Chapter 8

Ashley had been walking for such a long time, his face turned pale and both his legs were trembling uncontrollably. He huffed and puffed, telling James with a trembling voice, as if there was nothing stable on his body now.

“S-stop, James! I-I need to take a rest! I can't walk any longer!” Then he bought an icy beverage from the vending machine, and started complaining after drinking a bit, “Screw it! Why the hell does Michael tell us to find that beggar? He is just a scammer coming to fool us and Michael trusts everything he said? What happened?”

“And the last name Eswaranski? Damn, why the fck did my uncle sell the diary to pay for his debt? Why didn't he sell one of his kidneys? Fuck!!!”

“Now the diary is gone and it's possible that the scammer has seen that name and pretended to be noble!”

Ashley couldn't hold back his bad words. After Ernest left, he had gone back home to look for the name Eswaranski in his great grandfather’s diary. But who the hell could expect that his uncle had already sold the diary to pay for his debt? No one!

The first time ever, Ashley had scolded his uncle badly. Why hadn't he sold his belongings—his house, his furniture, and even his kidney to solve his own problem? Why had he sold the ancestor’s diary?

And what Ashley had got was just a stupid sentence from his uncle.

“Ahhh, Ashley, don't be angry. Your great grandfather just wrote silly things and the diary is valued just because it was written two centuries ago.”

Fck! Fck! Fck!!!

Meanwhile, James was neither tired nor understanding what Ashley was complaining about.

He just stood there, confused.

James had been absent when Ernest arrived and gave lots of advice to the film crew, which the director Michael found logical and made him want to cooperate with Ernest. James himself couldn't imagine that he had just gone to eat lunch for thirty minutes, and the film crew had completely changed.

The man had been confused since noon, and his confusion became bigger and bigger as he saw Michael always asked the main actor, Kelvin, to act again and again but never satisfied though Kelvin had tried so hard.

And Kelvin, yeah, he had been weird too. James remembered how proud that guy had been when he and Michael came to his luxurious apartment, asking if he wanted to join their film project.

Kelvin had rejected it three times, and when his noble head nodded, he asked for innumerable things to be treated as a king. For instance, his coffee must be cold at noon, and warm at night.

But what had James just seen? That guy had agreed to act one scene twelve times without a word! He had even told Michael that he could act for another hour before dinner.

They had worked crazily this afternoon, following some advice that the person called Ernest left, but the result they got after all was just one word: inappropriate.

It didn't mean that Ernest's words were inappropriate with the manuscript, because James could see Kelvin's acting techniques improved a lot—at least James would give Kelvin some money if Kelvin kept on throwing the bread into his mouth with his dirty hands.

The problem was the manuscript. After Kelvin had eaten twelve pieces of bread, Michael realized that the manuscript was no longer suitable with the acting techniques which Kelvin had shown.

Michael had told James, “Now I understand why Mr. Eswaranski shook his head while reading our manuscript. It's just inappropriate. We have to find him and make a better plan.”

James had gone to find Ernest Eswaranski, but deep inside his mind, James completely agreed with Ashley.

The person called Ernest just pretended to be a rich guy so that he could take the others’ money.

Suddenly something drew James's attention. He narrowed his eyes to see what it was. Oh, a crowd? What was happening there? He tried to stare at the crowd's center. There was a man, but not look like a celebrity.

James didn't know why, but he abruptly asked Ashley while focusing on the man over there.

“Ashley, what does Ernest Eswaranski look like?”

“Fck, that's what I'm gonna complain about!” Ashley threw the empty bottle into the trash bin nearby, “His outfit is just something that cockroaches won't be pleased to bite. He wears a-”

“Tattered hoodie and faded pants?”

“Correct!” Ashley clapped his hand, “But how do you know that?”

James pointed at the crowd, “I see him standing right there.”

Ashley's eyes opened wide. The crowd? What was Ernest doing there? Trying to scam someone and be caught red handed?

He looked at James, “Go, we have to see what happens there.”

Back to the crowd, the employee took her phone out of the pocket and started calling the police.

“Are you threatening me? Are you thinking that I don't dare to call the police? Okay, I'll call. Just stand here and wait for the police who will bring you to their office!”

“Good, take your time.” Ernest nodded, “But what are you gonna tell them? That I'm someone trying to disrupt your business by pretending to be a beggar? Then please check the camera over there and show the police how I discontinued your activities.”

The employee stopped. Not until that moment did she realize that Ernest had actually done nothing wrong there. But it couldn't ease the anger inside Ernest but made him more furious.

Now Ernest didn't care if he could complete the mission in time to survive. He just felt annoyed, and angry. His life had been once taken away by the one he trusted, now it was about to end just because of this stupid employee?

What wrong thing had he done to be treated like this?

Ernest stood at the center of the crowd. His voice wasn't loud, but it was enough for everyone to feel how upset he was.

“All the words you use to call me—beggar, man with suspecting behavior, someone trying to disrupt your business—are just what you put on me! Who sees that I actually do any of them?”

“I came here, and this woman just chased me away without letting me say a word! Now you guys come to scold me just because of me standing there? What do your skulls contain for exact? Huh?”

“Now miss, you wanna call the police? Okay, do it. And remember to call this shop’s owner too. Let them see what the standard behavior of the people who work for a deluxe brand looks like.”

The employee was a bit scared when Ernest mentioned her boss, this brand’s owner. But she didn't trust that this young man could be someone but a beggar. A wealthy man? Tch, please don't kidding. She had worked for this brand for a decade and seen lots of rich people.

Those wealthy customers could be weird, but no one wore tattered clothes and walked around the area of the rich as if they would sit down on the ground and beg for money anytime.

Thinking so, the employee was braver. Her attitude changed, and she called the security before pointing at the street.

“Please don't lie anymore, sir. You're wasting our precious time and causing unnecessary troubles. Please go, or our security team will do that for you.”