32
“Not your fault.” Zhuang Qin didn’t even realize how ambiguous his words sounded.
“You really bit yourself. Why did you bite yourself if you’re fine?” Li Mu looked at him. He didn’t do much, just bit himself, but there were still so many scenes to shoot later on, won’t he hurt then?
Zhuang Qin explained, “I was too engrossed and couldn’t pull out, so I stimulated a little pain.”
Too engrossed?
Li Mu has watched two episodes of his youth idol drama in the past two days. Zhuang Qin was frequently not in good form but that didn’t mean that he acted badly. Li Mu used a filter to watch it, so regardless he was still better than the other actors to him.
“Have you ever filmed with others like this?”
Zhuang Qin said no, “I’ve only made three dramas.” In the first drama, he couldn’t find that feeling and acted by instinct. In the second one, because the script was bad and the director praised and continuously passed him, It was hard to put his heart into it. Sometimes he didn’t even act well but still received a pass. Now that the drama was airing, Zhuang Qin didn’t want to watch it.
“So I’m the only one who makes you like this?”
Zhuang Qin didn’t understand the meaning of his words. He looked at the white cat and nodded, “You could say that. It’s very pleasant to act with you. Before it was very rare and I hardly ever felt this way.”
Li Mu looked down at him and also sat down on the carpet. He could understand where this comfortable feeling came from. It’s what Zhuang Qin called engrossing. It was not an addiction to the acting but rather beyond that: straying outside of a scene. The reason he acted was to learn about ordinary emotions that people should have, and he felt like he was actually able to feel them just now.
“Does your mouth still hurt?” Li Mu asked him.
“A little, it’s okay.” Zhuang Qin got up and said, “I’ll go look in the mirror.”
He went to the bathroom and looked at the mirror. It was not apparent on the surface and only when he rinsed his mouth did he feel the sting and spat out water tinged with blood.
Zhuang Qin only realized after doing that, that he might have bit too hard.
When he came out, Li Mu took out the medicine bag: “How is it? Let me see.”
“It’s not that serious. It’s just broken skin. It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
Li Mu didn’t know how to deal with this kind of wound. Hearing that, he put down the medicine bag and said, “Do you still want to do the kiss scene again?”
Zhuang Qin said no. This intense emotional scene was very draining and he didn’t have that much energy: “There are other scenes tomorrow. Let’s take a break and rehearse the next ones.”
He looked much better now and his emotions had calmed down.
He does this a lot when he’s alone. After being engrossed in a role, he will unconsciously do something and won’t remember it clearly after doing it. If he really maintains this kind of state throughout the entire scene, not only was it difficult, but it was also dangerous.
Hence why a good director will not often require actors to be immersed in the play to the point of perfection. A few outstanding moments in a movie were enough. So it was safer to commit to something outside the scene than in it. However, both of these ways were flawed.
In the afternoon, Zhuang Qin and Li Mu were concentrating on their lines when they received a frantic call from Xiao Lian: “Brother Zhuang, why aren’t you in your room? I just asked the staff and they said you went out! Don’t wander off by yourself again!”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m rehearsing a scene. I’ll be back after dinner.”
“Oh, oh, it’s for the film. Then I’m relieved. I’ll pick you up at six o’clock?”
Zhuang Qin asked Li Mu, “What time do you want to have dinner?”
“Are you hungry? If you’re hungry, I’ll ask the chef to prepare it now. I’ll send you back after eating.”
Zhuang Qin was actually a little hungry but he was more mentally drained. It was more tiring than doing exercise.
“I’m hungry.” He said honestly, “But no need to send me back. Xiao Lian can come pick me up later.”
“It’s only a few minutes drive. Can he find the way?”
“Xiao Lian is not like me, he’s not a road idiot*.” Besides, it wasn’t Xiao Lian who was driving but the driver hired by the crew.
t/n: road idiot: someone with no sense of direction
At five o’clock in the afternoon, the sun was gradually setting. Li Mu said the sunset here wasn’t bad so the two walked to the beach to watch the sunset. They went back when the kitchen called and said the food was ready.
The chef Li Mu specially invited over was clearly a master as the table was full of famous dishes.
“How can we eat so much?”
“Lot of samples and small portions.” Li Mu currently appreciated the fact that he (ZQ) liked Cantonese food, but he didn’t know what kind of food to start with at the moment.
“Why did you think of inviting a Cantonese chef here? Your hometown…… I remember it’s Hebei but you grew up abroad.”
Li Mu said, “This chef is good at all the eight major cuisines. 1t/n: 8 major cuisines: Shandong Cuisine. Sichuan cuisine. Hunan cuisine. Guangdong (Cantonese) cuisine. Zhejiang cuisine. Jiangsu cuisine. Anhui cuisine and Fujian cuisine. Cantonese cuisine is good, and the other cuisines are not bad. I remember the other day when you said you liked your hometown cuisine.”
“That day?” Only then did Zhuang Qin remember that there was such a thing. The chopsticks in his hand twitched and looked at Li Mu, “You specifically hired the chef for me?”
Li Mu examined his expression and said that he was tired of eating Southeast Asian food these past few days and had wanted to find a chef last month. It was only a coincidence that this chef was proficient in the eight major cuisines, was especially good at Cantonese cuisine, and that Zhuang Qin’s hometown was in Guangzhou.
Zhuang Qin was relieved when he heard that it was a coincidence, and only then did he move his chopsticks with ease.
“How is it? Is the food to your liking?”
Zhuang Qin tried a Hakka stuffed tofu dish. The portion was small, with only four pieces on the plate.
“It’s a little hot.” He swallowed the tofu. “My master’s wife is Hakka. She likes to make this dish very much.”
“Your master’s wife is Hakka? What’s the name of your theatre troupe? Wasn’t it in Suzhou?” Li Mu previously thought that Zhuang Qin’s hometown was in Guangzhou and that for some reason he went to learn Kunqu Opera around Jiangzhe.
“It’s called the Sixi troupe2t/n: https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%9B%9B%E5%96%9C%E7%8F%AD/54147809. It was originally in Jiangzhe but the old master fled to Guangzhou to re-establish it. My master is the youngest apprentice of the old master.” Zhuang Qin did not shy away from talking about this to him and Li Mu stopped when he asked this.
After dinner, Zhuang Qin remembered to send a message to Xiao Lian to tell him that he was ready to go back to the hotel.
“Received!” Xiao Lian said, “I’m going to find the driver. He seems to have gone to dinner. I’ll message you when I’m leaving.”
The sun had almost set, leaving only a hint of its glow. The lights in the villa were on, Li Mu had asked someone two days ago to install a video and audio system. The system hadn’t been used yet. Thinking that Zhuang Qin liked watching movies, he went to set it up.
Zhuang Qin sat on the sofa and watched as the kitten crawled out of the litter box. It moved as though it wanted to climb on the chair beside Li Mu but it was too small and its four claws weren’t strong enough. Zhuang Qin watched yogurt try several times and couldn’t help taking out his phone to take photos. He took several pictures that afternoon and now his phone was full of cute pet pictures.
Li Mu was setting up the equipment and picking up the remote control when he heard a “click” sound. He slightly turned his head and saw Zhuang Qin secretly snapping. He pretended not to notice and the corners of his mouth quietly raised. He turned back to continue setting it up. Let him snap as he likes.
The equipment was set up, but there wasn’t time to watch anything as Zhuang Qin had to leave.
Xiao Lian had arrived to pick him up. It was a short drive but they took a detour and spent more than twenty minutes finding the place.
When Zhuang Qin got into the car, he remembered that he hadn’t taken the shells yet. Li Mu said by the car, “I’ll bring it to set tomorrow. Come over anytime you want to watch a movie or swim, I’ll keep your room for you.”
Zhuang Qin nodded, said thank you, then waved: “bye.”
Xiao Lian didn’t get to go inside, he looked at it from the outside gate. When the driver turned back around, Xiao Lian said: “Brother Zhuang, Li Mu’s villa that’s in there, Is it big?” Xiao Lian knew that the driver couldn’t understand Chinese, so he didn’t pay much attention to his words
“It’s quite big. There’s even a big pool. I took a picture of it today.” Zhuang Qin opened his photo album and flipped to the end. Xiao Lian noticed that many of his pictures were of cats and there were some of the pool. Brother Zhuang seemed to have taken the pictures casually without paying attention to form or technique. Several of the photos even had Li Mu’s legs in them.
Xiao Lian originally wanted to see the villa, but his attention was attracted by yogurt: “wow, this one is so cute, you captured the scene so well!” It was the cat jumping up and grabbing a sofa cloth. The two blue eyes were very bright like two expensive sapphires.
Zhuang Qin nodded and looked at it with a professional eye: “This one is quite cute, it’s just that I didn’t use a wide aperture on my phone. The background is too messy but the composition had the golden ratio, so it isn’t easy to crop.” And the present phone photography was far from being as impressive as it would be in the future.
“There’s nothing wrong,” Xiao Lian immediately started to cheer him up and asked Zhuang Qin to send the picture to himself. “I’ll use Meitu Xiu Xiu to photoshop it out!”
On the way to the hotel, Xiao Lian was trying to use the elimination tool to Photoshop Li Mu’s leg out and turn it into a clear background. Even when they got to the hotel, he turned on the computer and covered the whole leg using Photoshop stamps.
He then sent the photoshopped picture to Zhuang Qin.
Zhuang Qin saw that his leg was Photoshopped out but Li Mu’s shadow was still there so he started photoshopping it himself. Finally, before bed, he finished Photoshopping and there wasn’t a trace of it left in the picture so he happily saved it as his wallpaper.
When they arrived at the set the next morning, the crew was ready to start and clicked the clapper board!
“(Hidden Heart), scene 85, first shot, take one!”
“(Hidden Heart), scene 85, second shot, take one!”
The first two shots were shot in one go. Then Director Guo cleared the scene, kicking Director Zhou out and leaving only two cameramen. Director Zhou was a little dissatisfied, but he didn’t want to interfere with the shooting. He did the work of a producer and was only nominally the assistant director.
“There first two shots were very good and synchronized.” Director Guo started off by explaining the camera path before going to ask the two actors, “Are you ready?”
Zhuang Qin was a little nervous and said, “Give me another two minutes, I’m mulling over it.”
“That’s fine. No problem. Did you rehearse well yesterday?” Director Guo asked.
Li Mu said they had. There were no issues.
“Then we’ll wait for five minutes. let me know when you’re ready.”
Zhuang Qin nodded. He took a deep breath and turned his head to look out the window.
In order to make this film, Director Guo has spent a lot of money. Instead of shooting in a studio, he decided on live location shooting which cost more. But its advantage was that as long as you spend enough money on camera work, the quality was better than shooting in a studio. And in a live location, actors can perform better.
Li Mu asked him, “does your mouth still hurt?”
Zhuang Qin said it was okay: “You don’t have to be too gentle. We should shoot it like how it’s described in the script.”
Li Mu said okay. After a few minutes, Zhuang Qin said he was ready. Director Guo asked Li Mu again, “Are you ready?”
Li Mu nodded, and Director Guo himself clicked the board: “The third shot, take one!”
With the curtains drawn, the room was dark and messy but the color scheme was carefully done. One person was sitting and one was standing.
“It’s alright.” An Ke said before stretching out his hand. Li Mu grabbed him and they turned and fell on the bed. As soon as their lips touched, Director Guo yelled “Cut!”
“Again once more!”
“Once more!”
Zhuang Qin’s back was heavily pressed onto the bed. He raised his head and his hands wrapped around Li Mu’s back. Li Mu held his wrists against the bed sheets and roughly kissed Zhuang Qin. Their bodies pressed tightly together. He turned his head sideways so that the stubble, which deliberately wasn’t shaved to maintain the character’s image, could rub against Zhuang Qin’s chin and cheeks.
Zhuang Qin’s eyelashes trembled. The scent of Li Mu’s manly fragrance was in his nose but he looked completely immersed in the scene. He regarded him as Jiang Zhuo and had an uncontrollable dazzled look on his face.
Even Director Guo had to slap his thighs.
Amazing.
This kind of acting!
The cameraman slowly approached, but Li Mu suddenly felt uncomfortable. He didn’t like anyone seeing such a scene. He got distracted for a moment and the rhythm faltered.
“Cut!” Director Guo said angrily, “Li Mu, why are you blocking his face? I need to take a close-up of An Ke ah!” He was so annoyed. The shot just now was just right. If he retook it 30 more times, it may not be that good!
“Sorry.” Li Mu pinched his eyebrows. He turned his head to look at him (ZQ) and saw that he lowered his head and was wiping his chin. His lips were a little swollen and in the dimly lit room, Zhuang Qin’s clothes were disheveled and his collarbone was exposed.
Those clothes were messed by himself and up till now, the palm of Li Mu’s hand was still warm. He could still taste him and couldn’t forget the feeling of holding onto him.
Zhuang Qin saw that his expression wasn’t very good. He thought that he was uncomfortable because of the NG. After all, Director Guo had mostly been nice since shooting began and was never as upset as today.
“It’s okay.” Zhuang Qin said.
Li Mu looked at him. This line coincided with the scene.
“It’s alright. I’ll go speak to Director Guo.” Zhuang Qin said seriously, “Let’s do it a few more times. Last time you accompanied me in my NG, this time I’ll accompany you.”
Li Mu returned to his senses. His eyes lingered on his rosy lips because of the repeated reshoots. He was a little embarrassed and wanted to exercise his right as an investor and drive the Director and cameramen out.
He rubbed his temples: “Sorry, I didn’t mean to NG.”
