This actor has something

Chapter 412 Tracking
On the long table at the banquet hall's lectern, He Daqi, Feng Kuzi, the two Wangs, and Han Shanping, each holding a hammer, struck a pose.

The long string of numbers inside the ice sculpture is quite impressive: 336000000. Under the light, the number shines brightly.

After a flurry of photos from the reporters below, He Daqi symbolically smashed the ice sculpture, then put down the hammer and walked to the side.

Feng Kuzi and the others also politely extended their hands in invitation, and together they walked down from the low podium.

There were quite a few people waiting to pose for photos. They were all employees and supervisors from various departments of Huayi. With such good results this time, everyone was all smiles. It seems that the two bosses, Mr. and Mrs. Wang, must have given a big red envelope.

"On such a joyous occasion, why have you only invited so few reporters today?"

He Daqi smiled and asked Feng Kuzi in a low voice.

"Today is a proper celebration banquet. The guests invited are all people who have a good relationship with Huayi. There will also be a red envelope drawing later. Daqi, you can try your luck." Feng Kuzi grinned widely and spoke loudly, clearly genuinely happy.

The two Wangs were similar, just not as exaggerated as Feng Xiaogang, but they were definitely all beaming with joy.

Perhaps he was too happy, but as they walked toward the main table, Xiao Wang suddenly said to He Daqi, "Daqi, I see that it's quite easy for your Asia-Pacific films to be sent abroad. Do you have any channels to help us get in touch with them and send 'Gathering Call' overseas? We can discuss revenue sharing and such."

How come this person got drunk without even drinking?
He Daqi almost thought he was hallucinating. He even lost his smile and pointed at himself in surprise, asking, "You want me to help deliver them?"

After asking, perhaps realizing he hadn't expressed himself clearly, He Daqi continued, "You want me to send out a film about the War of Resistance against Japan?"

"Haha, Xiao Wang is just kidding with you." Han Shanping was amused and gently patted He Daqi's arm.

Even the King looked at his younger brother in surprise, wondering what kind of idea he had.

Perhaps embarrassed by his older brother's gaze, Xiao Wang gave a stiff laugh and casually replied, "I was just joking with Da Qi."

He knew perfectly well whether he was joking or not. When he was posing and smashing the ice, he had some wild thoughts. He wondered if "Assembly" could do well in other countries, since it had similar box office performance to "When Flowers Bloom, Flowers Fall" in China, especially since He Daqi was the lead actor.

The media is now praising He Daqi to an unbelievable degree, making even Mr. Wang have complete confidence in him.

Huayi Brothers' copyright sales weren't going well, so while on stage, CEO Wang was thinking about whether he could offer He Daqi a discount and help get the film out there to make some money.

It was only after He Daqi asked a question that Mr. Wang realized, "Oh! It's a war film I made myself! No wonder the copyright isn't selling well."

Xiao Wang kept muttering to himself, while He Daqi was somewhat confused.

He was genuinely confused, wondering what was wrong with Xiao Wang. Surely it couldn't be a joke?
Sitting down at the main table and looking at the delicious food, He Daqi's wild thoughts faded away.

Seeing that the two CEOs and Han Shanping were about to start their usual pre-drinking toasts, each saying a few words, He Daqi couldn't bear to listen to their rambling. He poured himself a glass of wine, stood up, and toasted the CEO: "CEO Wang, congratulations on your fortune!"

"Haha, congratulations to you too!" Boss Wang immediately stood up and clinked glasses with He Daqi.

On one side of the banquet hall, a young woman was playing an elegant piano piece. The people at the main table were all very polite in this atmosphere, but as soon as they sat down, He Daqi started this performance, and they had no choice but to get up and clink glasses with him.

"congratulations."

"Congratulations, Mr. Wang."

The scene was like a wedding banquet; the people who were originally drinking wine with proper decorum were now acting like they were drinking draft beer and bragging.

He Daqi took a small sip, sat down happily, picked up his chopsticks, grabbed a piece of snail meat, dipped it in wasabi soy sauce, and put it in his mouth. After only a couple of chews, the meat went straight to the top of his head.

That's powerful!

So He Daqi picked up another piece.

He probably won't have to see those bastards for the whole year, so right now He Daqi is too lazy to pretend. He's just focused on eating, so when others talk to him, he can pretend that he has something in his mouth and can't talk properly. He chews for a while before responding.

This move was designed to guard against Han Shanping. Old Han is a good person in every way, but he has a habit of nagging and fussing, which He Daqi deeply resents.

He wasn't planning to film anything this year, but as the lead actor of "Assembly", He Daqi couldn't miss the celebration banquet, so he had to come up with a crooked idea to prevent Han Shanping from nagging on and on.

Clearly, He Daqi's tactic worked quite well. Every time Han Shanping steered the conversation in that direction, He Daqi would take a long time to utter a single word in response. After one or two times, Old Han realized he had been tricked and stopped bothering with He Daqi.

If any other person in the industry dared to treat him like this, Han Shanping would teach them a lesson about what real methods are.

As for He Daqi, forget about him. That kid's made it big now. Even if he doesn't develop his career in China, he has plenty of other places to go. Besides, He Daqi is still number one at the domestic box office. We're counting on him to come out and boost the box office every year. Let's hope he doesn't actually go abroad to make a living.

While the others chatted happily, He Daqi also enjoyed his meal.

The chopsticks never stopped, and this guy actually managed to drag it out for over an hour.

"Oh dear! My wife is nagging me again. Sorry, everyone, I have to go now. Last time I drank too much, I made a deal with my wife: we can't go out to dinner and I have to come home after 10 p.m.

He Daqi stood up apologetically, as if it were a real thing.

"Da Qi, your position as a younger brother in the family is not good enough."

Even if Feng Kuzi knew that He Daqi was just making up an excuse, he had no choice but to accept it. What else could he do? At most, he could just laugh and make a sarcastic remark.

"I didn't realize, Daqi, that you're henpecked."

"Haha, in Sichuan, this is called 'henpecked husband'."

The others chuckled and made a few sarcastic remarks, but no one was so tactless as to suggest that He Daqi continue drinking.

Han Shanping was quite unhappy. He had planned to have a good chat with He Daqi after dinner, but the other man made an excuse to leave halfway through the meal, which made Han Shanping start to have doubts.

He also knew that it wouldn't be easy to catch He Daqi this year. Han Shanping had seen the filming plans in Asia and Vietnam, and He Daqi really wasn't planning to make a proper movie this year.

Watching He Daqi walk away, Han Shanping felt somewhat helpless.

……

Twenty minutes later.

The van led the convoy slowly down the road. He Daqi sat in the back seat of the van. Because the rear lights weren't on, his face looked a bit bluish in the phone's light, like a ghostly passenger in a Hong Kong horror movie. "Number one, number one, change routes. We might need to change cars at Yonghui Qiming Garage. Please respond if you receive this."

The sound of the walkie-talkie made He Daqi look up. He had experienced this many times before and knew that he was probably being watched by paparazzi again.

"Number one received, number one received. Number five, after changing routes, stop them and cause a minor collision, see how they react." Qin Hu, in the passenger seat, picked up the walkie-talkie and gave the order.

"Received on the 5th, received on the 5th."

The car fell silent again, and He Daqi continued to browse the comments section of his Yabo.com account.

The comment section of He Daqi's Yabo.com account is quite lively now, with many comments from overseas fans. It's unclear how these fans managed to get over there, but among the large number of Chinese comments, there are one or two English, Korean, and Japanese comments interspersed.

Just as He Daqi was engrossed in watching, Qin Hu's phone rang.

After he answered the phone and listened to what the other person had to say, he replied "I understand" and hung up.

"Daqi, we might have to go back a little late," Qin Hu said, turning around.

"Hmm?" He Daqi raised an eyebrow and looked at him.

Qin Hu explained with a serious expression, "The people following us aren't paparazzi, they're more like private investigators. We deliberately had a minor collision with the other car just now, and that's when we discovered that there were three cars following us today, working together to track us. One of them was held back by the people in car number five, and the other two followed. The collision method won't work, so we need to call another convoy from home. After we get to the Yonghui Qiming car garage and change cars, we'll split into five teams and head in different directions."

"Private investigator? What's going on? Is one of my rich fans trying to find out my address?"

He Daqi asked with a smile, but he was a little annoyed. Why did he have to get himself into this mess?
"I don't know about that." Qin Hu shook his head and continued, "But don't worry, Daqi, we have a contingency plan."

"It's okay, don't worry."

After saying he wasn't worried, He Daqi turned his head back and looked through the rear window. It was late at night, and after looking for a long time, he still couldn't see if there was really a car following them, because he could only see the cars of his own convoy behind him.

Ten minutes later, the convoy entered the Yonghui Qiming underground parking garage.

Not long after, the nanny van was driven out of the garage alone, and five minutes later two cars followed. Five minutes later, another group of two cars left the garage.

He Daqi sat in the fourth car, with Qin Long still driving and Qin Hu in the passenger seat. However, Chen Shuangxi, who usually sat in the back of the car, was now sitting in the back with He Daqi.

After driving around the Third Ring Road of Beijing for a short while to make sure no one was following him, he returned to the villa.

He Daqi left the celebration banquet quite early, but by the time he got home it was almost 11 o'clock. It would be strange if He Daqi was in a good mood.

When the car stopped at the gate of the villa, He Daqi got out and instructed Qin Long, "Brother Long, didn't one of our cars have a minor collision with the other side? Our brothers must know the license plate numbers of the three cars that were following us. Tell them and see if you can check."

"Don't worry, Daqi. Even if the three cars following us are borrowed and we can't find anything, we still have people staying behind to handle the traffic accident with one of them. We can get information about the other party then."

"Okay, I'll head back now." He Daqi nodded, turned, and went into the courtyard.

Upon entering the villa, Vivian Chow was watching television in the living room, clearly waiting for Ho Tai-kai.

"You shook off the people who were following you?"

"They should have shaken them off, but it's late at night, so we can't be sure," He Daqi said as he changed his shoes.

"Daqi, you're getting more and more famous. Now they've even hired a private investigator to follow you."

He Daqi walked over and sat down next to Zhou Huimin. As soon as he sat down, Zhou Huimin naturally snuggled up to him. He Daqi leaned back, and the two of them sprawled on the sofa. He sighed and put his arm around Zhou Huimin, saying, "After we finish filming 'Where Are We Going, Dad?' this year, we'll move. Even if others find out the location of our new house, they won't be able to do anything about it."

The new house has a large yard, a guard post at the entrance, and we can also set up a hidden post on the top floor of that indoor stadium. The level of security is much higher than here now.

The reason we haven't moved in for so long is because the new house was recently renovated and there is formaldehyde, so we've been keeping the windows open to ventilate and have hired a few security guards and cleaners to oversee the cleaning every day.

……

……

A puff of smoke was exhaled forcefully, but it did not take away the smoker's unpleasant feeling.

Zhang Weiping's eyes were gloomy. He held a cigarette in one hand and his phone in the other, and asked in an irritated tone, "Lost them? How many times have you followed them? How come you always lose them?"

"There's nothing we can do, Mr. Zhang. The other side is very cautious. He Daqi doesn't usually show his face. Before, we only had one car to follow him, and we didn't get anything. We didn't expect that even with three cars today, they were still able to shake us off. This means they have professionals. Now that we've been exposed, it will be even more difficult to track them. Moreover... our service this time has already exceeded the fee you offered. It's just that we haven't been able to complete the task yet, so we increased our manpower this time."

The person on the other end of the phone spoke in a gentle tone, but the words they uttered were not pleasant to hear, which made Zhang Weiping very unhappy.

"What were you saying when you couldn't complete the task? You made all sorts of promises when you were asking for money, but now you're saying there are professionals on the other side. So you're just trying to pull a fast one on me?"

"Mr. Zhang, please calm down. I was just explaining our difficulties to you; I didn't mean to raise the price."

Hearing this, Zhang Weiping snorted coldly and asked again, "How's the investigation going with Zhang Yimou? Have they found anything?"

"We're keeping an eye on Zhang Yimou's side. We've been following him the whole time, but these days he only goes to three places: the Olympic Committee, Yonghui Qiming, and his home in Beijing. We haven't found anything explosive."

Zhang Weiping took a deep drag on his cigarette, exhaled sharply, and after a moment's thought, said, "...Let's leave it at that for now. Keep an eye on He Daqi's side."

"Okay, Mr. Zhang."

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Weiping frowned, stubbed out his cigarette, and listened to the ticking of the clock on the wall, feeling somewhat unsettled.

The dark clouds outside were blown away by the wind, and moonlight shone through the window onto the table, illuminating a corner of the dark room.

Zhang Weiping's face was somewhat gloomy in the moonlight on the table. He frowned and muttered to himself, "So concerned about whether someone is following us... So... He Daqi, what are you hiding?"

As if he had thought of something that pleased him, Zhang Weiping slowly revealed a sinister smile.

"Zhang Yimou! He Daqi! You've ruined my life! I'll swear an oath to you for the rest of my life!"

(End of this chapter)