Chapter 72: Recording
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Gao Xin stopped Xia Xin, saying, “It’s okay, Xia Xin. You don’t have to avoid it. This kind of thing is common among celebrities. Just get used to it. Since you’re Jing Mo’s friend, I didn’t intend to hide from you. Although I won’t help you, I won’t at least do anything to harm you behind your back.”
Xia Xin was touched by Gao Xin’s honesty. She realized that not everything about the entertainment industry being complicated was true. At least there were people like Gao Xin who were straightforward.
Xia Xin thanked Gao Xin and then the assistant director came to call everyone to start filming the show.
Since they were in the lion’s area, Xia Xin wasn’t a main participant. She didn’t need to be by the lions’ side constantly like in the previous two episodes. She would only appear during her segments.
Xia Xin rested backstage until a crew member came to call her for her appearance. She put on a baseball cap and applied a neutral-colored lipstick to improve her complexion. Then, she took a deep breath and said to herself, “I hope I don’t get injured today!”
The crew members were puzzled, wondering if they had misheard, ‘Is this a high-risk job? Her demands for herself were so low, as long as she didn’t get injured? Maybe we should stay away from the zoo from now on.’
When Xia Xin appeared, the game was mostly over, with Gao Xin having won. She was happily posing in front of the camera. Jing MO stood nearby, but the camera didn’t focus on him after a close-up, so Xia Xin ended up standing next to him when she entered.
Jing MO softly reminded Xia Xin, “Be careful. The lions today seem a bit unusual.”
Xia Xin looked at the pacing lion and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Jing MO answered, “It seems this lion is a bit agitated. It hit the cage during filming.”
Xia Xin observed the lion closely. She and Jing MO weren’t far from the cage, so she could see that the lion’s eye sockets were reddened, a clear sign of agitation. It impatiently blew air out of its mouth and whipped its tail against the cage several times, displaying nervous and anxious behavior.
Xia Xin couldn’t help but recall the lions she encountered during her exploration in Africa. They were just like the situation today—restless, staring at the crowd as if looking at prey. It was a mixture of resistance and the urge to tear apart as if they could devour everyone at any moment.
Fear welled up within Xia Xin, and her palms started to sweat nervously.
Sensing her tension, Jing MO inquired, “How are you feeling? If you are not feeling well today, I can talk to the director to stop the shoot and cancel this segment.”
After some mental preparation, Xia Xin declined Jing Mo’s suggestion.
Although Xia Xin was afraid, she didn’t want to cause any accidents on the show due to her own fear. That would only put her back into the spotlight for the wrong reasons.
Additionally, Xia Xin had resolved to use this opportunity to expose the person behind the scenes. She couldn’t let him keep causing destruction unchecked. From any angle, Xia Xin wouldn’t easily back down.
“It’s okay, I can do it,” Xia Xin said and gave Jing MO a determined look.
Jing MO nodded slightly, not interfering with Xia Xin’s decision anymore, but planning in his mind how to protect her if necessary.
As Xia Xin expected, that troublemaker had indeed taken every precaution to ensure that the lion remained under his control.
Xia Xin initially thought that the rampaging lion was that person’s only trick. However, she didn’t expect that he would even damage the cage and tamper with her.
From the moment Xia Xin stood by the cage, she felt something was off. The lion became visibly more agitated, repeatedly ramming the cage, and the lock on the lion’s cage even showed signs of coming undone.
Xia Xin felt that the lion’s agitation might be related to her somehow. She wondered, ‘Could it be something on my body that was provoking the lion?
Was there something that had triggered the lion’s restlessness?’
Xia Xin carefully thought about what she had encountered today.
As she had already guessed that someone would make a move, Xia Xin had been extremely cautious, avoiding contact with anything unfamiliar and only staying in familiar areas. She just couldn’t figure out why the lion became so agitated. She pondered, ‘Is it something on me that caused this?’
Suddenly, Xia Xin remembered that the cap she was wearing on her head had been handed to her directly from backstage. It was the only thing on her from head to toe that didn’t belong to her..
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