The photographs went online in the middle of the day, with no warning whatsoever. No one knew who first started circulating them on social media but when rising actress Jiang Xin's PR team caught wind and tried to find out who they should be suing, they realised to their horror that it was impossible to trace the origins back to any one account.
Today, Wen Rui was scheduled for a full day of outdoor filming with Jiang Xin at an amusement park. Through a complex combination of wheedling and ultimatums, Director Fu managed to convince her to take her job seriously for once. Wen Rui had heard her manager complaining for most of the morning about how Jiang Xin had to push back an amazing photoshoot opportunity just so they could complete the 'first date' scenes in one shot. The way he lamented, anyone would think that she'd been coerced into signing her acting contract, especially that exclusivity clause that they never heeded anyway.
Jiang Xin, too, was having a good go at the production team for what she deemed "inadequate preparation for filming", as though she was visiting royalty instead of working on the job. She complained that the sun was too bright, her scarf too warm, her outfit and makeup too plain to accentuate her looks. It didn't matter to her that her character was meant to be from a family with a very modest income. She folded her arms adamantly and kicked up a fuss at anyone unfortunate enough to deal with her, her stylists and even the other members of the supporting cast flocking around her in a bid to soothe her temper.
But Wen Rui didn't have the energy or patience to deal with her diva tantrums. He stood in a corner of the set, watching idly as the director's expression turned from displeased to thunderous. It was admirable that he hadn't lost his cool yet and Wen Rui found himself considering why. As a young master—well, ex-young master himself, he knew how some of the playboys in the high society circle would fund the futures of their little playthings through sponsorship or investments in their movies, concerts, etc. Just because he'd never been anyone's backer didn't mean he had no inkling of how it worked.
Both Li Xue and he had probably been wrong. Jiang Xin probably did have a powerful and/or rich 'husband' as well as no qualms about using him for favours. If Wen Rui had to guess, he would say that Director Fu's hands were tied by whoever was supporting her.
Oh well. Wen Rui had already resigned himself to tolerating her for the duration of filming. After this, he would go back to HEX4 and focus on his music career as per his contract. Although he'd learnt that he enjoyed acting much more than he'd expected to, he didn't want to explore new opportunities in this line until he was free of his current management.
As long as he could weather through a month or so more, he would never have to deal with her again except at the promotional events.
Even though he had complained to Zhou Ye about her the night before, Wen Rui had done it mostly out of a need to vent. He hadn't expected Zhou Ye to do anything about it. Ignoring the oddness of their relationship, who was Zhou Ye? Only the most successful young heir in their generation of the upper social circle. After dealing with so many cutthroat competitors in the business world, Jiang Xin's behaviour must amount to nothing more than ineffectual childish cattiness in Zhou Ye's eyes. His willingness to listen to Wen Rui whine about her was already a sign of how tolerant he'd become with Wen Rui.
Wen Rui was certain that his problems with Jiang Xin had gone in one of Zhou Ye's ears and exited the other. Hence, he was unprepared for what happened in the afternoon.
It wasn't peak season so the amusement park wasn't too crowded. The weather was nice and sunny too, taking away some of the bite of the chilly October breeze. Despite such favourable conditions, filming wasn't progressing well at all.
Although Wen Rui and Jiang Xin hadn't openly fallen out with each other, it soon became evident to the entire team that the tenuous chemistry that they'd managed to recreate through Wen Rui's hard work and Jiang Xin's slight experience at acting had been destroyed. This was particularly evident because the scenes they were meant to be working on today were for the first date between the shy wallflower and the confident school grass. The atmosphere was supposed to demonstrate the puppy love blossoming between them, the sort that wouldn't look amiss when a reality TV editing team added in pink background bubble hearts.
Instead, they had two very wooden leading actors staring at each other in barely concealed dislike. Wen Rui was at least putting in the effort to try and managed to achieve a neutral impassiveness. Jiang Xin, on the other hand, wasn't even bothering to hide her disdain for him.
Frankly, Wen Rui had no idea where all this animosity was coming from. He wasn't even an industry competitor of hers. They weren't the same gender, didn't accept the same roles, his main career wasn't even in film. Unless he'd offended her during the period of his lost memories, the only conclusion he could draw was that she wasn't quite right in the head.
"Cut! Wen Rui! Is that how you look at a girl you're interested in?! Jiang Xin! I—I don't even know what to say to you, just try to remember that Chen Wen is your love interest, not the mortal enemy who butchered your ancestors!" Director Fu's chest heaved with so much repressed anxiety that Wen Rui was so worried he was going to have a heart attack on the spot.
This wasn't working. He took a deep breath and tried to focus as best as he could. Jiang Xin could be the reason the entire production was going to have to book the venue for another day of filming but Wen Rui would not allow a lack of professionalism on his part to be the cause of any filming delays.
But before they could try a new take, the crowd gathering to watch them near the temporary barricades grew louder and more excited. Distracted, Wen Rui couldn't help but take a look at them. They'd been there since earlier on, a large proportion of them were even his female fans, who waved enthusiastically at him every time he glanced over.
Now, however, something strange seemed to be going on. The expressions of disbelief on their faces, for example, was unusual. In addition, Wen Rui noted a couple of new arrivals with cameras and mics, who were obviously reporters hoping for a juicy scoop. His gut feeling told him that they didn't come all the way to this amusement park on the outskirts of the city just to ask polite questions about a web novel adaptation's filming progress.
He just hoped it had nothing to do with him. Memories of the paparazzi lying in wait for him outside CE's headquarters still incited a gnawing tension in his stomach whenever he thought about it. He could feel it twisting in on itself now, in fact, but before his dread could heighten, it was dissipated by the frantic interruption of Jiang Xin's manager.
"Xin Xin!" he cried, cheeks a splotchy red as he rushed up to her without warning and dragged her off with him.
"Ow! What are you doing?!"
"You need to leave with me at once!"
Stumped by the manager's sudden, flustered appearance, no one reacted immediately, with Director Fu recovering first. He chased after the quickly retreating duo and blocked their exit. "This entire production team and the cast has tolerated Ms Jiang's behaviour for the sake of this drama's success," he seethed. "If you leave now without an explanation, we will terminate our contract with Ms Jiang effective immediately."
This was the last straw for Director Fu.
Jiang Xin's manager froze. "It's an emergency," was his stiff reply. "But…Director Fu. I will call you as soon as possible to discuss Xin Xin's contract."
Oh? What had happened? Wen Rui shot a curious look over to Li Xue, who was watching from the sidelines. Her character was supposed to appear at the amusement park too, in one of those cliched coincidences that rarely occurred outside of dog-blood romances. But because of how many times they'd had to repeat this last take, she'd been standing around for ages, alternating between watching them act and checking social media.
Now, she caught his eye and gave him a subtle wave with her phone.
Ah, something was up on Weibo, probably.
Sure enough, before Director Fu could demand Jiang Xin's manager to elaborate, his assistant came scrambling over too, with a horrified, "Director! You need to see this!"
No one seemed to have the heart to film anymore. Wen Rui inched over to Li Xue, who held her phone out for him to see. Her expression was a spectacular mix of shock and incredulity and it didn't take long for Wen Rui's to mirror it.
The photographs featured Jiang Xin and a young man that he recognised as one of the Qi Family's sons. But instead of the proud peacock that Wen Rui remembered, the one that loved flaunting his new money wealth for all to see, was a submissive boy toy that allowed himself to be bound, gagged, and flogged by Jiang Xin in her leather dominatrix suit. Even more astonishing were some of the suspicious substances smeared on his body and the wide range of toys she'd used on some of his orifices.
No matter how quickly censorship and the different PR teams tried to work on deleting the images, new ones kept popping up.
Wen Rui looked away from the offensive sight. He didn't care how people decided to play in the bedroom but these two individuals, in particular, made his eyes hurt. He was just about to make a remark to Li Xue when he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. It'd done this once or twice earlier as well but now that Director Fu had stormed off to confront Jiang Xin and her manager he supposed he was on break and could check without guilt.
It was Zhou Ye. Of course, it was. The first couple of messages were from earlier in the morning—
Good Xiongdi: Do you know Qi Bing? He's Jiang Xin's backer and one of the investors of your drama
Good Xiongdi: I'm in negotiations with your production team's finance department atm but filming might come to a halt for a while if there's a change in sponsor and lead actress
Good Xiongdi: You'll also have to extend filming by several weeks but I checked your schedule with CE and there shouldn't be any clashes
Good Xiongdi: …is this all right?
Wen Rui hadn't replied to any of them and Zhou Ye had stopped texting until now.
Good Xiongdi: Sorry, I went ahead. Will explain why later.
Good Xiongdi: Don't look at the photographs? They're bad for your eyesight.
Good Xiongdi: Good boy.