A proper company would not act rashly.
The security guards of a proper company were all proper.
The proper guards gagged Yu Tianlin, twisted his arms, and hauled him upstairs, shoving him into a small room where they stripped him down to his underpants.
Yu Tianlin struggled several times, but his strength paled against the two guards. He could only seethe with fury and let them have their way.
Was this not rash?
This was unlawful confinement!
This broke the law!
This was utterly humiliating!
Yu Tianlin mumbled through the gag. Anyone dragged by two men to a small room and stripped bare would fear. The terror of the unknown choked him. Though media had outed him as a “double plugger”, that did not mean he dropped trousers for all and sundry!
In any case, two guards were out of the question.
Back at his peak, “guards” would not even merit speech with him!
Yu Tianlin thrashed wildly, leaving the young guard drenched in sweat.
Yu Tianlin feared, and the young guard scorned him too.
Was this not a big star once? Days without a wash now? He reeked, less hygienic than them on guard duty!
“Some big star, mother of him, with all those girlfriends…”
The young guard fumed.
Foul folk could juggle boats on feet, yet clean livers like him scored no girlfriend. What a world!
Yu Tianlin saw lust in the lustful, but the two guards held no lewd thoughts. They mainly feared weapons hidden in his clothes. Without a thorough check, how dare they drag him to Yuan Fenghui?
Weapons cleared, the young guard released Yu Tianlin and flung his clothes over.
“Dress yourself.”
Yu Tianlin finally yanked the towel from his mouth, gasping curses. “This is a crime. I shall call the police!”
The young guard eyed him like a fool. “Go on then. Shall I dial 110 for you?”
What crime?
The young guard feared nothing.
Such scenes played often in dramas. Talk a thousand words or one, evidence was king!
Yu Tianlin choked on the young guard’s fearless poise.
This was Tianjiao turf, guards Tianjiao’s. No aid for him, even surveillance tapes erasable. Reporting might yield no proof.
Worse, cops meant media. These two months, Yu Tianlin skulked like a stray dog, far from press hounds. Past glory now made him shun any shot!
Seeing Yu Tianlin quiet as a whipped cur, the young guard pressed. “Dress quick. Director Yuan wants you. You lurked all sneaky round the firm to see her, no? Shun her, and I boot you out now. I swear on a year’s pay: miss today, long as I work Tianjiao, you stay fifty metres shy of the building!”
Just because Yuan Fenghui wanted Yu Tianlin did the young guard let this chap in.
Yu Tianlin thought his disguise aced it, but the young guard had clocked him two days prior!
A tiger fallen in plains, bullied by curs; a dragon shallow-beached, toyed by shrimp. Outmatched in brawn to the young guard, under the eaves, Yu Tianlin bowed his head. He gritted teeth, dressed, and trailed the young guard.
No help for it. Seeing Yuan Fenghui was easy once, impossible now!
Tianjiao remained no grand firm.
Scale-wise, even smaller than Yu Tianlin’s old agency.
Yet striding Tianjiao’s office floor, Yu Tianlin sensed a wholly alien air.
Staff hugging files would greet the young guard. He beamed back, nary a trace of the earlier ferocity.
In this firm, “class” seemed absent.
How could that be?
Class existed everywhere.
In showbiz, rookies bowed to vets, the unred grovelled to the hot.
In firms, guards were gatehouse thugs, assistants leg-runners and scapegoats, agents heeded bosses, moneymaking stars lorded free… That was Yu Tianlin’s baked-in view.
The milieu so, all bit teeth and climbed. Stars chased fame, assistants eyed agent posts, agents aimed for director. None craved bottom-rung bullying!
Tianjiao shattered Yu Tianlin’s baked-in views wholesale. Admin folk even chatted up guards unprompted. Reaching Yuan Fenghui’s office, the sharp-tongued Yuan of memory treated the young guard kindly too, praising his work, vowing a bonus.
The young guard took it not amiss, chest puffed in pride. “Director Yuan, I shall work hard. Such villains stir trouble, I nab them too!”
Yuan Fenghui smiled assent. “Work well. You pour so much into the firm, leadership sees it all.”
A few more soft encouragements, then Yuan Fenghui said she wanted private words with Yu Tianlin. The young guard fretted over a sudden lunge. Yuan brimmed with surety. “Fear not. He will not. You scarce know Mr Yu.”
Yu Tianlin was selfish to the core. Better rotten than dead. With Hu Man ripe for squeeze, he was not at dead end yet. Why mutual ruin with Yuan Fenghui!
Yu Tianlin glanced up at Yuan Fenghui, mute.
The young guard called his mate and left. The mate lavished horse-pats. “Even Director Yuan recalls you, Little Ma… Brother Ma, you are ace! How did you spot Yu Tianlin? Teach the bros?”
Little Ma Brother was Ma Qiang. The tag pleased him, evoking Hong Kong flick Heroes Shed No Tears’ “Little Ma Brother”. Iconic role!
How spotted?
Work was down to diligence.
Some on two grand pay did two grand’s toil full tilt. Sneaky sorts on two grand did one grand’s worth, deeming themselves clever, fleecing the firm.
Others on two grand slaved honest in their reach, hitting two-and-a-half grand’s output sans grudge, even three grand’s if energy held.
Ma Qiang was the latter.
Folk might call him daft. He thought not.
Tianjiao work gladdened him pure. Any threat to Tianjiao’s gain, harm to its folk, shook his happy base!
Mate probed his spotting lore. Ma Qiang grinned shy, scratched his nape. “Cannot say exact. Off-shift, I watch daily. Watch long, I know them.”
Watch what?
Yu Tianlin’s telly serials.
Yu Tianlin starred in heaps. Ma Qiang footed the bill, rented discs, binged in dorm nightly.
Disguise or no, Ma Qiang clocked not faces but form and gait from afar.
Likely Yu Tianlin knew not himself: he led with a left shoulder sway!
Ma Qiang pinned Yu Tianlin’s form and gait dead. Likewise, Yuan Fenghui nailed his psyche spot-on.
Office empty but for Yu Tianlin and Yuan Fenghui, she sized him up and down. “Rough patch lately, eh? Speak, what brings you. I am sentimental. You so wretched now, I let bygones lie.”
Fine words!
But who wrought this wreck?
Pre-Yuan sight, Yu Tianlin brimmed dark grudge and hate. He pinned his nadir on her full!
Showbiz hinged on “personas”. Yuan packaged him, built his “persona”, crowned him red, then smashed him personal.
Yu Tianlin loathed Yuan Fenghui through.
He squeezed Hu Man alone, spared Yuan not from conscience but want of leverage against her.
He could blab telly interviews on “romance details” with Hu Man, but not same tack on Yuan.
Insiders knew: Yuan never romanced talent, less her own charges. No traces left.
Facing Yuan herself, the settle-scores fury got muddled by young guard Ma Qiang. Yu Tianlin blanked.
What had he come for?
Mutual doom with Yuan?
Not quite.
Yet naught done, empty return, made him the clown.
Yuan’s office middling size, setup plain, scarce flashy.
Yet under her now three hot talents, days ahead only brighter.
Contrast: Yu Tianlin’s star path razed. On his own, no scramble back to peak.
Showbiz held no room for him.
He felt ill at ease in Yuan’s office.
He rankled unjust.
He deemed loss unfit, yet lost he had.
Stifled long, Yu Tianlin shocked by not cursing. His mien even humble:
“…Sister Yuan, any road left for me?”
Teens in the trade, twenties famed, tumbled from fame’s zenith.
Baring stardom, Yu Tianlin knew naught else. Youth’s triumphs beyond mortals’ lifetimes ill boon: naught after topped them.
Yuan Fenghui blinked mild surprise, soon composed. “Still not quit on it?”
A persona-wreck like Yu Tianlin, clawing back? Even Yuan hands-on, too steep.
No agency touched him.
Whitewash him, pour grit and gold for flip? Better pluck a street rando, package fresh!
Yu Tianlin’s eyes held hope.
If any could flip him, Yuan Fenghui it was!
“Sister Yuan, aid me, I do aught.”
“No no no, dare not claim your payback. From now, treat me stranger, no daily grudge. I mean it. You so piteous, my hate for you done. As clean stranger, I proffer advice. Heed or no, yours.”
Yuan’s tone grave, Yu Tianlin’s heart thrilled.
He knew it: Yuan had the way!
“My way simple. Leave Tianjiao today, contact press at once. Apologise to exes you harmed, to fans once fond. Then quit showbiz.”
