31
t/n: *rubs hands together* I’ve been waiting for this 🤩
Up till now, he still didn’t know what went wrong. He doesn’t know why Li Mu didn’t delete those scenes and although his scenes weren’t deleted, deep in him, he didn’t want to shoot those scenes.
Zhuang Qin kept doing mental exercises. He was an actor and everything he did was just an act. It wasn’t real.
Thinking about it this way was much better.
He was dedicated, and so was Li Mu. He felt uncomfortable in his heart but if the person with a cleanliness fetish still hadn’t said anything about it, maybe he’s more miserable on the inside than him.
Zhuang Qin didn’t reply. Li Mu leaned against the beach chair by the pool and stared at his phone. He waited for a while before sending another message: “Won’t you be nervous if you shoot it directly tomorrow? What if Director Guo doesn’t let it pass, what then?”
Zhuang Qin: “… won’t you be nervous if we rehearse it in advance?”
Li Mu: “Split the scenes into parts.”
This scene can still be split?
Zhuang Qin: “Into what scenes?”
Li Mu: “It would depend on your mental ability.”
Zhuang Qin: “?”
After thinking for a while, “Then I will ask Director Guo.”
He went straight out of the room and went downstairs to knock on the door of room 118. Director Guo opened the door wearing a short white Tee with shorts of the same color. At first glance, it looked like a very grandfatherly attire, but he had a babyface, so it was more like a student.
Zhuang Qin: “Director Guo is busy?”
“No, I’m drafting a sub-scene.” Director Guo let him in, “My room is messy but it’s cool. What’s the matter?”
Zhuang Qin walked in and stood by the door: “It’s not a big deal. I just want to bother you for a few minutes…”
He saw that the walls of Director Guo’s room were full of hand-drafted storyboards and both walls were full of them. He was tired of filming himself but which person in the crew wasn’t tired, and even the director was also very tired. He was the focal point of the crew, and everyone waits for his direction and to know what needs to be achieved the most.
Zhuang Qin withdrew his gaze: “Tomorrow’s scene…”
“Hmm? Do you mean the kissing scene?”
Zhuang Qin wanted to ask if Li Mu had mentioned deleting those scenes, but his personality didn’t allow him to directly ask that, so he said, “Is it necessary to rehearse in advance?”
“Have you gone through the script yet?”
“I’ve studied it.” In fact, the scene was very detailed in the script. This was the first kissing scene in the film. Between the two male leads, there was a definite power suppression between them, but during the kissing scene, it was a rampage between men. In Zhuang Qin’s mind, it should be a crazy fight- an intense desire to bite into each other.
When he pondered over it alone, he never thought about this kind of scene.
Director Guo touched his chin: “You can either rehearse in advance or not but I’m afraid that you guys will bite your lips open and not be able to shoot well tomorrow…”
Zhuang Qin: “…”
Zhuang Qin: “… I don’t need to bite the mouth, right?”
“That’s uncertain.”
“Come on.” Director Guo said to him, “This shot is positioned like this. There are two camera positions, one is a large close-up, fixed frame, and the other is a long-range shot.. Your bodies will be in the shot, so it’s not just kissing alone. Your bodies have to be engaged. Both of them have a very straightforward desire- the passionate scene is not the same as between a man and woman. if one person is in the wrong state or his expression is a little wrong, it’ll be an NG.”
Zhuang Qin thought about it but he didn’t know what to think of it: “What should I do if my mouth is bitten. Stop shooting?”
“If it’s bitten and we haven’t finished shooting yet. We can only make up the shot in two days.” According to Director Guo’s plan, the kissing scenes were all grouped together for a few days, but he was afraid that the two actors will not be able to shoot well now, so he was ready to make a decision after watching tomorrow’s scene.
Zhuang Qin: “Oh… I still have to shoot.”
“Yes, so find a way to pass it once. If you can’t pass it in one, you’ll have to suffer for a bit. So it’s actually not a problem if don’t want to reject Li Mu. However, as a director, I have to say on the basis of not wasting film, you two better give me a pass.”
“Well…” Zhuang Qin paused, “Shall I go and tell Li Mu?”
“Well, if you are unwilling to do it in private, I can’t force you but ugly words are ahead*1Forewarning someone of something/being frank in the beginning. There’s a phrase that says “it’s better to put ugly words in front than leave trouble behind“. If you put ugly words in front of you, there will be fewer contradictions.. If you can’t shoot well tomorrow, and waste film and drag down the crew’s efficiency, I won’t be polite okay. Don’t let Director Zhou go back and report me to President Qiu ”
t/n: Ugly words are ahead: Don’t say I didn’t warn you or let me be honest with you.
Delaying the progress of the crew was what Zhuang Qin would never let happen.
If you want to shoot it, it has to be done in one go.
Zhuang Qin: “I’ll send him a message.”
Director Guo reopened the door: “You two be careful today. Find a quiet place, and don’t really bite your mouths.”
Zhuang Qin nodded and then heard Director Guo say, “I’ll only keep two cameramen tomorrow and I’ll kick Director Zhou out. Don’t be afraid.”
Zhuang Qin said, “I’m not afraid.”
As he went upstairs, he sent a message to Li Mu: “We’ll rehearse in 259 right?”
Li Mu instead replied: “Does your assistant want to watch?”
Zhuang Qin: “I won’t let him watch.”
Usually, it’s fine, but for this kind of scene, he’s too embarrassed to let Xiao Lian watch it. Xiao Lian doesn’t even have a girlfriend yet.
Li Mu was changing his clothes as the cat leaned over his feet. He saw that message and smiled, “That’s good.”
He typed back: “Come over to my place. I will come pick you up.”
Zhuang Qin typed: “Don’t worry…” Before the message was sent out, Li Mu sent: “I have a Cantonese chef here.”
Zhuang Qin deleted it to retype: “Then I’ll come there myself?”
“Do you know the way?”
“I know it, should be able to find it.”
Li Mu: “Can you drive? Or you’ll ask the driver to send you over?”
Li Mu: “I’m on my way. Wait for me.”
Zhuang Qin replied okay.
He changed his clothes and stuffed the script into his chest bag but it couldn’t fit so he changed to his schoolbag. He seriously rinsed his mouth and stuffed gum, breath spray, and mouthwash into his bag. He brought these things from China and were often used, but he didn’t expect that the first time he prepared such an array would be for a kissing scene.
Zhuang Qin wore a sun-protective jacket outside and went out with an umbrella. He bumped into the crew walking around downstairs. They greeted him and asked if he was going out to play.
Zhuang Qin said he was going out to buy something and would be back soon.
The crew handed him a small fresh coconut: “A few of us went out to buy a bunch of these. Here’s one for you.”
“Thank you.” Zhuang Qin held an umbrella in one hand and the small coconut in the other as he went out just in time to bump into Li Mu’s car and stop. He (LM) got out of the car with his head slightly lowered and wearing sunglasses. The side view of his face, throat, neck, and jaw looked in a perfect line under the hot May afternoon sun. His whole person seemed full of energy and not like a person who filmed every day. He didn’t even look a bit “tired”.
Zhuang Qin looked at him, looked down at the fresh coconut that had just been cut, and gave it to him.
“For me?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.” Li Mu took it. The corners of his mouth tilted up as he bit the straw and took a sip. His eyes behind the sunglasses were completely focused on him. “The shells are at home. I’ll give them to you when I send you back.”
Zhuang Qin put away his umbrella and got into the car.
A few minutes later, they arrived. This was his second time here. Li Mu picked up the white cat who’d lazily curled on the carpet to take a nap in the sun. The cat ate very well every day and was taken to the pet store for a wash; its fur was shiny.
The sunlight shone directly through the glass into the air-conditioned room so it wasn’t too cold. Zhuang Qin was fond of sunshine and the warm feeling it brought. So he sat on the sofa and didn’t close the curtains.
Li Mu brought him cold water and a yogurt: “Wait a moment, I’ll go and get the script.”
The corner of Zhuang Qin’s eyes twitched.
He took a pack of paper to block the yogurt. Out of sight, out of mind.
He was fidgety and didn’t eat on the way here. He was afraid that he would have a taste in his mouth. so with that in mind, he took out some gum from his bag and ate one.
Chewing the gum, he looked down at the scene that he had repeatedly gone over last night.
An Ke, this character was passive in the beginning before becoming the proactive one, He had almost analyzed the character’s emotional state, but it still wasn’t easy to get the movements.
Zhuang Qin got up and moved the floor lamp over. After washing up, Li Mu brought the script down and saw this scene: “You’re taking the floor lamp as a camera?”
“Yes……there are two camera positions in these two directions.”
Using this, he’ll know how to face the camera and how to act, and the image in his mind will be clearer, just like a framed picture.
Li Mu said, “You are very suited to be a director. Did you study directing in college?”
“We took directorial lessons in freshman year, but it wasn’t comprehensive. If there’s a chance in the future, I want to try to direct a film.”
Li Mu noticed something and asked him, “Do you still have gum?”
“…I do.” Zhuang Qin stuck his hand into his schoolbag, “Do you want some?”
“I’ll have one piece.”
t/n: 😭😂 so awkward
Zhuang Qin said “Oh”, clearly a little uncomfortable. He pulled out a piece for him. Li Mu took it and put it in his mouth and casually said, “You want to use ten minutes to find the state first?”
Zhuang Qin: “Alright…”
He calmed down a little: “Director Guo said… to be gentle.”
Director Guo said that?
Li Mu didn’t fully believe that but said with a smile, “Okay, I’ll be gentle.”
He sat next to Zhuang Qin, and the two turned to the same page and read the same paragraph.
Li Mu’s script was much cleaner. He didn’t know if it was because he didn’t like to annotate on his, but the traces of constant flipping was obvious. You could tell that he went throw it a few times a day.
Zhuang Qin’s script was a little messier. It’s not that he doesn’t cherish it, but that he was used to writing things, highlighting, marking out insights, and sticking post-it notes on it. Li Mu had noticed that his script was always colorful, but his handwriting was sloppy and not very clear.
Zhuang Qin struggled to get into the right state and grasp that “second personality” in his mind. He closed his eyes and didn’t look at the script but focused on it in his mind.
Li Mu noticed that he lowered his head and was tense.
It was tempting to remind him to relax and lie back, but Li Mu didn’t disturb him.
His way was very different from Zhuang Qins. In Li Mu’s opinion, feelings cannot be manufactured. Although the child was trying so hard to get into the role and listening to the directors’ advice on paying attention to their feelings both in and out of a scene. But Li Mu believes that only by stimulating the viewers’ senses through specific actions or images can the audience emphasize or even create unique feelings.
How do you express various abstract emotions? It was by relying on tangible scenarios for stimulus.
Therefore, he feels that practical expression was more important than just entering a role. It doesn’t mean that he didn’t like the feeling of entering a scene because filming was a truly fun and interesting experience to him. To get to live in an imaginary world, and the adventures and excitement this work brought him can’t be compared with any sport.
Most actors would go on into this industry because they liked this feeling.
Ten minutes passed quickly. Li Mu threw away the gum and Zhuang Qin opened his eyes. The emotion in them was very strong, making people feel that he had entered the scene.
Zhuang Qin also spit out the gum while Li Mu put down the script: “Are you still nervous?”
Zhuang Qin shook his head: “Let’s start.”
The scene had a single sentence before the action. Li Mu stood up and Zhuang Qin sat on the sofa. In the script, he was sitting on a messy quilt, surrounded by messy clothes, and the room was very dim.
He stretched out his hand to Li Mu.
Li Mu grabbed him and pulled Zhuang Qin to him. Li Mu stroked his face and brushed away the sweaty hair on his face.
A lot of the time, Li Mu was brought into the scene by him. Zhuang Qin was a very talented actor and his eye play was so intense that he could unknowingly pull people in.
Li Mu looked into his eyes and lost his mind for a moment. He could feel his urgent need.
His heart was pounding and going by the script, he tenderly and sincerely held Zhuang Qin’s face in his palms. There were unspoken emotions in their eyes.
“It’s okay.” Zhuang Qin tilted his head and said.
Unlike in the script, the blinding light penetrated through the glass and shone on his body and face. It warmed up his arms and neck and the side of his face was covered in a layer of golden veil. Li Mu stared at him and lowered his head.
The script said that they laid down, embraced, and kissed wildly.
When he entered a scene, Zhuang Qin didn’t care about anything outside it. Their lips were next to each other and at that moment, he was no one else but poor An Ke whose whole heart was filled with an explosive desire. His arms went around Li Mu and tightened around him. Their bodies were pressed up against the sofa.
Li Mu was hugged like this and held down by him at the same time but his mind was very clear. The script did not mention that he was fired up but since there was the adjective “crazy” he thought he should be more forceful and rougher. He shouldn’t do it with finesse but follow the direct and clear desires in his heart.
But he didn’t. He promised Zhuang Qin just now that he would be gentle.
He twisted Zhuang Qin’s chin with one hand, but without force. Zhuang Qin’s lips were very soft. Li Mu’s head tilted sideways, with the tip of his nose against his cheek, gently holding and sucking.
A few seconds later, Zhuang Qin hooked the back of his neck and put his palm on the back of Li Mu’s head, changing from passive to responding. Although he had that idea, he lacked skills and it was just like he was licking a candy or something. He was very greedy and focused.
Li Mu didn’t know whether he was out of the scene or something but he felt a bit numb. There was an electric current running through his limbs, and he was bitten by teeth.
In Zhuang Qin’s mind, the whole scene should be a little more than ten seconds, and probably only five seconds after editing. He was so focused on thinking like the Director that he stopped at the precise time.
Zhuang Qin loosened his grip on the back of his head and leaned back while slightly panting.
Li Mu was pushed away by him. Zhuang Qin picked up the bottle of cold water that had thawed on the table and took a sip. The mood was still very intense and they hadn’t gotten out of the scene yet.
The human brain was really wonderful. The mind can actually construct this kind of emotion that has never been felt before. They say that acting involves real-life and If you don’t have the experience, it’s hard to act. But it was possible to recreate the emotion through experience.
He picked up the water and went to the other side. Both of them tacitly didn’t speak. In fact, Li Mu had recovered a long time ago and wanted to jump into the pool to calm down. He was very skeptical in his heart. Earlier was it just an act?
That’s not right.
Zhuang Qin sat on the carpet and looked out the window towards the quiet pool in the afternoon sun. They were two emotions battling in him. One was fake, but very much like the real thing and the other was real, but felt very fake. This was what actors feared the most, not being able to distinguish between real and fake after entering a scene.
He bit down hard and he didn’t know if he used too much force but the pain was so strong that it affected his senses and only then did he come back to his senses.
“Are you all right?” Li Mu asked behind him.
Zhuang Qin squinted at the sun and turned around to say, “I’m fine.”
He was too absorbed in the scene. He shouldn’t have been so absorbed.
Li Mu walked to him and bent down: “is your mouth injured? Why is there blood?”
He couldn’t help stretching out his hand. Zhuang Qin looked at him and said, “Ah, Is there any blood?”
Li Mu gently pressed his finger to the corner of his mouth: “You bit yourself? Does it hurt?”
Zhuang Qin: “I didn’t…” It seemed he did such a thing but it hurt for a bit and there wasn’t a bloody smell.
Li Mu stared at him. His voice was low and intoxicating: “Is it possible that I bit you? I was so gentle and didn’t dare use force.”
t/n: I can’t believe this chapter ended here. 🙈
