Yin Xinyue sounded embarrassed and explained. “We’ve cooperated in a drama before. We just have a normal friendship. Please don’t misunderstand.”

“I won’t.”

Although I comforted her, I still found that guy very irritating. No matter what, I would never have anything to do with this sort of person.

Li Mazi said, “Why do I always feel he’s somewhat feminine? Is he gay?”

“Shhh!” Yin Xinyue signaled at Li Mazi to lower his voice. “Do not say that in front of him, ever! One time, an assistant joked that he wasn’t manly enough. As a result, Yi Xi was so enraged that he didn’t join the filming for a whole week. At that time, the company suffered tens of thousands of renminbi in losses.”

We went to town to buy some supplies for the coming days. We also bought a pound of eels, a rooster, yellow papers, and salt. I saw they sold a line marker that carpenters used, so I bought that too. After the encounter last night, I thought I should be prepared.

Then, I went to get a Guan Yu statue for the director.

“Sir, do you know if any member of the royal family is buried in this place?” I asked the old man who sold the statues in front of a temple.

“Oh, this place has excellent geomancy. I heard that they buried the Prince of Lanling in the mountain!” The old man sounded proud.

The peddler selling roast sweet potatoes turned to refute his idea. “Don’t listen to him. The Prince of Lanling’s tomb is in Ci County. When did it come here?”

The two then began to quarrel. We didn’t want to join, so we quietly left.

Along the way, I told Li Mazi and Yin Xinyue, “I guess the thing the three ghosts were searching for last night is the Great Mask of the Prince of Lanling! That’s why they touched our faces.”

The prince’s real name was Gao Changgong. He was a member of the Northern Qi’s royal family during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. He was a famous high-ranking general in history.

Legend said that he was born with a feminine appearance but with the heart of a lion. Every time he walked out his door, women felt infatuated with him, and he was famous in history because of his good looks. However, he was still a general who had to lead his army. His beautiful appearance couldn’t help him earn respect from his soldiers. Moreover, his enemies laughed at him and said that Northern Qi didn’t have any good men to send to the battlefield, so they had to send a pretty boy instead.

Thus, whenever he fought in a battle, he wore a gruesome, ghostly mask. In a well-known battle where Northern Qi was surrounded by enemies, he headed to the besieged city with five hundred men, killing everyone in his path. The soldiers that guarded the city didn’t know who he was. When he took off his mask, people recognized he was the Prince of Lanling. Immediately, their fighting spirit was boosted. They killed their enemy’s army and secured the city.

Later on, the soldiers spread a song to praise their invincible Prince of Lanling. It was the famous classic, ‘Lanling Prince in Battle.’ To this day, Japanese people still perform that dance and address the Prince of Lanling as the Pretty Demon Prince.

The prince lived his life as a legend. He was also popular with the ordinary folks. A few years ago, they made a drama about him. Some people didn’t know where the Northern Qi dynasty was situated in the timeline of history, but they all knew of the Prince of Lanling!

“Little Brother Zhang, are you sure?” Li Mazi was excited.

“Pretty sure, around 80 or 90%. Moreover, I have a feeling that the mask isn’t in the police station.”

“How did you conclude that?”

“If they found the great mask of the Prince of Lanling, the press would have had a lot of things to tell about it. I often keep an eye on this sort of news. However, I haven’t seen or heard about it yet.”

The mask could still be on the mountain. Another possibility was that it was in the hands of someone in the film crew. I hoped it was the latter!

“But the uncle selling sweet potatoes said that the prince’s tomb is in Ci County,” said Yin Xinyue.

“Perhaps it’s just a fake burial mound. History details in books are sometimes wrong. I believe in my eyes more than the books! Anyway, when we get back to the filming location, we may find something,” I said.

Li Mazi sounded happy. “I can’t believe we might have an unexpected harvest on a trip like this. We should travel more often!”

“Nothing is certain yet. Don’t be excited too early.”

We had lunch in town before we returned to the filming location. When we arrived there in the afternoon, we saw people walking back and forth in the small town. People were wearing ancient costumes. I was surprised.

It turned out the filming had started. Those people were the walk-ons.

Yi Xi put on an ancient costume. He was acting in a small inn with the other actors. Although I didn’t have a good first impression of him, his acting was professional. It was completely different from how he acted before.

In this scene, the enemy came to find the protagonist’s father to take revenge, and they bumped into the protagonist in the inn. The protagonist decided to give them a lesson and make fun of them.

When their conversation reached the climax, Yi Xi slammed the table and took out his sword.

I thought that they would fight, but the director suddenly called, “Cut!”

“They always use stunt doubles for the fighting scenes. Yi Xi has never played the action scenes himself,” explained Yin Xinyue.

While his assistant was busy serving him, taking off his coat, and wiping his sweat, Yi Xi twisted a bottle cap and drank his mineral water. He then sneered. “Director, what kind of actors have you hired for this drama? Can they even act? I’m afraid I will lose my face if I cooperate with them.”

I admired this kid. It was as if he had two faces. How he appeared in dramas was very different from how he was in reality. He could shift between them so naturally.

The supporting actors looked irritated. However, they didn’t retort as they were afraid of Yi Xi. Only one man mumbled something.

Yi Xi heard that. He smashed the mineral water bottle in his hand and pointed at that mam, scolding, “You damn supporting role, what did you just say about me? You don’t want to work in this business anymore?”

The supporting actor blushed in embarrassment. “Watch your words. Moreover, who got to play the lead role at their first try? We are all actors, so why do you have to look down on us? And, don’t you remember how you got this protagonist role? I think you know it well.”

Yi Xi’s face darkened immediately. “I dare you to repeat that!”

When he said that, his face seemed to turn into that of another person for an instant. It was the ferocious face of a ghost.

The director and producer came over to deescalate the situation. A man in a black suit took Yi Xi away and tried to calm him. They looked close, and I felt they had a very good relationship. However, Yi Xi was still angry.

“Who is that?” I asked Yin Xinyue.

“Xiao Song, Yi Xi’s agent,” answered Yin Xinyue.

After a short break, the shooting resumed. A stunt double wearing the same costume as Yi Xi fought against the supporting roles. Yi Xi was chatting and laughing with his agent. He didn’t even watch the scene.

Yi Xi took the stage after the fighting scene, and they shot a few close-up scenes. If we added the editing work later, it would look like he acted in that fighting scene.

I made a rough calculation. This fighting scene in the inn would appear on TV for around five minutes, but it took more than two hours to film, excluding the time for preparations before the scene. It wasn’t easy to shoot a drama.

The director called ‘Cut’ and let people take a break. The actors then scattered.

All of a sudden, a loud noise came from the studio tent followed by someone screeching.

Everybody went over to the tent. It turned out one of the big rocker arms of the camera suddenly fell off. A camera that was dozens of kilograms fell right on an actor. Coincidently, it was the actor who had just quarreled with Yi Xi.

Yi Xi stood in the inn and slowly twisted the cap of his mineral bottle. He took a sip, and a cold sneer hung at the corner of his mouth. Once again, I saw the ferocious ghost face overlap his face.

I was completely sure that this man had a problem!