Pang Xinhao didn't care about the camera, not because he was fascinated by her beauty, but because Qi Wanlian gave him a great sense of oppression.
Caring about the lens is a concern and protection of your image, while ignoring the camera is purely the survival instinct of herbivores.
Although she was a beautiful and gentle woman, with arms so thin that they seemed to break if bent, she gave Pang Xinhao a sense of crisis as if he was being stared at by a poisonous snake, forcing him to muster all his energy to deal with Qi Wanlian.
"Have some tea." Qi Wanlian handed the teacup to Pang Xinhao gracefully.
"Thank you." Pang Xinhao pinched his fingers nervously, his palms full of cold sweat.
"I heard about you and my daughter." Qi Wanlian said straight to the point, "To be honest, you don't quite meet my criteria for choosing a child."
This was a bit strange. Pang Xinhao took a breath and forced himself to talk to Qi Wanlian: "You are right, I am not worthy of Xiaoyue, so we have broken up for a long time."
"But since Xiaoyue likes you, I'll give you a chance." Qi Wanlian picked up the teacup and took a sip, leaving a trace of water at the corner of her mouth. She stuck out her tongue and licked it gently, but her eyes were looking straight at Pang Xinhao, as if she was looking forward to a feast.
"Don't give me a chance, we have already broken up." Pang Xinhao waved his hand and said.
He couldn't face the oppressive force of Qi Wanlian's gaze, and his eyes began to move left and right. He accidentally met the camera. After seeing the lens, his expression froze again.
The photographer frowned. This expression ruined the whole performance. He looked at Zhong Jiudao. Director Zhong still didn't call for a stop, but focused on watching Qi Wanlian's performance.
"What are you looking at so seriously?" Qi Wanlian stood up and walked in front of Pang Xinhao. She swept her eyes across the camera and gave a beautiful frontal look with a contemptuous expression, as if there was something on the other side of the camera that Pang Xinhao found scary but Qi Wanlian disdained.
She stepped forward and grabbed Pang Xinhao's chin, forcibly turning his face around and forcing him to look at her. Her sharp nails dug into Pang Xinhao's skin so tightly that Pang Xinhao felt his jawbone was about to be pierced by the nails.
"Is that thing as pretty as me? Your heart should be on me."
Qi Wanlian placed her hand on Pang Xinhao's chest.
In the eyes of others, Qi Wanlian was just touching Pang Xinhao's chest.
But in Pang Xinhao's eyes, he was in a trance for a moment, as if he really saw Qi Wanlian exerting a little force, piercing her palm deeply into his chest, and digging out the heart.
He didn't know whether the pain in his chest was real or an illusion, but Pang Xinhao didn't care anymore. He screamed in panic, got up, pushed Qi Wanlian away and ran away.
His eyes seemed to be covered by blood mist, and everything in his field of vision was blood red. He didn't know where to escape to, where was safe, but in panic, he saw Zhong Jiudao standing next to the camera.
In the blood-red sky, only Zhong Jiudao's color looked normal, which made people feel extremely relieved.
Pang Xinhao covered his chest and didn't notice the camera at all. Instead, he ran towards Zhong Jiudao, stretched out his hand and said, "Help, help!"
The camera was facing Pang Xinhao, realistically and clearly recording Pang Xinhao's frightened and help-seeking expression. Even his pupils trembling with fear were extremely clear.
"Cut!" Zhong Jiudao finally called for a stop.
With this sound, the blood color in front of Pang Xinhao's eyes suddenly disappeared. He seemed to be saved. He sat down on the ground, gasping for breath, and finally escaped from the death situation.
The onlookers all applauded at the same time, and Luo Huai said happily: "Lao Pang, you acted really well!"
Even the photographer nodded to Pang Xinhao and gave him a thumbs up.
Pang Xinhao survived the disaster but was still confused. Did he... act
Wasn't it because Qi Wanlian was too scary that he couldn't help but run away
However, what Pang Xinhao didn't know was that the others couldn't see the blood mist or the heart that was taken out. They only saw Qi Wanlian's beautiful yet vicious expression, which was scary but not frightening.
In this performance, the more outstanding one is Pang Xinhao. His horrified eyes and the way he ran away actually made Qi Wanlian more terrifying.
"You're amazing!" Luo Huai said, "And you're really good at positioning yourself and watching the camera. The expression at the end, even facing the camera, was so real and detailed. It's amazing!"
Pang Xinhao: “…”
Did he just... look at the camera? He didn't even see that thing! He was only thinking about asking Director Zhong for help.
"Take a break and calm down," Zhong Jiudao said, "The performance is finally getting better. Come to a meeting tonight and I'll tell you about the play."
"Okay, okay!" Pang Xinhao agreed hurriedly.
Seeing Director Zhong at night gave Pang Xinhao a great sense of security. Fortunately, it was Director Zhong! If Qi Wanlian handed him a room card and said, "Come to my room tonight," Pang Xinhao might cry on the spot and kneel on the ground to beg Qi Wanlian to let him go.
Next, Pang Xinhao's eyes looked like those of an evil ghost, and Qi Wanlian took a few more shots facing the camera. She actually held a fake heart model, poured ketchup on it, and licked her hands full of ketchup. It was bloody and gorgeous, with a kind of terrifying beauty.
In order to make Qi Wanlian's performance more realistic, Zhong Jiudao burned incense and offered the bottle of ketchup as an offering before filming, turning it into something edible for ghosts.
When the ketchup was placed on her heart, Qi Wanlian smelled the sweetness and licked it uncontrollably, revealing an intoxicated look and saying involuntarily, "So sweet."
Qi Wanlian lived in an era of extreme material scarcity during her lifetime. She had never seen a Western thing like ketchup, not to mention that modern foods all add a lot of sugar to enhance the taste. The sweetness of this bottle of ketchup was obviously too high.
Sugar can bring great pleasure to the brain, and the brain has an inexplicable relationship with the mysterious soul. The sugar offered can also make ghosts happy. Qi Wanlian had never eaten such delicious food before and after her death, and she couldn't help but take another bite without caring about her image.
"Ugh..." Pang Xinhao, who was sitting on a chair to rest, saw this scene and couldn't help but turned his face to the side and vomited.
Affected by the hallucination just now, he always had the feeling that Qi Wanlian was indescribably touching his heart.
The sweet smell that humans cannot smell drifted throughout the villa. Other ghosts also smelled it. These ignorant ghosts immediately drooled.
With Zhong Jiudao suppressing them, the ghosts didn't dare to disrupt the filming and went scrambling for ketchup.
Fu Yue was the only one who could cheer up no matter how many times she lost her temper. She was not afraid of Director Zhong's pressure at all. She rushed into the shooting scene and looked at Qi Wanlian with red eyes: "You dare!"
The few staff members were obviously panicked by this intrusive scene. The photographer looked at Zhong Jiudao for help, but Zhong Jiudao lowered his hand and did not stop it.
Fu Yue has already changed into her costume (the ghost actor's costume is folded out of paper by Director Zhong and then burned, which is very cost-effective). She is wearing a modern red long dress and is extremely beautiful.
She glared at Ketchup, pointed at Qi Wanlian and said, "You actually betrayed me..."
Zhong Jiudao secretly cast a spell to silence Fu Yue, preventing her from saying "eating delicious food behind my back". This kind of appropriate blank lines makes it easier for people to understand it as "carving out my ex-boyfriend's heart behind my back".
At the same time, Director Zhong, who was secretly controlling everything, cast a spell without making any sound and transmitted a thought to Qi Wanlian.
Qi Wanlian received the signal and immediately turned around and said to Fu Yue, "Why are you angry? It's not like I won't give it to you."
She waved her hand: "Come here, my dear daughter."
Fu Yue walked over with a stiff face. Qi Wanlian handed over the ketchup and smiled like a witch who tempted people to fall into evil ways. She lowered her voice and said in an extremely sinful tone, "Try it."
The ketchup was so sweet that Fu Yue naturally didn't care to be angry and took a bite as well. She and Qi Wanlian were both ignorant people in the old society. They had not consumed enough sugar since childhood. When they ate something so sweet, they couldn't help but burst into tears and said with a face full of emotion: "It's so sweet!"
The scene of Fu Yue, who still had a conscience and humanity, falling completely into the hell of endless suffering under the seduction of Qi Wanlian, reached its peak in terms of both visual impact and psychological fear.
"Ugh!" This time it wasn't Pang Xinhao. Qian Duoqun and actress Xiaoyan couldn't bear it either. They turned their backs to Pang Xinhao and squatted on the ground, retching.
The only one left, Xiaoyun, had not vomited yet, but her face was already pale and she turned away, unable to look anymore.
Only Luo Huai looked at the shooting scene with an eye to the essence, and whispered, "I want to eat bread with ketchup, but it's too high in calories, so I can't eat it."
"Okay." Zhong Jiudao stopped filming and warned Fu Yue, "Your improvisation was quite good this time. I'll forgive you for now, but this won't happen again."
Fu Yue sniffed and greedily inhaled the sweet taste before saying unconvincedly, "Okay."
Qi Wanlian smiled and said to everyone, "My performance was a bit exaggerated just now. I'm sorry. I'll go wash my hands now."
She ran away in a hurry with the prop heart, apparently unable to bear the greasy feeling of ketchup. In fact, Zhong Jiudao knew that Qi Wanlian was running away to eat alone.
The photographer and Zhong Jiudao replayed the footage together to check if there were any scenes that needed to be reshot.
The photographer rubbed his arms while watching the scene: "The actors have sacrificed too much. This scene is horrifying."
Seeing that this scene was shot perfectly, Zhong Jiudao stared at the half remaining bottle of ketchup thoughtfully.
Next, a doll with its hair cut to look like a piece of rag was shot. The doll’s hairstyle was a bit similar to Pang Xinhao’s, and there was a word “Hao” written on it.
Originally, there was no scene with this doll, but because Pang Xinhao accidentally saw the camera and his face became stiff again, Qi Wanlian improvised and interpreted this scene as Pang Xinhao seeing something scary, so a more scary scene had to be re-shot for post-production switching shots.
There are many dolls in the villa, probably because the original owner had children. However, when they moved, they left all the dolls in the villa, and they must have been frightened by many dolls.
Zhong Jiudao picked out a doll with black hair and cut it into Pang Xinhao's hairstyle, creating a horror doll prop for reshoots.
Everything is so exquisite and economical.
After a busy day, everyone except Luo Huai looked unhappy at dinner that night.
Aunt Yang secretly made a bottle of spicy and fragrant chili sauce, which everyone praised. Qian Duoqun even said that with this bottle of chili sauce, he could finally gain some weight.
Unexpectedly, during dinner, no one except Luo Huai touched the bottle of chili sauce, and the two girls only drank the soup.
During the meal, Zhong Jiudao said: "In the future, actors who play ghosts in the crew are not allowed to say that they are ghosts to scare people in their daily interactions. Everyone has adapted to the role, and if they adapt further, it will affect the psychological state of other actors."
The four human actors raised ten hands in agreement, and the extra two hands belonged to Qian Duoqun.
Qian Duoqun has had enough. Others may still treat all this as a performance, but he knows that these actors are ghosts. These scenes can scare him to death!
"I will inform the actors who are not present today in the evening," said Zhong Jiudao.
We need to educate these ghosts and stop them from always saying things like “I was this and that when I was alive” or “I died so miserably”. Is this something worth comparing and showing off? These are all the dregs of feudal society and must be changed!
After dinner, everyone went back to their room to rest. The two girls locked the door directly. No one dared to open the door unless it was Director Zhong. Pang Xinhao obediently went to Zhong Jiudao's room.
"Come and see your performance today." Zhong Jiudao played the footage shot during the day to Pang Xinhao.
"No..." Pang Xinhao was obviously resisting, "It's too scary. I don't want to watch it again."
"Do you find it scary or are you unable to face your own acting skills and face?" Zhong Jiudao asked.
Pang Xinhao's eyes froze instantly and he did not answer.
Zhong Jiu said: "How long has it been since you watched the drama you filmed?"
Pang Xinhao avoided Zhong Jiudao's scrutinizing gaze. He hadn't seen himself in the camera for several years.
Zhong Jiu said: "Instead of watching your performance in movies and TV series, you go online to read comments and get angry every day looking at the emoticons made by netizens?"
These words finally pried open Pang Xinhao's mouth: "Director, did you install a camera in my house? How do you know everything?"
"No, I've seen too many people like you. They know they are doing something wrong, but instead of facing the problem, they try to cover it up in more ways."
When I was following my parents to be a Taoist priest, many clients who felt guilty towards ghosts would initially refuse to tell the truth about their grudges against the ghosts. Instead, they would spend money to force the Taoist priest to perform rituals to beat the ghosts to death and put all the blame on the ghosts. They would not tell the truth until they were forced to a certain extent.
Pang Xinhao’s situation is different from these people, but his mental state is the same.
Zhong Jiudao couldn't see through people's hearts, but he was so gifted that he could see through the state of souls, whether they were fearful or escaping. No matter whether they were dead souls or living souls, they could not escape his eyes.
"Watch the video. You have to take the first step." Zhong Jiudao said.
Pang Xinhao couldn't resist and had to watch his own performance. When he saw himself stiffening in front of the camera in the first scene, he showed a look of disgust and it was obvious that he hated filming himself.
However, as the plot deepened, Pang Xinhao saw that under the guidance of Qi Wanlian, he gradually showed vivid and natural expressions, and his disgust gradually faded, and he was a little surprised.
It was obvious that he didn't deliberately strike a cool angle or expression in front of the camera, but he was frightened to death in a useless way, but it was unexpectedly pleasing to the eye.
The frightened expression is definitely not good-looking, but it is very natural. Comparing it with the previous expressions, one is a stiff doll, and the other is a human.
Zhong Jiudao pressed the pause button, and the screen stopped at the shot of Pang Xinhao's distorted face, which was so ugly that it could be used as an emoticon. Pang Xinhao was suddenly in great pain.
"Still images are different from dynamic images. Dynamic images are more about the continuity of movements and expressions. Even if the performance is the most perfect and the acting skills are at the level of the best actor or actress, the face will still look ugly when the static image is taken from the dynamic image." Zhong Jiudao said, "As long as you are famous, you will face rumors. Even if you do well, there will be people who find fault. Among a thousand compliments, you only care about one criticism. Aren't you making it too difficult for yourself?"
Pang Xinhao looked thoughtful.
“Don’t be afraid of having a bad expression. If there is a problem, the director will help you adjust and correct it. Also, don’t be afraid of the camera. People’s appearance is constantly changing as they age. The camera can capture you at every time period, whether it is good or bad. When you look back after more than ten years, they will be precious memories.” Zhong Jiudao advised.
"But... I'm afraid of the camera..." Pang Xinhao finally spoke out his true feelings.
"Don't worry about that," Zhong Jiudao said confidently, "Your co-star will help you forget about the camera. Just desensitize yourself slowly."
Pang Xinhao: “…”
That's true, let alone the camera, he almost forgot that he was still alive.
"Oh, by the way, have you been seeing hallucinations or sleepwalking recently? Don't worry too much, it's caused by too much stress. This may happen again in the future. It will be fine after the filming is over and the stress is reduced." Zhong Jiudao hinted, "You can also take some vitamins to improve your immunity, and you will be fine."
Don't take drugs for treating mental illness randomly, or you may actually make yourself sick.
"Okay." Pang Xinhao nodded.
After a deep conversation with Director Zhong, Pang Xinhao felt as if he had been reborn. He was full of hope for future filming and returned to his room happily.
After he left, Zhong Jiudao picked up the half bottle of ketchup on the table. He thought that this prop could be used to shoot a short video or something.