The Film Emperor Is Sick, I have No Cure - Chapter 9

Chapter 9

After politely declining Young Master Tingtian’s enthusiastic invitation to stay, Lu Danggui took a ride in the Tingtian family’s car back to the Affiliated Hospital of S University.

The blow to his head last night, while not severe enough to qualify as a minor concussion, had left a persistent headache that wouldn’t go away. After entering the changing room and putting on his white coat, he took two painkillers from the small medicine box and swallowed them with warm water.

Director Wang and Dean Qiu hadn’t responded to his messages, probably still in meetings. Not wanting to delay his work for the day, Lu Danggui returned to his usual desk and began organizing the weekend’s seminar report.

Just before noon, Director Wang returned to the psychiatry department from a meeting and immediately spotted Lu Danggui slumped over his desk.

All the doctors and nurses had gone to lunch. Only Lu Danggui remained at the workstation, one arm cradling his head, leaning sideways on his elbow, snoring softly as he slept.

Director Wang instantly felt his blood pressure rise.
“Lu Danggui!”

Lu Danggui was in the middle of a dream, being pelted with bananas by a giant gorilla in a tree. Hearing the shout, he groggily lifted his head and saw Director Wang standing in front of him, face full of stern anger.

Startled, Lu Danggui jolted upright.

“Director…”

The moment he saw the director, his courage shriveled. His voice even went soft.

“Old Qiu already told me what happened yesterday,” Director Wang said sternly.
“Being assaulted by a patient during an external care assignment, that counts as a workplace injury.”

With a sigh of helplessness, Director Wang added,
“Lu Danggui, instead of hurrying home to rest, what are you doing back at the hospital?”

“Director, the Sunday report… I still haven’t—”

“Which is more important? That report or your damn life?”

If not for the bump on Lu Danggui’s head, Director Wang would’ve slapped him with the folder in his hand.
“Go to the outpatient clinic right now and get yourself checked. Then go find somewhere cool and quiet to rest, don’t just wander around in front of me!”

Kicked out by the director to go rest, having received a personal call of concern from the hospital director himself, and gifted a fruit basket from the department, Lu Danggui ended up with three extra days of paid medical leave.

Standing at the hospital gates, he felt for the first time the full disparity of the world.

After returning home, he casually made some noodles to tide himself over, then climbed back into bed with his pillow in hand.

Kicking off his slippers with both feet, Lu Danggui flopped backward onto the bed, hugged his pillow, and rolled around twice, letting out a long, satisfied sigh.

Even though he had a sizeable bump on the back of his head, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, he’d lucked into a mini-vacation that everyone in his department envied.

Lu Danggui closed his eyes in complete comfort. He was going to sleep straight through till morning!

—

[Doctor, save me.]

The five fingers around the throat were trembling violently, yet those deep eyes were filled with a bloodthirsty, manic light.

There were only two people in the bathroom.

Him, and a pitiful ant clutched in his palm, something he could toy with at will.

The ant was struggling desperately in his grasp, unaware that all of it was in vain.

He loved this process.

[Save me.]

For most of his life, he had felt nothing toward the people and things around him.

Joy was impossible to describe.
Pain, even harder to articulate.

Now, this dying little ant was trying to awaken his emotions.

And emotion, what a wonderful human creation it was.

It was the original sin that led him into the abyss, yet also the greatest gift this fragile ant could ever give him.

[Please, Doctor Lu.]

He was intoxicated by the overwhelming pleasure of exerting violence.

And yet, as he stared at this fragile little ant he could so easily kill, he silently begged.

Please, save me.
…

Half an hour later, Lu Danggui opened his eyes in the dark and, despairing, realized he had insomnia again.

The last time this happened was just last month. That tear mole drenched in blood still haunted his mind, keeping him tossing and turning through the night.

And this time, the culprit behind his sleeplessness… was the same person as before.

“Ahhh—!!”

Clutching his head, Lu Danggui groaned in agony and sat upright in bed.

He genuinely wanted to grab a scalpel and slice every memory of that lunatic out of his brain. Every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was that gaze, staring at him like prey.

The scene from last night replayed clearly in his mind.

Those eyes, vacant and lifeless, hollow and numb, yet unmistakably pleading for help.

Snatching his phone from the nightstand, Lu Danggui scrolled through his contacts for a long time. Sitting there in the dark, he hesitated for a while before finally dialing a number.

The dial tone beeped twice. Someone picked up.

“Hello?” came a bright and cheerful female voice from the other end of the line.
“…Xiao Lu? How come you suddenly thought to call me?”

Lu Danggui hesitated for a moment. After all, it had been years since he’d last contacted this old classmate, reaching out all of a sudden because of this kind of matter felt a bit awkward.

“Sister Jiuyan, it’s me.” Lu Danggui smiled, sounding a little embarrassed.
“It’s like this, I wanted to ask you about something… it’s, uh, for my sister.”

Bai Jiuyan, his senior from the same university club at S University. They had worked together back in college and were both single at the time, so their club friends had tried to set them up more than once.

It hadn’t worked out in the end, but they’d remained on pretty good terms.

Upon hearing it was something related to Lu Wenfei, Bai Jiuyan chuckled on the other end of the line, teasing him.
“I was just wondering why you suddenly called out of the blue. So it’s because of Wenfei, now that makes sense.”

“How is Wenfei doing these days? I haven’t seen her in years. Why didn’t she come to me for help herself anymore?”

Lu Danggui lied with a straight face:
“She stopped being a fan a long time ago.”

“She did?”

Bai Jiuyan sounded slightly surprised.
“She used to be crazy about Cheng Cheng, didn’t she?”

After graduating, Bai Jiuyan joined the city’s television station, and a year later moved to Baiwen Entertainment. She’d now been at Baiwen for four or five years, and not even thirty yet, was already the Head of Marketing in the PR department.

Because of that connection, Lu Danggui used to go to Bai Jiuyan in college for help getting his sister rare signed merchandise and exclusive CDs that couldn’t be found on the market. Sometimes when there were Xing Cheng fan meetings, she could even get Wenfei front-row tickets.

Lu Wenfei had reached impressive heights as a fangirl, and Bai Jiuyan, with her insider access, had helped her a lot along the way.

But after the incident with his sister, Lu Danggui forbade her from coming into contact with anything related to Xing Cheng again. Their communication gradually dwindled.

Beyond that, Bai Jiuyan’s reaction after the incident had also been one of the main reasons why Lu Danggui still couldn’t let go of his grudge against Xing Cheng.

The accident back then had been extremely serious, yet this old classmate of his hadn’t known anything about it, not even that Lu Wenfei had been the sole victim of it all.

That meant three years ago, Xing Cheng and the forces behind him had successfully covered up the truth, hiding it not just from the public, but even from his own agency.

There’s a saying: What goes around comes around, just a matter of time. Lu Danggui found that incredibly apt.

Three years had passed in a flash. Xing Cheng had finally gotten what he deserved, reduced to a bona fide lunatic.

Now he really wanted to see just how this man planned to cover things up again and walk away unscathed, all while suffering from such a severe mental illness.

“Mm, the reason I’m asking Sister Jiuyan today is exactly because of that.” Lu Danggui steadied himself and smiled as he spoke to Bai Jiuyan.

“Xing Cheng’s withdrawal from the industry caused quite a stir recently. Wenfei seemed to care a lot about it too. She asked me to check in with you, whether there’s any internal news behind his leaving the spotlight.”

“Oh, that…”

Upon hearing his question, Bai Jiuyan seemed a little hesitant.

As if she had been weighing her words for a while, she brought her phone a little closer and lowered her voice as she said to Lu Danggui,
“Xiao Lu, this matter is considered confidential within our company. I totally understand Wenfei’s feelings, when someone you’ve admired for so long suddenly leaves the industry, it’s hard for anyone to accept. And it’s not just Wenfei either, there were fans of Xing Cheng camping outside the company for days, demanding an explanation.”

“But… I have heard a bit of inside gossip,” Bai Jiuyan paused, then continued.
“Tell her not to worry, but make sure she doesn’t spread it around, alright?”

She used to have a good relationship with Lu Wenfei, and she had nearly ended up as something more than just friends with Lu Danggui—so she had a lot of affection for both siblings. Sharing a bit of harmless insider talk with Lu Danggui didn’t seem like a big deal.

Lu Danggui pressed his lips together. “…Mm. Sister Jiuyan, I understand.”

Suddenly, he felt a pang of guilt. Maybe he shouldn’t have used his sister’s name as an excuse to dig into Xing Cheng’s situation today.

He didn’t know why, but deep down, it felt like he’d deceived a friend.

“Xing Cheng’s withdrawal from the industry probably wasn’t his own decision,” Bai Jiuyan said. “Xing Cheng’s a member of the Xing family, that much isn’t a secret anymore. The Xing family background is pretty complicated, and it’s not really something I’m in a position to talk about.”

“There’s been word going around the company that his father might be seriously ill, and all the siblings at home are turning on him, each one trying to drag him down. My guess? Maybe he just couldn’t juggle it all, and was worried his career would get caught in the crossfire, so he stepped away to deal with his family affairs first.”

“Sigh… All those twists and turns in these wealthy families, it’s really not for us to speculate too much…”

“……” Lu Danggui frowned. “Why would they target him?”

He couldn’t understand it. Someone like Xing Cheng, a second-generation rich kid thriving in the entertainment industry, lacking neither money nor resources, why would he give up a golden career peak just to wade into the messy battlefield of family business?

Also, Bai Jiuyan hadn’t mentioned a single word about Xing Cheng’s illness, which meant that piece of information was still being tightly sealed. Not many people knew, not even the staff at his own agency, apparently.

Except for Tingtian Dashu, who clearly seemed to be on Xing Cheng’s side.

And himself, who had somehow ended up being forced into silence by signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement.

Every time he remembered that NDA, Lu Danggui felt a lump in his throat, like a fishbone stuck that could choke him to death out of sheer rage.

Bai Jiuyan let out a sigh.
“There is one rumor,nbut again, it’s just hearsay, nothing we can really believe.”

“Word is, after his father was diagnosed, he drew up a will.” She told Lu Danggui,

“In that will, Xing Cheng was named as the sole legal heir. All of the family’s assets and equity would be left to him alone.”

“If his father passes away, he’ll become the sole controller of the Xing family.”