Huayu Entertainment: Starting with Exorcising Evil from a Film Queen

The next day, Zhang Ze got up very early.

The sky was still overcast, and most people were still asleep, but Hengdian was already bustling with activity in the early morning.

Countless aspiring extras and bit players have already gotten up and started looking for work.

This is what life is like for extras in Hengdian World Studios. They have to get up before dawn and wait at a few fixed locations before the film crew's recruitment truck arrives, hoping to be selected by the casting director or production assistant.

Once selected, you get on the bus, and when everyone is there, you're taken directly to the film set to play a dead person or a background character for the whole day.

As for finishing work, you'll have to walk back on your own two legs.

Some successful extras have fixed team leaders. Although a portion of their hard-earned money is taken away each day, at least their work is stable, and they don't have to fight for those few elusive opportunities before dawn every day.

Zhang Ze stood at the street corner, but unfortunately, he was out of luck today and waited for a long time without seeing any familiar film crew vehicles coming.

He wasn't surprised.

Most of the extras in film crews have long been booked by fixed extras managers, so for lone wolves like him, getting work depends entirely on hard work and luck.

However, Zhang Ze remained calm.

I have 30,000 yuan in my bank account; I won't starve anytime soon.

Moreover, he was still thinking about the big Sino-foreign co-production that Zhao Liying had mentioned yesterday.

The Mummy 3.

This is top-tier material; the previous two films, "The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns," both grossed over $400 million worldwide.

The main characters in these two works directly propelled them to the top of the global entertainment industry.

If Zhang Ze could make an appearance, even just as a blurry background character, the boost to his reputation would be far greater than playing a corpse every day.

He inquired about the filming location and then strolled over there.

The film set was indeed impressive, with various equipment and vehicles crowding the area, and blond-haired, blue-eyed foreign staff members could be seen everywhere.

It truly lives up to its reputation as a big-budget production!

Zhang Ze walked around and found a tanned man squatting and smoking next to the film crew. He asked the crew if they needed any more extras.

The other person, with a cigarette dangling from their lips, told him with a disdainful look that such an international production didn't need country bumpkins like them.

"See that? That's called a green screen!"

The group leader blew a smoke ring towards a huge green screen on set. "The post-production team uses computers to create thousands of troops in a second. What's the point of having extras? To eat boxed lunches?"

Undeterred by not finding work, Zhang Ze simply became a street hustler in this massive film and television city.

He travels between different dynasties, one second under the red walls and yellow tiles of a Qing Dynasty drama, the next he turns into a Shikumen alleyway during the Republic of China era.

In Hengdian, the summer sun is so scorching it can melt you.

He wandered aimlessly and soon stumbled upon a group of buildings in the style of the Republic of China era.

A fenced-off filming location caught his attention.

A film crew is shooting here, but the atmosphere is eerily quiet.

Logically, the filming location should be bustling with noise, with the director's roars, the actors' dialogues, and the crew running around all blending together.

But here, all was quiet, with only a few staff members gathered together smoking, each with a worried expression.

The man who looked like a director was speaking into a walkie-talkie, shouting something in an agitated tone.

Some idle extras huddled in a corner, whispering amongst themselves in hushed tones.

"This is weird, really weird! The light was just fixed yesterday, and it's gone out again today for no reason! We've replaced it three times already!"

"Not only that, I heard that the day before yesterday, during filming, the prop gun just wouldn't fire, wasting the whole afternoon."

"It must have been something unclean that was disturbed. I heard this place used to be a mass grave..."

Zhang Ze curiously moved closer and looked up at the clapperboard.

"Old Dreams".

The production team's name is quite artistic.

He hadn't heard of this production team before, but he vaguely remembered them. They were a decent team, but it was clearly not a big hit.

That's normal, though. In his previous life, Zhang Ze was just an ordinary person who had never worked in this industry. It's understandable that he wouldn't remember some of the less popular TV dramas.

Although the production team may not seem very famous, the cast is quite strong.

Zhang Ze spotted two familiar figures at a glance.

Chen Kun and Li Xiaoran.

At that time, Chen Kun was extremely popular with "The Story of a Noble Family" and "Painted Skin", and Li Xiaoran was also very popular a few years ago.

With these two people holding things together, how could the crew be in such a sluggish state?

Zhang Ze muttered to himself, subconsciously activating his Qi Observation Technique.

The next second, he was completely stunned.

The entire "Dream of the Past" crew was shrouded in a heavy, malevolent aura, making it hard to breathe.

The crew's luck was already not strong, and now it was being suppressed by this evil aura to the point of near death.

They were barely holding on thanks to the two fairly thick red beams of light above Chen Kun and Li Xiaoran's heads.

Even they were affected by the malevolent energy, their fortunes dimmed and unstable.

No wonder this show wasn't very famous in my previous life. Given the circumstances, it's a miracle the crew was able to finish filming and didn't just die.

Zhang Ze's gaze followed the flow of the malevolent energy and finally settled on a house with its door tightly closed not far away.

The prop room.

The source of the evil energy is right there.

It's obvious that the production team acquired some old, dubious items that were contaminated with dirt when purchasing props.

The solution is simple: find the thing, throw it away, or burn it, and that will solve everything.

Zhang Ze's mind immediately started racing.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Although the production team was not doing well and its future looked bleak, he wasn't a big star at the moment and needed a stepping stone.

Moreover, with big names like Chen Kun and Li Xiaoran involved, even a fallen camel is bigger than a horse.

If I can help them solve the problems of the film crew and get a role with lines, then today's trip will not have been in vain.

With that thought in mind, he no longer hesitated and walked towards the film crew.

A production assistant and the assistant director were squatting in a corner, each with a cigarette in their mouth and a worried look on their faces.

Upon seeing Zhang Ze, an unfamiliar face, swagger in, the stagehand immediately stood up impatiently and waved his hand irritably.

"Hey, hey, what are you doing? We're filming here, no strangers allowed!"

Zhang Ze stopped, a warm smile on his face.

"I can solve your crew's problems."

Upon hearing this, the stagehand was taken aback at first, then let out a sneer.

He's been in this business for almost ten years, and he's seen all sorts of weirdos and monsters.

In an attempt to stand out, some climb into the director's bed, some kneel before the producer, and some even act strangely on set to attract attention.

The kid in front of me looks decent enough, but I never expected him to be the kind of person who's desperate for fame.

"Solve the problem? What problem can you solve? Get out of here, get out of the way!"

The stagehand impatiently shooed him away, reaching out to push Zhang Ze.

At this moment, the assistant director who was squatting to the side also raised his head, looked at Zhang Ze wearily, and was about to let him go, but for some inexplicable reason asked another question.

"Can you handle this? Do you even know what happened on set?"

The assistant director's surname was Wang. He was in his early forties, with half of his hair already gray, and heavy eye bags that seemed to hang from his chin.

Zhang Ze smiled and shook his head, his gaze sweeping over the gloomy film set.

"The filming was not going well, the props kept breaking down every few days, and the equipment kept malfunctioning for no reason."

"The actors were in even worse condition; they either forgot their lines or drifted off, and their emotions were completely off."

"Am I right?"