Chapter 337

Chapter 337

It took the assistant director a long time to compose himself.

Only then did he nod. “After dark. We start shooting after dark. Tonight’s scene is the one where the male lead returns to the old location with the female lead, encounters the second female lead’s Ghost, and is terrified.”

Thank goodness it was not being filmed during the Zi Hour.

But it would still happen at night, and the scene itself was extremely sensitive. It was practically the same as going to a graveyard after dark to play a game that summoned Ghosts.

“All right. We’ll see what happens tonight.”

I discussed the necessary precautions with the assistant director.

He instructed Sun Yuan to take good care of me and said someone else would temporarily cover Sun Yuan’s duties.

Once the assistant director left, Brother Liu no longer dared remain there.

“Well, Chen Mo, I have work to handle back at my unit, so I’ll be going.”

He had already left work to handle personal business, so what the hell could he possibly be busy with?

But he would be of no use if he stayed, so we escorted him to the entrance of the film studio complex.

Before leaving, Brother Liu patted me on the shoulder. “Brother, I wouldn’t be much help even if I stayed. Take care of yourself. If you solve the problem, I’ll split the payment sixty-forty with you. Generous, aren’t I?”

Generous?

I sighed. “Brother Liu, we’re the ones risking our lives. If we get hurt, hospital treatment will cost money, won’t it? I’ve also abandoned my own work to take this job, and there are two of us, Anning and me. You do nothing and take forty percent. Aren’t you afraid you’ll get a stomachache from eating too much?”

Brother Liu looked troubled. “Sixty-forty still isn’t enough? I’m only taking a little.”

I said, “Eighty-twenty.”

His eyes widened. “Twenty? Brother, that’s robbery! You… you’re being unreasonable. At the very least, I think seventy-thirty would be fair!”

I stopped bargaining and chuckled. “Then seventy-thirty it is.”

He froze for a long time, suddenly realizing something was wrong. But the words had already left his mouth, so he could hardly take them back.

“You’re so damn stingy!”

He glared at me, climbed into his car, and drove away.

I thought even thirty percent was too much. I had already paid him three hundred thousand when I needed to save Meng Yifan.

What a corrupt bastard!

After Brother Liu left, Sun Yuan took us on a leisurely tour of the film studio complex.

Time passed quickly, and soon it was time for dinner.

Meals on film sets almost always came in boxed lunches. The crew ate ordinary ones, while the director and assistant director got slightly better food.

I heard the actor playing the male lead had arrived. He was a third- or fourth-tier celebrity whose popularity exceeded his talent. Yet his dinner had been delivered from a luxury hotel: more than ten dishes for him alone.

The assistant director now knew I possessed genuine ability and feared neglecting me, so he personally took Anning and me to a restaurant inside the complex.

“Master Chen, I hope you’ll forgive our inadequate hospitality.”

“Apart from the big boss and those celebrities, I’m just an employee too. ‘Assistant director’ is merely a title that sounds impressive.”

I nodded and smiled. “It’s fine. We aren’t that particular. You’ve already treated us generously.”

The director himself was still eating a boxed lunch on set, after all.

By the time we finished eating, darkness was close.

Filming was about to begin. According to the schedule, this scene would take about two hours, provided none of the actors made mistakes midway.

When we reached the set, we finally saw the male celebrity.

Perhaps because I did not follow celebrities, I had no idea who he was.

Sun Yuan said, “His name is Lu Yihao. He started as an internet celebrity, then became popular online and entered the entertainment industry. He was extremely famous two years ago, but after several scandals, he was blacklisted.”
“Now he’s attached himself to a wealthy heiress, and her father happens to be the investor in our movie.”

Anning thought for a moment, then struck directly at the heart of the matter. “So he’s a pretty boy living off a rich woman.”

Sun Yuan jumped in fright and hastily warned her, “Sister An, keep your voice down. He has a bad temper. Even our director has to treat him with the utmost courtesy.”

Sun Yuan had not exaggerated. At that very moment, the director was groveling before Lu Yihao like a servant.

Lu Yihao did not seem to want to film. He was frightened.

“Director, I have to say, why are you people so unprofessional?”

In front of the entire crew, Lu Yihao rebuked the director without sparing him any dignity. “Find a Body Double to perform for me and paste my face over his afterward. Wouldn’t that work just as well?”

“Your crew has suffered accident after accident. If something happens to me, how will you compensate me? Can you even afford it?”

The director wore an ingratiating smile and pleaded, “Mr. Lu, we truly can’t do that. We’re already making an online movie with limited viewership. If we pull something like that too, netizens will tear us apart. Who would ever watch another movie I make? It would damage your reputation as well.”

“I promise you that nothing will happen this time.”

After much coaxing, Lu Yihao finally agreed to film, probably because he also feared damage to his reputation.

But judging by his professionalism, his reputation could not have been very good to begin with.

The ensuing shoot was boring in both plot and dialogue.

When Lu Yihao recited his lines, all I heard was him muttering numbers as though he were chanting scripture. It nearly put me to sleep.

After an hour of filming, the scene with the female Ghost finally began.

In the movie, the second female lead had hanged herself in the courtyard residence, but her wronged spirit refused to disperse, and she became a female Ghost.

Years later, the male lead returned to the courtyard residence for a class reunion with his current girlfriend and the old classmates from the original trip. His former lover could not bear the loneliness and naturally emerged to frighten them.

The actress playing the second female lead had originally portrayed the Ghost, but she was now dead from the accident. Another actress named Wu Yiyi had replaced her.

Wu Yiyi was actually a good actress. She portrayed the Ghost so convincingly that even I grew tense.

The aura she displayed made it impossible for me to tell whether she was acting or had truly been possessed.

In the next scene, Lu Yihao dreamed of the female Ghost strangling him. But during filming, Wu Yiyi really closed her hands around his throat.

Lu Yihao’s acting had been terrible before, but it suddenly became extraordinarily realistic. So realistic, in fact, that his face turned red and his eyes grew bloodshot.

I shot to my feet. Even Sun Yuan, sitting beside me, realized something was wrong.

“Brother Chen, this isn’t right! It looks like he’s really suffocating!”

I hurriedly formed a Daoist hand seal. Ignoring the fact that they were filming, I shouted, “Zhen Character, Soul-Reflecting Mirror!”

The instant the words left my mouth, a baby appeared on Wu Yiyi’s shoulder, blood streaming from all seven orifices.

And I was not the only one who saw it. Everyone present saw it clearly.

The set immediately descended into chaos. The cameraman abandoned his camera and fled in terror, scrambling and stumbling away.

The director froze. He wanted to run too, but he was afraid something would happen to Lu Yihao, so he hurriedly shouted at the others.

“Quick! Save him!”

“Wu Yiyi! Let go!”

Anning and I did not hesitate. We rushed forward.