Chapter 154: Too Evil!

Just as Jiang Lun stood up and was about to say something, Jet Li suddenly walked down from the stage.

He walked straight over, pulled Jiang Lun up by the arm, and smiled at the gathered media reporters. "Everyone, when it comes to making the film *Fearless*, I want to thank Jiang Lun from the bottom of my heart! It was he who provided such a high-quality script and meticulously designed every single shot of the entire film, even preparing the action choreography boards in advance. This has brought tremendous convenience to our production!"

As soon as he finished speaking, reporters began shouting questions all at once:

"Mr. Jet Li, do you have any face-to-face confrontation scenes with Jiang Lun?"

"Jiang Lun, what role are you playing, please?"

"Regarding this first collaboration between the two of you, is there anything you'd like to express?"

"..."

A flurry of questions was thrown out. Jiang Lun briefly answered a few before Jet Li smoothly took over the conversation. "Everyone, filming has just begun. Specific details can only be decided as we shoot!"

"Does that mean it's not certain whether Jiang Lun will appear in the film or not?" a reporter asked.

"Yes!" Jet Li smiled. "If you are looking forward to it, just wait and see when the movie is released in theaters!"

After that, the reporters asked many more questions. Jiang Lun answered a few simple ones, leaving the rest to Jet Li and the others.

At the end of the press conference, the production team released promotional stills of the main cast, personal character stills of Jet Li, and a synopsis of the plot.

It was not until 6:30 that the press conference finally concluded.

After the event dispersed, Jet Li invited Jiang Lun to his hotel room for dinner.

The two of them chatted happily, ranging from film, martial arts, and music to even literature, unexpectedly talking all through the night.

...

The next morning.

Jiang Lun was groggily woken up by his assistant.

The assistant in charge of his daily life was called Dou Yunyun. She was a fresh graduate, very serious about her work. Whenever she said she would wake him up, she would do it down to the exact second, never missing a beat.

Moreover, with a young lady standing right there, Jiang Lun couldn't steal even a few more minutes of sleep.

"Huh? Where is this?"

Jiang Lun looked at the unfamiliar room around him, suddenly surprised.

He was definitely not in his own room.

"This is Mr. Li's room. You two talked so late last night that he let you sleep in the guest bedroom!" Yunyun said.

"Oh!"

Jiang Lun shook his head, suddenly enlightened. "What time is it?"

"Nine o'clock. We have to go rehearse two evening show programs this afternoon, so hurry up and get up!" With that, Yunyun pointed to the clothes laid out for him on the bedside table and turned to leave the room.

Jiang Lun realized he hadn't even taken off his clothes when he went to sleep last night, and he had worked up a sweaty odor. He hurriedly undressed and dashed into the bathroom for a quick shower.

Guangzhou Tianhe Stadium.

The rehearsal taking place here was for Hunan Satellite TV's New Year's Eve countdown concert.

Mango TV's New Year's Eve gala consisted entirely of pop songs and dances, with no talk shows or comedic sketches, and they had even invited seven or eight groups of South Korean singers.

Because he had to rush between two countdown concerts, Jiang Lun's slot at Mango TV was the fourth item on the program.

The entire venue was currently in lockdown, with only artists and related personnel allowed inside. The audience was strictly kept outside the gates.

However, the fans of various stars still defied the winter cold, holding their ground at the stadium entrance just to catch a glimpse of their idols.

"I heard Jiang Lun is coming for rehearsals today, but who knows what time!"

"Yeah, I hope we don't have to wait too long!"

"I'm willing to wait as long as it takes just to see him!"

"A car is coming, a car is coming! Quick, see if it's him!"

For schedules like rehearsals, talent agencies generally do not make them public.

Only the formal performance schedule would be posted on the fan clubs' online forums for everyone to see.

Yet, this could not stop well-informed fans.

Some had calculated that with the New Year's Eve broadcast imminent, Jiang Lun would definitely have to come for rehearsals.

By further deduction: the Pioneer Chart awards were the day before yesterday, the press conference was yesterday, so today he simply had to rehearse!

Therefore, many fans had come early in the morning to wait.

Jiang Lun didn't want his fans to be this crazy; he would rather they just come to show support when he officially took the stage to perform.

So, when he stepped out of the car and saw them, Jiang Lun felt a bit guilty.

In the past, he would only shake hands, sign autographs, and offer a greeting, but today he unexpectedly said, "Everyone, please go back. The weather is so cold, be careful not to catch a cold. I'm just here for rehearsals today, and you won't be able to get in anyway. If you want to watch my performance, just remember to come on New Year's Eve!"

"Jiang Lun! Thank you for caring about us!"

A female fan who looked only about fifteen or six took the lead and said. She was wearing a black cap with two little wings on it, and a pair of rimless glasses perched on her nose, radiating a trendy vibe.

When she said this, the other fans all nodded along, but none of them showed any intention of leaving.

Jiang Lun immediately identified her as the leader of these fans, so he said to her, "Little girl, why don't you lead everyone to disperse, alright?"

"Mm-hmm!" The female fan nodded uncontrollably.

When she snapped back to reality, she couldn't help but retort, "I'm not a little girl, I'm already eighteen!"

"Even at eighteen, shouldn't you be in school?"

Jiang Lun smiled. "You guys have final exams coming up soon, right? Don't let it interfere with your studies!"

"Uh..."

The female fan pouted. "Why are you sounding just like my dad..."

Yet her unhappy expression instantly shifted, and she said with a grin, "Alright! I'll listen to you!"

With that, she turned around and ordered the other fans behind her, "Let's go! Back home to study hard!"

"Huh?"

The other fans were dumbfounded, staring at her wide-eyed. "We're just going back like this?"

"Go on back!"

Jiang Lun waved his hand. "I need to go inside for rehearsals now, goodbye!"

"Goodbye!"

"Jiang Lun, bye-bye!"

"I left you a message on Weibo, remember to reply to me!"

As everyone chattered and waved goodbye, Jiang Lun didn't linger any longer and turned to enter the stadium.

However, once inside, he didn't walk away immediately. Instead, he waited for a moment, and seeing that the fans really had left, he finally let out a sigh of relief. He pulled up his collar and followed the staff toward the stage.

"Xiao Jiang!"

As soon as he approached the stage, he heard Zhang Run's recognizable voice calling him. "Over here! Come quick!"

"Brother Run!"

Jiang Lun walked over with a smile. "Done with rehearsals?"

"Not yet, still waiting for the band to arrive!"

Zhang Run said, "Let me introduce you to some friends, come on!"

With that, Zhang Run led Jiang Lun over to a luxury motorhome.

This motorhome was as big as a tour bus, but the interior structure was completely different, laid out just like a luxury suite.

As soon as they stepped inside, they saw two mahjong tables set up.

Aside from the onlookers, everyone present was an A-list superstar.

One table featured Li Hong, Yao Liang, Cai Wenjuan, and Li Weijia.

Except for Li Weijia, who was a host at Mango TV, the other three were long-established top-tier megastars.

Especially Li Hong, who was the leading figure of R&B in the Chinese music scene and one of the earliest Chinese singers to perform R&B.

Yao Liang used to be an athlete, but after retiring, he participated in a sports-themed variety show and thus entered the entertainment industry.

Cai Wenjuan was the previous year's Best Actress winner at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards, as well as having won Best Mandarin Female Singer at the Golden Melody Awards a few years prior—a triple-threat star in film, television, and music.

The other table had even bigger names: Ding Cheng, the dance king among the Four Heavenly Kings, was among them, alongside Yu Yali, who debuted in a female idol group and later went solo; Zhou Ge, the Taiwan Golden Melody King of Songs; and veteran singer Teacher Zhao Xiaosong, who currently served as a judge on various major televised music talent shows.

The onlookers standing around were all people of considerable status. Of course, there were a few whose popularity was lower than Jiang Lun's—quite a few, actually—but those people participated in all sorts of variety shows and were familiar faces in the entertainment industry.

"Jiang Lun's here?"

Li Weijia had already reached the waiting-for-tiles stage and was happily waiting to declare victory when he saw Jiang Lun come up, immediately greeting him, "Come, come, come, come play a round!"

"Teacher Weijia, you go ahead and play! I'll just watch from the side for now, I'm not very good at it!"

Jiang Lun waved his hands with a smile.

"Xiao Jiang? Oh my, I finally get to meet you in the flesh!" Li Hong said.

"Oh my, little handsome, come, come, come, stand by older sister here. You've won so many awards this year, bring older sister some of your good luck!" Cai Wenjuan said.

"Xiao Jiang! Over here!"

Ding Cheng waved at him. "Come over here. You're considered my junior brother now, aren't you? How is old Wu treating you? If he's treating you badly, tell me and I'll settle scores with him!"

Everyone exchanged a polite pleasantry or two with Jiang Lun, and he returned every single one, praising one for being handsome, another for being pretty, another for being even younger than him, and wishing yet another good fortune in the coming year...

After making the rounds, Jiang Lun had made connections with quite a few people. The great thing about these New Year's Eve galas was that such occasions allowed one to get better acquainted with people in the industry.

However, for Jiang Lun, knowing many people was actually useless; what they had over him was merely experience and connections, whereas what he had over them were entire literary and artistic works from another world. Therefore, he knew very well not to let himself get hot-headed from a few sweet-talked compliments.

After sitting down and watching them play mahjong for a while, Zhang Run pulled him away again. "Come on, let's go upstairs and take a look, I'll introduce you to some beauties!"

Zhang Run couldn't help but wink at him as well.

The mischievous glint in those eyes made Jiang Lun feel ashamed for him.

"Brother Run, forget about the beauties!"

Jiang Lun waved his hands. "I already have a girlfriend!"

"Hey, what are you thinking!"

Zhang Run's expression instantly shifted into one of absolute seriousness. "I'm not asking you to hook up, just to make some friends. Look at you... your little mind is way too evil!"

"Uh... alright, alright!"

Jiang Lun felt helpless. Clearly, his expression had that exact inclination, so how did it turn into him being evil once it was spoken aloud?

Before they even reached the second floor, right at the stair landing, they were instantly hit by a wave of heavy perfume and powder.

"Look everyone! Who did I bring?"

Zhang Run walked ahead, and before Jiang Lun even made it up, he started shouting.

"Who?"

"Brother Run, don't tell me you brought Sister-in-law Run along?"

"Yeah, with so many beauties of us here, you still dared to bring Sister-in-law Run up?"

Listening to this flurry of chattering voices, Jiang Lun's head instantly swelled. Could it really be that everyone upstairs was a female celebrity?

This floor wasn't very high, and Jiang Lun's height brushed right against the vehicle's ceiling, forcing him to hunch over as he walked.

The moment he appeared, someone called out his name: "Jiang Lun? You're here too?"

Following the voice, Jiang Lun looked over and was surprised to spot Zhao Liying and Guo Biting, among others. Sitting with them on the second floor were all the close girlfriends from their own social circle.

Looking closer, they were actually playing poker.