Free Web NovelChapter 201: Chapter 170: Calculation_2
When this was said, Director Ding’s face turned ugly. He hurriedly mentioned she had something to do and quickly moved past the subject.
Song Yan wanted to ask more, but was stopped by a crew member beside him, "Hey, don’t ask anymore, Pei Qiuyu is in trouble."
"In trouble?"
"Exactly, nobody knows what happened, but she was taken away by the police. Liu from our crew went too, and he hasn’t returned after such a long time." The crew member sighed and looked worriedly out of the window, apparently concerned about also being taken away for questioning.
After the meeting, Yang Xiao was invited to the props room, which had been a classroom before the crew temporarily took it over. Various props boxes of all sizes and photography equipment were laid out inside, and along the wall was a large coat rack with all kinds of costumes potentially needed for filming, with several red school uniforms on the outside particularly eye-catching.
As his gaze swept over, Yang Xiao also spotted a touch of white. It was a full set of beige suits, presumably prepared for the actor playing a male teacher.
"Chu Xi, come over here!" Director Ding waved at him from the last row of the classroom, with Xia Xiuyan also present.
Director Ding held several pages of script in his hands, with a megaphone upside down on the table, "Both of you pay attention, tonight’s shooting is very important. The general content is this: Chu Xi, you will be chasing Xia Xiuyan. The location will be the small hill behind the school, here’s a map of the hillside."
Director Ding pulled out two pages and handed them to Yang Xiao and Xia Xiuyan, the lead actors. When Yang Xiao took his, he saw that it was a map that couldn’t be more simplistic, marked with several large red dots, with numbers 1 to 7 labeled underneath.
"Look, you can see several spots marked here, from 1 to 7, with routes connected between them. These are also the places you must pass through. We have already scouted the area on-site, and marked the corresponding positions on the map with signs, posted at conspicuous locations with number plates, making them very easy to find," explained the director.
"You are both experienced actors. Besides following the specified route, we won’t set other limits, so you will be given plenty of space for improvisation," he added.
"Oh, and to prevent missing any spots, the crew decides that every time you reach a location, you need to find the number plate and take it with you to proceed to the next spot," he continued.
"After the shooting, you have to come back with all the number plates. Have you got it?" Director Ding’s attitude suddenly became firm.
"Understood," the two answered simultaneously. The difficulty of the scene wasn’t small: a chase through the rainy night and finding all the numbered plates and bringing them back.
"Alright, go get your props," Director Ding exhaled a sigh of relief as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
Xia Xiuyan’s props were simple: a woolen coat with a sense of the times and an old-fashioned long-barrel flashlight. Besides a flashlight and a plaid jacket, Yang Xiao also had a black ox-head mask with a pattern on it.
The mask was made of plastic, very cheap-looking, the kind that only children would buy.
The last prop was a kitchen knife with a wooden handle. The knife wasn’t sharp and even had mottled rust on its surface. Weighing it in hand, it felt substantial.
A cheap ox-head mask, a kitchen knife with rust stains, a rainy night, a desolate hill—the mere thought of such a scene overwhelmed Yang Xiao with a suffocating feeling.
Fortunately, he wasn’t the one being chased.
At dusk, Pei Qiuyu was still nowhere to be seen, leaving Lu Ji and Yu Mi to keep watch while Yang Xiao and Song Yan secretly found Principal Wu.
After inquiring, Principal Wu also confirmed that someone from the crew had been taken away today, and a few teachers were invited back for questioning as well.
"Principal Wu, thank you for the arrangements today. The friend at the pharmacy reacted very quickly," Yang Xiao thanked him, shaking the principal’s hand.
"Not at all, I was just following Teacher Xu’s instructions. She came up with the idea, and I helped to make arrangements," Principal Wu brought the conversation back to business. "I heard you have a scene tonight."
"Yes, we came for that reason too; we need your help, especially from Teacher Xu Yu," Yang Xiao said earnestly. freewebnovel.cσ๓
After receiving the message, Teacher Xu Yu arrived quickly, and the four of them met like spies rendezvousing, which was fortunate since this was Principal Wu’s territory—he had arranged for several teachers to keep watch outside.
"You want me to impersonate Teacher Wang?" Teacher Xu Yu couldn’t help but feel surprised when she heard Yang Xiao’s plan.
"Yes, not only do you have to impersonate Teacher Wang, you have to do it well, convincingly, with a sense of oppression, but not too close, so the following cameraman can’t capture it on film," Yang Xiao lowered his voice, "I need to use you to break through Xia Xiuyan’s psychological defenses so that she spills all her secrets, just like you said, Teacher Wang’s death definitely isn’t so simple."
Upon hearing it was for Teacher Wang, Xu Yu agreed without any hesitation, "Okay, then I’ll do as you say. I’ll go and change my clothes; I’ll impersonate Teacher Wang tonight and work with you throughout."
"But..." Principal Wu hesitated.
"What’s wrong?" Yang Xiao sensed that the atmosphere was off, as Principal Wu seemed reluctant to ask Xu Yu for this favor.
"It’s like this, Mr. Yang, you don’t know, but I just received a message saying that Sun Shengnan has already entrusted some people to investigate Teacher Xu Yu. They... they must have found something. I’m thinking, if this gets exposed tonight, it could be..."
"Principal, don’t worry about me; I’m doing this voluntarily, and I will not implicate you," Xu Yu said bluntly.
Hearing this, Principal Wu’s brow furrowed. "What are you talking about? If I was worried about being implicated, would I be helping you? I’m not just helping you—I want to see justice for Teacher Wang, the person who I brought into this school, and in the end... in the end... "
At the mention of Teacher Wang, everyone felt uneasy. Yang Xiao used the schematic in his hand to draw two more maps—one for Xu Yu, to cooperate with him, and another for Principal Wu, just in case.
"Right, Principal Wu, could you please prepare a cell phone for me? We need to stay in contact," Yang Xiao made sure to be fully prepared.
Principal Wu stood up, walked over to his desk, opened a drawer, and took out a black cell phone, "This is my spare phone; take it. It has my number and Teacher Xu Yu’s saved in it."
"Thump thump thump."
The sound of running in the hallway outside made Yang Xiao instantly alert. If Sun Shengnan discovered the three of them together, that would be troublesome.
The next second, the door was pushed open, and a slightly balding male teacher stood at the threshold, still catching his breath. Principal Wu glared at him, "Why all the panic? Why didn’t you knock?"
"Principal, there’s news from the police station!"
Yang Xiao picked up a bottle of mineral water from the table, handed it to the man, and offered him a seat, "Come, no need to rush, sit down and talk."
"The forensic doctor found livor mortis on Nie Hexiang’s body. We can be sure she didn’t die this morning, but last night, in the night."
Yang Xiao had already guessed this news, but he kept inquiring, "Anything else?"
"Yes, there’s something off about the fake Sun Shengnan too. Her body was horribly damaged, her skull was smashed, and hardly any of her bones were intact. The forensic doctors did some experiments and found that to end up in that state, she had to have fallen from at least a 20-story height. You tell me... isn’t this just seeing ghosts?"
"I hear the police station’s all in disarray now; a few forensic doctors are huddled around the autopsy report, none of them wanting to sign it, all arguing with their superiors." fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
To Yang Xiao, this wasn’t crucial intelligence since he was already aware of the Ghost’s existence. What concerned him was something else, "Among those taken to the police station was a woman named Pei Qiuyu; what did she say?"
At this, the male teacher paused, looking puzzledly at Yang Xiao, "Some of your people were taken away, alright, but... but they were all men, no women."
