Chapter 56

Gao Fei gave Anna his opinion and said, “I feel that we should strive to win, no matter what. It’s only if we win that he has a chance to go to the hell-mode film crew. Otherwise, he won’t even have the chance to do that.”

Anna replied, “Winning would be the best outcome, of course. There are two hours of filming time, so that’s 120 minutes in total. If our newspaper office team wants to win, each of the five of us needs to endure at least 24 minutes of torture on average. Otherwise, if we confess the clues too early and allow them to put the five clues together, they may be able to guess who the resistance fighter is very quickly after some analysis.”

The white-collar woman shook her head and said, “That’s torture, you know! How are we supposed to endure that?”

With another sigh, Anna replied, “The five of us are a team. If no one shares the burden, the resistance fighter definitely won’t be able to endure it all by themselves in the end.”

Daisy, the teenage girl, whispered, “I’m so scared.”

After he stayed quiet for a while, Gao Fei walked to the back of the bus and leaned over to him. He whispered something into his ear.

The others couldn’t hear what he said, but they presumed that Gao Fei was probably telling Li Teng his clue.

After another short while, Daisy also got up and went to the back of the bus. She whispered something into Li Teng’s ear, too.

The white-collar woman didn’t have any intention of saying anything to Li Teng.

After some hesitation, Anna, the woman in the sunglasses, also went to the back of the bus.

She asked Li Teng softly, “What did they tell you?”

Li Teng countered with a question of his own instead. He asked, “Tell me what your clue is, first? Are you the liar?”

Anna leaned over to Li Teng and whispered into his ear, “I just want to remind you that what they told you may not necessarily be true. In this cruel world, no one is really worth trusting. Even if you’ve saved others before, they may not repay you with their lives.” After saying that, she went back to her seat.

…

Half an hour later, the buses reached the filming location.

They didn’t begin filming right away. Instead, they entered the dressing area beside the filming location.

They were filming a period movie this time. Although they were just extras, they also needed some styling before they could officially start filming.

Every extra got to enjoy their own exclusive dressing room and makeup artist.

All the makeup artists in the film studio were experts. Not only were they fast in doing someone’s makeup, but the effect was also very good.

After they were done with makeup, a stylist brought the extras to a changing room and got every actor to change into clothes characteristic of that era.

When all the actors exited their dressing rooms after they had changed, they couldn’t help but exclaim in astonishment upon seeing each other’s makeup.

Daisy looked infatuated as she commented, “So handsome! I won’t believe it even if you tell me that Big Brother Tang Na isn’t the resistance fighter.”

The white-collar woman also sighed appreciatively and said, “Clothes maketh the man, indeed! I hadn’t thought of him as particularly handsome before this, but after he put on some makeup and changed into the right clothes, he really looks like a dashing and handsome guy unique to that era. Who else other than him is fit to act as the resistance fighter?”

Li Teng looked resigned as he said, “I’m really not the resistance fighter. Don’t sell me out.”

“The two of you are just looking at how handsome he is, but you should also take a look at Anna. She’s gorgeous! Tang Na and Anna’s clothes complement each other’s very well. If you take a photo of the two of them standing together, it’s practically a beautiful poster of a movie set in China of the early 1900s,” remarked Gao Fei as he looked at Anna, the woman in the sunglasses.

“Pssh!” Anna rolled her eyes at Gao Fei.

Aisha burst into lascivious laughter and said, “It’s too boring to just take a photo for a poster. Actually, we can consider adding a kissing scene for the two of them, like Lust, Caution 1 or something, hahaha.”

Gao Fei gave Li Teng a push and said, “Hurry and get approval from the director.”

Li Teng shook his head hard and replied, “They have to pay me more for that. Why should I do a kissing scene if they don’t pay me extra? Let her take advantage of me for free? Are you silly to suggest something like that?”

Anna wanted to bang her head against the wall.

However, the laughter and bantering couldn’t hide the fear and panic in their hearts.

Not only were they going to be tortured very soon, but they also didn’t know to what extent it would go.

…

The crew members brought the styled actors into the filming location next.

Everyone was rather stunned upon entering.

Old buildings beside the road, pedestrians in the streets, rickshaws, wide-brimmed hats, imperial yellow jackets…

In fact, there were even policemen patrolling the streets, soldiers lined up and walking in a disorderly march, and children selling newspapers.

The atmosphere of China in the early 1900s overwhelmed their senses.

This was a large-scale investment that was done professionally and made intricately.

A newsboy ran over to sell them newspapers. Aisha spoke to him, but because she didn’t buy any newspaper from him, the newsboy only replied a few patronizing lines before he ran off.

Li Teng looked around. He wanted to check if there was any food being sold in the streets and see if he could get a few buns or something for free.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t any.

Should I enter a small alley and look further?

At this point, the director’s voice sounded in Li Teng’s earphone. “Mind your image!”

Li Teng could only stay put and give up on the idea of going into a small alley to get a few free buns.

Aisha, the white-collar woman, asked, “If we’re extras, then what are these people?”

Anna replied, “They are crew members.”

“Alright, I guess that’s the only way to think of them,” said Aisha with a nod.

After a short few minutes of walking, the five of them arrived outside a small western-style building.

A sign with ‘Red Star Newspaper’ written on it was hung on the building’s wall exterior.

Under the director’s instructions, they entered the building and went up the stairs to the third floor’s editorial department.

There were a lot of crew members in the editorial department. Each of them busied themselves with their own tasks. Some of them were on the phone, some were writing away furiously, and some were conversing with each other. All the conversation topics were centered around that era’s news. It was as though they really were in that era itself.

Under the director’s instructions given through their earphones and under the crew members’ guidance, the five of them sat respectively at the seats assigned to them. Then, following the director’s instructions, they started to busy themselves with their own ‘work’.

Tang Na and Anna’s office desks were facing each other. At the side, a crew member passing by, a lady in her 30s, actually asked them when their wedding would be.

Anna was a little stunned in the beginning, but she quickly recovered and answered that the wedding was set on the first day of the following month.

Li Teng glanced at Anna strangely, to which she returned an eye-roll.

Before the lady left, she even gave Li Teng a suggestive look and said, “You must treat her well! Otherwise, we won’t let you off.”

“Rest assured, I will use my life to protect her,” replied Li Teng. He had received a script prompt from the director in his earphone, so it went without saying that he could only reply with the given line.

“Hmph!”

It was hard to tell whether Anna was snorting at Tang Na or Li Teng.

Two minutes later, Huang Xun also entered the editorial department.

He was wearing a pair of metal-framed spectacles and dressed in western clothing. His hair was slicked smooth and shiny, and he looked well-mannered and refined.

Upon entering, Huang Xun smiled and nodded at everyone in greeting, only to receive a bunch of eye-rolls in return.

Li Teng, however, didn’t eye-roll at him.

Instead, he was busy flipping drawers and chests over and rummaging through them. He overturned all the drawers and cabinets of the desk in front of him.

Won’t one be hungry at work without snacks?

Li Teng was very displeased with this.

…

A commotion was heard coming from below the editorial department.

Half a minute later, the thunderous footsteps of people coming up the stairs could be heard.

Feng Dahai, whose hair was parted dramatically, charged into the third floor with Du Qing, the pretty boy, and a team of more than ten armed military policemen.

“Arrest everyone on the list!” ordered Feng Dahai arrogantly.

Du Qing had a stack of arrest warrants in his hand. He distributed them to the military policemen, who formed teams of twos. With the arrest warrants in their hands, they compared everyone’s faces to the arrest warrants one by one and subsequently arrested the six editors—Anna, Aisha, Tang Na, Gao Fei, Mickey, and Daisy.

They couldn’t put up any resistance.

Firstly, the military policemen were considered crew members and they were armed. If a crew member killed them, they wouldn’t be able to even enter a hell-mode performance. Instead, they would be disqualified on the spot and wax-sealed.

Secondly, the director had also instructed them via their earphones not to put up any resistance.

The six editors protested according to their own lines. However, all of them were still subdued by the military policemen in the end. With their hands tied behind their backs, they were led out of the western-style building where the editorial department was and taken into custody in a large truck at the roadside.

All the pedestrians in the streets and newsboys crowded around to watch.

It was only then that the newbies realized that it wasn’t as if one could simply self-destruct whenever they wanted to when the story was in progress. When one was forced into a corner in the story, making use of the newbie protection scheme and finding a chance to kill Feng Dahai and successfully self-destruct was harder than hell.

The military police itself was already something that they couldn’t even overcome, not to mention that Feng Dahai was already on guard against this a long time ago and had tied their hands behind their backs the moment he arrived.

In particular, Li Teng, who was on the Silver Wolf Guild’s wanted list, even received special attention from Feng Dahai. He was tied like a cocoon by the military police. He couldn’t move his arms and legs at all. In addition, at no point during the whole process, would the ropes be untied.

Without the authority to lead in a story, newbies were no different from pieces of meat on the chopping board to be trampled upon by others at will.

There wasn’t much to say about what happened next. The six editors were sent directly to a torture chamber that had been constructed at last-minute notice.

It was a very big empty room.

Filming for this scene officially began at this point.

Footnotes:

A 2007 erotic espionage period film directed by Ang Lee