Xu Ke was absolutely furious.
The scene had been progressing so smoothly, so perfectly.
Everyone was in the zone, and it looked like they could pull off a single, uninterrupted take in just one go.
But then, at this critical moment, the props had to fail?
If looks could kill, he would have murdered the prop master a thousand times by now.
Xu Ke’s glare was piercing and intimidating.
But the prop master didn’t even acknowledge him, just staring blankly at the shattered fragments on the ground, completely dumbfounded.
Before filming started, he had checked the condition of the prop sword more than once.
After confirming, without a single doubt, that the sword had no issues whatsoever and wasn’t sharpened, so it couldn’t hurt anyone—
Only then did he hand it over to Li Lianjie.
So why did it…
“Did I hand over the wrong one?!”
The prop master was starting to doubt his own sanity.
But then again, that didn’t make sense, because even if he had given the wrong sword, there was no reason for it to shatter like this.
They were making a movie!
Film is a visual art; they had to pursue beauty!
They strived for perfection even in the tiniest details.
Not to mention the sword held by the main character.
Their props department had definitely put extra thought into it, making sure that if it ever broke, it would do so artistically.
The way this sword had shattered was far too messy, clearly not meeting their standards of beauty.
But the prop master was also fairly certain that this sword did, in fact, belong to their crew.
“What’s going on here?”
Brimming with confusion, the prop master hurried over to inspect the damage.
And it was then that he noticed something truly unbelievable.
There wasn’t a single trace of glue on the broken edges of the sword!
This really had been a solid, well-made sword.
And yet, now it was in pieces.
“Could it be…”
Realizing something, his pupils contracted sharply. He looked up at Jiang Nian, his face filled with disbelief.
Just then, Xu Ke walked over.
His face dark with anger, he glared at the prop master. “You’d better have a damn good explanation for me.”
Hearing this, the prop master snapped back to reality. His mouth twitched. He glanced at Jiang Nian, then at Xu Ke, thought for a moment, and said, “Director Xu, you might not believe this, but this prop… it might have, possibly, been broken by Mr. Jiang.”
The moment he said that—
Xu Ke froze for a second, then laughed, a bright, cheerful laugh, even clapping his hands. “Oh, I see. So it was broken by Mr. Jiang. How impressive.”
But the very next second, without any warning, he grabbed the prop master by the collar.
“Are you trying to make me look like a goddamn idiot? Huh?”
“Breaking a prop sword with a prop dagger?”
“I swear to God, I’ll make sure you never work on another film set again!”
Xu Ke’s face twisted with fury. Spittle flew from his mouth as he ranted, landing all over the prop master’s face.
The prop master, terrified by his violent reaction, didn’t dare say a word.
Luckily, at that moment—
Jiang Nian stepped in to explain. “Director Xu, calm down. This really was my fault. I accidentally used too much force and broke the prop. The prop master had nothing to do with it.”
Hearing that, Xu Ke frowned.
He thought Jiang Nian was just trying to cover for the prop master, so he said:
“Mr. Jiang, you don’t need to feel sorry for him. If you make a mistake, you admit it. If you mess up, you face the consequences.”
“But not only does he refuse to admit his own mistake, he makes up some ridiculous lie and tries to shift the blame onto you.”
“I will not allow a rotten apple like this on my set!”
Xu Ke spoke with righteous indignation.
But Jiang Nian’s eyelids twitched as he listened.
He could understand Xu Ke’s behavior.
But…
He really was the one who broke it!
By doing this, Xu Ke was making himself the good guy, but he was leaving Jiang Nian stuck up on a high pedestal, with no graceful way down!
Just then, Li Lianjie finally snapped out of his shock from the sword shattering.
He noticed Jiang Nian’s awkward predicament and chimed in to help. “Director Xu, you’ve got it wrong. Jiang Nian really did break that sword. If you don’t believe me, just look at my hand.”
With that, Li Lianjie held out his hand, showing his thumb web.
It was cracked open from the impact, raw and bleeding.
That was the most solid proof possible.
Now it was Xu Ke’s turn to be stunned.
If both lead actors were speaking up for the prop master, it obviously wasn’t out of pity.
Plus, Li Lianjie’s hand was actually injured.
“Well…”
Xu Ke let go of the prop master’s collar, thought for a moment, and said, “Get another sword. Mr. Jiang, would you mind demonstrating that again for us?”
“Of course,” Jiang Nian nodded.
So the prop master fetched another sword and handed it to Xu Ke, who confirmed it was perfectly fine.
Then the prop master held the sword with both hands, stood in front of Jiang Nian, and got into position.
Jiang Nian took the dagger, twirled it in a quick flourish, and stabbed straight at the sword!
Clang!
The short dagger struck the blade.
Then, under everyone’s watchful eyes—
Crack!
A sharp sound rang out.
That originally hard, sturdy sword shattered like a mirror, instantly falling apart into pieces scattered all over the floor!
“!!!”
Seeing this, everyone was completely dumbfounded.
Zhou Xun tugged at Li Lianjie’s sleeve. “Teacher Li, what just happened?”
Hearing this, everyone else turned to look at him, equally confused.
After all, in their minds, Li Lianjie was one of the most skilled fighters in the film industry.
Surely, he could explain what was going on.
But to their surprise, Li Lianjie just shook his head. “I have no idea.”
Even though he had seen Jiang Nian use this move once before during their rehearsal, he still couldn’t understand how it worked.
Using a dagger to shatter a sword was one thing.
But the fact that the dagger itself came away without a single scratch was what really got him.
That was unbelievable.
Because force is mutual. If Jiang Nian’s strength was enough to shatter a sword with a dagger, the recoil force should have at least chipped the dagger, if not shattered it completely.
But what just happened clearly defied that law of physics.
While everyone was staring at Jiang Nian, completely baffled—
Xu Ke finally snapped out of it, realizing he had wrongly accused the prop master.
He was decisive.
“Prop master, go see the accountant later and take ten thousand yuan as compensation for the loss.”
“Everyone else, if you don’t have anything to do, clear out. Don’t just stand around here.”
“And Mr. Jiang, Teacher Li, you two take a break. We’ll reshoot this scene in a little while.”
Everyone nodded in agreement without any objection.
Even the prop master, who had just been chewed out in front of everyone, broke into a smile when he heard he was getting ten grand for the damaged prop.
Seeing the issue settled and that they had some time off,
Jiang Nian found a random spot to sit down.
But no sooner had his backside touched the chair—
Fan Xiaoxuan, who played “Su Huirong,” came up to him, looking at Jiang Nian with curiosity, and asked:
“Teacher Jiang, how did you do that just now?”
“Are you like Teacher Li? Did you train in martial arts too?”
