Part 2
Little Assistant Lin quietly looked up, despising them while picking food.
He was puzzled. How are these people rich? What kind of dumb luck did they have?
Wei Mincai thought seriously, “Filming should also be quick. Finish filming early, release early, and catch this year’s New Year slot.”
The director had a straightforward temper and couldn’t help but say, “A movie’s shooting cycle takes at least fifty days. Post-production, promotion, submission for review… it won’t be done in less than half a year.”
Wei Mincai was indifferent. “Everyone just work some overtime. Half a year is too long, compress it, strive for it.”
Director: “How do we calculate the increased labor costs for overtime?”
The assistant director hesitated on the side, his accompanying smile stiff. He was already cursing the two investors in his heart.
Wei Mincai took it for granted, “Where does overtime pay come from? Just extend the daily shooting time a bit. What do the employees need so much rest time for? They have nothing to do anyway.”
Xun Peng nodded. “Right. Lower the wages and remuneration a bit; the general environment isn’t good right now. Besides, employees can’t spend that much money anyway. Spend the rest on the cutting edge, do more promotion.”
Little Assistant Lin was shocked.
Holy crap, what breed of capitalists are these?
The smile on the always amiable assistant director’s face couldn’t hold up anymore. He secretly decided to curse the friend who recommended these two eighteen times over when he got back.
The assistant director glanced at the silent Xie Shibai and basically understood his meaning. He didn’t talk about investment anymore and started rambling about other things, steering the conversation toward industries the two were good at. He thought they would just eat a few bites and disperse. They were all adults; there still had to be some face-saving.
Social dinners inevitably involved drinking.
Xun Peng’s gaze fell on Xie Shibai several times. It looked like he wanted to force a drink under the guise of a toast, but the assistant director blocked him several times at the start.
Determining that the two had no cooperation value, Xie Shibai felt that sitting there for even one second longer was too much, so he left early under the pretense of going to the restroom.
Xun Peng was full of wicked ideas. He had wanted to force more drinks, but the assistant director’s glib tongue had blocked it all. He hadn’t managed to force a single drop down anyone else’s throat but ended up drinking a bellyful himself. He was feeling irritable, and seeing Xie Shibai leave made him anxious instantly. “We’re drinking here; leaving like this is such a buzzkill.”
How could a shrewd person like the assistant director not see what Xun Peng was thinking? He smiled. “It’s the same if we drink. Teacher Xie has something to attend to; he’ll be back in a while.”
Xun Peng looked grim. He snapped a few words at the assistant director and was just about to follow out when his hand was grabbed by the assistant director, forcibly clinking glasses. By the time he reacted, Xie Shibai was long gone.
“Come, Mr. Xun, I toast you!”
The air in the private room was smoky. Xie Shibai went to the restroom to wash his hands. The scratches left not long ago had healed, and the scar on his face was just a trace now.
Ice-cold water flowed through his fingers. He re-evaluated the requirements for investors.
Wiping his fingers clean, Xie Shibai followed the corridor and took a breather by the club window, waiting for that gluttonous Little Assistant Lin to finish eating and come out.
Suddenly, a rush of unsteady footsteps came from behind.
Xie Shibai turned his head and saw Xun Peng, who was holding a wine glass, his face flushed red from drunkenness.
Xun Peng smelled heavily of alcohol and had obviously drunk a lot. Seeing Xie Shibai, he tried to go over and put his arm around his shoulder, stuffing the wine glass into Xie Shibai’s arms. “Finally found our big star. Everyone is so happy today, how could you run out alone to dodge the drinks? Come, have a drink with me.”
“Finish this glass, and I’ll invest. You can play whatever role you want!”
Assistant Lin looked for him anxiously. “Where did Brother Xie go? Why isn’t he answering the phone?”
He wasn’t familiar with the club’s layout. Turning east and west, he felt like every corridor looked exactly the same. Even the restrooms looked the same, making him dizzier the more he turned.
He even wondered if Xie Shibai had gone back to find him. But he had come out in a hurry and didn’t notice what the private room number was, so he could only check from the door of each one.
Unfortunately, the club’s privacy was very good. The frosted glass prevented seeing anything from the outside, and the soundproofing was also very strong.
Assistant Lin messaged the assistant director on WeChat asking if Xie Shibai had returned to the private room.
Seeing the message, the assistant director frowned and replied: [He didn’t come back. Wasn’t he waiting for you by the restrooms?]
Assistant Lin wanted to cry but had no tears: [I went to look, but I didn’t see Brother Xie.]
The assistant director frowned tightly. He looked around the private room at Wei Mincai, who was still toasting, and the empty seat beside him, and suddenly had a bad premonition.
[Go check the surveillance immediately. See where Teacher Xie went. The faster the better!]
Assistant Lin’s sense of crisis was triggered as well. “Okay! I got it!”
He grabbed a random waiter, asked for directions, and headed straight for the surveillance room.
After rushing to the surveillance room and explaining his purpose, the staff looked troubled, refusing to pull up the surveillance directly. They needed to file an application with the higher-ups.
Assistant Lin shouted directly, “Damn it, can you take responsibility if something happened to him? The person went missing in your club!”
The staff acted according to protocol, “For special circumstances, we have to file an application. Why don’t you wait a moment?”
Assistant Lin was pacing around anxiously. “By the time your application is approved, it’ll be too late!”
“Yo, isn’t this Little Lin?” A familiar voice came from behind.
Assistant Lin turned his head and found two people standing behind him. One was tall and wearing a baseball cap, looking down at his phone so his face couldn’t be seen clearly for a moment. The one who spoke was Zhuang Bo next to him. Assistant Lin was already anxious, and running into Lu Ciheng’s assistant at a time like this just made it worse.
Usually, when the two met, they would trade barbs. Naturally, he didn’t have a good expression at a time like this and didn’t have time to pay attention to him.
Cheng Zhe’s phone call happened to come in. “What’s going on? Have you checked the surrounding restrooms?”
Assistant Lin was anxious and self-blaming. “I checked, Brother Xie isn’t there. Director Zheng said that investor named Xun Peng is missing too. Just now during the meal, I saw him looking shifty-eyed, constantly wanting to force drinks on Brother Xie.”
Cheng Zhe was accompanying someone at the hospital. Hearing this, his heart sank. “I’ll contact their manager and rush over immediately.”
“Who is missing?” A deep male voice sounded.
Assistant Lin hummed a couple of times in reply to Cheng Zhe, his mouth faster than his brain as he replied to the voice, “Brother Xie.”
After speaking, he turned around. After seeing clearly who the person wearing the hat was, he froze for a few seconds and subconsciously shouted, “Holy crap, Lu the Dog.”
Lu Ciheng’s expression instantly turned gloomy. He walked around Assistant Lin and said coldly, “Pull up the surveillance. Hurry.”
The staff member was a bit embarrassed. “But the application hasn’t come down yet…”
When Lu Ciheng wasn’t smiling, his face was very fierce, his long, narrow eyes filled with ice and anger. “I am a Black Gold member of your club. Just the membership fee alone is millions a year. You claim Black Gold members have access to everything, yet I need to file an application to check the surveillance?”
The two staff members naturally knew this rule. They looked at each other, neither daring to stop him.
Although Zhuang Bo didn’t understand what was going on yet, putting aside his private grievances with Assistant Lin, he asked for the time frame Xie Shibai left and cooperated with the staff to pull up the surveillance.
In the surveillance footage, a few minutes after Xie Shibai left, Xun Peng chased after him anxiously holding a wine glass. Location: Club Zone A3.
Assistant Lin pointed at the blind spot. “What about the surveillance over here?!”
Staff: “That’s the restroom area. A member complained about privacy just this morning, so we are re-optimizing the angles. It’s temporarily closed.”
Lu Ciheng’s eyes were pitch black, his face ice-cold. He turned and headed straight for the location where Xie Shibai last disappeared.
Assistant Lin and Zhuang Bo reacted and hurriedly followed close behind.
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