Jiang BaiYan's filming time today was not too early. It was uncomfortable and exhausting to wait on set with makeup on, so for the crew's filming, the more insignificant extras went to get makeup done earlier, while those with bigger roles went last.
Jiang BaiYan had scenes scheduled in the morning today, getting makeup done at 6 am was already considered late. He had been waiting for Jian Jing, but was not surprised when she didn't show up, and just carried on as usual. After he finished shooting his scenes and was waiting on standby past 8, she arrived.
His assistant was running lines with him. Although he had good memory, he still went over the script every day to avoid flubbing his lines during filming.
"I'm sorry I woke up late," she sighed.
"No problem at all, I had to come in really early today, not usually this early," Jiang BaiYan spoke lightly, "Teacher Jing, have you had breakfast yet?"
Jian Jing said: "I ate on the way here."
Not only did she eat, she also ran into the uncle from yesterday at the food stall. The other party took out a copy of "The White Cat Detective", saying his daughter was a fan of her books, and asked for her autograph.
Jian Jing did not expect to receive this kind of treatment in a place full of celebrities, she was extremely surprised.
But the uncle said meaningfully: "I've been mixing around here all year, don't I know what kind of people those celebrities really are? Things all packaged up nicely, how much real quality could there be?"
Jian Jing smiled and signed for him, thinking to herself, this was a perceptive person.
The entertainment industry was full of glitz and glamour, like a big dream. There were too many filters between fans and idols, sometimes you couldn't tell what was real and what was fake.
That girl who passionately adored Jiang BaiYan, although seemingly within reach, was actually worlds apart.
"Is there powder on my face?" Jiang BaiYan touched his face, eyes flickering, "Otherwise, call the makeup artist to touch me up."
Jian Jing came back to herself, smiling again at his cleverness: "Sure."
While waiting for someone, Jiang BaiYan gave her details about the art department's makeup team. The makeup group had a head, two makeup artists, responsible solely for the leads' makeup, but Cai Tonger brought her own stylist, so they only had to work on three people.
"Me, Teacher Wang, Teacher Qian," Jiang BaiYan counted off on his fingers.
Teacher Wang and Teacher Qian played the parents in the drama.
Additionally, the lead makeup assistant would do hair and makeup for the supporting roles, the junior assistant did hair and makeup for the extras, with decreasing difficulty and accordingly decreasing pay.
Jian Jing silently took note.
The makeup artist quickly arrived, blinking in surprise at seeing Jian Jing there.
"This is Teacher Jian, the original author of Hide and Seek that I'm acting in, she's following me for scenes today for research material?" Jiang BaiYan's acting skills were unmatched, completely natural as if this was the actual situation.
Jian Jing went along, "Yes, originally Writer Xu said he would take me to see location shoots, but he drank too much last night, probably won't get up until noon, so I had to get someone else to bring me."
"Then I'm going to treat Xu Writer to a meal," Jiang BaiYan glibly said, then seemed to react, hurriedly adding, "Ah, I'd be happy to accompany Teacher Jing even without a meal, I'd be willing!"
He deliberately acted very pitiful, as if truly afraid of offending her.
The others played along, laughing.
Jiang BaiYan hurriedly changed the subject, "This is Teacher Xin."
"Hi~" The makeup artist was a tall, skinny, pale young man. Rather effeminate in temperament, "Teacher Jian, your skin is so nice."
Jian Jing greeted him, gaze falling on the opened makeup kit.
A makeup artist's tools were naturally extremely comprehensive. Just blush could fill up a whole drawer, eyeshadow not much less, lots of gold and pearlescent colors.
But this makeup artist was gay, though his two assistants were a man and woman.
Jiang BaiYan was playing a high school student, very clean makeup look, even the eyeshadow was matte, no shimmery products. Yesterday when watching Cai Tonger act, because her character was a little sister type, her eyelids were shiny and sparkly.
Jian Jing surreptitiously observed, keeping the female assistant in the corner of her vision.
She wasn't qualified to put makeup on the celebrities, helping pass tools and organizing makeup brushes, working diligently. Jian Jing handed her something, making conversation, "What kind of bristles are on this brush, feels so soft."
"It's from White Phoenix, all goat hair," the girl readily listed off, "Feels very soft on skin, applies powder very naturally."
Jian Jing smiled, "Did you specially study this?"
"No, I got into it midway, I thought it looked fun so I started learning on my own." The girl was very talkative.
"How long have you been learning?"
"This is my third year."
Hair and makeup took time, everyone was bored, once the conversation opened it wouldn't stop. Soon, Jian Jing knew the girl had a boyfriend, they'd been together a few months, not often seeing each other but still considered dating.
Better safe than sorry, she thought further, using checking the phone as an excuse, the name of the WeChat conversation at the top was very eye-catching, called "Pig Head".
Even more stereotypical than calling him "Hubby".
Jian Jing shook her head silently, eliminating this girl from suspicion.
After Jiang BaiYan's touch up, Teacher Xin stayed to chat with him. Jian Jing followed the assistant, saying she wanted to see what the main makeup room was like.
"It's chaotic over there."
The assistant wasn't exaggerating. The main makeup room was full of extras, messy. Over ten people in school uniforms sitting together, all the young people acting as students today.
The assistants were busy checking their hairstyles, some had their makeup done since 3 pm, a few hours had passed and their faces were oily, needing quick touch ups.
Among them three girls were made up as little sister types, matching Cai Tonger's younger sister character. Heavy eye makeup, eyelids dotted with either gold or blue glitter, very eye-catching looks without overlapping.
Jian Jing immediately stared at this makeup assistant.
She was in her early twenties, a little chubby, wearing a mask and glasses, chatting casually with different people. When the others talked about celebrities, she didn't join in. Gave off the feeling of having no interest in it.
Jian Jing hesitated, wondering if she had the wrong person.
"Excuse me please," the girl said coldly.
Jian Jing quietly moved aside, saying "The makeup you did looks similar to Cai Tonger's."
The girl's brows furrowed slightly, bland tone, "I guess so."
Jian Jing smiled slightly, head lowered to send a text.
On the other end, Sister Chen received the message, heaving a long sigh, said to Jiang BaiYan: "Teacher Jian wants us to switch scene order, move scene 6 of episode 12 earlier."
Jiang BaiYan flipped through the script, murmured agreement, "Okay."
"You say the word, Director Mao will definitely give you this favor." Sister Chen hesitated, "But isn't this too risky, provoking her like this?"
This was the "trap" Jian Jing requested, switching to a more intimate scene with Cai Tonger, to further provoke the culprit behind the scenes, forcing her to show herself.
Sister Chen had seen crazy fans before, truly afraid the other party would snap and actually ruin Jiang BaiYan instead.
"It's more dangerous with her by my side." Jiang BaiYan said levelly, "After all Teacher Jing isn't crew, if she stays too long it'd be suspicious, best to resolve this sooner for everyone's peace of mind."
He emphasized, "It's decided then."
Sister Chen sighed longly, knowing with him saying this there was no room left to argue: "Fine, I'll go find the director."
Excuses weren't hard to find. Yesterday Director Mao had used the injury scene, Sister Chen didn't expend much effort before convincing him to move the scene matching the timeline earlier, to avoid making Jiang BaiYan aggravate the wound repeatedly.
"Xiao Bai get ready, you're up." The script supervisor reminded.
"Coming." Jiang BaiYan unwrapped the gauze, leaving just a skin-colored wound sticker.
The lights came on, actors in position, ready to start filming the group fight scene before the injury.
The two classes in school started brawling over an argument about the basketball court allocation. Jiang BaiYan's character was also involved, and specifically targeted.
Director Mao asked: "How's the hand?"
It definitely still hurt, but Jiang BaiYan nodded, "Fine."
Then three hours of fight scenes were filmed, and the wound split open again.
Sister Chen wanted to redress it for him, but he stopped her.
She smirked, "Afraid I can't wrap it as nicely as Teacher Jian?"
Jiang BaiYan ignored her, using his phone to take a photo before holding it out: "Sister Chen, less of this kind of talk in the future. Teacher Jian said there's a suitable role for me in Demon 2, if you offend her and I tell Manager Lin later, don't blame me."
Manager Lin was his lead agent, the most influential in the company, bar none.
Sister Chen was shocked, showing some embarrassment.
But Jiang BaiYan paid her no more attention, once the wound was wrapped he headed back to the makeup room to rest on his own.
When Jiang BaiYan came back, the assistant hurriedly said, "I've been here the whole time, no one has come by."
Jiang BaiYan nodded perfunctorily.
Jian Jing had emphasized that they must be extremely careful these next few days and not leave any openings on set. So the assistant had stayed in the dressing room all day keeping watch, while Sister Chen had checked with the props master again before agreeing to start filming, confirming everything was in order.
Cai Tonger's agent had also said some strange things. But Director Mao felt that Jiang BaiYan getting hurt yesterday meant the production team hadn't done their job properly, so it was understandable for the agent to be cautious and try to help out, avoiding any idle gossip.
They had been equally careful about today's other scenes, and when night fell they started shooting the rainy night scene.
This followed yesterday's argument scene, where the younger sister runs out into the street and accidentally twists her ankle. Her brother goes looking for her in the middle of the night, eventually finding her in the park and piggybacking her all the way home.
From then on the relationship between the siblings improves.
Jiang BaiYan had treated his wound beforehand and wrapped it in bandages before going on set.
Cai Tonger's acting skills were mediocre as always, she could never quite convey the right emotion. The rain machine went on again and again, Jiang BaiYan drank three whole bowls of ginger tea, but they still hadn't finished the scene even after midnight.
"I'm sorry," Cai Tonger apologized for the nth time.
Jiang BaiYan forced a smile. "It's fine, I wasn't in the zone either."
After soaking in the rain for over an hour, even an iron man would be worn out. He sniffed and softened his tone, "Your emotions were good just now, let's try again."
Again and again.
Once more, and again.
Jiang BaiYan got more flawless with each take, while Cai Tonger was half-hearted.
Finally Director Mao was exhausted too, and called "Cut, that's good enough."
Jiang BaiYan was so tired he could barely stand, but he persevered and chatted with Cai Tonger, "You did great today, your crying tones sounded very real."
What crying tones, that was just her stuffy nose from a cold.
He threw his conscience away and made small talk with her for a while longer before amiably wrapping up for the day.
Sister Chen immediately draped a coat over him and handed him some ginger tea - she had been holding the coat and cup the entire time, never letting them out of her sight.
Jiang BaiYan shivered violently. "Let's get back to the hotel quickly, I'm freezing."
The driver raced them back to the hotel.
Sister Chen escorted him to his room but didn't go in to inspect it further, just waving goodbye, "Get some rest."
"See you tomorrow," Jiang BaiYan swiped his keycard and went inside.
The hotel rooms don't have power unless you insert the keycard, and just as he was about to put it in, he caught a flickering shadow out of the corner of his eye.
No way!
Jiang BaiYan's heart skipped a beat. He immediately tried to pull the door open and run out.
But the shadow was faster, kicking the back of the door and making it click shut, the latch locking it tight.
Jiang BaiYan backed against the door, thinking it was all over, was he about to lose his innocence?