TRMP Chapter 2
by VolareJiang Yifeng lay on the hospital bed, staring at the ceiling.
He had accidentally fallen when he got out of bed just now, and his lower leg, up to his knee, was throbbing with pain.
The doctor told him to rest for another three days, but Jiang Yifeng considered the balance in his bank card and sincerely declined the doctor’s suggestion.
Jiang Yifeng opened his phone, and the internet was flooded with news about “Mu Yu Ge.”
High-definition leaked photos had spread across the internet on the day of filming. He could swipe and see beautiful pictures of the main actors everywhere, and the dedicated promotional material made Jiang Yifeng’s leg hurt even more.
“Ding-dong—”
A text message notification sounded, and the incoming message displayed a deposit of 200,500 yuan.
Immediately after, a WeChat interface popped up at the top of the screen, with the director’s assistant’s account concisely stating: “Jiang Yifeng, 200,000 is for medical expenses + subsidy + hush money, and 500 is your salary. Don’t mention this matter again in the future.”
After sending it, perhaps afraid that Jiang Yifeng would be greedy, the director’s assistant added: “We have already compensated at twice the industry standard, so I hope you don’t push your luck.”
Jiang Yifeng happily admired the balance for a while before switching back to WeChat and replying, “Then when do I need to return to the set? My leg still hurts a bit, so it might take two more days.”
“You don’t need to come.”
Judging from the typing time on the other end, the other person was probably extremely speechless.
Jiang Yifeng looked at the phone screen with disappointment – the daily pay for a stunt double was much higher than that of an extra.
The unemployed Jiang Yifeng lay on the hospital bed, pondering what to do for the next month.
He opened WeChat again, only to see that his manager, Luo Qi, who was pinned to the top of the list, hadn’t sent him a message in three months.
A manager had several artists under their care, but Luo Qi, who had been enthusiastically planning to do great things with Jiang Yifeng back then, had become disillusioned with Jiang Yifeng’s luck.
Jiang Yifeng remembered the last time he saw Luo Qi, he was with a seventeen-year-old newcomer under his charge, taking magazine photos. The young newcomer was energetic and ambitious, not yet experienced the beatings of the entertainment circle, and was still very green, but recently, energetic youths were also popular.
Luo Qi probably wouldn’t be looking for him anytime soon either.
Jiang Yifeng pouted and familiarly opened an industry work group, skillfully posting his resume.
“Available as extra, stunt double, participated in several TV series as an extra, skilled in the job, price negotiable.”
Unfortunately, the film and television industry had lost a lot of money recently, and there were fewer projects being launched. Even extra roles were internally assigned to several headhunters with resources.
Jiang Yifeng was getting fewer and fewer jobs, and the commission for getting jobs through headhunters was too high, making Jiang Yifeng wonder if he was asking for too much – maybe he should wait for his leg to get better and go to Hengdian to see if there were any job openings.
He sat and looked at his phone until the nurse came to urge him to check out of the hospital. Only then did Jiang Yifeng support himself with crutches and slowly shuffle out of the ward.
Once outside, he scanned a shared electric scooter and rode for more than half an hour to get to his apartment. When Jiang Yifeng supported himself with crutches up the stairs, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He skillfully ordered a fifteen-yuan stir-fried dish takeaway before he had time to look at his phone.
30+ unread voice messages.
Jiang Yifeng was startled and immediately clicked into WeChat. Before he had time to look at the messages above, he anxiously asked, “Brother Luo, is there a job?”
“Job, my ass! The director just called my phone, did you sell the news to the paparazzi?”
Jiang Yifeng was shocked.
He quickly searched online and immediately saw the news that “Mu Yu Ge” lead actress Su Xiaoyu was suspected of using a stunt double for filming, causing the stunt double to fall from a horse and fracture a bone. Dense news articles were arranged from top to bottom, interspersed with two profile photos of him riding a horse.
In the photos, Jiang Yifeng was wearing a red costume, with flowing red gauze fluttering behind him, and he was holding the reins, leaning forward slightly, with a cold look in his eyes.
He was indeed wearing Su Xiaoyu’s most popular and best-looking costume, and the production team had initially released front and side views of this costume for publicity. Every picture made outsiders exclaim how beautiful it was, and even costume bloggers had specifically analyzed the dress.
Now this dress was actually worn by a stranger.
Jiang Yifeng felt dizzy.
He didn’t dare to look at what the comments section was saying. Jiang Yifeng trembled as he clicked into WeChat and firmly denied, “I absolutely did not reveal any information to the outside! I can’t even afford to pay the penalty for breach of contract!”
The liquidated damages for film and television projects started at 100,000 yuan. Even if Jiang Yifeng had a hundred times the courage, he wouldn’t have the money to contact the paparazzi to spread the news.
Selling a piece of news to the paparazzi in the industry only cost 500 yuan!
Jiang Yifeng was afraid that the production team’s legal team would immediately come to his door, indiscriminately accuse him of leaking information, and then drag him to court to forcibly ask him for hundreds of thousands of liquidated damages and millions of dollars in compensation for losses…
“Forget it, I know you don’t have the money to pay.” After Luo Qi calmed down, he immediately denied his previous words, having a clear understanding of Jiang Yifeng’s courage. “But now the impact is very bad, and they also used your beautiful photos. Anyone who sees it will think you want to climb up… It should be Su Xiaoyu’s rivals using you as a tool.”
Jiang Yifeng cautiously asked, “Could it be that all my pictures are beautiful, and that picture wasn’t specially selected?”
Luo Qi: “…”
Jiang Yifeng: “Brother Luo, if I tell the director this reason, will the director believe that it wasn’t me?”
Luo Qi: “I don’t know, but believe me, after you finish speaking, you can deliver takeaways full-time in the future. Remember to wear a mask tightly~”
Jiang Yifeng looked at his phone in distress.
He felt that he was telling the truth, but Luo Qi obviously thought he was talking nonsense.
The director’s assistant didn’t even ask him a word—obviously, regardless of whether Jiang Yifeng participated or not, they didn’t trust him.
…It seems like I really have to deliver takeaways soon.
The internet was buzzing with excitement, and the person involved, Jiang Yifeng, had already opened his phone and started reapplying to become a takeaway rider.
Luo Qi advised Jiang Yifeng not to be so pessimistic, but he didn’t mention the director’s attitude to Jiang Yifeng again.
Jiang Yifeng also knew that Su Xiaoyu had a big background, and “Mu Yu Ge” was a serious drama with high prestige, backed by one of the leading film and television companies in the industry.
The other party’s loss of trust in Jiang Yifeng meant that Jiang Yifeng was destined to say goodbye to “becoming popular.”
With incomparable grief, Jiang Yifeng registered as a takeaway rider on the new website and also posted his resume in another work group, changing his job listings to: “Available as an extra, stunt double, can do translation…”
Jiang Yifeng waited all night and found that the news online not only hadn’t stopped, but was getting worse.
Jiang Yifeng tried to explain to the director’s assistant, but he found that he had been blacklisted after sending the message.
Su Xiaoyu had been very popular for a while, and there were many people who were jealous of her. Having finally found a reason, the haters and rivals immediately flocked to it, making the matter a hot topic, which stayed on the hot search list for several days.
And in order to attack Su Xiaoyu, the internet army was spreading Jiang Yifeng’s picture of riding a horse in red clothes on a large scale, making it impossible for Jiang Yifeng to hide.
Luo Qi helped Jiang Yifeng negotiate for a while, but only brought back one piece of news.
“Su Xiaoyu and Donghai Entertainment said that any production team that hires you will be banned from related directors and producers… I’ll try to negotiate again. You should take a break for a while.”
After putting down his phone, Jiang Yifeng was silent for a moment, then he changed his clothes, went downstairs, and drove his scooter to the restaurant.
He wondered if the saying “misfortunes never come singly” was a true life lesson. Jiang Yifeng encountered a traffic jam as soon as he left.
He rushed to the restaurant. There were only fifteen minutes left for delivery time. When he straddled his bike and rushed to the customer’s house, a “ding—” sound suddenly came from his mind as he passed through an alley.
[Detected host, Paper Lover APP is successfully bound, please confirm…]
The voice in his head and the message on his phone [Your order is approaching overtime, please deliver as soon as possible—] echoed each other, causing Jiang Yifeng to scold, “Shut up, we’ll talk about it later.”
He slammed the handle, and rushed out, but when he was turning a corner, someone suddenly rushed out, forcing Jiang Yifeng to swerve to avoid them.
The sudden braking caused the entire bike to swing outward. When he fell, he hit his calf again, causing him to scream in pain. At the same time, he had to lower his head and apologize to the person opposite.
When he delivered the food downstairs, he realized that the soup had spilled.
Jiang Yifeng had no choice but to contact the buyer. After he had discussed it, he found that the system had automatically deducted money for overtime.
Jiang Yifeng: “What is this suffering in the world?”
After deducting the money, Jiang Yifeng’s account immediately became negative.
Jiang Yifeng simply transferred the orders he had on hand to other riders and squatted on the side of the road to rest, while holding the already leaking takeaway box to solve his lunch.
Someone passed by him and couldn’t bear to leave two banknotes.
“Don’t scavenge food from the trash can, buy some buns to tide you over.”
The passerby’s gentle voice made Jiang Yifeng couldn’t help but wonder how the passerby saw through his poor nature from his handsome appearance.
Jiang Yifeng accepted the money thrown by the passerby and raised his hand to donate the same amount of money to the Children’s Healthy Lunch Project.
He patted his pants and stood up, only to hear a trembling voice in his head.
“Do you have time now?”
Jiang Yifeng looked around.
“I’m in your brain, a nurturing APP, similar to the live streaming software in your world. You will have a 1v1 live connection with a bound object from another world.”
Jiang Yifeng was silent, and a storm surged in his mind. At this moment, he even suspected that he was suffering from a mental disorder due to too many setbacks.
However, the system in his mind was still chattering on, “Our alias is the Paper Lover System. We are to help the binder in another world to choose a suitable paper lover to help treat the other party’s psychological disorders. If you are successfully bound, you will receive what we provide…”
Jiang Yifeng felt that he might have encountered a psychic scam.
Just as his finger was about to touch the emergency call number, the voice quickly added, “And the rewards that the other party gives you can be exchanged into the currency of your world on a one-to-one basis, which is regarded as the fee for your mental treatment assistance, and the source is legitimate, which will never cause you any trouble!”
Jiang Yifeng paused for a moment, and then asked very considerately, “You are in my head, does this live broadcast need to be 24 hours? If I don’t have any privacy, then…” do I need to charge more?