The President’s Man - Chapter 313

…

The next few days passed by quickly, and on the next Saturday, Xiao Lei was filming when Xiao Zhihao and Tian Le came for a visit.

“I’m sorry. No visitors allowed,” said a guard at the door.

“I’m Xiao Zhihao, the female lead’s son. Can you please let her know?” Xiao Zhihao asked. He sent a message to his mother earlier, but there was no reply from her yet. He figured that she was probably filming and didn’t see his message.

The guard looked at him and Tian Le for a few seconds before saying, “Wait a second…”

He then took out his phone and gave someone a call. A few minutes later, a woman came running out.

“Hi, I’m Assistant Yoon, your mother’s personal assistant on-site,” the woman said as she reached out a hand. She had seen Xiao Zhihao’s photo before, so she recognized him almost immediately. However, she did not recognize the kid next to him.

“Oh, my mother mentioned you before,” Xiao Zhihao said as he shook her hand. “This is my friend, Tian Le.”

Assistant Yoon’s eyes went open slightly. She had heard of a Tian Le before, during her off-time with some of her colleagues at the Shenlong Family. “President Du’s godson?” she thought curiously. There was no real confirmation of that before, but a lot of people within their group mentioned that President Du had a godson whom he had never introduced to the public before.

She then smiled before she shook Tian Le’s hand and led them into the site. As they walked in, she explained, “Ms. Xiao is filming at the moment. She was called away before she could reply to your message, but she told me to look out for you.”

“Thanks for taking care of my mother. I’m sure she’s a handful.”

“Don’t worry; it’s my job to look after her,” Assistant Yoon said with a polite smile. “She often talked about you, and she said that you’re an extremely dependable son.”

Tian Le blushed upon hearing it. “Oh, did she try to do any dangerous scenes?”

“No, and she didn’t fight about that either. She’s very compliant with everything at the moment, but I’m a little worried about the second female lead, Vivian Siew.”

“Why?”

“Work rivalry.” Assistant Yoon suddenly signaled them to keep quiet.

Xiao Zhihao and Tian Le exchanged glances before nodding. They could hear people shouting and the sound of a woman wailing.

“Mum…” Xiao Zhihao mumbled under his breath. They quickly walked in and saw a lot of people moving around a set.

…

“Why… Why…” the Xiao Lei’s character cried her eyes out as she tried to reach the lifeless body of her son while her own body was trying to fight for survival.

For the last few months, she had tried her best to fight for the custody of her son, with her ex-husband and his mistress doing everything they could to stop her. They sent people to threaten her and burn down her house; she was beaten physically and mentally, and if not for a mysterious old man who jumped out to save her and gave her a black name card that had nothing but a series of number etched on it, she would have been r.a.p.ed by the men they sent.

Despite all that, she never gave up. She burnt through all of her savings, sold off everything she owned, but because she was not as wealthy as her husband, the judge deemed her incompetent, and she believed that her husband did something behind the back, because the judge granted him full custody of their son and she would have no visitation right.

Since she could not get her son legally, her son ran away from home one day to look for her, and at the same time, her husband sent someone to get rid of her, because she had something on him. When her son arrived at the room and saw a masked man pining his bloodied mother on the ground with a gun pointed against her temple, he yelled at the man and jumped him, pulling off the masked man’s mask in the meantime.

His action caused the hired assassin to get nervous, and he shot the poor boy in the head to get rid of the witness.

Thud!

The boy fell forward, dead.

“NOOOO!!!” Xiao Lei’s character yelled out; her voice was trembling as she tried to scramble to her son’s body. “NOOO!!! Whyyy!!! He’s just a boy!”

BANG!

Thud!

The man shot Xiao Lei’s character in the head. He wanted to shoot again, but he heard footsteps heading toward him as well as yelling from outside the unit, so he hesitated for a second before running off, thinking that he had done his job.

Unfortunately for him, for some reason, Xiao Lei’s character did not die immediately. She opened her eyes as she tried to reach for her son’s lifeless body; tears were falling down her cheeks quietly as she tried to call out her son’s name.

“Argghhh!!!”

“Call the cops! Call the cops!”

“S-She’s still breathing! The ambulance, quick!”

She heard voices, but before she could identify them, her vision turned black.

…

“CUT!” the director yelled. “Good take!”

The boy actor that was lying on the floor stood up and nodded at the director. He then went on to help Xiao Lei, but there was a blank look on her face.

The boy stared at her for a second before calling out for the director. “I think she’s too deep in character!”

Xiao Zhihao took this chance to step forward. He pulled down his cap slightly as he walked toward his mother.

“Who is that?” the director asked his assistant. When his assistant shrugged, the director yelled, “Go stop him! Who let an outsider in?!”

“Stop!” Assistant Yoon rushed forward. “That’s her son!”

“What? She has a son?”

“Well, she’s quite old… So that’s not surprising…”

“He’s quite handsome too.”

Some of the staff members discussed among themselves.

Xiao Zhihao ignored them as he stood in front of his mother. He looked up at his mother’s eyes and took her hands in his. “Mum, it’s me…”

Xiao Lei looked at him, but her eyes were expressionless, as if she could not recognize him. Her face was still stained by fake blood and tears.

“Mum, it’s me, Zhihao,” he said gently. “I’m here. I’m fine.”

“Zhihao…” she repeated his name. “Zhihao…”

“Yeah, I’m here now. I’m safe…”

Xiao Lei blinked a couple of times, and her eyes slowly regained sanity, and they slowly focused on him. “Zhihao?”

“Em…”

Her eyes started to get watery again, and she hugged him tightly. She was so serious about her work that she placed herself too deep in the shoes of her character, to the point that she thought that the boy was Xiao Zhihao.

“Mum, are you feeling better now?” Xiao Zhihao asked softly.

“Yeah…” She chuckled. “Sorry, this is my first acting experience.”

She then looked around and bowed politely at the rest. “Sorry, guys, for making you worry over me.”

“It’s good that you’re fine now,” the director said. It was actually quite dangerous for an actor to stay in character for too long and too deep. Some people actually had a hard time disentangling their own selves from their characters, causing them to act in ways that only their characters would act, and thus causing the ruins of their careers. “Take a break.”

“Thank you, director,” she said. She then turned to the child actor and said, “Were you worried about me?”