A new week had begun.
The office building sprang back to life, with people constantly walking in and out. Carrying a stack of reports and checklists, Li Mu walked briskly into the building and gently knocked on Third Brother's door.
Knock, knock, knock.
"Come in," Third Brother called from inside.
With a smile, Li Mu pushed the door open and stepped in. "Third Brother, these are last week's production runner tasks; I've written them all down here. Oh, and I've also jotted down this week's. Take a look and see if I missed anything so I can fix it."
Seeing that it was Li Mu, Third Brother smiled warmly, stood up from his office desk, and motioned for him to sit on the reception sofa.
He picked up a freshly brewed pot of hot tea, poured a cup for Li Mu, and asked with concern, "So, how are you holding up these past few days? Are those little punks giving you any trouble?"
Li Mu accepted the hot tea, took a small sip, then set the cup back on the coffee table and replied with a smile, "With your reputation backing me up, Third Brother, how would they dare disobey me? They're all practically falling over themselves to butter me up."
Third Brother chuckled heartily and patted Li Mu's shoulder in approval.
Li Mu smiled along and smoothly handed the report over to Third Brother.
Third Brother took it, crossed his legs, scanned the contents briefly, and tossed the checklist facedown onto the coffee table. "Very thorough, nothing missed," he commented. "Just keep doing it this way, and we can slowly adjust the minor details as we go."
The two men sat on the sofa, chatting in a relaxed manner.
Li Mu was growing more and more fond of talking with Third Brother. Talking to him was genuinely comfortable.
"Oh, right, Director Jiang asked me about you yesterday, wanting to know how you were getting on," Third Brother said with a wink and a chuckle.
Li Mu's interest was piqued. "And what did Third Brother say?"
"What else could I say? Naturally, I could only use the word 'excellent' to describe you." Third Brother burst into laughter. "At this rate, people behind my back are starting to call me the King of Hell and you the Living Bodhisattva. If you keep this up, I'll be out of a job."
Li Mu gave an awkward, self-deprecating smile and said nothing.
He had merely been a bit easygoing, fighting for a few extra labor protections and benefits for the crew—he never expected it to turn out like this.
"Still, there is one thing I must remind you of." Third Brother's expression suddenly darkened, and he warned solemnly, "Don't be too easygoing. In our line of work, if you're too accommodating, people will just think you're a soft persimmon and pick on you at every turn."
"Understood," Li Mu nodded.
In truth, it wasn't that he was overly accommodating; he simply chose to turn a blind eye as long as it wasn't a major issue.
There was no point in making a fuss over trivial matters and making an enemy of someone just for the sake of it.
Third Brother was about to say more when his phone rang.
He hastily answered it.
Upon hearing the person on the other end, his face instantly darkened. He just kept nodding and agreeing, "Mm-mm-mm, fine, I'll go handle it in person right away. Rest assured, I'll give you an explanation."
A flicker of unease welled up in Li Mu's heart. He asked, "What's wrong?"
"Damn it, some small-time featured extra got into a fight with Wang Hao," Third Brother cursed, gathering his things and heading toward the door. "You wait here, I'll be right back as soon as I sort it out."
"What? Then I'm coming too!" Li Mu sprang to his feet and followed right behind Third Brother.
The office building was about two kilometers away from the catering area. After walking for ten minutes or so, Li Mu, Third Brother, and their group finally reached the scene of the commotion.
From a distance, a dense sea of heads could be seen, packed three layers deep in a massive circle.
Shouts and curses echoed from within the crowd.
"Old Second Wei, I'll screw your mother! If you don't beat the crap out of me today, you're the son of a bitch!"
"Fuck your mother, aren't you just a running dog? What the hell are you acting all high and mighty for!"
Spectators on the outer ring were wildly throwing punches and shouting to fan the flames.
The scene was chaotic to the extreme.
"What the hell are you all doing?! You want to start a rebellion or what?!" Third Brother roared, his voice thick with fury. "Do you all still want to work or not?! If you don't want to work, get the hell out of here!"
Startled by Third Brother's shout, the crowd of extras immediately scattered, clearing a path for Li Mu and the others.
In the mud, Wang Hao was a disheveled mess. His mouth was smeared with blood, and blood continuously oozed from his nose and lips.
A burly, heavily muscled man had him by the collar, pressing a fist the size of a sandbag right against Wang Hao's face.
Wang Hao smiled stubbornly, baring a row of blood-stained teeth.
Li Mu strode forward in a single bound, angrily tearing the burly man's hand away, pulling Wang Hao out of his grip, and asking with concern, "Are you alright? Do you want me to take you to the hospital to get checked out?"
Wang Hao spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva and shook his head. "I'm fine."
"What happened?" Li Mu asked again.
Looking at Li Mu, Wang Hao pointed at the burly man and said, "I was handing out the boxed meals just fine, and this bastard insisted he wouldn't eat a regular box lunch—he demanded the meals reserved for the crew staff. When I wouldn't let him have them, this bastard threw a punch."
With that, Wang Hao spat out another mouthful of bloody phlegm in indignation.
Hearing this, Li Mu turned around, his gaze locked coldly onto the burly man as he asked, "Is that true?"
Li Mu was tall—standing one meter eighty-five barefooted—and coupled with his frequent weightlifting, he cut an even more imposing figure than the burly man.
Normally, however, Li Mu always wore a smile, giving people a warm and gentle impression.
Right now, with his face locked in a cold glare, he genuinely sent a chill through everyone present.
Unsettled by Li Mu's stare, the burly man swallowed hard, then stubbornly retorted, "So what if it is? This guy has eyes in the back of his head looking down on people! I'm an actor, not some ordinary extra, yet he has me eating box lunches every day. So what if I beat him up?"
"Featured extras, minor extras, background extras—everyone here is a background actor," Li Mu roared. "Do you really think you're some kind of big star? If you want to throw a diva fit, go throw it somewhere else! This is my turf!"
Wang Hao was his underling, and he was simply enforcing the crew's rules.
Now that Wang Hao had been beaten, Li Mu felt as though he had just been slapped across the face himself.
With every sentence he spoke, his pitch rose by half a notch, until the end was practically a full-throated roar.
Driven to rage by embarrassment, the burly man sneered sarcastically, "Oh, you're saying I'm throwing a diva fit? Well, grandfather is going to throw a major fit today! Come on, come on, grandfather wants to see just what you can do to him!"
"Don't think having money makes you hot stuff! There are plenty of film crews out there—the worst that can happen is I won't hang around the Capital anymore!"
Li Mu smiled—a chilling, bone-chilling smile.
"Haozi, call the police. Later we'll go get an injury assessment and a full physical exam. If the doctor asks, you tell them your head hurts and run a bunch of extra tests. Someone else is footing the bill anyway," Li Mu instructed Wang Hao.
Wang Hao immediately clutched his head and dialed the phone, acting as though he were in extreme agony.
The burly man panicked. People in their line of work feared nothing more than getting entangled with law enforcement.
Even Ma San furrowed his brow, stepped forward, and reminded Li Mu in an undertone, "Don't blow this out of proportion. If it can be settled privately, settle it privately. Don't let official authorities get involved in our crew's affairs."
Abruptly changing his tune, Li Mu pointed at the burly man and said, "Fine. Today I'll give Third Brother some face. Haozi, how many times did he hit you? Slap this bastard back the exact same number of times. If he dares to fight back, we're calling the cops."
"I'll find someone to bail you out."
The moment Li Mu's words fell, Wang Hao trotted right up to the burly man, his features twisted with ferocity, and swung his arm in a wide arc, bringing his palm down hard across the burly man's cheek.
*Crack.*
Five bright red finger marks stood out vividly on one side of the burly man's face.
Furious, the burly man made to retaliate, only to be cowed right back by Li Mu's murderous glare.
*Slap, slap, slap...* Putting his absolute all into it, Wang Hao swung his arm in wide arcs, delivering blow after blow to the burly man's face, fire practically shooting from his two small eyes.