43 Those Eyes

 

The victims’ families looked at Han Fei who stood in the pool of fake blood. They had all calmed down. 10 years of waiting could be long or short.

 

Long was the time, the families themselves were growing old, their stamina was not as good as before. They worried that once they departed from this world, no one would search for the truth on their dead families’ behalf anymore. Short was also the time. 10 years were not enough for them to get over their loss. Whenever they thought about the tragedy, they would wake up in cold sweat.

“Okay, we believe you.” Wei Youfu’s father was the first to break the silence. “No matter you’re saying this just to comfort us or you mean it for real, at least I know that you are actually doing something about it.” The old man remembered meeting Han Fei. The latter came with Li Xue to follow up on the investigation. The old man patted Han Fei on his shoulder and said, “Be careful.” The other family members put away the placards and followed Wei Youfu’s father away from the building.

After they all left, Jiang Yi rushed to Han Fei’s side, “Han Fei, are you alright? Does your back hurt? Where’s the prop team? Go get a new change of clothes for Han Fei!”

“I’m fine.” Han Fei did not mind the fake blood, he had experienced much worse.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t expect things to escalate to this level.”

“Director Jiang, this small injury doesn’t matter to me, but there is something I have to tell you.” Han Fei glanced at Ah Cheng who was just getting up from the ground, “You can’t push out the movie in its current state. If you insist on it, I will not only quit, I will join the families’ protest.” Once Han Fei said that, the crew looked at him in shock. They assumed Han Fei said those things just to appease the family members, they had no idea he was being serious.

“You’re kidding?! I thought you were just saying that to console them.” Jiang Yi grabbed the new set of clothes from the prop manager. He passed it to Han Fei but the latter did not accept it.

“You’ll always be my teacher because you taught me at Xin Lu Acting Academy, but sir, is this really the kind of movie that you want to make?”

“Han Fei, you’re still too young to understand this. Sometimes, we have to learn to compromise.” Jiang Yi noticed the change in Han Fei’s tone so he asked, “You’re not being serious about quitting, are you?”

“I used to care very much about acting but now I realize there are many things much more important than that.” Han Fei removed the stained jacket. “I’d advise sir to continue the shoot after the case is solved. If you insist on pushing it out now, it’ll end up as a soulless commercial flick. Is that really what you want, sir?”

“Hey, who the hell are you to give these grand lectures?” Ah Cheng cut in. The more he thought about what he had suffered, the more agitated he became. “Do you think you’re some kind of superstar? You’re just an extra, please recognize your place!”

“Superstar or extra, I pride myself as being an actor.” Han Fei looked at Ah Cheng calmly.

“An actor? What movies have you been in? Mind giving me a few names so I can look them up and learn from them?” Ah Cheng did not dare to look into Han Fei’s eyes so he turned his eyes away with a condescending scoff.

“We’re all in this together, there’s no need to argue among ourselves.” Jiang Yi acted as the peacemaker.

“Please do not lower me to his level. An extra like him thinks he is above the rest of us? Didn’t he threaten to quit? Fine, let him quit! Does he really think the world revolves around him?” Ah Cheng was one to bear grudges. Han Fei just called his acting trash. He definitely had not forgotten that.

“Shush! If not for Han Fei, your pail of blood would have landed on that woman! If she went to the media, it’s over for us. Your company will have to lose a lot of money for damage control.” Jiang Yi was very familiar with this circle but it was also because of this familiarity that he refused to let Han Fei go. He knew very well that Han Fei was the best actor in the whole crew. After lecturing Ah Cheng, Jiang Yi approached Han Fei. “The case has been unsolved for 10 years already, who knows when it’ll get solved, if ever. I can wait but can the sponsors? There are more than 100 mouths in this crew to feed. Han Fei, I know you don’t like it but we have to face reality.”

“This man is mad, he is so into his character that he really thinks he is the old crook’s son!” Ah Cheng groused with impatience. “He threatens to join the protest if we do not change the script? Have you lost your mind? Or you’re related to the case itself?”

“You’ll soon find out whether I’m related to this case or not.” Han Fei shot a gaze at Ah Cheng who hid in the crowd. Ah Cheng shivered involuntarily.

“So you’re really related to this case?” Ah Cheng broke out in cold sweat. He felt like his life was in danger under Han Fei’s scrutiny. He stammered, “Are, are you the murderer? You’ve killed 7 people?”

“Han Fei, I hope that you’ll join us for the rest of the shoot. I promise you we will abide by the families’ request to edit part of the script.” Jiang Yi ignored Ah Cheng. To be honest, his patience for Ah Cheng was stretching thin as well. If not for the pressure from the sponsors, he’d swap for a different actor to play his role.

“The general direction of the movie is wrong, no matter how many edits we make, as long as the direction is not changed, it’ll still end up a horrible film.” Han Fei changed into a clean jacket. “Director Jiang, you gave me the chance when no one was willing to so I sincerely hope this film can reach its greatest height. I do not wish for it to end up as another forgettable flick. Trust me, the case will have a big breakthrough soon. By then, you’ll be able to give this movie a perfect ending, one that will be satisfactory to both the victims and their families.”

“You’re just an extra, who gave you the power to order us around like this? You hold just a niggling role in this film. If you do not learn some humility, you’ll never survive in this business.” Ah Cheng’s manager stepped forward to reprimand Han Fei. Then she turned to comfort Ah Cheng.

“Stop arguing!” Jiang Yi raised his voice. He really did not need more bickering at that moment.

“Jiang Yi, I know he is once your student but how can you treat us so differently?” Ah Cheng said pointedly. “Don’t you forget, I’m this movie’s main character. This movie can lose any other actor but it can’t work without its main character.” Then Ah Cheng waved at his manager, “Let us go.” Ah Cheng left the set. He told others that he was taking an early leave but to be honest, he was a bit scared of Han Fei and he did not want to stay there anymore.

After they left, the manager caught up to Ah Cheng and she asked worriedly, “Ah Cheng, are you sure it’s okay for us to take off like this?”

“Don’t worry, I’m just scaring them. When they realize they can’t proceed without me, they’ll come groveling for me to return. Then I’ll demand more benefits before I even deign to step back into that set again.” A vicious expression decorated Ah Cheng’s face. “But that damn extra. I’ll have to figure out a way to squeeze him out from the crew. He really thinks he’s untouchable?! I’ll show him.”

Hearing the confidence in Ah Cheng’s voice, his manager fidgeted worriedly, “Ah Cheng, what if they don’t come back for us?”