DSMC Chapter 165.1

The fourth male lead saw a white figure drifting past the window from outside, but no one else saw it. Quite a few of the NPCs around them didn’t take it seriously.

The assistant director said, “Si Hao¹his name is written 肆豪, pronounced Sì Háo. It’s close to the pronunciation for “number four”, which is 四号 Sì Hào, just keep acting like that later. We might be able to get it in one take.”

The assistant director’s mouth was truly vicious. Some of the NPCs secretly snickered. Who didn’t know that the fourth male lead had gotten into the cast through connections? With his clumsy acting skills, there was no way he could have gotten into the production crew otherwise.

The players, however, didn’t care about that. All they knew was that the plot had begun.

Yan Jiyun stayed inside the bag, not even daring to look outside. The white figure that Actor Sihao had seen was real. He had seen it himself just now.

He just hadn’t expected Teacher Qu to be so indiscriminate that he would even trigger a supernatural incident.

Today was October 1st, just as the script stated, and this also gave the players an important piece of information. Had the production crew deliberately chosen this date to begin filming? Who had chosen the date?

One of the production crew members’ assistants was quietly chatting with someone nearby. “Is that rumor about Mingya High School really true? It sounds so scary. And today is October 1st. Could something really happen?”

“I don’t know. It should just be something written in the script, right? It’s not based on a real event, so don’t scare yourself.”

“Si Hao  said just now that he saw a white figure drifting past. Did you guys see it? I think I saw a white figure too.”

“Nope. Maybe he was deliberately trying to scare us. He’s always making a fuss about something. He’ll probably post on Weibo later saying he encountered a ghost on set, and then he’ll have a trending topic.”

No one believed Si Hao had actually seen a white figure.

Yan Jiyun was currently in a state of temporarily lying low. He only listened with his ears and took no action.

Once the production crew started working, some people were responsible for production-related tasks, while others took the assistants of the various stars to the empty classrooms to set up tents. They would sleep in the classrooms at night. They would be staying here for four days and three nights, and all the scenes at Mingya High School had to be completed within those four days. Time was extremely tight.

But none of that was the main point. The main point was that the players had to find out who Teacher Qu was within four days.

Yan Jiyun listened in on the conversations around the set and found several people who seemed rather suspicious.

Finding Teacher Qu in [Mingya High School 2.0] was more difficult than finding Teacher Qu’s child personality in the [Innocence] instance. 

In [Innocence], they only needed to find the two opposing minor incarnations representing good and evil. Here, however, what they needed to find weren’t simply minor incarnations. One was Teacher Qu’s main personality, while the other was Teacher Qu’s secondary personality. They had become completely opposed to each other. Only after eliminating the secondary personality could the true main personality regain control of his body, allowing the players to leave Teacher Qu’s mental world.

Once Yan Jiyun sorted out his objective, he knew what he needed to do next.

Through [Mingya High School 2.0], he needed to find the two opposing sides, determine which one was the true main personality of Teacher Qu, and then infer who the secondary personality was.

Although it sounded simple, it was extremely difficult in practice. He had to sort through the relationships between all the characters again, and there were a great many people in the production crew.

Yan Jiyun thought he could first focus on the main cast members and the key people in charge of the production.

They were more capable of bringing all the people they needed to deal with into the production.

Who had that kind of ability?

The producer and director were both highly likely candidates. Of course, Qu Wanqiao could also be one, because he was a popular actor. The director had specifically chosen him for the traffic he would bring, while Qu Wanqiao himself could also use this to attract other actors who wanted to benefit from his fame.

Aside from the players, Yan Jiyun noticed that several of the actors were around the same age, but he still didn’t know what connection they had with one another.

He couldn’t help thinking of those students from the original [Mingya High School] who had played the pen fairy in the music building. He wondered what kind of school incident they would uncover this time.

Although his cold made him feel rather uncomfortable, Yan Jiyun still listened to the sounds around him while lying low, gathering information through the conversations between the NPCs.

There were seven particularly important leading actors. The actress playing Si Hao’s girlfriend and another lackey weren’t counted among them.

Aside from Qi Feng, there were seven others.

The first female lead, Su Xiran, acted opposite Qi Feng and had the most screen time in the script.

The second female lead was a young rising actress who was neither particularly popular nor completely unknown in the entertainment industry, barely ranking as a third-tier celebrity. She frequently tried to get close to the second male lead.

The third female lead played the first female lead’s best friend. She was a gentle and beautiful actress.

The fourth female lead was a girl with a pure and adorable appearance.

The second male lead was Qu Wanqiao, whom they had introduced earlier. He’s a famous actor. 

The third male lead had been quietly and reservedly memorizing his lines the whole time.

The fourth male lead was Si Hao, who had just claimed to have seen a ghost.

Aside from the actors, Yan Jiyun was even more interested in Director Jiang and Producer Ci. He hadn’t paid much attention to the others yet. The ordinary supporting-character NPCs had all been assigned miscellaneous tasks. They barely had any lines in the instance, so they didn’t seem particularly important. Of course, that wasn’t necessarily true. It was also possible for an inconspicuous NPC to turn out to be the final boss. The director of the [Crazy Zoo] instance had been hidden in exactly this way. So he still needed to keep observing.

No one cared about what Si Hao had said. Filming continued until 11 PM, when Director Jiang finally let them go.

Producer Ci had someone leave the school to buy plenty of late-night food for the main cast and crew: fragrant crayfish and barbecue, fried rice noodles, and various other things.

As the first male lead, Qi Feng received a particularly good late-night meal. He peeled all the shrimp in his portion, washed the sauce off with cold water, then woke Yan Jiyun, who had been sleeping soundly, and stuffed quite a bit of shrimp meat into his mouth.

Yan Jiyun had slept for several hours and was feeling much more energetic now. His stomach had also been growling with hunger for a long time. He ate the shrimp meat with great enthusiasm, and most importantly, someone was taking care of him.

After finishing his own meal, Director Jiang walked over and happened to see Qi Feng stuffing peeled shrimp into the backpack.

Since filming had just ended, the classroom’s main lights were still on, making the room very bright. He saw a black head poking out of the backpack.

Director Jiang stared intently at the cat carrier and asked, “What’s in your bag?”

Qi Feng said, “A little dog I keep. I brought it out to play.”

When Director Jiang heard that there was a little dog inside, he immediately lost interest. “Oh. I thought you brought a cat.”

Qi Feng deliberately sounded somewhat disdainful. “Cats are too wary of strangers and difficult to raise. One scare and they’ll run off so far you can’t find them, and they’re prone to getting stressed.”

Director Jiang said, “That’s true.”

Yan Jiyun thought this Director Jiang was a little strange. He seemed somewhat interested in cats. What was he planning?

After eating his fill, he wanted some water, too. But with Director Jiang still there, he couldn’t stick his head out. Qi Feng had already changed his species just to conceal his true identity and protect him. Sticking his head out again would be rude.

Qu Wanqiao, who was sitting on the other side, called Director Jiang away. Yan Jiyun stared at the water in Qi Feng’s hand, and soon he got his water.

After eating and drinking his fill, Yan Jiyun lay back down inside the backpack to continue recuperating. His cold made him completely unwilling to move.

The production crew gave the actors another half hour of rest. They would have to continue filming the night scenes afterward.

Qi Feng hugged the bag containing Yan Jiyun and leaned against the classroom wall with his eyes closed, resting. He hadn’t had a break all day either. He was human, not made of iron, and needed to rest properly.

Half an hour later, as midnight approached, Director Jiang called everyone to start preparing.

Qi Feng had rested for half an hour and was feeling much more refreshed.

As all the departments began making preparations, Director Jiang was about to explain the scene to the female lead when her assistant suddenly came running over in a panic.

The female lead’s assistant was so out of breath that she could barely speak. “Director Jiang, Director Jiang, Su-jie is missing!”

Director Jiang frowned. “How could she be missing? Wasn’t she just here?”

If something happened at this point, it meant they would have to waste time waiting for the first female lead to return.

The female lead’s assistant said, “I went to the restroom with her just now. There were too many people on the second floor, so we went to the third floor. We went in together and were even talking inside. She came out first and said she’d wait for me outside, but when I came out, she was gone.”

Director Jiang said, “Did someone call her away? You might not have been able to hear them from inside.”

The assistant shook her head. “But it was very quiet around there. Even if someone had called her, I should have heard it. Su-jie isn’t the kind of person who would leave without saying anything.”

Director Jiang had some experience with things like this. Sometimes actors wanted to get into character by themselves and would hide in a corner to practice. Occasionally, they would lose track of time and become difficult to find. But this was rare. Only big-name stars dared to do something like that. Actors who hadn’t reached that level wouldn’t dare stand up their director.

Qi Feng heard this and said, “Director Jiang, I’ll take my assistant and help look for her. We can’t continue my scenes without Miss Su anyway.”

Lan Mo was his assistant, and they were both players. Using this reasonable excuse to leave and carry out their mission couldn’t have been more convenient.

Director Jiang nodded in agreement. Lan Mo looked sturdy at a glance, so having a man accompany them to look for someone in the middle of the night was ideal.

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  his name is written 肆豪, pronounced Sì Háo. It’s close to the pronunciation for “number four”, which is 四号 Sì Hào