Huayu 1999: Starting with nothing but getting something for nothing

"Holy shit."

With Yang Che's shout, two screams rang out almost simultaneously, and the two middle-aged men watching fell to the ground, their flashlights also dropping.

"Don't hit me, don't hit me."

Li Xiangdong and Zhou Liren did not beat him further; after controlling him, they began to tie him up.

The middle-aged man standing between the girls was horrified. He turned and ran, but forgot about his pants that had slipped down to his feet. He fell flat on his face. Yang Che also stepped forward and kicked the man in the stomach.

He actually kicked the man so hard he flipped over twice.

"Ah... Ah, ah."

With a scream, he vomited, followed by a pungent, sour smell mixed with the stench of urine.

Yang Che looked at the cement slab and, as expected, it was the short-haired girl he had seen in the West Station parking garage.

She had already sat up, her eyes filled with panic and murderous intent.

Her gray sweater was torn, revealing her white bra and half of her breast. Her pants and underwear were pulled down to her knees. Her arms were probably chafed by the uneven stones on the cement slab, and blood was flowing down to the back of her hands.

Yang Che looked away: "Are you alright?"

The girl didn't answer. Her eyes were fixed on the spot. She jumped barefoot off the cement slab, casually pulled up her pants, grabbed a wooden stick with a blank expression, and walked step by step toward the middle-aged man who was still staring at the ground groaning.

Yang Che calmly advised, "Calm down. If you hit someone with that stick, they'll hold you responsible."

The girl glanced at Yang Che emotionlessly, unmoved, and still raised the wooden stick.

Yang Che grabbed her wrist: "If you want to kill them, there are plenty of ways. You must be quite wealthy."

The girl said coldly, "Get out of the way."

Just then, a commotion arose behind them; the police had arrived, along with people carrying video cameras—they were from Beijing TV.

"Don't move!"

When the police arrived, they asked, "Who called the police?"

Yang Che held out his hand: "I signed up."

The girl seemed not to hear, and with the wooden stick she raised high, she smashed it down on the man's groin, followed by a piercing wail.

The men present seemed to hear the sound of an egg breaking, and then their lips twitched in unison.

The policeman shouted, "Stop!"

A hint of madness flickered in the girl's eyes as she pointed the stick at Yang Che and said coldly, "Those six are in cahoots."

The four police officers tensed up instantly, and two of them had already reached for their waists.

Li Xiangdong was furious: "Young lady, we saved you, how dare you slander us like this?"

The lead policeman shouted, "Wait, speak one by one, those who called the police, please speak."

Yang Che glanced at the girl before calmly looking at the police officer and explaining the whole story in a few words.

The police officer looked at the girl: "Is that so?"

The girl nodded, the wariness in her eyes fading. Just as she was about to say something, she swayed, rolled her eyes, and fell to the ground.

The female reporter next to the camera frowned at Yang Che, who was closest to the girl, and said irritably, "Why didn't you help her up?"

Yang Che remained calm: "She has just recovered from the stress. If I, a man, touch her again, what if she recalls some memories and insists I'm the mastermind? Based on the principle of presumption of guilt, I..."

The police were at their wits' end: "Alright, alright, let's go back to the station."

The three middle-aged men had no questions and were handcuffed and taken back.

Yang Che and his two companions didn't drive either, since it was just a matter of crossing a traffic light, and walking was faster than driving; the police would have run over anyway.

On the way, Yang Che felt that his relationship with Li Xiangdong and Zhou Liren had become biochemical and different.

They looked at each other, and there was a sense of tacit understanding between them.

Yang Che inexplicably thought of Fan Bingbing, who was far away in Guangzhou, and called her. Hearing her sweet voice and the background noise of a TV drama, he breathed a sigh of relief. Then he just asked her about her flight information for tomorrow night, said "Okay, you get some rest," and hung up the phone.

Then he sent Gao Yuanyuan a text message: "Are you asleep yet?"

Unexpectedly, a reporter approached, so Yang Che put his phone back in his pocket...

"I heard you call out 'Bingbing,' is it Fan Bingbing?"

Yang Che raised an eyebrow: "Yes."

The reporter responded, "You seem to care about her a lot."

"I was confirming her return date to Beijing because I needed her to cooperate with some film promotion work."

"Uh... okay, you're impressive, you still have to keep working after something like this just happened."

"Hehe, the sun rises every day, and life always goes on."

"..."

They then returned to the station in silence.

There were quite a few people there, and the police officers in the station all seemed very busy.

However, they cracked a train theft gang case and arrested more than thirty people.

Yang Che looked at the men, women, and children squatting by the wall and suddenly burst out laughing. Wasn't this the gang of Uncle Li in the movie "A World Without Thieves"? Indeed, art imitates life.

At this moment, a young female police officer in the station looked at Yang Che suspiciously several times, and then tentatively asked, "You...you're the director of 'My Sassy Girl'? The one that made tens of millions...what's your name again?"

Whoosh, everyone around immediately turned to look at Yang Che, including the three handcuffed men.

"Hello, policewoman, it's me, my name is..."

Zhou Liren immediately tugged at Yang Che's clothes, gestured to the three handcuffed men in front of him, and whispered, "Don't reveal your names..."

Yang Che laughed and said, "You're just worried and confused. It's okay. People like them are the most incompetent. Hello, policewoman. My name is Yang Che. I'm not a director, but the screenwriter and producer of 'My Sassy Girl.' I've earned some foreign exchange for the country."

"Yes, yes, I've seen your interview."

At this moment, the doubts in the eyes of the surrounding police officers looking at Yang Che had vanished.

Then, the girl in the police uniform behind him looked at Yang Che with a different kind of gaze – no longer cold, but filled with curiosity and gratitude.

The female reporter and the camera were both turned towards Yang Che at the same time: "It really is you, Yang Che. I didn't see you clearly just now."

Yang Che pointed at the camera: "Hey? How did you guys end up there?"

The female reporter explained, "We are from the 'Legal Report' program on Beijing Science and Education Channel. I am the host, Xu Tao. Today we are reporting on pickpockets on trains. We heard about a kidnapping nearby, so we went to investigate."

It is said that this older sister filmed the entire process of Hua Zi kidnapping and rescuing Wu Ruofu.

Of course, this show didn't become popular because of Wu Ruofu. It was already very popular from the beginning, with extremely high ratings. Just how high?

The average viewership share in Beijing was 51%, meaning that one out of every two television sets in Beijing was showing this program at noon.

Yang Che clasped his hands together and said, "I really don't want to be on the legal news. Please stop filming me and the girl."