Glory Qingming Festival Share Reward: I’m playing right now, come join me~”

Fuck, that colorful pop-up just now wasn’t an ad? Flustered, Shao Si hurried to delete it, only to see the comments had already skyrocketed to over a thousand.

Did our Daddy Shao take on an endorsement deal?

Visually confirmed not an ad haha. Did you see the screenshot? There’s an account name on it. I went to check it out, and it’s a veteran player! He probably shared it by accident.

Why does this ID look so familiar to me? Ah! I think I’ve teamed up with Daddy Shao before!!!

For Shao Si, the biggest headache wasn’t the entire world thinking he and Gu Yanzhou were married, but having his gaming account leaked.

…How was he supposed to play games peacefully from now on?

After thinking it over, Shao Si deleted the post anyway, then published a new Weibo post: Shh, everyone behave yourselves.

Days passed by quickly, one after another.

Two weeks later, Wang Shan really did come to visit the Mask film crew.

Ye Xuan was the first to lose her composure, and Gu Yanzhou stopped her: “Your emotions are fluctuating too much. You should excuse yourself for now.”

Indeed, if Ye Xuan stayed, it would easily arouse suspicion. Ye Xuan didn’t know how to hide her feelings; she was far too impulsive.

Zhou Weiping couldn’t be present either. Even though he had changed his name and his appearance had altered over all these years, Wang Shan was as sly as a fox. Just to be safe, it was best to avoid any direct contact.

Zhou Weiping nodded: “Alright, Xiao Xuan and I will keep an eye on the surveillance monitors next door. Be careful with everything.”

Taking down Wang Shan through Ye Qing’s case was a dead end; Ye Qing had committed suicide, which had nothing to do with him legally. Therefore, from start to finish, they had focused their sights on the underground adult industry chain Wang Shan privately operated. The private detective Shao Si hired couldn’t find a single trace of this operation, and the people Gu Yanzhou reached out to only managed to verify that such a mysterious network existed.

Its location was right beneath Zuisheng Mengsi, on that mysterious basement level B1.

It had a completely enclosed layout and was pitch-dark inside, with a crowd of guards stationed at the entrance who stopped anyone on sight to check invitations and ID cards.

Gu Yanzhou had analyzed this earlier: “Wang Shan is exceptionally cunning. He’s walked by the river for over thirty years without ever getting his shoes wet. Assuming this industry chain can’t see the light of day, who would he open it up to? It must only be people he trusts. And what kind of people can he actually feel at ease around?”

“People whose dirty secrets he holds in his grip, and specifically leverage he believes is enough to ruin you. Only then will he trust you, because the moment you plan to move against him, he knows he can crush you first with the flick of his pinky.”

Shao Si raised his hand to ask: “So he doesn’t use this industry chain to make money?”

“I don’t think so,” Gu Yanzhou said. “It seems more like a way to indulge himself. As for what exactly he’s indulging, there’s no way of knowing for now.”

Great.

For the time being, let’s simply define him as a psychopath.

Wang Shan arrived with two assistants. He entered with a jovial chuckle, his hands clasped behind his back: “Old Ou, last time I wanted to discuss a collaboration with you, you insisted you already had enough funding… I guessed right away that a fine film like this would definitely need extra polishing. Besides, this production of yours brings together two Best Actors; the outside world is eagerly anticipating your movie.”

Director Ou’s fingers tightened around his teacup. When he looked up again, a trace of a smile appeared on his face: “Well, I didn’t expect it either. Everything was going smoothly in negotiations when Boss Dong suddenly decided to pull his investment. I was just worrying over it; you truly are my savior.” With that, Director Ou pushed the freshly poured cup of tea across the table.

Wang Shan sat down, took the tea, deftly lifted the lid, blew on it twice, and said unhurriedly, “I only came because I heard Xiao Dong withdrew his funds.”

How could it possibly be such a coincidence? Wang Shan cared fiercely about saving face, always finding a dignified excuse for himself even when he was the one begging to throw money at them. Boss Dong had been pressured into backing out by Wang Shan himself, which was why Wang Shan could now gracefully pretend he was just passing by to talk business.

A mild diuretic had been slipped into the tea. Just as they had planned, Wang Shan hadn’t been sitting for long before he stood up to ask where the restroom was.

Taking advantage of the moment Wang Shan walked out, Director Ou secretly sent a message in a WeChat group named ‘Operation 414 Task Force’: Heads up, he’s coming your way.

Soon, two people replied in the group.

Gu Yanzhou: Copy.

Shao Si: OK, all set.

Wang Shan had just hurried up to the restroom entrance when he heard certain indescribable sounds drifting out from inside.

“Mhm… don’t, don’t touch there, ah…”

“Baby, you’re so tight.” The voice was low and raspy, unmistakably Gu Yanzhou’s. “Don’t be so shameless, keep your voice down. Do you want someone to hear us?”

At that, the other, cooler voice gradually dropped lower, until only a few stifled, muffled groans could be heard.

Wang Shan stopped in his tracks, his head lowered, making it hard to see his expression clearly on the surveillance monitor.

Ye Xuan was so anxious her palms began to sweat: “Look up, look up.”

Their plan this time was extremely risky. If they couldn’t observe Wang Shan’s reaction, they wouldn’t know how well this move had played out.

Having caught Gu Yanzhou and Shao Si in such a compromising situation twice now, would he easily buy into the ‘leverage’ they were deliberately hand-delivering to him, place the two of them in his ‘safe zone,’ and consequently give them an opening to approach the underground operation?

Zhou Weiping held his breath as well. The surveillance screen had grainy, black-and-white footage with a glitchy connection that occasionally flickered and froze.

Inside the very last stall of the restroom.

Shao Si was sitting on the closed toilet lid casually moaning, making it sound as suggestive as possible.

Gu Yanzhou leaned against the stall door, chiming in every now and then with a nonstop stream of dirty talk that rolled effortlessly off his tongue, making Shao Si’s face flush uncontrollably as he listened.

When Gu Yanzhou calmly delivered the line, “Does fucking you feel good? Hmm?”

Shao Si gritted his teeth and panted, “So good… mhm… feels amazing…”

…Damn it, I’m definitely making him pay for taking advantage of me like this someday.

The two of them were clearly doing nothing at all, yet when it came to vocal delivery and line reading, they were both top professionals.

Both were actors capable of live on-set audio recording without needing voice dubbing; faking the audio for a bed scene was a piece of cake.

After a few minutes, Wang Shan finally turned around and took two steps back, looking as if he intended to head back.

Only now could Ye Xuan and Zhou Weiping clearly see his face, that bloated, greasy face of his. Yet at the sight of it, the two of them suddenly lost their voices!

Because a horrifying, twisted grin was plastered across Wang Shan’s face, the corners of his mouth warped and stretched almost all the way to his ears.

On the monochrome surveillance screen, that smile looked even more eerie.

The screen lagged for two seconds. When it unfroze, Ye Xuan saw his grin had grown even more grotesque than before, stretching wider and wider like a lunatic’s, his eyes blazing with feverish madness.

Unable to bear it any longer, Ye Xuan jumped up from her chair in fright and stumbled backward, the chair legs scraping harshly against the floor.