The Villain Runs Wild

Ch 42 - Newest Top Celebrity x Washed Up Film Emperor: Willingly Taking the Bait


After the season entered into winter, the weather became colder and colder.

Liu Buqun had already planned to move the spring and summer outdoor scenes that had to be filmed upfront, so he designed the storyboard and scripts inside the studio.

The electric stove in the studio was very warm, and after a while he got so hot he started to sweat. He took his overcoat off and turned his head, planning on consulting something in the scene with Yan Qin, but when he turned around he couldn’t stop himself from coughing.

It was just that Yan Qin was by Lin Sui’s side again.

Lin Sui still looked the same, seeming like he wasn’t listening while Yan Qin explained the scene to him, leaning back with his eyes half-closed as if he were about to fall asleep any second. But Yan Qin didn’t seem to mind or be angry, and would patiently repeat himself whenever Lin Sui said he didn’t hear something clearly.

If he didn’t know Yan Qin he would probably think he was just that kind of good person, but while Yan Qin was good-natured, he wasn’t that kind, and he wasn’t an especially friendly and extroverted type of person. Besides, the person he was treating like that was still Lin Sui.

Although Lin Sui’s performance under his and Yan Qin’s guidance was watchable, and even pretty good in a few scenes, wasn’t this a bit too fine a polishing? He even heard that Yan Qin worked the whole night to teach him some important scenes, if everyone performed like this, how long would the delays last? If it weren’t for the fact that Lin Sui had enough money to pay for the crew’s expenses, Liu Buqun and the producer would have already gone crazy.

Lin Sui felt a gaze floating over from Liu Buqun’s direction, but he didn’t care. Right now the assistant director was shooting a scene with a supporting actor, so he had no qualms about taking a break.

Lin Sui had spent almost the entire night yesterday reading files and documents and he hadn’t slept, so he rushed to film two scenes and then just laid down.

Next to him, Yan Qin was emphasising the important points of the scene. His voice was deep, low, and gentle, and Lin Sui closed his eyes as he listened.

Yan Qin lowered his voice, and after realising Lin Sui had fallen asleep, he gradually stopped talking and quietly walked away.

Liu Buqun was outlining some things when he noticed a shadow on the ground out of the corner of his eye, it was only then that he discovered that Yan Qin had come to stand next to him at some point.

Liu Buqun clicked his tongue: “Yo, you’re finally willing to come over.”

Yan Qin answered softly: “He’s asleep.”

“Asleep…” Liu Buqun felt a lump on his throat and almost couldn’t draw a breath, he glanced at the nearby person and breathed out, “Motherfucker, no one has ever dared to fall asleep in my crew, and he’s even the lead actor!”

Liu Buqun spoke between clenched teeth, but then remembered all the capital behind Lin Sui. Forget it, it doesn’t matter.

Liu Buqun put out his anger and looked at Yan Qin a little hesitatingly, then spoke after a few seconds: “Old Yan, what’s going on with you right now? You’re not a social climber, but there’s already rumours spreading in the crew, you better clear it up, there’s no need to get involved with him.”

As a matter of fact, there had long since been rumours within the crew saying Yan Qin was washed up and wanted to stick to the top celebrity to promote himself and get popular again, and so was using every possible means to curry favour with him, even if it meant submitting to humiliation. The halo he once had was completely gone, and he was now someone who bowed down and did everything he was told to ingratiate himself.

Liu Buqun had wrinkled his nose in anger and made the people stop talking such nonsense, but it was true that Yan Qin’s attitude towards Lin Sui these past few days left him speechless.

“Does he have something on you?”

Liu Buqun made a guess, he really couldn’t think of anything other than this.

Yan Qin shot him a glance and said: “Don’t make random guesses, sometimes you can’t just look at a person’s surface.”

Yan Qin thought Lin Sui was actually not that bad, he was clever and perceptive, he would take the initiative to ask for guidance on being in character to achieve better results with his performance, he wouldn’t get angry when he had to film scenes over and over again due to NGs, he would stand in the rain if he was told to do so, and he would wear thin clothes in cold weather if he was told to do so, which was much better than many actors.

It was just that he usually had a haughty air that made people feel uncomfortable, but Yan Qin felt that it really suited him.

Even though Lin Sui’s face was filled with annoyance, he never made a fuss about accidentally getting injured while filming, he even seemed unable to bear the others’ concern for him.

Yan Qin thought that he was not a flower vase. Flower vases were empty inside, which was clear to see at a glance, but Lin Sui was a cloud of fog, and it was difficult to make out his mood beyond his external appearance.

Liu Buqun was a little absent-minded, and for a time he didn’t know if he himself was deranged or if Yan Qin was the mental one.

But he also didn’t make up his mind, since that person on the recliner sat up again. The assistant director had finished filming, so it was time for the main actor to go on.

Lin Sui napped for a few minutes and woke up with a start. This was not a safe environment, the staff around him walked around and discussed with each other in hushed tones, so it should have been difficult for him to fall asleep in this kind of environment no matter how tired he was. But he actually fell asleep, and there was a brief break in the middle of his mind.

Lin Sui took off his overcoat with a sullen face and went into the scene wearing his costume.

This movie had been filmed for a long time, and it was soon coming to an end.

The scene he was filming right now was precisely that intimate scene from a few months ago, in which Ruan Qingqu stabbed Xu Shuangxing in a panic after worrying about being exposed and fled.

Although Xu Shuangxing was stabbed in a vital part, he didn’t die.

When Ruan Qingqu heard the news, he knew he would be exposed, so he first kidnapped Xu Tingfang before Xu Shuangxing could expose the thing with the stand-in.

He used the possibility of knowing Ruan Qingqu’s whereabouts to confuse Xu Tingfang, then knocked him out and tied him up in the room.

When Xu Shuangxing regained consciousness, he hurriedly called for his assistant and the housekeeper of the Xu family to go look for Ruan Qingqu and Xu Tingfang, and revealed the fact that ‘Shu Tang is actually Ruan Qingqu’.

The way Xu Shuangxing saw it, although Ruan Qingqu was admittedly pitiful, he still shouldn’t have harmed anyone.

But Xu Shuangxing hadn’t expected that Ruan Qingqu wouldn’t escape, and by the time he realised something was wrong and turned his attention to the Xu family, Xu Tingfang had almost been tortured to death.

When Lin Sui was in a scene with other actors, he was never willing to film too many times, so he generally tried to do it within two, sometimes even one take. After Lin Sui and the actor playing Xu Tingfang finished their part, Yan Qin entered the scene.

Xu Shuangxing was injured, and he had tore open his wound in his hurry to arrive, so he staggered a little when he came in and his forehead was covered in a thin layer of sweat.

A young man wearing a moon-white changshan sat inside the bright hall, and a man knelt next to him, his face was covered with a layer of white paper and, going by the rate of his breathing, he was already on the verge of death.

Ruan Qingqu looked at the person coming in, his face calm.

In this part, the original script had said that Ruan Qingqu looked at the meddlesome person who ruined his plans twice with bitter resentment, but Lin Sui and Liu Buqun discussed it and changed the performance.

Liu Buqun looked at Lin Sui’s face, remembering the vague expression he’d had when he said: “When everything is inescapable and unavoidable, for Ruan Qingqu, that feeling should be relief.”

Lin Sui’s expression had been very particular, Liu Buqun couldn’t quite put it into words.

Inside the scene, the story continued on.

“Strangely enough, I don’t have any misgivings about doing the things I didn’t dare to do before, but if I had done it earlier, I wouldn’t have come to this kind of conclusion.”

The young man spoke in a low, gentle tone, no longer pretending to be his own stand-in. He looked at the man kneeling next to him and took off the paper covering his face.

Xu Shuangxing was thinking Xu Tingfang would be able to have a moment to recuperate, but then saw Ruan Qingqu pull out a rope from behind Xu Tingfang’s neck. He looked carefully and discovered Xu Tingfang’s neck was tied up with a few loops of rope, and he would surely die if Ruan Qingqu tightened it.

“Why did someone like you have to appear in front of me? Making it so my thoughts have nowhere to hide, letting me know that I’m full of evil.”

The young man was still sitting on the chair, not getting up, and sighed.

Even if his mouth was speaking those words, there was no remorse on his face.

The expression in his eyes was extremely indifferent, and Yan Qin was pinned in place by his gaze.

A somewhat inexplicable feeling welled up inside him, flowing into every corner of his chest, unable to pour out, to the point where there was a faint, dull pain in his heart.

It seemed like the one standing before his eyes was not the Ruan Qingqu of the scene, but rather Lin Sui himself, or perhaps his interior now with the cloudy outer surface torn open, but this idea was clearly absurd.

Liu Buqun frowned behind the screen, looking at Yan Qin who was standing there blankly, not knowing what was happening. Yan Qin should have said his lines a few seconds ago, but he was motionless.

It had always been the other actors who made mistakes, Yan Qin had never been in this state.

“Cut! Yan Qin, what’s wrong? What are you spacing out for?”

Liu Buqun couldn’t take it anymore and yelled out, casting a confused gaze towards Yan Qin.

Yan Qin returned to his senses and apologised, saying he felt a slight discomfort in his heart just now.

Yan Qin’s acting skills spoke for themselves, so Liu Buqin expressed a few words of concern after hearing what he said and, after making sure he was fine, began filming again.

Lin Sui’s thoughts were wandering a little, he’d clearly seen how Yan Qin had been entranced with him, and he was not necessarily being insincere with a few of the words he’d said just now when he was reciting his lines.

But how could Yan Qin be in a daze because of this? Even if he still had some meagre memories of the previous world, he still shouldn’t be like this, unless he also had a few memories from the cultivation world.

But that wasn’t right either, even if Yan Qin had some subconscious memories, what did that have to do with what he said? He’d never said those words to Yan Qin.

Lin Sui suddenly remembered something. He realised that there had been an occasion, but Yan Qin should have been unconscious at the time.

Yan Qin had been seriously injured at that time, his back had been split open by the sharp claws of a monster, his injuries were so deep one could see the bone, and that Dao bone was exposed to the air, absorbing the spiritual qi in the atmosphere.

Lin Sui had touched it. That was the thing he longed for in his heart, just as perfect as he had imagined it.

Yan Qin’s sword lay beside him, the snow-white edge of the blade reflecting his appearance, and it was then that Lin Sui realised that it turned out he was filled with greed, and his ugly, avaricious posture was disgusting to see.

Lin Sui wasn’t planning on forcefully taking it, he just watched over Yan Qin, letting out a low sigh.

——If only I had never met you.

When he first died, he was at peace, but who would have thought that his fate would be so? He was not willing to leave as a loser.

Lin Sui’s acting skills were actually fairly good, for instance, in this moment he was thinking about the past while acting out the scene, and no one noticed a thing.

Yan Qin didn’t space out again, and when Lin Sui recited those lines once more, he didn’t react strangely.

It really was strange.

In the story, Xu Tingfang still died.

Ruan Qingqu knew Xu Shuangxing wanted to rescue him, so he acted first without the slightest hesitation.

This way, even if he was arrested, he wouldn’t have to return to the hands of those disgusting people. However, Xu Tingfang was not the only one involved in this net of connections, and Ruan Qingqu was fully aware that his end would not be good, but he still posed as if he were waiting to be captured and pleaded with the approaching Xu Shuangxing.

In fact, Shu Tang’s murderer hadn’t been Ruan Qingqu, but rather he had died in an accident.

Ruan Qingqu had just wanted to imprison Shu Tang for a while to borrow his identity and pretend to be missing, then steal a few things from Xu Tingfang and throw things into chaos, then take advantage of the crisis to leave.

His plan had gone smoothly at first, until he met Xu Shuangxing.

Shu Tang had been unwilling to be locked up, but Ruan Qingqu didn’t want him to ruin things, so he’d locked him inside a dark room. Shu Tang had been planning to dig his way out to escape, but that place was damp and there were many bugs and snakes, and Shu Tang died when he was bitten by a venomous snake.

Ruan Qingqu then continued with his plan and used Shu Tang’s corpse to disturb Xu Shuangxing’s investigation.

Ruan Qingqu begged for Xu Shuangxing to tell the outside world that the murderer had been Shu Tang, and that Ruan Qingqu was already dead.

He wanted to leave a clean and pure image in the eyes of the world, he didn’t want to be a dirty plaything nor a cold-blooded murderer.

He was a famous actor and a film star, he was a well-regarded, beautiful person.

Xu Shuangxing agreed. He wouldn’t be overly tolerant of Ruan Qingqu just because he was seeking revenge, but he wouldn’t denounce him for it either.

People often did not have the freedom to act of their own volition, was there anyone who could choose to be themselves at all times?

Ruan Qingqu was willing to plead guilty and accept punishment, and it was because of this that Xu Shuangxing was willing to change his previous explanation and bury his suspicions about the stand-in.

But it didn’t end with this. It snowed on the night before the day of filming the finale.

The stage manager arranged for the staff to sweep the snow, and everyone rushed to sweep away the falling dust while Liu Buqun sighed inside the studio.

This could be considered the end of filming. The movie had been in production for four or five months, and it was finally coming to an end.

Liu Buqun was a little distressed, he’d originally planned to film everything in three months.

“It’s almost New Year’s, luckily we were able to finish filming before the end of the year, and everyone can go back to celebrate the year when we do the finale.”

Liu Buqun exhaled a puff of white breath, looking out to the ash-grey sky outside and letting out a smile.

When the others heard this, their faces also became cheerful, but Lin Sui didn’t react, and Yan Qin’s expression also remained indifferent.

Lin Sui glanced at him and lowered his eyes.

This world’s Yan Qin lost both of his parents long ago, and he’d already broken off his relationships with his relatives. As far as Yan Qin was concerned, there was nothing special about New Year’s day.

In his first life, Lin Sui actually didn’t view these kinds of celebrations as important, let alone in the cultivation world where the years were endless and there were no mortal holidays.

Lin Sui remembered those shrimp-stuffed dumplings from the last world, and his eyelashes fluttered.

They were actually not entirely tasteless, Yan Qin’s dumpling wrap had been very good.

Lin Sui estimated the time, and the corner of his mouth rose in an extremely faint curve.

He suddenly thought this Spring Festival would be a little interesting, as long as he grasped the right timing.

Taking everything into account, Liu Buqun thought the finale would take at most two days to film, but he hadn’t expected that Lin Sui would actually force him to shoot for four days without finishing.

Liu Buqun didn’t want to get angry with the Spring Festival approaching, but unfortunately Lin Sui had dropped the ball and it was already the 28th, and it would certainly be unpleasant if they had to spend New Year’s with the crew two days later.

Because the finale was a death scene, even though Lin Sui didn’t have to act after his death, it would be better to sweep away the bad luck before the end of the year.

In the crew, everyone’s cries of complaint filled the place, and there were more people calling Lin Sui’s acting skills into question than ever before, but they still started work when they had to.

Inside the story, on the evening Ruan Qingqu executed Xu Tingfang, Xu Shunagxing discovered that Ruan Qingqu had fled.

He felt like he’d been deceived, but just as he was about to go look for Ruan Qingqu, he found that he hadn’t run far, and had gone to the place where Shu Tang lived inside the Xu mansion.

He was holding a wine cup in his hand, and scattered around him was a packet of medicine which contained white arsenic.

With that dose, Ruan Qingqu would surely die if he drank it.

“I know you cherish justice, and you want to hand me over to the police, but unfortunately you are too naive. There’s far more than just one Xu Tingfang in this world, only one of them died, and there’ll be plenty of others who could come looking to bother me.”

“Mr. Xu, in fact, when I first pretended to go missing, Xu Tingfang suspected I wasn’t Shu Tang, and do you know what he did?”

“He brought my old troupe master over. The troupe master is already almost seventy years old, he brought me into the opera troupe back then when I was almost to the point of starving to death and raised me into adulthood. I’m very grateful to him, but he became my weak point in Xu Tingfang’s grasp. I couldn’t admit it the first time, but once I opened my mouth for the first time, there was a second time, the threat was endless, and once I reached a compromise, there was no chance of regretting it any more.”

“He chopped one of the old troupe master’s fingers off in front of me and then beat him again, and the old troupe master hunched over, breathing out more air than he breathed in. I found it extremely difficult, but I had to act like I was just scared. I had always been praised by those senior actors for my good acting skills, and I think I’m actually not bad. Xu Tingfang didn’t doubt me, but the old troupe master knew who I really was. I could fool the others, but I couldn’t fool him.”

“But he simply looked at me, and in the end he quietly gestured towards me. Before, when I didn’t want to train, he would always lecture me, but then he would come back and make peace with me again. He treated me like his son or maybe his grandson, and that gesture was the one he made when he wanted to reconcile with me.”

“The old troupe master didn’t survive the night. I had nightmares all through the night, he didn’t blame me, but I couldn’t not blame myself.”

“Once you’ve shot the arrow, there’s no getting it back. Once I made that decision, I couldn’t change anything, and I would have to endure every bitter consequence that came after it. That’s what I deserve.”

The young man quietly gazed at the nearby man, he seemed to be speaking to him, but he also seemed to be speaking to himself.

That last line was not written in the script. When Yan Qin heard his whispering, he almost couldn’t draw a breath again, and his heart felt unbearably stuffy.

“If only I really was the stand-in.”

Ruan Qingqu muttered, then drank that cup with arsenic.

Originally, Shu Tang didn’t have a mole on his nose. He didn’t know what Ruan Qingqu had to face in private at first, so he envied him for his good voice and good personality, and envied his scholarly bearing and his ability to make money. He was originally friendly and attentive to Ruan Qingqu, but changed his attitude after he accidentally found out the truth, and put a mole on his nose as if to clearly show that he and Ruan Qingqu were not the same person.

Shu Tang had a lover whom he was dating since before he became Ruan Qingqu’s stand-in. He put the mole in exactly the same place on his face where his partner’s mole was, and invented some nonsense about it being a new look to say to the others, he was not a stand-in, so who cared about the person living in the Xu mansion?

With his belly full of arsenic, Ruan Qingqu really died.

The wine cup fell to the ground and shattered, and that was the end.

“Good! Pass! ‘The Stand-In’ is finished!”

Liu Buqun personally closed the clapperboard, and the cast and crew cheered.

Some staff off to the side handed Lin Sui and Yan Qin flowers, and Liu Buqun also gave Lin Sui two red packets, one for the death scene, and one for the finale.

Lin Sui took the flowers and red packets and thanked Liu Buqun.

Liu Buqun: “No need to thank me, let’s not work together any more.”

Lin Sui laughed lightly and looked at the cast and crew in the cheerful atmosphere, then motioned towards Fu Nai.

Fu Nai had the venue manager inform everyone that, since New Year’s was fast approaching and there had been delays these past few days, everyone would be given a red packet to celebrate.

This was for winning over goodwill. No one really cared whether this was the manager’s doing or Lin Sui’s real intentions, in any case they were happy to have a red packet.

They thought it would be a few hundred at most, but when they saw ten thousand for each person, regardless of whether their position was big or small, everyone fell into a state of shock.

There were about one hundred people in the entire cast and crew, this was not some small expense.

Everyone became sincerely happy then, who cared about being delayed these last few days?

Liu Buqun also received a red packet with then thousand, and he patted Yan Qin’s shoulder somewhat listlessly: “Ah, Old Qin, I don’t blame you for siding with him, who doesn’t love money?”

Liu Buqun said as much, but Yan Qin just looked at the young man leaving with his manager not far away and didn’t say anything.

There was still a small pinprick of pain in his heart, he looked at Lin Sui’s thin back and reached to touch the buttons he’d placed in his pocket.

Everyone called it a day and went home, and the leading actor, director, and the others who were still left gathered together for a wrap-up banquet.

“It’s private room 888, do you want me to take you?”

Fu Nai and the assistants had gone to help pack Lin Sui’s clothes from the hotel, and she asked Lin Sui when she saw the message sent by the producer.

“No need, I can go by myself. Help me bring back the luggage, I’ll get home by myself and you can have a vacation.”

Lin Sui fiddled with a small box in his hands and said to Fu Nai.

Fu Nai spoke a little worriedly: “How about we all go? Are you going to go back to Jingzhou alone without following the itinerary?”

“Don’t worry.”

Lin Sui looked at the pale pink, translucent capsule in his hand and shook it under the light.

Since Lin Sui had his back towards Fu Nai and the others sitting on the sofa, Fu Nai didn’t see the thing he was holding, and seeing that he insisted, she just nodded and agreed.

The System spoke in alarm: [What are you thinking? It’s still not time for that storyline to appear, you can’t…]

[Relax, I’m not going to give it to him, don’t worry.]

Lin Sui answered with a smile and wrapped his hand around the capsule.

In the original story, the original owner got a lot of ridicule after the movie was aired. He’d been completely crushed by Yan Qin’s acting skills, and the same was true for his popularity. The original owner couldn’t swallow this, so he planned to nip Yan Qin’s rise to fame in the bud.

What was the quickest way to destroy a celebrity? Without a doubt, the answer was nudes.

For the original owner, obtaining things that were not sold on the market wasn’t hard. The original owner gave Yan Qin a drug, found someone to leave the country with him, and prepared paparazzi to take and circulate indecent photos of him so he could be caught in the act, but Yan Qin had always been cautious and guarded, so the original owner’s poisoning plan fell through.

That night, at the wrap-up banquet, Lin Sui drove to the restaurant.

Everyone had a seat, but it was still early, so not everyone had arrived yet.

Yan Qin saw Lin Sui take something out of his pocket, put it into his mouth, and swallow it with some water.

“Anti-alcohol medicine, do you want some?”

Lin Sui leaned back against the chair and looked up at Yan Qin, shaking the small box in his hand.

Under the light, his eyes brimmed with emotion.

He could sense that Yan Qin’s feelings towards him had changed subtly, but he hadn’t come here to play some pure and innocent love games with Yan Qin.

How fast the protagonist developed depended on how bad the villain was.