32 A Mysterious Thief

Yin Fenghua, the male lead who plays Rong Qing, has not yet entered the set as scheduled. So Yuan Ge decides to update the parts of the script relating to the Rong Mansion based on his dream last night and uses this waiting time to shoot the family scenes of the House of Rong and the Third Lord ahead of schedule. Fortunately, many of the supporting roles are played by dedicated veteran actors, while the newly contracted young actors are quite diligent and willing to learn, so several scenes were filmed to the effect he wanted.

During the break, Amélie comes over and complains that something has gone missing again from the set. As the executive producer and the line producer, she has always been responsible for many of the chores on and off set.

"We lost two more costumes. The costume crew searched everywhere but couldn't find them. A few cushions and blankets in the crew lounge also went missing, but the overcoat you wore to our dinner the other day appeared from nowhere."

Yuan Ge knows what has been going on as soon as he heard it, but he doesn't want Amélie to have a bee in her bonnet about that strange boy, so he immediately says, "Oh I left that coat in the lounge."

"Well, that's good then. I've had it cleaned and ironed by the dry cleaners. It's on your desk. Remember to wear it home tonight." Amélie gives him a tender look, then her expression becomes puzzled again as she says, "There's one more thing that's strange. The props we used at the Rong family's birthday party scene yesterday, a couple of plates of waxed chicken and waxed pork, disappeared overnight. Who do you think would want these things? It's not like they're edible. Even a cat wouldn't want to eat them."

How can Yuan Ge not see that Amélie had become a little paranoid for the past few days. After all, the sudden appearance of a coffin in the mansion, and now things starting to go missing one after another, including inedible wax food, is too spooky for a woman who is afraid of ghosts.

"Yuan Ge, are you holding back from me some mysterious legends of this mansion? What other stories are there that I don't know?"

"I've told you everything. Really, there's nothing more. I was actually born in this place, but I moved out when I was still a baby." Seeing how uneasy Amélie is, Yuan Ge takes the time to chat with her while directing the grips to set up the camera dollies for the next scene.

"What?! You were born in this mansion? How come I haven't heard you mention this before?" Although she has known Yuan Ge for a year, she hasn't had the chance to learn about his past, especially his childhood and teenage years. At the moment, her curiosity get the better of her and she puts down the task at hand, wanting only to ask him a few more questions.

"Yes, when my mother was studying for her PhD, the Guan's Properties got back this old mansion of their ancestors and commissioned scholars from Beijing University to do a study on the historical heritage of the Rong Mansion. The research topic my mother was doing at the time happened to be on the famous houses of the Imperial City, so she was sent by the university to lead the project. And because they are both Banner people[1], her family and the Guan family are both of Manchu descent, and have more or less ancestral connections, they let my parents live in the house during that period of research. My mother didn't move out until after I was born. So, I guess this mansion is my birthplace. Only I was too young to remember much at the time."

"Ah! I would never have guessed that Professor Fu is a Manchu if you haven't said it! So you're half Manchu? No wonder the Guan family has such a high social status, so they're descendants of Qing Dynasty nobles, huh?"

Yuan Ge smiles, "There are so many things to talk about when it comes to Manchu and the Qing dynasty. My mother's family name 'Fu' is from the Manchurian clan name 'Fuqa', and the Guan family's Manchurian clan name is Guwalgiya. Ronglu's full name is actually Ronglu Guwalgiya, so this old mansion does belong to the Guan family."

--------------------

[1] The name "Banner people" comes from a military system called the "Eight Banners" established by Nurhaci, who reunified the Jurchen tribes and organized Jurchen soldiers into groups of "Bannermen", and eventually established the Qing Dynasty in China. The term "Banner people" is related to the Manchus, but they are not the same.