I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 182: Chapter 180: He Is a Good Person

Su Miaoyi stood at the door, listening for a moment before walking over to the group. ”And you are?”

The chatter immediately died down, and they all looked at each other.

Then, one of the men stepped forward. ”I’m the director of this show. My name is Wang Youxian.”

Su Miaoyi nodded, then glanced into the room just as Lu Zhishen was walking out.

She waved him over.

Lu Zhishen came over, and the two of them began their questioning together.

”Please, sit. Sit.” Wang Youxian had them make room, clearing two spots.

”No need, you can stay seated,” Su Miaoyi said. ”I overheard you saying that you wanted to pay respects before filming, but someone said it wasn’t necessary. Who was that?”

Wang Youxian glanced back into the room. ”That was Liu Namo. When filming a subject like this, it’s standard practice in our line of work to pay respects, for good luck and to ward off any misfortune. But Liu Namo said it was unnecessary, that there was no need for all that superstition, so we didn’t go. He’s the investor for this show, so we had to listen to him.”

As he spoke, Su Miaoyi observed his expression.

Cheng Jue remained standing where he was, watching her from a distance.

He watched the seriousness and sharpness revealed in her eyes.

Lu Zhishen asked, ”Was lying down inside it part of the original script?”

”Yes,” Wang Youxian said. ”The premise for this episode is that a wealthy family, the Zhai Family, used to live here. Their youngest son died unexpectedly, and because he wasn’t married, they found an opera singer for a ghost marriage. After that, more than twenty members of the household died tragically.”

”The story is that Liu Namo and the other four arrive here by accident and have to find the truth behind the massacre to escape.”

”What we were filming today was a reenactment of that ghost marriage. Liu Namo and Xu Jinlan were cast as the Zhai Family’s youngest son and the opera singer, respectively.”

”The side room over there has been opened. Take him inside and question him alone,” Zhuang Yanzheng said, walking over.

”Alright.”

Su Miaoyi and Lu Zhishen took Wang Youxian to the western side room.

After they sat down, Lu Zhishen asked, ”Were these roles assigned in advance, or did the cast choose them randomly?”

”We have two men and three women participating in the shoot,” Wang Youxian said. ”They randomly selected their roles after we wrapped filming on the last episode.”

”Our script is also written for three female and two male roles. The three women did a blind selection for the three female character roles, and the two men did a blind selection for the two male character roles.”

”After the roles were chosen, we would make some minor adjustments to the script for each person. After all, this is a variety show, not a TV drama, so aside from the main framework and story progression, many things can be adjusted at any time.”

”There’s also makeup and costumes. All of that has to be coordinated with their teams in advance and prepared before the shoot.”

”From what I understand, after the last episode wrapped, there was a three-day break before you started filming this one, the second episode,” Su Miaoyi said.

”That’s right,” Wang Youxian confirmed with a nod.

’So, even though the roles were chosen randomly, several days have passed since the selection.’

’The killer had plenty of time to prepare.’

Su Miaoyi asked another question. ”I noticed the others were wearing microphones. Why wasn’t Liu Namo?”

”Neither Liu Namo nor Xu Jinlan was wearing one,” Wang Youxian said. ”Xu Jinlan was terrified of lying in the coffin. She kept screaming and refused to cooperate.”

”Liu Namo and the crew tried to console her, but she threw a tantrum and refused to film.” Wang Youxian sighed. ”If this were the first day of shooting for this episode, I would have just replaced her for this role. But we’ve already been filming for several days, so the roles are completely locked in. It had to be her.”

Su Miaoyi and Lu Zhishen both stared at him.

”We tried to persuade her for a long time, but Xu Jinlan still wouldn’t continue with the shoot.” Wang Youxian sighed again. ”We were at a standstill for about an hour. In the end, Liu Namo took off his own mic, then took off Xu Jinlan’s, and pulled her to the back of the room.”

”To do what?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”The two of them are dating. Liu Namo was the one who got her on the show. She has no credits to her name; he’s just trying to launch a newcomer,” Wang Youxian said. ”As for going to the back of the room... probably to talk her down. We lost more than an hour. I’ve never encountered anything like this in my entire career, and I couldn’t be bothered to deal with them. If Liu Namo wasn’t the investor—someone I can’t afford to offend—I would never have let Xu Jinlan be part of this production.”

”How long did he spend persuading her?” Lu Zhishen asked.

”Ten minutes or so,” Wang Youxian said. ”After that, Xu Jinlan agreed to film. So we all hurried to get back in position and start shooting.”

”It was only after we started rolling that I realized neither of them was wearing a mic. I just thought, ’Well, at least we’re finally filming, so let’s not interrupt.’ It was just this one scene, and we could always dub the audio in post. So we just went ahead with it.”

Su Miaoyi looked at him, a question mark forming in her mind over his story.

’Hard to say if it’s true or not.’

”What was Liu Namo’s reputation in the industry?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”Excellent,” Wang Youxian answered quickly.

Su Miaoyi just looked at him.

”It really was excellent,” Wang Youxian said. ”Aside from changing girlfriends frequently, he was very generous with everyone around him, wasn’t pretentious, and was game for whatever we needed to shoot. His acting was pretty good too, and he was usually receptive to a director’s suggestions.”

”’Usually receptive’?” Su Miaoyi picked up on his carefully chosen words.

”He’s an investor. His family funds a lot of movies and TV shows. Most of the time he’d listen to advice, but occasionally... for instance, bringing his girlfriend onto the show, or adding a newcomer to the cast... on things like that, you had to listen to him.”

”How was his relationship with Xu Jinlan?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”Pretty good. Xu Jinlan would throw a little tantrum now and then, and he seemed quite happy to indulge her,” Wang Youxian said.

”Did he have any grudges or feuds with anyone here? Including the cast, the camera crew, props department, any of the staff?”

”No.” Wang Youxian shook his head. ”No conflicts or anything like that. And during breaks, he was almost always with Xu Jinlan and rarely interacted with anyone else. He hadn’t done many variety shows before; he only came because Xu Jinlan wanted to.”

”If you cooperate, you finish shooting early and get to go home early. Everyone wants to clock out sooner, so nobody’s going to stir up trouble on set. Because of that, everyone got along pretty harmoniously.”

Su Miaoyi nodded. ’That’s true, everyone wants to go home early.’ ”How long has the set in the main hall been up?”

”About two days,” Wang Youxian said. ”We’ve already shot a lot of other content before this.”

”And the coffin has been sitting there for both of those days?” Su Miaoyi asked.

Wang Youxian nodded. ”Yes. We weren’t using it like we did today, but it was needed as part of the background. And for wide shots.”

”Did anyone move it?” Lu Zhishen asked.

”No, it’s so heavy, who would move it? The props team put it there, and they definitely wouldn’t let anyone touch it,” Wang Youxian replied.

”I saw a lot of hidden cameras set up in that room. Are they usually left on?” Su Miaoyi asked.

”No, we turn them off when we’re not filming. We’d only leave the cameras running constantly for a slice-of-life observational show. For a show like ours, we generally turn them off unless we’re doing an official take or need some behind-the-scenes footage.”

Su Miaoyi nodded, continuing to ask questions while sorting through the clues she had gathered so far in her mind...