Yang Chu didn't agree right away. Instead, he followed the positions Jia Le had pointed out, walking through them one by one. Once he had a rough idea of what to do, he nodded. "No problem."
"OK! Go get changed first. You and Wu Zai are about the same height. This movie has a lot of action, so the pay for doubling him won't be bad. Wardrobe, get Chu-zai into the lead actor's clothes. And Chu-zai's hair is too short, so remember to find him a wig. We don't want the audience to see through it."
Seeing that Yang Chu had no problem with it, Jia Le called out to someone standing outside the group. Then, as if he'd just remembered something, he added, "By the way, Chu-zai, the camera's going to be on the right. When you fly into the office, try to have your back facing this way. After you land, turn around and swing your arm."
Before long, Yang Chu came out of a small room in costume, wearing a wig.
He was a little thinner and the clothes didn't fit quite as well, but from behind, he looked much like the lead actor, a man called Wu Zai.
"Places!"
"No Face Given, scene three, shot four."
"Action!"
Bang—
In the slightly chaotic shared office space on set, a gunshot suddenly rang out from one of the individual offices.
At the sound, the many officers in the common area surged toward the window outside the office where the shot had come from.
Yang Chu stood on a platform behind the burly, middle-aged, plump man they'd called Big Brother. As soon as the clapperboard came down, he planted a foot on the man's shoulder.
The burly, middle-aged man had clearly been in plenty of films. The moment Yang Chu's foot came down, he reacted with surprise and a sudden jolt from the impact. Yang Chu then stepped onto a desk, turned sideways, and kicked diagonally.
With a crash, the office window shattered. Yang Chu kicked through it along with the blinds blocking the window, then landed smoothly in a dazzling turn, arms spread wide, his knees barely bending.
"Cut—"
Outside the shared office space, the assistant director in charge of the scene called out for them to stop.
"Good."
After hearing "Cut," the burly, middle-aged man who had taken Yang Chu's kick in front of the window rolled his shoulder, his eyes shining as he praised the performance.
"Perfect!"
"That was amazing."
The few stuntmen watching nearby also started praising him.
They were all stuntmen themselves, and could tell at a glance whether someone had real skill.
The move looked simple, and plenty of people on set could do it easily. But in this film, it was the lead's first appearance, and it had to show off his sharp skills.
The key was whether the move could be done smoothly in one go, and look impressive.
"We could even do a slow-motion close-up," the burly, middle-aged man said with a smile to the executive director of the scene.
When he saw Yang Chu emerge from the small office, he went up and patted him on the shoulder. "Of all the people I've seen, including my fellow students and those stuntmen, there aren't many who could do that better than you. Jia Le's the best we've got right now, but even he'd probably have a hard time making that move look quite so good. Right, Jia Le?"
At the end, he turned to ask Jia Le, the martial arts instructor standing nearby.
His words drew the attention of the staff and stuntmen gathered around. They all turned to look at Yang Chu, while a few glanced at Jia Le, the martial arts instructor.
It was clearly high praise.
Jia Le's face fell. He suddenly looked at the burly, middle-aged man with an aggrieved expression. "Big Brother, does that mean I have to hand over my title as the best in the business to Chu-zai?"
"Hahaha..."
Everyone burst out laughing. No one looked hostile or jealous.
In the stunt world, strength had always been what mattered. If someone else could pull off a move that you couldn't—or do it better than you—then you didn't even have the right to sit in front of them.
If they came over, you had to give up your seat.
"Okay, next scene."
After a brief round of laughter, filming continued.
Wu Zai, who had been waiting nearby, went into the small office and began filming his close-ups, picking up from the final move Yang Chu had just made.
Yang Chu walked off set. Fish Head Xu appeared from who knew where and hurried over, his face full of excitement. "Chu-zai, nice one! With skills like yours, you'll never have to worry about putting food on the table, no matter how much you eat."
Yang Chu gave a faint smile, his expression still calm.
He didn't take the praise to heart.
With the degree of control he now had over his body, that move wasn't difficult to pull off, and he could make it look clean and precise.
But if he wanted to go further and do moves that required more strength, his body still wasn't up to the task.
Yang Chu wasn't in a hurry, though. As long as he got enough calories and nutrition, he believed his body would soon grow stronger—stronger than the average person by a wide margin.
The next few scenes were all office dramas featuring Wu Zai, whom Yang Chu was doubling for, and Brother Le. Filming stopped and started. It wasn't especially smooth, but it wasn't too slow, either.
Yang Chu watched from the side of the set. It was his first time seeing a film shoot up close. Unlike in a movie, where a scene seemed to flow seamlessly, filming often meant repeating the same thing over and over.
Sometimes an actor cracked up. Sometimes a prop was in the wrong place, or the lighting wasn't right. Sometimes someone stepped out of frame or got a line wrong. In short, what ended up on screen was completely different from what happened during filming.
From this, Yang Chu could more or less understand why his stunt had earned such praise.
Pulling off a complicated, impressive move in a single take was much harder than shooting these office scenes.
For one thing, just resetting the props was a hassle.
If they could get an action scene in one take, it saved them a lot of trouble.
It was around four-thirty in the afternoon when they finally finished shooting the office scenes. The crew had nothing else scheduled, so they officially wrapped for the day.
"Chu-zai."
Not long after the wrap, Yang Chu was still waiting outside the set for Fish Head Xu when the director—the burly, middle-aged man—and Jia Le, the martial arts instructor, came over together.
"I really liked the move you did today. Thanks for your hard work," the burly, middle-aged man said with a smile, then gestured to Jia Le beside him.
Jia Le understood at once. He took several Hong Kong dollars from the waist pouch he carried and handed them to the burly, middle-aged man.
The burly, middle-aged man glanced at the bills, raised his brows slightly, then reached into Jia Le's pouch and pulled out two more. They were worth five hundred and a thousand each. He pressed them into Yang Chu's hand. "Fish Head Xu told me you need money for food. I'll pay you three thousand for today. Come in early tomorrow."
Yang Chu had bought quite a few things over the last few days, so he had a rough idea of prices. Most people earned somewhere between eight thousand and fifteen thousand a month. He'd worked less than half a day, strictly speaking, and done just one move, yet he'd made three thousand.
"Master, Ah Sha's here. He heard you were starting a new film and wants to come show his support."
Just then, a tall, powerfully built young man walked over to the burly, middle-aged man from across the set.
"What's he here for? Wants another cameo? Is he a gangster or some kind of movie fanatic?" The burly, middle-aged man muttered a curse under his breath. He looked rather displeased, though there was a trace of helplessness in his expression.
He turned to Yang Chu and said, "I've got high hopes for you. Keep it up," then left with Jia Le and the tall, muscular young man.
Not long after they left, Fish Head Xu seemed to have nothing else to do on set, either. He came over to Yang Chu and asked eagerly, "Chu-zai, did you get paid?"
Yang Chu didn't hide it at all. "Three thousand."
"Not bad."
Fish Head Xu chuckled, apparently satisfied with the amount. He raised his angled brows at Yang Chu. "Told you, with skills like yours, you're made for stunt work. It's a bit dangerous, but the pay's good. You have no idea—prices have gone up. More than ten years ago, you could make a month's wages in a day without breaking a sweat. These days, pay hasn't really gone up at all."
"You're risking your life for money."
Yang Chu now had a better understanding of stunt work. He knew that people in the business risked their lives, so naturally they were paid well.
"Right, don't be like I was when I was young and spend everything before the night's over," Fish Head Xu advised him.
"Spend everything before the night's over?" Yang Chu didn't quite understand what he meant.
"Money that lasts just one night is like overnight tea—you pour it out in the morning. You get paid, and it's all gone by the next night."
Fish Head Xu explained, then waved a hand. "Forget it, let's not talk about that. With an appetite as big as yours, you'll probably spend everything you earn on food anyway. Come on, it's still early. I'll take you to visit my actual big brother at work."
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