Chapter 160: The Red Wedding Dress
Yin Chengjue followed the original plan. In the morning, he handled matters for his new company. In the afternoon, he posted the promotional trailer on the official "Blood Mist" animated series microblog and then bought a trending topic to get some exposure.
The animated version had only completed three episodes so far, but the trailer was ready ahead of schedule. Releasing the trailer first would generate buzz and let fans know what to expect from the first season's content.
Besides "Blood Mist," the new company had also signed contracts this month to produce animated adaptations of ten original stories. While these stories weren't as explosively popular as "Blood Mist," they still had their merits. The new company was currently most in need of a volume of work. As long as the original works themselves didn't have major issues and their content was sufficiently engaging, Yin Chengjue agreed to sign them.
Perhaps the view counts for the animated adaptations of these stories wouldn't be high, but that didn't matter. The initial plan for the new company was to prioritize quantity first, then focus on quality.
Everything was progressing very smoothly until, one month later, some strange incidents started occurring on the "Ghost Traces" set.
Clothes purchased by the props department would inexplicably disappear.
And it wasn't all the clothes that vanished, but only one specific red garment—the red wedding dress worn by the male lead, Jing Sheng, during the second timeline segment of "Ghost Traces."
There is a segment in "Ghost Traces" where the male lead, Jing Sheng, plays the second male lead in a period drama.
In this drama, the second male lead's sister is the female lead. The sister, wanting to avoid marrying her betrothed and wishing to venture out into the world alone, kneels and begs her older brother (the second male lead) to wear her wedding dress and take her place in the marriage. The brother, unable to withstand his sister's pleas, agrees to put on the wedding dress to buy time for his sister to escape.
The brother then plans to fake his death using a specially prepared poison during the wedding night, making others believe the female lead sister has died.
This is a very cliché substitution trope and shouldn't have been a major problem. However, during filming, Jing Sheng felt unwell and asked for a stand-in to film a short segment for him.
That short segment was the part where the second male lead, disguised as the bride, sits in the wedding chamber waiting for the groom, wearing the red bridal veil.
Since it required no lines and no other actions, just sitting there, the director allowed someone to temporarily substitute for Jing Sheng so he could rest in his dressing room.
But it was precisely during this short segment that an accident occurred!
The substitute actor's body suddenly caught fire!
Flames erupted and instantly engulfed the actor's entire body. The staff and directors standing nearby were shocked. Someone quickly fetched water to douse the flames, but when a bucket of water was thrown on him, the fire suddenly flared up even larger and more violently!
With many people panicking, the first instinct upon seeing danger is to flee from it. So, the people inside the room for the shoot rushed out in a crowd, some even remembering to grab their camera equipment.
In the face of an urgent crisis, human nature is laid bare.
The crowd surged outwards. Those who wanted to help put out the fire found they couldn't get through with the water. Those who had thrown water on the burning actor were horrified to find it not only useless but also intensifying the fire. Their first reaction then shifted from rescue to fearing that their attempt to help, which had instead fueled the flames, might cost a life. They instantly dropped the buckets, eager to disassociate themselves from the act.
The actor, being burned by the fierce fire, screamed desperately for help, instinctively running towards where the people were, hoping someone would pull him from the danger, from the sea of fire.
But the fire was on him! When people saw a person entirely wrapped in flames charging towards them, their first reaction wasn't to lend a hand, but to quickly get farther away, afraid of being scorched by the flames.
Because they were filming a period drama, the wedding chamber was made of wood. To save money, the crew had rented the cheapest wooden structure, which wasn't coated with fire-retardant paint and was highly flammable.
So, when the burning actor ran around panicked, encountering wind, it not only accelerated the burning but also quickly ignited nearby curtains and wood.
Coincidentally, this scene was the wedding chamber, and the entire room had been lavishly decorated by the props department with paper and fabric—all highly flammable materials.
By the time everyone else had frantically evacuated, many parts of the room were already on fire. The actor, burning at close range, was in excruciating pain from the burns and filled with panic. He tripped and fell to the ground, collapsing into the increasingly fierce fire.
Someone frantically called the fire department, but how could they possibly arrive in time?
Everything around seemed prepared for this inferno, as if arranged for the person playing the bride.
So, when Jing Sheng, hearing the commotion, came out of his simple dressing room rubbing his head, what he saw was a sea of fire and panicked staff.
In the distance, the sirens of fire engines could be heard, but to Jing Sheng, the sound felt very distant, extremely far away.
Because Jing Sheng quickly realized that if he hadn't felt unwell and been temporarily unable to act, the person trapped in the fire now would be him.
Jing Sheng looked down at his own casual clothes, feeling the heat of the flames on his face, yet his whole body felt cold.
Just before, he had been wearing that fiery red wedding dress, having only changed out of it moments ago.
Given this backstory, the red wedding dress took on an ominous connotation.
Coupled with the fact that recently, this prop red wedding dress kept disappearing without reason—the props department had already purchased it online for the fifth time, and it would still vanish the day after filming—people in the "Ghost Traces" crew began to feel uneasy.
Initially, they thought someone was playing a malicious prank, deliberately stealing the clothes to scare them and prevent them from filming properly.
But no matter how they tried to hide the dress or where they put it, it would always disappear by the next day.
Furthermore, this dress had a relatively high usage frequency: Rong Yu, playing Jing Sheng, needed to wear it; the actor substituting for Jing Sheng as the bride needed to wear it; and later, for shooting some close-up shots, it was also needed.
A plot that should have taken three or four days to film was now completely delayed because of this one garment, with all the time lost waiting for deliveries.
Each new order required waiting for delivery, which could take a couple of days if fast, or up to a week if slow.
As a last resort, Director Mo decided to film other scenes first, temporarily postponing the scenes involving the red wedding dress.v
But this couldn't go on forever.
So, this time, after the props department received the new dress from the delivery, they wanted Rong Yu to wear the red wedding dress overnight.
Primarily, because the dress had an unfortunate symbolism within "Ghost Traces," Director Mo didn't want to trouble the actor. He had only intended for it to be stored properly, not for the actor to wear it after filming.
Acting in a horror film already required considerable courage, and Director Mo didn't want to add psychological pressure on Rong Yu.
But now, there was no other choice. If they didn't catch the troublemaking thief, they would genuinely fall behind schedule.
Director Mo initially didn't plan for Rong Yu to wear it, he wanted another staff member to wear it for safekeeping. But Rong Yu felt it was unnecessary trouble. Since he was the one currently wearing it for filming, there was no need to take it off at night for someone else to wear and then change back into it the next day.
Seeing that Rong Yu wasn't afraid, Director Mo didn't insist.
After Yin Chengjue heard about this, he came to the set under the pretext of "catching the thief" and successfully secured qualification to stay in the same room as Rong Yu for close-range "thief catching."
After all, as the main investor, any delay in the filming schedule meant losses for him, so it was reasonable for him to show concern.
Of course, the most important point was that, due to the rushed filming schedule, Rong Yu hadn't returned home to sleep for a week.
If it weren't for this mysterious thief causing trouble, Yin Chengjue wasn't sure when he would get to sleep next to Rong Yu again.
Because, even without the delays from the stolen red wedding dress, the movie itself required a long, intensive filming period.
Coincidentally, the wedding chamber scene was scheduled to be filmed the next day, and the crew had set up the chamber the night before.
Of course, unlike in the story, this room was coated with fire-retardant paint for safety. For filming, no actual fire would be used, it would all be added in post-production.
The actors' rest rooms only had single beds. Since Yin Chengjue said he wanted to guard Rong Yu and catch the clothes thief, he needed to stay in the same room. But squeezing two grown men into one small bed was quite difficult. After searching the entire set, they found that only the prepared wedding chamber had a double bed large enough for two grown men.
"But in the story, the person wearing the red wedding dress was burned to death in the wedding chamber. Xiao Yu is already wearing this red wedding dress tonight. If he also stays in this room, isn't that a bit... inappropriate?" Director Mo was somewhat superstitious.
"It's fine, we need to believe in science. Besides, if ghosts really existed in this world, they'd be afraid of evil people," Rong Yu said with a smile.
Director Mo nodded: "That's true. That's why I originally wanted Xiao Wang, who looks a bit fierce, to wear this dress overnight."
Rong Yu: "Director Mo, even though Xiao Wang looks fierce, he's actually scared of this stuff. Please don't force him. I'll wear it, I'm not afraid."
"Sigh, alright then. Be careful tonight. If you see the thief, just shout. We'll all try to stay alert and come as soon as you call," Director Mo said. Then he looked at Yin Chengjue: "Mr. Yin, are you really sure about personally catching the thief?"
Yin Chengjue nodded with a serious expression: "I must find out who is causing these delays for me."
Director Mo rubbed his temples wearily: "I hope this matter can be resolved tonight. We really can't afford any more delays. Otherwise, we won't make the deadline. There's a best film selection in the second half of the year, and I think this movie has a chance. I want to strive to make it good."
"Don't worry, Director Mo. Tonight, I will definitely guard this dress with my life!" Rong Yu swore to the heavens.
Director Mo went back to his own room to rest. Yin Chengjue closed the room door and slid the bolt. The two of them walked past the screen and looked up to see the large, bright red double happiness character pasted on the headboard.
The two of them: "......" Wait, why does this scene feel a bit off?
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