Famous! Ch.66

Chapter 66: Atmosphere

“He gets into character quickly and has a strong grasp of emotional nuance,” Zhao Jincheng murmured to the director.

Xu Yan gave a silent nod.

Typically, the first scene wasn’t particularly challenging; it mainly served as a gauge of the actors’ readiness. The earlier shots had gone smoothly, but Xu Yan had been more concerned about Jiang Lin’s emotional response after hearing the voice of the dead.

Lu Xu had handled it exceptionally well.

Jiang Lin was an ordinary, kind-hearted man with no grand ambitions. If not for his inexplicable ability and the string of murder cases tying him to these crimes, his life would have been no different from anyone else’s.

Now, however, even with his experience facing countless gruesome murders, he struggled to maintain a calm mindset.

Others couldn’t hear the desperate cries of the deceased before their deaths, but he could.

Whenever a case occurred, although the harm was inflicted upon the victim, for Jiang Lin, it felt as if he had experienced it all himself through the victim’s ears.

After receiving the script, Lu Xu had carefully read it from beginning to end.

Objectively speaking, the script for Voice of the Dead was undeniably captivating, with its intricately crafted and compelling cases. However, this didn’t mean there was no room for Jiang Lin’s character to shine.

Lu Xu believed there was plenty of potential for him to bring something unique to the role.

He had always thought that while the key focus in crime-solving dramas often lay on the culprits—who frequently drew the audience’s attention with their brutality—the protagonist’s presence was equally vital. The lead had to be likable and charismatic, without overshadowing the story. In other words, their performance should subtly guide the audience’s attention toward the narrative while leaving space for viewers to think.

The protagonist was like a thread, leading the audience while allowing them room to explore the story themselves.

After completing the first scene, the next one focused solely on Jiang Lin.

This scene served as an introduction, revealing how Jiang Lin acquired his ability to hear the voices of the dead.

Since the scene required a change of setting, Lu Xu rested for a few hours until nightfall before filming resumed.

As he focused on studying the script, Shao Yao sat not far away. Despite it being Shao Yao’s break, he didn’t choose to rest. When Lu Xu finally got up, ready for the next shoot, he noticed Shao Yao staring at him with wide eyes.

Lu Xu: “…”

He was certain that Shao Yao wasn’t a scene tyrant.

Who had ever heard of a scene tyrant being so quiet?

However, Lu Xu didn’t have time to dwell on what Shao Yao might be thinking. His full attention was on the upcoming scene.

…

Jiang Lin’s awakening stemmed from a nightmare one night.

In the dream, his vision seemed to turn gray and black, hazy and oppressive, as if the sky had been painted with a thick layer of gray-black cement. It was so heavy that even breathing became difficult.

Amid this dizzying and unsettling sensation, Jiang Lin suddenly woke up.

His heartbeat quickened, and he had a foreboding sense that something was about to happen. When he opened his eyes, his surroundings were pitch black, except for a sliver of moonlight streaming through the gap in the curtains.

When he turned on the light, Jiang Lin inexplicably felt that something about the atmosphere was off.

He opened the door, and the moment he stepped outside, he heard a voice near his ear.

It was a conversation between a man and a woman. The woman had given birth to a child, but the child never appeared before her again. She had become a mere tool, full of unwillingness and despair. She broke down. At that moment, illuminated by the faint light spilling through the crack in the door, she appeared before Jiang Lin.

She was collapsed against the door, a knife embedded in her heart, her bulging eyes staring directly at Jiang Lin.

This was the first time Jiang Lin had heard the voice of the dead.

It was also the first case he encountered after hearing the voice of the dead.

Unfortunately, even to this day, the case remained unsolved.

After that, Jiang Lin came across several cases, but none were as peculiar as this one. The murder had occurred not long before, with the victim’s blood still fresh, yet the killer had vanished without a trace.

When he closed his eyes, the victim’s deathly image seemed to linger before him.

This scene appeared repeatedly in Voice of the Dead. The same footage was reused multiple times, so Lu Xu had to film it with extra care.

Before Lu Xu began this scene, everyone in the crew had their eyes on him.

Late at night, the bed, the room—these were not difficult scenes to shoot. Lu Xu only needed to convey an anxious emotion, and that would suffice.

The challenging part was the moment the door opened.

It was a nighttime scene, and honestly, when the focus shifted to the “woman’s corpse” outside the door, even knowing it was just a shoot, it was enough to make anyone feel their soul leave their body.

Jiang Lin, distracted by the sudden voice near his ear, didn’t immediately check outside the door.

When he finally saw the woman’s corpse, his body froze, as though immobilized. He blinked, wondering if he was hallucinating. The next moment, his gaze locked with the corpse’s.

The protruding eyes reflected in his pupils told him just how unwilling the victim had been to die.

Instinctively, Jiang Lin started to close the door.

For this shot, Lu Xu’s expression seemed slightly vacant—because Jiang Lin, despite being smart and having his own logical way of thinking, often showed a momentary sluggishness when faced with sudden events.

But then, the voice at his ear continued.

It was a mother crying, begging someone to return her child, only to be met with a cold, mocking laugh.

The killer’s composure was terrifying. From the moment he entered, his footsteps had maintained an unnerving rhythm. If it weren’t for another sound breaking the silence, Jiang Lin might have believed the killer had merely walked in and left normally.

But the other sound was unmistakable: the blade piercing a heart.

And a woman’s sharp scream.

In stark contrast to those sounds, the killer’s footsteps remained unnervingly steady.

The night was not entirely silent. The moment this woman was killed, the roaring engines of a street-racing gang echoed in the distance.

Jiang Lin stopped trying to close the door.

He sighed softly.

Just moments ago, his fingers were trembling slightly. He had never seen such a scene before, nor had he ever imagined that his ears would pick up sounds not belonging to the living. And yet, he heard them.

Jiang Lin found it nearly impossible to remain indifferent.

If only he knew nothing about this.

The crew watched—

In that moment, the fear in Lu Xu’s eyes vanished.

Though the memory of this event still made his heart race, at that instant, he summoned his courage.

The fear transformed into determination, a fleeting yet profound shift in his expression.

Even Lu Xu’s voice carried newfound resolve.

He declared that he would help find the killer.

Squatting down, he called the police for the victim. When they arrived, he stood up, staggering and nearly falling to the ground.

In truth, he was still shaking.

Cowardly people often encounter a moment that forces them to become brave, and that moment is usually tied to a sense of responsibility.

Jiang Lin had no obligation to anyone, yet he always respected the lives of others.

…

As Lu Xu filmed this scene, Shao Yao kept his eyes fixed on him.

Before coming to set, Shao Yao’s agent had repeatedly warned him not to argue with Lu Xu. Shao Yao had even looked up Lu Xu’s name online and concluded, singlehandedly, that he wouldn’t stand a chance in a verbal spat with him.

Shao Yao guessed that even Yan Qichen wouldn’t be able to handle Lu Xu. The man seemed a hundred times more intimidating than Yan Qichen.

Truthfully, Shao Yao didn’t have high expectations for Lu Xu’s acting, even though the latter had been nominated for the Stellar Awards.

In Shao Yao’s last project, Song of Southern Country, Yan Qichen and Lin Ling looked great—a handsome man and a beautiful woman—but their delivery of lines? Shao Yao preferred not to recall how he endured that ordeal.

However, after joining the crew, Shao Yao noticed that Lu Xu was always memorizing lines and taking notes. That alone convinced him that Lu Xu wasn’t the same type as Yan Qichen.

The first scene between the two actors only involved eye contact, and Shao Yao felt that neither of them had much room to shine.

But this scene—Shao Yao could only describe it as “natural.”

Lu Xu seemed to fully immerse himself in the role of Jiang Lin, portraying the character’s personality vividly and completely.

Without enough emotional resonance, even if Jiang Lin repeatedly emphasized his inability to remain indifferent, it would have been difficult for the audience to truly understand his thoughts.

After all, it wasn’t easy to tie oneself to one gruesome murder case after another.

“Not being able to remain indifferent” wasn’t a concrete reason, just an emotional one. And not everyone could empathize with such feelings.

But Lu Xu’s performance made it believable for the audience.

At that moment, the cowardly man underwent a transformation—he became brave.

…

That evening, Shao Yao’s manager’s phone buzzed.

Recalling that Shao Yao had just filmed his first scene with Voice of the Dead crew, the manager’s mind filled with countless scenarios where Shao Yao and Lu Xu might clash. But when he checked his WeChat messages, he saw:

[I made the right choice taking this role.]

[He’s amazing. Worth learning from.]

Manager: “?”

[For acting… and arguing.]

Manager: “…”

You really don’t need to learn the latter: [Just get along with each other.]

Still, it seemed like Shao Yao had a good start with Voice of the Dead crew—unlike the dreary days of filming Song of Southern Country, which could only be described as miserable.

Compared to Shao Yao’s manager back at the company, the feelings among Voice of the Dead crew were much more evident.

About a week into filming, the relationship between the two leads had inexplicably improved.

Both Lu Xu and Shao Yao belonged to the kind of actors who arrived on set early. Once there, they would dive into rehearsing the script, often reviewing their lines for the day. At first, the distance between Lu Xu and Shao Yao could be described as this wide——then it shrank to this wide—and now it was this close-.

The two still didn’t talk much, mostly sticking to script discussions. Yet, the crew couldn’t help but notice that both Lu Xu and Shao Yao seemed noticeably happier than when they first joined the production.

“How about we exchange WeChat?” It was Lu Xu who suggested it first.

The next second, he watched as Shao Yao fumbled nervously with his phone. This tall guy, over 1.8 meters, was visibly flustered—yet undeniably excited.

The director even overheard Shao Yao secretly calling his manager to boast about adding Lu Xu on WeChat.

At first, Xu Yan was genuinely worried that Lu Xu, the “king of clapbacks,” and Shao Yao, the self-proclaimed “tyrant scene,” would clash. But Lu Xu turned out to be completely mellow on set. As for Shao Yao… Xu Yan figured it’d be hard to find anyone else in the industry as earnest as him.

To be fair, Lu Xu was also an earnest person—though it took some observation to see it.

And that was probably why the two got along. Honest kids playing together.

Lu Xu was a bit more mature than Shao Yao, but it was obvious they both took acting incredibly seriously.

Whenever they discussed the storyline and ran into conflicting ideas, they would frown in unison. But once they worked it out and found a solution that satisfied them both, they never held back their smiles.

In a way, they were in sync.

The director couldn’t help humming a cheerful tune. The vibe on set was just so pleasant.

The only thing was—Shao Yao trailing behind Lu Xu gave off the impression that Lu Xu was babysitting.

A towering 1.8-meter-tall “kid” who could probably knock out ten Lu Xus with a single punch, yet was always seeking praise.

#PuppyBabysitsChildSeries#

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