Ch21 - Do you two also know ‘Yan Shuangshuang’?

Saturday, May 1st.

For most industries, today marks the beginning of a three-day holiday, but for the service industry, the holiday just means more work.

Lisa Media’s offline business accounts for a considerable part of the company’s turnover, and in a sense, it could be regarded as a service industry. Therefore, activities were lined up during the short holiday period and everyone in the company found themselves busy. 

On this day, Lisa Media was helping a well-known wedding dress brand shoot a new product catalog and print advertisements at a manor in the southern suburbs of Fèng Xīngchéng city.

Because most of the scenes must be shot outside, the work had to begin when the sun was at an exact point in the morning and wasn’t too fierce. To meet these requirements, the models and the crew members had to be in position by 7 a.m.. At the director’s command, all staff hurried to change clothes, make-up, organize the set and debug the equipment.

There were five models today, two men and two women, signed by Lisa Media.

The fifth person was the brand’s invited spokesman. She was a tall, beautiful woman who had appeared in international shows for many years and had been a Victoria’s Secret Angel three times. She was now a renowned figure and hence, received many endorsements after returning to China. She was known as the first sister of the domestic supermodel industry. Naturally, she was the most well-known of the signed models.

Of course, the presence of this first sister would not be insignificant.

She had brought a small crew with her, including: cosmetic artists, clothes advisors, drivers, bodyguards and so on, as well as four assistants.

Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan intermingled with the supermodel sister’s team and busied themselves all morning as if they were two qualified assistants.

After the first two hours of hectic preparation, the filming officially started. 

Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan took the initiative to purchase four dozen fruit juices and milk tea from the villa club’s cold drink shop even though they weren’t official employees. They brought them back and distributed them to the staff at the scene.

It was not a new trick in the industry, rather, it was an old-fashioned trick; however, it proved to be quite effective in raising others’ favor towards them.

Sure enough, the staff who received drinks, especially the female staff, were very happy and their attitude towards them immediately rose from polite friendliness to enthusiasm.

Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan had attractive features and towering statures. The girls had been paying special attention to them since the beginning and now that they had received a small courtesy from the handsome men, the girls became more comfortable and began acting overly friendly towards them. 

“Brother Bei, Xiao Wei, you can come and sit over there.”

A female makeup artist greeted Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan with an ice-cold oolong tea in her hands. Four girls gathered next to her. They all looked at them eagerly.

Bei Quan nodded with a smile and plunged into the women’s heap with Wei Fuyuan.

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“Then, your company’s treatment must be better than ours.”

Bei Quan began with the wage topic that many professionals like discussing and remarked in a half-truth, half-joke, “I want to quit.”

“Hey, if you want to change jobs, of course, we welcome you!” 

There was a girl who spoke immediately.

“Besides, a handsome man like you should be a model or an entertainer.”

“I have no ambitions and I can’t do a job with too much pressure.” Bei Quan pointed to himself with a smile, “Besides, I’m about to be thirty years old, so I’m already over-age.”

He waited for the girls to discuss a few words and then said, “But, I’ve heard that your company is very big. Interpersonal relationships must be complicated with so many employees, right?” 

After seeing the girls nodding their heads in agreement and waiting for them to vent a few more words of complaint  about the hardships of working in a big company, Bei Quan revealed what he actually wanted to ask.

“From not long ago, what happened to that murder case in your company?”

He inquired, as if conversing with new acquaintances about gossip, “How can one colleague kill another one?”

When the two girls heard Bei Quan mention this, they sighed in unison. 

“Who knows what is running in the mind of a psychopath!”

After listening to the girls, they found that the disagreements that led to the dispute between Shen Xing and Manager Xu, from their version, was similar to what they had heard from Ms. Huang’s version. However, because it was gossip among friends, they spoke casually and their emotional tendencies were more evident.

They were not in the same department as Shen Xing and Lisa Media was a fairly large company. Before the accident, most people didn’t even know that the copywriting department had an employee named Shen Xing.

But Xu Ziye was different. 

He was the manager of the public relations department and a celebrity in the company.

Manager Xu Ziye was just 30 years old; he was a man in his prime. Moreover, he had a strong professional ability and was very talented and handsome. It was said that he was also very good at dealing with the opposite sex; in fact, he was the kind of romantic person who had been known to be involved with many women.

This manager Xu, who was popular with women, was born with a skill for breaking up with partners cleanly and never left any mess behind.

He had numerous girlfriends, and every time he ended a relationship, he did it respectfully. He also never dated any female colleagues at his company, so he was able to keep a good reputation among the sisters. 

In comparison to manager Xu, who had an excellent relationship with the opposite sex, Shen’s reputation was quite different.

“I inquired with my colleagues from that department. She said that Shen Xing had always been very neurotic!”

The makeup artist tossed the empty milk teacup into a nearby garbage can and added, “He was often chatting and laughing for no apparent reason, especially during this month before the homicide. He was said to have been caught talking to the air in the pantry and the corridor, as if he was having a conversation with someone. It’s horrible!”

She shook her arm, “It almost sounds like he was speaking to ghosts!” 

“Oh?” Bei Quan asked with interest, “Are you sure there was no one else around at the time?”

“No!”

The makeup artist who had already learned the details from her colleagues, replied in seconds, “When someone asked what he was doing in the pantry right, he said that he was speaking with people. Everyone assumed Shen Xing was wearing headphones or the speakerphone was turned on. They didn’t notice he wasn’t and didn’t really seem to care either, but they weren’t expecting…”

She paused, then continued, “It wasn’t long before ‘that’!” 

Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan both understood that the makeup artist was referring to the murder where Shen Xing had slit manager Xu’s throat with a knife.

“Nobody understands why they quarreled. These two people would, normally, never interact with each other. Manager Xu probably didn’t even know who Shen Xing was before the incident! But, on that particular day, it was such a heresy that Manager Xu happened to have gone to the copywriting department only to get killed by that psycho!”

At this point, the makeup artist subconsciously lowered her voice, “What’s more frightening is that when the police came the next day, I heard that they went to the copywriting department and asked about a woman named ‘Yan Shuangshuang’…”

Hearing the name ‘Yan Shuangshuang’, Wei Fuyuan immediately became energetic and perked his ears. 

Bei Quan pretended that he didn’t know anything. “Was ‘Yan Shuangshuang’ the reason for their dispute?”

The makeup artist denied it immediately.

“There is no one in our company called ‘Yan Shuangshuang’!”

She pointed to her temple, “I don’t know if Shen Xing was really mentally ill, or if he had wanted to find an excuse to get rid of the crime of killing someone, but he made up a woman’s name and let the police go all over the company looking for her! But how can people who don’t exist be found?” 

“I heard a story that claimed an employee of your company killed a coworker over a fight for the affection of the same girl.”

Bei Quan continued to talk.

“Could it be that Shen Xing deliberately made up a name to protect the woman?”

“…No?” 

The makeup artist’s answer was not so decisive this time.

She exchanged glances with the other girls. When she saw everyone shaking their heads, she replied, “Manager Xu was engaged at that time… It’s impossible for Shen Xing to have taken a fancy to Manager Xu’s fiancee.”

This was a new piece of information.

Bei Quan, “Manager Xu was engaged? Then his fiancée should be grieving, right?” 

A girl sighed, “Manager Xu’s fiancé also belongs to our company.”

Another girl also added, “Since Manager Xu’s accident, I haven’t seen Lan Tian. I’m afraid she hasn’t come out of her room yet.”

Before they could discuss anything further, a series of photographs had been shot and it was time to change the clothing and scenes.

Closing the conversation, everyone took off like a well-trained flock of homing pigeons, plunging into a fresh round of hustle and bustle. 

Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan also dutifully played the role of assistants, helping the supermodel sister.

The new sequence would be shot in the courtyard under the wisteria trellis.

The supermodel sister wore a sea-blue mermaid wedding dress with twelve blue enchantresses in her hand. She stood next to the blooming wisteria flowers, with the heavy texture of a European medieval court oil painting.

The director yelled for everyone to take their place and prepare to start the filming. 

Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan silently retreated.

——Now it seemed that Lisa Media really did not have a woman named ‘Yan Shuangshuang’.

——The dead Xu Ziye was engaged. Did his fiancée have anything to do with it?

——Was Xiaoqing, Xu Ziye’s fiance? 

Bei Quan’s brain was going through all the information he had just obtained.

At this time, Wei Fuyuan, who was next to him, raised his hand and gently touched his arm.

“You said…”

Wei Fuyuan lowered his voice, “It seems that ‘Yan Shuangshuang’ doesn’t…” 

Young Master Wei originally wanted to say, ‘Now it seems that Yan Shuangshuang really does not exist.’ However, a voice abruptly cut into their conversation.

“Do you two also know Yan Shuangshuang?”

Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan looked back at the same time.

A man stood behind them, his eyes burning, as he stared at them.