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Page 23

Ling didn't say anything, but at this moment she sincerely hoped that her parents who were buried in the plane crash could be together happily in a place called "heaven". It didn't matter if she was alone now.

Then it was quiet. The three girls just sat there in a trance in this noisy night market for a long time.

The fireworks bloomed and bloomed, as if endless.

The next day was still sunny.

Sakura got up early. She didn't know if it was an illusion, but the flowers of the cactus on the windowsill looked more colorful. Sakura gave it the same name as the guardian beast in the story.

"Good morning, Xiaoke!"

She used to envy herself in the story, who had a guardian beast to accompany her day and night, but now she also has friends.

Because the scene being filmed today was not in the nearby film and television city, but in a villa deep in the mountains in the suburbs, the crew specially arranged a vehicle to pick her up.

"Ying, the car is here. It's outside."

"Okay," Sakura swallowed the bread in one gulp and gulped down the milk, "I'm leaving now, Dad."

"Are you going to take your cactus too?" Teng Long asked in surprise, looking at the flowerpot in his daughter's hand.

"Well, it's too pitiful to leave Xiao Ke alone at home. I will take care of him."

Teng Long wanted to say that the cactus didn't need any care. As a drought-resistant plant, it would be fine even if it was left alone for ten days or half a month. But after thinking about it, he didn't say anything.

"Be careful on the road."

Today's filming was still the same as yesterday's episode "Rainbow of Memories", but the location was changed to a villa deep in the mountains. There was no scene with Chiyo, but she and Ling were still there.

In this episode, Sakura is only wearing a white dress, which is simple and homely, and is somewhat out of place in this western-style house in the mountains, but this may be what the director wants to express. This witch's house, which is feared by everyone around and regarded as a place to scare bad kids, is just her mother's garden to Sakura.

"Wow, what a big yard! Can we really live here?"

"This is where my mother left us. It doesn't matter how long we stay here." Touya spoke calmly as always.

Sakura cheered excitedly and ran towards the mansion as soon as she got off the car.

But just as she reached for the door, the director shouted "Cut".

Sakura stopped and looked at the director nervously, thinking that she had done something wrong. But the director did not look at her.

"Iwata! What's going on? Where's the black cat at the door?"

The person called Iwata was the prop master of the crew, and he was also a little confused.

"Strange, it was here just now!" He bought the black cat from a pet store a few days ago. Black cats are a symbol of witches, and the director also added this to create an atmosphere.

"Kid, did you forget it because you drank yesterday?" Matsumoto, the assistant director, said sarcastically.

"No, it was still there just now."

He had just let the cat out of the cage ten minutes ago. The black cat was very well behaved and never ran around in the past few days. He also specially put some dried fish on the spot.

"So it ran away? You can't even take care of a cat, are you going to go to the pet store and buy a new one?"

Iwata didn't know how to answer for a moment.

"Forget it, let's reshoot it tomorrow."

The black cat is not an important prop, and there are no related shots in the later stage, so although Director Asaka is a little dissatisfied, she is not too harsh. It is just a close-up shot to set the mood, and there is no problem with the subsequent reshoots.

"Xiaoying, we will reshoot the black cat later, but you have to show that you have seen the black cat and show some surprise, understand?"

"Okay, director." Sakura bowed and returned to the car to prepare for reshoots.

"start!"

Sakura got out of the car again and looked at the mansion with excitement.

"Wow, what a big yard! Can we really live here?"

"This is what my mother left behind. It doesn't matter how long I stay here."

She cheered and ran towards the mansion. But at that moment, she was surprised to find the flower pot on the steps.

Xiao Ke?

It was not the guardian beast in the story, but her cactus. The bright red flowers were as bright as blood.

"Okay, that's a nice surprised expression."

The camera shot a close-up of Sakura's face. Her surprised expression was not fake at all, as if she was really surprised. Director Asaka praised her. This was the effect he wanted. Sakura's acting skills have become more and more exquisite recently. Maybe after this TV series is over, he can consider shooting a second and third part to make a "Magical Girl Sakura" series?

Little did he know that Sakura's surprise was a genuine expression. In the blink of an eye, the cactus on the steps disappeared, making her wonder if it was an illusion. She should have left the cactus in the locker room. Only a few messy and inconspicuous black cat hairs were left there, which disappeared in the wind.

There was nothing special about the mansion. After Sakura stepped in, she didn't feel eerie at all. The sun shone through the glass windows, and the floor was a little dusty, but the house as a whole gave people a warm feeling.

It's a bit dirty, so let's clean it up.

"Wind, roll up the dust and make this place clean again, 'wind'!" Sakura waved her magic wand and skillfully pulled out a Clow Card that symbolized 'wind' and threw it out, placing the tip of the magic wand on the Clow Card. The gorgeous magic turned into wind and rolled up the dust on the ground - this was the final effect that would be shown on TV.

In the actual filming scene, Sakura chanted the spell and then skillfully pulled out a Clow Card and threw it forward - the real filming ended here. After that, the thrown card naturally fell to the ground due to gravity, and of course it would not hover in the air like in the story. Sakura didn't care and continued to do the following actions. Facing the empty air, she chanted the spell while pointing her magic wand at the non-existent Clow Card in front of her.

That "Craw Card" naturally needs to be synthesized by computer in post-production.

It looked very gorgeous on TV, but the actual filming was just a bit silly, probably no different from a TV-obsessed child imitating the actions on TV. The only difference was that it was indeed "Kinomoto Sakura" herself who made the action.

"Reiya, can you achieve that kind of effect?" Tomoyo asked quietly while biting Reiya's ear.

"It should be possible." Ling also thought about it. Whether it is hovering the cards or some light and shadow effects, Gaia's Light can accomplish it, but she certainly would not use "Gaia's Light" to do such a thing.

However, she had a strange feeling from the very beginning, and for a moment she didn't know what was wrong.

The whole house was cleaned with magic (actually, the crew spent more than ten minutes cleaning it), and the whole mansion was spotless, just like the witch had lived there. A few close-ups of the clean floor and escalator, and the filming continued.

"Sakura, don't use magic to do these boring things. It's okay for us to do things ourselves if we can do them." Touya, who had parked the car and entered the house, happened to see Sakura performing Clow's magic. He said in the same calm tone.

This made Sakura a little dissatisfied, as she wanted her brother to praise her.

"Any miracle will eventually have a price tag, but we just don't know it before then. This is what my father once said."

Touya doesn't know magic, but he brought up what his father Clow Reed said so Sakura couldn't refute it. Her brother is always like this, he knows a lot about her father and mother, but she doesn't know. Because Sakura was only three years old when they disappeared.

This is really unfair—Sakura thought.

"Okay, next scene, is the prop crow ready?"

"Yes, it's in the cage behind the house." Prop master Iwata said quickly, "I'll get it right away!"

The next scene is when Sakura takes her guardian doll, Kero, into her room, and sees a group of crows on the windowsill. Crows are also a common prop in witch stories, and are said to be witches' pets. The crows scatter when they see Sakura, leaving only one, which looks at Sakura in a very spiritual way.

According to the plot, the crow will then lead Sakura to a villa in the forest that should not exist, where she will meet an old grandfather who treats her kindly and enjoy afternoon tea together.

The spiritual crow was synthesized in post-production, but there was no need to use a computer to take pictures of the group of crows on the windowsill, as they were all real shots.

However, Iwata was gone for a long time and when he came back he had an empty cage and in his other hand a pot of cactus with unusually large red flowers in full bloom.

Chapter 30: The Mage Using Holy Light

"What's wrong, Iwata, where's the crow?"

"I'm sorry, Director. I don't know what happened. The crow cage is empty."

Iwata brought an empty cage with crow feathers scattered all over the floor, as if it had been through a fight. The cage was open, but not in a normal way, as the wire mesh had been melted by something.

"Someone destroyed the cage."

"Who would do such a thing?" Director Asaka said angrily. It was rare that the leading actor's acting skills were getting better and better, but inexplicable things kept happening on the crew.

Normal people would just open the cage door if they wanted to take the crow away secretly. The cage was just a buckle and not locked. But at this time, a big hole was corroded in the cage, and the melted surface was a little charred. I don't know if it was caused by strong acid or high-temperature melting gun. This kind of thing can no longer be explained by a prank.

"What's up with that cactus in your hand?"

"Ah, this was placed next to the crow's cage. I don't know what happened, but there was no cactus in today's props. I don't know if it was left by the person who stole the crow, so I took it here."

Director Qianxiang took the cactus pot and looked at it, but couldn't figure out what it was. Apart from the fact that the flowers were more colorful, he didn't know much about cacti.

"Um, Director, I'm the one who brought 'Xiao Ke' here." Sakura raised her hand weakly.

"'Xiao Ke'?"

"I bought this cactus from a stall at the fireworks festival yesterday, but I remember leaving it in the dressing room. I don't know how it ended up outside."

The director frowned slightly, but just said, "Don't bring irrelevant things to the crew in the future." He handed the cactus to Iwata and asked him to put it aside for the time being.

The crow was gone, and Asaka felt that someone was against him today. Could it be that someone from another crew came to sabotage it? Ever since "Magical Girl Sakura" became popular, it grabbed a wave of viewership and indeed aroused some jealousy. I remember that there were also several crews and variety shows shooting nearby today.

"Ying, we're going to do another non-physical situational performance. Is that okay?"

Thinking of the episode of "Kero's quarrel" a few days ago that kept getting stuck, Sakura was a little nervous. She tried to calm down, and saw Tomoyo and Ling waving to her from behind to encourage her. She nodded seriously and said, "No problem, Director."

"Okay, let's skip the part about the crow on the windowsill. Next, Sakura follows the crow 'Moko' into the forest. Pay attention, you need to show three parts of curiosity, three parts of excitement, three parts of eagerness, and one part of vigilance against the unknown."

"Okay, director."

Tomoyo and Ling also looked at each other and stuck out their tongues. It was another fan-shaped diagram.

At this moment, Iwata, who was about to leave with the cactus pot in his hand, felt the pot move. It was like some disgusting insect turned over. Before he could see what it was, he subconsciously threw the pot away, just like a normal person would find a mouse or a cockroach suddenly fell on his body.

But the flowerpot did not fall to the ground after it was released. Instead, it hovered in the air, which was neither scientific nor logical. The next second, it pounced on Iwata, and the red flower bit his neck like a ferocious mouthpart.

Everything happened so fast. The director shouted "start" and everyone's attention was on the filming until they heard that scream.

"what happened?"

"what happen?"

"Iwata?"

Iwata subconsciously put his hand in front of his neck, and his elbow was bitten tightly by the cactus. The huge bite force instantly tore his skin and flesh apart, and blood was sucked away by the corolla-like mouthparts. Because it was too absurd, most people couldn't even understand what was happening for a while.

Only one person did not hesitate, Reiya was the first to realize what happened. She ran towards Iwata and picked up the prop "Magic Wand of Clow" that Sakura had used during the filming from the table next to her. She was like a spirit of the wind, and it took her only six or seven seconds to cover a distance of nearly 100 meters. If someone carefully checked the stopwatch, they would find that her speed had surpassed the world sprint champion. However, everyone was distracted by the cactus and paid no attention. Only Tomoyo shouted "Reiya, be careful."

As soon as the words fell, Ling also drew the magic wand in her hand, and a tiny light, like a baseball hit by a bat, hit the cactus into the air. If you use a high-speed camera to shoot, you will find that the force of the blow has deformed it and it has fallen deep into the forest.

home run!

Tomoyo exclaimed and clapped her hands. Someone else followed suit and clapped twice, then realized it was not the time to clap.

Director Asaka was the first to run forward, "Are you okay Iwata? Doctor, come over and take a look!"

In order to prevent accidents, professional medical staff were present at the filming site. However, after checking the wound, the doctor only used a tourniquet to tighten his arm, blocking the artery and slowing down the bleeding, and could not do any further treatment.

"No, we have to go to the hospital. A large piece of flesh was torn off my arm. The wound is too big. I can't handle it here. I have to do surgery as soon as possible!"

The wound looked like it had been bitten by a lion or a tiger. A large piece of flesh on the arm was gone, leaving only the white bones exposed.

"Matsumoto, what are you still standing there for? Didn't you hear what the doctor said? Call the emergency number immediately - No, it may be too late to wait for the ambulance. Drive my car and take him to the hospital immediately. Doctor Kujo, please take care of him along the way."