Chapter 60
Chapter 60
“Action!”
“Ziling!” the old man said to Liu Ye, his face full of anguish.
“Haozun!” Liu Ye said, also looking utterly pained.
“Blegh!” Everyone around them nearly threw up. The sight of the two of them gazing soulfully into each other’s eyes was genuinely disgusting.
The old man ignored them and continued reciting his lines. He had to admit, the old man was actually pretty dedicated.
“Ziling, can’t you forgive Xuanxuan? Though she accidentally caused the deaths of all 8.8 billion members of your family, she also lost her love!”
Liu Ye: “…”
“Cut! Say your line!” Zhao Yang shouted.
“No, Director, just tell me-should I kill her or not?” Liu Ye said, speechless.
Zhao Yang finally realized the problem too. Helplessly, he walked over to the old man.
“Old Man, my script only said one person died. How did you kill off this many people? What, did she press Earth’s nuclear launch button or something?”
“No, Director, think about it. If only one person dies, the hatred feels too weak. But look, if she kills this many people, then her hatred is so much stronger.”
“It is stronger, sure, but now there aren’t any people left! If everyone is dead, who is she supposed to take revenge on?” Zhao Yang broke down.
“Ah, I didn’t think that through,” the old man said in sudden realization.
“No, Old Man, can we take this seriously? We only have one day. Can we please hurry up?” Zhao Yang pleaded.
“All right, don’t worry!” the old man agreed.
“Good. Continue. Action!”
“Ziling!”
“Haozun!”
Everyone: “…”
Honestly, you two could phone it in a little. You don’t have to be that serious! We’re really not that eager to watch your romance.
“Haozun, let’s elope!” Liu Ye said passionately.
“Where to?” the old man asked.
“To Huang County, to welcome our brand-new future…”
“Cut!”
Zhao Yang’s roar rang out again.
He stormed over in a fury.
“You two are eloping, and you’re just running off to the next county? It’s a place you can reach by bus for two yuan! What are you even running for?”
“No, Director, look at the plot. You said we’re supposed to go abroad, but look, the two of us don’t have a single cent in our pockets! How are we supposed to leave the country with no money? So we should go to the neighboring county first, look around, and if all else fails, find jobs…”
“Enough!” Zhao Yang shouted.
“I’m filming an upper-class romance, not Country Love. What job are you trying to find? I want decadence! Extravagance! Do you understand?”
“I do, but don’t decadence and extravagance need money too? If we don’t have money, what are we supposed to use to be extravagant?” Liu Ye said, clapping his hands.
Zhao Yang took a deep breath.
“Fine. Then how about this: you win the lottery. A grand prize of five million. That works, right?”
“Five million? My goodness, that’s a whole lot of money! But is that before or after tax?”
“No tax required!” Zhao Yang said, his face twisting.
“That won’t do. If you don’t pay taxes and they find out, you’ll go to prison,” Liu Ye said unhappily. He was a good, law-abiding citizen.
“They won’t investigate.”
“Why wouldn’t they investigate?”
“This is just a movie!”
“Even movies can’t completely abandon reality.”
“Reality wouldn’t investigate either!”
“Why not?”
“I’ve got people higher up!”
As soon as he said it, Zhao Yang suddenly realized what had slipped out and covered his mouth. Unfortunately, everyone around him had heard it-and this was a livestream.
Liu Ye: “…”
The director: “…”
The netizens: “…”
“Woo-woo, woo-woo…”
Everyone stood at the entrance to the set, watching as the police car arrived once again and took Zhao Yang away.
[Actually… to be honest, I kind of wanted to see what this short film would look like when it was finished.]
[Same.]
[Same here.]
At this point, the director was on the verge of losing his mind. He roared at Liu Ye.
“Liu Ye! I asked you to come here as a safety net, not to expose all their dirty laundry! In less than two days, you’ve gotten two people sent in! How am I supposed to keep this show going?”
“No, Director, I’ve been wronged! This has nothing to do with me! He said it himself!” Liu Ye hurriedly said.
“Then who started it?”
Liu Ye: “…Me.”
The director clutched his head and said to Liu Ye, “Enough. Let’s not argue about this anymore. I’ll pay you for today. Now hurry up and get out!”
“Don’t, Director. Give me one more chance. I promise I won’t cause trouble again!” Liu Ye said anxiously.
“No, no, no. Big brother, you give me one more chance. I really can’t take this anymore! Please, have mercy and leave already!” the director pleaded.
“I’m afraid that won’t work.”
At that moment, the driver’s voice suddenly rang out.
He walked over holding a document.
“We signed a contract, remember? If you chase him off, you’ll have to pay the penalty for breach of contract,” the driver said with a cold smile.
But the director had already made up his mind.
“Fine. It’s just a penalty fee, right? How much? I’ll pay it!”
“Fifty million!”
“It’s just fifty thou… how much?” The director stared at them in shock.
“Fifty million.”
What a joke. I’ve been tormented by this guy for ages. How could I let you get off easy after just a little suffering? This was the contract he’d gone out of his way to draw up back then.
The driver sneered inwardly.
There was no way around it. The director couldn’t afford to pay Liu Ye fifty million, so he had no choice but to let Liu Ye stay. However, he repeatedly warned Liu Ye not to say anything reckless again. He didn’t need Liu Ye to cover for anyone anymore either. All Liu Ye had to do was sit there quietly.
Meanwhile, on everyone else’s phones, Zhao Yang’s video appeared once again.
At this moment, Zhao Yang was no longer at the police station. Someone had picked him up. Although he was indeed suspected of tax evasion, he could still be released on bail before the investigation was verified.
His follower count, however, had plummeted. In just a short while, only a little over a hundred thousand remained.
But he wasn’t afraid at all. Instead, he looked at his phone mockingly.
“Heh. So what if you unfollow me? I’m not scared. I have connections in Meilijia. Anyway, the money has already been transferred out. Once I get to Meilijia, I can start over. And this time, I’m going to become a true Meilijia citizen through and through!”
The hundred thousand or so people left were all his die-hard fans. As long as he remained a rooster, these people would never abandon him.
But just then, the System suddenly rang out.
[Ding! Filming mission failed. Penalty: follower count reduced by 200,000!]
Zhao Yang froze instantly. He had forgotten there was still Mission 1, which required him to cooperate with the production team and complete the program.
[Ding! Follower count is zero. Execution commencing!]
“No, no, no…”
Zhao Yang cried out in panic. But it was already too late. In an instant, everything around him went black.
A laugh filled with Terror rang beside his ear.
Then his body suddenly plummeted.
“Aaaah!!!”
After passing through a long tunnel, he suddenly found himself seated in a chair. Before he could recover, his body was locked into place with a series of clacks.
He struggled with all his might, but he was bound firmly. He looked around.
He discovered that this was a specially made chair. Beneath it was something like a rocket thruster. The flag of Meilijia was painted on it, and several Meilijia scientists were watching him. Then they shouted at him,
“Human Cannon, stage one ready! Stage two ready! Stage three ready! Launch!!!”
Boom!
Fire erupted from beneath the chair, carrying him slowly upward.
“No! Don’t! Let me go! I have money! I’m a noble Meilijia citizen! Spare me! I’m from Meilijia!”
But those scientists did not stop. The way they looked at him was like they were looking at a dog.
“Let me go!!!”
Zhao Yang screamed as he rose into the sky. The friction between his skin and the air began to burn.
The deadliest part was that the process was extremely slow. He could feel his skin being scorched bit by bit, then torn open.
Agonizing pain devoured him. The muscles and tendons beneath his skin were already exposed, yet he was still cursing nonstop.
In the end, he rose little by little toward the edge of the universe.