After the ceremony, Xu Qiao was about to take Mo Chenghong's car back to the hotel to rest when a staff member found him and respectfully handed him an envelope.
When Xu Qiao opened it, he saw that it was Guan Chaosheng’s personal business card, with only a name and phone number.
He didn't know what Guan Chaosheng meant by giving him the business card, so he frowned, put it in his bag and ignored it.
If you don’t understand something, just let it go.
After resting for a night in the hotel, Xu Qiao and Li Feifei returned to the crew early the next morning to continue filming.
At this time, the relationship between the heroine Wang Xiu and the young Taoist priest is getting stronger day by day.
The young Taoist priest accompanied her to collect herbs to treat patients. The herbs that were previously impossible to collect on the cliffs were now easily collected by the young Taoist priest by standing on his sword.
If there were hooligans who coveted her beauty and came to cause trouble, Wang Xiu no longer had to feel afraid or embarrassed, because with the little Taoist priest around, he could easily make them flee in panic.
These were things that Liu Wen, who was trapped in the lake and unable to take a single step, could not give her.
The unprecedented sense of security made the smile on Wang Xiu's face brighter than usual.
Even the patients said that the young medical girl and the young Taoist priest were a perfect match.
After talking so much, Wang Xiu herself began to doubt whether she really fell in love with the little Taoist priest.
Wang Xiu came to the lake less and less often.
Liu Wen saw that Wang Xiu's friendship with the young Taoist priest was growing day by day, but the slug was fanning the flames, and he unknowingly planted dark seeds in his heart.
As long as he turned into a human and went ashore, he could stay by Wang Xiu's side. Instead of being trapped in the lake all day long, begging for alms and waiting for the little doctor to come over and talk to him.
But in his heart, he adhered to human morality and refused to cross the bottom line.
Liu Wen couldn't get ashore, but the slug spirit could.
That day, Liu Wen was staring at the moonlight underwater when he suddenly heard some strange noises coming from the shore.
When he surfaced, he saw a slug with the same face as his, dragging an unconscious old man towards him. Judging from his attire, he was an old hunter from the mountains.
"Who is he? A villager nearby?"
The slug spirit looked down at Liu Wen in the water, with a tender smile on his beautiful androgynous face: "Kill him."
Liu Wen was surprised: "What?"
"Kill him, and you will become an adult."
Liu Wen immediately understood what the slug spirit meant and refused without hesitation: "No way, slug, send him back."
The slug spirit curled his lips, and seeing Liu Wen's determined look, he showed a bored expression.
The next moment, a flash of blood appeared, and the slug monster had already taken out the old hunter's heart.
The person lying on the ground stopped breathing instantly.
Liu Wen's pupils suddenly shrank. This was the first time in a hundred years that he saw a demon kill someone.
The slug spirit devoured the human heart, and his hands were stained with blood. He patiently stretched out his tongue and licked his fingers clean one by one.
"If you don't kill me, I will." The slug looked at the fingers that had been licked clean and chuckled.
Liu Wen stared at him blankly, his expression sad, not knowing whether it was because of the dead or because of the monster in front of him: "Slug, you will be punished by God."
Having killed people and eaten their hearts, this demon will never be able to achieve enlightenment.
"Oh, divine punishment? God has never cared about us monsters and ghosts." The slug laughed with a hint of delightful sarcasm.
…
Xu Qiao took a look at the rough cut. In this scene, he played Liu Wen and the slug. When the two characters appeared at the same time without any contact with each other, the director would prepare the scene composition, fix the positions of the two characters, shoot Liu Wen's underwater scenes first, change his hairstyle and makeup after completion, and then shoot the slug scenes.
During the shooting, the camera and lighting cannot be moved. After the shooting is completed, the two characters will be put in the same frame through post-production.
The slug eating the human heart is a major turning point in the entire play. From here on, the conflicts between ghosts and monsters, monsters and humans, and humans and ghosts all erupt.
There were only twelve episodes in total, and no matter how hard Hu Zhenghua tried to achieve perfection, as time went by, most of the filming process had already been completed.
In the following plot, the slug spirit did not take Liu Wen's words to heart. After eating the human heart, he realized how good the human heart tasted.
He began to drag someone to Liu Wen every once in a while. If Liu Wen refused to kill him, he would do it himself, digging out people's hearts and eating their flesh.
Finally, the continuous disappearance of people in the nearby villages aroused the villagers' vigilance.
Some people said that when they went out to urinate in the middle of the night, they saw a ghost with long hair dragging away Liu the hunter at the entrance of the village.
Some people say that the ghost has an extremely beautiful face.
More and more people said that they had seen ghosts, and the news spread more and more widely. Everyone in the nearby villages was in danger and no one dared to go out in the middle of the night.
Their vivid descriptions forced Wang Xiu, who was unaware of the existence of the slug, to associate the ghost with Liu Wen.
At this time, the young Taoist priest already knew about Wang Xiu's relationship with the water ghost. For both public and private reasons, he began to look for evidence that the water ghost had harmed people.
Finally, when the slug monster came out to harm people one night, it was stopped by the young Taoist priest who had been lying in ambush.
The young Taoist priest was unfamiliar with the Taoist magic and only left a sword mark on the slug monster's forehead. In the end, he was unable to stop the slug monster, whose magic power increased greatly after eating the human heart.
But this blocking was enough for Wang Xiu on the side to see the appearance of the slug spirit clearly.
Wang Xiu had to desperately admit that it was Liu Wen who harmed people.
…
The latter part of the scene required relatively high emotions from the heroine, so Lai Huiwen rehearsed the scene with Li Chengxuan several times, and then talked with Xu Qiao to get a feel for it before filming began.
The young Taoist priest announced the news that the water ghost was harming people. The villagers were shocked and angry, and asked the young Taoist priest to enforce justice and avenge the dead.
But after the fight that day, the young Taoist knew that he might not be the opponent's match, so he repeatedly asked Wang Xiu if he knew the water ghost's weakness.
"A Xiu, you have known the water ghost for a long time, do you know what it is afraid of?"
Wang Xiu avoided his gaze and shook his head silently.
But the young Taoist knew she was lying from her evasive gaze.
"During this period, more than ten people have been killed in several nearby villages! Ah Xiu, you are kind and compassionate. Do you want to see more people killed by that water ghost?"
"He's not like that..."
"Didn't you see its face with your own eyes that day?"
Wang Xiu was stunned and speechless, her clear eyes were covered with mist.
She couldn't understand how Liu Wen, the gentle and polite man who grew up with her, could hurt others.
But she did see with her own eyes the face of the evil ghost, and it was Liu Wen.
The young Taoist priest held her shoulders and scolded her: "Think about those who died."
"More than ten people have been separated from their wives and children. How innocent are they?" Seeing that Wang Xiu didn't say anything, the little Taoist priest shouted again, "A Xiu!"
“… Fire.” Wang Xiu closed his eyes in pain.
"What?"
Wang Xiu broke down and cried, tears soaking her entire face: "He is afraid of fire, he is afraid of fire!"
The memories of my childhood are still vivid.
Wang Xiu remembered that day, the sun was so bright. The lush trees cast a shadow on the lake, Liu Wen was in the lake protected by the shade, and she was lying on the shore, facing the sun, unable to open her eyes, giggling.
The little girl rolled around on the grass, then turned around curiously and looked at the handsome man in the water: "Are you a monster?"
"I'm a ghost." The man paused, then asked gently, "Aren't you afraid of me?"
She replied in a baby voice: "You have a face, hands and feet just like me. Why should I be afraid of you?"
Rolling her eyes, she pouted and said unhappily, "I'm afraid of toads. Brother Niu at the entrance of the village always bullies me and throws toads at me."
Seeing Liu Wen smile, the little girl asked again: "Are you afraid of anything?"
Liu Wen pondered for a while, stared at the innocent Wang Xiu, and told her his biggest weakness: "I'm afraid of fire."
Water ghosts are born in water and their skin secretes a kind of oil that is invisible to others, but this oil will ignite at any time.
He is afraid of fire.
After learning of the water ghost's weakness, the young Taoist priest gathered the villagers and gathered at the lakeside when the sun was at its brightest.
"The great master of the Three Realms of Taiyi Hunyuan Shangqing Lingbao Talisman has ordered all the gods in this realm to come to the altar and obey his orders!" The young Taoist's eyes were fierce. He stuck the talisman on the demon-beating whip and whipped it in mid-air towards the lake.
The water on the lake was rolling, as if there was a huge pot underneath, boiling the entire lake.
Liu Wen and the slug spirit were forced to reveal their true colors.
Wang Xiu, the young Taoist priest, and the villagers were all stunned when they saw two identical figures emerging from the lake.
Thinking of the Taoist priest's instructions, the villagers did not hesitate and poured the prepared oil bucket by bucket onto the lake.
Liu Wen's magic power was greatly reduced during the day, and after being beaten with the demon whip, his body became transparent.
The slug spirit ate human hearts and its magic power increased greatly. It protected Liu Wen, who was not good at fighting and had injured his vitality, behind it.
He snorted coldly and started to fight with the young Taoist priest.
Wang Xiu stared at the two identical faces in a daze, and looked at Liu Wen behind the slug spirit.
Although the two faces are the same, when they appear together, it is easy to tell their difference.
Liu Wen had a calm gaze and a gentle expression. Even though his figure was a bit erratic and ghostly at this moment, he still looked like a gentle and polite gentleman.
She sensed something was wrong.
Seeing that the villagers were about to set fire, Wang Xiu glanced at the slug spirit's face and finally understood.
"Stop! Don't light the fire! It's not Liu Wen who is harming people, not him!" Wang Xiu shook her head and tried to stop the villagers who were lighting the fire, but no one paid any attention to her.
She looked at the little Taoist priest in panic: "It wasn't Liu Wen who killed people that night. There was no sword mark on his forehead!"
The slug monster that was fighting with the young Taoist priest had a sword mark on his forehead that had not healed from that night.
The deaths of the villagers during this period had nothing to do with Liu Wen.
The young Taoist priest was so busy fighting with the slug spirit that he had no time to pay attention to Wang Xiu.
Wang Xiu had to explain to the villagers, but no one listened. Even if they listened and knew the truth, what would it matter
Regardless of whether he harmed anyone or not, he was a water ghost and people were naturally afraid of him.
So, he will die too.
The slug spirit watched the oil film on the lake spread towards Liu Wen, gritted its teeth, and transformed its lower body into its original form, with its huge tail blocking Liu Wen.
The villagers were shocked: "It's a slug!"
"This monster is a slug!"
Seeing that the little Taoist priest was gradually losing the fight with the slug, the villagers looked at each other and hurried back.
Water ghosts are afraid of fire, and slugs are afraid of salt.
The price of salt was high, so the villagers brought in large amounts of salt, each taking a small jar.
Some villagers also brought white roosters that they raised at home.
The coarse salt was sprinkled on the slug spirit, and the slug screamed miserably.
The villagers were surprised to see this and started throwing salt at him again and again.
Seeing that the slugs were exhausted from being hurt by the salt, the villagers finally lit a fire on the water.
Wang Xiu was unable to stop it and could only watch as the sparks hit the oil film on the water surface and quickly spread out.
“No, don’t…” With his vision blurred by tears, Wang Xiu fell to his knees, digging his ten fingers into the soil.
Under the scorching flames around him, Liu Wen's body became increasingly erratic.
The slug monster was a little panicked. He could easily escape, but Liu Wen could not leave the water.
Liu Wen looked at the slug with a complicated expression and whispered, "Let's go, slug."
The slug shook his head.
He surrounded Liu Wen with his huge and thick tail and still refused to leave.
With the help of the villagers, the young Taoist priest attacked more fiercely. The slug could not resist and was finally beaten out of its original form.
It was a giant slug.
His body surface is smooth and covered with mucus. Compared with his beautiful body when he transforms, his true form is filthy and ugly.
The slug twisted its huge and ugly body and tightly surrounded the weak water ghost.
"You don't know your own limits."
The villagers sneered and sprinkled handfuls of coarse salt with resentment.
Flames were bursting out across the lake.
The slug hissed and twisted its body in pain, surrounding the water ghost even tighter.
Amid the mixture of salt and fire, a water ghost and a slug embraced each other in an ugly posture.
"You always call me slug, and you never give me a name."
"Look at me, I don't even call you a water ghost..."
In a trance, Liu Wen heard the voice of the slug ringing in his ears.
"Go, slug, go." Liu Wen pushed the slug with his transparent palm.
The slug touched his face with its wet tentacles and whispered, "Give me a name."
Before Liu Wen could reply, the young Taoist cast a spell on the slug. The slug hissed and gradually shrank to the length of a finger, and was entangled by the young Taoist with a whip and fell to the grass.
The villagers hurriedly released the white roosters in their arms.
The rooster looked at the slug wriggling on the ground, clucked twice, tilted its head and took a look, as if considering whether the insect was edible.
Finally, the rooster pecked at the slug and swallowed it into his stomach.
The slug is dead.
It was born filthy and died silently.
After practicing for a hundred years, he got an opportunity due to the gathering of negative energy from water ghosts, and was able to gain wisdom and human nature. He awakened from ignorance and enjoyed another hundred years of good days of clear and bright altar.
In the end, the monster was pecked by an ordinary rooster in the mortal world.
A slug is a slug. Even after practicing for a hundred years, it is still a slug.
Liu Wen watched him being swallowed by the rooster and slowly closed his eyes.
He was once human.
People have feelings.
After living together for a hundred years, how can I remain indifferent
The author has something to say: The next chapter of Water Ghost will end