Chapter 11

Agony!

Unbearable agony!!

Jiang Zihang felt as if a knife had ripped through the skin on his waist, the pain so intense he writhed on the ground.

Everything happened in just a second...

He never imagined Su Xingyao would actually dare to whip him in front of everyone.

And with such brutal force...

Tears streamed down Jiang Zihang's face from the pain, blurring his vision as he lay crumpled on the ground, clutching the burning skin under his costume.

Through his blurred vision, a pair of white boots came into view.

Jiang Zihang instinctively looked up, locking eyes with Su Xingyao.

Su Xingyao loomed over him, his face a mask of indifference.

But the pain made him want to flee.

For a moment, he couldn’t tell if it was Su Xingyao or the terrifying Jade-Faced Asura from the drama.

Yet, his memory relentlessly flashed a sentence in his mind.

"Don’t play these little tricks."

This was the warning Su Xingyao had given him that night, rising from the water.

At the time, Jiang Zihang had dismissed it.

But now, it had come to pass.

Everything happened so suddenly that many didn’t understand until Jiang Zihang's agonized scream.

Only when Jiang Zihang's assistant helped him up and lifted his costume, revealing a long, red whip mark, did everyone realize what he had endured.

Staff members gathered around them, but almost everyone's first thought was that Jiang Zihang had it coming.

He and his assistant had just been badmouthing Su Xingyao in front of him.

Though no one spoke up, everyone had heard it.

As the saying goes, don’t slap someone in the face.

Jiang Zihang had already schemed behind Su Xingyao's back, landing him in the hospital for a week.

Su Xingyao had been gracious enough not to hold it against him, but then Jiang Zihang had the nerve to make veiled insults, implying Su Xingyao was faking his illness.

Especially with his earlier remarks—if it had been someone with a shorter temper, they would have slapped him twice to shut him up.

The crew knew their personalities and temperaments all too well.

Su Xingyao, despite his bad reputation, was actually humble, gentle, and a great actor. He not only helped the crew solve various problems but also assisted staff and extras whenever he could, never putting on airs and being very easy to get along with.

On the other hand, Jiang Zihang, who was praised by fans as having an impeccable character, was a spoiled brat who made a fuss over everything, even needing his assistant to feed him during meals... Most importantly, his acting was atrocious, and everyone in the crew had to work overtime because of his constant NG. Originally, everyone had some grievances against Jiang Zihang, but seeing him not taking his acting seriously day after day, while bullying Su Xingyao with his entourage and provoking him repeatedly...

Seeing Su Xingyao whip him today, most people felt a bit of secret glee after witnessing it.

Jiang Zihang howled in pain after being whipped.

His assistants also turned pale with fright and quickly gathered around, carefully applying iodine to the wound.

His closest assistant hurriedly grabbed tissues to wipe his face, using his body to shield Jiang Zihang from prying eyes, afraid that others might see his pitiful state.

"What's wrong, bro? What happened?"

Jiang Zihang was in so much pain that he temporarily lost the ability to speak. He could only look at Su Xingyao in the distance with tearful eyes, his face full of resentment.

Seeing this, the assistant immediately widened his eyes and scolded Su Xingyao loudly, like reprimanding a dog.

"What are you doing? Trying to kill someone??"

The assistant had more to say, but after meeting Su Xingyao's gaze, he quickly shut his mouth.

Su Xingyao ignored him, his expression unchanged, as he slowly coiled the whip.

Only after finally holding the whip did he speak calmly.

"Apologize to Xiao Yu."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Zihang immediately exploded with curses.

"Apologize my *! Are you f***ing crazy?!"

The crew members quickly rushed over.

Wang Dao had just arrived when he heard Jiang Zihang cursing.

He gave Jiang Zihang a displeased look but still patiently tried to calm the situation.

"This whip isn't like other props; it's hard to control the direction and strength. This solid one isn't very safe. I'll have the props team replace it later."

Wang Dao's words provided a way for both sides to save face.

A smarter person would have taken this opportunity to stay quiet and resolve the issue privately.

But Jiang Zihang, as if he didn't get it, continued to press on.

After recovering slightly, the first thing he said was, "Was it really an accident, or was it personal payback?"

His intention was to target Su Xingyao and reveal his true colors.

But he didn't realize that his words also offended Wang Dao.

Hearing this, Wang Dao's face instantly darkened.

Jiang Zihang's assistant, as if the situation wasn't bad enough, added fuel to the fire.

"Don't think no one can see what you're up to under the guise of filming."

Su Xingyao had already vented his anger, and Xiao Yu felt she couldn't back down, so she immediately retorted.

"Even award-winning actresses can accidentally slap their co-stars when they get too immersed in their roles."

Jiang Zihang found this statement strangely familiar.

Upon careful reflection, it was exactly what his assistant had said to defend his actions after he deliberately caused a NG and pushed Su Xingyao into the water that day.

Clearly, Jiang Zihang wasn't the only one who remembered this statement; the staff present on set that day also had a fresh memory of it.

Today, seeing Xiao Yu use the same line to retort Jiang Zihang, some couldn't help but laugh.

Jiang Zihang was already frustrated enough by Su Xingyao's actions, and now he was being publicly humiliated by a junior assistant in front of so many people.

Feeling humiliated, he was seething with anger, and he yelled at Xiao Yu.

"Shut up, you idiot!!"

Seeing Jiang Zihang raise his hand slightly, his assistant acted on his behalf.

He moved suddenly, with considerable force in his palm, intent on slapping Xiao Yu.

However, his action was stopped just inches away from Xiao Yu.

Su Xingyao grabbed his wrist with one hand and asked coldly, "What do you think you're doing?"

Others also noticed the assistant's intent, and several actresses quickly pulled Xiao Yu behind them.

Ji Linghe could no longer stand by and watch. After knocking away the assistant's hand that was about to hit someone, he told Jiang Zihang coldly.

"I think it would be better for you to take a break and cool down."

Jiang Zihang was too angry to calm down.

However, his manager arrived at the scene at that moment, preventing him from speaking further and escorting him off the set.

Jiang Zihang, refusing to back down, turned his head and glared at Su Xingyao, flipping him off and threatening angrily.

"Su Xingyao, you'll see, this isn't over."

*

After Jiang Zihang was taken away by his manager, the set finally settled down.

Originally, everyone thought that after being taken away and lectured by his manager, he would stay out of trouble.

But unexpectedly, Jiang Zihang immediately contacted his own fansite, which had been waiting outside to secretly take photos, and used the photos they had taken to leak the incident.

Soon, hashtags like #JiangZihangWhippedBySuXingyao, #SuXingyaoBullyOnSet, and #JiangZihangSoPitiful took the top five spots on the hot search.

On the hot search, Jiang Zihang's big fans directly stepped in to control the narrative, posting several high-definition photos and complaining to onlookers about Su Xingyao's workplace bullying of their idol.

Fans also began to denounce Su Xingyao, posing ten questions for him, demanding that he come out and apologize to Jiang Zihang immediately.

This sudden hot search caught the "Falling Petals" crew off guard, as they were still busy filming night scenes.

By the time they finished and saw it, Su Xingyao had already been cyberbullied tens of thousands of times.

And his Weibo post from a year and a half ago, after enduring so many rounds of black hot searches, was finally cursed over a million times today with the help of Jiang Zihang's fans.

Regarding this hot search, Wang Dao was extremely frustrated.

After all, no director wants their show to trend in such a way before its release.

He was already uncomfortable with Jiang Zihang's fansite exposing the cast during the opening ceremony.

Now, his fansite had leaked photos again, completely revealing the carefully prepared costumes and props of the crew.

The crew was unhappy, and the actors and staff also felt that Jiang Zihang was acting crazy.

Although in the eyes of his fans, he was treated unfairly today.

But to them, it was a trivial matter.

Many actors have been accidentally injured by various props while filming on set, and some have even nearly lost their lives, but no one has blown it out of proportion by buying trending topics to talk about it.

Moreover, this incident was entirely Jiang Zihang's own fault. What he did to Su Xingyao at the time was way more messed up than this.

Yet Su Xingyao kept it quiet. He didn’t go public, play the victim, or smear Jiang Zihang. Instead, Jiang Zihang pulled the victim card first, relying on his large fan base and the fact that people outside the crew didn't know the truth, to smear and manipulate the narrative...

With Jiang Zihang's actions, everyone finally understood how the rumors about Su Xingyao in the past got started.

The crew got it, but the netizens were clueless.

Seeing that Su Xingyao was causing trouble again, they automatically sided with Jiang Zihang.

"I called it—Su Xingyao’s already stirring up trouble just weeks into the shoot."

"As a true hater of Su Xingyao, I just want to say this is totally on brand for Su."

"Poor Jiang Zihang, getting bullied by a villain on set. My heart goes out to him."

"Damn, does Su Xingyao have some big shot backing him? He does whatever he wants on set."

"Can we just boot him from the crew? I’m done with this villain."

Su Xingyao has no team or fans, and his manager, under the instructions of his parents two years ago, stopped handling his negative trending topics.

And Jiang Zihang, who learned all this from Shen Huaixi, went all out in buying trending topics, with waves of paid commenters flooding major websites.

Early the next morning, he couldn’t sleep. Using a burner account, he scrolled through Weibo. Everywhere, netizens were trashing Su Xingyao, demanding he be kicked out of "Flowers Fall on Colored Glass."

Finally having vented his anger, Jiang Zihang finally felt satisfied.

He opened a photo secretly taken by a fan of Su Xingyao whipping him, zoomed in, and mocked Su Xingyao's face by poking it with his finger.

"You dare to whip me!!! Standing up for an assistant? Just watch, I’ll ruin your career."

After trash-talking Su Xingyao’s photo, Jiang Zihang got ready to head to set and see his reaction.

But just as he was about to turn off his phone, someone directly @'ed him.

Wow, I'm so scared: @Jiang Zihang, wanna spill the tea on what you've done before?