Rebirth of a Movie Star - Chapter 36

Chapter 36 – Life Saving Medication

Qi ShaoDong, the vice president of Vision Construction.

He was also the younger brother of Qi ShaoHua who was the heir of Vision Construction.

These two brothers weren’t like the ones in the Qiu family who fought each other for power and control.

Because the Qi family had stared clearly from a long time ago that only the first wife’s son Qi ShaoHua would have the right to inherit the family enterprises. As for Qi ShaoDong this son that was born after the original wife had passed away, he could only obtain a small percentage of the inheritance and that was it. After all the Qi family relied on the first wife’s Wei family connections and money to establish themselves and it was only in the last couple of years that they had really become a business empire.

Thus ever since young Qi ShaoDong had been raised in a free and easy manner. Not much attention was placed on him and also not much pressure.

However he seemed to be ambitious. He went overseas to study and after returning he obediently started working at the company from the bottom up and had already climbed up to the position of a vice president. Of course within this Qi ShaoDong’s mother had also secretly helped her son behind the scenes. But no matter how hard Qi ShaoDong worked it was impossible for him to surpass his older brother. And so perhaps out of a sense of guilt, the Qi family was very lax in their attitude towards Qi ShaoDong’s behaviour in his personal life.

Qi ShaoDong had a reputation. He was often featured on the tabloid news as someone who liked to destroy other people’s relationships.

It was though he was trying to make up for something he lacked. For some reason Qi ShaoDong, who had both looks and money, seemed to like stealing other people’s girlfriends. And it wasn’t any random person, but they were always people who were tipped to and anticipated to inherit family businesses or conglomerates. In the beginning no one thought Qi ShaoDong was doing it on purpose. After all before men and women were married they were all still considered single, but after two or three successive similar cases, it seemed less coincidental and more purposeful. Thus his reputation was established

And right now the Qiu family was also investing in the real estate business. In a few projects they were one of the competitors of Vision Construction. In regards to this vice president with the special identity, Qiu Qian had already had him investigated before.

Qiu Qian thus put aside Qiu XiaoHai and went into the study to take out that a little black box from from the draw. He took out the earpiece and then returned to watch the TV.

Right now the screen was showing the next star to arrive. Qiu XiaoHai was crouched on the corner of the couch and was waving his hands about as if trying to flick aside the person that was currently blocking Ah Bai from view on the screen. However this was the TV so that was not possible. Qiu Qian couldn’t help rubbing Qiu XiaoHai’s head when he saw his innocent behavior.

“… let me introduce you. This is Vision Entertainment vice president Qi ShaoDong. And this person I don’t need to introduce, Young Master Qi no doubt you recognize him straight away.” Within the environmental noise, Su Quan’s voice was transmitted through the earpiece.

“Haha, indeed. I am Mr Bai’s loyal fan ah.” A voice that was both casual but which also wasn’t lacking in elegance replied. “I’m Qi ShaoDong, it’s an honor to meet you Mr Bai. I’ve admired you for a long time.”

“An honor to meet you. Mr Qi is too kind.” Bai Lang’s voice was very polite.

“I’m not saying it out of politeness,” Qi ShaoDong’s voice carried laughter. “Li ChuanQing in “Outside Jade and Gold” really made me and my group of friends sweat and self-reflect. That type of elegance isn’t something any of us can compare to. Right now we’re using it as an example to study by.”

“How come I can’t see that Young Master Qi has learnt anything?” Su Quan interjected, laughing.

“What are you trying to say Su Quan? Right now I’m doing my best to pretend to be elegant and graceful. Turns out nothing’s changed?”

“A leopard can’t change its spots.” Su Quan teased.

“Can you please give me a little bit of face, we’re making introductions here.” Qi ShaoDong protested.

Bai Lang cooperated and laughed a bit. “It’s just acting. How can it compare with Mr Qi?”

“Don’t be so distant. You can call me Young Master Qi just like Su Quan.”

{T/N: Er.. so it’s lost in translation but “shao” which means young master/young man from a good family, can actually be called very easily. It’s just a single word. So can be used quite casually/as a nickname. In English it sound super formal but Qi ShaoDong is actually trying to get more familiar. It’s the same word that Fang Hua used in “Young Master Bai” as a nickname for him for the fans}

Qi ShaoDong’s voice was very friendly. “Speaking of coincidences, I was just talking to Su Quan these couple of days about Mr Bai and never thought I’d have a chance to meet you today. Perhaps it’s fate. If Mr Bai has time some day, let’s go get something to eat. I will ask a few friends to come as well and we can have a gathering?”

Qiu Qian who was sitting  in front of the TV narrowed his eyes.

“Hei, if everyone fan was like you and requested to have a meal together, then do you think Mr Bai would have any free time?”

Su Quan blocked it in a somewhat insincere manner.

“Then let’s not waste time,” Qi ShaoDong spoke as though he was being amenable. “How about we just have a drink then? Didn’t Mr Bai just have a beer commercial recently? It was very appealing. How about right after we finish up here?”

Just as Bai Lang was about to open his mouth to reply when Su Quan again interrupted him and spoke first.

“That’s not possible. I don’t mind telling you that at this time Mr Bai can’t randomly go out to drink. Someone will get unhappy.”

“Oh?” Qi ShaoDong’s voice seemed to change.

But just as Qiu Qian was listening intently, suddenly Qiu XiaoHai threw himself on him and at the same time pulled on the earpiece cord, pulling it out from Qiu Qian’s ear. By the time Qiu Qian replaced it all he could hear was air and noise.

Qiu Qian was very unhappy. And the mischievous Qiu XiaoHai was lying on Qiu Qian’s stomach and complaining, “I can’t see Ah Bai anymore.”

He looked pretty cute like that. Qiu Qian flicked his son’s pouting lips and said, “How about we go and pick up Ah Bai to go home.”

“Really?” Qiu XiaoHai’s eyes lit up.

Qiu Qian thought about the job that Bai Lang had given him. “Have you finished your homework?”

Qiu XiaoHai’s shoulders sunk. “Not yet.”

“Go and get it. Once you finish it we’ll go.”

“En!”

***

“Chaos Street” was filled with chase and fight scenes.

Whether or not it was the rookie police officer Chen FengGe or the undercover spy Luo Zai, both roles involved heavy physical requirements.

Thus the crew hired professional martial artists to help to train them in a street-smart but effective fighting style. Prior to beginning the shoot they organized many special training courses in order to prevent too many NG scenes later on. After all fighting was just like sport. It needed practice and repetition. The visual difference between someone that was unskilled and someone with training would be very apparent.

Bai Lang played the role of “Luo Zai”. The other male lead, that is the rookie police officer Chen FengGe was played by an actor called Sun XiBin who had a bright and outgoing image. Sun XiBin was an actor from the company “Flying Film and Television”. The pathway he was going down was someone who was handsome and cool. However his tanned skin paired with his large and pearly white teeth made him very likeable and sunny looking. His acting style was also very natural and he had played many roles of blue collar workers, farmers and other such down to earth characters. Experience-wise, he was Bai Lang’s senior.

After Bai Lang and Sun XiBin confirmed they would accept their roles, the two people were immediately sent to physical training classes. Because their schedules were different, the crew sent them an instructor each so they could train separately.

It was the first time Bai Lang had ever undergone this kind of training. In his life he had never shot a martial arts flick before. His image did not allow it.

As for why “Chaos Street” had offered the role of the gangster-like Luo Zai to Bai Lang, it was because the script specified that Luo Zai was also a very good looking ruffian. There were also a few scenes where Luo Zai disguised himself as a wealthy young man and snuck into a private club to have a look. So asking Bai Lang to do this role wasn’t too unusual. However this was also a test of Bai Lang’s acting ability. Because his good looking face now had to be able to express a type of rough and streetwise character and if his manner was too fake, then it would likely elicit the audiences ire and frustration.

In any case before Bai Lang could play the role, he first had to complete the tough schedule of intense training.

The instructor assigned to Bai Lang was a retired army officer.

The officer’s demeanor and mouth was quite impolite. He was tough and stern, and didn’t care who he was dealing with. If anything went wrong then he would immediately began cursing and swearing. In the first couple of days Bai Lang wasn’t emotionally prepared and was yelled at until he was quite wretched, and the intense training made his hands and legs weak. As soon as he got home he would immediately fell asleep, exhausted.

Of course during training Bai Lang paid attention to the fact that he needed to take rests. Because of this he had a lot of conflict with the instructor. After all a commanding officer would certainly not have allowed the soldiers in his platoon to have rests. Every time Bai Lang requested it, the instructor would sneer at him for being useless and pretending to be a bigshot. He was so rude that even the good-tempered Bai Lang wanted to swear back at him.

The first week’s training schedule involved basic fighting stances. The second week really got real and involved actual fighting with fists and feet. After entering this stage, under the guise of training, Bai Lang was beaten up so badly that other than on his face, his entire body was covered with bruises. At this point Bai Lang couldn’t help but wonder if this old officer had some kind of secret vendetta against him. Or if he had possibly been sent here by an enemy in order to purposely make him suffer.

However despite his suspicions, Bai Lang couldn’t help but admit that his type of training was still quite effective. Right now Bai Lang’s body moved much more quickly and freely, his movement of turning, kicking and rolling all looked much more professional and cooler than two weeks ago. And as long as he was still able to take the requisite breaks, Bai Lang didn’t want to make a fuss about being overworked. Actually he was still a little bit affected by the instructor’s name-calling, and didn’t want to be seen as useless or pretending to be a bigshot.

However even if Bai Lang didn’t say anything, Qiu Qian couldn’t control himself any longer.

For the last two weeks he had helped Bai Lang apply medicine every single night. Even though Bai Lang said this was for the role and couldn’t be helped, Qiu Qian felt extremely unhappy. And he also didn’t have any ability to eavesdrop. After all a diamond watch would be the first thing you take off when you do any training. As for Hong Hong, on the very first day he had already been scolded by the old instructor who said that random people couldn’t be present during his training and was forced to wait outside.

However no matter what the officer did not have the ability to stop Qiu Qian. One day Qiu Qian picked a good time then simply and suddenly walked in on Bai Lang’s training.

When the young disciple guarding the door saw Qiu Qian appear, his entire body radiating a dangerous delinquent aura, he was too terrified to stop him.

Thus when Qiu Qian walked in, he immediately saw the scene of Bai Lang being yelled at while being beaten. Bai Lang was right now practicing the motion of blocking while being hit. Qiu Qian immediately shook off his coat. He said, “Good on you. Seems like you like to yell at people. Why don’t you switch to me!”

The old instructor saw that someone actually dared to interrupt him during his training. He was very angry. “What do you want, you rascal?”

“To use your words from before, I’m here to beat you up until you call for your mom!” Qiu Qian smiled dangerously and then his fist immediately flew over.

Following that in the gym there a series of terrible yells and screams. Of course they weren’t from Qiu Qian.

Bai Lang also didn’t stop him.

Right now he was trying his best to calm down his out of control heartbeat. The color of his face was very bad. Just before he had called the instructor to stop very early on, however the instructor acted as though he hadn’t heard at all and continued to beat him and forced Bai Lang to have no choice but to defend himself. The next series of fighting had taken away all of Bai Lang’s energy and as he was forced backwards time and time again, Bai Lang felt for the first time a real sense of menace and danger.

Thus right now Bai Lang was reorganizing his thoughts in his head.

Firstly, Chaos Street’s owner was the very large television production company Full Color Film and Television. It had nothing to do with Hong Yu. Although it was possible that Hong Yu could still cast his influence over it, however judging by Hong Yu’s previous “friendly” behaviour, this was completely not to his benefit.

Then if he considered Li Sha who was previously unhappy with him over Kang Jian, her father’s Harmony Entertainment was actually Full Color’s industry rival. With such a background, it should be very difficult for Li Sha to interfere with this program’s production.

So right now putting aside these people, there was only Su Quan left among the people who had a disagreement with him. Even though Su Quan had sent an apology over, however Bai Lang definitely didn’t think that his actions that day of the party were just out of carelessness.

However asking someone to beat him up, what kind of tactic was this? Did he think that just because he was beaten up he would retire from the acting world? Or was it to use the instructor to spread the rumor that he was lazy and not professional? This kind of rough and stupid method really made Bai Lang suspicious of pinning the blame on Su Quan as it just didn’t seem like his style.

Or if he stretched his imagination a bit further, could it possibly be related to the Young Master Qi who after the premiere of “Emperor Feng” often liked to call Bai Lang for no reason?

He thought for long time but still couldn’t come up with anything. Right now the most important thing was Qiu Qian who was in front of him wearing an extremely ugly expression.

At this time the instructor had been beaten until he was lying begging and crying on the ground. Qiu Qian knelt in front of Bai Lang who was sitting while resting and said angrily, “Why didn’t you say something?”

“Isn’t training supposed to be like this?” Bai Lang replied in a hesitant voice.

Qiu Qian narrowed his eyes. “I’ll ask you one more time. What’s the reason?”

Bai Lang paused for a second. Then admitted. “I hadn’t figured it out yet so I didn’t want to say.”

“You idiot! If you tell me, then of course I’ll investigate it for you!” Qiu Qian’s hand itched again but he couldn’t bear to hit the person in front of him.

“The drama hasn’t even started filming yet. What’s the point of making a fuss now?” Bai Lang smiled helplessly. “I’m tired, can we go home?”

Qiu Qian helped him up with a dark face. “You don’t need to make a fuss. I’ll do it. What are you scared of?”

Bai Lang snuggled into Qiu Qian’s arms in a penitent manner. “Today I can help you do it once. Don’t get mad.” {T/N: You know. It. ^_^}

Qiu Qian really got so mad even his teeth itched.

***

But he never expected that a few days later, something else happened which made Qiu Qian explode in even greater anger.

The reason was Rong Zan’s sixth birthday party. This time Rong Zan had requested that he wanted to invite Qiu XiaoHai to come. Rong Ai thought about it and then decided to realize the words he had said at his own birthday party, and invited Qiu Qian’s entire family of three to come to this party which was otherwise only comprised of the Rong family’s own members.

However unexpectedly not long after the cake cutting, Rong Ai’s chest suddenly felt stuffy and painful. His entire body didn’t feel right. His shaky breathing, nausea and profuse sweating were all typical signs of a heart attack. However Rong Ai had never had any previous history of heart problems and in the full medicinal cabinet, there actually weren’t any emergency medication for it. The entire Rong family was thrown into a state of panic and chaos.

However after all they were still people that had seen the world. They reacted quickly and immediately called an ambulance. However it was just that the party was being held at the Rong family’s villa, it was a suburban district that was about half an hour’s distance away from the city center. Even an ambulance would still take over 10-15 minutes to arrive. Right now Rong Ai’s face was becoming more and more pale, his sweating became worse and his breathing became more shallow.

Rong SiQi’s older brother was talking on the phone with a grim face. “340mg aspirin? No, we already looked. We don’t have any at home. The pharmacy is too far, we can only wait for the ambulance to bring the medicine over? Isn’t there anything else that we can do? What about massaging his chest?”

Everyone was waiting for the ambulance to arrive. They could only stare at Rong SiChen as he talked on the phone with their private doctor.

He had put it on speaker mode so everyone could hear the doctor’s grave voice.

“Heart massage can’t be used until the very last moment. Right now I suggest that you just hold on and wait until the ambulance arrives.”

When they heard this everyone’s faces sunk.

As for the guests Qiu Qian and Bai Lang, after Rong Ai had started getting sick they had just stood aside quietly and didn’t disturb anyone.

Qiu XiaoHai tightly clutched the white-faced Rong Zan’s hand as though trying to comfort him.

In this extremely tense and heavy moment, Bai Lang suddenly stepped forward. He took out a small box.

“I have it. 340mg aspirin. Hurry and give it to Elder Rong ba.”

Rong SiQi seemed to suddenly think of something. He came to life and immediately looked over.

Rong SiChen was also shocked. He couldn’t help but confirm it again to make sure.

“Is it really aspirin? It’s not wrong? How come you have it?”

Bai Lang didn’t dare look at Qiu Qian who was standing beside him. He could only smile helplessly.

“Because I have the same heart problem.”