"Laila, the director is different from what I imagined!" she couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
Leslie Cheung looked at her and smiled slightly. "What did you imagine her to be like?"
"Icy and distant, like a 'do not approach' type. The kind who gives orders that everyone must follow, pretty fierce, you know? When I first started working as an assistant, I encountered several powerful directors. Their gazes were terrifying. I didn't even dare to lift my head in front of them," the young assistant listed off each point, counting on her fingers.
Leslie Cheung was amused by her description.
Well, of course, that wouldn't be Laila. Someone so utterly devoted to the art of filmmaking, what she saw through her eyes was completely different from what the average person sees. Her sternness during shooting was to be expected, but anyone could tell that the gentle and easygoing version of her off-camera was her true self.
Chen Shufen knocked the assistant lightly on the head. "Don't think you can say whatever you want just because you think no one here understands Eastern language. Let me tell you, Director Moran's Eastern dialect is excellent. Roy's isn't bad either."
"I wasn't saying anything bad," the assistant pouted. She was somewhat related to Chen Shufen, and in front of her still carried a bit of that girlish petulance.
Chen Shufen wasn't scolding her, just concerned she might carry this habit of gossiping about directors back to the East. Maybe it didn't matter much in this crew, but in the East, if you offended someone you really shouldn't, not even she might be able to protect her.
"On a film set, you never know who has serious backing. The first rule in showbiz is to watch your mouth. You're lucky to be by Guorong's side. If it were a temperamental star, you'd be in real trouble."
"I've always known I'm lucky! So many people envy me for being by Leslie the Heavenly King's side—hehe!"
While the three of them were chatting, Laila was still observing the surroundings.
"Is it true no monkeys are coming this time?" Roy looked around at the treetops. Normally, the monkeys would've shown up the moment the crew arrived, begging for food. But now, not a single one was in sight!
Laila noticed too. "Whatever the case, let's move quickly. While they're not here, we need to shoot everything we can. Once we finish the shots in this area, we should be out of their territory."
With that one order, the crew immediately sprang into action.
The following shoot went so smoothly without monkey interference that it nearly moved them to tears. While a few monkeys did appear in the treetops, they stayed up there and didn't drop down. It did seem like the "protective aura" of the leopard was intimidating the monkey troop. If nothing else went wrong, in two or three days, they could switch locations.
But Laila had underestimated the monkeys' intelligence. On the first day, they'd indeed kept their distance due to the leopard's scent. But after observing for a day, they realized that the terrifying leopard couldn't go anywhere—it could only pace back and forth inside its cage.
Maybe... it wasn't that dangerous?
So, while no one was watching, a bold monkey ran up to the leopard's cage—
—And reached in to stroke the leopard's tail.
ROAR— The leopard let out an enraged growl.
"CUT!" Laila called out, halting the scene. She turned to look toward the leopard and saw a monkey standing right outside the cage, waving a paw and screeching, while the leopard was furiously sprawled against the cage bars, clearly provoked and eager to smack the monkey dead for daring to taunt it.
"Did I just see a tuft of leopard fur in that monkey's hand?" Roy asked uncertainly.
The only response was a heavy silence from everyone.
The leopard's handler looked mournfully at the bald spot on the animal's tail. Well, "bald" might be an exaggeration—it was just a patch about the size of a fingernail with slightly thinner fur.
But to the handler, even that tiny patch was a tragedy.
"Director Moran, I don't think this will work if it keeps going on like this. Once the monkeys succeed once, the others will all learn it."
"What am I supposed to do? Just two more days and I can finish this sequence!" Laila was fuming. Were these monkeys from Flower-Fruit Mountain or something? Stroking a leopard's tail? How many lives did they think they had?
In truth, it had a bit to do with how the monkeys lived on the island. To ensure the safety of human personnel, all large predators had been removed from the island early on—either transferred to zoos or sent elsewhere. So, many of the monkeys had grown up without any natural enemies.
Although their instincts still warned them to fear predators' scents, after a bit of observation, they figured there was no real danger. Their courage surged quickly after that.
The handler sympathized with Laila's frustration but couldn't offer any solutions. He was just a caretaker—his job was to take care of the animals, not deal with monkey hijinks.
Left with no better option, Laila decided to consult the island's management team. If there was no other solution, she'd have to abandon the location and move the shoot elsewhere. But doing that would mean scrapping some of the footage already shot.
And forget the idea that "it's just an outdoor set, the scenery's similar anyway, the audience won't notice." Laila would never underestimate the eyes of the audience.
The manager had an idea—tranquilizer guns.
It didn't feel right to remove the monkeys permanently just because they were interfering with filming. But tranquilizer guns were different. The monkeys could be sedated, temporarily captured, and then released after filming. It wouldn't impact their long-term life on the island.
After a short deliberation, Laila agreed to the plan.
So, on the second day of filming, the team heading out to the set included four island staff members armed with tranquilizer guns.
After the whole "monkey strokes the leopard's tail" incident, Laila and the team had immediately pulled back the previous day, before the monkeys could fully grasp how to tease the caged predator. But today? When the crew arrived at the filming location, they found the treetops already full of monkeys. They had gotten there even earlier than the crew.
"…" Were these not some kind of Flower-Fruit Mountain monkey demons?
Laila twitched at the corners of her mouth and turned to the tranquilizer team. "I'll leave it to you."
Whether they were monkey spirits from Flower-Fruit Mountain or incarnations of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven himself, she never wanted to see them again! Honestly, she never wanted to deal with another monkey from this day on. Only heaven knew how many what-the-hell moments she'd suffered over the past couple of days.