Chapter 168: You Really Think You're Here to Sightsee

After the lingering buzz from Bai Liang's car-crash trending topic gradually faded, some industry insiders finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the marketing that needed doing could finally proceed as normal.

For example, Peng Yuyan.

His team hadn't yet done what Wu Moufan's side did — directly defining Bai Liang as a competing artist.

The circles they ran in were different, after all. Peng Yuyan was in the film circle, while Bai Liang had only just landed his first movie — the gap was still considerable.

Of course, given the terrifying momentum when Bai Liang hit the trending list, raising vigilance toward him was something a mature artist's team ought to do.

But one shouldn't lose sight of the main thing — staring at the other party all day long wasn't on, the regular work still had to be done.

For instance, the upcoming film "Operation Mekong" had already entered its promotional period.

So launching some marketing campaigns as usual was an old tradition.

Bragging about how, before filming started, he underwent firearms training, practiced Thai and Burmese, all the high-difficulty action was real, no stunt doubles or wire work were used — all done by Peng Yuyan himself.

And taking the opportunity to step on the fresh-faced pretty boys in the circle, contrasting the two sides' levels of effort.

Done and dusted.

This whole playbook was practically second nature, because there really were targets everywhere — no need to subtly name any specific artist, just blanket them with AOE fire.

He wasn't singling anyone out; he "looked down on" all the fresh-faced pretty boys.

Only this time, the marketing had barely begun, the trending topic had only climbed halfway, before it was directly hit hard.

【Peng Yuyan's gun handling isn't that great either, not as good as Da Xian】

【Next door, Wu Jing and Da Xian — one a special forces soldier, one a bandit — are indeed way more intense than this side】

【I'm still more looking forward to the movie where Wu Jing and Da Xian collaborate. Is Da Xian playing a villain again? Beating up the Wolf Warrior? That reverse AK move was pretty sick!】

【Love O2O was too popular, I forgot that Da Xian's debut last year was through playing villains in various TV dramas. Mainly, his villains really aren't annoying.】

【.】

Clearly, his luck was just a tiny bit off.

He had crashed head-on into a certain Wolf Warrior who dared gamble his life and fortune on a film, and the unflappable capybara who had just blown up the internet.

Neither of those two was easy to "take down." Wu Jing was famously the tough guy who broke this and that at the drop of a hat, who even had to use crutches at his own wedding.

As for Bai Liang's skilled bandit-style rifle handling plus dazzling pistol moves — for domestic netizens who had no long-term access to firearms, it hit just the right spot.

Practical? What does practical even mean?

What a joke — as if everyone had actually used one.

A eunuch watching films only satisfies the eye.

Whether it's useful or not, you only find out on the battlefield, but whether it's cool — that's a lifelong matter.

Sister Yanzi: Hey! This time we finally got on the trending list on our own! The studio finally contributed to Dou Xiao Bai's online marketing.

She'd been bursting at the seams — she had to let her own Dou Xiao Bai see that the studio wasn't just freeloading.

Besides, there was no helping it — this time Wu Jing wasn't like Tang Ren or Jiaxing before, who had the resources to play the generous sucker.

That guy was so broke he was about to pawn his pants.

So Bai Liang said: I'll send you a wave in return, consider it a good deed, building up some merit.

Wu Jing was so moved!

This little bro!

From the very first meeting, he was willing to star in his film, agreed to take no salary and take a share of the profits instead, and later even brought in a fairly well-known young actress as the female lead.

You have to know, compared to Gulnazar's fame, the original female lead really was nothing.

Besides, Nazha came with her own money! A little rich girl!

And now, Bai Liang was even "bringing his own provisions," and helping him with marketing too.

If swearing brotherhood wasn't out of fashion these days, he'd absolutely have to slaughter a chicken and burn yellow paper.

As for Peng Yuyan... not against you, bro, really not targeting you — just a coincidence.

Bai Liang had no idea the guy was doing marketing today; he didn't even know he himself was doing marketing today.

He only found out about it when Wu Jing came to thank him.

Accidentally steamrolling him was just a casual side effect.

Fortunately, Peng Yuyan "didn't mind" — he figured he'd debuted a tiny bit earlier than Bai Liang, after all.

A senior, you know.

Just consider it respecting the old and caring for the young.

Two days later, after finding out that Bai Liang and Wu Jing had already started filming, he felt quite a sense of relief at "sending away the god of plague."

Without even meeting him, Peng Yuyan had somehow developed a strange wariness toward Bai Liang.

He felt this rising entertainment industry traffic was a bit off — seemed like the guy even held him back!

But it didn't matter — for now, there wasn't any direct competition between them.

At least they weren't fighting over resources or endorsements yet, so a temporary ceasefire would do.

Now that Bai Liang had gone off to film, he naturally had to regroup his forces... and coincidentally, Wu Moufan thought the same.

He and Bai Liang really were competing products, so the marketing couldn't stop!

He couldn't exactly compete with Bai Liang on works, could he?

Don't be ridiculous.

But just at this moment, a powerhouse actor in the circle told everyone that even if Bai Liang had temporarily gone quiet, the trending list wasn't that easy to get on.

Of course, he himself probably didn't want to trend for something like this, but life has many things that leave people helpless.

In the early hours of early August, Wang Baoqiang posted a statement on Weibo saying that his wife and his manager had an improper relationship, and he had decided to dissolve his marriage with his wife.

He had also filed for divorce, and Chaoyang Court had officially accepted the case.

The matter fermented rapidly that night and quickly sparked enormous discussion.

Holy shit, baobei got cheated on?! By his own manager?!

The next day, Wang Baoqiang's wife countersued the other party, claiming the posted Weibo had violated her right to reputation.

All that top-tier celebrity, self-disciplined artist nonsense — none of it mattered at this moment; every ounce of traffic swarmed toward this story.

Oh right, there's also a "little something."

The Rio Olympics had also kicked off, but in front of this story, even the Olympics had to bow its head.

A roaring, earth-shaking nationwide melon-eating spectacle officially kicked off.

Unless someone dragged out the suspected scene of Bai Liang's car crash being silenced to today, nothing else would work.

Forget Wang Baoqiang — want traffic? Get past the Olympics first.

As for Bai Liang? Bai Liang's in Africa.

"Wow! This is actually real! So over the top!"

Nazha hopped up and down holding her phone, looking exactly like a melon-field raider.

Luckily there was a Chinese infrastructure project nearby, otherwise she really wouldn't have had signal to join in this melon-eating event.

"How over the top?" Bai Liang was actually eating melon — even in Africa, he'd do his best to make life comfortable for himself.

But here in South Africa, money could still be spent; being able to spend money, and being willing to spend it, meant things weren't too grueling.

The only one suffering was Wu Jing — that stingy, penny-pinching guy.

Bai Liang wasn't the type to force himself to endure hardship for no reason; he actually loved his comforts, and wouldn't even eat bitterness when there was any.

"It's about Wang Baoqiang — his wife cheated on him with his manager!" Nazha's tone was wildly exaggerated, even throwing in body language, trying to make Bai Liang understand just how explosive this was.

Bai Liang: Sometimes, holding back spoilers is really quite the difficult thing.

But he didn't let this golden opportunity slip by either.

"Let's make a bet~"

"Bet on what?"

"Do you think Wang Baoqiang will be ruined this time? After all, he's falling out with both his partner and his manager at once — if he has any dirt, those two definitely know it."

Nazha nodded, thinking that made a lot of sense.

For example, if her little assistant or manager suddenly tore off the mask and turned on her one day.

Then her little story with Bai Liang — not a single bit of it would stay hidden.

Cohabiting, stockings — everything would be spilled clean.

"Sis, how could I ever turn on you?" Nazha's little assistant was unhappy — don't just make up random examples, okay?

"Aiya, I'm just making an analogy, comparing~ don't be mad, I'll treat you all to something good tonight."

After soothing her little assistant, Nazha looked back at Bai Liang. "What's the bet? You're betting he'll definitely be ruined?"

"No, I don't like things with a high probability of happening. I like low probability, so I bet he'll be totally fine — no matter how much they dig, he's a proper white lotus, not the pejorative kind."

"Let's bet! The loser has to unconditionally grant the winner one request!" Nazha beamed, sure she'd already won.

But at this point Bai Liang asked: "Can the request be a long-term one?"

"Like what?"

"Come closer." After whispering his idea into Nazha's ear, Bai Liang naturally took a solid punch.

Some things, once said aloud, are guaranteed to get a Miss punched.

When she hits you somewhere non-vital, it means the girl genuinely likes you.

Nazha: What the heck~ irresponsible stinky man!

Fortunately she wasn't truly angry, and besides — some of those naughty requests, even without a bet, if Bai Liang pestered her about it, she'd probably half-heartedly agree.

Can't be helped — that's just how soft-eared, easy-to-fool girls are.

Try hard enough, and she might even manage to tick off all "Eight Chivalric Virtues" at certain moments — all depends on how Bai Liang sweet-talks her.

"Oh right! Did you put on sunscreen today?"

Hearing this, Bai Liang was a bit baffled. "Why would I put that stuff on?"

"To protect your skin — you're an artist, hey! Sister Yanzi told me she couldn't come on this trip, so all your stuff is on me now." Nazha said it as if it were the most natural thing.

Bai Liang thought this sounded like entrusting an orphan — he wasn't exactly someone who couldn't take care of himself.

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Besides, he did bring an assistant on this trip — a male one, of course.

Considering the conditions, those few inexperienced young girls from the studio were a no-go; if they came, who knew who'd be taking care of whom.

As for those two male assistants — where were they now? Their builds were genuinely solid, so Wu Jing had dragged them off as extra labor, successfully drawing two salaries.

As for Bai Liang himself, he could just mooch off Nazha.

He mooched off her often anyway.

But watching Nazha approach him with bottles and jars, eyeing him like a predator, Bai Liang's inner resistance was still pretty strong.

He really didn't like smearing so many things on his face — that slippery feeling made him uncomfortable.

Of course this was a bit of a double standard — when a Miss once told him putting stuff on her face felt uncomfortable, he'd said "you'll get used to it"~

"Don't move, be good~"

"I don't want to." Bai Liang turned his head away, expressing his uncooperative attitude.

"Later I'll let you put some on me too..."

"Didn't you already put some on?"

"I only did my face~"

Hearing this, Bai Liang's gaze instinctively drifted downward — those two long bare white legs seemed to be sending him a "please touch" signal.

He pulled his gaze back with great effort.

Hah, how could this Bai someone possibly be that kind of lecher?!

Two seconds later, Na Zha simply sat down on his lap and pulled off a "forced affection."

It wasn't that kind of side-sitting with legs pressed together—she straddled him face-to-face, one of her thighs pinning down one of Bai Liang's hands.

"You're flashing."

"There's safety shorts under the denim shorts, and underwear under the safety shorts—nothing's flashing."

Today Na Zha declared she absolutely had to arrange sun protection for Bai Liang.

She didn't want them to arrive both fair and smooth-skinned, only to go back with her still a great beauty and him a pitch-black capybara.

Even if he tanned he'd still be handsome, but just not as. cute as he is now.

That's right, she really cares about this point~

Faced with this situation, even Bai Liang couldn't resist.

The moment he turned his head, Na Zha would kiss him—directly hard-crowd-controlling him for ten seconds.

These two's "utter recklessness" had already reached a level where onlookers couldn't bear to watch.

The little assistant had retreated to a spot five meters away, thinking that once abroad, Sister Na Zha had completely let herself go!

She was probably waiting for this day long ago, urging Wu Jing to start filming quickly—was she really afraid Bai Liang would keep racing cars?

This kind of acting as if no one else exists, openly getting affectionate right in the middle of the crew, was simply outrageous!

She'd figured the paparazzi didn't have the ability to follow them all the way to South Africa, right~

"Dou Xiao Bai, your character is pretty much set, we've added quite a bit of screen time, come discuss."

The moment Wu Jing walked a bit closer, he was utterly dumbfounded.

No way—he'd come to South Africa specifically to film a real-man, tough-guy military-themed action scene, that was right!

Damn it, why did these two feel like they came to shoot a sweet foreign romance?!

Although he'd long noticed something off between Na Zha and Bai Liang, he really hadn't expected Na Zha to take the initiative to this extent—her guts had already shot to the heavens, there were still plenty of domestic crew members around.

No choice—Wu Jing had been force-fed a mouthful of dog food, and still had to go give a word to tell the crew to be careful.

This is Africa, damn it! It's said every Chinese person who comes here to do business has had an AK pointed at their head.

Nobody wants some accident to happen just because of private gossip or pulling out a phone to snap random photos, right?

Of course Wu Jing didn't say this out loud, but everyone would fill in the blanks themselves.

Oh right, actually the female lead Na Zha plays is officially paired with Leng Feng from Wolf Warrior, there's a little story there.

But anyway, Wu Jing had already cut or rewritten every part of that storyline he could.

It didn't really affect much anyway.

The extra screen time all went to the male second lead Zhuo Yifan played by Bai Liang—the original setting didn't even give this character any African scenes.

Now it does.

And that big battle at the Chinese-funded factory in Africa was actually filmed domestically; they'd shoot some location footage here in Africa for a while and then head back.

"I'll come back in a bit."

Wu Jing turned and left, but when he came back ten minutes later, he found the two still in that exact pose.

Luckily, their mouths weren't glued together—they should be able to have a normal conversation now.

After briefing them on some changes to the scenes and character settings, Wu Jing didn't want to spend one more second in this place.

He'd rather go outside and watch the Dahe hippo bare its teeth.

"Good little kids get rewards—tomorrow if I'm free, Big Sister will take you to watch the hippo bare its teeth, do you want that or not?"

Na Zha seemed to have taken a liking to this "peculiar" way of getting along; while her voice was sickeningly sweet, she also seemed to genuinely have the mentality of dealing with a "little kid."

You could also say she was gradually turning into a pervert.

And she now felt that sitting on Bai Liang's lap with her arms around his neck was really comfortable!

She liked it like this!

Meanwhile, Bai Liang, his face smeared with all kinds of sunscreen, felt a bit dead inside—the stuff really wasn't comfortable on his face.

Luckily Na Zha's products were genuinely high-end; after a while he couldn't feel much anymore.

After reporting his user experience, Na Zha got so proud she could burst, planting one hand on her hip and bragging: "So from now on, will you listen to me?"

"We'll talk about it later~" Bai Liang scratched his head, with a premonition that he might be facing some unequal treaties.

Today she smears sunscreen on his face, tomorrow she'll dare smear other things.

Can't spoil her too much.

Still, after arriving in Africa, Na Zha was indeed much happier and more uninhibited than back home.

Whenever she had free time, she'd drag Bai Liang around to wander everywhere.

This behavior gave Wu Jing a fright—damn, you two ancestors, do you really think you're here on vacation?

He didn't even dare imagine what he'd do if something happened to these two here.

But strangely, on this land of South Africa, Bai Liang inexplicably got along remarkably well too.

At first it was all fine—just running into kind, simple local folks.

They'd often buy back some strange local specialties, or have locals take them around to wander—watching hippos bare their teeth or crocodiles flip over, that sort of thing.

But the day he came back with Na Zha carrying several AKs loaded with bullets, things started getting a bit off.

"What the hell—local militants gave this to you?! Why would they give you this?"

Bai Liang had to explain to Wu Jing: "They didn't give it, I traded for it."

"Traded with what?"

". Small commodities, on a volunteer basis."

"Liang-ge! Let's just go watch the hippo bare its teeth, I'm begging you—don't get involved with local anti-government militants, it's too easy to cause trouble."

"Misunderstanding. How could they possibly be anti-government forces? They're perfectly legitimate government forces, with official establishment."

On this magical land of Africa, even the official armed forces are actually quite wild in nature.

Wu Jing didn't quite know how to respond to that.

Ever since getting to know Bai Liang, many things he could never have imagined before have just happened so naturally.

Besides, this kid is really far too bold — there's something of that fresh, innocent quality of a newly graduated college student about him, fearless and unafraid of anything.

Under normal circumstances, you'd have to smash your head bloody before becoming mercenary and gaining experience.

But Bai Liang, up to now, hasn't run into any "rookie wall" either.

He can already trade for guns from the local armed forces, completely in his element in the new environment.

Wu Jing suddenly thought of some discussions online — about whether Bai Liang was the big villain of the movie *Wolf Warrior 2*.

Of course not, but he wouldn't explain either; some mysteries are destined to wait until the movie premieres before everyone can know.

But in real life he had a very strange feeling — if Bai Liang were the big villain, even Leng Feng of *Wolf Warrior* would probably be in trouble! —

Two updates, ten thousand characters complete, begging for monthly votes.

There's still one more update today.

(End of chapter)