I Became Famous in the Entertainment Industry with High Martial Arts Skills - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Wire Accident

The weight-bearing strap of the wire harness fixed to Xie Ci’s body snapped without warning. Xie Ci, who had just jumped from the second floor, instantly felt his body tilt to one side.

The brothel where this scene was being filmed was a set specially constructed by the crew. Most of the plot involving the male lead, Song Yu, maneuvering and pushing back against corrupt officials while investigating a case took place in the city’s largest brothel.

This setting could both depict the political chaos before the arrival of troubled times filled with the indulgence of wine, women, power, and money among officials and use the exquisite cinematic visuals to attract the audience.

Consequently, the hall inside the building had a floor height of over three meters and lacked sophisticated wire equipment; a normal person jumping from the second floor would likely face death or serious injury.

On the director’s monitor screen, the snapped weight-bearing strap was barely visible under the sunlight. Xie Ci’s slender figure, with robes fluttering, displayed a fragile, butterfly-like beauty.

“Xie Ci!” Mo Li, who had been watching Xie Ci’s situation from the sidelines, instantly realized something was wrong. He shouted in panic and began running toward Xie Ci.

Zhang Yunjiang, who had been sitting sternly in front of the monitor, also bolted upright: “Someone! Go save him, quickly!”

A sharp pain shot through the base of his thigh. The unsnapped weight-bearing straps lost their balance, tightening ruthlessly against the soft flesh of his inner thigh.

Xie Ci’s breath hitched. The expression of annoyance he wore for the scene was instantly replaced by calm and composure.

He tightened his supple core and, using the momentum of his body’s tilt, grabbed the sturdy strap and main rope on the other side with both hands. He curled his body slightly, his feet instinctively searching for a point of leverage.

Ji Xiuheng, positioned below and to his side, reacted just as swiftly. The moment he realized the wire had failed, he rushed toward Xie Ci, arms raised, ready to catch the falling youth at any second.

Relying on the remaining straps, Xie Ci’s hands were squeezed bright red. The moment he made contact with the ground, he tilted his body to disperse the pressure on his legs.

The wooden floorboards let out a tooth-aching “creak.”

Xie Ci stood up, brushed off the dust he had picked up while rolling on the ground, and smiled at Ji Xiuheng, who was only half a step away.

“Teacher Ji, I’m okay now.” That small dimple reappeared on the youth’s fair, delicate face.

Ji Xiuheng’s heart was drumming like a war flick, but the staff swarming around them were too noisy, crowding in to check on Xie Ci’s condition.

“Xie Ci! Are you okay? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?” Aside from Ji Xiuheng, Mo Li was the first to reach Xie Ci’s side, frantically checking every part of him prone to injury.

Zhang Yunjiang and Gu Xingfeng also rushed over, immediately ordering staff to arrange for a doctor to examine Xie Ci’s physical condition.

“Who was responsible for Xiao Xie’s wires?! Do you not bring your brains to work?! Was the crew’s safety training fed to the dogs?!” Zhang Yunjiang barked, clutching a crumpled script, his face flushed red with rage.

It was only because of his age that he appeared much gentler nowadays, but in his younger years, he had a fiery temper and would dare to flip an investor’s table if provoked.

He never expected such an accident to occur during today’s shoot. If not for Xie Ci’s quick reflexes, a fall from four meters could have been fatal!

Just a moment ago, he thought it was a movement Xie Ci had designed himself, until he realized the speed of the descent far exceeded any normal stunt design; only then did he realize the wire had malfunctioned.

Zhang Yunjiang’s shouting silenced the surroundings. Even the usually smiling Gu Xingfeng had a face turned iron-blue with anger.

The set doctor arrived quickly, shouting from a distance: “Step aside, keep the air flowing! Do not move the injured!”

However, when he squeezed through the crowd and saw a perfectly normal-looking Xie Ci, his rapid-fire speech faltered for a second before he professionally began examining him.

“Brother Chen? Wake up! Something happened over there!” Noticing that the situation had spiraled out of the original plan, A-Ya’s face was filled with terror as he violently shook Chen Yutian, who was still dreaming.

“Do you want to die?! Isn’t ‘something happening’ exactly what we wanted? What are you making a fuss about?” Chen Yutian spoke impatiently, turning over to go back to sleep.

“No, Brother Chen, the wire strap snapped! That newcomer fell straight down from the second floor!” A-Ya explained, his voice trembling.

All sleepiness vanished instantly. Chen Yutian propped himself up to look toward the filming site, a look of horror appearing on his greasy face.

He delivered a fierce slap to his assistant A-Ya’s face. “How did this happen?! I told you to just scare him, make him look like a fool during filming! You caused such a big scene—are you trying to get me killed?!”

Chen Yutian’s tone was sinister. The feeling of the situation exceeding his expectations made him increasingly panicked.

According to his original plan, he had simply bribed a wire technician to tamper slightly with the straps. For a newcomer like Xie Ci, who was using wires for the first time, even a small issue with the harness causing him to be unsteady during filming would be written off as the newcomer’s lack of skill.

Chen Yutian had done this sort of thing before. He still remembered the pathetic state of a newcomer who made a fool of himself in public; he later heard that the person was so traumatized they left the industry entirely.

At the time, he had mocked the person’s weak mental state, thinking he was doing them a favor by helping them find a different career path early.

He never expected this habitual trick to cause such an uproar today. The more Chen Yutian thought about it, the more panicked he became; after all, this wasn’t one of those small crews where his word was law.

Cold sweat dripped from his forehead. He prayed that the bribed technician had worked cleanly so that this incident would remain a genuine “accident.”

Faced with Zhang Yunjiang’s fury, the crew members remained silent. The head of the wire team was an old partner of Zhang Yunjiang’s; at this moment, his face was flushed with shame as he stepped forward to take the blame.

“Brother Zhang, it was our team’s oversight. We almost hurt Xiao Xie. I am willing to take full responsibility.” The man’s face was full of guilt as he walked over to Xie Ci to apologize.

“Responsibility? If something had really happened, who could possibly take responsibility?!”

Upon hearing the doctor confirm that Xie Ci only had minor scrapes and no other injuries, Mo Li breathed a sigh of relief, but the wire lead’s words reignited his anger.

Hearing this, the man looked even more ashamed. If something like this happened, his reputation in the industry would be ruined.

Ji Xiuheng stood silently behind Xie Ci, reminding him to take off the wire harness first.

As the person who had been closest, he still remembered the flash of pain on Xie Ci’s face during the fall and guessed it was an issue with the harness itself.

Hearing the suggestion, Xie Ci moved clumsily to remove the harness underneath his tattered outer robe, but while unfastening the back straps, he brushed against Ji Xiuheng’s approaching fingers.

“Let me help you.” The man’s voice was cool and steady, his panicked expression from moments ago replaced once again by a gentle mask.

Xie Ci didn’t refuse. His attention was focused more on his friend beside him, who was still fuming.

He reached out a hand and lightly patted Mo Li’s back to signal that he was fine.

Then, Xie Ci picked up the snapped weight-bearing strap lying on the ground like a dead snake. Originally, he only intended to glance at the “culprit,” but he keenly noticed something abnormal about the break.

Very strange.

Normally, if this strap had snapped due to force, the tear should have jagged, frayed edges. However, a small section of the cross-section in his hand was exceptionally smooth.

Behind him, Ji Xiuheng also noticed Xie Ci’s pause. Following his gaze, he too noted that small, almost polished section of the break.

“Brother Zhou, could you come look and see if there’s something wrong with this strap?” Xie Ci spoke to the man in front of him.

Hearing this, the wire team lead, Zhou Dashan, snapped his head up. He quickly took the strap from Xie Ci and began examining it meticulously.

“This strap was definitely tampered with!” Realizing he had been framed, Zhou Dashan immediately demanded to check the surveillance footage.

“I check this equipment every day. Someone must have secretly messed with it!”

At this, the surrounding crowd began discussing potential suspects.

A young girl with a heart-shaped face seemed to remember something. Her eyes widened as she whispered: “I went to the prop room to deliver something at noon… I saw Brother Wang coming out of the wire equipment room on my way…”

Her voice trailed off, clearly realizing the implication. In an instant, everyone’s eyes turned toward a certain man.

“What the fuck are you talking about? Plenty of people go into the wire room. You bitch, what do you mean trying to pin this on me?”

Provoked by the surrounding stares, Wang Long spoke hideously. His yellowed, nicotine-stained teeth were bared, and spit flew from his mouth.

However, at the mention of the word “surveillance,” a flash of terror was obvious on his face.

“Check the cameras,” Ji Xiuheng said, stepping in front of Xie Ci.

Xie Ci nodded. As the primary victim if not for his quick reactions and his memories of martial arts the injuries he sustained today would have been far more severe than minor scrapes.

The wounds on his forearm, scraped by the rough floor, throbbed slightly. Even if Xie Ci wasn’t the type to hold a grudge, he wasn’t such a saint as to say “it’s okay” after someone tried to harm him.

The surveillance footage was quickly pulled up. On the high-definition screen, in the wire prop room that was empty during the lunch hour, a sneaky figure clearly appeared. The monitor caught the man tampering with the laid-out straps with perfect clarity.

Except for the actors’ dressing rooms, many rooms in the production set were equipped with cameras. This was also why Zhou Dashan hadn’t assigned someone to watch the equipment constantly.

Wang Long’s face turned pale. He hadn’t been with the prop team long and hadn’t noticed that the crew had installed cameras in that room.

“You’ve got some nerve, playing tricks on my set.” Seeing the culprit had been found, Zhang Yunjiang snorted coldly. “Wang Kang, call the police immediately!”

Xie Ci watched the panicked man from the side. He hadn’t even spoken a word to this person; why would he do something so harmful to others and himself?

His brow furrowed. Ji Xiuheng, thinking it was due to pain, leaned in and told his assistant to go to the dressing room to get some ointment.

Zhou Mo was somewhat surprised. He had followed Ji Xiuheng for years and had seen various sides of this “ascetic gentleman” movie king that the public didn’t know, but this was the first time he had seen him care so much about someone he had just met.

However, he was naturally missing a gear in his brain, so he just assumed his artist was having a sudden burst of kindness and ran off to fetch the ointment.

Seeing the situation escalate, Wang Long didn’t hesitate to sell out A-Ya, who had approached him at noon.

“It… it was A-Ya who made me do it! He said if I could mess with the harness Xie Ci was using in the afternoon, he’d give me twenty thousand yuan! I have the five thousand deposit from A-Ya on my phone!”

The man grew more agitated, wishing he could confront the two of them immediately.

“Hahahaha, good, very good. Get Chen Yutian over here right now!” Zhang Yunjiang was so angry his mind was spinning; he laughed instead of shouting. Wang Kang immediately headed toward the silver-white luxury van where Chen Yutian was hiding.

“What do we do, Brother Chen? They found out we tampered with it!” Inside the car, Chen Yutian and A-Ya had been closely monitoring the situation outside. Their last shred of hope had vanished.

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