The sun came out.
Yet those beneath the sun still felt not a shred of warmth; instead, a chill crept down their spines.
Wang Hao's mouth was covered in blood as he wound up his arm and delivered a vicious slap across the face of the burly man standing taller than him. The burly man stared back with wide, angry eyes, teeth clenched in fierce defiance.
"Slap! Slap! Slap!"
In the plaza of over a hundred people, only the crisp sound of slaps remained.
Li Mu watched this coldly.
Damn it, a bunch of ungrateful traitors.
They really took him for a pushover and figured they could bully him to death, didn't they? When they saw one of their own getting beaten, not only did they refuse to help, but they wouldn't even lift a finger.
Instead, they just stood around stoking the flames and jeering.
Li Mu felt an urge to slap every single one of these onlookers.
While he was seething with these thoughts, Wang Hao stopped, wiped the blood from his mouth, and said to Li Mu, "I'm done beating him, Brother Mu."
Li Mu waved a hand for Wang Hao to go clean up his wound, then turned his gaze to the burly man. "Get lost! We're even now, and you're not staying on this crew anymore. Go wherever you want."
The burly man spat out a glob of bloody saliva and turned to walk out of the production set without looking back.
Everyone watched the burly man, whose face was swollen like a pig's head, and shivered with dread.
This mild-looking young man wasn't such an easy pushover either.
Ma San walked into the middle of the area, pointed at the gawkers, and cursed angrily, "Are you all pigs? When you see a fight break out, you don't even know how to break it up? Do you seriously have to wait until someone gets beaten to death before you're happy?"
The crowd looked ashamed, lowering their heads one by one.
"Everyone who was just watching gets a day's pay deducted! If there's a next time, get the hell out of here immediately!"
The faces of the extras and crew members turned green.
Especially the extras; didn't they slave away all day just to earn some hard-earned cash? Having a whole day's pay docked meant their day's work went for nothing, and the heartache was indescribable.
At this moment, Li Mu consulted with Ma San, "Third Brother, deducting a whole day is a bit much. How about just half a day? These people don't have it easy either."
The extras' eyes lit up, and they cast grateful looks toward Li Mu.
Ma San furrowed his brows in thought for a moment, looked up at the crowd, and pointed at Li Mu as he yelled, "What are you staring at? Why aren't you thanking Brother Mu? Is this how you damned well repay him?!"
"Thank you, Brother Mu," the extras and crew members shouted in unison.
Li Mu regained his composure, motioned for his subordinates to clean up the blood on the ground, and turned to walk toward the office building with Ma San.
...
Back on the sofa, they sat down comfortably.
Ma San looked at Li Mu and sighed leisurely, "You played the good cop, and left all the bad cop duties to me."
Shedding his previous fury, Li Mu smiled warmly as he poured Ma San a cup of tea, trying to smooth things over. "They're all just hard-luck cases, so I figured we shouldn't make things difficult for them unless necessary. Besides, Wang Hao let off some steam, and the guy got punished, so letting it rest here is best for everyone."
Ma San nodded with a chuckle, quite satisfied with Li Mu's adaptability just now.
It not only established his authority but also made his subordinates feel deeply indebted to him—such methods were truly impressive.
"At first, I really thought you, greenhorn that you are, were going to call the cops," Ma San joked.
Li Mu dismissively waved a hand. "Call the cops over a petty mess like this? I'm not a three-year-old child running to bother the men in blue over triviality; a man has a man's way of solving problems."
When he mentioned calling the police earlier, it was purely to scare the burly man.
Just as Mr. Lu Xun once said: If you want to open a window, they will most likely oppose it. But if you threaten to rip the roof off, they will probably agree to the window.
The smile on Ma San's face grew even wider, and he nodded with satisfaction. "You're getting more and more like a seasoned veteran."
"It's all thanks to Third Brother's teaching," Li Mu replied with a smile.
While the two of them were talking, Third Brother's phone rang. Third Brother motioned for Li Mu to be quiet, then answered the call, responding respectfully, "Yes, right, right, everything's been handled. Nothing major, Xiao Mu handled it brilliantly."
"Yes, he's right here with me."
"Right now?"
"Alright, I'll have him go up to see you right away."
With that, Third Brother hung up the phone and looked at Li Mu.
"Let's go, Director Jiang wants to see you. You know the way, go on up by yourself," Third Brother said with a chuckle.
"Alright, understood." Li Mu stood up from his seat, bowed deeply to Third Brother, and walked out of the room.
...
Jiang Wen's office.
A long table, a few chairs.
Jiang Wen sat back in his chair with his arms crossed, looking up at Li Mu with a relaxed expression as he listened to his report.
"It wasn't anything major, just a top-billed extra putting on airs and having a little friction with a floor manager on my team. I fired the troublemaker, and that's the end of it." Li Mu stood straight, reporting to Jiang Wen in a firm, resolute tone.
Jiang Wen uncrossed his arms and asked, "I heard you almost came to blows with someone today?"
"I'm a civilized man. I use my mouth, not my fists," Li Mu replied with a smile.
Jiang Wen nodded, raised a single finger, and warned, "That sort of thing is very common on a film set, and you'll encounter plenty more of it in the future. I hope you can remain as calm in the future as you were today."
"Understood." Li Mu flashed a bright smile.
"Alright, stop standing there like a pillar, find a seat and sit down." Jiang Wen waved a hand, motioning for Li Mu to sit across from him. "You've been on the crew for six or seven days now. How is it? How does it compare to your time in school?"
Looking at Jiang Wen, Li Mu smiled and answered, "It's a huge difference. It's much harsher than school."
At school, teachers at least wouldn't resort to personal attacks, and they rarely issued commands like orders. But on a film set, if you don't know how to do something or mess things up, you could get kicked out the door at any second.
It's like walking on thin ice.
Jiang Wen laughed, patting Li Mu on the shoulder. "A film production spends real money. At school, if a single shot has a flaw, the teacher might criticize you a bit at most.
But in a movie, a single mistake on your part might force the entire crew to pay the price for that blunder together, which is why we must strive for perfection."
"I understand," Li Mu replied.
After the brief exchange, Li Mu deliberately steered the conversation toward the film.
The film Let the Bullets Fly was adapted from the novel The Tale of Stealing an Official, which mainly tells the story of a young Zhang Muzhi being persecuted by local gentry, heading up the mountains to become a bandit, and eventually buying an official title to become a county magistrate.
Jiang Wen had made adaptations to those source events.
After beating around the bush for a while, Li Mu offered Jiang Wen a wry smile and suggested, "Second Uncle, why don't you add another mounted bandit?
Look at it this way, your movie ends with you all by yourself. If you add another mounted bandit, you can have that bandit return to the mountains with you at the end."
"An ending like that carries a better implication than you going back to the mountains alone."
With that, Li Mu gazed expectantly at Jiang Wen.
Jiang Wen smiled thoughtfully and shook his head. "No, other things can be changed, but this ending cannot be altered by even a fraction. If it's changed, my movie loses its flavor and won't convey the original meaning."
"So basically, you cooked the whole batch of dumplings just for this one drop of vinegar!" Li Mu exclaimed in mock astonishment.
Jiang Wen gave an awkward cough and changed the subject. "Alright, alright, let's stop talking about the movie for now. I have someone else here; go pick him up and bring him to the set tomorrow."
"Pick up who?"
"Ge You."
"Got it, Second Uncle."