“Xiao Ye Zi, Xiao Ye Zi! What a coincidence!” Director Cao walked towards me joyfully.
“Huh? You can recognize me even when I’m wearing sunglasses?”
“How could I not recognize you? A male… a man as outstanding as you will glow like a firefly in the dead of night regardless of where you are, I only need one eye…”
Hey! You were about to say male pornstar! Have you still not given up on turning me into a male AV actor!
“Also, you’re standing together with class 2-3’s class leader!” Director Cao looked at Shu Sha, “I’ve at least seen my son’s class leader before.”
Although we could tell Director Cao acts the same as Eunuch Cao from the parent-teacher conferences, he was still our elder, so the class leader greeted him, “Hello Uncle Cao.”
“Good, good.”Director Cao pulled on my arm and said to the class leader: “I’m going to borrow Ye Lin for a sec!” He said as he pulled me towards a place that was within the area being filmed.
The class leader wanted to stop him, but Ma HuiYu said something to her at the same time. She couldn’t focus on two tasks simultaneously, so she had to temporarily allow Director Cao to abduct me.
“Xiao Ye Zi, this sign is really heavy, help me hold it for a bit.”
Director Cao passed me the ‘Bloody Battle of Jin Ling’ sign. I unwillingly rested it on my shoulder and didn’t really raise it up.
I looked around the area, but didn’t see the van Director Cao often drove and asked: “Director Cao, how did you get here? Did you get a ride from someone else?”
“Why would I need a ride!” Director Cao turned to face the southeast direction, “Dong Shan Film City is really close. I found out about this news while scrolling on my phone, so I walked here!”
Huh? No wonder I thought the roads looked a bit familiar while I was on the taxi, so this service stop was close to Film City!
It wasn’t as close to Film City when the class leader and the others initially stopped the truck, but it’s become much closer once they drove 5km to this service stop!
That means Ai Mi, Auntie Ren, and the cast of the ‘Legend of the Magic Cauldron’ are walking distance away.
The dog that Xiao Ding suspected to have a lipoma suddenly began to convulse, then Officer Ma said excitedly, “Did the drugs break out in its stomach? Do you have a scalpel? If its dead…”
“You don’t have any humanity!” Ma HuiYu yelled, “I can’t believe you’re looking forward to the doggy dying! I don’t want you as my nephew!”
“And I don’t want you as my aunt!” Officer Ma clapped back, “Dogs are separated between work dogs and food dogs. The dogs used for food are inherently not any different to pigs.”
Xiao Ding might have been studying under Dr. Zhao at the vet hospital for a while, but he lacked independent treatment experience. His head was filled with sweat as he injected the dogs with a cardiac stimulant and it took a while until the dog stopped twitching.
“OPhew, it won’t die for the time being…”
“Then are we going to feed it some laxatives and have it expel the drugs?” Officer Ma asked with his hands in his coat pockets.
His words enraged the volunteers. Everyone surrounded Xiao Ding, the sick dog, and Officer Ma, then began all talking at once:
“How are you evil more repulsive than the dog dealers as a police officer! The vet clearly just saved it, but now you’re going to kill it?”
“I’ve already recorded the conversation! I’m going to upload it online later and let everyone criticize you.”
“Also, why are police from the narcotics division here instead of civil police? Aren’t civil police the ones who usually handle these affairs?”
“Ah, apparently Shu Sha’s classmate deliberately reported the dog dealers were transported drugs in order to stall for time, good job!”
“Did you hear that! Did you hear that!” Zeng Lao Liu yelled, “Officers, the dog lovers have already admitted that they wrongly accused us! Can you please let us leave!”
“We can’t be careless when it comes to drugs.” Officer Ma didn’t look away from the sick dog, “We have to do a thorough inspection before we can let you leave. You guys might as well wait for Niu Zong and you could also raise the price of the dogs——of course, that’s assuming we don’t find any drugs.”
The Zeng brothers had no choice but to wait until Officer Ma finished his inspection.
Zhao Yao, the reporter from Dong Shan News, began to walk towards the truck after interviewing a few volunteers, but was intercepted by Director Cao.
“Reporter! Reporter! Interview me! I have a lot of information I could reveal!” Director Cao said frantically as his tongue almost hung out of his mouth.
Zhao Yao saw me standing beside Director Cao and frowned. He hid his microphone behind his back as he was afraid I would snatch it again.
“I’m going to interview Officer Ma first, so you guys wait.”
Zhao Yao wanted to leave with the cameraman, but Director Cao blocked them again.
“Don’t be in a rush to leave! Xiao Ye Zi and I aren’t regular people! We’re a director and an actor! We have a lot to say to the people around the country who loves dogs!”
Zhao Yao’s eyes glistened, then brought the microphone back in front of his body and pointed it at Director Cao: “You’re a director? What works have you directed before?”
Director Cao happily said: “I’ve directed ones like ‘Maid sister wants H every day’, ‘Home tutors night lessons’…”
It’s all a bunch of AV that were filmed in Japan! How thick skin do you have to have to admit this in front of a news reporter?
I never expected Zhao Yao to have even less integrity than Director Cao. He was even more excited when he realized Director Cao was an AV director and quickly asked: “Then what are your views towards the stopping the cars to save the dogs incidents? Also, the person next to you… I think was called Ye Lin? Has he played any roles in the works you mentioned?”
Who acted in an AV before! Stating my name on national news and saying I’ve acted in an AV before is a thousand times more humiliating than acting in ‘Bloody Battle of Jin Ling’!
No! I refuse to have a reputation as an AV actor! My dad often says: pick the lesser of the two evils, which means I have to admit I acted in ‘Bloody Battle of Jin Ling’.
“There’s been a misunderstanding!” I squeezed beside Director Cao and said into the microphone, “Director Cao doesn’t film AVs anymore after he came back to China. His latest work was a short series titled ‘Bloody Battle of Jin Ling’!”
I shook the sign that was on my shoulder to let Zhao Yao get a clear view.
“What kind of show is it? I’ve never heard of it before.”
“It’s not that well-know and you can watch it for free online.” I explained, “Also, my name isn’t Ye Lin. Ye Lin is someone who looks very similar to me, my real name is…. is Wu Sheng! I’m the one who acts the role of Jin Ling Young Thug in ‘Bloody Battle of Jin Ling’! You can find my name in the credits!”
I had already been pulled into the event marketing tactic by Director Cao, so my best option was to impersonate Wu Sheng.
Wu Sheng, aka depressed bro, gave me an extra ID and a Swiss Army knife before he left the country and told me to try my best to act as a happy version of him. If I was invited to a film award ceremony, a press conference, or any other event and don’t want to use my own name, then I could assume his identity.
Although I’ve acted in eight of the ten episodes of “Bloody Battle of Jin Ling”, I’ve always put myself as Wu Sheng’s stunt double. I was currently only speaking on behalf of the original and it’s not like I would purposely damage Wu Sheng’s reputation. Basically, I had to remove the link between “Ye Lin” and “Jin Ling Young Thug”. It was enough for Wu Sheng to be the only actor for Jin Ling Young Thug.
“I’ve watched the series.” The silent cameraman, Xiao Wang, suddenly said, “I thought he looked familiar earlier, so he’s Wu Sheng, the one who acts as the antagonist BOSS! But I heard he went to Switzerland with his father to recuperate?”
“Huh? It looks like you have a good information network, but if we can leave the country, we can also come back!”
In order to prove my identity, I pulled the Swiss Army knife out of my pocket again.
“Look at this knife, it’s not a regular knife…”
Zhao Yao and Xiao Wang thought I was going to advertise it again and jumped back. The camera even almost fell off Xiao Wang’s shoulder.
I didn’t know how to react and quickly got to the point: “The knife was a diplomatic gift! A Swiss diplomat gave it to my father, then he gave it to me!”
I easily began to play my role as Wu Sheng. He wanted me to stay in China and act as a happy version of him, which would comfort his depression a bit.
“At least there would be someone similar to me that’s happy in this world.” he said to me once.
“Ah, the diplomat’s son!” Zhao Yao was astonished, “Now I remember! But… but I heard you have depression? How come you’re so happy that you look like a monkey…”
You’re a monkey! Your whole family are monkeys!
That’s what I wanted to yell, but I was acting as Wu Sheng, so I could only calm myself and say:
“I do have depression. What you guys saw earlier was my acting skills! In order to not be beaten by my depression, I would often use other people’s names and act as a different character, a happy person! Do you guys understand my pain?”
Director Cao stuck up his thumb, which meat: “Nice job! It was a great idea to advertise as Wu Sheng.”
Director Cao immediately added: “In ‘Bloody Battle of Jin Ling’, Wu Sheng plays a person who loves dogs! He also likes dogs very much in real life! Since dogs can heal the soul and alleviate his depression!”
“It’s true! I won’t exist without dogs… no, I mean I won’t be my current self without dogs!”
I nodded as Wu Sheng and played along to Director Cao.
Zhao Yao’s eyes twinkled and he put the microphone in front of me, “Excuse me, Mr. Wu Sheng, since you like dogs so much, will you spend money to buy this truckload of dogs? Will you use your own money or your father’s money? Did your father, as a diplomat, illegally accept gifts from foreigners, and that’s why he has tens of thousands of dollars lying around to spend on dogs?”
“Do you think your father is worthy of being trusted by the country?”
Damn, I really wanted to hit Zhao Yao on Wu Sheng’s behalf. Also, where would I get the money to buy the dogs! My family runs an adult goods store, so we can’t even deal with 188 dogs. Or are we going to sell the dogs as adult goods?