I Was Taken by the Female Lead After Transmigrating into a Book - Chapter 96

Everyone is just trying to make a living; if you have to go to such extremes and use others to make a name for yourself, then you are inviting public outrage.

The developments at the time were quite dramatic. At the very beginning, no one took the flurry of legal letters sent by Xi Rong seriously. Who could sue so many people at once, all of whom were netizens, with many even being verified ‘celebrities’ with known names?

Not to mention the influence, just the act of suing these people would be time-consuming and exhausting. They were not short on money, and once they hired a clever and difficult lawyer, one lawsuit could be delayed for a long time.

But no one expected that Xi Rong was serious.

The first to be targeted were the ones who were most vocal, who had live-streamed saying they ‘knew Bai Feifei,’ and were simultaneously spreading rumors, slandering, and defaming her. It was as if they were handing evidence directly to Xi Rong, who didn’t even need to bother collecting it.

Bai Feifei had no idea the situation had been so precarious until Huo Wu told her today.

Xi Rong had never mentioned the legal battles to her. In fact, Xi Rong was busy every day, so busy that she hadn’t spoken to Fu Xiaoxiao for a long time. She would only regularly transfer a sum of money to her account, with the note simply being the cold words ‘living expenses.’

The phone signal went from zero bars to normal, and the comments section finally loaded and appeared before Bai Feifei.

[Well, I mean, who would be happy to be forced to put on a whole body of tattoos and then go up on stage to dance like an idiot?]

[The tattoos don’t look like stickers. What kind of temporary tattoo technology is that good? Asking for a friend.]

[I’ve seen Xiao Bai up close. There are no tattoo removal scars on her body. Her skin is extremely fair, with not a single bit of leftover ink.]

[Hahahaha, she looks like my daughter when she was forced to go on stage for her kindergarten performance. She was unhappy too and kept pouting and crying.]

[Imagine an ordinary office worker forced to get a bunch of tattoos and then go on stage at the company’s annual party to sing “Two Tigers,” while a group of greasy, pot-bellied men sit in the audience. The next second, that would turn into a murder scene.]

[Thank you, ‘Empathizer Hero.’ I’m already thinking about buying a chainsaw.]

Bai Feifei made a sound of confusion, realizing that no one was actually cursing her. But the tone of the comments had changed in a very strange way.

Bai Feifei scrolled down a few more comments and found that they had turned into a collection of funny photos. They were mostly selfies posted by the commenters, with many being reaction memes of faking a smile at a company annual meeting.

Further down, someone said, ‘You can still laugh, I’ve been rolling my eyes all day,’ accompanied by a picture to match.

Lying comfortably in Huo Wu’s arms, she opened a few other videos and found that the comments were similar. The occasional one that was a bit more memeworthy was classified under the category of ‘Charming Awards for Forced Office Workers.’

…Mixed in with a group of people who didn’t look very healthy or normal, the ‘original owner’ looked much more normal.

Bai Feifei inexplicably found a strange sense of balance from this group of ‘insane’ people.

But soon, she seemed to notice something was off.

“A-Wu, is this app specifically for watching silly videos?” Bai Feifei exited the comments section, and the page returned to the main interface. All the video previews, from the thumbnail to the video names, were clearly comedy videos.

Bai Feifei’s suspicious expression turned to Huo Wu.

Huo Wu said without changing her expression, “Big data push. Since you searched for it just now, all this data was pushed to you.”

Is big data that fast now? You search for one thing, and the results completely fill the entire screen?

Bai Feifei handed the phone back to Huo Wu with a look of disbelief. She lay on her for a moment and then suddenly realized, “Wait, I didn’t search for that video just now.”

“I did,” Huo Wu said, lowering her head to kiss her. She carefully avoided the bandage and, seeing Bai Feifei starting to look sleepy, said, “Go to sleep early.”

Bai Feifei’s attention was instantly diverted. She consciously pulled Huo Wu’s hand back to the bedroom, and after fussing for a long time, like a bird building a nest, she finally got her position and posture just right. She then lay down, embracing Huo Wu.

Just before falling asleep, Huo Wu heard Bai Feifei suddenly chuckle and say, “You smell so good, A-Wu.”

It was a kind of charmingly erratic cuteness.

Huo Wu held back her laughter, adjusted the air conditioner’s temperature, and pulled the blanket up to Bai Feifei’s shoulders, making sure her more serious wounds weren’t being pressed. Only then did she fall asleep.

Wu Qingying didn’t have many scenes left. When Bai Feifei was rehearsing with her today, she heard her say that she had five or six scenes remaining and didn’t know if they would be adding more.

But Qi Yang’s own storyline was already rich enough, with a clear beginning and end, and enough plot twists. Wu Qingying herself said she felt there was probably no need to add more. At most, they would just refine some small details to make it easier for post-production.

Bai Feifei agreed with this and suddenly remembered that Li Ke had told her a while ago that when she had free time, she could walk around the area near the film set. There was a ‘crazy person’ staying near the community where she and Huo Wu’s characters lived. She could go and observe them up close to see if she could find any common ground with Qi Yang.

Bai Feifei felt a bit timid.

The community where Fu Sang and Wu Ling were temporarily staying was separated from the neighboring community by a single gate. It was surrounded by low iron fences, and the height of the electric sliding gate only reached an adult’s shoulder. Inside, there was a simple corridor made of iron bars, which didn’t completely block off the area.

Once evening arrived, the shadows from the trees by the fence would completely block the daylight, and the streetlights couldn’t shine through, making it look dark and scary. There were several small pet graves on the lawn, and occasionally, that fool would linger nearby, hiding in a corner, with a pair of eyes constantly watching the people passing through the community.

This was what Bai Feifei heard from a child in the next community.

After hearing that, she didn’t dare to go near the dividing fence that night.

A moment later, Bai Feifei leaned over to Wu Qingying, “Qi Yang, have you ever seen the fool in the next community? Is he scary?”

Wu Qingying didn’t expect her to ask about such a random thing. It took her a second to react, and then she said, “I have. He’s not scary, but you…” She sized up Bai Feifei’s wide, innocent eyes, a faint smile on her lips. “Stay away from him. He’s not a good person.”

Bai Feifei mumbled, “I asked an old person living here before, and those old people said he’s a good kid, a pitiable kid.”

Upon hearing this, Wu Qingying’s gaze swept over the old people sitting under the trees, gathered to cool down and watch the commotion. The smile on her face vanished instantly. After a moment, she said, “You asked the wrong people. The ones who told you that must have been men.”

Bai Feifei was stunned. “How did you know?”

This time, Wu Qingying just shook her head.

As she was leaving, she warned Bai Feifei, “If you really run into that fool and he keeps following you with no one around to help, you can directly take action. He’s timid and will run if you scare him. If he doesn’t run… then you should run and find a crowded place or the police.”

Bai Feifei swallowed hard, the phrase ‘he keeps following you’ scaring the hair on her arms straight up.

Not long after, the set was ready, and filming officially began in the afternoon.

The location was still the old school’s abandoned building.

The school area was too large for the police to completely seal it off, as it would only attract more attention and waste police resources. Only the building where Li Ran died had a police seal on the ground floor. A police car was parked on the cracked concrete outside, with a police tape in front and a few scattered officers working.

Fu Sang stood in a corner, watching them investigate and handle things. Today’s investigation was already coming to an end. The entire case was so simple that it didn’t even require an in-depth investigation.

Sanzi was diagnosed with schizophrenia, a genetic family disease. It had never manifested before, and he had lived a healthy life until he was twenty. But after that car accident, whether it was due to being frightened or hitting his head and undergoing surgery, his illness began to worsen little by little.

All witness testimonies and physical evidence from the scene proved that Sanzi suddenly erupted and killed someone. The motive for targeting Fu Sang and Wu Ling was unknown. The police couldn’t expect to get his motive or the truth from a mentally ill person. They could only wait for the final psychiatric evaluation before transferring the case to the court.

Everyone got into the police car and left the area one after another. The police tape was removed. Fu Sang waited for a while before walking out of the deserted corner.

She walked forward without much emotion, a slight frown on her face because of the mosquito bites on her body. She reached out and scratched. There were bites on the side of her face, her jawline, and her neck.

Li Ke considered it for a moment and didn’t yell “cut.” Fu Sang continued to act, and after discussing it with the nearby Huo Wu, she asked if she should do something about it.

Huo Wu considered it and said, “Just leave it.”

After a summer rain, it was a time when mosquitoes were rampant. Since the wide shot had already included a scene of a frog preying in the abandoned building, it had already subtly hinted at the presence of insects in the area. Even the police officers borrowed from the neighboring station had complained about how many mosquitoes there were when they came in.

Even with that, this was after they had already taken measures. The building had been treated to remove insects in advance, but there was nothing they could do about the outside. With so much vegetation, there were even more mosquitoes. The film crew had almost bought out all the mosquito coils in the surrounding area, but they still couldn’t stop themselves from being covered in bites.

In such an environment, it was impossible for the main characters, Fu Sang and Wu Ling, to walk from the main gate to the building without a single bite.

Li Ke nodded. Just as he was about to yell “action,” he looked at the monitor and saw the mosquito bites slowly rising on Bai Feifei’s arm. There were roughly ten to twenty of them. He frowned and said, “Wait a minute. Let’s do it again. Change the clothes. Who arranged for her to wear a short-sleeved shirt for this scene?”

He had felt something was off from the beginning but couldn’t put his finger on it.

Most of the time, the costume description was just ‘school uniform,’ and only specific situations would require a jacket. Li Ke himself didn’t have to worry about such small details, but he was also a bit agitated from the mosquito bites, and only then did he notice what was wrong.

Bai Feifei felt as if she had been granted a great pardon.

She had always been a magnet for mosquitoes since she was a child. She had a mosquito-repellent anklet on her leg and was wearing long pants, so she only had one or two bites, which were bearable. But her upper body had reached its limit.

The moment Li Ke spoke, Bai Feifei and Fu Xiaoxiao both let out a scream at the same time and rushed toward each other to spray on mosquito repellent.