It was indeed strange to celebrate a show that had been suspended, but Nan Chen was a genius. It was only natural that his thinking was different from most people’s.
Just when the people were coming up with negative speculations about the show, Nan Chen actually had the gall to hold a grand celebration party.
His idea was to send a message to the world and tell everyone that there was nothing wrong with the show or the actors and actresses. The suspension was temporary, and everything would return to normal soon.
As the lead actress, Ning Ran was required to attend the party.
As she was now waist-deep in bad publicity, it was rather stressful for her to attend an event like that.
However, Wang Xiaoou reminded her, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going. To become a superstar, pressure is unavoidable.”
Ning Ran was unconvinced, though. After all, she had never been a superstar before, so there was no way she could know if it was really unavoidable. If this is really the case, the road to stardom is really damn hard in my opinion.
Ning Ran was wearing a black evening dress and stilettos, and they were making her uncomfortable. Even so, she couldn’t do anything about it as she was requested by the company to look her best so that people would take her seriously. After all, there were many reporters at the event.
As always, Nan Chen, the bigshot, was fashionably late.
At that point, a lady in a waitress uniform approached Ning Ran. “Excuse me, Ms. Ding. There’s a Mr. Ning Ziqiang who requested to see you, but our security stopped him. He’s making a scene, so we’re wondering if you could try talking to him?”
Ning Ran was shocked as she wondered what Ning Ziqiang was doing here. This event is too important. He can’t mess around here, or the consequences could be disastrous.
Without giving it much thought, Ning Ran followed the staff member. After walking a distance, Ning Ziqiang was still nowhere to be seen, so Ning Ran stopped in her tracks. “Where exactly is he?”
“He’s in a room just up ahead. We’ll be there after making this left turn,” replied the waitress.
“What does he look like?” Ning Ran suddenly inquired.
“He… He looks… “ When the waitress failed to answer, Ning Ran immediately turned around and tried to make a break for it.
Unfortunately, two men in face masks cut her off at the back.
“Who are you, and what do you want?” Ning Ran took her phone out and was ready to call for help, but the two rushed forward to snatch the device from her.
Naturally, a lady like Ning Ran was no match for two men. Her phone was taken away in the end and turned off.
“Who the hell are you guys?”
Before Ning Ran could do anything else, one of the men knocked her out before carrying her on his shoulder. They brought her to a room with a camera set up on a table beside the bed.
There was a direct line in the room to do a live broadcast onto the display at the party.
“The boss wants you two to drug her and play with her. Make it as obscene as possible, but you have to watch the time because it won’t take long for people to find you. Evacuate before that happens,” instructed the fake waitress.
One of the men swallowed hard after checking out Ning Ran’s pretty face and exquisite figure under the evening dress. We’ve just hit jackpot! Not only do we get to enjoy such beauty, but we’re also paid to do so.
“Get started now. Remember to evacuate as soon as possible. If you’re caught, don’t let them know who your boss is.”
“What boss? We don’t even know who he or she is,” complained one of the men.
The fake waitress thought he said made sense, so she left without another word.
“You go first, chief. I’ll watch.”
“Let’s drug her first.”
“But she’s out now. How am I supposed to do it?”
“Just pry her mouth open. Isn’t that obvious?”
“Okay, chief.”
The shorter man grabbed the vial on the bed before approaching Ning Ran to pull her chin.
Just when the man was about to feed Ning Ran the drug, the supposedly unconscious woman suddenly tilted her head and bit his hand.
“Ouch!”
The man in pain took a step back as Ning Ran shrank to a corner. “Stay back! Or I’ll bite my own tongue and kill myself.”
Ning Ran did not actually give the threat much thought, for she had only seen the suicide method on TV.
She had absolutely no idea how to bite the tongue or if she would actually die from it. Not sure if I’ll ever get the chance to try, but I had to bluff. Let’s see if they’ll see through my act.
The men looked at each other before the shorter one asked, “What do we do now, chief?”
The taller man, who knocked Ning Ran out earlier, remained stoic and silent.
“Stop this now!” demanded Ning Ran before inquiring, “Who paid you to do this, and what are you planning to do with me?”
“We’re going to play a three-player game and do a live broadcast. We’ll be wearing face masks, but you don’t have to. As long as you do as you’re told, we won’t kill you,” explained the captors.
“Who asked you to do this, and how much are they paying you? I’ll double it!”
Ning Ran was only trying to stall. I’m the star of the show today, so Nan Chen will definitely notice that I’m missing. Once that happens, he’ll come looking for me.
“We’ve already gotten our money, and we’re men of our word.”
“That’s only because you have no idea what’s going to happen to you next. You’ll be sorry for keeping your word when you realize you can’t spend your money. You have no idea who I am, do you? I’m Nan Chen’s woman. That’s right. The legendary Sir Chen! He threw this party today for me. If anything happens to me, you’re both done for! Nan Chen’s not going to send you to jail because that’s not his style. He’ll break your limbs and make sure you’ll eat through a straw for the rest of your life. You’ll be buying wheelchairs with your money and…”
“Shut up!” shouted the taller man, who was also the smarter one. Evidently, he realized that Ning Ran was stalling.
“I’m only telling you this for your own good. You’ll definitely regret this if you go through with it,” insisted Ning Ran.
“Stop talking to her. Just drug her!”
“But what if she really kills herself?”
“This is not a TV show, and I don’t think she’s ready to die just yet. So just do it!”
With that, the man rushed towards Ning Ran, who screamed and dodged away.
However, she could only evade the two men for so long in the small room.
“Don’t do it. You’ll regret this.”
“Shut up and take the drug!”
Bang!
Somebody kicked the door and made a loud noise.
“Someone’s here, chief! What do we do?”
“Whoever it is, we can take him. Then we’ll go back to our business.”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The door was finally kicked open, and a man in black rushed in.
Ning Ran was relieved to see Nan Chen, but her face fell when she noticed the man came alone empty-handed. How is he going to fight them like that?
