Keep an Eye On

Yang Chu did not agree immediately. Instead, he walked through the positions Jia Le had just pointed out to get a feel for the space. Only after he felt confident did he nod. "I have no problem with that."

"OK! Then go change your clothes first. You're about the same height as Wu Zai. This film has a lot of action, and being his stunt double pays well. Wardrobe, get this Chu Zai into the lead actor's outfit. Also, his hair is too short—find a wig so it doesn't look out of place."

Seeing that Yang Chu was on board, Jia Le shouted to someone standing nearby. As if remembering something, he added, "Oh, right, Chu Zai, the camera will be on the right. When you leap into the office, try to keep your back to this side, and after you land, do a turn-and-wave motion."

Before long, Yang Chu emerged from a small room dressed in the costume, complete with a wig on his head.

Aside from being slightly thinner, making the clothes fit a bit loosely, he looked almost identical to the lead actor, Wu Zai, from the back.

"Positions!"

"No Face Given, Scene 3, Take 4."

"Action!"

Bang—

In the slightly chaotic public office area of the set, a gunshot suddenly rang out from a private office to the side.

Hearing the sound, the many police officers in the public area swarmed toward the window outside the office where the shot had originated.

Yang Chu stood on a high platform behind the burly, stout middle-aged man known as Big Brother. As soon as the clapperboard snapped, he immediately stepped onto the stout man's shoulders.

The stout middle-aged man was clearly a veteran of the screen; as Yang Chu stepped down, he reacted with a look of surprise and braced for the impact. Yang Chu then stepped onto a desk and executed a side-turning, diagonal kick.

Crash! The office glass shattered. Yang Chu kicked through the window, taking the blinds with him as he flew out. He landed steadily with a spectacular turn, arms spread, knees barely bent.

"Cut—"

Outside the public office area, the assistant director in charge of the scene shouted for a stop.

"Good."

After hearing the cut, the stout middle-aged man who had taken the brunt of Yang Chu's kick stood in front of the window, flexed his shoulders slightly, and his eyes lit up as he cheered.

"Perfect!"

"That was impressive."

The several stuntmen who had been watching from the sidelines also chimed in with praise.

They were all professional stuntmen; they knew talent when they saw it.

The move looked simple, and many people on set could do it easily, but for this film, it was the lead actor's grand entrance—it was meant to showcase his agility.

The key, therefore, was whether the move could be performed in one fluid, beautiful motion.

"We can do a slow-motion close-up for that."

The stout middle-aged man smiled and said to the executive director of the scene.

Seeing Yang Chu walk out of the private office, he stepped forward and patted Yang Chu on the shoulder. "Of all the people I've seen, including my own martial brothers and those stuntmen, few can do it better than you. Jia Le is the best we've got, but even he might struggle to make that move look this good, right, Jia Le?"

At the end, he turned to ask the martial arts director, Jia Le.

This remark caused the surrounding staff and stuntmen to turn and look at Yang Chu, with several glances darting toward Jia Le.

It was clearly a very high compliment.

Jia Le's face fell, and he looked at the stout middle-aged man with a wronged expression. "Big Brother, does that mean I have to give up my title as the 'Treasure of the Troupe' to Chu Zai?"

"Hahaha..."

The people on set burst into laughter, with no signs of hostility or jealousy.

In the world of stunt work, the strong are always respected. If someone can pull off a move you can't, or do it better than you, you don't even have the right to sit in their presence.

If they walk up to you, you're expected to give up your seat.

"Alright, next scene."

After a brief moment of levity, filming continued.

Wu Zai, who had been waiting on the side, walked into the private office and, following the final pose Yang Chu had just set, began filming his close-ups.

Yang Chu walked off the set. Fish Head Xu appeared from nowhere and sidled up to him, his face full of excitement. "Chu Zai, that was great! With skills like that, you'll never have to worry about food money, no matter how much you eat."

A faint smile appeared on Yang Chu's face, his expression remaining calm.

He didn't take the praise from the others to heart.

Given his current level of control over his body, completing such a move wasn't difficult, and he could make it look standard and polished.

However, if he wanted to go further and perform moves that required significant raw power, his current physical hardware was still lacking.

But Yang Chu wasn't in a rush. As long as he kept up with his caloric and nutritional intake, he believed this body would soon become strong—perhaps even far exceeding that of an average person.

The following scenes were office dramas involving the lead actor Wu Zai and Brother Le. Filming was stop-and-go; it wasn't exactly smooth, but it wasn't slow either.

Yang Chu stood on the edge of the set and observed. It was his first time seeing how a movie was made up close. Unlike the finished film, where a scene looks like one continuous flow, the actual filming involved repeating things many times.

Sometimes it was an actor breaking character and laughing, sometimes a prop was misplaced, sometimes the lighting wasn't right, or someone walked out of frame or flubbed their lines. In short, what you saw on screen was completely different from what happened on set.

From this, Yang Chu understood why his stunt had drawn such praise.

Executing a complex, beautiful move in a single take was far more difficult than these dialogue-heavy scenes.

Not to mention anything else, the props alone were difficult to reset.

If an action sequence can be filmed in a single take, it really saves a lot of trouble.

By around four-thirty in the afternoon, the dialogue scenes in the office were finally finished, and with nothing else left to shoot for the day, the crew began to pack up.

"Chu-zai."

Shortly after wrapping, while Yang Chu was still standing on the edge of the set waiting for Fish Head Xu, the director—that burly, middle-aged man—walked over with the stunt coordinator, Jia Le.

"I really liked the move you did today. Good work."

The burly, middle-aged man said with a smile, then gestured to Jia Le, who was standing beside him.

Jia Le understood immediately, pulling a few Hong Kong dollar bills from the waist pouch he carried and handing them to the burly, middle-aged man.

The burly, middle-aged man glanced at the bills in his hand, raised an eyebrow slightly, and reached back into Jia Le's pouch to pull out two more—all five-hundred and one-thousand dollar notes—before shoving them into Yang Chu's hand. "Fish Head Xu said you needed money for food. I'll count your pay for today as three thousand, so get here early tomorrow to start work."

Yang Chu had bought quite a few things over the past few days and had a rough idea of the cost of living; most people's monthly income was only between eight thousand and fifteen thousand. For him to make three thousand in what was, strictly speaking, less than half a day's work for a single stunt, was quite a lot.

"Master, Ah Sha is here. He says you're starting a new film and he wants to come show his support."

Just then, a tall, burly young man walked over to the burly, middle-aged man's side.

"What is he coming here for? Does he want another cameo role? Is this a triad or a bunch of drama addicts!" The burly, middle-aged man cursed under his breath, his expression showing clear annoyance mixed with a hint of helplessness.

He said one more thing to Yang Chu, "I've got my eye on you, keep it up," before leaving with Jia Le and the tall, burly youth.

Not long after they left, Fish Head Xu, seemingly finished with his business on set, came over to Yang Chu and asked excitedly, "Chu-zai, did you get paid?"

Yang Chu didn't hide anything and said directly, "Three thousand."

"Not bad."

Fish Head Xu chuckled, seemingly satisfied with the number, and wiggled his arched eyebrows at Yang Chu. "Didn't I tell you? With your skills, being a stuntman is perfect. It's a bit dangerous, but the pay is high. You wouldn't know, but prices have gone up. Ten years ago, making a month's worth of someone else's salary in a single day would have been a piece of cake, but now, the pay hasn't really kept up."

"Trading your life for money."

Yang Chu now had a concept of what a stuntman was; he knew this line of work was about risking your life, so the pay was naturally decent.

"Alright, don't be like I was when I was young and treat your money like overnight tea," Fish Head Xu cautioned him.

"Overnight tea?" Yang Chu didn't quite understand the expression.

"Overnight tea, it gets poured out after one night. Money hits your pocket, and it's all spent by the next morning."

Fish Head Xu explained, then waved his hand. "Forget it, never mind that. With an appetite as big as yours, the money you make is probably just enough to feed you. Let's go, it's still early, I'll take you to visit my big boss on his set."