Xiao He lost the desire to continue speaking, so the hospital room fell into a brief silence.

Xie Jingshi looked left, then right, and could only brace himself to continue chatting about this and that with Lu Yuxi. Soon, the group prepared to bid farewell and leave.

Just as they reached the elevator entrance, Lu Yuxi’s agent Lu Yu—no, to be precise, his former agent—emerged from somewhere and called out to Xiao He.

“Teacher Xiao, please wait!”

Her voice was quite loud, and people coming and going in the corridor all heard it, turning their heads involuntarily towards Xiao He. Several sharp-eyed young nurses suddenly lit up, clearly recognizing Xiao He and Xie Jingshi’s identities.

A burst of short, surprised exclamations instantly echoed through the corridor.

Fortunately, however, this was a hospital. Patients and their families didn’t have extra energy to focus on celebrities, and the nurses and doctors had their own duties. So, after briefly causing a stir, no one actively stepped forward to disturb Xiao He and his group.

Still, this situation made Xiao He and his companions frown.

Liu Rulan stepped forward first, shielding Xiao He, while speaking in a sarcastic, insinuating tone, “Well, if it isn’t Agent Lu. Why didn’t I see you in the room earlier? Oh, I almost forgot, you’re not Lu Yuxi’s agent anymore.”

Lu Yu seemed oblivious to Liu Rulan’s mockery, her gaze still fixed on Xiao He as she asked tentatively, “Teacher Xiao, can we talk alone?”

Xiao He: ?

Xiao He didn’t know what she wanted, but his intuition told him it wasn’t anything valuable. Listening would just be a waste of time, so he decisively shook his head, “For business matters, you can talk directly with my agent.”

Right then, the elevator Xie Jingshi had called arrived. Xiao He followed Xie Jingshi into the elevator, but Liu Rulan proactively stayed behind, “Xiao He is right. Anything you have to say, you can say to me. Agent Lu, shall we find a quiet place to chat?”

“Hey—”

Lu Yu wanted to follow into the elevator, but Liu Rulan wasn’t about to give her that chance. With a single stride, she blocked Lu Yu’s path.

So, Lu Yu could only watch helplessly as the elevator doors slowly closed.

She could only look at Liu Rulan with resentment, “Manager Liu, things are really different now, huh.”

Liu Rulan gave a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, “Oh? Are we that familiar?”

Lu Yu stared at Liu Rulan for a long moment before finally turning aside unwillingly, “Let’s go, find a quiet place to talk.”

“Sure.”

Liu Rulan followed Lu Yu’s steps, though they clearly weren’t heading back to Lu Yuxi’s room.

A few minutes later, in another quiet hospital room.

Liu Rulan crossed her arms, asking impatiently, “Alright, out with it. What exactly do you want?”

Lu Yu looked at the domineering Liu Rulan before her, biting her lip and hesitating for a while before lowering her voice to say, “About the previous incident online… I hope to gain your forgiveness.”

“Hah—”

Liu Rulan decisively rejected, “That’s not something I can decide. It depends on Xiao He’s opinion.”

“But you clearly stopped me just now—” Lu Yu instantly grew angry.

“Oh, so there’s nothing to discuss then.”

Liu Rulan rubbed her fingers, leisurely examining the manicure on her hand, her tone indifferent, “Anything else?”

Lu Yu’s face flushed red, then turned dark. Finally, gritting her teeth, she said, “Are you determined to take this to the absolute extreme?”

Were they really going to drag her to court?

“Look at you, saying such things. We’re just believing in the law, believing in justice.”

Liu Rulan shot Lu Yu a sidelong glance, then, with a lack of interest, reached out her hand. She carefully traced the other’s cheek, helping adjust the earring by her ear, before lowering her voice to say, “You should be grateful everyone is civilized nowadays. Otherwise, I’d have slapped you long ago.”

Playing dirty tricks, and really thinking she’s something special.

…

In the underground garage, Xiao He ran into that group with the photography team again.

This was probably another member of some boy band, most likely connected to Lu Yuxi in some way. Xiao He didn’t plan on getting deeply acquainted with these people, so he just gave a slight nod in acknowledgment.

Declining Xie Jingshi’s lunch invitation, the two parties returned to their respective vehicles. Xiao He began waiting for Liu Rulan to return.

Fortunately, it wasn’t long before Liu Rulan came down.

“Let’s go.”

Lao Qi started the car, and the vehicle slowly left the hospital.

In the car, Xiao He observed Liu Rulan’s expression, finding no obvious emotion on her face. It seemed the earlier conversation hadn’t stirred any emotional fluctuations in her.

But then again, there weren’t many things that could cause Sister Liu emotional ripples.

So, Xiao He asked casually, “What happened?”

“Nothing, just a final, desperate struggle.”

Liu Rulan shrugged, “This incident is enough to ruin her reputation. She probably won’t be able to stay in the industry anymore.”

Lu Yuxi was also constantly disputing many things from the period of their agent-client relationship. By the time this was over, Lu Yu would likely be facing multiple court summons.

Not that anyone would sympathize with her, of course.

Xiao He: “No wonder I always thought the two of them were strange before.”

“Yeah, a bit.”

Clearly, Liu Rulan had noticed it too, though she wasn’t very familiar with either of them before. Everything she knew came from others in the industry; she hadn’t had much direct contact herself.

“Lu Yuxi was often late. Was it simply him throwing his weight around as a diva, or was he genuinely so busy he couldn’t spare the time, ultimately causing all his work to be rushed and making him unable to be punctual?”

Recalling the panda-like dark circles he saw every time he met Lu Yuxi, Xiao He sighed with mixed emotions and spread his hands, “Speaking of which, the first time I saw him, I was really startled by that old-school boy band-style black eyeliner. Thinking about it now, his natural dark circles were probably pretty heavy to begin with.”

It was just that the makeup was so thick, many people didn’t notice that beneath that heavy boy band makeup were a pair of utterly exhausted eyes.

What made Xiao He most suspicious was this: Lu Yuxi throwing his weight around as a diva suggested he had a big temper, was impulsive, arrogant, and looked down on others.

Would someone like that work themselves to the point of exhaustion, even ending up in the hospital, nearly dying?

And having just met him in person, his personality didn’t seem as terrible as imagined—of course, relatively speaking. Based on previous interactions, Lu Yuxi’s own personality wasn’t exactly great either.

That extra portion was probably the agent’s problem.

Now, these two were likely going to be entangled in a serious dispute.

Fortunately, though, it didn’t have much to do with them.

This visit was purely to put a period on the previous public opinion storm, and, not entirely honorably, to ride on this wave of heat, grab some traffic, and guide comments to promote “Corner Also.”

Xiao He had no interest in delving deeper into the grudges, affections, and hatreds between those two.

“Forget it, let’s focus on ourselves first.”

Liu Rulan said this while casually asking, “Ace Reasoning sent the script over yesterday. Have you looked at it?”

“I haven’t yet.”

“Then you can start preparing when we get back.”

“Okay.”

–

Back at the villa, Xiao He began reviewing the script.

Since it was a short film, the final edited footage would probably only be about ten minutes long, so the script wasn’t very lengthy. The overall story logic was weak, mainly showcasing only part of the killer’s criminal actions through the lens. The detailed plot fragments were all piecemeal, likely to avoid revealing the truth of the first case. They deliberately buried many hidden clues, both to attract the audience and to conceal the truth of the case.

And the plot kicked off right away with a major action involving human dissection.

Xiao He raised an eyebrow, “The killer is a medical examiner?”

No wonder the production team came to him—they wanted people to reminisce about the Mu Ze era!

Of course, this killer’s character setting was quite different from Mu Ze’s. This killer’s basic setting was a medical examiner, with a personality leaning towards a rational, high-IQ criminal. His motive for killing wasn’t like Mu Ze’s, who simply pursued the art and beauty of slaughter. This medical examiner killed to investigate the truth behind his sister’s death and avenge her.

Overall, this was a tragic character seeking revenge for his family.

In the official variety show program, the detective guests would need to first uncover the truth of the original case before they could identify the killer hiding among the guests.

That part wasn’t Xiao He’s concern. He only needed to focus on portraying this medical examiner criminal well.

After finishing the plot, Xiao He set down the script and murmured softly, “Back to the old trade…”

He liked it!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep