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The two cars stopped in an open area outside the hotel where seven or eight crew cars were already parked.
After Director Guo got out of the car, Li Mu also got down and asked Zhuang Qin, who had just gotten off the other car, “Do you still want to rehearse tonight?”
“Brother Zhuang, it’s already eleven o’clock.” Xiao Lian reminded him.
Zhuang Qin thought for a moment and said to Li Mu, “let’s rehearse tomorrow at noon in the car”
Li Mu nodded and got back into the car. Zhuang Qin told him to be careful and then waved his hand.
Li Mu drove away and from the rearview mirror saw the three people gradually walk onto the path and disappear into it.
Qiu Ming had received a call from a recruiter that morning and booked an afternoon flight back to China.
This unpopular seaside town looked quiet at night, and there was almost no traffic on the road. Five minutes later, Li Mu parked his car outside his villa, he entered the gate password and entered the property.
This was a specially managed holiday villa. In addition to the one Li Mu bought, there were two other villas separated by a field of tropical plants. One has not been completed, and the other was used as a bed & breakfast.
The land price here was cheap. The real estate agent who had brought Li Mu over initially gave a price that was more than four times the local house rate. Li Mu reduced it by half and bought it.
From the gate, there were ground lights all the way in, and it took three minutes to walk through.
The villa was made of wood, it had two floors and a height of over six meters. Coupled with a spire-type dome, the two floors were in total: fourteen meters high with floor-to-ceiling windows throughout the first floor. Li Mu opened the door with the key and the sensor light came on. As he climbed up the spiral staircase in the center, the wooden building rattled.
There was a large terrace in his room and under the terrace was a pool with night lights. Li Mu drew the curtains on all sides and went into the bathroom to take a bath. As his sculpture-like body soaked in the bathtub, he put on AR glasses and a display screen appeared in front of his eyes.
Li Mu opened his mailbox to deal with the backlog of emails one by one.
He was not a very fashionable person and didn’t like to use social software. All his work was done through emails but after returning to China, Qiu Ming asked him to install WeChat, and so far there were only three friends on it.
The muscles of his body were completely relaxed under the hot water, and after exiting his email, Li Mu opened his browser and continued to watch the interview video that he didn’t finish last night.
The host asked, “What do you like to do when you are alone?”
Zhuang Qin wearing a black printed sweatshirt sat on a beige sofa and replied, “Watch movies.”
“At the cinema or at home?”
Zhuang Qin: “Both.”
Host: “Do you have any pets? What kind do you like?”
Zhuang Qin: “Maybe I will in the future but I like cats.”
The host seemed to be flipping through a question card: “When are you going to get married?”
He hesitated, “This… when the time is right and that’s still later in future. I’m not the legal marriage age yet.”
“Ha ha ha.” Host, “So there is no partner yet. Is there anyone you like?”
Zhuang Qin: “Yes, I like my family and all those who love me.”
“Hmm…” The host mused, “What’s your ideal type?”
“Ideal type ah…” In the video, Zhuang Qin looked aside, as if looking at the agent’s gestures, “Outside the circle.”
“What about personality? Is there any requirement for looks?”
“For personality, I hope she is good at cooking because I am not good at it. If she’s not good at cooking, then I will study hard to cook. For looks, there are no requirements as long as she likes me.”
The host immediately replied, “I can cook. Do you find me pleasing?”
Zhuang Qin: “Um…”
He glanced out again, and then replied with a smile, “You look good.”
Good looking, but not necessarily pleasing to him.
The host laughed.
There were some trivial questions later. If you weren’t a fan, you probably won’t have the patience to finish watching.
Li Mu used the video to pass time while he took a bath. And also to understand more about him. (ZQ)
He likes watching movies, traveling, listening to songs, and……standing upside down?
What kind of hobby is this?
Li Mu took off his glasses, got up from the bathtub, and walked out with his long legs. The water drained with a “gululu” sound and as he put on a bathrobe, beads of water rolled down from his black hair. Walking back to the bedroom, Li Mu’s ability to remember everything meant that it was difficult to forget every detail of the video. Even if it was turned off, it still played back in his mind.
His favorite animal was a cat, his favorite snack was Xianbei, favorite drink is XX yogurt.
……………..
The next day, Zhuang Qin got to the set at 11 o’clock. Before going over, he deliberately took a shower and washed his hair. He then watched Li Mu shoot action scenes on the set for a while. He thought that he (LM) should have learned to shoot. The way he drew and held the gun was very handsome and he looked sharp and calm in front of the camera. If there was any NG, the action instructor nearby would tell him what he had to do.
By 12 o’clock, the scene was still not finished so Zhuang Qin had a boxed lunch with the crew on set. After his meal, Li Mu’s scene was finally over.
When you shot action scenes in 40 degrees of heat, it was normal to be very sweaty. The temporary assistant arranged by the crew for Li Mu rushed over with a cold towel to wipe his sweat. Li Mu tilted his head and dodged: “I’ll do it myself. Thank you.”
The female assistant blushed slightly and said, “The crew has robbed all the boxed lunches Teacher Li Mu. Should I call the nearby restaurant to deliver something? Do you like Southeast Asian food?”
Li Mu waved his hand indicating that it wasn’t necessary. His eyes glanced past her and saw Zhuang Qin talking to the set manager.
Zhuang Qin was holding a lunch box in his hand and with his head slightly lowered, his neck flushed ivory, and even the way he bent in a curved manner was attractive. He held one of the boxes in his hand and seemed to be trying to confirm something with him.
Li Mu thought he hadn’t eaten yet, so he walked towards him. He happened to hear Zhuang Qin talking about needing a few days off to return to China.
“You are going back to China?” Li Mu asked.
Zhuang Qin looked up at him: “You’ve finished shooting? I have a press conference to attend and other messy activities. I will be back in three days.
The set manager proposed next to him, “Teacher Zhuang, I’ll move back the scenes of these three days. Do you think it’s okay?”
“This…” Zhuang Qin glanced at Li Mu and said to the set manager, ” Brother Luo, all the scenes have been already been scheduled, so these three-day scenes you want to move to a later date, won’t it disrupt the whole shooting plan? Otherwise, we can move it to next month. Next month’s shooting schedule is not yet available, so we can shoot it then.”
The set manager smiled politely and didn’t dare to refuse directly: “I’ll have to ask Director Guo about this.”
Zhuang Qin nodded, and the set manager left. Zhuang Qin handed the boxed lunch to Li Mu.
Li Mu didn’t take it: “For me?”
“Yes, you haven’t eaten yet right?” Zhuang Qin deliberately robbed an extra one.
Li Mu thought that he didn’t eat and gave him his share. He was quite surprised and gazed at his exceptionally dark eyes: “You eat it.”
“I can’t eat anymore. You can have it.” Zhuang Qin thought to himself that he wasn’t a pig. He stuffed the boxed lunch and disposable chopsticks at him. “It shouldn’t be cold yet. Eat it while it’s hot.”
The standard of boxed lunch of their crew was very high. It was a luxurious lunch made by a five-star team of chefs. Even snack boxes looked high-end. Likewise, the happiness index of the crew was also very high. They were tired but who won’t be tired when filming, and the investors were awesome and the food was good. So that alone was better than an unknown number of crews.
Li Mu wondered whether Zhuang Qin was deliberately not eating to lose fat for the later scenes. He looked at the lunch box, which had 2 layers.
Zhuang Qin said, “I’ll wait for you in the car. We’ll rehearse when you finish eating.”
Li Mu nodded and turned to find the staff who sent over the lunch boxes: “Are the lunch boxes finished?”
The staff nodded: “I don’t know who took the extra one. Did you get one? I can go back to the hotel and send another one over”.
Li Mu shook his head and said he didn’t need it. He asked the staff for a pair of disposable chopsticks and returned to the car with the lunch box.
Zhuang Qin was wearing headphones and watching this afternoon’s scene. After getting on the car, Li Mu opened a window to let air in, then opened up the lunch box and clumsily divided it in half. He opened a pair of chopsticks and handed half of the divided food to Zhuang Qin.
Zhuang Qin took off the headphones and looked at him puzzledly.
Li Mu: “I can’t finish it.”
Zhuang Qin sized up his tall figure: “…?”
Li Mu’s face did not change: “Don’t waste food. You can deal with this half.”
Under this pressure, Zhuang Qin who had just finished a luxurious lunch was forced to take it. He put all the chicken legs and fried shrimps back into the lunch box with new chopsticks: “I haven’t touched it yet. You should eat more. Thank you for your hard work in shooting action scenes.”
Li Mu who has never eaten a boxed lunch since he was born or shared food with others in such a crude environment was in a surprisingly good mood. He looked at him for a few seconds and found that his eyes were particularly bright in the dim light.
Li Mu convinced himself to accept it: “It wasn’t difficult.”
Zhuang Qin became a little full. He got out of the car and rinsed his mouth. He regretted it in his heart and knew that he should have refused.
The scene in the afternoon was a bit special and it also had physical contact. The shower at home broke down so An Ke laid on the sofa while Jiang Zhuo brought hot water to help him wash his head.
This scene was very personal and had few lines. The two quickly entered the role. When saying the lines, Zhuang Qin would record it and listen to its playback to find out where he got the tone wrong, then correct it and say the lines again.
After three or four times, the two of them finally found the feeling. Zhuang Qin glanced at the time and said, “The shooting starts at 2:30 in the afternoon, so you can rest for an hour. You had a long shoot in the morning. Do you want to sleep in the car for a while?”
Li Mu put aside the script: “I won’t disturb you, will I?”
“I’ll listen to songs.” He pointed to the headphones. “If you do mind, I can go back to my car so that you can lie down and sleep.”
Li Mu said he didn’t mind, “You can stay here for as long as you want.”
Zhuang Qin smiled and said, “I’ll wake you up ten minutes in advance.”
Li Mu put on a neck pillow, closed his eyes, and said okay.
He went to bed late last night. He’d gotten up early in the morning for a jog before driving to the set, and had intensively shot all morning. Even if he exercised like this every day, he would feel mentally tired.
After a short while, Zhuang Qin heard him calmly breathing and falling asleep.
Didn’t he fall asleep too fast? He turned his head to take a look. Li Mu’s head was slightly tilted. His face was pressed on the U-shaped pillow and his hands were separately placed on both legs with his fists clenched. His side face was straight, his closed eye sockets were deep, his eyelashes were dense and long, and he had inconspicuous mixed-race characteristics.
Zhuang Qin drew the curtains on his side, then got up slightly to stretch out his hand to close the curtains on Li Mu’s side. Zhuang Qin’s movements were very light and he could smell a faint trace of sweat and light fragrance.
That he sprayed perfume to shoot a scene was way too refined.
Zhuang Qin put on his headphones again and listened to the script with his eyes closed.
He imported the script into his mobile phone and played the recording slowly. The mechanical and blunt male voice was unusually soothing.
Zhuang Qin tilted his head and very slowly, he leaned against the leather seat cushion and towards Li Mu.
Li Mu, who had been sleeping lightly, unhappily woke up because of the weight leaning on him.
……………………….
After an hour, Xiao Lian came to call Zhuang Qin. As soon as he opened the car door, he saw the other male star, Li Mu sitting there. His eyes were closed as if he were asleep, and his high nose and deep eyes were very eye-catching.
Xiao Lian couldn’t help looking at him more. Although he had seen a lot in the circle, Li Mu’s noble and handsome type was really rare.
But where was Zhuang Qin?
He poked his head carefully in and sure enough – his careless artist slept on other men’s shoulders again.
Didn’t you sleep enough in the morning? How can you sleep so well!
Thinking of Sister Min’s instructions, Xiao Lian was about to call out when the seemly asleep male lead stretched out his hand towards the car door, and as if he had been greatly disturbed and was unhappy, rudely closed the door directly!
t/n: 🤭
