Chapter 166

"This line is quite realistic," commented Song Ping.

“…”

The director routinely asked Bai Roushuang some questions about whether she had any acting experience. Xu Shulou saw the staff member she had pulled out of the game last night peeking outside, and followed him in surprise: "I thought you ran away with Yu Xing last night."

"Well, he has money so he can run away. If I run away, I won't even have money to pay the rent for next month."

"…What are you doing here on the set?"

"Well, I want to confirm that what happened last night was not a dream, right?"

"Of course not."

"Oh, lady, just pretend I don't exist," the other person said with a grin, "I just want to be closer to you to feel safe."

Xu Shulou was silent for a moment: "The aliens have been sent away. I have also checked and there is no similar danger within a radius of dozens of miles."

"That's great," the staff member nodded worriedly, "but I'd better stay nearby for a while."

Considering that he was probably still frightened by the alien incident, Xu Shulou could only acquiesce to his actions.

"Xu Wuzhi!" Someone called her from inside, "Director, please come in and give some pointers to the beautiful lady auditioning and see how she moves in martial arts scenes."

"She doesn't need my guidance," Xu Shulou shouted back, "She knows martial arts!"

"Oh?" Xu Shulou heard the director's surprised voice, followed by the sound of swords dancing, then silence, and finally the sound of the director slapping his thigh, "Okay, okay! Xiao Li, go print the contract!"

He looked at Song Ping with great surprise and said jokingly, "Boss Song, do you have any other martial artists to recommend?"

Song Ping touched his face and asked, "Can I do it myself?"

The director laughed, not taking it seriously at all: "Mr. Song is really good at joking."

“…”

The director looked at Bai Roushuang again: "Not bad, not bad. You and Xu Shulou... Speaking of which, your names are really coincidental. Are they your real names? Well, let's get back to the point. You two are both good. I have to add a few more fighting scenes for you."

"Fight?" Bai Roushuang shook her head. "I won't fight with Senior Sister. Besides, I can't beat her."

The director seemed to have some inspiration, and hurriedly wrote something on the blank space at the edge of the script. Upon hearing this, he casually responded, "That's just right. If you can't beat him, the hero, Lu Beichen, will come out to save the situation."

"Lu Beichen can't beat her either," Bai Roushuang thought for a moment, "Director, I think we should make Xu Shulou the most powerful character in the entire show."

It was the first time that the director saw a female lead actively wanting to give the female supporting role more scenes: "Why?"

"Actually, I've always had a dream of writing stories and scripts," Bai Roushuang approached with particular familiarity, "Can I tell you about my conception of our script?"

“…”

The screenwriter not far away suddenly became alert. The day after Xu Shulou joined the crew, he took on the position of martial arts director. It turned out that Bai Roushuang, who was with him, was not an easy person to deal with either. Did she also want to snatch his position as screenwriter?

He quickly pricked up his ears and pretended to walk closer casually, just as he heard Bai Roushuang say, "Actually, the character of Bai Roushuang doesn't necessarily have to be the heroine."

The director retorted: "She belongs to Lu Beichen..."

"In fact, the character of Lu Beichen doesn't necessarily have to be the male lead."

My goodness, the screenwriter was stunned. He had seen actors wanting to change the script, but he had never heard of someone changing the male and female protagonists right away.

The director was also confused: "Why did you join this crew?"

Bai Roushuang said solemnly: "Because I love this story so much."

The screenwriter couldn't help but complain: "...You clearly said before the audition that you wanted to play with your senior sister, and everyone heard it."

Bai Roushuang was not convinced. Every time her senior sister mentioned that she was full of love for the world, everyone believed that she had endless love for the world. Why was she questioned when she applied the same sentence pattern? Did she lack the temperament to be convincing?

She thought about it and simply told the truth: "Because I don't want to see those amazing past experiences covered up in this way."

Fanmo felt that this was everyone's real life and should not be portrayed like this. The same was true for Bai Roushuang. The world had entered the Dharma Ending Age. If the Age of Immortal Cultivation was destined to end, she could at least choose to say goodbye to it in a decent way.

"..." The director looked at the screenwriter for help, as if asking if it was too late to go back on his word and not sign the contract with her.

The screenwriter gave him a helpless look, but he was relieved in his heart. Bai Roushuang's words sounded like those of a lunatic, and the director would definitely not pay attention to her suggestions.

Both of them thought Bai Roushuang was very strange, but Song Ping on the side was touched and sighed softly: "Junior sister is right, Director Lu, if you are free, maybe we can discuss the issue of additional investment."

The director immediately understood what he meant and smiled at Bai Roushuang: "Send your specific ideas to my email later."

"Okay!" Bai Roushuang ran away happily, "Brother, I'll save up some money and pay you back!"

Although she is already the leader of a sect, she cannot use the warehouse of Dustless Island to satisfy her selfish desires.

The screenwriter rolled his eyes behind her.

Bai Roushuang happily went to revise the script. With the real-life reference, it was really easy to revise the script. When she couldn't remember the plot, she would chase after Xu Shulou, the person involved, with her laptop to confirm the details: "Senior sister, do you still remember whether you killed or maimed the leopard demon named Wang Erniu?"

Xu Shulou thought seriously, "The one that brought disaster to the village? I beat him half to death and sent him back to Wuchen Island to jail."

"What about the rabbit demon who can only make paper cuts?"

"Isn't the Rabbit Fairy still on Wuchen Island? She helps cut our window decorations every New Year."

"Ah? It's her, right? Last year, she and the disciples from Wuchen Island brought window paper-cuts down the mountain to sell and made some money," Bai Roushuang thought as she held her laptop. "Oh, and what was your specific record against Senior Brother Lu?"

"I don't remember how many times we fought," Xu Shulou said modestly, "Just remember that I won every time."

"Okay!"

Bai Roushuang was full of fighting spirit. She sent the director a paragraph after writing it, in any order. The first one the director clicked on was a scene where Xu Shulou was catching pigs in the back hills of Lingxiao Gate. He was confused for a moment: "Is this the amazing past you mentioned?"

“…Is that so?”

"Hmm, it's actually quite good, quite vivid." After reading this section carefully, the director looked at Bai Roushuang with some surprise. This was certainly not the first time that he had encountered an actor wanting to change the script. Bai Roushuang relied on Song Ping's investment to achieve her goal, which made him a little unhappy. Unexpectedly, after flipping through a few pages, he could see that she was very serious and attentive, not messing around on a whim. She had vivid descriptions of each character, and did not just add drama to her own character. He was less prejudiced, and also affirmed Bai Roushuang's efforts, and read other documents more seriously.

Although the screenwriter was very unhappy, he couldn't help but follow and read it. In the end, he only had one comment: "You seem to really love the character of Xu Shulou."

Bai Roushuang shook her head: "I am just a recorder, writing down her story truthfully."

The screenwriter glanced at her sensitively: "Her story?"

“It’s everyone’s story.”

"..." The screenwriter muttered to himself, wondering if this girl was trying too hard to be artistic and her words were so vague.

"The plot of the love poison is actually pretty good," the director commented while flipping through the documents. "Xu Shulou was originally set up as a spoiled girl who suddenly fell in love with someone desperately. It would have been better to have a foreshadowing, but this makes Lu Beichen's character seem unremarkable."

"How can a real person maintain his style everywhere?"

The director shook his head: "This is a huge change. Do you know how much risk I have to take by changing it like this?"

“Wealth and honor are found in danger.”

“…”

Bai Roushuang caught the director and fed him a lot of inspirational speeches, from ideals to feelings to financial capital. With her hundreds of years of rich experience and eloquent speech, she stunned the director and the screenwriters who were listening.

Bai Roushuang was in charge of fooling the director, while Xu Shulou had nothing to do.

The crew has two Samoyeds, which are the director's dogs. He is away from home for a long time, so he just brought the dogs here. They are white, soft and cute, and have endless enthusiasm for everyone. Xu Shulou likes them very much. He often pets the dogs in his spare time and helps to walk the dogs. The dogs are not very obedient and often stay outside and don't want to come back, so Xu Shulou often performs his unique skill of holding a big dog in each hand and walking across the film and television city.

Occasionally, strangers would find it interesting and hold up their phones to take pictures of her, but she didn't care too much and occasionally even smiled at the camera. After all, this face is not wanted in any modern country.

From restaurants to food stalls near the film and television city, from Western to Chinese, she tried them all. She loved food as always, and occasionally packed it back to the crew to share with her junior sister who had fooled the director for a whole day and others. At first, Sheng Wuyou was quite reserved, but later he couldn't resist the temptation and sneaked out in the middle of the night to eat barbecue with her. The two quickly established a friendship of drinking and eating friends, and later half of the crew, big and small staff members joined in, and often went to the food stalls in a mighty manner.

When the director finally made up his mind, he asked, "Where are all the actors?"

The staff member replied: "He went to eat skewers."

“…”

The director rubbed his brows. If the script needed to be changed significantly, many actors would have to be re-communicated with, and some important roles might have to be re-cast. Fortunately, with Song Ping's financial support, he could afford to waste some time.

Bai Roushuang spent a long time telling the director about her understanding of the world of immortal heroes. She said that the focus of immortal heroes is not immortals but heroes. The cultivators are happy in the world and are chivalrous. She said that this should not be a story about a person fighting for supremacy, obtaining various opportunities and magic weapons, and winning the arms of beauties; this should be a story about cultivators walking in the world, encountering all kinds of people and things, and thus gaining some understanding of the word "hero". She said that she hoped that the effect of the filming would not be to make the audience put themselves in Lu Beichen's shoes and want to have a beautiful woman in his arms like him, but to make everyone yearn for it and want to see with their own eyes the world of immortal heroes where people are happy to take revenge.

The director was quite surprised that she could say such a thing, but he admitted that he was indeed tempted and wanted to use "righteous chivalry" as the theme of the film. Although such themes are not uncommon in film and television works.

When he signed the contract for the show, he really wanted to make some quick money. The filming period was a few months, so he could save some money for the investors and attract some advertisements when it was broadcast. As for being criticized as a bad movie, that was inevitable. Anyway, he had the money, so he could only try not to listen to or read those comments. Now that he was fooled by Bai Roushuang, he remembered some of his ambitions when he was young, and called a mobilization meeting with the crew: "Although many people on the Internet say that our show is definitely garbage, we also want to make garbage that people are willing to watch!"

Isn't that still rubbish? Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. It was hard to tell how effective this mobilization was. But anyway, the filming of "The Immortal Journey" was in full swing despite the fact that it was not optimistic.

As an important investor, Song Ping was the first to receive the revised script. He shook his head with great regret: "If it weren't for the fact that it's so difficult for mortals to develop the aptitude for cultivation now, this drama would be a good promotional film for Wuchen Island's recruitment."

Bai Roushuang gave a thumbs up: "This is indeed the thinking of a businessman."

"What kind of businessman am I?" Song Ping laughed. "Your Sixth Senior Brother has been selling Bigu Pills to you for so many years, so he is considered a qualified businessman. That guy originally said he would come to the Mortal Realm to help me with my business and open a pharmaceutical company with me, but he ended up giving me a pill formula and ran off to become a racing driver."

"I've watched his games before," Bai Roushuang thought for a moment, "I'm glad he's found something he loves again."

Song Ping smiled. Whether it was for ordinary people or cultivators with long lives, finding someone or something they loved was indeed a happy thing. "What about you? Do you like being an actor?"

Bai Roushuang smiled and said, "It's quite interesting."

"Do you plan to keep doing this?"

"I don't plan to," Bai Roushuang shook her head, "I have to go back to Wuchen Island to be the head of the sect. Maybe I can come to the human world once in a while to experience a new career."

"for example?"

"I haven't made up my mind yet," Bai Roushuang said with a smile, "My senior sister is really outrageous. She even wanted to apply for a job at a barber shop, so that she could design hair styles for customers as she pleased. Fortunately, she gave up later, otherwise there would be so many more sad people who walked out of barber shops crying."

“…”

"The Immortal Journey" has officially started filming, with a bad script and on-the-spot casting changes. The leading actor is a newcomer who has never acted before. Even the original candidate Lu Beichen chose to withdraw because he was dissatisfied with the major revision of the script. The outside world was pessimistic about this. The director kept his composure and first released a clip of Bai Roushuang on the scene.

Bai Roushuang's appearance is indeed very deceptive. She is wearing a plain white dress. In the morning light, she tilts her head slightly to smile lightly at the person in front of her, with the pearl flowers in her temples trembling gently. Many people who have watched the trailer have to admit that this newcomer fits her face very well, like a small white flower swaying in the morning breeze.

The newly selected actor who plays Lu Beichen is not very famous, but he looks good. Some people said that they would take a look at the show when there is no drama to watch. Even if the plot is not good, it is a good way to pass the time to watch the male and female protagonists fall in love.

The director really took the risk and negotiated a late-night weekly broadcast contract with the TV station. They filmed and broadcasted the show at the same time, shooting one episode a week and broadcasting one episode at a time. Bai Roushuang then discussed with them about urgently revising the script for the next week. This model has both risks and benefits. If the ratings are not good, the TV station will cut it off in time, but if it can become popular and attract more investment, the production of later episodes will become more and more sophisticated.

It can be said that Xu Shulou has absolutely no acting skills, but if she were to play herself, there would be no other actor more suitable than her.

For her, this journey was very wonderful, like walking through her life again, recalling her original feelings, whether happy or sad, surprised or angry. As her memory gradually came back, her "performance" also gradually got better, making the producer who witnessed her reading the lines at the beginning even more confused.

After the first two episodes were shot, the director sent the sample for review, and the others waited anxiously for the broadcast. The director looked calm, but in fact he was more nervous than them. He was under tremendous pressure because of the script changes. He watched the two episodes over and over again when he couldn't sleep late at night.

In the first episode, there is a fight scene between Xu Shulou and Bai Roushuang, which is the scene where Xu Shulou instructs his junior sister before the trial meeting. This scene was shot very well, one holding a sword and the other holding a jade fan, although they are plastic props of the crew, but both of them fight with real swords and have a tacit understanding when fighting, and when doing many difficult moves such as jumping and rolling, not to mention special effects, even wirework is not needed.

The director is currently watching this scene over and over again to comfort himself that the drama will definitely be a hit. Even if it doesn't, at least the fighting scenes are good, and it won't just be criticized.

Xu Shulou is also a very competent martial arts director. The actor who played Lu Beichen knew nothing about martial arts, but with her guidance, he was able to dance the sword like a real person. Although the fancy moves were not very lethal, the effect was enough in front of the camera. There was just one minor side effect. The actor always looked at Xu Shulou with admiration, which was not in line with Lu Beichen's character. The director corrected him several times, but to little avail.

There were no scenes for Sheng Wuyou in the early stages, but she often stayed in the crew to watch and learn. Naturally, the director had a better impression of such a diligent actor, and occasionally mentioned changing her role so that she would no longer play Qi Wutong, who was turned into a villain. However, Sheng Wuyou herself really wanted to challenge this kind of villain.

Compared to the director's anxiety, Xu Shulou was not that nervous. She did her best during filming, but everything after that was out of her control. While waiting for the show to start, she still called friends every day to go to nearby food stalls. There are so many kinds of modern food and drinks, which really made her happy. Today she had a barbecue, tomorrow she had a hot pot, and she was very free and easy.

Once in a while, they encountered a drunk making trouble. He overturned the table and smashed all the dishes and cups while cursing. Xu Shulou's friend stood up to stop him, but was pushed by the drunk. The crew members of several stalls nearby immediately stood up, and their number was enough to surround the drunk several times.

The scene really frightened the drunkard sober, and he ran away when he saw an opportunity. The others didn't want to get into a physical fight, so they just scared him away, leaving the proprietress standing there, yelling and demanding compensation for the dishes. Xu Shulou thought about it and decided to chase him. The drunkard saw that only a woman was chasing him, so he turned around and punched her, trying to scare her away and let her run away. Xu Shulou caught his fist and pulled it, and with a crisp "click" sound, his arm was dislocated.

The drunk cried out in pain and struggled violently. Xu Shulou held him down and gently advised him, "Don't move. I'm really afraid that I might cause you irreparable harm by accident."

She was really troubled by this. Xu Shulou hadn't fought with a mortal for a long time, and she was afraid that she wouldn't be able to control her strength well and accidentally kill him or leave him with lifelong disability.

"..." The drunk was about to cry out of fear, "Someone, help me!"

The other crew members also reacted and hurriedly ran over. They were shocked to see the miserable state of the drunkard up close. The staff member who was rescued from the game by Xu Shulou looked at the drunkard's dislocated arm with his mouth wide open and trembled: "You martial artists... don't you value inner peace?"

Xu Shulou suppressed the drunk, felt his own heartbeat, and answered seriously: "I was quite calm when I beat him."

“…”