The crew relocated for the afternoon shoot in Shancheng. The location for this scene was an even narrower old alley where cars couldn't enter, so everyone had to go on foot.
Wearing a button-up shirt, Jiang Yue walked beside Cheng Songran with his head lowered as the two discussed the upcoming positioning.
Shancheng's roads wound and twisted with endless flights of stone steps, and a tricycle selling cold noodles was parked at the mouth of the alley.
As they passed an intersection, a few young people filming a daily vlog noticed the group.
“Hey, look at the guy in the shirt. Doesn't his profile look a bit familiar?”
“Oh my god, isn't that Chu Yan? No, wait, isn't that Jiang Yue?”
“Holy crap, it really is him! The internet has been going crazy looking for him, and he's actually filming in Shancheng!”
Several phones were instantly raised.
Fortunately, they knew the rules and didn't make a racket to disrupt the shoot, but their hands kept snapping photos and recording videos without pause.
In less than twenty minutes, videos and location tags of the chance encounter with Jiang Yue in Shancheng spread across all major social media platforms.
【Found him! He's in Shancheng, alive and well.】
【Oh my god, this outfit feels so full of story. Is he shooting a movie?】
【Brothers and sisters, the location is in Yuzhong District. Anyone nearby, charge!】
Netizens' speed of action had never made any sense.
By the time Jiang Yue followed the crew deeper into the alley to shoot a scene where Chen Jingan runs wildly while chasing down a clue, people had already begun to gather outside the alley.
In the script, Chen Jingan spotted a man in the alley who was suspected of being a witness from years ago. He chased after him like a madman, his soles slipping on the wet flagstones. He fell, scrambled back up, scraped his palms, and got mud all over his cuffs, his eyes entirely filled with the stubborn determination to grasp the truth.
“Cut! Safety take!”
Cheng Songran stared at the monitor and called a halt.
Jiang Yue let out a breath, patted the dust off his pants, and stepped out of his character's emotions.
He had bumped his wrist against the wall earlier, and it was currently aching. He turned around, planning to head back to the break area for some water.
As soon as he looked up, his footsteps halted.
At some point, a row of black-clad security guards had lined up at the mouth of the alley, standing like a wall.
Beyond the security perimeter was a dense crowd of people.
Girls, boys, and even middle-aged women passing by with groceries were all holding up their phones and peering in, creating a scene that resembled a bustling market.
Jiang Yue watched for a couple of seconds, raising an eyebrow.
What was going on? Did the crew hire this many extras today?
Holding a water bottle and a small portable fan, Jiang Kaiwen squeezed through a gap in the security line drenched in sweat and grabbed Jiang Yue's arm.
“Third Brother, quick, this way.”
“What's going on outside?”
Jiang Yue took the water and pointed toward the mouth of the alley.
Jiang Kaiwen wiped his sweat and said with a wry smile, “They're here for you.”
He handed over his phone, which displayed the trending topics on Weibo.
#FindingJiangYue#
#JiangYueShanchengFilmingLeak#
#ChuYanInTheFleshAppears#
Jiang Kaiwen sighed, his tone tinged with helplessness.
“You haven't posted anything lately, so your fans thought you went missing. Then Teacher Han Song casually mentioned that you might have joined a crew, and as a result, the whole internet started searching for you.”
As he spoke, he glanced back at the mouth of the alley.
“Someone leaked our location just now, and everyone nearby rushed over. Even the grocery-shopping aunties heard there's a big star here and came to join the fun.”
Jiang Yue stared at the trending hashtags on the screen and then at the excited crowd at the mouth of the alley, temporarily speechless.
He had merely been filming quietly for a few days. How did he suddenly become the target of an internet-wide manhunt?
“Does Director Cheng know?”
Jiang Kaiwen pointed toward Cheng Songran in the distance.
“He's known for a while. The moment the crew members noticed something was off, Director Cheng used his connections to bring in an entire team of security guards.”
“He said this is just a minor occurrence and didn't tell you because he was worried it would affect your focus.”
Jiang Yue followed his gaze.
Cheng Songran was squatting in front of the monitor with a walkie-talkie in hand, directing the staff to pack up the equipment. He occasionally looked up at the crowd outside, his expression completely calm.
Jiang Kaiwen looked at Jiang Yue and couldn't help but sigh with emotion.
“Third Brother, I think I finally understand what Zhou Qiqi meant now.”
Jiang Yue handed the phone back to him.
Some people were just born for this line of work.
His brother hadn't done a single thing, yet popularity had found its way to his doorstep anyway.
Jiang Yue looked at the mouth of the alley. Although the people were excited, they were still relatively well-behaved. They hadn't broken through the security line and were merely holding up their phones, calling his name in hushed voices.
One of the girls was holding a merchandise bag from 《The Grand Game》. Her face was flushed from the sun, but she was still trying her best to press her hands down, reminding the people next to her not to push.
Jiang Yue chuckled. “Since they're already here, I might as well go say hello.”
He couldn't actually let everyone think he was a salted fish who wouldn't even blow a single bubble.
Hearing this, Jiang Kaiwen's expression shifted, and he reached out to grab Jiang Yue's arm to pull him back.
“Third Brother, let's go, let's go. There are too many people. What if there's a stampede?”
“It's fine.”
Jiang Yue patted the back of Jiang Kaiwen's hand. His gaze swept over the row of security guards at the mouth of the alley, confirming that the crowd was firmly held behind the safety line. Only then did he retract his arm and walk outward.
Outside the alley, the muggy air blended with the dampness of the streets, accompanied by the rich aroma of beef tallow drifting from some unknown hot pot restaurant.
The originally buzzing crowd instantly fell silent the moment Jiang Yue stepped out of the shadows.
Hundreds of eyes and hundreds of phones were aligned directly at him, accompanied by the occasional click of a camera shutter.
Jiang Yue's face, which looked remarkably elegant and ethereal in 《The Grand Game》, was currently beaded with a thin layer of sweat. Although a trace of exhaustion from a long day of filming lingered in his eyes, there was not a hint of impatience to be seen.
He came to a stop about two meters in front of the crowd, his gaze sweeping over those excited and nervous faces.
“Good afternoon.”
The crowd remained quiet for a couple of seconds before a girl in the front row, likely too excited to contain herself, blurted out, “Brother Yue, you've finally emerged! If you hadn't shown up, we were about to head to the police station to file a missing person's report!”
This sentence was like a spark falling into a vat of oil. The scene instantly erupted with chuckles, and a wave of good-natured laughter burst from the crowd.
Jiang Yue smiled too, his eyes curving.
“You can file a report,” he replied in all seriousness, “but you'll have to track down Teacher Han Song first. He's the one who started all of this.”
“Hahaha! Han Song: Where are your manners?”
“Brother Yue is so good at passing the buck!”
The crowd erupted into laughter once more.
“I've been filming a new project in Shancheng lately, and the crew's schedule is quite tight, so I haven't been looking at my phone much.”
Jiang Yue pointed to the alley behind him, his tone like an old friend explaining his recent whereabouts. “Thank you all for making the trip down here. But the weather in Shancheng is very hot, and the alley is narrow. Please stay safe, avoid heatstroke, and don't push.”
His gaze landed on the girl holding the canvas merchandise bag from 《The Grand Game》. Her cheeks were flushed red from the sun, yet she was still trying her best to gesture for others to stay back.
Jiang Yue nodded at her, then raised his voice to add, “And please don't disrupt the local businesses and residents.”
Feeling his gaze, the girl's face turned even redder, but she nodded vigorously.
Without security guards aggressively clearing a path or cold-faced shouting, he simply stood at the mouth of an alley filled with the breath of daily life, explaining things and reasoning with them, looking entirely relaxed and natural.
“I'll wrap up a bit earlier today and post a Weibo update to let everyone know I'm safe.”
Seeing that it was about time, Jiang Yue waved to the crowd. “I have to head back and prepare for the next scene. Please disperse early, and get home safely.”
With that, he nodded once more in greeting, turned around, and walked back into the alley, his figure clean and swift.
Behind him, no one crossed the line. The security guards sealed up a few gaps at the edges, and the crowd, thoroughly appeased by Jiang Yue's words, began to disperse to both sides.
Aside from the rapid clicking of camera shutters, there was no other chaotic commotion.
This brief, few-minute interaction was edited into various versions and spread across the entire internet within half an hour.
#JiangYueReportsSafetyInShancheng#
#TextbookFanInteraction#
#JiangYueSaysCallThePoliceOnHanSong#
The trending hashtags shifted one after another. In the videos, Jiang Yue's hair was slightly messy, his clothes were somewhat worn, and his pants were clearly stained with mud, yet he exuded a remarkably vivid sense of narrative.
The netizens' comment section instantly transformed from a missing person's notice into a massive analysis of his personal charm.
【I'm crying. He is really so gentle. He was worried about the fans getting heatstroke and also afraid of them disrupting the local residents.】
【Teacher Han Song's Weibo comment section has already been completely overrun. It's filled with people tagging him to take the blame. I'm laughing so hard.】
【Isn't the main point his clothes and the mud on his pants? He's definitely not shooting some glamorous idol drama. With this battle-damaged look and state, I'm blindly guessing it's a suspense film.】
【+1 to the person above. Seeing him in this outfit makes me really look forward to this drama.】
This accidental encounter directly put the fans' anxiety to rest and casually propelled the crew of 《Prisoner's Game in the Mirror》—a production that didn't even have an official social media account set up yet—into the public eye.
Rate on N.U.
