RAD Chapter 86

A month later, Luo Xiao brought all the personnel involved in the filming of this movie to his alma mater, where they would shoot the campus scenes of “Passion and Confusion”. Thanks to the strong support of the old teachers like Old Wei, he didn’t have to go out and look for extras. The students from the acting department volunteered to be background actors or to take on some minor roles, treating it as a chance for early social practice.

Luo Xiao sat behind the camera and nodded at the script supervisor on the side. With the clapperboard sound, the first scene of the first episode of “Passion and Confusion” officially began filming.

“Oh, I’m sorry, are you okay?” As a mountain boy from the deep mountains of Sichuan, this was Tong Mu’s first time coming to the outside city, the capital city or the B City of the country, with its towering skyscrapers, bustling streets, heavy traffic, and rich historical and cultural heritage. Everything was so captivating to this country boy. From the moment he stepped into the city, he was determined to make achievements here and to take root and grow. Just as he walked into the prestigious university he would study at for the next four years, he was busy looking around and accidentally bumped into someone.

“No, I’m fine.” Qiu Jiajia picked up the books that had fallen to the ground, and looked up at Tong Mu with a gentle smile. “Classmate, you should be more careful walking, or you might fall if you keep looking around without watching your step!”

“…Ah, thank you for the reminder.” Tong Mu’s ears reddened silent as he thanked her gently, then watched Qiu Jiajia’s retreating figure until she disappeared. He then lowered his head and felt his rapidly beating heart. What was going on?

“Cut!” Luo Xiao called out and then nodded at the actors playing Tong Mu and Qiu Jiajia, Yu Jia and Li Jingmin. “That scene just now was good, maintain that state and let’s move on to the next scene.”

“The second scene of the first episode of Passion and Confusion, start!”

Over the next day, since the content did not require much acting difficulty, the filming wrapped up earlier than expected. Back home, Luo Xiao watched the recorded footage that was constantly replaying in the camera. He couldn’t help but stroke his chin and narrowed his eyes at a familiar figure, muttering to himself: “Can’t deny, that little bastard Yu Jia’s acting is pretty good. He does have an advantage over the other actors. But come to think of it, his excellent acting skills must be from his mother’s guidance, right?”

In fact, Luo Xiao’s guess was not wrong. With such a role model as his mother, how could he not have learned a thing or two? And during his college years, whenever he had free time, he went out to work to earn money. He had seen all kinds of people. In order to get more wages, he put a lot of thought into observing people and dealing with them in different ways accordingly. Not to mention this method even made him the favorite of the company bosses he applied to.

But even so, the wages those bosses gave were not high, which was really just a drop in the bucket for someone like him who urgently needed money.

“How is it, is the first day of filming going smoothly?” Ye Lan returned home and hung the coat he was wearing on a clothes rack. Then he came over with skillful movements and sat down next to Luo Xiao, putting his arm around his shoulder. After a hot kiss, he curiously looked at the video content still playing. “Hmm? Is this the male lead? I seem to remember that the original script file you had mentioned the appearance and physique of the male lead, and that seems a bit different from the current one.”

Luo Xiao nodded, “That’s right, according to my original vision, he actually doesn’t fit the original setting. But there’s no help for it, he was the one with the best acting skills in the role competition at the time, so I and the others all agreed to choose him. Anyway, the male lead in my script had mentioned that he was actually an adopted child, and his real birth parents were someone else. It’s precisely because of this that it makes sense that he doesn’t look like a mountain man.”

“That’s true.” Ye Lan stared intently at the character in the camera. The more he looked, the more familiar he felt. He turned his head and asked puzzledly, “Xiao Xiao, why do I feel like he looks a bit like you?”

“Well, he’s my uncle’s son.” Luo Xiao casually dropped the bombshell.

Ye Lan immediately widened his eyes, “What, he’s your brother?”

“Although I really don’t want to have any blood relationship with this guy, but there’s no help for it. The facts are there.” Luo Xiao shrugged, “But don’t worry, he doesn’t know I’m related to him. Otherwise, this guy would definitely try every means to cling to me, like a super sticky gum that you can’t get rid of!”

“If that’s the case, do you need me to…” Ye Lan darkened his eyes and spoke softly.

Luo Xiao waved his hand, “It’s fine, I’ll handle this. By the way, how’s the construction of your building going?”

“Well, the progress is pretty good. I think it can be completed before your movie shooting is finished. This way, we can use your movie to make it popular again.” Ye Lan patted his head, “Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh right, Yezi.” Luo Xiao turned his head and looked at him seriously, “Make sure the quality is guaranteed!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got He Ben supervising it there! After all, this is our first real estate project, the quality must be strictly controlled. There can’t be any cutting corners.”

“Well, that’s good.” Luo Xiao turned his head back and continued watching the video with piece of mind.

Ye Lan smiled and kept him company, patiently watching the video over and over again.

The next day, Luo Xiao continued with the shooting. Although this time, none of the participating actors were people he knew, but undeniably their acting skills were not inferior to the previous group of actors who had acted this film. Although there were occasional stops for retakes, the overall filming speed was still acceptable. At this rate, they could wrap up within the originally estimated time.

But this world has the word “accident”. Just a month before they were about to wrap up, the actress playing the female lead, Li Jingmin, met with a car accident on her way home and eventually died due to severe injuries.

When Luo Xiao received this news, he was greatly surprised. Clearly, she was still fine when they just parted ways after the filming. He didn’t expect that things would change so quickly. Because of this, he specifically gave the crew a three-day holiday. One day to have time to see her one last time, and two days to relax and calm down.

On the day of returning to work, although no one said anything, the atmosphere in the crew was obviously not as good as before. Luo Xiao knew that this was difficult for everyone, but the filming had to continue. For this reason, he specifically modified the script and arranged for the female lead Qiu Jiajia to also die in a car accident. For this scene, Luo Xiao found a female extra with a similar figure to Li Jingmin to stand in, using techniques to avoid shooting her face directly. Although a stand-in was used, the final effect turned out to be good.

Soon, the time came for the last scene of the film, which could be considered the most important part of the entire play.

In the end, after losing his lover, Tong Mu focused all his energy on starting a business. In the process, he experienced the betrayal of his best friend, the warm help of strangers, and the company’s bankruptcy and confiscation of all the assets. But in the end, he relied on his unyielding spirit and not fearing difficulties and successfully stood up again.

Luo Xiao watched Yu Jia’s performance. He didn’t miss the fleeting glimpse of crazed and intense look in his eyes, as well as the trace of joy after achieving revenge. He couldn’t help but frown and directly called for a pause. He then beckoned to Yu Jia, “Yu Jia, what’s wrong with your state today? Although you have gone through great hardship to achieve success, you should not forget that your personality will not allow you to have a crazed expression.”

“I’m sorry, Director Luo, please give me one more chance.” Yu Jia said respectfully while bowing.

Luo Xiao looked at him indifferently, “But this is the ninth time you’ve been called to stop. What, do you still want to be called to stop one more time to make it a perfect ten?”

A trace of viciousness flashed quickly in Yu Jia’s downcast eyes. From the beginning of the filming until now, he was not an idiot and could clearly feel Director Luo’s dislike, even hatred, towards him. But why? They had never even met before.

“I’m sorry, Director, please give me one more chance, a final chance, please.” Yu Jia pleaded with his hands clasped, looking at Luo Xiao with a wronged expression.

Luo Xiao looked at the familiar expression on his face, and his heart was already devoid of any feelings. He even couldn’t understand how he was once fooled by this little bitch’s acting skills. And obviously his acting skills were now much better than before. But being stared at by those eyes really gaves people the creeps.

“Forget it, let’s shoot after meal.” Luo Xiao waved his hand impatiently. He was afraid that if he didn’t dismiss Yu Jia, he would vomit the food he ate yesterday because of Yu Jia’s hypocritical and disgusting expression.

Yu Jia did not miss the undisguised expression on Luo Xiao’s face. Although he didn’t show it, he had already developed a deep hatred. Someday, he would make this so-called Director Luo pay a heavy price!