Brother Dao Took the Entertainment Industry by Storm, Fans Beg Me Not to Kill Anymore

Chapter 572: Thief Catcher 2 Begins Filming—Shen Jue Returns!

When he saw his Shen Jue appearance in the mirror again, Xiao He felt more contemplation than nostalgia.The person in the mirror wore simple, coarse linen clothes, his hair tied up with a single chopstick, stray strands casually tucked behind his ears. The sleeves of his clothes were rolled up high from frequent work, a not-so-clean towel hung from the cloth belt around his waist, and on his feet were a pair of utterly unremarkable cloth shoes.

Apart from his face still holding on with some effort, the rest of the look was extremely ordinary, exactly resembling a common inn waiter.

Xiao He turned left and right, looking at the person in the mirror, took a deep breath, then slowly closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes again, his gaze suddenly turned sharp and piercing, yet the aura around him became even more restrained.

His eyes swept over the nearby cutting board and props, he calmly reached out his hand, then clenched it tightly—

The next moment, Shen Jue of Penglai Inn, an utterly ordinary waiter, walked out of the dressing room.

The others waiting in the hall heard the sound and looked over.

The person in the middle jumped down from the table, then walked towards Xiao He happily, "Shen Jue, long time no see."

"Mm."

Xiao He had completely entered the role. Seeing the upright and tall Jiang Rushu before him, a flicker of amusement passed through his eyes, but overall, his face remained aloof and cold as he gave an almost imperceptible nod.

"Alright, everyone, get ready."

Lin Yipeng clapped his hands, looking at the others on set, "Let's hurry and shoot, finish the remaining scenes here early so we can head out for the location shoot sooner."

"Okay!"

Everyone responded and began efficiently preparing.

Xiao He keenly noticed that many of the staff members in the production team this time appeared more professional and older than the small team Lin Yipeng had originally assembled himself, and their movements were very efficient.

He figured a large portion of them probably came from Lin Yipeng's father's team and were now officially following Lin Yipeng for production work.

That was good. The filming work for "Thief Catcher 2" should be more efficient and easier going forward.

So, during the waiting gap before filming, Xiao He began reviewing the script for "Thief Catcher 2" again.

This "Thief Catcher 2" script follows the timeline of the first part, telling a new story and adventure. So overall, even if someone hadn't seen the first part, watching Thief Catcher 2 directly wouldn't have much impact and wouldn't hinder understanding the story.

At the end of the first part's story, Jiang Rushu bid farewell to his good friend Shen Jue and, as a Thief Catcher, continued taking various capture missions, embarking once more on a life of wandering the jianghu and upholding justice...

On this day, Jiang Rushu, who had just rested in a small town in the southwest, received a letter from a distant friend, only to find it was already over a month old, and the content inside seemed to have been replaced. It appeared someone wanted to lure him to the northwest using Shen Jue's name.

But Shen Jue had always preferred quiet, rarely went out normally. After retiring from the jianghu, he would only stay at the inn, and the only friend in the jianghu he would visit was Jiang Rushu. However, Jiang Rushu was always carefree and followed his whims, willing to brave the elements and live without a fixed abode to capture criminals. So, it was always Jiang Rushu who went to Penglai Inn to find Shen Jue.

Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, Shen Jue definitely wouldn't leave the inn. The last time he went south of the Yangtze was still to help Jiang Rushu.

So, this suddenly delivered letter made Jiang Rushu deeply suspicious.

Another point that concerned him was that inside the envelope was also a copper coin.

After reconfirming the situation with the courier who delivered the letter, Jiang Rushu looked at the letter he was seeing over a month late, thought for a moment, and still decided not to go northwest first. Instead, he would directly return to Penglai Inn to confirm the situation.

Unfortunately, Jiang Rushu was still too late.

Traveling day and night, riding back to Penglai Inn on horseback, he discovered the inn had been burned down by a great fire. The inn's landlady and Shen Jue were missing.

The inn was also full of other people's corpses!

After Jiang Rushu's careful excavation and investigation, he discovered the identities of these corpses were extraordinary—

The residual physical characteristics on these corpses bore distinct marks of northwestern army soldiers.

And this point coincidentally matched the content of the letter he received!

All evidence pointed to the northwest!

What exactly happened? Why was Penglai Inn destroyed? Where did Shen Jue and the landlady go?

Harboring these doubts, Jiang Rushu set off on the road to the northwest—

-

"Shen Jue, ready?"

Lin Yipeng raised the megaphone, calling Xiao He who was reading the script.

"Mm, I'm fine."

Xiao He put down the script and stood up, while Pu Rong walked to the other side to wait.

Now they were going to shoot the scene where Penglai Inn is surrounded, and Shen Jue fights his way out with the landlady. This scene wasn't shot together with Pu Rong's part. Pu Rong was waiting to shoot the later scene after a great fire burns the site to ruins.

So Pu Rong coming this time was essentially specifically to pick up Xiao He, with the added bonus of observing on set.

Xiao He briefly discussed the upcoming actions with a few martial arts actors, then turned and walked towards the kitchen, preparing for his scene entry.

Soon, the originally somewhat noisy set gradually quieted down, with only Lin Yipeng's megaphone continuing, "Alright, all departments ready—"

"Shen Jue, Scene One, Take 001—"

"Three—"

"Two—"

"One—"

The quiet inn instantly became lively.

Rough men bared their arms, playing drinking games and drinking, the clinking of wine bowls mixing with the shouts of the finger-guessing game, the aroma of wine mingling with the scent of braised meat, both lingering in the air above the inn. On the second-floor corridors on both sides of the inn, people passed by one after another, each holding different weapons, wearing different attire, but their steps were steady and uniform, chaotic yet orderly.

"Waiter, another bowl!"

The burly man sitting in the middle drank the wine on the table in one bold gulp, then wiped the wine from his mouth, loudly ordering the inn's attendant around.

The young man who was both a server and a cook lifted the kitchen curtain, steadily walking out with a steaming dish tray. Ignoring the faint, watchful gazes around him, he calmly walked to that burly man and placed the braised meat and peanuts in his hands on the table.

Several people at another table pinched peanuts while watching the young man before them. Even in the high corner of the second floor, someone had drawn their weapon, quietly awaiting orders from behind the scenes.

The liveliness on the scene seemed like nothing more than a deceptive illusion.

The young man's eyes held no emotional color, only a cold, indifferent chill. Facing the surrounding danger, he merely calmly picked up the dish tray, walked to the counter, and gently tapped the counter's surface.

Behind the counter, with her back to everyone, the landlady who had been clacking away on her abacus stopped her movements.

The side-swept bangs covered part of her face, but her gaze was intensely present.

"Ah Jue?"

"The kitchen is almost overwhelmed. You go to the back."

Shen Jue's tone was calm, yet carried a note of undeniable authority.

The landlady was silent for a moment, then responded with an "Okay," directly lifting the curtain of a small side door, preparing to leave.

"This time, I'm dragging you into trouble again."

The woman's voice held a touch of melancholy.

Shen Jue didn't speak, just turned around and walked back towards the burly man drinking in the center of the hall.

And as he moved through the crowd, a hand with distinct knuckle bones pulled out a gleaming bone-cleaving knife from beneath the dish tray.

The blade's light reflected a cold gleam, illuminating the skeletons of the corpses, and also illuminating the cold glint in the man's eyes—