The four members of the Blue Team had changed into their armour and were standing in front of the cameras, ready to follow the S...
The four members of the Blue Team had changed into their armour and were standing in front of the cameras, ready to follow the Second Assistant Director’s and Director’s instructions. As extras, their only task was to take their assigned positions.
Then they mounted their horses.
They followed the designated route, raising their broadswords high as they went.
They charged towards the enemy.
The two armies were about to face each other across the battlefield, ready for a great battle to erupt at any moment!
In the vast battle scene, people were constantly fighting one another.
Using a combination of rail-based camera tracking and aerial drone footage, the production attempted a one-take sequence designed to fully expose the grim brutality of the war scenes.
However, the With Dreams cameramen had not prepared such professional equipment in advance.
The cameramen could only find a stool to stand on and struggled to keep the four Blue Team members in frame.
Even without prior instruction from Director Zheng, Liu Jun, the chief cameraman responsible for the Blue Team, knew he had to follow Bao Ruanruan.
It would be best if he could capture her most impressive moments!
But…
Suddenly, the image in the livestream began to shake.
Then the anxious voices of three or four With Dreams cameramen, who normally never spoke, rang out.
“Has anyone seen Teacher Bao?”
“No! Has anyone seen her? I can only see Qu Feifei and the other two!”
“Teacher Bao was still in the shot when the Second Assistant Director called for them to begin! But now she…”
Where was she?
They had somehow lost her.
The camera had practically lost focus.
It began conducting a carpet-style search1 from left to right.
Judging from the livestream, the main battlefield was roughly the size of an athletics track.
And now she was... gone.
[ …Did they lose my kiddo? ]
[ You’ve got to be kidding me. Camera Bro…wake up! ]
[ Good grief! Let’s open our eyes wide and help Camera Bro find her. ]
[ Emmmmm, I never expected that watching a variety show would remind me of those old games on 4399🔗… ]
[ Same here! Are we playing Anipop🔗, Lianliankan🔗, or Spot the Difference? ]
All the viewers posting scrolling comments seemed to be staring at the screen with their eyes wide open.
Among the ten, twenty, and eventually hundreds of soldiers passing through the shot…everyone searched for Bao Ruanruan together.
But then, there was a long silence.
[ 1,000 years later~ ]
[ I've gone blind from looking! Still no sign of my kiddo! ]
[ She couldn't have died or been eliminated already, could she? ]
[ Is that her—the fair-skinned soldier? ]
The viewers could not really be blamed. With all the soldiers wearing armour and helmets, it was genuinely impossible to tell whether they were fat or thin.
Furthermore, the camera was filming downward from a slight elevation. Because of the slightly overhead angle, the differences in height among the mounted soldiers were not obvious.
Bao Ruanruan, however, had fair skin. Among the crowd of extras shouting and fighting in Hengcheng, she should have stood out like an incandescent lamp suspended in the night sky2 .
One by one, everyone's attention turned to all the fair-skinned soldiers.
But that person was not her.
Nor was that one either.
[ None of them is her. None of their facial features is as striking as Kiddo Ruan… ]
[ Can I say something? It was only after playing this 'Find Bao Ruanruan' game that I realised how beautiful she is! These soldiers simply can’t compare. ]
[ I found Feifei! Lu Wenhao is beside her, too. ]
[ I can see Zhen Xuan too! He’s roaring and waving his red-tasselled spear around. Aiyo! He’s been stabbed—he staggered! ]
[ Feifei has been hit too! Help! ]
[ Ah, Brother Lu…has died too. He died so quickly! ]
Following the Second Assistant Director's instructions, all three Blue Team members had 'died in battle'.
The camera now searched for Bao Ruanruan even more vigorously.
Good grief!
The viewers’ competitive fighting spirit had been aroused.
How could tens of millions of online viewers fail to locate one person among a hundred?
It would have been understandable if she had been plain-looking, but she was a beautiful woman. How could everyone have missed her?
Separated by internet connections and scattered throughout the country, none of them knew one another.
Yet, at that moment, they started working together!
[ Sweep the camera across them one more time! Please! This time, I’ll focus on the three people at the bottom of the first row on the left! Everyone else, claim the next sections in order! ]
[ Then I’m number two! I’ll watch the three people at the top of the first row on the left! ]
[ I’ll take the second row… ]
[ I'll take the third row. ]
[ I’ll join the first row on the right. ]
[ First row on the right, +13. ]
[ Second row on the right—raising my hand! ]
Who could have anticipated this?
The viewers were remarkably good at interacting.
Even without anyone guiding them, the viewers’ potential was limitless.
Inside the director’s vehicle, Zheng Mingchang had nearly dropped his teapot in alarm when Bao Ruanruan disappeared. After sitting up abruptly, he saw what the audience was doing and nearly teared up.
What wonderful viewers!
With all of you supporting With Dreams, the show truly never had to worry about its ratings.
He didn't even want to take a break anymore. He was prepared to beg if necessary, just to get Bao Ruanruan to start filming the second season immediately, with no break between productions.
She truly was a treasure.
Even her disappearance became a source of unexpected entertainment and a treasure trove4.
Director Zheng immediately stopped feeling anxious.
He leaned back in his chair, but after a moment, he sat up straight in alarm. “Could she have never entered the battlefield? That girl couldn’t have deserted at the last moment, could she?”
The director was not the only one thinking this. The viewers gradually began thinking the same thing.
Even after another sweep of the battlefield, they still could not find her.
Everyone began to grow suspicious.
[ Could Kiddo Ruan have never appeared in the shot at all? ]
[ Ah, we didn’t see them enter earlier because the camera was filming the Red Team. I’m crying. ]
[ Surely we didn’t go through all that searching for nothing, right? 233335. ]
“Cut!”
Li Dong, the drama’s director, shouted through a megaphone.
The entire scene finally came to a stop.
Some people sheathed their swords and spears, while others climbed up from the ground and brushed the dust from their bodies.
Assistants went forward to help control the horses.
Make-up artists approached the lead actors to touch up their make-up and wipe away their sweat.
The area became chaotic, with heads and bodies moving everywhere in a dense crowd.
The confusion did not last long. The livestream camera moved towards the drama director’s monitor.
As it hurried over to the director, PD Liu Qiu’s breathless voice could be heard.
“I’m sorry, Director Li. We’ve interrupted your work.”
Li Dong turned and entered the shot.
He did not appear flustered. A faint, self-satisfied smile appeared on his broad, square face.
“This is a social event where we help one another. No one is inconveniencing or imposing upon anyone else.”
He had received four extras completely free of charge.
During the busy season, when Hengcheng was short of extras, a single person could cost at least three to five hundred yuan a day.
With four people, he had saved at least a thousand yuan.
The Second Assistant Director had also said that Bao Ruanruan wanted to continue acting the next morning. That would be wonderful.
Recently, Kunning had received a respectable number of views, and it was ranked third among domestic dramas in terms of discussion.
Discussion was especially intense during the episodes leading up to the seductive consort, played by Bao Ruanruan, going offline6.
Now that Bao Ruanruan was willing to work as an extra on his set, things were going better than he could have wished for.
“Director Li, could you provide the footage of our four cast members to the With Dreams production team?” Liu Qiu asked with a smile.
Li Dong nodded. “That won’t be a problem.”
They were all minor characters who died as soon as they appeared.
There was no need to worry about revealing the plot.
By agreeing, he could also establish some goodwill with Bao Ruanruan and the variety show’s production team.
Liu Qiu rubbed her hands together. “I saw the other three cast members acting just now, but Teacher Bao disappeared in the blink of an eye…”
She had not been able to find her at all.
Liu Qiu felt embarrassed when admitting it.
If they hadn't lost someone, she would never have approached the drama director to ask for help.
“Ha! You’re looking for Xiao Bao?” Li Dong nodded and immediately pulled the monitor closer.
He replayed the eye-level footage that had been filmed in one continuous take.
One minute later.
Li Dong coughed. “Don’t worry. We also have an aerial shot. Let me check it.”
Another minute passed.
Li Dong coughed twice and waved the Second Assistant Director over. “Was Xiao Bao’s armour different from everyone else’s? Which horse did she ride?”
Unfortunately, when faced with the task of locating one person in that magnificent battle scene, he failed too.
The Second Assistant Director immediately jogged over. “Teacher Bao rode a chestnut horse with a small white mark on its forehead. I deliberately found one that would be easy to recognise.”
He was fishing for praise.
He was a smart guy.
Bao Ruanruan’s appearance as a soldier was sure to be a popular topic of discussion online.
Of course, he had to give her a distinguishable horse!
“Also, the sword she was carrying had a chip in its blade and was covered in bloodstains.”
“The protective chest plate on her armour was brass-coloured.”
That would make her easy to identify.
You should have said so earlier!
Director Li repeatedly nodded as he listened. He immediately pointed at the monitor again. “You find her, then.”
Stage manager: “…”
Liu Qiu: “…”
[ Hahahahaha! ]
[ Director: "D@mn it, I couldn’t find any of the things you just described!" ]
[ Hiss… Now that you mention it, I really did see a soldier with a brass-coloured chest plate. Holy crap! Was that Bao Ruanruan? ]
[ Well… I think I vaguely remember it too. I remember a horse with a white mark on its forehead, and I paid special attention to it. But… I have absolutely no impression of the rider. ]
[ Uh, now that you mention the chipped blade, I think I saw that too. But the soldier waving it didn’t look like Bao Bao, did they? The facial features were so indistinct that I can’t remember them now. ]
[ It definitely wasn’t her! I don’t remember seeing her! Do you think I wouldn’t recognise a beautiful woman? ]
Director Li quickly brought up the earlier footage again.
Everyone stared at the livestream monitor without taking their eyes off it.
“There! There! There!”
The stage manager suddenly shouted, recognising her within the first three seconds of the footage.
On the monitor, he pointed towards a soldier in armour.
The helmet covered nearly half of the soldier's forehead.
Only a partial side profile was visible, and even the soldier's delicate features were concealed by thick, coarse eyebrows.
The soldier's side profile was only visible for less than half a second as everything happened so quickly.
Immediately after 'Action' was called out, the soldier shouted and squeezed the horse’s sides, propelling it forward like an arrow.
The soldier's horse galloped along the camera’s route.
One second, they saw the soldier, whom they assumed to be Bao Ruanruan, duck behind the rider in front of her, her face hidden from view; the next, she plunged into a flurry of whipping banners, her face obscured once more. A split second later, only her horse’s head broke through the clutter before it was instantly swallowed by the oncoming enemy wave.
Seen from the side, the soldier swung up her chipped sword, and the air seemed to shriek in its wake.
—And the blade blocked the soldier’s face again.
The instant the soldier swung her sword downwards, her opponent’s incoming sword once again concealed her face.
This person fought fiercely with the enemy as though they were playing hide-and-seek with the camera!
It almost made the viewers want to sing, 'How I long to lift your bridal veil~📹'.
At that moment, however, the Second Assistant Director's voice could be heard shouting, “Numbers three and eight in Area B, strike the vital areas!”
The mounted soldier carrying the chipped sword jolted as the opponent struck her shoulder.
In an instant, both the soldier and her horse left the camera frame.
[ … ]
[ ……… ]
[ Does she have some kind of bad@ss camera-avoidance syndrome7? How can she precisely evade a frontal shot every single second? ]
[ What did the camera ever do to deserve this? ]
[ No wonder I only remember the horse… ]
[ No wonder I only remember the brass-coloured plate on her chest. Good grief! ]
[ I’d admire anyone who could identify her from that! ]
After they finished watching the entire clip, Director Li Dong, the Second Assistant Director, Liu Qiu, and the group of variety-show cameramen all fell silent.
They were simply at a loss for words.
The Second Assistant Director felt as though his heart were bleeding8.
Li Dong gave a bitter smile. “Call Teacher Bao over. I want to ask whether she has something against me.”
Why had she never shown her face before?
The Second Assistant Director hurriedly acknowledged the instruction, but when he raised his head, he froze in stunned disbelief.
“D-Director! Teacher Bao is lying on the ground!”
Even his voice trembled!
Li Dong: “!”
Liu Qiu: “!”
[ !!! ]
The entire group hurriedly stood up to take a look. Without pausing for breath, they rushed over instantly.
They were scared to death!
“Call the medical staff!”
Could she perhaps have hurt herself from falling?
“What the hell is going on?” Li Dong burst out cursing. “How long has she been lying there? Why hasn’t anyone helped her? Why hasn’t anyone called a doctor?”
“Didn’t you tell them not to actually fall off their horses?”
The production crew would never dare ask ordinary extras to perform a fall off a horse.
Shots of corpses strewn all across the battlefield would normally be filmed separately afterwards.
Only professional stunt performers who specialise in martial arts would genuinely perform such a dangerous fall from a horse in a full shot, as they have received professional training in martial arts.
“I did tell them!” The Second Assistant Director was also extremely anxious.
[ ! Help! ]
However, when everyone ran over, they discovered it was a false alarm. Bao Ruanruan was unharmed.
She was merely lying there… crying.
She held her chest, her body shuddering repeatedly as she silently shed tears, making her look pitiful and helpless.
A circle of Blue Team members and ordinary extras surrounded her.
They all asked her if any part of her body hurt.
How had she fallen?
But—
“I didn’t fall…I climbed down from the horse myself.”
[ ! ]
Phew!
She was unharmed.
The production had not suffered a safety incident.
Director Li Dong’s first reaction was to heave an enormous sigh of relief, but then he glared at her.
“Then why are you crying, Teacher Bao?” the Second Assistant Director asked anxiously.
Still lying down, Bao Ruanruan’s hand trembled as she touched her chest sorrowfully and lightly. She whimpered and drew in a sharp breath, furrowing her brow as though she were genuinely injured!
“I was struck by a sword. Boo-hoo. It really hurts where I was hit, so I can’t move for the time being.”
Li Dong: “......”
The Second Assistant Director: “......”
They had never seen anyone become this immersed in a role in their d@mned lives!
If she didn't win a Hong Kong Film Award, she would practically be letting herself down!
As they crouched down to look at her, they could see that her face was extremely pale, so pale that even the dark makeup smeared across it could not conceal it.
Her lips trembled as though she had lost too much blood, and her body convulsed slightly.
It was extraordinarily realistic!
Li Dong almost wanted to ask the male lead to study her physical reaction to being stabbed.
“Teacher Bao, you were no longer in the shot afterwards,” Li Dong couldn't help reminding her.
“Mm.”
Bao Ruanruan raised her small face and glanced at him while sobbing and choking on her tears.
Tears were still flowing down her face.
“I’m only an extra, after all~”
Li Dong: “!”
How extraordinarily considerate and self-effacing of you9!
[ Hhhhh10, she’s so cute! ]
[ Kiddo Ruan: "Making me show my face would cost more than an extra’s pay rate, hehehe." ]
The scrolling comments erupted in laughter.
The variety-show camera soon interviewed another male extra standing nearby, who still looked utterly dumbfounded.
He was the man who had just 'slashed' Bao Ruanruan across the shoulder.
“How did it feel to perform a scene opposite Teacher Bao? You still seem extremely surprised,” Liu Qiu asked.
The male extra was still dazed. Only after hearing the question did he belatedly nod.
“Mm.”
Making a respected professional cry—how was that even acceptable?
But that was not the main issue.
After a long while, the male extra gave a bitter smile. “When I sparred with Teacher Bao just now, she was simultaneously laughing and crying while constantly shouting slogans. I almost didn’t dare to attack her...”
[ !? ]
“Laughing and crying at the same time? Slogans?”
Since Bao Ruanruan’s face had never appeared on camera, no one knew what she was doing.
“Yes.” As the male extra spoke, he rubbed the goosebumps on his arm. “I couldn’t hear clearly at first. Later, while we were exchanging blows, I listened carefully and finally heard her continually shouting, ‘I shall sacrifice my life for my country! In my next life, I will still be a brave and honourable hero!’ and 'After death, I’ll go to the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss11. This isn’t death—it’s simply another way of living!’…”
Liu Qiu: “!”
[ ! ]
“Ah, only now do I understand just how enormous the difference is between a professional actor and me.”
The male extra scratched his head, looking as though he had learned an important lesson.
“It turns out that a truly good actor will create a complete story and motivation for even a character with no lines.”
“And after I struck her, she was crying and smiling simultaneously. Her physical expression of pain was incredibly realistic...”
The male extra looked into the camera, his face filled with admiration and gratitude. “I genuinely learned something today. Thank you so much, Teacher Bao, for guiding me through this scene!”
Liu Qiu: “!!”
[ !! ]
The scrolling comments were filled entirely with exclamation marks.
Yet not many viewers remained to leave comments. Instead, they went directly to Bao Ruanruan’s Weibo page and started following her!
They genuinely could not resist her any longer.
After one brilliant highlight, you might still avoid becoming a devoted fan.
After two brilliant moments, you might still resist becoming a fan.
But who could continue resisting after the third, fourth, fifth…
Faced with one impressive moment after another, even viewers, who were supposedly made of iron12, could not withstand it.
At that moment, Bao Ruanruan held her shoulder and rose to her feet helplessly.
The experience of injury and death still cast a faint shadow over her heart13.
The armour, covered in bacteria and dust, also made her extremely uncomfortable.
She walked over weakly and murmured to Liu Qiu.
“PD, I’d like to get my phone.”
[ ? ]
She wanted to get her miraculous cure-all14.
Her medicine was the voice of His Excellency Agent and Landlord.
The moment she heard it, she could immediately recover half of her health bar15.
Liu Qiu lowered her head, opened the small bag, and took out the phone that happened to be vibrating inside.
“Ah, Teacher Bao, it’s your agent calling!”
Within one second, an expression showing that Bao Ruanruan had recovered thirty per cent of her life16 appeared on camera.
[ Is her agent an important source of support for my kiddo? ]
[ Her agent really is dependable! Remember those nutritional supplements? Sis Lan said her manager bought them for her. ]
[ What a god-tier agent17! ]
The scrolling comments suddenly paused.
Bao Ruanruan’s voice, still carrying a slight sob, rang out.
“55518, were you looking for me? I’m working hard for the sake of the house.”
[ ! ]
Shocking! A famous female celebrity turns out to be a mortgage slave!?
Author’s note:
Kiddo Ruan: I will work hard so that every character I portray will live to a hundred and die peacefully in bed at the end of a full life19 in their next life.
Footnotes Full List
- 地毯式的寻找 (dì tǎn shì de xún zhǎo) — 'carpet-style search'; a thorough search covering an entire area
- 吊在夜空中的白炽灯 (diào zài yè kōng zhōng de bái chì dēng) —'an incandescent lamp hanging in the night sky'; a metaphor for someone who should be exceptionally conspicuous
- +1 — internet shorthand meaning that another person agrees or is joining the same group
- 宝藏 (bǎo zàng) — metaphorically, something that continually produces delightful surprises
- 23333 — Chinese internet laughter, derived from an old forum emoticon number
- 下线 (xià xiàn)—entertainment and internet slang for a character exiting the story, often through death
- 镜头牛逼症 (jìng tóu niú bī zhèng) — 'camera awesome-as-hell syndrome'; a humorous, invented slang expression suggesting an extraordinary ability to avoid being filmed
- 心都在流血 (xīn dōu zài liú xuè) — a metaphor for intense emotional pain or regret
- 谦譲 (qiān ràng) — 'modestly yield to others'; used sarcastically here because she deliberately avoided taking attention away from the principal performers
- hhhhhh — internet laughter based on the initial sound of 哈哈哈哈 (hā hā hā hā)
- 极乐世界 (jí lè shì jiè) — 'world of ultimate happiness'; a Buddhist paradise
- 铁打的观众 (tiě dǎ de guān zhòng) — 'viewers forged from iron'; a humorous adaptation implying exceptionally strong-willed viewers
- 蒙着淡淡的阴影 (méng zhe dàn dàn de yīn yǐng) — covered by a faint shadow; a metaphor for lingering emotional distress
- 灵丹妙薬 (líng dān miào yào) — 'miraculous elixir and marvellous medicine'; an effective solution or remedy, used metaphorically here
- 恢复她一半血条 (huī fù tā yí bàn xuè tiáo) — 'restore half of her blood bar'; a video-game metaphor meaning to regain much of her energy or emotional strength
- 活过来30% (huó guò lái bǎi fēn zhī sān shí) — 'come thirty per cent back to life'; a humorous gaming-style metaphor meaning she visibly recovered some energy
- 神仙经纪人 (shén xiān jīng jì rén) — immortal or divine manager; internet praise for an exceptionally wonderful manager
- 555 (wǔ wǔ wǔ) — internet slang representing 呜呜呜 (wū wū wū), the sound of crying
- 寿终就寝 (shòu zhōng jiù qǐn) — reach the end of one’s lifespan and go to bed; a humorous variation of 寿终正寝 (shòu zhōng zhèng qǐn), meaning to die naturally and peacefully at an advanced age
COMMENTS