The private restaurant that Jiang Baiyan decided to buy is an old building with a history of more than 200 years. Although it is inevitable that there are some ancient costume drama-like decorations, but apart from the superfluous decorations, the building itself still presents the charm of time.
Another plus point is the food.
Jiang Baiyan said that this private restaurant is actually well-known throughout the country, and is spread by word of mouth among gourmets, but it is not a good way to advertise externally.
Jian Jing couldn't help but feel that the store was being a bit mysterious, but she immediately understood after tasting it.
With the quality of the dishes in this restaurant, there is no need for advertising at all.
It’s really delicious.
Jiang Baiyan strictly controls his diet during filming unless the role requires it, and today is an exception.
He only ate some protein throughout the whole process, almost no meat and carbohydrates, and the most he ate was vegetables.
Most of the time, he was helping Jian Jing find fault.
There were many bones in the fish meat, so he used a small fork to remove the bones, basically destroying the texture of the fish meat, so that the taste of the dish was still retained when it was eaten.
After dissecting the fish, he put on gloves and started peeling shrimps at a very fast speed. In no time, he filled up half of the small bowl. However, by then, Jian Jing hadn't even finished half of the fish.
Fearing that she would feel pressured, Jiang Baiyan did not continue after peeling the shrimps. He slowly picked a few green vegetables and chewed them several times before swallowing them. He also said: "I really like the vegetarian dishes here. They are as delicious as the meat."
Jian Jing looked at him with pity: "Hurry up and finish filming so that you can eat more often."
"I've told Sister Lin that I'll only take on one movie and one TV series a year from now on." Jiang Baiyan reported his work arrangements, "This way I'll only work for half a year at most, and the remaining half a year won't be so hard."
Jian Jing agrees very much: "I think it's good to work only a few months a year."
Jiang Baiyan naturally asked about "Sleepwalking Girl": "When will it be released? Can I watch it in advance?"
"Sure." Jian Jing was very generous. "Send you the document?"
Jiang Baiyan said pitifully: "Could it be the first signed book?"
She nodded: "Send the sample book to me, and I will bring it to you."
"Jingjing is so nice." He attentively refilled her drink, "Eat slowly, don't be in a hurry."
But Jian Jing still tried to finish eating before 7:30.
I was too full, so I just walked over there to help digest the food.
The sun has set, and its blood-red afterglow falls on the ancient roofs, casting a layer of hazy red light, which looks both magnificent and brilliant, yet strange and eerie.
The scene where the crew was gathered was brightly lit.
The staff took the opportunity to eat, wolfing down the food. The director sat on the side smoking, and when he saw Jiang Baiyan coming, he glanced at his watch covertly.
7:28, very punctual.
He was satisfied with it. Although Jiang Baiyan did not exercise his privileges and shared the joys and sorrows with the staff, he always did his own job well, acted seriously, never complained about the hardship or tiredness, and never lost his temper after several repetitions.
is enough.
"Director Li, I'm here." Jiang Baiyan greeted with a smile, "What are you shooting tonight?"
Director Li smiled broadly and said, "It's going to rain in two days, so let's shoot the night scene in advance, Scene 18, take a look."
Sister Chen handed over the script, and Jiang Baiyan flipped through it, only moving up the content of the last two days. He had previewed some of the lines in advance, and was not unfamiliar with them.
"Let memorize it again." He sat down on the folding chair consciously and began to look through the script.
Director Li looked at Jian Jing wandering around, probably recognized her, and said nothing. As long as it was a star who organized a large-scale fan visit to the set and disrupted the order on the set, it was normal for relatives and friends to come and see.
Besides, Jian Jing is a well-known writer, and backed by the financially powerful Jinwu, so who would bother with her
He pretended not to see.
Once the most authoritative director has spoken, others will be more likely to talk too much, and at most they will glance at him and gossip in secret.
Jian Jing asked Sister Chen: "Who are they?"
In the past two years, Sister Chen's attitude towards Jian Jing has changed again and again. Now she is more polite than the previous boss and immediately introduces the next staffing arrangement to her.
Jiang Baiyan is the undisputed male lead and needs no mention again; the second male lead is the guy who took fans back to the room to spend the night and whose RV was splashed with dog blood. His surname is Qu, he is 26 years old, graduated from the Film Academy, has decent acting skills, few fans, and is a second-tier actor, so let's call him Qu's male supporting role.
The female lead's surname is Bei, she is 32 years old, a first-line actress, a big star, and married. A few days ago, her husband came to visit her on set, and she was spotted flirting with the fourth female lead, and was discovered by his wife. She has been in a very bad mood recently.
Jian Jing didn't see her at the scene. Sister Chen said she didn't have any scenes in the evening and was resting in her room.
According to convention, she is called Miss Bei.
The second female lead has a later role and has not joined the crew yet, so we won't discuss it for now. There are also some familiar supporting roles who have played in many spy war dramas, but they are all filming in group B, in a studio a few hours away.
Apart from the actors, the only people who could get close to the actors and enter the B&B freely were the staff.
Some of them live with the actors in haunted B&Bs, and some live in hotels. Because of their work, they frequently enter various spaces and cannot comb through and check them carefully.
Jian Jing recognized the face and remembered a piece of gossip.
"So, they mean that the second male lead has some problems, so they extended the contract in order to cancel it?" she wondered.
Previously, Jiang Baiyan said that he went to film a movie temporarily because there was a good rumor about the second male lead in a spy film. The crew was afraid that a scandal would break out during the filming, which would cause the filming to be stalled and directly postponed it.
But now it seems that Qu's male supporting role is doing well.
Sister Chen nodded and whispered, "The matter has been suppressed. The boss personally greeted the director and wanted him to make a name for himself with this drama, so..."
Jian Jinglu had an expression that was hard to describe.
"Teacher Jingjing is worried." After a while, Jiang Baiyan had memorized all the lines and revealed the inside story, "Although he is still the second male lead, his role is much less. The screenwriter gave the key plot to the third male lead. It's really unlucky that all the scenes were cut out and the impact was not great."
He said: "The guy's scenes are all in the early stage, competing with him, and falling in love, falling in love, and falling in love with the heroine. There is nothing that affects the viewing experience."
Jian Jing: “…”
You guys are awesome.
But after hearing this, she became even more curious: "What happened to him?"
Jiang Baiyan opened his mouth and was about to speak, but suddenly closed it again. Then, a voice rang out: "Xiaobai, you came so early."
Jian Jing turned her head and saw Qu Nanpei's face.
To be honest, people who can become stars must have bad looks. Qu's male partner is handsome and cool, with thick eyebrows, high nose, and three-dimensional facial features, which makes him stand out in the crowd.
"I came after dinner." Jiang Baiyan greeted with a smile, not at all arrogant as if gossiping behind someone's back, "Do you have a show tonight?"
It's all nonsense. Whether there is a dialogue or not is clearly written in the script.
"Yes." Qu nodded and looked at Jian Jing. "You are... Teacher Jian Jing? Nice to meet you. You look better in person than in the photo."
He stretched out his hand to shake hands with Jian Jing.
Jian Jing smiled politely: "Sorry to bother you guys while you're filming. I came here to travel and visit the set."
"Jingjing is your good friend." Jiang Baiyan said.
Qu Nanpei smiled, did not insist, turned around and prepared to leave.
"Jingjing, this guy is a good person." Jiang Baiyan and Jian Jing said, "You are going to be deceived by him."
Jian Jing said: "It's okay, I'm sure you won't lie."
Jiang Baiyan: “…”
"Xiaobai." Sister Chen reminded, "The makeup artist is here, you still have to do your styling."
"I'll go right away." He hurried to prepare.
The costumes in Republican-era dramas are similar to modern ones, so there is no need for much modification. Just put on some simple makeup and put on the costumes.
It was fun to visit the set once or twice, but after a while, I got tired of it. Jian Jing watched for a while, said goodbye to Sister Chen, and went straight to the B&B.
At this time, the crew was still on the set, and the B&B was quiet. Only one room was lit, which should be where Miss Bei lived.
She smelled the scent of paint and came to the room where Jiang Baiyan had lived before.
Turning on the light, the pink and white wall is reflected through the curtains.
She carefully checked every corner and was disappointed to find that the landlord was too considerate and cleaned almost the entire room carefully. The table and windowsill were polished to a shine, and the bed was a brand new four-piece set. There was no trace of being "haunted" at all.
With no other choice, he could only check it against Jiang Baiyan's photo.
But... he took a selfie.
Although only half of the face was captured and it looked like she intentionally included herself in the shot, it was undoubtedly a selfie. So what front-facing camera was used
Therefore, the amount of information is limited.
Jian Jing could barely judge that the bloodstains were mainly concentrated on the side opposite the door, covering the entire wall. There were very few on the other wall, and only the side near the window had bloodstains.
In addition, all the prints have no fingerprints, are similar in size, and the positions of the five fingers are the same. It can be seen that they were not directly printed with some props, but were created by someone using his own hands to smear them.
No matter how you look at it, it seems to be a trick, and the system has no prompt.
Jian Jing wandered around for a while, but still didn't find anything unusual. Regretfully, she went back to the hotel to rest.
The next day, the crew stopped working for half a day and the ghost-exorcism activity began.
It is a ceremony that is both public and private. The public aspect is that everyone knows that ghosts need to be exorcised, even if many people don’t know about the previous events. Filming in the old house and doing some superstitious activities has a great calming effect.
It is private because too many people are allowed to participate in the whole ceremony.
The master said that if there are too many people and the Yang energy is strong, ghosts will be scared away and dare not show up, and they cannot be driven away effectively.
Believing it is one thing, but if he said it, the crew might force it and naturally agree, and only a few main creators will participate.
As Jiang Baiyan's friend, Jian Jing had the opportunity to watch.
The master was in his fifties, wearing a gorgeous Taoist robe. His outfit was extremely professional and he looked very impressive. Jian Jing asked curiously, "Does he have a certificate?"
"Master Long is from Hong Kong and has become a Malaysian citizen," said Director Li. "All the Taoist priests in China are full, so we can only invite them from outside."
Jian Jing nodded to show that she was learning: "Has he done this before? Was it effective?"
Director Li said seriously: "Master Long is best at exorcising ghosts and summoning fox spirits. I saw it once, and it really works."
Jian Jing pretended to listen attentively.
Director Li told a secret.
He had a friend who married into a wealthy family in Hong Kong. She lived a comfortable life in the past few years, but after she became pregnant, her husband's family business plummeted and almost went bankrupt. She prayed to gods and Buddhas everywhere, and by chance, she met Master Long.
The master said that they were haunted by a little ghost and asked her to ask her husband if he had ever been to Thailand to raise a little ghost.
The friend did as she was told. Her husband was very surprised and asked her how she knew. She then recommended Master Long to him. Master Long said that you had promised to give birth to his child before, and now that your wife is pregnant, he wants to take revenge on you.
The husband asked what to do, and the master said, either give up your biological child or give up him.
As for men, none of them care about incense, so they would choose to drive away the little ghost.
The process is still clear. Anyway, after the exorcism, my husband's family got a chance to breathe and gradually recovered.
The other is gossip. It is said that a Taiwanese actress, with the help of a master, invited a fox spirit to take over her life. Not only did her career flourish, but she was also pursued by a group of rich boys. In the end, she married into a wealthy family, making others envious.
However, no matter how seriously Director Li spoke, these rumors sounded too fake.
Jian Jing was still skeptical and walked towards Master Long tentatively.
Master Long looked at her, and was immediately shocked. He blurted out: "You are still alive?"