More Wronged Than Dou E (Please Vote for This Chapter)

While he waited for filming to start, Shen Qi got a call from Shu Chang.

"Have you joined the crew? How's it going?"

"Yeah, I'm here. It's not my turn yet, so I'm watching the others act."

Shen Qi took a Jiuzhaigou persimmon from a crew member and thanked him with a nod.

"Watching who? Liu Yifei?"

"No, I'm over with Unit B, watching Li Mingqi."

Liu Yifei was beautiful, but there was nothing worth watching in her acting.

Her style of acting only worked for her. It wasn't worth Shen Qi recording.

"You're... watching Granny Rong? Why would you watch Granny Rong?"

Shu Chang wondered if Shen Qi had lost his mind. He had a pretty young woman right there, yet he was watching an old lady.

"To learn. I'm learning acting from Li Mingqi."

Shen Qi hurried to explain.

Wait, what was so strange about watching an old lady?

"I heard you saved someone a few days ago—and it was Huang Xiaoming. That's amazing."

Shu Chang was clearly well informed.

"Who told you that?"

Shen Qi didn't admit it outright. He didn't want Huang Xiaoming thinking he was telling everyone.

"Never mind that. I know loads of people on your crew."

Shu Chang wasn't lying.

She had appeared in Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, which shared cast and crew members with The Return of the Condor Heroes.

"It wasn't as dramatic as you think. I just gave him a hand."

Shen Qi had no intention of showing off.

"Oh, right—is filming over there really dangerous? Could you do me a favor and look out for Xixi?"

Shu Chang hadn't called just to gossip.

Once she heard Huang Xiaoming had nearly been hurt, she knew Zhang Jizhong probably wouldn't put the actors' safety first this time either, not with his ambitions.

"Who's Xixi?"

Shen Qi was baffled. It was a strange favor to ask.

"Xixi! Liu Yifei!"

Only then did Shu Chang remember that Shen Qi might not know Liu Yifei's nickname.

"What? Me? Look after Liu Yifei? You're joking, right?"

Shen Qi hated this kind of trouble.

How was a young man like him supposed to look after a young woman?

People could easily get the wrong idea.

Shu Chang's manager already looked at him like a thief. Why would Liu Yifei's mother be any better?

Besides, she was the female lead and he was playing the man who violated her character. How was he supposed to look after her?

"Film sets are complicated. There are all sorts of ways to get hurt. If a wire rig isn't fastened properly, it can injure you. If nobody checks the location carefully, there could be sharp rocks. And that's before you get to explosions, fire scenes, water scenes..."

Shu Chang wanted Shen Qi to help look after her friend, but she was worried about him getting hurt too.

Drawing on her twelve years in show business, she started listing the accidents that could happen on set.

Some accidents really were accidents.

Nobody could prevent them.

But others could be avoided.

All it took was a little extra care.

"Anything else?"

Shen Qi had dismissed her warnings at first, but the longer he listened, the more serious he became.

Damn, film sets are dangerous!

"And there are extras or crew members who take advantage of actors. You're a man, but you're still at risk..."

Shu Chang thought about it and decided this was another common problem.

One especially relevant to Shen Qi.

She told him about the ways people got groped during filming.

"What the hell..."

The thought of someone using the chaos to grab his ass or grope him between the legs made Shen Qi's skin crawl.

Maybe entering show business really wasn't that different from selling your body.

It made him want to kill someone.

Who the hell was going to look after me?

No. I've got to get stronger when I get the chance.

Next time, I'll record some real martial arts skills.

"That's how show business is. Even if someone does take advantage of you, it's hard to hold them accountable."

All they had to say was, "It was an accident." What could you do?

You couldn't exactly beat someone up over something like that.

Win the fight and you went to jail; lose it and you went to the hospital!

"You're on good terms with the crew. If you mention it, they'll pay more attention to your safety and Xixi's. Please help me out. Her mom sent me things again, and I don't know how to repay her."

It was only after hearing about Huang Xiaoming's close call that Shu Chang thought to ask Shen Qi for help.

She wasn't calling in a favor.

"Helping each other" was a better way to put it.

"All right, all right. But there's only so much I can do, so don't get your hopes up."

Shen Qi couldn't turn Shu Chang down.

She was the one who had helped him get the audition for Zhen Zhibing.

That, in turn, had helped him land his role in Migrant Workers.

He owed her a lot, and the problem was that he'd had no chance to repay her.

Date her?

Impossible.

She was only seventeen, about the same age as the students he'd taught. What kind of monster would he have to be to make a move on her?

Now that Shu Chang had asked him for something, he could repay at least part of that debt. He actually felt better.

Still, there wasn't much Shen Qi could do.

At most, while drinking with the props crew, he could remark, "It's not easy for a girl in her teens. Make sure you fasten her wire rig properly when you check it."

And when dangerous scenes came up, they could check the area a couple of extra times.

The props and stunt crews treated Shen Qi like one of their own now.

They invited him out for drinks whenever they had time.

When they heard what Shen Qi said, they all promised to take it seriously.

But bringing up an actress out of nowhere was strange.

People were bound to get ideas.

"Ah, I get it, I get it. Heh."

Cameraman An Jingchuan wore a lecherous grin.

He loved drinking and never missed a gathering.

He wasn't stingy, though. Sometimes he even paid for everyone.

"What exactly do you get, Jingchuan?"

Executive producer Li Ju didn't understand why he'd suddenly laughed.

"Come on, why else would he suddenly be so concerned about a young woman?" An Jingchuan winked at Shen Qi. "You young people are too shy. If you like her, you've got to be bolder..."

"Holy shit... That's not it!"

Shen Qi was stunned.

This misunderstanding had gone way too far. They couldn't joke about this.

This is a matter of my principles as a teacher!

My principles!

"Don't worry. From now on, our props crew will take excellent care of our little sister-in-law!"

Chen Xin, the head of props, thumped his chest in promise.

"And our stunt crew will handle her safety!"

Shi Feng joined in too.

"Guys, stop talking nonsense! There's nothing between Liu Yifei and me. Someone just asked me to help..."

Shen Qi felt he could put on a performance worthy of Dou E without even using the Magic Book.

"Wait, you don't like someone like Liu Yifei?"

An Jingchuan didn't believe him at all.

She was the second most beautiful woman on set!

The most beautiful was her mother.

"No!"

Shen Qi rejected the idea flatly. He had to clear this up.

"You don't like someone like her..." An Jingchuan looked pained. "Don't tell me you're into someone like Meng Guangmei?"

"Li Meng from makeup isn't bad either."

"Yeah, Li Meng has an even better figure than Meng Guangmei. Shen Qi, pick her!"

"Li Meng's a lesbian!"

"Come on, with a face like our brother's, what lesbian couldn't he turn straight?"

The whole table laughed and joked.

Most of them were rough around the edges.

Even those who hadn't started out crude had picked up filthy minds after working on a few sets.

Shen Qi tried to explain a few times.

In the end, it did no damn good.

They believed what they wanted to believe, regardless of the truth.

"If there's really nothing going on, stop teasing him."

Li Ju let them carry on for a while and watched Shen Qi's expression. Once he was sure of his judgment, he spoke up.

As executive producer, he had standing on set, and the others gradually quieted down.

"We were just joking," An Jingchuan quickly explained.

"Joking among ourselves is fine," Li Ju continued. "But have you thought about what would happen to Shen Qi if word got out?"

Shen Qi nearly burst into tears.

Producer Li is a good man. He had hit the nail on the head and identified the worst consequence.

If people thought he had a thing for Liu Yifei, everyone on set would probably look at him differently.

They would think he was a toad dreaming of eating swan meat.

After all, Shen Qi didn't even have a finished work to his name.

And in The Return of the Condor Heroes, he was playing Zhen Zhibing.

Liu Yifei, meanwhile, had debuted as the second female lead in The Story of a Noble Family.

The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils she had appeared in was the only mainland Jin Yong adaptation that could stand alongside the Hong Kong versions.

Her Wang Yuyan hadn't dragged the show down. It had earned her the nickname "Fairy Sister."

Honestly, Shen Qi would rather they said he liked Granny Rong.