Living Beyond the Blame Chapter 3

The sky was high and the clouds were light. The sun shone on the glass wall of the Xingtian Entertainment Media Building, reflecting a shadow on the sidewalk.

Movie star Patrick Li glanced casually through the car window at the paparazzi squatting next to the building. The inconspicuous black car he was riding in had turned a corner and was inserted into the busy traffic.

"The movie 'The Crow' was released yesterday, and the national box office figures have come out. Not to mention becoming the new number one, it's still 400 million less than last year's box office champion." The assistant said while secretly glancing at Patrick Li's face.

"The Crow" is well-made and stars a large cast. It is the most widely promoted film in the entertainment industry this year. The release date was chosen again and again, but in the end, when it was released, it bumped into an unexpectedly popular European and American suspense film and a domestic low-cost comedy that became a dark horse, resulting in the final box office results being lower than expected. Everyone from investors to directors was holding their breath.

They said too much before the release, and now their faces are about to be swollen! They hid and kept silent. As a public figure, Patrick Li had to face aggressive questions whenever he showed his face. No one would be happy about this.

Patrick Li didn't want to hear about this topic anymore, so he asked casually, "Has the stuntman been finalized?"

It would have been fine if he hadn't said anything. As soon as he mentioned this, his agent sitting in the passenger seat got particularly angry: "Yesterday he said he would think about it before replying. He thinks he is such a big shot. Assistant Connor called him four times but no one answered! How worthwhile are you to wait for him? No wonder someone said he couldn't have this job."

"Um?"

Patrick Li was obviously hearing this for the first time. He looked serious and his assistant immediately shrank to the side.

"Young people are ignorant and offend people." The agent said lightly, "There are so many stuntmen in the industry, many of whom have practiced martial arts. Why would you hire such an unreliable one?"

"Hit again." Patrick Li turned a deaf ear to these words.

The assistant silently took out his cell phone, and this time he didn't dare to look at the agent's face.

The notification tone coming from the mobile phone made Assistant Connor want to cry - the number you dialed is turned off.

Ethan Jian forgot his cell phone in the car. First he was bombarded with messages from his childhood friend in the morning, and then he was beaten by Assistant Connor. His cell phone, which was out of battery, lay dead.

"There are many stunt doubles in the industry, but this is the only one that I like."

After hearing this, the agent said to his assistant with a dark face, "We'll fight tomorrow." He couldn't change Patrick Li's mind. Wouldn't it be easy to cause trouble for the new guy in the future? As for the draft contract that was originally prepared, he could also change the terms and do something.

"Today's Weibo headline... Hey, is it social news?"

Assistant Connor was immediately happy. He was afraid that the rival company would hype up the topic that "The Crow" was withdrawn from the theaters and the best actor lost to the low-budget dark horse. Patrick Li's reputation would be damaged, and the whole team would be in a gloomy mood.

"A bizarre murder occurred in Huaicheng. A young man and woman died in a shopping mall in the middle of the night..."

Patrick Li and his agent have been in the entertainment industry for many years, so what is there for them to not understand? Cases happen every day across the country, and the media deliberately add the words "young men and women" and "midnight" to the headlines to induce people to click on them or associate them with strange things, thus gaining widespread attention. As for whether the deceased knew each other, that is another matter.

At this moment, the car braked suddenly, and Assistant Connor's cell phone flew out and hit the front windshield with a clang.

Fortunately, everyone is subconsciously afraid of being discovered by paparazzi while chasing their car, so they all have the good habit of wearing seat belts.

The person driving for Patrick Li was his bodyguard and personal assistant Brandon Geng. This man from Northeast China was furious. If Patrick Li hadn't been in the car, he would definitely rush down and drag out the driver of the car in front to argue with him.

Is there anyone who drives like this? He drove sideways into this lane. If the other car rushed in a little more suddenly and drove faster, even if his car didn't hit it head-on, it would be rear-ended by the car behind it that didn't have time to react.

The vehicle involved in the accident was parked across the middle of the road, forcing the cars behind it to stop, causing congestion on the auxiliary road leading to the elevated road.

"Sorry!" A red-haired head popped out from the cab of the vehicle involved in the accident, raised his hands and apologized loudly.

Brandon Geng could only swallow the remaining anger. The foreigner couldn't even understand what he said, so it was useless to scold him. He honked the horn to vent his anger. The agent's face was very long. Was it because he was in trouble today? Or what? It was so unlucky!

"Xiao Lin, get out of the car and tell the other party to leave quickly. If the traffic police come, our trip will be delayed."

When Assistant Connor saw the situation, he was immediately overwhelmed.

The foreigner's Mercedes was fine, but the headlight of my Audi was broken.

"Why are you still asking for compensation? Just consider yourself unlucky and wait for the traffic police to coordinate and resolve the issue?" The agent glared at Assistant Connor.

"But... this car is mine." Assistant Connor wanted to cry. In order to avoid the paparazzi waiting at the company gate, they did not use Patrick Li's car today.

"Okay, the company will reimburse you!" the agent said impatiently.

When the traffic police arrive, everyone must get off the car. If certain media get to know about this, they will just make up the blame for Patrick Li. If they want to sway public opinion, the money they throw at the internet trolls will be enough to pay for two headlights.

Assistant Connor returned to the car with a look of heartache.

Then he found out the second bad news. His phone screen was broken...

Patrick Li was amused by his assistant's miserable expression. In his opinion, as long as the person was fine, he could buy another car or phone. He patted Assistant Connor on the shoulder and comforted him softly: "I'll give you a quarterly bonus, and you can pick a new one tomorrow."

Assistant Connor hurriedly thanked him, but just as he had finished speaking, he heard a loud shout from outside.

When everyone looked through the glass, they were immediately shocked and pale.

A commercial vehicle on the viaduct ahead caught fire. The driver didn't know what was going on and sped down recklessly, finally crashing through the guardrail and falling into the green belt under the bridge.

"Boom!" The whole car exploded, the bridge pier was damaged, and fire was raging.

From Patrick Li's car to the other car owners stuck on the auxiliary road behind, everyone was stunned.

---If there had been no sudden accident and the car had gone up the bridge normally, who knows if it would have been affected by that car.

The agent realized that he might have saved his life just now, opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water. Assistant Connor held the broken phone in his hands with his eyes wide open and his face blank, looking like a frightened animal.

When Patrick Li came to his senses, he suddenly saw that the Mercedes-Benz car that caused the initial congestion in front of him had already driven away in the chaos.

***

Glancing at the rearview mirror, Jack, wearing sunglasses and red hair, whistled and patted the steering wheel, and said in English to the hidden microphone beside his ear: "Everything went well. The car accident has happened, and Patrick Li was not involved."

"Don't arouse the other party's suspicion." A pleasant voice came from the microphone.

"With my East Coast racing skills, cutting in and stopping people is a piece of cake. They can't wait to thank me, so who would doubt it?"

"The Chinese have a saying that caution can keep a ship afloat for 10,000 years. Don't do unnecessary things."

Red-haired Jack smiled and blew a K!ss into the microphone: "Honey, don't worry about my work. We'll celebrate when we get back home. This time it was really not easy. Although the original book has the whole story of the serial car accident that Patrick Li encountered, the time and place are all there, but the license plate number is not written in the book, and I don't know which car will spontaneously catch fire. If I hadn't hired a detective to investigate the information of the people around him, I would have almost missed the car that Patrick Li was riding in today."

"It is indeed worth celebrating. Patrick Li's chance of awakening has been wiped out by us. Next---"

"Next we have to find the real leader of 'Black Abyss'. According to the author's spoiler at the end of the fifth part, Patrick Li is just a puppet, the apparent leader of the Black Abyss organization. The person behind him is hiding too deeply... God, who made the author not finish it yet! We still don't know who the BOSS is."

The person on the other end of the microphone immediately warned: "Be careful with your words from now on. After the deaths in various countries, the supernatural beings in the book will appear one by one. We can no longer talk about these secrets casually like before."

"OK!" Jack agreed and drove the car into a parking lot.

He picked up a bag on the passenger seat and pulled out the photos inside.

Patrick Li's, his assistant's, his agent's...

Jack took off his sunglasses, took out his lighter, and burned the photos one by one while humming a song.

"It's a pity that China has strict control over guns. He is a big star here and has to be extra careful about his safety when going in and out." Red-haired Jack muttered to himself, watching the flames from the corner of the photo gradually engulf Patrick Li's refreshing smile.

The safest way to deal with an enemy who will become extremely powerful in the future is of course to kill him while he is still weak.

If you can't kill him directly, then destroy his chance of becoming a superpower---

***

Under the viaduct over there.

Because the Mercedes-Benz that was blocking the road left, the Audi that Patrick Li and his companions were riding in was able to escape.

Assistant Connor was so frightened that he was sweating all over. Suddenly, the phone rang. He hurriedly raised his phone and recognized through the broken screen that it was the number he had dialed several times this morning and at noon.

"Hello...you are Ethan Jian...Okay! Okay!"

Assistant Connor nodded at Patrick Li as he spoke, indicating that the stuntman had agreed to sign the contract.

Frightened by what happened just now, the agent forgot about making things difficult for Ethan Jian and said casually: "Tell him to come to the company tomorrow morning and sign the contract."