Teacher Qi Ming is in good health; her illness wasn't serious, and she's recovering quickly. These past two days, Shang Yechu has been taking good care of her after finishing her filming.
The old lady treated Shang Yechu very well, with a kind and cheerful demeanor, making her very comfortable to be around. Shang Yechu even jokingly mentioned to her that she wanted Qi Ming, the teacher, to give her some pointers during their acting rehearsals. The old lady smiled and agreed.
The old lady's first scene after returning to the crew was a large group scene, with Pinghua, Yongfu, and Shang Yechu all having roles.
As a genuine senior citizen, Teacher Qi Ming doesn't need to wear heavy makeup; she just needs to make her face dirty and mess up her hair.
The crew quickly got ready, and filming began as soon as the clapperboard was set.
When villagers came to visit Yongfu's family, they were chatting with Yongfu and Pinghua when the mute woman rushed into the east room barefoot.
The villagers were astonished that Yongfu and Pinghua wouldn't give the mute woman shoes. The couple blushed and pulled the villagers to the west room where the mute woman lived, showing them the shoes hidden in her cabinet.
It turned out that it wasn't that her family wouldn't buy her shoes, but rather that the mute woman liked to hide her shoes in the wardrobe and walk around barefoot on the ground.
While taking shoes out of the cabinet, Yongfu accidentally dug up something. Reaching in, he discovered it was a collection of junk that the mute woman had accumulated over the years.
Used, crumpled toilet paper, leftover snack bags from children, empty beer cans left over from Yongfu's beer drinking sessions, rusty wire rings, outdated New Year pictures, dried orange peels, bird feathers...
Piles of garbage were stacked in a corner of the wardrobe. Yongfu felt he had lost face in front of the villagers and was immediately enraged, wanting to throw all the junk out.
The mute woman went mad because of this and had a hysterical fight with Yongfu. Pinghua and the villagers went up and pulled Yongfu away, while her granddaughter Xiaoyue rushed in and stopped the mute woman from fighting with Yongfu.
Finally, in front of the mute woman, Yongfu burned all the rubble to the ground. Amidst the mute woman's desperate screams, the flames rose high, very high…
This scene wasn't easy, but the pressure mainly fell on the actor playing Yongfu. Shang Yechu was just trying to break up the fight.
Shang Yechu thought so too.
Everything went smoothly. According to the script, the actor playing Yongfu entered the west room where the mute woman lived and began rummaging through drawers and cupboards to take out shoes.
The mute woman stood behind Yongfu. When Yongfu threw out a pair of shoes, she cursed angrily—in her hoarse language that no one could understand. Then she hugged the shoes and hid them in her quilt.
Up to this point, filming had gone smoothly. Shang Yechu stood off-set, observing the actors rehearsing their scenes. She sincerely thought that Teacher Qi Ming's acting was quite good.
The unexpected turn of events occurred when Yongfu's actor pulled out the first piece of trash that the mute woman had been keeping.
Almost instantly, the mute woman went mad.
"Ah ya ya ya ah ah ah ah ya ya—"
The mute woman let out a long, angry howl, scrambling forward and biting Yongfu's hand!
The actors in Yongfu were stunned.
The actors playing Pinghua were also stunned.
The actor playing a villager instinctively jumped back a step—this was the most authentic physiological reaction.
Gu Wenhua was so terrified that he forgot to say "cut," so everyone continued filming without knowing what was going on.
Shang Yechu, standing outside the arena, was also startled. She recovered faster than everyone else, but there was nothing she could do but stare blankly at the actors in the arena.
The mute woman howled and snatched the tattered paper and jar from Yongfu's hand, then rushed barefoot toward the door!
Yongfu suddenly realized what was happening, grabbed the mute woman, and roared in a stammering voice, "Where are you going? Come back here!"
The mute woman suddenly turned around, and through her disheveled hair, her eyes flashed with a ferocious, bestial light!
"Ah ...
Yongfu's actor was stunned. He did something wrong: he instinctively pulled his hand back!
If he had simply withdrawn his hand, the scene might still have been salvageable. But the next second, the villager who had been brought in to play the role yelled, "Oh no! Director! I'm not filming anymore! I'm not filming anymore! How could you hire a real mentally ill person to cause trouble for people!"
The villagers shook their heads and backed away, saying, "This is illegal—I'm not filming anymore! I don't want your money..."
The situation on the field completely descended into chaos. Gu Wenhua, as if waking from a dream, urgently called for a halt: "Crack! Crack! Crack! Stop! Stop!"
The workers exchanged bewildered glances and stopped working. The villager looked terrified and seemed about to call the police.
Qi Ming brushed his hair aside, stepped forward with a smile, and said, "Fellow villager, I'm not mentally ill!"
"ah?"
The villagers stared blankly at Qi Ming. The old woman wiped her face and said kindly, "Don't you recognize me?"
After a long search, the villagers finally recognized the face: "Oh, you are, you are Qi Ming, right? The one who played the role in 'My Silly Dad and Clever Mom'..."
"Do you still think I'm mentally ill now?" Qi Ming said with a smile. "It's all an act. Don't be afraid, folks."
After much persuasion, Qi Ming finally convinced his fellow villager with his popularity and goodwill, allowing filming to continue.
Having learned from their previous experience, Yongfu and the others finally didn't mess things up during the second shoot. The plot progressed smoothly to the scene where Yongfu burns things.
"Xiao Yue! Xiao Yue!" Pinghua called anxiously, "Come quickly and pull your grandma away!"
Shang Yechu slipped on her shoes and hurriedly ran into the house, stopping the mute woman.
In that instant, Shang Yechu thought of many ways to act—anxious, gentle, calm. Countless performance methods flashed through her mind, but before she could choose one, she was interrupted by an angry scream.
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