Chapter 796: Weifeng Disappears, Endangering the Dog’s Life!

Xiao He now had very good reason to suspect that when Zhuang Hongyi created the character Zhou Zhiyi, he had used a real-life model as inspiration.

And the object of that inspiration was…

“Daoist Hu!”

The man’s excited words cut off Xiao He’s further inquiries.

Xiao He turned along with Daoist Hu to look.

Walking toward them was the same Mr. Bao they had met last time—Bao Xingsheng.

But this time, Bao Xingsheng’s condition was clearly worse than before. The once spirited middle-aged man now had dark circles under his eyes, looking as though he hadn’t rested well for a very long time.

Xiao He glanced at him and sighed inwardly.

Perhaps people like Mr. Bao were exactly as Daoist Hu had said—the more they believed in something, the more likely things would take a turn for the worse.

“Daoist Hu.”

Bao Xingsheng stopped in front of Daoist Hu, then nodded politely toward Xiao He. “Mr. Xiao, hello.”

“Hello, Mr. Bao.”

Xiao He glanced between the two men and stood up on his own. “Sorry, I need to prepare for the next shoot. I’ll take my leave.”

“Of course, go ahead!”

Bao Xingsheng nodded with a smile, showing no intention of keeping him. Daoist Hu said nothing, only giving Xiao He a slight nod.

As Xiao He walked away, he vaguely caught the conversation behind him: “Daoist Hu, I’ve thought about what you told me last time. In the end, it’s still a family misfortune. This time, I won’t handle things the way I used to…”

The rest was lost to Xiao He.

Because the moment he stepped out of the room, the bodyguard stationed nearby immediately closed the door, sealing off all sound.

But even that bit of information was quite significant…

Xiao He fell into thought.

“What are you doing out here?” From the other end of the corridor, Liu Rulan walked over. Seeing Xiao He’s contemplative expression, she asked with concern, “We still have a while before filming starts. Did you run into someone?”

Xiao He snapped back to reality. “Mr. Bao came again. Looks like he’s looking for Daoist Hu to calculate something.”

“Oh—” Liu Rulan didn’t seem particularly surprised. “Looks like what the Hong Kong media said wasn’t just baseless rumors.”

“Huh?”

“Some Hong Kong media reported before that the current generation of the Bao family is extremely superstitious about Feng Shui and metaphysics. Even Mr. Bao’s current name was chosen by a Feng Shui master.”

Liu Rulan paused before continuing, “You could say they’re major clients of the Feng Shui metaphysics crowd. They used to be more reckless, putting on quite a show. But now that the state is cracking down and the Tianshi Association is getting stricter, their more bizarre practices have gradually stopped.”

Basically, anyone who had been around the Hong Kong entertainment circle in the early days had heard at least a few “eerie legends.”

But many of those had long since become nothing more than urban myths, impossible to verify. As for what was true and what wasn’t, who could say?

Xiao He twitched the corner of his mouth and shook his head slightly. “Rich people’s problems really are boring.”

The two of them walked to the window at the end of the corridor and stood there, breathing in the hot but fresh outside air.

Just then, Liu Rulan’s phone suddenly vibrated.

She pulled it out and glanced at the screen, raising an eyebrow slightly. “I’m going downstairs for a bit. You wait here. Try not to get involved in those big shots’ affairs.”

Xiao He raised an eyebrow. “Of course.”

But today, the production team was destined for turmoil.

“Teacher Xiao, have you seen Weifeng?”

The temporary caretaker, who usually had a good rapport with Xiao He, came running over from somewhere.

“Huh? We haven’t seen him.”

“Then this is bad!”

The caretaker slapped his thigh in panic. “I thought he had come looking for you!”

Xiao He and Liu Rulan exchanged a glance, both looking at the caretaker with confusion. Running out behind him were other production staff members.

“Weifeng!”

“Weifeng, where are you?!”

“Has anyone seen where Weifeng went?”

Their shouts turned the once orderly corridor into a noisy, chaotic mess. More and more people emerged from their rooms, and other staff members who had been busy in different spots along the corridor looked up to see what was happening.

“What’s going on?”

“Did Weifeng disappear?”

Seeing this commotion, Xiao He was naturally surprised, but he remained calm enough to walk over and ask, “What exactly happened?”

The caretaker was around fifty. Since Weifeng and Xiao He had a lot of scenes together recently, they interacted frequently and had built a decent rapport. After Xiao He asked, the caretaker suppressed his anxiety as best he could and explained, “It’s like this. Today, same as usual, we took Weifeng to the makeup room to get his look done, then headed back to the set to wait for filming…”

“But the moment I turned away to get him some water, he suddenly disappeared!”

The caretaker clutched his hands nervously. “He’s always been so obedient, so I usually don’t put a leash on him. Normally, he just lies down and waits for me!”

Weifeng was a police dog, very well-behaved, and since he was wearing a lot of complex makeup, the production team never insisted on putting him on a leash or locking him in a crate. Naturally, the caretaker wasn’t too strict about those precautions either, raising the dog with full trust. He generally let Weifeng roam within a small area, but he never let the dog out of his sight for too long.

But this time, he never expected that in the blink of an eye, Weifeng would dart off! Nowhere to be found!

The caretaker had originally thought Weifeng might have gone looking for Xiao He, but now it was clear the situation was serious.

“Wait, wait, are you saying Weifeng disappeared after getting his makeup done?”

Xiao He didn’t pay attention to the caretaker’s attempts to justify himself. Instead, he latched onto a very critical detail—after makeup!

Because in the production, Weifeng was dressed up as a monster! That blood-soaked getup, with the gaping maw perched on his dog head… Who wouldn’t be terrified?!

The first time Weifeng appeared, he had scared the living daylights out of plenty of unsuspecting people on set. If Xiao He hadn’t kept his wits about him, given how horrifyingly ghastly that moment was, he would have directly fought back!

That showed just how powerful makeup artists like Feng Songyue really were!

But now, Weifeng was wandering around wearing that terrifying disguise?!

Liu Rulan quickly caught on too, her expression turning very serious. “How long has he been missing? Have you checked the surveillance? Did you notify the front and back gates? Don’t let him get out!”

After this period of filming, the crew had gotten used to Weifeng’s scary appearance. Besides, they were filming a ghost movie to begin with—people who weren’t brave enough wouldn’t have signed up. So if Weifeng was still on the set, he should be very conspicuous, and even if someone found him, they wouldn’t be truly frightened.

But if Weifeng ran off the set and encountered unsuspecting people outside… that would be a complete disaster!

Liu Rulan’s mind immediately jumped to recent news reports of rabid dog attacks.

Even though Weifeng was well-behaved and a police dog, if he ran outside looking like that, people would definitely beat him to death, mistaking him for a rabid dog or a monster!

Not only would he terrify people, but it would also endanger the dog’s life!

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