The press conference was completely out of control. In order to compete for news, dozens of media surrounded the film crew, actors and management team layer by layer, and the entire floor was paralyzed.
The hotel can only guide and has no right to restrict everyone's activities, so the situation cannot be mediated for a while. Lian Yiming arrived one step later and arranged Lu Wen and Qu Yanting in a room on the top floor.
"I usually rest here when I work overtime, and no one comes up." Lian Yiming said, "There are media cars nearby, you will definitely be photographed if you leave now, just wait."
Lu Wen nodded: "Thank you, Mingzi."
Lian Yiming punched him: "You fucking find me a job." Pressing his fist on that shoulder, "I don't understand, how do you do it properly?"
Lu Wen said with strong stubbornness, "It's easy for me to beat him!"
Lian Yiming looked at Qu Yanting's expression and didn't ask any more questions. He said, "Then you wait for a while, and I'll go over and deal with it. Teacher Qu, take care of him and don't run around."
Qu Yanting said "hmm" and said apologetically, "I have caused you trouble."
The scene had already exploded. For the media, the incident of "Lu Wen beating Zeng Zhen" was a hundred times more exciting than the press conference. All the reporters refused to leave, desperately trying to dig out more news.
The news quickly spread inside the hotel, and many people joined in the fun, taking pictures of the chaos with their mobile phones and posting them on the Internet. The top floor seems to be isolated from the world, so quiet that no noise can be heard.
Qu Yanting leaned against the wall, took out his phone and wanted to surf the Internet, but before unlocking the screen, Lu Wenmai approached and grabbed his wrist, and said, "What's wrong with your hand?"
Qu Yanting even forgot that his fingers were scratched by the tiles and left untreated. He drove all the way, and the blood was all over his hands. He finally felt a little pain, and said, "It's okay, I'm going to wash my hands."
Lu Wen didn't let go of him, and pressed him on the sofa to find the medicine box. When he was a child, he took nursing and first aid classes, but this was the first time he was disinfected and bandaged.
A cotton ball soaked in alcohol wiped the wound, as if re-cutting an old scar. Qu Yanting waited for Lu Wen to ask him, but the other party only lowered his head and carefully wiped it for him.
Enduring the pain, he lifted the scars of dysentery by himself: "After the college entrance examination, my first choice is the director department of the Film Academy."
Because of tuition fees, Qu Yanting didn't hold out hope of going to university, so he fulfilled his university dream by filling out a volunteer. Fortunately, he got funding from Book Shadowers.
Lu Wen changed a cotton ball: "Is it the foundation founded by Zeng Zhen?"
"Ok."
Shuyingjia had a project that year to fund poor students majoring in film-related majors. In September, Qu Yanting was successfully admitted to the director department and became one of Zeng Zhen's students.
Back then, Zeng Zhen was a professor at the Academy of Film and the idol of countless students. Every time he went to the department to take classes, it would cause a sensation. At first he didn't know who the sponsored students were, but he noticed Qu Yanting purely based on his performance.
Lu Wen is not surprised at all. In the crew of "The First Night", Ren Shu mentioned Qu Yanting's excellence in college many times, and it is expected that he will be favored.
When the appreciation came, Lu Wen squeezed the cotton ball tightly and asked, "What happened next?"
Qu Yanting's speech slowed down: "Zeng Zhen knew that I was subsidized, and he often cared about my life difficulties, and said that he would take care of me more. I repeatedly said no, and he only talked about movies with me afterwards."
Lu Wen threw away the red cotton ball and said, "I want to talk to you in private?"
Qu Yanting looked at him immediately: "... yes."
In the name of homework, Zeng Zhen would find Qu Yanting after class to talk about film, photography, and creation. At that time, Qu Yanting regarded Zeng Zhen as a role model and a benefactor, and didn't think too much about it, only thinking that it was the teacher's respect for him.
Later, Zeng Zhen tried it out step by step, he would give gifts, he would invite Qu Yanting to go out with him, and he would say some specious things. Qu Yanting didn't confiscate any of them, and didn't agree to it, and gradually became aware of the other party's explicit hints.
The ointment was cool and the pain was gone, Qu Yanting said: "But I'm not sure, because I can't believe he would... I know my sexual orientation, I'm afraid I'm thinking too much."
There will always be a certain moment, Lu Wen's voice is very low: "He didn't stop, he went a step further, didn't he?"
Qu Yanting said: "He started to take advantage of his job and professorship, which made it impossible for me to refuse."
The courses of the directing department focus on practice, and Zeng Zhen has too many opportunities to get close to a student. In one semester, he organized practical activities and selected several students to experience life in his film crew. Qu Yanting's grades were excellent, so he was naturally recommended by other teachers.
"He greeted the head teacher. I couldn't ask for leave, so I had to agree. Fortunately, I had a classmate as a companion. On the second night when we arrived on the set, Zeng Zhen invited some of our students to dinner. After returning to the hotel, he asked me to help him. Organize the script for tomorrow's shooting."
Lu Wen wrapped gauze around Qu Yanting's wound, held that hand: "And then?"
"His assistant was there at first," Qu Yanting recalled conflictingly, "I didn't care too much, but then he let the assistant go, it was very late, he..."
Lu Wen didn't realize that he was exerting force: "What did he say to you?"
Qu Yanting was in pain from being squeezed, and replied: "He made it clear."
Zeng Zhen made it clear that he likes Qu Yanting, not just between teachers and students. Qu Yanting was panicked at the time and immediately rejected Zeng Zhen. He wanted to leave, but panic quickly turned into fear.
Lu Wen tried his best to restrain himself: "What... did he do?"
"Zeng Zhen won't let me go." Qu Yanting looked panic-stricken, "But I'm a man, so it's not so easy to control. My constant refusal finally drove him into a hurry... He slapped me hard."
Qu Yanting fell to the ground with a flower in front of his eyes, and his ears were buzzing. He half-kneeled and half-crawled and ran out, angering Zeng Zhen. I can't remember the specific violence, and the struggle has also become blurred. I only remember the sharp pain when the fists and feet fell.
Although Zeng Zhen was half his head tall, he soon lost most of his strength after drinking alcohol. He thought Qu Yanting was powerless to resist, so he stopped the violence.
"I hit him with a camera and took the opportunity to escape." Qu Yanting said, "One side of my face was swollen, and the corner of my mouth kept bleeding. I didn't dare to go back to the room to be seen by my classmates, and I didn't dare to stay on the set."
Qu Yanting left the hotel overnight without taking anything, stumbling around in the night in a mess. He walked along the highway for several hours, came across a row of public telephone booths at the coach station, and found sadly that he had no one to turn to.
He sat on the bench at the station until dawn, thinking of his father, Ruan Yili, and Ruan Feng who had a new family. After going around for a while, he was alone in the world, crying and laughing like a lunatic.
Qu Yanting took the first bus to escape, and when he returned to school, he fell seriously ill and missed classes for a full month and a half. He hid in the dormitory, resisting meeting people, and was afraid of being exposed to anything related to Zeng Zhen.
After that incident, Qu Yanting avoided Zeng Zhen as much as possible, went to work in his spare time, and went to Ren Shu's house on weekends.
With sour eyes, Qu Yanting choked up and said, "I got close to Ren Shu, but Zeng Zhen deliberately made things difficult for him and lowered his grades, so as to force me."
Qu Yanting knew Ren Shu's ability well, and was afraid of affecting his career development, so he almost lost contact after graduation. There was no malicious suppression, Ren Shu quickly emerged in the drama industry, and encountered bottlenecks in recent years, so Qu Yanting approached him with the script.
Lu Wen didn't expect to have such a relationship, and immediately thought: "Then you and Xiaofeng are also because of..."
"Yes." Qu Yanting said, "I was afraid of being threatened. Later, Xiaofeng was going to be admitted to the Drama Academy and become an actor. I have been hiding it until now."
Zeng Zhen played both soft and hard ways, exerting pressure and threats at the same time. The cost of studying directing is very high, and Qu Yanting can't lose his funding, so he has no choice but to be patient.
He naively thought that he could stay away after graduation and earn a decent living by himself. However, in the third year of internship, the students have their own places to go. As the best student in the whole department, no crew is willing to take him.
Qu Yanting ran into obstacles everywhere, he understood that this was just the beginning, he had no team to follow, he would not be able to form a team in the future, he would not be able to get investment, let alone gain a foothold, he would have no way to move forward.
"Zeng Zhen forced me to follow him." Qu Yanting choked up his words, "I know, I can't be a director anymore."
He lost his loved ones again and again, and suffered hardships and bullying when he was young, but what he supported was only his father's dream. After his dream was shattered, he planned to graduate and return to Sichuan, and find a job to live on.
Zeng Zhen didn't expect that Qu Yanting would give up his future, so he manipulated the funding. Qu Yanting was told that there was a problem with the funding qualifications, and he had to pay back all the four years of university fees.
It is the easiest way to overwhelm the life and dignity of a poor person. Not only did Qu Yanting face the debt problem, but he became the talk of the whole department and even the whole school. Cheating money, cheating, and the unbearable behind his excellence, rumors abound wherever he goes.
Qu Yanting said: "I want to repay the sponsorship money, but I can't tell whether it is a favor or a debt. It doesn't matter, I handed over my nominal debut work to Zeng Zhen."
Lu Wen suddenly woke up: ""Shadowman"?"
Qu Yanting nodded. "Shadowman" was the beginning of his dream of being a director. When he was a child, he was amazed by the actors in martial arts movies. His father told him that half of the credit was due to the stuntmen. He felt sorry that the stuntman could not show his true colors, like a shadow of a person.
"I polished it for three or four years, and it was originally my first work as a director." Qu Yanting said, "The script, director's script, and storyboards were all given to Zeng Zhen. I knew he liked it, so I repaid it with this." four years of tuition."
"Shadowman" was the golden crown at the box office that year, and Zeng Zhen earned hundreds and thousands of times that tuition fee. And Qu Yanting didn't care, his story, the picture he designed, he fantasized to write "a gift to my father" at the beginning of the film... In the end, only the "screenwriter" was left.
In a twist, Qu Yanting, a screenwriter, caught Wang Mingyu's attention.
In fact, Wang Mingyu was in charge of the book shadow. She didn't care who Zeng Zhen had his eyes on, but Zeng Zhen's tricks on the sponsorship annoyed her. She found Qu Yanting because of "Shadowman", and she learned everything that Qu Yanting had encountered intermittently.
From cherishing talents, to pity, and maybe even the guilt of not punishing evil, Wang Mingyu hoped that Qu Yanting would not give up on this.
With Wang Mingyu's encouragement, Qu Yanting changed his studies to screenwriting. He didn't know if this decision was right at the time, and he often pondered over the years whether his persistence was meaningful or not.
Probably because of what Wang Mingyu said at the time, Qu Yanting said: "Master said—director or screenwriter, don't let the name disappear completely from the screen, there is still a chance to change."
With warm cheeks, Qu Yanting raised his hand to wipe it.
Facing the person he loves the most, digging out all the most embarrassing and darkest memories that have been buried for more than ten years, he wept for a long time and wet the gauze.
He thought that these would be forgotten over the years, but it turned out to be like a brand, which has not faded at all.
Qu Yanting said sorry with wet eyes: "I'm sorry, I got you into trouble."
Lu Wen finally understood why Qu Yanting didn't want to protect him, because he was circling and suffering in the most helpless predicament until he was covered with brilliance. He had only gnashed teeth all the way, and never had a back to rely on.
Qu Yanting looked at him: "You give me a hug... Do you still want to?"
Lu Wen's heart ached, he hugged Qu Yanting into his arms, clasped his shoulders tightly, and kissed that wet cheek.