Literary Master: Starting with Refusing to Be a Child Star

Chapter 133 Long Time No See

The filming location for "The Magpie Murder Case" was a renovated film studio in the suburbs of Shanghai. There were two adjacent buildings there—one a replica of an old Shikumen building from the Republican era—which were converted into the study and reception room of detective Pound.

The other building was a modern-style office building, which became the editorial office of the publishing house where Susan worked.

The two buildings are separated by a narrow alley, less than a two-minute walk apart. The photographer and lighting crew carry equipment back and forth in this alley every day, like a long and silent relay.

Luo Jinnian went to the set in the second week after filming began. When he arrived, he happened to be there during an indoor scene from the Republican era, where Detective Pound was sitting in his study reading a letter.

The actor's name was Lu Baizhou. He was in his early forties, with a face perfectly suited to wearing gold-rimmed glasses. His expression was calm, and he spoke at a measured pace. He sat in a custom-made mahogany chair, holding a letter. The paper was old paper, slightly curled at the edges, and the handwriting was handwritten. The light from the window was filtered through a thin curtain, casting a soft, warm glow on the desk.

Lu Baizhou read the letter for a long time, so long that Luo Jinnian almost thought something was wrong on set. Then he put the letter on the table, looked up at the air opposite him—where the director had set up the cameras—and said a line in that direction, not loudly: "This letter wasn't written by the murderer."

Zhang Li did not call "cut" from behind the monitor.

He waited until Lu Baizhou looked away from the letter and out the window before slowly putting the letter down and softly saying "Pass."

Luo Jinnian stood in the corner watching them adjust their positions without saying a word.

During the lunch break, Luo Jinnian sat in the modern-day set with her lunchbox, waiting for her afternoon schedule.

After spending some time together, although it was hard to accept, the crew eventually accepted that this excessively young man was their direct superior.

Correspondingly, we also learned of his other identity: Early Spring Tea.

The actress who plays Susan is Xu Yuan, a solid actress who isn't particularly famous in the industry. She sat next to Luo Jinnian, holding a water glass, about a seat's distance between them. "You're here to visit the set?" she asked. Luo Jinnian replied, "Just checking in." Xu Yuan took a sip of water, and after a while asked again, "Do you think Susan's character is investigating cases simply to find the truth, or is it also to prove she wasn't deceived?"

Luo Jinnian paused, looking at her, "Do you want to hear the truth or the setting I wrote?"

"I want to hear them all."

"When I wrote it, I was thinking—she wanted to know if what she believed was true. She believed in the author's talent and the value of that posthumous work. If the secret hidden in that book turned out to be just a coincidence, she would feel that she had trusted the wrong person all these years."

After listening, Xu Yuan remained silent for a while, as if trying to see if the words fit her own character. Then she nodded: "Then for my scene this afternoon, I'd like to take one more take before making the call, is that alright?"

Professionals should be left to professionals.

Luo Jinnian said, "Just talk to Director Zhang directly," and Xu Yuan smiled and said, "I was just asking you."

The afternoon's filming was a key scene in the modern storyline, where Susan discovered a manuscript page with handwriting that was slightly different from the author's early handwriting.

Xu Yuan sat at her desk, a stack of loose pages spread out on it. She picked up one of them and looked at it against the light of the desk lamp, squinting slightly. Then she picked up another one to compare, put it down, placed the two side by side on the desk, and remained silent for a long time.

In the original script for that scene, she would call another character after comparing the two pieces of paper, but Xu Yuan did not pick up the phone immediately in that scene. She just sat there, looking at the two pieces of paper, her gaze moving from one to the other, and then back to the first one, her fingertips lightly touching the edge of the later handwriting on the first one.

Zhang Li didn't call "cut." He let the camera stay on camera for about ten more seconds, then Xu Yuan slowly picked up the phone, dialed, and paused before dialing. Zhang Li then called "Cut."

He truly deserves to be called a veteran actor; his sensitivity in acting is truly remarkable.

Zhang Li greatly appreciated the presentation.

After a day's work, as darkness fell, the crew began packing up cables and lights. The creaking sounds of pulling and footsteps gradually faded into the night. Luo Jinnian stood in the corridor on the second floor of the old Shikumen building, looking down.

The number of people in the courtyard is decreasing, the camera is covered with a dust cover, and the iron gate is slowly closing.

Zhang Li came up from downstairs and stood next to him. Luo Jinnian said, "Those two shots today were very good." Zhang Li replied modestly, "They're just part of my job."

"The actors also put in a lot of effort. When I watched them on the monitor, I saw that they were not only delivering their lines, but also deeply immersing themselves in their roles. This is more difficult and more important than any acting technique."

Luo Jinnian didn't reply. He stood there for a while, watching the outline of the courtyard house in the twilight, and then said, "Could you dim the streetlights in that alley? The scenes tonight will be filmed from the old building, and the lights in the editorial office across the street will be too bright."

Zhang Li said, "Have the lighting team adjust it tomorrow." Luo Jinnian nodded, turned around and walked down the stairs. His footsteps echoed in the empty stairwell for a while before gradually disappearing into the night.

By the third week of filming, the project had entered a phase where two storylines were progressing simultaneously. That phase was the most complex in terms of staging—when Susan in the modern storyline turned to a certain page of the manuscript, Pound in the Republican era storyline had to stop looking at that word at the same moment.

The two storylines are not directly causally related, but their rhythms must overlap; otherwise, the audience will clearly feel the abruptness of the switch.

During that period, Zhang Li spent a lot of time every day standing next to the monitor, repeatedly watching the superimposed effect of the two clips. Occasionally, he would ask the director of photography to place the already shot footage and the footage being shot side by side, align them according to the timecode, and compare them frame by frame.

The scene we filmed in the afternoon was set in the Republican era. In one scene, Pound discovers a key hidden behind a book in his study.

The key was aged by the props team; the copper teeth were polished until they shone.

After picking up the key, Lu Baizhou didn't look at it immediately. Instead, he glanced at the spot where the key was placed: the third shelf of the bookshelf, in the narrow gap between two old books.

After Zhang Li called "Cut," Luo Jinnian stood to the side watching the replay.

The veteran actors in "The Magpie Murder Case" all gave their all, and they understood the rarity of this opportunity better than the younger actors.

The fame of early spring tea has made countless actors famous, and they all cherish this opportunity.

The next day, the modern-day filming scene showed Susan researching in the library.

She sat at a long table by the window, with a stack of photocopies of old newspapers spread out in front of her, and was making notes in a notebook with a pencil.

Xu Yuan's acting style is completely different from Lu Baizhou's Republican-era storyline. She is faster and more expressive than Lu Baizhou, with her emotions written all over her face.

Her tension emanated from the way her shoulders were hunched, and the collar of her white shirt was slightly taut in the camera's view, like a silence that seemed ready to leave at any moment. This difference in rhythm was given by the roles they played.

Pound is an old-school detective who has everything under control, while Susan is a modern editor constantly torn between reality and suspense.

Standing beside him, Luo Jinnian watched their performance and was reminded of the place where the two storylines intersected in the final chapter of "The Magpie Murder Case," like two rivers that had traveled different routes but eventually flowed into the same lake.

It felt great.

Unlike the three different age groups in "Stranger Things" who eventually reunite, both are purely mind-bending and enjoyable.

Viewers who are hoping for this will probably jump for joy when they see this.

The footage shows that some details that Luo Jinnian did not explicitly write about in the original novel began to appear in the later Republican era storyline.

The props team added a mirror to Pound's study. This wasn't Luo Jinnian's request; it was Lu Baizhou who suggested it to Zhang Li during a break in filming.

He said that Pound's character needs a mirror when he is investigating old cases. "When he looks at those letters and testimonies, he needs to see himself in them. The answers to his deductions are not only derived from the outside, but are also partly suggested by his own reflection."

Psychological suggestion?

Symbol?

Regardless, Zhang Li did not reject the suggestion, but instead had the mirror installed on the wall diagonally opposite the desk.

This way, Pound's face won't be reflected directly in the shot, but it will cast a shadow from a specific camera position.

That shadowy figure later appears in several key scenes in the final cut, like another unspoken "second storyline," quietly observing the slow unfolding of the case.

During this period, Luo Jinnian noticed that Lu Baizhou had a fixed habit every time he went to the film set.

He would sit down in his study, put on his gold-rimmed glasses, and then sit silently in front of the mirror for about a minute.

It's like asking that "detective" to possess you.

This sounds mystical, but it's understandable for actors of this caliber to be a little superstitious.

Afterwards, he would close the mirror, take off his glasses, wipe the edges with a lens cloth, and then stand up and walk to the shooting position.

Once, Luo Jinnian was sitting at a distance observing his back when Zhang Li walked over and asked, "Are you looking at another version of me?"

Zhang Li followed his gaze and glanced over. "He needed that minute to cross a line, from Lu Baizhou to Pound's side. The mirror helped him find the location of that line."

Luo Jinnian did not respond.

The old man is a bit crazy.

We can only remain silent.

Zhang Li laughed heartily. If this was a joke, then he truly was a hard-working comedian. And quite talented at it.

Later in filming, Susan's modern-day storyline gradually gets closer to the truth of the case, and the pace of her dialogue begins to quicken.

Xu Yuan was noticeably more nervous during those few days of filming than before.

After filming a scene where she made a phone call, she sat in her chair without moving. After a while, she picked up the script, flipped to the last page, looked at it, closed it, and put it back on the table.

This is the terror and uncertainty of an unknown outcome.

Luo Jinnian was also at the scene that time. He noticed that Xu Yuan looked at the last page, which did not contain the final truth of the case, but only two words: "To be determined".

Luo Jinnian knew that the "pending" was an adjustment that Zhang Li had reserved before filming began, in order to prevent the actors from being confined by the uncertain ending during filming and to leave some room for uncertainty.

But he already knew in his heart that he would make a choice sooner than that.

On the day filming wrapped, it rained lightly in Shanghai.

The crew took their last group photo in front of the old Shikumen building. Zhang Li stood in the center, flanked by Lu Baizhou and Xu Yuan. Luo Jinnian stood on the edge, holding an unopened umbrella. The rain was light, falling on their hair like a fine mist.

He walked alone for a short distance in the twilight. A few sycamore trees by the roadside, stripped of their leaves, swayed slightly in the wind, and streetlights gradually lit up in the distance through their branches.

A young girl stood at the end.

It's Fei Yuxi.

She smiled and tilted her head: "Long time no see."

"7