Release that Man

Chapter 356: This Movie Has Such Interesting Names

Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97

An itinerary was not as private as one’s mobile, laptop, or USB. How many scandals could arise from the loss of an itinerary?

The leak of work arrangements, other than the possibility of being mobbed by crazed fans, would not lead to anything more serious. However, Long Mingxin’s situation was slightly different. He was the main character of the movie, so his schedule was basically the shooting schedule for the entire film crew. Where to set up the scene, which studio they were using, just by looking through Luo Mingxin’s itinerary with the help of several behavioral psychologists, one could grasp such information easily.

Therefore, to prevent any sensitive information from falling into the hands of Luther’s people, Ye Shuang thought that it was best for Luo Mingxin to retrieve his itinerary. Thankfully, after Luther was taken back to Madam Grace’s lair, the man’s bodyguards were too busy trying to find out a way to save their boss to care about the two cars abandoned in their ground.

Furthermore, one of them belonged to Madam Grace. Who would be so brave as to take advantage of her‽

“So sorry for troubling you, Madam. We’ll go and find your people in a minute. Mainly, it’s because one of my friend’s personal items has been left inside the car, and we would like to retrieve it.”

After Ye Shuang went into the room to change her voice to make the call, Han Chu outside found a familiar police officer, and the latter was giving Luo Mingxin’s assistant his phone number. After the local police got the car back from Madam Grace, the officer would contact Luo Mingxin’s assistant to take it back.

“This sure is troublesome.” After dealing with everything, Ye Shuang could not help but sigh. “So, we’re asking the police to help a member of mafia negotiate the return of the cars from another member of the mafia. Will the local police just capture all of them with this opportunity?”

“They won’t because there’s no evidence,” Han Chu said calmly. “Even though everyone knew what was happening, they can’t do much without evidence. As long as they don’t push too far, everyone will pretend like nothing’s wrong. After all, there’s the embassy and the law watching over them.”

If they pushed it too far, even though it still would not make a civil case, once they provoked the agents, it was not beyond the agents to ‘make’ a few accidental deaths. The assistant was sent away to pick up the car, so Luo Mingxin was given a ride by Ye Shuang to the set. This was perfect because Ye Shuang planned to go there as well.

...

The director was screaming, but this was perfectly normal. Other than the rare occasion when the shooting was running smoothly, the director was always screaming. So, other than the actor who was named to be scolded, everyone else had mastered the ability of ignoring this. They would laugh and continue with their lives, provided that their laughter was not too loud and attracted the director’s ire.

“This is our crew’s 3D printer.” While the director was exploding, Luo Mingxin led Ye Shuang to a dark room. There were a mess of props cluttering up the room with some space cleared around the machine in the middle. The corner next to the machine had several bags and paper boxes. Ye Shuang opened a random one to look, and it was filled with printing material. Blocks of nylon, twines of resin, and the most interesting one was some metallic dust.

“This can work with metallic materials?” Ye Shuang reached in to touch the dust. She rubbed on it and frowned.

Luo Mingxin nodded. In his acting costume, he leaned against the half-closed door. One, this was easier for communication, and two, he was on the lookout. “A 3D printer on the market costs around 20,000 RMB and 100,000 RMB at most, but this one here costs about 3,000,000 RMB... There’s not much of a market for items like that.”

Ye Shuang sighed as she looked around. She found an old computer covered in cloth. She plugged in the power and pulled the cloth back. While she operated the machine, she asked, “Your Prop Manager has been detained already, so who is currently operating this machine? Are the new blueprints for the props needed by the crew designed on this computer?”

Luo Mingxin did not stop her. “Yes, they now use this computer, but I don’t think you’ll be able to find anything. Other than using it to print stuff, the staff come to play games on it, so if there was a hidden secret, it would have been exposed already.”

“That might not be true.” Ye Shuang pouted and logged into QQ to summon Anthony. A techno whiz like Anthony was online twenty-four hours a day. In less than half a minute, he replied, and Ye Shuang explained the situation to him. The next minute, the control of the computer was taken over.

Abandoning the computer, Ye Shuang stood up to tell Luo Mingxin, “We’ll need to give Tony some time to go through the files. When’s your next scene?”

They opened the door wider, and the director’s roaring drifted over clearly. Luo Mingxin listened for a while and shook his head. “From the sound of it, there’s still some waiting to be done. It won’t be my turn for some time.”

The one being ‘taught’ by the director was the female lead. She played an unimportant role in the movie, so the investor decided to handpick a C-list celebrity that he liked. There was nothing that the director could do but accept it. Such was the nature of the movie industry nowadays—plenty of roles for guys but not so much for girls. The situation was better for television series, but most of the female actors played the background on the silver screen.

The director already had a low demand for the female lead because hiring an A-list to play a background role would have been a waste anyway. However, much to his chagrin, this small actress was even worse than he had expected.

Most of the lighter scenes could be edited in post, but there had to be some heavier scenes in the movie. Therefore, it was only natural for the film progress to be stuck on the actress when it came to the serious scenes. After that, she was scolded by the director, who would not just let things pass like that.

That day, Luo Mingxin only had a few scenes, but since they were all with the female main character, Luo Mingxin had nothing else to do but rest and lead Sister Shuang on a tour around the set. After all, he was not the one holding up the shoot.

Ye Shuang and Luo Mingxin left the room and glanced at the plainclothes who had not been called back yet. They moved to the resting area and whispered to each other, “Other than the printer, what else did your Prop Manager deal with?”

“There are so many.” Luo Mingxin pointed around the set. “He was the one responsible for all the props you see. Even though he might not be personally responsible for all of them, they would have gone through his hands. If there’s a few important ones, most of the commonly-used props by the leads are his creations as well, but I believe what you’re looking for wouldn’t be so out in the open.”

“You’re right.” Ye Shuang nodded in agreement.

The crew updated their props very quickly. After all, most of them were not expensive. If there was damage, they would change for a new one, as long as the change was not visible on the screen. Furthermore, with the 3D printer, coming up with a replica was as easy as ABC.

Ye Shuang tried to think. “Then, is there anything that you guys often used before but stopped using after he was captured?”

She paused and then added, “I mean, things that aren’t that eye-grabbing, stuff that wasn’t confiscated by the police.”

Luo Mingxin rubbed his chin to think for a while. “Now that you mention it...”

He went into a pause after that like he was trying to remember the details. Then he stood up to take Ye Shuang to see the thing.

Unfortunately, he only took two steps before the director turned to roar at him, apparently done with his lesson for the actress. “XX, get over here! We’re reshooting the scene earlier.”

Luo Mingxin paused. Ye Shuang asked, “Why are we stopping?”

“The director is calling me.” Luo Mingxin sighed. XX was his name in the movie, so calling XX was calling him.

Sighing, Luo Mingxin pointed at a lucky member of staff who was passing by and told Ye Shuang, “This is our night watchman. He should know where everything is stored. Go and ask him to show you to the storeroom... Look through it on your own first, and I’ll come help you after I’m done here.”

“Brother Luo?” The member of staff was still confused. “But the director already said that we’re not selling those flawed items!”

“...” Ye Shuang.