Scriptwriter Xu said he was dropping by for a chat, which was very close, just in the next hut.
The studio set up ordinary household interiors, the furniture and furnishings were all real, but there were only two walls, with several cameras aimed at the living room.
Jiang BaiYan and Cai Tonger were acting out a scene of siblings quarreling.
"Don't pretend, I know you're very impatient with me. You're putting on this act of being a good older brother, who are you trying to fool?" The younger sister glared with wide eyes, her voice sharp and shrill.
The older brother stayed silent, his chest heaving as he clenched his jaw tightly, his cheekbones hard as stone.
The younger sister continued shouting and cursing, each word intended to hurt.
Jiang BaiYan's temple veins bulged in anger, he was increasingly furious, as if he would violently lash out at any moment, yet he endured it, and with each insult he bore, the atmosphere grew tenser inch by inch, making people's scalps tingle.
Such acting skill, the gap was clear.
Jian Jing watched by the side, feeling that Cai Tonger was being unreasonable.
The younger sister still made trouble, the older brother could take it no more. He grabbed the glass on the table and smashed it on the ground: "Enough... Ah!"
Jiang BaiYan drew a sharp breath, a trickle of blood flowing from his palm.
"Ah?!" Cai Tonger was startled, contributing her most authentic "acting" yet.
"Cut!" Director Mao panicked, "What happened?"
The prop glasses used for filming were specially made to avoid cuts. But the one Jiang BaiYan smashed had broken into many shards, some edges neat and sharp, clearly ordinary glass that had been cut, highly abnormal.
"Such a big cut." Sister Chen saw the blood flowing nonstop and hurried over with tissues to stop it.
Jian Jing was shocked and quickly went up: "Rinse it clean with water first."
With her first aid skills, she naturally knew how to treat cuts. She immediately took out half a bottle of mineral water from her bag to rinse the wound.
Sister Chen was pained and anxious: "Bleeding so much, shouldn't we go to the hospital?"
"It's fine," Jian Jing held Jiang BaiYan's hand, rinsing away the dust and blood from the wound surface, "the cut isn't deep, and there's no glass fragments, just needs disinfecting."
The medical staff brought over a first aid kit, containing gauze, dressings, iodine.
Unlike knowledge cards which required learning, skill cards were like energy transfer, use it and you know it. Jian Jing worked quickly and adeptly, applying a dressing and wrapping two turns of bandage, tying a tidy knot.
"Done." She got up, like a nurse instructing a child, "Keep it dry these two days."
Jiang BaiYan's face flushed red, seeming to want to say something but held back, just pursed his lips and obediently replied: "Oh."
Jian Jing was done with it after that, and turned to look at the glass shards on the floor.
The glass had broken into several pieces, but on close inspection it was clear that some were from smashing, the edges uneven, yet some parts were smooth and sharp, as if cut with tools.
During filming, if you carefully pieced together the shards, due to the stained glass style of the cup, even lines would be invisible. But when Jiang BaiYan reached to grab it, what he grasped was a handful of glass shards with edges not aligned, naturally cutting his hand.
Director Mao emerged from behind the monitors, asking with concern: "Serious?"
"It's fine, not a deep cut," Jiang BaiYan's next words showed why so many people liked him, "Retake?"
Director Mao pondered, Cai Tonger's performance wasn't ideal, but a retake wouldn't be better either, so he simply said: "No need, we'll go with this."
Sister Chen and the assistant both relaxed, if they had to reshoot, the bandage would probably need to be removed, back and forth messing it up when it was healing.
"This is...?" Director Mao saw the unfamiliar face of Jian Jing and frowned.
Scriptwriter Xu introduced: "This is Teacher Jian, the original author of Devil Doctor, just dropping by today. I had nothing to do so gave her a tour around." He then said to Jian Jing, "This is Director Mao, did you watch the classic family sitcom 'A Beautiful Family' as a kid? That's his work."
'A Beautiful Family' was an indoor situation comedy featuring four generations living together, a childhood classic.
Jian Jing understood she should flatter: "Director Mao, I grew up watching your shows."
Hearing she was the original author of 'Devil Doctor', Director Mao thought back, Director Ding's 'Hide and Seek' was also adapted from an original, his attitude instantly became more polite: "Ah Teacher Jian, pleased to meet you."
"Sorry for the interruption," Jian Jing was even more polite.
"No problem at all, we've got nothing to hide here." Director Mao didn't like random people around, but Jian Jing was brought by Scriptwriter Xu, an up and coming author, no knowing if they'd collaborate in the future, why make enemies, just watching wasn't stealing.
Scriptwriter Xu and Director Mao were close, he glanced around and laughed, "You guys are making good progress here."
"Old Huang is being difficult again, huh?" Director Mao loved to chat, unable to restrain his mouth, "That guy's temper, tsk, put nicely he's responsible, put bluntly he's stubborn."
They chatted away, while the on-site producer had people recheck props, others rushed about busily, nothing seeming amiss.
Jiang BaiYan asked his assistant: "Did you buy the milk tea?"
"Got it, got it, all here." The assistant quickly affirmed.
He then said to Jian Jing: "Teacher Jing, come, this place has the best milk tea around." Not waiting for her response, he attentively called out to the others, "Scriptwriter Xu, have some milk tea, and chestnut cakes too."
Scriptwriter Xu vigorously waved his hands: "Don't mention this stuff to me, I have high blood sugar, doctor won't let me eat it." He complained to Director Mao, "The health check said I have metabolic syndrome, can't eat this or that, want me to go vegetarian, ah."
Amidst the noisy chatter, the assistant called staff over to have snacks.
Everyone thanked noisily and messily, Jiang BaiYan took the chance to leave the scene, heading back to the dressing room for touch-ups.
Along the way, he walked while greeting people, able to call almost everyone by name, unruffled. The crew he sincerely remembered reciprocated, each concernedly asking about his injured hand.
"Just an accident," Jiang BaiYan repeated similar responses, "Doesn't hurt, will be fine in a couple days."
Finally back in the dressing room, Jiang BaiYan breathed a sigh of relief, tidying up the sofa: "Teacher Jing, have a seat, sorry for the mess here."
As the male lead, he had a private dressing room. Small, the dressing table covered with cosmetics, no place for even cups. Clothes all hung outside, a corner of the curtain the changing area.
Stuff was scattered everywhere now, the glamor peeled back to reveal the real.
"You have an amazing memory." Jian Jing had lost track of names halfway through.
"No no," Jiang BaiYan humbly waved his hands, eyes and brow arched in a smile, "Just from interacting a lot." His tone playfully lilting at the end, words clear and crisp like falling jade beads, displaying superb enunciation.
Jian Jing: "Stop fussing first, your hand is hurt."
"Almost done." Unceasing motion, he swiftly cleared a spot on the sofa, even taking out his own neck pillow to prop aside, "Teacher, have a seat."
Hard to decline such hospitality, Jian Jing sat down.
He dragged over a folding chair, not too near or far, sitting facing her: "Making you come all this way, really too much trouble. But I thought it over, this is the only way."
Jian Jing smiled, gently saying: "I'm free, just dropped by for fun."
Jiang BaiYan immediately beamed.
"You said there were letters? Let me see." She got straight to the point.
The writing on the mirror had been wiped off already. Jiang BaiYan passed her the second note, on ordinary A4 paper, written in red marker, some strokes smeared to create splotches of red, made to look ominous.
Jian Jing asked him: "Who's your instinct say it is?"
Jiang BaiYan hesitated: "I don't know."
"Go by feel, no need for evidence," Jian Jing held the milk tea, patiently saying, "For things like this, intuition may be more accurate than evidence."
She wasn't just making things up. Human intuition was far more uncannily accurate than imagined. The brain always looked for shortcuts, many details skipped conscious thought yet lodged in the subconscious. As long as you didn't psyche yourself out, there was always a reason.
Jiang BaiYan lowered his head to ponder, then said: "I feel it's because of me."
Before Jian Jing came, Sister Chen and the others had also discussed, inclined to think it was Cai Tonger's fan. If not, with Jiang BaiYan having filmed so many shows, why would something happen specifically when working with her?
Especially since the first warning said "she", very likely her crazy fan.
Yet Jiang BaiYan felt the person was targeting him.
No reason, just a hunch.
But Jian Jing said: "I think so too, it should be a girl."
Although the other party had carefully written the picture in English to avoid leaving any handwriting, once the pen was put to paper, the information could no longer be concealed.
Generally speaking, males have stronger aggressiveness and possessiveness. When someone has an affair with a woman they consider their possession, they either verbally threaten their rival, or directly lay hands on their girlfriend.
Therefore, if it was a male, the message left for Jiang BaiYan should be more aggressive, such as "I'm going to kill you", "You're finished", "Just you wait, I'll make you pay", and so on.
Whereas females have stronger defensiveness, and tend to drive away outsiders intruding into a romantic relationship. For example, warning the mistress, or deleting all contact information from their boyfriend's phone, and forbidding further contact.
"Don't talk to her" doesn't sound like something a male admirer of Cai Tonger would say, it's more like something a female admirer of Jiang BaiYan would do.
Blocking the communication between Jiang BaiYan and Cai Tonger, leaning towards defense rather than attack.
"I have to ask you," Jian Jing carefully chose her words, "Could this be an intimate partner from your past?"
Without a moment's thought, Jiang BaiYan said: "Impossible!"
He explained: "I met Director Mao in high school. I had just signed with the company when we were halfway through filming Hide and Seek. Sister Chen has been watching over me all this time, she would never let me fool around. I didn't even think about these things, I still have acting to do in the future."
He was naive when he first entered the industry, and didn't have this on his mind. By the time he gained some notoriety, he better understood the rules: it's easy for a celebrity to get started, just need a pretty face, but to sustain it requires sacrifice.
And what to sacrifice comes down to personal choice.
"Absolutely not." Jiang BaiYan swore, "If I'm lying, may I never succeed."
Jian Jing was startled by his intense oath. But she also found it amusing: "Of course I believe you, why make such an oath."
"Uh, I got too excited." Jiang BaiYan rubbed his cheeks to hide his embarrassment, "Let's continue."
Jian Jing did not blame him of course, and went on asking: "Have you had obsessed fans like this before?"
He pondered: "There must have been some, but no one paid much attention, we all get them."
"Do you think it's someone from the crew?"
"I don't know." He shook his head.
"How many people have access to your room?"
Jiang BaiYan smiled wryly: "It goes without saying no one should, but once I stayed at a 5-star hotel, and a fan was waiting for me right in my room when I got back. No idea how she even got in."
Jian Jing was speechless.
"Teacher Jing, I haven't been sleeping well these couple of days, afraid someone might sneak into my bed." Jiang BaiYan moved closer to let her see more clearly, "Such dark eye circles, the makeup artist said I looked like a thief."
She couldn't help grinning, then knitted her brows again.
Right then, the door was pushed open hurriedly with a "bang".
Sister Chen came in smiling, carrying a box of pastries, "Look, freshly baked chestnut cakes, I lined up half an hour to get them."
Jian Jing turned her head, glancing over Sister Chen, and guessed what she was up to.
"Sister Chen." Jiang BaiYan pursed his lips, expression unchanged, "Do you not know I abstain from sweets when filming?"
Sister Chen did not expect to be called out like this. Her expression froze briefly, but she was quite shrewd herself, and immediately smiled: "If you won't eat it, Teacher Jian still needs to eat."
"I'm actually hungry now." Jian Jing said, though she did not move, "But let's discuss the matter at hand first."
"You're right." Sister Chen naturally glossed over her earlier awkwardness, "Any leads so far?"
Jian Jing said: "I think it's a crazed female fan. Such extreme behavior likely wasn't the first time, she must have done other things before. Do you recall anything like this?"
