The reshoots finally ended, and Bai Cha's character finally bowed out.
Like He Li, he had not left the production, and none of the other actors seemed to notice this oddity.
Ever since the conflict between Bai Cha and An Ya had erupted in public, the actors had kept silent about it, forming three clearly divided camps.
The first consisted of everyone who had witnessed that scene between Bai Cha and An Ya: Yu Xiaohe, Meng Tian, He Li, and Bai Cha himself.
The second consisted of Gong Yao and Tao Lele, who never took sides and whom everyone competed to please.
An Ya, meanwhile, was completely isolated.
From the very first day she had been parachuted into the cast, the others had deliberately or otherwise distanced themselves from her. Now it was simply more obvious. An Ya scoffed at it.
Even Tao Lele, who had no quarrel with anyone else, disliked her, because the investor backing her was Tao Lele's father.
Only Gong Yao still treated everyone equally. If An Ya approached him, he would exchange a few pleasant words with her, the picture of a gentleman.
-and that was the only thing An Ya cared about.
The only value this film held for her was the chance to work with the award-winning actor Gong Yao-and Gong Yao himself.
Another day passed, and the production moved on to the next scene.
This scene was filmed by two units. The first featured Gong Yao and Yu Xiaohe.
After a series of unfortunate incidents, the male lead played by Gong Yao grew increasingly depressed and frequently saw the Female Ghost, played by Yu Xiaohe, in his home.
Finally, on a night of torrential rain, he could no longer endure the torment. He left home alone and rushed out into the downpour.
What followed, naturally, was a series of harrowing accidents.
Meanwhile, the male lead's girlfriend, played by An Ya, came looking for him. She found no sign of him, but encountered a furtive figure instead.
Instinctively, she followed the figure into the light, only to discover that it was Tao Lele, who had vanished after the incident at the Castle all those years ago!
Tao Lele fled into a large supermarket that had closed for the day and was taking inventory.
An Ya chased after Tao Lele.
The supermarket's dim, cold white lights flickered as An Ya cautiously walked between the shelves.
Above her head, a jar of cherries quietly slipped out of place...
"Ring, ring..." A phone abruptly rang.
An Ya stopped short. At that very moment, the jar of cherries fell-
Crash!
"Ah!"
An Ya screamed as bright red juice and shards of glass splashed onto her face...
"Cut!"
The director called a halt, satisfied.
Above the shelves, a white-haired head poked out from the gap where a jar of jam had been.
The director gave him a thumbs-up. "Good work, Li! Your timing was perfect!"
An Ya patted her chest in reproach. "You scared me to death..."
"It's fine. These are all specially made Sugar Glass props. Even if one actually hit you, you'd be fine," the props master loudly reassured her from the side.
"Hm?" Li Qing leaned farther forward to look at the props master, a hint of confusion on his face. "Sugar Glass?"
The props master said, "Oh, what's wrong? Sugar Glass is..."
Li Qing shook his head. Talking like this was far too inconvenient, so he pulled back and began climbing down the ladder.
Just then, he suddenly felt the footing beneath him shift!
The next instant, the screw between two of the ladder's legs snapped and shot out. The person-high ladder came crashing down!
Crash- Glass shattered with a deafening sound as the shelves toppled.
Li Qing lay amid crimson jam and glass shards scattered across the floor, bright red liquid seeping out from beneath his body.
The entire set fell silent for a moment, then instantly erupted into panic.
"Li!"
"Oh my God, there's so much blood! Is he dead?"
The props master hurried over and stared at the motionless figure lying facedown in the glass.
After a long moment, Li Qing raised a hand. "N... not dead. It's juice."
As an Administrator, how could he possibly let himself die in such a stupid way?
The fragile Administrator had merely twisted his ankle by accident. That was all.
When Gong Yao rushed onto the second unit's set, Li Qing was sitting obediently on a stool while another crew member applied iodine antiseptic to the cuts on his hand.
Li Qing's white hoodie was soaked red. The sight made Gong Yao suck in a breath.
Li Qing himself looked perfectly normal, with no sign of any serious injury... only the corners of his mouth drooped a little more than usual. He was visibly unhappy.
Looking at the mess covering the floor, Gong Yao asked, "What happened?"
The props master stammered, "The jars, the jars..."
Li Qing looked up at them and calmly finished for him. "These jars were supposed to be glass props, but now they're all real."
He held up his palm, revealing several cuts from the glass.
Gong Yao drew a sharp breath and hurried over, taking his hand to inspect the wounds.
An Ya stood to one side with her arms folded, staring coldly at the props master. "Explain exactly what happened here. I thought the sound was wrong when that jar fell!"
The props master said, "I really don't know! We checked over and over this morning to make sure everything had been replaced with our own props..."
"You don't know? Then I'm calling the police! This is murder! Someone's trying to kill me!" An Ya was furious.
Director Li said, "Well, there's no need to call the police, is there? It'll affect our filming schedule. Look, nothing really happened. Li just got a little hurt..."
"Fine. Call the police." The voice was firm and decisive. It was Gong Yao.
Once Gong Yao had spoken, no one felt they could object.
A police car arrived in the middle of the night. Within an hour, the culprit had been identified from the surveillance footage.
He Li was brought onto the set.
"It was you... you secretly switched out the prop jars!"
He Li looked like an entirely different person from when they had first met him.
His cheeks were gaunt, his eyes ringed with dark shadows, and his face covered in stubble. Staring fixedly at An Ya, he admitted his crime outright.
"That's right. It was me. Too bad you dodged it. Tch."
An Ya demanded, "He Li, we've never had anything to do with each other! Why would you try to hurt me?"
He Li snarled, "If it weren't for you, Miss Meng wouldn't have had the female lead stolen from her! Do you know how hard she worked for that role?"
An Ya said, "Oh, so that bitch Meng Tian put you up to it! Officers, hurry up and arrest Meng Tian too!"
The officer said, "...Sorry, we have no evidence. We can't just arrest people."
The police took He Li away, still swearing and cursing.
No one had expected an actor from The King of Hell Is Here to land in jail before filming had even wrapped.
Li Qing stared at the footage of the police car in He Li's livestream and the barrage of comments that all read [...], looking a little dazed himself.
Gong Yao waved a hand in front of his eyes. "The culprit who hurt you is behind bars. What are you spacing out for?"
"..." Li Qing slowly shook his head. "I just didn't expect... the plot to take such a scientifically sound turn."
This time, it was the viewers in Gong Yao's livestream who flooded the comments with ellipses.
"All right, let's head back." Gong Yao plucked a bit of cherry pulp from the ends of Li Qing's hair, his tone considerably lighter.
"They finally caught the troublemaker. Hopefully the rest of filming will go smoothly."
"Did they catch them...?" Li Qing repeated softly.
Gong Yao turned his head. "...Hm?"
Li Qing lifted his eyes to the ladder lying broken in two amid the wreckage.
"Those glass jars weren't what made me fall. The jars were only meant for An Ya."
-the ladder with the broken screw was what had been meant for him.
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