Chapter 96: Filming
In this scene, Yue Hui’s presence was stronger, as Shi Xinshan was a more vivid character, while “Chang Qing” was more ambiguous.
However, it was precisely the outward appearance of “Chang Qing” that led other participants in the game to lower their guard against him.
The more ordinary “Chang Qing” appeared in the early stages, the more dramatic the contrast would be when Yan Huan revealed his true nature in the later stages.
This was Yue Hui’s reasoning for inviting Lu Xu to play the role of Yan Huan.
From the perspective of maintaining suspense, Lu Xu was not the ideal candidate for the role of Yan Huan—viewers walking into the cinema and seeing the cast list would immediately realize that the seemingly unremarkable “Chang Qing” could not be a mere bystander.
As “Deception” was Lu Xu’s first movie, Yue Hui’s formal invitation made it clear he wouldn’t assign him a trivial role just to fill the roster.
However, from the perspective of storytelling, Lu Xu was a suitable choice. After all, his first lead role in a drama, The Path of Bones, featured a character, Yu Yi, who also had a striking contrast in personality.
…
Once everyone was in position, the game officially began.
The first game was a puzzle-solving challenge.
The participants sat around a roulette table, listening to a cold, emotionless mechanical voice narrate a story about someone who deceived an orphan girl and went on to usurp her vast fortune. Even the fact that she became an orphan was due to the protagonist’s premeditated murder.
The task was to determine who the murderer was. Those who guessed correctly could share the prize indicated by the roulette, while the murderer would be punished. Those who guessed incorrectly would lose a portion of their tools.
If the murderer did not receive the most votes, the person with the most votes would take the punishment in their place. The only way for that person to save themselves was to correctly vote for the murderer.
There were many clues on the roulette.
Some were true, and others were false, clearly designed as a test of the participants’ intelligence.
There were eight people seated at the table at that moment.
The dazzlingly glamorous tycoon, the long-famous celebrity, the diligent bookworm, the graceful dancer… Some looked bewildered, some remained calm, while others were visibly consumed by worry.
Naturally, the one most visibly worried was “Chang Qing.”
Among everyone seated at the table, he stood out as the most out of place in the atmosphere.
Unsurprisingly, he became the prime target in the eyes of the other participants.
While portraying “Chang Qing,” Lu Xu infused the character with his own interpretations.
Although “Chang Qing” appeared worried and gave off the impression of an awkward, bookish figure, Lu Xu was determined to avoid the clichéd portrayal of a nerd often seen in film and television—thick glasses, greasy hair that hadn’t been washed in two weeks, and a massive bowl cut. Such depictions were far too stereotypical.
“Chang Qing” was simply someone deeply focused on a particular matter.
In this part of the story, it seemed as though he had no idea he would end up with the most votes.
When the final tally revealed that he had received a staggering five votes, “Chang Qing” looked panicked, unsure of whom to vote for. In desperation, he turned to the person next to him for help.
Seated beside him was Shi Xinshan.
Shi Xinshan had voted for Zou Yun.
Flustered, “Chang Qing” hurriedly wrote down Zou Yun’s name, as if entrusting his fate to Shi Xinshan.
This sudden turn of events caused Zou Yun to become the one panicking.
Zou Yun tried to maintain his composure and accused Shi Xinshan of influencing “Chang Qing,” but before he could finish, the mechanical voice revealed the truth of this round’s mystery—the murderer was indeed Zou Yun.
Because “Chang Qing” voted for Zou Yun, Zou Yun was the one to be punished. Meanwhile, the three participants who had voted for Zou Yun shared the grand prize for this round.
Though the others lost some of their tools, they were still able to claim a portion of the rewards.
The prize was an enormous sum of money, so large it was almost frightening. Even though the correct guessers received the lion’s share, the remaining participants still walked away with a considerable amount.
In the script of Deception, the game had a long history. Some had perished within its trials, while others had overcome its challenges to earn staggering wealth, returning to the world to live like kings.
The participants in this game came from various backgrounds. Some appeared to have lived lives of affluence and splendor. Yet, the fact that they chose to join this game meant they all faced enormous financial deficits.
Zou Yun tried to maintain his composure, laughing hysterically and claiming the punishments were all fake. However, in the next moment, he lost both of his hands.
The splattering blood and the transformation of Zou Yun’s laughter into screams were horrifying, but at this roulette table, such occurrences seemed almost ordinary.
The number of participants dwindled to seven. The only notable change was that Zou Yun was gone, and the bloodstained roulette table had been replaced with a new one.
…
Before filming this scene, Lu Xu muttered for quite a while, “Why are all the roles I take constantly surrounded by death?”
Yue Hui stared at him for a moment. “Maybe your image just fits the theme?”
Lu Xu retorted, “…Teacher Yue, could you say something nicer?”
While he might not look like Shao Yao—a paragon of virtue at first glance—he didn’t think he resembled the Grim Reaper either.
It could be said that while Deception revolved around the theme of winning money, the movie’s true focus was risking one’s life.
At the start, “Chang Qing” simply followed Shi Xinshan’s random choices. However, the second game introduced a “hide-and-seek” setup: the shorter the time it took for someone to be found, the quicker their demise. Participants had to locate the most optimal hiding spots in the area.
The game imposed a time limit for hiding—those who exceeded it automatically received a cash bonus.
This seemed like a ruse, but when a participant received the money, a screen within the game would display scenes of their loved ones reveling in joy after gaining the newfound wealth. For instance, in the first story, a wealthy man who secured a bonus used the funds to save his struggling company. Meanwhile, his mistress and their child left for a luxurious life abroad, and his wife tacitly accepted their existence, as he had regained his fortune.
If he hadn’t secured the money, his mistress and son would have been threatened or even killed by debt collectors, his wife would have divorced him, and the status he once held would have disappeared.
Though the game was cruel, it did serve a purpose.
In this round of the game, while the others were struggling to hide, “Chang Qing” once again made it through by pure luck.
According to him, the unfortunate soul who was punished in this round had a glowing ball fall from their side. Once this ball was picked up, the game organizers considered the player to have successfully hidden.
It was later revealed that this ball was actually one of the game’s props, though no one realized it at the time. “Chang Qing” simply had incredibly good luck and accidentally ended up holding the ball without even noticing.
At the beginning, he had been the weakest physically, while the others had already chosen their hiding spots. Yet, he was still desperately searching for a place to hide—a fact that the other participants could all see.
By the time the third and fourth rounds came around… it was clear that some participants were starting to sense something was amiss.
However, by then, “Chang Qing” had started to show his true colors.
To be honest, the setup of these games was quite mentally taxing and twisted. Gao Xingchuan deliberately rearranged the sequence, mixing up the game and the characters’ memories to add complexity to the film.
But thankfully, these elements were not randomly placed. The structure of the plot made sense within the narrative.
Of course, the actors in Deception were not just reciting lines. During filming, Gao Xingchuan and several of the screenwriters continuously modified the plot, and the actors were encouraged to offer feedback on the script. The goal was to produce a more exciting and engaging final film.
Filming itself could be rather dry, but the games depicted in the final cut were certainly intriguing.
…
As one of the actors in the film, Lu Xu often discussed the script with Yue Hui and the other cast members.
Deception had relatively few scenes and made efficient use of space. The special effects were where most of the budget went—whether it was the scene of Zou Yun having his hands severed with blood splattering or the moment when a defeated participant falls into a pit that explodes. These effects were achieved with the help of special effects.
However, Gao Xingchuan, who had previously made a low-budget film, was quite experienced in saving money.
Deception couldn’t afford to take as much time per frame as The Swordsman did, and Gao Xingchuan’s artistic pursuit was different from Zhang Zhizhen’s. He was more focused on creating an immediate rush for the audience when they watched the film, rather than seeking personal excitement from viewing the final cut himself.
The pace of Deception was fast.
A key benefit of the actors gathering to discuss the script was that, even though they hadn’t worked together before and didn’t fully understand each other’s acting styles, their increasing understanding of the script allowed them to gradually build rapport.
Yue Hui rarely made mistakes, and Lu Xu almost never did either. With the lead actors setting such an example, the shooting of Deception proceeded very smoothly.
Though the game setup in the script was complex, the actors initially didn’t fully grasp it when they first saw the script that day. However, as the discussions deepened, the game mechanics were fully broken down, and naturally, the actors were able to interpret the script on a deeper level and make different choices in their performances.
Given that Deception had a relatively intricate plot, Lu Xu spent quite a bit of time each day sketching out the game scenarios. He hardly had any time to focus on the outside world, except for occasionally hearing gossip from the Swordsman crew. Most of his time was spent watching films, both domestic and international, that were similar in genre to Deception.
This type of film wasn’t made often in China, but there were some representative works abroad.
Of course, Lu Xu didn’t forget to promote When I Was 18, either.
The popularity score of this drama surged in a way that was almost unbelievable, rising steadily from 13,000+ to 14,000+, and the final episode even broke 16,000+, nearly matching the popularity of Voice of the Dead.
[There’s something everyone seems to have forgotten: before The Path of Bones, it wasn’t so easy for a drama to break 13,000+ in popularity score.]
[…Lu Xu is just too popular, and it makes people think that breaking 10,000 in popularity score is the norm. But if you really look at the annual popularity charts, you’ll see that breaking 10,000 is actually very difficult.]
In the final episode, Huang Luning’s hurried steps running back home, paired with the warm, dim light inside his house, became one of the most memorable scenes of the year.
Before the finale, the attention on When I Was 18 had been slightly overshadowed by The Swordsman.
However, The Swordsman was a disaster so bad it gained worldwide attention, dominating trending topics. In any given year, there aren’t many works that can capture the spotlight solely because they are “bad,” but The Swordsman happened to occupy that space.
Because of Lu Xu, there was a connection between When I Was 18 and The Swordsman. Many viewers knew that Lu Xu accepted When I Was 18 right after rejecting The Swordsman.
One was a major director’s film, while the other was a television drama with a relatively average cast. Why Lu Xu chose to take on this project became a point of curiosity, and on the day of When I Was 18’s finale, trending topics seemed to offer some hints.
That day, two trending topics stood out: “The Meaning of Starting Over” and “Huang Luning is Finally Happy.”
In the first topic, many viewers shared crying emojis.
In the second topic, many viewers congratulated Huang Luning, a character who only existed in the drama, for finally finding happiness.
[So what? Huang Luning is happy now!]
It didn’t matter, because as long as Huang Luning was happy, that was all that mattered.