After shooting all the scenes in the county, they went to film in the city for ten days.
The movie was filmed very smoothly. Because Little Bei’s acting was good, crying scenes were often completed in one take. Their progress speed was delightful, and it actually went even smoother than planned. They directly shot one-third of the movie.
At this point, Tian Xiaoxiao’s scenes were completed. The main scenes involved Little Bei and the other actors.
Director Lu really wanted to finish filming in one go, but he could only think about it. After the summer vacation, Little Bei would start going to school soon.
Coincidentally, the village scenes had yet to be shot, so Director Lu followed Little Bei and Mu Jingzhe back to the village, waiting for Little Bei to continue filming after school.
Before Mu Jingzhe and Little Bei returned, Ji Buwang came to find them.
He didn’t come empty-handed. Instead, he brought gifts—five school bags with stationery boxes and other stationery staples inside.
“I didn’t know what to buy. I figured they’d need a school bag when school starts. I heard a lot of kids like them.”
Ever since he had confessed his love to her last time, he had been feeling that Mu Jingzhe was a little uncomfortable. During this period of time, Ji Buwang didn’t try to find Mu Jingzhe like he always did. Instead, he gave her some time to accept it.
When he saw Mu Jingzhe again, his eyes were still shining, but unlike before, he didn’t stare at Mu Jingzhe without blinking. Instead, he restrained himself slightly.
“Thank you.”
Mu Jingzhe scratched her head, wanting to refuse, but upon seeing how much thought Ji Buwang had put into it, she couldn’t bring herself to reject his kind intentions.
Seeing that Ji Buwang was seriously communicating with Little Bei, Mu Jingzhe recalled Ji Buwang’s words about raising the five kids together. Now, it seemed that he hadn’t just said it casually but really meant to do so.
Mu Jingzhe was in a dilemma. It would be too big of a sacrifice for him to be the stepfather of the five children and raise them with her. Was she really that attractive? She was just an ordinary person.
After thinking about it, Mu Jingzhe felt that it was all because of his face blindness. If he could see someone else, he wouldn’t have sunk so low.
If he could only look at her face for the rest of his life, would he get sick of it after a few years?
Mu Jingzhe’s thoughts drifted until Little Bei called her name. “Mommy, what are you thinking about?”
“Huh?”
“Teacher Ji is talking to you.”
“Oh, oh… What did you say? Sorry, I was thinking about something else.”
“I said that I have a lot of books at home. If you have time, you can bring the kids to my place to read. You can bring back whatever they like. I see that you often buy books for them.”
“Yeah, it’s mainly because they like them.” There were no phones during this period, so the children were engrossed in reading.
During the entire summer vacation, other than having regular foreign language classes, the children spent most of their time in the county library.
This was especially true for Shao Xi and Shao Nan. They basically spent the entire summer vacation in the library. If they didn’t know any words, they would use a dictionary to check. Mu Jingzhe felt that they knew more words than she did. This was because there were many unfamiliar words she had to guess how to pronounce, but they could read them accurately.
Upon recalling that she’d still been their teacher a few months ago, she felt like she wasn’t capable of teaching them anymore.
There was only a limited number of books in the county library, and some of them were loaned out. The two kids had already read most of the books that they could read.
Mu Jingzhe could only buy some supplementary books for them. Ji Buwang’s suggestion indeed tempted Mu Jingzhe.
Buying books in this era was not as convenient as buying books in the future, when one could easily place an order online. It would naturally be good if they could borrow some books.
“Won’t it be too troublesome for you?” Mu Jingzhe was tempted, but she still had some concerns.
“It’s no trouble. Books are meant to be read. It’s not fair to let them sit there idly. They will only be useful if someone reads them. I believe the kids will cherish them.”
“Thank you. I’ll bring them over next time.”
“Okay.” Ji Buwang had invited Mu Jingzhe to his house several times, but he had never succeeded. During filming, he had not managed to invite them over to stay. When they went there during filming, they stayed only outside, not inside.
This time, he’d finally succeeded. Ji Buwang was very happy. It seemed that his hard work during this period had paid off.
“Then we’ll go on the weekend after their art school classes.”
“Okay.”
Mu Jingzhe and Little Bei returned to Great Eastern Village with the crew.
This was the first time a movie was filmed in Great Eastern Village, and all the villagers were very curious about it.
Director Lu and the staff were also surprised by what they saw. They had heard from Director Lu that Mu Jingzhe also had other businesses, but they’d never expected that Mu Jingzhe would really run a small factory with a mature production line at home.
Shao Dong, who was a child, had even formed a scavenger team. It was said that the team had already scavenged its way to the capital, Ocean City.
Shao Xi was also quite something—the articles he wrote were published in magazines and newspapers.
The remaining half of Shao Xi’s vacation was very fulfilling, especially after the incident with Chubby Boy. He wrote some articles from the perspective of children, which attracted a lot of attention and discussion and were even published in Education Weekly.
The youngest, Xiao Wu, was a musical genius. It was simply enjoyable to listen to him play the flute. Director Lu even wanted to entrust Xiao Wu to compose music for his movie, as he said that Xiao Wu’s music had soul.
Xiao Wu had no idea what composing film music was like, but Director Lu said that he trusted Xiao Wu.
Just like that, Xiao Wu had been offered a job. Because he was too young, Director Lu wanted to show Xiao Wu the movie when he was almost done editing. Hopefully, after Xiao Wu saw it, he would be inspired to compose music for the movie.
The three children were all capable. There was no need to mention Little Bei. Director Lu also felt that this child was not simple when he looked at Shao Nan, whose talents seemed hidden compared to his siblings’.
When school officially started, Director Lu found out that Little Bei and Shao Nan had successfully skipped a grade. They had done well last semester and had also done pretty well in the spot-check examination before school started. When school started, they skipped the second grade and directly entered the third grade.
As Shao Dong and Shao Xi had also skipped a grade, they would be studying in the fourth grade when school started. However, this was only temporary. Shao Dong and Shao Xi planned to skip another grade and directly enter the fifth grade next semester.
Director Lu and the crew members could only give them a thumbs-up. Everyone in this family was incredible.
Taking advantage of the break and after-school time, the filming session in the village was completed within a week.
There were even a few people from Great Eastern Village who made guest appearances as passersby and extras. Zhao Lan and Li Zhaodi were both selected, and they even had a line or two.
The two of them felt proud about being selected, but they didn’t expect that the roles they’d get would be villainous.
Zhao Lan was portraying a vicious grandmother, which was basically her just acting as herself. Li Zhaodi was portraying a matchmaker. The scene only lasted for two to three seconds, but her portrayal was vivid.
That was because Li Zhaodi really had the disposition of a wicked matchmaker who only cared about her own interests.
On the first weekend after school reopened, Mu Jingzhe took the children to learn foreign languages as usual and prepared to go to the Ji Residence as promised.
Shao Dong, Shao Xi, and Shao Nan took this opportunity to go to the bathroom and talk for a while.
“Although I’m very happy that we can borrow books from him, I feel that Teacher Ji is a little too attentive around us and Mommy.”
Shao Nan nodded. “I think so too. He even gave us a backpack each when school started.”
Shao Dong understood. “Mommy has already agreed. Besides, it would be good to borrow books. We should go as agreed. However, we can’t keep accepting gifts from him without reciprocating. Let’s return the favor and give him something.”
