Trembling in the Skies

Chapter 16: Filming Begins

“That’s right. There’s another old Chinese saying: ‘Good people don’t live long, but evildoers live on for a thousand years.’ ” Li Teng glared back at Guo Zhipeng. Faced with a situation like this, Li Teng could only accept his misfortune. Begging for mercy at this point would only add to the humiliation and wouldn’t change the outcome in the slightest. So, even if he were to die, he would die with dignity—he couldn’t let his opponent outdo him in terms of presence. “Hahahahahaha… Hahahahahaha… Just as I expected, you’re still as immature as ever, kid. After suffering so many setbacks, you still haven’t learned to reflect on your own mistakes.” Guo Zhipeng burst out laughing. Li Teng turned his head away. Gao Fei watched Li Teng and Guo Zhipeng, listening to their conversation. He had already guessed that the two must know each other, and that their previous relationship had been somewhat complicated. “Aren’t you going to say a few words about what happened earlier? Offer a sincere apology? I’m a sentimental guy—if you say something to make me happy, who knows, I might just change my mind.” Guo Zhipeng continued to taunt Li Teng. In his view, a cat that had caught a mouse should naturally toy with it for a while before killing it—that would be much more fun. “Before the show starts, can I take him out first?” Li Teng ignored Guo Zhipeng and instead leaned close to Gao Fei’s ear to ask him a few questions. “Don’t even think about it. You can throw a couple of punches to let off some steam, but if you cause any serious injury to the other actors, you’ll lose a lot of points. And even if you manage to kill him by surprise, the film studio can bring him back to life on the spot—but you’ll face severe punishment. It’s best not to do that; it’s pointless,” Gao Fei whispered back to Li Teng. “All right.” Li Teng seemed to have resigned himself to his fate. He stood up, picked up his coffee cup, walked over to the coffee machine, poured himself another cup of coffee, and brought back an extra empty coffee cup. Back at the table, Li Teng sat back down on the bar stool, held one of the cups high, and poured the coffee in a steady stream into the other cup. He then picked up the other cup and repeated the process. Before long, one cup of coffee had cooled off. After Li Teng finished it, he got up again to pour himself another cup. “I’m talking to you, and all you do is fiddle with that coffee—is that all you’ve got?” Guo Zhipeng was thoroughly annoyed by Li Teng’s off-topic behavior. He’d expected Li Teng to say something after refilling his cup, but to his surprise, Li Teng was too busy drinking to say a single word. “The coffee tastes great, and it’s pretty strong. The more I drink, the more energized I feel.” Li Teng ignored Guo Zhipeng and continued chatting with Gao Fei, who was sitting next to him. “Then have a few more cups.” Gao Fei could tell that Guo Zhipeng was practically seething with rage toward Li Teng, but he didn’t know how to comfort him at that moment. “Damn it! He’s beyond help!” Seeing that Li Teng refused to back down—and wouldn’t even acknowledge him—Guo Zhipeng couldn’t help but fly into a rage. “He’s cursing at you,” Gao Fei warned Li Teng. “If you run into a dog on the street that keeps barking at you, are you going to bark back? Just find a chance to take it out.” Li Teng shrugged it off and kept sipping his coffee. “Guts!” Seeing that Li Teng wouldn’t budge no matter what—refusing to back down or beg for mercy—Guo Zhipeng had no choice but to end his game of cat and mouse. “Your turn. Give me a reason not to choose you.” Guo Zhipeng turned to the elderly woman sitting next to Li Teng with a hint of impatience; clearly, Li Teng’s behavior had completely ruined his mood. “I have a grandson with cerebral palsy at home, and my son has cancer. I have to stay alive to go back and save them, otherwise…” the elderly woman began cautiously. “Enough, enough! I didn’t come here to listen to your pity party!” Guo Zhipeng impatiently cut the old woman off, then turned his gaze to the last extra standing next to her—a teenage girl. “Well… I’ve been talented in many ways since I was little. A lot of my relatives and elders said it would be a shame if I didn’t become an actress. I never expected to fulfill that dream this way. Haha, I’m really happy to be here. Of course, I don’t want to be a wax figure—if I were, I wouldn’t have the chance to fully showcase my talents to the audience,” the girl said. “What talents do you have?” Guo Zhipeng finally found something to amuse him again. “Singing, dancing—I can do it all. I’ve entered online competitions and even won several awards,” the girl replied to Guo Zhipeng. “If you perform a striptease for us, I might consider letting you off the hook,” Guo Zhipeng suggested with a smirk. “What’s so interesting about a woman’s body? You boring old man!” The girl shot Guo Zhipeng a contemptuous glare. “That’s where you’re wrong. Heh heh, let me explain it to you slowly…” “Enough! Time’s up—let’s get started!” The woman in sunglasses stood up and interrupted Guo Zhipeng with a look of impatience. A beep sounded in everyone’s Bluetooth earbuds—the ten-minute briefing was over, and filming for the car crash scene in *Rampage on a Dead-End Road* was about to begin! None of the six extras had any lines, and the instructions in their earbuds were simple: they were told to cross the street to the other side at a specific moment. They couldn’t run, and they couldn’t speed up or slow down—they had to walk normally at the pace set by the director, just like ordinary pedestrians crossing the street. The director determined the order in which the extras would appear and walk, but which of them the sports car—speeding toward them at over a hundred yards—would ultimately crash into, and which extra would “meet their end,” lose points, and be turned into a wax figure, depended entirely on Guo Zhipeng’s whim. As the lead actor in this scene, with the steering wheel in his hands, he held that power. Before leaving, Guo Zhipeng took one last sweep of the crowd with his gaze. Several extras deliberately avoided Guo Zhipeng’s gaze, fearing they might be singled out to be the unlucky one who would “meet their end” and be turned into a wax figure in this scene. Li Teng flipped Guo Zhipeng the middle finger; he knew there was no escaping his fate today. Although he didn’t want to become a wax figure or die so senselessly, he knew full well that nothing he said would make a difference to someone like Guo Zhipeng, who had no conscience or moral boundaries. He could only rely on himself. Guo Zhipeng returned Li Teng’s gesture with a throat-slitting sign, then put on his sunglasses and left with the woman in sunglasses. “Does he have a grudge against you?” the office lady asked Li Teng expectantly. If Guo Zhipeng had a grudge against Li Teng and had chosen to run him over, the rest of them would be safe. “Hahahaha…” Li Teng let out a few awkward laughs and went back to sipping his coffee. “If you really believe they have a grudge against each other, you’re wrong. This is a film set—everyone here is an actor. How do you know they weren’t just putting on a show just now? Maybe they’re actually really close friends? You think you’re safe, but when the car crashes into you, that’s when you’ll realize you were wrong.” The elderly woman said a few words to the office lady. Li Teng glanced at the elderly woman in surprise… Just a moment ago, she’d been pretending to be frail and feeble—who would’ve thought she was such a seasoned veteran! She really had it all figured out. “Besides, the script doesn’t say it has to kill just one person—it could kill many more. Suppose the director had you walk with him—just think about it…” the elderly woman added. Hearing this, the office worker’s expression—which had just begun to relax—turned tense and despondent once more. Li Teng remained calm, continuing to sip his coffee. “Stop drinking! You’ve filled your stomach with coffee—you look like a coffee ball. When the car hits you later, all that coffee will spurt out. That scene… tsk, tsk, tsk…” The man in glasses couldn’t stand watching Li Teng guzzle his coffee anymore. “That’s none of your business!” Gao Fei retorted on Li Teng’s behalf. No sooner had Gao Fei finished speaking than everyone’s expressions suddenly changed; they stopped talking, and the room fell instantly silent.