Chapter Ninety-Nine
Amid the urgent blare of whistles, the scene was swiftly brought under police control.
Shen Qianzhan felt dizzy and disoriented, her vision filled with flickering, overlapping figures that she couldn’t quite make out clearly.
She closed her eyes for a moment, steadying herself against the physiological reactions of splitting headaches, nausea, and the urge to vomit brought on by the stress. When she opened them again, she looked at Ji Qinghe and asked, “Why did you come back?” And why had he arrived so timely, at that.
“I was worried about you.”
On the way to the airport, Ji Qinghe had casually asked about the arrangements for Old Chen’s family. When Su Zan replied that everything was going smoothly, he immediately sensed something was off.
Shen Qianzhan had been restless all day, precisely because she feared the family might seize the opportunity to cause trouble. Based on her description of Old Chen’s family, Chen’s uncle was a crude, violent man who relied on brute force to solve problems.
If he had intended to negotiate with the crew and demand compensation, he would never have adopted such a cooperative attitude. Of course, it was also possible that he was trying to lower Su Zan and Shen Qianzhan’s guard so he could confront them directly. But at that moment, Ji Qinghe felt an overwhelming sense of unease. He couldn’t bear the thought of Shen Qianzhan facing this alone, so he had a car turn back halfway, instructing Su Zan to continue to the airport to pick up the others.
“It’s a good thing I came,” he said, his tone flat, like a drop of water falling into the deep ocean. Yet Shen Qianzhan shivered at his words, as if she had glimpsed the brewing storm hidden in the depths of the sea.
“Aside from the back of your neck, where else are you hurt?” He glanced down at the large red patch on the back of her neck, his palm gently tracing the crimson mark downward. “Here? Or here?”
His touch was light, but the burning wound had already gone numb, losing all sensation. She guided his pinky finger to rest on her shoulder blade. “Just here.”
Chen Yan’s blow had been partially blocked midway, losing much of its force by the time it landed. Though Shen Qianzhan felt pain, it was still within her tolerance.
Ji Qinghe carefully cradled the back of her neck, gently pressing and feeling around. Only after confirming the approximate location and extent of the injury did he let out a slight sigh of relief.
When he arrived, he had only seen Chen Yan swinging the club downward and assumed Shen Qianzhan had been struck on the back of the head. In that moment, as he blocked Chen Yan’s blow, he deliberately used a clever technique to strike his wrist bone hard, dislocating the joint.
If the scene hadn’t been quickly secured, making further covert actions inconvenient, Chen Yan’s injuries would have been far more severe than a dislocated wrist.
With a cold glance, he looked toward Chen Yan, who, after being disarmed by the police, was now pinned to the floor, clutching his wrist in agony, his face pale and twisted in pain. Ji Qinghe’s gaze was icy, sending a chill down the spine.
—
Once the scene was under control, the police set up barricades, dispersed the onlookers, and stationed two officers outside the cordon to prevent anyone from entering or leaving, ensuring the scene remained undisturbed.
Chen Yan’s actions—wielding a club and inciting a disturbance—were undeniable facts.
After gathering basic information about Chen Yan and his group, the police proceeded to question Shen Qianzhan about the incident as part of their routine investigation.
Shen Qianzhan had recently filed a report, so the responding officers still remembered her. Seeing that she was also injured, they first inquired about her condition. “Are you badly hurt?”
“It’s nothing serious.”
The ambulance arrived slightly later than the police car. Nurses were already lifting the injured crew members who had been bleeding during the scuffle onto stretchers and transporting them out.
Watching the chaotic yet orderly “crime scene,” Shen Qianzhan pressed her fingers to her temples and smiled bitterly.She first forced herself to cooperate with the police, briefly recounting the incident, and proactively suggested, "This room was rented separately by the crew to store the antique clocks. To ensure their safety, we specifically installed surveillance. I can provide the surveillance footage to the police as evidence for reference."
After Old Chen's unexpected death, the room originally used to store the antique clocks had been cleaned and sealed off by the hotel, temporarily closed to the public. This room was later re-rented by Shen Qianzhan from the hotel manager. Fortunately, she hadn’t taken shortcuts and had reinstalled all the surveillance equipment. Otherwise, today’s incident would have been difficult to explain, and what was worse, it could have been exploited and twisted without any way to defend herself.
After the statement was recorded, the police took the surveillance footage, temporarily detained Chen Yan and others, and instructed Shen Qianzhan to go to the hospital for a checkup before submitting injury assessment reports for all the wounded to the public security authorities.
All other relevant individuals, including several crew members who had been involved in the altercation, were also taken away for further investigation.
At this point, the turmoil could no longer be contained.
Even though she had been staying in this room the entire time, she could imagine the chaotic scene outside the hotel—reporters swarming like vultures, ready to sensationalize the story.
Keeping Jiang Mengxin under Qiao Xin’s watch was no longer useful. Even without her, countless other journalists would flock at the slightest hint of news.
Within half an hour, news of the accidental death of a crew member from Time and the ensuing disturbance caused by the family would spread across major social media platforms, discussed by millions of netizens.
Her earlier strict precautions had been aimed at minimizing the fallout and keeping the incident under control. But despite all her efforts, she hadn’t anticipated the other side resorting to the simplest and most brutal tactic, completely unraveling all her arrangements.
Now, the crew was in a difficult position. If the crisis management wasn’t handled properly, Time could suffer severe damage, potentially never recovering.
Her head throbbed with pain. She bit her lip hard, quickly thinking of a response plan.
She first instructed the production manager to transport the two antique clocks to Beijing as soon as possible. As she was considering a safe location, Ji Qinghe took her phone and provided the address of Time Hall: "The contact person is Meng Wangzhou. Let me give you his phone number."
After reciting the number and confirming it was noted, Ji Qinghe hung up and handed the phone back to her. "I’ll take you to the hospital first. We can discuss everything else in the car."
Shen Qianzhan still needed to go to the police station later to continue cooperating with the investigation, so time was extremely limited. "I also need to contact Thousand Lights’ PR team."
Ji Qinghe pressed his lips together, his voice tense. "You can make calls in the car too."
Seeing her still resisting, he wrapped one arm around her waist and lifted her legs with the other, picking her up without giving her a chance to argue. "Let Qiao Xin handle things here. I’ve already notified Su Zan, and he’ll be here soon."
Ignoring everyone around them, he carried her straight through the crowd gathered in the hallway toward the back parking lot. "As for Thousand Lights’ PR department, I have to say—it’s a complete mess."
His comment seemed tinged with emotion, his words harsh and biting.
Shen Qianzhan remained silent.
She looked at Ji Qinghe for a moment before whispering, "Someone is targeting me. They’re plotting against Time."
From the moment Jiang Mengxin appeared, from the moment Su Zan sent over Jiang Mengxin’s impressive resume, and from the moment Chen Yan launched a well-organized, premeditated attack that caught her off guard—she had guessed that she was being set up.
She didn’t know who was behind it, but it likely came from one of the usual suspects.It was precisely because she guessed this was a conspiracy that she felt chilled to the bone and that time was so insufficient.
She spared no effort in speculating with the greatest malice about the schemes behind them.
Chen Yan was merely a manipulated pawn, his role being to bring to light the accidental death of the crew member that Shen Qianzhan had kept tightly under wraps. And her follow-up actions, carried out through normal procedures, would, under the manipulation of the mastermind behind the scenes, turn into a solid case.
What would follow would be the public, unaware of the truth, criticizing and boycotting the production crew.
Such a blow would drag the reputation of the crew and the actors to rock bottom, with endless negative repercussions to follow. In more severe cases, it could even lead to the production being aborted midway.
Ji Qinghe carried her into the passenger seat and fastened her seatbelt.
His gaze lowered, searching for her hand, and he clasped it in his palm.
Shen Qianzhan’s hand was as cold as if it had just been chilled in an ice cellar. He squeezed it firmly and said in a deep voice, "What I said before still stands."
Ji Qinghe was returning to Beijing. When he set out, he was dressed formally in a suit and leather shoes.
Now, as he leaned slightly forward to look at her, Shen Qianzhan noticed that the meticulously tied tie he had worn earlier had been loosened at some point, hanging lazily over his shirt.
His Adam’s apple bobbed slightly as he lowered his voice and said slowly, "You agreed to my pursuit."
"As long as you’re willing, all the resources of Endless Year are at your disposal."
—
On the way, Su Zan learned what had happened and was so angry he nearly smashed his phone.
Fuming with rage, he hurried back to the hotel.
Before he even reached the entrance, he could see from a distance the media reporters swarming the hotel, packed in layers like an iron barrel, leaving no gaps.
His expression darkened further as he instructed the driver to take a detour and enter the open-air parking lot through the hotel’s back door.
Even at the rarely used back entrance, there were quite a few opportunistic reporters lying in wait. Su Zan didn’t show himself, instead having the driver take the "《Time》Crew" pass from the dashboard and drive straight in.
Qiao Xin couldn’t get away, so she specifically asked the crew director to wait for Su Zan at the entrance, fearing he might act impulsively and do something irrational.
If it were the old Su Zan, he might indeed have let his pent-up anger burn down the entire forest without a care. But the current Su Zan, even if he had been thinking about tearing his rivals apart, frying them, or stewing them on the way, wouldn’t let himself stay hot-headed and commit an irreparable, foolish mistake.
The words Shen Qianzhan had said to him a few days earlier had struck him deeply. What made Su Zan feel even more ashamed was her remark, "Even your parents haven’t had to apologize and make amends for you everywhere like this."
Her exhaustion and departure finally made Su Zan begin to reflect on how unreliable he had been in the past.
Only when one looks back does one realize how many shameful things one has done in life. For Su Zan, this realization was almost a devastating blow.
It was as if he had awakened from a deep slumber overnight—not exactly a rebirth, but more like a return of his senses, making him much more reliable.
Upon returning to the hotel, Su Zan immediately oversaw the crew’s transfer of the antique clock to Beijing.
The filming in Wuxi had already wrapped up completely yesterday, a pace deliberately slowed due to Old Chen’s unexpected death.He instructed the crew to load the recording equipment and props onto the trucks as planned according to the original schedule. After leaving the production manager to oversee the scene, he immediately called a meeting with all department heads, ordering all staff members not to move around freely and strictly prohibiting them from giving private interviews to reporters.
After handling these matters, he sat alone in the room for a moment before proactively calling Su Lanyi.
——
More than an hour had passed since the incident.
Although there were numerous voices online exposing the incident one after another, due to capital suppression, the scope of the explosion was still under control.
Su Lanyi, far away in Beijing, was currently overwhelmed with anxiety.
When she received Su Zan's call, she had just finished venting her anger. Her voice was hoarse, carrying a heavy sense of exhaustion: "What is it?"
Su Zan remained silent for a few seconds before saying, "I want to confirm something with you."
Su Lanyi didn't respond, waiting for him to continue.
Su Zan asked, "After the brawl in the 'Spring River' crew was reported by New Entertainment Express, how was it resolved to make the reporter apologize?"
Su Lanyi let out a cold, mocking laugh, "Has Shen Qianzhan run out of ideas or is she incapable of solving it, sending you to ask me for a solution?"
Su Zan tugged at the corner of his lips, his tone flat: "Did the legal department send a letter demanding an apology and removal of the post within seven days, or else face a lawsuit? Is that how it was?"
"No." Su Lanyi irritably tucked her long hair behind her ear, her tone unfriendly: "Thousand Lights paid a public relations fee and let Xiao Sheng handle it himself."
"Besides, the report was based on facts. Would sending a threatening letter just give them another chance to mock us with more exposure?" Su Lanyi laughed bitterly, shifting her anger: "If it weren't for Endless Year's PR department suppressing the trending topics, this incident with the crew would have already exploded all over the internet. Tell Shen Qianzhan not to play dead—use whatever means she has. If she wants to ruin Thousand Lights before she leaves, I won't let her off."
With that, Su Lanyi hung up the phone abruptly. The furious sound of the call ending was like the final gust of wind before glass shatters.
Su Zan's fingers holding the phone gradually stiffened. For a long while, he stared blankly at the call log.
The most recent record was Su Lanyi, his own sister.
The previous one was Shen Qianzhan, his closest friend who had accompanied him through all these years.
Shen Qianzhan's calm voice, mixed with the background noise of hospital announcements, seemed to still linger in his ears.
She had said, "Su Zan, you can go ask Director Su whether the apology from reporter Jiang Mengxin last time was Thousand Lights' doing or Xiao Sheng's own. If it was the former, then your sister is targeting me. If it was the latter, congratulations—you don't have to make a choice, and you don't have to give up on me."
Shen Qianzhan suspected that someone was stabbing her in the back.
Jiang Mengxin's arrival was suspicious, as if she knew all the inside information and was just waiting for Chen Yan to bring people to cause trouble so she could get first-hand photos of the scene. Unfortunately, she underestimated Shen Qianzhan's caution and Qiao Xin's tenacity, ending up trapped in the eighth-floor reception room until Qiao Xin had to go to the scene to handle the aftermath before she could leave.
Coincidentally, the first batch of press releases suppressed by Endless Year's PR department came from New Entertainment Express.
The target was too obvious for Shen Qianzhan to ignore.
Digging deeper, there was Jiang Mengxin's recent dispute with the "Spring River" crew. Shen Qianzhan suspected that Xiao Sheng had reached some kind of agreement with her, which was why Jiang Mengxin was willing to let him off the hook at the time, issuing a meaningless apology statement.Su Lanyi's response inadvertently confirmed this point.
—
Shen Qianzhan received Su Zan's text message just after applying the medicine.
The wound on her back had already rapidly swollen into a red patch. Applying the ointment not only failed to relieve the pain but instead set her entire back ablaze with a burning sensation, both scalding and numb.
Sniffing the not-so-pleasant medicinal scent on herself, she wrinkled her nose and checked Su Zan's WeChat message.
The content was just a single name—Xiao Sheng.
Truly no surprise at all.
She turned off the screen and raised her gaze to look at Ji Qinghe, who was listening to the doctor's instructions.
Noticing her glance, he turned slightly to look at her and asked distractedly, "Does it hurt?"
The doctor glanced at the two of them with a knowing, ambiguous smile. "You've asked that over a dozen times already. I've heard it at least five or six times myself."
"Don't worry too much about the superficial injury. When you get home, check if there's any tearing sensation in the neck area." He entered the medication names into the system without looking up. "It'll hurt more when you wake up after sleeping. Remember to apply the medicated oil for her every night and massage it in until the bruising dissipates."
"Oh, right." The doctor turned his gaze to Shen Qianzhan and advised, "Get plenty of rest recently."
Then, he looked at Ji Qinghe and added the second half of the sentence: "Avoid strenuous activities."
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