Song Jixing heard this news from the actor who played the third male lead in her crew.
Their filming crew had rented the hotel next to the film studio to shoot scenes, and they ate breakfast at the hotel every day.
Today's breakfast clearly had far fewer people than usual.
The actor who played the third male lead was a veteran performer and a firm materialist and martial arts enthusiast.
Since they were all part of the same crew, it was inevitable that there would be some discussions around the fight scenes. Not only were Song Jixing's own fight scenes shot beautifully, but she was also able to provide pointers to the moves of other people in the crew. As a result, she had pretty good relationships with the other actors.
It wouldn't be accurate to say they had an especially close relationship, but exchanging a few words was not a problem at all.
Di Weiyuan held his porcelain white little bowl and noisily slurped the millet porridge in it. After he finished one mouthful and put the bowl down, he continued talking to Song Jixing: "It's not just Director Zhang. I heard that the producer and yesterday's assistant director also went! A whole bunch of people from our crew went!"
Sitting properly to one side, Song Jixing curiously asked: "Went to the temple to do what?"
Hearing this, Di Weiyuan became spirited, as if he had been waiting for this moment for a long time: "They went to the temple to pray for peace of mind!"
"During the boat scene we were shooting yesterday afternoon when I wasn't there, I heard that a whole group of people emerged from the water. My neighbor Little Chen told me about it. He said someone from our crew went to investigate..."
"And guess what?" Di Weiyuan grew more excited as he spoke. "There are only three rivers and a few ponds in this film studio. Yesterday there were only three crews shooting scenes in the water. One was shooting a modern drama, one was shooting a scene of a hero rescuing a beauty who fell into the water! So there was no need for that many extras at all!"
"Afterwards, someone in our crew mentioned this to Director Zhang, but Director Zhang didn't believe it at first. He took a bunch of people to check the security footage! The footage from yesterday afternoon was missing - it just so happened to cover the time when that group of people appeared after swimming up from the water."
After Di Weiyuan finished speaking, he picked up his porridge bowl again and continued slurping it down with relish. As he ate, he sized up Song Jixing's expression to see if there were any signs of fear, but she seemed to be contemplating something instead.
Then he spoke again in a more settled manner: "Don't worry too much about it either. This happened in broad daylight - how could there be so many weird things? And there are so many people going in and out of the studio every day, it's not uncommon for people to trick extras out of money either. With so many eyes around, how could they possibly be ghosts!"
"Who knows, maybe that rental crew had ghosts on their minds, so they stirred up this whole thing."
Song Jixing nodded along politely, silently feeling relieved.
Fortunately she had acted quickly to delete the security footage before the director had a chance to see it. Otherwise her martial arts brothers and sisters directly emerging from the water would have been discovered.
The filming this time happened to take place in water, and there was no guarantee they would be so lucky next time. Just imagining a whole group of people suddenly materializing out of thin air made Song Jixing feel afraid.
Fortunately, Zhang Shuangcheng only spent one day at the temple before returning, and the other crew members also gradually came back.
What was different was that everyone held a small incense pouch or plaque in their hands, like a souvenir brought back from a trip somewhere.
Perhaps thanks to Song Jixing's help, this martial arts drama crew made exceptionally fast progress. What was originally scheduled to take two months to film wrapped up after just over a month.
The night they finished shooting Song Jixing's death scene was a night shoot. She was stabbed by the male lead under the night sky, her life or death unknown.
As Song Jixing clutched her chest where blood gushed out, she slowly collapsed onto the ground and took one last look at the room full of bright red lanterns, falling in her favorite pavilion where she had spent so many days.
"Cut!" Zhang Shuangcheng yelled, then came up onto the set and shook Song Jixing's hand as she climbed up from the ground.
"Congratulations, congratulations! It's a wrap!"
"Thank you Director, you worked hard too!" Song Jixing said politely.
As Zhang Shuangcheng spoke, he took out a red envelope from his pocket and handed it to Song Jixing. "Here, you died once, so take this to get rid of any bad luck!"
Song Jixing didn't refuse. This wasn't the first time she had received this kind of red envelope.
She put the red envelope in her pocket and shook hands with the other crew members who had come to congratulate her on finishing filming, exchanging pleasantries.
Even though filming had wrapped, she still needed to go remove her makeup and change out of her costume. So Song Jixing casually placed the red envelope she had received in her usual canvas bag, planning to spend the money later.
After removing her makeup, Song Jixing was called to attend a wrap banquet. By the time she returned to her hotel room it was already very late.
Xiao Wang escorted Song Jixing to her hotel room. After putting everything in place, he finally left.
This was the last night she would be staying at this hotel. She could return home tomorrow, so she had to pack up her things in advance.
While packing up, Song Jixing suddenly remembered the red envelope Director Zhang had given her that afternoon. She wanted to take out the money from the envelope and put it in her wallet to spend when she went home tomorrow.
But when Song Jixing opened up her canvas bag, she discovered that the big red red envelope inside had disappeared without a trace.
How could this be?
Song Jixing didn't suspect Xiao Wang had taken it - she trusted him. As for other people, she couldn't say.
Her wallet was also in the canvas bag. Although there wasn't much money inside, just a few hundred yuan.
But everything was still neatly in place in the bag, not a single cent missing.
It wouldn't make sense for a thief to steal money but not check the wallet, right?
As for the other people in the crew, Song Jixing didn't suspect them much either. She had spent over a month with them and her impression of everyone was pretty good. And the amount of money in that red envelope wasn't large either, so there was no need to deliberately take it.
Song Jixing didn't dwell too much on this incident, figuring she must have carelessly misplaced it somewhere. As she was getting ready for bed, she happened to glance at the crew's group chat.
She discovered that everyone was discussing something.
"Who's seen the tassel on Old Ding's sword prop! I've looked everywhere and can't find it! There's even a little plastic plaque attached to it! We need it for filming tomorrow!!!" the props manager asked the group.
Many people responded, including Ding Jue himself.
"After I finished removing my makeup yesterday I definitely put everything in the plastic box next to my dressing table. I clearly remember doing that every time, always putting stuff there!" said Ding Jue.
"There's nothing there! I just looked everywhere again but still can't find it! Did anyone go to the dressing rooms?"
"No, the doors were all locked!"
"This is already the third sword tassel that's gone missing!"
"That many things have gone missing?"
"What else is missing besides the sword tassels?"
Everyone in the group asked.
It turned out that aside from the prop tassels the props manager had lost, pretty much everyone else had lost some small belonging or another, whether it was house keys, hair clips, snacks, or meals.
As various people chimed in recounting things, they tried to analyze the perpetrator's motives. Suddenly someone posed the question: "Could it be ghosts haunting us and causing things to go missing?"
Hearing the word "ghost", the group instantly went silent.
No one uttered another word, seemingly still haunted by the shadow of terror from over a month ago.
