Demons Beside You

Chen Zhao slept until noon. When he woke up, Fali had long left.

Chen Zhao tidied himself up, after which he called Vincent.

“Chen, where’re you going today?”

“Newcage Avenue. I don’t know the exact location,” Chen Zhao said.

“That’s on the other side of Los Angeles. I’ll give you a discount: three hundred dollars.”

“Are you not using the meter?”

“If I use the meter, it’ll be at least five hundred.”

“Fine. Three hundred it is.”

“Are you in a hurry? If not, I’ll drive slower.”

“As long as I reach in an hour.”

“We can’t reach in an hour, but I’ll try.”

Chen Zhao was heading for Newcage Avenue, where Steven’s movie team was filming.

Steven had built an outdoor studio there. Chen Zhao and Steven had agreed to meet at the studio that day.

Newcage Avenue was also in the suburbs. It ran along the coastline and the scenery was excellent.

The left side of the avenue was occupied by a mountain with lush greenery, while one could have a nice view of the sea and feel the salty sea breeze on the other side.

When Chen Zhao called Steven to ask for his exact location, Chen Zhao could not understand it despite being told a few times. In the end, he could only pass his phone to Vincent and let him communicate with Steven.

Outside the studio, Vincent’s car was stopped by a guard.

“Sorry. A team is filming ahead. You can’t enter.”

Chen Zhao made a call. Soon, a short man with curly hair walked out hurriedly.

“Get out of the way. This is Mr. Steven’s guest.” The curly-haired man waved his hand to instruct the guard. “You must be Mr. Chen! Is your car going in as well?”

“Yes. He still has to drive me back later.”

“There might not be a place to park your car inside. Can you park it here? The guard will watch over it.”

“Alright. Vincent, follow me in.”

Vincent was also very interested in the studio. He was born and grew up in Los Angeles. While it was claimed that every Angeleno knew how to act, he had never really learned anything about filming or been to a studio.

“How should I address you?”

“I’m the assistant director. You can call me Houllier.”

Chen Zhao already saw Steven. He was sitting in front of the small screen behind the camera, looking at the video being captured.

Chen Zhao also knew the actress before the lens: Yafen. She was playing opposite a male actor.

Yafen saw Chen Zhao with the corner of her eyes. Immediately, Steven noticed that Yafen was distracted.

“Cut, again. Yafen, where were you looking at?”

“Sorry,” Yafen apologized right away, but she still glanced at Chen Zhao who was behind Steven.

Steven also noticed Yafen’s look and turned his head.

“Haha… Chen, you’re here! Houllier, help me to film scene 146.” Steven immediately stood up and commanded Houllier to take over his task. “Yafen, come here.”

Yafen walked to Chen Zhao and openly hugged him to welcome his arrival.

Vincent swallowed his saliva. He recalled picking Chen Zhao up from Yafen’s house the last time.

She’s so beautiful! Vincent could not help but envy Chen Zhao.

“Yafen, finish your sections first. I have something to discuss with Chen.” Then, Steven looked at Vincent. “Oh, he’s?”

“He’s my friend, Vincent. He drove me here.”

“Vincent, do you want to try being an actor?”

“Err… Can I?”

“I have a small role with a few lines. If you’re interested, you can try.”

“Houllier, arrange it and give him the script. I need to talk to Chen.”

“Yes, Mr. Steven.”

As the assistant director, his main job was to replace the director for less important scenes, accumulate work experience, and better his filming skills.

Steven brought Chen Zhao into his motorhome. After boarding the vehicle, Chen Zhao realized that it was actually a small apartment.

He estimated that such a vehicle would cost two million dollars, which was more expensive than the house he was currently living in.

“Chen, do we start the treatment now?”

“Yes. Remove your shirt and lie on the sofa.”

“Will it hurt?”

“No, you wouldn’t even feel any discomfort. We can chat during the treatment.”

“Chen, do you want to be my health consultant? I’ll give you eight thousand a month. You do a check-up on me every once in a while.”

“Sure.” Chen Zhao accepted the deal at once, because the pay was very high.

Health consultant is different from personal doctor. A health consultant is not in charge of treatment, but only provides physical examination and advice. At the same time, he would need to answer any medical queries the client has.

In addition, a health consultant can have more than just one client as long as he has the time. He can have ten, or even a hundred clients.

Of course, normally a health consultant can only have at most ten clients.

After all, physical examination and talking with the client take up at least half a day.

If Chen Zhao were to become the health consultant of ten clients, he would need to spend five to ten days every month on these clients.

If he had more clients, he would not even be able to continue with his original job.

Eight thousand dollars a month was already extremely high.

An ordinary doctor might not even be able to get a thousand dollars from a client, not to mention the tax he had to pay.

Of course, being a health consultant was different from treating Steven or Rasfa. While Chen Zhao would get tens of thousands per session, such income was very unstable. He might earn a lot for a while and not get much for the next few months.

He would stop getting paid after the treatments were over, unless he could get a patient that required long-term treatment.

Also, not every patient was as rich as Steven or Rasfa.

On the other hand, health consultant was a stable source of income. As long as his client did not die or fire him, Chen Zhao would keep getting paid.

“Done. Turn over and remove your pants. Underwear too.” Chen Zhao started to insert needles into the front of Steven’s body.

“Huh? I think there’s some stones in your urethra.” As Chen Zhao inserted the needles, he immediately felt some foreign matter.

“Err… Sometimes when I go to the restroom, I indeed can’t pee. I need to wait for a long time and it’s painful, but not severe at all. Do I need surgery?”

“No, it’s just a small problem. These small stones can be removed easily. I’ll break them apart. Drink more water tonight and you can pass them out yourself.”

“Thank you…”

“Done. Take this.”

“What?” Steven watched as Chen Zhao passed him an erotic magazine.

“Try to see if you can get hard.”