Chapter 57

Mu Lou: "What's going on?"

Tong Bei: "The situation is a bit complicated. Think of it like this—it's as if you went to a cat café to pet cats, forgot to change your clothes when you got home, and your own cat smelled it on you."

Mu Lou: "Oh my!"

So Teacher Chu was caught by Three-Five-Five while secretly playing with Hua Xiaogang?

Looking over there, Chu Tingwu was following Three-Five-Five step by step, and although Hua Xiaogang seemed confused, he was also following Chu Tingwu in the same manner, occasionally standing up on his hind legs to paw at the skateboard near her hand, as if wondering why they weren't continuing to play.

Perhaps because although Hua Xiaogang was physically strong and powerful, he had a good temperament and plenty of patience. Three-Five-Five's attitude toward this orange cat was relatively gentle, as he wouldn't hurt the kittens when playing with them.

But now, Three-Five-Five took a few steps, turned back to glare at Chu Tingwu, then bared her teeth at Hua Xiaogang.

Hua Xiaogang: "?"

For cats, baring teeth is an unfriendly signal, but he had grown up with dogs, and dogs show their teeth when they're happy or excited. Cats are very adaptable creatures, and after several encounters, he had become immune to this gesture.

Seeing such an expression on a fellow cat's face now, he instinctively asked: "Meow meow?"

Have you turned into a dog?

Three-Five-Five: "..."

Might as well give him a beating!

While there was a chorus of meows and yowls on one side as Chu Tingwu tried to mediate, similar cat sounds could be heard from another direction—they had progressed to filming Three-Five-Five's scenes, and Director Mu Lou had gathered a group of cats from the neighborhood.

Three-Five-Five's character was the leader of the cats, so naturally, they needed to film several scenes of her with the stray cats.

These cats weren't actually strays, but rather house cats that matched humans' stereotypical image of stray cats—common breeds with unremarkable looks, some even distinctively ugly.

These cats were contacted through Hang Ling, and most were former strays who had found homes after being rescued by Little Sun Hospital.

They selected cats with mild temperaments, not particularly friendly with humans but also not prone to fear from environmental changes.

The adopting families were delighted that their cats could appear in the movie and were very cooperative.

When Director Mu came to discuss the scene with Chu Tingwu, she was sitting cross-legged on the room's carpet, modifying the small skateboard.

—Clearly, Three-Five-Five liked playing with the skateboard; she just thought Chu Tingwu played too dangerously.

Chu Tingwu decided to use the skateboard to tempt the tortoiseshell mother cat, not forcing Three-Five-Five to jump onto her skateboard to get used to the speed. Three-Five-Five also had her own custom small skateboard, so they could start by playing together.

However, carrying it was an issue.

Chu Tingwu: "I can't carry the small one with me when I'm skating myself... we can't strap it to Three-Five-Five's back, right?"

She thought for a moment and asked the system if they could combine the human skateboard and cat skateboard into one that could be assembled and disassembled easily.

The system quickly provided Chu Tingwu with a list of materials.

She was already skilled at this kind of handiwork, and modifying the skateboard wasn't too difficult, though Chu Tingwu would need to adjust to the new skateboard's weight—

The small skateboard's design was simple, made into connectable pieces that could be attached to the large skateboard when not in use, forming what looked like two small wings.

New control systems were added to the skateboard, which could be controlled not only by the system but also directly by Chu Tingwu's hand gestures.

When Director Mu discovered Chu Tingwu was busy, she didn't interrupt, waiting until she attached the final component before saying: "Your scene hasn't changed much, but should we change the bicycle riding to skateboarding?"

The difference wasn't huge, except that the "bicycle riding" scene included an action where Three-Five-Five jumps into the basket.

Mu Lou pondered: "I've filmed too many scenes of young men and women riding bicycles."

She was a director with high standards for visuals, and every frame that made it to the big screen had to pass her scrutiny... Although she was confident she could film the cycling scene well, however—

Director Mu Lou stared at Chu Tingwu, contemplating for a while.

Filming it just like that would be too ordinary, like every other movie she'd made.

After Chu Tingwu demonstrated the skateboard's effects to Director Mu, the director made an immediate decision: "Let's switch to the skateboard."

-

This scene was filming the first encounter between the character "Tao Xin," played by actress Tong Bei, and "Tiger Head."

According to the plot introduction, this was Three-Five-Five's first appearance.

"Tiger Head" had traveled all the way to Fallen Phoenix City, following the scent of criminals to the West District, but the last piece of evidence had been thrown into territory occupied by local stray cats.

Tiger Head had never been a stray cat, and feeling the unfamiliar and unfriendly scent of his fellow cats, he somewhat forcefully entered their territory.

Cats, unlike dogs, don't gather to attack other creatures, but Tiger Head happened to encounter a special group of stray cats.

A three-legged stray cat lay on top of a garbage bin, hissing at him.

Tiger Head hesitated on the spot, somewhat uncertain, but his gaze gradually became determined—

Then, his nose twitched.

He caught the scent of other cats.

A blind cat appeared on an abandoned second-floor windowsill, a tailless cat crawled out from under an overturned metal rack. These cats all looked somewhat disheveled but had clean coats. Cats walk silently; Tiger Head took a step back, his hind paw bending an empty paper cup.

With a "clang."

A smoke-colored long-haired tortoiseshell cat leaped from somewhere onto the garbage bin lid, positioning herself in front of the three-legged black and white cat.

In the shot, her pupils seemed to flash with dark golden light. The camera switched between Tiger Head and the tortoiseshell; Tiger Head lowered his body while the tortoiseshell's tail swayed more and more slowly.

The cats silently surrounded the orange cat. Though they were all old, weak, sick, or disabled, with the tortoiseshell at the front, the outcome was uncertain.

The camera created a sense of equal forces, and in the next second, Tiger Head made a sound.

—In the design, to show how cities far apart could make even cats "speak different languages," Director Mu had Chu Tingwu teach Hua Xiaogang to lower his voice, while other cats' voices were higher-pitched. As for Three-Five-Five, she had no lines here.

When Chu Tingwu discussed this with Hua Xiaogang, the cat overthought it, and during the official shooting, the orange cat let out a clear "woof-meow."

Mu Lou looked at Chu Tingwu: That's not the kind of language barrier we meant!

Chu Tingwu: "=="

Finally, she found some videos of Russian cats online and had Hua Xiaogang learn a few phrases.

In the shot, the orange cat made a sound, and the other cats chattered in response. Then they fell silent, looking toward the tortoiseshell in the middle.

The tortoiseshell's fur danced in the wind, her eyes narrowed, and she suddenly leaped forward.

Mid-leap, the other cats seemed to receive a command and jumped out simultaneously.

"Pat"

With the soft sound of the paper cup being crushed.

The orange cat turned and fled, retreating from this territory.

The negotiations had failed.

Although there were no lines, everyone could see this was the first encounter between Tiger Head, the foreign cat, and the local leader, the tortoiseshell cat.

While the scene appeared seamless, there were many NGs during filming.

Group scenes are already prone to NGs, let alone group animal scenes. This kind of story-driven group animal scene with visible coordinated movement hadn't been successfully filmed by anyone else before.

So, after getting the first good take, Director Mu really wanted to film a few more for backup.

Chu Tingwu, who was busy catching cats all over the set: "=o="

Multiple cat scenes were really difficult to film. These disabled cats had all been adopted, and most were quite timid when brought to the set. Chu Tingwu had to direct them to show that wariness of their stray days, at least making their eyes look like they'd spotted an intruder rather than anticipating another can of food.

This scene was shot on location after the crew rebuilt it, and the cats still needed to be made up one by one to achieve that stray cat look.

Although today's shoot was about their first meeting, half of the scenes between Hua Xiaogang and the female lead had already been filmed. Movie timelines are always this jumpy - they need to film all the scenes for a particular set while it's constructed. Chu Tingwu had arranged everything for the cats, and looking back, she realized her own cat was the most manageable one, requiring no direction—

Just looking at the expression, Three-Five-Five seemed ready to fight Hua Xiaogang.

After stuffing the cow-patterned cat Oreo into Hang Ling's arms, half of the cats here finally wrapped up their scenes for the day.

After the group cat scene, it was time to film the female lead's scenes with "Tiger Head." Tao Xin encounters the fleeing Tiger Head and, despite her own troubled circumstances, her heart softens and she adopts the orange cat.

Though Tiger Head appeared muscular and strong, because of his earlier behavior, the female lead mistakenly believes him to be a physically strong but timid orange cat.

...After all, orange cats generally give off an impression of being chubby and gentle.

The female lead looked at Tiger Head, thinking: "This kid might not be muscular, just a bit fat, with the flesh making it look like muscle."

She really found every possible excuse.

Tiger Head follows Tao Xin because she happens to rent a small apartment nearby. Seeing the gathering of cats, he realizes he needs a place to stay, and thus the human and cat become temporary companions.

Usually in films, when humans adopt cats, the pets are portrayed very much as pets, but in this film, the sense of being companions sharing life's struggles is more prominent.

Both cat and human have their own difficulties but are confined to the same small space.

When Tao Xin works at her cramped desk, Tiger Head is in the alley below the rental apartment, engaging in battles of wit with other cats, the camera panning upward to show thin strips of sky between two walls.

During filming, Director Mu explains to them the emotions he wants to convey through his shots—

Clearly, the cat and human are in similar situations. Chu Tingwu realizes that it's precisely because cats can't speak human language that Director Mu works so hard to show the cats' humanized aspects through camera language.

Director Mu has a habit of editing while filming, and Chu Tingwu has seen the footage of this scene.

She discovers that in this film, Director Mu's shots have a certain "clean" quality - not in terms of content, but in how he manages complexity without chaos, capturing every frame's intended emotion with thoroughness.

It's this thoroughness that makes both the humans and animals in the frame appear pure and beautiful.

The tortoiseshell cat's wild nature, the orange cat's alertness and composure, human worries and joys... other cats stepping through the city, casting shadows that flash across the corner of the frame - this isn't their home, but the whole world is their domain.

After coincidentally helping Tao Xin, Tiger Head returns to the rental apartment and discovers a trapped disabled cow-patterned cat.

This is a pivotal moment in the film, an opportunity for reconciliation between the newcomer orange cat and the local strays.

When the cow-patterned cat is rescued, the orange cat and tortoiseshell exchange a silent glance. The camera gives the cats a close-up - no communication or dialogue needed, their whiskers quiver in the air as they complete their animal "conversation" through eye contact alone.

To accommodate Chu Tingwu's vacation schedule, all animal scenes would be filmed within these two months, so the storyline jumps around.

Tiger Head obtains a clue, and later, when a client is escorting the female lead home, he catches a familiar scent and tracks it to an abandoned amusement park.

Three-Five-Five also participates in this part of the plot, where the cats take initiative and coincidentally coordinate with the human female lead to delay that client, thereby slowing down other criminals' attempts to rendezvous.

The following scenes include some cat action sequences that would be challenging for ordinary cats but just right for a police cat.

Director Mu remains sensible, not having an orange cat punch criminals or kick bombs, but simply helping its owner escape and alert the police.

However, during filming, there was a small, unexpected incident.

While filming an action scene, the orange cat stepped on a prop wooden board and used its hind legs to push forward, completing a "skateboarding" move.

Chu Tingwu: "..."

Three-Five-Five: "?"

Director Mu slapped his leg: "Well done, Xiaogang! Can you do that again?"

Assistant Director: "=="

What a familiar way of addressing! And that cat... it actually responded with a "meow."

Their feline actor was having the time of its life skateboarding on set. Off-camera, Chu Tingwu held Three-Five-Five down and buried her face in its belly, finally getting the tortoiseshell to stop struggling and just snort in annoyance.

Chu Tingwu's scene in the storyline appears near the ending.

The plot resolves satisfactorily, with Tiger Head receiving recognition for his important contribution and about to become the first real police cat in the law enforcement system.

As he's about to leave Fallen Phoenix City, the camera pulls back for a beautiful panoramic shot of the entire city (Chu Tingwu suspects this is Director Mu's way of repaying the Cultural and Tourism Bureau's investment in the film), followed by Tiger Head saying goodbye to his "friends" in Fallen Phoenix City.

Tao Xin's company went bankrupt, but her hard work and sincerity were recognized, and she found a new company with a better work environment. She's moving out of that rental apartment.

The stray cats no longer resist Tiger Head's approach. They exchange distant greetings, and just as they're about to leave, protection organization workers come to catch them for adoption.

Seeing that the strays won't listen to reason, Tiger Head helps the humans trick the cats into cages. Just like their first meeting, he gets hissed at by the cats again.

But this time, when audiences see this scene, their emotional response will likely be completely different, probably resulting in good-natured laughter.

The final goodbye is obviously with Three-Five-Five.

Tiger Head follows the scent and finds Three-Five-Five. The tortoiseshell is still the cat queen, but now leads a different group from another gathering spot.

The tortoiseshell cat lounges on the wall, with a group of cats sunbathing. When Tiger Head, the unfamiliar orange cat, approaches, other cats stand up, but only Three-Five-Five merely glances over.

She's the last to stand, opening her mouth as if to say something.

The atmosphere has built up to this point when suddenly, a skateboard appears at the edge of the frame.

The skateboard stops by the wall, and the girl riding it speaks: "Little Flower? Did you sneak out again without telling me? Come home quickly!"

The tortoiseshell's expression visibly freezes.

She pretends nothing happened, tilts her head to groom her fur with her tongue, then jumps down from the wall. Without looking at Tiger Head, she approaches the girl's feet: "Meow~"

The girl's full body still doesn't appear in frame. She just bends down to pat the tortoiseshell's head, lifts her left foot to tap the skateboard twice, her heel hitting the glowing logo on the back half of the board.

The skateboard's "wings" automatically detach, drawing two arcs to form a smaller board.

When the cat steps on it, the LED screen on the cat-sized skateboard changes to an unobtrusive light pink.

Then, under the watchful eyes of the cats on the wall and Tiger Head beside her, the long-haired tortoiseshell "Little Flower" proudly stands tall on her pink mini-skateboard and follows her owner out of frame.

As soon as Director Mu called "Cut!", Chu Tingwu couldn't hold it in anymore. She stopped and bent over, hands on her knees, pretending she wasn't laughing too obviously—but besides her, everyone else filming this scene had smiles on their faces.

Only the cats didn't understand what humans found so funny. Though still lying in their original positions, their heads had all turned, looking for their respective owners.

Three-Five-Five jumped off the skateboard, pawing at her board, looking at Chu Tingwu, then glancing at the others.

Though cats don't understand what's so funny, they can sense human emotions... logically, the youngster seemed very happy, but something felt odd?

Seeing that Director Mu hadn't asked for another take, Chu Tingwu jumped off her skateboard and took out her phone: "Little Flower~ Look here for a photo!"

Three-Five-Five: "=="

She turned her head.

But Chu Tingwu didn't mind, continuing to snap photos.

Because Three-Five-Five was a relatively uncommon name, between "Mimi" and "Xiaohua," Director Mu ultimately decided on "Xiaohua" as the stage name - the simpler, cuter, and more straightforward the name, the more striking the contrast!

As for the skateboard part at the end, initially it was just meant for Chu Tingwu to stop and call her cat, then leave together.

But when Director Mu saw Chu Tingwu leading (enticing) Three-Five-Five to play with the small skateboard, her eyes lit up.

What caught her attention wasn't the skateboard's technical features, but rather that it was a pink LED light board!

Chu Tingwu: "There are other colors too, and this one can be programmed..."

Director Mu: "Let's use pink!"

Chu Tingwu: Well, you asked for it.

She gestured to Three-Five-Five—

This person requested it, this person wants you to ride the skateboard, and riding means earning money, big money to raise kittens!

Three-Five-Five: "...?"

So the cat mom got on board.

Before filming, since it was difficult to get the cats to perform uniform actions, there were several NGs, and Chu Tingwu would take the opportunity to photograph and video Three-Five-Five:

The tortoiseshell cat jumped up and down, occasionally pawing at the small skateboard, and when she noticed Chu Tingwu watching, she would just pause briefly, glance at Director Mu, then continue skating forward with an unapologetic look.

Director Mu was curious: "Three-Five-Five keeps staring at me today? Is there something strange about me?"

Chu Tingwu thought: Maybe it's strange that you're carrying a wok on your back.

Racing against time, after the winter break ended, Chu Tingwu took two more days off, and finally all the scenes requiring cats were completed.

During this period, Three-Five-Five had reluctantly accepted her skateboard.

Or rather, whenever she saw the orange cat staring longingly at the skateboard but unable to play with it, Three-Five-Five would skate back and forth, back and forth... When tired, she would let Chu Tingwu control the board with the remote, and while charging, she would lie on top of it, forbidding any orange fur from appearing on it.

Chu Tingwu: "=v="

Of course, while the orange cat didn't seem to mind being excluded, after visiting the cats several times, Hua Xiaogang's owner approached Chu Tingwu rubbing his hands: "Teacher Chu, do you have a link for this skateboard?"

It looked expensive, but he wanted to buy one for his cat too.

Chu Tingwu waved her hand: "You can just buy those entry-level electric skateboards that can be controlled by an app. This skateboard is custom-modified, mainly for automatic disassembly and remote assembly, but that's not really useful."

Only she had such needs—

Because Chu Tingwu's goal wasn't just to desensitize Three-Five-Five to her skateboarding, but to play together with Three-Five-Five. On paths where cats couldn't skateboard through, she could let Three-Five-Five ride on her board, and the small skateboard could automatically connect, requiring no manual lifting.

The owner said disappointedly: "I thought about that too, but I searched and found that those skateboards have battery life issues, they run out of power too easily—and I want my dogs to be able to play along too."

Hua Xiaogang's home was a big family, and with the dogs included, they naturally needed a large skateboard, but it would indeed run out of power easily.

Chu Tingwu: "Are they all large dogs?"

"Oh, there's one French Bulldog, but the others are quite big, and we have one big mop dog," the owner gestured to show the dogs' height, "I walk them every day, and sometimes the dogs get tired too. I was thinking if they had a skateboard, could they just lie on it and be remote-controlled home like your cat?"

Chu Tingwu thought: You should just buy an electric tricycle==

Though she made this sarcastic comment internally, Chu Tingwu still consulted her system and recommended an electric skateboard with better battery life.

Just after bidding farewell to Hua Xiaogang's owner, Cheng Luwei came over, also asking about the skateboard—

He wasn't asking for cats, but for himself; he wanted to know how to customize a skateboard with two wings like Chu Tingwu's.

"Although I can't skate, it's too cool," he sighed, "Let me have one."

What a simple yet wealthy reason.

Chu Tingwu: "It depends on whether you just want a skateboard with a special shape, or one that can be programmed for automatic assembly..."

The former could be customized at a factory, but such skateboards actually couldn't perform complex moves, and doing tricks with such an unusual board would be dangerous.

The lead actress Tong Bei passed by and was curious: "Then why customize a board like this?"

Although it was cool, Chu Tingwu surely meant to use it for skating, not just for decoration, right?

Chu Tingwu: "Because I use it for... commuting?"

Since it was difficult to explain with words alone, Chu Tingwu beckoned to Three-Five-Five, coaxingly "meowed" once, and pointed to the board beneath her.

Three-Five-Five narrowed her eyes and walked over gracefully.

This outdoor reshoot location was cordoned off, with two houses of less than a meter height difference, both single-story buildings.

Chu Tingwu easily climbed onto the roof with the skateboard in one hand, and Three-Five-Five darted up after her.

Then, the skateboard disassembled into two boards, one large and one small. Chu Tingwu stood on the skateboard, performed a few moves on the roof as if warming up, then skated straight ahead.

The people below could see she seemed to be attempting to jump to the opposite side on the skateboard.

But halfway through, Chu Tingwu made a hand gesture, Three-Five-Five jumped off the small skateboard, the board split and automatically reassembled into wings for the long skateboard, and just before the leap, the cat also jumped onto the board, landing between Chu Tingwu's feet.

Chu Tingwu crouched to hold the board, and human and cat successfully landed on the other side.

In parkour, sometimes you'll see traceurs suddenly doing a front flip on flat ground, or consecutive front flips. This usually happens when there's no parkour-specific way to quickly traverse that route, so they're just running, and for filming effect, the runner will add some technical moves.

Now, Chu Tingwu was trying to add skateboarding moves here. She discovered that for many platforms with small height differences, or stairs, handrails, and slopes, many parkour moves could be replaced with skateboarding techniques.

So, she was trying to integrate parkour, skateboarding, and cats all together.

Of course, another reason for the small skateboard was—

Chu Tingwu crouched on the ground, pointing at the screen to show her fellow actors: "See this light, when Three-Five-Five's skateboard is plugged in, the light turns on, and then—"

The big skateboard can charge the small skateboard!

When she looked up, she found Tong Bei covering her face and silently turning away:

It's just too cute!

Tong Bei took a deep breath and turned to grab Chu Tingwu's hands: "Can I buy this!"

Chu Tingwu: ?

But none of you even have cats!

Tong Bei: "Actually, I have a hamster... so can you customize one for hamsters? And the hamster skateboard should be able to charge on the big skateboard!"

Chu Tingwu: "=="

It felt like the focus wasn't on the skateboard but on charging... the big skateboard was actually just a skateboard-shaped charger!

With a sense of "I seem to have succeeded in marketing, but somehow also haven't," Chu Tingwu returned to Jin City with Three-Five-Five.

As for the custom "orders," she had the system send the blueprints to You Zhenzhen, who would liaise with factories for customization and interface with the customers who placed orders.

The 365 Cat Census APP's marketplace quietly listed custom pet skateboard resales... those who wanted to buy matching human skateboards could add them to their purchase.

When Chu Tingwu set out on her way back to school, news about the movie began to spread online.

Barring any surprises, the movie would be released during the May Day holiday period, so they could start building buzz now.

After much deliberation over names like "Extreme Rescue," "Thrilling Moments," "The Power of Cats," "He and the Cat," the movie's final title was—

"Tiger Head"

The original cat that inspired the story is now named "Dragon Baby" and has accepted this name, but the movie used the original name "Tiger Head," as if in a parallel world, everything had been altered, and Tiger Head never became "Dragon Baby," remaining that chubby orange cat with tiger-like features.

Mu Lou was also very satisfied with this name. Although switching from an indie film to an animal-centered movie was quite a departure for her, she still felt this title best conveyed the film's theme.

As the film entered the editing phase, promotional activities officially began.

The first promotional poster was released, with the ginger cat taking the center position, Cheng Luwei with the most screen time in second place, and the high-profile Tong Bei in third. The two humans and one cat occupied the most eye-catching positions, but Three-Five-Five was also lying at the top of the poster. Due to its fur color almost blending with the background, its most striking feature was its pair of amber eyes.

The actors' fans were thrilled. Although Mu Lou hadn't directed this type of film before, the released promotional footage showed her filming technique hadn't declined. Even if the plot wasn't exceptional, it would at least be a passable film where audiences could enjoy beautiful actors and scenery at the theater.

In the entertainment industry, merely being passable already surpassed 80% of films!

Fans were the most excited, and with Tong Bei's variety show success and Cheng Luwei's public appeal, both were box office guarantees. Regular moviegoers wouldn't reject this film either.

Seeing the initial promotional response, investors immediately added more to the marketing budget.

Mu Lou remained calm and continued releasing behind-the-scenes footage.

This film had so much behind-the-scenes content it could almost be edited into a new movie, possibly because it was rare to see so many cats that would follow directions and could be filmed freely. All sorts of footage of the cats was captured on camera.

At first, fans were still excited, but gradually, people began to notice:

[I came to watch Bei Bei, but why do I start grinning whenever I see staff members holding cats...]

[Same here, I'm Cheng Luwei's fan, and he's usually so low-profile without many airport photos. I came to catch glimpses of him, but ended up watching all the parts with cats eating!]

[I heard this is an animal movie featuring a police cat? Is it the police cat from Fallen Phoenix City? That's the only police cat I could find when searching!]

[It should be, they're both ginger cats! And I vaguely remember this cat had filmed a movie before... Is this the second one?]

[???]

The curious fans quickly found the micro-film, since it had been trending recently, and compared it with the registered story of "Tiger Head" - it was indeed the same cat.

Shortly after fans confirmed this, Mu Lou officially announced that the film was indeed based on a real police cat - though she didn't specifically mention it was Long Zai, as too much attention wasn't good. After all, there was news of police dog training bases across the country experimenting with training police cats.

She also declared: The film was 60% fictional.

Fans: Did this need to be stated? The movie even has an [action] tag, everyone knows those are human actions, not cat actions.

Mu Lou: You know nothing about cats... No, before filming, I probably knew nothing about cats either!

She thought she should properly thank Chu Tingwu for providing many inspirations for animal action design.

Meanwhile, Tong Bei's fans also felt... they should thank Chu Tingwu?

Someone found footage from Chu Tingwu's old livestreams where Tong Bei had actually appeared!

The person whose face was blurred was wearing the same clothes Tong Bei wore in the behind-the-scenes footage!

Fans secretly discussed in their groups:

[Cheng Luwei... seems to have appeared too? He's the male lead. Our Bei Bei is the female lead, could it be true that "to be in Mu Lou's film, you must appear in Chu's livestream"?]

-

Chu Tingwu was unaware that she had involuntarily become part of another strange entertainment industry superstition. She was sitting in a classroom in the experimental building.

Due to taking leave for filming, Chu Tingwu had missed the start-of-term exams, and now she was surrounded by first-year students who consistently ranked in the top thirty of their grade.

Considering her rankings last semester, even without the latest test scores, she was included in this list.

They were here to experience the atmosphere of academic competitions early.

The five major subject competitions included Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Informatics. Students would progress through various levels of selection and testing to reach the national team, competing against international peers on the world stage.

Of course, Jin City No.5 Senior High School didn't have such lofty ambitions. At most, they aimed to nurture students who could achieve provincial rankings, giving them advantages in direct university admissions or reduced entry requirements at prestigious schools.

As for the national team, those chances were too slim.

Both first and second-year students could participate in these competitions, and some talented middle school students were even discovered through these competitions. Jin City No.5 had a tradition where first-year students would also register when second-years signed up, receiving short-term training and participating in competitions to experience the atmosphere.

Since first-year students still had regular classes, the only time available for training was... during evening self-study.

Moreover, their evening study time would be extended by an hour, matching the third-year students' schedule.

The senior competition class students quietly told them: "Once you're in the competition class in second year, you'll leave school with the third-years in the evening, and only have half a day off on weekends."

The first-year students were shocked.

But correspondingly, the competition class seemed... more free in some ways?

The second-year students were studying next door, and the first-years had secretly peeked in, discovering that everyone had their phones, some even brought computers, and teachers didn't mind at all.

The teaching instructor, noticing their confusion, smiled and said, "Once they're in the competition class, they know their responsibilities. They're self-disciplined, using phones to look up problems and facilitate discussion."

As for those who couldn't self-discipline—

The competition class had an elimination system; those who fell behind in test rankings would have to leave.

The first-year students were... thoroughly shocked.

An Shiyan quietly grabbed Chu Tingwu's arm: "I feel like I'll be back in regular classes before a month is up."

Despite saying this, most students brought their phones the next day.

Today during break, Chu Tingwu heard a familiar voice from her neighbor's phone - the background audio seemed to be promotional material for "Tiger Head" -

It was footage of Tong Bei filming in front of the camera from their time on set.

Two or three people gathered around to watch, while the teacher sat at the desk, not interfering.

This emboldened others, and all eyes became glued to the screen.

The initial promotion was normal, with Tong Bei discussing related topics and smiling while asking for support for the film... several cats were walking around in the background, clearly having just finished shooting scenes with multiple cats.

Chu Tingwu also recalled the situation then, but her brows furrowed: Wait... they didn't reshoot this promotional material?

Just as she thought this, the scene indeed changed.

The camera shook slightly, as if the cameraman noticed something wrong: "Tong—"

There were too many cats in the background. A white cat had been lying on a slanted prop, and then other cats passed by playing, causing the unstable long prop to fall along with the white cat on top!

Tong Bei's shoulders tensed, seemingly also keenly aware of the danger, but human reactions weren't fast enough. She only managed to turn and take half a step toward the camera.

This half step, taken while looking up, actually made her stumble, nearly falling into the camera.

The students watching the footage were also shocked, and caught up in the emotion, they let out quiet gasps around the phone screen.

The camera shook, showing a foot, then half a body facing away from the camera. Then the photographer seemed to move, focusing the lens on Tong Bei's face.

Tong Bei hadn't fallen; someone had caught her around the waist, but the posture was strange.

Because while that person's face wasn't shown, their other arm seemed to be holding something else.

So the camera, as if understanding what fans wanted to see, pushed in that direction, revealing a white cat on the person's other side.

Yes, this person who came to help caught both the falling person and the cat in a princess carry style - one in each arm.

The cat and the person had almost identical expressions - the person looked bewildered while the cat appeared dazed.

She put the cat down on the ground, still showing only most of her body in the frame, with a voice from off-screen asking: "Are we still filming?"

"Oh, oh—" Tong Bei maintained her pose and smiled at the camera, "Please support our movie 'Tiger Head'!"

Comments floated across the screen, but after watching the video, the students from the Olympic class turned to look at Chu Tingwu:

"Um..."

Chu Tingwu: "I was just there to help."

Aliali: 6748813ec4f3f33ac479d733

She was just an ordinary crew member!

"So about your leave from school..." S~eaʀᴄh the ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Chu Tingwu: "When you start something, you should see it through!"

Her classmates weren't entirely convinced but seemed relieved: "That's good... so it wasn't because you filmed a video of thieves and got revenge from criminal gangs, had your holiday homework stolen and torn up, and then couldn't come back because you were trying to get your homework back, and couldn't make up the work in time..."

Chu Tingwu: "?"

Another person whispered: "I told you that wasn't possible."

Chu Tingwu: Of course it wasn't possible.

The classmate continued: "...I mean, I don't think anyone could steal Chu Tingwu's holiday homework!"

Chu Tingwu: "..."

So that's what they meant by "impossible"!