Chapter 1046: Chapter 1045: Arrival in Las Vegas

At noon the next day, in Beidu.

Zhao Xiaodao found a private kitchen restaurant to treat Lu Zheng and the four girls.

Right now they were chatting while watching the second video Shen Ying had shot.

"TV Station or Ghost Gate"

The style of the video was similar to the first one, except that compared with the first video where, after transforming, she was all Immortal aura drifting and sharp Sword Qi, this one reverted to Shen Ying’s old-school route after the transformation: chilling Yin Qi, Ghost Qi howling.

The Big Underpants had turned into a massive Ghost Gate city entrance, the three small seal characters on the plaque flickering with dark green Ghost Fire, the whole world looking dead and desolate.

And Shen Ying had gone from a modern beauty to the Netherworld Empress.

Only Shen Ying had kept a little private agenda: this Netherworld Empress, in full splendid regalia, besides being eerie and terrifying, had an extra touch of uncanny, seductive glamour out of nowhere.

"The fuck!?"

"I’m in, I’m in, is this the female King Yama? She’s insanely gorgeous!"

"Meng Po?"

"Female Emperor Fengdu?"

"Wrong, this is definitely Lady Houtu!"

"I love Sister Tao Ying so much, she never lets people down."

"@Tao Ying, Sister, are you planning to shoot a whole series of modern buildings transforming?"

"Begging for a set with the Bird’s Nest, Water Cube, National Centre for the Performing Arts, and the Central TV Tower transformations!"

"Get lost, one per city!"

"Since you’re in Beidu, why not do one at Heavenly Gate Square?"

"Upstairs, are you an undercover? Afraid she won’t get her account nuked or what?"

"Come to Yangcheng! I’ll treat you to a meal, I think the Little Waist is the most suitable to turn into a Flying Sword!"

At the table, they were eating and chatting while scrolling through the comments.

"Feels way too real!" Zhao Xiaodao exclaimed in admiration.

Shen Ying grinned. "Still Lu Zheng’s idea. Gotta say, this kind of contrast really hits different."

"Exactly!" Zhao Xiaodao nodded repeatedly. "That Big Underpants, you guys used VFX too?"

"Nope, we shot it this morning when we just got here." Shen Ying waved her hand.

"Huh?" Zhao Xiaodao looked totally confused, then suddenly understood. "Oh, oh, you did all the post first and only filled in the opening shots this morning. The final cut came out pretty fast then."

Zhao Xiaodao thought she’d uncovered the truth. "I knew it, you must’ve come to Beidu earlier to film and just didn’t call me."

Shen Ying couldn’t help laughing and didn’t bother correcting Zhao Xiaodao’s misunderstanding.

Then they started talking about the upcoming itinerary.

"The flight’s at night, over twenty hours in the air, but it’ll be morning when we get to Los Angeles," Zhao Xiaodao explained. "The time difference is brutal."

"How many free days do you have?" Lin Wan asked. They’d all only bought one-way tickets.

"My next gigs are next week," Zhao Xiaodao said. "No rush, we can even catch an NBA game and grab some photos."

When Zhao Xiaodao went to the Lighthouse Country, she had to bring at least a junior assistant to help with photos and retouching—never forgetting daily content output.

"You really are dedicated to the grind."

Lu Zheng chuckled speechlessly. "But if you show up in Los Angeles, won’t the domestic media start speculating you’re breaking into Hollywood?"

"Please don’t, I don’t have the qualifications and I’m not interested," Zhao Xiaodao waved her hand. "That place isn’t somewhere someone like me can navigate."

Zhao Xiaodao knew herself well. Not counting Uncle Long and Brother Jie, any actress who could break into Hollywood was either backed by serious capital or extremely good at playing the game.

Zhao Xiaodao felt she was just not cut out for that.

"Why go to Hollywood at all?" Lin Wan said with some disdain. "The Hollywood filter is basically shattered. Xenophobic, holier-than-thou, fake as hell—go there for what, to lick their boots?"

"Exactly, exactly!" Zhao Xiaodao nodded vigorously.

Lu Zheng raised an eyebrow. "This is just sour grapes. Hollywood’s still the standard-bearer of the international film industry. Liu the Celestial Immortal’s ’Hua Mulan’ might be a hate magnet, but it did significantly boost her influence both at home and abroad."

Zhao Xiaodao complained pitifully, "Liu the Celestial Immortal started with god-tier RNG, she’s the entertainment industry’s top cash cow, her English is godlike, she’s basically the fated female lead of a showbiz webnovel. Even someone like Yang Mi, who grinds herself half to death, can’t out-grind her. How am I supposed to compete with that..."

Lu Zheng couldn’t help bursting into laughter. It was the first time he’d seen Zhao Xiaodao this bitter.

...

After joking around for a while, they spent the afternoon resting at Zhao Xiaodao’s villa, and in the evening they boarded the plane to the Lighthouse Country.

"Hoo—"

"Good thing they didn’t turn Heavenly Gate Square into the Ghost Gate, otherwise I really wouldn’t know whether to block that video or not."

In a certain small group inside the Ancient Culture Research and Analysis Archival Room, several people let out a sigh of relief.

"I told you you were worrying way too much. You gotta trust Comrade Lin Wan’s political instincts."

"Pah! And who was it that went to the bathroom six times in one hour just now?"

"I just drank a lot of water, okay."

"Heh, sure. Is your wife getting more and more dissatisfied with you lately?"

"Get the hell out of here!"

"Alright, alright, enough. Back to business—any of you wanna make a bet?"

"Old Liu, you getting cocky now? Since when is betting ’business’?"

"Hear me out. You’ve all read the files on Lu Zheng and Lin Wan. You know about the Summer Soirée poisoning case. That Italy island cold case very obviously was their doing.

The Fan Ning Clan disappearance in the Yin Country—according to our investigation, their guy Robert had intersected with Lu Zheng in the Watch Country.

At the beginning of this year, Lu Zheng and the others went to Australia together for vacation, and a high-level group in a local gang collectively vanished—no bodies, no traces. They’re highly suspicious there too.

So..."

"So you wanna bet on whether they’ll stir up trouble in Las Vegas as well?"

"How could they? They’re with Zhao Xiaodao this time. No matter how messy the Lighthouse Country is, it’s not gonna be messy right in their faces."

"We’re idle anyway, why not bet?"

"Loser buys roast duck!"

"Deal!"

...

Lu Zheng of course had no idea people back home were betting on him. By now they’d gone through more than twenty hours of travel and several layovers and had arrived at the airport in Las Vegas in the Lighthouse Country.

"Brother Lu! Sister Wan! Sister Xiaodao!"

"You actually came to pick us up in person?" Zhao Xiaodao looked at Zhang Weili in surprise. "Don’t you have a match tonight?"

"I’ve trained enough, and you guys came all the way here to cheer for me!" Zhang Weili thumped her chest, then turned toward Si Lingxi and the other two, her eyes flashing with amazement. "Hi, Sister Lingxi!"

Zhao Xiaodao had already given her a heads-up in advance, telling her not to freak out.

"Let’s go, let’s go!" Zhao Xiaodao dragged Zhang Weili away. "We’ve been on a plane for over twenty hours, my back is killing me. Let’s hurry to the hotel to fix the jet lag, we still have to watch your match tonight!"

They left the airport and got into the two business vans Zhang Weili had brought. She, Zhao Xiaodao, and the assistant took one, while Lu Zheng took the other with Lin Wan and the four girls, and they quickly arrived at the hotel.