Bai Lu got scammed, but I became a superstar through e-commerce.

The inn set at Huairou Film and Television Base has been transformed into Meng Po Village.

The art department replaced the gray cloth lanterns left by the "Mother's Way" crew with stone lanterns unique to Meng Po Village. The courtyard was covered with yellow sand, and the light from the stone lanterns cast swaying shadows on the sand.

A large pot sat on the stove, bubbling away inside a prop, Meng Po soup. The props were made with food coloring and lotus root starch, and surprisingly, it had a sweet, fishy smell reminiscent of Chinese medicine.

Ju Xingmao sat behind the monitor.

Bai Lu, already made up with special effects makeup, sat on a small stool opposite him. The withered makeup on her face had taken nearly four hours to complete.

Her original eyebrows were completely covered by concealer, and she redrawn a pair of eyebrows so light they were almost invisible. She used contour powder to create a sunken outline on her cheekbones, and applied a layer of grayish-white lip gloss to her lips.

She looked older than her actual age, and the light in her eyes was suppressed by the grayish-white makeup, as if covered by a layer of sand from the underworld.

Qingxiao sat next to her, wearing a long robe, with only a thin layer of foundation on his face, and his hair was tied up and secured with a wooden hairpin.

The two were separated by a small wooden table, on which were two bowls of Meng Po soup that had already cooled down.

Ju Xingmao placed the pencil next to the monitor, stood up, walked to the two men, and squatted down to look them in the eye.

"This scene is the first time Sanqi and Changsheng meet. Sanqi has been brewing Meng Po soup in the Yellow Springs for six hundred years. She has never traveled far and has never seen many living people. Her mother died early, and she was raised by Zhao Li as a younger sister. Even the ghost messengers do not like to drink the soup she brews. Changsheng is the first young cultivator she has seen in the Yellow Springs. He is dressed neatly, has fair skin, and carries a kind of vitality that she has never smelled before."

He turned to Qingxiao: "Changsheng didn't come to the Yellow Springs to find Sanqi. He smelled a strange fragrance and mistakenly entered Meng Po's Manor. He was stunned as soon as he entered. In the legends, Meng Po is an old woman with white hair and wrinkled skin. The Meng Po in front of him looked foolish, but he didn't leave. It wasn't because she was beautiful, but because the pot of Meng Po soup she brewed was completely different from the Meng Po soup in the legends. At first glance, Sanqi was curious, and Changsheng was a young cultivator who had been tricked since childhood, and he was unguarded towards another species that was different from his own."

"Okay, director."

Bai Lu looked at Ju Xingmao and gently bit her grayish-white lips.

"Let's go through the first step first." Ju Xingmao stepped back behind the monitor, picked up the walkie-talkie, and said, "All departments, prepare."

The script supervisor claps the clapperboard, and the camera zooms in from the entrance of Meng Po's Manor.

The Meng Po soup on the stove was still bubbling and steaming.

Sanqi leaned over the stove, stirred the pot twice with a long-handled wooden spoon, scooped it up, took a sip, smacked his lips, and frowned. It was still bland.

Qingxiao took a deep breath outside the door and pushed it open to come in.

The wooden door creaked open, and Sanqi looked up, her wooden spoon frozen in mid-air.

She saw a boy standing at the door, backlit by the dim light of the underworld. His hair was covered with a layer of sand, but his eyes were as clean as if the underworld had never seen snow.

"What the hell are you? I've never seen you before!"

Sanqi stood up, took a few steps forward, and tilted her head to stare at him.

"I'm not a ghost. I... I smell a fragrance here."

Qingxiao took a step forward and then stopped, striking a balance between being drawn in by the exotic fragrance and being unsure whether to come in.

"Cut." Ju Xingmao peeked out from behind the monitor.

"Bai Lu, your tone was so sweet just now. Sanqi has never met Changsheng and doesn't know who he is. She's just purely curious, like when she sees a beautiful little bird or a strange cloud. It's not the clingy feeling of seeing a handsome guy, but the surprise of discovering a new species."

Bai Lu nodded, took a deep breath, and stood back by the stove.

The second time, she lowered her tone and stopped making the last syllable float.

Ju Xingmao agreed, and suggested another one. For the third one, she added a small gesture—wiping the rim of the bowl with her sleeve.

Fourthly, Ju Xingmao called "Cut," stood up, and walked over to her: "Your mood is right, but your position is wrong. You just walked straight in front of her. Sanqi isn't there to greet guests; she was startled. She should have taken a half-step back from the corner of the stove, hiding behind a pillar and peeking out. Treat her like a little animal that's been neglected for a long time, hiding when someone comes before daring to see who it is."

Fifthly, Bai Lu took half a step back from the corner of the stove, hiding behind the wooden pillar with only half of his head peeking out.

Her gaze moved from Changsheng's forehead to his chin, then back to his eyes, and she unconsciously sighed, "You smell so good."

This line wasn't spoken to Changsheng; it was something she blurted out to herself.

Ju Xingmao straightened up behind the monitor and told the sound engineer to keep this take.

Next comes Qingxiao's challenge.

When Changsheng first entered Meng Po's Village, he saw Sanqi—this Meng Po did not have the ferocious and domineering aura of the rumored Meng Po. She was dressed in coarse cloth, her face was withered, but her eyes held the purest thing in the Yellow Springs.

He paused for a moment, then said, "You're Meng Po? You're different from the rumors."

Qingxiao read this line in a steady tone, but Ju Xingmao called "cut": "You're reciting lines. Changsheng isn't here to visit relatives. He initially maintained the composure of a young cultivator, only later becoming the Changsheng who was willing to stay in the Yellow Springs. We can't let the audience be stunned from the start; we have to show them the process of him letting down his guard."

Qingxiao closed his eyes briefly and pushed the door open again.

Fourthly, he adjusted the tone of his lines to be more crisp, and unconsciously took a half step back when he pushed open the door.

When they filmed the eighth take, he finally saw Ju Xingmao nodding on the monitor.

As expected, this director is indeed very strict.

Next comes that crucial line.

Sanqi tilted her head to look at Changsheng and asked, "Could you come earlier tomorrow?"

Bai Lu spoke confidently about the first point, but Ju Xingmao called a halt: "This isn't an order, it's a request. Sanqi has never been liked by anyone before, and Changsheng is the first person to tell her that her soup smells good. When she chased after him to the door to ask that question, she wasn't sure—what if he didn't come?"

Bai Lu lowered her head, buried her face in her hands, paused for a moment, then raised her head and nodded her chin at Qing Xiao.

When she said this in the fifth sentence, her voice was very low, and the end of her sentence trembled slightly, as if she were talking to herself.

After she finished speaking, she looked away, took a step back, and pulled her sleeve down a little.

Looking at the cautious anticipation in her eyes, Qingxiao said the word "why" very softly, as if he were asking a question he already knew the answer to.

She chased after him to the door, paused, and without turning back, added the reason she hadn't finished saying earlier.

She repeated the line, her voice even softer than before.

Changsheng didn't answer immediately after hearing this. He just looked up at her. He was a young cultivator who had been hit by a simple "I like you" and hadn't had time to tell if it was sweet or something deeper.

The monitor was quiet for a while.

Ju Xingmao neither called for a halt nor did he ever do so.

He leaned back in his chair, his hand holding the walkie-talkie suspended in mid-air, staring at the few frames on the monitor showing Bai Lu with his head down.

"Yes, both teachers performed wonderfully. Thank you for your patience in filming every single scene."

Ju Xingmao stood up and applauded, and the entire crew joined in the applause.