Brother Dao Took the Entertainment Industry by Storm, Fans Beg Me Not to Kill Anymore-Chapter 424: Grasse’s Perfume Festival

Although when traveling abroad, one can create their own identity.

But that identity shouldn't be too outrageous!

However, Xiao He soon discovered that his criminal influence had actually increased significantly because of this rumor, inexplicably generating a bunch of points.

Xiao He looked at the points, his hands trembling: ...Uh, a person should at least, shouldn't—

Ahem, whatever the netizens say goes, the netizens are right, I am the vicious and utterly wicked mafia young master!

Sorry mom and dad, our family's overseas reputation will have to be temporarily sacrificed, they're just offering too much—

By the time Liu Rulan learned about this, she and Xiao He were sitting in a room staring at each other.

"These netizens really don't get tired when it comes to doing bad things..."

Liu Rulan was deeply moved.

Xiao He gave an embarrassed laugh: "Actually, it's quite interesting too."

Anyway, he was still abroad right now. Hype and marketing, nothing shameful about it.

Liu Rulan looked at Xiao He with a complicated expression, then said: "Fine, I'll have them guide things properly, play with the meme appropriately. As long as you don't mind."

Xiao He: "...Alright."

He was an actor now, might as well go all out!

...

Fortunately, the online matters didn't affect Xiao He's real-life filming.

In the following days, Xiao He filmed the plot normally.

Teacher Chen You, after a period of being aloof, finally started to show a better attitude towards everyone, even willing to give Xiao He and Xie Jingshi a pointer or two during Director Zhuang's busy filming breaks.

And during the time their production team was filming in Grasse, they also attracted the attention of the local residents. After all, much of *The Phantom Thief Alliance 2*'s plot took place on the streets of Grasse and in local shops, so when the crew filmed exterior scenes, they were often watched by people on the roadside.

However, most residents here spoke French, and many in the crew still found it inconvenient to communicate in English, so interaction with the locals was still quite limited. After experiencing a brief "perfume baptism," most people focused their minds on the production team's filming.

In the blink of an eye, it was early March, and the temperature gradually warmed up.

Xiao He only then learned that there would be a grand festival event here in a few days.

In a few days, on the central square of the Grasse town, there would be a large-scale voting event. Here, they would vote to select the most popular self-made perfume. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

At that time, residents of Grasse could all participate. Any perfume that could be made on-site could enter the voting. Even various shops could publicly display their main perfume recommendations in advance, building popularity and accumulating votes for their own perfumes ahead of time.

Naturally, this also included many other interesting perfume-related activities, including perfume blending competitions, spice guessing contests, scent replication, etc... As the perfume capital, such events happened almost every year. The residents of Grasse were already accustomed to them and never tired of them.

But for foreigners like them, it was truly fascinating!

And such a locally characteristic event, with free participation, free venue, free personnel—how could their production team not get involved?

Since they were already here, it would be a real shame not to ride on a wave of traffic!

So after understanding the situation, Director Zhuang immediately decided on the spot to temporarily add a scene like this!

They would allocate a small area on the central square that day, allowing the crew to film more of the environment and atmosphere.

The only troublesome part was that most of the square's space had already been allocated. By the time Fan Congwen went to negotiate with the officials, it was too late, unless they negotiated directly with the shop stalls on-site.

Coincidentally, when it came to more familiar shops, it was naturally Madame Marchelle's perfume shop.

On the day Xiao He and the others first arrived in Grasse, they placed a large order at Madame Marchelle's perfume shop. Later, when shared within the crew, they also continuously referred customers there. So, Madame Marchelle held a very favorable impression of this film crew from China.

Especially towards Liu Rulan.

It was said that during Xiao He's filming period, Liu Rulan often found time to go to Madame Marchelle's place to learn simple perfume blending, planning to cultivate a future retirement hobby in advance.

So, back and forth, the two became friends despite the age gap.

Liu Rulan merely casually asked about it, and Madame Marchelle proactively offered to provide the crew with the right to use a stall that day.

Along the way, she also contacted a few nearby shops she knew, and in the end, managed to free up nearly half a small area for the crew.

Fan Congwen, who was still haggling with the officials: ...

As expected, having local connections makes things easier.

This efficiency was much higher than the local officials'!

Fortunately, the final result was good.

Soon, the day of the event arrived.

...

Early in the morning, the streets were already filled with parade floats.

The streets, already brimming with a festive atmosphere, were now even more bustling. Not only were there many more residents on the roads, but also many tourists who came attracted by the fame. Shops that usually didn't set up outdoor stalls exceptionally placed stalls at their doorsteps today, promoting their store's goods and decorating their storefronts jubilantly.

The central square of the event had also long been divided into individual sections, neatly setting up competition areas for activities and stall areas for shops.

The activity areas were arranged most meticulously. Specially built in the central position were many small square tables, on which were placed many bottles and jars, even professional perfume blending instruments not usually seen. The surrounding area had tables set up resembling a judging panel, indeed giving a sense of a competition.

On the other side, along both sides of the walkway, temporary stall points were arranged. Most of these stalls were composed of ordinary small carts and temporary tents. Beside the outer tables were piled many fresh flowers, and the ground was uniformly covered with red carpets.

This scene looked somewhat like the temporary vendor concentration points selling New Year goods during the New Year in Xiao He's hometown.

But there were still many differences, especially the perfumes and other handicrafts related to spices placed on those stalls. Xiao He found it quite interesting as he walked along, looking at everything.

And perhaps because this area hadn't yet been "invaded" by Chinese online shop goods, the items on these stalls each had their own characteristics. Many were handmade creations by the stall owners themselves, unique pieces. Especially those sachets, soaps, scented candles, even scented bookmarks to put in books, scented artificial flowers for home decoration, car diffusers, and so on.

After looking, Xiao He had only one feeling: damn, the price of foreign handmade goods is also really high.

But the female crew members were quite into this. Before filming even started, they were already buying like crazy.

Only Xiao He wasn't very interested. He came to the temporary location borrowed by the crew to observe the crew's preparations.

Since this scene was added temporarily, from a certain perspective, it wasn't a particularly important scene. The script was added temporarily by the screenwriter. Xie Jingshi and Chen You both received fly pages, with not many lines and simple performances.

Xiao He originally didn't have one, but based on the principle of filming as much as possible, he was also assigned a short tracking scene.

By this time, the on-site crew had pretty much finished arranging things.

The camera was placed behind one of the stalls, with not many staff members around. On the distant walkway, crouched were the extras arranged by the crew—most of these extras were people found on-site.

As for the actor in front of the stall, he was the stall owner himself, a slightly plump, older man with graying hair, a beard covering much of his face, wearing a somewhat ill-fitting beret, giving off a natural comedic effect.

It was said this older man had a good relationship with Madame Marchelle. After hearing about the crew's matter, he proactively gave up his stall. However, because he indeed looked quite endearing, Director Zhuang, after seeking his opinion, decisively arranged him into the scene.

At this moment, Director Zhuang was communicating in French with the older man about the upcoming performance scenario.

Xie Jingshi was also watching nearby, then couldn't help but whisper quietly to Xiao He: "I really never imagined that a lady you casually met on the road would hold such a high status here."

He pointed at their current location, his expression complicated: "I confirmed it again. This is the prime location of the entire square."

And that Madame Marchelle just gave it up like that, and most importantly, convinced the other shops on this walkway.