Off in a distance, Mo Rui Han observed the scene before him with stormy eyes. Turning to his assistant, his voice was angry.
"Tell me everything."
Lu Man, who had just finished gathering all the information about Liu Xing Yu, proceeded to explain.
"The lady over there is called Liu Xing Yu, from StarTime Entertainment."
Initially, Mo Rui Han could only focus on the name. Liu Xing Yu… Liu Xing Yu… so that was her name this time. His lips moved slightly, as he mouthed her name, as if he was trying to get used to saying it. He couldn't control the shadow of a smile that appeared on his face. But when Lu Man continued speaking, the very slight upward curve of his lips immediately flattened, and the muscles on his jaw tensed.
"Apparently, she had joined five years ago and refused to sleep with Ye Bai, a member of the board in StarTime Entertainment. After that, she was not given a manager and often had many roles blocked and stolen away by fellow StarTime artists. Clearly revenge from Ye Bai. She still has a year left on her contract."
Hearing this, the air surrounding Mo Rui Han turned even more deadly as he processed Lu Man's words. Lu Man could sense the change in Mo Rui Han's demeanour and looked up in surprise. When Mo Rui Han remained silent, he continued speaking, looking at his iPad as he read off the details.
"It seems like many people in StarTime treat her badly since they see the higher ups doing so. Also, many directors and producers who have close ties with StarTime have rejected her audition applications for their productions. And…"
"And?" Asked Mo Rui Han harshly. They had done all this to his Xing Yu, and there was still more? Who did they think they were?
"And it seems like Xia Ting is particularly harsh towards Liu Xi—"
"Who?"
"Xia Ting. She is also part of this production and is your female lead!" Lu Man felt his head spin… My god, even if someone didn't care about others… Even if that someone was a person like Mo Rui Han… they should at least know who they're starring in a movie with right? But then again, Lu Man couldn't find it in him to be surprised anymore. When they were younger, it had taken Mo Rui Han 5 months before he knew Lu Man's name, and Lu Man had gone over almost daily to play!
Seeing that Mo Rui Han was waiting for him to continue, Lu Man relayed what had happened on set earlier to Mo Rui Han. Lu Man was always very thorough with his delivery, but he made extra sure to include all the details so that Rui Han would know every single thing that Xia Ting had done. No matter what, Lu Man hated people who ran around bullying and disrespecting innocent people. Just one look at Mo Rui Han's black face* told him that Rui Han was going to do something to her, so Lu Man made sure not to leave out anything.
Hearing this, Mo Rui Han felt a deep surge of anger. Disrespecting her, bullying her, slapping her, suppressing her, blackmailing her… They actually dared to do all this? Mo Rui Han was slightly shaking from restraining his furious rage, and inside him, there was a mix of anger and guilt. If he had found her earlier, she wouldn't have had to go through all this alone.
Although he still felt immensely sorry, Mo Rui Han pushed aside those thoughts and felt himself get colder and colder. He may have not been able to protect her before, but now that he had found her, he would help her take revenge bit. By. Bit…
Mo Rui Han had not gotten to where he was now just by working hard. The business world was extremely rigorous and had beat into him a scary coldness. One move and everything would come falling down, and people never made good moves when they were emotional. The entertainment world was even more brutal. It was a dog-eat-dog world, and Mo Rui Han had learnt that you could never be too relaxed or trusting.
It was this deeply-rooted brutality that was slowly seeping through his quiet exterior as he walked towards the commotion. His voice cut through Director Li's verbal abuse.
"Director Li, a word."
His voice was devoid of any emotion, and Director Li's words died in his throat. All the extras who had been snickering and gossiping also sensed the change in atmosphere the moment Mo Rui Han spoke, and immediately shut up. When they looked at Mo Rui Han, they shrunk back even more.
Although everyone could see that Mo Rui Han was extremely handsome, the look in his eye scared them more than anything. With his dark eyes and chiselled face, he looked almost like a fallen angel, overcome by evil.
Liu Xing Yu had also turned her attention to Mo Rui Han. It was the first time she had ever seen him in person, but she had always enjoyed his work and even felt inexplicably drawn to him every time she saw him on screen, but she had always felt like that was just a normal reaction to have towards Mo Rui Han.
Xing Yu had felt her heart stop initially at how Mo Rui Han looked as he tossed a command at Director Li, but as she gazed more and more at the gorgeous man, her heart starting moving again. In fact, it was pounding. Hard. So much so that she thought it was gonna break out of her ribcage and fly out of her mouth. She couldn't explain why she was not only unafraid of this clearly terrifying man, but even had such a strong reaction towards him.
Handsome was handsome but Liu Xing Yu had never felt her heart beat so fast before.
As if sensing her intense staring, Mo Rui Han shifted his gaze and immediately met eyes with her, making Xing Yu swallow loudly.
Inside, Xing Yu cursed herself. Ahhh, am I crazy? Am I that deprived of men? How could she have gotten caught staring, especially when Mo Rui Han was clearly in such an awful mood?! Although her body seemed to naturally react to him, Xing Yu immediately held his gaze. She didn't have anything against him, but she was unnerved by the way he made her feel. She had never been this kind of person, and so she tried her best to remain calm and not look like she had been caught staring.
Surprisingly, the frigid look on Mo Rui Han's face suddenly dissipated slightly as he stared at Xing Yu, and she could have sworn that she even saw a very subtle yet pained smile. The intensity in his eyes was still present, but Xing Yu was always good at reading people, and for some reason, she just knew that it wasn't the same kind of feeling he had been radiating just moments ago. At this sight, Xing Yu's previous resolution was forgotten and she continued staring at him, unable to escape his gaze.
If she thought that her heart was pounding before, now, making eye contact with him directly, the building might as well have been collapsing with how loud her heartbeats were. All that she could hear was that and her slow breathing. Everything around them seemed to fade into the background, turning blurry like a cinematic scene from a movie. Something pulled at her heart, causing it to ache so deeply that Xing Yu was shocked. Blinking away tears that had just begun forming, Xing Yu furrowed her brows. Why… why was this man making her feel like this?
And looking at Mo Rui Han, Xing Yu could tell that this wasn't one-sided. She would've thought herself delusional, but when she stared into his eyes and saw the flurry of emotions, she knew that he had felt something too. But she just couldn't understand what was happening.
The moment was broken when Director Li ran past her line of sight, blocking him momentarily as he made his way to Mo Rui Han. Liu Xing Yu broke out of her reverie and shook her head slightly. What was that?
She wanted to sneak another glance at him, but he had already begun walking away with Director Li, and Xing Yu could only stare at his back in confusion.