Black Technology Director Can Make Anything Come True (15): 

The film was shot very quickly. Excluding the time spent on casting and assembling the team, it was completed in just over two months.

Of course, there were difficulties along the way. But thanks to the AR glasses, Si Qi only needed to activate the equipment placed at the school, and he could “attend classes” anytime and anywhere, consulting professional teachers about any issues. In a sense, it was no different from instant teleportation.

Chu Feng also provided considerable help during this process, such as customizing the necessary props, inviting renowned international directors to give Si Qi guidance, and using his connections to secure any filming locations Si Qi wanted.

Because of certain requirements, Si Qi demanded that the prop makers ensure absolute precision in size and proportion according to the data he provided. They also had to be detachable and show the internal structures clearly. Only a handful of people worldwide were capable of this level of craftsmanship, and their work schedules were usually fully booked in advance. To expect quick delivery of so many models for a film without prior reservation was nothing more than wishful thinking.

However, money makes the impossible possible. Si Qi made the request, and Chu Feng made it happen. As a result, over a hundred models that Si Qi needed were delivered to him after dozens of professional artisans around the world worked overtime. Every single one of them signed strict confidentiality agreements—no recording the production process, no storing of model data. The terms were extremely harsh, but not one person refused the job because the pay was exceptionally generous.

Inviting an award-winning international director to guide Si Qi in filming was the same case. Chu Feng didn’t want Si Qi to feel pressured and rarely appeared directly. He only told the director that the future tycoon who invented the AR glasses and was very interested in filmmaking had encountered some difficulties. For anyone with foresight and a sense of networking, this was an opportunity they would never miss.

The reason the director was willing to teach Si Qi filming was still mostly because of Si Qi himself.

And to call it “teaching” wasn’t entirely accurate. It was more about answering Si Qi’s questions whenever he felt lost due to lack of experience. Once a problem was explained, Si Qi would never encounter the same confusion again. Even the director himself said, “You’re the most terrifyingly gifted person I’ve ever seen.” Whenever Chu Feng heard such praise, his mood would always brighten.

And so, with all these conditions in place, what should have been a massive sci-fi production taking years to polish was completed in just over two months.

When the news spread, some seasoned filmgoers who only cared about the film industry were disappointed. They had expected that with Si Qi’s ability to casually invent AR glasses, his sci-fi film would turn out to be something remarkable.

There were plenty of sci-fi films on the market, but the ones that were truly outstanding were almost all foreign. Domestically, there had never been a particularly impressive work that could showcase their nation’s strength to the world. This had always been a regret in the hearts of every Chinese sci-fi fan.

Considering that Si Qi had spent a month just making a short campus film, but only two months on a sci-fi movie, it seemed unlikely that the film would feature any grand spectacles or thought-provoking hard sci-fi. Most likely, it would just be a common story set in an interstellar backdrop.

With this in mind, when they saw fans online cheering about going to support the movie in theaters, the seasoned viewers shook their heads. They thought to themselves, this really is an era where popularity rules—high-quality niche films go unnoticed, while anything by a slightly famous figure becomes a hit overnight.

Si Qi, however, had no idea what they were thinking. Because of his fast pace and rising popularity, he was inexplicably labeled as “not worth anticipating.” Immersed in editing the massive amount of footage they had shot, he buried himself in the editing room day and night, working even harder than when he had cut the campus short film. Watching this made Si Lin ache with worry, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop him.

After all, the light in his brother’s eyes as he stared at the screen was just too bright, as if he had received the most perfect gift in the world. He looked endlessly happy…

Si Lin rubbed his temples and could only keep sending his brother delicious food and drinks, doting on him like a child.

Because of this, Si Lin nearly forgot that a year ago, around this same time, it was he who had sent his uncle and aunt to prison.

When he finally remembered and was about to prepare something to “welcome” his uncle and aunt upon their release, he keenly noticed another force had already appeared at their side.

This force was stronger, deeper, and more overwhelming than anything he could do, surrounding the two like birds trapped in a cage, unable to escape no matter how hard they tried.

Si Lin thought for a moment and turned his gaze to Chu Feng.

He sneered inwardly, ultimately not rejecting Chu Feng’s help.

Compared to dealing with people, even a hundred of him together couldn’t match the skill of the Shi Feng Group.

In reality, his uncle and aunt had not lived well in prison. Losing their freedom, entertainment, and having every aspect of their daily life restricted was one thing. What tormented them most was the sleepless nights brought on by hatred and fear.

Their abuse of children was undeniable. No matter how they resisted, they still had to sign the documents transferring their assets. After the transfer, they lost their house and much of their property. If Si Qi and Si Lin decided to sue them again in the future, it was likely they’d end up back in prison. Just the thought of it made them gnash their teeth in hatred, wishing they could strangle those two brats with their own hands.

The aunt’s suffering was worse than the uncle’s. Whenever she had the chance, she called her daughter. But instead of comfort, every call only deepened her torment. She could clearly sense her daughter’s changes: from being spoiled and willful, to crying and begging, then to complete despair and hatred, abandoning her parents entirely—all within a few months.

The girl was still young and couldn’t explain her situation accurately, nor describe how she was really living. At first, because she disliked her aunt, she exaggerated and made the adults around her sound worse than they were. Later, faced with harsh reality, she slowly grew up. She began to understand that the world didn’t revolve around her, learned to behave, and to read people’s moods. She buried her hatred deep inside, and in phone calls with her aunt’s sister, she deliberately flattered and only spoke good words, indirectly hinting that she was living quietly and obediently.

To her aunt, who was used to her daughter’s arrogance, this change was heartbreaking. She knew better than anyone that her daughter must have gone through something, but she didn’t dare get angry at her sister at this time. Instead, she forced herself to say kind words, begging the very person she hated the most to take good care of her daughter, promising she would repay the money later.

But the woman on the other side was also an adult, and she understood exactly what the aunt was thinking. Doing good only to be resented—anyone would find that unbearable. She replied with a few indifferent hums before hanging up. This reaction only deepened the aunt’s torment, leaving her in constant pain, tossing and turning every night as she remembered the torment she had inflicted on the two brothers. The more she thought about it, the more regret she felt, until the pain inside her was almost unbearable.

So, when the couple finally reunited outside of prison, the uncle stared at his wife, who seemed to have aged more than ten years overnight, and for a moment he couldn’t even recognize her.

And if she had just ignored him, it would have been fine, but the moment she cared, the aunt threw herself at him, wailing and pounding on him, saying that he had lived so well in prison without worrying about their daughter at all, and that if he hadn’t had the wicked idea of putting poppy in the food, she and their daughter would never have suffered like this.

The uncle, who had never lived well in prison to begin with, exploded with rage at those words. What should have been a heartwarming reunion after months apart instantly turned into a battlefield of marital quarrels and blame-shifting. The two of them, already full of pent-up anger, vented all their fury on each other, then on anyone nearby.

—No one had come to pick them up upon their release.

The uncle had no other family; his only brother had died more than ten years ago, leaving behind two orphans.

The aunt had few relatives in the city, and her younger sister bore a deep grudge against her, unwilling to even see her.

The two cursed and ranted, showing not the slightest joy of regaining freedom after release. Instead, they carried an aura that screamed, “These two are lunatics, walking powder kegs—don’t provoke them.”

Even the taxi drivers passing by the prison knew how to read people. One glance at these two—wandering near the prison, without AR glasses on their noses, shouting and cursing nonstop—and it was obvious they were fresh out of jail. With emotions so out of control, no driver dared pick them up. One after another, they ignored the couple’s furious shouting and simply drove past.

After a long while, a taxi finally stopped beside them, the driver smiling as he asked, “Need a ride?”

Exhausted from walking, the couple jumped in without a second thought.

Inside, they noticed the car was decorated quite nicely, almost brand new. The backseat even had two tablets that should have long been obsolete—yet these looked practically unused, with hardly a fingerprint on the screens.

—This was actually a taxi? More likely some rich kid with too much money and nothing better to do, outfitting a car like this just to chat with passengers and kill time.

The driver was indeed very talkative.

As soon as they got in and he saw their expressions, he “recklessly” asked, “Do you know about AR glasses?”

“…We know,” the uncle muttered gloomily.

Even in prison, some things still got around.

Months earlier, one day the prison guards and even the canteen ladies had suddenly gone crazy talking about glasses. Not long after, they were all wearing them, waving their hands through the air like lunatics while walking down the halls. Many inmates who were cut off from the outside world were terrified, thinking ghosts had possessed the prison and the guards were all bewitched.

Later, someone noticed that only those who wore the glasses behaved this way, so they cautiously asked the guards about it. The guards, uninterested in chatting, just said, “Watch the news more,” and walked away.

Soon after, all the inmates learned from the evening news broadcasts that during their time behind bars, a kid named Si Qi had done something incredible. His invention, the AR glasses, had sparked a worldwide buying frenzy, with ripple effects across countless industries, changing many of people’s daily habits.

Even if the inmates didn’t fully grasp how massive the impact was, just recalling how the guards had gone mad with excitement, and comparing it to how everyone once had a phone before they were jailed—if these glasses really could replace phones and were even more useful—then it was easy to understand how popular they must be, and how enormous the profits behind them must be.

Imagine if every phone in the world were produced by the same company, and every feature of those phones brought additional revenue from related industries—how much money could that company make?

In today’s information society, it wasn’t unusual for genius figures to suddenly appear and capture the world’s attention.

Even if one worked hard for a lifetime, they wouldn’t earn a fraction of what such people did. The gap was too vast, so most folks didn’t truly feel jealous—at most they’d mutter a few complaints and leave it at that.

But what if that person had once lived right beside you, been despised and abused by you, was in fact your closest family, yet you turned against him over “a mere few hundred thousand”?

When Si Qi’s familiar smiling face appeared on the news, the couple were devastated—one felt their vision go black, the other cursed aloud, their moods sinking to rock bottom.

As for the idea of riding on Si Qi’s success after their release, or even leeching off him and forcing him to give them money…

Of course that thought had crossed their minds.

But no one knew better than them what they had done to Si Qi and his brother back then. Forget borrowing his influence—if Si Qi didn’t kill them first, that would already be their good luck.

As for leeching off him, that was even more ridiculous. With so much evidence of their child abuse and such vile circumstances, no one with a brain would be fooled into siding with them to accuse Si Qi of being heartless.

And besides, they weren’t his parents, only his uncle and aunt. What obligation did Si Qi and his brother have to support them?

Losing so much money overnight, and on top of that becoming mortal enemies with a nephew who had suddenly turned into a global celebrity and future tycoon—“bitterness” was far too mild a word. It was a pain far worse than swallowing poison.

If only they had treated the brothers a little better, refrained from constantly insulting and beating them… things wouldn’t have ended up like this, and they wouldn’t have landed in prison.

So when they heard the driver’s question from the front seat, their faces turned dark, and they remained silent.

The driver kept smiling, as if completely unaware of their sour mood. He casually operated the AR system remotely, switching on the tablets in the backseat to play a short video. Thoughtfully, he knew the two didn’t have AR glasses and couldn’t access the taxi’s system, so he had put tablets there just for them to watch.

The video was set in a campus the couple didn’t recognize. The quality was so good that, even in their foul mood, the sudden music and a few images quickly caught their attention, and before they realized it, they had watched it to the end.

Humans are easy to coax. No matter how downhearted, if something suddenly strikes their funny bone, they’ll laugh.

The same goes for nostalgia, passion, or rekindled hope.

When the video ended, the couple were just about to sigh, “That was really well made.” The next second, the driver said, “You probably don’t know, right? This video was filmed last autumn by Si Qi.”

Their smiles froze instantly. That spark of motivation that had just ignited was doused in an instant by a bucket of cold water, a chill spreading through their hearts.

“Apparently, back then Si Qi couldn’t afford equipment, so even though he loved filmmaking, he couldn’t do it. Later he somehow got some money, bought a camera, and spent a month making a short film. That short film won an international award and blew up domestically…”

Seeing their faces darken further in the rearview mirror, the driver beamed and continued, “Everyone says Si Qi has incredible talent, that he was overlooked before, and that he’ll surely become a great director who brings honor to the country. Who knew, later he even scored first place in the province on the college entrance exam—turns out he’s amazing at academics too…”

The couple, who had always known that of the two brothers, the older one, Si Qi, had excellent grades: “…………”

They really did not want to hear any more praise about Si Qi at this moment, especially not things they didn’t know, the kind of praise that, aside from the glasses, was still enough to shock people.

That only made them seem petty and short-sighted, despicable and shameful.

The driver went on and on, like a fanatical admirer of Si Qi, speaking with pride: “When everyone saw how amazing Si Qi was, they all tried to persuade him not to apply to the film academy. They said it would be wasting talent, a loss for the whole nation! Everyone was worried he might ‘take the wrong path’ and waste his gifts—after all, hadn’t he been overlooked for so many years, only to suddenly shine in his third year of high school? No one dared delay Si Qi, that would be going against the entire nation!”

The couple who had delayed Si Qi for over ten years: “……”

They unconsciously curled up, lowering their heads, completely unaware that the driver was using his words to brainwash them, forcing them to listen to his story: “And do you know what happened? Si Qi didn’t even notice everyone’s emotions—he was busy coaxing his younger brother! I’ve never seen anyone love their brother that much! Because his brother said he wanted to play with AR glasses, Si Qi went and invented the thing while still studying! Tell me, how incredible must his mind be? Too bad those brothers weren’t born into my family, otherwise I would have nurtured them properly, discovered their talents early. I wouldn’t wait until the younger brother asked for something before the elder had to invent it. By now our house would already be filled with all sorts of amazing creations! And I’d get to bask in his glory, proud for life!”

The more they listened, the more regretful they felt. The couple buried their heads low against their knees, holding their heads in pain.

The driver in the front seat didn’t stop for a second. Words bloomed from his mouth like flowers, each one reasonable and well-founded, impossible to refute—after all, Si Qi really was that capable.

And yet they, the very two who had raised him, had treated such a national treasure like a servant, slapping him whenever they were displeased, never once treating the brothers kindly, not even for a single day.

As for Si Qi, maybe he would forgive them, since he had a good temperament. But his beloved younger brother was withdrawn, gloomy, and vengeful. If Si Lin ever said, “I hate those two people,” what would Si Qi do for the sake of his brother…?

Thinking this, the driver dropped them off at the aunt’s house.

The couple, heavy-hearted, knocked on the door with darkened faces, trying to force a smile to thank their sister-in-law’s family for taking care of their daughter during this time.

But the one who opened the door was none other than their daughter.

In the past, answering the door had always been Si Qi’s job. Their daughter had always stayed like a little princess in the living room, never moving. How could she be like this now?

Just as they were feeling unsettled about their daughter opening the door, the next moment they noticed her rustic clothes, her rough skin lacking the smooth fairness she once had, and the fierce, cold, enemy-like glare that suddenly erupted from her eyes. At that moment, all the pain and regret they had accumulated on the way completely broke open. They felt themselves fall into a bottomless abyss, the world spinning as malice rushed toward them.

Of course, they recognized that gaze better than anyone else—after all, they had seen it on Si Lin for more than ten years!!

That was the look of someone who had lost all hope in the world—gloomy, withdrawn, hostile toward everything… Back then, they had only found that gaze irritating, sometimes even felt a twisted sense of satisfaction. But now…

“Karma!!” The aunt staggered, collapsed to the ground, tears streaming down her face. “This is all karma, all karma!! It’s my fault, if not for me… my god!!”

Her wretched cries drew out the aunt’s family. Her in-laws had heard the couple was being released today and had been preparing sharp ridicule to unleash on them. But before they could say a word, the two collapsed into sobbing fits, crying like they were mourning at a grave. Their in-laws turned green with anger, storming out, pointing and shouting, “Who the hell comes to my house crying like this! Did someone in your family die or what? If they did, then go cry somewhere else!”

Neighbors poked their heads out curiously. “What’s going on?”

The old grandmother rolled her eyes with deep disgust. “Isn’t it just that girl’s parents, the ones who went to prison, they just came out? Hey, they didn’t say a single word to us when they got here. Just saw their daughter and started crying, shouting about karma! What, they trying to accuse us of abusing their child? Heaven and earth as witness—you all know how we treated that girl. We’ve bent over backwards for her, and yet she made endless trouble for us!”

The old woman’s tongue was sharp. She rattled on and on until the already tortured aunt felt her head buzzing, her vision spinning. In the end, consumed by grief and rage, she suddenly stopped crying, her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed unconscious to the ground.

The grandmother faltered mid-sentence, clicked her tongue in displeasure. “What kind of behavior is this? Faking injuries at my doorstep, huh! Everyone saw it—I didn’t lay a finger on her! She just can’t take a few words!”

The uncle, furious, put down the weeping, snot-covered aunt and lunged to strike back, only to be quickly restrained by the neighbors who had long been watching. Startled, the old woman shrieked, “Help! Murder! That ex-convict is trying to beat an old woman! Heaven help me, I worked so hard taking care of their daughter for so long—maybe not all credit but at least hard work—and this is how they repay me! Oh heavens!!”

The old woman’s cries, the crowd’s angry shouts, the uncle’s curses—trapped in the middle, the little girl stared in panic, despair deepening in her eyes. She already knew well enough what kind of life her two older brothers had endured in that house, worse than that of pigs or dogs. She knew how cruel she herself had been back then. But now that it was happening to her, she too wished she had a brother like Si Qi to protect her… but she had no one. Nothing.

All she had were her despicable parents, whom even she found loathsome. Every day she had to hear her teachers, classmates, aunt, and neighbors talking about how amazing Si Qi was, how much they admired him… But when she remembered how Si Qi had once been insulted and bullied by her, the taste in her heart was unbearable. She lived each day in invisible torment, worse than death.

Maybe her mother was right—this was all karma.

But by now, regret was far too late.

She didn’t even realize she had escaped punishment only because of her young age. Her parents, however, in the days ahead, would be constantly reminded again and again by people like the driver, who would use every means to tell them how heinous their crimes had been.

They would discover that every conversation eventually circled back to Si Qi, that society’s focus never seemed to separate from him.

Each time one of Si Qi’s creations appeared before them, their hearts would be pierced with invisible needles. Wherever they went, despair would surround them, suffocate them, break them.

Whether at work or in life, they would find themselves strangely unlucky, blocked by unseen forces, their lives growing more and more miserable.

Desperate, they might look for help, only to realize the only person who could truly help them… was Si Qi.

And so, their suffering only grew more unbearable.