Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 182: Fell to the ground and fell into the trap!
Ten days after the crew of "In Time" entered Hong Kong, British actor Tom Hiddleston finished filming that night.

His scenes were very scattered, and it was really tiring flying back and forth between China and the UK over the past few months.

When director Li Qiutang announced that he had finished filming, the entire crew applauded him and the production staff presented him with flowers.

"Thank you, I love you." After a few months of getting along, this British Tom also learned a few words of Chinese.

The director came forward, hugged him, and said, "Tom, don't forget the Chinese I taught you."

"I know." Tom Hiddleston gave a thumbs up and said in Chinese, "This one is awesome."

"Yes, yes, this one is awesome." Li Qiutang said with a smile, and the staff around her were also laughing. The director was so mean.

“It means very good.”

"This one." Tom Hiddleston learned another sentence.

"Hahahaha!"

Tom Hiddleston leaves the set. After work that night, Li Qiutang and Liu Yifei invited him to dinner as a practice, and he will return to the UK at noon tomorrow.

After dinner, the three of them went back to the hotel together.

The next day, Li Qiutang and Liu Yifei left the hotel in the same car and went to the set together.

But as they drove along, they realized something was wrong. Their driver, a Hong Kong native, said in broken Mandarin: "Boss, there are paparazzi following our car. I deliberately drove in circles, but they also let us go."

Just as he finished speaking, he saw the other party stepped on the accelerator and caught up with the crew's car, parallel to it. A reporter in the car held up a camera and kept taking pictures of the car.

The other driver even wanted to cut off his car and ask Li Qiutang to slow down.

The crew driver didn't dare to stop or turn for fear of accidents, so he could only maintain speed.

Li Qiutang lifted the car curtain and saw that the other reporter was still taking pictures and even saw her head showing, which made her even happier.

Li Qiutang looked very unhappy through the car window. She pointed at the other party and asked them to stop this boring and dangerous behavior.

But they don’t care about that!
Li Qiutang's cell phone suddenly rang at this time. It was the life production assistant calling.

"Director, I'm checking Tom out of the hotel right now, and I saw some paparazzi asking the hotel cleaner to look through the trash can in your room, as well as Yifei and Tom's."

Li Qiutang realized something was wrong and said, "Detain the people! Confiscate their cameras! And their work permits, search them out and don't let them leave.

"What the hell is illegal detention? If I detain you, I'll be responsible if anything happens! Just don't do anything. Have someone send Tom away, I'll be right back."

After hanging up the phone, Li Qiutang asked the driver to go back to the hotel: "We can't shoot today, let's go back to the hotel."

On the set, the head of the Cheng family team received a call from Li Qiutang.

"Fuck you!" After hearing what Li Qiutang said, the Cheng Stunt Team leader cursed, "I'll be right over."

"Go back to the hotel, something happened to the director."

Li Qiutang is now in the lounge area of the hotel lobby. Three people from the Life Production Team are looking at the two reporters, who are clamoring to sue the crew.

The hotel manager tried to smooth things over, saying that since this kind of thing happened in the hotel, they could not escape responsibility.

Last night, Li Qiutang and Liu Yifei invited Tom to dinner, and the three of them went back to the hotel together. The whole process was photographed by paparazzi.

Today, the front page of the entertainment industry is full of gossip about the three of them. The title is so dirty that it is outrageous. It says that the three of them exercised together late at night.

Liu Yifei had been the target of salacious rumors before, but the Hong Kong reporters didn't give her any face and dared to throw all kinds of dirty water at her. The paparazzi heard the news and took action, chasing cars to take pictures, sneaking into hotels to search through trash cans in an attempt to find evidence of the incident.

Liu Yifei was so angry that her face turned red and she stood aside without saying a word.

Two reporters who were rummaging through trash cans were caught by the Life producer, and two reporters who were chasing the car were forced to stop in front of the hotel by Li Qiutang and were forcibly asked to leave by the crew.

The four reporters are not afraid at all. I don't think you mainlanders would dare to do anything to them.

The Cheng family team brought the people from the set back to the hotel. There were more than 20 of them, like a gang of young and dangerous people. It was very scary.

The four people's mobile phones and cameras were confiscated by the crew.

Li Qiutang couldn't do anything dirty, but he also had a way.

"Complain to the Hong Kong Film Development Council, the Hong Kong Performing Artistes Guild and the Hong Kong Labour Department."

The Cheng Family Stunt Team did not recommend going through official channels, saying they could resolve the issue, but Li Qiutang did not care. What to do in private was the Cheng Family Stunt Team’s business, but Li Qiutang had to file complaints through official channels.

“Do you want to file a complaint with the Journalists Association?”

"That journalists association is useless. They are a bunch of traitors."

Li Qiutang said to the reporters fiercely: "I will fight you till the end even if I don't shoot the movie anymore."

As Li Qiutang expected, the Hong Kong Performing Artists Association received a complaint call but ignored the matter. Is this a big deal in Hong Kong?

However, the Film Development Council, which had just been established for two years, took this matter very seriously because it involved mainland workers coming to Hong Kong. Li Qiutang was so famous in the mainland, and "In Time" was endorsed by China Film Corporation. The Labour Department also took this complaint very seriously.

However, this kind of thing is not glorious after all, and it can be big or small. The Film Development Council and the Labour Department are trying to settle it privately and do not recommend that Li Qiutang make a big deal out of it.

But I don’t know which genius in the crew actually leaked the news to the mainland.

Xinlang Entertainment exclusively reported that the crew of "In Time" was treated unfairly in Hong Kong, being chased by paparazzi, rumours were spread about the female lead Liu Yifei, and the crew changed hotels on the same day.

Li Qiutang said that she would not accept the reporter's personal apology and compensation, and the crew wanted the other party to publish an apology statement in the name of the company.

Li Qiutang and Liu Yifei are not from Hong Kong, nor do they rely on the Hong Kong market for their livelihood. They just leave after filming a scene, and it doesn't matter if they never come back again. Why should he endure it?
Li Qiutang is going through the official complaint channel, while the Cheng family team is also solving the problem in their own way.

Li Qiutang accepted an interview in her spare time and said: "Freedom of reporting and freedom of reporting are definitely not a golden ticket to immunity from death, and paparazzi are paparazzi, they don't deserve the title of uncrowned kings. Ask them if they dare to report on the front lines of war? Do they dare to risk their lives to conduct undercover investigations? Do they dare to expose darkness and evil? They definitely don't dare. They will definitely say that journalists have different divisions of labor. Entertainment journalists are responsible for revealing the truth about the entertainment industry to the audience, which is equally great.

"…The crew has reached the critical final stage of filming. If they stop for one day, they will lose millions."

On this day, the crew was filming on Duddell Street.

Yinhuang CEO Liya Bo acted as a middleman and brought two middle-aged people, a man and a woman, to Li Qiutang on Duddell Street.

The two looked as if they had lost their parents, crying and begging Li Qiutang and Liu Yifei for forgiveness.

But Li Qiutang and Liu Yifei could hardly understand Cantonese, and they just looked like they were crying miserably.

While they were talking, one of them took out a check for 200 million Hong Kong dollars, saying it was compensation for the crew's lost wages and Liu Yifei and Li Qiutang's mental damages.

After hearing Liyabo's explanation, Li Qiutang learned that her case probably attracted the attention of some hard-line officials in the mainland, who used this incident to put pressure on the Hong Kong Film Development Council and related departments, leading to the current situation. However, Liyabo was not sure who it was, which system of officials it was, and how high their rank was. Neither did Li Qiutang understand.

Those reporters involved were fired and they probably won't be able to work in this field anymore in their lifetime.

Of the 400 million, 200 million was confiscated and 200 million was given to Liu Yifei, but Liu Yifei refused the money, saying that she was not so cheap as to take other people's money after being scolded by others.

(End of this chapter)