Brother Dao Took the Entertainment Industry by Storm, Fans Beg Me Not to Kill Anymore

Chapter 710: Oh No, Door-to-Door Delivery, Being Targeted?

After casually chatting with Chadley about the general requirements, Xiao He began preparing for the shoot.

Chadley was quite free-spirited. When working as a street photographer, he rarely brought dedicated fill lights or reflectors, usually just finding angles and lighting on the spot to shoot. This was one of the rare occasions where he had a professional model, so to appear more serious, Chadley finally pulled out his long-unused reflector and handed it to Xiao Chen, making him his photography assistant for the day.

As for clothing and styling, Chadley didn't have many demands. He just gave a few keywords for Xiao He to put together his own outfit and look before coming over. He also wanted minimal makeup, focusing on a realistic style.

So Xiao He's clothes were temporarily designed by a costume designer Liu Rulan knew from the production team. The style was similar to his hip-hop look from the last promotional leaks: a baggy gray top paired with distressed ripped jeans, colorful sneakers for contrast, and an assortment of layered necklaces. Finally, a baseball cap was pushed down over his forehead and worn backward, perfectly revealing his sharp brows and eyes.

This gave off a rebellious American street youth vibe—cool and trendy while seamlessly blending into the colorful street behind him.

Oh, of course, this was actually a prettied-up way of putting it. Nowadays, people didn't usually call them "rebellious youth." They were more like the thugs hanging around the streets causing trouble.

Fighting the hardest fights, doing the longest prison time...

Ahem, but regardless, this outfit perfectly matched today's theme.

Chadley was also very satisfied with Xiao He's look. After a quick check of the scene, he led Xiao He to a spot he had scoped out in advance. While guiding him on poses, he prepared to shoot: "Just like this—raise your hand, lean back, and keep twisting your hips—"

Most of Xiao He's previous shoots had been in studios. This was his first time shooting such photos outdoors, and while the background was much more open, he actually felt even more at a loss.

So when he heard Chadley's instructions, Xiao He immediately leaned back as directed. Luckily, despite feeling a bit awkward with the pose, his center of gravity was steady enough to perfectly follow Chadley's directions.

But wait, was this pose really okay?

He felt like he was twisting himself into a pretzel.

What kind of posture would this look like in Chadley's lens?!

Following the principle of not questioning the photographer during a shoot, Xiao He chose blind trust.

But just after finishing the first set of poses, Xiao He felt a strange gaze watching them.

Turning his head, he saw a slightly familiar, curled-up figure peeking at them from a small alley across the street.

Xiao He narrowed his eyes.

It was an older homeless man, wearing dusty clothes, his face full of unkempt beard, looking completely disheveled, even his eyes cloudy and yellowed.

They had seen plenty of such standard homeless people abroad—hard to tell one from another.

But Xiao He still had some memory of this gaze.

Because on the night they came looking for Moses, this was the thug who had been keeping watch at the mouth of the alley, secretly observing them and reporting their arrival to Moses.

Unfortunately, at the time, Moses was too happy about the stolen goods he had acquired to heed the thug's warning. Instead, he had cursed the man away.

Later, when Xiao He grabbed Moses by the back of his collar and made him bang his head against the car panel, he had also vaguely sensed the homeless man's watching gaze from a corner. But Xiao He didn't care much then and let him watch. After all, once Moses was dealt with, Xiao He wouldn't be coming back.

He never expected to run into him again!

Xiao He found it a bit amusing, but also subtly raised his guard.

He wasn't worried about the homeless man recognizing him—after all, that night, both he and Old Qi were heavily disguised, spoke with deliberately lowered voices and authentic local accents, and acted in a brutal, ruthless manner completely different from their usual selves. Anyone watching would have taken them for members of another gang, not a random celebrity they met on the street.

But since the guy hadn't recognized them, that meant he was simply targeting them.

Tsk. These guys. Instead of keeping a low profile recently, they were out causing trouble everywhere.

—And every time, they targeted him.

Xiao He's lips curled slightly, the light in his eyes turning dark, and his expression began to turn sinister.

Beside him, Chadley remained completely unaware, instead marveling at Xiao He's sudden explosive presence in front of the camera, frantically pressing the shutter.

Meanwhile, Old Qi also looked toward that street, frowning slightly.

"What's wrong?"

Liu Rulan lowered her voice to ask Old Qi.

Old Qi instinctively touched the tactical baton at his waist, making sure he had a means of self-defense before whispering back, "Someone's been watching us over there. I think we've been targeted."

Liu Rulan also looked toward the alley across the street.

Sure enough, the homeless man was still squatting at the entrance, staring at them. When they all looked back, he even grinned at them, showing a smile of unclear meaning.

"And there's another thing. Teacher Xiao might not have told you—"

Old Qi paused briefly before continuing in a very low voice: "Last time, our... uh, that friend of ours—he got our stolen things back from people in this area."

Liu Rulan's eyes practically quaked.

"So we're basically delivering ourselves to their doorstep?"

She looked utterly incredulous: "How could this be such a coincidence? Why didn't you say something when you came? If I'd known, I would have made Chadley change locations."

Wasn't this practically challenging them right at their front door?

"Not really, I think."

Hearing Liu Rulan's concern, Old Qi gave a simple, honest smile—though the content of his words, paired with his smile, carried a bit of a scheming vibe: "I don't think they recognized me or Teacher Xiao. Now that they see us shooting here, they're probably just looking for an excuse to cause trouble and ask for 'location fees.'"

These broken-down alleys definitely didn't belong to anyone privately, and they shouldn't be charging any location fees. But these thugs had carved out their own turf and treated it like it was theirs. If they were shooting here, it was bound to attract the attention of those troublemakers.

Besides, this area wasn't exactly known for good security.

Especially since most of their team had Eastern faces.

They looked like an easy target (?)

This was a location fee—and also protection money.

If they didn't pay, they'd be chased out—

After listening to Old Qi's analysis, Liu Rulan was silent for a moment, then a faint, cold smile appeared on her face. Her gaze unknowingly shifted to match Xiao He's, taking on that same villainous look.

"In that case, let them come."

She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, her gaze shifting to the minivan parked behind their own car.

"I won't give them the same chance again—"