Shooting in the winter is definitely not a comfortable experience for actors; therefore, almost everyone would like to stay in the kitchen after lunch to keep warm. They were reluctant to return to the set unless the director called them out through a loudspeaker.\n
Sheng Xing Ze was the same; he stayed in the kitchen until he was being called. As he reluctantly walked outside, the oncoming snow blew at him, causing him to inhale the cold breeze .
However, today was considered as one of those rare good weathers. The filming set was in a remote small village near the film and television city. This pure paradise had never been polluted by the heavy industrialization. There was a clear stream in the village that had not yet frozen; from a distance, it had this lonely gray-blue color, reflecting the gray-black forest with fallen leaves trees. The sight of the fog evaporating from the forest into the clouds is quite bright and translucent.
"Sheng Xing Ze! Sheng Xing Ze!"
Zhang Chao's voice was extremely penetrating. It looked like he had been staying outside for a long time because his nose was red due to coldness, "Where's Sheng Xing Ze? Tell him to hurry up!"
"I'm here, I'm here--" Sheng Xing Ze tightened the white costume on his body; in order for it to appear elegant, this costume was made with thin layers, "Director, are you looking for me?"
"Young Master Sheng, it's not that I want to trouble you," Zhang Chao tapped on the monitor, "We really cannot use these."
In the monitor were the shots taken by the original owner. Although the person inside had good appearance, his expression was stiff and the dialogues were emotionless. It looked like he was forced to sit in the classroom and read the text out loud when he was not fully awake.
Other people on the set were looking at Sheng Xing Ze with different emotions: indifferent, sympathetic, and even gloating.
Sheng Xing Ze was scolded by the director as soon as he came in; several small role actors, who had not dared to raise their heads when they were scolded, were now also dared to raise their heads and quietly looked in the direction of Zhang Chao.
"Okay, I'll retake them immediately."
Sheng Xing Ze agreed with the director's opinions. He was not satisfied with the shots taken by the original owner, and it just happened that he had a chance to retake these. In other people's eyes, this was considered as double the workload, but Sheng Xing Ze took this as an opportunity.
*
There was a fierce dispute in the dressing room. Sheng Xing Ze stood at the door and knocked on it pretending not to hear anything. The voices in the room came to a stop, then someone inside answered his knocking; he pushed the door and walked in.
The makeup artist Meng Xia was the veteran in this filming set. She followed Zhang Chao when he made the first film. Everyone had always been respectful to her, even Yu Bai would call her "Sis Xia."
But as soon as she came to the studio this afternoon, she was being taunted by Zhang Chao; however, compared to Sheng Xing Ze, Zhang Chao's attitude to her was actually better. A lot of people tended to release their anger on other staff members since they had nowhere to vent it. Sheng Xing Ze believed that it was Yuan Xiu who was her target earlier.
Seeing Sheng Xing Ze came in, Meng Xia secretly sighed.
Here comes another difficult one to deal with.
After some time, Yu Bai also came in and took a seat not too far from Sheng Xing Ze. Meng Xia was the only makeup artist in this room; looking at the situation, she would be spending a long time applying makeup to Yuan Xiu. Sheng Xing Ze's eyes looked over to Yu Bai, then he turned his body to face the other man.
He said smiling, "It must be troubling for Film Emperor Yu to accompany me to retake those shots again in this weather."
Sheng Xing Ze's voice sounded somewhat juvenile, at the first hearing, there was a sense of indescribable frivolousness, "I'm sorry?"
Yuan Xiu, whose face only had highlight applied on halfway, violently turned his head to look in their direction as if being electrocuted after hearing Sheng Xing Ze said those words; fortunately, the makeup artist moved her brush out of the way in time or else she would have to redo this whole makeup again, "What's the use of saying sorry? We all are being ridiculed because of you, aren't you ashamed?"
Yu Bai sat there staring at nowhere, like a statue, still not saying anything.
Yuan Xiu gained some courage and continued, "Moreover, I didn't hear your sincerity in your apology."
Sheng Xing Ze was a little distracted by Yu Bai; the book mentioned that Yu Bai is from a wealthy family. His father is the chairman of the corporation and his mother is a well-known strong woman. Yu Bai also has a very capable brother inheriting the family business.
Although Yu Bai's father usually is busy, he always has been hands-on with his sons' parenting. The mother has always paid more attention to them since their birth until the two of them can make their own living to support themselves. It can be said from a young age, Yu Bai always has the love from both of his parents. Yu Bai's current manner and well-educated behavior obviously is the result of such good breeding from his family.
Sheng Xing Ze had never read about Yu Bai's parents in the book; however, from the description, he probably could imagine Yu Bai's excellency.
Sheng Xing Ze decided to ignore Yuan Xiu's spiteful words, and talked to Yu Bai, "Say, Film Emperor Yu, why is the director so angry, he was like a walking gun machine?"
"It has something to do with you."
Yu Bai's words were concise, "The screenwrite saw you wore the Han-style belt, she had an argument with the director, making him lose face."
When grown-ups get angry, it has always been tortuous. They cannot vent their anger at the one who caused it, so they tend to release it at the weaker ones.
"Why are you so useless--" Yuan Xiu mumbled to himself, "so annoying."
There was an unknown fire rising in his chest, Sheng Xing Ze coldly shouted at the man, this was the first time he called out the name of a character from the book with such a strong emotion, "Yuan Xiu."
"What?"
"Are you really stupid or pretending to be stupid?" Sheng Xing Ze unkindly said, "Even when Director Zhang is angry, he doesn't dare to directly reprimand me, at least for the moment I'm still the biggest investor, who do you think you are?"
There was a thick gunpowder in the air after he said those words, then he laughed out loudly, "After being ridiculed by Director Zhang, you dare to come to vent your anger at me, I wonder how were you able to live until this age with such a low IQ? Do you even have a brain to begin with?"
There are some words that should be said; otherwise, other people would keep picking on you for they think you're an easy target.
"I have some words that I want you to deliver to Lin Mu, at least your good-for-nothing mouth is perfect for this job," Sheng Xing Ze said mockingly.
"Tell him, please listen to my words and stay put where he is, then we both can each live in peace on our own path."
*
The next shoot revolved around Bai Xing Lan and Su Jin Mu, the two main actors were already in their place. The other staff members quickly got to their posts, fearing that they would be scolded by Zhang Chao if they were being slow.
"《 Xing Lan 》 third scene, first take, action."
Once the scene recorder called the take, the two actors immediately got into character.
"Teacher," Su Jin Mu knelt in front of his teacher's bed, half of his body was lying on top of Bai Xing Lan's body, his voice trembling, "Teacher, please wake up, don't scare me."
The person on the bed was pale white with no life, the body did not respond regardless of how much he had been trying to call. Su Jin Mu held his teacher's hand, just a few days ago, he overheard his teacher say that he would not use him as medicine even if he were having no other choice.
He did not know what his teacher meant by no other choice, but he did understand what he meant by medicine and knew his teacher's intention to take him in. He was shocked, even cried his heart out, and had wanted to question Bai Xing Lan; but, in this moment, Su Jin Mu realized that as long as he could keep his teacher alive, he would do whatever he could.
"Teacher, you must get well," Su Jin Mu did not hesitate to feed his blood little by little into Bai Xing Lan's mouth. As time flew by, Bai Xing Lan's face showed some signs of living, but Su Jin Mu's body was getting weaker and weaker; he did not even have the strength to keep his wrist on Bai Xing Lan's mouth to feed the other. Bai Xing Lan was lying on the bed but he could hear his apprentice whispering in his ear.
"Teacher, you said that we study medicine to save people, but I don't have the skill to save the world like you do. The only thing Ah Mu can do is to let Teacher save more people," Bai Xing Lan wanted to tell his apprentice that he had found another prescription for the antidote, and soon they would be like any ordinary mentors and apprentices, but his body did not listen to him, he even could not open his eyes.
"Teacher."
The young man leaned in closer to his teacher's unresponded body then muttered the most dearest title for him.
It seemed he had wanted something to say; his lips whizzed for a second, but then he decided to keep his silence.
A slightly warm touch slowly left Bai Xing Lan's cheek, just like a wandering shadow in the snow on a cloudy day, or like a depicting silhouette on the street in the spring breeze; Su Jin Mu's life had gone with that breeze.
There was silence on the set, finally Meng Xia's voice broke this peace.
"It's slightly different from what I've imagined," she paused for a second, "I thought I would see a young man shaking violently in tears on screen. Su Jin Mu, who would be fighting with his inner self, was in deep desperation. So much emotion going around that it would be like watching a wild dance in the bottom of hell, before he mutters out love words like a madman--"
Zhang Chao said, "But that's not Su Jin Mu," he patted Meng Xia's shoulder, "not to mention how do you know that he didn't confide his love?"