Beijing, filming location.
A stack of photos was tossed onto the table, scattering randomly. Shu Yuxiu calmly picked up one photo with his fingers and glanced at it, his expression unchanged: "Officer Zhang, I don't understand what you mean."
"Don't understand?"
Officer Zhang leaned forward, pressing his hands against the edge of the table, his gaze fixed unblinkingly on Shu Yuxiu: "Zhu Penglin died in a car accident three months after making contact with you. And coincidentally, the car he was driving that day wasn't the one you serviced."
"Not me?" Shu Yuxiu smiled, "If I didn't service it, what does that have to do with me?"
"That's right, you serviced his car for three consecutive months. Only that day he switched to someone else, and precisely then something went wrong. Don't you think that's quite a coincidence?"
Shu Yuxiu casually leaned back, his eyes still composed and unruffled: "Some things are just composed of countless coincidences."
"And what about later?" Officer Zhang pushed two more sets of photos in front of Shu Yuxiu. "Because of the Zhu Penglin incident, you recognized his parents as your godparents. But two years later, Zhu Penglin's father died in a car accident while on a business trip, and Zhu Penglin's mother immediately had a heart attack from the shock. She went into surgery but never came out... As their godson, you single-handedly arranged their funerals."
"How is the Zhu family so unlucky? In just a few years, all three family members have died."
"Officer Zhang surely can't be suggesting I'm after the Zhu family's money?" Shu Yuxiu chuckled lightly. "I didn't take a single cent of the Zhu family's money."
Officer Zhang looked meaningfully at the person before him, gaining a deeper understanding of his cunning nature.
Shu Yuxiu was indeed very clever. On the surface, he hadn't accepted any of the property left by the Zhu family, but he had already used the support from the Zhu couple during their lifetime to become a somewhat famous race car driver.
By this time, Shu Yuxiu could earn money on his own, so he naturally wasn't afraid of losing the Zhu family's support. And the Zhu family's business wasn't actually that significant compared to the people Shu Yuxiu would later come into contact with.
It was just astonishing - Shu Yuxiu had left no evidence for any of this series of events!
At the edge of the table, in a place Shu Yuxiu couldn't see, Officer Zhang's fingers slowly clenched into fists.
Finally, he pulled out the chair opposite Shu Yuxiu, sat down facing him, crossed his arms, and said coldly: "Fine, then let's talk about other people—"
------------------------
"Cut."
After Director Ning called cut, staff members came forward to help Xiao He remove the handcuffs from his wrists.
Xiao He stood up from the interrogation chair: "Thank you."
Duan Huai also rose from the opposite seat.
"Xiao He—"
Ning Jiaqi waved his hand, signaling Xiao He to come over.
Xiao He walked to Ning Jiaqi's side and slightly bent forward: "Director Ning?"
"The progress is good. We'll shoot the final scene here this afternoon. You've seen all the versions, right?"
"I've seen them. I've already analyzed the performance approaches for each version," Xiao He immediately replied.
The scenes filmed here weren't numerous, but they were quite important, especially the final conclusion, which would also be partially completed here.
However, for Shu Yuxiu's final outcome, Ning Jiaqi had given Xiao He four different versions, all of which needed to be performed. As for which version would ultimately be chosen, Director Ning hadn't given Xiao He a definite answer, perhaps wanting to see Xiao He's performance style and considering the final film's censorship standards before deciding which version to use.
Xiao He would have to wait until No Bait officially premiered to see the final choice.
"I'll keep a small number of staff on set. You'll need to shoot multiple takes then."
Ning Jiaqi said.
"Okay, Director Ning." Xiao He nodded.
After this scene was completed, all of Xiao He's scenes in Beijing would officially end.
Of course, this only meant completing the filming in Beijing. Most of the scenes here were indoors, mainly concentrated in interrogation rooms and investigation team office settings.
Actually, a large portion of No Bait's plot was set on an overseas island. After they finished filming the local scenes here, they would need to prepare to move there for shooting. By then, Xiao He's acting partners wouldn't be Duan Huai and others playing investigation team police officers, but rather actors playing roles like Zhu Penglin and Qi Xinyue.
Currently, these actors had already followed the assistant director to the island location and were shooting some scenes in advance. Once Xiao He finished everything here, he would also go abroad for filming.
Incidentally, this island wasn't like the temporary island location they used during their last filming of Law of the Jungle, which had been abandoned due to hurricanes and was in a very dilapidated state, sometimes even lacking internet connection - the island environment was particularly terrible.
This time, it was an island generously provided by Director Zhuang himself, featuring a fully-equipped resort that integrated activities like skydiving, racing, speedboating, motorcycles, and more. The island had pleasant scenery and spring-like weather year-round, making it a perfect filming location.
And facing Director Zhuang casually pulling out an island like this, Xiao He had actually gotten used to it.
Hehe, those damned rich people!
He'll fight these wealthy people!
In the afternoon, under Director Ning's repeated torment, Xiao He finally completed filming for the final plot.
Simply put, the four versions of the ending could be categorized as: an escape version, a capture version, an open-ended version, and an escape-but-dies version.
Xiao He performed to the limits of his acting ability in each version.
Of course, as the villain, Xiao He naturally preferred the version where Shu Yuxiu precisely understood the police's psychology and successfully escaped legal punishment through lies.
But to be honest, this version's plot was too dark and could easily be criticized after release. Even Xiao He himself felt it was quite risky.
After filming ended, Xiao He tried to subtly inquire about Ning Jiaqi's plans, but Director Ning insisted on no spoilers, so he could only regretfully give up.
After resting in Beijing for one day, Xiao He and Liu Rulan took a flight back to Shanghai to prepare for Law of the Jungle's movie promotion.
Thanks to Law of the Jungle's "shameless" heat-chasing behavior, the promotion had maintained relatively stable popularity these days. Although it couldn't compare to Silent Search's massive publicity, it had basically covered the target audience of this film genre. Those willing to buy tickets immediately were probably them, while other viewers might depend on later word-of-mouth and support from Xiao He and Liu Zehang's fans.
So Ren Changwen was actually quite satisfied.
Xiao He also thought it was good - after all, tall trees catch much wind. When the works were released, whoever performed poorly would be embarrassed.
Thus, Xiao He and the Law of the Jungle production team didn't know that thanks to their low-key promotion approach and adherence to the "only chase, don't compete" principle, their promotion hadn't directly clashed with Silent Search, maintaining a very weak and low-profile status.
This led to Dong Zeng's side, while always wary of them, being afraid of giving them any additional heat, so they hadn't dared to release Xiao He and Liu Zehang's "Damaging Information" online.
Dong Zeng: Hehe, I've already seen through your tricks! Negative Popularity is still popularity! I won't let you get even a bit of traffic! Not even a little!
Completely unaware Xiao He: ?
Have I been too tired lately? Why do I keep seeing flashes of my own damaging information?