008

Ever since her last cold and fever, Jiang Huali has been extra careful and no longer dares to go to sleep with her hair undried.

There was a scene that day where the main characters were on their way to find the gods. As they followed the clues, they happened to pass through a village. Because they had been traveling day and night and couldn't find any further clues, the group decided to stay in the village for the time being, rest, and then continue their journey.

However, what is unexpected is that this village had already become a ghost village fifty years ago.

Fifty years ago, the village was blessed with natural advantages due to its location nestled against the mountains and beside the water, and the people there lived a prosperous and peaceful life.

Until one day, the village was invaded by evil spirits.

The sky is ablaze with red flames.

The village was massacred.

Overnight, all the villagers turned into living dead.

The main characters encountered an unprecedented crisis here, but ultimately joined forces to destroy the magical artifact hidden underground in the village and escaped.

The main cast consists of five characters: Liuli, played by Yun Xin; Chu Yun, played by Gu Huayu; Jue Li, played by Jiang Huali, the daughter of the sect leader; Li Youchuan, played by Xu Bai, who has a crush on Yun Xin; and Yue Xun, played by Su Yueke, a woman in distress who is rescued along the way.

Once the scene was set up, filming began.

This scene depicts the main characters fighting against a monster, requiring the actors to be suspended by wires.

The battle had reached a fever pitch when Liuli was accidentally grabbed on the shoulder by a monster. The monster's claws were poisonous, and in her intense pain, she lost her guard. Chu Yun was busy fighting the big boss and had no time to attend to her.

Jue Li happened to be next to Liu Li.

She was the daughter of the sect leader and was pampered from a young age. Although she was somewhat domineering, she was not a bad person at heart.

Although she liked her senior brother Chu Yun, she wouldn't just stand by and watch him die.

The girl used her lightness skill to leap and swiftly draw her sword, the sound of the sword whistling as it pierced the monster straight through.

Jue Li raised her head and glanced at Liu Li, her tone spoiled: "Useless. Don't wait for me to save you next time."

Liuli's face was slightly pale. Upon hearing this, she smiled and, ignoring the other person's stubborn words, said, "Thank you."

...

The actors all performed very well in this scene. Their fighting moves were well practiced under the guidance of the martial arts instructor, so they passed the scene in one take without any retakes.

Jiang Huali had just come down from the wire and was getting a drink of water when Yun Xin walked over with a smile and praised, "Your sword strike just now was so cool! I was almost smitten."

Jiang Huali joked, "Really? Then you shouldn't be with that fickle senior brother anymore, and you should elope with me."

Perhaps to highlight the arduous love story of the male and female leads, Chu Yun not only has to take care of the sect leader's daughter in the drama, but also has to look after the down-on-her-luck woman Xun Yue. Although he truly loves the female lead, there are constant misunderstandings between them.

Yun Xin burst out laughing upon hearing this.

Gu Huayu, pretending to be passing by unintentionally: ...

After filming this scene, we're off work for the day. There are no night shoots tonight. Jiang Huali changed out of her costume and went to the dressing room to remove her makeup. It was already past six in the evening.

Jiang Huali didn't pay much attention to the fact that the makeup artist was different today.

When they were removing the makeup, the makeup artist suddenly stopped, exclaimed, and said, "Ms. Jiang, I'm sorry, we're out of makeup remover. Could you go to the next room and get some for me?"

She said apologetically, "It's not very convenient for my hands."

The next room is where the makeup artist stores her belongings, and some clothes are also stored there.

She had already removed her eye and lip makeup, but her foundation wasn't completely removed.

Jiang Huali glanced at the makeup artist, thought for a moment, and said, "Okay."

He got up and went to the next room.

Just as she found the makeup remover, she heard the door behind her creak and then close with a click as it locked.

Jiang Huali: ?

The system peeked out: [?]

Jiang Huali put down the makeup remover in her hand. The system asked, puzzled, "[Who locked you up here?]"

Jiang Huali: "I don't know."

By this time, there were hardly any people left on set, and the dressing room was located quite far inside. Jiang Huali tried knocking on the door and calling out, "Is anyone home?"

She didn't bring her phone; it was still in the dressing room next door.

Jiang Huali suppressed her anger, thinking that the makeup artist would probably notice that she hadn't returned yet, but ten minutes passed without a sound.

She added to her previous answer: "Maybe it's the makeup artist."

System: [Huh?]

Staying here like this isn't a solution, so Jiang Huali asked the system, "Do you have any wire or something? Conjure one up for me."

The system can meet this requirement, and a wire fell into Jiang Huali's hand.

After a while, the system asked: "[You also know how to pick locks?]"

Jiang Huali stood by the door, half-squatting down, and inserted the wire in her hand into the keyhole. Upon hearing this, she replied, "I know a little bit of the tricks."

As she worked on finding the right texture, she recalled, "When I was little, my parents always locked me in the storage room. After being locked up for a long time, I couldn't stand the hunger, so I could only sneak out and find something to eat when they were asleep in the middle of the night."

She smiled and said, "Then I'll sneak back and lock myself in."

The system suddenly went silent.

After a while, it said somewhat awkwardly, "It's okay... at least I can still turn you into wire."

Then, another click was heard, and the lock opened.

Jiang Huali put the wire away and smiled in agreement: "Indeed."

After all, sometimes you get beaten and scolded at the dinner table, so it's better to eat alone at night.

She put her hand on the doorknob, turned the doorknob, and went out.

Sure enough, there was no one in sight next door, and the makeup artist had disappeared without a trace.

Back in the dressing room, I picked up my phone and saw several missed calls, some from my assistant Chen Xuan and two from Meng Zhiling.

She just asked her assistant to buy her a cup of milk tea and then told her to go back to her car and wait.

Perhaps because she hadn't come out for a long time, he called to ask about the situation.

Jiang Huali returned the call and told her assistant that she would be leaving soon.

She decided not to remove her makeup any further and planned to do so when she returned to the hotel.

When we packed up and left, there were only a few staff members scattered around the set outside.

Jiang Huali called Meng Zhiling again, and the call was answered after ringing twice.

"Hello?"

Meng Zhiling's voice came from the other end: "Why didn't you answer the phone just now? Were you busy?"

He paused, then added, "Are you free tomorrow night? There's a really good private restaurant near your film set. I'd like to invite you to try it together."

Jiang Huali replied, "No, I just had something to do."

She thought about her scenes for the next few days and said, "Tomorrow probably won't work, there's a night scene, let's talk about it later."

A gentle voice came from the other end: "Okay."

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Huali got into the car and accepted the milk tea handed to her by her assistant.

Assistant Chen Xuan asked her, "Sister, why didn't you come out for so long?"

Jiang Huali poked the bubble tea packaging open with a straw and said, "I was just locked in the room next to the dressing room."

Chen Xuan was startled upon hearing this, "Who turned it off?"

Jiang Huali told the makeup artist's name.

She took a sip of her milk tea and said, "This is just my guess; there might be someone else involved."

"So how did you get out in the end?" Chen Xuan asked, somewhat annoyed. She should have gone in to find Jiang Huali.

Jiang Huali paused for a moment, then said casually, "A staff member happened to be passing by, heard my voice, and opened the door for me with his key."

Chen Xuan nodded and said it was good that everything was alright, and that she needed to discuss this with the director.

Jiang Huali nodded as well.

Chen Xuan took out her phone to send a message, while Jiang Huali continued to drink her milk tea.

In fact, Jiang Huali already had a list of suspects in her mind. The only person in the entire crew with whom she had a grudge was Su Yueke.

She's locked up inside, but not for too long. Eventually, someone will notice something's wrong. Her assistant is waiting outside; if she doesn't come out for too long, they'll go in to look for her.

The method was clumsy and easily seen through; it seemed like a simple attempt to intimidate her.

After all, Jiang Huali is still just a small-time actress. So what if she gets bullied? It's not a serious matter. She can only swallow her anger and suffer in silence.

However, Su Yueke clearly overlooked one thing: because of Meng Zhiling's connection, the director still cared more about Jiang Huali.

Inside the car, the system quietly transformed into a small ball of light and flew to Chen Xuan's side, who was sitting in the passenger seat.

Only Jiang Huali can see and touch the system; others cannot detect it.

The system circled around and flew back, reporting to Jiang Huali in alarm: "Host, your assistant just sent messages not only to the director but also to Meng Zhiling!"

Jiang Huali paused in her act of sucking up pearls, and asked doubtfully, "Meng Zhiling? Are you sure you didn't see wrong?"

The system nodded: [You absolutely didn't misread it. She called the other party "President Meng" and even reported that you were just locked in the room!]

Jiang Huali understood. No wonder the company assigned her an assistant, and she didn't have to pay the assistant's salary. It turned out that it was someone else.

She reassured the startled system: "[It's alright, it's alright. Chen Xuan usually does a great job, and we don't even have to pay her a salary.]"

The system sat down next to Jiang Huali, its small body bouncing with the movement of the vehicle. [That's true.]

During this time, the system has clearly begun to learn how to manage a household frugally.

-

The next day when Chen Mansheng went to the film set, he specifically called Jiang Huali over and said that this matter would not happen again. As for this matter, the makeup artist revealed Su Yueke's involvement, and he had already communicated with Su Yueke's side.

As the director, Chen Mansheng had already filmed half of the script, and it was impossible for him to find another suitable actress to replace Su Yueke at the last minute. For the sake of the production team, the matter was left unresolved.

However, he then thought of someone and realized, "I probably don't need to get involved."

Jiang Huali wasn't surprised at all; it was something she had expected.

But if you walk by the river often, you're bound to get your shoes wet.

The system, on the other hand, was fuming with anger.

This made Jiang Huali laugh.

Su Yueke originally thought that things would go as she wished, that she would both teach Jiang Huali a lesson and enjoy her suffering.

As a result, her agent received several calls from brands early this morning, saying that they wanted to terminate her contract. The termination contract would be sent later, and it included a top luxury endorsement that she had worked hard to get!

The director of the drama series that I had previously been cast in suddenly said that they wanted to replace me.

Su Yueke's agent said with exasperation, "Who did you mess with, grandma?!"

Su Yue does have some connections, but the entertainment industry isn't something that can be easily sorted out with just a few relationships. The scary thing about Su Yue is that she won't know to turn back until she hits a brick wall. Her manager didn't say this to Su Yue, but only advised her to be more restrained.

Su Yueke ended up with nothing, and was so angry that she had a dark face all day on set.

He even glared at Jiang Huali as he passed by.

Although Jiang Huali was puzzled, she still glanced back.

There was another night shoot that evening. While Jiang Huali was eating her boxed lunch on set in the evening, she suddenly heard the people around her getting restless.

People around were talking amongst themselves, and whispers could be heard from time to time. You could vaguely hear phrases like "Weibo trending topics" and "Gu Huayu and Su Yueke..."

Jiang Huali stopped eating and looked at Yun Xin sitting opposite her.

Yun Xin put down her lunchbox, looked at her phone, and her complexion visibly worsened.

Jiang Huali opened Weibo and saw the trending topic.

"Pure and innocent actress Su Yueke and Gu Huayu's relationship has been exposed!"

Jiang Huali: [Wow.]

System: [Wow.]