Male Sing and His Pet Owner: Chapter 123

The plum rain season arrived, and Province E began to see continuous rainfall. The air always carried a faint sense of dampness and stickiness.

Zhao Kaile went back to the car to find something for Zhan Hang. Ding Peng had originally been sitting in the car dozing off, but the moment he saw him return he immediately straightened his body and greeted him, “Brother Le, hello!”

“You sleep, it’s fine.” Zhao Kaile smiled and said, “It’s been overcast and rainy lately.”

Ding Peng said listlessly, “Yeah, I get sleepy as soon as it rains…”

He then let out another yawn.

Zhao Kaile got a bit sleepy from his contagious yawning too. Just as he was holding back his desire to yawn and found what Zhan Hang wanted, the phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated. He received a message from Song Yiming.

Song Yiming: Did Zhan Hang offend someone recently?

Zhao Kaile instantly woke up, his sleepiness completely gone, and replied: What do you mean?

Song Yiming: Someone wants to mess with him, seems like it’s related to something with his family. What’s going on with his family?

Zhao Kaile: Nothing much, where did you hear these things?

Song Yiming: Yesterday Sister Min took me to the boss’s place to have dinner with so and so, and then a few more people came… they also looked like investor bosses, probably got drunk.

Zhao Kaile: Okay, you haven’t told anyone else, right?

Song Yiming: Of course, I’m not stupid! The first thing I did when I woke up today was tell you guys, but that dead poker face Zhan Hang ignored me.

Zhao Kaile couldn’t help laughing, replied with a pat on the head sticker, then got out of the car and closed the door.

When he returned to the rest tent, Zhan Hang was still on set rehearsing with the female lead.

This scene was the female lead’s monologue, only her shots needed to be filmed. But she really couldn’t find the feeling, so Zhan Hang stood to the side rehearsing with her.

The director sat before the monitor screen and nodded approvingly. “Zhan Hang is pretty good, not arrogant or impatient.”

“With so many eyes watching in public, even if it’s an act you have to act the part…” The producer came over with hands behind his back, said in a teasing tone. “He has quite a temper when it counts.”

The director said with some disagreement. “As long as the acting is good, I don’t care about the rest.”

The assistant director nearby shouted cut into the walkie talkie, then came over to ask the director if this take was good.

“Okay.” The director looked at the screen and said, “For the next scene, I think let the female lead’s stunt double go on. This weather, it’s suffering.”

The next scene was the female lead climbing a tree and accidentally falling. The tree wasn’t high, not to the point of needing wires, but the director clearly still didn’t dare take even the slightest risk, insisting on using a double. The female lead was somewhat unhappy, and took it out on the assistant director.

“Isn’t it just climbing a tree?” She frowned and asked, “If Zhan Hang catches me from below, does he need a stunt double too?”

The assistant director said, “That won’t be necessary. After the fall, cut to a few close ups, then cut directly to the shot of him holding you and spinning around a couple times.”

The female lead said with some dissatisfaction, “If he doesn’t need one, I don’t need one either.”

The assistant director: “…….”

The makeup artists nearby came up to touch up the two leads. The female lead’s assistant brought over water and also started persuading her, “Xinxin, it just rained outside, the tree is a bit damp. Let the double go on.”

Mo Xin impatiently swatted her hand away. The cup fell to the floor with a crisp sound, hot water instantly splashing all over the assistant. Several people nearby went quiet for a moment, then tacitly pretended not to see and continued with what they were doing.

The assistant was startled for a moment, then smiled apologetically and said, “I’ll go get another cup.”

Mo Xin frowned and said, “Get what get?! My shoes got splashed wet!”

The assistant apologized repeatedly to placate her, then half squatted down to pull out tissues to wipe her shoes, and asked softly, “If you want to do it yourself, should we change shoes?”

Mo Xin made a reluctant sound of agreement at this. Changing to a more slip resistant shoe was indeed a guarantee for her own personal safety.

Seeing her mind was made up, the director had no choice but to instruct the on site staff to lay out a series of anti fall injury safety mats and protective equipment nearby. The cinematographer watched with a face full of black lines.

“Just have post production fix it later, right? And when filming, don’t scan the feet.” The director said, “Don’t just stand there, prepare for the next scene.”

Everyone present couldn’t help but feel a mix of schadenfreude and sympathy for the editor rising in their hearts.

Zhan Hang stood not far away, stretching his muscles while repeatedly reciting the lines he would say in a moment in his head. His gaze naturally drifted toward Zhao Kaile’s direction. Zhao Kaile was replying to messages with a serious expression. After finishing, he looked up and met Zhan Hang’s gaze, immediately relaxing his brows and smiling at him.

“……” Zhan Hang suspiciously raised an eyebrow, waved his hand to signal him to come over.

Zhao Kaile had no choice but to go over awkwardly.

Zhan Hang asked, “What happened?”

“Let’s talk after wrap.” Zhao Kaile said, “It’s nothing major. What are we filming next? Do you need me to help you warm up?”

Zhan Hang said politely, “No need.”

Anyway, I practice on you every day.

Zhao Kaile earnestly straightened his clothes and checked his makeup for him, completely unaware of what he was thinking. After finishing, he retreated off set.

The light rain continued without end. The raindrops were extremely small, so it didn’t really affect filming much. But Mo Xin still felt uncomfortable getting rained on, so the director had to direct people to set up a temporary rain shelter above, then relight the scene to make the lighting similar to natural light.

The actress playing the maid followed Mo Xin hurrying through the corridor. The two recited their lines, then looked left and right. Mo Xin lifted her skirt and walked to the tree in the courtyard, stepped on the trunk with her foot, seeming to test whether it was sturdy. The maid hurriedly followed to persuade her not to be impulsive, that if she went out like this again and was discovered by the master and madam, she would be punished again. Mo Xin playfully stuck out her tongue, signaling her not to talk too much, and climbed up on her own. The maid saw the persuasion was useless, so she could only carefully wait below.

Mo Xin was a dance major, so climbing a tree was no problem for her. The only dangerous point in this scene was the series of shots where she falls and lands in the male lead’s arms.

The male lead played by Zhan Hang and three supporting actors playing familiar friends were chatting and laughing as they passed through the back gate of the courtyard wall. He casually looked up and saw a slender young woman in an ungraceful posture straddling the courtyard wall along the tree trunk. A broken tile fell from under her foot and shattered at everyone’s feet, startling the few scholars passing by.

One person let out a cry of alarm. This sound also startled the young lady climbing the wall. Her foot slipped and she made a motion to fall.

Zhan Hang was startled, then immediately raised his hand to catch her.

According to the script, Mo Xin should fall toward the outside of the wall, landing right in Zhan Hang’s arms. But somehow she let out a scream of alarm, and when falling backward she reflexively grabbed a rope hanging among the leaves, failing to fall down.

The director: “Cut! What happened?”

Several people were confused. Zhan Hang, who had reached out to catch her, was also stunned, then reacted, saying in a joking tone, “I said it so many times before filming, I can catch you, don’t worry.”

The supporting actors all smiled understandingly, giving Zhan Hang face, and chimed in one after another.

But Mo Xin hissed and frowned, saying, “No… I think I stepped on something, my foot hurts a bit…”

She tugged the rope, trying to use it to stand straight. Unexpectedly, this pull, combined with her body weight, directly ripped the knot open and brought the entire shelter roof down with it. No one was prepared for this. The rain shelter crashed down with a thunderous sound. Mo Xin immediately screamed and tumbled down, her mind going completely blank.

Off set, Zhao Kaile was looking down at his phone, still reporting the news he had just received to Bai Li.

The information Song Yiming gave was too vague. Zhan Hang had openly and secretly offended countless rivals along the way. After his popularity rose, even more people saw him as a thorn in their side, a stumbling block on their path forward. Such a brief warning actually couldn’t provide Zhan Hang with any substantial help.

Zhao Kaile hadn’t had time to read the reply Bai Li sent when he heard a crash from the set, followed by screams and an uproar. He looked up in shock and saw the rain shelter on the filming set had collapsed.

When the rain shelter collapsed, only the two supporting actors furthest away got out in time. The rest were pinned under the shelter.

Everyone immediately stopped filming and started talking over each other. Several people rushed forward, working together to lift the fallen shelter. The two supporting actors struggled to crawl out, both with pale faces, clearly frightened.

Mo Xin’s assistant was anxiously screaming on the side, “Xinxin!”

A male staff member pushed her aside and advised, “Don’t panic first, make way, someone already went to call an ambulance.”

“Don’t just stand there, all of you get up here and lift!” The director’s face was red with anxiety, he himself rolled up his sleeves and squeezed into the crowd, shouting, “Don’t panic!! Save people first!”

A male voice shouted, “One more person! Lift together!”

Zhao Kaile couldn’t believe it. He stood frozen in place for a few seconds, then took off his shoulder bag and casually threw it on the ground, quickly ran into the set, squeezed to the man’s side, gritted his teeth and worked together with several people to lift the connected metal shelter roof.

The bottom piece was lifted, and everyone finally saw the figures of the two leads.

Zhan Hang was face down, in a protective posture shielding Mo Xin’s head, both hands pressed against the ground supporting himself for a long time. Only when he felt people approaching did he collapse as if all his strength had drained. Mo Xin was lying on the soft mat with a pale face, her eyes wide open, her face covered in tears, breathing rapidly, clearly frightened badly. Only when she saw everyone did she speak in a trembling voice, “Save him… save him…”

When Zhao Kaile rushed to Zhan Hang’s side, he accidentally tripped on a steel pipe and nearly knelt on the soft mat. He tremblingly helped the person up, and when he did, he felt a handful of blood on the other side of Zhan Hang’s neck.

At this moment, Zhao Kaile felt his heart nearly stop beating.

“Brother Hang…” His ears rang for a long time, the surrounding noise of questions not entering his ears at all.

Half of Zhan Hang’s face was covered in blood, but he struggled to move his lips and said something to him.

Zhao Kaile’s eyes were full of tears, his whole body shaking from crying. Only on the second time did he hear clearly what Zhan Hang was saying.

“Don’t be afraid.” Zhan Hang said to him. “I won’t die.”