Chapter 3: Went to the wrong set?

“Three, two, one, action!”

Jiang Wenting, clad in a white robe stained red with blood, stood before a blue screen, her eyes firm and resolute.

“I, Jiang Huaiyin, Mistress of a Hundred Flowers, kneel to the common people, kneel to the gods, but I will not kneel to you, Heavenly Dao! You cold and heartless Heavenly Dao!”

Then, she was struck by “heavenly lightning.”

Her body couldn’t take it and she fell to one knee, one hand bracing herself on the ground as she looked up, stubbornly glaring at the space above.

Not long after, another bolt of “heavenly lightning” struck.

She cried out, “Ah,” falling and screaming over and over, submerged in the suffering of the former Flower Goddess, Jiang Huaiyin, as she endured her punishment…

“Fourth strike, come on…” a crew member directed from the side.

Jiang Wenting cried “ah” again and collapsed completely on the ground.

Finally, she was suspended by wires, lowered, suspended, and lowered again.

After several repetitions, her body was placed on the ground once more, her clothes disheveled, her long hair in a mess, and blood gushing from her mouth.

The director gave a thumbs-up from behind the camera.

“Good, good, that was excellent!”

With a “cue” from a staff member, a man in a green robe holding a jade sword walked over from the side.

He stood right in front of Jiang Wenting and asked with a trembling voice, “A-Yin, is it so difficult for you to just admit you were wrong?”

Jiang Wenting struggled for a moment, then staggered back up, half-crouching, her gaze resolute and unyielding.

“Lu Yanchi, please tell me, what wrong have I, Jiang Huaiyin, committed?”

The two looked at each other, locked in a stalemate for half a second.

Tears and reluctance welled up in the man’s long, narrow eyes.

He closed his eyes in pain, tilted his head back, and let the tears flow freely from the corners of his eyes.

Finally, having mustered his courage, he abruptly raised the jade sword and slashed at Jiang Wenting’s neck.

The next second, a long spear appeared from nowhere and knocked the jade sword from the man’s hand.

Along with the sound of the sword breaking, a female voice, cold as ice shards, emerged.

“Even if she has made a mistake, it is not for the likes of you to interrogate her!”

Jiang Wenting: ‘Hmm? Is that line in the script?’

The director and the on-site crew: ???

Before they could react, a woman in ancient battle armor, covered in blood, appeared on set.

She strode over to Jiang Wenting in a few quick steps, scooped her up from the ground, and held her in her arms, frantically checking her wounds.

Everyone: ‘What’s going on? Did she wander onto the wrong set?’

Jiang Wenting was a little dazed.

Her deep, ink-black peach blossom eyes, which naturally held affection, stared blankly at the person before her.

“This line… was it added later?”

The woman in battle armor didn’t respond to her, but instead called out her real-world name forcefully.

“Jiang! Wen! Ting!”

Yi Lan’s gaze was filled with hatred, a hatred even more convincing than the one Jiang Wenting had portrayed as the Flower Goddess.

Her chest heaved, her shoulders trembled slightly, and the way she gritted her teeth made it seem as if she wanted to swallow her whole the very next second.

Jiang Wenting grew even more confused.

She turned to look at the director, who shook his head.

Only then did she pull away from the other woman’s grasp, stand up, and explain with a slight, good-natured smile, “Did you walk onto the wrong set? This is the filming location for ‘The Hundred Flowers Chronicle’.”

Seeing her speaking and joking so casually as if nothing had happened, the resentment in the other’s heart reached its peak in an instant.

She abruptly picked up the long spear from the ground and pressed it against Jiang Wenting’s neck.

“Jiang Wenting, stop playing games with me. This general will take your head today and atone for the seventy thousand heroic souls who died for me!”

Jiang Wenting: ?

Although she was confused, the pain from the spear scratching her neck was real.

Her body’s instinctual fear kept her from daring to move an inch.

At this moment, the director walked over to shoo her away.

“Hey, which crew are you from? We were just about to finish filming the final scene, and you’ve ruined it…”

Before he could finish, Yi Lan delivered a side kick, sending him sprawling to the ground.

The long spear at Jiang Wenting’s neck was instantly pointed at the director’s chest.

Just as she was about to put force into her wrist and thrust it in, the mechanical voice suddenly appeared in her mind: [Host, you mustn’t.]

Yi Lan managed to stop in time, looking angrily at the person before her.

[Host, this is the set of ‘The Hundred Flowers Chronicle’. The person in front of you is the director of the production. We can’t afford to harm him.]

The system had been working for 12 hours straight and had finally locked onto the mission target’s work location.

Who knew that a moment of carelessness would allow the host to slip through?

Fortunately, through their journey together, Yi Lan had begrudgingly gotten used to the presence of this mechanical voice.

Although she didn’t understand what “filming set” and “production director” meant, the voice was telling her not to hurt anyone, so there must be a reason for it.

Of course, she herself had no desire to get entangled with such irrelevant people.

After a day and a night without food or drink, riding a so-called “little yellow bike,” she had endured countless hardships to come here for the sole purpose of taking revenge on Jiang Wenting.

Now that Jiang Wenting was right in front of her, she had to kill her with her own hands to give an account to the soldiers who had died.

Thus, she moved the spear from the director’s chest and pointed it back at Jiang Wenting.

At this moment, the on-site crew finally reacted and rushed forward to dissuade her.

“Hey, what are you doing? Let’s talk things out, don’t be rash, don’t be rash!”

The hand holding the spear trembled.

Yi Lan’s resolute and cold phoenix eyes were tinged with crimson.

No matter how many times, she just couldn’t bring herself to be ruthless with this woman.

“Jiang Wenting, Jiang Wenting…” she repeated her name over and over.

Tears welled up in her eyes against her will, and her questioning voice held a tremor of pleading.

“Why? Tell me, why?!”

Jiang Wenting was scared silly, but facing those slightly reddened eyes, a strange sense of familiarity emerged from her subconscious.

This sense of familiarity prompted her to take a few steps forward.

Looking at each other up close, she saw the other’s pale lips and the dried blood and dust on her hands and armor.

The woman looked as broken as a lonely soul who had barely survived a battlefield.

At this moment, Assistant Xiao Ru suddenly rushed up, grabbed Jiang Wenting’s right hand, and pulled her aside.

Yi Lan was quick to react, seizing her left wrist and squeezing it tightly.

Jiang Wenting cried out in pain.

Xiao Ru subconsciously let go.

Jiang Wenting was pulled forward, bumping into Yi Lan’s shoulder.

The faint smell of blood assailed her nostrils.

She looked up at the person before her.

“The blood… it’s… it’s real…”

As soon as Jiang Wenting said this, the crew on set immediately reacted and shouted, “She’s killed someone! Quick, call the police!”

The next second, Jiang Wenting felt a weight on her shoulder.

The woman in armor, filled with a menacing aura, had just fainted dead away.

By the time the police arrived, Yi Lan had already been tied up securely on a floor mat by the crew.

She had yet to regain consciousness, her body twitching from time to time as she muttered things like “A-Ting” and “don’t hurt her.”

Her expression was one of great pain, as if she were trapped in an unbearable nightmare.

For some reason, Jiang Wenting kept subconsciously wanting to get closer, trying to make out the gibberish she was muttering.

Her actions were loudly stopped by her assistant, Xiao Ru.

“Jiang Wenting, you’re already hurt, and you still dare to go near her!”

Xiao Ru had been with Jiang Wenting for several years.

Her care for Jiang Wenting was meticulous, and their relationship had long surpassed that of a boss and subordinate.

Her reminder prompted the onlooking crew members to sigh in sympathy.

“Yeah, that was so dangerous just now! Who knows where this person came from, she even dared to kick the director!”

And the director who had been kicked seemed to have not yet recovered.

He was currently clutching his stomach and talking to the police.

“I don’t know what happened, she just suddenly barged in. We were filming the last segment, just about to wrap up.”

The police officer, holding a body camera, took notes based on the information provided, then went forward to check on the situation.

Yi Lan was still unconscious, large beads of sweat rolling down her temples.

Her whole body shivered, and she had bitten her dry lips, drawing specks of blood.

In the end, Jiang Wenting couldn’t bear to watch any longer.

She slowly crouched down and reached out with her fingertips to touch her, softly comforting her.

“It’s okay, it’s okay now, don’t be nervous!”

“Jiang Wenting!” the assistant called out again to stop her.

Jiang Wenting turned her head, looked at her, and offered a reassuring smile.

“It’s fine, Xiao Ru. Look, she’s all tied up, she can’t hurt me!”

At that moment, the woman tied up on the ground sat up as if she had come back from the dead, her eyes wide open as she gasped for air.

Jiang Wenting was so frightened her fingertips trembled.

It took Yi Lan a long while to recover.

Her blurry vision gradually cleared.

When she saw that Jiang Wenting, dressed in blood-soaked clothes, was still alive, her tense emotions relaxed slightly.

A moment later, her dazed gaze was replaced by hatred.

She snarled at Jiang Wenting, going berserk.

“You!”

Xiao Ru quickly pulled Jiang Wenting to the side.

Yi Lan didn’t have much strength left, but her emotions had reached a point where she couldn’t control them.

Seeing this, the police officer took out a device and scanned her face.

Soon, a string of identity information popped up on the screen.

He gestured to the officer beside him.

“Call the bureau’s information department and check the recent activity records of Yi Lan, a mental patient from Yunshan Sanatorium.”

“A mental patient?” the onlookers couldn’t help but exclaim.

“No wonder she’s so crazy, just stabbing at people with a spear!”

“But the set security is so tight, how did she get in?” someone asked.

Just as he finished asking, the walkie-talkie on the officer’s belt crackled.

“Captain Lu, Captain Lu, I have an eyewitness here who confirms that the suspect stole a horse from the ancient drama set next door and charged all the way to the last set.”

“Okay, good, got it.”

After they finished their exchange, a call came in from the bureau’s information department.

“Captain Lu, the information department has confirmed that Yi Lan, a mental patient from Yunshan Sanatorium, was riding a shared bike towards Yacheng at 3:47 yesterday afternoon. At 12:36 this afternoon, the bike ride ended near Yacheng Film and Television City, but the user who scanned the bike was a female college student named Zhang Nan.”

Officer Lu: “Call and verify this with the female college student named Zhang Nan.”

“We’ve already verified it, Captain Lu. Zhang Nan said she forgot to lock the shared bike after riding it. She only noticed an unusual charge when she was ordering takeout. She then called the platform, and they have already refunded her the excess amount. We’ve also obtained the relevant customer service and inquiry records, and the information is confirmed to be correct.”

Officer Lu: “Okay, then that’s it. Call Yunshan Sanatorium and verify Yi Lan’s recent mental state, and whether she has had any contact with films starring Jiang Wenting.”

“Okay, got it!”

Nowadays, the efficiency of law enforcement was high.

Through the facial recognition system, they had figured out the whole story in just a couple of phone calls.

However, for safety’s sake, they still needed to conduct further investigation.

Captain Lu instructed the other officers, “Take her back to the station!”

Then, he turned to Jiang Wenting.

“We’ll also have to trouble Ms. Jiang to come with us to the station to assist with the investigation.”