Surrounding them, under the deafening sound of the KTV, the desire to gossip had been ignited among many that were there. As loud as the music was, Xu That very moment, time seemed to have frozen.
Xu WanZhi casually stood up from the couch, but owing to their height difference, she could still feel suppressed by the pressure coming from Mu ZhenYu.
Several parties all remained silent, and Shen Yi was the first to break it. Slightly intoxicated from the alcohol, he took a sidestep and blocked in front of Xu WanZhi as if to antagonize him on purpose, he said, "Hi, Mr. Mu, it's been a while."
WanZhi could hear bits and pieces from those chattering around her.
"Mr. Mu? He's one of the Mu's?"
"Judging from his age, he is most like Young Master Mu ZhenYu, the oldest of his generation."
"Man, the Mu's sure got some nice genes. Second Young Master Mu had just turned 20 and was already incredibly handsome. This First Young Master Mu definitely makes it difficult for one to keep her legs close."
"I have heard rumors that Xu WanZhi was backed by the Mu's. I didn't think it was true."
"But I heard that Mu ZhenYu had gone bankrupt. Why is she still with him?"
"True love? Maybe the rumors earlier between her and Jiang YueXian were really just rumors."
"Oh, my gosh. This is going to be a battlefield."
"Now that the Mu's are going downhill and Mu ZhenYu has gone bankrupt but the Shen's are going up and up. Maybe WanZhi is going to be taken away by Shen Yi. This is going to be some good drama."
Being surrounded by the melon-eating crowd, all Xu WanZhi could do was to snicker.
She has always had a poor reputation and the title of "Queen of Bad Publicity". Had her relationship with Mu ZhenYu been exposed before he has gone bankrupt, there would doubtless be rumors of her being a kept woman, hugging the golden thigh, and having no talent but bought her way into the production crew, etc. etc.
Low and behold, with Mu ZhenYu's bankruptcy, her "being a kept woman" had turned into "true love". Of course, as an actress who had gained her popularity through rumors, her "true love" didn't need to be advocated. As such, nobody spread that rumor online. Not Liang ZhiQuan. Not Chang XiaoYa.
Otherwise, everybody would have heard about her and Mu ZhenYu by now.
Right now, she was uncertain whether Shen Yi was truly drunk or fake drunk. He acted like he was intoxicated. Wobbling, he tried to reach out his right hand to shake hands with Mu ZhenYu.
Xu WanZhi peeked at Mu ZhenYu over Shen Yi's shoulder.
Unlike his usual self, he had no expressions whatsoever, which all the more gave her the creeps. Oh no, Old Mu was going to go ballistic again. The trunk of his car was now reserved by, not her, but Shen Yi.
Unexpectedly, Mu ZhenYu merely looked down on Shen Yi's hand before he turned to look elsewhere while asking, "Whose idea was it to play a game like this?"
His words stunned half of the people there – everyone was expecting to see a fight between two of the male animals, but when Mu ZhenYu started to talk, that's what he wanted to ask?
That being said… What was the point of being petty with the drunk Shen Yi? That'd only make him seem like less of a gentleman. He might as well skip directly to find out whose idea it was.
The question certainly hit the root of the problem.
Shen Yi paused too and awkwardly retrieved his hand and rubbed himself on his nose.
The very next moment, everybody turned and looked at Chang XiaoYa at the same time.
Naturally, Chang XiaoYa had learned a lot about Mu ZhenYu from her good friend Liang ZhiQuan. As the instigator, her original intention was to pry about the past between Xu WanZhi and Shen Yi. Low and behold, she had learned nothing about the two of them, but her plan had backfired on herself. Now she was being targeted by Mu ZhenYu, the god of hell. She couldn't help but became nervous and her palms started to sweat.
Finally, she decided to give in. She stood up voluntarily and owned up to it. "I was the one who suggested it. Shen Yi-ge had only joined our crew recently and isn't yet familiar with the rest of us, so I thought we could work on strengthening our concentration and team work. I hadn't expected it to turn out this way."
"Strengthening concentration and team work, eh?" Mu ZhenYu snickered and said, "Speaking of strengthening team work, I know of a game… the trust fall. As far as I could tell, Miss Chang's father was very good at it."
There was subtext in Mu ZhenYu's words. Everybody in the crew was lost except for Xu WanZhi.
Xu WanZhi had read the original novel and knew the background of Chang XiaoYa, who was a very important female supporting character in the book. Chang XiaoYa's father was a famous team work organizer who finally ended up in jail from being involved in a pyramid scam.
He was very much involved in illegal activities.
Chang XiaoYa's character setting in the original novel was a very positive person who didn't come from the best family background but was finally able to establish herself through hard work.
But now, her past being casually pointed out by Mu ZhenYu like that, that had become her biggest disgrace – everything that she had been trying to keep under wraps from the production crew could be dragged out any minute by Mu ZhenYu right now. This was the first time she had experienced what was called being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Her very last shred of fake, professional smile finally disappeared on her.
The next second, with a look from Mu ZhenYu, the two men behind him picked up Chang XiaoYa, one from each side, and put her on top of the KTV coffee table.
"This coffee table isn't too tall, but should be good enough for a game of trust fall." Using his body, he blocked everyone else from Chang XiaoYa. Turning to Shen Yi, he said to him, "Boss Shen, Miss Chang really wants to work on teamwork with you. Why don't you be the one who catches her?"
Shen Yi, who had been in the state of intoxication the entire time, suddenly had a different look on him.
The atmosphere was very intense. During the impasse, the director stood up voluntarily to ease the situation with a bottle of wine. "Aiya, we are a family. There's no need for dangerous games like this. Come, come. Let's all have a drink and call it a day."
As the director talked, he walked forward as he poured wine into his own glass.
Unfortunately, the two men who had placed Chang XiaoYa onto the coffee table were very sturdily built. They were able to easily block the director's way. All the others wanted to watch this drama unfold, and nobody was willing to stand up in this situation.
Xu WanZhi saw Shen Yi clenched his fist and wobbled over. He pointed straight at the tip of Mu ZhenYu's nose and said, "Trust fall, right? If that's what Boss Mu wanted to play, I'll play with you."
Having said that, he had the two men stepped aside, clapped at Chang XiaoYa and said to her, "C'mon, XiaoYa. I'll catch you."
Chang XiaoYa was intimidated. "Shen Yi-ge, I… I am scared…" She covered her face with both of her hands and said, "I am too scared to jump."
Her body shook vigorously and her voice started to crack. "Shen Yi-ge, I don't want to do this… help me, director…"
Regardless of whether Shen Yi was drunk, he had a lot to drink tonight. If Shen Yi was able to catch her out of luck, great. If anything bad happened… even if it was all Mu XiYuan's fault, so what? She was in the entertainment circle. She couldn't afford any injuries to her body.
She dared not carry on thinking about this.
Shivering, she turned around and looked to the third female lead and second male lead for help. "We… can we not play this game? I… I can't…."
Everybody in the cast knew that she was the one who brought up the passing tissue with one's mouth's game. Her intention was obvious – to screw over Xu WanZhi. Now Xu WanZhi's help has come, she was intimidated?
Of course nobody would stand up for her.
Behind Chang XiaoYa, Shen Yi gritted his teeth and turned to look at Mu ZhenYu.
Mu ZhenYu, on the other hand, merely looked around casually and finally his gaze stopped at Xu WanZhi. He acted like there was nobody else there but her.
He had heard a lot of rumors about the first young master of the Mu's. Shen Yi didn't care about any of them when he had heard them. But, now that he was going toe to toe with him, he did find this man somewhat threatening.
Even though Chang XiaoYa was the one who suggested the game, he was, after all, the one who blew away the piece of tissue on purpose. Most everyone there had seen it.
He didn't think he had an option but to do this at least once, but the area was so small that he wasn't confident that he could catch her.
Shen Yi's palms were sweating.
After a while, Chang XiaoYa started crying.
When he heard the awful crying, Shen Yi was even more agitated and he shouted out, "Hurry up! Just jump!"
Chang XiaoYa knew she had no other options. She gritted her teeth, stomped her foot, and started falling backward, "Ahhhhhh…."