After being universally criticized online, I went viral on military-themed variety shows.

Chapter 908 The Caged Bird and the Flying Fish
The director of "The Startled Fish" is a very particular old man; a gold pocket watch, vintage gold chain glasses, and a brass pipe are his standard accessories. He also asked everyone on set not to call him Director Wan, but Mr. Wan.

In any case, whenever Jiang Hanying saw him, she could see these three distinctive features on him.

Oh, and hats too.

However, this hat is not as unchanging as the previous three. Sometimes it is a gentleman's top hat, and sometimes it is a baseball cap. It is basically matched with the outfit of the day. There is never a day when the head is bare.

Jiang Hanying would sometimes make bets with Yuan Chaoyu about which hat Mr. Wan would wear to the meeting room that day.

Yuan Chaoyu: Boring, but I'll play along!

Mr. Wan's pipe wasn't for smoking; it was for banging on the table.

During script readings, if anyone gets sleepy, loses focus, or accidentally misreads their lines, you can hear a crisp tapping sound on the table.

Later on, whenever they heard this sound, those who were sleepy would immediately become alert, those who were daydreaming would immediately snap back to reality, and those who were reciting lines would immediately start reflecting on where they had mispronounced their lines.

In just a few days, it was unknowingly trained into a conditioned reflex.

The script, which is less than a hundred pages long, is progressing slowly at a rate of less than ten pages per day.

Jiang Hanying felt that she didn't need to memorize the script in advance at all; she had memorized her character's lines by reciting them repeatedly over the past ten days!
It's estimated that she'll still remember her lines clearly when the movie is finally released.

When the words "The End" were read, almost everyone sitting in the conference room breathed a silent sigh of relief.

I've finally finished reading it!

However, the benefits of spending so much time and effort to carefully polish the script became apparent after the opening ceremony and the official start of filming.

Almost none of the actors had the problem of suddenly getting stuck on their lines. Even if someone accidentally got stuck during filming due to nervousness or because the lines were too long, they could usually get it right on the second take.

The most difficult aspect to control during filming is undoubtedly the storyline itself.

The story of "The Startled Fish" is set in the late years of a turbulent dynasty.

Yuan Chaoyu plays Li Lingze, who comes from a respectable background. Although his father was just a minor prince exiled to the northern border, he was still considered a member of the imperial family. His wife came from a well-known wealthy merchant family in the area.

If such a configuration existed during a prosperous dynasty, Li Lingze could have been granted the title of county princess and lived a peaceful and wealthy life.

Unfortunately, she was born at the end of a dynasty and had a father who was greedy for life and obsessed with superficial honor, and who survived by selling his wife and daughter.

The game started with a complete collapse!

The actors playing Li Lingze's parents are two veteran actors who are not active online and don't have many fans, but they frequently appear in various TV dramas and movies playing important supporting roles.

We had spent several days together reading together, and we all got along very well.

However, in the story, the three characters portray the father's cold-hearted exploitation of his daughter, the mother's heartache over her daughter's plight but helplessness, and the couple's private, cold respect for each other while having to maintain a facade of peace.

In the drama, Li Lingze was required to be well-versed in poetry and literature from a young age, and to be proficient in music, chess, calligraphy, painting, and even singing, dancing, and opera. Every teacher who taught her was specially invited by the Prince at a high price.

At first, little Li Lingze thought that it was because her father loved and valued her that he was nurturing her so vigorously.

But after she had her first period, everything around her changed.

Her mother, who was cold to her but still caring, suddenly fell seriously ill, and the teachers who taught her music, chess, calligraphy, and painting all left. In their place came two aunts, sent by her father to take full responsibility for her daily life. After the two aunts came to her side, Li Lingze's life was turned upside down, especially since she had to learn something completely new.

From being completely clueless, to vaguely sensing something was wrong and feeling resistant, to witnessing her mother lying on the bed, heartbroken and devastated, and her father's subtle threats behind her, she finally became obedient and accepted everything.

After passing the tests of her two aunts, Li Lingze followed them through a secret passage to the garden next to the Prince's mansion. Through the screen, she heard her father socializing with several powerful ministers from the Northern Border. His tone was cautious and ingratiating, and his words implied a request for her protection. At that moment, she finally understood why her beautiful and intelligent mother, whom she remembered from her childhood, seemed like a completely different person after her younger brother was born.

And she is about to continue her mother's fate!

Jiang Hanying's character, the assassin Feiyu, doesn't appear until about a third of the way through the story.

Her mentor, who taught her assassin skills, disappeared during a mission. Just then, another commission arrived, specifically requesting her mentor, Old Fish, to come and pick her up.

The greedy flying fish couldn't find his master, and he really couldn't bear to part with the reward, so he gritted his teeth and pretended to be his master to take on the job.

Objective: Assassinate a Northern official who is colluding with foreign powers; in short, a traitor!
Based on a series of preliminary investigations, Flying Fish ultimately decided to assassinate the official while he was out enjoying himself.

There's no way around it; people like this are usually terrified of death and know that many people want to kill them. Their homes are so well-prepared that they have to find other opportunities.

After figuring out the pattern of his target's pleasure-seeking behavior, Flying Fish couldn't wait to take action.

Then, unsurprisingly, the first hasty action, without a master to protect them, resulted in an accident.

Injured and having revealed her whereabouts, she was about to be caught. Just as she gritted her teeth and prepared to jump into the filthy sewers to escape, she suddenly heard the sound of a zither.

Following the sound, I ran over and saw a beautifully dressed woman kneeling and playing the zither in the pavilion under the trees. There was no one else around, so I gritted my teeth and crawled under the table in front of her.

A caged bird, a fish that has flown onto someone else's cutting board—their first encounter is dramatic!
This was also the first scene that Lao Wan arranged after filming began.

Dressed in tattered servant's clothes that revealed her night clothes underneath, the disheveled assassin, upon hearing the footsteps of the palace guards searching this way, lightly tugged at the hem of her ornate skirt. As the gaze from above looked over, she revealed a pair of eyes from under the table, eyes that held a pleading expression yet concealed murderous intent.

Yuan Chaoyu looked down into her eyes, took a deep breath, and gently pushed her back.

After dealing with the guards from the Prince's mansion who came to search for him, Li Lingze casually wiped the blood from the fake cuts on his hands from the strings of a zither, and led the wounded little assassin who had come to his door back to his room along the path.

Once inside, the scene unfolds as the two are wary of each other yet unable to resist testing one another.

Li Lingze was somewhat disappointed after realizing that the assassin's target was not his father.

But thinking about it, it's not bad if the target is someone else, since none of them are good people anyway, so it's better to kill one than not.

She decided to take them in and help them.

When Feiyu met Li Lingze, she knew that he must be someone special, but she didn’t expect him to be the young lady of the Prince’s family. She immediately came up with a plan.

A tacit understanding leads to mutually beneficial achievements!
But after only two days of healing in the other person's room, Li Lingze was taken away after dressing up in her finest clothes in the evening. It wasn't until late at night that she was helped back by two maids. Only then did Feiyu realize that behind her glamorous appearance was a life that was tightly bound.

He finally understood why the other person unconsciously expressed longing when he occasionally mentioned his wandering life and learning assassin skills from his master.

The caged bird truly envies the fish that can fly!
Flying Fish is planning something big: to kill all the evildoers and accomplices in this garden, and to release the caged birds!

(End of this chapter)